In comics, plewds are one or a few sweat drops drawn spilling away from a character's head. In manga and anime, this can symbolize worry, vexation, impatience, or relief, and it's drawn more commonly in manga than in anime.
- aseri
焦り
Anxiety. Impatience. A feeling of urgency when things aren't going the way you want.- aseru
焦る
To feel anxious. To feel impatient.
- aseru
Anime: Yuru Yuri ゆるゆり (Episode 1)
Examples
For reference, some examples of plewds in manga and anime:
- Context: Chiyo is troubled.
- doushita no?
どうしたの？
[What happened]? - Chiyo-chan
ちよちゃん
(character name.) - a ano' watashi
konpyuutaa tte zenzen
sawatta koto nakute
あ あのっ 私 コンピューターって全然 触ったことなくてっ
[Y... you see,] I've never touched a computer.- ~koto nai ～ことない
To have never done [something].
- ~koto nai ～ことない
- Context: Tsukamoto Tenma 塚本天満 sees her younger sister, Tsukamoto Yakumo 塚本八雲, packing a lunch box for someone. She guesses the food is for a boyfriend. It turns out she was just feeding a stray cat.
- koi 恋 or 鯉 means "love" or "carp."
- zettai koi dato omotta noni
絶対恋だと思ったのに～
Even though [I] absolutely thought [it] was love...
But [I] was sure [it] was [it] was love... - koi...? neko dayo
鯉･･･？猫だよ
Carp...? [It] is a cat.
- Context: Hirasawa Yui 平沢唯, who started learning to play the guitar, tells her impressions about the guitar strings to Tainaka Ritsu 田井中律.
- {hosokute katai kara} yubi φ kichaisou
細くて硬いから指切っちゃいそう
{Because [they] are thin and hard}, [it feels like] [it] will cut [my] fingers.- Emanata: two plewds.
- piin
ピーン
*sound effect of light turning on*- Emanata: three realization lines, plus an idea light bulb.
The Nichijou series is a bit peculiar about this symbol because the teacher character spills sweat practically every time she speaks. This is probably due to her timid nature.
Anime: Nichijou 日常 (Episode 1)
A peculiar variant are waves of plewds drawn shooting away from a character.
Right: Shimarisu シマリス
Anime: Bonobono ぼのぼの (1995) (Episode 1)
- In Bonobono, various characters sweat all the time.
Etymology
The term "plewd" was published in the book The Lexicon of Comicana, by Mort Walker, published in 1980.
In the back cover blurb of the book, the coinage of the term is attributed to Charles Rice.
In the early 30's, a humorist named Charles Rice attached labels to certain cartoon devices. He called sweat drops "plewds" and the dust clouds behind a running person "briffits." This inspired Mort Walker to do some further research and, in 1964, he produced an article for the National Cartoonists Society magazine titled, "Let's Get Down To Grawlixes." It was a tongue in cheek spoof of the plethora of "comicana" found in most comic strips.
It's worth noting that plewds, being a type of emanata, are drawn on the air coming out of the character's head. This is distinct from sweat drawn on the face of the character. Notably, this means that the famous large anime sweat drop IS NOT a plewd, but another type of symbol.
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