History Main / SymbolicCastFadeout

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

[[folder:Webcomic]]

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': character portraits in the character bios on the [=TIP=] menu fade into gray and get splattered with blood in the matter they died.

* ''Series/TheTraitors'' features a big wall in the dining room with portraits of all the contestants. When someone is revealed to have been 'murdered', a big production is made out of their portraits being taken down (returned later with a big red X over the face). [[spoiler: They also did the bit of ''restoring'' people's portraits when it turned out Kieran and Amos weren't permanently out of the game after all.

* ''Series/TrueBeauty2009 True Beauty]]'': The series with the contestants having their face shot in profile pictures. These pictures are hung in a big picture frame in the Hall of Beauty. At the end of each elimination, the contestant picture is taken off the Hall of Beauty and put in a cart. The winner picture is given the spotlight treatment, signifying they are crowned as a "True Beauty" inside and out.

* The North American editions of Series/BigBrother feature a "memory wall" of photos of the houseguests. After a houseguest is evicted from the house, their picture will change to black & white. If a houseguest re-enters the game, their picture will be restored back to color.

* ''Series/TheTraitors'' features a big wall in the dining room with portraits of all the contestants. When someone is revealed to have been 'murdered', a big production is made out of their portraits being taken down (returned later with a big red X over the face). [[spoiler: They also did the bit of ''restoring'' people's portraits when it turned out Kieran and Amos weren't permanently out of the game after all.]]

* This trope is inverted with Webcomic/EveryoneIsHome during the comic's "Everyone Is Dead" arc. When the majority of the VideoGame/SuperSmashBrothers characters are poisoned during a banquet hosted by [[WolfInSheepsClothing Sephiroth]], the surviving cast set out to resurrect each slain character. The final panel for each comic during this arc would show thumbnail portraits of the cast with the still dead characters greyed out, each portrait being replaced with a colored one after they're brought back to life.

* This trope is inverted with Webcomic/EveryoneIsHome during the comic's "Everyone Is Dead" arc. When the majority of the VideoGame/SuperSmashBrothers characters are poisoned during a banquet hosted by [[WolfInSheepsClothing Sephiroth]], the surviving cast set out to resurrect each slain character. The final panel for each comic during this arc would show thumbnail portraits of the cast with the still dead characters greyed out, the portrait being replaced with a colored one after they're brought back to life.

* This trope is inverted with Webcomic/EveryoneIsHome during the comic's "Everyone Is Dead" arc. When the majority of the Franchise/SuperSmashBrothers characters are poisoned during a banquet hosted by [[WolfInSheepsClothing Sephiroth]], the surviving cast set out to resurrect each slain character. The final panel for each comic during this arc would show thumbnail portraits of the cast with the still dead characters greyed out, the portrait being replaced with a colored one after they're brought back to life.

* ''ComicBook/XMenForever'' had a cast list showcase with the X-Men having their picture. When they are killed, they have a "dead" cross posted over their faces in the following issue and then are removed, and when ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} was killed off in the comic's second arc, his crossed-off picture remained in the cast list for the next six issues to hammer home that ''[[AnyoneCanDie yes]]'', he was KilledOffForReal.

So you wrote a work with an EnsembleCast, a number of RotatingProtagonist, [[FourLinesAllWaiting multiple storylines running at once]] and/or a work where AnyoneCanDie. As an author you have a careful plan for how you're going to use all of the characters and how they will factor into the story. But how do you let your viewers keep track of the names and survival status of your cast? While a list might work for literature, in a more visual media like comics or animation this would make it hard to keep the audience engaged.

Enter this trope. Symbolic Cast Fadeout is when the author lists out the cast in the story, usually at the beginning or the end of the chapter, and symbolically "marks" them whenever a character gets killed off. Despite the name, there are many methods to accomplish this. A gray fade out is the most common, due to the DeathIsGray trope and also the color gray allows the artist to still keep a black outline of the character visible even after they are faded out. Red is another common color to mark the character in a non black and white medium as red is the color of blood. An X is another common method, since there is a strong association of the letter X with the concept of death.

Compare FadeToBlack and FadeToWhite, where the screen fades to those colors for important moments, or FadeOut, where the screen going black marks the end of the work or an episode / chapter. See EvolvingCredits, for when Cast Fadeouts are reflected in a work's openers and closers.

* The ending theme of ''Anime/AngelBeats'' features the cast in a crowd shot with cast members fading in separately as the song progresses, but as each character disappears (the show is set in a purgatory like high school and the characters already know they are dead and are trying not to disappear as they don't know if they reincarnate, cross over to another afterlife, or cease to be) they are [[EvolvingCredits removed from the ending image]]. [[spoiler:The last episode after everyone has crossed over reverses this and has the ending start with a shot of the full cast with each character fading out instead of in.]].

* ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'': After introducing the setting and cast for the mystery, every chapter of the case would start with a cast list with the face, name and age of the characters with the victims being gray out.

* Each chapter of ''Manga/MonkeyPeak'' opens with the faces, names and ages of the characters, with the deceased characters' pictures grayed out. This is a major hint that some characters survive their apparent death. The only exception is [[spoiler:Chief Hagasawa who was marked gray after his first apparent death and his return before being revealed to be EvilAllAlong. The same also goes for Miyata whose was also grayed out for around 5 chapters after falling off a cliff but later revealed to have survived]].

* The marketing posters for ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' list its huge cast with a gray background and a black and white color tone for the characters who were the victims of Thanos, the BigBad of [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar the previous movie]]. [[spoiler:All of these characters (except for Gamora, whose presence is filled by a pre-CharacterDevelopment alternate universe counterpart) are brought back during the course of the movie to join the final fight against an alternate universe version of Thanos]] .

* ''Series/AmericasNextTopModel'': At the start of the season, there is a group shot of all the contestants. As the models being eliminated, their full body picture is faded out from the group shot at the end of the episode until the final winner is revealed. In rare cases when a contestant enter the competition after the first episode or another contestant return, their full body picture is abruptly added in to the group shot.
* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' did this in a church in a later episode-each permanent casualty just slowly faded out of the room.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzFWIw7wV8Q Ana's Origin Story]] has a picture of Ana and her daughter Pharah. As she become a more active members of Overwatch, more characters beginning to appear in the picture, symbolize them getting closer to her inner circle. As her regret towards the actions she took and the corruption within Overwatch grew, the characters beginning to fade out one by one, symbolizing the bond between them beginning to sever.

* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': Very common in the series, as a DeadlyGame is the main premise of the main entires. In all three main games, during the class trials, the students each stand at a court-esque podium, with the podiums for the dead students being filled in with a grey-scale portrait of said student that's been crossed out. The [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair second]] and [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony third]] games add another example, where before the trial starts, the protagonist recaps the situation as a set of collages of the students appear. In said collages, the students who are alive have a blue tinted picture, while the dead students are tinted with red. The second game also has EvolvingCredits, where when the game is started, it checks the most recent save file for where it is in the story, and the students who are dead at that point have their picture in the opening given a red filter and occasionally blood splatters. At the end of each chapter in all three games, silhouettes of the remaining students are shown, as well as a counter of the number of them left. The silhouettes of the students who died that chapter fade into a different color (black for the first game, pink for the second, and colors varying by chapter in the third) as the counter audibly ticks down.

* ''Webcomic/ChasingTails'': Each chapter ends with nine pictures, representing 9 victims who were trapped in the wreckage. As the series go on, their face, name, age and survival status is revealed, with the victims who died in the wreckage being grayed out. In the final nine chapters of the series, each pictures of the victim is removed from the end of the chapter.

* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': Very common in the series, as a DeadlyGame is the main premise of the main entires. In all three main games, during the class trials, the students each stand at a court-esque podium, with the podiums for the dead students being filled in with a grey-scale portrait of said student that's been crossed out. The [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair second]] and [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony third]] games add another example, where before the trial starts, the protagonist recaps the situation as a set of collages of the students appear. In said collages, the students who are alive have a blue tinted picture, while the dead students are tinted with red. The second game also has EvolvingCredits, where when the game is started, it checks the most recent save file for where it is in the story, and the students who are dead at that point have their picture in the opening given a red filter and occasionally blood splatters.

[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Raiden Shogun's [[https://youtu.be/ydPqFAEgHzs?si=oaSwWaqS2mUbm4P0 character teaser]] has her being surrounded by friends and love ones, and then as the years go by they fade out one by one, signaling her beginning to outlive them [[WhoWantsToLiveForever as an immortal Archon]].

* ''Series/BandOfBrothers did this in a church in a later episode-each permanent casualty just slowly faded out of the room.

So you wrote a work with an EnsembleCast, a number of RotatingProtagonist, [[FourLinesAllWaiting multiple storylines running at once]] and / or a work where AnyoneCanDie. As an author you have a careful plan for how you're going to use all of the characters and how they will factor into the story. But how do you let your viewers keep track of the names and survival status of your cast? While a list might work for literature, in a more visual media like comics or animation this would make it hard to keep the audience engaged.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': Riders considered "dead" during the story (such as [[spoiler: Kiriya after Dan kills him]] have their portion of the actor-montage replaced with a blank screen and color-appropriate static.

** ''VisualNovel/BladesOfLightAndShadow'': The series has the full body group picture with members of the main cast fading in and out as they enter or in the case of Kade [[spoiler: as well as Nia in Book 1 and Aerin in Book 2]], leave the core group.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': The eight-part mini-series "Stakes" has Marceline
tracking down five vampires. Every time she slays one, the episode ends with a picture of the five, with the one killed in that episode crossed out.

Indexes: DeathTropes, ThisIndexIsExpendable, ColourCodedForYourConvenience, SeriesTropes