Summary
Watching an anime that has represented itself as one thing and then switches things up can be a very jarring experience and sometimes pretty funny too. There are some shows that draw a watcher in with a supposed premise and then pull the rug out from under them.
When anime does this, it could make for a remarkable experience. It can also go oh so very wrong, but when it is done well, it can elevate the anime to new heights. This is done toeither deconstructthe show or genre in question, or just for plain old entertainment, but it is almost always surprising.
Shadow Star Narutaruhas one of the most deceptive opening sequences ever. It has a cute crayon aesthetic with kids and cutesy creatures that are playing around with them. It follows Tamaii who meets a creature called Hoshimaru while staying with her grandparents.
After a relaxing first episode that seems to establish the show as aplayfulPokemon-like show, it starts to devolve into a horror show as it turns out that Tamaii isn’t the only child being visited by strange creatures, and they aren’t as nice as Hoshimaru.
When startingYu Yu Hakushoand seeing Yuusuke die while helping out a little kid from an oncoming vehicle, one would be forgiven for believing that this was a drama/supernatural show about a boy trying to get his body back.
At first, it is exactly this, but as things unfold, Yuusuke does get his body back — and the genre shifts to a sort of mystery show as he becomes a spirit detective. Then later on, it shifts again to a more traditionalbattle shonenas a dynamic tournament arc unfolds.
Negima!? Magister Negi Magiis about a boy who finds himself in a classroom full of girls, and from there, hijinks ensue. This feels like a typical harem show with ecchi elements as there isplenty of fanserviceto be had, but then Negima faces off with an enemy, and things start to shift.
After fighting a vampire, the show starts to focus more and more on classic battle shonen tropes, complete with transformations and power-ups. In the blink of an eye, the show completely shifts into another genre, with the girls in Negima’s class becoming bonafide warriors.
There are some shows where the stakes start off relatively low and then amp up to become insanely huge later on.Samurai Flamencodoes just that, but it also shifts in its genre while doing so. It starts as a parody onsentai stories, with the protagonist Masayoshi trying to become a hero, but it soon becomes the very thing it parodies.
The show’s genre shift to a full-on sentai action show from something more akin to a comedy was sudden and quite shocking to many. Soon, Masayoshi was not simply dealing with low-level criminals, but the fate of the entire world.
Puella Magi Madoka Magicais one of the most recognizable magical shows ever done, and it was the platform on which Gen Urobuchi became a household name. It starts off as a simplemagical girl storywith a girl gaining powers and making her dreams come true.
The genre shifts dramatically, and suddenly, the audience starts to witness a rather bleakpsychological thrillerwhere the dreamy magical girl scenario starts to show that things aren’t quite as they seem.Puella Magi Madoka Magicapulls this off to great effect, and many considerMadoka Magicaas one of the best genre deconstruction shows out there.
With the huge popularity ofNeon Genesis Evangelion, few remember that it started out as a simple monster of the week anime. Yes, the premise was always a little dark, but it wouldn’t be the first action show to feature some discomfort.
But, around the midway point,Evangelionbecame something else, more psychological, with a greater focus on the internal workings of the human being. It is one of the most important anime ever made, but if it had continued along the lines of its initial presentation, it would probably have remained just a decent action anime.
When the adventures of Tsunayoshi Sawada started out, most watchers thought they were being presented with an amusing, slightly bland, gag anime with a rather strange plot featuring a baby who also happened to be a hitman (and a legendary one at that).
However, a little later into the plot ofReborn!, the genre shifts, revealing an incredible battle shonen complete withpower structuresand huge battles.Reborn!had been losing popularity for some time and was in danger of getting the axe when the mangaka, Amano Akira, decided to switch genre, after which the manga became more successful.
Gintamadoesn’t make a genre switch just once throughout its run; it does it several times over the course of the story.Gintamais one of the funniest gag anime out there, but with a premise that features a strong samurai and other very capable characters, it had all the potential to create some mesmerizing action, and that was exactly what it did.
Gintamamostly focused on the laughs, but from time to time would introduce an arc that was all about the action and fights, and those were some of the best action stories out there. Whatever genreGintamawas going for, it did it in spades!
