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{{trope}}
Sometimes in the Anime/Manga world orders [[Executive Meddling|come from on high]]:
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* Executive Meddling by the editors of ''Shonen Jump'' resulted in some drastic plot changes to ''[[
* Executive Meddling by the editors of ''[[Shonen Jump]]'' also took down ''[[Double Arts]]'' and ''[[Medaka Box]]'' -- the former was well loved by older readers (as seen by extremely huge omnibus sales), but younger readers (who fill out the survey cards) ''hated it''. It attempted a retool into a more fighting based series, but the damage was done. [[Medaka Box]] pulled the [[Genre Shift]] off more successfully, switching from a slice of life series to a fighting series, to an over the top fighting ''parody'', back to a slice of life series again once it was popular enough not to risk being canceled.
* Similarly, ''[[
* Ikumi Mia blames part of the failure of ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]] a la mode'' on her Nakayoshi director limiting her to two volumes and telling her not to focus on the previous series's characters.
** Executive Meddling actually produced the original series as well; Ikumi-sensei wanted to do a horror series focusing on a much darker [[Catgirl]], without a [[Sentai|colourful cast]] of [[Petting Zoo People|Kemonomimi]] friends. Ichigo's predecessor wasn't even a [[Magical Girl]].
* In ''[[Digimon Savers]]'', there is an episode where a bomb-shaped digimon called BomberNanimon attempts to blow up an amusement park by throwing bombs everywhere. When dubbed, its color was changed to orange, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100502060509/http://www.duckfeather.net/digimon/index.htm the bombs were turned into ''fruit juice'' and it was re-named "Citramon."] English producer/writer Jeff Nimoy stated that he had to do this or Disney would cut the episode.
** However, once you get past the utter randomness; [[Pragmatic Adaptation|it becomes a fitting]] [[Homage]] to Don Patch of [[Bobobo-Bo
* Speaking of ''[[Bobobo-Bo
* Rumor has it that ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' was cut short because Yuki Judai's voice actor was fired and the show's developers didn't want to spend the extra cash to replace him in the middle of a season; as a result, the show was forced to wrap up half-way through its run, and its successor, ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
** The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' manga suffers the same fate as the anime, as it had to rush its ending to make room for ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal|Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal]]'''s manga, despite how well the GX manga series has been received by the fans.
** At the beginning, ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' wasn't about the infamous card games, but since the game was quite popular (not to mention conveniently marketable), Kazuki Takahashi had to continue with the card games.
* The translators working on ''[[Initial D]]'' originally wanted a straight translation, but [[Tokyo Pop]] executives demanded various changes, resulting in the translators writing an [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
** The big, big beef was the "Fast and the Furious"-ization. You can see it in the hip-hop dialogue and cheesy nicknames (gradually done away with in the later volumes). Given the Love It Or Hate It nature of FaF, this is understandable (although still a bit extreme). Strangely enough, without this executive meddling, it's unlikely that any American manga company would've taken a chance on a title as unusual as Initial D at all.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' suffered this from Day 1. [[Sunrise (company)|Sunrise]] initially had little to no faith in the show because of director Goro Taniguchi<ref>Reports variously blaming his being relatively new and untested or his perfectionism</ref>, giving him 25 episodes rather than the originally requested 50 and severely limiting the staff's resources, forcing them to piggy-back off of other Sunrise shows being made at the same time. After it became a runaway success, Sunrise gave the staff more leeway, but still interfered in other ways.
** The initial series plan involved an idealistic rookie soldier and his ideological conflicts with his battle-hardened C.O. (which was recycled as the base for the idealistic Suzaku vs. the hardened Lelouch conflict); when Sunrise rejected this concept, the creators took it back to formula and after some retooling (introducing new elements like the Geass power and C.C. herself) made it the show it is today.
** According to [[Word of God]], the show being moved to an earlier time slot screwed the staff up in two ways, firstly by forcing them to tone down the content and secondly by making them feel like they had to take time out of the plot to get new viewers acquainted with the premise, which is usually blamed for the first handful of episodes feeling like rehashes of parallel episodes from the first season. This also forced the staff to essentially throw out their original plans for the show's second half, adding in a one-year [[Time Skip]] and starting from there.
** For the American airing, [[Adult Swim]] didn't give ''Geass'' much love either. [as] gave the show very little advertising and kept shifting its time slot around, which made viewers stop caring and ended up with their rights to the show expiring after only two runs. To be more specific, the show was eventually shoved into a dead early-morning time slot where next to nobody would be awake. Since this was a time before [[DV Rs]] became commonplace in cable and satellite hook-ups, the show suffered agonizingly in ratings, and was booted from the network after one rerun, which began at a reasonable time slot, but was pushed back to the same early-morning slot as its premiere run had suffered.
* The entirety of the "Blue Knight" saga and the subsequent story arc in ''[[Astro Boy (
* ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' ended prematurely because of this. It was planned to have two more big story arcs which would focus more on the Gold Saints, but the series was canceled and it took the anime more than ten years to finish afterward.
* The executive meddling in the English dub of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' resulted in the transformation of the lesbian couple Haruka and Michiru into the ''implied incestuous lesbian couple'' Amara and Michelle by making the two cousins in an attempt to get rid of any homosexuality. The dubbers ''did'' make them cousins, but didn't bother to remove any of the romantic implications between them, possibly as a [[Take That]] to the executives.
** On the other hand, ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' owes its very existence to executive meddling. When creator Naoko Takeuchi was trying to think of a new series, it was her editor who suggested the heroines wear sailor suits (he had a thing for them) and thus began ''[[Codename: Sailor V]]''. However, they had a fight over the length of the skirts -- her editor wanted longer skirts, but Takeuchi fought for the short length they have today.
** Also, on the Topic of Sailor V, it was meant to be a 1 shot comic that became popular and was continued. When Toei got wind of it and wanted to make it into an OVA, she was asked to expand it into a team format. Sailor Moon was soon created and V was made into a member of her team under the name Sailor Venus. Due to Moon's quick popularity, the OVA starring Sailor V was never made and her series was wrapped up after Sailor Moon's despite being much shorter.
*** Moreover, Takeuchi originally only planned the manga to last one year, and the anime was also intended to only be a 46 episode series, ending with the deaths of the main characters at the end of the Dark Kingdom arc. The popularity of the franchise led to the anime getting more series and naturally, Takeuchi being required to keep stretching out her storyline from series to series.
* One might consider the entire post-Raoh ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' story, as covered in the manga and the ''Hokuto no Ken 2'' anime, a product of a desire to keep the story going. Unfortunately the result couldn't keep up to the legendary status of the original, and almost all subsequent licensed works (with the possible exception of a single PlayStation game) have been set in the first half of the manga.
* [[Ken Akamatsu]] got hit with this hard while writing ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' After ''[[Love Hina]]'', he wanted to try something new and do a [[Shounen]] series, but the executives wanted to capitalize on the success of ''[[Love Hina]]'' with another [[Unwanted Harem]] series. As a result, ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' ''looks'' like an [[Unwanted Harem]], but starts adding [[Shounen]] elements around volume 3, which [[Genre Shift|increase in frequency]] until it pretty much ''is'' a [[Shounen]] series with some [[Unwanted Harem]] and [[Fan Service]] elements still hanging around. According to some fans, the combination of genres actually benefits the quality of the series.
** The abrupt ending of ''
* In a minor example, the author of ''[[Skip Beat
* Another minor example: in ''[[
** Not to mention that due to this error, it lead to their personalities (as Ohba and Obata first envisioned) being rewritten for the plot with the design swap: The one who became "Near" was meant to be the darker and more vengeful one (and be the elder), while the one who became "Mello" was originally envisioned as being calmer, younger, and more effeminate.
* Weird example: Originally, Clefairy was to be the mascot of ''[[Pokémon (
** Interestingly, Clefairy is the protagonist's partner in the obscure <ref> For English fans anyways, the manga is considered impossible to really translate as it relies heavily on cultural humor and puns in Japanese, but in Japan it is well known, and remains fairly popular, and is the only manga other than Adventures to last from the beginning of the series.</ref> Japanese gag manga "Pokémon Pocket Monsters", making it something of a [[Canon Foreigner]]. It also makes a brief cameo in the anime.
** Throughout the first 22 episodes of ''Pokemon: Best Wishes'', a [[Story Arc]] develops concerning the [[Took a Level
* Ironically enough, one could say that Sasuke owes his existence to this status; when Masashi was working on ''[[Naruto]]'', the Editor told Masashi that Naruto needed a [[The Rival|rival]], thus creating the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|spotlight-stealing]] [[Base Breaker|divisive character]] we all know.
* ''[[Shaman King]]'' was hit hard by this. Apparently, due to a decline in popularity, Hiroyuki Takei was ordered to HURRY IT UP. So he ended up rushing through the later chapters, resulting in a convoluted mass of plot points and character deaths (which is meaningless as the characters in question usually [[Death Is Cheap|come back to life shortly thereafter]] or immediately come back as a ghost), and culminating in a [[Left Hanging|cliffhanger ending]]. Fortunately, due to fan outcry, Takei eventually finished up the series properly and fixed the rushed chapters.
** Of course the ending we got, in a way, we got due to a case of meddling that got fans involved. Rather than just release it in volume form, the executives decided to first hold a survey for fans to request the final volume. This final volume was made, and was just the chapters they hadn't collected. The executives then told fans that they had to rebuy the series in new volumes to get the ending, and that if the sales even began to fall they'd be canceled. [[Berserk Button|Let's just say fans were not amused....]]
* [[Crowning Music of Awesome|Somewhat surprisingly,]] the opening theme of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is the result of this. Originally, Anno intended to use a piece of the [[wikipedia:Polovtsian Dances|Polovtsian Dances]] for the opening, but the studio came to the conclusion that it would be [[Viewers are Morons|too confusing for the viewers]] and thus had "Cruel Angel's Thesis" made to replace it with modern J-Pop.
** The series infamous [[Gainax Ending]] was caused by executive meddling as well, mainly because of budget restraints, among [[Family-Unfriendly Violence|other things]], causing the entire final two episodes to be mostly stock footage. "[[Memetic Mutation|Congratulations!!!]]"
* Want to know why Nozomi from ''[[
* ''[[Angel Beats
* The ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise has had to deal with this from the very beginning:
** [[Mobile Suit Gundam
** In America, the original series was massively unpopular (presumably due to their following the insanely popular ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
** [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] wanted ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
** When asked to make the Japanese guy the hero of ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam
*** ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam
**** And let's not forget the [[Dub Name Change|Dub Name Changes]], which were mandated by the bigwigs at Sunrise and had nothing to do with Bandai America. This has carried on for years, as any time Domon appears in a video game like ''[[Dynasty Warriors: Gundam]]'', it'll be called "Burning Gundam" instead of "God Gundam".
*** On the other side of the Pacific, the Bluewater voice actors wanted to go back and redub the first 20 episodes after they finished the series, saying that their performances weren't as good because they didn't have a feel for the characters yet. However, Bandai wouldn't let them.
** Like the original series, ''[[After War Gundam X
** For the dub, the iconic salute "Sieg Zion" was changed to the more generic and boring sounding "Hail Zeon". All other references to the Nazis or Hitler were also covered with references to fascism instead.
** Rumors claim that Tomino wanted the protagonist of ''[[Turn
* [[Executive Meddling]] gave ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Macross]]'' its name. Originally to be called ''Megaroad'' (or, to give the sponsor-imposed tag, ''Super Dimension Fortress Megaroad''), one of the producers from Big West suggested changing the title to [[Macbeth]], as he was a huge Shakespeare fan. Kawamori and the rest of the staff weren't keen on the name, but didn't feel they could really outright oppose the man who authorized the checks for production money. So, instead, they suggested a compromise name -- Macross. [[And The Rest Is History]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* A fourth anime season of ''[[Slayers]]'' was due to follow immediately from the third, ''Slayers TRY'' back in [[The Nineties]], but [[Megumi Hayashibara]], the actress for the female lead, was bogged down with work, making everyone else virtually lose all interest. It wasn't until [[
** Speaking of the third season, the [[Light Novel]] writer pretty much deemed it [[Canon
** And now the prequel light novels are ongoing because of obligations from the magazine they're published in. As of this writing, they're on hold, but the writer made it clear that he has absolutely no intention to continue the regular series.
* ''[[The Idolmaster (
* ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' was rushed through all stages of development (Especially the [[Off-Model|animation]] and [[Blind Idiot Translation|dubbing]]) due to [[Cartoon Network]] wanting to sign off on a certain amount of episodes before airing. The result - Numerous pissed off Transformers fans.
* The ''[[You're Under Arrest]]'' Manga's quite possibly one of the shortest (and rarest) licenses that [[Dark Horse Comics]] ever published stateside. This was because creator Kosuke Fujishima only wanted a select amount of stories (sixteen in total) released correspondingly with the Anime. The chapters in question were all made towards the end of the run.
* ''[[
▲* The abrupt ending of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' is a result of this. Japanese publishers are attempting to pass a bill that would allow them to effectively ''steal'' ownership rights from manga writers, and the sudden ending was Akamatsu's way of protesting this.
▲* ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]'' creator [[Tite Kubo]] mentioned in an interview regarding the conception of his character Shinji Hirako that he'd originally planned for Ichigo's friends to develop powers, but Shueisha ordered him to hurry up the schedule and introduce the Shinigami.
** [[Tite Kubo]] also mentioned in an interview that he had never planned for the Arrancar to become so developed or long-running, but the editors requested an increased role due to their popularity, resulting in the Arrancar Arc running much longer than the author had originally envisaged.
** And much later, the anime was cancelled when the Fullbring arc ended to make room for the new ''[[
* [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], not even this one. Executive Meddling removed a major source of [[squick]] from the anime adaptation of ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'', changing the ages of Tylor and Azalyn (who has a serious crush on him) from 30 and 10 respectively in the novels to 20 and 16 in the anime.
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