History Manga / KiwaguroNoBrynhildr

[[redirect:Manga/GokukokuNoBrynhildr]]

[[quoteright:236:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8uvzd_2570.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:236:Neko Kuroha, the one to be blamed for everything.]]

For 10 years, Ryouta Murakami has been tormented by the death of his childhood friend Kuroneko, whom he had been really close to. The guilt he feels because of her death had 2 effects on his psyche: motivates him to fulfill [[ThePromise a childhood promise he made with with her to show aliens do exist]] (at his 16 years of life, he's already third-ranked in school and is on fast track to become a NASA researcher, with some thanks to his superb PhotographicMemory), and left him with a deep inability to communicate with and understand the opposite sex.

One day, a girl who looks exactly like Kuroneko appears before him. Her name is Neko Kuroha, and from then on, a story of horror, experiments, human communication, and despair begins.

''Kiwaguro no Brynhildr'' (or ''Gokukoku no Brynhildr'' going by the furigana spelling and [[https://twitter.com/Gokukoku_anime the Twitter account for the anime]]; officially translated as ''Brynhildr in the Darkness'') is a manga by Lynn Okamoto. It keeps the science-fiction horror tone and massive {{Gorn}} [[Manga/ElfenLied of previous works]]. An {{anime}} adaptation has also been green-lighted, and is airing [[Spring2014Anime as part of the Spring 2014 season]]. The animation studio behind it, however, is Arms, the same ones who did ''ElfenLied''.

Crunchyroll is streaming the anime, which can be [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/brynhildr-in-the-darkness viewed here]] for people living in the following areas: U.S.A, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Turkey, Latin America (Central and South America including Caribbean), Spain, Portugal.

''[[YouHaveBeenWarned Cautious editing/viewer warning]]'': While the manga is {{Seinen}} and has a public run, it is '''very graphic'''.
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!!This manga provides examples of:
[floatboxright:
Other manga by Lynn Okamoto:
* Manga/ElfenLied
* Manga/{{Nononono}}
]
* AboveTheInfluence: Because of his still unforgotten childhood crush, Ryouta doesn't try to make any moves on the girls, even after Kazumi's successive teasing and attempting to get into his pants.
* AbusiveParents: Ryouta's mother is rather harsh, but is averted since she hasn't done anything that could be considered abusive.
* AccidentalKiss: Ryouta has one of these in chapter 65. [[spoiler:Kazumi was actually going to try and force him into having sex with her, but in the end chickens out from even kissing him. She tries to leave the park, but he says they should stay a little bit since they just got there. She then trips and they accidentally kiss before tumbling down the hill together.]]
* AccidentalPervert: Ryouta grabbed Kuroha's boobs once by accident. Not to mention what he did to Kazumi in the outdoors bath.
* ACupAngst: When Kana is protesting that Ryouta, while he carries her out of a burning building, is just using the opportunity to grope her, he says that she doesn't have anything up there anyway. She doesn't like that remark.
** Neither does Kazumi, who develops a {{Yandere}} look in her face when she tells him not to insult a girl after seeing her naked like that in episode 4. And in episode 7, after he insults her size again, she kicks him in the chin, knocking him down.
** In chapter 56 of the manga, after Kazumi mentions Kikka's breasts are the same size as hers, the latter states she's still in middle school and growing. Meanwhile the former is already well into high school and still the same size.
* AdaptationExpansion: Which is a ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome complete]]'' [[InvertedTrope Inversion]] when compared to the anime of ''Elfen Lied''. For example, the test comparisons and places of Ryouta are not mentioned until Chapter ''55''.
* AndIMustScream: Milder example with Kana who is like this due to experiments -- she can only move her fingers a bit to type on her keyboard to communicate. She does, however, [[RunningGag scream whenever her food gets put in a blender]].
** It is suggested that she can move, but doesn't as it will for some reason upset Neko.
*** [[spoiler: She does move, at the cost of losing her foresight.]]
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Hexenjagd makes one to Ryouta in chapter 79. [[spoiler:They want Kazumi's help hacking and finding out where Chisato is hiding Kotori so they can eliminate her, or more specifically the "Grani" or "alien life form" inside of her, which is capable of destroying all humans on Earth. In exchange, they'll reveal the formula on how to create the death suppressant pills.]]
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Kotori's demise proves this. Averted with several of the other characters, thanks to Hatsuna's HealingFactor abilities.]]
* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Kazumi strips down naked in episode 8 while visiting his house. She practically throws herself on him, but he just barely resists her advances. He instead just tries to go to bed, but is obviously having trouble sleeping knowing there's a girl right next to him.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: In chapter 55, Kazumi asks Kuroha one, [[spoiler:if she likes Ryouta. The former tells the latter that she knows she likes him after everything he's done for them up to this point.]]
* ArmorPiercingSlap: [[spoiler:Chisato delivers one to Mako]] after the latter escapes from the witches he sent to watch over her, and causes a huge explosion that leaves quite a large crater in the mountainside which his organization can't easily dismiss to the media.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: In episode 6, Ryouta figures out Kikako has to charge up her attack spell, meaning Kuroha could dodge said attacks, hopefully long enough for him to hit the former's harnest on her neck.
* BadassNormal: Armed with only his PhotographicMemory, Ryouta has proved himself time and again to be as dangerous as the [[BadAss Magi]][[MagicalGirl cians]] that he and the girls must fight off on a frequent basis to stay alive to the point that he is the defacto [[TheStrategist strategist]] that comes with up with the plans that save the day.
* BatmanGambit: Ryouta pulls one when talking to Hexenjagd in chapters 76-78. They want the container he acquired from Kuroha, which is said to contain a fertilized alien egg. In exchange, he wants them to answer some questions for him. While they do answer one question, they state that it's the only one they're going to answer. So he replies with a threat that one of the witches with him is going to recover from their hangup soon. They don't seem worried and even threaten him until he mentions Valkyrie detecting said witch's presence, and likely the organization bringing down an army on where they're at. They then offer to answer one more question for him, but unfortunately for Ryouta, it's not the answer he was hoping for [[spoiler:if they had any more death suppressant pills on them. They tell him they don't because they don't have a need for them there.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe:
** Arguably why the girls are largely attracted to Ryouta. He doesn't treat them differently than other people, and often goes out of his way to help them when he can. The fact that he's also a good looking guy helps out as well, especially with Kuroha and Kazumi.
** Nanami, one of the witches Ryouta and the others meets later, also does this for him. Though she has the power to wipe out memories and replace them with different ones, she doesn't do it to him, either because she can't erase his PhotographicMemory, or because she chooses not to after seeing what a NiceGuy he is [[spoiler:In the end her harnest is ejected, but not before she's able to transfer her consciousness into him, and provides him with some help later on]].
** Hatsuna is also initially distrustful of humans due to being a witch. However, after Ryouta saves her from the tower, she sees that he really is a good guy at heart, [[spoiler:falls in love with him, and saves his life later on.]]
* BerserkButton: Kotori seems to lose it in chapter 86 after Chisato threatens to kill Ryouta, and Valkyrie claims to have killed several other witches, [[spoiler:specifically by blowing Hatsuna to LudicrousGibs, and beheading Kazumi.]]
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Ryouta is rescued from an arrest in episode 8 when Kuroha and Kotori show up to save him, using the info that Kazumi obtained from him as far as where he was going that day.
** When Neko and Murakami are [[spoiler:cornered by Valkyrie, Kana sneaks up behind her and stabs her with a knife.]]
* BilingualBonus: The ''Harnessed'' is the button-like thing on the nape of magic users. [[spoiler:Due to how things are transliterated to Katakana, it's easily possible to miss that the real transliteration is ''her nest'' (which gets written in the same way), an obvious reference to where resides the parasite inside the magic users' bodies. Interestingly, according to the translators, "Harnessed" [[GratuitousEnglish in English]] was the original name.]]
* BlackComedy: When one of the strongest witches, called Valkyria, [[spoiler:tricked a man into a shower so she could kill him with a thought and not make a mess, her first thought after killing him is she just ruined her chance to take a shower]].
* BlankWhiteEyes: Ryouta displays some in chapter 55, after placing second place in test scores at school. [[spoiler:Kuroha places first, and he begins to recall that Kuroneko did well on tests too. He wonders if Kuroha would also be quite intelligent were it not for her constantly losing her memories due to her witch powers.]]
* BloodFromTheMouth: Kana starts to do this in episode 3 after Kuroha explains to Ryouta about their "death suppressant" pills. She mentions that if they don't take the pills every 30 hours or so, they'll start to bleed. And after 35 hours, their internal organs start to melt and they die.
* BodyHorror: Magic Users [[ItMakesSenseInContext melt]] when they go too long without taking the medication. And that is only the final stage. Before that, they start to [[{{Gorn}} bleed all over]], [[{{Squick}} their bodies break down, and even their internal organs shut down before that happens]].
* BookDumb: Played straight at first. Kuroha is unable to do simple multiplication despite being in the same class as Ryouta. He is understandably baffled at how she's even in that school if she can't do math. She also can't read very well either, and he tells her that her cover is going to get blown if she's trying to blend in this way. However, in episode 4 she is seen doing a complex math problem in class, and Ryouta mentions how amazingly fast she picked up on high school subjects. [[spoiler:Kana mentions in the same episode that Kuroha loses some of her memories when she uses her spells.]]
* BreakTheCutie: All the magic users come prebroken for your convenience. You could think that further breaking is on the menu and we wouldn't blame you for it, anyways.
* BreatherEpisode:
** Episode 4, or at least the second half. While episode 3 had a lot of intense action, episode 4 is mostly filled with high school hijinks and FanService scenes.
** The first half of episode 5 spends time with the girls and Ryouta bonding a little while watching the stars at night on a mountaintop. [[spoiler:Then Shino, one of the witches that escaped with the girls, is being chased by another witch.]]
** Most of the later half of episode 7, where Ryouta and Kazumi go to Akihabara. [[spoiler: Until Ryouta looks at the device Kuroha gave him.]]
* BrownBagMask: Ryouta does this to Kikako in episode 6, so as to avoid letting her see his face while he attempted to interrogate her.
* ButNotTooForeign: Kazumi claims she's half German and can speak some of it, at least enough to fool Ryouta's classmates into thinking she's transferring in from a school in Austria.
* CaptainErsatz: Hello, [[{{Manga/ElfenLied}} Nozomi]]!
* CassandraTruth:
** Kuroha tells Ryouta various things, such as not to miss the last bus, but then later tells him to stay at the observatory. Naturally he doesn't exactly believe her, and wonders what [[TemptingFate could possibly happen]] in the rain out in a remote road near a mountain. Then a mudslide occurs...
** In chapter 62, Hatsuna tells Ryouta that if she falls off the tower, she won't die. However, he doesn't believe her because he hasn't seen her ability yet, and thinking back to when he was unable to save Kuroneko, refuses to let her go, and would rather save her than let go, and regret it if she did fall to her death.
* CastFromHitPoints:
** Sort of. Kana explains to Ryouta in episode 4 that Kuroha loses some of her memories anytime she has to use her powers. Which goes with what she said in the previous episode when Ryouta complained about not being able to forget certain things, and she tells him it's better than not being able to remember them. [[spoiler:It is also implied, if not for this problem Neko was actually ranked at a higher level of power and destruction]].
** A more straight example is seen with Hatsuna. She thinks she has the power to heal others, but only attempted it once, on a cat that got ran over recently. But she says that she stopped about halfway because she got hung up during the attempt. [[spoiler:However, she tries it with Ryouta, who was fatally injured in chapter 73, and melts in the process. However, she says she should be okay after her hang up resets after a day or so. And Ryouta does end up recovering after his heart stopped beating.]]
* CavalryBetrayal: The Hexenjagd reps save Kuroha and the others from Chisato in chapter 73. [[spoiler:But then they tell them at the end of the chapter that they have to kill them because they really are monsters. In chapter 74 they explain to Ryouta that the girls are really just those alien slimes they've seen inhabiting the bodies of the girls. And sooner or later, those things will emerge from the girl's bodies and turn into something that's definitely not human. So they figure it's better to kill them now. But Ryouta manages to talk them out of it, largely because the girls only have about a week supply of pills at best, and one of the reps says they're unlikely to emerge in such a short time and their bigger priority was hunting down number 1107, Kotori, who was kidnapped by Chisato when he fled.]]
* CensorSteam: Used a lot in episode 4, both to hide gruesome stuff in the first half, and to hide the usual female nudity in the second half. Used again in episode 6 when the girls are outside with a garden hose due to it being really hot that day.
* CliffHanger: Happens a couple of times:
** The first is in episode 3, after Ryouta finds Kuroha fighting Saori, [[spoiler:and watching the latter turn his friend into LudicrousGibs.]]
** Another happens at the end of episode 5. Kuroha heads to a lake to help Shino. Then they find out the witch chasing her is Kikako, a AA+. [[spoiler:Kikako shoots a beam from her mouth, which vaporizes the right side of Shino's body. Kuroha just watches in horror as she's unable to do anything.]]
* ClingyJealousGirl:
** Kuroha starts showing traits of this in episode 5. After Kazumi teasingly licks Ryouta's cheek, a table behind them suddenly smashes in half. Kuroha says she's unsure why that happened though. And in episode 7, when he stares a little too long at Kotori's breasts, she asks him what he's looking at.
** In chapter 30, Ryouta says he wants to go somewhere with Kazumi regarding the device he has. The latter blushes, while Kuroha, who he was also talking to, seems shocked by his statement. One of the windows in their classroom suddenly shatters, and when Ryouta yells at Kuroha, she claims the windows just broke on their own somehow. [[spoiler:In reality, he just wanted Kazumi to go with him so she could translate the device's German for him.]]
** In chapter 63, the tower Ryouta and Hatsuna were on suddenly explodes after the latter kisses him in front of Kuroha and Kazumi. Once again Kuroha claims she didn't do it.
** Kikka, the girl Ryouta is tutoring, finds out he's going to the beach in chapter 55, and just coincidentally happens to end up planning to go to the beach as well. She also claims that she's there to prevent the other girls from tempting Ryouta.
** Kazumi joins this club in chapter 64 when Hatsuna shows up. [[spoiler:First, the latter kisses Ryouta in front of all of them, gives him a LoveConfession, and later is on top of him giving him a massage.]]
* ClothingDamage: Kuroha suffers some in episode 3 during her fight with Saori. [[spoiler:Aside from the obvious FanService, this also allows Ryouta to see the three moles his friend Kuroneko had, and he then realizes she was still alive. At least until Saori turns her into a bloody mess. But then in episode 4, Saori reverts time to before she killed Kuroha, and subsequently before Ryouta saw it, so he's still unaware of it.]]
* ClusterFBomb: Kana. ''Seriously''.
* CloudCuckoolander:
-->'''Ryouta''': ''TWO TIMES TWO?!''\\
'''Kuroha''': ''A squirrel?''
* [[spoiler: CosmicHorrorStory: It's implied that the leaders of the research facility are not from Earth. There's also enough evidence to suggest that the parasite is actually an alien life form.]]
* CovertPervert: Yuki Tsuchiya, a recent college graduate that's working for the organization and is overseeing Freya, turns out to be one after the latter does a search of her online. [[spoiler:Freya finds out the former doesn't have [[FriendlessBackground any friends]], and bought a lot of sex toys and BoysLove games. She then discovers a blog that has some rather interesting erotic literature written on it.]]
* CryCute:
** In episode 2, when Ryouta mentions the third piece of cake he brought was for him, Kuroha starts to shed tears. Kana then berates him for making her cry, and he decides to let them have the cake instead.
** Kazumi does this in episode 7 [[spoiler:after Ryouta tells them the lab he took the pill to can't synthesize it for at least half a year, and they only have about a month's worth of pills left.]]
* CursedWithAwesome: How Ryouta views his PhotographicMemory at times. He wishes there were certain things he could forget, such as the death of his friend Kuroneko. However, Kuroha tells him that having not being able to forget is much better than not being able to remember. Some of the witch abilities fall under this as well.
** Neko's ability allows her to destroy objects [[spoiler:at the cost of losing memories.]]
** Kana has foresight, but suffers from near-full body paralysis. [[spoiler:She gives up her power in order to save Neko and Murakami from Valkyrie.]]
* DangerouslyShortSkirt: The witches all wear mini-dresses.
* DCupDistress: Kotori says her large chest is actually a bother for her in episode 5, after Kazumi accuses her of flaunting her chest around. The latter [[ACupAngst being insecure]] about her chest size, doesn't believe it. And when she tries to repeat this in later chapters of the manga, Kazumi likens her complaint to a rich person whining about not being able to spend their money fast enough.
* DeathSeeker: Kotori was planning on killing herself, and hopefully doing something heroic beforehand, largely due to SurvivorsGuilt when her friend stopped taking her pills so she could live long enough to see her birthday in a week. Fortunately Ryouta and Kuroha manage to talk her out of it.
* DetachedSleeves[=/=]OperaGloves: Part of Kuroha's school uniform.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Ryouta in episode 7, when he sees Kotori in a bikini. This causes Kuroha to ask him what he's looking after a while.
* DoesntKnowHerOwnStrength: When Ryouta challenges Kuroha to an arm wrestling contest, she easily defeats him. However, she slams his hand rather hand onto the table, as he's wincing in pain afterwards. He then gropes her arm and wonders how she managed to do that.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In order to get inducted to the research facility, you must possess high knowledge and have low contacts. They can prove the former with agreeing with the college of graduation, but the latter is done with incredible levels of spying (for example, they know [[TheInternetIsForPorn if you've gone to porn sites]]). Yuki believed that this was [[StalkerWithoutACrush one thing]], but the reader knows that it is [[CloakAndDagger the other]].
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Kazumi teases Ryouta in the bath in episode 4, then hits him a couple of times after he insults her [[ACupAngst chest size]]. She hits him again in episode 5 after he makes fun of her breast size again. And then she hits him over the head with her bookbag in episode 7 simply because his head looked "whackable".
* DoYouWantToCopulate: Kazumi comes right out and asks this of Ryouta more than once.
* TheDreaded:
** Kikako, the AA+ witch chasing after Shino, one of the B witches that escaped with Kuroha and the others. When she's seen in episode 5, even Kuroha, who was determined to help the latter, freezes in fear when she hears that name.
** Valkyrie, who is a double S ranked witch, is even more powerful. Kana tells Ryouta that she can utilize eight forms of magic, one of which is the power to detect other witches. So naturally when she shows up unannounced, it puts quite the MassOhCrap trope into use.
** Valkyrie seems to be quite afraid of Kuroha when the first meet, and she ends up not attacking everyone in the observatory as a result. [[spoiler:Kuroha later confirms that she's even more powerful than the former, though it takes quite a bit to stop her, and she loses her memories again after their long fight.]]
* DynamicEntry: Ryouta does one in chapter 83, flying in feet first to kick Chisato in the head in his attempt to save Kuroha from Valkyrie.
** Considering this is used in all three of his mangas (including being in the same direction and being a full double page) may count as a SignatureStyle.
* EasyAmnesia: One of Nanami's powers is to erase people's memories and if needed, rewrite them. This way she can erase her presence from their minds as if they never saw her before, or she could make them think she was their most important person they've known for years, even if she just met them.
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:The horrendous thing that remains when a magic user is destroyed with her Harnessed's down-left button gives all vibes of this. Might be an alien life form that parasites the magic users' bodies and gives them their powers, but this is unconfirmed.]]
** [[spoiler:That ''thing'' that resides in a Magic User has multiple eyes, a jelly mass, is apparently ''sentient'', and most likely alien. If this is not Eldritch, then what is?]]
** [[spoiler:The Initial Sorcerian is something not from this world, but has been tested for the past 20 years. Its DNA and overall composition supports this, but the exact details of what it can do are left ambiguous.]]
* ElegantGothicLolita: Kana, complete with OjouRinglets.
* EnemyCivilWar: Hexenjagd is an organization that comprises of researchers from the main organization that's doing the research and experiments on the witches. While they are fighting the main organization, they are also hunting down witches as well, which puts them at odds with Ryouta's group.
** ALighterShadeOfBlack: Or possibly even a dark grey. Unlike the main organisation, they can be reasoned with, and while they're highly suspicious of witches, they can be persuaded to let the harmless ones live. They also tend to keep their word and it's a telltale sign that going WhatTheHellHero on them ''actually works'' and they've been shown questioning the morality of their own actions several times. As far as (reluctant) allies go, the protagonists could do worse than Hexenjagd.
* EnemyMine: Ryouta is forced to work with Hexenjagd in order to stop Chisato's twisted plan in chapter 79. They sweeten the deal by promising to give him the formula to create the death suppressant pills he sorely needs for his friends. [[spoiler:to awaken "Grani" the life form in Kotori, which is capable of destroying all humans]].
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When the very first scene of the villain has him ordering the execution of a witch via CruelAndUnusualDeath without batting an eyelid, you know he's not going to be sympathetic. Things go FromBadToWorse from there.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: While Mako is seen killing random people and witches off randomly in chapter 59 and 60, she for some reason won't hurt Kuroha [[spoiler:and by small extension, the other witches in the observatory.]] She also spares a girl who was walking home with a friend, Hatsuna, who turns out to be a witch after the latter reveals where her pills are hidden away at, [[spoiler:and is sliced in half by Mako afterwards for copping an attitude with her before the reveal. Said girl freaks out both at Hatsuna being brutally cut in half, and then recovers as if it were completely normal.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Chisato does all the horrible things in the hopes of one day giving his sister who died from a disease, even if it means having to kill off all of humanity (including himself) to do it.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: After Kuroha accidentally shoots down a boy in episode 7, her friend tells her that the reason she feels uneasy when Ryouta touches her hand is because she likes him. The camera then pans along several of the other guys and girls present, showing the rejected guy looking down, and the others snickering at how innocent she is.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Between the TheMenInBlack using Magic Users trying to capture and remove others, rogue Magic Users attempting to kill anyone just for the sake it, and several times the ''environment'' trying to kill the main characters, nobody is safe.
* FanService: ImprobablyFemaleCast with a guy who is not comfortable around women; of course there is going to be FanService.
** FanDisservice: The ''first two pages'' is Ryouta stabbing Kuroha with lots of blood flowing in full color. By this, you know that FanService will not be plentiful. [[spoiler:In chapter 3, we learn that Kanade, another escaped magic user, has been captured. She's shown strapped face-down on a table, naked.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: What the Magic Users are told about the third button on their harness. Note that this is ''implied''.
* FirstKiss:
** Ryouta has his first lip to lip one in chapter 63, [[spoiler:by Hatsuna, a witch they just met recently, and whom he went through a lot of trouble to help save from her "accident" of climbing up a tower and "slipping". He thinks to himself that it wasn't bad, but hated that it was in front of Kuroha, who [[ClingyJealousGirl also wasn't happy]] to see that.]]
** Kazumi shares hers with him in chapter 66 [[spoiler:after the AccidentalKiss from earlier. She says that she intended this one to be her real first one, and would never forget it even if he tries to. Unfortunately Kuroha also sees this kiss.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: This manga doesn't even try to hide the idea that Kuroha Neko might be Ryouta's childhood friend Kuroneko.
* ForScience: Every scientist so far (with the exception of Yuki) has only the desire to continue their work just because they think it is interesting. Kougorou is the good variant of this trope, but he is slightly crazy in his normal work and very hard to convince.
* FreudianExcuse:
** When Kana has a vision of seeing a bloody Kotori smiling over Kuroha, they are understandably on guard as to who she really was. However, in episode 6, Kotori explains why she smiles a lot. [[spoiler:Her friend Chie that she escaped with was going to die due to a lack of pills, and didn't want Kotori to be sad anymore, so she asked the latter to always try to smile even when it was sad, so it could help minimize the emotional pain.]] Ryouta does comment later that it caused a lot of problems with Kana's prediction.
** Kazumi's constant advances on Ryouta is due to the fact that she could die at any moment. And even if she's not in immediate danger, there's also the risk of running out of pills, which means she wouldn't have long to live anyway. Hence she badly wants [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy a baby]] with him, so that if she dies, at least she'll have something to prove she existed. Of course he doesn't see it that way, and instead just wants to help them try to live as normal a life as possible. That, and he's interested in Kuroha.
* {{Gainaxing}}:
** Happens to Kotori a couple of times in episode 5. Kazumi is [[ACupAngst not amused]] by it.
** She does it again in episode 7. This time he stares for a little while before Kuroha asks him what he's looking at.
* GenreSavvy: Ryouta has made some very intelligent moves, from only doing online research on the girls and the facility through proxy servers, to earning the trust of a skilled biomedical engineer in the hopes of getting an imitation of the pills.
* GoThroughMe: Kuroha does this for Kana in a FlashBack during chapter 94, when some guards seemed to want to kill the latter. As a result, Kana does what she can to help her out, such as with her foresight powers. [[spoiler:The latter also cuts Valkyrie's throat in chapter 93 to save Ryouta and Kuroha.]]
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Happens quite a bit to Hatsuna due to her HealingFactor. [[spoiler:She gets cut in half a few times, and nearly melts when attempting to heal Ryouta. And despite being nearly melted, she is still conscious and can still talk.]]
* {{Gorn}}: Okamoto indulges in this each time more and more; just compare the post-accident Ryouta in episode 1 to [[spoiler:the fight with Saori in chapter 9]].
* GoryDiscretionShot: Done to Shino at the end of episode 5. [[spoiler:After getting blasted by Kikako's attack. Part of the right side of her body is vaporized, but most of it's blocked from view by the wooden fence.]]
* GovernmentConspiracy: The villains are implied to have powerful contacts in the government because in episode 6 Ryouta is warned that the police will be on the lookout for a Harnessed, meaning they must be in on the whole deal.
* GreenEyedMonster: In episode 7 two boys tells Ryouta all of the guys in their class are jealous of his relationship with Kazumi, because she's the only guy she'll talk to for any period of time.
* HairDecorations: Kazumi wears a headband.
* HandicappedBadass: Although Kana is paralyzed and can only move her left hand slightly and swallow food, she still has the ability to foresee future events with the help of a computer which helps Kuroha out quite a bit when saving people. [[spoiler:In episode 4, Kazumi hints that Kana may in fact be able to move around, but just chooses not to. Kana warns her against revealing too much about her to Kuroha and Ryouta. Her powers also play a key role in fighting against another Seer, giving the heroes the chance to escape unscathed. And later she has her harnest hung up so that she can in fact move]].
* HappinessInSlavery: Mako, for all of her murderous intents, is completely subservient to Chisato, who manages to bring her back under control with a simple ArmorPiercingSlap.
* HealingFactor: One witch introduced later has an extreme version of this. Nothing can kill her, not even decapitation. Only if she doesn't get her meds can she die.
* HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: Kuroha tries to state this regarding Ryouta in episode 7 to Kana, Kazumi, and Kotori. She says he's only interested in helping her because she looks like his childhood friend that died. But later chapters in the manga show she is interested in him, and doesn't like seeing other girls make moves on him, whether it's just flirting or even kissing him.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** Kuroha intended to do one in episode 3, so that Ryouta could find the pills they need to survive, and allow at least Kana and Kasumi to live on.
** Kotori's friend Chie does this for her. Their birthdays were coming up, but due to the lack of pills neither one of them would live long enough to see it. So Chie decides to forgo her pills so that Kotori could at least live to see hers, especially because the former's was a week after Kotori's, so she definitely wouldn't have lasted even with Kotori's share. Kotori [[SurvivorsGuilt feels really bad]] about this, and attempts to let herself die as well, but Ryouta and Kuroha manage to convince her to survive, if nothing else, to live to see Chie's birthday and wish her friend one.
** Subverted twice in chapters 72 and 73. [[spoiler:Ryouta pushes Kuroha out of the way of Mako's attack, but gets fatally injured in the process. Though his heart stops beating, Hatsuna attempts to heal him, and melts in the process. However, due to her HealingFactor, while she's in a melted state, she is still alive, albeit hung up so she can't heal herself at that point. And Ryouta survives as well.]]
** Achieved by [[spoiler:Kotori]], who persuades Ryouta to eject her in order to keep her grandi from killing everyone.
* HeroicSecondWind: Kuroha gets one in chapter 95 after Ryouta presses one of the buttons on her harnest. [[spoiler:It works, and she also seems to have regained her memories as Kuroneko as well, as she has no idea who Kuroha is.]]
* HeroKiller: Several high ranking witches are sent to kill the ones that escaped, such as Kuroha:
** Subverted with Saori. [[spoiler:She does kill Kuroha, and then Ryouta. But because he also stabbed her in the heart before getting killed, she's forced to use her ability to turn time back a minute, so in the end they both are brought back to life.]]
** Played straight with Kikako in episode 5. She's first seen holding two harnests in her hand, presumably taken from witches she's killed, while chasing a third witch, Shino. [[spoiler:She then kills Shino at the end of episode 5, right in front of Ryouta and Kuroha.]]
** Mako kills several people, such as the police who tried to stop her, to even some innocent people who just happened to be in the same area as her when she wanted to look at some scenery alone. She also kills some witches offscreen to take their pills away from them, [[spoiler:including 7 that Chisato sent to watch her.]]
* HopelessSuitor: Kazumi seems to realize she's falling into this around episode 7. Nevertheless, she still likes to tease Ryouta quite a bit. [[spoiler:In later chapters of the manga, she tells Kuroha that she likes him, and that if Kuroha doesn't make her moves on him, she would. Then in chapter 68, she asks him who he likes, and he mentions Kuroneko, but thinks Kuroha isn't her due to the lack of moles on her chest. Kazumi later strips Kuroha's top off and spots the moles, confirming that Kuroha is Ryouta's childhood friend and the girl he likes.]]
* HopeSpot: One occurs in episode 7, when Ryouta attempts to have his uncle Kogorou analyze the pills the girls take to see if they can make more for them. He warns Ryouta that at best, it might take half a year, or several years to analyze the drug. He then mentions it might be possible to make it within a month if the structure is a crystalline. [[spoiler:Ryouta later gets a call from him, and he tells him that it's not crystalline.]]
* HowWeGotHere: The opening pages show [[spoiler:Ryouta over Neko with a knife in her chest, devastation abound and him wishing that someone, presumable Neko, would have just died none of the damage would have happened]]. Come Chapter 95 [[spoiler:Ryouta is trying save Neko by pulling out the knife and talking to Neko's murderer Mako]].
* HypocriticalHumor: In episode 7, Kazumi asks Ryouta if a shop she points out is where virgins go buy {{eroge}} at. She says it loud enough that those guys near the shop can hear her, causing him to tell her to tone her voice down. She then insults him as a virgin, and he immediately fires back that she's one too. She blushes and says that a girl's virginity is worth more.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: [[spoiler:Kazumi's abilities are actually at an AAA-ranked level, but she failed the test on purpose because she refused to kill a person but didn't say that outright. She feigned a lack of power to do the job]].
* ImMelting: What happens when the harness of a magic user is removed [[spoiler:and is first seen in chapter 3/episode 2 with Kanade.]]
* [[ImplacableMan Implacable Woman]]: Valkyrie is very difficult to kill, as the main characters find out when she keeps coming back after receiving seemingly fatal attacks such as a SlashedThroat attack.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Ryouta stabs Saori in the back in episode 4, striking her heart in the process. She kills him, but is forced to utilize her spell to turn time back a minute, lest she succumb to death as well. She debates it for a moment, because using said spell would save her, but would also make her vulnerable due to the spell draining much of her power in the process. [[spoiler:In the end she uses it, but then is easily captured by Ryouta and Kuroha due to not having much strength to escape or fight back.]]
* ImprobablyFemaleCast: All of the magic users shown until now are teenage girls.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Kotori and Kuroha, who often strip down in their underwear due to it being really hot in the observatory.
* InsufferableGenius: Ryouta's uncle Kogorou, who works at a local university. He tells Ryouta that he's been offered a job by a prominent American pharmaceutical company, but doesn't want to leave Japan, and says if they wanted him that badly, they should open up a lab in town for him. Ryouta also didn't want to have to talk to him at all, but because of his expertise, he ends up visiting him to see if Kogorou can recreate the pills for the girls.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: When Kazumi comes over to Ryouta's house in episode 8 to offer him help in finding the location they saw on the device, she says there's nothing he can't hide from her, including his where he lives. She then jokingly suggests looking at his computer to see what porn sites he visits.
* IOweYouMyLife:
** Kana towards Kuroha. The latter saved the former from getting killed off by some guards while both were still in the laboratory, and also helped her escape. She tries to help her friend by warning her of potentially bad events that could occur.
** The other escaped witches in general towards Ryouta due to all of his help in trying to let them live a somewhat normal life and protecting them as much as he can.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: What Kazumi comes off as to Ryouta. She was pretty demanding that she receives some death suppressant pills from Kuroha in exchange for her help in episode 3, but after Kuroha explains she doesn't have any, but is going to get more, Kazumi demands half of what they obtain. It's later revealed she was down to one pill herself, and ended up sharing half of it with Kana to prevent the latter from dying in episode 4. She also teases Ryouta quite a bit. And in episode 7, she invites herself to go to Akihabara with him after he said he could pick up a part for her to fix her modem. When he sees the part she needs, he notices how expensive it is, but due to the help she gave them in previous episodes, he decides to buy it for her.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Nanami gets afflicted by this when she's wandering around town and sees several people hanging out with their friends. She starts to get really lonely, and recalls Ryouta telling her he would be her friend. And when she reads Kuroha and his mind again, she sees that they both want to help her. Even with Kuroha brainwashed and not having her memory rewritten to include her as a friend, Kuroha attacks Kotori and Ryouta while stating she didn't want them attacking her friend Nanami.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Subverted with Ichijiku Chisato who comes off as an emotionless man who cares for nobody but himself and treats others as mere tools. We find out later that in fact he cares for nobody including himself but does care for his sister Rena and is willing to sacrifice everyone including himself in the hopes of saving her.
* KickChick: Kazumi.
* LackOfEmpathy: Ichijiku, the chief of the witch lab, has a fairly distinct lack of fucks given whenever a witch is concerned. His biggest moment comes when a bloodied, pink-haired witch pleads for him to spare her if she told him where to find Kuroha's clique. He promises not to kill her afterwards. Once we cut back to them, we see that the witch was [[ImMelting decomposed]] as a pair of janitors clean away her remains. Ichijiku just keeps staring with his blank face until his bosses call him up.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia:
** [[spoiler: Everytime Kuroha uses her powers, she loses a part of her memory.]]
** [[spoiler: Ryouta is on the receiving end of this where the MindRape user erases all of his memories, but it's revealed later that her power doesn't work on him due to his eidetic memory.]]
* LethalHarmlessPowers: Ryouta openly asks how someone with the ability to change places with anything could kill someone. Kana responds by stating how she could jump off a cliff and switch places with her target so they plummet to the ground.
* LeotardOfPower: Saori wears one.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Generally Ryouta and the witches try to keep as many people from finding out about their predicament as possible. Though he tells his uncle about them, it's because he needs the latter's help in making the pills the girls need to stay alive. And in Kikka's case, he asks the girls while they're at the beach in chapter 56 not to let her see them using their powers. [[spoiler:Both Kana and Kotori end up accidentally doing so, mainly to prevent another girl from drowning, and Kikka gets teleported into the water with Kotori. When she wakes up later they play it off as her passing out from too much sun.]]
* LoopholeAbuse:
** Kana says she foresees Kuroha's death when she tries to get more pills in episode 3. After Ryouta makes up his mind to save her, Kana also foresees his death as well. [[spoiler:Saori does in fact kill Kuroha in episode 3, then she also kills Ryouta. But because he stabbed her in the heart, she's forced to use her magic to rewind time back a minute, lest she also dies. Fortunately for the heroes, using said spell uses up a lot of her magic, and she's easily caught and tied up after using it. So Kana wasn't wrong, but she also didn't foresee Saori having to turn back time, in essence saving the two in the process.]]
** Kazumi utilizes this to lower suspicions of her being yet another transfer student, after Ryouta warns her that too many new students coming in, especially to the same class, would look highly unusual. So she makes up a backstory that she transferred in from a school in Austria.
** Nanami's handler wears sunglasses even when indoors because she can't read a person's mind if their eyes are blocked from her view. However, this doesn't prevent her from wiping and rewriting other people's memories around him, and she uses them to attack her handler in order to expose his eyes to her.
* LoveConfession: Ryouta gives one to Kuroha in chapter 95 [[spoiler:as he attempts to press one of Kuroha's harnest buttons.]]
* LoveEpiphany:
** In episode 4, Kuroha says she feels hot and uneasy after Ryouta accidentally gropes her in the bath. She thinks she may have caught a cold. By episode 7, Kana pretty much points this out to her. Kuroha even wonders why she feels uneasy when touching Ryouta's hand, but doesn't feel anything when she touches a random boy's hand at the karaoke joint.
** Hatsuna has one in chapter 63 after Ryouta saves her life [[spoiler:even though he didn't need to since she has [[HealingFactor fast healing]]. Unfortunately her LoveConfession to him, along with kissing him in front of Kuroha and Kazumi doesn't make either one of them happy.]]
* LoveHurts: Kuroha isn't happy to see other girls hitting on Ryouta, such as Kazumi. In later chapters of the manga she often goes outside and tries to sing that whatever she saw happen with him doesn't bother her, though it's pretty obvious she's not happy about it. And in chapter 67 she runs back to her old hiding place in the abandoned village [[spoiler:after seeing Kazumi kiss Ryouta.]] She also wonders why seeing Kazumi around Ryouta makes her heart ache despite forgetting who he was a couple of times.
* LudicrousGibs:
** Used in episode 3, [[spoiler:when Saori seemingly does this to Kuroha at the end of the episode.]]
** Used again in chapter 83, [[spoiler:this time by Valkyrie against Hatsuna in an attempt to get around her HealingFactor.]]
* LuminescentBlush:
** Kuroha displays these occasionally.
** Kana displays one after Ryouta says he doesn't mind carrying her around in episode 5.
* MadeOfPlasticine: just like in ''ElfenLied'', an offensive power hitting a human is not a pretty sight.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: In the beginning of episode 3, Kuroha shows up to school in a lot of bandages. When Ryouta inquires what happened, she simply claims she had a cold. [[spoiler:Kuroha later explains they have to take a death suppressant pill every 30 hours or they'll start bleeding, and after 35 hours their internal organs melt and they die. She was attempting to wait until the last minute to take them, but as Ryouta finds out after the opening credits, she took too long this time and was on the floor bleeding.]]
** Hatsuna takes this [[UpToEleven Up To Eleven]]. Her power is regeneration, so it's impossible to permanently kill her. [[spoiler: When she gets cut in two by Valkyrie, her reaction is pretty much 'okay, walk it off, walk it off'.]]
* MaleGaze: Used a couple of times in the anime, such as the focus on Kuroha's legs when she's running towards the scene of a predicted accident in episode 2.
* MagicFromTechnology: Kuroha tells Ryouta she's a witch. He naturally doesn't believe it, and asks her how she got so strong and was able to slice a boulder in half with her bare hands. She then turns around and shows him something sticking out of the back of her neck.
* ManlyTears: Ryouta displays some in the opening of the anime. He also does it in chapter 70 [[spoiler:when he sees the moles on Kuroha's breast, and confirms without a doubt that she is his childhood friend, even though she doesn't remember her past due to her powers.]]
* MassOhCrap: In chapter 59, Ryouta mentions the name "Valkyria". All of the girls immediately have this look on their face, and explain to him that valkyrias are extremely dangerous, killing people like insects and being able to utilize eight forms of magic. [[spoiler:And one shows up in the observatory where the other girls are hiding at in the end of the chapter.]]
* TheMenInBlack: The common dispatch the science facilities use to capture and/or kill Magical Girls.
* [[spoiler:MercyKill: Murakami is forced to eject Kotori to prevent her harnessed from hatching and wiping out all lifeforms.]]
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Chisato doesn't care how many people die in order to achieve his ultimate goal, to resurrect his dead little sister. He even compares B-rank witches to insects, and feels they're inferior beings that don't have any value.
* MindRape: Nanami. From wiping out their memories from until the age of five to implanting memories to believing a guy raped his sister who doesn't even exist. This ranges from HilarityEnsues to FridgeLogic. She attempts to do this to Ryouta as well, but it doesn't work, either due to either his PhotographicMemory surviving the mind wipe, or Nanami choosing not to erase his memories because she saw something in him (he said he'd trust her and shows his eyes to her instead of looking away), or possibly both.
shows them her teleportation ability, her harnest shuts down, so at least for the time being he doesn't view her as a threat.
* MoodWhiplash: Well crazier than ''Elfen Lied''. In the anime opening, the girls are shown bloodied around a normal background, but then the background is swept away to a more desolate looking scene, while the girl then gets cleaned up and looks normal. The show also switches back and forth from going to school, to more action-oriented things.
* MoralityChain:
** Ryouta has been acting as one for the witches he's saved.
** Chisato, even though he really doesn't care about [[ItsAllAboutMe anyone but himself]], acts as one for Valkyrie. [[spoiler:So when he ends up TakingTheBullet for her in chapter 90, she really loses it and vows to kill all humans.]]
* MortonsFork: Ryouta is presented with one by Kogorou in chapter 68. [[spoiler:They can probably make more pills within a month due to some new information he received. Unfortunately they only have 42 pills left, and now there are 5 girls that have to share it. So he can either save one girl, or they would all die within a week if they kept taking pills together.]]
* MundaneUtility: The one that can teleport used her ability so she wouldn't be late to school. Note she can only use this once per day and is supposed to be in hiding. Ryouta immediately calls her out on doing such a thing so carelessly.
* MysteriousTransferStudent: Kuroha's arrival sets the whole plot in motion.
* NeverFoundTheBody: While Ryouta was told Kuroneko was killed in the accident at the dam, he never got to see her body for himself. Hence why when Kuroha shows up and bears a striking resemblance to her, he can't help but think that it's his old friend, despite her claiming she's not Kuroneko. [[spoiler:When Kuroha suffers some ClothingDamage in episode 3, he is able to see the three moles near her chest, and realizes Kuroha is Kuroneko. But this part is undone thanks to Saori turning time back a minute, to before he was able to verify it.]]
* NewTransferStudent:
** Kuroha in the first episode.
** Kazumi joins them in episode 4.
** Kotori also joins at the very end of episode 4.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Kuroha attempts to boil some water in episode 3, but causes the house to catch on fire instead. [[spoiler:Worse, the death suppressant pills they were supposed to take every 30 hours also burned up, and Kana's last dose was yesterday. She starts bleeding from her mouth, but tells Kuroha not to worry about it.]]
* NoseBleed: Kuroha suffers one at the end of episode 2, but it's not made clear if it's being used for this trope or because of a side-effect of her powers. [[spoiler:Episode 3 reveals they have to take death suppressant pills every 30 hours, or they'll start bleeding, and after 35 hours, their internal organs melt and they'll die.]]
* NotADate: Kazumi teases Ryouta about this in episode 7 when she goes with him to Akihabara and acts the part of a girlfriend. But he tells her that it's not a date and she's not his girlfriend. Despite that, they do end up doing date-like things, such as going to a maid cafe.
* NothingIsScarier: The Magic Users are told that on their harness the first button cancels their magic for 1 hour, the second button kills them, but are not told what the third button does. They are only told it is a FateWorseThanDeath.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Ryouta catches Kuroha singing to herself in episode 2 when he tries to find out her address to give her some paperwork from school.
* ObliviousToLove: Ryouta is actually interested in Kuroha, though to the other girls he seems to act this way. Hatsuna starts pressing on this issue quite a bit when she shows up in the later chapters of the manga. However, for several of the girls it's an important subject to them because their lack of pills means they may only have days to live at best, if they aren't killed outright by the organization they escaped from first.
* OffWithHisHead: One of the witches suffers this fate in chapter 83, [[spoiler:Kazumi, by Valkyrie who moments earlier just exploded Hatsuna into LudicrousGibs. She gets better later however, thanks to Hatsuna being able to heal herself despite the extensive damage, and she also manages to heal Kazumi's decapitation.]]
* OhCrap:
** Kikako has this look on her face after she's told that while she did get the three harnests she was ordered to, she would also be punished for being caught in the situation she was in, where she was tied up with a brown bag over her head. Episode 7 shows that they did torture her, and she's seen in a slump with blood all over her body.
** Kikka has this look in chapter 103, [[spoiler:along with Kana, when they both see each other at the former's middle school, which Kazumi transferred her to since the latter was able to move around again.]]
* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The BigBad owner of the witch lab is working for some spooky old men in a foggy holographic room who make vague doomy proclamations.
* PowerGlows: Several examples: Kazumi glows yellow whenever she's hooked in to her computer. Shino has the ability to understand animals and her ears glow when this happens. Kuroha also glows blue when she uses her powers.
* PowerLimiter: Kana is able to foresee future events, but can't move her body as a result. [[spoiler:She later has her harnest deliberately hung up, which then allows her to move her body, which she uses to kill Valkyrie in chapter 94.]]
* PerpetualPoverty: Kuroha and Kana are hiding in an abandoned village, and have no money to buy food or other basic necessities. So when Ryouta shows up with some food and cake, both girls are ecstatic about it.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Several of the witches are capable of doing this. [[spoiler:But the normally ditzy Kotori seems to be of special interest due to something inside of her that others claim is capable of killing all humans on the planet.]]
* PhotographicMemory: Ryouta has a really good eidetic memory; he ''never'' forgets anything, and it also gives him incredible powers of observation and deduction. For example, one part has him trying to remember writing in German from a building; he remembered the entire thing at 100% accuracy in the span of a few minutes. [[spoiler: It also makes him immune to LaserGuidedAmnesia]].
* PowerLimiter: The harnest on the back of the witch's necks will partially eject, causing them to become "hung up" if they attempt to use their powers too much. Further usage before it resets itself after a day or so will cause the harnest to eject completely, causing them to literally meltdown and die. It can also be manually set, either to control them, or if the girls don't want to be found by a witch with the ability to track down other witches. Some of the unluckier ones have a harnest that can be remotely ejected should they attempt to escape custody as other witches have done in the past. [[spoiler:the thrd button has a different effect depending on the witch. Kana can walk but loses her foresight. Neko could regain her memories and access to her incredible power but has a 99% chance of dying instead]].
* PrecociousCrush: Kikka Hatta, a young girl that Ryouta tutors. In episode 7, when he leaves the tutoring session a little early, she asks if he has a date. He then tells her to call him "sensei" (teacher), and says if she has time to has pointless questions like that, she should be studying more. After he leaves, she blushes and says it's not a pointless question.
* PrettyFreeloaders: Kana, Kuroha, and Kazumi all move into the observatory where Ryouta's Astronomy club meets in episode 4. They're forced to move there after Kuroha accidentally burns down the house she and Kana were staying in. And in Kazumi's case, her hideout was also getting torn down, so transfers to his school and applies for the club to make it less suspicious if she's seen going in and out of it everyday. Kotori also ends up joining them in episode 6 after Ryouta convinces her it's better to move there than to continue living where her friend died.
* [[spoiler:PosthumousCharacter: Since Nanami knows that Ryouta has photographic memory, she rewrote his to include her own memory. It "took some space" for her to fit but she will visit again.]]
* ProphecyTwist: Kana's forecasts show what will happen, but not why. For example, in episode 5 she sees [[spoiler:Kotori smiling while standing over Kuroha's body and thinks Kotori killed Kuroha.]] In episode 6 we learn that it's actually [[spoiler:Kotori being a StepfordSmiler to hide her sadness.]]
* RandomPowerRanking: The Magic Uses are ranked by how many powers they have and how skilled or powerful it is. If they are not strong enough, they are disposed of. It is because of that this series started, as the Magic Users escaped a disposal transport.
** RankInflation: To begin with, ranks are described as ranging from B to AAA (with A being a step up from BBB,) but in chapter 26 the existence of a rank S Magic User is alluded to but what sort of power involved is unclear. [[note]] The overall vagueness of what power this magic user can have makes this go either way between BeyondTheImpossible and RankInflation. For background, a high-ranking Magic user was able to eviscerate anything withing a six-meter radius, as well as turn back time by one minute, and was demonstrated in the manga very clearly, but this user is not even close to Rank S. [[/note]]
* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Ryouta has a memory so good, he's averages in the ''top 2 percentile''. This is apparently known by many of his classmates. [[spoiler:When Kuroha ends up beating him in the midterms, ''everyone'' gives a FlatWhat at the results as if it was something impossible, and gave Ryouta ColorFailure. Kuroha's memory is so good, that, if she wasn't losing it all the time, she can effectively beat ''photographic memory''.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Kotori [[spoiler:who had remembered her previous life as Chiasto's sister Rena (and knowing her death was the cause of his StartOfDarkness) called him an idiot for his goal. She didn't want to be brought back like this, with so many killed. Neko continues, screaming that Kotori/Rena feigned not remembering as further punishment so he wouldn't get the validation he had any success in his conquest to revive her in an immortal body because of the thousands of people he had killed or tortured for that goal. He doesn't deserve love]].
* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Kotori is introduced under circumstances that make her look like another assassin, but turns out to be telling the truth when she calls it a crazy coincidence that she ended up joining a club full of witches. Kana's premonition of her smiling of Neko's corpse just happened to be miss the detail of her not being the one to commit the murder.]]
* RelationshipUpgrade: Ryouta is in one in chapter 103 [[spoiler:with Kazumi. However, that's just what she was telling everyone, including Kuroha, and conveniently never mentioned it to him. She defends her actions by stating that due to Kuroha constantly losing her memories, along with them potentially turning into an EldritchAbomination at any given time, that it's not fair to her or Ryouta that they can't at least enjoy some semblance of a normal relationship.]]
* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Kuroha, who suffers some ClothingDamage in episode 3, and then goes into the hot springs with Kazumi, not realizing Ryouta was using it at the time.
* TheReveal:
** [[spoiler:In chapter 69, after Kotori accidentally spills some water on Kuroha, Ryouta sees the three moles on her breast.]]
** During chapter 73, Hexenjagd explains more about the nature of the witches. [[spoiler:Specifically, the aliens that Ryouta saw are actually the "brain" of the girls, and any memories of early life they have are imprinted on them. Additionally, those organisms grow inside of them and use the "death suppressant pills" to do so. After some time, maybe a few years at best, the organism will consume the body of the girl, and they will emerge as something not-human and seek to kill humans. The only reason they let the girls live was because Ryouta told them they only had about a week's supply of pills, so one of the Hexenjagd members says it's not likely they would emerge in such a short time, and their priority was to capture Kotori, who was kidnapped by Chisato just moments earlier.]]
* RuleOfSymbolism: NorseMythology gets thrown around by the researchers. The closest to any sort of explicit information is "Skadi", a AAA magic user with the ability to see, predict, and ''[[UpToEleven interfere]]'' with the future, at the cost of her life. Another one is "Drasill", which is briefly mentioned twice, never explained entirely, and said to have some kind of horrendous power. One head researcher states that if 1107 (the number for Kotori) is not captured, it would initiate TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt via Drasill.
* RunningGag: Anytime Kazumi tries to show off her body, especially her breasts, and Ryouta making a snarky comment about it. Then getting hit by her as a result.
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Sort of. From what Kuroha has mentioned, the girls who are turned into witches seem to have almost superhuman powers, but are also horribly abused and not allowed to learn basic things like reading and math. She also says they usually die young, which may also explain why they're only teens, and she feels she doesn't need to know stuff like that anyway, never mind that she's attending a high school with an education equivalent of an early grade schooler.
* SadisticChoice: [[spoiler:Let the witches use up their pills and die in a week, or give them all to one girl so she can last the month until they get their hands on more.]] Fortunately, a third option later appears.
* ScaryTeeth: Kikako's teeth are all sharpened, and resembles shark teeth.
* ScrewDestiny:
** Ryouta has this outlook when Kuroha tells him about his future in the first episode. If not for her timely arrival, he would have died.
** Kuroha also tries to prevent people from dying if she can do anything about it. While some of her interventions require some rather brute force, such as saving Ryouta from a giant boulder, others are a little more vague as to how to resolve it, [[spoiler:such as the woman in red that they bump into on the way to save a woman in red from getting hit by a car in episode 2. At first they thought they were too late when they saw the crashed car, but Ryouta realizes that minor incident earlier delayed the lady enough that she wasn't in the path of the car as Kana had foresaw, thus indirectly saving her life.]]
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler:When testing her abilities, the Institute ordered Kazumi to kill a man with her magic. While she had the magical capabilities, because she refused to do it and just "claimed" she didn't have the power, she was relegated to Rank B]].
* ScryVsScry: Kana vs Skadi (a.k.a. Mizuka).
* SecretlyWealthy: Ryouta's Uncle, who has a lot of money in several accounts due to being very good in the stock market. [[spoiler:This comes in very handy later on when Ryouta needs a new hiding place for the girls after the observatory is compromised.]]
* {{Seers}}: Kana.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: When Hatsuna first meets the main girls, she's skeptical of Ryouta being a reliable human, despite the girls telling her he is. So she purposely climbs up a high tower, and "accidentally" slips off to see if he would only save himself or let her fall. Much to her surprise, he not only catches her, but refuses to let her go, and ends up saving her by throwing her back to the tower ledge even at the cost of his own life. [[spoiler:She [[LoveEpiphany falls in love]] with him because of how much he cared for her, but her kiss and LoveConfession doesn't sit well with either[[ClingyJealousGirl Kuroha or Kazumi.]]]]
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Kazumi, who had no qualms about being naked around Ryouta in episode 4 while taking a bath. She also holds him rather intimately in episode 5, and even licks his cheek, though she stops once the table behind her and Ryouta suddenly [[ClingyJealousGirl smashes in half]] uncontrollably by Kuroha. And in episode 7, when he asks why she's stripped down, she tells him it's hot inside the observatory, and teases him some more about it. Then in episode 8 after finding his house, she sits on his bed, and pulls her panties down and asks him to have sex with her.
* ShoutOut: At the end of Chapter 10, the island visible from the beach Neko and Ryouta are standing on will look awfully familiar to fans of ''Elfen Lied''[[note]]The island is Enoshima, which was significant to the plot of both the anime and manga[[/note]].
** "What's [[StreetFighter Tetsuzanko]]?"
** In episode 4, during the class trip, the same staircase leading to the beach that's seen in Manga/ElfenLied is shown here as well.
* SingleTargetSexuality:
** Though he denies it, there's little doubt Ryouta is interested in Kuroha, especially when he strongly suspects it's Kuroneko. Up until she showed up, he didn't even seem interested in women since losing Kuroneko.
** Both Kuroha and Kazumi also seem interested in Ryouta, and he's generally the only guy they will talk to for an extended period of time, much to the chagrin of his male classmates.
* SlashedThroat: Valkyrie suffers this in chapter 93 [[spoiler:from Kana.]] Unfortunately even this isn't enough to kill her.
* SlasherSmile: Kotori has one in a premonition Kana sees in episode 5.
* [[spoiler: SomeoneToRememberHimBy: More like Someone To Remember ''Me'' By. Kazumi eventually decides that she wants to make a child with Ryouta as to leave living proof of her existence.]]
* SpiritualSuccessor: Should be [[Manga/ElfenLied pretty obvious]] by now.
* {{Squee}}: Kazumi essentially does this the entire time she's in Akihabara with Ryouta in episode 7. She later tells him when they go to a maid cafe that this may be the most fun she's ever had in her life.
* SquishyWizard: All witches we've seen so far don't seem to be any tougher than normal humans.
* StandardFemaleGrabArea: Kuroha does this to Mako in chapter 60. Despite the latter being a Valkyrie, or very high ranking witch, she seems to leave Kuroha, and her friends by extension, alone when her wrist is grabbed.
* TheStrategist: Ryouta is able to form decent plans fairly quickly based on what he knows about the witches he's up against. [[spoiler:Against Saori, he stabs her in the heart to force her to use her time rewind ability to reverse time, which also cripples her due to the immense power needed for that. And against Kikako he at first was going to have Kuroha distract her until he could get behind the former to hit her harnest. But when he sees Kotori tying herself up and planning to switch places with Kuroha, he instead has her switch places with Kikako instead so they could immobilize her. It works spectacularly.]]
* StepfordSmiler: Kazumi, enough said.
** An interesting subversion with [[spoiler:Kotori. Her best friend, Chie, as she was dying, made Kotori promise to always smile, even/especially when she was sad, because not doing so would only make her feel worse.]]
* SurvivorsGuilt:
** Ryouta is traumatized by the accident he had with Kuroneko years earlier when they fell off a pipe while traversing a dam. As a result, he vows to find the existence of aliens for his friend, and has trouble associating with girls as a result.
** Kotori feels this way about her friend Chie not taking her pills so that she could live long enough to see her birthday, while her friend's was a week after hers. She tries to refuse the pill Ryouta and Kuroha offer her, but they manage to convince her to survive so she could at least wish her friend a happy birthday when her day came up.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial:
** In a FlashBack at the beginning of episode 2, Ryouta asks Kuroneko if she's looking forward to going to the beach on a field trip. She says she isn't, but he immediately calls her out on wearing an inflatable tube while stargazing.
** In episode 7, Kuroha steps out of the room briefly at the karaoke bar to use the bathroom, but runs into Ryouta. He claims he's not there to see her, and was just going to sing alone.
* TakingTheBullet:
** Well, it's not a gunshot, but Ryouta does this for Kuroha in chapter 71 [[spoiler:when he pushes her out of Mako's attack and gets hit by it.]]
** A more straight example is used at the end of chapter 89/beginning of 90 [[spoiler:when Chisato blocks the bullets fired by Hexenjagd agents intended for Valkyrie.]]
* TechnoBabble: Ryouta's explanation of RSA[[note]]the de-facto example of real-life asymmetric encryption[[/note]] and the processes within organic chemistry[[note]]the discipline that is used to create and discover real-life compounds and medicines[[/note]] leaves ''a lot'' to be desired.
* TemptingFate:
** In the first episode of the anime, Kuroha warns Ryouta at first to catch the last bus near the observatory, but then tells him not to catch it and to instead stay where he's at already for the night. He says that the weather should be clear, only to then have it start raining. And he also decides to leave and deliberately miss the last bus, figuring he probably wouldn't be a victim of a crime in such a remote location. He then wonders what could happen locally, then notices a mudslide coming down on him, which also traps him while a giant boulder falls.
** In chapter 59, as Ryouta is told about how dangerous Valkyrias are, he says that they haven't been found out yet, so they should be safe. [[spoiler:Then he's told one of the magics they can use is to track down other witches. One of the walls suddenly explode and Mako, one of the valkyria, who also looks suspiciously like Kuroha, is seen demanding their pills.]]
* TerribleArtist: Nanami's attempt to recreate what the police remember seeing Ryouta as looks nothing like him. In fact it looks more like an alien than a person.
* ThanksForTheMammaries: Ryouta accidentally does this to Kuroha in episode 4. Due to the [[DistractedByTheSexy distraction]], he realizes moments later that he didn't check to see if she has the moles on her chest like her old friend Kuroneko.
* ThousandYardStare: Kuroha does one in episode 5 [[spoiler:as she helplessly watches Shino, one of the witches that escaped with her, get partially vaporized by Kikako.]]
* TheTease: Kazumi does this to Ryouta in episode 4, especially while in hot springs. And again in episode 5, even going so far as to lick him on his cheek.
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Why Ryouta and the escaped magic users don't simply go public. Ryouta claims they would simply end up back on the experiment table. Which is odd considering the lengths the antagonists themselves go to to keep ordinary people finding out about the magic users, but then, if the central conflict could be resolved that easily, [[AnthropicPrinciple there would be no story]]. He also overhears Kuroha telling Kana that if he did try to befriend her, they'd go after him too. Despite that, Ryouta still takes the risk of trying to befriend her and the other witches he runs into.
* [[spoiler: TimeMaster: Saori's second power is to revert time back for one minute. However, it causes her to lock up, which puts her in a bad situation after she reverts time to before killing Kuroha and Ryouta, since she can't fight back or run away.]]
* {{Tsundere}}: Kana appears as one, even though she's crippled and can only talk with the help of a computer and her left hand.
* TransferStudentUniforms:
** Because Kuroha never attended school, she wears a ''self-made'' uniform (see page image).
** [[spoiler: Kazumi's]] uniform consists of clothes she found at the abandoned village.
* TruthInTelevision: In chapter 6, it's revealed that Kazumi's magic is her capability to factor very large integers with ease, and that makes her capable of breaking the security of many systems. Then again, the [[TechnoBabble explanation and theory exposed]] in the chapter would make mathematicians and cryptographers cringe.
** ShownTheirWork: On the other hand, a similar situation in which Ryouta asks Kougorou, a head chemist at a research facility, on the process how the "anti-death pills" are made (this field is known as "organic chemistry") is done using ''extremely basic'' terms, which is TechnoBabble at best for those who may or may not know the topic itself. It's useless to explain a concept that would take several pages when the audience only needs to know the basic idea to understand. Plus, [[{{Justified}} we're talking about a kid who's listening to a topic very outside of his field of research and he only heard about it briefly, if barely at all]]. [[GeniusBonus You may need to know some of it already in order to understand the entire concept]].
* UndeadTaxExemption:
** Kuroha can only attend school because she knows a ''very'' skillful hacker. On top of that, nobody there seems to bat an eye that her outfit isn't the girl's standard school uniform.
** Kazumi, the girl that helped Kuroha get into Ryouta's school, ends up transferring in as well. When he points out that it would look too suspicious to have that many transfer students in a short amount of time, especially in the same class, she simply tells him that she made her background appear as though she transferred in from a school in Austria. On top of that, it would look less suspicious if she's in the Astronomy club and seen at the observatory later.
* UnexplainedRecovery: One happens in chapter 60. [[spoiler:Hatsuna, another escaped witch, is sliced in half by Mako for having an attitude with the latter. The other girl freaks out at her friend being cut in half, and freaks out even more after Hatsuna gets back up as if it were completely normal for someone to survive being cut in half. She later explains that she has a fast HealingFactor, allowing her to recover from virtually anything short of her harnest getting ejected or running out of pills.]]
* UnprovokedPervertPayback: Kana insists that Ryouta wants to molest her ''every single time'' he's around; she even does this when he [[spoiler: carries her out of a burning house. She gets over this in Chapter 46]]
* UnskilledButStrong: Kikako, the second AA+ magic user we see. Her beam powers are capable of decimating chunks of land, but she can only shoot them in a straight line with a little time lag.
* UnwantedHarem: In the [[{{Deconstruction}} straightest way possible]]. Ryouta doesn't want more girls to be in danger, and every new girl just adds too many problems to the mix. Especially since every new addition to the group [[spoiler: puts more strain on their stockpiles of the pills that keep the girls alive.]]
* VillainousRescue: Kuroha and the others are saved from Mako in chapter 72 by the appearance of representatives from Hexenjagd, a group of witch hunters but also opposes the organization Chisato is representing.
* WaveMotionGun: Kikako's cannon magic. It's been able to atomize just about anything it's fired at, from people to buildings, and even took a sizable chunk out of a mountainside ''after'' shooting through the shack she was actually aiming for.
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:In episode 3, Kuroha is seemingly turned into LudicrousGibs right in front of Ryouta by Saori, another witch.]]
* WhamLine: This manga just loves these.
** One occurs in episode 7, when the girls ask Ryouta if the guy he took the pill to can recreate the pills for them. [[spoiler:He pauses for a moment, and then says they can't. Despite that, Kuroha says they should keep trying for future witches who may escape, and Kazumi goes outside to cry.]]
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Kotori's ability seems to be her switching her places with another as this, as shown in episode 5 with Ryouta. But she can only use it once between breaks, so it's overall usefulness is rather limited.
** Later becomes HeartIsAnAwesomePower when she is able to use it to capture a AA ranked Power User by handcuffing herself and switching places with it so she would captured. Another Power User even comments on how it is a LethalHarmlessPowers if she decided to switch with someone after she jumped off a cliff.
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Kuroha clearly has feelings for Ryouta, but does not understand what they are. She even questions why her heart isn't beating fast like it does when she touched Ryouta's hand when her hand was held by another guy in episode 7. She also seems a little uneasy when other girls get a little too close to him such as Kazumi.
* WhatTheHellHero: When Kana starts to question Kazumi about what she knows regarding Valkyrie in episode 8 while the two are alone, the latter tries to change the subject on it. Kana however continues to angrily question her on it, causing Kazumi to take her voice modulator away, and starts to strip her clothing off. Kuroha and the others then arrive back home, causing her to question what Kazumi was doing. Kana claims she was being molested, while Kazumi says they were just playing and offers some pudding to Kana. Kotori objects to it because it's her pudding, causing Kazumi to tell her she's getting fat by eating all those sweets.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: When Ryouta tries to plea for the girl's lives in chapter 71, saying they just want to live in peace, Chisato compares Ryouta's argument with an insect arguing for its life towards a human. In fact, Chisato considers the main girls to be the same as garbage and a failed product that has to be disposed of.
* WouldHitAGirl: Chisato, the main face for the organization. He slaps Mako at one point, and later punches Kotori and Kazumi when they try to interfere with his plans.
* Yandere: [[spoiler:Mako to Chisato. After his death, she decides to kill all humans.]]
* YankTheDogsChain: Securing more pills. Particularly when it comes to getting Kogorou to manufacture more. The attempt to reverse manufacture them comes with the clause that it will either be doable within a month or take at least half a year, and it turns out it will take the longer period of time. The second attempt he finds information that lets him pull it off in a month, but by the time he comes across the means to do this, there are only enough pills to last everyone a week.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Kuroha's hair is either dark blue or black while Ryouta's hair is light green.
* [[spoiler:YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness]]: How the research facility deals with scientists who leave the facility. They give a GPS tracker, a set list of guidelines, and a ride out. [[spoiler:Then they kill the scientist.]]
* YouNeverAsked: The magic user that teleports has a nasty habit of not giving Ryouta extremely important information until he himself has already come to the conclusion. Though in a rare case it isn't because she is a JerkAss but because she is TheDitz.
* ZettaiRyouiki: Kuroha wears thigh-high black stockings to a short dress as her school uniform.

!This manga provides examples of:

* AwesomeByAnalysis: In episode 6, Ryouta figures out Kikako has to charge up her attack spell, meaning Kuroha could dodge said attacks, hopefully long enough for him to hit the former's harnest on her neck.

* GoThroughMe: Kuroha does this for Kana in a FlashBack during chapter 94, when some guards seemed to want to kill the latter. As a result, Kana does what she can to help her out, such as with her foresight powers. [[spoiler:The latter also cuts Valkyrie's throat in chapter 93 to save Ryouta and Kuroha.]]

''Kiwaguro no Brynhildr'' (or ''Gokukoku no Brynhildr'' going by the furigana spelling and [[https://twitter.com/Gokukoku_anime the Twitter account for the anime]]; officially translated as ''Brynhildr in the Darkness'') is a manga by Okamoto Lynn. It keeps the science-fiction horror tone and massive {{Gorn}} [[Manga/ElfenLied of previous works]]. An {{anime}} adaptation has also been green-lighted, and is airing [[Spring2014Anime as part of the Spring 2014 season]]. The animation studio behind it, however, is Arms, the same ones who did ''ElfenLied''.

[[caption-width-right:236:Kuroha Neko, the one to be blamed for everything.]]

One day, a girl who looks exactly like Kuroneko appears before him. Her name is Kuroha Neko, and from then on, a story of horror, experiments, human communication, and despair begins.

* LoveHurts: Kuroha isn't happy to see other girls hitting on Ryouta, such as Kazumi. In later chapters of the manga she often goes outside and tries to sing that whatever she saw happen with him doesn't bother her, though it's pretty obvious she's not happy about it. And in chapter 67 she runs back to her old hiding place in the abandoned village [[spoiler:after seeing Kazumi kiss Ryouta.]]

* OhCrap: Kikako has this look on her face after she's told that while she did get the three harnests she was ordered to, she would also be punished for being caught in the situation she was in, where she was tied up with a brown bag over her head. Episode 7 shows that they did torture her, and she's seen in a slump with blood all over her body.

* ScrewTheRulesImdoingwhatsright: [[spoiler:When testing her abilities, the Institute ordered Kazumi to kill a man with her magic. While she had the magical capabilities, because she refused to do it and just "claimed" she didn't have the power, she was relegated to Rank B]].

* SecretlyWealthy: Ryouta's Uncle, who has a lot of money in several accounts due to being very good in the stock market.

* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Kazumi, who had no qualms about being naked around Ryouta in episode 4 while taking a bath. She also holds him rather intimately in episode 5, and even licks his cheek, though she stops once the table behind her and Ryouta suddenly [[ClingyJealousGirl smashes in half]] uncontrollably by Kuroha. And in episode 7, when he asks why she's stripped down, she tells him it's hot inside the observatory, and teases him some more about it.

''Kiwaguro no Brynhildr'' (or ''Gokukoku no Brynhildr'' going by the furigana spelling; officially translated as ''Brynhildr in the Darkness'') is a manga by Okamoto Lynn. It keeps the science-fiction horror tone and massive {{Gorn}} [[Manga/ElfenLied of previous works]]. An {{anime}} adaptation has also been green-lighted, and is airing [[Spring2014Anime as part of the Spring 2014 season]]. The animation studio behind it, however, is Arms, the same ones who did ''ElfenLied''.

''Kiwaguro no Brynhildr'' (or ''Gokukoku no Brynhildr'' going by the furigana spelling; officially translated as ''Brynhildr in the Darkness'') is a manga by Okamoto Lynn. It keeps the science-fiction horror tone and massive {{Gorn}} [[Manga/ElfenLied of previous works]]. An {{anime}} adaptation has also been green-lighted, and will air [[Spring2014Anime as part of the Spring 2014 season]]. The animation studio behind it, however, is Arms, the same ones who did ''ElfenLied''.

** In chapter 56 of the manga, after Kazumi mentions Kitsuka's breasts are the same size as hers, the latter states she's still in middle school and growing. Meanwhile the former is already well into high school and still the same size.

** Kitsuka, the girl Ryouta is tutoring, finds out he's going to the beach in chapter 55, and just coincidentally happens to end up planning to go to the beach as well. She also claims that she's there to prevent the other girls from tempting Ryouta.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Generally Ryouta and the witches try to keep as many people from finding out about their predicament as possible. Though he tells his uncle about them, it's because he needs the latter's help in making the pills the girls need to stay alive. And in Kitsuka's case, he asks the girls while they're at the beach in chapter 56 not to let her see them using their powers. [[spoiler:Both Kana and Kotori end up accidentally doing so, mainly to prevent another girl from drowning, and Kitsuka gets teleported into the water with Kotori. When she wakes up later they play it off as her passing out from too much sun.]]

* PrecociousCrush: Kitsuka Hatta, a young girl that Ryouta tutors. In episode 7, when he leaves the tutoring session a little early, she asks if he has a date. He then tells her to call him "sensei" (teacher), and says if she has time to has pointless questions like that, she should be studying more. After he leaves, she blushes and says it's not a pointless question.