History Main / FacelessMasses

* Deconstructed in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion''. [[spoiler:The faceless masses are animated faceless dolls created by Homura, who is in the process of turning into a witch, for the purpose of making the fake city which is her witch labyrinth look realistic.]]

* ''NotAVillain'' uses these during most crowd scenes. The author affectionately calls them Blobs and has a lot of fun with the Blobs' ambition to get a face/name/persona in the vote incentives. One even managed to become a character thanks to fan input.

But who cares? They're just there to keep the world from feeling deserted.

* Used terrifyingly in ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess Repure'' when any character not a sister or Wataru is shown without a face, even close up! The chef teaching Shirayuki how to cook is especially frightening.

* Beautifully (and horrifyingly) subverted in the ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'': the combined hordes of the Black Lantern Corps (often a million strong) are all carefully detailed when they could simply have been a blob of black ink with only a few personalities at the foreground. So, too, are the BigDamnHeroes when they show up.

* The second season of ''{{Manga/Minami-ke}}'', produced by a different studio, replaces the skin colouring and anatomy of [[http://i31.tinypic.com/2qlqu8o.jpg previously fully-animated]] extras with silhouettes... even in closeup. Every character that didn't have a speaking part in the first series is now a black/darkened outline with hair and clothes, facial features added [[http://i26.tinypic.com/20ifn7n.png as required]]. Quite [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MinamiKe_blackened.png disconcerting]]. As the series got closer to the end, there seemed to be more drawn-in extras than black shadow, but still, what the heck?

* Very prominent in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' Volume One, where all non-important characters are black silhouettes. Important characters tend to be given models an episode or two before they're properly introduced.

* In ''Manga/DetectiveConan''/''CaseClosed'', when someone is suspiciously eavesdropping on a conversation (or whatever) and we don't know who it is, they are just a black silhouette with an utterly bald, mannequin-like head. (The eyes are still shown, though, and they're often bloodshot psychotically.) Very UncannyValley, and it makes the criminals seem even more inhuman. Ooh, philosophical.

* Very prominent in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', where all non-important characters are black silhouettes. Important characters tend to be given models an episode or two before they're properly introduced.

->''''When I search a faceless crowd\\

->''When I search a faceless crowd''
->''A swirling mass of gray and black and white''
->''They don't look real to me''
->''In fact, they look so strange.''
-->-- '''Music/TheRollingStones''', "Salt Of The Earth"

* Occurs in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' with the citizenry of Kirkwall, as many of the citizens have an "unfinished" look to them. Granted, there are also many background [=NPCs=] who do look like people; the distinction is that they speak, or wander around.
* You could always tell when someone was going to be important in ''VideoGame/{{Wadanohara}}'' because they actually had a face. Most of the NPCs don't.

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'' uses this very noticeably in episodes where there is an audience of some sort. Due to the fact that the setting in this case is a darkened theater/auditorium, the FacelessMasses are depicted as shadowy silhouettes...but they also have weird white stereotypically-alien-like eyes. Rather scary, actually.

Can easily fall into horror, although savvy animators will take advantage of this depending on the mood of the show.

** Parodied: "the girls of the class" are represented as a [[http://creamybeamy.comicgenesis.com/d/20060927.html multi-headed, vaguely humanoid black mass]], a sort of GirlPosse / HiveMind / TwoBeingsOneBody.

* Very prominent in WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}, where all non-important characters are black silhouettes.

** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' averts this for shots of crowds on Cybertron by [[CastOfSnowflakes having everyone be have distinct]] designs [[ContinuityCameo based on characters from various different Transformers continuities]].

* Even though they're all just randomizations of a couple of character models, the ''{{VideoGame/Spider-Man}} 2'' game manages to avert this trope by having the hapless citizens of New York be fully colored, wander the city realistically, and react to Spidey; with one exception. During the "sports event" with Quentin Beck, the people in the stands are just cardboard cutouts. Heavily Lampshaded when you have Spidey crawl on the fake audience, and he says: "Even the audience is fake! Beck's the real phoney here."

* Used with good reason many times in 1982's ''Music/PinkFloyd: Music/TheWall''. The faceless masses are represented as people wearing simple "pink masks", foam faces with two gaping eyes and a screaming mouth. It represents mindless conformity or somesuch.

* ''Manga/NurseWitchKomugi'' [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this trope in episode 5.

* Used frequently in SoulEater. It's especially noticeable in dramatic scenes, where the main characters are all surrounded by a crowd of completely still, colorless students with no faces.

* Beautifully (and horrifyingly) subverted in the ComicBook/GreenLantern CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'': the combined hordes of the Black Lantern Corps (often a million strong) are all carefully detailed when they could simply have been a blob of black ink with only a few personalities at the foreground. So, too, are the BigDamnHeroes when they show up.

* Franchise/TheSmurfs themselves are a good example of this trope, since most of them are identical to each other in appearance. In both the comic books and the cartoon show, it's a good way for the creators to bring in a character who becomes prominent for a while and then easily write him out.

* Frequently used by Juffs in her Disney/TheLionKing fancomic [[http://juffs.deviantart.com/gallery/30023681 The Untold Journey]]. Any character in the background or out in the distance will be drawn without eyes.

* In the Series/{{House}} episode, House's Head, While house is under hypnosis, and remembering a bar, he looks out on the patrons and sees only a faceless crowd. After he focuses, the crowd doesn't come up again.