In the Studio Ghibli film The Cat Returns, I saw a very noticeable example of a storytelling technique that I've seen in other Studio Ghibli productions.
When in the Cat palace, the King of Cats has some entertainers defenestrated for their inability to entertain the King. At this point, we can expect the unfortunate entertainers to meet their death by way of the pavement at the end of their flight.
When our heroes escape the palace however, we see the defenestrated cats shaken but unharmed, resting against the palace wall. We know now they survived.
I saw another example in Spirited Away, where Kaonashi (No-Face) swallows a number of too greedy workers of the bathhouse. After having been fed half of the magic dumpling, No-Face vomits out all he has eaten, including the workers who turn out alive and well.
In both cases, we see minor characters who we may very well assume to be dead, turn out alive in passing. It's done in a casual way, the characters remaining minor characters.
Had it not been done, we would've assumed the characters to be dead and it would not have made a difference for the story.
Is there a name for this storytelling technique?
This is not a Disney death(Warning: TV Tropes; time sink), since that concerns the supposed death of a major character, who is mourned but miraculously turns out to be alive.
What I mean is minor characters who are shown to be alive after all in an underhanded way, making no difference to the story.