Alternate Universe Fic in Anime & Manga.
Crossovers
- Gregg "Metroanime" Sharp's The Bet
is a cycle of stories based around a competition by a group of gods, demons, spirits and the occasional mortal to see who can make the biggest change in one of several "standard" timelines (the Canon versions of Ranma ½, Tenchi Muyo!, and Sailor Moon among others) with the smallest alteration. Each entry in "The Bet" is a small Alternate Universe Fic. The Bet inspired many contributors and imitators, and turned Alternate Universe Fics into sort of a cottage industry for Sharp. - Freefall is a real-world AU crossover fic of Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- and ×××HOLiC, among many other CLAMP works, that has no magic, time-travel or monsters- and yet manages to be just as complex and involved as the original canon.
- A Goddess Comes to Call is a Bubblegum Crisis and Ah! My Goddess crossover, where, instead of wishing that Belldandy would stay with him forever, Keiichi wishes for the perfect girl for him, and ends up with Chihiro. Fifty years later, Linna accidentally dials the Goddess helpline and summons Belldandy, then proceeds to accidentally wish that she had a goddess like Belldandy around all the time.
- Lum Sum Purple is a Urusei Yatsura and Ranma ½ crossover where Shampoo is the one chosen as Lum's opponent, and ends up accidentally married to her.
- Maple Sugar Pretty Cure takes place in a continuity where Mepple and Mipple land in 2003 Toronto rather than 2004 Japan and involves Mei of Turning Red.
- Ah! My Valkyrie! revolves around Lind being asked to fill in for Belldandy, and thus being the one to grant Keiichi's wish of having a goddess to stay with him forever.
- The Goddess and the Sky has the wish that should have gone to Keiichi going to Sora instead, who proceeds to accidentally wish that Belldandy would marry her. As a result, Keiichi isn't kicked out of his dormitory, gets an angel named Malaika and is Ship Teased with Sayoko, while Sora and Belldandy are forced to leave as their dormitory room is only supposed to have one occupant and end up renting a haunted apartment occupied by Erdgeist, an Earth Spirit Third Class.
- Honest Hearts by dan-heron turns Mato and Yomi's lovers quarrel into the lid on an even bigger can of worms.
- Alabaster Orchestra portrays the Vandenreich more ambiguously and diverges with Ichigo being captured after the invasion of the Soul Society, purged of his Shinigami side, and finally becoming a Stern Ritter of his own free will.
- Downfall is a continuity where Aizen never was the villain, instead Unohana, you know... Team Mom... is the Big Bad. Kyoraku and Ukitake follow her. Nel is Primera. Gin and Ran are Soul Society's resident experts on relationships. Rukia dies.
- Dominoes places the Case Closed cast in the world of morally ambiguous Superheroes, with Shinichi as a reporter, Yusaku as an Expy of Batman, and Ran, Aoko, Kazuha, Hattori, and Hakuba as Expies of the Teen Titans. And Kaito sees himself as their Hero Antagonist, of course.
- A Certain Unknown Level 0: While Mr Question Mark does try to incorporate most of the revelations revealed by retconning his story to fit, other elements came too late and had to be left out, such as Shokuhoku knowing Touma before the events of the series; Kamisato Kakeru and his faction along with the Anti-Art Attachment being deliberately ignored.
- A major point of divergence from the anime's original plot is explored in Code Geass: Lelouch of Britannia: Lelouch is not banished from the court, and grows up in Pendragon.
- Mosaic takes place in a world where Britannia prefers to expand its power and influence through marriage rather than conquest, Suzaku is The Emperor of Japan, and China made a failed attempt to seize control of the island nation.
- Of Monsters and Men places Nunnally as one of the hostages in episode 8. This allows her to reunite with Euphemia earlier than in canon.
- Other: Allen wakes up in an alternate world where the Noahs and the Exorcists are close allies. In addition, in this world he's only 12 years old...?
- Genius Is A Curse a Dark Fic where Ryuk never drops his Death Note and Light never becomes Kira, and thus has nothing to alleviate his sheer boredom with. Deals with clinical depression.
- By the same author as Genius is a Curse, It's Just A Game. The page description: "It's 2016 & Light is bored to death. Ryuk offers him the Death Note, a program that lets him wreak havoc anonymously in a virtual world. L pursues this Kira, but when real people start dying, the line between fantasy and reality blurs beyond recognition." L works for Wammy House, the software company making the game, and Ryuk is a disillusioned game programmer they fired. Seems to toy with Your Mind Makes It Real.
- In A Subtle Kind is a fic where Misa and Matt's roles in the Death Note universe are swapped.
- Angel Hearts is a Digimon Adventure fanfic where Wizardmon manages to survive his Heroic Sacrifice thanks to Gennai, and joins the Digidestined in destroying Myotismon.
- KeySeeker and its sequel takes place in a world where Ken Ichijoji ran away to the Digital World as a child, and now serves as the Digital Paladin, guardian of the Digital World.
- Magic Spells is set in a world where Wizardmon is Hikari's partner instead of Gatomon. Also, Stingmon is part of Myotismon's army, and Kouichi Kimura exists in the same world as the Adventure team.
- The PicoDevimon, Chosen Digimon of Light series is set in a world where DemiDevimon is Hikari's partner instead of Gatomon.
- While the Tamers Forever Series mostly maintains the same continuity as the canon series, it does Retcon the epilogue of 02, as well as the events of Runaway Locomon.
- Honor Trip is an extensive fanfic that chronicles an alternate universe where Cell becomes a hero, & makes amends for his previous misdeeds.
- Fullmetal Alchemist Threads Of Time focuses on the notion of Alphonse attaching Edward's soul to a suit of armor, and Alphonse obtaining automail limbs.
- Son of the Desert asks What If? the Elrics were Ishvalan? The story details Trisha growing up in her village in Ishval and how she won over Hohenheim, how the Ishvalan genocide affected the Elric brothers' childhood and their dealings with the military.
- The Tiesverse is a Fan Verse that deviates after the 2003 series ends. The Conqueror of Shamballa never happened and Edward still lives in England two years post-series. Noah (spelled "Noa") is still around but she meets Ed after saving him from Envy. In Tiesverse, homunculus who cross the Gate become vampires. Noa saves Edward from being killed by Envy and turns him into a dhampyr like herself. Together, they hunt vampires.
- Always Advancing has Yukari Akiyama, the loader of Oarai's Panzer IV, wake up in an alternate timeline where her school was never was able to revive its Sensha-do program and subsequently shut down. The story follows her attempting to locate where her old Oarai comrades are while being part of the Sensha-do team at her new school, Saunders.
- Zeon Quest focuses on how one soldier has managed to already permanently alter the Universal Century.
- Given the nature of the series and the liberal use of AUs by Himaruya himself, it's no surprise that there are a good deal of these in fanworks.
- One example, though a Dark Fic one, is All He Ever Wanted, involving an Alternate History where England keeps his alliance with Japan.
- Kanashī, Wütend, Desolato is basically a What If? for Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: instead of supporting Germany's, Italy's, and Japan's relationship, what if most of the countries scorned and tormented them upon finding out? Things do not turn out well.
- AUs of the first type (contextual reassignment) are common as well, for example Part Right, Half Wrong, a Third Crazy.
- Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a fic where the hero is a Celibate Hero Angel with Accidential, Covert Pervert tendencies instead of an unabashed Chivalrous Pervert Devil thanks to a Cosmic Retcon caused by Halja, the Goddess of Death.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood, before Dio discovered the Stone Mask's true purpose and used it to reject his humanity, he was planning to kill Jonathan with it to Make It Look Like an Accident. The doujinshi 'Till we Eternally Rest explores what would have happened had he gone through with this original plan. To wit, Jonathan runs away from home and spends the following years fighting off his Horror Hunger while searching for a cure, and Dio becomes the sole heir to the Joestar family, but is unable to celebrate due to the fear that Jonathan may someday come back for revenge. Meanwhile, Speedwagon and Zeppeli find themselves at odds over whether to protect and help Jonathan, or Mercy Kill him before he can lose control and hurt someone.
- Contract Labor is set in a world where Keitaro ISN'T an Extreme Doormat. Also, Motoko, Su, Shinobu and Sarah are older than they are in canon, and Nyamo-Chan becomes a tenant at Hinata House alongside the other girls.
- I'll Be Seeing You is set in a world where Keitaro is blind, and Shinobu is slightly older than in canon.
- Love Hina: Like It Could Have Been diverges from canon when Keitaro runs into Haruka before entering the Hinata Inn and learns of the games Granny Hina is playing. When the girls refuse to accept him as manager, he simply leaves, and the girls are stuck with all the chores and maintenance he would have done.
- Game Theory is a fanfic in which Precia didn't go completely insane. Although still obsessed with reviving Alicia, she is a great deal more practical in her methods. This has numerous consequences that all follow logically from that divergence, which slowly build up until the plot goes spectacularly Off the Rails when Nanoha decides to help Precia.
- The universe itself has also been tweaked somewhat, as the authors of the story have greatly expanded on the background, and altered several details that weren't internally consistent in the original work, which makes for a smoother narrative flow.
- And the author also wrote a short AU called Another Way.
- And the author also wrote a short AU called Another Way
- The universe itself has also been tweaked somewhat, as the authors of the story have greatly expanded on the background, and altered several details that weren't internally consistent in the original work, which makes for a smoother narrative flow.
- Graceful Degradation is a work where the TSAB is prevented from getting involved in the Jewel Seeds incident due to the Arthra getting damaged when Precia moves the Garden of Time while they were in the same relative proximity of it. Events then start to rapidly change from that such as Nanoha fighting Precia Testarossa herself, and then goes completely Off the Rails when the Wolkenritter appear five weeks sooner than in canon.
- Life After Hayate is an Alternate History where Nanoha's canonical injury between A's and StrikerS does not happen; instead, she is replaced by Hayate Yagami, who is killed and passes the Wolkenritter to Chrono Harlaown with her dying breaths.
- Phoenix's Tear: Reignition: In this work, Hare was unlocked much more recently than he led the other Searchers to believe, and had a life-altering encounter with Evil General Durahan which resulted in him obtaining the titular Phoenix's Tear, granting him access to various types of magic. While he initially keeps these hidden from his friends, circumstances force them into the open shortly before their confrontation with Gray Wolf.
- I Can't Be a Magical Girl!! You, a Magical Girl, Say is a story where Izuku becomes a Magical Girl (yes, really) after All Might arrives too late to save him from the Sludge Villain.
- Quirk: Magical Girl Mascot is set in a world where Izuku's quirk causes him to turn into a Mentor Mascot and turn anyone he bonds with into a Magical Girl.
- Dance Of The Dog God is a Naruto fic where, instead of embracing the rules after his father dies, Kakashi ends up leaving the village, and Team 7 instead ends up training under Obito.
- Déjà vu no Jutsu: Someone with military experience and a like for the Naruto series ends up in Minato and Kushina's generation. Cue events drastically altering the Naruto universe to the point where canon is truly and completely dead Danzo and Orochimaru are dead long before the "canon" timeline even begins. Also, world-building and plot-hole filling abounds.
- A Fox in Tokyo by Doghead Thirteen is one for Naruto, where the main change is that it's set in the author's Mega Crossover Top Dog universe, which includes a modern-day Tokyo where Nerima is a separate country owned and ruled by Soun Tendo, who is a werewolf. Needs to be seen to be believed.
- Princess of Konoha is a work in which the Hyuuga Clan is far more prominent and influential in Konoha than it is in canon.
- The Shy Demon and the Brash Heir is a personality swap fic where Naruto became a Shrinking Violet because he's constantly bullied while Hinata became a loud prankster as a way to deal with the stress of being the Hyuuga heir.
- Son of the Sannin explores how things could have gone if Jiraiya and Tsunade had chosen to raise Naruto, and stayed around Konoha during those years he grew up. The story then goes on to explore many What If? scenarios such as the Uchiha clan pulling off their planned coup d'etat.
- Team 8: Something (currently a Noodle Incident) happens in Kurenai's past, and when she is tapped to train a genin team, she goes out of her way to request a specific newly-graduated ninja: Naruto Uzumaki. He thus ends up taking Kiba's place on Team 8 (becoming the teammate of Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame), while Kiba goes to take his place on Team 7.
- War of the Biju branches off from the aftermath of Pain’s Invasion, where instead of Danzo becoming the Sixth Hokage candidate, Naruto is the one who receives the position.
- White Eyes is a fic where Neji kills every Hyūga sans Hinata in order to appease the Uchiha from pulling off their coup, as opposed to Itachi killing off members of the Uchiha clan. This results in Hinata to be an avenger while Sasuke doesn't.
- Nerima Magistra Nelly Magi is a retelling with every character's gender reversed.
- Evangelion 303: This fic takes the Evangelion characters and places them in an universe similar to the real world where Second Impact did not happen and there are no giant robots or alien monsters. Seele is a secret society that has been manipulating world politics during centuries and has been trying to undermine America’s influence throughout the world. To try to avert Seele's ultimate plan to deal with the USA -named Third Impact-, the USA and Japanese governments put in motion the Black Project Evangelion. As a result of this, Nerv is located in America, the Children are at least twenty-year-old, they pilot war planes instead of Super Robots, and Rei and Kaworu are not Angels.
- A Glass of Wine branches off continuity after the battle in the volcano, when Misato points out to Asuka that Shinji also feels phantom pains after each mission.
- HERZ is both an Alternate History and a Continuation Evangelion fic. Third Impact was avoided when Rei chose helping Shinji to get into his giant robot and he hurried to help Asuka, and the proper story begins twelve years after, following the main characters' lives as they face new challenges in a changed world.
- Long Time No See is set in the future of a timeline where the Third Impact did not happen.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion R diverges from the canonical timeline at the end of Episode 24 and beginning of the End of Evangelion. Essentially, Gendo anticipates Seele's attack, decides he's not ready for it, and begins a major reconstruction of Tokyo-3 in order to make himself a public hero that is temporarily untouchable. In retaliation, Seele builds a bunch of faux Angels for the purpose of attacking Nerv and initiating Third Impact in a more plausibly deniable way, while also recruiting another human-like Angel (ala Kaworu) to help them. Also, Shinji gets better. As does Asuka. And Rei. And everyone else. Well, almost.
- Read The Fine Print: When he is seven, Shinji establishes a pen-pal relationship with Asuka, whom he sells his soul as a joke. As a result of it, he has a better relationship with his fellow pilot, but he cannot deploy an A.T. Field.
- RE-TAKE is perhaps the most popular example amongst the Evangelion fandom. Shinji has a dream which he realizes prophesies the events of End of Evangelion, and resolves to make better choices in order to avoid the bleak outcome of that story. He ends up getting engaged to Asuka and fathering her child. He also learns that it is he — not Kaworu — who is the final Angel, and that his unborn child is half-Angel because of this. While Gendo tries to make Shinji reach his Despair Event Horizon by seemingly letting Asuka die in an Angel attack, Shinji manages to not be as selfish as he was in the original story and defeats the Angels and SEELE without triggering Third Impact. He and Asuka eventually rekindle their romance and live happily ever after.
- Role-Playing (Evangelion): The story is set at some point after Shinji telling his father off in the aftermath of the battle against Bardiel, but Shinji is still working for Nerv and living with Misato and Asuka, and there is no mention of other Angel attacks.
- Shinji the Casanova: A different Angel drops by Tokyo-3 and Leliel's attack, setting off a chain of events which ends up with Shinji and Asuka getting together, among other changes.
- STRANGE PATHS basically retells the anime story. The only differences are that Riho is a 140 year old vampire and Shido starts out as an ordinary human detective.
- The Giant Has A Giant Mouth is a two-part fic that starts by asking what would happen if Luffy was completely taken out of the story and Aphelandra, one of the many women on Amazon Lily, became the protagonist instead.
- Though a Bird Can't Fly, That Doesn't Mean It Never Will is a "What If?" fic in which Zoro's childhood rival Kuina is blinded instead of killed in her tragic accident. She grows up to be a Blind Weapon Master who ends up joining the Marines in order to track down Zoro and find out why he's become a pirate.
- In the Circle of Elemental Arms is set in a world where Elemental Powers exist.
- Ash and Serena's Atomic Odyssey deviates from the end of the XY&Z season, where instead of splitting up the Kalos gang decides to continue their adventures together, albeit in the Tandor region (the setting of the fanmade game Pokémon Uranium).
- Chosen One's Adventure with Legendaries seems to be a Pokemon anime fic until the end of chapter 3 when Ash gets a Rainbow Wing and suddenly it's a mashup of the anime and all the movies, even those in an alternate continuity.
- Essence is an AU where Ash wakes up early and gets a Growlithe starter.
- A New Chance Series is a fanfic where Latios, with Ash's help, survives the events of the fifth movie. Out of gratitude, he and his sister Latias join his team, first in the final part of Johto, and then to Hoenn.
- Pokémon: The Great Adventure by Elia 41. By a dark and stormy night, young Ash meets a wounded man. Five years later, the two travel across Kanto to challenge the Leagues. Awesomeness ensues.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has a Peggy Sue premise, with Ash being sent back to the past to prevent the collapse of the reality, while still retaining his experience and memories. However, the transition creates a completely new timeline, and once the story gets going, events begin to play in a very different way to the canon anime.
- The Road to be a Pokemon Master is a rewrite of the anime in which Serena moved to Pallet Town several years before the start of the series, and she and Ash begin their Pokemon journey together. It does feature other changes unrelated to this one, most of them being bringing elements from the games the anime left out.
- The Road You Choose deviates from the Pokémon anime canon during the movie The Mystery of Mew. The author adds in elements from both the games and the Adventures manga and meshes them together into her own version of past events, as well as playing a part in future adverts as well.
- In Symbiosis, Ash's parents are murdered by a mysterious organization at young age. With the help of his father's Mareep, Ash escapes into Viridian Forest and is raised a wild Weedle.
- Twilight Pretty Cure is an AU. While inspired by the canon series in various ways, it takes more of a serious approach in addressing issues like the evils of bullying, discrimination, child abuse, etc. But it still keeps the "hope within darkness" theme that most Pretty Cure anime have.
- Busou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Mafia, a doujin series which involves the girls of Madoka in a mafia setting, with Madoka herself as the Badass Adorable boss of her syndicate and the other girls as her enforcers.
- Puella Magi Yuuko Magica is an AU in which the world-changing wish that Madoka created is something along the lines of "I want us to no longer be slaves to the Incubators", so now magic is rampant within her world. However, the magic is hidden from Muggles of course. It's supposed to be a prequel to a seemingly unrelated fic, though. At least Madoka gets to be a Little Miss Badass in this.
- Adventures in Womanhood is a work where the springs of Jusenkyo are permanent.
- A Clean Slate is an AU in which Ranma loses the challenge in the Amazon village, and is inducted into the tribe as an Amazon.
- Frozen Moonlight is a work where the main characters are modern day high school students.
- Light of the Snow Red Village is a What If? that answers the question "What if Kenshin and Tomoe had a daughter?"
- A Brief History of Histories switches around the backstories of each of the sailor senshi and explores how this impacts their characters.
- The Cardinal King series is set in a world where Mamoru is the Henshin Hero instead of Usagi.
- Ryo Hoshi's Shadows On The Walls, which has a very strange mix of People In Jars, Lotus Eater Machine, and features some familiar faces traveling as a band...and has the Cargo Ship of Soul Eater Evans and booze. Oh, right, and Maka is a prostitute and Noah does what he does best.
- A Souls Songbook, which is a result of a single What If? involving a switch in who won a battle nearly a thousand years before the start of the canon that ends up turning it into a Crapsack World run by the Big Bad of the canon, with, among other things, a rare example of Crystal Dragon Jesus sharing a world with Real Jesus...and the Eldritch Abomination cult.
- This is the key to Victory is set in a world where Ryuunosuke is chosen as Lum's opponent in the tag game, and ends up making an Accidental Proposal when Lum misinterprets her declaration that she will never let Lum go (before she can grab the Oni's horns) as a marriage proposal.
- Urusei Yatsura: Love to Skate! is set in a world where Ataru WASN'T the one chosen to be Lum's opponent in that fateful game of tag. Among other things, there's no Defeat by Modesty (Lum lets Sora, the Original Character who replaces Ataru, win after he saves her from a nasty fall), and the Accidental Proposal occurs when Ataru goads him into rhetorically asking if he should propose, and it's taken out of context. Also, it's set in The New '10s, Sora and Ten get on better than Ten and Ataru do, and Kurama is more willing to accept Sora as he is instead of trying to change him (mainly because he isn't a pervert, and his resultant harem is genuinely an Unwanted Harem).
- The Judgement of the World (5Ds) begins shortly after the defeat of the Dark Signer in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. However, the story takes place concurrently with instead of several years after the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, with many GX characters appearing as Aki's schoolmates at Domino Dueling Academy or antagonists for the Signers to face. The GX anime is even referenced when Yugi tells Honest that in an alternate reality, Fubuki's disappearance and reappearance happened decades ago and at a school located on an island instead of in Neo Domino City. Additionally, Kazushi Muro, one of Aki's friends from school, has XYZ monster Queen Dragun Djinn as his Duel Spirit, indicating XYZ summoning is also widely used in this universe.
- The Princess and the Dragon is set in a fantasy universe. Mai is a princess. Yugi is a wizard. Blue Eyes White Dragons are real and Kaiba is the master of them. The Millennium Items still exist (although they are called Shadow Items collectively), and the yamis can all take solid forms. The list goes on.
- Son Of Apophis: All the character's Yamis become older brothers, with the exception of Bakura, who's an older cousin that is secretly a half-brother. Card games still exist, and it's implied that Yami is still the champion of them, but the tournaments seem to have never taken place. Yami Marik is no where near as psychotic or violent as he is in the actual manga (though he used to be, years ago) and Marik was crippled by his father.
- Yu-Gi-Oh Revolution Gathering: A fic where we join a new group of heroes and as one young boy continues his quest to reclaims something he lost.
- 6 Times Ai Protected Her Groupmates and 1 Time They Protected Her takes place in the "Identities Revealed AU" where Franchouchou has revealed themselves as zombies to the public, making their zombiehood common knowledge among their fans and the general populace of Saga... Oh, and Ai and Junko are dating too.
