History Literature / TalesOfTheOtori

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: A truly spectacular disaster unfolds in ''The Harsh Cry of the Heron'' due to the fact that [[spoiler:Takeo never told Kaede about his brief affair with Yuki during the time the lovers were separated, which resulted in a son. He fully acknowledges how stupid this was, especially since he had sixteen years to tell her the truth and didn't, but by then it's far too late to solve the problem.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:Takeo's failure to explain to Kaede about his affair with Yuki. Had she found out in almost ''any'' other manner than the one she did,]] the story would have had a much happier ending. For the record, [[spoiler:Takeo had]] twenty years in which to explain all of this, but didn't.

* BettyAndVeronica: Kaede and Yuki.
* BiTheWay: Takeo has sex with his best friend Makoto occasionally; it’s not considered particularly notable or unusual.
* BiggerBad: Kotaro, later Akio.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Fujiwara]] is a variation; he presents the image of being coldly polite and unfeeling, but nonetheless willing to help as long as he gets to satisfy his love for secrets. He actually relishes psychologically manipulating and abusing people, and has no hesitation in showing his true colours when he has been defied.

** Kubo Makoto -- A Warrior-Monk of the Terayama Temple; Takeo's closest friend and advisor, possibly his lover.

* FamousLastWords: "We have all night" gets used twice; once by [[spoiler: Iida]] as he is about to rape Kaede, and later by [[spoiler: Fujiwara]] as he prepares to torture one of Kaede's closest friends while she is ForcedToWatch. Since the latter knows the story of the former in great detail, it's likely he deliberately uses that specific phrase to trigger Kaede's memories of it.

* FinalBoss: Of the original trilogy, [[spoiler: Kikuta Kotaro]] at the end of ''Brilliance of the Moon.'' [[spoiler: Takeo and Kenji win, but Takeo loses two fingers in the process and nearly dies of a poisoned wound thereafter]].

* ForcedToWatch: It is hinted increasingly strongly that [[spoiler: Fujiwara]] enjoys torturing people, but his particular brand of sadism is in the psychological abuse rather than the physical torture; he [[ForcedToWatch forces people to watch]] something horrific and enjoys the reactions of the watchers rather than the actual torture victims. He clearly relishes the prospect of forcing [[spoiler: Kaede to watch Shizuka being tortured to death]].

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Takeo and Kaede, Shigeru and Naomi.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: [[spoiler:Muto Kenji]]. He sorts himself out in the end.
* TheHighQueen: Maruyama Naomi.
* HitmanWithAHeart: Takeo, as well as most of the Muto.

Set in a fictional version of feudal Japan, The ''Tales of the Otori'' series tells the story of a pair of Japanese teenagers who become ensnared in a secret war between between two powerful warrior clans, the Otori and the Tohan. It is told from the perspective of Takeo, a young man in whose veins flow the blood of two profoundly different groups: the pacifistic UsefulNotes/JapaneseChristian sect known as the Hidden, and the Tribe, a secret network of supernatural assassins. After his village is massacred by Iida Sadamu, leader of the dominant Tohan clan, Takeo is adopted by the disgraced warrior Otori Shigeru, who wishes to use Takeo's awakening supernatural abilities to overthrow the Tohan. But before he can accomplish this goal, he must first come to terms with his own identity as both a pacifist and an assassin. The other principal viewpoint character is Shirakawa Kaede, whom Hearn describes as her "tribute to all the women who are nameless in Japanese history, who figure in samurai family trees simply as ''onna'' (woman)." A young heiress held hostage to ensure her father's loyalty to the Tohan, Kaede is soon caught up in Shigeru's plot against Iida.

* BiTheWay: Takeo has had both male and female lovers; this is not treated as out of the ordinary.

* WindowsOfTheSoul: The Kikuta sleep (which allows them to make someone fall into a trance by looking into their eyes,) attacks its victim through their own psychological weaknesses. This means that while Takeo cannot exactly read minds, he can sense whatever weakness someone has that makes them vulnerable to his gaze, which can tell him some quite important stuff about the person in question. It also means that if someone can resist his gaze it means they either have a huge amount of inner peace or have survived a rather intense psychological baptism by fire and emerged stronger than before.

Set in a fictional version of feudal Japan, The ''Tales of the Otori'' series tells the story of a pair of Japanese teenagers who become ensnared in a secret war between between two powerful warrior clans, the Otori and and the Tohan. It is told from the perspective of Takeo, a young man in whose veins flow the blood of two profoundly different groups: the pacifistic UsefulNotes/JapaneseChristian sect known as the Hidden, and the Tribe, a secret network of supernatural assassins. After his village is massacred by Iida Sadamu, leader of the dominant Tohan clan, Takeo is adopted by the disgraced warrior Otori Shigeru, who wishes to use Takeo's awakening supernatural abilities to overthrow the Tohan. But before he can accomplish this goal, he must first come to terms with his own identity as both a pacifist and an assassin. The other principal viewpoint character is Shirakawa Kaede, whom Hearn describes as her "tribute to all the women who are nameless in Japanese history, who figure in samurai family trees simply as ''onna'' (woman)." A young heiress held hostage to ensure her father's loyalty to the Tohan, Kaede is soon caught up in Shigeru's plot against Iida.

* BittersweetEnding: Most of the books end on this note. [[spoiler:''The Harsh Cry of the Heron'']] is particularly notable, as it ends with [[spoiler:most of the cast dead, including Takeo and one of his daughters, the loss of the independence of the Three Countries and Shigeko being married to their conqueror]] to counterbalance [[spoiler:that all the Otori clan's enemies are dead, the annexation is on their terms, the Tribes having been all but wiped out and Kaede finally getting her act together after being an emotional wreck since the end of ''Brilliance of the Moon''.]]

* DepravedHomosexual: Fujiwara.

* DieOrFly: The first time Takeo uses his Tribe power of a 'second self', it's to dodge Iida's sword.

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Arai does this]].

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex

** In ''Harsh Cry of the Heron'', Hana is much cleverer and more manipulative than her husband Zenko.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Kaede [[spoiler: until she gets caught in a fire.]] Once her little sister, Hana, grows up, she is said to be just as beautiful as Kaede at her peak.

Set in a fictional version of feudal Japan, The ''Tales of the Otori'' series tells the story of a pair of Japanese teenagers who become ensnared in a secret war between between two powerful warrior clans, the Otori and and the Tohan. It is told from the perspective of Takeo, a young man in whose veins flow the blood of two profoundly different groups: the pacifistic JapaneseChristian sect known as the Hidden, and the Tribe, a secret network of supernatural assassins. After his village is massacred by Iida Sadamu, leader of the dominant Tohan clan, Takeo is adopted by the disgraced warrior Otori Shigeru, who wishes to use Takeo's awakening supernatural abilities to overthrow the Tohan. But before he can accomplish this goal, he must first come to terms with his own identity as both a pacifist and an assassin. The other principal viewpoint character is Shirakawa Kaede, whom Hearn describes as her "tribute to all the women who are nameless in Japanese history, who figure in samurai family trees simply as ''onna'' (woman)." A young heiress held hostage to ensure her father's loyalty to the Tohan, Kaede is soon caught up in Shigeru's plot against Iida.

** Jo An -- An outcast and supporter of Takeo.

* LoonyFan: Jo An.

* PoisonousFriend: Jo An to Takeo, simply because of his social status.

* ShootTheDog: Arai forces Takeo to [[spoiler:kill Jo An]] to prove his loyalty to him.

* ThemeNaming: The Hidden all have Rōmaji Christian names: Jo An (John), Madaren (Madeline), Tomasu (Thomas).

* {{Badass}}: A good portion of the cast, but special mention has to go to General Saga; a man so badass that [[spoiler:getting shot through the eye only ''encourages him'' to pursue an alliance with [[WorthyOpponent Takeo's]] family.]]

* FauxActionGirl: Kaede. A fairly realistic example; her apparent {{Badass}}ery is built up by showing her to fight competently in training situations (and indeed learn reasonably fast), and more than one [[AttemptedRape attempted rapist]] has failed to realise that she's armed and willing to kill. The fights she's lost so quickly have been against men with at least as much training and considerably more experience than her, in addition to the obvious advantage of physical strength, and by that point they are treating her as a serious opponent so don't make the mistake of underestimating her.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The story is set in a fantastical alternate version of Japan. The area of the stories corresponds more or less identically to Chugoku, western Japan (just turn the book's map 90 degrees and the coastline matches up nigh-on perfectly). Hagi, Hofu and Matsue retain their real-life locations and placenames, with others renamed/moved. The real town of Tsuwano appears to have been shifted southwards, and Inuyama looks like it would be Fukuyama, a real-life castle town in the same place. The oft mentioned "mainland" is China/Korea, the white "barbarians" in ''The Harsh Cry of the Heron'' are from Portugal, and the off-map Imperial Capital of Miyako is actually Kyoto (assuming the history is based off the Warring States period, Edo/Tokyo would not exist as a capital and Kyoto was indeed referred to as Miyako during this period).

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The story is set in a fantastical alternate version of Japan. The area of the stories corresponds more or less identically to Chugoku, western Japan (just turn the book's map 90 degrees and the coastline matches up nigh-on perfectly). Hagi, Hofu and Matsue retain their real-life locations and placenames, with others renamed/moved. The real town of Tsuwano appears to have been shifted southwards, and Inuyama looks like it would be Fukuyama, a real-life castle town in the same place. The oft mentioned "mainland" is China/Korea, the white "barbarians" in ''The Harsh Cry of the Heron'' are from Portugal, and the off-map Imperial Capital of Miyako is more or less Kyoto (assuming the history is based off the Warring States period, Edo/Tokyo would not exist as a capital).

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:Takeo's failure to explain to Kaede about his affair with Yuki. Had she found out in almost ''any'' other manner than the one did,]] the story would have had a much happier ending. For the record, [[spoiler:Takeo had]] twenty years in which to explain all of this, but didn't.

* The Muto -- The Kikuta's main rival for control of the Tribe.

* AffablyEvil: It is difficult to call Fujiwara "friendly" since he is so secretive and controlled, but he is excessively polite.

* ArrangedMarriage: Kaede and Fujiwara.

** It's also worth noting that it is never suggested that combat is Kaede's main skill; she is much more of a GuileHero, and consciously builds on this strength because, far from insisting she is a super-badass who can take care of herself, which is what this trope normally does, she is well aware of her disadvantage in a fight and decides to use her brain instead.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Fujiwara is normally AffablyEvil, being genuinely polite and as friendly as his deliberate coolness permits. However, after [[spoiler: he forces Kaede to marry him]] the discovery of how cruel he can be and his delight in psychological abusing [[spoiler: Kaede]] makes his completely unchanged level of politeness really unnerving.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Kaede [[spoiler: until she gets caught in a fire.]]

* ''AcrossTheNightingaleFloor''

Set in a fictional version of feudal Japan, The ''TalesOfTheOtori'' series tells the story of a pair of Japanese teenagers who become ensnared in a secret war between between two powerful warrior clans, the Otori and and the Tohan. It is told from the perspective of Takeo, a young man in whose veins flow the blood of two profoundly different groups: the pacifistic JapaneseChristian sect known as the Hidden, and the Tribe, a secret network of supernatural assassins. After his village is massacred by Iida Sadamu, leader of the dominant Tohan clan, Takeo is adopted by the disgraced warrior Otori Shigeru, who wishes to use Takeo's awakening supernatural abilities to overthrow the Tohan. But before he can accomplish this goal, he must first come to terms with his own identity as both a pacifist and an assassin. The other principal viewpoint character is Shirakawa Kaede, whom Hearn describes as her "tribute to all the women who are nameless in Japanese history, who figure in samurai family trees simply as ''onna'' (woman)." A young heiress held hostage to ensure her father's loyalty to the Tohan, Kaede is soon caught up in Shigeru's plot against Iida.