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Fanfic Fuel / Anime & Manga

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Fanfic Fuel in Anime & Manga.

  • The plot of Ah! My Goddess begins when Keiichi accidentally dials the Goddess Relief Helpline and summons Belldandy. It's pretty easy to come up with a plot where someone (be it another cast member, an Original Character or even a character from another fandom) accidentally dials the Helpline, summons one of the goddesses (or even Mara the demon) and makes a wish, accidental or otherwise.
  • Angel Beats!, just Angel Beats. Let's see here...
    • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character? How about an entire battlefront of characters? Literally, there were only six characters with an actual Backstory in the anime alone!
    • Executive Meddling: Because of this, Jun Maeda's original plan of 26 episodes were cut in half to 13!
    • Let's not forget about how the Afterlife Battlefront came to be before Otonashi arrived. From the manga revealing how Yuri & Hinata started the battlefront to the first episode, this gap right here is ripe for fanfic writers to fill in!
    • And then there's the ship teasing...
  • Attack on Titan:
    • Levi's past, prior to the release of A Choice With No Regrets.
    • The Titan Shifters' pasts and motivations.
    • The following scenarios if Annie, or later Reiner and Bertolt had succeeded in kidnapping Eren.
    • Bertolt sleeping in strange positions.
    • The events that led to Marco's death.
  • A Certain Magical Index: The sheer size of Academy City, number of unresolved plot threads, and the nature of Esper and Magic powers involving practically every area of physical science and fairy tale imaginable provides ample room for creating OCs and new storylines by eager fans.
  • Code Geass. The sheer amount of tense moments, particularly when characters get this close to finding out someone's secret, make Alternate Continuity fanfics so compelling to explore. Not to mention the number of pieces in play...
  • Cowboy Bebop persistently reveals a lot of background detail to the audience without actually telling them anything, leaving enormous room for speculation. Most of this concerns the past relationship between Spike, Julia and Vicious, though other characters (especially Ein, Wen, and Mad Pierott) aren't exactly lacking.
  • The ending of Dai-Guard shows that Heterodynes will never stop coming even after the last one in the series is destroyed. That's several fanfics waiting to happen.
  • Death Note:
    • The Death Note has lots of rules that don't come up in the main plot. If someone's name is written in two Death Notes within a split second of each other, it is regarded as simultaneous and the victim lives, unaffected by either note.
    • Backstory: L's/Mello's/Near's/B's/Matt's Dark And Troubled Mysterious Past. What does Wammy's House do and why was it built? / Light's career as a teen detective and/or what would happen if Light didn't find the notebook or what would happen if Light didn't get his memories back.
    • The original short story was resolved by Ryuk giving Light a "Death Eraser", which could be used to erase names from a Death Note and thus bring them back to life. This item is not used or even mentioned in any adaptation (presumably it doesn't exist, since "once dead, they can never come back to life"), but the idea is ripe for use in Fix Fic.
  • Digimon Adventure has Wizardmon's Mysterious Past. What was his past really like? Where did he get his truckload of powers? What is it that makes him different from most Digimon? What was his relationship with Tailmon like?
  • Dragon Ball has lots of these.
    • For example, the five years between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, the time between the Cell and Majin Buu arcs, the years that Goku spent training with Kami, the years of training before the attack of the Androids 19 and 20... there are many others like those. Also, there is the fact that we know there were at least 20 androids created by Dr. Gero, but we don't know all of them; the fact that Saiyans were sent to other planets when they were babies to grow up with the planet's civilization to later destroy them and come back to Planet Vegeta, that left open the idea that there may be other Saiyans still alive, living in the planets they were assigned to destroy; the alternative Universe Future!Trunks came from, and the idea that more alternative dimensions can be created with the Time Machine... Dragon Ball is totally made out of fanfic fuel. But it was to be expected from a story of such length (and that was mostly improvised by Akira Toriyama!) and for all the Plot Holes created by the anime series that needed to keep adding fillers while waiting for the manga to catch up.
    • It doesn't help either that almost all the movies could be considered Alternate Universes because they don't fit very well with the main continuity, so you have many possible universes to tell stories about.
    • For Dragon Ball Super, fans are coming up with ideas and stories about what happens to Future Trunks and Mai after they leave for the new timeline, like Future Trunks training with Alt-Future Trunks. Likewise, some are coming with ideas for how Trunks will deal with Beerus on his own timeline.
    • Like with the previous series, some fans like to imagine what would the different kind of Saiyan transformations look on the new Saiyans introduced in Super. Goku Black, in particular, has a lot of fans who like to imagine how would he look like as a Super Saiyan 4 or with the Ultra Instinct.
    • In general, the many cool fighters from the Tournament of Power got fans who like to imagine backstories for many of them.
    • One can easily make a fanfic for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 enough to make their own canon. Such as the first Time Patroller being their parentnote , siblings, or senpai. The possibilities are endless. Heck, Team Four Star themselves made the idea of their original character being the father of their XV2 character. note 
  • The Familiar of Zero:
    • The series starts with Louise summoning a familiar, and accidentally summoning a human from another world. Every single fanfic starts by simply changing who she summoned, usually as a Crossover with another 'verse. It's notable enough that our fanfic sub-forum on this very wiki has a thread dedicated solely to collecting interesting Zero crossovers.
    • Even when the summon doesn't actually change, the entire Zero universe is fuel. A Low Middle Ages/Early Renaissance set, with magic and elves? The possibilities are endless (specially when the writers do their history homework).
  • Gundam: Even the original Mobile Suit Gundam made it clear that what was shown on screen was simply one small part of a large war. The UC timeline spans over two centuries, and then there are the Alternate Universe series, and that's not even considering fans making their own Gundam AU. There's also less of an aversion to fans making up all-new casts due to the practice of introducing a new lead character for every anime, manga and video game.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • Fans have plenty of fun writing for the nations, with all the history between them.
    • The vast amounts of Ship Tease and Ho Yay between nations (in part due to the main cast being almost entirely male and Ambiguously Bi) has lead to many works putting popular (and in some cases not-so-popular) pairings together, either as Nations, or in a human (usually high-school) AU. The fact most of them has at least one human name suggested by Word of God helps the latter significantly.
    • The nature of being a Nation is touched on briefly in the series, but much is left up for speculation - like what exactly leads to a Nation's 'disappearance', how emotionally damaging is it to be immortal and how being forced to comply with their bosses' wishes (as is implied with WWII-Germany) affects them.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry:
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: It's extremely common to find fanfic and fancomics starring a grown up Shizuka from Diamond is Unbreakable with her as the lead Joestar of the original "Part" that the fanfic author creates. This is probably due to a desire to create more content for the original universe without having to add to the already convoluted Joestar family tree, as well as a longstanding rumor that she would have been the protagonist of Part 7 before Araki decided to reboot the series.
  • Kill la Kill:
    • A rather funny example from Episode 21: Mako tells Aikurou that she was able to remember Satsuki's plan so well because Satsuki had written every detail on her hands. Cue fan artists making a very intimate scene of Satsuki writing the instructions on Mako's hands.
    • There's the question of what exactly happened to Rei after Senketsu separates her from Shinra-Koketsu... It gets answered in #25.
    • The alternate life the characters would have had if Ragyo didn't use her children to test the Life Fibers and abuse them or, alternatively, if the Life Fibers haven't existed.
    • The backgrounds of Satsuki and Nui are also explored in fanfiction, especially with Satsuki's with her mother's abuse, along with the effects thereof. In that line, we get Ragyo's backstory being subject of at least a few, seeing as it has never been seen in the series.
  • Medaka Box briefly mentions the other "main characters" between Iihiko and Medaka, who came along once every thousand years, and would have to have at least as much Success Through Insanity as those two, though they would all be Doomed by Canon since Iihiko killed all of them. Additionally, the whole cast have intricate backstories just waiting to be filled in.
  • The basic premise of Monster Musume is that the government revealed the existence of monsters to the world and created cultural exchange programs, with some humans being sent to live with monsters and monsters being sent to live with humans. As a result, several fan stories revolve around an Original Character (maybe more) receiving several monsters and having to adjust to life with their new housemates.
  • Monster Rancher: Unlike the other members, Hare's past prior to meeting up with the Searchers was not touched upon until a single episode partway through the final, Post-Script Season, making it a common target for speculation.
  • Naruto:
    • The fandom already were fond of writing Alternate Universe fanfiction set in high school but when the anime released an ending theme that pretty much set up the roles of each character for them the amount of fanfiction (and fanart for that matter) exploded.
    • And then, thanks to Road to Ninja and the possibility for a Lotus-Eater Machine Jutsu, these Alternate Universes have more weight to them.
    • There is also the 1997 pilot chapter, which not only has Naruto as an actual kitsune, but also has the attacking Nine-Tails as his father.
    • Among Naruto's graduating class at the Academy, we know of only three ninja teams that were formed: Team 7, Naruto's team; Team 8, Hinata's team; and Team 10, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. (Team Gai is one year ahead of them.) That leaves at least seven other possible teams (1 through 6 and 9), and very likely more than that, of whose exploits we know nothing and for whom potential story ideas are ripe for the picking. note 
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Its controversial plotline that only got more Mind Screw-y as the show went on, a very ambiguous mythology surrounding its setting, and a cast chock-full of Woobies who get pushed to (and sometimes past) their breaking points makes this anime a fertile ground for fan writers to step in.
  • While any one-shot character from Ojamajo Doremi has this, Nozomi and Fami get this the most since they had a lot of potential as characters and several loose ends.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Three words: Ash Ketchum's father. There's a good reason it has its own WMG page on TV Tropes.
    • The revelation that Ash's new traveling companion in the X/Y series, Serena, is Childhood Friends with him. Certainly opens up new possibilities/insights into Ash's childhood, and that's before considering the shipping factor (a discussion thread for the pairing was already into triple digits after only seven episodes).
    • "The Cave of Mirrors!" (XY037) confirms the existence of a Mirror Universe where everyone's Mirror Self exhibits personality traits opposite of their regular versions (but not a complete flip-flop). As only the mirror counterparts of Ash, his current traveling companions, some of their Pokémon, and Team Rocket are shown, this leaves the door wide open for Mirror World incarnations of other characters. For that matter, how would the X/Y saga differ (if at all) because of said characters' differences in temperament and ability? How would this affect Ash's past and future journeys?
    • Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew shows that Ash has enough Aura to be able to activate multiple Aura artefacts. Since this is in a movie, many would think that Ash's Aura potential would be forgotten...until we come across two episodes of the series that reference Aura in such a way that implies that Ash's adventures in Rota Town happened in some form. "He's using his Aura unconsciously" has become a very valid explanation as to how Ash does most of the things he does.
  • Princess Principal had 12 episodes, shown in Anachronic Order, with case numbers going up to 24, meaning half the numbers are missing. What happened in the cases not shown?
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Ranma ½:
    • The Jusenkyo Springs provide various opportunities for plots: What if Ranma fell into a different spring? What if one of the other characters (or an Original Character) fell into a spring? What if a character from a different fandom fell into one of the springs?
    • Also, the franchise's love of the "Someone from ____'s past (usually Genma) comes to Nerima looking for answers and/or revenge" plot. Rememeber, Genma and Ranma were Walking the Earth for years. The possibilies for new characters and/or crossovers is just as vast (if not bigger) than the Jusenkyo Springs.
  • Reborn! (2004):
    • Absolutely nothing is known in canon about Hibari Kyoya's background; not even his exact age. His family is never addressed in any capacity, we're never told why he's such a good fighter or why he's so obsessed with keeping order, and we're never given an explanation behind his inexplicable resemblance to Fon. So obviously many fanfics love to create a family background for him from scratch, often making Fon a distant relative of his.
    • Similarly, nothing is known about Reborn's life prior to him becoming an Arcobaleno, so occasionally fanfics will address this in some capacity, like giving him a real name (for the record, the manga tends to follow a mix of Theme Naming and As Long as It Sounds Foreign for anyone not Japanese, so there's no indication that Reborn is a fake name).
    • To a lesser degree, Yamamoto Takeshi also receives this treatment due to his mom being completely absent.
  • Robotech, covering three generations and two post apocalypses.
    • The years it takes the SDF-1 to get back to Earth leaves lots of room for how Robotechnology and the knowledge of aliens effects geo-global politics back home.
    • Reconstruction Blues, Mad Max meets Robotech has unlimited potential.
    • The Second Robotech War; the series follows the main character sure, but how is the war effecting the rest of the world which would be a mix of first world and third world conditions.
    • The Invid occupied Earth, Mad Max meets Robotech all under the shadow of slavery by the Invid and the Flower of Life's take over of the Earth devastated ecology.
    • And while the Sentinels books and cartoon episode covered what happened to the SDF-3, a lot of people consider it Fanon Discontinuity, so there is ample room to re-write what happened to the SDF-3.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Sailor Moon spans millennia and follows only a dozen or so girls of what could be hundreds. Naoko did say that there could be senshi all over the universe, and we even meet a couple dozen alien senshi in the last arc/season. Therefore, there's reams of Silver Millennium, Crystal Tokyo, and "Team Other Than The Sol Senshi" stories out there, and the pile grows all the time. Basically, for any celestial body, there's a Sailor for that.
    • There's also Jadeite's anime fate. When Beryl pulled a You Have Failed Me, she sentenced him to "Eternal Sleep." No, that's not a dub edit. Such a thing seems to scream "dramatic return someday down the line," especially as it turns out that people in this series can actually die, so no death stand-in or euphemism is needed if he was truly intended to be dead. So the series has a 200-episode (plus an OVA or two) run and ends with no such dramatic return, well, it kinda seemed like an oversight, and fans have been correcting it ever since. He's not even that remarkable a villain and doesn't get much in the way of Character Development; it just feels so wrong when Chekhov's Gun doesn't get fired. On the other hand, the manga Jadeite is pretty definitely dead.
    • How about Mimete's fate? The last we see of her, she's trapped in a computer when Tellu pulls the plug, so unless it's stated otherwise, all someone would have to do to get her back would be to turn the computer on again.
  • For Strike Witches, there exist plenty of non-eroge doujins about the many Witches from around its world. This is set as an alternate timeline of World War II, and the anime only covered a small portion of its European nations. Just think about all the potential there is for fan fic writers and doujinji artists.
  • The Aincrad story arc of Sword Art Online focuses almost exclusively on Kirito and his unintentionally-gathered harem of female players. But even including all of the side characters from that arc, they are only perhaps 20 out of the ten thousand unnamed, off-screen players who were trapped in Sword Art Online for two years. Nearly all of whom were gamers. The sheer volume of self-insert and OC fanfic rivals many longer-running series.
  • Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-. Non-ending?. Check. Not resolving any ships at all? Check. Mysterious characters? Check. Massive potential for crossovers with just the feather as the price? Check. Tsubasa is made of this trope, now, if only the fan fiction writers would use it.....
  • The plot of Urusei Yatsura is kicked off when Ataru is chosen to be Lum's opponent in a game of tag in order to save the world from being conquered, and accidentally becomes engaged to her. It's pretty easy to come up with a plot where another teenaged character, either from the same series or from a different fandom, is the one chosen to challenge and accidentally propose to Lum.
  • The Vision of Escaflowne never expanded on the Zaibach Empire, or the backstories of Dilandau, Jajuka, and other Dragon Slayers. Luckily, the fans are more than happy to step in and do it themselves.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • The Virtual Nightmare Arc in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! was supposed to be a Filler Arc, but it introduced a unique House Rule to the game called the Deck Master system. Despite Kaiba's insistence canon-wise that they forget it ever happened, Fan Fic writers never seem to get tired of using this house rule and putting unique spins on it. (In fact, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses may have been a "legit" example of expanding the Deck Master system with the similarly functioning Deck Leaders.)
    • Both Bakuras are absent in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, so naturally there are several theories and fanfics about where they were.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Daichi Misawa has six different decks in the first season (not counting a "practice deck" he uses in his entrance exam and the "7th Deck" he uses against Judai) but he only uses two of them over the course of the series, and the themes and strategies of the other four remain mysteries. A lot of fanfics that feature him explore this further, each author giving opinions on what at least some of them are.
    • And on that note: Fire Dragon. The first OP shows him flanked by two monsters: Water Dragon, a dragon made of water that we do see him use, and a similar monster made of fire, that we do not, nicknamed Fire Dragon by fans. Some take his later monster Carbogeddon to be related to it (since Water Dragon is created from two Hydrogeddons and one Oxygeddon), but it was never elaborated upon.

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