Characterization Marches On/Anime and Manga

Examples of Characterization Marches On in Anime and Manga include:

• In Axis Powers Hetalia, who was the first character we met that was likely to use the word "fantabulous" in regular speech? No, not Poland. Lithuania.
  • England also changes drastically, as he was far more Tsundere for America than he is now.
  • Russia seems to be getting Lighter and Softer over the series' run so far.
  • Poland has become less selfish and childish.

• Osaka from Azumanga Daioh started out as a quiet girl who was deeply pensive to a fault, and was often made the butt of others' jokes (getting branded with the nickname "Osaka" was one such instance). Within a few episodes though, she made the transition to full-on Cloudcuckoolander.
  • Kaorin used to be content just to say that Sakaki was "really cool." But in the later episodes her feelings went quite a lot further.

• Bleach: Some could cite this as the cause of Mayuri Kurotsuchi's transformation between his first and second appearances from an evil Mad Scientist to more of a Bunny Ears Lawyer Jerkass. Still not a nice person, but still rather jarring to those that had come to think of him as pure evil.
  • When we first met Kon he was a overly interested in girls but was also willing to risk his life for several children and made it clear he was absolutely against killing. This quickly got turned into an obsession with women and practically a guarantee that he'll be tossed around a room whenever he appears.

• Code Geass: In his first appearance, Sir Jeremiah Gottwald was portrayed very negatively as an incompetent racist who was easily outwitted by Zero/Lelouch and was generally an unpleasant person. By his next appearance, however, he's managed to Take A Level In Badass and gain a sympathetic backstory as an imperial bodyguard who blames himself for Marianne's death. Moreover, his prior dislike of the Elevens is explained as being due to the mistaken belief that they had murdered Lelouch.He then proceeds to make a Heel Face Turn, get Ship Teased with the series' resident Ninja Maid and ends up as one of the few characters to receive an unambiguously happy ending.
  • The rest of Britannia to a lesser extent. In the first season Britannia was completely ruthless and would kill people at the drop of a hat. During the second season this was toned down severely in particular with Cornelia. Presumably this was because the ending would make even less sense than it already did if Britannia was kept the same, and that its previous portrayal made Lelouch seem too justified in all his actions against it, which counters the gray morality he's meant to have (his father and the main ones in charge naturally have to be evil, but to have the whole nation as such is rather ridiculous.)
  • In the first season, Schneizel looks aghast and horrified when he sees his sister committing mass murder and attempted genocide. In the second season, Schneizel himself does things far, far worse without ever showing a twinge of regret or disgust. Unless something happened to make him much colder during the Time Skip, those depictions don't really mesh well.
    • His shock is possibly due to the fact that it's Euphemia who's doing it, given that when not under a terrifying mind-controlling command she was one the most pacifistic members of the Britannian royal family. It's also quite unexpected and doesn't benefit his plans
  • Charles Vi Brittania takes a drastic one in the two seasons, going from a Social Darwinist who is proud that that his daughter has been killing Japanese in a brutal matter to a Well-Intentioned Extremist who desires an assimilation plot to end wars and does not even like wars to begin with.

• Crayon Shin-chan: Nene used to be scared of her mom when she vented her anger punching her plush bunny, prompting Nene's Catch Phrase "That's not my usual mom!". Not that you would imagine now she does the exact same, mind you, though at least this was given a plot reason instead of randomly changing. Also, for some reason Nene's mom punched a teddy bear at first, instead of her iconic plush bunny mentioned earlier.

• When Vegeta from Dragonball Z was first introduced, he was a calculating, cold blooded killer who never emoted beyond a Psychotic Smirk and was perfectly willing to sit on the sidelines and let his underlings do all the fighting. Reconciling the overly proud, overly intense, Berserker Blood Knight who curses like a truck driver and is always ready to fly off the handle for one reason or another that we see later on with that earlier version is a bit difficult.
  • One could argue that Vegeta's lack of emotion and willingness to sit on the sidelines came from his confidence that he was the strongest fighter in the universe (except Freeza). Notice that once Goku arrived Vegeta began freaking out ("IT'S OVER 9000!") due to the possibility that Goku was on his level.

• In Fairy Tail, Gray Fullbuster used to be The Rival to Natsu Dragneel, based on their Red Oni, Blue Oni interactions. Gray is now Natsu's Lancer, and they haven't been shown to have a fight for quite while. Similarly, Erza Scarlet was at first shown to scare the hell out of pretty much everyone in the guild, though nowadays that seems to have mellowed. This is even lampshaded by Lucy at one point, when she says that Erza has changed from being completely intimidating to someone who is genuinely easy to get along with.
  • Several of the hero-turned-villains are like this as well, Gajeel Redfox and Pantherlily most notably. Gajeel started out as a completely sadistic nutcase who beat the hell out of his Implied Love Interest the first time they met, and Pantherlily was OK with sacrificing an entire town at his king's whim. Compared to Gajeel's current status as Friendly Rival Sixth Ranger and Pantherlily's as the Only Sane Man, their early characterization can be a little jarring to look back on.
  • Erza mellowing out is actual development. It's her obligatory quirk that changes. During her first appearance she has as poor a grasp on normalacy as Natsu. Recent chapters just have her taking everything seriously, no matter how minor.

• For most of Fushigi Yuugi, Nuriko is a brave, funny and extremely likeable warrior. So it's really strange to look back at the early episodes where he acted like a psychotic, possessive Yandere about Hotohori, even going so far as to nearly drown his rival Miaka. And that's not even getting into the Suddenly Sexuality situation later in the series...
  • One might note that when he was first introduced, Nuriko had been living in the imperial harem, surrounded by women all competing with him and each other for the Emperor's attention. It's easy to imagine that cattiness is just a way of life. Once he gets out in the real world with some real friends, though, he mellows out.

• Futaba-Kun Change! has a reverse Nabiki example with Negiri, she starts off as a out and out Barnum with a serious Money Fetish who is quite willing to risk burning to death in a blazing building for a cheap deal but quickly changes into a pretty nice (although still financially shrewd), helpful, and friendly character.

• Ghost in the Shell's Major Motoko Kusanagi has changed significantly over time; in the early run of Shirow Masamune's graphic novel, she was professional but prone to violent anger, greed and laziness (when it's funny), but as the series got more serious, became more introspective and solemn. In Oshii's |film, she's an independent, solipsist Emotionless Girl, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex balances between the two with a stone-faced stoic professional who has occasional bouts of emotion or poignant introspection.

• The various Gundam franchises:
  • Char Aznable: In most of Mobile Suit Gundam , he desires vengeance against the Zabi family, coupled with a Zeonic victory in the war, because of the memory of his father, Zeon Deikun. However, he never seems to take his dad's ideology too seriously. The experienced Gundam lover will search the original series in vain for Char's trademark ideology: that human life on the Earth is parasitic and an abomination to our holy mother, and that the Earth should be rendered uninhabitable to force people into space and further evolution into Newtypes. Almost from the start of Zeta Gundam, Char begins preaching this ideology of his dad's like he's believed it all his life.
    • Well, seven years do pass between MSG and Zeta, during which Char would not longer be able to live his life solely for the purpose of taking vengeance on the Zabi family. It's not that odd that he'd turn his attention more to his father's philosophical goals in this time. Still probably an example of this trope, but justified a bit by the fact that Char accomplished his big goal in MSG and then had seven years to broaden his perspective.
  • Gundam Wing's Heero Yuy started out the series as a guy who would laugh like a maniac when shooting down his enemies, and was also suggested to be some kind of superhuman. All of this was quietly forgotten after a few episodes, and Heero switches to a Stoic Hitman with a Heart who is highly trained and tough, yes, but to much more believable levels.
    • The laughing while slaughtering enemies comes off as even more unusual when you get to The Movie and see his accidentally killing a little girl and how it drove him to attempt suicide in pennance, as well as his overall war weariness that leads him to declare, in his last line in the movie, "I don't have to kill anymore. I...don't want to..."

• For a good while in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Kenichi's masters were eccentric men (and one woman) who often causally talked about teaching Kenichi various lethal techniques and easily suggesting that he just slaughter his opponents. Then, just before Yami entered the picture, Kenichi's masters suddenly switched to Martial Pacifist experts in Katsujin Ken, just so that they could have an ideological divide that would set them apart from the future bad guys.

• Konata Izumi of Lucky Star was originally portrayed as a cooler Gamer Chick who plays dumb, not the full-blown Otaku Surrogate we usually associate her with. Also see Orwellian Retcon.

• Many characters from Mahou Sensei Negima gets this as part of the series' transformation from a goofy harem series to an action-packed adventure story. Let's see:
  • Main character Negi changed from a bumbling wizard-in-training to a Badass hardworking combat mage. Some of his early goofiness was explained as his spells being jammed by the Anti-Magic powers of his target.
  • The first time we see her, depowered vampire Evangeline A.K. McDowell is a powerful but somewhat squishy sorceress who requires Chachamaru to guard her. She is also apparently incapable of flight, as her first crush on Nagi happened after he saved her from falling of a cliff. In contrast, later appearances (her combat training of Negi, her illusionary duel with Setsuna, Negi's Magia Erebea admission test) shows her as an uber-powerful all-round combat vampire lady who can still massacre her opponents without magic, and basically one of the most powerful characters in the series, prompting Chamo to theorize that she was just screwing around when she was fighting Negi.
    • While a lot of the changes were planned well before the first manga episode was published, to ease into the intended story, the author's notes show some characters were significantly altered during the planning process. While Evangeline was always intended to become Negi's teacher, she wasn't originally a vampire or older than Negi - just a trained magic-using assassin with a family grudge. Evidently she got carried along with the scope of the plot.

• Early on in Mitsudomoe, Futaba is just as resentful of her father as her other two sisters. Later chapters show that she's the only one who will openly say that she loves her dad and means it, perhaps too strongly. The anime actually brought Futaba's first onscreen moment with her father in line with her later characterization.

• In One Piece, minor villain Hatchan was so dumb that he would catch the seat of his own pants while fishing and failed to recognize Zoro as a prisoner or realize that he had just defeated the rest of the guards. In the Sabaody Archipelago arc, he's significantly more intelligent, understanding much about the island and helping the Straw Hats to learn what to do while they are there. While in the Arlong arc, he showed no remorse for his or his crew's actions, when he reappears, he regrets what he's done, dreads the prospect of Nami recognizing him, and wants to make up for his past actions as best as he can.
  • Similarly, Ace was introduced as being polite and cheerful, even when facing off against Marines, and to an extent, Blackbeard. The Impel Down and Marineford arcs, as well as Luffy's flashback on the two meeting each other paint him as having picked fights with people who spoke ill of his father, Roger and questioning the value of his life, which would potentially suggest that the way he was shown acting before was a facade.
    • His hotheaded nature was foreshadowed during his cover story, when he blows his cover in a Marine base by punching out a Marine who talked smack about Whitebeard.
  • Rob Lucci from the CP9 arc went from a shallow government agent who tolerates no failures in his mission which is summed in his quote "This is a confidential matter that could affect the entire world" to a bloodthirsty Psycho for Hire.
  • Considering his legendary ability to get lost, it's a little odd during the Captain Kuro arc that Luffy's the one who gets lost on the way to the battle, while Zoro's only delayed by a slippery hill. It's even more odd in an earlier arc, where the anime adds a joke where he points Luffy in the right direction to charge in. Let that sink in: Zoro is telling someone else they're going the wrong way.

• Pokémon: Although Ash is quite clearly either Asexual or a Chaste Hero in most later seasons, in the early Kanto season, during one of the episodes, Ash had a small crush on a girl and found her attractive....until she began talking down to him, after which his interest faded.
  • Coincidentally, Brock also likes said girl, making it the only time he likes a girl younger than him.
  • In the first few episodes of Best Wishes, Iris was seen to be very extreme and rude. But this of course would prove very grating if continued, thus after Cilan joined up, she suddenly becomes rather behaved, and her wild tendencies were suppressed to focus on the humorous Ted Baxter / Cloudcuckoolander aspects of her personality.
  • Also, her Cuteness Proximity habit faded entirely and transferred to Bianca instead.
  • Ash's main rival Trip has also changed drastically from his first two and a half appearances. He was at first a overconfident trainer who talked down on Ash and his region but mellowed out halfway through his third appearance because of a smackdown that Burgh gave him. Appearances after that have him very quiet and distant and more annoyed at Ash for his crazy antics (who would blame him?), but hasn't tried to actively antagonize Ash or talk bad about his region since. Some people (mainly Paul's fans) refuse to see the change and only comment that he's just a plain Jerkass like in his first two and a half appearances.
  • Team Rocket has gone full circle with the march of their characterization: from menacing villains to comical villains to complete joke villains to...menacing villains again, far moreso than they even were originally!
    • Due to their act being postponed for a while, they're at a middle point. They're menacing but not quite as before, having a few of their comedic aspects back, mainly their over-inflated arrogance. The recent episodes in Japan seem to be setting them back up to their initial competance though...
  • In the earliest episodes Meowth acted very cat-like, walked with a Cat-like gait when on two legs, and sometimes walked on four legs. In the English dub, he also had a more cat-like voice and ended his sentences with a Verbal Tic (he uses one in Japan, but I suppose it didn't translate well).
  • Jasmine was originally more like her game counterpart - meek and quiet - but by her second appearance she became quite headstrong and confident.

• Subtle but Green (Blue in the US version) from Pokémon Special changed in personality early on. Originally he was arrogant and aggressive like his game counterpart, though after an appearance or two he mellowed down into more of The Stoic.

• In early Ranma ½, Kasumi is a largely typical but slightly snarkier Yamato Nadeshiko rather than the over-the-top parody example she would later become, and Nabiki is pretty much a normal teenage girl and it is even commented on that she is boy crazy before her misanthropic Money Fetish takes over.

• Ginei Morioka of Rosario + Vampire is a total pervert and annoying, but he's genuinely kindhearted, a trusted friend and values those close to him more than anything to the point where risking his life is nothing....which is why seeing him as a manipulative Jerkass who outwardly threatens to make the heroine his 'woman by force' can be really, really strange. Likewise with how outright murderous Mizore and Kurumu can be at their intros.

• Rurouni Kenshin's Hajime Saito is well known as the cold, sarcastic anti-hero who views himself as a (very sharp) instrument of justice. But when he first arrives on the scene he's portrayed as a blade-licking psychopath who can barely keep his murderous urges under control.

• It can be a little odd going back to episode 2 of Soul Eater, where Tsubaki is not only frustrated with Black Star but snarks at him and throws ninja stars at him, considering her rather... large amount of patience with him in the rest of the show.

• Chief technician Shiro Sanada in Space Battleship Yamato:Called Sandor in Star Blazers Originally just the Smart Guy of the Yamato, Sanada rose in status to being the elder spokesperson of the crew, especially after the deaths of Captain Okita (Avatar) and Chief Engineer Tokugawa (Orion)and someone who could be a captain in his own right. In the recent Yamato Rebirth, Sanada actually becomes the head commander of the EDF, now outranking his old captain, Kodai (Wildstar).

• While the titular character of Toriko has always shown to be rather self-centered, the downright callousness he shows Komatsu is an early arc is jarring. Komatsu gets killed because Toriko forgot to warn him that the crackers he gave him were in fact bombs. Komatsu only lives because of a friendly old man Toriko earlier gave booze to (and the old man would've had his own to begin with if Toriko hadn't bought it all for himself), and afterward Toriko is all, "You died? Oh well, good thing you're alive again!"

• In Urusei Yatsura, Ataru didn't start out hated by all girls and Shinobu, Benten, and a one-shot named Oniko showed some attraction to him.
  • Oyuki also expressed interest in Ataru when she first appeared and seemed to hate him less afterward. Ataru, while still very much a pervert, was less stupid and a bit more on the cynical side in early Urusei Yatsura, more Book Dumb than just dumb.

• Wandering Son has a Justified version. Chiba was originally a normal, if a bit odd girl. She was sweet and cute girl, who likes cute things and feminine boys. Chiba wasn't that unusual from rest of other cast. She changed after a stream of bad things happening to her such as a rejected Love Confession, an argument with her friend Takatsuki that made them hate each other for a while, and generally feeling she was putting pressure on her friends. She became a bitter, depressed, pre-teen with a sarcastic streak, her appearance became more mature, and she's generally angry. She's since mellowed down though, she's becoming more like her original design too.

• Rin of Yes! Precure 5 was originally supposed to be a shopaholic despite her tomboyish personality. This was completely phased out. She does, however, retain the jewelry design dream that goes against the same stereotype.

• When he was a villain, Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho was outright psychotic, with Nobuyuki Hiyama hamming it up in voicing him. When he makes his Heel Face Turn, he's a Deadpan Snarker Perpetual Frowner Aloof Ally, and the way he's voiced naturally changes along with the characterization.

• Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! used to be a brutal vigilante. It's a little jarring when one reads the first manga series and sees Yami—the wise father figure to Yugi with an honor code when it came to card games—burn/electrocute/inflict divine punishments on villains (while wearing a psychotic grin) after challenging them to deadly games. In fact, some character just seem insane comparing their old personalities to now. Kaiba and his little brother Mokuba used to not be above gladly killing Yugi and his friends just because they were beaten at their games, using death-trap filled theme parks and Russian Roulette, respectively. On a lower note, Joey/Jonouchi and Tristan/Honda were less goofy, bullied Yugi (before befriending him), and would get into fights somewhat regularly.