Cerebus Syndrome / Anime & Manga

Examples of Japanese anime and manga works getting progressively more serious.

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• Later volumes of the romantic comedy Ai Kora are less comedic and more dramatic. The twelfth volume is probably the peak of this.
• Believe it or not, Ah! My Goddess is not immune. Its Nifhelm Arc has the group literally going through hell for the purpose of stopping the radicals who usurped Hild to prevent a destructive war between heaven and hell. This is a manga normally best summed up as Slice of Life and Magical Girlfriend, by the way.
• Assassination Classroom, even with its premise being rather dark and ridiculous (an octopus-like creature blowing up 70% of the moon, and then demanding to teach a Junior High classroom for a year before blowing up the Earth) began as a gutbustingly hilarious, sometimes surreal yet altogether heartwarming comedy with a few dramatic moments here and there serving as Character Development. However, with the beginning of the Assassination Island arc late in the first season, the series gradually becomes darker and darker, with the comedic moments being present, but more far and between. And then, mid-way through the second season, the series just becomes one Tear Jerker after another, once it is revealed that Koro-sensei didn't really blow up the moon, and was actually an amazing assassin betrayed by his former apprentice, leading to him being experimented on with anti-matter, and is just a scapegoat, and that he will blow up in a year's time anyway, regardless of whether anyone can assassinate him or not and the series ended its penultimate episode with all the students being forced to pin down Koro-sensei, with Nagisa dealing the final blow, because Koro-sensei wanted to die by their hands, leading to a heartbreaking ending. This shift is marked by the change in the opening songs. The two songs in the first season have an uplifting, "dancing" sequence, while the two songs in the second season are far more melancholic, with the fourth one ending with Nagisa smiling and looking at Koro-sensei, and then gazing back to see he's not there anymore. In the second season, the title sequence also counts down the days until Koro-sensei will explode.
• Downplayed In Asteroid in Love. The first 21 chapters of manga, or the first half of the anime, despite very occasional discussion of personal goals (or the lack thereof), is not very different from most other series in Manga Time Kirara that received Animated Adaptations — or a fluffy Slice of Life Schoolgirl Series. Since then, however, the direction made a more realistic, Coming of Age Story turn, with emphasis on how the cast's personal problems and how they resolve it through Character Development. The seventh episode, which adapts chapters 22-24, has 3-4 examples of Heroic BSoD, depending on the version, which is seldom seen in Schoolgirl Series. Yet, true to Schoolgirl Series, the tone remains optimistic, and the dramatic elements are interspersed with humor.
• The first chapter of Bokura no Hentai looks like a fluffy Otokonoko Genre series however the chapters afterward show it's less comedic than the norm. The manga really hits its dark point when Tamura remembers his repressed memories of being molested when he was younger. Afterwards the characters become more somber and dark, there is more Fan Disservice, and the drama (especially romantic drama) is upped.
• While Bleach included some darker elements from the outset, the early stories are mostly Monster of the Week plots, flavored with Slice of Life and Fish out of Water scenarios, focusing more on characterization than action. Then Tite Kubo finished defining the starting characters and the Soul Society arc kicked the series into high gear. The anime tried to squeeze in elements from the first season whenever possible, seemingly to remind the viewer what show they were watching. For the final arc, all the Shōnen fighting tropes from previous stories seem to be thrown out the window. The day the Vandenreich show up, things get deadly serious. Within twenty chapters, they kill off a named good character (Chojiro Sasakibe) for the very first time, conquer Hueco Mundo, invade Soul Society on a whim, nearly kill off Izuru Kira, and introduce As Nodt mind raping everybody then Yhwach killls Yamamoto. And then the Zero Squad shows up when all's said and done.
• Bokurano had this occur, unsurprisingly as it's by the same author as Narutaru. It starts off looking like a retreat to '70s and '80s style Super Robot Genre about middle-schoolers saving the world with a giant robot (in terms of overall story — viewers quickly noticed the odd lack of comedic antics from the main characters and strangely apathetic and cynical behavior of the scientist that chose them to pilot the robot.) things quickly get worse. In fact, the author is famous for using this trope to deconstruct typical kids' genres of anime. When he announced that his latest work would be about a boy who rides his bike ad loves fishing, many people started to produce ridiculous theories about how the boy's bike would destroy the world.
• Case Closed started as a mystery-themed comedy just like how Gosho Aoyama did with kendo in Yaiba. With time it has developed into a more serious story—which made the animators who guessed too much making a few Schrodingers Cats.
• A Certain Scientific Railgun could certainly qualify. The first few episodes follow Mikoto and Kuroko hanging around Tokiwadai and getting into comical trouble somehow, with an action scene or two occasionally thrown in. Then someone starts rigging up aluminum bombs around the city and raging against bullies while listening to somewhat bizarre-sounding music on his MP3 player. From there, it gets more and more serious, eventually culminating in many of the people around Academy City going comatose. Then at the halfway point, it goes From Bad to Worse. It's pretty jarring to going from talking about shaved ice flavors to listening to Harumi talk about how her good-natured job and research culminated in the horrible disfigurement of a bunch of Level 0 orphans who only wanted powers of their own.
• The anime of CLANNAD is for its first half a lighthearted comedy about a high school student finding joy in his life, and then helping his new circle of friends find theirs. Then Clannad: After Story is riddled with Tear Jerkers and plenty of feel-good moments, but never quite loses its light feeling for its first half. Then it drops a Please Wake Up moment, and then repeats it with another. Between the two, things get horribly dark, horribly depressing, and horribly hopeless, and just when the slightest glimmer of hope shines through the cracks, it's ripped away.
• The anime of Da Capo literally tells the viewer in a next episode preview halfway through the series that it's about to get serious. And it does.
• Dazzle Uses this trope pretty often. It starts off as the adventures of a young girl who tags along with a man searching for his father's murderer. Despite that, the murder plot takes a backseat for most of the series in favor for various side-plots. The series has a tendency to briefly get darker anytime a character, usually a kid is killed. Or when Rahzel's Dark and Troubled Past is revealed but to quickly revert to humor. However, the manga slowly starts to focus more and more on the main plot and the more serious elements.
• D.Gray-Man always had a dark premise but the tone shifts dramatically from tragicomedy to tragedy as the series progresses. In earlier chapters, there used to be silly filler arcs between heavier arcs and things still felt hopeful.
• This is a pretty standard formula for Digimon series:
  • Digimon Adventure. While at first it seems like a lighthearted comedy/adventure, it becomes increasingly serious after the introduction of Myotismon.
  • Digimon Adventure 02 doesn't start off as light-hearted as the first one... but the first third or so of the series is quite light-hearted with the digidestined enjoying adventures while thwarting the Digimon Emperor and his slaves. Then it becomes a lot more serious once he's defeated and The Man Behind the Man is revealed.
  • Digimon Tamers starts off as a Slice of Life series, arguably more lightearted and cutesy than the other series. Then all of a sudden, some stronger opponents appear to challenge the tamers... then a weird kid, a government agency tries to wipe the digimon out, and that's before they actually go to the digital world! It only gets worse from there.
  • Digimon Frontier starts off rather light-hearted, but then starts to become a lot more serious with the occasional "Fun break" once Grumblemon appears. Heck; the first Big Bad Cherubimon is mentioned briefly during the first couple episodes.
  • Digimon Data Squad also follows this formula, becoming a bit of a comedy/adventure following DATS acting as a benevolent form of "Digimon police". Then Mercurimon shows up... and the trope really begins to kick in.
  • Digimon Universe: App Monsters starts out much Denser and Wackier than previous Digimon series, bordering on a Gag Series. As the show goes on the tone becomes closer to older series, eventually culminating in an emotional climax and a huge Tear Jerker of a Bittersweet Ending.
• Dog Days got dramatic towards the end of the first season, with a fight against a massive demon, and the drama around Cinque finally going home. Dog Days', on the other hand, has taken great glee in subverting this whenever possible.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Dragon Ball was originally a comedic version of Journey to the West. The villains were largely silly, like Emperor Pilaf and Commander Red, but then Krillin got killed by a monster (he got better). The monster was Tambourine, a minion of Piccolo Daimao (a literal embodiment of evil) who sought eternal life, signalling a decrease in the number of comedic jokes and moments. This quickly became evident when Raditz, Goku's older brother, came and told Goku that he was an alien from another planet who was supposed to kill everyone on Earth. Toei, the company in charge of the Dragon Ball anime, decided to rename Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z to reflect this (as well as to re-market the same exact show, but that's a different story).
  • The Majin Buu saga drifted to somewhere in the middle and the 2008 Jump Tour special had a heavy emphasis on comedy over action, which many fans seemed to find rather refreshing.
  • Dragon Ball GT attempted to bring back the whimsical tone of the original Dragon Ball by de-aging Goku back into a kid and sending him on a quest through space filled with wacky characters. All that changed when Baby showed up-from that point, the comedy was significantly toned down and the overall tone of the show become a lot closer to Z.
  • Akira Toriyama was aware of this effect to some degree. He introduced the Ginyu Force just to relieve some of the tension from the escalating villains (Raditz -> Nappa/Vegeta -> Zarbon/Dodoria -> Frieza). Of course, just because the Ginyu Force are silly to the point of being buffoonish doesn't mean they aren't extremely dangerous.
  • The new movies zigzag this. The first one, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods leans much more towards comedy than most of DBZ (even bringing back some villains from the original Dragon Ball). The second movie, however, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', brings back a DBZ villain and is much more serious and action-oriented than the first.
  • Dragon Ball Super zigzags this overall. Its first major arcs are adaptations of Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F', but the in-between stories are typically light-hearted, like Mr. Satan having to impress a race of feline aliens. The next arc is about a martial arts tournament between the standard DB universe and a parallel universe; while action-packed, the stakes aren't amazingly high. However, this is followed by an arc that brings back fan-favorite Future Trunks and shows that his Bad Future world has gotten even worse thanks to the arrival of a genocidal villain who's killed off most of humanity including Future Bulma.
    • The Universe Survival Arc after it is another tournament with parallel universes (this time with 10 more) and each are fighting the other universes to be saved from Zeno wiping their universes out of existence with them.
• Parodied in the Excel♡Saga anime. The whole series (although it does have an overarching plot) is a parody Genre Roulette, so what kind of anime does it become in its climactic arc? A serious anime, of course! It then returns to comedy at the last second, before the true final episode is even more irreverent than anything before. Actually played straight in the Excel♡Saga manga, on the other hand.
• Fairy Tail underwent a gradual escalation, with each Story Arc becoming more personal, with higher stakes than the last. Character Development in series format, as it were.
• Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA was marketed as a Magical Girl-based Affectionate Parody of the much darker-toned Fate/stay night, and for the most part it adhered to that with an episodic Slice of Life setting when main characters Illyasveil von Einzbern and Miyu Edelfelt weren't fighting against the Class Cards. Even with the appearance of Chloe blowing the whistle on the skeletons in the Einzbern family's closet, they manage to overcome their family spat and return to their comedic romp in short order. Miyu turns out to have a similar Dark and Troubled Past, and for a moment it looks like the cast will handle it the same way — only to be blindsided when Miyu's past tormentors suddenly appear and take her away by force. The road to rescuing Miyu leads the story into a veritable minefield of Fate-typical grimdark, and to this day it has yet to reach the other side.
• Surprisingly enough, Free! was hit with this in the second season. Even the fanservice was reduced in order to fit more drama, especially notable with Sousuke having to give up his dream as well as Haru breaking due to pressure.
• Fruits Basket starts with a balance between humor and drama, with some physical comedy and some sadder stories about the character's lives. While the series never truly loses its sense of humor, the story gradually becomes more serious, with many characters' backstories involving Abusive Parents, the revelations about the true nature of the curse, and Kyo's eventual confinement predominating the narrative later on.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • The manga somehow managed to be lighthearted and funny for its first few volumes, despite Edward and Alphonse's relatively dark backstory. The story suddenly caught Cerebus Syndrome when Hughes was killed.
  • The episodes in both series involving Nina are their own example of cerebus syndrome, starting out light and harmless, then building tension, and leaving the audience in horror and depression by the end.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) intentionally follows this general trajectory; despite the brothers' tragic backstory, the early episodes are generally lighthearted, with only occasional hints of darkness around the periphery. About a quarter of the way through, the show begins to get progressively darker, leading up to a halfway point where Hughes is murdered, much like his manga counterpart above. Oddly enough, from there it somewhat resets itself; the following episodes go back to being somewhat lighthearted, then get gradually darker until, by the end of the series, the story has evolved into outright tragedy.
• Fushigi Yuugi started out as a fairly typical shojo romance where a girl gets sucked into another dimension that has a mix of comedic and dramatic parts. But then the second half of the series took a darker turn when Tamahome comes home to find his family brutally murdered, and things got even worse when more characters started to die.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula was originally a typical shonen adventurous/hopeful sport anime with a few good drama parts in it. The show, however, gets more dramatic and less comedic as the OVAs were released. The Double-One arc deals with Knight Shoemach/Osamu Sugo's dramatic problems (namely, his eye problems stemming from an incident with Smith in the TV series which nearly rendered him blind), ZERO builds the angst out of Asuka Sugo and Bleed Kaga, SAGA has more dramatic villains (Nagumo in particular) and SIN caps off the series with very little comedy left to it and Kaga's full-blown angst because of his jealousy towards his ex-pupil, Hayato.
• Gakuen Alice started as an upbeat, sparkly shojo tale about a girl discovering she has superpowers (basically) and going to a school with lots of other kids with superpowers. Predictably, wacky hijinks and love triangles ensue. There have always been hints of dark things going on in the background, but the focus was on the humor and warm fuzzies. Then around chapter 90 the series took a nosedive into severe angst.
• Gakuen Ouji started out as very absurd and wacky manga about horny girls chasing after terrified boys. As the story went along, it became more serious, turning into a typical dramatic shoujo manga with focus on the Love Triangle.
• GaoGaiGar to GaoGaiGar Final: The light-hearted original series did dip its toe into seriousness every so often, but it was primarily a fun super-robot show. With the release of the OVA Final, it goes into darker and edgier territory. By the second episode... One character's lover is killed by what appears to be the cute kid lead of the series, who is himself killed by the main character. Then, said main character is captured by the villains and brainwashed into fighting the good guys. And in the final episode, despite having defeated the Big Bad, all but two members of the main cast are trapped at the other end of the galaxy, dying, and with no foreseeable way to get back to Earth. Nevertheless, the OVA remained true to the series' central theme of courage overcoming opposition throughout — it merely explored some of the more dramatic aspects of fighting a seemingly hopeless battle against a seemingly invincible foe.
• Genshiken starts out as an introspective manga on otaku parody and college life but somewhere along the way it transforms into romance... more romance... and occasional forays into yaoi parody. Cue magazines being ripped to shreds and posted on the internet.
• Get Backers starts out as a fairly standard We Help the Helpless series about two teenage guys having dorky misadventures, but the introduction of the other four major characters brings along the revelation that they have incredibly angsty back stories, involving Ginji becoming a crazy sociopath if he's not careful and Ban killing at least two of his friends, and lots of Parental Abandonment. Happily, the pair retain their status as a Weirdness Magnet and are still capable of being incredibly silly at the drop of a hat, so the slide isn't too drastic.
• Ghost Sweeper Mikami gets into the syndrome once Ashtaroth starts getting prominent. However, Shiina never lets this obstruct the original comedic qualities, leading to a pretty fair amount of Mood Whiplash.
• Happens once in a while in Gintama. The Benizakura, Itou, Yoshiwara, Jiraia, Kabukichou (and other) storylines are way more serious and dramatic than the usual lazy-ass, nose-picking, potty humored regular episodes. Also, any time Takasugi shows up, shit gets serious. And then he goes away, and the series goes back to the normal idiocy. It's also notable that even in the serious stories, the series still maintains a certain level of dorkiness.
• The Golden Boy manga. It starts in a somewhat formulaic way following the happy-go-lucky wanderer Oe Kintaro and his misadventures with attractive women. Then at some point a weird techno-sex cult run by a former childhood friend comes up, Kintaro gets relegated to a side character and the manga gets increasingly wordy with confusing and lengthy arguments about the ills of society, mind control, etc. None of this appears in the anime version, which is far better known.
• GTO: The Early Years started out as a Gag Series, but shifted into a more dramatic Fighting Series with occasional bits of comedy around the time Saejima and Kamata were introduced. There are still occasional Breather Episodes, but on the whole it's much more focused on violence and action than comedy by around chapter 40.
• Gunbuster and its sequel Diebuster were masters of this. They both had a fairly cheerful if a bit dramatic character drama going up until the magic episode, when everything started going to hell.
• In Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE, the series continues the Lighter and Softer trend that has been going since Gundam Build Fighters Try, with a Ragtag Band of Misfits stuck in a strange mission within their game world. Then episode 12 hit and we find out their odd mission wasn't a mission at all and their failure to stop a Kill Sat from obliterating La Résistance causes a worldwide server malfunction that temporarily shuts down the entire Internet.

H-Q

• Haibane Renmei is initially quite cheery and light-hearted about a recently hatched Winged Humanoid girl tries to find her place in the world. Roughly half-way through shifts into something darker and much more dramatic after Kuu's Day of Flight occurs. Rakka hits a Despair Event Horizon and the concept of being sin-bound is introduced, leading to revelations that Team Mom Reki is not all that she seems.
• The best way to describe the Cerebus Syndrome of Hayate the Combat Butler in the last fifty chapters or so (200-250~ when you discount the missing chapters) is that it's started taking itself seriously. Not that it loses the humor entirely, but still. Hello Athena, and hello drama.
  • Of course, once the Athena situation is dealt with, the next mini arc involves the cast trying to move into an apartment building that's haunted by ghost cats, who possess Izumi and turn her into a catgirl. My neck hurts for some reason...
• Heaven's Lost Property While the series always has had a fair bit of moodswings, the later chapters really start to turn dark with the more serious mood swings coming in greater frequencies and major characters starting to drop of like flies.
• Hello! Sandybell: The first arc is light-hearted, slice of life-ish and focuses on Sandybell reaching out and making new friendships with the noble Wellingtons. The next arcs involve child abuse, drug dealers, kidnappings, mysteries, crime and DarkAndTroubledPasts...yet it's all presented in the anime's signature light-hearted tone.
• Higurashi: When They Cry pulls one of these on purpose. It's part of what makes it great. For the first season at least, the series seems to contract Cerebus Syndrome exactly once an arc, beginning as a typical Unwanted Harem before regularly bringing out the terrors, with progressively less time in between the two, until approximately the second arc of Kai.
• Hunter × Hunter started out as a somewhat subversive series with heavier elements, but gradually became darker as the show went on culminating with the Chimera Ant Arc, which is considered by far one of the darkest and most frightening storylines ever in a shounen manga (in large part to its incredibly disturbing villains) to the point where some people wonder how the author got away with it.
• Ie Ga Moete Jinsei Dou Demo Yoku Natta Kara does this as early as the very first chapter. The story starts out very upbeat with protagonist Harold Smith leaving work whistling a happy tune because he's finally going to go to his completed 20 million rube dream-home, and arrives at his house to watch it completely engulfed in flames, no idea why, and no way to do anything to save his possessions. Naturally, he's nearly suicidal and goes to collect what remains of his savings and planning to do something self-destructive, until he's called out to by the barker of a certain slave auction...
• Inside Mari was never a funny series however it has gotten darker with time. It began as a genderbender deconstruction about a NEET who ended up in the body of a high school girl. It doesn't play out the scenario for laughs or fun, and instead focuses on how awful the experience is. As it goes on there is heavy foreshadowing everything is not as it seems and eventually implications begin popping up that there is no body swap. Mari has a Split Personality. It slowly turned from an awkward body-swap manga to a psychological series with lesbians.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable started out pretty light-heartedly. While it didn't shy away from blood & gore, the tone was consistently like that of a slice-of-life show... That is, until Yoshikage Kira makes his appearance by killing Shigekiyo, drastically darkening the tone and turning the story into a murder-mystery to find a Stand-wielding serial killer.
  • This shift is even reflected in the anime's OPs. The first OP Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town is a fun and bouncy disco track, while chase is hard rock, reflecting the darker shift in tone. Finally, Great Days is a hopeful and optimistic song as the story draws to a close, as does the Joestar group's hunt for Kira.
• Even Kanamemo wasn't immune to this, but not as serious as some examples, as the show goes from complete comedy with minor drama moments to more of a dramedy (the 13th episode does bring back the comedy full force, though).
• Kill la Kill started off as an over-the-top series about a Magical Girl Warrior on a quest to avenge her father. It's fairly episodic up until episode 11, when the arrival of Nui, the one responsible for the death of the protagonist's father, causes the series to escalate into a quest to stop alien life forms from destroying the world.
• Kimi ni Todoke started out as a fluffy, light-hearted shoujo manga with lots of funny and heartwarming moments. It hasn't quite lost this, but later chapters have definitely been taking themselves a little more seriously. Then again, as the characters near graduation, they're growing up with the series, so it probably makes sense.
• Kinnikuman started off as a comedy series parodying Ultraman, but then became a wrestling series with loads of drama, although with very silly characters.
• Kokouno Hito begins as a pretty typical shounen sports manga, not dissimilar to Slam Dunk and other such series. However the story takes on a very different tone after the main character's kindly instructor dies, becoming a more adult and psychological story and even deconstructing or heavily subverting typical shounen sports tropes such as the Love Interest and The Rival.
• Kuro starts off as a fairly lighthearted Slice of Life story about a girl and her interactions with her pet monster cat, but it's been slowly getting more and more serious as darker elements are drawn to the forefront: the townspeople living in constant fear of monsters, Coco's tragic circumstances and how her Only Friend, Kuro the cat, is repeatedly called evil and a monster and is a reason for the townsfolk ostracizing her, making Coco less upbeat.
• The anime of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! gradually becomes more serious as Rikka's past comes into play and her family begins pressing her into accepting the reality of her father's death and putting a load of the responsibility of that on Yuuta. In the Light Novel, a very different moment started its shift.
• Love Is in the Bag suddenly shifts its tone significantly by the end of Volume Three, with the revelation of the nature of Kate's "condition".
• Hoo boy, Magical Project S. Until episode 18 we have an over-the-top fourth wall breaking parody of a Magical Girl series, culminating in a two-parter with a team of evil housewives. Then we get episode 18, which is more of a standard magical girl episode. But the trope really hits in episodes 19 and 20 where the Dark Magical Girl gets utterly broken and the main character has to try and help her. Episode 19's is even entitled "The Magic Fades Away", and episode 20 even has a unique Eye Catch just to demonstrate the sheer gravity of the episode. But after that, the comedic elements appear in the plot again, although this time the show doesn't return to being a parody of magical girl series — it becomes one.
• Magi: Labyrinth of Magic started as a classical adventure manga, with a fair dose of comedy and drama. But since the Magnostadt arc, the manga became way darker than it was. It became worse with the Alma Torran arc, and the Kou Empire arc, in which Hakuryuu began his Roaring Rampage of Revenge to kill his mother.
• Medaka Box went through a pretty serious case of this reasonably early on. It starts out as the adventures of Student Council President Kurokami Medaka, her best friend Zenkichi and the rest of the Student Council as they solve problems submitted to them via the suggestion box, dubbed "The Medaka Box". It's pretty light for the first little while, then comes in the Disciplinary Squad, whose arc ends with Medaka going into War God Mode and partially destroying the school, and in her rage at Unzen Myouga nearly killing him for his injuring her friends.
  • And then we get the finale of the arc immediately following this, the Flask Plan, which gradually gets darker as time goes on, and in another giant leap down the Darker and Edgier slope ends with twelve people crucified to the wall by giant screws.
• Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ initially starts out with the old monster of the week routine with plenty of campy slapstick comedy. It followed from the very dark and serious Zeta Gundam, and Tomino was already in the habit of following up dark and tragic shows with comedic ones. Then episode 18 rolls around and the story starts picking up momentum, and the comic mischief is eventually displaced by more serious content. By the end, the stakes are high, the villains are dangerous and there are no entirely good factions, but it never gets quite as dark as Zeta.
• In My Hero Academia, the series really hits this mark once we get into the Internship Arc, giving us our first look of a post-All Might world. Neither Hero nor Villain is spared from arc villain Overhaul's mad desire, torturing an innocent girl for her Quirk in his desire for the Yakuza to reclaim their spot in the influence hierarchy. The series gets even darker during the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, nearly breaking the spirits of several main characters and Pro Heroes and causing Izuku to leave the hero school to become a vigilante of sorts. The tone of subsequent chapters is nearly unrecognizable from the beginning and middle of the series.
• My-HiME follows the 'intentional' version of this trope. The first half of the series is generally light and silly, corresponding to the usual Magical Girl series. The same can be said for My-Otome.
• Naruto: At first, the story was about the lovable Naruto and his comedic antics with a dark backstory lightly touched upon. Then Team 7 goes on their first mission where they could actually get murdered by other ninja. Then Orochimaru decides to invade the Leaf Village; while the entire village is in danger, there's only one major death. After the timeskip, the Akatsuki become the main antagonists and the conflict widens to world dominaiton. The Akasuki kill Asuma, the first major death that isn't the climax of a story arc. Later still, Pain invades the Leaf just like Orochimaru, but causes much more death and destruction. Although everyone is revived via Nagato's sacrifice. Then there's the Fourth Shinobi World War and a literal doomsday scenario...
• The original Negima! anime is noted for the fact that its last few episodes don't go into Cerebus Syndrome, it drops like a cannonball. Thanks for killing Asuna...
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi began as a light comedy about an inept ten-year old mage teaching a class of 31 Japanese middle school girls with lots of Fanservice. As the arcs progressed, the story became much more action-oriented and fairly serious at times. This was entirely intentional on the part of the author. From the beginning, he wanted to do an action series, but Executive Meddling forced him to hide it behind an Unwanted Harem image. The Genre Shift was his form of Writer Revolt.
• The first half of Neon Genesis Evangelion, while still dramatic and introspective, is more of a typical Mecha anime and even has its light-hearted moments. Then in the second half, the series slowly shifts to being disturbing and insane, becoming more akin to a cosmic horror story. Not only that, but during the first half, most of the angels — save for #5 Ramiel — were more human or animal-like and easily defeated, compared to the second half — starting with #11 Iruel and #12 Leliel — which started taking new forms and started posing a greater threat physically as well as a new threat psychologically, with three of the remaining five angels actually capable of defeating the Evas and/or killing their pilots. To compare:
  • First Half: "Thermal Expansion!"
  • Second Half: Komm Süsser Tod
  • The Rebuild of Evangelion movies follow this as well. 1.0 and 2.0 are certainly dark and disturbing at times, but still manage to contain a lot of jokes and lighthearted moments. 3.0, by contrast, is completely devoid of any humor and has a massive Downer Ending. It's jarring enough that you almost feel like you're now watching a completely different series.
• Nerima Daikon Brothers is a cheerful episodic anime musical about three struggling musicians and their pet panda trying to raise money to build a dome to perform in. Then the last four episodes turn into an extended political satire of and attack on the then Japanese Prime Minister's efforts to privatize the Japanese Post Office, complete with a much more dramatic tone, characters turning on each other, and an army of pandas getting brutally beaten up by the Prime Minister's personal guard. It will also make very little sense at all if you don't read the liner notes.
• Now and Then, Here and There: From the majority of the first episode, one could be forgiven for thinking it was some kind of lighthearted adventure in a fantasy future. One would also most definitely be scarred for life from the shock of how wrong that assumption turns out to be.
• Self-published manga Onani Master Kurosawa starts out like a goofy parody of works like Death Note, with the main character having over-the-top monologues and carrying out masturbation-related revenge against some classmates. However, it doesn't take long before it turns more angsty and dramatic with love triangles and themes about coming of age (pun not intended).
• One Piece villains have gotten more serious as the series went on. At first, the villains could be easily defeated with only minor injuries to the heroes (like Buggy). Later on, they could actually defeat the heroes, only to lose in the rematch (like Crocodile). There's also the fact that the series, while still light and soft for the most part, has started to focus on themes such as slavery, racism, political corruption, anarchy, segregation, and moral absolutism. A later story arc has drawn historical parallels to violent black supremacy groups, the KKK, xenophobic practices of ancient Japan, and Al Qaeda (all at once, mind you), and the subsequent story arcs only accentuate the darker tone. While it dipped in and out of this from time to time, it wasn't until the Impel Down and Marineford arc that the series charged headlong into this trope with the first two major character deaths (in a series where nobody dies outside of flashbacks,) and the post-Time Skip storyline, while still pretty goofy, keeping this dark tone. It was stated early on that East Blue (where the protagonists start out) was (relatively speaking) much more peaceful and safer compared to the Grand Line. And much later it's stated that the 2nd half of the Grand line (ie. the New World) is much more dangerous than the 1st half, to the point where people from there refer to the 1st half as "Paradise". Based on this, it's likely that the villains and arcs will continue to get more and more dark and serious as the protagonists get closer to the end.
• Ouran High School Host Club begins as an Affectionate Parody of shoujo manga, and while it doesn't leave its comedy behind, its storyline has gotten gradually more dramatic as it has gone on — particularly once it lapses out of Comic-Book Time and two of the main characters actually graduate from high school and start attending university. (Early volumes, in contrast, state in the narration that no one will be moving up in grades and the seasonal changes are purely aesthetic.)
• Penguindrum starts as a wacky series about the Takakura brothers's tragicomic attempts to keep their sister alive. By episode 8, we learn that the people involved in this are quite more complex and flawed than they look, but there's still quite a Mood Whiplash. By episode 18, not only more secrets and complexities are revealed (alongside many Freudian Excuses), but one character straight up tries to kill another and almost manages to kill said character and maim another. And by episode 21, after MANY other reveals, shit has hit the fan like whoa.
• Persona 4: The Golden Animation: The show starts as Lighter and Softer slice of life material, only for it to start focusing on Adachi in episode 6 and become extremely dark as it explores his fractured psyche.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • While later regions of the anime get Darker and Edgier with the introduction of the villainous team of that region, Sun and Moon is the exception. It's not a team that causes the Denser and Wackier installment to become Darker and Edgier, but a Pokemon — Nihilego, the Ultra Beast that contributed to Lillie's fear of Pokemon (it was actually Silvally that caused it). It also kidnaps a more humanized Lusamine, making the Motherbeast fight in Ultra Space tragic in addition to causing just as much Nightmare Fuel as the games. However, it soon returns to its more lighthearted style, with nary a drop of drama right after, and even the battle itself plays itself as Lighter and Softer than previous villainous struggles with a heavy focus on comedy involving the classmates.
  • XY, with the journey through Kalos being a standard lighthearted affair akin to Diamond and Pearl. Then, Sawyer is introduced, giving Ash a rival, subtly shifting the tone. Soon after, in quick succession, Olympia gives a prophecy that the region will be in great danger, Chespie falls into a coma, Team Flare takes action, Alain is introduced to Ash and sets him on a spiral and all of this doesn't let up the darker tone of the series that XY&Z takes until after the climax of the season. Notable because of just how dark the series gets, and how gradual the process actually is.
• Popotan is in no way only comedic to begin with, but even so its first couple of episodes at least has more laughs than tears. The later ones do not. The biggest example is without a doubt Konami's death in episode 9, which marks the transition from dramedy to regular drama.
• Pretty Cure tends to do this, especially when it's time to deal with the big bad of the series. Fresh Pretty Cure! is notable for the sudden swing midway that started with the three heroes passing out from utter exhaustion and being hospitalized and culminated in a High-Heel–Face Turn.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure! did this sooner in its run by having the person who put Cures Blossom and Marine's predecessor out of commission come around to put them on their backsides.
  • Pretty Cure All Stars DX 3 is quite noticable for probably being the darkest of the movie franchise's series. Later movies do away with it.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica started off like a fairly regular magical girl anime that promised sugar, hugs and happiness all around until Mami gets her head bitten off suddenly and very gruesomely at the end of EP 3, gut punching any unaware viewer like so many tons of bricks. The rest of the show only gets worse too.
  • The Spin-Off, Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, is going the same way. The first few chapters were practically a Magical Girl series played straight — the monsters turn back into humans, the power of teamwork saves the day, and the tone was generally lighthearted and comedic. Then the Mysterious Watcher reveals herself as the Knight of Cerebus. Things got serious in a hurry. Chapter 8 of Kazumi brings back the comedy from earlier chapters. It doesn't last.
  • In fact, episode three had such an impact that it was the reason the fans' IRC channel was even founded.
• Queen's Blade season 2 is pretty much the Cerebus Syndrome Season, some characters who got eliminated were encased in crystal or are permanently eliminated and in just two episodes, two characters were dead.

R-Z

• The series Reborn! (2004), which is mostly a pure comedy in the beginning, but after the introduction of the Kokuyo gang, it becomes an action series.
• The first 12 episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena are pretty lighthearted, despite being weird. It's from episode 13 where things start to turn darker, introducing outright horror elements, more aggressive surrealism and sexual imagery, and some very unpleasant characters.
• Robotics;Notes started out as a pretty lighthearted series about a Robotics club trying to get members to build a Giant Robot for a contest, though did have some drama here and there. Then the second season rolled in with Subaru getting injured during Guns Pro-2 test run and Shizuka's death, and things got dark real fast.
  • And though Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head started out the same way too, the protagonists in this series sadly did not have a Reset Button to make things better.
• Romantic Killer: In its latter half, the show shifts from being a romantic comedy to a more serious drama. This is thanks to the characters learning of Tsukasa's traumatic backstory of being stalked by an older woman who even managed to break into his house and drug him as a middle schooler, and the realization that this woman has managed to track him down and is once again trying to insert herself into his life. The comedy from prior episodes is still present, but it now serves as brief moments of levity in midst of this new story arc, with Tsukasa's deep-seated trauma and physical danger that the older woman threatens him and his friends with being played completely straight.
• Rosario + Vampire started its slide towards Shounen action series once the Student Police were introduced, and when Ruby was introduced in the Witch's Hill arc it was clear what direction the story was taking. Multi-issue story arcs replaced the Monster of the Week. Then Mizore joined the cast. Once Tsukune Took a Level in Badass thanks to his ghoul powers, the move was complete. The second season continues this as it gradually becomes Darker and Edgier as the series goes on. Though this should be noted as only happening in the manga; in the anime, the second season continued to be a Romance Comedy.
• In general, the Sailor Moon franchise. The later stories and episodes still contained a lot of humor, but when you compare the original Codename: Sailor V manga to the final few episodes of the Sailor Moon anime, it's almost like experiencing two entirely different works.
• Sakigake!! Otokojuku started as an Affectionate Parody of the shounen genre, with lots of slapstick humor, telling the misadventures of the Otokojuku's 1st Years, and their relationships. Then from the 4th volume onwards, all the story arcs are Tournament Arcs, that enters a Stealth Parody territory of the genre.
• Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai starts off as a manga about a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who transfers to Nagisa's school and how she tries to befriend her. It's nothing particularly unusual until we find out Umino's father is emotionally abusive. This is unnerving in itself but it doesn't take a real turn until it turns out Umino was telling the truth about how her father beat their dog up, killed him, and dumped his dismembered remains in the mountains.
• The infamous School Days anime starts off as a rather typical bishoujo comedy with a love triangle, but soon plummets into drama, violence, and downright insanity. It has long been notorious for such same elements in its original video game and for its brutal ending paths of which the anime adaptation decided to stay true to. Many unlucky saps fell for the anime who weren't aware of this fact.
• For a manga set during a Zombie Apocalypse School-Live! is pretty light-hearted, that is until a little over 15 chapters in. After we learn the government knew about zombies prior to the outbreak, and later Kurumi getting bit by Megu-nee, it quickly becomes Bloodier and Gorier and a lot darker in tone. It takes a grim turn right before the girls "graduate" from school — what with characters getting injured, Yuuri and Yuki suffering breakdowns, and a general loss of hope after a rescue helicopter crashes — though things calm down once they meet other survivors. The chapters get light-hearted again at the start of the second arc, however the situation later takes a turn for the worst again.
• The School Rumble manga jumps from a completely random love comedy to a surprisingly heart-wrenching drama, set off by the revelation that Karasuma is suffering from a Soap Opera Disease.
• While it never permanently slipped into this, Sgt. Frog got some more serious moments as the series progressed. You're watching (or reading) this hilariously cute story with these frogs who never get any invading done. You expect Status Quo Is God to remain in effect forever and nothing bad to ever really happen to the planet, then suddenly the entire planet is put into paralysis by a much more dangerous platoon who has come not only to take over the planet but also to discharge the Keroro Platoon. To add to it, Keroro is in the middle of being de-aged and losing his memory, Giroro gets shot out of the sky by his brother and we don't know if he's alive for a while, and we learn that when a platoon is discharged, the members of it are supposed to separate forever. OUCH.
• Shadow Star starts off like a reasonably light-hearted series before quickly becoming a Mind Screw full of horrors. It's a very intentional example.
• SHUFFLE!'s first half was more on the comedic Slice of Life happenings of an Unwanted Harem, with a Beach Episode to boot. Then along came Nerine, Lycoris' and Primula's Story Arc. Then there's all the drama during both Kaede and Asa's arcs. And the drama between them.
• Slayers loves this trope, at least in the anime, to the point that you can almost track where you are in the season by it — in the first quarter it's a hilarious episodic comedy about the party's adventures on the road fighting bandit troupes, various amusing monsters, and other random events, with hints of foreshadowing and plot dropped in, usually for more laughs. At the half-way point, things go darker, with the introduction of the first major enemy, who's usually somewhere on the way to destroying the world. At three-quarters, it's back to comedy, though slightly darker and with a bit more plot than the first quarter. In the last quarter, it's back to the dark stuff, and time to take care of the Big Bad for good.
• Soul Eater picks up this trope and takes it home. It started off as a few comedic one-shots about a few kids who were Death's apprentices, screwing up while trying to graduate. Cue 70 chapters later and we have (*cough cough* ahem): Mind Rape; actual rape; horrors (including taking someone, draining them of their blood and then wrapping them up in their own skin to rot for eternity); arguing and trying to resist against the nature of insanity with each of the characters getting closer and closer to their breaking point; deals with the voices in your head; and blood that will tear your mind out. Literally! It started to get Darker and Edgier at the point where Asura got introduced and it... just kept getting darker. And darker. Aaaand darker...
  • As the series manages to maintain its warped sense of humour and fanservice in many of its darker moments, the Knight of Cerebus in this is undoubtedly Medusa. Asura brings the horror, but he is largely inactive. The meddling of Arachne and Noah pale in comparison to the depravity of the Gorgon lady.
    • Related to the above, the anime coincides with the decay into Cerebus Syndrome with its Mid-Season Twist. Crona and Ragnarok are the first foes that the crew couldn't beat, as well as the first time they are truly shown to be mortal and actually rather vulnerable. After episode 7, Maka in particular became much less comedic and more serious. And it goes From Bad to Worse.
  • This trope seems to be even more in play with it's Spin-Off Soul Eater Not!: it starts out as a pure Slice of Life centered on several lower classmen of Soul Eater's main characters, but then we're introduced to Shaula, Medusa's younger sister. The Slice of Life continues but with a plot that involves mind-controlling innocent bystanders then killing them bubbling beneath the surface, which then collide when Shaula uses her power to make one of the classmates attack the others, then orders her to kill herself.
• Stardust Telepath: The series was initially your typical Manga Time Kirara iyashikei, a sweet, life-affirming yonkoma about shooting for the stars (literally) as four girls form a space rocket research club to brainstorm ways to get self-proclaimed stranded alien Yuu Akeuchi home. Then, in the span of a single page in chapter 21, it abruptly veers from fluffy comedy into emotional drama about regret and frustration, and stays there. Although later it does bring the comedy back, it's balanced with the anguished drama in such a way that the characters (Yuu in particular) come across as Stepford Smilers for indulging in goofy yonkoma comedy with their friends and then turning around and angst-ing in secret.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross has some of this — starting out as an Affectionate Parody of Mobile Suit Gundam-style shows, the early episodes have quite a bit of humor to them. Then, suddenly, Hikaru is shot down by friendly fire. Then, Roy dies. Then, Kakizaki dies, and Toronto is destroyed. Then, Hikaru is paralyzed by self-doubt. Then Misa is ordered to Earth, where she has a front-row seat to the Earth being nearly annihilated just before the series-ending battle battle marking the midway point of the show. Though the show never got explicitly Grimdark or went through a genre change, there is a marked change in tone after roughly Episode 16.
• Takopi's Original Sin: The story begins as a cute little tale about an adorable octopus alien trying to make a hurting girl smile, and escalates into a psychological drama about two kids covering up the death of their classmate.
• The final arc of the original Tamagotchi! series takes an especially dark turn; everyone is gradually turning into eggs, and Mametchi and his friends have to find out why it's happening and how to stop it before the entire planet is transformed. They're able to elude the curse longer than other Tamagotchis thanks to their frequent exposure to Tama Hearts, but they have to watch their friends and family become cursed. It's Moriritchi falling to the curse that nearly breaks them.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a lot more dreary after the death of Kamina. Everyone from the protagonist to his True Companions to the enviroment itself is depressed.
  • This was especially shocking because most of the characters had already survived energy beams to the face.
  • And it's not like the humor isn't there; it's just after that point most of it stays separate from the action after it headed towards drama, when before that most fights were equal parts Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny.
  • The show started off as an Affectionate Parody of the Super Robot genre and gradually became what it was parodying, and the genre is better off for it.
• Tiger & Bunny started out as an Affectionate Parody of the Super Hero genre with rather comedic and harmless villains. Then we're introduced to Lunatic — a Knight Templar who is the first opponent to be treated completely seriously and to kill somebody (though the humour was back when he wasn't around). His appearance was followed by the introduction of Jake Martinez, who defeats a number of heroes one after another while holding the entire city hostage in what can be considered the first truly Wham Arc of the series. Since ep.15, every episode has a serious tone and a good dose of drama; Lunatic's tragic backstory is downright depressing. The comedy never disappears completely, but it takes a back seat to more serious plot points.
• In sharp contrast to most of the Iyashikei genre, the works of Tsukumizu, Girls' Last Tour and Shimeji Simulation, definitely get more serious and focused compared to their more relaxed beginnings, to where their Deconstruction elements start to become more clear.
  • Girls' Last Tour started off as a calm and peaceful adventure between the protagonists across what looked like a dead city, until the Kettenkrad finally breaks in Chapter 44. This marked a significant change as both Chito and Yuuri began their long and dark ascent to the highest layer while sacrificing everything in their possession. Yuuri also jokes less and Chito contemplates more of the outcome of the negative aspects of their journey than anything else. The final nail in the coffin is when the highest layer is nothing more than a barren wasteland, putting the series to a Bittersweet Ending and with Chito and Yuuri's efforts to an almost naught.
  • Shimeji Simulation is a more pronounced example of the trope being played. Similarly while it started in what seems to be a slice of life venture in a surreal world between Shijima and Majime, Chapter 30 is where the manga's Wham Episode plays out, after Big Sis managed to alter West Yomogi into an Acid-Trip Dimension. The Reveal then shows the world that both Shijima and Majime are in is nothing more than a simulated reality within a computer, as per the existence of no accidents occurring within the town itself. While the manga still retained some of its comedic and light-hearted nature, the change caused by Big Sis is so permanent that it had more drastic effects during Chapter 40, with her clone being on the loose of giving humans the ability to change themselves in a whim. Since Chapter 30, while the characters still have fairly comedic moments, the effects of that said chapter shows the manga's true nature. Chapter 44 is where Shijima goes into a Darkest Hour period after realising that she has a dreaded fear of being merged with Majime and losing her identity, while also crying to herself after she casted her own friend out. From that point onward, the remaining chapters become focused on Existential Horror that heavily deals with Shijima's existential crisis.
• Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is a poignant but fairly optimistic depiction of the direct aftermath of an earthquake. There is death and there are tears however the main characters come out fine. That is until Yuuki collapses in episode 8. Two episodes later it's revealed he died of the injuries he received several episodes earlier. After The Reveal the series is nothing but Tear Jerker after Tear Jerker as Mirai has a Heroic BSoD after her little brother's death. The series has a Bittersweet Ending but it's heavy on the "bitter".
• To Love Ru took this one to heart after a Creator Breakdown ended the orignal manga. When the legal problems got solved, it got restarted as To-Love-Ru:Darkness which was both Darker and Edgier and Hotter and Sexier.
• Tenchi Universe is a light-hearted slapstick comedy, until the last few episodes when shit gets serious in a big way.
• The anime adaptation of Trigun has a variation; all the filler is in the beginning, so it begins as a silly series with occasional bouts of action as the "insurance ladies" track down the identity of Vash the Stampede, then slowly come to accept that the goofball they found is a legendary gunman and walking disaster. About halfway through the series, actual plot from the manga starts appearing in consecutive episodes, with Knives sending the Gung-ho Guns, a team of ruthless super-powered fighters after him. Ostensibly they're hired to kill him, but really they're meant to make Vash suffer, which they all succeed in, each in their own way. This changeover is also evident in whether or not Vash manages to successfully keep people from getting killed; he manages it easily for the first half the series, but in the episode where the change hits you get streets littered with the corpses of men, women, and children. There's a reason anime fans used to call this trope "Trigun Syndrome."
• CLAMP's Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- started out as a fairly upbeat and child-friendly adventure story, but took a sudden dark turn in the Acid Tokyo arc, almost exactly the halfway point of the series. The arc's post-apocalyptic setting — where Tokyo is a desert and the only rain is acid — pales in comparison to the revelations of treachery and hints of almost unimaginably horrific Backstory. The story gets much more despondent and the action gets much bloodier. Some shreds of hope return in the last quarter of the story, but the more serious themes remain. Tsubasa seems be a case of deliberate Cerebus, with the second half essentially deconstructing the first and showing that its happiness and innocence was enabled by darkness lurking behind the scenes. Only adding to the angst is that Syaoran's decision to turn back time so he could save Sakura's life caused the entire multiverse to start decaying. Space-time was altered so much that Acid Tokyo and Clow Country are actually in the same world: the mysterious ruins that Syaoran enjoyed investigating so much were the post-post-apocalyptic ruins of Tokyo.
• Umi Monogatari has this set in around episode 6, coinciding with the solar eclipse and Urin being corrupted by Sedna.
• The Wandering Son manga started out pretty typical — it had lighthearted moments and mature moments but it wasn't so bad. Once puberty started kicking in more viciously and the characters entered middle school it slowly became less comedic and more angsty, quite intentionally.
• Witch Hunter Robin started with the "monster of the week" style then shifted gears into plot and drama halfway through.
• The World God Only Knows begins as a comedic manga about a Dating Sim otaku being forced to live through what amounts to a real-world Dating Sim (admittedly, it's on pain of death) in order to exorcise "Runaway Spirits". After the Goddess Diana appears, things start to get darker, with it being revealed that the "Runaway Spirits" are in fact the escaped Demons of Old Hell (called "Weiss") and that Diana and her sisters are necessary to seal them away again. This culminates with perky idol Kanon (who happens to be the host of a Goddess) being stabbed by a member of a terrorist group seeking to revive Old Hell (equivalent to the normal idea of Hell, whereas New Hell is more of a neutral "Underworld"). Then, the Time Travel arc comes along, and things became rather bloody and messy. It still has comedy, but things are certainly getting darker...
• Your Lie in April isn't the most cheerful series — it deals heavily with childhood trauma and child abuse — but it's still quite optimistic and sweet. Once Kaori is hospitalized, though, it becomes increasingly more grim until it ends in a Bittersweet Ending bordering on Downer.
• Yu-Gi-Oh:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Third season, just about one third through. Suddenly there are people actually dying. And then they go back to the alternate world thing and it just gets worse. See also: Yubel. It's worth noting that (most of) said dead people do come back.
    • To truly drive the point home, let's compare the lyrics and the tone of both the first & third opening. The first opening of the series, "Fine Weather Rising Hallelujah" sounds so adventurous it wouldn't be too out of place in One Piece. The third opening, "Teardrop"? It's a somber song hinting at Jaden's Stepford Smiler nature.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL starts this route with Kite's introduction.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V went this route by season 2. The first season was largely about Yuya discovering Pendulum Summoning and dueling, with a mystery-based subplot about his doppelganger. Season 2 immediately gets dark when Yuya's friend Sora reveals his true motives, explains the mystery of Yuya's doppelganger and reveals that he is a survivor of a mass genocide from his dimension, due to an inter dimensional war between the four dimensions, said doppelganger dying and being absorbed by Yuya, Yuya gaining a Superpowered Evil Side, and a lot of Fantastic Racism and Child Soldiers. The plot of season 2 is basically Yuya trying to bring smiles to people through dueling despite the constant suffering he and everyone experience. The Synchro arc is all about the characters learning that the society they've come to is completely corrupt, filled with human rights violations, and worst of all thanks to how messed-up the society is this is all seen as normal and acceptable by everyone. Oh, and almost everything from the first season that seemed positive is either deconstructed or Harsher in Hindsight.
• Yui Kamio Lets Loose: The series shifts from Romantic Comedy to Supernatural Horror at about the half-way point.
• Yuki Yuna is a Hero starts off as a cute Magical Girl Warrior anime with an unusual emphasis on Slice of Life elements. There's nothing too dark, until not even halfway in when the girls each lose a physical ability as a result of using their Mankai. Fu is blind in one eye, Itsuki can't speak, Yuuna can't taste anything, and Mimori is deaf in one ear (on top of already being wheelchair bound). They think it's temporary but later learn it's not after meeting Sonoko. Sonoko was a character in the prequel light novel who was Mimori's friend and a Hero as well, but Mimori lost her memory permanently and Sonoko is bed bound and is covered in bandages. It turns out magical girls are sacrifices to Shinju-sama. The series gets increasingly grim until it ends on a chipper note. Everyone's disabilities are fixed, and everything seems happy now, though the sequel material leaves room for more darkness.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • The series started out as a wacky comedy about a tough high schooler who dies but gains a chance at returning to life by doing good deeds as a ghost, mining comedy from the fact that Yusuke can't really figure out how to do a "good deed" without being violent, rude, or abrasive. This led to a mostly episodic series of adventures as Yusuke and his guide Botan wandered the city finding people in need of help and playing Clarence to their George Bailey. Then after about 30 chapters of this, Yusuke gets brought back to life, discovers he has superpowers now, and is given a job as a "spirit detective", which basically involves beating up bad guys connected to the afterlife. YYH becomes an action fighting series and the comedic formula is dropped permanently.
  • After becoming Spirit Detective, Yusuke had to do some semblance of actual detective work, tracking down fugitives and recovering magical items they'd stolen rather than just beating them up (though he did that too). Botan was set up as his assistant, providing him with detective tools and passing on his assignments from Koenma. This lasted for exactly one-story arc, after which the series shifted into a simpler shonen fighting formula, with two great big Tournament Arcs.
  • After the Chapter Black Arc, in which it is revealed (as hinted at by Hiei and Kurama becoming good guys) that not everything is as cut-and-dried as the previous theme of "Yusuke and Friends vs. Demons" action stories led us believe, the story suddenly becomes extremely character-driven, exploring Yusuke's disconnection with his formerly "normal" existence, Kuwabara's resolve to become something productive, Hiei finding a new purpose in life, and Kurama resolving his demonic past. This is especially notable in the anime, where the first third of the Three Kings Arc has nearly NO fights, instead being low-key character pieces about Yusuke, Hiei, and Kurama, effectively going through Cerebus Syndrome twice as it evolves from an offbeat comedy to action show, then suddenly to a more character-driven series rather than the less serious and more action-oriented shonen Fighting Series..
• This starts to happen at the end of Zatch Bell!, mostly in part due to the seriousness of the King Festival (the winner has the power to kill any and all demons he wishes, and Clear Note wants to kill every single one. And he has shown clear intention of wanting to destroy the Earth as well.) Near the start of the arc, though, the author gets out his last hurrah of comedy in one of the most bizarre manga chapters ever written: a dream sequence which involves Sunbeam dressed up as a butterfly, him giving Kiyomaro wings and making them both fly into the sky by madly flapping their arms about, Brago wearing a lion's head for underwear (and nothing else), Sherry tossing tennis balls at Brago (who proceeds to laugh as he swats them around), the teacher's wife's head becoming that of a dog, Victoreem carrying Kid around in a cart (after which Kid pummels Victoreem), both of them slipping on banana peels, Dartagnan dressing up as Professor Riddle and tricking Kid, Dartagnan knocking Kid out with a tranquilizer dart, Dartagnan falling into a pile of crap (only for Reira to give him a rope to grab onto and swing out, only to fall into another pile of crap), Gash, Umagon, Tio, and Kiyomaro dancing dressed up as otters, and everyone wanting to slap him silly.

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