

I've noticed that, in a number of different anime, photographs of people who
have died appear with the face whited out, generally by reflections of light.
Is there a tradition behind this? Is there a cultural reason for this, or is
it just laziness to keep from having to animate a character who would only be
drawn once?

![Hohenheim](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wm3ur.png)

![Pretear](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lZaRim.png)


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2013-06-01T01:50:53.203
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2013-06-01T11:07:23.817
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question
tropes culture
Why are the faces of dead people whited-out in photographs?


I exclude the laziness hypothesis. This is a deliberate omission of a relevant
information by the narrator. This is the case of an [unreliable
narrator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator) that was keeping
herself a key fact for narration purposes. These lines about to Agatha
Christie's novels from the cited Wikipedia article can apply to this type of
trope too:

> the narrator hides essential truths in the text (mainly through evasion,
> omission, and obfuscation) without ever overtly lying [...] even a first-
> person narrator might hide essential information and deliberately mislead
> the reader in order to preserve the surprise ending

The first image you've cited from Fullmetal Alchemist actually doesn't hide
all faces. The mother, dead too, is clearly visible in the photo, only the
father's face is obfuscated. So the criteria to hide a particular face is not
related to the fact that a person is dead but to the role the obfuscated
character has in the story.

I.e. in Bakuman the Mashiro's uncle's face is clearly visible at the funeral,
because the narrator has interest to inform the reader about why Mashiro is
reluctant about being mangaka and, later, to motivate him in front of the
reader. In Another, on the contrary, a certain character's face at the funeral
is not showed until the author discloses who is dead.


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