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Bishop: I prefer the term "Artificial Person" myself.
Ranging from " biological robot" to " cyborg" to " clone". Anime sometimes uses the term "android" in a way different than the West. Ironically, this is closer to the original meaning, which according to the dictionary, is "An automaton that is created from biological materials and resembles a human" (Often in these cases, the term "Bioroid" may be used to classify them separately from the contemporary definition of Android).
The important thing is Artificial Humans look like humans, they move like them, etc. Some may be bullet proof, but you wouldn't be able to tell from touch. Sometimes the only physical indicator is eye-color, which may be red, yellow or purple, or an unusual skin/hair pigment. Not always, though, and given the range of eye and hair color in anime, it's not a perfect indicator.
Artificial Humans often have cognitive traits typical of a robot, such as mathematical skill and a perfect memory on the positive side, and uncreativity and excessive literal-mindedness on the negative side. Many of them also have the same kind of loyalty to their creators that robots tend to be programmed for — although AI Is A Crapshoot in the case of the Artificial Human just as it is when it comes to the electronic version of artificial intelligence.
But many of them have more in common with humans emotionally than robots. They are often outsiders, so their emotional states are often in the "angst" category, which leads to bonding with the kind-hearted hero(ine) or Kill All Humans. If in a society that fully accepts them, there is usually no emotional difference.
Like robots outside anime, it doesn't matter what they're created for, they'll usually have increased strength, speed, and other powers. See Super Powered Robot Meter Maids.
Notice that the very first "robots" in fiction, the eponymous "robots" from Karol Capek's R.U.R., were actually Artificial Humans and not the clanking metal humanoids we now associate with that term.
Like most robotic characters, Artificial Humans tend to Become A Real Boy over the course of the plot.
See also Creating Life, Robot Girl and Spaceship Girl. Technically a Virtual Ghost is also an Artificial Human, but they are rarely treated the same. Compare Ridiculously Human Robot.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In Bleach, there are a few examples. Mayuri's "daughter", Nemu. Then there are the modsouls. And there are some fan theories that Ururu and Jinta are artificial people as well.
- It is harder to find people who weren't artificially created in the Blame! 'verse.
- Some types of "androids" such as Mahoro from Mahoromatic or Ifurita from El Hazard The Magnificent World seem rather biological in nature.
- Dragon Ball Z has Cell, who couldn't be called a human by any means, was a manufactured organism engineered by Dr. Gero by taking genes from each of the Z fighters.
- A straighter example would be the 8-20 series of Artificial Humans Gero created/developed before Cell. However, #17, #18 and #20 (who was Gero himself) were cyborgs.
- Bakuretsu Tenshi: Jo and Marion were designed by the rival syndicate to be the "ultimate battle angels".
- Key The Metal Idol claimed to be an android, although her exact nature isn't revealed until much later.
- Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo was grown from a test-tube by Washuu.
- As is OVA Kagato being he was the hermaphrodite clone of Naja Akara, Washuu's best friend, that took over a Ryoko prototype and split off his female half.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rei Ayanami was a human/angel clone.
- Also, the Evangelions qualify at some level, as they have biological bodies similar to huge human organisms (actually copied from Adam, but Angels/Apostles in Evangelion are basically what humans would be if they rejected their "humanity"), a human soul, and are literally called "jinzouningen", meaning "artificial humans".
- The homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Also, the Philosopher's Stone-infused dummies from the manga. Although, since they contain Philosopher's Stones, they might technically count as a type of homunculus anyway.
- Fate Testarossa, the Wolkenritter, Erio Mondial, the members of the Numbers (including Subaru and Ginga) and all familiars from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Notable in that they're all three kinds; clones, living programs, and cyborgs.
- Yuki in Suzumiya Haruhi fits here, though what exactly she is is obscured by her Techno Babble explanation. As do Ryouko Asakura and Kimidori Emiri.
- In the 9th novel, yet another Artificial Human — one in direct opposition to Yuki — is introduced in the form of Kuyou Suou.
- Annapuma and Unipuma from Dominion Tank Police are called androids. However, Uni is the original, and Anna was actually cloned from her, suggesting a biological origin.
- The Sexaroids of Bubblegum Crisis were a rather distinct homage to the replicants of Blade Runner, complete with a "what is human?" Aesop for Priss, who notably hated Boomers before meeting Sylvie.
- Although the Bioroids in Appleseed are nearly indistinguishable from humans, Cyborgs look more like Humongous Mecha.
- Lain Iwakura in Serial Experiments Lain was created to hold a piece of software in her neural system.
- More accurately she is a piece of software that had a body built around it. Or, well, that's not quite true either. It seems that she's something that has been in the Wired since its birth, and possibly existed before it in some other form. Her human body is artificial, though.
- Or possibly she's just the collective soul/memory/(un)conscious of mankind. Or she could be god. Given that this is Serial Experiments Lain, it's difficult/impossible to tell.
- The main character and several members of the supporting case of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou are androids who are oddly biological in some ways (they must eat and sleep and are basically human in personality) and definitely mechanical in others (getting struck by lightning doesn't seriously hurt Alpha, just requires that her skin be re-coated). The rather leisurely plot of the series spends a lot of time focusing on the nature of these androids.
- Melfina from Outlaw Star is a "bio-android", and also the Spaceship Girl for the titular ship.
- Trigun has Vash, Knives, Tessla, Chronica, Domina, and all the other plants. With dramatic consequences.
- The "Humaritt" Lila from Najica Blitz Tactics is created in a laboratory and possesses superhuman abilities. Her responses are often rather robotic at first, but she gets better.
- The Arume in Blue Drop create synthetic children that are seemingly their exact copies - aside from the tendency to explode. Originally used to battle the earth forces, they are later applied to fend off the remnants of the Arume's rather nasty biological weaponry.
- This is what Mewtwo was supposed to be in the first Pokémon movie. Not that it actually worked...
- Mewtwo was never intended to be human. The girl grown in the tube next to him, though...
- Edel from Princess Tutu was created by Drosselmeyer to influence the path of the story. She's typically called a puppet, probably in reference to the ballets Nutcracker and Coppelia, but although she's strange none of the characters seem to realize this until The Reveal. Uzura, who was made from the wooden remains of Edel, also counts.
- In Gundam 00, it is heavily hinted that the Innovators, along with Tieria Erde and Nena Trinity may be like this due to their innate ability to interact with the supercomputer VEDA.
- Hinted no more in Season 2.
- Touko of Kara No Kyoukai created a number of perfect copies of herself (physically and mentally) using her skill as a dollmaker. She uses them as backup copies of herself, in the sense of "it doesn't matter if I die because my other bodies will live on and do what I would've done." She doesn't seem to care which one is the original or whether its still alive.
- As usual - with Kinoko Nasu that is - the 'truth' is more complex. Touko achieved a level of sophistry in "copying" herself, that the copy is no longer distinguishable from the original hence it ceases to be a copy and Touko can no longer tell which self is really "her".
- Twice in Hell Teacher Nube:
- One morning, Hiroshi wakes up to find himself naked and miniaturized to the size of a mouse. When he gets Kyoko to help and she takes him back to school, he meets himself! Turns out the class decided to experiment with homunculi using the real Hiroshi as a sample, but the tiny result ended up inheriting the original's memories and personality. In the end, Kyoko takes pity on the devastated mini-Hiroshi and creates a homunculus of her own. The two of them go off into the wilderness to make a life for themselves.
- Away on an expedition, Nube is caught in a landslide and ends up trapped underground. After several days, realizing no one is coming to rescue him, and slowly going insane from lack of human contact, he breaks the ultimate taboo: he gathers human remains found in the cave, and enchants them back to life —creating a golem-like girl who likewise latches onto him. It doesn't end well, and is a surprisingly somber plot in an otherwise comedy manga.
- Ennis from Baccano! is a homunculus created from the cells of the Big Bad Szilard and an unspecified, unwilling female donor. The Light Novels introduce more homunculi, most notably Psychopathic Manchild Christopher Shouldered.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, current Big Bad Fate Averruncus appears to be an Artificial Human. Evangeline (the "Doll Master") claimed that he moved like a construct, and Fate himself has claimed that he was "made". Not to mention that his real name is Tertium, Latin for "The Third."
- Chachamaru recently took a step up from average Robot Girl after having a near-emotional-breakdown on whether on not she had a soul, or if her existence was simply a collection of data. However, it's proved shortly thereafter that she does, possibly qualifying her for this trope.
- In the world of Eve No Jikan, all androids must have a holographic halo otherwise they'd be indistinguishable from humans the lone exception is a bodyguard; the titular coffeehouse is the only place where they can turn it off and "relax". Oh, and they're Three Laws compliant.
- Ghost in the Shell is teeming with these.
- Maico in Android Announcer Maico 2010.
- Hikaru in Figure17, who is accidentally created from a Powered Armor "Figure" after protecting Tsubasa in a battle. Hikaru becomes Tsubasa's artificial twin sister.
- Primula from Shuffle is an artificial life form, of the magic variety.
- Juno of Element Hunters is one. The real only way to tell is her stating herself to be one though.
- Akise of Mirai Nikki turns out to be one. Luckily he manages to prove his existence as an entity by doing something of his own free will. Even Deus Ex Machina acknowledges it, and he's the one that made him.
Comics
- Judge Dredd, both Judge Ricos and all of Dredd's clones, in Judge Dredd. In the spin-off audio dramas from Big Finish, it's mentioned that much of Justice Department is made up of clones. Also, there's Mean Machine Angel, a cyborg nutcase with an emotion dial on his forehead.
- The Genetic Infantrymen from {{2000AD}}'s Rogue Trooper series.
- Wonder Woman was a "perfect woman" created from clay by her "mother", Hippolyta.
- The Golden Age Human Torch, android hero of WWII, is visually indistinguishable from a human being.
- Aside from bursting into flame when exposed to oxygen-rich air?
Films — Live Action
- Blade Runner, of course, and its novel precursor Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And the novel continuations.
- Although said artificial humans are never actually referred to as "replicants" in the original novel. Dick's characters refer to them as "andys" instead.
- In Bicentennial Man, the lead turns himself from a true robot to this.
- The whole point and plot of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is the heartbreak of David having the full emotions of a human while not being loved as such.
- Aliens: Bishop. "I prefer the term 'artifical person', myself."
- With the exception of Alien 3, synthetic people figure prominently in all the movies. In Alien and Alien: Resurrection, Ash and Call, respectively, are crewmates who turn out to be androids. Likewise, in Alien: Resurrection, Ripley herself is a clone.
- The title character of Edward Scissorhands.
- The
titular main title character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Literature
Live Action TV
- The most advanced models of Cylons on Battlestar Galactica are biologically human to the point that they can mate with humans and produce offspring, and can only be readily identified as non-human by exposing them to certain exotic types of radiation. Some of them even fool themselves.
- Caprica reveals that realistic humanoid (but not biological) Cylons could have existed 50 years ago (the accidental prototype was a Replacement Goldfish for a scientist's daughter), but their creators ultimately chose the "toaster" design because the realistic androids were too unsettling.
- Mack Hartford of Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, built by Adventurer Archaeologist Andrew Hartford to be the son he never could get. What this says about Hartford is up to the viewer.
- Space: Above and Beyond has the "In Vitros" or "Tanks": genetically designed clones grown in People Jars as forced laborers. Naturally, a Tank is made part of the main cast. Conflict ensues, until they learn to work together.
- Farscape plays with this trope on a number of occasions. Played straight, the Scarrens have "bioloids" that they mostly use as Evil Twin duplicates. Sikozu is also revealed to be a kind of bioloid. There are also neural clones, uploaded people who either exist virtually or within the psyche of another person. Harvey is the most prominent example, but variations appear throughout the series.
- Buffy's sister Dawn started out "life" as the Key to Glory's own dimension but was given a human form based on the Summers gene template and inserted into Buffy's family so that Buffy would protect the Key without question. A fake life-history was created for her and magically inserted into reality to facilitate this.
Music
Mythology
Tabletop Games
- A few advanced servitors are like this in Warhammer 40000, and there's at least one case of an Adeptus Mechanicus adept deliberately seeking to become one.
- Prometheans are born of alchemical rituals designed to create life from corpses. It... doesn't exactly work right; a new consciousness is born inside the body, powered by the very force the moves the universe. Said force makes humans batshit crazy through continued exposure, which means Prometheans have to stick to their own kind. Since they were born of an imperfect alchemical ritual, though, they always have the means to finish the transmutation...
- And from the same universe, we have the fetches of Changeling The Lost, fake humans made by The Fair Folk to cover up their abductions. They're usually made from whatever stray garbage seems appropriate and a piece of the abductee's soul. They believe themselves to be the person they're meant to replace, but always seem to lack one feature (positive or negative) that went into the character of their template.
- Eclipse Phase's Pod morphs — short for "pod people", since they are assembled out of vat-grown limbs and organs and equipped with a computer brain.
Video Games
- The Realians from the Xenosaga TV and game series. In addition, Ziggy is a Cyborg relic from the past.
- Additionally, KOS-MOS and particularly Telos, since she was built from the preserved body of Mary Magdelene. Yes, that Mary.
- Rubedo, Albedo, Nigredo, and Citrine from the Xenosaga videogame series are all variant clones of their creator, Dr. Dmitri Yuriev. There were others created that collectively formed a sort of "hive mind", but they were all destroyed during the Miltia Incident.
- In both the Xenogears and Mega Man Legends video games, the heroes find out that the species on the planet are not humans. Humans died out long ago, and what's left evolved from the biological parts of their technology.
- In Xenogears, Ramsus Kahran is a clone of Emperor Cain. And he has some issues with it....
- In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, Lamia Loveless is a cyborg who is apparently half and half. Her brain contains several computers, and parts of her limbs, sometimes entire limbs, are mechanical. She was made to infiltrate military organizations, so she acted fairly normal, if overly polite. She also has some form of super strength and durability, but it isn't particularly important.
- There are three more Artificial Humans in the R series, and subsequently got carried over to Original Generation Gaiden: Duminuss' children Despoiniz, Lalia and Tiz. The three are homunculus, artificially created human, used as her minions. Though one has a Heel Face Turn only in OG Gaiden.
- Also, the Machinery Children in Alpha Gaiden and the Database in W''
- In Wild ARMs (original and ACF version), the protagonist Rudy is an android/artificial human made from technology similar to that of the Metal Demons. He is a "Holmcross", given the alchemy refs, is clearly a transliteration for "Homunculus".
- The other games had their share of Artificial Humans too. Wild ARMs 3 had Jet, who was similar to the first game's example, only he was created to test the theory of Filgaia as a lifeform, and Wild ARMs 2 and 4 had Cyborgs in the characters of Kanon and Balgaine.
- In Prof. Layton and the Curious Village, Prof. Layton reveals that all of St. Mystere citizens are robots programed to give puzzles to find a guardian for Floria, the baron's late daughter.
- Bryan Fury in Tekken. One Badass crazy cyborg at that!
- Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, Solidus, and the Genome soldiers in Metal Gear Solid and its sequels are clones of Big Boss.
- Several characters from the Einzbern family in Fate Stay Night and Fate Zero are homunculi created through magecraft.
- Also in the Nasuverse, Aozaki Touko from Kara No Kyoukai is Nigh Invulnerable because of this. Whenever her current "container" dies, a prepared backup is activated.
- Arcueid in Tsukihime is an artificial
human True Ancestor, created for the purpose of killing Demon Lords and Dead Apostles. She doesn't get all angsty because she doesn't seem to possess that emotion.
- Finally, also in Fate Stay Night's Heaven's Feel scenario, Shirou is reduced to this in the True ending.
- Or Is It? Because as a real final example, Mordred was apparently a magical clone or something of Arthur rather than being an actual son.
- In Super Mario RPG, the creature Belome was capable of making clones of your party in your second encounter with him.
- Kalas and his brother in Baten Kaitos.
- A.B.A. in Guilty Gear, a homunculus.
- In Haunting Ground, The first three antagonists (Debilitas, Daniella and Riccardo, and even Fiona's father are all Artificial Humans created by the Big Bad. The latter two are his Clones.
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de's Abe no Yasuaki was created by his teacher Abe no Seimei to assist the main character (his Expy Abe no Yasutsugu from Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2 has the same origins). In the manga version, Yasuaki occasionally explains just how, because he wasn't born from a woman, he is "incomplete" and doesn't possess a heart or emotions, even after certain events that proved otherwise; of course, there's always the main character to help with such cases...
- In the Kingdom Hearts games, Organization XIII member Vexen builds several Replicas; humanoid "puppets" made for various purposes. Two recurring traits among said Replicas are the ability to drain power from other people, and a tendency towards feeling incomplete or "borrowed".
- Quote in Cave Story, sort of.
- In Albion, NED's primary means of comunication is using an android body to interact with his crew. He even has an entire army of them prepared to slaughter everyone on board should they rebel.
Western Animation
- Some Transformers late in the original line made use of Pretender technology, which involved fleshy outer shells. Those with human shells, therefore, could shrink down and blend in with humans. This skips the Become A Real Boy step, though, as Transformers are Mechanical Lifeforms, and thus start off sentient and sapient.
- There's also the characters in Beast Wars, who took the Pretender technology one step further to become Hollywood Cyborgs. Even before the line between "tech" and "organic" became blurred in the series, the creators emphasized that the robots' pseudo-organic "beast modes" were "fully functional"... take that as you will.
- Don't forget that in Transformers Animated, it turns out that Sari was a protoform, which is what a Transformer is before it has scanned anything for the first time. She scanned Isaac Sumdac, basically making him her Dad.
- Synergy of Jem is a super-computer type of this.
- Cobra "synthoids" in GI Joe could perfectly mimic real people and were key to several episodes where a Faked Rip Van Winkle or Body Snatcher plot was in effect. They were apparently organic in nature, being constructed of a grey goopy matter called "Pseudoplasm" which they would terrifyingly revert back into by melting if killed or self-destructed.
- The Synthoid technology was also put into use in an episode of Transformers, in which Rodimus Prime, Arcee and Ultra Magnus had their minds transfered into synthetic human bodies. Luckily for the Moral Guardians, these came with automatic underwear.
- There are three examples of this in Code Lyoko:
- Aelita was thought to be one of these (specifically, an AI) for two seasons, until it was revealed that she was, in fact, human, not to mention the daughter of the supercomputer's creator.
- XANA uses "Specters" in his attacks all the time, whether polymorphic (shape-shifting) or not. They are easily synthesized using the supercomputer, and usually look like one of the heroes or someone close to them. They're generally mindless, and can be used to coerce, trick, or attack the heroes.
- A version of these clones can also be utilized by the heroes themselves. So far, two have been cloned this way: Jérémie, the nerd, and William, the jock. Both were used as stand-ins — Jérémie's took his place for a day while he worked on several programs; William's took his place for several months while the real one was trapped in Lyoko. Unfortunately, while these clones were pretty much benign and harmless (unless possessed by XANA, which both have been), they have drastically different personalities than their originals: Jérémie's clone is a bold womanizer, while William's clone is profoundly naďve and stupid.
- Eric in Kim Possible is such a realistic drone that everyone expects him to be human until the Robotic Reveal. And he is killed by a bite from a rodent....
- The Powerpuff Girls were created by Professor Utonium with "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" mixed into a vat; when he accidentally spilled in
a can of Whoopass Chemical X.
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