Unperson / Anime & Manga

• Ai Yori Aoshi: Kaoru's grandfather tries to do this to Kaoru after he was adopted as the Hanabishi clan's heir. After his mother passed away, his grandfather ordered the complete destruction of all personal effects that ever proved that she ever existed. Kaoru managed to hang onto a small necklace charm that contains a piece of her placenta when he was born. All he has left of her is that charm and his memories of her.
• Another: The characters in the series adopt this as a survival tactic. A curse regularly kills a particular class's students (and their immediate family members) year after year. The one common trend is that there always seems to be an extra person each year and Laser-Guided Amnesia / Fake Memories prevents anyone from identifying who it is. One response, is to choose one student and make them an Un-Person in the hopes that will make the curse think everything is correct. It has about a 50% success rate.
• Bleach:
  • Rukia had artificially created an existence for herself as a transfer student when she was hiding in the World of the Living. As a result, Soul Society removes all traces of Rukia's existence from the World of the Living when she's returned to Soul Society, including wiping human memories. Only those with spiritual pressure remember her.
  • Tsukishima's death undoes his power and all his effects. His victims also forget all about him, even his very existence, despite remembering everything else.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: In the end of the Clow Card arc, Sakura is threatened with something like this should she fail: no one will actually be gone except Yukito in the anime, who disappears with Kero, Yue, and the Cards, but everyone will forget that their most beloved person ever meant anything to them. This includes a Les Yay moment when Tomoyo Daidouji cannot remember Sakura at all, despite being her best friend, meaning HER most beloved person ever is Sakura herself!
• Cardfight!! Vanguard: Happens to Aichi during Season 4. All memory of Aichi's existence has been wiped from everyone's (except Kai's) memory. Kai sets out to find Aichi, help Aichi's friends remember him, and discover what happened to him. It turns out that Aichi had himself sealed away to prevent the seed of Link Joker (Which had been inside of him since the end of Season 3) from taking control of him. He erased the memory of his friends himself for that end.
• CLANNAD: This happens to Fuko, who simply disappears out of everybody's memories after her sister's wedding. She reappears in ~After Story~, even though Tomoya doesn't remember they ever met.
• Code Geass:
  • In Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, the Emperor (who has the power of creating Fake Memories with his Geass) erases all knowledge of Nunnally vi Brittannia a.k.a. Nunnally Lamperouge from Ashford Academy, replacing her with Rolo Haliburton, now Rolo Lamperouge. This even includes Lelouch, who for a year is convinced that Rolo is his brother... until C.C. restores his memories.
    • Code Geass: Oz the Reflection adds to this by introducing Clara Lanfranc, who was the first Geass Cult spy/"substitute Nunnally". She came into conflict with the Zevon twins and was killed, leading her to be replaced by Rolo, with the Emperor erasing everyone's memories of Clara.
  • After Lelouch successfully topples Britannia, the first thing he does is mind-control the nobles that supported Charles to forget he ever existed, and the second thing is to burn every scrap of history involving the Britannian royal family.
• Crest of the Stars: This is done as a reward to the creator of the "Abh Hell". Though the Abh as the whole don't believe in an afterlife they created a living hell as a place of torture for their worst enemies. The opening narration of one episode recounts the meeting of the Emperor who commissioned its creation, offering the creator any reward they desired. Knowing full well the magnitude of the horror they have made, the unnamed creator's only request is to be erased from history, a request the Emperor grants. There are only two pieces of evidence that the man existed left: the fact that the Abh Hell exists, and the record of the conversation in which the creator asks to be erased from history, which is listed as being between Emperor Dugnac and an anonymous individual.
• Darker than Black: Suou has this happen to her in the second season, as her family is killed/forced on the run, her house is wiped off the map, and all of her friends (excepting the also fugitive Nika) have had their minds wiped of her existence.
• Di[e]ce: All records of Kazuki and Haruki's existences are erased when they get sucked into the death games known as di[e]ce. Only the players that serve them acknowledge/remember them.
• The Executioner and Her Way of Life: Ivory was completely erased from all historical records by the Faust, with his role in defeating the Four Major Human Errors instead being attributed to Church agents.
• Eyeshield 21: A minor case occurs when a character returned to America to find the real Eyeshield 21, everyone seemingly didn't recognize the name or refused to speak about said person. It turns out that Mr Don filed charges against Yamato that didn't exist and had him expelled from Notre Dame.
• Food Wars!: The Big Bad of the Central arc, Azami Nakiri, was banished from Tootsuki and the Nakiri family for the abuse he put his daughter Erina through. Almost everything referencing him was removed from the school (which was not a small feat — Azami is a very accomplished chef) and those who know of him (such as Hisako's parents) refuse to speak of him. After seeing the effects his abuse had on Erina, it's not hard to see why.
• Fruits Basket: Played with. Everyone from outside the Sohma family who has found out about their secret must have their memories of such a fact and of the respective cursed Sohma member deleted, to not let anyone find out about the curse. This includes: Yuki's pre-school friends after a girl trips on him and accidentally triggers said curse, and Momiji's German mother after she rejects him and falls into illness. Tohru is the only exception, and the manga explains that there's a huge reason behind it: Akito and her mother Ren bet on what would happen if she stayed around the Sohmas while knowing about their curse: will she be able to stray them away from Akito's grip, or will they stay by Akito's side even if it's through fear?
• How to Make an Invisible Man: Becoming "invisible" doesn't just mean nobody can see you. It means nobody can see you, hear you, notice your presence, or even remember you, even if they are family, friends or lovers. You even disappear from the photos where you were. Your existence is erased from the world. But even with that, Kana keeps a vague, residual feeling of having lost something; her bond with Shinji is just that strong.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: The Boss intentionally pulled this on himself due to having a near psychopathic obsession with his own anonymity. No one in Passione (and likely the entire world) knows his name or what he looks like due to his systematic erasure of anything that could lead back to him or his identity, and he only gives orders through a complex series of proxies and go-betweens that he is not above killing to preserve said anonymity if it is required. His rampant paranoia comes back to bite him, however, as in his attempts to destroy any possible links to his past or true identity result in him pissing off the heroes since he tried to have his own daughter (who didn't know about him contrary to his paranoia) killed, which sets off the chain of events that leads to them uncovering his identity. Whoops.
• K: Return of Kings: It is revealed that as part of the plan to force Weismann to come down from his airship, the Green Clan did this to Tooru Hieda, the boy whose body the Colorless King stole in season 1, which is why not even Scepter 4's surveillance systems could identify the culprit in the video that shows the Colorless King in Tooru's body committing a murder.
• Madlax: This is the whole plot/premise of the series. Friday Monday seems to be able to do this to people, such as one poor detective who got too close to the truth. Eventually even he forgot who he was as well as everyone who once knew him.
• Martian Successor Nadesico: This is also The Reveal towards the Jovians — they're a bunch of humans who wanted to live their lives through the Show Within a Show Gekiganger III and ended up getting chased out by the Earth Federation all the way to Jupiter. When they came back for revenge, they lied and called them alien lizards.
• Medaka Box: Kumagawa Misogi's infamous ability "All Fiction", a Skill that can make anything become nothing, is capable of this. In middle school, he wound up using it to make the presence of his vice president in the student council, Ajimu Najimi, "become nothing" (and ripping her face off to boot, because why not). Medaka and Zenkichi both still recall the fact that Kumagawa had de-faced a classmate, but even they could not remember who this classmate actually was; when she returns as an "antagonist" upon the loosening of the seals Kumagawa placed on her with "Book Maker", both of them regard her as someone they'd never met before. Later, Shiranui Hansode asks Kumagawa to do this with her (sans the face-off part) and remove all memory of her from Hakoniwa Academy once her role as Medaka's "Double" was finished. But, at that point, "All Fiction" had weakened and was unable to erase things with strong feelings attached to them. Ironically, this meant that the two people Hansode most wanted to forget her were the only two people who remembered and chased after her.
• Mobile Suit Gundam AGE: This is The Reveal about the Unknown Enemy: they are the descendants of an attempt to colonize Mars that failed when the planet's properties started killing people. Instead of evacuating them, the Federation erases all records of it so that they don't have to admit to such an enormous blunder. It backfires. Ohhh, does it ever.
• Monster: Johan Liebert is notable since the one who is removing the evidence of his existence is himself. He also did the same to General Wolf. All because the poor sap at one point asked him "how he felt".
• Naruto: Black Zetsu erased all evidence of Kaguya's existence as part of his Long Game.
• One Piece:
  • Tired of a life where the Marines are constantly hunting him down, Captain Kuro faked his capture by having Jango hypnotize a lookalike from his own crew into thinking he was the real Kuro, then doing the same thing to Morgan so that he would think he had captured him. After that, he abandoned his former crew and found himself a job as a butler working for Kaya's family under the name Klahadore, where he remained for several years as he waited for the perfect chance to kill her and inherit her fortune. Part of this plan, however, involves eventually wiping out his former crew when they come to assist him, ensuring that no one alive will remember his former identity.
  • The prison Impel Down has a total of six levels. However, the sixth level of the prison, which is reserved for those who are most dangerous (whether to society or simply the World Government), does not officially exist, which also applies to the prisoners of that level, most of whom have records of their existence erased after being imprisoned.
  • The Donquixote Family member Sugar has this as a side effect of her Devil Fruit. The main power of her Hobi Hobi no Mi (Hobby-Hobby Fruit) is that it turns people she touches into toys that she can then place under her total control. The side-effect is that all memory of her victims is erased from those who knew them, though physical evidence still remains.
  • The World Government did this with Rocks D. Xebec and the Rocks Pirates. Rocks was a man so powerful and dangerous that it took the combined efforts of Monkey D. Garp and Gol D. Roger to take him down. The island the battle took place vanished off the map (or so it's said), and only a few people still alive know of him and his dangerous crew (which included future Emperors like Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom, as well as other legends like Shiki and Captain John). Those who were there among the Marines refuse to speak of him and advise to stay out of it, and those that once worked in his crew never bring him up because they weren't fond of the era nor their crewmates.
  • Related to the above, Gol D. Roger has a slight version of this done to him. As he gains notoriety and power, his wanted posters are changed from "Gol D. Roger" to "Gold Roger" to hide his connection to the Will of D. All we know about the Will of D is that it's the name of the enemies the upper echelon of the World Government. As erasing Gol D. Roger is harder than Rocks, not helped by the man's public execution and his premortem declaration of his treasure spurring a whole generation of pirates, they have settled to just a Malicious Misnaming. They later try to do the same thing to Luffy after he becomes one of the Four Emperors, by trying to remove the "D" in his name for his latest wanted poster.
  • The World Government goes to the extent of pretending a particular Devil Fruit is a Paramecia-class by calling it a fake name, the Gomu Gomu no Mi, in an attempt to obscure its true abilities, the existence of Joy Boy and the Fruit's true name, the Zoan-type Hito Hito no Mi Model: Nika. The only mention of the name comes from an indestructible poneglyph and the hearsay passed around among slaves who mention the legend of the Sun God Nika — other than that, there are no indications that the fruit is anything special nor that any of the names involved are related to one another. When it awakens, nobody has any context for how Luffy's suddenly pulling off all these fantastical abilities (besides the Five Elders, who are, at the time, unaware that Luffy has managed to awaken the fruit), but Luffy is more focused on putting them to use against Kaido.
  • The World Government and the Marines do this to the Lulusia Kingdom when they discover Sabo is currently there trying to relay the information about the Empty Throne to the Revolutionary Army, at which point Imu erases the country with an unknown weapon or ability, and the Five Elders order their subordinates to pretend that the kingdom never existed. Luckily, Sabo is revealed to have left Lulusia before its destruction.
• Oshi no Ko reveals that this happened to Sarina by her own family in Chapter 119, when Aqua meets her mother and sees a family photo of hers that has absolutely no mention, memorial, or anything to indicate that she ever had a cancer-stricken daughter named Sarina.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Porygon has become something of an Un-Pokémon as far as the anime is concerned. The only episode to feature Porygon as "Pokémon of the week" is infamous for having triggered seizures in a number of viewers; as a result, it was dropped from the schedules and never exported outside Japan. Since then, Porygon and its evolutions have, at most, been glimpsed fleetingly and have never been mentioned by any major character. Which is incredibly unfair by the way, because it was Pikachu that caused the seizures, but since Porygon was the 'Mon of the week, he took all the blame.
  • Kadabra also ended up an Un-Pokémon because Nintendo was sued by the self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller, because he thought Kadabra was an unauthorized parody of him. The anime has not shown Kadabra since 2007, the games starting with Diamond and Pearl won't allow Everstones or the B button to stop Kadabra from evolving when traded, and the TCG has retconned the line so that Abra instead evolves directly into Alakazam. Geller eventually issued a public statement on November 28, 2020, apologizing and declaring he was releasing the ban, so this may change in the future.
  • Lorelei eventually met a similar fate due to using a Jynx with original colors (black instead of purple) in her only episode, "The Mandarin Island Miss Match". As of the current DVD print run, she doesn't exist in the anime at all as far as TPCI is concerned.
  • Pokémon Journeys: The Series had all references to Ash-Greninja erased from flashbacks, instead simply depicting Greninja in its base form.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: This happens to Madoka. She traded all trace of her existence for a happy afterlife for corrupted magical girls.
  • In Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, it's eventually revealed that A) Jyuubey is not the Incubator who created the Pleiades Saints; they erased Kyuubey and enchanted one of his corpses to become his replacement and B) Niko did this to herself with her doppelganger power, so the her who lived her life would not have the guilt of accidentally murdering one of her childhood friends. Both of these have consequences: A) Kyuubey is still able to recruit other magical girls without the Pleiades' interference, since they cannot detect him, and B) Niko's replacement has a nasty case of the Clone Angst after Kyuubey informs her of her nature.
• Record of Ragnarok: This is the in-universe reason for why Adamas doesn't exist in actual Greek Mythology. After being killed by Poseidon, Poseidon had any existing record of him destroyed, as he considered him such an embarrassment that he didn't want anyone else to even know he existed. As a result, only a small handful of people like Hermes and Brunhilde know he existed, with even younger divinities like Göll being unaware of him.
• Serial Experiments Lain: At the end of the series, Lain removes others' memories of her (former) self.
• Shakugan no Shana: A large amount of people have had their power of existence consumed and turned into torches. When a torch's flame dies out, they disappear completely, as if they never existed. No-one will have any memories of them and evidence that hinted towards their existence such as photographs fade away as well.
• Suicide Island: Any attempted suicide patient who consents to being put on the titular island will be considered this by the Japanese government. The island is apparently isolated, and there seems to be little chance of getting off it in the first place, even if the characters wanted to. Furthermore, the characters find themselves handling a number of issues coming from both themselves and the island to even worry about the outside world!
• Tenchi Muyo!:
  • Tenchi Muyo: In the manga, Washu does this to herself when an old robot assistant of hers controlled by Dr. Clay attacks Ayeka and Sasami and threatens Tenchi. It’s imperfect as the others realize something is just not right and Minagi, Ryoko’s sweeter space pirate clone sister, ends up rattling a few things to hunt her down. It’s one of the few times we see Tenchi enter Tranquil Fury once the modifications are undone.
  • Tenchi Universe: Kagato's name was erased from Jurai's history following his first defeat at the hands of Yosho, which was why Ayeka and Sasami has never heard of him.
  • Tenchi in Tokyo: This ends up happening to Sakuya. With her purpose complete, Big Bad Yuugi recalls her (as she's actually her shadow) and everything about her is erased from pictures, memories, everything... except for Tenchi and his friends, which makes the poor kid panic.
• Tiger & Bunny has a variation on it: neither Wild Tiger nor Kotetsu T. Kaburagi were stricken from record and memory, but any indication that they're the same person was. Thus, it becomes much easier for Maverick to frame Kotetsu for the murder of Samantha Taylor and have him hunted down by all of his former friends, whose memories were altered to believe Kotetsu is a murderer. Fortunately for the victim of this plot, Maverick overlooked a few key people - among them Kotetsu's former boss, and the judge who is secretly the vigilante anti-hero Lunatic - who retain their memories and are able to help unravel the plot.
• Vampire Princess Yui: Implied. Once Yui leaves her home after the death of her grandmother and last relative, Miyu and Larva erase the memories of her remaining friends (Kyouko and Shouji) so they won't remember her.
• Tokyo Ghoul: Implied during the finale. The chairman of the CCG has several files on his desk, one of which bears the picture and personal information of protagonist Ken Kaneki. The file has been stamped with the word "ERASED", suggesting some sort of cover-up concerning his existence. In the sequel, :Re, Sasaki discovers that no files on the case exist.....with the exception of a single, misplaced draft report stashed deep within the archives. When he tries to find out more about the Investigator that authored the report, he is told the Investigator's cause of death has been classified and is completely inaccessible.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Happens to the Pharaoh, or 'Yami Yugi' as he's known. When he was king he sacrificed his life, name and memories to seal away the Shadow Games and Zorc, effectively wiping himself from history except in vague records. Upon first release 3,000 years later he seems to have adopted the identity of a dark avenger, since his magic is all he knows about himself. A theme of the series is his quest for a separate identity, as even Yugi's friends still refer to him as the other Yugi or just Yugi after learning of his past life.

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