Marth Debuted In Smash Bros / Anime & Manga

• Only ten Anpanman movies were dubbed in English and released in North America.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure: The series was preceded by a theatrical short film that debuted the day before the show's Japanese television premiere, in which all eight Chosen Children were shown off. This short film didn't air before the show in the West, meaning outside Japan, viewers were introduced to Hikari in Episode 21. This arguably worked in the show's favor overseas, turning the "who's the eighth child" search in the second half of the show into a mystery plot; albeit one where Hikari is still the prime suspect, as Western audiences' first impressions of Hikari was now that of a rather mysterious Creepy Child who knows a lot more about Digimon (at least, Koromon) than she should. For its part, the series does explain the events of that first movie on two separate occasions, and the short film it did eventually release internationally as part of Digimon: The Movie following the success of the first two seasons.
  • One of the earliest and well-known anime examples would be how Ryo Akiyama debuted in Digimon Tamers through the Digimon (WonderSwan Series).
  • Another example would be Takato's cousin Kai. He first appeared in the first Tamers movie, which wouldn't be dubbed till several years after the show ended in the U.S. His second appearance (first in the dub) is toward the end of Tamers, where Takato clearly recognizes him but not in a way that the show is introducing him.
  • Since Digimon Data Squad was never released in Italy, Masaru Daimon and ShineGreymon (with relative Burst Mode) appeared for the first time over there in Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time.
  • Digimon Adventure tri. was never released in Italy too, so the first appearance of Meiko and Meikoomon over there was their very brief cameo appearance in Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna.
• One Piece:
  • Ryuma was the main character of his own Manga oneshot called Wanted! before, which has yet to be released outside of Japan.
  • The American release of the Wii game Unlimited Adventure has numerous characters that had yet to appear in the official releases of the anime or the manga, as did a few others games between then a couple years later when the English release of the manga rushed ahead to catch up with the Japanese one. This includes Franky, Kaku, Spandam, Rob Lucci, Kuzan/Aokiji, and Paulie.
  • Funimation released One Piece Film: Strong World, featuring Brook as a one of the Straw Hat Pirates, long before his introduction in the English dub of the TV series, and even used this as one of the film's main selling points.
  • Funimation released One Piece Film: Gold before their dub reached adult Sabo and Koala (both her kid and adult versions). This movie marked their English debuts.
  • During the "Great One Piece Hiatus of 2019", Funimation released several TV Specials. One such special was Episode of Sabo, a recap of Sabo's backstory and the early parts of Dressrosa. Marking the English debuts of a couple Punk Hazard characters (Kin'emon and Caesar Clown) and a multitude of Dressrosa characters (Rebecca, Kyros, Viola, Cavendish, Bartelomeo, Sai, Leo, Hajrudin, Chinjao, Diamante, Trebol, Sugar, Fujitora, and more)
  • Funimation released One Piece Stampede, which featured an appearance from "Big News" Morgans, long before their dub reached Whole Cake Island.
  • The Italian dubs of Gold, Stampede and One Piece Film: Red similarly introduce a lot of characters to Italian audiences, since the Italian dub of the series had a 7-years-long hiatus between the Fishmen Island and Punkhazard arcs.
  • The 4Kids era wasn't immune to this either. Despite them removing some elements from Grand Battle and Pirates' Carnival, Alabasta characters such as Crocodile still appear in the former, and some Skypiea characters such as Eneru and Wyper appear in the latter and Grand Adventure. Pirates' Carnival also featured characters and elements from cut arcs such as Dory, Broggy, and Laboon.
• Kaito Kid has his own Manga and Anime adaption, but most people know him as an reoccurring character in Case Closed.
• This occurred to Mazinger Z in large parts of Europe and the Middle East; UFO Robo Grendizer was translated and shown in countries such as Italy and France first, and when Mazinger finally aired in response to the surprise popularity of Grendizer, it was seen as a cheap knockoff of Grendizer, especially since Kouji Kabuto, the hero of Mazinger, appears in Grendizer in a supporting role (despite the series sort-of-not-really being a direct sequel.) This was exacerbated even further because Kouji's name was somewhat unnecessarily changed between the two shows, making people think that "Kouji Kabuto" was a bad knockoff of Duke Fleed's buddy "Alcor".
• Raideen, Planet Robo Danguard Ace, and Combattler V. They were part of the "Shogun Warriors" toy set Mattel introduced into the States in the late 70s - which also included bizarro versions of Mazinger Z and the various Getters, so if you really want to stretch the trope you could say that a lot of robots "debuted" as oddly huge toys - but the cartoons weren't licensed for American release. Oh no, that would be logical. Instead, the likenesses of the Raideen, Danguard and Combattler robots were licensed to, of all people, Marvel Comics for the creation of a Shogun Warriors American print comic. That eventually featured, among other things, Combattler fighting alongside the Fantastic Four against the gigantic robot minion of, basically, the Star of David. Really, you couldn't make up something like this if you tried. Raideen and Combattler's shows never made it to the US ^note (well, Raideen aired in three cities on local Japanese language commmunity channels, but the majority of the Union and 99% of the public never got to see the show); Danguard eventually made it to American TV with the franchise name intact as part of the syndicated Force Five cartoon package (alongside Grendizer from above), after the toys and comic went out of production.
• Kinnikuman - While neither the original manga nor anime were licensed for the US, toy company Mattel did sell a toyline of Kinnikuman figures under the name of M.U.S.C.L.E. When the sequel series, Kinnikuman Nisei, was later adapted to the US, the title was changed to Ultimate Muscle in order to tie the series with Mattel's figures.
• The only American appearance of the Mashin Hero Wataru Series has been in the guise of the TurboGrafx-16 game Keith Courage in Alpha Zones. The anime has yet to be offially released westward as of 2021, but its revival Mashin Hero Wataru The Seven Spirits Of Ryujinmaru does come with English subtitles.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The series has several near misses where this trope almost happened, but was barely missed because of the obscure Nippon Golden Network television channel. Unless you had seen episodes of Dragon Ball from this obscure channel, every one of Goku's fellow Z-Warriors (with the exception of Yamcha, who appeared in the aborted syndication of the first 13 episodes) would have been introduced when Dragon Ball Z debuted, not with their original Dragonball appearances.
  • NGN also showed Doctor Slump. If you missed it, your first introduction to Dr. Slump would have been when Goku and General Blue visited Penguin Village. An interesting case happened in Malaysia. The Penguin Village episode aired in Malaysia around 1997-1998, Dr. Slump later aired 4-5 years after the episode aired.
  • Fusion Reborn was released in North America in March 2006. Before that, the video game Budokai 3 had Gogeta as a playable character in 2004, and 2005's Budokai Tenkaichi had Gogeta and the movie's antagonist, Janemba. Gogeta was also in the game Ultimate Battle 22, but they tried to cover it up by calling him Vegetto (another fusion). Budokai 3 also came out a few months before Dragon Ball GT ended, so it additionally spoiled Super Yixinglong and Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta. The aforementioned Gogeta is also playable in his Super Saiyan 4 state from the end of GT, making him a double spoiler. Oddly enough, the events of Fusion Reborn were also covered by the Game Boy Advance game Buu's Fury before it was released in English, despite the game being developed in the US.
  • Raging Blast 2 averts this with Hatchiyack, since the game comes with a remake of the anime special he debuted in. However, it's played straight with Tarble, from the yet-to-be-dubbed Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!.
  • Legendary Super Warriors, a Game Boy Color title released in November 2002, covered the entire DBZ saga beginning to end. This is notable for the fact that it featured the ending of the Buu saga where Goku destroyed Kid Buu with the Spirit Bomb, only a few months before the corresponding episodes made their debut in the U.S.
  • Beerus and Whis from Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods now make their US debut in the video game Battle of Z.
  • The Dragon Ball Super characters Goku Black, Zamasu, Hit, Frost, Kyabe and Jiren all made their western debut in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, all as DLC characters outside of Hit.
  • When Dragon Ball first aired in America, they released three action figures for Goku, Yamcha, and Krillin. However, the run was cancelled before Krillin made his debut in the series. This was repeated in the Dragon Ball Z line done by Irwin Toys in 1999, which had figures for characters years before they debuted in the US. The most notable examples were Majin Buu, the multiple Super Saiyan forms, and Tapion.
  • Launch's U.S. debut was in the release of the second film, Sleeping Princess of Devil's Castle, which was released a year before she was introduced in Viz's run of the manga and years before Funimation would dub the series proper.
  • Dragon Ball Super: Broly came in Italy when the anime's dub was still at episode 79 (during the exhibition match between Universe 7 and Universe 9), meaning that most of the Tournament of Power fighters debuted first when Goku thinks back about it and a brief shot of the fighters is shown. It also spoils Frieza's involvement in the Tournament and his resurrection.
  • The Creative Products Corporation (Filipino-English dub prior to Tagalog dub) dub of both Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge and Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler (Released as Dragon Ball Z: The Greatest Rivals) features several elements and characters that were soon to be dubbed since the dub stopped at the first 26 episodes of the Saiyan Saga such as Bardock, Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, and Frieza.
• Bleach's fourth movie introduced a character named Kokuto who would later go on to appear in the videogame Bleach: Soul Ignition. Nothing wrong here; the movie wouldn't be dubbed for a good few years and the game would probably never see the light of day outside of Japan (as is, sadly, the case with most Bleach videogames). Then, however comes the news that N.I.S America are releasing the game in the West under the slightly modified title; Bleach Soul Resurrección. And apart from the name and the opening theme song which had to be changed due to licensing issues, everything was left intact, including Kokuto, even going as far as to giving him an English voice. Given that his backstory was not given in the game and at this point, there wasn't even a Fan Sub of the movie available yet, a standard reaction to unlocking him is "Who the Hell is Kokuto?"
• The entire cast of Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, an arcade game released worldwide, comes from the manga and anime series Wangan Midnight. Despite the former first being serialized in 1992, neither the manga nor the anime have seen an official release outside of Japan. Averted in Taiwan, where official Chinese translations of the manga were released before the games.
• Naruto:
  • Rock Lee made his US debut in the game Naruto Clash of Ninja, which came out a month before he debuted in the show.
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: The English Dub of the Naruto anime was still around the 2nd arc of Shippuden when this game came out (October 14th, 2010), meaning this was the English debut for some characters:
    • Hidan, Kakuzu, Konan and Pain appear in this game outside of sillhouetes.
    • Nagato appears in the cutscene after the final boss.
    • Tobi's Madara persona debuts as part of his Awakening.
    • Other characters first debuting in English are Sasuke's Hebi/Taka team (Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo), Sage Mode Naruto, Killer Bee and the Eight Tails.
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations: Onoki and Mei Terumi debut in this game before the English dub reached the Five Kage Summit arc.
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4:
    • Kaguya Otsutsuki is this for people who have only followed the anime.
    • In Latin America, besides Kaguya, half of the new cast from Shippuden plus Boruto and Sarada^note This is especially relevant with those two characters, because Boruto: Naruto the Movie will probably never be dubbed in Spanish, since only one of the movies and one special were dubbed to Spanish, nor anything beyond the second half of Shippuden, as the Latin American dub stopped when the voice acting studio who dubbed the series went bankrupt. The same goes with Mecha-Naruto., as the series only recently debuted in Latin America in 2015, after a long hiatus when the rest of the series was cancelled from Cartoon Network's Latin American feed in 2006.
• A few Gundam series debuted internationally in spin-off video games before getting an official overseas release, with Gundam ZZ appearing in Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam, Victory Gundam, Gundam X and ∀ Gundam debuting in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, and Crossbone Gundam debuting in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn. As of May 2017 this leaves Stargazer and AGE as the only main Gundam series to not fall under this trope, neither these series being officially released in the West yet nor the games in which they did appear being localized.
  • Since Gundam Wing debuted before the original Mobile Suit Gundam on Toonami, American viewers met the Char Clone Zechs Marquise before the original villain Char Aznable. This got so bad that in the early 2000s, the single best way to identify a "new Western fan" was whether or not they mis-identified a Char cosplayer as Zechs. This happened a lot.
  • The Earthree Gundam of Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE first appeared in Gundam Battle: Gunpla Warfare two days before Re:RISE aired on Youtube.
• Pokémon:
  • Many playing Pokémon Pinball outside of Japan when it first came out probably didn't realize that the tune that plays during the "capture" mode is "Mezase Pokémon Masutaa", the original opening to Pokémon: The Series. This also happens with the Mega Man Battle Network side game Network Transmission. If you happen to have seen the anime in Japanese, you'll get the intended thrill when, at a key moment, the game busts out an instrumental version of "Kaze wo Tsukinukete" (the show's first opening theme).
  • Pocket Monsters is the longest-running Pokemon manga and one of the earliest manga for the series, but it has never been officially exported outside of a few volumes in Singapore; the ongoing Pokémon Adventures is the most well-known manga for the franchise. The main characters of Pocket Monsters did appear in a Show Within a Show in a Hoenn episode of the anime, though.
  • As for the anime, audiences in many countries (like the Nordic countries, Poland, Czech Republic and Portugal) were first introduced to Misty's Togepi in Pikachu's Vacation, a short shown alongside Pokémon: The First Movie. The short as well as the movie itself also spoiled the evolutions of Ash's Charizard, Jessie's Arbok and James's Weezing. At the time the movie was released, these countries had yet to air the episodes where Togepi hatched and the other aforementioned Pokémon evolved.
• The Ranma ½ films and OAVs were made shortly after the TV series ended in Japan, but when brought over the U.S. were released right when the dub of the TV series started, and thus several characters such as Shampoo, Mousse, Cologne, Happosai, Ukyo, Principal Kuno, Gosunkugi, Sentaro, Sasuke, and even Ranma's own mother made their U.S. debuts in the OAVs before anywhere else. And Pantyhouse Taro made his English-debut not in either the manga or the anime, but rather the video game Hard Battle, which was released shortly after the English dub of the anime started.
• Similar to Brook, Pantherlily made his Funimation debut in the English dub of Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess, which was screened before Funimation would release the Edolas arc of the TV series where he was originally introduced.
• In America, most Inuyasha fans were introduced to Kagura not via the manga or anime, but through the fighting game Inu-Yasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale for the PlayStation, which was released in the U.S. a few months before both the manga volume with her debut was released by Viz, and before her first episodes aired on Adult Swim. Also, Naraku's "super◊" form was first glimpsed by American audiences in Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask, which was released over a year before the episodes that showed how he gained his appearance would air.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has the Crimson Dragon's Heart, which wasn't even mentioned until Rua received it in Episode 142. What some viewers likely missed is that it first appeared in the WC 2010 game Reverse Of Arcadia both in Japan and internationally, which was released in Japan the day after Episode 97 aired over there. Dub-exclusive watchers never found out what that extra piece was.
• Two brief scenes from Jikuu Tenshou Nazca are shown in the opening of Malcolm in the Middle, which for some countries are the only part of the anime they'll ever got.
• Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania is a long running Super Mario Bros. manga, and probably one of the most famous adaptations back at home; however, outside of Japan, the first most had heard of it was when Mario-kun was featured as DLC in Super Mario Maker.
• Sailor Uranus and Neptune made their North American debuts in Sailor Moon S: The Movie, which was localized before the S TV season. This isn't counting their brief appearance as shadows in a foreshadowing preview at the end of R. Irwin also made dolls of Super Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon and her Super Chibi Moon form, as well as toys of the wands up to the Kaleidomoon Scope, before S and SuperS premiered in North America. Interestingly, Mixx Entertainment also adapted some of the episodes that were skipped in the English dub into chapter books in the early 90s, such as the episode with the evil fortune teller or the one where the Scouts visit a haunted beach resort.
  • The Sailor Moon arcade game received an international release in March 1995, including in North America, where the anime hadn't made its premiere yet (The anime was already airing its fourth season in Japan). The first season of the anime wouldn't premiere in the U.S/Canada until September later that year. Rendering the arcade game the official debut of Sailor Moon in the region.
  • Thanks to the Company Cross References to said show in the anime, Sailor Moon was some countries' first introduction to Goldfish Warning!.
• The Pretty Cure franchise's first appearance in the United States was, oddly enough, on an episode of Iron Chef America. In one part of the episode, sardine tacos that had been made by Morimoto Masaharu were held together by origami paper with the cast of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo! printed on it. The franchise would not show up in the United States until five years after the episode had aired.
  • In Spain, the HuGtto! Pretty Cure movie was officially screened at an anime convention despite the series having no official release there.
• The main characters of Tantei Opera Milky Holmes debuted outside of Japan only as background cameos in multiple episodes of Cardfight!! Vanguard.
• A very odd example happened with PriPara in Hong Kong. They decided to show the fourth movie, Kirarin Star Live, in theaters nationwide in the summer of 2017, just as the country was about to reach the end of the second season. The movie reveals following details about further seasons of the show:
  • The baby character the girls take care of, Jururu.
  • The units formed during the season of the show, including Triangle, Gaarumageddon, TriColore and NonSugar.
  • The fact that Triangle is entirely controlled by Non Manaka.
  • The theme song of Idol Time PriPara, "Just Be Yourself", is the song played over the end credits.
  • At the end of the movie, Reona and Meganii visit DanPri from Idol Time. After this scene, Yui, the main protagonist of season 4, is briefly seen outside Prism Stone.
• Hot-Blooded store manager Meito Anizawa is the mascot for the very store he runs, Animate; however, due to the few amount of Animate locations outside of Asia (the lone location in the United States closed in 2003, and there aren't any known in Europe), most people in the West know him from his appearances in Lucky Star.
• When Last Period devoted an episode to showcasing the original game developers' other projects (aptly titled "The Happy Elements Episode"), they added in segments for Ensemble Girls!, Ensemble Stars!, and Merc Storia. None of these games made it westward (and in Girls!' case, it finished up months before the episode aired), meaning it was the first time most viewers would see them or their respective stories. Merc Storia itself would later come over through its Fall 2018 anime, and the cast of Stars! wouldn't get their proper debut until their 2019 anime adaptation.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Linith is first introduced in the second Sound Stage for the first season, but since none of the sound stages were ever translated, she just shows up in Fate's Lotus-Eater Machine in A's without foreign audiences having any idea who she is.
  • Given the fact that the PSP games and Innocent were never released outside of Japan, the limited release of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection marked the first time that the Materials, the Florian sisters, and U-D could legally be seen in the West. Averted in Shario's case, as StrikerS had been licensed by Amazon a year prior.
• The English dub for Marvel Future Avengers (first aired in Japan in February 28, 2017) took until February 28, 2020 (a full three years) to be broadcast via Disney+, but the eponymous team have already been made Canon Immigrants to the Marvel Universe by then, with Adi first showing up in the third issue of War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas (released in June 2019 with an August cover date), and Makoto and Chloe following suit in the Future Fight Firsts: White Fox one-shot (released in October 2019 with an December cover date) and spoiling Bruno's Heel–Face Turn in the Future Fight Firsts: Crescent and Io one-shot.
• My Hero Academia character Hawks had a fairly important part in the film My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising before he appeared in the anime, leaving anyone not familiar with his role in manga wondering who he is. Said film also spoils that he is a double agent, but doesn't reveal which side he is really working for.
• Before WildBrain acquired the rights to Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō in 2020, clips of the "If You Can Use The Toilet, You're A Pantsman!" segment from the Kodomo Challenge program were used in one of The Soup's "What The Kids Are Watching" segments.
• Many Western fans' first exposure to characters from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure were from M.U.G.E.N.
• For Fullmetal Alchemist, the character of Alex Louis Armstrong made his U.S. debut in the video game Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, which was released just a few weeks before the first episode with him in the Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) aired on television and months before the first manga volume with him was released.
• Given the failure of the Yo-kai Watch franchise in the West and Level-5's horrid mismanagement, the only material fans see is the manga. With the release of Volume 17, we got Nate's son from the future (Tate Adams) before his first appearance in the fourth movie and more prominent role in the Shadowside anime, as well as Shin and Nekomata (renamed Jack and Gusto) before their first appearance in the fifth movie.
• Unlike some Western countries, the United Kingdom never saw a release of Ojamajo Doremi. This didn't stop Picture House from releasing Looking for Magical DoReMi in their theaters in December of 2021, making it the first official release of Ojamajo Doremi media in the country.
  • Ojamajo Doremi also marked the North American debut of characters from Yume no Crayon Oukoku through the Company Cross References to the show, most notably a poster of Princess Silver appearing in a Character of the Day's room.