Lighter And Softer - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Pokemon anime as considerably lighter and softer than the games, which are slowly growing darker and darker as they go on. The darkness works for the games. The anime appears so light and fluffy, that it has led to the whole Pokemon franchise becoming The Barney among kids/teenagers (mostly those who've never played the games, just seen bits of the anime).
- However, the anime is trying to get a bit Darker And Edgier now as well, by putting Pikachu into (stated!!) mortal peril more than once and introducing "J" a heartless Pokemon huntress, who is intelligent and ruthless enough to kill humans and Pokemon for her cause. Ash would be dead yet, if it weren't for a Gardevoir who knows "Teleport".
  - Which isn't even enough considering the show plays it down a lot, and her appearances are insanely low. Honestly, you never really get the feeling that Ash is ever in any real danger these days.
  - She eventually got killed off, marking the first death of a significant character in the entire series' 600+ episode run. Certainly proof the anime is entering Darker And Edgier territory.
- Some of the stuff that is hinted at,such as Paul's somewhat abusive nature,and Dawn's depression is darker then previous seasons,which were rather light and fluffy,no real problems unless your name is "Mewtwo".
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days is set in an alternate Evangelion universe, the major difference from the original being that everyone involved has substantially better mental health. Because the original cast of Eva was a collection of horribly, horribly damaged souls, this turns pretty much everything on its head.
- It's still fairly dark, though. That it manages to qualify as Lighter And Softer says far more about the original than it.
- Girlfriend of Steel does this too, obviously. Everyone seems to be alive and flourishing. Rei is a Genki Girl. Yikes.
  - Oddly enough despite that Rei has the exact same backstory.
- Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure takes the general characters — a brown-haired boy with parental issues, a complex soul tie to a giant mecha, and rare hallucinations, a tsundere girl trying to prove herself, and a partially alien 'soul' inhabiting an artificial body with the resulting identity and self-worth issues — and setting of Neon Genesis Evangelion and looks at how it'd perform if everyone involved was at least sane enough to have not taken a pencil to their eyeballs long ago.
  - Given that it belongs to the Tenchi Muyo Multiverse it's hardly surprizing.
- Rebuild of Evangelion is apparently slated to go this way. Of course, ~~almost~~ anything not Grave Of The Fireflies is softer than the original.
- Argento Soma, another Take That series, is still fairly grim, and its heroes are still full of issues, but overall seem to cope pretty well, up to making the half of the cast Warrior Therapists, as the authors believed that beng badass makes wonders with one's mental health.
The Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch anime is a lot more child-friendly than the original manga. No cannibalizing of one's own Quirky Miniboss Squad, for one.
The Manga Axis Powers Hetalia does this for all of history.
Most anime adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's manga get this, as most of the great man's work, while having a generally cartoony look & feel with an uplifting message, still involved copious amounts of death and destruction (Lost World, one of his earliest forays into the world of boys' adventure stories was infamous at the time for having the highest body count of any manga up to that point, with only three members of the cast surviving to the end of the book). In more recent years this has started to swing the other way, though (the Metropolis animé is far more bloody than the original & the 2003 Astro Boy series' version of Dr. Tenma takes the Evilutionary Biologist gimmick that was only briefly touched upon in the manga & turns it up to 11).
- In light of this, it is interesting to consider Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the GBA. The first half of the game shows the world growing steadily Darker And Edgier; the second half is Astro making things lighter and softer.
Believe it or not, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex is softer and brighter than the original manga. Not by much, but Section 9 doesn't steal cars or torture criminals any more (Just threaten to do so.) Then again, neither is a happy idealist heaven, so you'd hardly notice.
- Well, Aramaki still orders at least one completely illegal murder off-screen. Well, one of complete and total scumbag, but still.
Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette. Surprisingly shiny in the first half, Fantine doesn't become a prostitute, and Gavroche turns out miraculously not to die. While living at the Thénardiers', Cosette also is allowed to keep a dog named Chou-Chou.
The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya, a web series spin off of a similarly titled blockbuster franchise, seems very much a lighter and softer take on its source material, rendering every character as a Super Deformed version, recasting Yuki Nagato as an eroge-obsessed otaku, and generally coming across as the original series' writers, animators and voice actors just having fun with the source material.
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. The primary mech is a ridiculously cute mascot character named Bonta-kun, which can only "speak" by squeaking a high-pitched "Fumoffu!" Sandwiched between the original, serious series and the Darker And Edgier The Second Raid, it makes the differences all the more pronounced.
- The fluffy Bonta-kun suit is also quite literally both lighter and softer than the huge metal mechas from the original and "The Second Raid."
- Even in The Second Raid, Sousuke shows his trust towards Kaname by letting her cut his hair. Let's review it: a teenage Child Soldier conditioned to perceive everyone as a potential enemy is letting another person handle scissors near his head and behind his back (falling asleep in the process). More so, he actually gets aroused by her proximity even though he is The Stoic.
Tekkaman Blade OVA sequel was much softer, D-Boy's mental wounds have healed up (And kicking ass), Everybody Lives in general and it also has quite the Hotter And Sexier makeover (more female transformations than male transformations.)
Death Note certainly had more comedic moments while Light was no longer Kira as the result of a Memory Gambit, mostly because of Misa and Matsuda. Compared to the rest of the series only one named character was killed and he was a minor antagonist, and it was offscreen and the Kira Investigation Unit's base gave everything a sort of sitcom vibe.
SD Gundam Force. It's Gundam, but all the characters are chibis, everything is completely light-hearted, and hardly anyone ever dies.
- Though in reality it's only slightly Lighter And Softer than some of the SD Gundam stuff that preceded it...
Though not a real case, "Dragon Ball" is considered to be this for Dragon Ball Z among those who didn't know it came first.
In the original Yu Gi Oh manga, Yugi once had someone who had a gun to his face set themself on fire and kill themself. Joey (Jonouchi) was involved in a vicious street gang, that beat the crap out of him, and almost murdered him and Yugi. Tea (Anzu) was almost blown up by a terrorist. People got into vicious fights. People got offed now and then. In later adaptions of the franchise, everybody just plays cards. Friendship was important in the original manga, but it wasn't as... prominent... as it was later on.
Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya is a Magical Girl manga set in an Alternate Universe Fate Stay Night. Fate Stay Night is a universe where none of the main characters have surviving parents, siblings often attempt to murder each other out of jealousy, and Ilya is a nineteen year old who looks ten, and will die of Clone Degeneration before she is twenty. She also has an odd sorta sexual/mostly familial relationship with her stepbrother Shirou. In Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya, everybody's parents are still alive, Ilya is a normal thirteen year old with the expected life span, and evil is defeated by turning into magical girls using Zelretch's Kaleidostick. It's a bit different in tone. Incidentally, Ilya still has an odd sorta sexual/maybe family relationship with her stepbrother Shirou. This is probably Shirou's own fault.
- Not quite to the same degree, but the manga adaptation of Fate Stay Night itself is leaning in this direction. It was already focussing mostly on the 'Fate' route of the visual novel, which is notable for being the most idealistic of the three routes, but then went even further by removing the multiple rapes and other trauma in Sakura's backstory, and humanizing and sparing the life of Complete Monster Shinji.
As both series are intended to be comedies to the core, it would be inaccurate to claim that either version of Ranma 1/2 is Darker And Edgier then the other. With that in mind, the anime version can still be seen as Lighter And Softer then the manga. Not only does it lack the somewhat darker storylines that the author created after the anime was cancelled... which includes, among other things, a Villain Of The Week whose father was technically killed by Genma, Ranma meeting his mother — and then being threatened with Seppuku because Happosai dressed him in girl's clothes, Ranma being Mode Locked by a group of more powerful and much more vicious martial artists, and Akane being kidnapped, near-drowned and then changed into a doll, an almost fatal experience, over Jusenkyo... but also removes several of the more Comedic Sociopathy moments from shared storylines. Examples of this include Akane's viciously vindictive speech to Ranma after the first Nekoken incident, Happosai's attempt to murder what he believes is baby Pantyhose Taro because he thinks Taro will become an even better Panty Thief then himself, and the ending of the Hypnotic Mushrooms story, which in the anime ends with a gag and in the manga ends with Akane surrounding herself with weapons to use against Ranma if he "tries something" while Ranma gives her a Deadpan Snarker response.

The Adventures of Spawn is an online comic series designed to turn Spawn into a kid-friendly property. Yes, the military assassin who died and went to Hell, then made a Deal With The Devil in order to return to Earth. That Spawn.
Spider-Man, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man all have kiddified, self-contained stories in the Marvel Adventures line. In Marvel Adventures, the heroes tend to be friends, everything works out predictably, and there are a few meta comments on the storylines in the "main" series.
"Don't be ridiculous. We would never shoot the Hulk into space!"
- What's ironic is that the Mini Marvels comic strips included at the end of all Marvel Adventures actually parodies the shallowness and silliness.
- Given how Darker And Edgier the mainstream Marvel comics have become, this troper finds the Marvel Adventures line to be preferable by far.
Spidey Super-Stories, a Marvel book for the younger set, inexplicably featured Thanos at one point. Yes, the Thanos with a hard-on for Death, the one who killed half of everyone in the universe in an attempt to impress her. In a book for little kids. I guess they just made him into a big purple guy.
- He has a helicopter with his name on it. And he gets arrested by the police in the end. It's totally awesome.
DC Comics has Johnny DC, an imprint for Lighter And Softer, family-friendly titles. It publishes variations on Captain Marvel, Teen Titans and Supergirl. It's a bit of a mixed bag: Tiny Titans for example contains lots of references to the main DC Universe continuity, and also to things like Fight Club. So Yeah.
- That's the sort of thing we call a Parental Bonus, you know.
- Batman himself traditionally comes in two flavors, Darker And Edgier and Lighter And Softer. In Darker And Edgier mode, he spends 95% of his time moping in the corner about his parents, and the other 5% being awesome. In Lighter And Softer mode, however, he ranges from neutral to downright cheerful- and might even make a joke!
The original 1980s version of Power Pack, while not nearly as angsty as Marvel's other works, took itself seriously and attempted to be a serious, but not as serious as usual, comic about kid superheroes, with a fair amount of characterization, intelligent plots, and good quality storytelling. It actually tries to realistically portray what children who find themselves with superpowers might actually go through, but still falls short of stereotypical comic angst. The 2000s remake, on the other hand, is very cutesy, ages the characters physically but makes them act less mature than they originally did, has worse storytelling, and throws elements of realism in the trash, in an attempt to appeal to kids. (Letters to the editor of the original 80s comic showed that adults were the biggest fans)
- I think that both versions were so cool it's awesome. Is that a bad thing?
This trope is parodied here, with an attempt to make Watchmen Lighter And Softer. Nite-Owl is a party animal, Rorschach is the Comic Relief, Dr. Manhattan's powers are apparently limited to the ability to turn into a car, Silk Spectre is a rock star while the Comedian has a crush on her, and Ozymandias and Bubastis behave more like Shaggy and Scooby-Doo.
- Jon can give people cancer AND turn into a car.
- And, there's this comic. Be sure to read the rest of the chapters as well!

This was done well in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home. Executive Meddling ensured the next film would be light-hearted as well. Suffice it to say that it didn't work quite as well the second time.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, following the Darker And Edgier Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
On a related note, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, also produced by George Lucas, was more kid-oriented than the well-received and Darker And Edgier The Empire Strikes Back, the previous film in the (then-) trilogy. Interestingly enough, Lucas, who didn't direct either film, wanted The Empire Strikes Back to be Lighter And Softer, was eventually convinced to keep it in its current form, and ended up hiring a director for ROTJ whom Lucas would basically direct through.
- Arguably, the ewoks are mostly responsible for the lighter tone. The scenes that don't involve them (Jabba's palace, the Emperor ect) are still pretty dark.
  - Really now? So the scene where the two Ewoks are blasted by the AT-ST, and the one Ewok that survives gets up and nudges his buddy, and his buddy doesn't move because the buddy died from the blast, resulting in the survivor whimpering in sorrow, that's Lighter and Softer?
  - Sure! It may have been dead, but it still weighed less and was fluffier than the average character!
1981 cult horror film The Evil Dead was generally nightmarish and horrifically gruesome. The sequel toned down all of this, and was deliberately goofier and somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Finally, Army of Darkness completely did away with all elements of being a horror movie and was more or less just a silly parody of fantasy adventure films.
- The sequel actually contained PLENTY of blood and gore. It was funnier, not lighter. Army of Darkness, on the other hand, WAS lighter.
The third Robocop film intentionally toned down the extreme violence, profanity, and drug use of the first two in order to appeal to children. It bombed miserably.
- Let us not forget the travesty that was Robocop: The Series. Taking the third movie's approach and running with it, Robo now wasn't really allowed to kill people (instead using gadgets a la Batman to disable them), the humour was lightened to kiddie-friendly levels, and the plots took on a far more unrealistic and dopier slant.
The Joel Schumacher-helmed Batman films were considerably lighter in tone and content than the Tim Burton installments that came before it, in part because of the parental outcry over how dark Batman Returns was. (Never mind it was rated PG-13.) This more child-friendly approach went hand-in-hand with The Merch, and contributed to the artistic catastrophe of Batman & Robin, which led to a reboot to start afresh.
The Godzilla films of the 1960s-1970s were considerably more kid-friendly and light-hearted in tone compared to the very dark original 1954 film.
When Gamera the Brave rebooted the series after the dark and critically acclaimed Heisei trilogy, it went back to the childfriendly tone of the 60's films using a younger Gamera.
The original Dragonheart movie was about leading a revolution against a tyrant king. It featured countless war deaths, a boy getting run through by a stake, a man getting his eyes burnt out (offscreen) and a man getting slain with a battleaxe. The sequel, however, was about a boy raising a dragon and featured no actual violence (or real combat) whatsoever.
The film adaptation of the Dark Horse Comics series The Mask starring Jim Carrey already made things too light and soft for most fans of the über-violent original series to accept. Then (11 years later) came Son Of The Mask, one of the most universally loathed movies ever, and kicked things down a notch, giving us a PG rating and sparing us the image of the Mask getting freaky with his wife. Although, let's be honest... none of us really wanted to see that.
The Gremlins sequel is much lighter and comedic compared to the darker serious original, in the first film the gremlins were fairly serious for the most part, much more sinister, they killed many people, and they died in some of the most goriest ways. In the sequel they are more silly than threatening, they party more than the first one, they only kill about two people, and the only gory death comes when one of them is stuffed into a paper shredder.
- And Hulk Hogan made a cameo.
Failed Lighter and Softer: Park Chan-Wook, director of OldBoy, said he wanted his most recent film I'm A Cyborg to appeal to younger audiences as well. It may not have worked out too well. The tone is arguably lighter than that of his Vengeance trilogy, but the movie still starts with a girl "charging herself" by slitting her wrist and jamming a mains lead into the wound, taping it up carefully before flicking the switch.
In the first Critters movie the creatures were fairly serious killing machines but had a low body count, they grew when they ate, and some of them died in very violent ways, in the sequel they killed many more people and the creature have some violent deaths but they are pretty goofy and less intelligent than in the original, the other two films are pretty silly and the bodycounts are pretty low.
Believe it or not, there's the Italian animated film Titanic The Legend Goes On, which made a Disney-like fairy tale out of a real-life disaster where over fifteen hundred people died.
- Possibly parodied in a Saturday Night Live animated segment, featuring Jason Alexander as "Titey", Whoopie Golberg as the Iceberg, and ... Anne Frank?
The Movie of And Then There Were None fits this trope. While the book doesn't go more than a few pages without using a (mild, all things considered) swear word, has oftentimes graphic depictions of most of the deaths, and kills 'em all, the movie tones down the language to be Hayes Code-compliant, never shows more than the feet or hands of any dead person (if they're shown at all), and gives Vera and Lombard a happy ending.
- In contrast, the Russian version is darker and edgier: You get a seriously twisted sex scene between the two "heroes", no gory discretion shots, fan service with a creepy context behind it, a flashback nightmare for a character who cheerfully dismissed his crime in the book, and the characters slowly going insane one by one. It's the most faithful adaptation of the book; it just takes the book's darker themes and expands on them.
Men In Black 2.
Bride Of Chucky.
The Warriors: The book the movie is based on is considerably Darker And Edgier. Just for starters, the Warriors brutally gang rape and abandon a random girl. In the movie, Mercy, who is based on the girl in the novel, ends up pseudo-girlfriend to Swan.

The Dunk & Egg novels are a relatively Lighter And Softer prequels to the extremely dark A Song Of Ice And Fire, but still not exactly "kid-friendly". Still, considering the main series, it's saying a lot.
Most of the Warhammer 40000 novels focusing on the Imperial Guard portrays them as actual humans rather than statistics to Zerg Rush with. Perhaps taken to extreme with the Ciaphas Cain novels, which are distinctly comedic against the ridiculously GRIMDARK setting.
- Likewise, the Gaunts Ghosts novels, while still fairly dark, portrays the Imperium in general working order with a healthy dose optimisim (a concept often completely unheard of in the 40K universe).
- The Earlier versions of codex was essentially one huge Satire, and then the teenagers bought it into the GRIMDARK and well...it got darker.

The E! True Hollywood Story used to be an incredibly depressing show that documented a certain celebrity's fall from grace or detail their grisly murder or suicide. However, in recent years the show has shifted its focus to the lateset hit reality show or celebrities who are at their current peak of popularity.
The Sarah Jane Adventures is mostly this, but still retains some of the key 'scary' elements that Doctor Who has... it's just more likely to be off screen. Russell T Davies has said "there's still death and despair" but added that there's "more hugs".
- Twice, Executive Meddling (in turn influenced by the deranged and censorious "Media Watchdog" Mary Whitehouse) stepped in to put an end to some of the more violent and Nightmare Fuel aspects of Doctor Who so beloved of teenage boys.
- The second season of the spin-off series Torchwood actually airs in two versions, one for adults and one for all-ages. Even the adult version has gotten toned down in comparison to the first season. There is little difference in the broadcasts, apart from some removal of swearing and gore, such as Alan Dale's character being shot (the all-ages version omitted the squib going off) in "Reset".
Newsround is essentially a simplified version of BBC News with more kid friendly language and some concepts adults would be familiar with more fully explained. It also tends to lack financial news and only goes into politics on rare occasions (around election time for example). It isn't afraid to report on death or depressing topics but is a bit more sensitive about it, they also might report something which seen as a story of high 'kid interest' that the adult news wouldn't bother with.
- Perhaps its greatest moment was breaking the news of the Challenger disaster in the United Kingdom.
- It was the go-to source for Harry Potter-related news in the UK, less so since internet access became all but universal.
Stargate SG-1 has gradually taken this course over its ten seasons, getting closer and closer to self-parody in the process.
Season 7 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer starts out with a much lighter mood than the dark, dark, dark Season 6 — a deliberate move from the writers to give the audience a break from the doom and gloom.The season did take a noticeably grimmer tone as it progressed.
One might argue that Power Rangers is generally Lighter And Softer than the original Super Sentai. While Power Rangers tends to prune away much of the really silly humour, they also tend to dumb down the drama and danger. (Not every Ranger makes it out of every sentai series alive, but the one time Power Rangers did this, they chickened out and had the first Pink Galaxy Ranger just... appear for some reason at the very end.)
- And within the Sentai series themselves, Engine Sentai Go-onger was a Lighter And Softer version compared to its previous series Juken Sentai Gekiranger which was quite dark (On the other hand, its counterpart Power Rangers RPM is not only darker and edgier than Go-onger, but actually the grimmest of all Power Rangers series).
- It all depends on how you look at it too. Power Rangers regularly uses Never Say Die but in some individual seasons they are much darker then their Super Sentai counterpart - and there are even instances of some characters who originally survived being "lost" or "destroyed," such as Master Mao. Before RPM came along, the best "darker than the original" example was Power Rangers Wild Force. ^*
  ^{Cole's parents, the folks he's searching for all along and that's why he's here and what his character arc's about? Well, we find out that they suffered human-on-human Family Unfriendly Death at the hands of the utterly deranged formerly human and still mostly human-looking Big Bad. Sentai? That storyline didn't exist. Other than that, Wild Force and Gaoranger are pretty much the same series.}
  Sentai is more willing to show death but the Japanese humor would come across as being silly and stupid to western audiences. In an interesting switch, the dark Chouriki Sentai Ohranger was a flop in Japan but it's counterpart Power Rangers Zeo was a bit lighter in tone and a smash hit. The Affectionate Parody Gekisou Sentai Carranger was a big hit but the darker Power Rangers Turbo is generally considered a failure. In an inversion of the trend, the grimdark Power Rangers RPM has become a fan-favorite whereas people were put-off by Go-onger trying too hard at being silly.
  - Zeo was such a flop that the producers were ordered to discard all of its storylines upon the start of the next season, leading to the creation of the Scorpion Rain hoax later canonized by Forever Red. The continued Creator Breakdown of the showrunner led to the deranged comedic Sentai Carranger being adapted into the grim and nearly joyless first half of Power Rangers Turbo. Featuring chimp sidekicks and a twelve-year-old Blue Ranger. In an attempt to replicate the formula of PR's own Lighter And Softer derivative product.
  - To be more specific, both former Saban employees and Bandai executives have commented that the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Zeo and Turbo were all soundly beaten in ratings and toy sales by Big Bad Beetleborgs and Beetleborgs Metallix. A Lighter And Softer incarnation of a franchise if ever there was one. (It's Lighter And Softer than Power Rangers as well as its Metal Heroes footage-donors.)
- The same trend also applies for Sentai's sister series Kamen Rider: this trope is the main reason why Kamen Rider Den-O has reached extreme popularity and become a Cash Cow Franchise.
Seasons 15-17 of Doctor Who. Just as the show had reached the height of its dark and intelligent phase it was inexplicably derailed and audiences were treated to three lighter and softer seasons that verged on comedy.
- Inexplicably? As soon as Philip Hinchcliffe quit as producer, his replacement Graham Williams was called in by BBC executives and bluntly ordered to reduce the amount of graphic violence and horror, which had caused high-profile condemnations of the show by moral purity campaigners and the general press during the previous couple of seasons.
  - Season 17 was most likely due to Douglas Adams becoming script editor. Mind you, this also gave us "City of Death" and Romana in a schoolgirl outfit. Tropes Are Not Bad.
Charmed increasingly took this direction with each passing season. First there were mermaids, then there were leprechauns, and finally a unicorn show up. Dwarves (from Snow White) showed up in a fairy tale based episode.
Season Four of House is much lighter than the depressingly dark third season. And then it immediately went back to dark and depressing when it was time for the finale.
Gordon Ramsay in The F Word Is not as much of a bastard as he is in Hells Kitchen And Kitchen Nightmares. In fact, he is much more pleasant and enjoys cooking in this one rather than what happens in his other shows.
There was an interesting back-and-forth with The Addams Family across different media. The original single-panel cartoons depicted the characters as genuinely misanthropic monsters who killed random people for lols. The TV show, by contrast, depicted them as nice, arty bohemians whose square neighbours were frightened of them because of their weird lifestyle. The cinema films swung the pendulum back towards actual violence and death, but the animated kids-TV show spun off from the films went fluffier again.

A lot of Hip-Hop fans say this is what happened to mainstream rap music. The days of the weed smoking gangstas, and proud to be black Afrocentric political rappers with their gritty Justified crime tales, and socio-political street knowledge were long gone. Only to be replaced (circa early 00's) by champagne sipping pimps, and playas, who love to rap about wealth, cheesy love songs, and club anthems.
- It can be said that those same hip hop fans also conveniently forget that this has been happening ever since rap first became a cultural phenomenon in the '80s, with the so-called "Golden Age" actually being dominated by clean-cut dancing rappers such as MC Hammer and Kid-n-Play (and later the infamous duo of Puff Daddy and Ma$e in the '90s). And in an oft-forgotten inversion, hardcore legends such as those featured by Death Row Records were originally frowned upon by softer, more "conscious" lyrical purists, accusing the then-fledging West Coast acts of Uncle Tom Foolery (which led to the infamous coastal rivalries of the time).
- Of course pop rap has always been around but it was nowhere as dominate as the alt/rap, gangsta rap explosion of the early 90's. Young Mc, Mc Hammer, and Kid n' Play was a popular force but not a dominate one by any means.
- Not only that, but those "dancing rappers' was never as popular as A Tribe Called Quest, NWA or Public Enemy. Vanilla Ice, and Mc Hammer being HUGE exceptions. And even then Kid N Play, and Heavy D got a pass for still being Hip-Hop, the latter of which being a sharp Emcee in his own right. Trying to turn those rappers into the The Nineties equivalent of Souljah Boy et al is more then just stretching it a little.
Kidz Bop is a series of cover albums, the concept of which is turning hit songs into children's music, not neglecting songs about death, sex or drugs. Hilarity Ensues.
- Rockabye Baby takes it way further - it turns classic rock songs into baby lullabies. The accordion and xylophone rendition of Blitzkrieg Bop killed this troper a little inside.
The departure of Rodger Waters from Pink Floyd was followed by a classic Lightening and Softening. From mental breakdowns rendered into music and harsh lyrics condemning modern life, Pink Floyd moved to David Gilmour's gentle dreamy soundscapes. Lyrically, the later albums tend to unfocused expressions of good will and an earnest appreciation for life. The remaining angst now seemed more of pose: a mere colour on the palette, not a raw daub of blood.
In terms of singing style, In This Moment's second album The Dream, which placed a lot more emphasis on clean vocals than the Metal Screams of Beautiful Tragedy. This was because lead singer Maria Brink wanted to challenge herself with what she (personally) found a more difficult singing style.
Devo 2.0. Just... Devo 2.0.
One could make a case for this happening to Joy Division after they changed their name to New Order. Not that New Order doesn't have a certain edge to their brand of pop.
- To be honest, this was going to happen with or without Ian Curtis at the helm.

Parodied in Fox Trot at the end of a 1997 storyline where Paige receives a evaluation copy of the upcoming sequel to Jason's favorite computer game:
Jason: What's that?
Paige: It's a letter from the President of Blizzerbund Software.
Jason: No way! What's it say? What's it say?
Paige: (reading letter) "Dear Ms. Fox, thank you for your evaluation of our Riviablo CD-ROM beta. Per your suggestions, the final version of the game will have less violence, cuter monsters, and significantly easier puzzles. P.S. Thanks especially for the great idea to change the game's title to Happy Town."
(A few seconds later)
Peter: I thought they sent you a form letter.
Paige: Oops. You're right. I must've misread it.
Andy: (offscreen) Jason, will you stop bawling long enough to tell me what's wrong?!
- Also, a later storyline has Andy forcing Peter and Jason to play Mothers Against Gory Games-approved versions of popular video games (such as Nice City) in an attempt to make them stop playing video games altogether.

WWE shifted their free TV programming from a TV-14 rating to TV-PG starting in 2008; this was done to help distance the current product from the "anything goes" Attitude Era (especially in light of the Benoit tragedy), as well as to help attract new advertisers (and a younger demographic). Pay-per-views are still rated TV-14, however.
The newly revived "ECW". It's used more as a launching platform for up and coming wrestlers and a place to dump useless ones (*cough* VLADIMIR KOZLOV *cough*).

Magic The Gathering has "Lorwyn," a plane which by its design was meant to be Lighter And Softer, until you looked closer. It's Darker And Edgier counterpart is "Shadowmoor."
Wraith The Oblivion was considered to be by far the darkest game of the old World Of Darkness line, which is really saying something. Characters spent their undead days in a decaying afterlife, trying to avoid the machinations of the power-hungry Hierarchy and the insatiable Oblivion while trying to hold on to their ties to life and fighting off the dark voices in their head. Now comes the Spiritual Successor, Geist The Sin Eaters, where the characters have returned from the brink of death with a ghostly passenger and superpowers, and a major component of their culture is celebrating another day of life.
- Geist also tends to be Lighter And Softer compared to the New World Of Darkness in general. It's not exactly a bag of kittens, but it's generally optimistic — the Bound got a second chance at life, and intend to use it to the fullest, whether that means saving people, helping innocent ghosts, destroying malevolent ghosts, killing villainous people, or just making their lives comfortable. After previous games have been the likes of Promethean The Created, Changeling The Lost, or even Hunter The Vigil, it's a bit of a shock to see a game that falls closer to Mage The Ascension on the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
Warhammer 40000. I joke not. During 3e , there were chaos cultists on Terra, the Imperium was losing worlds by the hundreds and High Lords did not care, in fact most of them had been driven insane by imperfect deageing treatments. This was before the Horus Heresy, before the Imperium's methods were justified by dozens of books. There was no Ciaphas Cain, no likeable or sane character to be found. The Sisters of Battle fielded suicide bomber cadres, the Space Marines were a shadow of their power in latter editions, and even more insane: imperfections in their half forgotten surgical techniques rendered 9 out of 10 recruits dead and the survivors deraged. The Religious Horror was at its peak, the artwork like of things that can barely be called human hugging and kissing undetonated artillery shells, begging the gods of war for salvation has never been reprinted, the forces of Chaos, later Ultimate Evil, were simply presented as a alternate form of insanity to that of the Imperium's. By 5e, Warhammer shows an Age of War where humanity's survival hangs in the ballance. 3e showed an Age of Insanity where the spirit of man was long dead.
- You could say that the change happened between 3rd and 4th editions: The major selling point for 5th edition was the fact that humanity is finally on the brink of extinction. Tyranids are coming to devour everything and even they are running away from something even worse, the Golden Throne is flawed and the Astronomican no longer functions properly... 5th edition really went Darker And Edgier.

Wicked became a kid-friendly preteen-girl-targeted musical, in sharp contrast to the rape and murder filled original book.

In American McGee's Grimm the story of Little Red Riding Hood (save for a few curse words) actually manages to be slightly more tame in that the wolf was given a quick mercy killing via ax to the stomach. All in all this is a far better fate than say starving to death or having your belly get filled with rocks and drown like in some versions.
- If American McGee REALLY wanted to be Darker And Edgier then he should have stuck with the original ending: no friendly woodsman and Red and Granny don't get eaten whole.
My Sims is a lighter and softer version of The Sims with chibis, no child-rearing or romance, and very few actual social aspects from The Sims. It's a very fun game, but it is more like Animal Crossing for people who don't like being bossed about by a tanuki.
- In other words, if the only thing you liked about The Sims was killing them in various and evil ways...My Sims might not be for you. There are no swimming pools, eating is something that happens because they happen to encounter a table and chair, and you can't block doorways with furniture (and if you could, you'd be stuck until you removed it). The worst you can do is Be Mean, which seems to range from insults and hitting them with water balloons to stepping on their feet and getting into dust-ups, complete with dust cloud. Of course, if you were that kind of person, you don't deserve to have something marketed to you.
- Sim City Societies is to Sim City as My Sims is to The Sims, except without the fun.
Every Final Fantasy spinoff, excepting Tactics, to varying extents. Final Fantasy IX is accused of this, but it only really applies to the visual style.
- Final Fantasy Tactics, a game about murder, betrayal, class warfare and the evils of organized religion had a spinoff in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a kid-friendly, if poorly written aesop against escapism.
  - Or alternatively, a game about a selfish bastard who tries to destroy the hopes and dreams of his best friend along with an entire world just because he wants life to go back to normal. Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 is an indisputable example, however. (And even if you subscribe to that interpretation, it's clear that the first one was supposed to be an example).
- Compared to it's story and angst-heavy predecessor and successor, Final Fantasy V can come off as humorous, even borderline parodic; however, note that the theme of planet-level destruction and Heroic Sacrifices is still present.
After the fanbase displeasure about the Darker And Edgier Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within, Ubisoft The Two Thrones less immaturely outrageous (as in "blood and sex and heavy metal music, lawlz") and found a perfect, mature balance between the tones of Sands of Time and Warrior Within.
Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 was much lighter and softer than its predecessors. Red Alert 1 was a game where Einstein went back in time and killed Adolf Hitler, allowing a power hungry Stalin to invade Europe. Red Alert 2 was a game where the Soviet Union invaded the USA with blimps and mind-controlled squid. This was a reaction to the Darker And Edgier Tiberium Sun, which most fans of the C&C series didn't like.
- Red Alert 3 is an interesting case: the storylines and general content are actually quite a bit darker than its predecessors (the Empire of the Rising Sun in general is the source of this), but between the mandatory ham injections for all the actors, sheer balls-to-the-wall craziness in unit design, and general nuttiness, it comes off as the lightest and fluffiest instalment yet.
Nintendo's porting of Mortal Kombat to the SNES fell victim to this trope, what with removing the blood and some of the more graphic "fatalities". Unsurprisingly, this displeased many fans of the arcade version.
- Mortal Kombat VS. The DC Universe: A crossover with all of MK's blood removed and the fatalities severely toned down to comply with DC's restrictions and the ESRB T Rating. The Joker's awesome Fatality from the game's early PR was even replaced with a Gory Discretion Shot for American audiences.
  - There's quite a bit of irony here in the fact that DC would balk at letting their characters kill in a video game, while in The DCU even Superman has punched or blasted people into Ludicrous Gibs on occasion.
The Lego Star Wars games are a lot more light-hearted and less self-serious than the source material.
Phantom Brave starts out looking like a Lighter and Softer Disgaea. Then someone lets out then Sealed Evil In A Can as the end of the second act.
- YMMV as unlike the generally cheerful Disgaea, Phantom Brave had quite a bit of Tear Jerker from the start, it comes with your protagonist being literally hated by the entire world.
Diablo II comes off as significantly lighter and softer then its predecessor. This mostly has to do with the out side levels and there being a day night cycle. A jungle during the day is just not as creepy as an underground crypt or a perpetually night time village. On the other hand, Act 4 is more creepy then the original game.
- Certain people claim Diablo III is suffering from this. Blizzard replied with this◊.
- On the other hand, because of video hardware limitations many players were compelled to turn up the contrast because the game was so dark it was nigh impossible to see. It is a thin line between serving just the serious gamers and selling a product that is usable by the vast majority of gamers.
Higurashi Daybreak, the doujin game that the creators added to the canon, has no murder or horror - just fun. Fun with baseball bats and billhooks, but not gory like the original series.
- That is because this is post Higurashi, the hate plague is gone and now everyone can just be teenagers and have fun... But,the game is still ironic,due to the fact that they are beating each other up for a shard, which is supposed to make the person with the other piece fall in love with you.
After the unexpectedly dark Majora's Mask, the Legend Of Zelda series went significantly lighter and softer with Wind Waker, sporting a colourful, cel-shaded look and humorous characters and dialogue. Broken Base ensued.
- Wind Waker was only Lighter And Softer up to the point where Link stabbed Ganondorf in the freakin' head! Haven't seen this in Majora's Mask, have we?
- The portable games are all significantly Lighter And Softer as well, except for Link's Awakening.
Saints Row 2 can be seen as a softer version of Grand Theft Auto 4 with more over-the-top and braindead-stupid entertainment elements. The plot isn't any less softer but the game's overall theme is quite colourful and funny.
- While the Saints Row 2 main character is much, much more cruel, vicious, and just plain evil than the latest GTA protagonists (CJ and Niko), the ways in which the SR 2 guy carries out his various murders are so over the top it's impossible to take any of it seriously.
- Or girl.
What happens when you combine Armored Core gameplay with Hot Blooded American Justice? Metal Wolf Chaos.
The arcade racing game Wangan Midnight R uses dark visuals with lots of grays, whites, and orange and a soundtrack that sounds like something out of a chase scene in an older film. Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune is, in comparison, substantially more colorful (both in scenery and interface), has any number of Joke Cars (A Corolla and a HiAce van in a racing game full of cars that have 280 stock horsepower?), and uses a surreal trance soundtrack.
The Halo series has partially fallen into this, with the amount of blood sprayed around being reduced from enough to paint the walls purple (or blue, or orange, or red) to barely enough to fill a shot glass. Averted in that the storyline maintains it's position half-way down the cynicism side of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
Persona 4 is a considerably more cheerful game compared to its predecessors. This is an example of this trope being a good thing as it has scored more sales than any other game in the series despite only being two months old. It being the series high point doesn't hurt either.
- It also makes for a nice change after the seriously Downer Ending of Persona 3, and even though it has a lighter feeling to it, it still contains some really dark subject matter.
- It should be noted that the game is about tracking down a serial murderer while being confronted with the party's darkest secrets and deepest fears. It just has a very good attitude about the whole thing.
When you look at it at one way, God Of War is really a Lighter and Softer take on Greek myth heroes, Seriously. I mean, their idealized hero is a guy who raids and pillages non-Greek villages, taking slaves and plunder... who kills dozens of men for daring to seek his wife's hand when he's been considered legally dead for years... and who hangs all the servant-girls who have been taken advantage of by said men, just because. Kratos? He kills a few people, but mostly just chops up monsters. Doesn't even have a single known case of rape to his name.
- God Of War has the same approach to the Greek gods as well; while Zeus is still a heinous bastard, he was far, far worse in numerous stories featuring him, and Ares, rather than working towards any specific goal, basically existed to incite wars for shits and giggles.
- The fact that we're talking about God Of War here should tell you something about real Greek mythology.
As the page quote indicates, Mega Man Star Force can't make up its mind if it wants to be this or Darker And Edgier than its predecessor, Mega Man Battle Network. This is especially bad in the anime, which adds disturbing scenes not in the game (the plot arc suggesting Mega murdered Geo's father, the FMians' deaths ) but also adds typical overly-light-hearted anime filler.
- The Mega Man ZX series is Lighter And Softer compared to the previous series, Mega Man Zero, which is ~~arguably~~ definitely the darkest chapter in the Mega Man mythology.
- Megaman Powered Up could be considered a Lighter And Softer version of the original game, with the brighter graphics, the cutesy voices, the Super Deformed art style, and the lowered difficulty.
A well-received mod for the sombre nuclear war simulator DEFCON exchanged Mutally Assured Destruction for Christmas and Santa Claus: the silos become Christmas trees, the ICBMs are presents, the bombers are reindeer-pulled sleighs, and the megadeath casualties become millions of happy children.
This is Tycho's opinion of the upcoming Aragorn'x Quest.
The House Of The Dead EX takes this to an extreme. The story—and believe every single word I am about to say—consists of Cute Zombie Girl Zobiko and her love interest Zobio breaking out of a lab and escaping a zombie invasion through minigames such as catching apples, battling a zombie sumo wrestler, and encountering the first boss of The House of the Dead 4 and ~~fighting him~~ shooting out his bad teeth. Yes, this game exists. Yes, it has a Western release.
Academy of Champions: Soccer is a kid-targeted soccer game for the Wii. It in itself is not a Lighter And Softer version of any extant franchise, but it's published by Ubisoft, and contains a special team composed of characters from other Ubisoft franchises. What does that mean? Cute and cuddly, brightly-colored Fun Size versions of Altaiir, Sam Fisher, and the Prince footying along with the game's Kid Heroes.
Wii Ware game Water Warefare is a Lighter And Softer version of the entire "FPS Deathmatch" genre. While it plays much the same as other multiplayer FPSes, with multiple weapons and areas, deathmatches, Capture The Flag games, and the like, it's entirely nonviolent—all the weapons are squirt guns and water balloons, and the worst that ever happens to anyone is that they get wet.
- One person on the Game FA Qs forum for the game (about 6 days before the American release) said that "If Parodius is a cute em up then this game is... a first person cuter!"
The first game in the Shadow Hearts RPG series was M-rated, gloomy, and fairly gory; the second game scored a T-rating and abandoned most of the gore for oddball humor, but kept the grim atmosphere fairly intact; and the third game, also rated T, was so goofy and light-hearted in comparison that it threw some fans off. The Lighter and Softer trend is even more obvious if Koudelka, the Survival-Horror semi-prequel to the original, is considered.
House Of The Dead Overkill was much Bloodier And Gorier, yet had loads of camp element and humour.
Electronic Arts shooter games is pretty much the softer version of the current generation of shooters. Mercenaries, Army Of Two, Battlefield Bad Company all had a lighter and flufflier storyline and endings. No Downer Ending to create a Sequel Hook for instance.
Death Smiles, a shooter by CAVE while not too dark, reduced a bit of its horror elements with a lighter style where the girls stops an evil Santa Claus to find several McGuffins to wake up their benefactor whom save them from certain death
Godzilla for Game Boy features the titular monster in a puzzle platformer game portraying Godzilla and the enemy monsters as mini-sized cutesy creatures. Godzilla in particular resembles the protagonists of Bubble Bobble. It has to be seen to be believed.
Tetris: The Grand Master 4 - The Masters of Round is looking to drop the serious-looking backgrounds in favor of flowers and prettiness.
Backyard Sports is becoming this, even though the kids are older.
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire gives this vibe as opposed to the previous Red/Blue (Gen I) and Gold/Silver (Gen II). In Gens I and II, you are a lonely wandering soul roaming an uncaring world infested with a ruthless criminal organization in hopes of challenging the elite four and the champion, all of whom carry this "Mwa ha ha I will crush you" attitude. You also have a rival who peppers your game experience with his unilateral challenges when your party is inches from death and all around Jerk Ass attitude. Compare this to Ruby/Sapphire. The league champion follows you around from five minutes into the game and becomes your chum, the fifth gym leader is your making-his-best-effort-to-not-snivel-in-pride dad, and if you've played gens I & II your rival borders on Mind Screw. May's battle music is this cozy no-bitter-animosities-here-no-sir track and she prompts you whether you would like to battle when she shows up. She PROMPTS you! Whoa. Also the supposed villains are Well Intentioned Extremist organizations whose grunts keep mentioning to you that it does seem like their plans have gone a bit overboard, then do a Heel Face Turn the moment their leaders realize how their grand plans have nearly screwed the world over.
- Paradoxially, these Well Intentioned Extremist villains were also responsible for the franchise's first potentially apocalyptic scenarios, making them functionally far more dangerous than the aforementioned ruthless criminal organization, which stuck with plain old crime, and then only until a ten-year-old kid beat them in Pokemon battles.
Illusion's H Game library started off as dark sci-fi and fantasy style H-Games, as they gotten newer 3D technology, it has soften a bit compared to its past games.

Neopets was made by, and for college kids when it first started. The early plots all were filled with black comedy, where the staff members (fictionally) were killed off one by one (The players got to vote on who died.). The site was made kid friendly after two years, but the old pages from early plots still exist, which are all Nightmare Fuel.
Here is a parody of a Saturday Morning Cartoon called the Watchmen. It's based off of the comic book. It's way lighter and softer and thank goodness that it was never real. The Watchmen

In Highlander The Animated Series, immortals don't behead each other. They have a sort of knowledge sharing ceremony instead.
- The heroes do this. The villain, however, opts for the classic decapitation (though it's off screen).
The cartoon show based on the film Beetlejuice uses this trope. It was actually pretty enjoyable - even for adults.
- As well as The Mask.
  - Which was based on a movie that itself was a lighter, softer version of a quite grimdark comic book.
- And also just about any kid-oriented Animated Series based on a property originally for adults. More examples: Rambo, Robo Cop, Police Academy, and (to a lesser extent than the others) The Real Ghostbusters.
Static Shock is an animated version of a much more mature comic, straying further from the source as time went on.
Both the Conan The Barbarian cartoon series (or Conan the Adventurer as it was called), and the dreaded live-action TV series.
Toxic Crusaders, a spinoff of the definitely-not-for-kids Toxic Avenger films. A similarly "kiddie" spin was put on the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes cartoon.
Teen Titans was definitely lighter and fluffier than the comic. Much retooling was needed to cover some storylines, such as how in the comic, Terra was having an affair with Slade (aka Deathstroke the Terminator) while being his mole; Raven's father Trigon raped her mother; and Brother Blood is a cult-leading sorcerer who practices magick through bloodletting.
- To say nothing of the comic version Starfire's character design...
Nearly all film and TV adaptations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are Lighter and Softer than the brutal comic book that inspired them.
- Although, the 2003 comes closer to the original comic books.
The third season of The Animals of Farthing Wood is much lighter and there are fewer deaths and tragic events than the first two seasons.
The Mortal Kombat game was a Hong Kong pastiche with a fetish for viscera. The Mortal Kombat animated series was a bunch of superheroes that fought space ninjas, lived in a cave and had trauma about being fat when they were kids.
Batman The Brave And The Bold, especially compared to that other recent Batman adaptation.
Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters was a Lighter And Softer version of The Real Ghostbusters.
The Fox and The Hound had this towards the ending...wait..No. Throught the whole movie acually. Apparently in the original book Todd and Copper weren't even friends. Pretty much they all die at the end. Oh. And there is no happy singing of being friends or meeting girls either. Heck, The animals don't even talk.
Land Before Time. The first one, while still primarily aimed at children was very dark, featuring the child dinosaurs coming very close to dying several times, adults dinosaurs actually dying, including Littlefoot's mother, who fought a T-Rex, getting a nasty gash on her neck among other things. And then... the sequels came. Never Say Die was introduced, to the point where it seems the T-Rexes at most just want to scare the herbivores, and put very little effort into feeding. It gets particularly stupid when a triceratops rammed one, and only pushed it back. Oh, and big musical numbers too, something the original neither had nor needed. One of the many, many reason the sequels are inferior.
- Ironically, Land Before Time was originally a silent film in the same vein as Fantasia. They hired actors so the film can appeal to kids.
Catscratch is an adaptation of a comic book. The original comic, called Gear, centers on a war between anthropomorphic species, fought on giant robots, and doesn't shy away from depicting murders, genocide, body horror and torture. The cartoon not only didn't have one of the main characters, who died, but didn't let another character suffer his Fate Worse Than Death.
- Beast Machines is about planetary genocide, religious fanaticism and unceasing, torrential whining. Transformers Robots In Disguise is about the wacky adventures of a put-upon space shark and the delightful things he does. That's something of a simplification, but the fact remains: Transformers has never gotten quite so dark as Beast Machines since, if only because presumably Hasbro have decided they'd quite like people to actually buy their toys.
The short lived cult series Cybersix was waaaay Lighter And Softer than the original comic it was based on: All the nazi Back Story of Von Reichter becomes subtext; when defeated the Fixed Ideas evaporate videogame-style leaving behind a pile of clothes & a "Sustenance" health powerup for Cybersix so she didn't need to bite them like a vampire as in the comic; and of course, nothing of all the high sexual content of the original.

Wiccan author Silver Ravenwolf managed to do this to an entire religion in the 90's, peddling her own soft, fluffy, wallbangingly inaccurate version of Wicca to teenage girls. Actual Wiccans were not amused, and derided Silver fangirls with the phrase "fluffy bunnies".

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