No Nudity Taboo/Sandbox



""What I want to know is what is so wrong with my body that nobody wants to see it?!""

- Grace, El Goonish Shive

A character with no taboo about nudity and being seen while nude. While rarely seen walking around the streets 24x7 in the altogether, a character without a nudity taboo will, by definition, have no qualms about being seen in the nude or undressing when they feel comfortable doing so -- and they often feel comfortable doing so in places that most others would consider wildly inappropriate.

The character themselves will have no lewd thoughts in mind when undressing or exposing themselves -- in fact, without a nudity taboo, the very idea that someone could have lewd thoughts over mere nudity usually comes as a bit of a shock.

Varying levels of understanding (or the lack thereof) can come into play -- a character may be anywhere along the spectrum from completely oblivious to the very concept of clothing all the way to understanding that other people wear clothing and are ashamed at nudity, but being unable to grasp why.

Similarly, characters can generally have wildly different reactions to having the nudity taboo explained to them -- they may have severe trouble grasping the very idea of being ashamed at nudity, they may understand it but not agree with it, or they may reject the idea outright (often citing cultural reasons for this reaction).

Typically a character with No Nudity Taboo will grow into a character who believes in Casual Nudity, often in private or amongst open minded friends. A character outright gaining a taboo about Nudity after the fact is rare; more often they simply learn where it is appropriate to be nude (and how much they have to cover when they do dress).

A common justification is that the character is ostensibly inhuman enough to supposedly not need clothing, like the Zora of the Zelda games, certain Furries or Weres (with or without Non-Mammal Mammaries), or of course, practically any kind of pixie. This subtype is so overwhelmingly commonplace with these inhuman characters that it usually does not come into play at all, making it an Averted Trope.

...Until they change shape into a human body for a while, that is. At that point, the character's penchant for nudity is a very serious problem that must be addressed, immediately.

In a more meta sense, this trope is also frequently used to reveal that the character has an entirely different, unusual mindset:


 * The Emotionless Girl and Robot Girl may genuinely not understand what everyone's getting upset about. (Showing a lack of humanity.)
 * Raised by Wolves and Raised by Natives characters will simply not understand why nudity is a problem for everyone else. (Showing a lack of civilization.)
 * The Green-Skinned Space Babe may feel that people with a nudity taboo are backwards and primative. (Showing that her culture has Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions.)
 * Alternately, if the Green-Skinned Space Babe is not of the OSSS variety, her people may have a different form of modesty. (Showing a lack of cultural awareness.)
 * The local goddess-avatar might not fully understand why this "nudity" thing is getting in the way of proper worship, but it had better stop. (Showing arrogance and a inhuman set of priorities.)
 * The Sugar and Ice Girl and Genki Girl might not understand why the Unlucky Childhood Friend is getting upset -- after all, they've been together for years, right? (Showing how close she considers the main character.)
 * As a common evolution of this sub-trope, the first outward symptom of a growing attraction or romantic awareness is when she does start caring that he is watching, or when he begins to become flustered.

Special mention goes to "Feral Children" stories -- Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan being the biggest ones here, where a character is raised in a situation where they simply don't learn human body shame. In these cases, the taboo is simply never learned in the first place, the nudity is depicted for realism or for other reasons necessary for carrying the story, and neither Fan Service nor Freud are anywhere in sight. (Until Disney or or other adaptors make them randomly decide to wear a loin cloth, for obvious reasons.)

A subtrope of Casual Nudity. See also: Naked People Are Funny, Please Put Some Clothes On, Wild Child, National Geographic Nudity, Exposed Extraterrestrials.

Anime & Manga

 * Ranma ½: A monkey tossed into the Spring of Drowned Girl comes out as a naked girl who looks almost exactly like female Ranma. She, being a monkey and having no knowledge of any nudity taboo, is unashamed of her unclothed state. Her nakedness causes some difficulties for the prince who did the tossing, resulting in him suffering a Gender Bender himself -- and getting stuck in female form.
 * Ren in the anime DearS starts out uncomprehending and only gains a partial understanding of it: "I'm not naked, I'm wearing an apron!"
 * Haruhi Suzumiya, having "no interest in ordinary humans," is perfectly willing to start changing with boys in the room, and Kyon compares this to a typical girl not having a problem changing in the same room as potatoes. This becomes a plot point: when she refuses to undress in the same room as Kyon, it's a sign that she's developing feelings for him.
 * Amuro Ninagawa of Umisho, who has no shame around someone she likes. Swimming naked is a hobby, and she considers taking a shower to be using a garden hose in the backyard of the male lead.
 * Parodied and gender-reversed in, of course, Galaxy Angel. Ranpha's unsolicited android "boyfriend" comes shipped to the space station naked, and has no intention of putting on clothes. Ranpha finally forces him into one of her own dresses, and when that doesn't work out, she steals a suit of Volcott's.
 * Both personalities of diclonius Lucy/Nyu from Elfen Lied, though the show alternates this character trait from deeply disconcerting Fan Disservice, to genuine Fan Service. The Nyu personality lacks an aversion towards nudity because of her innocent and blissful ignorance of any such social taboos (due to amnesia), while the Lucy personality lacks such an aversion . In fact, almost every diclonius on the show is an example, despite nearly all of them being young children, though most of them aren't exactly innocent. Considering the nudity is almost invariably accompanied by copious amounts of gore, it ends up as Fan Disservice.
 * Lala from To Love Ru has no qualms about walking around naked. Her excuse is that as a princess, she's always had servants help her bathe, dress, etc. so she's used to being nude around other people. It's important to note that other people of her race (including her family members) do not seem to share this lack of a nudity taboo.
 * Hikari from This Ugly Yet Beautiful World unzips the jacket Takeru gives her upon meeting her, prompting him to rezip it. Her sister Akari is a little better, stealing a sun dress as her only clothing before she joins Ryou's family.
 * In Zeta Gundam, Rosamia Badam (due to Fake Memories implanted in her through the process that made her an Artificial Newtype) had some, well, trouble keeping her shirt on when the AEUG doctors check on her, much to Fa Yuiry's despair and Kamille's embarrassment.
 * Late in Love Hina, the girls try to cheer Keitaro up in the hot springs, which Kei initially thinks is going to be a trap to get him to peep at naked girls again. Though the plan had everyone in bikinis, foreigner Nyamo doesn't get it and is completely nude.
 * In Kamisama Kazoku, protagonist Samataro's goddess mom is the Innocent Fanservice Girl, shamelessly mixing it up with a deep affection for her son that adds to the Oedipus Rex plot of the series. She goes so far as to fall asleep in her son's bed nude and he wakes her up to chastise her, she is completely unashamed about it.
 * Psycho Busters has Ayano. And it doesn't help that her teammates are all guys.
 * Choko of Chocotto Sister can behave this way at times. Especially early in the story where she sincerely believed a Hadaka Apron was something sisters were supposed to wear for their brothers.
 * This happens frequently with Goku in the Dragon Ball series. Having been raised in the woods with the only other human he'd ever seen being his adoptive grandfather, the social taboos against nudity don't occur to him, so quite often he'll end up having his clothes destroyed, and not understand why everyone else is so concerned about him being naked.
 * Aisha from Genesis Climber Mospeada in at least two episodes of the series. During the fortress siege episode, Yellow rather poetically explains it as her being too innocent of the ways of the world to have a concept of modesty.
 * Mikiri in Change 123. Having the mind of a Cheerful Child, she sees nothing wrong in answering the door wearing nothing but panties and a towel casually thrown over her breasts.
 * Chii from Chobits is a good example, specifically in the manga. It was a constant source of torment for Hideki, especially when she attempts to buy panties (even with her imperfect understanding of what panties are).
 * Thanks to being an Emotionless Guy due to a missing heart, Mytho from Princess Tutu spends a lot of the first season wandering around in nothing but a long, baggy loose shirt.
 * Night Tenjo from Absolute Boyfriend is another rare male example, being basically an android sex doll he assumes his lover will want to see him naked and is programmed to enjoy being naked. Riiko has to explain to him that stripping off quite so often is considered at least a bit unusual.
 * Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion. When she and Shinji first meet outside public, she's naked, he accidently falls on her, and she is more so annoyed by the fact that he fell on her.
 * Professor Kiyama Harumi from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun has no hang ups about removing her clothes in the middle of the street for flimsy reasons.
 * Tima of Osamu Tezukas Metropolis frequently runs around with no pants, or even underwear for much of the movie, and makes no effort to hide this, but nobody seems to notice.
 * Eureka ended up naked in front of Renton in the Eureka Seven movie ending which symbolises her rebirth. She showed no shame or anger of being naked due to her mind being reduced to that of an infant when she is reborn, but she does constantly cover her chest area.
 * Mokuren in Please Save My Earth has her shower interrupted by Shion, who needs to update her security card. She lets him into her quarters, and searches frantically around the room for her security card, in the nude. This is because Mokuren was raised as a nudist. When she discovers her mistake she's embarrassed; not because Shion saw her naked, but because she embarrassed him.
 * The Eponymous Nuku Nuku. Since she has the brain of a cat and an android body, she qualifies for both the Robot Girl and Raised by Wolves subtypes.
 * Lacus Clyne from Gundam Seed initially appeared to be this when pretended to be a Cloudcuckoolander.
 * Isma from Berserk has no compunctions with walking around nude in public.
 * Deconstructed in the case of Casca, who suffers enough Clothing Damage in the series as it is. After being stripped of her person-hood in a very heinous way and having her mind regress to that of a child, Casca also shows no compunctions about being naked - so long as someone isn't intending on having his way with her, which seems to be the only time that Casca has any memory of her past. However, her current state of being has also been presented as a problem when it comes to Guts, who is still very much in love with - and sexually attracted to - Casca after all that has happened. His Enemy Within KNOWS this and tries to take advantage of his male urges whenever he sees Casca indecent - and one time, it almost worked.