Narrator: Difference between revisions

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

** In the Japanese version, [[Jouji Yanami]] is the narrator for all of the series. In the Funimation dub, Brice Armstrong narrates DB, [[Kyle Hebert]] does DBZ, Andy Chandler does DBGT and Doc Morgan does DBZ Kai.

* Detective Manzou (a.k.a. "The Saw"), in ''[[Samurai Champloo]]''. Oddly enough, his narration has a tendency to transcend time, as he has narrated about future events which he could not feasibly be alive long enough to be knowledgeable of, like Vincent Van Gogh, modern Japan's feeling regarding same-sex relationships ("getting back to the Edo period"), the Zen movement in the 1960s, and the cross-cultural popularity of baseball in Japan and America.

** Of course, this is just for the dub...which is somewhat abandoned in ''[[Digimon Savers|Savers]]'' in favor of a next episode preview. One of the characters still recap the previous episode, but only when it's needed.

** For Adventure and 02 the generic narrator (who does more of the narration in the original like the recaps, which makes more sense as sometimes the characters end up talking about things they can't possibly know about) is in the epilogue revealed to be {{spoiler|Takeru (TK in the dub) who's become a novelist writting about their adventures in the digital world}}

* Who could forget the narrator from ''[[Speed Racer]]''? [[Catch Phrase|Unknown to Speed, Racer X is secretly his older brother, Rex, who ran away from home years ago!]]

* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' begins every show with a Narrator telling the audience a fairytale. Sometimes it's from the (fictional) fairytale that one of the characters is from, sometimes it concerns a character's backstory, and sometimes it's a story that's somehow related to the episode. Drosselmeyer also serves as an odd narrator in some scenes, appearing on-screen to question details about the characters and the scene, and to occasionally tell the characters (who can rarely hear him) what they ''should'' do. {{spoiler|Considering he's actually writing the story, it makes sense for him to be the narrator.}}

* Judging by [[You Look Familiar|sharing voice actors]] the narrator for the openings of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' may possibly be {{spoiler|Simon at the age in the epilogue}}.

** He is.

* ''[[Kaiji]]'' has a particularly popular narrator, due to his overly [[Serious Business|serious]] tone and use of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|overblown metaphors]] to describe what's going on.

* ''[[Shin Mazinger]]'''s Narrator may be THE MOST [[Hot-Blooded|HOT BLOODED]] Narrator. EVER! Oh, and he's also a [[Large Ham]] as well.

* The narrator of [[Keroro Gunso]] is a typical narrator, usually summing up the episode with a little piece of wisdom at the end of each segment. However, everyone is aware of his existence. He even appears on screen [[The Faceless|(wearing a mask) ]] and is sometimes called upon by the characters. He's offered Natsumi fashion advice, tried to keep a stranded Keroro company, and even [[It Makes Sense in Context|provided his voice for a fake invasion video]].

** He's only a typical narrator in the Japanese version. In the dub, he openly hates his job and tries to seperate himself from the insanity. In one episode, he actually quit his job because the series recycled a plotline too many times, and a new British narrator replaces him until he comes back at the end. He also only does the show because he's deep in gambling debts, apparently.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Kingdom Come]]'' has a dramatic subversion of this. Norman McKay has been chosen by the Spectre, embodiment of [[God]]'s vengeance, to be the one who witnesses the downfall of the world. As they look, separate from reality but able to observe it, upon the members of the Justice League debating the ethics of what they've done, suddenly the Flash, who exists on all dimensional levels at once, turns around and plucks a very surprised Norman McKay out of the air.

* [[The Sandman]] would occasionally make use of a narration, sometimes it would be one of the series’ characters and other times it would be anonymous but fairly poetic.

* One of [[Frank Miller]]’s signature tropes is his usually hard boiled style narration.

 

== [[Film]] ==

** The narrator was also parodied with in the old ''[[George of the Jungle]]'' cartoons, including one point where he made a character in the cartoon crash his plane into the top of the mountain with the warning, "Let that be a lesson to you: never monkey around with a narrator."

* The [[Adam Sandler]] flick ''Eight Crazy Nights'' had narration as well.

* ''Little Children'' plays this oddly straight, with a narrator explicitly saying what the characters are thinking at a given moment. It's surprisingly effective, though frequent PBS viewers will be rather weirded out, as the narrator they use is Will Lyman, the voice of ''Frontline'' and many an episode of ''Nova''.

* Harry Lockheart in ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]''.

* ''[[A Christmas Story]]'' is narrated by the adult Ralphie.

* ''(500) Days of Summer'' features a particularly [[Lemony Narrator|citrusy]] one.

* The Criminologist fulfills this role in [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]].

* ''[[Rock N Rolla]]'' makes use of this by having the [[Genre Savvy|genre-savvy]] [[The Dragon|dragon]] Archy explain to the audience how his boss and London's underworld works.

* It's entirely possible to just listen to ''[[Casino]]'' from another room and understand almost everything that's going on because of the detailed narration.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Lemony Snicket, the narrator of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', is essentially omniscient, yet remains a distinct character. He never plays a direct role in the action, but is clearly intertwined with the events: his two siblings are major characters, his picture appears once, and he {{spoiler|loved the protagonists' mother, before she married their father}}. He also appears, unidentified, in The Penultimate Peril, though the character in question is referred to in the third person.

* To some extent, Mike Hanlon in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]''. Between every section of the book there is an interlude where Mike narrates the history of It in the form of a documentary journal.

* Every adventure in the ''[[Hank the Cowdog]]'' series is told by Hank himself.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* [[Rod Serling]] in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''.

* Richard Dean Anderson would sometimes serve as a narrator in ''[[MacGyver]]'', either to reveal a chunk of backstory or to describe the principles of his [[Bamboo Technology]].

* Waylon Jennings as the Balladeer in ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'', though his narration was usually restricted to a [[Quip to Black]] along the lines of, "Them Duke boys are in a whole heap of trouble."

* Likewise George, of ''[[Dead Like Me]]'', who narrates from a distance, sometimes showing omniscience and talking directly to the audience, and sometimes just within her head.

* Classic example: the series ''[[The Untouchables]]'' was narrated by famous columnist/political commentator Walter Winchell. His distinctive, urgent, sharply voiced, melodramatic announcements became a television icon, selling corny set up lines similar to this: ''"As Al Capone and his henchmen talked of murder over steaks and bootleg champagne, Eliot NESS and his UNTOUCHABLES made plans to topple his empire of crime!"''

* Jim Dale in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]''.

* JD of ''[[Scrubs]]'' narrates his own life in his head, as well as the lives of nearly everyone he has regular contact with, so he is essentially the narrator of the show. Lucy Bennett takes over this role in the last season.

* Earl Hamner Jr. as the voice of the older John-Boy Walton in ''[[The Waltons]].''

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' has its main character, Michael, narrate a lot of the story. Most likely this was to allow him to explain the clever tricks he was doing without the need of [[The Watson|a Watson]] hanging around all the time. It also serves as the gimmick of the show.

* ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'': The Narrator is the only voice on the show and provides all the voices for all the characters.

* Mary Alice Young (an omnipresent [[Posthumous Character|dead]] character), on ''[[Desperate Housewives]]''.

 

== [[Music]] ==

 

== [[Radio]] ==

* ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'' put an interesting twist on this, that the Prince himself was the narrator, and at save points would say, "Would you like to take a break for now?" and if he got killed would say, "Wait, no, that's not how it happened..." In the end, {{spoiler|It's revealed that he's telling the story to Farah, his love interest from the game, after undoing the game's events via time travel. Naturally, she doesn't believe a word of it. Later, in ''The Two Thrones'', after having prevented any of the events of the first game by changing the flow of time in the second (bear with me here...), the game ends with the Prince, once more with Farah, beginning the same narration that opens The Sands of Time.}}

* A very similar conceit is used in ''[[Sacrifice]]'' where the wizard Eldred is telling the story of why the world is ending to {{spoiler|[[The Big Bad]]}}.

** Yuna narrates the sequel.

** It's also implied Alazlam Durai is getting this information from the "Durai Reports", written by his ancestor Olan Durai (who hangs around at the periphery of the plot through much of the game, only actually appearing in battle once)

* In the 2004 version of ''[[The Bards Tale]]'', the events of the game are narrated by the man who's reading the tale (as voiced by the late [[Tony Jay]]). He and the eponymous Bard (as voiced by Cary Elwes) frequently bicker throughout the game, discussing issues like [[Kleptomaniac Hero|the morality of claiming items from chests for one's self]], or [[Money Spider|the absurdity of finding money]] [[Randomly Drops|or sellable goods from killing various creatures]].

* Spoofed in a [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060722 summer 2006 installment] of the webcomic ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

** spoofed again [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080714 in the summer of '08]

* In ''[http://www.golcoincomics.com Gold Coin Comics]'', Lance complains about having to narrate about his past.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The Storyteller in ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]''.

* Parodied in one episode of ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]''. Timmy wishes for Super Friends, to replace his old boring friends. He then begins to hear a voice over about his new buddies. Wanda promptly explains the Narrator comes with the Super Friends package.

** The Fish TV Announcer (Who looks like an actual fish) is mentionable.

** Also, in the movie, the French narrator started talking, only for ''the Fish announcer to speak up and state it was his job to narrate''. He does this, then the two converse until they realize they [[Is This Thing Still On?|left the mike on.]]