Say It with Hearts

Makie wears her heart on her sleeve... and her tongue, apparently.

"In a few hours, you'll become a mist of atoms. ♥"

— Yuuka Kazami, Touhou Gensokyo ~ Lotus Land Story, final stage

Describe Say It with Hearts here ♥

Sometimes characters will use a Heart Symbol ♥ in their speech bubbles, or sometimes dead-centre in their mouth. This is supposed to indicate their tone and show that they are energetic or a kawaiiko; that, or they are squeeing like mad about something. Sometimes they're just talking in a sing-song manner, sometimes they're doing it in a flirtatious manner, and sometimes they're reacting to something that happens to feel really good.

However, sometimes it is done sarcastically by a much less enthusiastic character, or used in an inappropriate sentence in order to add an element of extra creepiness to a spooky person, Yandere or otherwise. Sometimes it is even Lampshaded when other characters mention the hearts, usually with a line like, "Don't say that with a ♥!".

If it's just a heart, without any other words, it's also a Pictorial Speech-Bubble.

A Heart Symbol Sub-Trope, as that's the only orthographic symbol that works with this. If a human heart is used, it's a subversion of Heart Symbol in addition to this.

Related to Lucky Charms Title, and more distantly to Wingding Eyes. A lighter variant is to use a music note or tilde to connote sing-song or facetiousness.

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Examples ♥:

Anime ❤️ Manga

• Marmalade Boy has Miki saying that she can't believe her parents said the sentence "We're getting divorced! ♥" with a ♥.
• This is often used in Love Hina.
• Toto from Deadman Wonderland often has stars in his speech bubbles.
• As well as in Great Teacher Onizuka (especially by the title character).
• Urahara in Bleach is a frequent example of the sarcastic approach.
  • Yachiru uses them, too, because she's basically a Cheerful Child. Hideously powerful, but cheerful nonetheless.
  • Chizuru uses the flirty Squee type of hearts when she gushes over Orihime.
  • Nemu's vocalizations are littered with these during the Hueco Mundo arc when Mayuri does... something to revive her from a very disturbing near-death experience.
  • Gin's cheerful 'Bye-Bye!♥' after kicking the gang out of Soul Society and cutting off the gatekeeper's arm in the blink of an eye.
  • Rangiku Matsumoto has hearts associated with her as well. There's also an amusing sketch in Bleach Official Bootleg of Hisagi asking for feedback on an new advice column he's set-up. Rangiku's feedback shows she thinks it's silly, stupid, hard to read, unreliable and simply not gripping. She breaks his heart, and she does it with hearts and flowers doodled all over the signature and comments boxes.
• In Samurai Deeper Kyo, Yukimura Sanada does this all the time. Lampshaded in an extra when someone asks how Sasuke can tell Yukimura and his Body Double Kosuke apart. Sasuke replies that Yukimura adds little hearts to the ends of his sentences.
• Hisoka from Hunter × Hunter uses these, as well as diamonds, clubs and spades. Three guesses what his gimmick is.
• Kazumi does this in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. The Squee is her showing off a photo of her first pactio/kiss.
  • Tsukoyomi uses these as she describes mutilation, torture and general mass murder and carnage. Definitely on the disturbing side. She drools too. Oh and also when she's talking about Setsuna and Konoka. So Yeah.
    • Konoka herself throws them around with great vigor, especially when she's healing or talking about Setsuna.
    • Zazie is able to nod with hearts.
    • Not to mention that about half of the chapter titles contain these.

• Teacher Shizuna also does it, as well as having her speech written in cursive script (perhaps to represent a sexy voice).
• Except that it's not Shizuna...

• And in chapter 293 Tsukoyomi does this again while saying "Ahhh..." when gushing over Negi's new level of badass.

• Moyashimon has Mutou and Oikawa do this when they enthusiastically accept Itsuki-sensei's offer to dinner, only the little hearts are replaced with Anthropomorphic Personifications of microbes◊.
• Katte Ni Kaizo - wherein someone said doing this at the office counts as sexual harassment.
• One Piece's Chivalrous Pervert Sanji often adds a ♥ in the end of ladies' names, while his one visible eye takes the shape of a heart as well. Also, an early minor baddie from the Fishman crew added a ♥ to the end of his sentences.
• Becomes something of a Running Gag in the manga Anne Freaks with Anna constantly doing this, even when talking about murdering people (she is an assassin, after all) and eventually the habit transfers to her sidekicks.
• An early chapter of Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- has Kurogane (the gruff Ninja) say "Kurogane is very happy ♥!" If this seems out of character, it's actually the Team Pet Mokona imitating Kurogane's voice.
• The Millennium Earl of D.Gray-Man litters his speech with these; as he's the Big Bad of the series, this comes across as very odd and somewhat creepy. It doesn't help that the Earl is also a Monster Clown Omnicidal Maniac.
• Dakki from Hoshin Engi does this pretty much every time she speaks. Additionally, her sister Kibi does this with stars.
• Lucia in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch ends sentences with these when she's going on about her boyfriend or after she attacks with a "Love Shower Pitch! ♥". Hanon takes this to a whole new level, putting them after almost all her sentences and sometimes in the middle of words.
• Hizuki from Time Stranger Kyoko is a male example.
• Used a lot in the Ouran High School Host Club manga, mostly by Haruhi's dad and by Token Mini-Moe Honey.
• Kankuro from Naruto gets the creepy version; he does this just before his puppet snaps every bone in his Sound Ninja opponent's body.
  • Karin often uses them when flirting with Sasuke (In the Viz manga, this is accompanied by a fairly cutesy-looking font when she does it in Volume 38). Ino also uses them when preparing to use Mind Transfer Jutsu to get Sakura's answers during the Chunin Exam.
  • Also, Ino does this several times in volume 8.
  • Kakashi does this a few times early on: "You... Pass! ♥"
    • Or, more disturbingly, "You could bleed to death. I'm serious. ♥"
• Moka from Rosario + Vampire uses these when flirting with Tsukune. Well..."normal" Moka does, anyway.
  • Or just plain this:
  Kapuchuu! ♥
• Buso Renkin: Papillon insists that everyone uses hearts when saying his name to the point that it is almost his catchphrase.
  Tokiko: Papillon!
  Papillon: [while wagging his finger admonishingly] Papillon♥. You have to say it with love!
• Koizumi from Lovely★Complex sometimes tries to address her love interest Otani in this way, but it usually only freaks him out.
• Miharu in the Girls Bravo manga uses this a lot.
• Icoro's cute animal sidekick Kuro of Kimi No Kakera ends almost every sentence with a heart. It should be noticed that most of the things he says are fairly nasty digs at Icoro.
• Appears in the Sailor Moon manga and carried over to the Gaiden Game Sailor Moon: Another Story.
• It's used pretty regularly in Hayate the Combat Butler, by just about every character. Particularly heartful are the permanently cheerful occasional Chew Toy Izumi and Maria, for whom ♥s and a fixed smile serve as a warning of impending doom.
• Soul Eater's Noah does this on occasion. It's decidedly not cute.
• In ef - a fairy tale of the two., Renji's Cloudcuckoolander mom Sumire often appends hearts and musical notes to the ends of her speech.
• Oddly enough, this crops up often in Case Closed. Quickly gets disturbing when in an early appearance, it's dragged out for a Ho Yay joke.
  Conan: You do have a reason for making us come and stay here, right?
  Hattori: No, I don't... I just wanted to be with you~♥
  (Conan aims his watch stun-gun at Hattori.)
  Hattori: Ah! Don't shoot! I'm only joking!
• Butterflies, Flowers: Domoto insists that Choko address him as "Director Domoto ♥" when on the job.
• Mayu often speaks to Kaoru with hearts in Ai Yori Aoshi.
• Narumi from Gakuen Alice is this trope, in the "squeeing like mad" or "extra-flirty" sense. (He has 28 hearts in the first chapter alone.) Misaki has Lampshaded this at least once. Also, Rui Amane Says It With Stars. Presumably he's just that sparkly.
• In an episode of Mirumo de Pon!!, Kaede gives Matsutake a coffee cup and includes a note, which his servant reads to him, including saying "heart mark" at the end.
• Battle Royale is an intensely psychological manga with lots of deception and desperate attempts at heartwarming, so it is no surprise that its Manga is littered with this.
  • Memorably, the Big Bad Yonemi Kamon's speech is littered with these, all the while he's talking about rape, murder and the imminent bloodshed involved in The Programme.
• Nagi does this a lot in Otome Kikan Gretel.
• Envy's done it a few times in Fullmetal Alchemist. It's done to great Faux Affably Evil effect. See the page picture.
• In Saiyuki, Hakkai will do this (the mangaka even explicitly describes him as sounding like he is putting heart marks or musical notes in his sentences). Usually it's to indicate that he's in full-on Team Mom mode, and treating the other main characters like unruly children, but he also did the creepy version once when threatening to break a minor villain's neck. Lampshaded in the body-switch special chapter of Saiyuki Reload Blast, when Sanzo-in-Hakkai's-body yells at Hakkai-in-Sanzo's-body to stop using hearts in his speech.
• When Futaba tells Puni Puni☆Poemi she wants to see her transformation. Yes, that's an anime, but they made an Art Shift for this scene.
• The most prolific user of hearts in Ah! My Goddess is Hild, chief demon and the ruler of Hell.
• Bugsy uses this once or twice when talking to Gold in Pokémon Golden Boys.
• Satoshi uses these several times in Pokémon Zensho, once towards Misty.
• Misa Amane from Death Note often talks like this, usually when the subject is Light Yagami.
• Kureha from Tokkô often talks like this.
• Mitsuko, the sex shop owner in Nana & Kaoru, does this whenever she's discussing her wares with a customer.
• Dead (Master) in Black★Rock Shooter: Innocent Soul likes to pepper her gushing over Rock with hearts.
• In the Wedding Peach manga, when a Bride is possessed by a love-hating devil she gets aggravated by anything to do with love, and even tells Wedding Peach that the ♡s Peach is speaking with are pissing her off.
• In the Maiden Rose Rosa Alba doujinshis, Enrico ends every sentence with a heart when he's in charm mode.
• Interestingly, done by Natsu in Fairy Tail, upon making Lucy do his signature move thanks to Kain Hikaru's voodoo doll.
  Natsu: Fire dragon's... Iron Fist ♥
  • Mirajane does this before proceeding to curbstomp Kamika who was trying to kill her with poison.
  Mirajane: Poison? ...That's merely a dessert for a demon like me ♥
• In March Comes in Like a Lion, Hina and her friend briefly speak this way while fangirling over Takahashi during his first appearance. Variants occasionally appear with stars or flowers to signify joy or happiness.
• Yatori in Kamisama Kiss does this. Of course, since he is one of the main villains, Faux Affably Evil and a Manipulative Bastard this just makes him more than a little unsettling.
• Megumu and Kikuno from If Her Flag Breaks sometimes pepper their sentences with hearts whenever they are happy or excited.
• A staple of works from Ai Yazawa. When someone's happily excited, expect it to show up.
• Yahiro does this a lot in Special A. Even when it completely doesn't fit.
• Ruka from Venus Versus Virus is an antagonist who constantly uses hearts.
• Poison Berry in My Brain: Hatoko and Ishibashi have been shown to do this.
• My Hero Academia has an unusual variant with the character of Yuga Aoyama, who finishes his sentences with stars (★) instead. In this case, it's to convey a more tacky, graceful tone.
• Fire Force
  • Joker incorporates hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades into his speech stemming from the way he fights.
  • Company 1's Lieutenant Rekka Hoshimiya has stars in his text bubbles (as well as in his eyes).
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Iku's masochism is most consistently demonstrated by having any grunts of pain or discomfort punctuated with hearts.
  "Ouch!❤️"

C❤️mic B❤️❤️ks

• Western example: Sometimes, Empowered does this. Such as in Volume 3, Page 23:
  Thugboy: But we didn't actually, uh, make sweet love in Frank's truck, as I recall...
  Empowered: Maybe not...
  Empowered: ... But I totally would've, if you'd asked...! ♥
• Superman: There's one story where Lois Lane goes undercover as the bride of a notorious criminal. When she's talking sultrily to him, her entire speech balloon is a pink heart.
• In Asterix the Legionary, the cook's speech bubbles are decorated with songbirds belting their lungs out and bunches of violets to show him pretending to be nice to the heroes (he ends up in the pot).

Newspaper C❤️mics

• Satchel in Get Fuzzy uses hearts when writing, dotting lowercase i's with hearts.

Vide❤️ Games

• AkaSeka: Two music note variants with Shikibu during his positive mode and Iemitsu at all times.
• Disgaea:
  • Etna in Disgaea can hit both "sarcastic" and "disturbing" when she uses this. Flonne does it straight: "Eternal love! ♥"
  • Sapphire, on the other hand, uses it to cheerfully punctuate death threats. Yeah, she's one of those girls. "I'm an untouchable killing machine♥"
  • Weapon description for Tentacles, which are a weapon in the game: "Good for groping all sorts of places"
  • Members of the Dark Assembly will list how they feel about you and the current bill in front of them. Their most favorable rating is "Loves♥", generally possible only if the bill opens up something that is well below your character's current capabilities or they've received a sufficient number of bribes.
• One of the fish in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, while neither kawaii nor genki, gives us one when talking about ChuChus.
  • Also, the sculptor, Carlov, speaks with hearts quite often.
  • There's another (rather odd) example in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004), where Red Link utters a ♥ after Vaati grabs him and Blue and ties them together.
  • In Twilight Princess, Link's fangirls in Hyrule Castle Town have hearts in their dialogue box whenever Link talks to them. In fact, while they're swooning over him, they'll drop three actual hearts to replenish Link's health.
    Fangirls: EEEEEEK! It's HIM! ♥♥♥
• Deneb from Ogre Battle ends nearly all of her sentences with a heart. It's so much a part of her character that the heart being in a different font in the sequel Tactics Ogre kind of ruins the effect.
• Millenia in Grandia II uses these sometimes after a few of her more... playful lines of dialogue.
• Medicham in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team.
  • Lopunny in the second game occasionally ends sentences with a ♥.
  • The Kecleon Brothers of both games sometimes end their sentences with ♪'s.
• The King of All Cosmos from Katamari Damacy does this sometimes. Some of his dialogue even has a heart symbol after each letter. There's also the fact that the first sequel is called We ♥ Katamari.
• Izuna from Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja uses these sometimes.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Symphonia: In the cutscene after the Sylvarant Base, Raine ends her sentence with one when wondering about using an Exsphere herself to boost her power, along with Heart Symbols being emitted from her.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World:
    • Alice ends just about every sentence with hearts. Especially creepy when she's telling you that "it's time to die! ♥"
    • Zelos pulls this off when he's being especially flirtatious, that's also Cardiovascular Love.
  • Tales of the Abyss:
    • Anise does this, as she is the kawaiiko.
    • Jade uses them once or twice as well, though it may be in jest.
  • Arche from Tales of Phantasia ends a lot of sentences with hearts. Since she is a Genki Girl, this is pretty much a given.
  • Harold Berselius also does this in Tales of Destiny 2, though she's more prone to using stars, tildes, or musical notes for the same purpose.
• Almost all of the Riviera: The Promised Land girls use hearts in their speech. Fia uses musical notes instead.
• The Magypsies from Mother 3.
• The Paper Mario games tend to pepper their text with hearts, especially the original. This LPer has some fun with the tendency.
  • At one point in the original, you have to figure out which Bombette out of five is the real one. One of them speaks like this.
• As the page quote indicates, this gets used frequently in the PC-98 Touhou Project games (except the first, which kinda lacked dialogue sequences). It disappeared by the first of the Windows games. And yes, the three primary "offenders" (Yuuka, Mima, and Marisa) were all varying degrees of crazy, so it tended to follow a particularly violent or mean statement (again, see the page quote).
• Pops up now and again in Lunar: The Silver Star as well as its sequels and remakes.
• In Half-Minute Hero, the Time Goddess uses hearts and occasionally other symbols.
• Naval Pranha (a Yoshi's Island boss) peppers her dialogue with hearts in Tetris Attack.
• The Game Over message from the original Tetris on Game Boy: "PLEASE TRY AGAIN♥"
• Leslie of Arc Rise Fantasia tends to do this alot. Even during some of her Excel Arts.
• A variant of this trope is the character Maguro in Puyo Puyo 7 and beyond. He ends over 90% of his lines with a star symbol (★).
  • As far as art goes, a noticeable number of sprites in Puyo Puyo Fever and beyond have hearts or stars in the characters' mouths.
• In Persona 3, as Social Link characters get closer to the protagonist, heart icons occasionally float away from their portrait during interactions.
• Alluded to in Star Wars: The Old Republic. If the male Bounty Hunter successfully courts Mako, she vandalizes the top ten sites on the Holonet in celebration of their engagement and tells the Hunter "hearts were involved. Kind of a lot of them. Don't judge."
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: If you agree to participate in an arena, the person you talk to for that says "♥" in a Pictorial Speech-Bubble.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: Several female characters have these in their dialogue when particularly happy, Estelle being the biggest offender.
  Joshua: So then… Why are the girls playing the guy roles?
  Hans: It’s just something to make the production more interesting this time. Having guys and girls switch roles, that is.
  Estelle: Really…? Wow…and the teachers are okay with this?
  Jill: END SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION! BE FREE OF GENDER ROLES! Put in that light, the teachers loved the idea. Personally, I just thought people would get a kick out of it! ♥
  • If the new dialogue added to the PC port of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is any guide, Instructor Sara pronounces them as an exaggerated smooch.
• In the Clockwork Knight games, the effeminate Oneon's speech is peppered with hearts in the before-level conversations. Soltia uses them as well, albeit less frequently. Both cases are exclusive to the Japanese versions of the games.
• Pokémon Crystal: Misty says "♥" when you see her on her date at Cerulean Cape, in a combination with Pictorial Speech-Bubble.
• In Ensemble Stars!, Chiaki tends to end sentences with a ★, representing his plucky, heroic personality and his unit's star theme, and Kaoru often ends them with a ♪, most commonly to reflect a flirty tone of speech but sometimes it's used when he's clearly not flirting, as though he's doing it without realising it.
• Card City Nights: After Excitable Student gives the Player Character a booster pack, their image has a red ♥ floating beside their head as they say:
  This is a booster pack. It'll help you build better decks!

Visual N❤️vels

• The protagonist's mother in Dra+Koi has a little heart in her mouth while in the middle of a smoker's cough.
• In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Examining a letter from Detective Ema Skye reveals that she signed her name with a heart. Genki Girl Trucy, a magician, responds by saying that she always signs her name with a diamond. She suggests that Apollo Justice should sign his name as "Apollo = Justice."

Webc❤️mics

• Tesla from Adventurers!! uses a heart after winning a duel.
• Nevy of Ava's Demon talks in hearts and broken hearts when talking about her missing memories.
• Awful Hospital: From Layer 434, the final line of the Balphin ends with this, after a warning for the protagonsist.
• Bittersweet Candy Bowl is a frequent offender.
• Yiska is a repeat offender in Charby the Vampirate, sometimes with hearts inline with the text of her speech bubbles and sometimes distorting the edges of them. Zerlocke is another repeat offender, but his hearts tend to be slightly warped to reflect his unhinged obsession. Hexavier of all people does this when Yiska cuts off his flirting attempt with a kiss.
• Eerie Cuties do it all the time.
  • Including everyone under the influence of a vampire bite. Including Layla's mom with her... fond memories of Chloe's mom.
  • Jacqui Brightmoon from Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks talks like this all the time to any boys she considers attractive (that's a lot) and especially to Mr. Delatorre.
  • Faith, occasionally.
• El Goonish Shive: Diane uses the Pictorial Speech-Bubble form to convey appreciation for being transformed into Nanase.
  • Nanase uses it to convey love at first sight of Ellen.
• Freefall: In the Pictorial Speech-Bubble form: When Helix hugs Florence to thank her for letting the rabbits go in the last panel.
• In Girl Genius, Zeetha of all people uses a heart when talking about Higgs.
  • The wasp eaters combine their animal noises with hearts when pleased or greeting someone they like.
• In Godslave, when Alma sees Anpu for the first time, all the circles in letters of her speech bubbles turn into hearts.
• Gunnerkrigg Court had Blue talking like this during one strong fit of adoration toward Red.
• Webcomic example: Keychain of Creation: sincere; sinister; can't it be both?
• Medic Pics: One of these is used when the author finally returns to a clean kitchen, having been living in student accommodation.
• A few times in Ménage à 3
• Played for laughs in Moon Over June when Summer is assigned to mandatory Sensitivity Training/therapy by her new boss.
  ♥ So why don't we use this time to focus on you? I'm extremely good at making women feel... appreciated. ♥ What do you say? ♥
  ♥ I say you sit down and start taking this seriously or I'll call Dr. Fuentes and tell her to fire you immediately. ♥
• Sequential Art, when Think Tank finally notices the whole Flying Trashcans problem:
  squirrel girls: ♥ ♥ Field test! ♥ ♥
• In Tower of God, Ja Wangnan has Nia's number written down under "My Beloved Nia ♥!!!". Cue the speculation.
• Tripping Over You: Milo's dialogue sometimes trails off into a heart when he's being particularly flirtatious or affectionate towards Liam, both before and after their Relationship Upgrade.

Web❤️Original

• Unwittingly parodied by Neuro-sama. She often puts hearts at the end of her statements, but due to the way her Artificial Intelligence is structured, it ends up as a case of Saying Sound Effects Out Loud.0

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