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| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[Anime/PokemonTheSeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bush_disguise.jpg]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:350:[-And yet, Ash and friends are tricked every single time.-]]] |
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| 16 | |
| 17 | The PaperThinDisguise trope in AnimeAndManga. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | !!Pokémon |
| 20 | |
| 21 | ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' makes such frequent use of this that it merits a section to itself. |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | * This is one of the defining characteristics of [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]]. The "twerps" don't know it's them until one of the trio starts the motto (or ''accidentally'' starts it upon hearing the motto's words out of context), even when it's painfully obvious to a casual observer who they are. To be fair, sometimes they really do put on some good disguises (including [[WholesomeCrossdresser of the other gender]]). However, more often they simply don't, and in any case they very rarely disguise their voices and distinctive hairstyles. Given that they show up OncePerEpisode, you'd think the heroes would be intimately familiar with them. |
| 24 | ** James' disguises are usually good, especially when he crossdresses. The problem with Jessie's is that she almost always keeps her long red hair. But Meowth is easily the greatest user of this trope. All he needs is a baseball cap, t-shirt, and shorts, and suddenly he is a human student. What about the feet? The whiskers? The paws? THE TAIL?! The fact that he's ''less than two feet tall''?!? Ash must have some serious vision problems...[[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Team_Rocket%27s_disguises Here the list of all of them.]] |
| 25 | ** Since Jessalina is Jessie (props for switching Contest disguises when they got to Sinnoh), ''she actually beat Dawn in a contest!'' |
| 26 | ** Played with in an episode which has James dressing up in Jessie's contest disguise to take her place when she is sick. Everyone is still fooled. [[spoiler:He even wins!]] |
| 27 | ** In "Holy Matrimony!", Jessie and Meowth wear all black to become "invisible" and James' family pretends not to see them. The black outfits are based on the assistants in traditional Japanese theater, who are considered to be "invisible" by the cultural rules of the theater.[[note]]This is where the idea of ninjas wearing black came from; in plays that featured them, they'd wear black, which would make them "invisible" to the audience right up until they slit someone's throat.[[/note]] Of course, this is something a Japanese viewer would understand natively, but gets LostInTranslation when exported anywhere else. |
| 28 | ** In an episode where Team Rocket decides to ''help'' the protagonists, they don their usual style of disguise, help them and then go on their merry way believing they fooled them... then Misty says goodbye by shouting "Thanks, Team Rocket!" Ironically, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness that was their first attempt]] and they were disguised fairly well there. It didn't help that they started their motto before [[DopeSlap Meowth whacked them.]] |
| 29 | ** In the Johto episode "The Heartbreak of Brock"; Misty is immediately suspicious when she sees the disguised Team Rocket, even taking off Jessie's disguise glasses to prove her suspicions. |
| 30 | ** Played with interestingly where Meowth dresses up as a Shiftry. While it initially works (despite the 3 foot difference between the two Pokémon species), having never seen one before, Dawn scans the "Shiftry" with her Pokédex which then proceeds to give her the entry for Meowth. |
| 31 | ** In a Hoenn episode, Meowth and Jessie attempt to disguise themselves as Kirlia and Gardevoir, respectively, in an attempt to grab a Ralts that Ash and friends were taking care of. Similarly to the previous example, Ash proves that the Pokédex is disguise-proof by scanning the "Kirlia" and getting the data for Meowth instead. So much for that disguise. |
| 32 | ** In several episodes, Meowth disguises himself as a Sunflora by taping his eyes shut and holding cardboard leaves. |
| 33 | ** The worst offender was an early ''Diamond and Pearl'' episode in which they pretended to be traveling salesmen... by putting on green jackets over their uniforms... and not even zipping them up! Ash and co. somehow fail to spot the enormous red "R"s on their chests, even though they couldn't be more obvious. |
| 34 | ** An episode has Team Rocket dress Meowth up as a Croagunk in order to win a contest revolving around them. This is an ''entire town'', a freaking ''Gym Leader'' among them, all of which are obsessed with this particular Pokémon to an almost creepy level (and in the case of Brock, actually ''owns'' one), and they are not only fooled ''down to the last person'', '''''[[EpicFail they actually consider him the best looking one of the bunch]]'''''. |
| 35 | ** In "Fire and Ice", Jessie pretends to be Nurse Joy. "My beloved Nurse Joy's lips actually move when she talks!" Brock is known to have the unique ability to tell all of [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals the apparently identical Nurse Joys]] apart at a single glance, which is probably why he wasn't fooled. |
| 36 | ** Lampshaded at the beginning of "Pursuing a Lofty Goal", when James, in a suit and dark sunglasses, curls up in a ball when he first sees the twerps. When they ask if something's wrong, he remarks in an aside, "I forgot, the twerps wouldn't recognize me if I paid them!" |
| 37 | ** In two Hoenn episodes, Team Rocket disguise themselves as May's family. In one episode, it was just James disguised as Norman, whereas in the other even WOBBUFFET played along. James was Norman in the second episode, while Jessie was Caroline, Meowth was May, and Wobbuffet was Max. |
| 38 | ** Possibly the most blatant disguise of all was when they dressed up as ''Vikings'' in the ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie''. The fact that A) vikings haven't been around for about 1,000 years and B) they never were in Japan never crosses their minds and barely crosses the protagonists' either. |
| 39 | --->'''Brock''':"I didn't know Vikings still existed!\ |
| 40 | '''Ash''': They mostly live in [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball Minnesota!]]" |
| 41 | ** In ''Anime/MewtwoStrikesBackEvolution'', the trio are instead disguised as sailors using a Lapras-themed boat. |
| 42 | ** This is averted in a few episodes of "Black & White", as their black clothing, hats, glasses, and coats make good ways of disguising Team Rocket’s identity. This time, it would make sense for Ash & co to not recognize them. Starting in the Decolore Islands arc of "Black and White" Team Rocket goes back to wearing [[PaperThinDisguise Paper-Thin Disguises]]. |
| 43 | ** Played with to a bizarre degree in the penultimate episode of "Black & White": While Jessie attacks, James disguises as a recurring character named Porter, in order to trick the twerps and take their Pokémon. His disguise is actually good. But in order to avoid suspicion in Jessie attacking them alone, she disguises the left half of her body as James. She'll turn her body one side to say her lines, hiding her James side from the twerps, and doing the reverse for James' lines. It's downright absurd. |
| 44 | ** Played ridiculously straight in the episode "Crowning the Scalchop King" when Team Rocket has Meowth dress up and painted up to look like a Dewott. '''Everybody''' buys the disguise and nobody sees that it's a sham until the blue painting came off. |
| 45 | ** Played with in [=XY012=] -- in an attempt to trick a Vivillon seller to leading the kids and Officer Jenny to his hideout, three characters try on a Spewpa disguise for bait. Ash is this trope and admits he wouldn't fit in the cage anyway. Dedenne fares a bit better, but is more Scatterbug-sized than Spewpa. Chespin is the most accurate aside from the pupil eyeholes and saying its name. |
| 46 | ** In ''[=XY029=]'', Team Rocket disguise themselves as Ash, Serena, and Bonnie, with Meowth having a fake-looking Dedenne hand puppet to complete his Bonnie disguise, and James' Inkay is disguised as Pikachu... which floats in the air. They intentionally make trouble in public and announce the names and hometowns of the twerps, so that the twerps can be reported to Officer Jenny. Anyone who meets the actual group in person is quickly able to notice the difference. This is intentional on Team Rocket's part, since they ''want to be found out'', keeping the kids occupied with Officer Jenny who quickly figures out that they're impersonated, so that Clemont would be separated from his friends and sister in the meantime. And they ''want'' the twerps trying to find the fake ones to lure them into their trap. |
| 47 | * In one episode, Serena disguises herself as Ash because a one-shot character of the day is demanding a challenge when Ash is feverish and won't go away. The disguise consists entirely of wearing his clothes and attempting to hide Serena's hair under his hat (which works, but mostly because of her newer shorter hairstyle, the early season Serena could never have pulled this off). It still somehow fools the character of the day, even though he'd literally been talking to Serena a minute prior so he failed to recognize the same girl who left and came back a minute later in different clothing, and even Team Rocket is initially fooled, but they eventually figure it out. Clemont and Bonnie, however, instantly can tell it's her, although she quickly gets them to keep up the ruse. To be fair though, a big part of the disguise is simply the demure Serena pulling off a pretty spot-on impression of Ash's louder dynamic personality. |
| 48 | * This occurs in [=SM059=], after Ash, Lana, and Mallow find Drampa, who's known for being nice to kids. They are met by Team Rocket, who disguised themselves as preschoolers, a baby and its mother. Ash and and his friends don't buy it; instead, they're [[BlueWithShock too shocked to even respond]], and neither does Drampa, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere who decides to flee rather than deal with their nonsense]]. |
| 49 | * In the Kalos region, however, Ash's (then) Froakie was able to see through a lot of Team Rocket's disguises. |
| 50 | * Meowth has dressed up as both Sneasel and Weavile in a few occasions. Weavile was actually one of his more convincing disguises (the second time around at least) barring the charm and whiskers. |
| 51 | |
| 52 | !!Other Examples |
| 53 | |
| 54 | * ''Anime/AbunaiSisters'': The villains have occasionally used disguises in an attempt at getting the drop on the sisters. |
| 55 | ** In "Abunai Pest Control", Matsumoto and Hokuroda wearing an exterminator's uniform is enough to fool the sisters. |
| 56 | ** "Abunai Bath Time" has a strange case, in that Matsumoto achieves LatexPerfection, but the result is a face that never blinks and doesn't move its lips when speaking. Koko still never notices anything's up until the mask gets destroyed. |
| 57 | ** In "Abunai Dinner", Matsumoto dons a hat and a fake beard, and speaks in an over-the-top AsianSpeekeeEngrish accent to impersonate a Chinese chef. This fools the sisters until the [[SpiderSense Emergency Abunai Alarm]] goes off and alerts them that the food is poisoned. |
| 58 | * Anime/AikatsuFriends: In Episode 22, Kaguya disguises herself as her twin sister Sakuya yet the only thing she did was cover the lower half of her face with a veil and it completely fools Aine and Mio. |
| 59 | * ''Manga/AirGear'': Ringo Noyamano wants to help Ikki in his quests, but can't abandon her own team. She tries to TakeAThirdOption by disguising herself as a masked girl named "Croissant Mark" when going to Ikki's aid. No one is fooled. |
| 60 | * ''Anime/AkazukinChacha'': One of the hobbies of AllPowerfulBystander Seravy (and occasionally his rival/love-interest Dorothy), whenever he's secretly watching from the sidelines. He always refers to himself as a “just passing by (insert whatever he disguised himself as here)". Ironically, everyone falls for it, except for Riiya, but nobody believes him anyway (or considering how powerful Seravy and Dorothy are, it could be a case of "the Emperor's/Empress's new clothes"). Notice others using visual aspects of recognition, Riiya uses his nose, thus possibly is not fooled by any illusion magic if based on visual looks. |
| 61 | * In ''Literature/{{Anpanman}}'', any of Baikinman's disguises qualify as this. No one seems to notice that characters have shrunk (or grown in the case of the very tiny characters), feminine characters suddenly gain a more masculine voice, and no one notices Baikinman's sharp teeth and pink eyes, which are never covered by his outfit. This is made even more obvious on some disguises, where he even puts tape on his face (very obviously) to get a slightly chubbier appearance. |
| 62 | * ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': Koro-sensei, being a giant octopus-like super creature, dons a fake nose, wig and gloves (and also changes his skin color) to pass off as a human. It works. |
| 63 | * In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Mira's sister Misa once puts on Groucho Marx glasses while visiting the Earth Sciences Club, supposedly to collect some personal belongings, but actually to [[spoiler:give some advice to Ao regarding her family moving]]. Mira recognizes Misa's voice from outside the room, and no one else is fooled by the disguise, which Misa discards after a moment. |
| 64 | * In ''Anime/BattleSpiritsShonenToppaBashin'', Meganeko and Card Sensei dress in yellow and wear Suiren masks, calling themselves "Kiiroko" and "Master Yellow". [[spoiler: Meganeko's disguise manages to fool everyone but Bashin, providing for a moment of ShipTease.]] |
| 65 | ** Later on, Masako disguises as a teacher, simply by going without her hair-dye and dark make-up, and wearing different clothing. No one is capable of seeing through it, despite her hairstyle being a [[AnimeHair very distinct one.]] |
| 66 | * [[TerribleTrio The Triumvirate]] has a tendency to pull this in ''Anime/BattleSpiritsSaikyoGingaUltimateZero'' to trick Rei and his friends. Somehow, it always works. |
| 67 | * Oddly and ironically played with in ''Manga/BlackButler'': In the second season some mysterious [[ConspicuousTrenchcoat trenchcoat man]] (not only trenchcoated) appears at the Trancy Estate in the first episode. Ironic in the LatexPerfection that occurs in the slightly AlternateContinuity manga with the same character. [[spoiler: It's Sebastian, by the way. Not that this spoils anything.]] |
| 68 | * When Azan [[TheBusCameBack reappears]] in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', he insists on [[TwentyFourHourArmor wearing his helmet at all times]] to disguise his identity out of shame. None of his allies are fooled, as there really aren't a lot of other people with a stout build, an iron staff, great combat skill, and a feathered "mustache" on that aforementioned helmet. |
| 69 | * ''Manga/CastleTownDandelion'': In Chapter 21/Episode 8A, Kanade gave Akane a pair of normal glasses and ''claimed'' those can disguise the user's identity in front of others. Akane, which is [[ShrinkingViolet phobic of being in the center of attention]], took the chance to apply her RoyaltySuperpower -- GravityMaster to be exact -- to become "Scarlet Bloom," a MagicalGirl-sorts of superhero. This of course does not fool the populace, but the ''entire country'' decided to play along. Understandably, everyone calls her... "A...Scarlet Bloom." |
| 70 | * ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'': When attacking the facilities involved in the [[spoiler:Level 6 Shift]] experiment, Mikoto changes out of her iconic clothes and puts on a ballcap to hide her hair. She does very little else to hide her identity, including, most importantly, her extremely distinctive powers. Despite the fact that she deleted all security camera footage, it's implied that her opponents figured out her identity; by the end, she's so depressed that she's not even bothering with a disguise, just walking into a lab in broad daylight in her normal clothing and using her [[SignatureMove railgun]] on everything in sight. No one ever confronts her, either because they know she can't do anything or because they know that exposing her would require exposing their own crimes. |
| 71 | * ''Anime/CodeGeass'': |
| 72 | ** Euphemia tries to sneak through Ashford Academy's school festival by donning a hat and a pair of glasses. It doesn't help that she has ''waist-length pink hair''. Somehow, she's not recognized until her hat (which hides exactly nothing) blows off. |
| 73 | *** She also manages to get away with this during an attack on a hotel by terrorists by hiding behind a pair of glasses. No-one notices her until she stands up and says who she is, despite being a princess, albeit one who hadn't debuted. |
| 74 | ** A {{downplayed|Trope}} case, but still notable nonetheless. His civilian identity as "[[Characters/CodeGeassLelouchLamperouge Lelouch Lamperouge]]" is rather barebones in terms of disguise. He still ''looks'' like a grown up version of the former prince, and kept the same first name despite how uncommon it is. The only real aspect stopping people from immediately connecting the dots is the idea that the exiled prince died during the invasion. Even Jeremiah, someone who served as a member of Marianne's Royal Guard and knew Lelouch and Nunnally when they were at the Aries Villa, even if only tangentially, doesn't recognize that Lelouch is the same person as his Prince until Lelouch flat out tells him. The closest anyone comes to finding out on their own is Anya, largely due to having a picture of a young Lelouch on her phone and noting the resemblance, [[spoiler:though that is handled via Marianne screwing with her memories.]] |
| 75 | ** ''Code Geass'' plays this trope to hell and back given the ridiculous variety of hairstyles in the characters. Kallen has spiky crimson hair, yet her classmates fail to recognize her until she takes off a pair of sunglasses. An even more egregious example is C.C, who has massively long green hair, was not recognized by Suzaku, who had been searching for her on and off for two years at this point, because she had a bag barely covering her face. Though since the whole cast has got to have blue hair, this is less weird than one would think. These hair colors could very well be common in the Geassverse. There's also the fact that Kallen the student uses very different body language, wears her hair differently, and the fact that Milly was the only one who knew she was half-Japanese. Not to mention the fact that Lelouch ''did'' figure out her disguise. |
| 76 | * ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': During the Entertainment District Arc, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke are disguised as girls in order to infiltrate the titular entertainment district and find Tengen’s missing wives. Tanjiro and Zenitsu are regarded as being incredibly ugly and only get sold because of Tengen’s handsomeness, and Koinatsu immediately realized that Tanjiro was a boy. [[DudeLooksLikeALady Inosuke]] actually looks ''more'' convincing once the makeup is taken off, but his deep voice means he has to be quiet for most of the mission. |
| 77 | * ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': |
| 78 | ** In "[[Recap/DigimonAdventureE27TheGatewayToHome The Gateway to Home]]", Agumon and Palmon infiltrate [[BigBad Myotismon]]'s castle by putting on wigs (and some necklaces in Palmon's case) and pretending to be street punks looking to join [=DemiDevimon=]'s ArmyOfThievesAndWhores. They even give their names as nothing more than [=PunkAgumon=] and [=ReggaePalmon=]. Of course, given the sorts of variants that Digimon species can and do come in, this stratagem actually ''working'' is a rather more justified example than usual. |
| 79 | ** Tai and Izzy disguised Agumon and Tentomon by just giving them a hoodie and a hat and jacket respectively. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight And no one batted an eye.]] |
| 80 | ** Another episode has Piyomon and Sora's mom disguise themselves as [[BedsheetGhost Bakemon]] to save Sora. No one apparently notices, despite them being respectively shorter and taller than the others, and ''not being able to float.'' This is justified, since the Bakemons themselves have little to no brain power, and that everyone is busy with the fight between Lillymon and Dark Tyrannomon/Myotismon. |
| 81 | * ''VideoGame/DinosaurKing'': The [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]]-esque bad guys show up at on a game show pretending to be 13 year olds. However the PowerTrio heroes not only see right through the "we're just really advanced looking for our age!" BlatantLies but pretty quickly figure out who they actually are. |
| 82 | * In Episode 24 of ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure''[[note]]18th of ''Anime/GlitterForceDokiDoki''[[/note]], Mana pretends to be Princess Marie-Ange to cheer up Makoto. Her disguise is ''literally'' paper-thin, as it's just a paper mask with Marie-Ange's face shoddily scribbled on it. |
| 83 | * One of Manga/{{Doraemon}}'s gadgets takes this to the extreme. It's literally just a board that you write someone's name on. Then you hang the board around your neck and anyone who sees it thinks you're the name you wrote. You can even write something generic like "servant" and have it work. |
| 84 | * ''Anime/DragonautTheResonance'' has Toa [[{{Meganekko}} wearing glasses]] as a disguise during the year long period she, the former Dragonauts and their dragons were being hunted down by the ISDA. Sieglinde lampshades how ridiculous the disguise is. |
| 85 | * ''Manga/DragonBall'': |
| 86 | ** Master Roshi enters the World Martial Arts Tournament as "Jackie Chun" by simply wearing a blue wig and removing his sunglasses, and even his closest students don't recognize him, though Yamcha and the Crane Hermit eventually figure it out. |
| 87 | ** During the original run, Demon King Piccolo not only produced demon armies that killed hundreds but on ''live TV'' threatened to destroy the world, removed the rule of law and deposed the World Government, holding them hostage. Three years later, his {{reincarnation}} enters the World Martial Arts Tournament wearing a turban to hide his antennae and calls himself Ma Junior ("ma" being Japanese for "demon", though the alias is written in kana). Nobody besides Goku and Tenshinhan suspects that this green-skinned, pointy-eared fighter has any connection to the near-identical Demon King Piccolo until he takes off his turban and reveals his identity. And in the Majin Buu Saga of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', 18 years after Piccolo declared his intent to TakeOverTheWorld and destroyed the arena, Piccolo competes in the World Martial Arts Tournament again '''calling himself Ma Junior and wearing the same clothes''', and only the announcer recognizes him. |
| 88 | ** Before adopting the Great Saiyaman persona, Gohan went [[SuperMode Super Saiyan]] to create an impromptu disguise while thwarting a bank robbery. He goes the HenshinHero route once his classmates (especially Videl) start suspecting he may be the "Golden Fighter". |
| 89 | ** Trunks has the "brilliant" idea to enter the adult tournament by knocking out Mighty Mask, stealing his costume, and wearing it while standing on Goten's shoulders. Somehow, no one catches on until Android 18 figures it out while they're fighting and uses a Kienzan to cut through the costume, despite their short arms and legs, the eye holes Goten pokes through the tunic so he can see where he's going, and their constantly talking to and squabbling with each other. |
| 90 | ** In a {{filler}} episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga, [[GoldfishPoopGang Emperor Pilaf]] disguises his dog henchman Shu as Goku in order to infiltrate the Ox-King's village. The disguise consists of nothing but a giant plastic head that resembles Goku's. Everything else is exposed, including Shu's fur-covered hands and tail. Again, everyone falls for this. Granted, Goku has a tail of his own, but it's a ''monkey'' tail. Not something that's likely to get confused with a dog's tail. |
| 91 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'': In the third OVA, Natsu, Gray, and Happy avert this by putting on really convincing disguises while Erza and Lucy play it straight. |
| 92 | * ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'': Used rather literally in a late-series episode. Sosuke gets challenged by some classmates to pick up a girl, but due to his [[NoSocialSkills utter lack of social skills]] it seems impossible. In order to spare him from the humiliating forefit condition, Kaname enters the scene wearing one of her mother's kimonos with her hair done up, speaking in a more formal and polite tone, and pretends to be a married woman who's having an affair with Sosuke. Everybody falls for it, winning him the bet. |
| 93 | * ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'': |
| 94 | ** Randoll dresses up as "Prince Roscencruz" in ''Zero'' to return to Cyber Formula racing, complete with shades that resembles Knight Shoemach's sunglasses. Of course, Hayato recognizes him through the disguise. |
| 95 | ** Randoll also suggests Shinjyo and Miki to do the same in ''Saga'' as they join Union Savior, but the disguises fails in a split second because of Hayato and Asuka. Apparently, Randoll has taken this trope as his RunningGag. |
| 96 | ** Shoemach himself was one, as he does this to keep an eye on Hayato and his team to keep Smith and his men from stealing Asurada, but after the incident with Smith, [[spoiler:it's been revealed that it is Osamu Sugo, Asuka's [[LongLostRelative long lost brother]] in that disguise.]] |
| 97 | * Nearly ''every'' disguise in ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'', like Vanilla wearing a handlebar mustache without hiding her ringlets or Millefeuille wearing an enormous bow-tie with a CoatHatMask. |
| 98 | * Vega from ''Anime/GEARFighterDendoh'' has the sense to wear a wig and a completely different clothing style from her civilian identity in addition to her [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char!mask]], but it's still just a wig and a mask. |
| 99 | * ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'': |
| 100 | ** During the Renho arc, the Yorozuya gang and their allies don costumes to disguise themselves as Renho, which are actually convincing, save for Shinpachi, who instead was simply stripped down to his underwear, painted white, and had his glasses doodled on so they look like the eyes of a Renho. [[OnlySaneMan He naturally complains about this]], after which they decide to have him ride on Kagura's shoulders...with the upper half of his body sticking out of a hole in the top of her costume. When a guard comes by inspect them and points out this oddity, they say he's a pimple, which prompts the guard to remove the "pimple" with a chainsaw, though it turns out [[RunningGag he was only looking at Shinpachi's glasses...]] |
| 101 | ** The main trio often employs questionable disguises throughout the series, and at one point early into the show Gintoki and Madao were trying to fool Prince Hata just by making stupid faces. |
| 102 | * In ''Animation/GuardianFairyMichel'', these are used most of the time by the Black Hammer Gang, but averted with Boogy's disguise in Episode 21. |
| 103 | * ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' |
| 104 | ** [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Quattro Bajeena]], better known as [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]]. He essentially trades out his mask for a pair of CoolShades, and loses his uniform. In the end it really doesn't matter, since the Quattro identity was just established to keep people from immediately realizing that the Red Comet of Zeon had entered the Federation registry; in private with members of the A.E.U.G. he's pretty lax about it. It even gets a potential lampshade when he reveals his identity to the whole A.E.U.G., and [[TheHero Kamille's]] reaction is effectively "No duh." The fact that "Quattro" initially piloted one of the most [[CyberCyclops Zeon-styled]] mobile suits in the A.E.U.G. and went out of his way to [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority paint it red]] didn't help with the disguise. This was the base of a huge {{meme}} centered on a certain letter in {{Engrish}} that Kai leaves for the AEUG higher ups: "Captain Quattro, he is '''A CHAR!'''" |
| 105 | ** Justified in the ''MSV-R'' manga. It's mentioned that there was a real Quattro Bageena who was a Federation soldier declared Missing In Action during the One Year War from the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''. Some corrupt Federation bureaucrats were selling the identities of MIA military personnel and Char simply picked out the most similar looking guy to himself he could find, so the disguise would only appear Paper-thin to people who had already met him as Char. And only a handful of people actually knew what Char looked like under the mask. |
| 106 | ** The AlternateContinuity manga ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin'' tries to explain how Casval rem Deikun could pass as Char Aznable without being identified as the son of a famous leader. To that end it introduces a ''real'' Char Aznable, who is [[IdenticalStranger identical to Casval in every way except eye color]]. When Casval learns that the Zabis are trying to kill him, he rather cold-bloodedly swaps places with Char, taking his identity and letting Char get killed in his place. He then invents a medical reason why he always had to wear tinted lenses in the form of glasses or his CoolMask to ensure that nobody ever sees his real eye color. |
| 107 | ** ''Gundam''[='s=] Universal Century timeline has an even bigger example with the dummy balloon. [[AllThereInTheManual The setting information]] says that due to MinovskyPhysics, mobile suit targeting computers will scan an object's appearance, run it against a database of known models, and then substitute a CG image for convenience. This means that anything that vaguely matches the shape of a known MS will trick the computer, explaining how an obvious balloon could fool anyone. |
| 108 | *** This explanation is also used for ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91''[='s=] final battle, where the F91's SuperMode involves shedding layers of its superheated armor to improve performance, which manages to fool the BigBad even though he's sitting under a giant glass canopy. |
| 109 | ** In ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' a group of people try to discredit Loran by attacking some towns with a Mobile suit "disguised" to look like Loran's Gundam. This disguise consists of nothing more then taping a mustache onto a FLAT. A FLAT looks like [[http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/turn-a/flat-l06d.htm this.]] The titular Gundam looks like [[http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/turn-a/system-a-99.htm this.]] |
| 110 | *** It was probably helped by the fact that it was dark and foggy when they attempted this, so visibility was low, and most people had never seen the Gundam, only heard it referred to as "the Mustached Machine Doll". |
| 111 | *** Harry Ord, the resident CharClone in the series at one point tries to go undercover on Earth. His "disguise" is little more than trading his odd shades for mundane eyeglasses and rather tacky engineer getup. Apparently it's enough for Loran and Dianna to ''not notice him.'' |
| 112 | ** Athrun Zala in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' attempts to gain a new identity after the war: Alex Dino. This absolutely does not work, as pretty much everyone who runs into him immediately recognizes him as Athrun Zala, though some play along out of politeness. It may have been a ShoutOut to the Quattro deal mentioned above, though. |
| 113 | ** Subverted with Mister Bushido from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': it was transparently obvious that he's Graham Akre from the moment he was spotted, but in-universe Graham isn't really trying to hide his identity, and even cops to it when his old friend Billy Katagiri meets up with "Bushido". |
| 114 | *** ''Gundam 00'' also has a {{Meta}} example with BigBad Ribbons Almarck, who's played by "Noboru Sogetsu"...AKA Creator/ToruFuruya, [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Amuro Ray]]'s voice actor. The pseudonym was ostensibly done to keep Furuya's return to the franchise from overshadowing the show's actual stars, but because his voice is so distinctive it was obvious from Day 1. Sunrise even drew special attention to it: [[spoiler:in TheMovie we learn that Ribbons was cloned from a man named "E.A. Ray"]], and one of the ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters Battlogue'' shorts has Ribbons battle Char (who gets annoyed by his voice) before Ribbons is abruptly transformed into Amuro, who dismisses any similarities between them as a coincidence. |
| 115 | ** ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' sporks this trope (as it does with many ''Gundam'' staples) with Tatsuya Yuuki and his alter ego Meijin Kawaguchi the 3rd. The Kawaguchi "disguise" is nothing more than a BadassLongcoat, a pair of CoolShades, and his hair swept back (which was already one of Tatsuya's well-known CharacterTics, done when he got pumped up during Gunpla Battles). Anyone who knew him as Tatsuya instantly recognizes him, and at one point Sei and Reiji confront Kawaguchi, leading to him giving a truly hilarious SuspiciouslySpecificDenial ("I know absolutely nothing about this Tatsuya Yuuki, who attended Seiho Academy and was president of its Gunpla Battle Club!"), ''while'' taking off his sunglasses and looking them in the eye. In one of the last episodes of the show, he hangs out with Sei and Reiji as Tatsuya and openly admits that he's Kawaguchi, but when he's "on the clock" he has to pretend otherwise. |
| 116 | ** ''Gundam Age'' gives us an example of a GUNDAM in a paper thin disguise with the AGE 2 Dark Hound which is the AGE 2 painted black having it's head altered to resemble a pirate's hat adding some hooks to the backpack and swapping out it's rifle for a lance. It was done after it's pilot Asemu decides to join up with the Bisidan pirates between arcs and wants to hide his identity from the Federation. However it's frame is still very distinctive, and it still heavily uses AGE 2's trademark jet mode transformation. While it holds up with raids against random soldiers who never knew Asemu before, once he runs into the Diva again it takes his father Flit (who actually built the AGE 2) about 2 minutes before he realizes "Wait that kind of looks just like the AGE 2" |
| 117 | * Chizuru's SweetPollyOliver disguise in ''VisualNovel/{{Hakuouki}}'' completely fails to fool half of the Shinsengumi captains. Minor characters fall for it more easily but upon closer inspection, it falls apart just as quickly. |
| 118 | * ''{{Anime/Hamtaro}}'' has ''Hero-ham'' [[spoiler:who is basically Boss in disguise]] dresses in straw hat, sunglasses, scarf, and cape, without even taking off his signature cap! In fact, [[spoiler:Hamtaro only finds out his identity when he remembers that his voice is the same as Boss']]. |
| 119 | * ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'': |
| 120 | ** Early on, the reclusive Nagi dons a mask and calls herself "Mask the Money", using her vast wealth to get Hayate out of a jam. Hayate sees through the disguise almost instantly, but plays along for the sake of Nagi's pride. When he accidentally lets slip he thinks Nagi's mask is silly, she explodes in his face. |
| 121 | ** Later it become something of a running gag, that every time that Maria dons disguise she is almost instantly recognized, but the other character either play along and/or think that she is cosplaying. |
| 122 | ** When Maria and Saki show up to distract one of the butlers during the school race, they expect to be seen through, but still go through the motions. |
| 123 | ** Both Klaus and Tama as well as Kotetsu are fooled into thinking Hayate is a girl when he's forced to cosplay. |
| 124 | ** Particularly notable when Hayate can see through a disguise as he's continually fooled by Paper Thin Disguises |
| 125 | ** Chiharu seems to be the only one who can pull this off, [[spoiler:she's Sakuya's personal maid, as 'Haru']] but she's seen by Wataru, Hayate and Nagi and they don't know it's her. Aika can see through it though. |
| 126 | *** Chiharu actively convinces Sakuya to allow her to play this one straight in Chapter 309 of the manga. |
| 127 | * ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': |
| 128 | ** Averted and possibly parodied. When Japan visited Greece's land, Turkey attempts to spy on them donning a hooded green coat. It doesn't work. |
| 129 | ** In the anime, Italy uses the disguise of the 'tomato box fairy' upon meeting Germany. It doesn't work. |
| 130 | ** Also averted with England's fail attempts to escape from Italy. First time he tries to blend into the Italian crowd, his "disguise" consisted of his civilian clothing. He really wasn't trying to blend in all that much, especially considering how different the styles in Britain and Italy are. So of course he got caught. Admittedly his second attempt at dressing as an Italian improved but... you just can't hide those eyebrows. |
| 131 | ** It was less about the eyebrows and more about his behavior. He didn't chase skirts around like Italians were supposed to do. |
| 132 | ** In one episode of the anime, Germany tries to go around France's house, in disguise...by wearing a pair of glasses. France falls for this, at first, until he sees Germany mash his potatoes before eating them, as opposed to just eating them cut. |
| 133 | ** Germany and Prussia did a similar feat by taking American uniforms, in order to spy on America. Prussia plays this straight but, once again, Germany (wearing the glasses again) is nearly caught but, recovers by flashing an "American smile" and proclaiming that he "loves hamburgers!" |
| 134 | * When Yuno of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' prepared to [[SittingOnTheRoof sneak by the "No trespassing" sign on the stairs leading up to the school's roof]], she donned the CoolShades she first used to counter her motion sickness. |
| 135 | * In ''Anime/HirogaruSkyPrettyCure'', Kabaton has a piglet disguise, which looks exactly like his usual self (including the mohawk, piercings, and [[VocalDissonance very deep voice]]), just in a smaller form. Despite this, Sora still gets fooled when he first usues this trick, which allows him to steal her Mirage Pen. |
| 136 | * ''[[Anime/TheIdolmaster THE iDOLM@STER]]'' -- [[{{Tomboy}} Makoto]] dressing up as a boy so she wouldn't be recognized by her fans. [[spoiler:It doesn't always work that well.]] Haruka also wears glasses and a beret to avoid detection. |
| 137 | * When ''Manga/InuYasha'' is in public in the present, he generally wears a baseball cap to cover his [[UnusualEars dog ears]]. Never mind his anachronistic clothing and sword, lack of shoes, [[AnimeHair waist-length white hair]], ''fangs'', and ''claws''. At one point someone comments he must be a cosplayer so maybe the paper-thin disguise isn't so bad. |
| 138 | * Joseph Joestar of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' fame needs to infiltrate a Nazi base in Mexico and sees that the gatekeepers were letting in women with food and supplies. So the six-foot-tall, muscular, broad-shouldered Joseph puts on a pink dress and some makeup and tries to act like a [[HarmlessLadyDisguise harmless Mexican woman]] who offers them tequila. Not only do the Nazis not fall for it, they call Joseph an idiot for even ''thinking'' they would fall for it. So he just knocks the grunts out and [[MuggedForDisguise steals one of their uniforms instead]], which works better. |
| 139 | -->'''Joseph:''' Alright, damn, you Nazis are so smart! You saw through my disguise almost immediately...\ |
| 140 | '''Soldier 1:''' Are you crazy!? Of course we saw through that thing! You're disgusting!!\ |
| 141 | '''Soldier 2:''' Even my big sister isn't as ugly as you, and we used HER to plow the fields! She was an OX!! |
| 142 | ** In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] Rubber Soul can use his [[FightingSpirit Stand]] Yellow Temperance to perfectly imitate the appearance of another person, which he does to infiltrate the Joestar group by imitating Kakyoin. However, he makes absolutely no effort to ''act'' like Kakyoin (it's implied that he enjoys making the people he imitates look stupid), including violently assaulting a pickpocket while [[SirSwearsALot swearing like a sailor]], randomly eating a beetle off of a tree, and creepily rolling a cherry around in his mouth. Needless to say, Jotaro doesn't buy it for a second. Of course, the episode ends with the real Kakyoin [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments rolling a cherry with his tongue in exactly the same manner]] after he's reunited with the group. |
| 143 | * ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' conceals her identity by a change of clothes and tying her hair into a high ponytail. That's it. It gets even worse by the fact that her rival, Asuka Jr., is someone she talks to at school every day, and yet he does not recognize her voice, or her handwriting from the calling cards she delivers to him to inform him of impending heists in increasingly improbable ways. The manga makes it clear that Asuka has his suspicions about Meimi's double life for half the series, but in the anime, he's pretty much clueless until the penultimate episdoe, when he sees Saint Tail's hair ribbon get cut off, returning her hair to Meimi's default hairstyle. |
| 144 | * ''Manga/KamenNoMaidGuy'' has Strawberry Mask, who's pretty much Liz wearing a riding helmet and pink lone ranger-style mask. Everyone knows it's her. |
| 145 | * ''Anime/KamisamaMinaraiHimitsuNoCocotama'': Mishil, a Cocotama born from the Yotsuba family's mailbox, has an alter ego as Cocotama Spy 346, whose disguise is little more than a mask and lipstick. Luckytama is the only one who falls for the disguise. |
| 146 | * ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'': |
| 147 | ** Hayato Fuurinji, Miu's grandfather enters a tournament intended for martial artists 20 and younger by putting on a {{Sentai}} mask and dubbing himself "Mysterious Teen Garyu X." Only Apachai is fooled. Worth noting, "Garyu X" entered the contest to ferret out ''another'' master who was hiding within his team for the purposes of winning. Then he just kept going for the hell of it... |
| 148 | ** Garyu X is an incredibly thin disguise donned by the elder to compete in the 'age 20 and under' tournament, and of course everyone (except [[TheDitz Apachai]]) can see through it immediately. The big flowing beard? It's uh... part of his mask! Right! However, it doesn't matter because the referee is the bad guy and [[FlexibleTourneyRules decides to let him compete anyway]] for shits and giggles. |
| 149 | * Attempted in the manga adaptation of ''Manga/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', when Roxas pretends to be the [[WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland White Rabbit's]] maid, Mary Ann. It doesn't work. |
| 150 | * ''Manga/KotaroLivesAlone'': In one chapter, Kotaro sees that an employee of a mall is giving people balloons, so he asks for two, but he gets told that it's only one per person. Kotaro takes one and returns later wearing a hat. When the employee reffers to him as "the boy from earlier" Kotaro replies that he's mistaken because [[BadLiar "I wasn't wearing a hat back then, right?"]], but when he hears that he got the other balloon "for little sister" and he's getting one "for little brother", he decides to humor him. Later he comes back with sunglasses and asks for another "for mom", and lastly returns with [[Wrestling/AntonioInoki a red scarf and making a tough guy face]], asking for another balloon "for dad". [[spoiler: Later, when the man walks by the park he sees what Kotaro was doing with the balloons: he had faces painted on them and labeled "sis", "brother", "mom" and "dad" and had them tied to his waistband so they would accompany him as he played]]. The man leaves, hoping that the balloons will last a long time |
| 151 | * In ''Anime/LastPeriod'', Campanella's "diguise" as Blackpanella consists of nothing more than a domino mask, which completely fails to conceal any of her distinguishing features. Despite this, Erika and Choco are the only ones able to see through it; everyone else is completely fooled. |
| 152 | * In an episode of ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'', Ranka, currently a hyper-superstar with posters of herself up all over town, manages to skip out on the huge parade she's supposed to be in and wander all over town undetected, cleverly hidden by a pair of big dorky lensless glasses. The other main characters recognize her easily and don't even comment on her "disguise," but no one else pays any attention to her, even though the whole city is trying to find her. |
| 153 | ** This is possibly a reference to a similar sequence in ''Anime/MacrossDoYouRememberLove'', where Lynn Minmay, a famous pop singer, wants to go on an incognito date with Valkyrie pilot Hikaru Ichijyo. She seriously believes that wearing big glasses, a side-ponytail and ordinary clothes are gonna cut it, and is even slightly miffed that Hikaru recognized her straight off! |
| 154 | * ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid Life'' has a RunningGag of Lutecia having Garyu pretend to be her when she doesn't feel like being somewhere. He somehow manages to fool (almost) everyone despite the fact that he's a six-foot tall silent bug man and his disguise is just a wig. |
| 155 | * ''[[Anime/PrettySammy Magical Project S]]'': |
| 156 | ** Sasami, when transformed, is only wearing a different outfit, and everyone apparently is fooled -- at least until it is revealed it wasn't a secret at all. Still, her archenemy Pixy Misa only has a light PaletteSwap, and no one can put them together... |
| 157 | ** Parodied in an episode where Washu shows up disguised as Santa in the middle of summer to help Pretty Sammy. Sammy sees through it immediately, but plays along as "Santa" gives a gift of a machine specially tailored for the situation and also places some diagnostic equipment on Sammy's forehead because "Santa likes to get scientific research". It's later revealed that Rumiya fell for it completely, though. |
| 158 | ** Completely blown through in the last episode, when her {{Mentor}} shows up in her classroom and addresses her as "Pretty Sammy" in front of everyone. It turns out that the ''entire class'' knew her secret identity but they didn't say anything because it was traditional for {{Magical Girl}}s to have secret identities -- they didn't want to embarrass her by mentioning it. |
| 159 | * ''Anime/MazingerZ'': |
| 160 | ** [[BigBad Dr. Hell]] fabricated a cyborg seemed right like [[spoiler:[[TheProfessor Prof. Yumi]]]]... except his nails were black. The reason why Hell did not strive to create a perfect duplicate is a mystery, but if he thought nobody would notice, tough luck because [[spoiler:Sayaka, Prof. Yumi's daughter]] did. At least he did not make that mistake again when he fabricated cyborgs that looked like [[spoiler:[[TheHero Kouji Kabuto]] or his mother.]] |
| 161 | ** Apparently TheDragon Baron Ashura's {{Mooks}} can't tell the difference between Boss in a helmet and one of their co-workers. ''The mooks that were assigned to guard him and Kouji specifically, no less''. |
| 162 | * ''VideoGame/{{Medabots}}'': |
| 163 | ** Though "The Phantom Renegade" already had a decent disguise, during the TournamentArc a similar fellow named "Space Medafighter X", who wore the exact same (albeit gold plated) mask and used the exact same 'bot as the Phantom. Needless to say, it wasn't much of a "Reveal". |
| 164 | ** Not to mention the fact that the supporting characters did this too, dressing as "Space Medafighter X" whenever the real one was unavailable for some reason. And frankly, their disguises weren't much better. |
| 165 | * Sonia and Cancer Bubble in the {{Ninja}} episode of the ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' cartoon, as shown [[http://georockman.net/site/images/tep/s13.jpg here]] (appears at 4:53 as they are standing with Geo and Luna). |
| 166 | * ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior2002'': |
| 167 | ** Subverted in an episode. What initially appears to be the character Maddy in a Paper-Thin Disguise turns out to be the aged mystic Yahoot in an extremely effective disguise, which just ''looked'' like Maddy in a transparent disguise. |
| 168 | ** A straighter example is Commander Beef. The only physical difference between Beef and fish-peddling Masa is that Beef wears a cape and a helmet styled after a fish. Commander ''Beef'' wears a ''fish'' helmet. And they both wear an apron with a fish on it. In one episode in the anime, Lan makes the connection and calls him out on it. He is then dissuaded by Masa showing up while he's confronting Beef. A couple minutes later, 'Masa' removes his face, showing the face of Sal in a disguise, who then comments that she is ''not'' doing that again. [[spoiler:The one thing that Commander Beef does better than his subordinates is that he pretends that he doesn't have a Net Navi in his civilian identity.]] |
| 169 | ** There's also his subordinates Black Rose and Mysteriyu. While Sal wears a Franchise/{{Zorro}}[=-=]like mask and cape as Black Rose, ''Miyu'' as ''Mysteriyu'' has the worst disguise of all of them wearing only a big red bowl with eye holes over her head. But where the two girls really play this trope straight that [[spoiler:They use the '''SAME NET NAVIS''' their civilian selves used in the N1 Grand Prix!]] |
| 170 | --->'''Maylu:''' They tried to fool everyone, but even a baby could tell who they were. |
| 171 | * Mr Ando's penguin "disguise" in ''WebAnimation/MoriNoAndo'' is just a black suit... plus he's in the forest... FridgeBrilliance though because all of the other animals don't look much like their respective animals. |
| 172 | * At one point in ''Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit', Balsa hides Prince Chagum from the court faction seeking his death by settling in a village on the outskirts of the capital, changing his clothes to ones suitable for a peasant child, and cutting off his noble's topknot. He doesn't even use a false name. It works for a while, mainly because local superstition holds that a commoner looking upon the face of royalty without leave risks being struck blind by the sight, and as a result very few people outside the court know what Prince Chagum looks like. Once he accidentally crosses paths with someone who does know him, he's recognized instantly. |
| 173 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 174 | ** Konohamaru carries a blanket whose pattern blends into wooden fences. [[http://i39.tinypic.com/zx6t05.jpg Or at least that's the idea.]] Also, the portable "one-foot-tall brick wall". |
| 175 | ** Also Might Guy, despite being able to use transformation jutsus to alter his appearance, went out of his way to don a gray afro wig and an accompanying mustache in a filler episode in order to fool Rock Lee. Naturally, no one is fooled except for Lee. |
| 176 | ** Another filler episode involves two thugs dressing up (badly) as Might Guy and Rock Lee, and infiltrating the Leaf Village. In this case, Naruto is the only one fooled. |
| 177 | ** A flashback filler from ''Shippuden'' involved Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke sneaking into a fortress run by cats by wearing cat-ear headbands. |
| 178 | ** ''Another'' flashback filler from ''Shippuden'' featured Guy in the same wig & moustache. No one is fooled except for Naruto, but Sakura & Shikamaru go along with the gag all the same. |
| 179 | ** Played straight during the Chunin exam arc, when Orochimaru is able to pass himself as a Jonin instructor from the Sound village (which he is actually in charge of!) by having a different hair do and slightly less snake-like appearance. He also passes as the Fourth Kazekage by hiding himself entirely in the Kage hat and cloak, which failed to arouse any suspicion. Beyond that, Orochimaru borders on LatexPerfection due to his unique and rather horrific habit of physically removing and wearing ''the faces of people he impersonates''. Orochimaru is a strange case where this trope applies even with LatexPerfection. From his expression, it is really clear that he is Orochimaru, at least for the audience. The Abridged Series inevitably poked fun at this. |
| 180 | ** [[spoiler:Orochimaru, Sasuke, Juugo, and Suigetsu]] casually walk into Konoha and manage to avoid getting caught despite only wearing hooded cloaks. Somewhat excused by most of the ninja being out of the village. |
| 181 | ** During the "Search for Tsunade" arc, Itachi (one of Konoha's most notorious missing-nin) and Kisame (a towering blue-haired man with distinctive gill-marks on his cheeks and sharp teeth) managed to stroll around Konoha and casual lunch without being noticed by anyone except for Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma. By wearing high-collared black cloaks with red clouds on them and straw hats. Said cloaks and hats actually obscure most of their features very effectively. Once they got past the guards by placing them under a genjutsu, it was just a matter of not drawing attention to themselves, and they were still noticed fairly quickly. |
| 182 | * ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': |
| 183 | ** Negi and his students in the Magical World, being wanted criminals [[ClearMyName for a crime the villains committed]], often disguise themselves in public by using pills to make them look five years older or [[TokenMiniMoe younger than they really are]] and wearing [[CatGirl Neko themed]] adornments such as ears and tails. They've yet to be caught. Of course, few RealLife people would look at a child when searching for a teenager. Later, they even get magical Clark Kent glasses. |
| 184 | ** Natsumi is able to identify Kotaro right off the bat simply by his personality and hairstyle. |
| 185 | * ''Manga/NinjaNonsense'': |
| 186 | ** Onsokomaru disguises himself when appearing as "The Master" by wearing a fake beard. For the record, he's a yellow ball with wings. THE ONLY yellow ball with wings. |
| 187 | ** Although [[IdiotHero Shinobu]] is the only one who falls for it. At one point she even says "Aaah! Master and Onsokomaru keep disappearing!" when he repeatedly puts on/takes off the beard ''right in front of her''. |
| 188 | *** To his credit, he must use a really good adhesive for the beard, as seen when Kaede tries to tug it off his face in the first episode. |
| 189 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'' |
| 190 | ** Usopp adopts the guise of Sogeking, and wears a mask and a cape. His outfit doesn't disguise much and leaves his big nose obvious. All of his team members and allies (including eight-year old Chimney who met him only ''once'' before) think it's ridiculous, except Luffy and Chopper, who are clueless enough to fall for it. It's so obvious that when Sogeking's wanted poster comes out, Kaya and the Usopp Pirates back in his home town immediately recognize him as Usopp. However the rest of the town doesn't. |
| 191 | ** Foxy the Silver Fox managed to fool Luffy simply by wearing a papier-mache head. ''Twice''. |
| 192 | ** After the TimeSkip, when, [[spoiler:upon the real crew's two-year disappearance, a group of impostors pretend to be the Straw Hats. Despite their bad disguises and ridiculously different looks and body shapes, absolutely everybody is fooled -- even some members of the real crew!]] Though given the fact that [[spoiler:the Straw Hats were presumed dead after vanishing for two years, and would be expected to have changed appearance in that time]], this trope may be [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. |
| 193 | *** Usopp [[spoiler:didn't happen to fall for any disguises, but acted surprised when the impostor imitating Sogeking showed up.]] |
| 194 | *** Chopper [[spoiler:couldn't tell the difference until Nami and Usopp found him. Meaning he's either still really gullible or he's blind as a bat. In his defense, though, as a reindeer, he sometimes has a hard time telling humans apart and has to rely on things like clothes and hair color.]] |
| 195 | *** Luffy can maybe be forgiven, since he thought Fake Zoro and Fake Sanji were disguising themselves like he was to avoid causing a scene. |
| 196 | *** The same pirates all failed to recognize [[spoiler: the real Luffy]] when he showed up right in front of them wearing a "disguise" that was nothing but an obviously fake moustache. The majority of his face however was covered by a hood, so it was somewhat [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. |
| 197 | ** There are also a number of these on Dressrosa: |
| 198 | *** [[spoiler:Luffy]] takes part in a tournament wearing some different clothes, a helmet, and a fake beard. It could be considered to be an adequate disguise -- although several people see through it from the start -- but not when he starts to [[spoiler:use his Gum Gum powers in the ring]], which should be a dead giveaway of who he really is... yet most people still do not recognize him! |
| 199 | *** In the same arc, [[spoiler:Jesus Burgess]], even with his ridiculously identifiable body structure, is able to hide his identity from the others with nothing but a paper bag -- a ''literal'' paper-thin disguise! -- over his head. Then again, competitors that bulky in that tournament were a dime a dozen. |
| 200 | *** And again on Dressrosa, Franky, a ''nine-foot tall blue haired cyborg'', successfully fools the enemy by wearing a towel over his head. |
| 201 | *** Remarkably, this works to [[spoiler:Luffy]]'s advantage. The disguise is so general that it allows [[spoiler:Sabo to take his place without anyone knowing any better]]. |
| 202 | *** Law, on the other hand, totally changes his outfit, wears sunglasses and a fake mustache, and wears a trench coat with a hood he keeps up. Except the coat is open and he's not wearing a shirt, showcasing the massive tattoo on his chest that includes his distinct Jolly Roger in the design. His hands, which also are tattooed in a very distinct way that relates to his pirate name, are also uncovered. |
| 203 | ** On Whole Cake Island [[spoiler:Caesar Clown]] tries to pass himself off as "Gangster Gastino" of the Firetank Pirates. While he has a completely different outfit and hairstyle, absolutely no one, not even [[IdiotHero Luffy]] buys it. It's even lampshaded by his BossSubtitles! |
| 204 | *** Later in the same arc, [[spoiler:Pekoms]] appears in a masked luchadore-style costume calling himself [[spoiler:Nazoms(or "Mystoms" in the localization)]] to come to Luffy's aid, presumably in disguise so as to [[spoiler:not openly defy his oath to Big Mom while aiding her enemy whom he's also indebted to]]. Luffy recognizes him instantly and so do the Big Mom Pirates. |
| 205 | ** The Straw Hats' attempt to sneak into a Navy base during the anime-only Marine Supernova arc features a lot of this. Of the four infiltrators, Nami's the only one who wears a thorough disguise, and even that fails because she does nothing to hide her face. Chopper's disguise as a burly Marine gunner would be convincing if it weren't for the fact that he's still clearly an animal person, Carrot doesn't do anything to hide her rabbit ears or tail, but Luffy's by far the worst of the bunch; he wears the Marine's CoatCape and that's it. |
| 206 | ** Igaram disguised himself as Vivi twice; first to serve as a decoy to allow he and the Straw Hats to leave Whiskey Peak, and the second during Vivi's coming-of-age ceremony, to allow her to say goodbye to the Straw Hats. An aging man with broad shoulders disguising himself as a slim teenage girl looks as unconvincing as you'd expect, and neither instance fooled anyone, but the second attempt distracted the citizens long enough to do the job. |
| 207 | ** Kin'emon has this trope as his Devil Fruit ability. He's capable of giving people new outfits, including disguises. While the disguises don't actually hide the person really well, other characters always fall for the them. Examples include Kin'emon dressed up as Doflamingo, with Gladius not seeing through the disguise, or Jinbe being disguised as an Animal Kingdom Pirate despite his blue skin and large body being a giveaway (and that's just one of the thousands of Animal Kingdom Pirate disguises). |
| 208 | * In ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', Saitama enters a fighting tournament under Charanko's name while wearing a cheap wig that looks kind of like Charanko's hair but mostly just ridiculous. Since most people there don't know either Charanko or Saitama, the trope is only relevant with Sourface, who knows Charanko but still totally buys it. (He's clearly not the brightest person around; even when the wig falls off, someone who ''doesn't'' know Charanko has to tell him this is clearly someone else impersonating him.) At first, Saitama hides his face when Sourface is talking to him, but soon Sourface has just accepted that he's Charanko. |
| 209 | * ''Anime/OtogiZoshi'': The female protagonist spends half the first arc in male drag. It fools random grunts and obnoxious nobles, but Seimei, Sadamitsu, Urabe and some minor characters pretty quickly figure out that she's a girl wearing pants. |
| 210 | * During the physical exam episode of ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', Tamaki disguises himself as Haruhi, so nobody finds out he's really a she. His disguise consists of... putting on a wig. Everyone sees through it immediately. |
| 211 | * From ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', Scanty and Kneesocks's disguises range from [[PaperThinDisguise a moustache and a skirt]] to [[LatexPerfection different skin colours, gender and voice.]] |
| 212 | * In ''Manga/PenguinMusume'', Sakura doesn't recognize her mother simply because she put a fake mole on her face. Yes, Sakura [[TheDitz is really that stupid]]. |
| 213 | * ''Manga/PhantomThiefJeanne'': The protagonist's hair color and style changes and her eye color. (And people STILL think she looks similar to Maron. |
| 214 | * ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' has Looker do this late in the Black and White arc, donning a pair of glasses with a fake nose while claiming to be named "Lou Karr" ("Handa Samuro" in the Japanese version) as he participates in the Unova League. |
| 215 | * ''Anime/PowerpuffGirlsZ'': |
| 216 | ** Similar to the Sailor Moon example below, nobody ever seems to figure out that the three middle school girls are actually the Powerpuff Girls, who unlike the [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls original series]] actually have secret identities and change into [[MagicalGirl Magical Girls]] (made even more jarring in the dub since they even have the same names in their super hero and civilian form). |
| 217 | ** Although it's implied in one episode that their costumes have some sort of power that keep people from recognizing them since when the Professor was trying on Bubbles's outfit, his son, Ken, walks in on him and asks "Bubbles" if "she's" seen the Professor. |
| 218 | * The titular ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' and Princess Kraehe both don Paper Thin Disguises as (or perhaps ''are'' the Paper Thin Disguises of) Duck and Rue, respectively. It's [[JustifiedTrope somewhat understandable]] for Duck, since no one would ever expect the worst dancer in school to be the "goddess of dance", and only the characters from ''The Prince and the Raven'' seem to be able to see her in human form anyway, as everyone else just sees her as a giant swan. The only difference in Rue's appearance (besides the infallible change of costume) is a different hairdo, and her motives are fairly obvious to everyone around her, too. Maybe it's the local PerceptionFilter at work. |
| 219 | * Played for laughs in ''Anime/{{Punchline}}''. The fact Mikatan is the superhero "Strange Juice" is incredibly obvious however her neighbors don't realize it until they see Strange Juice without her mask. |
| 220 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': |
| 221 | ** Ranma is frequently able to fool Ryoga into believing he is anyone up to and including Ryoga's own sister (Ryoga doesn't ''have'' a sister) with little more than a change of clothes and occasionally hairstyle. To be fair, everyone in his family has such [[NoSenseOfDirection poor sense of direction]] that they hardly ever see each other, though he still doesn't have an excuse for every other time he fell for it. |
| 222 | ** Ranma has fooled other people with Paper Thin Disguises as well. For example, in the manga, he pretended to be Soun's wife in order to [[RelationshipSabotage trick Hinako into giving Soun up]]. He was successful with nothing more than an apron and something akin to a bandana. |
| 223 | ** Ranma even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this trope from time to time by remarking how he's surprised his disguise worked so well or thinking about what an idiot Ryoga is for falling for it. |
| 224 | ** In one arc, Shampoo and Kodachi wear glasses in order to fool Hinako. |
| 225 | * ''Manga/RaveMaster'': "You seem to have mistaken me for someone without a hat". |
| 226 | * An interesting subversion: in ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' any PaperMaster interested in doing so can make a disguise that is ''literally'' paper thin, yet is detailed enough to be considered LatexPerfection. |
| 227 | * This is the primary running gag in the earlier arcs of ''Manga/Reborn2004''. The titular character is (at first) the only toddler that the main cast knows who's capable of intelligent speech and simply manhandling the strongest of adults with ease. Yet every time he puts on a different pair of glasses or a fake mustache he seemingly becomes unrecognizable despite his distinctive size, hairstyle and baby face. Protagonist Tsuna is usually the only one who sees through the disguises, but the tables turn in a later chapter when [[spoiler:he's the only one who ''doesn't'' recognize Reborn's adult self]]. |
| 228 | * In ''Anime/SDGundamForce'' episode "Undercover Mission! Learn the Gundam Force's Secrets", a pair of Zako Soldier's slap on visors over their [[CyberCyclops mono-eyes]] and approach the Gundam Force claiming to be Neotopia reporters wanting an interview. With the exception of [[IdiotHero Bakunetsumaru]], the heroes aren't fooled, but play along to get intel on the Dark Axis by goading the Zakos. |
| 229 | * ''Anime/SailorMoon'': |
| 230 | ** One of the more infamous examples, the girls essentially wear uniforms similar to actual [[SailorFuku school girl uniforms]] and not one of them wears even a simple mask. Yup, no masks, no hair color changes, pretty much nothing concealing their identities. Despite this, no one seems to recognize Usagi and her pals. This is particularly worse for Sailor Moon herself, whose Sailor outfit and school uniform not only share the same color scheme, but she wears her transformation brooch on ''both'' -- not to mention that rather distinctive hairdo. A few of the characters are occasionally recognized not by appearance or voice, but by performing actions or behaviors unique to them. For example, Minako is id'd by an old school friend because he recognizes the way Sailor Venus plays volleyball to be the same as Minako's. |
| 231 | ** This is particularly frustrating during arcs where the villains are actively seeking Sailor Moon's true identity, but constantly fail to recognize Usagi even though ''she looks exactly the same.'' Kunzite is the worst at this, as he frequently came up with elaborate plans to track down Usagi, but despite technically luring her in ''every single one'', he frequently picked the wrong girl anyway because he somehow didn't recognize the girl with the same hair, voice, and catastrophic clumsiness. |
| 232 | ** Minako wore a mask in her days as Sailor V, though it doesn't hide the fact that she has the same hairstyle and even retains the same bow in it. In ''Manga/CodenameSailorV'', however, she actually ''is'' recognized. Sailor Moon originally had a similar mask in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], though she essentially stopped using it past the first act and it has the same problems as Minako's. |
| 233 | ** The Senshi even have trouble recognizing ''each other'' if they haven't been introduced in civilian form. Minako doesn't recognize the other four Senshi at first outside of their transformed states. Later, in S, despite interacting frequently with Haruka and Michiru in their civilian forms, they do not recognize them as Sailors Uranus and Neptune until they are told as much later. Similarly, Haruka and Michiru don't recognize the other Sailor Senshi out of uniform. |
| 234 | ** The villains do this as well. For example, Jadeite is only seen to try to disguise his physical features ''once'' during his entire career in the anime, and he frequently goes under cover using variations of his actual name. In one instance, he went as a D.J. named "J. Daitou". The English dub even got into the act, as his name was "Jedite" in that version and he called himself "Jed" on at least one occasion despite not disguising himself aside from changing his clothes. What makes this even more frustrating is that the villains don't really care about maintaining their disguises. When their evil scheme of the week is figured out, they usually change right in front of the heroines, only to be completely unrecognizable again to them the next episode. Even worse considering that some of them never really change their civilian outfits. |
| 235 | ** Averted in the [[Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon live-action adaptation]], where the Sailor Senshi look like normal Japanese girls in their civilian forms, then actually change to their colorful and over the top anime hair when they transform. The villains are also more effective in tracking them down in this version regardless. |
| 236 | ** This is ''much'' less prominent in the manga, because no one actually gets a good look at the Senshi. The victims are usually unconscious or stuck where they can't see the heroes, and even surveillance cameras just seem to record blurs around their faces. It should be noted that the manga is much shorter than the anime in terms of storyline, so there aren't as many opportunities for people to see Sailor Moon and co. On the rare occasions that people who actually know them meet them in their transformed states, they frequently identify them immediately. Most of the villains recognize the Senshi in their civilian states on sight as well, and in fact frequently target the girls directly. As few of the manga's villains show up past their first appearance (frequently getting killed in one go), the Senshi also get no opportunities to conveniently not recognize them after they've been ID'd. |
| 237 | * Played straight in ''Manga/SamuraiHighSchool'' with the sakakido twins who by circumstances must swap gender roles or face exile... which is hilarious since not only the sister is ''two feet taller than the older brother'', like 36DD, ankle long hair and is a MasterSwordsman while the brother is a pocket size Quintessential YamatoNadeshiko but it takes a girl with supernatural analytic abilities to ''just'' realize the difference. Of course nobody believe her. |
| 238 | * ''Kyatto Ninden Teyandee'' / ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'' plays it even more straight than Sailor Moon. The Cats in question go through an overly long and elaborate transformation sequence where the only things that are changed are some pieces of their street getup with something more combat capable. Made all the worst in that their departures after their change are publicly broadcast from the pizza place that has a giant gun that shoots them out and the fact that they still call each other by their full names in combat. Yet no one in the series clues in unless they're a part of the "secret" conspiracy. Granted it's an over the top parody but not a single person catches on that the Yattaro / Speedy Cerviche fired from the giant gun and the Yattaro / Speedy Cerviche that runs around delivering pizzas from the same place are the same. |
| 239 | * ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'' episode ''Gatchaman Secrets Stolen''. A scientist working for the ISO steals important secrets for Galactor. The team is given the job of stopping him. Their civilian identities are Dr. Nambu's wards/adopted kids who are allowed free run of the place, and most of the scientists recognize them by sight, if not name. G-1 decides to disguise himself as the Galactor contact for the scientist... by putting on a pair of sun glasses. [[note]]The situation is even more absurd if you've seen the episodes that outline that the team has to wear a particular set of civilian-mode clothing in order to transform to battle uniforms; ergo, the team wears the same clothing ''nearly all the time''.[[/note]] |
| 240 | * In ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'' Musubi recognizes Kagari from behind, until she looks at his face and says that he isn't Kagari because "Kagari doesn't wear a mask." |
| 241 | * Parodied in ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'''s tenth episode, where Meliodas and Ban, both WantedPoster bandits, have signed up in a fighting tournament under the guises "Meliodaz" and "Baan". One of the other contestants believes himself to recognize them from the posters... but dismisses the idea, since their names are different. |
| 242 | * ''Manga/SgtFrog'' has The "Pekoponian Suits". Keroro and his squad of frog aliens disguise themselves by using robot bodies. Their heads, which look nothing like a human, are completely exposed. |
| 243 | * In one episode of ''Anime/ShimaShimaToraNoShimajiro'', Torippi tries to trick Shimajiro into thinking that he is Torippi's robot alien friend. The costume in question is literally made out of some cardboard boxes, a pair of cardboard tubes, and a pair of tin cans. It's also not perfect in that part of Torippi's wings and feet are exposed. But for plot reasons, Shimajiro still buys it. |
| 244 | * ''Manga/SmokingBehindTheSupermarketWithYou'': The manga's central conceit depends on Sasaki [[FailedASpotCheck genuinely not being able to tell]] that Yamada, his favourite cashier at his local supermarket, and 'Tayama', her co-worker who Sasaki often shares smoking breaks with behind the same supermarket, are the same person despite the two looking practically identical to each other (Yamada simply puts on a jacket, lets her hair down, and stops smiling to become 'Tayama'). Yamada, on her end, is genuinely amused by his complete inability to realise it, and uses 'Tayama' to let Sasaki get closer and see her [[BeneathTheMask as she really is]]. |
| 245 | * Medusa doesn't even bother giving a fake name, simply calling herself 'Doctor Medusa' while infiltrating the DWMA as a nurse in ''Manga/SoulEater''. She only wears a lab coat and dress in lieu of her witch outfit, yet remains undetected until it's too late. The creator explained the reason no one connected the dots is because her braid twists to the right when as a witch and to the left when she's a nurse, so everyone thinks they're two separate people. |
| 246 | * Parodied in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration: The Inspector''. Elzam... er, ''Ratsel'' arrives to keep Vigagi occupied, he proclaims the machine he's riding in is the "[=GuarBein=] Mk III Trombe". Vigagi is unimpressed and knows what kind of machine he's fighting, but doesn't say it[[labelnote:Explanation]]It's the Huckebein Mk. III Trombe in the video games, but since the Huckies are too similar to Gundams in design, they had to alter them.[[/labelnote]] |
| 247 | * In ''Manga/TalesOfWeddingRings'', Prince Marse's idea of a clever disguise is to put on a mask which doesn't even fully cover his face. It fools nobody, not that he notices. |
| 248 | * All the TerribleTrio in ''Anime/TimeBokan'' series, but The Doronbo Gang, from ''Anime/{{Yatterman}}'' are masters of this. They're never recognized despite the fact that both Tonzura and Boyacky never remove their goggle-style masks, and Doronjo always wears a masquerade style mask. Not to mention the buildings they set up to create scams always have a red skull as part of their decor. |
| 249 | ** Sometimes Gan and Ai are smart enough to notice, but always just a bit too late to prevent them from scamming a ton of people and then launching a new mech. |
| 250 | ** Speaking of Gan and Ai, The Doronbo Gang are never aware that these two teenage kids dressed in jumpsuits that seem to show up everywhere are actually Yatterman in civvies. |
| 251 | * In one episode of ''Anime/TomicaHyperRescueDriveHeadKidouKyuukyuuKeisatsu'', the thief Maiko changes into Munakata's clothing. Anyone who looks at her without paying too much attention believes her to actually be Munakata. Despite the fact that she does nothing else to her appearance. |
| 252 | * In a chapter of ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', we see the kunoichi Kaede (now branded as a nukenin) trying to find jobs after quitting ninja school. But, as a nukenin, she must be hunted down and killed, so she has two pursuers in the forms of her childhood buddies Kumade and Mukade. At one point, she adopts a disguise to evade them and Ataru (whom she keeps running into): a pair of glasses. No fake nose and mustache with it, just the glasses. At the same time, we see that her pursuers have also taken jobs in the same inn Kaede is, and that they too are wearing disguises: Mukade (the long-haired one) wears a mask on her lower face, while Kumade (the one with an eyepatch) just has a striped eyepatch in place of the one she usually wears. The worst part of it is, the three walk past each other in a corridor... ''and are unable to recognize each other!!!'' Ataru, however, isn't fooled, and ends up inadvertently giving Kaede away. |
| 253 | * ''Manga/WelcomeToDemonSchoolIrumaKun'' |
| 254 | ** Suzuki Iruma is the only human living in the netherworld, all of the students, teachers and staff of the school and everyone else are demons, and he has to hide his identity as a human or else he may be eaten, the only disguise Iruma uses is a perfume given by his adoptive grandfather to remove his human scent, the other demons, even the few ones that do suspect he is a human, never realize he has none of the common demon traits: Pointy ears, horns, fangs, tail, wings, animal parts and colored skin. The justification is that demons are very diverse and there's always a demon missing one of those traits, it's just that Iruma doesn't have any of them, all demons can fly but they don't question much why he never flies with his wings and prefers to walk. |
| 255 | ** Another justification is that [[FaeriesDontBelieveInHumansEither younger demons never saw a human in their lives and believe they don't exist]], this is why the demons that know humans exist are more suspicious. |
| 256 | * ''Franchise/YuGiOh'': |
| 257 | ** In the Legendary Hero's arc, Jonouchi doesn't realize that "Madame Butterfly" is actually Mai at first, even though her only disguise is a butterfly shaped domino-mask that does nothing to change her voice. (After she uses a Harpie Lady card, he manages to put two and two together.) |
| 258 | ** In the KC Grand Prix arc of the [[Anime/YuGiOh original series]] Yugi's grandfather disguised himself using his bandanna as a mask. Needless to say, only Jonouchi -- his opponent -- fell for it. The rest simply didn't want to ruin Sugoroku's fun. (In the dub version, it was even more obvious; the name he used was "Apdnarg Otum" (which is just "Grandpa Muto" [[SdrawkcabName spelled backwards]]; he called himself "Mask the Rock" in the original version) and nearly gave himself away with what he said more than once.) |
| 259 | ** During the first season of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', the Dark Scorpions tried to infiltrate Duel Academy by disguising themselves as faculty (or a student, in one case). Exactly why this didn't initially raise suspicion isn't clear, seeing as they didn't seem very convincing. (Especially in Meanae's case. She posed as the school nurse, and Duel Academy already ''had'' one.) |
| 260 | ** There was apparently a sale at the generic gray cloak shop during Season 3 of ''GX'', as at least five separate characters don them. |
| 261 | ** In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', all Dark Glass has to do to differentiate himself from Bruno is change his hairstyle and don some red sunglasses. Despite the fact that they're both mysterious blue-haired D-Wheel experts who showed up at around the same time. And both were left-handed, no less. |
| 262 | ** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' flirts with this frequently. Yusaku's virtual reality avatar, Playmaker, looks basically the same as him but with somewhat different hair and FutureSpandex, and Emma's avatar, Ghost Girl, is basically Emma with inverted-color hair and [[MsFanservice bare legs and arms]]. This is simultaneously justified and made sillier by the fact that the avatars appear to be completely customizable, and many characters have avatars that look nothing like them (or aren't even human). Justified, in that it means Yusaku and Playmaker looking similar proves nothing to other characters in terms of them being linked, and made sillier, in that this means Yusaku could have made himself unrecognizable but ''chooses'' to look like himself but with blonde hair. |
| 263 | * ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': |
| 264 | ** There is some "mystery" about who the "Masked Fighter" is during the Dark Tournament. Despite "him" being the same size as Genkai, who is so short as to invite Lampshading. And having the same moves, down to the one-of-a-kind super move only Genkai knew. And there being no one else competent who would show up. |
| 265 | ** But the trope ends up subverted when the fighter's mask falls off, revealing the face of a young woman who nobody has seen before. [[spoiler:It's actually a DoubleSubversion, though; the young woman ''is'' Genkai. Reikohado-ken reverts the body's cells to their most powerful state whenever it is used, and naturally, her peak was in her youth.]] |
| 266 | ** To his credit, Kuwabara was positively ''convinced'' Mask (as the Urameshi Team called their teammate) was Genkai, but TheUnreveal caused him to change his mind. When the mask comes off again [[spoiler:and it really ''is'' old lady Genkai beneath it, due to her giving her powers to Yusuke]], [[BigBad Toguro]] comes up and explains everything for the benefit of the demon audience which think the Urameshi Team was cheating. |
| 267 | ** Lampshaded in the English dub by Koenma, "C'mon Yusuke can't you see through a simple disguise?!" Jorge is wearing a bodysuit with his initials on it, Koenma is cosplaying as Tuxedo Mask, and Botan is wearing a cloak and glasses. |
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