History Main / TwoActStructure

* The first half of ''Manga/TheGirlIWantIsSoHandsome'' involves Hina joining the basketball team as a manager to get closer to her crush Shiki. Halfway through the story, she kisses Shiki, and the tone turns somewhat more serious, with more relationship-related angst.
* The first half of ''Manga/TheSummerYouWereThere'' involves Kaori reaching out to her withdrawn and depressed classmate Shizuku, getting closer to her and helping her make amends for bullying Shizuku's former classmate Ruri, who happens to be Kaori's friend. After Shizuku tries to apologize to Ruri, Shizuku learns that Kaori is terminally ill with a respiratory disease, and strives to do what she can to help Kaori, while Kaori tries to use her final days to help Shizuku and the others dear to Kaori.

* WebOriginal/{{Solar Wind}}'s first act isn't all sunshine and roses - for the most part, though, it explores protagonist Tav developing their relationships with the humans they meet, which is pretty surface-level. [[MindScrew The second act, though...]]

The story is neatly divided into two parts. The first part will be lighthearted and straightforward compared to the second, which will wrap things up in a realistic mixed-bag sort of way. This structure is most common in musicals. It comes in two flavors: the rise-and-fall variety, which has everything on the up-and-up in the first act and, in the second act, shoots it all to hell; and the parallel variety, where the darker, more intricate and realistic second act makes some sort of point about the first act.

* ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge''. Act I ends with the completion of Georges Seurat's most famous painting; Act II picks up after a TimeSkip of ''nearly a century'' and explores the 20th century artistic struggles of Georges's IdenticalGrandson.

* ''Film/ManOnFire'' begins with ShellShockedVeteran John Creasy learning to live again thanks to his relationship with the girl he's bodyguarding, little Pita Ramos. Initially a GrumpyBear towards her, he reacts well to her peppy attitude, eventually becomes a second father figure for her, and helps her train to win a swim meet. At the middle of the movie, Pita gets kidnapped, her ransom exchange is botched by a group of {{dirty cop}}s, and she's [[spoiler:supposedly]] killed in retaliation. The rest of the movie is Creasy's RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the kidnappers and corrupt cops.

* ''Fanfic/AllAssortedAnimorphsAUs'': "What if Tom was infested by a member of the Yeerk Peace Movement?" starts off as a series of vignettes about Tom and Aftran helping the Animorphs. [[spoiler:Halfway through, they find away to overthrow the vissers and get promoted to Visser One as a result, and the rest of the chapter is about their efforts to end the empire's slavery.]]

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'''s Golden Age Arc can be easily divided into two major parts. The first part is Guts's joining of the Band of the Hawk and working with Griffith and his NumberTwo Casca to crush Griffith's enemies and realize his ambitions, culminating in the ending of a long war for Midland which gets them and the rest of the Hawks knighted by the King of Midland himself. The midpoint comes when Guts leaves the Hawks and defeats Griffith, and Griffith tries to come back from this by boinking the Princess, which ''royally'' pisses off the King, and not only gets him thrown into the Tower of Rebirth and put to the torture, but gets everyone else in the Hawks declared outlaw. The second part, [[TimeSkip a year after the fateful event]], has Guts returning and joining Casca (who he officially becomes a couple with) and the Hawks on a daring rescue mission, only to find that Griffith is in no shape to lead them anymore, and as they escape with him, they are beset by hired scum and horrors bent on killing them all, up to and including the Apostle Wyald, the ''second'' major demon that Guts has to face. It all culminates in Griffith [[DespairEventHorizon falling to despair]] and activating his Crimson Behelit, throwing Guts, Casca and everyone else into a demonic nightmare as the Eclipse goes down and Griffith sacrifices everyone to become one of the five lords of all demons in the ''Berserk'' universe.

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'''s Golden Age Arc can be easily divided into two major parts. The first part is Guts's joining of the Band of the Hawk and working with Griffith and his NumberTwo Casca to crush Griffith's enemies and realize his ambitions, culminating in the ending of a long war for Midland which gets them and the rest of the Hawks knighted by the King of Midland himself. The midpoint comes when Guts leaves the Hawks and defeats Griffith, and Griffith tries to come back from this by boinking the Princess, which ''royally'' pisses off the King, and not only gets him thrown into the Tower of Rebirth and put to the torture, but gets everyone else in the Hawks declared outlaw. The second part, [[TimeSkip a year after the fateful event]], has Guts returning and joining Casca (who he officially becomes a couple with) and the Hawks on a daring rescue mission, only to find that Griffith is in no shape to lead them anymore, and as they escape with him, they are beset by hired scum and horrors bent on killing them all, up to and including the Apostle Wyald, the ''second'' major demon that Guts has to face. It all culminates in Griffith [[DespairEventHorizon falling to despair]] and activating his Behelit, throwing Guts, Casca and everyone else into a demonic nightmare as the Eclipse goes down.

* ''Theatre/PaintYourWagon'' starts with Ben Rumson striking gold while digging a grave for a fallen friend and the establishment of a BoomTown, with Ben's daughter Jennifer being sent to school Back East. When Jennifer arrives back in town for the second act a year later, the gold has started to run out, the town is dying, and most of the population have started to leave for another town due to another gold strike. Ben and Jennifer are the only ones who choose to stay, and Jennifer wants to see Julio, who she's fallen in love with.