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Putting the cast of a (relatively) fantastical setting into a contemporary, "normal" one. The entertainment often comes from the [[FishOutOfWater incongruity of not fitting in]] or the fact that we're seeing the characters in a realistic setting.

Exemplified by the famous and much enjoyed ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episodes where characters either go to the past or get involved in a holodeck novel, and (in practice) leave their show's tropes behind a bit.

However, doing this as a GenreShift (or a [[ReTool Retooled]] series's whole premise) is often [[RecycledINSPACE too obvious to be successful]].

If it involves people from a futuristic setting travelling into the past (or a recreation of it), expect there to be a FanOfThePast who provides exposition or takes charge.

Compare BroughtDownToNormal, RefugeeFromTVLand, UniversalAdaptorCast, WelcomeToTheRealWorld, FishOutOfTemporalWater. See also AdaptationalMundanity and HighSchoolAU.
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!!Examples:

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[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** One of the ending sequences for ''Naruto: Shippuuden'' drops the cast into a HighSchoolAU. This was later expanded upon in ''Anime/ShippuKonohaGakuenDen''.
** Another ''Naruto Shippuden'' outro depicts Naruto and Sasuke as enemy {{ronin}}.
* The whole point of ''Manga/NeonGenesisEvangelionAngelicDays'', a shojo manga that extracts the {{Mind Screw}}y, psychological, post-apocalyptic elements of NGE that we all know and hate to love in place of a [[SliceOfLife light, romantic-comedy high school setting]]. With Evas in the background.
* ''Literature/KinosJourney'' has a spin-off called ''Gakuen Kino''. The latter is, admittedly, a HighSchoolAU with magical girls and random monsters floating around, but given that ''Kino's Journey'' is a poster child for surreal magic realism, it seems to be a good borderline example.
* ''Gurren Gakuen-hen'' is another official HighSchoolAU, this one for ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. As with ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', the alternate universe briefly appears in the original show in the form of a [[ItwasAllJustADream dream or hallucination]].
* ''Manga/YoureUnderArrest'' has a [[ItwasAllJustADream dream episode]] where Natsumi becomes a detective in Heian-era Japan, centuries in the past, with the entire cast re-cast as the townspeople. (There is an immensely-popular Japanese live-action TV show about a detective in the Heian Era, and Natsumi is a fangirl of the show.)
* The ''Manga/FairyTail'' omakes usually put the characters into everyday situations instead of the fantastical adventures and magical battles they experience in the main series. Examples are going to the pool, suffering from awkward teenage romances and visiting a girl's dorm. Most of them seem to be canon as a few have been referenced in the main story, so the reason they are separate from the series is probably that they would distract too much from, and postpone, the more actionized main plot. One of the few non-canon omakes even puts Lucy and co. in a normal high school setting where magic doesn't exist at all.
* The ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' TV series had three episodes where the characters were dropped into other genres, including a HighSchool drama and a FilmNoir.
* The premise of ''Anime/IsekaiQuartet'' where ''Literature/ReZero'', ''Literature/TheSagaOfTanyaTheEvil'', ''Literature/Overlord2012'', and ''Literature/KonoSuba'', four light novel series that deal with stories where the protagonists get TrappedInAnotherWorld, get TrappedInAnotherWorld ''again'' - except this time it's a world very much like our own, with the protagonists and their closest allies ending up becoming classmates. The cast of ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' joins in for the second season.
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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Comicbook/{{PS238}}'' has a storyline where [[BigBadWannabe Victor von Fogg]] goes to an alternate universe without superheroes, with some of the heroes ([[EvilVersusEvil and also Zodon]]) in pursuit. This includes meeting Alternate Universe Zodon, who's comparably nicer and a more realistic version of a ChildProdigy. (As in, he has his own internet company but no doomsday devices.)
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[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/APrincessATreehuggerAndASpaceCadetWalkIntoALibrary'' is an ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fanfic where there are no aliens, so the Animorphs are ordinary teenagers, and their personal problems are adjusted to reflect this. For example, Ax is now [[FunnyForeigner from a foreign country]] instead of being the TokenNonHuman.
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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The ''Star Trek'' king of this was ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', where TimeTravel had our heroes visiting 1980s San Francisco and attempting unsuccessfully to blend in.
* The setting of ''Film/SuperiorUltraman8Brothers''. It depicts the cast of several ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' all living alongside each other in Kobe and having everyday jobs, while ''Ultraman'' is just a ShowWithinAShow. But when mysterious evil entities begin summoning forth monsters from ''Ultraman'' into the real world and Series/UltramanMebius makes an unexpected appearance, the characters have to find the original Series/{{Ultraman}}, Series/UltraSeven, [[Series/ReturnOfUltraman Ultraman Jack]], Series/UltramanAce, Series/UltramanTiga, Series/UltramanDyna, and Series/UltramanGaia like in the shows.
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[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' famously originated as a mundane-AU fanfic novel based on ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', with Christian and Anastasia based on Edward and Bella.
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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. Whenever Desilu had props or costumes left over from another production, the Enterprise would '''''mysteriously''''' stumble across an alien planet that bore a startling resemblance to a period in Earth's history. Examples include:
*** In "Miri", the production team invents the idea of a duplicate Earth to justify filming on ''The Andy Griffith Show'' backlot.
*** It gave us "A Piece of the Action", in which the crew visited a planet run like the Prohibition-era Mafia, complete with Tommy guns, pin-striped suits, and Model-A Fords.
*** "Patterns of Force" features a federation interloper setting up a society based on "the most efficient and well-ordered of all societies", UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.
*** "Bread and Circuses" features Space Romans. Not to be confused with the franchise's '''other''' group of Space Romans, the Romulans, these are literal Space Romans who dress like Legionnaires. This episode was more of a piss-take than the others, though.
*** They also actually visit the past of Earth in "City on the Edge of Forever" (TheThirties) and "Assignment: Earth" and "Tomorrow is Yesterday", both of which were set in the contemporary [[TheSixties '60s]].
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', of course, had the holodeck. Data and [=LaForge=] were fond of acting out the parts of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. Of course, sometimes this caused problems, such as when Holmes's archnemesis, Professor Moriarty, took over the ship.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has this in "Future's End", when the crew visit 1996. There's a clever subversion of the common trope of the FanOfThePast taking charge--Tom Paris is indeed an expert on the twentieth century, but on the ''mid'' twentieth century, which causes problems when he mentions the Soviet Union to a local. There's also a jab at the fashion of the era with Chakotay noting that they probably could've worn their [[SpaceClothes Starfleet uniforms]] and fit in just fine.
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'''s second season spends the bulk of its runtime in 2024 Los Angeles as part of an extended [[TricksterMentor Q test]].
* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' ([[Series/BeingHumanUS both versions]]): Various supernatural critters under one roof in contemporary times.
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'' is a borderline example. While the ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'' canon has many fantastic elements, it is set in modern-day earth with mostly normal humans. ''Universe'', however, is set halfway across the universe in a YouCantGoHomeAgain scenario, but still uses a [[AllJustADream hallucination episode]], [[Recap/StargateUniverseS2E5Cloverdale "Cloverdale"]], to play the trope straight.
* ''Series/Supergirl2015'' has this trope occasionally with episodes focusing on more mundane issues like family anniversaries etc. even though the characters are HumanAliens and the situations are analog of RealLife ones. The conflict is recognizable enough, even if the characters and setting are different from ours.
* ''Series/WandaVision'' is an interesting {{downplayed}} example of the trope, the series starts with Wanda and (a seemingly resurrected) Vision living as a normal couple (though Wanda has her magic and Vision is still an android with powers) living a normal suburban life. However, this is merely a fake reality that both of them are trapped in and Wanda's keeping up to have a happy life after losing Vision in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''.
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[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* OlderThanDirt: In [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian mythology]], the goddess Inanna, known for her childish habit of losing her temper and causing widespread chaos and destruction, is married to the shepherd god Dumuzi. However, some ancient love lyrics and wedding songs feature Dumuzi as a regular shepherd who is courting Inanna, who appears as a temperamental young maiden.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* The ending of ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' has someone, apparently Kid, in our world shown realistically.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Interesting variation occurs in the webcomic ''Webcomic/NoNeedForBushido'' (NNFB for short), which takes place in feudal Japan. A "subcomic" titled ''No Need for a Player's Guide'' shows the same characters -- in the context of a contemporary, [[TwoGamersOnACouch videogame-centric/wacky roommate]] webcomic. A Daimyo lord becomes a corporate executive, a rogue {{ronin}} samurai becomes a [=FedEx=] man, and [[http://www.noneedforbushido.com/nnpg/index.php?strip_id=5 their habitual katana-duels to-the-death becomes videogame confrontations]]...
* In the Webcomic/WalkyVerse, ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' is basically a ContinuityReboot that removes the sci-fi elements, [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether moving the characters]] [[HighSchoolAU to a normal college setting]].
** Ironic as the Webcomic/WalkyVerse started in the same setting with ''Roomies'' before the alien-abduction backstory became the dominant plot-line.
* ''Webcomic/DawnOfTime'' is about a NubileSavage and her pet triceratops in a highly fantasy-themed prehistoric world, with some TimeTravel to spice things up. One filler comic, though, transplants Dawn and Blue in a BuddyCopShow.
* ''Webcomic/{{Carciphona}}'', normally a fantasy comic, has a spinoff, ''Amongst Us'', where the main characters are concert musicians in the modern day and the world of ''Carciphona'' exists only as a video game mentioned once or twice. Veloce and Blackbird, normally TheHero and her murderous assassin nemesis, are lovers.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Borderline example: The Disney series ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' plunks several characters from ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' into a 1930s-era "Golden Age of Flying" environment, which also happens to be a WorldOfFunnyAnimals (meaning [[AdaptedOut Mowgli doesn't exist]]). Baloo becomes a GeniusDitz pilot, Louie a barkeeper, Shere Khan a (relatively benign) corporate CEO. The actual plot of the film never enters into it.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux'', the ending of the more-than-usually {{Mind Screw}}ing episode "Chronophasia" has Aeon apparently being recreated as an ordinary woman in our world.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' gives us the episode "Oops, I Did It Again", in which Professor Utonium dreams of the girls reimagined as the "Run of the Mill Girls", who don't have superpowers or their distinctive NonStandardCharacterDesign. Towards the end, we also see that Utonium's career was also hit by mundanization -- instead of working in a laboratory, he runs "Pizza Pie Laboratory", a take-out pizza joint. "[[MundaneMadeAwesome Man, oh, man! What an exciting job!]]"
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTales'' took out many of the more fanciful aspects of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'': there were no pegasi, unicorns or magic, and the primary issues they faced were typical SliceOfLife fare like dealing with crushes, schoolwork, bullying, and other things the target audience would likely face.
* This was very nearly the fate of the 1988 revival of ''WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil''. ExecutiveMeddling wanted Beany to be an ordinary schoolboy and his adventures with Cecil and the others merely daydreams. Bob Clampett Jr., son of [[Creator/BobClampett the original creator,]] fought tooth and nail for the series to keep its whimsical fantasy setting and succeeded.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTimeFionnaAndCake'' reveals that the version of Ooo that Fionna and Cake lived in [[TheMagicGoesAway got turned into an ordinary world]] after Simon Petrikov regained his humanity during the GrandFinale of [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime the original series]]. Fionna became a tour guide named Fionna Campbell, Cake became an ordinary housecat, and many of the remaining inhabitants of Ooo are {{human|ityEnsues}}s. When Fionna and Cake end up escaping Simon's mind and brought before Prismo (their true creator), he restores them as their original forms, and they and Simon go on a quest to similarly bring their Ooo back to its more fantastical state.
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