History PaperThinDisguise / AnimeAndManga

* The titular ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' and Princess Kraehe both don Paper Thin Disguises as (or perhaps ''are'' the Paper Thin Disguises of) Duck and Rue, respectively. It's [[JustifiedTrope somewhat understandable]] for Duck, since no one would ever expect the worst dancer in school to be the "goddess of dance", and only the characters from ''The Prince and the Raven'' seem to be able to see her in human form, anyway. The only difference for Rue (besides the infallible change of costume) is a different hairdo, and her motives are fairly obvious to everyone around her, too. Maybe it's the local PerceptionFilter at work.

** 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.

* ''[[Anime/PrettySammy Magical Project S]]'',

* In ''[[Anime/PrettySammy 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 PaletteSwap, and no one can put them together...

* This is one of the defining characteristics of [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. 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 [[WholesomeCrossdresser 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 OncePerEpisode, you'd think the heroes would be intimately familiar with them.

* In ''Anime/MazingerZ'', [[BigBad Dr. Hell]] fabricated a cyborg seemed right like [[spoiler:[[TheProfessor 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 [[spoiler:Sayaka, Prof. Yumi's daughter]] did. At least he did not make that mistake again when he fabricated cyborgs looked like [[spoiler:[[TheHero Kouji Kabuto]] or his mother.]]

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', 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.

* Also subverted in an episode of ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior''. What initially appears to be the character Maddy in a PaperThinDisguise turns out to be the aged mystic Yahoot in an extremely effective disguise, which just ''looked'' like Maddy in a transparent disguise.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', 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.

* Konohamaru in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' carries a blanket whose pattern blends into wooden fences. [[http://i39.tinypic.com/zx6t05.jpg Or at least that's the idea.]] Also, the portable "one-foot-tall brick wall".

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': One of the more infamous examples, the girls essentially wear uniforms similar to actual [[SailorFuku school girl uniforms]] and not one of them wears even a simple mask. Yup, no masks, no hair color changes, pretty much nothing concealing their identities. 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. A few of the characters are occasionally recognized not by appearance or voice, but by performing actions or behaviors unique to them. For example, Minako is id'd by an old school friend because he recognizes the way Sailor Venus plays volleyball to be the same as Minako's.

* Subverted early on in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'', 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.

* Hayato Fuurinji, Miu's BadassGrandpa in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' 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...

* Though "The Phantom Renegade" from ''VideoGame/{{Medabots}}'' already had a decent disguise, during the TournamentArc 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".

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi and his students in the Magical World, being wanted criminals [[ClearMyName for a crime the villains committed]], often disguise themselves in public by using pills to make them look five years older or [[TokenMiniMoe younger than they really are]] and wearing [[CatGirl Neko themed]] adornments such as ears and tails. They've yet to be caught. Of course, few RealLife people would look at a child when searching for a teenager. Later, they even get magical Clark Kent glasses.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', 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...)

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', 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, everyone in his family has such [[NoSenseOfDirection poor sense of direction]] that they hardly ever see each other, though he still doesn't have an excuse for every other time he fell for it.

* In ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' 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 [[http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/turn-a/flat-l06d.htm this.]] The titular Gundam looks like [[http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/turn-a/system-a-99.htm 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".

* Averted and possibly parodied in ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia''. When Japan visited Greece's land, Turkey attempts to spy on them donning a hooded green coat. It doesn't work.

* Onsokomaru, from ''Manga/NininGaShinobuden'', 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.

* Subverted with Mister Bushido from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': 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".
* [[Manga/RaveMaster You seem to have mistaken me for someone without a hat]].
* The "Pekoponian Suits" from ''Manga/KeroroGunsou''. 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.

* Randoll from ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' dresses up as "Prince Roscencruz" in ''Zero'' to return to Cyber Formula racing, complete with shades that resembles Knight Schumacher's sunglasses. Of course, Hayato recognizes him through the disguise.

* The population of the ''Manga/DragonBall'' 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.

* [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Quattro Bajeena]], better known as [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]]. He essentially trades out his mask for a pair of CoolShades, 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 [[TheHero Kamille's]] reaction is effectively "No duh." The fact that "Quattro" initially piloted one of the most [[CyberCyclops Zeon-styled]] mobile suits in the A.E.U.G. and went out of his way to [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority paint it red]] didn't help with the disguise.

* Athrun Zala in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' 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 ShoutOut to the Quattro deal mentioned above, though.

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** Possible the most blatantly disguise was when they dressed up as VIKINGS in the first movie. The fact that A. vikings haven't been around for about 1,000 years and B. they never were in Japan, barely crossed their minds ("I didn't know the Vikings were still around!" / "They mostly live in [[ArtisticLicenseGeography Minnesota!]]")

** To his credit, Kuwabara was positively ''convinced'' Mask (as the Urameshi Team called their teammate) was Genkai, but TheUnreveal caused him to change his mind. When the mask comes off again [[spoiler:and it really ''is'' old lady Genkai beneath it, due to her giving her powers to Yusuke]], [[BigBad Toguro]] has to come up and explain everything so the Urameshi Team won't be disqualified for cheating.

*** In the dub version, it was even more obvious; the name he used was "Apdnarg Otuom" (which is just "Granpa Mouto" spelled backwards; he called himself "Mask the Rock" in the original version) and nearly gave himself away with what he said more than once.

** In the [[Anime/YuGiOh original series]] Yugi's grandfather disguised himself with his bandanna. Needless to say, only Joey fell for it. The rest simply didn't want to ruin Solomon's fun.

* The titular ''PrincessTutu'' and Princess Kraehe both don Paper Thin Disguises as (or perhaps ''are'' the Paper Thin Disguises of) Duck and Rue, respectively. It's [[JustifiedTrope somewhat understandable]] for Duck, since no one would ever expect the worst dancer in school to be the "goddess of dance", and only the characters from ''The Prince and the Raven'' seem to be able to see her in human form, anyway. The only difference for Rue (besides the infallible change of costume) is a different hairdo, and her motives are fairly obvious to everyone around her, too. Maybe it's the local PerceptionFilter at work.

****** The majority of his face however was covered by hood, so it was somewhat [[JustifiedTrope Justified]].

** Possible the most blatantly disguise was when they dressed up as VIKINGS in the first movie. The fact that A. vikings haven't been around for about 1,000 years and B. they never were in Japan, barely crossed their minds ("I didn't know the Vikings were still around!" / "They mostly live in Minnesota!")

** 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!'''"

** Possible the most blatantly disguise was when they dressed up as VIKINGS in the first movie. The fact that A. vikings haven't been around for about 1,000 years and B. they never were in Japan, barely crossed their minds ("I didn't know the Vikings were still around!")

** During the "Search for Tsunade" arc, Itachi (one of Konoha's most notorious missing-nin) and Kisame (a towering blue-haired man with distinctive gill-marks on his cheeks and sharp teeth) managed to stroll around Konoha and casual lunch without being noticed by anyone except for Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma.

* This is the primary running gag in the earlier arcs of [[Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn 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 [[spoiler:he's the only one who ''doesn't'' recognize Reborn's adult self]].

** 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 [[spoiler:They use the '''SAME NET NAVIS''' their civilian selves used in the N1 Grand Prix!]]

** 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.

* Mr Ando's penguin "disguise" in ''MoriNoAndo'' is just a black suit... plus he's in the forest... FridgeBrilliance though because all of the other animals don't look much like their respective animals.

* ''ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'' episode ''Gatchaman Secrets Stolen''. A scientist working for the ISO steals important secrets for Galactor. The team is given the job of stopping him. Their civilian identities are Dr. Nambu's wards/adopted kids who are allowed free run of the place, and most of the scientists recognize them by sight, if not name. G-1 decides to disguise himself as the Galactor contact for the scientist... by putting on a pair of sun glasses. [[note]]The situation is even more absurd if you've seen the episodes that outline that the team has to wear a particular set of civilian-mode clothing in order to transform to battle uniforms; ergo, the team wears the same clothing ''nearly all the time''.[[/note]]
* In Manga/AxisPowersHetalia Germany simply wore a suit and glasses while undercover in France, and England changed his clothes (and later his hairstyle) while trying to escape from Italy. When they were finally noticed, it was only because of how they were acting. (Germany was mashing his potatoes rather than slicing them. England got caught the first time because of his unstylish clothes, the second time because he wasn't flirting with pretty women, and the third time for ordering British food at a restaurant.)
* In ''Franchise/{{Anpanman}}'', any of Baikinman's disguises qualify as this. No one seems to notice that characters have shrunk (or grown in the case of the very tiny characters), feminine characters suddenly gain a more masculine voice, and no one notices Baikinman's sharp teeth and pink eyes, which are never covered by his outfit. This is made even more obvious on some disguises, where he even puts tape on his face (very obviously) to get a slightly chubbier apperance.

* ''Science Ninja Team Gatchaman'' episode ''Gatchaman Secrets Stolen''. A scientist working for the ISO steals important secrets for Galactor. The team is given the job of stopping him. Their civilian identities are Dr. Nambu's wards/adopted kids who are allowed free run of the place, and most of the scientists recognize them by sight, if not name. G-1 decides to disguise himself as the Galactor contact for the scientist... by putting on a pair of sun glasses. [[note]]The situation is even more absurd if you've seen the episodes that outline that the team has to wear a particular set of civilian-mode clothing in order to transform to battle uniforms; ergo, the team wears the same clothing ''nearly all the time''.[[/note]]

* In ''{{Franchise/Anpanman}}'', any of Baikinman's disguises qualify as this. No one seems to notice that characters have shrunk (or grown in the case of the very tiny characters), feminine characters suddenly gain a more masculine voice, and no one notices Baikinman's sharp teeth and pink eyes, which are never covered by his outfit. This is made even more obvious on some disguises, where he even puts tape on his face (very obviously) to get a slightly chubbier apperance.

** 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 [[TheDitz 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.

* Hayato Fuurinji, Miu's BadassGrandpa in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' enters a tournament intended for martial artists 20 and younger by putting on a {{Sentai}} mask and dubbing himself "Mysterious Teen Garyu X." Only [[AdultChild 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...