History Main / BreakingOldTrends

** ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'' is set to break the biggest trend yet after 25 years: It will focus on on a new set of characters other than Ash and Pikachu (who will instead have their own miniseries meant to act as their GrandFinale), and the main chat is completely CanonForeigner[=s=]. As for how this series also breaks trends from previous series...

*** Both waves of DownloadableContent break long-standing norms.

*** If a Pokémon is introduced midway through the generation, it is either a Legendary Pokémon, a Mythical, part of a Pseudo Legendary group such as Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokémon, or part of an evolution of a previous established line. ''The Teal Mask'' introduces the Poltchageist family as a normal Pokémon with no relation to any other line that can be caught in the wilds of Kitakami.

*** Previous games made past Starter Pokémon special prizes, with you getting to choose one after achieving certain levels of completion. ''The Indigo Disk'' has every singing past Starter wandering the biomes of Blueberry Academy, making it easy to collect the whole set.

** All of the Cures in ''Anime/HirogaruSkyPrettyCure'' mark a first for the franchise. Cure Sky is the first lead Cure to have blue for her theme color (with the exceptions of [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Cure Black]] and [[Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure Cure Summer]], all previous lead Cures have been [[PinkHeroine Pink Heroines]]) and is the first lead Cure to not be from Earth. Cure Prism is the first Cure to be a HalfHumanHybrid, as she's one-fourth [[HumanAlien Skylandian]]. Cure Wing is the first male Cure to be a full-fledged member of the team. Finally, Cure Butterfly is both the first pink-themed Cure to ''not'' be the leader of her team and, at 18, is the first adult Cure to be part of the main team. There’s also our SixthRanger, Cure Majesty, who is the first Cure to transform while still a baby.

** All of the Cures in ''Anime/HirogaruSkyPrettyCure'' mark a first for the franchise. Cure Sky is the first lead Cure to have blue for her theme color (with the exceptions of [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Cure Black]] and [[Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure Cure Summer]], all previous lead Cures have been [[PinkHeroine Pink Heroines]]) and is the first lead Cure to not be from Earth. Cure Prism is the first Cure to be a HalfHumanHybrid, as she's one-fourth [[HumanAlien Skylandian]]. Cure Wing is the first male Cure to be a full-fledged member of the team. Finally, Cure Butterfly is both the first pink-themed Cure to ''not'' be the leader of her team and, at 18, is the first adult Cure to be part of the main team.

** Trends that [[Film/{{Pokemon}} the numerous movies for the Pokémon anime]] broke:

** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' is the first season to start out with [[ThreeAmigos three Rangers]] rather than [[FiveManBand five]] and the first to have the SixthRanger be a regular cast member from the very beginning rather than joining much later. It is also the first season to have a female Blue Ranger and a core male Yellow Ranger, and to not enforce the TwoGirlsToATeam when the original ''Super Sentai'' series source material only had one female Ranger in the cast. In fact, future adaptations from ''Super Sentai'' wouldn't swap a male Ranger with a female one until ''Dino Fury''.

*** ''The Teal Mask'' sees you journey to the Kitakami region, a completely new land far removed from your current region. ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' is the only game that did something similar, and in that case the Kanto and Johto regions are practically neighboring regions.
*** ''The Indigo Disk'' breaks a tradition that has remained unbroken since the series began: It introduces a second EliteFour, as players can take on four elite Trainers from Blueberry Academy, each of which specializes in one type of Pokémon.
*** Previous games made past Starter Pokémon special prizes, with you getting to choose one after achieving certain levels of completion. ''The Indigo Disk'' has every singing past Starter wandering the biomes of Blueberry Academy, making it easy to collect the whole set.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' usually features a protagonist on the app icon, but Book VII is the first time that the antagonist of the story, Gullveig, is the icon, rather than the protagonist Seiðr. [[spoiler:[[InterfaceSpoiler This is actually a huge tell]] that Seiðr and Gullveig are the same person.]]

** ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'' is set to break the biggest trend yet after 25 years: It will focus on on a new set of characters other than Ash and Pikachu (who will instead have their own miniseries meant to act as their GrandFinale), and the main chat is completely CanonForeigners. As for how this series also breaks trends from previous series...
* Has a female protagonist as the lead character alongside the male protagonist.
* Introduces its Champion character (Nemona) far earlier than they've been in previous series.
* Has a group of adults that consistently receive major focus and travel with the kids, and are far more involved in the plot than even Cynthia and Kukui ever were. In fact, it is one of these adults who own the series' Pikachu rather then the child protagonists.
* The inital plot is far more on the adventuring aspects of the Pokémon journey, rather then self-improvement via battling others. Both protagonists lack some form of ToBeAMaster / competitive goal that involves battling powerful trainers. Liko is just a schoolgirl caught up in events centered around her pendant, and Roy wants to battle Pokémon mentioned in legends.
* The series has downplayed catching when it was a major part of all prior series. Ash usually captured a Pokémon or two by the tenth episode, but as of the twelth episode, Liko's only Pokémon was gifted to her, and Roy's willingly joined him without battle. It wouldn't be until the fourteenth episode that Roy would catch a Wattrel, and even then Liko still only has her starter.

** Similarly, ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'' had two rangers that were portrayed with nonhuman proportions in CGI when they transformed. Additionally, ''Donbrothers'' featured the first [[RealMenWearPink male pink ranger]].

** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]] is the first playable third-party and DLC character to be a villain, eventually paving the way for [[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]. [[note]]Unlike Sephiroth, Kazuya started out as a hero in the orignal game, but a VillainProtagonist in the later games.[[/note]]His addition also marks the first time a third-party franchise has two playable representatives that have completely distinct movesets and playstyles instead of one of them being a MovesetClone.

** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters'' is the first time since his debut where King Ghidorah is the BigBad of the story.

* WebVideo/TheUnluckyTug's Sodor's Finest video on Cranky is the first one about a character who isn't a steam engine, [[spoiler:and the first one where CGI wins.]]

** ''VideoGame/LikeADragonGaidenTheManWhoErasedHisName'' is the first game in the entire series in which the classic setting of Kamurocho is ''not'' visited.[[note]]That's a total of 10 games across 16 years. That list expands to 11 if you count ''[[VideoGame/LostJudgment The Kaito Files]]'' as its own thing, 13 if you include the two ''Kiwami'' remakes and the original games as separate entities, and 16 if you also count the spin-off game ''[[VideoGame/YakuzaDeadSouls Dead Souls]]'' and the ''[[VideoGame/KurohyoRyuGaGotokuShinsho Black Panther]]'' duology.[[/note]]

*** Professors Sada and Turo aren't named after plants like the professors from previous games, instead having names related to "past" and "future". This is also the first game where the local professor the player associates with is different between the two versions. [[spoiler:It turns out their usual role of providing new starter Pokémon and introducing the player character to the world has been given to Director Clavell instead, who does have a plant-themed name.]]

** ''VideoGame/LikeADragonGaidenTheManWhoErasedHisName'' is the first game in the entire series in which the classic setting of Kamurocho is ''not'' visited.

*** Tied to the series being subtitled as ''Journeys'' versus ''Sword and Shield'', the plot has Ash traveling on all of the known Pokémon world, not just the Galar region, as a research assistant instead of getting involved with the Galar Pokémon League. Although he does later get involved in something called the World Coronation Series in order to challenge Leon from ''Sword'' and ''Shield''. In any case, the lack of a storyline that purely focuses on Galar meant that the series does not goes out of its way to feature everything from Galar before the next generation of the franchise begins. As an example, only five of the Galar's Gym Leaders were featured in ''Journeys'' proper.

*** The plot has Ash traveling on all of the known Pokémon world, not just the Galar region, as a research assistant instead of getting involved with the Galar Pokémon League. Although he does later get involved in something called the World Coronation Series in order to challenge Leon from ''Sword'' and ''Shield''.

** ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'' is set to break the biggest trend yet after 25 years: It will focus on on a new set of characters other than Ash and Pikachu (who will instead have their own miniseries meant to act as their GrandFinale).

* ''VideoGame/LikeADragon''
** Being a SoftReboot, ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' makes significant changes to the series. Chief among these changes is the GenreShift from WideOpenSandbox BeatEmUp to an EasternRPG that takes inspiration from (and even name-drops) ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'', with the developers stating this JRPG gameplay style would be the norm for the main series going forward[[note]]Spinoffs, such as ''VideoGame/LostJudgment'' and ''VideoGame/LikeADragonGaidenTheManWhoErasedHisName'', would retain the classic action-RPG style of gameplay[[/note]]. In addition, Kamurocho takes a backseat as the main setting, with the majority of the game taking place in a new location: Ijincho, Yokohama. Furthermore, it is the first main-series game since [[VideoGame/Yakuza1 the series' debut]] to feature an English dub.

*** Serena is the first companion to express confirmed romantic interest in Ash as well as to ever meet him prior to the series. She was also the first companion to ever kiss him, albeit offscreen due to TV Guidelines not including cheek kisses.
*** In Japan, kissing mouth-to-mouth is seen as an extraordinarily intimate act.

*** In Japan, kissing mouth-to-mouth is seen as an extraordinary intimate act.

** Both waves of DownloadableContent break long-standing norms.
*** ''The Teal Mask'' sees you journey to the Kitakami region, a completely new land far removed from your current region. ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' is the only game that did something similar, and in that case the Kanto and Johto regions are practically neighboring regions.
*** ''The Indigo Disk'' breaks a tradition that has remained unbroken since the series began: It introduces a second EliteFour, as players can take on four elite Trainers from Blueberry Academy, each of which specializes in one type of Pokémon.

** Unlike the previous games, ''Game & Wario'' is more focused on traditional mini games that use the Wii U's gamepad instead of microgames, which are demoted to one of several mini games ("Gamer") instead.
** ''Gold'' is the first game to break the franchise's trend of having NoAntagonist by featuring a BigBad in the form of [[spoiler:Wario Deluxe]]. It is also the first game to ditch the VoiceGrunting from previous games in favor of full voice acting.
** ''Get It Together!'' is the first game in the franchise to have the cast be [[PromotedToPlayable playable characters]] as opposed to being non-playable hosts, with the player having to play as them to complete microgames unlike in past games, where they are directly completed by the player. Also unlike in previous games, the character stories lack an epilogue cutscene.

** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' is the first season not to have a Yellow Ranger (if you don't count the Gold Ranger, that is).