any universe that started out 'grounded' then veers to fantastic

[Drathnoxis]

It's relative, but there's a difference between suspending disbelief on one premise (and watch reality unfold logically from it), and throwing all the possible fantasy premises at it.

And old peeve of mine about videogames is that you can't have, like in horror stories, the intrusion of one fantastic monster in our reality, without having all the others follow. You can have Dracula, a story about a vampire being real in "modern" times, in a book or in a movie. But as soon as it hits video games, it had so coexist with ghosts and werewolves and giant spiders and gnomes and banshees and zombie ghosts werewolf spider banshees.

So, it doesn't exactly start from mundane. But it's still fast fantasy inflation.

Of course it's relative, that's why the sliding scale linked to by the OP exists, the bottom rung of which is labeled Mundane. If the franchise you are listing has aliens, zombies, magic, or children with tails that can punch a boulder in half right from the get go you are clearly outside the mundane and are well into the realm of fantasy. Just because you start with only vampires before subsequently throwing the entirety of Greek mythology into the work, or whatever, doesn't mean it wasn't fantastical to start with. It's pretty clear what the OP was asking for if you look at the TV Tropes article he listed.

 

[Satinavian]

Ascendance of a bookworm.

While the setting is and remains surprisingly consistent, what part is explored and how fantastical that is changes with each book. That means when you begin reading, you might be easily misled about the fantasy degree of the serious.

Even the book titles give it away :
Book 1 : Daughter of a soldier ... Book 5 : Avatar of a goddess


Of course even this series clearly never reaches the ends of the scale called mundane and surreal. I can't think of anything that does.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

40k. Obviously it's all relative but it started out as dystopian sci fi (certainly not hard sci fi) with a few magical bits (psychic powers and the odd mention of warp entities) and turned into the gothic sci-fantasy fuckfest we have today.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

40k. Obviously it's all relative but it started out as dystopian sci fi (certainly not hard sci fi) with a few magical bits (psychic powers and the odd mention of warp entities) and turned into the gothic sci-fantasy fuckfest we have today.

Hack for the Hack God! Fluff for the Fluff Throne!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Hack for the Hack God! Fluff for the Fluff Throne!

Bah! Back in my day there were no gods. Just the cold, stark realisation that humanity had won the stars and the galaxy was still a shithole because we're a bunch of complete arseholes. An we were happy with it an all!

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Bah! Back in my day there were no gods. Just the cold, stark realisation that humanity had won the stars and the galaxy was still a shithole because we're a bunch of complete arseholes. An we were happy with it an all!

It were Nihilism, it were. Breakfast, Lunch and Tea. Made us grateful for what we 'ad and toughened us up. Di'n't need no gods just cold, stark infinity and oblivion.

Bloody youth 'ave it too bloody easy. Soft is what they is.

 

[BrawlMan]

And old peeve of mine about videogames is that you can't have, like in horror stories, the intrusion of one fantastic monster in our reality, without having all the others follow. You can have Dracula, a story about a vampire being real in "modern" times, in a book or in a movie. But as soon as it hits video games, it had so coexist with ghosts and werewolves and giant spiders and gnomes and banshees and zombie ghosts werewolf spider banshees.

It seems most vampire books have to do this as well.

Oneechanbara does this as well. The series was mainly about zombies, but that changed starting with the Z series. As soon as they introduced vampires, Z Kagura & Z2 came with the whole monster mash. You have werewolves, demons, gargoyles, ogres, half Medusa corpses, Jiangshi (Chinese vampires), etc. The list goes on; including the zombies. It was honestly for the better, as a series was already getting stale.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Has anyone mentioned the Fast and Furious movies yet? The first movie was a pretty cheesy, but fairly grounded undercover cop movie about street racing gangs. The second one one was a buddy cop action movie about street racing gangs. The third one was a pretty cheesy, but fairly grounded movie about street racing gangs, in Tokyo. And then from the fourth one onward they decided that they want to be Mission Impossible now, and they've never looked back.

 

[Absent]

Thinking of it, there MIGHT have ben a hint of that in the Saints Row series.

Other strange example that starts pretty far from technically "mundane". I used to be a fan of Space1999, because it looked, to me (as a kid, don't judge me) as so much more grounded and realistic than Star Trek. For starters the uniforms weren't as colorful (so grimdark), and the story was less optimistic (so grimdark), so it felt so much real (so grimdark). I've rewatched a bit of it, since, and... well, okay, there are SOME aspects of astrophysigns and orbital mechanics that MAY be a bit questionable, for a "realistic science fiction series". I have to concede this.

Still, the second season is just unbearable to me, for its attempt at going full star trek and its shapeshifting alien crew member. It jumped the shark. Space1999 jumped the shark. I could get the moon being propelled out of the solar system by a dustbin fire, and crossing the galaxy in minutes to slow down and orbit random inhabited planets for couples of days at a time before hopping to others planets filled with other lifeforms, but a shapeshifting alien aboard the station ? And a colorful one at that ? I just don't buy it. I just can't take it seriously anymore.

 

[Gordon_4]

Has anyone mentioned the Fast and Furious movies yet? The first movie was a pretty cheesy, but fairly grounded undercover cop movie about street racing gangs. The second one one was a buddy cop action movie about street racing gangs. The third one was a pretty cheesy, but fairly grounded movie about street racing gangs, in Tokyo. And then from the fourth one onward they decided that they want to be Mission Impossible now, and they've never looked back.

That’s an excellent example. It transitioned from Point Break to MASK/GI Joe and no one seemed to notice or care. Although many would argue it was all the better for it.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

And then from the fourth one onward they decided that they want to be Mission Impossible now, and they've never looked back.

I saw a clip from 8 where Vin Diesel jumped a submarine with a Dodge Charger. In Russia. In order to evade a heat-seeking missile.

I was like "okay, looks like somewhere along the way they managed to outrun reality."

 

[BrawlMan]

I saw a clip from 8 where Vin Diesel jumped a submarine with a Dodge Charger. In Russia. In order to evade a heat-seeking missile.

I was like "okay, looks like somewhere along the way they managed to outrun reality."

In the Fast X trailer, Dom kills two helicopters by making them collide into each other. What the shit!

​

 

[Thaluikhain]

Thinking of it, there MIGHT have ben a hint of that in the Saints Row series.

Other strange example that starts pretty far from technically "mundane". I used to be a fan of Space1999, because it looked, to me (as a kid, don't judge me) as so much more grounded and realistic than Star Trek. For starters the uniforms weren't as colorful (so grimdark), and the story was less optimistic (so grimdark), so it felt so much real (so grimdark). I've rewatched a bit of it, since, and... well, okay, there are SOME aspects of astrophysigns and orbital mechanics that MAY be a bit questionable, for a "realistic science fiction series". I have to concede this.

Still, the second season is just unbearable to me, for its attempt at going full star trek and its shapeshifting alien crew member. It jumped the shark. Space1999 jumped the shark. I could get the moon being propelled out of the solar system by a dustbin fire, and crossing the galaxy in minutes to slow down and orbit random inhabited planets for couples of days at a time before hopping to others planets filled with other lifeforms, but a shapeshifting alien aboard the station ? And a colorful one at that ? I just don't buy it. I just can't take it seriously anymore.

For me, the most unrealistic thing about Space 1999 was the idea that it was going to compete with Doctor Who. Early Tom Baker Doctor Who.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

For me, the most unrealistic thing about Space 1999 was the idea that it was going to compete with Doctor Who. Early Tom Baker Doctor Who.

JON PERTWEE 4 LYF!

 

[Absent]

For me, the most unrealistic thing about Space 1999 was the idea that it was going to compete with Doctor Who. Early Tom Baker Doctor Who.

It did abroad. We barely heard about Doctor Who over here.

By the way, have we mentioned The Prisoner already ? Starts like an episode of Danger Man, ends in pure metaphorical abstraction. From cold war spy thriller mystery to stoned sociologist's fever dream. Some found that space odyssey-like ending a bit jarring.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

By the way, have we mentioned The Prisoner already ? Starts like an episode of Danger Man, ends in pure metaphorical abstraction. From cold war spy thriller mystery to stoned sociologist's fever dream. Some found that space odyssey-like ending a bit jarring.

It might be argued that the show crossed the line the moment Rover showed up.

 

[SilentPony]

Maybe i should have guessed based on the name, but Valkyrie Chronicles.
At first its a kinda sweet coming of age story set in totally not the start of World War 2, where our young handsome protagonist becomes a platoon commander because...well because he showed up to the entrance exam with a tank. And we get the other characters, the "adopted" little sister who is part of a techno-wise nomadic group representing Jews in Europe, a will they/won't they love interesting, other characters, yadda yadda. Pretty simple comedic/action-adventure/romance anime/game.
And then like episode 10 of 12, and 75% through the game the aforementioned love interest girl just turns into a war angel, a Valkyrie, with wings and a giant cosmic spear. And she has to fight the not-Nazi's own Valkyrie and the entire story just goes off the rails. Its the anime/game that made me realize how often, and ultimately hate, the trope of "sudden magic girl" being used in anime. Very lazy way to artificially, ironically, raise the stakes and totally undercut any tension.

 

[BrawlMan]

Has anyone mentioned the Fast and Furious movies yet? The first movie was a pretty cheesy, but fairly grounded undercover cop movie about street racing gangs. The second one one was a buddy cop action movie about street racing gangs. The third one was a pretty cheesy, but fairly grounded movie about street racing gangs, in Tokyo. And then from the fourth one onward they decided that they want to be Mission Impossible now, and they've never looked back.

That’s an excellent example. It transitioned from Point Break to MASK/GI Joe and no one seemed to notice or care. Although many would argue it was all the better for it.

In order:

1. Point Break with cars.
2. Bad Boys and every buddy cop action movie. Funny enough, I will take 2F2F over Bad Boys II any day of the week.
3. America's remake of Initial D.
4. Just a regular action movie involving revenge and getting the gang back together.
5. A heist movie.
6. A glorified soap opera with action and GJ Joe.
7. --> 10. James Bond/Mission Impossible/MASK bullshit.

Tekken (it was a Virtua Fighter clone after all) started somewhat grounded, but got more fantastical and supernatural starting at Tekken 2. Tekken 4 tried to science away the Devil Genre curse and most fantastical, but they ended up ignoring and retconning it in Tekken 5 and afterward.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

It did abroad. We barely heard about Doctor Who over here.

By the way, have we mentioned The Prisoner already ? Starts like an episode of Danger Man, ends in pure metaphorical abstraction. From cold war spy thriller mystery to stoned sociologist's fever dream. Some found that space odyssey-like ending a bit jarring.

Yeah, but The Prisoner swung back and forth between somewhat metaphorical spy show and kafkaesque surreal allegory throughout its entire run. Sure, the finale was probably where it was at its most abstract, but episodes like Free For All or Dance of the Dead weren't too far off. Actually, Dance of the Dead confuses me somewhat more than the finale, because with the finale I can at least kinda tell what morals it's trying to convey.

 

[BrawlMan]

Double Dragon got more fantastical at the start of DDII and beyond. Each game varies, because the series never had a consistent art style. DDIII has you globe trotting Indiana Jones style, looking for jewels. DD Neon is a proper 80s Saturday morning show as a video game.

Resident Evil got more fantastical starting with Code Veronica, and majorily with Resident Evil 4.