from Michael Mixer Mason's series
official title card
Zara and Erika is a GoAnimate franchise series. The series focuses on sisters Zara, Erika, and Annabelle, who belong to the ever so dysfunctional Dawson Family. They go on crazy adventures while trying to stay out of trouble. The Zara and Erika series can be traced back to 2012, when a user named Krysalis spawned the Zara character on his Zack Gets' Grounded series. LouieLouie95 gave Zara her own series, as well as her sister Erika, which spawned countless Zara and Erika series in the GoAnimate community, including the Adult Mall, Michael Mixer Mason, and LDF Enterprises's editions.
In General, this franchise provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Depedning on the series, most of them will have Kimberly and Diesel ranging from slightly mean, but still caring, to downright abusive.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Zara is usually this, but Erika and Annabelle may fall into this at times.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Zara is usually careless and oblivious to others.
- Crapsack World: The cities are usually filled with cruel adults and mean-spirited characters.
- Depending on the Writer: The characterization of the Dawson Family depends on the user, but most of them are similar.
- Dysfunctional Family: The Dawson Family, on most series, is not a loving, caring, family.
- Fat Idiot: Diesel is overweight and slow witted in most series. For example, one episode has him eating undercooked wings because he was impatient and falling sick afterwards.
- Limited Animation: Most incarnations are made with GoAnimate.
- Only Sane Man: Erika is usually the voice of reason and bails the family outside of absurd situations.
- Strictly Formula: Most incarnations are also grounded series.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Most series have text to speech voices.
- Teens Are Monsters: The Dawson sisters are typically teenagers that get into a world of trouble.
The Adult Mall series provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: The show has scenes parodying those from South Park, Family Guy, Regular Show, as well as Inuyasha and Viral Videos.
- Adults Are Useless: Kimberly and Diesel are pretty much background characters in this series.
- The Alcoholic: Zara and Erika get drunk in the first episode. link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hak_zjNsWGY
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The characters in this series are well-aware that they're in a show.
- Butt-Monkey: Switches between Erika and Zara.
- Content Warnings: A Wonder Showzen esque warning appears in front of the episodes for the first half.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Erika delivers one to Zara and "Beach Girls".
- Darker and Edgier: One of the few Zara and Erika series with strong language and adult situations.
- GIS Syndrome: Some scenes have live-action stock backgrounds.
- Lighter and Softer: The second half of the series tones down a lot of the language and sexual humor, to the point that Adult Mall rates some of these episodes TV-14 as opposed to the show's usual TV-MA rating.
- Mind Screw: The "Brain Erasers" episode.
- Naked People Are Funny: "Brain Erasers" has this, with Erika being scarred by seeing Kumi naked. This is also a homage to the Regular Show episode Brain Eraser, "Springscles" also has it too with Zara and Erika naked in bed at the start.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Zara, Erika, and Annabelle in the first half.
- Vulgar Humor: The first half of the series is filled to the brim with this.
The Michael Mixer Mason series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Kimberly and Diesel are strongly implied to be this. Was slightly toned down starting in the second season.
- Adaptational Badass: Erikasha is shown to be more violent in this series. Zara is also a bit more violent as well too.
- Adolf Hitlarious: Diesel wears a Hitler costume for Halloween in the Halloween Special
- Affectionate Parody: "Family Show" parodies The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and Family Guy.
- Age Lift: Due to the show’s adult nature, the Dawson sisters are young adults in this series instead of teenagers (Though they still go to high school due to being held back)
- Animated Shock Comedy: Almost every episode falls into this.
- Big Damn Movie: Zara and Erika: A Tale of Annabelle, which raises the stakes higher than any episode of the series, and includes time and universe travel.
- Big Eater: Diesel and Seth are known to frequently participate in eating competitions and eat most, if not all, of the food in group situations. Zara occasionally fits this, as some party themed episodes feature her eating entire desserts at the expense of partygoers.
- Black Comedy: Similar to Michael Mixer Mason's other show, Caillou And Dora The Teenage Years, death, murder, and disdain for the law are frequently played for laughs.
- Starting in Season 2, Annabelle has a tendency to kill almost anyone who slightly inconveniences her.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Much of the show's humor is derived from Zara screwing people over for her own benefit and not caring about the consequences until they happen.
- Content Warnings: Every episode opens with a content warning showing the episode's rating and content.
- Compressed Hair: In this series, Derek has long hair under his normal hat, which is sometimes in cornrows.
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: In "Movie Extras", when Zara lists off the names of pornographic films she starred in.
- Cluster F-Bomb: "Stranded Island" features one when Zara and Erika fight, and "Sandwich Stand" has one when Seth goes off.
- Crossover: The "Summer Break" episode is a crossover with Violy and Jahari.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to other Zara and Erika series.
- Annabelle’s tendencies to have a darker point of view on things eventually slid into her practicing witchcraft, demonic rituals, and Satanism.
- The movie, A Tale of Annabelle, is definitely this, with a higher level of violence and even more vulgar humor than the series, including more frequent swearing, incest jokes, and a live-action beheading.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Nearly every character.
- Extra-Long Episode: "Diesel Claus" is 21 minutes long instead of the usual 12.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The "Summer Break" special features very quick shots of live-action full frontal nudity and a man dressed up as a penis during the transition to Violy and Jahari's on campus party.
- GIS Syndrome: Live-action stock backgrounds are mainly used for the series.
- Lighter and Softer: The first half of Season 3 cut back on the language, violence, darker humor, and sexual content in an attempt to move away from "shock humor". However, starting with "Spring Break", it was back to normal.
- Naked People Are Funny: The ending of "Kids' Show".
- N-Word Privileges: Zara uses this in the uncut version of "Family Show". The scene has since been removed.
- Zara's Gang features one of the gang members calling Zara a "real nigga". This goes uncensored. But when she calls them a bunch of "crazy niggas" at the end of the episode, it is bleeped out.
- Zara suggests saying the N word live on Erika's kid show in order to get it pulled off air. This idea is swiftly shot down.
- In Valentine's Dance, after Erika stops Seth from grinding on her, he whines that he was just being a "real nigga". Erika quickly calls him out.
- Seth's car spray in "Spring Break" is called "Make a nigga smell good". The stray bottle is covered with a censor bar in the edited version.
- Relax-o-Vision: Used in Diesel Harassment & Emo Days, as well as the edited versions of some episodes.
- Really Gets Around: Almost everyone, but especially Zara.
- Running Gag: Diesel eating wings and Derek cheating on Zara with Annabelle.
- Annabelle turning into objects such as bats and waves, then attacking people.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Pretty much all of the characters fall into this, especially Seth.
- Surreal Humor: The show occasionally falls into this, with supernatural forces being used for comedy.
- Vulgar Humor: Most of the show's humor is this.
The LDF Enterprises series provides examples of:
- Adaptation Species Change: The Dawson Gals,Diesel/Bob and Kimberly are turned into foxes, and eventually cats in the later episodes.
- Affectionate Parody: Several, including Looney Tunes.
- Beach Episode: "Beach Kitties".
- Big Damn Movie: Zara and Erika: On Duty
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: This happens every single time, especially with the recent Z&E movie, "The Hawaiian Adventure".
- Crossover: The show crosses over with Rangeltoons/Kyle & The Gang, another series by LDF Enterprises.
- Clothing Damage: Happens a few times, such as Erika snipping her evil clone's clothes in an On Duty short.
- Descended Creator: The creator appears several times throughout the show, and briefly dated Erika in-universe.
- Eye Glasses: Erika & Annabelle have them since May 2018.
- Lighter and Softer: Zara and Erika are much kinder to each other in this series.
- Rise of Zitboy: Erika goes through this in "The Zit"
- Sick Episode: Erika experiences this in both "Erika Gets Sick" and its remake; "The Sick Girl"
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Zara in some of the earlier episodes.
- Spiders Are Scary: Zara is terribly afraid of spiders here, but thankfully she gets rid of it.
- The Movie: Three - Zara and Erika: The Movie, Zara and Erika: On Duty, and Zara and Erika: The Hawaiian Adventure.
- Tone Shift: Zara and Erika: On Duty has a more dramatic plot than the episodes.
- Toilet Humor: Some episodes, such as "Clogged".
- Vulgar Humor: Occasionally.
- Vocal Evolution: Starting with "Kyleman88789 the Movie 2", Erika's voice became a little higher to distinct it from Liz & Annabelle. But starting in June 2019 with "Kenzie's Cousin", her voice became deeper again.
