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A character that looks strange in the context of their cartoon world. Usually a main character and most likely because this main character was designed before the artist could get into the swing of drawing the rest of the characters. Either that, or it's to set the character apart.

See also Gonk. Compare Art Shift.

Examples of Non Standard Character Design include:


Anime & Manga[]

  • The Admirals Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji from One Piece, who, mostly because they are based on actual actors, are drawn in a style more realistic than most others (especially Akainu), almost to the point of falling in the Uncanny Valley.
    • Caesar Clown's design is remarkably different from most of the characters in the series, to the point of many fans thinking he looks like somebody out of Naruto.
  • Armitage III: The Second-type androids, along with Naomi Armitage and Julian Moore, are designed and drawn in a traditional, big-eyed Anime style. The humans, D'anclaude, and the Third-type androids are designed in a more realistic style (and with more visibly European facial features).
  • The fusions in Bobobobo Bobobo are drawn in a much more serious style than the regular characters.
  • Not unlike the South Park celebrities example are the monkey and dog in Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan, who look like people with photographed heads.
  • In Cromartie High School, whenever Kamiyama encounters one of his former middle school classmates, they're always depicted in a simplistic cartoony style that contrast the series' semi-realistic style.
  • There are birds in Haré+Guu that are drawn in a crude, primitive style.
    • Guu herself has more simplistic style than the rest of the cast, lacking fingers and toes in most situations, and moves with boneless flops.
  • Done intentionally in Darker Than Black. The Plucky Comic Relief, Gai Kurasawa and his assistant Kiko, don't look like they even belong in the same series, which is appropriate given that generally the only reason they are involved is chance.
  • Most of the game characters in .hack//Sign have standard Anime designs, except for "A-20", who appears in a couple of episodes and has a much more cartoony appearance and no visible nose. This looks especially strange when she's interacting with Mimiru. Of course this does lampshade the fact that the animated characters we're watching are actually supposed to be animated characters and not real people.
  • Anime Tenchou from Lucky Star, pictured above, and the rest of his co-workers are drawn in a very bold, sketchy action-series style, in contrast to the Puni Plush of everyone else.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Lordgenome is deliberately drawn in a sketch-heavy style, to highlight his role as the Big Bad. Later applied to Lordgenome's head and post-timeskip Simon.
    • The Anti-Spiral looks like a chalk drawing in animated form. This highlights not only his Big Bad status, but how utterly wrong he is. Similarly, his mecha are both CG and don't resemble a human being or animal in the slightest, unlike every previous mecha in the series. Even their codename, Mugann, means "faceless".
    • The sketch-heavy style appears again at the end, where it's used to show just how much spiral power Simon (and, by extension, Lordgenome previously) has.
  • Aburazaka from Ai Kora has a chubby-cheeked, excessively-stylized face that makes him look like a gag manga character. It contrasts not only with the relatively realistic faces of the rest of the cast, but also with his personality of a shameless pervert.
  • Soujirou Marui, father of the triplets in Mitsudomoe, is drawn with a much rougher art style and thicker outlines compared to everyone else. His face is also somewhat different from the rest of the cast, adult and child alike.
  • The Flying Dutchman from Soul Eater, who looks like some sort of deranged and villainous muppet.
  • In the manga Futaba Kun Change, Principal Hiroin has a considerably more cartoonish look than all the characters, including a huge round head over a midget body.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood delivers a very minor example; Ed, Al, Hohenheim and all other characters of Xerxian descent are drawn with a dark yellow outline to their hair which makes them appear to glow slightly. All other characters, even other blonds, have their hair outlined in black.
  • This happened to Chiba from Wandering Son after her Art Evolution. She looked considerably more mature then most other characters, but has since leveled in quite well due to the other characters her age maturing.
  • Hiruma from Eyeshield 21, with his fangs, claws, and spiky blonde Anime Hair looks very different from the more normally drawn members of the cast.
  • It can look mighty weird when Elizabeth of Gintama is standing next to the rest of the cast.
  • The witches and their barriers from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are all animated in drastically, disturbingly different ways from the rest of the show. Each one has a unique style of animation, ranging from thick-line to shadow puppets.
  • All the diary owners in Mirai Nikki are drawn in a style somewhere between typical anime and realistic. Eighth however... Eigth is four feet tall, four feet wide, and has eyes the size of dinner plates perched over a cat's mouth. Next to other characters, she can look utterly terrifying.
  • Even in a really... colorful series like Mawaru Penguindrum, Tsubasa Yuuki stands out whenever she shows up. She's drawn in a 70s shoujo manga style, and is specifically modeled after Lady Oscar.
  • A minor example, but Nando has more realistically drawn eyes compared to the other characters in the Pokémon anime, who have larger and more cartoony-looking eyes.


Comics[]

  • The Bone cousins in Bone are drawn in a simpler, more cartoony style than the other characters. Unlike the other characters they also obey cartoon physics, most notably in a scene where Phoney Bone tries to hide a partly-eaten pie by shoving it into Fone Bone's mouth and Fone Bone's head assumes the shape of the pie, complete with missing segment.
    • They are also the first characters shown — Thorn, the first human character, doesn't appear until chapter 2.
  • The aardvarks in Cerebus the Aardvark are drawn in a cartoony style, with liberal use of zip-a-tone. Everything else, especially as the art gets better, is much more realistic and hard-edged, and zip-a-tone is used nowhere else.
  • In Mortadelo Y Filemon, whenever real people (or Superman) show up, they're drawn with realistic faces, which contrasts with the usual characters looking cartoony. Then there's also the Crossover with El Capitan Trueno, where the Trueno characters get sometimes drawn in their original realistic style and sometimes look cartoony... and sometimes it's a mix... you can see why we don't like talking about that.
  • In Spy vs. Spy, only the two main characters are drawn with the well-recognizable pointy noses. Any disguises they wear have to include a mask for this reason (and the masks somehow fit right over their noses).
  • The dinosaurs from Calvin and Hobbes are all drawn rather realistically compared to the cartoony artstyle of the comic, at least in later years after the artist had done some research. Other animals similarly became more realistic when they were the focus of a particular strip, and Calvin and Susie were drawn in a more realistic and serious manner when a strip took place from her perspective.
  • SlapStick has an appearance akin to a Looney Tunes character in a world with more realistic designs. This is to highlight his powers, which makes him and him alone follow Cartoon Physics.


Films — Animation[]

  • Disney Animated Canon:
    • The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio is the only realistically-drawn character in the entire film considering the fact that she was rotoscoped.
    • Similarly, Tiger Lily from Peter Pan is drawn realistically as opposed to the more "Cleveland Indians"-looking Native Americans featured in the film.
    • Watch "The Great Mouse Detective". Professor Ratigan, unlike ALL the other "mice", has five fingers. Justified, because in the film, at least, he is a rat.
    • LeFou is far toonier-looking than the rest of the human cast in Beauty and the Beast.
    • Everyone in Aladdin is drawn with curves. Save for Jafar who is drawn with straight lines.
    • The Lion King:
      • During the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King", Simba, Nala, and Zazu are the only characters that are drawn normally contrasted to the stylized nature of the song.
      • Also, compare Timon's design with those of the meerkats seen during the song "Circle of Life" at the very beginning of the film.
    • The title character of Pocahontas had her appearance based on her voice actress, Irene Bedard, and while the rest of her tribe are portrayed fairly closely to how they would have looked in real life she sticks out like a sore thumb.
    • Kidagakash from Atlantis: The Lost Empire for some reason despite being an Atlantean actually looks more like a Caucasian woman with tanned skin and white hair, while the other Atlanteans (including her father, King Kashekhim Nedakh) have more ethnic designs. She is also the only character in the film to have Blue Eyes, something no one else in the film has. Also, the shape of her fingers: They have rounded tips, while the males have square-tipped fingers, the other females also have similarly-drawn fingers (Audrey has squared fingers because of her tomboyish nature, while Helga has claw-like fingers to fit her role as The Dragon).
    • In The Princess and the Frog, while all of the other characters are drawn realistically and tend to be somewhat fleshy, Dr. Facilier is unusually tall and Noodle People thin.
    • In a meta-sense, Rapunzel from Tangled compared to her fellow Disney Princesses. As she was originally designed in CGI, putting her in the sub-brand's usual art style makes her eyes much larger than her fellows.
    • King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph has a far more cartoony design than the other denizens of Sugar Rush. Because he's not from Sugar Rush.
  • Pixar:
  • Up: Dug's design is a little more cutesy and more consistent with the other cartoony-looking characters than the rest of the more photorealistic-looking dogs, especially in the eyes. This is used to easily distinguish Dug as a good dog from the rest of the Mook canines the Big Bad uses.
  • In the 1939 Max Fleischer film of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver is drawn in a more realistic manner (thanks to Rotoscoping) than the more cartoony Lilliputians.
    • Except the two love-interest Lilliputians, Prince David and Princess Glory, who are also rotoscoped, wrecking the otherwise nicely stylistic contrast.
  • Melman the giraffe for some reason, looks more cartoonish-looking than the realistically-drawn giraffes that inhabit Africa in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
  • The Fairy Prince's pet bumblebee from Thumbelina is for some reason drawn very realistically compared to the otherwise cartoonish-looking animals that appear in the film.
  • In Chirin no Suzu/The Ringing Bell, a cute, adorable little lamb becomes a monstrous ram that looks nothing like what he did as a kid or really any other sheep in the movie. It's Justified because of how he lived.

Films — Live-Action[]

  • Unusually for a highbrow live-action film, Akira Kurosawa's Ran includes two characters (Lord Ichimonji Hidetora and Lady Kaede) who are set apart by their Noh-inspired costume and makeup.
  • The villains in the French film Immortel are realistic CGI-- all other characters are played by live actors.


Literature[]

  • The eponymous character of The Little Engine that Could, for some reason, has her face drawn on her funnel instead of the smokebox unlike all the other locomotives in the book. Averted in the film adaptation however, where the "Shiny New Engine"'s face is drawn on his cockpit, the "Broken Down Engine"'s and the "Big Strong Engine"'s faces are both drawn on their smokeboxes, and the "Rusty Old Engine"'s face is also drawn on his funnel.
  • The title character of Clifford the Big Red Dog, in both the books and the cartoon, is the only character in the series that has visible sclerae.


Music Videos[]

  • Cherry, lead singer of the animated band Studio Killers is CG animated, while the rest of the band and other characters are all 2D.


Video Games[]

  • In Ace Attorney, both Mike Meekins and Spark Brushel stand out as cartoony compared to the rest of the cast.
    • In contrast to the bright colors and simple faces of everyone else, Detective Badd has drawn facial definition and much darker colors.
  • In Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, the Crossover with Professor Layton, Phoenix and Maya retain their typically manga style while the rest of the world is drawn mostly in the style of Professor Layton's universe. There are other characters drawn in an anime style, though.
    • If you think about it, Professor Layton himself looks a little creepy with his plain black cartoon eyes while everyone else around him has sclerae.
  • The Professor, his pet dog (who thinks it's a cat) Mochi, and his spaceship in Contact are in a Retraux pixel art style that's vastly different from everything else in the game.
  • In Disgaea, the few characters with above small breasts (the Nekomata, Succubus, and Jennifer) are significantly different looking because they were drawn by a different character designer (who did designs for earlier Nippon Ichi games).
    • Kurtis is also significantly different looking from the other characters, his design being based heavily on Jet Link. The Prinny commentary in the DS version actually makes a point of repeatedly mocking his nose.
    • Asagi was originally from Makai Kingdom before she started making appearances in the Disgaea series, so she had slightly different proportions than the rest of the cast. But this trope really came into play in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, where every character gets nice looking HD sprites...and Asagi's still pixilated! If you speak to her, a few of her quotes draw attention to this fact. A high-res version of her is free DLC, however. And the new Asagi will even talk about how nice it feels to be HD.
  • Kingdom Hearts, by virtue of being a crossover, features many different types of character designs in one universe. The toony Funny Animals from the Classic Disney Shorts, the less toony Disney Animated Canon characters, the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas who have more detailed textures due to their Stop Motion roots, the Anime-like Original and Final Fantasy characters, and the Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron casts, who are as close to photo-realistic depictions of their actors as the game engine will allow. The first four groups mesh pretty well, but the addition of the last group makes things pretty jarring.
    • In Birth by Sleep, instead of getting a design in Nomura's normal style but with bigger feet and brighter colors, which is standard for the Final Fantasy cameos, Zack Fair's design is heavily influenced by the style used in Hercules, while still retaining a Final Fantasy style face and hair.
  • Parajump, a video game in pre-production, has this as its main gimmick. Overlaps with Mars Needs Women in that the main character has a fetish for anime-eque characters.
  • Thanks to constantly reusing the same outdated sprites, Morrigan looks completely out-of-place in all of her 2D non-Darkstalkers appearances.
  • In Banjo-Tooie's Terrydacty Land level, some of the dinosaurs are done like realistic dinosaurs, so this trope comes to mind when the cartoony-looking Banjo and Kazooie are seen next to one. Best example would be the Chompa dinosaur that eats you.
  • In Super Mario RPG, Bonus Boss Culex is designed more like a Final Fantasy enemy than a Mario one, including being 2D instead of faux-3D like the rest of the game.
  • Another Mario example would be those realistic-looking grubs found in the "Gusty Garden Galaxy" level from Super Mario Galaxy (which can be used by Mario/Luigi as ladders to get from one planet to another there), which totally clashes with the series' art style especially when there are already Wigglers (cartoony grublike enemies that debuted in Super Mario World which get angry were Mario/Luigi were to stomp on them) found in that game.
  • It's not as if characters based off real actors is uncommon in the Metal Gear world, but the BB Corps in Metal Gear Solid 4 took it that one creepy step further by being digitally-scanned-in Serkis Folk, instead of completely digitally rendered like everyone else. While they look quite pretty on their own, if you don't look too closely, there's enough of a subtle anime influence to the faces of the rest of the cast that the proportions look subtly off in comparison, and their eyes in particular look completely dead. They'd all undergone heavy Mind Rape and were no longer either physically or psychologically entirely human, so this was very, very intentional.
  • In Pokémon Black and White, one of the gym leaders, Cilan, is a polite young man with green hair and... Skintone Sclerae, making him the first and probably only character in the entire franchise to have these. It looks rather creepy compared to everyone else.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising has Magnus, an old(er), muscled, bearded, deep-voiced, dark-clothed, BFS user. He completely (and intentionally) clashes with the rest of the game's aesthetic by looking noticeably less stylized (and by being the Anti!Pit in design).
  • Skullgirls has Peacock, who is drawn in a way similar to 30's cartoons while other characters have an Animesque design.
  • By Mega Man 6, the bosses have become more detailed (tricks are used to keep the same colors), while the hero still has the simplistic design he had in the first game. Once the series got off the NES, though, everyone got new sprites, and this was no longer the case.
  • While most of Borderlands is done in a Thick Line Animation style, the Guardian Angel is represented by live-action. Even with the heavy post-processing, it stands out rather starkly.


Web Comics[]


Web Original[]

  • The title character of Blockhead is drawn in a rather simplistic and cartoonish style while all other characters are drawn in a comparatively more realistic style.
  • While Homestar Runner really doesn't have a standard character design, Crack Stuntman is the only character to exist in the "real world" of the main characters that actually looks like a normal human being. He is also drawn in the style of the cartoon he voice acts for rather than the style of the main characters.
  • The characters of Potter Puppet Pals are naturally hand puppets. Except for Neville, who's a butternut squash on a stick, and Cedric Diggory, who is a face drawn on a foot.


Western Animation[]

  • Ace Ventura and The Mask stick out like a sore thumb when they crossover in each other's respective cartoon series.
  • The title characters of Beavis and Butthead, who have gigantic heads compared to the fairly realistic design of the other characters. This was lampshaded when the police showed a composite sketch depicting them as they would look like if they were drawn like everyone else.
  • The title character of Kappa Mikey is drawn in "American" style, with a thick black outline, while just about everything else is uses an Animesque style. This is because he's an American Animated Actors in Japan.
  • The first episode of the Krypto the Superdog cartoon has an appearance made by Superman, who's sporting his DCAU looks. This is in contrast to all the other characters, who are drawn in an art style reminiscent of Dennis the Menace or a classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
  • In the obscure cartoon Project G.e.e.K.e.R., the title character is drawn in a simpler and more cartoony style than the rest of the more realistic cast. Justified in that he's an artificial human with incredible shape-shifting abilities, and it's even Lampshaded a few times in the show (like when he tries to grow extra fingers on account he's the only character on the show with Four-Fingered Hands).
  • In South Park, Ike looks different from everyone else. This is explained because he is Canadian. Later on we see that Canadians are drawn like him. It is questionable whether or not this was planned from the beginning.
    • There are also a few characters whose heads are just taken from celebrity photos. A handful of examples include the Christina Aguilera monsters that Cartman sees in "Timmy 2000", Ben Affleck at the end of "How To Eat With Your Butt", Mr. Garrison after his nosejob in "Tom's Rhinoplasty", and of course, Saddam Hussein.
    • Iraqi and Iranian people were depicted in the Canadian character design template in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus". Subsequent episodes featured them in the normal character design, though the aforementioned Saddam Hussein retained the design as he debuted on the show in the same episode. Since Not Without My Anus is a Show Within a Show, the "Iraqi and Iranian people" were probably Canadian actors, and Saddam himself speaks in a heavy Canadian accent for no apparent reason this is probably due to Rule of Funny.
    • Also the band Korn in "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery". The band meant to be a parody of the Scooby Doo gang and aren't designed like South Park characters, but how they would be in a Hanna-Barbara cartoon.
    • In the episode "There Goes The Neighborhood" Aslan the lion is animated like he was in the animated film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from the 1970's.
  • Most of the cast of SpongeBob SquarePants are sea creatures, with the exception of the eponymous character himself, who's more or less an artificial dish sponge with arms and legs — even unlike his parents. It's unusual.
    • Also, Squidward doesn't look much like a squid at all, and Word of God is that, despite his name, he's actually an octopus. With six legs. So he's apparently a hexopus. (By the way, Word of God also says that sponge shape is genetic.)
    • The occasionally seen news reporter/anchor fish is a photograph of an actual fish.
    • In the later seasons there are plenty of characters who pretty much look like humans with odd skin colors and no noses.
  • Mom's assailants in the Angry Beavers episode The Mom from U.N.C.L.E. were depicted as relatively anatomically accurate humans with unusually heavy inking.
    • The Beavers' cousin in the episode Kreature Komforts is a photo-realistic beaver that acts like a beaver actually would, much to the annoyance of the protagonists.
  • In Undergrads most of the characters are relatively realistically drawn. Except gimpy, who has a lizard like face, one bulging discolored eye, and pretty much looks like a cartoon character that's been microwaved.
  • In The Mis Adventures of Flapjack, Flapjack, K'nuckles, and Bubby are drawn in a bit of a more cartoon-ish style than the rest of Stormalong Harbor.
  • Word of God states that Jet and his gang in Avatar: The Last Airbender were a stylistic departure compared to the other characters, much more closely resembling the style of Cowboy Bebop, but were kept because the creators loved the designs too much.
  • Penny on Inspector Gadget looked ridiculously more realistic than everyone else on the show, who had exaggerated cartoony features.
  • Twipsy draws a sharp distinction between humans, who're drawn in a style vaguely reminiscent of Rugrats, and AIs like the title character, who resemble nothing so much as Cubist portraits.
  • Mr. Stenchy is actually the only alien experiment from Lilo and Stitch: The Series to have sclerae and pupils instead of the solid black eyes his "cousins" (including Stitch) actually all have.
  • The title duo from Fanboy and Chum Chum are constructed more realistically and carefully than the rest of the characters. Especially prominent in this shot.
  • The Simpsons: God is actually the only character in the show to ever actually be drawn with five fingers on each hand, and five toes on each foot.
    • The Space Coyote in Homer's hallucination from "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (voiced by Johnny Cash) is drawn in a boxier style partially to resemble the style of coyotes in American Southwestern sand paintings.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Ahsoka Tano's facial markings for some reason look absolutely nothing like that of a normal Togruta's (compare her to Shaak Ti's).
  • Thomas the Tank Engine:
    • Similar to The Little Engine That Could example mentioned above, Jeremy Jet, for some reason, unlike all of the other mechanical characters in the show, has his face drawn on his cockpit while everyone else's are drawn either on their smokeboxes (most of the steam locomotives, Trevor, George, and Buster), their front panels (Toby, Spencer, Cranky, Colin, Kevin, Rocky, Harold, Daisy, Boco, Diesel 10, Elizabeth, Isabella, Madge, Derek, "the Diesel", Bulstrode, Thumper, Scruff, 199, and most of the rolling stock), or their grilles (Salty, Rusty, Diesel, 'Arry and Bert, Mavis, Splatter and Dodge, Den, Dart, Sidney, Norman, Paxton, Dennis, and most of the non-rail vehicles).
    • An earlier example would be the bee that stings James in the episode "Buzz Buzz." Just compare it with James.
    • The Troublesome Trucks in Season 1. In the first season they had their eyes and a mouth directly on their fronts, rather than a whole face.
  • The Warden from Superjail is far more cartoonish than every other character appearing, often distorting his body into shapes and having stretchy limbs.
  • In El Tigre, Frida's blue hair and goggles look like they would fit better on an Anime character...
  • The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" reveals, in a flashback, that Fluttershy as a filly resembled a real filly, compared to the others which are just smaller versions of their adult forms. Presumably, this was to illustrate what a late bloomer she was. Alternatively, it's to illustrate that she's older because she looks taller than the others.
    • Princesses Celestia and Luna have longer legs, necks and snouts than normal (also more closely resembling real life horses), are huge compared to everypony else (Luna is easily twice the height of other mares, and Celestia is even larger with an appropriately enormous wingspan), and their manes are long, constantly flowing and contain thematically-relevant patterns (aurora and stars, respectively). All of this is to illustrate their nature as Physical Goddesses.
      • A background pony in "Sweet and Elite" is based off of Princess Celestia's body model rather than a regular pony's. Wild Mass Guessing ensued.
    • The Flim Flam Brothers have a much more elongated design than other ponies, with lengthier limbs, faces and sharper horns.
    • In the episode "Dragon Quest", the Paper-Thin Disguise adopted by the ponies following Spike is accepted by the teen dragons because it looks identical to a dragon named Crackle. Unlike most dragons, which are slender, streamlined, and elongated, Crackle is squat, rotund, Gem-Encrusted, and has eight legs.
    • In "Hurricane Fluttershy", a Recurring Extra is an abnormally muscular white pegasus, complete with a large muzzle and defined hooves (and small wings, almost immediately leading to jokes about steroid abuse).
    • In "Ponyville Confidential", a pegasus colt named Featherweight has rather skinny legs and big eyes compared to the rest of the ponies in the school.
  • In the show Dinosaur Train, all of the younger dinosaurs are drawn in a more cartoony manner, while all of the adult dinosaurs are drawn more realistically.
  • The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Zoobotnik" featured Katella the bounty huntress who was drawn more human like than the rest of the humanoid characters.
  • The Powerpuff Girls, besides lacking hands, feet, or noses, are drawn with a focus on curves rather than the heavily angular designs of most other character to make them stand out even more. There is one episode that shows what they would look like if they had been born as normal little girls, but those designs still seem... off.
  • Unlike the other Animaniacs characters (even Slappy Squirrel), the Warner Sibs from have designs that look rather like those of inkblot style characters of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their eyes look more Animesque/inkblot-esque than other character's eyes and their ears look more like less crooked Shadow Heartless antennae with rounded tips than like cat or dog ears of any sort. This because they were first drawn around that era, but proved too wild for audiences of the time, so they had to be locked away in the water tower.
  • The Loparts in Handy Manny have smaller pupils than the other human characters in the show.
  • Queen La from The Legend of Tarzan looks nothing like the characters from the Disney film Tarzan and looks more like a character from Atlantis: The Lost Empire instead. Justified, if you consider La's true heritage.
  • In the Yoohoo & Friends cartoon, the titular characters look like they should be in a completely different show from the supporting characters.
  • Megatron, Shockwave, and the Predacons in Transformers Prime have notably less kibble heavy designs that the rest of the Cybertronian cast. Considering that Optimus and Soundwave had similar designs in the flashback to pre-war Cybertron, it seems a result of retaining a Cybertronian alternate mode.
  • Aquamarine and Spinel in Steven Universe have noticeably more cartoony designs compared to the rest of their realistically designed species.
  • Finn in Adventure Time is The Noseless compared to the rest of his species. Word of God suggested that this was due to the effects of the Mushroom Bomb.