Anime Series/Films With Misleading Beginnings..

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fusionsox

Completely Average High School Student
One of my favourite anime series of recent years is Gungrave. I discovered this series when a magazine (DVD Review, I believe) came bundled with a disc with trailers/picture gallery/the usual crap. However, I bought the magazine because I saw it came with the first episode of Gungrave, which was new at the time and hadn't been released over here yet. It was the first episode, so I watched it and I loved it. The dub was a little dodgy at times, but that's for another post lol. In case you haven't seen Gungrave, the first episode relates to the end of the story, so is quite action-orientated. After the first episode though, the story settles into this great character study of friendship, trust and power. My question to you guys is, do you know of any other anime that starts off in one genre (action, horror, romance, whatever) and heads off into another not far into the series? It'd be interesting to see just how many animes do this, and if it's done to grab people's attention or if its necessary to the story. Thanks..
 
Evangelion starts off as a mech/sci-fi show, but moves into the psychological more for the second half. Seem to recall that Utawarerumono did something wierd at the end too with some scif-fi elements appearing in what seemed to be fantasy.

Full Metal panic seems to jump around between comedy and serious action a fair bit. In Fumoffu it was all comedy, while the The Second Raid seems to have become more serious.

It happens quite a bit I suppose, though I can't say it always works for me.
 
Angel Cop. The First episode is pure cop drama, it then goes utterly supernatural and wierd after that.

And it also goes utterly crap (Though as I have said elsewhere, the dub is pure diabolical anyway)
 
Thanks for the replies so far. Keep 'em coming..

Wildcard - Eva is a strange beast. I agree that it changes topic/genre completely about halfway through. It's interesting to hear people's views on Eva. Some love, some hate. Haven't heard an in-between yet. I personally love it (both halves). Can't wait for the Ultimate Tin Box Collection (due out on Oct. 20th, according to Amazon.co.uk)

Warmaster - I've never seen AngelCop, though I've heard lots about it. It's a shame to hear that you think it's "uteerly crap". I was thinking of giving it a watch, I'll give it a miss for now though. There is, after all, only so much anime I can fit into my life..

Dracos - I love Excel Saga. I like the way they change each episode to fit a genre, though subsequentally there are a few weak episodes because of it. I'd rather have 1 or 2 sub-standard episodes of innovative anime than 100 average cliche'd anime..

Also, I recently started watching Paranoia Agent. It doesnt change genre as such, though it starts off fairly 'lightly', but just keeps getting darker and darker. Almost as though its gone from thriller to horror. Ive just finished the Family Planning episode and have to say I was impressed. It's often nice to get away from squeaky-voiced schoolgirls and talking cats to watch one of Satashi Kon's surreal masterpieces..
 
Otogi Zoshi changes in a pretty extreme way halfway through. A different time zone!?
 
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fusionsox said:
I've never seen Angel Cop, though I've heard lots about it. It's a shame to hear that you think it's "uteerly crap". I was thinking of giving it a watch, I'll give it a miss for now though. There is, after all, only so much anime I can fit into my life..
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I would call it "utterly hilarious", especially if you're watching the dub. Though it's fair to say it will be a waste of your time if you were expecting something serious / good / not massively xenophobic.

Haruhi anyone? It certainly wasn't what I was expecting. That said, I knew very little about it when I started watching it...
 
Place Promised In Our Early Days. First part of the film is just a nice happy story about some school kids and an aeroplane. Then it go all sci-fi on yo' ass.
 
Ryo Chan said:
but the science fiction part of Utawa is at the end, not the beginning :D
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Yeah, sorry that's what I meant. Was just refering to the drastic change of genre/tone. That ending completely caught me off guard.
 
Chrono Crusade is an extreme case of ending differently to how it starts.

Starts off as a howling slapstick comedy and ends up as soul destroying tragedy.



Edit - Oh, and then there's Eureka seven, starts off quite good, ends up total shite.

( But that's probably not what you meant. :p )
 
Wildcard said:
Evangelion starts off as a mech/sci-fi show, but moves into the psychological more for the second half.
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Evangelion's beginning is incredibly misleading. Had I not read about the series beforehand, I would not have seen it going in the dark, dark way that it did.

I can't really think of any more anime that I would say had a misleading start, to be honest.
 
Your description of the beginning of Gungrave sounds like Berserk actually. The first ep is all bloody violence, a badass guy with a huge sword and demon slaying...the rest of the series is much more character-driven. And utterly brilliant.
 
Tasker said:
Edit - Oh, and then there's Eureka seven, starts off quite good, ends up total shite.
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Well, the absolute ending is pretty poor, but at least it has one! *coughevacough* but that series as a whole could have been 26 episodes, and would have benefited massively from it. There are lots of good bits, but lots of padding as well, to be expected really.

But back to the topic at hand.

Not quite the topic title, but RODTV changes completely in style half way through (Which, while good, leaves me longing for the rather more fun first half :( )
 
Haibane Renmei's second half is radically different in tone to its first.

Anyone who watched the first few moments of Mahoromatic (assuming they skipped the credits) would be forgiven for thinking that it's a dark sci-fi action show. If only :(
 
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