Relax, she's just playing Sudoku and messing with your head.
A Japanese cultural trope often seen in manga and anime series that take place in a school setting, measuring day is the students' annual full physical examination. This usually takes place during the course of a whole day and is often used for fanservice. Since Most Writers Are Male expect lots of jokes in which certain physical quantities of (female) students get compared — or where one of the girls gets a chance to really freak out about her weight problem, imagined or not. Conversely, a lack of growth, embarrassing or inappropriate underwear or an inappropriate body under the underwear are also sources for potential angst, making measuring day a special trial for a Wholesome Crossdresser or a Sweet Polly Oliver. In addition, there's the usual group of guys that always try to peek on the girls' examinations.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Shows up in Accel World in one of its OVAs titled "Vacation." In addition to the usual fanservice, it serves to start the crisis for the episode because protagonist Haruyuki is too overweight to pass his examination.
- A rather creepy variant occurs at the very beginning of Alien Nine anime adaptation where a dubious looking guy is shown measuring underage girls' bare chests.
- Azumanga Daioh. Surprisingly, Kimura-sensei is almost entirely absent from those scenes, despite being an obvious avenue for cheap humor. (He shows up for a single punchline.)
- Beelzebub had this when the Ishiyama High kids were at St. Ishiyama Academy. The main fanservice came from the guys, with the protagonist and his best friend as the only boys in the room (accidentally, they were searching for a baby that was lost in there) when the girls do their examination, which was actually quite matter-of-fact.
- Measuring day presents a real problem for Makoto in Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa: Namely, concealing the fact that she's a true Hermaphrodite from her peers.
- A variant crops up in A Certain Scientific Railgun. It's called "Measuring Day" but rather than a physical exam it's measuring the students' special powers. Special precautions have to be taken at Tokiwadai when measuring Mikoto's Railgun, including using the pool as a shock absorber.
- Cromartie High School has a hilarious skit involving a visiting doctor and his reactions when measuring the less... ordinary students of Cromartie.
- Guyver, in the 2005 anime. Gives Sho an Oh, Crap! moment, because at this point, he had no idea what the Guyver was, only that it had implanted something in his back the first time he wore it.
- Heaven's Lost Property: The focus of Chapter 50 is Tomoki taking advantage of measuring day to get the measurements of all the girls at his school. He uses a glove device so he can feel their boobs when "Teacher" Ikaros touches them.
- Hell Teacher Nube, where the doctor is actually Nube's rival (and enemy at the time) Tamamo. When he tries to confront him mid-examination, the girls toss Nube out and call him a pervert.
- Hidamari Sketch has an entire chapter on this. If Yuno, who cared more about her height than weight, decided not to have breakfast, then the pudgy Hiro... Also, is a 2mm difference in height merely due to error?
- Used as a conflict point in I My Me! Strawberry Eggs in which cross-dressing teacher Hibiki is at a loss on how to prevent his status as male from being known after the faculty declares he must undergo a physical as well. His landlady saves the day.
- Lucky Star. Only one of the girls has nothing to be gloomy about, and gets flat-out scolded for it. (Though the others' complaints are hardly earth-shattering stuff: "I'm still short," "I forgot it's measuring day today and wore my printed pants" and "I gained one pound.")
- In Marginal #4, they have one of these. The catch? Atom thought Going Commando was required (it isn't) and ends up losing his lucky underwear.
- Maria†Holic, where a main character has to resort to subterfuge to keep his crossdressing secret.
- Despite not being a school setting, a measuring day scene is added into the first OVA for Monster Musume. This scene has the obvious amount of fanservice, but also shows how things have to be adapted to accurately measure people who have radically different bodies from humans. It's determined that the girls are starting to put on weight, leading to them going to the gym instead of merely having Ms Smith decide they need more exercise the way it was handled in the manga.
- A physical examination pops up early in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, complete with Fanservice of the class of girls in their underwear. The girls take the opportunity to discuss the rumors of a vampire draining blood from schoolgirls in the area, blissfully unaware that said vampire is actually one of their classmates.
- New Game! has a company-sponsored physical, and it plays out similarly to a school measuring day.
- The third season of Ojamajo Doremi has one that cuts short the comedy after it's revealed Naomi is self-conscious about her body growing up quicker (and is made fun of by the boys for needing a bra), prompting Yuki-sensei to teach the 5th graders about puberty.
- Ouran High School Host Club, complete with a mad scramble to conceal the (female) protagonist's actual gender that culminates in the Ohtori family ordering a doctor "in the next room" to keep her secret. The Fanservice part gets lampshaded since (barring Haruhi) all the students have their own personal doctors and the examination is "really popular" because the girls get to see the Host Club boys with their shirts off.
- Pretty Face has one of these with the protagonist trying wacky schemes to get out of the physical examination, which would reveal that he's not actually a girl. Turns out the doctor giving the examinations is the same one that gave him a girl's face in the first place.
- Seen as a short intro segment in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei with Maria messing with the other girls' weightings.
- Rosario + Vampire:
- In the anime's second season, known as Capu2, Mizore doesn't actually get measured because she's too busy stalking Tsukune again.
- In Season II of the manga there is a "Freaky Friday" Flip with Yukari Sendo and Fang-Fang Huang. It's explained in the manga version that measurement day is meant to show how well the students have settled into their human forms. Witch and a Yasha? They might both be magic, but that would all go to hell if they got caught in the wrong body.
- School Rumble. Both Tenma and Harima sneak in as personnel, and Hilarity Ensues. And the actual measuring had been cancelled.
- Seikon no Qwaser has this for a filler episode, with the expected focus on breast measurement.
- Sekirei features an omake built on this concept, Examination Day. All Sekirei in the city are required to report for physical exams, which involves bikinis and competition over bust size. The flat-chested villain ends up leveling the building after the heroes discover her dropped bra and wonder who such a tiny thing could belong to.
- In Slam Dunk, Aouta tells Sakuragi about a Measuring Day that took place when he and Akagi were children. Akagi is revealed to have been quite the Jerkass to Aouta back then, much to Aouta's Played for Laughs anger - and the focus switches to the eavesdropping Akagi and Kogure, with an extremely embarrassed Akagi pretending that he never was that much of a jerk.
Films — Live-Action
- Before the Fall: Played for Horror. The physical exam Friedrich gets upon entering the school includes the usual data (height, weight, physical wellness) but also measuring his skull with calipers and checking his blue eyes and blond hair against a set of color swatches from most to least Aryan. He passes with flying colors, but put in the context of those who would fail such a test, the scene is chilling.
Literature
- In one episode of Infinite Stratos, due to the frequent attacks on the IS Academy, the Academy decides they need to increase the number of prepared defenders, so they have all the students get measured so they can get them into IS Suits of their own. IS Academy happens an all-girls school...except for The One Guy, Ichika. And, of course, it's he who gets roped into measuring the girls. Fearing retribution from his Unwanted Harem, he tries to do the measurements with his eyes closed. Unfortunately, he accidentally gropes the girl he's measuring, whose squeals attracts his harem anyway...cue Oh, Crap! from Ichika.
Video Games
- Occurs in both Persona 4 and Devil Survivor 2 by Atlus. In both, the characters have been getting into dangerous situations and one of the characters suggests a full physical examination to check for side effects, and in both the girls compare their cup sizes, declaring a "winner". In Devil Survivor 2, there's an option to peep if you choose to skip your own exam, and it graduates to full-blown Fanservice in Record Breaker with the girls' undergarments being depicted.
- The Katamari Damacy series sometimes has scenes like this in its outdoor levels.
Visual Novels
- Erect!: The measuring day in Lilysthia International School contains an evaluation of the powers of each succubus in addition to the usual physical examination. All girls get gloomy over the latter part and maintaining their bodies in just two days, including the normally cheerful Riel who skips meals. When the day comes, the teacher Lamia tells Kento to help out in the measurements so that he gets more accustomed to the female body. Initially, his job is jotting down the numbers that the doctor says and he just has to avoid looking at the girls in underwear. But when Riel's turn comes, Lamia proposes that Kento should do her measurements himself. Embarrassment and a chance for Riel to bare her boobs ensue, and Kento ends up measuring the remaining students.
- Flowers (2014): Since it's an all-girls' school, everyone is expected to strip down to their underwear for their measurements. Awkwardness ensues.
Webcomics
- Karin-dou 4koma: While the other girls compare bust sizes, Ran briefly becomes a skeleton with glowing eyes to terrify some boys trying to peek.
