The 4Kids dub was already a joke for, among other things, cutting out a story arc involving a whale named Laboon, and another involving giants. Two later arcs that came up about 200 to 300 episodes later involved plot points based on those stories. The first one involved a character being friends with the two giants from the missing arc, and, in the second, the author introduced a new crewmate, Brook, whose entire character motivation revolves around getting back and seeing Laboon.
There's also the cover of Chapter 14, which shows Luffy as Dracula. Much later, this becomes an inadvertent Stealth Pun when you consider that "dracula" means 'son of the dragon', which is quite accurate as Luffy is indeed Dragon's son.
There's no need to make fun of the 4Kids dub to get these moments. CPR Clean Pretty Reliable has been depicted twice in One Piece: on Luffy in the Arlong arc, and on Usopp in the Skypiea arc. Both times, it's depicted without mouth-to-mouth. Fast forward 5-10 years later real-time, and medical guidelines today recommend chest compressions ONLY in CPR now.
A Seiyuu related one. Brook's VA, Yuichi Nagashima way before being known as Brook, voiced a character in the gag series Sexy Commando Gaiden named Tsuyoshi Tsobe also better known as Kyasharin or "Living Bones".
Also a Seiyuu related one; the protagonist himself, Luffy's VA (Mayumi Tanaka), is voicing a villain in Doki Doki! PreCure, the little boy Ira. The hilarious part? Eiichiro Odaconsiders the entire Precure series as his rival because his daughters love it more than his masterpiece. The fact that Luffy's VA is voicing a villain also adds the hilarity.
In Kanon (2006), Yuichi is chastised for having a boring introduction to his new class. Yuichi says, "If's there an interesting way to introduce yourself, I'd like to see that." In that same year, his voice actor landed on the role of Kyon.
Yuichi is also once called out for talking narration to himself by Kaori, something that Kyon does all the time.
Shugo Chara! had this weird moment where our resident trap makes a return and apparently, if Kukai, Tadase and Nagahiko were in the same scene, they resemble the trio from Boku No Pico.
Mahou Sensei Negima! had a scene with Nodoka being attacked by a perverted bounty hunter with tentacles, who starts stripping her clothes off while ranting about "boobies". After Negi saves her in a Big Damn Heroes moment, the group later runs into the same gang of bounty hunters in a Bath house. Turns out the tentacle guy is actually a hot female with a healthy appreciation for breasts.Skinship Grope ensues.
Waaaay back in chapter 15, some eavesdropping caused the class to think that Negi was a prince. Roughly 200 chapters later, it turns out he is.
Also in chapter 210, after everyone important has left for the magical world, several characters are joking with the twins about how the main cast was abducted by aliens. The twins panic, saying "next time we meet Asuna she won't be Asuna anymore." Turns out not long into the arc, Asuna gets kidnapped and replaced with a lookalike that has her personality and memories.
When Evangeline was still Negi's opponent, during her duel with him, she captured a bunch of his other students and dolled them up asMeidos. Among her victims we have Akira Ookochi and Ako Izumi, who end as maids again much later... in the Magical World, when alongside Natsumi they sell themselves into slavery.
In Chapter 229, when they find out that Fates real name is tertium, which means the third, they start to worry if theres more then one of them. Come Chapter 311, and we meet Quartum, Quintum and Sextum.
The English dub of spinoff series Negima!? has a point where Shichimi says "Perhaps it is time to dine, nya" a paraphrase of Enma Ai's catchphrase from Hell Girl. Guess who does the voice of both characters. It's even more hilarious when realizing that the joke was simply a Shout Out in the Japanese version. In the dub it's a Shout Outand a "same voice actor" joke.
One of the episodes of Soul Eater features a throwaway gag about how, since Shinigami-sama's soul is bound to Death City, the city would have to sprout legs and walk if he were to track down and defeat the Kishin, who has now gone into hiding. Cue episode 47 of the anime. While this might sound like Foreshadowing, the same scene appearing in the manga, which lacked the eventual plot twist.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, Scar is voiced (in Brotherhood) by J Michael Tatum, who also voiced Enel/Eneru in One Piece. Scar attacks state alchemists in the name of God... or, rather, he attacks in the name of himself.
In a bonus feature in volume five it shows that one of Ed's boxers' possible designs was Automail. In a volume 7 bonus feature, guess what the Truth takes from him.
Kind of a weird example of both Fullmetal Alchemist and Cowboy Bebop with the latter's episode Sympathy for the Devil. The Bebop episode features a character, Wen who essentially looks identical to FMA's Selim Bradley. This is funny because of the common twist that both characters are far older than they look and are only masquerading as children. While probably accidental, it means that if you watched Bebop after FMA, you'd probably guess the twist immediately, and vice versa.
Rewatch episode 19 knowing that Mustang and Lust are married.
In the 2003 anime version, episode 15, Maes Hughes (voiced by Sonny Strait in the dub) says something along the lines of "What do you want me to do, fire my slingshot at him?!". Flash forward to 2007, and his voice actor became the new voice of the One Piece sniper Usopp...
Also from the 2003 anime: Selim Bradley is introduced at the last second only to be killed off by the anime's version of Pride, King Bradley. Four years later, Selim Bradley turns out to be the manga's Pride. And King Bradley is his direct subordinate.
A similar case comes even later with Scar's death in the 2003 anime, where he continues to fight even after having his arms blows off. Come chapter 105 of that manga and not only does Bradley do the same thing, it was caused byScar.
There's also the joke when Choji sees Naruto's Rasenshuriken and assumes, based on the name, that it was a projectile attack (it isn't). Nearly one hundred chapters later, it shows up again and now it is.
Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja is the newest Shippuden movie set in an alternate universe(or something), the difference? Naruto's parents are alive and Sakura's are dead. Now remember that comment Sakura made in the beginning of the series about Naruto and his behavior because of a lack of parents and it turns into Gallows Humor
Back in the first chapter/episode, Naruto is doing graffiti all over the Hokage Monument. One of them is his dad.
Chapter 599 revealed that Obito is the Big Bad Tobi, in the english dub Obito was voiced by Vic Mignonga who also voiced "serious Tobi" in one of the video games. Consequently, Tobi might not be a good boy now, but he once was one.
In the preview for episode 25 attached to the end of episode 24, Naruto is freaking out over Part 1 of the Chuunin Exams, worried that he'll be "the oldest living Genin". As of now, Naruto's still a Genin and it looks like he's gonna stay that way. Not that it really matters.
In one Omake, Sakura calls out the staff because the current ending only features Hinata. The omake ends with her angrily demanding her own ending - which she got for the very next ending.
Naruto's fight with Gaara has him and Gamabunta due a joint transformation into an image of the kyuubi, though just to use its tails and claws for gripping. During the Fourth Shinobi War arc, Naruto gains the ability to turn into the real thing.
Richard Steven Horvitz had a small recurring role in Duel Masters as Fritz the bitter goblin. One of his main running gags was his Berserk Button, where he would yell at anyone who called him a squirrel. Thus, fans of the dub were amused when Horvitz was later cast as the titular animal character in Squirrel Boy.
In Bleach a lot of people were joking around that Yammy Rialgo was the strongest Espada. And then he tells us that he's the 0th Espada.
There's also Urahara's "Who's my favorite pussy?!" said to Yoruichi when in cat form, in the English dub. Then we get to learn the cat's gender...
Fans started referring to the Big Bad's One-Winged Angel forms by a number of unflattering nicknames. One of them, inspired by a speech about the form simply being an intermediary stage to help him evolve into a higher being, was "Butterflyzen". Then his next form rolled around and actually had butterfly wings.
In Semi Soma 01's Bleach Abridged, Ichigo is obsessed with butterflies.
For a long time, a popular Memetic Mutation statement was that "Nobody Dies in Bleach" - in other words, if you're a captain or lieutenant, you're always just going to be nearly killed instead of actually dying. Kubo didn't get the memo for the Thousand Year Blood War Arc - thus far Sasakibe and Yamamoto have gone down.
For the majority of Bleach's run, a popular - if unsubstantiated - pairing was Unohana x Kenpachi. Cue chapter 520, when we learn that Unohana was the first Kenpachi, and her real name is Yachiru - aka the only person Kenpachi ever admired!
On top of that, remember how the 11th Division soldiers were terrified of her when they messed with anyone from the 4th Division? We've always been told about her combat abilities and how people would rather take on Yamamoto's Bankai than making her angry. Messing with the subordinates of the woman that laid the Blood Knight foundation of the 11th Division that they're a part of, not to mention the most diabolical criminal of Soul Society history... yeah, that's not very smart. Looking back, their frighten reactions to Unohana come full-circle now.
Something you might have missed: shortly before Chad undergoes his first loss in the Soul Society arc, Ichigo says that he's the person he's least worried about, because he 'Can't imagine Chad ever losing.' Well, Ichigo...
Iemura, fourth seat of the 4th Division, complains about how someone like Kyoraku would get to be a captain and thus outrank him. He's talking about the future Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13
A running joke on the Pokémon site Pokemopolis is that Togepi is evil. An episode of the anime years later focuses on "The Worst Togepi Ever!"
And anyone who's familiar with "aim for the horn" probably had their laughs back in Gen III of the games, when the Rhyhorn family (including Rhydon, which was the victim of said move) gained the Lightningrod ability. So not only is it immune to electrical attacks, probably to the frustration of those who can't tell between anime plot and game mechanics, but with that ability, as long as it's on the field, you can't aim an Electric attack at any other Pokémon!
Related to this, in the episode Tag! We're It...!, the first pair of opponents Ash and Paul face had...a Magmar and Rhydon. And the Rhydon had Lightningrod.
Another bit regarding Lightningrod. Even though Ash's Pikachu has Static, he balanced on his tail to dodge a berserk Thunder from Surge's Raichu. As of Gen V, the Pikachu family has Lightningrod as their Dream ability.
In 2006, there was an April Fools joke pulled by a Japanese fansite about an anime adapation of the Pokemon Mystery DungeonSpin-Off games. Later in the fall of that year when when the games made their American debut, Cartoon Network did air an anime adaptation alongside it.
In the third episode of the anime series, "Ash Catches a Pokémon", when Jessie and James both unleash their Pokémon at once, Ash states that using two Pokémon at once is against Pokémon League rules. Come 2002, upon the release of Ruby & Sapphire, Double Battles and Multi Battles (also known as Tag Battles) are introduced.
Not necessarily hilarious, but the Viridian gym battle with Jessie saw her send out three Pokemon at once against Ash's three. It would take four generations for triple battles to be OFFICIALLY introduced to the game.
There's also a scene where Ash makes a remark about how Shellder clamping on Psyduck's tail would make it a Psybro due to how Slowpoke evolves into Slowbro. In the same episode, Shellder clamps onto Psyduck's head. Guess how Slowking evolves from Slowpoke.
Ash's Pikachu has the Fan Nickname "Godchu" for being seen as overpowered, including the aforementioned "Aim for the horn" incident. Come Super Smash Bros 64, Pikachu (although it's obviously not Ash's) was found to be top-tier.
Contrast with Mewtwo. "We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon...and he's bottom tier in Melee and MIA in Brawl."
In one episode, Ash inadvertantly interrupts Trip while he battles a Palpitoad, causing the Pokemon to run away before Trip could catch it. In the next episode, Ash ends up catching a Palpitoad for himself.
In "The Mystery of the Lighthouse", Bill remarks that there are more Pokémon than one can imagine, and it will take years to find them all. The episode aired in Japan in 1997. Fast-forward 15 years, and Pokémon is one of the longest-running TV shows ever in excess of 700 episodes, 15 movies, and one of the most popular video game series ever with no signs of slowing.
And in that time, they've found another two to three hundred species' of Pokémon.
In the episode "Holiday at Aopulco", the Who's That Pokemon, a eyecatch bumper showing a different character each time, turns out to be Brutella, the main villain of that episode. 15 years later, in episode 10 of the anime "Smile Pretty Cure"note the episode where the villains go to the human world for Akane's okonominayaki, the second eyecatch (usually showing the team mascot Candy one being a different outfit or background) turned out to be the main monster of the series, an Akanbe!
It's also worth noting that this kind of Who's That Pokemon happened again in the Japanese version of "The Bug Stops Here!", with Jessie as a Venemoth. The Akanbe kind of eyecatch in Smile Pretty Cure happened twice during the first half of the series, appearing again 7 episodes later, because the episode was about a joke contest.
In "Minccino: Neat and Tidy", Bianca tells Ash's Oshawott to use Hydro Pump, with Ash replying that he doesn't know it. Oshawott would later learn Hydro Pump in Best Wishes 2.
It's honestly quite astounding how the writer of Pokémon Special makes up so much for his story yet nearly all of it still manages to fit into future game canon. This is why fans joke that Hidenori Kusaka can see into the future:
In the Yellow arc, there's a flashback of Oak's Kangaskhan beating one of Agatha's ghosts with a Dizzy Punch, which should be a total cop out seeing how Normal moves don't affect Ghosts. Now about a decade later in the newer games, Kangaskhan is given the ability Scrappy...which allows Normal (and Fighting) attacks to hit Ghost types.
The new "critical captures" feature in Black and White games sound a lot like capture spots.
So, you dress up as a Rocket member to infiltrate their base, only to have your cover blown because your disguise was ripped off...Special did it long before the HGSS games were released.
Zapmolcuno is finished off by a Blastoise, Charizard, and Venusaur simultaneously using their strongest attacks. It's the Triple Finish!
In Pokemon Platinum, you get the chance to purchase an insanely expensive villa and furnish it with insanely expensive furniture. Good thing that the lead character of the corresponding arc was conveniently already established to be insanely rich.
A green jewel meant to control Rayquaza...Emerald had one on his forehead before the HGSS games came up with the concept.
It took five generations for Game Freak to have the Gym Leaders more involved with the plot, have secondary jobs, and have them directly oppose the evil villainous team. It took only one for Pokespe.
Black's Munna clearing his head is a reference to the C-Gear. There is now a Munna C-Gear skin available.
In the GSC arc, some Rocket grunts fill a Spider Web with electricity. Gen 5 introduces the move Electroweb.
In the Platinum arc, Caitlin's personal Pokemon is a Gallade. As it turns out in the BW games, she is a master of psychic Pokemon.
Prowl in Transformers Robots In Disguise is a strict police car Autobot who lives "by the book". In the English dub a year later, his voice actor was Wayne Lewis, who is a porn actor under the name "Wankus".
Remember that yacht that was from the delayed episode for School Days? It turns out that it is the yacht of the director of School Days, Keitaro Motonaga, and that the nature footage was taken during a TNK corporate retreat in 2005. Nice boat, indeed.
And when the episode was released later, it turned out to that the final scene actually does take place on a nice boat.
Very early on Dragon Ball, when Goku turns into a giant ape for the first time, Oolong remarks "What's with this dude? Is he an alien?" About 15 volumes later... he is.
Similarly, when Goku and Piccolo Daimaô first square off, Piccolo calls Goku "smaller than ant's poop" and Goku replies by calling him "slug's poop". Slug in Japanese is "Namekuji", where the name for the later-introduced Planet Namek comes from. Guess who's from Namek? Piccolo.
Guess who else is from Namek? Lord Slug!
When Bulma is first introduced in Dragon Ball, she planned on using the Dragon Balls to wish for a Prince Charming boyfriend. She ends up married to a Warrior Prince in Dragon Ball Z. It's even lampshadedhere in Dragon Ball SD.
We're all familiar with Dragonball Evolution, right? What about Dragon Ball GT Evolution? No? Back when Funimation were doing single disc releases of the series they did a form of Idiosyncratic Volume Naming involving words that end with "ion". "Evolution" was the volume with episodes 48-51.
In an early episode on Dragon Ball Z, Goku meets Princess Snake, who apparently has fallen in love with him. In the FUNimation dub she was played by Colleen Clinkenbeard, who would later play Goku in Dragon Ball: Curse Of The Blood Rubies.
Apparently, Mr. Satan invented planking about fifteen years before anyone else was doing it. In attempt to make it look like he had knocked out Majin Buu for a photo he was taking, he told Buu to hold still and lay flat on his stomach. He even commented that it seemed strange, but it was the new trend in picture-taking.
When Goku refuses to kill Piccolo Jr. after winning the fight against him at the end of Dragon Ball, stating that he could use a rival, in the Funimation dub Yamcha says sarcastically, "Oh, I'm sure you'll be best friends someday." Guess who actually does end up best friends with Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z? Goku's son.
One of the early antagonists in Dragon Ball was a rabbit who had the power to turn anyone he touched into a carrot. When Goku faces him, the rabbit asks him if he wants to be carrot. In Dragon Ball Z, it turns out that Goku's Saiyan name is Kakarot!
At one point during Goku and Krillin's training, Master Roshi tied them both to a tree, shook a hornet's nest with a stick, and told them to DODGE!
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann does this a few times, but in episode 4, Kamina says that 16 combines at once sounds "Stupid", but in Lagann-Hen, the second movie, this is almost exactly what Simon does, and turns into a giant energy reincarnation of Kamina, the same person who advised against this stupid stunt.
The Great Saiyaman suddenly becomes absolutely awesome when you realize that Kyle Hebert uses his Kamina voice while doing those scenes.
In the first episode of RahXephon, Haruka invites Ayato to come with her, saying she'll explain all the world's secrets. He responds that he's not interested in older women. Although this line is already amusing, it becomes much more so on second viewing because Ayato and Haruka actually do end up together.
In Hetalia, Japan's human name is Kiku Honda. When the Japanese soccer team later scored their first goal ever in a World Cup, the scorer's last name was Honda. Even being the most common Japanese surname, it's still funny.
It gets better: Kiku's name means chrysanthemum. "Chrysanthemum" is slang for "anus" in East Asian cultures... LOL, yaoi fangirls.
And then, even better: In Spain's version of Marukaite Chikyuu, you can hear Soccer/Football sounds, such as a ball being kicked and a referee's whistle being blown. Guess which national team won the 2010 FIFA World Cup?
During a chase scene in an early episode of Trigun, Vash starts complaining to his maman, and then wonders aloud why he's speaking in French. Sort of random on its own, but hilarious when you consider who he ends up voicing in Axis Powers Hetalia...
The Prince of Tennis is a Shounen sports series, so naturally, many of the events are too far-fetched to be plausible. One match between Tezuka and Atobe leads to a 37-35 points tie-breaker. A later match between Atobe and Ryoma ends with a 116-114 points tiebreaker, implying a duration of several hours for the tiebreaker alone. But surely, no actual living person, let alone two people, have that much stamina, right?
Fast forward to Wimbledon 2010, and the marathon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. The total match time was eleven hours, eight hours for the final set alone, which eventually ended with Isner's victory, 70 games to Mahut's 68. That's games, not points, eclipsing the PoT tiebreakers by at least three times.
For more hilarity, guess which character is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (the voice of Kyon)? Ronove the butler, who is also caught (sorta) into said Groundhog Day Loop. Not only everyone is Itsuki for Kyon, but now everyone is Ronove for Battler.
Also connecting When They Cry and Haruhi: "Remote Island Syndrome". The episode/chapter contains Haruhi and co. getting trapped on an island during a storm and trying to "solve a murder mystery." Apparently, it was supposed to draw parallels to Umineko's sister series Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni (with even one of the characters named Keiichi), but in retrospect, the basic plot is almost identical to Umineko's.
In the fields of Latin American dubs, Irwin Daayan provides a really good one. His break-out role was male!Seiya Kou in Sailor Moon Stars... flashforward 12 years and have him playing anotherSeiya as a part of the two Saint Seiya dubs for the Hades Saga. El Oh El.
Since the Latin-American dub studios have similar actor pools depending on which country the series are dubbed, the Relationship Voice Actor trope brings up this more than once. One of the best examples is when Victor Ugarte was cast as Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion in both Mexican dubs, and his sister Gaby is cast as Rei Ayanami in the 2nd one. This sounds normal at first, but once you remember that Rei is his mother's clone and thus she is Shinji's sister in canon... sort of, the deal becomes absolutely hilarious. Even better... considering how that spoiler is in the It Was His Sled vein now, there's no way that such a Relationship Voice Actor bit wasn't intentional.
People complained how in the english dub, they were called 'Scouts' instead of soldiers. And that they said, 'Scouts sell cookies! They don't fight or do battles!'....then came the PC game, 'Cookie Domination.
In an episode of Code Geass, Lelouch goes to Ikebukuro and Jeremiah comes to kill him. Sounds fairly straightforward, until Johnny Yong Bosch and Crispin Freeman got cast as Izaya and Shizuo, and all you can think about is whether Jeremiah is going to throw a vending machine at Lulu when he gets there. (For context, Durarara!! is set in Ikebukuro.)
After Euphemia chooses Suzaku as her knight, Cornelia calls her to scold her about it, saying that if she wants to change the system, she can do so if she becomes Empress. That happens toward the end of Nightmare Of Nunnally, with Cornelia's approval.
Kallen's claim in episode 19 that Euphemia is a useless puppet princess of Britannia who can't make any decisions of her own. Episodes later, Euphie gets killed after being accidentally mind controlled and stripped of her free will. Could be considered Harsher in Hindsight too.
"Zero, you son of a bitch!"
In one episode of Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan, Sakura watches the "Binkan Salaryman" with Shizuki and Dokuro, which is a movie about a guy that's pretty... sensitive to everything. This scene becomes slightly better if you've heard "Jizz In My Pants".
Death Note. Both of Light Yagami's voiceactors have one of these. First is that Swaile voiced a guy named Lan Hikari... Let's see... "Hikari" is the Japanese word for Light...
More importantly is Miyano's when voicing Kiba from Wolf's Rain, when confronting Tsume for the first time. Tsume lets Kiba know that he has issues with his killing, but Kiba replies, "What's wrong with killing?" Then, Tsume tried to explain that killing is against the rules for the city, and which word does Kiba use to describe those rules? ROTTEN! In addition, how many letters in Kiba's name have to be changed to get Light's world-wide alias?
He had a reverse example of this for Death Note as well. At one point, Ryuk refers to Light Yagami as "a worthy shinigami." Later, in Soul Eater, Miyano voiced a literal shinigami... albiet one obsessed with symmetry.
Brad Swaile voiced Quatre, whose name means "four" in French, and who goes on a rampage in Wing Zero destroying colonies. Quatre also hates killing people and is a dedicated pacifist.
The infamous "Light gives Matsuda SWIMMING LESSONS" meme is already funny, but it takes even more levels in hilarious when you see that one of the better known members of the 2012 Japanese National Swimming Team is named Matsuda.
Becomes even funnier when you learn that the other Matsuda from the Japanese Olympic Team is a policeman, and takes a turn into Black Comedy once learned that this Matsuda's speciality is sharp-shooting with a 10 mm pistol.
An early arc in the Get Backers anime had the Recoverery service of Ban and Ginji doing battle against transporter Kuroudo "Doctor Jackal" Akabane, voiced by Shannon McCormick in the dub. In the machinima Red vs. Blue, McCormick does the voice for Agent Washington, who happens to be codenamed Recovery One.
Because its creator is a huge comic book fanboy, Rurouni Kenshin has several characters modeled after those from Marvel Comics. Amusingly, Hannya is sort of an accidental example, being kind of similar to Deadpool. Both are hideously disfigured ninja, and Deadpool has been presented as having a common origin with Wolverine, and Hannya uses Wolverine Claws (which one version of Deadpool also gets, kinda.) On the other hand, their personalities are quite different.
The second anime series of Grappler Baki, "Maximum Tournament", said on its opening "The lightning only struck me once, but gee...". In the manga series, one character was indeed struck by a lightning. And he justshrugged it off. Once, but gee...
At the end of the DVD Commentary for The End Of Evangelion, the commentators joke about the (un)likelihood of Eva 2: Electric Boogaloo. A decade later, the oddly-titled Rebuild movies are in full swing, and one of the most popular fan theories about them is that they are actually sequels to the original series.
In January 2011, the Adult Swim forums temporarily changed their "Other Anime" section to be themed on Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. A few months later in April, Funimation licensed P&S. The dub being broadcast on AS in the future almost seems like a shoo-in now...
Filipino Tiger & Bunny fans get a kick out of seeing Hero TV. It actually exists as an all-Filipino anime channel since 2005, way before the anime's original broadcast.
And in 2013, the same actual Hero TV will air Tiger & Bunny!
The horror manga Corpse Party - Blood Covered is about a Dwindling Party of kids being hunted by at least three murderous (ghost) kids. In the webcomic Homestuck a rapidly shrinking group of human and alien kids are/were being hunted by at least three murderous (living) kids (plus one omnipotent, omniscient, and omicidal god-dog-thing). One of kids mentions having a funeral for their dead friends; one of the very alien aliens defines "funeral" as "corpse party" and everyone's been covered with blood at some point or another.
In episode 5, the Hitachiin twins dye their hair during their fight. Hikaru dyes his pink, making him look a little like a certain Fire Dragon Slayer also played by Todd Haberkorn a few years later.
Similar to the Pokémon example above with Dent, one of the first things that Tamaki remarks upon seeing Haruhi's apartment is that it's very clean. Mamoru Miyano would later voice Death the Kid in Soul Eater, who is absolutely OBSESSED with cleanliness and symmetry.
Early on, the author Hatori Bisco stated that she couldn't see Haruhi and Tamaki ending up together. Guess how it ends.
A couple of months prior to Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz being released in the US, someone MST'd a fansub of the three-part OVA version. One of the riffs regarding Duo's flashback in part two references a scene from episode 11 of the main series:
Crow: (as Professor G) But go ahead and tell everyone you are part of Operation Meteor. And here's a little speech to memorize so you can amaze Quatre with how similar your orders are.
Speaking of Gundam, the alloy that comprised said Mobile Suit was called Gundarium and was made with Titanium ore mined from the Moon named Luna Titanium Fun Fact
fast forward to 2011 and it has been discovered that there is up to ten times the amount of Titanium ore on the Moon than originally theorized, oh and it's denser and stronger than anything found on the Earth.
Additonally, Kyubey's voice actress (Cassandra Lee) and Mami's voice actress (Carrie Keranen) have indeed been in a couple of 4Kidsdubs.
Another dub-related HIH: Remember this doujin? Now imagine Casca replacing Mami: they're both voiced by Carrie Keranen.
Not dub-related: April 21, 2011: Episode 11 of Madoka Magica airs. Homura, having previously stolen a few truckloads of Type 88 antiship missiles from the JGSDF, fires them off at Walpurgisnacht. April 21, 2011: In Real Life, the JGSDF's 6th Surface-to-Ship Missile Regiment, which uses Type 88 missiles, is disbanded.
And yet another dub-related HIH: Hitomi Shizuki's Fan Nickname is "Green Mugi". And then, we have Mugi's English voice actress, Shelby Lindley, voicing Hitomi.
This is actually surprising to some people since Johnny Yong Bosch had worked with Funimation a few times in the past.
Back in the fourth volume of High School D×D, Vali boasts to the protagonist Issei that the current red dragon-white dragon rivalry was unfair because Vali's from a privileged family by being a descendant of Lucifer, while Issei's the son of a common Muggle. He then wished that Issei was at least from a family with some background. Fast forward to Volume 12 where Issei's now the son of both Great Red and Ophis, two of the most powerful beings in this series by virtue of rebuilding his body because his old body has died thanks to an Achilles Heel.
In Appleseed Ex Machina, the current must-have product in Olympus is the Connexus, which is basically a smartphone except you wear it as a headset rather than hold it. The first version of the iPhone came out the same year as the movie.
The Tenchi Muyo! manga collection book Sasami Stories has two yonkoma that fit this:
In one comic, the artist declares that Queen Misaki would be the breakout character for the third OVA series like how Washu was that for the second. She turns out to have a very big (if very short) part in it.
Another comic has Kiyone Makibi smacking Mihoshi with a hammer and begging her to just forget about her. Come the third OVA series, Kiyone is replaced with Noike and Tenchi's mom takes up Kiyone's name.
Jamie Marchi, in the DVD Commentary of Mnemosyne lamented their inability to say swear as they please in most anime dubs, even where it might fit, due to the younger program ratings, citing Mnemosyne as a breath of fresh air, with it's TV-MA rating. A few years later, Marchi went on to voice Panty Anarchy of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, an anime noted for its gratuitous profanity and Cluster F Bombs.
