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  • Tower of God: Repelista Jahad's door has a sign with Fus Roh Da written on it.
  • Being a series based around pop-culture-themed alternate dimensions, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi runs up and down the buffet line between western and eastern popular culture of multiple genres.
  • The notorious Daicon IV short film made by then-unknown Studio Gainax animators. The video itself is set to an Electric Light Orchestra song, and the animators took the opportunity to include as many cameos of sci-fi, animation and fantasy characters as possible: not only Japanese Sentai and anime characters show up, but a crapload of Western characters appear as well, including but not limited to the Tin Man, Snake Plissken, the female robot from Metropolis, a Martian from the 1953 film version of The War of the Worlds, and even Muttley!
  • Risky☆Safety:
    • There's one line in which the protagonist's relationship is compared to that between Anakin and Amidala.
    • Another pair of episodes are titled in a way evocative of the Austin Powers movies.
  • Azumanga Daioh:
  • Dragon Ball Z has the ancient evil alien wizard Bibidi, his doppelgänger Babidi, and the demon they summoned, Majin Boo. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!
  • Fruits Basket:
    • The conflict between Kyo and Yuki is compared to that between another famous cat and mouse, Tom and Jerry. Turns out that cartoon is quite popular in Japan, the only American series amongst the top 100 animated series in Japan.
    • There's also a reference to Friday the 13th in the chapter where some of the characters go on a vacation to a cabin in the woods.
  • Pani Poni Dash!. That show has references to almost anything:
    • For instance, a shot-for-shot Shout-Out to the Catwoman origin scene in Batman Returns.
    • It has several Chuck Norris jokes in the original Japanese dialogue. This eventually culminates in a still of Chuck Norris' character lying dead after his fight with Bruce Lee in that one movie.
    • One blackboard gag mentions The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
    • And then there is the Discworld reference in episode 15 with Himeko as A'Tuin. Episode 15, wherein the class is trapped on a bus teetering on the edge of a cliff, seems to be based on an episode of South Park.
    • And the repeated references to Full Metal Jacket. Someone really loves that movie, goddamn. "This private's rifle is named Charlene, sir!"
    • And a shout-out to Carl Lewis in one of the chalkboard gags. The DVD covers are also strongly referential; you have Becky dressed up as The Terminator and Slash from Guns N' Roses, and in one of the eyecatches she dresses as the Bride from Kill Bill. Another scene transition features the manly Mesousa as Jack Torrence from The Shining and Akane Serizawa as Spider-Man. Later that same episode, you have scene transitions that feature the cast as the cast of Armageddon and Ocean's Twelve. Episode 20 opens with a montage featuring a Captain Ersatz version of the Star Wars movies.
    • And episode 19 features Himeko talking about Hellboy and Daredevil. And in another episode, an Info Dump is given by the girls as the Tracy family of Thunderbirds, complete with the blinking-eye paintings.
    • Then there's Colonel Sanders, and Alien Captain is Captain Picard. This is taken to the extreme in the last few episodes, where the Alien Captain and both Alien Subordinates have straight up become Picard, Riker, and Geordi physically, except wearing sunglasses to provide plausible deniability as to their identities. As the pop-up trivia track on the original US release reveals, the Captain is even voiced by the same man who dubbed Picard in Japanese.
  • Magical Witch Punie-chan references Platoon and Apocalypse Now, among others, during a sequence showing how Paya-tan saves the entire area from a nuke that Punie summons up because she can't pass a test.
  • Anne of Green Gables is surprisingly well-known in Japan; it helps that an anime series (Akage no Anne) was based on it. For example:
  • Little Women is also surprisingly well-known in Japan, being adapted into at least 3 anime movies and mini-series, not including Burst Angel. Lillian's Drama Club do a stage version of it in the fourth season of Maria Watches Over Us.
  • Colonel Sanders:
  • Project A-Ko also contains cameo appearances by Superman and Wonder Woman...as the title character's parents. B-Ko's father, who appears in the second movie, is likewise a parody of Tony Stark.
  • Urusei Yatsura:
    • At least a third of the episodes in the anime have an obvious Superman pastiche somewhere in the background — and in one episode as a throwaway one-shot character. (In one sequence where Ataru was fantasizing about all the "cool alien babes" at a celebration he had been invited to, one of the "cool alien babes" was obviously Supergirl in her 1960s blue dress.)
    • Urusei Yatsura also frequently features background cameos from Batman, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, etc. in addition to similarly iconic Japanese characters (Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and so on). Episode 54, "The Big Year-End Party Lum Is Planning!" takes the cake, with references to Sherlock Holmes, The Lone Ranger ("Hi-ho Silver!"), Arsène Lupin, and an Arabian Nights-style genie, in addition to the aforementioned background cameos and a host of native Japanese references. UY loved its Shout-Outs.
    • Episode 89 also made an "It's a TRAP!" reference over two decades before anyone else. It's part of a fantasy sequence that's basically one big reference to Return of the Jedi.
    • There are many episodes where Onsen-mark reads various bits of English to the class; in one of these (specifically, episode 139), what he says is "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now, I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday." (Incidentally, the song does not have that exact sequence of lyrics; it is parts of two different verses mixed together.)
  • Bomberman Jetters includes a song very, very similar to the Seinfeld theme. The style of the bassline, the rhythm, the fanfares... literally everything. And not if they noticed it...
  • Lucky Star:
    • One scene references The Karate Kid.
    • Many viewers were surprised when the clock/split-screen style of 24 was parodied while the cast was preparing Konata's birthday party. Apparently, Jack Bauer is just as popular in Japan.
    • There was Episode 9, where the girls went to see Saw III. Unsurprisingly, Tsukasa didn't enjoy it much.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • The "walls of Jericho" bit (see This Is My Side) would qualify. It's quite obscure, but is in the original version and refers to the Clark Gable film, It Happened One Night.
    • Voice actress Yuko Miyamura compared the experience of playing Asuka with being Anne Sulivan (Helen Keller's teacher, see The Miracle Worker) in an interview later reprinted in the English Language edition.
    • Being a Gainax production, Evangelion is packed with references to popular and classical culture from around the world. The Judeo-Christian themes and imagery are only the tip of the iceberg. See the Shout-Out list on the series page for more details.
  • Elfen Lied:
  • Tsubaki Domyoji uses an obscure quote of Ernest Hemingway's (which Tsukasa proceeds to mutilate in his typical fashion) in the j-drama Boys over Flowers.
  • Full Metal Panic!:
    • The paramilitary organization to which the heroes belong is named "Mithril", with The Lord of the Rings being explicitly cited as the inspiration for the name — since they oppose a terrorist group named Amalgam whose members use metal-themed codenames, Mithril's founder decided to give his organization the name of a fictional metalnote .
    • In the first episode, one of the things in Kaname's school bag is a copy of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
    • Chidori also likes to watch a mashup of what seems to be Spider-Man and Lone Wolf and Cub (or any other shogun series)called Spider Detective.
    • In the Light Novels upon which the anime is based, Mardukas is a fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus, as indicated by his threatening to punish Sosuke by making him Silly Walk around the base or teach the self-defense class using a banana. These were mostly removed from the anime for fear that nobody would get the reference, except for one instance that ends up a double Shout-Out - a parody of the famous Psycho shower scene, with the stalker wielding a banana.
    • One episode of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu has Sosuke training the school's rugby team. Sosuke trains them in the style of a Marine Sergeant, a lot of his dialogue comes from Gunnary Sergeant Hartman of the similarly named Full Metal Jacket.
    • "Tokko Yarou?", the series' Next Episode Preview song, is a Suspiciously Similar Song version of The A-Team theme song.
    • The "Die Hard" on an X plot of "Dancing Very Merry Christmas" is lampshaded by Mithril staff referring to the wannabe hero as "John McLane".
    • The very last Shout-Out in the entire series comes from Al, who has the following humble request:
    Al: Then when we run away, would you please install me in a car? I would prefer a Trans-Am.
  • FLCL:
    • The infamous South Park sequence in episode 5. Interestingly, in the US DVD commentary, director Tsurumaki mentions that when they made that episode (in 2000), nobody in Japan had ever heard of South Park, so the reference went completely over viewers' heads.
    • Freeze-frame and you can also catch a Hellboy brand pencil case in one episode.
    • Haruko name drops Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney near the beginning of episode 5. Yes, it's in the Japanese script too.
  • The beginning of the Geobreeders OVA features a bad guy in an nWo hoodie.
  • In Shaman King, the characters Ponchi and Conchi (pictured) bear a striking—and wholly intentional—resemblance to Ren and Stimpy. (The artist, not surprisingly, is a fan.)
  • In Potemayo, the amount of Ho Yay between Those Two Guys is only aided by the way one of them refers to Brokeback Mountain and says, "Isn't friendship between men beautiful...?" In another episode, two students discuss the plot of the movie Some Like It Hot—turning out to be a Meaningful Background Event, as the main character is forced to wear a girl's outfit after his own clothes got dirty.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei:
    • As well as Anne of Green Gables being mentioned above, there are references to the band KISS, Bob Ross, and Hellboy. Michael Jackson even got a cameo appearance in the OVA.
    • One blackboard gag references Hiro and Sylar from Heroes.
  • In the manga that leads to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, the trainees of the Ground Forces Military Academy are seen using one of the cadences from Full Metal Jacket.
  • In Hayate the Combat Butler, when the show isn't referencing Japanese television, it throws in a few American references to shake things up. In one instance, there's a very obvious Knight Rider parody In fact, the series at one point makes reference to Neverland, and briefly features Michael Jackson.
  • Learning foreign ship-naming conventions (or knowing who to ask), seems to be a common manga-ka talent. Ah! My Goddess plays with this by naming a submarine in the "Terrible Master Urd" arc USS Sea Monkey.
    • Full Metal Panic! has several scenes where the Mithiril sub plays games with the USS Pasadena (no such boat, but it is a Los Angeles Class...clever).
    • There's also the food stand Ohio that sells Trident (missile-shaped instead of fish-shaped) bean pastries. Punning on Ohio being a homonym for ohayo (good morning/it's early and the class name for the USA's "boomers" (which carry Trident missiles).
  • Genshiken:
    • Genshiken once had someone compare Kasakube to an elf character from Record of Lodoss War, and she responded by talking about the elves from The Lord of the Rings (probably the movie).
    • The 24 ticking clock when preparing for ComiFes.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • In addition to all its references to other anime, Haruhi Suzumiya also has quite a few cross-cultural shout-outs, to things like the Hyperion Cantos novels (one of which Yuki is seen reading a hides a message in) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
    • Often whatever Yuki is reading has something to do with the plot at hand, as if she's studying up on what Terran literature has to say about the situation. Haruhi herself transcends the concept of Genre Savvy and sits as a God above all tropes. "Essays could be written here" doesn't even begin to describe the vast amount of references within the franchise. There are even musical ones, notably during the finale which plays Mahlar's "Symphony of a Thousand." The lyrics of the Ominous Latin Chanting is not only important to the scene at hand frame by frame, but to the franchise overall.
    • Kyon name-drops H. P. Lovecraft in The Movie.
    • The bit where Yuki is communicating with Kyon via the computer (Sleeping Beauty) surely has to count as a Shout-Out to The Matrix (Follow the white rabbit).
  • Excel♡Saga has all sorts of references to western pop culture, including an homage to both several pieces of anime and western animation in episode 17.
    • In volume 19 of the manga, this exchange occurs:
    Iwata: Wind, clouds, and the sun! Tell me if you have a thought!note  What is love?
    Sumiyoshi: Ah aanly knaa th' answaa t' life, th' universe, an everything. It's 42.
    • In volume 18, when Iwata's coworkers asked him how much the (spoiled) meat they'd just eaten cost, Iwata answered, in English, "Priceless", in an apparent reference to the MasterCard ads.
  • The cockpit of one Gunmen in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a freeze-frame cameo of Squidward Tentacles of all people.
  • Cowboy Bebop:
  • The opening of Chapter Three of High School Of The Dead features a blond, goateed gas station attendant standing at his cash register. He wears a white shirt, a red tie, and a nametag reading (in kanji) "Saimon". If all of this still doesn't clue you in, there's a cricket bat resting against the wall behind him.
  • In Chapter 10 of the Yonkoma strip Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth, one of the few official derivative works in the Touhou Project series, child historian Akyuu asks resident Moon Rabbit Reisen if it was true that Youkai rabbits could decapitate prey with their teeth and if their weakness was Holy Hand Grenades. If that wasn't enough, the title of the strip translates to Vorpal Bunny and the hand grenade in question is spelled, in English, HHG of Aunty Ock. This, asked of a character whose game was inspired by a classic Japanese folk tale.
  • Probably the strangest reference out of them all, Digimon Adventure 02 had an episode that was one long shout-out to the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • The sixth episode of GUN×SWORD opens with a parody of the opening to Pulp Fiction. Adding to the reference, the female robber in the pair is nicknamed "Honey Cherry", real first name Bunny; in Pulp Fiction, the female robber is "Honey Bunny"...
  • Cromartie High School has one student named Freddie, who looks an awful lot like Freddie Mercury from Queen. In the live-action movie adaptation, just to be certain everybody got it, they play a Suspiciously Similar Song version of "Another One Bites The Dust" when he appears on-screen.
  • Sgt. Frog:
    • Giroro screaming "This is! SPARTA!" as a battle cry. It's also an Actor Allusion when you realise who dubbed Leonidas in the Japanese dub of 300.
    • Also, in the manga, Natsumi is seen with a Bubbles (from The Powerpuff Girls) keychain hanging from her bag. Then in the thirteenth volume, the chairman of the Pokopen Concealed Alien Friendship Association greatly resembles Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup (connected by the hands to form a single entity.)
  • Lupin III: Half of the premise is based on Western culture, so no surprise that each version has multiple references.
    • In Lupin III: Part II, one episode involved Lupin and Jigen breaking into some sort of government building. Two of the secret passwords to open the door are The Beatles references. (Strangely, the English dub replaces these with Star Trek references.)
  • In Secret of Cerulean Sand, we see one of the guards reading Amazing Magazine.
  • The first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is chock-full of references to J. D. Salinger, particularly the story "The Laughing Man" and The Catcher in the Rye. The mysterious hacker at the center of the plot is apparently a fan; he took his name from the former and the quote in his logo from the latter.
  • In Vandread, Dita greets Hibiki (whom she believes to be an alien) with the hand signals from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
  • While not prevalent in the animation, the visual style of much of the illustrations for the original Mobile Suit Gundam's supplementary materials, particularly MSV, appears to be based on animated Soviet sci-fi shorts such as Firing Range.
    • In Gundam Wing, Relena compares Heero Yuy to The Little Prince. The series also has a metric ton of references to The Wizard of Oz, most prominently the paramilitary organization outright named "OZ" (short for "Organization of the Zodiac") and the major character Dorothy Catalonia.
    • The manga Gundam F90 begins with a Federation transport ship named Kobayashi Maru getting destroyed by mysterious forces.
    • In G Gundam, the Japanese warships are shaped like the Enterprise but with spherical main hulls; of course, the show's director Yasuhiro Imagawa is an unabashed Star Trek fan, even putting himself in a TNG-era uniform in the second opening.
    • Advance of Zeta names all of its experimental mobile suits for the characters of Watership Down, with Hazel being the primary Gundam and Woundwort being the Super Prototype to end all Super Prototypes.
  • Ama-warashi of ''×××HOLiC' wears a Victorian-style black dress and flies around using an umbrella, in a clear imitation of Mary Poppins.
    • The manga also has Yuuko making a reference to Casshern and Watanuki mistaking for a Star Wars. The translation notes at the end of the Del Rey edition go out of their way to point out that it was indeed that way in the Japanese language version as well.
  • Bleach contains numerous references to the band Nirvana, of which the author is a fan.
    • This is an especially prevalent facet of the series in the early manga volumes, where Ichigo idolizes Al Pacino and Chad's theme song is "No Song Unheard" by the Hellacopters.
    • Some later shadowy monsters in the anime are clearly the characters from the first wave of Transformers: Animated toys.
  • One Piece has No Celebrities Were Harmed version of several western celebrities including Jim Carrey (Franky), Michael Jackson (Jango), and possibly Eminem (Eneru). Emporio Invankov basically just is Dr. Frank-N-Furter's Good Twin.
    • Cat Viper is a big fat cat who loves lasagna, a rare reference to Garfield in a manga.
    • No one thought much about Gaimon's name when he debuted in the series. Many years later, he would get married to a woman named Sarfunkel.
    • The One Piece treasure itself, as of late, is occasionally known as "the empty throne," referring to Westeros's lack of a ruler in Game of Thrones. Eiichiro Oda became a fan of the TV show after a friend gave him the Season 1 DVD set as a birthday present.
  • In Naruto, Killer Bee (the eight tails' Jinchuriki) uses the phrase "Fly like a butterfly...sting like a bee".
  • Slayers Revolution has a pirate captain who looks like Jack Sparrow.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • There are several other examples besides the Colonel Sanders mentioned above. For example, when the characters are talking about the existence of Time Travel, the background shows pictures of a Terminator shortly after a time jump and the DeLorean. In a later arc, when Akira and Natsumi are talking about their situation, Natsumi makes a censored reference to The Matrix when she mentions the possibility of being trapped in a Virtual Reality machine.
    • The Cassiopeia Time Machine itself was named after a mysterious time traveller's turtle from the German fantasy novel Momo by Michael Ende. In fact there are several western literature referenced in the manga. For instance, Negi found A Wizard of Earthsea in a bookshop while he was looking for more novels with a mage hero.
    • All the members of the treasure hunter group that Nodoka joins are named after characters in James P. Hogan's Inherit the Stars. Also featuring a rare Shout-Out to Ghostbusters: they're totally wearing proton packs.
    • The Big Bad's ultimate ability, "Code Of The Lifemaker", is also the name of a James P. Hogan novel.
    • At one point Tosaka is seen reading Walter Benjamin's translation of Charles Baudelaire.
    • Haruna name drops Cthulhu.
    • In the Negima?! Neo series, Asuna is obsessed with the Chupacabra of all things.
      • Also in Negima!? (second season) there was a South Park parody. The style was more so chibi then straight SP however it was obviously a parody, down to the "Sayoth Park" sign and "Oh my god! They killed Sayo! You bastards!" scene.
      • One of the chalkboard gags in the first episode says (translated) "Huh? A friendly Werdna?" This is a reference to a bug in the first Wizardry game — the final boss (Werdna), just like every other monster-encounter in the game, has a random chance of being "friendly" when the player encounters him, making the game Unintentionally Unwinnable if the player chooses not to fight him.
  • Ken Akamatsu's previous series, Love Hina, had a lot of Star Wars Shout Outs. The license plate on Seta's van being "R2-D2", and lightsabers make several appearances.
  • Ken Akamatsu's post-Negima series, UQ Holder!, continues the trend. The second chapter features Touta claiming that he wants to be able to sing like Louis Armstrong.
  • In Nerima Daikon Brothers, one of the villains is a very thinly veiled parody of Michael Jackson. He's building a theme park, dresses up like Peter Pan, insists on calling the female lead "Wendy", has a group of mooks that are basically mummies that dance "Thriller", and is revealed to have a fake nose which later falls off, revealing nothing but an empty hole. And a lot of those elements are taken directly from the infamous "Mr. Jefferson" episode of South Park.
  • In the Saki anime, the book that the title character was reading in the first episode is shown to be The Lord Rord of the Rings.
  • Miyako of Hidamari Sketch is able to quote Western classics like Mother Goose rhymes or The Gift of the Magi at will, especially in the anime. Certainly, her co-tenants don't understand them at all.
  • One episode of Godannar has Shinobu telling to Anna the plot of Marcelino Pan y Vino, an old-ish Spanish book that is more popular for its film adaptation.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • The series has so many Western music references, most from 1980s rock, that it's actually rare for anything from Japanese media to be referenced at all. Especially with character names like Robert E.O. (or REO) Speedwagon, Dire Straits, Killer Queen and Tom Petty.
    • They even go meta; Joseph Joestar is seen listening to The Beatles "Get Back" on his cassette player twice, which is where the "JoJo" in the title comes from.
    • For that matter, Stands were inspired by an issue of X-Men where Professor X fights the Shadow King using spectral avatars of themselves.
  • Maison Ikkoku:
    • Tennis coach Shun Mitaka names his dog "McEnroe".
    • There's a character who owns several dogs and is named Asuna Kujō. Might be a coincidence, since Kujō is a real surname that fits the Numerical Theme Naming.
  • Android Kikaider: The Animation begins with a retelling of Pinocchio... and the references to that story don't end there. Indeed, one reference is specifically to Disney's version of the story: Kikaider's conscience circuit is known as Gemini. (Get it?)
  • One bit in the seventh episode of Maria†Holic references MasterCard's "priceless" commercial campaigns, complete with "priceless" in Gratuitous English.
  • One of the shorts of Mobile Suit SD Gundam Mk IV, SD Gundam Crazy Races, is a full-on parody of Wacky Races, with Gundam ZZ villains Yazan Gable and Gemon Bajack taking the places of Dick Dastardly and Muttley, complete with the costumes and gadget-laden car.
    • It seems Wacky Races has enjoyed some cult popularity in Japan; apart from the Daicon IV video and SD Gundam Crazy Races, Cat Planet Cuties also features an Expy of Muttley as the villain's sidekick.
  • Red Garden has a reference to the Soup Nazi, of all things. But the characters are Americans in New York, so why not.
  • The last episode of Nurse Witch Komugi featured a cameo of Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chuggabug, late of Wacky Races.
  • Eureka Seven:
    • Virtually everything is a reference to some English-language cultural thing. Renton is named after the main character from Trainspotting and his last name, Thurston, is taken from Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. His father Adrock and his associates are based on Beastie Boys, Jobs and Woz are named after Apple cofounders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Dr. Greg "Bear" Eagan is named after Sci-Fi authors Greg Bear and Greg Egan, Gidget and Moondoggie are named after the characters from the movie Gidget, LFO, the show's mechs, are named after the British techno pioneers, Ray and Charles Beams are named after Ray and Charles Eames and maybe Ray Charles, every episode is named after a song...
    • There's a mention of the Sacred King and the Lake of Niemi — which are right out of The Golden Bough.
  • Akumetsu:
    • In one Shout-Out-crammed page of Akumetsu, amongst all the various Japanese references, is...Picard and the Enterprise?!
    • He has "exceptional negotiation!"
    • Akumetsu in general is crammed with references, almost entirely by virtue of Shou's weird taste (and possibly 'his' attempts at populism), but most of them are to Japanese television. Periodically a Cultural Cross Reference works its way in there, simply because whatever-it-is is big enough in Japan to contribute to the mood.
  • In The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, Ash mentions offhandedly that he gives his Pokémon nicknames but never really uses them. Pikachu's nickname is Jean-Luc Pikachu; he even has a Starfleet insignia on his chest when this is revealed.
  • Ranma ½ has the Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs training technique called "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire", the name of which is taken from the lyrics from "The Christmas Song" (written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells, performed by Nat King Cole).
  • Megazone 23 Part 2 briefly features Thunder Cats and SilverHawks pinball machines, and has "Blue Devil", "Frank Baum", and "Dorothy" on computer screens.
  • His and Her Circumstances:
    • The manga contains a reference to the Stephen King novel and film Carrie, using it as a visual-only metaphor for someone snapping under the strain of having perfectionist, controlling parents.
    • One episode of the anime has characters playing Uno, complete with licensed card images.
  • In Kimagure Orange Road, there's a couple that's constantly quoting the "Wherefore art thou" dialogue from Romeo and Juliet. Surprisingly, this isn't a case of Cultural Translation—- that's actually what they're reciting in Japanese.
  • Eyeshield 21:
    • The Devil Bats are aghast when they see that Yamato Takeru has neutralized Sena's Devil Bat Ghost maneuver. "The Devil Bat Ghost...busted?!" Suzuna actually complains about this one. "Wait, who still makes Ghostbusters jokes?"
    • The Bando Spiders' uniforms are red (with web pattern) and blue. Then again, Spidey did cross the Pacific in the 70s...
  • The entire point of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, with everything from animation styles to episodes to background details referencing something. The second episode alone is essentially a Whole-Plot Reference to every USA High School film in existence, along with the "sex education" scene in Mean Girls taken almost word-for-word, a doll that looks like a Powerpuff Girl, and Ghostbusters equipment. Episode 10 includes a music video that homages dozens of Western songs and singers. The character Chuck even owes its existence to this, being one huge reference to GIR of Invader Zim.
  • A chapter in Princess Resurrection is very Back to the Future-esque in its plot line complete with a car going up to 88mph.
  • 20th Century Boys has a character mistake another for Hulk Hogan of all people. Although he does look like him in a way.
  • Strawberry Marshmallow: The Big Friendly Dog is named Frusciante. There are also some goldfish named after the members of Aphex Twin (which might possibly double as a Red Dwarf Shout-Out on the grounds that Lister owned robot goldfish named Lennon and McCartney).
  • Magical Pokaan: The geek in the first episode is wearing a Red Dwarf tee shirt.
  • Sailor Moon: Among other things, the episode "Loved and Chased: Luna's Worst Day Ever" contains several references to Gone With the Wind, which were oddly excised from The '90s dub version. Also, Rei is a Michael Jackson fan.
    • Another episode had the HUD on Sailor Mercury's visor display "1. Protect the innocent. 2. Uphold the law. 3. Serve the public trust" which come from Robocop.
    • The Beach Episode "It's Summer! The Sea! Our Youth! Also, A Ghost" references The Addams Family.
  • Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! has this by default, being an Affectionate Parody of the Cthulhu Mythos; however, more surprising are their repeated references to Call of Cthulhu, including using SAN points and the second TV season's title card showing Nyarko standing atop a Steve Jackson Games-created Cthulhudice.
    • Luhy Distone's car is not just a Delorean, but the Delorean, as evidenced by the scene where it flies into the night sky with flaming skid marks behind it.
    • The neuralizer pops up more than once; in the Flash web series, Mahiro remarks "Something seems familiar about that thing..." and gets a mental image of Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K)
    • Episode 2 has Nyarko defeat a group of enemies with unholy hand grenades; in the light novel it's more explicit, with Nyarko saying King Arthur used them at Antioch and Mahiro responding "That was Monty Python!"
    • In an episode where it looks like Mahiro and Nyarko are stranded on a desert island, Wilson the volleyball appears in the foreground.
    • One episode in the second TV season has Nyarko remarking about aliens having unusual weaknesses, like country music (which is said over a silhouette of Mars Attacks!' Martians); this turns out to be entirely prescient, as the Monster of the Week is defeated because Nyarko's pop music ringtone makes their heads explode.
    • The villain of a second season episode is named Clark Ashton Smith, but goes by "Agent Smith".
  • Franken Fran has, of all things it could possibly reference, the Flying Spaghetti Monster in one chapter.
  • Shows up fairly often in Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Rurouni Kenshin has several characters based off of ones from X-Men, such as Jin-E being modeled on Gambit. Kenshin creator Nobuhiro Watsuki is a huge fan of X-Men, and in fact heartily endorsed the alternate English title Samurai X for that reason.
  • Girls und Panzer has the girls performing the Monty Python "Spam" sketch in the second OVA. There are also numerous "Sergeant Third Class Oddball" jokes, while The Movie has a big Shout-Out to the film 1941 (1979).
  • Psychic Squad included a Freeze-Frame Bonus in one scene where The Nostalgia Critic and The Angry Video Game Nerd appeared as background characters — right next to each other, as well, leaving little doubt as to their true identities.
  • Nanana's Buried Treasure shows the eponymous Cute Ghost Girl playing Terraria in the first episode.
  • The 1980s Osomatsu-kun series had a Whole-Plot Reference to The Great Race.
  • Given that it is a series made to have a big appeal in the West, Space☆Dandy is full of these: from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ("Is that your final Dandy?") to a disco-dancing alien named "Tohn Jravolta", to Dandy and Scarlet bonding over their love of Chuck Norris films (including the Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos cartoon, obscure even in the West!).
  • Shonen Note: Boy Soprano has a reference to Star Wars when one of the characters appears as a jedi with a Darth Vader shadow, when he mentions he might be going to the dark side.
  • Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai:
    • Mokuzu's explanation of being a mermaid who needs to befriend someone within a certain period or she will turn into sea foam is right out of The Little Mermaid (except without the romance). Literally. She was lying about being a mermaid, not that anyone honestly believed her.
    • The last chapter references Superman when Mokuzu's teacher is crying about how he couldn't save her from her father.
  • Kaori from Your Lie in April quotes Peanuts multiple times. She even says Snoopy is the origin of one of the quotes.
    • In the manga, during Nagi's school festival performance, a background character can be seen wearing a Spock costume.
  • In Video Girl Ai Chapter 5: "The Day of Yota's First Date," Yota watches a movie starring Michael Kington, about a superhero wearing a dark cape and cowl. "Who—Who are you!?" "I'm Bat Man!" Bat Man beats up the thug before holding up his primary weapon, a super alloy bat. The emblem on his uniform shows two crossed bats. Though wearing a dark cape and cowl, the ears on his cowl are not meant to resemble a bat's ears, but rather, baseball bats. Because he's Bat Man.
  • The opening to Princess Jellyfish references multiple western works, from Star Wars to Mary Poppins.
  • In To Love Ru Darkness, Finn is visible as a toy in the background of one of the panels.
  • In Barakamon, a CD looking almost exactly like the classic 1976 Aerosmith album Rocks can be seen when Sensei first enters his house in Episode 1.
  • Angel Beats!: TK, who Speaks in Shout-Outs, occasionally references Western works as well as Japanese ("I'll be back!"). The most obvious one comes near the end of the series, where he uses "Knockin' On Heaven's Door!" as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner, and the rest of the cast Lampshades it: "That's a Bob Dylan song, right?" "Pretty appropriate for our situation, though!"
  • School-Live!:
  • Stop Hibari Kun:
  • The preview for the Kiddy Grade episode "Day/Off" features a narration that is almost certainly a knowing paraphrase of the famous quote from the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
    Often, the grandest moments in life are revealed in the smallest of details. Those who pay attention should not miss them.
  • The intro to My Love Story!! features a King Kong (1933) reference. Takeo plays Kong, Suna is Ann, and Yamato is the pilot.
  • Kill la Kill has lots of these: with the exception of Satsuki and Mako (in the final version), every one of the main protagonists incorporates elements of a Marvel Comics character into their transformed Goku uniforms and other abilities, various media is referenced as media here as well, (such as a kid in the classroom in the first episode playing with Grey Hulk and Iron Man action figures, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta's characters from Pulp Fiction appearing in the background of the fourth episode, and the very final transformation used by Ragyo at the end of the series makes her look like Maleficent. Did we mention this was made by the same people as Panty & Stocking?
  • In Kaasan: Mom's Life the daughter knows of Beyoncé, though her brother and father do not.
  • Minoru from Occult Academy does the Tarzan yell when he crashes through Maya's window.
  • Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl:
    • Erio tries to show others that she is an alien who can fly by riding her bike off a bridge and invoking an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial-like scene. She ended up falling into the shallow portion of the river and breaking her leg.
    • Erio references Sherlock Holmes in episode 2 when she calls Makoto "Watson".
  • Ririka's grandmother in Nurse Angel Ririka SOS mentions that she and her late husband began dating after he asked her to see a Gary Cooper movie with him.
  • The Code Geass spin-off Oz the Reflection has a number of references to The Wizard of Oz, including the protagonist singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in the first chapter. But the real surprise comes late in the story, which introduces a mecha named "Elphaba".
  • Tom and Jerry is one of the most popular western cartoons in Japan. The original intro to the 1966 anime Sally the Witch has Sally turn a hairbrush into a cat, who looks like Tom, and has him chase a mouse, who looks like Jerry, that was bothering her.
  • My Hero Academia has silhouettes of Marvel and DC heroes in its introduction chapter, and several locations are named after Star Wars planets. Most blatant would be the short, elderly mentor figure who lives in the Dagobah district! The character Mirio Togata is basically a jacked version of Tintin.
  • Little Witch Academia (2013) has a few My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic shoutouts in the form of plush versions of the characters. The TV series has an even more unexpected reference; the shopkeeper in episode 3 is a dead ringer for Chumlee from Pawn Stars.
    • Unsurprising, considering this series was also made by Studio Trigger, who had previously made Kill la Kill (as mentioned above) and Panty & Stocking when they were part of Gainax. The references go beyond My Little Pony, though: the story being set at a magical school in Britain and the MacGuffin in the first OVA being called the Sorcerous Stone are references to Harry Potter, witches being disciplined as part of a parade are made to wear fake noses like the "witch" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Amanda in one scene is shown stealing valuables while dressed up like Catwoman.
  • One chapter of Himouto! Umaru-chan sees Umaru, Sylphin, and Bomber playing an arcade game called "Dead 3 Zombies"; Left 4 Dead was actually quite popular in Japan, so much so that Valve Software partnered with Taito to create an arcade port of it.
  • Pop Team Epic thrives on this, and the anime adds even more of it, going beyond mere mentions to extended references. Pipimi's favorite song is "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, the first episode of the anime has a section mimicing the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), another episode has a parody of Mettaton EX's entrance from Undertale, yet another episode has a music video that's a clear parody of the music video for the Earth, Wind & Fire song "Let's Groove", and all three video covers spoof Die Hard movies.
  • The third episode of Space Patrol Luluco references Street Sharks and Extreme Dinosaurs (!) by featuring parodies of not only the Sharks and Dinosaurs themselves, but also Street Sharks villain Slash. A later episode further referenced Extreme Dinosaurs by featuring a criminal organisation called the T-Bone Syndicate (named after Extreme Dinosaurs' protagonist).
    • Studio TRIGGER are sometimes affectionately nicknamed "Westaboos" for the huge number of reference to Western pop culture that go above and beyond the usual American films and superhero comic books. In addition to all the things mentioned before, there's stuff like Jack Naito from Kill La Kill who's a walking reference to Super Jail, the cameo of Little Britain's Vicky Pollard in a crowd scene from Little Witch Academia, and the poster for the notorious B-movie Not Of This Earth among a collection of trashy and useless stuff stolen by the Blackholians in Space Patrol Luluco.
  • Overlord (2012): One of Ainz' guildmates designed his character to have a billowing red cape (which the narration explicitly says was a Shout-Out to Spawn. One of Ainz' more out-there spells also summons a tornado with sharks in it.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • Chapter 116 sees the Tabletop Gaming Club plotting to stage a real-life Player Unknowns Battlegrounds for Shuchi'in Academy's culture festival, complete with one of the club members wearing the iconic Level 3 Helmetnote .
    • In another chapter, Hayasaka pretends to be an innocent school girl and tells Shirogane that she likes watching cute cat videos online; Kaguya, watching from the shadows, thinks to herself "No you don't! You watch things being crushed in a hydraulic press!"
    • In Chapter 57, the Tabletop Gaming Club's "Happy Life Game" is said to be based off of Sugoroku, but when it turns up again in Chapter 171 it's transformed into an off-brand version of the Game of Life, complete with station wagon-shaped pieces that hold pegs reprenseting family membersnote .
    • Hayasaka's attempts to keep everyone out of the Student Council room in Episode 13 references the opening for Mission: Impossible by having a lit fuse run across the screen.
    • Episode 21 of the anime showed that Iino read Fifty Shades of Grey, had a scene where her and Osaraigi were drawn to look like Peppermint Patty and Marcie, and made a reference to the music video for Vogue when Kaguya was trying to find her routine. The Peanuts reference in particular would turn out to be a major piece of foreshadowing, as both sets of characters have a shared unrequited crush on the local Classical Anti-Hero Butt-Monkey.
    • When Ishigami freaks out over the possibility of a giant balloon popping in his face in Episode 24, he imagines himself being chased by Rover from The Prisoner (1967).
    • In a later chapter of the manga, Iino is revealed to have been a major Potterfan when she was younger; her friend Rei Onodera somehow missed the craze, but even she knows that Snape killed Dumbledore.
  • The Japanese title of Yo-kai Watch Jam - Yo-kai Academy Y: Close Encounters of the N Kind refers to the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
  • SSSS.GRIDMAN is a Milestone Celebration of the the Toku series Denkō Chōjin Gridman, and in the process it pays plenty of homage to the American adaptation Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad — that's what the "SSSS" in the title stands for (unofficially). The references are plot-relevant too: the main antagonists in both shows are a classmate of the heroes (Akane Shijo and Malcom Frink) who creates monsters with the help of an evil AI (Alexis Kerib and Kilokhan).
  • Jewelpet references quite a few pieces of media that are not originally from Japan.
    • In episode 28 of Jewelpet Twinkle☆, the woman Miria loses a singing contest to is named Susanne Foil. Certain dubs take this reference further by flat-out naming her Susanne Boyle.
    • Jewelpet Sunshine:
      • In episode 16b, the gang have around five minutes to find and steal their own homework for the summer, indicated by a timer in the corner of the screen not unlike the one in 24. The Indiana Jones theme also plays when the gang get chased by a boulder later in the same episode.
      • In episode 25, Garnet auditions for a dance and almost perfectly re-enacts the famous dance routine in Flashdance, complete with water being poured on her. Earlier in the same episode, Dian and Garnet are chased across the street by fangirls of the former while "A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles plays in the background.
    • Episode 42 of Jewelpet Happiness features an athlete who looks remarkably like Johnny Bravo and makes similar pained sounds to him when hit.
  • In Rozen Maiden, it did pay homage to Brazilian pilot Ayrton Senna through a poster on the main character's bedroom wall.
  • In the earlier volumes of the original Chi's Sweet Home manga series, a plush version of Bubbles and Blossom can frequently be seen inside Yohei Yamada's apartment.
  • A Mortal Kombat (1992) cabinet made a prominent appearance in Hi Score Girl, same with its sequels.
  • The horror comedy/parody manga A Manga About the Kind of PE Teacher Who Dies at the Start of a School Horror Film is all about mocking the clichés of Japanese horror stories like curses, gods from hidden ancient shrines, the Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl archetype, alien invasions etc. But some chapters make fun of Western horror tropes, such as the killer shark movies, the obligatory Jason-esque slasher villain and chapters based on The Mist and the Saw franchise.

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