History Manga / WildAdapter

* TriangRelations: Tokito initially wonders if Kubota has {{Sexiled}} him from their apartment in favour of NewOldFlame Anna. When she offers to have sex with ''him'', he only sticks around long enough to ask whether she's slept with Kubota.

-->'''Kubota''': "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're a gay, [[LovableSexManiac sex-addicted]] couple... [[BrotherSisterIncest who are half-brothers]], [[IHaveNoSon disowned by our family]] after the consummation of [[StarCrossedLovers our forbidden love."]] How's that? [[UndercoverAsLovers Isn't it perfect?]]\\

* BodyHorror: For "wild adapter" read "metamorphoses users into hirsute, beclawed, hyper-aggressive zombies, then makes their organs explode."

** The dead strays Kubota finds, and identifies with, in the prologue arc.

* GangstaStyle: Is a rather reoccuring image of Kubota.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: Each volume features Kubota and/or Tokito looking through a barrier of some kind – chain-link fence, a Venetian blind, crime scene tape.

** Kubota and Tokito's ThemeNaming, [[http://mangabookshelf.com/16936/no-us-and-them-theme-in-wild-adapter/ as a commentator noted]]: ''"their names include each other. Kubota’s name has protect and field in it; Tokito’s includes assignment/charge and ripen. And Kubota’s name includes everyone else as well; his personal name, Makoto, is made up of truth and person, “what people really are.” "''

** Osamu the 'loyal attack dog''s surname Kiba is a pun on 'fang' and his nickname Chamu is "cute like a dog."

** Vol. 2: Tokito, his apparent connection to W.A., and his close, ambiguous relationship to Kubota, are introduced through the perspective of Saori, a runaway whom the Tojou gang believe may be a lead on W.A.

* LikeAGodToMe: "My god died. One year ago." Takizawa's life revolved around his invalid sister, but this is decontructed as he realises that she [[IJustWantToBeNormal wanted to be an ordinary human being]] and that the family's idealisation of her was their elder sister's FreudianExcuse for her [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinism]]. Meanwhile, however, Kubota implies that Tokito fills the same role for him.

* SeasonalMotif: In the coda, the HeatWave finally breaks while Kubota and Tokito are messing around in echo of a "fireworks festival".

* AdoptTheDog: Immediately after leaving the Izumo gang, Kubota finds and takes in the W.A.-affected Tokito. Kubota becomes afraid of losing him, holding him at arms' length and keeping back all knowledge of WA and his life in the underworld, until Tokito discovers it for himself and demands that Kubota rely on him as an equal.

* HatesBeingTouched: Tokito, in the first weeks of staying in Kubota's apartment, won't let Kubota or Kasai touch him. Touch is the plot's main symbol of Tokito and Kubota's relationship: After Tokito [[spoiler:breaks Kubota's arm]] with his beast hand, he refuses to touch anyone for fear of harming them. Later Kubota refuses to relax his promise not to touch Tokito, for fear of psychologically harming ''him'', until finally Tokito demands that Kubota TakeMyHand.
* IFoundYouLikeThis: Tokito wakes up, naked, and a tall dude in glasses offering him soup. Still feeling the compulsion to run from...wherever he escaped from, he bolts, and Shouta finds him collapsed on the playground. Shouta summons Kubota, and after Tokito wakes up the second time, Kubota uses the unthreatening Shouta as a go-between.
* LonersAreFreaks: Shouta's teacher has ordered him to keep a journal because he doesn't relate well to his classmates. In his last entry, he writes that the journal has forced him to face himself, so that one day he'll be able to deal honestly with someone else. Meanwhile, Kubota admits that he was raised in almost total neglect, and has no idea how to allow Tokito to care for him.

* DarkIsEvil: Osamu, and Ryuunosuke's uncle before him, compare the violent, amoral underworld of the yakuza to an inescapable darkness. But as he sees it, the Izumo youth merely "live in the shadows. We stay always just to the left of the light", while Kubota and Tokito "can only fully breathe in the pit of darkness."

* IveComeTooFar: Osamu likens joining Izumo to sinking into dark water. The only way to surface again is to rise to the top of the organisation.

** Sanada likens both Kubota and his successor Osamu to [[PetTheDog his]] [[RightHandAttackDog dog]], [[AwesomeMcCoolname Ark]] [[FluffyTheTerrible Royal]]. Kiba Osamu's family name is a pun on ''kiba'', 'fang'.

->"The more human we become...the more animalistic we are."

* IFoundYouLikeThis: Tokito wakes up, naked, to a classic UnfamiliarCeiling and a tall dude in glasses offering him soup. Still feeling the compulsion to run from...wherever he escaped from, he bolts, and Shouta finds him collapsed on the playground. Shouta summons Kubota, and after Tokito wakes up the second time, Kubota uses the unthreatening Shouta as a go-between.

-->'''Kubota''': "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're a gay, [[LovableSexManiac sex-addicted]] couple... [[BrotherSisterIncest who are half-brothers]], [[IHaveNoSon disowned by our family]] after the consummation of [[StarCrossedLovers our forbidden love."]] How's that? [[UndercoverAsLovers Isn't it perfect?]]
-->'''Tokito''': Wha - wha - wha - [[TakeThat what the hell is that?!]] No fucking way!

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Inverted. While the cultists are drug addicts and the yakuza preying on them, rather than true believers, both the protagonists and the villain claim that only fools turn to religion: "God is for the weak."

-->'''Kubota:''' To him, nothing was more uncertain than his own existence. That's why he was searching for something to make him feel alive. He just wanted to be able to feel that.
-->'''Shouta:''' But he...didn't know what to do once he got it?
-->'''Kubota:''' Yup. He was a complete mess.

* [[IveComeTooFar I've Come Too Far]]: Osamu likens joining Izumo to sinking into dark water. The only way to surface again is to rise to the top of the organisation.

** Ryuunosuke, nicknamed Tatsu, is a textbook case of AProtagonistIsRyu.

* ArtEvolution: [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v01/c001/18.html Take a look at volume one.]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v06/c041/10.html Now look at volume six.]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v01/c001/23.html Now back to one.]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v06/c041/4.html Now back to six.]] Drawn over eight years, there is a perceptible shift to more realistic detail and proportion (though not as pronounced as ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'''s); the early images on the character sheets in later volumes are a ready illustration.

-->'''Kubota''': "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're a gay, [[LovableSexManiac sex-addicted]] couple... [[IncestIsRelative who are half-brothers]], [[IHaveNoSon disowned by our family]] after the consummation of [[StarCrossedLovers our forbidden love."]] How's that? [[UndercoverAsLovers Isn't it perfect?]]

* {{Expy}}s: Kubota Makoto and Tokito Minoru also appear in ''[[HighSchoolAU Araiso Private High School]] [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil Student Council Executive Committee]]'', which is otherwise unrelated to ''Wild Adapter''. While ''Araiso'' was published earlier, Minekura created ''Wild Adapter'' first, so which versions are the originals and which are the expys is open to debate.

* GangstaStyle: [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v01/c001/10.html Is]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v01/c006/17.html a]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v02/c011/9.html rather]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v02/c011/16.html oft-]][[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v02/c011/17.html recurring]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v06/c037/8.html image]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v06/c038/14.html of]] [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wild_adapter/v06/c040/10.html Kubota]].

* ShipTease: Both played [[FanService straight]] and for laughs at [[BoysLoveTropes yaoi tropes]]:

* BoysLoveGenre: Technically – the series ran in a BL magazine – but BoysLoveTropes are usually averted, unless subverted or parodied.

The series originally ran from 2000 to 2008 in ''Chara''. It went on [[SeriesHiatus hiatus]] after forty-six chapters due to Kazuya Minekura's health, as well as CreativeDifferences between the {{seinen}} tone of the series and the magazine's [[YaoiGenre shounen-ai]] demographic. It was collected in six volumes (with five chapters left over), translated by {{Tokyopop}} in North America and Chuang Yi in Singapore. In 2011 the rights to the series were acquired by Ichijinsha (home of ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}''), and irregular serialisation resumed in ''Zero Sum Ward'' in 2013. An OVA of volume six was released in 2014.

* {{Mahjong}}: Kubota attracts the notice of the Izumo gang because he's a mahjong shark.

* AwkwardFatherSonBondingActivity: Inverted. In his WholeEpisodeFlashback about having Kubota left on his hands as a junior high student, Kasai's HandsOffParenting leaves them with no common interest except {{Mahjong}} and he teaches Kubota nothing but how to make curry and get bloodstains out of clothes.

** Vol. 3: HeatWave, CicadianRhythm, and [[AmericanHolidays Fourth of July fireworks]].

* NoExportForYou: Due to the SeriesHiatus, six chapters were never [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes officially]] released in English.

* SeriesHiatus: Due to illness and [[ScrewedByTheLawyers contractual obligations]] after rumoured [[ExecutiveMeddling creative differences]] with its magazine.

* AdoptTheDog: Perhaps ''WildAdapter'''s core trope, and coincidentally its central metaphor. Kubota is a weirdly unemotional, sometimes casually and chillingly violent person with minimal human connections or moral compunctions, DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife until he takes in Tokito, "a stray cat", around whom his life subsequently revolves.

* IHaveNoSon: Tokito's elderly friend has disowned his {{Yakuza}} son Yoshiro.

* PromotionToParent: Kasai was saddled with teenaged Kubota, and Kubota is disturbed by Kasai's suggestion that Kubota is Tokito's parental figure.

The series originally ran from 2000 to 2008 in ''Chara'', a [[YaoiGenre shounen-ai]] magazine. It went on [[SeriesHiatus hiatus]] after forty-six chapters due to Kazuya Minekura's poor health, as well as CreativeDifferences between the {{seinen}} tone of the series and the magazine's [[YaoiGenre shounen-ai]] demographic. It was collected into six tankobon volumes (with five chapters remaining uncollected), published in English in North America by {{Tokyopop}}, and in English and Chinese in Singapore by Chuang Yi. In 2011 the rights to the series were [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-08-08/kazuya-minekura-wild-adapter-manga-changes-publishers acquired by Ichijinsha]] (home of ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}''), and serialisation resumed in ''Zero Sum Ward'' in spring 2013.

** Volume one: May 1995 - January 1996
** Volume five: February - June 1996
** Volume two: January 1997
** Volume three: Summer 1997
** Volume four: Late autumn or early winter 1997
** Volume seven: Spring 1998
** Volume six: 1998, after volume seven

-->'''Kasai''': This is the sixth body we've found that seems to have transformed into a beast - in attitude and appearance - after taking the drug. But he's the only one that died from a gunshot wound. The rest were [[LudicrousGibs exploded into gory little pieces]].

** Volume one: [[SideKick Komiya]]
** Volume two: Saori
** Volume three: [[IntrepidReporter Takizawa]]
** Volume four: Shimura, [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Anna]]
** Volume five: Shouta
** Volume six: [[TheDragon Osamu]]
** Volume seven: Yoshiro, Kasai

*** Aversion in-story: Tokito was NamedAfterSomebodyFamous almost at random: actor Tokito Saburo. "Anything but Saburo."

** Volume two: Cold weather.
** Volume three: HeatWave, CicadianRhythm, and [[AmericanHolidays Fourth of July fireworks]].
** Volume four: dead leaves, first snow of the year.
** Volume five: Beginning of the school year.
** Volume seven: Spring rains, gardenias blooming.

** Volume 1: Even when he's mid-coitus with a woman, Komiya can't shut up about how cool Kubota is.
** Volume 3: The spooks who bug Kubota and Tokito's apartment get an earful of cheesy yaoi-style seduction scene dialogue improvised to screw with them before destroying the bug.
** Volume 4: Takizawa tentatively asks Tokito what his relationship with Kubota is after Tokito spills his insecurities about Anna; there's a soap opera argument about cheating playing on the television in the background.
** Volume 5: The nude, sleeping Tokito drags Kubota down on top of him after Kubota rescues him; Kubota reflects humorously that it looks bad but he doesn't object.
** Volume 6: Kubota refers to the kidnapped Tokito as his "mate" in the American translation.

** Volume one: the prologue arc. Kubota's first encounters with W.A. while a leader of the Izumo-kai gang, and his social detachment, are seen through the eyes of his second-in-command Komiya.
** Volume two: Tokito, his apparent connection to W.A., and his close, ambiguous relationship to Kubota, are introduced through the perspective of Saori, a runaway whom the Tojou gang believe may be a lead on W.A.
** Volume three: Kubota and Tokito infiltrate a cult that may be a front for the mob and W.A., with the help of Takizawa, a reporter with a vendetta against its leader.
** Volume four: the ''kotodama'' arc. Kubota is the chief suspect in a prostitute's murder, and Tokito, after realising how little he knows about Kubota's past, enlists the help of Anna, another prostitute, to hunt down the true killer.
** Volume five: the flashback arc. Kubota's ten-year-old neighbour Shouta helps domesticate Tokito and observes the slow growth of trust between him and Kubota.
** Volume six: the kidnapping arc. Osamu, Kubota's successor as the leader of the Izumo youth, is ordered to abduct Tokito, to his gang's rapid regret.

The series originally ran from 2000 to 2008 in ''Chara'', a [[YaoiGenre shounen-ai]] magazine. It went on [[SeriesHiatus hiatus]] after forty-six chapters due to Kazuya Minekura's poor health, as well as CreativeDifferences between the {{seinen}} tone of the series and the magazine's [[YaoiGenre shounen-ai]] demographic. It was collected into six tankobon volumes (with five chapters remaining uncollected), published in English in North America by {{Tokyopop}}, and in English and Chinese in Singapore by Chuang Yi. In 2011 the rights to the series were [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-08-08/kazuya-minekura-wild-adapter-manga-changes-publishers acquired by Ichijinsha]] (''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}''), and serialisation resumed in ''Zero Sum Ward'' in spring 2013.

-->'''Kubota''': "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're a gay, sex-addicted couple... [[IncestIsRelative who are half-brothers]], [[IHaveNoSon disowned by our family]] after the consummation of [[StarCrossedLovers our forbidden love."]] How's that? [[UndercoverAsLovers Isn't it perfect?]]

* HoYay: Kubota and Tokito. Enforced and occasionally invoked: despite the series' {{seinen}} sensibility and lack of [[SubText overt romance]], it did run in a [[BoysLoveGenre BL]] [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys magazine]]. Komiya, [[AmbiguouslyGay Sanada]], and [[DepravedHomosexual Sekiya]] have their moments [[EvenTheGuysWantHim with Kubota]], too.

* AdoptTheDog: Perhaps ''WildAdapter'''s core trope, and coincidentally its central metaphor. Kubota is a weirdly unemotional, sometimes casually and chillingly violent person with minimal human connections or moral compunctions, until he takes in Tokito, "a stray cat", around whom his life subsequently revolves.

-->'''Kubota''': "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're a gay, sex-addicted couple... [[IncestIsRelative who are half-brothers]], disowned by our family after the consummation of our forbidden love." How's that? [[UndercoverAsLovers Isn't it perfect?]]

** Tokito, Kubota, and Kou appear as Wonder Arm, the mysterious guy, and a good scientist in the {{shonen}} manga [[ShowWithinAShow that Shouta draws]] in volume five.

* WeWillMeetAgain: Sekiya [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya makes a point of introducing himself]] to Kubota just before making his TacticalWithdrawal and asks Kubota to remember his name. Kubota doesn't really care.

* HatesBeingTouched: Tokito, in the first weeks of staying in Kubota's apartment, won't let Kubota or Kasai touch him. Touch is the plot's main symbol of Tokito and Kubota's relationship: After Tokito [[spoiler:breaks Kubota's arm]] with his beast hand, he refuses to touch anyone for fear of harming them. Later Kubota refuses to relax his promise not to touch Tokito, for fear of psychologically harming ''him'', until finally Tokito demands that Kubota take his hand.
* IFoundYouLikeThis: Tokito wakes up, naked, to a classic UnfamiliarCeiling and a tall dude in glasses offering him soup. Still feeling the compulsion to run from...wherever he escaped from, he bolts, and Shouta finds him collapsed on the playground. Shouta summons Kubota, and the second time Tokito wakes up, Kubota uses the unthreatening Shouta as a go-between.

* DistressedDamsel

* TeenPregnancy

* AdoptTheDog
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife:

* HatesBeingTouched: Tokito, in the first weeks of staying in Kubota's apartment, won't let Kubota or Kasai touch him. Touch is the plot's main symbol of Tokito and Kubota's relationship: After Tokito [[spoiler:breaks Kubota's arm]] with his beast hand, he refuses to touch anyone for fear of harming them. Later Kubota refuses to relax his promise not to touch Tokito, for fear of psychologically harming ''him''. Finally Tokito demands that Kubota take his hand.

* LonersAreFreaks: Shouta's teacher has ordered him to keep a journal because he doesn't relate well to his classmates.
* StoryWithinAStory: Shouta draws a {{Shonen}} manga inspired by his first sightings of Kubota, Tokito, and Kou, but struggles with the character of "the mysterious guy" based on Kubota.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife

* IFoundYouLikeThis

* VillainEpisode