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{{trope}}
[[File:NegimaBeforeAfter.jpg|link=Mahou Sensei Negima|
{{quote|''(a montage of people driving in cars)''
'''Narrator:''' I am your permit, your license, your permission to drive. I am a privilege, and an obligation... Your obligation to drive skillfully, carefully, and legally.
''(Someone suddenly gets into a car crash, with quick cuts to up-close shots of innocent bystanders reacting, before settling on a long shot of a traffic light in a fog of smoke.)''
'''Josh Way:''' Suddenly, [[Fritz Lang]]'s directing! ...(sigh) It's no time to get arty, movie.
|"''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}fe9043jM1vk Fun With Shorts: Your Permit to Drive]''"}}
The weird cousin of [[Executive Meddling]], except it can be planned in advance by the writers.
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Controversial or extremely different ideas are very hard to get past sponsors and audiences suspicious of anything new and unfamiliar. An easy if sneaky way around this is merely to present the beginning of the story as something familiar. However, once the main plot kicks in, your audience is hopefully loyal enough not to notice the quick shift in tone and pacing. If you did it well, in hindsight they might notice little hints you dropped about what was to come. As a side effect, the story will probably also undergo [[Mood Whiplash]].
'''Genre Shifts''' are sometimes used in [[Sequel]] stories.
Genre Shifts sometimes occur at the ends of a series when the writers finally get around to [[Writer
It ''is'' possible for this to work, as long as the creators know what they're doing, and it can pay off quite well at times. Usually, however, this requires planning it from the start, allowing the writers to [[Foreshadowing|set up the genre shift]] ahead of time so it doesn't feel like it comes [[Ass Pull|out of nowhere]]. Because of their sudden onset,
Even worse is if a genre shift is used as [[Deus Ex Machina|the solution to a plot point]], which just feels tacky.
If this happens one time only in a series before reverting back to the main genre, it's an [[Out
Not to be confused with [[Art Shift]] or [[Genre Turning Point]]. Or with [[Gender Flip]]. Compare with [[Tone Shift]] and [[Cerebus Syndrome]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' started out as a supernatural story, then a supernatural crime drama, then a supernatural martial arts story, and ended up a supernatural psychological thriller.
* A strange example occurs in the last ''[[Steel Angel Kurumi]]'' [[OAV]], a far-future prequel done in the format of a fairly serious drama instead of the show's usual bubblegum cuteness.
* Naturally, ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' also surprised many fans ([[What Do You Mean
* ''[[
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', as pictured. It ''looks'' like a [[Harem|harem comedy]] when it starts, but slowly starts throwing in more and more action sequences... until you hit the [[Tournament Arc]], and suddenly realize that you're reading a [[Shounen]] action series with an unusual amount of [[Fan Service]]. By now, the harem antics are only occasional joke fodder, the story's mainly about Negi's quest to find his long-missing father, and the [[Power Levels]] are over... well, [[Memetic Mutation|you know how it goes]]. Basically, it's become ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' meets ''[[Harry Potter]]'' meets ''[[Love Hina]]''. The anime adaptation was cut short ''long'' before reaching the aforementioned [[Tournament Arc]], but still managed to pull off a slightly different
* The Buu saga of [[
* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', in its first season, was about a magical ballerina princess/therapist restoring emotions to her love interest. The second season revealed it just wasn't like a fairytale, and it turned into a dark, epic struggle against the sadistic author trying to wreck his character's lives. In other words, a slightly different type of fairytale.
* Similarly, ''[[Love Hina]]'' became prone to Road Trip arcs as the series lingered and most of the romantic misunderstandings had been resolved. These were apparently brief but enjoyed changes of pace for the author, as the later series ''Negima'''s framework allows them to be used more extensively.
* ''[[Ah
** The series, in manga more than other forms, also has a tendency to dip into being a magical action show as opposed to a romantic comedy. More recent manga story arcs have come to focus more on conflicts between the angels and the demons which tend to result in epic battles and intense situations wherein just a few chapters before, [[Mood Whiplash|everyone was just fighting over what to watch on TV!]]
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' combines an initial genre subversion (a magical girl show pitched specifically at a male audience) with a genre shift halfway through the series.
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*** The series has completely dropped the "Magical Girl" title in the latest manga. ''Magical Wars Lyrical Nanoha Force.''
*** Even Vivid, which superficially appears to be a return to the cute magical girl fodder of the first series, is filled to the brim with fighting and martial arts related tropes, making it something of a genre "bait and switch" that at times comes off more as a Shonen fighting series than a magical girl series.
* Parodied in ''[[Excel Saga (
** And then the 2 penultimate episodes were straightforward drama/suspense/action eps. So the shift... metalooped? Is that a word?
* ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' had a first episode much like a [[Shojo]] series, and though its marketing in the [[Bishoujo Series]]-focused ''Megami Magazine'' could predict that that would change, no one predicted its quick shift to angst and its new motto in [[Anyone Can Die]].
* Genre shift is pretty much the entire point behind ''[[
* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' went through most of the [[Anime]] as an over-the-top [[The Parody|parody]] of [[Shojo]] drama, but in the last few episodes became more of a shojo drama with jokes added.
* One may be excused for thinking that ''[[Guyver]]'' is a typical school-based shonen anime after the first few issues/episodes. But this changes pretty rapidly when {{spoiler|the school is blown up by either Zoanoids or Guyver 2, depending on what medium you prefer}} and Sho is almost never seen in school again.
* ''Rockman.EXE''/''[[Mega Man NT Warrior]]'' shifted from computer-based Mons to some kind of weird Sentai variant right around the third season, and completely gave up on its computer origins in the fourth, with the advent of Cross Fusion. Basically, it forced the human protagonists to merge with their partners and fight themselves, at which point the Mons were rarely seen again. This is one of the reasons the fourth season is disliked among the fanbase. Then, in the fifth season, it switched from computer [[Mon
* In the first few episodes (both in the Anime and Manga) of ''[[Bleach]]'', a reluctant teen fights ghosts (Hollows) [[Monster of the Week|in a series of unconnected locations.]] However, once Ichigo travels to the Shinigami world, the series completely abandons ghostbusting in favor of high-power duels between [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil|progressively more powerful rivals.]] Additionally, the series replaces its largely simplistic good spirit/bad spirit dichotomy with increasingly complicated plots, intrigue, and a much larger cast.
** The first movie, ''Memories of Nobody'' ended up being somewhat of a [[Wham! Episode|Wham Movie]] to those used to the dragging plot lines of the series, with a much different tone still.
* The OVA ''[[Moldiver]]'' spends three episodes as a gender-bending superhero send-up before abruptly switching into a serious drama in the final two episodes.
* ''[[Berserk]]'', though it does show a number of demons at the beginning of the anime and a fight with demonic [[Blood Knight]] Nosferatu Zodd early on in the anime, goes from grim and gritty medieval fantasy into straight up horror in the final episodes when {{spoiler|Griffith makes his [[Deal
** Also before Guts' group meets Schierke, they find a man who was attacked by trolls while searching for a witch. Serpico [[
* The ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' series (both the original light novels and the anime) begins as a comedy series that, while featuring a very eccentric protagonist in [[Genki Girl]] Haruhi, was still a fairly realistic [[Slice of Life]] comedy. Then the aliens, time travelers, and psychics start turning up, and we get the big reveal that {{spoiler|Haruhi is God (or at least the next best thing), and her subconscious desires can warp reality, or even destroy the universe if she becomes bored enough.}} It actually remains a [[Slice of Life]] comedy for the most part, but it's slices of much weirder lives than we originally thought.
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]''. It starts out as standard fairly light shonen fare, then takes an extremely abrupt left turn in Tokyo onto [[Mind Screw]] Way towards Drama Town.
** [[CLAMP]] seems rather fond of doing this, actually. It's happening also to ''[[
*** That's not too surprising considering ''[[
* Oh God, ''[[
* ''[[D
* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' had a ''major''
* ''[[
* ''[[
** As mentioned above [[CLAMP]] enjoys doing this with their series.
* ''[[Onani Master Kurosawa]]'' is perhaps another poster child of this. It starts off as ''[[
* ''[[Medaka Box]]'' underwent a
** As the series nears it's end ([[Dangerously Genre Savvy|if the villain is to be believed]]), this would indeed appear to have been the point, as it's now come full circle back to the original plotline, except much changed from all the fighting and genre savviness that arose from the first shift.
* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' - at least, the later novels. Directly [[Lampshaded]] by the author, who mentions that he's changing the series to have a darker, more depressing feel.
* The plot of ''[[Rosario
* The ''[[Trigun]]'' anime started as a humorous, lighthearted western with sci-fi elements, with a bit of mystery sprinkled throughout (courtesy of Vash, the show's protagonist). That all changed with the episode "Diablo." Suddenly, Trigun became [[Darker and Edgier]], the comedic moments were few and far between, and the show was much more plot oriented. In this case, the shift worked very well, since the second half fleshed out details that were only teased in the first half.
** That's happened because the anime basically took all the lighthearted and comedic parts of the manga, and used them in the first part. The manga version was a dramedy from the beginning - it became increasingly darker towards the end, but not to the point of complete mood shift.
* The ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** The series was always a mystery from the get-go, but DEEN didn't translate that part well. The newest [[OVA]], Higurashi Kira, seems to be comedy-fanservice. It makes sense since it's probably post-Kai {{spoiler|and thus none of the murder and mystery are in play anymore, since the everlasting June finished}}.
* ''[[Hellsing]]'' starts off as an action-horror story about a [[Government Agency of Fiction|vampire hunting organization working for the British government]] who [[Psycho for Hire|employ a vampire of their own]], with a bit of mystery thrown in as they try to uncover a plot to artificially manufacture vampires. Once [[Ghostapo|Millenium]] is properly introduced, it evolves into a war epic depicting a huge three-way battle over London, with much [[Contemplate Our Navels|introspection]] and many characters having to [[Character Development|rise to an enormous challenge]].
* ''[[Phantom Thief Pokémon 7]]'' starts out as a quirky manga about a boy living a double life as a [[Phantom Thief]]. It quickly turns into a dark, violent, adventure to save his sister from the unusually menacing Team Galactic. In the end it seems to turn into the original story, but in trio form. However it ended before anything came out of that.
** ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' changes genres each arc. They start as quirky adventures then turn more violent and team based.
* ''[[Tenchi Universe]]'' is a lighthearted romantic action comedy. The second ''Tenchi Universe'' movie, ''Tenchi Forever'', is a serious romantic drama with little action or comedy.
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' started out as a [[Desert Punk]] mecha show with an extremely [[Hot
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. Although the shift happens very early and there is heavy [[Foreshadowing]].
** That was only the FIRST shift. [[Mind Screw|It does several very casually]] when the elements are progressively revealed. {{spoiler|And then it decides to [[Reconstruct]] itself with a [[Decon Recon Switch]] of a [[Gainax Ending]].}}
* [[Shakugan no Shana]] shifts back and forth between action/supernetural and typical high school love story, though it stop shifting genre and generally gets worse in the recent light novel version.
* ''[[Ranma
* ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' started off as a superhero parody, but eventually became more focusing on wrestling.
* The second half of the 2nd OVA for [[Seto no Hanayome]] switches from comedy/action into straight horror, borrowing elements from [[The Ring]], then suddenly switches back to comedy at the end.
* The first half of ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' is [[Coming of Age]] with [[Mons]]. The latter half is [[Cosmic Horror Story]]...with [[Mons]].
* [[Kore wa Zombie Desu
* This happens in [[Monster]], which switches very early on from an almost noir-like hospital drama to a horror story involving Neo-Nazis, espionage, and serial killers shortly after adult Johan shows up.
* ''[[Chirin no Suzu]]'' starts off as a cute kid's movie about a baby lamb, but halfway through the film it turns into a dark tale of revenge.
== Comic Books ==
* During the tail end of [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]], many superhero characters were changed to civilian detectives, adventurers, horror hosts, etc, to accommodate the changing tastes of the reading public. Earlier, something similar happened to many non-superhero characters who went from pulp-style adventurers to pulp-style adventurers ''in tights''.
** A character known as Phantom Falcon stands out because he went through both - he began as a non-costumed air ace, turned into a superhero after being presumed dead and then turned into a civilian detective.
** The Black Hood gets a odd one in the very last issue of his Golden Age run when a villain unmasks him and he dropped the costume to become a civilian detective. The 'civilian detective' direction continued for a few back-up stories in Pep Comics.
** [[The Spectre]] went from being a dark supernatural hero to being a guardian angel for "Percival Popp, Super Cop!"
* The initial ''[[Strangers in Paradise]]'' miniseries was a [[Slapstick]] [[Love Triangle]] comedy. When creator Terry Moore launched the ongoing series, he added a crime drama plot, and subsequent arcs alternated between this and the [[Will They or Won't They?]] love triangle story, which also took on a more serious tone. Then, about two-thirds of the way through, Moore wrapped up the criminal conspiracy plot and for the remainder of the series focused on the romance story which soon expanded into a [[Love Dodecahedron]].
* ''Savage'' started off as an [[Alternate History]] action series, with technology slightly more advanced than the present day. Around 2009 or 2010, it shifted to full-on [[Science Fiction]], with teleporting tigers and the predecessors of the [[ABC Warriors]] appearing.
* [[Cerebus the Aardvark]], which went from adventure-parody to straight-adventure, to... well, no one's quite sure ''what'' the hell it ended up as.
* This trope was probably the single biggest problem with ''[[Novas Aventuras
* ''[[Millie the Model]]'' was a humor feature that became a romance-adventure in the mid-1960s, then shifted back to humor.
** Likewise, fellow Marvel girl comic ''Patsy Walker'' went the romance-adventure route during the some time period. Amusingly, her books were cancelled aroung the time Millie's books shifted back.
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== Fan
* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/404359/1/Gaijin Gaijin]'' started as a darkly comic [[Self
* ''[[My Immortal]]'' starts off as a fairly generic, albeit a little over-the-top, ''[[Harry Potter]]'' badfic with a typical [[Mary Sue]] protagonist and the [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls|usual focus on relationships, clothing and teen popular culture]]. Then it gradually turns into a surrealistic mish-mash of fanfic clichés and confused plot points involving such things as [[Time Travel]]
* ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' started off as a joke, a corny self-insert fic in which college students launch part of their dormitory into space to fight anime villains. It quickly went [[Grimdark]] with the "Exile" plot, stabilized into an odd mash-up of science-fiction adventure, has intermittently gone [[Song Fic]], and has dipped into romantic fantasy with the "Symphony of the Sword" plot.
* The Spanish-language ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' fic called, unoriginally, ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5125713/1/El_de_Haruhi_Suzumiya El ... de Haruhi Suzumiya]'' starts out as your ordinary OC-with-[[Sailor Earth|new-powers]]-joins-the-SOS-Brigade fare, albeit with the twist that the OC's powers are rarely used. Then, the characters all graduate and join the [[Author Appeal|military]]
* The ''[[Code Geass]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4456924/1/ Code Geass: Infinity]'' starts out as a regular [[Fix Fic]] AU, where {{spoiler|Shirley doesn't die and she helps Lelouch in the Black Knights; but then, when the fic starts to deal with the origins of Geass, the genre shifts to a [[Final Fantasy]]-esque plot, where in the end Lelouch must battle an [[One
== Film ==
* ''[[Australia (2008 film)|Australia]]'' goes from screwball comedy to western to war movie.
* ''[[Audition]]'' does this. The film starts out like a romance film, with a middle-aged widower holding a mock audition to find his perfect mate. Things go along this vein for quite a while, until brief scenes start popping up showing the man's "soul mate" alone and acting very creepy. The horror doesn't really start to kick in until after the halfway mark.
* ''[[Wild Things]]'' starts out as a formulaic [[Wrongly Accused]] plot, complete with Bill Murray as a sleazy lawyer trying [[The Perry Mason Method]]... until the one hour mark. That's when it's revealed that the defendant was working with his accusers for a damages settlement, but they all have their own plans, which quickly create a [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]].
* ''[[Legally Blonde]]'' should end about 2/3 through, as technically Elle has accomplished her revised goal (instead of chasing Warner, she has become a serious person). Instead, she gets applied to a legal case. It's still a fun movie, and the musical revises this by making Emmitt a legitimate romantic lead that you want Elle to be with at the end.
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* The original ''[[Alien]]'' was a haunted house movie in space. ''Aliens'' is straight out [[Actionized Sequel|sci-fi action]]... and it works perfectly.
** And then ''Alien³'' shows a return to the haunted house style of the first film. And then another shift with ''Alien: Resurrection'', which is actionized like ''Aliens''.
* Similarly ''[[Pitch Black]]'' was mostly horror with the protagonists trapped on a dark planet inhabited by monsters. The sequel, ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick]]'' is sci-fi action.
* The Oscar-winning film ''La Vita è bella'' (In English, ''[[Life Is Beautiful]]'') begins as a very charming, but rather generic romantic comedy, except that it happens to be set in Mussolini's Italy, and the characters are Jewish. Now, flash forward three years. The male and female leads are now married, have a son, and the Holocaust is about to start. Amazingly, it ''remains a comedy'', only with an entirely different premise: the father starts telling his three-year-old son wild stories to protect him from the truth of what is happening.
* One of the classic examples is, of course, ''[[From Dusk
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
* The movie ''Miracle Mile'' starts out as an indie romantic comedy. It ''sure'' doesn't end that way.
* The 2007 film ''[[Sunshine (
* ''[[Event Horizon]]'' also goes from near-future hard science fiction to Gothic horror that just happens to take place on a spaceship.
* ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' spends the first half humorously [[Deconstruction|deconstructing]] Nineties action film clichés, and spends the second half [[Reconstruction|playing every single one of those clichés straight]].
* ''[[The Lost Boys]]'' begins as a bleak, played-straight vampire horror film and then takes on a humorous tone in the third act, with the teenage heroes spouting such lines as "Whoa, death by stereo!"
* A pronounced
* ''[[Hollow Man]]''. Another ''sci-fi''-into-''thriller'' shift.
* ''Click'' started as a [[Fantastic Comedy]], then very suddenly and very early turned into drama. [[Trailers Always Lie|Guess what part the ads were sampled from]].
* This happens to the [[Evil Dead]] trilogy. The first film, ''The Evil Dead'', is a more-or-less straightforward horror film. ''Evil Dead 2'' is a strange hybrid of gory, serious horror, and slapstick comedy. ''Army of Darkness'' drops almost all the horror and works instead as an action-comedy and managed to become the most popular film in the series.
* ''[[Adaptation]]'', starring [[Nicholas Cage]], starts as an amusing dramedy about a scriptwriter suffering from a writer's block, but slowly turns darker and darker, with elements of a thriller, until in the climax {{spoiler|the protagonist's comical twin dies}}. It still tries to [[Bittersweet Ending|end things]] [[Earn Your Happy Ending|on a high note]], though.
** The really key shift is when {{spoiler|Charlie asks Donald for help on his screenplay}}; due to the highly self-referential nature of the movie, it's implied that {{spoiler|everything after that, all the drugs/guns/sex, is [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|being written]] by or on the advice of Donald}}. The thing to remember is that {{spoiler|Donald's the only character in the movie who isn't [[Real Life|a real person]]}}.
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* The first two-thirds of ''[[Death Becomes Her]]'' are a [[Black Comedy|very dark]] supernatural satire based around the rivalry between Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn's characters. Then in the last act it not only shifts into an action film but switches protagonists; Bruce Willis's until then secondary character becomes the point of view character for most of the rest of the movie, until the very end which returns to Streep and Hawn.
* The first half of the movie ''Flightplan'' plays out as an interesting psychological thriller, where we begin to believe the main character {{spoiler|actually imagined her daughter and was completely crazy from grief.}} But then it turns out {{spoiler|her daughter actually WAS kidnapped, and every single one of her crazy and far fetched ridiculous theories were right, and terrorists actually DID kill her husband and kidnapped the daughter to get her to look crazy.}} It ends up as just another generic action flick with guns, explosions, and cheesy one liners.
* In-story example: in ''[[The Addams Family
* ''[[Million Dollar Baby]]'' begins as a scrappy underdog sports movie and turns into a thoughtful but depressing drama about {{spoiler|spinal cord injury and euthanasia}}.
* ''[[Dream House (
* ''The Forgotten'' begins as a typical drama about a woman who is told by every person in her life (including her ''husband'') that her recently-dead son never existed and gradually becomes {{spoiler|a sci-fi about abductions and alien experiments with the human mind}}.
* This is one of [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s favorite tropes, and one that's unfortunately [[It Was His Sled|a bit spoiled]] by how famous his movies have become:
** ''[[Psycho]]'' in its first third, is a heist film, with Marion scheming to embezzle $40,000. Then Marion checks into the Bates hotel under an assumed name and it becomes {{spoiler|a psycho slasher film}}.
** ''[[The Birds]]'' starts off as either a quirky romance between two awkwardly charming leads, or perhaps a psychological thriller featuring a paranoid [[Stalker
* Like the above Birds example, [[Birdemic]] goes from a [[Narm Charm|very poorly...everything]] romance to a [[So Bad
* Due to its episodic nature, and a rotating set of writers and directors, the ''[[
** The last movie also has a subtle shift. The first part of it is basically about the beginnings of Kirk and Co., so while we expect trouble, it feel like a typical [[Negative Space Wedgie]] plot. Then {{spoiler|Vulcan is blown up}}, and everything becomes a horror story
* ''[[Hancock]]'' starts off as a lighthearted comedy about a [[Jerkass]] [[Superhero]] and the ad executive who tries to reform him. Then halfway through the movie {{spoiler|it turns into some weird mythological romantic tragedy something-or-other...}}
* ''[[Devils On The Doorstep]]'' changes over the course of its running time from a black comedy to an even blacker drama by the end.
* The entire [[
** The [[Tim Burton]] Batman movies were basically [[Film Noir]] '''[[Recycled in Space|IN TIGHTS!]]'''
** [[Word of God]] says that ''[[
** [[Christopher Nolan]] basically took the same approach to the [[Joel Schumacher]] movies that [[Tim Burton]] took to the TV series, and turned into an action/crime movie with [[The Chessmaster|multiple chessmasters]] and some [[Horror]] elements... [[Recycled in Space|in tights]].
*** There's even a shift within [[The Dark Knight Saga|the Nolanverse]]. ''[[Batman Begins]]'' was equal parts crime drama and adventure film, with elements of mysticism figuring heavily into the plot. Its sequel, ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', was a much more straightforward crime thriller set completely in an urban environment.
* The third and final ''[[Infernal Affairs]]'' film made a Genre Shift from twisty but rational gangster film to all-out [[Mind Screw]] [[Psychological Horror]], baffling many fans.
* ''[[
* The [[Godzilla]] series has done this numerous times. ''[[Gojira (
* French movie ''He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not'' plays like a romantic lighthearted movie about an affair between a married man and a woman until the second half. Then, things get much darker.
* ''[[Jaws (
* ''[[The Break Up]]'' starts as a semi-romantic comedy about a couple in the last parts of their marriage. About halfway through you realize it turned into an uncomfortably sad and bitter look at the central couple's role in the divorce, and the divisive effects it has on the couple's friends and acquaintances.
* ''[[Funny People]]'' starts out as a dramedy with both dark and normal kinds of humor, until the plot involving {{spoiler|George's illness}} is resolved. It soon [[Halfway Plot Switch|switches the plot]] and the mood shifts to more of a romantic-drama with little to no comedy. It shifts back to it's normal mood when ''that'' plot gets resolved, with 15 minutes of the film remaining, with the changes made in the shift kept.
* ''[[Chungking Express]]'' starts as an urban thriller, and one third of the way through, becomes a romantic comedy.
* ''[[Kill Bill]] Volume 1'' is a kung fu action thriller that's given an excuse plot and little consideration as to character or story development. ''[[Kill Bill]] Volume 2'' is a character-driven, plot-heavy ode to the Western. Both Volumes were originally intended as one four-hour movie.
* In a bizarre example of this trope happening in a ''trailer'' an up and coming Jack Black film initially appears to be a [[Judd Apatow]] style slacker in love romantic comedy set in New York, then suddenly shifts gear into science fiction territory with a trip into the Bermuda Triangle, ''then'' finally reveals itself to be a modern reimagining of ''[[
* The tone of the movie ''[[The Dirty Dozen]]'' changes dramatically once the team actually starts their mission. The first act could almost be considered a comedy. The second... [[Kill
* ''[[The Prestige]]'' begins as a romantic tale of a professional rivalry between magicians, and ends very much as [[Science Fiction]].
* ''[[Cube|Cube 2: Hypercube]]'' to the original ''Cube''. The first movie was at least ''somewhat'' grounded in reality, with the cube structure obviously futuristic, but still employing normal and believable machinery. The second replaces this with some sort of [[Alien Geometries|physically impossible]] mega-structure consisting of millions of rooms that freely employs [[Time Travel]], intersecting [[Alternate Universe|parallel universes]], and many more "[[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|hardcore sci-fi]]" contraptions. ''Cube Zero'' goes back to the conventions of the first, but partly changes the [[POV Sequel|character point-of-view]] instead.
* ''[[Lord of War]]'' starts out as a politically-minded dark comedy, but slowly turns into a straight (and very depressing) drama as it goes on. Which makes for a really cool metashift as the audience realizes the real cost of the glitz and glamor of gun-running along with Nick Cage's character.
* The infamous [[Tom and Jerry: The Movie|''Tom and Jerry'' movie]] actually goes from a zany slapstick cartoon to a generic 90's cartoon film (with a generic plot to boot) within the first few minutes!
* The French "thriller" ''Cache'' starts off as a thriller, with a couple being video taped by a mysterious stranger. Halfway through the film, the video tapes become sorta irrelevant and the movie then becomes about racial tensions between the French and Algerians. In the end, {{spoiler|we never find out who was making the tapes at all}}.
* The [[John Woo]] movie ''Bullet In The Head'' starts as your typical [[Heroic Bloodshed]] movie involving three triad gangsters looking to make a big score. But then they go to Vietnam, where [[The Vietnam War|The War]] is in full swing, and the movie becomes a psychological war drama akin to [[Apocalypse Now]] and [[The Deer Hunter]] that tears apart the bond between [[Blood Brothers]] which in Woo's other movies was all but unbreakable, before going into something combining the two for the finale as {{spoiler|one of the surviving protagonists goes after the other in revenge for killing the other one}}. The movie is by far Woo's grimmest and most emotionally devastating movie.
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* ''[[Predator]]'' begins as a typical war movie, a rescue mission in the jungle. Soon the commandos find the titular alien hunter, are slaughtered and the film becomes a one-vs-one fight to the death with Sci-Fi elements.
* Western, Soldier Blue spends most of its time being a boy meets girl comedy. Until just before the end when it becomes a horrific, searing indictment on the US army's treatment of the indian population, detailing an infamous massacre, including the dismemberment of children and rape of women, as the main characters look on in horror, unable to stop it.
* ''[[
== Literature ==
* Happens fairly early on in ''[[
** Even then, after the Fellowship splits, each character's story is, in many ways, a different genre, ranging from modern stories concerning war and morality to epic tales in a more medieval vein. These changes were more intentional than the shift out of a children's story, as Tolkien toyed a lot with the difference between medieval and modern works.
* ''The Hedge Knight'', the prequel for ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', reads first as an romantic tale about an up-and-coming knight, but anyone familiar with the author knows it'll turn into tragedy.
* [[
* In Jeff Lindsay's ''[[Dexter]]'' series, about a serial killer who only kills bad guys (on which the TV show of the same name was based), the first two books (''Darkly Dreaming Dexter'' and ''Dearly Devoted Dexter'') are mainstream crime thrillers aside from the unusual protagonist, but the third (''Dexter in the Dark'') takes a sharp left turn into dark fantasy territory, pitting Dexter against supernatural forces, ancient conspiracies, and [[Cosmic Horror]].
* ''[[Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey]]'' by Chuck Palahniuk is a fictional oral biography of... well, that's just it. He's an interesting character, but what we're supposed to think is significant about Buster Casey changes rapidly. There's a brief mention early on of a rabies epidemic, but by the end it's revealed that he {{spoiler|is his own adopted father, and ''biological'' father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather, and ''the villain,'' via ''car accident induced time travel.''}}
** In addition, it's not until an offhand remark by a character about a third of the way into the book about ports in the back of peoples head that you realize it's a sci-fi story set in the future.
* The ''[[Discworld]]'' series started off as fairly straightforward parodies of [[Heroic Fantasy]]. Later novels have been much more heavily focused on social satire, with heavy emphasis on philosophy and topics such as morality, class warfare, religion, theoretical physics, and modern city life. It works because they're still bloody hilarious.
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books started off as a slightly tongue-in-cheek [[Urban Fantasy]] and gradually became an epic [[High Fantasy]] in which [[Anyone Can Die]]. [[
* In ''[[How Not to Write A Novel]]'', they have a section ("One [[The Lord of the Rings|Ring]] to Rule them All" said the Old Cowpoke) on genre shifts handled poorly. Opens with a woman writing in a diary hinting at a romance novel (an obvious [[Affectionate Parody]] of ''Bridget Jones' Diary''), ends with [[Apocalyptic Log|an entry of OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD HE'S NOT HUMAN.]]
* P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'' series starts out in [[Low Fantasy]] territory in the first book, ''God Stalk''; while there's foreshadowing there, the wider [[High Fantasy]] plot doesn't really emerge until the second book, ''Dark of the Moon''. The shift alienated some readers, who wanted more of the same style of book as the first.
* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Treasure Box'' turns out to be {{spoiler|one of his "tales of dread,"}} but you don't realize it's in that genre until well into the story, about the same time the main character does.
** Also, in his ''[[Ender's Game|Ender Saga]]'', the first novel (and the most famous one) ''Ender's Game'' is about a young boy who is taught to be a soldier in order to command humanity's fleet against the "[[Bee People|buggers]]". The sequel ''Speaker for the Dead'' is focused on Ender (who is now in his 30s) 3000 years later (he survives due to frequent relativistic travel), helping a dysfunctional family and studying a new alien race. The third and fourth novels (which was originally one novel split for publishing reasons), ''Xenocide'' and ''Children of the Mind'', continue the story of the second novel (after a 30-year [[Time Skip]]) with Ender slowly moving out of focus as the protagonist. Additionally, they add ''tons'' of metaphysics into the mix, to the point where {{spoiler|FTL travel becomes reality because a powerful AI can ''imagine'' it}}. The difference between the first and the second novels is justified because Card had always wanted to write ''Speaker for the Dead'' but couldn't find a compelling protagonist. Then, a friend suggested that he use Ender from a novella he wrote once. Thus, ''Ender's Game'' was expanded into a full-fledged novel with a chapter added to transition into ''Speaker for the Dead'' in order to avoid starting ''Speaker'' with a lengthy introduction of the character.
* ''[[
* [[
* ''[[The Saga of the Noble Dead]]'' starts off looking like a very standard "vampire hunter" story that happens to have a [[High Fantasy]] setting rather than the more common modern one. From the end of the second book on, it becomes obvious that this is, in fact, a [[High Fantasy]] epic that happens to heavily involve vampires.
* ''[[
* [[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]] undergoes one, together with some major [[Character Development]] somewhere during the second book, and, most noticeably, between the second and third. It starts out as your typical fantasy story about a [[Kid
* [[Out of the Dark]] By [[David Weber]] is expanded from a short story he wrote. The genre shift doesn't take place near the end, resulting in a cry of [[Twist Ending]] or [[Deus Ex Machina]]. The original short story shifts about halfway thru, the issue is though the novel's expansion of the story is entirely before the events, resulting in 90% in the first genre of hard scifi alien invasion. The last 10% however involves {{spoiler|Dracula}}
* A story ''Distant Rainbow'' by Brothers Strugatski starts as a funny story about peculiar scientific experiments and shifts into a story about an apocalypse halfway through, as their experiement has [[Gone Horribly Wrong]].
* [[The Diary of a Young Girl
* [[Vladimir Vasilyev]]'s novel ''The Black Relay Race'', while not a direct sequel to his ''Death or Glory'' novel, takes place in the same 'verse. However, unlike ''DoG'', which involves a human colony discovering that there's more to humans than meets the eye, while alien races are hunting them, ''The Black Relay Race'' is a horror novel, taking place on a space yacht transporting strange cargo with the crew disappearing one-by-one. Then follow the novels ''The Legacy of Giants'' and ''No One but Us'', with an additional genre shift, although much more like the first novel than the second. These are pure war novels, inspired by [[David Brin]]'s ''[[Uplift|Startide Rising]]''.
* [[Dale Brown]] books: ''The Tin Man'' was the first one to be almost entirely focused on the dirtside perspective, unlike previous titles that were almost solely the flyboys' game. More infantry-centric content started creeping in after that.
* ''The Main Noon'' by Alexander Mirer's (that got a [//www.imdb.com/title/tt0353899/ movie adaptation]) is a mix of Soviet style spy drama with [[Amateur Sleuth]] teen adventures, if a bit more dark, about random people thwarting an [[Alien Invasion]]. The second book ''Home of the Wanderers'' is a Sci-Fi spy thriller of another kind, with focus on world-building, alien politics, deep cover infiltration, plus being a part of chess game by [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]s. It's good reading in its own way, but some fans of the first book commented that they didn't like the completely different tone in a sequel.
== Live Action TV ==
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*** When all's said and done, the show went from being being more subtle SF/F to full-blown science fiction in Season 3 when {{spoiler|Desmond started time-travelling}}, and cemented that change in Season 4 with an episode written with the specific purpose of smacking the viewers around the head with the message "LOST IS SCIENCE FICTION."
** And then season six ditches the science fiction in favor of becoming a fantasy show.
** The shift from science fiction to fantasy is definitely the most clear cut example of genre shift in the show. The dramatic shift from (occasionally bonkers) sci-fi to straight up [[A Wizard Did It]] fantasy left a sour taste in the mouth of many longtime fans, to the point that season 6 more than any other season has been fanonically disregarded by many. Lost never really shifted into sci-fi to the same jarring degree, it was really grounded in it from the beginning, albeit far more subtly and with a greater emphasis on mystery than anything else.
* ''[[
* ''[[Passions]]'' started out as a typical soap opera and quickly mutated into a supernatural weird-fest. Ditto for ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' and ''[[General Hospital]]'''s [[Spin
* The early episodes of ''[[
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' was pitched to Fox as a show somewhat along the lines of ''[[Diagnosis
* ''[[Star Trek
** ''
* For much of its long life, ''[[The Bill]]'' was a [[Police Procedural]], but when a new executive producer took over in 2002 it rapidly shifted into a [[Crime
* ''[[Baywatch Nights]].'' Goes from action to sci-fi in season two.
* ''[[Look Around You]]'' is one of the biggest users of this
* As lampshaded by the announcer, following the move from TechTV to G4, the video game review show ''[[X
** Really it can be argued that the ''opposite'' then happened. It used to be a sketch comedy/video game review show, but now it's ''just'' about the reviews (and even then, there's only about two an episode) and video game news (that are significantly less comical) as it's [[Network Decay|the only thing on G4 still about video games]], and ''[[X
* ''[[
* ''[[The Practice]]'' started as a gritty legal show focused on a firm that struggled to make the rent and convince clients to pay for traffic court. By the time the show was over, the firm was representing increasingly bizarre clients, getting cases related to [[Author Tract|current events]], winning impossible cases, and having endless episodes about the lawyers' personal lives. ''[[Boston Legal]]'' completed the transition and added comedic elements. The universe therefore shifted from legal procedural/drama, to a soap opera/drama, and then finally to a soap opera/dramedy. Watching an early episode of the first show and a late episode of the second show is highly jarring.
* Single episode example from ''[[
* Likewise, the ''[[Supernatural]]'' episodes "The Benders" and "Family Remains."
* ''[[
** All the way back in the 1960s, when the show first aired, it was meant to be an Edutainment show with a heavy focus on history and science. Now its a sci-fi fantasy horror dramedy where Agatha Christie fought off murderous alien wasps and Winston Churchill sent spitfires into space to fight alien crafts. So, yeah, the genre changed somewhere there.
** Series 6 turned into a [[Sci Fi]] [[Soap Opera]] at times.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* ''[[Jonas]]'''s first season was your average sitcom, featuring the Jonas Brothers in the title role of course. Its second season, ''Jonas L.A.'', has a stronger plot and is a borderline soap-opera, complete with [["Previously On..."]] and [["On the Next..."]] segments.
* The first season of ''[[Prison Break]]'' revolves around [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[
** ''Community'' is renowned for managing all sorts of single-episode genre shifts perfectly. It's been an action movie ("Modern Warfare"), a Rankin-Bass style Christmas Special ("Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"), a spaghetti Western ("For a Few Paintballs More"), a single-camera documentary show ("Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"), and even a zombie movie ("Epidemiology"). The reason it can pull all of this off is because while each episode is great example of the genre it's shifted to, it's also a great episode of ''Community'' at the same time.
* ''[[Stargate SG
* ''[[Smallville]]'' started out as a typical sci-fi teen drama that mainly consist of villain-of-the-week episodes that gradually became more like a superhero show as the series explored more of the Superman and DC Comics mythology
== Music ==
* Many rockers have found success by shifting to country after losing touch with the rock audience. Examples: [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], [[Conway Twitty]], [[Kenny Rogers]], and, to some extent, [[Elvis Presley]].
** Cerys Matthews' first solo album after leaving Catatonia was a country album, ''Cockahoop!''.
** There's also the aptly titled "Country Song" by [[Seether]] (though still much closer to rock overall).
* [[k.d. lang]] shifted genres from country to pop ballads beginning with ''Ingenue''. While she has done quite well as a balladeer, it's hard to say, given her vegetarianism and sexual orientation, whether she jumped out of country or was pushed.
* Apoptygma Berzerk was an EBM band that many considered on par with VNV Nation and Covenant, and in fact was one of the two bands (along with VNV) to initially be considered in the sub-genre of "Futurepop." Now they make indy-sounding electro-rock, similar to the Killers or Shiny Toy Guns.
* [[They Might Be Giants]]. Shifted from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAbZzdalZh4 catchy lyrical pop] to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Kgj6EiZtw kid-friendly tunes] and finally to the punky [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CccPPDe2JU "I'm Impressed"] in ''The Else''.
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* The Cult started out as a heavily-produced, effect-laden musical experience that inspired modern Goth rock for their first two albums. On their third album, Electric, however, they had finished recording the entire thing when they realized that they didn't really like the way it sounded, so they found a new producer with whom they re-recorded the entire album as a straight-up hard rocker that sounded quite a bit like AC/DC and other heavy rock bands of the time. The resulting schism in their fanbase makes them seem like they became an entirely new band.
* [[Miyavi]] has gone through several genre shifts, starting with a kind of [[Marilyn Manson]]-esque kind of rock, moving to acoustic pop and rock, then into a fusion of hip-hop and punk, and now has his own blend of rock the showcases his percussive guitar technique.
* Basic Element was a Eurodance group in [[The Nineties]], then shifted to Italo-Electroclash during the [[
* Happens occasionally in [[Hip Hop]]. If a rapper is also a decent singer, there's a very high chance (that increases as they get older) that they'll abandon rapping completely in favor of singing. This isn't necessarily a ''bad'' move; the quality is still high and they're likely to appeal to a wider audience (especially if their career was beginning to stale), but fans of their older material might feel left out in the cold. See: [[Queen Latifah]], [[Kid Rock]], [[Lauryn Hill]], Cee-Lo, Andre3000, etc.
** The Black Eyed Peas. 'Nuff said. Those of you who only knew of them post-''Elephunk'', listen to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqoKEyvdjv8 "BEP Empire"] and be utterly amazed.
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* Mod punk Paul Weller, after he broke up [[The Jam]] and turned to [[Motown]] soul with the Style Council. To a lot of The Jam fans, it was more like [[Genre Adultery]] at first.
* [[Taylor Swift]] switched from country to contemporary pop/rock.
* With her third (and possibly final) album, ''Love Ain't Here No More'', Angelina (Camarillo) mostly abandoned freestyle in favor of contemporary R&B dance-pop (complete with [[
* Charlie Simpson went from being a member of the clean-cut British boy band Busted to the lead singer of the post-hardcore band Fightstar to a folk rock solo artist.
* Darius Rucker had huge success in the 1990s with guitar-pop band [[Hootie and
* One of [[King Crimson]]'s defining traits, with their biggest shift occurring in the early 1980s when Robert Fripp abandoned the prog based sounds of the previous lineups in order to dabble with minimalistic New Wave and World Beat music.
* John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame had an interesting version of this where he released six albums of six different genres...all in six months.
* Marc van Linden went from epic trance to minimal tech-house, now he appears to be doing nu-skool Euro-house.
* Linkin Park. Not only did the band change genres, but changed their logo as well. The shift of genre has gotten to the point where fans describe nu metal Linkin Park as "old" whereas the alternative rock style from ''Minutes to Midnight'' and onwards is "new".
* [[David Bowie]] built an entire career on this trope, switching between psychedelic folk-rock, glam rock, Philly soul, and Krautrock within an entire decade alone. This resulted in a [[New Sound Album]] every time he stepped into a recording studio.
* Bill Callahan started out doing avant-garde lo-fi rock for his first few albums as Smog, switched to baroque pop for an album, then folk for a while, and has settled now on alt-country.
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* Exile started out as a pop-rock band, having a big hit with "Kiss You All Over" but absolutely nothing else. A few membership changes later, they successfully reinvented themselves as a country-rock band which scored ten #1 hits.
* Rozalla (Miller), best known for the Eurodance hit "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" back in 1993, now does easy listening soul jazz.
* [[The Doobie Brothers]], after original frontman Tom Johnston left the band due to severe illness, and replaced by the more soulful Michael
* [[Behemoth]] went from [[Black Metal]] to [[Death Metal|Blackened Death Metal]], and then [[Death Metal]].
* It may be hard to believe, given songs like "I Kissed a Girl" and revealing photo shoots, but [[Katy Perry]] started out as a contemporary Christian singer.
== Newspaper Comics ==
* Chester Gould's strange twist of ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' from crime drama (albeit with futuristic technology) to SCI-FI, one of the most obvious genre shifts of all time. This is so (in)famous, it could almost be the trope namer.
* During the Great Depression, a good number of comic strips shifted from domestic comedy to comedic adventure.
* [[Blondie (comic strip)|Blondie]] started out just before the Great Depression with the couple being fabulously rich. When the stock market collapsed, Dagwood lost his fortune overnight, shifting the strip from flapper comedy to everyday struggles.
== Tabletop RPG ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** Adventure S3 ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'' starts off as a standard "clean out the monster filled dungeon" scenario. After the [[PC
** The 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide had advice for sending a party of [[PC
* Lesser Shades Of Evil -- the book quite literally ''begins'' with a disclaimer telling would-be PCs not to read any further, which is setting them up to make blessed champions of the gods in a high fantasy setting, then face all of the following in ''the very first session'': that was all centuries ago, their powers are all genetic engineering and nanomachines, the intervening time has moved the setting [[After the End]]... and even the idyllic fintasy setting was after a separate, ''earlier'', end. Also, their main superpower is creating multiple bodies for themselves. After this exposition-heavy first session (which fast-forwards the PCs through their actions over these hundreds of years), one assumes the players are meant to go home and contemplate why any of that was kept secret if it were just going to be revealed as soon as they made their characters, anyway.
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** ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' goes from sweet and funny romantic comedy to an [[Anyone Can Die]] [[Tragedy]] with lightning speed.
** Witness ''[[Hamlet]]'' turning the standard bloodthirsty revenge plot into a more philosophical meditation on the human condition. Indeed, a lost play by the same title (c. 1589-1594), which if written by Shakespeare would have been one of his earliest works, was apparently a far more straightforward revenge tragedy (and according to one source, [[Old Shame|not a particularly good one either]]).
** ''[[The
== Toys ==
* ''[[Bionicle]]'' had two forms of this. The first is a gradual fantasy-to [[Sci Fi]] shift done by revealing the true origins [[Doing
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Max Payne (
** And then there's the elements of espionage/technothriller stuff that starts early on in Part 3, with Max battling heavily-armed mercenaries and infiltrating a military bunker in order to get to the bottom of Valkyr, along with a brief detour back to the usual crime-noir in Chapter 4, where {{spoiler|Max confronts B.B., the backstabbing bastard who actually murdered his partner and set him up to take the fall for it}}. Then after that, we go into espionage mode again, this time with what seems like some kind of [[Ancient Conspiracy]] {{spoiler|but which is actually, according to Max Payne 2, a very old criminal syndicate}} culminating in a final confrontation at the top of Aesir Plaza.
* ''[[Drakengard]]'' starts off as [[Heroic Fantasy]], but slowly and surely turns into a [[Hack and Slash]] version of [[Survival Horror]], the [[Horror Tropes|horror]] aspect being the emphasis here. When things start to really get weird, they [[Lampshade Hanging|hang a lampshade]] on it when one of the mission descriptions is "Time and space fall apart, and the fantasy begins."
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** And the {{spoiler|cannibal mutants}} in ''[[Uncharted]]: Drake's Fortune''.
*** Seems to be toyed with in ''Uncharted 2'' when {{spoiler|you bump into what seems like a yeti-type monster while in the mountains. However, later on it turns out to be a bunch of apparently bullet resistant natives in suits. Which you then discover are actually mythical ape-like Guardians of Shangri-la, so everything is okay again.}}
* ''[[Half Life]]'' started as a deconstruction of [[I Just Want to Be Badass]], and is currently one of its most shining examples.
* The ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' [[Game Mod]] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150118134545/http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/day-hard-complete-half-life-2/ Day-Hard]'', usually a straightforward parody FPS, has a part where you need to enter a [[Hell Hotel]] sans weapons for a [[Fetch Quest]]. What follows is ''[[Silent Hill]]''-esque [[Surreal Horror]]. It doesn't last too long, but it's very out-of-place nonetheless.▼
* In ''[[Medal of Honor]]: Airborne'', after 5 missions of largely realistic gameplay based on actual historic [[World War II]] campaigns, the final mission throws bulletproof, heavy-machinegun-wielding Nazi [[Super Soldier
** Those "doom fortresses" are actually real. 8 were built, they were ridiculously sized, and they had more refuge in intimidation than use. I mean, come on, they're towers built to repel air attacks that are also made of concrete. Still true to this trope, however, the Allies never actually attempted an attack on one of them.
* ''[[Oddworld]]: Stranger's Wrath'' starts out as the Oddworld equivalent of a western. Mysterious [[Bounty Hunter]]? Check. Gun toting outlaws? Check. Hick Towns populated by chicken men? ...Um, Check. But then in the final third of the game, {{spoiler|after stumbling into an ambush set up by the [[Big Bad]], and getting hit with a [[Tomato Surprise]],}} the game shifts to a more traditional Oddworld setting as you help the native Grubbs overcome the [[Big Bad]]. This change completely overhauls the game. Stranger's costume changes, the concept of Moolah (and therefore the concept of enemy bounties) is removed (enemies are turned into ammo instead. Don't ask), the soundtrack changes from spaghetti western music to epic orchestrated pieces, the enemies change from gruff outlaws to military Mooks, new gameplay mechanics are added, and the scenery colors shift from browns and reds to blues and greys.
* The ''[[Chzo Mythos]]'' goes from fairly conventional (but good) horror, to [[Recycled in Space|SPACE horror]], to [[Cosmic Horror]].
* Similarily, ''[[
* In terms of in-game Genre Shift, ''[[Spore]]'' goes from the hunt/gather adventure-game-esque "Cell" and "Creature" stages, to real-time strategy for "Tribal" and "Civilization," to a [[Wide Open Sandbox]] for "Space."
* ''[[Okami]]'' gets a bit of a shift towards the end, from a feudal Japan mythical fantasy to a feudal Japan {{spoiler|Sci-Fi}} fantasy.
** To Elaborate: {{spoiler|Near the end, you see Kaguya, a woman born from a Bamboo shoot in the myth, have a ''rocket that looks like a bamboo shoot'', and in the last part of the game, the eponymous Ark of Yamato turns out to be a ''fucking spaceship'', also implying that these monsters you've been facing... They're aliens...}}
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series wavers back and forth on how fantastical its court drama is. In the first game spirit channeling is simply a way to talk to [[Spirit Advisor|Mia Fey]] after her murder. The magatama shows up in the second game, upping the fantasy factor, and by the third game the entire final case revolves around the angry spirit of {{spoiler|Dahlia Hawthorne}} and her attempt to murder {{spoiler|Maya Fey.}} However, ''Apollo Justice'' trades the spiritual for a scientific (if slightly implausible) explanation for the Perceive ability and in ''Investigations'' the closest we get to unrealism is the holodeck-esque [[Schizo
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' shifts from a linear world to an openended one - the game begins in the World of Light, a bright, happy world with a linear plot and virtually no subquests. The second part of the game, the [[Apocalypse How|World of Ruin]], is a dark, dreary place and is entirely open for exploration, the player free to recruit allies and do subquests in any order before heading to the final dungeon.
** The [[Final Fantasy]] series has toyed with adding in modern and even [[Sci Fi]] elements from time to time, starting with an entire race of moon people and a giant robot in [[Final Fantasy IV]] (or even earlier than that, with [[Bonus Boss|Warmech]] from the very first game.) and hitting full force by [[Final Fantasy VII]], which went from straight up fantasy with the occasional [[Sci Fi]] element to [[Urban Fantasy]].
** [[Final Fantasy IV:
* The game system in the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series remains mostly unaltered, but the story and style subtly shift between games.
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' is gritty modern military (unless playing ''The Twin Snakes'').
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' is postmodern magic realist.
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' is ''shamelessly'' martini-flavored [[Spy Fiction]].
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' is ''relatively'' gritty military science fiction.
** Also the final boss battles: {{spoiler|1=MGS1 ends with a fist fight and chase sequence. MGS2 ends with a sword duel. MGS4 ends with hand-to-hand brawl. MGS3 avoids this, as stealth is a very effective tactic when fighting The Boss.}}
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid Rising]]'' finally dropped the stealth and jumped headfirst into [[Hack and Slash]] [[Action Game]].
* KOEI's ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' was a 1997 PS1 [[Fighting Game]] using characters from the ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' storyline; starting with ''2'' for the PS2 it morphed into a [[Hack and Slash]] that over time became possibly more popular than the turn-based strategy game (one of [[Koei]]'s flagship series), and in turn spawned its own Genre Shift, the ''Empires'' standalone games (for ''Dynasty Warriors 4'' through ''6'', plus ''[[Samurai Warriors]] 2: Empires'') that uses [[Turn
** ''Dynasty Warriors 4'' had a so-called Duel mode (certain officers could issue challenges which if accepted would turn into 45-second duels inside an enclosed square that however used the same controls and camera as normal gameplay), while ''[[Warriors Orochi]] 2'' has a versus mode that harkens back to the original ''Dynasty Warriors'' game in being viewed sideways.
* The original ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** The first arc of the sequel series, ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
*** There has also been a running joke in the fandom that, given the focus Umineko places into the various relationships between the characters (George and Shannon, Jessica and Kanon, and ESPECIALLY [[Mind Game Ship|Beatrice and Battler)]], the series' true genre is in fact romance. {{spoiler|Which might actually be true, if Ep6 is to be believed.}}
* The first ''Dune'' game was an [[Adventure Game]]. ''[[Dune II]]'' established the [[Real Time Strategy]] genre.
** The first game did have some strategy elements. In fact, you had to set up consistent spice production using the Fremen tribes you find and befriend (which takes some doing), while training other Fremen tribes to fight and arming them in order to defeat the Harkonnen. The game is clearly based more on David Lynch's film than the book, even though Duncan Idaho looks like a [[Babylon
* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' is a first-person shooter through and through. But while it starts off as a spy thriller similar to ''[[
* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' began as an atmospheric horror series, the fifth numerical installment, which took place largely in broad daylight, substituted fast, intelligent opponents for the slow, plodding (but frightening) zombies of the original trilogy and supplied the player with ample ammunition and explosives to deal with them. The fourth game has similar gameplay to the fifth, but still had a horror tone to it.
* ''[[Magical Starsign]]'' does this, in much the same way ''[[
* The game ''[[
** Though to be fair, the game is pretty dark at the start when you look into their mental vaults, or after you complete the game.
*** Suffice to say the game is fairly darkly humorous throughout, but the darkness is a little more insidious during the first portion of the game, when it's bright and sunny outside and the game isn't rubbing it in your face that you're dealing with a bunch of crazy people (you are, in fact, dealing with a bunch of crazy people. But it's not as obvious as later).
* The original ''[[Star Control]]'' is an action/strategy sci-fi game with very little plot. The sequel is a plot-heavy action/adventure game, and [[Growing the Beard|much better]] for it. The creators have [[Word of God|said]] that this was quite deliberate; they weren't too excited by the idea of a sequel that was just more of the same.
** The third game tried to mix it with RTS vaguely resembling ''[[Alien Legacy]]'' or ''Reunion'' - and, ironically, the adventure part was "more of the same". Oh, and melee was arcade-ified with fake 3D sprites... This didn't go well.
* The first three ''[[
** The shift from RTS to RPG started in ''Warcraft III''. Although it is definitely an RTS, you can recruit heroes that level up, learn new abilities, and carry items and equipment. The maps also contained many mooks that could be slain to level up heroes and earn treasure. The Frozen Throne pushed the concept further up to the point where the Orc campaign was a proof-of-concept prototype of [[World of Warcraft]]: The campaign follows a single hero who traveling along Kalimdor, meeting quest givers and completing quests in instances.
* ''[[Thunder Force]]'' is an arena shooter. ''Thunder Force II'' is part arena, part sidescroller. Every TF game past ''II'' is a sidescroller.
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* ''[[Eversion]]'' does this intentionally, as the game is based on [[Playing the Player|having things not exactly as they appear]]...
* The cute and sweet dating sim series [[Angelique]] did this a few times for spin-off titles, but the best example is the RPG "Tenkuu no Requiem" which flirts with getting [[Darker and Edgier]] by bringing in a group of villians who aren't afraid to [[Kick the Dog|kick some dogs]]. (Quite literally in the accompanying [[Radio Drama]].) This was a temporary shift though as following games returned to the series main genre.
* Each game in the ''[[Bit
** ''BEAT'' is a paddle game similar to ''[[Pong]]''.
** ''CORE'' is a double-axis shooter.
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** ''FLUX'' returns to ''BEAT'''s gameplay design, while applying some gameplay mechanics and concepts from the other games.
* ''[[Police Quest]]: SWAT'' started as a first-person [[Interactive Movie]], then changed to isometric overhead RTS, then to a ''[[Rainbow Six]]''-style [[Tactical Shooter]].
** Going back further, [[Police Quest]] 1-4 were all [[Sierra]] adventure games. The first game was a straightforward [[Police Procedural]]. The second game was mostly a police procedural with more of a ''[[
* ''Iji'' has a decidedly Survival/Horror twinge to it, especially in the very first level, but that is very quickly dispelled, and it very rapidly progresses into an epic Sci-Fi battle to secure the safety of the planet, with increasing levels of epic warfare depending on how you progress.
* ''[[Boiling Point: Road to Hell]]'' most of the game is set in a Troperiffic [[Wide Open Sandbox]] [[Banana Republic]]. You deal with the drug lords, the rebels, the army and the CIA. The final act: Stop the [[Big Bad]] in his volcano lair from using his giant mind control device.
* The ''[[Don Pachi|(Do)DonPachi]]'' features this not exactly in its gameplay,<ref>the later games play differently from earlier games, but in ways [[Public Medium Ignorance|nobody cares about]]</ref>
* The [[Ultima I|very first ''Ultima'' game]] begins as a more-or-less typical fantasy RPG and then gets to the point where you have to use a time machine and go into outer space to defeat twenty spaceships to gain the title of "Space Ace." All this in 1980, mind you.
* ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' switched from a plan-based multi-team [[Tactical Shooter]] to a more straightforward single-team semi-tactical shooter starting with the console versions of ''3''.
* The first two installments of ''[[Need for Speed]]'' had fairly realistically-handling cars, then it shifted to arcade-style handling starting with ''Hot Pursuit'', then to [[Wide Open Sandbox]] racing from ''Underground to Undercover''. Only with ''Shift'' did it return to its simulation roots.
* ''[[
▲* The ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' [[Game Mod]] ''[http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/day-hard-complete-half-life-2/ Day-Hard]'', usually a straightforward parody FPS, has a part where you need to enter a [[Hell Hotel]] sans weapons for a [[Fetch Quest]]. What follows is ''[[Silent Hill]]''-esque [[Surreal Horror]]. It doesn't last too long, but it's very out-of-place nonetheless.
* The original ''[[Ikari Warriors]]'' was a ''[[Rambo]]''-inspired run 'n gun shoot-'em-up essentially developed to be SNK's answer to Capcom's ''Commando''. The sequel, ''Victory Road'', retained the same game system from the first game, but was now set in outer space and featured alien enemies and high-tech power-ups. The third and final game in the series, ''Ikari III: The Rescue'', returned to the military theme of the first game, but was now an overhead beat-'em-up instead of a shoot-'em-up.
* There was a minor trend among game developers to turn established belt-scrolling franchises into competitive [[Fighting Game|fighting games]] as a result of the "fighting game boom" of the 90s.
** All three versions of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters]]'' by Konami, which were all preceded by various ''Turtles'' beat-'em-ups such as the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game|original arcade game]] and ''[[Turtles in Time]]'', as well as the console-exclusive ''Manhattan Project'' and ''Hyperstone Heist'' (although to be fair, the first NES game and all three Game Boy games were platformers).
** ''Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls'', a Tradewest-developed game based on the ''[[Double Dragon]]'' animated series, and the Technos-developed Neo-Geo game simply titled ''[[Recycled Title|Double Dragon]]'', which was based on the movie.
** ''Golden Axe: The Duel'', the third ''[[Golden Axe]]'' arcade game (later ported to the [[Sega Saturn]]).
** ''Final Fight: Revenge'' for the arcade and Saturn, which is ironic since the original ''[[Final Fight]]'' began development as a beat-'em-up spin-off of ''[[Street Fighter (
* The original ''[[
* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' started out as a tribute to martial arts cinema. Apart from the [[Multi
* The original ''Mario vs. Donkey Kong'' for the [[Game Boy Advance]] was a puzzle platformer modeled after ''[[Donkey Kong 94]]'', but the sequels from ''Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2'' and onward were ''[[Lemmings]]''-style puzzle game that utilize the touch screen and stylus.
* [[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'s story is an extreme example of this; the story starts out as an occult murder mystery, but, somehow, it suddenly turns into a philosophical sci-fi action flick a la [[The Matrix]] near the end.
* ''Persona4'' is an extensive RPG with dating sim elements and [[Mons]] based on demons. The sequel ''The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena'' is a fighting game by [[Arc System Works]]
** This has happened a lot with the [[
* ''[[
* ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' starts out as a turn-based RPG that seems typical Mario, with the heroic plumber fighting bad guys by jumping, stomping, and hammering, as he tries to rescue Peach (as usual) and find a lost treasure. And then it goes into [[Cosmic Horror]] territory we discover the "treasure" is an ancient demon who seeks to shroud the world into eternal darkness, Peach being the intended sacrifice to fuel said demon's return, a plot turn that brings the story squarely into [[Cosmic Horror]].
* The original ''[[Might and Magic]]'' did this with almost every game. Each game always started out in what appears to be a standard fantasy RPG setting, but then shifts to [[Science Fantasy]], with the heroes and the player discovering [[Ray Gun]]s, robots, and similar things that don't belong, until finally discovering that their world is a [[Lost Colony]] created by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]].
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
* Ditto ''[[Unicorn Jelly]]'', which goes from a quirky almost-but-not-quite Fantasy series (the main character is a witch with apparently no magic) to science fiction spanning hundreds of thousands of years and multiple universes. A Powers Of 10 map on the site really hits it home, going from the main character's home out out into the multiverse.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Penny and Aggie]]'' began as a relatively light-hearted, family-friendly [[Betty and Veronica]] comic with brief story arcs and a long stretch of unconnected gag-a-day strips. [[Word of God]] says this was because the creators tried to pitch it as a syndicated [[Newspaper Comics|newspaper comic]]. When the syndicates failed to show interest, the creators took advantage of the Webcomic medium's greater flexibility by increasing the drama-to-comedy ratio and by introducing more experimental storytelling techniques ("Second Looks," "20 2020 Pennies"), [[Hotter and Sexier|mature themes]] ("Behind Closed Doors," "Awakening"), and arcs running several months ("Dinner for Six," "The Popsicle War," and "Missing Person," the first chapter of which was a [[Police Procedural]], and the final chapter a [[Psychological Thriller]]).
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', while quite often is still the [[Science Fiction]]/[[Fantasy]]/[[Slice of Life]] comedy it started out as, has made increasing use of darker, more dramatic storylines as it's continued.
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* ''FOG Club'' began life as a romcom about four college anime fans, before - with little to no explanation - having the cast sucked through a portal into an alternate dimension based on Trigun, where they fought an evil scientist called Falco Amadeus and an android duplicate of the main character.
* ''[[Achewood]]'' shifts back and forth between domestic, observational strips that find humor in the mundane, and surreal fantasy arcs involving Mexican [[Magical Realism]], three-hundred-man outdoor brawls, and Heaven burning down.
* Numerous webcomics have experienced [[Cerebus Syndrome]], which is somewhat similar to, but not the same as,
** ''[[Megatokyo]]'' is a good example of this. It began as a simple, four panel webcomic about two friends trapped in Japan, the focus being more on the two men playing off each other verbally and [[Two Gamers
* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' started out about a post-college Indie rocker, his friends, and his weird little [[Robot Buddy]]. Then Faye got her tragic backstory, Pintsize got increasingly destructive and psychotic, Raven got kinda skanky, etc, until you can barely recognize the characters from the early strips.
* ''[[
* Within [http://xkcd.com/734/ this] [[xkcd]] strip
* [[Bob and George]] was originally intended to be a superhero comedy webcomic about the titular brothers. It changed into a sprite comic after the author realized he couldn't draw.
* [[Kid Radd]] started out as a general parody of video games. Then Cerberus syndrome sets in.
* ''[[Homestuck]]'' started out as a simple [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'', but in time became a riff on epic stories and creation mythos, which made the series much more popular. Later, When [[Ensemble Darkhorse|the trolls]] [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|were introduced]], the entire comic shifted to have [[Romantic Comedy]] elements and took a turn for the darker.
* Since-ended [[Keenspot]] comic ''Cool Cat Studio'' started out as a mundane office comedy without any hint of unusual goings-on. And then one of the characters got [[Abducted By Aliens]]. The sudden genre and tonal shift caused many readers to cry foul.
* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'' had some shifts, mostly via unannounced crossovers. The first instance is [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=15 here]. Eventually, they began to [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=121 see this coming]. And then, spot [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=193 movie crossovers]... Eventually they even made [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1085 a treaty] that bans [[Doing in the Wizard]].
* ''[[Rusty and Co.]]'' has the Belt of Genre Shifting. So when [[Captain Color Beard|Plaidbeard]] used it, he became a (plaided) [[King Kong]] replica, holding Madeline (as [[Damsel in Distress]]) and trying to swat Mimic (as a biplane). When Madeline touched it, everything turned into anime crossover starring her as [[Sailor Moon]], and when the bug got to it…
{{quote|'''Rusty''': [[Kaiju|Eat Tokyo]]?}}
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' veers all over the genre map as it progresses. Beginning as a mildly surreal, Halo-themed take on ''[[
** As of it's later seasons, it is firmly entrenched in serious business, albeit with some gags.
* While many of the chapter reviews on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150428022333/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/ Mark Reads Twilight weblog] follow the traditional "quote the source text, [[Snark Bait|mock it ruthlessly]], add some funny [[Angrish]]" formula that's far too common in most [[MST]] blogs, reviewer [[Mark Reads Harry Potter|Mark Oshiro]] often goes out of his way to mix up the structure of his posts.
** To list them all would take way too long, but just a handful of his best genre shifts include: Bella and Edward [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|writing letters to Stephenie Meyer]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140808012054/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4437901/ questioning their own character development;] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140121234559/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4442971/mark-reads-twilight-chapter-9/ Mark's own autopsy report] after the chapter's stupidity [[Driven to Suicide|drove him to "suicide";]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140808030752/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4489601/ legendary announcer Vin Scully giving a play-by-play of the infamous "Vampire Baseball" scene]; [https://web.archive.org/web/20140121233237/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4523531/mark-reads-twilight-chapter-24/ Charlie and Jacob staging an intervention to stop Bella from submitting to "Cullenism";] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20140121205511/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4608661/mark-reads-new-moon-chapter/ Bella Tweeting away while she stalks Jacob Black.]
** He also likes to change his targets, for example, mocking the hate mail he gets from ''Twilight'' fans, liveblogging the ''Twilight'' movie with his readers, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120512081315/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/4839521/mark-reads-story-behind-writing/ (attempting to) read the "Making of New Moon" page on Meyer's website], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20131220094633/http://markreadstwilight.buzznet.com/user/journal/5259711/mark-reads-eclipse-chapter-10/ calling out a relationship counsellor who uses Edward Cullen to give boys advice on romance.]
** Although he far preferred [[Harry Potter]] and [[The Hunger Games]] which he also reviewed at [[Mark Reads Harry Potter]], he also mixed those ones up. He'd write the reviews as a script of the book, with characters commenting on plot developments, liveblog entries from various characters, and Hedwig-the-spy writing entries on her mission to guard the boy who lived.
* "[[Ruby Quest
* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] talks about how ''[[Dragonheart]]'' went from [[A Boy and His X]] to Buddy Comedy halfway through.
** Similarly, [[The Nostalgia Chick]] herself went through a major genre shift. Going from the linear nature of the Critic to doing analytical reviews with her friends doing sketches related to the movie.
* Used to creative effect in this short film by Mathieu Ratthe "Lovefield" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro]. In the middle of a secluded cornfield a man appears to be finishing killing a bloodied woman off screen. Hurrying back to his truck, he grabs a towel and the audience presumes he's trying to cover up the body and perhaps dispose it in some way. During this time, suspenseful music plays to heighten the horror. Then just at the end the man says "It's a boy", and a newborn baby appears in view. The woman who sounded like she was dying was in fact in the midst of conceiving and the blood was just the afterbirth. The ending is accompanied by heartwarming music.
* The [[Memetic Mutation|infamous]] "my robe and wizard hat" joke.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49R5W0n9ZPA&t=1s This short video]] shows ''[[Rick and Morty]]'' as an anime. Further lampshaded at the end where the "real" protagonists are shown watching and critiquing it.
== Western Animation ==
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* The entire first season of [[Venture Brothers]] is pretty much just slapstick comedy in a parody setting; season 2 downplays the raw slapstick and up-plays the parody/[[Satire/Deconstruction|Deconstruction]] elements of the show, culminating in a funny but fairly serious season finale. Seasons 3 & 4 still feature a lot of humor, and it's definitely still a comedy show, but there's been a significant shift from it being a parody of sci-fi/action/everything to now being a genuine example of those genres.
* ''[[The Lion King]]'' has a particularly famous example of this trope. The first third or so focuses mainly on Simba's lighthearted escapades around his father's domain, with a tone and style typical of pretty much any Disney-made comedy. [[Mood Whiplash|Then Scar kills Mufasa and makes Simba think it was his own fault]]. The rest of the film becomes a practical drama that deals with Simba's guilt and his need to fulfill his destiny by kicking Scar off the throne of Pride Rock. [[Hakuna Matata|Lighthearted elements are still present, of course]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Dreamworks Animation]]'': Originally, Dreamworks focused on sweeping epics, and more serious stories such as ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]''. These unfortunately fell under the umbrella of ''[[All Animation Is Disney]]''. Now, barring some of their [[Kung Fu Panda|recent]] [[How to Train Your Dragon|efforts]], it can be hard to remember when their films didn't include pop-culture references and celebrities.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' was an Asian-influenced [[High Fantasy]] that featured its heroes [[Wandering the Earth]] to stop an [[Evil Overlord]]. The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[
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[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:Genres]]
[[Category:Genre Shift]]
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