namida-me 涙目

In Japanese, namida-me 涙目 means "tearful eyes," or "teary eyes." In manga and anime, eyes are sometimes drawn with tear drops on the corners, but those drops don't fall on the cheek, they simply hang in there.

In particular, although crying characters are typically actually sad and depressed, characters that just have a tear hanging from their eyes can have other emotions too, like being embarrassed, displeased, or angry.

Character: Maki Natsuo 真木夏緒
Anime: Love Lab, Ren'ai Rabo 恋愛ラボ (Episode 1)

Examples

Examples

For reference, some examples:

Amayadori Machi 雨宿まち, featuring various "manga symbols," manpu 漫符 to express her intense frustration, including: "focus lines," shuuchuusen 集中線, parallel horizontal blue lines for distress, parallel diagonal red lines for blushes, an "anger mark," ikari maaku 怒りマーク, tear drops and a couple of small sweat drops.

Character: Amayadori Machi 雨宿まち
Anime: Kuma Miko くまみこ (Episode 1)

Hinata Aoi 日向葵, "teary eyes," namida-me 涙目.

Character: Hinata Aoi 日向葵
Anime: Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake kayo 俺を好きなのはお前だけかよ (Episode 2)

{naki-sou na} kao
泣きそうな顔
A face {like [she] is going to cry}.
- naki-gao
  泣き顔
  Crying face.
Apparently, nami-me 波目, "wave eyes," may be a term to refer to teary eyes drawn with a wavy outline like this.^{[波目 - tonbi.jp, accessed 2020-04-08]}