It seems that your question isn't about whether HP and a random Anime can be made fit together, but rather, what if I put these two next to each other, would it work?

A crossover, at every turn is something that needs to have contact. There needs to be common ground - same as there can be major differences between two (or more) universes.

There doesn't exist a single universal answer to this problem.

Take Harry Potter and Naruto. From one glance, you might say that Naruto is glittered with cliche's and one-dimensional characters, while praising Harry Potter for being so edgy and differentiated.

The statements are flawed. First, we are talking about fanfiction. That means we have interpretations of the characters, and not the characters themselves.

Take Snape - he's a complex character and was intended as such. It's all fine and dandy, when you think about what Rowling tried to say with his character. But take some SuperSnapeLily69 and you'll see an entirely different Snape there. Where is his complexity? Why is he suddenly interpreted differently?

On the other hand, there's also not looking for depth where there is one, and finding depth where there wasn't such. There are plenty of interpretations of Dumbledore that fall on either edge of good vs evil axis - and most hyperbolize his character in a way that makes it flatter than the drawing board for ideas.

On the other hand, take some Naruto character, (and I'm staying away from Jiraiya, Sasuke, Itachi, and Naruto himself just because they have intended depths, even if some of the twists are weaker or badly handled) say Iruka. Analyse him well enough, and you'll have enough canon facts for a multi-dimensional personality:

[You might want to skip this example of how Iruka is complex]
The teacher-older brother figure to Naruto in the early chapters. Why do I hold his character complex? Because he is a parallel to the main character (in a sense, these usually have something interesting about them). Iruka was supposed to be one of the 'Naruto haters', because he had been orphaned by the same attack that left Naruto with Kurama in his stomach. Yet, he pushed through that initial dislike and bitterness and worked through it.

Granted, we don't see much of his 'evil' half, nor it is much expanded in canon manga, but if you're writing a fan-fiction, the simple facts can arrange themselves to form a complex view. There's family loss contrasted against surrogate family status of Naruto's older brother, there's being a teacher that is surpassed by his student, there's his seriousness in contrast to Naruto's lightheartedness, and there's regrets and anger at Kyuubi put to test when Naruto is threatened. There's also his choices between letting Naruto pass for saving his life - or keeping to the rules he was taught to live by.
I could go on.
[/You might want to skip this example of how Iruka is complex]


I'm starting to go in circles with what I wanted to say. The characters of either piece of media, be it manga or fiction are as complex as you want them to be. If there lacks depth, it can always be added, and otherwise, even the most well-thought-out characters might get flattened [bashing, anyone?]

My answer to the whole thread is this, then:
Yes, they work, but they need more work to work out the differences before making it work.

---

On this note, if anyone wants to help with a HP x Naruto crossover, send me a message or catch me on IRC (these days, that's a bit harder than you might think). I should only begin work in earnest only after the 7th of December rolls by, but I have a scene or two drafted at ~3k words in google docs.

 

Imo, anime and/or shounen manga as a genre works very differently than novels such as Harry Potter. Not saying that I prefer one or the other, just that the worlds work very differently. Humans act/are different in each.
Thus, to make a crossover work people usually shape one world to fit into the laws and natures of the other, which twists it almost beyond recognition.

It is not impossible to find the balance in the middle, in which both worlds are made to seem similar and work along the same lines. That is usually the best, if one can manage it, though like this there are slight alterations in both worlds.


Basically it is hard to make HP/anime crossover work because they are two very different forms of entertainment/storytelling.

 

Meh.

HP/Cowboy Bebop would totally work.

/thread

 

I know I'd enjoy a Hellsing/Harry Potter crossover, though.

 

Zeelthor, I didn't know I wanted a Hellsing crossover so much. Now I do.

Quickly, will it into existence!

 

There's a story called Little Worm that I remember being decent. Has a pre-teen Harry being turned into a Hellsing Vampire.