Line #61 Anime/Texhnolyze


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ichise_Texhnolyze.jpg]]
2
3	->''"If there's anything you want, anything at all... come to me. I'll be your guardian angel."''
4	-->-- '''Opening Theme'''[[note]]the line itself is taken from the film ''The Swimmer'', starring Burt Lancaster[[/note]]
5
6	In the not-too-distant future, deep underground, descendants of a banished generation vie for control of the crumbling city of Lux. Ichise, an orphan turned prize fighter, loses an arm and a leg to satisfy an enraged promoter. On the brink of death, he is taken in by a young female doctor and used as a guinea pig for the next evolution of [[ArtificialLimbs texhnolyze]].
7
8	Having adjusted to his new limbs, Ichise is eventually taken under the wing of Onishi, the powerful but distrusted leader of Organo, a criminal organization with some hold over the people of Lux. Meanwhile, four different factions begin to draw battlelines for territorial control of the city: the aforementioned Organo; the Union, a fiercely anti-texhnolyze faction; the Racan, a group of rebellious texhnolyzed youths; and the Class, a mysterious group of privileged beings who lurk behind the city. As Ichise is unwillingly drawn deeper into an uncontrollable war, he learns of his possible future from the prophet girl Ran, who guides him from the shadows in his darkest times. When society comes crashing down, Ichise must uncover the truth about Lux and fight for his survival.
9
10	Directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, written by Creator/ChiakiKonaka with character design by Creator/YoshitoshiAbe[[note]]The latter two known for working on''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain''[[/note]], and animated by {{Creator/Madhouse}}, ''Texhnolyze'' is often considered to be one of the strangest and darkest anime ever made.
11
12	----
13	!!''Texhnolyze'' provides examples of:
14	* AffablyEvil:
15	** [[spoiler: Yoshii proves himself to be as murderous as he is mild-mannered]].
16	** [[spoiler: Kohakura, is pretty laid-back throughout the whole show, and unlike the rest of the Organo, openly sympathizes and respects Onishi's efforts to keep the city together. Then he kills one of the other bosses, frames another, getting Ichise to finish him off, and finally takes over the Organo and defects to the Class, [[BitchInSheepsClothing showing]] [[SmugSnake his]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder true]] [[TheQuisling colours.]]]]
17	* AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler: An unusual example in that the people of the surface world seemed to have simply faded away out of apathy, rather than being destroyed by some cataclysm]].
18	* AGlassOfChianti: Doc can frequently be seen drinking red wine, from a lab beaker no less.
19	* AlasPoorVillain: Despite everything he has done and has proven to be, [[spoiler: Yoshii's]] [[MercyKill death]] is treated in an incredibly somber manner, to the point that any possible Catharsis is drained out of the scene. [[spoiler:The fact that the penultimate episode depicts how he [[UsedToBeASweetKid used to be]] helps significantly.]]
20	* AllThereInTheManual: Given the minimalist tone of the series, several characters barely speak and have unspoken names which only appear in the credits.
21	* TheAloner: Ichise. {{Lampshaded}} by various people in-series.
22	* AmbiguouslyGay: Toyama.
23	* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:This is how the Shapes end up]].
24	* AnimalTesting: Doc does this on rats, as is typical of an experimenting scientist.
25	* AntiHero: The protagonists, being [[MadScientist Doc]], [[TheStoic Ichise]], [[MadOracle Ran]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Onishii]] fall between this and {{anti villain}}s.
26	** Doc and Ichise are {{Nominal Hero}}es, the former being interested in the pursuit and propagation of Texhnolyze technology, regardless of how it aids others, while the latter, while not actively out to hurt anyone, has little to no qualms about hurting people for even stopping him in the street, shows little hesitance or guilt in caving in a man's skull with his bare hand, and is attached to the people around him purely out of [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe personal interest]] or even [[ExtremeDoormat because they asked him to]], rather than any idealism or heroism.
27	** Onishii and Ran are arguably either [[PragmaticHero Pragmatic]] or [[UnscrupulousHero Unscrupulous Heroes]], being implicitly or explicitly shown to perform, allow, tolerate or even manipulate some fairly nasty events and people in their effort to try to safeguard Lux from self-destruction.
28	* ApocalypseAnarchy: [[spoiler: Once the Obelisk powering all texhnolyzed limbs is destroyed and the lights above the city go out, everyone left in Lux essentially goes insane and the city descends into an orgy of random violence]].
29	* ApocalypseHow: It is vaguely presented, but the implications are that [[spoiler:the surface-dwellers of the world at least partially predicted the decline of the human species, and isolated those with greatest genetic chances of prospering, which just happen also to be those that create violent tendencies. Also isolated were predecessors of the members of the Class, who were given special privileges in Lux in return for their cooperation. It is arguable as to whether this was a better decision than their first choice to solve the problem: kill everyone.]]
30	* AppliedPhlebotinum: Raffia, which allows the ArtificialLimbs to be attached to a human body.
31	* ArtificialLimbs: The texhnolyze technology applied to humans, mainly in Ichise and Onishi's case but also [[spoiler: Kano]]. Later events take this trope to a very disturbing extreme [[spoiler: with the Shapes, humans who discard their biological bodies to be almost fully automatized as mechanical beings]].
32	* AssholeVictim: Given the nature of [[CrapsackWorld Lux]] [[EvilVersusEvil many secondary characters qualify]]. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}} in the case of Yoshii. PlayedWith in the case of Kano, as despite being the loathsome piece of shit responsible for the effective end of Lux, his death being at the tail end of the EmotionalTorque of the finale makes his death barely satisfying.]]
33	* BackToBackBadasses: [[spoiler: In episode 17, Onishi and Kimata, leaders of opposing organizations who would like nothing more than to tear out each others' throats, commit to this as the Organo aids the Union in fending off the Shapes.]]
34	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Both Yoshii and Kano ultimately get what they want, in spite of the fact that they both die in the process.]]
35	* BadassInANiceSuit: Onishi. He's pissed when his nice suit gets damaged.
36	--> I just had it serviced.
37	* BaitTheDog: [[spoiler: Kohakura]] comes across as one of the saner, gentler and more likeable members of the Organo, and amongst the few of the top brass willing to defend Onishi during the first arc of the show. Then the second arc with [[spoiler: Kano]] happens and... well... take a look at what he's really like under [[spoiler: AffablyEvil]] above.
38	* BeautifulVoid: The surface world, in a NothingIsScarier sort of way.
39	* BeneathTheMask: [[spoiler: Yoshii, Toyama, Kohakura, and Kano]] initially come across as either heroic, or at least sane, only for it to become clear that under their smiles lies some ''serious'', and ultimately deadly, psychological issues.
40	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Yoshii]] in the first half of the series, [[spoiler:Kano]] in the second.
41	* BlackAndGreyMorality: Even the most sympathetic characters in Lux skirt close to being {{Villain Protagonist}}s at times, while the actual ''villains'' want to destroy everything and make everyone suffer forever ForTheEvulz.
42	* BladeBelowTheShoulder:
43	** Part of Yoshii's [[spoiler:prosthetic arm, unfortunately for Onishi]]. Also [[RetractableWeapon retractable]].
44	** The Shapes also use these to devastating effect.
45	* BloodSport:
46	** The almost ritualized 'spectacles' that take place in Lux at first glance seem to be nothing more than ways for the citizens of Lux to release their savagery [[spoiler:but there are prominent clues that the spectacles happen to procure bodies for [[HumanResources Raffia]], which just adds to the [[CrapsackWorld brutality of the setting]]...]]
47	** The boxing matches that Ichise participated in before becoming texhnolyzed didn't involve gloves or protection of any kind.
48	* BodyHorror: All over the place. Texhnolyzation itself is seen as such by several characters. Then there are [[spoiler:the Shapes, and what happens to Ran.]]
49	* BondVillainStupidity The villains frequently keep blathering while they have one of the protagonists at their mercy.
50	** Justified in Kano's case. [[spoiler:When confronted by Ichise, he is physically helpless, and only has his words to defend himself.]] And of course both he and Yoshii really want to be believed and understood by others, and genuinely try to appeal to people with their rants.
51	* BoomerangBigot: Kimata, the leader of the Union, hates texhnolyze despite being texhnolyzed himself. Towards the end of the series his [[TheDragon dragon]] calls him out on it [[spoiler: only to reveal himself as a far worse hypocrite by defecting to the Class and becoming a Shape]].
52	* BrokenRecord: The surface world has many radios which do nothing but repeat the same phrases over and over again.
53	* TheCaligula: Kano.
54	* CentralTheme: The series examines a number of topics related to the [[spoiler: extinction of the human race]] and nihilism. While the series seems to imply that humans are nothing but [[HumansAreBastards senseless animals]] at the beginning, it slowly begins to flip this premise on it's head by the end. As the show draws to a close, [[spoiler: it ends on the absolute worst outcome for the cast, with literally everyone dead, including Ichise and Ran. Most will attest that the shows' ending is very emotionally affecting, even considering the extremely dire scenario painted for the viewer which likely drained all hope of a happy ending long before the final episode. This is because, unlike most nihilistic works that simply say that humanity is hopeless and we have no future (and thus, why even bothering doing anything), ''Texhnolyze'' actually discusses the second half of nihilism. That being, if life has no inherent purpose, then you need to make your own. Even if everyone failed in their goals, their desire to ''live'' allows them some form of peace, unlike the Shades who are stuck as essentially immortal statues until the end of time. And even if their struggle was in vain, their struggle was ''real'', and ultimately that's what matters. This is likely why most viewers find the ending so sad- with a situation as hopeless as this, you can only hope for an ending where everyone moves on in peace. Ironically enough, for an ending so depressing, it can actually make a person believe their life does have meaning.]]
55	* TheChessmaster: Kano, again. He isn't even revealed until after most of the damage has been done.
56	* ChickMagnet: Ichise. Every woman he comes across seems to want a piece of him. It's more disturbing than anything, especially considering his reactions to them.
57	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[EnemyMine When they aren't trying to off the Union,]] [[AmbitionIsEvil most of the Organo's top brass are busy trying to off each other.]] [[TokenGoodTeammate Onishii]] [[OnlySaneMan is amongst the few]] not actively engaging in this.
58	* CicadianRhythm: On the surface, which makes the feeling of desolation even more pronounced.
59	* CityNoir: With {{Dutch Angle}}s to boot.
60	* CoolBike: Racan members tend to use these as their main methods of transport, as opposed to the large trucks employed by the Union and the more stylish Mafia cars used by the Organo.
61	* CoolOldGuy: The Chief of Gabe, though it's also subverted in that his adherence to the village's YouCantFightFate philosophy causes him to actively hinder the efforts of the protagonists. Played straight with Great Father Goto, founder of the Organo, who is one of the few people in the organization to treat Ichise with any sort of respect.
62	* CrapsackWorld: Lux is presented as the dumping site of the planet. [[spoiler: However, the surface world is revealed to be almost completely depopulated, save for "ghosts" of people, because humanity has lost the collective will to live]].
63	* CreepyMonotone: Kano's voice always stays flat and emotionless, which just adds to his creepy nature. Yoshii is much the same, maintaining a pleasant falsetto tone to his voice.
64	* CreepyTwins: Kano's mothers are creepy triplets. Especially when they [[PsychoticSmirk smile]] in unison.
65	* CrowdChant: The Union's "SOUL! BODY! TRUTH! SALVATION! VENGEANCE!" counts.
66	* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The Class have this sort of aesthetic, but it's subverted in that they're all completely corrupt, complacent, and decadent.
67	* CurbstompCushion: The Shapes pretty much bulldoze through Lux when they arrive, but they're shown taking casualties and losing individual skirmishes.
68	* CyberCyclops: The Shapes' helmets.
69	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: The Salvation Union are especially zealous about this.
70	* CyberPunk: Like ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'', ''Texhnolyze'' is a particularly dark example.
71	* CyberPunkWithAChanceOfRain: Kicks in especially later in the series, disregarding actual rain obviously.
72	* DarkerAndEdgier: Of the informally known "Abe Trilogy" (''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'', and ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'') this show is considered the darkest of the three, and it even proves grimmer than most anime on the market. Not even ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' eclipses it in terms of shear bleakness.
73	* DeadlyEuphemism: "Spectacles" for wars between the city's factions.
74	* DeathRay: The Shapes carry these, capable of shooting a perfectly circular hole through anything.
75	* DecapitationPresentation: [[spoiler:Kano]] does this in a slightly less traditional way with [[spoiler:Ran, and she's [[FateWorseThanDeath still alive]]]].
76	* DefectorFromDecadence: {{Inverted}} and played straight during the second half. [[spoiler: Inverted in that Hal and a collection of Racan, along with Kimata's [[TheDragon Dragon]] and his entourage of Union troops defect to the Class, Kano, and the Shapes side. Played straight for Onishi and his men, who ends up deciding ScrewThisImOuttaHere when Kohakura pulls a coup and convinces the rest to of the Organo to join up with Kano]].
77	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The first ten minutes of the final episode are done in the style of a silent film reel.
78	* DespairEventHorizon:
79	** The series ''starts'' here and gets worse. The city of Lux is full of people despairing with their lives to the point where some just sit on the street too depressed to move, and Ichise comes from a childhood of despair. [[spoiler:Yoshii was driven to insanity through his despair and dissatisfaction with the surface world, Tetsuya ''lives'' on the horizon, Shinji passes it when he goes on his rampage up on the Hill, and Doc passes it when she discovers what the surface world consists of. Fitting, given that the rest of the surface-dwellers of the Earth passed it a long time ago.]]
80	** Utterly defied by [[spoiler:Onishii in his DyingMomentofAwesome, as in spite of losing his wife, his secretary, his city, and knowing in the next few minutes, his life at the hands of the [[UngratefulBastard people he tried to protect]], opts to remain true to himself and his goal, and die with a smile.]]
81	* {{Determinator}}: Ichise proves immovably determined to stay alive time and time again. Even Doc and Onishi remark on this, the first with amusement, the second with irritation because Ichise refuses to die in the first couple of episodes when he really should have.
82	* DissonantSerenity: [[spoiler: Yoshii]] comes across as a mildly camp call centre employee when hee threatens Onishii and tortures a Mook for information. Kano's eloquence and dignified manner, by contrast, serves to conceal how utterly batshit he really is.
83	* TheDividual: Kano's three mothers act basically like a single organism.
84	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: All over the place, thanks to a heavy reliance on symbolism and metaphor to convey the story.
85	* DontYouDarePityMe: Shinji.
86	* DownerEnding: The series generally maintains an extremely dark and depressing atmosphere throughout the show, [[spoiler:but the ending still manages to be impressively sad. Essentially, everyone dies, Ran's prophecy is fulfilled despite everything, the Shapes are left immortal and immobile, meaning everything that happened was for naught. See examples below for more specifics.]] It's telling how depressing this ending is that [[spoiler: most viewers will actually be kind of ''glad'' Ichise is dead, because the absolute hell that was his short life is finally over.]]
87	* DrivenToMadness: In perhaps the most ambitious example of this trope, [[spoiler: Kano drives the entire city of Lux to madness, reflecting the inner state of his mind]]. {{Lampshaded}} by Ran, Onishi, and Kano.
88	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:It is implied that Doc committed suicide in the bathtub of their hotel suite after Ichise went back to Lux. Also Ran, who killed her own mind to spite Kano and escape from an AndIMustScream situation]].
89	* DudeNotFunny: When a group of Organo men are assaulted by a Union gunman, one survives but is shot in the genitals. The Organo higher-ups crack a bunch of jokes about their minion's misfortune but Onishi snaps that it's no laughing matter that their soldiers are being killed and maimed when a truce should be in place.
90	* DyingAlone: [[spoiler:Ichise inadvertently fulfils Ran's prophecy of him. However, as the power of his texhnolyzed limbs almost dissipates completely, his arm projects an image of a flower onto the ground.]]
91	* DysfunctionJunction: Literally ''everyone''.
92	* {{Dystopia}}
93	* EnemyMine:
94	** Onishi tries to negotiate this with the Racan and the Salvation Union in the beginning of the series when he suspects that somebody's attempting to break the incredibly fragile peace in Lux.
95	** [[spoiler: Onishi and the Organo assist Kimata and the Union when they attempt to rally against the Shapes. It doesn't end very well for the Union and Onishi's forced to retreat.]]
96	* ExtremeDoormat: Ichise seems to have this attitude a lot of the time, though he does lash out every so often.
97	* EyeScream:
98	** Ichise gets his pupil plugged by the fingernail of his promoter's girlfriend during sex, which earns her a punch in the face.
99	** [[spoiler:Hal suffers one of these when he betrays Shinji and then returns to kill him as a Shape. You don't see the actual injury, but the crunching sound is enough.]]
100	* FallenPrincess: Doc was initially a member of the Class, but is banished for vague reasons.
101	* FalseUtopia: The surface world.
102	* FanDisservice: Ichise's shirtless scenes and Doc's fetish of sleeping with her patients would provide relief from the impending grimness of the show if it wasn't for the disturbing manner in which they are presented. Ichise's body is covered in scars and poorly healed wounds from his pit fighting days, and Doc is, nominally, a rapist.
103	* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: The Shapes, left immobile and immortal, and Tatsuya, who is left to wait until he dies in silent misery on the surface.]]
104	* {{Faux Affably Evil}}: Kano. Unlike [[AffablyEvil Yoshii]], Kano's politeness and formal manner of speaking contrasts with his abominable actions only emphasizes how insane he really is.
105	* FingerPokeOfDoom: [[spoiler: Shinji to Hal when the latter becomes a Shape and attacks him.]]
106	* FoodPorn: Inverted. The only appetizing food shown is that eaten by privileged inhabitants of Lux like Doc and Onishi. Everybody else's is unappetizing goo.
107	* {{Foil}}: [[spoiler: Yoshii and Kano]] can be interpreted as one to the other. Both are fairly monstrous people with ideals seperate from, and incomprehensible to the people of Lux, and both bring the people of Lux to their breaking point during their respective arcs. But where [[spoiler: Yoshii]] causes chaos to bring out the passions and the wills of the people of Lux, or so he claims, [[spoiler: Kano]] uses the chaos to [[spoiler: wipe out the remnants of Lux and replace them with his "perfect" Shapes, essentially bringing about a {{World of Silence}}.]]
108	* ForTheEvulz: This is what makes [[spoiler:Yoshii's]] reign of terror all the more horrifying: his utter lack of a motive for it. It's made even worse by his placid and rational demeanour throughout the whole event and gets down right chilling when we see through Sakimura that he was once just an innocent, optimistic office drone. [[spoiler:Yoshii's]] other motive is probably that [[spoiler:the upper world could not handle their problems and ultimately just gave up. All the humans in the upper world have been reduced to ghosts who do the same things over and over out of habit, finding any change (even death, which they are all very close to) to be too much effort. Yoshii was once very optimistic and believed deeply in people but then the upper world became a literal ghost town, so he tried to prevent Lux from becoming that by making people as passionate and violent as possible, the complete opposite of the upper world]]. Still, a part of him probably did it for amusement.
109	* FromBadToWorse: In general, the longer the show goes on, the more hopeless its characters' situations start to look. [[spoiler: And then you find out what's [[DespairEventHorizon above-ground]].]]
110	* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Yoshii]] arrives in Lux halfway through his transition and its only through flashbacks that we learn just how much of a nobody he was before he damn near destroyed the city.
111	* GenreSavvy: Shinji.
112	* GirlishPigtails: Ran.
113	* GoodIsNotNice: Onishi. He's part of a Yakuza-esque group, and his first encounter with Ichise has him dismissing him as a 'stray dog', (for context, this is while Ichise is bleeding out after being de-limbed). It takes approximately half the series for him to start warming up to Ichise, and, excepting his secretary and his wife, comes across as fairly cold, frigid, and towards Shinji, downright patronising. But as the the story progresses, his {{Hidden Depths}} and more heroic traits start showing, and he begins to act in a more brotherly/fatherly fashion towards Ichise, and by the end, it becomes clear that, second to [[spoiler: Ran]], Onishi is the closest the series has to a {{Big Good}} and an {{Ideal Hero}}, even if he's rather deficient in qualities in the latter category.
114	* HatesBeingTouched: Ichise. Even the few times he's shown having sex, he just lies there with the woman sitting on top of him.
115	* HeadsUpDisplay: For texhnolyzed people through their corneas, complete with bubbling gurgly noises.
116	* HeroesFightBarehanded: Ichise, mainly because he's a prize fighter. He does get a sword later on.
117	* HeroicMime: Ichise can talk, he just stubbornly prefers not to. The [[HilariousOuttakes Gag Reel]] {{Lampshade}}s this by taking advantage of FilmingForEasyDub and having him talk non-stop.
118	* HiddenVillain: It takes a while before [[spoiler: Yoshii]] is revealed as the BigBad of the first story arc. Especially since [[{{Yakuza}} Onishi]], [[GangBangers Shinji]] and [[ChurchMilitant Kimata]] all seem candidates as well. [[spoiler: Kano,]] likewise, keeps to the shadows throughout much of the second arc, largely working through his [[UnwittingPawn proxies]] [[TheQuisling in]] [[CrapsackWorld Lux.]]
119	* HighPressureBlood:
120	** Whenever there is a massacre, and there are quite a few.
121	** [[spoiler: Toyama's death, complete with CleanCut.]]
122	* HilariousOuttakes: The DVD releases feature "Alternate Dialogue Outtakes", which redub select clips from the included episodes with snarky, filthy, or outright bizarre dialogue (such as changing a vicious gun battle into a rather enthusiastic paintball match, and by-and-large {{lampshading}} the entire [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerization process]]).
123	* HollywoodTactics: [[spoiler:In Lux's final battle against the Shapes, they initially have a wall of metal shields to protect themselves--the first substance shown to actually stop the Shapes' death rays. But the Luxites ''leave the shields behind'' when they go on the offensive. This naturally leads to them being massacred.]]
124	* HumanityIsInsane: Kano seems to believe this. [[spoiler: Within the context of the show, he is arguably right.]]
125	* HumanitysWake
126	* HumanResources: [[spoiler:Raffia. Even more terrible when it's revealed that it actually no longer serves a purpose and is simply being produced as a matter of procedure]].
127	* HumansAreBastards: Seems to be the closest thing the show has to an overarching message.
128	* ILied: [[spoiler: Doc reveals that she never used the (dead) cells of Ichise's mother to power his arm--it was just so she could get him to accept the texhnolyzation. Ichise is far from amused.]]
129	* IncestSubtext: Ichise, who never really knew his father, adopts Doc as his "second mother" by WordOfGod. However, he lets her have sex with him whenever she repairs his texhnolyzed limbs.
130	* {{Industrial}}: It is CyberPunk after all. Some prominent examples include the Juno Reactor ThemeSong "Guardian Angel (Xavier's Edit)" and "A Dog's Heart Leaping from Irritation".
131	* InnocentFlowerGirl: Ran plays with the trope in various ways, though she really isn't all that innocent.
132	* IRejectYourReality: [[spoiler:Kano is a delusional solipsist with severe homicidal tendencies who won't entertain the idea that human beings are anything other than playthings produced by his mind]].
133	* IronicName: "Lux" is Latin for "light," yet the city itself is steeped in the darkest aspects of the human experience. [[spoiler:By the end of the series, every last light in the city has been extinguished, leaving it in total darkness once the final credits begin to roll]].
134	* ItsAllAboutMe: Kano, in one of the most horrifying examples of this trope. [[spoiler: He believes that Lux itself is a reflection of his mind, and that humans are puppets or homunculi eroding it. He would qualify for a god complex, except that he doesn't believe that he's God, he believes that he is ''reality itself''.]]
135	* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The workings of the Raffia, the Organo, the Class and surface are all explained through minimalist storytelling. Pay attention.
136	* KarmaHoudini: Arguably, [[spoiler: Yoshii]], to the extent someone can be in this show. [[spoiler: While he does get killed, his death is a lot less gruesome and painful than those which befall pretty much every other character.]]
137	* KatanasAreJustBetter: Subverted at times but also played straight many a time. Some of the curved blades used by the Organo thugs seem to be cavalry sabers rather than katanas, but the main characters in Organo all use katanas, so this trope is played straight more often than not.
138	* EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler:By the end of the series, absolutely everybody is dead, with the exception of the Shapes, who are forced to live forever, and Tetsuya, who is still waiting to die on the surface.]]
139	* KnightOfCerebus: Kano.
140	* KukrisAreKool: Hal uses one.
141	* LackOfEmpathy: Yoshii and Kano. Kano is a particularly extreme example since he doesn't believe that anyone aside from him even exists to begin with.
142	* LastStand: [[spoiler: The final episode tells us exactly what happened in Lux while Ichise and Doc were investigating and warning the surface, in a vignette-like film-grainy fashion. Onishi, Shinji and what's left of Lux (including the Seer's followers) band together to try to prevent Ran from being taken by Kano and the Shapes, since she's the only person left to protect. [[HopeSpot Not surprisingly]] [[DespairEventHorizon it fails]], and all the people of Lux lose the will to do anything once Ran is taken.]]
143	* LikesOlderWomen: Yoshii is only interested in prostitutes with "experience."
144	* LittleDeadRidingHood: [[spoiler:Ran]].
145	* LonelyPianoPiece: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMH6Ru7bBKI "Time for Blooming Flower"]].
146	* LostTechnology: Interestingly enough, the surface world seems to be stylistically stuck in the fifties, with old fashioned radios and other outdated technology just laying around, but mixed with various examples of extremely sophisticated tech.
147	* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler: Onishi is shot by a crowd of deranged Luxites until he is ''literally'' a stain on the wall. All that's left of him are his texhnolyzed legs, still standing upright]].
148	* MadOracle: Although Ran claims to be this at the end, she in fact [[CrazySane narrowly subverts this trope]].
149	%%* MadScientist: Doc.
150	* ManipulativeBastard: Several; most prevalent are Yoshii and Kano. A couple of the Organo take a stab at it, but fail when they are thwarted by other, smarter {{manipulative bastard}}s such as Kohakura and Onishi. And while not really being one himself, Shinji seems rather adept at seeing through other people's machinations when inclined.
151	* MeaningfulName: Lux, or "[=Ru9su=]" as it was originally called. Kohakura makes a remark about this.
152	-->'''Kohakura''': [[spoiler: He said this is the Ninth Annex of the Reviving Hell.]]
153	* MechaMooks: Subverted by the Shapes.
154	* MediumBlending: after ending song, we can see MindScrew shots like [[https://imgur.com/a/Umnp8SE this]].
155	* MercyKill:
156	** [[spoiler: Ichise does this for Ran at the end]].
157	** Onishi [[spoiler:does this for Michiko when she begs for it]].
158	* MessianicArchetype: Ran.
159	* MindScrew: This series can be difficult to understand given the method of storytelling.
160	* {{Minimalism}}: The series' defining stylistic trope. There's almost no dialog for the entire first half of the first episode.
161	* MobWar: This is the focus of the first half of the series, instigated by [[spoiler: Yoshii]].
162	* MuggingTheMonster: Two Racan thugs try to mug [[spoiler: Yoshii]].
163	* {{Mukokuseki}}: Averted, by and large. It's possible to infer the entire cast's ethnic backgrounds just by looking at them, the only aberration of course being Kano, who was specifically designed to look as alien and as much like a stereotypical contemporary anime character as possible in order to sell just how much of an OutsideContextProblem he really was to Lux.
164	* MyNewGiftIsLame: Kano has a more petulant version of this in his backstory, just to show off what an irredeemable monster he is: Onishi [[spoiler:sold his legs to the Class in exchange for what amounted to starter money to work his way in to the Organo (hence why he has texhnolyze legs). Kano received the legs as a gift and either got bored of them or found some other reason to be rid of them, effectively squandering Onishi's sacrifice]]. And of course, he [[EvilGloating gloats to Onishi about it]] when they meet face to face.
165	* MysteriousWaif: Ran, especially before she becomes a viewpoint character.
166	* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Kano.
167	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Ichise does this to... a lot of people.
168	* NothingIsScarier: When the characters reach the surface world. Everything seems lush and serene, but it's nearly empty of life and populated by ghosts.
169	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Ishii sees something of his old self in Ichise.
170	-->"This guy makes me sick, I'll cut off the rest of his limbs and then Onishi can have him. What the hell kind of look is that? You're disgusting. I hate your type because you act like you're better than everyone, thinking you can live on your own. But you're nothing but scum! Because I used to be just like him.
171	* NotWorthKilling: [[spoiler: Hal]] after his FaceHeelTurn says this to Shinji. He apparently changes his mind shortly afterward.
172	* OneHitKill: Ichise basically does this to [[spoiler: Yoshii]], who had just recently taken down [[spoiler: Onishi]] and effortlessly killed many Organo members. He [[SingleStrokeBattle does it again to]] [[spoiler:Toyama]] near the ends of the series and then makes it a hat-trick by [[spoiler:punching Kano's head off its shoulders]].
173	* OnlySaneMan: Onishi, though Kano believes it of himself.
174	* OracularUrchin: Ran, yet again.
175	* OutsideContextProblem: [[spoiler:Kano. Lux might have been able to bounce back from Yoshii's reign of terror, but it was doomed the moment the Shapes arrived from the Hill. Kano steamrolls over everyone and despite Onishi's efforts to mount a counterattack Kano damn near wins before his self-destructive nihilism (and Ichise's fist) catches up with him]].
176	* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler:Poor Toyama]]. Apparently also how [[spoiler: Kano]] came into this world.
177	* PenalColony: It's utterly irrelevant to the story in the long run, but it's revealed near the end of the series that Lux was originally a massive underground concentration camp where the violent and undesirable elements of humanity were exiled to as the surface world constructed it's peaceful utopia. Flash forward an unstated amount of time later and it turns out that the surface dwellers actually pacified themselves into extinction, while Lux survived and thrived below ground. [[spoiler:...Until Kano showed up]].
178	* PerilousPlay: In the last episode, Ichise finds Ran on a theatre stage with Kano as a director and Shapes as unwilling audience. [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream Her body is removed and her head is placed on a two-headed dummy]]. Ichise kills Kano and gives a {{Mercy Kill}} to Ran]].
179	* PinballProtagonist: Ichise.
180	* PlatonicProstitution: Yoshii rents a room with a prostitute [[FanDisservice who turns out to be severely mutilated]], but only to get information about the city. Later he does sleep with her [[spoiler: and finally kills her and her pimp]].
181	* PrimalStance: Ichise takes this when walking out of an Organo cell block daring anybody to try and stop him.
182	* PsychoForHire: [[spoiler: Yoshi, made scariest by his overall sane-looking attitude and soft voice.]]
183	* PsychopathicManchild: Kano is a Type C.
184	* PygmalionPlot: One of the sideplots between Doc and Ichise.
185	* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: Toyama]]. He really hates his father.
186	* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Onishi's secretary Michiko]], by the end of the series, has been raped and abused so much by a trio of remaining Luxites that she's barely responsive and only asks to be killed.
187	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
188	** [[spoiler:Ichise to the man who sold his father out and had him killed. It gets him in trouble.]]
189	** [[spoiler:What Ichise does to the crazed people of Lux after they kill Onishi at the Obelisk.]]
190	** Also counts when [[spoiler:Ichise '''punches''' off Kano's head for what he's done to Ran.]]
191	* RoyallyScrewedUp: Kano, a high ranking member of the Darwinistic nihilistic Class.
192	* SadBattleMusic: Shinji's rampage through [[spoiler: the Class]] is accompanied by a LonelyPianoPiece.
193	* SceneryGorn: Lux is a desolate city beset with urban decay. Taken even further as the series goes on until by the finale it's [[spoiler: almost completely dark, bombed out, and littered with corpses and the frozen remnants of the Shapes]].
194	* SceneryPorn: The surface world is lush but almost completely empty of life.
195	* SchizoTech: The setting combines advanced ArtificialLimbs and other futuristic technology with early 20th century phones, cars, trains and weapons. The Class, on the other hand, is so technologically advanced it's lead to a form of transhumanist inbreeding. See Kano and his retinue of BodyHorror technofreaks. The surface world is shown to be both highly advanced (see Yoshii and Sakimura's office) and has apparently regressed back into the 1920s.
196	* ScrewDestiny: Ichise's approach to Ran's prophecy. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]
197	* SelfDestructiveCharge and FoeTossingCharge: [[spoiler:Kimata]] does this near the end of the series against the Shapes with the Union behind him. [[spoiler: It [[CurbStompBattle fails horrifically in the end]], resulting in [[GoryDiscretionShot his]] and the rest of his organization's deaths]].
198	* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[spoiler: Ichise ends up inadvertently fulfilling Ran's prophecy by trying to ScrewDestiny.]]
199	* SentencedToDownUnder: Quite literally, as in "down under" the surface of the Earth. The current population of Lux at the outset of the series (the Class included) are descendants of those deemed "undesirable" by the government of the surface world. They were corralled into a massive underground complex and sealed there to protect the new "utopia" of the surface from their corrupting influence. The plan [[GoneHorriblyRight Goes Horribly Right]], as without the ostensibly verboten passions of the Luxites, the surface population slowly loses its will to live and procreate, effectively coasting to extinction by the start of the series.
200	* SexlessMarriage: One scene shows that Onishi and his wife sleep in separate beds. Which would explain why Onishi sleeps with his secretary instead.
201	* SexySecretary: Michiko, Onishi's secretary. On her day off she gets flirted with by Shinji too.
202	* SheathStrike: Onishi uses his sheathed sword to beat the crap out of Union and Racan thugs alike when he's caught alone amidst their street scuffle.
203	* ShirtlessScene: The anime begins with a naked Ichise staring at himself in the mirror. Keeping up with the spirit of the series, it is not used as {{Fanservice}}.
204	* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Everybody dies. Ichise reaches the surface only to discover that the human race has faded out of existence out of sheer despair. Doc is implied to commit suicide and becomes one of the ghosts that now inhabit the surface. Onishii's attempt to fight back against Kano's forces fails and the civilian population of Lux is slaughtered. Everybody dies. Ran is captured by Kano and subjected to a FateWorseThanDeath so horrible that she destroys her own mind by commanding Onishii to destroy the obelisk. Everybody dies. Onishii is gunned down by hundreds of machine guns en masse. Ichise snaps when he discovers what Kano has done to Ran and punches his head clean off his body. Everybody dies. Without the obelisk to power their Texhnolyze parts, the Shapes are frozen in place forever unable to move. Ichise finally slumps against a wall and gives up while staring at a projection of a flower. Then he dies. ''Everybody dies.'']]
205	* ShoutOut:
206	** The way Yoshii manipulates the gangs into killing each other has shades of ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', especially in the scene with the gang members fleeing their burning headquarters.
207	** To ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' in episode 18.
208	** Also, scenes from the surface world mimic the paintings of Edward Hopper.
209	* ShowDontTell: As noted under SilenceIsGolden, there are few digressions on the parts of characters as to what their motivations are, how they feel, or why they are doing what they do. Careful attention is the only real way to look [[BeneathTheMask beneath the surface]] and see [[HiddenDepths their depths.]]
210	* ShutUpHannibal: Ichise sharply disagrees with Kano's nihilism. [[spoiler: This is expressed by punching Kano's head clean off.]]
211	* SilenceIsGolden: The first line of dialogue isn't spoken until 11 minutes into episode 1. Ichise, the ''protagonist'' of the series, doesn't say anything until episode 3, and after that is [[HeroicMime practically mute]] unless spoken to by someone he respects like Doc, Onishi, Toyama, or Ran.
212	* SissyVillain: Kano doesn't do any fighting, unlike Yoshii. Both are quite camp in their own ways, however.
213	* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVersusFate: Skates between type 0 and type 1. Ran predicts the future, but it is just one of many possible futures... unfortunately, if it is a long-term prediction it is almost always correct. It's not that there is a higher power, it's just that the inevitable succession of human actions leads to the result she predicts.
214	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: They don't get much more cynical than this show.
215	* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Or this serious, for that matter.
216	* SmugSnake: Mizuno, to the point where both the Union and the Rakan hang a lampshade on him in very short succession. Kohakura seems like a more competent example [[spoiler:but then arguably ends up [[FateWorseThanDeath even]] [[AndIMustScream worse]]]].
217	* TheSociopath:
218	** [[CrapsackWorld Given the shit heap that is Lux,]] it's inevitable that many of these characters would show up. Even [[AntiHero the protagonists]] [[AntiVillain show a]] [[VillainProtagonist degree of ruthlessness]] [[LackOfEmpathy and apathy]] quintessential of this trope.
219	** [[spoiler: [[BaitTheDog Yoshii]] not only kickstarts a civil war in Lux, but murders a prostitute he had seemingly bonded and sympathized with the night before for no conceivable reason.]]
220	** [[spoiler: [[BigBad Kano]] reveals in the final episode that not only does he have no problem forcefully turning a little girl into a cyborg, but that he doesn't even believe that anyone in Lux actually exists, let alone count as actual people.]]
221	** [[SociopathicHero Ichise]] ultimately subverts this trope, as his seeming apathy to the chaos around him, and initial indifference to the people he ends up attacking and/or killing, obscures the existence of not only his [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas consistent love for his mother]] but his growing relationship with [[MoralityPet Doc, Onishii,]] and [[MoralityChain Ran]].
222	* SoiledCityOnAHill: Quite a blatantly symbolic example with the city inhabited by the Class.
223	* TheStarsAreGoingOut: Near the end of the series the artificial sky above Lux finally craps out, [[AlwaysNight turning cement gray and plunging the city into an unending night]].
224	* TheStoic:
225	** Ichise, who only speaks when he has to. His first lines aren't until the third episode.
226	** Many others as well, such as Onishi and Kano.
227	* StormingTheCastle: Shinji, in the second-to-last episode. [[spoiler: He succeeds in basically wiping out what's left of the Class, but dies in the process]].
228	* StoryArc: Two of them; the first half mainly revolves around the actions of Yoshii, the second half is about the war for the city and Kano.
229	* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Ran the prophet. Kano, however, averts it by being crazy but human.
230	* SwissArmyAppendage: [[spoiler: Yoshii's prosthetic arm doubles as a retractable arm-blade]].
231	* TallDarkAndHandsome: Ichise is a sort of diamond-in-the-rough version, until he puts a suit on that is.
232	* TechnologyPorn
233	* ThatManIsDead: Ichise says this when talking about his missing limbs.
234	* ThereAreNoGoodExecutives: A rare subversion in [[spoiler:Onishi]], who is distrusted as the head of the ominous mafia-like business, Organo, that maintains enough control over Lux to prevent it from falling apart; despite this, he is one of the show's few sympathetically heroic characters.
235	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Well, it does when you have a computer in your arm plotting out the trajectory for you. Hal does this with his [[KukrisAreKool own weapon]] to help out Shinji during the bloody scuffle between Racan and the Salvation Union.
236	* {{Transhuman}}: The entire show is one long pessimistic study of transhumanism. It's conclusion? [[HumansAreBastards People are messed up]], and [[TranshumanTreachery transhuman people are even more messed up than regular people]].
237	* {{Ubermensch}}:
238	** Kano, who leans very much towards SocialDarwinist tendencies.
239	** [[spoiler: [[AffablyEvil Yoshii's]] discussion with [[BrokenBird Tatsuya]] of the "humans' primitive energy" seems pretty evocative of [[Creator/FriedrichNietzsche Nietzsche's]] Will to Power, and his MotiveRant to Shinji implies that he is possibly trying to create an {{Ubermensch}} [[WellIntentionedExtremist to save Lux.]]]]
240	* UndyingLoyalty: [[SexySecretary Michiko]] to Onishi.
241	* TheUnfettered: Both Yoshii and Kano, and Ichise before he meets Ran.
242	* UnwillingRoboticisation: Many anime characters have been [[ArtificialLimbs texchnolyzed]], either voluntarily or not. Among them, Ichise, the protagonist, whose getting artificial arm and leg saved his life -- but the creator of the limbs, Doctor Kaneda, never asked Ichise if he wanted it, lied to him about the creation process, and also literally raped him when he was helpless. Then [[TheCaligula Kano]] creates the Shapes -- people whose entire body, except for the head, is replaced with a robotic one. Despite the horrors of dehumanization and the fate of becaming Kano's minions, many Lux residents believed Kano's promises of a better life, and also became so desperate, living in [[CrapsackWorld a poor, violent and dying world]], that they willingly agreed to texhnolyzation. Not all of them, though -- so, some of the Shapes are still full-fledged examples of this trope. After all, Kano texchnolyzes [[spoiler:his [[AmbiguouslyRelated (probably) sister]] Ran by placing her living head on a motionless two-headed doll. This causes Ran to destroy her own mind, and later causes Ichise to give her MercyKill]].
243	* VisionaryVillain: [[spoiler: Kano, though it's a vision of basically nothingness]].
244	* TheWeirdSisters: Kano's three mother. There are no explanations about their nature in the anime, but their look and behavior are heavily inspired by the Moirai. The surreal character of the anime, and multiple links to Myth/{{Classical Mythology}}, don't help.
245	* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: There are big brown rats everywhere, they are particularly noticeable when Ichise gets thrown into the sewers, and they are Doc's test subjects, but they are not depicted as hostile; in most cases, they are presented as pitiful creatures.
246	* WildCard: Ichise and Yoshii.
247	* WorldHalfEmpty: Few anime have ever been so faithful to this trope. [[spoiler:Not only does Lux itself qualify, but we later learn that the world on the surface is nearly empty, being only populated by ghostly half-humans that have given up on living but are too tired to seek death]].
248	* WorldOfSilence: [[spoiler:The surface world, and Lux after the Shapes stop moving.]]
249	* WretchedHive: Lux, obviously. This was inevitable due to the nature of its creation.
250	* XtremeKoolLetterz: That X in the title may lead the uninitiated to pronouncing the title "Teks-nolyze". The anime itself makes it quite clear this is not the case.
251	* YouCantFightFate: [[spoiler: Ran prophesies that Ichise will kill countless people before dying alone and unloved. He swears to fight this fate. He doesn't succeed.]]
252	* ZergRush: Seems to be the method of the Racan due to their disorganization, and is later employed against the Shapes by nearly all of the factions to varying efficacy.

Context Anime / Texhnolyze