Fanon/Anime and Manga

Due to language and adaptation barriers, nearly all popular anime is subject to Fanon levels proportional to their age; Sailor Moon and Ranma ½ are two notable examples. The advent of the Internet has made fact-checking much easier. It has not, however, stopped flame wars about favored characters or plot lines based solely on fanon. Some tropes, such as Akane Tendo's (of Ranma ½) supposed psychotic tendencies, have been so over-elaborated-upon by fans that they become psychotically defensive of their incorrect beliefs. On the other hand, cultural and literary differences on the very notion of what's "canon" means that there's considerable room for fanon to grow. A notable example would be Gundam.

Axis Powers Hetalia

 * Some parts of the Axis Powers Hetalia fanon comes from Real Life since they're based on interpretations of world events. Others, however, are 100% fanon or only very loosely based on history. Some examples below.
 * First type:
 * During the American Civil War or the Korean War (neither touched on by the author), there is a personification of CSA and North Korea. CSA is killed, North Korea is alive and continues to be crazy. In case of Korea this stems from a translation issue, as the Korea in Hetalia canon is South Korea (he's called ?? "kankoku", which specifically means South Korea), so presumably there's a canonical North Korea as well.
 * A variation of this is that America has a split personality during this time period.
 * Another one is about North Korea being female. It's based in some Himaruya doddles that have a female Korea.
 * The Holy Roman Empire really did grow up to become Germany. This question is still unresolved in canon, but the fandom can't stand the thought of HRE being killed. We can't blame the fans, tho.
 * Vietnam's transition from an innocent fisher girl to a hardened warrior.
 * Those who follow the "North Korea is female" fanon bit also give her a similar treatment.
 * Fellow Anime Chinese Girl Taiwan either being a Dragon Lady during World War Two, or having bound feet per China's orders.
 * Second type:
 * Egypt's hair. Fanwork almost always described him as longhaired, but a Himaruya doodle showed him without his kefiyeh headgear... [[media:11c5zj8.gif|and with very short hair]].
 * Taiwan and Hong Kong being Half-Identical Twins, as well as the Italies being twins too. It's neither confirmed nor denied, and in the case of the Asians they haven't even appeared in the strips.
 * The Italies aren't twins, since Romano is 23 and Veneziano is 20. A more prominent case of fanon is the idea that America and Canada are twins, despite having different birth dates (their respective Independence Days); however, they resemble each other enough that Canada is frequently mistaken for America and Canada doesn't have a canon age, so the fanon abounds.
 * Sweden having a war hammer as his Weapon of Choice... despite having a BFS (and sometimes a quarter-staff) in official art and Himaruya doodles.
 * A large percentage of the fandom believes that Prussia survived his dissolution by the Allies and became East Germany. Opinions are further split on the topic of whether or not he survived the reunification.
 * Considering he managed to write a blog, I'd say it's pretty much confirmed he's still around. The fanon that abounds around that point is that he's a basement dweller in Germany's house.
 * Wasn't Prussia's transformation into East Germany confirmed by Word of God? I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in one of the author's notes that he was stuck doing menial jobs for Russia in those times.
 * Some evidence fueling the theory is that Prussia's nickname for Germany is "West", presumably short for West Germany.
 * Denmark being a Yandere for either Sweden or Norway. And Norway being a Tsundere for Denmark.
 * If not made into a Broken Bird, Vietnam will be shown as the East Asian's Team Mom.
 * Actually, when many characters are either just mentioned or show up only in supplementary materials, Fanon is just around the corner. Since the fans have no real idea of what the characters are like, except for their looks and some basic personality traits spelled in the character profiles, you find yourself with many options to play/write/etc. them. Such as Hong Kong being depicted as a Sugar and Ice Personality and Belgium being a mix of The Ojou and Bottle Fairy, personality wise.
 * Also, it's believed that the infamous "vital regions" memetic line has been used by either Prussia or Russia in a regular basis. Thing is, they have not. The ones have used it in canon are actually Austria (in the "Maria Theresa" series) and Spain (in Spain's Lazy Morning")
 * In the Western fandom, everybody seems to believe that Sweden speaks in a horribly mumbled speech. In some cases it's portrayed as so bad that only Finland can decipher it. In the original Japanese, Sweden speaks in a northern Japanese dialect. Quirky? Yes. Unintelligible? No. He does speak very little, though, which might reinforce the image of him mumbling. Note that he's not the only character to have an accent but the others are usually translated speaking normally. Examples: Spain, Denmark, Norway, Turkey and informedly at least Belgium.
 * Funnily enough, no one seems to do this to Norway whose dialect in Japanese is actually a lot more quirky and more difficult to decipher than Sweden's.
 * The heights of certain characters. Russia tends to get portrayed as huge (admittedly, he is definitely one of the tallest) and America also seems to gain a few inches every now and then, but especially France grows quite a bit in fanworks. Canada and England, then again, have a strong tendency to shrink in fans's minds. Occationally Finland too. This might have something to do with the latter's other fanon attributes, although it's worth noting that the author himself doesn't seem to stick to these heights very strictly, especially England is often drawn as really being quite shorter than he's supposed to be. The main eight's (supposedly) canon heights are mentioned in a note with an early strip (scroll down for the list).
 * England being America's father or father figure (sometimes also Canada's, though that's usually France). This may come from a mistranslation in the comic version of America's Storage Cleaning (the anime has it correctly), and/or the popular "FrUK family" ship in which France and England raise little America and Canada, and/or some people's firm belief that they share a father/son dynamics. Canon, by the way, makes it pretty clear that they regarded each other as brothers and had an older brother/younger brother dynamics (though that may not have translated well due to cultural differences).
 * On a similar note, a lot of fanfiction writers have a female "Native American-tan" serve as the mother to America and Canada, before they are adopted by England and France. The series has never touched on personifications for the Native Americans, and there's no reason to think that there would be one single personification for them all, as opposed to one for each of the different tribes.
 * Some countries' human names. Yekaterina "Katyusha" Braginskaya, for example, was never an official name for Ukraine, only a very popular fanon one.
 * For areas that have yet to pop up fanon typically has them as one gender. For example Scotland is almost always a boy and Puerto Rico is a girl.
 * The personifications of the US states are portrayed as America's children, either adopted conceived from the nations that used to own the territory (for example, Texas is either adopted from Mexico, or s/he conceived Texas with America.)

Inuyasha

 * By far he most accepted mistake is assuming it's Canon that Sesshoumaru has inherited the title "Lord of the Western Lands" from his father. Their ranks and positions were rarely covered in Canon and left to hints such as the existence of inheritable servants (Myouga, for example, who became Inuyasha's servant not Sesshoumaru's) and Sesshoumaru's extremely high-quality clothing which itself is never commented on. However, the manga never once stated either Sesshoumaru or his father ruled any land. The misunderstanding came out of their father only once being referred to as a Youkai "who prowled the west" with no explanation or elaboration of what that actually meant. Fanon often expands this belief into Sesshoumaru possessing a manor, castle or palace in these "western lands" he supposedly rules, complete with many servants and there being neighbouring "lands" with their own lords (Kouga is often one despite the manga suggesting he's not even the overlord of the entirety of the existing wolf-youkai-tribe, only the Eastern one). In reality, throughout the run of the series Sesshomaru has never been shown to have any sort of home or castle, or any servants except for Jaken and Rin, as he's a wandering nomad like most of the rest of the cast. His mother lives in a palace that floats in the sky that took Sesshoumaru several days of active searching to locate but how that relates to Sesshoumaru is again never explored in the manga.
 * Another popular belief is that youkai "mark" their mates with some sort of bite on the neck or breastbone and that they go through animal-based mating seasons (and yes it's almost always the male dog or wolf youkai that "go into heat").
 * Mostly prevalent in Alternate Universe stories, youkai have access to enchanted charms (almost always rings) that cause them to appear human when worn, thereby explaining why in the canon Kagome almost never meets any youkai in the present era.
 * Jaken is universally believed to be serving Sesshoumaru as a result of a life-debt he owes him. The source of this belief comes from a random stand-alone Filler episode the Anime did that attempted to pad out Jaken's background. The original manga doesn't explore Jaken's background at all and never explains why he serves Sesshoumaru.
 * Inuyasha's parents are never named in the anime or manga, but the third movie specifically names his mother "Izayoi," and this is almost universally accepted. His father is often called "Inutaisho," a corruption of "inu-no-taisho" which is his title, not his name, and translates roughly as "The Dog General." Less accepted but still present is the idea that his father is named "Toga." This comes from the third movie too and was a name that the production team gave to him just for the sake of referring to him by name while the movie was being made. In the finished film he's never addressed by name.
 * Inuyasha is popularly cited as being 200 years old. This comes from the third film adaptation and not from the original manga.

Pokémon

 * Due to the fact that there was never much backstory given in the first place, many Pokémon anime fans have taken to creating their own theories, which can go in just about any direction. They range from the logical (Misty and Brock's surnames, the fate of Jessie's mother, the GS Ball) to the utterly insane (Professor Oak or Giovanni or even Lugia being Ash's father, to name one). And, mixed in with those are a crapload of loosely related fringe theories, that attempt to work in forgotten elements from the games (like Brendan from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald being May's long-lost childhood friend, for example) or are based entirely on circumstantial evidence. It's about every bit as messy as it sounds. And don't even get started on shipping...
 * As for the surnames of half the cast, there seems to be a frequent consensus for a few:
 * Misty's pops up most often as Waterflower. While not explicitly canon, it can at least be traced back to a specific episode whose title resulted in fans putting two and x together and getting a generally accepted four.
 * May and Max are most frequently surnamed Maple.
 * Additionally, many fanworks designate Giovanni's surname as Rocketto, from the Japanese pronunciation of Team Rocket (Roketto-dan).
 * Brock tends to run with the Meaningful and Punny Name theme for Gym Leaders, as Slate.
 * However, Eric Stuart was quoted in 2006 as claiming Brock's last name was Harrison in K-Zone magazine.
 * Dawn Berlitz comes up a lot as well, since her Pokémon Special counterpart is actually given that surname.
 * Giovanni being Ash's father is given evidence in Pokémon Live, but it's a loose adaptation of the anime and not considered canon.
 * The fandom seems to believe the Pokémon Special protagonists all have eye colors that match their names. However, that's not true. Yellow has a Green Eyes-Yellow Eyes mix, maybe even a stylized form of Brown Eyes depending on who you ask. None of the Sinnoh cast have eyes matching their names, simply because their gems have no color. Black has Brown Eyes while White has Blue Eyes, much like their game counterparts.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

 * Fans were quick to latch onto Poorfag-chan, a nameless and dialogueless classmate of Madoka whose only distinguishing feature is that she can be seen taking notes with a pen and paper while the rest of the class uses laptops. The Internet quickly decided that she was an orphan who lives in a cardboard box and has to scavenge though dumpsters to find school supplies; despite this, she is always cheerful and never gives in to despair . She also writes letters to her dead mother that always begin "Dear Mother in Heaven."
 * As a lesser example, there's also Clip-girl, another nameless background classmate who is seen looking at Homura while sitting at her desk. Fans have proceeded to take this as evidence of a romantic crush.
 * End of series spoilers: The entire concept of a, is likely but unconfirmed. Word of God refers to   a "different universe" which could mean anything. There's also the manga ending, but that's just  , which could also be anything. Oh, and the monsters
 * The words mahou shojou being translated as "Puella Magi" - even the American version is going with "magical girl". In fact, the words "Puella Magi" are never spoken in the series. They only appear once at the very end... as part of the series's title written in Cypher Language.
 * The Stinger. Oh boy, The Stinger. Here's what Word of God has said about it: It wasn't intended to be a Sequel Hook, it's supposedly set outside Japan, and . Anything else - such as   is pure speculation.
 * Note that the writer has invoked Death of the Author and stated all of these interpretations can be considered correct. Additionally even he has no idea where came from; they were added by the animation staff.
 * Homura's family situation, or lack thereof. There is no indication in the series that Homura has any sort of family - even her residence only has her name on the nameplate (much like Mami's apartment). In episode 10 The vast majority of fans have decided that she's Conveniently an Orphan. On the other hand, in the first Drama CD she offhandedly mentions that her family won't mind if she stays out late...
 * Anything about Backstories. Anything. The one universally accepted by the fandom is.
 * Kyoko's wish-derived powers. Fans pegged it as some kind of Mind Control until Word of God said that it was never seen in the series and revolved around light and illusions. The third Drama CD revealed it was actually a Doppelganger Attack.
 * For the longest time, fans thought Mami's wish was "I don't want to die alone" . Word of God later said it was "to connect to life" (i.e. "I want to stay alive"). This then became God Never Said That when some people (on this wiki, even) read it as "to connect to lives", which has a different meaning altogether.

Other Anime and Manga

 * Dragonball Z fanfiction is almost universally permeated with the notion that Saiyans undergo some sort of physiological/psychic connection when they fall in love, that Saiyans mate for life, refer to their love interests specifically as mates, and that the connection is formed in a process called "bonding" which involves one or both partners biting the other on the neck vampire-style. People may have originally gotten the idea for the psychic connection thing from a scene in the anime where Bulma gets a horrible feeling as Vegeta dies against Majin Buu. However, this is the only scene even close to suggesting this, appearing to show that numerous writers have blown it out of proportion.
 * It could also be said for when Videl senses that Gohan is alive despite everyone thinking he's dead.
 * Don't forget the purring! According to numerous fanfictions Saiyans begin to purr like cats when they are happy or their tails are stroked.
 * The weirdest theory concerning the Saiyans is the idea that the males are able to get pregnant from homosexual intercourse. Fans are divided on whether this applies to all male Saiyans or only the lower-tier ones.
 * Another, less disturbing bit of Fanon is the general acceptance that the heart disease that took Goku out of action in the Android saga and wreaked havoc on the world in the alternate timeline was caught by Goku on Yardrat and brought to Earth, despite contracting it a year later in Trunks' timeline and three years later in the regular timeline.
 * Which culd be related to the French dub saying he got it on Namek (And yes, why then Vegeta, Krillin and co. didn't is anyone's guess).
 * Who can forget the infamous saiyan levels? The glorious recolors of the Saiyans, all shining in power levels beyond 5. And we thought Akira Toriyama was crazy...
 * A lesser known example is Chichi attacking Goku (or anyone else) with a frying pan, despite the fact that she was never seen doing this in the original series. However, in the 2008 special, Chichi was finally seen using a frying pan as a weapon on Master Roshi, making this officially canon.
 * Mystic Gohan. That specific title was never used in the official material (licensed games title it 'Ultimate Gohan') but that form of Gohan does exist, apparently transcending Super Saiyan, and unlocked by Old Kai in the Buu saga.
 * Videl states that surnames have fallen out of fashion in the world where Dragon Ball takes place, to the point where she guesses that Son Gohan is the son of Son Goku because very few families still use surnames. Nonetheless, it's common for fans to give characters surnames, for example: Bulma Briefs and Videl Satan, despite those being Bulma's father's given name and Videl's father's stage name, respectively.
 * It is never suggested in any form that Bulma was in an abusive relationship with Yamcha. Given how the two act around each other it is laughable to think that she would put up with a boyfriend who hit her.
 * Who said anything about him hitting her?
 * Another widely accepted theory is Vegeta was raped/abused by Frieza some point during his time working with him, and the abuse/rapes were what fueled his treachery.


 * The idea that Amestris tricked the Ishvalans into attacking them, so that Amestris could invade and conquer them in Fullmetal Alchemist. Actually Ishval was just an area of Amestris that the government tricked into rebelling so that they could crush and massacre them. This is made clear in the manga when several scenes from the Ishval Massacre contradict this such as the fact that the Amestrian army still had Ishvalan soldiers up until the 7th year of the rebellion, they only killed the pure blood Ishvalans (and possibly the half blood Ishvalans) when they needed souls for a Philosopher's stone. Scar's brother also tells Scar that Amestris allows the Ishvalans to worship Ishvala. In addition, the Amestrian government is currently at war with 4 other nations, and is a military dictatorship, like they would need a Batman Gambit just to invade a 5th.
 * Also it is generally accepted that Edward's pants are leather, despite the fact that they would be, as Vic Mignogna points out, "hard to fight in. Ed's gotta be smarter than that." Conversely, as Vic does not write or draw for the series, it is hard to determine the exact material of Ed's pants lest Arakawa-sensei decides to enlighten us for herself.
 * There' a generally accepted theory that Roy, because of his more Xingese looks and the fact that he was adopted, was an orphan from Xing.
 * This theory has been altered slightly with the reveal that with more fans leaning towards the idea that he is of partial Xingese ancestry.


 * There are several of these orbiting Neon Genesis Evangelion, including Misato's hair color and driving style (though that's probably more Never Live It Down), the name of Touji's Ill Girl little sister, the personalities of Hikari's sisters, Shinji being a skilled chef and even some things that directly contradict canon—like claims that Rei is emotionless, or that Shinji's wardrobe consists entirely of school uniforms, ignoring several occurrences of him in other outfits (excluding the dance outfit and plugsuits).
 * The notion that Misato killed Kaji remains popular despite an explicit statement from the show's creator to the contrary. The idea that Naoko Akagi's soul resides in Unit 00 also persists despite it not making any sense whatsoever.
 * Kaji never cheated on Misato. It's revealed in episode 15 that Misato pretended to have another boyfriend to break up with Kaji because she was scared of how much Kaji reminded her of her father. The idea of Kaji cheating seems to be popular because it helps clear the way to pair Shinji with Misato or to just make Kaji look worse.
 * The fanon name for Touji's little sister, "Mari", now has an uncertain future with a new pilot character in the Rebuild Evangelion movie series being named Mari.
 * Also, Shinji being a skilled chef actually made it into canon in the second Rebuild movie.


 * The Zabi family from Mobile Suit Gundam are a veritable fanon magnet, as they get very little characterization in the series proper. Popular theories include:
 * Degwin being of Italian descent and making his fortune mining raw materials for the space colonies on the Moon (though it is canon that Degwin lived on the Moon before Side 3 (the future Zeon) was completed);
 * Gihren's estranged wife being a member of Danish royalty (though the thing about him cheating on her with his assistant Cecilia is canon, at least according to the novel) and being fond of cats;
 * Saslo (the guy who was blown up with a carbomb by Ramba Ral's dad a few years before the series takes place) being homosexual;
 * Dozle's love of sports & dogs;
 * Kycilia having a sexual relationship with Char sometime in the past (though she does have some kind of relationship with his lookalike Johnny Ridden in at least one Gaiden manga);
 * Garma's various health problems, drug use, musical talent & his mother dying in childbirth (canon sources mention her dying shortly after he was born, but never specify how).
 * Another very common fanon theory is the illness Mad Scientist Ginius Sakhalin from 08th MS Team suffers from is Wilson's Disease. Though its name is never mentioned, the symptoms do seem to fit.


 * Due to its many disparate continuities, Zoids has a fair bit of fanon.
 * Bit Cloud and Vega Obscura from New Century are descended from Van Flyheight and Joyce "Raven" Chen from Chaotic Century/Guardian Force respectively.
 * In fact, just about any NC character is claimed to be descended from any CC/GF character. Given that there is a thousand years between the series, this is possible.
 * Similarly, it is believed that the "Organoid Systems" inside the Liger Zero and Beserk Fury (stated in canon to simply be self-sufficient artificial intelligence programs) are literal organoids; more to the point, they are generally believed to be Zeke and Shadow, respectively. Often tied into this theory is the idea that the Liger Zero and Berserk Fury evolved from Van's Blade Liger and Raven's Geno Breaker.
 * Likewise, it has often been claimed that Leon's red Blade Liger was created by the Organoid Ambient
 * Lieutenant/Captain O'Connell from the Chaotic Century and Guardian Force has no given first name, but a slash fanficcer dubbed him Jake and now many fans believe that to be his official name.
 * Any attempt to explain Hiltz' Idiot Plot master plan from Guardian Force will inevitably involve fanon speculation, given both the nonsense plan and Hiltz' acute lack of personality.


 * Half of the Code Geass fandom believes that Lelouch became the now-immortal Code-''and-Geass-weilding RR (Japanese R = L) who lives happily ever with CC ala Spice and Wolf's Lawrence and Horo (Lelouch and Lawrence do have the same seiyuu after all), as allegedly shown in the "Cart-End" final episode. This mainly due to the fact during and after Lelouch's attack, C.C.'s mark is always covered by her hair, and thus unknown if it is gone or not.
 * As it turns out in the CodeGeass picture drama set after the end of R2.


 * In the Haibane Renmei fandom, Mado of Stone Mill fills in many side-plots that make Glie seem all the more multifaceted and interesting, and is so well-written in Original Flavor that many people consider it up there with the canon.


 * Even fluff anime isn't immune. Azumanga Daioh has all sorts, ranging from ungiven names (surname for Kaori, given name for Sakaki and Kagura, and background extras such as Rachel Handlebars) up to unrequited crushes (remember, only one is actually shown). Add generous desire for Les Yay and stir.
 * Well? Don't keep us in suspense! What are the fanon ungiven names?
 * Kaori Aida and Chihiro Inoue. This is based off a panel of the manga, where characters we see the back of the heads of are called these surnames and the backs of their heads kinda look like Kaori's and Chihiro's. Sakaki or Kagura don't have any commonly agreed-upon names, though.
 * A very common belief is that Osaka has forgotten her real name is Ayumu Kasuga. This was never actually seen in either manga or anime, instead being taken from the Tsunami Channel webcomic.
 * In fact, Osaka was very distraught that she had apparently been kicked out of Miss Yukari's homeroom, as she couldn't find her name on the classroom chart. Turns out, she was looking for her birth name, not Osaka, as she was listed down as.
 * Another common one is the Nyamo/Yukari pairing. Or, rather, that there WAS one. This appears to have most basis in the fact that they are still single and that Nyamo still puts up with Yukari. Quite a bit of fanon also revolves around the content of the "love letter" and Nyamo's drunken lecture in episode 14, mostly dealing with the aforementioned relationship. See the WMG page and the Headscratchers page for more information.


 * Similar to Decoy Octopus, Matt from Death Note received almost no characterization in canon; despite this, he is almost universally portrayed in fanworks as a snarky gamer and Only Sane Man to L, Near and Mello.
 * Depending on the writer Mello might be German, Russian, or Prussian and he almost always was born with ties to the mafia.
 * Most fanfic has Matt calling Mello "Mells", while Mello calls him "Matty". I think you can guess what kind of fanfic this originated in...
 * Not to mention his hair. He's never shown in any color pages of the original manga, so a hair color was never defined for him. Fanon decided his hair was a lovely maroon color. When the anime came along, he was given a hair color somewhere between navy and dark green, depending on the lighting. Guess which hair color he is still usually drawn with.
 * Which miiight be because pretty much everyone else's hair is a normal color... Misa, as a pop star, probably dyed hers, and Light's could be bleached. Not that brown isn't a normal color...
 * Also, at the end of Death Note: Relight, we see a Shinigami that is wearing goggles and torn up school clothes, during the scene where . People assume that.
 * Beyond Birthday of Death Note: Another Note always calls L "Lawli" in fic as a Terms of Endangerment.
 * Beyond Birthday being "born with the Shinigami eyes" is often explained that he is either a Shinigami cursed into human form, part-Shinigami, or some kind of Death Note owner who just prefers to kill with knives.


 * Yu-Gi-Oh!! has a very vast fanon. The biggest one is the usage of the terms "yami" and "hikari". They refer to the three characters who share their bodies with other beings. Mutou Yuugi is the hikari, the Pharaoh is the yami. Bakura Ryou is the hikari, the spirit of the Ring is the yami. Malik Ishtar is the hikari, his dangerous separate personality is the yami.
 * Another one is the name of the spirit in the Ring. His form in Ancient Egypt is never given a name besides "Bakura", but somehow, people have christened him, "Afekia". This misnomer is easily explainable, as it appears to have come from a fan who misheard one of Bakura's lines in the English dub (when Yami asks who 'Bakura' really is in episode 79 of the Duel Monsters arc, and he replies "I am a thief, and a stealer of souls.") and took it as "I am 'Akefia', stealer of souls." But to many other Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction writers, Akefia just sounds awesome and Eygptian-y.
 * Also, for fanfics in the past, many people tend to turn Yuugi into a character in Ancient Egypt, then give him the name "Heba" or "Haba", which is apparently Arabic for "game".
 * The relationship between the spirit of the Ring and his host body, Bakura Ryou (in fanon the spirit takes the name Bakura or Yami Bakura and the host takes the name Ryou), is grossly exaggerated in many ways, the most prominent of which is the spirit being heavily abusive and Bakura being weak and frightful of him. First off, Bakura is hardly even aware of the fact that the spirit is there, considering him as more of a voice in his head. Secondly, the spirit can't form his own solid body, so if he were to abuse Bakura, he would have to damage his own host body, which doesn't serve him in any way, so he'd never do it.
 * The spirit does injure Bakura's body in the manga, but only to stop Bakura from interfering with the spirit's attempt to gain the Millennium Puzzle.


 * Like Naruto and the Kyuubi, Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho is believed to be in constant telepathic communication with "Youko", his demon self. Futhermore, "Youko" is very bored with being stuck inside a fifteen-year-old virgin and would very much like it to be sexy tiems nao. This one you can blame on the dub: the very first time Kurama transforms back, Youko Kurama's voice tells him "it's up to you now", and calls him Suichi, his dub human name; he answers back in his normal voice. In the Japanese version, Youko Kurama's voice begins the line, and normal-Kurama's voice finishes it as he transforms, implying one consciousness. Also, "Jaganshi" and "Youko" are thought to be Hiei and Kurama's names—they're technically titles, referring to what type of Youkai they are, and the word "Jaganshi" ("Evil Eye Master") is only used in one episode title.


 * In the Guyver fandom, it's generally accepted that Edward Caerleon, late of the Zoalord Council is Welsh.


 * As several details in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise can only be found in supplementary materials like the Sound Stages and manga which the english speaking fanbase wasn't aware of for sometime, western fans took some 'facts' as a matter of course, such as Nanoha copying Fate's Bind spell (she didn't, Yuuno taught her how to do a Bind in the very first Sound Stage) and Reinforce Zwei being the weakened form of the first Reinforce (she's not, she's a completely new Unison Device Hayate designed with the help of Mariel and Yuuno as mentioned in the last Sound Stage of A's). Most of these have died down ever since English-speaking fans learned about the supplementary materials and began translating them.
 * Also, Nanoha and Fate are generally considered to be romantically involved. While they are Heterosexual Life Partners with a lot of Les Yay, it's never made canon. Which can lead to some confusion when people go into the series having heard them described as "girlfriends".
 * There's also that bit where Vivio considers both Nanoha and Fate her mothers muddying the waters.
 * On the other hand, they're never actually confirmed not to be a couple, either. Their relationship is just ambiguous enough that they could either be lovers or very close friends.
 * For that matter, despite what people may claim, none of the other possible pairings are ever actually confirmed either. Some of the characters have expressed interest, but none of them ever get a Relationship Upgrade onscreen, except for Chrono and Amy.


 * Fans of the Suzumiya Haruhi anime tend too easily to accept Koizumi's theory that . Koizumi himself doesn't present it as certain fact; he labels it as a theory and a "worst case scenario" that his Organization is acting on.
 * Ironically Koizumi is the one source we know is unreliable. The acceptance of his version comes from the alternatives being Techno Babble and the other so heavily redacted as to be meaningless.
 * Also often accepted as true is the idea of Koizumi being gay, despite the fact that this has never been confirmed in canon. In fact, there is some evidence that contradicts it.
 * Another example is the Fanon OTP of Kyon and Haruhi. This is likely due to three factors. 1. The rather popular anime is missing a lot of narration that counters the Kyon/Haruhi pairing, 2. The first novel and some of the second tend to focus on that pairing, but we haven't received the later novels here in America, which tend to not, and 3. Since the first novel is very Kyon/Haruhi oriented, much of the evidence in the later novels contrary to this pairing tends to be hand waved or used as confirmation bias. It's rather shocking how insistent people are that this is the official couple.
 * It should be mentioned that this is no mere ship. Many Kyon/X and Haruhi/X fans tend to claim that Kyon/Haruhi is actually the official couple.
 * Many fans are also convinced that Mikuru is actually a manipulative girl sent to the past specifically to appeal to Kyon. This is never confirmed in any way (or even mentioned after Koizumi throws the idea out there) and in fact what little character development Mikuru has gotten so far seems to suggest that she is actually not very confident in her abilities.
 * Well, that's true of the present Mikuru. Future Mikuru, on the other hand, is a manipulative bitch.
 * Although not universally accepted, a popular fan theory is that Kyon is the real, not Haruhi. This is supported by many things, including the statements in the first episode/first chapter that he was once as eager to find supernatural beings as Haruhi.


 * Bleach:
 * It is almost universally accepted that is a member of the shinigami royal guard, despite nothing even coming close to this being mentioned anywhere in the series itself, and the royal guards themselves only being mentioned in passing once.
 * There's a wide-spread view that the manga has proven that Orihime is a fullbringer because fullbring is activated with a mystical light and Orihime's powers also activate with a light. Not only are many different kinds of powers activated with a light of some kind, but the manga doesn't make any conscious attempt to connect Orihime's abilities to fullbring. That making a connection is an example of Fanon and not Canon seems to have escaped much of the fandom's notice.
 * It's almost universally believed that Aizen's lecture on how the Hougyoku "gave" the True Companions their powers is a Retcon since Urahara once stated Orihime and Sado were born with powers they couldn't access until they came into contact with Ichigo's vast, uncontrolled reiatsu when he was in shinigami form. Aizen later says the Hougyoku made this possible and mentions that the moment their powers manifested was the moment their hearts were desperately cursing their own powerlessness. This threw into chaos all the Fanon assumptions that were built on top of Urahara's words (such as the major assumption that Ichigo's reiatsu didn't need any help to affect Sado and Orihime and fans ignoring the fact that Urahara didn't explain why there was a time-lag between the moment they were exposed to Ichigo's reiatsu and the moment when their powers actually manifested). In fact, the whole subject of how the Hougyoku actually works is mostly Fanon with the most common belief that it can make any wish come true. Aizen explicitly stated, however, that the Hougyoku is only capable of affecting desires that are possible to achieve without it.


 * Digimon's Canon Immigrant Ryo Akiyama's Wonderswan games were never released in English and only one saw a fan translation. However, one fan extrapolated from his and Ken Ichijouji's friendship in the games that Ryo also knew Ken's older brother. Over the years this extrapolation and its getting picked up by other fans has quietly snowballed into the odd Digimon Adventure 02 fan with an interest in pre-series Ken believing the three of them are friends is canon.
 * Also the name "Masaharu" was used by fans for Yamato and Takeru's father for a long while. Later on, it was revealed that his real name is "Hiroaki." A lot of people still like "Masaharu" better.
 * In Digimon Tamers, the young pair of twins, Ai and Mako, were never given a last name in the series. Several fanfictions tend to give them the name "Terada."


 * Francine is one of the few main characters in the English dub of Samurai Pizza Cats who is not explicitly given a surname. Daniel Kary, webmaster of one of the better-known SPC fan sites, began referring to her as "Francine Manx" sometime in the 1990s, apparently on a whim; the name stuck, and now appears on virtually every web site associated with the series, including the Internet Movie Database.


 * Thanks to an Eyecatch from the third season of The Slayers, just about every fanfic writer believes that Luna Inverse and The Beast Master, one of the five Dark Lords under Ruby Eyed Shabranigdo, are best friends. This seems to stem mostly from a mixture of the manga (which revealed that the werewolf/troll crossbreed Dilgear did, indeed, heal from his fatal wounds and ended up becoming Luna's pet) not being very available and Luna's willingness to pass off saving the world and claim she was too busy being a part-time waitress, instead insisting that they approach her... "unpredictable" little sister instead. This is despite Luna being known to carry the soul of the chief god of their world within her, essentially making her a Paladin of such power she can kill a dragon with a kitchen knife and a natural enemy to all Mazoku.


 * In the Katekyo Hitman Reborn fandom, everyone seems to think that Reborn and the other Arcobaleno will age and deage as time passes by. This probably stemmed from Lal Mirch who, after ten years, had become an adult once again. But that only happened because she possessed a corrupted pacifier and isn't really an Arcobaleno since Colonnello took her place. There is no real evidence that the other Arcobaleno will age and de-age over time.
 * This may have also stemmed form Luce, Aria, and Uni who looked incredibly alike. They were thought to be the same person (Luce) but it was eventually revealed that Luce is Aria's mother and Uni's grandmother.
 * Also, the—now-confirmed—theory that Reborn was actually a full-grown man in the form of a baby was generally accepted by many fans as being true.


 * Mahou Sensei Negima has several bits of Fanon. One piece that eventually was confirmed as canon is the idea that Asuna is Book Dumb because a Laser-Guided Amnesia spell that was used on her in the past interferes with her ability to learn.


 * It's a commonly known fact that the protagonists of Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai, Tohno Shiki and Ryougi Shiki respectively, both of whom can see the "predetermined death of all things" can only see the deaths of those with a "Gaian concept of death". Except this isn't fact; it's a theory created by English-speaking fans based off something written in the side materials: Specifically, that neither of the Shikis can kill ORT, the Ultimate One from the planet Mercury (otherwise known as TYPE-MERCURY). The reason that neither of the Shikis can kill ORT is because it literally does not have a "death", at least not one that either of the Shikis can recognize. According to Word of God, TYPES like ORT cannot be killed, even if you eliminate their physical bodies, as they don't have a concept of life or death to begin with. Fandom has run away with this, claiming that the reason neither of the Shikis can kill ORT is because it is not from Earth.
 * It seems more like Ultimate Ones exist in a manner humans are incapable of understanding, which is why the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception don't work; you can't perceive their death if their death is by nature impossible for humans to perceive. Of course, this suggests that any being with a concept of death that humans can't understand would be immune to the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
 * Loosely related to this is the "fact" that neither Shikis are capable of killing Servants, mainly for the same reasons. Because they are "already dead", they cannot be killed again. Much of this is also based off of Word of God; according to the creator Nasu Kinoko, neither Shikis would be a match against Servants. However, Nasu has explicitly failed to comment specifically on whether the Shikis would actually be able to KILL Servants, resulting in massive migraine-inducing power-level arguments.


 * On a great many fansites for Elfen Lied, Silpelit Number 3, who infected Kurama causing him to sire Mariko as a Diclonius, is supposed to be the older sister of Nana. I personally have scoured the manga and the anime up and down, and can say there is no evidence for this. It appears to be a mistake one person made that was then lifted literally verbatim on each successive site.


 * Fushigi Yuugi has a couple of typical Fanon elements that came up much more often in the high days of the fandom, but persist in the fanfic that still exists, despite most of it being Jossed by the addition of Genbu Kaiden and the novels published after the anime ended.
 * Ashitare (if he's not dismissed entirely) is written as having a full human form that is as Bishonen as any other guy in the manga, but this doesn't happen often because Ashitare is mostly undeveloped as a character.
 * Tomo and Soi are assumed to hate each other and are love rivals over Nakago; they're not, and they don't. They actually work very well together the one time they're shown doing so. If they aren't written as hating each other, they're usually friends instead, having bonded over having been sexually abused as children (canon in her case, fanon in his). In the same vein, Tomo's real name is usually given as Ruo or Ryo Chuin; the novels name him Ragun.
 * Before Genbu Kaiden, Uruki of the Genbu Seishi was usually written as a woman in fanfic because of the star Uruki is represented by. Hilariously, Uruki is a man... who must change into a woman to use his wind powers.
 * Whether Nuriko was in love with Miaka romantically or loved her platonically was a subject of fierce debate; the answer depends on whether you're a Yaoi Fangirl or not.
 * Mitsukake (if he's mentioned at all) is sometimes written as having been a military doctor, usually leading to him getting a power upgrade. The rest of the time he's a pacifist with lame healey-bubbleys, which conveniently forgets that his healing powers also exorcise demons.
 * Hikitsu and Tomite were often written as brothers.
 * Tasuki doesn't like women because of his four older sisters always giving him a hard time, fanfics usually write him as being gay, even if they're not yaoi fics.
 * Not helped by Yuu Watase giving a Word of Gay in regards to him. LOL.


 * There is no Dr. Hikari in Love Hina. The character was created by a fairly popular fanfic writer and has led some to believe that such a character actually exists in canon.
 * The Tiger and Bunny fandom has concluded that HeroTV has a forum filled with dirty fanfic... that some of the heroes (mostly Ivan/Origami Cyclone) participate in writing.
 * The Arashi no Yoru ni fandom strictly believes the film is romance based. The characters however never refer to each other as anything other then friends, though other series have used that term as a substitute for romantic ones. It helps that in the origin books Mei is gender neutral, though Word of God is he saw him as male.
 * Though Gun X Sword fans are divided as to which member of his harem would have been best for Van, most of the existing romantic fanfics pair him off with Wendy . Interestingly, several different pieces of continuation fic also assume that  works in a hotel or restaurant after the end of the series, despite there being no direct evidence of this in Distant Finale.
 * Pani Poni Dash! may not have one big fanbase like other examples, but if Kurumi Momose and Sayaka "#6" Suzuki are married to each other accourding to their Twitter pages, some people definately must have been quite dedicated on this. It hasn't spreaded through many more fans yet, but it's likely they might get quite some attention.