Adapted Out / Anime & Manga

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• The 2016 anime adaptation of the original Ace Attorney trilogy uses this trope a lot:
  • Case 1-5 is not included, so all the exclusive characters from that case are written out entirely. Subverted in 2-1's case, where it is moved to be the premiere of season 2 instead.
  • The Gatewater Hotel bellboy in "Turnabout Sisters" and Global Studios intern Penny Nichols from "Turnabout Samurai" are Demoted to Extra big time, and could have been completely written out without altering the plot at all, given that they have no dialogue lines and are only shown for a handful of seconds.
  • The Magatama sequences have been cut from the anime, likely to save on time. Psyche-Locks are shown breaking in "Farewell, My Turnabout" when Matt Engarde reveals himself to be Evil All Along, but there's no in-universe reason for them.
  • Photographer Lotta Hart is completely removed from "Farewell, My Turnabout". Her role in the case is instead given to Larry Butz.
  • "Director Hotti" (a Dirty Old Man badly impersonating a doctor) appears neither in "Reunion and Turnabout" nor in "Farewell, My Turnabout".
  • Since Phoenix and Maya never visit the workplace of computer programmer victim Glen Elg in "Recipe for Turnabout", his boss Lisa Basil does not appear.
• Ascendance of a Bookworm: Some minor characters from the light novel are absent from the anime adaptation:
  • Urano, the Japanese young woman who reincaranates into Myne, is shown walking home with her Cloudcuckoolander's Minder and Only Friend Shuu in the prologue. The prologue was mostly replaced by a Framing Device involving an Iconic Sequel Character in the anime, resulting in Shuu never showing up.
  • The novel has a period during which Myne is left with a babysitter named Gerda between the period where she's too sick to leave home and the period during which she helps Otto, the city gate's main paperwork handler. The period during which Myne is left with Gerda was cut from the anime. This results in a change in the anime version of the scene in which Myne makes baskets despite the fact nobody in her family taught her, as in its novel version, her cover story is that Gerda taught her.
  • Freida, the Lonely Rich Kid Myne eventually befriends, is established to have parents, two older brothers, at least one aunt and at least one uncle. The adults don't appear in the anime while the brothers are only given a non-speaking cameo mostly because Freida and her grandfather, around whom she spends a lot of time anyway, are the two only members of the family with any real relevance to the overreaching plot.
• Several chapters of Assassination Classroom that provide characterization for the supporting classmates were left out of the anime adaptation.
  • Maehara's limelight chapters (23 and 24) that establishes him as the class casanova seem to have been removed from the anime entirely. One can only imagine it had something to do with the whole "poisoning your schoolmates" thing.
  • Sousuke's limelight chapter (37), which shows off his artistry, also got skipped.
  • Meg's limelight chapters (44 and 45) that deals with an issue of a school student abusing Meg's generosity also didn't make the cut.
• Berserk (1997):
  • The first episode is a loose adaptation of the manga's first chapter with a few elements of the other seven chapters of the Black Swordsman arc: Guts's encounter with a female Apostle is skipped, though she still appears during the Eclipse. Puck is cut because, despite being a major character, the rest of the anime is an arc he doesn't appear in; the girl and her father (here her grandfather) from the manga's second chapter take Puck's place in what was his introductory scene. Instead of getting a Behelit from the Count, Guts gets one from the Snake Baron. Instead of encountering the Godhand in person, Guts sees them in his dream and Griffith is mentioned by two villagers.
  • The character Donovan, a mercenary who raped Guts as a child, is cut despite a fair amount of time being devoted to Guts' childhood. This event would lead to Guts' extreme aversion to being touched, which while not completely out of character for him, does seem a bit odd without an explanation.
  • The tail end of the Golden Age Arc before the Eclipse is significantly cut down: A brief tournament Guts participates in, which introduced Silat and the Kushan Empire, is skipped. The Griffith Rescue Arc is much shorter, leaving out the fights with a squad of Kushan assassin and an Army of Thieves and Whores lead by the Apostle Wyald. Most critically, Skull Knight and any scene where he appears is cut out entirely, leaving no explanation at all for how Guts escaped the Eclipse at the anime's end.
• Bokurano
  • When the protagonists first get in touch with the government, three officers of the Self-Defense Forces greet them. While Seki and Tanaka are present in the anime, and Tanaka is quite significant to the overall plot, Shoji is cut out, resulting in Seki being the one to point a gun at Koyemshi.
  • In the manga, Masaru "Kodama" Kodaka has two older brothers, while in the anime, he only has one.
  • Unlike in the manga, Tanaka does not get married or have a child after being forced to abandon Jun.
• The first Breath of Fire manga, which adapted the first game, omitted the Quirky Miniboss Squad almost entirely (only 1 out of its 4 members appears) despite being the main enemies for a fourth of the game.
• In the CLANNAD Visual Novel, Kappei was actually an important (if late introduced) character with his own ending and everything, but so far has not appeared in any Clannad anime adaptation ever. This is lampshaded over a decade later in Kaginado where he does make an animated appearance.
• Code Geass:
  • The direct manga adaptation cuts out the Knightmare Frames, which reduces the scale of the story overall by taking out a hefty chunk of the military aspect. Also removed are characters like Cornelia, who tied heavily into the military part of the anime.
  • Suzaku of the Counterattack cuts out most of the Ashford Academy characters, and rolls Shirley, Cecile, and Euphemia up into a new character.
• In the manga adaptation of the Danganronpa Gaiden Game Ultra Despair Girls, Kotoko, Nagisa and Monaca's robots never appear.
• The anime version of Deadman Wonderland has multiple differences from the manga. Certain characters like Chaplin were removed.
• The short-lived manga adaptation of Powerpuff Girls Z omitted pretty much every major Powerpuff Girls villain except for Mojo Jojo and Princess.
• Ryo Asuka/Satan is left out of the 1972 Devilman anime. Most of Devilman's Rogues Gallery is likewise absent, save for Sirene, Psycho Jenny and Xenon (who takes on the Big Bad role for Satan).
• In the anime adaption of Disgaea, Big Sis Prinny is left out, which is important as she's Laharl's mother and her death is the reason he's so bitter towards Love.
• As a blending of the first few arcs of the manga, Dragon Ball: The Path to Power cuts out the Pilaf gang in favour of the Red Ribbon Army, from which Colonel Silver, Ninja Murasaki, and Captain Yellow are absent. Also gone are Krillin, the Ox-King, Chi-Chi, Monster Carrot, Tao Pai Pai, Upa, Bora, and Korin.
• The movie adaptation of Dragon Quest V, Dragon Quest: Your Story leaves Madchen -one of the Hero's twin children- out. Optional party member Tuppence is not included, either; his role in the party is effectively replaced with a friendly slime named Goo.
• Nozomi is absent from the anime adaptation of Elfen Lied, despite being the reason the story is called "Elfen Lied" in the first place.^note It's a song she sings.
• In the two manga adaptations of the Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War games, different characters have been cut out:
  • Mitsuki Oosawa manga: Holyn and Beowulf, prospect love interests for Ayra and Raquesis, disappear from the story — while Ayra hooks up with Lex and Raquesis with Finn. (after having her Brother–Sister Incest deal with Eldigan cranked up until he dies) This was presumably done to avert Derailing Love Interests - which doesn't explain why Oosawa kept an expy of Eldigan's canon wife Grahnye around and made her a total asshole, while still capable of making a Love Triangle between Ferry, Lewyn and Sylvia without derailing the loser (Sylvia, who instead is very sympathetic).
  • On the antagonist side, Queen Hilda of Freege also apparently did not appear, and considering that she's one of the worst Hate Sink of the timeline, it's probably to make the story not too dark, or as seen with other antagonists, Oosawa is known to make otherwise one or two dimensional villains look more sympathetic, but Hilda is just far too evil for Oosawa to salvage, when she actually did include another Hate Sink, Prince Chagall of Agustria, and made his negative qualities more apparent.
  • Nea Fuyuki manga: Sylvia's children Leen and Corple. (And in the meantime, Leen's love interest Ares has his eyes set on Princess Julia instead). Fuyuki allegedly said in author's notes that she wanted to keep them around, but time restrains didn't allow her to.
• The Fist of the North Star TV series for the most part, sticks pretty closely to the manga, but a few notable minor characters (such as Jackal's boxer underling and the General who started the nuclear war) were omitted during the adaptation. Most notably, Jakoh's sons Jask and Sheeno were removed from the early episodes of the Fist of the North Star 2 anime and replaced by two renegade Gento Kōken practitioners named Taiga and Boltz, who were originally conceived as filler villains before the Jakoh story arc was fully serialized in the manga.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) cut out a lot of the cast who were introduced partway into the original manga (the Xingese characters, the Briggs soldiers, etc.) since the anime Overtook the Manga. Ling appeared in a cameo, but was otherwise excluded.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, in comparaison, has its first half rushed out, and thus, the coal mine town tale is mentioned only in flashbacks (however, Yoki still appears in his relevant scenes in the story), while the battle in the train tale and its antagonist Bald are excluded.
• Francine, who was one of the main Gate Keepers in the game, was completely omitted in the anime.
• The 1998 Live-Action Adaptation of Great Teacher Onizuka didn't include Urumi Kanzaki, as she hadn't been introduced yet at the time of production. The 2012 remake includes her, as well as the characters that didn't show up in the anime for similar reasons (Misuzu Daimon, Ai Tokiwa, and Sho Shibuya).
• The anime version of Happy Happy Clover removes any of the human characters that showed up in the manga besides a few character mentioning them.
• Honoo no Alpen Rose was originally supposed to run for 52 episodes, but this was cut to 20, hence many characters in the manga never making it to the anime. These included Madeleine, the eldest daughter and White Sheep of the Toulonchamp family, Eva (Leonhardt's friend who would sing at his performances), Rudolf (Friedrich's friend who had been caring for him ever since the plane accident) and Louise (the Jewish girl who slapped Jean-Jacques for being a Nazi). It also omitted the Strasser family, who were behind Jean-Jacques' Dark and Troubled Past, and left out plot points such as Robert and Madeleine's wedding, Heinrich's execution and Jeudi and Lundi having a baby.
• Ie Naki Ko Remi: In the original novel, the Greater-Scope Villain was James Milligan, Remi's uncle who wanted him out so that he coukd get his grubby little hands on his brother's fortune. He isn't present in the anime. Other characters not present in the anime include the Driscolls and the Acquins.
• The OVA of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders cut out a bunch of Dio's acolytes, including Gray Fly, Steely Dan, Mannish Boy, Terence T. D'Arby, Captain Tenille, Devo the Cursed, Mariah and Pet Shop. All of them were brought back in the 2014 anime.
• The featureless player character from KanColle, The Admiral, was not made into a leading character or someone with known features in the Anime; he is an unseen figure instead, mentioned offhand by others, taking a different approach from other Anime Adaptations of popular works like The Idolmaster and Super Sonico, where The Producer and The Manager were given features and sufficient characterization.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • The manga adaptation left out Deep Jungle, the Tarzan world, due to rights issues. Also, subsequent games have acted like the world never existed, leaving a minor plot hole.
  • Of the still-legitimate worlds in the series, Halloween Town was also adapted out despite its massive popularity. Chain of Memories cuts out all Disney worlds but Agrabah, and Kingdom Hearts II excludes Atlantica, Port Royal and the Pride Lands.
• Lady!!: The anime omits all the characters from the Japan arc (if not retooling them into white British characters, like Mana —> Dorothy and Lara, and Sonoko —> Vivian), and removes that Lynn returned to Japan in the first place. The exception to this are Misuzu's parents.
• The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa): The adaptation of Majora's Mask has the storyline condensed.
  • Romani and Cremia; the authors admit that they couldn't work them into the story no matter how hard they tried, and include drawings of them at the end to make up for it. People who have played the game will likely find their absence rather jarring since their role in the game was of the few required subplots^note You get Epona back after she was stolen by the Skull Kid , and she is needed to access the last two areas of the game..
  • Despite many of the game's subplots being omitted for the sake of pacing (unlike the game, the manga takes place throughout one three day cycle), much of the Ikana Canyon section of the game is glossed over in favor of expanding on the Kafei and Anju sidequest. All that's depicted is Link traversing through Stone Tower Temple, getting ambushed by one of the Twinmold monsters (as opposed to the two featured in the game), and defeating it fairly quickly. Justified in that by this point, it's well into the final day.
• The various animated Lupin III productions tend to very loosely (if at all) adapt the original manga, so a ton of characters were left out. For instance, the manga chapter that was adapted into episode 12 of the first anime featured Fujiko and her sister Michi, while the TV version just had Fujiko. Recurring villain Pycal also had a wife who appeared as the antagonist of one chapter, but the anime adaptation gave her role to a new male villain named Volvo.
• Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow: In the original novel by Phyllis Piddington, Lucy May had a little sister who died at a young age. In the anime, she's never mentioned and both of her sisters are alive.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A's left out Gil Graham and the Liese Twins, who were revealed to be behind the plot of the season. Meta-fictionally speaking, this is because the movie is an in-universe adaptation and their roles in those events were classified.
  • INNOCENT leaves out the entire casts of ViVid and Force. In ViVid's case, it'd be difficult to have Vivio running around when her mother is currently 9 in this continuity. With Force, it probably has more to do with the fact that the season as a whole is almost universally despised, to the point that fans disregard it as being canon. Everyone related to the Saint Church is also absent which means that Sein, Otto, and Deed never show up, even though all 9 other Numbers (including Due) are present. However, Vivio and Einhart do show up later on via time travel.
  • Subverted with Misato Mikami (Nanoha's paternal aunt, and biological mother of her older sister/cousin Miyuki), who played a role in Nanoha's parent series but was completely absent from anything in the various Nanoha continuities only to make a small cameo 15 years later in the Reflection supplementary manga.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection and Detonation cut out the more fantastic elements (by series standards) from Gears of Destiny, meaning that it lacks the characters who showed up due to being resurrected as Dark Fragments (Precia and Linith)^note though if one wants to get technical, their Lotus-Eater Machine counterparts both show up when Fate has a flashback to the A's movie or time traveled (Vivio, Einhart, Thoma, and Lily). The Liese twins and Reinforce Eins (who had already been adapted out in the previous movie and Spared by the Adaptation in the games respectively) are also absent.
• The anime version of Midori Days is only 13 episodes long whereas the manga is 85 chapters in all. Because of the difference in length, characters like Nao and her father Shirou were left out of the anime, along with Lucy.
• The anime for Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid completely cut out all of the cameos by other Cool-Kyou Shinsha characters (with the exception of Frau Rabbit and Houka Kazetomo).
• In Muhyo and Roji, the Mad Planter doesn't appear in the anime version of the Arcanum arc. Instead of him attacking after Red-Eye is dragged into the depths of the Arcanum prison, and Muhyo deals with the Rain Dog, Muhyo deals with both Red-Eye and the Rain Dog, the latter of which poisons Biko in the Mad Planter's stead.
• My Hero Academia: The fifth season of the anime, which adapts the Joint Training, Meta Liberation Army and Endeavor Internship arcs, switches the order of the latter two arcs around and ends up cutting out a few scenes that establish the Meta Liberation Army. As a result, Rikiya "Re-Destro" Yotsubashi's secretary Miyashita ends up being cut out of the anime, along with the scene in which Yotsubashi kills Miyashita for badmouthing the Meta Liberation Army(the organization Yotsubashi secretly leads).
• The anime adaptation of My Monster Secret ends just before Rin Kiryuin, Asahi's Grandkid from the Future, joins the cast^note In fact, it actually ends on the chapter where she first appears, but cuts out her brief (last page) cameo, and the episodes that adapted manga chapters where she did appear simply handed her role over to other characters (primarily Nagisa Aizawa). Since Rin's timeline is a massive driving element for the rest of the series, any subsequent anime adaptations would have to ignore this one and start fresh.
• Shizuna Minamoto is absent from Studio Shaft's anime adaptation of Negima! Magister Negi Magi and Mr. Takahata pretty much takes over her parts in addition to his own. Kotaro Inugami joins the cast in the manga as Negi's best friend; however, he makes no appearance in either anime series.
• The anime adaptation of Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- removes the dōmori, the Non-Entity General Player Character of the game, with their role apparently given to Shaka Nyorai. The other Buddhas outside of the Thirteen Buddhas, Taishakuten and Bonten also don't appear.
• Onegai! Samia-don is an Animated Adaptation of the book Five Children and It, but the eldest daughter Althea isn't included in the series and Canon Foreigner Anne Hopkins takes her in-story spot.
• In the manga adaptation Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, the first form of the Final Boss does not appear. Once the protagonists reach the end of the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, the boss enters its second form.
• In Persona 5: The Animation, none of the Phantom Thieves besides Ren "Joker" Amamiya acquire their Ultimate Personas, even though most of the Phantom Thieves besides Futaba and Haru complete their Confidants in the anime, and Morgana's Confidant levels up with the storyline.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Leaf,^note From Fire Red and Leaf Green, Hilda and Hilbert,^note from Pokémon Black and White, Nate and Rosa,^note from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Calem,^note from Pokémon X and Y Elio and Selene^note from Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Victor and Gloria^note from Pokémon Sword and Shield do not show up at all despite being Player Characters from some of the games. Justifiable since Ash being the main protagonist of the first eight series makes them kind of redundant as major characters or protagonists; some seasons of the anime have him wear clothes similar to those of many of the above characters.
  • Gary doesn't have a sister like his game counterpart, since Ash didn't need the Town Map that Daisy provides, nor does he spend much time in Pallet Town, where she resides.
  • Game rivals, Wally^note though Drew has aesthetic similarities and is May's rival, while Max covers the Kid Appeal, the student-to-the-Player role, and being close to a Ralts (despite not catching it), and Hugh are completely absent. Silver is mostly absent, but makes a very brief cameo in a special and got an expy in Paul during the Diamond and Pearl saga.^note For completeness, Brendan and Lucas also appear only in cameos in the movies; as does Ethan for those who don't count Jimmy. Cheren didn't appear as a rival but appeared as his Gym Leader incarnation in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2; this means he and Bianca are different ages and don't know each other at all in the anime.
  • Koga's daughter (and Gym Leader successor) Janine, the only sequel Gym Leader from Pokémon Gold and Silver, never makes an appearance. The part of the game she's in requires visiting Kanto to get the region's badges; while Ash did return to Kanto to face off against the Hoenn Frontier Brains, he didn't visit the Gyms due to the fact that he'd already gotten the badges. Koga does get a sister named Aya, who pretty much fills the same role as Janine.
  • While their existence is acknowledged, some Elite Four members from Hoenn^note except Drake and Unova^note except Caitlin are never shown. Will and Karen from Gold and Silver never appear as well.
  • Sinnoh and Johto's Frontier Brains other than Palmer (justified due to him being Barry's father) and Caitlin^note albeit in her Unova Elite Four incarnation do not appear.
  • Characters from spinoff games rarely appear in the anime. The only ones who do are from Pokémon Snap^note Todd actually debuted in the anime before Snap's release and the Pokémon Ranger series. The Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Pokémon Trozei!, and Pokémon GO characters don't appear. This does not include the one-off Pokémon Mystery Dungeon specials.
  • AZ and the Ultimate Weapon do not play a role in the anime's version of Team Flare's plot. Lysandre therefore gets no mention of reincarnating from AZ's past, and Team Flare's goals now revolve around Zygarde (in addition to manipulating Alain and draining energy from Ash and Greninja for their plan), and Team Flare's new weapon (which resembles Zygarde) intends to destroy everything rather than everything that isn't part of Team Flare.
  • While Xerneas and Yveltal appear in Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, they have no role or appearance in the main anime series itself (unlike every mascot legendary before them), with Team Flare's plot instead involving Zygarde. The closest thing they get is a side special, but even then it's a flashback.
  • Game elements like Technical and Hidden Machines are never used in the anime; many Pokémon often already learn the moves on their own or are taught them with no mention of these machines.
  • The postgame in X and Y features Xerosic being investigated by Agent Looker and finding redemption with the help of a young girl named Emma. Neither of these happen in the anime.^note Instead Xerosic tries to brainwash Clemont, but gets defeated by Ash and the gang and then arrested by Officer Jenny.
  • Cynthia's sister and grandfather are minor characters to begin with, but in the anime, only Cynthia and her grandmother appear.
  • Mr. Fuji, the old man who takes care of Pokémon in Lavender Town doesn't make any appearance in the anime. Though a Dr. Fuji creates Mewtwo in Pokémon: The First Movie, he's a distinctly different character from Mr. Fuji.
  • Porygon's evolutions never appeared in the anime, due to it being associated with the infamous episode that caused seizures, even though it was actually Pikachu's fault in the scene. Their lone appearance was a brief cameo in the "World of Pokémon" opening to Pokémon: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice, which showed every Pokémon that existed at the time.
  • Zinnia and Aarune from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire don't appear either. Lisia on the other hand debuted in Pokémon Journeys.
  • The Team Rocket Executives - Proton, Ariana, Petrel, and Archer - have never appeared, either in their original designs or remake designs, despite Team Rocket being such an important aspect of the anime. Unlike Red in the games, Ash has not caused Team Rocket to disband^note While Giovanni is usually the Viridian Gym Leader, whose defeat at the Gym causes said disbanding, he conveniently leaves so Jessie, James, and Meowth fight Ash in his place, and Team Rocket's continued presence is believed to be a symptom of the trio's popularity making them part of the series formula and thus neither Neo Team Rocket nor Team Rainbow Rocket came to be.
  • The games feature various cellphone-like items, such as the Xtransceiver, which are usually ignored in the anime. Word of God is that that they would make the plots too easy to work around (i.e. if the plot has characters split up then all they'd have to do is call each other). Misty had the original PokéGear in one episode after her departure, Brock used the one from the remakes as a map throughout the Diamond & Pearl series, and Dawn had a Pokétch. It wasn't until Journeys that Ash received the Rotom Phone when he's assigned to do research alongside Goh.
  • For the longest time, Bill was the only PC programmer from the games that has appeared in the anime (and in only one episode at that). Nothing about him being in charge of the Pokémon Storage System is even mentioned since that doesn't appear in the anime either. No appearances have been made from Lanette, Bebe, Amanita, or Cassius. Molayne does make an appearance in the Sun and Moon anime, but again, his role as a PC programmer is not mentioned at all.
  • Courtney and Matt, admins from Team Magma and Team Aqua respectively, do not appear in the anime at all.
  • The remake designs of Team Magma and Team Aqua don't appear in the anime because it'd be redundant.
  • Professor Sycamore's recurring assistants Sina and Dexio didn't appear in the anime, though one of Team Rocket's Paper-Thin Disguises is inspired by their Sun & Moon clothing.
  • The Distortion World is the catalyst of Platinum's plot, but never appeared in the anime. Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior instead uses a very similar (yet noticeably different) area called the "Reverse World".
  • The Shadow Triad do not appear in the anime.
  • Lentimas Town and Black City are the only towns and cities in the Unova region not to be featured in the anime. Same for White Forest. Alder's grandson Benga, the final boss of Black Tower/White Treehollow, is completely absent.
  • Kiloude City in the Kalos region has never been featured either, meaning the Battle Chatelaines are also a no-show.
  • Necrozma's backstory makes no mention of Ultra Megalopolis, the ancient populace of which were the catalyst for the Legendary Pokémon's vicious nature and pillaging of light. Instead, Necrozma lost its light when it exhausted its power protecting Poipole and Naganadel's world from a meteor.
  • Relatedly, The Ultra Recon Squad also don't exist in the anime.
  • The Game Corners don't appear in the main anime after the slot machines in “The Song of Jigglypuff” because of the gambling issues the ones in the games are feared to cause.
  • The post-League Battle Zone from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum doesn't appear until Journeys, when Ash and Goh visit Resort Area with its unusually strong Magikarp. The Battle Area and Fight Area still haven't been seen, and Stark Mountain is only mentioned by Buck in one episode
  • Galar Gym Leaders Milo, Nessa, Gordie and Melony don't appear in the anime. The rival Bede doesn't appear either. Kabu also didn't appear in Journeys but eventually appeared in Horizons.
  • Characters from the DLC chapters don't appear, with Mustard, Honey, Avery and Klara from The Isle of Armor absent along with Peony and his daughter Peonia from The Crown Tundra.
• Pokémon Adventures:
  • Red in the games has a mother who appears in two different pairs of games (the Kanto and Johto ones) and has an off-screen father. Red in Adventures, however, either suffers from a mean case of Invisible Parents or outright Parental Abandonment. He is one of the only, if not the only, Pokédex holders with no known relatives.
  • A well-known sidequest in Gold and Silver is curing Jasmine's Amphy in Olivine City, where this whole sidequest is seemingly scrapped in the manga. The only nod to it is when she uses her Amphy to light up the Tin Tower when trapped there by an earthquake.
  • In B2W2, Team Plasma invades Opelucid City in-game to obtain the DNA Splicers which has been passed down in Drayden's family. In the manga however, Blake has been in possession of it ever since he was little.
  • A shocking moment in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 is when the Purrloin stolen by Team Plasma is now a Liepard, loyal to the Shadow Triad. They do give it back to Hugh, but it takes some time for his sister to bond with it. This plot point is completely absent in the B2W2 arc, with it having stayed as Purrloin by the time it reunites with Hugh's sister.
  • A more minor plot point is removed in the XY arc, where the activation of the Ultimate Weapon in-game is decided by a red and blue button in Lysandre Labs, which only turns out to be a Sadistic Choice. There's no mention of the button anywhere in the arc.
• Pokémon Generations:
  • None of the female player characters make an appearance. Instead, the male protagonists are used — the one possible exception being "The Scoop", where the Hoenn protagonist is dressed in an all-concealing Magma Suit, making it ambiguous if it's Brendan or May underneath.
  • Lucas and Dawn never show up — in "The New World", Cynthia confronts Team Galactic atop Spear Pillar alone, while "The Magma Stone" only has Looker and Buck present; in both situations in Platinum, the player was present with them.
  • The protagonists of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are absent in the two episodes focusing on the events of those games. In "The King Returns", instead of Nate/Rosa appearing, Hilbert from Pokémon Black and White appears with Zekrom to aid N; something that never happened in B2/W2's story.
  • In "The Investigation", which is based on the Looker sidequest in Pokémon X and Y, Mimi deactivates Emma's Expansion Suit, as opposed to Xerosic (who is absent entirely).
• When Popotan got its adaptation, some characters disappeared completely. One of them was the main character.
• The animated adaptations of the Queen's Blade gamebooks took some liberties towards some characters and plot events:
  • Hans (Hobby Japan's collective Word of God and Author Avatar) does not appears in the animated TV series, but he appears in the CD dramas and the videogames, His role is replaced in the anime by The Head Archangel instead.
  • Nyx doesn't appear in the first season, as the producers of the anime seems to run out of episodes for including her (other than a brief cameo), not to mention she's not very important, plot-wise, for the story (despite having a designated voice actress). She appears in the second season for real.
  • Alice, the main protagonist of the Queen's Gate novels and gamebooks, only appears in the Queen's Gate Spiral Chaos game and she doesn't appear in the anime. Also, neither her friends nor her family in Europe and her backstory from the novels are mentioned anywhere in the game.
  • While she is a crossover character in the Queen's Gate Spiral Chaos game, Noel Vermillion is the only character from her universe who appears, and despite being mentioned in the game and being the main motivation for her for being in the game, Jin Kisaragi doesn't not appear in the game. This is somewhat egregious, as while the events of the game are not canon for the BlazBlue universe, both characters are vital for Hazama aka Yuuki Terumi for his plans to work and he's not mentioned anywhere.
  • Also, none of the characters from the Sword of the Unicorn novels appears anywhere, as the events of those novels are not canon, since the novels took some liberties with the already established backstory. (For beginners, there's no QB tournament here)
• Ranma ½:
  • Hikaru Gosunkugi, one of Akane's hopeless suitors, is largely absent during most of the anime and doesn't make an appearance until much later in the series. Until then, his role was usually given to Sasuke, a character original to the anime.
  • Akari (Ryoga's later girlfriend) and Konatsu (Ukyou's Hopeless Suitor) don't show up at all in the anime.
• Sailor Moon:
  • The following Sailor Guardians don't exist in the anime: Sailor Ceres, Sailor Pallas, Sailor Juno, Sailor Vesta, and Sailor Cosmos, albeit the first four still appear as characters (specifically as villains who undergo a Heel–Face Turn) but never become Sailor Guardians. The last one technically appeared as a silhouette.
  • Sailor Galaxia lost about half of her minions in the transition. They were Sailors Heavy Metal Papillon, Lethe, Mnemosyne, Phi, and Chi.
  • Kotono Sarashina was a classmate and fangirl of Rei's. She was presumably removed due to Koan's role being heavily rewritten.^note Kotono was president of the school's Supernatural Research Club. They had a booth at the School Festival they wanted Rei to be apart of. Koan infiltrated the festival. None of this happens in the anime. Ironically, she was named for Usagi's voice actress.
  • Saphir had two droids, Aquatici and Veneti, that didn't make it. What sealed their removal was droids being completely different in the anime and Saphir himself being Demoted to Extra.
• Sailor Moon Eternal:
  • The manga had a section with Mamoru receiving advice from the Four Heavenly Kings. However, they did not appear in the anime.
  • Queen Nehelenia's scheme with the Amazoness Quartet was removed: The manga explained that she deceived the Quartet when she awakened them by claiming to be the true queen of Silver Millenium, and therefore, the Crystal belonged to her. In the anime, this scheme is never mentioned: The Quartet simply believe they've always lived on Dead Moon.
• Saint Seiya:
  • The "Sanctuary Chapter" OVA adaptation of the Hades saga removed Harpy Valentine and Radamanthys' Praetorian Guard from the final chapters. This is specially notable for Basilisk Silpheed who returns much later in the 2nd "Inferno Chapter" OVAs and references a meeting with the Bronze Saints that never happened.
  • In the manga, Black Dragon has a blind brother that is able to attack in the darkness, and Shiryu has trouble fighting them until he figures out there are 2 of them, defeats the blind Black Dragon, then the fight continues one on one. In the anime, the entire section featuring the second Black Dragon was omitted, skipping directly to the one on one fight.
  • In Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, the anime left out a small part near the end of season 2 where Hades poses as the Pope and convinces a small group from Athena's army to advance and enter a zone protected by the barrier of his castle, resulting in their deaths. Salo, the youngest of Taurus Aldebaran's three apprentices, is among the deceased.
• School-Live!:
  • The anime removed the other survivors Kei and Miki met in the mall at the start of the Zombie Apocalypse. The only one left is the old Christian woman (who became Taroumaru's owner in the anime). In the manga going from living in a group, to only being Miki and her friend Kei, to then just being Miki alone until she was rescued exists to show off Miki's troubles and loneliness, however the anime ignored that element of her character.
  • The final episode completely removed the helicopter attempting to rescue the girls. It avoided a Downer Ending in exchange for a Bittersweet Ending by scrapping the part where it crashes and Yuuri has a breakdown.
• Pretty much almost every important backstory past the second half of Shaman King (the Shaman tournament) got dropped out in the first anime adaptation, which was later rectified in the second anime adaptation following the manga more faithfully. Both anime remove some of the early material such as Yoh's encounter with the ghost of a boxer.
• Splatoon removes almost all of the Great Octoweapons that appear in the first game. The only one to appear in the manga adaptation is Octostomp.
• Sonic X has appearances by nearly every main character from the games except Metal Sonic.
• Street Fighter II V has almost the entire cast of Super Street Fighter II, with the only ones missing being Dee Jay, T. Hawk, E. Honda, and Blanka. They were originally going to appear, but plans for the show changed after its episode order was Cut Short.
• In Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Karen "LLENN" Kohiruimaki is said to have a few siblings, with her oldest sister having a husband and a young daughter. While these characters are sometimes mentioned in the light novels, and Karen's sister and niece appear after her real life meeting with M in Volume 2, they are never even mentioned in the anime.
• Tekken: Bloodline is a loose adaptation of Tekken 3, and features most of that game's cast (even if many are mere cameos), with a few exceptions. Eddy Gordo, Bryan Fury, Panda, Forest Law and Mokujin are all absent, though Eddy is at least mentioned in a news article. The same goes for Gon, though, as a Guest Fighter in the first place, licensing issues likely made that impossible to begin with. Also, while she was merely an NPC in that game, Michelle Chang still appeared in her daughter Julia's ending, with her kidnapping at the hands of Heihachi being the reason Julia entered the tournament in the first place. Here, Michelle is only mentioned, and her disappearance is implied to be due to Ogre.
• The manga adaptation of the first Tenchi Universe movie, Tenchi Muyo in Love removes a few things from the movie:
  • There's a minor plot involving a Galaxy Police officer seeking revenge against Big Bad KAIN for destroying Galaxy Police HQ and ends up getting dismembered for his troubles. He doesn't show up, thus suffers a Spared by the Adaptation by not existing.
  • KAIN's One-Winged Angel form and Achika's full powered look is removed entirely. Instead, Achika fires her power into Tenchi's sword, allowing him to kill KAIN.
• In the anime adaptation of Trinity Blood, many characters from the novels (such as some members from the Vatican and Rosenkreuz Orden) do not appear while some have their roles reduced though some of them do appear in the manga.
• Ataru's best friend Kosuke does not appear in the anime adaptation of Urusei Yatsura, which gave most of his role and lines to Lum's Stormtroopers.
• Sara Shirabuki from Vampire Knight never made it into the anime adaptation.
• Masaki, along with the Akasaka Straight Wangan Midnight story arc he was featured in, was completely gutted out from TV anime. The Garage ACE, Legendary F1 Turbine, Zero Fighter for the Grounds, and FD Master arcs are also cut from the TV anime.
• The Warrior Cats graphic novel trilogy SkyClan and the Stranger (and bonus manga at the end of SkyClan's Destiny) is unique among Warriors mangas in that they try to make all SkyClan cats appear, or at least be mentioned. While almost the entire Clan is in there, the only ones to not show up or be mentioned at all in either the trilogy or the bonus manga are Sagepaw and Egg, for whatever reason.
• Keiichi didn't show up in the X/1999 anime. The three main characters of CLAMP School Detectives didn't appear in the anime as well (probably due to copyright reasons since CLAMP School Detectives is animated by a different studio), but the chairman of CLAMP School looked similar to Nokoru Inomoyama except he has a Porn Stache.
• The Cuban Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese dubs of Voltes V adapted the series into a movie and cut Kozo Sakaonji, the team's second mentor after Hamaguchi, out. For whatever reason he isn't present in the Korean dub either.
• Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago is based on the reigning years of Suleiman the Magnificent during the 16th century of ancient Turkey. However, certain historical characters have been removed, likely to fit the story.
  • Suleiman had two sons before he had Mustafa with Mahidevran Gulbahar, but their deaths in 1521 resulted in Mustafa being the only son that had survived past childhood. The manga adapted them out and made Mustafa the only son Suleiman had, until he had children with Hurrem.
  • History lists that Hurrem and Suleiman had six children together, with Abdullah being their fourth. He was born after Mihrimah, but before Selim, and is assumed to have been Mihrimah's (Irish) twin because their births occurred in the same year. However, Abdullah died of disease at age 3 in 1525. The manga adapts Abdullah out entirely, leading to Selim being the third child Hurrem and Suleiman have.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The anime version removed Otogi's dad in favor of making Otogi more different.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Yubel was completely absent from the manga adaptation.
• YuYu Hakusho: There were a few manga stories during Yusuke's earliest days as a Spirit Detective that never made it to the anime, including the story of a ghost girl who couldn't move on because she was stood up by a date and the tale of a tanuki who helped an aging grandfather to pass on peacefully because the old man and his grandson once saved his life.

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