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Friendly Fandoms / Western Animation

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Friendly Fandoms in Western Animation.

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  • Love, Death & Robots:
    • Generally, with fans of Black Mirror due to the shared anthological formats and themes of dark storytelling and sci-fi influences. Many Black Mirror fans saw the series as a sideshow until the next season.
    • A few shorts are very popular among fans of tabletop roleplaying games. Warhammer 40,000 got their treat with the military sci-fi short "Suits" and the Cosmic Horror Story shorts "Beyond the Aquila Rift" and "Swarm". Delta Green fans enjoyed "The Secret War" and "In Vaulted Halls Entombed", the latter of which even features a dead-ringer for Cthulhu.
    • The fan-favourite short "Bad Travelling" has been lovingly adopted by fans of Dishonored and Sunless Sea out of similar art direction and character design, and a shared Gothic Horror gloom in a Victorian Britain-but-not Ocean Punk environment.
  • Bob's Burgers with Archer due to H. Jon Benjamin starring as the titular characters in both series. The Season 4 premiere of the latter was a crossover episode where Archer has amnesia and thinks he's Bob Belcher. The season 4 finale guest starred Eugene Mirman and Kristen Schaal as one-off characters, both using the same voices they use for Gene and Louise respectively.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Beetlejuice and The Real Ghostbusters, for several reasons. They’re both well-received Animated Adaptations of live action movies from the 80s, their premises both feature characters dealing with ghosts like it’s no big deal, and they were both early attempts to break out of the Animation Age Ghetto via solid writing
  • Fans of The Amazing World of Gumball are open to anything. This is both ironic and fitting, given the show’s context. The only thing the fans (and even the show itself) legitimately dislike is the Chinese knockoff, Miracle Star.
  • A rather odd example: the fandoms of Hey Arnold! would often get along with fans of Recess and have grown to have mutual respect for each other, probably due to the similarities between the two shows. This used to be the reason they originally hated each other, but now that there is no threat of competition, fans of either are now often fans of both. note 
  • Many of the prominent Fanfic writers for Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers also wrote fanfic for Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures back in the 1990s. These days, newcomers to the fandom tend to be fans of X-Men: Evolution who discovered it via Red Witch and other fanfic writers. Later on, the Galaxy Rangers fan writers ended up writing Leverage fanfic, partly because of the similarities in the character types (Doc and Hardison, Nathan and Zach, Shane and Spencer).
  • There's a lot of overlap between fans of The Legend of Korra and Young Justice—both are slightly dark series written with a preteen/teenage crowd in mind, and Young Justice aired on Cartoon Network in the time slot right before The Legend of Korra on Nickelodeon.
  • In the same block as Young Justice, The Legend of Korra and Green Lantern: The Animated Series also have a lot of fandom crossover. This is thanks in no small part to the fact that one of the writers of GLTAS, Giancarlo Volpe, worked on the previous Avatar series and he has plugged his previous team's new show several times on Tumblr (and they return the favor.)
  • There's also overlap between the two Avatar series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars; in addition to the aforementioned Giancarlo Volpe also previously worked on The Clone Wars, Clone Wars' supervising director Dave Filoni was a director on the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Voice actor Dee Bradley Baker has also cited his roles in both shows to be his favorite voice acting roles.
  • Fans of Greg Weisman shows seem to blend into one big fandom.
  • Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series fans have banded together. As the two headliners of Cartoon Network's weekend morning "DC Nation" block, they air in back-to-back time slots—and they were both subject to epic screwing by Cartoon Network when they were abruptly shelved about eight hours before airing their third episode after coming off summer hiatus. Fans want to see them back before January 2013. When both shows were canceled at the same time, the fandoms banded further together in support of both shows, using the Fan Community Nickname "Symbiosi" (which, in Young Justice, is the Atlantean word for "together").
  • While they do have a minor Fandom Rivalry, most Adventure Time fans are also Regular Show, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, and/or Steven Universe fans. This is thanks to the fact that the creator of Steven Universe, Rebecca Sugar, is a former Adventure Time writer who was known for writing fan favorite episodes like "Simon and Marcy," and they both originally aired on Cartoon Network on Monday nights within the same hour (although Steven Universe has moved to Wednesdays).
  • There's also considerable overlap between fans of Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), as several fans of the former began to watch the latter after the DC Nation hiatus happened. TMNT2012 also overlaps a lot with Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!! due to Ciro Neili producing the former and creating the later. He throws a lot of references to monkey team into TMNT and boy have the fans noticed.
  • Gargoyles and Star Trek fandoms get along excellently considering many Trek alumni have done character voices for the Disney series, especially Jonathon Frakes and Marina Sirtis as the major antagonists, David Xanatos and Demona respectively.
  • American Dragon: Jake Long, Danny Phantom, and Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, all being Kid Heroes who Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World and seem like they'd be good friends were they ever in the same universe, were given the crossover name "The Secret Trio" by fans on Tumblr. This fanbase also has some overlap with the Detentionaire fanbase and (thanks tothe works of a writer known as QueenofHearts7378) the Miraculous Ladybug fanbase.
  • The fandoms of Total Drama, 6teen, and Stōked are all quite friendly with each other, due to all of them sharing similar tone and comedy, as well as being about Canadian teenagers. No surprise given that all three series are from the same creators. Grojband can sometimes be included as well, although its vastly different tone and direction (due to being the brainchld of different people than the other 3) doesn't always make this the case.
  • Danny Phantom, ParaNorman, and Dude, That's My Ghost!, because of the plot revolving around ghosts.
  • Many SpongeBob SquarePants fans are usually friendly with the Adventure Time fans. Mostly because former writers from SpongeBob had worked on or are still currently working on Adventure Time.
  • There is a case with Adventure Time and Phineas and Ferb, despite the two being completely different. This is because former writers had worked on the show. One of the creators (Dan Provenmire) was an occasional writer for SpongeBob (and a director for Family Guy episodes from Season 2-Season 5). It helps that both shows have an Ensemble Dark Horse character voiced by Olivia Olson (Marceline and Vanessa, respectively).
  • Many Hey Arnold! fans are usually friendly with Rugrats fans as both shows are very character driven, aired on Nickelodeon around the same time, specialized in heartwarming moments and have similarities in characters. It's worth noting that Craig Bartlett is a former Rugrats writer, and left to create Hey Arnold.
  • Unlike their spiritual predecessors, American Dad! and Futurama fans are very friendly with each other because both shows are considered better than their predecessors, they're not as popular nor as successful as them, they have a similar style of humour and they both share some writers and producers. Both show's also underwent a relatively minor dose of Seasonal Rot when they moved from Fox to their new respective channels.
  • In the 2000s, many SpongeBob SquarePants and Family Guy fans liked both shows and were very friendly with each other because both started in the same year, were cancelled around the same time and revived in 2005, had similar jokes, an absurd tone, and characterisation and both suffered through a heavy dose of Seasonal Rot around the same time for similar reasons. Not to mention they both replaced established franchises as flagship shows for their respective networks (Rugrats and The Simpsons).
  • Fans of Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry get along very well for the most part because of their large focus of slapstick and the fact that the studio behind Looney Tunes, Warner Bros. got the rights to Tom And Jerry through their ownership of the pre-1986 MGM library. It also helps that Harman and Ising had a hand in the creation of both franchises.
  • The Five-Man Band of 1980s cartoons is often said to be composed of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), Voltron, ThunderCats, The Transformers and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. And, if you talk to your typical children of the Eighties, you'll see it's for good reason.
  • Ben 10 and Generator Rex. On top of both shows being made by Man Of Action and airing on Cartoon Network, they had a phenomenal crossover in the extended episode of Generator Rex "Heroes United" which showcased Ben and Rex as playing off of each other better than they play off of most characters in their own shows.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants and Regular Show as well, at least for the fact that the shows have similar characters.
  • Just like The Secret Trio and Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons, fanbases of certain animated shows- with Kid Hero stars battling the supernatural and strange -have united to create a composite team-up universe, featuring the Mystery Kids. The most frequent members of this team-up are the protagonists of Gravity Falls, ParaNorman, Coraline, Psychonauts, and to a lesser extent, Invader Zim and Danny Phantom.
  • Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, The Legend of Korra, and Over the Garden Wall, all of which have a very mature feel to them compared to most modern cartoons, and are all plot-driven. The similarity of GF and OTGW's respective sets of sibling protagonists combined with overall air of mystery, outdoorsiness and demonic presence also renders the two shows uniquely compatible. In a poke at the infamous trio of Superwholock, the crossover between Steven Universe, Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall has been dubbed Steven Falls Over.
  • The fandoms of Teen Titans and Danny Phantom have been and still remain very friendly, with each show still having the other as their number one crossover on FanFiction.Net over ten years later. Both shows came out around the same time and revolved around teenage superheroes and both were relatively lighthearted while still being able to go into some pretty dark territory, so it's not too surprising. Generally, if you were a fan of one, chances were you were also a fan of the other. In some circles, there was even a bit of a joke that Danny was the unofficial sixth Titan.
  • Fans of Gravity Falls are enjoying other modern animated shows that resemble Gravity Falls and have staff who are friends of Alex Hirsch. Some shows include:
    • Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Star Butterfly has been positively compared to Mabel for sharing Mabel's Genki Girl personality, love of cute and colorful things like puppies and rainbows, and friendship with a savvy guy.
    • DuckTales (2017). Not only is Alex Hirsch's girlfriend a director of the show in the first season, but the new Webby has been favorably compared to Mabel for her Genki Girl personality and love of grappling hooks.
    • Rick and Morty. Not only is co-creator Justin Roiland a personal friends of Alex Hirsch, but Rick and Morty also has many references to Gravity Falls including a brief Crossover Punchline between the two shows. The fact that Stanford is confirmed to have traveled through several dimensions, a popular fanon has popped up that Rick and Stanford were friends if not more. The most common bit of fanon is that Rick Sanchez helped Stanford obtain the Infinity-Sided Die, and smuggle it through inter-dimensional customs.
    • Fans of The Owl House and Amphibia, two other Disney Television Animation shows, are friendly with both Gravity Falls fans and each other. Both shows were announced together, as well as having similar premises and being created by Gravity Falls alumni. The latter series even had Alex Hirsch voice frog versions of Grunkle Stan and Soos in a Gravity Falls homage.
  • Fans of The Dragon Prince are on friendly terms with fans of other animated Netflix shows, like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Voltron: Legendary Defender. (Though there's also quite a bit of Fandom Rivalry going on between those three in particular for reasons that shall not be gotten into on this page)
  • Invader Zim and Rick and Morty fans get along since both sci-fi works involve heaping piles of Black Comedy aimed at exploring the meaningless of life. As with Alex Hirsch, Justin Roiland is good friends with Jhonen Vasquez with the two trading friendly jabs on social media.
  • Because of their moe cast, similar protagonists, and having some of the same crewnote , the fandoms of True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Abby Hatcher get along well.
  • The fandom of Kidd Video is on good terms with that of Jem, as both are 1980s cartoons focusing on bands.
  • PBS Kids show fandoms are like a big entangled web of friendly fandoms:
  • Fans of Van Beuren Studios and Terrytoons get along very well with each other due to sharing a number of crew members (including Paul Terry, who founded the latter studio) and being the most obscure studios of The Golden Age of Animation.
  • Thomas & Friends:
    • The Thomas fandom and the TUGS fandom go hand-in-hand. This is because of the similar concepts, and the fact that a good chunk of the production team of TUGS also worked on Thomas. The show was even created by David Mitton and Robert Cardona, who were the series' then director and producer, respectively. It's even implied that both shows take place in the same universe (especially with Big Mickey becoming a character in Season 21 after his model was just there as a case of Prop Recycling. There's even clear parallels to his character in TUGS).
      • The incredibly-popular fan series The Stories of Sodor started off as a version of TUGS with Thomas characters, with clear parallels between the characters, and plots being adapted wholesale, mixed with original stories and realistic versions of Railway Series and TV series episodes.
    • There's also a nice overlap with the Theodore Tugboat fandom, given that Robert D. Cardona worked on that show as well as Thomas and TUGS. Theodore is similar to the aforementioned TUGS, but is more kid-friendly.
    • The Thomas fandom and the Transformers fandom have a good overlap, most likely owing to the Trains Formers fan videos.
    • Despite the above-mentioned Fandom Rivalries, there are still some Thomas fans who like Chuggington, and vice-versa.
    • Many Thomas fans are also My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fans, and there are a lot of fanfics and fanart crossing over the two. One reason for this may be because both shows are popular among people on the autism spectrum.
  • Total Drama and Danganronpa have plenty of fans who like both series due to the similar premise of teenagers that have labels in an elimination style game.
  • Many VeggieTales fans are fans of SpongeBob SquarePants, to the point where fan animations exist with the VeggieTales characters acting out scenes from the show. Many of them also enjoy PBS Kids shows (most commonly Sesame Street) and Chuck E. Cheese (which actually played VeggieTales clips in their showtapes).

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