Cuteness Proximity / Anime & Manga

• In an episode of Akame ga Kill!, Friendly Sniper Mine gets this from an adorable kitten that cuddles up to her. Said kitten turns out to be Chelsea, who proceeds to steal her dessert.
• Angel Beats! has Shiina, who is usually an utterly stoic Deadpan Snarker... right up until she sees a toy puppy. The first time this happens the toy is part of the Guild's security system, she ends up getting swept over a waterfall and gravely injured, and it still manages to be a funny moment.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • Sakaki, over pretty much anything. Unfortunately, the animals involved REALLY don't appreciate it. Also, she can be internally overwhelmed by all the cuteness, but all the other girls can see is a blushing Huge Schoolgirl.
  • Then there's everybody's reaction to Chiyo in a penguin costume◊. And we mean everyone. Even the viewers.
• Yuiko from the manga Beast Master takes this up a notch whenever she sees a cute animal, such as a dog or a cat, and even birds.
• Badass Demon Butler Sebastian in Black Butler adores cats. It's partially because the only pets in the demon world are xenomorphs.
• Bleach:
  • Occurs during the Bount arc in the anime version. When a decision needs to be made about which person each of the three mod souls would be paired with, Rukia (the possessor of a long-standing rabbit obsession) positively melts over the plushie (a rabbit-like purse) inhabited by Kurodo.
  • The scene where Ishida Uryuu is giggling over a butterfly that randomly flew by. Surprisingly not as out of character as one might think. Granted, he's being held in a prison cell at the time, so it would have been nice to see something like a butterfly.
  • Rukia shows her love of bunnies again in chapter 464 when she has to fight Riruka in a place full of plushies. Several of these are bunny-shaped. This happens. And in a subversion... in 469 this proves to be a flaw. Rukia cannot really concentrate on her fight due to the adorableness of the plushies, which gives Riruka a chance to attack.
• Rin tends to cause this reaction to people in Bunny Drop. Amusingly, younger children than her cause the reaction in Rin.
• Syaoran's older sisters who appear in the 1st Cardcaptor Sakura movie. They gush over Sakura and Tomoyo... until Touya and Yukito arrive, at which point they switch to gushing over the guys. (Syaoran is exasperated by this.)
• While not one to just out and scream "KITTY!", the normally serious and stoic Ai Haibara from Case Closed is vulnerable to this around animals, her partner and snark-buddy Conan wastes no time cracking a joke at how she looked 100% like a little girl.
• Cat Planet Cuties has a Ninja Maid named Sarah who reportedly made it into the SAS but washed out soon after due to her love of small, cute things. Her current employer is a girl who runs a cult dedicated to worshiping cat-people.
• The Platelets from Cells at Work! induce this reaction on everyone, in-universe and out.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Misaka 10032, though it's slightly more subtle due to her normal inexpressive personality. The clearest example, though, can be seen when she is helping take some cans back to Touma's apartment and runs into Himegami and Index taking care of Sphinx, and the entire time her eyes are twitching back and forth, following the cat's tail. She even has little blush stickers on her face.
  • Mikoto also counts, with her reaction to anything involving Gekota (a frog mascot marketed at pre-schoolers).
  • Uiharu has this reaction to Kongou's pet boa constrictor.
    Everyone Else: IT'S A SNAKE!
    Uiharu: Ooh, what's her name?
• In one episode of Chi's Sweet Home, Chi sneaks into Dad's bag when he goes to meet his bosses at work, and she comes out when he's presented with sample food (he's a designer). Instantly, The Comically Serious starts petting and speaking Baby Talk to Chi.
  • The real example is the pet store worker who constantly obsesses over Chi and wants to take her home. She even visits Chi at the Yamadas' house (whom she barely knows) when she finds out she already has a family.
• Ando, from ChocoMimi may look tough, but he has a soft spot for cute animals, especially Picho, his pet bird. Worth noting is that he once randomly hugged Jin simply because Jin was wearing a raincoat that made him resemble Picho.
• D.Gray-Man: Lenalee invokes this in General Cross Marian. He hates The Dark Order-an organization for which he was once loyal. At the story's start, he'd been in hiding and avoiding contact for 4 years, which is capital punishment. Once he's back after a mission, he attempts to run off again, pushing Allen out of the way. However, what makes him stop is Lenalee. She hugs him around his waist, pleading for him not to leave. Cross seems to have an "Oh crap" expression on his face at first. He looks down at her, as she stares into his eyes — pleadingly. He then thinks to himself — "she's so cute, I can't refuse." Apparently, Lenalee can make him do things — which Allen theorizes is why Komui put her on Cross' team in the 1st place.
• Date A Live: Ai, Mai, and Mii do this when they run into Yoshino.
• Amusingly, Minatsuki of Deadman Wonderland has a moment of this towards an armadillo. She looks like she's actively trying to fight it.
• At one point during Digimon Tamers, Tally and Riley pick up a strong Digimon signal... only to look down and see that Calumon's wandering around the control room. Riley basically ignores him, but Tally immediately notes how cute he is. Many viewers agreed with her.
  Calumon: Calumon, zoom zoom, here a zoom, there a zoom! Calumon, zoom zoom, NO UNDERWEAR, ZOOM!
• The Puchuus in Excel♡Saga are an alien race that is able to conquer planets because no one can resist their cuteness. Oddly, it seems only men are affected, though the only women we ever see them encounter are a really crazy girl and the only serious person in the whole show.
• Ilyasviel von Einzbern from Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA has this to maids of all things! Or rather, anything that resembles a maid...
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Roy Mustang apparently had this occur over dogs. Although, he states that he likes dogs because you can "Be a jerk to them and they won't complain and they never once beg for a paycheck!"
    "Well, you're awfully manic today, sir"
  • Also, Al's reaction to kittens, while in character, probably counts, especially as he looks scary.
  • When Scar (that's right, SCAR) first gets a look at Xiao May the panda, he's so overcome with cute he wants to pet it! It was only shown once in an easy-to-miss scene in the show, and once in a non-canon "4-Koma Theater" episode, but it's still freaking funny.
  • Maes Hughes was regularly seen bragging about his cute daughter Elicia (After being exposed to her cuteness, Winry has similar symptoms)
    "Yep, you're the same as ever, Major, nice and insane."
  • And about his wife Gracia, too, although less frequently.
  • Winry has exactly the same reactions at the sight of well-done automails and mechanical supplies. The start of Episode 11 of Brotherhood shows this very well.
  • A running gag in the omakes is Al storing cats in his armor, which often leads to this...on the parts of characters like the villains from Lab 5. Noteworthy is a recreation of a fight scene between Al and Scar: When Scar disintegrates part of Al's armor, meowing cats burst out, prompting Scar to go starry-eyed and say, "Meow."
• It turns out in Full Metal Panic! that not even Sousuke is immune to cats' ability to render people into puddles of embarrassing cooing — well, at least with some cats.
  Sousuke: Who's a good boy? You're a good boy! Chidori, this is Shiro. Isn't he a pretty kitty?
  Kaname: No. That's a tiger.
  Sousuke: Well, they're cats too.
• In Gintama, Katsura gets a case of this when he runs into a lone Sadaharu, and proceeds to pet and cuddle him excessively. Unbeknownst to him, it was actually Gintoki in Sadaharu's body at the time, who naturally didn't approve of the treatment.
  Gintoki: I think I've been violated...
• Gonna Be the Twin-Tail!! might as well be Cuteness Proximity: The Anime. Pretty much every single person who sees Tail Red has this reaction, even the villains — in their cases, it's both invoked and exploited in order to give Tail Red the edge on combat.
• A frequent form of interaction between Fu and Hana in Hana the Fox Girl. Fu gushes over Hana whenever she's being especially cute or Fu can dress her up in her old childhood clothes. The second chapter equates this to maternal instinct.
• Hanaukyō Maid Team: Konoe Tsurugi, normally a stoic badass who speaks in a deep and quiet scary tone, starts gushing whenever she sees a puppy. She eventually gets her own.
• All the girls from Hayate the Combat Butler fall into this for Shiranui, who then uses it to play Cats Are Mean to the hilt and pass the blame. Even Hinagiku falls into this, though it's more blatant in extra material.
• HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has Myoudoin Itsuki, whose mature and reserved facade instantly crumbles at the sight of cute dolls or frilly clothing. She initially tries to hide this habit, out of concern for her image, but she's slowly getting better.
• Neptune from Heaven's Design Team likes to create animals that are docile and adorable, often inspiring this reaction from the other members of the design team. He and Shimoda are downright overwhelmed by the various adaptations of the sea otter. Pluto often has this reaction to her creations, but she has a VERY weird idea of what constitutes "cute".
• Heavy Object: A shootout between the heroes and a group of terrorists in Antarctica gets interrupted when a group of baby penguins wanders into the battlefield. Everyone on both sides stops shooting so they can watch the penguins until they're out of sight.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Male Tsundere England is often the Only Sane Man. But he's got the ability to see supernatural creatures, and when a sweet-tempered one approaches him, his deredere side arises and he acts very gentle to them. And since he's the only one who can see them, his friends/rivals/enemies think he has finally gone off the deep end. (Though France's reaction◊ when he does get to see them is priceless) He also gets like this when around/thinking of baby America.
  • He has company now. We have evidence◊ Norway of all people is similarly afflicted.
  • Prussia becomes much less serious when he finds a baby chick on his head, commenting on how soft and fluffy it is.
  • Germany, normally The Stoic, has a weak spot for dogs.
  • China is a reasonably composed guy who tries to act as a Big Brother Mentor to the other Asian nations and often plays Only Sane Man to the other Allied Forces, but he has a definite weakness for cute things. Hello Kitty plushies, pandas, baby!Japan or anything else he thinks is cute, can easily cause him to dissolve into bubbly giddiness.
• Yuno of Hidamari Sketch stops in the scavenger hunt to pet the dog, and even petted drawing brushes when she thought of the animals the bristles came from.
• Hozuki's Coolheadedness: While he doesn't go stupid, Hozuki has a moment of this when visiting the palace of king Shoko, filled with rare animals from all over the world. Usually The Stoic, he starts randomly shouting the names of the animals he sees.
• Inubaka: When Suguri started passing out fliers for Woofles, Noa helps out. She goes over to two tough looking guys, who ask Suguri menacingly if it's her dog. Suguri nervously replies it's the shop's...cue 'here boy's and 'aww, he's so cute's.
• Inuyasha: Botan and Momiji, the rookie mikos who appear in Episodes 63 and 64 of the original anime. They're smitten with Shippo and Kirara the minute they see them, and as soon as they're convinced the two aren't evil demons, they start fawning over them.
• Is the Order a Rabbit?:
  • Cocoa when she first sees Tippy. And especially when holding him. Several other characters are similarly drawn to him, such as a bunch of random girls at the pool in Episode 8 after Chino leaves him alone in a small washtub.
  • Thanks to Cocoa's influence, Chino gets afflicted by this in Episode 10, when she notices some rabbits while she's headed towards the bathhouse with Rize, Megu, and Maya.
  • Sharo's brain breaks just a bit when she sees Rize wearing Chino's junior high uniform in Episode 3. For the time it takes Cocoa and Chino to take their bath, Sharo does nothing but sit, stare at Rize and squeal.
• Junji Ito puts his own distinctive spin on the idea in Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu.
• In Kaitou Saint Tail, Rosemary gets this reaction from Meimi and Asuka jr., with her adopted daughter Maju saying she does it all the time. What makes this special is that Rosemary is the closest thing to a Big Bad this series has to offer.
• Episode 8 of the KanColle anime has Nagato taking a dip in the hot springs repair dock when a squirrel scampers down to the edge of the water and looks at her. After looking around furtively to make sure nobody can see, she scoops up the squirrel and rubs it against her cheek while cooing that it's "so adowable", all with a smile on her face. Then her sister Mutsu enters, and Nagamon quickly asks "You didn't hear that, did you?". She did.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
  • Miu Fuurinji and Kisara Nanjo absolutely adore cats. Kisara, especially to the extent that she adapts cat-based movements into her Tae Kwon Do fighting style, which another character promptly calls Nya Kwon Do.
  • Kisara's Cuteness Proximity is deconstructed twice, albeit in two very different directions. First, when she is sheltering a cat from the rain, the Valkyri choose this moment to attack, knowing that she can't fight them all at once while protecting something. Later, after she has officially left Ragnarok, Nijima tries to blackmail her by threatening to release pictures of her being adorable with cats, ruining her tough girl image. Siegfried rejects this plan, coming up with an alternative.
    Siegfried: In return for your friendship and loyalty, we offer...THIS ADORABLE KITTEN!
  • Shigure also had this reaction... to a tank.
  • This is one of the things, along with sweets, that tends to break through Chikage Kushinada's Creepy Child persona and activate her 'Child Mode.'
• Ryu from Kimi ni Todoke really, really loves puppies.
• Kusehashi-sensei from Kiniro Mosaic can be so serious it's intimidating to her students, but the real reason she stares at them sometimes is that she finds her students so damn cute. She has a weakness for cute things and is embarrassed when the fact that she has a cat (which she talks to about her day in a cutesy voice) is revealed. Her co-worker and mentor Karasuma meanwhile shares this weakness but is completely unashamed about it.
• In one episode of Kokoro Connect, Iori and Yui completely lose it when Inaba is physically and mentally reverted to about four years old. Taichi is just barely able to avoid joining in.
• Kotaro Lives Alone: One of Kotaro's neighbors, Tamaro, has the looks and attitude expected from a low-ranking Yakuza and he'll be hostile to anyone who even dares to look at him the wrong way... except when he's in the presence of the titular Kotaro, at which point he absolutely melts, keeps calling him cutesy pet names and tries to get physically affectionate (which Kotaro often has to stop with his toy sword).
• Gwendal von Voltaire in Kyo Kara Maoh!. Since he's a rule-and-duty-bound Stoic in just about every other circumstance it is inevitably amusing to watch him blush and try to pretend he's not interested in just about anything cute. Or to hear him talk about 'bunnies and little kitty cats' without ever losing the lineface.
  • The main character's older brother Shouri doesn't have it as bad as Gwendal, but he definitely gets his moments when faced with El, the baby son of a pair of recurring side characters who Shouri winds up babysitting while his parents finally get married.
• In Log Horizon, Akatsuki invokes this in Henrietta, the accountant and 2nd in command of the Crescent Moon Alliance guild. Henrietta joined a diplomatic party specifically so she could dress up Akatsuki in various dresses.
• Lucky Star:
  • Kagami admits that she gets this way around her pet goldfish. Konata immediately mocks her for it.
  • Also, Konata and virtual pets.
  • Also, Yutaka and Minami's dog, Cherry... know what? A LOT of examples are found in this show.
• This is largely driving the plot in Mao-chan, with 8-year-old Mao-chan and her friends the only ones not affected by the super-cute aliens trying to destroy the Earth.
• Kanna's mere presence — let alone physical contact — in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is enough to send her best friend Riko into Cuteness Overload. This even helps their class win a game of tug-of-war during the sports festival when getting a brief scent of Kanna's hair causes her fall back on the rope (though it also cost them the three-legged race for the same reason).
• My Neighbor Seki:
  • Yokoi's susceptible to this, particularly around cats. When Seki's little sister Jun has to be brought to class, Yokoi is ecstatic. She will always side with Jun in any situation.
  • In the spinoff manga, an older Jun absolutely adores her baby nephew Makuru. The sight of him turns Jun from terse and stoic to cheerful and playful in an instant, to the point that her speech becomes more babyish to match Makuru. She won't even allow Yokoi to scold him for misbehavior, and can't do so herself when the potential for the boy to become a Spoiled Brat is pointed out to her.
• Taki from Natsume's Book of Friends finds Nyanko-sensei to be so adorable she can't help glomping him. Given that everyone else considers Nyanko-sensei to be "Natsume's ugly cat", her taste in cuteness is questionable.
• One Piece:
  • The Kyuun Spark in the Chopperman specials.
  • Nico Robin has a soft spot for cute things, especially Chopper. She also has this reaction to Kanjuro's poorly drawn creatures.
  • Nami has always been fond of cute animals, but in recent times, this has also extended to children — to a surprisingly great degree. When some crying children ask her to save them, she cannot bring herself to abandon them (despite that she usually follows her captain's principle of not caring much about random bystanders, only helping people who are personal friends of her or her crew), and she spends the rest of the arc worrying about them. The most extreme example is with Momonosuke: She doesn't seem to realize at all that he is a Dirty Kid who only jumps into her comforting arms in order to feel her boobs — she sees him as another cute, innocent kid who she hugs, lets sit on her lap and shares a bed with. Noteworthy since she is often a good judge of character. Another extreme example is O'Tama; she becoming a kunouichi's apprentice left Nami in the verge of a Cuteness Overload case.
  • The Rumbar Pirates all look at baby Laboon: at first they seem confused but then they tilt their heads and say "cute~".
  • Capone "Gang" Bege is one of the crueler pirates of the Worst Generation. He won't hesitate to shoot his own allies in the back for getting sentimental and loves to go Straight for the Commander to watch said commander's men try to act without a leader. However, in keeping with his mafia theme, Bege is a family man who adores his wife and turns to mush around his infant son, who he regularly baby talks to.
  • This is everyone's reaction to Princess Mansheri. Not even Vice-Admiral Tsuru is immune to her cuteness. The only exception is Leo, who's so dense (to a Luffy-level degree) that doesn't seem to notice Mansheri's obvious crush on him.
  • Trafalgar Law seems to suffer from this with his first mate and best friend, Bepo, who's a very fluffy and very cute polar bear Mink. And as shown in the Wano arc, Bepo isn't afraid to abuse this special "power", either.
• Honey-senpai of Ouran High School Host Club has this effect around many girls, thanks to him looking and acting like a little kid, which is his selling point in the titular club and milks it like there's no tomorrow.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Misty slips into this when a stray Teddiursa wanders into their camp and looks her in the eyes. Of course, once they find out it's been scarfing down all their food behind their backs and making Ash's Totodile and Chikorita take the heat for it, the little thing seems much less cute. Even better: it continues to try to invoke this trope after it evolves into the much more feral-looking Ursaring.
  • The other girls have their moments too — May over a Skitty and Dawn for Pachirisu. Jessie was charmed by the cuteness of both as well, though failed to get either Pokémon.
  • Marilyn, a one-off character in the episode "Battling a Cute Drama", to a truly ridiculous extent. Brock is annoyed to no end by it.
    • This is actually an interesting case to study than it sounds. Brock was more annoyed by Marilyn for her ridiculously strict standards of Pokemon cuteness — must not be too high, must not be evolved, etc. — because it was a shallow perspective that put a lesser value on other Pokemon. When she comes to understand, she admits that her favourite Pokemon, Shellder, led to her being put down by her peers and she adopted the viewpoint in order to fit in. When she comes to understand the deeper inherent qualities in a Pokemon and how they too can be admirable as well as cute, she... doesn't stop gushing over her favourite Pokemon, but realises that having a different perspective isn't bad and stops being ashamed of herself. Brock is, naturally, pleased to hear this.
  • The first thing Ash ever said about Pikachu was "It's so cute!" He was then promptly electrocuted. A similar moment occurs in Journeys when he first sees Chloe's Yamper and asks to pet it. Again, he's zapped.
  • Pokémon the Series: Black & White:
    • Iris has a Cuteness Proximity over Pikachu when they first met. She is so busy genki-ing out over the thing that she doesn't notice she was holding him too hard. That is until he got his point across in his own inimitable fashion.
    • She didn't have much luck with cute mons besides her partner... until Lenora's Lillipup showed up, all too happy to be played with before battle. Even Ash fell victim to the little puppy!
    • Bianca has her moments as well.
  • Pokémon the Series: XY:
    • Bonnie goes through this upon meeting Ash's Pikachu for the first time, she too held him too hard and got shocked as a result.
  • In the Sun and Moon series, a female Team Skull Grunt falls for Meowth, trying to cuddle him whenever she gets the chance, much to Jessie's frustration. She also naturally has this for Lana's future Eevee Sandy.
• In Popcorn Avatar, Lisa finds Mafuyu adorable. Since Mafuyu is Kurando's twin, one wonders if she feels the same for the latter.
• Kaido Kaoru of The Prince of Tennis. While he doesn't quite "disintegrate into a pile of gloop", the most antisocial member of the team attempting to play with a cat while still coming off as intense and a little scary was hilarious in its own right.
• Given that Princess Tutu's Fakir is far nicer and affectionate to small, fuzzy animals than he is to any human being (including the very same small, fuzzy animal in human form), we can probably say he's afflicted with some level of Cuteness Proximity
• Oboro Kashiwagi in Psychic Squad really likes baby seals.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Fuutarou's younger sister Raiha can easily induce this on anyone who meets her, but especially on Itsuki and Yotsuba.
• RahXephon's Haruka Shitow takes all but two seconds to shift from, "One more step and I'll shoot!" to "Daaaaaw, it's so CUTE! can we keep it? Pwetty pwease?" upon encountering a stray cat in the third episode. An especially good scene, because in those two seconds she mentally jumps 12 years back in time... and into a completely different dynamic. Ayato has NO idea what's going on.
• Princess Diana: Diana's first reaction to seeing bunnies is her eyes going as wide as saucers and exclaiming the following:
  Diana:' "Kawaii!!"
• Ero-Neko exploits this in Re-Kan!. He sits on top of a window by the girl's locker room, and they think he's cute. However, Hibiki Speaks Fluent Animal, and hears him talking about watching them as they change their clothes. She promptly shuts the window to stop him.
• Sailor Moon:
  • An early episode featured a plot to drain people through adorable little pets. When close enough to them, their pheromones trigger this result in anyone. Luna realizes the whole thing is off when Usagi and Shingo are so enamored with the creatures that they actually yell and kick at her if she tries to come close to them.
  • Usagi is prone to this in later episodes, too. Chibi-usa even more so.
• In Saki: Koromo Amae elicit this reaction in the otherwise calm and detached Fujita, who hugs her and starts patting her head while gushing about how cute she is.
• In the Sands of Destruction manga, Kyrie squees when seeing Taupy for the first time, comparing him to a stuffed bear. In the anime, though, Kyrie finds the incongruity between Taupy's appearance and abilities a little unsettling.
• In the second anime episode of The Severing Crime Edge, Iwai triggers this response in just about every girl in Kiri's class.
• Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle:
  • When Princess Syalis accidentally de-ages herself into a child, she triggers this reaction from all the demons she encounters, up to and including the Demon King himself.
  • It happens again when Syalis interrupts a strategy meeting because an Eggplant Seal and a Teddy Demon are having an argument, and she wants them to reconcile. The Demon King and his generals attempt to ignore it and proceed with the meeting, only to keep getting distracted by how cute the Eggplant Seal and Teddy Demon are. They eventually put the meeting on hold in favor helping the seal and demon stop fighting.
• When Mizuno is introduced in Star Driver, she follows the drama club's fox kit mascot Vice to the clubroom, entranced by his cuteness.
• Kanade of Suite Pretty Cure ♪ absolutely melts touching the paw of a cat
• Examined in Super Cruel and Terrible Tales of Mangaka. A young mangaka is very passionate about gory, gruesome manga, and is very, very happy in terms of success. However, when his wife gives birth to a daughter, this trope settles in, and the quality of his manga fades and eventually gets canceled. ("I don't need status or glory, or money or life, as long as I have Nunuko!")
• In Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream, once Yumecantchi joins Yumemitchi and Kiraritchi and provides items for them to use along with the transformations they get from their Yume Kira bags, it becomes a running gag for the seemingly-useless items to be accompanied by Yumecantchi using her cuteness to convince the two that they will actually be of help. This works on Yumemitchi, who can't get over Yumecantchi's cuteness, but only serves to make Kiraritchi a bit irritated.
• Tantei Opera Milky Holmes: The moment Irene Doala see Kokoro, she starts gushing about how cute she is and how she wants to adopt her as her little sister. Irene is an elementary-schooler, and Kokoro is a temperamental teenager who doesn't like being treated like a kid or being looked down on because of her short size.
• Shinra, dignified Sugar and Ice mistress of They Are My Noble Masters melts into a Squeeing ditz at the mere sight of baby pandas.
• Takanashi of Wagnaria!! takes this to Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! levels, even being distracted from his date because a couple of puppies are walking by.

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