History Main / AmbiguouslyHuman

Every now and again, though, while exploring the FantasyKitchenSink, you'll run into a character of indeterminable race or species. Sure, they ''seem'' human, what with their upright stance, human-level intelligence, and ability to speak, and yet there's just something about them that gives them away as something distinctly ''other''. Maybe it's that they live in a series where no human can do the things they do, maybe it's that a certain part of their body (or even most of it) is kept conspiciously concealed, or maybe it's that there just plain aren't ''any'' "[[TokenHuman other]]" humans around, raising suspicions. This person is AmbiguouslyHuman. Fairly often, a series will go out of its way to avoid stating their out-and-out species, or they'll be called human or nonhuman in spite of their shared traits. If you can't figure out whether they spawned from the same end of the gene pool as you just by looking at them, though, they fit the bill.

''See also:''

* Take a look at Nagato, Ryoko and Kimidori in SuzumiyaHaruhi. They look human, except for their strange hair color (Purple, blue and green respectively). They aren't humans. They're interfaces created by the Integrated Data Sentient Entity, mainly because the boss happens to be formless data that can't interact with us, only observe.

* Gecko Moria from OnePiece. Well it's no secret that One Piece has a lot of Gonks and generally strange-looking people. But he seems too weird for even these. He is the tallest non-giant seen in the series, he has pure white skin, very sharp teeth, pointed ears and horns and generally looks like some [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot monster clown devil]]. Not really traits you connect with your average guy. The general fan consensus is that he's a human until WordOfGod states otherwise, though.
** Later knowledge of a race called "Snakenecks" came to light after his introduction. Given his very long neck and reptilian features, it's a possibility. Still not confirmed, though.
* {{Soul Eater}}; the only indication that Death the Kid is ''not'' a member of one of the 'verse's common races (Human/Weapon, witch) is his black-and-white striped hair. Unless you hurt or upset him enough that his Defence Mechanism Superpower/Super Mode kicks in.
* In KyoKaraMaoh, there is ''literally no way'' to tell between demons and humans by looking at them. ({{Lampshaded}} in the anime when [[spoiler: Yuri's mother is disappointed her husband and children don't have wings]]. Pretty much the only difference between them is their aging process, so in order to see if someone is human or not you just have to lock them up for a decade or two. Or ask them.

* The Tusken Raiders in ''StarWars''.
** If KnightsOfTheOldRepublic is considered canon, then Tusken Raiders [[spoiler: ''are'' humans. And not HumanAliens either, the ''original'' humans.]]
** ''All'' the human-looking characters. There are any number of inhabited worlds in TheVerse, not one of which is called Earth (or Terra or anything else that suggests Earth), and are populated by people who are completely identical to normal Earth humans - no embellishment, even as small as [[StarTrekDeepSpaceNine nose ridges]] or unusual eye colors. No way of knowing how or if all the HumanAlien races are related.
*** They do actually use the word "human" though (more often in the prequels than the original trilogy). They're not Earthlings but they are humans. (Of course, you could chalk that up to TranslationConvention, but all source material explicitly refers to them as human).

* In ''LordOfTheRings,'' the people of Middle-earth are described as unsure how to classify wizards---they look like men, including with long white beards, but like elves they don't age even after centuries. In reality they're [[spoiler:Maiar, angelic spirits that are just taking human form]]. Also Tom Bombadil, who looks human but obviously is something else. (Even [[WordOfGod Tolkien]] [[ShrugOfGod doesn't know what]].)
* Stephen King's character Randall Flagg. His back story implies that he at least ''was'' human once, but his later incarnations are a bit less obvious about that fact.
* Nobby Nobbs from the ''{{Discworld}}''. He carries a certificate identifying him as human, or at least close enough that they're willing to cut him a break. The very fact that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial he ]]''[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial has ]]''[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial a certificate]] makes some people ''more'' suspicious.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' sometimes uses it. For example, (most of) the passengers in "Voyage of the Damned" seem to be entirely human, but come from other planets despite the episode being set in the present day ([[CaptainObvious before humans develop interstellar travel]]).

** The DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse attempts to justify this by explaining that Rassilon, the founder of the Time Lord race, intentionally tinkered with genetics on a universal scale to make other species more likely to evolve into a form that resembles his own species. So when the Doctor says that humans "look Time Lord", it's the literal truth.
*** The DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse also retcons some of the human "aliens" in the show into descendants of human colonists.
* It is ambiguous as to whether or not ''{{LazyTown}}'''s Sportacus is supposed to be human. He is faster and more agile than any of the human characters and can pull off stunts that most people could only dream of. He also keeps his [[OurElvesAreBetter ears conspicuously hidden under his hat at all times]] (this was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the episode "Sportafake" where Robbie Rotten disguised himself as Sportacus, yet left his ears noticeably uncovered.)
** While nothing has been confirmed on the American show, it's worth mentioning he's an elf in the Iceland dub and in the original plays.
* Cat in RedDwarf. He is a member of the species ''Felis Sapiens'', and assumed to be the humanoid evolution of Frankenstein, Lister's original cat, so he may qualify for this, particularly in the early episodes of Season 1 where his character is still being established.

** To be fair, the series can't seem to decide whether the king is a human or a Toad, not to mention the Toad version is noticeably taller than the rest of the Toads.
** The kings in "VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3" all look human, so she's not that big an anomaly.
** The series also gives us the Shy Guys, a sort of "tribe" of little guys so shy that they never expose a single square inch of their bodies to anyone. They wear long cloaks, shoes, belts and and masks; not even their hands are exposed, and when they lose their masks the first thing they do is run away while covering their faces. It's unlikely, given the Mushroom Kingdom's populace, that they actually ''are'' human, but their basic shape indicates that they are.
*** In one of the Mario Power Tennis endings a Shy Guy's mask falls off. He's turned away from the screen, so you can't see what's underneath the mask yourself, but poor Luigi can see it perfectly. Luigi immediately falls over, looking like he saw a ghost, trembling in fear as the Shy Guy walks past him. This seems to imply that the Shy Guys are [[NightmareFace anything]] [[HumanoidAbomination but]] [[NightmareFuel human]].

* ''TheLegendOfZelda'' series is really big on unconventional fantasy races, but for every Goron (rock people), Zora (fish people) and Deku (plant people), there are several others that look almost entirely like normal humans. There are the Hylians, including Link and Zelda, who are only different from humans in that they have longer ears and can learn to perform magic. There are Gerudos, like Ganondorf, who look like dark-skinned humans, but are different in that only one male child is born to them every hundred years. There are the Sheikah, of whom we've only seen one member, and she looks no different from an ordinary middle-aged woman. And this doesn't even bring all the races that were "transformed into other forms" into account, like the Garo, Ikana, and Twili.
** As of Twilight Princess, we've seen another Sheikah, and she also doesn't look any different than normal.
** In the recent games the Hylian/human distinction has become irrelevant to the point that pointy ears are merely a visual shorthand for important characters. In Twilight Princess pointy-eared people are referred to as humans too.
** Hylians, Gerudo and Sheikah are humans. They're races in the Caucasian/Asian usage of the word, not the Human/Wookie usage. The word human has two meanings in the series; the first refers to a race and the second refers to the species as a whole. It's been that way for Hylians/Humans since A Link to the Past.
* In TouhouProject most of the non-human beings have some sort of physical feature that marks them as non-human...but not all of them. It's justified for the WitchSpecies, since some of them ''were'' human, and possibly the Lunarians for much the same reason, but for characters like Yukari Yakumo? She's a RealityWarper and is a candidate for the most powerful being in her canon, but looks like a blond haired woman in a fancy dress.
** Oh, and might as well mention that Sakuya is [[EpilepticTrees Ambiguously Lunarian]].
** In some cases it's ambiguously AFormYouAreComfortableWith; there's a [[WildMassGuess WMG]] that Yukari's actually a genius of diplomacy... among EldritchAbominations.

* The eponymous character of ''[[HannaIsNotABoysName Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name]].'' Despite the title, he is in fact theoretically a young man, but the rest of his semi-{{Nakama}} is not human, [[TheNoseKnows vampires complain that he "smells dead"]], he goes to a medical school dropout when injured because he has some kind of terrible secret, there's a scar/wound on his chest of astounding, NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow proportions, and the fact it still has staples apparently doesn't impede him from running around being a GenkiBoy. He's most likely just a very strange human, but one wonders.
** He can use some kind of magic, so...
** He's also strangely light, even for his short stature, and one character calls him a "hollowed-out shell" of a man. Taken with the scar, some fans wonder if this is literal.

** People also wonder about his hooded, hairy, shadowy minions are they humans, gorillas, or are they demons?
** And the fact that his whole plot seems to be a money-losing scheme. After all, selling donkeys hardly seems like it would recoup the loss of building and running your own private amusement park. This has led some to the conclusion that the Coachman can't be in it for the money and must therefore be doing it ForTheEvulz. On the other hand, if he ''is'' a supernatural entity, he could have magicked up the whole park.
* Finn of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' is explicitly human, to the point where "[[SpeciesSurname Finn the Human]]" is treated as his official full name/title. The show is filled with other humanoid creatures, however, with [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation odd skin tones]] and generally weird traits that show them to be something else.. (Heck, Finn's crush is ''half-bubblegum!'') Finn believes himself to be the LastOfHisKind, though whether or not this is true isn't certain.
* There's some debate over whether Heloise on ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'' is human. She and Jimmy are the only two human-shaped citizens of Miseryville, but given that only Jimmy is hinted to be a FishOutOfWater, some fans wonder. With her occasionally slithering movements, on EpilepticTree is that she's a naga (we never see her feet), though it has been shown she has two appendages under her dress.
* The Manji from [[{{WesternAnimation/Jumanji}} Jumanji the animated series]] were a whole tribe of AmbiguouslyHuman MalevolentMaskedMen. One character outright questions if they are people when she see them, Alan replies simply that they are '[[MathematiciansAnswer Manji]]'. Basically, the giant masks that are treated as their faces are big enough that there could or could not be a humanoid head behind them. No one knows.

** Oh, and might as well mention that Sakuya is [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment possibly Ambiguously]] Lunarian.

* {{Xanth}} gives us Humphrey, the magician of information. He ''is'' human, but centuries of dealing with high concentrations of magic seem to have given him a rather gnomelike appearance. Trent uses him as evidence as to why Xanth needs occasional fresh blood in the form of non-magical immigrants. Without periodic infusions of ordinary humans, the human race will either mutate into something else, or crossbreed itself out of existence.

* In ''LordOfTheRings,'' the people of Middle-earth are described as unsure how to classify wizards---they look like men, including with long white beards, but like elves they don't age even after centuries. In reality they're [[spoiler:Maiar, angelic spirits that are just taking human form]]. Also Tom Bombadil, who looks human but obviously is something else. (Even [[WordOfGod Tolkein]] [[ShrugOfGod doesn't know what]].)

* ''WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'' has crossover Toons, Toons that look so much like humans, they can pass for one. In the series' 1947 setting, confirmed crossovers include TheThreeStooges and Buster Keaton. No telling whether there are any left in today's Hollywood, but [[{{Jackass}} Johnny Knoxville]] and [[MrBean Rowan Atkinson]] may be hiding something from us.

** ''All'' the human-looking characters. There are any number of inhabited worlds in TheVerse, not one of which is called Earth (or Terra or anything else that suggests Earth.)

** And the fact that his whole plot seems to be a money-losing scheme. After all, selling donkeys hardly seems like it would recoup the loss of building and running your own private amusement park. This has led some to the conclusion that the Coachman can't be in it for the money and must therefore be doing it ForTheEvulz.

* ''WhoCensoredRogerRabbit?'' has crossover Toons, Toons that look so much like humans, they can pass for one. In the series' 1947 setting, confirmed crossovers include TheThreeStooges and Buster Keaton. No telling whether there are any left in today's Hollywood, but [[{{Jackass}} Johnny Knoxville]] and [[MrBean Rowan Atkinson]] may be hiding something from us.

* The eponymous character of [[HannaIsNotABoysName Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name]]. Despite the title, he is in fact theoretically a young man, but the rest of his semi-{{Nakama}} is not human, [[TheNoseKnows vampires complain that he "smells dead"]], he goes to a medical school dropout when injured because he has some kind of terrible secret, there's a scar/wound on his chest of astounding, NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow proportions, and the fact it still has staples apparently doesn't impede him from running around being a GenkiBoy. He's most likely just a very strange human, but one wonders.

[[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/site_28_rand_1262454774_hitchhiker_maxed.jpg]]
[[caption-width:350:It's time to play Spot the Human!]]

** The kings in "SuperMarioBros3" all look human, so she's not that big an anomaly.

* TheStormlightArchive is made of this: all the different ethnic groups appear to have a few traits outright impossible for any race of Earth humans (living armor, deriving limited nourishment by keeping their feet in the water, light-colored eyes which always breed true even with a dark-eyed mate, impossible patchwork hair and skin colors, etc.), but mostly seem human. In the first book, at least, there was no talk of interbreeding among them, so it remains to be seen whether they are really one species or not.

** This goes for essentailly everyone in London Below: they mostly look like (extremely idiosyncratic) humans, but have a variety of never-explained super-powers, seem to have been down there for generations, and occasionally traffic with overtly non-human beings.

** The kings in "SuperMarioBros 3" all look human, so she's not that big an anomaly.

* In KyoKaraMaoh, there is [i]literally no way[/i] to tell between demons and humans by looking at them. ({{Lampshaded}} in the anime when [[spoiler: Yuri's mother is disappointed her husband and children don't have wings]]. Pretty much the only difference between them is their aging process, so in order to see if someone is human or not you just have to lock them up for a decade or two. Or ask them.

* As [[WhatCouldHaveBeen they were originally planned to all be inhuman monsters]], whether or not some of the members of Akatsuki in ''{{Naruto}}'' are human isn't initial clear. Kisame is a [[FishPeople shark man]], Kakuzu is a living rag-doll that steals people's hearts and can split demon-like creatures off from himself, and Zetsu is a [[PlantPerson Venus flytrap man]] with a LiteralSplitPersonality. Later chapters and [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary information]] show that Kakuzu [[spoiler:is a human who heavily modified his body with forbidden ninjutsu]], Kisame [[spoiler:is just a weird looking human]], and Zetsu'[[spoiler:s white half is an artificial creation of Madara's made from the first Hokage's cells while the origin of his black half is still unknown.]]

* ''DoctorWho'' sometimes uses it. For example, (most of) the passengers in "Voyage of the Damned" seem to be entirely human, but come from other planets despite the episode being set in the present day ([[CaptainObvious before humans develop interstellar travel]]).

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** The Fifth Doctor's companions Adric and Nyssa. Adric is a particularly interesting example: his people are supposedly from an Exo-Space planet called Terradon (hinted to be a Terran colony, due to its cultural parallels) who crashed on Alzarius in a starliner. Except they're not. They really evolved from Alzarian natives (spiders that incubate inside melons) via an intermediate race ([[TheCreatureFromTheBlackLagoon Gill-Man]] lookalikes) who mimicked humans to fill their niche aboard the starliner.

** The Fifth Doctor's companions Adric and Nyssa. Adric is a particularly interesting example: his people are supposedly from an Exo-Space planet called Terradon ("Terra" = Earth) who crashed on Alzarius in a Starliner. Except they're not, they evolved from Alzurian natives (the very alien-looking Marshmen) who killed the Starliner crew.

* Finn of ''AdventureTimeWithFinnAndJake'' is explicitly human, to the point where "[[SpeciesSurname Finn the Human]]" is treated as his official full name/title. The show is filled with other humanoid creatures, however, with [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation odd skin tones]] and generally weird traits that show them to be something else.. (Heck, Finn's crush is ''half-bubblegum!'') Finn believes himself to be the LastOfHisKind, though whether or not this is true isn't certain.
* There's some debate over whether Heloise on ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'' is human. She and Jimmy are the only two human-shaped citizens of Miseryville, but given that only Jimmy is hinted to be a FishOutOfWater, some fans wonder. With her occassionly slithering movements, on EpilepticTree is that she's a naga (we never see her feet), though it has been shown she has two appendages under her dress.
* The Manji from [[{{WesternAnimation/Jumanji}} jumanji the animated series]] were a whole tribe of AmbiguouslyHuman MalevolentMaskedMen. One character outright questions if they are people when she see them, Alan replies simply that they are '[[MathematiciansAnswer Manji]]'. Basically, the giant masks that are treated as their faces are big enough that there could or could not be a humanoid head behind them. No one knows.
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