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Only Six Faces: Difference between revisions
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This is an actual documented issue in ancient art history. Surviving [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayum_mummy_portraits burial portraits from Roman Egypt] resemble each other more than real people would. The painters must have mixed-and-matched a limited repertoire of features, making this trope [[Older Than Feudalism]]. (This could also be due to Ancient Egyptian art's long history of making people look good, rather than realistic.)
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.
When you use "Only Six Faces", it often becomes more vital to give them some other [[Distinctive Appearances]] through the use of [[Limited Wardrobe]].
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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** Minami Haruka's pictures in her artbooks include boys, [[Yaoi Guys]], and girls. Guess what? They all look the same.
* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' is very amusing and lots of fun, but reading the webcomic, with its often sketchy style, leads to much confusion between characters. Watching the anime is a bit easier on one's brain. Thank God for different hair colors!
** Some characters do have unique faces that can't be mistaken for anyone else's, Russia being the most prominent example. On the other hand, many characters are given distinctive appearance traits like [[Meganekko|glasses]] or [[Idiot Hair|ahoge]] to counter the [[Generic Cuteness]] -- take away England's characteristic [[Big Ol' Eyebrows]], and he could be mistaken for Iceland or a calm Prussia. Likewise, smooth down America's ahoge and you get Estonia.
** Taiwan is basically an Asian Hungary with a hair curl
** Cameroon is basically a black Sweden with a hair cross
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* In the beginning, [[Naruto]] actually averted this, with characters having different faces. But [[Art Evolution|the art decayed]], and if the character is a young adult, it has the same chin and mouth as every other young adult. yeah, regardless of gender!!
** Several characters also strongly resemble each other; its usually justified though as most are either related in some way, or the resemblance is deliberately symbolic (for instance, Yahiko/ Deva Pain looks almost exactly like an older Naruto; this is probably to reflect his status as an [[Evil Counterpart]]).
* Basically all of [[Arina Tanemura (Creator)|Arina Tanemura's]] main heroines have a similar face, [[Big Eyes Little Eyes|gigantic-eyed and all]], with eye-size variations and her male characters only occasionally bear different-sized eyes and pupils. She is fond of long hair so most of heroines also have [[Rapunzel Hair]], though she does style it differently from character to character.
* Kaori Yuki was guilty of this during ealier years (the first six volumes of God Child and the first volumes of [[Angel Sanctuary]], possibly earlier work too). There was always a man with slightly longer, dark hair, a blonde/brunette women with long, curly hair, not to mention a line of young boys with blond hair (honestly, could anyone tell Eric, Ariel and that boy from the God child chapter Who killed Cock Robin apart?)
* [[Bizenghast]] is very much a victim of this. Almost all the young women and men, including Vincent and Dinah, have the same face with different hair. (The old men and women were slightly less subjected to it.) They all seem to have the same height as well.
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* Scott Adams, author of ''[[Dilbert]]'', isn't ''quite'' as bad as certain other examples on this page, but has admitted that he can't draw ''that'' many faces. This resulted in two main things:
** Ted [[The Generic Guy]], and
** The [[Pointy
* 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.
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** In a couple of rare examples (such as ''Dragon Quest Swords'', where none of the characters have spiky hair/Goku eyes, and a few are wearing decidedly Baroque-era or gothic outfits) he breaks out of the six faces mold, but when he phones it in (such as with ''Tobal No. 1'' and ''[[Blue Dragon]]''), it's really obvious that he is.
* In ''Backyard Baseball'' and other ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' games, all characters, besides the 30 main ones, are based off of a few models.
** [[
* [[Tetsuya Nomura]] is often accused of succumbing to this trope. At least there's an in game excuse for all the characters that resemble each other in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' games.
** To expand, in ''Kingdom Hearts'' Sora, Kairi and Xehanort, each have several look-a-likes for various reasons. You can be certain that every single time you notice someone bears a physical resemblance to someone else, it will be significant. This is so rampant in the series that it almost ''wasn't'' a surprise when we found out {{spoiler|Vanitas looks like Sora}}. So far, Riku is the only core member of the main cast to not have a doppelganger, unless you count the Riku Replica.
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{{quote| '''Oracle''': Enhancing, and... oh my God... All females look ''exactly the same''.<br />
'''Batman''': Check the hair style. }}
** Also [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] later on. Some of the characters ''do'' strongly resemble each other, and the possibility is presented that there is a [[Long
*** Not to mention one of the running jokes in the Dumbing of Age comments section is calling Dorothy "Blonde Amber." The similarity was also noted in the strip itself.
* Kristofer Straub's ''[[Checkerboard Nightmare]]'' and its successor, ''[[Starslip Crisis]]'', have identical-looking humans except for hair and costuming. The strips don't suffer for this, though.
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'''[[Fat Bastard|Cartman]]:''' Heheh, guess who I am, you guys! }}
** Also, in the [[Show Within a Show|Terrance and Phillip]] episode, ''Not Without My Anus'', the character "Ugly Bob" wears a paper bag over his head. When he takes it off, he looks exactly like all the other characters, but they react as if he's [[Hollywood Homely|traumatically hideous]].
** Cleverly lampshaded in the episode "The Coon", in which after spending the entire episode keeping the other characters - and the audience - guessing as to his identity, masked vigilante "Mysterion" finally removes his mask, revealing him to be... [[The Un
*** Which is [[Fridge Brilliance]] when you consider that {{spoiler|Kenny's face is almost always concealed}}.
*** The only characters that Professor Chaos has crossed off his Mysterion identity list are the obvious ones: [[Token Minority|Token]], [[Fat Bastard|Cartman]], and [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged|Jimmy and Timmy]].
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** And it's only gotten worse. In the first seasons there were some differences at least, e.g. eye shapes and sizes, but with the new 4th season even that seems to be fading and the girls look even more alike than ever.
** 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
** Sometimes the animation model is also altered, even if the characters use the same toy mold, further averting this trope. This was especially prevalent in the original series, as can be seen [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:Character_models.png here].
** 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
** 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).
** ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' has the Vehicons. They come in two flavors: Car Vehicons and Jet Vehicons. The only difference between the two is [[Kibbles and Bits|kibble]]. The only major cast members to suffer from this are Skyquake and Dreadwing who share a body type. This is explained by them being split-spark twins.
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'''Karl''': Well, it ''is'' a [[No Fourth Wall|cartoon, sir]]. }}
** Ironically, this show is [[Cast of Snowflakes|pretty good at averting the trope]], due to making very distinct body and head styles. In this case, it was only used to set up a Prince and Pauper like story with Candace and the princess.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|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.
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* Autistic individuals may have trouble recognizing faces due to impaired brain development; autistic children who are shown pictures of their mothers show the same lack of recognition as when they're shown pictures of strangers.
* The Coke Zero Facial Profiler is a Facebook app that scans through your photos and tries to pair you with another Facebook member that resembles you. It even allows you to friend request your digital double. Although its accuracy varies depending on how good your photos are.
* Porn artist Zimmerman (well known for [[Rule
* According to [[That Other Wiki]]'s article on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army Terracotta Army], [[Only Six Faces|eight face molds]] were used for nearly ten thousand statues, with individual features and expressions subsequently added.
* Greek Statues, due to the emphasis being on human perfection. The Romans, however, often times subverted this.
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