So you didn't expect this version of the Happy Tree Friends? Believe it or not, the Fandom has transformed the little, cute, colorful critters into really popular anime characters, giving them depth and creating a lot of fan stories involving them.
Many can be seen here: Happy Tree Friends
(you still have to make an account to see all the portrayals). Those who have a pixiv-account can find even more under the "HTF", "HTF擬人化" (Basically "HTF Humanization") and "ハピツリ" ("Hapitsuri") tags. The characters are human and more developed than the actual, canon characters, though there is no possible way to join all the interpretations of a character into one.
Note: This is only a large fanon creation, there is not an actual, official anime.
The most common themes or conceptions portrayed in the anime styled fanstories or fanart are:
- Anime Hair: Flaky is usually given long, spiky red long hair, simulating her quills. Petunia is also given a long ponytail, reflecting her big skunk tail.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Giggles, Petunia and Flaky, although Giggles' strawberry hair is associated with strawberry blonde, while Petunia's blue hair is associated with black hair.
- Character Development: For all the characters, in many varying directions.
- Covert Pervert: Many characters, but especially Flippy (when it involves Flaky) and Splendid (when it involves anyone).
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Flippy whenever any other male character gets near Flaky. Bonus added with the fact that Flippy is portrayed as an obsessive Yandere.
- Flaky is this too, for both Flippy and Splendid.
- Everyone Is Bi: (Excluding Ka-Pow! characters), and has been in relationships with members of both sexes in at least some stories.
- Fetishized Abuser: Flippy towards Flaky. He is a serial rapist in most pictures.
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Flippy, Splendid, Lumpy and The Mole are usually grouped together (sometimes called "Four Gods"), since they are the characters who have the reputation of having the most kills:
- Flippy: The Cynic.
- Splendid: The Optimist.
- Lumpy: The Realist (he still has his moments, but he's closer to this than the others).
- The Mole: The Apathetic.
- And sometimes, Lammy is added as the Conflicted female of the group, since she's another, new character who has the reputation of being a killer (involuntarily, through Mr. Pickels, which is part of her imagination) in most of the episodes in which she appears.
- Gender Bender: Though most characters have been bent a few times, Flaky is the most popular choice, mostly due to the fact that fans have been confused regarding her gender for a long time.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Lumpy is very divisive in the west, but the Japanese love him.
- Humanity Ensues: The characters are humans.
- The Ingenue: Giggles and Flaky. Giggles is a sort of happier version of this trope, while Flaky is more withdrawn, timid and much easier to move to tears.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Many stories in which the difference in age between Flippy and Flaky is quite big.
- One Head Taller: Lumpy whenever he's in a pairing. Probably because he's taller than anybody else in the original series.
- Opposites Attract: Flippy and Flaky, Sniffles and Nutty (unless they're Just Friends).
- Out of Character: Flaky is portrayed as having an evil side / being Cute and Psycho in some pictures. Others see it as her evil twin. And others see it as her and Flippy's evil daughter, who took the looks after her mother and her father's insanity. This is most probably due to a really popular artist who created some pictures with the potential spawn of Flippy and Flaky.
- Perpetual Frowner: Handy. Mostly due to the fact that he's frustrated because he is an amputee.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Splendid appears sometimes in Flippy / Flaky serious comics and wrecks the mood. Nutty too, but he appears less often than Splendid.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Nutty and Sniffles. Splendont and Splendid are an inverted example color-wise, because, personality-wise, Splendid is the Hot-Blooded, enthusiastic of the two, while Splendont appears stoic or deadpan most of the time.
- Romanticized Abuse: Apparently... many people think Flippy's most attractive side is the fact that he murders and abuses (physically and mentally) everyone around him.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Cuddles and Flaky are shown to hang out together alone really often, but fans rarely pair them up or assume they have something going on. This is mostly due to the fact that Cuddles has a canonical girlfriend - Giggles- and that Flaky is automatically paired up with Flippy, despite that she has hung out with Flippy less often than she has with Cuddles.
- Shown Their Work: It's easy to brush fans off as only liking the art style or the characters, but much of the art proves how faithfully they watch the show. An excellent example is this very page image, which depicts characters in notable scenes throughout the series.
- Tomboy: Flaky, even though she's this only when compared to Giggles and Petunia, mostly because she hangs out with guys more than with girls and due to her lack of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics in the actual show. When it comes to their personalities, she's shy and quiet compared to them.
- Wife Husbandry: There are many side-stories in which Flaky is under Flippy's care as a little kid or she befriends him when she's still a child, only to fall in love with him later. One example is here.
