Forehead Shadow

In manga and anime, sometimes a shadow is drawn over the character's forehead, covering their eyes and going all the way to their nose. This shadow appears out of nowhere, regardless of the illumination of the scene.

It's a symbol to represent the character's mental state, and may be used when they're angry, devious, terrified, disgusted, among other situations.

In some cases, only the eyes or the nose is shadowed. In other cases, the forehead is drawn blue instead.

Character: Fujioka Haruhi 藤岡ハルヒ
Anime: Ouran High School Host Club, Ouran Koukou Hosuto-Bu 桜蘭高校ホスト部 (Episode 10)

• Usage
• Examples
  
  • Anger
  • Disgust
  • Fear
  • Shock
  • Despondency
  • Deviousness

Usage

The forehead shadow can be used to represent various sorts of negative mental states, for various reasons.

The shadow can mean someone is depressed or feels down. In this case, people tend to literally look down, towards the ground, so assuming the light is above them, their face naturally becomes shaded.

Of course, as a symbol, there's no indication that the character has moved their head at all, the shadow simply appears.

Other emotions, like anger and disgust, tend to be accompanied by facial expressions featuring frowning which creates wrinkles between the eyebrows and on the nose. Instead of being drawn realistically, the wrinkles are simplified into shadowed areas.

Sometimes, blue lines are drawn across the nose to symbolize those wrinkles.

Shadows are often drawn blue when a character feels unwell. That's because, when referring to the color of the face, blue in Japanese means the same thing as pale in English, so a face turning blue in anime means the same thing as a face turning pale.

The shadow is blue, then, when the character's blood pressure drops, when they're sweating cold, when they're in shock, and so on.

Shadows are also drawn in characters that feel anxious, nervous or tense. And in characters that appear despondent, in despair, or otherwise mentally unwell. Including those that have murderous intent.

Examples

For reference, some examples of forehead shadow used in anime.

Anger

Character: Edward Elric エドワード・エルリック
Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi 鋼の錬金術師 (Episode 1)

• Triangle eyes, jagged teeth, anger marks (popped veins), and smoke coming out of a character's head are other symbols used when they're angry.

Character: Kokkuri-san コックリさん
Anime: Gugure! Kokkuri-san 繰繰れ！コックリさん (Episode 1)

Character: Shigure シグレ
Anime: Hataage! Kemono Michi 旗揚!！けものみち (Episode 4)

Disgust

Some examples of "eyes that seem to be looking at garbage," gomi wo miru you na me ゴミを見るような目 .

Character: Sakuranomiya Maika 桜ノ宮苺香
Anime: Blend S, ブレンド・S (Episode 1)

Character: Kotegawa Chisa 古手川千紗
Anime: Grand Blue, ぐらんぶる (Episode 1)

Character: Yame Yukana 八女ゆかな
Anime: Hajimete no Gyaru はじめてのギャル (Episode 1)

• dogeza
  土下座
  The name of the pose the guy is doing in the first image.

Fear

Character: "Priestess," Onna Shinkan 女神官
Anime: Goblin Slayer, ゴブリンスレイヤー (Episode 1)

Shock

Character: Shiraha Raphiel Ainsworth 白羽=ラフィエル=エインズワース
Anime: Gabriel DropOut, ガヴリールドロップアウト (Episode 3)

Left: Hikurakawa Sora 火鞍川曽良
Middle: Hinowa Tomori 日ノ輪泊
Anime: Jingai-san no Yome 人外さんの嫁 (Episode 4)

Despondency

Character: Kinjou Miyoko 金城美代子, Eraser イレイサー
Anime: Handa-kun はんだくん (Episode 9)

Character: Handa Sei 半田清舟
Anime: Barakamon ばらかもん (Episode 8)

Deviousness

Left: Aguri 亜玖璃
Middle: Uehara Tasuku 上原祐
Right: Hoshinomori Chiaki 星ノ守千秋
Anime: Gamers!, ゲーマーズ！ (Episode 6)