The Anomaly
(formerly named The Ambassador, but was later changed due to it being a Nonindicative Name) is an Undertale fan-sequel by Coffeelemental.
Set 12 years after the true pacifist ending, the comic follows Frisk using her personal control of the timeline to ensure monsters have a peaceful return to the surface world. For the most part, monster integration into human society has gone well, but some places won’t let monsters co-exist with humans. Frisk and Papyrus stopped serving as the monster ambassadors several years ago after growing overwhelmed, so instead Asgore steps up and tries to run for president of the United States in order to help better unify the two races. In the meanwhile, the world’s magic reserves appear to be thinning, but nobody can figure out why. Instead of involving herself with politics, Frisk decided to take a more hands-on approach to keeping the peace, and has somehow convinced Sans to help her do so for the past 10 years. By loading to an earlier save point whenever an incident between monsters and humans happens, Frisk and Sans manage to de-escalate the situation, help build understanding and bridge the gap between the divide of the two races. Their attempts have been successful throughout the years, resulting in no casualties on either side after correcting the timeline. However, it seems that her actions have attracted the attention of the very individuals who trapped the monsters in Mount Ebott, who are now determined to get rid of her...
The comic is currently ongoing and can be viewed on Tumblr here or on DeviantArt here. The comic is also unique in that it has playable sections in the form of RPG-esque minigames to tell the story in certain parts.
Not to be confused with the similarly named Undertale fanfiction, Anomaly.
The Anomaly provides examples of:
- Art Shift: The first chapter of The Anomaly was drawn back when the artist was still learning digital animation. As a result, the earlier pages look a lot rougher with lines that're less clean and coloring/shading that looks scratchier. Compare this to this.
- Big Fancy House: Toriel managed to purchase a bungalow in San Francisco with her share of the royal treasury after the Kingdom was dissolved, thus allowing the Skelebros, Undyne, and Alphys to live together in the same house. With Frisk returning to California, she gets her own room too.
- Blatant Lies: Papyrus wonders why Sans was gone for 4 hours when the latter went to help Frisk in resolving a confrontation in Virginia. Sans claims he was at Grillby's, but his brother doesn't really buy that story.Sans: it was a really good burger.
- Cutting the Knot: In one of the playable sections, the player controls Undyne, and at one point, she gets confronted with a crate pushing puzzle. Her solution? Smash the crates to pieces while making a variety of video game and anime references.
- Eagle Land: The ranchers Mike, Dan, Steve, and Charlie are definitely Type 2. Mike is hostile to a group of monsters who accidentally crossed the monster exclusion zone on their way to Ohio and immediately suspects they were the ones who blew up his cows despite their protests of innocence. Turns out it was his kids Steve and Charlie who fed the cows firecrackers as a joke and decided to blame the monsters when it all goes wrong. Though Mike later decides to give a lift to the monsters out of guilt after learning the truth. Turns out Mike's bias against monsters stems from his wife leaving him for an Aaron.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Alphys and Sans secretly built an illegal lab in the basement of Toriel's house which the former uses to research a cure for the Amalgamates, complete with blue lasers and spikes protecting the elevator that leads to it. Though, with Frisk having experienced all the Bullet Hell fights in the Underground, she has no problem going into the lab even when the security measures are not turned off. Temmie apparently also left a newer suit of Temmie Armor there in the lab.
- Extreme Omnivore: Apparently the Loox in the beginning eats soap.
- Funny Background Event: As Frisk is talking to Mike, Sans can be seen in the background unsuccessfully trying to turn the cow skulls into Gaster Blasters, only for them to squirt out milk.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: What kicked off the events of the monster confrontation in the first chapter. Dan wanted to scare off the monsters with his rifle but forgot that it was cocked and shot one of the monsters, causing them to retaliate and kill Charlie, whose soul Woshua takes and transforms into a gigantic soap bubble-spewing Terrorbird-like creature that goes on a rampage.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: After getting recurring nightmares from her anxieties, Sans decides to take Frisk to the top of the Space Needle to talk and ease her mind while the two share a drink of monster beer.
- Noodle Incident: Seems that whatever caused the huge kitchen fire was due to Undyne's attempt at cooking spaghetti with her "passion", which triggered the entire house's sprinkler system that flooded the place and soaked Frisk in a torrent of water when the door burst open from the pressure.
- Jerkass Realization: Mike the rancher realizes how mean he was to the group of monsters and decides to drive them to the nearest truck-stop to Ohio.
- Lethal Chef: Seems like even after more than a decade, Undyne still can't cook without the risk of burning the house down, causing Toriel to ban her from the kitchen out of annoyance.Toriel: I will order takeout in the meantime, since I doubt anyone wants to eat spaghetti CARBONara.
- Mundane Utility: Sans suggests that Frisk could've used her powers to win lots of money from the lottery. Frisk replies that she doesn't even know what to do with that much money and ponders about the idea of buying a pet giraffe, which Sans predictably makes a pun about.Sans: sounds like a pain in the neck.Frisk: Wow. You get worse everyday.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Frisk and Sans' whole shtick by using the former's powers to load an earlier save with knowledge of the incidents in order to resolve confrontations between monsters and humans.
- She Is All Grown Up: Frisk definitely looks a lot different and no longer has her androgynous features back when she was a kid. Undyne, however, is less than impressed that Frisk is still "a freaking beanpole" despite it being 8 years since her friends have last seen her and plans to get Frisk to do morning workouts with her and Papyrus.
- Take That!:
Word of God states that the ranchers in the beginning were based on some unsavory people the artist knew back in her hometown.
