At some point I am going to have to go through my fairly large catalogue of screen shots and look for the best anime facial expressions ever (or at least most laughably exaggerated) but for now the 2019 Summer season has given us more than enough fodder for a top 5 list. Here are some of the best reaction faces this season has dished up. As always, I’d love to know your favourites so be sure to share in the comments below.
Okay, there are so many interesting expressions that characters pull that I’ve limited this to expressions that are incredibly over the top. Which means some very cute ones from Astra Lost in Space were cut from the list as well as pretty much all the members of the Apollo Familia from DanMachi didn’t make the final. I was upset that I even had to cut shots from From The Abandoned Sacred Beasts and Uchi no Musume because they just weren’t out there enough.
Number 5: Given
Now, I wasn’t going to look at Given for this list initially because part of what I’ve loved about it is how real the two main characters feel at times. Yet in episode 4 we had this reaction from Mafuyu and it was even more effective because how rare such expressions are in the anime. It totally conveyed his sense of excitement and more importantly it hooked the audience into the feeling as well.
Number 4: Fruits Basket
When the usually excessively cheery Honda Tohru suddenly pulls this kind of face, you know somethings gone horribly wrong. Now Fruits Basket does have some interesting facial expressions but normally these come from Kyo, Yuki or one of the other characters. And that is why Tohru’s face here really stood out. Still, the last few episodes have given us some fairly bleak expressions as well.
Number 3: Are You Lost?
This one is probably a little obvious given it is a comedy anime about four girls surviving on an island. It is almost one running joke about reactions to the food they are finding and trying to eat. The doesn’t make some of these expressions any less awesome and it is one of my favourite parts of this anime so far.
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Number 2: Demon Slayer
I could probably have done this whole list on just Zenitsu expressions but the one above is probably my favourite (largely because it wasn’t accompanied by screaming or crying). Still, Zenitsu is a wonderfully expressive character and the range of contortions his face is apparently capable of continues to blow the mind. Part of me wonders if Inosuke would have a similarly elastic face if only he didn’t hide it under the boar head all the time.
Number 1: Dr Stone
It kind of had to be. Nothing was beating this face from Senku and given it was the inspiration from the list it really did deserve top billing. Besides it isn’t the only wonderfully over the top expression we’ve been given from this anime. I guess it adds to the charm but wow that face is actually kind of creepy looking at it without context.
So, did I miss a fantastic character expression from the Summer anime? Share your favourites in the comments.
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Karandi James
The ones from Astra ep. 4 (reactions to the “candy plant”) stand out to me, even if only because their art style is so different to the rest of the show. (They weren’t in the manga, IIRC, so that might be another reason as to why they stand out. I think you’d be happy to hear Dr Stone’s are in the manga though.)
My favourite reactions from Demon Slayer are from Ukogi (Zenitsu’s sparrow). A new tab on my browser has this overjoyed Ukogi which I originally got for one of my collab posts -> https://i.imgur.com/AaJxsxu.png .
The Astra ones really do stand out compared to the rest of the show. They seemed a little bit out of place to be honest.
Lol, that Dr Stone face is both hilarious and totally scary at the same time. Definitely understand why that one is number one 😂😂 As for me…Well, can’t really recall an expression that I remember to have as much as an impact as the ones I have seen collected here 😊
I will definitely have to look over all the screen caps I’ve collected and see if I can do a top 5 of all the anime I’ve watched at some point, but this Summer has had a lot of big reaction faces going on.