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Cool Mask: Difference between revisions
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=== Anime & Manga ===
* The Glittering Crux Brigade from ''[[Star Driver]]'' is practically built around this trope. Their masks even let them pilot ''[[Humongous Mecha]]''.
* [[Action Girl|Juliet]] of ''[[Romeo X Juliet]]'', as part of her awesome, cross-dressing vigilante alter ego, The Red Whirlwind.
* Lan Fan and Fuu from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' wear masks, and they're elite ninja bodyguards of a prince. Lan Fan in particular seems to feel insecure without her mask on.
* Ichigo and the Vizards from ''[[Bleach]]'' are able to release their Hollow abilities by materializing Hollow masks.
* Several of the cast of ''[[Naruto]]'' (most notably [[The Obi-Wan|Kakashi]])
** Of course, he gets bonus points. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGn-Tg1j8w0 What's under his mask?] {{spoiler|1=[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1eNQ68mf6Y&feature=related Another mask!]}}
** Tobi has a spiral mask, only one eye is visible, he is an Akatsuki member {{spoiler|He is the leader of Akatsuki and appears to be Uchiha Madara}}. In flashbacks he had a different mask that was flat with a flame-like pattern. Later, he got a new mask. {{spoiler|- [http://manga.bleachexile.com/naruto-chapter-514-page-18.html That shows both Sharingan and Rinnegan]}}.
* Arshes Nei in ''[[Bastard!!]]'', though it quickly comes off.
* ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]''. No mask, but the shadow of his hat sometimes produces the same effect.
* Pizza the Zonderian from ''[[GaoGaiGar]]''.
** By extension, {{spoiler|[[Sixth Ranger]] Soldat J. When he gets purified and makes his [[Heel Face Turn]], his mecha ends up being at least three times the size of the biggest Yuusha Robos.}}
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** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing|Gundam Wing]]'' features a masked character similar to Char in backstory. The son of royalty who were killed by the Earth Sphere Alliance, Milliardo Peacecraft, adopted the name Zechs Marquise (''Gundam Wing'' has a naming trope all to itself), donned a mask, joined a military contractor so he could infiltrate the Alliance, and then bring them down. After finally bringing down his family's murderers, he removes the mask. For the next season, he leaves the mask, but remains [[Badass]].
*** To a lesser extent, Trowa Barton puts on a half-mask when performing as a clown for the circus he uses as cover. Thing is, Trowa is a [[The Stoic|Stoic]], even in the circus, so the half-mask combined with his constant poker face only enhance his mystique. In addition, he also piloted the mostly-red (until ''Endless Waltz'' at least) Gundam Heavyarms.
** In ''[[Turn
** As well as that Darth Vader wannabe, Iron Mask Carozzo, from the ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam F91]]'' movie. The mask in this case grants him the ability to interface with his [[Attack Drone|Attack Drones]].
** Bask Om from ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'' (and a minor role in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory]]'') is the "tiny little glasses" version of this. Well, goggles, really. He happens to be one of the highest ranked officers in the entire Federation/Titan force, [[Complete Monster|and one mean bastard in general]].
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** Rau Le Creuset and Neo Roanoke in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny|Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' respectively. Neo's hiding scars (and his identity from the audience), Rau's hiding from the sight of his own face and attempting to create an [[Cloning Blues|independent identity]] for himself. Both are extremley dangerous, with Neo serving as a [[Badass Normal]] [[The Dragon|Dragon]] to Destiny's secondary [[Big Bad]], and Le Creuset functioning, in no particular order, as {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]], [[Omnicidal Maniac]] ([[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] version)}}, and one of the best pilots in all of SEED.
** In classic [[Char Clone]] fashion, Zeheart Galette from ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' dons one from Episode 20 onwards. Unlike the other "Char-style" masks, however, Zeheart's mask is [[Justified Trope|actually a device that helps him concentrate his X-Rounder abilities.]]
** And in ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]'', we have Full Frontal who also wears a mask, and looks and sounds a lot like Char. {{spoiler|In a brilliant bit of [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]], its revealed that he's a Cyber-Newtype who was surgically modified to look and sound like Char, complete with the mask, all in order to keep the morale of the Neo Zeon remnants up, making him a literal Char clone in universe.}}
* Larva from ''[[Vampire Princess Miyu]]''.
* Cain from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]! In Love'', and Katsuhito Masaki/Youshou in ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]! Ryo-Ohki''.
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* Paul Wan from ''[[GetBackers]]'', though only in the manga. While he wears sunglasses in both the anime and manga without ever taking them off and giving people the image of a cafe owner, in the manga, it is discovered that the sunglasses are not opaque at all, and that he relies on his sixth sense instead of actually seeing. When he decides to take off the sunglasses in the last arc of the [[GetBackers]] manga, he is revealed to be VERY high on the power scale, capable of generating razor-sharp winds and cutting through his opponents just by MOVING.
* Otohime Mutsumi from ''[[Love Hina]]'' appears to become a lot less ditzy, although she still affects a facade of ditziness, after she acquires a pair of these glasses (and a wardrobe change). This happens approximately in volume 12.
* Sara Gallagher, one of the [[Authority Equals Asskicking|Five Pillars]] from ''[[Mai-Otome]]'', sports a Meister Robe that gives her a decidedly Zorro-like appearance, complete with a black mask, black [[The Cape (trope)|cape]], and black form-fitting tights.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', after Usopp {{spoiler|leaves the crew}}, he comes back under the alias 'Sogeking', with a mask and cape, [[Took a Level In Badass|and a metric tonne more badassery than he had before]]. In the arc after that, he puts on the mask again during a battle and suddenly becomes much more competent.
* The titular heroine of ''[[Kekko Kamen]]'' wears a red mask to conceal her face when she's out protecting her innocent classmates from evil. And that's about all she's concealing, seeing as the rest of the costume consists of gloves and boots... [[Stripperiffic|and nothing more]].
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* ''[[The Mask (comics)|The Mask]]''. Not like the title gives it away at all.
* Resident [[Badass]] Noburo from ''[[Okko]]'' always wears a red oni mask to [[The Faceless|conceal his features]].
* [[The Green Hornet]] and his faithful sidekick Kato. They began on radio, expanded their territory into comics, TV and film... and kept their verdant masks on the whole while.
* [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] all wear masks; uniformly red in the original comic book, [[Colour-Coded for Your Convenience|color-coded on the TV shows and movies]] (red = Raphael, blue = Leonardo, purple = Donatello, orange = Michaelangelo.) In the TMNTs case, these accessories do not serve as identity concealers (it's rather hard to disguise a giant humanoid turtle as anything else) so much as badges of their Shadow Warrior vocation.
** The turtles' vigilante ally Casey Jones wears a hockey mask. This is more about looking scary than hiding his identity; Casey frequently yells out his name just so people know who's delivering the beatdown.
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* ''[[The Mask (film)|The Mask]]''. It's literally ''about'' a mask that turns whoever wears it into the physical avatar of the [[Trickster God]] Loki.
* Jason Voorhees of the ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'' series made the hockey mask a universal symbol of horror.
** He also inspired the song "The Man Behind The Mask" by [[Alice Cooper]].
* The Alchemist from ''[[Vidocq]]'' wears a mask made out of mirror that he uses to [[Your Soul Is Mine|eat the souls of his victims]]. For extra creepiness, it also makes the victim see their own dying face while looking at him.
** Extra extra creepiness: {{spoiler|it has to be reforged periodically, and the most important step is [[Blood Magic|tempering it with the life's blood]] of a hundred [[Virgin Power|virgin girls]]}}.
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* [[Lon Chaney]], in the Silent Era ''[[Phantom of the Opera]]'', may not have worn the coolest face-cover around... but the scene where it's snatched off remains one of the most memorable [[The Reveal|Unmaskings]] in the history of cinema.
* In ''[[Onibaba]]'', a mysterious samurai wears a frightful demonic Noh mask which was later the inspiration for the demon in ''[[The Exorcist]]''.
* As noted in Western Animation, Cobra Commander usually wears one. Cobra Commander's mask in ''[[G.I. Joe: Retaliation|Retaliation]]''? Elicits this [[In-Universe]] reaction from Zartan: "Cool mask."
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** The horrible {{spoiler|[[The Worm That Walks|worm-monster-horrors masquerading as people]]}} in "The Festival" wear waxen masks.
** The entity {{spoiler|masquerading as Henry Akeley}} in ''The Whisperer in Darkness'' is a [[Epileptic Trees|powerful being and may even be]] {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination|Nyarlathotep manifest]]}}.
*** Apparently the way its way of speech was described pretty much gave away it was just an ordinary Mi-Go. {{spoiler|With prosthetic hands, mask, blanket and the place being pitch-ass dark,}} it could pass for a {{spoiler|sick old}} man, though.
*** Prosthetic hands and mask that are more or less confirmed to be {{spoiler|made from the actual body parts.}}
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'', a takeoff of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', the Opera Ghost is {{spoiler|actually an [[Adorkable]], pitifully clumsy, shy, and just plain ''weird'' janitor who becomes ultra-coordinated and suave when he wears a mask, through the magic of [[Magic Feather]].}}
** Let's not forget [[The Phantom of the Opera]] himself.
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* [[The Aquabats]], seeing as [[Stage Names|they're actual superheroes and all.]]
* [[Daft Punk]] wear robot masks when in public that light up.
* Deadmau5 and his signature mouse mask.
* [[MF DOOM]] wears a custom [[Doctor Doom]] mask as part of his "supervillain" persona. He even has a song about it.
* Italian electro-house duo The Bloody Beetroots wear [[Spider-Man|Venom]] masks.
* Dubstep artist Funtcase wears a gray robot mask when performing.
* The members of Japanese rock band Beat Crusaders always wore masks featuring dot-matrix print-outs of their faces, never showing their actual faces in public.
* The '80s [[Progressive Metal|Prog-]][[Power Metal]] band Crimson Glory deliberately distinguished itself by all wearing silver full-face masks, except for the singer, whose mouth was uncovered. So he could, you know, [[Captain Obvious|sing.]]
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* Oddly enough masked wrestlers used to be considered one of the worst things in wrestling. Only pathetic undercarders wore masks, so that people wouldn't see who it was getting their asses kicked.
** This often occurred, even later, with "Parts Unknown" jobbers like "Mr. X", who could be known wrestlers who are simply put out there to do the job.
** "Used to be" means "the 50s and before"; The Destroyer, Mr. Wrestling I & II, The Masked Superstar, The Spoiler/Super Destroyer -- all of them were stars in America and Japan going back into the 60s and 70s.
* The mask is also closely related to the [[Charlie Brown From Outta Town]] angles, where a banished/disgraced wrestler returns with a not-very-conspicuous mask under a different name to try to "clear" the banned wrestler (ie himself)'s name.
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** A full list: Shielding, Underwater Breathing, Levitation, Strength, Speed, X-Ray Vision, Time, Life, Light, Shadows, Concealment, Translation, Illusions, Night Vision, Mind Control, Telekinesis, Fate, Spirit, Detection, Telepathy, Flight, Accuracy, Radar, Kindred, Summoning, Stealth, Gravity, Reanimation, Corruption, Hunger, Silence, Repulsion, Disruption, Time Duplication, Diminishment, Clairvoyance, Quick Travel (Teleportation), Emulation, Growth, Rahi Control (Animal Control), Regeneration, Truth, Dimensional Travel, Charisma, Alternate Futures, Psychometry, Intangibility, Possibilities, Elemental Energy, Mutation, Creation, Scavenging, Incomprehension, Adaptation, Sensory Aptitude, Aging, Undeath, Conjuring, Rebounding, Biomechanics, and Fusion.
*** The abstractness of the powers grew as the series aged. One of the very cool features early on was how much the Toa mixed and matched elemental powers and mask powers, [[Fridge Brilliance|a lot like]] [[LEGO]]. Stop a lava flow from damaging an island? Mask of strength and earth elemental powers on the first Toa to dig a trench, mask of speed on the toa behind to push the digger around so that the channel was dug in time.
** Some masks are more powerful than others, and only some actually grant powers at all. Only Toa and Turaga can use them either way. Matoran can sense if a mask has power, but can't use it. So multiple levels of this trope.
** Also, it's a breathing apparatus. {{spoiler|Since the Matoran were designed to live inside the giant robot body of Mata Nui, leaving Metru Nui to go to Mata Nui essentially put them in a toxic atmosphere.}}
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* Wodan Ymir of ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', what with his "BFS" which can become a giant "[[Laser Blade]]".
* While not really a ''cool'' mask, the Grey Fox's mask in [[Elder Scrolls]] Oblivion magically induces amnesia in anyone who meets the wearer. The original Grey Fox claims to have met the player on several occasions, but the mask's magic erased the memory each time. When the player acquires the mask, it allows them to commit crimes with impunity.
** The Dragon Priest Masks from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim definitely count.
* [[Mass Effect]] gives us the quarians, an entire race of cool mask wearers. Most characters put on their own cool masks to walk around in hostile environments too. Special mention needs to go to Zaeed's and Thane's.
* Godot from the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games. He wears the mask {{spoiler|because he's completely blind without it due to the damage done to his nervous system by the poison.}}
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* Joachim Valentine from ''[[Shadow Hearts|Shadow Hearts: Covenant]]'' uses a mask as part of his ultimate power-up when he appears as Grand Papillon, {{spoiler|and later as the Great Question after he defeats his mentor during the Man Festival.}}
* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' deserves at least a few mentions given the preponderance of ninjas. Notables include Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Smoke, Jade, Kitana, Mileena, the cyber-ninjas Smoke, Sektor, and Cyrax, and the shadowy Noob Saibot. Shao Kahn has an intimidating skull mask-helmet.
* Darth Revan of ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', who is stated to be one of the most powerful Force user in history, masterminds elaborate [[Xanatos Gambit|Xanatos Gambits]] for dealing with events centuries if not millennia in advance, and of course who also ''{{spoiler|[[It Was His Sled|happens to be you]]}}''.
** Proving his mask power even further, Revan fought and killed Mandalore the Ultimate, the other Cool Mask user of his time in hand to hand single combat.
** And then there's Darth Nihilus from the sequel, whose mask can be obtained to get you more Force Points, and who is coincidentally extremely close to being an [[Eldritch Abomination]]. Quite a few Sith from those games have part or all of their faces obscured, actually.
*** In Nihilus's case, while the mask itself still technically has no powers, {{spoiler|his body has actually been destroyed and corrupted by the force. His mask IS his face.}}
* [[The Dragon|Death's Hand]] in ''[[Jade Empire]]'' has a pretty nasty-looking red mask on the front of his helmet.
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=== Webcomics ===
* Dave of ''[[Narbonic]]'' fame, begins with apparently opaque round glasses. But, {{spoiler|as he realizes his mad science abilities, his glasses turn transparent.}}
* Eternion and the rest of the Eternals in ''[[Adventurers!]]!''
* ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'': The whole McNinja family.
* In ''[[Blip]]'', The Adversary wears a blank white mask. Apparently this is for everyone else's protection; even [[Satan|Lucifer]] would cease to exist if he were to see the Adversary's real face.
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* [[G.I. Joe|Cobra Commander]]
* {{spoiler|The real Noodle}} in [[Gorillaz]] Phase 3 now has a cat mask. It's hinted that it's hiding some form of facial injury. 2D wears a clown mask for as-yet-unexplained reasons in the "Stylo" and "On Melancholy Hill" videos.
** [[All There in the Manual|In the iTunes interviews,]] 2D explains he had the mask to cover up a massive hangover.
* In [[Winx Club]], all three evil witches, Icy, Darcy, and Stormy (The Trix) wear eye makeup that goes down to their cheekbones on the bottom and to their eyebrows on the top. When they achieve Disenchantix, their eye makeup goes from the top of their face to their chins on either side. Darcy in civilian form also wears a tiny pair of spectacles on her nose and when she was a child wore a large, round pair.
* In ''[[Rollbots]]'', Vett's mask makes him look even more [[Badass]] than he is.
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* Hip hop dance crew Jabbawockeez wear creepy, blank masks to give the illusion that they are a bunch of puppets moving to the music. They're masked heroes! Like Rorschach.
** Before the Jabbawockeez there was guitarist Brian "[[Buckethead]]" Carroll, who still wears that same type of mask to this day.
* Since Jacques Plante introduced the goaltender mask to ice hockey, wearers of such equipment have taken to personalizing their masks, giving each golatender in the National Hockey League their own Cool Mask. Starting with Gerry Cheever's [http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/0810/halloween.trick.or.treat/images/cheevers%282%29.jpg scars] for every time he was hit in the mask with a puck, art has evolved with motifs such as [http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/0711/nhl.goalie.masks/images/nabokov.jpg Evgeni Nabokov's] [[Dem Bones|skeletons]], [http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/0810/nhl.goalie.masks/images/curtis-joseph.jpg Curtis Joseph's] painting of [[Angry Guard Dog|Cujo]] from the [[Cujo|novel of the same name]], and [http://forums.smirkinchicken.com/thread.php?forumid=1&threadid=19630 Kari Lehtonen's] [[One of Us|paintings of Yuna and Rikku]] from [[Final Fantasy X
* Can we count astronaut's helmets, with monolayers of gold to block the sun?
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=== Professional Wrestling ===
* [[WWE]] Wrestler Charlie Haas tries to gain a [[Cool Mask]] through putting on a Luchadore Mask during his matches. Most of the times it doesn't work.
* During the mid 80's-early 90's there were several masked jobber tag teams including but not limited to The Conquistadors, The Cruel Connection, The Shadows, The Galaxians, The Thunderfoots, The Executioners, The Head Hunters and various assorted Demons.
* For some reason practically every two bit independent wrestling promotion has to have a Doink The Clown rip off. The role is usually given to the worst wrestler on the roster, a fat, charisma deficient load. The worst part of an already awful idea is that they are given a Doink mask of horrible quality instead of simply painting their face like the original did. In every instance the matches are awful, the fans hate it, and yet the promoters will keep doing it.
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** Once they get to the earring stage it doesn't ''have'' to be an earring though (at least one has it as a tongue stud). They still have the masks of pawns, they can just choose how to wear it or customize it.
* Blood Boy from ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' both uses and subverts the trope. Due to hideous facial disfigurations (and REMOVING the skin of his face in one of the game's first posts) he almost always wears a smiley face mask, and was until recently the biggest killer on the island, and is still the most psychotic and sadistic. While lacking physical strength, his surprising agility and knowledge of the body's weak points make him a very capable hand to hand combatant, and his sharp mind makes him even more dangerous. However, this ability doesn't actually come from the mask itself, and he can't see nearly as well with it on. This hinders his combat abilities and actually makes him a worse shot than normal, which inspires his normal gunfighting style of [[More Dakka|just trying to put as much lead in the air as possible]] because it means he can really only hope to hit someone at greater than point blank range by firing an insane number of bullets.
* [http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0325.html Utterly subverted] in ''[[Adventurers!]]!''.
* Shows up many, many times in ''[[The Fall (film)|The Fall]]'' (and even on the cover of the DVD!).
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