Very prevalent in anime: whenever a person's opponent gets behind them, instead of turning around, their eyes will snap sideways. As anyone with any common sense will tell you, this does not constitute as actually looking at the person. However, it just looks so much cooler this way.
This is often accompanied by a close up of the person's face, or even the outside eye. There is also a calmer version used to demonstrate the fact that the observant character is well aware that the spy or stowaway is there. Yet another variation is used when the character is talking to someone with his/her back turned to them. If this happens, pay attention to what was just said, because it's probably important. Not that you can tell from behind.
This trope is an example of what happens when the Rule of Perception teams up with parallel projection
(the process of representing a three-dimensional environment using a two-dimensional medium) to "erase" the third dimension: the screen on which an audience views the work doesn't have a third dimension; therefore, to the eyes of the audience, neither does the environment depicted, which in turn makes turning one's body unnecessary to adequately convey their line-of-sight.
Truth in Television, though: if you hear something behind you, your eyes will often reflexively flick towards the direction of the ear closest to the sound, even if you don't turn your head to look.
This trope is almost never played for comedy. If it's the Aside Glance, then it's not this. Compare Look Behind You.
Examples
- Digimon Adventure: Myotismon peers◊ at Gatomon behind him when talking to her through his high collar.
- Fate/stay night: This comes up often in the anime. Archer will not usually face Shirou when talking to him.
- Gamaran: The deadly martial artist of the Muhou School Kiyomori Yamanoue barely looks at Kashitarou when he arrives behind him, asking who's there. In this case, this is likely motivated by Kiyomori's massive hubris.
- Naruto: It happens multiple times in Gaara's fight with Rock Lee, after Lee removes his training weights.
- Sailor Moon: Zoisite seems fond of turning up behind Nephrite in the anime, usually to spy on him and earn a sideways Death Glare when she announces her presence.
- Gnarled Hag: A gameplay mechanic. While you can locate the witch off-screen by listening, the girl's eyes will also point in her general direction.
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two: On the cover◊, there is a pair of Hunters sneaking up on Gordon and Alyx. They seem to be aware of their presence, but are looking to the side instead of behind them. Alyx's head is slightly turned towards the Hunters, so it's possible that she can just barely make out the closest one peripherally. No such luck for Gordon, though. If anything, his head is turned slightly away, and his eyes aren't even nearly as far to the side as they could be; so it really just seems like he's looking at someone who's in front of him and 45 degrees to his left.
- Ninja Gaiden NES Trilogy: This occurs several times in the cutscenes. One example is in the cutscene after the first stage, when Ryu Hayabusa realizes he's being followed by Irene Lew.
