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Even a thin mustache or a small beard can make a world of difference in how someone looks. This is true in anime as it is in real life, if not more so. Some characters don more facial hair as a disguise, some because they want to change the way they look, and some characters simply find themselves in a situation where they lose access to shaving tools and have to let nature take its course.
With some characters, fans are so used to seeing them clean-shaven that it’s surprising to see them with facial hair. For other characters, it can be the opposite. Because anime is limited to whatever the artists can imagine, the differences a beard or mustache can have on a person’s face can be quite exaggerated compared to real life, with characters even having a new face to go along with the new facial hair.
10 Attack On Titan: Eren Sports Facial Hair While Posing As An Injured Soldier
In the world of Attack on Titan, it’s quite common to see a character sprout facial hair after a traumatic incident, as seen with Erwin Smith and Reiner, which is expected when humankind regularly risks being eaten alive.
Eren Yeager takes advantage of this when he disguises himself as an injured soldier. His stumbling gait combined with the longer hair help him pass off the look and allows people to believe his stories. His father Grisha could be seen at times with a similar thin beard and mustache, which became significantly thicker in his Attack Titan form.
9 Dragon Ball Super: Goku & Vegeta Get Facial Hair In Isolation
During Dragon Ball Super, Goku and Vegeta manage to grow facial hair at one point while they’re both in isolation. It’s been noted that, with the addition of some facial hair, Vegeta looks a lot like his father, King Vegeta. While fans already had a taste of what Vegeta would look like with a beard, many of them were genuinely shocked to see Goku sporting one.
8 Lupin III: Lupin Gets A Beard In A Complicated Plan To Escape Prison
The titular hero of Lupin III is a master thief, much like his famous namesake and grandfather, and so it makes sense he would eventually find himself in prison, albeit by turning himself into Inspector Zenigata.
While there, he plans his own escape, going so far as to refuse help. Despite this, his plan involves waiting around two years, meaning he’s grown quite a beard during the time skip. Facial hair even helps him pass himself off as a priest.
7 Monster: Kenzo Tenma Gives Up On Caring About His Appearance
Life used to be so simple for Kenzo Tenma, an accomplished doctor. Then things fell apart after he saved a child at the cost of not being able to treat a mayor in time, sparking a series of unfortunate events starting with him getting demoted and ending with him being accused of murder. Like a modern-day Frankenstein, Tenma might have created the monster behind the deaths.
In the series, Tenma eventually ceases to care for his appearance, allowing his beard and hair to become unkempt. Other characters even complain about his smell.
6 Black Clover: Dante Zogratis Was Clean-Shaven During His Time In The Military
Fans normally think of Dante Zogratis with some facial hair; while not too drastic, he has a pencil mustache and a goatee.
However, during his time in the military, he was shown to be outright clean-shaven, making him nearly unrecognizable for some fans. He also lacks his distinctive forehead mark, which is itself a reference to the Newtonian Apple from Hungry Joker.
5 Fist Of The North Star: Kenshiro Goes Back & Forth On His Beard
Kenshiro first adopted a beard in the 1986 film, set after his loss to Shin but before he encounters Bat and Lin. He later shaves it using a knife.
But this wouldn’t be the last time he sported facial hair: he also has a beard at the beginning of the second series. Once again, he shaves it after he starts fighting again.
4 Pokémon: Flint Wears A Beard As A Disguise
Many men get a beard the old-fashioned way, but when they need to get a disguise in a pinch, or if they just can’t grow one, fake facial hair can work wonders, as seen in early episodes of Pokémon. When Ash first meets Brock, he encounters a mysterious stranger who divulges Brock’s backstory: after both of his parents left home, he was tasked with taking care of his younger brothers and sisters. Depending on the dub, his mother was either dead or away from home, too.
At the end of the story, the mysterious stranger not only turns out to be Brock’s long-lost father, but once he ditches his hat and fake beard, he turns out to look like an older version of Brock underneath it all, complete with perpetually closed eyes.
3 One Piece: Concept Pieces Show Luffy With Facial Hair
In the One Piece anime, Luffy isn’t above wearing a fake beard as a disguise, but this brings up the question if he is able to grow one of his own, given enough time.
Some fans think Luffy might not be able to grow facial hair because of his Devil Fruit powers. That said, the series creator Eiichiro Oda has designed older versions of Luffy with facial hair. In his later years, he’s also expected to develop a beard and mustache.
2 Candy Candy: This Is The Reason Candy Doesn’t Recognize Her Prince
In Candy Candy, Candy meets her mysterious benefactor Albert in different forms over the years, from her “Prince of the Hill” to the not quite unseen “Uncle William.” Despite meeting up with him throughout the series, she never realizes the free-spirited man she befriended is also two very important people in her life — all because he has a beard at the time, while he was clean-shaven when they first met.
Funnily enough, upon first seeing Albert with his beard, she actually mistakes him for a bear.
1 Sailor Moon: Rei’s Grandfather Is Virtually Two Different Characters, And One Difference Is A Mustache
Unlike many characters who simply gain or lose facial hair thanks to the passage of time, Rei’s grandfather from Sailor Moon looks different because of a drastic difference in design between mediums. The ’90s anime portrayed him as short, bald, clean-shaven, rather aged, and with a unibrow. In the original manga, he’s quite tall and appears younger by comparison, with a full head of hair and a mustache. As some fans noted, his original manga design might have also been reused for the ’90s anime-exclusive character Kengo Ibuki, Rei’s cousin.
Some fans think this discrepancy is why some adaptations end up cutting him from the story entirely. It isn’t clear if he still exists in the live-action show and he didn’t appear in the early episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal, although he eventually appeared in the first Eternal movie, looking like his manga counterpart.
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