fukurettsura ふくれっ面

In Japanese, fukurettsura ふくれっ面 refers to someone's face when they puff out their cheeks.

Character: Hina-ichigo 雛苺
Anime: Rozen Maiden, ローゼンメイデン (Episode 5)

In anime, girls with their cheeks puffed out are considered cute (moe 萌え), and such images are said often to be of girls pouting, that is, they look like this when they're angry, or annoyed, or frustrated.

See "pouting" in Japanese for details.

• Meaning
• Examples
• References

Meaning

The word tsura 面 means "face," while fukure 膨れ means "swelling," "inflating," and can also refer to someone "puffing" out their cheeks, or someone "being in bad humor," frustrated, a main reason to puff out one's cheeks..

• hoppe wo fukuramaseru
  ほっぺを膨らませる
  To make [your] cheeks swell. (causative sentence.)
  To puff out [your] cheeks.
  • fukuramu
    膨らむ
    To swell. To inflate. To expand. (intransitive verb.)

The word fukure 膨れ is the ren'youkei 連用形 of fukureru 膨れる, whose is similar to fukuramu 膨らむ, but the usage seems to be different.

The difference between fukureru 膨れる and fukuramu 膨らむ is that fukuramu 膨らむ is used generally, while fukureru 膨れる is used when tends to be used when the "swelling" is unwanted, is a bad thing.^{[＜膨らむ＞と＜膨れる＞の違いは何ですか。 - detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp, accessed 2020-05-20]}

If your belly gets bigger because you ate a lot, that's an unwanted effect, so fukureru is used. In the case of pouting, people pout when they're angry, so it's a bad thing, hence fukureru.

According to some dictionaries, however, both words are synonyms in the swelling sense, but fukureru also has a separate sense: "being in bad humor," which comes from the idea of puffing out one's cheeks.^{[膨れる - 三省堂 大辞林 第三版 via weblio.jp, accessed 2020-05-20]}

Examples

For reference, some examples of girls pouting in anime.

Character: Hoshino Hinata 星野ひなた
Anime: Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita! 私に天使が舞い降りた！ (Episode 3)

• suneru
  拗ねる
  To sulk. (in the sense of being angry at someone for something, and disregarding them instead of talking about it.)

Character: Ogata Rizu 緒方理珠
Anime: Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai ぼくたちは勉強ができない (Episode 1)

• Head smoke: a symbol of anger.

Character: Nakano Itsuki 中野五月
Manga: Gotoubun no Hanayome 五等分の花嫁 (Chapter 1, 五等分の花嫁)

• mu'
  ムッ
  *annoyed noises*

Character: Stephanie Dola ステファニー・ドーラ
Anime: No Game No Life, ノーゲーム・ノーライフ (Episode 6)

• inumimi
  犬耳
  Dog ears.

Character: Katarina Claes カタリナ・クラエス
Anime: Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shiteshimatta…, 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… (Episode 9)

Character: Luluco ルル子
Anime: "Space Patrol Luluco," Uchuu Patrol Luluco, 宇宙パトロールルル子 (Episode 4)

Character: Moegi Homi 萌黄ホミ
Anime: Miru Tights, みるタイツ (Episode 1)

Character: Yashiro Nene 八尋寧々
Anime: Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun 地縛少年花子くん (Episode 3)

Character: Deedlit ディードリット
Anime: Lodoss-tou Senki, ロードス島戦記 (Episode 5)

Left: Aizawa Eiko 相沢栄子
Right: Ika Musume イカ娘
Anime: Shinryaku! Ika Musume 侵略！イカ娘 (Episode 5)

Character: Myne マイン
Anime: Honzuki no Gekokujou 本好きの下剋上 (Episode 13)

Character: Shinomiya Kaguya 四宮かぐや
Anime: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai? ~Tensai-Tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ かぐや様は告らせたい？～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～ (Season 2) (Episode 1)

References

• ふくれっ面 - dic.pixiv.net, accessed 2020-05-10.