Reused Character Design: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Sometimes, comic artists are famous (or, more likely, infamous) for having [[Only Six Faces|very little differentiation among their characters]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The former [[Trope Namer]] here is taken from the Star System, the name given to the collection of characters who features prominently throughout the career of [[Osamu Tezuka]]. These characters include:

** Shunsaku Ban - Featured as a detective in ''[[Metropolis (anime)|Metropolis]]'', a teacher in ''[[Astro Boy]]'', and just about everything else in between. Noticeable for his moustache. Ban is probably Tezuka's most recurring star, save for Gourdski, appearing in nearly all his works, from as early as ''Metropolis'', to as late as ''[[Buddha]]''.

*** Tezuka actually kept a list of how much money the actors in his "troupe" were paid for each "performance." He would periodically give them "raises" or "pay cuts" based on their popularity with fans. It was his whimsical way of keeping track of what characters his readers liked.

* [[Hayao Miyazaki]] also has accumulated a fairly large number of recurring castmembers, though, unlike Tezuka, they have no set names (at least, none known to the public). Some of the most notable include:

** [[Spirited Away|Kamaji]] - Originally introduced as the old engineer of Dola's ship in [[Laputa: Castle in the Sky]], as well as Dola's husband, he was given a name in his role in [[Spirited Away]]. He is recognizable for his sunglasses and extremely large mustache (some people think he inspired [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Robotnik/Eggman]]).

** [[My Neighbor Totoro|Mei]] - Miyazaki's end-all-be-all toddler girl. It's somewhat insinuated visually that Sen of [[Spirited Away]] is a much older Mei, rather than a very young Lana. Alternatively, she's a very young [[Kiki's Delivery Service|Ursula]]. She's perhaps best known for her starring turn as the title character in [[Ponyo]].

** [[Laputa: Castle in the Sky|Charles]] - a fairly regular comic-relief character; most notably appeared as one of the Ironworks' men in [[Princess Mononoke]], aside from his supporting role in [[Laputa: Castle in the Sky]].

** [[Laputa: Castle in the Sky|Shougun Mouro/General]] - a balding/bald general, featured in [[Laputa: Castle in the Sky]], [[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]], and [[Princess Mononoke]], as well as cameo parts in several other works involving either police or the military

* [[Masami Kurumada]], creator of ''[[B't X]]'', ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', and a number of series not as well-known in the states usually has a few key designs as well, mainly from recycling characters from his first work, ''Ring ni Kakero''. He subverted this in Saint Seiya, however, when Unicorn Jabu was given a design similar to the hero's rival in Ring ni Kakero, only for him to play a minimal role in the actual series.

** He also likes to play around with personality. Take Shun, [[The Fettered]], emotional, [[Reluctant Warrior]] of [[Saint Seiya]], and compare him with the previous character to use the design, ''Fuma no Kojiro'' 's Kirikaze - a cold, restrained ninja who never hesitated to kill when called to.

** Shogun looks like Martin with longer hair.

** [[Billy Bat|Kevin Yamagata]] resembles [[Pluto|Sahad]] who is a dead ringer for [[Monster (manga)|Karl Neumann]].

** Dr Abullah is the persian cousin of God.

** Heckel from ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' shows up in a minor role in ''20thCenturyBoys''.

** Nina from ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' and Sahad from ''[[Pluto]]'' have the same professor.

* [[Go Nagai]] also does this, which probably helps when you've made hundreds of manga.

** Abashiri Daemon - originally from ''[[Abashiri Ikka]]'', also appears in ''[[Cutey Honey]]'' and ''[[UFO Robot Grendizer]]''.

* In ''Lifeguard'', many of the same 'characters' appear as in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]''. This is also likely to be the case with the original story of Hinagiku and Yukiji's backstory, which was originally planned to be the story ''Hayate'' became.

* Some of female protagonists from [[Juni Itou]] stories looks almost identical, like [[Hellstar Remina|Remina]] and [[Gyo|Kaori]].

* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime actually did this with crowd shots.

 

* [[Terry Pratchett]] tends to use his ''[[Discworld]]'' version of [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] in his other books; there's subtle variations depending on the culture being represented, but Death will always have {{smallcaps|his characteristic accent}}.

* In ''Alice in Wonderland'''s sequel ''Through the Looking Glass'', Lewis Carroll included the characters Hatta and Haigha, who acted a lot like the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Kenji Eno did this with the video games ''D'', ''Enemy Zero'', and ''D2''.

* [[Hideo Kojima]] likes to play with this. Meryl Silverburgh (a female soldier with a hidden feminine side) was originally a character from ''[[Policenauts]]'', but a younger version of her is also in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' as Snake's love interest. Pettrovich Madnar, a Russian mad scientist who develops robots, was ported from ''[[Metal Gear]]'' to ''[[Snatcher]]'' and back again to ''[[Metal Gear]] 2''. Peter Stillman in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' was originally supposed to be Ed Brown from ''[[Policenauts]]'', but Kojima decided against it at the last moment (although their character designs and personalities remain extremely similar), and instead had Ed and his partner Jonathan as soldiers backing up Meryl in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4''. There's also Metal Gear itself, which is a huge nuclear robot in ''[[Metal Gear]]'', gets ported to ''[[Snatcher]]'' as Gillian's sapient [[Robot Buddy]], Metal Gear Mk. II, which was then taken back to its home canon in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' where it acts as backup for Snake, controlled by Otacon. To play into the joke, there's a sequence in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' in which Kojima dresses Snake up as Gillian.

** Other than Forrest Kaysen, General Douglas Lysander made an appearance in ''Spy Fiction'' as a Revolver Ocelot Expy, and then later appeared again in ''Deadly Premonition'', not as an antagonist, but a scrapyard owner who seems to have an ominous past. Said ominous past {{spoiler|does not involve the events in the game at all, and turns out to be war stories about a "Crybaby Timothy", whom he claimed to hate. After getting all of the parts necessary to fix your car, he reveals [[Survivor Guilt|why he always wears a Sargeant Uniform and not a General's]]}}.

* ''[[Rhythm Heaven]]'' manages to do it in its own series by having mini-games in later games feature characters from previous games, as though it were a cast of characters performing different mini-games.

* [[David Gonterman]] has a few he loves to recycle... most, scratch that, all of them are some form of self insert.

** Scarlet Foxfire - The sentient alien/biomechanical fursuit.

** Adam Packbell - A magical boy, teen or young man whose powers either come from [[Magic: The Gathering]]-esque spells, or being a [[Peter Pan|Lost Boy]]. He usually has a coffee addiction and a fetish for robot girls.

** Pippikin - A bunny fursuit much like Scarlet. He typically appears as a [[Complete Monster]] who takes over the minds of his hosts and engages in sexual debauchery, but has one incarnation where he's good.

 

{{reflist}}