The List

Long Lost Anime Twins

Were these anime characters separated at birth? Not quite. We're used to seeing certain style characteristics to easily signify which character is the tsundere, the quiet bookworm, the gung-ho fighter, or the sneaky villain. With the huge number of anime, light novels, and manga produced each year, there are bound to be some design overlaps. The similarities in these character designs are just downright uncanny.

7. James (Pokémon) x Mitsuki Sarue (The Devil Is a Part-Timer!) Did James give up his quest to steal Pikachu and become an angel instead? The two characters have an uncanny resemblance to one another and are both fond of taking up disguises. That's where the similarities between the two end, though. Sarue, or Sariel, is much more interested in his cover as the manager of Kentucky Sentucky Fried Chicken than having anything to do with Team Rocket.

6. Lunar Edomae (My Bride is a Mermaid) x Madoka Kaname (Madoka Magica) These spiky, pink twin-tailed girls couldn't be any different in personality. Madoka is the "pure" pink-haired girl and a favorite among Akihabara fans. She's timid and cares about her friends. Lunar, on the other hand, has a superiority complex the size of the moon. She refers to herself in plural form, which isn't particularly common outside royal aristocracy.

5. Rin Okumura (Blue Exorcist) x Gray Fullbuster (Fairy Tail) There's actually a lot of Fairy Tail characters that closely resemble characters from other works, like One Piece. Gray Fullbuster is an ice mage, which might explain Hiro Mashima's decision to go with a blue motif, while Okumura is the son of Satan who uses blue fire as part of demonic powers. The duo is funny in that you have a better chance of telling them apart if you look at the characters from the back instead of the front. Their hair color and style, eye color, and face shape look exactly the same until the audience can see Rin's is more disheveled in the back and Gray's is spiky. Otherwise, they have similar smiles and disgruntled expressions, too.

4. Taiga (Toradora!) x Ryoko (Ōkami-san & Her Seven Companions) The short-spitfire Taiga could easily grow up to be Ryoko, if only she'd hit that growth spurt. Both are classic tsundere, both have animal namesakes (Tiger & Wolf), and both start out less than impressed with their male counterparts. This of course gradually changes over time as they eventually fall in love with Ryōshi/Ryūji. At least their love interests aren't particularly similar outside of their names.

3. Tesshin Kawakami (Majikoi) x Shigekuni Yamamoto (Bleach) There must be a correlation between eyebrow length and fighting prowess. These two old dudes sporting Confucius beards are both the "strongest martial artists in the world." Tesshin spends more of his time as the principal at Kawakami Academy, while Shigekuni is death god. He's the Head-Captain of the Gotei 13 shinigami, upholding the rules, rituals, and laws expected.

2. Tsukasa and Kagami (Lucky Star) x Ryou and Kyou (Clannad): In this double shot we have the purple-haired twins from Lucky Star and their lovelorn counterparts from Clannad. At first it's easy to dismiss the similarities because the art styles between the two series are vastly different despite being animated by the same studio. Their personalities and the dynamic between each pair is essentially the same. Tsukasa/Ryou (short hair) are the quieter ones compared to their more outgoing, tsundere sisters.

1. Golden Darkness (To Loveru) x Eve (Black Cat): Is it better or worse if the characters are designed by the same person? The characters are actually a strange universe cross over, where both characters are created by Tearju Lunatique, who is, again, identical in appearance in both series. It's more like Kentarō Yabuki decided to outright recycle two characters and put them in his new manga. Tearju created both Yami and Eve in their respective series and Tearju's personality and attributes remain the same, although she ends up as a homeroom teacher in Darkness and is an acclaimed scientist in Black Cat. Yami and Eve are also both superpowered clones of sorts.

The new poll: Princess Kaguya is nominated for the Best Animated Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. Do you think it'll win? If not, which one of the nominees do you think has the best shot?

The old poll: Have you ever named a pet after an anime character? We got a lot of great answers in the forums too. Personally I had a black cat named after the one in Trigun as a teen.

1. Yes - 40.7%
2. No - 59.3%