This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
"Despite the fact that they share little in _appearance_, Shampoo in Ranma 1/2 was a deliberate attempt by Rumiko Takahashi to do a better job with the character of Lum from Urusei Yatsura."
Really? The first thing I thought when I saw the Urusei Yatsura page was "OMG when did shampoo get green hair?!"
No one of consequence: We are aware that the Disney princes have different names, yes? The prince in Sleeping Beauty is Phillip, Snow White's is Ferdinand, Ariel's is Eric, Belle's is Adam, and Cinderella's was Charming. Not only that, but they, along with the various princesses, have very different personalities. They're only expies in the sense that any archetypical character is an expy, and the same goes for the princesses.
Azurite: Minako from Code name wa Sailor V was never seen with any siblings, so it's not 100% accurate that Usagi's family is a carbon-copy of Minako's. Actually, Minako's mom was a lot more forceful and mean than Ikuko was, but Kenji was very similar to Minako's father. Only Usagi had a (known) sibling.
Zeta: The name makes a lot more sense if one thinks of it as a cutesy shortening of "Exported Character" than anything related to Windows XP.
Looney Toons: For the moment I've put this on the Tropes page, but if anyone has a better idea where it belongs, feel free to locate it. In the mean time — Osh, where did you come up with the term "Expy"? Google doesn't turn up anything immediately clueful for me.
- Agreed in sentiment. This is a pretty bad name for a fairly rich trope, IMO.
In any case, I wonder if the DC Earth-1 heroes could be seen as a form of this.
osh: // XP pretty much yeah. If I can be allowed a bit of geekery I got the idea from the hardcore comp geek opinion Xp can be considered a bloated version of Windows 2000.
(random passer-by) A lot of the characters in Dual: Parallel Trouble Adventure and Rahxephon are very, very similar to major characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Also, since NGE aired, there seem to be an increasing number of moe-moe albino girl characters (Ruri Hoshino from Martian Successor Nadescio, for example), though I am not sure whether the similarities are so great as to fall under this category.
Lastly, "same voice actress" may not necessarily imply this. Kotono Mitsuishi and Megumi Hayashibara are such prominent and prolific voice actresses that between the two of them, in the past ten years they have probably done more than half the female voices in all anime put together, especially if we are talking about major characters in big-budget productions. Voice acting in Japan seems to be a very small world. Voice acting for anime dubs in the US seems to be an even smaller world.
Sikon: Would the Mai-Otome characters borrowed from Mai-HiME count? And if not, do we have an adequate trope for this practice of "reusing" characters in otherwise unconnected stories?
G Bailey: I stupidly created a redirect from the expy page to the page for Chuck, while attempting to create a wik. The page is currently unreadeable beacuse it is constaly redirected to the Chuck. So far my attempts to fix my mistake have failed because i cannot acess the edit page. Is there any way to fix this? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Nerdorama: Is that what happened to several of the entries in the bottome section? Or were they cut for a reason?
- Gage is an indirect-combat specialist, similar to Grit.
- Waylon is an egotistical air combat specialist, similar to Eagle.
- Greyfield is a large-bodied CO who gives boosts to his navy similar to Drake.
- Penny is a Creepy Child who enjoys destruction and can take advantage of natural conditions, similar to Lash.
Tanto: These have to be the flimsiest connections I've ever heard. Other than some superficial gameplay characteristics (which is a given, seeing as how there are only so many different abilities you can give to COs; even some of the originals overlap), most of these characters aren't even close.
Fusion Dragon: Removed the more tenuous ones.
That Other 1 Dude: I think we need to better clarify the difference between an Expy and a Captain Ersatz.
binaroid: That makes sense. IMO, an Expy's supposed to be a character like one the creator or publisher used in another of their works, while a Captain Ersatz would be a re-use of someone else's character (or said character's archetype).
Daibhid C: In which case, there are a lot of entries here that should be there (and probably vice versa). I'll have a proper look at it all when I've got time, unless someone gets there first.
Daibhid C: Does it count as an Expy if you don't even change the name? I'm thinking of Geneviève Dieudonné, originally created by Kim Newman for Warhammer novels, and later playing a significant role in his own Massive Multiplayer Crossover books (both Anno Dracula and the separate Diogenes Club series).
Lale: No, that sounds like the same character crossing over.
Rogue 7: I'm in the middle of Love Hina right now, but Chizuru does not strike me as being all that similar to Otohime, though, admittedly, I've only read her first appearance. She's much more "with it" than Otohime, who does not particularly strike me as the motherly type. Also, from what I can tell, apart from Eyes Always Shut, Kaede is nothing like Kitsune.
Big T: Let's stay away from the hypotheticals. "Could be seen as"? "comparison could be made"? Also, the last one doesn't quite qualify.
- Similarly, the relationship between Kagome and Inu Yasha could be seen as an Expy of the relationship between Akane and Ranma in Ranma 1/2. Inuyasha is actually very similar to Ranma in other ways: the have the same English and Japanese voice actors, they act the same, and both get the same result from wearing red clothes
- A comparison can also be made between Ryuunosuke and her father in Urusei Yatsura and Ranma and his father in Ranma 1/2. Ryuunosuke is a masculine speaking and acting girl who constantly fights with her father, a notorious liar; Ranma is in a similar position, though only a girl part of the time, and against his will.
- The concept of Inu Yasha as well as the lead two characters may be an expansion off an earlier one-shot of Takahashi called Fire Tripper
.
Prfnoff: And let's not accidentally remove 80% of the page.
Big T: And let's not be a jackass. If you knew it was accidental, there was no reason to say anything.
Charred Knight: If Solid Snake is a ripoff of Snake Plissken than the criteria from Ripoff has vastly changed since I last checked. Their past is completely different, the plot of the games are completely different, and Solid Snake doesn't look like Snake at all.
Tsukiko Sagi from Paranoia Agent, Osaka from Azumanga Daioh, Misaki from Welcome to the NHK and Chiharu from Lovely Complex are all pretty much the same character, and there's probably more examples of this type of character.
Large Blunt Object: Removed the caption (again') because it's completely redundant.
Trogga: Not to those unfamiliar with the two shows.
Large Blunt Object: Yes, it is, because you don't need to know what shows they're from to see how they fit this trope. The caption was both futile and incredibly dull.
Trogga: But don't we need to link to them anyway?
Large Blunt Object: No. That's already been done in Examples.
Meems: I can't find them in examples. I know some of the characters in that image are from Tokyo Mew Mew, but that's all. Really, a caption would be very helpful here.
Sluimers: What do you mean redundant? The caption was showing 5 girls from one show and 5 from another looking similar right?
Dor: Removing the Ultima example under Video Games, because (according to Word of God) the entire series stars the same character, not just expies of the same character.
Crisis: Would Dr. K from Power Rangers RPM count as an expy of L from Death Note, or would that be a different trope entirely? Also, and maybe it's just the voice actor, but Grier from Huntik reminds me of Batou from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, except without the weird cyborg eyes.
32_Footsteps: In what may prove to be a Sisyphean task, I'm going to try to finally clean up both Captain Ersatz and Expy. So far, I've gone through the manga/anime section for those that I know don't apply (some may have fallen through the cracks). I ask that you please point out the creator in common before putting something on here.
Addendum: Okay, without familiarity with Gundam or Super Robot Wars, that's about all I can do for this page. Anyone who wants to check over the ones I missed, good luck and godspeed.
Ouroboros: I'm going to help you. Most of these examples aren't expies but might, barely, count as Captain Ersatz's. People don't seem to read the article before posting an example, they just go 'Oh, these characters are kind of similar' then add whatever example they care to, even if they aren't actual expies.
Chris X: In that case, I suggest that you search for pages that have Expy, and see which one fits to be Expies, or not. If not, remove them. It's a gargantuan task, but pretty sure, I can do it. I do think, however, some examples may fall into Alternate Company Equivalent. I mean... how do you explain Folka's fighting style suddenly looking like Hokuto Shinken, while not being called 'Hokuto Shinken', and Folka himself looks nothing like Kenshiro (except maybe his OG Gaiden story)? Ripoff? Sometimes I think 'Based on (insert media/character here)' could be very much tropable.
If anything, how about moving all those 'illegal Expies' you removed into... Just for Fun?
32_Footsteps: Well, I don't have the time to scour the wiki for every misplaced Expy cite... I do change them to Captain Ersatz when I can. I also like adding to other tropes, so it's a piecemeal process. My hope is that people will start getting the hint and start using Captain Ersatz, Alternate Company Equivalent, and several other appropriate tropes.
Though we might need a consensus on where the line exists for Ersatz versus Expy. Like if someone other than the current Iron Man creative team creates a similar character for a different Marvel Universe comic. Is that Captain Ersatz, as nobody from the Iron Man creative team is responsible, or an Expy because it's all under the same editorial umbrella? Sigh... troping is hard work.
Nezumi: Erm... why was the "Cuisses/Toady" example removed during the clean-up? They're two virtually-identical characters with roughly the same plot role and gameplay function in two games by the same company. Sounds like an Expy to me. Re-adding unless someone can tell me an actual reason it was removed. Also added further description of how they're similar, in case it was guesswork based on not enough being listed as the same.
mawootad: Would Ran (of Texhnolyze) be considered an expy of Lain (of Serial Experiments Lain)? Kuudere who can see the strings that govern the world worshiped as a god, is Jesus in Purgatory, looks the same except for a different haircut and has a suspiciously similar name (engrish the l into an r and drop the i).
LE Xicon 712: Actually, i have a better definition for Expy and Captain Ersatz:
An Expy is a character inspired by a previous character from a different series.
A Captain Ersatz is a character that's supposed to be a famous character from a different series.
LE Xicon 712: I wanna hold this thing here until the whole Expy/Ersatz situation is cleared up.
- Ironically, several Evangelion characters have been "expied" to death. Rei Ayanami alone now has her own (near-)clone army. We mean outside the Reiquarium (It looks like this is where Gendo's been getting some of his funding...). Let's see:
- Kirika from Noir
- Koizumi in Iketeru Futari
- Ryomou Shimei from Ikki Tousen
- Yuki Nagato (whose first name even puns on the meaning of Rei's) in Suzumiya Haruhi
- Sasshi's sister in Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai
- D in Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual
- Nemu Kurotsuchi from Bleach
- Tomoe Yukishiro from Rurouni Kenshin
- Nia from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (possibly), and the list goes on.
- Similarly, Yui (and her haircut!) has quite a few diverse expies, ranging from Azusa Fuyutsuki(!) in Great Teacher Onizuka to (possibly) Trisha and Gracia in Full Metal Alchemist to Kamatari in Rurouni Kenshin, I kid you not.)
- And two girls from Burst Angel look almost like Asuka and Rei.
- Ironically, several Evangelion characters have been "expied" to death. Rei Ayanami alone now has her own (near-)clone army. We mean outside the Reiquarium (It looks like this is where Gendo's been getting some of his funding...). Let's see:
- Speaking of Yuki as a Rei expy, Suzumiya Haruhi's Itsuki Koizumi may be an expy of Kaworu Nagisa, in terms of hairstyle and coming close to the male lead character. Though on Itsuki's side, we eventually find out the one he really likes is Haruhi.
- In terms of similarities, this is how it goes: Kyon/Shinji, Haruhi/Asuka, Yuki/Rei, Itsuki/Kaworu, and Mikuru/Misato ,which is probably why Haruhi/Evangelion crossovers are so◊ very◊ common.
- In terms of similarities, this is how it goes: Kyon/Shinji, Haruhi/Asuka, Yuki/Rei, Itsuki/Kaworu, and Mikuru/Misato ,which is probably why Haruhi/Evangelion crossovers are
Doyle: removed this (discussion in the main page) and fixed the series title to "The Door Into".
- "The Door Into...". Anyway, that's an interesting thesis. Would you care to defend it? Name at least ten ways that Tom and Carl are like Herewiss and Freelorn. :)
Removed this too, since it doesn't seem to be anything to do with the trope (and it's a really weak example; you could find analogies to specific human cultures in pretty much any Trek species):
- On a related note, the Bajorans seem to be expies of multiple countries combined. Names, for example, are ordered as if Japanese (surname first), and they were enslaved, like various cultures. So, if you want to make an expy of multiple cultures, just make him/her Bajoran.
