Lucas and Chris recall a few of the strangest and most stunning crossover episodes in anime historical past. That are your favourite?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the contributors on this chatlog will not be the views of Anime Information Community.
Spoiler Warning for dialogue of the sequence forward.

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Tremendous, Fairy Tail, Isekai Quartet, Great Precure!, House Patrol Luluco, and Dropkick on My Satan! X are at present streaming on Crunchyroll, whereas UQ Holder! is offered on HIDIVE. Kaginado is offered on each Crunchyroll and HIDIVE.

One Piece Episode 590 has a crossover with Dragon Ball and Toriko and is offered on Apple TV.

Chris

Lucas, I had enjoyable chatting with Steve about all these DC Comics anime final week, however I simply realized we fully missed one thing! Massive Western comedian publishers like them are identified for his or her fixed crossover occasions, bringing characters collectively from all around the multiverse! I suppose it is a component we need not fear about an excessive amount of, although; it is not like you are going to see somebody like Superman stumbling into Dragon Ball anytime quickly—

Lucas

I do know crossover episodes aren’t often canon, but when Commander Blue beat up Superman, and Goku beat up Commander Blue, would not that imply that Goku is WAY stronger than Superman? How has this been a debate on the web for thus lengthy???

That is what occurs once you get off on the technicality of not being a crossover with an official character however fairly Toriyama’s personal parody. However that is nonetheless nice as a result of whereas some might imagine that crossovers are supposed to settle age-old energy scaling arguments, that simply is not the case. The true motive is to see characters who function on completely completely different rulesets need to take care of one another’s bullshit.


Oh! We’re specializing in crossovers in in the present day’s TWIA, not energy scaling, and the way it saps the enjoyable out of media? Apologies, I ought to have inserted this screenshot of the enduring line from everybody’s favourite anime, Bojack Horseman, sooner!



However you are proper. Lots of people consider crossovers as being one thing considerably unique to American tv. However they occur simply typically sufficient in anime and manga to make me go, “Huh, that is neat” each time they do.
It is easy to know why it feels much less probably. Manga, and the anime primarily based on them, are identified in well-liked tradition for being singular works of explicit authors, in order that form of driving imaginative and prescient would theoretically be freed from marketing-mandated World’s Best-style team-ups. However you then do not forget that many of those are nonetheless run by large publishing, broadcasting, and licensing corporations, and instantly you recall that they did a complete One Piece episode crossing over with Dragon Ball and Toriko.



Considered one of these items just isn’t just like the others. Considered one of these items would not have close to the worldwide cultural cache.
What are you speaking about? These are all beloved items of kids’s media created by revered authors like Akira Toriyama, Eiichiro Oda, and Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro! Why, when you search “Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro kids” on the web you may see tha—Oh! Oh my god!!!

Yeah, let’s hope that the *Dragon Ball/One Piece/Toriko* crossover was the work of company shenanigans. In any other case, it is powerful not to have a look at this piece of media as something apart from Akira Tomiyama and Eiichiro Oda attempting to rehabilitate the picture of a dude who was arrested and convicted of violating youngster prostitution legal guidelines.

That is neither the time nor the place to meditate on the truth that this is not even the one time Oda’s been concerned in that kind of maneuver. Luckily, crossovers will be considered in far much less morally misgiving contexts when authors are simply doing it by themselves!




Per my opening with Suppaman from Akira Toriyama‘s Dr. Droop popping up in Dragon Ball; this tends to be the most typical form of anime visitor look: characters from an writer’s different works crashing their present sequence’ celebration.
Completely! The sorts of crossovers the place the writer blends their works are typically my favourite as a result of they’re probably the most, effectively, authored. They provide the writer an opportunity to return to their older characters and might typically even really feel reflective on their very own profession.

Nonetheless, there aren’t plenty of mangaka who’ve had sufficient massive hits to tug off this type of crossover. It is a bit of apple to oranges, however Hiro Mashima is among the few different mangaka to have pulled this off; along with his rare crossovers between Rave Grasp, Fairy Tail, and, most lately, Edens Zero.

I feel calling each a type of “massive hits” could be stretching it, nevertheless it’s nonetheless cool to see somebody who’s been going that lengthy being completely satisfied to interface with their complete physique of labor. Granted, I am unfamiliar sufficient with any of Mashima’s sequence, and simply bumping into one in every of these crossovers whereas I used to be studying the opposite would possibly lose me a bit. However I am positive it is fairly rewarding in context if you’re up on the total canon.

If nothing else, Mashima’s crossovers remind me that he retains repeatedly making the identical story (and same-looking characters) and that it principally simply retains working! I fell off the bandwagon fairly shortly after Rave Grasp, however I am completely satisfied for the oldsters who’re nonetheless having fun with his work.

Typically, an writer who’s been going some time can use the idea of a crossover to shock back-port in world-building. Talking of authors we have fallen off of, as somebody for whom Love Hina was a formative approach of moving into manga (shut up), I obtained actually into studying Ken Akamatsu‘s follow-up sequence, Negima! because it was releasing. So it was fairly neat when a brand new secondary character in that manga turned out to be the youthful sister of Love Hina‘s Naru, indicating the 2 sequence had been happening in the identical universe all alongside!




For added nerdery, this was a personality who was barely glimpsed within the authentic Love Hina manga and solely put in actual appearances in its anime adaptation, making Mei’s look in Negima! one thing of a crossover between mediums as effectively.
Oh! Shock-shared universes are all the time crowd-pleasers! I used to be by no means tremendous into both sequence, however I bear in mind lots of people on social media dropping their minds when Atsushi Ohkubo‘s Hearth Pressure was revealed to be a stealth prequel to Soul Eater.



Whereas I might be pedantic and argue that shared universes are completely different from crossovers, this column can be far more enjoyable if we discuss sequence no matter that distinction.
You possibly can chart a line in locations the place a sequence going from a enjoyable crossover inclusion to a whole ‘verse kind of overtakes the leisure worth of the visitor appearances. Akamatsu would roll with the concept whole-hog into his subsequent sequence UQ Holder!, to the purpose that it wasn’t a lot a seamless crossover as a lot as simply Negima!‘s Boruto.







That most likely resulted in some oddness for non-superfans when UQ Holder! obtained an anime adaptation regardless of the related components of Negima! by no means having been animated, however then that might require anyone caring in regards to the anime model of UQ Holder! within the first place. So it may be argued there are diminishing returns to this kind of factor, and sticking with incidental one-or-two-off crossovers is for the perfect.
Alternatively, creators can lean WAY THE HELL into the crossover skid and make a multi-season anime about protagonists in the identical style moving into wacky, low-steak hijinks collectively. Living proof: Isekai Quartet.



On the one hand, I like that the isekai style canonically permits for this type of crossover, because the premise necessitates characters leaping into one other world. However alternatively, I am unable to consider a greater instance of isekai being oversaturated than a present with about six completely different isekai sequence packed into it.
Look, in case your style was omnipresent for any period of time, you then’ve most likely obtained a full deck of playing cards you possibly can scatter round for a recreation of crossover 52 Pickup. That is why DC was capable of begin throwing their superheroes into one another’s books, and it is why Isekai Quartet is not the primary chibi tribute to multiverse insanity.




See, the great thing about the comedy crossover cavalcade is that you are able to do it with absolutely anything. Together with the miserable Key sequence, as seen in Kaginado.
Oh, wait, I simply realized that if we broaden our focus a bit of bit extra, there are plenty of enjoyable examples of this within the anime video games house! Ultimate Fantasy is known for placing out a brand new crossover within the anthology sequence each decade or so, with my favourite of these being World of Ultimate Fantasy.

The long-running funding in video games lets them construct up an enormous assortment of motion figures they will smash collectively. Much like Key, visible novel maker Sort-Moon has finished the same comedy crossover in Carnival Illusion.



Should you thought one thing just like the Mashima crossovers or UQ Holder! was obtuse, then know that these items is downright impenetrable to anyone not up on many years of lore and fandom in-jokes. Which is why it is good once you’ve obtained stuff like Sort-Moon‘s Destiny/Grand Order or that World of Ultimate Fantasy which are a minimum of accessible as neat video games you possibly can play by way of. To say nothing of entries like Leap Final Stars that allow gamers organize dream matches between characters like Goku and Luffy, who kicked off this complete dialogue.
Haha, do you selecting Leap Final Stars because the go-to shonen crossover fighter instance imply that we have all collectively repressed any recollections of Leap Pressure?



As a result of I am VERY okay with burying this recreation deep within the annals of anime historical past.
I am positive the sport has its followers, however one of many methods with crossing over characters from completely different artists is massaging the artwork types collectively, and these Unreal Engine horrors most likely weren’t one of the simplest ways to go. Nonetheless, the sheer variety of these centered round Leap solidifies Shueisha‘s journal’s chokehold on tradition. Not less than even individuals who do not like Leap Pressure nonetheless bear in mind it sufficient to dunk on it. That is higher than one thing just like the completely forgotten PSP fighter Sunday VS Journal, which must have been the CAPCOM VS SNK of manga journal crossovers. Alas.



Although, hey, there’s Negima! once more. And Fairy Tail too.
Yeah, it actually can’t be burdened sufficient how vital it’s to discover a approach to mix these completely different artwork types or simply settle for that characters from completely different sequence will seem like characters from completely different sequence. If individuals half-ass it and do not decide to both route, we find yourself with tremendous uncanny characters like Eiichiro Oda‘s tackle Goku from a number of years again.

I imply, I really feel just like the power is there correctly, a minimum of. It helps that Goku and Luffy aren’t completely dissimilar characters. That is nonetheless not on the extent of Shin-chan simply wandering onto the set of Great Precure! a few months again.



If I hadn’t seen it occur to know higher, I might have sworn this was a Photoshopped shitpost.

Oh wow, yeah, that’s simply uncomfortable for a motive I can’t put my finger on. Seeing Shin-chan‘s artwork fashion in something that is not Shin-chan media is simply bizarre!

Dissonant artwork types can be utilized in these items effectively if they’re being finished as a joke. House Patrol Luluco, as an illustration, wound up bringing in a complete bunch of different Studio Set off cameos for one in every of its arcs, which all meshed effectively sufficient…




…which, in fact, made it even funnier after they simply slotted Inferno Cop proper in there. It is actually honest, provided that Inferno Cop‘s animation was all the time doing a bit. That is one other level within the column for these sorts of stunts working higher after they’re creator-driven.

Haha, we’re speaking ourselves into that conclusion and discovering plenty of nice examples that assist it alongside the way in which! I simply remembered the It is a Rumic World particular OVA the place we get a crossover between Rumiko Takahashi‘s Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Inu Yasha; and a handy guide a rough reminder of what made all of these sequence so nice.

On the charge issues are going with Takahashi remakes, we are able to most likely count on to see a brand new a type of sooner fairly than later. Solely time will inform if Yashahime will get invited.

All this is not to say that well-liked creators are the one vector for crossovers to happen. Typically, a property itself being well-liked is sufficient to web a visitor look, like tossing Wolverine into a comic book to assist drive up gross sales. That is how we wind up with legends like Evangelion‘s Shinji or the well-known Hatsune Miku popping up in Shinkalion, and making me just a bit disillusioned there isn’t any streaming choice right here for this reworking practice toy business present.


Wait, I am sorry, you are telling me there’s an obscure anime the place Shinji Ikari from Evangelion hangs out with Hatsune Miku??? Can Hideaki Anno please affirm that Shinji is a child queer already! I am unable to take any extra of those “simply shy of affirmation” winks to the viewers!
This is not even Miku’s wildest anime crossover look. There was additionally that point Dropkick on My Satan! X‘s profitable crowdfunding netted her walk-on appearances that season to bully and/or get bullied by all of Jinbocho’s angels and devils.



That is what you are able to do when your “particular visitor” is a bit of voice-synthesis software program anyone can use.
Transfer over, Kevin Bacon. Hatsune Miku is a crossover machine! I simply went down a rabbit gap on the “Cultural Impression” and “Appearances in Different Media” sections of her Wikipedia web page and now consider she will be related to any character in anime in seven steps or much less.

And that she was truly in a fairly sick Pokémon collaboration referred to as Challenge Voltage.

Oh do not even get me began on my beloved Ghost-type Miku, or we’ll be right here all night time.



Like we talked about crossovers inflicting consternation with their uncanny artwork types? Challenge Voltage was the other of that.
She’s Hatsune Miku! She will work in any artwork fashion! She’s like Pop Workforce Epic however with a broader attraction!
It actually lends to her skill to group up with just about another anime character. Although others like Lupin the Third might give her a run for her cash.



That man will get round.
, you opened this chat by mentioning the gag manga Dr. Droop has appeared a stunning variety of instances in Dragon Ball, however I am simply now remembering that gag manga are nice autos for crossovers themselves! It is a disgrace that Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo by no means obtained a good shot within the U.S. as a result of Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! showing randomly in a panel would have blown my thoughts as a child!

It is a crossover so legendary they immortalized it in Nendoroid kind.



One other enjoyable reality is that Yoshio Sawai truly obtained Kazuki Takahashi himself to attract Yugi for that panel. It is a cool instance of how the observe of crossovers can carry creators collectively.

Completely! Crossovers are purported to be enjoyable little off-shoots for followers of the concerned media properties, and the perfect crossovers contain the creators having as a lot enjoyable because the viewers.

There can simply be some cynicism to the business attraction of the observe, nevertheless it’s nonetheless good when a team-up appears to get everybody excited. One factor lately that obtained me jazzed was the announcement of a collaboration between MyGO from BanG Dream! and Togenashi Togeari from Ladies Band Cry. It is a type of match-ups that appeared so pure that followers of CGI anime about angsty lady bands made jokes about it taking place, and now it is actual!



It is only a combo live performance and never a correct anime crossover for now, however seeing the performers work together ought to nonetheless be enjoyable. Most significantly, the fan artists have already began having enjoyable with the entire thought.

I could not let you know a lot about both IP, however I am glad they’re giving followers what they need! Whereas we’re proper to be inherently weary of any actions by profit-driven companies, crossover occasions like these are a fairly enjoyable and comparatively innocent approach to generate income.

It is extra pure than smashing collectively two dissonant IPs in a cellular recreation collab to extort gacha cash, that is for positive.

If the enjoyable and quirkiness of crossovers cannot make me like gacha video games and their exploitative mechanics, nothing will!

Good name. Not less than that is one place the place it is most likely greatest to remain by yourself aspect of issues as a substitute of…crossing over.