Counterpart Comparison

Boy: Thanks, Green Lantern. Booster Gold: I'm not Green Lantern! —Justice League Unlimited

We have two characters. They are similar to each other, but one was created after another. Whether one of them is the other's Expy, Captain Ersatz, Alternate Company Equivalent or even Distaff Counterpart, or it's a complete coincidence, fans will quickly realize the similarity.

From this point they are going to look at the new character through the old character's prism.

They can like the new character because he resembles the old character, or hate them as a rip-off. Anti-fans can treat the new guy like a pointless, unnecessary character created only to attract the old one's fans, or turn them into a model of "This is how the original one should be written to be a good character." They will argue and compare the two, and only a few people who know both of them will be able to see the new guy as himself, not some other version of someone else.

Sometimes, the new character will never get free from the older one, no matter what he does.

Sometimes, especially in the case of a Legacy Character or Expy this can work as part of a Re-Ditto and establish a difference between the two. A Legacy Character can win fan love by his desire to become better, or at last to equal his mentor. If an Expy exists in the same universe as that older character, this can be easily lampshaded with common people confusing them, which could lead to funny situations, and be good for character development. If they are not sharing a universe, then most of the time the new character is screwed. However, sometimes they can take revenge, proving that he is better than the old one and becoming more popular.

This is the first step to turning one of them into The Scrappy, or Replacement Scrappy in the case of Legacy Characters and the Suspiciously Similar Substitute. Often happens to Anti-Hero Substitute.

Examples of Counterpart Comparison include:

Advertising

• In 2012, there was a series of commercials for Geox that featured a mild-mannered teenage girl who can transform at will into "The Geox Girl". The secret-identity version of her looks a lot like a human version of Twilight Sparkle. The commercial even says that she is always bursting with enthusiasm and ready to help a friend in need.

Anime and Manga

• Many characters from Code Geass suffer from this. Suzaku and Euphemia are often compared to Kira and Lacus. Lelouch has the same problem with Light from Death Note.
  • There are those who would compare Lelouch to Shinji, C.C. to Rei and Kallen to Asuka.
  • Or for cross medium comparisons, Lelouch, Kallen, and Suzaku to V, Evey Hammond, and Eric Finch respectively.
  • Suzaku is often referred to as 'The third/fourth/fifth Syaoran' on CLAMP boards, because of their similar fighting techniques and the fact that Suzaku, well, seems to share an awful lot of character design with Syaoran.
  • Speaking of EVA, there's also a large number of people that end up comparing Emperor Charles zi Britannia's plan to Instrumentality.
  • And of course, Kallen is compared to Domon Kasshu because she's his daughter.
    • No, seriously. Mrs. Kozuki and Rain Mikamura share the same Seiyuu.
  • And Shirley has this with Inoue Orihime. Not only they look a little similar and have similar characters, but also what Shirley says to Lelouch before death sounds similar to what Orihime says to unconscious Ichigo before leaving to Hueco Mundo. Orihime-bashers hate Shirley as her clone, while her fans love Shirley for that same reason. The dub made this worse when they gave Lelouch the same voice actor as Ichigo. Hell, the Japanese voice for Shirley is the same as Rukia.
  • Suffice to say, Code Geass makes a point of Lampshade Hanging, subverting, and playing with the expectations of the viewers when it comes to the shows it resembles. They outright deconstruct Lacus/Euphie, and make Lelouch much more sympathetic than Light, and even make the Emperor a bit more justified than Gendo was (although your Mileage will definitely vary on one or all of those points). The ambiguity is what makes the show fun!
  • While it doesn't seem as prevalent in the main fandom the series's Wild Mass Guessing page spends a lot of time comparing Lelouch and Shinizel to V and Adrian Veit. Lynching ITP plays with this by making Shinizel Adrian's Identical Great Grandson.
  • Rolo is a subversion, he's drawn very similar to Shinji from evangelion and he has the same VA in the english dub... Then he gets out of the Knightmare Frame that just finished pwning a whole rebel strikeforce, and calmly declares: I'm here to kill... zero."
• Many people compare Naruto to Ryu from the Street Fighter series, and because both of them have a dark side with the ability to use ki, and get Trainings From Hell, Heel Face Turns, Face Heel Turns, many other things and mostly battles with repeatedly the strongest enemies to become more better fighters and ridiculously strong people, but still keeping their light-hearted personalities.
  • A general rule of thumb is that pretty much any Shonen Idiot Hero of the last fifteen years will invariably be powerful—whether they're really all that similar or not.
    • Same with any Magical Girl Idiot Hero and Usagi from Sailor Moon.
• Goku from Dragon Ball is often compared to Sonic The Hedgehog from SEGA, because of them both having a Golden Super Mode and a lighthearted personality. This can often result in a fun joke between their fans.
• Gundam uses this In-Universe with Johnny Ridden, the Crimson Lightning, who is constantly mistaken for Char.
  • In Char's case, this has gained Memetic Mutation thanks to Zeta. Each series' obligatory masked character is referred to as "A CHAR" (all caps).
  • Zechs Merquise is probably the single biggest victim of this from the Gundam franchise; after all, one Fan Nickname is "Low-Rent Char". Of course, all of Gundam Wing gets this to some extent, mostly from detractors who insist it's nothing but a half-assed copy of First Gundam. This also extends to comparing Relena to Sayla (only common points: masked man's sister and relationship with protagonist) or Heero to Amuro (only common point: being the protagonist).
• Near from Death Note is constantly compared to the other main antagonist of the series, L. He even looks like L (excepting the clothes and the hair color) and has habits like him. Justified that he was raised to be L's successor and therefore emulate some of L's traits.
  • On the subject of Death Note, it isn't uncommon for some poor sod to pop up in an anime forum and inquire about the similarities between Light Yagami and a certain Monster Without a Name. If the Internet Backdraft on who the better villain is doesn't instantly erupt there, expect a very long, very Fan Wanky Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny between the two.
  • Comparisons are made between L and Ulquiorra. Both are pale-skinned stoics who end up fighting against Shinigami as the story's antagonists (although L is a Hero Antagonist, even to those few who don't see Light as evil).
• As an inter-medium example, the protagonists of The Big O, Code Geass, and Darker Than Black have all elicited comparison to Batman. The Big O has an animation style very similar to that of Batman the Animated Series, and protagonist Roger is a Bruce Wayne Captain Ersatz. Lelouch/Zero of Code Geass has been described as a "flamboyant Batman" and Hei of Darker Than Black has the Fan Nickname of "Chinese Electric Batman". Lelouch has a sort of Batman-esque costume, both characters use Evil Sounds Deep in costume, and Hei uses a Grappling Hook Pistol. Finally, Lelouch also elicits comparisons with the title character of V for Vendetta, mainly for his Large Ham style and morally ambiguous characterization also, a scene where Japanese dress en masse as Zero recalls the V-masks donned by English citizens.
  • There's a reason for this - the same studio that did Big O also worked on Batman: The Animated Series. Roger was at least partly inspired by Bruce Wayne, while the art-style was similar enough to smooth over the differences.
• In Pretty Cure All-Stars DX, Nagisa and Honoka of Futari wa Pretty Cure visit the shop run by the family of Saki, Nagisa's Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star counterpart, and the family notes the similarity. Odd in that the original is compared to the Expy, not the other way around.
• More than a few people unfamiliar with Detonator Orgun and with only passing knowledge of Tekkaman Blade thought that the two were in the same canon in Super Robot Wars W (the fact that the game made them directly related story-wise did not help). What's especially interesting to note is that Tekkaman Blade, although the more popular and well-known of the two, actually owes a lot of its style and mood to Orgun.
  • This is primarily because both are remakes of the same show, Space Knight Tekkaman. However, Orgun was passed over at the last second, and just like Warcraft, it was forced to rework itself to be just different enough. So you could say that Orgun is Tekkaman Blade' v.5.
• Mahou Sensei Negima (especially early in its run) provoked a lot of comments about similarities between Negi Springfield and Harry Potter: They're both 10 year old British Wizards with famous fathers. Of course, most of the similarities end there, not that it stops people from thinking that the series is just Harry Potter IN JAPAN.
  • The reason Mahou Sensei Negima is similar to Harry Potter is pretty simple: Akamatsu got the inspiration for Negima from Harry Potter, and he explained that in the first manga volume's foreword.
• Yuuichi Aizawa can't help but be compared to "Kyon", since the 2006 Kyo Ani anime uses very similar character designs and the same voice actor as their ultra-successful Haruhi Suzumiya TV run from a few months prior. However, that doesn't change the fact that Kanon came out several years before the first of the Haruhi Suzumiya novels, and much of the snarkiness of the character was in the original source material.
• Early in its life, the title character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was derided as a Cardcaptor Sakura rip-off. This slowly tapered when the show revealed its intent of cribbing notes from a completely different genre. For some reason, viewers were more receptive to a Magical Girl whose closest comparison wasn't another Magical Girl, but a Gundam.
• Most fans of Xam'd take it as a given that Nakiami is some sort of clone of Nausicaa.
• Many characters in Fairy Tail have been compared to/confused with a character from One Piece and/or Rave Master. Only one of these comparisons is intentional though.
  • Similiarly, Buster Keel, a completely unrelated manga by a different author, has a cast that can be interchangeable with the core characters of Fairy Tail, bar minor differences like breast size and state of undress.
• One of the biggest problems that many fans have with Digimon Savers is that the main character has an Agumon for a partner, which is a pretty obvious ploy to get fans of Adventure back after the critical train wreck that was Frontier.
• Between the second and third Tecnchi Muyo OVA, two TV series and three movies set in alternate continuities were created and featured a new character, Kiyone. The third OVA introduces Noike, who is also Mihoshi's teal-haired, no-nonsense former partner; but in OVA style is hot for Tenchi and related to him.
• Early in its life, the title character of Puella Magi Madoka Magica was derided as a Cardcaptor Sakura rip-off (the pink costume doesn't help). And then things goes to Hell in her life, followed by the rest of the world.
  • More specifically, Homura Akemi has drawn numerous comparisons to Rika Furude from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni; to detail how exactly would reveal major spoilers for both series and also Umineko no Naku Koro ni by proxy. The fact that Rika created a witch doesn't help.
  • Because she goes through some quite unpleasant experiences, is a character made by Fate/Zero writer Gen Urobuchi, and wields a polearm, Kyoko is often regarded as an honorary Lancer, usually when fans lament how being Lancer is suffering.
• The Tiger and Bunny fandom has basically concluded that Barnaby Brooks Jr. is Batman.
  • Lunatic is generally considered a counterpart to The Punisher.
  • Jake Martinez and his henchwoman Kriem made the scene and started drawing direct comparisons to The Joker and Harley Quinn.

Comic Books

• Marvel Comics' Daredevil (not to be confused with that other guy) from Earth X was a funny, immortal character that was very similar to Deadpool. Most of the fans, and characters as well, suspected he was in fact Deadpool. Which at some point started to **** him off.
  • And let's not forget the relatively short-lived Agent X, who made his debut right after the end of Deadpool's original run, had the same humor and powers, was heavily scarred all over, and even had supporting cast cross-pollination. Oh, and his speech bubbles had a different color from everyone else's, too. Even the characters thought he really was an amnesiac Deadpool until the latter made his comeback in the last three issues of Agent X.
• Deadpool has actually escaped this situation. Rob Liefeld originally created him as a Captain Ersatz of the Teen Titans' enemy Deathstroke, but he later had some Character Development and turned into so different a character that you'd have to be nuts to compare them.
  • Joe Kelly (the writer who cemented his status as a Crazy Awesome sex god) spoofed this in Superman/Batman Annual #1 , where Earth-Three Deathstroke is Deadpool an unnamed man who happens to look, fight, and snark exactly like a certain Crazy Awesome sex god. Turns out this character is an alternate Deathstroke.

Alternate Deathstroke: Hold the phone and the mayo! You're me, just without the lacerations and foreign objects! Deathstroke: Will you please just die? Alternate Deathstroke: Why do you hate yourself so much?

• • Deadpool is also quite often confused with Spider-Man, simply because their costumes look similar. The fact that Ed McGuinness PURPOSELY drew him like Spidey probably contributed considerably, as did the change in tone to give him an awesome sense of humor that carried a similarity to Spider-Man's in order to appeal to disgruntled Spider-Man fans who were ****ed off at the never-ending angst-fueled Spider-Clone Saga. This was taken to its logical extreme in a story arc where Deadpool is accidentally sent back in time and forced to replace Spider-Man...
  • As revealed in one flashback, Deadpool's original costume actually was made for Spider-Man (but the webhead sent it back with a note attached saying "thanks but no thanks").
• Hilariously lampshaded in an issue of White Tiger that takes place during the Marvel Civil War, with Deadpool himself mistaking the current White Tiger, Angela Del Toro, for the Black Cat, whom the government has hired him to arrest.
• Most of DC's Legacy Characters have these kind of issues, which is also often lampshaded. One of the biggest examples is Batman and all the people who have tried to replace him in all his long history. No matter what they do, fans possibly will never admit that anyone of them would be ever even close to Bruce Wayne.
• Inverted with Man-Thing, who appeared two months before Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing is more popular, thanks to Alan Moore's run, and Man-Thing is seen as his substitute. And many people even don't know that's two different monsters.
  • Although the jokes about a cover's unfortunate description of a "Giant-Size Man-Thing" will probably continue until the Earth smacks into the sun (even Marvel, Man-Thing's owners, have gotten in on it, with an actual giant-size Man-Thing showing up in Thunderbolts).
  • People who make those jokes will not shy away from pointing out that Kang is a purple-headed invader either.
  • And both characters were basically straight lifts of a Golden Age swamp monster called The Heap, anyway.
• Similar to Man-Thing, Darkseid and Thanos have occasionally been accused (and accused each other) of being knock-offs. This largely boils down to faintly similar appearances (dark 'skin', blue in the wardrobe, red eyes) and power levels. Rumour has it that Jim Starlin made Thanos as an homage to Darkseid... by giving him the same skin condition apparently. The fact that they're constantly paired up in crossovers doesn't help either.
  • Jim Starlin claims that his initial designs of Thanos made him look like Metron, but his editor suggested making him more muscular and gave him appearance much closer to Darkseid, joking that if they're going to rip off one of New Gods, they should pick up the coolest one.
• Don't ever call Huntress Batgirl.
• The popularity of Watchmen has led to this happening to some degree for all the characters its characters are Expies of, but especially Captain Atom and The Question. (For those who haven't heard the story: Alan Moore originally wrote Watchmen with Charlton Comics characters DC had just purchased. DC liked the story but because of the way the story altered the status quo of the new expensive characters they had just bought, they asked him to replace the characters with original characters.) Solar Man of the Atom also gets compared to Doctor Manhattan.
• Peter David highlighted the similarities between Snapper Carr and Rick Jones after their times in Hourman and Captain Marvel in an issue of Young Justice.

Fan Works

• Metroid: Kamen Rider Generations Vol. 3: Fates Intertwined:
  • The story's new main protagonist, Goro is this to both Masato Kusaka (a Smug Snake Jerkass Anti-Hero) and post-Heel-Face Turn Kuroto Dan (a Insufferable Genius Magnificent Bastard who creates a Rider equipment with an Awesome Ego). Or more often, Souji Tendou and Hiroto Sutou (the former being a multi-talented individual who almost surpasses anybody he comes across with, and happens to have a long-lost sibling in which they were not aware of. And the latter, much like Tendou, but even more arrogant). His characterization in general is similar to Zack, both were introduced an arrogant anti-hero before looking up to one of the heroic Riders and Character Development turned him even more heroic.
    • Goro also draws parallel to Robert Downey, Jr's Tony Stark/Iron Man. Both are wealthy, womanizing (or in Goro's case, a Handsome Lech Pornomancer), genius inventors who create Powered Armors. The revelations within his family brings to mind Arno Stark in the comics - Goro has an older sister who is missing before his birth, Tony is revealed to be an adopted child of Howard and Maria Stark, and Arno is his half-brother.
    • More often, his personality also draws comparison to Seto Kaiba, especially during the Battle City arc.
    • Goro serves as the gender-flipped Irene Lew to Taki's Ryu Hayabusa serving as the Love Interest to both ninjas, also sharing elements of Rachel. Unlike Irene, Goro's a very competent guy who knows how to deal situations that puts him into trouble the only way he knows how.
    • He is also similar to L from Death Note. Both are anti-heroic, intelligent, and morally grey characters who resort to unscrupulous methods to achieve their plans and would go far to endanger innocent lives in the process to further those ends.
  • Taki's overall role and personality makes her similar to the titular Oni of Kamen Rider Hibiki as they have encountered and battled supernatural beings. She is also the closest thing to Toha Yamaji and Tsuruhime.
  • Anzu is a Darker and Edgier Captain Ersatz to Miu Sutou according to Word of God. She is also a combination of Hiyori (the long-lost sister to the main protagonist), Mayu (motivation to get revenge on a certain villain), Yoko (who were initially introduced as The Dragon to one of the Big Bads before defecting to the heroes), and lastly Medusa and Nico (personality). As G7 Type-S she leans closer to Kamen Rider Femme (the color of her Rider form) and Kamen Rider Leangle (the spider motif).
  • Shingetsu is a combination of Tsurugi (a rival character whose ego is the same as The Hero). Kaito and Parado (red-colored rivals to the main protagonist) with Roshuo's BFS. His personality and role throughout the story is similar to "Jetstream" Sam Rodrigues, both are Noble Demon Blood Knights who seek to fight the protagonists. To drive it home, both are master swordsmen, with the main difference is that Shingetsu uses a BFS as opposed to a Vibroweapon katana; they even have their swords bequeathed to The Hero in their last moments.
  • Kaguya is a gender-swapped version of both Tennoji and Banno right down to their similar roles as the Big Bad. Her overall personality in general is an unholy combination of Kusaka and Ryubee.
    • Aside from her comparisons to Ragyo Kiryuin (see below), Kaguya is also a gender-flipped Masayoshi Shido from Persona 5. Both are have an abusive relationship towards their children (Hikaru Togami and Goro Akechi, respectively). They also have their agenda hidden under the guise of benevolence - Kaguya is an anti-war activist while Shido is an aspiring Japanese Prime Minister. Like Shido, Kaguya is an egotistical corrupt politician who leads a faction against the protagonists to be elected leader of a country.
  • Reiji is between Yuzuru Iijima and Masahiro Yamamoto (11th-Hour Rangers) and Go Shijima (who has a fanatical hatred with a villainous faction). And just like Go when he gets a Heroic BSOD when he learned his father was Evil All Along, Reiji also lost it when he learns that Kaguya played him like a fiddle.
  • A lot from Kill la Kill:
    • Goro and Anzu to Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin. The colors of their Rider forms are simply too obvious to ignore. However, both of their respective personalities are inverted: Goro shares the same color scheme as Ryuko, but he has most of Satsuki's charisma and penchant for awesome speeches. Anzu is basically Satsuki with Ryuko's drive to get revenge on a certain villain who want to get personal on them.
      • Taki is almost similar to Ryuko, since they both donned Fanservice-esque battle outfits.
    • Natsu in the other hand, her role in the story is very similar to Mako.
    • Shingetsu is a One-Man Army version of all members of the Elite Four, namely Gamagoori. As a whole, Shingetsu has the traits of Satsuki before her Heel-Face Turn.
    • Kaguya is the closest thing to Ragyo, full stop. Both have an abusive relationship with their daughters and even outright molested them in any chance they get. Her Rider form, Kamen Rider Build Aureo, is essentially an expy to Shinra-Koketsu.
    • Reiji is initially introduced as the secretary to Kaguya, but not as The Dragon to the latter makes him the closest thing to Rei Hoomaru, it also helps that both of their given names have "Rei", albeit written in a different kanji. Both were eventually redeemed and defected to the heroes under separate circumstances. Unlike Hoomaru, who has an Undying Loyalty to the Big Bad who would go so far to Avenging the Villain, Reiji was more of an Unwitting Pawn to Kaguya and he completely falls into depression when he finds out that the latter was actually Evil All Along.
• Engine Sentai Go-Onger: 10 YEARS PRELUDE feat. Kamen Rider Build:
  • Aizawa is the story's equivalent of The Punisher and Dexter Morgan - since he is the resident Professional Killer who mainly targets common criminals and even other serial killers. Personality-wise, he is a gender-swapped and self-controlled version of Revy.
  • Suzumura is basically Commissioner Gordon and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury fused together.

Literature

• The Host has been receiving a lot of backlash from the Animorphs fandom due to this. The fact that most of them seem to think that Applegate invented the concept of body-snatching aliens probably doesn't help.
• Almost every single adaptation of the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass so far have made the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts (two totally different characters from completely separate books) into an overtly threatening antagonist (which neither of the Queens were).
• The Elric Saga fans consider Geralt, main character of The Witcher books and games, an expy of Elric.
• Harry Potter is surprisingly similar to Luke Skywalker. An orphan leaves his Muggle Foster Parents to discover that he's The Chosen One.

Live Action TV

• Blue Heelers both subverted this and played it straight. Dash wasn't meant as a replacement for Wayne, but Jo was. Ben could be seen as a replacement for Nick, even if the characters were rather different. Jack replaced Adam. After Maggie's death Tess was inevitably compared to her. When Jack left Evan would serve as a replacement, ditto Susie for Tess.
  • Most of the subversions come during the show's revamp. After Jo was killed she was replaced by four characters, and of the four, Mark was intended to be Ben's replacement, but then after a couple of sergeants are written off Alex serves as a replacement, only for softy Mark to be replaced by ex soldier Matt. And Amy would be a Distaff Counterpart for PJ and serve as his replacement when he left, only for Jonesy to become a detective and fill the role instead.
• Lampshaded in the seventh episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. When Q zaps Sisko into a boxing ring, and Sisko knocks him down:

Q: You hit me! Picard never hit me! Sisko: I'm not Picard. Q: Indeed not...you're much easier to provoke.

• • Hey, it worked. Q left Sisko alone, instead running off to the Delta Quadrant to bother Janeway.
• Heroes qualifies for this when Tracy Strauss was introduced. Everyone compared to Niki because... well... she was being played by the same actress.

Nathan: You're sure you're not Niki Sanders?

• • Not only were they played by the same actress, but canonically, they were two-thirds of a set of identical triplets, so they were supposed to look exactly alike...
• Strangely, even a reality show can do this. Project Runway cast one of its most beloved contestants in Season 8, Mondo Guerra. Mondo just so happened to be short, gay, of Mexican ethnicity, fond of bowties, and an impeccable tailor... which wouldn't be important except that Season 9 proceeded to cast designer Viktor Luna, who also happened to be short, gay, of Mexican ethnicity, fond of bowties, and an impeccable tailor. While they came across quite differently in personality (Nice Guy / Jerk with a Heart of Gold, respectively) and design-wise (Crazy Awesome / Boring but Practical), both eventually emerged to be regarded by large segments of the fanbase as the deserving winners of their seasons. In the end, both got screwed out of final victory in favor of the Creator's Pet, although Viktor's loss is more of a Broken Base situation than the universal fan rage that greeted Mondo's loss.
• In the NCIS episode "Doppelgänger", the team worked with civilian law enforcement, which were all extremely similar to the main characters.
  • Not only that, but CGIS Agent Abigail Borin is so similar in personality and mannerism to Gibbs, nearly every other character notices it, except of course for Gibbs or Borin.
• In Doctor Who, Clara Oswald has been compared to Sarah Jane Smith more than a few times. Both were the last brunette companion of the third Doctor of their series (Sarah first travelled with the Third Doctor and Clara with the Eleventh, the third Doctor of the revival) in a season that was considered a step down from the Doctor's previous ones before both girls really made a name for themselves with their next Doctor. And both are objects of ire for the Rose/Doctor shippers. This photo really hammers it home. Clara was even named after Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen (Sarah Jane's actress).
  • The Doctor himself is also rather similar to Superman. A Long Lived Last of His Kind Human Alien who defends Earth from a variety of threats.

Video Games

• In Kingdom Hearts, Roxas, from Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, looks identical to Ventus, save for their clothes, from the prequel, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Because Sora's heart is protecting Ventus's heart while he sleeps, and perhaps because Ven's heart was transferred to Roxas when he was born.
• Jun and Asuka Kazama from the second and fifth Tekken games are examples when the younger character is better than the older one. Asuka has the same fighting style as Jun, but more moves and a better designed personality. After she made Jun's son fly, fans started to describe Jun as "Asuka's demo".
  • Forest Law from Tekken 3 wasn't so lucky, because his fighting style was completely identical with one used by his old man, Marshal Law, in previous games. Marshal returned in the next game, and stayed, but Forest has been absent since Tekken 3, except for Tekken Tag Tournament. However, both Marshal and Forest are often compared with Bruce Lee. Not without a reason.
• No sooner did the latest Touhou game come out and reveal the existence of tiger-girl Shou Toramaru, fans immediately began hailing her and her mouse-girl servant Nazrin as the next Ran and Chen Yakumo (fox-girl master and cat-girl servant, respectively). They're both animal-girl master/servant pairs where the servant has her own stage before reoccurring in her master's stage as a mid-boss, and... don't really share much similarity beyond that. The debate over the similarities between Flandre Scarlet and Nue Houjuu may also be a case of this.
• The Tyranids and the Zerg. Truth be told, while Tyranids came first, they've both taken visual influence from each other, and from Giger's Alien, but the fans don't care to hear that. There's also the Flood. And then there's the Protoss-Elite-Predator. Really, if you keep digging through these connections we find their common links go back decades.
• The Final Fantasy series gets some flak for this, mostly for including Three Faces of Eve as main characters in nearly all installments... who started to become eerily similar at around part 7. There's always the romantic girl, the tough girl, and the cheerful girl.
  • It all started with Rinoa, whose hairstyle (but not personality) resembled Tifa's. Final Fantasy IX included a main girl (Garnet) with once again the same hairstyle (parted on the other side, though!) and a personality that fell somewhere in between the previous two. Yuna from Final Fantasy X had a radically different personality but looked similar enough to Rinoa for fans to complain, and Final Fantasy XII's Ashelia acts nothing like modern Final Fantasy main girls (instead being more of a Final Fantasy VI Celes type) but looks almost exactly like Yuna. Ironically, both Rinoa and Garnet were initially planned to be blondes (Nomura wanting a European-looking lead female and Amano just expressing his blonde fetish), but these ideas were dropped when it came time to create in-game art and character models. Though Amano's promotional art still depicted Rinoa as a blonde (again, Author Appeal).
  • A simpler example is the Krile -> Relm -> Yuffie -> Selphie -> Eiko -> Rikku -> Penelo -> Vanille line. Tidus -> Vaan also counts.
  • As does Exdeath, who is often seen as a sillier version of Golbez, despite the fact that they are completely different in personality and goals, and despite both being Tin Tyrants, don't even look that similar.
  • Interestingly, the only character who seems to be an actual reference is Seymour from Final Fantasy X, who has the same goals, personality, role and hair color as Bahamut Lagoon's Sauzer. No one on the internet ever mentions this, most likely because no one's ever played Bahamut Lagoon.
• Aside from the Tekkaman Blade/Detonator Orgun comparison mentioned above, Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 had a case with two of its original characters, Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield and Touma Kanou. They both look similar AND even sound similar (especially during attacks), despite having two different voice actors. Naturally, their respective love interests notice this similarity as well and proceed to lampshade the situation.
• Semi-rare cross-medium example: The Black Cauldron and Zelda — especially Zelda II the Adventure of Link and the '80s cartoon.
• As many Umineko no Naku Koro ni fans like pointing out, Battler Ushiromiya has quite a bit in common with another video game protagonist prone to epic finger-pointing and melodramatic logic debates.
  • It's even more apparent when they appeared in Fighting Games. Battler in Ougon Musou Kyoku fires blue projectiles and has an attack with two giant blue hands. Phoenix in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 also fires blue projectiles and has an attack where he uses a giant blue pointer finger.
• Zelos Wilder and Zevran of all people have quite a bit in common...
  • Names start with "Ze-"
  • Are Bishonen (ESPECIALLY Zelos)
  • Are very flirtatious with their peers (though Zevran is bisexual, Zelos is straight)
  • Are ostensibly very chipper, yet secretly harbor a suicidal self-loathing.
  • Are much smarter and more observant and cunning than they appear
  • Part of their self-loathing stems from their mothers' deaths. Zevran's mother died giving birth to him, which his father blamed him for. Zelos' mother was killed in front of him, and used her last breaths to tell him it would have been better if he had never been born.
  • Depending on the respective games' main protagonists' actions, they will either side with you against the people they were originally working for, or stab you in the back after feeling sleighted by you, and you'll have to kill them if it comes to that.
• Sonic the Hedgehog is a hero with a blue color scheme, fighting to save his world from a mad scientist and his army of evil robots. He has a sidekick that can help him fly, a hotheaded rival who is red, and a powerful counterpart who is grayish black. Does this sound familiar at all?
• Raziel from Legacy of Kain was resurrected by a powerful supernatural entity following a betrayal during which he was very badly burned. As a wraith bent on revenge, he can't be killed, and only temporarily returns to the underworld when drained of energy. He wears a mask to cover his hideous face, and he's capable of slaughtering his enemies with a glowing energy weapon emitted from his hand. Does this sound familiar?
• SHODAN from System Shock:
  • Has Frank Fontaine the villain of Bioshock, who is more of an Expy.
  • And GlaDOS obviously.
  • Created a parasitic hive-mind race that seeks to assimilate or devour all life in the galaxy. Yeah, like that. See also the Drudge parasites from Blood 2: The Chosen which predates System Shock 2 by a year.
  • Is herself an homage to the likes of Skynet or HAL-9000.
  • And before all that was AM (though video game AM came after SHODAN.)
• Baldur's Gate introduced Minsc, who comes from a tribe of proud warriors, bears distinct facial tattoos, has a unique tribal accent, and never goes anywhere without his imaginary advisor / companion. Fans of another Black Isle game Fallout 2 may notice the similarities with this guy.
• The Avatar, the protagonist of the Ultima series by Origin, is a hero from another world, the paragon of moral virtues who fights to protect the innocent. Like this guy. Furthermore the hero's archenemy is a godlike otherworldly being who seeks to rule the universe, has many worlds under his grasp, psychically manipulates others to do his bidding, and feeds off suffering and torment. Yes, you guessed it.
• Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten's Vegetarian Vampire protagonist, Valvatorez, has luckily managed to escape associations with a particular sparkly vampire... Because his appearance and demeanor have instead convinced everyone that he's actually Vampire Lelouch.
• Lampshaded in the Dynasty/ Samurai Warriors crossover Warriors Orochi with Nobunaga Oda and Cao Cao, both being ambitious and ruthless Anti-Villains.
• Kratos and Asura are compared to each other due to their rage issues and vengeance against their fellow gods (Though for many, the major similarities end there).

Western Animation

• Coming from an episode of Justice League Unlimited, it became a fan meme to confuse Booster Gold (Uniform colors: Blue and golden-yellow) and Green Lantern (Uniform colors: GREEN, thank you).
• Characters from the Fire Nation in Avatar: The Last Airbender are sometimes compared to characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion: Zuko is Shinji, Azula is Asuka, Mai is Rei, Ozai is Gendo, Ursa is Yui, Ty Lee is Misato, Iroh is Kaji and Zhao is Ritsuko.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's Rainbow Dash: A blue cartoon animal who can break the sound barrier, has spiky hair, is very laid-back, loyal to her friends, and is admired by an orange-furred kid. Sonic the Hedgehog... A blue cartoon animal who can break the sound barrier, has spiky hair, is very laid-back, loyal to his friends, and is admired by an orange-furred kid.
• Donald Duck and Daffy Duck: Besides being ducks, both are the Ensemble Darkhorse of their respective companies, embody the opposite (and usually negative) qualities of the protagonist characters (Mickey and Bugs respectively), are prone to anger and jerkassery, yet prove to be more popular.
• Lieutenant Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane from Voltron: Legendary Defender gets a lot of comparisons to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes. Both have Artificial Limbs, both suffered from Laser-Guided Amnesia, both were Brainwashed and Crazy; though in Shiro's case it involved a bit of cloning; and both are Satellite Characters/Living Emotional Crutches to another (though Shiro's only a Satellite Character in Keith's Flashbacks).
• While She-Ra and the Princesses of Power had many, but the most prominent was the comparisons between Horde Prime and White Diamond from Steven Universe. Both are Light Is Not Good Abusive Parents who rule an intergalactic empire and can turn their subjects into Meat Puppets while being an example of Vile Villain Saccharine Show.