Exact same characters in dramatically different shows.

Cafe Society
1

I was introduced to “Tenchi”, the shy Japanese every-teen surrounded by the standard anime corral of supernatural characters with hyper-advanced technology, through the lighthearted comedy series “Tenchi in Tokyo”. Later I saw “Tenchi Universe” and was shocked to see that the zany, carefree gang from “Tokyo” was now (to me, “Universe” came first, I think) in a sci-fi melodrama.

This got me wondering about other times this happens in fiction. I get the feeling this is a bit more common in anime, with their endless versions of the same series (ex. Dragonball (Z), Sailor Moon (R, S, Super S)), but I know of at least a couple American TV series examples:

Batman (the 60’s live action series) and Batman: The Animated Series - do I really have to explain this?

Sonic SatAM and The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: originally Japanese characters, yes, but they’re otherwise (North) American productions. The first was a serial action-drama that took itself way too seriously while the latter was a goofy, slapstick comedy that didn’t take anything seriously.

Are there any other examples of fictional characters leaping genres in between iterations, whatever the medium?

2

Not radically different, but “Trapper John MD” was more of a drama than “MASH.” Same with the “Lou Grant” spinoff from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” In both cases the characters are less funny than in the original series, but, you know, intentionally so.

3

Then I can only imagine how you’d feel about this

4

These are all direct sequels, not different versions of the same series. The Dragonball series (Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT) changes tone with each name change, but it’s a different situation than with the Tenchi series. (There are, at least, 4 separate Tenchi continuities - the original OAVs, the first TV series (Universe), Tokyo, and Pretty Sammy. Plus the movies that go with each of them. The Tenchi manga, IIRC, was in the OAV continuity.) Sailor Moon’s TV series and OAVs are all the same continuity, and similar tone, but they diverge greatly from the manga.

A better example of this would be the Mai-HiME series. Arguably. There are at least 2 continuities - anime and manga (although the Mai-Otome Zwei manga apparently is in the anime continuity), but, depending how you interpret certain aspects of both Mai-Otome, there might be 4 (Mai-HiME anime, Mai-HiME manga, Mai-Otome anime+Zwei+Zwei manga, Mai-Otome manga+Arashi). In any case, Mai-Otome features new versions of most of the Mai-HiME characters (except for 2, who might actually be the same characters in both series, depending on interpretation).

Eeerrrr…I think I’ll skip listing any more anime series with major divergences from the manga…it would be a long list.

Another good example would be Magic Knight Rayearth, where the OAV is a completely different story with mostly the same characters from the TV series and manga (one major change is that in the TV series/Manga, the girls go from Earth to Cephiro, wherein in the OAV, Cephiro is intruding upon Earth.)

Or Macross, where the story of the TV series and movie are similar, but major details are changed, altering the feeling of the universe, and darkening the story overall (for instance, the crew and passengers of the Macross, in the movie, are the only survivors of the human race, whereas in the TV series, the planet was decimated, but some humans survived).

5

Brady Bunch and Brady Bunch Variety Hour?

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Alan Shore & Denny Crane on The Practice vs Boston Legal

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The PowerPuff Girls vs. their anime versions. (Yes, they do exist.)

8

only one character, but Lou Grant went from a half hour sitcom to an hour drama

9

:looks it up on youtube:

Wow.