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| - digivolves the wrong way into a bringer of apocalypse-type creature]]]]. Are we even talking about the same anime here?
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* The train scene in episode 41 of Tamers is probably the most extreme example of this trope in the entire franchise. It goes from funny (Takato facing the troubles of having Guilimon on the train and tripping over his feelings about Jeri), to sad (Takato reduced to tears by Jeri's lifeless state), to creepy (Jeri, actually the D-Reaper's agent, reading the ingredients off the back of an energy bar in a cold monotone) all in one scene.
* Darker Than Black pulls off a pretty hardcore case of whiplash by accident in episode 6. The episode features a Broken Bird Woobie girl who wants nothing more than to stop killing, and live a happy life by herself. Of course, any Genre Savvy viewer knows that she dies tragically by the end of the episode. Which she does, courtesy of several large ice spears through the lungs, followed by the sad 'dying in the rain' scene. Quiet/Sad ending theme. Then the preview for the next episode is presented by a hyper-active Moe character with pink hair.
* They do it on purpose a lot, too, since this is a show that really likes to mess with your head. Just look at the beginning of the first episode: inexplicable shot of a girl standing by a lake with sad music -> police chasing a superpowered secret agent -> agent gets away, starts breaking his own fingers, then gets owned by a scary guy in a White Mask of Doom -> Exposition -> badass opening theme that kinda spoils a couple of things -> Adorkable exchange student trying to move into his apartment gets mistaken for a TV repairman.
* The second season of Black Lagoon has the wisecracky Greenback Jane storyline sandwiched between the (tragically horrific) Vampire Twins and (horrifically tragic) Fujiyama Gangster Paradise storylines.
* The Black Butler ending themes. The first half has I'm ALIVE! which is an upbeat song that's accompanied by adorable, brightly colored animations of chibi versions of all the characters. The second ending, Lacrimosa (which means "Tearful" or "Mourning" in Latin), has a much sadder tone and the animation features a regular Sebastian rowing a boat along a river with Ciel laying in a bed of white flowers; the colors of the whole image are rather muted, too.
* This happens in the manga, too; one chapter featured The Hero ordering his butler to burn down a building full of hostages. The next chapter has an eccentric tailor come to fit him with some new clothes and running-around-half-naked hijinks ensue.
* If you want to talk about Kuro, please see the very first five minutes of the very first episode of the second season. This episode introduces Alois Trancy, who, in the first minute of the episode is sitting on a bed, covered in bruises next to a much older man, while he repeats the word 'darkness' over and over again. Then he suddenly switches from his solemn state and yells "I WANT THIS! I WANT YOU!". Then, after the theme song, the kid switches from Ax Crazy to adorable and quirky to melancholic to incredibly flamboyant so much that your neck will be broken by the time the eyecatch plays.
* Rust Blaster, by the same author as Black Butler, manages to flip flop between high school hijinks and screaming horror several times, despite only being six chapters long. As an example, the local eccentric Teen Genius kidnaps Strange Boy Kei and straps him to an operating table to "experiment on him." Played for Laughs, but it segues directly into Kei flashing back to his childhood.
* Parodied in Ninin ga Shinobuden. The series is more or less entirely comic, but the ending of episode six is treated entirely dramatically, complete with hints at a dramatic backstory and overarcing plot line. The rest of the series completely ignores this scene until the last episode, when the characters realize that they forgot to follow up on that plot thread, and attempt to create a Magical Girl storyline as a cover.
* Keroro Gunsou veers into this whenever it goes into its more serious arcs. Even when an installment is played for mostly seriousness, jokes are still spattered throughout... and naturally such chapters are bookended by lighthearted comedy chapters. A tad jarring when Zoruru's return and deadly duel with Dororo in Volume 17 is filled with lighthearted jokes at their expense and startling half-reveals about their history...
* The Fairy Tail anime overlays the beginning of the upbeat, cheery, teeth-meltingly sweet ending theme over the final scene in the episode. Regardless of what that scene might be. Comedy often results.
* In fact, this is arguably one of the series's main sources of humor; even during some of the most dramatic moments of the series, some humorous occurrence may occur when least expected. One of many classic examples includes when Erza is in the middle of a serious discussion, walking around with her eyes closed in a manner typical of one deep in thought, when she carelessly falls into a pitfall trap that had been laid out by Lucy, and then climbs out and resumes her discussion as if nothing happened. The characters even take a moment to reflect on the cute, high-pitched scream she makes when she falls.
* The not-quite-yaoi Yami no Matsuei manga seesaws between gory horror with gratuitous rape, murder and dismemberment, and a light supernatural detective story with talking animal-spirits and slapstick comedy. Partially due to Executive Meddling; Yoko Matsushita likes doing Darker and Edgier material, but her editors wanted something more commercial.
* Ghost Sweeper Mikami refuses to let go of its original comic qualities, even when Cerebus Syndrome manifests. As a result, even individual reports can shift between serious/tense/somber and comedic multiple times.
* A number of Hentai series will have light-hearted fanservice in one scene and girls getting raped to death or psychological breakdown by evil men, demons or unholy cthulhoid abominations in the next, or vice-versa.
* Akumetsu interperses serious violence and talk with cuts to the cute chibi mascot Ametsu-kun.
* God only knows if Kaori Yuki means to jerk us around as much a she does. Angel Sanctuary will abruptly jump from cute and sweet to dismemberment via cybernetic tentacles and back in almost every volume. For bonus weirdness, her eerily lighthearted commentary would be more aptly suited to any given Romance Comedy...
* In the first episode of Brigadoon Marin and Melan, a killer robot is targeting a little middle school girl. Now, this sounds like a serious situation, but this whole scene is played out like an elaborate Elmer Fudd vs Bugs Bunny chase. While the series does maintain some level of comedy from there on out, this first episode does very little to prepare the viewer for the very serious and sometimes tragic storyline that follows.
* Osamu Tezuka did this all the time. Whether it was random insertion of himself into the procedings, an inappropriate appearance by Hyoutan-Tsugi (aka "Gourdski"), a bit of over the top anachronism, or just some plain slapstick, you could rely on Tezuka to insert a bit of humour in all but his most serious stories. To quote a review of Buddha:
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* The first episode of Kimba the White Lion also counts. It literally goes from tragedy to comedy and back every minute or so.
* Witchblade, episode 13. Masane has to essentially break Rihoko's heart, and her own by forcing Riho to leave. It ends with a new and bouncy end theme, featuring a group shot of smiling cast members.
* Special A's extremely perky second ending theme causes a lot of this - the first one is more restrained and so dramatic ending notes are left be, but the second is just so insanely cheerful it can really throw you for a loop on darker episodes.
* This Ugly Yet Beautiful World: What self-advertises as a Fanservice series of light-hearted and silly stories turns shockingly serious by episode 8.
* Happens several times in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. The most notable example would probably be episode 13, where a cartoony chase scene suddenly turns into an actual matter of life and death when the bad guy gets out of his wacky robot and pulls a gun. To Nadia's horror, Captain Nemo simply shoots him dead. After a tense silence, we cut to the ending credits.
* The CP 9/Water 7 arc of One Piece practically set this as the main tone of the series. In a matter of roughly five or six episode, Usopp goes from a serious fighter, going head-to-head with Luffy in one of THE most emotional battles in shounen, returns as Sogeking. With a Sogeking theme song.
* The CP 9 personify this. Great swordsman and second most powerful person on the squad Kaku has giraffe inspired super powers. Mind-raper and corrupt government official Spandam spills coffee over himself and has an elephant sword. And oh-ho-ho, let's not forget the Buster Call. A device capable of clearing an island off the entire world is accidentally used by Spandam when trying to talk to someone over a similar-looking telephone. He destroys an entire island and brings up horrible memories to his captive because he is so incompetent.
* The tenth movie Strong World is filled to the brim with Mood Whiplash, from Funny to Awesome to Tear Jerker to Heartwarming to Dispair, and criss crossing between them all. It has to be seen to be believed.
* The Sixth movie should be called "Mood Whiplash The Movie". It starts as a trip to a festival island with funny residents and games such as Goldfish Catching, Ring Toss, and the Shooting Gallery. Halfway through it devolves into a mix of mystery and horror.
* My Lovely Ghost Kana dashes suddenly between Genki Girl Magical Girlfriend, a beautiful love story and Tear Jerking heartwarming, tragic or even dark segments. For example, Kana is floating along, experiencing the world and wondering if there is anything she can do as a sort of "job" when she sees father walking with his young son, who is carrying a box. The boy is talking to the box, telling what is apparently a puppy inside that he is "going home" with the pair. Kana thinks how nice, then the ghost of the dead puppy floats out of the box, licks the boy on the face, and fades away.
* Don't forget Ai-Ren: after the day where everyone goes to the beach, Ai peacefully dies in her sleep. Author Tanaka Yutaka is patron saint of this trope.
* Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure often switches between comedy and drama in the span of a few pages.
* Galaxy Angel, usually utterly silly, and a parody of serious anime in general, will throw in a sad, heartfelt, or action-oriented episode once in a while.
* Soul Eater It doesn't happen all the time, but there are a few points in Soul Eater where the mood will do a complete 180 at the drop of a hat. sometimes even less
* The second ending song can cause this as well: a sweet and rather bubbly tune about not wanting to grow up... which concludes, among others, all the episodes of the Kishin Revival arc. Including the one that ends with the newly-revived Kishin showing off a Slasher Smile.
* The series first Cerebus moment came when Soul got cut across the chest by Ragnarok. It's followed up by the fight between Crona and Stein and Death Scythe, which flips between the brutal and the comedic. Contrast Spirit stabbing Crona so that they are hanging from the blade or Stein blowing a hole through Crona's chest, with Crona and Ragnarok nonsensical mid-battle arguments and the bit where they wonder what to do with the stars circling Crona's head after being kicked by Stein.
* Kaze Hikaru is both a hilarious Romantic Comedy and a blood-soaked Jidai Geki.
* Sei has a Super-Deformed moment one page after making her first kill; with blood still on her face.
* The first 7 or so episodes of Sukisho make it seem like a cute, funny, Slice of Life anime. It comes as a complete surprise when the next 4 turn into horror. And then switches back to adorable for the OVA.
* Sailor Moon mixes action, romance, and lots of comedy, so this isn't surprising. Super-Deformed slapstick in the middle of serious scenes, as well as shameless pantyshots could be Narm or Narm Charm.
* There's a five-episode OVA called Master of Martial Hearts. The first four are fanservicey breasts-and-panties fighting anime stuff. The last episode is a neck-breakingly-fast shift into hard drama. It's as though someone called for a deconstruction in the planning stages and they didn't get to it until the end (though there are minor hints in that direction early on).
* Sonic X, the original version, at least, has a fairly emotionally heavy ending to the second season, what with Sonic explaining to Chris why he stayed behind and Chris's reaction. Following into the dub-only season 3, which starts with... a really bad pun.
* Angel Beats frequently uses this. For instance, most of Episode Two involves the SSS members getting temporarily killed in increasingly bizarre and amusing ways (for the most part, no one can really die in Angel Beats due to the fact that they're already dead, so this is Played for Laughs), but eventually, when it's just Yuri and Onatashi, Yuri starts talking about how when she was a little girl, her three younger siblings were killed by robbers right in front of her, one by one, because she couldn't find any valuables to give them.
* Rurouni Kenshin, similar to Fullmetal Alchemist, tends to have abrupt moments of comic relief interspersed with heavy drama and/or intense fight scenes. Compared to the manga, the anime adaptations have taken opposite approaches to this: the TV series significantly ups the comic relief, while the OVAs practically eliminate it.
* There are plenty of scenes in Highschool of the Dead where really serious and dramatic scenes will inexplicably cut to a panel of unleaded Fan Service. Occasionally, horror and fanservice will be shown in the same panel.
* A perfect example is at the beginning of chapter 6, which starts off with a radio broadcast about statistics about the infection spreading, which immediately cuts to the four main girls bathing together... with the very serious broadcast still playing over this.
* The Jack and the Beanstalk anime film does this from time to time, it starts out rather cheery and upbeat, once Jack gets to the beanstalk the mood changes after he meets Princess Margaret, after she sings a love song she introduces him to her "mother" a witch named Madame Hecuba who kidnaps children and feeds them to her ogre son Tulip, she has also taken over the kingdom of the clouds, murdered Margaret's parents, turned most of the servants into mice, and put Margaret under a hypnotic spell to which she will marry Tulip and inherit the castle.
* The "On the Next..." segments of Tiger and Bunny feature one of the titular duo cheerfully teasing the next episode while dropping in silly fandom nods, like how Kotetsu puts mayonnaise on everything and Barnaby saves his favourite food for last. Thus, there is a good amount of whiplash when we hear Barnaby saying, "Hi, I'm Barnaby - the member of Tiger & Bunny who always uses two tissues!" over shots of Kotetsu holding on to dear life in the ICU after being beaten into a coma during the episode proper.
* And the show itself likes to switch between random silly humour, plot-less drama and dark, mysterious moments in consecutive episodes -- sometimes even in the same episode.
* The Future GPX Cyber Formula series does this often between the comedy/light-hearted moments and the dramatic/intense racing moments. The 3 OVAs also have these, although less than the TV series had. But by the time the final OVA SIN was released, there was almost all drama with little to no comedy left in it.
* Mawaru Penguindrum, episode 1: The opening is vaguely dark, then comes the Slice of Life, then comes the drama, then the Slice of Life returns, then Himari dies, then she's revived, then the penguins come and the show returns to Slice of Life. And then, uh, this happens. And then, incest. The second episode seems to be more comedic, but nothing good has ever come from trusting Kunihiko Ikuhara.
* Kamisama Dolls pulls the whiplashes many times per episode, with the situation changing from comedic to serious (and vice-versa) at the drop of a hat. From the first episode alone, the expectations for what the anime actually is gets turned over enough times that you'll just learn not to take anything for granted.
* The Master of Martial Hearts is at first your typical ecchi, fighting show. Then episode 5 appears and... HO... LY, SHITTTTTT!!!!!!!
* Afganisu-tan can be this at points, particularly when you compare the childish pranks of the Nations as People with the real-life history that they're portraying.
* Wandering Son thrives on this. You get a few moments of comedy before you go back to the melancholy feel of it.
* Tokyo Mew Mew, surprisingly. Starts off a typical magical girl anime, then all episodes leading to the finale are much darker and gloomier. Even more so in the manga, almost the whole of the 6th and 7th volumes were fairly depressing.
* In Tamayura, the carefree adventures of the main characters are often offset by Fuu's feelings of grief over her father's death, which is even more prevalent in the TV series than in the OVA.
* The manga Shinigami-sama ni Saigo no Onegai wo leaps between comedy and drama at breakneck speeds.
* Despite being a light hearted yaoi comedy with drama, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi gets rather depressing especially around episode 16 where the aspect of the oblivious Uke gets taken very seriously when you see what happens when you constantly try to show said oblivious friend that you're very serious with your feelings and get punished as a result.
* Silver Spoon is filled with low key versions of this - every moment after an animal is introduced and fawned over by Hachiken, light-hearted talk of butchering and eating it ensue.
* Black Rock Shooter is full of Mood Whiplash
* The fourth Hellsing OVA ends with the utterly horrific death of Rip Van Winkle and the invasion of London by Millennium. The credits then roll over a bizarre and utterly hilarious animated sequence of Schrodinger marching over the globe with Das Englandlied playing.
* In the 8th episode, Alucard and Seras share a tender moment where he finally calls her by her name, indicating how proud he is that she's become a full-fledged vampiress and avenged Pip...and the scene immediatly afterward has Anderson screaming like a lunatic.
* Sora no Woto, unlike most anime, has a slow Opening and upbeat Ending theme. Cue episodes with horrible flashbacks near the end of the episode, followed by AIJOU YUUJOU
* Where do we even begin with Sora no Otoshimono? In some instances going from a girl fretting about the boy she likes in one frame, and getting hit by a truck in another. Then you can go from a major battle, to a suicide attack, to this. Make sure you're wearing a neck brace when reading the manga.
* Chapter 47 and 54 take the proverbial cake and eat it whole.
* Life has a habit of having its few lighthearted moments followed directly by tragic ones. For example in one later chapter, Miki gets drunk at a festival. The next few pages are lighthearted until Miki and Ayumu fall down a cliff. Nothing bad happens, but they have a serious talk.. Then right after Miki barfs.
* Hoshi no Kaabii has an example of this. Episode 15 is about a toy dog that Kirby starts treating like his own child. The episode ends with the dog exploding and Kirby left devastated and mourning the dog. The next episode is a lighthearted episode about a fish who falls in love with Fumu.
* The Idolmaster - Episode 19 ends with quite a predicament for Chihaya, but the ending theme, sung by Takane, is strangely cheerful.
* Loveless has a habit of throwing in the occasional comic relief scene into what is otherwise a very dark series, though the anime does it more than the manga, and as of around Volume 6 onwards, these lighthearted moments have been getting further apart. It's Loveless after all, did you really expect the fluff to last?
* The anime movie Chirin no Suzu starts out fluffy and cute - the protagonist is a naive little lamb with lots of energy - however it quickly turns into a dark revenge story.
* Episode 2 of Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai introduces some of the main bad guys, and their scenes are very much more serious in tone than the relatively light hearted aspects of the school life stuff.
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