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troperville

Some shows have mega-brilliant original plots. Some take a lot of cues. Some are nearly the same as other works - Whole Plot Reference, Affectionate Parody and Homage are three reasons for this.

Some, however, are accidentally almost the same as other works. When this happens, you get this trope - when two works are so similar, but in reality unrelated, you could fit the same description to them both.

See also Whole Plot Reference - if it's just one episode that's a Shout Out to well-known pop culture.

Examples

Pokemon Colosseum, The World Ends With You, Persona 2: Innocent Sin - A Five-Man Band defeat a Five-Bad Band out of revenge, before facing the real villain. The ending is not good, and requires another plotline to clear up completely, set in a more optimistic world.
Tensou Sentai Goseiger and Wingin It - A Five-Man Band have antics involving angels and a mentor. It takes about half an hour to resolve this due to malfunctions in said magic.
Digital Devil Saga and Power Rangers RPM - A Darker and Edgier story to the rest of it's franchise, and dead and, where five transforming teenagers fight for control of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The Dark Parables (video game) and Once Upon a Time (television show) - All fairy tales are true, and the characters in them all exist in the same reality; some characters from different stories are in fact the same person.
Dragon Ball GT and the third season of Sonic X. One of the main characters is turned into a child, 7 objects of immense power are scattered across the universe and the main characters must go on a space adventure to collect them before a mysterious villain (who is a Well-Intentioned Extremist) can cause major havoc.