A naked or topless woman is shown only by the camera showing her bare back (and nothing below her waist). This usually means someone is seeing her Sexy Front... but not us. Allows the suggestion of female nudity without actually showing the bare breasts. A form of Discretion Shot.
Very Rare Male Examples of this trope also exist. Most often seen in Yaoi and Otokonoko works, which use censorship as a sort of titillation, the idea being that what you don't see is more interesting that what you do.
This trope does not count if the character is also seen topless from the front. Dress Hits Floor is the below-the-waist equivalent.
For clothing that exposes the back but covers the front, see Sexy Backless Outfit.
Examples:
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Advertising
Anne Klein once had a commercial in which a woman has her back to the camera and is astride another figure on a rumpled bed. The woman in the commercial is taking off her bra and the half-naked couple rolls across the floor.
Kagura has one of these in an episode when she's attacked from behind, showing off Naraku's mark on her back.
Kagome has one of these moments when, after being captured and waking up naked in a tub of sake, she leaps out of the pool when Inuyasha breaks down the door to rescue her. All we see is her back and Inuyasha's hilarious expression.
Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist. Her back has a giant tattoo, and burn scars covering it. Since it's Riza, you could still call it Fanservice, and the fourth ending to Brotherhood prominently features her back.
In the Fate/stay night anime, the audience sees Saber's back while Shiro sees the front after she gets out of the bath. Saber doesn't seem to mind and tells Shiro that he shouldn't think of her as a woman, but as a warrior first. Shiro's reaction? "Please Put Some Clothes On!"
The Ouran High School Host Club anime has the twins putting a photoshopped picture of Haruhi's shirtless back on the club website*
since Haruhi is actually a girl, but they want people to think she's a boy
, leading Tamaki to falsely conclude that they must've seen something while taking the picture. It's more egregious in the manga, where the twins put Haruhi's head on Tamaki's chest and Tamaki is still fooled into thinking it's real.
Bare back scene appear on occasion, but it's usually overshadowed by the fact that most of the girls are naked all the time anyway, their modesty only preserved by Censor Steam and lack of detail.
In an oddly justified use of the trope, Setsuna's tribal crow garb comes with an exposed back purely for half-demons and full crows in humanoid form to release their wings. Otherwise the new appendages would appear underneath the user's shirt uncomfortably.
Code Geass: During Kallen's Shower Scene, the curtain gets pulled open, and we get a Toplessness From The Back shot. Then the [[Male Gaze camera pans down.
When Akane's body was possessed by a vengeful spirit doll in Ranma ½, it tried to distract Ranma (so it could kill him afterwards) by stripping bare in front of him. The audience only got to see Akane's back and upper hips; the real Akane (trapped in a doll's body) threw herself at Ranma's face to keep him from looking.
Gintoki gets a lot of these moments. Most of the time, they're played for laughs but that doesn't stop the fangirls from ogling over him.
Fushigi Yuugi gives us a view of Miaka's back as she's bathing to purify herself for the summoning ceremony (her butt's included though, poor girl). We don't see her when she turns around. Tamahome does.
Spice And Wolf: Holo normally doesn't wear clothes, but she does use the trope to justify why she's not going to remove her (ear- and tail- concealing) cloak for some strange merchant Holo and Lawrence met that day.
In 009-1 Mylene Hoffman/ Agent 009-1 has several Toplessness From The Back scenes combined with Modesty Bedsheets. Indeed, the very first time you see her in the series is when she gets out of bed wearing only a bedsheet and showing plenty of sexy back.
Mixed with the Japanese nape-of-neck thing in Samurai Champloo when Fuu poses for an artist. First she's asked to only loosen her kimono a bit and let the collar slide a little lower. OK, that's a bit naughty. The artist just keeps prompting her to lower the collar more and more. Scandalous!
This is often the most we get to see of Nami in One Piece during her shower scenes. In some cases, however, she is shown topless from the front, but with her breasts covered by Censor Steam. The trope was also used as an actual plot point for more than a half chapter, when Hancock had to show Luffy the mark on her back.
Comic Books
Astonishing X-Men #21. When Colossus and Kitty are given a refuge from the Breakworld's Powerlord by former gladiator Arghanne, Colossus considers the ramifications of his presence on Breakworld before turning in. Hearing his confusion, Kitty emerges from behind the curtain. The reader is treated to a clear view of Kitty's nude back. Colossus clearly sees her front.
"Now I am more confused. But somehow not as tired."
Film
In the Tony Jaa film The Protector, there is a scene where Madame Rose rises from a bath, back to the audience, front to her lawyer lover.
In the earlier Jolie-starring film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, there's an instance of Shameless Fanservice Girl when Lara is offered a dress by her butler as she gets out of the shower and, in indignation, she removes her towel and tosses it aside. We see her walking away from behind.
In I Love You Beth Cooper the cheerleader of the title gives the audience this, while giving Denis what's on the other side.
Live Action TV
This happens in an episode of 24, when Nina is forced to undress in front of Jack, so she doesn't try anything. She deliberately faces him, showing us her scarred back. Prison must have been rough.
In the season 2 finale, O'Neill wakes Carter from the cryotable and she only has a sheet on. When she sits up her entire back is revealed resulting in O'Neill giving her a through looking over before requesting they get her some clothes.
The Reveal of RepliCarter in season 8 involves this.
Inara was taking a sponge bath in the unaired pilot. Lucky sponge.
Nandi in the episode "Heart of Gold".
Firefly also features one of the Rare Male Examples in "Trash"; Mal is shown butt-naked from the back. Or, if you will, behind.
Caprica-Six or Sharon Valerii [Athena] in Battlestar Galactica, and basically an excuse to have a sex scene and show off the glowing spines of the female Cylons (at least initially, as the concept was forgottenwould have made identifying Cylons too easy).
Happens in an episode of Night Court (of all places) where a member of royalty from a small island nation casually takes off her halter top in Harry's office when he tells her to "make yourself comfortable". (Apparently, nudity is not a taboo in her culture, seeing as she was arrested in the first place for indecent exposure.)
In a fifth-season episode, we see Lyta Alexander nude from the back in a scene with the irritating telepath Byron, showing how vulnerable she is to his manipulation.
Rather surprisingly, this shows up in the pilot episode of The X-Files between Mulder and Scully. The case involved teenagers being returned from alien abduction with two small bumps on their lower back. Scully finds two such marks on her own back, freaks out, and runs in her underwear and red robe to Mulder's hotel room to have a look. Mulder is understandably perplexed when she drops her robe and has a moment of pause. There is a shot of both the front of Scully in her undies and her bare back as Mulder inspects the bumps. They turn out to be mosquito bites. For the rest of the series, Scully is noticeably more stoic and clothed.
Sally (Kate Isitt) in series two and once with Jane (Gina Bellman) in series four. In each case the audience is treated to "the full backal", as the show puts it, but other characters see the front.
Sarah Alexander's character.
Abby on NCIS had one of these scenes early in the third season, and for a couple of other seasons, the scene was a part of her montage in the opening credits.
In one episode of House, the reaction of a female teenage model to the revelation that she is technically male is to rip off her hospital gown in front of House and a large viewing window (with a lot of startled people on the other side) and scream, "Look at me! I'm beautiful!" We only see this from the back, but House, who has a better view, is definitely looking.
The Vanity Fair photo of Miley Cyrus that caused so much controversy in 2008.
Music
The Pink Floyd poster "Back Catalog"; naked women, with Pink Floyd album covers painted on their back.
The cover of Sade's newest album Soldier of Love. Bam.
Lady Gaga's videos for "Bad Romance" and "Alejandro", although both incidences contain a certain amount of disturbing along with the sexy.
The lovely Kimbra in the music video of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know", combined with Body Paint. Gotye himself appears nude from the front, but both are censored by camera discretion.
The video for "Who's Your Daddy?" by Toby Keith shows Tiffany Fallon from behind, swimming topless in his pool.
New Media
Lampshaded in Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series when Marik/Malik takes his shirt of to reveal a tattoo on his back. "Now watch, Fangirls, as I strip. Yea, get a load of that back. You (EFF)ing love it, don't you!" Might be counted as Fan Disservice in the original anime, once you see how exactly he received it, since in the original Japanese-language anime, it wasn't a tattoo at all; it was actually carved into the flesh of his back to the point of scarring. And look at how intricate◊ this thing is!
Underground Press
In the 1960s, when the underground press flourished under the artistic inspiration and control of hard-working hippies, this demure pose was extremely popular in both line drawings and photographs. It also appeared on numerous psychedelic posters.
Video Games
Miang from Xenogears, after having sex with Ramsus. She has a Modesty Bedsheet to cover her hips, but Grahf is getting a good look at her bare front.
The Wii game Enjoy Your Massage! has this as the gameplay. You massage the bare backs of attractive blue-haired women.
Little Busters: One of Kud's CGs involves this, as on the island where she was born there is a ritual that involves people painting symbols onto one another's skin and while she wanted to give him a big canvas to work on, they hadn't yet been going out long enough that she was comfortable with him seeing her topless front like that.
Jones takes down a Bison Latifrons without any weapons or a top in Gunnerkrigg Court. Since this happened in mankind's infancy, it didn't really attract a lot of attention.
Western Animation
There's a brief shot of Cinderella from the back as she showers in the opening of the film.
There's also a brief shot of this in the Make Mine Music segment, "All The Cats Join In."
The Mask had this in the infamous Cookie BaBoom scene on the season two episode "Flight as a Feather."
