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This is a "Discontinuity" entry. The regular entry on this topic is elsewhere.  Discontinuity: Anime
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Don't like that something happened in an anime or manga? For fandom, it's simple! Just write it out of existence and pretend it didn't happen.
Note 1: Do not include examples based only in Adaptation Decay. Anime adaptations can not be discontinuitous since it is not part of the continuity of the original.
Note 2: Examples of Personal Discontinuity should not be posted here. The examples posted here should only be of groups of fandoms.
Anime
- Tokyo Mew Mew: Once Yoshida Reiko left the manga, Ikumi Mia retconned many aspects to fit with the anime, rendered the main character practically useless for no reason, and gave her role to a Mary Sue. Small wonder the resulting sequel, Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode, has been discarded by fans (and the editor — it lasted only two volumes).
- Many fans decry the Distant Finale of Digimon Adventure 02 for rewriting the Chosen Children's history. To beat the Big Bad, they call upon their heretofore unmentioned memories of what they wanted to grow up to be when they were young to Talk The Monster To Death; when the show flashes forward Twenty Minutes Into The Future, they've all inexplicably fulfilled those dreams, despite some of them having been firmly entrenched in other, completely different lifestyles. For instance, Yamato — with his love of music and a fledgling garage band well in the works — dumps all that to become an astronaut. Worse is Miyako: outspoken and headstrong in the series proper, a Yamato Nadeshiko in the future. The drama CDs and the Girls' Day special CD try to explain these away, to little avail.
- Because of alleged plot holes and overall silliness, many fans reject Dragonball GT altogether. It's made easier because it's not based on any manga and because Akira Toriyama didn't write it. There are rumors that he was consulted on the development and that what he intended to be a joke is how Vegeta wound up with a mustache and a haircut from a lawnmower.
- The rumor for his involvement in GT goes something like this. He wanted to end the series after Frieza: Goku goes SSJ, becomes - well, God - beats the biggest, baddest evil in the Galaxy, and goes home, and everything's great. But the anime and the anime/manga merchandise was selling really well, so his editors convinced him to continue. He tries to end it again after the next big story arc (Cell: Gohan surpasses Goku, and Goku can retire in peace); again, the merchandise is a license to print money and so, no, the execs force him to continue. Finally, the Buu saga ends — Goku has killed the Big Bad that had literally killed God. The Executives try it again; he scribbles some character designs on a piece of paper and tells them what to do with themselves. The executives have the Anime team continue without Toriyama, and, well, there's GT.
- It should be noted that Toriyama apparently liked some of the plot developments in GT; he didn't completely despise it.
- He did some concept art for the SSJ4 at least. Despite how long it was dragged out, some fans consider the Frieza Saga the pinnacle of the series; others believe it was the Cell Saga. However, nearly all agree it finished no later than the end of the Buu Saga.
- Some people call it after any of the other times Toriyama wanted it to end, and even Z itself.
- Diehard Team Rocket fans do not mention the Pokemon episode "Here's Looking At You, Elekid." In it, Jessie has a Kick The Dog moment where she forces James to sell his Victreebell for a supposedly powerful Weepinbell. When the new Weepinbell evolves into Victreebell, she gets rid of it as well. This is ignored, not only because it was bad, but also because it was preposterous that anyone could ever be forgiven for something like that. Note that neither James nor anyone else complains about it in the next, or any, episode.
- A few have gone much further; everything after Johto League Champions isn't real. Some extremists just ignore the entire show as early as the Orange League, the second season.
- Members of the current fandom are more likely to ignore just Johto Journies and Johto League Champions, skipping straight from the Orange Islands to Hoenn.
- So they're fine wiht Master Quest?
- The fandom is divided on whether or not to accept Nia's death at the end of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Those who dislike it because it ignores the show's established premise of "nothing is inevitable/impossible" consider the show to end at the kiss between Simon and Nia at their wedding, ignoring the rest of the series finale.
- In addition, just about everyone agrees that most of episode 4 never happened, mainly because the episode has a completely different (and worse) style from the rest of the series because of a different director. Even the official manga adaption rewrote that part, removing the weird puffball Beastmen and introducing Kittan and his sisters around the time of Viral's attack. Part of this is also a reaction to the producer insulting everyone at 2ch and stating that he hates Otaku even though Studio Gainax's main fanbase is Otakus—and the owner openly proclaimed he is—, and then resigning later.
- And then you have the people who ignore everything after Kamina's death in episode 8.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion practically invites you to do this. Some people think the last two episodes of the series and End of Evangelion cover the same events from different points of view; some think they're different, accept End of Evangelion as the ending, and disregard the TV series' ending; some only accept the ending of the TV series and disregard the movie; and some reject both endings. With the new four-part movie Rebuild supposedly getting a new ending of its own, there will be a third possible ending to further divide the fanbase.
- This is complicated even further by the different beliefs about just what the goddamn hell happened in End of Evangelion.
- A similar series by Gainax, Nadia The Secret of Blue Water, suffered from a 12-episode filler arc shoehorned into the series to cash in on the success of the show. These episodes are not only animated poorly, but they also warp the characters' personalities with stories that are not only useless, but also incoherent. Some fans argue that these episodes provide character development, but other fans (and critics) suggest that skipping them altogether would benefit the series as a whole. (A sentiment shared by director Hideaki Anno, who admitted that he would've saved only episodes 30 and 31, which contain genuine plot elements. In fact, Anno created a compilation of the series, called "The Nautilus Story", which deletes much of these unnecessary episodes.) Similarly, when the series returns to its roots of origin in Episode 35, it quickly forgets these episodes (save 30 and 31), further suggesting they were never supposed to happen in the first place.
- The Abridged Series of Naruto takes this trope to its logical conclusion by producing its own version of the fight between Naruto and Kiba, in which the loss is at least honorable, rather than having Naruto win by virtue of an accidental fart. It insists that the Abridged version is how it happened.
- Naru/Hina shippers of the series claim that Naruto "got over" Sakura for no reason and that Sakura isn't devoloping feelings for Naruto. Despite any evidence to the contrary.
- Naruto hasn't shown much interest in Sakura anymore, even before the timeskip, and he was never nearly as attracted to her as she was to Sasuke.
- Excluding omakes and filler episodes, there are some instances after the timeskip in which Naruto does feel attraction to Sakura and still flirts with her (but still, significantly less than pre-timeskip), like when he suggests going on a date. She still turns him down every time, though.
- There's also the Naruto/Sakura shippers who seem to forget Sakura's feelings for Sasuke and assume she turned her affections elsewhere just because he left. Hinata almost never enters into their consideration; when she does, it's not pleasant for her.
- After chapter 449, some fans seem to just tell themselves that Pain never invaded Konoha and Konoha's a crater now because of a sinkhole that appeared offscreen. But some people still remember what happened... ;__;
- To most Saber Marionette J watchers, the anime only has 25 episodes, ending when Lorelei and Otaru discussed the Heroic Sacrifice of Cherry, Lime, and Bloodberry, and Otaru walked off upset and missing them, instead of all three of them coming back to life as if nothing ever happened without any logical explanation.
- There are several points in Death Note where fans often invoke this trope. There's when Light regains his memory and (re)turns evil; some people ignore that and everything that happened afterward, considering Light to have remained L's partner instead. Some ignore what happened shortly afterward, L's death; some or accept the previous spoiler, but reject everything that occurred after it; some accept everything until the ending of the series, when Light is killed. Complicating things further, the anime (slightly) adjusts the manga's ending. Light still dies, but he dies with slightly more dignity, managing to escape but then getting killed by Ryuk, who doesn't want to be bored while Light's in prison. In the anime, he has a Freak Out prior to his death. This led to some people accepting one of the two endings and rejecting the other. The Live Action Adaptation films take a stance on this too, by removing L's death and thus everything afterward and making it so that Soichiro lives to see Light's downfall.
- Some fans didn't accept Fillay's death at the end of Gundam SEED; either they pretend it didn't happen, or they go the Fix Fic route.
- Excel Saga's director did this on purpose, intentionally making the "bonus" Episode 26 too outrageous (and long) to air. The anime series ended on a definitive note with Episode 25 instead of the ridiculous Bridge Drop of Hyatt's blood flooding the earth and drowning everyone.
- The rape scene in the anime version of Kannazuki No Miko is subject to massive debate; it's even mentioned in the Japanese DVD Commentary that it was cut away from so people can put their own interpretation on what happened. A bigger case of Dis Continuity is a bunch of the stuff in the original manga by Kaishaku, which practically every fan of the anime advises to avoid at all costs. Why, you ask? In the manga, Chikane's a full-blown Psycho Lesbian, Himeko gets deflowered with a
flute sword sheath, and it ends with a major Wall Banger where the two reincarnate as incestuous twin sisters.
- Some veteran Mai-Otome fans will invariably advise newcomers to the series to avoid the Oddly Named Sequel OVA Mai-Otome Zwei at all costs, mostly due to excessive and pointless Fan Service and plot points that make no sense within the context of the series.
- While not quite as high on the stupid plot meter as Mai-Otome Zwei, Mai-Otome Sifr is much worse on the Asspull front. It introduces several major plot points and events that directly contradict what had already been shown in Mai-Otome. For instance, Schwartz goes all out to obtain Sifr and her Windbloom blood so they can operate the Harmonium, which is shown to be their top priority; they'll even sacrifice powerful lost tech like M-9 to get their hands on it. The opening of Mai-Otome has Schwarz casually slaughter every single member of the Windbloom royal family and walk away: there isn't even a hint that the family's slaughter was unplanned or unwanted by Schwartz. So, if getting the Harmonium and its power is their top priority, then why did they try to kill off the only people in the world capable of using it?) Theories that Sifr might be a reboot of the Otome continuity have been tossed around, mainly because a lot of Sifr doesn't make sense outside a reboot context.
- Several, if not most, fans were outraged at the effective Character Derailment of Manaka and Toujo at the end of Strawberry 100%, when, after all the not-so-subtle hinting that he and Toujo were a Red String Of Fate couple and she was the only one he was truly happy with, could relate to, etc., he goes and picks Nishino out of pity or "she was there first" more than anything else, and she doesn't even put up a fight. Most like to imagine that, in the author's private gallery, the real ending exists in which he comes to his senses and chooses the right one at the end; the "official" one was published due to Executive Meddling. Some relegate this turn of events to So Bad Its Horrible, as it ruins a comic that was otherwise a masterpiece.
- Most fans were not fussed when 4Kids decided to omit the last season of Yu Gi Oh GX. It does have unfortunate implications as far as the fate of Jaden is concerned, but that's still better than having the fourth season and its unfortunate implications as far as the fate of the world is concerned.
- Many fans of Saikano believe that the series should have ended on episode 10 with Shuji and Chise running away together, instead of all the (additional) Angst and It Got Worse we get bombarded with in the next 3 episodes.
- In Full Metal Panic, many fans want to pretend that Kalinin's betrayal never happened. After his touching backstory with young Sousuke was released, his Face Heel Turn just didn't sit well. The one person it seemed he would never betray had been Sousuke, since he felt great guilt and felt that he owed him and thought of him as a son.
- To quite a few Bleach fans, Yammy really is the 10th Espada, and there is no such thing as a 0 Espada.
- As well as this, some say that Hitsugaya has never won a fight during the series, he has never won a fight before the series, nor will he ever win a fight in the series' future.
- Code Geass fans often are unsatisfied with the official ending as declared by the Word Of God in which Lelouch dies for real at the end of the series.
- This has spawned a number of theories, pointing out the uncertain nature of being a Code Bearer and how the immortality is transfered. The series reveals that it is transferred from person to person when the Geass evolves to where it occupies both eyes permanently, at which point the Code is taken. Fans point to the fact that Charles responded to Lelouch's command when he shot himself as proof that he did not have his Code active at the time.
- There is also the fact that Lelouch technically does kill a Code Bearer while he Geass is at full power. From what little we know, it could be seen as a transfer.
- Many fans of the Witch Blade comics will scream at the anime for one reason. It completely ignores the fact that the Witch Blade is not a Deadly Upgrade Mac Guffin. Quite the opposite actually. The saddest part of all is that this entirely justified hatred, given that the anime is officially recognized canon.
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