History Main / FourthWallObserver

* Many tankobon volumes of manga (i.e., any individual-series manga you'd pick up in a shop) have additional sketches or comments from the author between chapters. Some of these are just random blurbs of information about the author and what went on when making the series, others fall into this, bordering into NoFourthWall territory. A particular set of examples in several of the tankobon volumes of ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' are single-panel reactions from characters stating their disdain at not being featured as prominently in that particular volume, with another talking about the one with the most focus, or whoever's on the cover. Some go as far as to have the characters actually holding the very book themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', the GrandFinale crossover film between the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2003 Turtles]] and the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 1987 Turtles]] which celebrates the end of the Mirage led franchise before the IP switched to Nickelodeon. Throughout the movie, the 87 Raphael continuously breaks the FourthWall to speak to the audience, much to the confusion of the other characters. At one point the villain, Hun, grabs him and started yelling at him asking:

* In the British TV show ''Series/Hustle'', where the main characters are a group on con artists, they would regularly use Fourth Wall Observations to walk the audience through the plan for the con.

* Marcus Kane in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal2'' is well aware he's in a video game, going so far as to address the player directly as such in his biography screen. Unsurprisingly, everyone else just things he's insane.

* Jessie, James and Meowth in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', particularly in the English dub, frequently reference the writers, the artists, the audience, the half-hour time slot, and the fact that they're in a "cartoon" -- and if they're in a movie, they're sure to appreciate being "on the big screen". None of the other characters seem to notice this. Or do they?

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfAmbrose'': Of the characters in this series, Malady seems to be the most aware of the fourth wall, especially in ''VideoGame/FindingLight'', where she is aware that the game is in monochrome while every other character still sees the world in color. She also addresses the player outside the screen at a few points. As a deconstruction, this is one of the reasons why Uno considers her too crazy to take care of their son Dylan.

** Discord, unsurprisingly: he ''is'' a MadGod who's title is "Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony", after all. While Pinkie Pie usually sticks to making heavy use of toon physics, Discord regularly shows even greater MediumAwareness with his mischief, gives the odd AsideGlance or two, and occasionally addresses the audience directly. Still {{downplayed|Trope}} for the same kind of reasons, though: if he has real Medium Awareness, he refrains from showing definite proof of it.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series takes this trope and goes to town with it.

* In ''Fanfic/FireEmblemThreeHouseeFifthPath'' resident goddess Sothis is quite clearly aware that she's fictional, from little things like referring to Byleth as the protagonist to large ones like outright stating she can hear the narration.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

The [[FourthWall Fourth Wall]] can be [[NoFourthWall a fragile thing]], but some are more fragile than others. Oft times, it stands just outside the sight of the characters, completely unnoticed, even though we all know it's there. But sometimes, even when everyone else can't see, there's one character who notices that there happens to be a script, or that someone's watching them, or that they're living life on a set.

* In ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'', a mysterious voice turns Max into a FourthWallObserver. During one of Max's hallucinations on the drug V, he is told by a letter (heavily implied to be from his dead wife, Michelle) that he is in a graphic novel (what the cutscenes are presented as). He instantly realizes that his life is all fragmented still shots and the fact that he can see his thoughts and words hanging in thought/speech bubbles in the air. Another letter then tells him that he's in a computer game. Once again, he instantly sees "weapon statistics hanging in the air, endless repetition of the act of shooting, time slowing down to show off my moves. The paranoid feeling of someone controlling my every step."

* The protagonist of ''Webcomic/ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse'' is not a full-fledged FourthWallObserver who knows he's in a comic, but he's the only person in the world who is aware of the game mechanics of the RPGMechanicsVerse. All of the other characters just brush off his references to them as nonsense.

* [[invoked]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Caboose]] from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. [[WordOfGod According to his voice actor, Joel Heyman]], he's the only person in the series who's actually aware that he is in a video game. With this in mind, a few of his actions at least make ''some'' more sense. And as it later turns out, he's also aware he's in a show, since he says the time he shot Church with the tank "was an exciting episode" and once said in an (admittedly non-canon [=PSA=]) that he'd "dance right now, but our animation budget can't afford it!"

* ''Film/StrangerThanFiction'' is an interesting variation. The main character can hear the narrator and recognizes a sort of fourth wall, but the narrator is actually someone in his world whose writing dictates his life. In fact, they eventually meet.
* The Graverobber, of ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'', so very much. He speaks directly to the camera on multiple occasions, and even refers to the medium he's in during "Epilogue".
* Boris Yelnikoff from Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/WhateverWorks''
* Paul in ''Film/FunnyGames''. A rare dark example.
* This trope's inverse is basically [[TrumanShowPlot the plot]] of ''Film/TheTrumanShow'': Every character can see the fourth wall ''except one''.
* In a Finnish comedy film from the ''Film/UunoTurhapuro'' series, a waiter has been tricked, by two alcoholics, into drinking a full bottle of vodka. Later, when a lady enters the restaurant, and listens to the waiter singing a song, she glances around, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xCfjTjleOo declares]] with an enlightened face: "I see. This must be a Finnish movie. There's no other explanation for the presence of so many drunkards in one scene."
* The titular character becomes this after returning to his fictional life at the end of ''Film/LastActionHero''.

** "you are not your fucking khakis"

* Like his original comic book self, the star of ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' is constantly breaking the fourth wall, commenting on everything from [[Creator/RyanReynolds his own actor]] to the film's budget. He even [[DiscontinuityNod makes fun of]] ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''[[note]]Which was infamous for, among other things, its InNameOnly rendition of Deadpool[[/note]].
* ''Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch'':
** Colin is aware of [[spoiler: the multiple timelines the story takes place across]], and on some level knows that he is a character in an interactive film. During a PreviouslyOn segment, he proves that he even has some measure of control over the narrative by forcibly skipping to the next scene; by that point both he and the audience have already been through that scene multiple times, and he's gotten bored of seeing it.
** [[StoryBranching Choosing the]] [[spoiler: 'Netflix']] path is essentially you, the viewer, turning Stefan into one of these. You inform him that [[spoiler: he's a character in a Netflix original film, and that you control his actions. Given that the story is set in 1984, he has no idea what Netflix is, but starts to believe that he's being controlled by "his friend from the future".]] [[MetaFiction Then things get...]] [[MindScrew weird.]]

[[folder:Machinima]]
* In Machinima/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware Dr. Coomer grows to learn that he lives in an artifical world. While at first he takes to attacking Gordon as a means to access the "world in his dreams" (the real world) he later grows to accept the reality he lives in. In Main/TheStinger he suggests that Gordon takes his data along with the rest of the Science Team along with him to the next game he plays so that their adventures may continue.
[[/folder]]

-->'''Kefka''': After all, she's a - good ol' friend of mine!

* ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' has Koe the bat, who narrates to the audience, as well as acting as a censor by flying between the camera and any inappropriate shots -- no-one knows who he keeps talking to all the time.

* Many tankobon volumes of manga (i.e., any individual-series manga you'd pick up in a shop) have additional sketches or comments from the author between chapters. Some of these are just random blurbs of information about the author and what went on when making the series, others fall into this, bordering into NoFourthWall territory. A particular set of examples in several of the tankobon volumes of ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' are single-panel reactions from characters stating their disdain at not being featured as prominently in that particular volume, with another talking about the one with the most focus, or whoever's on the cover. Some go as far as to have the characters actually holding the very book themselves.
** ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' in particular has fun with this. The end-of-tankobon discussions are held by Luke and Jan Valentine. This includes the second volume, ''where they died''. (Jan takes it well; Luke... [[MadnessMantra keeps repeating, "I got eaten. By a doggy."]])
* In ''[=AnotherHOLiC=]'', the ''Manga/XxxHolic'' story written by Nisio Isin, Yuuko Ichihara says that something is "most vexexing". When Watanuki asks if she just stuttered, she replies "No. Merely a typo."

* Himeko and Bossun from ''Manga/SKETDance''.
* Ajimu of ''Manga/MedakaBox'' is fully aware she's in a manga, saying that fighting Medaka head-on would be pointless since she's the main character and thus will always win in the end. Her ultimate goal seems to be ending the manga before the AnimatedAdaptation airs, and her plan for doing so involves dethroning Medaka and instating a new protagonist. [[spoiler:It's ultimately subverted: she isn't ''truly'' aware that she's a character in a manga, she just very strongly believes it because reality seems to follow the same kind of "narrative" as a ''Magazine/ShonenJump'' manga. She wants to defeat Medaka so she can accomplish something that breaks the narrative, allowing her to commit a SeenItAllSuicide. Medaka does lose her main character status, but [[InterruptedSuicide prevents the suicide]] and challenges Ajimu to really do the impossible by defying her "role" and finding her own path in life.]] Additionally, she [[TheCameo cameos]] in the last episode of the anime and speaks directly to the audience, explaining that the episode will be covering sidestory material since the story left off in a place that couldn't be turned into a satisfying ending.
** Kumagawa seems like this, but in reality he's just read a lot of ''Shonen Jump'' manga and sees reality in terms of tropes and clichés.
* In ''Manga/MonsterMusume'', Lala is a very subtle variation: It's a RunningGag that she'll move her [[HeadlessHorseman removable head]] around to make sure that her face isn't blocked by speech bubbles or other characters.
* Xiaomei from ''Manga/EdensZero'', who was [[TouchedByVorlons given powers of omniscience by]] [[TheMaker Mother]], and serves as the all-knowing narrator of the story. However, apart from the odd side comment and wink at the audience, she mostly limits her reader interactions to scenes she doesn't share with other characters, treating her role within the story separate from her narrator duties.

AudienceWhatAudience is a related trope when one character breaks the fourth, but the other doesn't understand it. Also compare RedPillBluePill.

* In ''VideoGame/RogueGalaxy'': All the characters have flavor lines they say as you move around. These lines might change given where you are, and what events are unlocked. Well... Kisala, when you play for longer than a certain amount of time without saving (or defeating a few bosses also seems to trigger it) she says something along the lines of "shouldn't you get to a save point?" And if you play more than 3 hours or so, "You've been playing a really long time! Aren't you tired?"
-->"You've been playing forever. Why don't you call it a day."

** {{Downplayed}} with Pinkie Pie. Unlike popular {{fanon}}, the show doesn't show her having real MediumAwareness, only moments of breaking the fourth wall. However, she's allowed to break the fourth wall way more strongly than any other character (and use more ToonPhysics). She's interrupted the IrisOut multiple times, [[CameraAbuse shaken the camera]], and directly addressed the audience. Her friends dismiss all her odd behavior as "Pinkie just being Pinkie" -- it never gets to the point that they have to ask AudienceWhatAudience -- with one episode's moral directly resulting from Twilight deciding to no longer question how the character works. WordOfGod says that Pinkie is allowed to do almost anything [[RuleOfFunny as long as it's funny]].
** Discord, unsurprisingly: he ''is'' a MadGod who's title is "Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony", after all. While Pinkie Pie usually sticks to making heavy use of toon physics, Discord regularly shows even greater MediumAwareness with his mischief, gives the odd AsideGlance or two, and occasionally addresses the audience directly. Still {{downplayed}} for the same kind of reasons, though: if he has real Medium Awareness, he refrains from showing definite proof of it.

* In one of the later seasons of ''Series/TheXFiles'', a movie producer witnesses a skeleton assemble itself and walk/dance around the room. When talking about it later on he says: "[[TheTetrisEffect It was either animatronics or CGI.]]" For the record it was the latter.

* An ''[[UpToEleven entire clan]]'' are made up of these in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5514187/1/Unsung-Story-of-the-Inconspicuous The Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous]]. They're all aware of the fact that they're living in a story and make it a point to do their absolute best to stay out of the way of the plot.