While this trend has lessened over the last few years, at one point in time anime characters used to make frequent appearances in other anime. Mostly they would get away with it because they would either have the same mangaka or anime studios. In some cases, they would share the same manga publishing houses, which would help them avoid copyright issues.
While some appearances were made simply because they could, some were made since they added spice to the story and helped fans give something extra to enjoy. So, which characters made small cameos in anime worlds outside of their own? Here are 10 entries that will make fans rewatch these series in order to catch glimpses of their favorite characters.
10 Light Yagami Awaits His Judgment (Death Parade)
Most Death Note fans wouldn’t know about this cameo, since Death Parade is a relatively unknown anime. For fans who’ve watched both anime, it sure would have been a surprise to see Light Yagami sitting in the waiting room, awaiting his judgment.
Unlike most appearances that anime characters make in anime that aren’t their own, Light’s appearance lasted for a few seconds and one could see him in his entirety (as opposed to hints of his presence).
9 Mashiro Appears On The TV Screen (I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying)
With three minutes per episode, there isn’t much that I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying can cram into it. This slice of life comedy is about the married lives of an otaku and a typical Japanese office lady.
To the surprise of many viewers watching this series, a character from another slice of life comedy, Engaged to the Unidentified, made an appearance. This was none other than the 9 year old protagonist of the show, Mashiro Mitsumine.
8 Kyon & Yui Walk Across The Screen Together (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!)
The popular Kyoto Animation anime Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! had a 23-minute special episode named Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!: Sparkling... Slapstick Noel.
Here, two characters from two anime series make a blink-and-miss appearance. The first is the male protagonist of the show The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, named Kyon. The second character is the protagonist of the musical slice of life show K-ON!!
7 Shin Chan Is A Little Toy Belonging To A Boy Of The Same Name (Sailor Moon)
A lot of anime fans have grown up watching Shin-chan, and many of them have watched it even as adults. The show’s main character, Shinnosuke Nohara, makes an appearance in the immensely popular shoujo series Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.
Well, he sort of makes an appearance. The boy who owns his toy is also named Shinnosuke and possesses a personality suspiciously similar to that of the 5-year-old Shinnosuke.
6 Holo Was A Cutout That Was Carried Around Throughout The Episode (Durarara!!)
The Durarara!! light novels are pretty popular for having cameos from some of the most popular anime shows and characters out there. The light novel readers would have noticed plenty of them. However, the anime managed to add only a few such cameos.
One of them was Holo from Spice Girl and Wolf. Well, it wasn’t her entirely but rather her cutout that one of the characters stumbled upon, took a liking to, and started carrying with him for the entire episode.
5 Miria & Isaac Are Walking Around As Tourists (Durarara!!)
Written by the same mangaka and adapted by the same anime studio, it’s no surprise that Baccano! characters made a surprise appearance in Durarara!!
It actually isn’t that far of a stretch, seeing how both anime have a shared universe, which has been confirmed by its mangaka. While Miria and Isaac made an appearance as random tourists in Durarara!!, Orihara is mentioned in Baccano! as someone who gets rid of unwanted dead bodies.
4 Mako Goes For A Swim (When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace)
Despite performing moderately well, most anime fans would be unaware of the harem-comedy series When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace. This Trigger Studios show revolves around students who suddenly find themselves bestowed with superpowers.
Now, most fans may have missed this appearance since it lasted for a split second. But in one episode, one can clearly see Mako (or rather, just her floating head) from Kill La Kill swimming casually in a swimming pool.
3 Arale Norimaki Encounters Goku (Dragon Ball)
Since Akira Toriyama wrote both Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, it was to be expected that one of their characters would make an appearance in the other’s world.
For many viewers, the purple-haired girl named Arale Norimaki was nothing but a random extra in the entirety of the Dragon Ball series. However, very few fans would know that she was actually the protagonist of the comedy shonen series Dr. Slump.
2 Light, Misa, & L Act As Background Characters (Full Metal Panic!)
Full Metal Panic! is a parody mecha series that was quite popular back in 2002, when it was aired. It definitely didn’t age well (unlike another popular mecha series Code Geass), but it did make for some hilarious comedy.
One of the most striking scenes from the show was when L, Misa, and Light Yagami made extremely casual appearances in the show, going about their regular lives as background characters.
1 Kyosuke, Ruri, Kirino, & Saori Are Shown From The Back (Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends)
Yet another harem on this list is Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends, which revolves around the life of Kodaka Hasegawa. He is a wrongly labeled delinquent who is shunned by everybody at school – except by pretty girls, of course!
In episode 11 of the series where its characters visit Comiket, fans were in for a surprise. This is because four main characters from the series Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai made an appearance. They were Kyosuke, Ruri, Kirino, and Saori.