Paper-Thin Disguise/Anime and Manga

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Examples of Paper-Thin Disguises in Anime and Manga include:

  • One of the hobbies of All Powerful Bystander Seravy (and occasionally his rival/love-interest Dorothy), whenever he's secretly watching from the sidelines in Akazukin Chacha. Ironically, everyone falls for it, except for Riiya , but nobody believes him anyway (or considering how powerful Seravy and Doroth are, it could be a case of "The Emperor's/Empress's new clothes).
  • This is the primary running gag in the earlier arcs of Reborn. The titular character is (at first) the only toddler that the main cast knows who's capable of intelligent speech and simply manhandling the strongest of adults with ease. Yet every time he puts on a different pair of glasses or a fake mustache he seemingly becomes unrecognizable despite his distinctive size, hairstyle and baby face. Protagonist Tsuna is usually the only one who sees through the disguises, but the tables turn in a later chapter when he's the only one who doesn't recognize Reborn's adult self.
  • In Magical Project S, Sasami, when transformed, is only wearing a different outfit, and everyone apparently is fooled -- at least until it is revealed it wasn't a secret at all. Still, her archenemy Pixy Misa only has a light Palette Swap, and no one can put them together...
    • Parodied in an episode where Washu shows up disguised as Santa in the middle of summer to help Pretty Sammy. Sammy sees through it immediately, but plays along as "Santa" gives a gift of a machine specially tailored for the situation and also places some diagnostic equipment on Sammy's forehead because "Santa likes to get scientific research". It's later revealed that Rumiya fell for it completely, though.
    • Completely blown through in the last episode, when her Mentor shows up in her classroom and addresses her as "Pretty Sammy" in front of everyone. It turns out that the entire class knew her secret identity but they didn't say anything because it was traditional for Magical Girls to have secret identities - they didn't want to embarrass her by mentioning it.
  • Both included and subverted in Otogi Zoshi in which the female protagonist spends half the first arc in male drag. It fools random grunts and obnoxious nobles, but Seimei, Sadamitsu, Urabe and some minor characters pretty quickly figure out that she's a girl wearing pants.
  • This is one of the defining characteristics of Team Rocket in Pokémon. The "twerps" don't know it's them until one of the trio starts the motto (or accidentally starts it upon hearing the motto's words out of context), even when it's painfully obvious to a casual observer who they are. To be fair, sometimes they really do put on some good disguises (including of the other gender). However, more often they simply don't, and in any case they very rarely disguise their voices and distinctive hairstyles. Given that they show up Once Per Episode, you'd think the heroes would be intimately familiar with them.
    • Since Jessalina is Jessie (props for switching Contest disguises when they got to Sinnoh), she actually beat Dawn in a contest!
      • Played with in an episode which has James dressing up in Jessie's contest disguise to take her place when she is sick. Everyone is still fooled. He even wins!
    • Subverted in "Holy Matrimony!", when Jessie and Meowth wear all black to become "invisible"; James' family pretends to be fooled by it.
    • Subverted in another episode where Team Rocket decides to help the protagonists. They don their usual style of disguise, help them and then go on their merry way believing they fooled them...then Misty says goodbye by shouting "Thanks, Team Rocket!" Ironically, that was their first attempt.
      • Also inverted, as they actually were disguised pretty well.
    • Played with interestingly where Meowth dresses up as a Shiftry. While it initially works (despite the 3 foot difference between the two Pokémon species), having never seen one before, Dawn scans the "Shiftry" with her Pokédex which then proceeds to give her the entry for Meowth.
      • In a Hoenn episode, Meowth and Jessie attempt to disguise themselves as Kirlia and Gardevoir, respectively, in an attempt to grab a Ralts that Ash and friends were taking care of. Ash proves that the Pokédex is disguise-proof by scanning the "Kirlia" and getting the data for Meowth instead. So much for that disguise.
      • In several episodes Meowth disguises himself as a Sunflora by taping his eyes shut and holding cardboard leaves.
    • The worst offender was an early Diamond and Pearl episode in which they pretended to be traveling salesmen...by putting on green jackets over their uniforms...and not even zipping them up! Ash and co. somehow fail to spot the enormous red "R"s on their chests, even though they couldn't be more obvious.
      • The above post may be forgetting the episode in which Team Rocket dresses Meowth up as a Croagunk in order to win a contest revolving around them. This is an entire town, a freaking Gym Leader among them, all of which are obsessed with this particular Pokémon to an almost creepy level (and in the case of Brock, actually owns one), and they are not only fooled down to the last person, they actually consider him the best looking one of the bunch.
    • Subverted in Fire and Ice by Brock when Jessie pretends to be Nurse Joy. "My beloved Nurse Joy's lips actually move when she talks!" Brock is known to have the unique ability to tell all of the apparently identical Nurse Joys apart at a single glance, which is probably why he wasn't fooled.
    • Lampshaded at the beginning of "Pursuing a Lofty Goal", when James, in a suit and dark sunglasses, curls up in a ball when he first sees the twerps. When they ask if something's wrong, he remarks in an aside, "I forgot, the twerps wouldn't recognize me if I paid them!"
    • In two Hoenn episodes, Team Rocket disguised themselves as May's family. In one episode, it was just James disguised as Norman, whereas in the other even WOBBUFFET played along. James was Norman in the second episode, while Jessie was Caroline, Meowth was May, and Wobbuffet was Max.
  • In Mazinger Z, Dr. Hell fabricated a cyborg seemed right like Prof. Yumi... except his nails were black. The reason why Hell did not strive to create a perfect duplicate is a mystery, but if he thought nobody would notice, tough luck because Sayaka, Prof. Yumi's daughter did. At least he did not make that mistake again when he fabricated cyborgs looked like Kouji Kabuto or his mother.
    • Apparently The Dragon Baron Ashura's Mooks can't tell the difference between Boss in a helmet and one of their co-workers. The mooks that were assigned to guard him and Kouji specifically, no less.
  • Lampshaded in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, despite hiding his face and body well, Bandit Keith still frequently uses his catchphrase (...in America!) while disguised, and still uses the same deck (but to be fair, seeing as how he was a regional champion, it could have easily been Netdecked to hell and back).
    • Averted in the anime, as Yugi's smart enough to figure out who it is from the deck theme. However, it's played straight a few arcs later when Yugi's grandfather enters the KC Grand Prix and duels Joey...the only one who didn't see through his disguise.
    • Played straight with "Malik".
  • In Yu Yu Hakusho, there is some "mystery" about who the "Masked Fighter" is during the Dark Tournament. Despite "him" being the same size as Genkai, who is so short as to invite Lampshading. And having the same moves, down to the one-of-a-kind super move only Genkai knew. And there being no one else competent who would show up.
    • But the trope ends up subverted when the fighter's mask falls off, revealing the face of a young woman who nobody has seen before. It's actually a Double Subversion, though; the young woman is Genkai. Reikohado-ken reverts the body's cells to their most powerful state whenever it is used, and naturally, her peak was in her youth.
    • To his credit, Kuwabara was positively convinced Mask (as the Urameshi Team called their teammate) was Genkai, but The Un-Reveal caused him to change his mind. When the mask comes off again and it really is old lady Genkai beneath it, due to her giving her powers to Yusuke, Toguro has to come up and explain everything so the Urameshi Team won't be disqualified for cheating.
    • Lampshaded in the English dub by Koenma, "C'mon Yusuke can't you see through a simple disguise?!" Jorge is wearing a bodysuit with his initials on it, Koenma is cosplaying as Tuxedo Mask, and Botan is wearing a cloak and glasses.
  • Also subverted in an episode of Mega Man NT Warrior. What initially appears to be the character Maddy in a Paper-Thin Disguise turns out to be the aged mystic Yahoot in an extremely effective disguise, which just looked like Maddy in a transparent disguise.
    • A straighter example is Commander Beef. The only physical difference between Beef and fish-peddling Masa is that Beef wears a cape and a helmet styled after a fish. Commander Beef wears a fish helmet. And they both wear an apron with a fish on it. In one episode in the anime, Lan makes the connection and calls him out on it. He is then dissuaded by Masa showing up while he's confronting Beef. A couple minutes later, 'Masa' removes his face, showing the face of Sal in a disguise, who then comments that she is not doing that again.
    • There's also his subordinates Black Rose and Mysteriyu. While Sal wears a Zorro-like mask and cape as Black Rose, Miyu as Mysteriyu has the worst disguise of all of them wearing only a big red bowl with eye holes over her head. But where the two girls really play this trope straight that They use the SAME NET NAVIS their civilian selves used in the N1 Grand Prix!
    • Actually, as shown in an episode from Axess, everyone but Lan knew about it.

Maylu: They tried to fool everyone, but even a baby could tell who they were.

  • Dinosaur King has this being subverted, the Team Rocket-esque bad guys show up at on a game show pretending to be 13 year olds. However the Power Trio heroes not only see right through the "we're just really advanced looking for our age!" Blatant Lies but pretty quickly figure out who they actually are.
  • Oddly and ironically played with in Black Butler: In the second season some mysterious trenchcoat man (not only trenchcoated) appears at the Trancy Estate in the first episode. Ironic in the Latex Perfection that occurs in the slightly Alternate Continuity manga with the same character. It's Sebastian, by the way. Not that this spoils anything.
  • One Piece:
    • Usopp adopts the guise of Sogeking, which doesn't disguise much and leaves his big nose obvious. All of his team members think it's ridiculous, except Luffy and Chopper, who are clueless enough to fall for it.
    • It's so obvious that when Sogeking's wanted poster comes out, Kaya and the Usopp Pirates back in his home town immediately recognize him as Usopp. However the rest of the town doesn't.
    • And who can forget Foxy the Silver Fox who managed to fool Luffy simply by wearing a papier-mache head. Twice. Subverted in that only Luffy falls for his disguises; like Usopp, his nose always gives him away.
    • After the time skip, when, upon the real crew's two-year disappearance, a group of impostors pretend to be the Straw Hats. Despite their bad disguises and ridiculously different looks and body shapes, absolutely everybody is fooled - even some members of the real crew!
      • Usopp didn't happen to fall for any disguises, but acted surprised when the impostor imitating Sogeking showed up., while Chopper couldn't tell the difference until Nami and Usopp found him. Meaning he's either still really gullible or he's blind as a bat. (In Chopper's defense, it's not so much that he's blind or particularly gullible, it's that, as a reindeer, he sometimes has a hard time telling humans apart and has to rely on things like clothes and hair color. Kind of like how most humans would have a hard time telling reindeer apart.) Luffy can maybe be forgiven, since he thought Fake Zoro and Fake Sanji were disguising themselves like he was to avoid causing a scene.
      • Of course, Luffy was no better; his said disguise was nothing but an obviously fake moustache.
  • Konohamaru in Naruto carries a blanket whose pattern blends into wooden fences. Or at least that's the idea. Also, the portable "one-foot-tall brick wall".
    • Also Might Guy, despite being able to use transformation jutsus to alter his appearance, went out of his way to don a gray afro wig and an accompanying mustache in a filler episode in order to fool Rock Lee. Naturally, no one is fooled except for Lee.
      • Another filler episode involves two thugs dressing up (badly) as Might Guy and Rock Lee, and infiltrating the Leaf Village. In this case, Naruto is the only one fooled.
      • A flashback filler from Shippuden involved Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke sneaking into a fortress run by cats by wearing cat-ear headbands.
    • Played straight during the Chunin exam arc, when Orochimaru is able to pass himself as a Jonin instructor from the Sound village (which he is actually in charge of!) by having a different hair do and slightly less snake-like appearance. He also passes as the Fourth Kazekage by hiding himself entirely in the Kage hat and cloak, which failed to arouse any suspicion.
      • Beyond that, Orochimaru borders on Latex Perfection due to his unique and rather horrific habit of physically removing and wearing the faces of people he impersonates.
  • Sailor Moon: the Sailor Soldier's main disguises are... school girl uniforms almost identical to the uniforms they wear everyday. Yup, no masks, no hair color changes, pretty much nothing concealing their identities. Superman at least has enough sense to wear glasses. Despite this, no one seems to recognize Usagi and her pals. This is particularly worse for Sailor Moon herself, whose Sailor outfit and School uniform not only share the same colour scheme, but she wears her transformation brooch on both - not to mention that rather distinctive hairdo.
      • Subverted with Usagi in the manga when she turns into Princess Serenity, her hair turns silver then.
    • They wear tiaras. There's no way that all those schoolgirls would wander around wearing tiaras.
      • Minako wore a Mask in her days as Sailor V. Doesn't hide the fact that she has the same hairstyle and even retains the same bow in it. (Which she gets recognized for in Codename: Sailor V) Sailor Moon had one too at first. She hates it and tosses it after she transforms each time. Aside from a single use during the second arc, it never appears after the first one.
    • When Minako first joins the Inner Senshi, she meets them at an agreed time and place but fails to recognize them in their civilian guise.
    • Not to mention the villains. Rewatching the first season on dub, they run into a hot blond who calls himself "Jed" about four times and it never seems to dawn on them...
      • What makes this even more frustrating is that the villains don't really care about maintaining their disguises. When their evil scheme of the week is figured out, they usually change right in front of the heroines, only to be completely unrecognisable again to them the next episode. Even worse considering that some of them never really change their civilian outfits.
    • Averted in the live-action adaptation, where all of the sailor scouts have fairly normal hair color, only gaining their anime hair only when they transform.
    • Somewhat justified in the manga, because no one actually gets a good look at the Senshi. The victims are usually unconscious or stuck where they can't see the heroes, and even surveillance cameras just seem to record blurs around their faces. (It should be noted that the manga is much shorter than the anime in terms of storyline, so there aren't as many opportunities for people to see Sailor Moon and co.)
    • Plus for some time the Inner Senshi never figured that Haruka and Michiru were Uranus and Neptune and vice-versa until the episode when they transformed in front of each.
    • The Luna Pen can create a charm that makes the user's face unrecognizable. One can assume the same principle is used in the actual transformations. It seems to work best against casual observation, and certain sayings and behaviors can still give them away. In the novelization, the charm actually manages to fool Serena's own father, but only partially, as he remarks to a disguised Serena that "You look like my daughter, if she was a little older."
  • In a chapter of Urusei Yatsura, we see the kunoichi Kaede (now branded as a nukenin) trying to find jobs after quitting ninja school. But, as a nukenin, she must be hunted down and killed, so she has two pursuers in the forms of her childhood buddies Kumade and Mukade. At one point, she adopts a disguise to evade them and Ataru (whom she keeps running into): a pair of glasses. No fake nose and mustache with it, just the glasses. At the same time, we see that her pursuers have also taken jobs in the same inn Kaede is, and that they too are wearing disguises: Mukade (the long-haired one) wears a mask on her lower face, while Kumade (the one with an eyepatch) just has a striped eyepatch in place of the one she usually wears. The worst part of it is, the three walk past each other in a corridor... and are unable to recognize each other!!! Ataru, however, isn't fooled, and ends up inadvertently giving Kaede away.
  • Subverted early on in Hayate the Combat Butler, which sees the reclusive Nagi donning a mask and calling herself "Mask the Money", using her vast wealth to get Hayate out of a jam. Hayate sees through the disguise almost instantly, but plays along for the sake of Nagi's pride. When he accidentally lets slip he thinks Nagi's mask is silly, she explodes in his face.
    • Later it become something of a running gag, that every time that Maria dons disguise she is almost instantly recognized, but the other character either play along and/or think that she is cosplaying.
    • When Maria and Saki show up to distract one of the butlers during the school race, they expect to be seen through, but still go through the motions.
    • Both Klaus and Tama as well as Kotetsu are fooled into thinking Hayate is a girl when he's forced to cosplay.
    • Particularly notable when Hayate can see through a disguise as he's continually fooled by Paper Thin Disguises
    • Chiharu seems to be the only one who can pull this off, she's Sakuya's personal maid, as 'Haru' but she's seen by Wataru, Hayate and Nagi and they don't know it's her. Aika can see through it though.
      • Chiharu actively convinces Sakuya to allow her to play this one straight in Chapter 309 of the manga.
  • In Penguin Musume, Sakura doesn't recognize her mother simply because she put a fake mole on her face. Yes, Sakura is really that stupid.
  • Hayato Fuurinji, Miu's Badass Grandpa in Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple enters a tournament intended for martial artists 20 and younger by putting on a Sentai mask and dubbing himself "Mysterious Teen Garyu X." Only Apachai is fooled. Worth noting, "Garyu X" entered the contest to ferret out another master who was hiding within his team for the purposes of winning. Then he just kept going for the hell of it...
    • Double subverted (or maybe just normally subverted): Garyu X is an incredibly thin disguise donned by the elder to compete in the 'age 20 and under' tournament, and of course everyone (except Apachai) can see through it immediately. The big flowing beard? It's uh... part of his mask! Right! However, it doesn't matter because the referee is the bad guy and decides to let him compete anyway for shits and giggles.
  • Though "The Phantom Renegade" from Medabots already had a decent disguise, during the Tournament Arc a similar fellow named "Space Medafighter X", who wore the exact same (albeit gold plated) mask and used the exact same 'bot as the Phantom. Needless to say, it wasn't much of a "Reveal".
    • Not to mention the fact that the supporting characters did this too, dressing as "Space Medafighter X" whenever the real one was unavailable for some reason. And frankly, their disguises weren't much better.
  • When Yuno of Hidamari Sketch prepared to sneak by the "No trespassing" sign on the stairs leading up to the school's roof, she donned the Cool Shades she first used to counter her motion sickness.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Negi and his students in the Magical World, being wanted criminals for a crime the villains committed, often disguise themselves in public by using pills to make them look five years older or younger than they really are and wearing Neko themed adornments such as ears and tails. They've yet to be caught. Of course, few Real Life people would look at a child when searching for a teenager. Later, they even get magical Clark Kent glasses.
    • Subverted by Natsumi, who is able to tell her adoptive brother Kotaro right off the bat simply by his personality and hairstyle.
  • In Code Geass, Euphemia tries to sneak through Ashford Academy's school festival by donning a hat and a pair of glasses. It doesn't help that she has waist-length pink hair.
    • Not that it doesn't work.
    • She also manages to get away with this during an attack on a hotel by terrorists by hiding behind a pair of glasses. No-one notices her until she stands up and says who she is, despite being a royal princess and public figurehead.
      • At that point she hadn't made her public debut, and as for her being a royal princess... there are quite a lot of those in the Code Geass world, so it's not as big a deal as it sounds (Nunally, another royal princess, is 87th in line for the throne).
    • Code Geass plays this trope to hell and back given the ridiculous variety of hairstyles in the characters. Kallen has spiky crimson hair, yet her classmates fail to recognize her until she takes off a pair of sunglasses. An even more egregious example is C.C, who has massively long green hair, was not recognized by Suzaku, who had been searching for her on and off for two years at this point, because she had a bag barely covering her face.
  • In Ranma ½, Ranma is frequently able to fool Ryoga into believing he is anyone up to and including Ryoga's own sister (Ryoga doesn't have a sister) with little more than a change of clothes and occasionally hairstyle.
    • To be fair, Ryoga falls for it because everyone in his family has such poor sense of direction that they hardly ever see each other. They tend to be lost for months at a time, returning home for a day or two, at most, before getting lost again.
      • He still doesn't have an excuse for every other time he fell for it.
    • Ranma has fooled other people with Paper Thin Disguises as well. For example, in the manga, he pretended to be Soun's wife in order to trick Hinako into giving Soun up. He was successful with nothing more than an apron and something akin to a bandana.
    • Ranma even lampshades this trope from time to time by remarking how he's surprised his disguise worked so well or thinking about what an idiot Ryoga is for falling for it.
    • In one arc, Shampoo and Kodachi wear glasses in order to fool Hinako. After they take the glasses off, she says:

Hinako: Oh! You're those bad girls from before!

  • In one anime adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood the wolf's disguise consisted of nothing but the grandmother's bonnet and Red Riding Hood was somehow fooled by it.
    • The entire concept of the tale of Red Riding Hood could fall under this, since one would hope that even a young girl would notice that "grandma" was looking a lot fuzzier and had a lot more teeth than usual no matter what else it wore. Lemony Snicket even notes this in A Series of Unfortunate Events, when he points out that family members know each other very well and in real life, a child would certainly know the difference between their grandmother and a wolf in a bonnet, glasses, and nightgown.
      • A cartoon in a magazine shows Red explaining to her grandmother afterwards that she never would've fallen for the deception if Grandma didn't look so wolflike. The grandmother is in fact shown to look almost exactly like the wolf who's being dragged off by the woodsman.
      • Terry Pratchett wrote in The Wee Free Men that "any girl who mistook a wolf for her own grandmother is either as dense as a teak or comes from an extremely ugly family."
  • Vega from GEAR Fighter Dendoh has the sense to wear a wig and a completely different clothing style from her civilian identity in addition to her Char!mask, but it's still just a wig and a mask.
  • Sonia and Cancer Bubble in the Ninja episode of the Mega Man Star Force cartoon, as shown here (appears at 4:53 as they are standing with Geo and Luna).
  • In Turn A Gundam a group of people try to discredit Loran by attacking some towns with a Mobile suit "disguised" to look like Loran's Gundam. This disguise consists of nothing more then taping a mustache onto a FLAT. A FLAT looks like this. The titular Gundam looks like this.
    • It was probably helped by the fact that it was dark and foggy when they attempted this, so visibility was low, and most people had never seen the Gundam, only heard it referred to as "the Mustached Machine Doll".
  • Full Metal Panic! - Near the end of "Fumoffu", Kaname dresses up as an Ai Yori Aoshi-style Yamato Nadeshiko. Also counts as a Wig, Dress, Accent since her hair was done up and she was using a different form of speech than normal - and pretending to be a married woman.
  • Averted and possibly parodied in Axis Powers Hetalia. When Japan visited Greece's land, Turkey attempts to spy on them donning a hooded green coat. It doesn't work.
    • In the anime, Italy uses the disguise of the 'tomato box fairy' upon meeting Germany. It doesn't work.
    • Also averted with England's fail attempts to escape from Italy. First time he tries to blend into the Italian crowd, his "disguise" consisted of his civilian clothing. He really wasn't trying to blend in all that much, especially considering how different the styles in Britain and Italy are. So of course he got caught. Admittedly his second attempt at dressing as an Italian improved but... you just can't hide those eyebrows.
    • It was less about the eyebrows and more about his behavior. He didn't chase skirts around like Italians were supposed to do.
  • Mr Ando's penguin "disguise" in Mori no Ando is just a black suit... plus he's in the forest... Fridge Brilliance though because all of the other animals don't look much like their respective animals.
  • Onsokomaru, from Ninin ga Shinobuden, disguises himself when appearing as "The Master" by wearing a fake beard. For the record, he's a yellow ball with wings. THE ONLY yellow ball with wings.
    • Although Shinobu is the only one who falls for it. At one point she even says "Aaah! Master and Onsokomaru keep disappearing!" when he repeatedly puts on/takes off the beard right in front of her.
      • To his credit, he must use a really good adhesive for the beard, as seen when Kaede tries to tug it off his face in the first episode.
  • Subverted in Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne where her hair colour and style changes and her eye colour. (And people STILL think she looks similar to Maron.
  • Kamen no Maid Guy has Strawberry Mask, who's pretty much Liz wearing a riding helmet and pink lone ranger-style mask. Everyone knows it's her.
  • Subverted with Mister Bushido from Mobile Suit Gundam 00: it was transparently obvious that he's Graham Akre from the moment he was spotted, but in-universe Graham isn't really trying to hide his identity, and even cops to it when his old friend Billy Katagiri meets up with "Bushido".
  • You seem to have mistaken me for someone without a hat.
  • The "Pekoponian Suits" from Keroro Gunsou. Keroro and his squad of frog aliens disguise themselves by using robot bodies. Their heads, which look nothing like a human, are completely exposed. Nobody ever notices this.
    • Actually, people do notice at first. But after a while they just get used to it, and stop caring.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! examples:
    • In the Legendary Heroes arc of the original anime, Jonouchi doesn't realize that "Madame Butterfly" is actually Mai at first, even though her only disguise is a butterfly shaped domino-mask. It is only after she uses a Harpie Lady that he manages to put two and two together.
    • In the KC Grand Prix arc, Yugi's grandfather disguises himself using the bandanna he always wears as a mask and calling himself "Mask the Rock". Needless to say, only Jonouchi — his opponent — fell for it; the rest simply didn't want to ruin Sugoroku's fun. In the dub version, it was even more obvious; the name he used was "Apdnarg Otum" (which is just "Grandpa Muto" spelled backwards), and he nearly gave himself away with what he said more than once.
    • During the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the Dark Scorpions tried to infiltrate Duel Academy by disguising themselves as faculty (or a student, in one case). Exactly why this didn't initially raise suspicion isn't clear, as they didn't seem very convincing - especially in Meanae's case, where she posed as the school nurse when Duel Academy already had one.
    • Also in GX, Professor Sartyr's "disguise" when he poses as "Curry Mask" is indeed lame (he's a chef with a paper bag over his head) but the Trope is downplayed for more than one reason. First, he pulls this stunt because he wants the students to notice him (he's a Hufflepuff House character in that he gets very little attention outside this episode) and when he loses the mask, the students only vaguely recognize him to begin with.
    • There was apparently a sale at the generic gray cloak shop during Season 3 of GX, as at least five separate characters don them.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's all "Vizor" has to do to differentiate himself from Bruno is comb his hair back and don some red sunglasses. Despite the fact that they're both mysterious blue-haired D-Wheel experts who showed up at around the same time, nobody suspects a thing. And both were left-handed, no less. In fact, the viewers figured this out long before the in-story reveal.
  • When Inuyasha is in public in the present, he generally wears a baseball cap to cover his dog ears. Never mind his anachronistic clothing and sword, lack of shoes, waist-length white hair, fangs, and claws. At one point someone comments he must be a cosplayer so maybe the paper-thin disguise isn't so bad.
  • Randoll from Future GPX Cyber Formula dresses up as "Prince Roscencruz" in Zero to return to Cyber Formula racing, complete with shades that resembles Knight Schumacher's sunglasses.
    • Randoll also suggests Shinjyo and Miki to do the same in Saga as they join Union Savior, but the disguises fails in a split second because of Hayato and Asuka. Apparently, Randoll has taken this trope as his Running Gag.
    • Schumacher himself was one, as he does this to keep an eye on Hayato and his team to keep Smith and his men from stealing Asurada, but after the incident with Smith, it's been revealed that it is Osamu Sugo, Asuka's long lost brother in that disguise.
  • The population of the Dragon Ball universe are notorious for falling for these. During the original run, King Piccolo not only produced demon armies that killed hundreds but on live tv threatened to destroy the world, removed the rule of law and deposed the World Government holding them hostage. So what does he do three years later when he wants to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament? he calls himself Junior and wears a turban. Everyone falls for this. Lesser examples include Master Roshi passing himself off to his closest students as "Jackie Chun" by wearing a blue wig and Gohan not being revealed as a notorious vigilante despite his disguise consisting solely of sunglasses.
    • Well, to be fair, Goku figured it was Piccolo in disguise almost immediately and Ten Shin Han also was suspicious; moreover the crowd immediately recognized Piccolo as soon as he lost the turban. While Master Roshi used a wig, he also took out his glasses, something he never does in normal circumstances. Yamcha figured this after their encounter and so did Master Tsuru during the second tournament. Finally, Gohan's classmates recognized him immediately as soon as he came out to the arena.
      • On the Gohan case, he also wears a full headed helmet, not just sunglasses. This does not keep Videl from recognizing him instantly because of his voice. Later, he wears a turban with his sunglasses at the Martial Art Tournament and the aforementioned classmate recognizes him as soon as he loses it.
    • In a Filler episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga, Emperor Pilaf disguises Shu as Goku in order to infiltrate the Ox-King's village. The disguise consists of nothing but a giant plastic head that resembles Goku's. Everything else is exposed, including Shu's fur-covered hands and tail (he's a dog). Again, everyone falls for this.
  • Played straight in Samurai High School with the sakakido twins who by circumstances must swap gender roles or face exile... which is hilarious since not only the sister is two feet taller than the older brother, like 36DD, ankle long hair and is master swordwoman while the brother is a pocket size Quintessential Yamato Nadeshiko but it takes a girl with supernatural analytic abilities to just realize the difference. Of course nobody believe her.
  • In Sekirei Musubi recognizes Kagari from behind, until she looks at his face and says that he isn't Kagari because "Kagari doesn't wear a mask."
  • Quattro Bajeena, better known as Char Aznable. He essentially trades out his mask for a pair of Cool Shades, and loses his uniform. In the end it really doesn't matter, since the Quattro identity was just established to keep people from immediately realizing that the Red Comet of Zeon had entered the Federation registry; in private with members of the A.E.U.G. he's pretty lax about it. It even gets a potential lampshade when he reveals his identity to the whole A.E.U.G., and Kamille's reaction is effectively "No duh."
    • Justified in the MSV-R manga. It's mentioned that there was a real Quattro Bageena who was a Federation soldier declared Missing In Action during the One Year War from the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Some corrupt Federation bureaucrats were selling the identities of MIA military personnel and Char simply picked out the most similar looking guy to himself he could find, so the disguise would only appear Paper-thin to people who had already met him as Char.
    • The Alternate Continuity manga Gundam: The Origin tries to explain how Casval rem Deikun could pass as Char Aznable without being identified as the son of a famous leader. To that end it introduces a real Char Aznable, who is identical to Casval in every way except eye color. When Casval learns that the Zabis are trying to kill him, he rather cold-bloodedly swaps places with Char, taking his identity and letting Char get killed in his place.
    • This was the base of a huge meme centered on a certain letter in Engrish that Kai leaves for the AEUG higher ups: "Captain Quattro, HE IS A CHAR!"
  • Athrun Zala in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny attempts to gain a new identity after the war: Alex Dino. This absolutely does not work, as pretty much everyone who runs into him immediately recognizes him as Athrun Zala, though some play along out of politeness. It may have been a Shout-Out to the Quattro deal mentioned above, though.
  • Ringo Noyamano from Air Gear wants to help Ikki in his quests, but can't abandon her own team. She tries to Take a Third Option by disguising herself as a masked girl named "Croissant Mark" when going to Ikki's aid. No one is fooled.
  • During the physical exam episode of Ouran High School Host Club, Tamaki disguises himself as Haruhi, so nobody finds out he's really a she. His disguise consists of...putting on a wig. Everyone see's through it immediately.
  • THE iDOLM@STER - Makoto dressing up as a boy so she wouldn't be recognized by her fans. It doesn't always work that well. Haruka also wears glasses and a beret to avoid detection.
  • In an episode of Macross Frontier, Ranka, currently a hyper-superstar with posters of herself up all over town, manages to skip out on the huge parade she's supposed to be in and wander all over town undetected, cleverly hidden by a pair of big dorky lensless glasses. The other main characters recognize her easily and don't even comment on her "disguise," but no one else pays any attention to her, even though the whole city is trying to find her.
  • Dragonaut: The Resonance has Toa wearing glasses as a disguise during the year long period she, the former Dragonauts and their dragons were being hunted down by the ISDA. Sieglinde lampshades how ridiculous the disguise is.
  • An interesting subversion: in Read or Die any Paper Master interested in doing so can make a disguise that is literally paper thin, yet is detailed enough to be considered Latex Perfection.
  • Scanty and Kneesocks's disguises range from a moustache and a skirt to different skin colours, gender and voice.


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