Invisible to Normals



""I wish I could see monsters.""

- Elena Potato, Monster Allergy

There are just some things that normal people don't seem to notice. In some settings it's because they just don't seem to want to see it. In some it's because it's just not their problem. But then there are the settings where they don't notice because they literally can't: The supernatural creatures just can't be seen in the first place without having some supernatural power of your own. Whether it's psychics being able to see ghosts or wizards being able to see magical creatures, the one thing that stays the same is that the normal people just can't see what's really going on.

Sometimes this is accomplished by innate ability, or sometimes it's a spell that keeps them hidden. Sometimes it's because they just aren't in phase with the rest of the world, but the end result is the same.

This trope can often aid the Masquerade.

When it goes down, expect someone thus hidden to ask "You Can See Me?"

See also Blind Seer, Plausible Deniability, No Big Deal, Somebody Else's Problem, and Weirdness Censor (which are the standard explanations to why this works). This trope is a subtrope of By the Eyes of the Blind, and sister trope to Invisible to Adults. Compare City of Weirdos.

Anime & Manga

 * Futari wa Pretty Cure takes this to extremes—the girls' joint Transformation Sequence is a sound and light show on a par with an industrial accident in a fireworks factory, and no one but their current opponent ever notices it—or their equally pyrotechnic attacks.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima explains that there are spells to prevent normal people from noticing magic and related phenomena. This becomes a major plot point in an early-mid arc where someone wants to invert the spells, forcing people to believe in magic.
 * In the anime (and part of the manga) Gantz, during the "games" the main characters and their quarry are literally Invisible To Normals, though they still cause lots of inexplicable blood stains and property damage.
 * My-HiME mildly subverts this trope. While Yukino's power (usually) hides the various supernatural battles from the eyes of the normals, the collateral damage from those battles—often quite significant in scope—remains afterwards, to the concern and puzzlement of many.
 * And in a further subversion, the damage gets bad enough that the normal students draw the conclusion that the Fuka Academy is too dangerous. Mai's non-HiME friends are shown leaving and urge Mai to come along. The campus shuts down late in the series, soon after overloads Yukino's attempts to conceal the battle, but it reopens after the final battle, in time for the senior class to graduate.
 * The Hime Star is invisible to virtually all non-HiME. Natsuki's mother tells her to never tell anyone that she can see it.
 * Bleach: spiritual beings such as ghosts, shinigami and hollows are invisible to normal humans. However, they can be touched and if they start wreaking havoc on the environment around them, humans will notice the collatoral damage even though they won't be able to see what's causing the damage. The requirement for seeing these beings is for a person to possess spiritual power which is rare and most people who can see the spiritual can do nothing else about it. Only a rare few have the power on top of the sight to actually help lost ghosts or fight hollows. This means humans who can see the spiritual world but who don't have the power to fight it can be left quite vulnerable to attack. Humans who lose their spiritual power also lose their ability to see spiritual beings.
 * Shinigami in Death Note can only be seen and heard by people who have touched a Death Note belonging to them.
 * In CLAMP's X, the super-powered fighters have the ability to create "kekkai" which are barriers that prevent normals from entering, and repair all damage within them when dispelled. However, if the fighter is killed in the battle, the kekkai disappears and all damage immediately appears in the real world.
 * In Keroro Gunsou, the aliens and their machines really are invisible, most of the time, thanks to their "Anti-Barrier". That, or they're in a laughably bad disguise that usually reveals their frog-like heads, much like Pinky And The Brain's Man Suit.
 * In xxxHolic, many of the weird spirits and occurrences that happen can only be seen by Watanuki, Yuko, and other spirits or supernatural beings.
 * The characters in Kamichama Karin really are invisible when transformed.
 * Mages in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha often put up a barrier that puts everything around them sightly out of phase/time to everyone else so they don't perceive the fights held between mages or the latest Monster of the Week. These barriers can, however, be breached and destroyed from the inside.
 * This trope forms the main premise of Natsume Yuujinchou: Natsume, the titular character, is forced to deal with several supernatural creatures that only he able to see which causes him a lot of grief, eventually turning him into a very lonely person.
 * In To Aru Majutsu no Index, magicians regularly lay down barrier spells/runes to prevent normal people from seeing them and what they do. One likens it to the world being a coin, where normal people are standing on one side and magicians are on the other. Has the apparent side effect in most cases of making the normals invisible to the magicians, as well. Property destruction happens on both sides of the barrier, though.
 * Ghosts in RIN-NE are invisible and intangible, and the hero has a coat that can do the same to him. It has the opposite effect when you turn it inside out.
 * In Darker than Black, observer apparitions are invisible to anyone who isn't a Contractor or Medium. This tidbit blows one Contractor's cover when one person notices that she's staring at a puddle of water a little too intensely.
 * The Season Fairies in A Little Snow Fairy Sugar can only be seen at special times by special humans. In fact,
 * In Sugar Sugar Rune, only witches and wizards can see magic spells being cast. Everyone else is "frozen" until the incantation is complete.
 * In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure from the third arc onward, the metaphysical 'body' of a Stand is only visible to other Stand-users. This makes Hayato from the fourth arc a particularly impressive character in that he provides invaluable assistance to the heroes despite only being able to perceive Stands through their effects on the physical world.
 * Rozen Maiden. In season one, Jun goes researching Rozen Maidens on the internet, only to find that nobody believes they exist. Yet, Sugintou goes flying in broad daylight in a busy city and nobody notices her. The dolls travel from place to place in flying doll cases- again in broad daylight. Logically speaking, SOMEBODY would have to notice the aforementioned occurrences. Yet, the only people who actually know about the dolls are the mediums/others they live with.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Duel Monster Spirits are invisible to most people. What determines who can see them isn't really ever explained, and only a few individuals are even confirmed to be able to see them. Juudai, Hayato, Johan, Manjoume, Fujiwara, Edo, Satou, and Geise could all see spirits, though Hayato, Satou, and Geise were implied to only see their own personal ones, and Edo said he could see strange things after his third duel against Juudai.
 * In Yu Yu Hakusho, most demon bugs and some demons can only be seen by people with high enough spiritual sense. Koenma uses this as an advantage to give out information to his detective and friends without the fear that muggles might see.
 * The mushi of Mushishi can only be seen by certain people.
 * A few smaller examples are abound in Axis Powers Hetalia. There's all of England's "magical friends" (Unicorn, Flying Mint Bunny, Brownie, and an assortment of fairies and other magical creatures) of which only he can see (and a few select others such as Norway and on occasion France, though only when in England). Then Japan's Kappa, which only England can see as of the present, and presumably Norway's Troll. Though it's been said that everyone (but America, except for on Halloween) can occasionally inherit England's second sight when visiting the nation, England and Norway are the only ones with the ability to see the magical creatures which are invisible to normal people.
 * Madoka Magica: Neither Kyuubey nor the witches (or the witches' familiars) can be seen by normal people.
 * Much of what the runaway spirits in The World God Only Knows do can't be seen by people who aren't either supernatural themselves or linked to it by being a buddy or host. Other things aren't this convenient and do have to be hidden somehow.
 * In Kiniro no Corda, the protagonist Kahoko can see Lili, the fairy of her high school, which is something only a few can do. Lili was so happily surprised she gave Kahoko a superpower...sort of.
 * Among the powers of Helen of Helen ESP is the ability to see various otherwise hidden supernatural beings.
 * In Berserk, normal people, especially those who are dedicated to the Holy See's religion and those who have never had a supernatural encounter, can't see elves. As Puck attempts to explain, when a person looks at something, they imprint the event in their memory and they remember it, but if they don't remember what they've just seen, then they only try to remember the good parts of that event. A simpler explanation would be that when the secular religion took over the pagan beliefs, it all became a matter of clapping one's hand to believe, and the populace only see stuff that they want to see.
 * Mawaru Penguindrum has the three penguins following the Takakura siblings around.
 * Ecchan in Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok.
 * The youkai in Tactics.
 * The spirits in Shaman King can only be seen by those with an affinity for them.

Comics

 * In Fables, there's an outright war on the streets of New York between the forces of the Adversary and Fabletown. They explain that there are many magical protections to keep "mundies" out of Fabletown (or just walk through, in cases of days where there isn't a gigantic battle) but the spells had to be taken down in order to cast another spell: a rainstorm to put out the fires. It's then noted that the rain will keep people out of their business and reduce visibility enough that, if they can finish the battle fast enough, nobody will notice anyway.
 * In Monster Allergy, monsters can be only seen by people who have the Sight Dom. Tamers and Keepers are those people who can see monsters.
 * In Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Argiopes are spider-like creatures who attack the sources of time paradoxes to protect the timestream, and can only be seen by time travelers.
 * Zatanna once asked for Superman's assistance against a portal that was spewing out demons. While Supes could see and fight the demons, he couldn't see the portal, even after going through all his different vision modes. Zatanna goes, "It's outside the electromagnetic spectrum!" and uses a spell to make it visible.
 * One possible interpretation of Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes.

Film

 * Nick in The Invisible can only (barely, sometimes) be heard and felt by the girl who has almost killed him. And by animals. To everyone else he is invisible.
 * In Oh, God!, God cannot be seen, heard, or recorded by humans unless He allows it. This even extends to transcripts, such as a stenotype paper record of His courtroom testimony.
 * In Beetlejuice, ghosts typically cannot be seen. However, the Goth girl Lydia can because she is, in her own words, "strange and unusual".

Folklore

 * In Icelandic folklore the Hidden People are a race of people that are invisible to humans, unless they wish to be seen. Oddly enough, they would also be invisible to one another if it were not for a salve that is smeared in the eyes of their newborns. Normal humans only know this because the Hidden People tend to lack midwives, and thus seek humans' help when in labour. The human midwife would then be asked to smear the salve in the infant's eyes, and would then accidentally get some of the salve in one of her own eyes. From then on she would then be able to see the Hidden People and their world with one eye. Often resulted in madness...

Literature

 * Harry Potter mentions that Dementors cannot be seen by Muggles. It's unknown if anything else is like this.
 * Played with a bit in regards to most magical locations. To keep Muggles from discovering magic, most wizarding locale use some sort of enchantment to keep Muggles from wandering into them, which includes spells to make them look like something else entirely (for instance Hogwarts, which will look like withered ruins to any Muggles that find it), repel them from the areas in question (the Quidditch World Cup's stadium), or to keep them from noticing the spot at all (The Leaky Cauldron). There are also things that even most wizards can't see, such as thestrals (horse-like reptilian beings that are invisible unless you've seen someone die) and any location protected by the Fidelius Charm (which keeps you from seeing a particular location unless you've been told the address by the Secret Keeper).
 * Fablehaven has certain creatures that only those that are "fairystuck/fairykind" or "shadow charmers" can see,one jarring instance was a kobold who disguised himself as a cute guy and dated all the girls in Kendra's class despite being a goblin with us leaking out the side of his head
 * In Life the Universe And Everything, a "Somebody Else's Problem Field" prevented anyone from paying attention to a spaceship present during a game of cricket.
 * In the novel and miniseries Neverwhere, people who live in the London Underground are effectively invisible to normal people. These people can stand in front of normal people, completely naked and actually trying to initiate some sort of conversation, and be utterly ignored. On the off chance they are able to grab someone's attention, they are almost always promptly forgotten. Played for laughs in one scene where museum security is called on to remove Richard, only to spend about half an hour trying to figure out just who they're supposed to arrest.
 * In Terry Prachett's Discworld novels, Death actually explains this. It isn't that the normals can't see them, it's that the normals' brains come to the logical conclusion that they CANNOT EXIST and therefore write them off as not existing. It's important to note that this only happens to adults. Children, who aren't educated and mature like adults, are imaginative enough to see what's really there. Wizards and Witches can also see them.
 * In Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments, Shadowhunters, demons, and Downworlders are all invisible to normal people, or 'mundanes', until they've been bitten by a werewolf, forced to focus, or otherwise pulled in.
 * In the Percy Jackson and The Olympians novels, most mortals can't see most mythological things because of the Mist, which is apparently some sort of Weirdness Censor. The Mist lets them see something more "normal" than the mythological reality; for example, a three foot long celestial bronze sword might be perceived as a big gun, or the massive Hell Hound that just busted through a solid brick wall could look like a poodle. There are some mortals that can see through the Mist, but they are few and far between. The Mist can also be manipulated to make people think or see certain things.
 * The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathon Stroud takes place in an Unmasqued World, but this trope still applies somewhat: demons can change their forms and often do, though their true selves can be seen on "higher planes." Demons can see on multiple planes to recognize each other; magicians can use special contact lenses to see on a few and are thus harder (but not impossible) to trick.
 * In Kingdom Keepers, the Overtakers can't be seen by anyone other than the DHIs at first. They eventually can be seen as more people believe in them.
 * In Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz, creatures called Goblins can only be seen in their true forms by humans with some psychic ability (the "Twilight Eyes" of the title). The main character has unusual purple eyes that make him able to see them. Another character has an amber third eye in his forehead with the same ability. The protagonist's love interest can also see their true form and see the future, though there doesn't seem to be any visual quirk to indicate it.
 * A variation on the trope. In the first El Hazard series, only Nanami Jinnai can see through the Mazoku race's illusion, a unique, personal power gained by crossing dimensions. However, the Mazoku is Trapped in Another World and unable to see the illusion at all, so she assumes what she sees is normal because nobody else comments on it...
 * According to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, people who are not Force-sensitive cannot see or hear Force Ghosts. For example, during Star Wars Legacy, Cade Skywalker is contacted by the Force Ghost of his ancestor, Luke Skywalker, but Cade's companions think he's talking to himself.
 * In Septimus Heap, the door to the Queen's Room is visible only to the Queens and Princesses.
 * Red Hand, Black Sheet, Green Finger by Eduard Uspensky plot started  when a detective found himself with strange heirloom and began to see the colourful phantoms from  children's evening tales floating around now and then. He has enough of self control to pretend he sees nothing and can even  (very carefully) shadow these entities, but eventually he found out that the problem with seeing things people normally don't see is  that he cannot tell when normal people are supposed to see them...

Live Action TV

 * Throughout the seasons of Fraggle Rock Gobo spends a lot of time ducking out of sight from the resident human, Doc... only to discover in the penultimate episode that under normal circumstances humans can't see Fraggles anyway, so he needn't have bothered. To add insult to injury, this is also the one episode where Gobo actually needs Doc to see him, so he has to work out how to make himself visible to the human. The "You Can See Me??" event happens in the last few minutes of the episode.
 * The Last Great Time War in Doctor Who is an example - in "The Unquiet Dead" it is stated that the War was invisible to lower races, but devastating to higher ones.
 * The perception filter can also act like this; however, 'normal' means 'not in on the secret'. People won't be able to see that rather out-of-place Police Box unless they know to look for it.
 * Happens repeatedly to Annie the ghost in Being Human (UK). Most ghosts can only be seen by other supernatural creatures—for example, the new tenants of Annie's flat, a werewolf and a vampire. However, as time goes on, Annie begins to become more solid and visible, at one point able to pass as a living human again. During the transition, however, there's a lot of "Can you see me?", and George actually uses the phrases 'invisible to normals' at one point.
 * At one point, Dean of Supernatural gains the ability to see those possessed by demons for what they are. This occurs when he is running out of time with his Deal with the Devil.
 * Hellhounds and Reapers are also invisible to normal humans, and can only be seen by the people they're coming after.
 * Happens accidentally to Daniel in the episode 'Crystal Skull' of Stargate SG-1. This leads to a funny conversation between Daniel and his grandfather (who can see him due to having encountered the same phlebotinum skulls that turned Daniel invisible): neither realizes they're actually talking to each other at first, as his grandpa thinks Daniel is just a hallucination but talks back anyway, and Daniel doesn't expect an answer and is just responding to conversations to pass the time/rhetorically, as no one else can see or hear him.
 * Also occurs in a number of other episodes, including one in which a young boy who arrives on base.
 * There's also an episode where SG-1 activates an alien machine that allows people to see invisible creatures in another dimension (and forget how to use their brakes.) This understandably freaks-out the residents of Colorado Springs.
 * The Collector: Only the Devil's clients can see and hear the temporary portals to Hell that appear to collect.
 * As the Opening Narration reminds us every episode, Quantum Leap's Al exists as a hologram that only Sam Beckett can see, because he's being projected back in time to guide Sam. A few episodes have children, animals, or mental patients seeing Al, and the Yet Another Christmas Carol episode handwaves it by saying the Scrooge stand-in has brain chemistry similar to Sam's.
 * That group of special individuals also includes some who see Sam rather than the leapee.

Tabletop Games

 * Semi-Averted in Genius: The Transgression. Ordinary people see Wonders just fine, and nothing prevents them from remembering what they've seen. When they start fiddling with the Wonders, however... bad things happen.
 * Changeling: The Lost has the Mask, a cover for all things fae. Changelings appear to be perfectly normal, despite being twisted (both physically and mentally) by their time in Arcadia, and the True Fae can pass as well... mostly.

Theater

 * The fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream can be invisible to the humans. To avoid confusing the audience, Oberon conveniently explains this to them.

Video Games

 * It is strongly suggested that Keepers in the Thief series are Invisible to Normals when they want and only gifted people, such as Garrett, are able to notice them.
 * Talented hiders would know where to look for the hiding places Keepers would use. This may overlap with Invisible to Adults, as Garret was just a street urchin when he attempted pickpocketing a Keeper. This Origin Story is bookended at the end of Thief 3, when Garret, now the leader of the Keepers, catches a young girl pickpocketing him and gives the same line.
 * In The World Ends With You, the Players of the Reaper's Game are invisible to, except when they go in shops to buy things. The Noise are also invisible. However, it is implied that there are some people who can see the Game, such as one bystander whose thoughts reveal that he can see Noise symbols. He calls them "weebers." Weebie weebie weebie... Another one mentions that she saw someone with wings.
 * In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Centurion Tenebrae is said to be this; naturally the party members of the previous game (and one notable exception), along with the protagonists can see him.
 * Actually, only Colette and Yuan can see Tenebrae naturally. Tenebrae can turn himself visible, which lets the other party members interact with him.
 * Shadow Pokémon in Pokémon Colosseum have a black, fiery aura that is invisible to everyone except the girl who, conveniently enough, is your traveling partner.
 * In the sequel, the Aura Reader was designed as a means of detecting this aura for the more mundane protagonist - one of the obstacles for purification is the ability to identify Shadow Pokemon reliably and immediately.
 * The devils in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon certainly apply. Raidou can summon a devil to follow him around, and even send it out on solo missions, but most people are blissfully unaware.
 * This was also true of the first Devil Summoner prequel, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army.
 * Also applies to Strange Journey, where demons are invisible to everyone not looking out through a Demonica equipped with the Demon Summoning Program.
 * In The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Zelda becomes a Spirit Advisor and Exposition Fairy only Link and the Lokomo can see.
 * In Golden Sun, the protagonists use Psynergy, which is basically magical abilities, which can only be seen by those who can use it. However, at one point you fight in an arena against a series of opponents who are standard humans, leading to some Fridge Logic for what the audience and opponents see when all these gladiators are defeated by a character who just waves his hands around to damage his opponents.
 * Subverted by Briggs in Dark Dawn, when he identifies Matthew & Friends because he saw them handwaving around some crates on the other side of the dock and realized it must be Psynergy. Possibly the exception that proves the rule, since Briggs knows about Adepts and Psynergy already and would know what to look for.
 * Heavily subverted in City of Heroes. Normal citizens will be able to see you use magic, supertechnology, etc. They will come up to you and thank you for beating up the mobs that were being jerks. And if you're playing City of Villains, they will cringe away from you.
 * Although Amaterasu from Okami is not Invisible to Normals per se, to most people she appears as nothing more than an ordinary wolf rather than the flaming bronze plate-equipped, red-striped mother goddess of the sun.
 * The 'Aura Beasts' from Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy, Nick can see them with Aura Vision and its implied other psychics can sense them.
 * In Ancient Domains of Mystery, a number of foes, including the, are invisible, requiring a means of seeing invisible in order to defeat easily. The player can also become invisible, making most enemies incapable of seeing the character, with a notable exception of shopkeepers, who can sense the presence of an invisible character if given sufficient time.
 * In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link needs to uses the Lens of Truth later in the game to be able to see hidden doors, objects, monsters and a boss.
 * Angels in Bayonetta are invisible to humans. As is the Player Character herself, most of the time.
 * in Final Fantasy XII, and perhaps, too. This is, in fact, part of the reason that Dr. Cid comes off as being mad, as he carries out conversations with as normally as with anyone else, though to nearly everyone else, it appears as though he's talking to himself.

Web Comics

 * The gods of A Moment of Peace are invisible to the stick figure humans they walk among, but apparently Monster Food, worm like creatures hanging from the very bottom of the food chain, can see them.
 * Somewhat Lampshaded in Megatokyo. Some people in the strip notice the giant drunk turtle, the zombie hordes, and the rent-a-zillas, but most are blissfully ignorant. Ironically enough, the one whom is the most out of touch with reality, Largo, is not only able to see them, but seems rather capable in dealing with them.
 * Since the TPD has an entire division dedicated to organising, managing, and cleaning up after the giant drunk turtle, zombies, and rent-a-zillas, you could argue that in Megatokyo, this IS normal life, and everyone's just resigned to it.
 * It's later revealed that average people have a "SEP Field" that prevents them from seeing the extraordinary things in Japan (giant monsters, magical girls, ninja, etc.). Only those who have had the field shattered (Junko), are a member of the extraordinary (Miho, Yuki, Meimi), or have a very blurred view of reality (Largo, Dom, Ed) are able to see things for what they are.
 * The whole thing is unclear. For example, at the same time as Junko is finally noticing all the weird things that are happening around her, a guy is complaining that if she had been paying attention, a robot wouldn't have smashed his car with a telephone pole. It seems more like half the people notice but don't care, and the other people don't notice.
 * In The Dragon Doctors  is   who is not only invisible, but completely unnoticeable unless she, say... intentionally stomps on a shaman's toes.
 * Gradually subverted in Fans, where despite the best efforts of the sinister shadowy Government Conspiracy the truth of what really happens eventually becomes public knowledge.
 * The Everto in Shadownova. They have a tendency to kill the people who can see them.
 * In Gunnerkrigg Court, the psychopomps are able to reveal themselves to anyone, but usually operate invisibly, since they're forbidden from interfering in the lives of mortals. However, some can see them even when they're supposed to be invisible - including Antimony and Surma, whether because they count as etheric creatures (and e.g. fairies see psychopomps normally) or because they.
 * The town of Mayview from Paranatural is haunted by numerous ghosts and other supernatural creatures, which only a few people can see.
 * In Shifters the majority of humanity doesn't know that Shifters, Vampires, or any of the other Veil Races exist due to the conspiracy called The Veil.
 * In The Kingfisher, mortals seem to miss out on the supernatural. Asked why people don't notice them climbing on the side of buildings, Vitus tells Jack, "most people don't look up."
 * In Dangerously Chloe Teddy ran into an angel and discovered that he can see her wings and halo, but his sister cannot, likely because he got a magic mark of demonic contract. The angel tried to "arrest" him on the ground that seeing her is "suspicious", but agreed to turn the disguise off so that Abby can see too, since she knows already.

Web Original

 * In the Paradise setting, human characters are randomly, permanently changed into Funny Animals (and some are gender-swapped as well). After they Change, characters have an illusory full body disguise of their old human selves where normal human beings are concerned (whether they like it or not), especially early on when the "Reality Distortion Field" is stronger. A man who turned into a female bear might look much like his old masculine self, just a little overweight - which means he will need to continue to dress like a man. Normals literally cannot tell anything has changed; only other Changed can see them as they are.
 * It seems the Slender Man is only seen when he wants to be seen and rarely shows himself to anyone besides his victims. People who don't know about him are usually safe. Thus, even if he were near right now, perhaps even looming over your shoulder as you read this, you wouldn't be able to see him.
 * The gods and demigods in Thalia's Musings, unless they choose to be seen and/or heard. Thalia claims to have used this power to stalk mortal men.
 * In the Addergoole setting, a double layer of invisibility exists: fae can Mask to hide their unnatural appearance from other fae or fae-blooded, and something called the Blindness of the Gods hides such things from normal Mortals.

Western Animation

 * Demona in Gargoyles occasionally used magic spells to prevent mundane people from noticing her or her accomplices. This eventually was done away with when she gained human shape-shifting abilities. Goliath and the other gargoyles simply relied on Plausible Deniability to keep themselves hidden, but eventually they were seen enough that the Masquerade fell.
 * Any member of the third race can do this as well, though usually they just shapeshift into a human form.
 * The Transformers made themselves Invisible To Normals by hiding in plain sight. Nobody's gonna see a VW Bug on the road and jump to the comclusion that it's an alien robot, after all.
 * Multiple media have had the fact that Transformers do not have a driver eventually draw the attention of humans. Most notably in Car Robots/Robots in Disguise, where the desperately unlucky Kelly often winds up in the crossfire between the Autobots and Predacons. She does not see them transformed, but starts being seriously freaked out about these strange cars driving themselves. (It doesn't help that her own car was an Autobot, who dumped her and drove off in the first episode.
 * Of course, the newest comic series has fixed this problem by giving them the ability to project hard-light driver holograms who not only help them hide out but provide a vehicle (haha) for their interaction with humans while in their camouflaged state.
 * The first Transformers comic book series had the Autobots deploy inflatable human dummies for the same purpose. The dummies could hand give credit cards to gas station attendants to pay for gasoline...
 * Monster Allergy also has monsters invisible to normals. This is used to comedic effect in several episodes, as Elena, the main character's best friend, can't see the monsters, but tries to help out anyway. Later, she can finally see them thanks to Greta giving her the Gift of Sight. Ghosts, however, are visible to everyone because everyone who isn't a ghost are just "living ghosts".
 * In the final battle of WITCH, the heroines are forced to fight in downtown Heatherfield. Normally, such a battle would be easily noticeable, but the girls get around this by having three of their friends create a glamour zone around the battle, making it appear to anyone standing nearby that the fight is merely a cartoon taking place on a large television screen which has been recently built on a nearby building. Of course, in order to maintain this illusion, they must still prevent any debris knocked around in the fight from crushing the people below.
 * The Life and Times of Juniper Lee has it so only specific people can see supernatural happenings. Only people who are magical themselves can see magical beings, due to a 'veil' erected by the 'elders'. One of Juniper's tasks is to enforce this separation.
 * In the animated movie Fern Gully, humans can't see fairies unless a fairy grants them "fairy sight."
 * In The Smurfs, Smurfette's pegasus friend Blue Eyes is only visible to Smurfette, which makes other people including her fellow Smurfs think that her friend is imaginary.