History ExecutiveMeddling / Anime

** In America, the show was massively unpopular (presumably due to their following the insanely
popular ''GundamWing'' with the much older and rougher original), leading to rumors that CartoonNetwork used 9/11 as an excuse to quietly cancel the show before it had even run once.

* A number of MobileSuitGundam series suffered from this:
** The original was dealt with this from both sides of the Pacific: in Japan, the series was forced to be cut to 39 episodes but was allowed 42 to wrap up the storyline neatly. A lot of Mobile Suits were planned, but never used, turned into MSVs. In America, the series was suffering the same thing, mostly due to coming after GundamWing. Rumor has it that Cartoon Network used September11th as an excuse to drop it.
** YoshiyukiTomino attempted to introduce the titular VictoryGundam in the fourth episode. However, he was forced to do so in the first.
** When asked to make the Japanese guy the hero of GGundam, they gave it to them - Domon Kasshu, colossal JerkAss for half of the series.
** Like the original Gundam, GundamX was chopped down to 39 episodes, due to the series being tossed around the schedule.
** Rumor has it Tomino attempted to make Loran Cehack, protagonist of TurnAGundam, a female, but was shot down. [[WriterRevolt As a result]], Loran was Bishonen and at one point, a WholesomeCrossdresser.

* ''CodeGeass'' suffered this from Day 1. The initial series plan involved an idealistic rookie soldier and his ideological conflicts with his battle-hardened C.O. (which was recycled as the base for the Lelouch vs. Suzaku conflict); when Sunrise rejected this concept, the creators took it back to formula and, with input from {{CLAMP}}, made it the show it is today.
** In an even earlier version Lelouch is a civilian-turned LaResistance without any connections to the royal family. The Geass power is more user-friendly and there are no Nukes or [[KillSat Kill Sats]] lying around. Sounds just too lame...
** More recently, the show's director/co-creator stated in an interview that thanks to being ScrewedByTheNetwork and having the show moved from its original timeslot to an entirely different one for the second season (forcing them to try to appeal to the old fans as well as a new demographic that hadn't even seen the first part of the series), they essentially had to throw out their original plans for the show's second half, adding in a one-year TimeSkip and starting from there.

** For it's American airing, AdultSwim did not give ''CodeGeass'' much love either. It's premiere schedule was [[ScrewedByTheNetwork constantly changed into a later and later slot]] to the point that people stopped caring and their rights to the show expired after one rerun.

* Similarly, ''YuYuHakusho'' was supposed to end with the climactic Chapter Black arc, but one last arc was created due to editorial request, and later ended prematurely due to the author's request.

* Similarly, ''YuYuHakusho'' was supposed to end with the climactic Chapter Black arc, but one last arc was created due to editorial request.
** And later ended prematurely due to author attitude.

** Executive Meddling also took down ''DoubleArts'' and ''MedakaBox'' -- the former was well loved by older readers (as seen by extremely huge omnibus sales), but younger readers (who fill out the survey cards) ''hated it''. It attempted a retool into a more fighting based series, but the damage was done. MedakaBox pulled the GenreShift off more successfully, switching from a slice of life series to a fighting series, to an over the top fighting ''parody'', back to a slice of life series again once it was popular enough not to risk being canceled.

* ''[[WarriorCats Graystripe's Adventure]] was originally meant to be a single volume manga called ''The Lost Warrior''. Then somebody had the idea to release it on the same day as [[PowerOfThree The Sight]]. The artist was only a third of the way done, so it ended up being split into three volumes, and further manga in the series have followed suit. [[CrackIsCheaper Damn]].

* ExecutiveMeddling gave ''[[SuperDimensionFortressMacross Macross]]'' its name. Originally to be called ''Megaroad'' (or, to give the sponsor-imposed tag, ''Super Dimension Fortress Megaroad''), one of the producers from Big West suggested changing the title to {{Macbeth}}, as he was a huge Shakespeare fan. Kawamori and the rest of the staff weren't keen on the name, but didn't feel they could really outright oppose the man who authorized the checks for production money. So, instead, they suggested a compromise name -- Macross. AndTheRestIsHistory.

** And later ended prematurely due to editorial request.

** Rumor has it Tomino attempted to make Loran Cehack, protagonist of TurnAGundam, a female, but was shot down.

** 'Too confusing for the viewers'? How about ''[[MindScrew the entire series]]''?

** Rumor has it Tomino attempted to make Loran Cehack, protagonist of TurnAGundam, a female, but was shot down.

* Weird example: Originally, Clefairy was to be the mascot of ''[=~Pokémon~=]'', but Pikachu was chosen because of one of the editors' personal preference for it over Clefairy.

** Interestingly, Clefairy is the protagonist's partner in the obscure Japanese gag manga "Pokémon Pocket Monsters", making it something of a CanonForeigner. It also makes a brief cameo in the anime.

* ''AngelBeats'' was originally supposed to be a 26 episode anime. However, executives inexplicably cut down the number of episodes from 26 to 13, forcing a lot of subplots to either be cut off or rushed.

* Want to know why Nozomi from ElfenLied didn't make it to the anime version, despite being so important in the manga? Because the anime director hated her, thought that "it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not" and refused to put her in the anime cast. Which is fairly hilarious, considering ''she's the reason the series is called ElfenLied.''

* Executive Meddling by the editors of ''Shonen Jump'' resulted in some drastic plot changes to ''DragonBall''. For example, they're the reason the Cell arc kept constantly changing villains (first it was Android 19 and 20, then 17 and 18, then Cell, then suddenly Cell had two more forms that looked completely different and quickly transitioned from the second to third). The editors basically kept telling Toriyama the villains he picked for the arc weren't good enough, so he kept having to shoehorn new villains or new looks for the villains in.
Honestly, in hindsight, the changes were [[TropesAreNotBad probably for the better.]]

** Honestly, in hindsight, the changes were [[TropesAreNotBad probably for the better.]] Continuing from the information below, Toriyama planned to have the series focus on Gohan's adventures in high school after the Cell arc before he was forced to change. Would anyone really have wanted to endure another lame HighSchoolAU?

** In a (arguably) positive example, Masashi Kishimoto, author of ''{{Naruto}}'', stated that he originally didn't plan to have the members of Snake/Hawk besides Sasuke fight on-screen, but Shueisha ordered him to.
*** It ''was'' positive, because the team is more developed as well as decreasing Sasuke's plot hijackage, whereas if these fight scenes were skipped altogether, nobody would really grow on them. Besides, if [[TakeOurWordForIt all their fights were said to be awesome and they did not prove it]], they probably would have developed into [[TheScrappy characters the fandom would consider pointlessly stupid, and question why they're even in the plot if they're not going to do anything]].
** Kishimoto was also forced by editors to speed various arcs up, thinking they were taking too long. As a result, characters like Hidan, Kakuzu, and Tsunade were shafted and didn't get fights to show off their abilities in their latest appearances.

** Toriyama also had supposedly wanted to end ''DragonBall'' altogether on multiple occasions, possibly as early as the ''Saiyan'' arc of what became DBZ. It's most obvious, however, with the DistantFinale that follows the Cell Games arc, set in Future Trunks's timeline, which could easily stand as a series finale.

** Honestly, in hindsight, the changes were [[TropesAreNotBad probably for the better.]] Continuing from the information below, Toriyama planned to have the series focus on Gohan's adventures in highschool after the Cell arc before he was forced to change. Would anyone really have wanted to endure another lame HighSchoolAU?
** Toriyama also had supposedly wanted to end ''DragonBall'' altogether on multiple occasions, possibly as early as the ''Saiyan'' arc of what became DBZ. It's most obvious, however, with the DistantFinale that follows the Cell Games arc, set in Future Trunks' timeline, which could easily stand as a series finale.

* Ikumi Mia blames part of the failure of ''TokyoMewMew a la mode'' on her Nakayoshi director limiting her to two volumes and telling her not to focus on the previous series' characters.

** Also, on the Topic of Sailor V, it was ment to be a 1 shot comic that became popular and was continued. When Toei got wind of it and wanted to make it into an OVA she was asked to expand it into a team format. Sailor Moon was soon created and V was made into a member of her team under the name Sailor Venus. Due to Moon's Quick popularity The OVA staring Sailor V was never made and her series was wrapped up after Sailor Moon's despite being much shorter.

* One might consider the entire post-Raou ''{{Fist of the North Star}}'' story, as covered in the manga and the ''Hokuto no Ken 2'' anime, a product of a desire to keep the story going. Unfortunately the result couldn't keep up to the legendary status of the original, and almost all subsequent licensed works (with the possible exception of a single [=PlayStation=] game) have been set in the first half of the manga.

** [[MemeticMutation Confusing? in my Neon Genesis Evangelion? More likely then you'd think.]]
* Want to know why Nozomi from ElfenLied didn't make it to the anime version, despite being so important in the manga? Because the anime director hated her, thought that "it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not" and refused to put her in the anime cast.
** Which is fairly hilarious, considering ''she's the reason the series is called ElfenLied.''

** In an even earlier version Lelouch is a civilian-turned LaResistance without any connections to the royal family. The Geass power is more user-friendly and there are no Nukes or KillSats lying around. Sounds just too lame...

** On the other hand, ''SailorMoon'' owes its very existence to executive meddling. When creator Naoko Takeuchi was trying to think of a new series, it was her editor who suggested the heroines wear sailor suits (he had a thing for them) and thus began ''SailorV''. However, they had a fight over the length of the skirts -- her editor wanted longer skirts, but Takeuchi fought for the short length they have today.

* KenAkamatsu got hit with this hard while writing ''MahouSenseiNegima!'' After ''LoveHina'', he wanted to try something new and do a {{Shounen}} series, but the executives wanted to capitalize on the success of ''LoveHina'' with another UnwantedHarem series. As a result, ''MahouSenseiNegima!'' ''looks'' like an UnwantedHarem, but starts adding {{Shounen}} elements around volume 3, which [[GenreShift increase in frequency]] until it pretty much ''is'' a {{Shounen}} series with some UnwantedHarem elements still hanging around. According to some fans, the combination of genres actually benefits the quality of the series.

* ''CodeGeass'' suffered this from Day 1; the initial series plan involved an idealistic rookie soldier and his ideological conflicts with his battle-hardened C.O. (Recycled as the Suzaku part); when Sunrise rejected this concept, the creators took it back to formula and, with input from {{CLAMP}}, made it the show it is today.

** More recently, the show's director/co-creator stated in an interview that thanks to being ScrewedByTheNetwork and having the show moved from its original timeslot to an entirely different one (forcing them to try to appeal to the old fans as well as a new demographic that hadn't even seen the first season), they essentially had to throw out their original plans for the show's second half, adding in a one-year TimeSkip and starting from there.

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