Genre Shift: Difference between revisions

* 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 It's Not for Kids?|and parents]]) at its increasingly dark tone as the show went on. To be specific, it starts as a [[Monster of the Week]] [[Real Robot Genre|giant robot series]] and ends up as an extended philosophical and psychological treatise. It's so much of a genre shift that even the plot itself essentially fades away at the end, to the point where after the last two episodes, you're asking yourself "What the hell did I just watch?" It doesn't help that after so many years, [[Gainax Ending|people still can't tell you what was up with the last two episodes.]]

* ''[[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 Genre Shift [[Gecko Ending|in the last few episodes]].

* The Buu saga of [[Dragon Ball]] is an example, as it starts about a boy dealing with high school and a double identity as a super hero, and soon moves to a battle against a powerful monster that could destroy the Earth.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[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]].

* [[Michael Chabon]]'s ''[[Summerland]]'' starts out as a [[Coming of Age Story]] with some [[Magic Realism]], about a boy lives in a quirky island town and plays for his local baseball team. Then the [[Our Fairies Are Different|baseball-playing fairies]] show up and the [[Save the World]] plot begins, and the book becomes full-on [[High Fantasy]].

* 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]].

** 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 early episodes of ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' were in the style of a realistic video blog. Over time, it turned into a sort of soap opera/drama/thriller hybrid with evil cults, conspiracies, guns and laser beams. For an example of just how different the show has become, compare classic episode "Proving Science Wrong!"[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEBobE9XZs\] to one of the early season 2 episodes, "Home Invasion."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnVvMzQpGUo\]

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' was pitched to Fox as a show somewhat along the lines of ''[[Diagnosis: Murder]]'', where the doctors use their medical skills to solve crimes. It quickly moved away from this and became a drama centered on the fact that "everybody lies," from the patients to [[Jerkass|House]] himself.

** ''[[DS 9]]'' was always somewhat [[Darker and Edgier]] and handled more [[War Is Hell|mature]] [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized|subjects]] than earlier [[Star Trek]] shows, but with the introduction of [[The Empire|the Dominion]] [[Cerebus Syndrome|about halfway through the series]] it became a full-on war story.

* 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-Time Soap]], alienating many long-term fans.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** Adventure S3 ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'' starts off as a standard "clean out the monster filled dungeon" scenario. After the [[PC]]s enter, they discover that the dungeon is actually part of a derelict spacecraft and they're fighting alien monsters armed with high tech weapons.

** The 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide had advice for sending a party of [[PC]]s (whose players were playing a fantasy RPG) to [[The Wild West]], an [[After the End]] setting or adventuring on a derelict starship. Each possibility used one of TSR's other games as the basis for the new setting (''Boot Hill'', ''[[Gamma World]]' and ''Metamorphosis Alpha'', respectively.

 

== Toys ==

 

 

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' is a first-person shooter through and through. But while it starts off as a spy thriller similar to ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|GoldenEye]]'' (to which ''Perfect Dark'' is a [[Spiritual Successor]]), the story becomes increasingly sci-fi to where the final level takes place on an alien planet that's at war with another race.

* ''[[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.

* The game ''[[Psychonauts]]''. During the first parts of the game, the game is very quirky, and quite a few jokes are made, and the focus is mostly on an escape from home, but then, it develops into a fight against a conspiracy involving stealing brains of fellow Psychonauts, from that point on, the game's humour becomes a little darker, the minds more and more creepy, and it shifts towards a psychological thriller - with the final level being a rather infamous example of [[Nightmare Fuel]] (And [[Scrappy Level]]).

** 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.

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'''s [[Cerebus Syndrome|change from comedy to dramedy]] was apparently planned from the very beginning.

* 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.

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' started out as a lightweight and slightly surreal urban [[Sitcom]], but gradually began adding elements of [[Science Fiction]] and/or [[Fantasy]] with the introduction of characters who might be gods, immortals or aliens, the concept of humans possessing (or being possessed by) inner demons, and a 12,000 year old mystery. In spite of all this, the sitcom elements are still present, and often just as strong as ever.

* ''[[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]]).