∇
troperville

∇
tools

∇
toys

SubpagesAnime
Awesome
Fridge
Funny
Main
YMMV

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

random

Subpages:

Anime: Texhnolyze

"If there's anything you want, anything at all... come to me. I'll be your guardian angel."

— Opening theme^note

In a man-made underground society, descendants of a banished generation vie for control of the crumbling city of Lux. Ichise, an orphan turned prize fighter, loses a leg and an arm to satisfy an enraged fight 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 Texhnolyze.

With his new limbs, Ichise is eventually taken under the wing of Onishi, the powerful but untrusted leader of the Organo, an organization with some hold on 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 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. With the explosion of warfare, Ichise must uncover the truth about Lux and fight for his survival.

Made by the same team that produced Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze is often considered to be one of the strangest and darkest anime ever made.

Texhnolyze provides examples of:

Affably Evil: Yoshii.
A Glass of Chianti: Doc can frequently be seen drinkin red wine, from a lab beaker no less.
Apocalypse How: It is vaguely presented, but the implications are that 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.
Applied Phlebotinum: Raffia, which allows the Artificial Limbs to be attached to a human body.
After the End
All There in the Manual: Given the minimalist tone of the series, several characters barely speak and have unspoken names, only appearing in the credits.
The Aloner: Ichise. Lampshaded by various people in-series.
Ambiguously Gay: Toyama.
And I Must Scream: This is what the Shapes end up as.
Animal Testing: Doc does this on rats, as is typical of an experimenting scientist.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Part of Yoshii's texhnolyzed arm, unfortunately for Onishi. Also retractable.
- The Shapes also use these to devastating effect.
Artificial Limbs: The Texhnolyze technology applied to humans, mainly in Ichise and Onishi's case but also Kano. Later events take this trope to a very disturbing extreme with the Shapes, humans who discard their biological bodies to be almost fully automatized as mechanical beings.
The Bad Guy Wins: Both Yoshi and Kano ultimately get what they want, in spite of the fact that they both die.
Badass: Several, the most frequent ones being Ichise, Onishi, Shinji, Kimata and Toyama.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Onishi. He's pissed when his nice suit gets damaged.
I just had it serviced.
Back-to-Back Badasses: 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.
Black And Very Dark Grey Morality: Even the most sympathetic characters in Lux skirt close to being Villain Protagonists at times.
Big Bad: Yoshi in the first half of the series, Kano in the second.
Bishounen: Toyama is a less-traditional version.
Body Horror: All over the place. Texhnolyzation itself is seen as such by several characters. Then there are the Shapes, and what happens to Ran.
Bond Villain Stupidity The villains frequently keep blathering while they have one of the protagonists at their mercy.
- Justified in Kano's case. When confronted by Ichise, he is physically helpless, and only has his words to defend himself. And ofcourse both he and Yoshi really want to be believed and understood by others, and genuinely try to appeal to people with their rants.
Boomerang Bigot: Kimata, the leader of the Union hates texhnolyze despite being texhnolyzed himself. Towards the end of the series his Dragon calls him out on it only to reveal himself as a far worse hypocrite by defecting to the Class and becoming a Shape.
The Caligula: Kano.
The Chessmaster: Kano, as well.
Chick Magnet: 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.
Cicadian Rhythm: On the surface, which makes the feeling of desolation even more pronounced.
City Noir: With Dutch Angles to boot.
Cool Bike: 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.
Conspicuous CG: When showing Ichise's Texhnolyze arm and leg before they've been attached, as well as the Discoball of Doom.
Crapsack World: Lux is presented as the dumping site of the planet. 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.
Creepy Monotone: Kano's voice always stays flat, which just adds to his creepy nature.
Creepy Triplets: Kano's mothers. Especially when they smile in unison.
Crowd Chant: The Union's "SOUL! BODY! TRUTH! SALVATION! VENGEANCE!" counts.
Cyber Cyclops: The Shapes.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul
Cyber Punk: Like Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze is a particularly dark example.
Cyber Punk With A Chance Of Rain: Kicks in especially later in the series, disregarding actual rain obviously.
Death Ray: The Shapes carry these, capable of shooting a perfectly circular hole through anything.
Despair Event Horizon: 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. 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 Kill 'em All 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.
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.
Dissonant Serenity: One of the more terrifying things about Yoshii as well as Kano.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: All over the place, thanks to a heavy reliance on symbolism and metaphor to convey the story.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Shinji.
Downer Ending: While maintaining an extremely dark and depressing atmosphere throughout the show, the ending still manages to be impressively sad.
Driven to Madness: In perhaps the most ambitious example of this trope, Kano drives the entire city of Lux to madness, reflecting the inner state of his mind. Lampshaded by Ran, Onishi, and Kano.
Driven to Suicide: 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 And I Must Scream situation.
Dying Alone: Ichise inadvertantly 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.
Dysfunction Junction: Literally everyone.
Dystopia
Enemy Mine: 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.
- 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.
Eye Scream: Ichise gets his pupil plugged by the fingernail of his promoter's girlfriend during sex, which earns her a punch in the face. Hal also 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.
Fallen Princess: Doc.
Fan Disservice: 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.
Fate Worse Than Death: The Shapes, left immobile and immortal, and Tetsuya, who is left to wait until he dies in silent misery on the surface.
Finger Poke of Doom: Shinji to Hal when the latter becomes a Shape and attacks him.
Food Porn: Inverted. The only appetizing food shown is that eaten by privileged inhabitants of Lux like Doc and Onishi. Everybody else's is unappetizing goo.
From Bad to Worse: In general, the longer the show goes on, the more hopeless its characters' situations start to look. And then you find out what's above-ground.
Genre Savvy: Shinji.
Go Out with a Smile: Ichise in a particularly tragic example in the final episode, and it's the only time he ever does...
Girlish Pigtails: Ran.
Hates Being Touched: Ichise.
Heroes Fight Barehanded: Ichise, mainly because he's a prize fighter. He does get a sword later on.
Heroic Mime: Ichise. He can talk, he just stubbornly prefers not to.
- The Gag Reel Lampshades this by taking advantage of Filming For Easy Dub and have him talking non-stop.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Most notably, Doc is Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing.
- Yoshi is Clovis, Viral, and Li'l Slugger, that prostitute he talks to is Kei and Faye Valentine, and the head of the Union is Emperor Charles. Ran is Rakka, Hakufu Sonsaku. and Shima Katase.
Hidden Villain: It takes a while before Yoshii is revealed as the Big Bad of the first story arc. Especially since Onishi, Shinji and Kimata all seem candidates as well.
High Pressure Blood: Whenever there is a massacre, and there are quite a few.
- Toyama's death, complete with Clean Cut and High Pressure Blood.
Hilarious Outtakes: The DVD releases of Texhnolyze features "Alternate Dialogue Outtakes", which redubs select clips from the included episodes with snarky, bizarre, or outright wacky dialogue (such as changing a vicious gun battle into a rather enthusiastic paintball match, and by-and-large Lampshading the entire Bowdlerization process).
Human Resources: 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.
Heads Up Display: For Texhnolyzes through their corneas, complete with bubbling gurgly noises.
Humanity Is Insane: Kano seems to believe this. Within the context of the show, he is arguably right.
Humanity's Wake
Humans Are Bastards: Seems to be the closest thing the show has to an overarching message.
I Lied: 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.
Industrial: It is Cyber Punk after all. Some prominent examples include the Juno Reactor Theme Song "Guardian Angel (Xavier's Edit)" and "A Dog's Heart Leaping From Irritation".
Innocent Flower Girl: Ran plays with the trope in various ways, though she really isn't all that innocent.
I Reject Your Reality: Kano is a delusional solipsist with severe homicidal tendencies who wont entertain the idea that human beings are anything other than playthings produced by his mind.
It's All About Me: Kano, in one of the most horrifying examples of this trope. 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 Am I, except that he doesn't believe that he's God, he believes that he is reality itself.
Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The workings of the Raffia, the Organo, the Class and surface are all explained through minimalist storytelling. Pay attention.
Katanas Are Just Better: 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.
- Kukris Are Kool: Hal uses one.
Kill 'em All: 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.
Knight of Cerebus: Kano.
Lack of Empathy: Yoshii.
Last Stand: 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. Not surprisingly, it fails, and all the people of Lux lose the will to do anything once Ran is taken.
Likes Older Women: Yoshi is only interested in prostitutes with "experience."
Lonely Piano Piece: "Time for Blooming Flower"
Lost Technology: 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.
Mad Oracle: Although Ran claims to be this at the end, she in fact narrowly subverts this trope.
Mad Scientist / Hot Scientist: Doc, in spades.
Manipulative Bastard: 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 Bastards 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.
Meaningful Name: Lux, or "Ru9su" as it was originally called. Kohakura makes a remark about this.
Kohakura: He said this is the Ninth Annex of the Reviving Hell.
Mecha-Mooks: Subverted.
Mercy Kill: Ichise does this for Ran at the end.
Messianic Archetype: Ran.
Minimalism: The series' defining stylistic trope.
Mind Screw: This series can be difficult to understand given the method of storytelling.
Mob War: This is the focus of the first half of the series, instigated by Yoshii.
Mugging the Monster: Two Racan thugs try to mug Yoshii.
My New Gift Is Lame: Kano has a more petulant version of this in his backstory, just to show off what an irredeemable cunt he is: Onishi 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, being the dick he is, he gloats to Onishi about it when they meet face to face.
Mysterious Waif: Ran, again.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Kano.
Nothing Is Scarier: When the characters reach the surface world.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Ichise does this to... a lot of people.
Not Worth Killing: Hal after his Face Heel Turn says this to Shinji. He apparently changes his mind shortly afterward.
Oedipus Complex: Ichise, who never really knew his father, adopts Doc as his "second mother" by Word Of God. However, he lets her have sex with him whenever she repairs his Texhnolyzed limbs.
One-Hit Kill: Ichise basically does this to Yoshii, who had just recently taken down Onishi and effortlessly killed many Organo members.
Only Sane Man: Onishi, though Kano believes it of himself.
Oracular Urchin: Ran, yet again.
Parental Incest: Poor Toyama.Apparently also how Kano came into this world.
Pinball Protagonist: Ichise.
Platonic Prostitution: Yoshii gets into a room with a prostitute who turns out to be severely mutilated but only to get information about the city. Later he does seem to sleep with her and finally kills her and her pimp.
Primal Stance: Ichise takes this when walking out of an Organo cell block daring anybody to try and stop him.
Psycho for Hire: Yoshi, made scariest by his overall sane looking attitude and soft voice.
Psychopathic Manchild: Kano is a Type C.
Pygmalion Plot: One of the sideplots between Doc and Ichise.
Rape as Backstory: Toyama. He really hates his father.
Rape as Drama: 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.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ichise to the man who sold his father out and got him killed. It gets him in trouble.
- Also counts when Ichise punches off Kano's head for what he's done to Ran.
Royally Screwed Up: Kano.
Scenery Gorn: Hoo boy.
Schizo Tech: The setting combines advanced Artificial Limbs 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 Body Horror technofreaks. The surface world is shown to be both highly advanced (see Yoshii and Sakimoto's office) and has apparently regressed back into the 1920s.
Screw Destiny: Ichise's approach to Ran's prophecy. It doesn't work.
Self Destructive Charge and Foe Tossing Charge: Kimata does this near the end of the series against the Shapes with the Union behind him. It fails horrifically in the end, resulting in his and the rest of his organization's deaths.
Sexless Marriage: One scene shows that Onishi and his wife sleep in separate beds. Which would explain why Onishi sleeps with his secretary instead.
Sexy Secretary: Michiko, Onishi's secretary. He'd rather have sex with her than his wife, so...
Sheath Strike: Onishi uses his sheathed sword to beat the crap out of Union and Racan thugs alike when he's caught alone between their street scuffle.
Shirtless Scene: 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.
Shout Out: To Macbeth in episode 18. Also, scenes from the surface world mimic the paintings of Edward Hopper.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Ichise sharply disagrees with Kano's nihilism. This is expressed by punching Kano's head clean off.
Silence Is Golden: The first line of dialogue in the series isn't spoken until 11 minutes into first episode. Ichise, the protagonist of the series doesn't say anything until episode 3, and after then is practically mute unless spoken to by someone he respects like Doc, Onishi, Toyama, or Ran.
Sissy Villain: Kano.
Sliding Scale Of Free Will Versus Fate: skates between type 0 and type 1. Ran predicts the future, but it is just one of 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.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: They don't get much more cynical than this show.
Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: Or serious for that matter.
Smug Snake Mizuno, to the point where the Union and the Rakan hang a Lamp Shade on him in very short succession. Kohakura seems like a more competent example but then arguably ends up even worse.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Ran.
Surprisingly Good English: The second ED that plays at the very last episode, "Walking in this Empty Earth", features English lyrics and while they are heavily accented and rather nonsensical the grammar is correct and understandable.
The Stars Are Going Out: Near the end of the series the artificial sky above Lux finally craps out, turning cement gray and plunging the city into an unending night.
The Stoic: Ichise, who only talks when he has to. He doesn't even speak until the third episode.
Storming the Castle: Shinji, in the second-to-last episode.
Story Arc: Two of them; the first half mainly revolves around the actions of Yoshii, the second half is about the war for the city.
Swiss Army Appendage: Yoshii's texhnolyzed arm doubles as a retractable arm-blade.
Tall, Dark and Handsome: Ichise.
Technology Porn
That Man Is Dead: Ichise says this when talking about his missing limbs.
There Are No Good Executives: A rare subversion in Onishi, who is distrusted as the head of the ominous mafia-like business, Organo, that maintains enough control over Lus to prevent it from falling apart; despite this, he is one of the show's few sympathetically heroic characters.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Well, it does when you have a computer in your arm plotting out the trajectory for you.
- Hal does this with his own weapon to help out Shinji during the bloody scuffle between Racan and the Salvation Union.
Transhuman: The entire show is a long pessimistic study of transhumanism. It's conclusion? People are fucked up, transhuman people are even more fucked up than regular people.
The �bermensch: Kano, who tends very much to Social Darwinist tendencies.
Undying Loyalty: Michiko to Onishi.
The Unfettered: Both Yoshii and Kano.
Visionary Villain: Both Yoshii and Kano.
What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: 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 hostiles; in most cases, they are presented as pitiful creatures.
Wild Card: Ichise and Yoshii.
World Half Empty: Fewer anime have ever been so faithful to this trope. 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.
Wretched Hive: Lux, obviously.
World of Silence: The surface world, and Lux after the Shapes stop moving.
Xtreme Kool Letterz: 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.
You Can't Fight Fate: Ran prophesies that Ichise will kill countless people before dying alone and unloved. He swears to fight this fate. He doesn't succeed.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Everyone else in the series has realistic hair and eye colors except for Kano, who has blue hair and yellow eyes.
Zerg Rush: 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.