History Manga / IchiTheKiller

* GlasgowGrin: Kakihara has one, held together by piercings. He's also fond of giving the Glasgow Grin to other people. He takes the piercings out to [[spoiler:swallow people's hands when they try to punch him in the face]], and at one point has them torn out, which doesn't faze him at all.

* {{Squick}}: In incredible amounts.

** Ichi has many of these moments, such as giving his money to an abused prostitute so she can have her nose fixed, and teaching a bullied kid how to fight back against his tormentors.

* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: Being CreepyTwins aren't enough for Jiro and Saburo. Their manga background shows that there was originally triplets, all of them monsters who wondered who was the one their father's sperm (no, really, THE SPERM) has blessed the most, so they have been trying to top each other in the "most heinous actions" scale, where the winner apparently kills the others. The third brother never made it to the main storyline...because his younger brothers murdered him. Ichi didn't give the remaining two siblings the time to finish their competition.

A notably gory manga by Hideo Yamamoto. It was later adapted into a film by Creator/TakashiMiike (that spawned a sequel in the form of another movie and a prequel in the form of an anime). ''Ichi the Killer'' is set in the city of Shinjuku, specifically the red-light district Kabuki-cho, where {{Yakuza}} rule the streets. A band of hoodlums lead by an enigmatic old man referred to only as Jijii ("Old guy") hopes to change that.

The story starts with the extremely gruesome murder of Anjou, the leader of a powerful clan of Yakuza known collectively as ''Anjougumi,'' or "the Anjou Clan" in English. The culprit, according to Jijii when he and his group arrive to clean up the mess, is the titular Ichi. The rest of his group are very off-put by the gore, wondering what kind of monster Ichi must be. They clean up the room and empty the safe which contained approximately 300,000,000 yen (about $2,600,000).

* LonersAreFreaks: Ichi.

* OldMaster: Subverted by Jijii; after he breaks Takayama's neck with one hand, he reveals that that he's in his 30's but had plastic surgery to make him look older. On the other hand, he might be an old man and lying. Jijii isn't exactly known for his honesty.

* {{Squick}}: In incredible ammounts.

* Squick: In incredible ammounts.

The story starts with the extremely gruesome murder of Anjou, the leader of a powerful clan of Yakuza known collectively as ''Anjougumi,'' or "the Anjou Clan" in English. The culprit, according to Jijii when he and his group arrives to clean up the mess, is the titular Ichi. The rest of his group are very off-put by the gore, wondering what kind of monster Ichi must be. They clean up the room and empty the safe which contained approximately 300,000,000 yen (about $2,600,000).

We meet Ichi, 22 years old and an extremely meek man-child, who is pushed around by almost everyone he meets. His only response to the torment is to apologize and smile nervously, which usually ends up just angering his bullies even more. However, with subtle manipulation and the use of Ichi's [[DarkAndTroubledPast troubled past]], Jijii is able to temporarily transform the unassuming boy into a monstrous killer, known for [[BerserkerTears crying profusely]] during his murders.

* DeathByAdaptaton: [[spoiler: The final scene shows Jijii's hanged corpse from a tree, in the manga, he's alive and training Takeshi to be his next killing machine. Similarly, Takeshi gets beheaded by Ichi in the film, but is Jijii's current killing machine project in the epilogue of the manga; however, the final scene does have someone that looks like an older Takeshi appear, and considering Kakihara hallucinated Ichi's attack on him, it's possible that nothing actually happened to Takeshi.]]

* SittingOnTheRooftop: We see Ichi and later Jijii sitting on the rooftop.

Eventually, most everyone on both sides of the coin have been killed save for Ichi, Jijii, and Kakihara, all ready for their final showdown. The ending of ''Ichi the Killer'' differs a bit in the manga and film versions of the story, with only the result of the fight between Ichi and Kakihara being the same.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Kakihara is a bottle blond.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1442412648068251600

** When Jijii smiles, his lips don't open right and his eyes widen. The effect is more like a chimp baring its teeth and makes him look very creepy and inhuman.

* DisposableSexWorker: Two of them. One is befriended by Ichi who later kills her along with her pimp. The second is raped and tortured to death by the Jiro and Saburo during the search for Ichi.

** Jiro and Saburo, the twin brothers who ran with Kakihara in their old gang.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Kakihara likes to dole these out to his {{mook}}s, in the form of body piercings in...sensitive areas.

* DisposableSexWorker: Two of them. One is befriended by Ichi who later kills her along with her pimp. The second is raped and tortured to death by the twins during the search for Ichi.

* GroinAttack: Several; also, see CoolAndUnusualPunishment above. Kakihara loves genital torture; he even shows pictures of all the ways to split a penis to the victim, before doing these things to him. Jiro and Saburo are more straightforward; they repeatedly GroinAttack a guy with knives until he bleeds to death.

* TheUnsmile: Ichi tends to do this when he's trying to look harmless.

[[quoteright:377:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d98fd13034a6fce6292e8b7beae969c9.jpg]]

A notably gory manga by Hideo Yamamoto. It was later adapted into a film by TakashiMiike (that spawned a sequel in the form of another movie and a prequel in the form of an anime). ''Ichi the Killer'' is set in the city of Shinjuku, specifically the red-light district Kabuki-cho, where {{Yakuza}} rule the streets. A band of hoodlums lead by an enigmatic old man referred to only as Jijii ("Old guy") hopes to change that.

Now has a character sheet.

** Ichi's doesn't have a lot of upper body strength, but his kills are so effective because his legs are ''really'' strong (since PrisonsAreGymnasiums), so much so that, after a miserable showing with a punching game in an arcade, he returns to the arcade after hours and destroys the machine with one kick.

* ClarkKentOutfit: Jijii, who is a ''beast''.

* CombatSadomasochist: Kakihara may be the definitive example.
** [[spoiler:Subverted at the end. Kakihara gets ''really'' messed up during his fight with Ichi, to the point where he can no longer ignore his body's danger signals and begins experiencing pain like a normal person does.]]

* [[spoiler:EnfantTerrible]]: Takeshi.

* {{Gayngster}}: Kakihara appears to be this for Boss Anjo, but he explains that he's rather just InLoveWithYourCarnage (the punishments Anjo gave him).

* HiddenBadass: Under that tracksuit? Jijii is ''ripped''.

* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: Being CreepyTwins aren't enough for Jiro and Saburo. Their manga background shows that there was originally triplets, all of them monsters who wondered who was the one their father's sperm (no, really, THE SPERM) has blessed the most, so they have been trying to top each other in the "most heinous actions" scale, where the winner apparently kills the others. The third brother never made it to the main storyline...because his younger brothers murdered him. And Ichi didn't give the remaining two siblings the time to finish their competition.

* {{Yakuza}}: Kakihara and all his associates. Jijii's gang are thugs who've been excommunicated from yakuza clans.

A notably gory manga by Hideo Yamamoto that was later adapted into a film by TakashiMiike (that spawned a sequel in the form of another movie and a prequel in the form of an anime). ''Ichi the Killer'' is set in the city of Shinjuku, specifically the red-light district Kabuki-cho, where {{Yakuza}} rule the streets. A band of hoodlums lead by an enigmatic old man referred to only as Jijii ("Old guy") hopes to change that.

* {{Darkness Induced Audience Apathy}}: ''Ichi'' treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can feel good about rooting for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge]]. ''Ichi's'' cocktail of black versus black morality, horrific violence and buckets of squick can definitely be hard to stomach at times. Arguably averted (opinions are apt to differ considerably here) due to the extremely tense, coiled plot, and ''Ichi the Killer's'' surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* {{Darkness Induced Audience Apathy}}: ''Ichi'' treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can feel good about rooting for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge]]. 'Ichi's' cocktail of black versus black morality, horrific violence and buckets of squick can definitely be hard to stomach at times. Arguably averted (opinions are apt to differ considerably here) due to the extremely tense, coiled plot, and ''Ichi the Killer's'' surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* {{Darkness Induced Audience Apathy}}: ''Ichi'' treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can feel good about rooting for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge]]. Ichi's cocktail of black versus black morality, horrific violence and buckets of squick can definitely be hard to stomach at times. Arguably averted (opinions are apt to differ considerably here) due to the extremely tense, coiled plot, and ''Ichi's'' surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* {{Darkness Induced Audience Apathy}}: ''Ichi'' treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can feel good about rooting for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge.]] Arguably averted (opinions are apt to differ considerably here) by the extremely tense, coiled plot, and ''Ichi's'' surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* {{Darkness Induced Audience Apathy}}: Ichi treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can root for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge.]] Arguably averted (opinions are apt to differ considerably here) by the extremely tense, coiled plot, and Ichi's surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* {{DarknessInducedAudienceApathy}}: Ichi treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can root for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge.]] Arguably averted (opinions are apt to differ considerably here) by the extremely tense, coiled plot, and Ichi's surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Ichi treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can root for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge.]] Arguably averted (opinions may differ considerably here) by the extremely tense, coiled plot, and Ichi's surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Ichi treads perilously close to this trope. Everyone of plot significance is a depraved pervert, murderer, psychopath or manipulative bastard (and that's an INCLUSIVE "or," people!). There's really no character you can root for. Even Jiji, the puppet master whose scheme to destroy Kakihara's Yakuza clan could be seen as dolling out justice in a round about way [[spoiler:is, by the end, unmasked as a nihilistic maniac whose only real motivation for taking on the Yakuza was the pure amusement of the challenge.]] Arguably averted (YMMV considerably here) by the extremely tense, coiled plot, and Ichi's surprisingly incisive philosophical musings.