Genre Shift: Difference between revisions

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]].

 

 

 

 

Even worse is if a genre shift is used as [[Deus Ex Machina|the solution to a plot point]], which just feels tacky.

** 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]].

* ''[[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.

* 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 with the Devil]] and becomes [[Dark Messiah]] Femto, and the demons start coming ''en masse'' to rip apart the members of the Band of the Hawks who Griffith has marked out for sacrifice}}. Since both Guts and Casca are marked with the Godhand's [[Magnetic Plot Device|Brand of Sacrifice]] as a result of Griffith's betrayal, both of them have to deal with the monsters from that point forward, and they soon become Guts' primary enemies.

* 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.

* Oh God, ''[[Narutaru]]''. It initially shows signs of being a lighthearted, female version of [[A Boy and His X]]... only to suddenly change into a dark, depressing series with lots of horrible things.

* ''[[D.Gray-man]]'' has evolved somewhat from being a [[Horror]] Gothic [[Shonen]] series to more of a... normal [[Shonen]] series. Oddly enough, if the [[D.Gray-man/Nightmare Fuel|Nightmare Fuel page]] is to be believed, the switch from horror-style [[Monster of the Week]] plots to a more complicated storyline has actually made it a lot ''more'' scary.

* 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]]. [[J. K. Rowling]] planned from the start that the series would become [[Darker and Edgier]] as Harry (and his readers) grew up.

* 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.

*** 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.

* 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]]s at you, and takes place in, as [[Zero Punctuation|Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]] put it, "a giant concrete tower that can only be described as a '''Doom Fortress'''."

** 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]].

* 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.

** This has happened a lot with the [[Shin Megami Tensei]] series. The main series tends towards dark, post-apocalyptic stories, the first two games and [[Strange Journey]] having heavy sci-fi elements (you use some kind of technological device to summon your demons,) while [[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne|Nocturne]] does away with all the sci-fi elements. Meanwhile, the ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' series ditches the post-apocalyptic elements and introduces high-school life and Jungian psychology into the mix, with the demons becoming aspects of a person's psyche, and the enemy demons doing the same, turning into Shadows starting with [[Persona 2]]. By [[Persona 3]], [[Slice of Life]] and [[Dating Sim]] elements are introduced, while [[Persona 4]] turns into a more [[Lighter and Softer|light-hearted]] [[Scooby Doo]]-style murder mystery with MegaTen trappings. Meanwhile ''again'', the [[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army|Raidou]] [[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon|Kuzunoha]] games are [[Alternate History]] with more action elements and also more light-hearted, while [[Devil Survivor]] acts very much like a [[Deconstruction]] of the [[Mons]] genre in general. And that's only counting a ''few'' of the games in the franchise.

* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' starts off like most typical ''Mario'' games, where the title plumber had to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser (in this game, Bowser kidnaps Peach and carries her off into space), but about halfway through the game, the plot unexpectly shift to a sad story about the loss of a different princess' family, but then cuts back to Mario still trying to save Peach from Bowser.

 

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