Have you heard of the Japanese word Pettanko [ぺったんこ]? In the Japanese language, this word is used to refer to girls with small breasts, mainly in anime and manga. However, this word has a much broader meaning that we will try to address and explain in this short article.
Firstly, the word Pettanko does not refer to small breasts, but rather to a female character who places great importance on the fact that her breasts are flat. To talk solely about a woman’s physical condition, we use the term “Tsurupeta”.
Having small breasts is not a problem in Japan, nor should it be in the rest of the world, but pettanko girls make a big fuss about the size of their breasts.
A girl can be extremely proud of having a flat chest or extremely embarrassed and angry. Some girls take the fact that their breasts are small so seriously that they insult and tease girls with larger breasts, whether out of envy or pride in being flat.
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Girls with a Pettanko Complex
It is worth noting that girls who have small or flat breasts and do not care about this fact cannot be called pettanko. There is another popular term to refer to small breasts, which is pechapai [ペチャパイ]. There are no age requirements to become a pettanko.
Although it is an absurd topic to write about, pettanko can be a serious issue in Japan, especially when we are talking about anime. Some girls resort to extreme methods to try to increase the size of their breasts, change their diet, or exercise. There are even digital books to increase nipples (I don’t know if it works).
List of Small-Breasted Characters
In the West, the complex about small breasts is called Delicious Flat Chest (DFC). We can see in various anime that breasts are indeed a problem among women. A chart I found on Wikipedia shows some anime characters who may have this small breast complex:
| Pettanko Girls | Anime / Manga / Game |
|---|---|
| Aisaka Taiga | Toradora! |
| Amakusa Shino | Seitokai Yakuindomo |
| Aria Holmes Kanzaki | Hidan no Aria |
| Medo Kubrick | C³ |
| Haruna | Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? |
| Hinagiku Katsura | Hayate no Gotoku |
| Honda Masazumi | Kyōkai Senjō no Horizon |
| Kagura | Gintama |
| Kisaragi Yamaguchi | GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class |
| Kodama Himegami | Maken-ki! |
| Konata Izumi | Lucky ☆ Star |
| Kurimu Sakurano | Seitokai no Ichizon |
| Kuroko Shirai | A Certain Scientific Railgun |
| Kuroyukihime | Accel World |
| Lina Inverse | Slayers |
| Lisara Restall | Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai |
| Louise | Zero no Tsukaima |
| Mahiru Inami | Working!! |
| Mayumi | Shuffle! |
| Mikazuki Yozora | Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai |
| Minami Iwasaki | Lucky ☆ Star |
| Minami Shimada | Baka to Test to Shōkanjū |
| Mio Isurugi | MM! |
| Miyamoto Konatsu | Tari Tari |
| Momiji | Binbougami ga! |
| Nakano Azusa | K-ON! |
| Nana Astar Deviluke | To Love Ru |
| Nazuna | Hidamari Sketch |
| Nymph | Sora no Otoshimono |
| Riko Suminoe | Kiss × sis |
| Sae | Hidamari Sketch |
| Sakurako Oomuro 6 | Yuru Yuri |
| Sakurano Kurimu | Seitokai no Ichizon |
| Setsuna Kiyoura | School Days |
| Shana | Shakugan no Shana |
| Tainaka Ritsu | K-ON! |
| Yuno | Hidamari Sketch |
The Literal Meaning of Pettanko
“ぺったんこ” is an onomatopoeia that describes the situation where an object is crushed or flattened by its own weight. It is also used to describe the action of pressing a stamp or sticking a sticker. On Pixiv, this term is often used to refer to “board flat” or “tsurupeta”.
Pettanko x Tsurupeta
“Pettanko” (ぺったんこ) and “tsurupeta” (つるぺた) are both terms used in Japanese culture, especially in otaku contexts, to describe women with small breasts, but there is a subtle difference between the two.
- Pettanko (ぺったんこ): This term is generally used in an affectionate or humorous way to describe women with small breasts. It focuses on the idea that the bust is “flat” or “level,” like a smooth surface. It is usually used to refer to girls who are bothered by this.
- Tsurupeta (つるぺた): This term is a combination of “tsuru” (つる), which can refer to something smooth or shiny, and “peta” (ぺた), which suggests something flat or flattened. “Tsurupeta” goes beyond “pettanko” by describing not only the absence of a bust but also smooth skin and no curves. It is a term that suggests both youth and a lack of physical development in terms of curves.
And what about those with large breasts?
Some women complain about having large breasts or wish to have smaller breasts; we can occasionally see this in some anime and clearly in real life. Some even suffer bullying because of the size of their breasts and are called milk cows.
I don’t know an inverse word for pettanko, but there are some words to refer to large breasts, such as: boinboin [ボインボイン] or simply boin, which is an onomatopoeia for huge breasts making a boing sound. Other words like mechapai [めちゃぱい] and hotomune [ほと胸] are also used.
I hope you enjoyed this short article; it was quite tense to write about this delicate subject. If you liked this article, don’t forget to share and leave your comments. This is the fourth time I address breasts in an article; the other articles I wrote and recommend reading are:
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