This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
From YKTTW:
Seth: Lazy anime artists. Anyway ive noticed a trend in some drama/character driven anime like Bokura Ga Ita and Honey And Clover where the background characters will only be partialy drawn. Outlines, no face, grey blurring (used for a plot relavent reason in Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl as well) ect. BGI is really bad it has one side character whose face is never shown she is just there to show you nana has female friends, doesn't bother with a background in several scenes and will have entire classes of facless people shown with three or four main cast members standing out.
Offenders: Lain, Koi Kaze, BGI, H&C, Paranoia Agent. Basicaly any serious anime.
But oh for a name. I was leaning towards Didnt Draw The Extras, Ran Out OF Ink, Extras Are Boring To Draw something like that.
Tzintzuntzan: This looks like an old Western Animated Trope too, where (for instance) spectators in Bugs Bunny's bullfighting ring would be nondescript blobs. It was so common that when The Simpsons actually drew all the people in crowd schenes, some critics considered this a breakthrough in animation.
Seth Looks like someone nabbed the entry and made it Faceless Masses. I should edit in the anime examples at some point
Ununnilium: Paper dolls? ``;
Man Called True: Best phrase I could come up with. They're completely white, blobby things without facial features or digits. There's a parody of them in the fourth episode of Excel Saga.
Seth Meanie i was planning an entry just like this :P There is a list of examples on YKTTW on the discussion for it if you want to edit those in.
Looney Toons: I always thought the extras in Di Gi Charat looked like fingers -- they had all the proper jointing, as I recall.
Adam850: I added the picture from Excel Saga #4. An example of what Man Called True mentioned above.
