History ComicBook / YokoTsuno

* Action Girl: Yoko is a skilled martial artist and (later) equally skilled pilot and does not hesitate to jump into action whenever it presents itself.

* HasTwoMommies: In ''Khany's secret'', Khany [[spoiler:kept an artificially-created vinean-human hybrid, Tevy, alive by transferring some of her own cloned organs to her, while using some of Yoko's brainwaves to stabilise her mind, thus making Tevy somewhat of an offspring to Khany and Yoko]]. According to Leloup, this was intentional.

** Lord Zhou-Chong, the imperial herbalist, sees women as nothing but lowly servants. When Yoko dares to speak to him, he punishes her [[KneelBeforezod into submission]]. And rather than doing the dirty deed himself, he has one of his henchman [[WhipItGood do the whipping]].

* PteroSoarer: A bunch of pteranodons showed up in ''The Morning of the World'' during a StableTimeLoop. No explanations were ever provided to why and how they existed... in 1350 AD!

* AbortedArc: Khany stated that 13 ships left Vinea when the planet was endangered 2 millions years ago. So far, the fate of only two ships have been revealed (including Khany's). Leloup says he's no longer interested in pursuing the other ships' fate as he feels he'll just be repeating the same story over and over.

* {{Ninja}}: In ''Daughter of the Wind'', Kazuky has a bunch of ninjas (or more precisely ninja reenactors) on his payroll. She apparently got some ninja training herself when she was still a teenager (in the novel ''The Foam of the Dawn'').

* PhenotypeStereotype: Ingrid, being German, of course has long blond hair tied into cinnamon rolls.

** Pol refers to the awful sound made by the Devil's organ as a [[ComicBook/GastonLagaffe Gaffophone]].
** In ''The Prey and the Ghost'' Yoko introduces herself as "[[Franchise/JamesBond Tsuno. Yoko Tsuno]]".

* ShownTheirWork: All vehicles are drawn accurately with attention to details.

** A time machine was apparently responsible for bringing [[spoiler:the android and cyborgs in ''Saturn's Gemini'']] to the present day.

** Khany herself is hit by this in ''Saturn's Gemini''. Although her intentions are ultimately proven to be benevolent, she is noticeably more antagonistic and secretive toward Yoko and Akina than she ever was in the previous stories. In comparison, the fact that she was hiding something from Yoko had brought her to tears in ''Khany's Secret''.
* TranslationConvention: Apart from a few words in German, characters are always interacting in French[[note]]English in the translations[[/note]], no matter if they are actually talking in English, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese... There is also little to no indication of the language being spoken, apart from an occasional comment, such as a Japanese person offering to speak English for the benefit of Yoko's friends, Yoko explaining to a befuddled Pol that Morning Dew only speaks Chinese, or Yoko asking Emilia to stop snarking in Russian. Averted in ''Saturn's Gemini'' for the first time in the entire series, when an alien's speech is rendered as {{Wingdinglish}}.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Stanford. While we get a bit of his backstory, we never get to know his true plans for the time machine and the antimatter.
** Justified because of Leloup is more interested in developing relations between Yoko and her friends than the villains.

* DamselinDistress: Poor Ingrid. Sometimes, even Yoko would need rescuing after being hit with the DistressBall.

* DistressedDamsel: Poor Ingrid. Sometimes, even Yoko would need rescuing after being hit with the DistressBall.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Saturn's Gemini'' has an overall darker tone than the previous entries. Yoko and Khany's relationship is much more antagonistic than in the rest of the series, and is not entirely patched up by the end. Also, the robots being considered as a SecondClassCitizen by the Vineans is made much more explicit and becomes a point of disagreement between Yoko and Khany, and Poky expresses [[FantasticRacism the desire to get rid of all robots]] when she's grown up (to Mina's pained surprise), which marks the first time any Vinean ''or'' child expressed such an extreme opinion in the series.

* ChristmasEpisode: In one story of ''Electronic Adventures''.
* CollapsingLair: Webbs' mountaintop lab in ''The Time Spiral''.

* TheProfessor: Yoko's father, Seiki Tsuno.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: In ''The Time Spiral'', Monya travel back in time to stop a scientist named Webbs from discovering antimatter. In the far future, a warring faction will use it against an enemy and destroy the Earth's crust. This causes molten magma to cover the planet, melt entire continents and extinguish all life on Earth.

* OffModel:
** Leloup seems to have some trouble with bodily proportions, curiously mostly when drawing characters from a distance. Although this has always been somewhat of an issue, it has gotten worse in his latest books.
** Also, Yoko and other Asian people sometimes look ''extremely'' yellow, depending on the print run. That this is not Leloup's fault is evidenced by how the colors are better calibrated in recent compilations.
** As the series goes on, faces are drawn more inaccurately, which could be attributed to Leloup's increasing age. The contrast is especially jarring with the [[SceneryPorn scenery]] and [[TechnologyPorn various devices]] which are still as detailed as ever.

* PteraSoarer: A bunch of pteranodons showed up in ''The Morning of the World'' during a StableTimeLoop. No explanations were ever provided to why and how they existed... in 1350 AD!

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: A bunch of pteranodons showed up in ''The Morning of the World'' during a StableTimeLoop. No explanations were ever provided to why and how they existed... in 1350 AD!

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Happens quite often in the series: Kazuky to Yoko, Countess Olga to Yoko, Yoko to Emilia just to name a few.

* ShesGotLegs: In the 70s and early 80s Yoko would often wear an extremely short miniskirt, befitting the fashion of the day, [[FanService even in situations when this doesn't make sense]]. Leloup also tended to make her legs extremely long, to the point of being [[OffModel anatomically incorrect]].

** The Vineans over the course of the series. While they were always mostly aloof toward the humans (except of course for Khany and a few other like Vynka, or Karpan on the other side of the spectrum), the latest books have them becoming openly distrustful of them, if not outright hostile. In ''Khany's Secret'', it is revealed that a fraction of them [[spoiler:actually wants to wipe out all humans]]. In ''Temple of the Immortals'', it has become so bad that Khany decides to [[spoiler:sever all ties with Vinea by sealing the gateway connecting the solar system with the planet]].

** Before Khany's return to her home planet, there was power struggle between the Supreme Guide and some Vineans. The latter fled underwater and promise vengeance. They built an armada of spaceships and put their children on stasis who were to become the next generation's army.

* WeCanRuleTogether. In ''The Prey and the Ghost'', [[spoiler: Sir William's co conspirator, the mysterious doctor, tells Margaret as he holds her hostage that she should join ''his'' agenda and backstab Sir William, lest he kills her with poison. Margaret tearfully says no, and right then Vic and Yoko pull a BigDamnHeroes and save her.]]
* WeatherControlMachine: Used by Vineans to create a inhabitable environment, since their home planet has a synchronous rotation. Though arguably it is more of a weather BARRIER than a weather control in the traditional sense.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Some stories play with the concept, done almost straight in the Titans.

* WeirdnessMagnet: Yoko has ran into aliens, time travellers, dinosaurs, immortals, secret service agencies just to name a few.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Monya is very mature and intelligent despite being 14 years old. This may have to do with the knowledge uploaded into her brain at young age or 14 years old is just the norm for young adult in the 31th century.

** [[spoiler:Because of Margaret's [[IdenticalStranger likeness to Sir William's stepdaughter Cecilia]], she was used in conspiracy to kill Cecilia. After killing her, Sir William plan to kill Maragaret as well. Thankfully, Yoko prevent both murders.]]
** [[spoiler:[[StarfishAliens A mysterious creature]] has transfered knowledge of antimatter to professor Webbs' mind. Webbs in turn use his newfound knowledge to build a particle accelerator and feed the creature with antimatter it needs it to grow. The creature then gain substantial size and began controlling the facility. Webbs finally shut off the particle accelerator and decide to destroy it. He will then use the knowledge of the antimatter to make himself rich and famous. However, the trope work both ways. Before the creature can be destroyed, it reactivate the particle accelerator and kills Webbs, as it no longer need him to feed itself.]]
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Minako Watanabe avenge her father's death by killing her father's killer, [[NoNameGiven Kazuky's double]]. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill She blew up his boat witch C4]].]]

* AirVentPassageway: Yoko escape her cell by entering the house's air ventilation system.
* ArrangedMarriage: Both Yoko and Shinji's parents wanted their children to hook up when they get older. Yoko didn't mind since she love Shinji. [[SecretRelationship However, Shinji loved Akina.]] When this is revealed years later, this cause quite a commotion for everyone.

* DefrostingIceKing: After the death of his wife, Onoué isolated himself completely. He lived in a pavilion in his son's backyard and cut all contact with the rest of the world. It's only five years later when he meet his granddaughter Yoko for the first that he start reconnecting with his family.

* TheHero: Shinji act this way, being the leader of Yoko's band of friends. He protects the weak children, like Akina, from other rival bands of children.
* HonorBeforeReason / WhatYouAreInTheDark :[[spoiler: After successfully stealing the pearl back from madam Kwan and Wai, Yoko was griped with guilt. Seeing how the pearl made Wai happy and how Yoko had lied to the boy, she couldn't bear it anymore and confess the whole truth to madam Kwan.]]
* HowWeGotHere: The novel opens with [[TheSeventies present day]] where Yoko take a plane from Japan to UsefulNotes/HongKong. She think of all the events that led to this trip. The story then [[WholeEpisodeFlashback shift to her grandfather's life, Yoko's childhood through her adulthood]]. The story return to present day when the plane land in Hong Kong and continue with madam Kwan.
* IdiotBall: Yoko's diamond pearl was stolen because of his father Seiki. He knew the pearl was unique and highly valuable. Fearing an unsuspected burglar might steal it, he had a local jeweler make a copy... but he neither warned Yoko, nor checked if the original that was returned to him was genuine. The theft would go unnoticed for many years.

* {{Jerkass}}: Hiromi. She constantly criticize everyone and blames her father for her unhappiness.

* MementoMacGuffin: ''The Foam of the Dawn'' is a diamond-colored pearl created by Yoko's grandfather and given to her. While it's unique and highly valuable, it represent Yoko's childhood, memories and her close relationship with the patriarch. When it gets stolen, Yoko goes on her very first adventure to find it.
* ObnoxiousInLaws: Yoko's detestable aunt Hiromi. She's Seiki's older sister and a widow. She has very strained relationship with her father Onoué because of the family's money problems. When she comes visiting, [[PlayingTheVictimCard she's complaining to everyone about how the world is mistreating her and how her life is difficult]]. Hiromi doesn't have any redeeming qualities beside that.

* TimeSkip: The novel take place between different parts of Yoko's past. Time skips are therefore inevitable between chapters:

** Yoko is 5 years old and meet her grandfather for the first time.
** Yoko is 8 years old. We see her at school with her friends. She wants her grandfather to try, once again, to create the diamond pearl, the ''Foam of Dawn''. She also meet Aoki for the first time.
** Yoko is 14 years old. The diamond pearl is successfully created. [[spoiler:A few months later, Onoué pass away much to Yoko's devastation.]]
** Yoko is 17 years old. [[spoiler:[[LoveTriangle Her childhood crush doesn't love her and loves Yoko's friend Akina instead]].]] Yoko goes studying electronics in Tokyo.
** Yoko is 20 years old. She continues her studies and she found out the ''Foam of Dawn'' has been stolen. Yoko is determined to get it back and goes on her very first adventure.

* TheUnreveal: To get pearls out of oysters, a piece of nacre has to be inserted inside of them. To produce a diamond pearl, Onoué had to experiment with different kind of materials. He had done so for decades and sank all of his money. When he finally succeeded for Yoko's sake, the special of piece material is never unrevealed to readers.

* ABNegative: Ingrid has rare blood type which is [[spoiler:the same as Magda. This kicks off the plot to save the little girl.]]

** [[spoiler: Vinea]] in the past go through a Planetary/Total extinction apocalypse. Most of the stories about [[spoiler: Vinea]] involve picking the pieces.

** It changes again in ''The Astrologer of Bruge'' where Yoko is noticeably older.

* AuthorAvatar: Leloup said that Yoko is a stand-in for him, as she gets to do stuff he always wanted to do, [[CreatorThumbprint especially flying various aircrafts]].

* BadassDriver: Both Yoko and Vic. In 3rd album, a car with thugs pushed Yoko's car into a ravine. Yoko hit the breaks but Vic shout at her to accelerate and they both stir the wheel back on the road. They narrowly avoid a plunge to their death.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: A heroic example. [[HonestCorporateExecutive Peter Hertzel]] is at the head of a powerful company that has access to all databases in the world. He use all this information for the good of mankind rather than profit. He knows everything about Yoko, including her secret mission with the [=MI6=] and it wouldn't be surprising if he knows about her Vinean friends too.

* BiggerStick: When criminals got of hold of Wotan's fire, a lightning powered DeathRay, Professor Zimmer worked with Yoko and her friends to stop them by building a deadlier one. According to the professor, it's five times more powerful. [[BeamOWar Their ray has no trouble punching through the criminals' one.]]

* BodyDouble [[spoiler: Margaret, in ''The Prey and the Shadow'', is blackmailed into becoming this for the local [[TheOphelia Ophelia]], Cecilia. When Yoko finds out, Margaret begs her for help since she's too scared to openly rebel against Sir William, but wants to get free and help Cecilia.]]

* ABoyAndHisX: A girl (Morning Dew) and her Dragon (technically a genetically engineered giant lizard). Despite his gigantic size, Morning Dew isn't afraid of him. She feeds him and plays with him without any harm coming to her. This cause her to become the target of an unscrupulous businessman who wants to use her as bait to capture the Dragon.

* ButtMonkey: Pol, to a T. If something bad happens to someone, it will be to him. Granted, there are a lot of times where he brings it to himself through his behaviour.
* CharacterDevelopment:

** Vynka, one of Khany's aide, is distrustful of the trio. However, over the course of the series, he has a change of heart and is now on friendly terms with them.

* CollapsingLair: Webb's mountaintop lab in ''The Time Spiral''.

* ComicBookTime: Yoko and her friends haven't aged since the 70's, aside from an occasional ArtEvolution, despite the fact that the world around them constantly change and evolve. In his eyes, Leloup says that Yoko will always be 20 years old.

*** While not Vineans, the Titans are giant intelligent insectoids that walk upward.

* CurbStompBattle: Poor Zhou-Chong. He actually thought he could poison a dragon and steal his pearl. [[spoiler:Said dragon is [[MultipleHeadCase two-headed]], is ''mechanical'' and is of '''alien origin'''. Unsurprisingly, Zhou-Chong is fried into oblivion and the dragon didn't even broke a sweat.]]

* DeathOfAChild: Doctor Shulz's young daughter was killed during a bombing in World War 2 [[spoiler:or so everyone thinks]].
* DeathRay: ''Wotan's Fire'', which deal with a device that channel electric energy into a powerful beam weapon.

** [[spoiler:The Archangels and Queen Hegora]] are Vineans androids capable of human mannerism.
** Koshi is Earth most sophisticated android and pass up as a human in a kendo armor. He doesn't have a face however: beneath the mask is a set of cameras and sensors.

* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ito Kazuky]]'s company created a disintegration chamber. With the end of the Cold War, countries are desperate to get rid of their stockpile of [[WeaponOfMassDestruction nukes]]. However, the machine doesn't eliminate the radiation. Nonetheless, Kazuky advertise that his machine is fully functional. When countries will deliver him the warheads for disposition, he'll secretly keep them intact and well hidden. Presumably, he's going to resell them to the black market.]]

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Dr. Haley discretely saw his colleague Dr. Briggs [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink pour a poison in his beer]]. Haley didn't drank his cup and pretended to die moments later. Briggs, overconfident his plan worked, didn't bother to check the body thoroughly.]]

* FantasticRacism: Karpan see humans as inferior and [[FinalSolution wish to wipe them out]] or [[TakeOverTheWorld drive them to slavery]].

** Later on, Yoko's starship the Ryu can do it as well. Strangely enough, while ''The Three Suns of Vinea'' took care in explaining that it was not possible to travel faster than light in normal space, the Ryu seems to do it without special precautions. Possibly justified in that it's from a technology much more recent than the 2 million-years old one of the Vineans.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: ''The Cannon of Kra'' ends with Yoko musing on the possibility to have children, and Pol suggesting Dawn as the name of her would-be daughter (referencing the Rising Sun flag). Comes the next book, ''The Dragon of Hong-Kong'', where Yoko adopts a Chinese girl named Morning Dew.

* FungusHumongous: Inside the Earth's crust, Yoko and Khan walk through a forest of giant mushrooms.

** [[AIIsACrapshoot The Supreme Guide of Vinea]] is the tyrannical ruler of the planet, having rule for more than 2 millions of years unchallenged. Still, it never occurred to him to install outer defenses on his pyramid. When the exiled Vineans return to the planet and have ships running, [[GunshipRescue they make quick work of him]]. And seriously, keeping non-loyal robots under his service is just begging for trouble.
** Queen Hegora suffers from a severe case of this. Maybe because no one has ever challenge her rule or maybe Yoko think too much out of the box for her to handle. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Rather than killing Yoko right on the spot]], she set her to fight to the death against a sea creature. Yoko break the mental connection between Hegora and the creature who turns on the queen. Much later, the queen keeps Yoko hostage in a submarine, but doesn't restraint her. Yoko (rather easily) sabotage the submarine and cause it to crash. [[spoiler:Being an android, Hegora keep several copies of herself should anything happen to her. The copies are guarded by a robot named Tryak. However, the robot is sentient and has grown to [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen dislike the queen for her tyrannical ways]]. When Yoko comes in the picture, Tryak sees a chance to get rid of the queen.]]

* GoldDigger: Mieke is looking for a rich man to be her husband so she can escape the very harsh life she's having. She end up with Pol and they both fall in love.
* GoneHorriblyRight: In the far future, two factions were waging war on Earth. One of them was losing and unleashed an antimatter bomb on their enemy. It worked well alright, it created a 1000 km hole in the Earth's crust. Lava spilled all over the planet, turning it into a red globe of magma with poisonous gas. Humanity was now extinct along with all fauna and flora. [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong The only way to undo this is through time travel]].

** In ''Daughter of the Wind'', Kazuky's men came to apprehend Yoko and Aoki. She challenged them into taking them in her father's lab. The guards let her go since they reasoned they'll more of them once they reach the lab. Yoko and Aoki turn on the typhoon-making machine while the guards simply watch them. Then, they remove the safeties on the machine, which caused a turbulence that caught the guards by surprise. Yoko and Aoki take advantage of this to make their escape. Had the guards arrested them first hand, they'll wouldn't had gotten away.

** When a typhoon-making missile goes out of control, a gigantic hurricane was heading toward the Japanese coast. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Kazuky]] refused to intervene as the blame will rest on Yoko's father. One of Kazuky's man was outraged because millions of lives were at stake, so he switched sides to help Yoko.

* TheHermit: Even in the far away planet of Vinea you can find one in a cave. Yoko and Khany meet a crazy old Vinean hag who lives in rags. She's also out of touch with any form of technology and she keeps rambling about an unseen god from the sea.

** [[spoiler:Xunk shielded Yoko and Khany knowing the Titans will fire their weapon on them. The shot badly injured him, although he carried Yoko and Khany far enough for them to escape and died soon afterwards.]]

** Later reinforced. Leloup is that he doesn't want to develop the relationship with Vic... readers who are in love with Yoko would be jealous!

** [[spoiler:Webbs feed the [[StarfishAliens alien creature]] with loads of antimatter. It grows enormously in size and gain multiple tentacles (which are actually its nerves) to control the facility. When Webbs finally decide to cut off the antimatter, the creature kill Webbs with its tentacles.]]
** [[spoiler:The creature is destroyed when it ingested detonators that triggered the antimatter it consumed, turning it into an antimatter bomb.]]

* HonestCorporateExecutive: Peter Hertzel is a powerful German businessman. He use his wealth and influence to help Yoko on two occasions to fight off arms dealers.

* HumanAliens: The Vineans have blue skin and somewhat sharper traits, but apart from that are indistinguishable from humans. This incredible coincidence is never explained, since they come from the Triangulum galaxy and already looked like that two million years ago, before ''homo sapiens'' had even evolved on Earth.
** In one album, Yoko even could disguise as a Vinean. It worked because they only use b/w monitors.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The Titans, [[BigCreepyCrawlies giant sentient insectoids]], believe that humans and by extension, Vineans, are horrible monsters. They came to that conclusion when they discovered a box of insect collection that Yoko has brought from Earth. Khany tried to rationally explain that insects on Earth are a pest and never gain sentience. [[NotHelpingYourCase Clearly, the Titans were not impressed by her statement]].

* HumanSacrifice: Narki is been sacrificed because she helped Monya steal a sacred golden statue. However, after the statue has been returned, a volcano erupt and Narki believed she angered the gods, [[AppeaseTheVolcanoGod so she volunteer to jump into the volcano to appease the gods.]]
* HyperspaceArsenal: A offshot of warmongering Vineans can pop vehicles out of their pockets in the same way as computer files are decompressed. Most Vineans however don't have access to that technology.

* InsectQueen: The Great Migrator. Although she's never referred as a queen, she act as the Titans' leader.
* InstantSedation: Yoko was given a dose of chloroform and immediately fell unconscious. Amusingly, once she's dumped in a pit and land on a net, she instantly awaken.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Webbs wants the knowledge of the antimatter to make himself rich and famous. He ignores Monya's warnings about its dangers and [[ApocalypseHow the catastrophic results it will bring to the world.]]
* ItsPersonal: When Yoko see that her father is being humiliated by Kazuky, she vowed to make him pay. It's downplayed however, as Yoko resort on sabotaging Kazuky's missiles rather than attacking him directly.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Mirka is detestable and treat her workers poorly. And yet, she's one of the rare Vineans who refuse to believe that their space city is the product of their leaders' divine powers, but rather, the hard work and sacrifice of the working class.

** [[spoiler:[[WouldHurtAChild Zarfa kicked Poky at the bottom of a giant concave mirror]]. Poky was unharmed and it was revealed later that [[SpannerInTheWorks she and Pol played around and hid a treasure (unbeknownst to them, it was giant balls of acid) in a machine that Zarfa end up commandeering]]. Combine with his stubbornness, the machine malfunctioned and end up killing Zarfa.]]
** [[spoiler:No longer needing it, Webbs plan on destroying the creature that gave him knowledge of the antimatter. The creature kills him, as it longer needs Webbs to sustain itself.]]
** [[spoiler:Sir William plan to drove his daughter-in-law, Cecilia, insane and trick her into killing herself. Instead, [[DisneyVillainDeath he fell to his death]] in the very same pit he intended Cecilia to fall into.]]
** [[spoiler:Dr. Briggs blackmail Kazuky for a large sum of money. Instead, Briggs is killed in a disintegration chamber made of gold.]]
** [[spoiler:Kazuky's double blew up the airplane where Minako's father was a passenger. Minako repay him by blowing up the boat he rode.]]
** [[spoiler:Prince Wang incite angry peasants to kill Sin Yin. When Yoko intervene, the villagers turn on the prince who slaughter him.]]
* KarmaHoudini: In ''The Morning of the World'', Mike betray Monya and set on fire the house she's staying in. Monya, Yoko and her friends escape with the Translator. However, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse Mike is never seen again]] and doesn't face justice for his crime.

* LoopholeAbuse: In 1350, [[HumanSacrifice human sacrifices]] are forbidden in Bali. However, nothing can stop someone from voluntarily sacrificing himself, especially if [[{{Brainwashed}} the person has been drugged]]. Poor Narki become the victim of this.
* LostAesop: In the The "Celestial Barge", Yoko's friends wonder why she doesn't take Morning Dew with them in their time travel. Yoko replies that she's doesn't want to risk losing her in the past. Except, Yoko forgot she already brought her time-traveling with her in two other stories, not to mention twice in another galaxy.

* MadScientist: The series has no shortage of evil scientists who's out for personal gain.
** Hideki Minai and Webb: Both discovered anti-matter and wanted to profit from it, for war and wealth respectively while ignoring its consequences.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: The mysterious masked figure that try to kill Yoko in the Rheingold conspiracy.

** Xunk's name means "weak" in his alien language. By his own admission, Xunk consume too much energy for his colony's mission and has become a liability.

* MindReading: The Titans. [[spoiler: The alien creature from ''The Time Spiral'' use a variation of this trope to feed information directly in people's brains.]]

** Lady Mary from ''The Prey and the Ghost'', who's death is very important to the plot. [[spoiler:Actually, her ''murder''.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Kurt was one of the doctors who worked on saving Magda, a little girl who's in suspended animation since WWII. Kurt wanted to steal the reanimation program and when Yoko stopped him, he was willing to kill Magda to have it. In the struggle, he accidentally shot Yoko. When Kurt saw the blood, he was horrified by what he did and [[HeelFaceTurn no longer wish to harm Magda]].]]
* MyGreatestFailure: Aoki is a failed kamikaze. He took off on a mission to crash his air fighter on an American ship during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. However, he never found his target and when he made his return, his plane ran out of fuel and crashed on the shores of Japan where Yoko's granfather resuced him. By the time Aoki recovered, Japan has surrendered and he never forgave himself for this.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: The Titans' civilization revolve around this, being sentient insectoids. One of them, Xunk, is afflicted with radiation. While there is a cure, administrating it will jeopardized their mission, so the colony rather let him die.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Monya traveling back in time and meddling with the locals cause Narki [[HumanSacrifice to be sacrificed to demons.]]

** Anyone who travel through time in Monya's TimeMachine must wear a special belt that act as a bio-regulator. Without it, the subject will be disintegrated and return to his original timeline in a pile of ashes. [[spoiler:This is what happened to the Marquis de Torcello.]]

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Poky undergoes a strange case of this: she seems to be around 5 years old where the series begins, slowly ages up to look around 10 by ''The Archangels of Vinea'', then reverts back to be around 6 and stays that way once Morning Dew is introduced so that both girls remain the same age. The other characters never age much due to ComicBookTime.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: How Vic, Pol and Yoko met the first time. Late at night, Vic and Pol saw someone using a crane to commit a break-in in an office building. Vic and Pol intervene and found out the robber named Yoko was hired to test the office's new security system.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Gobol stays on top of a sinister tower and give orders to [[MechaMooks his robots]] to do his bidding. Justified, since his immortality is tied to a gigantic unmovable machine.

** As the series go, faces are drawn more inaccurately, which could be contributed to Leloup's advanced age. The contrast is especially jarring with the [[SceneryPorn scenery]] and [[TechnologyPorn various devices]] which are still as detailed as ever.

* {{Omniglot}}: Yoko speaks Japanese, English, Cantonese, French, German, and Javanese. With Monya's memory-induced machine, she learns Old French and ancient Balinese.

** Ingrid is introduced as a prospect one in ''The Devil's Organ'', as she's seen crying and unresponsive during a cruise to the Rhin. [[spoiler: Subverted again: she not only was in an Heroic BSOD after her father's death... but she was completely drugged as the BigBad/her dad's killer wants her out of the way. Said BigBad throws poor Ingrid into the river, but Yoko and her friends save her and she soon recovers the hold on herself.]]

** In ''The Pagoda of the Mists'', the plot in centred on a legendary dragon inhabiting a mountain, eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:a giant alien robot that closely resemble a dragon.]]

* OurSoulsAreDifferent: In ''The Gate of Souls'', there is some Phlebotinium allowing to remove souls from people and transfer them into other people or store them in robots. It is not very clear what the soul actually is (and Leloup confirms he intended it that way, to avoid theological debates), as the soulless people seem to be functioning normally, but are eager to recover their souls, while people implanted with the souls of others seem to gain their knowledge and skills. Yoko reacts violently when a device attempts to probe her soul.

** As the series move over time, Vic and Pol receive less and less focus. The stories are always centered around Yoko and the guest star of the day, usually a new female character. Things got worse for them now that Emilia has become the new regular co-star alongside with Yoko.
** Yoko herself becomes the victim of this in ''Angels and Falcons''. Yoko only shows up pages later while Emilia is the one who drive the plot. Halfway in the album, Emilia and the newcomer Dinah take the center stage, leaving Yoko in the dust.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: One of the central theme of the series. Yoko meeting new people in every stories and becoming friend with them.
* PoweredArmor: A disgruntled tech assistant worn an experimental exosuit and disguised himself as an apeman to get revenge.

* RetCon: Yoko's father was named "Susuki Tsuno" in ''Electronic Adventures''. Leloup changed it to "Seiki Tsuno" in ''The Daughter of the Wind'' when he recognized that "Susuki" isn't a proper Japanese first name. He forgot to correct one speech bubble on latter prints.
* RichBitch: [[spoiler: Countess Olga in ''The Rhine Gold'', before having HeelFaceTurn at the end of story, thanks to Yoko.]]
* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: What kicked off the conflict in ''The Prey And the Ghost'' was how, 20 years ago, [[spoiler: Cecilia's mother Mary chose her rich suitor Brian over her poor suitor Mac Nab.]] It didn't help that [[spoiler: Mac Nab was a {{yandere}} rumored to be into the occult, or that he showed up at the wedding and predicted they wouldn't be happy. Which did happen... but not ''because'' of Mac Nab himself.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: [[spoiler:In ''The Pagoda of the Mists'', the two-headed dragon left, but not before destroying something hidden within the pagoda. We are never revealed what was destroyed and Yoko herself never found out.]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In the 16th century, when Mieke is arrested by the Inquisition, her uncle Mathias quickly leave the city and guards plunder his house.

** In the ''The Pagoda of the Mists'', Yoko mention that her paternal grandmother told her a Chinese fable when she was little. However, the novel, ''The Foam of Dawn'', state that Yoko was born after her grandmother's death, so both characters couldn't possibly have met.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: In ''The Time Spiral'', Monya travel back in time to stop a scientist named Webbs from discovering antimatter. In the far future, a warring faction will use it to against an enemy and destroy the Earth's crust. This cause magma to spill all over the planet, melt entire continents and extinguishing all life on Earth.
** Before her, Leyton and Standford traveled through time to do the same, but their mission end up in failure. [[spoiler:Leyton died and Standford had other plans.]]
* SheCleansUpNicely: Yoko dolls up in elegant dresses more than once. I.e.: in ''The Devil's Organ'', she even wears a ''kimono'', leaving everyone starstruck. And in ''The Prey And the Shadow'', Cecilia lends her one of her mother's gowns, which has Yoko almost squealing in wonder at how pretty her wardrobe is. [[spoiler: And once it's all cleared up and the PowerTrio stays a little more in the castle, she gives Yoko some more.]]

** Pol refer the awful sound made by the Devil's organ as a [[ComicBook/GastonLagaffe Gaffophone]].

* SkepticNoLonger: Colonel Toshio has a hard time believing that Yoko is her grand-niece from the future, since her niece is currently just 13 years old. After asking her niece by phone what name she'll give if she has a daughter, she replied "Yoko". This was enough to convince him.

* SlippingAMickey: Happens quite often to Yoko and her friends when they are guests to unsavory characters.

* SpaceSuitsAreSCUBAGear: The Vineans space suits have very visible air tubes connected to the helmet. Khany's fails in the first story after a rough deceleration. In a later story, Poky yanks out one of her own tubes to give air to Yoko.

* SpectacularSpinning: Monya'a time machine spin on itself like a top whenever it travel trough time (or it simply gets engulfed into twirling light, according to the captions).

* SpoilerCover: A lot of the covers feature a scene that happens relatively late into the story. In some cases, it does not spoil much because of lack of context, but in others, it can spoil part of the mysteries the characters face early on:

** The first half of ''The Edge of Life'' includes suspicions of various fantastical elements, such as vampires or people seemingly unaged after decades, and also a doctor possibly driven mad by the death of his daughter. The cover features a futuristic medical lab and a young girl in what appears to be a SuspendedAnimation bubble...

* StableTimeLoop: Invoked in ''The Astrologer of Bruges'' and ''The Morning of the World''; Yoko goes back in time ''because'' she's seen evidence she went already. In ''Angels and Hawks'', she takes care of setting up the exact events that caused Emilia to go back in time in the first place to make sure she eventually does (and [[spoiler:saves the lives of two innocent children]]). In fact, apart for Monya changing the future in ''Time's Spiral'', this seems to be how time travel work in Yoko's universe, along with YouAlreadyChangedThePast.
* StalkerWithACrush: Mac Nab from ''The Prey and the Shadow'' was one for Cecilia's MissingMom, Lady Mary. He went as far as having an ''altar'' dedicated to Lady Mary in his house, including a mannequin built in likeness to her and dressed up in her ''wedding dress'' (which, according to him, was delivered by someone else after Mary's death). [[spoiler: This mannequin is ''vital'' to derail Sir William's cruel EvilPlan and save Cecilia's life, though.]]

** Khany look exactly like her mother Synda. When Poky will grow into adulthood, she will probably look like her mother and sister as well.
** Same goes for Eva, the daughter of Anna Schulz. Magda, her cousin and niece respectively, also resemble them both.
* TakeAThirdOption: After the defeat of queen Hegora, Khany invite the people of the underwater city to live on the surface with the other Vineans, as the city will no longer function without the queen. The undersea Vineans reject the offer, as this will mean that they lost the war against the surface Vineans. It will lead to resentment and eventually, to war. Yoko becomes a comprise as she becomes the new queen. Because her fate is now linked to the underwater city, it will function once more and the two Vinean factions will remain separate.
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Myna shields Yoko from a erasing beam. She gets better, since being a robot, her memories can be copied back into her circuits.]]

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: [[spoiler:Dr. Briggs try to kill his colleague Dr. Haley by pouring poison in his beer. Unfortunately for Briggs, Haley saw him doing it without being noticed.]]
* TapOnTheHead: Martial arts move often used to knock Yoko unconscious (L'or du Rhin). OTOH, Yoko uses it too, like in ''Daughter of the Wind'' when she quickly applies one to Kazuky's {{mook}}. (JustifiedTrope: Yoko is an Aikidoka and the neck chop is a rather common Aikido move, named ''yonkomen'')

** Also used by a Vinean colony that settled on massive rock formations orbiting giant stars. They periodically travel to the future to avoid the frequent hazardous storms and quakes. Yoko's ship the Ryu is also capable of travelling in time.

** A time machine was apparently responsible from bringing [[spoiler:the android and cyborgs in ''Saturn's Gemini'']] to the present day.

* ABNegative: Ingrid has rare blood type which is [[spoiler:the same as [[IllGirl Magda]]. This kicks off the plot to save the little girl.]]

* IllGirl: Magda and Ingrid in ''On the Edge of Life''.

* WouldHurtAChild: Some villains in the series will harm children without a second thought. As a rule of thumb, anyone who hurt a child will end up dead before the end of the album. [[spoiler:As a subversion, Kurt is the only to live so far. He planned on hurting [[IllGirl Magda]], but made a HeelFaceTurn before he could do so.]]

* [[IllGirl Ill Boy]]: Wai, madam Kwan's son, is confined to a wheelchair.

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: Monya'a time machine spin on itself like a top whenever it travel trough time (or it simply gets engulfed into twirling light, according to the captions).

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: By the TurnOfTheMillennium, more and more characters start to show up in the stories. Most of them are minors characters.

* TranslationConvention: Apart from a few words in German, characters are always interacting in French[[note]]English in the translations[[/note]], no matter if they are actually talking in English, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese... There is also little to no indication of the language being spoken, apart from an occasional comment, such as a Japanese person offering to speak English for the benefit of Yoko's friends, Yoko explaining to a befuddled Pol that Morning Dew only speaks Chinese, or Yoko asking Emilia to stop snarking in Russian.

%%* Action Girl: Yoko.

* ButtMonkey: Pol, to a T.

* DeadpanSnarker: Vic, often Pol as well.

* OffModel: Leloup seems to have some trouble with bodily proportions, curiously mostly when drawing characters from a distance. Although this has always been somewhat of an issue, it has gotten worse in his latest books.

* SeriesContinuityError: In the ''The Pagoda of the Mists'', Yoko mention that her paternal grandmother told her a Chinese fable when she was little. However, the novel, ''The Foam of Dawn'', state that Yoko was born after her grandmother's death, so both characters couldn't possibly have met.

* ShipTease: Yoko and Vic at the end of ''Wotan's Fire''.

* {{Shorttank}}: Yoko is a grown-up version.

* TimeTravel: Monya's time machine, invented/completed in space after Earth was destroyed -- to undo said destruction -- is used on several occasions even after the initial story introducing it is resolved.

* TookALevelInJerkass: The Vineans over the course of the series. While they were always mostly aloof toward the humans (except of course for Khany and a few other like Vynka, or Karpan on the other side of the spectrum), the latest books have them becoming openly distrustful of them, if not outright hostile. In ''Khany's Secret'', it is revealed that a fraction of them [[spoiler:actually wants to wipe out all humans]]. In ''Temple of the Immortals'', it has become so bad that Khany decides to [[spoiler:sever all ties with Vinea by sealing the gateway connecting the solar system with the planet]].
* TranslationConvention: Apart from a few words in German, characters are always interacting in French[[note]]English in the translations[[/note]], no matter if they are actually talking in English, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese... There is a also little to no indication of the language being spoken, apart from an occasional comment, such as a Japanese person offering to speak English for the benefit of Yoko's friends, Yoko explaining to a befuddled Pol that Morning Dew only speaks Chinese, or Yoko asking Emilia to stop snarking in Russian.

* AdultFear: When Yoko accidentally broke her grandfather's watch, she was very upset and ran away. Her parents were very worried and frantically searched for her.

* ActionGirl: Yoko.

* AdultFear: For Christmas, Yoko wants to surprise a little girl's family by offering a contract to the jobless father. Except, to get the contract, Yoko has to ride across town with the little girl in tow and didn't notify her parents beforehand. Needless to say, her parents are worried, although the story ends on a happy note.