{"id":12665,"date":"2008-05-06T18:45:11","date_gmt":"2008-05-06T22:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/?p=12665"},"modified":"2008-07-29T11:41:05","modified_gmt":"2008-07-29T15:41:05","slug":"ask-john-how-many-anime-series-share-a-continuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/ask-john-how-many-anime-series-share-a-continuity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask John: How Many Anime Series Share a Continuity?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/ask-john-how-many-anime-series-share-a-continuity.jpg\" alt=\"How Many Anime Series Share a Continuity?\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/ask-john-how-many-anime-series-share-a-continuity.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/ask-john-how-many-anime-series-share-a-continuity-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile waiting to receive the first 5 DVDs of the &#8220;King Of Braves GAO-GAI-GAR&#8221; series, I was very surprised to learn of a tie-in between this series and one from 1999-2000, namely &#8220;Betterman.&#8221; Just from recollection, where else has such a &#8220;connection&#8221; occurred between other anime properties?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Honestly, despite being familiar with both Betterman and Gaogaigar, I wasn&#8217;t aware that the two series had a narrative connection to each other prior to reading this question. Some simple research has confirmed that Betterman, created by Gaogaigar director Yoshitomo Yonetani, includes a handful of cameo references to Gaogaigar, establishing that both Gaogaigar and Betterman occur in a shared world.<\/p>\n<p>This type of sharing of continuity has occurred in a number of other anime titles &#8211; frequently, but not always, ones from a single creator. The best known example is undoubtedly Leiji Matsumoto&#8217;s &#8220;Leijiverse.&#8221; At least Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, and Millennium Queen occur in a shared universe. References to Space Battleship Yamato  have also appeared in Harlock anime, but the extent to which those cameos should be taken literally is debatable.<\/p>\n<p>CLAMP&#8217;s Angelic Layer and Chobits, Kenichi Sonoda&#8217;s Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats, Haruka Takachiho&#8217;s Dirty Pair and Crusher Joe, Takehito Ito and Sunrise Studios&#8217; Outlaw Star and Angel Links, Tokyo Kids&#8217; Tenshi no Shippo and Saint Beast, Type-Moon&#8217;s Shingetsutan Tsukihime and Fate\/stay night, and Akihito Yoshitomi&#8217;s Ray and Osamu Tezuka&#8217;s Black Jack all provide additional examples of multiple series sharing a communal setting.<\/p>\n<p>Examples such as CLAMP&#8217;s Tokyo Babylon and X, and Ryo Mizuno&#8217;s Record of Lodoss War and Legend of Crystania also conform to the principle of separate series sharing a world, but these examples are more accurately described as sequels than parallel stories. And I have no doubt that there are other instances of multiple anime titles sharing a singular setting, but the question did specify that I answer, &#8220;Just from recollection.&#8221; I should also point out that I&#8217;m identifying formal, canonized narrative connections &#8211; not special &#8220;one-shot&#8221; combinations, or parody\/homage cameos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: While waiting to receive the first 5 DVDs of the &#8220;King Of Braves GAO-GAI-GAR&#8221; series, I was very surprised to learn of a tie-in between this series and one from 1999-2000, namely &#8220;Betterman.&#8221; Just from recollection, where else has such a &#8220;connection&#8221; occurred between other anime properties?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-john"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}