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All-Encompassing Mantle - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue Nov 18 2008

All-Encompassing Mantle (trope)

A cloak that goes all the way around the body like a tube, with only a single slit down the front to permit mobility. It will sometimes exceed the wearer's height and have a significant portion dragging on the floor, although it usually cuts off at precisely floor level.

Often worn by characters of great power and authority, this particular garment tends to make the wearer seem more mysterious because others cannot tell what his or her body looks like under all the cloth when it is closed. Normal capes may sometimes be drawn as mantles for dramatic effect.

Occasionally, two-bit characters may wear such mantles in order to "feel big", but Rule of Funny dictates that they will suffer from all the disadvantages that such an item would have in Real Life (such as tripping, catching on stuff, sheer weight, etc). Bonus points if they actually "borrow" one from someone who deserves to wear it.

This type of mantle sometimes comes with an attached hood in order to cover the head as well as the body. Ladies wearing a mantle and nothing else are an uncommon form of Fanservice. Compare with the less encompassing Badass Long Robe.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

  • The main villain of the anime Majinden wore a all-encompassing blue cloak... and nothing else.
  • J Sawaragi in Battle Spirits Shonen Toppa Bashin wears one. The way it drapes over him makes it look near impractical.
  • Grand Convoy of Beast Wars Neo IS one of these. Seriously. His body is NEVER shown, just the mantle.
  • Guts from Berserk uses this, along with a hood. As does Void of the Godhand. ...it's probably for the best.
  • Bleach: Kurosaki Ichigo's Skywalker Cloak was like this.
  • Boogiepop Phantom: Boogiepop wears one of these, with matching hat.
  • Zero in Code Geass wears a Badass Cape that gets occasionally wrapped around his body like a tube, so he can unwrap it with his dramatic gestures.
  • Occurred in Dragon Ball Z, first with Piccolo, then with Gohan, who was imitating Piccolo.
  • Il Palazzo from Excel♡Saga was initially drawn like this, but as time went on his mantle stopped being tubed-shaped and became more like a traditional cape.
  • The scientists from Fantastic Children wore these at one point.
  • Both Raoh and Souther in Fist of the North Star wear this, being conquerors and all.
  • In Getter Robo Armageddon, Getter-1 and Black Getter's Getter Wing doubles as this as it will tend to wrap it around itself.
  • Ko-Enshaku, from Giant Robo, pulls this look off. Many scenes have him appear to be nothing but a cape and mask. One of the gag-OVAs explores this, showing him winning a drinking contest because the drinks go straight through him.
  • The Cure Mantles of Heart Catch Pretty Cure certainly count - long, flowing capes that enable the heroines of the series to fly (even into outer space!). And with one exception, they're all the Weasel Mascot partners.
  • Gundam:
    • Mobile Fighter G Gundam:
      • More than half the time Domon Kasshu is outside of his Gundam, he's wearing his red mantle. In the finale, it's even shown that he keeps it in his cockpit during battle when he catches Rain as she shoots through the air naked and wraps her up in it. It then magically turns into a dress.
      • The Master Gundam can turn its wings into a large imposing cloak. However, it seems to only use it during dramatic moments, as it looks like it could not move properly with it on.
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Sandrock Custom has an armored mantle that attaches to the shoulders via extra armor; we only see it used as a re-entry shield, Quatre ejecting it shortly after he arrives on Earth (presumably to keep it from hampering Sandrock's movement).
    • Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam's eponymous Caped Mecha justifies this: they have mantles that are specially treated to resist damage from Energy Weapons, giving them a cheap and energy-efficient form of defense.
  • Fumikage 'Tsukuyomi' Tokoyami, the bird-headed student in My Hero Academia wears one that allows his Living Shadow superpower a dark place to stay, as it becomes weaker and more timid in bright light.
  • The Torumekians/Tolmekians in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind have this sort of cape, with a rather nifty-looking metal shoulderpiece.
    • In the case of the princess, this also helps cover up her missing limbs.
  • Tsuna's box weapon in Reborn! (2004) can transform into one that is derived from Vongola Primo's own mantle that protects him from attacks. And it makes him look cool the first time he shows it.
  • Fakir wears one of these (complete with hood and a mask) in episode 8 of Princess Tutu.
  • Rurouni Kenshin: Kenshin's master wears such a mantle — it doubles as an identifying feature of a legitimate heir of the Hiten Mitsuryuu sword style and its weighted springs help the wearer develop the physique necessary to pull off the style's high-flying moves without undue harm to the body. Amusingly, Kenshin himself can't even stand in it. The not-so-amusing implications this has for his body result in him having to abandon the style by the end of the series.
  • Slayers: Rezo the Red Priest wears this complete with Shoulders of Doom.
  • Folken sports this in The Vision of Escaflowne. Also, Zaibach Guymelefs have cloaks that can be wrapped around the body like this to serve as a literal Invisibility Cloak.
  • Happened a lot with the Juraians in Tenchi Muyo!.
  • Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-: Syaoran has/had a rather over-long ragged-edged one◊ as part of his clothes when he started out on that insane journey.
  • Voltes V: Prince Heinel's thick, fur coat mantle trails from his shoulders to the floor in a cape-like manner. When he discards it, you know he means Serious Business. See here.

Comic Books 

  • Batman: Batman's cape and cowl◊ join together to create this look; he flips the cape out of the way when he needs to use his arms and lets it drape for effect.
    • They had to give Bats a shoulder-fastened cape in the movies to accommodate the fight choreography; it's easy to make it this and stay where you want it to if it's drawn on paper, but it gets in the way during live-action fighting.
    • One of the many Batman: The Dark Knight Returns parodies of the '80s had Alfred ask "Shall I fetch the posing cape, or the fighting cape sir?" as a lampshade.
    • After taking up the Red Robin name Tim adopts a cowl and larger cape, in order to make it a glider cape, which can wrap around him when drawn closed.
    • Batman villain Anarky's debut costume had such a cloak, partly to hide that he was a 13-year-old boy wearing prosthetics to appear taller.
  • Black Panther: The Black Panther uses his cape (a formal add-on that he doesn't always include with his outfit) as a makeshift parachute, then gets asked by NYPD Sgt. Tork "How do you even move in that thing?" His reply: "Like this," after which he touches the clasp, causing the cloak to retract to shoulder mantle length.
  • Cloak and Dagger (Marvel Comics): Cloak has one, complete with hood. When it isn't encompassing people whole into a pocket dimension of darkness, it wafts around him looking menacing and dramatic.
  • The Phantom Stranger: The Phantom Stranger—The DCU's most mysterious character—wears a black cloak that wraps around his body when he is at rest, paired with a Fedora of Asskicking that leaves his Face Framed in Shadow.
  • Scion: Bron and Mai Shen wear them.
  • Spawn: Spawn's cloak often wraps around his body, with the tattered hem functioning as Combat Tentacles. A more justified example than normal in that the cloak is alive, and can arrange itself to look menacing, or keep itself out of the way for action.
  • Spider-Woman: The Shroud has a full body cloak, which along with his Darkforce projection abilities, allow him to blend into the darkness.

Fan Works 

  • In The Night Unfurls, Olga wears a rich dark cloak that covers her lean form, though according to the official artwork of Kuroinu, the fabric is heavily slitted, such that she is covered in long, thick strips.

Film — Animation 

  • Hotel Transylvania: Drac does this frequently with his cape when he wants to look menacing. Later in the movie, Mavis makes one for herself as well.

Film — Live Action 

  • The Dark Knight lampshades the comic book behavior of Batman's cape by introducing memory fabric that can extend, retract, stiffen or relax in response to electrical stimuli. The material was supposedly intended for making high-end wingsuits but ended up being too expensive to be marketable.
  • Star Wars:
    • The Empire gives these to higher-ups such as Imperial Guards and of course, Darth Vader himself.
    • One Imperial Guard who got his own set of comics, Kir Kanos, tended to throw his overrobe back so it was more of a cape, showing off his armor.
    • General Grievous has it in his culture to wear these. He makes his bodyguards wear them, too.

Literature 

  • The Cloak of Invisibility from the Harry Potter series could cover the wearer's entire body and was also rather large.

Live-Action TV 

  • In Charmed (1998), Cole wears one of these for his reluctant ascension to The Source. When the demon priest asks him how it feels he simply comments "Heavy".
  • In Frank Herbert's Dune, the Spacing Guild representatives wear purple velvet-ish capes. However, these just keep going up and up into giant purple velvet-ish cones.
  • Ultra Series: The Ultra Brothersnote  wear the eponymous "Brother's Mantle" as a sign of their power and status among the other denizens of the Land of Light.

Roleplays 

Professional Wrestling 

  • Sheamus' outfit in the WWE after he became King of the Ring in 2010 and proclaimed himself King Sheamus.

Video Games 

  • ANNO: Mutationem: The Elder leading the Outcasts beneath Freeway 42 wears a fully covered mantle to encompass his whole body with red wiring surrounding it.
  • In Alpha Protocol, the Big Bad of the Taipei mission wears one, until your boss fight with him, at which point The Coat Comes Off.
  • Bug Fables:
    • Leif the moth wears his wings around his body in a way that is reminiscent of mantle. He mentions that his father used to do the same, and his descendant in the Ant Kingdom also shares this quirk.
    • Wasp King wears a regal mantle that completely envelops his body, which hides the fact that he's not an actual wasp, but a wasp-mimic fly.
  • Magus in Chrono Trigger wears one, flung back dramatically when casting a spell.
  • Concept art for City of Villains had Mu Adepts and Guardians enveloped in these. Technical limitations mean that in-game, they wear a back-and-front pair of capes.
  • Male Sages in Dragon Quest III have one, which reappears in Dragon Quest IX as the Cape of Good Karma.
  • Vincent Valentine of Final Fantasy VII is known for his tattered red cloak. Exaggerated in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where he is shown in one sequence as only being a cloak, which was apparently a new ability he picked up.
  • General Baal in Grandia wears one, which hides his Combat Tentacles.
  • Meta Knight from Kirby series tends to stand around like this when he's not sporting Cape Wings.
  • Amon in the Lufia series wears a absurdly massive mantle, usually gold. In Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals his character portrait takes up damn near the entire screen because of it.
  • Lunar:
    • Lucia and Ghaleon wear them in Lunar: Eternal Blue. Lucia's is so distinctive that the other characters insist that she pick out a different outfit in order to blend in better. And Ghaleon's is +5 to Awesomeness.
    • Ghaleon gets another one of these added to his wardrobe in Lunar: The Silver Star...giving him twice as many costumes as any other character in the game.
  • Bass from Mega Man Battle Network wear a brown cloak covering his body, it only comes off when he's using his full power.
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: Solidus first appears with a full mantle that he discards to unveil his Powered Armor.
  • Jackle from NiGHTS into Dreams…. His battle music is even titled "The Mantle". Of course, he is pretty much all mantle, along with disembodied hands, feet, and a horned hat-thing with floating eyes and Cheshire Cat-like grin.
  • Glukkons in the Oddworld games have all-encompassing suit jackets, in order to conceal the fact that their bodies and legs are largely vestigial, and they walk on their oversized hands and arms.
  • The wizard Rune wears one of these in Phantasy Star IV.
  • In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Ancient Minister has one, disguising his identity as R.O.B.
  • In Syndicate, Zealots of the Church of the New Epoch wear massive white mantles with brown shoulderpieces and hoods. Justified in how all they possibly hide an inhumanly robotic body - the running animation reveals hoverjets of some sort.
  • Dhaos of Tales of Phantasia wears an orange one with a yellow pattern at the bottom.
  • In V Rising, Dubley Farmlands, the second area, has a large number of people walking the roads in hooded cloaks that complely obscure their features. Most of them are human, but one of them is Bane the Shadowblade, an undead Stealth Expert. Killing him unlocks an identical human form that your vampire can use to sneak into human settlements for trade or to scope out potential victims.
  • World of Warcraft:
  • In Yo-Jin-Bo, Bo's cape covers most of his body, except for that strip of bare chest that his kimono can't seem to cover, either.

Webcomics 

Western Animation 

  • Batman cartoons:
    • In Batman: The Animated Series, like in the comics, Batman usually has his cape fully cloaking his body, looking really creepy when he pops out of the shadows in his own way. The artists even had pencil drawings to specifically show how the cape should look and how Batman should move like this. (The drawings also noted that they cheat: the cape magically becomes shorter in fight scenes to stop it getting in the way.)
    • In The Batman (2004), Batman has a cape that's significantly longer than his body, meaning it drapes dramatically all the time — but, like his predecessor, only when convenient.
  • Beast Machines has Megatron use his wings as this while he's attached to his control harness.
  • Ben 10: Alien Force: Big Chill's wings turn into one of these.
  • The title characters in Gargoyles sometimes achieve the same effect by wrapping their wings around their shoulders.
  • The Owl House: Hunter's cloak is shown like this in his first appearance, hiding any hint as to what he looks like underneath. It's implied this is done on Belos' orders to hide to others how his right-hand man always has a similar appearance to each other, despite being different people.
  • Master Cyclonis from Storm Hawks wears one, but it has slits down the sides instead, allowing her to use her arms. She tends to remove it entirely when she's about to get in a physical confrontation regardless.
  • Raven from Teen Titans (2003) has one of these. Under normal circumstances, it's ankle-length. When she uses her dark magic, it — and her — can become much larger.
  • In ThunderCats (2011), Jaga's Clerics wear these as part of their Full Body Disguises.