History Main / SinisterSilhouettes

* This is how Williams's face is kept hidden in ''{{Remus}}''. We see eyes, teeth, and knives - that's it.

* Parodied in episode 38 of ''FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'', with [[ButtMonkey Yoki]] imagining himself to be the leader of the Scar gang on a quest for revenge against the Elric brothers.

* The 'Final Five' in the re-imagined ''[[BattlestarGalactica Battlestar Galactica]].

* ''Many'' characters in ''OnePiece'', at least in the manga (Zoro, Arlong, the Shichibukai, the Yonkou, just to name a few).
** The Shichibukai in their silhouettes look nothing like they really do. Except for Mihawk maybe. They were also shown to be sword wielders, which doesn't help.
*** Those figures were meant to be Yosaku's idealized mental image of the Shichibukai. Since Yosaku had never seen any of them, it makes sense that he wouldn't know their appearances. While it's unclear if Oda had designed all of them yet, at that point he had designed at least two (Mihawk and Crocodile) and he knew they wouldn't all be sword users.

* ''GokujouSeitokai'''s OP sequence has a part where each special division of the eponymous AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil are shown together. While Assault Division has its members performing their signature attacks one after the other, the Vice President for Covert and the Covert commander are shown standing between two silhouettes, the other members of Covert Division. Their faces are revealed after the episodes where they are introduced.

* Jack Noir often does this in {{Homestuck}}. Granted, it's not hard to do, since he has a shiny black carapace. [[spoiler: But then he leaps over the MoralEventHorizon. After that, the sight of his shadow flying overhead is enough to elicit a mass OhCrap.]]
** This is the most we ever see of the famous Troll Ancestors, the only colored facial features being eyes, mouth, face paint and glasses.

[[AC:{{Anime}} & {{Manga}}]]

** The Shichibukai in their silhouettes look nothing like they really do. Except for Mihawk maybe. They were also shown to be sword wielders, which doesn't help.

** The [[TheFourGods Saint Beasts]] and [[BreakfastClub Sensui's Seven]] were depicted in this manner.

* Parodied in episode 38 of ''FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'', with [[ButtMonkey Yoki]] imagining himself to be the leader of the Scar {{Nakama}} on a quest for revenge against the Elric brothers.

* ''{{Fist of the North Star}}'' does this with the introduction of Kenshiro's adoptive brothers and then with the six Nanto Stars. The latter is a bit more egregious, since it depicts Shin and Rei alongside four male silhouettes, but one of them later [[spoiler:turns out to be a [[SamusIsAGirl woman]].]]

* ''FlameOfRecca'' had the tendency to introduce the next team of opponents this way.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Fire Lord Ozai for the first two seasons.

<<|{{Spectacle}}|>>
<<|AnimeTropes|>>
<<|AddedAlliterativeAppeal|>>

* Parodied in episode 2 of ''{{Haruhi-chan}}'' with the image at the top of this page. After being defeated by Nagato, Asakura proclaims that though she has been defeated, it's not over yet. She goes on to add that ''[[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil above]]'' [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil the Radical Big Four]] [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil are three leaders]], also shown as silhouettes. Kyon proceeds to [[DeadpanSnarker call her story cheesy]].

[[{{Haruhi-chan}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asakurasilhouettes.jpg]]

* Various openings of [[Anime/{{ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokemon]] do this for Gym Leaders or Frontier Brains. Because, you know, the gym leader is totally the one you fight...

* ''[[JojosBizarreAdventure Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' introduces many of its villains this way, including Dio Brando in Part 3. This may seem odd since he was previously a prominent villain and the reader is all-too-familiar with him, but this was done more to add to the mystery of his newly-acquired [[GuardianEntity Stand]], and not Dio himself necessarily.
* The ''Injuu'' of ''HunterXHunter'' first appear this way.

* ''Many'' characters in ''OnePiece'', at least in the manga (Zoro, Arlong, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Four Emperors, just to name a few).
** The Warlords in their silhouettes look nothing like they really do. Except for Mihawk maybe. They were also shown to be sword wielders, which doesn't help.
*** Those figures were meant to be Yoasku's idealized mental image of the Seven Warlords. Since Yosaku had never seen any of them, it makes sense that he wouldn't know their appearances. While it's unclear if Oda had designed all of them yet, at that point he had designed at least two (Mihawk and Crocodile) and he knew they wouldn't all be sword users.

* On ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'', the first time Father, the BigBad, appears, he shows up as a silhouette. However, it's quickly revealed that this is because he wears a suit of shadows. For a good deal of the series, even if he appears in broad daylight, he's a silhouette. It's finally ripped off in TheMovie...and it turns out [[CheckovsGunmann we've seen what he looks like in previous episodes]].

* On ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'', the first time Father, the BigBad, appears, he shows up as a silhouette. However, it's quickly revealed that this is because he wears a suit of shadows. For a good deal of the series, even if he appears in broad daylight, he's a silhouette. It's finally ripped off in TheMovie.

* The preview of the third installment of the ''RebuildOfEvangelion'' features four shadows that are implied to belong to new Evangelion pilots. Two of them are presumably, but not necessarily Mari and Kaworu, while the other two still remain to be seen.

* [[GeneralRipper Ishijima Kaigen]] from the Nitro+ VisualNovel ''Hanachirasu'' is only ''mostly'' silhouetted, but she makes up for it with GlowingEyesOfDoom. See [[http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8836/kaig02.jpg here]]

* ''Many'' characters in ''{{One Piece}}'', at least in the manga (Zoro, Arlong, Shichibukai, the Yonkou, just to name a few).
** The Shichibukai in their silhouettes look nothing like they really do. Except for Mihawk maybe. They were also shown to be sword wielders, which doesn't help.
*** Those figures were meant to be Yoasku's idealized mental image of the Shichibukai. Since Yosaku had never seen any of them, it makes sense that he wouldn't know their appearances. While it's unclear if Oda had designed all of them yet, at that point he had designed at least two (Mihawk and Crocodile) and he knew they wouldn't all be sword users.

* In ''AceAttorney'', the profiles of unknown characters are shown as dark silhouettes, with question marks for their age and profession. A larger version is seen in the first case of ''AceAttorneyInvestigations'' when a mysterious figure catches Edgeworth at gunpoint in his darkened office. It turns out to be [[spoiler: Detective Badd.]]

* ''Many'' characters in ''{{One Piece}}'', at least in the manga (Zoro, Arlong, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Four Emperors, just to name a few).
** The Seven Warlords in their silhouettes look nothing like they really do. Except for Mihawk maybe. They were also shown to be sword wielders, which doesn't help.
*** Those figures were meant to be Yoasku's idealized mental image of the Warlords. Since Yosaku had never seen any of them, it makes sense that he wouldn't know their appearances. While it's unclear if Oda had designed all of them yet, at that point he had designed at least two (Mihawk and Crocodile) and he knew they wouldn't all be sword users.

* ''Many'' characters in ''{{One Piece}}'', at least in the manga (Zoro, Arlong, the Shichibukai, the Yonkou, just to name a few).
** The Shichibukai in their silhouettes look nothing like they really do. Except for Mihawk maybe. They were also shown to be sword wielders, which doesn't help.
*** Those figures were meant to be Yoasku's idealized mental image of the Shichibukai. Since Yosaku had never seen any of them, it makes sense that he wouldn't know their appearances. While it's unclear if Oda had designed all of them yet, at that point he had designed at least two (Mihawk and Crocodile) and he knew they wouldn't all be sword users.

* [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/010303c "What do you expect? I'm just a mysterious shadowy villian"]]

)

* The Creature Counsil in ''{{DMFA}}'' meet as a cabal of SinisterSilhouettes... except the Phoenix representive ''who has an open flame on her head, and cannot lurk in shadows''.

''[[caption-width:330:I am the weakest of the [[FourIsDeath Radical Big Four]]. Any moment now, the other members will appear in front of you! (the silhouettes look like they are FacelessMasses , you agree? yeah...)]]''