Only Six Faces: Difference between revisions

The opposite of this trope is a [[Cast of Snowflakes]], where even the most incidental characters designs tend to be unique and well-defined. Sounds like but is unrelated to [[Same Face, Different Name]], which is about creators going by different monikers. A ''clever'' creator can work around this and create a [[Reused Character Design]] habit.

 

 

{{examples}}

** Tony seems to both play this irritatingly straight ''and'' subvert it with his work with the ''[[Shining Force]]'' series: Female characters are almost literally the same girl wearing different dresses, but male characters (especially non-human ones) are very diverse, apart from maybe the lead males.

* ''[[Marmalade Boy]]''. With a bit of luck you might be able to distinguish a boy from a girl, but that's as far as you'll get with only the face to go by. Hair colors and -styles make all the difference.

* [[Yaoi]] mangaka Minami Haruka is well-known for having many of her characters look rather similar, compounded by the fact that she also tends to stick to one body type.

** Minami Haruka's pictures in her artbooks include boys, [[Yaoi Guys]], and girls. Guess what? They all look the same.

* Manwha by Hwang Ri Mi and Han Yu-rang can be accused of this. Most characters can only be distinguished by clothes and hair styles, and even the "ugly" characters are [[Hollywood Homely]].

 

 

== Comic Books ==

* In his list of ''15 Things That Are Wrong With [[Identity Crisis]]'', [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] briefly mentions that Michael Turner could only draw two faces: male and female.

* While Guillem March's male faces tend to be very detailed and expressive, his women are all drawn in [http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10200000/Gotham-City-Sirens-gotham-girls-10255858-949-1440.jpg a very similar manner]: slightly pointed noses and chins, wide jawlines, pouty lips, and heavy-lidded [[Dull Surprise|"sensual"]] expressions. And [[Author Appeal|huge breasts]], but you [[Distracted by the Sexy|probably noticed that]].

 

== Film ==

* Mostly averted in ''[[Robots]]'', which features a few background characters that are variants on the same model, but otherwise has a fairly diverse array of character designs.

* Common problem in slasher films and any other horror film that serves mainly as an excuse to have various people die. Due to the lack of character development these films tend to have, add to that directors hiring similar looking actresses and actors, it can become really difficult at times to tell exactly who of the cast has died.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Characters in ''[[FoxTrot]]'' are pretty much only differentiated by hairstyles and accessories.

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' did this, to an extent. [[Art Evolution|Less so]] as the series progressed.

 

== Toys ==

** Played with in the ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' line. Clone troopers are meant to all have the same face, and LEGO [[Fridge Brilliance|used the same face for the Boba Fett figurine]]. However, they also gave the same face to all other Mandolorians and even the Senate Commandos, [[Did Not Do the Research|who are specifically stated to NOT be clones]].

* Minimate faces only have eyes and mouths, no noses, so they tend to look a lot alike. The Mobile Action Xtreme line takes this to new heights, with each two-pack of figures sharing one identical face.[https://web.archive.org/web/20180210085014/http://www.oafe.net/yo/maxmm_eh_fffc.php]

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' does this oddly. There are dozens of unique [[Character Portrait|character portraits]]... but with each random NPC getting one from this selection, they get repetitive anyway, with it not helping that the portraits are always the same, not modified slightly the way characters in a work with Only Six Faces usually can be.

 

* ''[[Achewood]]'' falls into this trope at times. Since the introduction of Ray, Pat, and Roast Beef, it has been revealed that the majority of the animal population are cats (dogs have been established as typically non-anthropomorphic and excluded from the animal underground.) In keeping with Onstad's generally minimalist art style, most of the cats are interchangeable in terms of facial features. There are three or four body types, and a couple of heads to go with them, and generally the eyes, muzzle and ears of the cats are exactly the same (exceptions being Ray and his family, as well as his ex-current-ex-business partner-ex-girlfriend Tina, who have been identified as American Curls.)

* Played for Laughs in [http://www.explosm.net/comics/2549/ this] [[Cyanide & Happiness]] comic

* ''[[Homestuck]]'''s simple style means that all the child characters have the same bodyshape and facial structure. This trend is carried over even into the more detailed shots.

** Taken even further with the recent inclusion of {{spoiler|the ectobiological parents of the original protagonists}}, whose features are similar on purpose. The most extreme example thus far being [http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/File:John_Egbert2.png John] and {{spoiler|[http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jake_English.png Jake]}}, whose facial features are pretty much exactly the same.

 

== Web Original ==

* All the women of comic-style illustrator [http://gb2k.deviantart.com/ Garett Blair] suffer from a bad case of this. [http://gb2k.deviantart.com/gallery/?coffset=0 His unanimously praised gallery] seldom gets any criticism at all, adding to the prevalence of this trope in comic books illustration.

* Webcomicker [http://fav.me/d2k4ym6 Jeinu] seems fed up with this enough to start a tutorial series teaching amateurs how to avoid this very trope.

'''Kyle:''' Huh? I thought you wanted to leave!

'''Stan:''' Oh wait, who am I again? }}

{{quote|'''Stan:''' Kyle, I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea.

'''Butters:''' I'm Butters, I thought you were Kyle.

** Also happened with the background characters, to the point where one character could be both a witch and a fairy. Sometimes, it was just the same character with a different hairstyle. Other scenes had repeated, recolored characters to fill out the masses. Not even the Winx escaped; there was a brown-haired Bloom in a crowd at Redfountain in season two.

* ''[[Transformers]]'' sometimes averts this trope ([[Merchandise-Driven|as it wants to sell Hasbro's toys, not generic robots]]) and sometimes falls right into it ([[Palette Swap|as many of these toys are just repainted]]). Good voice acting and radically different personalities for each robot (even if they are effectively the same model) makes it easier to tell who's who (the biggest aversion were the three "seekers" - Starscream was an arrogant, elitist backstabber who wanted the top position, Skywarp was a cruel but unintelligent prankster, and Thundercracker was a straight-ahead soldier who wasn't that sure about the 'rightness' of the side he fought for). Background characters, though, are frequently different combinations of the three or so heads, torsos, etc. and really do run together. They didn't even go ''that'' far in [[The Original Series]], with most background Decepticons being otherwise-identical repaints of Starscream.

** This was part of the reason the cast was kept small for Beast Wars. Due to 3D technology being relatively new back then, they were unable to create the vast amount of characters of the G1 series, and what little characters they did have sometimes had reused models (most evident with Cheetor and Tigatron, and Tarantulas and Blackarachnia). Mostly adverted in Season 2 and beyond, where their animation made a gigantic leap, and most characters got their own unique models due to [[Mid-Season Upgrade]]. However, all the proto-humans still look disturbingly alike.

** The thing with the Seekers was lampshaded by "Transformers: Animated", when they were are all literal clones of Starscream, each with a different one-dimensional personality (plus the female one).

* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', virtually all the ponies have the same head and body shape, differentiated only by color and hairstyle. Some of the males have a different head shape and a larger body model (originally used for Big Macintosh), and the foals have a different standard model. Important secondary characters often have entirely unique models, such as Granny Smith, Snips and Snails, and the Cakes.

** This has improved as the show goes along; occasionally background ponies are given different head shapes, and in the second season even some incidental characters have unique designs.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Lazy Artist]]