Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes

Sleepy, seductive, snide, or sarcastic?^note Clockwise from top left: Sleepy, Miss Piggy, Squidward, and Garfield.

"Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, I'll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice?"

— Bette Midler

A style of drawing eyes with a straight horizontal line at the top or through the middle, so they look half-closed. This gives the character an instant tired or bored look and is the trademark gaze of the Sleepy Head, Heavy Sleeper, or Deadpan Snarker in animation. Someone giving a cynical remark will often lower their eyelids in between rolling their eyes. This projects an air of nonchalance as all the eye muscles are relaxed, either because the character has a devil-may-care personality or is just too tired to care. Stoner characters often have these eyes as well, to emphasize their spaced-out nature. Dumb characters may have these eyes to emphasize their slow wit. However, the look can also be used by a character trying to be seductive or lecherous, often known as "the bedroom eyes" in this context. Eyebrows can either be arched for a relaxed look or furrowed for a snide look. If one eyebrow is raised, it creates a sly or knowing look. And if someone's pulling a quality Eyebrow Waggle or Eyelash Flutter, their eyelids are almost always half-closed.

In anime, these are known as "Jitome Eyes." Compare Exhausted Eyebags, Tareme Eyes, Tsurime Eyes, and Eyes Always Shut. Often paired with the expression of the Perpetual Frowner or Smug Smiler. Combine with Fascinating Eyebrow and Twinkle Smile, and you get the DreamWorks Face. Not to be confused with Eye Cam, which is often from a character's dreary point of view.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Sugar Bear, the mascot of Sugar Crisp is depicted as a cool, laid-back bear who can triumph over anything with his Sugar Crisp. Fittingly, he's always depicted with these half-lidded eyes.

Anime & Manga

• Subverted in Black Lagoon, because whenever Revy looks like this—watch out, 'cause she's about to go on a psychotic killing spree.
• The main character in Case Closed always has his eyes half-closed with his brows slanted downward when he's in First-Person Smartass Sarcasm Mode. This is a very frequent occurrence for him.
• In Dad, the Beard Gorilla and I, Tsukasa and Watanabe's lids are drawn as a flat horizontal line which gives them both a perpetually bored expression. They are also the most reserved characters in the series, although they do have Not So Stoic moments.
• I Think Our Son Is Gay: Yuuri is a stoic, deadpan thirteen-year-old whose eyes are always drawn in this style throughout his life, at most softening slightly or pairing with a Sweat Drop. The only exception occurred when he was genuinely shocked once at age eight. He even had the expression as a baby.
• Lucky Star: Konata is always drawn with half-lidded eyes, as she is a laid-back slacker.
• My Hero Academia: This is the default facial expression of homeroom teacher Shota Aizawa, A.K.A. Eraser Head. Even Midoriya notes that he's never seen a pro that looks so worn out. However, he does also have a nasty Death Glare stare when using his Quirk.
• My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected: Hachiman Hikigaya's default portrayal has him with a half-lidded expression, which along with his small, dark irises (in contrast to everyone else's large, colorful irises), emphasizes his cynical, weary nature. In-universe, he is described as having "dead fish eyes".
• In Osomatsu-san, Ichimatsu is drawn with half-lidded eyes due to his distant personality, and Atsushi is drawn with half-lidded eyes which reflects his charming and flirtatious personality.
• Pokémon: The Series: Professor Philena Ivy has perpetually sleepy eyes. It could be inferred that, in addition to all the other things in her lab that have been neglected, she's neglecting her sleep schedule.
• Snake people in Reptilia, or Hebi Shoujo, have these eyes. When Yoko is turned into a snake girl, the first thing she notices is that her eyes have changed.
• In the Warrior Cats manga Shattered Peace, Minty is drawn with half-closed eyes, emphasizing how exhausted she is as a new mother.

Asian Animation

• Bread Barbershop's Choco tends to have half-lidded eyes, showing her less-than-enthused, sarcastic personality.
• In Happy Heroes, Careless S., the Genius Ditz of the Supermen who is skilled with mechanical weaponry but clumsy at a lot of other things, is usually depicted with half-lidded eyes.

Comic Books

• In the comics based off BoBoiBoy, BoBoiBoy Ice is always drawn with half-lidded eyes◊, fitting with his calm personality.
• In Bone, the Great Red Dragon has partly lidded eyes by default, showing his nonchalance.

Comic Strips

• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's eyes always droop to half-mast when he's watching TV. Apparently, he doesn't use any muscles at all to keep his eyes open (in one strip, he tells Hobbes "I can feel my neural transmitters shutting down").
• This is the default for nearly every character in Doonesbury, except Boopsie, Sam, Zipper, and those whose eyes are never seen (like Duke, who always wears sunglasses).
• The Far Side: Gary Larson liked to draw some of his characters' eyes with just a simple unbroken straight line, resulting in a similar effect.
• A relaxed half-lidded stare is Garfield's default expression, as he is nearly always tired and has a sarcastic remark for any situation to boot.

Fan Works

• Lucy's Secret: When Lynn is tired due to being woken at night, her eyes are described as half-closed.

Films — Animation

• The Boss Baby always has his eyelids lowered with one eyebrow raised to emphasize his no-nonsense, snarky personality.
• Cars: Fillmore the van has the top of his windshield covered to invoke half-closed eyes. These go with his New-Age Retro Hippie nature and role as The Stoner.
• Invoked in Despicable Me: Edith's always-present hat covers the top of her eyes, giving her a partially-lidded look fitting with her sarcastic personality and contrasting with her wide-eyed Cheerful Child younger sister Agnes.
• Luca: Alberto has a carefree and confident nothing-to-lose attitude, and just about always has his eyes half-closed to match.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Sleepy the dwarf always has droopy half-closed eyes as if he's just awoken from a deep sleep.
• Similarly the aptly named Shorty from Tangled always has half-lidded eyes, though from his behavior it appears to be more from being perpetually drunk.
• Turning Red has Priya, the moody one of Mei's friends.
• Zootopia: Nick Wilde, a devious con man, always has his eyes half-closed in a sly smile.

Films — Live-Action

• Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit always has the better part of her eye covered with a purple-shaded eyelid. It makes her bug-eyed Wild Take at the Dip all the more shocking and surprising.

Live-Action TV

• Joel, the first host for Mystery Science Theater 3000 always had a "sleepy-eyed" look, something commented on by the other characters too.

Toys

• A common style addition to characters on Wacky Packages stickers are half-lidded eyes with green or blue eyeshadow on them to give characters a "lower intelligence" design. The color added to the eyes was a pure accident, coming from a color editor era from Topps' Joke Books designs. Instead of giving the eyeshadow to just the female characters, all characters with droopy eyes were given them, regardless of gender. This stuck for Topps' designs, and would become a recurring trait for Wacky Packages.

Puppet Shows

• Mokey from Fraggle Rock has half-lidded eyes to go with her dreamy and relaxed personality.
• The Muppets:
  • Miss Piggy has a perpetual "bedroom eyes" expression.
  • Fozzie Bear's half-closed eyes fit his Sad Clown persona.
  • In his early years, Gonzo had heavy eyelids that gave him a sad expression. As his personality became more manic, controls were added to open the eyes for more wild-eyed expressions, but his default expression still has a slight droop. It makes him look confident or depressed depending on his mood.

Video Games

• A lot of the villagers in the Animal Crossing series have a default half-lidded gaze, many of them belong to the (big surprise) Lazy Villagers such as Punchy and Tucker. The "smug" type, such as Ed and Rodney, is probably the second most common. Other villagers with other personality types have this sleepy eye look too, including Agent S, Sally, Boots, Bea, Charlise, and few others. For the NPC side, we have Tom Nook, Sable, Booker, and Franklin.
• Animal Restaurant: Seedy has half-lidded eyes and is described as looking aloof.
• Duolingo: Lily's eyelids are often lowered, showing boredom and snide.
• Friday Night Funkin': Girlfriend's eyes are almost always depicted as half-closed, indicating her friendly and lax attitude. Her mother Mommy Mearest has a more seductive and sinister variant, fitting her role as a villainess.
• A Hat in Time: Hat Kid lowers her eyelids and makes a smug Playful Cat Smile when dancing, spawning the "Smug Hat Kid" meme.
• The Nu Mou race in Ivalice Alliance games all have half-lidded eyes befitting their sagely nature.
• The Pokémon Numel (a small camel-like critter) and Metapod (a crescent-shaped chrysalis-like critter) both have heavy-lidded eyes.^note No, the angry-looking side with the pointy "nose" is not the front of Metapod.
• Puyo Puyo: Since Sig is typically calm, stoic, and slow, he always has his eyes drawn with half-lids.
• Sonic Adventure and its sequel has some Chao that can have this as a default expression, but most notably Chacron. If you played the games, you'll know the one. Players might think they're in for an easy race because of his sleepy look (even giving the other Chao a head start in the first game while he just lies down) before suddenly jolting past absolutely everyone.
• The titular protagonist of sora has these, signifying depression. Considering the shit she's seen, who can blame her?
• Spyro the Dragon: Bianca originally sported huge ones. Combined with her often scowling eyebrows, they initially give the implication of devious squint to reflect her (seemingly) villainous role, though after her Heel–Face Turn takes form, they instead reflect her docile, if still slightly grouchy nature. Her redesign in the Reignited Trilogy lacks these to make her look more innocent from the start.

Webcomics

• And It Don't Stop: Ice's headband covers the top of his eyes, giving him a coolheaded look.
• El Goonish Shive's Susan has lowered eyelids, showing her role as the main group's cynic and snarker. This comic shows how she got the expression: They are a result of trauma due to having to kill a monster that used to be human in her mid-teens which forced her to mature faster.
• Paranatural:
  • Max is a snarky and cynical lad who is often drawn with half-lidded eyes to reflect his attitude. His character profile lists "scowling" as one of his favored activities.
  • Young Garcia has constantly half-lidded eyes, giving him an apathetic look. Present-day Garcia has this too to some extent, but less constantly.
• Princess Voluptua was drawn this way in her early appearances in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, to appear both sexy and somewhat weary of the idiocy of those around her. She tends to be drawn more bright-eyed lately, though.

Web Original

• CatGhost gave Gideon this expression during the early episodes. His unenthusiastic Deadpan Snarker tendencies made him a cynical and easily-annoyed Foil for the more energetic and mischievous Elon and Naarah, underscored by his default expression being half-closed eyes and a grumpy frown. Later episodes make Gideon more upbeat and silly, and he often opens his eyes wider to suit his personality shift.
• Gossip City: One of the two background girls often has this look while witnessing the craziness happening at a given point. Sumomo and Koharu also has this look at certain points.

Western Animation

• Pretty much every single character in Seth MacFarlane's shows (Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show), at least when no one is showing any particular emotion. For example, eyes fully open is usually reserved for when characters are excited or focused on something.
• Animaniacs
  • Yakko often always has his eyes half-closed to show his irreverent Smug Smiler nature.
  • Rita usually has her eyes half-closed, but to show her seductive and snarky sides.
  • Hello Nurse and Minerva Mink have half-lidded eyes due to being seductive and sexy.
• Arcane: Silco's eyelids are normally half-shut, indicating his callousness.
• Ask the StoryBots: Bang always has his eyes half-closed to show his laid-back and spaced-out nature. Bang is shown to be the most relaxed and calm one in the Answer Team, as he also has the stereotypical "stoner voice and personality".
• Batman: The Animated Series: Poison Ivy, per Femme Fatale tradition. Her bedroom eyes are most noticable in her debut episode when seducing Harvey Dent and flirting with Batman.
• BoJack Horseman: Beatrice Horseman's default look paired with Exhausted Eyebags throughout the rest of her life after becoming a mother, showcasing how jaded and bitter she became. Contrasted with her having slightly wider eyes as a young adult when she was more idealistic.
• Mr. Sunshine in CatDog usually sports this expression, considering his often emotionless state of mind.
• In Clerks: The Animated Series, Randall is often drawn with half-lidded eyes to emphasize his (often misplaced) self-confidence.
• Daria: Daria and Jane have these to emphasize their cynical and sarcastic personalities. Jane's brother Trent has these too to emphasize his mellow nature and implied pot use.
• Louie Duck from DuckTales (2017) is often seen with half lids to allude to his sly nature.
• Garfield and Friends:
  • Garfield himself, obviously, to reflect his sardonic nature.
  • In the U.S. Acres segments, we have both of the opposite-personality twin sheep, Bo and Lanolin, with their eyes frequently half-lidded. Bo's eyes are half-lidded to show how calm, chill, relaxed, and in later seasons how relatively dim he is, while Lanolin's eyes are half-lidded because she's nearly always angry, pessimistic, and cynical. Lanolin's eyes often being half-lidded also shows off her bright blue eyeshadow, which matches her bow.
• In the early 1930s, Goofy's default expression had droopy eyelids to show his dimwittedness. This was downplayed from the forties on.
• The Huckleberry Hound Show: Unstoppable though he may be, Huck's eyes always look like he could take a nap at any time without a lot of persuasion.
• In Invader Zim, the Almighty Tallest Red and Purple's eyes are almost always half-lidded. They are characterized as smug, snarky, and exhausted by Zim's antics.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Bugs Bunny often has half-closed eyes to portray smug confidence, especially on cartoons directed by Chuck Jones.
  • Another Jones character, Pepé Le Pew, also has half-lidded eyes to show lasciviousness.
  • Robert McKimson was quite fond of this particular expression. In any given cartoon he directs, characters tend to default to this expression when not showing any particular emotion. His bulldog character (who appeared in cartoons like "A Fox in a Fix" and "Early to Bet") in particular almost always has this expression to highlight his smart, soft-spoken, yet deceptive personality.
• In The Loud House, both Luna and Lori are often seen with half lids. The former has an aloof and chill Cool Big Sis attitude, while the latter is either for annoyance at her younger siblings, smug arrogance towards them, or seductive towards her boyfriend Bobby. It also shows that they both wear eyeshadow matching their clothes. Lisa is also shown to have these, prominent through her big eyeglasses, to show her (usually) stoic nature.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Maud Pie has blasé half-mast eyes to emphasize her dry, unexcitable demeanor, contrasting with her enthusiastic younger sister Pinkie Pie.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes:
  • Professor Venomous has half-lidded eyes of the Deadpan Snarker variety. He has a serious demeanor and generally speaks in a Cold Ham manner. His half-lidded eyes also make his eye makeup visible, emphasizing his deliberately attractive appearance.
  • Both Radicles and Enid have half-closed eyes, despite both having opposite personalities - Rad is confident and laid back, Enid is sarcastic and cynical (mostly around customers).
• The Owl House: In "Thanks to Them", Luz gains these as a result of all the guilt and trauma she'd acquired in the latter half of Season 2, a far cry from the wide-eyed and excited girl she was at the start of the series. She also had these in an old video diary recorded shortly after her father died.
• The Simpsons:
  • Reverend Lovejoy has droopy eyelids reflecting his constant tiredness and uncaring nature. His eyes stay this way even while preaching to emphasize his boring, monotone delivery.
  • Cynical, sarcastic Comic Book Guy always wears a condescending half-lidded stare, whether surveilling his store or shooting snarky comebacks to his customers.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Squidward almost always wears a half-lidded glare with his forehead wrinkled due to his constant air of annoyance.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
  • Jackie's eyes are flatter on top, giving her a relaxed look fitting her mellow personality. In Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension, Star describes her as looking "like she just woke up."
  • Janna is often seen with partially lidded eyes, fitting her devil-may-care attitude.
• Total Drama:
  • Noah's default expression gives him half-lidded eyes to emphasize his laziness and sarcastic attitude.
  • Trent's default expression has half-lidded eyes, showing how relaxed and chill he is. Fittingly, his eyes are fully open more often when he spirals into a Crazy Jealous Guy in the second season.
  • Geoff's stock image depicts him with a sleepy expression, fitting his mellow Surfer Dude attitude.

Real Life

• Cats often have half-closed eyes when they feel content or relaxed.

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