Soul Coming Out of Mouth

In manga and anime, sometimes a character's soul comes out of their mouth, as if they had just died and were about to go to heaven. This expression is used when a character figuratively dies of something, like dies of shame, or dies of shock, or dies of exhaustion, dies inside, and so on.

• tamashii ga kuchi kara deru
  魂が口から出る
  [Someone's] soul leaves of [their] mouth.
• kuchi kara tamashii ga nukeru
  口から魂が抜ける
  From [someone's] mouth [their] soul comes out. (in the sense of being cut loose, separated, extracted.)

Character: Dino ディーノ
Anime: Blend S, ブレンド・S (Episode 5)

• Examples

Examples

For reference, some examples of souls coming out of characters' mouths:

Manga: Asobi Asobase あそびあそばせ (Chapter 15, 目クソ鼻クソ)

• Context: Nomura Kasumi 野村香純 reacts to the appearance of one of the four heavenly kings.
• Kasumi wa kuchi kara tamashii dechatteru shi...
  香純は口から魂出ちゃってるし･･･
  As for Kasumi, [her] soul is coming out of [her] mouth...
  • dechatteru
    出ちゃってる
    (contraction of...)
  • dete-shimatte-iru
    出てしまっている
    To be leaving. (a place, in this case her mouth, and that being an unwanted thing.)

Character: Hasuta ハス太
Anime: Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 這いよれ！ニャル子さん (Episode 7)

• Hasuta dies figuratively after being informed of an unexpected pregnancy.

Left: Alphonse Elric アルフォンス・エルリック
Right: 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 21)

• Edward Elric was almost murdered after being victim of gratuitous comical violence.
• Fortunately, his brother was around to shove his soul back into his mouth, saving his life.

Beware that sometimes the character's soul isn't coming out of their mouth. Instead, the smoke coming out of their mouths is just a sigh.

Character: Aioi Yuuko 相生祐子
Anime: Nichijou 日常 (Episode 1)

And if it's coming out of their nose, it's probably a snot bubble instead, and the character is sleepy.

Left: Reina レーナ
Right: Mile マイル
Anime: Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! 私、能力は平均値でって言ったよね！ (Episode 10)

Also, sometimes souls or spirits, usually rendered as spirals, are drawn floating around a character who is feeling down. For example:

Left: Kijima Saki 貴嶋サキ
Right: Ayasaki Hayate 綾崎ハヤテ
Anime: Hayate no Gotoku! ハヤテのごとく！ (Episode 7)

• The article on Blue Lines has details.