History Main / GenreShift

* Within [[http://xkcd.com/734/ this xkcd strip]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'': Parodied in strip #734 "Outbreak", where the first five minutes of a movie are action/horror, while the remaining 90 minutes are a romantic comedy.

* Korean Webtoon ''Blood Bank'' started as a smutty BDSM postapocalyptic yaoi romance comedy & ended as an action-packed horror war magic-fighting series with a borderline DownerEnding.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* WebVideo/{{Decker}}: The first two seasons are political action thrillers (granted, most likely a parody of them). The third season "Decker vs Dracula" though introduces monster horror, featuring many of the monsters from Franchise/UniversalHorror, to the series. This is rather short lived as Decker vs Dracula only lasted 3 episodes and the fourth season "Decker: Unclassified" went back to being an action thriller series [[spoiler: until the last episode where the BigBad is revealed to be Dracula. It seems some of the episodes in Decker: Unsealed with also involve monster horror]]

* During the tail end of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, many superhero characters were changed to civilian detectives, adventurers, horror hosts, etc, to accommodate the changing tastes of the reading public. Earlier, something similar happened to many non-superhero characters who went from pulp-style adventurers to pulp-style adventurers ''in tights''.

* ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' started out about a post-college Indie rocker, his friends, and his weird little RobotBuddy. Then Faye got her tragic backstory, Pintsize got increasingly destructive and psychotic, Raven got kinda skanky, etc, until you can barely recognize the characters from the early strips.
** The comic was always set [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture twenty minutes into the future]], with sentient robots like Pintsize and Winslow running around, but recently the comic has shifted heavily towards storylines involving robots and AI. It may have started with Marten, Marigold, and Hannelore visiting her dad in deep space and coming into contact with Station, but since Faye got hired at the local bot-fighting ring the comic has almost become all robots, all the time. [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3359 Lampshaded here]].

Genre Shifts are sometimes used in {{Sequel}} stories.

* Creator/DreamWorksAnimation: Originally, [=DreamWorks=] focused on sweeping epics, and more serious stories such as ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt''. These unfortunately fell under the umbrella of AllAnimationIsDisney. Now, barring some of their more [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda recent]] [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon efforts]], it can be hard to remember when their films weren't based primarily on pop-culture references and heavily marketed celebrity voice-acting. As alluded before, however, [=DreamWorks=] shifted once again, with its movies once more taking themselves seriously while remaining healthily comedic. While still not quite as serious as ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the tone generally leans towards what was seen in ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado''.

* ''Webcomic//{{Sinfest}}'' started off as a comedy strip, albeit one not unwilling to touch upon dramatic and/or political subject matter when the situation called for it. In 2011, the comic started becoming much more overtly political, and by 2019 had abandoned its previous genre altogether in favor of espousing right-wing politics.

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman'' starts out seeming like a standard superhero story, albeit one with an unusually large cosmic scale. Than as things progress and [[FromBadToWorse the Incursions and other threats get worse]], it becomes clear you're ''actually'' reading a CosmicHorrorStory that just happens to include superheroes. The [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism contrast]] between the early and later parts of the story is highlighted when Captain America gives a passionate, epic speech about how he saves worlds and will find a way to save everyone. Previous, similar speeches had been treated as rightfully awe-inspiring and hopeful. This speech? Kang bluntly tells Cap that nobody cares and that his HeroicWillpower won't stop the Incursions.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Mulan}}'' starts off as a typical Franchise/DisneyPrincess Animated Musical... but after we see soldiers sing a cheerful song about the girls worth fighting for, [[spoiler: they find out that the Huns have already destroyed the village they're supposed to save]] and the movie stops being a musical altogether (the characters no longer break into song afterwards, and the last three songs, a TriumphantReprise of "I'll Make a Man out of You", and the end credits music don't count).

* Since-ended Website/{{Keenspot}} comic ''Webcomic/CoolCatStudio'' started out as a mundane office comedy without any hint of unusual goings-on. Then one of the characters underwent AlienAbduction and cloning. Eventually the comic became an all-out FantasyKitchenSink, with arcs centered around ghosts, magic, private eyes, and extraterrestrial war.