History WolverinePublicity / AnimeAndManga

** ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' has an odd relationship with this trope: while Japanese products will generally keep things topical, ''western'' releases will regularly heavily advertise characters and cards from [[Anime/YuGiOh the original series]], because it was much more popular overseas than any of its sequels. This can get to rather corny levels: for instance, when the ''Duelists of the Abyss'' pack was released as ''Duels from the Deep'' in the west, the cover character was changed from Nash (a major character from ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal'') to Mako Tsunami (a very minor duelist who appeared twice in the original show, yet was apparently still judged to be more recognizable). Special mention to the western release of ''VideoGame/YuGiOhRushDuelDawnOfTheBattleRoyale'', which features Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon front and center despite the game technically ''[[TabletopGame/YuGiOhRushDuel not even being about the card game they're from]]'', with the Rush Duel signature monsters Sevens Road Magician and Multistrike Dragon Dragias awkwardly shunted to the side. (The original cover instead simply had the core cast of ''Anime/YuGiOhSevens''.)

* Pretty much the only reason why Yugi Muto, the protagonist from the previous series, appears in the pilot episode of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX''.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has an odd relationship with this: while japanese products will generally keep things topical, ''western'' releases will regularly heavily advertise characters and cards from [[Anime/YuGiOh the original series]], because it was much more popular overseas than any of its sequels. This can get to rather corny levels: for instance, when the ''Duelists of the Abyss'' pack was released as ''Duels from the Deep'' in the west, the cover character was changed from Nash (a major character from ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal'') to Mako Tsunami (a very minor duelist who appeared twice in the original show, yet was apparently still judged to be more recognizable). Special mention to the western release of ''VideoGame/YuGiOhRushDuelDawnOfTheBattleRoyale'', which features Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon front and center despite the game technically ''[[TabletopGame/YuGiOhRushDuel not even being about the card game they're from]]'', with the Rush Duel signature monsters Sevens Road Magician and Multistrike Dragon Dragias awkwardly shunted to the side. (The original cover instead simply had the core cast of ''Anime/YuGiOhSevens''.)

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and all of its related works in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} have this with the insanely popular [[LadyOfWar Servant]] [[JeanneDArchetype Saber]]. She (or one of her incarnations) gets top billing in almost everything related to Fate, and even if she doesn't show up personally, you can bet one of her "Saberfaces" will pick up the slack. The page image for ''Literature/FateZero'' (which was also the 1st promotional image released for its anime adaptation) is a perfect example: Saber is front and center in the picture and is illustrated in bright, eye-catching colors while everyone else is a mere silhouette (and while she ''is'' a major character of said series, she's not the main protagonist).

* Despite Zabuza and Haku dying early in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', they are so popular that they've got several action figures and merch, are featured on multiple DVD covers for the series, are featured in video games (with some that don't even cover the story arc they are from), and made it to the Top 30 in multiple popularity polls, even later on in the run.
** Due to his huge fanbase, Itachi Uchiha is also featured on tons of merchandise and promotional material. He's got 2 novels plus an anime adaptation of them, a special OVA from Storm Revolution, and he is a popular Halloween costume among fans of the series. He's even featured on some covers for DVD's that don't even feature him. Even after his death in the series, they still didn't stop marketing him. Thing is, he's not featured in the show that much, and was only featured in a few arcs, and even then, he wasn't in them for very long.

* Unusually, Nel's adult form from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is featured heavily on manga covers and anime openings, despite only appearing in a few chapters and not really accomplishing anything important. Hitsugaya also gets this in spades, to the point where an official poster for the Hell Verse movie (the only one of the 4 animated movies where he does ''not'' have a notable or major role, and in fact only appears in two scenes to talk) features him alongside Ichigo and Kokuto - ''the two protagonists''

* Pretty much the only reason why Yugi Moto/Muto, the protagonist from the previous series, appears in the pilot episode of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX''.

* Despite Zabuza and Haku dying early in ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'', they are so popular that they've got several action figures and merch, featured on multiple DVD covers for the series, featured in video games (with some that don't even cover the story they are from), and made it to top 30 in multiple popularity polls, even later on in the run.

* Unusually, Nel's adult form from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is featured heavily on manga covers and anime openings, despite only appearing in a few chapters and not really accomplishing anything important. Hitsugaya also gets this in spades, to the point where an official poster for the Hell Verse movie (the only one of the 4 animated movies where he does ''not'' have a notable or major role, and in fact only appears in two scenes to talk) features him alongside Ichigo and Kokuto - ''the two protagonists''.

* Most of the promotional art for ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' features [[EnsembleDarkHorse Mi]][[TsunDere ko]][[ShockAndAwe to]] in a rather notable way, as if she formed a PowerTrio with main characters Touma and Index. In reality, she only makes bit appearances on various episodes, the only notable ones being a StoryArc about her (Which she shares with one of her clones and [[JerkAss Accelerator]], with the clone having similar screentime and more CharacterDevelopment) and ADayInTheLimelight ShipTease episode later on the season. [[OlderThanTheyLook Komoe]] and [[ActionGirl Kaori]] have as much importance than her if not more (At least in the anime first season), but they get very few appearances in the official art and tend to share them with ''Mikoto'', despite never meeting in the anime (Stiyl, being a guy in a ImprobablyFemaleCast, was never in the running, even if he's more relevant than any girl). This goes even more so for her roommate Kuroko, who is in most of the aforementioned art, but only gets 2-3 minor appearances with Mikoto and a UsefulNotes/BarackObama gag, yet outdoes in appearances everyone else on the series but Mikoto and actual heroine [[{{Moe}} Index]].

** All in all, this is par per the course for Creator/JCStaff, which loves PanderingToTheBase to CripplingOverspecialization and promotes the 1-2 most popular females while ignoring everyone else. Only that's usually the ''lead'' girl (Such as [[LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana Shana]] or [[LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero Louise]]), not a secondary character with little to no relevance on over half the arcs, making Mikoto's case stand out the most.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and all of its related works in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} have this with the insanely popular [[LadyOfWar Servant]] [[JeanneDArchetype Saber]]. She (or one of her incarnations) gets top billing in almost everything related to Fate, and even if she doesn't show up personally, you can bet one of her "Saberfaces" will pick up the slack. The page image for ''LightNovel/FateZero'' (which was also the 1st promotional image released for its anime adaptation) is a perfect example: Saber is front and center in the picture and is illustrated in bright, eye-catching colors while everyone else is a mere silhouette (and while she ''is'' a major character of said series, she's not the main protagonist).

** [[Characters/JoJosBizarreAdventureJotaroKujo Jotaro Kujo]] from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' and [[Characters/JoJosBizarreAdventureDIO Dio Brando/DIO]]. Jotaro is the most popular Joestar in Japan and was not in just one but four different arcs (''Stardust Crusaders'', ''Diamond is Unbreakable'', ''Golden Wind'', and ''Stone Ocean'') and plays a big part in three of the four of them. DIO is a cruel, conniving, and somewhat classy vampire whose anger gets the better of him easily and whose greatest rival is... Jotaro Kujo. Not Jonathan Joestar, the man he was raised with as a brother and and the only man he could respect and even love as family (in a twisted sort of way), but Jotaro. Both of them have become the default hero/villain duo due to the massive popularity of their appearance in ''Stardust Crusaders''.

** [[Characters/JoJosBizarreAdventureJotaroKujo Jotaro Kujo]] from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' and [[Characters/JoJosBizarreAdventureDIO Dio Brando/DIO]]. Jotaro is the most popular Joestar in Japan and was not in just one but four different arcs (''Stardust Crusaders'', ''Diamond is Unbreakable'', ''Golden Wind'', and ''Stone Ocean'') and plays a big part in three of the four of them. DIO is a cruel, conniving, and somewhat classy vampire who's anger gets the better of him easily and whose greatest rival is... Jotaro Kujo. Not Jonathan Joestar, the man he was raised with as a brother and and the only man he could respect and even love as family (in a twisted sort of way), but Jotaro. Both of them have become the default hero/villain duo due to the massive popularity of their appearance in ''Stardust Crusaders''.

** Sakura Kinomoto of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' is considered to be the most popular character and the TropeCodifier of {{Moe}} as she had an alternate version in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' where she also made a cameo in the OAV and her Clow staff appeared in ''Manga/XxxHolic'' and had tons of merchandises compared to the rest of the CCS cast or any Clamp character.
** Asides from ''Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle'', Kimihiro Watanuki of ''Manga/XxxHolic'' made cameos in several Clamp works such as ''Manga/DrugAndDrop'', ''Manga/{{Kobato}}'' and ''Anime/BloodC''. He doesn’t have the merchandising powers as Sakura, but every time you see in another Clamp work, you know that he’s the bridge of the Clamp multiverse.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has Jotaro and Dio Brando from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders''. Jotaro is the most popular Joestar in Japan and was not in just one but four different arcs (''Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable, Vento Aureo, and Stone Ocean'') and plays a big part in three of the four of them. Dio Brando is a cruel, conniving, and somewhat classy vampire who's anger gets the better of him easily and who's greatest rival is... Jotaro Kujo. Not Jonathan Joestar, the man he was raised with as a brother and and the only man he could respect and even love as family (in a twisted sort of way), but Jotaro. Both of them have become the default hero/villain duo due to the massive popularity of their appearances in ''Stardust Crusaders''.
** For the 30th anniversary art exhibition, Hirohiko Araki (the creator of the manga) drew Jotaro and DIO invoking [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Raijin, god of thunder, and Fujin, god of wind respectively]], saying they'd basically become 'deified' characters at that point.

* The ''LightNovel/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'' manga adaptation pulls this with TheLancer Nanao Hibiya: out of four covers at time of writing, she's front-and-center on three, while the actual primary viewpoint character Oliver Horn is in the background on volumes 1 and 2 and absent from volume 3. He's finally the focus of volume 4's cover.

** Before both of them however, there was Vegeta. It might not be so evident in Western countries where [[SequelDisplacement the manga's second half greatly overshadows the first]] due to being aired first, and Vegeta debuting in the "first" story arc. When compared to the overall series however, Vegeta debuted in the sixth story arc of the manga, but has gone on to eclipse every major character before him as the franchise {{Deuteragonist}}. He has become a secondary face of the franchise along with [[TheHero Goku]]

* [[DarkMessiah Broly]] from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is among the most popular villains the series has produced, which is especially impressive considering he's [[{{Filler}} movie-exclusive]]. He was so impressive, in fact, that unlike the other film-exclusive villains, Broly actually got two sequels. He also quickly became a mainstay of the ''DBZ'' video games, even ones set before the Namek saga. As of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Broly not only has a canon female {{Expy}}, but he's finally become a CanonImmigrant himself. He's also so popular that, much like Wolverine in ''[=MVC2=]'', two distinct playable incarnations of the character were featured in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'': A classic version based on his original appearance in the 90s ''Anime/BrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan'' movie, and a modern version based on his rebooted appearance from the 2019 ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' film.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and all of its related works in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} have this with the insanely popular [[LadyOfWar Servant]] [[JeanneDArchetype Saber]]. She (or one of her incarnations) gets top billing in almost everything related to Fate, and even if she doesn't show up personally, you can bet one of her [[FanNickname Saberfaces]] will pick up the slack. The page image for ''LightNovel/FateZero'' (which was also the 1st promotional image released for its anime adaptation) is a perfect example: Saber is front and center in the picture and is illustrated in bright, eye-catching colors while everyone else is a mere silhouette (and while she ''is'' a major character of said series, she's not the main protagonist).

* Most of the promotional art for ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' features [[EnsembleDarkHorse Mi]][[TsunDere ko]][[ShockAndAwe to]] in a rather notable way, as if she formed a PowerTrio with main characters Touma and Index. In reality, she only makes bit appearances on various episodes, the only notable ones being a StoryArc about her (Which she shares with one of her clones and [[JerkAss Accelerator]], with the clone having similar screentime and more CharacterDevelopment) and ADayInTheLimelight ShipTease episode later on the season. [[OlderThanTheyLook Komoe]] and [[ActionGirl Kaori]] have as much importance than her if not more (At least in the anime first season), but they get very few appearances in the official art and tend to share them with ''Mikoto'', despite never meeting in the anime (Stiyl, being a guy in a ImprobablyFemaleCast, was never in the running, even if he's more relevant than any girl). This goes even more so for her roommate [[SchoolgirlLesbians Kuroko]], who is in most of the aforementioned art, but only gets 2-3 minor appearances with Mikoto and a UsefulNotes/BarackObama gag, yet outdoes in appearances everyone else on the series but Mikoto and actual heroine [[{{Moe}} Index]].

* [[DarkMessiah Broly]] from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' is among the most popular villains the series has produced, which is especially impressive considering he's [[{{Filler}} movie-exclusive]]. He was so impressive, in fact, that unlike the other film-exclusive villains, Broly actually got two sequels. He also quickly became a mainstay of the ''DBZ'' video games, even ones set before the Namek saga. As of ''Anime/DragonballSuper'', Broly not only has a canon female {{Expy}}, but he's finally become a CanonImmigrant himself. He's also so popular that, much like Wolverine in ''[=MVC2=]'', two distinct playable incarnations of the character were featured in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'': A classic version based on his original appearance in the 90s ''Anime/BrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan'' movie, and a modern version based on his rebooted appearance from the 2019 ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' film.

** Sakura Kinomoto of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' is considered to be the most popular character and the TropeCodifier of {{Moe}} as she had an alternate version in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' where she also made a cameo in the OAV and her Clow staff appeared in ''Manga/{{Xxxholic}}'' and had tons of merchandises compared to the rest of the CCS cast or any Clamp character.
** Asides from ''Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle'', Kimihiro Watanuki of ''Manga/{{XxxHolic}}'' made cameos in several Clamp works such as ''Manga/DrugAndDrop'', ''Manga/{{Kobato}}'' and ''Anime/BloodC''. He doesn’t have the merchandising powers as Sakura, but every time you see in another Clamp work, you know that he’s the bridge of the Clamp multiverse.

* When the [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3617 Wild Swans]] movie was dubbed into Italian, the dubbers tried to cash in on the popularity of the Heidi anime by claiming that the princess was Heidi, even calling the movie, "Heidi Becomes a Princess."