History Main / Narrator

* ''VideoGame/ZettaiHeroProject'' have a narator telling the game endings. voiced by ''Creator/NorioWakamoto'' in japanese.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': The pilot episode kicks off the story and the setting with a female narrator giving a brief overview of the history of humanity and the world, ending on a dark, bitter, pessimistic note that foreshadows a coming darkness. Her speech is concluded by a male narrator who strongly implies her bitterness is connected to a fall from grace and that the solution to the coming darkness can be found in a 'smaller, more honest soul'. The male narrator is quickly revealed to be [[BigGood Professor Ozpin]]; the female narrator isn't revealed until the Volume 3 finale [[spoiler:and is in fact the GreaterScopeVillain [[HumanoidAbomination Salem]]]].

* ''Film/ThreeHundred''. At the end of the film, the {{Narrator}} turns out to have been [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis relating the entire tale]] to his fellow Spartans.

* The Wizard in ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis explains much of the story]] while it's happening on screen. Then again, it's [[CompellingVoice Mako's voice]], so it's not that bad.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' has two narrators. Antimony does the bulk of the narration from some unspecified point in time. (According to [[WordOfGod Tom Siddell]], [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis she's telling the whole story]], even the bits without narrator-text boxes.) And Tea (that white-haired girl) serves as a fourth-wall-breaking [[MrExposition Miss Exposition]] on a few of the end-of-chapter bonus pages.

* To some extent, Mike Hanlon in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{It}}''. Between every section of the book there is an interlude where Mike narrates the history of It in the form of a documentary journal.

* [[CaptainObvious The Narrator]] in ''Theatre/{{Finale}}''.

* The ''Manga/DragonBall'' series. Recaps the previous episodes. And closes the final scene. On occasion, he narrates in the middle of episodes. The Funimation Texas dub narrators are infamous for gravely voiced, "Last time, on Dragon Ball Z!" The Japanese dub sounds like an elder man telling a story.
** In the Japanese version, Creator/JojiYanami is the narrator for all of the series. In the Funimation dub, Brice Armstrong narrates DB, Creator/KyleHebert does DBZ, Andy Chandler does DBGT and Doc Morgan does DBZ Kai.

* The narrator of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', starting out every episode with, "The City of Townsville:" and ending every episode with a variation of, "[[SoOnceAgainTheDayIsSaved So, once again, the day is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!]]" In the FreakyFriday episode, the Narrator ended up sounding like Bubbles at the end.

** For ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' and ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' the generic narrator in the Japanese version (who does more of the narration in the original like the recaps, which makes more sense as sometimes the characters end up talking about things they can't possibly know about) is in the epilogue revealed to be [[spoiler:Takeru (TK in the dub) who's become a novelist writing about their adventures in the digital world.]]

** For ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' and ''DigimonAdventure02'' the generic narrator (who does more of the narration in the original like the recaps, which makes more sense as sometimes the characters end up talking about things they can't possibly know about) is in the epilogue revealed to be [[spoiler:Takeru (TK in the dub) who's become a novelist writing about their adventures in the digital world.]]

** For Adventure and 02 the generic narrator (who does more of the narration in the original like the recaps, which makes more sense as sometimes the characters end up talking about things they can't possibly know about) is in the epilogue revealed to be [[spoiler:Takeru (TK in the dub) who's become a novelist writing about their adventures in the digital world]]

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'' is narrated like a novel, and said narrator describes the actions and choices of the player before they even happen. If you [[OffTheRails don't do whatever it is he is narrating]], he gets increasingly irate.

* Most ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' series have a narrator to handle recaps of previous episodes and OpeningNarration, but ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger'''s deserves an honorable mention. Anything, from the mechanics of the TransformationSequence to Jasmine's PsychicPowers and Sen's thinking pose would be explained ''every time''. Up to and including TheMovie and the GrandFinale. Most probably tuned him out around the middle of the series.
** The most notable example for ''Dekarangers'' is probably the Judgment system. ''Every time'' the judgment system is activated, the narrator explains how it works, even in the finale and special movies.

* Kuzco in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''. Eventually, the ''onscreen'' Kuzco tells him to shut up.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' had an interesting variation on this: in the first two seasons, most episodes began with the previous one being recapped by a character and ended with narration by a generic narrator. However, the third season begins a new-year-is-new-universe format similar to SuperSentai, and from then on, episodes are narrated by one of the previous year's characters!

* Most ''SuperSentai'' series have a narrator to handle recaps of previous episodes and OpeningNarration, but ''Dekaranger'''s deserves an honorable mention. Anything, from the mechanics of the TransformationSequence to Jasmine's PsychicPowers and Sen's thinking pose would be explained ''every time''. Up to and including TheMovie and the GrandFinale. Most probably tuned him out around the middle of the series.

* ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' has a narrator who interacts directly with the heroes despite not being physically present, and sometimes forces them to act when their [[IdiotHero stupidity]] would otherwise prevent the plot from advancing. [[spoiler:In the final episode, it's revealed that the narrator is {{God}}.]]

* The Narrator of the StephenSondheim musical ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' [[spoiler: becomes a more tangible character in the second act and gets sacrificed to the giant's wife]].

A character, sometimes part of the story proper and sometimes completely external to it, who acts either as the storyteller or as a framing device. A Narrator by definition breaks the FourthWall by addressing the audience to tell them the story. Sometimes, the Narrator is also responsible for presenting AnAesop to the audience at the end of the story (as in ''TheTwilightZone'' and its [[FollowTheLeader imitators]]).

* Creator/RodSerling in ''Series/TheTwilightZone''.

* In the 2004 version of ''TheBardsTale'', the events of the game are narrated by the man who's reading the tale (as voiced by the late Creator/TonyJay). He and the eponymous Bard (as voiced by Cary Elwes) frequently bicker throughout the game, discussing issues like [[KleptomaniacHero the morality of claiming items from chests for one's self]], or [[MoneySpider the absurdity of finding money]] [[RandomlyDrops or sellable goods from killing various creatures]].

** The anime also features Creator/HidekatsuShibata as the main narrator.

** The anime adds a male narrator, provided by Creator/HidekatsuShibata, in addition to Lucy's narration.

** In the first TimeSkip, Levy becomes the narrator in the BadFuture that was supposed to happen after the disaster that would have plagued Fiore.
** The anime version features Creator/HidekatsuShibata as the main narrator.