Spiritual Antithesis in Anime & Manga.
- Studio Gainax media:
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was this to Neon Genesis Evangelion (bonus points for being made by the same people) and its own Spiritual Predecessor Space Runaway Ideon.
- FLCL is another Spiritual Antithesis to Evangelion, also created by the same people — according to rumors, many people who just finished working on End of Evangelion felt down and wanted to create something crazy and optimistic to cheer themselves up.
- GaoGaiGar is the first reconstruction of Super Robot genre after Evangelion - it celebrated and embraced the same tropes Evangelion criticized or outright rejected. And GaoGaiGar has its own counterpart in Betterman, a horror/drama show set in the same world.
- Tiger & Bunny might be this for Darker than Black - both are takes on Super Hero genre that have superhumans glowing blue while using their powers, but the former has much more idealistic take than the latter, which is much more cynical and prefers Not Wearing Tights and an antiheroic variety. Neither works go into extremes - just like Darker than Black stays on the cynical side but acknowledges existence of idealism, Tiger & Bunny is very optimistic, but has few shades of cynicism on it.
- Some of Makoto Shinkai's works have strong contrasts with each other:
- Voices of a Distant Star and 5 Centimeters per Second - while the former is about love that survives despite great (as in, cosmic) distance between two people, the latter says that not every love can be that strong and sometimes separated people grow apart from each other.
- The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Children Who Chase Lost Voices - the former says that love can prevail and unite people against all odds, but the latter reminds the viewer that there is one barrier that nothing can break - death.
- Your Name in turn affirms the views of Voices and Place while rejecting those of Centimeters and Children - even when the universe itself seems bent on separating people and making them forget each other, love will eventually prevail and no barrier is insurmountable - not distance, not time, and not even death.
- Your Name is itself contrasted with Shinkai's immediate next film, Weathering With You. Both films involve a rural and a Tokyo-based urban protagonist, with the former fleeing rural life in favour of Tokyo only to find it not as glamorous as thought to be, as well as a strong fantastic element, but their end results are vastly different. Taki falls in love enough not only with Mitsuha but also with Itomori and its people that he saves them all from Tiamat; Hodaka loves Hina but has little affection for the city that is apathetic at best to his plight and chooses to let it drown to get her back.
- WataMote could be considered the opposite of The World God Only Knows. In both shows the main characters are big geeks and supremely talented in the field of dating sims and visual novels, but whereas Tomoko is despised for this and desperately seeks love and attention (to a creepy degree), Keima isn't affected by his geekiness and couldn't care less about being popular in real life.
- WataMote can also only be one to Lucky Star. Konata is a beautiful Otaku Surrogate girl who is Wrong Genre Savvy, playing life as it if were a dating sim, yet despite this is well liked, very social, and has plenty of friends. Tomoko, meanwhile, is an unattractive girl with greasy, unkempt hair, who is very crude and crass. Her social awkwardness, massive ego, and being Wrong Genre Savvy has led to her having only about one real friend. Very much unlike Konata, she constantly seeks attention from the opposite sex, and plays Otome Games rather than Galge. Tomoko is a more realistic depiction of what a female otaku is like rather than idealized surrogate girls like Konata.
- Yoshiyuki Tomino likes to follow up his dark and depressing series with their opposites - Zambot 3 was followed by Daitarn 3, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam by Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, and Space Runaway Ideon by Combat Mecha Xabungle.
- The Gundam franchise in general (even the Lighter and Softer entries to a degree) is an antithesis of what Gene Roddenberry's work in Star Trek represented. If there are strange new worlds to see in the Universal Century for instance, expect them to have a lot of the same problems we deal with on Earth.
- Gundam is originally the antithesis to the formulaic Super Robot Genre. Before Gundam, giant robots were unique creations that only the Chosen One could operate, said person usually being the son of the scientist creator. These robots were endowed with almost magical abilities that would defeat the enemy every time. Gundam turned giant robots into mass produced military hardware that had realistic utilitarian designs, plausible limitations, and stayed in the realm of hard science. Also, fight was not between Earth's defenders and an evil alien empire. Instead, the conflict was between future Earth political groups, none of which were completely good or evil.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory is often compared to Top Gun for its many similar characters and scenes, but its extremely cynical attitude toward the military and politics is basically one big Take That! to the entire value system behind the latter.
- Satoshi Kon's first two films Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress are wonderful examples of this trope as well as Spiritual Successor. Both films look into female figures in the entertainment industry and the admirers that follow them. However, where as the former aims to be Deconstruction of idol culture, as well as a dark critique on patriarchal standards and Fanservice attitude towards women, the latter is a far more lighthearted, sentimental look at the idea of admiring such a famous figure, and an overall more positive depiction of having a massive parasocial relationship with their work. Both films also feature Kon's penchant for Mind Screw as well as Postmodernism, granted Perfect Blue does it for a more haunting effect, where as Millennium Actress feels more introspective. Yet, ironically, the former ends on a note of Earn Your Happy Ending where as the latter ends with a Bittersweet Ending.
- If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die can also can be considered one and a Lighter and Softer Spiritual Successor to Perfect Blue. Both are a deep dive exploration into the relationship between the Idol Singer and their fans. However, while Perfect Blue is a disturbing look into the institution and how dangerous such an environment can get even after one leaves, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It To The Budokan I Would Die celebrates the life style and culture of idol fandom, showing the heartfelt devotion stans have for their favorite idols.
- Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star; both are Space Opera shows about a Cool Starship crewed by a Ragtag Band of Misfits and both were made by the same production company around the same time. The former is gritty, cynical, minimalistic in its Science Fiction trappings, and shows that In the End, You Are on Your Own; the latter is shiny, idealistic, favors a Speculative Fiction kitchen sink, and comes down on the side of the Power of Friendship. Put musically, Bebop is Jazz, Star is Power Metal.
- Another antithesis to Bebop is Space☆Dandy, made by the same creator. While Bebop is a heavy, realistic look at a 90s cyberpunk future where space travel has only gone so far, Dandy is a call back to Silver age 50s idealistic sci-fi where the possibilities are endless. Bebop focuses on humans and stays mostly on Earth, Dandy has a wide variety of aliens and robots, and doesn't go anywhere near Earth. Bebop has a strong sense of continuity, Dandy's main cast dies in every other episode. Bebop is mostly grays and blues, Dandy is every color it can get it's hands on. If Bebop is Jazz, Dandy is Rock & Roll and Disco.
- The two Animated Adaptations of Nekojiru are opposites of one another, and how they depict their source material: the earlier animated short series takes the more mundane stories and focuses on the scathing satirical elements, while the OVA compiles the bizarre, fantastic elements into one Big Damn Movie.
- As part of the science adventure series, Robotics;Notes provides a contrast to both Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head. Setting-wise, the former series takes place on a rural island as opposed the bustling urban areas of the latter two. Thematically speaking, Steins;Gate serves as somewhat a cautionary tale about time travel with the consequences it entails. In contrast, Robotics;Notes takes a more optimistic look at its central innovation (robots in their case) and the potential that can be achieved with them.
- Sword Art Online and Log Horizon both involve players in a video game. But while SAO is (initially) The Most Dangerous Video Game, complete with high drama and tragedy, LH deconstructs the trapped-in-a-game scenario as The Game Come to Life, with notable touches where The World Is Just Awesome. Log Horizon pokes fun at SAO's high stakes in its beginning storyline. They also have polar opposite main characters, as Kirito is a black-wearing swordsman who specializes in solo play and surpassing hurdles with his raw skill and experience, while Shiroe is a support spellcaster clad in white, who leads a guild and shines most when it comes to strategy and management.
- The problems at the beginning of their respective plots are also opposite: In SAO, drama at first comes from tension; death is likely if you're not careful, and since your real body is comatose and slowly failing, you can also die if you're too careful. In Log Horizon, drama comes from the lack of tension; death is totally impossible, and fulfilling your basic needs is trivial, but you can't enjoy food and you are stuck without a goal. This lead to a lot of characters feeling listless and bored at the start until things got rolling.
- Overlord (2012) could be seen as another Spiritual Antithesis to Sword Art Online. SAO starts on the opening day of a massively-hyped VRMMORPG, but thousands of players become trapped in the game, and are told by the creator that they can only escape the game by beating the highest level of the dungeon, and if they die in the game, they die in real life. Overlord starts on the last day of a once-popular VRMMORPG that is now shutting down due to its dwindling player base, and only one player gets trapped, without any explanation, in a fantasy world that's highly reminiscent of the game but filled with intelligent, emotional, real people instead of NPCs. In SAO, the teenage main character Kirito starts out at level 1, and spends years in the game, leveling up as part of the player base's ultimate quest to escape the game. In Overlord, the adult main character Momonga has already reached the level 100 cap from years of playing by the time he gets trapped, and he pretty much gives up on escaping on day one, preferring this new fantasy world over the life he left behind, with an unfulfilling job and no close friends or family. Kirito is a hot-headed hero with a strong moral code, reluctant to even kill serial killers in self-defense. Momonga is a cold, calculating strategist with no problem slaughtering entire armies if they get in his way or sacrificing innocent pawns to protect his secrets. At times, the contrasts are so uncanny that it seems like it was done intentionally: Kirito is a dual-wielding swordsman while Momonga is a spellcaster, which seem like total opposites, but when Momonga wants to travel incognito, he passes himself off as a dual-wielding swordsman, something he can do quite effectively with the Super-Strength and speed that comes from being level 100, although real warriors recognize that he's just swinging his swords around like an amateur.
- Saya no Uta and Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! are the "Cosmic Horror Story vs. Lovecraft Lite" example listed above. They're a Deconstruction and a parody, respectively, of the same concept: "What if a boy meets a Manic Pixie Dream Girl Magical Girlfriend...but the girl is something utterly inhuman?" Nyarko plays the concept for laughs, as she is definitely quirky, but no more so than the average light novel heroine, and ultimately has a good heart, while her romance with main character Yasaka is slightly dysfunctional but loving. Saya milks it for all the Nightmare Fuel it's worth and keeps it closer to the actual tone and spirit of Lovecraft by portraying her as a frightening, murderous alien who eats her prey and wants to convert the world into members of her species, and her romance with main character Fuminori is mutually loving but twisted at best. In addition, Saya's true nature is kept a secret for about half the story and is a major reveal, whereas Nyarko is established as the Crawling Chaos from the start.
- Nyarko is also one to Demonbane. Both star Moe Anthropomorphisms of the Cthulhu Mythos, but whereas the former is a Harem Genre comedy, the latter is a dark and serious version where the entities are still as scary as they originally were. Notably, both series portray Nyarlathotep as a cute and attractive girl/woman, but vastly differ in personality; Nyarko is a friendly, fun-loving (and sex-loving) Genki Girl who falls in love with a human, while Nya/Naia is every bit as evil and repulsive as the original character.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Kill la Kill both play with the Magical Girl Warrior genre. The former is a Deconstruction that heavily runs on Break the Cutie moments and has cynical and dark tones. The latter is a Reconstruction that runs heavily on Black Comedy Rape and has over-the-top and ridiculous tones. Even the protagonists seem to be opposites; the former stars an idealistic and kindhearted girl who had a normal life until the events of the series, and ends up becoming God, while the latter stars a hardened and moody girl who's never had an ounce of happiness until she met her True Companions, and ends up living the normal life she's always wanted.
- It could also be considered one to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann of all things. Both involve a powerful race of aliens driving humanity into despair in order to prevent the Natural End of Time. One of them does it on the individual scale to generate energy to prevent the heat-death of the universe, while the other does it on a global scale to prevent the generation of too much energy and creation of a Big Crunch. Both end with the aliens being overthrown when those they oppressed obtain godlike power, but one does so through an individual achieving Abstract Apotheosis who doesn't care about the consequences (especially after Rebellion), while the other does so through a collective becoming a Physical God, who go on to accept the consequences of their actions and vow to act responsibly to prevent the end of the universe from ever coming to pass. Additionally, one is a depressing deconstruction of its genre while the other is a Hot-Blooded reconstruction of its.
- In HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! the characters can achieve their dreams without being punished for it, and they can act selflessly for others without expecting to benefit by it or suffering nasty consequences over it. Practically the polar opposite of how Madoka treated following one's dreams and being altruistic. Some go as far as saying that Happiness Charge stands as an indictment against Madoka.
- Oddly, Macross and its American adaptation Robotech became this as their timelines progressed. In Macross, the Zentraedi become more like humanity, while in Robotech, thanks to repeated invasions, humanity is becoming a warrior race like the Zentraedi.
- For most of Space Patrol Luluco, Alpha Omega Nova is a superficially similar but spiritually antithetical version of Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Both are secretly alien Bishōnen who use their charm to entice the main character and get closer to their objectives, but while Kaworu is an angel of free will whose love for Shinji is pure and unconditional, Nova has no free will or emotions and merely lets Luluco deceive herself into thinking he could return her love. Yet, in the end, his change of heart makes him a lot more like Kaworu than he was originally.
- My Hero Academia is both this and Spiritual Successor for Naruto. On the one hand it happily takes and uses all the tropes and tricks Naruto introduced to battle Shōnen genre. But Naruto is inspired by old Japanese folklore about Ninja, My Hero Academia is inspired by Superhero comics - a quintessentially American thing. Where Naruto was about how a society or a team can work together to achieve what no individual can and how conflicts can tear this apart, Hero Academia is about members of the society polishing their skills to succeed as individuals in a profession where competition is not only unavoidable but even encouraged. Where Naruto was about breaking the cycle of violence and achieving the era of peace, Hero Academia is about living in a world where peace is the status quo while also finding meaning and goals beyond it.
- Also one to Marshal Law. Both are superhero works taking place 20 Minutes into the Future that analyze what it means to be a hero. Marshal Law is a Genre Deconstruction with the main theme of the superhero being an unrealistic ideal: the superheroes are portrayed as ineffectual at best and monstrous at worst. Meanwhile, My Hero Academia is very much a Reconstruction. While it has unpleasant and horrible people among the heroes, it ultimately portrays the superheroes as a positive force. Even the main characters are opposites: Marshal Law is a cynical adult who hates all superheroes while Deku is an idealistic kid who idolizes superheroes.
- MHA might have one in Black Clover. Both titles are seen as following the footsteps of the Big Three - Naruto, Bleach and One Piece while addressing and trying to improve on the most common criticisms of their formula, like pacing or bloated cast, but, as some argue
, the way they go about fixing these issues is fundamentally different. They also differ in their approach to the main character, with MHA having more focus on Deku's Character Development on the road to become a hero, while BC being more about how Asta proves his worth and affects those around him.
- Creator Itosugi Masahiro:
- Uwakoi is this for his earlier work Aki Sora, where both series have protagonists who are effeminate Really Gets Around teenage boys and feature much blatant sex with young, pretty girls. Ironically, while the latter deals with the forbidden relationship between main characters, it has more chance to achieve a happy end than the former. It does so because the latter is played as (mostly) lighthearted typical ecchi series, while Uwakoi takes numerous harem and ecchi tropes and plays them for drama and psychological horror. In the latter, the forbidden relationship was discovered and they are separated, despite that they both are able to move on with their lives afterward (and still have a chance of getting back together). The former on the other hand had its main protagonist killed and his main love interests parting ways to forcefully remove the presence of the other for the rest of their lives (while they each raise a child that the protagonist fathered).
- Uwakoi can also be seen as this to the School Days anime. Both are dark deconstructions of the Harem Genre with a male protagonist who Really Gets Around by using girls as little more than tools to fulfill their sexual appetites and their promiscuity leads to them getting gruesomely murdered. But while the School Days lead is a self-absorbed, debauched asshole, the Uwakoi lead is more of a Chivalrous Pervert struggling with severe psychological issues and questioning what he wants beyond satisfying his lust. Another big difference is that the girls of School Days undergo Sanity Slippage due to the lead's Manipulative Bastard antics, while the girls of Uwakoi are crazy from the start who take advantage of the lead's Extreme Libido. Finally, the School Days lead is killed by one of the main girls he toyed with, while the Uwakoi lead is killed by the boyfriend of a girl he banged, and said girl wasn't even part of the main cast.
- Inuyashiki compared to Hiroya Oku's most well-known work, Gantz. Both are dark series that don't shy away from scenes of abject human cruelty, but while Gantz revels in its own cynicism, with a clear Humans Are Bastards message and an (initially) utterly unlikable protagonist, the titular Inuyashiki is an All-Loving Hero, with his series having an ultimately more optimistic tone and a message that even the most reprehensible people have a chance at redemption.
- Land of the Lustrous was marketed by Kodansha towards fans of Steven Universe, but Land of the Lustrous is a Seinen far on the other end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism from Steven Universe and while the two share a similar premise with gem people fending off attacks from technologically superior "aliens", Land of the Lustrous goes in every possible opposite way to Steven Universe with its shared story beats.note After significant backlash from Land of the Lustrous fans Kodansha removed this tagline from the manga.
- Only Sense Online to other works based around virtual reality MMOs such as Sword Art Online. While these other works have the characters get trapped in the game, the titular game of Only Sense Online is just a normal game. It's therefore Lighter and Softer as the players are never in any danger and play the game for fun. Additionally, unlike other works where the main character is a veteran player who's a better fighter than most, the main character of Only Sense Online is a beginner who's comparatively poor at fighting.
- Oddly enough, Uzumaki could be considered one to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Both heavily feature spirals as their central motif, but while in Uzumaki spirals are some kind of nebulous, unavoidable threat and something to be feared, in Gurren Lagann spirals are symbolic of forward progress and human potential. In Uzumaki spirals are terrifying, while in Gurren Lagann spirals are awesome.
- To Osomatsu-san:
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: Both sets of siblings are unmistakably unmotivated, but their ways of handling it are remarkably different. Whereas in -San the overly cartoony Matsuno sextuplets had a relatively normal high school life until they burned out in their 20s for whatever reason, the more realistic Nakano quintuplets of Go-Toubun are in their high school years and struggling to pass, with the goal of the series explicitly being preventing them from becoming burnouts in adulthood. Whereas the brothers rely too much on their dependence on others (both to their parents and to each other) and would forcibly maintain the status quo to keep that dependence, the sisters are independent from the get go, with only one (Nino) having the same reasoning as Osomatsu. Also keep in mind that Totoko (their reluctant Childhood Friend) only fell for the sextuplets when they were in their F6 forms, whom all are much more like the Nakanos in concept: friendly, attractive, distinct, and talented, but with their own little problems on the side. Also keep in mind that their love interest, Fuutarou, is willing to take an active interest in getting them to be respectable or at the very least pass high school, while Totoko would rather let them wallow in the same misery she's in.
- Shinya! Tensai Bakabon: Both are purported time skips to Fujio Akatzuka's beloved gag manga, being updated humor-wise for adult audiences along the way. Whereas the -San cast was was given new personality quirks and design changes, the Bakabon cast barely aged a day. While the aim of -San was to see how everyone handles the adult world, Shinya! focuses more on topical humor. One can even see it in they way they handled their respective Totally Radical episodes: while the Osomatsu-kun era cast was trying desperately to see what stuck only to come up with nothing, everyone but Papa was content with leaving things the way they were.
- Zombie Land Saga to School-Live!: Both are Zombie-flavored mashups with popular female-led genres (Schoolgirl Series for School-Live!, Idol Genre stories for Zombie Land Saga), and they both have a powerful twist to establish the setting: whereas the twist for School-Live! was the fact that the fun times were Yuki's delusion to forget the Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Land Saga is outright promoted with the apocalypse theme, only for the twist to be that the idols were the zombies rather than survivors. Both do feature a theme of living vs. surviving, but while the School Life Club are trying their best to stay sane without going over the deep end like the Survivalists, the girls of Franchouchou use their new afterlife to do things they never were able to in life instead of hiding away to rot. Amusingly, this also applies to their dog mascots: while in School-Live! Taromaru is introduced as a lovable companion and dies as soon as he joins the School Life Club, Romero is dead from the start, but still manages to be a good (if not freaky) friend to the group.
- Fly Me to the Moon comes off as one to Rent-A-Girlfriend, which is helped by the first season of Fly Me To The Moon beginning just after the first season of Rent-A-Girlfriend ended. Rent-A-Girlfriend has Kazuya, a Loser Protagonist who's rather flawed and still reeling from a bad breakup with his first girlfriend, and goes through Will They or Won't They? with Chizuru. By comparison, Fly Me To The Moon stars Nasa, a Wise Beyond His Years young man who gets married at the start of the series. As a result, some people who disliked Rent-A-Girlfriend have a more positive opinion of Fly Me To The Moon.
- The Twelve Kingdoms has one in The Rising of the Shield Hero. Both are isekais about a downtrotten hero taken to another word to serve a purpose as a Chosen One, but end up on the public crosshairs. In Youko's case, all people who are dragged to another world are executed in the Kingdom of Kou, where as in Naofumi's case the Shield Hero is always disliked and has an added problem of being falsely accused of rape by the princess. In both cases, the hero becomes jaded by their troubles and betrayals and must learn to trust again through a friendship with a half-beast, which are prejudiced against in the setting. That said, these two works are separated by a lot of context and time. Twelve Kingdoms was made in the 90s, marketed towards teenage women, where as Shield Hero follows the trend of late new 10s isekais aimed at young adult men. The tone of Shield Hero leans much darker than Twelve Kingdoms, where heroes enjoy their vengeance against those that did them wrong; Twelve Kingdoms ends up relying more in themes of forgiveness and kindness, where, after her many betrayals, Youko must learn the value of receiving and giving kindness and trust.
- The Rising of the Shield Hero and Redo of Healer. Both explore similar themes: in a Crapsack World, the idealistic protagonist's support-focused power causes him to be harshly mistreated by a party of so-called "heroes", leading him to develop a bleak outlook and set out on a quest for revenge. However, Shield Hero ultimately focuses on the friendships Naofumi develops and how they help him rise above his anger and hatred (represented by his Cursed Shield) and become a true hero. Redo dials the cynicism factor up to eleven, giving us a vengeance-bent protagonist who has basically thrown away most of his humanity, and whose harem members are either brainwashed by him or also obsessed with vengeance.
- The Way of the Househusband and Sakamoto Days share a similar premise: a legendary career criminal retires from his life of violence after falling in love with and marrying a normal woman. Despite wanting nothing but to live a peaceful life for the sake of his family, the Retired Badass must frequently deal with the people from his past trying to intrude into his new normal, although they are quickly joined by a younger, former colleague/underling who ends up becoming an honorary member of his family. However, The Way of the Househusband remains strictly a comedic Slice of Life, and the Yakuza trying to dig up past grievances with Tatsu rarely pose a serious threat to him or his family, as they are mostly portrayed as Friendly Neighborhood Gangster—Tatsu himself gets along with his former boss, and is Vitriolic Best Buds with another ex-Yakuza, Torajiro. Meanwhile, in Sakamoto Days, Sakamoto's former boss and colleagues actively come after him and his family since leaving the Hitman association is punishable by death. As such, despite both works being primarily comedy, Sakamoto Days is a lot heavier on action, with higher stakes and more drama.
- Gate can be seen as this to Outbreak Company. Both started as fantasy novels/light novels that were adapted as anime in the isekai genre, where contemporary Japan finds a portal to a fantasy-style world where other races and magic exist, and enlists someone as ambassador to establish contact and generate commerce between the two worlds. However, Outbreak Company is aimed at general otakus, with lots of specific references, and its young hikikomori protagonist has been recruited for being super knowledgeable about games, manga, visual novels etc., and his mission is mostly a diplomatic one. Gate is aimed at military otakus and features a competent adult soldier as protagonist who volunteers for the mission instead of being forced, and military tactics and action have a much more prominent role along the usual fantasy isekai tropes. In Outbreak Company the Japanese government is seen in a fairly bad light, trying to subdue the fantasy world through commerce and capitalism, where Gate is mostly about how awesome and powerful the JSDF is, and Japan is seen as much more advanced than the fantasy world, and than other real world countries as well, to the point the series gets accused of being jingoistic and nationalistic (the latter mostly in its original novel form).
- Oresuki can be considered as the anti-School Days. Though instead of a dark deconstruction, it's more of a tongue-in-cheek satire of the mind of teenagers. The lead of School Days starts out as a simple and nice young man at first but ends up becoming a shallow and selfish jerk who gets bored with his girlfriend and decides to sleep with other women. The lead of Oresuki is shown as initially well-meaning but is secretly a Manipulative Bastard who wants a harem, and through a series of events ends up becoming still somewhat brash but more thoughtful and empathetic. The same can apply to the girls involved, with the School Days girls slowly going down the brink because of the lead's thoughtlessness, and Oresuki girls being just as manipulative as the male lead and eventually deciding to make amends for the things they did. Finally, the School Days lead ends up getting killed for his actions, while the Oresuki lead ends up better off for his efforts.
- Megalo Box started out as a retelling of Tomorrow's Joe, but ultimately becomes this by its second season. Both are tales about a skilled boxer from the gutter being picked up by a trainer and fighting their way to the top of the boxing world through grit and underdog training, but while the original Joe is entirely motivated by his love of the game and wants nothing more than to continue boxing, the new Joe falls into a funk after his initial win and is only able to find new meaning in life through something other than boxing, namely a Found Family. The finale of the Tomorrow's Joe manga, and the second season of the anime in particular, implies Joe kills himself through overexertion after trying to go all out against Mendoza, dying with no regrets. Joe from Megalo Box, meanwhile, throws in the towel against Mac and retires even if he can still go on, because it's more important to him to be able to go back to his life outside the ring rather than risk permanent injury within it.
- The author of Usotsuki Satsuki wa Shi ga Mieru notes that the manga serves as this to their previous comic, Shi ni Aruki. Both works revolve around teenage girls who deal with people dying around them on a regular basis. However, while the latter's protagonist (Tokiko) is unperturbed by death and is more darkly amused than anything else whenever she stumbles upon a corpse or sees people die in front of her, the protagonist of the former (Satsuki) is deeply concerned whenever she gets a premonition of death, and drops everything in order to focus on saving the victim from their fate, even if it means risking her own life. As a side effect of this, Shi ni Aruki had characters die by the dozen, while Usotsuki tends to dedicate two to three chapters to Satsuki figuring out how to save a single individual. And on a lesser note, while both are horror/suspense stories, Tokiko being a calm-and-collected Ice Queen in contrast to the socially-awkward Plucky Girl Satsuki results in Usotsuki having far more moments of comedy.
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise can be seen as one to Beast Machines.
- Both Transformers series revolve around a conflict between Transformers with vehicle alternate modes and Transformers with animal alternate modes. In Beast Machines, the vehicle Transformers were the villains and the animal Transformers where the heroes; the reverse is the case in Robots In Disguise.
- The Megatrons in both series brainwash the heroes' former comrades into becoming serving them. While the Maximals managed to get at least one Vehicon free from Megatron, the Decepticons never overcame their reprogramming by their Megatron.
- Beast Machines took place on Cybertron while Robots In Disguise took place entirely on Earth.
- Mieruko-chan and There's a Ghost Behind That Gal are both about otherwise-ordinary high school girls who suddenly stumble upon the supernatural one day. But while the former is, at best, a horror-comedy where the supernatural is an unwelcome intrusion on Miko's life (and occasionally a downright threat to her and her friends and family), the latter is a pure Slice of Life comedy about a Friendly Ghost and her budding friendship with her two human besties.
- Thanks to its Gecko Ending, Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) wound up as this to its manga source material (and by extension the later, more faithful anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood).
- Where the Manga and Brotherhood are bombastic and idealistic, the 2003 series is more somber and intimate, and the heroes often have to face the negative consequences of their actions.
- The two stories also take different stands on alchemy's guiding principle of Equivalent Exchange. The Manga and Brotherhood's thesis is supportive of equivalent exchange: There's no such thing as a painless lesson, and if you let it, sacrifice will bring personal growth and make you into a stronger, wiser person. The 2003 anime has a more cynical message, one that paints equivalent exchange as a flawed ideology: No matter how much you sacrifice, there is no guarantee that you will be rewarded in kind. However, sacrifice is an unavoidable part of life, and even though the world is unfair, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make it a better place.
- Blue Lock is this to Captain Tsubasa. While both series are about high schoolers playing Association Football and eventually taking on the world, with the casts eventually developing Improbable Sports Skills along the way as they grow as players, Captain Tsubasa focuses on the friendship and teamwork formed together in order to win, while Blue Lock focuses on drawing out each players' individuality and promoting a competitive scene where the best and most individualistic, egotistical players will survive and become the number one striker.
- Bocchi the Rock! is regarded by many as being the anti-K-On!. While both manga are published by Manga Time Kirara (though K-On! ran in the main magazine, while Bocchi runs in Max) and focus on a group of high school girls coming together to form a band, Bocchi isn't as idealistic, having a more cynical sense of humor (especially in regards to Hitori's extreme social anxiety as she struggles to connect with her bandmates). Unlike K-On!, where the band is part of a school club and the characters spend more time hanging out than practicing, Bocchi's characters form their band outside of school (as the members go to different schools), with the series putting more focus on the musical aspect and showing how difficult it can actually be for a band to become famous. In fact, several decisions about the story and characters were deliberately made to differentiate it from K-On!.
- Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro. Both films are grounded Slice of Life films that take place roughly around the same time and star a pair of siblings (an older and levelheaded one and a younger and naive one) as they go through various hardships and deal with the absence of a parent. However, this is where the similarities end, as both films are starkly different in tone. Grave of the Fireflies is a dark, realistic, and tragic film by Isao Takahata that takes place near the end of WWII, as Seita and Setsuko try to make it on their own after their mother dies due to the air raids, only for them to slowly succumb to illness and starvation by the end. In stark contrast, My Neighbor Totoro is a far more lighthearted, whimsical, and optimistic film directed by Hayao Miyazaki that takes place in the decade following WWII, as Satsuki and Mei hang out with a group of friendly forest spirits, all while dealing with comparatively more mundane hardships, such as being in a new house and their mother being hospitalized, with a far happier ending to boot. According to Studio Ghibli, the decision to make them thematic foils was a deliberate choice, since they were originally released as a double-feature back in 1988, with Miyazaki and Takahata working together to ensure the two films complimented each other, despite their different tones.
- Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi to its author's previous work (as well as the manga from which it spun out of) Junjou Romantica. The latter work has Second Love as a major theme, and its three separated plotlines all shared the plotline of someone moving on from a first love that didn't work to build a second, better relationship. Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi instead focuses on First Love as some characters experience love for the first time while others are trying to give their first love a second chance. Both series also focus on the world of literature and publishing, but the initial series focused on a novel and light novel writer, where as the second series is focused on a group of Shoujo manga editors.
- Shimeji Simulation and its Stealth Prequel Girls' Last Tour: Both mangas are superficially similar, who both have a Foil duo lead, are Slice of Life, are written by Tsukumizu, are a Deconstruction of its core themes and are principally focused on existentialism. However, both works are different in style, execution, setting and tone, as well as its themes and how they tackle existentialism as its theme.
- Girls' Last Tour is a manga about Chito and Yuuri travelling across a futuristic megacity After the End that is devoid of natural environment, where both of them have a very specific end goal. Shimeji Simulation by contrast is a manga about Shijima and Majime in an idyllic Thriving Ghost Town that is alive and well, with both of them not having had a specific end goal in mind.
- Both stories are a Genre Deconstruction, but they deconstruct specific genres. Girls' Last Tour deconstructs the post-apocalyptic adventure genre, as to how the story nails the point regarding adventurous life in a dead world, as well as the potential consequences of doing so. Shimeji Simulation deconstructs most of the Iyashikei genre's elements, particularly how Heartwarming Moments are often not as heartwarming as it seems and how nihilism often takes the centre stage.
- Girls' Last Tour's world was destroyed by a Robot War, which has been dead and has remained that way; it also frequently snows for the bulk of the story. By contrast, Shimeji Simulation is a world that is alive and warm, but is simply a Deconstructed version of a Utopia, where it is all a simulated reality that is under the watchful eyes of the Gardener.
- Girls' Last Tour's Chito and Yuuri are mainly driven by their desire to reach the highest layer in their hopes of finding new life, but their journey has no far-reaching consequences throughout the story. On the other hand, Shimeji Simulation has Shijima and Majime befriending each other and later realise that their world is not what it seems to be, where there are far-reaching consequences to the whole world as the story goes on.
- Girls' Last Tour focuses heavily on classical Nihilism and the meaning of life in Nietzschean terms, where despite the world around Cihto and Yuuri and the life they live in being bleak in nature, both of them still find closeness and enjoyment in their journey who only experience scraps of life in the past. By contrast, Shimeji Simulation focuses on the philosophical boundaries between people and the meaning of individuality in relationships, where closeness between one another is treated as an existential fear, which plays heavily into the manga's plot due to Shijima's inherent fear of being close to Majime, who dreads about herself "changing" when she is to be merged by her.
- Girls' Last Tour has Chito and Yuuri basically having nothing and have to find items across the megacity to survive during their long journey, often having simple pleasures. In Shimeji Simulation, Shijima and Majime have everything in their disposal, more so after they gain Reality Warping powers, thus allowing them to materialise everything out of thin air.
