Warning: All spoilers will be unmarked.
Times where somebody was revealed to be a Canon Character All Along in Anime and Manga.
- While it already had Foreshadowing, the chubby person that went by Ryota Mitarai in Danganronpa 3 The End of Hope's Peak High School - Side: Despair is not the real one. It's actually the Ultimate Imposter, who was asked by the real Ryota Mitarai to take his place since he was too busy animating.
- Norn Mikihara from Digimon Next is revealed to be the human form of Yggdrasill, the God of the Digital World (or close to that).
- In the Fate/Zero anime, the metafictional "Einzbern Consultation Room" shorts feature a Genki Girl named Zecchan, who somehow gets pulled into the Grail and becomes friends with Irisviel. She's a time-traveling, amnesiac Taiga Fujimura.
- A three-way example occurs in Final Fantasy: Unlimited. The Big Bad Earl Tyrant and the protagonists Ai and Yu are revealed to be avatars of recurring Final Fantasy villain Chaos.
- In the Fire Emblem Fates manga, Nibelung no Hokan, Garon appoints a particular violent man to interrogate prisoners. Said man is said to be a noble from Cheve but it is heavily implied that he's actually Hans in disguise.
- FLCL Progressive & Alternative features a stoic but Motor Mouthed teacher with Opaque Nerd Glasses in the first episode, who's also featured in trailers for the series. The First-Episode Twist is that she's a disguised Haruko. There's also a semi-example in Jinyu, who turns out to be a Literal Split Personality of Haruko. Also Played With: a character who seems to be Amarao is actually his son.
- F-Zero: GP Legend introduces two new characters, Bart Lemming and Roy Hughes, who eventually turn out to be the anime versions of Captain Falcon and Mighty Gazelle, respectively.
- Getter Robo:
- One of the new pilots in Armageddon is Benkei's Action Girl daughter, a tomboyish young woman named Kei Kuruma. It's eventually revealed that Kei is actually a Grown Up and Gender Flipped version of Genki, Professor Saotome's son from the original series; Benkei went from Genki's Big Brother Mentor to Kei's Parental Substitute.
- Getter Robo Devolution inverts this, then plays it straight. Musashi admits that he isn't actually the real one, who had been Dead All Along since childbirth, but he later discovers that his true identity is Benkei.
- Inazuma Eleven:
- Inazuma Eleven GO: the leader of the Fifth Sector and initial Big Bad Ishido Shuuji/Alex Zabel is revealed to be the one and only Gouenji Shuuya/Axel Blaze, who became emperor to dispatch the Fifth Sector.
- Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy: the coach of Inazuma Japan, Kuroiwa Ryuusei/Astero Black, will turn out to be none other than the very first Big Bad of the franchise, Kageyama Reiji/Ray Dark, who was quite literally brought back to life with an illegal drug.
- The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa):
- In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005), the bandit girl Ghanti transforms into a boss from the game, Trinexx.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004), Link's father is temporarily brainwashed by Vaati and is revealed to guard the green Royal Jewel, making him the manga's version of the Green Knight.
- An inanimate example occurs in the adaptation of Oracle of Ages. Roperi's bonsai plant turns out to be a Mystery Tree, allowing Link to take the seed and use it against Veran.
- In Another World with My Smartphone: A lot of characters in the Reverse World including Norn, her sister Elluka, as well as the Red Cats members including Nia Belmott, Est Flotier, Euni and Euri, as well as other characters including Elfrau and Robert Panaches are revealed to be major characters in the author's previous work Chrono Crown. This is due to the Canon Welding of two series, subsequently leading to Reverse World acting as the parallel world to Touya's own world. The Gollems also count as one, since they also played a main role in Chrono Crown before they make an appearance in the story proper during Volume 10. Chrom Ranchesse is a significant case of being one, as he was mentioned in the previous story, before he was subsequently mentioned here again as the same creator of the Gollems.
- The Magi: Labyrinth of Magic prequel series Adventures of Sinbad:
- Ja'far's name is not mentioned, nor is his face fully seen, until the end of his redemption arc. Then again, he's clearly an albino with Youthful Freckles, so one wonders if this was even supposed to be a secret.
- A straighter example is Harun, the merchant who cheats and then mentors Sinbad, who turns out to be Alibaba's father, King Rashid of Balbadd.
- Tory/Tohru Froid from MegaMan NT Warrior seemed to be an Canon Foreigner, but it turns out he's the son of IceMan.EXE's Net Op in the games, who was only seen as a generic child sprite. He ended up being a Ascended Extra...until he was Demoted to Extra after Axess.
- Volume 15 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid includes a bonus Summon Everyman Hero story that seems to be completely disconnected to the main plot. But near the end of the story, the heroes are forced to do battle with a sea dragon matriarch to gain passage to the Demon Lord's island. One of the heroes manages to cut off one of her horns and another tries to teach her all about cute clothing, revealing that she's actually a younger version of Elma's grandma Telne.
- The Corpus of the Abyss, a group of Elder and Night Liches from Overlord (2012), initially only appeared in the Alternate Timeline Bonus Volume of the light novel. However, with the intermission chapter of the Half-Wood Elf God-Kin arc, the group is revealed to exist in the main timeline, albeit 200 years stronger and under the control of a different powerful being.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- When Ash and his companions reach Cinnabar Island they meet a long-haired local who gives them indications to reach his inn in case they don't find one. Near the end of the episode, it's revealed that the man was wearing a wig and he was actually Blaine, the Gym Leader of Cinnabar Island.
- An interesting play of this can be with the mysterious man with a Persian whom Team Rocket speak with in Battle Aboard the St. Anne, who is always shadowed. While people can assume who he is, in The Battle Of The Badge it's revealed the man is Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket.
- In the above mentioned episode, Giovanni uses an armor-cladded Pokémon capable of using Psychic-type moves. Its name, however, is never revealed. Only in the film it's revealed that the Pokémon is actually Mewtwo.
- Pokémon 4Ever has an in-continuity example where it's revealed that Sam, the mysterious young boy Ash and the gang befriended over the course of the movie, is the younger version of Professor Oak.
- Considering Powerpuff Girls Z happens in an alternate universe of The Powerpuff Girls (1998), it's not unusual that characters turn out to be already existing characters.
- The girls' classmate Himeko Shirogane is a spoiled girl that wants to stand out. After she's hit by Z-Rays at the same time her cat screeches, she fittingly turns into the already existing villain Princess Morbucks.
- The kindly candy store owner Sakurako Kintoki is hit by Z-Rays as she tries on some lipstick, which becomes her trigger to turn into Sedusa.
- Pretty Cure:
- Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart introduces Baldez, the leader of the Four Guardians and main antagonist. Only at the end of the anime, it's revealed that he's actually the spirit of the Dark King himself.
- Same goes for Hikari, who is revealed to be the life of the Queen.
- An interesting form of this trope is with Wolfrun, Akaoni and Majorina from Smile Pretty Cure!, who are clearly based on antagonists from fairy tales. Towards the end of the anime, however, it's revealed the three were inhabitants of Märchenland, where fairy tales characters actually live. That makes them the actual antagonists of said stories (Wolfrun being the wolf from Red Riding Hood, Akaoni being the oni from Momotaro and Majorina being the recurring witch in various tales).
- Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart introduces Baldez, the leader of the Four Guardians and main antagonist. Only at the end of the anime, it's revealed that he's actually the spirit of the Dark King himself.
- Shimeji Simulation has the familiar-looking neighbours of Shijima appearing in Chapter 48. At first glance they appear to be the same as the neighbours in the danchis that Shijima used to live prior to the simulation being altered twice by her sister and her clone. Until it comes to the Foreshadowing that these two are virtually different to the neighbours in terms of personality and even characterisation. Rather these two passengers are revealed to be none other than Chito and Yuuri from Girls' Last Tour. Owing to the simulation's real purpose of preserving humanity by uploading their consciousness before the Robot War, it is posited that Chito and Yuuri died in their Big Sleep after their long journey and with their consciousness uploaded into it. The last panel they appeared in Chapter 48, a grassy field, cannot be more obvious enough to the manga's ending which also situated in a grassy, wheat field.
- The 2007 Skull Man anime features a case where a character is revealed to be two Shotaro Ishinomori characters. Protagonist Hayato Mikogami turns out to be an orphaned Tatsuo Kagura, right before becoming the Skull Man. At the end of the anime however he gets possessed by the Skull Man suit and remodeled into Skull, the Big Bad of Cyborg 009.
- The final episode of takt op. Destiny reveals Anna Schneider to be the game's equivalent to Destiny.
- In the original 1981 anime adaptation of Urusei Yatsura, Ataru's recurring male... "friends" were a gang of four boys known by the Fan Nickname of Lum's Stormtroopers, and likewise referred to by descriptive nicknames — Megane (for his glasses), Perm (for his perm hair style), Chibi (The Runt at the End), and Kakugari (for his buzzcut hairstyle). Supplemental materials give names to Chibi (Akira) and Kakugari (Hiroyuki), whilst Megane's name of Satoshi is mentioned twice in the anime. These same supplemental materials also explain that Perm is actually Kousuke Shirai, a secondary character who was Ataru's apparent best buddy in the manga, just given a different hairstyle. The 2022 anime adaptation makes it clearer by explicitly refering to Kousuke by his name and using his original hairstyle.
