History DemotedToExtra / AnimeAndManga

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* Chun-Woo for the most part of ''[[Manhwa/TheBreaker The Breaker: New Waves]]''.

* After Monica's arc in ''Manhwa/WitchHunter'' detailing around her [[TookALevelInBadass awakening as a witch]], defeating the witch plaguing her village and joining the Witch Hunter organization she is soon reduced to the background as a minor character with a crush on Tasha.

** Mimi, Joe, and Sora seemed to suffer it the worst. Especially Mimi who moved to New York, which gives her the smallest amount of appearances. In the Tokyopop manga adaptation, almost all scenes involving the 02 kids are completely excised, and Sora, Mimi and Joe are given at most three panels' worth of screentime.

** Nanami Kiryuu in the movie. It's widely believed that the director kept her in a limited role (as a ''cow'', no less) because certain members of the staff didn't like her. She is the AlphaBitch, but still. In the manga it was even worse, as she only ever shows up in ''one photograph'' and doesn't even make an actual on-panel appearance. Ironically Creator/KunihikoIkuhara has stated that Nanami was one of his favorite characters. Originally, Nanami wasn't going to be in the movie at all (she only had screentime because her Japanese voice actress wanted it), and in the manga, Chiho Saito never planned to make her an important character.

* ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' is a rare example of a '''series''' being DemotedToExtra. Despite being a fan-favorite ([[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff especially in the West]]), it only rarely appears in MassiveMultiplayerCrossover games like ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars''. ''Gundam X'' was also the only ''Gundam'' series not to have a Master Grade model of up until January of 2014. When it does appear, however, it tends to be handled rather well though.

* The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise as a whole has Sayla Mass. A very major character in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', and you would think that being Amuro's LoveInterest coupled with being the sister of ''Char Aznable'' would secure a role in later stories. Nope. She appears in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', has a minor impact on the plot in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', and then vanishes from the franchise. This is generally attributed to her [[Creator/YouInoue voice actress]] being busy with other things whenever a new ''Gundam'' production rolled around, and had she been available, many believe she would have played a much larger role in the story, particularly in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack''.

* In the first season of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' Allelujah Haptism gets significantly less focus than the rest of the meisters. He has some focus in a couple of episodes early on and his SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, but he gets sidelined for the rest of the time and actually isn't even present for a very significant battle and bonding scene. The second season manages to start off even worse for him, he has two scenes (each five seconds long) and a single word of speech in the first two episodes. By the end of the series while Lyle, Setsuna, and Tieria all get important plotlines Alle is on grunt duty blowing up overglorified missiles. This is heaviest emphasized by Episode 13 of the second season. All the Meisters get badass moments of awesome, including Setsuna whipping an Innovator's ass in style, Tieria placing a giant hole in the side of a space cannon, and Lyle sniping it down. Allejulah? He's stuck in Arios with it attached to Ptolemy. His ONLY PURPOSE was to say "Trans-Am" and provide Trans-Am to Ptolemy. Arios is a glorified battery. His case is even sorrier if one considers his SuperpoweredEvilSide a separate character. ''H''allelujah does all of the really incredible stuff onscreen [[spoiler:including what should have been ''A''l's moment of glory in the GrandFinale. In the end we're shown Al settling down peacefully with Marie, so at least those two can brood over their misfortunes together]]. At least [[spoiler:he's promoted as TheLancer in TheMovie]].

** Cheren is your childhood friend and rival in ''Black And White'' alongside Bianca. The anime didn't adapt the plot to the games so Cheren was ignored until he became a Gym Leader in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''. Cheren appeared in the anime as his sequel form as a Gym Leader. This also creates a bizarre issue where Bianca is younger than Cheren, and they don't seem to know each other.

%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* This happens to Akari in the manga of ''Manga/YuruYuri'', after which the cast tries to help her get noticed more. In the anime, they do this [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication in the first episode]].

[[folder:Dragon Ball]]

* Joker the leader of the Clowns gang is a major character and one of the few to survive to the end of the story of ''Manga/{{Akira}}''- in the film he only shows up at the beginning during the gang fight and flees when the police arrive, and although the Clowns return in a later scene, Joker isn't with them. And Lady Miyako, who is a major character in the manga, is a male member of the Akira cult who is killed after Tetsuo causes a bridge to collapse.

%%Needs context about his previous role.* Kenjuro Kurogane in the anime of ''Anime/{{Yaiba}}'', which not only ends earlier, but also shows him only in the very first episode.

* The 2003 anime version of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'':

%%Needs more context to differentiate from AscendedExtra.** Team Guy did very little for most of the second half, with their only big moment being a fight against a Kisame clone. However, this changes somewhat towards the end of the series. Might Guy himself becomes something of a SixthRanger by defeating [[spoiler:the ''real'' Kisame]] and playing a big role in the fights against [[spoiler:series {{Big Bad}}s Tobi and Madara]]. Neji pulls off [[spoiler:a HeroicSacrifice]], and Lee gets a few shining moments of his own (plus his own [[Manga/RockLeesSpringtimeOfYouth spin-off series]]). Conversely, Tenten essentially was always and continues to be an extra (although she does get plenty of attention in the aforementioned spin-off).
%%Needs more context about how this compares to the size of his previous role. Being the titular character is not always indicative.** Even the titular character has this happen to him from time to time; Naruto's rival Sasuke got ''two hundred'' straight chapters featuring him with Naruto barely making a cameo.
%%Needs more context about how this compares to his previous role.** Conversely, not counting his three arcs as VillainProtagonist, Sasuke himself hardly appeared at all during the second part, until the end when he pulls an EnemyMine and, shortly afterwards, a HeelFaceTurn. He also only made a cameo in the movie "The Last".

** Jun Manjoume was Judai's first rival and played a major part in the first season. In the second season, he’s BrainwashedAndCrazy by Sartorius and serves as his main enforcer for most of the season. Come the third season, he’s given a little more attention then the rest of the cast, only to end up brainwashed again and serving as little more than a minor obstacle towards Judai, before being used as a sacrifice, along with most of Judai’s friends halfway through. He returns to prominence in the fourth season, interning under Edo to become a Pro Duelistz

%%Administrivia.ZeroContextExample** Even Yubel is DemotedToExtra, despite [[AmbiguousGender them]] having ''fused'' with Judai and living inside his body.

* ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'':

* The anime of ''Anime/TrinityBlood'' reduced some of the characters' roles. For example, Mary Spencer has a very prominent role in the manga and novels where [[spoiler:she is the illegitimate daughter of Crown Albion Prince (making her and Ester as sisters) and a possible successor to the throne. The anime never mentions this.]]

** Mimi, Joe, and Sora seemed to suffer it the worst. Especially Mimi who being moved to New York give her the smallest amount of appearances. In the Tokyopop manga adaptation, almost all scenes involving the 02 kids are completely excised, and Sora, Mimi and Joe are given at most three panels' worth of screentime.

%%Needs more context about how this compares to their previous importance.** Izzy still stays somewhat important as the [[MissionControl Mission Control guy.]]

** Mimi, Joe, and Sora seemed to suffer it the worst. Especially Mimi who being moved to New York give her the smallest amount of appearances. In the Tokyopop manga adaptation, almost all scenes involving the 02 kids are completely excised, and Sora, Mimi and Jo are given at most three panels' worth of screentime.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''[='=]s titular character, Index, gets shunted off to the side pretty quick. She does get more screen time than any other character besides Touma, but it still drops off after her introductory arc due to her not being much of an action character in a series with lots of intense fights.

* The second episode of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' puts the main focus on Rio Kamichika and her backstory and develops her character. In future episodes, she never appears beyond extremely brief and rare cameos. She was obviously used as a means to introduce [[BigBad Izaya]] and demonstrate [[ManipulativeBastard how he behaves]], but it is quite jarring for an early episode to focus primarily on a one-off character. Of course, it makes more sense if you know she was created exclusively for the anime adaptation.

* In the ''Literature/TheTwelveKingdoms'' novels, Taiki and Youko share the mantle of main character, and get roughly the same amount of books. In the anime, he gets a five-episode arc that is never properly concluded.

* 'Manga/YuYuHakusho'':

* Sylphiel Nels Lahda appears in the first two ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' seasons. She is absent from the third (and they even tease the viewer about it by giving her an eyecatch). She does appear in the final couple of episodes of the fourth, but has only a cameo in the beginning of the fifth (and is part of the penultimate eyecatch). Of course, in the original novels, she only appeared in two books (which the final arcs of seasons one and two were adaptations of), so there wasn't much material about her to work with.

* In the anime of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':

%%* Yuusaku got noticeably less prominent in the last act of ''Anime/{{Toradora}}''.

* The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise as a whole has Sayla Mass. A very major character in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', and you would think that being Amuro's LoveInterest coupled with being the sister of ''Char Aznable'' would secure a role in later stories. Nope. She appears in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', has a minor impact on the plot in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', and then vanishes from the franchise. This is generally attributed to her [[Creator/YouInoue voice actress]] being busy with other things whenever a new ''Gundam'' production rolled around, and had she been available, many believe she would have played a much larger role in the story, particularly in ''Anime/CharsCounterattack''.

%%Needs more context about how this compares to her previous role.** In the first NonSerialMovie, Nagisa [[SpotlightStealingSquad does everything]]: she befriends the prince who oddly looks like [[LoveInterest Fuji P]]., he gives her the [[ChekhovsGun trinket that saves the day later]], she has a scene where she risks her life to save one of the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Ridiculously Cute Critters]], and she alone gives the FillerVillain the [[PatrickStewartSpeech lecture about love and whatnot]], when on the series proper they're always delivered by both girls trading lines. Honoka gets only two scenes, where she warms up the AloofAlly. Even ''Hikari'' has more memorable scenes, and she spends half the movie injured in bed. (In fact, she's there ''because'' of such awesome scenes!) At least the second movie was fairer to poor Honoka... by giving ''Hikari'' the shaft instead.

%%Needs more context to differentiate from AdaptedOut.* In focusing more on Lily and Jake, [[Anime/{{Supernatural}} Supernatural: The Animation]] dropped early episodes shown in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' featuring Andy and Ava.

** Speaking of SAO, Kirito himself gets hit with this during the Mother's Rosario arc, as he takes a backseat for the arc to focus on Yuuki and Asuna. He only makes a few brief appearances during the arc, the most notable of which being covering the Sleeping Knights (along with Klein) while they move to take on the Floor 29 Boss.

* After ''Anime/WeissKreuz Gluhen,'' Omi and Youji demote themselves by [[spoiler:taking over Kritiker and getting married after developing amnesia]], leaving Aya and Ken to become the backbone of a new assassin team in England while they only appear in flashbacks. Frustratingly, looked about to change, what with Youji being called by his real name in a cameo and Omi keeping tabs on Aya and Ken's actions, but the series was CutShort.

** Trunks was nearly exempt from this, since unlike most of the cast, he actually had a decent role in ''Dragon Ball GT'', though only the first half of it. The second half of the series saw him appear less and less until he pretty much stopped appearing at all. In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' he and Goten had it so bad that [[OlderThanTheyLook Toriyama forgot to age them up]] and as a result Trunks looked the exact same as he did in ''Z'' despite being older than his counterpart was in ''Anime/DragonBallZTheHistoryOfTrunks''.

* The ''Manga/{{Splatoon}}'' manga is a comedic series focused on Turf Wars. [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} The games']] single player plotlines are ignored and the Turf War announcements are understandably not present, thus Callie, Marie, Marina, and Pearl are all bit roles.
** What's odd about this is that when the single player campaigns (Hero Mode and ''Octo Expansion'') do get adapted into mini-books, the original squids tend to take up their roles. The Hero Mode arcs have Callie and Marie show up only at the end (no convos from them come up since the focus is on Rider and Goggles), and Marina and Pearl's assistance to Agent 8 is mostly done by Team Blue.
** Speaking of Agent 8, Hachi, the main character in the Octo Expansion arc, hasn't had a major appearance in the Ranked Cup arc. Heck, his battle against the X-Blood is skipped since the chapter where it happened only reveals that he lost!

* ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia'' has this problem with most of the supporting cast in the second half of the episodes, when the show focuses on the Akko/Diana and Chariot/Croix relationships, most notably Akko's friends Sucy and Lotte. They barely have anything to do in the final episodes, and poor Lotte even feels like an extra in what should be ADayInTheLimelight for her!

*** Sonia gets far less spotlight, only appearing in one episode and showing up in the Eternatus arc. To make matters worse, she doesn't even have her Yamper.

** Cheren is your childhood friend and rival in ''Black And White'' alongside Bianca. The anime didn't adapt the plot to the games so Cheren was ignored until he became a Gym Leader in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''. Cheren appeared in the anime as his sequel form as a Gym Leader. This also creates a bizarre issue where Bianca is younger than Cheren.

*** At the start of the saga, Team Rocket commonly appeared until the second half when they started to appear much less that previous sagas.
*** Hop - TheRival of ''Sword & Shield'' - appears in the last episodes of the worldwide tournament and demoted to a simple fight against Ash using just Wooloo. Hop is already reduced to a spectator for the Masters Eight as a result.

** Mimi, Joe, and Sora seemed to suffer it the worst. Especially Mimi who being moved to New York give her the smallest amount of appearances. This is taken UpToEleven in the Tokyopop manga adaptation; almost all scenes involving the 02 kids are completely excised, and Sora, Mimi and Jo are given at most three panels' worth of screentime.

*** Goh's team gets hits the worst as his starters and other "big name" Pokémon not named Raboot that appear with him in opening titles lose focus after they evolve once (ever since his Sobble evolved into Drizzile, it simply has disappeared for the next ''ten'' episodes over Grookey taking the lead). His Cinderace loses its status as a walking Pokémon, ''[[UpToEleven and it's his first Pokémon]].'' Then there was his Drizzile, who literally didn't appear more than once during its state as a Drizzile for about twenty episodes until its evolution episode when it at least started to appear slightly more often after.

** ''Anime/TransformersHeadmasters'': Much of the cast from the original cartoon took on a smaller role with the anime as was customary with the franchise's MerchandiseDriven nature. It was most notable with the established characters who became Targetmasters. Blurr, Kup, Rodimus, Cyclonus, and Scourge were all upgraded into Targetmasters in the cartoon and thus stayed relevent with the newly produced toys. However, their new toys were never released in Japan and the anime reflected that. So while the five played a major role in the cartoon version of the "Masters" arc, the anime version had the Autobot trio in a minor role before being PutOnABus while the two Decepticons faded into the background.