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Hilarious In Hindsight / Anime & Manga
aka: Anime

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Anime or Manga with their own pages

Other examples:

  • Real Account is a horror manga set where the characters is pulled into the social network app of the same name. It gets get both frightening and bloody hilarious when Nintendo announces their first social networking app Miitomo which has strangely many similarities to ReAca…
  • 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." Earlier that same year, his voice actor had landed the role of Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya. 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 crossdresser makes a return. Apparently, if Kukai, Tadase and Nagahiko were in the same scene, they would resemble the trio from Boku no Pico.
  • 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 His Coool Seha Girls, Dreamcast suggests a version of Phantasy Star Online 2 where the players' equipment is replaced with puyos. Sega had already implemented such a feature in the game, with promotional items that turned the players' MAG into either a green or red puyo.
  • One infamous fansub of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex mistranslated "foreign mafia kidnappings" as "mass naked child events." Funny enough at the time. However, in 2009, along came Eden of the East (from the same director, no less)—which involves something that could accurately be described as a "mass naked NEET event."◊ Apparently Kenji Kamiyama watches fansubs of his own anime...
  • Doraemon:
    • In the remake, Tamako is voiced by none other than Kotono Mitsuishi, Sailor Moon herself, the multiple-time saviour of the universe. The kicker? (In the movies) Nobita is a heroic kid character with a robot cat who gets into adventures involving time-travelling, defeating villains with a group of friends via the help of powerful tools. That description fits Chibiusa, Sailor Moon's daughter. Luna-P is her robot cat toy that can transform into a hypnotic umbrella, among other things. Also, Chibiusa travelled back in time to save her mom. Sewashi sent Doraemon back in time so his great-great-grandfather would shape up. The future Nobita and Sailor Moon are both much more mature and accomplished than their child selves.
    • There are references to the Super Sentai series Himitsu Sentai Gorenger and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai in the manga, guess what happened to Suneo and Gian.
    • In the short 'What Am I for Momotarou' Nobita ends up portraying the eponymous folktale hero; the next year his seiyuu, Noriko Ohara, voiced a bespectacled Momotarou in the New Year Special of Urusei Yatsura.
    • One of the shenanigans revolving Doraemon's advanced futuristic tools involves a liquid solution which renders a food item to be able to replicate itself within a period of time if not being eaten. Sounds harmless enough until Nobita gets full and no one else is left to eat the food since everyone is stuffed from just eating them, which results in the threat of the food keeps on replicating itself endlessly. Years later, as the SCP-871 article is conceived, some cannot deny the eerily (or hilariously) similar premise between these two stories.
    • One story involves Nobita having a hard time deciding between buying ten cups of cup noodles or a model kit. The story ends with him getting a cup noodle model kit while lamenting about how lame it is. Years later, and Bandai made an actual cup noodle model kit.
    • The recently surfaced MTV UK pilot dub has renamed Nobita into "Noby" (but was called "Norbert" by Doraemon once). Years later, the Disney XD/Bang Zoom dub of the 2005 anime would give Nobita the exact same rename!
    • One chapter has Nobita make a soundtrack CD for Gian, which he then sells to the kids. Many years later, there's a real-life soundtrack CD of him on sale in Japan.
  • Duel Masters:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED / Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny:
  • Bleach:
    • When the mysterious black cat, Yoruichi, first appears in the story, the English dub has Urahara greet it with an enthusiastic "Who's my favourite pussy?!". Later on in the story, it's revealed that the black cat is really a shapeshifting woman.
    • In a joke slice-of-life sketch, Iemura, 4th Division third seat, and self-confessed weakest third seat in the entire Gotei 13, complains about someone like Kyoraku becoming captain and outranking him, who, despite his lazy, womanising behaviour was pushed into the Gotei 13 to prevent his prodigious talent from being wasted. He's talking about the future Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13.
    • Early in the Lost Agent Arc, Uryuu is mistaken for Ichigo. During a close-up of Uryuu's face, he demands "You got a good look at his face, didn't you? So what part of me resembles Kurosaki?". Since Kubo uses Only Six Faces, the fanbase quickly transformed it into a meme. Kubo later reveals that Ichigo and Uryuu are relatives; Masaki and RyÅ«ken were cousins, although she was adopted.
  • Flame of Recca:
  • Yokota School in Blood: The Last Vampire is peppered with posters advertising the Halloween dance party and costume contest. One of them features a pretty blonde witch standing next to an ugly green witch.
  • 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".
  • Future Robot Daltanious
    • The main character has the surname "Tate" and makes a living by conning people. Despite this, he's still hailed as a hero by many.
    • Daltanious is powered through "Sigma Energy" and one of it's attacks is the "Sigma Beam".
    • Earl introducing himself to the heroes after they discover his ship.
    Earl: My name is Earl! Now, make yourselves useful!
  • School Days:
    • Remember that yacht that was from the delayed episode? It turns out that it is the yacht of the director, 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 that the final scene actually does take place on a nice boat.
    • This is also applied to Pirates of the Caribbean considering who plays Will Turner in the Japanese dub. Makoto Itou becomes the captain of a really NICE BOAT — without losing his head!
  • 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.
  • Andy Richter recorded the voice of Notoru in the English dub of The Cat Returns; in fact, it was his only anime voice work ever. Well, that is, until The Tonight Show took a little trip to Bang Zoom...
  • Hello! Sandybell:
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • 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.
    • Making it even 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?
  • Igano Kabamaru: The main character Igano is voiced by Ryūsei Nakao, and his child self is voiced by Masako Nozawa. Nakao is the Japanese voice of Frieza and Nozawa is the Japanese voice of Goku; this anime aired one year before Dragon Ball was written.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Stardust Crusaders: Kakyoin and Polnareff defeat the Hanged Man by realizing that it doesn't inhabit a Mirror World, because there's no such thing. Come Part 5, and there really is such a thing- Illuso's stand Man in the Mirror can send people into one.
    • Golden Wind: In the opening scenes, Koichi Hirose meets protagonist Giorno Giovanna. Romi Park voiced the latter in the PS2 adaptation of this story arc, then the former in All-Star Battle.
    • Steel Ball Run: Dr. Ferdinand's Scary Monsters has the ability to control a pack of raptor dinosaurs. That raptor packs can be trained to follow orders from a human is a central plot point of Jurassic World.
  • 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 Hetalia: Axis Powers.
  • Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger: Tart → Helen Henny.
  • 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.
  • In the fields of Latin American dubs, Irwin Daayán provides a really good one. His break-out role was male!Seiya Kou in Sailor Moon Stars... flashforward 12 years and have him playing another Seiya 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 voice actor joke brings up this more than once. One of the best examples is when Víctor 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 voice acting bit wasn't intentional.
  • Digimon Adventure:
  • 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".
  • 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 Baki the Grappler, "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 just shrugged it off. Once, but gee...
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • 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.
    • The meme "Get in the damn robot" is often used as a Take That! towards Shinji's unwillingness to pilot Unit-01 (especially in the first few episodes of the series). Fast forward to 2017 with the latest spin-off Legend Of The Piko Piko Middle School Students where not only Shinji, but the rest of the cast refuse to get in the damn robots to play video games instead.
  • In January 2011, the Adult Swim forums temporarily changed their "Other Anime" section to be themed around 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...
  • Venus Versus Virus and Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl both have anime adaptations with Gecko Endings and are rife with Adaptation Decay. Their manga endings were written in ways to be the opposite of the anime versions, which causes this to anyone who has seen the anime first.
  • "Town Without Streets" by Junji Ito featured a girl whose privacy is being invaded by her family (they don't trust her after catching a boy in her room - he was trying to implant feelings while she slept. Additionally, the boy's name is Kishimoto). Fed up with her parents and brothers poking holes in her walls, she goes to visit her aunt only to discover a world where there's no privacy (except for masks) and everyone must know what you're doing at all times (I don't know if this story is pre-internet but it definitely looks pre-Friending Networks).
  • 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 Reveal in the Martian Successor Nadesico movie Prince of Darkness is the experiments Akito suffered made his skin sparkle when hit by sunlight. Thanks to Twilight's sparkly vampires it's impossible not to chuckle at the sight of this.
  • Ouran High School Host Club:
    • Lead female Haruhi has a sort-of Unwanted Harem among the members of the Host Club. Said harem includes a young man named Hikaru Hitachiin (and his brother Kaoru, too). As of August 2011, Haruhi's seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto and Hikaru's seiyuu Kenichi Suzumura have just gotten married., taking their voice acting career to a new level. Be happy, Hikaru and Haruhi! (And Shinn and Lunamaria, too. And Aeris and Zack as well. But especially you, Mikiya and Shiki.)
    • 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.
  • One of the quotes describing Norio Wakamoto is "God exists and he is Japanese". Come the anime version of Future Diary, he ends up voicing Deus, God of Time and Space.
  • Penguindrum: The whole Brother–Sister Incest between Himari and Kanba Takakura becomes hilarious by episode 21. Why? Because not only they turn out to be Not Blood Siblings (though Himari had amnesia in regards to that), but then we learn that Kanba's Clingy Jealous Girl Masako is Kanba's real sister (and twin), and they knew it all the time. Meaning, the pairing that many people shunned due to incest, it wasn't blood-incestuous in the end. And the "alternate" pairing that some people shipped to not fall into BSI? Surprise Incest!.
  • Late Eureka Seven watchers might be amused when the Federation first calls out to "prepare the Mon-Soonos for launch" — spelled differently, but pronounced the same as an Animesque show that also involves launching. Kirk Thornton and Keith Silverstein are in both shows as well.
  • In The '90s, one of Takehito Koyasu's first popular roles was Takuto Izumi from Zetsuai (1989), a character heavily inspired by Kojiro Hyuuga from Captain Tsubasa. Flash-forward more than 10 years... and guess who voices Hyuga in the Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 TV series?
  • Ever since Funimation released Soul Eater, fans often compared the newcomer Micah Solusod to Johnny Yong Bosch. Fast forward two to three years later, and it's been announced that Micah Solusod will be replacing Johnny Yong Bosch in the role of Kazuki Makabe in Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor and Claus Valca in the Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing dubs. This is actually surprising to some people since Johnny Yong Bosch had worked with Funimation a few times in the past.
    • Mr. Solusod also plays the lead in Eureka Seven AO - that is, the son of the character played by Bosch. In the same vein, Bosch also voices Solusod's father in Yona of the Dawn.
  • 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.
    • It is even more hilarious now, since Apple Glass AR has been recently announced and basically being exactly like Connexus.
  • 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 its 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.
  • In ef - a tale of memories, Miyako holds a phone card with an illustration◊ that resembles Dango Daikazoku. Both Miyako and Nagisa would be voiced later in English by Luci Christian, as the two visual novel adaptations originally aired in Japan in 2007.
  • The story of AKIRA is in a backdrop of the 2020 Neo-Tokyo Olympics, and the said title character was apparently below the unfinished Olympic stadium. On September 9, 2013, Tokyo was selected as the host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. It became a little harsher at the end of March 2020 when the Olympics were officially postponed until 2021 owing to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
  • In Slayers, a hooded man named Zelgadis offers Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev to join him in order to be paid for a statue he wants. Lina refuses because "you're the kind of person who I'd rather die than join up with." Zelgadis later helps them defeat the Big Bad of that season, and as of Slayers Next, is a main characters and and an official member of the Five-Man Band.
  • A short 4-koma titled Super Metroid: Shounen Ou! Shorts was released shortly after Super Metroid came out. It features, among other things, one of the scientists trying to wear the Metroid as a hat.
  • A handful of vehicles in Future GPX Cyber Formula, like Asurada, Ogre and among others, can shape-shift its aerodynamics to make the cars go faster in straightways. A few decades later, Formula One now has the drag reduction system (or DRS for short) in their cars, which has the same effect.
  • Rico from Gunslinger Girl bears more than a passing resemblance to Pico of Boku no Pico, down to the name. Whether he's an expy or not is unknown since the series is more popular outside of Japan. While Pico is a feminine boy Rico is an androgynous girl.
  • In Osamu Tezuka's manga Barbara, the protagonist rejects an offer to participate in a political election because he doesn't believe that people would be so stupid to only vote for a person due to his reputation as an artist, just like "they wouldn't vote for an actor to become president.''
  • Sentai Filmworks has been throwing the "lewd card" image from Infinite Stratos season 2 in regards to Jessica Calvello. And now, Ms. Calvello herself is part of the Infinite Stratos season 2 dub.
  • In an episode of the English dub of Sgt. Frog, a reality show team comes to Earth to film an episode of their show. Natsumi replies "I could be the next Miley Cyrus". Keep in mind that the show came out in the early 2000s. Obviously, that joke has gotten even funnier nowadays.
  • Samurai 7: In episode 15, Kirara prays "I wanted to be strong like the samurai." Fast-forward to 2011, where her dub actress, Colleen Clinkenbeard, plays Erza Scarlet, one of the most badass Action Girls in all of anime, who has a very iconic◊ samurai getup.◊ She even wore a second one in an anime-exclusive arc.◊
  • Back at the end of the 90's when Viz still published their English manga releases as monthly comics, at the end of one Dragon Ball Z issue in a letters column one reader says that they far prefer DBZ over Pokémon: The Series and Sailor Moon. Viz recommends the reader try Pokémon (since they had the English license to the manga as well as the home video rights to the anime) but agrees about Sailor Moon (which they didn't have the license for). Flashforward to 2014 and Viz now has the English license to the Sailor Moon anime.
  • The titular Ninja Slayer is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa and this time, he has to avenge his wife and son, rather than be the son doing that job.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • The 10th opening of the anime showing Zeref and Mavis side-by-side counts, as the manga hadn't even gotten to the point where it confirmed Zeref and Mavis has a deep connection at the time.
    • The cover for Chapter 330 of the manga gives us a false advertisement for a "Fairy Tail In Space" story with Erza Scarlet appearing in the picture. Years later, Hiro Mashima made a later manga called EDENS ZERO which did have a tone and themes similar to Fairy Tail, and even had an Erza Scarlet Expy (with the same voice actress both in Japanese and English to boot).
  • Monster Musume:
    • The author is a fan of Metal Gear Solid and included references such as Miia the lamia dressed as Snake (what else) and Rachnera the arachne cosplaying as The Boss. The manga later was made into an anime, and the episode including those references and others was broadcast on September 1, 2015... the same day Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released worldwide.
    • Episode 10 of the anime is titled "Everyday Life With D", referring to a death threat against the protagonist signed simply "D". Given that the episode features some of the raunchiest scenes that appear in the manga, one can recall what "The D" means in some circles...
  • Lucky Star:
  • Gintama:
    • There was a recurring gag where Gintoki, as Ginpachi Sensei, is smoking in class, and students protest it. Gintoki answer that this is not a cigarette, but a lollipop. Thoses familliar with 4kids would immediately think of their dub of One Piece where Sanji's cigarettes where edited into Lollipop.
    • Mixing this with Biting-the-Hand Humor,the show makes a joke in the middle of Season 2 that there would be a movie of its Benizakura arc. A fake trailer was shown, and the characters joked in-universe how Sunrise already has the track record of recutting and remaking their series into feature-length movies. After the first Gintama series ended, this is exactly what Sunrise would eventually do for the first Gintama movie.
    • In episode 154, one of the guest at Kyuubei's Birthday party, is a famous actor named Shunosuke Oguri, a parody of real life japanese actor Shun Oguri. It was just one of the many jokes this show make about a Japanese Celebrities, but became doubly funny a few years later when Shun Oguri end up being cast as Gintoki for the live action movie.
  • Saint Seiya:
  • The Brave Express Might Gaine may have come out in 1993, long before the anime craze truly caught on in America, but Shogun Mifune's "Japanese culture is the greatest thing ever" and his desire to emulate it is surprisingly close to the modern 'weeaboo' stereotype.
  • As soon as Release the Spyce was annoucned, people were referencing the "The spice must flow!" meme from Dune. Then, when the first episode premiered, it turned out that the titular spice granted superhuman physical abilities.
  • Volume 4 of Komori-san Can't Decline! had several bonus pages where the cast talked about how exicited they were for the then upcoming anime. On the page focusing on Shuri's family, her little sister talks about how much she's looking forward to being animated and comments that it wouldn't make much sense for their mother to be animated given how little she moves. Guess which of the two of them was Adapted Out when the anime finally came out.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • When she was first mentioned, many readers thought that Kei had a crush on her older brother and would be competing with Kaguya for his affection. Then it turned out that not only was she not in love with him (romantically, anyways), she specifically goes out of her way to make sure that nobody ever thinks that she does.
    • In Chapter 114, Miko tells Shirogane that his face isn't her type and she prefers someone more like actor Sho Hirano (whom she'd been established as being a fangirl of in earlier chapters); while this was probably Foreshadowing on Aka's part (Hirano was the inspiration for Ishigami), this chapter became hilarious when Hirano was cast as Shirogane in the Live-Action Adaptationnote .
    • Chapter 48 featured a gag of Shirogane and Ishigami trying to do something to Tsubasa with toilet paper out of jealousy over his constant bragging over having a girlfriend. The premier of season 2 (which adapted that chapter) was aired during the times of toilet paper shortage resulted from Coronavirus pandemic.
    • Fans have long joked that Ishigami was the protagonist of a harem manga due to his status as a Launcher of a Thousand Ships. With chapters 190-192 confirming that Iino, Tsubame, and Osaragi all have feelings for him, he can officially be considered to have a harem.
  • Fans of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid would often compare Kanna to the Blue Eyes White Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh! due to her being... well, a blue eyed, white dragon. Jump forward to August 2019, when Konami added a Dragon Maid archetype to the card game.
  • In 2014, an anime called Tribe Cool Crew aired as part of Nichi Asa Kids' Time. One of the main characters had pink hair in a giant side ponytail, was named Kanon Otosaki and was into dancing. In 2016, the third season of PriPara, which premiered the same year as Tribe Cool Crew, introduced a character named Kanon who looked very similar to the one from that show.
  • In the 4th Dirty Pair OVA in which a group of boys take over an army base, one of their demands is their own tv channel that airs nothing but cartoons all day, the OVA originally aired in 1987, Cartoon Network was launched 5 years later.
  • Alakazam the Great was listed by Michael Medved as one of the choices in his book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. Now anime has risen to mainstream popularity in the modern day. In other words, modern-day otakus had the last laugh at Medved's name-and-shaming.
  • My Hero Academia: This isn't the only time Christopher Sabat voiced a powerful muscular blonde with something that has been passed down for generations. Or a character that put a young protagonist through Training from Hell.
  • Ojamajo Doremi featured a brown-haired girl with a side ponytail named Tomomi. Tamagotchi would later feature a girl with those same traits.
  • The Performapal deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. The protagonist is a goofy entertainer who tries his best to make people happy, but sometimes loses control of his darker side and ends up spreading misery and trauma with his Performapal deck. Fusing with his counterparts would make Yuya more powerful, but eventually release the show's Big Bad. In the real-life game Performapals were designed to be fun and casual, but would inadvertently become horribly broken with the addition of Performage cards. The insane synergy between them lead to one of the most infamously overpowered decks in the game, making a horrible experience to play against. So just like their player, the fun deck that meant to spread joy became a near-unstoppable force of despair.
    • It also works from the Performage perspective, too. In the anime, they were used by Dennis; a character who pretended to be a charismatic and friendly showman, but was actually a villain. The deck was also entertainment-based, and it helped to create this wicked deck.
  • In 2011 the Anime adaptation for the BB Senshi Sangokuden toyline, SD Gundam Sangokuden: Brave Battle Warriors came to an end. Then two years later in 2013, toy company MegaHouse teamed up with Production REED and Polygon Pictures to make an Anime Short series, Bakujuu Gasshin Ziguru Hazeru, based on their upcoming Ziguru Hazeru toyline, which had Mecha Designs that looked rather similar to SD Gundam. What’s more, both Sangokuden and Ziguru Hazeru were based off of Chinese legends, Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Sangokuden and Journey to the West for Ziguru Hazeru. Then in 2019 came SD Gundam World Sangoku Soketsuden, another SD Gundam Anime based off of Romance of the Three Kingdoms...and then in its 2021 sequel, SD Gundam World Heroes, the Three Kingdoms-based characters team up with another character based off of Journey to the West's main protagonist, Sun Wukong!
  • Tweeny Witches: At one point, Arusu asks Eva if there are male witches. It's revealed late into the series that the pirate witch Lennon is actually a boy.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS has a scene where Nanoha tells her six year old daughter Vivio that she wont get any bigger if she doesn't eat her vegetables. Jump forward four years and Vivio would gain free access to an Older Alter Ego. Made funnier by the fact that Caro is also shown having difficulty eating her vegetables in the same scene, and she ultimately remains the same height for the remainder of the franchise.
  • Dirty Pair TV episode 12 concerns two genetically-engineered, super-intelligent mice who take over WWWA Headquarters, several years before Pinky and the Brain was made.
  • An episode of the third season of the Galaxy Angel anime has the Angel Brigade trying to activate a magic wand, only to find themselves humiliated because of the "ritual", after they found out the wand was fake. Miyuki Sawashiro, who voices Mint, and Yukari Tamura, who voices Ranpha, would later voice actual Magical Girls (the former voicing Cure Scarlet, and the latter voicing Nanoha and Cure Amour). Ryōko Shintani, who voices Milfeulle, and Mika Kanai, who voices Vanilla, would also voice someone related to Magical Girls (the former voicing Hitomi Shizuki, and the latter voicing Pekorin).
  • Voltes V:
    • The Beast Fighter from the second episode is called Baizanga.note 
    • In episode 13, the Boazanians attempt to trick the Go brothers by creating "A voice-changing machine", a device that can imitate the voice of anyone they desire. The idea may have seemed whimsical in the 1970s, but with the rise of deepfake AI technology in the 2020s, it's not that far out there.
    • The events of episodes 8, 22, and 24 involve Katherine trying to suss out a potential assassin from her allies within the spaceship.
    • Katherine's "disguise" as Jane. Notice anything familiar?note 
    • Kenichi/Megumi being the Fan-Preferred Couple of the Voltes V fanbase, after this piece of dialogue from Super Robot Wars 30.
  • Daltanious:
    • The main character has the surname "Tate" and makes a living by conning people. Despite this, he's still hailed as a hero by many.
    • Daltanious is powered through "Sigma Energy" and one of it's attacks is the "Sigma Beam".
    • Earl introducing himself to the heroes after they discover his ship.
    Earl: My name is Earl! Now, make yourselves useful!
  • Lady!!:
    • As the Coach shows the girls the hall of portraits that shows the previous Lady's Crest winners. In 1983, the award went to a girl named Mariee Matlin, in 1985, it went to a girl named Virigina Madsen and in 1986, the award went to a girl named Jennifer Connelly.
    • In the manga, there's a scene where Lynn cries after hearing that her sister Sarah married Arthur (even though she's happy for them), because it means all this time, Arthur has liked Sarah more. When the anime aired, Sarah ended up being the Ensemble Dark Horse of the show, showing that Arthur isn't the only one who preferred her.

Alternative Title(s): Anime

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