History Main / OnlyOneFemaleMold

** They eventually introduced Marie Rose in ''DOA 5 Last Round'' and Nico in ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive6'', both of which look entirely different from the other girls by virtue of being the TokenMiniMoe characters. Of course, they are quite similar to ''each other'''...

* This has been a consistent complaint over ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' character models; the alpha builds, while rough, often had the females look like counterparts to the males of their race, but when it came time for final builds (after receiving yea many complaints about being ugly) it was like the developers threw up their hands and said: "screw it, let's make them all barbie dolls". The dwarf, gnome, and pandaren females actually avert this, however, with the first and last being rather thick and curvy, while the 2nd is appropriately proportioned for such a short race. To a lesser extent, so do the Tauren.
* While every character in ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' does have their differing characteristics that this isn't as major of a problem, a majority of the females do have very similar physical builds that differ by bust size and species. Some exceptions are the fat lady NPC in Half-Genie Hero, the Tan Line Island Princess in Pirate's Curse, and some of the enemies from the collective series.

* The majority of the characters in ''VideoGame/BangDreamGirlsBandParty'' look like generic anime girls. The only things that distinguish themselves from one another is the hair color, hair style, eye color, and sometimes eye shape.
* ''VideoGame/TheWonderful101'': For the human molds, the males come in a variety of body types: average, fat, skinny, muscular, short, etc, while there's only one female body type. The only other body type used by females are the short molds to represent little girls.

* Similarly, the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse's character designs come in two flavors, generally speaking: Male and Female. This was at its most pronounced throughout ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', particularly the ''JLU'' seasons. The only body type differences were made by making the body wider or skinnier (Superman was broader shouldered, but generally had the same proportions as the Flash, and similarly, Wonder Woman was simply a broader-shouldered version of Hawkgirl). Females mostly have the same ''face'', with different hairstyles keeping them distinct. There ''is'' one general exception, in the form of the "Block-shaped" male mold used for Gorillas, Grundy, and other stouter types, but that's about it.
* Most of the characters in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' had a HeroicBuild but the few exceptions (overweight, small and slim, etc.) were all male.
* Every girl in ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' has almost exact the same body shape, what sets them apart from each other are their different hairstyles and skin color. Tecna is slightly shorter than the other girls which makes her slightly different from them. The same goes for the males.

* This was enforced by Creator/{{Hasbro}} for ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}''. The creator wanted more diverse designs amongst the characters. Due to the fact the series was [[MerchandiseDriven made to advertise dolls]], the characters had to have similar models. The [[ComicBook/JemAndTheHologramsIDW comic book reboot]] completely does away with this and has a CastOfSnowflakes.

* Downplayed in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''; while quirks can create some monstrous or otherwise outlandish appearances in some people, at most a girl will usually be a CuteMonsterGirl. (An exception is Habuko Mongoose, who has a realistic snake head, but she only appears in a side chapter.)

* ''Manga/FairyTail'' is pretty guilty of this, as well as WorldOfBuxom, resulting in almost every girl having a busty hourglass figure, with very rare exceptions. (Basically Levy and [[TokenMiniMoe Wendy]].)
* ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' and other Anime/{{Leijiverse}} works owe this to AuthorAppeal. Males sometimes have a token Gonk just to skew the ratio.

* In ''Manga/ChroniclesOfTheGoingHomeClub'' (Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku), all the girls have the same figure. Considering that there is also an OnlySixFaces, the characters' hairs and eyes are the only major differences between them (along with few differences in their school uniform).
* Downplayed in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''; while quirks can create some monstrous or otherwise outlandish appearances in some people, at most a girl will usually be a CuteMonsterGirl. (An exception is Habuko Mongoose, who has a realistic snake head, but she only appears in a side chapter.)
* {{Gender Inverted|Trope}} in ''Manga/MagicalGirlOre''. The girls come in various shapes and sizes, from short and cute, to tall, busty, and cool, to even getting in age and rail-thin. The magical boys, on the other hand, are the same height and build across the board (even Saki's mom, who's been out of the game for years before the story starts, retains this HeroicBuild when she transforms). The bad guys are just nude versions of the hero model, making it jarring when one character tells the heroes to stop the "macho" villains. The only exceptions to this rule are Kokoro and Mohiro, both of which don't have much panel time.
* While the male characters of ''Manga/DrStone'' have diverse designs, majority of the female characters who've hit puberty share a very similar slim hourglass figure, and also share facial features (the large eyes and often pouty lips).
* ''Manga/KenganAshura'' features pretty much every possible variation of the male build: fighters who come in a range of different weight classes and varying levels of musculature, old and middle-aged men who stands at varying degrees of fitness, non-fighting teenagers and young adults, etc. While the series does a good job in giving the female characters some distinctive facial features to not make them look like clones of each other, they all fall under the "relatively young, slender yet curvy, and conventionally pretty" mold. Even Togo Tomari, whose ''face'' probably has the most unique design of all the female characters still have the same body type as the rest of the ladies.

* ''ComicBook/{{Elephantmen}}'': All of the major female characters have the [[HartmanHips exact]] [[MostCommonSuperpower same]] [[ImpossibleHourglassFigure body type]], with only hair and skin color to tell them apart. [[spoiler: Even Yvette, despite being a hardened killer decked out in scars, is drawn with the same proportions.]] Not to mention that they all seem to shop at the [[VaporWear same two]] [[SensualSpandex clothing stores.]] Compare this to the male characters, who come in all different shapes, sizes, and [[BeastMan species]], and wear a wide mix of different outfits (though most all of them do sport a BadassLongcoat at some point).

* Mike Deodato's art on ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' very noticeably has every female meant to be under 80 and/or attractive have the same build and height with hair, costume, and skin tone all that can be used to try telling them apart. This really sticks out when characters like the normally stocky and short Etta or the usually square-jawed and muscled Philippus show up and are entirely unrecognizable until they are addressed by other characters.

* In the earliest ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' stories in ''ComicBook/ActionComics'', new female characters often looked identical to Lois Lane with this not being noticed in-universe.

* All the females in ''Toys/BBSenshiSangokuden'' are the exact same build, regardless of age, while males come under regular, Toutaku, and Ryofu Tallgeese.

* The old Mego toyline had exactly three body sculpts: Average Male, Muscular Male, and Female. As an even further cost-saving measure, the "Muscular Male" mold was made from the exact same amount of plastic as the "Average Male" one; this means that the Mego Hulk is shorter than Mego Spider-Man (and, for that matter, Mego [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard Luke Duke]] and Mego [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]]).

* This has been a consistent complaint over ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' character models; the alpha builds, while rough, often had the females look like counterparts to the males of their race, but when it came time for final builds (after receiving yea many complaints about being ugly) it was like the developers threw up their hands and said: "screw it, let's make them all barbie dolls". The dwarf, gnome, and pandaren females actually avert this, however, with the first and last being rather thick and curvy, while the 2nd is appropriately proportioned for such a short race. To a lesser extent, so do the Tauren.
* This is true of any game using the Gamebryo engine, such as ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' even the old wrinkle-faced women will have young-shaped bodies. There are also apparently zero fat people in the post-apocalypse. Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', which has variable body types for both genders, ranging from thin to fat to muscular.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is pretty bad about this, as there are only two body models for human adults of both sexes: "normal" and "fat." Morrigan is a twentysomething whose good looks other characters comment on. Wynne is a mage in her sixties. Put them in the same type of armor, and they're identical from the neck down (companion Zevran actually jokes about this, especially Wynn's "magical bosom" that doesn't reflect her age). Meanwhile, Alistair is a warrior in his early twenties also described as attractive and muscular, and has the same body model as the much older and ailing Arl Eamon, the elderly Bann Ceorlic, and sundry SquishyWizard mages of all ages. The "fat" model is used for Lloyd the innkeeper and several extras (the female one shows up only on extras and Arl Eamon's cook).
** This is generally true for almost all Creator/BioWare games, which tend to have only one male and one female model, used for all [=NPCs=] regardless of age or sometimes even species (for example, human body models are shared among other things by Twi'leks and Zabraks in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', and by asari and batarians in ''Franchise/MassEffect''). ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', however, averts this, as there are fat, short or skinny NPC men and women.
* ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'': Despite having officially different busts, you'd never be able to tell by looking at most of the cast while in-game. Exceptions being one flat and two larger than everyone else.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' got some flak for this. Both genders technically have four body types: short, medium, tall, and heavy. For the men, this results in a wiry short character, a broad-shouldered tall character, and an obese fat character. The women, however, are all nearly identical. While the tall character is a good head taller than the others, her proportions are nearly identical. Short means one inch and a slightly smaller bust, while heavy means a slightly larger bust. You'd be hard-pressed to distinguish between body types at even a short distance.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has 3 body types. Male, Female, and "Huge" (Big male). This is given ''plenty'' of lampshading, such as washrooms having a third door for "Huge".
* True of almost all female champions in free to play MOBA game ''VideoGame/{{League of Legends}}''. Despite the large number of playable women, they have only one Barbie-like body type with the exception of a few chibi-style dwarf/imp/child characters. Male champions' bodies vary significantly, though a large portion is dedicated to the muscle man type... until the release of Illaoi.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII''. Most of the female [=NPCs=] have the same slender figure, but there are a few who are more solidly built; for example, Slaughterhouse Zoe and one of the Chocobo Girls. It may or may not be significant that the fat Chocobo Girl is hidden in an alley and the slim ones are on the main street.
* In ''VideoGame/MarvelContestOfChampions'', while the male heroes have several different body types (including "Beast" like Hulk, Juggernaut and Abomination, "Heroic" like Captain America, Black Panther, and Electro, and "Slim" like Spider-Man) all the females have the exact same body type and PaintedOnPants style clothing. Eventually averted by the addition of Comicbook/SpiderGwen and ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 whose frames are noticeably thinner and smaller than the other female characters', which makes sense as the two are teenagers and the rest are adult women.

** Series creator Itagaki stated in an interview once that the reason that most of the girls' faces are smooth and featureless is that the crew did research on what most (Japanese) people considered to be "beautiful". The result was that the more rounded, youthful, and featureless a face appeared, the more attractive people found it. As such, aside from variation in eye shape and hairstyle, there's very little difference between the ladies.

** Later on, they then introduced Marie Rose who looks entirely different from every other girl by virtue of being a TokenMiniMoe.

* ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}'' is pretty bad about this. Up until the release of Scylla (a little girl) all female characters had the same body shape, and even then it took another two years for another female with a unique body type to come along (Jing Wei, a teenager.) There were many females introduced in the two-year gap, but they had the same body shape as most of the other females did.
* Surprisingly averted in the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series. At a distance, all the characters look like recolors of each other, but there are actually subtle differences in the shapes of their faces and bodies. Rouge has wide hips and a large bust, while Blaze has a smaller chest, and Cream's body is bell-shaped.
* While every character in ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' does have their differing characteristics that this isn't as major of a problem, a majority of the females do have very similar physical builds that differ by bust size and species. Some exceptions are the fat lady NPC in Half-Genie Hero, the Tan Line Island Princess in Pirate's Curse, and some of the enemies from the collective series.

* ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'' uses only a few stock bodies, characters differentiated by their heads, and there are only two bodies for female characters: Little girl and pin-up model. This can create some rather jarring [=NPCs=], especially in the resort area that comprises the first quarter of the game as the women are all in bikinis--you could, for instance, see an old lady with wrinkled skin, a pointed nose, and a mop of gray hair, but she'll have the body of a porn star.

* Along with OnlySixFaces, ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' is guilty of this. Apparently, all of Killer's girlfriends have a small slender built.

* This was enforced by Creator/{{Hasbro}} for ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}''. The creator wanted more diverse designs amongst the characters. Due to the fact the series was [[MerchandiseDriven made to advertise dolls]], the characters had to have similar models. The [[ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms comic book reboot]] completely does away with this and has a CastOfSnowflakes.

See also WorldOfBuxom, OnlySixFaces, GenericCuteness. Related to the MostCommonSuperpower. Compare SexyDimorphism, where this trope is applied to fantasy monsters for {{fanservice}} reasons. Contrast AmazonianBeauty, BigBeautifulWoman, BustContrastDuo. See also HeroicBuild for when this trope applies to superheroines. Subtrope of ReusedCharacterDesign.

See also WorldOfBuxom, OnlySixFaces, GenericCuteness. Related to the MostCommonSuperpower. Compare SexyDimorphism, where this trope is applied to fantasy monsters for {{fanservice}} reasons. Contrast AmazonianBeauty, BigBeautifulWoman, BustContrastDuo. See also HeroicBuild for when this trope applies to superheroines.

* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'', all the girls outside of Greg's family are drawn with the exact same face, with only a slightly different hairstyle and hair colour to differentiate them. Justified, as Greg is a teenage boy who doesn't really understand girls yet and considers them all to be pretty much the same.

* Applies to femme Franchise/{{Transformers}} too. The few femmes that appeared in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' were all slender but also quite curvaceous. Compare them to the mechs who had a wide variety of body types, particularly the main five who were all different.

* While this trope is usually played straight within ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'', [[GentleGiant Sakura Ogami]] of [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc the first game]] is a notable aversion.

* {{Gender Inverted|Trope}} in ''Manga/MahouShoujoOre''. The girls come in various shapes and sizes, from short and cute, to tall, busty, and cool, to even getting in age and rail-thin. The magical boys, on the other hand, are the same height and build across the board (even Saki's mom, who's been out of the game for years before the story starts, retains this HeroicBuild when she transforms). The bad guys are just nude versions of the hero model, making it jarring when one character tells the heroes to stop the "macho" villains. The only exceptions to this rule are Kokoro and Mohiro, both of which don't have much panel time.

* {{Parodied|Trope}} and {{exaggerated|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance's'' ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' parody. At one point, Riff complains to Torg that he has a TwentyBearAsses quest that requires killing only female slime blobs and he can't figure out how to distinguish them. A little later when Zoë is trying to create a character, she complains to Torg about the difference between the way the male and female characters look -- all the female versions are scantily clad and have the same exact generically sexy figure with a different head, even the ugly Jigants ([[ButterFace and the females still have the same Jigant face]]). Upon realising this, Torg becomes GenreSavvy enough to be able to advice Riff, and after hearing his advice, Riff wonders why the hell [[FailedASpotCheck he didn't notice]] it sooner that while most slime blobs are just blobs, some of them have that blob for a head atop the same old bikini'd sexy female body.

* ''Webcomic/LearningWithMangaFGO'' shows this discrepancy the few times male characters show up. The boys (both in-comic and in the ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' April Fools pranks) have been drawn as variously buff, skinny, cherubic, and plain, and have a wider variety of face shapes. The girls, on the other hand, tend to have the same stocky body and round face. [[AdaptedOut Like the guys in general]], the few girls that don't outright don't appear in the strips.

* ''{{VideoGame/Overwatch}}'' isn't the worst in this regard, but a vast majority of female characters play the trope straight, with names like D.Va, Mercy, Sombra, Symmetra, Tracer, and Widowmaker are all slender, conventionally attractive women with long, graceful legs and trim waists, give or take some curves and height. There are some instances where [[SubvertedTrope the artists consciously avoided falling into this]] like Zarya (a short-haired, ripped bodybuilder), Mei (a short, chubby Chinese woman), Moira (a very lanky not-sorceress), and Orisa (a big centaur-adjacent ''robot''), but while you could almost certainly tell the difference between each female character during gameplay, more often than not, this more has to with costume and weapon design than the actual shape of their bodies.

* ''{{VideoGame/Overwatch}}'': Zarya (a short-haired, ripped bodybuilder), Mei (a short, chubby Chinese woman) and Orisa (a big centaur-adjacent ''robot'') were specifically designed to avert this trope. But the majority of female characters in the game still play the trope straight: D.Va, Mercy, Sombra, Symmetra, Tracer, and Widowmaker are all slender, conventionally attractive women with long, graceful legs and trim waists. Even characters like Pharah, who has yet to be seen without body armor, and Ana, an older woman who wears layers of body armor and a flowing cloak, seem to have the same general body type as the other women in the game. Brigitte is muscular and wears armor only slightly lighter than [[KnightInShiningArmor Reinhardt's]], but her face looks like someone [[OnlySixFaces copied and pasted]] Mercy's face onto Brigitte's head.

* While this trope is usually played straight within Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}, [[GentleGiant Sakura Ogami]] of [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc the first game]] is a notable aversion.

* While usually played straight within the franchise, Sakura Ogami of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', a big, muscular woman that looks like a piece of ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', is an aversion.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid''. Justified, as Greg is a teenage boy who doesn't really understand girls yet and considers them all to be pretty much the same.

* ''Manga/KenganAshura'' features pretty much every possible variation of the male build: fighters who come in a range of different weight classes and varying levels of musculature, old and middle-aged men who stands at varying degrees of fitness, non-fighting teenagers and young adults, etc. While the series does a good job in giving the female characters some distinctive facial features to not make them look like clones of each other, they all fall under the "relatively young, slender and relatively curvy" mold.

** Generally speaking, Oda's good at creating unique {{Gonk}} or otherwise average/cute female faces which are "allowed" to have odd little quirks, like [[PerkyGoth Perona's]] unique big black eyes and round head. But when he goes for conventionally attractive ladies, he tends to make Nami or Robin clones. Now they ''are'' distinguishable, but each one of them noticeably takes something or the other from Nami or Robin, whether it's hair, eyes, head shape, etc. In Nami's camp, we have Nami herself, Vivi, Conis, Keimi, Bonney, Shirahoshi, Rebecca, Kaya, Scarlett. As for Robin, there's Robin herself, Alvida, Hancock, Baby 5, Viola, and even Tashigi has some Robin-esque features after the Timeskip. Although, all in all, what really makes them look alike is the fact they all have the same body shape too.

* Partially justified due to the animation style of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', in general males have three body types, muscular, stocky and average, while female bodies all look mostly the same with height and breast size being the only major difference.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Art]]

* Comicbook/{{Elephantmen}}: All of the major female characters have the [[HartmanHips exact]] [[MostCommonSuperpower same]] [[ImpossibleHourglassFigure body type]], with only hair and skin color to tell them apart. [[spoiler: Even Yvette, despite being a hardened killer decked out in scars, is drawn with the same proportions.]] Not to mention that they all seem to shop at the [[VaporWear same two]] [[SensualSpandex clothing stores.]] Compare this to the male characters, who come in all different shapes, sizes, and [[BeastMan species]], and wear a wide mix of different outfits (though most all of them do sport a BadassLongcoat at some point).

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Pinball]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Criticized—along with excessive use of {{fanservice}} tropes related to the MaleGaze—by [[Creator/BobChipman Moviebob]] in [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/4719-Gender-Games this]] episode of "The Big Picture."
* Also criticized and mocked [[http://eschergirls.tumblr.com/tagged/attack+of+the+clones multiple times]] by ''[[http://eschergirls.tumblr.com Escher Girls]]'' along with OnlySixFaces.
* Partially justified due to the animation style of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', in general males have three body types, muscular, stocky and average, while female bodies all look mostly the same with height and breast size being the only major difference.

** ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'' and ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'' used pretty much the same body and face types in nearly all the adult female characters, particularly the [[ActionGirl Action Girls]], to the point where the best way to tell them apart was by their clothes and hair.

This often applies to most supporting characters, too. Occasionally a FatGirl may appear as a minor comic-relief character, but she will never join the main cast.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' franchise: with the exception of a few overweight girls (many of whom lived up to the FatGirl stereotype) almost all of the female contestants have full chests, slim waists, HartmanHips and tend to be shorter than their male counterparts. The chests were the most egregious with pretty much every girl looking as though they'd be above a c-cup in real life. Contrast the male contestants who come in all shapes and sizes; from huge and buff like Ryan, to morbidly obese like Owen, to conventionally muscular and handsome like Alejandro, to looking borderline anorexic like Mike, and everything in between.

* ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' Despite having officially different busts, you'd never be able to tell by looking at most of the cast while in-game. Exceptions being one flat and two larger than everyone else.