History OutOfFocus / AnimeAndManga

** In the original series, since Ash catches too many Pokémon in Kanto, his Primeape, Kingler, Muk and Tauros suffer greatly from this trope. Primeape gets used to beat Team Rocket at the end of the episode it debuted in, and was used to win a tournament later but was then immediately PutOnABus and hasn't been seen again since. Kingler is barely seen and participates in only two battles (where it does extremely well). Muk occasionally pops up in some comedic scenes after its first battle, but it is also heavily underused. And since Ash catches ''thirty'' Tauros in the Safari Zone, it is unknown which ones he actually gets sent to him and they don't appear very often (although they get more battles than Muk and Kingler). The Tauros herd are basically one and the same Pokémon, just multiplied. Heracross from Johto also suffers this fate, as it gets sent to the lab not long after its capture, but it is given some good moments to shine. Phanpy suffers this in the original series, due to being the latest Pokémon to be captured and it hatched recently there. However, in the ''Advanced Generation'' series, Phanpy re-joins the party and eventually evolves. In the GrandFinale ''Anime/PokemonBeAPokemonMaster'' virtually every Pokémon Ash owned gets ADayInTheLimelight or at least a cameo ''except'' Primeape.

* In ''Anime/LuminousWitches'', lead character Virginia "Ginny" Robertson disappears for much of the first half of "[[Recap/Recap/LuminousWitchesEp3GentleLight Gentle Light]]" due to her enlistment in the Britannia Air Force. She returns shortly after Aira Paivikki Linnamaa leaves to look after Maria Magdalene Dietrich, who has suffered a HeroicRROD during the latter's TrainingFromHell.

*** Little Garden: Zoro, Nami, and [[GuestStarPartyMember Vivi]] spend most of their screentime stuck in Mr. 3's DeathTrap. Sanji ''seems'' like this, but despite being isolated from the main plot, contributes some vital {{Chekhovs Gun}}s for Alabasta.

** In the original series, since Ash catches too many Pokémon in Kanto, his Primeape, Kingler, Muk and Tauros suffer greatly from this trope. Primeape gets used to beat Team Rocket at the end of the episode it debuted in, and was used to win a tournament later but was then immediately PutOnABus and hasn't been seen again since. Kingler is barely seen and participates in only two battles (where it does extremely well). Muk occasionally pops up in some comedic scenes after its first battle, but it is also heavily underused. And since Ash catches ''thirty'' Tauros in the Safari Zone, it is unknown which ones he actually gets sent to him and they don't appear very often (although they get more battles than Muk and Kingler). The Tauros herd are basically one and the same Pokémon, just multiplied. Heracross from Johto also suffers this fate, as it gets sent to the lab not long after its capture, but it is given some good moments to shine. Phanpy suffers this in the original series, due to being the latest Pokémon to be captured and it hatched recently there. However, in the ''Advanced Generation'' series, Phanpy re-joins the party and eventually evolves. In the GrandFinale ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesAimToBeAPokemonMaster'' virtually every Pokémon Ash owned gets ADayInTheLimelight or at least a cameo ''except'' Primeape.

* ''LightNovel/BodaciousSpacePirates'': Chiaki suffers from this around episode 8, when Gruier shows up. What makes it more painfully obvious is the amount of emphasis on her during the opening and closing credits, where she is seen alone, or with just Marika, the main character. She plays a very important role in the beginning of the show, and helps Marika start her space pirate career, then largely [[DemotedToExtra vanishes]] while Gruier spends time with Marika. However, she gets more screentime again around episode 15.

* ''LightNovel/KyoKaraMaoh'':

* ''Manga/MurasakiiroNoQualia'': Yukari is the deuteragonist of the story and [[spoiler: her death]] is the cause for the story's actual plot. Yet as the story proceeds, it focuses more and more on the physics aspect of the idea of parallel universes and how to achieve this, so that Yukari barely appears anymore, aside from a background mention here and there. [[spoiler:Trying to prevent her death in ''any'' universe]] is still the focus of the story, but it becomes hard to remember.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'':

** In the original series, since Ash catches too many Pokémon in Kanto, his Primeape, Kingler, Muk and Tauros suffer greatly from this trope. Primeape gets used to beat Team Rocket at the end of the episode it debuted in, and was used to win a tournament later but was then immediately PutOnABus and hasn't been seen again since. Kingler is barely seen and participates in only two battles (where it does extremely well). Muk occasionally pops up in some comedic scenes after its first battle, but it is also heavily underused. And since Ash catches ''thirty'' Tauros in the Safari Zone, it is unknown which ones he actually gets sent to him and they don't appear very often (although they get more battles than Muk and Kingler). The Tauros herd are basically one and the same Pokémon, just multiplied. Heracross from Johto also suffers this fate, as it gets sent to the lab not long after its capture, but it is given some good moments to shine. Phanpy suffers this in the original series, due to being the latest Pokémon to be captured and it hatched recently there. However, in the ''Advanced Generation'' series, Phanpy re-joins the party and eventually evolves.

** Rose herself is out of focus in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa''. She's a major character in the later episodes of [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime]] but only appears in a few scenes of ''COS''. Winry, who has less focus in the 2003 anime as a whole compared to the manga, and Noah, [[spoiler:who is Rose's German counterpart]], get attention instead.

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': given the size of the cast, it was inevitable that just about every character other than Negi would fall into this at some point. The most notable ones are Kaede (who after a brief [[ADayInTheLimelight day in the limelight]] chapter early on doesn't get much plot relevance outside of being additional muscle for the group), Anya (who is in focus for all of a dozen or so chapters before getting stuck as a DamselInDistress), and Ayaka (who doesn't show up at all for quite a while once the Magic World arc starts [[note]]Okay, about half of the class doesn't show up for a long time from this point, but the others who get left behind are minor characters at best[[/note]]). There's also Zazie, who is never in focus to begin with, despite being one of the series' most mysterious characters.

** When compared to the other ''Z'' {{Big Bad}}s, Cell gets significantly less attention in modern media, particularly ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. Whereas Vegeta is the {{deuteragonist}}, Freeza the antagonist of [[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF a movie]] and a recurring character in ''Super'', and Majin Buu a secondary character, Cell doesn't get much love.[[labelnote:*]]Even in the ''Xenoverse'' games, his arcs are generally shorter than the other three villains'.[[/labelnote]] Granted, he's the least popular of the four (at least in Japan; [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff in the West it's a different story]]), and this -- coupled with his difficult to draw/animate design -- probably factors into his lack of focus. However, his fortune reverses with ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'', where he plays a major role in the story.

** Due to the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters sheer number of minor characters]] in the Wano arc, Usopp and Brook don’t get quite as much to do compared to their crewmates during the Onigashima Raid.

* In ''Manga/MobPsycho100'', [[TheLancer Teru]] and [[BigLittleBrother Ritsu]] get hit ''hard'' with this after the 7th Division arc, where they arguably were the two most important characters there next to [[TheHero Mob.]] After the 7th Division, both of them completely disappear during the Urban Legend and the Keiji Mogami arcs, and only make a single-panel cameo near the end of the Separate Ways arc, effectively leaving them out of the story for three arcs, one minor and two major. At least they manage to recover a little bit of prominence in the World Domination arc, though they're forced to share it with the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters appearing in it.

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': given the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters size of the cast]], it was inevitable that just about every character other than Negi would fall into this at some point. The most notable ones are Kaede (who after a brief [[ADayInTheLimelight day in the limelight]] chapter early on doesn't get much plot relevance outside of being additional muscle for the group), Anya (who is in focus for all of a dozen or so chapters before getting stuck as a DamselInDistress), and Ayaka (who doesn't show up at all for quite a while once the Magic World arc starts [[note]]Okay, about half of the class doesn't show up for a long time from this point, but the others who get left behind are minor characters at best[[/note]]). There's also Zazie, who is never in focus to begin with, despite being one of the series' most mysterious characters.

** Juvia and Gajeel are entirely absent from the Nirvana arc, effectively getting PutOnABus.
** Outside of Natsu, Wendy, Lucy, Happy, Carla, and Gajeel, Erza, and Gray to a lesser extent everyone in the supporting cast gets hit with this in Edolas thanks to being turned into a Lacrima with Edolas Fairy Tail filling in to some degree. Ironically in a arc that saw him PutOnABus, Mystogan fell into this for most of the story only show up at the beginning and end.

** Romeo Conbolt only makes intermittent cameos to remind us Macao has a son. Post-{{Timeskip}}, after he grows up he gets more of a recurring role.
** Gray was criticized for this Post-{{Timeskip}}, as outside of his RunningGag with Juvia and a few fights, it felt like he was just tagging along with the main cast without any clear direction.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'':

** ''Manga/VentoAureo''

*** Emporio Alniño starts off as the way Jolyne and Ermes are introduced to the rest of the cast, having a safe space with his Burning Down the House Stand for everyone to reconvene in, and having full knowledge of the layout of Green Dolphin Street Prison due to being born to a woman prisoner. He's also fully understands how each of the characters function and serves as a bit of an information broker between everyone at first. However, once the story gets to the Maximum Security arc, Emporio starts losing focus, and once the gang busts out of prison, he serves as little more than the group's chauffeur, given that he has almost no combat capabilities. [[spoiler:That said, Emporio ''does'' end up being the SoleSurvivor of the TotalPartyKill at the hands of Made in Heaven, and through using the Weather Report Stand, he's the one who ultimately kills the BigBad, Pucci.]]

** ''Manga/JoJolion''

** ''Manga/[=JoJolion=]''

** ''Manga/{{Jojolion}}''

** ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'':

*** Pannacotta Fugo has an even worse case of this, as he only gets a single fight that comes early in the story, due to his Stand not being fully under his control and having a StoryBreakerPower that he uses as a [[GodzillaThreshold last resort]]. At the end of the first half of the story, he [[spoiler: refuses to betray the boss and gets PutOnABus for the rest of the series, never to return]].

** Almost all of Dawn's Pokémon get very little screen-time due to a certain Piplup hogging all the limelight. Her Pachirisu in particular suffers from this, getting less screen-time than all of her other Pokémon combined. To make matters even worse, Piplup is seen as a major annoyance by many fans, resulting in it becoming TheScrappy of the ''Diamond & Pearl'' era.

** ''Manga/DiamondisUnbreakable''

*** Mohammed Avdol gets hit with this even harder. After [[spoiler: his DisneyDeath in the "Emperor and Hanged Man" arc]], he is absent for most of the first half of the story. [[spoiler: He comes back during the last two fights of the first half... and doesn't really get many fights after. During the Egypt Arc, he gets a few major roles for being [[DroppedABridgeOnHim unceremoniously]] KilledOffForReal by Vanilla Ice]].