Anime/Manga retcons

[A.Magik]

American comics have enjoyed/suffered retcons, mostly by a new writer. But Japanese mangas and animes have also been prey to retcons, whether by the same creator or not (e.g. Clamp). Usually the past events in the story are not changed; however there is a change in interpretation, and since these retcons occur years after the publication of the original event's portrayal or informed telling in the story, one gets the idea that the author creating this retcon probably did not have the retconned idea years ago when the story was first published.

Here are some examples of retcon (this does not include any plot revelations in a self-contained manga or anime that lasted less than two years or whose revelation appeared to be planned by the author from day one):

Dragonball
Son Goku being revealed as an alien from outer space. Now, although Son's origins were a mystery before the Saiya-jin Saga, it is possible to assume that Akira Toriyama didn't plan him to be a space alien from day one. With some exceptions, much of the first 16 volumes of the series dealt with mystical more than science fiction. For all we knew, Goku could have been a magical being like Kami-Sama was originally considered to be (and what Piccolo still is), having other origins besides space. The retcon did change the series to emphasize more on science fiction, since it wouldn't be until the Buu Saga that magic played a major role again (the retcon also had the effect of rendering any character with alien or partially alien physiology as a major player in the story).

Dr. Gero would also count as a retcon. In the Cell Saga, he was introduced as a mad scientist with a past employment with the Red Ribbon Army. However, he didn't exist in the original RR saga.

Here are some examples that are spoilers.

Inu-Yasha
For awhile, it was portrayed that Naraku was actually a demonized Onigumu. However, a few years later in the story, Rumiko Takahashi revealed that Naraku was actually a demon that used Onigumu as a host (kinda bears resemblance to the Swamp Thing retcon that pointed out that Swampy was not a transformed Dr. Alex Holland but an original creature that thought he was Dr. Alex Holland).

X
This series bore some retcons to the Tokyo Babylon series.
It is revealed that dreamweaver Kayko had loved Hokutu from the TB series. However, like Dr. Gero, Kayko never appeared or was mentioned in the original TB series.

Is this an example? The dying Seizuhiro's declaration of love to Subaru, after pointing out in TB that he had no such feelings. This suggests that Seizuhiro cheated on his own bet that he would be Subaru's mate if he felt feelings and kill him if he did not. However, the fact that he didn't kill Subaru after killing his sister implies that he might have been cheating the bet back then. On the other hand, are we sure Seizuhiro was telling the truth to Subaru when he died? For all we know, he made his words a cruel lie designed to screw up Subaru's life even more. Either examples make the legitimacy as a retcon questionable

Tenchi Muyo OVA 3
Masaki Kajishima added a lot of plot information in this part of the series that wasn't really hinted at in the first two OVAs. Examples include the seemingly normal Nobuyuki having a past as a GXP officer (His shock at seeing Ayeka's Ryu in episode 2 gave no implication that he was familiar with space aliens) and Yosho's 700-year self-exile on Earth not being as isolated from Jurai as originally believed.

Anyone have examples?

A.Magik

[Conan-san]

Pokemon (although this might be due to the dub):
In early Pokemon, Brock's mother was orgionaly said to be dead with Brock looking after his (numerous) brothers and sisters following his father's own self excile.

In the recent Hoso (cronicles) Specials, this has been debunked and She, Brock's mother, is very much alive and very much anoying.

Digimon Zero Two
In Digimon 01, Kari was shown to have some way in haveing some sort of "Newtype" ability in herself or indeed some sort of past with teh Digital world and was refered sevearl times as "Queen Kari".

In Zero Two, this whole thing WAS going to be looked at (as shown in ep 20 with the Dark Ocean) but was later on just used instead as a meens of "Defeating" Daemon.

Mobile Suit Gundam:
While not as critical as the above points, it can be concidered as such due to the movies having Priority when reffering to the future series' cannon.

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Pokemon (although this might be due to the dub):
In early Pokemon, Brock's mother was orgionaly said to be dead with Brock looking after his (numerous) brothers and sisters following his father's own self excile.

In the recent Hoso (cronicles) Specials, this has been debunked and She, Brock's mother, is very much alive and very much anoying.


That's dub only, in the original version they just said that Takeshi's mom had abandoned them.

[Conan-san]

Anyone who's seen Episode 23 of Negima will defently agree that it is most defently the biggest retcon between a manga and it's anime counterpart ever.

[The Weed Of Cri]

Here's a retcon that always bothered me:

In Hokuto No Ken (aka Fist Of The North Star), the main character, Kenshiro, had three older brothers: Raoh, Toki, and Jagi. All four were adopted by a man who was not their biological father and of the four, only Raoh and Toki had any blood relation (they were actual brothers). In the sequel series, Hokuto No Ken 2, it was revealed that Kenshiro actually was the biological brother of Raoh and Toki, separated at birth from the rest of his family. This could have been done convincingly, but unfortunately wasn't, which I guess is what really irks me.
And it didn't end there. In the first series, the second-eldest brother, Toki, had brown hair in his youth, which turned white in adulthood when he was exposed to radiation during World War Three. In Hokuto No Ken 2, Toki is consistently shown as having white hair in childhood.

Another Dragonball retcon: when Mutenroshi (the Turtle Hermit) discovered that Goku transforms into a mindless apelike monster when he looks at the moon, he solves the problem by destroying the moon with a Kamehameha blast. Years later, when Piccolo is training the toddler Gohan, he makes the same discovery of the Saiyans' little secret. In this episode, the moon is back in one piece again....at least until Piccolo destroys it a second time.

[Scirel]

Another Dragonball retcon: when Mutenroshi (the Turtle Hermit) discovered that Goku transforms into a mindless apelike monster when he looks at the moon, he solves the problem by destroying the moon with a Kamehameha blast. Years later, when Piccolo is training the toddler Gohan, he makes the same discovery of the Saiyans' little secret. In this episode, the moon is back in one piece again....at least until Piccolo destroys it a second time.

Since There was a five year span between DB and DBZ, it isn`t unreasonable to think Goku wished the moon back since his tail was gone permanently.

[Tash]

Does anyone read Kinnikuman? That series is so full of retcons it's funny. Exmples of which:

Robin Mask was from planet Robin. Then later he was from England.
Everyone forgetting that they can get big.
Random dead characters coming back with no explantion.
Warsman kept changing between being a human and a robot.
One of Kinnikuman's girlfreinds couldn't be with him due to racial circumstances. Yet they were somehow married in Kinnikuman II, even though the character dissappeared for 17 volumes.
Kinnikuman II made an annoying amount of contradictions to the first series.
Random characters changing sides between story arcs for no reason.
Meat's origin changed a few times.
Random charcters going through random personallity changes between chapters.

just to name a few.

[A.Magik]

Another Dragonball retcon: when Mutenroshi (the Turtle Hermit) discovered that Goku transforms into a mindless apelike monster when he looks at the moon, he solves the problem by destroying the moon with a Kamehameha blast. Years later, when Piccolo is training the toddler Gohan, he makes the same discovery of the Saiyans' little secret. In this episode, the moon is back in one piece again....at least until Piccolo destroys it a second time. Actually, during the 2nd part of the Piccolo Saga (The Budokai), Goku explained to Kuririn and Yamucha about the loss of his tail. Kami-sama said he had to lose it because he needed to restore the moon with the Dragon Balls (Goku didn't know why), and so it happened.

A.Magik

[Gary L Thompson]

Pokemon (although this might be due to the dub):
In early Pokemon, Brock's mother was orgionaly said to be dead with Brock looking after his (numerous) brothers and sisters following his father's own self excile.

In the recent Hoso (cronicles) Specials, this has been debunked and She, Brock's mother, is very much alive and very much anoying.That's dub only, in the original version they just said that Takeshi's mom had abandoned them.
Whether dead or runaway, according to http://www.serebii.net/anime/epiguide/specials/004.shtml (http://www.serebii.net/anime/epiguide/specials/004.shtml), the woman in the Chronicles episode is actually Brock's stepmother (like son, like father, it seems like Flint can't resist a pretty girl no matter how annoying she is!).

Other everything-you-know-is-wrong anime series I can think of:

The Paper Sisters finding out at the end of "Read or Die TV" that their past in Hong Kong was all a lie.

In "Shinzo", the past was totally altered midway through the story.

"Big O" ends with a total reboot, as the entire storyline and city proves to be just a stage set up by Angel.

"Wolf's Rain" ends with another reboot, as if nothing happened.

"Dual" ends by merging the two parallel dimensions together into one world.

[TnAdct1]

Anyone who's seen Episode 23 of Negima will defently agree that it is most defently the biggest retcon between a manga and it's anime counterpart ever. One thing to point out, while the retcon that happens in the anime is "anime-only", it is most likely inspired by the retcon in the manga that Asuna has actually met Negi's father when she was younger, which could explain why she's able to nullify magic attacks.

[AstroNerdBoy]

[QUOTE=A.Magik]Here are some examples that are spoilers.

Inu-Yasha
For awhile, it was portrayed that Naraku was actually a demonized Onigumu. However, a few years later in the story, Rumiko Takahashi revealed that Naraku was actually a demon that used Onigumu as a host (kinda bears resemblance to the Swamp Thing retcon that pointed out that Swampy was not a transformed Dr. Alex Holland but an original creature that thought he was Dr. Alex Holland).

I haven't read the manga, so I don't know how much Takahashi-sensei retconned. However in the anime...

...Onigumu did end up absorbing a bunch of youkai. The retconning would come from the actual onigumu being on of the youkai in the mix, only one with great intelligence.

Tenchi Muyo OVA 3
Masaki Kajishima added a lot of plot information in this part of the series that wasn't really hinted at in the first two OVAs. Examples include the seemingly normal Nobuyuki having a past as a GXP officer (His shock at seeing Ayeka's Ryu in episode 2 gave no implication that he was familiar with space aliens) and Yosho's 700-year self-exile on Earth not being as isolated from Jurai as originally believed.

There's lots wrong with this cited example.

Nobuyuki has never been revealed to have been in GP. He IS very old though and most likely attended Galaxy Academy. After OAV 1, K-sensei revealed that Nobuyuki was over 200-years old, but he did that in an interview (or it was in "101 Secrets", I don't recall). So when it was revealed that Tenchi had an older sister named Tenyo who was 80 but still looked in her 20's, it confirmed what K-sensei had written many years earlier.

As to Nobuyuki's reaction to Ryu-oh-fune, it was a natural reaction. Juraian ships aren't supposed to be hovering over one's home, even if the planet is a Juraian colony and thus under Jurai's protection. So he was stunned to see a ship there when none should be there. Notice his reaction at the end of the episode. While Tenchi is somewhat troubled over learning the truth of the demon story, the fact that aliens exist, etc., Nobuyuki is completely fine. He's not troubled that the demon has been revived, kidnapped him, shrank him and his home to micro-sized, not to mention then being deposited in the country-side. He's not troubled that there are aliens around. It is as if he already knew there were aliens in existance and the true identity of Ryoko. ^_^

As for Yosho being exiled from Jurai, again K-sensei dealt with this in his writings. Remember, he's published three novels about TM!R, many doujinshi volumes, and he's done many interviews and other things which have given Japanese Tenchi fans more insight into the series. In this material, it was revealed that Yosho was missing for ~120-years. So well concealed was he and Funaho-ki that when Seto-sama's agents searched Earth, they detected no trace of either (remember, Aeka and Ryu-oh only detected Ryo-ohki and Ryoko, not Funaho-ki or Yosho).

Anyway, Yosho was found when his Earth-wife Kasumi (niece of his mother Funaho) died. Yosho contacted his best friend from his days at Galaxy Academy to attempt to arrange for his decendants to attend school there. Since Seto-sama has spies everywhere, she quickly discovered the truth, thus Jurai learned of Yosho's location. Since Yosho wasn't going anywhere, they let him be.

Meanwhile, Yosho discovered that his girlfriend from the Academy had born him a daughter. ^_^ Soon after, Yosho and Airi married and at some point Airi gave birth to Kiyone.

And now you know.

[Gary L Thompson]

Meanwhile, Yosho discovered that his girlfriend from the Academy had born him a daughter. ^_^ Soon after, Yosho and Airi married and at some point Airi gave birth to Kiyone.

And now you know.Except one thing.

Did Kiyone ever get off that wrecked souja where Mihoshi and, er, cadet left her?

[Nobuyuki sama]

Except one thing.

Did Kiyone ever get off that wrecked souja where Mihoshi and, er, cadet left her?
Funny.
But wrong Kiyone, and non-canon to boot.

[AnkokuDaishogun]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventures
Part 3

Abdul was totally dead after Hol Horse's bullet hit him.
But the fans got angry and *TA-DAH!* Abdul comes back againt Cameo(or Enya in the anime).
At least Araki gave a decent explanation...

Part 6

The others 3 Dio's sons.
In Part 5 was stated Giorno was Dio's only son.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Funny.
But wrong Kiyone, and non-canon to boot.
Yep. That's Hasegawa-sensei's stuff of which I know very little (or rather it was based in part on her stuff).