Artificial Human

Biological, but unnaturally created humans, ranging from "biological robot" to "clone".

Anime sometimes uses the term "android" for them, in a way different than the West. Ironically, this is closer to the original meaning, which according to the dictionary, is "An automaton that is created from biological materials and resembles a human" (Often in these cases, the term "Bioroid" may be used to classify them separately from the contemporary definition of Android).

The important thing is Artificial Humans look like humans, they move like them, etc. Some may be bullet proof, but you wouldn't be able to tell from touch. Sometimes the only physical indicator is eye-color, which may be red, yellow or purple, or an unusual skin/hair pigment. Not always, though, and given the range of eye and hair color in anime, it's not a perfect indicator.

Artificial Humans often have cognitive traits typical of a robot, such as mathematical skill and a perfect memory on the positive side, and uncreativity and excessive literal-mindedness on the negative side. Many of them also have the same kind of loyalty to their creators that robots tend to be programmed for—although A.I. Is a Crapshoot in the case of the Artificial Human just as it is when it comes to the electronic version of artificial intelligence.

But many of them have more in common with humans emotionally than robots. They are often outsiders, so their emotional states are often in the "angst" category, which leads to bonding with the kind-hearted hero(ine) or Kill All Humans. If in a society that fully accepts them, there is usually no emotional difference.

Like robots outside anime, it doesn't matter what they're created for, they'll usually have increased strength, speed, and other powers. See Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids.

Note that the very first use of the word "robot" in fiction, the eponymous "robots" from Karel Capek's RUR (for Rossum's Universal Robots), were actually Artificial Humans and not the clanking metal humanoids we now associate with that term. Actual clanking metal humanoids do go back to the Greek myth of Talos in the 5th century BCE, but that's another trope.

Just like most robotic characters, Artificial Humans tend to Become a Real Boy over the course of the plot. Mechanical Evolution is often invoked in their origins.

See also Creating Life, Robot Girl and Spaceship Girl. Compare Ridiculously Human Robot. Contrast Forgot He Was a Robot.

Examples of Artificial Human include:

Anime and Manga

  • The Mibu Tribe in Samurai Deeper Kyo.
  • In Bleach, there are a few examples. Mayuri's "daughter", Nemu. Then there are the modsouls. And there are some fan theories that Ururu and Jinta are artificial people as well.
  • It is harder to find people who weren't artificially created in the Blame! 'verse.
  • Some types of "androids" such as Mahoro from Mahoromatic or Ifurita from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World seem rather biological in nature.
  • Dragonball Z has Cell, who couldn't be called a human by any means, was a manufactured organism engineered by Dr. Gero by taking genes from each of the Z fighters.
    • A straighter example would be the 8-20 series of Artificial Humans Gero created/developed before Cell. However, #17, #18 and #20 (who was Gero himself) were cyborgs.
    • That's right, #17 and #18 were normal human twins until Gero messed with them. That's why #18 and Krillin could have a kid so easily. It's not obvious in the English dub because the Japanese word meaning "artificial human", used for both Gero's robots and Gero's cyborgs, was translated as "Android". #16 and #19 are robots.
      • It's worth noting that #20 (Gero) isn't a cyborg in the same sense of #17 and #18. #20 is actually a entirely robotic construct, the same type as #19, except with Gero's brain in a jar... in #20's head.
  • Burst Angel: Jo and Marion were designed by the rival syndicate to be the "ultimate battle angels".
  • Key the Metal Idol claimed to be an android, although her exact nature isn't revealed until much later.
  • Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo! was grown from a test-tube by Washuu.
    • As is OVA Kagato being he was the hermaphrodite clone of Naja Akara, Washuu's best friend, that took over a Ryoko prototype and split off his female half.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rei Ayanami was a human/angel clone.
    • Actually, so is Kaworu Nagisa. The exact same type of human/angel clone, actually. Except he knows how to use his angel powers naturally, unlike Rei.
    • Also, the Evangelions qualify at some level, as they have biological bodies similar to huge human organisms (actually copied from Adam, but Angels/Apostles in Evangelion are basically what humans would be if they rejected their "humanity"), a human soul, and are literally called "jinzouningen", meaning "artificial humans".
  • The homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist. Their creation method differs between the first anime and manga/Brotherhood, with the anime's being closer to a Frankenstein's monster and the manga's being made from scratch.
  • Noah from Soul Eater He was the 3rd Big Bad until it was found out that it was the Book of Eibon's Table of Contents that created Noah
    • Also, the Philosopher's Stone-infused dummies from the manga. Although, since they contain Philosopher's Stones, they might technically count as a type of homunculus anyway.
  • Fate Testarossa, the Wolkenritter, Erio Mondial, the members of the Numbers (including Subaru and Ginga), Vivio, Jail Scaglietti and all familiars from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Notable in that they're all three kinds; clones, living programs, and cyborgs.
  • Yuki in Suzumiya Haruhi fits here, though what exactly she is is obscured by her Techno Babble explanation. As do Ryouko Asakura and Kimidori Emiri.
    • Perhaps we can use the Hyperion novel referenced in the series as a guide and deduce that Yuki is a cybrid, an artificial intelligence with a humanoid body.
    • In the 9th novel, yet another Artificial Human—one in direct opposition to Yuki—is introduced in the form of Kuyou Suou.
  • Annapuma and Unipuma from Dominion Tank Police are called androids. However, Uni is the original, and Anna was actually cloned from her, suggesting a biological origin.
  • Despite their name, Bioroids in Appleseed are actually genetically modified human clones. They are identical to humans except for reduced capabilities to feel strong emotions and the lack of their cells ability to freely perform cell division. As a result they require regular injections to regenerate cells and lack the capacity to reproduce. Which is a good idea, as they are far more numerous than regular humans in Olympus. However Hitomi and Yoshi seem to be at least in a romantic relationship, though it's unclear if it is also sexual.
    • Also, Athena seems perfectly capable of governing Olympus with a very strong fist and by intimidating the human politicans into compliance. Nike is really the only bioroid who shows limited emotions, but that makes her appear even much more dangerous and intimidating.
  • The Sexaroids of Bubblegum Crisis were a rather distinct Homage to the replicants of Blade Runner, complete with a "what is human?" Aesop for Priss, who notably hated Boomers before meeting Sylvie.
  • Rozen Maiden revolves around dolls which act nearly human other than size.
  • Lain Iwakura in Serial Experiments Lain was created to hold a piece of software in her neural system.
    • More accurately she is a piece of software that had a body built around it. Or, well, that's not quite true either. It seems that she's something that has been in the Wired since its birth, and possibly existed before it in some other form. Her human body is artificial, though.
      • Or possibly she's just the collective soul/memory/(un)conscious of mankind. Or she could be god. Given that this is Serial Experiments Lain, it's difficult/impossible to tell.
  • The main character and several members of the supporting case of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou are androids who are oddly biological in some ways (they must eat and sleep and are basically human in personality) and definitely mechanical in others (getting struck by lightning doesn't seriously hurt Alpha, just requires that her skin be re-coated). The rather leisurely plot of the series spends a lot of time focusing on the nature of these androids.
  • Melfina from Outlaw Star is a "bio-android", and also the Spaceship Girl for the titular ship.
  • Trigun has Vash, Knives, Tessla, Chronica, Domina, and all the other plants. With dramatic consequences.
    • Knives would kill you for that. More precisely, the independent plants are sports thrown up by the biological energy/matter synthesizers called 'plants,' which were engineered by humans prior to the SEEDS fleet leaving Earth. Probably from a human-genome base, meaning Knives and Vash and the girls (no, not those girls) are basically throwbacks. With superpowers.
      • So, as longwinded above-troper meant to imply, they're genetically tampered with but not expressly designed, nor are they robots, nor are they humans. So...no.
  • The "Humaritt" Lila from Najica Blitz Tactics is created in a laboratory and possesses superhuman abilities. Her responses are often rather robotic at first, but she gets better.
  • The Arume in Blue Drop create synthetic children that are seemingly their exact copies - aside from the tendency to explode. Originally used to battle the earth forces, they are later applied to fend off the remnants of the Arume's rather nasty biological weaponry.
  • Mewtwo in Pokémon the First Movie was never intended to be human, but the girl grown in the tube next to him was a clone of one of the scientists' deceased daughter.
    • Mewtwo himself in Pokémon Special, since Blaine spliced some of his own DNA with Mew's to create him.
  • Edel from Princess Tutu was created by Drosselmeyer to influence the path of the story. She's typically called a puppet, probably in reference to the ballets Nutcracker and Coppelia, but although she's strange none of the characters seem to realize this until The Reveal. Uzura, who was made from the wooden remains of Edel, also counts.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, it is heavily hinted that the Innovators, along with Tieria Erde and Nena Trinity may be like this due to their innate ability to interact with the supercomputer VEDA.
    • Hinted no more in Season 2.
  • Touko of Kara no Kyoukai created a number of perfect copies of herself (physically and mentally) using her skill as a dollmaker. She uses them as backup copies of herself, in the sense of "it doesn't matter if I die because my other bodies will live on and do what I would've done." She doesn't seem to care which one is the original or whether its still alive.
    • As usual - with Kinoko Nasu that is - the 'truth' is more complex. Touko achieved a level of sophistry in "copying" herself, that the copy is no longer distinguishable from the original hence it ceases to be a copy and Touko can no longer tell which self is really "her".
  • Twice in Hell Teacher Nube:
    • One morning, Hiroshi wakes up to find himself naked and miniaturized to the size of a mouse. When he gets Kyoko to help and she takes him back to school, he meets himself! Turns out the class decided to experiment with homunculi using the real Hiroshi as a sample, but the tiny result ended up inheriting the original's memories and personality. In the end, Kyoko takes pity on the devastated mini-Hiroshi and creates a homunculus of her own. The two of them go off into the wilderness to make a life for themselves.
    • Away on an expedition, Nube is caught in a landslide and ends up trapped underground. After several days, realizing no one is coming to rescue him, and slowly going insane from lack of human contact, he breaks the ultimate taboo: he gathers human remains found in the cave, and enchants them back to life—creating a golem-like girl who likewise latches onto him. It doesn't end well, and is a surprisingly somber plot in an otherwise comedy manga.
  • Ennis from Baccano!! is a homunculus created from the cells of the Big Bad Szilard and an unspecified, unwilling female donor. The Light Novels introduce more homunculi, most notably Psychopathic Manchild Christopher Shouldered.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, current Big Bad Fate Averruncus appears to be an Artificial Human. Evangeline (the "Doll Master") claimed that he moved like a construct, and Fate himself has claimed that he was "made". Not to mention that his real name is Tertium, Latin for "The Third."
    • Chachamaru recently[when?] took a step up from average Robot Girl after having a near-emotional-breakdown on whether on not she had a soul, or if her existence was simply a collection of data. However, it's proved shortly thereafter that she does, possibly qualifying her for this trope.
    • And let's not forget that the majority of the inhabitants of the Magical World are actually sentient illusions.
  • In the world of Eve no Jikan, all androids must have a holographic halo otherwise they'd be indistinguishable from humans the lone exception is a bodyguard; the titular coffeehouse is the only place where they can turn it off and "relax", and it's revealed can drink coffee, cry, enjoy music, fall in love, and generally behave like Ridiculously-Human Robots. Oh, and they're "Three Laws"-Compliant.
  • Maico in Android Announcer Maico 2010, as should be obvious from the show's title.
  • Hikaru in Figure 17, who is accidentally created from a Powered Armor "Figure" after protecting Tsubasa in a battle. Hikaru becomes Tsubasa's artificial twin sister.
  • Primula from SHUFFLE! is an artificial life form, of the magic variety.
  • Juno of Element Hunters is one. The real only way to tell is her stating herself to be one though.
  • Akise of Mirai Nikki turns out to be one. Luckily he manages to prove his existence as an entity by doing something of his own free will. Even Deus Ex Machina acknowledges it, and he's the one that made him.
  • In Birdy the Mighty it was revealed that the Federation used Altirran DNA to bioengineer Super Soldiers to their military and law enforcement divisions. One of the ones used for law enforcement is the title character herself.
  • Fran Madaraki, Veronica, and most of Fran's household staff in Franken Fran are all creations of the Frankenstein's Monster variety. Fran even has bolts in her head.
    • Let's not forget Gavrill, who was also created by Professor Madaraki.
  • In Osamu Tezukas Metropolis, Tima states "I'm an artificial human" after being shot by Rock and Noticing that the bruise she got was not blood or flesh, but her "inner skeleton".
  • In D.Gray-man you have the second Exorcists which include Yu Kanda and Alma Karma
  • Chobits - The Persocoms
  • The Neogenics from the Witchblade anime, who are specifically designed to be Witchblade bearers. They age rapidly, which means Maria is basically a 5 year old girl with the body of a teenager.
  • Pinoko from Black Jack is a special variation: She was supposed to be born as a normal human being (the Identical Twin to an unnamed other girl, to be exact), but a bad case of the medical condition "Fetus in Fetu" occured during their mother's pregnancy, and Pinoko's organs (including her entire, working nervous system) ended up within her sister's body. After managing to plea Black Jack for help telepathically, he removed the cyst containing her from her twin's body and built an artificial body for Pinoko, effectively making her a "full" person.
  • The last guardians of the Pyramid in Yaiba, namely Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond and Emerald. The Platina Company is also apparently working on building the Ultimate Fighter.
  • Rosario + Vampire revealed Outer Moka to be a partial example. She's a "fake personality" created to care for the sealed Inner Moka, but is also noted to be possibly the most lifelike one ever created, and was probably derived from her mother's personality.
  • In Toward the Terra, everyone could technically be considered Artificial Humans to some degree, as society under the SD System no longer uses natural birth and all children are developed in Uterine Replicators. Within the context of the setting, however, Physis and Keith are especially noteworthy: rather than being conceived using an egg and sperm from pre-selected parents, they were engineered completely artificially by the Mother Computers and grown nearly to physical maturity in People Jars - Physis, deemed a failed prototype, was decanted fairly young and thereafter rescued by Soldier Blue, but Keith didn't come out of the jar until the age of fourteen.

Comic Books

  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch was originally this; one comic story explained that she was created by Hilda and Zelda by accident.
  • It explained that Sophie Karamazout was created by her father in his laboratory.
  • Judge Dredd, both Judge Ricos and all of Dredd's clones, in Judge Dredd. In the spin-off audio dramas from Big Finish, it's mentioned that much of Justice Department is made up of clones. Also, there's Mean Machine Angel, a cyborg nutcase with an emotion dial on his forehead.
  • The Genetic Infantrymen from 2000 AD‍'‍s Rogue Trooper series.
  • Wonder Woman was a "perfect woman" created from clay by her "mother", Hippolyta.
    • Justified, as Wonder Woman's mythos is based heavily off of Greek Mythology.
  • The Golden Age Human Torch, android hero of WWII, is visually indistinguishable from a human being.
    • Aside from bursting into flame when exposed to oxygen-rich air?
    • The Vision's body is a temporal duplicate of the android Human Torch's body, with some modifications and a different personality. Whatever those modifications were, the Vision is usually depicted as having a lot more inorganic bits than the Torch does.
  • Adam Warren's Livewires are a team of ridiculously human mecha who will be very cross with you if you call them robots. Seeing as they're derived from Life Model Decoys, it makes sense that they are so physically and emotionally human. Subverted in that they can and do hack their own neurology whenever human feelings and failings get in the way of doing their job.
  • Several appear in Give Me Liberty, and are very convincing copies of real people.
  • Cybersix and the rest of the Cyber series, the Techno series, and the Frankenstein's Monster-like Fixed Ideas, with the Cybers looking the most human, being virtually undetectable as not human, and the Technos a close second.

Films - Live Action

  • Blade Runner, of course, and its novel precursor Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And the novel continuations.
    • Although said artificial humans are never actually referred to as "replicants" in the original novel. Dick's characters refer to them as "andys" instead.
  • In Bicentennial Man, the lead turns himself from a true robot to this.
  • The whole point and plot of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is the heartbreak of David having the full emotions of a human while not being loved as such.
  • Aliens: Bishop. "I prefer the term 'artificial person', myself."
  • The Robot Kid of DARYL has an almost completely organic human body grown in a test tube, with only the electronic brain making him different from a human.
  • The title character of Edward Scissorhands.
  • The titular main title character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • Boba Fett and the clone army of Star Wars are all artificial clones of Jango Fett.
  • The upcoming[when?] Crisis Crossover movie between Kamen Rider Double and Kamen Rider OOO will feature an artificial human who is apparently a cell-medal-based clone of Oda Nobunaga, who was responsible for the unification of Japan in the late 16th century.
  • In Transformers Decepticons utilize Facsimile which created from humans the Decepticons kidnapped, they are used to fulfill the Decepticons' needs which involve them infiltrating human society. When they die they disintegrate into green goo.

Literature

"My mother was a test tube, my father was a knife."

    • Except that the entire point of the story was Friday coming to recognize that she was, in fact, human, and always had been. It was stated as clear that despite how Friday saw it, Friday was human, just genetically engineered and grown in an artificial womb. Boss even chided her for thinking she was anything other than human in his first appearance.
  • In the Discworld book Thief of Time, the Lady LeJean is one, created directly from raw atoms by the Auditors. At one point, many many Auditors create and "pilot" one, but at the end when she decides to kill herself she is surprised to find out she has a soul that survives her death.
  • Rei Toei from William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Idoru is a sentient artificial intelligence whose "body" is a hologram.
  • The DADOs from The Pendragon Adventure, who act as the bad guy's personal army from Book 7 on.
  • Several characters in Bernard Werber's novels and short stories are androids or part of an artificial-life simulation software but don't know it. In fact, some of his works suggest that all of the characters and even all of humankind, the gods, and the whole known universe might unwittingly be part of a giant software and/or experiment. Yup, Werber is a fan of Philip K. Dick.
  • Second Apocalypse features artificial humans of the soulless (literally), Psycho for Hire type.
  • Frankenstein's monster is one of the most classic and well known examples. While it is stressed at certain points throught the book that the monster is an entirely unique species, he certainly has a human intelligence and personality.
  • The androids owned by The Protagonist in Fondly Fahrenheit.
  • R. Daneel Olivaw, Dors Venabili and some other humanoid robots in Isaac Asimov's Robot and Foundation series.
  • Hyperion has biroids, biologically manufactured androids. They're bright blue to keep them out of the uncanny valley.
  • Terrence Cee (and his sister/wife Janine) in Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos is one of these; he suffers some identity problems because he was genetically engineered from a careful selection of genes by a secret military project. But as Ethan points out, we're all a mishmash of our ancestors' genes, and everyone in his society is born from replicators (and donated eggs) anyway. So Terrence is completely normal - well, except that he's telepathic.
  • In Jack Vance's Dying Earth, T'Sain and T'Sais are some kind of magically created human being.
  • The Doctor Who Expanded Universe Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Interference introduces a whole society of these. See, when one of them dies, a new copy is created based on what those who knew them remember about them. (Side-effects include infertility.) This seems to be a surprisingly accurate process, as when one of the Doctor's companions gets lost and ends up joining them, he's still vaguely recognizable several iterations later, so the Doctor puts him back to the way he was before he got lost. He handles it quite well... for a while. Eventually, Loss of Identity-based Angst, Heroic BSOD, and referring to himself as "it" ensues. He's also quite disappointed to discover he's not even immortal. Indeed, he's basically unchanged except for the fact his dreams are excessively normal and he has a new knack for anagrams and crossword puzzles, and is entirely indistinguishable from a normal human.
  • The Magic: The Gathering books feature these as good (The Metathran), and bad (Phyrexian Sleeper Agents). The Sleepers had a more frightening creation process, by far. And the scariest bit about the Sleepers is some don't even know they are agents. One particular Sleeper from Time Streams basically tested the characters and us in the matter of just to what measure a nonhuman is, being portrayed alongside Karn, future main character, and in the end, Karn (a silver golem) was more human than many of the human (or human-looking) characters.
  • In a short story[context?] about a man who decides to create an artificial human, he brings his creation to the city leader. The leader commends his effort but points out the flaws, such as lack of aging and the skin's inability to tan. He then shows the inventor an old video of a young boy and a group of old scientists. He reveals that they are the last true humans. He is that boy, the first artificial human. Unlike the flawed creation, he can do all the things real humans can. Realizing that everyone he knows, including himself, is an artificial human, the protagonist is shocked. The leader then proceeds to wipe his memory of the meeting, so that he can continue living in blissful ignorance.
  • The wizard protagonist of Jorge Luis Borges's "The Circular Ruins" manages with the help of the fire god to create an artificial human. In the end it turns out he's an illusion as well.
  • The misnamed "androids" of Robert Silverberg's Tower of Glass. They're visually distinguished from "normal humans" (whom they call "womb-born", and themselves "vat-born") by red skin and lack of body hair.
  • In Azure Bonds, Alias is revealed to be this, and spends the rest of the novel doubting she has a soul and feeling guilty that her friends have risked their lives to help a soulless automaton. Her friends, of course, think this is ridiculous, since she obviously has a soul; one of them can even see it. She feels better at the end.
  • "Androids" in A Tale of Time City are artificially-created people. They are made of flesh and bone, but are engineered. As a result, they're somewhat more pale than regular humans and they feel emotions less strongly. However, Elio, the android character, is still personable in his weird way, and even bonds with the protagonist over their shared love of movies.

Live-Action TV

  • The most advanced models of Cylons on the 2004 Battlestar Galactica are biologically human to the point that they can mate with humans and produce offspring, and can only be readily identified as non-human by exposing them to certain exotic types of radiation. Some of them even fool themselves.
  • Caprica reveals that realistic humanoid (but not biological) Cylons could have existed 50 years ago (the accidental prototype was a Replacement Goldfish for a scientist's daughter), but their creators ultimately chose the "toaster" design because the realistic androids were too unsettling.
    • They later change their minds ...
  • Mack Hartford of Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, built by Adventurer Archaeologist Andrew Hartford to be the son he never could get. What this says about Hartford is up to the viewer.
  • Space: Above and Beyond has the "In Vitros" or "Tanks": genetically designed clones grown in People Jars as forced laborers. Naturally, a Tank is made part of the main cast. Conflict ensues, until they learn to work together.
  • Farscape plays with this trope on a number of occasions. Played straight, the Scarrens have "bioloids" that they mostly use as Evil Twin duplicates. Sikozu is also revealed to be a kind of bioloid.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy's sister Dawn started out "life" as the Key to Glory's own dimension but was given a human form based on the Summers gene template and inserted into Buffy's family so that Buffy would protect the Key without question. A fake life-history was created for her and magically inserted into reality to facilitate this.
  • Cameron from The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the most realistic Terminator ever made, capable of crying, eating and even occasional humor. Though often called a Robot Girl, she'll point out that she's a cyborg; living flesh over a metal endoskeleton. Calling her a "very scary robot" has been known to bother her...
  • Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of these who strives to Become a Real Boy. He has real hair that grows and needs shaving, his body mimics human breathing patterns, his positronic brain can get "drunk" from the same intoxicating particles as everyone else's. Data is so physically human-like, in fact, that he can be considered an artificial life-form as much as he can be considered an android.
    • He always seeks to understand humanity but there are some episodes where becoming fully human tempts him (First Contact) and other episodes where he considers his unique being to have added to the substance of the universe (see "Measure of a Man")
  • The Vorta and Jem'Hadar of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. No, they are not Artificial Humans, just Artificial Humanoids. Keeping that distinction in mind, they completely fit the trope: from their fanatical loyalty to their creators, to their utter lack of aesthetic sense.
  • The replicators in Stargate Atlantis create fully human clones of Shepherd's team using nanites. Eventually, the subset of replicators who wish to ascend decide that creating human bodies is their only way to do so.
  • The Doctor Who episodes "The Rebel Flesh" and "The Almost People" featured a very real version of this. They are clones of the originals created by a jelly-like substance.
  • The Sixties British sci-fi serial A for Andromeda. The title character is a beautiful Emotionless Girl created by a Master Computer according to a design transmitted from another galaxy.

Music

  • Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" appears to be about a fake plastic girl:

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

  • The song "Coin Operated Boy" by The Dresden Dolls:

Made of plastic and elastic
He is rugged and long-lasting
Who could ever ever ask for more?

Mythology

  • Blodeuedd, the woman created from flowers to be the wife of Lleu Llaw in Medieval Welsh mythology.
  • A Greek myth tells the story of Pygmalion, a man who shunned real-life women but craved that his beautiful sculpture of one would come to life. He loved it so much that he prayed to Venus/Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, to grant him that wish. After he kissed the ivory-carved statue's lips, Venus worked her magic and it came to life. This is seen as a literal "Breath of Life".
  • Pandora in Greek myth was a sculpture that the Gods made and brought to life.

Tabletop Games

  • Mortasheen plays wiht this with the creature Lester. These creatures were designed by the mosntrous citizens of Mortasheen city to be able to perfectly mimic and infiltrate humans to monitor their natural behavior and harvest them for "research". Unfortunately, they weren't very good at making convincing humans, and it landed so far in the Uncanny Valley that, though the monsters thought it looked like a normal human, the humans were too freaked out for it to be of any use at infiltration. So, now it's only used for infiltrating monsters.
  • A few advanced servitors are like this in Warhammer 40,000, and there's at least one case of an Adeptus Mechanicus adept deliberately seeking to become one.
    • The Adeptus Mechnicus worship technology - if they can replace their bodies with tech, they will - Magos Geard Bure from the Eisenhorn series is basically a brain and a central nervous system encased in a metal body. They love Mundane Utility - Bure has no legs, just antigrav projectors. Another one, Dark Magos Deltrian from the Night Lords series is a metal skeleton with a preserved brain. The most revered and ancient Tech Priests can actually replace their physical bodies entirely by transferring their consciousness to artificial crystals. A typical techpriest.
  • Prometheans are born of alchemical rituals designed to create life from corpses. It... doesn't exactly work right; a new consciousness is born inside the body, powered by the very force the moves the universe. Said force makes humans batshit crazy through continued exposure, which means Prometheans have to stick to their own kind. Since they were born of an imperfect alchemical ritual, though, they always have the means to finish the transmutation...
    • And from the same universe, we have the fetches of Changeling: The Lost, fake humans made by The Fair Folk to cover up their abductions. They're usually made from whatever stray garbage seems appropriate and a piece of the abductee's soul. They believe themselves to be the person they're meant to replace, but always seem to lack one feature (positive or negative) that went into the character of their template.
  • Eclipse Phase's Pod morphs—short for "pod people", since they are assembled out of vat-grown limbs and organs and equipped with a computer brain.
    • Actually, all biomorphs (except flats and splicers) probably qualify as Artificial Humans, given that they are all gene-designed by various groups and grown in artificial wombs.
  • The bioroids - "biological androids" - in GURPS Transhuman Space.
    • Guidelines for designing your own bioroids - and infinite other forms of gengineered life - reappear in GURPS: Bio Tech.

Video Games

  • The Realians from the Xenosaga TV and game series. In addition, Ziggy is a Cyborg relic from the past.
    • Additionally, KOS-MOS and particularly Telos, since she was built from the preserved body of Mary Magdelene. Yes, that Mary.
    • Rubedo, Albedo, Nigredo, and Citrine from the Xenosaga videogame series are all variant clones of their creator, Dr. Dmitri Yuriev. There were others created that collectively formed a sort of "hive mind", but they were all destroyed during the Miltia Incident.
  • In Xenogears the heroes find out that the species on the planet are not humans. Humans died out long ago (well, humanity's fate in Xenogears is ambiguous at best), and what's left evolved from the biological parts of their technology.
    • In Xenogears, Ramsus Kahran is a clone of Emperor Cain. And he has some issues with it....
  • Safiya in Neverwinter Nights 2 Mask of the Betrayer is a splinter of a very, very old Red Wizard's personality
  • Suikoden III reveals that Luc and Sasarai were cloned from the Harmonian leader, Hikusaak to serve as vessels for collecting true runes. Luc uses this knowledge to Mind Screw his brother and take his True Rune with the intent to blow up the continent to stop fate.
  • In Super Robot Wars Advance, the Shadow-Mirror employs troops of android Mooks called the W-Series. The W-Numbers are a particular group of W-Series built to follow this trope, with female protagonist Lamia "W17" Loveless being a cyborg, who is apparently half and half. Her brain contains several computers, and parts of her limbs, sometimes entire limbs, are mechanical. She is made to infiltrate military organizations, and looks and acts so human, nearly no one can tell the difference. As well, she also has some form of super-strength and durability, but it isn't particularly important.
  • In Wild ARMs (original and ACF version), the protagonist Rudy is an android/artificial human made from technology similar to that of the Metal Demons. He is a "Holmcross", given the alchemy refs, is clearly a transliteration for "Homunculus".
    • The other games had their share of Artificial Humans too. Wild ARMs 3 had Jet, who was similar to the first game's example, only he was created to test the theory of Filgaia as a lifeform, and Wild ARMs 2 and 4 had Cyborgs in the characters of Kanon and Balgaine.
  • In Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Prof. Layton reveals that all of St. Mystere's citizens are robots programed to give puzzles to find a guardian for Flora, the late baron's daughter.
  • Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, Solidus, and the Genome soldiers in Metal Gear Solid and its sequels are clones of Big Boss.
  • In Super Mario RPG, the creature Belome was capable of making clones of your party in your second encounter with him.
  • Kalas and his brother in Baten Kaitos. Guillo in Orgins is more of a Golem.
  • A.B.A. in Guilty Gear, a homunculus.
  • In Haunting Ground, The first three antagonists (Debilitas, Daniella and Riccardo, and even Fiona's father are all Artificial Humans created by the Big Bad. The latter two are his Clones.
  • Harukanaru Toki no Naka de‍'‍s Abe no Yasuaki was created by his teacher Abe no Seimei to assist the main character (his Expy Abe no Yasutsugu from Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2 has the same origins). In the manga version, Yasuaki occasionally explains just how, because he wasn't born from a woman, he is "incomplete" and doesn't possess a heart or emotions, even after certain events that proved otherwise; of course, there's always the main character to help with such cases...
  • In the Kingdom Hearts games, Organization XIII member Vexen builds several Replicas; humanoid "puppets" made for various purposes. Two recurring traits among said Replicas are the ability to drain power from other people, and a tendency towards feeling incomplete or "borrowed".
  • Quote in Cave Story, sort of.
  • In Albion, NED's primary means of communication is using an android body to interact with his crew. He even has an entire army of them prepared to slaughter everyone on board should they rebel.
  • The Observers and Trackers from Infinite Space are created by the Overlords to watch the progress of humankind in fulfilling their role to stabilize the universe. Five characters are identified as them throughout the game (Yuri, Kira, Valantin, Taranis, and Bogd), although given the story, there are probably more of them.
  • Deus Ex the Denton 'brothers' are revealed to be completely artificially engineered.
  • In the Mega Man Legends games, it's revealed that all the humans you see in the game are Artificial Humans made by the main character's creator, and the main character himself is either an Artificial Human or a Ridiculously Human Robot created by the leader of the original humans. Then the game stops being serious and gets nice and zany again for the post-credits ending.
  • In NieR, as revealed quite late, it turns out that Nier and almost every other human(except Emil and the Twins) are Replicants, clones of people who were made into Gestalts intended to serve as their vessels after the purification of the world. Unfortunately for the plan, they developed minds of their own.
  • The Demi-Gods (Both the guardian generals and the civilian ones) from Asura's Wrath are all descended from these, according to the extras and concept art.

Visual Novels

  • Several characters from the Einzbern family in Fate Stay Night and Fate/Zero are homunculi created through magecraft.
    • Also in the Nasuverse, Aozaki Touko from Kara no Kyoukai: is Nigh Invulnerable because of this. Whenever her current "container" dies, a prepared backup is activated.
    • Arcueid in Tsukihime is an artificial human True Ancestor, created for the purpose of killing Demon Lords and Dead Apostles. She doesn't get all angsty because she doesn't seem to possess that emotion.
      • Wasn't Arcuied only "created" to hunt Dead Apostles in the sense that she was carefully raised from birth to be a killing machine, rather than actually created as an artificial being? Now her Dead Apostle "sister" Altrouge on the other hand...
        • It's kinda tricky. True Ancestors as a whole were created by Gaia (and corrupted by Brunestead, the Type of the Crimson Moon) as an Artificial Type (A planet's Ultimate One) in response to humanity, and probably aren't even born naturally. It seems that Arcueid was "created" to hunt Demon Lords in both senses; she was trained to do so, without any other unnecessary education, but it also seems that the True Ancestors guided her creation, causing her to be a perfect vessel for the Crimson Moon, something that the original Crimson Moon couldn't even manage himself.
    • Finally, also in Fate Stay Night's Heaven's Feel scenario, Shirou is reduced to this in the True ending.
    • Almost all the Servants with the notable exception of Saber are basically Artificial Themselves, created by taking a copy of their minds and putting it in a body created by the Holy Grail. And then there's false Assassin, who is an Artificial Servant, created in the form of a Hero that never actually existed in the world of Fate Stay Night.
  • All furniture in Umineko no Naku Koro ni is supposed to be some variant of this.
  • Tanya, the android love interest from Bionic Heart has a metal skeleton, but she has artificial organs identical to a human’s. They don’t function, however. But Tanya does have a working human brain that is the cause of her memories.

Web Comics

  • In Artifice, android soldier Deacon looks and for the most part acts completely human (even though he rejects the term) and, in the opening scene, two security guards debate whether he deserves the title of being called an "Artificial Person".
  • Since Momo got her new chassis, she's gone from animesque doll-like robot to being in effect an Artificial Person. In this comic, she's human-looking enough for Padma to mistake her for Marten's little sister, and she now has a job as a library assistant. And even the non-human-looking AnthroPCs seem to have sexual and emotional urges and a sense of humour, so they're not very robot-like.

Web Original

  • Belphoebe of the Whateley Universe. A cloned body based on Jobe's secret drow transform serum. A mental copy of Belphegor is (accidentally) imprinted onto the body, and it wakes up. It's adapting quite nicely so far.

Western Animation

  • Some Transformers late in the original line made use of Pretender technology, which involved fleshy outer shells. Those with human shells, therefore, could shrink down and blend in with humans. This skips the Become a Real Boy step, though, as Transformers are Mechanical Lifeforms, and thus start off sentient and sapient.
    • There's also the characters in Beast Wars, who took the Pretender technology one step further to become Hollywood Cyborgs. Even before the line between "tech" and "organic" became blurred in the series, the creators emphasized that the robots' pseudo-organic "beast modes" were "fully functional"... take that as you will.
    • Don't forget that in Transformers Animated, it turns out that Sari was a protoform, which is what a Transformer is before it has scanned anything for the first time. She scanned Isaac Sumdac, basically making him her Dad.
  • Synergy of Jem is a super-computer type of this.
  • Cobra "synthoids" in G.I. Joe could perfectly mimic real people and were key to several episodes where a Faked Rip Van Winkle or Body Snatcher plot was in effect. They were apparently organic in nature, being constructed of a grey goopy matter called "Pseudoplasm" which they would terrifyingly revert back into by melting if killed or self-destructed.
    • The Synthoid technology was also put into use in an episode of Transformers, in which Rodimus Prime, Arcee and Ultra Magnus had their minds transferred into synthetic human bodies. Luckily for the Moral Guardians, these came with automatic underwear.
  • There are three examples of this in Code Lyoko:
    • Aelita was thought to be one of these (specifically, an AI) for two seasons, until it was revealed that she was, in fact, human, not to mention the daughter of the supercomputer's creator.
    • XANA uses "Specters" in his attacks all the time, whether polymorphic (shape-shifting) or not. They are easily synthesized using the supercomputer, and usually look like one of the heroes or someone close to them. They're generally mindless, and can be used to coerce, trick, or attack the heroes.
    • These clones can also be utilized by the heroes themselves. Only two have been cloned this way:Jérémie and William. Jérémie's clone substituted for the original while he worked on several programs for Lyoko. Clone!William replaced his real world counterpart for several months while the real one was trapped in Lyoko. Unfortunately, while these clones were pretty much benign and harmless (unless possessed by XANA, which both have been), they have drastically different personalities than their originals: Jérémie's clone is a bold womanizer, while William's clone is profoundly naive and stupid.
  • Eric in Kim Possible is such a realistic drone that everyone expects him to be human until the Robotic Reveal. And he is killed by a bite from a rodent....
  • The Powerpuff Girls were created by Professor Utonium with "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" mixed into a vat; when he accidentally spilled in a can of Whoopass Chemical X.
  • The Supertrooper project of Galaxy Rangers. It didn't end well...
  • The Cadmus Superheroes from Justice League Unlimited.
  • From Young Justice, Red Tornado and his siblings, Red Torpedo, Red Inferno, and Red Volcano. Red Torpedo and Red Inferno forgot they were androids, leading to their destruction in the line of hero work. Red Tornado was subsequently programmed to remember he was an android, but he eventually begins to develop human emotions such as caring for others anyways.
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