History Manga / MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro

* spoiler:ThouShaltNotKill: [[spoiler:Despite how much Neuro forces Yako into(torture, bondage, general punishment, so on), Neuro has never once taken a life. His belief is that, even if a human has created a puzzle before, if they're left alive they can create more. [[TechnicalPacifist However,]] when dealing with Sicks, he doesn't have this belief holding him back, considering that one, he poses a big threat to his feeding source if he survives and two he's far too monstrous to be forgiven.]]

** Anime: Somehow we started with a detective anime, led into the computer-focused HAL arc, and then... Yakazuka Mayans? [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs What?]]

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: Professor Harukawa / HAL. He just wants to [[{{Necromantic}} bring back his true love]].]]

** But then turns into a ChekhovsGun of sort when they come across an arsonist who doesn't have a motive. [[spoiler: It indicated that he was under the influence of the Electronic Drug.]]

%%** [[spoiler: And Sicks? You're better off just reading his character page.]]

** Several. For example, Neuro mentions a few details about himself either right out or offhand that turn out to be very important. The fact that he's starving to death and needs mysteries to feed on seems like an ExcusePlot that [[WrongGenreSavvy certainly wouldn't be a real problem]] for an invicible {{Shonen}} hero until the HAL arc, where Neuro gets exhausted and seriously hurt for the first time. [[spoiler:And there's no miraculous cure or power up.]]

** "Itadakimasu/Let's eat!" in the anime.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Seriously. Not even one "spilled" R. The fact that a word is mispelled in English is a plot point, even.
* Creator/{{Takehito Koyasu}}: as Neuro, who else?

* AmbiguouslyGay[=/=]MistakenForGay: Godai. Maybe. On one hand, Neuro seems to think so, complete with literally throwing musclemen magazines at him. On the other hand, Neuro would do that sort of thing anyway because that's how he [[{{Troll}} rolls]]. On yet another hand, Godai denies it. On the final hand, Godai's encounter with a CampGay policeman indicated that his life apparently works like a gay DatingSim. So it all comes down to a big who knows.

* [[spoiler: AndTheAdventureContinues]]
* AnimalMotif: Quite a few villains have one. Especially obvious with the [[spoiler: creator of the social network (bees) and the bomber mom (dogs).]]
** Neuro himself is a toucan-parrot thing.
* AntiHero: The road to Neuro solving the mystery of the day is paved with torturing Yako and Goudai, respecting Sasazuka, and breaking down crimials. For better, [[DisproportionateRetribution for worse]]. A '''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill lot]]''' worse.

* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: Neuro has a plentiful supply of "mystery-SerialKiller energy" because we as humanity are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil genetically disposed to its hidden evil nature]], and that [[spoiler: [[BittersweetEnding eventually someone just as evil as Sicks will emerge onto the scene]].]]

* BadassNormal: Detective Sasazuka.
** Though it's put into question when he states that he's lived two weeks on nothing but beer, sunlight, and salt, and acting like [[spoiler: coughing up blood]] is nothing to be jumpy about. He even encourages Yako to [[spoiler: visit him in the hospital after having just coughed up blood.]]

** By the late manga, Yako. [[SoProudOfYou According to Neuro]], if a normal human is equivalent to a paramecium, then at one point Yako's a pillbug. A complex, multicellular lifeform with built-in armor, thousands of times a paramecium's size.

* BeneathTheMask: The series frequently explores this concept, with every villain having this in some way: until the criminal is revealed, everyone acts normal. The moment it is revealed, they shed their masks and usually become sadistic and cruel. However, it's also used for the heroes, usually to show more caring natures.
** [[spoiler:...But then you have Sasazuka. Normally cool and level-headed, he is a force to be feared. It's not just that he can superior aiming skills, he will '''''kill''''' you if you don't tell him what he wants when he's serious about it. In particular, Godai tells a story about how Sasazuka once went to a big-named thug for information: Sasazuka was ruffed up, then within minutes the thug was being held off a 25-story building with twice the amount of injuries Sasazuka was shown being given. And, during this little story, Sasazuka is busy killing Sicks men with a PsychoticSmirk.]]
* BigEater: Yako never gets full, paralleling Neuro's appetite for mysteries.
** This is increasingly {{Flanderized}} as the series continues to the point that she regularly eats meals several times her mass and has admitted to trying to eat underwater before. One scientist even comments that what she does is physically impossible.
** That said, even she will run from her mother's cooking. One, and this term is used loosely, "concoction" is radioactive and safe to approach in fifty years or so.
* BigNo: See CoolAndUnusualPunishment below.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The BigBad is dead, but Neuro has to return to the netherworld since he's nearly on his death bed, a large percentage of the Japanese population has been killed during the terrorist acts of the New Bloodline and several important characters like Sasazuka, Sai and Fumio have died due to their connections to the BigBad. And TheDragon survived his would be death [[DragonAscendant and has taken over as the pinnacle of evil]], and there's no permanent solution to prevent more people like Sicks from showing up since we're all inherently insane. But life goes on and Yako becomes a negotiator and Neuro returns eventually.]]

* BrainsAndBondage: Neuro and Yako, anyway. [[spoiler:The [[BondageIsBad New Bloodline]], not so much.]]

* ButtMonkey: Ishigaki. To a lesser extent, anyone forced to work under Neuro (like Yako and Godai) that isn't Sasazuka.

* CastFromHitPoints: Neuro.
* CatchPhrase: "The mystery is already on the tip of my tongue."
** "The criminal is... ''you!''"

* CharacterDevelopment: Unusually for a {{Shonen}} manga, Yako's is a major focus, with Neuro undergoing some as well.
* ChekhovsGun: Several. For example, Neuro mentions a few details about himself either right out or offhand that turn out to be very important. The fact that he's starving to death and needs mysteries to feed on seems like an ExcusePlot that [[WrongGenreSavvy certainly wouldn't be a real problem]] for an invicible {{Shonen}} hero until the HAL arc, where Neuro gets exhausted and seriously hurt for the first time. [[spoiler:And there's no miraculous cure or power up.]]

* CerebusSyndrome: Mid manga, where the anime simply ends, the series drops it's goofy mystery mood & things start getting dark, serious, & violent.
* CluelessMystery: A big user of this trope. Neuro solves everything off-screen, leading the series to focus more on morality and why a person would kill another.
* {{Consulting A Convicted Killer}}: Aya Asia often advises Yako.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: At the end of HAL arc, Higuchi is forced to [[spoiler: watch 12 hours worth of etiquette training CD]], complete with perfect, enforced reactions.
** And then it happened again but this time with [[spoiler: 24 hours of tapes after a second try.]]
* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Yako's father was killed via his head being cut off with a chainsaw, and his blood was used to paint the walls. Since there was no way to enter the room, it was ruled a suicide by the police.
** Only in the anime. In the manga, his body was pincushioned with knives. And in the manga the police don't think it's suicide, obviously, but consider ruling it as such since there isn't any evidence of a killer.
* CrazyCulturalComparison: Neuro makes a few comments on how human society is different from his own.

** [[spoiler: And Sicks? You're better off just reading his character page.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: Arguably, Neuro. The series spends a lot of time on Yako's character growth.

* TheDeterminator: Detective Sasazuko spends over 10 years searching for the perpetrator who killed his family. Averted with [[spoiler: X (Sai)]], who kills people in order to search for his identity and just seems mildly placid with everything.
* DissonantSerenity: [[spoiler: Sai is more or less the very incarnation of this trope.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Honjou towards the end. And long before that Higuchi's parents.]]
* {{Eagleland}}: Again, episode 14, which takes this trope farther than any show before it, which is [[RefugeInAudacity very far indeed]]. However, it turns out that [[spoiler:Professor Harukawa chose him as the first victim/test subject of the electronic virus. Harukawa]] using the American as the trial run, since people would believe an American would do something like this, makes this an {{Exploited}} trope.

* EverythingIsOnline: The classic "hacker controls the traffic lights" variant.
* EvilChef: Shirota.
* EvilDiva / MusicalAssassin: Aya Asia. She can blow your brain with her song. Don't worry, [[BlatantLies I'm just kidding]], though she's not as malevolent as most examples
* EvilGloating: What Neuro does every time he beats an enemy -- often accompanied by ironic torture.

* EvilVersusEvil: Neuro vs. all of the villains, with Sicks being the most extreme.

* EvolutionaryLevels: Neuro uses this to describe the times Yako TookALevelInBadass. Learning to read people, developing super strength, and so on. Being Neuro, he still manages to make this sound insulting, but if later-series Yako is to a normal human what a complex, multicellular organism with built-in armor is to a paramecium?

* FateWorseThanDeath: What awaits you the moment you ''really'' piss off Neuro.
** Sicks too if he doesn't kill you outright.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Tierra is the most prominent example.
* {{Fetish}}: The page image, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neurota8.jpg linked here if it's been changed.]]
** Neuro himself might count, although possibly not on purpose. Then again, it's hard to handwave all that [[OralFixation random object licking.]] Among other things.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Naohiro Usui at first. He gets a [[CharacterDevelopment good deal]] better as the series goes on.
** Averted with Higuchi, as he only becomes this when he [[spoiler: is 50% infected by the Electronic Drug]].
* GeckoEnding: Instead of introducing the New Bloodline, the anime has a confrontation with Sai in ''Brazil.'' She meets a bunch of {{Yakuza}} Aztecs: a random touch of {{Mayincatec}}.
* GenreShift: Anime: Somehow we started with a detective anime, led into the computer-focused HAL arc, and then... Yakazuka Mayans? [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs What?]]

* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Yako, under Neuro's influence, OnceAnEpisode: "Hannin wa... ''omae da!''" or "You are... the killer!"

* HotSpringsEpisode: Averted. Not only did a murder happen, making it a typical adventure of the show, but poor Yako does not even get to enjoy the hot springs because one of Neuro's devilish creatures was set loose on the water.
* HumanityIsInfectious: Averted, or so Neuro claims. Since he's fundamentally incapable of understanding how the human mind works, that's the other thing he keeps Yako around for.
* HumanityIsInsane: This is apparently why Neuro can't understand us: it's also something the manga spends a lot of time observing. It's also the reason HumansAreSpecial: since we're so insane and illogical, we can commit premedited crimes for really strong, twisted reasons, and it's that energy Neuro eats, [[spoiler:and why he won't let the New Bloodline destroy humanity.]]

* IronButtMonkey: Yako stays surprisingly intact even after being made Neuro's chewtoy, doesn't she?
** Same for Godai.

* {{Joshikousei}}: Yako.

* KillAllHumans: Manga only villain Sicks, to a T.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler: Professor Harukawa / HAL.]]

* MadBomber: "Histerrier".
* MadScientist: Professor Harukawa.
* {{Meitantei}}: Subverted: it may seem like Yako is a brilliant detective, but she's really a dense and easily manipulated girl who owes Neuro a big favor.
** While she's not the true "brains" behind the operation, Yako slowly reveals superb talents at reading human intention that Neuro himself cannot match. For a start, without her, Godai wouldn't have stuck around.
*** She herself becomes a Negotiator at the end of the manga; someone who can solve the mysteries in people's hearts; preferring to help the living instead of avenging the dead.

* MotiveRant: Happens with every single villain, but averted with four people: [[spoiler: the three college kids working under HAL were simply doing it because HAL gave them the ability to do so (as they were all fascinated by a way of killing people, but held it back and never acted upon it). Possessed-by-the-Electronic-Drug Higuchi, meantime, has a similar motive and also goes on a rant about an [[TroubledBackstoryFlashback entirely different issue]].]]

* {{Necromantic}}: HAL

* OccultDetective: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Who'dya think?]]

* ParasolOfPain: [=Hime=] in the anime
* PlayfulHacker: Higuchi, who hacked into the Metropolitan Police Department's computers...and transformed their website into a department store website complete with replacing all of the departments and personal with lookalike shops and employees. The investigative department, where Sasazuka and Jun work, was turned into a Fundoshi store. And the site stayed like this for three days.

* PowerDegeneration: Neuro, becomes a plot point in the final arc when the enemies try to weaken him enough to kill him.
* ThePowerOfLove: In the manga, Neuro doesn't eat mysteries per se but the energy that would drive someone to do terrible, shameful, twisted things, knowing they're that wrong (otherwise, why try to hide them?). When he finally devoured the energy that caused the [[spoiler:creation of HAL and the entire HAL arc,]] there's so much of it he acts like he's sugar high.

* PrehensileHair: Akane consists of nothing ''but'' living hair.

* PyroManiac: Kasai, and to a lesser extent his nephew [[spoiler: Homura.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: In the manga, [[spoiler: Phantom Thief X/Sai, after landing a fatal blow onto Sicks.]]
* SadistTeacher: Apparently Neuro thinks that the best way to help Yako grow is to torture her.
* SealedEvilInACan: Err, box. And a red one at that!

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: X or Xi which is pronounced Sai.
** And on that note, i or Ai.

** NotSoStoic: [[spoiler:Sasazuka,]] when he finds out his family's murderer.

* [[spoiler:ThouShaltNotKill: Despite how much Neuro forces Yako into(torture, bondage, general punishment, so on), Neuro has never once taken a life. His belief is that, even if a human has created a puzzle before, if they're left alive they can create more.]]
** [[spoiler: [[TechnicalPacifist However, when dealing with Sicks, he doesn't have this belief holding him back, considering that one, he poses a big threat to his feeding source if he survives and two he's far too monstrous to be forgiven.]]]]
* TrainingFromHell: In hindsight, ''everything Neuro does to Yako.''
* TransformationSequence: When a culprit is revealed he/she undergoes one of these. YMMV with how well it works, as some people consider it to be rather [[{{Narm}} narmy.]] However, this happens more frequently in the anime and in later chapters than at the beginning.
* UnholyMatrimony: X and Ai are a cute couple...when you get past all the killing.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: Sasazuka's death at the hands of Sicks.]]
* WhamLine: "Mister, [[spoiler:why'd you lie to me]]?" Just when it looked like there would be a light moment after [[spoiler: Sasazuka's death]]...

** Instead of giving Neuro chocolates for Valentine's, Yako gives him [[spoiler:the wrapping paper. Which is made up of leads to potential mysteries, what he actually eats.]] It's a CMOA for Yako, that's she's grown to understand him so well, as well as a CMOH.
** Sicks invites Neuro to meet with him, and [[spoiler:tries to arrange a meal for him by forcing several people to kill, right there, by threatening their families and so on. He's wrong in that it's not the mystery itself Neuro eats, but the psychic energy of the motivation behind it, the twistedness that would drive someone to commit murder and try to hide it. Sicks's sick little tableau was the equivalent of offering a starving man Syrup of Ipecac. And then, since they hadn't pleased Neuro, he killed all of them, meaning that they would never be able to produce a real mystery]]. At that point, the reader learns how Neuro acts when he's really, really angry.