The outer corners of the eyes spring sharply upward. Without meaning to glare, the neutral face reads as a sign of strong will. The person thinks they are making an ordinary face, but to the other they look somehow defiant, and that mismatch of perception works oddly as appeal on the one who sees it. The upturned-eyes fetish (つり目フェチ, tsurime-fechi; cat-eye fetish) is the strong aesthetic or sexual pull felt toward a person with “tsurime,” eyes whose outer corners rise upward.

What tsurime is

Tsurime is the state in which the line connecting the inner and outer corners tilts above horizontal, the outer canthus sitting higher than the inner. It is fixed largely by inborn bone structure, orbital-muscle tension, and the attachment of the lateral canthal ligament. With age the eye drifts downward, so tsurime is also read as a sign of youth. Where tareme carries a downward flow, tsurime carries an upward tension; the two are opposite impressions but are often loved in parallel by enthusiasts.

Mechanism

The core is its function as a “sign of strong will.” The upturned shape keeps, even at rest, a form resembling part of the expressions of anger, glaring, wariness, and provocation. Even when the person is relaxed, the viewer reads a faint tension. This “always looking slightly strong-willed” quality connects directly to the tsundere, cool, sadistic, strong queen, and little-devil character types. Not angry, yet seeming as if approaching would draw a cut; that “might get hurt if you touch it” distance draws the urge to conquer, to break down, to make cry. In sexual contexts, tsurime links easily with activity, dominance, and provocation: the tsundere taunt while glaring, the gaze that looks down from above, the fox-eyed look of a raised mouth corner. Conversely there is a strong kink for the moment that tsurime collapses, where the usually strong-willed partner turns to a troubled face, a crying face, or blushing, loved as the “tsurime collapse.”

In character design

In manga, anime, and games, tsurime is the standard sign of the strong-willed, tsundere, sadistic, cool, martial, delinquent, and lady types. A red-haired heroine with tsurime carrying the tsundere attribute is a classic configuration. Visually it is produced by raising the upper-lid line crisply toward the outer corner, placing highlights in the upper iris, and angling the lash flow upward; a standard design grades the expression from a faint tsurime at rest, to fox-eyed when smiling, to a sharp glare when angry. In live-action adult media, tsurime performers are often cast in princess, gal, sadist, older-sister, and queen premises, suiting an active performance that foregrounds strength, frequently leading chijo and older-woman material.

Tsurime makeup

“Cat-eye makeup” is the general term for makeup techniques that build a tsurime-leaning impression, established as a worldwide standard from the 2010s. Flicking the eyeliner up at the outer corner and extending it sharply intentionally emphasises the degree of tsurime. Against tareme makeup, it is chosen for scenes meant to convey strength, coolness, or heightened allure. Tied to cultural icons of the sexy adult woman, the independent woman, and an aggressive beauty, the cat-eye functions as a representation of femininity.

Adjacent kinks

Tsurime fetish is one wing of the eye-shape fetish cluster, discussed in parallel with tareme fetish, monolid fetish, the kirenaga (almond) fetish, and the fox-eye fetish. The “kirenaga” in particular often overlaps tsurime in form, and a thick cohort loves them together as “sharp eyes.” Where tsurime functions as a sign of feminine-arousal, the gap in which the usual coolness collapses mid-act into the mes-gao is consumed as a core pleasure, and as material holding both poles of coolness and collapse, tsurime carries especially high expressive range.

Related Terms

• Tareme fetish — the downturned-eye counterpart
• Monolid fetish — single-eyelid preference
• Tsundere — eye-coded character type
• Mes-gao — the aroused-face vocabulary
• Blushing fetish — adjacent facial-reaction kink