Sho-shan y la Dama Oscura is a trilogy of fantasy novels made by Mexican writer Eve Gil, which includes with Sho-shan y la Dama Oscura (Sho-shan and the dark lady), Tinta Violeta (Violet Ink) and Doncella Roja (Red Maiden).
The saga tells the life of the two Monsalve sisters, Violeta (Murasaki) and Luisa (Cho) and their battles against Izanami, a Japanese demon/fallen goddess, who is trying to get her revenge against the mysterious mother of the sisters, Dagmar Oscura (or Dama, as Violeta calls her). Their fight begins after Luisa, a that time just a toddler and diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, is accused of the murder of her best friend, Tomas 'Toto' Fuertehijar. As they discover, both sisters have an unique ability because of her mother: they can dissolve the barrier between the fiction and the reality.
Every book is focused on the things that the both of the sisters loves: the first one focuses on manga and anime, the second title is focused on cosplay and the third, videogames.
The first book had a movie.
This saga provides examples of
- A Father to His Men:
- Taro Fujita with Sasuke and Danae because she thinks that he's only her boss.
- Jinzaburo Kunikida with the Monsalve sisters. Even if they think of him more like a grandparent than a father and even call him Sofu -grandpa- on their travel to China and they're not wrong about it since he's the "Father" of Dagmar. It Makes Sense On Context
- A God Am I: Yuga invokes this trope when he's questioned about his control and permanent vigilance upon the hostages on his house
- Abusive Parents: In order to make contrast with the Monsalve-Obscura Family, almost every other parent is pretty much tihs.
- Action Dad: General Kunikida (Jinzaburo Kunikida's father) and Taro Fujita. Also the manga version of Luis Monsalve has hints of being this.
- Alas, Poor Villain: despite ruining lots of lifes arounds centuries trying to get revenge on her husband, you can only feel sorry for Izanami being sended again to hell. Literally.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played with Violeta and Sasuke. Despite being a deadly assassin, he's a decent guy, though
- All Men Are Perverts: Taro Fujita and Jinzaburo Kunikida are both Dirty Old Man. Sasuke is The Casanova, Comrade's Wu is a sick pedophile Kotaro is called a pervert when Luisa finds photographs of sexy cosplays of her own alter ego on Violeta's manga.
- Subverted with Luis Monsalve and maybe Genjo Bando, Violeta's fiance.
- Alfa Bitch: Kokoa, of course.
- Ambiguously Human:
- Dagmar and their daughters. Since Kunikida didn't gave a finale to his manga about writer Murasaki Shikibu, that character stayed in a limbus until it found a body where she could live: the nearly destroyed body of Danae Fujita, at that time pregnant with Violeta
- Sasuke.
- Anachronism Stew: Though a minor one, since on the first book is more noticeable, since Violeta has an iPod months before the release of it. The story starts in february of 2001 and the iPod isn't going to be released until 'October' of that same year. Also she searched for information on Wikipedia, though the wiki was relesed on January of 2001 it was just avalaible on english and a very few pages.
- And I Must Scream: Luisa when she loses her voice and is seeing her own sister dying
- Also Gongye Baba when Yuga cuts her tonge
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Both Luisa and Dagmar can turn themselves into a Firefly and Butterfly.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Abadess Kadiri Miyamoto.
- Badass Bookworm: Dagmar and her daughters of course. They all love to read. If Yuga's videogame is right, also Violeta's father kicked colosal amounts of butt
- Badass Family: The protagonist family. They can kick anyone even if they're death.
- Kunikida-sensei took the role of grandparent of the Monsalve sisters, and he knows Muay Thai.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Played straight Sasuke. We know the designer of his clothes because of The Fashionista Luisa. And those suits aren't cheap.
- Based on a True Story: It's not a secret for anyone that both Violeta and Luisa are inspired on the daughters of the author. She even states it on inteviews.
- Battle Couple: Played with Nina and Peregrin both in cosplay and when they both are possessed by the spirits of Luis and Dagmar and try to protect Violeta and Luisa from Danae's clone
- It's to notice that both cosplayers were possessed by the reinterpretation of Violeta of her family's story, on her story Sho-Shan Z Dagmar and Luis are really a Battle Couple
- Be Careful What You Wish For: At the second book, Luisa wants her mother to hear her voice and tell her mother that she's so sorry for what happened on the first book. She gets her wish but at such a way
- Violeta feels so guilty about leaving behind her little sister that she finds herself to be relieved when Sasuke tells her that she's going to disappear if Yuga and Izanami wins, believing that she will be able to pay for what she did. When it finally happens, Violeta is terrified of her own wish
- Beast and Beauty: Not a literal example since Sasuke is a real life Bishonen but his love for Violeta "breaks the spell" and gives them both the strenght to fight against the evil.
- Berserk Button: So many examples. Dagmar/Danae's button are her daughters Hell, she even broke up all her Budhas with her mind and transformed into a monster just to protect them. For Izanami being rejected, same for Kokoa.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Played straight with all the friends and family of the Monsalve sisters. Really. Don't try to mess with them because you will have your ass kicked on three different dimensions. It can count as Badass Crew.
- Bilingual Dialogue: In both Violet Ink and Red Maiden there's a lot of this, since all the characters are from different countries, but it's implied that they all speak in english (unless they're the japanese characters -Violeta included- talking to each other).
- Big Damn Heroes: Every book ends with this trope or has a moment of this.
- Maybe the greatest moment of this trope on the books is when Dama risks her life just to save Luisa from a lobotomy. Luisa, years after, recalls this moment asking herself if her mother loved her that much to do that
- Bittersweet Ending: Even if they finally concluded their fight of CENTURIES against Izanami, the victory isn't easy for the sisters and their allies.
- Brainwashed and Crazy:
- Mr. Fuertehijar Izanami makes him think that he must kill Dama to avenge the death of his beloved son
- Kokoa another case of possession. Izanami possesses her in order to kill Rikku/Sasuke
- Break the Cutie: Where to start?
- The Monsalve sisters. They're just girls spoiled sweet by their mother [[and they see her die twice, their grandparents die on such an horrible way that Luisa wants to commit suicide. They have to confront a fallen goddess that's trying to kill them. Also Luisa is raped when she's out of Violeta's sight.]]
- Nina Kovac.
- Arkadia Zagrieva
- Sasuke/Rikku. Though the thing that really broke him was the mision where he had to kill a young woman.
- Color Motifs: Every book has an specific color that implies which story is going to be told.
- The first book, Sho-shan and the black lady, it's peachy pink. Sho means "peach" in Chinese and this is also the avatar that Yuga gives to Luisa, in order to identify her. The book tells the story of the murderous toddler, Luisa.
- The second book, Violet ink, it's violet. It's the story of Violeta.
- The third book, Red Maiden, it's red and tells the story of Danae Fujita before becoming Dagmar Obscura Ingverson.
- Children Raise You: An amnesic Dagmar -and nearly destroyed- had to take care of baby Violeta. The poor woman didn't had any idea why she was on the hospital and with whom she had the baby.
- As Sasuke said, Danae had to die in order to let Dagmar to live and raise her daughters. Dagmar is still deadly but she's more kind-hearted than Danae
- Maybe what Izanami told to Danae's father, Taro Fujita, is true: Danae tried to look and act as an amnesic in order to have finally a life in peace. Maybe it was just a trick to make him choose Luisa instead of Violeta, as she was the sign of Danae's Heel–Face Turn.
- As Sasuke said, Danae had to die in order to let Dagmar to live and raise her daughters. Dagmar is still deadly but she's more kind-hearted than Danae
- Cute Bruiser: Luisa on Violet Ink and Red Maiden since she's only 15 years old and 5 feet tall and she can magane to kill of Danae's clone all by herself and kill an adult on such a way that Suyin decided to don't tell anyone
- Dad the Veteran: Taro Fujita and Jinzaburo Kunikida's Dad are both veterans of WWII.
- Dating Catwoman: Sasuke does this with Violeta, since she's the prey of Taro Fujita, his master.
- Dark and Troubled Past: When isn't being part of the kenpeitai, an orphan or rape, it's about running away from home, losing love interests, depresion, sexuality or gender identity issues and accidents. All the main cast and friends have one or two or all the pack.
- Deader than Dead: What's about to happen to Violeta due to Izanami's attack. She's not only going to die on the 'real' world but also going to be erased on the other dimensions where she exists
- Deal with the Devil: It happens once in every book. It never ends well.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Every character who has a parent near themselves are pretty much doomed. Just look at Nina, Toto and Arkadia and Danae.
- Defiled Forever: Played straight with Nina, Arkadia, Suyin and Danae. It overlaps with Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil.
- Driven to Suicide: Mr. Fuertehijar at the end of the first book.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- On book two Both Violeta and Sasuke. Violeta begs for more freedom for her daily life and Sasuke decides to betray his boss and surrogate father
- On the third book it happens with Doctor Caiwei and Arkadia.
- Evil Cripple: Played straight and subverted with Tantai Yuga Beause he really wasn't... him al the time.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite all the things that Izanami did to the Monsalve sisters, she loves her children deeply.
- Evil Counterpart: Oh so many
- Both Izanami and Mrs. Fuertehijar for Dagmar. Thought they try to protect their children and have fairly absent husbands -even stranged-, Dagmar 'died' after letting someone to hurt her daughters. Izanami even died of pain after letting his children to die at the hands of Izanagi.
- Izanami and Abadess Kadiri. The latter is a really sweet and caring woman. Izanami, well...
- Femme Fatale: Two examples
- Danae Fujita/Dagmar Obscura Ingverson In one of her missions, seducing an Arab Oil Sheikh, Fujita choosed the pseudonim Judith, wich was pretty much accurate of how the mission ended
- Arkadia Zagrieva. She even inspired Yuga to make a videogame with her as protagonist.
- Handicapped Badass: Tantai Yuga. It doesn't matter that he's blind, he managed to defeat Wu's bodyguards.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Danae Fujita on her father schemes, wich is the foil for all the events of the saga.
- Doctor Caiwei on the Comunist Party, since he helped Luis to save Danae and her daughter. This could have costed his life. Also he didn't knew the identity of the woman, who was a dangerous terrorist.
- Kokoa has a Face–Heel Turn first and then a Heel–Face Turn before talking with Kadiri.
- Heroic BSoD:
- On the first book, Dagmar is an example of this before the doctors threaten both Luisa and Violeta's lifes.
- On the second, Violeta faces this after being mindraped by Izanami.
- On the third book, Luisa is an example of this on the party of the comrade Wu. It doesn't end well for him or anyone else since this attempt of rape makes Luisa to kill him on an horrendous way. After that, she loses her voice almost forever.
- Hypocrite: There are a lots of examples but the most notable is on the funeral of little Toto, where a catholic priest called the Monsalves an apocaliptic family without Crist. It's funny because Dama is quick to tell her daughters if they're being rude or cruel while the rest of the world is mocking of them because they can't talk or behave normally (Luisa) or hust have uncommon hobbies and looks (Violeta).
- I Am X, Son of Y:
- The reason why Violeta choosed Murasaki Fujita as her pseudonimous is because that Danae Fujita was the supposed but also real identity that the newspapers gave to Dama when Luisa's scandal happened. So Violeta took the nickname that her mother gave to her (Murasaki means Violet -Violeta- on japanese) and the supposed last name Fujita to tell the world that she will ever love her mother, no matter who she is.
- By the other way, Luisa doesn't care about being called "Mori-chan" (Little Mori), since her father, on his exile on Japan, choosed to change his name to Rintaro Mori.
- An subersion is Danae Fujita, since she just addopted that name for her boss, Taro Fujita without knowing that he was her father.
- If I Can't Have You…: Izanami takes the obsession of Kokoa with Sasuke as a way to kick him out of her scheme, so she proceed to play straight this trope.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: It happens a lot on the first book because the average mexican can't tell appart the difference between China and Japan.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The only exceptions to this trope are Kokoa with Sasuke, but it applies for pretty much every couple.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Kunikida and Arkadia after the aparition of Izanagi. Also, at the end of the series, it's implied that maybe Violeta and Sasuke invoked the trope since Violeta admits that she's pregnant with his child.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery:
- Kokoa Sasuke nearly died when she was holding a katana and tried to confront him. Let's notice that he has such a good training as a ninja that even the tecnology of Yuga couldn't notice that he was there
- Abadess Kadiri. She's equally gracefull as deadly in a kimono. Add the nuns of her shrine, and you get a shinto Amazon Brigade.
- It's implied that when she was alive, Dagmar liked to wear a fancy coat all the time.
- Kimono Is Traditional: Justified with Kadiri and her nuns since they're shinto priestess. Is the wear of choice for Yamato Nadeshiko Dagmar and her eldest daughter when they lived on Mexico.
- Lady and Knight: Violeta -and her sister- is the Lady for Sasuke's knight. Or empress if we're going to be accurate with him.
- Like Father, Like Son: Or daughters.
- Violeta is pretty much like her biological father she loves to draw and it's a genius at it, has a strong sense of justice. It's not a coincidence that Violeta's lover, Sasuke, calls her Empress since her father would be a prince if Chinese Revolution didn't happened. Also, both father and daughter fell in love with an spy who were sended to kill them and nearly both of them died for that love.
- By the other hand, Luisa and Luis share the name, both have blond hair and ambar eyes. Also, they both decide to enter into the shinto religion before a traumatic event.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: During her attempt to commit suicide, Luisa loses a shoe. Kunikida even draws that
- Love Letter: The second book ends with the letter that Sasuke sends to Violeta, right after disappearing.
- May–December Romance: Kotaro and Luisa. He's 28, she's just 15. They even get engaged until Luisa decides to become a shinto nun. Kotaro swears that he doesn't care what Comarade Wu did to her, but Luisa asumes that she's just too dangerous for him
- Meaningful Name:
- Danae means "thirsty" and fits well with her crusade for revenge.
- Luisa is the feminine version of Luis, the name of her father.
- Also, the nicknames that Dagmar gives to everyone close to her. Since Violeta is fondly in love with japanese culture, her mother nicknamed her as Murasaki coincidently Murasaki Shikibu is THE real identity of Dagmar and Cho, butterfly, for Luisa, who loves butterflies. Placida got Kazuyo as nickname. She didn't complained about it and let everyone in Japan to call her by this name.
- Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: All the habilities that men has on the series are on medical issues, fighting or arts. But you should be afraid of the women
- Let's consider that on the first book the protagonic duo are capable to stop an entire army of doctors even if Violeta has 11 years and Luisa is only 4 years old. Not to mention that both Danaes has the hability to turn into a TITANIC butterfly and Luisa can turn herself into an REALLY BIG FIREFLY.
- Missing Mom: Played straight with Kunikida's mother, Dagmar, Sasuke's mother and Arkadia with her son.
- Mother Bear:
- Just try to harm Dagmar's daughters. I dare you.
- Izanami could fit this trope, since her scheme to erase Dagmar's offspring it's only to avenge the death of her children. The murderer? Her husband, Izanagi.
- Maybe Placida/Kazuyo, as Luisa's nanny, can count on this since she's basically Luisa's replacement mother
- Most Writers Are Writers: Since Dagmar is kinda an avatar for the own author, it's not a surprise that Dagmar is a writer herself, though she makes books for children and Gil is a periodist and had made more adult works.
- My Beloved Smother:
- Mrs. Fuertehijar has a variant of this -Munchausen by proxy- with her son Toto and this leads the main event of the first book, the death of Toto since she took it too far with medication.
- Mrs. Kovac, Nina's mother. Jesus, she even denied the fact that her poor daughter was raped by her boyfriend in order to stay with him
- Mysterious Parent: Both Violeta and Dagmar's fathers at least on the first and second book
- Nerds Are Virgins: Despite being otaku, kameko or gamers (and part of this industries, ergo, with a really tight agenda), it's implied Violeta, Genjo, Kotaro and Yuga have an active sex life on the second and third books.
- Nice Guy: Genjo and his brother are really good men.
- One-Man Army: The most obvious examples are Danae and Sasuke, since they both are trained to be this. Also Kunikida and Yuga agains Comrade Wu's bodyguards.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: What happened to Comrade Wu. Maybe he's lucky that Dagmar wasn't alive.
- Promotion to Parent: Violeta gets this on Violet Ink after the death of her grandparents (the parents of Luis, her adoptive father) and the death of Kazuyo
- Replacement Goldfish: Sasuke and Clone Danae to Taro Fujita.
- Raised by Grandparents: After the death of Dagmar, Luis lefts her biological daughter and Kazuyo with his parents.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
- Mr. Fuertehijar paid the police in order to don't do an autopsy to Toto's body and doesn't allow to discover the truth about his wife and leads to the death of Dagmar.
- What allows Comrade Wu to rape every girl that crosses his path -overlaped with Defiled Forever and Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil. Until he crosses with the wrong little girl.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Sasuke has a moment of this when he sees Violeta on the tomb of her parents with a purple kimono and makeup on her face. It's comprehensible since she's been exahusted taking care of her sister and with depression for the death of her grandparents and lacking of time for herself on the shrine. This leads to a Love Revelation Epiphany.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Kunikida likes to ship Violeta with his younger friends. Violeta's first love was Kunikida's apprentice Genjo Bando. On the third book, he though that Yuga and Violeta could make a lovely couple and they also had to act like one.
- Nina had her OT Ps with Luisa and Kotaro and Violeta and Sasuke. She even invented stories about how Sasuke was chasing Violeta.
- Shout-Out: As a saga bassed on the series that her daughters love, the autor made a lot of this.
- The title of Violeta's Opera prima (Sho-shan Z) is a shot out to Dragon Ball
- The dream of Violeta and the transformations of her mother and little sister's are pretty much Elfen Lied alike.
- Yuga's videogame saga is one to Resident Evil.
- Jinzaburo Kunikida's series, Master Higo (Violeta's favorite anime) is a shot out to Rurouni Kenshin.
- Violeta's favorite Visual Kei band, Tatenokai, is one to Yukio Mishima's.
- Special mention to the characters Chen and Yu on Red Maiden, since they're part of Qiu Xialong novels.
- There's a scene on Violet Ink where Luisa sees a cosplay of Lady Ciel (Kuroshitsuji).
- Sasuke's looks, personality and name it's an obvious shout out to Naruto.
- There are a lot of shot-outs to Speed Grapher, specially with the victims of Izanami or her would-be trophy, Luisa.
- Stepford Smiler: In Violet Ink, every adult (except Kazuyo and Kadiri) is pretty much this.
- Omniscient Morality License: Between Izanami and Izanagi. The death of their children was by the hand of Izanagi, so his estranged wife tries to take revenge on him. Their fight across centuries affects the lifes of Murasaki Shikibu, the first incarnation of Danae Fujita/Dagmar Obscura and subsecuently, her following incarnations and the ones who are involved with her. Izanagi seems to don't care about that anyway until the Monsalve sisters call him for help.
- Only Friend:
- Luisa calls Toto this. But she seems to see Placida as her only 'actual' friend, since she's heavily bullied at school because of her having Asperger's. Suyin takes this role too after Placida's death with Violeta and Luisa.
- Placida maybe was this to Dagmar, since she was the only one who understood her way to see the world.
- Yuga to Suyin, even if she don't really trust him because of Gongye Bai advise.
- Open-Minded Parent: Dagmar, since she doesn't mind about one of Violeta's boy friends having an obsession with Disney Princesses. She even let's Violeta to dress as Izanami for a Halloween Party (much for the concern of the rest of the parents)
- The Coats Are Off: Played straight with Dagmar at the end of the first book. Violeta is the only one who realizes why Dagmar never stopped wearing her coat.
- The Fashionista: Played straight with Luisa and Kokoa. Luisa takes a level in awesome since she can know the designer with only seeing the clothes once and she can do replicas with only seeing photographs. Also, she's really obsessed with Coco Channel.
- The Power of Love: A lot of examples:
- Dagmar gets her powers because of her daughters and only they got functional if the girls are on danger.
- Luis and Danae are even capable to protect their daughters from beyond the death because of their love.
- Sasuke is capable to defeat the Hi-Tech security of Yuga's House and to hack Red Maiden's videogame and even to protect Suyin in said house 'without being noticed by the tecnology' not only because of his training but only for Violeta's life.
- Going further, what secure's Violeta's life is the love that the poeple around her have for her.
- The Talk: On her diary and talking with Kazuyo about Peregrin, Luisa says that she already had it but no one explained to her about transsexuals.
- World of Action Girls: There are only few examples of women and girls who can't fight back hard.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Played straight with Dagmar. Their daughters remember her as the perfect mother and a really beautifull woman.
