Surprisingly Similar Stories

""Because it is always plagiarism, especially when it isn't.""

Sometimes, two works are obviously inspired by each other, or the younger one contains minor Shout Outs to the older one, or they are coincidentally considered Dueling Movies.

This page is not a collection for them. Here, we should experiment with finding some less obvious, and probably nonexistent connections, through wordplay, and selective examples of plot points.


 * A corporation is secretly engaging in shady science experiments in a remote and hostile location and through a catastrophic accident opens a portal to a harsh alien realm, unleashing its horrific denizens into our world, who then go on a killing spree and wipe out most of the inhabitants in the laboratory and its surrounding buildings. The hero has to go up against them with little to no aid in an attempt to close the portal that is allowing them in. When he reaches the portal, he discovers the only way to close it is to travel through it into their dimension and destroy some monstrous creature on the other side.
 * Half-Life or Doom?
 * Our story centres around a forbidden romance, the likes of which are so iconic that the character's names have entered pop culture and are recognizable amongst people who don't know the story. Our heroine is a teenage girl who while heartbreakingly passive throughout most of the story makes a startling act of defiance towards the end. Our hero is well-known for his wordyness and childlike attitude that may make him unsympathetic. The lovers are forbidden from contact by society, most vehemently her parents, but eventually they come together under hard-to-keep secrecy. The story ends in tragedy when they are separated and both of them die
 * Lolita? Or Romeo and Juliet?
 * An impulsive young protagonist travels to a thick forest full of Scenery Porn as part of an evil corporation bent on exploiting its natural resources for personal gain. He was not chosen for the job for his intelligence. Through poorly-explained means, he becomes one of the forest's differently-sized and mystical natives. He learns to interact with the environment, falls in love with the first fanservicey native girl he meets, rides their flying mounts, and finally decides to stop the exploitation of his newfound people. After single-handedly destroying one of the corporation's terrible machines (which is much, much larger than himself), he rallies the natives, drives off the humans trying to exploit the natural resources, and uses the power of the forest itself (channeled by the natives) to secure his victory. The audience learns an anviliciously Green Aesop.
 * Avatar, or Ferngully: The Last Rainforest?
 * A young man goes into hibernation, and when he wakes up, he is in the distant future. This young man is a bit of a slob who likes to drink beer and is usually referred to by his last name. He becomes friends with a robot who likes to watch a robot-themed soap opera. He is in love with a woman who is smarter than he is. He has lots of adventures travelling through space, and he is somehow his own ancestor.
 * Red Dwarf or Futurama?
 * Man comes from another world to harvest a rare mineral unique to only this extremely hostile world. Ends up being forced to live among the natives and learn their ways from a local girl who he ends up falling in love with. Has to ride a fearsome creature as a rite of passage into manhood, and then becomes the leader of the local clans and leads them to battle against culture from which he originally came.
 * Is it Dune? Or Avatar?
 * Our heroes obtain an ancient magical artifact from a small, old green creature who talks to himself in third person. Said artifact must be destroyed to kill the Evil Overlord, but it can't be destroyed through normal physical or magical powers. Eventually, the artifact that the heroes wear around their neck feels unusually heavy, tries to possess them, and influences the team to split up permanently.
 * Lord of the Rings, The Deathly Hallows, or Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn?
 * Neurotic and emotionally unstable teenage girl falls in love with a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire who attends her high school. There is lots of talking. Eventually, the two get caught up in love triangle with a werecreature that ends with the girl and the werecreature deciding to be Just Friends.
 * Twilight or Bakemonogatari?
 * These two works feature the tale of a Farm Boy who discovers a Plot Coupon sent to a wise old mentor by a captured princess, and has his uncle who raised him killed by the impenetrably hooded servants of the Evil Empire. The two set off for justice. The mentor is a former knight who teaches the farmboy how to use his mystical powers in about five days (not that his magic is much use until he becomes stronger) and gives him a sword that belonged to his father before he "bought the farm". Luckily, the farmboy meets up with a Badass Anti-Hero, rescues the princess, who is also a major player in the Rebel army, and joins the rebellion, becoming a key member before going to train with a half-mad old hermit in the forest. After this, he discovers that his father was the Empire's right-hand man and he's been betrayed by his own family...
 * Now, are we in fact talking about The Inheritance Cycle or something else...?
 * Alternatively, an angsty orphan discovers he has rare mystical powers. He leaves home at the behest of a stranger to study them, gaining a new weapon along the way. He later discovers it is his destiny to confront the evil Dark Lord, his mentor dies (twice!) and the villain's right-hand man was not such an awful person after all.
 * The boy who lived or The last of the Jedi?
 * And yet another: A blond, tunic-wearing boy (again, an orphan) leaves his home and gains a shiny new sword. He is given advice by a wise old mentor (who eventually leaves him), escapes several fantastic creatures and finds out the true identity of someone close to him. The final duel between him and the villain takes place in their stronghold over a huge pit.
 * Star Wars or Ocarina of Time?
 * A man's plans go horribly wrong and he wakes up after surgery to a robotically altered body and a dead wife. After screaming and smashing up the surgery room, he sinks into despair and becomes the slave of an evil power. Eventually he is redeemed by a good-hearted young hero and dies saving the boy's life.
 * Darth Vader or Doctor Octopus?
 * A military man, sent to remote outpost, befriends the indigenous population and comes to sympathise with their cause, making him an intolerable aberration in the military.
 * Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, or Avatar?
 * Common spaceman turns out to have amazing teleportation powers and can teleport through time.
 * The Stars My Destination or Martian Successor Nadesico?
 * A young girl who thinks her life is too ordinary has her family kidnapped by a predatory fairy being who can give you every little thing you want, but at a terrible price. With some help from those who are familiar with the fairy's ways, the girl enters the fairy's unreal, cobbled-together world, does battle with her, and through pluck and brains manages to defeat her and rescue her family.
 * The Wee Free Men, Coraline or Labyrinth?
 * Clumsy but endearing Japanese school girl meets a mysterious stranger (a Jerk with a Heart of Gold) and before she knows it, she's pulled into supernatural adventures with him and his Five-Man Band. They discover that she has a unique power that they desperately need. Over time The Crew grows close until they are almost like family. Though they try to deny it, eventually the girl and no-longer mysterious stranger admit that they care for each other.
 * Is it Inuyasha, Crescent Moon, Fruits Basket, or Blackbird ?
 * The story is a musical starring an ambitious young woman who faces prejudice because of the color of her skin. Her best friend is a perky, spoiled, blonde who loves pink and has her eye on a happy-go-lucky prince. Said prince ends up falling in love with the heroine instead, despite the fact that she is green.
 * Wicked or The Princess and the Frog?
 * A blue hero regularly defeats an evil robot-building scientist, picking up lots of new friends over the course of many games, including a red Friendly Rival. Later in the series, they meet an amnesiac character who turns out to have been created for evil purposes but who ends up catching morals and performing a Heroic Sacrifice. However, they prove popular enough to appear in the next game anyway with little explanation.
 * Mega Man or Sonic the Hedgehog?
 * This Xkcd strip. (Redwall, Lord of the Rings)
 * A handsome man travels everywhere in his vehicle, which he loves like a person, and he fights monsters/evil beings. He's incredibly lonely, but there's a second man that he's incredibly close to, though that man may or may not be evil. Lately, a lot of battles have put these two on opposing sides. He meets lots and lots of girls along the way. He's also developed a friendship with an old man, who makes a great and very loyal companion. Along his journey he starts out all adorable, but gradually grows more and more depressed and screwed up.
 * Doctor Who or Supernatural?
 * A powerful man who once was a morally superior good guy gets seduced by a greater evil power. He becomes very evil himself, even though some doubt it has happened. He leads part of a huge army and is the public face for the larger evil that is widely feared but stays hidden for most of the time. In the end he inevitably meets his downfall by betrayal. Also, the man is played by Christopher Lee.
 * Is this man Count Dooku or Saruman the White?
 * Or is he one Lee away from Sinestro?
 * A classic Disney musical about British children starved of parental attention who come under the care of a woman with magical powers, including the ability to fly and to make inanimate objects come to life. Mostly live-action, but includes a memorable sequence in which the protagonists visit a fantasy world rendered in animation, with talking animals and a sporting event with an unlikely outcome. Features David Tomlinson in a major role and numerous songs written by the Sherman Brothers.
 * Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks?
 * Let's see...the human race discovers ancient alien technology on Mars, gets into a first contact war with another alien race, eventually joins a UN styled space station run by representatives from three major alien races and several minor representatives from others, eventually the main character steals a massive prototype space ship and breaks away from the government to fight an ancient alien race that resembles a large organic spaceship.
 * Mass Effect, or Babylon 5?
 * Also, both sets of representatives eventually employ an elite security organization that's above the law, and only accountable to the person/persons at the very top of said station's The Federation (SPECTRE's and Rangers).
 * A black-haired, green-eyed boy with a miserable home life is approached by a mythological being and informed that he himself is no mere human, which explains the strange things that have happened to him up until that point. He is sent to an institution created especially for the purpose of teaching children like him how to use their supernatural powers. Features of the institution include magical beings as servants and competition between different factions among the students. In time the protagonist learns that even among his peers, he is special--he is the subject of a prophecy concerning a Dark Lord who is gradually regaining strength and followers after a crippling defeat some time ago. Our hero and his two best friends--a wisecracking Big Eater and a brainy girl with whom the protagonist shares UST--have several encounters with said Dark Lord and/or his minions over the course of the series, culminating in an all-out war between the forces of supernatural good and supernatural evil.
 * Harry Potter, right? Are you sure it's not Percy Jackson and The Olympians?
 * This Darker and Edgier installment begins with the main hero of the story in heaven after having fallen to his/her death near the end of the previous arc. He/She comes back wrong before getting better. Meanwhile, his/her powerful wizard ally becomes obsessed with increasing hir magical power, and, in a Kick the Dog moment, callously disintegrates a Smug Snake villain who had themselves just crossed the Moral Event Horizon by murdering a likeable supporting character. Said wizard also undergoes a power upgrade combined with a darker, evil new look after hir loved ones are threatened and begins the next arc back to normal but still trying to atone for and deal with what (s)he did during hir flirtation with evil.
 * Order of the Stick: Don't Split The Party or Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
 * A God-girl creates an endlessly repeating summer month, because she has unfinished business. Only the resident Strange Girl remembers the past events, and she decides to do absolutely nothing for thousands of loops, getting quite depressed in the process. At the end, the protagonists' companions (that is "officially" organized as a school club that spends most of its time with board games in a classroom), figures out that teamwork is the solution for breaking the loop. The story also frequently references the sound that cicadas make as the symbol of these summer evenings.
 * Endless Eight from Haruhi Suzumiya, or Higurashi no Naku Koro ni?
 * This Pixar feature concerns an isolated widower who sets out on an adventure, picking up a flighty traveling companion not long into the trip. The two travel to a region all but unknown by their community, encountering strange creatures and facing terrible dangers along the way. Ultimately, the widower learns that he can't let his lingering grief prevent him from experiencing the joys that yet remain in life, and he and his companion become fast friends.
 * Finding Nemo, or Up?
 * In a society dominated by class prejudice, a young man with incredible strength and ingenuity, who grew up in poverty and had to steal and salvage for survival, is arrested and tattooed so that he can be easily spotted after his release. An incredibly zealous cop makes it a personal campaign to put him back behind bars, complicating The Hero's genuine efforts to help people, such as a friendless, abused woman. Meanwhile, a Love Triangle starts between a young woman, a young man she's known for awhile, and a woman he just met. Although someone initially plans for the guy and girl to die together, she manages to save him at the last minute and wrenches many tears out of the audience when she dies in his arms right before the finale's battle.
 * Les Misérables or Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's?
 * A painfully average young man meets an eccentric, blithe, spirited, unrestrainable Strange Girl who violates all rules of common etiquette, propriety, and modesty...and he's inexplicably attracted to her in some bizarre, frightened way. Despite the danger/folly of associating with her, he can't stay away, no matter how uncomfortable her strange habits, such as her history of serial dating, make him.
 * Daisy Miller or Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu?
 * A group of rebels fighting against the oppressive regime of an immortal godlike being, is led by a Badass who mentors a younger, less confident character for the first third of the story, only to have a Dying Moment of Awesome leading to the rebellion's first victory. The real hero of the story steps forward, and inspired by their Love Interest and their friends, defeats the Big Bad. The heroes establish a democratic state and live in peace briefly, only for it all to collapse into anarchy when it's revealed that the previous villain was only protecting them from the embodiment of entropy and despair. Following numerous reveals, epic cosmic battles, and Heroic Sacrifices, the heroes defeat the great evil and return to live in peace, except for The Hero and their love interest, who do not get such happy endings.
 * Mistborn or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?
 * This Cracked article proves that Home Alone and Die Hard are the same movie.
 * Due to circumstances beyond her control, a down-to-earth working-class girl is forced to hang out with a flighty Upperclass Twit and other eccentric characters, including a big guy who's friends with a much smaller guy and a hopelessly romantic blonde who starts out with a crush on one of the major characters, despite having never met them. Despite driving each other up the wall (and the occasional intervention of a creepy black magic practitioner with a shadow motif), the guy and girl grow to love one another.
 * The Princess and the Frog or Ouran High School Host Club?
 * We open with our antihero, a man with a Scottish name and a nickname that means something significant in Latin. He's a war veteran who now finds himself in a less noble line of work. In the pilot, after a meeting with a potential client goes south, the client explains that it's offensively obvious that our antihero thinks he's better than all this. But does he really? While he doesn't like to talk about his origins, we eventually learn that he grew up as a poor, adopted farmhand before a traumatic event in the war prompted him to transform himself. Now, he struggles to be honorable even as he must constantly deceive. Women in his life: well, there's the one who's been devoted to him for years, but he just takes her for granted. The woman he wants is fiercely independent, and it drives him crazy to have to stand by as she sleeps with an endless succession of other men. Then there's the much younger woman who works for him, but there's no tension there. She's just interested in the new guy, who drives our antihero crazy with his arrogant ambition and elitist style. Witty, feminist, and original, the show enjoys a cult following and critical acclaim. It's never quite made it to the mainstream. Special mention has to go to Christina Hendricks's character, a talented redhead who tries to use a marriage as a means to an end, only to have it backfire horribly.
 * Firefly or Mad Men?
 * In the future, two guys head to the past. Now in that past, there are two other guys just having fun when the two guys from the future appear. Now in the past, one of them is planning to cause trouble, while the other one is trying to save the world. This heroic act of theirs leads to a misunderstanding with the two guys from this time period the two from the future are in. The misunderstanding then leads to a fight between them. Some time after that fight, the guys that live in this time period find out that the guy they just fought against is trying to save the world and that the other guy is trying to destroy their time period. Then they team up to defeat the guy who wants to destroy the world. After this fight the guy who came from the future to save the world, and the guy who came from the future to destroy the world head back to their own time period. Of course the guy from the future, who came back to save the world gives the two from the time period that he visited a gift for helping him, before heading back to his time.
 * Now am I talking about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Of Time/Darkness/Sky or Rockman.EXE: Operate Shooting Star?
 * In a world long in decline, there are holy rituals to reverse said decline for a period of time, creating a new Golden Age that leads to much rejoicing amongst the populace. The game's heroine is an anointed holy woman with the power to steer the world towards said Golden Age, but she is far from alone: by the game's second town, she has four companions, one of whom is the hero and viewpoint character. Said hero and heroine become entwined romantically as the game goes on, visiting a handful of shrines full of puzzles that increase her powers until one of her magical attacks is a force to be reckoned with in any battle. However, as the story progresses, the heroine falls out of favor with several groups of powerful people, a member of one of those groups will join up and NOT be a spy, and the heroine must be saved from various situations - though she does rescue herself at least once from a particularly threatening one. There are two major catches, though - her Golden Age is far from permanent due to the sadistically-designed nature of the rituals, and if she succeeds in saving the world and creating her Golden Age, she will perish in the process...and the hero is completely unaware of that fact because those who were in the know couldn't bring themselves to tell him that his plans for a Happily Ever After with the girl were futile. As it is, though, Take a Third Option is exercised at the last second and the world is truly saved after several more hours of gameplay.
 * Now, though, is this Final Fantasy X or Tales of Symphonia?
 * You wake up one day in a mysterious house. You're the only normal person in town. The others seem to come and go at random. The whole place is shut off from the outside world except for a well-guarded exit controlled by the town and a shoreline that has, at most, one active boat, and is the site of odd things, or half-dead people, constantly washing up onto the beach. Both of these routes only take you to another near-identical village, and even then you inevitably return to your home town anyway. The nominal leader is rarely if ever seen and does nothing at all, but the "second" most powerful figure controls absolutely everything, and yet only ever seems to do any business with you, nobody else. The only buildings are oddly decorated houses, a single clothing store, a single other store that sells everything else, a town hall, which does everything, and a museum, which also revolves entirely around you for no apparent reason. There is only one source of news for the town, and it only ever covers local things. Very local things. And personal ads. Violations of the rules are enforced by an unstoppable entity who will attack you at the drop of a hat when summoned. Incredibly often, the whole town breaks out into a random bizarre celebration. And the most popular fashion accessory? Bizarre parasols.
 *   or   Now you can't un-think it.
 * An indie Adventure Game in which the protagonist arrives to an abandoned Victorian mansion on England, events happen that prevent him from leaving the house, there's a terrible sordid history about the mansion's previous owners, strange hair-raising noises plague the house, a sinister presence that appears to be supernatural looms in the mansion and its focus is an, and the inclusion of the   trope.
 * 5 Days a Stranger or Scratches?
 * A dark, but ultimately idealistic Seinen anime series starring an extremely morally dubious Tall, Dark and Handsome Anti-Hero with a Dark and Troubled Past, sister issues, and the apparently unwitting ability to cause anything with two X chromosomes to melt into a puddle of Squee, both in and out of the story. Thanks to his behavior in his Secret Identity, the fandom often compares him to Batman. The plot is a Gray and Grey Morality-filled Melee a Trois involving a corrupt government, La Résistance, and psychics with one very specific power apiece, of which the protagonist is one. There's a Hero Antagonist with whom there's a certain amount of Ship Tease and UST going on (complicated by the fact that they don't know their friend is the criminal they're trying to stop) and a Mysterious Waif with green hair who knows more than she lets on, is a good bit older than she looks, and has a complicated emotional relationship with the protagonist that may be at least partially romantic. Said green-haired character is obessively loved by a murderous White-Haired Pretty Boy. The anti-hero also has a Phenotype Stereotype rival who is more personally pleasant but also more ruthless. He is dubbed by Troy Baker. The second season is considered hit-or-miss in part due to a difficult-to-follow plot and the fact that the hero is much less likable for part of it, and features a younger character who shows up near the beginning and joins the protagonist (earning the wrath of part of the fandom for "stealing the real main character's spotlight"). There's a good bit of Pizza Hut Product Placement (to the point that it's become an internet joke), and the soundtrack is amazing.
 * Am I talking about Code Geass or Darker Than Black?
 * A rather posh, blonde girl meets a white rabbit, who leads her to fall into a strange, unfamiliar world, full of talking animals and unusual characters. These include a grumpy bug, a sleepy creature who tells stories that go nowhere, a pair of twins who do battle and a malevolent monarch who wants the protagonist dead.
 * Alice in Wonderland or Brandy and Mr. Whiskers?
 * Our hero is a sensitive, if rather passive, young man, living in a dystopic society. One of his parents has been notably absent from his life, while the other one is manipulative and controlling. Due to the influence of said parent, he is forced into an uncaring social system that devastates his sense of self-worth and leads him to commit soul-destroying actions. A potential love interest offers temporary relief, but communication problems surface, and the characters drift apart, unable to overcome external pressures and their own insecurities. Under great stress, the protagonist withdraws to the safety of his own mind, walling himself off totally from the world. A Mind Screw sequence drenched in Nightmare Fuel (and loads of Soundtrack Dissonance) results. In the end, however, there is the briefest suggestion that things may be better in the future. Or not.
 * Now tell me -- is this Neon Genesis Evangelion? Pink Floyd's The Wall? Or Brazil?
 * (Admittedly, part of this is probably a Shout-Out). A man with prodigious powers of illusion and trickery is prohibited from entering the United States, though he dearly wishes to, referring to it as "going home." Meanwhile, a younger man's father has just died in Australia, leaving behind unresolved issues in their relationship, though they were close enough that the son has taken up his father's profession. The son takes his father's body on a flight from Sydney to LAX for the funeral. Once over the ocean, though, the son becomes ensnared in the illusionist's scheme. He's subjected to a series of surreal experiences, culminating in a final reconciliation with his father. Along the way, he's followed by a mysterious series of six numbers, and ends up having to enter them into a device, without ever really understanding what's going on. On the other side of the fourth wall, the audience is surprised by the final revelation that, though parts of the story were illusions, the whole thing did not turn out to be a dream (that we know of, anyway). On the other hand, since the father and son's last name refers to an ancient profession associated with Jesus's apostles, maybe Everybody Is Jesus in Purgatory.
 * Wait, whose subconscious are we going through exactly? Robert Fischer's or Jack Shephard's?
 * A man is inspired by an encounter with a supernatural entity to attempt to assassinate a king. Meanwhile, his wife/girlfriend goes insane and ultimately dies off stage, possibly by suicide. The man also contemplates suicide, but is instead slain in combat. Written by William Shakespeare.
 * Hamlet or Macbeth?
 * A Rich Idiot With No Day Job becomes a vigilante Superhero, comes up with a gimmick and emblem designed to strike fear in his enemies whom he believes are "superstitious" and easily scared, and falls in love with a woman who is initially part of the enemy force he has made it his duty to fight against, forcing him to subdue his feelings and hide behind a mask of indifference.
 * The Scarlet Pimpernel or Batman?
 * The setting is France. The protagonist has all the talent he needs to accomplish something but is unable to because of what he is or how he looks. He finds someone who has the necessary physical appearance but none of the talent, and the two scheme so that the protagonist can exercise his powers through the latter.
 * Cyrano De Bergerac or Ratatouille?
 * A idealistic young man with a strong moral compass obtains god-like abilities, and decides to use them to make the world a better place by stopping criminals. He is quickly given a nickname by the press, and there is much speculation about the true identity of this great crusader for justice. Eventually, he comes to the attention of a calculating man whose first and last initials are both 'L', and the two of them become archnemeses, with a good bit of Foe Yay.
 * Clark Kent or Light Yagami?
 * A recent, bestselling Urban Fantasy book series about the (often unpleasantly exciting) life of a wizard named Harry. He's Famed in Story for beating down bad guys completely out of his league, but isn't very popular with the hidebound and old-fashioned wizarding authorities, who sometimes go out of their way to try to get rid of him; this isn't totally surprising, since a few agents of the Big Bad have infiltrated their ranks and made their way into important positions. His parents both died when he was very young, and he was raised by an abusive guardian before a Cool Old Guy wizard took him in and taught him about the right way to use magic and avoid The Dark Side. He's sometimes suspected of Black Magic anyway, whether this is justified or not. He uses Canis Latinicus spell incantations.
 * Potter or Dresden?
 * Love At First Sight Mayfly-December Romance story between an ageless supernatural creature and an emotionally disturbed human who claims to have never felt attraction to another individual before. Despite suffering a great deal of physical or emotional abuse at the hands of the immortal, the human continues to maintain that their romance is based on True Love, and is eager to consumate their relationship, which the Immortal is hesitent to do.
 * Edward and Bella or Celty and Shinra?
 * Despite being a principal character in the story, this teenage boy takes the Emo Teen stereotype and moves it Up to Eleven -- he seems to perpetually shift between angsty brooding and social awkwardness. To his credit, he can also be a Determinator, and his When He Smiles moments are quite heartwarming. His personality to a large extent originated because of his father, a Manipulative Bastard who sent him away from the family as a young child for not being good enough -- and only later took him back when it seemed his son had something to offer him. (His mother loved him, but she disappeared from her son's life at an early age.) Luckily, he has an older adult in his life who serves as a cross between a guardian and a Trickster Mentor, trying to get him to lighten up and relax while also take his duties seriously. His peer group includes two girls of about his age, one who is contemptuous, bitchy, and often mean to him (although this behavior is a front to hide her own insecurities, which ), and another one who is unemotional and stoic. The character in question has romantic tension with one of these females (including an awkward kiss scene), and is related to the other one (which hasn't prevented some fans from shipping them anyway). In the end, the boy is forced to face up to the expectations others have placed on him, and realize that maturity means choosing his own path.
 * Prince Zuko? Or Shinji Ikari?
 * A man and his wife become the emperor and empress of The Empire, they have a son and a daughter, and the wife disappears. Years later the man and his son have a fight and the son decides to leave home. Fast forward a few years later, and the son has joined a rebellion against his dad, while his little sister is still in favor. Towards the end of the series, he finally confronts said dad and
 * The Fire Nation or the Britannian Empire?
 * Paraphrased from a wonderful person on My Anime List.net: A guy beats the shit out of whiny bitches with superpowers and can negate said superpowers when his right hand makes contact with said whiny bitches.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam or To Aru Majutsu no Index?
 * The story mainly is mainly focused on the adolescence of a character who is wider considered a Complete Monster in their own universe when they die, and the complicated relationship they have with their best friend of the same gender. The main character is somewhat cynical, very intelligent, and grows into some very strong supernatural powers; the best friend is more idealistic, not as intelligent and tends to react more based on emotions. The lead has a younger sister in a wheelchair, and a mother who died very young and They are sent away by their father to a distant place, where they meet up with the future best friend. They initially loath one another for their differences, but eventually become incredibly close trusting friends. Both, at separate points, indicate that they love another character, and both wish to make the land they live in a better place, but disagree on methods. Eventually this disagreement causes them to end up as enemies; the cynical lead bringing rebellion against rulers, the more idealistic best friend becoming part of the system. The lead causes the best friend to lose the person they both loved, amping up the dislike between the two.  There is a lot of Ho Yay between the lead and their best friend.
 * Is it Code Geass or Wicked?
 * This is about Bishonen hero of a quite cynical story who somehow gets bad publicity. Arguably a Char Clone. Voiced by Johnny Young Bosch on at least one occasion. He has a pacifistic girl companion who wants world peace. While a girl of the La Résistance he belongs in had a case of Bodyguard Crush with him, too bad he's a Celibate Hero. To achieve world peace, he do things most people see as "questionable". His enemies include a Hero Antagonist who later helps him at the end, and a horrifyingly evil Emperor. In the end of the story, he pulls out a Heroic Sacrifice, and while other people cheered at it, his companion girl cries in sorrow. Earn Your Bittersweet Ending indeed...T_T And many fans who truly (or excessively) loves him says that He's Just Hiding.
 * And for the last point, his name is Zero. Hey, wait a minute - Am I talking about this Zero or that Zero?
 * This is about a bad guy who is shown as a good guy at first. He's a great Magnificent Bastard whose Xanatos Roulette are very convoluted He also doesn't mind killing his own underlings to further his own plans. With a great power on hand, he believes that he's a god and trying to bring out his "divine plan" which involve killing many people.
 * Light Yagami or Master Albert? Maybe even Sosuke Aizen?
 * How about Joshua Kiryu? (minus the spoiler, of course.)
 * Albert Wesker? He and Master Albert share the same name and have a superweapon called Ouroboros.
 * Our four main characters include a borderline retarded man who, despite always being drunk, is an Anti-Sue; the retarded man's wife, whose independence and personality is eschewed for sex appeal; the retarded man's douche of a friend who acts as the voice of reason; and a sociopath who quickly descends into comic relief. Many WACKY AND RANDUM adventures ensue.
 * Control Alt Delete or Family Guy?
 * The protagonist of this story is a teenage boy who turns into a girl at the worst possible times. He soon meets his future love interest, a girl named Akane who alternates between shy/calm and rude/bitchy (One has red hair and the other has blue hair, but I can't remember which has which). Eventually, the protagonist soon nets a Harem of both girls and guys which he has trouble escaping. Several characters who enter the story are animals with human-like tendencies. Eventually, the show itself gradually switches from an action series with some Fan Service to a comedy that ramps the fanservice Up to Eleven.
 * Ranma One Half or Kämpfer?
 * This is about a red-clad sword-wielding Chaotic Good Badass hero. Somewhat of a Marty Stu. He's an atoner who hunts his own kind, and interestingly enough, he's the original of his kind. He's also The Obi-Wan to his naive blue-clad partner. While he is certainly good-hearted, he acts cold and doesn't hesitate to Shoot the Dog. He also has lived for about a hundred years or so.
 * Sol Badguy or Zero?
 * Again, about a red-clad sword-wielding Chaotic Good Badass hero. A Glass Cannon fighter (Possibly) with a Swiss Army Weapon. He's affiliated with a La Résistance who goes against an Utopia-like, but actually corrupted Empire. He's also a One-Man Army who succesfully makes The Empire having headaches, and thus, is hunted by them. Like the above, while he is certainly good-hearted, he acts cold, perpetually frowns and doesn't hesitate to Shoot the Dog. It's hinted that he's destined to bring out world destruction, but he ultimately choses to be the one who bring world peace. Considered a Woobie, but that will never slow him down. His enemies include an ice-powered Hero Antagonist who is too interested to take him down, and a Complete Monster Big Bad who is somewhat Ax Crazy. His ending isn't very good, to say the least.
 * Ragna The Bloodedge or Zero?
 * Even New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd has joined in the fun: read her column and see if you can guess what work of art she is talking about.
 * Our protagonist is a young man who wakes up with severe amnesia and the ability to morph his body into living weapons. He discovers that something recently happened (possibly related to him) that is unexpectedly turning ordinary people into mutants. The young man tries to discover the source of his amnesia and stop the mutants from killing everyone, mostly by absorbing their mutations. The young man also deals with two separate organizations. One is an offspring of the military that is solely focused on the annihilation of all mutants, no matter what the cost, and the other is the mutants, led by a mysterious person who can control his/her mutations and wants to kill all humans.
 * Generator Rex or Prototype?
 * A lighthearted musical retelling of an older work. A young as innocent soprano falls in love with a man in the midst of a single musical number, but is subsequently kidnapped by someone who wants her body and taken from her home and family, thereby putting her innocence and availability at stake. She is rescued but somehow ends up in the hands of another man who wants to marry her. Meanwhile the man she loves learns of her abduction and searches for her. The girl is desperate to go back to the man and her family and is helped by new friends along the way, but many greedy villains, and the hands of fate, keep her and her boyfriend apart. In the end they are reunited against the will of those who want to either marry or showcase her. Initially a commercial failure. Also features characters supposedly being killed but not actually dying. Originally starred Barbara Cook.
 * Is it Don Bluth's Thumbelina or Leonard Bernstein's Candide?
 * A musical about how a hero leaves home and becomes a celebrity because he dislikes his normal life, or else it has been unkind to him. A villain wants to either enslave him or kill him for his own selfish reasons. In order to weaken the will of the hero, he sends a girl, who works as his slave due to te consequences of her own selfishness, and who also parades around in seductive dress, to seduce him. The girl, however, develops an actual crush on him and helps him escape the villain. In the end, the villain is no longer dominant over the hero and he gets to be with the woman he loves. Involves several instances of characters escaping death, and one instance of the hero being restored to his original self.
 * Hercules? Or Damn Yankees? How about Rock-a-Doodle?
 * A blond man who's pretty good with a sword arrives in the middle of a plot he doesn't understand. His love interest, a brunette, turns out to know more about the plot than she lets on. He meets a mentor character who is strangely similar to a legendary soldier he's otherwise familiar with. He has various battles with a man who refuses to drop dead no matter how many times he's killed and proves why you should hate him by killing someone which agitates a major character. He learns that his childhood was mostly fiction and is repeatedly visited by a person of ambiguous gender with their face covered. He's swallowed by a huge, unnatural sea monster controlled by his father figure, confronts his father figure in a replica of a location he knew from a simulation and fights giant robots.
 * Is this Final Fantasy X or Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty?
 * A spaceship, with the same name as the series, is on a routine flight and somehow gets a huge distance away from where it's supposed to be. The limited crew, which includes a smug hologram obsessed with slideshows, attempts to get back to Earth. Their experiments with FTL travel are a disaster and most of the entertainment on board is VR gaming, much of which is presented in monochrome. The crew encounter a cyborg who succeeds in becoming unique and integrates with the original crew members, but disagrees with the ship's superior officer whenever possible. The main threats are from cyborgs and genetically-engineered monsters. A central theme is that space travel perhaps isn't as great as it's made out to be.
 * Voyager or Red Dwarf?
 * A movie musical with heavy visual effects (though most of them focused on aspects of one particular character) and score by Alan Menken. Stars two protagonists, one girl and one guy. The guy is downtrodden or misunderstood and the girl is blonde. The girl desperately wants to leave her home area but can't. The villain, who is given at least one show-stopping number, acts as a force gradually growing stronger against one of the protagonists, who knows a secret that is vital to the villain's life. The villain also sings songs to keep the protagonist on a leash in order to gain nourishment. Features an adorable green character. One of the characters has a near-death experience caused by the villain. Also, a major plot point involves a plant with some kind of unique supernatural power. At least one of the songs has once been sung by Mandy Moore.
 * We're talking about Tangled, right? Or could it be Little Shop of Horrors?
 * A man in a long, black coat and his female associate challenge people to possibly deadly games which usually involve blades and makeshift devices. Contestants are briefed on the challenge beforehand and have a few hours to complete the challenge. All the materials required to succeed are available, but they must go to great lengths to acquire them. If they do, there's usually a face-off with their enemies before they can be considered winners. Their games end up being great re-run material for Channel 4.
 * This is Saw, of course. Or is it Scrapheap Challenge?
 * This show is the sequel series to another show, becoming Darker and Edgier in the process. Many of the concepts from the first show are Retconned to come from aliens; for example, the protagonist turns out to have descended from aliens, despite looking human. One of the villians from the first series joins up with the hero, now much older than the first series, and the protagonist's female sidekick, the smartest of the group, acts as the group's bonding force. The female sidekick begins having a romance with a dark, brooding villain who switches sides every so often, while the hero becomes friends with one of the most powerful beings in the universe. One of the main plots in the show includes the heroes journeying from planet to planet to find several parts of a whole item which grants power beyond anyone's comprehension. Also, the show is criticized for having quite a lot of filler. The show, which was aired on Cartoon Network, had a sequel series; whether this is better than the original or not depends on the viewer.
 * So, is this Ben 10 Alien Force or Dragonball Z?
 * Love Makes You Crazy the series. Miyuki Sawashiro voices a foreigner living in Japan, and Hiroshi Kamiya is a well-educated Bishonen whose family goes for weird names.
 * Durarara or Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei?
 * A man from a BBC One series of the mid-Noughties, with a brown coat and a massive female fan base, played by an actor whose voice is completely different to his character's. He has various companions in different series, including one named Tyler, but he is in all of them. He is the rival and occasional friend of a time-traveller played by John Simm and is eventually saved by . He's at least once.
 * The Tenth Doctor or Gene Hunt?
 * A young man obsessed with honor and banished by his father falls in love with his closest childhood friend, a Lonely Rich Kid Well, Excuse Me, Princess!. The fandom, however, passionately ships him with a young woman he meets on his travels who has the power to heal, never turns her back on those in need, and comes from a nation whom his own people have persecuted for centuries. The creators are forced to give a direct Take That to the Fan-Preferred Couple's shippers.
 * Ivanhoe or Avatar: The Last Airbender?
 * After his parent's death, a now outcast Feudal Future noble fakes his death and lives far away from his home, years later becomes the Magnificent Bastard Dark Messiah leader of the inhabitants oppressed by The Empire, forms them into a La Résistance, and eventually overthrows and replaces The Emperor, but becomes as bad as the previous one. He has an older female mentor who is the source of his power, a female bodyguard who's his main Love Interest, a younger sister, and his right-hand man is a Proud Warrior Race Guy and former leader of the oppressed inhabitants before the noble replaced him.
 * Paul Atreides AKA Muad'Dib or Lelouch vi Britannia AKA Zero?
 * A blond Idiot Hero is born shortly after his father dies protecting his comrades from an event machinated by a man that later opposes the hero again, as well as the hero's hyper-intelligent dark-haired loner rival/"best friend" who . The hero also has grey-haired mentor and a tsundere lady friend.
 * Naruto or Star Trek?
 * A charismatic former revolutionary who was captured by the regime he tried to defeat. Said regime commits Mind Rape and a mindwipe on him. The revolutionary breaks free of the programming, steals a very Cool Ship, and proceeds to raise hell. May have been trying to fight a greater evil coming from outside known space with said revolution. Before we get any real answers, however, he vanishes into the unknown and dies ignobly. Said cause was taken up by one of his followers who previously refused to go along with the revolution, gets a couple former crew members and two AI units from his/her predecessor, and the cool ship...only to die ignobly with the man whose influence s/he could never escape.
 * Are we talking Roj Blake and Kerr Avon or Revan and the Exile?
 * In this Disney Animated Adaptation of a fairy tale, the heroine yearns for excitement and adventure beyond the sheltered world she's known. She falls in love with a man whom she teaches to be less selfish, to the point of sacrificing his own well-being for her freedom, creating a contrast in context between selfless, true love and possessive, controlling, abusive "love." The couple is forced to separate for awhile but soon reunite, only for the villain to stab the guy right before dying during a fall. The girl holds her dying lover in her arms and cries over him, bringing him Back From the Dead via The Power of Love mixed with the effects of an enchanted flower. A peasant marries a royal, and they live Happily Ever After.
 * Beauty and the Beast or Tangled?
 * This story begins underground, with a burrowing colony whose philosophy is to dig as often as possible to avoid danger from the outside world. One digger, whose name ends with "-imon", accidentally causes animal-like creatures to attack the colony. He is then exiled from said colony, joining up with a large, boisterous friend. Eventually, the digger meets and rescues a young, innocent child who is related to the Big Bad, left for dead. The digger relays his philosophy to said child and, after a Time Skip, they go off to defeat the Big Bad and his forces.
 * This is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, right? Or is it ?
 * The Big Bad attacks a heroic character, which results in said character getting a scar on the forehead and in the two of them being linked mentally. This link makes the hero feel unclean and unworthy to be around their friends and it proves to be both useful and dangerous for them both, as they can spy on what their enemies are doing but run the risk of exposing their own secrets and plans to the enemy as well. Eventually, the villain decides it's in his best interest to block the connection, leaving the hero and their companions free to track down and destroy his Soul Jars so they can ultimately destroy him. Anyone Can Die (but not without getting a Dead Guy, Junior), and the powers of love, friendship, and having a cause worth fighting for prove to be more Badass than the forces of evil. Religious allegory abounds.
 * Dracula or Harry Potter?
 * Let's see...four person main cast, but Loads and Loads of Characters among the guest stars, including politicians, alien ambassadors, allies and a large Rogues Gallery. The field commander is borderline suicidal and lost his family due to tragedy. The Chick is a scientist who likely has the most common sense, but is still a trained fighter. There's a Ph.D. who signed on reluctantly, is grossly underpowered compared to his teammates, but can be really dangerous if pushed. And a walking tank bred to be a fighter who is the only non-human crew. The commander back home has the unenviable task of putting up with both the team's antics and the crooked politicians trying to shut the project down.
 * Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers or Stargate SG-1? (Lampshaded here with the German version of the Galaxy Rangers theme)
 * One day, a young boy without a mother or father is recruited by a teacher from a school of magic. He quickly gets acquainted with other students, including an intelligent girl he becomes fast friends with, and a blonde male that views the boy as a rival that's getting undeserved fame. Using a strange power he had since the day he was born, the boy overcomes all odds and finds success. However, it is because of this power that his friends are constantly put into near-death scenarios. In the end, the young boy uses everything he's learned at the school to try and save it, and accepts that he might have to die for the danger to go away for good. Oh, and the black-haired teacher that poses a threat to the boy near the end of his adventures had a really close relationship with one of the boy's parents.
 * Was the boy named Harry, or ?
 * A kind-hearted male protagonist in a nice jacket goes back in time to prevent the deaths of those around him. His main skill is to manipulate small objects in order to effect changes in the timeline. When he uses his power, the world turns Deliberately Monochrome and Time Stands Still. The protagonist finds out that . The result is a complex story spanning multiple timelines, and an ending which is a bit of a Mind Screw if you're not paying attention. The villain . A mysterious cat proves central to the story, as it.
 * Which Nintendo DS game is this? Is it Time Hollow, or ?
 * Having spent a whole game fighting 'liquid', the good characters fight a team which includes a bald, overweight man who avoids walking, an inappropriately-clothed woman who, and a character who is enough like one of the protagonists to pass for him. Having gained access to a 50-year-old weapons concept, these characters attempt to take over Eagle Land using a superweapon disguised as a science facility and a cyborg lizard, and the President gets involved somehow. It turns out that everything was planned decades ago by a dead bloke. In the finale, the teams realise they have to work together and there's a rush through the superweapon, followed by a battle with the lizard. The superweapon tries to pull a Colony Drop of sorts, and there's a final showdown in front of the superweapon. Oh, and that old guy who gets killed in the ending?
 * Metal Gear Solid 2 or Sonic Adventure 2?
 * He's a humanoid alien with special powers, who outlives the rest of his species. Except when he doesn't. He relies heavily on Obfuscating Stupidity, sometimes wears glasses even though his vision doesn't need correcting, famously travels in time and space, and frequently saves the Earth even though it's not actually his homeworld, which was destroyed. Depending on which version of canon you prefer, it's possible that his species has eschewed sexual reproduction in favor of more artificial means. He has cheated death through a technobabble-ish process that's described using the word "regeneration", and has a half-human clone. He almost never tells anyone his true name, instead going by a simple English descriptor; when he poses as a human, he has a standard name he uses, consisting of a first and last name that are both one syllable long and fairly generic. One of his most famous human companions is an intrepid young female reporter. He used to own a dog-like pet with amazing abilities, but gave it to one of his friends. His enemies include a genocidal alien cyborg with a network of wires running across his bald head and a megalomaniacal survivor of his own species, who often, but not always, has a Beard of Evil. Oh, and he's spawned a long-running franchise.
 * Superman? Or the Doctor?
 * A hyperactive high school girl who is superior to everyone in her class at anything gains a role of power, dragging her perfectly ordinary best friend with her. All is fine and dandy until a Genre Shift occurs, revealing that the girl is a literal God Mode Sue, causing others to try and take her power for their own use. It's up to her best friend to protect her and the school from these mentally unstable unnatural beings.
 * The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya or Medaka Box?
 * A girl is annoyed with her baby brother. However when he gets kidnapped by the shapeshifting monarch of The Fair Folk, she allies with some eccentric but good-hearted beings to rescue him. Amongst the challenges she faces are illusions designed to hold her back: one that she's back home and it was All Just a Dream, and one of a glorious ballroom. In the end, she defeats the monarch through sheer willpower. Oh, and early on she discovers that winged fairies are basically vicious humanoid insects.
 * Is her name Sarah or Tiffany? (Actually, given Sir Terry's fondness for Shout Outs, it's possible elements of this one are intentional).
 * A girl with low self-esteem (despite being revered like a goddess by everyone around her, especially male admirers, who can't wait to risk their lives to protect her) moves against her will to a dark, gloomy, Gothic landscape. She is in a Star-Crossed Lovers plot with a guy for whom Stalking Is Love and who admits that he is bad news but claims he is so madly, passionately in love with her, he can't stay away. She literally can't function when she's separated from him. She meets a Nice Guy who would be a much safer, more dependable partner but rejects him in favor of her bad boy.
 * The Mysteries of Udolpho, Twilight or Fushigi Yuugi?
 * We've got an Atlus game here. The story focuses on a messy-haired hero who hears of a mysterious rumor. Around that time, he meets a mysterious girl in white, after which he seems to be trapped in a twisted dream with people who are like people he's met before, but with a radical difference. The hero now has to make a series of choices which will affect how the story plays out. Said hero is also in a Love Triangle with an odd, somewhat exotic girl and the Girl Next Door he's always known.
 * Is this Catherine, or the first Persona?
 * The story takes place After the End, with a mentally fragile Bishonen protagonist and his severely messed-up friends. There's an older girl named Misato who hides her sadness by acting perky and sometimes drinking while having a strained relationship to someone from her past, a redhead who only hates the protagonist because she wants attention after being left alone, and an Emotionless Girl who has a mysterious aura to her, but breaks down by the end of the story. The protagonist also has some . He does find some normalcy in his two friends, the guy who has a soft spot for his sister and the normal, yet rather off guy. In an alternate continuity, he.
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion, or ?
 * A mysterious, handsome vampire is attracted to and intrigued by a clumsy human girl, who considers herself unattractive, because he can't read her mind. Said vampire is part of a family of vampires whose patriarch is trying to bring them to a new style of life and abandon old-fashioned stereotypes. They are immune to sunlight and garlic. Oh, and the vampire has a bratty sister who absolutely hates the human girl. The human girl has a variety of friends/allies, including a tribe of pugnacious, loyal fighters and a very attractive man who can shapeshift into a furry animal, and is fighting against an army of evil vampires who have been created as a fighting force.
 * The Twilight Saga, or Carpe Jugulum?
 * A brilliant but ruthless and rather amoral revolutionary takes on a totalitarian dictatorship in a postapocalyptic world, driven by personal pain from being a victim of said dictatorship's most terrible prison. Along the way, he picks up a teenage girl as a protege and becomes Shrouded in Myth. In the end, he dies, but his death is just the beginning.
 * Mistborn: The Final Empire or V for Vendetta?
 * A caped nobleman loses his grip on sanity upon the loss of his fiancee, becoming a villain as his entire world and civilization (though not his fancy castle) crumble around him. When the heroes confront him, they bring with them the truth of his fiancee's fate, and her declaration of everlasting love forces him to confront reality as his castle collapses.
 * Super Paper Mario or Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box?
 * A barefoot long-haired girl with light-based powers is kept in a remote tower by her mother for the mother's own selfish and sinister purposes. A social outcast stumbles upon the girl and, armed mainly with an improvised weapon, helps her earn her freedom.
 * Tangled or Ico?
 * A woman becomes the undisputed ruler of her domain, with the aid of her weak-willed male companion. She believes everyone should be happy, and so creates a brightly-uniformed Culture Police that ruthlessly deals with people who don't fit her definition of how things should be, subjecting them to Cool and Unusual Punishment. Then the Guile Hero and companion(s) show up, and deliberately defy her, allying with the locals and eventually forcing the ruler to confront the falseness of her beliefs. The heroes then leave, with the people free to act however they want.
 * Witches Abroad or "The Happiness Patrol"?
 * An evil Fairy Godmother is the power behind the throne, having transformed a frog into a puppet ruler. She wants to consolidate her power by arranging a marriage for kingdom's princess. The princess has other ideas, and allies with the heroes. Lots of Fractured Fairytales take place before the big confrontation during the palace ball, When the Clock Strikes Twelve.
 * Witches Abroad again, or Shrek 2?
 * A young man recieves the power to transform into a superhero through less than heroic means. Refusing to serve the evil forces than created his powers the new hero rebels and fights against them and in the end saves the world. As a bonus two of the characters both ride motorcycles, a trait that is shown in their superhero names. Similarly two of the charaters have insect-like armour in their heroic forms.
 * Kamen Rider, Ghost Rider or the third Blue Beetle?
 * A warrior of justice who has dark spiky hair and wears the same blue-and-white outfit every day has just made the wrong enemy. The pretty-boy villain, nominally an agent of justice himself but corrupted by his inflated ego, pretends to be his friend while secretly masterminding a plot to have him taken out of commission. What the villain doesn't count on are the spiky-haired guy's young successors: while the successors may not have been strong enough to take out the villain on their own, they continue their predecessor's work and ultimately expose the truth.
 * Death Note or Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney?
 * A half-hour animated sitcom, starring a character from 1930s cartoon shorts. The character is now a father, living in a small town. The villain of the shorts (whose profession in the originals would change to fit the setting) is now a second-hand car dealer, and also has a son. The focus is more on the sons than the fathers, though.
 * Goof Troop or Popeye And Son?
 * A long-running video game series primarily concerning a feud between two people. On one side, a chubby guy with a Badass Mustache and a Trademark Favorite Food. On the other side, a spiky anthropomorphic animal who just wants to do what he wants, but the mustached man gets in the way. The bad guy has been subject to some Villain Decay, but is occasionally still able to show some badassery. The hero has a girlfriend in pink and an Evil Twin - well, more of an Anti-Hero Twin - and is a major industry mascot, especially in the 16-bit era.
 * Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog?
 * A slacker with a guitar tries to impress a girl with oddly coloured hair and rollerblades by facing a gauntlet of enemies headed by shadowy, yet charismatic man. Along the way, he gains an acoustic theme about his love, a realization about what he's fighting for, and a serious self-confidence boost by the final boss. While treated favorably by critics, it wasn't too profitable.
 * Scott Pilgrim or Gitaroo Man?
 * A boy who had his mother go to a different plane of existence when he was young grows up to be a Magnificent Bastard Messianic Archetype who controls his own army and confront his Magnificent Bastard father who abandoned him and is planning Instrumentality. One of his Love Interests is a Tsundere red-head with a red Humongous Mecha, and the other is a Deadpan Snarker exotic-haired girl with mysterious origins. He also confronts a secret society of people with special abilites like his own and his rival is a white-haired boy.
 * Code Geass or Shinji and Warhammer 40 K?
 * A group of British siblings sent to live in the country during World War Two discover magical secrets in the house where they are staying. There's a witch who intends to use her spells to win a war, and a world inhabited by talking animals with a lion as their king, and a climactic battle between good and evil, with swords and magic both in heavy use.
 * Now, is the witch the Big Bad or one of the good guys?
 * During this game's expansion pack, an elderly official ranking in the seemingly good guy faction attempts to establish peace and prosperity, albeit in a controversial and questionable way, with the use of a special weapon. However, an army led by the previously villainous faction intervenes and meddles with the elder's plans. The official leads an army in white uniforms.
 * Gerard Dugalle of the UED or Rupert Thornley of FutureTech?
 * A group of criminals enter into a wealthy man's dreams to trick him out of his secrets. In the course of the adventure, multiple layers of dreams are entered, "bigger guns" are summoned by the protagonists, the ultimate trick involves confronting the dreamer with a loved one that they're estranged from, people are removed from the dream by falling, and there's a risk that people stuck in the dream will enter a form of Limbo and go crazy if they stay in too long.
 * Inception or Don Rosa's Dream of a Lifetime?
 * This work has become one of the most well-known examples of a popular genre of the late 80s-90s, despite being in many ways a more philosophical Deconstruction of that genre, possibly due to Creator Breakdown. It concerns a young man whose estranged father commands him to become a man of action; contrary to most of the genre's heroes, however, the son struggles with the psychological and philosophical implications of this role, even though there are moments when he performs admirably; in one scene, he performs the sort of action that his father wanted him to while his mother is present. The work lends itself well to Freudian analysis, probably because of the main character's mother issues. His only real confidante is a male friend with whom there is a hint of sexual attraction; one of his female love interests has to be instituionalized before dying along with most of the other characters in a Kill'Em All ending.
 * Am I talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion or Hamlet?
 * A girl kept alone in a high tower for unscrupulous reasons is rescued by a smart-alecky thief who's initially after a big treasure connected to the girl's heritage. She ends up falling in love with him as he helps her earn her freedom. At one point, she tries to bargain with the villain in order to save the thief's life after he gets mortally wounded.
 * Tangled or The Castleof Cagliostro?
 * This story is about an ordinary schoolboy with really spiky hair. However, he is unaware that a powerful, sometimes cruel spirit lives inside of him, possessing the boy in times of great emergency. This boy soon becomes friends with many people, eventually meeting three siblings who come from a far-off area: a sister, a brother, and their little psychopathic brother. They all become good eventually, though.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! or Naruto?
 * He's a Chinese badass who likes to put on a front of Obfuscating Stupidity, during which he's generally Eyes Always Shut and his Big Eater status is played for humor. He started out as a Badass Normal, but was turned into a Badass Abnormal and managed to avoid the sociopathy typically associated with those powers. He has a possible love interest voiced by Nana Mizuki.
 * Hei of Darker Than Black or Ling of Fullmetal Alchemist?
 * An genetic experiment is undertaken by a group of scientists to create, from the genes of the strongest and brightest man/men on the planet, a superhuman. After two infants are born from this experiment, they're separated, with one being raised and taught by the best of the best to be an ubermensch, and the other is put through hardship for his life. In the end, we find out that one was deliberately made with the superior genes, while the other got the bad genes.
 * Liquid and Solid Snake of Metal Gear Solid, or Jules and Vincent from Twins?
 * An attractive blonde woman needs help. A plumber with a big black mustache arrives to help her. This is entirely an Excuse Plot.
 * Super Mario Bros. or a 1970s porn movie?
 * A man is pulled from his enjoyable but uneventful existence up North and thrust into a world he thought he'd left behind. He doesn't appreciate conflict and often disagrees with his superiors' methods, but gets the job done. His rival is a Western fan known for his methods of extracting information, who secretly . Halfway through, he has to rescue his could-be lover from a family member he didn't know much of. Most of the story involves a Gene of some kind. It's followed by a sequel in which a more feminine counterpart encounters similar situations a few years later. It's often difficult to figure out what's real and what isn't.
 * Is this Metal Gear Solid or Life On Mars?
 * A man assembles a Badass Crew, who use their various skills and talents to perform a heist that many had thus far considered impossible. The man claims that this mission will be his last job, with the ultimate goal for most crew members being the money at the end. Along the way, our hero ends up jeopardizing the mission due to complications with his ex-wife. In the end, the mission is successful and our hero makes his way home.
 * Is this Inception or Ocean's Eleven?
 * This show focuses on two main characters: a kind but dim-witted young boy and a non-human who wears little clothing. The two live at the boy's house with his young yet intelligent little sister, and go to school with a variety of unusual characters, all of which are simply regarded as students despite their extraordinary origins. At one point, a ghost schoolgirl possesses the body of one of the protagonists to indulge in her own desires.
 * To Love Ru or The Amazing World of Gumball?
 * This show is about a lazy, misanthropic, unhygienic man with the emotional capacity of a 12-year old and his young and more successful foil. In each episode, the lazy man drags his foil into some hair-brained scheme, which will inevitably backfire in some way.
 * Dan Vs. or Kochikame?
 * This story is about aliens that come to Earth. They're here to prevent humans from eventually developing technology that will destroy the universe. They give a Hannibal Lecture to the humans when they meet face-to-face, and the encounter ends with the aliens being defeated. Whether or not the universe is still doomed is left to the viewer's imagination.
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or Plan 9 from Outer Space?
 * A webcomic about Anthropomorphic Personifications of countries, centering on a Power Trio consisting of a scrawny, excitable hedonist with a phobia of being alone, a larger and more level-headed man with whom the first man is in a long-term relationship, and a third character who is reserved, tech-savvy, and something of an outsider to the first two. The comic derives much humor from the inevitable Culture Clash as the various characters interact, and also from re-interpreting historical events as interpersonal relationships. Most of the fans, though, are in it for the ambiguous--and not so ambiguous--yaoi.
 * Axis Powers Hetalia or Scandinavia and The World?
 * The setting -- seven participants are involved in a battle royale. Each one has certain innate advantages and disadvantages -- one is bigger and more powerful than the rest, one finds it easy to create a safe zone at the edge of the conflict and influence events from the sidelines, and so on -- but the various skill levels of the participants also have a major impact on their chance of success. What is more, the players tend towards different personalities -- one is stupidly honest, another suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and in most scenarios there is one guy who thinks he's hot stuff, but in reality doesn't even quite understand the rules, let alone possesses a good chance of winning. In any case, alliances are repeatedly made and broken, long periods of leisurely conversation are followed by scenes of intense action, and although the format points to a There Can Be Only One ending, it is more than possible for two or more to win by cooperating with each other.
 * Fate/stay night? Or your average game of Diplomacy?
 * This is a comic about a young adult living in a video game-esque world. He fights a variety of people who, in his mind, are out to get him, fighting for what he sees to be his true love.
 * Sonichu or Scott Pilgrim?
 * A girl becomes friends with her Ill Boy of a cousin and helps her cousin improve himself in a dark, big, fancy, rambling Gothic mansion, owned by a reclusive, Byronic man (whose sanity began significantly slipping after the death of his beloved), located at the edge of a moor where the wind is always "wutherin'."
 * Wuthering Heights or The Secret Garden?
 * This story is an epic Space Opera. The main character is an emperor with a prolonged lifespan who finds himself fighting an old foe from his past, and switches between fighting with and aiding another monarchy.
 * The Five Star Stories or Hobbes Wars?
 * In this video game, a protagonist with a blue and red color scheme and very odd hair is just trying to do his job, but has to deal with a Genki Girl sidekick, a lolitastic Love Freak and a flamboyantly sophisticated rival. All of these characters, particularly the protagonist and his rival, turn out to be more closely connected than we originally thought. In a later game, the blue and red protagonist is replaced by a red and white one with some family issues. Although most of the original cast are nowhere to be seen, the original protagonist is still there, and one female character returns for another important role. The new rival is blonde, famous and plays the guitar, and the new female lead is the subject of a major plot twist toward the end. Also, a blue creature with googly eyes, supposedly based on a Real Life animal, serves as a mascot in the series, and there's one guy who incorporates as much Gratuitous Foreign Language into his daily speech as possible.
 * Ace Attorney or Disgaea?
 * A group of people are gathered to a mansion on an island and are killed off one by one in accordance to a bizarre poem, with their alleged host nowhere in sight. This group includes devoted servants, a doctor, and a Jerkass detective. The female character who is essential to the plot is still reeling from the harsh rejection of her lover, and  Some of its adaptations are loved by fans; others are absolutely reviled. And the ending has the fan base sharply divided.
 * And Then There Were None or Umineko no Naku Koro ni?
 * It takes place in the Pacific Northwest. There's a character whose name begins with "Ed". One of the characters can predict the future, or at least says she can. A guy falls in love with someone in a way that could be interpreted as creepy and stalkerish, and they end up together.
 * Twilight, right? Or is it Frasier?
 * Two swordsmen, a girl with guns and a super-intelligent Little Miss Badass fight against a large authority that is secretly an evil organization. The white-haired, red and black clad hero holds a massive grudge against a member of his family, but . The final boss is
 * Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice or Blaz Blue Continuum Shift?
 * A series that chronicles the occasionally weird everyday adventures of a group of female friends, which includes a somewhat naive bookworm, an energentic and boastful girl who fancies herself a great athlete but is actually kind of a klutz, her hard-working and more level-headed Friendly Rival, a girl who frets over her appearance a lot and is usually the most serious of the group, a bashful animal lover, and one girl who's not all there.
 * Azumanga Daioh or My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic?
 * A brilliant weapons designer discovers that his weapons are being used by forces of evil and so he stopped building weapons and created a suit to take down those weapons. He had help of a redhead friend, he saved the day.
 * Iron Man or Steel
 * A cartoon series whose establishing shot is of the main character, a muscular young woman, wearing a sleeveless shirt and with her arms at her sides, looking down from a high place at a city based on Shanghai.
 * Canaan or The Legend of Korra?
 * Within the backstory, there is a legend of two very closely related entities with god-like power who ruled the land. The elder one was associated with light, the color white and had control over fire while the younger one was associated with darkness, the color black and had control over lightning. Eventually, the younger one grew dissatisfied with the status quo and started to fight with the elder one, which threw the land into complete chaos. Eventually, one of the entities sealed the other within a circular object and peace was restored to the land. However, by the climax of the main story, the sealed entity is unsealed and six others have to face and defeat it with with the Power of Friendship.
 * Is this Pokémon Black and White or My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic?
 * Fantasy book series with a shallow, dark-haired, Muggle-hating unstable woman named Bella (who is acquaintances with a werewolf) who obsesses and slavishly devotes herself to a pale, immortal, powerful man who does not reciprocate her feelings. Their relationship is at best shallow and one-sided, and at worst abusive and unhealthy.
 * Bella and Edward or Voldemort?
 * In the 24th century, a new starship and crew, very early in their adventures, encounter a group of orange skinned, agressive, ugly humanoids with no regard for humans. These aliens are the major threat of their part of the galaxy, and the heroes regard them with trepidation. However, the aliens were poorly conceived by the show's creators, and the fans did not react well to their involvement. Therefore, the aliens were moved into the background and a new threat emerged: an army of relentless, unstoppable cyborgs.
 * Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Star Trek: Voyager?
 * For as long as anyone can remember, the prosperity of civilization has been possible due to the presence of mysterious magical artifacts left behind by an ancient race. These artifacts come in many forms and serve a variety of purposes, from the mundane to the spectacular; from warding off monsters to providing locomotion; from enhancing physical abilities to supplying an entire town with water. Their use is commonplace and widespread. There are academies devoted to studying the powers of these artifacts so as to further improve the quality of life. However, some artifacts can also be used as devastating weapons, and there are those who would seize that power for themselves. Indeed, cataclysmic wars in which the artifacts were both fought over and employed have taken place in the past. Now, the artifacts have once again brought conflict sweeping across the land. At the end of a long journey, our villain has given up all hope on mankind and seeks to wrest control of the artifacts from their hands once and for all, by whatever drastic means necessary. He is opposed by our hero, who has decided that
 * Which artifacts are we talking about? Is it the blastia? Or the remnants?
 * An Evil Overlord in a China inspired land wants to Take Over the World but is afraid of a certain race defeating him. So he destroys all of that race except one. Now, it's up to that last guy to save the world with the help of some friends.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender or Kung Fu Panda 2?
 * This beloved classic animated movie begins with the birth of the main character, a Talking Animal. He grows a bit older, meets the female lead, and grows very close to a parent who protects him and tells him about where his life is destined to take him. This parent is killed in a disaster during a series of events that began with the lethal intentions of the main villain (a predatory animal with a wounded eye). The grieving main character runs away, and promptly begins meeting new friends, and is then reunited the female lead, who stresses the threat posed by the villain but is initially ignored by the main character. Eventually, however, he comes to his senses, and he and his friends lead an attack on the villain (who ends up falling to his doom). At last, the hero stands on a rock overlooking the land that is his home. If we also mention that he sees his dead parent in a cloud at one point and remembers what he was taught, and that the supporting cast includes a duo of significantly mismatched size and a flying guy who usually frustrates the main character, then it should be obvious to anyone that this movie is The L...
 * ...and Before Time or ...ion King?
 * This takes place in a world where the time period and technology level/aesthetic don't quite add up. The story centers around a dysfunctional yet tight-knit team of nine mercenaries. Said mercenaries include: a medic; a friendly, easy-going mechanic; a Professional With Standards; an intimidating black person; a soldier who's still stuck on a war that ended long ago; someone who's past is unknown because he is secretive; someone who's past is unknown because he/she is imcomprehensible; an enthusiastic, somewhat childish guy; and a rather large, Hot-Blooded fellow who is very attached to his guns. Oh, and there are Nice Hats aplenty.
 * Team Fortress 2, or Firefly?
 * The Affectionate Parody of Classic Disney Films stars two acquaintances: A fat guy who's main color is green, and a somewhat annoying horse-like animal. Together they go on a huge journey, and have all kinds of strange adventures, including trying to cross a rope bridge but destroying it in the process, at the same time, each one discovering the friend he never had, while the fat green guy is trying to stop some homes from being destroyed. Sometime later in their journey, they encounter a ferocious kitty cat.
 * Shrek or The Emperors New Groove?
 * This musical based off a children's book series has characters, including a Funny Animal and a rather messed up, unlucky guy as main characters, in a Slice of Life series going through the seasons. Many adventures ensue, such as a story about flying a kite and various other mundane tasks. It also has very few actors, some playing the parts of others.
 * You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown or A Year With Frog and Toad?
 * The story centres on the only active human in a vast, almost lifeless expanse; his animal companion; and a slightly sinister character who orders them around, despite not having a proper physical form. The human's ultimate goals are to revive a woman he seems to care for and to return home with her. From a central base, he explores the wastes with his animal companion, while the other one stays back and leads from behind. Almost every living being they encounter is out to kill them.
 * Is the human's name Dave or Wanda?
 * A child starts out treated badly in an orphanage and ends up adopted by a wealthy gentleman. Seeking to kidnap the child are a poor, money-craving person who takes care of orphans, a vicious criminal, and his girlfriend, . The story takes place in a famous city, and one of the characters has a dog.
 * Is the child named Oliver or Annie
 * This films stars a pampered pet living in a certain part of the United States. After ending up in his/her species's native land (a Hispanic/Latino country) our protagonist is captured by humans planning on using him/her for illegal purposes. After escaping with the help of a friend of the opposite gender, the duo trek through the country to find our hero/heroine's owner. Meanwhile, these evil humans send their nasty pet off to find our protagonist and bring him/her back. This duo also encounters two locals who serve as comic relief. When the protagonist finds his/her owner, he/she finds love and has Babies Ever After. Also, the animal villain suffer an embarrassing fate right before the credits.
 * Rio or Beverly Hills Chihuahua?
 * A girl with supernatural abilities travels through alternate universes, trying to find one that doesn't conclude in a Bad End. In every world, she relives mostly the same period of time, and meets the same people. In the end, she is able to make a "good" world with the help of her True Companions and The Power of Friendship, and settle down. And somewhere around exists a "dark" version of said girl, which may be a fusion of the girl's alternate-reality selves.
 * Michikyuu Kanae or Furude Rika?
 * A legendary hero takes on a quest for a blonde girl and, accompanied by his regular comrade, sets out to help her. Shortly after arriving, he befriends a young girl under the tutelage of a professor, and begins assembling a force of natives to accomplish his goals. The blonde spends much of the game in the custody of a seemingly cybernetic character whose intentions are unclear to begin with. The Big Bad has an AI under his command, but it doesn't seem to know who to fight with. As the story progresses, the hero grows his fledgling army and travels through a forest, where he encounters a new female companion, before tackling a gigantic mech. Shortly after that, he visits a gloomy town with a dark secret. Before he can get the bottom of what's going on, he has to track down a character by visiting a variety of locations he has previously cleared.
 * Is the legendary hero's name Mario or Big Boss?
 * A man whose first name is never given, but is referred to with a title, is bored with his life. He meets a badass guy who who the main character tries to be more like. Later he meets a girl, who eventually leaves him because he starts to go crazy. It is later revealed that the badass guy is actually
 * Is it American Idiot or Fight Club?
 * A Diabolical Mastermind creates a mechanical doppelganger of Queen Victoria to replace her during her diamond jubilee.
 * The Great Mouse Detective or
 * A very neurotic man gets a job at an establishment. He believes it something strongly, and tries to run a tight ship. However, most of his employees and guests are weird, and his wife is very tired of him. There isn't a day where something goes wrong at said establishment.
 * The Brittas Empire or Fawlty Towers?
 * These stunningly-beautiful, black-skinned nonhumans live underground and come to the surface only to raid for captives. They are considered to be some of the fiercest fighters in a World of Badass and as a race are Shrouded in Myth. They worship a power-mad goddess, follow a religion which teaches that they are the Master Race, and their aristocracy is noted both for its decadence and bloodthirstiness.
 * Are they the drow of Dungeons and Dragons or the First Born of John Carter of Mars?
 * Boy gets famous for defeating a God-like villains. His two best friends get together in the end, and the boy gets an extremely powerful weapon. One of the bad guys turns out not to be quite as bad as he seems. His mentor is somewhat eccentric.
 * Harry Potter or Ben 10 Ultimate Alien?
 * A group of people travel to places and always seem to get caught up in some kind of strange occurance. They have a vehicle that they travel in which may not be reliable and one of the groups companions has been or is a dog.
 * Doctor Who or Scooby Doo?
 * This film is a cult classic, iconic for its use of B-Movie tropes. In Cold War era America, a traveling couple are forced by circumstances to seek the hospitality of a hammy, Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette sexual deviant who employs an odd-looking Crusty Caretaker and isn't entirely human. It doesn't end happily, but at least many memes are spawned along the way.
 * Manos: The Hands of Fate or The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
 * This is the Gothic story of a highly talented but equally insane Mad Artist from the early 1900s who is horribly scarred and disfigured, hides behind a mask, dresses all in black, goes around killing people (strangulation being his specialty), and becomes obsessed with a woman who unmasks him dramatically after he kidnaps her. Remakes/adaptations of the original version move said Mad Artist closer to the center as a Villain Protagonist, whereas the heroic female lead was closer to the center in the original version.
 * The Phantom of the Opera or House of Wax?
 * An animated story about a career-driven loner who gets stuck in a small town, and reluctantly befriends the locals despite initially thinking they're all crazy. The aid of the protagonist's new friends is invaluable when they eventually leave the town to pursue their original goal. Once the excitement has died down, the protagonist adopts the small town as their new home.
 * Cars or the pilot of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic?
 * A Cold War era homoerotic bromance ends tragically when the depth of the friends' ideological differences becomes clear, and one of the guys winds up getting shot.
 * Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr in X-Men: First Class or  in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?
 * The sibling and partner of a beloved goddess is corrupted and turns into an intimidating, gothy villain who exemplifies Dark Is Evil. They're then banished to a dark, faraway realm, but set free by an astronomical event.
 * Princess Luna or Zon-Kuthon?
 * seeks to start a world war in the late 19th century so he can sell his Steampunk weaponry to both sides and make a fortune, prompting the protagonists to stop him.
 * Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows or The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie?
 * Two people are stuck in a situation where they live together, even though they don't exactly get on. One is very neurotic and believes he is the best at everything, while the other is more laid back. They have two other friends that the laid back person likes more than the neurotic man. One friend is full of himself and thinks about sex all the time, and the other is of a different ethnic background, but is polite and timid. The laid back guy wants to date a girl that is from a different background than him, but the neurotic guy doesn't think it would ever happen.
 * The Big Bang Theory or Red Dwarf?
 * This story takes place during a war between Capitalist and Communist nations. Among the more notable characters on the Soviet side are a manipulative leader, a subordinate played by Andrew Divoff whose name starts with "Kr", and a worrysome scientist.
 * Is Divoff's character Kravchenko or Krukov?
 * An iconic duo in British popular fiction, consisting of a multitalented man who is far smarter than most of the other people in the cast, and his less intellectually brilliant devoted chronicler, who typically narrates their adventures. The genius, while never going into Villain Protagonist territory, can get into Good Is Not Nice or Manipulative Bastard territory at times. The chronicler is likable and popular with women, but his relationship with the genius outlasts any of his romances. Together, they're the most famous creations of a prolific author, and their adventures have been adapted into a Granada TV series.
 * Sherlock Holmes and John Watson or Bertie Wooster and Jeeves?
 * Adventure series from the early '90s. A group of colour-coded adventurers travel through various diverse locations, known as 'Zones', trying to gather mystical jewels. Locations generally include ancient ruins and/or castles, mechanical environments and space stations. It often culminates in a time-limited showdown in space, where the jewels make things easier. Later adventures heavily involve a black-haired guy from the past, whose love interest is a dead girl on a space station.
 * The Crystal Maze or Sonic the Hedgehog?
 * An animated film from the nineties with a message about nature and the environment. A native princess lives in a civilization in the forest with her father and crazy animal sidekick(s), and takes advice from a wise matriarchal figure. When some intruders show up to overrun their land, she meets a long-haired blond guy who wears blue. They learn about each other and fall in love. But a shirtless native is jealous, and an Evil Brit wants to take over their homeland.
 * Pocahontas or Ferngully?
 * Aired in the 1997-98 season, this TV series featured an extragovernmental organization hires five agents to continue its mission of fighting for justice and protecting mankind. The organization's original mentor is no longer at his post. These five agents are given five vehicles. These vehicles can combine into other machines.
 * Team Knight Rider or Power Rangers Turbo?
 * An ordinary person meets a mysterious, anarchist Dark Messiah with big plans to change the world. Though some circumstance out of the persons control, they end up living with the Anarchist. Though the two trust each other from the start, it is not until after a Horrific Initiation that the mysterious begins to trust the other person well. The mysterious persons forms a giant army, which . Also, , and in the movie versions of both,.
 * Is this Fight Club, Or is this V for Vendetta?
 * He's capable of feats none of his contemporaries can match, and his assistance is frequently sought out by those around him. He's a canonical Celibate Hero (although his love life has been the subject of some controversial extracanonical speculations) with a devoted friend and follower named John, and an association with a woman named Mary M. He makes a dramatic return from the dead after three standard units of time. The stories of his life and activities have become major influential texts in Western culture and spawned a devoted following around the world, as well as inspiring many fictional imitators and homages. In visual adaptations, he's normally depicted with dark hair.
 * Sherlock Holmes or Jesus of Nazareth?
 * A tyrannical government forces children to play a game where they must to go to an isolated arena and simultaneously survive the elements and kill each other until only one if left standing, for a bunch of convoluted reasons that basically boil down to For the Evulz. During one of these games a young boy and girl with a shared history come together to help each other survive. Over the course of their journey it is revealed that one of them has had long held a crush on the other and the other eventually reciprocates the feelings. In the end they both survive the game by tricking the game makers and end up fighting the government that created it.
 * The Hunger Games or Battle Royale?
 * This series is notorious for its high levels of Nightmare Fuel and complex, ever-deepening plot without too many straight answers. One of the key figures is a man who's always seen smoking a cigarette, first appeared as a background character in the first season, and is involved with a shadowy group of conspirators. In the second season finale, the protagonist and a woman who has joined him on his quest get into a Mexican standoff with a murderous character named Alex K. The same woman disappeared mysteriously in Episode 6 of the season. Plenty of creepy men in suits lurk in the dark depths of the forest in:
 * Marble Hornets? Or The X-Files?
 * He is a character that is incredibly well known. So well known that he's the first character you think of when you hear his name (A common male given name starting with the letter "M"). He's not only the main character, but he's also the mascot of his parent company and practically defines the very medium he mostly appears in, although he also appears in other ones from time to time. However, despite being so well known, apart from his status as a heroic Everyman, his personality is deliberately kept flat. His friends and enemies have more personality and characterization then he does. He also has a penchant for wearing White Gloves and the media he appears in is usually very kid-friendly.
 * Is this Mickey Mouse or Mario?
 * A Massively Multiplayer Crossover with truckloads of Alternate Continuity Disney characters, a Big Bad obssessed with taking hearts and preventing happy endings, a town no one seems to know where it came from and that no one seems able to leave, where identites are split, erased, stolen, and re-written. Our hero (or at least he thinks he is) is a kid with light brown hair who can travel in and out of worlds as he pleases, armed with The Power of Love, The Power of Friendship, a journal containing the clues behind the massive conspiracy (albeit with plenty of incomplete data and false leads), and a keyring that seems to lock or unlock any door.
 * Is that kid Sora or Henry?
 * A young girl with no parents, and a special locket as an Orphan's Plot Trinket, dreams of having a loving family. She escapes from her evil guardian, only for a policeman to bring her back to said guardian, who pretends to be overjoyed about it. The second time she gets away, she becomes the subject of an advertisement that causes her to become a Living MacGuffin due to how much money she is worth, especially for the guardian and her hammy male accomplice. The girl ends up with a wealthy father who lives in a mansion, and her friends are given a home. A family musical with its share of Ear Worms, an Award Bait Song, and a Villain Song about wealth.
 * It's Annie, right? Are you sure it's not ?
 * A group of kids become friends and a hang out together. As their get to know each other a love triangle develops between them. One vertex of the triangle dies tragically and all of them drift apart. Several years later the one who was supposed to be dead appears before the main character and causes the once separated friends to come back together and repair their broken relationship. Also one of them is a bit of a jerk who wears fabulous clothes.
 * Is it or is it ?
 * A famous musical film based on a book, widely hailed as a classic. A young girl wearing blue who has a small animal as a pet is unsatisfied with her normal life and sings an "I Want" Song expressing her longing to be in another world. Shortly afterwards, she is transported to a fantasy world that satirizes the real one, and becomes the Only Sane Girl. She ventures through the world largely by "following" something. While there, she meets many different creatures, including a very unique cat, some talking plants, and a loud and intimidating political leader, whom she confronts. An evil woman becomes intent on killing her because of an accident that wasn't the girl's fault. In the end it turns out to have been All Just a Dream.
 * Wait, is this Alice In Wonderland or The Wizard Of Oz?
 * After dying in an accident, a shiftless teenager gets a new job dealing with the supernatural and meets some bizarre new friends. The Grim Reaper turns out to be quite friendly.
 * Dead Like Me or Yu Yu Hakusho?
 * The story centers around an Odd Couple composed of a quirky, immature, dark-haired Mr. Fanservice with unusual eating habits who wears a long billowy coat, and his shorter, lighter haired partner with post-traumatic issues. They investigate murders and have buckets of Ho Yay. The best-known villain of the series is a stylishly creepy Sissy Villain-slash-Evil Genius who just can't stay away from billowy coat boy.
 * Yami no Matsuei or Sherlock?
 * In Real Life: A Progressive Rock band, who tinged their music with pop influences and partially for that reason was instrumental in popularizing the genre during their time period. They favored the traditional Epic Rocking of Progressive Rock, as well as frequent use of synthesizers. After their fifth album, commonly considered to be one of their best, they created for their sixth a two-disc Rock Opera about the supernatural adventures of a boy in New York. Following this, the lead vocalist and frontman left the band and focused on a solo career; to cope with this, the band's drummer took up the mantle of lead vocalist. During this period in their history, the band released a self-titled album, which they had not done up to that point.
 * Got to be Genesis, right? Well, unless I'm talking about Spock's Beard...
 * The story involves peril, adventure, and shadowy conspiratorial goings-on, but the emotional heart centers around an Odd Couple of two men who are very fond of each other. The younger one is a genius Guile Hero with killer cheekbones who has arguable sociopathic tendencies but remains on the side of good (in an antiheroic sort of way) and could even be seen as a bit of an understated woobie (or at least a sympathetic Broken Ace). The older one is a bit shorter, more cute than male-model handsome, very competent in his own skill set, and rather nicer than his partner. One of the guys has an Ambiguous Disorder. The other once served in the military and is an excellent shot. A sexually ambiguous dark-haired young man with a fondness for messing with the guys' heads makes an appearance as a villain. Who are this dynamic duo?
 * Adamska and Hal, in Stray, or Sherlock and John, in Sherlock?
 * This is a series of British TV dramas, composed of multiple very short mini-series, that is based (with notable deviations) on a series of classic British tales that are icons of their genre. The title character is a tall, thin, pale Badass Bookworm with curly dark hair, fangirl-bait cheekbones, and an aloof demeanor. He has a best friend/sidekick/foil who is a shorter, fairer-haired, more approachable Badass Adorable. They have lots of homoerotic subtext. One of the major supporting characters is an attractive in his own right older guy who functions as a Reasonable Authority Figure. A lot of the tension in the second miniseries is due to the machinations of an Irishman who has a thing against the main character. The last episode of the second miniseries involves a serious assault against the protagonist's reputation, and ends in a major character making a heartrending Heroic Sacrifice.
 * Sherlock? Or Horatio Hornblower?
 * A nerd with few friends is consistently baffled by someone in pink who has many friends, and finds a rival prone to boasting and gloating who knows magic.
 * Am I talking about Dexter or Twilight Sparkle?
 * A Video Game Sequel. The protagonist of the first game has been kidnapped and is being held captive somewhere. Playing as their younger sibling, you have to rescue them.
 * So then, am I talking about Donkey Kong Country 2, or Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2?
 * This is a famous cartoon series with a large Periphery Demographic and is extremely popular over the internet, spawning hundreds of memes. The main protagonist's (who's VA's first name starts with a T) friends include a ditzy pink Big Eater, and an action-loving girl with a southern accent. There is also a villain who started out Laughably Evil, but turned out to be Not So Harmless, brainwashing some of the main characters and turning the town into an awful hellhole, which was enough to get him onto the Vile Villain Saccharine Show page. After this episode, the creator had stepped down. Also, in one episode, the friendly yellow character tried to become "more assertive" with the help of a mentor, but ended up losing friends. In another episode, the Workaholic kept on doing their job without getting any sleep, and went crazy from sleep deprivation. In fact, all of the main characters have had a mental breakdown at least once.
 * My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic or SpongeBob SquarePants?
 * An incredibly talented human being with obvious mental problems is so enchanted with various fiction works that decides to live those adventures in Real Life. The first time that human being intends to do so the results are disheartening. However, this human being knows another that seems to be it’s Foil: A poor Deadpan Snarker who will get always the worst part in this relationship. Together, they will have adventures in a work of fiction with no definite genre where they will change reality itself.
 * Haruhi Suzumiya or  ?
 * A man wakes up finding he has superpowers which eventually develop into godlike power, turning him into an unstoppable tank. However he finds that he is not the only one, and must stop them from causing chaos in the city (which has been quarantined, resulting in a Crapsack World). Eventually he discovers a shady organization is behind the quarantine, and they want you dead.
 * Prototype or inFamous?
 * This is a really famous duo; two Fat and Skinny mammals. The skinny one is a Jerkass who bosses the fat one around, but has had Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments. The fat guy is stupid, red and farts a lot. Expect a lot of Toilet Humor when you see these two.
 * Ren and Stimpy or Timon and Pumbaa?
 * British science fiction series. A man from a North West English city, with a thing for leather jackets, ends up out of his time period. His immediate superior is a tall, authoritarian individual who is . The man's colleagues include a guy who thinks he's a bit of ladies' man, and a bumbling but well-meaning character who lacks assertiveness. The overall plot concerns the man trying to get home and, at first, to get back with his love interest.
 * Red Dwarf or Life On Mars?
 * A platonic life partnership made up of two individuals with distinctly different appearances and personalities: the dark-haired, creepy, smart-but-weird Jerk with a Heart of Gold and his Badass Adorable Morality Pet. One member of each pair wears a Badass Longcoat.
 * Equius and Nepeta? Or Sherlock and John?
 * In the early-to-mid 1950's, a US Army Intelligence colonel asks the main character to seek out a missing treasure. The colonel is murdered shortly afterward, probably by the Soviets. They're also hunting for the treasure, intending to use it to finance subversion and espionage throughout Europe.
 * At Swords' Points by Andre Norton or Pray for a Brave Heart by Helen MacInnes?
 * Japan is under attack. The Japanese come up with a plan of desperation: super-charge airplane engines, pack the planes full of high explosives, and have the pilots ram them into enemy ships. The enemy response includes atom-bombing Japan.
 * "Frictional Losses" by John W. Campbell, written in 1936, or Real Life?