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Lighter and Softer: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' does this for all of history.
** The anime took it even further.
** In-universe, the character of Russia has gone from a [[Stepford Smiler]] [[Yandere (disambiguation)]] to a pretty harmless [[Adult Child]] over the course of the series.
* Most anime adaptations of [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s manga get this, as most of the great man's work, while having a generally cartoony look & feel with an uplifting message, still involved copious amounts of death and destruction (''Lost World'', one of his earliest forays into the world of boys' adventure stories was infamous at the time for having the highest body count of any manga up to that point, with only three members of the cast surviving to the end of the book). In more recent years this has started to swing the other way, though (the ''[[Metropolis]]'' animé is far more bloody than the original, and the 2003 ''[[Astro Boy (anime)|Astro Boy]]'' series' version of Dr. Tenma takes the [[Evilutionary Biologist]] gimmick that was only briefly touched upon in the manga and turns it up to 11).
** In light of this, it is interesting to consider ''[[Astro Boy Omega Factor]]'' for the GBA. The first half of the game shows the world growing steadily [[Darker and Edgier]]; the second half is Astro ''making'' things lighter and softer.
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** Meanwhile, ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia|Fate Hollow Ataraxia]]'' acknowledges that all the [[Fate/stay night]] stuff happened. It just doesn't dwell on it.
** And now we have ''[[Carnival Phantasm]]'', which is a straight-up [[Gag Series]].
* As both series are intended to be comedies to the core, it would be inaccurate to claim that either version of ''[[Ranma ½|[[Ranma
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid]]'', which is in sharp contrast with the [[Darker and Edgier]] ''[[Nanoha Force]]'', the other Season 4 manga of ''Nanoha''. To start with, there are no villains after two volumes, with the closest one being Einhart Stratos, who quickly became a more friendly rival after her first appearance ended with her getting [[Defeat Means Friendship|befriended]]. No looming threat to [[The Multiverse]], no undercurrents of a [[Government Conspiracy]], just Vivio having fun with her friends, joining a magical combat sports tournament, and maybe rekindling a [[Reincarnation Romance]] [[Girls Love|with Einhart]].
* The first manga adaptation of ''[[Darker Than Black]]'' has much more stylized and less detailed art, a significantly less dark storyline, and does not share the original's [[Deconstructor Fleet|determination to find every trope it can and kill it]]. The [[Properly Paranoid]], [[Stoic]], [[Badass]] [[Anti-Hero]] lets someone who knows who he is go back to her everyday life even though his survival hinges on maintaining his secret identity, the [[Differently-Powered Individual|superpowered]] [[Lack of Empathy|sociopaths]] are less involved in the plot than a former test subject with normal emotions and no [[Power At a Price|remuneration]] whose main motivation is love, [[Generic Cuteness]] is in effect to such a degree that some characters are hard to recognize, and male characters who were [[Mr. Fanservice|already attractive]] were turned into [[Bishonen]]. Somebody coming to the main series or [[Interquel|second manga]] from this is going to be ''[[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|v]][[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|e]][[Mook Horror Show|r]][[Combat Pragmatist|y]]'' [[Dark and Troubled Past|s]][[Child Soldiers|u]][[The Corps Is Mother|r]][[Phlebotinum War|p]][[The Man Behind the Man|r]][[Punch Clock Villain|i]][[Gray and Grey Morality|s]][[A World Half Full|e]][[Overly Long Gag|d]].
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* The ''[[Mai-Otome (manga)|Mai-Otome]]'' manga is similar, with Nina remaining emotionally stable and loyal to the heroes the entire time, largely related to {{spoiler|Erstin}} surviving, and Arika and Mashiro never quite sink to the depths of despair that they do in the darker parts of the anime. On the other hand, [[Death by Adaptation|several characters who survive the anime are killed off]], and {{spoiler|Sergay}} is a [[Complete Monster]] who is arguably more evil than the Otome anime version of Nagi.
** The ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' anime can also be considered this in comparison to the ''[[Mai-HiME]]'' anime, as while the story is, in the best of times, more serious, it never seems quite as dark or hopeless, and there are fewer character deaths, although they are more often permanent.
* The anime adaptation of ''[[Rosario
* The ''[[Black Jack]]'' TV anime series adapted stories from the manga, but occasionally removed some of the downer material.
** In the manga story "Thieving Dog", {{spoiler|a dog dies saving Jack and Pinoko from an earthquake}}, while in the anime {{spoiler|the dog survives the incident and becomes their pet.}}
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* The 1982 film ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' is an R-rated fantasy epic that contained considerable amounts of violence and nudity. It also has a large following of fans who consider it one of the greatest fantasy films ever made. For the 1984 sequel ''Conan the Destroyer'' the studio decided they wanted a more family-friendly Conan. The result was a PG-rated, more lighthearted Conan adventure that was poorly received by fans of the original film.
* ''Battle for the [[Planet of the Apes]]'', in contrast to the previous and very dark ''Conquest'' (and more so if you watch the version with the [[Executive Meddling|original, uncensored ending]]).
* [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]'', [[Halloween (film)|compared]] [[The Thing (film)|to]] [[Escape from New York|his]] [[Prince of Darkness|other]] [[They Live!|works]].
* ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]] 2'' toned down some of the violence of the first film and was given a PG by the British Board of Film Classification. This was after the first ''Spider-Man'' film was given a 12 rating by the BBFC and described it as one of the most violent films ever aimed at young children, saying that some scenes even warranted a 15. Many councils (who have the final word on film censorship in the UK) boycotted this decision, releasing it as PG or PG-12, but Spider-Man stayed in cinemas long enough for young children to be admitted more widely (under adult supervision) following the introduction of the 12A rating.
* ''[[The
* ''[[The Expendables 2]]'', thanks to a combination of [[Chuck Norris]]' ego, Lionsgate's greed, and [[Sylvester Stallone]]'s compromising too fast, will be rated PG-13. This is especially bad in contrast to the original, which was a throwback to the bloody, violent action films of the 80s and 90s. This has quickly resulted in furor across the Internet, with many criticizing the move to appeal to an audience that just doesn't care about this kind of film.
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** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', a game about murder, betrayal, class warfare and [[Path of Inspiration|the evils of organized religion]] had a spinoff in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'', a kid-friendly, if [[Anvilicious|poorly written]] aesop against escapism.
** Compared to its story and angst-heavy [[Final Fantasy IV|predecessor]] and [[Final Fantasy VI|successor]], ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' can come off as humorous, even borderline [[Affectionate Parody|parodic]]; however, the theme of {{spoiler|planet-level destruction and [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]]}} is still present.
** ''[[Final Fantasy X
* After the fanbase displeasure about the [[Darker and Edgier]] ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'', Ubisoft made ''The Two Thrones'' less immaturely outrageous, although still a M-rated game. The hero even [[Lampshade Hanging|apologizes for his foul mood in the previous game.]] The 2008 iteration dialed it back to a Teen rating, aiming for a fantastical, exotic, magical atmosphere reminiscent of ''Sands of Time''.
* ''[[Command
** ''Red Alert 3'' is an interesting case: the storylines and general content are actually quite a bit ''darker'' than its predecessors (the Empire of the Rising Sun in general is the source of this), but between the [[Large Ham|mandatory ham injections for all the actors]], sheer [[Refuge in Audacity|balls-to-the-wall craziness]] in unit design, and [[Rule of Fun|general nuttiness]], it comes off as the lightest and fluffiest installment yet.
* Nintendo's porting of ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' to the SNES fell victim to this trope, what with [[Bowdlerise/Video Games|removing the blood and some of the more graphic "fatalities"]]. Unsurprisingly, [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|this displeased many fans of the arcade version]].
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* [[Wii Ware]] game ''[[Water Warfare]]'' is a [[Lighter and Softer]] version of the entire "FPS Deathmatch" genre. While it plays much the same as other multiplayer [[FPS|FPSes]], with multiple weapons and areas, deathmatches, [[Capture the Flag]] games, and the like, it's entirely nonviolent--all the weapons are squirt guns and water balloons, and the worst that ever happens to anyone is that they get wet.
** Before that there was ''Nerf Arena'' on the PC, which played out like your average Deathmatch FPS, but with harmless Nerf weapons.
** One person on the [[
* The first game in the ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' RPG series was M-rated, gloomy, and fairly gory; the second game scored a T-rating and abandoned most of the gore for oddball humor, but kept the grim atmosphere fairly intact; and the third game, also rated T, was so goofy and light-hearted in comparison that it threw some fans off. The Lighter and Softer trend is even more obvious if Koudelka, the Survival-Horror semi-prequel to the original, is considered.
* [[Electronic Arts]]' [[First-Person Shooter]] games are the softer version of the current generation of shooters. ''Mercenaries'', ''[[Army of Two]]'', ''[[Battlefield: Bad Company]]'' all had comparatively "lighter and fluffier" storylines and endings. No [[Downer Ending]] to create a [[Sequel Hook]] for instance.
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