Recursive Import

So you made this neat video game, right? But, hey, this game may be just too weird, or you used a copyright license in a certain region you can't use in another, and apparently in order to sell it outside the region, you need to, um... change it. The plot, the main characters, or the soundtrack could all be candidates to be adjusted, possibly for the sake of a Dolled-Up Installment.

Sometimes this can lead to a very strange conclusion — the altered version of the product being marketed alongside or after the original version. Inevitably leads to arguments over which version is better.

Note that this is different from more standard imports in that it's the selling of an alternate-region version of a product that originated in the country of question. Also, selling a faithfully adapted alternate-language version does not really count — although a Macekre-ified version might. This trope applies best when the product is radically changed and yet the source material is obviously traceable.

Related to this trope is "reverse importing". Since American anime DVDs are far cheaper than Japanese ones, some Japanese anime fans choose to import American DVDs to save money. This eventually led to Bad Export for You.

See also Recursive Adaptation, Recursive Translation, and Remade for the Export.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA were combined into the legendary example of Woolseyism or Macekre (depending on your viewpoint) that was Robotech. This was then reimported into Japan.
  • In a broader sense, many elements from Robotech were later adapted into later Macross anime. The idea of a Variable Fighter controlled by a Brain/Computer Interface first appeared in the Robotech novelization series by Jack McKinney before being used in Macross Plus and the concept of the Protoculture (aka. The Robotech Masters) being ancient enemies with a race of vaguely insect-like aliens started out as a way to integrate MOSPEADA's Invid into the Macross storyline two decades before Macross Frontier debuted the terrifying Vajra.
• The Little Suzy's Zoo franchise was adapted into an anime called Suzy's Zoo: Daisuki! Witzy by TBS. It was then exported back into the US under the title Suzy's Zoo: A Day with Witzy on Baby First TV.
• The Disney XD English dub of Doraemon was dubbed back into Japanese for the Japanese Disney Channel, using the same voice cast as the regular Japanese version. It's a bilingual broadcast, meaning the viewers can switch to the English track if they want, to aid Japanese kids wanting to learning English.
• The English fantasy novel Howl's Moving Castle was adapted into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, which then got an English dub in the USA that got released back in the United Kingdom.
• Anime was originally inspired by Western animation, but started to find a following in the West starting in the 1960s due to its distinctive aesthetics, to the point where Western productions were inspired by anime.
• The Stitch! anime aired for a week on the United States feed of Disney XD before being pulled.
• The English dub of Shimajiro, Shimajiro: A Wonderful Adventure!, is available on Netflix Japan.
• The English dub of Pokémon was used as a secondary audio track on Pocket Monsters Encore, a program showing reruns of the anime.
• In the United States, Powerpuff Girls Z, the anime adaptation of The Powerpuff Girls (1998) could be found on some cable providers' Spanish feeds of Cartoon Network.

Asian Animation

• For a time, the Chinese Spin-Off of Lilo & Stitch, Stitch & Ai, was available on the DisneyNow service in the United States.

Comic Books

• The 70s Spider-Man manga by Ryoichi Ikegami was partially translated during the late 90s under the title of Spider-Man: The Manga. This was before Ikegami developed his hyper realistic art style.
• The Japanese X-Men manga (1990s in Japan) was similarly translated, at the same time. Unfortunately, the Hulk manga (1970s) never made it over.
• The Bat-manga: Japanese versions of Batman produced during the '60s "Batmania" craze. Some of these stories were translated into English and republished in the book Bat-manga.

Film

• Many American remakes of French movies made it back to France. Some were hailed, others bombed.
• The British version of The Magic Roundabout (2005) is available in the US and Canada as Sprung!, alongside the US Same Language Dub Doogal.
• When Godzilla: King of the Monsters! was released in America, a new character was edited into the film, an American reporter played by Raymond Burr. It was later released in Japan under the title Monster King Godzilla, subtitled into Japanese. It was so popular that it started a trend of reporter characters in kaiju films based on Burr's character. Similarly, the equally altered American version of The Return of Godzilla, Godzilla 1985, was released subtitled on video in Japan. Lastly, the re-edited American version of Godzilla 2000 also had a limited engagement run in Japan.
• In Iron Man 3, the Chinese version includes three additional minutes focusing on Dr. Wu. This footage was released internationally as The Prologue.
• The ancient Chinese legend of Hua Mulan was adapted into an American film loosely based on the legend. The film was then dubbed into both Cantonese and Mandarin and released in China.
• The American live-action version of Fist of the North Star was dubbed in Japanese with some of the original voice actors from the anime providing the voices of their characters. Namely Akira Kamiya and Toshio Furukawa, who dubbed the voices of Gary Daniels (Kenshiro) and Costas Mandylor (Shin) respectively.
• Dragonball Evolution, albeit with completely different actors as to further separate it from the anime and manga. Most notably Goku was dubbed by Kappei Yamaguchi which is the first time a male actor in Japan has done so.
• One can buy the Japanese release of a Blu-ray or DVD of an American made adaptation of a Japanese title, such as Speed Racer, Godzilla (2014), Edge of Tomorrow, Ghost in the Shell (2017), or Power Rangers (2017). Or watch the movie in a Japanese movie theater.
• City Hunter: The Cupid's Perfume (the French Live-Action Adaptation of an anime based off a manga and its bizarre French dub) got a Japanese theatrical release.

Literature

• Several books from the apocrypha were originally written in Hebrew, but then lost over time as they did not form part of the Jewish Biblical canon. In modern times, some of them have been translated back into Hebrew from earlier translations, such as Greek.
• The Israeli children's Edutainment book Once Upon A Potty was such a hit in the United States that author Alona Frankel was commissioned by the U.S. publisher to make a female version of the book, starring a girl named Prudence. This version would later receive a Hebrew translation for Israeli audiences in the mid-2010s.

Live-Action TV

• Super Sentai shows got revamped into Power Rangers for the USA... for a while Power Rangers was dubbed for Japanese audiences, with the original run lasting up to Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. Also, as in the below Kamen Rider Dragon Knight example, one character was voiced by the Japanese equivalent- in this case, Machiko Soga, who played Bandora in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, was the Japanese voice of Rita Repulsa. Also Yuji Kishi, who played the Red Ranger in Gekisou Sentai Carranger, voiced the second Red Ranger in Power Rangers Turbo.
  • Power Rangers S.P.D. got this treatment, complete with Dekaranger actors dubbing their SPD counterparts (with the exception of Swan's counterpart Kat, in which the original actor Mako Ishino is unavailable, and then they call in Rie Tanaka to stand in for her). Mako Ishino, in turn, gets to have the opening narration. This dub is notable for getting a Shout-Out in Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger.
  • Power Rangers Mystic Force is the most recent dub. This time, the Magiranger actors don't get to voice their counterparts, but at least Atsushi Hashimoto (MagiRed) gets to do the narration.
  • Power Rangers Samurai is the next PR series to be dubbed into Japanese, which makes it a curious example with how the plot is almost identical more than any other adaptation by far — though it has enough minor differences to entertain Japanese Power Rangers fans that have seen Samurai Sentai Shinkenger such as being able to watch it if it had been a Power Rangers series. And like in the case of the Mystic Force dub, regular voice actors are used instead of the original Japanese actors.
  • For years, South Korea has been getting Super Sentai shows dubbed into Korean under the Power Rangers header^note Even though they're just straight dubs rather than localized adaptations like the American Power Rangers. Power Rangers Dino Force, the dub of Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, was popular enough that the license holder Daewon Media partnered with Toei to produce an official sequel series Power Rangers Dino Force Brave (which is even being helmed by Koichi Sakamoto, the director of Kyoryuger). It was subsequently announced that the series will be re-dubbed into Japanese and aired under the title Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger Brave as a webseries on Bandai Japan's Youtube Channel (Complete with No Export for You Region Coding to anyone else who's not Japanese).
• When Takeshi's Castle was distributed outside Japan, the British version just had Craig Charles narrating the footage, while the American version changed it into MXC: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. MXC was a parody of Game Contest Shows and Reality Television which featured deliberately bad overdubbing and lots of low-brow humor. This Gag Dub was later re-imported to Japan, where it actually became more popular than the original show.
• Common with British shows adapted for America. The BBC ran The Weakest Link USA alongside The Weakest Link, and Little Britain USA underwent the same treatment.
• The United Kingdom also gets the American version of The Office (as The Office: An American Workplace) on DVD.
• In 1980, Australian producer Reg Grundy bought the rights to the NBC game show Sale of the Century, and adapted it in Australia with some tweaks to the gameplay (including the addition of the "Fame Game" rounds, among other changes). Proving successful, Grundy exported his version back to NBC, resulting in the better-known Jim Perry incarnation of Sale. Years later, the Australian version was revamped into Temptation, a Spiritual Successor, which was then exported back once again as Temptation: The New Sale of the Century (which wound up becoming a low-budget Macekre of both of its namesakes).
• Hell's Kitchen was initially a UK show (with celebrities), but changed significantly in its export to the USA (with competition between professionals for a job). The US version now runs alongside the UK version on its original channel, and is more popular and successful.
• Kamen Rider Ryuki was adapted for America as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. Dragon Knight was then dubbed and aired on Japanese television. Many of the dub actors are Kamen Rider alumni, but for bonus recursion points the character of Len/Wing Knight was dubbed by the actor who played Ren/Knight, his original equivalent.
• The original American Gladiators was so popular in the UK, they made their own version — which ramped up the show into a Darker and Edgier primetime spectacle in comparison to the American version. When the 2008 American reboot came along, they incorporated many trappings of the UK version, including some UK-only events, into the remake. Shortly after the American reboot began Sky1 produced a revival of the UK series which borrowed much of its aesthetic, and a few new events, from the new American version.
• American Idol aired alongside its original, Pop Idol, in Britain.
• The American version of Pop Idol's Spiritual Successor, The X Factor, airs in the UK as well.
• Ninja Warrior, the American airing of the Japanese show Sasuke, itself is shown in Japan. This includes the changed format and editing, and the new "Ninja Killer" and "Warrior Wipeout" segments added to the show. This actually makes some sense, since Sasuke airs as annual multi-hour long tournaments. By showing Ninja Warrior in Japan, fans can rewatch older tournaments, and the broadcasters can make more money airing the show as a regular episodic program. And now there is a second American Ninja Warrior. The original, on G4, was about US competitors working for a chance to compete on Sasuke. The new one, on NBC, is an all American competition.
• The two foreign Ultraman shows, Ultraman: Towards the Future (Australian) and Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (American), were released on home video in Japan as Ultraman Great and Ultraman Powered respectively.
• BBC America airs Law & Order: UK, thus bringing the show to the country that produces the L&O franchise.
• Rick Sigglekow featured the British Noddy's Toyland Adventures, but redubbed for an American audience, in a show called The Noddy Shop. The first 40 episodes and the Christmas Special were aired in the UK with the Noddy segments having the original British voices. They also got merchandise featuring the characters, as well as 9 episodes on home video.
• The ITV game show Alphabetical was an adaptation of Pasapalabra, a long-running Spanish rework of the British Panel Show The Alphabet Game which turned it into more of a quiz-based competition.
• A number of European countries showed the American Song Contest on a channel operated by the broadcaster who represents that country in the Eurovision Song Contest, the former's inspiration.

Music

• The American localization of "Sulk" by new wave band The Associates had an entirely different track-listing from its UK counterpart, and included completely different songs from an earlier singles compilation by the band. This is because, back in the day, many 80s albums (from primarily British bands) released in the US have different track-listings from their European counterparts; and this is entirely due to copyright issues, or possible executive meddling to appeal towards American audiences.
• The Clash's first album was reworked for the US market in 1979, with several tracks changed, and the band logo moved from the bottom to the top of the cover. When the CD remastered series came along in the UK, both versions were made available. The same has happened with reissues of the album on vinyl.
• Feeder's Echo Park was originally released in Japan with several UK B Sides as bonus tracks, one of which was "Just A Day". "Just A Day" later appeared on the Gran Turismo 3 soundtrack, and was released as a single. This single ended up becoming a huge hit for the band, and many UK fans wanted to buy it on an album. Originally it was planned to reissue the album, but it proved more cost effective for stores (e.g. HMV and Amazon) to import copies of the Japanese pressing. "Just A Day" was eventually released on an album on the Picture Of Perfect Youth B-Side collection, and more widely on The Singles.
• Alphabeat's self-titled first album, later reworked to be known as This Is Alphabeat. The album was issued outside of Denmark with several tracks removed and several new ones added, track order changed, and the album remixed to have a less guitar-based sound. This version ended up being issued in Denmark, replacing the original.
• The Smiths' U.S. label, Sire Records, released a compilation titled Louder Than Bombs, a reworked version of a U.K. compilation titled The World Won't Listen. Smiths fans, as a rule, are an obsessive bunch and bought import copies anyway, despite the few differences between the two compilations. Rough Trade, the band's U.K. label, eventually issued Louder Than Bombs in the U.K. to save fans from expensive import prices. Some fans still complained about paying twice for what was essentially the same album.
• The Beatles' US albums, which often had significant differences in tracklisting and mixes to the UK, got released there decades later. There were two precedents for this, however — a US compilation of songs that hadn't been released on Capitol albums entitled "Hey Jude" was so popular on import that it got a UK release in 1970. Also, in 1976, the band elected to reissue the 11 song US release of Magical Mystery Tour, rather than the 6 track double EP that had been released in the UK. In the early 2000s, two Capitol album box sets appeared, but US-only. In 2009, the UK albums got remastered, and a few years later the US albums followed suit, being available in the UK for the first time (however, the masters were recompiled from UK mixes, not US ones, annoying completists).
• Yellow Magic Orchestra: The band's US label, A&M Records, extensively modified both their self-titled debut and ×∞Multiplies for the American market, with both albums being remixed by Al Schmitt and ×∞Multiplies replacing several tracks with ones from the Japan-exclusive Solid State Survivor. Both times, the band's Japanese label, Alfa Records, decided to release these altered versions in Japan as well, with the band's fame in their home country resulting in strong sales both times. The US version of ×∞Multiplies would eventually be mostly depreciated barring a couple rare CD reissues, but the two versions of the debut album remain in circulation in Japan to this day, with the 2003 remaster even packaging them together as a Distinct Double Album.

Tabletop Games

• When BattleTech was exported to Japan, many of its licensed Humongous Mecha designs from Macross were redesigned to be unique but with more Japanese flair rather than the traditional American Walking Tank designs the game is notable for. It was then recursively imported back into America, where the redesigned Japanese mechs were redesigned and used to illustrate the experimental, show-offy designs of the Solaris Gladiator Games battlemechs.
• The Pokemon Trading Card Game was exported to America from Japan, however some of the English cards were sometimes exported back to Japan, and were included with Japanese promotional material, for example, the English version of the base set Pikachu was included with a soundtrack for the anime, and a giant version of the English base set Charizard was included in a Coro Coro magazine

Theatre

• The famous aria "Avant de quitter ces lieux" from Gounod's opera Faust was originally written for a London production. Its words ("Even bravest heart may swell") were in English, and only subsequently translated back to French.
• Similarly, various portions of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser were rewritten for the Paris production, and the words had to be retranslated into German.

Toys

• Originally, Hasbro manufactured G.I. Joe toys, which were sold in Japan by Takara. Takara later introduced a new toy to the line called Henshin Cyborg, whose gimmick was that he was a cyborg who could swap out parts to transform. However, increasing costs of production lead Takara to shelve the toyline in favor of Microman, which featured 3 1/4 inch figures. Microman would not only be imported by Mego to become Micronauts in the United States, but it's scale would become the industry standard for action figures, including Hasbro's relaunch of G.I. Joe in the 1980's.
• Takara would release two toylines in the 1980's based around Transforming Mecha: Diaclone and MicroChange (a subline of New Microman). Toys from both lines (along with a few others) would be imported by Hasbro to become The Transformers. Takara would soon cancel both toylines and re-import The Transformers, eventually working with Hasbro to design new figures.

Video Games

• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Doki Doki Panic was revamped into Super Mario Bros. 2 for the USA audience — then released in Japan as Super Mario USA. The remake of the Japanese SMB2 (essentially a Mission-Pack Sequel) that was part of Super Mario All-Stars was released in America as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, though the original 8-bit version was eventually released on the Wii's Virtual Console outside of Japan (it is also referred to as The Lost Levels in the Wii's menus, albeit the game itself was unchanged, so it still says Super Mario Bros. 2).
  • A more subtle example came much later during Super Mario 64's localization, when Nintendo of America decided to add lots of new voice clips - for instance, Princess Peach reading her letter at the beginning of the game - and make other minor changes. When Japan got a re-release of Super Mario 64 supporting the Rumble Pak, the American tweaks were finally carried over.
• When The Legend of Zelda was released in Western territories, Nintendo converted it from a Famicom Disk System game to a standard NES cartridge, trading the Disk System's extra sound channels for elimination of Loads and Loads of Loading and disk swapping. This cartridge conversion would be released in Japan in 1994 as one of the last releases for the Famicom.
• Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is mostly entirely revamped into Elite Beat Agents. While the latter game is not released in Japan, the characters have cameo'd in Ouendan's sequel, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 as well as in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. EBA's improvements were carried over into Osu's sequel, and are unlockable in it.
• Life Force, the American version of the Gradius spinoff Salamander, changed the plot of the game by setting it inside a giant space creature that has been infected by a killer virus. Aside for a couple of background changes, the American Life Force was otherwise identical to Salamander (and the NES version of Life Force had only very subtle differences from the Famicom version of Salamander). However, an Updated Re-release of Salamander was released to Japanese arcades under the Life Force title, actually changing the graphics to give the stages and enemies an organic look, as well as changing the power-up system to the one used in the Gradius series. Salamander and this version of Life Force have turned up together on Compilation Rereleases. The JP rerelease and the NES version further changed the story by setting it inside a Unicron-esque Planet Eater named Zelos.
• The Taito NES game Power Blade is a heavily Americanized revamp of Power Blazer, which redesigned all the levels and replaced the Japanese version's Mega Man-like protagonist with an Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalike. Apparently Power Blade proved to be a bit more successful than Power Blazer, causing Power Blade 2 to be released in Japan as Captain Saver.
• Square Enix has done this several times, starting with Final Fantasy VII International when all of the additions made to the North American version were imported back to Japan...with further additions (most notably a bonus disc). The examples that causes the most ire though are the updated versions of the Kingdom Hearts which give the Japanese fans everything the North American fans had in their version plus extra bosses and storyline scenes. This version of things ended up being a case of No Export for You for the American fans. The worst part of this for non-Japanese fans was that future games often expected players to know about new plot developments that only happened in the Japanese rereleases. This often led to players having to go online to find the information that was left out of their versions of the games in order to get a better understanding of what was going on or being referenced. In a series that already has an infamously complicated mythology, this certainly did not help. Luckily, the Final Mixes seem to finally be getting a wider release with the Updated Re-release of the 1.5 and 2.5 versions of the early PS2 games for PS3 players.
• Animal Crossing (2001) for GameCube was Doubutsu no Mori + with a bunch of new furniture, new holidays, and e-Reader support. This version got translated back to Japanese with even more stuff as Doubutsu no Mori e+.
• Metal Gear:
  • When the original Metal Gear Solid was released overseas, the developers added adjustable difficulty settings, a hidden Tuxedo outfit for Snake, and a "Demo Theater" that allows players to view all the cutscenes after completing the game once. All of these extra content would be introduced to Japanese players via Metal Gear Solid: Integral, which also retained the English voice acting from the American version (which resulted in the game's script having to be retranslated for the Japanese version in order to avoid using dubtitles).
  • Subverted and then played straight with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The original Sons of Liberty edition was first released in North America with barebones features before it was released a month later in Japan with Japanese voice acting and some additional content (namely the unlockable Boss Survival and Casting Theater modes, plus sunglasses for Snake and Raiden for every odd-numbered playthrough after the second one). However, these additional content were then ported over for the European releases, where the game also got an additional difficulty setting (European Extreme). All these extra content were then made available for the Substance edition in every region, with the Japanese version once again getting English voice acting with Japanese subs.
  • Similarly Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater received flag-themed face paints for Snake, Demo Theater, Duel Mode and two additional stages for Snake vs. Monkey mode for the European version, in addition to most of the free DLC camo/face paints that were already present in the Japanese version. These were carried over to the Subsistence edition of the game, although unlike Integral and Substance, the Japanese version of Subsistence kept the Japanese voice acting this time around.
• In Japan, the Street Fighter Alpha series is known as Street Fighter Zero. When Capcom released the second installment in America, naturally titled Street Fighter Alpha 2, it added Evil Ryu to the character roster, as well as bonus versions of Zangief and Dhalsim based on their Champion Edition selves. Capcom then re-released the game to Japanese arcades under the title of Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha, which featured all three extra characters from the American version (giving Evil Ryu his own ending), along with added Champion Edition versions of Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sagat and M. Bison. This version was then ported to home consoles as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, where Cammy was added to the roster.
• De La Jet Set Radio is an Updated Re-release of the Japanese version of Jet Set Radio. It included extra songs, two levels, and, most importantly, bug fixes from the American and European versions.
• A truly bizarre example is the Takarazuka Revue musical based on the Gyakuten Saiban series. Despite the musical being a case of No Export for You the musical used the names from the American version, Ace Attorney, possibly to avoid Japanese copyright issues.
• Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage, the English version of Hokuto Musou, was released in Japan as Hokuto Musou International.
• The fourth Kunio game for the Famicom, Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen ("Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club: Soccer Edition"), was released in modified form outside Japan as Nintendo World Cup for the NES, which had the various Japanese teams redesigned into international ones for the overseas version. When Technos developed a Game Boy port of the game, they took the World Cup theme from the NES version and made all of the rival teams into foreign ones, retitling the game Nekketsu Kōkō Soccer Bu: World Cup Hen ("Nekketsu High School Soccer Club: World Cup Edition").
• The Sega Mark III game console was redesigned into the Sega Master System for the western market. Sega later released an updated Mark III model in Japan based on the Master System redesign, but with an integrated FM sound module (which the western models did not have). The module could even be purchased separately for those who already have the original Mark III.
• The Super Famicom puzzle game Panel de Pon was released in the west as Tetris Attack for the SNES, with the original fairy characters replaced with the characters from Yoshi's Island. The overseas version was later released in Japan for the BS-X Satellaview Service under the name of Yoshi no Panepon. This change doesn't apply to the Game Boy port, which was a Yoshi game worldwide.
• The Toaplan shooter V-V was released outside Japan as Grind Stormer, with a different powerup system that provides bombs instead of weapon upgrades. V-V for the Japanese Mega Drive provides both games in one cartridge; so does the American Sega Genesis version of Grind Stormer, which in fact is the exact same cartridge in different packaging. The only difference is that the JP version defaults to V-V upon start-up, while the US version defaults ot Grind Stormer.
• The Taiko no Tatsujin series had one American release under the name "Taiko Drum Master". This particular version was later released in Japan as "Taiko no Tatsujin: Taiko Drum Master".
• Gundam Battle Assault 2 is a strange example, as the first Battle Assault was a Sequel First import of The Battle Master 2, Remade for the Export to include characters from the anime rather than keep the Original Generation due to the runaway success of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing in the west. The success of that game resulted in the creation of Battle Assault 2, made specifically for the US and European markets. When it was time to release the game in Japan, the developers opted to splice it into two as Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz: The Battle and G Gundam: The Battle in order to fit it with a line of budget games published by D3 Publisher.

Web Animation

• RWBY is an American-made Animesque All-CGI Cartoon, but it soon drew enough interest to get a professional Japanese dub with Saori Hayami, Yōko Hikasa, Yu Shimamura and Ami Koshimizu playing the four heroines Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang respectively. The Japanese dub was subsequently made available on Crunchyroll, one of the sites that hosts the original English version of the series. In a related instance, the series got an official manga spinoff which was later brought Westward by Viz Media.

Western Animation

• MrBogus is an American cel-animated cartoon based on a French stop-motion series, simply named "Bogus". The American version was dubbed back into French and shown on Canal J.
• TUGS was exported to America as part of a show called Salty's Lighthouse, which aired on Channel 4 in the UK, making it one of two Importation Expansion shows using a British children's series (the other being The Noddy Shop) to make it to the United Kingdom.

Words

This trope has a special name in linguistics when applied to words: reborrowing. It happens a lot.

• The word "Mecha" is derived from the English word "mechanical".
• The name of the Irgun, one of the Jewish underground groups fighting in the British Mandate of Palestine, is an anglicism meaning "organization". The word is the gerund of "le'Argen", a modern Hebrew neologism meaning "to organize", formed by placing the consonants of the English word "organ[ize]" into a Hebrew verb structure.
• The name of Cuba's newspaper Granma is simply a variation of the English word "Grandma", taken from the name of the boat that brought Fidel Castro to Cuba in 1956.
• The word "beef" was borrowed from the French word "boeuf". The French would later adopt the word "beefsteak" as "le biftek". Similarly for rumsteck (rump steak) and "rosbif" (roast beef), which is also used as a word for the British (in the same vein as "froggies").
• A quadruple example: The French word cotte was borrowed into English as "coat" (like the thing you wear) and then combined with "riding" to make "riding coat" (a kind of coat for wear while on horseback). The French borrowed the term for the garment, but because French is not like English, called it a redingote. As different styles of the garment emerged, English reborrowed the term "redingote" to refer to a specific kind of horseback riding outerwear.
• Similar to "mecha", "anime" is derived from "animation."
• The word "tank" was imported from the Portuguese word "tanque", meaning reservoir, a recipient for liquids. In English, the word happened to name a type of armored military vehicle (back when the vehicles were under development by the British Army in World War I, they were called water carriers or water "tanks" in order to keep the secrecy), then exported back to Portuguese with the additional meaning.

Foods

• The burrito. In Mexico, the burrito—a dish consisting of a wheat flour tortilla wrapped around a small portion of beans, meat and rice—was historically highly regional, restricted to the wheat-growing northern part of the country. It was basically the local version of a taco, but took advantage of the greater flexibility of wheat-flour tortillas over corn tortillas to create a secure package around the filling.^note Wheat has gluten, corn doesn't. This means that you can completely enclose a filling in a flour tortilla by closing off the ends while rolling; if you tried that with a corn tortilla, it would break and the filling would spill everywhere. The secure package part was very useful in el Norte, with its highly mobile vaqueros and miners always in need of a bite on the go. (In a way, this original burrito is almost like a Mexican pasty, even though a "Mexican pasty" would usually be called an empanada.^note Except in Pachuca and Mineral del Monte in Hidalgo, where they are called, erm, pasties—well, pastes—because they hired actual Cornish miners to help run the mines there in the 1880s, and they brought your actual Cornish pasty there with them. Mineral del Monte holds a 3-day International Pasty Festival every October to this day.) In the United States, the burrito is the most popular Mexican food, with many new variations developed (often in the parts of the country, like Texas and California, that used to be part of Mexico and have always had a strong Mexican influence on their cooking), most famously the "Mission-style" burrito (which is a whole meal with extra toppings, originating from San Francisco's Mission District). Mexican workers coming back to Mexico from the US often say they miss American burritos, and demand for burritos has gone up in parts of Mexico where they were completely alien just a few decades ago.
• American Chinese cuisine. Originally developed in Chinese restaurants that decided to work around American tastes and/or a limited selection of ingredients, American Chinese food has since been re-imported to China and can even be found there in dedicated restaurant franchises. At the same time, more "authentic" Hunan and Schezhuan cuisine has become popular in the U.S., particularly in areas with large Chinese-American populations, such as L.A. and San Francisco.
• While pizza evolved from a form of Neapolitan flatbread, the dish as we know it today took shape in the Italian-American community of the United States and was reimported to Italy by American soldiers during World War II. The recursion wave has continued to rebound across the Pond as American pizza makers imported brick-oven preparation back from Italy for a more "authentic" pizza.
• Fish And Chips is a UK variation of "Pescado Frito" brought there by the Spanish in the 1800s. Generally speaking, it's made using cod (the Spanish fish of choice), but occasionally using haddock (which is common in Scotland where it is a much cheaper fish). Due to the popularity of Spain as a tourist destination from the 1970s onwards, you can find 'British' Fish And Chip shops there in addition to being able to find the original 'pescado frito' in traditional Spanish restaurants.
• Guinness is a particularly odd example. The original Guinness, also known as Original or XX, is the one most commonly seen in Ireland, and also in the US. The one found in UK pubs and the more common in stores is a less strong, frothier version called Guinness Draught. Standard Guinness in Africa and the Caribbean is a higher alcohol formulation known elsewhere as Foreign Extra. The company also produces a West Indies Porter (which is what Guinness Foreign Extra used to be like when it had to be exported to the Caribbean by ship) and Dublin Porter (which is what Guinness Draught was like before World War I rationing caused the recipe to be changed). Guinness, of course, is seen as the traditional Irish beer, but its other varieties were all developed for foreign markets.
• Swedish Fish was invented by Swedish company Malaco, but was just one of many types of candy they did at the time, and isn't common in Sweden. However, it really took off in North America, and as such, American tourists in Sweden so commonly expect to find it there that it's widely imported.
• Mexican versions of American soda pop can be easily found in grocery stores in the United States wherever there is a large Mexican population. They are commonly sold alongside beverages made by specialty, upscale, and small companies and labeled as "Mexican _______" and "_______ Hecha en Mexico." The key difference is that they're sweetened with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup and are always sold in glass bottles, though some, such as Fanta Naranja (Orange Fanta) and 7-Up, have substantially different recipes.
• Starbucks chairman Howard Schulz was so inspired by his experience of Italian cafes that he attempted to create the same culture with Starbucks stores, shifting the fledgling company's business model from selling whole beans to be prepared at home to serving espresso drinks in the '80s, leading to the company's massive worldwide growth in the '90s and beyond. Starbucks finally opened its first Italian location in Milan in 2018.
• Curry came to Japan by way of the British navy, who had learned of the dish from India, which was under their rule at the time. Years later, Japanese curry made its way to the United Kingdom, but became trendy in The New '10s, especially katsu curry (which is served with a fried meat cutlet), to the point where that term became a catch-all term for any kind of Japanese curry in the country.

Multiple Media

• Star Wars is a series of movies that originated in the U.S. Then, several manga artists did manga adaptations that were sold in Japan. Then, the manga were translated into English and sold in the U.S. and Canada.
• Surprisingly averted for the foreign animated adaptations of American properties such as Powerpuff Girls Z, Stitch!, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers and Stitch & Ai. All have English dubs (and Stitch & Ai was actually produced in English), but they've only aired overseas in other English-speaking countries (Australia, Malaysia, et cetera) and most of them have never been officially released in the U.S. The only exceptions so far have been five episodes of Stitch! airing on Disney XD within less than a week solely as a contract fulfillment, Powerpuff Girls Z airing on the Latin American feed of Cartoon Network that's on some cable providers alongside Ashita no Nadja and One Piece, and Disney quietly releasing twelve of Stitch & Ai's thirteen episodes^note its ninth episode being the only one missing for completely free viewing via a streaming service that normally requires a separate TV provider log-in to watch most of its content.
• Harlequin had some of their romance novels turned into Shojo manga in Japan. After manga became popular in America, they had them translated and sold the stories in the 50 United States... again!
• Much like linguistics has reborrowing, sociology and religious studies have their own term for this phenomenon in their disciplines: The pizza effect. In addition to the pizza example mentioned under Food, there are examples where a religion imported from one culture developed unique innovations in its new setting that were then exported in turn back to the original homeland.
• Japanese-market versions of American-made vehicles, like for example the Jeep Cherokee, made their way back to the States as they have found a niche with rural mail carriers due to their right-hand drive configuration, which saves postal workers the trouble of reaching to a curbside mailbox.

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