A common anime trope is the rendering of a normal, proportional character into a somewhat disproportional shorter form with a big head, large eyes, and short limbs, a.k.a. a chibi art style. It's usually for comedic relief.
Chibi is a Japanese word meaning small or short. When a character goes chibi, it's typically humorous given the nature of the exaggeration. It could be a character's confused reaction or the form taken for any one particular emotion or situation. Whatever the case, it's always pretty funny to see the chibi form of one's favorite character.
10 Umaru Turns Chibi As Soon As She Gets Home (Himouto! Umaru-chan)
People have multiple sides. Once they get home, they expose a more slovenly and disorganized self that they wouldn't show to the public. That's certainly the case for Umaru Doma.
In Himouto! Umaru-chan, she's the perfect high school girl, refined and an over-achiever. When she gets home, she does a total 180. As soon as the front door closes, Umaru turns chibi as a visual representation of this switch. She wears her hamster hoodie and becomes a lazy otaku who loves junk food and video games.
9 Roka AKA Ultimate Darkness Always Turns Chibi (D-Frag!)
Despite already being small in height, Roka Shibasaki consistently turns chibi at any given moment. Despite her small profile, she's supposedly the strongest student in the entire school, thus her nickname Ultimate Darkness. She's a second-year student at Fujou High, President of the Fake Game Creation Club, and turns chibi in response to almost every situation in D-Frag!.
8 Tatsumaki Turns Chibi Whenever She Is Offended (One Punch Man)
Tatsumaki is a petite woman and is commonly mistaken for being much younger than she actually is. Despite the misconception, she's an S-Class Rank 2 professional hero in the series One Punch Man. She's an esper of immense power and one of the strongest among all the other heroes. Her alias is Tornado of Terror, as the use of her abilities can create tremendous damage.
Thanks to her size and bratty demeanor, she is often offended when being called a sassy kid or whenever she's ignored. So, whenever she takes offense, she ironically becomes more childlike.
7 Their Avatars Are Chibi Versions Of Themselves (Baka & Test - Summon the Beasts)
Fumizuki Academy, a prep school that implements the world's finest and most unique schooling system, is the primary setting of Baka & Test - Summon the Beasts.
A placeholder test determines their rank, and their rank determines the class they're placed in. Class-A, the most luxurious, and Class-F, the most dilapidated. To change their classes, students can initiate a Summoner Test War. It is a battle between classes where students utilize avatars to fight other students. The avatars that the student possesses are chibi versions of themselves with animalistic features and weapons.
6 The Male Lead, Tomoki, Is Chibi Almost All The Time (Heaven's Lost Property)
Tomoki has constantly dreamed of an angel since he was a child, and then after a series of events, a fallen angel appears before him. So, to understand the nature of the New World and the Angeliods, Tomoki is recruited into the New World Discovery Club for guidance from Eishirou Sugata, the sky maniac.
Being a character who hardly takes anything seriously and only wants a peaceful life, Tomoki is practically in chibi mode in every other scene, only returning to normal when things get serious.
5 Aladdin Is Literally Nicknamed Chibi (Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic)
Magi, a rare class of magicians, guide certain individuals to mysterious places in order to help them build their empires. They disperse labyrinths, known as "Dungeons," around the world with supernatural beings called, Djinns, to rule over them. With the guidance and successful conquest, that individual gains immense power and is chosen as a candidate to rule the world. For Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, thanks to certain events, Aladdin and Alibaba are on the quest to do just that.
With the term chibi being used to describe a short person or small child, Aladdin is also literally called chibi. Aladdin is a young boy between the ages of 10-12 at the start of the show, so he doesn't even need much deformation to begin with.
4 Sunako Is Self-Conscious And Constantly Turning Chibi (The Wallflower)
In the series The Wallflower, Sunako lives as a shut-in and has developed a hatred for beauty. Even though every time she sees someone beautiful, she gets a nosebleed. Her reasoning for becoming a wallflower was due to her crush rejecting her and calling her ugly. She also began to embrace all things morbid and occult-related befitting of her current circumstances.
She begins living in her aunt's mansion under the same roof as four handsome boys. To continue to live at aunt's mansion rent-free, the boys are tasked with turning Sunako into a proper young lady. Throughout the series, Sunako spends most of the series in chibi form to represent how she's unable to accept her beauty because of the trauma from two years ago.
3 The Running Gag For These Three Is Them Being Chibi (Maid Sama!)
The all-boys school in Maid Sama! is transitioning to being co-ed, and Misaki Ayuzawa is the first female student council president. Being a stickler for the rules and using aggressive techniques on the misbehaving boys who bully girls, Misaki is nicknamed the Demon President, especially by the school's three idiots - Shiroyan, Kurotatsu, and Ikkun.
The thing is, after a series of events leading to them finding out her big secret, they become her biggest fans. A majority of the characters become chibi for comedic relief. For the idiot trio, however, they are chibi almost every time they appear on the screen.
2 Elsie Turns Chibi In Response To Keima (The World God Only Knows)
Keima Katsuragi is the legendary "God of Conquest" as he can conquer any girl's heart, at least in dating sim games. Randomly, he receives an anonymous offer to prove his supremacy at dating sim games, and he arrogantly accepts. Little did he know is that he signed a contract with a mischievous devil named Elsie. Now, the two have to work together to retrieve runaway evil spirits who have escaped from hell and have taken root in young girls' hearts.
Elsie's pretty incompetent at her job and is overly naive. So, when speaking to Keima, who's quite irritable, she often turns chibi in defense and indignation.
1 Edward Almost Always Turns Chibi When People Call Him Short (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Two brothers, Edward and Alphonse, suffer from unfortunate consequences after attempting a forbidden act of alchemy. They now seek a mythical relic, the Philosopher's Stone, to reverse the damage done to their bodies. Along the way, they uncover the dark nature of the mythical relic.
Due to the story having a pretty serious tone, there are moments of comedic relief to ease the tension. The majority of these are moments when Edward turns chibi and snaps angrily against the people who offend him.