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Spared By The Adaptation / Anime & Manga
aka: Anime

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Spared by the Adaptation in Anime & Manga.

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Spared by the Anime

     A-M 
  • Akame ga Kill!:
    • In the manga Syura shows off his depravity by having Bol's wife and daughter raped and murdered. In the anime, he never meets them before he is killed. Also, the three village girls from a one-shot chapter are never raped and killed in the anime.
    • Also in the anime version, Run survives to the end of the series and lives to become the chief of security for the capitol. Whereas in the manga, he died and had his corpse remade into one of Kurome's People Puppets.
  • Many Historical Domain Characters were spared in The Ambition of Oda Nobuna, including Imagawa Yoshimoto (died 1560) and Saitou Dousan (died 1556), which are still there in the 1570s. Subverted by several Composite Characters; their namesakes may have died for a long time, but other characters that the characters were based on were still alive; such as Saitou Yoshitatsu—he died in 1561, but he's a composite together with his son Tatsuoki, which was still alive at the time.
  • The Area 88 OVA ends with Satoru Kanzaki arrested for tax evasion. In the manga, he gets away and antagonizes the heroes until he's finally shot down by Shin Kazama.
  • In the adaptation of "The Greatest Robot in the World" storyline from the 2003 Astro Boy anime, Pluto doesn't kill Epsilon (the Gender Flipped version of Photar), despite killing her equivalent in the original manga and previous TV shows. This allows Epsilon to return in several subsequent episodes.
  • Seiji the painter from the anime adaptation of Barefoot Gen, in the manga he died not long after Gen and Ryuta's visit, in the anime he survived and Gen and Ryuta promise to visit him in the future.
  • In Berserk (1997) Colette and her father Adolf are spared their grizzly and tragic fate from the manga version of the Black Swordsman arc i.e the former getting impaled by a undead warrior’s spear, getting her body possessed and killing her father before Guts has to cut her in two. Here since Puck getting abused by bandits is Adapted Out with Colette taking his place, Guts saves her along with Adolf (her grandfather in this version).
  • In Black Lagoon's manga, the final fight between Grey Fox and Roberta becomes a Mook Horror Show with almost all of the former being completely wiped out and Roberta escaping without a scratch (physically, at least). In the anime, the battle is much less one-sided: Grey Fox suffers several casualties but much less (and some are shown to be still-alive stretcher cases), and Roberta is almost killed in return to the degree that the plan to save Grey Fox in the manga becomes more about saving Roberta in the anime.
  • Bokurano:
    • In the manga, Kana Ushiro dies alongside all of the kids. In the anime, however, Ushiro and Youko team up to save her and undo her contract with Zearth; Youko manages to take her place as a pilot and kill Koyemshi, thus Kana survives the game.
    • Also Captain Seki, whose Heroic Sacrifice doesn't happen in the anime.
  • An odd variant is done in the anime adaptation of Case Closed. In the manga, the criminal is shot and killed and later turns out to be the sister of a character who joins the cast. In the anime she survives when Conan steps in, however she's just a random criminal. And then this is subverted... a whole episode is created to fix the potential plot-holes, and the woman actually dies in Conan's arms. And soon her sister shows up and joins the cast...
  • In the Claymore manga, out of the 24 Claymores sent to fight the Awakened beings of the North only seven survive, which is even more than expected as it was always considered a Suicide Mission by the Organization. In the anime Gecko Ending however it seems that the body count is much lower, as many Claymores are seen moving around after the battle, only six are seen dying and three more seems to have died offscreen, leaving 15 Claymores alive at the end of the day.
  • Code Geass: Shirley and Lelouch are spared their deaths in the Compilation Movie continuity. Played with in regards to Lelouch's survival in Lelouch of the Re;surrection. He still legitamately dies where the original story said he did, it's just that C.C. revived him out of guilt.
  • In the original Cutey Honey manga, Panther Claw's attack on Honey's school was a bloodbath, killing everyone except Honey (including Alphonne and Miharu, whose deaths were Played for Laughs). In the anime version, the only casualty was Natsuko, while the equivalent attack in Cutey Honey Flash resulted in no loss of life.
    • In most versions of the series, the plot is kicked off by the murder of Dr. Kisaragi, and Honey fights Panther Claw to avenge him. In Cutey Honey Flash, the Shoujo version, the plot is kicked off by the kidnapping of Dr. Kisaragi, and Honey fights Panther Claw to rescue him.
  • Death Note: Soichiro is not shown to die in the second Rewrite special due to the Mafia subplot being excised from it... leading to plotholes regarding his disappearance from the plot as well as how Light was able to acquire Mello's true name.
  • Delicious in Dungeon: Episode 2 adapts the manga chapter where the heroes rescue a pair of adventurers named Doni and Fionil from a basilisk. However, for pacing reasons, the Black Comedy gag showing that Fionil and Doni were then killed by man-eating plants a short time later is dropped.
  • Detective School Q
    • Since the anime adaptation ends after adapting half of the manga's total volumes, a certain character who dies at the end of the series is still alive: Dan Morihiko.
    • Maya Asabuki, one of the "Collector's Murder Case" victims, dies from a stab wound in the manga. In the anime, she is hit with a vase inside her dorm room and though it's believed that she was killed, it's shown that she survived and had to go Faking the Dead for a short while, so the culprit wouldn't attack her again.
  • Miki is famously killed and dismembered near the end of Devilman, but in the 1972 anime adaptation, she survives and gets a happy ending.
  • Digimon Adventure: (2020) sees Leomon survive the events of the anime, a notable first for the franchise as most incarnations typically see him killed off in various ways.
  • Technically done in Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time; During the Massive Multiplayer Crossover finale, Grani turns up to help Dukemon; he even combines with him, giving rise to Dukemon: Crimson Mode. This only happened in their own series, Digimon Tamers, because Grani was about to die and he gave up his life energy to help his friend Guilmon. They even uncombine afterwards.
  • A Dog of Flanders (1975): Patrasche's first owner, Ensor, is an alcoholic. In the original story by Oiuda, he died after getting into a fight while drunk, while in the anime he merely stops making an appearance after episode 21.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • A minor case, but during the epilogue to the Cell Saga that showcases Future Trunks finally saving his time, there's a moment where Androids 17 and 18 are shot at by a vengeful old man whose family was previously killed by the duo and is currently trapped under some debris. 17 decides to kill him, but Trunks then arrives and manages to destroy him and his sister in a Curb-Stomp Battle and is then shown helping the man out. In the original manga, 17 kills the man moments before Trunks arrives on the scene.
    • The anime could be said to have done this to Captain Ginyu as well - while the manga ignores him after he becomes a frog (implying he died when Namek exploded), the anime has him sent to Earth, where he causes trouble even after the Frieza Saga before he dies following Kid Buu's destruction of Earth...that is, until...
      • Dragon Ball Super ends up sparing Tagoma, one of Frieza's men in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', during its adaptation of said movie. Here, he ends up becoming a cold and ruthless monster after Frieza uses him as his personal four-month long punching bag. Upon arriving on Earth, he proves to be quite the fighter, even keeping the likes of Gohan and Trunks on his toes... then Ginyu returns and steals his body.
    • Broly is presumed dead at the end of Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan and Killed Off for Real at the end of Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming, and his clone likewise does not live through Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly. Broly has much better luck in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, where Cheelai uses the Dragon Balls to teleport him off planet before Gogeta can turn him into a smoking pile of ash, and he is last seen retiring peacefully back to planet Vampa.
  • In the anime adaptation of Elfen Lied, Lucy most likely survives the officers shooting at her but she loses one of her horns in the process, but in the original manga, she faces actual death by melting from overusage of her vectors during several battles.
  • In Eternal Sonata, Waltz and his agents all survive. Claves doesn't even appear.
  • In the anime version of Fairy Tail, Trinity Raven is last seen escaping from the Tower of Heaven, while in the manga, they were apparently still in it when it was destroyed, and Ikaruga is later brought Back from the Dead as a Historia, confirming their deaths.
  • Fate/Zero: In the original novel, Kotone is kidnapped and killed by Ryuunosuke and Caster. In the anime, Rin finds her and several other kidnapped children and helps them escape in time.
  • The Fist of the North Star TV anime series would often rewrite scenes depicting child mortality from the manga so that Kenshiro would show up to save the child at the last minute. Namely Bat's younger adoptive brother, Taki, who is shot by a ruffian while trying to retrieve water from a village, Aki, the kid who is chained to a giant rock by Jagi and left to die by dehydration in the middle of the desert, and Ryo, the kid who eats the poisoned bread in Shu's hideout during the Souther arc.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003):
    • Shou Tucker died in the manga very early, while he survives way past into the anime beyond the time of his death and makes it to the finale. Albeit considering his ultimate fate is being turned into a deranged and twisted chimera, one could say death would have been kinder.
    • There are a few subversions, such as Basque Grand's death being given a passing mention in the manga (he wouldn't be shown in person until a later flashback), but in the 2003 anime, he gets some characterization and dies onscreen. Then in Brotherhood, he doesn't get the same characterization, but dies onscreen and goes down fighting. Likewise, Marta survives the attack on Greed's base that killed her in the manga, but is killed by Bradley a few episodes later—in fact, she is killed in the exact same manner as the manga (stabbed while hiding inside Alphonse), whereas the other chimeras had their deaths changed from Bradley to Amestrian soldiers.
  • The pivotal scene of the Fuuka manga is that of the titular character being hit by a truck and killed, driving her boyfriend, the protagonist, into a Heroic BSoD followed by some vital Character Development. In the anime, the truck narrowly misses her instead. Word of God has given three reasons for the change: they didn't want the anime to have a Downer Ending; they didn't think they could adequately portray the effects of Fuuka's death within the remaining two episodes; and the crew members really wanted to see her survive.
  • Gantz O has a unique case with Anzu, who dies in the same place as she did in the manga, being ressurected at the end of the movie instead of the end of the Italy arc much later on.
  • By the end of the Getter Robo Go manga, Gai has been assimilated by the Shin Getter Robo, Kei has been rendered comatose after suffering severe brain damage, and Go, Ryouma and Tahir have sacrificed their lives to stop the Dinosaur Empire once and for all. In the Getter Robo Armageddon OVA series, it's Benkei and Hayato who sacrifice themselves alongside Ryouma, while Go, Kei and Gai all survive the final battle intact. Tahir, meanwhile, doesn't appear at all.
  • In Grenadier, Koto (a secondary character) is killed by the Big Bad (and fuels Rushuna's revenge against him). She survives in the anime.
  • Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics:
    • The stepmother in "Brother and Sister" has her power broken and ends up wandering the woods in a daze, but she doesn't get burned at the stake.
    • The older sisters in "Bearskin". In the original story, reduced to envy, they commit suicide and the Devil take their souls. Here they are clearly upset when they find out what they lost, but they don't actually kill themselves.
  • Ikkitousen heads towards Knight of Cerebus territory later on with several characters in the series killed off, but the anime held dear to the cast, keeping them all alive. With the exception of Ryofu and Ukitsu, that is.
  • Inazuma Eleven: Ares: Due to being meant to be an Alternate Continuity where "aliens never attacked the earth", one of the things that change in Ares compared to the original series is that Kira Hiroto, whose death is the main reason why the whole alien project happened in the first place, remains alive. He also takes a completely different appearance, It Makes Sense in Context why. Fubuki Atsuya is also spared of the avalanche accident which killed him in the original timeline.
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Nena is introduced as a beautiful young Indian girl, but actually turns out to be a fat, middle aged white woman who had used her Stand to kill the girl in question and steal her identity. In the OVA, Nena actually is the young Indian girl, as she's not evil and has no Stand powers in this continuity.
  • The 60s anime of Kimba the White Lion is the only edition of the original story that doesn't have the title character killed off.
  • The 3rd PSP game version of Macross Frontier does this to Michael who ends Only Mostly Dead twice in the UN Spacy route. But They Killed Alto instead! Those Bastards!
    • Bit of an ongoing theme due to his popularity. Even the movie version spared him.
  • Subverted in the case of Alcyone in Magic Knight Rayearth. She dies due to wounds inflicted by Umi in the manga, but in the anime she survives them and hangs around until almost the end, where she vanishes after being rejected by Zagato yet again. But then came MKR 2... where she ends up Brainwashed and Crazy thanks to Debonair. And when her brainwashing is undone, she spends some time as an Empty Shell... and then she's killed by Debonair.
    • Emmeraude dies in the original saga, but lives in Rayearth OVA.
  • Lori and Loru die in the original Mazinger Z manga and Mazinkaiser, but survive in Shin Mazinger.
  • Megalo Box is a retelling of Tomorrow's Joe rather than an adaptation, but both its Joe and its version of Tooru Rikiishi, Yuri, survive to the end of the show.
  • Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette mostly respects the deaths of the original book, but a few characters were spared, including Madame Thenardier, Gavroche and Javert. An odd case for the latter, since all the build-up to his suicide is still retained, but he decides against it at the last minute.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam:
    • Icelina Eschonbach's plotline of avenging Garma, which ended in her death, was cut in the Compilation Movies. She only has a few scenes, the last of which is just her reacting to Garma's death.
    • M'Quve retains more of his original role, but his final encounter with White Base is cut, mostly for otherwise being one of several plot-irrelevant battles involving Zeon prototype weapons, leaving his fate uncertain. The interquel manga Char's Deleted Affair: Portrait of a Young Comet goes with the idea M'Quve never saw White Base again, but still died in different circumstances (and piloting the same prototype mobile suit).
  • In a Gundam Evolve short set in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Quess Paraya (and by extension Chan Agi) are spared their deaths and Amuro interferes with Quess' rampage and is able to give her a Newtype-fueled Cooldown Hug.

     N-Z 
  • Thanks to the film only loosely adapting roughly the first quarter of the then unfinished manga, both Yupa and Teto are still alive at the end of the anime of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
  • Satsuki and Nanami, two minor characters in NEEDLESS who were gutted alive by Mio, were only humiliated in the anime.
  • One Piece also has a minor case early on during Buggy's introduction. When one of Buggy mistakenly believes that one of his crew is insulting his nose, he snaps and proceeds to blow the guy to smithereens with a cannonball. In the anime, Buggy is initially going to do the same thing, but manages to be persuaded in letting him live.
  • Though it's not strictly a death, the Team Rocket organization in Pokémon: The Series remains active well into the modern seasons, unlike every other evil team that appears. In the games, Team Rocket is disbanded at the end of Pokémon Red and Blue, and after brief revivals in Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, they never appear again outside of remakes.
  • The title character in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which is a loose adaptation of "The Little Mermaid".
  • In the anime finale of The Promised Neverland, Isabella survives and becomes the kids' guardian, whereas in the manga, she pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to save them from some demons.
  • The second Rei Ayanami still pulls a Heroic Sacrifice in Rebuild of Evangelion and ends up being swallowed alive by the Eldritch Abomination she was fighting - This time, however, her love interest and half-brother... sorta Shinji rips her directly out of the bastard and saves her life. The third movie then reveals that she survived, but is trapped inside the core of Unit-01 alongside the soul of Shinji's mother.
    • While the character didn't die in the original anime, Touji Suzuhara is saved from piloting Unit-03/Bardiel, which horribly crippled him. Instead Asuka was the test pilot, and "only" lost an eye. He did die in the manga despite not doing so in the anime, so Rebuild spares him that in general. The 3rd movie in the series apparently subverts this with everything indicating that he died anyway when the Third Impact wiped out most of humanity before being stopped. Then the fourth movie comes along and confirms he actually did survive Third Impact.
    • Several examples from Thrice Upon a Time, the fourth and final movie:
      • In End of Evangelion, Asuka was famously killed in a gruesome manner during the battle with the Mass Production EVAs. Here, she is instead captured and absorbed by EVA Unit-13, and part of the final conflict involves Shinji having to rescue her.
      • Likewise, Ritsuko was shot and killed by Gendo during End of Evangelion after her plan to activate NERV's self-destruct program failed. In Thrice, she immediately shoots Gendo during their final confrontation, and later escapes alongside the rest of the Wunder crew (sans Misato, who stays behind) before the ship's destruction.
      • The three NERV Bridge Bunnies from the original series, Maya, Aoba and Hyuga, were among those reduced to LCL fluid during the Third Impact scene in End of Evangelion. Here, they're among the Wunder crew evacuees who make it back to Village 3 before Gendo's Additional Impact takes hold.
      • The ending is similar to the manga ending mentioned below, with the entire planet undergoing a full Cosmic Retcon that resets everything and restores the human race. Asuka, Rei and Kaworu, all of whom died in the original TV series, are shown alive and well in the finale, and presumably the others who perished were also brought back.
  • Ultimately subverted in Romeo × Juliet. The series toys with the idea of the two defying the show's Foregone Conclusion, but in the end kills them off anyway.
    • Played straighter with the series's renditions of Lady Montague (Portia), Tybalt, Mercutio and Count Paris (Hermione).
  • Rosario + Vampire: Starter Villain Saizo Komiya in the manga was defeated by Moka but later on joins Anti-Thesis to try to get revenge, only to lose to Tsukune and then get beaten to death by Anti-Thesis for his failure. In the anime, Anti-Thesis is Adapted Out and Saizo doesn't die, instead ending up as an Adaptational Nice Guy who no longer harasses Tsukune and is shown to be a loving son to his parents.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • 1992 anime:
      • Jadeite, the Ayakashi Sisters, Mimete, the Amazon Trio (sort of...they become souls/dreams/some sort of spiritual light and go to Elysian rather than die outright), Queen Nehelenia and Sailor Galaxia. All of them are either purified (the Ayakashi Sisters and the Amazon Trio), trapped in a Fate Worse than Death (Jadeite and Mimete, though both presumably died later when the Dark Kingdom and Mugen School were destroyed), or brought to Heel Face Turns by Sailor Moon (Queen Nehelenia and Sailor Galaxia).
      • Professor Tomoe was killed in the manga, but saved in the anime (where he's just possessed). Since the next storyline required having Sailors Uranus and Neptune raising his daughter, he was quickly Put on a Bus at the start of the next season.
      • Spared by the Dub example: The second-to-last episode of the first season has the Inner Guardians killed off in brutal fashion in the original episode and reappear to Usagi as ghosts. The DiC version changes this to have the girls be "captured" instead and disappear into an unknown fate. This carries over into the next episode, where the instead of the guardians' ghosts appearing to help, they return as Big Damn Heroes in the nick of time and help Sailor Moon finish off Queen Beryl.
    • Sailor Moon Crystal:
      • Episode 3 spares Jadeite from being immolated by Sailor Mars, instead having him teleport away. Episode 5 spares Nephrite from Sailor Jupiter's wrath, teleporting away before being obliterated by her Jupiter Thunder attack. Episode 7 spares Zoisite from being sliced apart by Sailor Venus, surviving the slash and teleporting away, and Episode 10 spares Kunzite from being destroyed by the Sailor Planet Attack, instead revealing he and the other generals were brainwashed by Beryl and are nearly released from her control by the aforementioned Sailor Planet Attack. They still die later though, in Episode 12, in a variation of Redemption Equals Death. They just last longer than they did in the manga, and are given a redemption arc.
      • In the manga, Endymion apparently (the artwork is kind of unclear) disintegrates Motoki's friend Endou in order to steal his identity. In Crystal, he merely brainwashes Endou and makes him go away, which still allows Endymion to impersonate him.
  • Sakura Wars (2000): Ayame Fujieda survives the show, mainly because, unlike the game series, she doesn't make a Face–Heel Turn.
  • The Village Elder and Sanai in Samurai 7. Subverted with Heihachi. Surprising fans of the original movie, he was spared from being the first samurai to die, but he finally meets his end in episode 25.
  • Taroumaru in the School-Live! manga is a one-shot character, a puppy bitten by a zombie in a flashback who Megu-nee had to kick out. In the anime he appears chronologically later but is there from episode 1. He never even met Miki in the manga. Later subverted when a zombified Megu-nee bites him.
  • Duclis, a tiger-like creature from Slayers has two completely different backstories and fates in the novel and anime; in the anime, he's the friend and assistant to the prince Pokota who goes on a massive Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the name of their kingdom with the help of Zanaffar, a great beast. Despite all the chaos that occurs, he manages to survive, and flees. In the Light Novel series, he's a member of a cult that worships the world's almighty Big Bad, Shabranigdo, and he, along with almost all of the other members of the cult, winds up getting killed by Lina and her party.
  • Sonic X: One-shot character Molly pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Metarex trying to invade her home, and dies in an explosion. In the English dub, she "flies into space to help other planets fight the Metarex", and the shots of her ship exploding and Shadow standing by her grave are cut.
  • Soul Eater:
    • By the time the anime had ended, several characters had already died in the manga after the point where the anime diverged. In the anime, Arachne still died, but in a very different way, and all the others lived to the very end of the anime:
      • In both the manga and anime the Flying Dutchman is shown swearing to get revenge for his defeat after the battle on the Nidhogg. The manga had a mini-arc where he comes back and is killed by Blair; it was the first storyline of the manga that the anime did not adapt at all.
      • Joe Buttataki was killed in the manga by Justin, because Joe found out he was a mole. No such thing happened in the anime, and his role in general was completely different.
      • In the manga, Mifune died moments after losing his last fight with Black Star. In the anime, he still lost, but his injuries were Only a Flesh Wound and he instead surrenders.
      • In the manga, Mosquito tries to kill Noah, but is easily defeated and killed himself. In the anime, Noah was never introduced because his storyline in the manga had just started and Mosquito was shown in the credits to have survived his final battle.
    • A significantly larger number of characters fit into this trope retroactively, as they were alive in the manga when the anime was produced, survived to the end of the anime, then later died in the manga:
      • Near the end of the anime, Giriko abandons Arachnophobia for firing their weapons even though it might hit him. In the manga, he stayed loyal to them, continuing to fight the DWMA to avenge Arachne, which eventually leads to his death.
      • Medusa in the anime is a possible example. While she appeared to have died near the end of the anime, the end credits for the last episode show her snake form, implying she survived. This can be debated, as she earlier said she would not be able to survive transferring into a snake a second time, so this could just be a similar snake to the one she possessed the first time. When she later died in the manga, nothing from then on would even hint otherwise.
      • A minor example is Granny the reception attendant. In the manga, she helped fighting alongside with Kid during the battle on the Moon showing how tough she is. Unfortunately, she gets killed by Justin Law. In the anime, she had a much smaller role and we only saw her face in a Continuity Cameo. It's unsure if she's still around at the end of the anime.
      • In the anime Justin turns out to be exactly what he appears, and lives. In the manga, we find out he's really evil (as the first part of the entry implies) and he later dies fighting the DWMA.
      • In the manga it's revealed Kid unlocking his full power and becoming the next Grim Reaper will cause the previous reaper to die, which happens shortly thereafter. Said event does not happen in the course of the anime, and given the anime was made before said revelation it's unknown if it would have the same result.
      • Crona and Ragnarok end the anime alive and well, having ended their Heel–Face Revolving Door on the side of the DWMA. In the manga, if they technically died is highly debatablespoiler and depends whether you interpret that Maka will make good on her promise to rescue Crona at manga's end or whether they will stay trapped for the remainder of human history. If nothing else, Crona and Ragnarok were spared the fate of becoming trapped alongside Asura for an indeterminate length of time.
  • In the movie compilation of Space Battleship Yamato, the mutiny of Yasu (Sparks) and several other crew members who wish to stay on Iscandar is omitted, meaning that they naturally don't die in the film version.
  • Chun-Li's father is still alive (albeit hospitalized and in a coma) the last time we see him in Street Fighter II V.
  • Tales of Symphonia: The Animation is extremely compressed due to having to fit forty hours of gameplay into ten episodes' worth of anime screentime, leading them to combine the Dragons' Nest and Rodyle's Human Ranch into the same encounter. Since it takes place in the Dragons' Nest and not underwater, this has the effect of nullifying any need for Botta to make a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The second Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann movie doesn't kill off the Mauve Shirt members of the Gurren gang (specifically, Jorgun, Balinbow, Kidd, Iraak, Zorthy, and Makken), re-drawing them into the scenes that occur afterwards.
  • The anime adaptation of The Three Musketeers spares Constance from her fate from the original novel, where she was murdered by Milady de Winter as a petty way of getting some revenge on d'Artagnan. Constance instead survives the entirety of the anime, and even ends up with d'Artagnan in the end.
  • Toriko's Big Good Ichiryu's battle with Midora initially has the same outcome in both the manga and anime...until the manga kills Ichiryu off via a Blue Nitro after Midora spares him.
  • Transformers: ★Headmasters depicts Prowl as being alive and well, as does Transformers Victory with Wheeljack, despite both those characters dying in The Transformers: The Movie. This may be due to the latter's delayed Japanese release (it came out after Victory in 1989). A retcon decades later would explain this; Prowl and Wheeljack did die, but were replaced by doppelgangers from an alternate universe.
  • In Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever, Shirou Takamachi was killed while working as a bodyguard before Nanoha was born. While the incident that killed him still occurred in Lyrical Nanoha, it happened several years later and he was merely hospitalized for a few months.
  • In the Trigun Maximum manga, the character Descartes (a boomerang-wielding thug who originally appeared in the anime) winds up being impaled on his own weapon by Grey the Nine-Lives. As he never appears in the anime again after his debut, it can assumed that in that version he survived.
  • In Uma Musume, the 1998 Tenno Sho is adapted with a less tragic outcome. In the anime, Silence Suzuka breaks her leg mid-race and ends up hospitalized with what may be a Career-Ending Injury. The real horse was not so fortunate, and had to be euthanized due to the severity of his injuries. As such, it's a Lighter and Softer version of what can happen to race horses.
  • Vinland Saga bases its backstory on The Icelandic Sagas, especially The Saga of the Jomsvikings. In said saga, the Jomsviking band is destroyed at the end, while in Vinland Saga the band is still present and active some twenty years later.
  • The Dragonslayers in the movie's adaptation of The Vision of Escaflowne.
  • In Voltron, Sven luckily survived through the series thanks to his character's popularity with the audience and due to the broadcast standards at the time. Sven's counterpart in the original GoLion series was killed off six episodes in and then replaced by a Backup Twin, who was also later killed.
  • A one-episode character of xxxHOLiC who's a pathological liar dies as a result of being unable to break her bad habit after Yuko gives her a ring (which gets dirtier the more she lies), but in the anime version she lives and learns a lesson from it.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi's classmate Imori challenges him to a dangerous game called Dragon Cards (Dragon Block in the Toei anime), where the loser's soul is stuck in a jar and slowly devoured by the dragons inside. After Imori loses to Yami in the manga, his soul is lost to the jar, leaving him possibly unable to recover. The anime changes this so that only the evil half of Imori's soul is taken away, allowing him to continue living as a better person.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters:
    • Pegasus J. Crawford/Maximillion Pegasus; after his defeat, Evil Bakura plucks out his Millennium Eye. In the manga, this kills him. In the anime, it merely knocks him out and he is almost immediately Put on a Bus as his henchmen get him to a hospital to recover. Not only does he survive in time for the filler arcs and movies, but he is also a major Recurring Character in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
    • "Bandit" Keith Howard is another example. In the manga, he threatens Pegasus with a knife demanding the prize money. Pegasus uses his Millenium Eye to create a Penalty Game by turning Keith's hand into a gun and "killing" himself with it. In the anime, Keith uses a gun instead for the same reason only to fall into the trapdoor and into the ocean. He returns later under the control of Marik. In the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga, Keith is also revived by Tenma.
    • Gozaburo Kaiba was a character who still perished, but at a much later date. In the manga, he was a Posthumous Character who had been Driven to Suicide after Seto wrested control of KaibaCorp. In the anime, he suffered a heart attack instead, but his mind was downloaded into his special virtual world, where he was later the Big Bad of the Virtual Nightmare Arc; at the end of which, he and the other villains of that arc were deleted permanently when the Virtual World was destroyed.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V's English dub, Sergey falls off the dueling track, and Jack says that they'll meet again, implying that Sergey's fall won't be lethal. In the original, Jack says no such thing as Sergey falls. The dub also cuts out Sergey's final fate: he does survive the fall, but is beaten to death by rioters soon after.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, a minor character named Sergio performs a Heroic Sacrifice, risking his life to help Kiryu and his kids escape the slavery mines. After asking Kiryu to watch over his children, he falls into the abyss and is killed. But the English dub cuts the fall, and Jack later says that he was found alive.
  • Genkai in YuYu Hakusho passes away in the last chapter of the manga, but lives until the end of the series in the anime (ignoring her death and resurrection in the Dark Tournament saga).
  • The anime adaptation of The World Ends with You does this in the final episode with minor characters Sota and Nao. In the game, Nao succumbs to wounds by Taboo Noise, and Sota dies because he's Nao's partner and when she dies, he dies. While this still happens in the anime, the final chapter has Joshua, the Composer resurrect them when he resurrects Neku. This also applies to 777, BJ, and Tenho, slain by Reapers and Konishi.
Spared by the Manga
     A-M 
  • In the manga adaption of Another, Akazawa Izumi does not die, despite dying in the original novel version and the anime adaptation.
  • Pretty much the case for Attack on Titan: Junior High, since nearly every character who's died in Attack on Titan is perfectly fine in this alternate universe, except for Frieda Reiss, who shows up as a ghost.
  • In the Big Hero 6 manga Tadashi doesn't die in a fire, he gets sucked into a portal while trying to help Robert Callaghan bring Abigail back. Hiro believes that he could be alive in Another Dimension but Baymax confirmed that he wasn't in the Acid-Trip Dimension where they found Abigail.
  • In Breath of Fire IV Fou-lu either is absorbed into or absorbs Ryu in a Split-Personality Merge in the original video game (depending on which of the Multiple Endings one ultimately selects). The manga adaptation went for a Third-Option Adaptation which not only managed to incorporate both the Bad and Good Ends but ultimately ended with a failed Split-Personality Merge and Fou-lu's ultimate survival (if in a Brought Down to Normal state).
    • There is quite a lot of Wild Mass Guessing as to why this is the case - one persistent rumour is that the manga was deliberately set up for either a video-game or manga sequel to Breath of Fire IV (especially considering that Capcom is talking of reviving the franchise and directed the Comic-Book Adaptation in the first place). This would fit with the other, rather extensive changes made to the manga's end - which, up till that point, largely followed the plot of the game save for some All There in the Manual stuff from the artbook that was included in the manga.
  • Code Geass:
  • All the characters who die in Cross Ange live in Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Gakuen. Even Embryo.
  • DARLING in the FRANXX:
    • Hiro and Zero Two, who went out in a blaze of glory in the anime, were spared in the manga as a result of the Klaxosaur Princess targeting one of the Nines' FRANXX instead of Strelitzia.
    • Likewise, Alpha and Delta survived in the manga due to the rest of the Nines bailing them out while fighting the Klaxosaur Princess as well as the VIRM being Demoted to Extra.
  • Dragon Ball: Bardock is a very odd subversion in the 3-chapter spin-off manga, History of Bardock. He survives Frieza's attack, but winds up going back in time. The manga gives no indication that he ever returns to his own time, meaning that he'll die long-before any of the events in the official series.
  • Fate/stay night:
    • In the manga adaptation, Shinji Matou lives compared to his VN and Anime counterpart (Excluding the Unlimited Blade Works route where he lives).
    • In Today's Menu for the Emiya Family, The fifth Holy Grail War ends with no casualties. This spares the lives of all participants save True Assassin, who is instead Adapted Out.
  • In the Fire Emblem Engage manga, Lumera isn't killed by the cloaked person and instead falls into a coma by having exhausted her energies.
  • The manga adaptation of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories spared Repliku from his heart-wrenching fate, but not his angst, and it played it for comedy! Poor kid can't catch a break, eh?
  • Kingdom Hearts II:
    • Jafar survives the events of Agrabah instead of blowing up, but he is now eternally trapped in his lamp in a sealed-off concrete box in the dungeon.
    • Subverted with Demyx. He never shows up to the Battle of the 1000 Heartless to fight Sora like in the game, but he gets killed off later when they fight in The World That Never Was.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Argorok was killed in his battle with Link. In the manga, pulling the Mirror Shard from his armor turns him into a harmless wyvern.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT, Precia, Alicia, Linith, Reinforce Eins, Quint, Due, Granz, Clyde, and Tiida are all alive and well (although the last two never actually appear on screen).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Rebellion: The manga adaptation of the Stardust Memory OVA changes around a lot of characters' fates.
    • When Kelly Layzer and Kou Uraki finally come to blows, Layzer ultimately can't bring himself to fight with the same killing intent he had in the OVA. Uraki himself ends up sparing Layzer before he's rescued by Gato and brought into the remnants. After a Heel–Face Turn, Kelly returns to the moon and his wife, celebrating the birth of his child.
    • Lucette Audevie is taken hostage in the OVA and killed by Commander Nakato. The theft of the GP03 plays out differently and the fatal shooting doesn't occur; Lucette makes it out of the story unscathed.
    • Cima Garahou and Kou do not have an emnity in this version as it's not her who kills Kou's mentor. As such they team up in the final battle and when the Federation betrays Cima, she fakes her death. She and her surviving marines go into hiding and join a Jupiter based corporation.
    • Deatroaf Kocsel is killed in the OVA when Gato smashes the bridge of the ship he's on and he's sucked out into space. Gato does the same in the manga but Kocsel was not part of the boarding party and is not killed. He seemingly sacrifices himself by using the Lili Marleen to block the Solar System II's blast but the final chapters reveals that he survived, albeit with many injuries, and accompanied Cima to Jupiter.
  • In Moriarty the Patriot, an adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes canon, Sherlock Holmes saves Professor Moriarty's life in The Final Problem instead of killing him.
  • In the My-HiME manga, Natsuki's mother Saeko is alive, as well as the Arc Villain for the volume between Nagi's defeat and the Obsidian Lord's arrival.
  • In the My-Otome manga, Erstin Ho survives.
     N-Z 

Alternative Title(s): Anime

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