Unexpected Character / Jump Force

• Light Yagami and Ryuk from Death Note. While the series is extremely popular, its dark and cynical tone has lead to it being somewhat distanced from Shonen Jump as a whole, and the fact that the series relies on intricate mind games rather than pure action has lead to it rarely being represented in crossovers. Word of God eventually confirmed that the two are NPCs in the game.
• Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, mostly because he's best known for playing card games. Not exactly the type of thing you'd expect for a fighting crossover. However, in his Egyptian days, he (among others) summoned decidedly-real monsters from stone tablets, and has displayed various supernatural powers like his Mind Crush, and the shadow games of his earlier days. Also, Yugi was playable in Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars. To some, this is amplified further due to Konami's ownership of the anime and card game.
• The presence of the transformations from Dragon Ball Super is quite a shock since they did not originate in Shonen Jump. That said, given Super's popularity and status as a canon sequel to Dragon Ball, the developers most likely made an exception for this series.
• Sabo from One Piece is a lesser example of this. Although some new One Piece characters, Sanji and Blackbeard, had been confirmed for the game around the same time he was revealed, he initially wasn't shown or listed alongside them. It wasn't until the release of the official gameplay trailer showcasing Sanji and Blackbeard (along with Vegeta, Gon and Hisoka) that it was revealed Sabo would be joining the roster as well. Speaking of which, Blackbeard himself was likewise a surprise to many as he had yet to really re-appear in One Piece at the time. That being said, he was a more likely pick to give his franchise a "bad guy" to play with.
• Dragon Shiryu from Saint Seiya is another lesser example. While one of the more popular characters in the series, many believed that characters like Phoenix Ikki and Gemini Saga would have been chosen before him.
• Ryo Saeba from City Hunter comes as a surprise because his series is from the '80s, and unlike other long-runners, is pretty obscure to many Western audiences, especially in the U.S., one of the main target markets of the game.^note Albeit the same cannot be said in Europe, mainly in France, Spain, and Italy, where both the manga and anime are very popular, and popularity for City Hunter has been steadily increasing. There's also the fact that he's an unpowered gunman which kinda makes him stand out in a roster full of people with special over-the-top abilities.
• Downplayed with Renji Abarai from Bleach. While plenty of people expected more Bleach characters to eventually be revealed, most fans were expecting other representatives such as Hitsugaya^note who was later confirmed to be one of the nine DLC characters for Season 1, Uryu, Ulquiorra, or Yhwach.
• Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was a massively unexpected choice, given many had assumed Obito or Madara^note who was later confirmed to be one of the nine DLC characters for Season 1 would be the villain representative in the game, and Kaguya is infamous for being incredibly unpopular in the fanbase.
• Boruto is this too, though not as much as Kaguya. While his series is very successful, people were more expecting someone more classic like Sakura or Might Guy, while Boruto was introduced in the literal last chapter of the original series.
• Dai from the Dragon Quest spin-off Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is an interesting example, as while The Adventure of Dai is definitely not niche in Japan, with it being one of Shonen Jump's best-selling titles, it is much more obscure overseas, and that's besides the idea of a primarily video game-based franchise like Dragon Quest seeing representation in a manga arena fighter. Then again, there was leftover data of him in the prior J-Stars Victory Vs. somewhat tying into this.
• The inclusion of two characters from Rurouni Kenshin (Kenshin Himura and Makoto Shishio) was very unexpected. Although the series is pretty well-known and the characters are fitting for a fighting action game, the author, Nobuhiro Watsuki, was charged for possession of child pornography less than two years before the game's release. This led many fans to believe that Shonen Jump would want to distance themselves from him, never mind giving the series TWO representatives.
• Yoruichi Shihoin also makes a surprising appearance, given that she's an important character — but not that important in the grand scheme of things, compared to other playable Bleach characters like Grimmjow or even those not on the roster like Uryu.

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