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Adaptational Heroism / Anime & Manga

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Adaptational Heroism in Anime & Manga.

  • Ace Attorney (2016):
    • In the games the anime is based on, Marvin Grossberg, Cody Hackins, and Wendy Oldbag all need to be outright interrogated to learn what they know. In the anime, Grossberg tells Phoenix everything he knows about Mia's murderer without prompts and Cody takes nowhere near the effort to get him to reveal what he saw, spilling the beans after some prompting and a speech about the meaning of justice. Oldbag meanwhile, overhears this speech and then has an internal conflict about whether she should reveal to Phoenix about an accident the victim was involved in; she gives him a photograph after hearing a second speech by Cody.
    • Speaking of Grossberg, in the game he outright refuses to defend Maya in court and never tells her about his involvement in the DL-6 incident that lead to her mother vanishing. Here he offers to defend Maya immediately and only backs out after getting a threatening call from blackmailer Redd White, and later confesses his role in DL-6 to her, remorsefully begging for her forgiveness.
    • Jack Hammer was one of the biggest asshole victims in the games. There he tries to murder Dee Vasquez and frame Will Powers for it, drugged Powers, was jealous of Powers' fame and it is implied that the accident that caused one of his co-stars to die might have been deliberate. The anime removes all of this except his attempt to kill Vasquez and possibly framing Powers, making him more of a broken man pushed to extreme actions.
    • From that same case is Sal Manella. In the game, he helped Dee Vasquez cover up her accidental murder of the aforementioned Jack Hammer. In the anime, however, he seemed to have no involvement in the murder whatsoever. Everything from moving the body to swapping out the costumes was done by Vasquez alone.
    • At the end of the final case of the first game, it's revealed that Larry was the one who stole Edgeworth's lunch money back when the two of them and Phoenix were in school together. The anime, however, has a special episode dedicated to expanding on that incident. While Larry did take the money, he did so unwittingly. Edgeworth had dropped it on the way to school and Larry simply found it, none the wiser of who it belonged to. He even turned it in to the police, not actually spending it until after enough time had gone by without it being claimed for him to legally take it for himself. This is a far cry from the games, where he basically admits that he took it out of greed, knowing fully well who it belonged to and showing zero remorse for doing so.
    • In the adaptation of second game's second case, the plot to murder Turner Grey and frame Maya for it was all Morgan Fey's idea. Ini Miney only wanted to rig the channeling in a way that Turner wouldn't discover that the supposedly-dead woman he's trying to channel was actually her. She approached Morgan Fey hoping for assistance with the ruse, who then blackmailed Miney into going along with her own plans by threatening to expose her secret. In the game, both of them were in on the whole thing together.
    • The final case of the second game has yet another asshole victim actor, Juan Corrida. In the game, after discovering Celeste Inpax's suicide note, he destroyed it and replaced it on its own in order to frame his equally asshole-ish (or worse) rival Matt Engarde, merely treating it as a way to pay back for his wounded pride without any care about Celeste, who he just divorced because of a piece of information Matt threw in, making him care more about his rivalry. In the anime, he didn't forge the suicide note and plans to publicize it as original as it can be, meaning that he puts aside his rivalry with Matt and decides that he has to be brought to justice for Celeste's suicide which was pretty mortifying for him.
  • One of the manga adaptations of Battle Spirits Brave portrays Geraid as heroic and legitimately loyal to Gilfam. This couldn't be any more opposite from his role in the anime.
  • Blood+: While both versions of Diva are Anti-Villains and Psychopathic Manchildren, the manga makes her a much more sympathetic character. Anime!Diva had a sadistic streak and often relished the thought of killing Saya whereas manga!Diva genuinely cares for both Saya and her Chevaliers and doesn't seem to understand that killing is wrong. The "heroism" part is also aided by the fact that unlike in the anime, she doesn't rape and murder Riku.
  • Bokurano: In the manga, Chizu, while tying to get revenge on the men who gang-raped her, fires Zearth's lasers at them and feels no remorse for the many innocent people who are caught in the blasts and killed. She just barely is talked down from killing Hatagai by her sister, who tells her to kill her as well and her family after learning what she did and what was done to her, considers her actions all but unforgivable. In the anime, she doesn't kill anyone prior to her aborted attempt on Hatagai's life which she stops the moment she sees her sister trying to protect him. In a more debatable scene, in the manga, she kills Kako while he's beating up Kirie, but in the anime, she pushes him away when he tries to rape her, causing him to fall down the stairs and die when the building he's in collapses.
  • In The Castle of Cagliostro, Lupin is noticeably made to be more heroic and kind than his impulsive and selfish counterpart from the original manga and later incarnations in the anime, though slightly inverted, as he does have his redeeming qualities from time to time.
  • In Cyborg 009, Ivan's father turns his baby into a cyborg via experiments on the brain (we later find out it was to save him from an illness, but it was still irresponsible), kills his wife when she tries to go to the police about it, and joins Black Ghost partially to escape from the law and partially to continue his experiments. In the graphic novel retelling, he is portrayed as a Reluctant Mad Scientist who focused on saving his son's life and was very uncomfortable with Black Ghost's plans. 001 Even acknowledges that his father did everything to save him and is able to talk his father out of capturing the cyborgs at which point his father performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save them.
  • Danganronpa: The Animation:
    • Byakuya Togami is still quite a jerk who is callous and doesn't think much of cooperation, as he was in the visual novel. In the anime, however, he doesn't openly profess that he's planning to eventually murder someone and get away with it. He also has more pragmatic reasons for tampering with the crime scene of Chihiro's murder, stating it to be a test of his classmates' abilities and a way to throw the real killer off guard, whereas in the game he did it partly for his own twisted amusement and partly to find out which of his classmates would be the biggest threat to him when he decides to become the blackened.
    • Similarly, in the game Celestia Ludenburg proudly declares that she has a Lack of Empathy when asked how she could murder Hifumi and, by proxy, Kiyotaka, in such a cold-blooded fashion. This is omitted from the anime, and while her selfish motive remains unchanged and she thus remains the least sympathetic culprit by far assuming that motive wasn't another one of her lies, it does make her a bit more human. And the manga actually explores her past and motives more than the game or anime did, which makes her far more sympathetic.
  • Death Note:
    • In the original manga and anime, L is a rather ruthless Anti-Hero who the author describes as being "a little bit evil." In his movie L: Change The World, L is a lonely, misunderstood Woobie Action Hero guy who cares for sick orphans.
    • In the live-action films, Light Yagami himself falls into this to a degree. According to Word of God, in the original anime and manga, Light is a perfectionist who couldn't deal with the fact that he accidentally killed someone (thus, he reasons that it was okay, since the dude was an asshole, and that it's okay to kill criminals). In the films, his Start of Darkness is in part because he held the law on a Broken Pedestal. Light is given this treatment even further in the live action 2015 series, where he deeply loves his family (even if he has a strained relationship with his father), actually reciprocates Misa's feelings, and was even able to save people using the Death Note (getting rid of Jerk Jock Souta and saving his father from his mother's murderer). And that's to say nothing of "Light Turner" from the 2017 Netflix film.
    • Teru Mikami gets this treatment in Light Up the New World, which reveals that he was driven insane by Light's crazed, violent and murderous child son note , to the point he ended up killing him for fear of being killed himself. His Ax-Crazy personality from the manga and anime is also largely omitted in the film.
  • The Devil is a Part-Timer!: The anime largely downplays the level of Maou's responsibility in and the scale of the atrocities his forces have committed and also leaves out that many of his more heroic actions are actually Pragmatic Villainy: he doesn't return to Ente Isla as soon as he has the chance because he would lose and cleans up the damage to the city to make a good impression on Emi's group so they won't kill him.
  • Beelzebumon is one of the Seven Demon Lords in the Digimon mythology. In Digimon Tamers, he (as Impmon) starts out as a Wild Card before receiving a power-up from the villains to evolve into Beelzebumon. He initially opposes the heroes, but has a Heel–Face Turn later, becoming The Atoner. In Digimon Fusion, a different Beelzebumon, under the alias "Baalmon", also starts off working for the baddies, but it's really just so he can investigate who drove him to kill his comrades. He gets killed once he found out, but upon reincarnating, becomes a major player in the Xros Heart army.
  • Digimon Ghost Game:
    • Mummymon was previously portrayed as a somewhat incompetent, but still dangerous villain during Adventure 02. In this series' incarnation, Mummymon is genuinely a heroic character, despite his introduction as a Monster of the Week, he is intent on being a doctor and healing people, unfortunately taking his medical knowledge from ancient Egypt and thinking that mummyfying people is the way to heal them.
    • Downplayed with Majiramon. In his previous appearance in Tamers, he was a Knight Templar for an arc's Big Bad and an active antagonistic force against the heroes. In his appearance in this series, he is still a Monster of the Week enemy who threatens to destroy the city, but only due to Jellymon messing the normal flow of cash by hacking the money system of the city (which he is a deity meant to protect). This is Truer to the Text of Digimon mythos, as he is portrayed as something of a deity of cash and wealth who is obsessed with money, but he is willing to stop his rampage and apologize once Kiyoshiro and Jellymon fix her blunder.
    • In Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, Quartzmon is a horrific Eldritch Abomination who succeeds in taking over the entire world and gleefully invokes a horrific, Body Horror and And I Must Scream-laden Hostage Situation against Tagiru with no discernable motive. Here, he's the leader of a mass exodus of Baby Digimon and a Well-Intentioned Extremist who inflicts people with Horror Hunger and starves them to near death...to feed all of these Baby Digimon he houses inside his mouth and lower body.
  • Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops has the brain of Zanda Claus, who in the original manga and anime has a desire to Kill All Humans until Doraemon forcefully converts it into one of their allies by modifying its interior circuits, effectively putting it through a Heel–Face Brainwashing. The 2011 anime remake instead has Doraemon putting Zanda Claus' brain into an incubator, which hatches it into an innocent chick-like form that the gang names Pippo. After making amends with Pippo and becoming friends with it, Pippo then willingly turns over a new leaf to become one of the good guys.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • While Goku in the original Dragon Ball manga is anything but a villain in the original Japanese, the English dub tends to downplay his less noble aspects while strengthening his heroic side. Interestingly, Akira Toriyama half-joked in a Daizenshu magazine interview this was also a difference between his conception of the character in print versus the television version; Toriyama described "his" Goku as having never really grown up much so he's frequently innocent to the point of ignorance, especially having a poor sense of complex personal relationships. He's also selfish in his desires to fight, only dealing with evil that directly challenges him rather than being a 'proper' pro-active hero. This was such a common observation among fans (and critics) that Dragon Ball Super explicitly points it out several times, including by Goku himself.
    • A couple of minor examples from the original series;
      • Korin, a cat-like deity, is seemingly neutral and ready to train anyone who climbs his tower... however, in the anime, when Mercenary Tao comes to him, Korin is openly hostile, doesn't help and eventually even tries to get Tao killed.
      • Launch/Lunch is a joke character, a girl who switches between "good" and "evil" personalities. In the anime, when Goku is preparing to face off against Pamputto the boxer, the latter's manager thinks his client has no chance to win and tries to trick Goku into not fighting. Thankfully, Lunch is nearby and forces the manager to tell the truth... surprisingly, it's the "evil" Lunch who just decided to "do something nice for once".
      • When Piccolo first appears at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament in the anime despite being the reincarnated Demon King, he saved a mother and daughter from falling debris during a storm. This scene does not happen in the manga and Piccolo didn’t have a sense of compassion till much later.
    • A prominent early example is in the Saiyan Saga of Dragon Ball Z, where Goku convinces Krillin to spare Vegeta's life; in most versions of the English dub, Goku invokes If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! and also wants to give Vegeta the same chance for a Heel–Face Turn that Piccolo received, whereas in the original Japanese and the Kai dub, he does so purely because he found the fight with Vegeta so exhilarating and hoped for a rematch, admitting the potential danger was a selfish desire.
    • Vegeta presents a minor example in Dragon Ball Super. In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', Vegeta sees Frieza as more of his plaything and, like Goku, didn't take the fight seriously. In the Super adaptation, he is very concerned about Frieza's return and tells Goku to hurry up when he hears that the Earth is being attacked and gets on Goku for taking too long to take down Frieza, instead of just being mad that Goku is hogging the fight. After Goku is shot down by Sorbet, Vegeta willingly saves him, while in the movie he's perfectly happy to let Frieza kill Goku for being dumb enough to drop his guard. He also never considers or even humors rejoining Frieza's army, telling his old boss that he should disappear.
      • Some English dubs also downplay or slightly soften the amorality and ruthlessness that defined Vegeta's character up until about the Cell saga. While his death scene in the original manga and the Japanese version of the anime has him bemoaning Frieza's extermination of the Saiyans and his own humiliation at having to submit to him, the dubs outright state that it was Frieza who conditioned him to be evil to begin with.
    • In Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan and its sequels, Broly is a violent, sadistic sociopath with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Broly is a Tragic Villain who fights out of either blind loyalty to his father or understandable anger over the death of said father. He even lives long enough to pull a Heel–Face Turn!
    • The Saiyan race in general gets more and more heroic in every Dragon Ball media following their introduction where they were nothing more than evil planet conquering brutes and Goku was only an exception because of his head injury.
    • King Vegeta also gets this in Dragon Ball Super: Broly. In the original telling, when he learned about Broly’s absurdly high power level, he had Broly stabbed in his crib and blasts a hole through his father Paragus when the latter tries to plead with him. In the new telling, King Vegeta just banishes Broly to Vampa where he won’t get out of control and hurt anyone, nor does King Vegeta harm Paragus in this version (though he does threaten to). Then, when Broly goes on a Unstoppable Rage as an adult, King Vegeta’s actions were ultimately justified. Him instigating the war against the Tuffles isn't mentioned.
    • Frost in the Dragon Ball Super manga doesn't cause wars for the sake of being a Villain with Good Publicity and doesn't mock everybody when he's discovered. Plus, since he is not a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, the politeness he shows towards Goku could be genuine. He admits that since there was no prize, he was using the poison to end these pointless battles as quickly as possible. Which raises the question of why didn't he just allow himself to lose and be done with the tournament. As for his alliance with Frieza, Frost in the manga doesn't exclusively target Universe 7 and seems to genuinely view his partnership with Frieza as a way to survive in the Tournament rather than exact any sort of vengeance. That said, he mentions liking to rule with an iron fist.
    • Zen'o in Super is a case of Blue-and-Orange Morality in both the anime and the manga, but the anime makes him erasing the losing universes in the Tournament of Power more justified by making it a Secret Test of Character, with him fully assuming that the winner would wish them all back to existence, something that isn't mentioned in the manga. His erasure of the entire Future Trunks timeline is also more justified in the anime, as Infinite Zamasu really did corrupt it beyond repair and was threatening to even spread to other timelines, whereas in the manga the threat was closer to a planetary scale, making it seem like Disproportionate Retribution.
  • The Electric Tale of Pikachu:
    • In the anime, Damian is an Jerkass trainer who abuses and abandons his Charmander, which Ash adopts. However, here he actually meant to return to get Charmander and shows concern for it, but was injured in an accident, going to look for Charmander later himself, before he completely recovered, and is later happily reunited with it.
    • In the anime, Sabrina started out as a cold psychic with a Creepy Child Literal Split Personality. Here, she's a kindhearted and compassionate miko.
  • In the anime adaptation of The Familiar of Zero, Julio Chesaré and his master Pope Vittorio Serevare are good guys with the former aiding the protagonists at various points and the latter pulling a Heroic Sacrifice in the fourth season. In the light novels, Pope Vittorio is the surviving villain of a Big Bad Ensemble and Julio is his Dragon. He manipulates others (including Queen Henrietta), is willing to employ assassination, and played a role in instigating Gallia's wars (which was led by the other Big Bad). He is also plotting to start a war against the elves reclaim the Holy Land, even to the point of wiping them out. There are apparently good motives to his actions as he claims that he is trying to save humanity and that it ultimately comes down to "us or them" with the elves. Sadly, Noboru Yamaguchi, author of the light novels, passed away, so we'll probably never know Vittorio's complete plan and motivations. Interestingly, Yamaguchi was involved heavily in the fourth season, so Vittorio and Julio's adaptational shift was something that he at least okayed, if not planned out himself.
  • In the manga version of Fate/stay night, Shinji doesn't rape Sakura, seems to have standards, and eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn on his own.
  • In The Flowers of Evil anime, Saeki seems to accept Takao's decision to break up with her with quiet dignity and then leaves him alone. In the original manga, this instead causes her to become a full-on yandere and eventually rape him.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003):
    • In contrast to the unrepentant villain she was in the manga and Brotherhood, Lust is more sympathetic, the most adamant of the Homunculi to become human, and the one most prone to introspection. She ultimately ends up helping Edward, albeit for her own purposes.
    • Shou Tucker still uses his daughter and dog to form a chimera, but when confronted by Ed, he's far less gleeful about it and tries to reason that it was necessary as a last resort for him to keep his alchemist license. Because he's shown to have survived after that, he goes mad with remorse for what he did and tries in his own corrupted way to reverse it. This is all a far cry from his manga/Brotherhood portrayal, who only did what he did For Science! and was totally unrepentant.
    • Selim Bradley is not a Homunculus in the first anime and is just a normal young boy uninvolved in the plot. He even unwittingly helps Roy defeat Pride at a critical moment, which causes Pride to kill him in a fit of rage.
    • The Slicer brothers are portrayed considerably more sympathetic in the anime despite being a pair of serial killers. The younger brother kills himself after deciding being stuck in half a suit of armor was worse than death. In the manga, he's raging that he can still fight when Envy destroys his blood seal. Conversely, Barry the Chopper is made less sympathetic.
    • In the Manga and Brotherhood, Scar is eventually revealed to be one who killed Winry's parents. This turns out to not be the case here, making him comparatively more sympathetic. However, this in turn results in Adaptational Jerkass for the person who did kill the Rockbells: Roy Mustang.
  • Aru Akise in Future Diary is never portrayed as a villain in either the anime or the manga, but gets a small, but extremely important change between the two. In the anime, when Yukiteru snaps and guns down his remaining friends, Akise tries to stop him. In the manga, the scene is almost the same, except Akise hangs out off panel and just watches him do it.
  • Getter Robo:
    • In the manga, Anti-Hero Hayato Jin is a homicidal psychopath and terrorist who in his debut violently murders a pair of classmates after the boys speak out against his plot to kill Japan's prime minister. In the 70s anime, he's a loner and kind of a dick, but is mostly just a moody schoolboy. Averted in the New Getter Robo OVA where Hayato is once again depicted as a murderous terrorist. As an homage to his manga debut, he even beats one of his henchmen to death after the man tries to back out of a raid and does so while laughing.
    • Ryouma is less of a Hot-Blooded sociopath. While he's still competitive and arrogant, he's got nothing on his manga counterpart, who is known to beat the shit out of people with little provocation and at one point kills a dog.
  • Ghost Talker's Daydream: Mitsuru's portrayal changes depending on whether you're reading the manga or watching the anime:
    • In the manga, he's self-centered and seems to care little for anything beyond his obsession with stalking Misaki. Going so far as to bug her apartment and repeatedly steal all her underwear. Misaki has even threatened to call the police on him if he doesn't stop.
    • The anime downplays it by essentially making him Misaki's private paparazzi who only takes pictures of her when she's out in public. Which is also made comical since he often happens to catch her in various states of undress, thanks to Kadotake's clumsiness. When he isn't following her around, he acts as one of her contacts and even helps her save Ai near the climax of the second episode.
  • In Girls und Panzer, Anzu, in the first episode of the anime, tells Miho that if she doesn't do tankery, she and her friends will not be attending Oarai Academy for long. It's not completely what it seems like and Anzu does have her reasons for doing this, but the other characters aren't happy with this. In the manga, the scene never happens, making Anzu's recruitment of Miho seem less morally questionable.
  • Hellsing: Because this anime Overtook the Manga after episode six, Walter isn't The Mole and is loyal to Integra.
  • In the original Howl's Moving Castle, the Witch of the Waste was irredeemably evil and defeated at the end like a typical villain. In the anime adaptation, she performs a Heel–Face Turn and becomes friends with Sophie.
  • Hunter × Hunter: In the manga and 2011 anime, Kurapika is hell-bent on avenging his clan, and isn't above killing the Phantom Troupe in cold blood to achieve his mission. The 1999 anime adds some moments where he hesitates going through with killing the Troupe members, and is terrified to the point of suffering a nervous breakdown after killing Uvogin.
  • In Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation, Plutia adapts a more controlled version of her sadism as Iris Heart where only the villains were her targets, unlike in her debut appearance in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, where good and evil alike aren't safe from the (be it mental or physical) turmoil and trauma Madame Goddess is capable of gleefully inflicting. Instead, Iris Heart here is an Anti-Hero With a Heart of Gold who is capable of showing empathy to the people she cares about, rather than an unrepentant Heroic Comedic Sociopath who didn't care about the people she harmed even if they were her friends. Special mention goes to Episode 9, where after initially accusing Neptune (who had suffered a Heroic BSoD after Peashy got kidnapped) for lying about herself only for the latter to break down into tears and tell her the truth, Iris Heart outright hugs Neptune and tells her that everything will be fine, even admitting that she actually loves her.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • In the original Stardust Crusaders manga and the 2014 anime adaptation, "Nena" turns out to be a villainous Stand user who has killed and stolen the identity of a beautiful young Indian girl. In the OVA, Nena is an innocent young Indian girl who has been manipulated by Hol Horse and isn't a Stand user.
    • JoJolion is set in an alternate universe where several characters from previous series are radically reimagined. One of the most significant departures is Yoshikage Kira, the Serial Killer Big Bad of Diamond is Unbreakable. While JoJolion's Kira was aloof, rude and a major narcissist, he loved his mother and sister deeply, and decided to torment Ojiro Sasame after he witnessed the surfer using his Stand to non-fatally drown a woman at the beach. A subsequent flashback also gave him a Pet the Dog moment by showing that he once saved a young Yasuho's life by crushing the Rock Animal that had been trying to kill her. He also ultimately ended up sacrificing his own life to save Josefumi, a notion that would've seemed completely alien to the original Kira. Perhaps most importantly, he wasn't a Serial Killer like the original Kira, just a socially inept surgeon with odd habits.
    • Similarly, in the previous part, Diego Brando, the alternate version of the original universe's Big Bad Dio Brando, is at worst a mercenary who puts his own interests above those of others, but is never anywhere near as pointlessly cruel as Dio. He ultimately ends up siding with the heroes, albeit for selfish reasons, and dies trying to save the world from Valentine. The alternate universe version of Diego summoned by Valentine, on the other hand, is an egotistical, sadistic, ephebophilic scumbag, and is every bit as rotten as Dio Brando.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has Hayasaka. Given that the story is a modern day retelling of "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", she is based off of the celestial envoy who took Princess Kaguya away from everyone she knew and loved on Earth. Here, she is Kaguya's Cool Big Sis who (almost) always has her best interests at heart and is a Shipper on Deck for her and Shirogane.
  • Kaibutsu Kun portrays famous Hollywood monsters Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's Monster as friendly, comical characters helping the titular shapeshifting young prince live out in the human world.
  • Several bosses and mini-bosses from the Kirby games such as Chef Kawasaki, Whispy Woods, and Fololo (Lololo) and Falala (Lalala) act as friends to Kirby in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, though the former two once attempted to cook Kirby for zebon and buried him in apples respectively after King Dedede deceived them both.
  • The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa):
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005) makes Vitreous a friendly character. In the video game, Vitreous was just a bunch of eyeballs that acted as a boss without any real background, or character. In the manga, Vitreous is a giant Cyclops girl who was cursed into that form, and gives Link directions on how to find Zelda.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999) made a more sympathetic version of Volvagia. In the game, he is an ancient monster who devoured Gorons that Ganondorf revived to make an example of those who stand up to him. In the manga, Volvagia was Link's adorable pet dragon who was Brainwashed and Crazy after seven years, forcing Link to slay him.
    • In the Oracle duology, Maple was a jerk and a nuisance who would occasionally cause item losses if you weren't careful. In the manga, she ends up joining Link on his quest to stop Onox (if for completely selfish reasons) and comes to befriend him over the course of the story.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004) does this to The Heavy of Four Swords Adventures. Shadow Link in the game is a pitch black Living Shadow who Zelda confirms is Made of Evil, and is ultimately destroyed by the Links. In the manga, Shadow Link has an inferiority complex, is sensed by Zelda to not be evil, and ultimately redeems himself by fighting Vaati.
    • The adaptation of The Minish Cap has Vaati redeeming himself at the end and returning to his master Ezlo. Doubles as Not His Sled because The Minish Cap is supposed to be the prequel to Four Swords where Vaati is still a villain.
    • In Phantom Hourglass, Jolene is a Psycho Ex-Girlfriend who chases Linebeck around over a piece of treasure he stole, and is willing to fight the younger Link to the death. In the manga, she eventually forgives Linebeck and helps Link kill the Big Bad.
    • In Twilight Princess, Argorok is an evil dragon that terrorizes the City in the Sky. His counterpart in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016) was a benevolent guardian before being corrupted by the Mirror of Twilight. When Link removes it, the dragon returns to normal.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Chrono Harlaown was originally the antagonist back in Lyrical Toy Box. The Spikes of Villainy on his Barrier Jacket are all that remain of his former role in Lyrical Nanoha proper.
    • Of all people, Precia Freaking Testarossa becomes this in basically every Alternate Universe edition to the series. First there is the film adaptation of the first season which gives her some much needed Woobie points especially with her death scene wherein she realises that instead of treating Fate like a failed clone of Alicia she could have genuinely been her daughter instead. Then came The Gears of Destiny which showed Precia making peace with her Familar Linith as the two of them die. Finally, and most significantly, we have the INNOCENT manga wherein Precia lacks all of her evil traits entirely and instead shes a Doting/Embarrassing Parent to both Alicia and Fate. Proof that tropes are not bad as these various portrayals have gone a long way to making Precia more likable and tragic in the eyes of the fandom.
    • Jail Scaglietti also gets this in INNOCENTS where he is only a villain in a role-playing sense.
  • Marvel Future Avengers depicts Loki as less hostile and psychotic than his previous depiction in Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers.
  • In MegaMan NT Warrior, Princess Pride never joins Gospel and is heroic from the very start. There's quite a bit of Ship Tease between her and Netto, much to Maylu's jealousy.
  • MegaMan NT Warrior (2001): Unlike in Mega Man Battle Network 3: White and Blue, where he's a villain working for WWW, BubbleMan in this adaption is an ally of MegaMan. Though he's still something of a nuisance.
  • In the various manga adaptations of Mega Man X, some of the Maverick bosses are far more heroic than their video game counterparts. Examples include Storm Eagle (who went from Reluctant Monster forced to serve Sigma to the Maverick Hunters' inside man) and Storm Owl and Jet Stingray (who arguably went from the loyalist Repliforce members with the highest body counts to the ones with the lowest).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Rebellion: Cima Garahou's backstory about being used and thrown away by the Zeonic war machine is incorporated directly into the manga's retelling of the Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory and her desire to save her men from poverty and execution is emphasized more. Notably, her more villainous actions like ordering Kult out on a suicide mission and damaging Burning's GM (which leads to his death) are removed with both deaths caused by Kelly instead. Her big betrayal of the Delaz fleet is also framed as a much more moral course of action.
  • Moriarty the Patriot depicts James Moriarty as a noble patriot who commits crime and murder in order to abolish the British ruling class system and create an "ideal nation built on liberty, equality and fraternity".
  • My-HiME:
    • Nao in the manga starts out as an enemy of the main heroes as a member of the Ori-Hime unit, then switches sides to becoming a reluctant ally instead of starting out as a rival, then becoming a reluctant ally, then becoming a villain and only joining the heroes at the end like she does in the anime.
    • Shizuru in the manga never goes Psycho Lesbian like she does in the anime.
  • In the My-Otome manga, this can be applied to the entire nation of Artai. While Nagi, the archduke, is quite the Jerkass, he never becomes the enemy of the main characters and dies saving Mashiro from the real Big Bad. As a result of this and Sergay being a completely different character here (which means she doesn't have her feelings for him come into play), Nina also stays on the heroes' side for the entire story.
  • Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge:
    • Lord Raptor/Zabel Zarock is one of the evilest Darkstalkers in the games, being an undead Ax-Crazy serial killer rockstar who eats souls. In the OVA, while still pretty sinister we don’t actually see him kill any innocent people, and he’s very nice and caring to Cat Girl Felicia. He even saves her from being burned alive by the Corrupt Church by absorbing their evil souls.
    • Demitri Maximoff, the Villain Protagonist of the first few games (before Morrigan took over) is a clear cut Evil Overlord Vampire. The only times he does anything inadvertently heroic is when he’s in a Enemy Mine situation against a larger threat such as Pyron. The rest of the time he drinks innocent girls’s blood, tries to kill or enslave Morrigan and take over the demon realm set himself up as the new ruler. In the OVA, we never see Demitri feast on young women or turn them into vampires and, while he’s still cruel to humans and initially antagonistic to Morrigan, he still unintentionally protects people by fighting the invading Huitzil robots as well as Pyron. He even becomes romantically involved with Morrigan by the end.
    • Donovan Baine counts as well. In the games, while he starts off as a heroic Dhampir Donovan eventually gives into bloodlust and becomes the vampiric character Dee. In the OVA, Donovan learns to accept and control his monstrous side thanks to Anita’s help and manages to save the planet by defeating Pyron. Also, in the games Donovan as a Darkhunter seeks out and kills any Darkstalkers on sight, while in the OVA Donovan can discern between good Darkstalkers and evil Darkstalkers since he doesn’t try and kill Hsien-Ko and her sister Mei-Ling (who are undead).
  • Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!, a Lighter and Softer take on the Cthulhu Mythos, has its title character, Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos. The original Nyarlathotep is the only outright evil Elder God, driving people into madness and self-destruction purely out of malice, spite, and For the Evulz (the others simply have Blue-and-Orange Morality). As for Nyarko, she does have her bad pointsnote , but on the whole she's a silly but good-hearted person who makes friends easily due to her open and cheerful nature and is utterly devoted to the story's male lead Mahiro because she's hopelessly in love with him. The main cast also includes Cthuguha the Living Flame and Hastur the King in Yellow, here imagined as an Emotionless Gamer Chick and an Adorably Precocious Child respectively.
  • One Piece Stampede gives this treatment to Rob Lucci. In the main series, Lucci is an unabashed Psycho for Hire who uses the privileges The Government gives him as an excuse to butcher people purely for the pleasure of it. In the movie, due to the larger threat of Douglas Bullet, Lucci not only saves Buggy but actually helps Luffy and the others Pirates take Bullet down rather then just trying to kill them as he would in the manga and anime. True, Lucci afterwards does try to attack Luffy when he’s holding the log post to Laugh Tale (the island where the One Piece is hidden) before being stopped by Sanji, but it’s pretty minor compared to the senseless violence he commits in the main series.
  • This and the opposite trope are quite common in Pokémon: The Series because it is Lighter and Softer than the games and runs on Black-and-White Morality.
    • In Best Wishes 2: Episode N, N is far more heroic than he is in the games, going from a rival that was manipulated by Ghetsis who has his own agenda alongside Team Plasma to an ally of Ash and his friends and actively trying to stop Team Plasma, which got Adaptational Villainy.
    • The English dub did away with certain unsavory aspects of characters, such as toning down how cocky Misty is about her looks.
    • When it comes to Pokémon themselves, a general rule of thumb is that if the Pokédex in the games describes them as violent, savage or sinister, then the series and/or movies will significantly downplay if not omit outright these traits (to the point where the show itself claims that no Pokémon is evil, as if it's a law of physics). Ghost-types and Dark-types like Gengar and Hydreigon get hit with this a lot.
    • Pokémon: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice depicts the "Swords of Justice" as noble heroes fighting to protect Pokémon and humans. This is a far cry from the games, where they hate humans and fought against them to protect Pokémon (and they're never referred to as the Swords of Justice).
    • Twice, Mewtwo undergoes this. The savage Blood Knight incapable of showing compassion to its foes is depicted as a more human Pokémon wondering about its place in the world, while another Mewtwo is even kinder, with a feminine voice, a greater empathy towards Pokémon and a downplayed dislike towards humans.
    • Downplayed example with Gladion: in the Pokémon Sun and Moon games, Gladion is an enforcer for Team Skull who is incredibly abrasive in conversation and a perfectionist in battle due to being disowned by Lusamine as a result of not wanting to follow her example. While his counterpart in the Sun and Moon series has shades of these traits, he is also shown to have a more noble attitude towards his relationships with people; such as treating Ash in a more friendly manner and fighting off Team Rocket and the recurring Team Skull grunts. He also doesn't seem to have any relation to Team Skull and has a different reason for running away from home, which may imply the anime version of the character may be an even more morally-gray rival than his video game counterpart.
    • Lusamine is a huge example, going from a cold, callous, and controlling Abusive Parent using the Aether Foundation for her own ends in Pokémon Sun and Moon to a genuinely loving, if a bit overbearing and Workaholic, mother towards Gladion and Lillie.
    • The anime does this to the Aether Foundation in general, right up to making Ash and his friends-of-the-season members of it as the Ultra Guardians. In the games, Aether was morally grey under Lusamine, with several Employees acting like typical grunts during the invasion. This comes at the expense of giving Team Skull Adaptational Villainy.
  • Pokémon Adventures:
    • Silver undergoes this in the Gold and Silver arc. While both versions are a rival, Silver in Pokémon Gold and Silver is an all around nasty piece of work that steals his starter Pokémon and treats everyone he meets with animosity. In the manga, Silver initially displays these characteristics, but is forced to work together with Gold especially when they're captured by the Masked Man later on, and while both versions of the character stole their starter, the games' Silver did it for his own selfish purposes, whereas his Special counterpart did it so that it would help him in his mission to stop Masked Man.
    • Giovanni in the Red and Blue arc also acts in a polite manner towards Red that would be completely alien to his video game counterpart, and later on is portrayed as a better man and a better father than he is in the games.
  • Powerpuff Girls Z: Himeko Shirogane, the counterpart of Princess Morbucks from the original The Powerpuff Girls, is still an Alpha Bitch, but has a sympathetic backstory of wanting attention because she is ignored by her parents. She also has no interest in attacking the Powerpuff Girls. Unfortunately, she has a Superpowered Evil Side who does, and when she changes back, she has no memory of her evil self's actions.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
    • In Puella Magi Oriko Magica, the titular Oriko, after seeing a vision of Kreimhild Gretchen, decided that the best solution was to kill Madoka before she contracted. In the spinoff manga Symmetry Diamond, she sees Walpurgisnacht instead. This change results in Oriko and Kirika being full-blown heroes instead of the villainous main characters they were in the source material.
    • In most material involving the franchise, Kyubey occupies a space somewhere between Greater-Scope Villain and Big Bad; even in works where he's not outright antagonistic or malevolent, his manipulative nature, heartless pragmatism, lack of concern for humanity, and Blue-and-Orange Morality are normally his defining traits. In Puella Magi Tart Magica, on the other hand, he stays aligned with the main characters to the very end—this is because the heroes are essentially cleaning up a mess he made, and he's eager to help them in doing so. Additionally, the main things that tend to turn magical girls against him in most works are significantly downplayed: the Witch reveal happens early on and is treated as unfortunate but not crushing, and the Soul Gem reveal is actually interpreted as a good thing due to Deliberate Values Dissonance.
  • In the Ranma ½ manga, Shampoo was a cold, Manipulative Bitch who had no problem toying with Ranma and even less so with wanting to kill Akane (though she's far from the only one in that regard). She still has a few shades of her manga counterpart in the anime, but she also shows much more genuine feelings for Ranma and goes out of her way to save Akane's life at one point.
    • In the manga, flanderization caused Ukyo to become more and more of a scheming, cold-hearted Jerkass as the stories went on, including partaking in several notorious Kick the Dog moments alongside Shampoo & Kodachi and blatantly abusing Konatsu, a minor character introduced in the last few volumes as a genuine Nice Guy who had a horribly abusive upbringing and who happens to be in love with her.
    • To a lesser extent, Kodachi also comes off as somewhat more sympathetic in the anime. In the manga, she seems to be more interested in Ranma as a plaything, but in the anime, her interest comes off as more sincere (albeit still delusional) and she has a number of Pet the Dog moments towards him.
    • Zigzagged with Akane. On the one hand, she's more short-tempered and abrasive in the anime than in the manga, but on the other hand, she's also far less of a dick in the anime than she is in the manga. In the manga, the hypnotic mushroom story had Akane accuse Ranma of trying to rape her, attacking him with lethal weapons, and pointedly clutching a shinainote  and giving him the evil eye. In the anime, she never does any of that and the story ends on a joke. Likewise, in the manga version of Hinako Ninomiya's introduction, she accuses Ranma of rape and is later shown selectively remembering their argument to make herself out as the good guy which she wasn't. None of this showed up in the anime.
  • Sailor Moon: The 90s anime played this trope mostly straight.
    • Nephrite ends up falling for Naru/Molly and sacrificing himself for her. In the manga, he's defeated handily in Sailor Jupiter's Debut Queue chapter.
    • As a result of the anime being Lighter and Softer, Dark Endymion acts as a Noble Demon who had a strict code of never hurting anyone innocent and often comes into conflict with Kunzite's questionable tactics because of it, so much that he teams up with the Sailor Guardians almost as much as he did before his brainwashing. The manga was more of a horror-tragedy (though it did have comedy), thus Endymion became a full-blown Card-Carrying Villain who targeted anyone if it could help him take down the Guardians. It also seriously looks as if Sailor Moon will have to kill her soulmate to save him.
    • The Black Moon Clan in R: they were changed from terrorists to descendants of terrorists, though they act exactly the same, murdering millions, if not billions, of innocent people, try to kill a six-year-old. Zig-zagged with the Ayakashi Sisters: in the manga, they're nothing but caring and respectful to one another, whereas in the anime they're catty, vain, and constantly bicker with each other and fight for Rubeus's attention. However, their manga versions are also one-off villains just as ruthless as the others, and Koan murdered a little girl who accidentally saw her true form. In the anime, the aforementioned scene of Koan was cut and the sisters are redeemed after reconciliation and survive to become normal humans upon losing their powers.
    • Perhaps the most egregious example is Professor Tomoe, who becomes a sympathetic Anti-Villain. In the manga, he's a Mad Scientist whose entire motivation revolves around doing things For Science! and doesn't care about his daughter Hotaru. In the anime, he only made a Deal with the Devil and became a Deathbuster to save Hotaru. This caused somewhat of an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole when it came to the Outer Senshi adopting Hotaru; in the manga, it was no problem because he was a villain who had been killed off by then, but in the anime, he survived and so had to be Put on a Bus to explain why he was no longer Hotaru's caretaker.
    • The fourth season, SuperS, has yet another Inverted example. The Amazon Trio were monsters of the week in the manga. The anime came up with MacGuffins called dream mirrors to fuel the plot and decided to have the Trio, now promoted to a Quirky Miniboss Squad, have existential crises over their lack of dream mirrors and animal natures and befriend the heroes before reverting to their animal forms and being taken to a magical sanctuary. This would be all fine and dandy if their method of seeking dream mirrors didn't have creepy, rape-y undertones. All five of the main girls and the lead girl's boyfriend are targeted by them.
  • Sailor Moon Crystal follows the manga in establishing that the Shitennou were Good All Along and merely Brainwashed and Crazy; in this version they live long enough to break out of their brainwashing and revert to their good natures not once but twice (they also remember their master Endymion earlier than in the manga). Unfortunately, it doesn't do them a lot of good as the first time they are immediately re-brainwashed by Beryl and the second time Metalia suddenly offs them the moment they've outlived their usefulness.
  • Saint Seiya:
    • In the manga, Cygnus Hyoga is the one sent by the Pope with the mission of killing the other Bronze Saints, while in the anime he's always one of the good guys.
    • Capricorn Shura in the manga is fully aware of the Pope´s evil intentions and he follows him (alongside Cancer Deathmask and Pisces Aphrodite), but in the anime he genuinely thought that he was on the right side.
  • Miki is less confrontational in the School-Live! anime than she is in the manga. In the manga, she was introduced after the start instead of being a character from the get-go. She originally butted heads with Rii over whether they should be playing along with Yuki's delusions and with Yuki over the idea she is pretending to be mentally ill. In the anime, The Reveal that Megu-nee is a hallucination was done much later than in the manga, thus Miki couldn't argue about it.
  • A Silent Voice:
    • Miki Kawai, in the manga she’s easily as detestable as Alpha Bitch Naoko Ueno as she laughed at the bullying of poor sweet Shoko Nishimiyia and did nothing to stop it, but pleaded innocence and cried that it’s was all Shoya Ishida’s fault. Years later she refuses to accept she ever did anything wrong in regards to Shoko, but still antagonises Shoya and even insults Tomohiro Nagatsuka when he tries to calm her down calling him “a disgusting blob” for touching her. In the anime adaptation, Kawai’s crueler moments are removed or downplayed and she doesn’t come off as much of a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing as she does in the manga.
    • Takeuchi Sensei, in the manga he is a cruel and apathetic man who merely gave stern warnings to Shoya for bullying Shoko, and even revealed himself that he thought Shoko was pathetic for her deafness and even understood why his students tormented her. In anime he's just a Stern Teacher who isn’t at all apathetic towards Shoko, only angry that she was so brutally bullied. The scenes of him antagonising Kita-Sensei for trying to get the students to learn sign language and years later calling Shoko “pitiful” are removed.
    • Zigzagged with Ueno, she’s just as a much a cruel, bullying jealous bitch as she in the manga (indeed the anime doesn’t even show or explain her Freudian Excuse that she’s always loved Shoya and has been hatefully jealous of Shoko). But on the other hand, some of Ueno’s more extreme actions from the manga such as kissing Shoya while he’s unconscious and unable to reject her, are removed from the anime. Ueno even learns sign language in the anime to talk to (and insult) Shoko whilst in the manga she refused to learn it.
  • In Sonic X, Dr. Eggman starts off an Affably Evil villain similar to the games before becoming more and more harmless, his scruples and respect for Sonic coming into play often, and spends most of the third season in Anti-Villain territory. This is even more prominent in the comic adaptation.
    • Sonic was also subjected to this in the comic, becoming more of a generic do-gooder hero. In the anime, he's somewhat of an Aloof Ally. An example of his comic characterization can be seen in the very first story, which has Sonic taking a request from President for helping in dealing with Eggman. In the anime, he's irreverent of authorities just like in the games, so he ignores any requests from the President and only fights Eggman on his own accord.
  • In the Soul Eater manga, it turns out Justin Law was The Mole, working for Asura. The anime diverges from the manga shortly before this plotline comes up, thus such a revelation never happened.
  • Street Fighter II: The Manga: Much like his first movie incarnation, Balrog (normally a thug Only in It for the Money) is far more conflicted about the ideals of Shadaloo, and eventually decides to call it quits.
  • In Spider Riders, Aqune is basically pure-hearted. This could be jarring to anyone who read the original novels first where she was an unrepentant traitor.
  • Tekken: The Motion Picture:
    • Kazuya gets this, by the time the animated movie had come out the Tekken games had long since established him as a cruel villain and even in the first game he was pretty much was a Villain Protagonist. In the anime, Kazuya is more a callous Anti-Hero since he doesn’t kill any innocent people like he does in the games and thanks to his Love Interest (and baby mama) Jun’s influence Kazuya doesn’t give in to the Devil Gene and is convinced to spare his Archnemesis Dad Heihachi — something Kazuya wouldn’t do in the games where he eventually kills Heihachi.
    • Nina gets a bit as well. In the games, she’s so cold blooded that doing her job is literally the only thing she cares about and actively spites her remaining family members such as her sister and hated rival Anna and even her own son Steve. In the anime while still on the villain team, Nina actually cries out a warning to Anna when a genetically engineered dinosaur is attacking her from behind, displaying sisterly care that is non-existent in the games.
  • In The Three Musketeers, Milady de Winter remains evil throughout the novel, murders Constance, and is ultimately arrested and executed for her crimes. She doesn't kill Constance in the anime, and even gets a dying moment of redemption in the finale where she spares d'Artagnan's life and allows the Musketeers to escape from an exploding castle.
  • Transformers: Armada: The original Starscream was the Trope Namer for the treacherous lackey of the villain. This Starscream is driven by mistreatment rather than a lust for power to hate Megatron. He even temporarily defects to the Autobots, but even then, his experiences change him. He eventually gives his life to stop Unicron.
  • Vampire Hunter D: In the novel Demon Deathchase, the Marcus clan were a group of vampire hunters that were nothing more than ruthless and amoral thugs that routinely raped their own sister, even the bedridden did it in the past. The animated adaptation Bloodlust ditches that aspect entirely and makes the brothers way more sympathetic and protective of their sister.
  • Variable Geo has Chiho acting on orders from her grandfather to go undercover at the tournament in order to spy on the Jahana Group's activities. In the Advanced V.G. series itself, Chiho doesn't get along with her grandfather and wants nothing to do with their clan. So she runs away to make a new life for herself.
  • In the Wedding Peach manga, Pluie was a loyal demon to the end and died when he tried to take Momoko with him by tackling her into a demon vortex. In the anime, he was nice enough to throw Momoko her ring back as he fell in and didn't actively try to make her fall in.
  • Voltron makes villains less evil than in GoLion:
    • Daibazaal was a tyrant who had Fala's entire family shot, commits horrible atrocities on the conquered, and has slaves killed for sport. It's even revealed any affection Daibazaal has for his son, Sincline, is fake and Daibazaal has no love for him, only keeping around because killing him would cause scandal. In Voltron, Zarkon was a tyrant who killed Allura's father in single combat, isn't shown to murder slaves for sport, and doesn't commit horrible atrocities on the conquered. Zarkon's relationship with Lotor is more ambiguous with Zarkon seeming to show genuine affection for Lotor at times.
    • Honerva was always a Wicked Witch and commits satanic acts on her enemies and Galra prisoners. In Voltron, Haggar used to be a good sorceress and her actions are more typical witchcraft.
    • Sincline was a mentally unbalanced Child by Rape who abused women, had a sick obsession with Fala, tended to kill his subordinates, and any honor he showed was fake. In Voltron, Lotor had a Hair-Trigger Temper, only attempted And Now You Must Marry Me stuff, had a more genuine affection for Allura, only yelled threats at his subordinates, and was actually honorable. Lotor even pulled an Enemy Mine to save Allura at one point.
    • In the 11th episode of GoLion, Galra was doing a Prisoner Exchange, but it's revealed to the audience that Galra had no intention to honor this and was going to kill the hostages anyway. In the 11th episode of Voltron, the Drules of Planet Doom seemed like they were going to actually keep to the deal.
  • In Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago, the character of Ibrahim Pasha is a lot nicer than the Ibrahim Pasha from the actual history. The historical Ibrahim Pasha very much distrustred Hurrem and heavily favored Prince Mustafa as the next in line of becoming sultan, and not Mehmed, who was Hurrem's son. While the manga Ibrahim also favores Mustafa, he's nowhere near as hostile towards Hurrem and his reason for favoring someone other than Mehmed is because of a more sympathetic reason. Since he's not sure if Mehmed was sired by the sultan or by him the one night he slept with Hurrem, he cannot in good conscious support someone that may not be related to Suleiman.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Yugi's Superpowered Alter Ego is generally played as a noble hero; in the original manga, especially early on, he's somewhere between a Sociopathic Hero and a barely-controllable Superpowered Evil Side.
    • The manga version of Seto Kaiba is a cold individual who, during the Death-T arc, is revealed to have acquired his Blue-Eyes White Dragons through less than honorable means and climbed the ladder at Kaiba Corp rapidly which resulted in his adoptive father Gozaburo being Driven to Suicide; and treats Yugi and his friends with his utmost bitterness (he even outright says he's disgusted by their friendship) and flat out tries to kill them. Even his younger brother Mokuba isn't safe from his abuse. In the anime, Kaiba initially displays the characteristics of his manga counterpart, but eventually softens by the Battle City arc and even helps Yugi and his friends in key moments. His worst acts from the manga as also removed so at worst he only comes off as an arrogant, selfish, Jerkass instead of a full blown villain.
    • Shadi in the manga and first anime is a Manipulative Bastard who has absolutely zero problem using innocent people as pawns. The version in the second anime has much more of a sense of honor and helps Yugi and his friends out more often. Not to mention that the two Millennium Items he had — the Key and the Scales — had the potential to be the most dangerous of them all. The Key allowed him to enter a person's mind and reconfigure the victim's personality any way he desired (making the victim his slave if he had to) while the Scales seemed to be a representation of the Scales of Maat, and could judge a sinner and not only kill him if his guilt was confirmed, but possibly condemn his soul. (Indeed, it's likely a good thing he held onto both of them.)
    • Pegasus in the anime ends up becoming something of an ally to Yugi's group, aiding them in both the Doma arc and the Pyramid of Light film. In this case, it's not really because of any major personality change, but because he outlasts his manga counterpart, who never lived long enough to undergo any similar development before dying.
    • Seto's younger brother Mokuba. Like Kaiba, his worst actions from the manga are removed where his early appearances he tried to kill Yugi and his friends. In the anime he's only briefly antagonistic and quickly gets on better terms with the main cast than his brother.
  • In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga, Kaiser is far less of an Aloof Big Brother to Sho, and doesn't view him as untalented as much as being too concerned with his opponents' feelings to win (for example, throwing a duel because his opponent was getting upset). He also never becomes Hell Kaiser and is on the heroes' side the entire time.
  • Between the anime of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V and its manga:
    • The anime version of Yuri is a psychotic asshole who wants to duel everyone and trap them in cards until he's the last person in existence. While the manga version of him is kind of an asshole, he's firmly a hero and will do anything to help and protect Yuya.
    • The anime version of Leo Akaba is neglectful of his son and is leading an army to conquer dimensions. The manga version of him has a good relationship with his son and is a good-natured scientist.

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