Fille Fatalons

Just like the Fille Fatale is the teen or little girl version of the Femme Fatale in training, Fille Fatalons are the young girl version of Femme Fatalons and esp. common in many popular manga and anime: long nails often in sharp stiletto styles with vampy, colorful, often bejeweled nail designs, that are central part of the girl's look. They're common as a trope in fantasy-themed fiction focussing on Magical Girls in the Sailor Moon tradition, vampire girls or girls in magical worlds with unusual powers, esp. in anime like Tweeny Witches where the girls themselves are powerful sorceresses. Other popular manga and anime themes using this trope involve girls who are pop idols or aspire to become ones, often as imitation of Japanese, Chinese, Taiwan and Korea pop stars like Ayumi Hamasaki, Koda Kumi, Jolin Tsai, A-Mei, Namie Amuro, BoA, CL, Kwak Yujeong who usually have very long nails with visually striking nail art and nail jewelry.

Fille Fatalons sometimes feature in Slice of Life anime where the girls are heavily into makeup and designer fashions and clothes, esp. if there is a focus on the Gyaru style. Or sometimes girls raised to be warriors, where the talons can even be used as weapons. Sometimes a combination of these, which is case for Mako Mimura in Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou Second Collection. Mako is a little demon girl who however acts like a classic "omote" kid sister character, often easily getting upset or annoyed, and has a huge interest in trendy fashion especially very sharp pointed long nails with jewelled nail designs, that she is often modelling in close-up. So on one hand she is a lot like the magical girls or demon girls trope, and at times she is scary and intimidating, but mostly the anime combines this with more slice of life situations and especially Gyaru style fashions and trends that Mako models and introduces on the other girls.

In comparison to the Femme Fatalons trope, where the woman is a villain or antagonist in many if not the majority of cases, girls with Fille Fatalons are usually heroines and protagonists, or humorous characters or at least antiheroines or characters who may seem evil at first but turn out to be on the side of good. Major exception to this is Dangan Ronpa, where the girls with Fille Fatalons really are villains in the Femme Fatalons model, very overwhelming and dangerous ones too. Katja in Seikon no Qwaser is a softer though still very striking example. Usually the characters really are young girls, sometimes they're ageless or immortal vampires or similar characters who have simply held on to the appearance of little girls, common theme in popular mangas and adaptation. In the first case the girl is an outlier with mental and physical development to level of a woman, in second case, she's actually older than most women, but effects of the magic spell, being a vampire or some other factor make her continue appear eternally in little girl form.

Occasionally appear in non-fantasy themed literature, comics, films and TV shows to highlight a character, sometimes for humorous or exaggerated effect. Common in live action films and TV where Fille Fatalons are often used as comic contrast between girls, for ex. in Little Miss Sunshine. Since around 2011 and social media being in wide use, these kinds of stylized long nails also very common in real world esp. among precocious teen and preteen girls with professional success or aspiration as dancers, models and vloggers, so there are some differences with the fille fatale-femme fatale analogy. In fact while Femme Fatalons are usually used to indicate danger, power or evil intent in a fictional female villain, Fille Fatalons are actually more common irl, as indicator of fashion sense and social awareness among precocious girls who are already accomplished entertainers in some fields. Especially, they're a trademark look for tweens featuring as dancers and models, actresses, Youtube vloggers, stars on platforms like Musical.ly and Tiktok and makeup or fashion bloggers.

Another difference to the Fille Fatale-Femme Fatale analogy, while Fille Fatale is generally a level below and usually Femme Fatale in training, Fille Fatalons are often even more elaborate and striking than the Femme Fatalons counterparts in their level of design, length, nail art or sheer vampiness. This has always been the case with for ex. press-on nails on girls who experiment heavily with makeup and unique looks as tweens. But since around 2011, it's been brought to a different level in the artistry of professional manicures for tween girls, and in their lampshading of the deadly danger associated with the Femme Fatale trope. For example many of the girl celebs and influencers with Fille Fatalons imitate or even outdo the razor-sharp stiletto look or other "killer nails" styles of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Adele, Lana Del Rey or other women entertainers famous for the look. So much that women often take hints from some of the Fille Fatalon designs.

Especially noticeable examples include many J-Pop K-Pop and C-Pop stars who become popular as teen or preteen idols, their nails are often very long and elaborate. Alabama Luella Barker is a Trope Codifier for preteen style of Fille Fatalons, first introduced on Meet the Barkers and then a popular social media star and influencer afterward, who turns it up to 11 in the lethal long nails stiletto style and sheer variety of designer nails. Rihanna Quinn, Coco Quinn, Ari Lopez and other tween dancers from Dance Moms are also common examples. Dancer-focussed shows like Dance Moms were probably the first codifiers of the irl version of this trope, although other popular tween dancers and actresses like Annie LeBlanc of the ‘’Bratayleys’’ and Johnny Sequoyah in Believe, who blogged a number of colorful nail designs, may also have started the trend. In some cases the Fille Fatale trope or at least being highly precocious as a fashion influencer in general is also prominent for tween models, dancers and vloggers who model elaborate hairstyles, bikinis, high heels or even stiletto heels, although in other cases the Fille Fatalons are more just a specific fashion statement or way to assert distinct style with a particular look. In fact one other factor fueling the trend, has been growth of social media with channels dedicated to fashion, and the way girls esp. preteen girls dominate many of the channels on makeup with large followings. Some of the dancers, models and vloggers here are self made millionaires with the popularity of their makeup tips, and since long nails can be presented with more variations of colors, art and designs than other makeup, Fille Fatalons are more and more popular as topic and trend.

Examples of Fille Fatalons include:

Anime and Manga

• Corona in Kannazuki no Miko shows a classic teen version and style of these. She is an aspiring pop idol like BoA, Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi who all define much of their fashion with their very long nails, so Fiile Fatalons are a basic feature of her character.
• Pachira from ‘’Magical Pokaan’’ has these, good example of the Magical Girls fille fatalons style.
• Unsurprisingly many of the Sailor Moon characters have these, given the manga and anime adaptation's role as a codifier for the magical girl trope.
• Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou Second Collection Mako Mimura is sort of a Trope Codifier for Fille Fatalons, with a unique character that amusingly incorporates several popular anime genres from Magical Girl, monster girl, gyaru style and slice of life fashion characteristics all in one. She is a kind of demon girl with fiery wide eyes and the shifting personality that goes with being a demon probably based on Japanese folklore, and has very very long nails that feature prominent in scene after scene. In fact her talons are not only scary and deadly long, they're also colorfully decorated with jewels and artwork and razor sharp like claws to point of being intimidating to characters around her, and she even hints and teases at times at her nails' potential use as weapons. Yet in an amusing twist, Mako ends up then turning her killer talons into kind of distinctive fashion statement, even to point of getting the other girls to adopt long nails in a parallel fashion to hers, in ways anticipating the irl trend of tween girls after 2011 becoming the top fashion influencers on blogs and social media.
• Shana of Shakugan no Shana has these. In this case Shana's long nails accentuate her fighting appearance and ability, and her general Little Miss Badass quality.
• Dangan Ronpa has a lot of this and in sharp comparison to most cases of this trope, the schoolgirls sporting the fille fatalons are villains and generally evil, ie. a lot closer to the femme fatalons stereotype. Celestia Ludenburg is certainly one example, displaying lot of sociopathic tendencies, with demonic red eyes, an evil grin and dark black, claw like long nails. But Celestia might as well be a choir girl next to the Big Bad, Junko Enoshima, a fille fatale who is just terrifying. In many of her most notable images, Junko looks simply crazy and totally sociopathic because well, she is. And like everything else about Junko, her Fille Fatalons are literally deadly, blood red razor sharp long nails. Junko has almost religious devotion to bring about despair in the school, it's long story. And as part of this she delights in tormenting people just because, and achieving dominance and intimidation over others, with her long fingernails contribute heavily to this. She's basically like the nightmare horror version of the pretty school cheerleader.
• Evangeline McDowell of ‘’Mahou Sensei Negima’’ is an example of this in association with Really Seven Hundred Years Old trope. Despite her classic loli appearance, she's actually one of the oldest people at the school, but like many vampire or magical girl characters, she's been frozen with her little girl appearance.
• Katja from ‘’Seikon no Qwaser’’ has noticeable long nails, consistent with her spooky precocious and Fille Fatale character. A bit like the girls in Dangan Ronpa, Katja's Fille Fatalons are exceptional as they are indicating of her power, fighting ability and intimidation as a character, with a slight touch of evil and achievement of dominance. She also uses her nails with her other weapons in combat to distract and overwhelm enemies, and so there are hints of other tropes like Distracted by the Sexy and I Was Beaten by a Girl in association. However she is more of an Anti-Hero than a villain, truly cares for those around her when they are in danger and has nothing like the open malice and terrifying goals of the girls in Dangan Rompa especially Junko.
• Ichigo in ‘’Tokyo Mew Mew’’ often features these.
• Arusu from Tweeny Witches is an 11-year-old girl prodigy with striking sorcery abilities and equally striking Fille Fatalons, consistent with her generally Fille Fatale character and the anime's focus on ambitious, precocious tween girls with magical capabilities. With her powers as a sorceress, her talons are not basic fashion accessories, they are a main part of those powers and her ability and manner in casting spells to overpower opponents. In fact Arusu uses her long nails effectively to both distract opponents and defeat them with cast spells.
• Kodomo no Jikan Rin Kokonoe is a classic manga and anime Fille Fatale on the surface yet with a deeper, emotional back-story. Portrayed as being precocious to point of having a young woman's intelligence and sensibility, so she often has these in close-up shots.
• World Conquest Zvezda Plot (Sekai Seifuku: Bōryaku no Zuvizudā): Lady Venera (Kate Hoshimiya), classic case of the Really Seven Hundred Years Old trope. Even though she appears to be a fun-loving little girl, she's actually immortal and been the leader of the world conquering Zvezda organization for centuries. In her loli appearing form she takes the Fille Fatale trope to overdrive to an almost disturbing level, she not only often dresses like a dominatrix but acts like a domme around both allies and enemies. However hints of her immortal powers appear early on, and soon it becomes clear that Lady Venera, despite her centuries of knowledge and ambitions, not only looks but acts like a preteen girl because in a lot of ways she never grew up.
• Eco in Dragonar Academy (Seikoku no Dragonar) has these. She is a little girl and child prodigy with the powers, intelligence and strength of a dragon princess, so the long nails in style of claws are consistent with her precocity and character in general. She is also a classic tsundere loli girl who on one hand deeply cares for, but on other hand constantly torments, dominates and humiliates her love interest Ash Blake. She is easily able to do this because of her superior strength and intelligence, and her talons and tendency to just beat up on Ash for trivial reasons also contributes to this.

Film

• Tokyo Idols features a lot of this trope since it is a film about girls in Japan who become J-Pop idols in imitating of style of Koda Kumi and Ayumi Hamasaki. with long nails being a defining feature for their fashion.
• Little Miss Sunshine Classic use of fille fatalons trope for comic contrast and effect to help build the main character Olive, played by Abigail Breslin, and show how her family is different from other pageant families. Most of the little girls at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant are very socially precocious and presented like beautiful little women, they have not only long nails but also wearing high fashion hairstyles, bikinis, high heels and heavy lipstick and mascara. But Olive as contrast has none of these, unlike the other preteen girls already looking and posing like women, Olive really is just a normal kid having fun and doesn't realize what the pageant has in mind. It adds to humor of how out of place she and her family are at the pageant they've spent whole film trying to get to with a series of things constantly going wrong along the way. Plus despite dysfunction for the family on the way getting there, they come together to support Olive even though the pageant officials clearly don't want her there, this shows how much they really do care for each other.
• Beaches Young C.C. Bloom, played by Mayim Bialik as 11-year-old girl, has these, much more than her adult counterpart in the film does.
• Broken Flowers Lolita (Alexis Dziena), yes that's her name, the teen daughter of Laura (Sharon Stone) an ex-girlfriend of Don Johnston (Bill Murray), has Fille Fatalons as well as several other Fille Fatale trademarks.
• Evie Zamora in Thirteen features these.
• Lolita Both the Sue Lyon and Dominique Swain portrayals of Lolita in the filmed versions have these to a point, for most part consistent with Vladimir Nabokov's title character and his description of the nymphet trope she represents, as perceived by Humbert in the original novel. Nabokov described Lolita as a very pretty 12-year-old girl who beguiled Humbert, although Humbert is an unreliable narrator in some ways that he himself admits to, his physical description of her is fairly consistent in each chapter. Although the two actresses portray different physical appearances and personalities for the character, this trope is one thing they have in common. However in the novel, Lolita in most ways is not necessarily very precocious even with Humbert's unreliable narrating of her, a difference with the film Lolitas especially the Stanley Kubrick version with Sue Lyon, who is portrayed as a temptress or even seductress, although Kubrick introduces some campy humor and satire to suggest that he is doing only a loose dark humor adaptation of Nabokov's novel.
• Interview with the Vampire Hinted at for vampire form of Claudia, played by Kirsten Dunst, frozen in form of a little girl when she was turned by Lestat.
• Sort of played with and subverted in the film Nine Lives where the main character's daughter, Rebecca Brand (Malina Weissman), is introduced to these by her socially precocious and fashion conscious friend Nicole Camden (Talitha Bateman), who has these as part of her look. But Rebecca by comparison is just a kid with little interest in the style, so continues without them for the rest of the film.

Live Action TV

• Keeping up with the Kardashians Kylie Jenner has long had these and in fact her sharp, very long fingernails have been central part of her look as a teen idol. She has become such a major fashion icon that Forbes magazine reported she's one of youngest self made billionaires in USA. And because Jenner's long nails are one of main features of her style she features in her fashion brands, often imitated by her fans, this is one of those cases of Fille Fatalons behind literally a road to riches.
• Small Wonder Vicki (Tiffany Brissette), the self aware android girl, sometimes had these for clearly comic effect.
• Gifted The mutant family's force field creating teen daughter, Lauren Strucker (Natalie Alyn Lind), often has these.
• Believe Bo Adams, played by tween model and actress Johnny Sequoyah, had these. Sequoyah may have been one of the trope originators, she was also a major influencer on preteen fashion trends on social media, she frequently highlighted her long nails in colorful styles and designs which quickly became popular.

• Cami Wrather, played by tween fashion icon, actress, model and dancer Ruby Rose Turner, has these in Coop and Cami Ask the World, and Turner has them for a lot of her modelling and dancing in general. Plus like Kylie Jenner in multiple ways, Turner has her own fashion designer style for teen and preteen girls with her long nails as a popular feature.
• Francesca Capaldi of Dog With a Blog frequently has these in a semi humorous reference to Capaldi and her tween character's precocious fashion sense.
• Dance Moms: Probably one of the originators of this trope among preteen girls, with the long nails on some of the dancers emphasizing their individuality and physical dexterity. Rihanna Quinn, Coco Quinn, Areana Lopez, Sarah Hunt and other stars on the show have had impressive Fille Fatalons, the Quinn sisters and Lopez having the ultra long sharp stiletto style like Adele in varied colors and designs during and after their show appearances. and even a full episode on the dancers in general doing routines with the long nails. The trend started by the show made this a favorite feature in other TV shows, Webcasts and vlogs in the US and overseas with popular tween dancers and models such as Zoe Collins, Brightyn Brems, Ivy Mae Anderson, Kristina Pimenova, Alina Evita, Holly Boothby, Taylor and Reese Hatala plus many others.
• Mallory James Mahoney of Bunk'd often has these for comic effect, as she often leads her group and acts like the adult in the room.

Video Games

• Flandre Scarlet of Touhou often features these, sometimes very striking long nails in colorful surroundings.

Web Originals

• Unsurprising many J-Pop, C-Pop, K-Pop idols have Fille Fatalons after the trends started by stars like Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi, who often highlighted their highly designed and artistic long nails, and because the idols tend to be popular dancers and models, and therefore fashion trend setters as well as singers. BoA, CL, Jolin and Kwak Yujeong are noticeable examples.
• Also case with many Japanese girl groups in the style of Morning Musume and other Hello! Project groups where this trope is very common.
• Ariana Grande, who commonly features long nails of varied designs in her concerns and pictures, also frequently featured this trope starting as a preteen model, dancer and actress, then built on it through her teens as she reached super star status, so Grande may also be one of the early popularizers of the Fille Fatalons trope in general.
• The anthropomorphical representation Hatsune Miku from the Vocaloid voice synthesizer series is often shown with these.
• Fille Fatalons are also a very popular trope for the tween stars of Musical.ly and TikTok, where long nails with artistic designs help to give a unique image to performers, such as Swedish dancer Zoe Collins, Danielle Cohn, Baby Ariel, Loren Gray and Alina Evita, a multitalented and popular Austrian dancer, singer and actress, many of them also successful and prize winning dancers for classical, ballet, modern and other kinds of dance.
• Alabama Barker, the daughter of Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and model Shanna Moakler, is a codifier for the Fille Fatalons trope among tween girls, herself a precocious and successful musician, model and performer with musical videos and web series where she features esp. striking examples of these. She is a Child Prodigy, already become a popular vocalist and mastered the piano and a number of other instruments as a ten-year-old girl. And giving new meaning to tickling the ivories, she is able to play the piano and other instruments perfectly with sharp, stiletto style very long nails like Adele or Rihanna, but even longer and with more colorful nail designs and even nail jewelry. In addition to her musical precocity, Alabama is a straight-A student and artistic prodigy who even designs much of her own nail art, with trademark drawings and designs of each nail a different color, and other artistic makeup variations as a tween influencer like Annie LeBlanc of ‘’The Bratayleys’’. Her styles having become popular for not just tweens but also teens and women. She's a Little Miss Badass irl too, sparring and winning karate tournaments even with those nails.
• Frequently lampshaded by Lana Del Rey in her songs and musical videos. Although del Rey herself was already in her 20's when she gained wide notice as model, singer and dancer, her music and topics make heavy reference to the Lolita and Fille Fatale tropes. One of her most popular songs is titled "Lolita" and Del Rey features her sharp, stiletto style long nails in connection to it and many of her other songs.

Web Originals

• Video star, gymnast, singer and fashion style influencer Annie LeBlanc aka Acroannie of The Bratayleys Web original series is famous for these, which she often featured with prominent designs in the popular Web series. Her trademark artistic long nails have become popular features often imitated by her fans, so she is probably an early Trope Codifier for Fille Fatalons. She was also one of the first big tween influencers to have major impact on fashion trends so variations on her long nail styles have been also taken by other influencers.
• A kind of irl version of the fictional Little Miss Sunshine pageant, the catwalk of the Plitzs Fashion Democracy pageant, and similar pageants overseas like Brazil's Beleza Verao and Spain's Gran Canaria Moda Calida pageants, is a training ground and launching pad for girls who later become successful models, so accessories like long nails and customized lipstick are unsurprisingly very common for the distinctive looks for many of the aspiring models.
• Sophie Michelle of Sophie Michelle Says features this trope in her popular Web series on fashion, clothes, makeup styles and travel locations.
• Annie Rose and Hope Marie of the Annie & Hope Web series include this trope as an essential feature in their fashion and makeup commentaries.