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1%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
2[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Daughter_of_Twenty_Faces_6588.jpg]]
3[-[[caption-width-right:350:''"He has many different faces...'' '''''and I'm one of them!''''' ''"'']]-]
4
5''The Daughter of Twenty Faces'' (''Nijū Mensō no Musume''), an action/mystery {{manga}} [[JustForFun/XMeetsY in the vein]] of ''Franchise/LupinIII'' and ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', was made by Shinji Ohara and was serialized from 2003 to 2007 in ''Comic Flapper'' magazine. An anime adaptation aired in Japan from April 12 to September 27 in 2008, produced by Creator/StudioBones and Creator/TMSEntertainment's Telecom Animation Film and promoted internationally as ''Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief'' (though to this day, it ''still'' hasn't been formally picked up for English release).
6
7The focus of the story is Chizuko "Chiko" Mikamo, a young girl who desires to get away from her home because her uncle and aunt have been slowly poisoning her and leaps at the chance when international GentlemanThief "Twenty Faces" comes to "steal" her. Abandoning her old life, she learns the way of proper cat burglary from Twenty and his merry band of men, and eventually must come to terms with Twenty's legacy and her position as The Daughter Of Twenty Faces. This manga is a derivative of classic detective fiction. Twenty Faces first appeared in the late 1920's as the WorthyOpponent of Endogawa Rampo's detective Akechi Kogorō, who is also featured later on.
8
9Not related to the Creator/{{CLAMP}} manga, ''Manga/ManOfManyFaces'' (the title character is called "The Man of 20 Faces").
10
11----
12!!Tropes: (warning, spoilers follow)
13
14%% ActionGirl: Chiko.
15* AdaptationalHeroism: Sorta. Twenty Faces is certainly not heroic by any measure, but is at least given a somewhat understandable back story. [[spoiler: Turns out he was a scientist for Imperial Japan who vowed to destroy the super-weapons he helped create after UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 devastated the planet]].
16* BeachEpisode: Though fairly short and containing less {{Fanservice}} than normal.
17* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[spoiler: Angie, who doesn't snap so much as she was always out to get Chiko, and seems oddly jealous of her even when playing nice. Angie also provides nice examples of TheDragon (playing a Chiko to Tiger's Twenty in the first narrative arc) and AxCrazy.]]
18* BigBrotherInstinct: Ken and Chiko. It's so blatant that multiple characters [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] on it.
19* BreakingTheBonds: Chiko was taught how to untie herself by the gang, [[spoiler:and uses the information to do just that in episode 13.]] [[spoiler:Shunka also manages to break free after Chiko rescues her from Kohei.]]
20%% ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The Anastasia Ruby]]
21* ChekhovsSkill: In Episode 5, Chiko teaches Angie a sleight-of-hand trick while posing as a circus performer. In the following episode, [[spoiler: Angie uses the same technique to floor Chiko during their fight in the train cabin]].
22* CluelessDetective: Akine, chosen to locate Chiko by her aunt specifically because he's not very bright. Though he ''is'' brighter than most people around him think; he's probably fully capable of handling getting evidence for a divorce case, for example.
23* ComingOfAgeStory: Absolutely, but Chiko doesn't have a "typical" childhood.
24%% CoolOldGuy: Kanchou/Skipper
25* CoolShip: Twenty and his gang use a double-balloon airship as their main mode of transportation.
26* DangerousSixteenthBirthday and/or GrowingUpSucks: Shunka has to cram all the excitement and wacky adventures she can get into her life before she turns sixteen and [[spoiler:gets stuck in an arranged marriage, which she figures will require her to become respectable and dull.]]
27** Later subverted. [[spoiler: She seems to like her new fiance a lot.]]
28* {{Deconstruction}}: Heist shows like ''Franchise/LupinIII'' or ''Manga/CatsEye'' often have random employees (guards, maids, servants, ec.) who end up drugged, BoundAndGagged, or just knocked out by the [[{{Anti Hero}} antiheroes]] or [[AntiVillain antivillains]] during their robberies, and Episode 5 examines the notion of these crimes supposedly being "victimless". Here, Chiko befriends a young girl whose father is the head of security at the museum Twenty plans on robbing, and the girl states in no uncertain terms that her family will likely end up on the streets if the heist goes off as planned. Chiko is conflicted about carrying out the plan, and for the first time in the series, actually begins to question the morality of what she's doing. [[spoiler: This becomes a bit of a BrokenAesop though, when it turns out the girl is actually [[TheMole a mole]] working for Tiger]].
29* DidntThinkThisThrough: When a kid wants to enter your vulnerable submarine, of course you don't have to frisk her or thoroughly check what she's carrying in her basket. Even when she accompanies known crooks. Sure.
30* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler: Episode 6, oh god. The only ones left after Tiger and his gang kill everyone are Chiko and Ken. Twenty's fate is left ambiguous, however.]]
31%% EvilCounterpart: Arguably [[spoiler: Angie]] to Chiko.
32* ExactEavesDropping: Played straight ''twice'', first when Chiko finds out that Twenty wants a successor and hints that he wants it to be Chiko (d'aww) and again when she overhears a significant amount of plot exposition from Kayama in episode 8.
33* {{Expy}}: The "white-haired demon" is a dead-ringer for Suigintou from ''Manga/RozenMaiden'' and seems to share her cruelly jealous personality. [[spoiler: She's even got the doll-joints down.]]
34* EyepatchOfPower: [[spoiler: Ken, after episode 6. The character also takes a turn for the DarkerAndEdgier at this point.]]
35* GentlemanThief: Twenty, of course; he's practically the embodiment of every Gentleman Thief ever. Not really a PhantomThief because Twenty is a showman above all.
36* GenreShift: The show starts off as a heist/caper story, before morphing into a detective series after the events of episode 6.
37* GreatDetective: Chiko, good thing for her health too. Also, she doesn't really use her powers of deduction for ''legal'' purposes...
38* [[HeirToTheDojo Heir To The "Dojo"]]: Chiko, although it isn't really a dojo she inherits [[spoiler: and thanks to episode 6 there isn't that much to inherit.]]
39%% HeroicBSOD: Predictably, [[spoiler: the first half of episode 7]].
40* HollywoodDensity: Skipper effortlessly brings back ''two'' big cases filled with gold. By himself. Even underwater, just one case would already have been too heavy for ''several'' strong men to lift.
41* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Well, Kayama is "tiny" only compared to Tsuya in episode 8.
42* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Subverted first in that Twenty applies this philosophy to '''everyone''', not just "big villains", who oppose himself and his gang, as his objective is "taking treasures from pigs" and he has no reason to want to cause actual harm (plus [[spoiler: he has some kind of war-related past that has made him hate killing and suffering]]); he even dissuades Ken from killing people. Later on, [[spoiler: the whole thing is subverted ''again'' in episode 6 when everyone, even Twenty, must kill or they absolutely will be killed themselves.]]
43* InformedAbility: Twenty Faces is supposed to be very clever, but his plans are actually pretty transparent, so it's weird that most anyone falls for them.
44* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Twenty Faces pulls this off in the very first scene of the show. Chiko doesn't take too long to follow in his footsteps.
45* ImprobableAge: While tweens-to-young-teens are very flexible and the best gymnasts are often young teens, and Chiko's age is often used to realistic effect, she's still a little young to be ''quite'' as good as she is. Some of the members of Twenty's merry band do [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] on this, however.
46* JumpedAtTheCall: Chiko is so eager to go with Twenty that the only thing preventing her from getting out the door before '''he''' does is her episode 1 illness.
47* MadScientist: Most of the outrageous technology in the series [[spoiler: was invented by Twenty]].
48** And there's an even madder scientist later in the series.
49* MagicSkirt: Granted, Chiko's is longer than most, but still, considering all the acrobatics she does...
50** There are several scenes in which Chiko's panties would have shown, had the camera not focused away. The director seems to work VERY hard to not make Chiko a {{Moe}}/{{Fanservice}} character.
51%% {{Meido}}: Tome
52* [[Main/MandysLawofAnimeGenderBending MandysLaw]]: Hans dressing up as a girl in Twenty Faces' circus.
53%% MindControlEyes
54* MistakenForGay: In the early part of episode 15, [[spoiler:when Tome walked in on Chiko and Shunka... talking with each other, then remarked that she used to do the same]].
55* MunchausenSyndrome By Proxy: What Chiko's aunt and uncle were trying to do her in the first episode [[spoiler:and the aunt later does it to the uncle]].
56* MythologyGag: The boy Chiko and Sunka rescue in the final episode is named Kobayashi, the same name as Akechi's adopted son/KidSidekick in the original novels.
57%% NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler: Twenty Faces]]
58* TheOjou: Chiko again, and it's a bit of a subversion in that she throws it all out the window to go with Twenty. She may still be an Ojou [[spoiler: depending on what she inherits from Twenty.]]
59%%* OutOfTheInferno
60* ParentalAbandonment: Both of Chiko's actual parents are quite dead, and she lives with relatives. [[spoiler: Well, both parents ''appear'' dead, but a couple scenes with Twenty... well...]]
61** Ken was rather brutally abandoned by his family. [[spoiler: When he realizes that Twenty Faces seems to care more about Chiko than him, his abandonment issues fuels his DarkerAndEdgier turn.]]
62* PerfectPoison: [[spoiler: Deliberately averted in order to set the plot in motion; Chiko's relatives are attempting to poison her slowly over time in order to kill her and take her inheritance. Chiko is too sharp to fall for this, however, and attempts on her own to avoid poisoned food until Twenty "kidnaps" (read: rescues) her. Chiko's (non-blood) aunt then goes and uses the same poison '''on Chiko's uncle''' in a surprising double cross so that she may take all the inheritance for herself, and the uncle cannot call her out for fear of exposing what was done to Chiko.]]
63%%* PillarOfLight
64* PluckyGirl: Shunka. Nothing's gonna stop her from excitement, even when she gets in trouble.
65%%* ProperlyParanoid: Chiko.
66* SaveTheVillain: Episode 6: [[spoiler:Angie overexerts a swing, loses her footing, and is about to be swept off the train by the wind. Chiko reaches out to save her, but like every other brutal thing in this episode, she fails and Angie (apparently) dies]].
67** This of course involves some classic TakeMyHand imagery as well.
68* SchizoTech: The series is set in TheFifties, but there are a number of things in it that could never be built with real world fifties technology, like [[spoiler: The giant tank Twenty's gang uses as a hideout up to episode 2, which appears to have battleship cannons]].
69%%* SequelHook
70* SpoiledBrat: Chiko appears to be this in the first episode, refusing to drink expensive tea or eat veritable feasts that her aunt and uncle provide; [[spoiler: we later find out that her behavior is in fact due to her using her GreatDetective skills to figure out that her guardians are attempting to assassinate her via poisoning to steal her inheritance and she is desperately trying to avoid eating anything they provide.]]
71%%** Shunka
72* SpoilerOpening: And spoiler ending credits too, for that matter. It's so bad that the latter looks like it belongs to a completely different show for at least the first six episodes, ''[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/detectivegirls.jpg straight down to a different logo than the series logo being used at the end of the end credits]]''.
73%% TheStoic: Muta
74** Muta does also engage in a low-key, Stoic version of DrillSergeantNasty in episodes 3 and 4 especially in order to drive home the skills that Chiko will need if she's serious about surviving on the edge of the law.
75* SuperSoldier: Several, the Human Tank formula being the most prominent, with wooden pseudo-cyborg replacements being the other. [[spoiler:Both are the result of Twenty Faces' war research]].
76* TakenForGranite / LiterallyShatteredLives: Poor [[spoiler: Tome]] in episode 12. [[spoiler: This turns out to be a misdirect, as the real Tome was actually BoundAndGagged inside a stone shell meant to make it appear as though she'd been killed and turned into a statue. She's later rescued]].
77* TightropeWalking: Chiko walks the tightrope when Twenty's gang poses as a travelling circus.
78%% TimeSkip: [[spoiler:Three years]].
79* TokenMinority: Poor Hans, you'd think Twenty's gang would be more diverse given that he's an international thief. He drops GratuitousGerman to boot.
80* TheTokyoFireball: Or more accurately [[PillarOfLight Tokyo Pillar of Light]]
81* TranslationConvention: Except in specific instances to highlight foreign speech or media, everyone speaks and all the signs are in Japanese. Even Hans as shown above. Contrast episode 5, the Middle Easterners speaking to each other, and the town in the U.K.
82* TrueCompanions: Twenty's gang is this in the early portion of the show.
83* WaifFu: Chiko's fighting becomes more and more like this as the series progresses. It's usually kept within fairly realistic limits though.
84%% WhamEpisode: Episode Six, Jesus Christ.
85%% WorthyOpponent: Twenty Faces and Akechi Kogorō.
86* VillainTakesAnInterest: [[spoiler: Kohei Kakihara]] is genuinely impressed by Chiko's fighting spirit and asks her if she wants to become a daughter of [[spoiler:real Twenty Faces.]]

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