Absolute Duo is a Light Novel series by Takumi Hiiragiboshi with illustrations by Yū Asaba, which began publication in 2012 under the MF Bunko J imprint. From that, there are two separate manga adaptaions. It was adapted into an anime, which aired as part of the winter 2015 anime season.
Blaze is a manifestation of a human's soul in the form of a weapon. Tōru Kokonoe's is different. Instead of a weapon, his Blaze takes the form a shield. After losing a person precious to him, he vows to become stronger and enrolls Koryou Academy, a school that teaches combat techniques. The school implements the "Duo" - a partner system where two students pair up and live together with said partner. Tōru is paired with Julie, a beautiful silver haired student who has an interest in him.
Contains examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
- In Episode 9, the rebels working under Equipment Smith with metallic suits and weaponry that make them look like androids.
- In the last episode, K with his upgrade. What's worse is that they do this only when he's required to do a lot of motion; they switch back to using traditional animation when he's either still or doing relatively simple movements.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: There's a character who knows a sword technique allowing him to slice people in half vertically in a single fluid strike, without the victim being aware of it happening, until it's too late.
- Academy of Adventure: Koryou Academy is a school that trains its students to use Blazes, weapon created from the wielder's soul.
- Action Girl: As the school teaches combat, the female students count.
- Balanced Harem: Julie is the female lead, but Miyabi, Tomoe and Lilith get their own shares of fanservice and Ship Tease with Toru, who doesn't show clear romantic feelings for anyone and cares for all the girls as his friends. Most of the girls, excepting Lilith, actively encourage one another to grow closer to Toru, and Julie states out loud that this pleases her.
- Battle Couple: Toru and Julie. As a Duo, they fight together and form a great team. He handles the defense while she strikes the enemy.
- Beach Episode: Episode 8, in which Toru and the girls go to play at the beach on the last day of the training camp.
- Bedmate Reveal: Toru very frequently wakes up to find Julie in his bed, due to her sleepwalking habits.
- Big Damn Heroes: Tsukimi saves the students from K's Frickin' Laser Beams in episode 12.
- Break the Haughty: Episode 11's ending gives one to K and Equipment Smith. K is shocked to be defeated by Toru, whom he considered a weakling and Equipment Smith is shocked his creations was defeated when he thought they were unbeatable.
- Breather Episode: Episode 8, which gives a break from all the fighting and is filled with Fanservice and harem antics.
- Bridal Carry: Toru carries Julie bridal style a few times.
- Chain Pain: Tomoe's Blaze is a chain.
- Cherry Blossoms: Toru and Julie first meet while they are looking at cherry blossoms trees and they are a recurring theme in their relationship. The cherry blossoms also appear in the ending theme.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: From the point where Lilith declares she will make Toru her future husband onwards, Julie becomes very uncomfortable whenever Lilith shows up, especially when she flirts with Toru.
- Compressed Adaptation: The anime adapts the first four volumes of the light novel, but it changes and removes several scenes to make the storyline fit into a 12-Episode Anime.
- Conveniently Seated: Toru and Julie sit in the window seat in the last row of the classroom
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Lampshaded in the light novel. Julie and Toru note that the Duo pledge sounds suspiciously like a marriage vow.
- Dual Wielding: Julie's Blaze takes the form of twin daggers.
- Erotic Eating: In Episode 7, the way Julie eats Toru's sausage is very suggestive...
- Evil Versus Evil: The main characters are caught between numerous evil organizations vying for supremacy, Koryou Academy included.
- Expressive Hair: When Julie's Idiot Hair wiggles, it's a sign of enjoyment usually from Tooru's kind words or a pat on the head.
- Fanservice: Most of the named female cast are prone to Male Gaze, especially Julie and Lilith
- From Roommates to Romance: Toru and Julie share a room in the dorm of Koryou Academy. Although it was supposed to be temporary, they become official roommates after they form a Duo together. They're all but officially a Battle Couple from then on.
- The Gunslinger: Lilith's main role in battle, though she is no slouch at close range either.
- Hot Springs Episode: In Episode 8, Toru and the girls go to bath at hot springs after playing at the beach.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In Episode 11, Tomoe fights a brainwashed Miyabi and gets her to snap out of it with The Power of Friendship.
- Jousting Lance: Not exactly a jousting lance but Miyabi's Blaze is a lance which is very heavy and very large.
- Lap Pillow:
- Julie rests in Toru's lap at the start of Episode 7.
- The light novel has an illustration showing Tsukimi receiving one from Toru.
- Location Theme Naming: Most of the characters' surnames are names of real locations.
- Kokonoe (Toru's surname) is a town located in Kusu District, Ōita Prefecture, Japan.
- Sigtuna (Julie's surname) is a town northwest of Stockholm, Sweden.
- Tachibana (Tomoe's surname) was a town located in Ōshima District, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
- Hotaka (Miyabi's surname) was a town located in Minamiazumi District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
- Bristol (Lilith's surname) is a city in South West England, United Kingdom.
- Imari's namesake is a city located in Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan.
- Kibitsu (Momo's surname) is a district in the eastern part of the Takamatsu area in the Kita-ku ward of Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Tōru's Blaze manifests as a shield.
- Marshmallow Hell: At the start of Episode 8, Toru wakes up with Lilith's naked breasts on his face.
- Mood Whiplash: Episode 10 starts out serious with Toru wondering what happened to Miyabi, and then, Marshmallow Hell occurs.
- No Sex Allowed: Implied in the anime, (very explicitly) lampshaded in the light novel. If Toru has sex with anyone (especially if it results in pregnancy), he will get expelled, along with his partner.
- Not a Date: Toru and Julie go to the mall together in Episode 4 to buy her new clothes. He insists they are only hanging out as friends, but then everyone mistaking them for a couple and everything they do such as the hands holding and the romantic spoonfeeding basically turn it into a date.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Both the Japanese version and the English dub didn't bother to give Julie a Scandinavian accent. note A bit justified with the English dub case, as the voice actress happens to be relatively new (and the fact that Julie's foreign background plays little relevance to the plot).
- Not What It Looks Like: Toru and Julie are usually found in compromising situations and poses, usually with Julie undressed, leading to whoever walks in on them thinking they were doing something naughty.
- Older Than They Look: Julie is roughly around the same age as the other characters, yet she is often mistaken as an elementary or middle schooler
- One Cast Member per Cover: Each novel cover features a female member of the cast. Julie is on Volume 1, Lilith on Volume 2, Tomoe on Volume 3, and Miyabi on Volume 4. The cycle is repeated in Volumes 5-8, until other girls like Tsukimi and Sakuya get their own covers in following volumes.
- One-Man Army: Lilith, she takes all the 2nd year Class by herself and required a cooperation between Toru, Julie, Tomoe, Miyabi and Tora to disarm her.
- Past Experience Nightmare: Toru often has nightmares of when his little sister and the people of his dojo were killed in front of him. Julie hears him talking in his sleep and this makes her sympathize with Toru, since she also wants to avenge someone important to her.
- Piggyback Cute: Toru gives Miyabi a piggyback ride after she exhausts herself running in Episode 3. He does it again in Episode 8 when she sprained her ankle.
- Rescue Romance:
- Lilith falls in love with Toru after he saves her from being taken away by Equipment Smith's troops.
- In the light novels, Tsukimi saves the student Momo Kibitsu from K and Kibitsu develops feelings for Tsukimi as a result.
- Romantic Spoonfeeding:
- Toru and Julie feed each other ice cream this way in episode 4. Toru becomes really embarrassed since they are public, but Julie doesn't see anything wrong with it, since she did it with her parents all the time.
- Lilith tries to get Toru to feed her like this in Episode 7, but Julie ends up feeding her, to Lilith's dismay.
- Scars Are Forever: In Episode 3, Julie shows Tooru a scar on her back, and says that like him, she is an avenger.
- Security Cling: The light novel has an illustration showing Tomoe do this to Toru.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: In Episode 8, Tomoe, Miyabi and Lilith get their shirts wet after swimming at the sea for training.
- Shower of Angst: In Episode 10, Tomoe takes a shower as she cries over Miyabi's disappearance.
- Skinship Grope:
- In Episode 8, Tsukimi gropes Miyabi's and Tomoe's breasts while they are bathing at the hot springs.
- Lilith gropes Tomoe's breasts in Episode 10. It's Lilith's peculiar attempt to cheer her up given Tomoe's concern for Miyabi's disappearance.
- Slippery Swimsuit: Julie loses her bikini top in a scene of the Beach Episode.
- The Spartan Way: Sakuya orders Tsukimi to fight her students with killing intent to force them to bring out the true potential of their Blazes. Lampshaded when Tsukimi points out how Spartan Sakuya's school system is.
- Summon to Hand: When the user manifests their Blaze.
- Teacher/Student Romance: In the light novels, Tsukimi gains the affections of one of her students Momo Kibitsu. Although she doesn't like to admit it, Tsukimi is also very fond of Momo.
- Token Mini-Moe: Julie and Sakuya happen to be the youngest looking girls in the series.
- Wham Episode: Episode 9 of the anime. Here's the stuff that occurred in that episode:
- Tsukimi reveals another level to the Blaze.
- Julie goes berserk, powers up and almost kills K.
- And finally, The Stinger shows the rebels have convinced Mayuri to join their side.
