| 1 | * In the first five or so volumes of ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', Keiichi wasn't as shy around women (though he was still squeamish), seemed like more of a plain UnluckyEverydude than a mistreated NiceGuy, and Belldandy seemed to know more about Earth than her anime adaptations, was quick-witted, and dressed in an elaborate Oriental-style robe. The series began as basically a college-student drama with a goddess in it (later two, when Urd showed up, and three, when Skuld appeared). After the Lord of Terror Arc, it began to resemble more of a cross between a DomCom and a FantasticComedy. Also, there were various implications that Belldandy was a bit of a BitchInSheepsClothing and was subtly tormenting Keiichi in revenge for his getting her stuck on Earth. This was obviously dropped in favor of her being IncorruptiblePurePureness incarnate (to the point that shackling a demon to her turned the demon into an angel). Urd was also much more heavily implied to be a promiscuous vamp at the start, which settled down into her being just sensual. About the only one whose characterization isn't hit with this is Skuld, who showed up after the series began to really gel. |
| 2 | * ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'': The first few issues of the manga fell victim to this. |
| 3 | ** In the first issue, Mickey is much more boisterous and older-looking than in later issues. |
| 4 | ** [=McCoy=] is indifferent to the mercenary pilots' safety in early issues (such as when he sold defective Sidewinders to Boris), but shows warmth and concern for them as the series progresses. |
| 5 | ** When Hoover is first introduced in the Wolf Pack storyline, he is just as greedy and amoral as the other mercenaries (such as when he was among pilots trying to get free fuel and maintenance from Saki), in sharp contrast to his maturity later on. |
| 6 | ** Greg is an {{idiot ball}} holder in the incident with Gold's documents, but is depicted as competent and insightful later in the manga. |
| 7 | * ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'' has been very consistent over its run -- with one glaring exception in the first chapter. Knowing Koro-sensei like we do now, it's ''unthinkable'' that he would ever threaten his students' families. Terasaka was also much more of a sadistic JerkAss, as he happily coerced Nagisa into acting as a suicide bomber. It's a stark contrast to the JerkWithAHeartOfGold who had a huge MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment when his deal with Shiro nearly killed his classmates not long later. |
| 8 | * ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': A minor example. Early into the series, Mikasa Ackerman is stated to be Asian, specifically the last one. This, combined with the German architectural style and naming scheme, seems to imply that the series takes place on our real-life Earth, albeit [[AfterTheEnd a post-apocalyptic one]] filled with giant monsters. By the time of the [[WhamEpisode Truths of Marley arc]], however, it very clearly takes place in its own, constructed world, with the Asians now referred to as the "East-Sea People" |
| 9 | * ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' was actually quite tame in the beginning, especially Osaka, who absolutely ''hated'' the nickname and pretty much played up the Osakan stereotype just to get people to shut up. Chiyo's pigtails were also drawn more realistically before [[ArtEvolution gradually becoming more football-shaped]]. |
| 10 | * ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': The very first page introduces protagonist Guts having sex with a woman who turns out to be a demonic Apostle... at which point he explodes her head with his ArmCannon mid-coitus. The problem with this scene is that Guts is later revealed to be a rape victim who HatesBeingTouched and has a rather severe aversion to sexuality of any kind ([[IfItsYouItsOkay with the exception of his girlfriend Casca]]). While there are a few theories as to why Guts would do that despite his characterization (the real answer is simply that Guts's character hadn't been properly conceived yet), most fans tend to simply ignore the scene in question as having not happened. It also helps that this scene - beyond the female apostle's appearance during the Eclipse - has never been referenced again, neither in the manga or any animated adaptation. |
| 11 | ** In the same first chapter, Guts is quickly dispatched by a large number of armed forces, even though years before he was able to kill a hundred men in battle. |
| 12 | * ''Franchise/{{Beyblade}}'': |
| 13 | ** In a case of dub-specific related weirdness, the ''Anime/BakutenShootBeyblade'' series used {{DubNameChange}}s for everyone. Starting with ''Anime/MetalFightBeyblade'', the English dubs mostly kept the Japanese names. This was largely due to the practice of dub name changes falling out of fashion with anime by the time of ''Metal Fight''. |
| 14 | ** Takao is the only protagonist not to have spiky AnimeHair. He instead wears a baseball hat like many other late 90s, early 2000s characters. Takao's hair is still on the AnimeHair spectrum but it's not as pronounced as later heroes and mainly points downwards rather than upwards. |
| 15 | ** The first season of the original anime used a distinct art-style where everyone has chubby faces and many characters have whisker-like marks on their faces. Afterwards it changed to a more "common" anime art style and all other series have used something similar. |
| 16 | ** Because ''Beyblade'' still had to find its audience during ''Bakuten Shoot Beyblade'', there are quite a few experimental manga that fall under that banner, like one where Blader DJ is the protagonist, another where girls are the main bladers, and one that presents beyblading realistically. |
| 17 | ** And then there's the video games, of which ''VideoGame/JisedaiBeigomaBattleBeyblade'' stands out as the source of ''Bakuten Shoot Beyblade'', but with some cast differences and a GottaCatchThemAll approach to bit-beasts. |
| 18 | * ''Manga/BlackButler'' starts out in some sort of alternate world that's a very close, but not complete, copy of Victorian England, complete with video games, modern suits and television somewhere around 1888. This quickly changes to simply taking place in Victorian England. |
| 19 | * ''Manga/BlackCat'' had Train [[AssassinOutclassin killing an assassin]]. His vow not to kill would become a center piece of his life view for the rest of the manga. |
| 20 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': |
| 21 | ** The first few volumes (and episodes) were primarily a MonsterOfTheWeek storyline. Then the Soul Reapers got introduced, and the plot shifted gears, eventually leading to an all-out war. |
| 22 | ** Early fluff seemed to indicate Soul Reapers functioned like bounty hunters, with Rukia referencing a bounty book for money she could use at Urahara's shop. With the Soul Society arc they were instead depicted as a military organization with no mention of bounties. It's somewhat implied that the bounty system was mainly used to help Soul Reapers who were doing long-term operations in the World of the Living, but this idea doesn't get referenced again. |
| 23 | ** Tying into the above, Urahara is established to be a aloof but helpful ally of most Soul Reapers, and was known enough that Rukia has no issues going to him for help after they meet. The next few arcs reveal he used to be a Soul Reaper who was exiled, making his casual status as a "friendly ally" not line up with that early idea. |
| 24 | ** When a Menos Grande first appears Rukia states that Menos are so powerful that only the Royal Task Force can deal with them. Not only is it eventually shown that Menos are comparatively small fry compared to how powerful Hollows can really get, not only are Captain level Soul Reapers (and Rukia herself who is Lieutenant level) able to defeat [[EliteMooks Espada]] with varying degrees of difficulty, but that the Royal Task Force doesn't do much of anything unless the Soul King and the royal palace are directly threatened. |
| 25 | * In early volumes of ''Manga/CaseClosed'', characters had some very unfashionable choice of clothing, but necessarily to reinforce a stereotypically English tone of detective stories set in modern Japan. Conan himself got some clothing choices more sensible than his early outfits as the series went on. Inspector Megure on the other hand, has continued to don his trench coats, along with his silly hat (which was retroactively explained away in a chapter as a means to cover an old wound on his head that reminds him of a terrible incident that happened to his wife). |
| 26 | * While the Knightmares still regularly appear in early episodes of ''Anime/{{Code Geass}}'', they are portrayed much more as elite units of the Britannian Army to be used sparingly, rather than the norm. Conventional weapons are used far more often than in later episodes, by both sides. In contrast particularly to Season 2, where new models of Knightmares seem to develop every other episode and numerous characters have their own personal unique models, early episodes feature only a few fairly generic models. Indeed, Lloyd's obsession with creating the unique Lancelot is viewed as a potentially unreliable unknown by the Britannian leadership, rather than a trump card. It doesn't help that season 2 was subjected to a serious PowerCreep. |
| 27 | * ''Manga/Cyborg009'': |
| 28 | ** The original manga may be odd to read, as rather than starting things off with Joe's arrival to the team, the manga quickly goes through the origins of the other cyborgs first. Albert/004, while still a dark-natured character, is also rather louder and hammier early on, and spends as much time smirking as he does with laying on the snark. |
| 29 | ** The team members (save for 003 and 009) are also given nicknames early on, which aren't referred back to: 001 is "The Brain", 002 is "The Jet", 004 is "The God of Death"/"The Reaper" (both valid translations of "Shinigami"), 005 is "The Iron Man", 006 is "The Mole", 007 is "The Chameleon", and 008 is "The Merman". |
| 30 | ** On at least two different occasions in the early manga, 004 was shown to be able to fire off his fingers like darts/missiles. This did not come up again in the later stories. 004 also originally used his knee missile by rolling up a pant leg and pushing a button on his knee to split his leg in two, while later appearances had him able to automatically split his leg to fire the missile. |
| 31 | ** 007 originally had to manually take off his clothing to be able to pull off a convincing transformation (such as transforming into a dolphin). |
| 32 | ** 002 had a much milder, easy-going personality compared to the brash and louder attitude viewers would associate with him from modern incarnations. However, he did become a bit more hot-tempered and negative in the later stories in the manga, with it being a plot point that at least 20 years had passed since their original adventures and that he was feeling the strain of being a cyborg. |
| 33 | ** Dr. Gilmore had his eyes shadowed out early on, to mark him as a shady character. 005's pupils also tended to appear and vanish in the early arcs, and 006's height and weight weren't as consistent (with him sometimes not appearing as plump as he would in most media, and sometimes not appearing as drastically short). |
| 34 | ** The earliest colored artwork for the series depicted the 00 cyborgs as wearing green uniforms (as opposed to red), and Joe/009 had blue eyes in some of the early covers. Other color schemes were also not settled early on; 004 sometimes appeared with strawberry blond hair (as opposed to silver), 003 alternated between being a blonde or brunette, and 001 sometimes had blond or brown hair as well. |
| 35 | ** 003 had longer hair in her very first appearance in the "Birth" arc, and Ishinomori wasn't as consistent on whether or not she wore a headband. Her hair style was altered over the course of the manga, and she was consistently depicted as wearing a headband. |
| 36 | ** 004 had a pointier face, bowl-cut hair, and a pointy nose (sometimes almost rivaling 002's). His facial features and hair cut gradually changed, to where he had a more chiseled face and aquiline nose, as well as less of a bowl cut. |
| 37 | ** At one point in the early serialization, Joe's surname was "Muramatsu" instead of "Shimamura". This was corrected in tankoban releases of the manga. 003 was also called "Francois" (a masculine spelling) instead of "Francoise", which was also corrected. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/DeathNote'': |
| 39 | ** When the manga first introduced L, he actually stood up straight, but he was then given his slouch when he revealed himself to the Kira Task Force. L was also depicted with eyebrows after revealing himself, but they quickly disappeared over the course of the manga. Pre-revelation, his hair was more on the curly side of messy and longer, instead of his memorable spiked style. And prior to his official introduction, L was also seen repeatedly standing or sitting with crossed legs, meditating, compared to the iconic squatting pose that most people associate with him. |
| 40 | ** In a case of ArtEvolution, Matsuda looked closer to Raye Penber when first introduced. Mogi's face was also more on the cartoonish side, with his eyes being much wider and bulging. Matsuda was also more serious when he was introduced. CharacterizationMarchesOn when he became more of a PluckyComicRelief after L revealed himself to the KTF. |
| 41 | ** In the early manga, Light was shown to have two friends from school. The anime adaptation excluded the characters to depict him as more of a loner. |
| 42 | ** While Mello is memorable for his black outfit and baring his midriff, his initial manga appearance depicted him with ''white'' pants and his vest covered his abdomen. |
| 43 | ** The very first color image to feature Mello and Near (pre-timeskip) had both boys depicted with pure white hair. This was due to Ohba and Obata still struggling with ideas for the two at the time, with one idea for them to be twins (or at least resemble a pair). After their personalities and designs were finalized, Mello's hair became blond in all later color images. |
| 44 | ** Light's morality was a little more grey in the early chapters. While he did express his desire to be viewed as a god, he did seem to legitimately want to punish criminals and he viewed his sister, Sayu, as a MoralityPet. After L challenged him, he became undebatably evil by killing anybody who dares contest Kira and he was perfectly willing to kill Sayu (and only decided against it because it would cause more problems for him). |
| 45 | ** In an early scene, Light reveals that he booby-trapped his desk so that the Death Note would burn should anyone else open the drawer. We have the strong implications that Light would rather sacrifice his goals than be a suspect for Kira. This comes at odds later when Light always prioritizes the safety of the Death Note even when he's the prime suspect. Otherwise, the manga would be significantly shorter. |
| 46 | * ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': Kyogai was one of the very first revealed characters for the Academy Universe alternate setting; he oddly sticks out as retaining his demonic appearance despite being one of the teachers. As more and more characters were unveiled for this alternate take as the years went by, it was shown all demons in the mainline series are just humans in the Academy (save Hatengu and Gyokko which are ghosts and urban legends); at the end, Kyogai remained the odd one out. |
| 47 | * The original ''[[Anime/DiGiCharat1999 Di Gi Charat]]'' anime was primarily an advertisement for Gamers. Not only that, but while there was still ''some'' focus on cuteness (finger-puppet people, Puchiko's leitmotif), it was generally more funny than cute, and the opening theme was rather ethereal in nature, focusing on the girls' aspirations as idols. The people being mostly literal finger puppets was also phased out in the very next series, ''Anime/PanyoPanyoDiGiCharat'', where most characters were human, with ''Anime/DiGiCharatNyo'' in turn featuring an even more diverse population that included anthropomorphic animals and objects. |
| 48 | * ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': |
| 49 | ** The franchise in general. In the earliest adaptations, including their first ever appearance in ''Manga/CMonDigimon'', human partners could not make their monsters evolve at will, EvolutionaryLevels were a lot less important over all, quite a few Digimon characters [[NominalImportance actually had names]], and [[{{calling your attacks}} monsters rarely called attacks]]. Not only that, but '''monster''' was the preferred shorthand human characters used for Digital Monsters rather than "Digimon" (which would later mutate into LaterInstallmentWeirdness with ''VideoGame/DigimonSurvive''). The art style has shifted too, though that is not as noticeable since designs have rarely been changed after ''[=C'mon=]'' with some exceptions (most notably the video game side of things). |
| 50 | ** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': |
| 51 | *** This was a particular problem for the English dub, which was being produced at almost the same time as the original, which led to mentions in the early episodes of Mimi's non-existent brother, Tai and Kari's non-existent puppy, and Matt and T.K. being half-brothers despite having the same mother and father. This extended to [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 the second season]] too. In its first episode, the dub made Yolei seem like the intelligent gadgeteer of the group, likely because of her glasses. She later turned out to be the GenkiGirl archetype, receiving Digi-Eggs that had Sora's Crest of Love and Mimi's Crest of Sincerity. |
| 52 | *** The MonsterOfTheWeek for the first few episodes -- Kuwagamon, Shellmon, and Seadramon -- aren't tainted by any sort of evil magic or science. And like most Digimon outside the main cast in the 2020 reboot, they don't speak, which is very unlike most antagonist Digimon from the rest of the show. |
| 53 | *** In the very first episode, Tai and Izzy are taken to a "hiding tree" by their Digimon to hide from [[MonsterOfTheWeek Kuwagamon]]. These are never seen or mentioned again. |
| 54 | * ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'', being around since '''[[LongRunners 1969]]''', has a bunch of oddities early on. |
| 55 | ** The first story of the series, "All the Way From a Future World", introduces Nobita to his BadFuture where he marries Gian's sister, Jaiko, and has six children with her ([[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome all which went the way of Chuck Cunningham and ceased to appear in future stories]]). The story is also set up as having Doraemon and Sewashi (Nobita's future great-great-grandson) being recurring characters in the Nobi household as well (Sewashi appearing in the next story, "Prophecy of Doraemon"), but the plot point was dropped in later episodes with Doraemon being Nobita's sole caretaker and Sewashi only appearing once in a while. |
| 56 | ** UnusuallyUninterestingSight is averted, with Nobita reacting to Doraemon suddenly popping out of his drawer with the [[FreakOut appropriate response one could expect]]. Later stories will play the trope straight, with the citizens having zilch response to a robot cat running around and his gadgets being used in public. |
| 57 | ** One of Doraemon's BigEater moments from his first appearance have him wolfing down a plate of... ''mochi''. Instead of his iconic TrademarkFavoriteFood, Dorayaki, which has not been established at that point. The same scene was re-adapted in the 2014 reboot ''Anime/StandByMeDoraemon'', which changed the ''mochi'' to dorayaki. |
| 58 | ** From the same short, the iconic [[HatOfFlight Takecopter]] is introduced, where it could be worn literally anywhere, even if placed on the user's backs, but that was the only time the Takecopter had this particular feature (with all subsequent stories have them being worn on the users' heads). The story ends with a ComedicUnderwearExposure involving Nobita who tries putting the Takecopter on his pants only to slip out, but that contradicts the Takecopter's usage in later stories - there are episodes and movies where characters wear Takecopters over caps or hoods, but the gadget still works without the clothing article getting in the way. |
| 59 | ** Shizuka, who debuts in the first story but only has five panels' worth of screentime, is initially named "Shizuk''o''". Later reprints would fix her name. |
| 60 | ** The second manga short, "Prophecy of Doraemon", gives the Time TV (a recurring gadget) the ability to project a {{hologram}} of what's going to happen in the future. It loses this function in subsequent shorts. |
| 61 | ** Additionally, "Prophecy of Doraemon" has a major dilemma (Doraemon had a prophecy of Nobita getting into a life-threatening accident en route to Shizuka's house) that can be resolved instantly by teleporting with the Anywhere Door, a gadget that had ''not'' been introduced in the series yet. Later chapters imply Doraemon had this gadget the whole time (a prologue manga reveals Doraemon was given this tool in ''robot school''), making the entire conundrum rather pointless in hindsight. |
| 62 | ** The rules about TimeTravel and changing the past seem somewhat lax in earlier volumes. In fact, the manga's ''entire'' premise - Doraemon being sent by Sewashi to change Nobita's life - actually contradicts later stories, as changing the past is considered a crime and there are TimePolice preventing people from doing so (later stories {{Retcon}} that Doraemon is merely there to ''help'' Nobita when needed, but Nobita still needs to stand on his own feet most of the time). There's even a Volume 1 story titled "Chin Up to the Ancestors" which has Doraemon deciding to time travel to feudal-era Japan to change Nobita's ancestral line from farming peasants to royalty (after Suneo boasts of his family being descended from samurai) - an action that's a strict no-no in future stories and pushing Doraemon into ProtagonistCenteredMorality for a while. |
| 63 | ** Gian Gouda's sister Jaiko in the earlier stories is a mean, snobbish bully and pretty much a female version of her brother, with scenes of her repeatedly picking on Nobita in the single-digit volumes. CharacterDevelopment kicked in later as she becomes sweeter, kinder, in order for the stories to have a contrast between the Gouda siblings. Some of Jaiko's old persona was later recycled into a new character, Botako. |
| 64 | ** An early story sets up a LoveTriangle between Nobita, Suneo and Shizuka, which was quickly dropped, and at no point did Suneo appear to have any interest in Shizuka save for being a friend. |
| 65 | ** In the first year and a half of the 1979 series' broadcast, it was a 10-minute daily anime series, airing one episode each day (save for Sunday) until 1981, when it became a half-hour weekly anime, airing two episodes each week (with some weeks airing one episode as a two-parter) until the series ended. And the background of the title card was originally yellow before they changed it to a different colour with Doraemon being animated. |
| 66 | ** Early on, Doraemon used to have the ability to turn invisible by pulling his tail. His tail later changed to function as a power switch after several gadgets that could turn the user invisible were introduced. |
| 67 | ** Doraemon is more of a ButtMonkey in his earlier appearances, to reflect how he was drawn during the early days of the manga's run. |
| 68 | * From ''Manga/DoraemonsLongTales'', the spin-off BigDamnMovie series: |
| 69 | ** The first few movies from the 1980s, in general, where the animation is closer to the anime series it's based on. They get a decent AnimationBump somewhere around the fifth film, ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasGreatAdventureIntoTheUnderworld''. |
| 70 | ** ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasDinosaur'', the first movie in the line, doesn't begin its major conflict (Nobita and friends getting stranded in the age of dinosaurs) until more than halfway through. Most of the story's first half follows the SliceOfLife antics like in the manga and the adventure only begins when they attempt traveling into the past to free their dinosaur (which happens in the original film's 50-minute mark). |
| 71 | ** And then there's the second film, ''Anime/DoraemonTheRecordOfNobitaSpaceblazer'', which has a moment of ShipTease between Nobita and Clem, a new character, never mind later shorts would establish Shizuka to be Nobita's sole LoveInterest. This second film is also the ''only'' one that barely features Gian, Suneo and Shizuka, who are borderline OutOfFocus in their adventure on Planet Koya Koya, appearing mostly on Earth save for two moments in Planet Koya Koya. |
| 72 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'': |
| 73 | ** For its first story arc, ''Manga/DragonBall'' was a very loose pastiche of ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' with a few science-fiction elements for an interesting and often humourous contrast to the traditional Chinese elements. When it came to the Tenkaichi Budokai arc immediately thereafter, it jumped feet-first into martial arts action, and when the Red Ribbon Army was introduced immediately after THAT, the world became openly, and proudly, a FantasyKitchenSink for the rest of the series's run. |
| 74 | ** ''Dragon Ball'' featured more sexual humor and nudity early on that wouldn't seem out of place in an {{Ecchi}} series as part of focusing on the comedy. While this kind of thing didn't completely go away, thanks in part to the presence of [[DirtyOldMan Master Roshi]], it's nowhere near as frequent, especially since the series begins focusing more on action by the 22nd Tournament. |
| 75 | ** Goku wore a blue gi in the first manga chapter and the entire first anime story arc, and it wasn't until the second arc that he began wearing the trademark orange gi that would be considered his signature attire for the franchise. |
| 76 | ** The main ensemble in ''Dragon Ball'' is made up of Goku, Bulma, Oolong, Yamcha and Puar, with the later additions of Roshi, Krillin, Launch, Tien and Chiaotzu. While Bulma and Yamcha remain major characters after this arc they are never as prominent as they are here. Puar and Oolong quickly fade into the background and to people who only saw ''Z'' they were merely ThoseTwoGuys. Krillin is really the only character that keeps his main character status. Most ''Z'' fans would tell you that the main cast is Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, Trunks and Goten. The show itself is aware of this change; each opening and ending sequence tends to have a shot of the main cast together, and they get adjusted every few arcs. |
| 77 | ** On the subject of story length, the first DBZ arc counts for Early Installment Weirdness for those who choose to start there. The "Saiyan" arc was much shorter than the other three story lines that followed, being around the length of the previous ''Dragon Ball'' arcs at the time, roughly 4 volumes and 30 episodes total, which was about the same length of other arcs such as the "Red Ribbon Army" or "Piccolo" ones. It isn't until the "Namek", or "Frieza" arc that the series starts reaching its multi-volume, 80-90 episode length runs that it's best known, and sometimes infamous, for. |
| 78 | ** Earlier chapters featured several moments with characters breaking the fourth wall, which by the time of the Red Ribbon Army arc was completely done away with. Then it was brought back again in the Buu arc.[[note]]Roshi directly tells the reader that Gohan will be the protagonist for the next arc at the beginning of the first chapter, and Krillin at one point notes that the artist of the manga they're in photocopied some panels of Goten and Trunks performing the fusion dance to save time. In the anime, Gohan explains to the audience that Krillin grew out his hair.[[/note]] |
| 79 | ** One element early on in the series that really sees some head-scratching is the conclusion of the Boss Rabbit storyline. Considering it ends with Goku actually going into outer space with no space suit and dropping the villains of it onto the moon (thus pulling off a Rabbit in the Moon joke), it always feels weird seeing climax of the Frieza Saga where Goku has to escape the dying Namek in time, since if the explosion doesn't kill him then the vacuum of outer space will. And Master Roshi blows up the moon later on, presumably with the Boss Rabbit still on it, which is strange purely because the story hadn't ramped up to it in the same way it did for, say, characters being able to blow up mountains. |
| 80 | ** Up until the end of ''Dragon Ball'', anthropomorphic animals and dinosaurs were common sights, even sometimes being minor named characters. However, once ''Dragon Ball Z'' started, they all essentially vanished both as characters and in background shots, outside of the dinosaurs in Gohan's Saiyan Arc training and a cameo by the dog-like king in the Cell saga. This is made more blatant in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' when Beerus claimed that he was the one to have killed off the dinosaurs millions of years ago, despite their presence earlier in the series. |
| 81 | ** If one considers the entirety of the continuum, ''Dragon Ball'' acts as an almost series-long weirdness to ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. While Dragon Ball focuses much more on adventure and rivals, ''Dragon Ball Z'' is more focused around lengthy Villain Arcs building up towards a climactic showdown. Z also has elements of sons in Gohan, Trunks and Goten, and the Namek Arc focuses heavily on space and the Saiyan legacy. That said, the idea of a Villain Arc [[OlderThanTheyThink actually started with the Daimao Arc]], which has many other classic DBZ elements that most ''Z'' fans focus on over the city-destroying explosions and gruelling battles that are also there. |
| 82 | ** In an English-only sense, Piccolo begins the Saiyan Arc (frequently the first part of the manga to be released in a new run) speaking in a very antiquitated fashion, using phrases such as "thou" and a structuring his questions in a Verb–subject–object order. [[note]]This isn't for authenticity; in the original Japanese Piccolo speaks rather stiffly and without contractions, but not in an old-fashioned way.[[/note]] This disappears by the time Piccolo has kidnapped Gohan to train him, and because the earlier Chapters were translated last, his appearances in the Daimao and 23rd Tournament arcs don't have this either. |
| 83 | ** A more minor example revolves around Piccolo's blood: prior to the Namek Arc, they were depicted with red blood, just like every other character in the series up to that point. After it was established that Piccolo and Kami are slug-like aliens from the planet Namek, all Namekians in the show, Piccolo included, were given [[AlienBlood purple blood]]. |
| 84 | ** Despite learning to fly unassisted in the final saga of ''Dragon Ball'', Goku still does a lot of traveling on the Flying Nimbus during DBZ's Saiyan Saga. After he uses it to travel to Capsule Corporation to board the spaceship to Namek, the Nimbus is never seen again until after the seven-year TimeSkip between the Cell and Great Saiyaman sagas, when Gohan uses it to travel to and from school. |
| 85 | ** When Future Trunks first appeared, he had a more cocky personality when he fought Frieza and King Cold, possibly as the first indicator that he was Vegeta's son. After that battle, he became much more polite and knew not to take his enemies lightly, such as the Androids and Cell. This is explained by Trunks already knowing that they're chumps compared to the Androids, but that doesn't make it bizarre when he switches. |
| 86 | ** As for ''Dragon Ball Z'' movies, ''Anime/DragonBallZDeadZone'' was the only movie where the ending sequence uses the same as the TV show much like every original ''Dragon Ball'' movies. The second film uses their own ending sequence until ''[[Anime/DragonBallZWrathOfTheDragon Wrath of the Dragon]]''. |
| 87 | ** Initial airings of the first four episodes of DBZ's original English dub (the [[Creator/TheOceanGroup Ocean]] dub) had several uses of "kill" and "death", before the dub transitioned into its infamous use of NeverSayDie. These instances would be edited out for subsequent airing. |
| 88 | * The ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'' has some of this, not helped the franchise lacking both an established canon and actual official artist that wasn't a guest until 2010. The PV for "Servant of Evil" refers to the characters by their Vocaloid names instead of their official ones (Rin and Len instead of Rilliane and Allen), the designs aren't finalised (Rilliane's hair is illustrated as much shorter and Allen lacks his signature coat. Likewise, the Venom Sword is rendered as a rapier and not a katana as it is always referred to later) and the songs are in general far less interconnected. The most amusing one though is the opening monologue of "Judgement of Corruption" which stated that Gallerian would be remembered as a collector by future generations, which becomes a significant contradiction when, years later, it was established that [[spoiler: Nemesis caused the apocalypse via mass nuking less than 20 years after Gallerian's death.]] |
| 89 | * In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Levy's early appearances actually illustrate her having decently sized breasts before she was established to be suffering from ACupAngst. |
| 90 | * In ''Manga/FoodWars'' there are a few early oddities. One of the most obvious is the weird lesbian subtext between Erina and her assistant/only friend Hisako, which never comes up again and is very out of character for both of them: Erina isn't much of a tease and is definitely not a flirt and while Hisako almost hero worships Erina, the two of them are actually less close than you'd think as a result of that. |
| 91 | * ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'': |
| 92 | ** The first chapter or two of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' depict the Elric brothers as much more cynical characters, with the first volume even describing them as ruthless. This clashes quite a bit with how they act later; if anything, they're some of the least cynical characters and their angst is caused by having their idealistic beliefs yanked out from under them (for example, Ed being upset at what Shou Tucker does to his daughter expressly because it makes him feel guilty that there was nothing he could have done). |
| 93 | ** ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' originally had some leftovers from the manga that were later dropped. For example, early episodes clearly show an attraction between Edward and Winry like in the manga. Later they're instead depicted as more platonic (though official and promotional art still depicted them as love interests). One scene in the beginning episodes clearly shows Ed pushing Alphonse into a body of water while a later episode had the fact that Al's seal didn't erase in water come as a complete surprise to Ed. |
| 94 | * ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'': In his debut chapter, [[WholesomeCrossdresser Nuriko]] was pretty much a male version of an AlphaBitch who acted like a complete {{Jerkass}} toward Miaka and even attempted to drown her due to his [[CrazyJealousGuy jealousy]] because she was getting close to [[HoYay Hotohori]]. However, after Miaka slapped him some sense, he begins to become less bitchy; and after his GenderReveal, he starts to [[CharacterizationMarchesOn shape up]] [[CharacterDevelopment his character]] even more until he's become a fun, lovable and [[OnlySaneMan sensible]] character that is extremely popular in the fandom. The most glaring difference between his two selves is that, while the Nuriko of the first few chapters is practically defined for his crossdressing tendencies, Nuriko from volume 8 onward ditches behaving like that [[spoiler: and even falls in love with Miaka, the girl he used to hate.]] |
| 95 | * An early chapter of ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' has Hanajima show up to Tohru's sleepover wearing a light-coloured dress. This was before the manga established she only wears black after [[spoiler:nearly killing a classmate with her psychic powers]]. |
| 96 | * The first couple chapters of the original ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' are ''way'' more lighthearted and comedic than the series usually is, being more of a BlackComedy action story that just happens to be set in a {{Cyberpunk}} world. The main cast's personalities and dynamics are also [[CharacterizationMarchesOn really off from what would become the norm]]; Motoko is much more [[BunnyEarsLawyer emotive and goofy]], Batou is [[DumbMuscle a bit of an idiot]], Togusa is TheFriendNobodyLikes, and Aramaki is a PointyHairedBoss who hates his employees almost as much as they hate him. Perhaps not coincidentally, everybody's characterizations start settling down into their familiar shape around the same time [[CerebusSyndrome the plot begins to get more serious]]. |
| 97 | * In the earlier stories ''Manga/{{Golgo 13}}'' was much chattier, even cracking some jokes in comparison to his later characterization as TheStoic. |
| 98 | * The ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' manga started with more of a BlackComedy feel, with Alucard being as much an eccentric as an EldritchAbomination. The comedy faded quickly. |
| 99 | * In ''Manga/HowHeavyAreTheDumbbellsYouLift'', Machio's physique when unclothed was originally muscular but not cartoonishly exaggerated, and he remained the same body proportions whether he was clothed or not. It wasn't until the fifteenth chapter or so that [[HulkingOut he started transforming into a giant every time he disrobed]]. |
| 100 | * The first English dubbed episode of ''Manga/InuYasha'' involved a fair amount of YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe from villagers and Kaede. By the following episode, it was entirely absent aside from Kaede's "ye". |
| 101 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''. |
| 102 | ** Jonathan as a protagonist starkly contrasts his successors as a straight-laced AllLovingHero who is equally straightforward in the way he fights, using physical strength and martial arts. Later [=JoJos=] are [[AntiHero anti-heroes]] who even at their nicest (like Josuke from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'') have a rebellious, mean streak and have Stands (in young Joseph's case, he used Hamon in far more creative ways than Jonathan) that allow them to be more unorthodox in combat. The BigBad of ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Phantom Blood]]'', Dio Brando, is, as a character and as the main villain, revealed from the start of the story, while later parts have the villain be revealed much later, and even have its plot based around ''finding'' the villain in the first place. |
| 103 | ** ''Phantom Blood'' and ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'' are [[PeriodPiece period pieces]] taking place well before the their publication in real-life. Staring with ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', the stories take place around or a [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture little later]] than when it started publishing, ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'' being the only exception. |
| 104 | ** The [[FightingSpirit Stands]] didn't show up until ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', despite Stands being the best known feature of the series. Instead, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood the first]] [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency two Parts]] focused on the [[PowerOfTheSun Ripple, a.k.a. Hamon]], a martial art used to hunt vampires. Stands were introduced in ''Stardust Crusaders'' for a change of pace -- Creator/HirohikoAraki says that he wanted to represent PsychicPowers with more interesting visuals -- and things started getting really weird from there. |
| 105 | ** In the first appearance of Stands, it was stated that they came from breath control, similar to how Hamon worked. This was dropped very quickly, and it seems to have just been a way to ease readers into the idea by introducing it as a new form of Hamon rather than something completely different. By a similar count, the idea of Stands requiring a certain level of "fighting spirit" (the explanation for why Holy's Stand was killing her) didn't last very long either, with plenty of later characters even in Part 3 being weak-willed cowards or even babies who still had one with no negative effects. The best the series comes to explaining this is the implication that gaining them unnaturally, like the Joestars manifesting them due to DIO's awakening or [[spoiler:being pierced by one of the Stand Arrows introduced in part 4]] has something to do with it; of the former instance, Holy and a very young Josuke in a flashback are the only characters shown to have a Stand that is negatively affecting them, and [[spoiler:Stand Arrows]] simply kill anyone who doesn't meet the vague requirements to manifest one. It is also stated at the start of part three that how "visible" and "distinct" a stand is shows its power. This is almost immediately dropped, and for the rest of the series, even the weakest Stands don't look any less distinct than the powerful ones. |
| 106 | ** At one point in ''Stardust Crusaders'', Kakyoin and Polnareff shrink their Stands down to micro-size in order to enter Joseph's brain and fight an enemy Stand inside it. This is handwaved as Stands being merely energy projections, hence their size should depend on the user's will. After this one battle, it's never done again, even in situations where it could have been very convenient, and Stands can only be as big (or small) as we normally see them, except in some rare and justified circumstances (such as an enemy's specific power to shrink down other people and their Stands). |
| 107 | ** Since ''Phantom Blood'', several characters have been [[MusicalThemeNaming named after Western musicians, bands, songs, and albums]]. In the case of Stands, this didn't apply for them until the start of ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]''. Cream from ''Stardust Crusaders'' was the first Stand to follow that theme, but the other Stands from the same Part weren't. 22 of them are named after the [[TarotMotifs Major Arcana Tarot cards]], 9 were named after the Ennead... and then, there's [[OddNameOut Tenore Sax]], the only Stand named after a musical instrument. The first few Stands with Tarot names also had a [[ColourfulThemeNaming color theme]], such as Hermit Purple, Hierophant Green, and Yellow Temperance, until Araki dropped that idea not too long after, with even the last of the tarot-named Stands simply being The World. |
| 108 | *** The names of the Stands also had a minor importance in ''Stardust Crusaders'', where the character's personalities, role, or Stand abilities were related to their name (albeit very loosely), and the Crusaders being caught off-guard with there being more Stand Users after they were running out of tarot cards. Afterwards, Stands were named whatever Araki felt like, [[MusicalThemeNaming usually songs or band names]]. |
| 109 | ** Additionally, characters in earlier Parts tended to at least somewhat modify the names of whatever they were based on: Zeppeli's name invokes Music/LedZeppelin, but he isn't just straight-up named Led Zeppelin, for instance. The Pillar Men also have slightly misspelled versions of the bands that inspired them in both the original Japanese and the official translation. Later parts tended to just straight-up call characters things like "[[Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein Funny Valentine]]" or "Music/VanillaIce", typically [[DubNameChange forcing translations to step in]] for copyright reasons. |
| 110 | ** ''Diamond Is Unbreakable'' starts out with the detailed buff look that Araki used for the first three parts, before shifting more into the slimmer bishonen look, by far the most drastic case of ArtShift. |
| 111 | ** ''Phantom Blood'' and ''Battle Tendency'' are short in length compared to future parts. ''Phantom Blood'' went on for 44 chapters in the manga, while ''Battle Tendency'' had 69 chapters. Parts 3-6 went on for a little more than ''150'' chapters each, and ''Manga/SteelBallRun'' had 95[[note]]It should be mentioned that this Part's chapters were double in length to the previous Parts[[/note]]. Anime-wise, ''Phantom Blood'' and ''Battle Tendency'' are combined into a single season of 26 episodes, ''Phantom Blood'' taking 9 and ''Battle Tendency'' the other 17. Later Parts would get a season dedicated to them, though ''Stardust Crusaders'' still stands out for getting ''two'' seasons of a combined 48 episodes; ''Diamond is Unbreakable'' on would standardize on one season of 39 episodes, though ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'' has only 38, released in clusters of 12 or 14 at a time. |
| 112 | ** Interestingly, Stand abilities suffer from this in that early ones weren't as ''weird'' as later ones would be. ''Stardust Crusaders''' Stands had comparatively mundane abilities, such as Magician's Red's [[PlayingWithFire fire manipulation]], Yellow Temperance's [[BlobMonster all-dissolving shapeshifting goo]], and especially Star Platinum's RapidFireFisticuffs, which went from being its specific specialty to something basically every other Joestar's Stand can do; compared to these, [[UnbuiltTrope it's almost a joke]] that one of Hermit Purple's abilities lets Joseph take spirit photographs of things halfway across the world by smashing a 30,000-yen camera. In later Parts, the Stand abilities get progressively weirder and weirder. Later Parts have positively surreal Stands like Highway Star (a humanoid Stand that [[DetachmentCombat breaks down into a collection of feet]] that breaks out of a room manifesting inside a tunnel, [[SuperSpeed chasing down a target at 60 km/h]], and [[LifeDrain sucking out the target's nutrients]] when it catches them), Baby Face (a computer that [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything impregnates a woman]] to gestate [[EnfantTerrible a search-and-destroy homunculus]] that can break matter into cubes), or Weather Report's Heavy Weather (''[[ForcedTransformation rainbows that turn you into snails]]''). Conversely, early Stands also often demonstrated instances of NewPowersAsThePlotDemands without much ceremony (most famously, Star Platinum being able to inhale large quantities of air, extend its fingers at a speed that lets it pierce through another Stand's head, and later [[spoiler:freeze time like The World]]), while later Parts tended to give Stands rather concrete limits established right off the bat (e.g. Crazy Diamond being able to heal/repair anyone and anything [[NoSelfBuffs except for himself]]), with later-applied weirdness being more creative uses of the established powers or upgrades granted by unnatural means. |
| 113 | ** It's not unusual for Stands early in a series to display traits that they never display again. For example, in ''Stardust Crusaders'', Kakyoin's [[CombatTentacles Hierophant]] [[GemstoneAssault Green]] can [[PuppeteerParasite possess people by entering their bodies]]. After his initial fight, Kakyoin uses this ability only once in the Death 13 fight and then never again. A similar issue occurs with Polnareff's [[SuperSpeed Silver]] [[RoyalRapier Chariot]], which had the ability to [[ShedArmorGainSpeed shed its armor in exchange for being able to move faster]]. After his initial fight, this ability is only used during the fight against Hol Horse and is never used again. In ''Golden Wind'', it's established that the lifeforms created by Giorno's [[CreatingLife Gold Experience]] are [[AttackReflector impervious to damage and return any damage dealt onto to them]]. This ability, similarly, is rapidly abandoned, presumably as it'd be both [[StoryBreakerPower too powerful]] (allowing Giorno to sic unkillable predators against his foes who likely would attack them and end up killing themselves), and because Araki would decide to give Giorno the ability to heal people (by creating replacement body parts instead of whole beings) and this would raise the question of if he should render those he heals invincible. |
| 114 | ** On a related note, Stands in ''Stardust Crusaders'', especially in the earlier chapters, often had their own attacks and battle techniques, often [[CallingYourAttacks with distinct names]], such as Star Platinum's Star Finger, Hierophant Green's Emerald Splash, and Magician's Red's Crossfire Hurricane. As the series went on, this was phased out in favor of Stands generally having a single not-specifically-named ability with multiple applications thereof. |
| 115 | ** The use of the protagonists' shared, [[CharacterTitle titular]] InSeriesNickname "[=JoJo=]" becomes less common as Part 3 progresses, until Part 4 onward only has the nickname trivially referenced. Prior to this, many characters would refer to Jonathan in Part 1 and Joseph in Part 2 as "[=JoJo=]". Only a handful of characters would call Jotaro "[=JoJo=]" in Part 3, but addressing him by his given name was far more common. The 2 Josukes[[labelnote:*]]Who only even technically have the nickname based on how you read his name in Japanese[[/labelnote]], Giorno[[labelnote:*]]The nickname would be "[=GioGio=]" in his case. Due to Italian phonetics, it's still pronounced as ''[=JoJo=]''[[/labelnote]], Jolyne, and Johnny are only ever called by their given names. Giorno in Part 5 and Josuke in Part 8 are ''never once'' referred to as "[=GioGio=]" or "[=JoJo=]" respectively. The nickname is brought up as a very minor reference in the case of Josuke in Part 4 (once), Jolyne in Part 6 (thrice), and Johnny in Part 7 (once), but in all 3 cases, they're referred to their given names every other time throughout their respective adventures. This also works as a meta example, as many new fans that start out with Part 1 would likely call Jonathan "[=JoJo=]" and may do the same for Joseph. But, once Jotaro steps in, they realize how confusing it would be to discuss the series' protagonists without simply calling them by their given names. |
| 116 | ** The first season of the anime adaptation, comprising parts 1 and 2, would often cut several scenes that were in the manga, whereas the adaptations of later parts would add scenes far more often than they’d remove them, and had different composers for each part's score with their own distinct styles (Hayato Matsuo for Part 1, Creator/TakuIwasaki for Part 2) while Part 3 onwards would all be scored by Yugo Kanno in a more comparatively uniform style. |
| 117 | ** The English dub of the first season also employed [[FakeNationality faux accents]] for many of the characters, which were dropped from the (much later) dubs of Part 3 onward including for characters that had appeared in the first two parts. |
| 118 | * ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': |
| 119 | ** The cover for volume 1 was drawn in a style more reminiscent of a horror series than what is found on the other covers. A special edition released to celebrate the series selling 3 million copies included a dust jacket that redrew the artwork to be more in line with later volumes. |
| 120 | ** During Tsubasa's first appearance when he comes to Shirogane for help in asking out Kashiwagi, he refers to her as a "a girl in my class". But later chapters establish that they're Shirogane's classmates, so it would have made more sense for him to either say "a girl in ''our'' class" or just refer to her by name. |
| 121 | ** Kaguya actually wears hair ribbons with multiple designs in the first volume. She just sticks with her "red with two black stripes at the ends" one for the remainder of the series outside of one specific example over Christmas break (which was more due to not having her regular one with her rather than a deliberate choice). |
| 122 | * ''Anime/KillLaKill'': Although the series often has some level of violence, the show generally has a very low body count because people are either dispatched in vague, non-graphic fashion or by having their clothing, [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman and thus much of their power]], [[ClothingDamage destroyed]]. However, the first episode has the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil flat-out executing one of the students for stealing a one-star Goku Uniform, and Mako's [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror apathetic reaction]] implies it was a regular occurrence. It ended up being the only explicit death during the course of the show until [[spoiler:the BigBad, TheDragon, and Senketsu die in the very last episode]]. This example is so extreme that viewers have to ignore or rationalize it in order to accept [[spoiler:the council being GoodAllAlong]] later on. |
| 123 | * ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'' was originally an AffectionateParody of superheroes before it started focusing exclusively on wrestling. |
| 124 | * In ''Manga/KomiCantCommunicate'' when [[MeaningfulName Najimi]] [[ChildhoodFriend Osana]] is introduced [[AmbiguousGender they]] are drawn in a stylized but more realistic form matching that of the other characters. Najimi is also at times shown to be unsure of themselves, scared, and even apologetic. As the chapters went on, the character was drawn more minimalistically, became a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and an [[TheTrickster amoral trickster]] with many moments of ItAmusedMe guiding their actions. |
| 125 | * ''Franchise/LittleWitchAcademia'': |
| 126 | ** The first episode of the [[Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2017 TV series]] has Avery (the blue-haired witch) as part of a trio with Hannah and Barbara, and speak a few lines. She became a silent background character since then. The episode also has some unnamed teachers that either never appear again or make extremely brief cameos in later episodes. |
| 127 | ** The original [[Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2013 short]] [[Anime/LittleWitchAcademiaTheEnchantedParade films]] -- had some adult characters involved in the plot, and the teachers seemed reasonably competent. The TV series, however, goes deep into AdultsAreUseless territory. Other than Ursula and Croix, who are sort of honorary children thanks to flashbacks, the teachers seem less talented than their students--especially Diana, who in one episode resolves a conflict through knowledge of an ancient language the professors couldn't understand. |
| 128 | ** Diana was originally much more prideful and antagonistic towards Akko in the films, often going out of her way and taking whatever excuse she could get to berate and bully Akko. She also had more reckless and immature tendencies, especially in the first film, where she recklessly frees a dragon from its prison by accident. The TV series would tone much of this down, establishing her as being more of the BrutallyHonest type than the catty type, with her childish tendencies being more sparse. |
| 129 | ** While Akko has always been an IneptMage from the offset, she is able to do some magic from the offset in the short films and the [[Manga/LittleWitchAcademiaTeriTerio first two]] [[Manga/LittleWitchAcademiaTheMidnightCrown manga adaptations]], even if much of it wasn't great. This comes in contrast with later works such as the TV series and [[Manga/LittleWitchAcademiaKeisukeSato Keisuke Satō's manga]], which depicts her as being unable to do any magic at first (bar the Shiny Rod's magic), having to slowly gain the ability over time. |
| 130 | ** The first film features a modern day laptop on Lotte's desk and Akko and Diana both use them in the library in Chapter 3 of Teri Terio's manga, which contrasts with later works such as ''The Enchanted Parade'' and the TV series, which portrays modern technology as being restricted on campus (prior to Croix's arrival in the latter) with Constanze and Croix being the only two witches out of the main cast to actively use modern technology, with the others such as Chariot and Lotte using magical alternatives to provide much of the same functions. |
| 131 | * ''Anime/LuckyStar'': The first episode had a scene with Kagami berating Miyuki, someone she is since shown to respect a lot more than Tsukasa or Konata. |
| 132 | * The original manga of ''Manga/LupinIII'' is much more violent and sexual than the animated adaptations that most people would be familiar with. The manga also includes several oddities that are not present in the anime versions, such as Lupin having a pet dog, and Zenigata being a foul-mouthed DirtyCop. |
| 133 | ** Lupin was more of a straight up VillainProtagonist than the lovable AntiHero most people are familiar with. In contrast to most anime depictions, where Lupin primarily kills in self defense (and almost always against other, worse criminals), the manga Lupin was quite murderous, as demonstrated in an early chapter where he stabbed a number of guards to death while infiltrating a military compound. He was also an unrepentant rapist, with these scenes often being [[BlackComedyRape played for laughs]] or [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization showing that his victims enjoyed it]]. Monkey Punch would famously claim that the plot of ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', where Lupin goes out of his way to rescue a young girl in danger, would've been completely OutOfCharacter for his original conception of the character. |
| 134 | ** Rather than being a main character, "Fujiko Mine" was basically a generic name given to the GirlOfTheWeek in the original manga. This meant that in any given chapter, Fujiko could be a rival thief, someone's girlfriend, an escaped convict, a secretary, a BountyHunter, a private detective, an undercover policewoman and even an assassin with nearly 1000 kills. At least two of these appearances also gave Fujiko a sister/partner-in-crime named Michi, who was eventually dropped from the manga and never appeared in any of the anime adaptations. |
| 135 | ** Jigen had no qualms with betraying Lupin to serve his own interests, something that would seem unthinkable to fans who know his iconic status as Lupin's [[TrueCompanions True Companion]]. |
| 136 | ** Despite nowadays being known as a [[TheStoic Stoic]] warrior with little interest in sex, Goemon sometimes tried to pick up women in the manga and was generally angrier and more impetuous than in later depictions. |
| 137 | ** A comment by Lupin in an early manga chapter seemed to suggest he couldn't [[DisguisedInDrag impersonate women]], something he would eventually be shown to be quite adept at. |
| 138 | ** Certain early stories also depicted Lupin as employing a vast network of criminals to assist in his crimes, with one story suggesting he had nearly two thousand operatives who were currently imprisoned (and ''who knows'' how many others running free). Eventually, the series settled on him mostly just working with Jigen, Goemon and Fujiko, a set-up that was retained for nearly all subsequent adaptations. |
| 139 | ** ''Anime/LupinIIITheWomanCalledFujikoMine'', and to an extent ''Anime/TheMysteryOfMamo'', have a much closer similarity to the manga in tone and art style, however the former lacks the slapstick humour present in the source material. |
| 140 | ** The early episodes of ''Anime/LupinIIIPart1'' are also notably darker and more adult in tone than the subsequent seasons, though they still lack the manic slapstick comedy of the manga. The season underwent a significant tonal shift after Creator/IsaoTakahata and Creator/HayaoMiyazaki took over, with Miyazaki in particular striving to make Lupin and his gang more likable and heroic by giving them PetTheDog moments. |
| 141 | * Early volumes of ''Manga/MagicKaito'' were much more comical than its current, somewhat more mature tone. Before becoming the cool legendary phantom thief, Kaito Kid was involved in several cartoony mishaps with Inspector Nakamori and his unwitting daughter Aoko, and there were stories about funny peeping robots, childlike heads of state, a detective in a cheesy deerstalker's costume (to top it off, Hakuba the detective actually grew up in Britain), illusionistic magic as well as actual magic. Although the manga is set in the [[SharedUniverse same universe]] as the more logic/science-bound ''Manga/CaseClosed'', and it has adapted a more realistic tone (Hakuba has since lost that ridiculous outfit), Akako the witch who practices real magic is still a recurring character in the manga. |
| 142 | * On the first season of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' chibi versions of the characters were used occasionally for comic relief; that basically disappeared by Season 2. |
| 143 | * The first season of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', particularly its first episodes. Even ignoring the constant GenreShift of the franchise, there are several elements that are out of place now that the series has several rules set. For example, Devices apparently needed a long incantation to unlock (Nanoha being able to do it with a simple "Please" was shown to be special) and they were apparently shapeshifting weapons that could become whatever its owner imagined them to be. These two features were quietly discarded after the first three episodes and never mentioned again. |
| 144 | ** Heck, Yuuno's mere existence is one, being a mage who isn't a {{familiar}} that became a ferret when his {{Mana}} was low, a trait unique to him in the setting after four/five seasons. The latest explanation at the start of Sequence 1-1 (i.e. Chapter 5) of TheMovie [[ComicBookAdaptation Manga]] was that the Earth's magical field was incompatible with him, turning him into a ferret after he ran out of energy. |
| 145 | ** The series title is a leftover of this trope. Early on, an episode revealed that "Lyrical" was supposed to be Nanoha's special magic word that gave her more power. It's never mentioned again. |
| 146 | * ''Manga/MagicalGirlSite'': In Kiyoharu's first appearance, she was shown to have a psychotic side, expressing her desire to ruin her bullies' lives. This never gets mentioned again, and Kiyoharu is shown to be one of the more level-headed Magical Girls. |
| 147 | * ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' starts its very first chapter with a flat chested Tohru whom repeatedly refers to herself in the third person. |
| 148 | * ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' was originally a HaremSeries... for all of one volume. After that, more and more shounen elements were added, to the point that other than having some of the same characters, some of the most recent chapters look like they're from a [[GenreShift completely different series]]. Pretty much everything from volume 10 or so onward is a straight action manga with comedic and harem elements. If you compare Negi's early flaws (timid, gets scared and runs away) with his later ones (aggressive, too solitary) the contrast is very sharp and can't entirely be chalked up to character development. This was actually done intentionally by the author, interestingly enough, as the shift was a sneaky method of getting past some ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/KenAkamatsu wanted to do a straight-up {{Shonen}} fighting series, whereas his editors wanted him to do another Harem comedy due to the success of his previous manga, ''Manga/LoveHina.'' The shift at first is subtle enough to work. |
| 149 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' to not only the rest of the ''franchise'', but to the RealRobot genre in general. |
| 150 | ** While ''Gundam'' was the start of the "Real Robot" genre, there were a number of SuperRobot elements still attached to the anime, among them the [[EpicFlail Gundam Hammer]], the MechaExpansionPack G-Armor, and a lot of quirky enemy machines used in a MonsterOfTheWeek format, like the Gyan and Zakurello. In general, the design aesthetic of the Principality of Zeon made them look a lot like alien invaders (just look at their [[https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Dopp jet fighters]], [[https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Magella_Attack tanks]] and [[https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Musai-class space cruisers]]). Some of this was at the behest of [[MerchandiseDriven the toy companies]], some due to the need to make new fights each episode on a tight budget, and in [[CompilationMovie the movie trilogy]] Tomino dumped many of the goofier elements in favor of more realistic ones, such as replacing the G-Armor with the Core Booster and cutting out many of the mobile armors. |
| 151 | ** The series is notable for being one of the precious few entries in the franchise where the protagonist doesn't receive a MidSeasonUpgrade (if you discount the G-Armor). ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' even pulls a LampshadeHanging on this by revealing that the Federation ''was'' making a brand-new Gundam for Amuro, only for it to get wrecked beyond repair before they could send it to White Base. |
| 152 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'' is vastly different in the beginning than it is in the end as Creator/YoshiyukiTomino intentionally made it LighterAndSofter to contrast with the darkness of its predecessor ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam''. When Tomino got the greenlight to resolve Amuro and Char's rivalry with [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack a movie]], things took a turn for the bleak in order to set the stage. Look for that to happen about when the action moves to the Earth's surface around the halfway point. |
| 153 | * A couple of early episodes of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' have Heero Yuy [[EvilLaugh laughing maniacally]] as he slaughters enemy soldiers; this doesn't really gel with his normal portrayal as a [[TheStoic Stoic]] HitmanWithAHeart -- or TheMovie's revelation that he's an [[TheAtoner Atoner]]. It's vaguely implied that the laughter was his way of coping with [[spoiler:Dekim Barton]]'s attempts to turn him into an emotionless killer. |
| 154 | * Early in ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'', it was claimed that Plavsky Particles were only conductive towards the types of plastic used on Gunpla, which made Tatsuya's Zaku Amazing unique as its armor came from a tank model, which apparently ''wasn't'' made from that plastic. This plot point never comes up again in any other series. |
| 155 | * ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'': |
| 156 | ** Early colored art of the manga showed Sakura's hair as pinkish and her ribbons didn't have polka-dots. Later colored manga art has her color scheme closer to the anime's. |
| 157 | ** Hori was, in his first few appearances, inconsistently drawn with his sleeves unrolled, even while he was working (and sometimes they would switch from being rolled to unrolled from one panel to the next). Nowadays his sleeves are basically never drawn unrolled except in chapter cover or color artwork. |
| 158 | ** Mikoshiba's first appearance in Chapter 3 actually has him wearing his uniform mostly properly (a buttoned shirt with the tie), only missing the blazer or sweater most of the other students wear. Afterwards he dresses like he normally does in the anime, with his shirt unbuttoned over a t-shirt. |
| 159 | * ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': |
| 160 | ** Bakugou had a group of delinquent friends in the first chapter. However, after getting admitted into U.A. Academy, they're never seen again. He was also considerably more mean, even ([[NeverLiveItDown infamously]]) telling Midoriya to go kill himself; he never goes to this level again later on and by Horikoshi's [[WordOfGod own admittance]] he looks back on this interpretation of Bakugou as an OldShame. |
| 161 | ** At the end of the first volume, the page where Horikoshi credits all his assistants features caricatures of them as Heroes. The ones found in later volumes instead feature regular characters from the series, each drawn by a different assistant. |
| 162 | ** Portrayal of some of the characters were remarkably different compared to the rest of the manga: Aizawa being a SadisticTeacher who once expelled an entire class for not living up his standards and who didn't think twice on humiliating Izuku in front of everyone during the Quirk Apprehension arc, Momo acting like an arrogant InsufferableGenius who seemingly didn't think too highly of his classmates and Eijiro being genuinely scared of Katsuki, to the point of thinking that he was trying to kill Izuku during the heroes vs villains exercise and begged All Might to stop him. |
| 163 | * The first couple of chapters of ''Manga/MysteriousGirlfriendX'' are way more direct about sex than the rest of the series. Among other things, Tsubaki actually dreams about having sex with Urabe. Later in the series, dreaming of mere contact is enough to blow his mind. |
| 164 | * ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'': The first few chapters are markedly different from the rest of the series in several ways: |
| 165 | ** There's a much greater emphasis on the protagonist's inability to lie and keep a secret, with most of the conflict in the early chapters coming from his efforts to keep anyone from finding out that Youko is a vampire. While keeping her secret remains a plot point throughout the manga, the plotlines of the individual chapters quickly became more character-driven, with the task of keeping the secrets taking a backseat. |
| 166 | ** The comedy style is slightly different, with none of the IdenticalPanelGag jokes that would become extremely common in later chapters. |
| 167 | ** The overall art style isn't fully developed, and many characters look quite different then they do throughout most of the manga. |
| 168 | ** Many characters are subject to CharacterizationMarchesOn; Asahi starts out as a BadLiar and but ultimately becomes the OnlySaneMan, Mikan is a straight up JerkAss, Youko is (slightly) more self aware and sarcastic, and [[TheGadfly Akane]], arguably one of the most important characters in defining the tone of the story, isn't introduced until over a dozen chapters in. |
| 169 | ** Many of Aizawa's chapters involve her recollections of training with her brother and trying to apply his advice to her current situations. Once [[ButtMonkey said]] [[BrokenPedestal brother]] is actually introduced into the story, the flashbacks promptly stop happening. |
| 170 | * In ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' early chapters had the artist, Yusuke Murata, at his most artistically free ways, some chapters were very experimental, like one chapter devoted to a single fluid fight sequence as if the manga pages were animation cells, and another fully colored chapter just about Metal Knight taking flight; while these chapters had an unique feel to them, in the end those chapters proved to be a problem for the published volume releases, forcing a different numbering of chapters and some sequences had to redrawn to fit properly in the volumes; later on Murata is found being more contained to traditional manga panels, reserving his artistic signature to some double spread pages, thus never being troubled by the volume releases again. |
| 171 | * ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': |
| 172 | ** Jun Mochizuki's art style isn't the best near the beginning of the series, with strange proportions and minimal detail (for manga standards). The manga undergoes massive ArtEvolution in record time, which makes looking at the first few volumes weird for people who have read past volume five. |
| 173 | ** For a little while, the atmosphere of the manga was distinctly...{{Shonen}}-y, in that 1) the plot was dark...-ish, but 2) the protagonist was oddly optimistic and minimally disturbed by the intimidating things that were happening, and 3) the manga randomly switched from serious to funny. There were other things contributing to the stereotypical {{Shonen}} atmosphere, too. People who have read farther into ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' are pretty weirded out by this when they look back, because they know the true atmosphere of the manga is viciously dark, sad, and rife with psychology and philosophy. |
| 174 | * ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'': |
| 175 | ** Earlier strips titled the series ''Poptepipic Hard Core'' or ''Pop Teen Epic''. |
| 176 | ** In a few early strips, Pipimi and Popuko's mouths actually opened when speaking. |
| 177 | ** The first episode of the anime adaptation had the male voice actors in the first half and the female voice actors in the second half. Every other episode does the opposite. Also, in the first episode Popuko is voiced by a male in both halves. |
| 178 | * ''Anime/PrettyCure'': |
| 179 | ** Since the movies are made at the same time the new series is being done, it's easy to spot out how different one character acts in one of the ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars'' movies than they do in-series. For example, [[Anime/HeartCatchPrettyCure Erika]] is easily shown diving into Tsubomi-level doubts and worries in ''DX 2'' where she's shown in the series to be in almost constant GenkiGirl energy levels. And after watching the ''All-Stars'' movies, watch either ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'' or ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5''. ''Futari wa'' was a parody series that really took off while ''Yes!'' was a lot girlier (compare ''Yes!'' version Cure Lemonade to ''GO!GO!'' version Cure Lemonade, for example). |
| 180 | ** ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'', ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureMaxHeart'' and ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'' also had a strange team line up as they only involved two girls with an extra coming in at some point. This was because the anime was modeled a bit off of ''Franchise/KamenRider'', especially the series post-''Series/KamenRiderAgito'', which used two heroic Riders. It wouldn't be until ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' that they would follow the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' way of a multi-man team. |
| 181 | ** When ''Pretty Cure'' became big, a rule was established that only girls from Earth could be Pretty Cure. Thus, despite having similar powers to them, Shiny Luminous, Kaoru, Michiru and Milky Rose are not considered Cures under this rule. Starting with ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'', all girls can be Cures, with only ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'', ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' and ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' have explicit human girls becoming Pretty Cure after the team forms. |
| 182 | ** In ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'', Cure Peach's first transformation had her suddenly being taken over by her powers to defeat the MonsterOfTheWeek. It never happens again in the series nor in future installments. |
| 183 | ** [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Thanks to the Sendai Earthquake]], ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure'' puts the early VitriolicBestFriends angle for Hibiki and Kanade into this trope. As well, the series starts off dark before getting much lighter for the same reason. |
| 184 | * The first episode of ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' has a few oddities. There's some weird shadowy animation the likes of which is never seen again in the series (although it is awfully similar to the animation in the promo), and it also includes the only instance of CallingYourAttacks. |
| 185 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': The first season as a whole has a very different vibe to it than the rest. It is slower paced, with a bigger focus on Ranma and Akane's thoughts towards each other and insecurities, than on actual combat, espcially shown by how often it goes into their inner monologues, something it rarely does afterward. |
| 186 | ** Kuno, being a StarterVillain, was actually a legitimate challenge towards Ranma. After Ryoga was introduced, [[BadassDecay he was pretty]] [[VillainDecay much reduced to]] JokeCharacter. |
| 187 | ** Ranma in any least the first chapter/episode while a bit short-tempered was considerably more polite than the JerkWithAHeartOfGold fans know him as. His teasing of Akane seemed to come more from his lack of social skills, than any dickishness. Kasumi was a lot more mischievous than the virtual saint of the series - not to mention her flash of anger [[WhatTheHellHero calling Genma out on training Ranma in a dangerous area]]. Nabiki while focused on money, didn't quite have a MoneyFetish and was more interested in boys. |
| 188 | ** The first chapter established all three Tendo sisters as potential fiances for Ranma, and Nabiki even expressed attraction towards Ranma, implying that Kasumi and Nabiki were going to be part of Ranma's harem. However, the second chapter immediately drops this concept with Akane being Ranma's sole fiance. The only time this is ever brought up again is during an arc where Ranma decides to take Nabiki as his fiance to spite Akane after another argument, only for Nabiki to exploit him for financial gain. In general, Nabiki was more interested in girly stuff, like cute boys and sweets, than money. |
| 189 | ** Akane was also willing to get violent Ryoga when he and Ranma accidentally caused her TraumaticHaircut. Since then, Akane had been pretty nice to Ryoga and would even scold Ranma for being mean to him. |
| 190 | ** Shampoo is the only fiance who shows up, does not have her curse yet, and leaves for China at the end of the arc, instead of sticking around, making her feel more like just a more serious version of one of the other one-time complications. |
| 191 | * The first chapter of the first season of ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' has this effect. Saizo Komiya [[HulkOut hulks out]] into a massive, veiny, humanoid thing with a snake tongue, and neither he nor Moka gets an entry in the Bite-Sized Monster Encyclopedia that everything else does. In addition, [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Inner Moka]] isn't nearly as harsh as the rest of the series, almost ''flirting'' with Tsukune. The encyclopedia problem is remedied later on; the bonus chapter to conclude that season provided an Encyclopedia entry for vampires, and it can be assumed that Saizo is a monstrel like the rest of the Anti-Schoolers. |
| 192 | * ''Manga/Reborn2004'' for a good chunk of its run was a comedy based series with the slight dip into drama now and then as Tsuna tried to just survive Reborn's teachings. The fact it jumped straight into a shonen fighting series was indeed a bit jarring since there wasn't really any indication it would go that route. |
| 193 | * ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': In the chapter after Sanosuke is introduced, Kenshin is shown to have the ability to sense people's chi, and chi is later used to explain Udo Jin-e's paralysis power. After that Chi, and the ability to read it, doesn't turn up as a plot point until StepfordSmiler Soujirou is introduced, and it disappears again until KidSamurai Yahiko faces off against a GiantMook and he displays a BattleAura for the first time. |
| 194 | * ''Franchise/SailorMoon'': |
| 195 | ** ''Anime/SailorMoon'' anime: |
| 196 | *** In the first season, after the opening titles, there would be a brief introduction from Usagi explaining who she was and how she's trying her best. It would get updated to include mentions of Ami, Rei and Makoto along with their hunt for the Rainbow Crystals when Mako joins, but after the arrival of Sailor Venus, the whole thing would be dropped in favor of a recap. |
| 197 | *** The first season of the anime had a large supporting cast comprising Usagi's family and friends from school, most notably her little brother Shingo, best friend Naru, and school nerd Umino, who receive several DayInTheLimelight episodes. All three of them got DemotedToExtra in ''R'', while some characters, such as Usagi's father Kenji and homeroom teacher Miss Haruna, disappeared from the series altogether. Furthermore, while Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask stayed as a regular for most of the series, his importance to the plot [[TheArtifact severely diminished]] after ''R'', and he too would get PutOnABus for ''Sailor Stars''. |
| 198 | *** Sailor Moon used several attacks and items in the first season that were rarely or never used again, the most infamous being a variation of her tiara attack, which she used to heal a group of kids who had been turned into monsters (she would later acquire a new item that would do the exact same thing). The first episode also had her weaponizing her screams with her hair pieces, which was used one other time, three seasons later. Also, while the Disguise Pen saw frequent use in the first half of season one, it was used less and less until it was almost completely forgotten about early on in ''R''. |
| 199 | *** The first few episodes of the series, Usagi had a different set of StockFootage to kick off her TransformationSequence, using the sequence from the first episode -- back of her hand, sleeve of her school uniform sticking out. Once she started wearing much more varied clothing, it would change to the palm of her hand, close up, which would be the standard with all later sequences. |
| 200 | *** The overall tone was also quite different, being more like a standard superhero show while the later seasons deviated more towards SliceOfLife. The enemies faced by the Guardians were also much scarier and much more threatening. Contrast with later seasons, in which the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Quirky Miniboss Squads]] become hilariously incompetent and the MonstersOfTheWeek become goofy-looking jokes who rarely pose any serious threat. |
| 201 | *** The first episode has the MonsterOfTheWeek operating by replacing an actual person (Naru's mom) in order to infiltrate the human world. For whatever reason, this M.O. was rarely used by the subsequent youma Beryl sent. The MonstersOfTheWeek also had a heavier involvement with their episode's plot in the first series and ''R'', often being left fully in charge of whatever the villains' EvilPlan was for that day. But around halfway through ''S'' and onward, they are merely used as cannon fodder so the Sailor Guardians can have an excuse to fight something before the episode ended. |
| 202 | *** In the very earliest episodes of the anime, Luna acted more like a normal cat--for example, she would play with cat toys, scratch people when she got upset, and show affection to Usagi by licking her. This was soon dropped, and Luna began acting much more human-like. |
| 203 | *** During her earliest appearances, Chibi-Usa had a quirk where, when she was upset or distressed, her crescent moon marking would appear and she would release a powerful burst of energy, similar to Gohan of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', suggesting that she could have a greater power. This would be dropped after the heroines would head for the future and when she returned as Sailor Chibi-Moon, she would no longer showcase that power. |
| 204 | ** ''Manga/SailorMoon manga'': |
| 205 | *** In the manga, Usagi started out with a pair of goggles resembling what Sailor V wore. She would discard them after the first few appearances and after she gets her first MidSeasonUpgrade, is never seen again with them. Both the original anime and ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal'' flat out never used them (which is particularly odd with ''Crystal'' as it's supposed to be more in line with the manga.) |
| 206 | *** The manga also had the concept of Sailor Moon getting a new, different tiara whenever it was destroyed or during climatic moments in the Dark Kingdom arc. This never happens again in any subsequent arc. |
| 207 | * ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' |
| 208 | ** In the original series the first episodes showed the main characters doing other things besides fighting, by the time they went to Sanctuary and the Gold Saints arc started it was all fight after fight, even most supporting characters (like Miho, Seiya's childhood friend) stopped appearing, only showing up in non-canon movies and the last episodes of the Hades saga. |
| 209 | ** On ''Anime/SaintSeiyaOmega'', season 1 featured prominently a ''Main/ElementalRockPaperScissors'' that by season 2 was completely forgotten. Also, Cloths looked more and more like armors as season 2 went on. |
| 210 | * Most of the weirdness in ''{{Literature/Slayers}}'' is two-fold: It began as a self-aware parody of fantasy series, albeit with its own dogma. As soon as [[DarkerAndEdgier the story began to emerge]] some time in the middle, the self-awareness angle was dropped. Also, earlier, the characters were far more cooperative with one another, and whatever new magic showed up garnered an explanation for the viewers. Newer seasons had a lot more friction (to the point that Zelgadis would continually try to run away) and dropped explanations. |
| 211 | ** In the first anime season, the four {{Filler}} episodes that were meant for comedy actually are a part of the plot - and mixed in a way that was done very well (all four episodes involve a humorous incident occurring during what is basically a bounty hunter chasing the protagonists). The second season fillers were only marginally related to the plot, and then by the third, they became more like the standard trope. |
| 212 | ** This happens in the novels as well; the first story arc is one long narrative, the second is more episodic. |
| 213 | * ''Manga/ShamanKing'' started out as a bit of a comedy series at first with chapters centered on Yoh and Manta trying to find a partner ghost for him, though there were hints it was going to go to action eventually. When it did, the initial power up involved being possessed by the ghost and the two spirits working together to fight opponents. This was later replaced with the Over Soul technique which the author found to be more interesting, and the possession technique is rarely used again. |
| 214 | * The first ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' anime, ''Super Robot Wars OG: The Animation'', is an interesting beast. ''OG: The Animation'' accidentally invokes ContinuityLockout as the anime assumes that the viewer has played both Game Boy Advance games, which this is a sequel to. Kyosuke and Excellen are shown piloting their machines without wearing pilot suits as they wouldn't get official ones until the UpdatedRerelease game entry ''Original Generations''. The same goes with Latooni, who is seen wearing her Lolita-style maid outfit when later entries have her wearing the outfit only when she guarding Princess Shine. This is also the only animated entry (so far) to include anything from the Huckebein line (in this case, the Mk-II M) as by the time of ''Divine Wars'', they had started clamping down on the Gundam-inspired machine until ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsT'' |
| 215 | * ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'': |
| 216 | ** The first OVA series was much more attached to its harem roots and was easily more sexualized and "mature" (Noboyuki was ThePeepingTom, Katsuhito was shown groping Ryoko's breasts in one early episode, Washu flipping off Kagato, Ryoko and Ayeka's attempts to win Tenchi flat out) and a few characters' personalities were vastly different (Sasami was shown to be a mischievous BrattyHalfPint, Ayeka was shown to be a little more haughty and antagonistic towards others, Mihoshi was surprisingly competent especially compared than she is now). |
| 217 | ** This can also be seen in the manga based on the OVA -- the OVA rarely had the group leaving the house except for trouble, where the manga had them going all over the place, especially in the later comics where Sasami's seen going to school. |
| 218 | ** The English dub also took a couple episodes to find its footing, and originally referred to Ryo-Ohki as a male before correctly switching to female. A couple actors also changed how they voiced their characters (notably Nobuyuki sounds more higher-pitched and nasal in his first episode before Jay Hopper switched to a lower doofus-sounding voice). |
| 219 | * The very first scene of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is clearly supposed to be foreshadowing a scene from later in the series... except [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment that scene never ends up happening.]] Even to a long-time viewer of the show, it makes very little sense and doesn't gel that well with how the story lays out. It's clear that at this point, only a loose version of the complete story was ready. Fans were eventually handed an explanation when one fan asked if it was an alternate continuity where [[spoiler: the Spiral Nemesis happened.]] The response? [[AscendedFanon "Sure, let's go with that."]] |
| 220 | * ''Manga/ToLoveRu'': The first few chapters have a lot more emphasis on relatively tame physical comedy and slapstick than the {{Ecchi}}-driven content of the original manga's later chapters and ''Darkness'' became known for. The {{Fanservice}} is still there, but it's not nearly as pervasive or explicit; CensorSteam is way more common, and some of the early chapters don't even contain any nudity at all. |
| 221 | * ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': |
| 222 | ** The anime has a comic side throughout the series. But a few episodes the comedy fades and the drama takes over most of the time. |
| 223 | ** In the manga, Vash initially acts a bit more like a StockShonenHero, and is noticeably more hotheaded. It isn't until ''Maximum'' that he acts more like a gentle, sensitive StepfordSmiler. Also in the pilot chapter he acted like a ChivalrousPervert, [[AdaptationPersonalityChange which was used as the basis for his anime personality]], but aside from the Dominique fight he never acts like this again in the manga. |
| 224 | * Early in the manga version of ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', Ataru was the only main character, rather than sharing that status with Lum (chapter 2 didn't feature Lum at all)[[note]]Originally, Takahashi had conceived the series as an {{Monster of the Week}} manga, with Ataru running into a different group of "obnoxious aliens" each chapter. It was only when Lum became instantly popular that Takahashi did an immediate retool of the concept. In the game of tag in the first chapter, Lum isn't shown to have her electrical-shock ability, unlike in the anime adaptation. There were also many examples of ArtEvolution (Cherry was drawn taller than [[MiniatureSeniorCitizens usual]], male characters had BigOlEyebrows, eyes were drawn more realistically and less tall-and-narrow, etc.) Lum was also much more ambiguously antagonistic and perhaps even malevolent at the beginning, as opposed to the sweet naif that she became later on. For instance, in an early installment, Lum continually lies that she is pregnant by Ataru, to piss off both Rei (a shapechanging member of her race who was once engaged to Lum and is intensely jealous) and Shinobu... and Lum is clearly deriving pleasure from the chaos she is sowing. The Lum from even a year later would not do things like this.[[/note]] |
| 225 | ** Lum is also much more ruthless, vindictive and possessive of Ataru in these early stories, and comes off as being more villainous. She even expresses sheer delight when she thinks Shinobu has been killed in chapter 6, which, even by the standards of their rivalry, seems excessive. |
| 226 | ** The "Ataru is supposed to be the only main character" and Lum's growing role were later [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a later storyline: when Ataru tried to resign from the post of class president and give it to Mendo, everyone assumed he was resigning from being the main character, with Lum being the exception because she was convinced the main character was herself. |
| 227 | ** Shinobu was more hot-tempered in early installments and her super-strength was merely an one-off gag. One chapter showing a possible future even hints at her and Ataru getting married and having a child together. As the anime took more cues from the retooled plot and increased focus on Lum and Ataru as a pairing, this chapter was one of the stories that were skipped over. |
| 228 | ** Benten's first appearance doesn't really show any indication that she and Lum like one another, let alone that they're supposed to be close childhood friends. If anything, she initially seems like another one-off rival/antagonist, who really only serves to drive a wedge between Lum and Ataru. |
| 229 | ** Mendo was not Ataru's rival in the first volume, but instead his role was taken by four (sometimes five) nameless classmates who would wind up dragged into the strange adventures. Oddly, while Takahashi phased these characters out in favor of Mendo, the anime gave them [[AscendedExtra more roles]]. |
| 230 | * In ''Manga/UzakiChanWantsToHangOut'', Tsuki's colorful mind misinterpreting and fantasizing about Shinichi being a ravenous man who wanted to have Hana and Tsuki at the same time in a daughter-mother combo comes off as odd later in the series where all the Uzaki family is better established; by then it is shown Tsuki isn't often alone at home, the early scenes just happened to be in a time where it looked that way, and Tsuki does have a very healthy relationship with her husband Fujio still after many years of marriage, to the point their active sexual life can embarrass their son Kiri. |
| 231 | * A lot of the changes in ''Manga/WanderingSon'' have to do with CharacterDevelopment - such as why Maho and Saori TookALevelInJerkass or how sensitive Nitori originally was - but some stand as examples. Nitori's baking abilities don't pop up after elementary and the series took a noticeable [[CerebusSyndrome dive]] in terms of how fluffy it was around the same time. Takatsuki and Kanako were not childhood friends in the first volume which causes their interactions to differ, and Kanako wasn't TheCutie so she acts uncharacteristic. There were a few kids who hung around the gang in early chapters but Kanako was the only one who stayed. |
| 232 | * ''Anime/YuGiOh'' was originally [[Manga/YuGiOh a manga]] where every issue contained a new type of game, but the card game episode was so popular it quickly took over as a major draw. There's also the fact that the [[{{Defictionalization}} card game didn't exist in real life]] until partway through the series, so the earlier episodes don't necessarily follow the [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh real world card game's]] rules, thus the large amount of NewRulesAsThePlotDemands. |
| 233 | ** Dark Yugi's appearance came off extremely sinister in early chapters of the manga. He acted downright psychotic, making opponents go insane with Penalty Games and even (most infamously) set a man on fire, something that only the antagonists would do later on. Gradually his appearance shifted so that he just looks like a more confident version of Yugi by the end of the first volume. While early on he was implied to be Yugi's SuperPoweredEvilSide, he was later retconned into a separate being we all know today as the Pharaoh. |
| 234 | ** The English Dub is infamous for cutting out all references to or hints of death or violence, but surprisingly was a bit more lenient on it in the earlier episodes. During Yami Yugi's duel with Panik, Panik's attempting to light Yugi on fire if Yugi loses is left intact. |
| 235 | ** In the original series, the cards are mostly inclined towards the horror genre, religion and mythology [[note]]especially but not restricted to Ancient Egypt[[/note]] with uncanny designs to match. Later series since ''GX'' have a more "science-fantasy" theme for the cards, with monsters that often look futuristic and mechanical. While there are still some cards that look scary, they're nowhere near as common as they used to be. This may be partly due to the backlash the franchise received from MoralGuardians when it first became popular in the West, but it's more likely just that the shiny futuristic cards were more popular and toyetic. The Ancient Egyptian motif that defined the original series is also almost completely gone, save for a few occasional references. |
| 236 | ** Even when the series becomes about card games, the first season, Duelist Kingdom, was completely full of notoriously bizarre interpretations of the actual rules of the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game. Very frequently, the anime duels would sharply deviate from how the cards actually worked, to include one memorable instance[[note]]the "Catapult Turtle gambit" in Yugi's duel against Panik[[/note]] that was once the TropeNamer for ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot, and without a whole lot of continuity in how they were applied. This is partially because the actual card game itself was going through the height of its own weirdness, and wouldn't even properly exist until a ways into Duelist Kingdom in the manga. |
| 237 | ** The first few Duels in the manga didn't really bother with theme decks, with Yugi, Kaiba, and Pegasus all running more or less a mishmash of generic fantasy monsters. After Haga/Weevil's first duel, most later characters would use some kind of deck theme, and from the ''GX'' era onward, most characters also stuck to a specific archetype. |
| 238 | ** While the series has always had a heavy implication that individual cards could carry a deep, quasi-mystical importance to the user, for a while, that concept was pretty much restricted to Blue-Eyes. Dark Magician is just another strong card in Yugi's deck up until Battle City gave it a link to Atem's past, and in quite a few of its early appearances, including its debut, it contributes very little or gets casually destroyed without much ceremony. (Hell, in the first duel of the franchise, ''Summoned Skull'' was explicitly Yugi's trump card.) For that matter, it wasn't until early Duelist Kingdom that Blue-Eyes had any kind of deep link to Kaiba; in the early manga, it seems to be nothing more than an expensive and powerful card in his eyes, and in that aforementioned first duel, its spirit was firmly aligned against him. |
| 239 | ** The initial model of the Duel Disk was very different from every later use of the term, with the only similarities being that they're both man-portable. It was a machine about the size and shape of a frisbee, attached to a wrist-mounted deckholder by a length of string, and when activated, spun like a top to project a hologram. Additionally, it seemed to be designed exclusively to play a variant of the game, since it could only project one monster at a time and also projected the cards in the user's hand (which were inserted into the disk itself). Every future Duel Disk is solely a wrist-mounted cardholder and projector, with the separate throwable spinning top aspect removed, and is designed to play the standard game. Funnily, this also makes the term "Duel Disk" into a major case of TheArtifact, since the vast majority of them have no disk-like elements at all. Though, it's justified since Kaiba mentioned that the Duel Disks used in Duelist Kingdom were prototypes. |
| 240 | ** In the anime, the first few demonstrations of Battle City's Duel Disks had them use separate holographic projectors that fired off from the disk when it was activated and planted themselves on the ground to mark the edges of the arena. This was dropped fairly quickly, and from that point on, it seems like the Duel Disk itself is what's doing the projecting. (Funnily, this was how it worked in the manga from the start.) |
| 241 | ** Trap cards did not exist in the manga until Yugi’s duel with Haga, and in that duel they activated automatically as soon as the conditions to activate them were met. Thus, Yugi could effortlessly defuse Haga’s trap (which is never so much as named) simply by attacking with the weak Kuriboh instead of the strong Dark Magician, as Haga had no choice at all about whether he could activate his card. He couldn’t save it for a later moment. Even as late as Jonouchi’s duel against Kotsuzuka, this seems to be the case, since the mere threat of his opponent activating Stop Defense successfully stops Jonouchi’s defensive plays. It isn’t until the tag duel against the Labyrinth Brothers that traps come to work the way we are used to. |
| 242 | * ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' |
| 243 | ** The early chapters (as well as early episodes) involve Yusuke solving cases involving demons from the Spirit World (the manga even more so as a good chunk of the early chapters were nothing but Yusuke floating around the afterlife trying to do some good deeds; in the making of the anime, they even skipped whole volumes of this. Impressive, considering the near lack of filler). By the time the Toguro brothers were introduced, it became more focused on his combat abilities and strengths fighting demons rather than solving cases. |
| 244 | ** This was also the case for Hiei. While he was never a good guy, he was significantly more antagonistic and hostile in his initial appearance where he planned to transform humans into an army of enslaved demons to reap chaos in the human world. After this storyline, his negative qualities are toned down and his backstory with Yukina is introduced to make him sympathetic, gradually transforming him from a villain to an anti-hero. The reason for this is because when Hiei was introduced, he was supposed to be a one-off villain who would never appear again; however Togashi's editors convinced him to continue using the character. |
| 245 | ** Early on the anime the characters were drawn with rounder faces and a slightly shorter height. As the show went on, in particular when the Toguro brothers were introduced, the characters looked sharper and taller. |
| 246 |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / AnimeAndManga
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
