Unreveals in Anime & Manga.
Examples:
- Every chapter of 20th Century Boys. There are about 15 different Unreveals in the manga (one for each volume). Sometimes the villain has a mask (three of them). He's "seen" in flashback as one of two identically masked children, or again as a child in a different mask. He's seen again in a virtual reality program, but since there are no photos of him as a child, his face is a blank sphere. Later he is unmasked and killed, but because he has always appeared as a masked man, an imitator (or is it the genuine article?) appears. Cue the rest of the manga. His actual identity is only implied in the very last page of the manga's epilogue, 21st Century Boys. He had only been mentioned twice before, and on both occasions the person speaking said they thought he was dead.
- One episode of Anime TV de Hakken!! Tamagotchi is about a few of the Tamagotchis wondering what Zuccitchi looks like without his mask and trying to unmask him. Turns out he wears a seemingly infinite supply of the same mask over his head so that it takes forever to completely unmask him.
- Berserk:
- What made Griffith’s tortured state so disturbing is we never see what his face looks like under his helmet. Given Guts and Judeau (two hardened mercenaries) have a look of horror on their faces when they take a peek and order Casca and the princess not to come any closer, we can assume Griffith drastically lost his Bishōnen looks at least. The Golden Age Arc movies spoil this, as the concept art clearly shows Griffith lost layers of skin around his eyes and face thanks to the torture, which while gruesome does takes away the effective Un-Reveal of the manga.
- During the same bit in the manga (the Tower of Rebirth) we learn about Emperor Gaiseric and a priest who summoned five angels to rescue him, possibly alluding to Skull Knight and Void but at that point we never get any confirmation about it until Chapter 362 which reveals there’s been more than one incarnation of the God Hand. It is shown people were branded in the tower, Foreshadowing what will happen to the heroes later in the Eclipse.
- In Black Butler, hardly anything about Sebastian is ever revealed. When Grell views his cinematic record all he allows her to see is his daily life of the past couple years, when Ciel orders his other servants to take a photo of him using a camera that shows an image of whoever the subject of the photograph loves most he has the family Hellhound burn the pic while it's being developed, and when he assumes his true form all that's seen of him is scattered black feathers and black stiletto heels.
- If you're looking for some answers regarding Saya's origin in Blood-C: The Last Dark, well, you'll be very disappointed because it was never shown. And you'll never find out what is her price for the sword which she got from Watanuki.
- The ending to Cage of Eden was really rushed (because the manga was cancelled) and several mysteries remain unresolved. For example, the manga never explains if they're actually clones, used technology to bring them into the future, or them ending in that future was just a mere coincidence. Even Hades's identity remains unknown.
- In Code Geass, C.C. reveal her name to Lelouch twice, only to be drowned out by the sound of water dripping from the ceiling. After going out of their way to conceal C.C.'s real name from the viewers, implying that it has some larger significance to be revealed later which never comes. Supposedly C.C.'s and Lelouch's seiyuu both actually spoke the name during the scene in question, so the writers really did come up with a name.
- The Cowboy Bebop episode "Cowboy Funk" features a Mad Bomber who is continuously thwarted in his attempts to get the word out on why he is setting off teddy bear bombs to blow up public buildings. His motives are (mostly) revealed at the end. He's blowing up tall buildings in protest of humanity's excesses.
- Cromartie High School gives us Hokuto's Lackey, a character who is Exactly What It Says on the Tin — and every time he attempts to say his name, he's interrupted by increasingly absurd circumstances, from Freddie spilling juice, to a meteor hitting the school, to aliens landing on Earth and accidentally leaving with Freddie on board.
- Cross Game ends with all the relationships resolved but Wakaba's dream still unfulfilled — in particular, we never learn how it is that Aoba plays center field at Koushien, as promised in the opening of the anime.
- Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School:
- Great Gozu's face is never revealed. Even after his mask is removed following his death in Side:Future Episode 3, he has a cloth covering his face.
- In Side:Future Episode 5 Tengan tells Munakata who the attacker is, only the audio is muted so that we only see the latter's reaction. The scene is then shown unmuted in Episode 10 to be a purposely vague answer, with the end of the episode of having the characters learning the truth for real...only the episode cuts out before we get anything more than the characters reactions.
- In Death Note, when Light finally learns L's true name, this information is not passed on to the audience. The information itself is largely irrelevant to the audience anyway, compared to the fact that Light has it, but for the intensely curious, supplemental material has revealed that "L Lawliet" is his complete real name.
- Den-noh Coil wraps up most of the series' mysteries to satisfaction, but a few things are left vague.
- The biggest one is the nature of Yuco Yasako and Yuco Amasawa's relationship. The series ends with Amasawa admitting with the complicated history they have, she can't say if she thinks of her as a friend, a partner, a sister, or something else. Given the lengths Yasako went to get her digital body back, it's possible it might even be romantic in nature, as her friend Ken has definite subtext and shares a similarly aloof personality hiding emotional vulnerability after losing a loved one in an accident.
- The nature of the Illegals ultimately goes unanswered as well. Ken theorizes they're strong emotions left by the collective unconscious, a few seem to be digital pets that have been left behind, or possibly the minds of users that have drifted too far with Imago, or a combination of all of these.
- For that matter, what is Densuke? He's not a normal digital pet, he's survived data wipes, Cryptography attacks, and guided both Amasawa and Kyoko back from the Other Side when this should have been impossible. And each time it looks like he's gone for good, he keeps coming back okay.
- In the "ask the author" section of Doctor Slump, Tori-Bot asks the Gatchans questions concerning them. While Tori-Bot claims "mystery solved" following Gatchans' answers, no one translates said answers, so the readers gain nothing for it.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Edward always covers the text balloon whenever someone mentions his exact height.
- In the Gakuen Alice anime, when Mikan finally gets a letter from her grandfather, we don't get to find out what it says - we only see her tearful reaction.
- Goblin Slayer never reveals the titular character's face. He takes off his helmet to show other characters his face at the end of the first light novel/final episode of the anime, but it's still concealed from the audience. The other characters' reactions do imply that he's handsome, though.
- Goodnight Punpun never reveals Punpun's face. He's represented on default as a cartoony bird, but he's supposed to be a normal human. The closest we get is a character drawing a portrait of him, however they blanked out his eyes.
- Halo Legends:
- In The Package, we see the faces of all other Spartans before (and sometimes after) they don their helmets, but Master Chief puts on (and later takes off) his helmet just off-screen.
- Origins does this on several levels with the Forerunners. We finally get to see what a Forerunner looks like after nearly 10 years of waiting... but all the ones we see are wearing Power Armor so we don't know what they look like underneath. Then Word of God announced that the short was only a possibly-rampant Cortana's interpretation of the data she had collected, so the Forerunners weren't necessarily bipedal horned humanoids with five fingers; fans would have to wait until the appearance of the Ur-Didact and the Librarian in Halo 4 to see what they actually looked like.
- Haruhi Suzumiya:
- After Kyon refuses Koizumi's suggestion that he confess his love to Haruhi as a way to escape the Endless Eight "Groundhog Day" Loop ("There is no one more suited for this than yourself, right?"), Koizumi offers up the possibility of doing so himself. The resulting expression on Kyon's face is pointedly kept out of sight in every iteration of the loop, but it's enough to make Koizumi laugh and quickly wave off his remark as a joke.
- Other unreveals include the name of the computer club president (replaced by a scene of a cat meowing) and Haruhi's expressions at the end of the first season both when Kyon kisses Haruhi and when Kyon tells her her ponytail looks good.
- A Fan Sub for some of the "Endless Eight" episodes uses <classified information> when Mikuru and Itsuki talk about the details of time travel and the endless recursion of time. As it turns out, they actually say something along the lines of "classified information" in Japanese. Kyon, being the Deadpan Snarker he is, wonders out loud if it is some kind of censor.
- An instance where this is played lightheartedly for humor: when Kyon is about to introduce himself by his real name to Koizumi, Haruhi interrupts him and says "That's Kyon!"
- Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto: Sakamoto's first name is never revealed. He does say it at one point, but it ends up being obscured.
- Subverted in Hetalia: Axis Powers: it looks like this has happened when Turkey appears without his mask, as his face is constantly blocked by the crowds. In the very last panel of the strip, however, we get a completely clear view of him.
- In Hunter × Hunter, Gon receives a recorded message from his Disappeared Dad and shuts it off right when he's about to explain what happened to his Missing Mom (much to his Best Friend Killua's frustration), because as far as he's concerned his Parental Substitute Aunt Mito is his mom.
- Chapter 12 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has Kaguya receive an anonymous love letter. Despite We Want to Talk About Kaguya and the light novel both having followup chapters, the identity of the writer is never given. All that's known for certain is that it wasn't Erika.
- This happens in one short-story case arc of The Kindaichi Case Files. Kaya, a cop, requests Kindaichi's help to solve the murder that she struggles with, promising that she'll let him see the inside of her mysterious box, which she guards jealously, if he helps. Kindaichi agrees, only to find at the end of the chapter that inside Kaya's box is... another box, much to Kindaichi's chagrin.
Kaya: I said you could open the box, but I never said you could take a look at what was inside.
Kindaichi: How... How can you use such a childish trick...?!
- Early in The Legend of Koizumi, Prime Minister Koizumi, already dying from multiple gunshot wounds, flies a fighter jet into a nuclear missile in order to save Japan, resulting in the obliteration of both the plane and the missile. The only explanation given is that it happened, so it can't have actually been impossible. Yukari tries to ask for more information, but is cut off by a pressing mahjong battle against Vladimir Putin.
- Through the whole run of Maison Ikkoku, Soichiro had been depicted as The Faceless. Finally at the end, Godai gets a clear look at his picture. Too bad that for the reader his face is covered by a panel
◊. - The Medabots anime uses this in Season 2 when mysterious Space-Medafighter X's golden mask is split to reveal... the equally-mysterious Phantom Renegade's white mask. (And then Phantom Renegade's tuxedeo-and-tophat costume suddenly appears over Space-Medafighter X's.)
- Miss Sunflower stars the eponymous character, the manager of a small bookstore known as the Sunflower Bookery. "Miss Sunflower" is not her real name, but a title given to the owner of the bookstore, which she inherited from her late predecessor, so Miss Sunflower's given name is unknown for much of the series. Even Miss Sunflower's older brother(who goes by a pen name, concealing the siblings' true surname), her best friend Ayame and her mother are never shown calling her by name. In Chapter 100, near the end of the series, Matsuri, a high school graduate who has a crush on Miss Sunflower and has known her since the start of high school, asks her for her name, and Miss Sunflower whispers it in Matsuri's ear. Matsuri remarks that it's a normal name, but goes back to calling her "Miss Sunflower" most of the time.
- Monster never reveals to us the true names of twins Johan and Anna, even though it was revealed to Tenma by their mother, who was still alive by the end of the story.
- Naruto:
- There's the infamous Episode 101, the "Unmask Kakashi" episode. At the end, he takes off his mask to reveal... another lighter-colored mask. Cue Wild Take from Team 7. However, the one-off manga special this episode was based off didn't even reveal that to the main characters (and audience). Apparently, the ramen store-owner and waitress did see Kakashi's real face, and the reaction (all starry-eyed with the Luminescent Blush) seems to suggest that Kakashi is at least a borderline Bishōnen.
- A later manga special had Naruto asking Kakashi's ninja dogs what his face looked like. They all give different descriptions, but after Pakkun criticizes them they agree on his account. Naruto then runs off to tell Sakura, right before Kakashi comes by the dogs while eating and the dogs all notice that wasn't what he looked like either.
- And then the true reason to why Kakashi wears his mask is revealed in the spin-off manga Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth: it's to hide his nosebleeds whenever he reads porn. Although he later says its a joke, so its back to square one.
- Even at the end of the series, when Kakashi becomes Hokage, the carving of his face on the Hokage Monument still depicts him with his mask on.
- The manga-omake "The Real True Face…!!", released after the end of the series, is about another past attempt by Team 7 to unmask Kakashi. Once again, they completely fail. However, the audience finally gets to see Kakashi unmasked once he's by himself, and the ramen store people's reactions from the previous one-off seem to have been pretty warranted.
- More dramatically this has happened at least three times with another masked character, Tobi.
- He tried to let Sasuke see his face, but after he'd only shown one corner he was interrupted by the Amaterasu ability Itachi put in Sasuke's eye activating, setting Madara on fire. After that, he stumbles back out of view and when he comes back the mask is on and he keeps it on.
- Aoba started reading Kisame's mind and recovers a memory of him without his mask, but he's in the shade with only his eye visible and Kisame manages to kick Aoba out right as he's coming into view, then frees and kills himself before they have a change to try again. Turns out this one was particularly important in retrospect, because Aoba had known the man who would become Tobi before he started wearing the mask, and thus would've been able to tell the good guys exactly who they were up against if not for Kisame's actions.
- When fighting Konan, part of his mask is destroyed revealing exactly the same part of his face we'd already seen. Another attack destroys even more of his mask, but almost everything besides his other eye is hidden in shadow.
- Tsunade uses a transformation technique to maintain her young image. The only times she returns to her true elderly form is when she is low on chakra. But both times that this happened we only saw part of her face. What we see of the rest of her body implies that while her jutsu makes her appear younger than she actually is, her true form looks older than she actually is (probably because her rapid-regeneration jutsu cuts into her lifespan).
- In Boruto, Orochimaru gets ready to tell his son if he's his mother or father, but Mitsuki replies that he's fine not knowing.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
- In one of the last chapters Negi whispers to Asuna the name of the girl he likes. The reader doesn't get to know who it is... at first. Sequel series UQ Holder! revealed that the girl was Chisame.
- Hell, the finale is full of these, from the whereabouts of Negi's mother to how the Big Bad of the series was defeated offpanel. Fans weren't pleased.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, when Ritsuko's plan to blow up NERV is thwarted by the MAGI, Gendo delivers a(n inexplicably) muted line.
Gendo: Ritsuko Akagi, the truth is... (mouths something)
Ritsuko: You liar... (Gendo shoots her)
- In the Spanish dub, he said "I always loved you". But you know... EVERYBODY knows that he would destroy humanity and bring the end of the world as we know it to be with his wife, Yui. The fans weren't pleased. He also says it (or rather, "I did love you") in the manga adaptation by character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, so that might actually be the line.
- There's some evidence the line was "I need you".
- Happens in One Piece whenever information about One Piece or the Will of D is about to be revealed. When Usopp asks Silvers Rayleigh what's on Raftel, Luffy basically says NO SPOILERS. Later, Whitebeard flashes back to a conversation he had with Roger concerning the true nature of the Will of D, but the flashback is cut off and Whitebeard dies a few pages later.
- In Robin's Dark and Troubled Past flashback, her mentor Professor Clover is shot right before he can give the name of the ancient kingdom from the Void Century. Despite surviving the gunshot wound, he never finishes his previous sentence (and then dies in the bombardment of the Buster Call, meaning nobody can go back and ask him later).
- Similar to the Kakashi example, Sanji’s left eye was always covered by his hair pre-timeskip, even when Sanji is hanging upside down something will cover it up e.g a speech bubble or Usopp. This led to Wild Mass Guessing whether or not Sanji actually had a left eye or not, even Oda joked that it was a “mystery”. Subverted post timeskip Sanji combs his hair to right to reveal his eye is normal but his eyebrows are asymmetrical, what Sanji looks like with both eyes uncovered only Fan Art can answer.
- Played straight with Doflamingo and Vergo's eyes as they always keep their Sinister Shades on at all times. We see at least one of Doffy’s eyes in a Flash Back though.
- Oden's Flash Back in Chapter 968 does this with the One Piece! itself, as we see Gol D. Roger and his crew's reaction to the "treasure"... they laugh their heads off. Despite learning just about everything else, the titular One Piece still remains a mystery to the reader.
- While Luffy has always wanted to be King of the Pirates, he also has a more personal goal that initially, only his "brothers" Ace and Sabo know about. He reveals it to his crew in Chapter 1060, and while they're shocked, amused and/or impressed, the reader has no idea what he actually said.
- Outlaw Star:
- During the second to last episode, Gene finally asks why someone who's so obviously not much of a team player like Suzuka works with them. She gives a true enough answer: Tracking down Kei Pirates and killing one of them in particular. They separate and said pirate asks her why she works with them. Does she love Gene or something? Suzuka claims that she will tell his dead body after the fight, but if she does, we never find out for sure.
- Several unrelated characters, upon meeting Gene, comment that he's a red-haired man with a Caster as if this is something of significance. However, neither Gene nor the audience is ever told anything about it.
- Why Ron MacDougall attacked Gene's father's ship is never revealed. When Gene confronts him about it, all he says is that he's attacked and destroyed so many ships that a single random ship "about ten years ago" isn't enough for him to remember anything about it.
- Powerpuff Girls Z:
- Buttercup's civilian identity is a 13-year-old tomboy named Kaoru Matsubura, whose father is a masked wrestler who never removes his mask, even when at home with his family. In the 44th episode, Kaoru's father finally allows his daughter to see his face, but the audience doesn't get to see it because it happens off-screen behind a door and Kaoru refuses to tell her friends Momoko/Blossom and Miyako/Bubbles what her father's face looks like.
- A play on this trope happens when they first bring Him into the anime. Him's true name is spoken, but is so horrible and twisted that the Universe itself censors it, which is outright stated. Not necessarily an Un-Reveal, since you really didn't think there was any "reveal" at all. Him was simply Him.
- Prunus Girl:
- Aikawa gets hounded by girls for a whole chapter about the secret behind his unwanted body hair and ends up whispering the answer in Maki's ear.
"That night, Maki had a nightmare."
- It's left vague if Aikawa is crossdressing or if he's a girl pretending to be a crossdresser. The manga leans towards the former however it is never 100% confirmed.
- In Ranma ½, Principal Kuno; threatens to reveal everyone's English test scores for all to find out. Ranma initially doesn't care, but when the principal implies his score is so bad he couldn't reveal it, Ranma gives chase and the principal later changes his mind about revealing his score. Even Ranma's English teacher forgot what she actually gave him. When he finally caught him, it turns out that what the principal had was actually a cheesy prank of a poster with his face with the words "Kiss me!" and he accidentally left everyone's test scores in a hot-air balloon (which is initially how he was going to let everyone know). The scores reach the international news somehow; Akane's score turns out to be very good, and while Ranma's isn't revealed, it's implied he actually did not too bad.
- School Rumble. When Eri & Yakumo were fighting in the school play, Eri asks Yakumo about her relationship with Harima. Her answer is never revealed but it is enough to make Eri yield.
- In the final episode of Shattered Angels, Himiko and Kaon are talking when Kaon finally asks what Himiko's real name is. Himiko obliges, taking off her glasses and says "My name is..." while looking at the moon. She doesn't say her name at all, but it's heavily implied that they're the reincarnations of Himeko and Chikane from Destiny of the Shrine Maiden.
- Summer Time Rendering: As a result of Shinpei traveling back to the starting point after being murdered twice, we are never shown who asked the innkeeper for the whereabouts of "the lady with the huge honkers" in the first loop. But if you piece all the hints from the first three loops together you'll realize that it was the Shadow Shinpei created at the funeral by Shadow Shiori.
- In Super Gals, Towa reveals Ran's secret to Kasumi. But whatever it was, it isn't actually interesting.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: This is played with in the infamous Hot Springs Episode where Kamina and the rest of the guys are waiting with bated breath to see what the girls look like under their towels. Turns out they're wearing bathing suits underneath.
- Duero's hair is flipped in the last episode of Van Dread, revealing his supposedly handsome face. We still don't see it, though.
- Hodaka Morishima’s reasons for running away in Weathering With You are not revealed because Makoto Shinkai, the director, didn’t want it to be an all too familiar story. But the light novel suggests he had an abusive father.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!: Third Arc Villain and Luke Expy The☆Luge is someone Yudias says sounds familiar to him from the moment he gets introduced. However, it turns out that's because The☆Luge is the author of the manga Mr. Universe which despite its popularity in-universe isn't all that relevant to the audience outside of being connected to the gimmick of a minor character who only appeared in one episode.
- Code Geass: Lelouch learns C.C.'s real name by accidentally seeing some of her memories, but an obtrusive sound effect (water dripping) keeps the audience from hearing it (and then he goes back to calling her C.C. later on). This also ends up becoming a more standard form of The Unreveal, since her real name is never revealed within the series despite ample opportunities.
- The End of Evangelion was originally going to play this type of Unreveal straight, as Gendo's final words to Ritsuko before killing her were supposed to be drowned out by an explosion. The sound effect ended up not being used, but Anno still wanted the line to not be heard, so Gendo moves his mouth but has no dialogue. Anno apparently did tell Yuriko Yamaguchi, Ritsuko's seiyuu, what Gendo said, but no one else knows.
- Sgt. Frog:
- The most noteworthy is the season 6 episode explaining Giroro's scar. It turns out the explanation given was a fake one devised for an infomercial.
- In a season 7 episode about Dororo's mask, in the end we don't see his mouth but the characters do, from their reaction it can't be that strange looking. They were distracted by Keroro spilling some water or something and don't get to see it before Dororo puts his mask back on. It's probably nothing unusual though, since Dororo agrees to show them in the first place. (He does blush and... giggle... afterwards, but wearing a mask all the time probably makes taking it off feel like getting naked.)
- In episode 52 of Sonic X, Sonic kneels down before Amy, offering her a flower. In the original version, his mouth moves but no sound comes out, but whatever he says makes Amy happy enough to hug him. Unfortunately in the dubbed version, they actually gave him voiced words ("I'll always be around," or something like that) which didn't quite carry the same emotion.
- To be more specific, Amy is tearfully pleading, "Say to me...just tell me that you love me," which results in the aforementioned scene. Like the English dub, it's averted in the French version, where Sonic does actually say that he loves her.
- Frustratingly, this happens again in episode 69 when Amy is recalling the event. Cosmo and Cream interrupt her before she can finish, so the only thing we know for sure is that Sonic said, "Oh Amy..."
