History AscendedExtra / AnimeAndManga

* In the third season of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', the assassin twin sisters Yu Fan and Yu Lan had a much bigger role than they had in the novel on which the show was based. In said novel, they were male and died rather quickly. It's obvious their expanded roles (and gender-swap) were because the anime staff thought there needed to be more {{Fanservice}}.

* ''Anime/{{Aggretsuko}}'': Haida is a side character in the original series, but in the Netflix adaptation, he becomes part of the main trio, [[AdaptationalNiceGuy is significantly nicer to all characters]] and [[PromotedToLoveInterest harbors a crush for Retsuko]]. He also gets his own sub-plot about his love for Retsuko, which becomes specially important in the later part of the series after [[spoiler:Retsuko starts dating Resasuke]].

* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'''s Renge Houshakuji was introduced early on with her own chapter, and then she faded to the background. She does still make occasional cameo appearances, though. Bisco Hatori had mentioned Renge was intended to be a recurring character, but for whatever reason it never happened. Her role in the anime is expanded quite a bit as an AsYouKnow FanGirl, and she does a few of the tasks Tamaki had initially done in the manga (such as helping Nekozawa with his photophobia). Hatori was happy to see Renge given more screentime in the anime, even if her appearances became less frequent toward the finale.

* Ignacio Axis in the animated adaptation of ''LightNovel/ThePilotsLoveSong''. The anime seems to be treating him as one of ''four'' protagonists, if promotional material is anything to go by. In the novels, however, Ignacio is considered a supporting character only, with the original story focusing on Kal-el, Claire and Ariel.

* When ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'' was novelized, Lina and [[IdiotHero Gourry]] were actually the only real protagonists; their companions in the first arc of novels, [[JerkassWoobie Zelgadis]] and [[GenkiGirl Amelia]], were only their allies for that period of time (and even then, Amelia did not appear during the battle with [[BetaBaddie Copy Rezo]] as she did in the anime). They were replaced with [[TheRival Luke]] and [[DeadpanSnarker Milina]] in the second arc of novels. When the anime was becoming popular, however, Zel and Amelia became popular enough to appear in more places than they did, and upon expansion, the "Slayers" became a four-man party instead; just about all of the video games and manga that came followed suit with this. By contrast, Luke and Milina only appeared outside the novels in the ''Hourglass of Falces'' manga, and even there, the group is a [[FiveManBand Six-Man Band]] instead.

* The [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':

** Kinana was created as an in-joke character based on one of the author's assistants for bonus content, with the heavy implication that she suffered ForcedTransfomation as Cobra's giant snake companion, Cubellios. She wound up getting a prominent role in a {{Filler}} arc, which had her searching for and briefly reuniting with Cobra, who she could only barely remember, and subsequently received a few minor speaking roles in the manga.

** Kinana was created as an in-joke character based on one of the author's assistants for bonus content, with the heavy implication that she suffered BalefulPolymorph as Cobra's giant snake companion, Cubellios. She wound up getting a prominent role in a {{Filler}} arc, which had her searching for and briefly reuniting with Cobra, who she could only barely remember, and subsequently received a few minor speaking roles in the manga.

** In the Creator/ToeiAnimation series, Jounouchi's/Joey's IllGirl sister Shizuka/Serenity only appeared in one episode. The [[Anime/YuGiOh second series]] gives her a more extended role and ''two'' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Moments Of Awesome]].

** Hayasaka was originally just supposed to be a background character in Chapter 3, but the author took a liking to her and decided to give her a much more prominent role.

** Similar to Law, this is what happened with Nefertari Vivi. She was originally going to be a one-and-done minor villain, but author Eichiro Oda was doodling and drew her with her hair down. He thought she looked like a princess. Since he already had the plot of the Alabasta saga planned out, he decided to retool the character to have a far more prominent role. She ended up becoming the {{Deuteragonist}} of the Alabasta saga and is still considered to be an [[HonoraryTrueCompanion honorary Strawhat]].

** Similar to Law, this is what happened with Nefertari Vivi]]. She was originally going to be a one-and-done minor villain, but author Eichiro Oda was doodling and drew her with her hair down. He thought she looked like a princess. Since he already had the plot of the Alabasta saga planned out, he decided to make her a far more important character, to the point that she ended up becoming the {{Deuteragonist}} of the Alabasta saga and is still considered to be an [[HonoraryTrueCompanion honorary Strawhat]]

** Floch Forster starts off as a nameless extra stated to be former comrades of the main cast in the 104th Trainee Corps with some lines to show how the main cast has grown and developed over the course of the story and he is set as a minor RedShirt in the Battle of Shiganshina, only to end up one of the very few survivors and after the TimeSkip [[spoiler:the secondary villain, as he forms the Yeagerists, overthrows the military junta and becomes TheDragon for Eren Yeagar]].

* Shiro Sanada in ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'': Originally, he was just the ships SmartGuy. And due to the fact that he was a little older than the mostly young crew, it was expected that he would die as is common for mature characters in an ensemble cast of mostly youngsters (so that the young characters can grow and develop). Sanada shares with Kodai the distinction of being the Yamato Sagas two most longeval characters. He reunites with Kodai in the 2010 Yamato Ressurection [[spoiler: in which Sanada now outranks captian Kodai]]. His character is even more developed in ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'' where [[spoiler: he is now the Captain's true first officer as is appropriate for his age and experience. He also has an ongoing romantic interest, something that was totally ignored in the original series.]]

** This is also how the Allies and the more in-the-background-initially nations like Poland, Lithuania, and the [[FanNickname Frying Pangle]] (Austria, Hungary, Prussia) started off.

** Levy started out as one of the guild's many minor members written to give it some extra personality, with her first significant role in the story being to get non-fatally StuffedIntoTheFridge by Gajeel. After this, she becomes a major secondary character as Gajeel's MoralityPet and eventual LoveInterest after he becomes TheAtoner, with their BelligerentSexualTension serving as one of the series' more prominent character arcs, [[spoiler:and ends with them [[BabiesEverAfter expecting a child]]]].

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':
** Takagi was originally an unnamed sidekick under Megure in the anime and CanonImmigrant; later show in the manga and ascended to major character status with his long love story with Satou.
** Conan's wonderful toys tend to have a ''lot'' more prominence in the anime, ''especially'' the movies (in the manga, the only ones he uses regularly are the watch and the bow-tie). The turbo-powered skateboard that appears in just about every movie and quite a few of the anime-only {{Filler}} episodes? It appeared in a grand total of ''two'' storylines in the manga, which were more than ''seven hundred chapters'' apart (it was actually smashed to bits at the end of its debut arc, and for a long time it was implied that Dr. Agasa didn't bother fixing it).

** Kyoko was born as fictonial character of her ShowWithinAShow (a parody of the MagicalGirl). After, she appears as real character and became Run's best friend. In "Darkness" she is also promoted to new potential harem member of Rito.

* Chie Harada was simply one of {{Those Two G|irls}}uys in ''Anime/MyHime'', and a close friend who provided emotional and moral support to the protagonist, but didn't have much plot importance. Her ''Anime/MyOtome'' counterpart, Chie Hallard, is a high-profile supporting character, even getting pictured on a DVD cover with Aoi, That Other One Girl.
** Not to mention Arika and Nina, the two main characters of ''Mai-Otome'' were practically nonexistent in ''My-[=HiME=]''. They had no lines and minimal screen time--Arika only as a cameo in the finale, Nina as simply a LivingProp in Mai's classroom. Only Nina had a name and it was in Japanese, only revealed in one of the {{Omake}} that briefly lists the names of everyone in Mai's class.

* Chie Harada was simply one of {{Those Two G|irls}}uys in ''Anime/MyHime'', and a close friend who provided emotional and moral support to the protagonist, but didn't have much plot importance. Her ''Anime/MaiOtome'' counterpart, Chie Hallard, is a high-profile supporting character, even getting pictured on a DVD cover with Aoi, That Other One Girl.

** Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki (Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor in the English version) were minor duelists in the original manga; Haga lost to Yugi and Jonouchi respectively during the two tournament arcs while Ryuzaki lost to Jonouchi in the first and was defeated off-panel in the second. The anime meanwhile upgraded their status to ThoseTwoBadGuys and made them recurring rivals to Yugi and Jonouchi respectively long after the point they'd been written out of the manga, appearing all the way up to the anime's final episode as part of its WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue during the credits.

* General Gunther Reindardt of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'': Originally, the animation for the final series made many fans assume that the returning Expeditionary fleet was destroyed by the Invids' transcendence to a higher plane. The Jack [=McKinney=] novels assumed this, and it was probably true in the original Japanese version of ''Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada''. At that time, the General didn't yet have a name and his connection to Admiral Hunter was JustFollowingOrders. He was named in the novels and was established as one of Rick Hunter's close friends. After 20 years of debating what was seen in the animation, the 2007 movie ''WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles'' not only made Reinhardt one of the lead characters, but showed that the Invids' transcendence destroyed only the Neutron-S missiles and not any manned Expeditionary ships, ensuring that Reinhardt and his crew survive to be in sequels.