History Manga / PandoraInTheCrimsonShellGhostUrn

** Nene's favorite video game is "[=MonBasu=] for the original DSD." The game is clearly intended to be ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' (translators of ''Pandora'' call it "Monster Bash", but perhaps "Monster Buster" would have been better), and the platform parodies both the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable Sony PSP]].

* YuriGenre: See the page quote. [[note]] Creator/FUNimation's translation of the anime version of this narration: ''"In advanced nations, cyborgs and autonomous robots were to some extent starting to become a common sight. It was an age in which the world was filled with all sorts of calamity and conflict, and people wandered about in search of relief. This story has absolutely nothing to do with such an age. It's one of girl meets girl."'' [[/note]]

-> ''It is a time when the world is [[CrapsackWorld frequently ravaged by huge natural disasters.]] A time when members of the general public in technologically-advanced nations [[{{Cyberpunk}} began to acquire cyborgs and autonomous robots.]] In this era, as larger nations engage in cutthroat competition for technology and resources, the gulf between the rich and poor widens. And in this time... something else happens that has nothing to do with '''any''' of that. A story begins in which '''[[YuriGenre GIRL MEETS GIRL.]]'''''

Illustrated by Koshi Rikudo (of ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' fame), ''Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn'' (紅殻のパンドラ / Koukaku no Pandora) is a cyberpunk action comedy manga based on an unused concept of Creator/MasamuneShirow (designs of which would eventually be re-used in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellArise''). It was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's ''Newtype Ace'' magazine, before being moved to ''Niconico Ace'', and is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.

* CityOfAdventure: Cenancle Island is shaping up to be this. Special territory-designated island cities sure are [[Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex common]] [[Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun in]] [[Literature/KyouranKazokuNikki modern]] [[LightNovel/NananasBuriedTreasure Japanese]] [[Literature/StrikeTheBlood media]].

* CityOfAdventure: Cenancle Island is shaping up to be this. Special territory-designated island cities sure are [[LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex common]] [[Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun in]] [[LightNovel/KyouranKazokuNikki modern]] [[LightNovel/NananasBuriedTreasure Japanese]] [[LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood media]].

* TheThingThatGoesDoink: Takumi has one in the courtyard of her mansion.

An anime adaptation by Creator/StudioGokumi was first shown as a movie in theaters on December 2015, before being formally aired during the Winter2016Anime season. The anime formally adapts seven and a half volumes (nearly all published material by that point in time) of the manga.

* HotScientist: Uzal certainly fits the bill, with a dash of MadScientist. It helps that we're first introduced to her while she's sunbathing in a very skimpy bikini.

* PantyShot:
** The viewer gets treated to a [[FreezeFrameBonus very brief]] pantyshot of Clarion when she's fighting the excavation robots controlled by Uzal's rebellious subordinates in the first episode, and the "Chicken Bros" gang in the seventh.
** Nene (but not the viewer) gets treated to a pantyshot of Clarion when a dog flips her over.

* PottyFailure / BringMyBrownPants: Janus North [[{{averted}} almost]] shat himself when he was stuck in an elevator with our two heroes and his secretary (it is not quite clear whether it was due to stress, old age and/or illness, but judging by the reaction of his secretary, it wasn't his first time having this kinda problems).

-> ''It is a time when the world is [[CrapsackWorld frequently ravaged by huge natural disasters.]] A time when members of the general public in technologically-advanced nations [[{{Cyberpunk}} began to acquire cyborgs and autonomous robots.]] In this era, as larger nations engage in cutthroat competition for technology and resources, the gulf between the rich and poor widens. And in this time... [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent something else happens]] that has nothing to do with '''any''' of that. A story begins in which '''[[YuriGenre GIRL MEETS GIRL.]]'''''

Nene Nanakorobi, a full-body cyborg girl, is moving to Cenancle Island to live with her aunt. While on the cruise heading to the island, she meets the eccentric scientist Uzal Delilah and her long-suffering "assistant" Clarion, another full-body cyborg. When terrorists attack the island however, Nene finds herself helping Uzal "defuse" the situation, thanks to being given access to the Pandora device housed in Clarion's body.

At the end of all this, Nene finds herself as Clarion's new "owner"... And she hasn't even managed to find her aunt's home yet!

Illustrated by Koshi Rikudo (of ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' fame), ''Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn'' (紅殻のパンドラ[=/=]Koukaku no Pandora) is a cyberpunk action comedy manga based on an unused concept of Creator/MasamuneShirow (designs of which would eventually be re-used in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellArise''). It was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's ''Newtype Ace'' magazine, before being moved to ''Niconico Ace'', and is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Over the course of their little rebellion, Uzal's subordinates activate BUER, an experimental machine, in the hope of it helping them out. The problem is, because the activation code they used was a dummy left by Uzal ''because'' something like this might happen, it instead goes berserk , and starts indiscriminately attacking everything in Cenancle Island. The first thing Nene and Clarion have to do is to try and find a way to shut it down.

** For Nene: [[spoiler:don't do mean things to Clarion and don't make threats, either.]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: The robot thief "Mr. Chicken" is very protective of his younger brother "Mr. Fried": When Clarion cut off Fried's cyborg hand for touching her ears, Chicken got extremely angry and ordered his brother and his other subordinates to destroy her instead of seizing her undamaged as attempted earlier (he thought that Nene and Clarion were two very sophisticated and extremely expensive robots; He was thus ready to pass on a very lucrative opportunity as a thief just to take revenge for his brother's cyborg hand). He also pleaded to Clarion to not hurt his brother after Nene caught them later.
** It is revealed in later chapters that he got into robot theft to pay for better cyborg arms for his little brother and even turned on his escape helper from jail after she said that cyborgs are nothing but "things" because of his little brother having been bullied that way in his childhood.
* BlandNameProduct:

* BrainComputerInterface: The plug-in mental interfaces make their return here from ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''. However, much like full-body prosthesis and cyber-brains, it's a new enough technology that early adopters like Nene's aunt still can't even dream of doing the tricks Major Kusanagi is able to get away with (like having a real-time conversation while participating in a virtual-reality online chat ''at the same time''). Demonstrated in episode 3, where Nene finds Takumi's body catatonic when she's plugged in and "working".
* ButtMonkey:
** The poor reporter who, in every episode so far, just ends up getting herself hurt. She doesn't even get far enough to introduce her name! Verges on IronButtMonkey, as her mishaps haven't managed to kill her (permanently anyway; episode 3 shows that she was resuscitated by a paramedic) yet.

* ChildSoldiers: Uzal recruits Nene into fighting against various threats and is surprised that she had no combat training in school (the latter adding to the CrapsaccharineWorld vibe of the setting as it implies that combat training is a normal occurrence in schools even thought it's also implied to be voluntary, at least).

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Cenancle may be a clean, luxurious, high-tech city built on a sunny tropical island, but under the surface it's still a {{cyberpunk}} setting, with conflicts over human augmentation and the control of weapons and technology.

* CutenessProximity: Nene literally goes ga-ga over Clarion, and it doesn't take much to get her to cooperate with Uzal's zany scheme because it gives her the chance to be close to Clarion.
** She has a similar reaction to [[spoiler:Phobos]], the "sister" of [[spoiler:Clarion]] and a (former (?)) member of the villainous organization "Poseidon".

** [[http://m.fanfox.net/manga/koukaku_no_pandora_ghost_urn/v01/c001/62.html "Something is ... Entering me!"]]
** The automatic maintenance system for Clarion, especially the many manipulators entering her Pandora device port (which is where her crotch would be), remind very much of [[NaughtyTentacles tentacle porn]] (in the manga, they even pixelated a panel that would've shown it), an association Nene seemed to have made, as well.

** Uzal told Nene that Clarion is "the same as you," leading Nene to assume that Clarion is another full-body cyborg. But Clarion doesn't need to sleep, always obeys Uzal's directives and doesn't seem to know much about how regular humans live, Takumi only ever refers to her as "Uzal's puppet", Dr. Toto thinks there's something strange about her, and there's an EvilTwin of her working for Poseidon. It makes us question whether Clarion is actually a highly advanced android -- she may have the same kind of prosthetic body as Nene, but her brain could be an AI instead of being originally human. It probably wouldn't matter much to Nene if this were the case, since she treats all robots like people anyway.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive, incompetent {{Determinator}}s with blonde hair, green eyes, [[CuteLittleFangs a single cute little fang]] and [[spoiler:a knack for surviving seemingly lethal pratfalls]]. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt to the extent that the latter is revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up. Mince makes a cameo too.

* EvilDetectingDog: Lean, the cat belonging to Amy Gilliam, the blonde cyborg girl in episode 6, was able to detect [[spoiler:Fear, the (invisible) combat robot of Colonel Kurtz and maybe also to Kurtz himself]].
* FantasticRacism: Some people hate people cyborgs and some even regard them as "things" and robots (e.g. how Mr. Chicken's little brother Mr. Fried was bullied as a child after he got cyborg arms, how Takumi gets flak for having a cyberbrain or how Altman and others hide their cyberbrain port when they don't need them).

** Uzal came up with the alias "Saharu" because her ID number when she worked at [[spoiler:Poseidon]] was 386. Similarly, she gave Takumi her name because her ID number was 1093.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: After Ian Kurtz was defeated and apparently killed, the actual BigBad was revealed to be the villainous organization "Poseidon" who persue a nebulous evil plan called "Apollo Seed Project".]]

* Main/LostInTranslation: The reason why Takumi doesn't want to be addressed with "aunt" doesn't carry over well into English: the Japanese word Nene used for "aunt", "obaa-sama", can also mean "grandmother", "granny" or even "old hag".

* MirandaRights: When Uzal's minions were arrested by the Cenancle police, they were told that as terrorism suspects they had [[{{Defied}} NO right to remain silent or consult a lawyer]] and would be shot immediately if they resisted.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: What kicks off the plot to begin with -- Uzal underpays her employees and forces them to wear embarrassing cosplay, so they decide to take over her systems and rebel while she was away. It... doesn't exactly go as planned.

* MundaneUtility: The Pandora Device's Elpis series commands give Nene the ability to do frankly amazing things, but as shown by episode 4, there's nothing stopping Nene from using it to temporarily become, say, a master chef.
* MythologyGag:
** The companies that Nene visits in episode 4 all originated from ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' (in particular, Serano Genomics was the BigBad in the first season of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''.)

* NoNameGiven: Uzal's {{Perky Female Minion}}s are only ever named by the outfits they wear: [[BunnyGirl Bunny]], [[AnimeChineseGirl China]], Gym Uniform, [[{{Meido}} Maid]], {{Miko}}, [[SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack School Uniform]] and Leotard. Vli----'s assistants are only referred to as "Camera" and "Mike", even by ''themselves.''

* NonIndicativeName: The "optical camo" mode that Nene gains whenever she uses the Pandora Device doesn't actually act like the ChameleonCamouflage the term is usually associated with in other Creator/MasamuneShirow series. Instead, it's more of a hologram layered over her normal outfit. There's ''actual'' ChameleonCamouflage in-series however, but it's instead called "stealth mode", like when used on the Gertsecommas Takumi uses to watch over Nene.

** According to their back story, the names "[[spoiler:Takumi]]", "[[spoiler:Sahar Schehera]]", "[[spoiler:Delilah]]" and implicitly "[[spoiler:Uzal]]" were thought up by [[spoiler:Uzal]] because their names, [[spoiler:mere numbers]], were boring to her. It is not stated whether they had [[spoiler:any "real"]] names before [[spoiler:being given numbers]] or whether [[spoiler:Takumi's family name, Korobase, is fake, too]].

** The viewer gets treated to a [[FreezeFrameBonus very brief]] pantyshot of Clarion when she's fighting the excavation robots controlled by Uzal's rebellious subordinates in the first episode and the "Chicken Bros" gang in the seventh.
** Nene (but not the viewer) gets treated to a pantyshot of Clarion when a dog flips her over.

* PottyFailure[=/=]BringMyBrownPants: Janus North [[{{averted}} almost]] shat himself when he was stuck in an elevator with our two heroes and his secretary (it is not quite clear whether it was due to stress, old age or/and illness, but judging by the reaction of his secretary, it wasn't his first time having this kinda problems).
* {{Robosexual}}: Nene, if Clarion ([[spoiler:and Phobos]]) really are robots and not cyborgs.
* ScheduleFanatic: Colonel Kurtz always carries a pocketwatch and constantly reprimands people for being late.

** Creator/MasamuneShirow's fondness for Myth/ClassicalMythology continues to be evident here: there's the symbolism associated with Pandora's ''[[DoubleEntendre box]]'', the cruise ship that takes Nene to Cenancle is called the ''Epimetheus'', districts in Cenancle are named Area Vulcan, Area Mercury and Area Charon, and Vli----'s rival TV personality is named Proserpina. Cenancle is a volcanic island, and the crater bay in its center is called ''Ennosigaios'' (Earth Shaker, an epithet of Poseidon.)

** There's a ShoutOutThemeNaming trend of side characters being named after movie directors: Captain Creator/RobertAltman of the Cenancle Defense Force, Amy Gilliam (after Creator/TerryGilliam's first daughter) and her cat [[Creator/DavidLean Lean]]. Amy says in Vol. 4 of the manga that the three boys who hang out with her are named [[Creator/DavidLynch David]], [[Creator/StevenSpielberg Steven]] and [[Creator/JamesCameron James]]. Vol. 6 confirms that David's last name is Lynch and shows some other names on Amy's contact list: [[Film/{{Alien}} Dan O'Bannon]], Creator/DarrenAronofsky, [[Creator/DavidCronenberg David Paul Cronenberg]] and [[Creator/DWGriffith David Wark Griffith]].

** Being stuck in a garbage disposal unit in the enemies base and trying to hack the base's computer system to avoid being killed in the garbage disposal process? That's what happened to Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and Leia in ''Film/ANewHope'', too!

** Vli-- thinks she'll undergo some kinda transformation and be something like [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Dio Brando]], [[Franchise/DragonBall a super saiyan]] or [[spoiler:[[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Madoka after her apotheosis]]]].

* SpiderTank: The Shinokaomi, shown in the OP and ridden by Clarion [[spoiler:when she attacks the American Imperial forces in Uzal's underground base.]] Think of it as a bigger red relation of the Tachikomas, again.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans[=/=]WellIntentionedExtremist: The later chapters reveal that [[spoiler: the villainous organization "Poseidon"]] seem to pursue some kind of utopia (the utopia or the plan to achieve it is called [[spoiler:Apollo Seed Project]]), but they think it is only achievable by [[TakeOverTheWorld conquering the world]] by any means.

* YuriGenre: See the page quote.[[note]]Creator/FUNimation's translation of the anime version of this narration: ''"In advanced nations, cyborgs and autonomous robots were to some extent starting to become a common sight. It was an age in which the world was filled with all sorts of calamity and conflict, and people wandered about in search of relief. This story has absolutely nothing to do with such an age. It's one of girl meets girl."''[[/note]]

* RealityEnsues: While ''Pandora'' is primarily a comedy, it's hard to laugh off the fact that countless people died during the chaos that ensued at Cenancle Island, as shown by the lifeless bodies lying around the resident ButtMonkey reporter when she's revived by paramedics. Even the news feeds that followed the incident were uncomfortably similar to what would normally be shown after real-life terror attacks too.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive, incompetent {{Determinator}}s with blonde hair, green eyes, [[CuteLittleFangs a single cute little fang]] and [[spoiler:a knack for surviving seemingly lethal pratfalls]]. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt [[spoiler:to the extent that the latter is revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up]]. Mince makes a cameo too.

** [[spoiler:Ashteroth and Beelzebub]] are dead ringers for Pio and Phiola, the titular heroes of ''Manga/HolyBrownie''.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive, incompetent {{Determinator}}s with blonde hair, green eyes, [[CuteLittleFangs a single cute little fang]] and [[spoiler:a knack for surviving seemingly lethal pratfalls]]. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt to the point that [[spoiler::the latter is eventually revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up]]. Mince makes a cameo too.
** Chairman Janus North is a [[RaceLift black]] version of ''Manga/ExcelSaga'''s Dr. Kabapu, and his secretary looks like Miss Momochi with glasses.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive, incompetent {{Determinator}}s with blonde hair, green eyes, [[CuteLittleFangs a single cute little fang]] and [[spoiler:a knack for surviving seemingly lethal pratfalls]]. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt; [[spoiler::the latter is revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up]]. Mince makes a cameo too.

** Pedro, who has a prominent role in the ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' anime, is recast here as a friendly researcher at the Cenacle robotics institute (and no longer a Job-like tragic figure).

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive, incompetent {{Determinator}}s with blonde hair, green eyes, {{CuteLittleFangs}} and [[spoiler:a knack for surviving seemingly lethal pratfalls]]. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt (and the latter is eventually revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up). Mince appears too.
** Pedro, who had a prominent role in the ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' anime, is recast here as a friendly researcher at the Cenacle robotics institute (and no longer a Job-like tragic figure).
** Ashteroth and Beelzebub are dead ringers for Pio and Phiola, the titular heroes of ''Manga/HolyBrownie''.
** Similarly, Chairman Janus North is a [[RaceLift black]] version of ''Manga/ExcelSaga'''s Dr. Kabapu, and his secretary looks like Miss Momochi with glasses.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive, incompetent {{Determinators}}s with blonde hair, green eyes, {{CuteLittleFangs}} and [[spoiler:a knack for surviving seemingly lethal pratfalls]]. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt (and the latter is eventually revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up). Mince appears too.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive {{Butt Monkey}}s with blonde hair, green eyes and CuteLittleFangs. The Bureau Chief to whom she is blindly devoted looks suspiciously like Ilpalazzo. Her assistants, Camera and Mic, are patterned on Elgala and Hyatt (and the latter is eventually revealed to have the family name "Watanabe" and to have experienced a sickly phase growing up). Mince appears too.

** Vli---- looks very much like Excel from ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' -- they're both hyperactive {{Butt Monkey}}s with blonde hair, green eyes and CuteLittleFangs. In the manga, she's in love with her [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen perpetually unseen]] Bureau Chief like Excel is with Ilpalazzo.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Clarion is a full-body {{Robot}} CatGirl NinjaMaid. Likewise Nene is a {{Cyborg}} InstantExpert pseudo-MagicalGirl.