History WhatCouldHaveBeen / AnimeAndManga

* There are several differences between the ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa movie's]] original script and the final product. One major point is that [[spoiler:Izumi's]] death was on-screen. The script writer even apologized to her Japanese voice actress for giving her no lines. There was also meant to be a scene with a meaningful conversation between Winry and Colonel Mustang at [[spoiler:Hughes gravestone.]] Originally, there was a love triangle between Edward, Noah, and Alfons as well but that was scrapped in exchange for platonic relationships.

** According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, ''Manga/TokyoBabylon'' originally debuted in a set of doujinshi by Nanase Ohkawa. It contained the original three main characters (Subaru, Hokuto, and Seishiro), but was supposedly about hunting elves. Also, while Seishiro was still a veterinarian and still had a dark side, it's said that it wasn't as pronounced as it was in the final product, thus having him undergo the most character change between the doujinshi and the final manga.

** Kubo mentioned in an interview about Shinji that he'd originally planned for Ichigo's friends to develop powers, but [[ExecutiveMeddling Shueisha told him to]] hurry up and introduce the Shinigami.
** Kubo originally considered Urahara and Gin as the original villains with Aizen being killed off permanently. However, at some point after Kubo decided that Aizen would be killed off, he decided that Aizen made the most sense as the villain, and decided on the fake-death storyline instead.

** Isayama has also admitted in an interview that his original idea was to make ''Attack on Titan'' a KillEmAll with an EveryoneDies ending, but has also admitted to seriously reconsidering that. [[TrollingCreator Considering his reputation with "official" statements]] this has to be taken with a grain of salt though. However as of the events of Chapter 85 and 86, there's a good chance this claim is now true.

*** Also, before settling on [[{{Moe}} a sweet-looking teenage girl]], Himaruya had [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/hetalia/images/9/9b/Taiwandesigns.gif several designs for Taiwan:]] a cute little girl, an old bald man, a short-haired {{Bokukko}}, a young boy with a SimpleStaff, an older boy with BigOlEyebrows, a DragonLady, etc.

*** Himaruya has noted that he once considered making Switzerland a female, with her true gender only being realized by Germany when he'd see her out of uniform. This idea did later get recycled with Hungary (who was a massive {{Tomboy}} when she was younger) and [[BoisterousBruiser Prussia]], with the latter only realising that the former is female when her uniform gets ripped to AbsoluteCleavage levels.

* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' was originally a short story drawn in the author's early career, featuring an early-design of Liam as the main character, a priest named Harris Watson, Oz as a kid who had his sister killed by the {{Serial Killer}} B-Rabbit whom the main character was pursuing for no other reason but because of his [[WordOfGod 'God']] [[spoiler:Or Was It]], and Old!Gilbert whose face was hidden in the shadow (only recognized by the viewer because of his BadassLongcoat and NiceHat). And despite having B-Rabbit in the story, Alice was Oz's sister instead.

* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': A large example from the English version due to its DevelopmentHell. Keroro was originally going to be voiced by Creator/VicMignogna when ADV had the series (and Creator/JessicaBoone was to voice Natsumi). However, when Funimation picked up the show, everyone was recast. Keroro was played by Chris Cason in the test dub of Episode 12B, but was changed [[UpToEleven again]] in the final release to Creator/ToddHaberkorn, who in the test dub voiced Kululu, whose voice actor changed to Creator/ChuckHuber. Chris Cason still does make an appearance in the dub as Taruru, however. In fact, the only voices from the test dub that ''weren't'' changed for the final cut were Giroro and Tamama (Creator/ChristopherSabat and Creator/BrinaPalencia respectively). Hell, even most of their ''lines'' were unchanged from the test dub.

** ''Macross'' was also initially envisioned as a parody of the mecha genre (i.e., taking the transforming UpToEleven with the ship itself being a TransformingMecha). Early drafts of the story included a trip around the world, with a landmark or city getting destroyed at pretty much every stop.

* ''King of Braves Anime/GaoGaiGar: Project Z'', the continuation of the ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'' story. The story would have had Mamoru and Ikumi joining the hero group from ''Anime/{{Betterman}}'' after the disappearance of 3G. Because Allouette, the AllThereInTheManual tyke genius who built [=GaoFighGar=], lost her intelligence after falling into a coma, rebuilding said mech was impossible. Instead, that would have used Stealth Gao II (the component for Star [=GaoGaiGar=]) and the Liner Gao II and Drill Gao II (components from [=GaoFighGar=]) and using a new Nendroid known as [=GaiGo=], they would have created a new King of Braves, [=GaoGaiGo=]. Pictures also showed that Genesic [=GaoGaiGar=] would have returned, seemingly bursting ''through the sun'', possibly meaning Guy Shishioh, the original protagonist, might have become an antagonist somehow. However, for unknown reasons, the idea was shelved, though figurines of [=GaoGaiGo=] were made. Eventually plot elements from Project Z were used in the light novel called "''King of Destruction [=GaoGaiGar=] vs. Betterman''"

* ''Anime/YuYuHakusho'' was originally going to be brought to the States by Creator/AnimEigo before Creator/{{FUNimation}} showed interest, and Creator/AnimEigo pretty much decided not to pick up the series. Imagine if Yu Yu Hakusho had been dubbed by Coastal Carolina Studios and given Creator/AnimEigo, who doesn't license ANY anime anymore, a mainstream hit!

** ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' would have had a normal season had the COVID-19 pandemic not ended up stopping production partway through.

** Speaking of Negima, the [=OADs=] count as well. Website/AnimeNewsNetwork has listed Negi (adult) being voiced by Creator/HiroshiKamiya. Seems to be good considering the fact that he won the Third Annual Seiyuu awards. Cue the third OAD and it's still Creator/RinaSato who voiced Negi in his adult form. Not that bad all things considering, but it would have been nice if Hiroshi Kamiya did the job (then again, at this point, he [[Anime/AngelBeats was]] [[Manga/ArakawaUnderTheBridge voicing]] [[LightNovel/{{Durarara}} four]] [[Manga/{{Working}} major]] roles).

** Originally in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' Crow was supposed to be a minor recurring character who was a thief and then be revealed as the final Dark Signer. But because his Blackwing cards exploded in popularity it was decided to make him a hero, as it was feared that making Blackwings belong to a villain would hurt their popularity. No, we don't know how they didn't learn their lesson after Pegasus either.
** ''5D's'' as a whole was a serious victim of RealLifeWritesThePlot. Originally, the Crimson Dragon and the Nazca elements were supposed to be much more pronounced, and Carly was supposed to be an OfficialCouple with Jack. That is, until it was discovered that Carly's voice actress was involved in a doomsday cult much like the one in the anime that was making headlines in Japan at the time. Konami, trying to salvage their PR ([[ValuesDissonance as in Japan this incident would seriously hurt the company's reputation]]), [[TheOtherDarrin fired the actress]], Carly got DemotedToExtra and the plot was rewritten to remove as many of the supernatural elements as possible.
** Also from ''5D's'', Leo was going to have a rematch against Greiger in the Dark Signer arc and he was also meant to get Life Stream Dragon during the same arc.

** In ''Manga/VentoAureo'', Fugo was originally meant to act as TheMole for The Boss, with Giorno eventually finding out and killing him. However, due to the depression Araki was going through at the time, he chose to scrap this idea. This has led to many fans theorizing that Cioccolata was created in place of the events Fugo would be involved in, largely thanks to his [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute similar Stand]] [[WalkingWasteland ability]].

* According to research by Bandai, the ''Franchise/{{Anpanman}}'' anime was originally going to premiere in 1987 and only last 24 episodes.

* ''Manga/WanderingSon'' was originally going to be about a HighSchool [[{{Transgender}} girl that yearned to be a boy]], but the author realized that a boy who wants to become a girl before entering into puberty would have a lot of worries related to growing up and decided to go for it, changing the plot accordingly. The original idea was used with the secondary protagonist though, Takatsuki Yoshino (albeit she was in elementary at the start of the series).

** ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' would have had a normal season had the COVID-19 pandemic end up stopping production partway through.

** ''Anime/GreatMazinger'' was actually set to appear in the US back in TheEighties. As part of the ''ForceFive'' series, it would have complimented ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'', ''Manga/GetterRobo G'', ''Anime/{{Gaiking}}'' and ''[[Anime/PlanetRoboDanguardAce DanguardAce]]'', but the plan fell through and they replaced it with ''Anime/{{Starzinger}}''.

* Sayaka Yumi from ''Anime/MazingerZ'' was one of the first ActionGirl and {{Tsundere}} with a lead role in Anime, and she and Kouji did the BelligerentSexualTension bit before no one else. However, she was PutOnABus at the end of the series. TheBusCameBack again at the end of ''Anime/GreatMazinger'', but after the end of the series she was PutOnABus again. She was to become the 4th spazer pilot in ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'', but character developer and co-plotter of the series, Shingo Araki, opposed Creator/GoNagai and designed a new character that did not appear in the Grendizer manga: Maria Grace Fleed, younger sister to Grendizer main character Duke Fleed. Maria soon became a fan-favourite in the latter part of the series. What might have happened had Sayaka and Maria, two hot-tempered, {{Hotblooded}} {{Tsundere}}s liking the same boy, shown up in the same series? Fans have made plenty of fanfics and doujins about the topic and it ended up in the scripts of many ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games.

** On the English dub side of things, Creator/JohnnyYongBosch mentioned that, at first, many ideas were thrown around about what to do with the episodes, as no one was all that fond of their repeatitive nature. Among the ideas were making different accents per episode and switching the roles among the voice actors for each episode. Bandai ultimately decided to go for a straight dub.

** Apparently, CLAMP originally made the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIO8YQnR5t8 storyboard]] for the second season opening of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. But it got rejected by Creator/BeeTrain in place for the current second opening which is a slide show. Also, the second season would have been closer to the manga itself which divulged into the DarkerAndEdgier territory. However, [[ExecutiveMeddling NHK]] made the show more kid-friendly and lighter which resulted to [[CreatorBacklash much dissatisfaction from CLAMP]]. In the end, CLAMP pulled the plug for a possible third season and had Creator/ProductionIG continue it instead in a form of [=OVAs=].

** Less of a straight example than the others, but Creator/{{CLAMP}} mentioned during an interview after the conclusion of ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' that Xiaolang/Sakura being a "normal" pairing (discounting Xiaolang still being a foreigner despite being a boy Sakura's age) was never really part of their considerations. Had Xiaolang been a girl, and/or older/younger than Sakura, they still would have ended up together. Several fans who were disappointed that Xiaolang and Sakura getting together prevented any yuri in the series were rather intrigued by this information.

** Apparently, Creator/{{CLAMP}} was originally made the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIO8YQnR5t8 storyboard]] for the second season opening of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. But it got rejected by Creator/BeeTrain in place for the current second opening which is a slide show. Also, the second season would have been closer to the manga itself which divulged into the DarkerAndEdgier territory. However, [[ExecutiveMeddling NHK]] made the show more kid-friendly and lighter which resulted to [[CreatorBacklash much dissatisfaction from CLAMP]]. In the end, CLAMP pulled the plug for a possible third season and had Creator/ProductionIG continue it instead in a form of [=OVAs=].

** Less of a straight example than the others, but Creator/{{CLAMP}} mentioned during an interview after the conclusion of ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' that Syaoran/Sakura being a "normal" pairing (discounting Syaoran still being a foreigner despite being a boy Sakura's age) was never really part of their considerations. Had Syaoran been a girl, and/or older/younger than Sakura, they still would have ended up together. Several fans who were disappointed that Syaoran and Sakura getting together prevented any yuri in the series were rather intrigued by this information.

* ''Anime/TheBigO'' was originally written as a standalone series that the writers did not know, but hoped with have a second season. Had the show not done so well in America it would've been likely that series wouldn't have been picked up by western producers meaning no second season. Likewise, the second season was written with the expectation that many of the unanswered plot points in it would be explored in a third season - but the show's audience limited to the late night slots of Creator/AdultSwim and poor DVD sales meant it was impossible to produce a third season.

* ''Anime/TheBigO'' was originally written as a stand alone series that the writers did not know, but hoped with have a second season. Had the show not done so well in America it would've been likely that series wouldn't have been picked up by western producers meaning no second season. Likewise, the second season was written with the expectation that many of the unanswered plot points in it would be explored in a third season - but the show's audience limited to the late night slots of Creator/AdultSwim and poor DVD sales meant it was impossible to produce a third season.

** The pilot itself, now called ''Attack on Titan'': Volume 0, is [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness extremely different]] from the series that we know today. For starters, third-dimensional maneuver gear don't exist in the pilot, and humans are fully capable of [[InASingleBound "jumping 10 meters"]] while fighting Titans.