Example Drift: Uncanny Valley

Time to put a bullseye on my forehead.

The Uncanny Valley is a preexisting, real life term that refers to a specific phenomena: When something looks extremely, realistically human, and there is something slightly off, it becomes creepy. The trope description, while lengthy, expresses that pretty well, and the laconic also matches it pretty well (Note that it is possible for individual features, like a face, to fall into the valley while other parts of the body do not.).

Unfortunately, however, a lot of tropers don't seem to realize that. Check out some of these examples.

• The Uncanny Valley has been around since the early 20th century. Ladislas Starevich had made some very early stop-motion animated films, originally for educational purposes but then he realized, "hey, I got a lot of potential stuff to do!" so he decided to make his puppets star in dark comedies. What were these puppets of? Actual embalmed insects. He originally intended to recreate a stag-beetle fight because he couldn't get them to do it under stage lights. (Insects, not humans, but could possibly work if we expanded the Uncanny Valley trope to include animals.)
• Probably unintentional, but the Deer God/Forest God in Princess Mononoke seriously invokes this trope. A deer with vaguely mask-like human face instead of normal deer-head, and a veritable bush of horns growing on it. And from side he looks like a deer with front half of its head cut off. (Not a human face.◊ At all.◊ Slightly humanish does not mean Uncanny Valley.)
• Due to the fact that the admirals in One Piece are based off of famous Japanese actors this can happen. While the first admiral shown, Aokiji does look like a normal member, Kizaru is slightly more realistic, and Akainu doesn't even look like his a member of the show, looking exactly like the actor. (These characters are still extremely cartoony. At most, they are about as Uncanny Valley as caricatures.)
• The use of puppets in Fantastic Mr Fox squicked at least one family of movie-goers right out. Tip: making all of your characters look like roadkill in a kids' movie is not the best way to do things! Kids' movie. Right. (Not human, although, like in the insect example, I could maybe understand it being too close to real life animals)
• The infamous Bear and Lion vignette in The Teletubbies is the king of Uncanny Valley. You can watch a clip here, IF, you dare (Uh, what?)
• Jynx looks too much like a human-Pokemon hybrid to not be Nightmare Fuel. (Apparently, this◊ looks incredibly human.)
• In case 3 of Apollo Justice Ace Attorney, there's a cutscene involving a concert performance. While the entire game series is in 2-D point-and-click, the concert is in moving 3-D and not that well detailed. It's very unnerving. (Here's the scene in question. No where near human enough for the trope to apply.)
• Whoever designed Doc Louis' eyes in the new Nintendo Wii version of Punch-Out!!! needs to honestly be charged with something. The game itself is silly enough and cartoony, but whenever a round ends and it shows Little Mac in his corner with Doc, his eyes are always disturbingly fixed upon you... not your in-game character, but staring at the screen at YOU. And the eyes appear to follow you... * shudder* (Wrong trope, although the second Punch Out example is definitely this trope)
• Used in X-Wing on the face of the medical droid, during the medical-treatment scene. Viewable here.◊ (No.)

From what I can tell, the main drift that's happened so far is...
* Animal examples

• Character examples (This character's design is slightly off from how he usually is, to evoke fear)
• Very slight behavioral examples. I don't think being emotionless puts a character in the Uncanny Valley.
• Things that most definitely don't look human, but have some slightly human features (Note: Note the slightly. This isn't like having a human face on an animal's body.)
• Generic creepy being mistaken for Uncanny Valley.

I'm not even sure if the examples are the problem. Maybe the trope description needs fixing. However, there is a clear divide between them that needs to be addressed.

edited 15th Mar '11 10:46:21 PM by Scardoll

From Haruhi Suzumiya Kuyou Suou is explicitly lampshaded in universe as being Uncanny Valley.

Ryoko Asakura would count after the reveal if we take actions as being part of the trope. In that she acts "off", so that you know she's human, but not-human. So in a static picture she does not evoke Uncanny Valley, but in action she can.

edited 15th Mar '11 9:53:32 PM by Sackett

Hell yes Ryoko is an example of this she is the inspiration for Uncanny Valley Girl. [1]◊[2]◊ Just look at her there is something just not real about her its mostly the fact that her expression and tone of voice never changes. (Still shots arn't the best though) The books literally call her this trope by name early in the series in her "infamous event".

And Yuki is almost as bad with the same issues with attempting to be "human".

edited 15th Mar '11 10:19:46 PM by Raso

Point taken. The example looked as if it was talking about their appearance instead. I'll take that one down from my first post.

However, it still is stretching the original trope definition.

edited 15th Mar '11 11:01:28 PM by Scardoll

She is literally an incomplete girl she does not understand emotion and thus she is always with a smile like face and the smile off just enough to make her look strange asking for a favor◊ running on the track team◊ asking why Kyon doesnt want to die◊ stabbing someone in their back◊ then dancing with their blood.◊ [1]◊

They are constructs by an alien race and are just enough to pass for a human if you are looking for them in a crowd but not perfect enough to notice something really strange in them, That is the heart of the trope.

edited 15th Mar '11 10:59:41 PM by Raso

So they're an example in-universe?

Except none of that has to do with Uncanny Valley. It's strictly an apparance trope. She might get a pass if people IN the story thinks there's something creepy about her _appearance_. Her actions and behaviors do not matter for this trope.

edited 15th Mar '11 11:04:06 PM by Ghilz

Yes Kyon specifically calls her this by the tropes name.

But is he referring to how she looks or how she acts?

If this trope is strictly appearance, we have a problem.

There's a HUGE amount of examples that are based on behavior.

It should be. The definition of the pre-existing term is specifically about appearance.

Also, behaviors would also be covered by about a dozen tropes depending on behavior. Notably Cloudcuckoolander and No Social Skills.

edited 15th Mar '11 11:26:50 PM by Ghilz

Looks, he was talking about how it was just off with her a little bit, and the fact that she never loses that smile IIRC this was before The Reveal and a Foreshadowing of it.

None of those fit this though she is a responsible Class Rep and a a somewhat Genki Girl till The Reveal when she decides to make things interesting by killing Kyon and make Haruhi use her powers.

And to the viewer of the anime there is just something wrong with her smile till The Reveal shows us why its really tough to explain its the bunch of tropes like Emotionless Girl and other things. The Reveal. EDIT: not a good example of it but still. It is an in-universe example of this thanks to Kyon's Unreliable Narrator thing.

The opposing force in the Anti-SOS has been described as even worse.

edited 16th Mar '11 12:01:29 AM by Raso

A constant smile is already covered by Stepford Smiler, Cheshire Cat Grin, Dissonant Serenity... The Uncanny Valley began as specifically related to physical appearance.

That last video of Ryoko looks like it falls under Dissonant Serenity and Evilly Affable.

Some more examples of behavior related instances of this trope on the anime page...

• Played with in an interesting way in Saber Marionette J. For the most part the saber marionettes act as Ridiculously Human Robots, but on two separate occasions one of them has something happen to her 'maiden circuit' which controls their emotions. They then nosedive instantly into Uncanny Valley territory, marked mostly by their vacant stares and completely lack of movement except when prompted.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rei Ayanami was intended to provoke this in the viewer, but was a massive Epic Fail, instead being viewed as a sex symbol. Gainax didn't seem to care, though, as between her and Asuka, Neon Genesis Evangelion was a Cash-Cow Franchise, with thousands of different figures of them.
  • Doesn't help that she basically passes as Human on the Uncanny Valley Scale, aside from a few minor physical oddities. She's not even a completely Emotionless Girl, more like an Emotionally Repressed Girl that has difficulty expressing herself. Being Tragic, Attractive, and Passing the Turing Test? Yep, you're gonna fail in making her creepy.
• Rozen Maiden invokes this with the dolls when they have to act like regular dolls, and is also shown in the first season's opening. Otherwise, they're just Moe.

edited 15th Mar '11 11:39:55 PM by Scardoll

We need to clean up examples. The Fantastic Mr Fox for instance don't even look like road kill.

So basically because some anime character didn't know what the Uncanny Valley actually was, there's a huge amount of trope decay to what should be a fairly simple trope? Maybe we should just nuke all the anime references to the trope. They're too stylized to count for it anyway.

Besides, as Raso's demonstrated they seem to come from a bizarre belief that this is a personality trope. Which it's not.

edited 16th Mar '11 7:42:58 AM by shimaspawn

Why can't it be used as a personality trope? Someone whose personality is almost, but not quite, human seems a lot creepier than something that's just a machine, because it's close to human but not human.

Because that's not what Uncanny Valley, as a preexisting term, means.

It's trope decay.

We would need a new trope, then.

I am not entirely sold this is purely about appearance, though. The only difference between a corpse and a zombie is how the latter behave. However, in the classical Uncanny Valey chart, the zombie is way below the corpse in 'familiarity'. I also believe the behavior is an important part of this trope.

edited 16th Mar '11 9:17:22 AM by Heatth

Well, a few of the examples on the anime page are in-universe; is there an appropriate trope for them?

Also, there's a trope called Uncanny Valley Girl that is completely personality and behavior based, so that has definitely not helped matters with its name.

Speaking on this trope, there were also some discussion about Uncanny Valley on its Image Picking Thread(second page).

edited 16th Mar '11 9:27:12 AM by Heatth

I'm of the opinion, that while behavior/movement can be a factor, it can't be the only one, like appearance can. Like, say in Super Punk Octo Pudding Gas Mark Seven there are four characters, Alice, Bob, Carol, and Dave.

• Alice is a normal human being, looks average. Not Uncanny Valley.
• Bob is a cyborg. His parts, however, are high-end, so his movement is unaffected, only appearance. His arms and legs are obviously mechanical, as is his eye. Not Uncanny Valley.
• Carol was in a horrible accident, and so much of her body was destroyed. She's also made a cyborg, but because she's vain, she wanted her parts to look human. They almost are. Unfortunately, her motor control is not nearly as good as Bob's, so her facial expressions are a bit off, perhaps exaggerated. Her gait is odd, and she has a sort of twitch when trying to use her arms. Uncanny Valley.
• Dave was sitting right next to Carol in the accident, but all they were able to save of him was the brain. His body is fully mechanical, and looks it. He suffers much of the same problems as Carol, minus his facial expressions, as even that looks robotic. Think C3PO. Not Uncanny Valley.

Also, note that the page itself says something to the effect of "The more human something looks and acts, the more endearing it becomes, to a point where it becomes creepy." Behavior can certainly come into play, although I'm not sure the specific example Raso gave fits. I'd say Stepford Smilers are below "human" on the classic chart, on the right side, but not in the actual "valley". On ours, about two dots down from "human".

All that said, this is a YMMV trope, so one man's uncanny valley is another man's "cool character trait."

edited 16th Mar '11 10:05:07 AM by Wulf

Huh? It fits with the robot theory.

Ryoko is a construct that was made to be as close to human as possible however she isn't quite perfect enough to pass close inspection. She has only two expressions default is a cheery expression and the other is disapointment (this one she knows when to use it but not how, Haruhi is getting undressed in a classroom so Ryoko throws all the guys out on their butts an has a disappointed expression on her face that just looks funny, then Fridge Logic sets in that the boys are on the ground and she is looking straight ahead disappointed at a window) these two expressions are all she has and all she would probably need in her role as Class Rep if she steps out of that role she literally has the smile pasted on as default.

Yuki is just as bad she doesn't have any expessive programing at all vocal and facial. Also her walk is funny she never moves her arms when she walks they just stay motionless.

These both do have occasional emotions "Errors" as Yuki calls them in which they act on instantly sometimes in very bad ways. One of the points to the characters is dealing with the Uncanny Valley theory as with Humanoid Robots fitting in visually and personality. Along with the rest of the Genius Bonus to the series this is 100% intentional

edited 16th Mar '11 11:27:19 AM by Raso

The difference between humanoid robots in real life and Ryoko is that, when humanoid robots make an expression, the expression itself looks inhuman due to the way the facial muscles work. Ryoko's smile looks like any other anime girl's smile. If a real life person-looking thing only smiled, from what I could tell, he wouldn't fall under the Uncanny Valley unless the smile itself looked inhuman.

edited 16th Mar '11 11:26:58 AM by Scardoll

And how is a cheerful smile stuck on someone's face NOT part of her appearance?

I would agree that behaviors are not part of the Uncanny Valley, so for example someone can't be in the Uncanny Valley for believing in Santa as an adult, for liking rotten food, or for speaking in a strange syntax, even though all of these are "slightly off" compared to normal humans.

But all of these things we previously discussed, the dissonantly cheerful smiling, the emotionless non-reaction, and even the mechanical movements, are part of the appearance.

It's the visual image of a cheerful girl with a knife that is in the Uncanny Valley, or the image of a girl blankly staring during a fight.

I think it's too restrictive to say that the character's body itself must be physically deformed, we can safely expand it to "scenes where a character looks slightly off".

edited 16th Mar '11 11:47:23 AM by EternalSeptember