There is usually an
Official Couple in most fiction: if you ship any other pairing than
Ranma and Akane or
Neo and Trinity, you are categorically rejecting the
canon, and unless you're willing to put in the
Character Development, you may have proven yourself willing to
Die for Our Ship.
But there are some forms of
New Media, especially
Dating Sims and
Visual Novels, where there's no real canon at all. While
Dating Sims sometimes have a true ending that is canon, half of the time they don't, and so any and all pairings is equally canon - part of a quantum sea which only collapses into a relationship depending on the tastes of the observer. Tokho by Tayuka is no more and no less canon than Kei by Tayuka - there's no True Ending in
Elven Relations. Neither is Keenan Caine as opposed to Josh Preston with Sara Smith - they're characters from a
Bliss Stage one-shot that could go either way, or in a completely different direction!
When that happens, and when you ship your favorite pairings, you're on a
Trans Dimensional Ship.
This still, of course, doesn't prevent a normally
Crack Pairing from being any less cracked.
No relation to a
ship that travels
across dimensions.
The Exodar is
that way.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Amagami SS is a rare example of a Dating Sim's transdimensionality surviving the transition to anime adaptation. The show is comprised of numerous alternate-reality sub-arcs, each featuring a different love interest.
Tabletop Games
- The Bliss Stage one-shot has many characters in relationships set to explode. The fact of the matter is that there can be no canon of a one-shot scenario meant to be played a million different ways.
Video Games
- CLANNAD, the Visual Novel, is an interesting case in that it seems to deliberately invoke this trope as part of its central plot. Not only does it have the usual 'quantum sea' of the visual novel, as noted above, but each of the plotlines is connected with a single, overarching story about a consciousness in the 'illusory world', and thus all of the possible outlines are 'canon'. Albeit only two get an After Story, though.
- However, the anime adaptation definitively sets Nagisa as the canon love interest.
- Supported by the fact that the consciousness in the Illusionary world is Tomoya and Nagisa's daughter, Ushio. The analysis on the game and anime's True End alone has lifted this series to Mind Screw levels, complete with serious analysis on the internet, like say, here
.
- The Transdimensional Ship aspect only exists in the Visual Novel, not in the anime (which is, after all, only an adaptation).
- This is true for Little Busters, as well, since the story mainly takes place in an artificial world that loops over and over again, and each and every single good ending supports the events in the true ending.
- Final Fantasy VII has a dating sequence with Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie or Barret depending on which character you treat the best. All of them reveal some characterisation detail to the point where it's impossible to choose just one to be canon (some people even argue that they're all canon).
- The Harvest Moon games have multiple pairing options, though there's usually a "default" spouse who's significantly easier to woo than the rest. (In something of a subversion, it's almost never the Yamato Nadeshiko for guys.)
- Shipping in Persona 3 is Trans-Dimensional by the nature of that game's Dating Sim aspects, although it could be argued that the True Ending is the one where you go for everyone and gain the ultimate Persona fueled by all of them, Orpheus Telos.
- Persona 4 uses the same system, though it also lets the player choose whether they want to pursue a more intimate relationship with a girl or just stay friends. (Not that the game bars you from two-timing...)
- Pick a Dating Sim. Any Dating Sim. fate/stay night and Elven Relations immediately spring to mind.
- While The Sims 1 & 2 both start with some established couples, and 2 at least nudges the player in certain directions, it's possible to break up any relationship in favor of almost any other. The characters for The Sims 3 are apparently a prequel of Pleasantview, probably a wise decision to forestall any "Nooo! Cassandra belongs with Don!" moments.
- Star Ocean: The Second Story/Second Evolution leans toward Claude/Rena, but allows the player to skew the Relationship Values any way they wish, rewarding them with different endings featuring their preferred couples. Or solo scenes, if they weren't particularly close to anyone else.
- The Mass Effect series arguably qualifies, given that the protagonist can pursue a number of different relationships, which have a certain amount of continuity over the games. Made obvious by the large range of fanfiction exploring all of the ships in the game and plenty that aren't, even if female Shepard and Garrus fanfics are the most common.
- Tales of Symphonia has something like this. While Lloyd and Collete are the official couple, there is a feature in the game where the player can change the relationship value between Lloyd and the rest of the cast by picking certain choices in side quests or conversations. At a certain point in the game, the player will than choose Lloyd's soul mate out of the three characters who have the highest relationship points with him, and therefore change who Lloyd chooses to travel with in the end. This makes it easier for those who ship Lloyd with characters like Sheena or Raine.
- Up until .hack//G.U. TRILOGY's Road Cone, who Haseo ends up with in the game is debatable. The most common contender is Atoli, Yowkow/Alkaid, and Shino. Considering that the game includes pairings that are pure crack (which includes Azure Kite/Orca/Balmung and Piros the 3rd), well...
