History Main / CastOfSnowflakes

** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' uses the same engine; the absence of YouAllLookFamiliar is impressive. (Especially amongst the ghouls, who are significantly harder to distinguish by facial features alone. They all have ''different-looking'' rotted flesh.)

* Despite the utter lack of any [[NegativeContinuity coherent continuity]] (most of the time), ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' actually boasts a very diversely designed cast of characters (as evident in [[http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_characters/Main this]] wiki page). In the main lineup, we have a sponge, a star, an octopus, a crab, a [[SerialEscalation plankton]], and a squirrel. And while the recurring characters generally are fish, each of them has a distinctive design that are easily recognisable. Also almost all of them are *named*. The brown fish that yells my leg? Fred. The blue fish that says "[[MemeticMutation Big meaty claws]]"? Harold. Stocky brown fish wearing a shirt that yells chocolate? Tom. And let's not get started will all the one-shot and guest characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''. Head character designer Steven E. Gordon is often praised for unique character designs for each person, even minor background characters. However, clothing designing is often very similar and reused (Boys tend to wear sagging pants and exposed boxers, while girls tend to [[BareYourMidriff show off their stomachs]]). The facial designs and haircuts are so unique, that when two characters have slightly similar appearances (Amara and X-23, both being young, short, with dark skin and brown hair) some fans make a big deal about how much they look alike, despite being completely different (Both have different builds, different skin tone, and different hair cuts and shades).

* Creator/YoshihiroTogashi: In any given series he created, it'll even go into "NonstandardCharacterDesign" territory. Some of the characters he creates look like they belong to some other manga series, especially in the case of ''Manga/HunterXHunter''. In some cases, it's just... ''[[UncannyValley weird]]''.

%%* The cast of characters in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman''.
* Invoked by Creator/{{Pixar}} for ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' and held over for ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''. When setting out to design all non-hero monsters they came up with an innovative workaround to manually designing them all. They modeled and rigged half a dozen different variants for bodies/eyes/appendages/etc then wrote an algorithm which would randomly choose body parts then merge scale and color them to create thousands of unique looking monsters which were grouped by "families" determined by what base component they were built on.
* The denizens of Halloweentown in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''.

* ''WesternAnimation/SanjayAndCraig'' has a strangely unique and diverse cast of characters from Main and Secondary characters to Extras and One-Offs. Heck, even real people like Marc Summers and Creator/DolphLundgren make guest appearances. It really shows in the episodes [[http://s2.dmcdn.net/T0ZIl/1280x720-vzH.jpg "Street Dogg"]] and [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/nick-sanjayandcraig/images/2/2d/Booyah_for_Bollywood_%28131%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20160730110548 "Booyah for Bollywood"!]]

* Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' has a distinct love of using distinct background characters. Often one-shot characters from previous [[ChekhovsGunman (or even future)]] episodes...

* Occurs in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' largely by virtue of the fact that they keep making episodes and never throw anything away. Bumblebee Man? Disco Stu? Permanent residents. Creator/MattGroening is credited with establishing the "Groening Rule", which says that every character should be immediately identifiable from their silhouette alone.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' went through a similar process, so much so that one of the last scenes of ''Into the Wild Green Yonder'' has a crowd shot containing every adult character at once (it was originally supposed to be everyone ever, but a joke necessitated them to remove them because it hinged on there not being any children present).

* Every ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' and ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' character has a unique design and none of them look even a little bit alike, even though all the girls have the same HartmanHips. WordOfGod says this was done intentionally so that each character could easily be recognized in silhouette, similar to ''The Simpsons'' example above.

%%* The characters in ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold''.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Some of the earlier episodes have repeated designs for background characters, but by and large, it follows this trope. If you recognize a specific character design from an earlier episode, you may be pretty certain it's the same individual. Once had a whole flock of 12-year-old boys who were in identical costumes and ''bald''. They were all distinguishable. The main characters also routinely swap hairstyles and costumes, and remain completely recognizable.
* Continued in SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra.'' Even background characters in a bustling metropolis have distinct features.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' tends to reuse certain background characters who have their own distinct looks, behaviors, and even voices.
* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', featuring the [[AnimationBump best animation quality]] in the two series, uses this to great effect during crowd shots. Often done on purpose to feature many cameos from all over the 25-year franchise.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': despite a pretty simple art style, every character (even relatives) looks distinct from one another; even background and one-off characters each look unique in nearly every way possible. However, since the uncancellation, the male character designs for the former seem to look much more realistically proportioned and their faces are almost the same, as well as having rounded edges for their noses. The latter, however, has completely different designs for characters.
** In the former show, the exception seems to be family members -- Lois and Meg have similar faces, along with Lois' mother. Peter is also a dead-ringer for his biological father.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles'', ever character, including unnamed extras and RedShirts, is distinct from every other character. Even when [[FacelessMooks the troopers are wearing full helmets that obscure their faces]] they can be identified by their armor and name tags. [[OnlySixFaces The one time it is averted]] it becomes a vital clue to the team that something is wrong, as they notice that they keep passing the same people all throughout a town.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', every character has not only a different design but also [[MediumBlending a different art style]].
* Creator/JohnKricfalusi and Spumco produced shows, such as ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheRippingFriends''. Of course, all of it is done with full intention, since this ''is'' Creator/JohnKricfalusi we're talkin' about.
* The characters in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''.

* ''WesternAnimation/BillyDilleysSuperDuperSubterraneanSummer'' heavily suffers from this! Barring the titular trio, we've got [[HalfDressedCartoonAnimal a rat with a tank top and sandals]] [[LazyBum who spend his appearances lazing around]], [[CuteMonsterGirl a green female creature]], a sludge-obsessed humanoid tyrant and [[MyBelovedSmother his nagging mother]], [[FrazettaMan a group of ape-like creatures named "Troggies"]], a BarbarianHero who is actually a fraud, a round, dark red, one-eyed creature who looks like a giant meatball, [[LizardFolk an army of lizard warriors and their leader]], [[StalkerWithACrush a clingy old witch]], and so many more!
* ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'' has this, the neighbors, military personnel, random citizens, and school students all look VERY different. Some occur several times, but if they go to the same school, this is justified.
* The characters of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''.
* ''WesternAnimation/HuntikSecretsAndSeekers'' is good about this, having unique designs for everyone, even random civilians and [[{{Mooks}} Suits]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Motorcity}}'', especially since the characters still have a more realistic shape with some cartoony features, much like {{Anime}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'' and its [[WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie two movies]] have significant variance in important characters, minor characters, and extras in terms of head shape, face and ear shape, body shape and physical size, and even the degree of anthropomorphism applied to the FunnyAnimal and ''what'' animal characteristics are retained, which can vary significantly even within one ''family''. Even the characters who are meant to physically take after one another (Max after Goofy, [[GenderEqualsBreed PJ after Pete, Pistol after Peg]]) have significantly different faces and head shapes.
* Impressively, the meerkats in the crowd scenes of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingOneAndAHalf'' all look distinct, despite having similar body shapes and no clothes to help distinguish them.
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', a stop-motion example. While some faces/designs are shared occasionally[[labelnote:Note]]such as Orel's crush Christina, which is his head but with longer hair[[/labelnote]], most of the models are very distinct, usually by noses or the shape of their head.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' always had very unique character designs for the main characters, though background characters could suffer from OnlySixFaces.
* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' due to the fact that everyone in Miseryville except for Jimmy and Heloise are [[OurDemonsAreDifferent different kinds of demons]]. Watch enough episodes and it gets pretty easy to recognize even the nameless incidentals.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has quite a diverse cast, even among the secondary characters. Interestingly, we later see that [[CloneArmy Gems of the same type are SUPPOSED to be identical]], but we still see plenty of little variations to help distinguish them.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Mixels}}'' has every character look unique from each other, to highlight the idea of creativity the series pushes. Even one of the first commercials says that "every Mixel is unique". Even Mixels that skirt the line (such as Slumbo and Shuff) still manage to look different enough from each other (like Shuff's rocky texture and Slumbo's ice crystal hands). This is also averted with their enemies, the Nixels, who [[OnlySixFaces all look alike]] to further highlight how uncreative they are.
* ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' features a wide variety of facial features and body shapes in both its human and animal cast.
* Every ''WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero'' character has a unique face shape and body type, even [[LivingProp irrelevant background characters]]. In the [[FisherKingdom part-timers]]' case, this allows the audience to quickly figure out who they are even when their current form doesn't display much MorphicResonance. More intricate details such as pupil sizes and eye shapes often vary as well.
* Despite the utter lack of any [[NegativeContinuity coherent continuity]] (most of the time), ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' actually boasts a very diversely designed cast of characters (as evident in [[http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_characters/Main this]] wiki page). In the main lineup, we have a sponge, a star, an octopus, a crab, a [[SerialEscalation plankton]], and a squirrel. And while the recurring characters generally are fish, each of them has a distinctive design that are easily recognisable. Also almost all of them are *named*. The brown fish that yells my leg? Fred. The blue fish that says "[[MemeticMutation Big meaty claws]]"? Harold. Stocky brown fish wearing a shirt that yells chocolate? Tom. And let's not get started will all the one-shot and guest characters.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' applies this and takes it a step further. When there are large numbers of ''mundane'' background extras, they tend to be unique and distinctive, but there is no hesitation to reuse them later without regard for their identity or context. When it comes to crowds of ''heroes and villains'', however, even characters that are seen only for a few seconds in the background are memorable enough that it's easy to believe they each have their own name and canon. Indeed, many of them turn up later with just that; Sgt. Hatred, for example, was first seen waiting in line at arch-villain tryouts before becoming a recurring character, then a main cast regular. Unnamed ''henchmen'' on the other hand, are usually FacelessMasses. The handful of exceptions, such as #21 and #24, are seriously lampshaded.
* The characters of ''WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja'' have different face shapes, body types, eye shapes, and signature colors.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' does a good job at this. Marinette's classmates have varied faces, body types, and style. And this applies to the rest of the supporting cast as well.
* The characters of ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' have distinct appearances and silhouettes. The background characters are also unique-looking and recognizable.
* ''WesternAnimation/AtomicPuppet'', to the point where even the background characters are easily recognizable.
* Mostly the characters from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers,'' as a MerchandiseDriven show, has quite a few [[OnlySixFaces characters whose toys are identical except for color or other minor details.]] However, most such characters introduced in the second season are drawn with totally different proportions from their counterparts from the first season (for example, Hoist and Trailbreaker's toys are almost identical, but their animation models are very different). The most notable example is the "cone head" Seekers, where the animators varied them by making one change in how they transformed their toys from vehicle to robot (this was probably seen as necessary since the first season ''already'' had three Seekers identical except for color, and the second season introduced three ''more.)''
* In ''WesternAnimation/JellyJamm'', the Jammbonians all have very distinct body shapes that make it tough to mistake one of them for another.
* ''Everywhere'' in ''WesternAnimation/{{Numberjacks}}''.
** The Numberjacks themselves are all different numbers with different skin and eye colours.
** Each of the five villains looks very different from each other; a spoon, a floating sphere, a floating head, a green BlobMonster, and a strange man in a white coat.
** The Agents are a very diverse group of children. Throughout the course of the series, there have been black agents, white agents, brown agents, Asian agents, and Hijabi agents, all of whom wear different clothing and look very distinct from each other.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' has a large cast of unique recurring characters that populate background shots. Hexside alone has around 50 different students who all have an established magic track and are instantly recognizable despite usually being seen wearing the school uniform. Even [[FacelessGoons Coven Scouts]] start having different body types from "Any Sport in a Storm" onward.

* The last few of Koei's thirteen ''VideoGame/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' games have over six hundred officers... and ALL of them have a unique, hand-drawn portrait. Even as far back as the second game, there were three hundred and fifty officers with less than half of them assembled from stock graphics, with none of them assembled identically.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' and its spinoff ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' does a good job of this. Even Mikoto's clones have slight variances from her. One exception is that Shutaura Sequenzia from the ''[[Anime/ACertainMagicalIndexMiracleOfEndymion Miracle of Endymion]]'' movie looks exactly like Seiri Fukiyose. The series' artist, Kiyotaka Haimura, realized this too late and apologized to the fans when the movie came out and he noticed the mistake. Another exception is that Vento of the Front looks like Orsola Aquinas, though this is disguised by Vento's many facial piercings and hat.

* ''Manga/{{Shiki}}'' characters have very different faces from each other, even the ones who are only in a little while. Their [[NoodlePeople body types]] tend to be the same, though.

* ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'': The artist [[http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/3583964949/figures-they-speak-for-themselves-mildly-nsfw makes a point of designing characters this way]] (mildly NSFW).

* The characters of ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo''. Especially the background characters.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' gives a unique character design to every character. Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and Strong Sad are ''brothers'' and don't resemble each other in the least. The only characters who even look remotely like each other are Homestar and Homsar, and that's because Homsar started as a one-off joke to make fun of [[RougeAnglesOfSatin a misspelling of "Homestar"]].

* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' might count as an exaggerated example. In a show with '''32''' main characters in the protagonist team ''alone'' (and then we start adding the five main rival teams, the supporting cast...) they ''still'' go out of their way to try to make random background characters memorable. ''[[ExaggeratedTrope Then]]'' they add personal traits (as meta-characters) to the teams and tanks themselves, to the point that, as of ''[[Anime/GirlsUndPanzerDerFilm The Movie]]'', the sheer detail of each apparently broke the folder system. '''[[ShockingMoments Twice.]]'''

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' is a good example of this. Despite the fact that most characters are simply wearing suits and many have similar (and realistic) hairstyles, every character in the massive cast looks completely unique, even background characters and all the random henchmen who get killed off immediately.

* ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' while not the first was one of the games with this as a defining feature, there are 108 unique "stars of destiny" in each game spare a few recurring characters, whose age and appearance still changes over time, and there are even bonus characters from previous games, all artwork of the recurring characters are updated per game and collectively there are over 500 unique player characters, and that's just player characters!

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'', every character in the game is unique. One of the mini-games revolves around finding all 60 students and taking photos of them. Add the various school staff and townsfolk to that 60, and the game has over 100 characters.
* Just about every NPC and playable character in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' has a unique model, from face to body shape, with a few of the merchants being the exceptions. Impressive, given that it was originally a Dreamcast game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' and its sequel (which are largely set in urban areas with milling crowds) are distinguished for having every single background and NPC character be a unique person with their own in-game home, daily schedule throughout the day and unique voice. The "special features" DVD even includes a brief description of each person. So if you see an NPC character walk by in the street, and later see someone who looks the same in a shop, they don't just look alike, they are the same person. ''Shenmue II'' walks it back a little by having unique [=NPCs=] but doing away with the scheduling for each one, which doesn't stick out much until you get to Kowloon and notice several pedestrians apparently took the same bus from Hong Kong as you.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' and its sequel (which are largely set in urban areas with milling crowds) are distinguished for having every single background and NPC character be a unique person with their own in-game home, daily schedule throughout the day and unique voice. The "special features" DVD even includes a brief description of each person. So if you see an NPC character walk by in the street, and later see someone who looks the same in a shop, they don't just look alike, they are the same person.

-->-- '''Levi''', ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', about the Titans he is killing.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Many of the characters are in the RedshirtArmy. Nearly all of the characters (with the exception of, what, four or five out of how many dozen?) have either black or blonde hair, making facial features more significant. Maybe her ability to distinguish similarly built characters is why [[spoiler: Father looks completely different from first Hohenheim and then Ed (''especially'' Ed, there seems to be barely a passing resemblance between the alchemist and his counterpart due to mannerisms and attitude alone) even though he is [[{{Doppelganger}} identical to them in physical features]].]] The same tactics are used to differ [[spoiler: Ling from Greed after they end up sharing a body and can still be fairly easily told apart from one another when they switch dominance in control.]]

* ''Anime/{{ReCreators}}'': From the main characters to the extras, pretty much everyone has different hair styles, hair and eye colours, clothing and body shapes. Even similar characters have at least one unique characteristic to differentiate.

* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' might count as an exaggerated example. In a show with '''32''' main characters in the protagonist team ''alone'' (and then we start adding the five main rival teams, the supporting cast...) they ''still'' go out of their way to try to make random background characters memorable. ''[[UpToEleven Then]]'' they add personal traits (as meta-characters) to the teams and tanks themselves, to the point that, as of ''[[Anime/GirlsUndPanzerDerFilm The Movie]]'', the sheer detail of each apparently broke the folder system. '''[[ShockingMoments Twice.]]'''

Sometimes, an artist has decided to take the time to give even the most incidental of background characters each a unique face and appearance. Doing this is time-consuming and difficult, ''[[DifficultButAwesome but man, does it make for]] SugarWiki/AwesomeArt''. It also often requires the artist to kick GenericCuteness in the face and throw it out the window -- which, in turn, can make characters that are ''supposed'' to be attractive a whole lot more attractive by comparison to the other characters.

** Taken to new heights with humans in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''. There are more named [=NPCs=] than in any previous ''Zelda'' game, and every single Hylian and Sheikah has a unique face. Oddly, Gerudo are largely same-faced despite also being human.

* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': the only things in this game that are identical are the enemies.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Art]]

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* ''Animation/LingLongIncarnation'': Impressively so, given that it's CGI, where recycling models is a commonly used short-cut.
[[/folder]]

%%* The non-human characters in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies, regardless of whether they were puppets or CG, as with Ewoks and Wookiees. A marked exception is the crowd of dancing Gungans at the end of the Phantom Menace; not only are they [[DittoAliens identical,]] their movements are in perfect unison.

* ''Franchise/{{EXTRAPOWER}}'' gives nearly every character a unique appearance and body language expressiveness, often as a homage to different styles throughout the history of anime, manga or {{Toku}}. Cute or pretty characters never slip into GenericCuteness. Beefy, muscular characters are drawn across different types of muscular builds. Even unimportant [=NPCs=] are given unique and distinctive designs. The only characters not given the bespoke treatment are the swarms of {{Mooks}} - and even the human mooks are at least given 2 or 3 varieties per type to avoid homogeneity.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
%% Sorted alphabetically, leading "The..." nonwithstanding