We all see unknown character pics online and wonder who they are, such as in a user's profile pic or avatar. Today, it is very easy today to find where any character comes from with nearly 100% success thanks to Google Images. For example, lets say you randomly found a pic of the blonde character below on MAL, but had no clue who she was (and most anime fans probably don't heh). Here's how you can find her identity (and any other character's!) from just the image:
Note: This method also works with screenshots, GIFs, and any other anime or game pics to find the source (anime or game) of the image!
Try it!
Its that easy. Try it yourself. Open the site Google Images (linked below) in another tab: https://images.google.com/
And simply
(1) click and hold on this pic below,
(2) drag it into the Google Images tab into the search bar
(3) let go!
You'll get the same results. You can do this with any pic and should find who it is! The pic can be dragged from your browser, or even dragged from your computer in a folder or on your desktop.
FAQs on finding the name/anime/source of images
Using the method above, the initial results in Google should be enough to find most any unknown character's name, or at least a page with their information and source. But there are complications that come up sometimes, here's some common problems and tips:
I wasn't led to a character name but the anime or game they are from?
The anime or game often has its own wiki, official site, or Myanimelist page. You can often find the character on those pages, just look for the character's face.
Google directs me to a Deviantart page, or some other kind of fan art page?
The character might be an original fan art, and has no name- but they also might be a drawing of a real character from some other media. So go the page where you are led to and try to find that character art. The name of the character may be there if they are from another media.
Sites or search results I'm lead to are in Japanese?
Google has translate options by each search result on the results pages. You can translate the page and this will make things much clearer for you. Often times when this happens, your character might be an original fan art, or from a Japanese game not popular in English speaking regions yet, and you may be on a site for the artist or game.
Original fan art characters often won't have names, but similar pics will be on that site!
If you can find the name of the character from the translated page, you can find more pics of them by try searching that name online (on a site like Danbooru) or its Japanese character text for more results for that character.
The pic was an avatar, signature, or member card, and has text on it. Google just leads me to the MyAnimeList pages its found on.
Simply crop out the text and logos added to the image and narrow it down to JUST the character or their face. I've found this will help alot in these cases! Ask us if you don't know how to do it.
I still can't find the character?
Ask in this thread after trying what tips you can in the spoiler.
In these rare moments, things get complicated but there is always hope - it came from somewhere, right?
If the pic is loaded with special effects, added text, or other characters, try to crop (cut out) only the character or their face. Use a graphic design program like MS Paint or Gimp. Now search that instead. This will often narrow down the search results, dramatically in some cases.
Also try searching the extra search results, like different image size results and "Best Guess for this image", outlined in red below. The different image results lead you to similar pics. These in turn may lead to other pages that can help.
As a last resort, you can of course ask other ppl, or post here and see if we can find the unknown character for you. We may also be able to do the image cropping for you if you can't do it.
Finding higher quality versions of a pic
Very useful for ppl who like building their own designs and layouts. Simply use the method above and try the largest versions of the pic you can find, links outlined here: http://i.imgur.com/qS1rIsJ.png
Also, if you search the name of the character or "Best Guess" sometimes you can find better copies of the image before changes may have been made, sometimes even the original high resolution source!