The logical conclusion.
There is more to Supernatural than what is seen in the show. This is the birth of a new anime and you've never seen the characters like this before!
A strange example of an Animated Adaptation being made in a different country than its source material, but still with input from people involved in the original (namely, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles).
Supernatural: The Animation retells the main series' first two seasons, with some new stories thrown in for good measure. However, most of the series is at least somewhat based off episodes from the live-action show.
Supernatural: The Animation provides examples of:
- The Abridged Series: Supernatural: The Animation Abridged.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Unlike in the show Dean was the first to see Mary before John showed up and told him to run out of the house with Sam, and he admits that there's a rarely a day where he doesn't think about it.
- Adaptational Backstory Change:
- The Yellow-Eyed Demon is identified as being a fallen angel in this continuity, as opposed to a demon like in the live-action show.
- A slight change to the Colt's backstory is that Samuel Colt is no longer a hunter himself, but instead built the gun and gave it to an unknown hunter.
- Adaptational Badass: Surprisingly Sam and Dean are this, mainly since Rule of Cool allows the anime to show them doing things the actors couldn't do in live-action. Examples include Sam shooting a shapeshifter disguised as him while it's in the Impala which is driving towards him at high speeds and Dean being able to do a number of martial arts that he seemingly didn't know in the original show.
- Adaptational Context Change: In the episode "What Is And What Should Never Be", Dean's reasons for leaving the fake world are completely different. While the live-action version had it be more of an alternate timeline where Dean's deepest wish, that his mother never died, came true which meant he never became a hunter, this version has it be his ideal life where he's always happy and monsters don't really exist. In the original Dean felt motivated to leave the dream world initially when he realised that everyone he saved as a hunter died in this reality, while here it's because he can't handle being this happy and because he's sad that he's not close with Sam.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- John is a lot nicer to his sons than he is in the show.
- Jake Talley is far more reluctant to go along with the Yellow Eyed Demon's plans and is pleased when he sees Sam alive after killing him, unlike his live-action counterpart who very quickly embraces his new role.
- Adaptation Distillation: Certain plotlines and characters are reimagined or even skipped over, with the entire anime adapting the first two seasons of the original show. This is mainly because an anime episode are around half the length of a live-action episode.
- Adaptation Dye-Job:
- Dean has black hair. Fangirls have been known to argue over whether Live-Action Dean's hair is brown or blond, but they can probably agree it's not black. For that matter, he now has brown eyes instead of green.
- Likewise, Jess's hair color went from blond to a reddish-brown.
- Mary Winchester now has brown hair, which makes Dean look more like their father and Sam look more like their mother, whereas in the live-action show it's the other way around.
- Lily now has short brown hair instead of long blond hair.
- Carmen from "What Is And What Should Never Be" has blond hair instead of black.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
- Sam's relationship with John, while still difficult, is much less antagonistic in this version.
- A minor example, but in Dean's dream world where Mary was still alive he was married to a woman named Carmen, while in the original version Carmen was just his girlfriend.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Bobby is shorter, stockier and clean shaven compared to Jim Beaver and wears a fedora instead of his signature trucker hat.
- All Just a Dream: Jess's reaction to being attacked by a spirit trying to kill her.
- Alternate Continuity: To the TV series, with there being multiple differences to the show such as characters and monster lore.
- Ascended Extra: Missouri, who got only one episode in the original series, is a minor recurring character, taking over the roles of the Roadhouse crew (minus Jo's), who don't appear in this series.
- Asshole Victim:
- Kurt, who stalks his ex-girlfriend Madison, is viciously mauled to death by a werewolf (who just so happens to be said ex-girlfriend).
- Jim Miller was a horribly abusive father who constantly, and mercilessly, beat his son Max since he was a little boy. Much like the stalker-ex-boyfriend Kurt in "Moonlight", he met his end at the hands of his own son who took vengeance upon him for all his years of abuse.
- Badass Family: The Winchesters.
- Badass Longcoat: John friggin' Winchester.
- Badass Normal: Hunters in general.
- Bad Luck Charm: A god of poverty takes all of Dean's good luck in "The Spirit of Vegas" episode when he comes into possession of ancient Japanese coin.
- Black Girl Dies First: Averted in "3 Years Ago". She dies second. The Final Girl bites it in an unrelated way.
- Boyish Short Hair: The other characters might look off, but, hey, at least Meg kept her fabulous blond pixie cut!
- Camp Gay: There's a deputy chief in one episode who fits the trope to a T. He lets Sam and Dean out of jail for the reason that they "are so yummy!" Of course, this is thrown into doubt later in the episode, when we discover that he had other motives for freeing them.
- The Can Kicked Him: In the "Nightmare" episode, Jim Miller dies by being dragged face first into a toilet by a black mass rather than being trapped in his car like the original series.
- Clingy MacGuffin: In "The Spirit of Vegas" episode, Dean has bad luck due to an ancient Japanese coin and all his attempts to get rid of it end with it coming back in some improbable manner. After he throws it out the window, some crows pick the coin up and drop it on his head. After he throws it in a lake, a fisherman catches it on his hook and flings it into Dean's pocket. Then he tries burying it, only to find a snake on his lap as they drive away that spits the coin out.
- Composite Character:
- The Yellow-Eyed Demon, possibly, given that during his first appearance he is referred to explicitly and exclusively as "the Devil". He also mentions how he used to be an angel of the lord and that he knew God, further suggesting that Azazel and Lucifer are the same character in this version.
- Missouri Moseley not only serves the same role she did in the episode she appeared in from the show, but also takes Ellen Harvelle's place during the anime's take on the events of "All Hell Breaks Loose".
- Meg appears to be a combination of the live-action series's Meg and of her brother, Tom. She retains her appearance from the original series's Season 1, but is given Tom's Silent Antagonist characterization and is shot dead by Dean using the Colt to save Sam.
- Creator Provincialism: Most episodes were adapted from the live-action series, but not all. In the all-new storylines, the Monster of the Week tended to be from the folklore the Japanese creators were most familiar with, hence the episodes about the yam or kappa.
- Cut Short: A la The Golden Compass, the series ends after YED is killed, and before the supernatural ramifications of this can be revealed, making the ending much happier. Sure, John is dead, but the boys have suffered through a lot less pain, and far fewer people have been killed.
- A Day in the Limelight: Meg and Jake are the centers of their own episodes (Episode 7, "Temptation of the Demon" for Meg and Episode 19, "Loser" for Jake) while John and Lily share "Darkness Calling".
- Dark Secret: Apparently the circumstances of Mary's death were kept hidden from Sam in this version, with only John and Dean knowing how she died.
- Dead All Along: Molly.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The Reaper in "In My Time of Dying" assumes Mary's form to coax Dean's spirit into crossing over.
- Deal with the Devil: "Temptation of the Demon" follows devout Christian Maria Masters struggling with the choice to make a pact with the yellow-eyed demon to save her dying daughter, Meg. Out of options, she decides to go through with it and becomes possessed by a minion of his as a result, resulting in her attacking Bobby and the Winchesters and dying from the subsequent exorcism. Want to know what puts an even crueler twist on the situation? It is revealed at the end of the episode that her daughter has become possessed as well (casting Meg's "recovery" in a more suspicious light in hindsight) and is killed later on anyway, even after all her mother's desperate attempts to save her.
- Death by Adaptation: The Meg Masters demon is shot dead with the Colt in Episode 15, "Devil's Trap". Not exactly eight seasons and a redemption arc.
- Demonic Possession: Like in the show this happens to anyone unfortunate enough to encounter a demon needing a host.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Psychics.
- Everybody Lives: The episode "What Lives in the Lake", where the brothers figure out that the monster is actually a Kappa who is saving people's lives and convince the townspeople to let it be.
- Evil Brit: Jason, the Knight Templar vampire hunter in "Savage Blood".
- Eye Scream:
- In "3 Years Ago", Bloody Mary finds Sam's eyes sufficiently reflective to use as a portal. She doesn't damage them, though. He bleeds from them when she turns her power on him.
- Max in episode 11 to his stepmother. Almost.
- Gender Bender: The end of "Nightmare" reveals that the yellow-eyed demon is possessing a worker at the drive-thru where the Winchesters are, in order to spy on them after the Max incident.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Lily was established as having had a girlfriend in the TV series, but her sexuality appears to be either glossed over or outright erased in the anime series, which seemingly turns her girlfriend into strictly her roommate/friend.
- Ink-Suit Actor: To varying degrees. Dean and Sam were modeled on their live-action counterparts, though with more emphasis on capturing the character than the actor. Everyone else, no.
- Kick the Dog:
- Max Miller's father is even more of a bastard in this version by virtue of abusing his son and throwing out Max's sick dog from their home.
- Left Hanging: The show ends where Season 2 of the original series did: the Yellow-Eyed Demon dead, Dean Hell-bound, Sam coming back "different", hundreds of demons let loose on the world...and that's all, folks. It might have been dealt with similarly to how it was in the next few seasons of the TV show, but it's supposed to be an Alternate Continuity, so who knows what would've happened?
- Lighter and Softer: While episodes based directly on the original TV show are still dark, most of the anime-original episodes are comedic, light-hearted, and have a small death count.
- Magical Negro: Missouri.
- Missed Him by That Much: In a flashback episode where Sam is still at college, Dean and their father work a case revolving around Jess, his girlfriend. Rather than disrupt his life again, they decide to just proceed with the case. This involves a lot of Sam barely missing seeing his father or his brother, getting to a ridiculous level when they are one aisle over in the library, not talking quietly, and he doesn't notice a single thing.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Yellow-Eyed Demon's female host in "Nightmare" and "Darkness Calling" bears such a striking resemblance to Katherine Boecher's Lilith in the original series, right down to the outfit in "The Monster at the End of This Book", that she must have been modeled after her.
- In "What Is and What Should Never Be", a photo shows that Dean is a fireman in the reality where the Winchesters never became hunters. He wasn't a fireman in the live-action version of that episode (rather a mechanic like his dad had been), but mentioned having wanted to be one in the live-action "Devil's Trap".
- Our Vampires Are Different: They even have a difference from the vampires in the original show, namely that they can have kids, who become vampiric around puberty.
- Parental Neglect:
- John Winchester, natch.
- Maria Masters, Meg's workaholic mom.
- Gray Baker, Lily's dad who abandoned her after witnessing her mother's fiery death.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Most episodes that are taken whole cloth from the live-action show, such as "The Alter Ego" ("Skin") and "Moonlight" ("Heart"), have at least one change to them to help maintain suspense and plot twists.
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Real Song Theme Tune: Naoki Takao's Cover Version of "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas is the credits theme. For the English DVD Release, the original version was used to replace the cover version, and all of the guitar solos are the DVDs menu music. Justified because it was released through the same channels as the main series (Warner Bros, etc), and they had the licence from it that they could use. - Red Oni, Blue Oni: As you can see from the page picture, the official website takes it literally. Their clothes (though not their skin and hair) also tend to show it off in the actual show.
- Red Right Hand: Lily's "killing with a touch" power is in her right hand.
- Redemption Equals Death: Mrs Lyle sacrifices herself to save the Winchesters.
- Replacement Goldfish: Mrs Lyle comes to see Sam as a surrogate son that will fill the void her own dead son has left, and wants to keep her with him. Dean and John object to this rather strongly.
- Rescue Romance: While she thinks it was only a dream, Sam trying to save Jessica from Bloody Mary is what helps start their relationship.
- Rule of Cool: Due to the nature of adapting a live-action show into an anime, a lot more moments that simply physically can't be done on-screen, either for budget or safety reasons, are added in. For example: Bobby rescuing the Winchesters with a helicopter(!) in "Devil's Trap".
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Both of Sam's Love Interests, Jess and Madison. Hmmm.
- Silent Antagonist: The demon possessing Meg.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Missouri, as one of her original characters was Put on a Bus and the rest all died. In the larger scale, all the destruction in the original series caused by Lucifer and pretty much anything after season 5 never happened in the anime, meaning thousands if not millions of unnamed people were spared in this adaptation.
- The Stinger: One in each episode. Sometimes irrelevant (a funny moment or the scene where the townsfolk wave goodbye) and sometimes vital to the next episode (like the ends of "Devil's Trap" and "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One").
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like in the main show the Yellow-Eyed Demon is shown to have these.
- Tragic Monster: Madison of episode 10, "Moonlight", is very much this. She was turned into a werewolf and, without even realizing it, murdered her own boss, killed her stalker ex-boyfriend and sadly, in the end, she had to be killed by the Winchester brothers to prevent her from harming anyone else.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Max Miller of episode 11, "Nightmare", spent his entire childhood being beaten by his father. This left Max introverted and broken. When he finds out he has telekinetic powers he takes vengeance on his father and seeks to do the same to his mother for sitting back and doing nothing to stop his father.
- Whole Episode Flashback: "3 Years Ago" and "Rising Son".
