Genre Shift: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''(a montage of people driving in cars)''<br />

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

 

 

Not to be confused with [[Art Shift]] or [[Genre Turning Point]]. Compare with [[Tone Shift]] and [[Cerebus Syndrome]].

* ''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|Mons]] to normal Mons when an [[Alternate Universe]] setting made it impossible to Cross Fusion but forced Navis to be summoned into material space instead.

* 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 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.

* ''[[Chobits (Manga)|Chobits]]'' is a comedy series with a touch of sci-fi for the first two-thirds or so. Then it becomes serious sci-fi with a touch of comedy for the remainder of the series.

** As mentioned above [[CLAMP]] enjoys doing this with their series.

* ''[[Medaka Box]]'' underwent a [[Genre Shift]] not unlike that of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', except far more sudden. It was a quirky series talking about the adventures of a [[God Mode Sue]] and her harem, with just a bit of fighting here and there, for about 14 chapters. Then (probably as was planned from the beginning, considering swiftness of the change), [[Knight of Cerebus|the first character with superpowers to match said Sue appeared]], and heralded a very swift change into a bloody, [[Darker and Edgier]] fighting series, with swiftly escalating power levels.

** 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.

** ''[[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.

* ''[[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]].}}

* ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' is a slightly odd example since, in hindsight, the static setting seems an obvious way to do more [[Story Arc|arc-based]] storylines and use lots of recurring characters but, in the beginning, it was just normal [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]] with a gimmick -- the only important difference was that the [[Once an Episode|alien of the week]] from the [[Planet of Hats]] came to ''them'' instead of the other way 'round thanks to the wormhole discovered in the first episode. The first season is almost indistinguishable from other Treks, and only when the characters are established do the writers start doing different things.

** ''[[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 (Franchise)|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.

* ''[[Baywatch Nights]].'' Goes from action to sci-fi in season two.

* ''[[Look Around You]]'' is one of the biggest users of this trope -- the first and second seasons are, to all intents and purposes, different shows. The first series is a series of 10 minute spoofs of educational videos from the 1970s, while the second is a 30 minute studio-comedy parody of shows such as ''[[Tomorrows World]]''. Apart from a couple of shared [[Running Gag|Running Gags]] and a brief mention of shared minor characters, the two series are connected only by having the same writers.

* Single episode example from ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]''; "Countrycide" {{spoiler|contained no elements of the supernatural or aliens.}}

* 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.

* The first season of ''[[Prison Break]]'' revolves around [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|an honest-to-god prison break]] with a cast composed almost entirely of stock characters ripped from classic prison movies, and the second season continues it with the escaped inmates on the run from the FBI. By the end of the second season, the escapees have all successfully evaded the law {{spoiler|(the few that survived, at least...)}} but the writers manage to justify the title by having the main characters all [[Ass Pull|rounded up for random reasons]] and [[It Got Worse|sent to a new, even worse prison in Panama]]. Then the final season rolls around, and the whole series morphs into some weird cross between ''[[MacGyver]]'' and ''[[The Bourne Series]]'' about the main cast trying to take down some [[The Syndicate|evil shadow corporation]] using zany schemes whipped together with loot from the Dollar Store.

* ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' most episode are comedic joke a minute following the study group and their antics on the Greendale campus. However there are some switchups. "[[Community (TV)/Recap/S2 E10 Mixology Certification|Mixology Certification]]" keeps this up for the first five minutes, but as soon as things switch to the bar, things become more somber. The end of the episode isn't comedic, but poignant. Consuming alcohol doesn't make the characters do anything funny, but makes things ''sad'' (it's the [[Lifetime Movie of the Week|"Lifetime original movie of beverages"]] as Troy puts it).

* ''[[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...}}

* ''[[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]].

** ''[[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 On a Couch|talking about video games]]. As time went on, [[Continuity Drift|the comic drifted away from this]], and began to focus more on the relationships Piro and Largo were creating in Japan, and [[Deconstruction|picking apart aspects of popular Japanese culture]].

* ''[[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.

[[Category:Genres]]

[[Category:Genre Shift]]