A Cup Angst / Anime & Manga

Examples of A-Cup Angst in anime and manga.

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A-M

• Karane of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is not the flattest of all the girls (she's actually on the small side, and small types like Shizuka and Chiyo are flatter, with the latter either prepubescent or in very early puberty), but she's not happy about her bust at all. A good majority of the girlfriends she surrounds herself with, including her go-to partner Hakari, are also huge, so she tends to compare herself to them.
• Yuuko of Ah My Buddha. She gets in a few Skinship Grope moments with Chitose, mentioning how envious she is of her larger bust. She's only slightly larger than Hinata.
• Skuld of Ah! My Goddess sometimes shows shades of this. She's still relatively young (in Goddess terms), but it doesn't help that Urd constantly ribs her for her lack of maturity (physical or otherwise). It's specially notable when she gets a temporary Overnight Age-Up and feels very happy for it.
• The title character of Aizawa-san Multiplies is only modestly endowed, and she's a bit self-conscious about it. Her duplicates are as well and at least one of them is more vocal about it. Further, she and her duplicates have compared their breast sizes with each other and found about 1-3cm of variation. Shiki, the duplicate based on her libido, naturally has the largest, with the original Shino in fourth place. She wonders if she can still beat Anna, her black-haired fifth duplicate.
• Aimi of Love Pheromone from Akahori Gedou Hour Lovege. She's destroyed entire buildings over being called flat-chested.
• Downplayed with Hotaru Tachibana, the bifauxnen protagonist of Aoharu × Machinegun, who usually isn't bothered by her lack of feminine features unless someone else points it out. In the first episode, she mentions that she doesn't need a bra after Kanae nags her for not wearing one and immediately falls to her knees when she realizes what she just said. She also gets upset when Matsuoka refuses to believe she's a girl even when she puts his hand on her chest.
• Hanako Honda from Asobi Asobase is really flat, which she has a large complex about and is passed down from her mother. When measured in Episode 12, Hanako's measurements add up to a AA cup size, which is even smaller than A. Not helping matters is how it is vastly overshadowed by Kasumi's large chest, who adds fuel to the fire by her constant D-Cup Distress.
• Kaede Kayano from Assassination Classroom, so very much so that when Koro-sensei was framed of being a pervert by listing his female students' cup measurements, she's angry not because her teacher was framed but because she's listed in the list as Forever Zero/Flat and even goes as far as to loudly announce to the real culprit that she's a B-cup. Even as Akari Yukimura, she's shown to openly envy her older sister's massive bosom.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • Tomo uses her lack of endowment relative to Sakaki to get a handicap when competing against her in a footrace, claiming that Sakaki had an eight centimeter advantage (Tomo still loses). Later on, Yomi mocks her size in a locker room scene, much to Tomo's anger. However, Tomo's definitely not the least endowed girl of the group (that distinction going to Osaka and, obviously, Chiyo-chan), just the one who gets jokes made about it (probably because Chiyo-chan is too young and Osaka too spaced out to care that much).
  • On a few occasions, Osaka indicates that she feels similarly, such as when she gets upset when it's pointed out that Chiyo has more years of adolescence ahead of her than Osaka does and may be better-endowed than her as an adult.
• When Ayaka from Baby Steps notices that many boys like breasts she tries to grow her A-cups into F-cups. It turns out as expected and she fails.
• Aoi of Beelzebub at times, mostly when up against her kinda-sorta love rival, Hilda.
  Koma: Calm down. Whether they're massive or itty bitty, I love all tits.
  Aoi: ITTY BITTY!?
• Akane Sano in Black God plays with the trope a little. She's decently endowed, but mentions once when she goes shopping with Kuro that maintaining her bust size is a pain at her weight.
• In Black★Rock Shooter, Arata Kohata cites her flat chest as one of the reasons she is too shy to ask her crush out.
• Bleach:
  • Filler Rukia is afflicted with this. In the Bount Arc, she's enraged when Kon compares her to a wall. In the Rock Musical, she shouts at Yoruichi about breast size being unimportant. In Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, she feels left out when Rangiku and Orihime compare breast sizes. Canon Rukia, possibly due to being on the job, doesn't care at all.
  • Hiyori was annoyed when Mayuri called her a boy upon their first meeting and shouts that she will show him her breasts to prove her gender.
  • Shino got very upset when she heard others saying that she hasn't developed breasts of her own.
• In Bloody Maiden: Juusanki no Shima the captain of the ladies' spear fighting club is a senior who's the same cup size as the freshmen. The girls who do posses large breasts and the fact that the whole team is not shy about being naked around each other only makes her attitude worse.
• The primary protagonist from Blue Seed, Momiji, is a bit insecure about her modest bust, particularly since Mamoru Kusanagi likes to tease her about it. It gets another knock in the OVA Blue Seed 2, though in this case to show she managed to grow out of it after two years and now has a decent figure.
• In Brave10, Isanami comments on this multiple times. Ironically, she is far from being flat-chested, but other women in the series are much better endowed and the men tend to treat her like a kid sister and call her flat anyway.
• A Bride's Story: Downplayed in regard to Anis, who is a thin, delicate beauty with a practically flat chest. She's kind of fascinated with Sherine's big breasts, remaking that her own didn’t grow even after having a baby. She doesn’t seem particularly envious, though, and if she feels insecure it’s about her overall thin figure rather than just her breasts.
• Marin and Moe of Brigadoon: Marin and Melan are both anxious about their nearly non-existent bosoms. (Given that they're in their first year of middle school, they have time to develop.)
• Sera in Case Closed has small breasts and even gets mistaken for a boy on a regular basis, but she mostly just shrugs it off aside of a few comments. ("They're due to pop out one of these days...")
• Mikoto Misaka of A Certain Scientific Railgun is self-conscious of the fact that some of the younger students of Tokiwadai Academy have a bigger bust than she does. Of course, with the existence of Misaka WORST, her age-accelerated clone who is relatively busty, it would seem she doesn't have much to worry about. Not that WORST doesn't take the opportunity to Troll Mikoto by claiming that her artificial development is the only reason she has larger breasts.
• Kaori Makimura from City Hunter offers us a rather unusual example: while she has large breasts (87 cm, or 34.252 inches if you're American), she also has the bad luck of knowing Saeko Nogami and Kasumi Aso, who have even larger breasts (only made worse by Kasumi having been sixteen when Kaori was 21 yet already having larger breasts).
• Kanae of Classicaloid develops this in the second episode after getting praised for it by a bustier friend in regards to swimming. It ends up being a Chekhov's Gag when Motes (who was at that point in time trying to win her affection) makes a birthday cake for her...and it looks like a pair of big boobs.
• In Comic Girls, because the editor imposes Ruki the Pen Name of "Big Boobs Himeko", she's rather sensitive in her lack in that department. In the first episode Koyume noticed, during a Skinship Grope, that her breast is heavily padded.
• Crayon Shin-chan:
  • A running gag is the constant competition on anything between two of the schoolteachers Midori Yoshinaga and Ume Matzuzaka. A running gag within the running gag is their cup size rivalry. For example, during a swimming class, laying down side by side on the floor and trading insults as to who was more like plains (as opposed to mountains).
  • Shin often makes jokes about his mom's flat chest. The Funimation dub has a running gag where she's saving up for a boob job.
• Cross Ange: Salia is the one with the smallest chest among the members of the First Troop, all of which are at least decently stacked. In Episode 7, she gets into a Cat Fight with Ange and at one point she grabs her breasts, and when Ange tries to retalliate the same way she finds there's nothing to grab on Salia's chest. The next episode has her participating in a beach event that involves carrying an egg between the breasts, and she's unable to hold it.
• In Cyber Team in Akihabara we have Kamome, who at 13 is quite troubled for not being developed fast and big enough, to the point she regularly stuffs her bra. Meanwhile, we have Uzura, a lesbian who has an absolute passion for flat chested girls, to the point that she turns her attentions from Hibari to Kamome (and, in The Movie, towards Tsubame), as she realizes that each girl is flatter than the former. Kamome is not happy about having Uzura behind her because of the implications.
• Kiko from Darker than Black, as her boss Gai Kurosawa is ever-so-helpful to point out. She responds by threatening to sue him for sexual harassment.
• Nanako Misonou from Dear Brother. It's only mentioned once, however: when she and her close friend Mariko take a bath together, and she notices that Mariko is VERY well endowed for her and Nanako's age.
• Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro: The titular protagonist isn't exactly flat, but she's surrounded by friends who are notably bustier than her and is pretty self-conscious about it. It doesn't help that more than once they've used their assets to tease her Senpai, so it's little wonder she's afraid of losing his attention to them. Then she meets the Art Club President, who easily outsizes them all, and her complex goes to a new level.
• Dorohedoro has Ebisu, who is constantly trying to find way to enlarge her breasts, such as doing aerobic breast-enhancing exercises and stuffing things, even Kikurage, down her chest during the Blue Night. The dream mushroom En created shows Ebisu's desire having double D-sized chest.
• Nanoha of Eensy Weensy Monster. Her boyfriend Hazuki was shocked to the point of dropping something when one of her friends made an offhand comment about "them".
• Kyoko from Eiken is the "other" lolicon character in the series who looks much younger than her 15 years, and so has no breasts or curves to speak of. In a club, let alone a world, where a D-cup is considered small, and most of her clubmates have bigger boobs than their heads, she pines for a voluptuous body every time she "thinks" she's alone. It is implied, however, that she isn't short so much as a very, very, very late bloomer and she will eventually grow up to look like her mom (who compared to the other girls is still quite small). Yuriko is also self-conscious about being the "small" one in the family, though her bust is fairly big in the TV version.
• In Elemental Gelade, Cisqua is often teased by Kuea for her flat chest. Her fear of water is a mixture of being unable to swim and being unable to fill out a swimsuit. Even Cou teases Cisqua about it during a hot spring scene where he accidentally saw her topless. Plus in the anime, one of Cou's old friends calls Cisqua "bro" (despite the fact that she's wearing a dress), which causes her to flip out and attack.
• Eyeshield 21: Suzuna. It doesn't help that the only other female character of note is Mamori who is...fuller up top. Nor does it help that she's the captain of Deimon's cheerleading squad, which is otherwise comprised of hot girls drafted from America (we never did find out how Hiruma arranged that...). During their first appearance the audience loved the show, but complained that "the captain's not sexy".
• Wendy and Levy both suffer from this in Fairy Tail, when everybody else is decently stacked, though Wendy is more worried about being flat-chested when she's older, considering she's only 12. Doesn't help that in one of the omakes (adapted to the 7th OVA), Cana flat out tells her that, when she was Wendy's age, she had a bigger chest. One time, when she tending to her when she was sick, Wendy took Juvia's clothes off, noticed her ample bust, and had to go to a Corner of Woe for a bit to address her going Blue with Shock.
  • This is so bad that Wendy will instantly notice if someone is commenting on her chest size even in passing, and when shown a picture of what she might look like after the Time Skip in the anime, she bursts into tears as, while the picture of her looks beautiful, it's still very flat chested.
• In Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, one of Sella's several Berserk Buttons is being reminded that she's done growing up^note Presumably she was Born as an Adult like in the original VN that kaleid liner is a spinoff from, but not everyone in-story knows this. and still "flat," at least compared to her sister Leysritt. Shirou has the misfortune of walking into a conversation about it between the two, and clumsily tries to mollify Sella by saying that "everyone has different tastes," which just makes her explode.
• In Flame of Recca (and specially in the manga), "Princess" Yanagi is very flat-chested. She is incredibly embarrassed by, as Kaoru describes them, her "two lil hills" and feels jealous of girls with bigger racks than hers.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Frieren is an unaging elf who is over a thousand years old. She sometimes gets annoyed and jealous that her breasts never grew while her teenage human apprentice Fern already has huge knockers.
• Kouyama Mitsuki in Full Moon is a pettanko to some extent. Well-endowed Meroko teases her for this in the beginning, brutally calling her "Puchipai" (puchi means tiny and pai means breasts) Mitsuki, as the teenage Full Moon blushes and says "I have breasts when I'm in THIS form!" When she turns back into a 12-year-old in the anime, Meroko again remarks that "her chest returned to normal" and Mitsuki asks her not to stare. Later on in the manga, Mitsuki develops a bit more after her 13th birthday but interestingly even as a true teenager (16) at the end, her chest does not look much bigger... (rather surprising for a main character from Arina Tanemura). Doujinshi artists also go out of their way to emphasize that Mitsuki is a indeed a Token Mini-Moe and quite DFC.
• Mikan Sakura from Gakuen Alice. At one chapter, Natsume had rubbed her chest before, commenting that it's not round, yet. Another example that when Mikan and her friends were eating candy to turn into older teenagers, Mikan appears with a flat chest (or at least that was what Natsume has stated).
• Chika Ogiue in Genshiken. In the Hot Springs Episode, Sue (who speaks almost entirely in anime quotes) pulls the "Status symbol!" gag while pointing at her, quoting Mayumi.
• In Gintama, Otae always gets made fun of by Gintoki for having flat-chested, comparable to men's. No wonder she gets ticked off when Gintoki and Hasegawa note that she's flatter then Kyuubei and all charged up when the male dudes around her get hit with Gender Bender and end up better endowed than her (except for Hijikata about whom she actually feels relieved because he ends up a tragically fat woman).
• In Girlfriend, Girlfriend, Saki and Shino are both on the small size, which serves as a constant source of angst when they compare themselves to the much more endowed Nagisa and Rika.
• In Girls Beyond the Wasteland, Uguisu doesn't seem too happy about her small bust when the other girls are talking about breast sizes during episode six.
• In Good Luck Girl!, Momiji is flat-chested despite being a goddess and hates it. It doesn't help that Ichiko makes fun of her because of that fact.
• In The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, Ryou is rather flat-chested and does not like it when her figure is mentioned.
• Haré+Guu: When Weda became pregnant ( at the age of 14), she was afraid that she couldn't nurse her baby due to her breasts being too small. Her maid Bell trolled her by claiming that Weda could make her breasts bigger by rolling around in the bed, which didn't work. Later, her breasts grew to the size they're now (F-cup).
• Hinagiku of Hayate the Combat Butler is often dismayed by this. Even though she rarely complains, Nagi is also concerned about it.
• Nymph from Heaven's Lost Property is often teased, especially by Astraea and Tomoki, for her small breasts.
• Heavy Metal L-Gaim: In episode 9, Amu notes that Leccee's breasts are bigger than hers and gets jealous.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Liechtenstein. She once goes out wearing a boyish military uniform and when an old lady thinks she's a boy, the poor girl gropes her chest and goes Blue with Shock. Brought up again in the fourth manga volume, where she's seen interacting with the more well-endowed Hungary and Ukraine. One of the national dresses they discuss is the infamous Crete dress code that let the Minoan women expose their milkmakers. Cue the Oh, Crap! from Liech.
  • Taiwan isn't as super flat as Liechtenstein, but she seems to be rather troubled when she sees that the European females (save for Liechtenstein) are not only well-endowed, but not afraid to show it. Showcased again in the Hetaween 2013 event: when Ukraine shows up in an outfit with a rather deep cleavage, both Taiwan and Vietnam are rather shocked.
• Sae in Hidamari Sketch. For example, when Yuno was discussing her arts program electives (2D-, 3D- or digital arts) with Hiro and Sae...
  Yuno: Sae-san probably chose 2D?
  Hiro: Yup, she was 2D. She's clear about what she wants to do.
  Sae: (headdesk) ... Sae is 2D ...
• The title character of High School Ninja Girl, Otonashi-san tends to have issues with this. She's shown early on to pad her bra, has no sympathy for her much better stacked friend's shyness at being seen in a bathing suit, and at one point attends a ninja class, where the kunoichi are separated by bra-size and the A's (like Otonashi) are mostly complaining about the higher ranked H's.
• Hitotsuboshi-ke no Ultra Baasan ("Ultra Granny of the Hitotsuboshi Family") is a very obscure manga and anime from the early '80s, and the A-Cup Angst episode may help to explain why. The elementary school-aged daughter of the family, Yukiko, becomes depressed that she hasn't developed yet (especially since her schoolteacher has a perky, firm bosom). Her grandmother's Doraemon-esque idea of helping: use a toilet plunger on Yukiko's chest to help create breasts. Not surprisingly, the anime is a production of Knack, the infamous animation studio behind Chargeman Ken!!.
• Iori Minase The iDOLM@STER. The anime adaptation gives her an episode where she tries competing with Azusa by padding her chest literally WITH MELONS.
• An omake at the end of the first volume of Iris Zero has Sasamori and Kuga being depressed over their small-chestedness and jealous of Yuki's large breasts. Yuki tries to placate them by invoking D-Cup Distress, but she only makes them more jealous.
• In Jagaaaaaan, Bell gets insecure when she notices that Jagasaki's friend, Yumama, has huge breasts.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Small-chested Kaguya isn't ordinarily self-conscious about her appearance, but becomes insecure whenever she's compared to the more well-endowed Fujiwara. Early on, Kaguya suggests the student council take a trip to the beach but changes her mind once she realizes she doesn't want Shirogane comparing her and Fujiwara in swimsuits.
  • The equally small-chested Maki is shown getting depressed in Chapter 215 gets upset when she's told that her crush Tsubasa said that he likes girls with big boobs (in reality, he said that he liked both big and small breasts for different reasons, but the one informing her only heard secondhand).
• Kamen no Maid Guy has Liz, who hates Naeka solely because Naeka has enormous boobs (actually, he said that both large and small breasts were good for different reasons, but the one telling her only heard it secondhand).
• Nagi in Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. She's well aware that Jin has a love of big breasts after finding his Porn Stash. When he joked that her chest had gotten bigger in one episode, Nagi said that if he spoke any further, she'd rip his ahoge off his head.
• In Karin, the titular character's youthful grandmother, Elda, has the smallest breast size in the series. Upon meeting Karin for the first time, she expresses great anger and jealousy for her granddaughter's bust and angrily demands how she got it.
• In Keijo!!!!!!!!, Sayaka Miyata has some self-esteem issues about her small breasts. In addition, she's a Keijo player, a sport where players can only hit each other with their breasts or butts. Since she has small breasts, she has a disadvantage.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
  • Kisara. It doesn't help that she's the only post-pubescent female in the cast without large breasts.
  • And while Kenichi's sister Honoka is a bit too young (13) to be worrying that she'll be flat forever, she is nonetheless self-conscious over it. Then again, if most of the girls you knew looked like Miu... She won't have to worry, her mom is pretty busty herself.
• The computer animated anime The King of Fighters: Destiny has Yuri Sakazaki woefully squeeze her comparatively small breasts while observing Mai Shiranui flaunt her impressive pair when their team registers for the tournament, to much media attention.
• In Komi Can't Communicate, Onemine admits that she's jealous of Agari's chest size because she herself is "flat as a board."
• In KON, Tsumugi takes the girls to an actual tea house to train Mio into getting over her stage fright. There, while putting up maid outfits, she complains her outfit is tight around her waist, while Yui...complains about hers being tight around her chest. Cue Mio going into the Corner of Woe.
• In Kotoura-san, Haruka is very ashamed of her small breast size. In the Beach Episode, she felt inadequate in comparison to Moritani and Yuriko, the latter who has Big-Breast Pride. She even swam away from Manabe out of fear for what he'd say about her flat-chasteness. It doesn't help when she hugs his arm to her chest that he's surprised by how little was there.
• The epilogue of the Love Hina manga featured Ema Maeda, young student moving into the quasi-legendary Hinata House. Shinobu mistakes her for a guy in the bath, and Hilarity Ensues with a distant Call-Back to Keitaro's own naked chase that started the series. Shinobu might also have fit... until the epilogue anyway.
• Minami of Lucky Star, who is completely flat. Any tactics she used to combat this just ended up making her taller. She, Konata and Yutaka also released a joint Image Song album that collectively titled them the "Mune Pettan (Flat Chested) Girls". Really, her angsting on her boobs has gone to an Once per Episode frequency.
• Vita of Lyrical Nanoha, who got the label of "flat chest" on an official sketch and has had her moments of snippiness in regards to breast size in the Sound Stages. Seriously, calling your leader a Boob Demon with a follow-up on how the size of a woman's breasts are inversely proportional to the size of her heart?
• Macross Frontier:
  • The series has Ranka Lee, who while normally not very angst driven about it, does start to get worried at the Miss Macross Contest when she's surrounded by bigger-boobed contestants that she really starts to sweat it. It doesn't help that her best friend, who is the most well-endowed character on the entire show (ignoring Klan, whose bust is much, much bigger when in her macronized state), then tells her size doesn't matter (on top of having told their shared Love Interest Alto that "[her] chest gives men dreams").
  • The movie plays with this. At one point Ranka is making a photoshoot for a construction company, wearing a swimsuit. The suit is modeled after the company, including its slogans. So, naturally, the phrase "Under development!" is written upon Ranka's left breast.
• Hikaru, Umi and Fuu from Magic Knight Rayearth are like this, when the women from Cephiro take them for a bath, and found out that these women completely out-boobed them. But then again, they're 14 years old... However, Umi and Fuu didn't seem to comment much about their lack of boobs (they seem to be indifferent), it's just Hikaru who made comments that it'd be nice if she gets some big ones. Her in the middle of Heroic BSoD over getting her sword snapped by her Enemy Without might factor why she said things like that.
• Pachira from Magical Pokaan once (secretly) mail-ordered a bust-enhancing machine, with minimal results. The machine was the real thing and was working fine, but Pachira had to return it before she could get more visible results, which made her Pettanko status hurt even more.
• Mahoromatic:
  • Mahoro longs for bigger breasts; it's an inferiority complex fueled by Suguru's fondness for porn and Ms. Shikijo's endless taunts. Since she's a combat android, her flat chest was probably just a practical design choice. In fact, to her chagrin, it's actually the deciding factor in one fight (she body-slams her opponent, shouting "Bitty booby attack!"). The Triomatic girls poke fun at Mahoro's small chest at one point in the end theme of season one.
    
    We learn just how big a hangup this is for Mahoro in her All Just a Dream episode. She dreams of ordering an enlarging machine, only for it to work on everyone but her (including the male Suguru). The second half includes the notorious "OPPAI-MISSILE!◊" scene, which must be seen to be believed (and it is a blatant Shout-Out to Aphrodite-A). The sheer amount of mental energy she puts into this makes you wonder if Suguru's grandfather has a point when he accuses Mahoro (she of the "dirty thoughts are bad" catchphrase) of having a mind just as dirty as everyone else.
  • The second-season end theme is all about chest size, but this time it's Minawa they're hassling, and they're a bit more subtle. ("If you worry about every little thing, you can't live your life"). Actually, Miyuki and Chizuko are in the same boat—Rin decidedly isn't, as she occasionally reminds them.
  • In an omake in the manga, Rin and Miyuki's rivalry with each other as Suguru's girlfriend becomes rather catty when Shikijo also tells them about Suguru's Buxom Beauty Standard. The fact that Chizuko, who usually stays out of it, also got into it says a lot.
• Maken-ki!: Himegami can't catch a break, because the series repeatedly reminds her of what little she has. During one scene in chapter 10, there's an arrow labelled "smallest" pointed right at her chest. And in the bust size comparison chart, she's seen having a fit because she's in the "small" section., So naturally, she's envious of girls with larger breasts, like Haruko and Inaho.
• Deconstructed in Manyu Hikencho since boobs mean everything and a flat chest makes you less than human. Special mention goes to people who lost their breasts.
• Mazinger Angels: Sayaka and Hikaru find themselves wanting compared with Jun. In one scene, they are having a shower, and Jun gets nervous because they are staring at her very focusedly. Then they look over themselves and sigh in resignation.
• Kobayashi from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. This is not helped by the fact that all of the female dragons (sans Kanna) have large breasts.
• The Pink Ogress, Tokiha Nadeshiko from Momogumi+Senki is extremely angry when ever someone called her Flat-chested (It should be noted that the other girls' breasts are rather average sized). For record, Tokiha doesn't even know what a brassiere is!
• Monster Musume:
  • Manako doesn't take the revelation that Centorea was too buxom to fit into a bra measuring 103cm without it bursting off her very well. Her friend Tionisha tries to comfort her by saying small breasts are ok. However, Doppel points out that Tionisha can't understand what it feels like to be flat since her breasts are far, far bigger that Centorea's.
  • Cream is bothered that her J-cup is considered tiny by minotaur standards.
  • Centorea herself suffers from this when she meets Cathyl, a minotaur who she is displeased to note is bustier than her.
• Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya:
  • Chiharu tends to look on in dismay whenever some issue brings Lorem and/or Merii's large chests to the forefront. An early example is when she gets a baby carrier for Lorem to use with Gospel. Lorem can't use it with Gospel in front of her because her chest smothers him and the straps don't extend far enough to help.
  • Valentine has a similar issue, but unlike Chiharu she can do something about it. When she and Chiharu hang out with some of the other lady demons, both are noticeably upset at the bust sizes of their companions. Chiharu ends up seeing Valentine use her shapeshifting to enlarge her chest on the spot.
• My Dress-Up Darling: Sajuna "Juju" Inui is a high schooler who is often mistaken for a child due to being short of stature and physically lacking. One chapter has her confessing that her main reason for not wanting to cosplay as Black Lobelia was that she wasn't well-endowed enough to pull it off (her height being another more obvious one).
• My Monster Secret: Nagisa downplays this. Youko's large chest makes her feel a little jealous, but she doesn't mention it too often.
• Implied in My Hero Academia. After Mineta loudly proclaimed his hope of peeping on each of the other girls changing, we hear Jiro, the only one with a flat chest, secretly wondering why he didn't mention her. It's also implied the only reason she shocked him to begin with was because she was the only girl excluded from his list.
• Rinko Yamato from My Love Story!! seems to suffer from this to an extent. The Beach Episode reveals that she thinks she looks like a little kid next to Takeo, and was picking out very risqué swimsuits to compensate. Later, the first thing she seemed to notice (and despair over) about Mariya was her visibly larger bust.

N-Z

• Naruto:
  • When young, Tsunade. Her team teased her about her flat chest.
  • Early in Part 1, 12-year-old Sakura angsts over being flat-chested, though this doesn't come up again in the manga. In the "Road to Ninja" tie-in manga, which has a bath scene, Sakura notices Hinata being her usual shy self and attempting to hide her body. She tries to reassure Hinata that since they're all girls, she needn't be that way. However, that wasn't necessarily the problem: Hinata's breasts are too big to stay in the water. Sakura's reaction to that is priceless. In the alternate universe shown in the movie, however, Hinata mocks Sakura for her small bust size, outright calling her "pettanko".
  • There's also Karui. In her first appearance, she and Omoi argued over the possible reasons that they could have been called by the Raikage. Omoi thought he was going to be scolded for putting mayonnaise on his potatoes and for gaining weight; the argument started, however, with Omoi suggesting that Samui's back problems stem from her large breasts, which he mentions that Karui doesn't need to worry about. Karui gets pissed and responds by kicking him.
• Numerous girls in Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
  • The most obvious one being Anya, who believes the main reason that Negi is making Pactios with his students and training with Eva is because of their boobs.
  • Nodoka and Yue also qualify, to the point that we're even treated to a "pettanko" Unsound Effect in chapter 179.
  • Natsumi Murakami seems older, although slightly built herself, and displays the insecurity far more blatantly. It does not help that she is rooming with Ayaka and Chizuru, two of her bustiest classmates.
    Chizuru: Ara! What's wrong, Natsumi-chan?
    Natsumi: None of them are middle-school sized! T_T
  • Makie also constantly shows insecurity about her chest, most of it stemming from her friend Yuna's rapid-onset puberty. Ako also occasionally worries about it (see: the Chichigami-sama's chapter.), but she's more commonly worrying about other body issues.
  • While never stated, it's implied Evangeline suffers from this considering that she's stuck as a flat-chested young girl and her Older Alter Ego is very well endowed.
• Akane from Ojojojo requests that Haru share her larger boobs with the "commoners". Then she says she's going to start the breast rebellion.
• Sayaka in Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo is teased about this, even when she transforms into an adult form. She's a little worried about it, but it mostly just appears when someone else brings it up negatively.
• Rinko of Omamori Himari has worries of this nature. Probably because three of her four rivals for Yuuto's affections are E-cup or above (the fourth is a young girl).
• Inverted in One Piece. Kuina, Zoro's childhood rival, had angst for developing breasts at all, because it reminded her that she was becoming a woman.
• Kasumi/Misty from Pokémon: The Series, more so in the manga and the early anime episodes. She was teased for being "scrawny" and "looking like a boy" (often by Satoshi/Ash and often resulting in some impromptu abuse). In the manga, Satoshi even remarks that she could use an evolution stone to "evolve herself". This leads to a hot spring scene where the water supposedly promotes evolution, so she pours the water over her chest.... It should be noted this only applies to the anime and manga. However it's subverted in the The Electric Tale of Pikachu as she still has a very large cup size thanks to the artist. The games and most adaptations have her being rather well-endowed (though not on the level of other girls her age such as a few female protagonists), even as an eleven/twelve year old. She doesn't angst obviously, and is often called beautiful.
• In Pokémon Adventures, Natsume/Sabrina does not take it well when someone a good several years younger than her brags about having bigger boobs than she does. Turns out they were fake.
• In Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General, the Secretary is decently endowed, but she spends so much time around both the General and the Scientist (both of whom have huge boobs) that she does not like being compared to them.
• In Psychic Squad, Kaoru and Shiho each have a button pop off their jackets, which no longer quite fit because they're starting puberty. Aoi pulls a couple buttons off by hand, to the disdain of the other girls.
• Nanael from Queen's Blade is essentially the only adult female in the world with normal-sized breasts, and it bothers the hell out of her. Especially once she has to room with a priestess whose breasts are almost the size of Nanael's body.
• Ranma ½: Akane Tendō isn't really flat; she's actually well-proportioned for a 16-year-old. However, she has extremely deep insecurities about her bust size, especially when her sisters, her rivals and even her fiancé all make her look small by comparison (and he even flaunts it). The first mention of this gag is in the manga, when all of Ranma's clothes are in the wash and (s)he has to wear Akane's, which prompts him/her to say that the chest area is too tight while the waist is too loose, to which Akane responds by readying her bamboo sword and fight. Surprisingly, this is not milked as much as you'd think for one of the Trope Codifiers of When a Jerk Loves a Tsundere; Ranma is more likely to insult Akane's figure in general than specifically target her breasts (though her waist, hips and thighs get called out a lot). The most prominent depiction of this trope is in a late manga arc known as the Bust Battle, which not only establishes Akane as a collector of bust-increasing gadgets and exercises, but has Akane undergo a growth spurt, to her delight... only for female Ranma to turn out to have undergone her own, even bigger, growth spurt, so Akane is no better off than before (which Ranma insensitively gloats about).
• In Reborn to Master the Blade, Rafinha is quite jealous of her first cousin, Inglis, having a much larger chest than her. It becomes even more prominent as both their mothers were of relatively equal chest size while their daughters have a starker difference.
• In Recently, My Sister Is Unusual, Mitsuki Kanzaki is flat-chested and Hiyori Kotobuki has a modest-sized bust, and they both get really jealous of Yukina Kiritani's massive pair.
• In Rent-A-Girlfriend, Mami's response to seeing Chizuru in a bikini is to stare at her breasts, then zip up her jacket to hide her own much smaller breasts.
• Yukari Sendo from Rosario + Vampire. Yes, she's only eleven (she's a Kid Genius, so she's in a class full of teenagers), but she does get teased about her flat chest quite a bit... and teases the highly busty Kurumu about her chest on occasion, as well. So, yeah, clearly she's insecure about being flat. In Season Two of both the manga and the anime she takes "grow older pills." Although still no Kurumu, she certainly will have nothing to worry about in a few years.
• The heroine from Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo is a pettanko, despite having partial American ancestry. "I wish I could have a body born of THAT DNA . . .!"
• Saki:
  • Miharu Yoshitome, who's fairly flat-chested, is somewhat sensitive about being reminded about this fact while in the bath with Mako and Tomoki, the latter of whom has the second largest breasts of the prefectural finalists, after Nodoka. When Kaori comes in, Miharu indicates feeling the same way about her.
  • In in a manga omake for Achiga-hen, Shizuno is quite upset to see that her childhood friend Ako has not only grown significantly taller than her, but also has developed a larger pair of breasts, since starting middle school. Ako later tells Yuu after her semi-finals match that she wishes she had Yuu's luck and breast size.
• Sailor Moon R: In one instance, Esmeraude taunts the Sailor Guardians during their first encounter, saying she's prettier because they don't have boobs or a butt. Usagi's the only one who really reacts, probably because she's the only one with a steady boyfriend (Esmeraude also hits on Tuxedo Mask at one point) and is by far the most insecure of the Inners, raising her arms to cover her chest. (The girls aren't flat, despite being 14, and Esmeraude doesn't look all that much bigger- none of the villainesses are really busty, especially when compared to characters from other series like One Piece, Fairy Tail, and Queen's Blade).
• St. ♡ Dragon Girl: Momoka has some insecurities about her flat chest, which is why Ryuga often teases her about it.
• Fuu from Samurai Champloo is a bit insecure about her small breasts, especially when Mugen teases her about them, although it's implied that he does it because he likes her and doesn't want to admit it. In one episode, she poses for a nude painting and is flattered that the artist gave her a more impressive chest.
• Yuya from Samurai Deeper Kyo has a complex and gets teased quite a bit about this by the title character. She's actually very booby by "real life" standards.
• Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi's Ayame. This is such a major part of her character that Yoichi was able to recognize that an impostor wasn't her simply because her breast size was too big. Naturally it's also a very sore spot for her, as her other sisters are quite well endowed. Made even worse when it turns out that she's even out-boobed by her youngest sister, Kagome, who's in elementary school. Yes. Notably, she's still decently endowed (Yoichi is able to get a substantial handhold) if she were in the real world. It's just that every other girl in that world is so large.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei:
  • Poor Meru has major issues both with speaking to other people out loud and with her flat chest. She compensates for the former through spiteful, abusive emails, and the latter with an inflatable bra, which blows up on first use.
  • Chiri has this as well. In one manga chapter, she comes to clean Nozomu's house, and wants to straighten things so there is less "dead space". Nozomu comments that she has her own dead space, wearing a bra that's too large for her. She responds that she uses the space effectively and pins him to the wall with knives. In another instance, Majiru is advised to inoculate himself against groping women later in life by doing so now, and is told to go for small breasts. He chooses Chiri and has a Color Failure when she turns her terrifying Game Face on him.
• Shino of Seitokai Yakuindomo is very obviously jealous of her friend Aria's much larger breasts.
• Sekirei:
  • A frequently pushed Berserk Button for Benitsubasa. Doesn't help that every other Sekirei is very well-endowed (and the ones that are not are either male Bishōnen, or the resident Token Mini-Moe).
  • Also Kuno, who always breaks into tears whenever she's reminded of her small size or compared to other Sekirei.
• Saya was clearly Blue with Shock in episode 6 of Servant × Service after Kenzou mentioned she doesn't have Lucy's "stuff" that obstructs his view on the shoulder.
• Sgt. Frog:
  • In one episode, Natsumi (who's about 13 years old) gets jealous of her mother Aki's breasts, even though Natsumi is no slouch in that department either.
  • There's a whole episode revolving around Momoka (who's twelve) having issues about being petite. In Momoka's case, she's worried that since her crush Fuyuki is always surrounded by busty women like Natsumi and Aki, his standards for what counts as sexy must be very high. It's lampshaded that she's talking about his mother and sister. She doesn't care.
• Maka from Soul Eater. Soul's nickname for her is "Tiny Tits". It never ends well for him. At around 13, Maka's young enough to grow out of this and her concern about it. Being around a group of older, well-endowed girls can't help, though.
  • Liz is by no means an A-cup, but when Kid makes a comment about her and her sister's breasts being different sizes she punches him and exclaims "Well excuse me for being smaller than my little sister!" The comment wasn't even sexual in nature (though he did grope them); Kid was just lamenting the fact that his weapons weren't symmetrical, with their boob sizes being but one of many things that didn't match (other things include their height and hair length).
• In Steel Angel Kurumi, there is a variation where both Karinka and Kurumi are jealous of each other. Karinka wants to have big breasts like her sister, but Kurumi wishes hers were smaller (and she even mentions back pain which is common in real-life women with large breasts).
• Tales of Wedding Rings: Downplayed. While Saphir is normally quite confident in her body and never mentions her very small chest, at one point Sato mentions that he's not attracted to her because she looks underage. Later she looks at the other girls with their much larger chests and gets annoyed.
• In Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Niche, who hates milk, downs two mugs of tea because they have milk in them when the better-endowed Sylvette says that milk helps you grow up big and strong (or something like that). Niche, being a Maka, is weak to things that are hot. Like tea.
• Tenchi Muyo!: Ayeka chest isn't flat by any means, but still lacking compared to Ryoko and Mihoshi (and adult-form Washu). A fact which Ryoko sometimes teases her about.
• To Love Ru:
  • Nana. She doesn't take too kindly to any derogatory comments or even things that she could interpret as a jab towards her lack of a bust. Not at all helped by how bosomy her twin sister has grown.
    "Well EXCUSE ME FOR BEING FLAT-CHESTED!"
  • Mikan. Like most girls in the cast, she is also aware of her breast size and often feels inferior when comparing other girls' to hers, mostly Lala, although her physique is quite normal for her age. Despite this, she still feels insecure about this, and has developed a positive connection with Nana due to their similar chest-related angst.
  • Haruna has quite a decent chest, but when she gets the idea that Rito likes girls with big breasts, she starts getting more depressed and self-conscious. Only after remembering a speech by Rito about how True Beauty Is on the Inside does she regain confidence in herself.
  • Yami subverts this. While she initially seems to be upset that she has a small chest, she can easily give herself a bigger one with her shapeshifting powers, but knows that a large chest would be impractical in combat.
• Alluded to early in Tomo-chan Is a Girl! when Misuzu, after lecturing her longtime friend Tomo on her unladylike habits; admits she is completely unable to regard her as One of the Guys, citing how she 'had a young woman's perspective' while she thought back broodingly to hot spring trips and changing rooms.
  Tomo: "What parts of me do you think are womanly?"
  Misuzu: "Please shut up."
• Akina Nanamura in UFO Princess Valkyrie is flat-chested and jealous of Valkyrie's breast size and is constantly harassed about it by her companion, Hydra, who also has large breasts (when she is not sealed away by Akina's Miko magic). Akina is once accidentally given bigger boobs in one episode. Rather than freak out like normal when caught up in such things, she's positively ecstatic!
• Kirie Sakurame of UQ Holder! halted her aging process at 13 years old, but unfortunately for her just stopped before her body developed. It doesn't help that most of the girls surrounding her are either developing or well-developed. Any attention to her small chest usually drives her to tears.
• Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!: Ami isn't flat-chested, but her breasts are dwarfed by Hana's, which stand out even more given her short stature. When they go to the beach, a horrified Ami thinks "Those things are weapons."
• Val × Love: Natsuki has a complex about her small chest, which is made worse by the fact that the other two triplets Itsuyo and Mutsumi are among the three more endowed of the sisters.
• Ai from Video Girl Ai was supposed to be busty, but being played in Youta's broken VCR caused her breasts to shrink down to almost nothing. She becomes annoyed when she finds out about this.
• Sexy from The Voynich Hotel suffers from this, trying to be a Fille Fatale (and failing miserably) and having suffered in the shadow of the more buxom Peace.
• Inami-chan of Wagnaria!! is put out by her small chest, but it isn't that notable until Takanashi's crossdressing is larger than her that she begins to be bugged by it. Quite notably.
• In Walkure Romanze, Lisa has some reservations about her own bust size especially due to the fact that the other girls have rather ample cleavage.
• In Waratte! Sotomura-san, everyone is convinced that Sotomura binds her chest. She doesn't - she's genuinely that flat, which causes her some angst when she shares a public bath with Haruno.
• Wasteful Days of High School Girls:
  • When Ota likens breasts to chest hair in the sense that they could both serve as cushions for the torso, Baka reacted with a screaming fit.
    Tanaka: Some women don't have any goddamn cushions on them, right? *thrusts chest forward* RIGHT HERE!!!"
  • Loli's flat bordering on concave. She's such a washboard that if she tries padding, it will fall from her chest because it has nothing to grip on. This brings her considerable embarrassment, as she has body issues to begin with due to her size.
  • The aforementioned Ota isn't really lacking, but when Lily makes her introduction to the class, Ota fixates on Lily's ample chest in annoyance.
    Ota: What is this disparity in society?
• Fumino in We Never Learn is rather insecure about her bust size being A-Cup, especially since all of her friends have much larger sizes. In a memetic scene, Fumino goes to a lingerie shop all on her own so that she would not feel embarrassed about herself and her body while hoping that she might have grown in size. Unfortunately for her, not only has her bust size not grown, but when she exits the changing room she sees that the mascot she had been confiding her insecurities to beforehand was none other than her peer tutor and crush Nariyuki. Upon seeing him unmasked and realizing what she had been saying to him, Fumino goes Blue with Shock as her face contorts into a look of despair.
  Fumino: God is dead, Yuiga-kun.
• Narumi in Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku is quite self-conscious of her breast size. In the anime, she immediately becomes jealous of her new coworker being bustier than her.
• YuruYuri.
  • Sakurako is flat and jealous of the exceedingly busty Himawari. Himawari is self-conscious of her overdeveloped chest, feeling like it makes her stand out too much among their classmates.
  • Sakurako gets so angry during gym class when Himawari obviously isn't wearing a sports bra that she actually starts hitting Himawari's breasts and shouting "boing! boing!" out of spite...
• Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs:
  • Due to her age, Koyuzu has small breasts in her human form, which saddens her to the point where she's developed an obsession with large breasts.
  • While Hibari isn't outright flat, she is, in her own words, "barely a C-Cup," which gives her feelings of inadequacy when comparing it to Sagiri's F-Cup. It gets worse when she meets Yuuna and Chisaki (whose bust sizes are only 1 cm smaller than Sagiri's), and especially Nonko and Hiyori (who are even bigger).
  • Urara isn't that flat, but she would still prefer to have Sagiri's much larger breasts than her own.
  • Rui, Nonko's editor, has an average-sized chest, but she would like to know what it feels like to have large breasts like Nonko's that float atop the water.
• In Yuurei Ryokou Dairiten Soul Mate Tourist, Mariko Touno, who works as a tour guide for a travel agency for ghosts, has a traumatic experience in which a pervy ghost gets all depressed when he sees her flat chest and makes a comment about that, which is utter insensitive given that she's already felt self-conscious enough taking a bath with her more voluptuous ghost coworker just to lure him out. He died from falling off a cliff while trying to peep on women in an outdoor hot-spring bath (rotenburo), and his only wish to move on is to get to grope a well-endowed girl. Luckily for him, the travel agency has just the ghost, although he has to earn it by beating her in a game of ping pong. He ends up losing, but she, out of pity, lets him rest on her bosoms anyway and move on thanks to his moving determination.
• In Yuusha Gojo Kumiai Kouryuugata Keijiban, both Pilot and one of the Heroes are flat-chested, and they do not like having it pointed out to them.

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