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.

Ranma ½

 * The name "Kimiko Tendo" tends to pop up with frightening regularity when referring to Soun Tendo's late wife, even though it originated in Fanfic.
 * For that matter, any given name for Soun's late wife originated in fanfic.
 * Saffron, the Phoenix King, is not a god, a demigod, or any other such thing, and never claimed to be one. Note that this doesn't stop Fanfic writers from claiming that Ranma "has killed a god", and then have the cast reacting with appropriate awe.
 * To note further, Saffron isn't even dead, as a couple panels after his death you see him in baby form held by Kiima, who is told by Ranma to "raise him right this time!"
 * One of the most Egregious examples of Fanon taking off (à la Akane turning in to a psycho-hose beast) is Ranma's refusal to fight women. He's never once said that, and in fact at least 40% of his fights are with women. The part that is true is that he has stated that he dislikes fighting women, and generally hold back against them, in the sense of trying to incapacitate without causing any damage, if he believes them to be sufficiently weaker to overcome in this manner, such as against Shampoo or Konatsu. The latter being the perfect example of Ranma's actual attitude, as he eventually dropped the approach after Konatsu proved too formidable to defeat in this manner. If they are stronger than himself, such as Herb, Cologne, and Rouge-Asura, or the situation is dire, such as with Kiima (who he simply opted to pin to a wall in their first less serious confrontation, but then buried in a rockslide in a more serious duel), he is perfectly willing to attack with full force, regardless if he is in male or female form.
 * One of the reasons for this belief among fans may be that Ranma explicitly states that he doesn't fight girls in the English dub of the first time he and Akane attend Furinkan High School together. Translations of the original Japanese, however, seem to suggest that Ranma is actually only stating his belief that he could never fight a woman and use his full strength. A subtle difference, and we are dealing with translation here, so degrees of interpretation are understandable.
 * Still more Ranma fanon holds the idea that long ago a Hibiki ancestor had a perfect sense of direction, only to one day suffer a family tragedy because he wasn't in the right place at the right time. In his grief this Hibiki made an exchange with the Kami, sacrificing the sense of direction for himself and for all future descendants; in return the Kami promised him that he and all his descendants would have the gift of always being in the right place at the right time to help his friends and family. Thus neatly explaining both Ryoga's lack of direction sense, and also why he always shows up at the right place at the right time. The only part that is stated in canon is that Ryoga's entire family is the same way, and it is here more portrayed as a mental handicap, but he occasionally does criss-cross over almost global distances (Africa, France, Hong Kong, Russia, he gets around) in comparatively brief time, but mostly stays within the span of Japan.
 * Akane's frustration with Ranma "not fighting back" or "not taking her seriously as a fighter" has only been mentioned a handful of times in the anime and manga tends to be interpreted in another manner than the blindsided "I'm a martial artist too and can do anything as well as you can" approach presented in fanon. In the source material, at the very least manga-version Akane knows her limitations full well, Ranma and Shampoo certainly tend to rub them in her face, and she is shown as extremely frustrated about her lack of success in this and various other areas. She has been shown as angered that Ranma won't train her, and "take her seriously" in that manner, but has no illusions whatsoever about her relative skill, and is trying extremely hard with everything, usually without any results, hence the frustration and need of guidance. However, she is shown to increase her samurai weaponry skills to Kuno's regular level, does turn more acrobatic, and in the anime at least grows considerably when directed by Ryoga. However, the regular dynamic of Akane being the Butt Monkey for the umpteenth time has twice been spoofed in 'karmic payback' situations when she has been given a temporary boost that allows her to recurrently effortlessly defeat Ranma whenever he challenges her.
 * Building upon the above another Fanon myth is that Akane does not try to get better or only relies on items, and that Ranma only gets upset about being shown up if it is done in this unfair manner. Leaving aside that the unfairness argument can extremely easily be used to include any advantage through potential, upbringing, contacts, ability, circumstances, lack of handicaps, etc whatsoever; Ranma himself has no compunctions against using artificial items to enhance his own power (the "noodle of pride", which rather turned out to give him 100x the resilience against overeating), nor did he make any statements about gaining an advantage "for free" (Akane has actually trained very hard) being the motivation for his jealousy. What has been shown is that he was blase about Akane being upset about being humiliated by Shampoo, then kept on challenging super strength Akane in arm-wrestling, and couldn't take it when the joke was on him for once, then literally cried in humiliation, jumped at the chance to get Akane's strength back to normal, and then kept on challenging her over and over again to thoroughly gloat about being stronger again. The skill-releasing dougi situation followed much the same procedure, including the howls of retaliation against the Moon, but Ranma here had the excuse that it was also an extremely annoying and perverted butt-in; and his pride has been similarly damaged to irrationality if a fiancée has stopped showing him attention, Ryoga constantly beats him, or something similar happens. As stated in the "weakness moxibustion" arc, Ranma's feel of self-worth mostly hinges on his physical power. He needs to feel at least somewhat admired by and stronger than his recurrent acquaintances, it's not at heart about how it happened, just about being ignored or overshadowed by people he is used to mostly getting the better of. Of course there is also some fanon that takes this too far in the other direction and makes him a full-blown chauvinist, rather than somewhat insecure.
 * The fact that Akane is a horrible martial artist, as said by every character ever in a non-Akane fanfic. Despite the fact that it's ridiculous how well Akane can instantaneously smash a mob of trained fighters in a single strike through the air-pressure alone without sustaining a hit, destroy stone-palisades in one blow, punt Ranma several kilometers, perform advanced acrobatics atop a giant dragon, fend off elite Winged Humanoid armed soldiers (including blocking their arrows out of the air from behind), can generate fear-inducing giant battle-auras, sense incoming danger, out pace everyone but Ranma and Shampoo in a race which included bicyclists and motorcycle/scooters while on a normal skateboard, and even grew enough to fight Kuno (who is at least as formidable as Ukyo or Shampoo in terms of raw ability, but also an unimaginative lunatic) to a draw in a sword fight, is just nuts. Most of this is either blind hate promoted by either their hatred of Takahashi's works in general, or the fact that they don't like Akane fans and thus take it out on her to piss them off. The oft-cited example of her lack of skill is her anger and lack of defense. The former is mostly exaggerated and ignores that Akane generally only hits Ranma when she loses it, and is even able to knock him out if sufficiently pissed off, but this is a case of Kung Fu movie blindness than an actual fault, seeing as even the most experienced swordsman will die from a knife to the back. It's even funny to see Ranma or Ryoga lecture her on it, seeing as they both have periods of Unstoppable Rage. An odd tidbit is that both pro- and con- sides tend to overlook that Akane has been shown as an awful lot more formidable when using samurai weaponry than when fighting in her usual barehanded ground karate/aerial kung-fu mixture style, for example being able to land hits on Ranma with her shinai, or that she is skilled with a wide range of it, including bow & arrows. Usually she is strictly displayed as an unarmed karateka and nothing more.
 * Akane's "terrible" skill gets parodied in this fanfic, with the author noting that while Akane sucks compared to Ranma, she only sucks in comparison and "real" people would be a total joke to her.
 * There's also quite a bit of Fanon surrounding Ukyo, most notably that she is someone that Ranma feels extreme closeness to and will recurrently use as an understanding ear for all of his troubles; the assertion that she was Ranma's first fiancée (contradicted both by Genma and Ukyo herself in her initial appearance); and the speculation that her father influenced her to give up her femininity and seek vengeance against the Saotomes, when neither the manga nor the anime imply it (and the idea that she herself was the one to come up with it is actually a much more intriguing prospect when you think about it). However, although Ranma does not confide in Ukyo, and was enthusiastic in finding ways to get rid of her when she turned romantically or sexually aggressive in the "secret sauce" story, "Ukyo as Ranma's best friend" is to some extent justified via deduction, narrowing down the list of potential suspects puts Ukyo in a pretty good position: she really is a friend, that he was quite delighted to see again; his relationship with her lacks much of the often violent conflict present with Akane or Ryoga (although he does love Akane, and stated that he sees Ryoga as a friend on certain occasions), and it is just as warranted as the Recurring Extras Hiroshi and Daisuke, or possibly Kasumi (who takes care of everyone in the household).
 * Ukyo being Ranma's "first fiancee" is actually true... From a Certain Point of View. Chronologically, the Tendo arrangement came first, but Ukyo was the first of his eventual love interests that Ranma actually met face to face; he met up with Ukyo when they were kids (typically suggested around six to ten years old), while he didn't meet up with Akane until he was a teenager and fresh from Jusenkyo.
 * Another bit of Fanon related to Ukyo is that "She's known Ranma since he was very little." This is incorrect at best, considering that, like everyone else Ranma meets before the first chapter, he has forgotten her when she reappears and thought she was a boy. This bit of fanon is especially jarring when bookended by accusations of abandonment that is far more accurate.
 * In a literal sense, this is true; Ranma and Ukyo did meet when they were small children, long before Ranma met Ryoga. And while Ranma mightn't have thought of her for a while, Ukyo certainly never forgot about Ranma.
 * A minor bit of fanon frequently shows up in fanfics that give Ranma an extended hospital visit for surgery or other serious treatment—that doctors, once aware of his curse, will always insist Ranma remain in female form because it's harder to trigger a change and thus cause unexpected further damage. The few times we actually see Ranma in a hospital in the source material, he's always in male form.
 * The belief that the Saotome home, in which Nodoka lives alone, is located in Azabu-Juuban.
 * In fanfiction, whenever Shampoo's favored weapons are mentioned, they are almost invariably named "bonbori", which is actually a kind of spherical lantern hung outdoors. In fact, it's only recently that they've begun to use the real name; chúi, an obscure form of Chinese mace, noted for being exceptionally heavy (those oversized heads are traditionally completely solid balls of steel).
 * Kuno's common ability in fanfic to summon lightning bolts—often out of a blue sky—just by announcing his self-given nickname of "Blue Thunder" is not only exaggerated, it's non-existent. The only time this ever happened was in Ranma's initial encounter with Kuno in the middle of a thunderstorm—it was a purely coincidental instance of Dramatic Thunder, and we never see anything like it happen again.
 * The anime does show it happening again on a handful of other occasions in the series, the likely source for this.
 * Somehow, someone got the idea that Pantyhose Taro augmented his "winged minotaur" form with Combat Tentacles by applying Spring Of Drowned Octopus water "to eight specific points on his back" (probably because, when splashed with Spring of Drowned Twins water, Happosai grew an extra bump on the head, since only his first bump got wet). This, despite him also being able to shot ink from his fingertips. The fact that Pantyhose Taro already has a composite curse, and therefore the Octopus addition would work the exact same way, would be the simplest explanation, but the fandom continues to come up with increasingly contrived methods for his mollusk abilities.
 * Some fans seem to take it as an article of faith that Kasumi secretly has a sex drive three times as powerful as that possessed by Happosai, or even more unlikely is simply a polite Stepford Smiler manipulative sadist (usually by people who identify with Nabiki to extreme degrees...).
 * Those who don't take that path often swing to the complete opposite end of the pendulum and turn her into a pseudo-Victorian prude. While she is the most conservative (and innocent) of the sisters, she's not repressed—for example, in a late-series Beach Episode, Kasumi wears the second smallest bikini (after Kodachi's dental-floss-and-postage-stamp number) of the entire female cast.
 * To hear it from some fans, Genma made dozens and dozens of Childhood Marriage Promises for Ranma in exchange for food. He only did that twice in the manga (although the anime also introduced Kaori Daitokuji, and a single other claimant in a filler anime episode) -- in Ukyo's case, it was her father who made the initial offer and Genma asked Ranma what he thought (and then stole the food cart anyway, but that's another issue). Conveniently, Fanon always forgets that Soun as well as Genma did trade off his (as of yet unborn and unspecified) daughter to pay for a meal at the Chardin restaurant, although in this case it was due to being on the edge of starving to death and not being informed of the immense cost beforehand, followed by blackmail.
 * The Shi Shi Hokodan uses the Battle Aura generated by a depressed, miserable person to unleash a crushing blast of spiritual force. At one point in the battle, Cologne call the technique a terrible one and that it's foolish to fight with it, likening it to two lions clawing at each other even as they tumble down a cliff. Though this is clarified to mean it's pointless to duel with the Shi Shi Hokodan (as the worse you're doing, the more powerful it is—but the better you're doing, the less powerful it is, so the fighters just end up seesawing back and forth until they pummel each other senseless), many fans adopted the stance that the Shi Shi Hokodan actually induces despair, causing a martial artist who learned and uses it to become more and more depressed and melancholy. This despite the fact Ryoga went out of his way to make himself as miserable as possible for the fight, so he could stay "focused" and beat Ranma no matter how well the fight went, his personality was unchanged in subsequent stories and Ryoga was, frankly, The Eeyore of the series anyway.
 * There's a whole "hierarchy of bust sizes" many fans subscribe to that puts Shampoo or Ranma at the top (oddly enough, in lemon Kasumi often seems to get top billing) and Akane and Ukyo at the bottom—especially in Ranma/Shampoo fics where this is presented as proof positive of her greater suitability, buxomness being next to goodliness, evidently. Actually, as far as manga canon goes the ONLY thing we know about relative sizes is that Ranma is bigger than Akane, and both grew over the series. The artwork varies a bit, but none of the girls are noticeably flat nor overly busty, so it's really impossible to assume ANYTHING beyond that.
 * Some fanfic authors tend to think that Ranma barely knows how to use weapons and is completely dismissive of anyone who would use them, whereas in the actual canon Ranma is repeatedly explicitly shown as a highly skilled staff fighter, which he can extend to spears and bokken. He also regularly makes use of anything within reach as a non-lethal Improvised Weapon, including stones and even using a pencil with amazing aim.
 * Some fans believe that Ranma does not show a strong reverence for life, to the point of being dismissive if he kills someone. However, this is inaccurate, as he tends to avoid killing combat even when an opponent more dangerous than himself is attempting to kill him, and saves any lives he notices in danger, including said people who just attempted to kill him and could pose a future danger, such as Herb, or people he genuinely despises, such as Happosai and Nabiki, even taking damage for their sake. On the other hand, when outclassed by the reprehensible Saffron, with Akane's life on the line, he stated that he would make a specific exception. He is obviously also not worried about knocking out superhuman opponents by burying them in rock slides of ambushing them with blunt objects from behind.
 * Genma is not fat. It's probably bleed-over from his panda form, plus the shapeless gi he wears, but a lot of fanfic writers tend to depict him as a blubbery mass of lard. While it's true that he's not slender (or as good looking as most of the rest of the regular cast), every time he's shown without clothes in the series, his build seems to be fairly flat-bellied for all his stockiness—in fact, the first time he's shown without his shirt on in the anime, he's shown with a six-pack. Its especially egregious in fics where Ranma is shown gagging at seeing Genma's allegedly bloated body nude when he is shown regularly bathing with his father all throughout the manga and anime.
 * Despite what is often shown in fanfics, Ranma actually does not use the Moko Takabisha technique that often. In fact he barely uses it at all after his fight with Ryoga.
 * It's also much more evident in the manga then in the anime. For example, he relies on a "Double Moko Takabisha", two blasts fired at once, as part of his gambit to beat Miss Hinako in the manga story that introduces her. Since his use of the technique was so rare and novel, the manga had to make an aside to explain what it was all over again.
 * Ranma does not stutter whenever he tries to say the word 'cat', nor does he fly into a panic whenever someone else mentions cats. The only time he shows this fear is when a cat is actually present.
 * According to most fanfiction out there, Ryoga only ever makes his entrances by jumping out of nowhere to try to kill Ranma, usually calling out "Ranma, prepare to die!" Even though Ryoga is, as far as pure fighting is concerned, one of the most honorable combatants in the series, and the only time he pulled the above was his introduction scene. For all the manga that came afterwards, if he's looking for a fight, as in, an actual duel, he always sends formal letters (or postcards) of challenge citing Ranma at a specific date and place. If he's simply angry about something (he thinks) Ranma did (to himself or Akane) and wants to vent, he also makes his presence known and THEN attacks, he never ambushes Ranma if he can help it. Ironically, it's Ranma who tends to show up out of nowhere to annoy Ryoga while the latter is distracted, either monologuing or deep in thought.
 * There is little evidence that Shampoo's village is especially hostile to men and absolutely none that suggests that the local men are enslaved. All we know is that Shampoo dislikes Mousse (in much the same way Ukyo dislikes Tsubasa,) that the village is particularly renowned for its fighting women, and that any warrior woman of the village is required to marry the outsider male who defeats her, saying nothing about local men one way or another. You could just as easily say that the village's laws are misogynist, and it hardly seems likely that Cologne would waste her time teaching advanced martial art techniques to a 'slave'. Amusingly, one (non-canon) PC Engine fighting game used Shampoo's father as a final boss, even after Cologne, and was the most formidable opponent in the game.
 * The idea that Cologne is some kind of high-ranked authority figure in her home village, which may or may not be portrayed as a Lady Land. This seems to stem entirely from the fact that her introductory anime episode was giving the title "This Old Gal's The Leader of the Amazon Tribe?". It's not likely in canon, given how she moved to Nerima without the slightest fuss and would have no problems staying there permanently, given how Shampoo's lie that she and Ranma are married and have settled in Nerima is swallowed so easily by the newspaper back in their village.
 * Which also brings up the idea that Cologne and Shampoo expect to take Ranma back to China once he weds Shampoo. Canonically, all they ever insist is that Ranma marry Shampoo (or, from their point of view, acknowledge that he is married to Shampoo); nothing about coming back to China is ever stated. Both the anime ("Here Comes Ranma's Mom!") and the manga (Pink & Link saga) actually heavily imply Shampoo wouldn't think twice about staying in Japan permanently if she does manage to catch Ranma. In the anime version, thinking Ranma is moving in with his mother, she comes running up with all her worldly goods and begs him to take her with him, as Cologne has okayed it. In the manga, she's quite content with lying to her village newspaper that she and Ranma are already married, they've merely chosen to stay in Japan.
 * Although it arguably originated as a joke in an early fic, by the late 1990's it became an automatic assumption that every Amazon has a name based on a toiletry item.
 * Gregg "Metroanime" Sharp originated a score or more named and fleshed-out supporting Amazon characters as part of his "Bet" multiverse. By the late 1990's-early 2000's they had begun to leak out into other writers' works.
 * Ranma's Jusenkyo Curse sometimes seems to incorporate a water-attracting clause more often than not, which typically is on some form of a timer and will cause a Contrived Coincidence to wet Ranma if he hasn't changed in too long. Often used as a Hand Wave Cerebus Retcon for the remarkably convenient buckets of water in more serious/Deconstructive fics seeking to do in the Rule of Funny. Other times, it's used as a Justification or Hand Wave for why Ranma gaining control over his curse doesn't automatically become a cure (since he'd never want to be a girl again); if the element of the curse forcing the transformation to occasionally occur isn't removed, the curse still has an impact, and Ranma has to accept being a girl sometimes, retaining that defining aspect of the character while removing much of the silliness associated with it and the convenient water.

Sailor Moon

 * Usagi is not a saint that refuses to kill or hurt anyone. She has killed someone or something in every canon she's been in. However, in the anime, Sailor Moon kills just two characters who are neither a puppet-like Monster of the Week, nor an Eldritch Abomination—though several more die when she deflects their attacks upon them or damages power-amplifying devices—and goes to extreme lengths to avoid killing anyone remotely human during seasons three through five. So it is not hard to see where this idea comes from. In the manga, she toasts quite a few evildoers.
 * The claim that Haruka is frequently mistaken for a man is mostly false, although due to Pronoun Trouble it is used as a introductory gag for some minor characters. Usagi, Minako, and Yoichiro (who all have loaded assumptions) do assume this during their first encounter with her, but the original reaction shot is of the other characters meeting Haruka but not connecting her with the "handsome guy" the two girls keep mentioning. The manga carries the charade of Haruka's gender a little longer as Usagi is the only one to meet her outside of battle for much of the Death Busters arc and she assumes Haruka is a man (especially when Haruka actually kisses her) and Haruka is even drawn significantly more masculine up until her identity as Sailor Uranus comes out. However, once Haruka's identity is discovered, she is shown as far more feminine, wears dresses from time to time, and even wears the female uniform when attending Juuban High in the last storyline (though apparently this is against her will). The anime significantly plays up her cross-dressing compared to the manga, to the point where Haruka is never seen in feminine clothes during the entire run of the show. Though this may have had a lot to do with the anime being directed at that time by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who loves characters like this.
 * It is also a common mistake that Sailor Saturn uses an actual attack power to destroy the world, often cited as "Silence Glaive Surprise" for the anime and "Death Reborn Revolution" in the manga. She actually uses no attacks or incantations of any kind—she only has to put the tip of her weapon to the ground. "Silence Glaive Surprise" is explicitly shown to be only a distraction in the anime and nothing actually happens until after the attack has ended and Saturn starts forcing her glaive down in the one scene in which she is seen to use either. In the manga, she is shown using Death Reborn Revolution several times with the world perfectly intact. When she is shown to destroy the world, she is shown bringing down her weapon, while saying that she must bring down her weapon, while several of the Senshi all say that her bringing down her weapon is the end of the world.
 * Sailor Saturn has a lot of these—it doesn't help that she's such an enigmatic character. She is frequently attributed to have the powers of "death and rebirth" and that she can recreate the world after destroying it. This is more Fanon—Sailor Moon is explicitly the only person who can create life, and in fact, the one time in the manga that Saturn destroys the world, she tells Sailor Moon that it's her job to bring it back to life. The most appropriate description is that she causes destruction so as to pave the way for new life.
 * A single scene in the manga has led many to believe that Setsuna is in love with Mamoru. The scene itself specifically refers to King Endymion, Mamoru's future self, and is somewhat open on this, but it's never referred to again and Setsuna never pays any special attention to him after she comes to Earth. This never appears in the anime at all. This hasn't stopped numerous fanfics from declaring Setsuna's unending love for Mamoru, or even having him reciprocate it so Usagi can be shipped elsewhere. In fact, the fanon on this subject is so strong that one of the musicals actually incorporated a duet where Queen Beryl and Sailor Pluto lamented their hopeless love for Endymion.
 * Speaking of Queen Beryl, she is played up as suffering from unrequited love for Endymion or even blaming her evil nature on this. This is somewhat supported by one line in the manga, though Beryl repeatedly killing him seems to suggest she got over it. This was also mentioned once in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon where she lists Endymion as something the Princess had that Beryl didn't. However, in the anime, she's already quite evil by the time she meets Endymion and her reaction towards him tends to be as a shiny bauble to play with or torment Sailor Moon over.
 * Yet another fanon example of "loves Mamoru/Endymion but can never have him" is Rei. This has a bit more basis than usual, since in the anime they dated for a while. However, aside from her comically explosive reaction to the revelation that Chibi-Usa is Usagi and Mamoru's future child, and episode 136 where Usagi's jealousy is played for laughs, it's never mentioned after the first season. Fanon ignores this so Rei can angst about the unfairness in life and how much she hates Usagi.
 * Because Chibi-Usa doesn't have the same eye or Hair Colors as Usagi and Mamoru there are many fanfics where one of them isn't her biological parent. The strange part comes when said non-parent is Usagi and Chibi-Usa is having her hair coloured/wearing eye contacts/is under a spell. No explanation is ever given to how Chibi-Usa can use the Silver Crystal and have the crescent moon mark of the Royal Moon family if she's not related to them, or how dying her hair pink and/or wearing red contacts makes her look more like the blond and blue-eyed Usagi.
 * The entire belief that people are being forced to obey Usagi because the alternative is to freeze to death or be sent into the far reaches of space. Not only are the only people stated to have been "exiled" there were criminals such as the mass murderer who eventually became Wiseman/Death Phantom but Usagi is flat-out stated to have been elected to her position in the future of Crystal Tokyo by the population of the world.
 * The belief that being "purified" leads to mind control. Purification is an anime-only thing, and is even there shown as the process of outside forces leaving your body. However purification works, what it isn't about enslaving people to one monochrome will, something that the Senshi's enemies often did and what they fought against tooth and nail against.
 * A good example being how when Usagi purified Rei's lecher grandfather when he turned into one of the Seven Great Youma in the Dark Kingdom arc of the anime. If we use the Crystal Tokyo-Fanon definition of purification he should no longer be a lecher but afterward he still was as big as one as ever.
 * The common belief that Senshi went out of their way to gain control of the planet either through mind control or as outright conquerors, or manipulating events so that Crystal Tokyo will come about. Heck, at the beginning of the series the girls are set on stopping the Dark Kingdom from destroying the Earth and by the end of the arc Usagi chooses not to recreate the Silver Millennium, wanting to live her life as a semi-normal school girl with her friends and family on Earth.
 * The Black Moon family is not a group of freedom fighters. The ancestors of the people who ended up on Nemesis are flat-out stated to be religious nuts who thought that the infinite power of the Ginzuishou and its ability to give people eternal youth went against God's will. They ended up willingly fleeing to Nemesis after being told by Wiseman that if they went there they could gain unlimited power. It should also be noted that the first action that the people of Nemesis took when they returned to Earth was to kill countless innocent people without mercy by bombing the planet and using poison gases on civilians simply because they believed long life went against God. Both sides also state the Black Moon's goals were only about the people's life span and trying to take over Earth.
 * The Black Moon inhabitants (most of them) are considerably more sympathetic in the anime though, where their enmity to Crystal Tokyo is the result of manipulations by Wiseman, who played on their desire to find a better place for themselves to live than barren Nemesis, where they ended up due to the crimes their ancestors did. They still are unquestionable dicks, due to listening to Wiseman and starting a massive war, instead of just asking Usagi politely if they can return to Earth, as well as abusing the destructive magical power of Black Crystal, which apparently had a subtler-than-usual This Is Your Brain on Evil effect.
 * The Utopian-Crystal Tokyo or mind controls Crystal Tokyo crap. There is still crime in Crystal Tokyo and people are still capable of being petty and selfish creatures. It's a better world but it isn't perfect. The few examples of people shown outside the Future-Senshi in Crystal Tokyo are the kids that bullied Chibi-Usa and some snobby politicians.
 * Setsuna as some figure of absolute order and/or stasis. Not only is it complete and utter fanon but it also happens to be the complete antithesis of her nature as the "Soldier of Change and Revolution".
 * The belief that Chaos in Sailor Moon represents "just a little chaos" or is anywhere close to being simply a source of change and growth is utterly false. Chaos in Sailor Moon canon hearkens back to the older myths of Chaos as a freaking primordial source of nothingness and destruction. Every terrible thing, every planet destroyed, every life lost in the SM-verse all lead back to him, corrupting Galaxia, Beryl and many others. Metallia, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90 and Nehellenia were all its incarnations.
 * And in the anime Chaos is plainly and unequivocally stated to be the the manifestation of malice and hatred. If you pay attention to what Galaxia says while under Chaos' control, you'll notice, that the motives she gives for, well, killing everyone in the Galaxy change every episode, only the "killing everyone" part stays constant—that it is her only actual goal.
 * Exactly, Chaos in Sailor Moon has less to do with the D&D alignment and more to do with the original Greek meaning of the word, which translates to "nothingness". That's why Usagi's future form is called Sailor Cosmos, which means the opposite, and the Galaxy Cauldron is watched over by Guardian Cosmos. Note that when the Big Bad of each arc is confronted, they appear as negative space.
 * The idea of Usagi representing "extreme order" or being a force of stasis. Usagi herself flat-out states the need for there to be change and growth in the universe, no matter how painful that it might be at times. That at times fighting was necessary for a better future. Of how the end of a war would lead to hope for the future and how it was all part of a balance. However Usagi can be considered the avatar of a type of order. The Order that exists in the universe now and allows a universe to have handy little things like, say, laws of nature that allow us, planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies, and so on and so forth to exist. If you consider the universe as a massive clock, then you might say that her job is make sure that the gears continue to spin and to keep anyone from attempting to stop or destroy said gears.
 * The portraying of Usagi as some Valley girl or crybaby post-series. She beat back several demonic invasions, saved the world several times and managed to redeem an enemy that had supposedly wiped out all life in the galaxy/universe depending on whether you're using the manga or anime. Not to mention several times in anime going to what was certain death for her but being willing to do so anyway. Hell, in the manga Usagi is shown through the series growing into a highly charismatic leader and skilled fighter. And even in the anime (where Usagi tends to be a paler reflection of her manga counterpart) she is shown growing at least some. And while she might have quite a bit of growing to do before she ever reaches the level of the manga version, she is slowly maturing. The dub on the other hand is without hope.
 * The false belief that Senshi barely have enough power to destroy a house if that. Setting aside that Sailor Saturn's world-destroying power alone disproves that, Usagi during the first arc was shown able to use her healing abilities as a mass area effect to cover all of Tokyo and was also capable (with Mamoru's help) of resurrecting the entire world at the end of said arc as well. By the middle of the series Usagi easily had enough raw power to destroy the planet. And by the end of series Usagi's abilities have taken another large jump. And while the rest of the Sol-based Senshi are a fair bit behind her, they're still pretty damn powerful by the standards of a magical girl. This is somewhat created by the anime tending to show the Senshi as a whole as only rarely finishing off the Monsters, with Sailor Moon usually doing it, and much of the bigger events of the manga didn't make the anime.
 * The idea that Chibi-Usa acted like a brat simply because she was a brat. Despite technically being nine hundred years old, her mind was that of a six-year-old kid and like most six-year-olds not only is she often childish but she doesn't always think things through or all that logically. She not only spent the majority of childhood with Setsuna as the person closest to her do to both Usagi and Mamoru being busy with government matters. But was also bullied and harassed by other kids for not being able to grow and who told her how she wasn't the Queen's daughter because she was never seen with the Ginzuishou and being a little kid she took it as a way to prove herself to them. Unfortunately Nemesis happened to bomb Crystal Tokyo just minutes later causing millions within the city to die and for all she knew her mom as well. She had to walk by corpses and know it was her fault that this had happened. But wait there was a way to fix this if she went back into the past and the hero Sailor Moon fixed everything her mother and people would be alive. In her mind her mom would probably hate her but she would at least be alive to do so. Brainwashing a family in order to have a roof over her head simply didn't seem that big of a trade off to save her mother and her whole world especially to a six year old.
 * The idea that Queen Nehellenia is Queen Serenity's sister. She is designed to look like a dark reflection of Serenity, but that's it. This might stem from a scene in the manga where Serenity asks where Nehellenia comes from (which wouldn't be so much of a mystery if they were sisters), and Nehellenia replies that the two of them share a common origin. This is a general thing about light and darkness coming from the same place (i.e. the Galaxy Cauldron introduced in the next arc).
 * Mamoru hardly dumps Usagi at the drop of a hat and he isn't an uncaring jerk who cheats on her constantly. He dumped her once because he had been having nightmares warning him that if they stayed together she would be in danger. It's true he handled the matter poorly, but considering the preferences of the guy in charge this isn't so surprising.
 * For that matter, he doesn't hate Seiya. They met only one time (in the anime, never in the manga), and it was amiable. While Seiya disliked Mamoru from afar for a while, it was because she was under the false impression he had dumped Usagi.
 * In the manga, there is no canon answer about what celestial bodies the Sailor Starlights represent. In the anime, it's implied to be the three moons of Kinmoku - when Kinmoku is shown, it has three small moons that are the same colors as the Three Lights' roses.

Naruto

 * Up until The Reveal, fans had a long-standing theory that the Fourth Hokage's name was Arashi. This had apparently come about through the misunderstanding of a scene in the manga where Jiraiya lays out his frog summoning contract, clearly revealing the place where the Fourth's name was written. The writing itself was illegible nonsense, with Word of God holding that the Fourth's handwriting was at fault from an in-world perspective. That didn't stop fans from trying to piece it together or photoshop in the blanks, though.
 * Fanon proclaimed that the majority of the Kyuubi's fight ended when the Hokage arrived on Gamabunta and immediately performed the sealing. Recent chapters reveal.
 * Related to this is the reason Naruto was chosen as the host of the Kyuubi. Fanon was that  However, the context was way off the mark: Fanon held that his reason was he was the Hokage and so   The actual reason was because
 * Also, he usually tells everyone (Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi and the Third Hokage) not to say anything about him or his wife until
 * Also fanon is the notion that only a newborn could hold the Kyuubi without dying.
 * This false theory extended to all Bijuu, but after the revelation that Bee was made a Jinchuriki at age five, Yugito at age 2,
 * Fanon holds that Iwa holds a nearly psychotic grudge against the 4th Hokage for his victory in the war which would extend to if they knew. Canon does tell us that  is a secret because the 4th had enemies but never who.
 * It's also common in war fanfics for Iwa to follow the mantra of "quantity over quality" in its ninja forces compared to Konoha's smaller and more elite forces. Ironically, the second databook tells us that Konoha is the most populous ninja village (5 v. Iwa's 4 stars), and Iwa is tied with Kumo for the greatest military strength (4 v. Konoha's 3 stars). The fanon could still be true, but with the spotlight shining on the other villages in the Fourth Shinobi War, we're starting to see that they have their own share of unique bloodlines and legendary ninja.
 * Iwa shinobi are often attributed brutish qualities. Akatsuchi and Kitsuchi have a stocky build, but act far more like a Gentle Giant, while Deidara & Onoki are Fragile Speedster types.
 * It's hard not to find a Naruto fan fic that doesn't make reference to "the Council". If the writers are to be believed, this Omniscient Council of Vagueness can trump anything the Hokage does, to the point where one wonders why they even bother having a Hokage. The closest thing to this in the source material is the council seen following Pain's attack. Its membership includes the well-known elders along with several prominent ANBU and jounin. Unlike the out-of-control council in fanon, this one was directly overseen and subservient to both the Hokage and the daimyo.
 * The fanon Konoha Clan Council usually contains no clans other than those the Rookie 9 belong to (plus Sarutobi). While it makes sense to avoid too many OCs, it does seem odd that a village that size would have so few clans, given how small some of the minor clans (Nara, Akamichi) seem to be.
 * Also, said council could banish Naruto just for bringing back Sasuke and blaming him for everything, while Sasuke gets away scot-free with the Konoha 11 (minus Sakura especially, and sometimes Kakashi) hating him for it.
 * According to a lot of fic, the Hyuuga family also has a "Council" that basically makes Hiashi a figurehead and what's more, there are living Main Family members besides Hiashi, Hinata and Hanabi. Lots, in fact, but for some reason the Head's twin brother and his son were not a part of this group. An old man is shown talking to Hiashi in the flashback of just before Hizashi's death, and it is possible that he outranks Hiashi, since Hiashi's decision to sacrifice himself to avoid war with the Cloud Village is overruled.
 * There is a shot when Neji is talking about the "Main Branch" that illustrates almost a dozen. Also, there is a Mist-nin with a transplanted Byakugan later in the manga which implies that there must be at least some main family members beyond Hiashi's immediate line. Author plot hole, likely.
 * Ao could have taken the Byakugan from a Branch Family member. He would just need to do take it before he killed the guy he got it from.
 * One of the most continuous beliefs in Fanfic (and Jossed by Word of God) is that Uchiha and Hyuuga had a rivalry of who was the "strongest" clan of Konoha, probably by the trash talk in the Chunnin Exam. It is actually between the Uchiha and the Senju, the co-founders of Konoha who had a rivalry transcending centuries since the conception (by the Sage of Six paths-figuratively and literally) of the "Ninja World". In fact Tobi in canon has shown complete indifference to the Hyuuga and by canon alone it made the Hyuuga look like the Clan version of the Kid Samurai compared to the Uchiha.
 * Similar to the Council, according to a lot of fanfic, Naruto was basically physically abused as a child. The frequency varies from regularly, to annually (anniversary of Kyuubi attack). There is absolutely NO canon evidence to support this, and the only thing that the villagers were shown to do is ignore him, insult him behind his back, and maybe glare at him.
 * Some fanfiction even has Naruto subject to repeated assassination attempts before the series start. Not only is there absolutely no canon evidence to support this, it is also in contradiction with the fact that Leaf is a military village and the Hokage would almost certainly swiftly execute anybody who tried. You'd think it might have come up when Gaara's backstory came up if his childhood was that bad.
 * Nearly all fics with abuse and many without hold that there's an annual festival on October 10 to celebrate the defeat of the Kyuubi. This results in anything from annual, near-fatal beatings by drunks and vandalism of his apartment to him simply never celebrating his birthday.
 * The fanon idea of hostile sabotage against Naruto by his teachers is often used to justify Marty Stu power-ups when such sabotage is taken away. No, he's not a hyperactive, poor at concentrating, late bloomer—he was supposedly never taught to read or was tested differently or taught wrong.
 * While fanon does tend to grossly exaggerate it into a conspiracy of outright sabotage, some of the anime filler does indicate that Naruto's non-Iruka instructors were not trying particularly hard to educate him.
 * Also some fanfiction have him Obfuscating Stupidity so that the villagers won't try and kill him but they'll still beat him.
 * Naruto fanon's extreme physical abuse leads many authors to assume that he must have been aware of his ability to heal rapidly since early childhood. However, Naruto shows no awareness of this ability when it first appears after stabbing his hand to bleed out poison.
 * Later on, he puts on Hinata's ointment, and assumes that it's why his wounds are healing quickly, rather than the fox's chakra.
 * Similarly, Naruto is immune or at least resistant to poisons due to his fast healing. Based on a recent chapter where he began foaming at the mouth due to a poisoned kunai and was still queasy even after treatment, this seems unlikely.
 * Fanon also likes the idea that shopkeepers conspired to overcharge Naruto or deny him service or flat out sell him low-quality/spoiled goods. In (anime) canon, Naruto does get kicked out of a store once, but it's for reading pin-up magazines without any intention of paying for them and not for being who he is.
 * And Naruto forgives all of them anyway despite not knowing why he was abused in the first place. Unless, it's Team 7.
 * And despite this the Sandaime does nothing but cry and contemplate on his failure.
 * Also when the subject of Naruto's parents come up the excuses are either: that it's for his protection from his parents' enemies or is expected to Go Mad from the Revelation.
 * Also it usually it the parents' fault for they conveniently wrote some time in their will and told others not to tell him anything until he's strong enough. All within a night when the strongest Bijuu is attacking the village and his mother is practically half-dead.
 * Fanon also states that Sasuke got preferential treatment from the villagers before his Face Heel Turn, but we don't see much of this beyond his fangirls. In fact, in light of how the Uchiha clan was treated from the time of the Kyuubi's attack to the massacre, this seems doubtful.
 * Well, we only have Tobi's word on the Uchiha clan being persecuted by the village, and he's not exactly the most reliable source. It's true that the leadership of the village distrusted the Uchiha clan, but there's no indication that sentiment extended to the general population. In fact, it's likely that it didn't, because the circumstances surrounding the Kyuubi attack were secret.
 * A common fanon trope is that Kakashi favors Sasuke to the detriment of Naruto and Sakura and spends time teaching him special moves out of favoritism. He had done this  once  in the manga in the Chunin Exams and with good reason. Sasuke was facing Gaara, a known bloodthirsty Axe Crazy killer who had killed Genin in the exam before and had tried to kill a Rock Lee right in front of multiple other Leaf Ninja and then attempted to kill Rock Lee again in the hospital. Meanwhile Neji had tried to kill Hinata, but he only really had a grudge against the Main Branch and the worst he would probably do to Naruto would be to just beat him up. Gaara was definitely far more dangerous and psychotic compared to Neji. Sasuke needed everything he could get against an opponent like that. Kakashi was also worried about Sasuke's mental state because of the Curse Seal, and he thought that Orochimaru might try to come after him again.
 * It should be noted that  has confirmed, at least, the overcharging and kicking out of the shops. Naruto, obviously, just hugs him and chooses to ignore what he said.
 * mainly focused on how hypocritical it seemed for the village to go from hating Naruto to viewing him as a hero. Unbeknownst to Naruto, Iruka's flashback montage showed the process to be gradual, going from hatred to disbelief at his accomplishments to starting to respect him, to showing sympathy for his troubles (failing to bring Sasuke back, being threatened by Akatsuki and ). Naruto responds that what's most important is his own belief in himself.
 * Also, Naruto and Hinata are sometimes hit with a Zero-Approval Gambit by the "Council/Hyuuga"
 * The same applies for a legal statute found in Harem Fan Fiction commonly referred to as the Clan Restoration Act. This law states that the last male of a clan may practice polygamy in order to increase the number of children with his or her Bloodline so that the military power of the village will increase and that one untimely death will not truncate a genetically powerful family tree.
 * This is not so much fanon as a popular tool used to explain away multiple pairings for a fan fiction's favored character. It's doubtful anyone takes this seriously.
 * One of the most commonly held fanfiction beliefs is that Naruto routinely evades ANBU despite wearing a bright, orange jumpsuit. Naruto has never done this in canon. The closest thing to it was Naruto evading a crowd of Chunin and then getting caught shortly later by Iruka, his teacher. This also brings up the question why ANBU, elite special forces, would be sent to track down a child prankster.
 * This is also often used to justify/justified by giving Naruto fox-enhanced super-senses, usually a heightened sense of smell or hearing on the level of an Inuzuka.
 * Speaking of orange, fanfic Naruto's choice of orange is frequently criticized by his peers and must be justified because it should "obviously" impair stealth. In the series, no one says anything about it, other characters wear outfits that are just as flamboyant (e.g. Jiraiya), and it never acts as a hindrance; some characters have jutsus that enhance concealment.
 * It is fairly common belief (and device in fanfiction) that Naruto's short height is caused by malnutrition due to him living almost entirely on ramen. Given that he's significantly taller after the Time Skip, he either must have changed his diet or was just a late bloomer in the first place.
 * Compared to this is the constant belief that Sakura had so low level Chakra and stamina (which she doesn't, it just that Naruto and Sasuke had enormous capacities for a genin) because she went on a severe diet and skipped lunch thanks to he Fan girl-ism. Forget a moment that Sakura graduated at the top of her class by brains alone, the whole diet thing was a one-time joke in the Manga and appeared a second time during the "cook nin" episode and it showed the entire Kunoichi population in the phase. And this is not only haters since even "redeeming" fics go with it.
 * Related is the notion that Naruto has unlimited chakra and stamina thanks to the fox. On the contrary, Naruto does get tired and does run out sometimes. (e.g. Tree climbing with Sasuke.)
 * The classic, "uses too much chakra" explanation for why Naruto can't use the normal Clone Jutsu, but can use the Shadow Clone jutsu is pure fan theory. Ebisu explains during the Chunin Exam arc that while Naruto draws up more chakra than is necessary when performing jutsu, he would end up putting less than he needed into the jutsu, and wasting the rest. Note that even during the Tree-climbing exercise during the mission in Wave Country, the times Naruto failed to climb the tree, it was because he wasn't releasing enough chakra through his feet to stick to the tree, as compared to Sasuke, who constantly released too much, cracking the wood underfoot and launching him off the tree.
 * The several Naruto Fan Fiction writers gave the third Hokage's given name as Sasuke, after the famous ninja Sarutobi Sasuke. One of the guide books revealed his given name to be Hiruzen, and he is later referred to by his first name by Minato and Danzo.
 * In chapter 500, Hiruzen's father is revealed to have been named Sasuke.
 * Naruto fanfiction writers also seem to be under the impression that Naruto and the Kyuubi are the best of friends, that they have a mind link, and that Kyuubi refers to Naruto as "kit", despite canon evidence that the Kyuubi is highly resentful of being sealed within him and would most likely tear him to shreds if given the chance. Also, Naruto and the Kyuubi only communicate when Naruto is in his mindscape (although funnily enough, both a casual relations and easy communication between a host and tailed beast turned out to be true for the eight-tails host).
 * A sizable portion of those fanfiction writers also believe that the Kyuubi is female, despite his incredibly gravelly voice and male mannerisms. And can turn Naruto female. Or the very least enable pregnancy.
 * Since Kyuubi's seal is the weakest at childbirth, it would be an huge advantage for the Kyuubi to enable pregnancy.
 * In fics where the Kyuubi is female and friendly, when ever these facts are revealed to the Sandaime/the jounin, someone will ask something along the lines of "It's female?" and either Naruto (speaking for the kyuubi) or if present Kurenai will make a big deal about "The strongest creature in existence" being female.
 * Fanon often holds that the Kyuubi is strongly associated with fire, probably because of the color of its fur and chakra, despite never showing any fire powers. At least until the Loony Tunes version of the Invasion of Pain arc.
 * Fanon sometimes portrays Kyuubi as a Summoning boss like Katsuya.
 * Also, in some stories Kyuubi can take over Naruto at the drop of a dime.
 * He can even manipulate his genetics such as give him bloodlines or teach him new techniques or something.
 * Also, its seems that only Sakura and Sasuke knows about Kyuubi. It hasn't necessarily been mentioned but it has been heavily implied judging from Hinata's reaction after Kabuto said that Naruto held Kyuubi.
 * ...and then recent developments in canon about the nature of the tailed beasts and the relationship between Naruto and the Kyuubi happened and oh god with the irony...
 * Evidently the Akatsuki live in the same building and share the same facilities, despite the fact that most of them don't even seem to know one another and are constantly on the move in pairs with minimal contact beyond the sealing ritual.
 * Word of God actually states that pairs of members each get their own rooms when they stay at inns, for whatever reason.
 * Probably because most members hate the guts of their partners.
 * And let's not forget the most elaborate Fanon theory of all: "The Legend of the Tailed Beasts". Fans believe it to be a real Japanese myth which Kishimoto bases the designs of the beasts from. It drew upon both Japanese and Chinese mythologies, involving The Eight Immortals and several species of Youkai. The story, in actuality, is a Japanese fanfiction, and even though the author has admitted it to be fake, most fans still believe that's how they really look like. But that may change as recently their true forms and their most recent hosts have all been revealed in an recent artbook.
 * The Sharingan being a genetic offshoot of the Byakugan was stated to be a rumor and even then only mentioned once, but almost everyone took this to be undeniable evidence and started getting pissy when.
 * Fans sometimes believe that in the flashback regarding Hinata joining Team Kurenai, Hinata was essentially disowned by her father and adopted by Kurenai, despite her later being seen at the Hyuuga compound before leaving to train with her team in the anime. In the manga, Hinata is accompanied by a Hyuga branch member in the Pain Invasion, and she implies in the anime that she was left in charge while Hiashi and Hanabi were away. Another similar concept is that Hanabi has been promoted to heiress over Hinata over her superior ability (although given that Hiashi's statement is before Hinata Took a Level in Badass, it's unclear whether this holds).
 * Something between fanon and just a misconception is that the puppets Sasori made that looks like his parents are made out of their corpses. Actually, he made them from regular materials when he was a child, long before he went crazy enough to do such a thing, and the only known human puppets were made from Hiruko, the Third Kazekage, and himself.
 * Naruto's Sexy Technique is somehow special and different from a normal Transformation Technique. Common fanon holds that a normal transformation is just an illusion, and that Naruto's technique is a full shapeshift. In fact, there is ample evidence that all transformation techniques physically change the character. (e.g. Gamabunta asking to be changed to gain claws to use against Shukaku, Sasuke not freaking out at Naruto turning into a shuriken before successfully throwing him, etc.) Fanon holds that this is a unique, fox-granted ability of Naruto or the result of him learning the technique wrong due to teacher neglect.
 * Related to the above, a lot of fans seem to be under the impression that the transformation and the basic clone technique are genjutsu. They're actually both ninjutsu. As mentioned previously, the transformation is an actual physical change, and the clone, while lacking substance, is a chakra construct created outside the body, as opposed to genjutsu, which works by pushing chakra into the target to make them see a false image. Genjutsu can be broken by pain or stopping the flow of chakra; this doesn't work on clones.
 * Fanon often holds that, despite creating the Sexy Technique, Naruto is kind of... puritanical towards perverts. It's true that Naruto gives any adult he nails with the technique loads of disrespect for being perverts and hates the Icha Icha series, but he's not so innocent himself as shown in the anime by how he trains Konohamaru in the Sexy Technique.
 * Another piece of fanon routinely declares all Rookie 9 members to be clan heirs, though usually and sometimes Naruto are left out. Only Hinata, Choji, Shikamaru, and Sasuke's fathers are canonically clan heads.
 * This is a subject of Lampshade Hanging in some fics, with it being noted that it is an incredible coincidence that all the clan heads just happened to produce children/heirs at the same time. Some fics even suggest that the clans planned this (particularly the Ino-Shika-Cho trio of clans)
 * Tenten is almost invariably the daughter of a weapons shop owner or blacksmith in fanon as an explanation for where she gets her weapons & interest in them. A few authors have also adopted the last name Higurashi for her.
 * Also, she and Hinata happen to be best friends. She roots for Neji (or at least thinks with pleasure that he will win) in his fight with Naruto, despite him almost killing Hinata.
 * Another thing, her and Kurenai are usually portrayed as feminists and the reason they became Kunoichi was to prove that women are stronger than men. Besides Shikamaru, no one in-universe have ever mentioned it.
 * Tenten's xharacterization is based off two scenes. When Ino and Sakura are not seriously fighting against each other in the anime, Neji asks if this is the extent of the rookie kunoichis' skills, and Tenten says "It's not because they're girls, Neji", and suggests that their personal rivalry is at play. Tenten also notes that her dream is to become a powerful kunoichi like Tsunade.
 * Itachi loves his Pocky and will go to any lengths for it. His favorite foods are actually cabbage and onigiri with seaweed and one of his hobbies is visiting sweet shops.
 * This was actually born from a Fanfic called "Never cut Twice" where it's used as a comic running gag, along with exposition. You can read it from the Fanfic Rec page.
 * Anko and Kurenai are alleged to be best friends but have only appeared in the same room once in the entire series; even then, Anko was a proctor standing with the Hokage while Kurenai was standing across the room with her students. Probably based on the scene where Kurenai claimed to be out buying dango for Anko (as an excuse for being seen hanging around with Asuma).
 * There is also the Fanon belief that Anko is a hypersexual, deranged sadist and poison mistress with almost no self control, that she's partially alcoholic, is part of the Torture and Interrogation Team, and is derided for being "the traitor's student". In her brief scenes and filler arc she showed herself to be friendly, energetic, hyperactive, and tomboyish, if kind of creepy and nonsensical—a lot like a female Naruto in many ways. She had a good relationship with her comrades, and liked being a chunin examiner. Her favorite hobby is the Tea Ceremony, and her only sexual act so far is wearing a Stripperiffic outfit and licking a kunai creepily to spook Naruto. The Fanon belief seemed to grow from the kunai incident and the fact that Ibiki and she worked as proctors during the chunin exam.
 * In the manga, Anko licked Naruto's face instead of the kunai, which is a bit more... invasive.
 * There is also a misconception that Anko is "strong". In truth, while she's earned her Special Jounin position, that's all she's earned. She's easily outclassed by all of the Jounins introduced.
 * "Sabaku no Gaara" Gaara's nickname is usually thought to be his last name and is passed on to his siblings.
 * Sometimes Kurenai, Tenten, Temari, Anko, and even rarer times Kushina would usually have the extremely dull nickname *insert specialty* mistress of insert village.
 * Another Fanon concept fanfiction users use is that the minimum age requirement for graduating the academy is 12. Despite the fact that Konohamaru who was 11 was a genin at the time. A subset of this also insists that Naruto was in fact two years older than the rookies as a result of delayed graduation, canon be damned.
 * It does raise the question of why the "genius" Uchiha Sasuke, driven to become strong enough to kill his brother as soon as possible, didn't even make his first attempt to graduate from the academy until Naruto had already tried and failed twice, despite them being the same age...
 * The Bunshin (clone) Jutsu of the Academy is implied to be at least 90% of your grade because if you fail that, then it's over. Which is a case of Fridge Logic since Lee passed it.
 * Also, usually it's stated that after they graduate the team assignments are usually scheduled the next day.
 * Usually the Jounin's name is announced during assignment despite not being the case in the anime or manga.
 * Team 9 is usually Team Gai or otherwise not assigned, despite Iruka announcing Team 9 in the background in the anime. Unfortunately, we never hear their names, so this is mainly a matter of convenience, though no one minds ignoring Teams 1-6.
 * "Team Gai" is Fanon, but only in the sense that they haven't been called that way in Canon; it's used for convenience, or as a Fan Nickname, if you will. It's not incorrect, though. The team is called "Team Gai" because Neji was stated in canon to be "the previous year's number one rookie," which means he wasn't in the same graduating class as the rookie 9. We don't know what their actual number was. The team 9 called out by Iruka in episode 3 was team 9 for that graduating class and so it has nothing to do with Neji, Tenten or Lee—it's just three random genin that get ignored because they're not main characters, just as it happens with teams 1-6.
 * In the anime, Team 9 is presumably called out while Ino is talking with Sakura and Shikamaru.
 * Also, every female hates Jiraiya's work, and will gladly burn or otherwise destroy Icha Icha at every opportunity. Major offenders are Kurenai and Kushina, and the one female who may not mind is Anko, who Fandom has decided, Really Gets Around. Never mind the fact that, apart from maybe Tsunade, no one cares. And even then it is more about Jiraiya than his books, which she seems ambivalent about. Kurenai apparently gives major flak to Kakashi for reading it in front of minors, despite no one ever caring in-universe, and Kushina liked Jiraiya enough to let him name her son.
 * Icha Icha Paradise however if it wasn't for the 18 sticker or if you look at the title you could never guess that it was inappropriate.
 * There are also things that extend to Icha Icha; for example, they have been around for years - long enough that people like Minato and Kushina will give him flak - this is doubtful, considering his first book, not Icha Icha, came out barely months before the Kyuubi attack. The idea he writes about people around him (and poorly disguises their names) is also fairly common. Related to this is the idea that the main female of the first novel at least is a busty blonde. Finally, there have only been 3, maybe 4, books confirmed, while many more can be made up into a whole collection.
 * Also in a Shipping fic, he's usually scribbling in his notebook about Naruto's female relationships.
 * Finally, it is apparently a bad idea to get between Kakashi and his porn. About as bad as Itachi and pocky. Granted, this at least has a little evidence to support it, but still, there is a difference in having an old copy you have read before destroyed and going nuts, and covering your ears and eyes to prevent spoilers from the newest edition you haven't read yet.
 * Another thing is that Kakashi has no shame in reading aloud in front of others. In actuality, when became a plot point Kakashi got so flustered just by the thought of reading a single word.
 * Another thing is that Icha Icha is always orange despite Violence being red and Tactics being green.
 * Also Kakashi has always been portrayed as having massive favoritism towards Sasuke because of Obito was an Uchiha and he hates Naruto practically spitting on his sensei and Obito's sacrifice and ninja code.
 * To the point that he states time and time again on how he's the only who can teach Sasuke about his Sharingan.
 * Power Levels are frequently discussed, often using "Sannin-level" or "Kage-level" despite the fact that there is no set standard for these positions. Kages can be weaker than their subordinates but more trustworthy and skilled; the Sannin is a title given to Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru; each of whom has different strengths and skills.
 * It is popular for fans to use "Tier Lists" in regards to the level of power of each named character in the series(God-tier,High-Low Kage-tier, High-Low Jonin-tier, etc),especially on GameFAQs, where several fan-favorite characters get their Memetic Badass status as their own tier(GameFAQs Jiraiya can kill anyone with Swamp of the Underworld, GameFAQs Minato can't be hit with any attacks because he's to fa-, GameFAQs Itachi only needs to use Tsukuyomi to defeat the entire cast, and said cast has a better chance of defeating all the Bijuu in existence then they do at hitting the Raikage with any of their attacks.
 * Relatedly, the ability of a village leader to announce themselves as a Kage when their village has previously lacked such a distinction is a dubious prospect. Lesser villages are led by jounin bosses, not Kages. Orochimaru as "Otokage" is the most common offender. In (anime filler) canon, only the master of Hidden Star had the brass balls to call himself a kage without being the leader of the 5 major villages, and hoped the star would enable his village to become a great nation.
 * Also considering the fact that Sannin is just a nickname meaning "Three Ninjas," not a ninja class.
 * The concept of 'seduction missions' has been repeatedly brought up. (Further details may cause readers to repeatedly bring their most recent meals up.) There is no canonical evidence of this.
 * That's not so much Fanon as it is taken from how real life ninjas worked. Most people don't mistake it for the real Naruto, they just prefer it.
 * Hinata's relation to her immediate family tends to vary. In canon there's no evidence to prove she had any ill-treatment or that any of her family members hate her, especially not her sister (who doesn't even have a personality other then her being loyal and apparently sweet, wondering how Hiashi survived the demands for his death and showing concern as he went off to see Neji). In fanon however Hiashi is anything from a father that disowned his oldest daughter, a hidden Papa Wolf to both his children, to a ruthless, abusive, sexual abusing, Complete Monster who plans on either branding Hinata or killing her and only cares for Hanabi. Hanabi gets similar treatment. She can either be a caring little sister who looks up to her big sis, a cold Sugar and Ice Personality, the complete opposite of Hinata and her clans parallel to Sasuke (who may or may not love her sister), a generic annoying little sister, a determined destiny fighter.. Or an abusive, sarcastic, tattle-tale, liar of a sister who loathes her sibling, or simply a scared little girl who believes she has to constantly prove herself to be better than her sister in order to avoid being branded with the Caged Bird Seal.
 * In fanon Kiba has always had Akamaru ever since he was a child despite the fact it has been stated that Akamaru is 3 in the original Naruto.
 * Jinchuuriki can identify each other at a simple glance. In canon Gaara and Naruto never knew the other was a jinchuuriki until he admitted it to him.
 * Funny enough, this might be canon as Bijuus can speak to other Bijuus telepathically through their Jinchuurikis if they want to. If this happens, it would tip off each Jinchuurikis that there is another Jinchuuriki in their presence/nearby.
 * In canon, the existence of "bijuu" as a series of creatures and the concept of "jinchuuriki" is a Retcon. If you reread the chuunin exam arc with the benfit of hindsight it's painfully obvious that Shukaku and Kyuubi weren't meant to be actually related and Naruto and Gaara were merely meant to be "similar" (young boys who'd had monsters sealed inside them and had grown up lonely and neglected as a result). For one thing, Shukaku's nature and powers are NOTHING like any of the other bijuu to appear; for another Gaara actually explains the backstory of the Shukaku in chapter 97 and not only is it not a "tailed beast", it was once a HUMAN.
 * Another widespread idea is "ANBU are unstable/insane/frighteningly sane" because they do all the dirty jobs, like assassinating children or the like. Though it seems likely the elite would be given such tasks, we know nothing of the sort of missions the regular jounin are given, and the few ANBU who have appeared so far seem relatively normal.
 * Aside from Root, anyway.
 * Another idea is that Sakura knows of Naruto's crush which is not true; in fact Sai of all people had to reveal it.
 * She knew about his crush. She didn't realize he was actually in love with her.
 * In Fan Art there is Kakashi's red scarf. At least 60% of drawings showing Kakashi as an ANBU will include it, yet the only evidence is a 5s scene in one of the films, where the scarf—if that is what it was—was brown.
 * Another idea was that Team 8 knew each other from the get go.
 * Many fanfics have Hinata fainting at the mere mention of Naruto. She has only fainted twice: once when Naruto was in the hospital after failing to retrieve Sasuke and her first appearance in Shippudden when Naruto practically jumped in front of her for the first time in two and a half years.
 * Of course, her Flanderization in the anime probably encouraged that notion.
 * Another thing is that EVERYBODY knows about her crush. But this has never been mentioned - hinted a few times but never stated.
 * As well as her stuttering problem every time she talks. This depends on the translation, but in most cases, she will talk normally around people besides Naruto.
 * Lee and Gai hugging is not what creeps people out it's the Sunset that appears out of nowhere. This due to a case of Did Not Do the Research, for in Japan the sunset is the symbol of youth. Many authors treat it a some kind of scarring genjutsu.
 * Not to mention the Naruto has openly stated that he thinks Gai and Lee to be cool and likes their jumpsuit/genjutsu. Apparently everyone wants him to think they're freaks.
 * Speaking of Lee, people have got it into their heads that he has some sort of defect and that is why he can't use chakra. Except he can and does use chakra in the form of the gates and in the same way as other ninja. He just can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Because he sucks at them.
 * Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) for some reason is stated to be well too stiff and earth-like, always used a "Freudian Excuse" to justify Hinata's inability to master it at her age.
 * Also, especially in Kakashi/Iruka Fanfiction, there is apparently a "Mission Desk" usually manned by Iruka in rotation with Kotetsu and Izumo. At this mission desk 'Mission Scrolls' are handed out, and reports are dropped off, despite the fact that we never see anyone write a mission report in the manga, and all missions appear to be given in person by the Kage, usually verbally. This might have been perpetrated from the various games which often have Iruka manning some kind of desk for accessing menus or missions.
 * Similarly in Yaoi fics, Kakashi and Iruka are are almost always paired, with Iruka being a Tsundere, and Kakashi (as well as all jounin) are described as being batshit crazy, in some form or another. Kakashi may also be angsty over something (his father's suicide usually, which he was...over a decade ago), and may be feared and/or incredibly respected, which he is in-universe to an extent, but it's incredibly exaggerated to the point that no one will cross him in any way, fearing he'd kick their ass, despite the fact he seems really laid back.
 * Iruka is often also described as having Kotetsu and/or Izumo and/or Anko as close friends and even part of his Genin team in his younger days, even though they are never seen together and Anko was Orochimaru's student in canon.
 * In Yaoi fanfiction in particular there are a number of very popular pairs seen in most works, those being Iruka/Kakashi, as described above, Genma/Raido (with Raido being incredibly nice and respected by everyone and Genma being a Casanova Wannabe and total playboy), and Kotetsu/Izumo, who can vary in portrayal but are usually relatively easy-going/normal by comparison.
 * Also, in response to Jounin being 'batshit crazy' and that's often the exact words used, fanon has it that you take a Jounin test to be made a Jounin. In canon no test has been mentioned, and you'd think one would have been.
 * A popular concept is that Naruto's clones are different entities such as there a difference between the clone and that the clone has no idea what to do until Naruto tell him. The clones will know everything that Naruto knows and will instantly know what it is they have to do, but only if Naruto thought of it before he made them. If his plans change in any way he would have to tell them, as they do not share a mental link, and Naruto will only know what the clone even did after he disperses the clone. He is never really shown doing this, probably because the clones typically last about 2 seconds before he gets them killed, but this is how it is explained.
 * When you become a ninja, you are an adult and therefore allowed to drink. Both Lee and Naruto have stated that they are to young to drink, which makes sense considering the drinking age is based on physical, not mental maturity.
 * Related to that, there is the adage often stated in Naruto/older women fics, old enough to kill, old enough to fuck.
 * This was probably born from the more disturbing realization that by following the belief of "pure and chaste" genins, it would mean sending immature children to fights to the death than small adults. Believing killing, spying and brutally fighting against other assasins is more acceptable, upright and mentally safe activities than drinking and fucking is a very... odd idea.
 * Danzo, the guy who believes that emotions are key to hatred, smiles (smugly) way too often..
 * Also, a few stories believes that he wants Naruto dead just along with the Omniscient Council of Vagueness, usually he is the leader.
 * Naruto tends to have a lot of unfortunate In Series Nicknames,
 * Sasuke always calls him a Dobe despite only calling him that once in the series. He usually calls him a Usura Tonkaichi. Usually they have Naruto calling him a teme.
 * 'Teme' in itself being a form of fanon. It is actually just a rude form of the word 'You', yet the fans would have you believe it was a noun. A far more accurate nickname to convey the 'sentiment' would be 'bastard' or 'jerk'.
 * Apparently Dobe aka (Dead last/ Bottom Feeder) is treated like an affectionate Nickname but when he calls Tsunade, Baa-chan it's treated like a grave insult.
 * Tsunade and Jiraiya calls him gaki/brat and they never called him that after they got to know him.
 * Also the Villagers calls him a demon brat/scum.
 * And of course Kyuubi's infamous Kit.
 * Mei Terumi (sometimes Ao & Chojuro) is the leader of a resistance faction against Yagura. This could be true, but there is no hard evidence except the fact that Mei speaks with disdain about the Bloody Mist.
 * Naruto is often the opposite of Tsunade: i.e. very lucky with gambling. Mostly used for Rule of Funny, but some attribute this to being the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi.
 * Usually it's stated that a village leader's worst enemy is paperwork.
 * Tsunade and Hiruzen tends to get annoyed whenever someone comes in from a window when in truth they're rather indifferent too it.
 * Tsunade is usually portrayed as the Naruto's godmother.
 * And sometimes it's taken one step further and making Minato a Heroic Bastard with Jiraiya as the father.
 * According to some crossovers Jutsu (Techinque) in a completely foreign word.
 * Having a Story-Breaker Power equals every girl genuinely and instantly falls for one person despite the relations, age, the fact that it's a demon who killed your parents, or is in a completely different universe.
 * There's a trend in many fics to portay Sasuke as having a very low opinion of Sakura skill as a ninja, believing her to be weak and useless and being absolutely shocked when she demonstrate her post time skip abilities. This tend to happen both in stories where he's portray as a jerk but also in shipping fics between the two. In canon, Sasuke showed healthy respect to Sakura as a fighter in their two encounters after the time skip, especially during the second encounter when he lied to her to get her unaware so he can strike her from behind, despite Sasuke usually being very up and front if he's trying to kill you.
 * The reason behind the Schizo-Tech of the series is that ninjas use a variation of the usual summoning techniques to summon technology from other universes.
 * Probably the single most egregious and persistent piece of fanon has to do with Naruto's clothing, of all things. Fanfiction would have you believe that Naruto's outfit in part one is a jumpsuit. It isn't. His jacket and pants are separate articles of clothing. This should be obvious to anyone who looks at him.
 * Another common misconception in fanfiction has to do with elemental ninjutsu. Apparently ninja can learn to use jutsu of any element without having to do training exercises in the basics of manipulating that element first, despite this explicitly not being the case. One of the qualities of the Rinnegan is that it grants its wielder the ability to use all forms of elemental ninjutsu, which would indicate that ordinary ninja cannot do this. Naruto has to go through extensive training just to be able to use wind ninjutsu. Kakashi remarks that it usually takes months to learn how to use an element at all without shadow clones. It would probably have taken Naruto even longer to learn how to use an element that wasn't his affinity. Yet in fanfiction it's annoyingly frequent to see Naruto spamming elemental ninjutsu without any prior training. This is forgivable when it comes to stories that were started before Naruto did his training in wind chakra, but for those written after that point, there's really no excuse. Magic A Is Magic A, people!
 * A lot of fanfiction states that Konoha is the strongest of the Hidden Villages. This is never stated anywhere in the manga, and there are several things that contradict it, for example, sacrificing Hizashi rather than going to war with Kumo, which is not indicative of someone negotiating from a position of strength. In fact, the databooks list both Kumo and Iwa as having greater military strength than Konoha.
 * Another thing that pops up a lot in fanfic is everyone being able to sense chakra, which is actually a fairly rare ability in canon. While characters can sometimes feel particularly potent chakra, such as that of a bijuu, only specialist sensor ninjas have ever displayed the ability to detect a person by their chakra. If everyone could do it, techniques that block vision- like Zabuza's mist jutsu- would be useless, and they quite clearly aren't.
 * A lot of fans seem to think that a bijuu dies if it's jinchuuriki is killed, which leads to a massive case of Fridge Logic, as all nine of the bijuu are still around, so that would mean that no jinchuuriki had ever died before the bijuu was extracted, which is... improbable, to say the least.
 * It has since been revealed that the bijuu will in fact die with their jinchurriki, but will eventually be revived. How this actually occurs hasn't been revealed, but it is clear that the bijuu will not be permanently killed in this manner.

Other Manga/Anime

 * 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.


 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.)


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.
 * 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 Doppleganger 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.
 * 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.