Shoo Out The Clowns / Anime & Manga

• The prequel anime to .hack//G.U., //Roots, starts already in a much darker revision of THE WORLD, but there is some lighthearted comfort found in the Guild interactions in the Beginning. While Ovan's not a comical character in himself, his disappearance causes a permanent rift in the Guild which leads into it's disbanding and the events that lead into first game where Haseo is a strict loner hunting for Tri-Edge.
• In Afro Samurai: Resurrection, Ninja-Ninja gets completely fed up with Afro's insistence that his father has been resurrected, and storms out just before the final battle:
  Ninja-Ninja: That's IT! You an IDIOT! And this is far as I go! See ya!
  • Hell, Afro Samurai did this in the original series. During Afro's fight with Jinnosuke/Kuma, a stray blow from Kuma's sword hits Ninja-Ninja in the chest, essentially killing him. This is meant to symbolize Afro coming to terms with himself and his past, and casting away all of the doubt and self-loathing he had been feeling throughout his life. Coincidentially, this happens RIGHT before the final battle with Justice, A.K.A. the most serious part of the entire series.
• Air: When Yukito disappears, you know a Downer Ending is on the horizon.
• Angel Beats!: The final episodes feature a battle with shadowy creatures which is preceded by one of the series more comical characters leaving.
• Attack on Titan: Sasha becomes visibly shell-shocked during the Battle of Trost and soon not a funny thing comes out of her mouth. She even shows up less than the other Trainees of the 104th as the battle goes on. When she becomes more prominent later on, it is in a much more serious capacity. Similarly Hange never quite loses her quirkiness but she fills more serious (and badass) roles as time goes on. After the Time Skip, Sasha becomes the first major character to be killed off.
• Azumanga Daioh: Osaka parts ways with Sakaki and Chiyo on their walk home right before they're cornered by Kamineko and his gang of cats.
• Bleach: At the beginning of the Soul Society arc (when the Myth Arc kicks in and the human world becomes less important), Ichigo's classmates (besides his True Companions Uryuu, Chad, and Orihime) are sidelined as characters, although they'd been relatively prominent and well-developed during the Substitute Shinigami arc. They remain very minor characters through the rest of the story, occasionally providing comic relief or slice-of-life drama. In the anime, Kon and the Filler mod-souls drop out of sight once the Darker and Edgier Hueco Mundo arc begins.
• Bloom Into You: Touko and Sayaka's two friends, Manaka and Midori serve as comic relief, particularly the former. The four of them are grouped together for the school trip, and Touko and Sayaka find reasons to ditch them on a three occasions to have serious discussions- when Sayaka makes a Love Confession to Touko, Touko and Sayaka discuss Sayaka's love for Touko, and when Touko ultimately turns Sayaka down.
• Bokurano is not a lighthearted series by any stretch of the imagination, but Anko and Kanji provide some comic relief, especially in the manga. They stay around for most of the series, but are less humorous in their respective arcs. Shortly after both die in Volume 8, the next pilot is none other than Kana Ushiro, Jun's ten-year-old younger sister, thus leading to the darkest and most tragic story arc.
• Buso Renkin: Following the LXE arc, the series gets a little more serious as Victor is awake, Kazuki will become like him in six weeks, and a team of Alchemist Warriors is sent out to kill him before it happens and from this point on Kazuki's primarily comic relief school friends and sister are left behind, only having cameos or the rest of the series.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Li Meilin, an anime-exclusive character, gets sent back to Hong Kong only three episodes before the Final Judgement.
• A Certain Magical Index: Index's general condition is usually a mood indicator. If she's on screen and unharmed, things are probably going to be okay for a while, at least until the scene shifts elsewhere. If she gets hurts or knocked out, however... An example of this is that the series gets serious immediately when Touma returns home at the end of the first episode to find her wounded, when up until then it had been mostly humorous stuff.
• Code Geass: The Cupid Day episode is the last of the show's predominantly-comedic episodes; it ends with Shirley regaining all of her old, traumatic memories, and in the very next episode, Shirley is killed pointlessly, setting both Lelouch and Suzaku on severe revenge paths. The rest of their classmates simply aren't focused as much anymore.
  • Nightmare of Nunnally and Suzaku of the Counterattack: The Ashford Academy tends to fade around halfway through the series, typically getting only a mere mention at best, and the student council members hardly appear at all. Though it's heavily implied that Shirley is among the characters who remain alive this time as a result. This also happens Compilation Movie version, which also has her survive and is hinted to have a role in Lelouch Of The Resurrection.
• Cowboy Bebop: Over the two last stand-alone episodes the show get notably darker: The Greek Chorus is broken up in "Brain Scratch" when one of them is killed by the brain-uploading cult, and the same episode sees the cancellation of Show Within a Show "Big Shot" and its comedic take on the bounties of the solar system. Then, in "Hard Luck Woman" the playful kid and cute dog leave the crew for good (Faye also leaves the crew, but remains a viewpoint character). The show's two-parter ending, "The Real Folk Blues", is completely bereft of comedy.
• In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the drama starts to ramp up right after comic relief Pilar suddenly gets his head blown apart by a cyberpsycho.
• Death Note: As the series starts to approach the climax, Misa gives up ownership of her Death Note a second time and gives it to the much more serious Mikami. Her role, aside from her rivalry with Takada, is drastically reduced and she’s dropped off at a hotel just before the finale.
• Death Parade: Mayu and Harada were introduced in the silliest episode of the entire series. Mayu sticks around and remains completely oblivious to her situation, but is finally sent away just before the Grand Finale.
• Digimon
  • Digimon Adventure introduced a lot of one-shot comic relief characters early on in the story. Then in the Dark Masters arc, many of them are brought back only to be outright killed to show that things had gotten bad in the Digital World.
  • A particularly cruel example occurs in Digimon Adventure 02 - the first thing the revived MaloMyotismon does is brutally murder Archnemon and Mummymon in front of the Chosen Children, traumatizing five of them in the process.
  • Digimon Fusion: Digivice-less, occasionally useful Akari and Zenjirou (aka Angie and Jeremy) are left behind in the real world while Taiki and Shoutmon return to the Digital World in episode 30.
• The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan: At the end of Volume 3/Episode 9, Yuki almost gets hit by a car. As a result of the accident, her current self is replaced by another personality that's more like the Yuki from the main series and regards the other Yuki as a separate person in the same body, leading to existential angst. Around that time, Haruhi, Koizumi, Mikuru and Tsuruya stop showing up at the literature club, since they have to prepare for exams. Their absence results in less comic relief and more focus on Yuki, Ryoko and Kyon.
• Dragon Ball: The franchise has been known to utilize this trope frequently.
  • Dragon Ball: One of the earliest example is when Tao Pai-Pai kills Bora simply for standing in his way, where for the first time Goku becomes enraged at his opponent (then there's Tambourine, whose act of killing Krillin sends Goku spiraling into a mad fury, to say nothing of his master Piccolo Daimao). From this point on, most battles against the arc villains will get very serious, particularly when Goku realizes that his opponent really is a serious threat, and especially after anyone that Goku has befriended or fought alongside has been killed by them.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Around this time, Oolong and Puar end up pretty much becoming background characters, the Pilaf Gang. whose final appearance is in a filler scene before the start of Z, and Launch, the girl who sneezes and becomes a more violent personality flat out vanishes, which coincides with the arrival of the saiyans, the point in which the series take a more serious tone.
    • Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks: After showing Oolong, Paur, and Master Roshi, three characters known to be comedic, at the start of the special, they do not show up again once the Future Androids attack and kill the Z-Fighters.
    • The Buu Arc, which is known to switch this trope on and off a lightswitch, as if a kid is playing with the Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness like a four year old whamming the volume dial.
  • Dragon Ball Super:
    • Buu, Trunks, and Goten, known to bring some comedy into the series, do not show up in the original showing of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'. The Super adaptation does downplay by having them show up in the Golden Frieza saga. However, Buu does not take part in the fight because he happened to be taking a nap for two months. While Goten and Trunks do take part in the battle with the use of Gotenks, they quickly get out of there once Goku and Vegeta arrive to take over the fight with Frieza, which happens to be where the saga gets the most dramatic with Frieza even blowing up the Earth to take everyone with him to the afterlife.
    • Played with regarding the Pilaf Gang in Future Trunks Saga. While they do show up mainly because of present Mai and Future Mai, they otherwise obviously do not get involved with the battles with Goku Black and Future Zamasu, where said battles are shown to be serious moments. Played straight with both Jaco and Monaka, whom both are known to be comedic and neither show up throughout the entirely of the saga with one small exception in its manga adaptation where Zamasu accidentally swaps bodies with Monaka before correcting his mistake.
    • Again, Buu, Trunks, and Goten, do not take part in the major battles in the Universe Survival Saga. Buu once again falls asleep for two months much to Beerus's chargin while both Trunks and Goten are barred from entering due to Gotenks always screwing up for battles past their failure in the Majin Buu saga. The Pilaf gang also do not show up once the Z-Fighters show up in at the arena of the Tournament of Power. Jaco and Monaka, both known to be comedic, do not show up at all, though the latter is justified because unlike the tournament between Universe 6 and 7 where the only stakes was a lost planet, Beerus knows that if Team Universe 7 loses, everyone would be wiped out from existence and would prefer not to risk it.
• Excel♡Saga: This trope is invoked deliberately, with two episodes that start with the announcement that there will be no gags and things will be a lot more serious. And boy, do they ever. This gets fully compensated though with all kinds of out-of-bounds silliness in the last episode.
• Fist of the North Star: Lin's pet dog Pel vanished completely after the Souther story arc, although he was an anime-only character.
• This is part of why Maes Hughes is killed off in Fullmetal Alchemist right when the main arc gets going. He tries to switch from comic relief to seriousness but still ends up dying because He Knows Too Much. Not all the clowns are kicked out, though; Alex Louis Armstrong is also a rather silly character who manages to stick around.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula: Kaga becomes more serious after he Took a Level in Badass in ZERO and his funny guy traits disappeared from that.
• Gate Keepers recklessly crashed back and forth in between "cheerful" and "dark", finally settling on "dark" for the sequel series.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex:
  • The Tachikomas, spider tanks with the personalities of cheerful children, get sent back to the lab halfway through the season. (The In-Universe reason is that the humans of Section 9 are worried that the Tachis' emerging self-awareness will negatively impact their performance in battle.) Shortly afterwards, the hunt for the Laughing Man heats up, with several characters nearly dying. Interestingly, the Tachikomas return for the final three episodes, yet this makes the story even more grim: we find out that while they were away, all but three of the Tachikomas died. And the remaining three pull off a very touching Heroic Sacrifice to save Batou. Though being robots whose AIs operate their bodies remotely, the deaths are temporary.
• Gintama: Most characters (especially the main characters) seem to have the default reaction to flee before danger, leaving their comrades behind (often followed by a Taking You with Me moment), all played for the lulz of course. However, when there's a serious arc going on, that behaviour is forgotten and they strive to protect one another in battle.
• Gundam
  • The movies of Mobile Suit Gundam remove the more "Super Robot" elements of the series, such as the G-Armor and some of the goofier enemy mobile armors.
  • Gundam ZZ: The first half of the series was infamous amongst Gundam fans for being incredibly lighthearted and silly, especially when compared to the dark finale of it's previous series Zeta Gundam. However, after a certain point midway through the series, it once again picked up its Tomino style gritty atmosphere. Fun characters Mashymre and Chara are left behind in space, then when they return late in the series, their heads have been messed with.
    • One of the more infamous episodes in ZZ's first half is the Moon Moon two-parter, where the heroes encounter a Wacky Wayside Tribe living in an abandoned colony Mondo (one of Those Two Guys) falls in love with a girl he meets there. The latter half of the show has an episode where the Moon Moon characters show up again, with Mondo's love interest dying seemingly just to show how much he's grown since the days of slacking off and casually debating handing his friends over to Neo Zeon just because he doesn't want to be a part of the war.
  • Gundam Build Divers: Nanami, who worked at The Gundam Base where Riku and his friends went to play GBN. She doesn't play, but was a source of comedy for the first few episodes. As the threat of the Mass-Divers picks up, her role decreases until episode 9, which shoves her away completely.
  • SD Gundam Force: During the climactic Neotopia Invasion arc of Season 1, which heralds the physical reveal of Commander Sazabi, the Zako soldiers cease to perform the Zako-Zako Hour or announce the episode titles, only briefly returning in the epilogue of the season finale, and most other comical characters, including the Goldfish Poop Gang (knocked out and trapped in the wreckage of Big Zam until the Zakos free them in the aforementioned epilogue), Guneagle (shot down by Big Zam, though he pulls a Big Damn Heroes to save Captain in the finale), and the Gundivers (drained of energy to activate the Captain System) are also sidelined for the majority of the arc.
• High School D×D: When Lovable Sex Maniac Issei stops his constant and shameless pervert antics, you know something serious is going down. Then gloriously subverted at the end of Volume 4/Anime Season 2, when Azazel uses his love of breasts to get Issei motivated far better than the villain threatening his friends and family ever did. Vali can't believe it either.
• Kiddy Grade: There is notably less fanservice as the plot becomes far more serious starting at around episode 8.
• Averted in Kill la Kill, where comic relief Mako not only remains a major character to the end of the series, but continues to be a complete Cloudcuckoolander, partaking in her usual fast-paced comedy no matter how serious and grave the situation becomes.
• Inverted with Tommy/Bucky and Coco/Pauly from Kimba the White Lion. In the original manga and 1997 movie, both are present as Kitty's dying of an unnamed plague. The duo alongside Dan'l Baboon/Daniel Baboon/Mandy Mandrill can only watch on and sadly bow their heads. In general, Bucky and Pauly's comedic nature gets toned down as the manga and 1997 movie gets darker and sadder.
• Lyrical Nanoha does one for Force, the series' Darker and Edgier and Bloodier and Gorier season. One of the scenes shown in its preview manga is Nanoha going off to help in the latest Incident and saying goodbye to her Cheerful Child of a daughter, Vivio, who is the star of the Lighter and Softer Spin-Offspring, ViVid.
• Justified in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Lucoa is a member of the spectator faction, which means that she's an All-Powerful Bystander by definition and tends to make herself scarce whenever the darker elements of the plot show up.
• Monster: Otto Heckel — the irreverent small-time crook who spend his days planning to profit off of Tenma's surgical skills in the black market — disappears when the series' focus on child abuse becomes too serious for Plucky Comic Relief. He barely avoids being consigned to a Long Bus Trip when he briefly reappears at the end of the series.
• Naruto: The first few episodes were punctuated by several silly Running Gags, including Gender Bending-induced Nose Bleeds and gastrointestinal malfunction. These stopped getting used very quickly, and haven't shown up in years (save for one guest appearance at the beginning of Part II as a humorous callback to the early days of the series). Fillers, however, have taken those one-off gags from nearly a decade ago and are still running with them whenever some Padding is called for — making for a rather weird inter-franchise example of Never Live It Down.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • The show's full dourness was foreshadowed in Episode 22 with the last proper appearance of Kensuke, one of the series' main providers of comedic relief, and the last appearance of the school setting, which had been the background for quite a few of the series' lighthearted moments, altogether. Kensuke's last bit of dialogue with Hikari, who herself would also pretty much stop appearing after the very next episode, has them discussing the fact Shinji, Asuka, and Rei haven't been showing up at school for weeks must mean that things have gotten very serious, which can easily be read as commentary on the series' gradual change in tone. Finally, the show's cute mascot penguin, Pen-Pen, is Put on a Bus in Episode 24, which is also where pretty much every main character are about their lowest points.
  • In Evangelion 3.0, the third movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion series, most of humanity is dead, which means much of the comic relief, i.e. Shinji's classmates, are probably dead. Pen-Pen the penguin is nowhere to be found. It's safe to assume he's dead too. It's not so much Shoo Out the Clowns as Kill All the Clowns, and Then Some.
• One Piece:
  • Purposefully averted. According to Word of God, he gave Luffy rubber powers specifically so that, no matter how serious things got, at least one "silly" element (the rubber band snapping sound that happens when Luffy uses those powers) would be guaranteed to be in effect at pretty much all times. Ironically, Luffy at a point invents a new fighting technique called Gear 2nd which essentially allows him to move so fast that you can't see his limbs stretching. With one of his attacks, Gum-Gum Pistol, he stretches his arm extremely long and punches the opponent. In the Gear 2nd version of this, he simply holds his hand in front of himself without stretching and then, at a speed invisible to normal (and readers') eyes, he stretches it and punches the opponent. So, you don't actually see his arm becoming comically long, you just see the opponent being blasted back, and hence, Gear 2nd is more action-esque and less silly than his usual fighting style, and he uses Gear 2nd more often than his old style nowadays. The story balances its tone evenly, with ultra-heavy exceptions in a handful of arcs.
    • With Luffy’s Gear 3rd and Gear 4th abilities, the silliness comes back in full force, as well as a massive increase in power. For 3rd Gear, he can inflate his body parts to comically large sizes in order to deal massive damage and take down giants. Initially, this comes with the hilarious side-effect of shrinking Luffy afterwards, but that stopped happening after the Time Skip. Gear 4th's "Boundman" form is very intimidating and is apparently based on a Nio Statue, a fearsome guardian deity. At the same time, Luffy is very big and rotund in this form, obviously meant to offset the seriousness with silliness.
    • This is then taken to its apex with Luffy's ultimate transformation, Gear 5th, in which he basically full-on becomes a western-style cartoon character. He becomes stronger in proportion to how much fun he's having at the time, and his fighting style is based on how not only he fully adheres to Cartoon Physics lifted straight from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but how he can force anything or anyone he interacts with to do so as well.
  • Double subverted with the serious fight between Luffy and Usopp. Usopp, while acting more seriously than he had ever been up until this point, still relies on the same dirty tricks he used as comic relief, but they are actually somewhat effective against Luffy, at least temporarily.
    Usopp: This is how I fight!
  • Nevertheless played straight during the Enies Lobby arc, as resident cute animal sidekick Chopper is taken out of the action for most of the back half of the arc after activating Monster Point and going berserk, forcing Franky to take him down before he does any more damage to himself or the tower they're fighting in. During the stretch of time when he's unconscious, Sanji and Zoro have one-on-one fights with two of the more powerful members of CP9, and then nearly drown alongside Nami, Usopp, and Chopper himself, the Buster Call arrives to Enies Lobby and starts destroying the island, seemingly killing the Franky Family and the Galley-La Company, Spandam relentlessly assaults and berates a captive Nico Robin and reveals his father initiated the Buster Call that destroyed her island and wiped out her people, and Luffy is locked in a life-or-death battle against Rob Lucci, the strongest and by far most murderous member of CP9.
• Penguindrum: While the Penguins haven't disappeared, their presence is less and less noticed as the series goes into Mind Screw territory.
• Photon: The Idiot Adventures: When the Big Bad reveals himself and explains how he's been manipulating the protagonists just to alleviate his own boredom, he begins by curbstomping the Laughably Evil villain Papacharino who thought he was the Big Bad, then tells him to get lost.
  Emperor I enjoyed having you as my jester, but this next scene is a bit too serious for you.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Starting in Pokémon the Series: Black & White, lifetime comedy relief Team Rocket Took a Level in Badass, becoming significantly more competent and foregoing most of the puns and gloating they're known for. They also shift to more espionage and behind the scenes villainy versus ridiculous traps and grand schemes, and even give up on chasing Pikachu, making their run ins with Ash and company purely coincidental. They also got rid of all of their old Pokemon, leaving them behind at the headquarters. By the end of the Black and White saga, Wobbuffet rejoins the team, signifying that the Team Rocket Trio goes back to being comedy relief once more.
  • The XY Mega Evolution specials featured Maron as a supporting comedic character. The last one has her appearance reduced and the catalyst for kicking off the XY&Z series is related to her Chespin falling ill from coming in contact with the Zygarde Core. She doesn't even appear until the series is nearing its denouement.
  • The Sun and Moon series' introduction of Gladion as a more serious rival only features the classmates at the Pokémon Academy in one scene in the entire episode; and the roles of other comedic supporting characters such as Team Rocket and the recurring Team Skull grunts are downplayed as well. The episode which had Litten join Ash's team is also significantly lighter on jokes and comedic moments especially when it's heavily implied that the elder Stoutland has died. The normally-colorful animation also takes on a more muted palette, and even Team Rocket can't bring themselves to try any of their schemes when they find out about what happened. The usual color scheme and upbeat tone don't return until the end of the episode.
  • Similarly, Team Rocket and the classmates don't appear at all for their next meeting, and the comical Pokémon of Ash's team such as Rowlet are left behind in episode 47 which reveals the reason Type: Null was created and the root of Lillie's fear of touching Pokémon being linked to an accident involving Nihilego that she has repressed memories of.
  • The 1,000th episode has most of the comedic side characters absent after Ash and Lillie are teleported away by Nebby, and much of the second half of the episode takes place in a darkened laboratory with a much more serious tone which not only confirms the events of episode 47; but also adds the detail that Nihilego being unleashed from Ultra Space was the result of an experiment by Faba and he was trying to prevent Lillie from regaining her memories. The bright colors, classmates and usual tone don't make a return until the episode is almost over.
  • As Ash, Lillie and the classmates venture into Ultra Space to rescue Lusamine from Nihilego with the help of Solgaleo, Team Rocket is subdued by Bewear and taken out of the action until the conflict is resolved.
  • In the two-part 100th episode of the Sun & Moon series, the more comedic members of Ash's Pokémon as well as the Rotom Pokédex are left behind when Ash and Pikachu are transported to a parallel universe that has been heavily-ravaged by the Ultra Beast Guzzlord, turning the normally colorful setting into a dingy husk. The more comedic characters and bright colors don't return until the denouement of the second part.
  • Team Rocket are completely absent from the Poni Island arc, arguably the darkest of all the trials in the Sun and Moon series. Major plot points include the deaths of Hapu's grandfather and Mallow's mother, and their grief is dealt with in a fairly realistic fashion. Tapu Fini's mist also gives the setting a much more muted color palette, and the usual tone and color scheme don't return until this plot thread is resolved.
  • In Pokémon: I Choose You!, Team Rocket plays a comedic supporting role in the movie; and the characters are absent from the final battle on the peak of Mt. Tensei between Ash, Cross and an army of Brainwashed and Crazy Pokémon under the control of Marshadow, not returning until after the conflict is resolved.
  • Similarly, in Pokémon: The Power of Us, Team Rocket helps make a medicine capsule during the climax after spending most of the movie as comedic supporting characters; and are largely absent from the finale after that. More comedic supporting characters of the film such as Callaghan and Harriet also shed their jokier qualities after it's revealed that the latter lost her Snubbull in a fire and burned her hand 50 years prior to the film's events.
  • In Pokémon: Secrets of the Jungle, Team Rocket is largely absent from the third act after freeing Ash, Pikachu and Koko from captivity right before the final battle in the forest and Koko's subsequent confrontation with Dr. Zed.
• Prétear: In the beginning of the first episode two-part finale, the show's two biggest comic relief (Yayoi, Himeno's friend at school, and the long-suffering bald butler Tanaka) are shown caught up in a crowd of desperately fleeing townspeople. Tanaka even tries to get back to the family but is unable to do so. Neither are seen again until the happy ending, where all of the Running Gags in the show are given one final hurrah.
• Reborn! (2004): Lambo (who provides most of the humor) is asleep or unconscious during the more serious battles. The Running Gags also appear more rarely or simply stop appearing when things get serious. One of the more notable examples: the most common running gag was Tsuna's uselessness, which disappears progressively as he takes various levels in badass throughout the series. There is one special exception right before the final battle. After a whole arc of drama and horrible things, there is a scene where Tsuna's box weapon is bullied by Gokudera's, hilarity ensues. Gamma then lampshades it complaining how it looks more like a school trip than the planning of a war. Reborn replies it is because of that easygoing attitude that they've been able to make it so far.
• Rideback does this in episode 10, when the mostly comedic Suzuri is killed by an act of police brutality.
• Sort of a reverse occurred in Sailor Moon. The Outer Senshi, serious characters who represent the pragmatic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, introduced in the "dark" S season, were completely forgotten in the "goofy" and "childish" SuperS season, only to return when the series again took a darker turn in the Stars season. On the other hand, Chibi-Usa, the star of the SuperS season and one of the main sources of its childishness and goofiness, was Put on a Bus in the Stars season and was not seen again.
  • Played straight in S as well - when the members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad and the increasingly silly Monster of the Week are all dispatched, the anime shuts off its Silliness Switch. Several major points:
    • R: When Usagi runs into Ali and En's apartment, immediately the Makaiju start to take themselves seriously.
    • S: When Eudial and Mimete battle the Sailor Scouts, the monsters get increasingly goofy as time goes on. But once Mimete is gone? The series immediately turns off its Silliness Switch, with the exception of the Witches 5 door being changed to "Witches 3" clumsily.
    • Super S: Almost literal, given that the villains of the arc are a circus.
    • Stars: Aluminum Siren's death signals the end of those silly Phages.
• Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry: The sudden end of the previously happy, hopeful first episode fits this. Colin, Mary, even Sedi? Their names only lived on to be screamed out by Sara against the injustice of the world.
• In The Summer You Were There, Shizuka Hoshikawa, the older sister of protagonist Shizuku Hoshikawa, is the closest thing the story has to a comic relief character, being energetic and cheerful. When Shizuku's girlfriend Kaori collapses and is hospitalized in Chapter 15, midway through, Shizuka appears significantly less, with her conversation with Kaori after the event being mentioned later. Shizuka's only major appearance after that is to go on a hiking trip with Shizuku in Chapter 19, during which Shizuku comes to understand how much her family cares for her.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: When Kamina dies in a blaze of glory, much of the humor is gone from the series. Kittan takes up most of the humor left, then HE dies in a blaze of glory. Nia takes some humor, but it's more because she can be pretty ditzy. Then SHE dies after marrying Simon (well, not so much "dies" as "is erased from existence"). Violently killing off the recurring cast before the Grand Finale is almost a law for Humongous Mecha series. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, therefore, obeys this with episode 24, although in TTGL style this is done with flair. Jougen and Barinbou, in particular, make a Heroic Sacrifice to save Gimmy and Darry, then they die laughing maniacally... and take out an Anti-Spiral fleet with their death.
• Trigun did this without even changing cast; though Meryl and Millie are left behind at times, that didn't necessarily foreshadow drama, which occurred as often with them present. The change was wholly in Vash's character. In the lighthearted episodes his hamminess and spastic reactions reinterpreted what might have been heroic acts into lucky buffoonery. The episodes where scariness shines off his glasses or eyes glow, Anyone Can Die. Later in the series, even when he attempts to play the fool, he's quickly overtaken by Wangst.
• Wandering Son: Sasa is the ditz of the series, and was one of the recurring main characters. While she still appeared often, she appeared less once the manga hit middle school. The series did however introduce some new, and rather goofy, characters.
• Your Name experiences a sharp, though not total, drop in comedy elements after The Reveal.
• YuYu Hakusho: "When the going gets tough, don't be in the final season!" - Christopher Sabat on why Kuwabara was not included in the final season. Botan, Koenma and George the Ogre were also absent. They were Back for the Finale, though.
  • Koenma's Bishōnen Sexier Alter Ego can be a downplayed example of this. Normally Koenma's appearance is that of a baby with a pacifier in his mouth, but in the Chapter Black arc, the darkest arc of the series, Koenma plays a very important role and spends most of the time in his adult form and his pacifier also gets destroyed midway, because it is difficult to have someone deliver dramatic moments when they look like a toddler without inducing frightening amounts of narm.

---