American Kirby Is Hardcore

American Kirby is definitely in it to win it.

"Being happy is sometimes rather pleasant, really. Japanese developers understand this mysterious truth, but while they keep trying to export their eternally sunny characters to us, we just keep transforming them into gloomy, moody tough guys."

— "Why Japanese Boxart is Better," GamesRadar

When a Japanese game is released Stateside, there's a tendency to make the box art, or even the character design, a little more hardcore. Maybe it's as simple as adding Angry Eyebrows, or maybe the character's sprite or model is completely redone. This is often done to characters who were originally intended to be cute. Sometimes this trope goes the other way, too: an American character may be made cuter for the Japanese release.

This has to do with Values Dissonance and, to a lesser extent, Americans Hate Tingle. Japan's culture is generally very accepting of cuteness, and will take it in stride. In comparison, American culture throughout the late 80s all the way around to the mid-2000s associated the bright, colorful, and innocent with childhood and immaturity, and frequently preferred the dark, edgy, realistic, and "mature". The trope of "I Want to Be a Real Man" seems to have rooted itself more firmly in this culture.

Other things that were likely to be changed by this trope during the late 80's - 2000's were by reducing how pink things appeared (pink is neutral in Japan, but in America, it was a different story back then, for its culture used to see it as being strictly feminine and girly until the 2010's when it slowly but surely embraced pink colors as a positive case of real men wearing pink) and by way of exchanging Minimalistic art in favor of more action-y scenes.

The trend in question became especially notorious in the 1990s (see the '90s Anti-Hero and Animated Shock Comedy), and it is largely due to a cultural pushback against sanitized media of previous decades. And, in 1999 and 2001, respectively, the Columbine shooting and The War on Terror left many in the United States confused, angry, and traumatized, and the media of the 2000s reflected this. Even otaku resonated strongly with dark and edgy anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Death Note, and Elfen Lied.

This situation began to change starting in the 2010s, which can be traced to North America's ironic general pushback against the Darker and Edgier trends of the previous decades, nostalgia for previous decades leading to an abundance of reboots, revivals, and genre throwbacks, and the wider spread of Japanese pop culture during this time period. While the preference for "mature" media isn't completely gone (as seen with the general popularity of TV-MA-rated dramas on channels like HBO or AMC), cuteness in general is now far more loved and accepted in North America than it used to be. It's hard to visit any supermarket these days without seeing a Minion's face on something.

In the past, American culture's former attitudes against cuteness used to go so far as to color their perceptions of Japanese culture; some historians had occasionally (and controversially) attempted to link kawaisa to the national humiliation endured by Japan in World War II and the nation's resulting 180° turn from a warrior culture to a pacifistic one.

This trope is one reason why GameFAQs has a separate tag for box shots, since sometimes it just happens that the box art of the games differs significantly. As an added bonus, if the game is ever brought out to Europe, expect the artwork cover to be more artistic than usual regardless of whether or not the buyer can make sense of the artwork.

This is not always a bad thing, mind you; if the game itself isn't particularly cutesy, then giving it cute box art is just weird. It can also mean that a game with cute art direction may hide a heart of blackened steel underneath that gamers might miss out on. On the other hand, if you're thinking about buying a game whose main character is an adorable pink puffball surrounded by sparkles and rainbows, then whether or not he's smiling on the cover honestly shouldn't be a deal-breaker (though it's perfectly normal if you're wondering why he isn't smiling).

A subtrope of Cultural Translation and related to Darker and Edgier. See also Mascot with Attitude, since many examples are an attempt to turn a character into one of these.

Note: Weblinks Are Not Examples! Please include a description of the cover art in your examples.

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Example subpages:

• Video Games

Other Examples:

Anime

• Astro Boy is known to be very cute and innocent. But when the 2003 anime was brought to America, most of the advertisement focused on the action scenes and his super hero side. The dubbing gave him a harsher and more snarky attitude as well. It also cut out most of Astro's cute child-like moments. To say nothing of the DVD boxset cover which is just his face looking absurdly angry.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Even when it became Darker and Edgier, the franchise has always had a humorous, whimsical tone, summed up nicely by Dragon Ball Z's Japanese theme tune, "Cha-La Head-Cha-La". Its North American opening themes, on the other hand, have ranged from "Rock the Dragon" to… well, this. Later English-language releases have either kept or translated the Japanese themes.
  • This trope applies to Son Goku's character and portrayal. In Japanese, Goku (no matter his age) is portrayed as a highly dorky, goofy, Book Dumb hero voiced by Masako Nozawa speaking in a young boy's voice and affecting a Simpleton Voice accent, with his Dragon Ball child incarnation forming the basis of his character. In English dubs, Goku's adult DBZ incarnation is the basis of his character, and adult Goku is always voiced by adult men speaking with a standard American accent. Earlier dubs portrayed Goku as more of a serious superhero, but he retained his male voice actors even as later dubs would skew more faithful to the Japanese and play up the silly side of his personality.
  • The changes extended beyond the opening themes: the dubbed version featured a completely new soundtrack to replace the Japanese versions, with the new music itself being darker and heavier in tone than the original's orchestral themes. Compare the Japanese version's theme for Perfect Cell to the dubbed version's theme.
  • Some of the movies (Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug, Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan and Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming) got a complete different soundtrack composed of rock and metal songs from the Turn of the Millennium, opposed to the late 80s and early 90s original audio, giving the movies a somewhat "edgier" vibe. Here is a playlist with the songs.
• When CNX (Cartoon Network UK's short-lived attempt at attracting the 15-35 male demographic) got the rights to show the original Dragon Ball, the Canadian-dubbed episodes they acquired featured a cheerful kid-focused opening theme. Fearing ridicule from their target audience, a new opening with more action-packed scenes from the show was thrown together, complete with Kung-Foley and a remixed theme. (Though the Canadian themes were accidentally shown on occasion.)
  • The French dub (And the many other dubs that translated from it) inverted this trope by giving Z a happier OP about Gohan. Also a case of Mood Whiplash.
  • In a variation, the European Spanish dub of Cha-La Head-Cha-La keeps the music but changes the comedy "We'll teach a dinosaur to ride a ball" lyrics to standard "We'll beat up the villains" fare, which is more this trope.
  • Dragon Ball Super is clearly, and officially, aimed at children in Japan. However, because of Values Dissonance and a very strong Periphery Demographic for the Dragon Ball franchise, the show airs on [adult swim] in North America and is marketed towards teenagers and adults, with the show's unfiltered mild swearing and adult humor (a holdover from said Values Dissonance) only enhancing its image as such. This doesn't stop children from watching the show not only because it's Dragon Ball, but because they're outright attracted by the "grown-up" content.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Kids WB's infamous dub induced plotline changes, while not exactly "hardcore," considerably downplay the Shōjo Demographic cuteness of the original, trying to change it into Shōnen (even changing the show's name to just Cardcaptors, presumably to downplay the fact that the main character is a girl, and cutting out the first seven episodes, which take place before Sakura's male rival Syaoran is introduced). Although the full Nelvana dub that aired outside of North America is mostly faithful and keeps every single episode, even then the original opening theme is replaced with a more histrionic rock song, Sakura and her friends sound more like teenagers than elementary schoolers, and most egregiously, Kero is given a Totally Radical dudebro voice and his characterization is changed to be more like a comedic foil sidekick akin to Mushu from Mulan.
• When the manga Alpen Rose by Michiyo Akaishi received an anime adaptation, it's name was changed to Flame Of The Alpen Rose.
• While the cover art and actual contents of the manga remained unchanged, the Tokyo Pop release of the Chobits manga did this to the title font. Instead of the simple, pastel, childlike handwriting of the original Japanese and the anime, the title is a metallic grey with elaborate circuitry, looking like the kind of logo you'd find in a more serious sci-fi story without any of the cute aspects.
• The Vision of Escaflowne: When the American Fox Kids aired the Ocean dub, they removed the first episode (and then reedited it as flashbacks in later episodes, abridged) since it was deemed "too romantic" and unfitting for an action anime block. The soundtrack was also edited to become more hardcore: some pieces were replaced by others, and original music was composed to fill in the silence (this was seriously striking, as Fox/Saban's orchestral pieces were very stylistically different from Yoko Kanno's). Around nine or ten episodes aired before being pulled due to low ratings, although it aired in its entirety (barring three episodes being removed from the complete run due to extensive censorship and content removal; the first episode, "Fateful Confession", aired as the FINAL episode on YTV's run, and was surprisingly aired uncut) on YTV in Canada and, ironically enough, the UK version of Fox Kids.
• Some of the dub voices in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Most notably is Russia, who had a higher-pitched, cuter, somewhat happier voice in the Japanese version, and a deeper, gruffer voice in the English dub. It's left up to the watchers to determine whether this was done to better fit the stereotype or to defuse some of the horror.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • The series was released as 6 two-episode boxsets in Japan, with different boxarts for each. Three of the boxarts show characters looking happy and/or cute, two are relatively neutral, and one has a very dark and angsty mood to it. The North American release was 3 four-episode boxsets, and used three of the existing boxart pictures. To the surprise of no one, they chose the two neutral ones (the first and last) and the angsty one (number four). This may be somewhat justified given the nature of the series, but still...
  • This also extends to the merchandise, with the Japanese mostly depicting the cast Moe situations sometimes with light fanservice, America focuses more on the more action-packed and angsty parts or at least somewhat neutral. This makes the series' primary twist come off as a lot less surprising.
• Koneko's portrayal in the High School D×D anime. In the original Japanese dialogue, she's very matter-of-fact in her attitude. Contrast with her portrayal in the dub, where she delivers blistering rebukes to Issei's perverted antics in the same monotone, emotionless deadpan.
• The DVD cover art for Princess Tutu is very much pink and fluffy in Japan; the American DVDs feature much darker, ominously-edited images. While not completely unfitting for the series, ADV admitted that it was a marketing strategy — maybe some buyers would be too embarrassed to take a pink-and-happy anime called "Princess Tutu" off a store shelf, thus the covers.
• Here's the Japanese trailer for Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne, which is reasonably close to the sorta-serious but mostly lighthearted tone of the show. The English dub trailer replaces the cheery music with dark instrumental rock, mostly removes the female voices (you know, the protagonists?) in favor of a Don LaFontaine-style narrator, and generally makes the whole show look serious enough to induce loads of narm.
• Sailor Moon:
  • The first Japanese intro of Sailor Moon is a love song. In contrast, the English dub version focuses on the Sailor Scouts fighting and saving the day.
  • The original Sailor Moon English dub focused on Sailor Jupiter's tomboy aspects rather than her domestic side. Many fans think this is an improvement- even those who think most of the other Sailor Guardians (other than Mercury and Saturn, who were not altered at all) were changed for the worse. This led to Sailor Jupiter becoming a favorite among American fans.
  • Inverted with Sailor Moon's transformation theme. The original Japanese theme is a bombastic Sentai tune, while the theme for the DiC dub actually sounds more feminine, including plenty of sparkly sound effects.
• Sankarea. The Japanese cover has a cute, smiling teenage girl with long, dark hair, wearing a blue sundress. The American cover has a teenage girl wearing a tattered school uniform, with a bloody gaping wound where her stomach should be, still smiling (but it's more of a Psychotic Smirk), on a dark and stormy night. Judging by what Sankarea is actually about, the Japanese cover could be accused of Covers Always Lie. Rea (the girl on the cover) is indeed cute, but she's also undead.
• Robotech: during the Macross saga's final battle, Minmay's song for the adaptation is the battle anthem-esque "We Will Win". Contrast this to what she originally sung in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, "Ai wa Nagareru", which is, by far, much more pacifistic.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie: Zig-zagged. The "movie" was originally sold as a two-episode miniseries in Japan, with the first episode's boxart featuring Sonic, Tails, Sara, and Metal Robotnik/Black Eggman striking poses while the second episode's boxart prominently features Sonic and Metal Sonic duking it out. The VHS release of "The Movie" in the west featured Sonic with a stern-looking Tails and Knuckles behind him against a dark background (along with the Tag Line: "Scrape your Knuckles, Catch some Tails"), but the DVD release in the west only has Sonic against a much brighter and more colorful background.
• Suzy's Zoo: Daisuki! Witzy has its saccharine level toned down when being localized for release outside Japan as Suzy's Zoo: A Day With Witzy. Aside from the subtitle being changed to something less sweet, a lot of the voice actors have lower voice pitches and the narrator doesn't talk as sweetly as the Japanese version.
• While the Japanese Kirby of the Stars (the anime based on the Trope Namer) intro is a cutesy parade, the American intro dubbed as "Kirby: Right Back At Ya!" focuses mostly on fight scenes and Kirby looking angry.
  • Another case is the music that plays when Kirby transform. In Japanese, the music is very cheerful and upbeat, while the dubbed version is a much more epic-sounding heroic fanfare.
• While not hardcore per se, Studio Ghibli's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya's DVD cover in Japan shows the title character amongst a white background smiling and playing among cherry blossom petals. The American DVD cover, on the other hand, has a purple border, and it has an image of her face through the folding screen with a somber look on her face.
• The American dub of the 2005 anime of Doraemon emphasizes more on the episodes that are action-oriented and mostly lacks the episodes that focus on heartwarming relationships. Even the background music in the dub is much more upbeat and action-oriented compared to the calm and lighthearted background music in the Japanese version. Not surprisingly, the season 2 promo heavily emphasizes on the action aspect of the dub.
• The American dub of Hamtaro throws out the epic orchestrated Tottoko Hamutaro no Uta for a electronica-techno theme for the first season, although they replaced it with a very hyper rock number for the second season's theme. However, the second season's theme was never normally shown in North America- Toonami usually cuts it off and replaces it with the first opening theme. Meanwhile, general consensus among viewers in Asia who get the show in English is that the second theme far more palatable and finds the first theme too noisy and chaotic.
  • This hamster's got MAD SKILLZ!
• The 21st Pokémon movie embedded this trope right into the title, changing it from Everyone's Story (Minna no Monogatari) to something more dramatic: The Power of Us. Oddly enough, though, the promo poster art was left unchanged. This isn't the first time localization has shoehorned in the word "power," either; Pokémon: The Movie 2000: The Power of One was originally called Pocket Monsters Revelation - Lugia. The former title-adjustment is partly a Call-Back to Pokemon 2000, since both of them feature Lugia. There is also Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior, which was originally called ''Giratina and the Sky Bouquet", changed presumably because the word "bouquet" sounds too girly.
• Glitter Force, the English dub of Smile! Pretty Cure, removed scenes of characters crying. Emotional music and dialogue were also tweaked to be more comedic or optimistic.
• Inverted with Digimon, which ended up having its humor increased with comedic dubbing to lighten up some of the tenser moments and to make up for moments that couldn't get past American censorship.
  • The poster for the dub compilation movie Digimon: The Movie plays it straight, as the characters are depicted as much more angry and aggressive on the poster than in the film or series itself.
• One Piece:
  • The original Japanese opening, "We Are!", has an excitedly feelgood vibe to it, emphasizing the thrill of adventure and strong bonds between friends. The Pirate Rap used in the 4Kids dub, however, is significantly more action-oriented and boisterous in comparison.
  • The German opening is an interesting variation: it has an edgier tune, but when it comes to the lyrics, it's a German cover of "We Are!".
• Spy X Family: Anya is a major focus of the series' marketing in Japan, with large amounts of merchandise focusing on her cuteness and Kid-Appeal Character nature. In the West, Anya is still marketed quite heavily, but the overall marketing focus shifts to the family as a whole and gives off more of a "cool" vibe, with more of an equal emphasis on Loid and Yor and the action sequences in which they feature.
• The original Japanese opening for Yu-Gi-Oh! is "Voice" by CLOUD, a fairly catchy but standard J-pop song about trying to make one's voice heard. In contrast, the English opening for the 4Kids dub is an almost absurdly epic sounding tune with no lyrics (save for a few spoken lines), ominous sounding organs, wordless background chanting, and a decidedly more Ancient Egypt feel.

Comic Books

• The American edition of Graphic Novel Marzi looks like this, while the original looks like this.

Films — Animation

• Wreck-It Ralph gets slapped with this for its Japanese release. Its title in most other markets (North America included) refers to the Villain Protagonist, a burly pseudo-animalistic guy. Its Japanese title? "Sugar Rush", named for one of the Fictional Video Games visited in the film—which happens to be extremely bright and colorful.
• Inverted with Frozen: It's the international marketing that portrays the movie as hardcore, while the domestic marketing made it look like a lighthearted romp in the vein of Shrek.
• Inverted with Big Hero 6: the American trailer focuses more on action and comedy, while the Japanese trailer delves more into the drama of the story. This has the resulting effect of Japanese filmgoers being unprepared for the amount of action found within the movie.
• Inverted with Zootopia: The Japanese trailers play up the action and drama; the North American trailers play up the comedy. The Japanese poster focuses more on Judy's goal of becoming a cop◊ while posters for the film in most other markets focus on the comedic elements or are mostly filled with various mammals of Zootopia.
• The cover to How to Train Your Dragon in most countries depict Hiccup and Toothless with a daring look on their faces. The Japanese cover however, alters their faces, giving them more happy expressions and removing their angry eyes. Also, Hiccup's hair seems to be blowing in the wind instead of remaining flat and Toothless is given puppy dog eyes.
• The original Korean posters to Padak are misleading, but these two english◊ posters◊ try to stay accurate to the true tone of the movie.
• The French publicity posters◊ for The Secret of Kells are much more action-oriented (having the main characters in dynamic poses with Brendan looking determined) than the subtle, reserved posters the rest of the world got (Aisling's face gently smiling, mostly hidden by leaves).
• Inverted with the Japanese The Fox and the Hound poster (the main duo facing off against a big, scary bear) compared with the American poster (them standing cutely with other characters, minus the bear).

Films — Live-Action

• Kinda over-the-top with Dog of Flanders, a 2000 Korean comedy-drama film. The original cover/poster◊ has the two main leads sitting on a staircase seeming they lost a dog, but in the west, it has a cover◊ of a dog and a hand in a super dark background^note Some versions◊ have a gun thrown in(!) and is called Barking Dogs Never Bite and it makes the film itself look like a dark film. But in Japan it has the female lead with a bunch of dogs in a colorful and bright background but still have female making a serious expression. Averted in China with the cover being the same with Korea. But the color tone differs.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The Chinese poster is far different from the American poster◊. For example, baby Groot is naked and snarling in the American poster, while he's waving happily in a jumpsuit in the Chinese version. America eventually saw a tweaked version of the Chinese poster as the cover for the Ultra HD "Cinematic Universe Edition".
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
  • Promotional media for international markets focus on Sonic as a teenager (as he appears for most of the franchise) and primarily center on the action scenes and comedy bits. Japanese promos for the film (including promotional posters, meanwhile, focus on the younger "baby" version of Sonic who appears at the start of the movie, and play up his moe appeal for all it's worth. In fact, baby Sonic's first appearance anywhere was in a Japanese TV spot for the movie.
  • Inverted with one American movie poster◊ showing Sonic smiling at the camera, with Robotnik's face in the background. The Japanese movie poster has Sonic looking determined at the camera, with Robotnik's ship looming behind him. The Japanese poster also has more missiles firing at Sonic than the American poster.
  • Zig-zagging in the movie poster for the sequel. The Japanese version has Sonic looking serious like the North American counterpart, but Tails in the back is smiling in the Japanese poster. In the American poster Tails is scowling instead.
• The original American marketing for Mothra vs. Godzilla renamed the movie to Godzilla vs. The Thing, teased on posters as a tentacled monstrosity so horrifically obscene it had to be censored for the sake of the faint-hearted. But more likely, the distributors didn't want to admit Godzilla's opponents were a bunch of giant moths (which are actually peaceful and not even slightly scary) in the actual film. Later home video releases re-instated the original title.
• The American movie posters for How the Grinch Stole Christmas! focused on the grotesque side of the Grinch. One such poster resembles something out of a horror comedy, with the Grinch holding up a broken ball ornament with the message "You better watch out!" The Japanese release used the same poster, except with a human hand holding the broken piece among falling snowflakes. Suddenly, a spooky poster turned into something more sympathetic and tragic, reflecting the relationship between the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who.

Gamebooks

• Inverted with the Deathtrap Dungeon 2008 reprint by Hobby Japan. While the first Japanese version of the classic Fighting Fantasy gamebook was the same as the UK's just translated (done with a different publisher), the Hobby Japan reprint went in a very moe direction. Author Ian Livingstone was rather displeased as illustrator Iain McCaig was his favourite FF artist and the moe artwork wasn't just the cover but also changed the interior illustrations as well.

Literature

• The first Horatio Hornblower novel was titled The Happy Return in most markets. In North American languages, it was titled Beat to Quarters, the order to prepare for action.
• The Redwall series has produced a lot of covers over the years, ranging from cartoonish to realistic, from gritty and abstract to epic and clear-drawn. Although every country's publications had their own different variations of all ends of the scale, there are some pretty standard levels for their home country (which may not least be due to the artists themselves):
  • Original British covers are realistic and colourfully traditional. Here◊ and here◊.
  • American Covers are colourful but almost always more epic, playing this trope completely straight (here◊ and here◊). But their chapter illustrations are either rather humorous, cartoonish and abstract (here◊) or beautifully copperplated faux-medieval illustration(here◊).
  • French covers are sometimes kept in pseudo-3d-rendering, both gritty and abstract (perhaps even downright disturbing). Just look at those rotoscopes of humans with animal heads (here◊ and here◊).
  • Russian Covers are traditional, epically detailed in both physique and attire. (here◊ and (here)◊
  • Israeli Covers are... interestingly cartoonish, but certainly light-hearted (here◊ and here◊).
  • German covers stay usually on par with the British ones (like here◊), but have quite some... unnerving exceptions (here◊ and here◊) that can head both into lighthearted crayon and gritty absurd territory.
• Peter Grant is way macho in the US cover◊ of Rivers of London (retitled to Midnight Riot) compared to the restrained "arty" look of the British cover◊. Peter Grant, who in the books is described as a slender mixed race young man who by his own admission looks more North African, has metamorphosed into a Scary Black Man. And as a British Copper, he'd better have signed for that gun. The publisher would later revert to a version of the British cover.
• To ensure that it sells with the mainstream crowd, Yen Press was told by distributors that (the first volume of) American Spice and Wolf is Trashy and Realistic. It didn't go well, so the original art was used from the second volume onwards.
• Tortall Universe: The Protector of the Small quartet has different covers in North America and the UK from book 2 on. American Squire◊ has Keladry of Mindelan holding a baby griffin and looking at the viewer with a faint smile; in the UK◊ she's looking at it and smiling more broadly. North American Lady Knight◊ has her staring at us with a hostile expression; in the UK she looks to the side◊ and seems more hopeful. Notably, although three books out of the quartet have different artwork, they all feature the same subject, just interpreted differently.
• Warrior Cats:
  • The Russian translations make the covers more hardcore. Compare this◊ to this◊. There's a lot more where that came from: The title translation is also subject to this having been translated as Raging Storm rather than Rising Storm. Also, the French title for Fire and Ice roughly means In Fire and In Blood.
  • The Japanese cover for The Darkest Hour, which is probably the most carnage-tastic book in the series, is of two fluffy kitties smiling.

Music

• The original cover art for Japanese Doom Metal band Boris' album Smile is cute◊. The American release's cover is edgy◊.
• An inversion occurred when Within Temptation's album The Unforgiving made it to Japan...and the gothed-up Sharon DenAdel cover was replaced by one with a busty, Moe Meganekko schoolgirl waggling her finger at the buyer.
• British star Billy Idol's self-titled album cover originally had him looking like a suggestive, but harmless idol for teens. When the album was released in North America however, they wanted to market Billy as a rebel, giving it a much cooler cover with him wearing a leather jacket and frowning instead. This cover has since become the canon cover having appeared on CD releases worldwide, and is probably the defining image of Idol.
• The Final Fantasy VI soundtrack in Japan features the FFVI logo, and Amano artwork. The North American version is titled Kefka's Domain, and features the SNES cover art, with Mog leaning on a dagger while facing a threatening monster.

Pinball

• For the international release of Indianapolis 500, some European games had the playfield and cabinet colors changed to use more primary colors to make the game more manly and appealing in certain distributors' countries.

Visual Novels

• Spoofed by nitro+. On the launch date of Soni Comi, a cute visual novel that looks like this, the company released this joke trailer for a made-up Americanized sequel, created using Saints Row: The Third gameplay videos.
• In Japan, the DS cover of the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game is the same as the rest (including in North America, starting with the second game): Four portraits of the main characters in a row.◊ The first game's North American cover, though, is a picture of Phoenix pointing angrily◊, with Maya standing behind him and Edgeworth evilly overlooking them. However, the series started using the "four portraits in a row" format with the second game, Justice For All (see this image◊ from The Other Wiki), and every Ace Attorney game released there since has done the same. And the European one is Phoenix standing in front of a white background, looking serious. Same trope, blander cover. Later games retained the Japanese covers too.
• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and its sequel, Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. The Japanese cover of Hotel Dusk is a wide shot◊ of main character Kyle Hyde and his car on a country road in broad daylight. The western cover goes for a more Noir feel◊, depicting Kyle in a pitch black room while a woman in white brings in light through an open door. Last Window has the same idea, but simpler; a shot of Kyle walking in the street during the day◊ is changed to night time◊, giving it a more threatening atmosphere.

Webcomics

• Brawl in the Family spoofs the box art of Kirby himself here.
• In Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, this happens to Ryu as the result of a curse, making him look exactly like the He-Man knockoff on the American SNES cover. Commander Badass (himself forcibly bishified by Nomura Syndrome) asks why people can't just be enjoyed for who they are.
• Consolers likes making fun of this—one comic features the "angry American Kirby", where Ameritendo decides Kirby is "too cutesy" and changes him by just drawing on two angry eyebrows. Another comic shows when Nintendo was suggested to make Pikachu more muscular to appeal to American audiences—she's not convinced.
• Critical Miss spoofed the American ICO cover here.

Web Original

• Most paintings by the infamous Handre de Jager from Something Awful mercilessly parody this trope. The artist himself stated that his initial inspiration was the aforementioned original American boxart for Mega Man. Handre's works can be found on his website (Not safe for work). Be warned, they're disgusting and scary.
• The Game Grumps fan animation SUPER GREP SIMULATOR has a slightly NSFW take on this trope (at 0:53) with the fictional AO-Rated video game Kirby's Fucking Pissed.
• The first English-speaking generation of hololive's v-tubers got an Eldritch Abomination motif, themed around "edgier" genres like horror, mystery, and the supernatural. By contrast, the first Japanese generation were usually more straightforward archtypes like kemonomimis, idols and kemonomimi idols. They're still very cute, mind you.

Western Animation

• The English opening theme for Donkey Kong Country cartoon is a bombastic Bragging Theme Tune for the Kong of the Jungle. The Japanese opening theme, Ashita ni Nattara, is a gentler Green Aesop song about the Kongs wanting to live in peace away from the humans and city life, subjects which are never brought up in the cartoon proper.
• The Mega Man cartoon had Mega Man, Roll and Proto Man look more like teenagers and gave the Robot Masters a more muscular look. This also had an unusual effect on X, who looked like an adult and acted much more violently than he did in the games.
• Ōban Star-Racers had a mixed French/Japanese J-pop opening theme in France, Great Britain & Japan. North America got a generic rock song called "Never say Never" (No, not that one)
• SpongeBob SquarePants DVDs in Japan tend to play up SpongeBob's cuteness by making his eyes huge and sparkly◊ in every image. Here◊ is the American cover for comparison. In the show itself, Plankton has a cutesy, high-pitched voice in the Japanese dub, provided by a woman. This makes for a humorous contrast in comparison to Plankton's deep voice in the original English version, courtesy of Mr. Lawrence.
• The Sylvanian Families animated series was clearly made for a North American audience despite KK C&D Asia, Mook DLE and TMS Entertainment having a hand in it, since it was produced primarily by DIC Entertainment. To wit, the animated series has villains. In other markets, the toyline is marketed as pure moe appeal, and this is clearly reflected in the Japanese OVAs and the Japanese and British ads.
• The Legend of Zelda (1989) cartoon famously gave Zelda the Xenafication treatment long before the games made her participate in combat, with her outfit changed to more closely resemble an American comic book superheroine instead of a Princess Classic. This also carried over to the CD-i games, which were based on the cartoon. This incarnation of Zelda left a lasting impression on Western fans, and bolstered the fandom's desire to see Zelda be a playable heroine in the main games.
• Inverted for Transformers: Animated's debut in Japan. In order to turn it into a prequel to the live-action movies (or so we thought), among other things, a new logo looking almost exactly like the film logos was commissioned, which practically clashes with the show's cartoony art style. And to think that Japan once played this straight with Transformers by gag dubbing the edgy Beast Wars. This even applies to their opening theme music.
• Transformers: Prime's Japanese dub takes a page from their localization of the Beast shows by turning what was originally a mostly somber-toned, serious action show full of (at times needlessly) dark scenes into another quirky robot cartoon, with scary villains becoming comedic and the moody instrumental theme-music being replaced with an upbeat pop song.
• The international intro to WITCH is a pop song. The American intro is a rock song with more emphasis on the fight scenes.

Other

• Back in the 80s, Japan got some special My Little Pony toys which were supposed to be even cuter than the normal ones, called Osharena Pony.
• The artists who design Polish Film Posters are famous for adding a bit of edginess, even if the original poster was already a bit edgy. Check out the poster for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo as as it appeared in Poland compared to the original.◊
• Even toddler toys become more hardcore. In mid-2012, VTech released a rocking horse toy in the UK. When the toy was finally released in North America a few months later, the horse was changed into a motorcycle! However, it was finally re-released in Horse form after the success of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
• In Europe, the LEGO Dino Attack toyline (called Dino 2010 in this market) focused on a specialized action team trying to contain mutant dinosaurs with all sorts of traps in a jungle setting. The sets' American versions replaced the capturing gear with ridiculous weaponry designed to kill and harm, and the setting was also changed to an apocalyptic, ruined city. This caused a great uproar within the LEGO community at the time, not only because the dual setline gave off the impression that the company thought North America was only interested in violence, but also because it went straight against their oft-praised (and nowadays much more loosened-up) anti-violence policy.
• The TV commercials for the Disney attraction, Splash Mountain, when it first opened, are an interesting display of contrast. Check out the commercial for the ride at Tokyo Disneyland (opened in 1992), compared to the commercial for the same ride at Disneyland (opened in 1989). Both emphasize the huge climatic drop (and both play "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"), but the Tokyo commercial just sounds and feels more happy, whereas the Anaheim commercial has, to quote another Disney attraction, an aura of foreboding. It also helps to have a LaFontaine-sounding announcer in the latter commercial.
• Toronto's long-running Santa Claus Parade got hit with this when Soviet-era Russia decided to do a simulcast in 1990 (one of the first non-Russian productions to broadcast in that country). The official opening from Canada's Global TV is simpler, shorter and more naive, while Russia opened the parade with a long, drawn-out intro that feels more at home in a cheesy 80's cop show^note 1990 was the second year that the Russian station was showing the parade, so it is unknown if their first broadcast was like this.
• A device to stop bedwetting called the Wet Stop 3. The version sold in most parts of the world comes plain without any decorations. However, in Japan, the device is sold with a sticker of the company's mascot Potty Monkey and a message saying "I'm Potty Monkey. Let's do this together!", capitalizing on Japan's love of cute and adorable mascots.
• Inverted with the 2007–2017 Mitsubishi Lancer in Taiwan, where the derivative Lancer Fortis and iO models used a more sedate fascia in contrast to the aggressive "shark head" front end made infamous by the Lancer Evolution X.
• Professional Wrestling in Japan; the fact that it's all staged makes no difference in public perception of it as a legitimate sport, and the workers as legitimate athletes. Wrestling training in the country (such as the infamous New Japan Dojo) emphasizes ring ability and the capacity to take punishment over marketability. It's no accident that many wrestling fans, including Dave Meltzer, regard Japanese wrestling as the best in the world.
• A few of the early Super Mario Bros. figurines by the American company Applause had Mario scowling and looking angry as he trampled Goombas and kicked a Hammer Bro. in the head hard enough to break its neck◊. The later figurines were more in-line with character's usual cutesy portrayal.

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