What Could Have Been/Anime and Manga

Let us just say that there are a lot of "prototype" pilot episodes of famous manga whose ideas didn't make into the final product. --
 * The prototype of Bleach made the depowered Rukia into a bossy girl of about 15 cm tall, whose shrinking was attributed to Ichigo taking her powers.
 * Pilot!Orihime was faces a similar situation to what Manga!Orihime faced early on in Bleach, except it was her father (who had also raised her by himself) coming back for her rather than her brother, Ichigo expressed that he liked her, and she actually did end up dying and going to Heaven.
 * Some of the rules are different, as souls have to be given tickets to get into the afterlife, and the Soul Reapers have to cut the chain of fate (doing so in the final manga results in the spirit becoming a hollow).
 * Apparently, Kubo originally intended Mayuri to be Ishida's 'personal villain', with a series of escalating fights between them until Mayuri finally died and Ishida avenged his grandfather and race. This was dropped when Soul Society became the good guys and Mayuri became an over-the-top Token Evil Teammate.
 * Kubo mentioned in an interview about Shinji that he'd originally plannned for Ichigo's friends to develop powers, but Shueisha told him to hurry up and introduce the Shinigami.
 * Sayaka Yumi from Mazinger Z was one of the first Action Girl and Tsundere with a lead role in Anime, and she and Kouji did the Belligerent Sexual Tension bit before no one else. However, she was Put on a Bus at the end of the series. The Bus Came Back again at the end of Great Mazinger, but after the end of the series she was Put on a Bus again. She was to become the 4th spazer pilot in Anime/UFO Robot Grendizer, but character developer and co-plotter of the series, Shingo Araki, opposed Go Nagai 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. It is... interesting speculating what might have happened if Sayaka and Maria showed up in the same series (both of them being hot-tempered, Hot-Blooded Tsunderes liked the same boy. And Sayaka was a Clingy Jealous Girl to boot).
 * Kouji Kabuto wore a Scarf of Asskicking and used a bike to dock on Mazinger-Z in the Go Nagai's early designs. However, Kamen Rider premiered before Mazinger Z, and Go Nagai removed and changed those elements because he did not want people thought he was ripping off another show. The idea would return in Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen as a literal prototype for Mazinger-Z.
 * Another Go Nagai series, God Mazinger, has nothing to do with the original series. However, it was meant to be the sequel from Mazinger Z. However the idea got rejected, Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer were made instead of, and years later a God Mazinger anime was made, but removing any connection to the original series.
 * Manga/Naruto's prototype has no ninjas, as the titular boy was a Fox Demon in human form on a quest to learn how to make friends in the Human world. Naruto's personality was even more mischievous and bratty. The Sexy Technique was still around there, but it was comparatively more clothed than its official manga counterpart (a minimal top and daisy dukes, showing the fox tails). There were still equivalent characters for the Third Hokage and the nine-tailed fox (the latter of which was Naruto's father), but no other characters.
 * The one-shot story was actually published, and takes place in the modern world -- much of the Schizo-Tech in the series may result from this. Also, the original Naruto wore goggles on his head from riding his motorbike, and the mangaka says that he loved the visual, but found it too complicated to draw constantly -- hence the whole business with the forehead protectors.
 * Outside of the pilot, Akatsuki was originally supposed to be composed entirely of inhuman monsters. This is probably why the majority of them are humans but with massively altered bodies . In the third databook Kishimoto mentioned Hidan's scythe was supposed to have a bunch more special abilities that he didn't have time to show.
 * Hinata wasn't originally a ninja. Kishimoto's original sketch of her can be found here.
 * The pilot for Dragon Ball was called "Dragon Boy". Its hero, Tanton, was a boy with bat wings that would evolve into the monkey-tailed Goku. The pilot interestingly featured an artifact called a Dragon Ball, but it was pretty useless. All it did was release a puny dragon. The story was also heavily based on Journey to the West and had Tanton escorting a princess that strongly resembles Bulma back home to her country. When the story ends, the heroes still have nine-tenths of the way to go. Just think of all that could have been here...
 * Also in regards to Dragon Ball, the incredibly obscure and short lived Harmony Gold dub in the 80s. Goku was named Zero, Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo... It would be completely different to the Dragon Ball of today where FUNimation kept most of the Japanese names.
 * And speaking of the Funimation dub, imagine if the later seasons had remained with The Ocean Group instead of being taken in-house in Texas. Many of Funimation's big name actors (And Sean Schemmel) got their start in Dragonball Z. If it remained in Canada, what would have become of the dubs of all Funi's later properties?
 * One Piece had two prototypes before the chapter that eventually became the first one, and there was heavy rewriting between them. We only say that Luffy's character was way toned down and close the discussion. Also, there was no titular treasure (Luffy pretty much became a pirate for the hell of it), and the series was called Romance Dawn (which was used as the name for the manga's first chapter and volume).
 * In the second Romance Dawn, which was submitted as the pilot, Luffy's grandfather played an equivalent role to Shanks, which Oda did so that Shanks would have more of an impact when he was introduced in the actual manga. There's a character named Silk with a similar design to Nami and the position of a swordswoman of limited skill, but she doesn't join Luffy's crew in either version.
 * The story of the first prototype was adapted into an animated special made for the JUMP Super Anime Tour that's set in the continuity of the main series between the Thriller Bark and Sabaody Archipelago arcs (following the manga, as the anime hadn't gotten to this point yet). Even before this, the villain named "Crescent Moon-Galley" made a cameo appearance in the anime version of the Loguetown arc.
 * Captain Kuro makes a reference to the crescent moon that would otherwise be a throwaway line if not for the possible reference to Romance Dawn.
 * In other development news, Zoro was originally conceived as one of Buggy's bodyguards.
 * In Oda's initial draft for the tenth movie One Piece Strong World, the Big Bad Gold Lion Shiki was building a Weather Control Machine on a sky island which needed four Green Rocks to power it (said Green Rocks were actually referenced in the very first teaser), and this was presumably the genesis for the kidnapping plot. It was also written to be an intense and tearjerking piece, but Oda threw the whole thing out because he felt that it was too forced.
 * Other supplementary materials for the movie reveal that the giant snake from the Skypiea arc was originally intended to be an octopus, and Shiki's distinct injury of getting a steering wheel lodged in his head was originally going to be Kuma's distinguishing feature.
 * The Green Databook reveals more information about the parts of the series that did not make it into the manga - among other things, Dadan was going to be a man, Usopp (though with an older design) was going to be the first mate, the shipwright was a short Fishman with a mallet (Franky was there, but he looked completely different and was considered the weaponsmith), and Sanji was originally named "Naruto" but JUMP rejected this as they were still optioning the Naruto pilot to become a series. Well, that explains his eyebrows...
 * Even more: Moria was originally conceptualized as a kindly-looking priest, while Doflamingo looked like a DJ/rapper, Blackbeard's first name was "Everything", Akainu had glasses and Kizaru was cheerful in a jovial sense instead of the creepy one. Also, Don Krieg had made himself into a mecha and the Amazon Marguerite had a Zoan Devil Fruit called the Cat Cat Fruit Model Black Cat which made her look like a Catgirl when transformed.
 * Wandering Son was originally going to be about a High School 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).
 * The original version of Berserk had Guts as a somewhat less cold character with an eyepatch (which he gives up before the prototype's end), had elements of a Deadpan Snarker and took up hunting demons after his mother was killed by one. The Big Bad was to be a single demon lord by the name of Vana (instead of the four demons known as the Godhand that take up the role in the series proper). The prototype was actually intended to be a Shonen story, but was changed to Seinen because the story was too dark.
 * Rurouni Kenshin had two prototypes, both called Meiji Romantic Swordsman Story. The first one revolved around Kenshin saving Chizuru, the daughter of a merchant, from a jealous former samurai, and had none of the characters from the final version apart from Kenshin (whose name wasn't given). The second prototype had Kaoru, Megumi and Yahiko, but all three were siblings and Megumi's personality was completely different (being shy and submissive), and their father had been a comrade of Kenshin's. The main plot was about a former student of the Kamiya dojo taking it over and trying to marry Megumi in order to obtain it legally so that he could use the dojo as a gambling hall. Kenshin's name wasn't given in either. Also of note is that a minor mook character from the two prototypes eventually became the basis of Anji's design. If you count the author's first published work, Crescent Moon in the Warring States, then Rurouni Kenshin had three prototypes. It does include some elements of the final story, but takes place in the Sengoku (Warring States) era of Japan and focused on Hiko Seijuro, a master of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu (Kenshin's style) and Isshinta, a cowardly boy.
 * The Death Note pilot manga had a young student named Taro finding a notebook that would kill anyone whose name was written in it... and also an eraser that would resurrect those people if you erased their names!
 * In stark contrast to Light, Taro gets scared of the notebook and stops using it after his first two unintentional uses (although a classmate of his uses it to kill people and deflect suspicion from himself). This fits nicely with Near's statement late in the manga that if Light were an ordinary person, he would not have used the Death Note after the first time.
 * Taro's character design was later used as the inspiration for
 * "Vol. 13: How to Read" implies that the creator had considered  and that an error between editor and artist.
 * It was also said that Naomi Misora was originally going to be a more major character, but since she wound up being too clever, . Also, Ohba had considered.
 * Mogi was originally planned to have a larger role, but Ohba couldn't decide how to do it.
 * Allegedly, early concepts for the Shinigami would have made Ryuk, Gelus, and Rem resemble attractive humans, but the decision was made that Gelus's brief appearance worked better if he looked somewhat pathetic and Ryuk and Rem being beautiful did raise concerns that fans might side with the team of killers just because of their looks. The designs were soon changed to give the Shinigami a more appropriately inhuman feel.
 * Ryuk's original design can be seen here.
 * Project A-ko was supposed to be a part of the Cream Lemon Hentai anthology. Then the director decided that the comedy bits A) were strong enough to work on their own and B) worked better without being broken up with sex scenes.
 * As can be seen in this video of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha mini-scenario that was included in the Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～ fandisc, Nanoha was originally meant to be a more typical Magical Girl anime. Raising Heart as a heart-shaped wand, Lindy as a Fairy Companion, Chrono as a villain, pre-existing kitsune character Kuon in the place of Yuuno, no Fate, no Humongous Mecha inspired weaponry, and no Stuff Blowing Up. Then, during the production of the anime, someone noted how the Giant Poofy Sleeves on Nanoha's new Magical Girl outfit made her look like a Gundam, and the rest was history.
 * Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, in its original short story format, was going to be set in a mystical coast town in Ye Nonspecific Pirate Days. Yes, Kaito was a Pirate. Lucia, who was named Lyre at the time, had a much skimpier outfit and her full team consisted of herself, Hanon and Rina, with no Sixth Rangers. There were only three villains, too -- Izuuru, Gackto and Sara -- and they were all merpeople; the rule that all mermaids were female hadn't been invented yet.
 * Ikumi Mia, as one may have noticed from her constantly adding things that premiered in the anime adaptations of her works back into the manga, is a go-with-the-flow revisionist. What you may not know is that she never intended for Tokyo Mew Mew in its current incarnation to exist at all. She had been commissioned to draft up a horror manga, and thought it would be cute if a Catgirl with a pink and black motif were added into the cast. The executives at Nakayoshi were immediately smitten with the character and wanted more Petting Zoo People, which she soon added. Then they decided that the horror story was too dark for a kids' magazine, but they couldn't just leave those characters there. After many, many revisions, the mysterious, chilling pink-and-black catgirl became the cute, easily flustered pink-and-red catgirl Momomiya Ichigo, and she and her friends were Magical Girls in modern-day Tokyo.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima had numerous character redesigns before the final product: Negi was supposed to be named Negi.T.Silverberg and be older looking; Nodoka was to be named Meiko Miyazaki; Ako was to be named Ayu Izumi who instead had a large scar across her chest instead of her back; Makie Sasaki was originally going to be a different person entirely named Kozue Migara who was best friends with the lead girl (a role filled by Konoka) and who played on the lacross team (an idea which lead to the creation of Sakurako Shiina); Yuna and Chizuru had several connections in their designs, starting with the character of Yuko Akashi, an energetic, random girl, who worked part-time at the academy's daycare, while the character of Tsutsumi Nadai was a character with a strong father complex who was good at cooking and house-work. These various traits went to both Yuna and Chizuru. Not to mention the school itself possibly being a giant tower reaching to the sky, or a large island in the sea of Japan. These are given as notes in the back of the manga volumes, along with other characterization notes that, at least unless/until the manga contradicts them, are considered Fanon for the series.
 * Retroactively, that name for Nodoka is really funny.
 * Speaking of Negima, the OA Ds count as well. Anime News Network has listed adult!Negi being voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya. Seems to be good considering the fact that he won the Third Annual Seiyuu awards. Cue the third OAD and it's still Rina Sato who voiced adult!Negi. Not that bad all things considering, but it would have been nice if Hiroshi Kamiya did the job (then again, at this point, he was voicing four major roles).
 * The Gundam franchise has had What Could Have Beens aplenty:
 * The original Mobile Suit Gundam would have had the original RX-78-2 Gundam destroyed not by the Zeong, but by a grunt unit. As well, Char would have taken up a unit known as the Kikeroga and used it to drop Luna II on Earth, predating his Axis asteroid drop by 13 years!
 * Another interesting turn of events was the case of Miharu, the Zeon spy girl that became Kai's love interest. According to source books, she was originally going to be a member of the Zabi family!
 * Another was that the meeting between Degwin Sodo Zabi and General Revil would have been much different had the series been allowed to be fully completed: they would have met on the White Base and during the meeting, Degwin would have spotted Sayla and, recognizing her as Zeon Zum Daikun's daughter Artesia, would break down and beg for forgiveness, revealing that he indeed murdered Zeon!
 * At one point, there were plans to make a manga known as MSX, set a few years after the One Year War and featuring a whole new slew of Mobile Suits. However, it ended up getting canned when Zeta Gundam was announced.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ was supposed to have Char reappear and lead the rebellion against Haman Karn, but when Chars Counterattack got greenlighted, Glemy Toto replaced him.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam F91 was supposed to have been a full-fledged series, but was shortened into a movie instead. While the Crossbone Gundam manga answered several questions, the question remains as to what the series could have been if it went that way.
 * This happened with Victory Gundam: the titular Gundam was to be introduced in the fourth episode instead of the first. However, thanks to executive meddling, and a need for the Gundam to always appear early, the fourth episode was made into the first, much to Tomino's consternation. It happened again with Gundam SEED, which was originally to follow the 'Big Bang' aftermath of Turn a Gundam, tying into the UC timeline and, as an interview said, "planting the seed for the future". The concept was not followed up on by Fukuda, however, and, once again, Tomino was not happy about it. Most recently, it happened yet again with the revelation that Mizushima wanted Gundam 00 to be originally set in the UC timeline, a proposition Sunrise turned down.
 * Speaking of Turn-A, Tomino didn't just want all the Gundam series used in this series, he wanted to use ALL the mecha series he created, including Ideon and Daitarn 3. That was shot down.
 * Gundam SEED had a number of things planned for the second half of the series, including having Flay pilot the Strike Rouge as propoganda material for the Earth Alliance, Flay and Sai dying in an attempt to save the Archangel from a bomb and even killing just about everyone save Athrun (who'd lose a leg).
 * And a close fight between Strike Freedom and Destiny in the Gundam SEED Destiny finale, both terribly damaged from all the fighting.
 * In Gundam 00, the incredibly feminine Tieria Erde was at one point planned to be a beautiful woman dressing like a man. That screaming you hear is the many straight male fans of the series that got trapped by Tieria during the series run, particularly during his single episode as an incredibly hot Wholesome Crossdresser. Interestingly, despite this plot point being dropped early, there is still arguably some foreshadowing for it in early episodes of the first season, such as the name and visual metaphors his gundam presents, Tieria's feminine appearence multiplying several thousand fold when he's upset, and the Pronoun Trouble he experiences after revealing his extremely masculine gundam's inner female form that dips in to the gender neutral. Sadly, fans lost a probable Ms. Fanservice and a chance to get a female "main" pilot in the series in exchange for what's probably the closest we're going to get for a canonically gay Gundam pilot.
 * Years before Gundam Wing came to American shores, Sunrise released a pilot for a series called Doozy Bots, which had a scientist named Professor Doozy turn a bunch of stereotype high school students into SD versions of various heroic Mobile Suits to battle laughable versions of Zeon-based Mobile Suits.
 * Saban Moon. Technically, it wasn't by Saban, but this what would happen if Renaissance Atlantic (the co-producers of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and a partner of Bandai America) and Toon Makers got the rights to Sailor Moon. It has it's own page at Toon Makers Sailor Moon. A similar scenario came to fruition with Cloverway (Toei International) bringing over later seasons of the show following the DIC dub.
 * Sailor V, the entire pre-series, is a what-might-have-been, since Minako was the original heroine and Naoko whipped Sailor Moon together when V was so popular.
 * In liner notes for the manga rereleases, Takeuchi revealed that she had thought of making Ami a cyborg and having her do a Heroic Sacrifice, along with the idea of Makoto being a gang-leader. Makoto was also originally shown smoking in the earliest sketches of her (and her name as "Chino Mamoru"), back when Takeuchi first conceived of Sailor Moon as an Usagi-less spinoff of Sailor V.
 * Takeuchi also intended to include a character named "Diana the Moon Fairy", a talkative, impertinant, and playful fairy. She was to be found in the ruins of the Moon Kingdom, and would have stuck with Luna (whom she didn't get along with) and Usagi. She was eventually replaced by Queen Serenity, and the name Diana was used for Luna and Artemis's future daughter.
 * Also, Tuxedo Mask could have been named "Mysterious 2098 Face". Takeuchi was later stunned she could have come up with such a bizarre but meaningless name.
 * Originally, Kunihiko Ikuhara envisaged that Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were going to be the main characters in the Supers movie, and it was going to be independent of the main series. Sailor Neptune was going to be in a deep sleep at the end of the world, and Sailor Uranus would have had to steal the talismans from the Sailor Senshi to revive her. These ideas were later used in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
 * Allegdly back when a live action Sailor Moon movie was in talks in the late 90's Geena Davis was considered to play Beryl and supposedly Rini was going to be turned into Serena's little sister not her future daughter (which is kind of weird for their parents to gave their daughters similar names since Rini is a dimunitve of Serena) and Amy was going to have normal hair
 * Originally, Hayate the Combat Butler was going to be a one-shot about a teenage girl and her little sister who were in debt with the mob, and the things they had to do to pay them off without getting sucked in. These characters became Yukiji and Hinagiku. Word of God says the one-shot is part of Hayate continuity, and will be worked in as part of the series.
 * Before the Executive Meddling that turned the second season of Code Geass into what it is today kicked in, the writing staff had originally planned for Lelouch to win the duel at the end of the first season. After that, there were several possible routes the story could have taken. One of the proposed scenarios involved Lelouch being imprisoned after being defeated by Emperor Charles, only to later break himself out of prison and run in a political election against Schneizel. The other scenario involved Jeremiah's sister Lilicia, who would look like a female Lelouch, becoming Zero and taking control of the Black Knights, confusing them greatly when they find out their leader's gender. Because of this, Lelouch is forced to join the Black Knights as himself, and gets picked on by Tamaki, who has a crush on Girl!Zero.
 * There were some pretty big plans for the second season, including introducing Kallen's father, bringing her supposedly-dead brother back (foreshadowed in a first season audio commentary where the head writer teases that he's not really dead, greatly surprising Kallen's voice actress), an explanation about Suzaku's superhuman abilities and his relationship to Geass, and a greater exploration of C.C.'s past. All this had to be cut in the great reshuffling brought on by Executive Meddling.
 * Even earlier than that, it was mentioned in passing that Lelouch and Suzaku's characters were derived from the first draft of the series, which would have been about a Wide-Eyed Idealist fresh recruit in the army (Proto-Suzaku) and his idealogical conflicts with Proto-Lelouch, his cynical commanding officer.
 * In a bonus feature for Code Geass: Tales of an Alternate Shogunate, Kallen sneaks into the studio and finds an early story idea. It describes the story as a " Lone Wolf and Cub type story", with Lelouch, Suzaku and Nunnally as the main characters (Nunnally ends up being Demoted to Extra), and Lelouch possibly having an eyepatch over his Geass eye. Kallen seems to like the idea until she sees the idea to put Nunnally in a cart with Hadron blasters equipped.
 * At the end of Venus Versus Virus's first volume you get to read the original oneshot and see the original character designs. The character designs are more slim, Nene looks less...Unusual, and Riku's design is less formal. The plot differs slightly and it seems that the yuri is more apparent than in the actual manga.
 * The very first Macross. Back when it was on pre-production as Battle City Megaroad, Lynn Minmay was a delivery girl who worked in her parents' Chinese restaurant aboard the ship and who usually delivered Chinese food to the main bridge. The staff liked her so much that while the series evolved into Macross, she ended up expanded into not only a vertex in the main love triangle, but probably the most important character in the entire franchise.
 * According to Shoji Kawamori himself, the earliest concept for Macross was an all-female crew, with Misa Hayase as the captain. Makes you wonder how that would have played out...
 * Macross was also initially envisioned as a parody of the mecha genre (i.e., taking the transforming Up to Eleven with the ship itself being a Transforming Mecha). Early drafts of the story included a trip around the world, with a landmark or city getting destroyed at pretty much every stop.
 * On a related note, Robotech was originally planned only as a dubbing of Macross. The other two series were added in because more episodes were needed for syndication. Had they not been forced to mix the stories, Harmony Gold may have been able to continue translating and airing subsequent Macross installments. Of course, whether or not that would have been a good thing is best left to the reader...
 * Outside of the name changes (and a fair few people don't mind the internationalizing the crew of the SDF-1 in any case), the Robotech adaptation of Macross is actually considered to be pretty faithful (up until they change the last few episodes to hook into the other two shows), especially considering the Standards & Practices of the era. Even the death of Roy Fokker was kept in, which was unthinkable for a cartoon at the time. Given the care of the adaptation and the zest Harmony Gold people usually show for Macross, not many people doubt they would've done a good job with the rest of the franchise and do bemoan the fact that various hurdles from the way Robotech went down prevent us from watching Robotech Plus, Robotech Seven, Robotech Zero and Robotech Frontier instead of, well, what we got.
 * The Robotech franchise has a few more What Could Have Been moments on its own. A sequel series with all-new animation, Robotech II: The Sentinels, died after the major American sponsor pulled out due to disappointing toy revenues and a jump in the yen/US dollar exchange rate, leaving only enough material for a direct-to-video movie which barely started the main plot. Its follow-up, Robotech III: The Odyssey never got beyond a vague outline. The first movie (not to be confused with the more recent The Shadow Chronicles) suffered from Executive Meddling, and never saw wide release. Robotech 3000 never got beyond a CGI trailer.
 * On a related note to the above, the success of Voltron in the United States was nearly a total accident. World Events Productions previewed a show called Future Robo Daltanius, somewhat liked what they saw, and told Toei that they wanted "to go with the vehicle one, and the one with the lion". This communication goof confused the Toei execs, and instead of Daltanius (which they were shopping around due to it having been a decent success at home), they sent over a far-less-successful-in-Japan show called Beast King GoLion with a shrug of "whatever, silly foreigners"... and the crew at World Events fell in love with  GoLion immediately and proceeded to make it the headliner of the Voltron run, scrapping all Daltanius-related plans on the spot. The rest, of course, is history. Had the world not gotten "Lion Voltron" as we know it, who knows what would have been different, or if the frankly very different Daltanius would have appealed to Americans at all.
 * Tetsuo Hara's two-part pitch for Hokuto no Ken that he wrote and illustrated by himself bears little resemblance to the later serialized version he co-wrote with Buronson. In the pilot, Kenshiro (who originally bore the surname "Kasumi") is a teenager who leads a seemingly peaceful life in present-day Japan (the apocalypse hasn't happened yet) with his sweetheart Yuki (not Yuria) while learning the ways of Hokuto Shinken from his father (who is implied to be Kenshiro's own biological father). That is until his girlfriend is murdered by a rival martial arts clan (the Taizanji Kenpo school) for witnessing a crime and Ken himself is framed for her death. The pilot deals with Kenshiro hiding from authorities (who are secretly under the control of the Taizanji) while seeking to avenge his girlfriend's death. The major fights from both pilots ended up being used as template for filler fights in the anime and Hara would later revisit the concept of a Hokuto Shinken successor living in a civilized age with Souten no Ken (even reusing the "Kasumi" surname for Kenshiro's predecessor).
 * While nothing definite has been revealed, one has to wonder What Could Have Been with Yu-Gi-Oh!, had the card game Plot Tumor been nipped in the bud as was planned; Kazuki Takahashi, the manga's creator, never intended the card game story to last more than a few chapters, putting it on a rotating list of children's games to base stories on. He also based the Millennium Puzzle and the spirit of Yami Yugi within on Hellraiser's puzzle box and Pinhead, playing the shadow games in a similar manner. Had the card game not garnered such popularity and forced him to rewrite the rest of the series Lighter and Softer, who knows how Darker and Edgier it could've been?
 * In the manga, Mr. Takahashi mentioned the premise of Yu-Gi-Oh was about "the mysterious" in every day life before it morphed into a story of games and the supernatural connotations of them (and later Duel Monsters specifically). Paranormal Magnet Yugi Muto, anyone?
 * Vision of Escaflowne was originally going to be a straight up Shonen mecha series directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa. Whether this would have been a bad thing or still completely awesome is a question that will never be answered though: Imagawa left pre-production to channel his energies into the pinnacle of Narm Charm that is G Gundam. Escaflowne was put on the shelf for a year or two before Kazuki Akane wound up with the series and decided to go for Multiple Demographic Appeal. The biggest changes were probably are the Bishonen and a complete redo of Hitomi's character from Ms. Fanservice to the Shorttank Ordinary High School Student we know today.
 * Giant Robo was over long and over budget, so a lot of stuff had to be cut to make way for the main plot. One the director himself mentioned as something he regretted was that Sally the Witch (the ORIGINAL magical girl) was going to have a fight with the Big Bad ruling council, the Magnificent Ten (themselves famous cameos). The awesomeness of this scene can only be imagined but by the time the last episodes rolled around there was just nowhere to put it, and sadly she ended up as little more than a slightly confusing plot device.
 * That's just the tip of the iceberg. You know how  That was supposed to be animated, as the climax of the series. And, in fact, Imagawa had plans for an entire saga spanning several OVA series, of which Giant Robo was the second to last chronologically. The others would have explained things like how Daisaku became an Expert and the origin of the Magnifacent Ten (along with a teamup between Giant Robo and Tetsujin 28) before it all culminating in the final series, "The Siege of Babel," which is   Thanks to funding issues, none of these series will ever come to be. The sheer amount of potential awesomeness we have been denied almost boggles the mind.
 * The opening scene of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann originally was an accurate display of what they planned the final storyline to be like, but it went through some massive re-writes. Additionally, Yoko's identity as the schoolteacher Yomako was originally supposed to have a plot about there being a teacher there that looked a lot like Kamina.
 * The concept art for the second movie included, among the other Tengen Toppa Gunmen, designs for a Tengen Toppa King Kittan.
 * The Neon Genesis Evangelion Proposal, being a rough outline of the series made for promotional purposes. Differences are, among others, that there are some other Angels (called Apostolos here), the Evas look slightly different, there are Eva Units 05 and 06 detailed, Hyuga, Ibuki and Aoba aren't present, SEELE isn't mentioned, and the cryptic description of the final episodes taking place at the "ruins of Arka".
 * Dub-related: According to the commentary, Amanda Winn-Lee originally wanted to try out for the role of Misato, before Allison Keith's performance changed her mind.
 * Robin Williams, famous comic/actor and a big fan of Evangelion, is said to have tried out for the role of Gendo Ikari for the English dub of the Rebuild movies.
 * And of course, we can only speculate on what would have happened had Gainax not been almost broke by the time the last few episodes were made.
 * It's been stated that End of Evangelion was basically an expanded version of what was originally scripted for the final two episodes--hence why Eo E is split into two parts. Had Gainax's budget not been shot, the finale would have just been a shorter version of the movie (albeit with less sexual imagery.)
 * Inital artwork for Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z gave the girls hairstyles similar to their American counterparts, and they had different weapons (Blossom had a pair of hula hoops, Buttercup had a pair of juggling clubs and Bubbles had a skipping rope).
 * Ash's original partner in the Pokémon anime was supposed to be a Clefairy instead of a Pikachu. Think about it: if successful as a franchise icon as Pikachu has been, Super Smash Bros. Brawl players could have been able to play as a Clefairy that could Metronome other fighters' Final Smashes for its own Final Smash...
 * Also, the anime was originally just supposed to last through Kanto, with an assumed ending of Ash defeating Gary and winning the Pokémon League.
 * The very first trailer for the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japan, it is completely made out of scenes that didn't make it to the final product; the grown-up Misty segment, in particular, is a huge source of speculation and discussion withing the fandom, specially by taking account the movie would be the Grand Finale for the anime.
 * Media Blaster wanted to release uncut DVDs in America at one point, but of course Viz got the rights and they were unable to do this.
 * There was originally going to be an episode that celebrated the Japanese New Year during the Kanto run. This episode was intended to air soon after the infamous Porygon "seizure" episode, so production was halted, and after a while simply cancelled.
 * The GS Ball was originally going to contain a Celebi that was to star in a large portion of the Johto arc. After Pokémon 4Ever came out, it was decided that having a Celebi in the anime right after a movie featuring Celebi would be redundant, so the idea was shelved.
 * As mentioned in the Gunsmith Cats article, the original incarnation of the story, Riding Bean, had Rally as Bean's triggerwoman.
 * Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is full of these. The first series was originally supposed to focus mainly on Ken, Jun, and Jinpei out of the team, but after Joe became more popular, he gained more screentime in the anime. Jun was also originally intended to be second-in-command, but after the team numbers got shuffled about in production, Joe gained that position instead. Early plans for the series also put more emphasis on the relationship between Ken and Jun, possibly making them a romantic couple.
 * Katse's initial design was much different, with a long mane on the cowl and the uniform being primarily green. This design was eventually assigned to a Galactor boss when the first two episodes were made. Katse was also initially intended to be THE Big Bad  with X as only a consultant.
 * There would have been a Sixth Ranger in Gatchaman II, known as "Jack The Hawk".
 * And had the 1997 remake of Mach Go Go Go not failed, Tatsunoko would have released a remake of Gatchaman (tentatively titled "Gatchaman '98") for the following year, which would have featured all three major villains from the old series under the rule of X. The Red Impulse squadron would have also had female members, and both Ken and Jun would have been in search of lost family members. Concept art by Tatsunoko artist Roberto Ferrari could be seen floating around on the net for the series at one point.
 * Another failed remake idea by Tatsunoko was an SD Gatchaman series slated for 1996, which would have had the team reimagined in the super-deformed format and with an extra female member, operating from a floating platform. Unfortunately, concept art for this version has yet to surface.
 * Sandy Frank Entertainment had originally considered doing all-new "original" stories for their Battle of the Planets adaptation, but due to expense concerns and already fulfilling their syndication quota, the ideas didn't get very far. They also attempted to get a redubbed and remastered version off of the ground in 2004, but it never got any further than an unaired pitch pilot and the idea died off fast. Sandy Frank had also considered doing an all-new American animated series with different designs in an attempt to not pay Tatsunoko royalties for the Gatchaman characters, but this got no further than a mere wish.
 * In Axis Powers Hetalia, the character of Belarus is a scary blonde Yandere (disambiguation). She was actually supposed to be a brunette and quite more mellow.
 * A remnant of this original idea can be seen in Belarus's first color appearance in volume 1 of the published manga. Though she still wields a knife, her hair (and eyes) are colored brown and her expression seems to be a little less severe.
 * Also, South Korea was initially female and with aspirations of becoming an Idol Singer. The original designs would be re-used in Sena, the lead of Himaruya's web-manga Moe Kan.
 * Hell, Korea in general, speaking only for the anime. He was going to be in it, but protest from South Koreans forced Korea off the show. The series would have been broadcasted on Kid's Station in 2009, but was cancelled after the protests Kid's Station apparently had no knowledge of. South Korean protesters claimed he was an offensive sterotype because his clothing and birthday are incorrect, his behaviour perverted and "not understandable", and the fact that he obsesses over Japan, even though this usually is World War II we're talking about.
 * More fun with gender changes! Hungary was to be a male crossdresser (while Poland would be a female character), but Himaruya switched him to an actual female and made Poland the Wholesome Crossdresser. For added fun, Hungary was supposed to be more of a "witchy" character, with a shorter fuse and the habit of shooting arrows at whoever thought of her as a male.
 * Also, before settling on a sweet-looking teenage girl, Himaruya had several designs for Taiwan: a cute little girl, an old bald man, a short-haired Bokukko, a young boy with a Simple Staff, an older boy with Big Ol' Eyebrows, a Dragon Lady, 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 Prussia, with the latter only realising that the former is female when her uniform gets ripped to Absolute Cleavage levels.
 * In the third volume of the manga, a special pamphlet revealed various designs that could have been (including the witchy Hungary): Cuba as a cute little boy instead of a gruff Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Italy with no Idiot Hair, Russia as a dark-haired drunken uncle kind of man, Greece with sleek hair and glasses, England with normal eyebrows, a meaner-looking Liechtenstein, and China with short hair and glasses.
 * Before what we now know as Axis Powers Hetalia was formulated, Himaruya was originally intending on writing a manga set in New York City with a cast of characters that were "useless heroes". Since he wanted the characters to be of different ethnicities, he did an online search of ethnic traits. Instead, he got pages of ethnic jokes, one of which went something like, "The only weapon the Italians had during WWII was a white flag." That was how Italy's character came to be. From then on, he retooled the whole series by giving it a historical/geographical angle and making the characters into allegorical portrayals of nations. Oh, and in the end, Italy was the only character who was a "useless hero."
 * In one of the Omake of the Chrono Crusade manga, Moriyama discussed a few of these. For example, the tomboyish Genki Catgirl Shader was originally supposed to be a man crossdressing in elegant clothing. (You can see some remnants of this in earlier scenes of the manga, where a figure that represents her is shown as taller and appears to be wearing a long gown.) There's also a sketch of a figure that was supposed to be Chrono and Rosette's rival at the Order--his design seems to be recycled in a younger version of Remington shown in a flashback.
 * The story was originally going to be set in the 1800s but Moriyama changed it to the 1920s to take advantage of newer technology.
 * An extra released in the Princess Tutu DVDs says that originally the concept for Fakir was called the "black prince", and he was a 'crazy' young man babbling stories that only Ahiru believed.
 * Love Hina prototype version had Naru already engaged on a love relationship with another guy, while Keitaro was much less of a pushover: right after the first hot spring incident with Naru and the subsequent beating up from the girls, he severely considered kicking them out of the boarding house. (He is the new manager, after all.) Also, the girls's original reason to befriend him was just to get on his good side and avoid being kicked out. (Naru was supposed to take the bullet for them.)
 * During the manga's run, the girl who was supposed to end up with Keitaro wasn't Naru but Motoko Aoyama instead. Constant setups for this can be seen on the manga, with both Keitaro and Motoko seriously considering it at least twice. The fact that both Keitaro and Motoko are the characters with the biggest changes and character developement of the entire cast also says a lot, but according to Ken Akamatsu himself, he was running out of ideas near the end so he decided to drop that option and quickly finish the manga with a typical finale instead.
 * Originally, Naru was named Midori and instead of being a hot-headed Tsundere, she was to have been a Dojikko, even in the cafe where she worked. Shinobu was to have been the Tsundere, as well as having a ponytail similar to Forty's.
 * Less of a straight example than the others, but CLAMP mentioned during an interview after the conclusion of Cardcaptor Sakura 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; if Syaoran had 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.
 * Pandora Hearts 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 'God' ]], and Old!Gilbert whose face was hidden in the shadow (only recognized by the viewer because of his Badass Longcoat and Nice Hat). And despite having B-Rabbit in the story, Alice was Oz's sister instead.
 * Minor/only-dub-related one: Johnny Yong Bosch mentioned that, at first, many ideas were thrown around about what to do with the "Endless Eight" episodes of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya. 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.
 * D.Gray-man had a prototype titled Zone which was more of an experiment of what the characters and plot would be like. Allen was originally a female character named Robin and General Cross's weapon was going to be what Allen's current weapon is. Lavi was also supposed be a character for another manga titled 'Bookman' but the idea was scratched and he was put into D. Gray Man.
 * Mai-HiME has two prototype videos. Several characters have different hair colors and uniforms, some of the Elements and Childs are different (Natsuki has two double-barreled pistols and a golden Duran).
 * Angel Beats! was originally supposed to have 26 episodes, but it was cut down to 13 at the last second. As a result, 26 episodes of content had to be cut down to fit 13 episodes worth of screen time. By the end of the series, it was clear that many of the unresolved plot threads and development of only a fraction of the main cast were meant for a longer running series.
 * The Afganisu-tan series was supposed to be longer, but its sequel was cut short when the mangaka's PC had a virus.
 * Sonic the Movie was supposed to be an entire series however Sonic is not nearly as popular in Japan as in other countries so it never took off. The "movie" is simply two episodes put together.
 * Remember Digimon Adventure 02? Remember the Dark Ocean and how it only showed up in about 3 episodes? Well, originally it was supposed to be used as a plot point (perhaps as the next big arc after the Digimon Kaiser?) but it was completely ignored by the regular writers of the show.
 * Way, way back in the planning stages of Digimon Tamers, Impmon was originally supposed to be the main character. When that fell through, they decided to make Beelzemon the Big Bad of the series, but changed their minds and replaced him with the D-Reaper, so he became The Atoner. Also, Renamon was originally supposed to be called Lunamon.
 * According to the Getter Robo Bible, the prototype for Getter Robo was actually a racing manga, which Ryouma, Hayato and Musashi riding old-fashion race cars and performing stunts with them.
 * Bandai America at one point had the rights to Blue Comet SPT Layzner, but according to internal sources the master copies they got were old and faded which rendered them completely useless. Literally unable to do anything with it, Bandai just held onto the license for years until it finally expired.
 * On a related note, any of the licenses Bandai had when they stopped producing new series in early 2012. Among them was Turn a Gundam, which is one of the "Lost Four" Gundam series that fans never thought would get licensed.
 * As part of a Lying Creator scheme, Toei released a picture of two new heroines for Suite Pretty Cure, only to reveal later on down the line that it was fake.