8 Series Ideas That Were Totally Different From The Final Anime Product
#1. Attack on Titan
The pilot of Attack on Titan: Volume 0 is extremely different from the Attack on Titan of today which was written by Hajime Isayama at the age of 19. For starters, the three-dimensional maneuver gear didn't exist and the humans could leap meters into the sky while battling the Titans. Other ideas included having Eren know he could turn into a Titan from the beginning and concluding the series with all the characters dying to add shock value.
#2. Bleach
While the story stayed the same for the most part, there were a lot of minor differences that could have made an impact to the overall series. For one, Ichigo had black hair instead of his trademark orange hair. Tite Kubo also originally planned for Ichigo's friends to develop powers, but Shueisha told him to hurry up and introduce the shinigami.
Other abandoned pilot elements included Orihime's death in the early chapters, Aizen's real death, and Gin & Urahara being the main villains.
#3. Naruto
The prototype of Naruto didn't include much in relation to ninjas with the main story following Naruto as a demon fox that takes the shape of a boy with a quest to make friends in the human world. His father Kuruma attacked the village and cost a lot of death and destruction. The village chief was the sole survivor of nine powerful shinobi who were gathered to fight the elder fox. The chief took pity on Naruto and allowed him to be raised in the village.
Similar to the current series, Naruto constantly was having problems finding any friends, and is eventually sent to make friends by the village chief. The chief fears Naruto will become like his father so he hopes a friendship will put him on a good path.
#4. Dragon Ball
The original Dragon Ball was titled 'Dragon Boy' with a hero named Tanton with bat wings that would evolve into the monkey-tailed Goku. The series featured an artifact called the Dragon Balls, that were more or less useless to the story outside of releasing a sad-looking dragon when hit with a energy blast. In the story, Tanton escorts a princess with a strong resemblance to Bulma, back to her country. Many of the martial arts element and general atmosphere of the world were reused in the Dragon Ball of today.
#5. One Piece
The One Piece series was originally titled 'Romance Dawn', didn't include the grand 'One Piece' item and starred a more toned down Luffy that became a Pirate for fun. The first chapter of the official manga eventually became titled 'Romance Dawn', but that's about where the similarities ended. There was a character named Silk with a similar design to Nami, and Zoro was originally made to be one of Buggy's bodyguards. Sanji was also originally to be named "Naruto" but JUMP rejected the idea as at the time they were still optioning the Naruto pilot to become one of their series.
#6. Death Note
The Death Note pilot originally had a character named Taro as the main character that discovered the Death Note. However, the Death Note included an item called the Death Eraser that would resurrect the people killed by the notebook if they had not already been cremated. Taro gets scared of the notebook and stops using it after his first two unintentional uses, having the notebook fall into the hands of one of his classmates Miura that puts the book to use killing criminals. Later on, Taro proves the legitimacy of the book by having Miura write his name in the book, to then erase his name coming back to life. The police burn the book soon after.
Additionally, early concepts of the Shinigami would have Ryuk, Gelus, and Rem resemble attractive humans, but a decision was made to change Gelus's appearance to look more pathetic. The editors also had concerns that fans would side with the team of killers by making their designs more beautiful.
#7. Pokemon
Ash's original partner in the original manga was Clefairy in order to make the series more engaging. However once the series was ready for a tv adaptation, the marketing team decided that Clefariy wasn't cuddly enough and opted for Pikachu. The series was also supposed to only cover the Kanto region with Ash defeating Gary and beating the Pokemon League as the conclusion.
#8. D.Gray-Man
The pilot series was called 'Zone' with the main character Allen Walker being a female named Robin and General Cross's weapon was Allen's weapon in the current version. Lavi was planned to be the main character in another manga called Bookman, but the idea was scraped and later he was put into the D. Gray-Man series.
