History Main / SeeTheInvisible

* ''Manga/TimeStopBrave'': Gina Lizard and Amidala Keen cheat in a volleyball game by having a third teammate turn invisible to interfere with the ball. Kuzuno Sekai points out the footprints on the sand and splashes the invisible girl with oil, getting Gina and Amidala disqualified.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', Samus faces off against the invisible Shadow Pirates. By using the infrared visor, she can see their body heat. The Omega Pirate however is equipped with a Chameleon Manta, which makes him invisible to even this. The only way to see him when the Manta is activated is to wait for him to absorb radioactive phazon into his body, which will temporarily light up his insides with radiation, which Samus can see with her X-Ray visor. There's also the Cloaked Drone in the Phazon Mines that guards the Power Bomb, which cannot be scanned or seen in Thermal Mode (you also don't have X-Ray Mode at this point) and cannot be locked onto, but you can see the exhaust from its engines and the flash of its weapons to give you an idea of where to shoot. [[spoiler:The Wavebuster beam combo can lock onto the Cloaked Drone regardless of its cloak.]]

* In ''Videogame/PlanetSide2'', the infiltrator armor has a cloaking device whose invisibility ranges from almost completely invisible (crouching, stationary) to a highly visible shimmer (sprinting). Damaging an infiltrator causes their shields to flare up momentarily, and infiltrators running through shallow water create incredibly obvious splashes, making them particularly ineffective in the wide open flats of the Hossin swamps.
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Widowmaker's Infra-Sight and Hanzo's Sonic Arrow can detect Sombra using her Thermoptic Camo.
* ''VideoGame/NocturneRebirth'': A common dungeon gimmick is that certain objects and doorways are invisible, as well as distant enemies. The player can more easily see the invisible objects if they're at a high level or if they're in walking mode, which causes them to become transparent instead.
* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' has featured {{Invisible Block}}s in a few levels across their single-player campaigns, with ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' even having a Shifty Station Splatfest multiplayer stage dedicated to the idea. Such surfaces can be revealed by covering them with ink.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'': One of the e-Reader levels in the GBA version features invisible blocks that can only be seen when Mario or Luigi transforms into a statue while using the Tanooki power-up. This proves essential to collect all the Advance Coins in the level.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': The Moe-Eye is a friendly Moai statue with special sunglasses that can be possessed by Mario. When that happens, Mario can make it put on the sunglasses and see things that are invisible, such as passageways, coins and blocks; as a tradeoff, he'll much much more slowly until he puts away the sunglasses (which makes the aforementioned elements invisible again).
* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'': If the computer witnesses a ship cloaking, it will still order its ships to force-fire on the previous location of the ship. They will keep firing, even if they're clearly not hitting anything. Sometimes, they may even [[ArtificialStupidity destroy a friendly ship that happens to enter the same spot]]. The same applies with advanced cloak, which allows cloaked ships to fire. The computer will try to hit the empty spot where the weapon fire is coming from. Ships with Deep Scan or Electronic Warfare sections are able to detect cloaked ships.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': The city of Columbia has a number of telescopes scattered around it that Booker can look through. If Booker looks through the telescope in the Town Center he can see the spectral Luteces, though he can't see them when he isn't using it.
* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': The FinalBoss can turn invisible which also completely eliminates any status debuffs and ensures that no damage can be taken. However, this fight is done in a snowy field, and that naturally leads to footprints or smears, allowing Zagreus to dodge the incoming attack that invariably reveals his foe.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}'', if you lack equipment that lets you see invisible monsters, you can still reveal them by getting them wet (such as by throwing potions, using [[MakingASplash water magic]], luring them into pools of water, or hoping it rains if you're outdoors)
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'':
** True to its ''D&D'' source, a number of spells can be used to reveal invisible enemies. The earliest ones are the second level wizard spell ''detect invisible'' and the third level cleric spell ''invisibility purge''.
** Keldorn of ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' deserves special mention. He has True Sight as an innate ability, making him practically a GameBreaker among the numerous enemies who prefer to fight with Improved Invisibility.
* ''VideoGame/{{Meritous}}'': As the official game page says:
--> The ethereal monocle allows you to see enemies you couldn't normally see. You can see enemies through walls and even invisible enemies with this artifact.
* ''VideoGame/FinalLegacy'' has missile launchers that can destroy the cities you need to protect. On any difficulty other than the lowest, some are invisible, and cannot be attacked until revealed. The only way to reveal them is to destroy an Intelligence ship.

* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' has a variation. After spending some time handling and manipulating objects with MoreThanThreeDimensions with her bare hands, Jean develops "tesseract vision" which lets her see things that exist off in an inaccessible dimensional direction.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Star Mort: Rickturn of The Jerri", when Morty and Summer argue over on keeping Rick's {{Invisibility}} belt. Morty uses infrared goggles to see Summer when she takes off with the invisibility belt. Later, Summer sprays Morty with foam to make him visible in the school's locker room.
* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'':
** ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'' features the Foot Tech Ninja, EliteMooks armed with personal cloaking devices. The Turtles use a lot of different ways to get around this (spray paint, mud, thermal vision goggles, footsteps in puddles, etc).
** ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' does something similar with the show's version of Bebop, who has an invisibility suit. Bebop can be his own worst enemy, though: when she first meets him, April successfully knocks him over simply because, despite being invisible, he's ''very'' loud.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** Vanisher is an invisible Sabrina. Chat Noir first identifies her location when she brushes Ladybug's hair aside, attempting to steal her earrings. Ladybug then uses her Lucky Charm to conjure a small pot of glitter, which she scatters over Vanisher, rendering her visible.
** [[spoiler:The Vanisher makes a return in "Hero's Day", in which her mission is to follow Ladybug to find the Guardian, but Ladybug leads the Vanisher into Paris' sewer system, where her footsteps in the water allow Ladybug get the upper hand on her.]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/HollowMan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/see_the_invisible_7.png]]]]

* In ''Manga/SgtFrog'', the Keronians' anti-barrier makes them invisible to humans, but they also have control over who can see them. In rare cases, a person is able to see them regardless.
* In ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'', the hunters get controllers with the ability to turn their user invisible by "changing their frequency". Those who are also invisible and thus on the same frequency can see each other. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent The vampires]] carry with themselves special glasses and contacts with which they can see through the camouflage. Also some of the aliens, for example [[VoluntaryShapeshifting the Nurarihyon]], can see the invisible without any sort of equipment at all.
* This is part of Nanami's TrueSight package in ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld''.

* Ryoutaro, the male lead of ''Manga/SukiXSuki'', is the one and only person who can see Touka Aizuki when she's using her invisibility powers. This would not be a problem in itself, except Touka is unaware of this fact ''and'' uses her invisibility to be close to him when she's otherwise too {{tsundere}} to speak to him any way except rudely.

* Franchise/WonderWoman has a combination of SuperSenses and low-level PsychicPowers that have been allowing her to see the invisible since the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Golden Age]]. She can see specters that are messing with reality from other planes and can fight anyone trying to attack her regardless of their visibility due to her much better senses of hearing than an average human. This came in handy when she was temporarily blinded in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' as well, since she could still fight better than most of the Justice League.
* Mark Waid's run of the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' had Reed explain that Sue can still see what she makes invisible because her eyes can perceive variations in non-visible cosmic wavelengths that constantly bathe everything, just without any color perception.
* For reasons never fully explained, ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk can see ComicBook/DoctorStrange even when he (Strange) is only appearing by astral projection. Strange used this to their advantage in the days of ComicBook/TheDefenders, when he could act as a kind of "mission control" for the green brute.

* In ''Fanfic/DekuTheWarcrafted'', invisible Hagakure Toru gets a ring that makes her visible - allowing her to see her own reflection for the first time in her life.
* ''Fanfic/HonokasBizarreAdventure'': Stands, as in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', are InvisibleToNormals and cannot be caught by cameras. [[spoiler:Hayato Kawajiri's Stand [Violent Pornography] allows him to make any video recording of Stands visible to both Stand users and non-Stand users. The Yoshida Conglomerate plans to use this [[ToUnmasqueTheWorld to expose Stands to the public]] through the ''Love Live'' event]].

* ''Fanfic/BoldoresAndBoomsticks'': Blake and Guzma have a Pokémon battle between Blake's Haunter, Shade, and Guzma's Golisopod. Shade uses his illusion powers to conceal himself. Guzma counters by having Golisopod use Rain Dance to make it rain, as the falling rain reveals his form.
* ''Fanfic/ReapersAmongFairies'': Since the Kurosaki family all have spiritual awareness, they can always see the ghost of Mavis Vermillion even when she makes herself invisible.
* In the crossover fanfic ''Manga/{{Ranma|OneHalf}} vs. Franchise/{{Predator}}'' (by Jason Wages), wearing Mousse's coke-bottle glasses happens to negate a Predator's InvisibilityCloak, as Shampoo serendipitously finds out in a bout of GlassesCuriosity.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Harry is leaving the castle under his invisibility cloak to try and sneak into Hogsmeade. Fred and George spot him by his footprints in the snow.

* In the ''Film/{{Predator}}'' movies, the title creature's invisibility device shorts out when immersed in water.

* In ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', the invisible monster's tracks appear as it walks towards the spaceship, and its shape is later rendered distinguishable by light-sparks when it returns and is caught in an energy fence.
* In ''Film/{{Push}}'', a building is psychically hidden so no clairvoyants can see where it is and what will happen inside. The building is found when one of these Watchers looks into the future, draws everything she can see, then compares it to the skyline. The building that is hidden is the only one that isn't in her drawing.
* Though played with, this trope is used in ''Film/Daredevil2003''. The blind Daredevil is in a final confrontation with the Kingpin and can't track him as normal to fight. In a moment of inspiration, Daredevil triggers the room's sprinkler system, [[SuperSenses his enhanced hearing]] catches the sound of the water on Kingpin's body which creates a "visible" form for him to fight.
* In ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', Scarlett uses a cloaking device to turn invisible. The Baroness finds her by splashing motor oil on her.
* ''Film/MemoirsOfAnInvisibleMan'' shows that dirt attaches itself to Nick's body, particularly his feet as he walks. When he has to pass up as a normal person, his girlfriend decides to cover his face in skin tone makeup (along with disguising invisible parts of him with things such as dentures).
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'': While Frodo's wearing the One Ring on Mount Doom he leaves visible footprints in the volcanic ash. [[spoiler:Which allows Gollum to jump on top of him and bite his finger off.]]
* In ''Film/ShinUltraman'', the kaiju Neronga perpetually suffers this to the point that the characters outright ask what the point of its invisibility is. Justified as Neronga's invisibility was never meant to hide it, it was intended as a defense against light and energy-based weapons.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', wizards who have their mundane senses frustrated can use their Sight to see someone or something's true form, regardless of any veils or invisibility tricks. The downside of this is that they can never forget this true image, which is the last thing you want if you catch a glimpse of an EldritchAbomination. In ''Turn Coat'', Harry thinks he's being tracked and uses his Sight to look for his tail. When he wakes up a minute later, he's crashed his car. He thinks about what he saw and blacks out again, recovers, tries to walk away from the wreck, has another careless thought, and comes to as a gibbering mess on the sidewalk. Several ''books'' later he's still dealing with the aftereffects of this mentally-scarring encounter, and has managed to bring the horror levels down so that thinking about it only causes a skip in his speech.
* In the [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations novelisation]] of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Daleks' Master Plan", the Doctor and his companions, on a planet inhabited by invisible monsters, throw one into a swamp to render it visible. The scene isn't present in the original serial.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** [[WasOnceAMan The Ringwraiths]] are normally made visible only by the garments and armor they wear. Anyone who wears [[ArtifactOfDoom the One Ring]], however, gains the ability to see them in their true forms. [[TheUndead Not a pretty sight]].
** There's also an inversion here: The One Ring makes the wearer invisible, and the Ringwraiths daytime vision is poor -- but as spirit creatures, they can see the wearer of the ring ''clearly''.
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': [[DefiedTrope Defying this trope]] is something that Eric has to do while on a RescueArc. The kidnappers are using surveilance {{magitek}} to spot intruders and a diferent sort to spot concealment spells used to hide from the first sort. Thus, Eric creates an invisiblity spell within his personal spirit barrier.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'':
** Fairies can naturally shield themselves from human perception by "vibrating too fast to see". The VillainProtagonist gets around this by using cameras with a super high frame-rate. The fairies also have technology that lets them see each other, which Artemis also exploits.
** In the fourth book, Opal Koboi has a ship that is invisible to sensors and the naked eye. The heroes manage to find it by setting the sensors to detect air and the ship is the only place where no air can be found.
* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' and spin-off ''Literature/TheLostStars'' occasionally involve "stealth armour" with some sort of InvisibilityCloak, which is best countered by [[MundaneSolution the simplest method imaginable]]; creating a cloud of dust or artificial fog and watching for disturbances in it.
* In Creator/LisaShearin's ''The Grendel Affair'', the heroine, who has TrueSight, is the only person who can see the titular Grendel attacking SPI's base because it's wearing a cloaking device. So she gets a paintball gun and tags the creature, at which point her more conventionally armed allies attack the paint.
* In Sophia [=McDougall's=] ''Mars Evacuees'', both Stephanie and Alice Dare (mother and daughter) can see through the invisibility shields worn by the Morrors and which cloak their ships. They appear to have heightened visual ability, and "look out of the corner of their eyes".
* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'': Gaia has the ability to copy everyone's powers, so upon realizing that this includes Bug's invisibility power, people in the FAYZ prepare paint to splash at her to make her visible.

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', the grammatically suspect Ring of See Invisible and Potion of See Invisible grant this ability. You can acquire this power permanently by eating the flesh of a Stalker while already invisible.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'' also has Rings of See Invisible, and also adds the less gramatically suspect Scroll of Fog that enables you to see "a strange disturbance" where the invisible enemy is.

* Tohno Shiki's power in ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' prior to his near-death experience was "to see things which are hidden" - within the story it lets him see the normally invisible projections of a magical attack. After his near-death experience he can also see where ''death'' is hidden in every object and person, giving him OneHitKill powers but also [[BlessedWithSuck threatening his sanity]] with the result that he must [[PowerLimiter block his power]] with special glasses.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has a couple of ways to detect a cloaked Spy. Bumping into or winging one will result in a brief flicker of a team-colored outline, while Jarate, Mad Milk, a cloaked Spy exiting a source of water, and weapons that cause bleeding will result in a mysterious mass of drips moving across the battlezone. But the most effective Spy-checking measure is the Pyro's flamethrower (and any weapon that inflicts afterburn), which creates a halo of highly-visible flames to highlight the otherwise-invisible target.
* ''Franchise/StarCraft'': The Zerg Queen's Ensnare ability shoots a big gob of mucus in an area, slowing down everything caught in it. As a happy side effect, it also reveals invisible units (or rather the person-shaped glob of zerg snot just standing there). The defiler's Plague and several other abilities have a similar effect. In ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' abilities such as the infestor's Fungal Scourge mimic this effect.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' has the shout 'Aura whisper' which reveals all enemies, living, undead, daedra and mechanical, even if they are hiding in the landscape (coffins, holes, pile of bones/ash) or invisible. Detect dead can also be used to find fleeing invisible vampires.
* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII'', you can tell where Perseus is [[BossArenaIdiocy because he's in a shallow pool of water]].

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' games there's a number of ships capable of cloaking themselves (and, in the case of the un-armed cloak generator, a small number of other ships). To counter them, you can either build advanced sensor platforms (or just upgrade your mothership with these) capable of showing them, or wait for them to become visible when opening fire.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' has the Eye of the Priestess, an item that grants the ability to see magically-obscured things, including enemies and ladders. This is almost mandatory, as one of the ''bosses'' in the area you find it is completely invisible. It's technically possible to beat the boss without getting the Eye, but it is extraordinarily difficult, even by ''Dark Souls'' standards.

* InfraredXrayCamera or other AppliedPhlebotinum.

** ''Glitterdust'' doesn't remove invisibility as such, but anything corporeal dusted with sparkles becomes very noticeable. The spell ''Faerie Fire'' works in the same way, causing affected targets to glow even if invisible.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Batman is fighting a man wearing a suit that makes him invisible, and the Invisible Man is winning. Up until Bats breaks a nearby watertower, and raining spray reveals the man's form.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'': In "Disappearing Act", Skeletor uses a special helmet that makes him invisible. He-Man finds him by borrowing Orko's robe and throwing it over him.
* ''WesternAnimation/KidCosmic'': In "Kid Cosmic and the Best Day Ever", Clever usage of the Goo Stone causes a troublemaking InvisibleMonster to be revealed to the audience: [[spoiler:It's a dog that swallowed an Invisibility Stone.]]

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[[Creator/TakuIwasaki ...Row, Row, Fight The Powah.]]

** In ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'', Rock says he can see spren all the time, while many of them can be invisible. He considers it disrespectful to point them out when they're trying not be seen though.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' called "Crock Blocked", Timmy makes a wish to make Mr. Crocker disappear. This makes Crocker turn invisible and attempts to snatch Timmy's fairies. Luckily, Timmy is able to find Crocker by covering him in ketchup, allowing Cosmo and Wanda to make him visible again.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' episode "Crock Blocked", Timmy makes a wish to make Mr. Crocker disappear. This makes Crocker turn invisible and attempts to snatch Timmy's fairies. Luckily, Timmy is able to find Crocker by covering him in ketchup, allowing Cosmo and Wanda to make him visible again.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': The Moe-Eye is a friendly Moai statue with special sunglasses that can be possessed by Mario. When that happens, Mario can make it put on the sunglasses and see things that are invisible, such as passageways, coins and blocks; as a tradeoff, he'll much much more slowly until he puts away the sunglasses (which make the aforementioned elements invisible again).

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E7ScientificMethodScientific Method]]", The Doctor figures out there are invisible aliens on the ship and [[SeeThruSpecs modifies Seven's Borg eye implant to detect them]]. When she opens her eyes again, she can see the aliens. Everywhere. [[NightmareFuel And they're doing horrible things to the crew]].

* Griffin's invisibility in ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' was pretty easy to defeat. Mina Murray famously revealed him at the girls' school in Edmonton by throwing a bucket of whitewash onto him. Also, Mr. Hyde had some kind of "thermal imaging" with which he could see Griffin (Kevin O'Neill's art mimics a thermal camera). This property of Hyde's proves to be Griffin's undoing in the second volume.

** ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'': Polnareff pulls this off against Vanilla Ice in their fight. Due to Ice's Stand making him entirely invisible while destroying anything in his path, Polnareff disperses Iggy's sand through the room to achieve a similar effect and find Ice's path.
** ''Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable'': When Josuke and Joseph find a baby that is invisible due to her Stand, they put makeup and clothes on her to keep track of where she is.
** ''Manga/StoneOcean'': The first half of the battle with Sports Maxx shows the zombies created by his Stand as being completely invisible, even to the audience; Jolyne managed to expose the [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile alligator zombie]] about to maul her after she splashed blood on its face. The second half of the fight does away with this and depicts the zombies as [[VisibleInvisibility translucent to the audience]], but still completely invisible to the main characters.

* Ayakashi in ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' are InvisibleToNormals, but [[MasterOfIllusion Tanumaro]] can release a vapor spray that makes them visible to everyone.

** When the Romulans and their cloaks are introduced in "Balance of Terror", the bird-of-prey in question appears as a vague sensor blip, enough that the ''Enterprise'' can detect its general location but can't aim weapons at specific coordinates. Kirk tries to rectify this by leading the bird-of-prey through a comet's tail so it will leave a visible trail, but the Romulan commander cottons on and evades the trap.
** One interesting tactic was done in the first season of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. In the episode "The Arsenal of Freedom", the ''Enterprise''-D and its crew is being harassed by weapons that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ended up wiping out their creators and their race]]. The one in space is invisible and rattling the Lady ''E''. Geordi, as acting captain, separates the ship and orders the stardrive section into the planet's atmosphere. When friction reveals the weapon, Worf is able to lock phasers and fire, destroying it.

* In "Je Souhaite" of ''Series/TheXFiles'', Scully taps a body of a dead guy who was turned invisible by a LiteralGenie with a yellow powder and his whole body emerges. Scully is amazed and very, very excited by this positive proof of the paranormal (which is unfortunately gone [[ItWasThereISwear when she comes back with witnesses]]).
* ''Series/TheBoys2019'': While being beaten up by Translucent, Billy Butcher does a SpitefulSpit, and his BloodFromTheMouth reveals enough of Translucent for him to hit back.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': The Zerg Queen's Ensnare ability shoots a big gob of mucus in an area, slowing down everything caught in it. As a happy side effect, it also reveals invisible units (or rather the person-shaped glob of zerg snot just standing there). The defiler's Plague and several other abilities have a similar effect. In ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' abilities such as the infestor's Fungal Scourge mimic this effect.