The world of anime is a fascinating industry, full of creativity, engaging stories and endearing characters such as Goku from Dragon Ball or Luffy from One Piece, whose incredible visual details capture the imagination of millions of people around the world. Over the years, animation studios have perfected the way they design characters, always seeking the perfect balance between artistic style and character personality.
However, many of these characters were not always as we know them today. Sometimes, the initial sketches of anime characters are quite different from the final versions that appear on screen. Below we will show you some characters that were quite different from how we know them today.
Dragon Ball’s Goku faithfully known as the Monkey King
During the development process, designers and creators of anime or manga usually make several modifications to adapt to the expectations of the public, which can result in significant changes in the appearance or attitude of the characters, such is the case of some of the best known characters in this industry.
Goku was not the exception when it comes to character changes and we know that in Dragon Ball this wonderful character is known in different ways such as: Jade Emperor, Son Goku, Kakarotto or Monkey King. This last one makes a lot of reference to the first design that Goku had and originally the saiyajin had been imagined to look completely like a monkey, finally they opted for his appearance to be more similar to that of a human with the only characteristic that he will have a monkey’s tail.
Luffy from One Piece
Here we have another character that went through something similar and at the beginning Luffy’s appearance was a little rougher and sloppier, even the idea that the future king of pirates would carry some kind of weapon was even considered. But finally they opted to leave us with the charismatic captain of the Straw Hats, as we know him, full of life and whose smile we know wherever we go.
Natsu from Fairy Tail
Adjustments in character design can be motivated by various reasons, such as the need to make them more expressive, improve the relationship with other characters, or even make their design more attractive or recognizable. Quite possibly that was what happened with our favorite Dragon Slayer Natsu, a character whose appearance was somewhat different from how we know him.
We can notice this change mainly in his head, since at the beginning the idea was that Natsu would have horns sticking out of his pink hair, giving him a more bestial and dragon-like appearance. The change can also be noticed in his clothes and how in the sketch he lacks his iconic scarf left by Igneel.
Deku from My Hero Academia
It seems that as with Goku, Deku is one of the characters that suffered a much more noticeable change and the idea that we had of this hero was very different from his original version. His design was much darker and you can even appreciate a character a little more depressed and without his characteristic smile that we all love.
Demon Slayer: Tanjiro
It seems that the authors had something with imagining their characters in a very dark and gloomy facet, because not even Tanjiro from Demon Slayer was spared from this. His design, like Deku’s, shows us a darker version, where we can notice that all his brightness was replaced by darkness.
Very possibly the author wanted to show how the loss of this character was not only shown in his heart damaged by the loss, but also wanted to show the physical scars that were leaving behind all the traumatic events that Tanjiro went through throughout the story.
We can say that some famous characters have evolved from their initial conception to become iconic figures in pop culture. This transformation reflects the collaborative process between the creators to make them more memorable and loved by the fans, so making the decision to change them resulted in the creation of memorable characters.