Bet you didn’t know about some of these.
Crossovers are a weird territory. Most of the time, you would expect them to happen between works of the same author — but that’s not always the case. Over the years, there have been many unusual crossovers among anime; let’s take a look at some of them.
One Piece, Dragon Ball Z and Toriko
To commemorate the 2-year anniversary of Toriko anime, studio Toei Animation made one of the craziest crossovers of all time. It was a two-part special, consisting of Toriko Episode 99 and One Piece Episode 590 — and characters from both appeared in the other, along with Dragon Ball Z characters.
The reason behind this crossover is pretty simple. All three anime were made by the same studio, and the manga for them were published in the same magazine — Weekly Shounen Jump. Of course, the authors of all three had great respect for each other as well.
Gundam vs Hello Kitty
No, this isn’t some kind of April 1st joke. For the 40th anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, which coincided with the 45th anniversary of Hello Kitty, three shorts have been made by studio Sunrise.
They’re really weird — Kitty traveling to the world of the original Gundam anime isn’t exactly something people asked for — but they are endearing in their own way.
Haganai and Oreimo
Now, this one was less of a crossover and more of a cameo. During one of the scenes in Haganai: I don't have many friends (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai), you can see people cosplaying in the background, and a crowd of fans standing around them. Among the crowd, you can see the main cast of OreImo (Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai).
Fans speculate that the whole reason that this crossover exists is because the two anime were made by the same studio. The light novels were also published by the same publisher, and the authors are allegedly good friends.
Isekai Quartet
Isekai Quartet is a chibi gag comedy with half-length episodes starring casts of multiple isekai series — who mostly sit in class and have odd dialogues with each other. Of course, all these series are published by Kadokawa.
The involved anime include Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- (Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu), KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! (Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!), Saga of Tanya the Evil (Youjo Senki) and Overlord.
Later, The Rising of the Shield Hero (Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari) and Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru) also appear.
Hanma Baki vs Kengan Ashura
Recently, a crossover anime for Baki and Kengan Ashura has been announced. To be fair, it’s understandable where it comes from: both are martial arts anime about muscular men which have a lot of violence.
Both are also relatively popular on Netflix, which will also get the crossover — which will be a direct-to-streaming movie, coming out this Summer.