History DemotedToExtra / AnimeAndManga

** ''Pokémon Journeys'' has a very strange case in regards to Ash's and Goh's Pokémon. In the case of ''any'' Pokémon that has already evolved to their last stage, chances are they disappear from the story for absurd periods of time.
*** Ash's Gengar gets hits the worst with this as it doesn't receive any special attention after it's captured [[TheLoad except to crash and lose in battles]] (ironically, Gengar already had a history of its previous trainer ditching it behind) [[spoiler:though it gets two focus episodes helping it attain Gigantamax,]] the series quickly goes back into filler episodes without so much as a mention of that happening.
*** 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.
*** This also happens with Yamper; Chloe's family pet. Many of her earlier episodes involved how related she and her family were to Yamper. However, [[SpotlightStealingSquad once she got an Eevee and a plethora of episodes featuring its evolutions]], Yamper became a background character left to rot at her house. This is a bit more glaring due to this incarnation of Sonia never having a Yamper.

* Poor Yuuno. Once the partner to the title character of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', his status rapidly degrades with each passing season thanks to the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters growing cast]] and the series shifting in tone from a {{Seinen}} MagicalGirl Show to a Space Military Show (with Magical Girls). It's telling that he's completely absent from the opening of the [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs second series]], and that [[TheFilmOfTheSeries the film adaptation of the first series]] excises his role in the plot. Sufficed to say, Yuuno fans were pleasantly surprised when he not only became a playable character in ''[[VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable The Gears Of Destiny]]'', but TookALevelInBadass in the process. However, even in this game, he has no CGI appearances, all of his battles are optional, he has the least relevance in the story, and he's one of four characters (three, if you count the [[TagTeamTwins Liese Twins]] as one character) who is not involved in the GrandFinale.

%%Needs context about their previous roles.** Now thanks to the wonders of LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars New Stage'' ends up giving this to anyone pre-''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'', meaning 11 heroines show up, but don't have any real purpose beyond "pounding the BigBad's head in in the end". ''New Stage 2'' only elevates this for [[FirstInstallmentWins Nagisa, Honoka, Hikari]], while Setsuna, Tsubomi, Erika and Ellen still managed to keep their speaking role. However, this is at cost of Love, Miki, Inori, Itsuki, Yuri, Hibiki, Kanade and Ako getting the non-speaking role like the previous movie's 11 heroines. As of Movie 7, ''Spring Carnival'', if you're not a Pink-type Cure, Honoka, Nagisa, Tsubomi, Erika or the previous and recent teams, you're probably not going to get lines.

* This happens depressingly frequently in ''Anime/{{Shirobako}}'', as a consequence of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters the cast being so huge]]. Apart from [[TheProtagonist Aoi]], most characters are {{flat|Character}} until their [[ADayInTheLimelight day in the limelight]], at which point they fade right back into the background. Even Ema, who in any other series would be a {{Deuteragonist}}, gets far less screentime than merchandise and trailers suggest she should.

** The Inners themselves as the anime progressed. Starting in ''S'', they mostly seemed to exist to be {{foil}}s to Haruka and Michiru, but still received an occasional focus episode. ''Super S'' abruptly promoted Chibiusa to main character which resulted in several episodes where the Inners didn't appear at all. Somewhat reversed in ''Sailor Stars'', but it still demoted them to Starlight groupies who could only tell Usagi to stop stringing Seiya along even though she made it abundantly clear she wasn't interested in them and already had a boyfriend.

* Despite being a main character in ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'' and ''Manga/BadCompany'', Ryuji Danma only appears a few times in the sequel series ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka''. He did get his own DayInTheLimelight SpinOff, ''Great Transporter Ryuji'', but it was a miniseries only lasting 10 chapters.

* This trope can be applied to any character of the entire ''Franchise/DragonBall'' franchise that isn't Goku or Vegeta and to a lesser extent Pan in ''[[Anime/DragonBallGT GT]]'' due to the fact that other characters CantCatchUp. It's so bad that this trope might as well be called "Dragon Ball Demotion". [[note]]There are some characters that [[TheBusCameBack did have a return to the spotlight]] in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' though, especially in the Tournament arc.[[/note]]

** 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.

* ''Anime/ShiningTearsXWind'':
** The ones who really didn't get to appear in the anime, ''nor the game'' in Valeria were Volg, Pios, Keiner, and Cupido.
** [[spoiler: Kureha]] went from the main female character to a useless extra after she served her purpose as [[spoiler: Souma's RomanticFalseLead.]]

** 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 significantly younger than Cheren.

** BreakoutCharacter Lucario has become a SeriesMascot since its first appearance in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''. Lucario is featured in several games and adaptations, often times being plot relevant. It and its pre-evolution have appeared several times in the anime (Lucario debuted in its own movie, Riolu had an arc in Sinnoh, several trainers have Lucario, etc). Both Riley and Korrina give you a Riolu egg and a Lucario respectively in two different games, but these events don't occur in the anime. In ''Pokémon Journeys'', Ash acquires an egg that hatches a Riolu, which he later evolves into Lucario, but his Lucario only appears a grand total of two times in the next ''twenty episodes'' (one as a background character, the other as a distraction from poachers while Goh is left to tend [[spoiler:Suicune, whom he captured after the poachers had already weakened it]]). This means that Lucario's significance is downplayed compared to the games.

** ''Pokémon Journeys'' has a very strange case in regards to Ash's and Goh's Pokémon. In the case of ''any'' Pokémon that has already evolved to their last stage, chances are they disappear from the story for absurd periods of time. Ash's Gengar gets hits the worst with this as it doesn't receive any special attention after it's captured [[TheLoad except to crash and lose in battles]] (ironically, Gengar already had a history of its previous trainer ditching it behind). 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]].''

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

%%Needs more context about how this compares to his previous role.* Hits [[SeriesMascot Monokuma]] hard in ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool''. Due to the anime having a massively different structure to prior installments (least of it being that half of the anime is a prequel) and the Final Killing not fitting with the same set-up, he's practically useless for the main story. As of Episode 5, he's had a total of one actual scene is the main story, along with providing a brief recap in the fourth.
* The entire class of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' suffer from this - the only characters who play an active role in the plot are [[SpotlightStealingSquad Chiaki]], Nagito, [[BreakTheCutie Mikan]] and the Ultimate Imposter. The rest of the class are reduced to wacky shenanigans and [[CharacterShilling praising every little thing Chiaki does.]] Even Mahiru and Fuyuhiko's involvement in the death of Natsumi and Sato is drastically downplayed, which is especially jarring at it was the entire motivation behind Chapter 2 of the game.

** In the game adaptations, [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure the Egg Viper]], the final boss of Sonic's story and one of the most popular boss battles of the series, has about one minute of screen time, while the Egg Walker, Tails' final boss battle, doesn't even appear.

* Isn't it sad, Felme? All that work to make you into a DarkActionGirl and it all gets blown away in one rather pathetic death scene in ''[[Franchise/{{Zoids}} Zoids: Genesis]]''.

* In the ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' manga, Yusuke's mother Atsuko was present for much of the early story and attended the Dark Tournament, but gradually faded away. In the anime, virtually all of her appearances after the Yukina arc were cut out and she was removed from later versions of the opening.

* 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]].

* Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS:
** Firewall Dragon was Yusaku's ace card in season one then it got banned in 2018. Before that, it's game-breaker status in the TCG and OCG had fans guessing it would be banned even before the anime will end. Its DemotedToExtra status in the anime supports this as Yusaku relied on other summoning methods and amassed more ace cards than any other protagonists. Then again, Yusaku not having an ace monster is still within his character. [[note]]Decode Talker has the same number of appearances in the show, but thanks to MemeticMutation, Firewall Dragon's case is more known.[[/note]]
** Spectre DemotedToExtra is because his voice actor is unable to record his lines in season 3.

* Tetsuo Takeda had an important role as Yuma's best friend early on in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'', even dueling Number 96, but later suffered from this, though he had it better than some and got his [[ADayInTheLimelight Days in the Limelight]].

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

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'' Jonouchi, Honda, and Anzu don't do anything of note, and Bakura is only important in a flashback.

* ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'':
** In the movie, Shiyu Kusanagi not only had his GentleGiant and FriendToAllLivingThings persona stripped away to make him an explicit villain, but his relationship with Yuzuriha was left out, despite being probably ''the key'' aspect of his character, and to top it off, he was [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed in a very mean-spirited manner]] by ''[[EtTuBrute his own ally]]'' after only a few minutes of screen time. It could be justified as being necessary for the short length of the movie, but for fans of the character it was just ''painful''.
** Subaru Sumeragi and Seishirou [[TogetherInDeath kill each other off]] [[DroppedABridgeOnHim rather... fast and unceremoniously]] in the opening scene.
* Kenjuro Kurogane in the anime of ''Anime/{{Yaiba}}'', which not only ends earlier, but also shows him only in the very first episode.

* In the anime of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', all the girls Keima "captures" or helps out after their story arc is done. They either play very minor roles, or are only seen briefly afterwards. Only Haqua breaks out from this, as we see her again a few times and she does something with the main characters.

* Early on in ''Manga/WatashiNoMessiahSama'', we are lead to believe that the monster Zoa-Evil Katla is a boss or at least a strong monster. Turns out that it's merely a {{Mook}} of some sort and appears in the hundreds in major battles.

* Ittoki Otoya in ''Anime/UtaNoPrinceSama''. In a sense. He is still part of the main cast in the second season, however, the first season gives him a bigger role and more screen time than other members of STARISH, in the second season, the counterpart of his importance from the first season is given to Cecil.
* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': While the rest of the cast gets a fair amount of screentime and character focus, Yuuki is only seen briefly during her match with Satomi. Which serves as little more than a means for [[TheDragon Damian]] to assess [[LivingMacGuffin Satomi's]] [[AlmightyJanitor inherent fighting ability.]]

** Maho's boyfriend Riku appeared often in elementary and early into middle school however as time went on he appeared less and less.

** Lala and Haruna, who were the two most important characters after Rito, get hit by this trope, becoming secondary characters. On the flipside, Momo and Golden Darkness get promoted to being the protagonists.

** Lala and Haruna, who were the two most important characters after Rito, get hit by this trope, becoming secondary characters. On the flipside, Momo and Golden Darkness get promoted to being the protagonists. The only character retains their importance is Rito, and even in his case he feels OutOfFocus because the bulk of the time the story is being told from other characters [=POVs.=]

** A better example would be ''Lala'', the main heroine of the series, who has yet to get an episode truly about herself in ''Darkness'', the closest being one she sharea with her sisters!
** The ''Darkness'' spinoff, in general, completely swamps around character focus. Lala and Haruna, who were the two most important characters after Rito, get hit by this trope, becoming secondary characters. On the flipside, Momo and Golden Darkness get promoted to being the protagonists. The only character retains their importance is Rito, and even in his case he feels OutOfFocus because the bulk of the time the story is being told from other characters [=POVs.=]

** In the anime, [[TheOjou Saki]] and [[GenderBender Ren&Run]] gain plenty of screentime, and Miss Mikado goes from being the regular with less appearances to [[AscendedExtra have a lot of 'em]]... yet it seems they managed this by stealing off all of [[TokenMiniMoe Mikan's]] screentime, despite Mikan being more popular than all of them combined. Most notable, there's one episode happening almost entirely on (And ''under'') her (And her brother [[UnwantedHarem Rito's]]) backyard, but she doesn't get even one line. The {{OVA}}s and second season avert this, but still.

** A better example would be ''Lala'', the main heroine of the series, who has yet to get an episode truly about herself in ''Darkness'', the closest being one she shared with her sisters, but her sisters already get far more screentime anyway!

* In the ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' anime, [[TheOjou Saki]] and [[GenderBender Ren&Run]] gain plenty of screentime, and Miss Mikado goes from being the regular with less appearances to [[AscendedExtra have a lot of 'em]]... yet it seems they managed this by stealing off all of [[TokenMiniMoe Mikan's]] screentime, despite Mikan being more popular than all of them combined. Most notable, there's one episode happening almost entirely on (And ''under'') her (And her brother [[UnwantedHarem Rito's]]) backyard, but she doesn't get even one line. The {{OVA}}s and second season avert this, but still.
** Mikan even lampshades this ''Manga/ToLoveRu Darkness'', stating that she feels that she is becoming less important because Momo is taking away most of the things she used to do. However, she does get fairly good screentime so it's not a "true" example. A better example would be ''Lala'', the main heroine of the series, that has yet to get an episode truly about herself in ''Darkness'', the closest being one she shared with her sisters, but her sisters already get far more screentime anyway!

** Takayanagi was initially relegated to this fate, but he's soon back in the spotlight during his [[spoiler:battle with Mitsuomi, which he won handily despite the collapse of the building around them. From then on, he remains important, as he is the one that has to battle Souichiro at the end of the series and buy enough time for the Natsume sisters to help Souichiro destroy the Susano'o power.]] His battle with Fu Chien was a pretty big spotlight moment, too.
** And Nagi seems to have steadily drifted out of focus as the primary protagonist since the first flashback arc up until the beginning of the tournament where he [[spoiler: became the BigBad, sorta]], and even then he spent several chapters before the finale wandering around off screen. Of course, no one even comes close to the demotion suffered by Bob Makihara, who went from being a secondary protagonist to being a relatively low-level (if very likable) supporting character.