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"Oz Vessalius! Your sin... Is your very existence!"
Pandora Hearts: A manga by Mochizuki Jun, sponsored by Square Enix. Can be read here . Made into an anime series airing in 2009.
WARNING: Major Alice in Wonderland connections, ye with sanity be warned.
Oz Vessalius, a young boy with Father issues is about to come of age and be recognized as the heir to his family. He has allies like his servant and best friend Gilbert Nightray. Despite his smile, it seems that all is not right as his father wants nothing to do with him. Before the ceremony, he falls into a derelict grave and discovers a watch that mentally teleports him into a girl's playroom. He is nearly killed by her before Gilbert snaps him out of it.
Falling victim to the mysterious Baskerville's plot, Oz is sent to the Abyss for the crime of 'existing.' He makes it out under the his own power after making a 'contract' with the powerful 'chain': Alice, or rather, B-Rabbit. They are met by Raven, Break and Sharon Rainsworth who tell him he's been gone for ten years. They belong to the organization Pandora. Now a part of Pandora, he is working for them to find illegal contractors and recover Alice's lost memories.
This series shows examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Zai Vessalius, Oz's "father".
- Adaptation Distillation: The anime.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Getting thrown into the Abyss is not a pleasant experience. Oz just handled it really, really well.
- All Crimes Are Equal: 'Oz Vessalius! Your crime... is your very existence!'
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Vincent to Gil. Though there is a reason for Vincent's clinginess.
- Attractive Bent Gender: When Gilbert has to crossdress to help solve the mystery in one of the drama CD stories. And how!◊
- Ax Crazy: Chains
- Little Miss Badass: Alice, Echo
- Sharon is quite hardcore on her own.
- What is her actual age, anyway? If she can call Oz younger than her, then...
- The official guidebook listed Sharon's age at 23. She's physically 13ish.
- Badass Longcoat: Quite a few examples. It helps that it's the official Pandora uniform.
- Battle Butler: Gilbert, Break, and Echo so far.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: One illegal contractor did manage to get Will of the Abyss to change the past. Break asked her to prevent the betrayal of the family he was serving, all but one of whom were killed by a rival family. She did. As a result, they were betrayed later, and no one got out alive.
- Best Beer Ever: Best wine ever. Sharon, Alice, and Gil all get completely sloshed on one glass.
- Beware The Nice Ones: Sharon is secretly a very scary person.
- Beleaguered Childhood Friend: Both Gil and Oz have aspects of this.
- Big Eater: Alice, particularly when meat is involved.
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The demonic doll that attacks Oz when he falls into the Abyss (anime only) contributes nothing to the plot besides burning episode time and freaking us out.
- Big Ol Eyebrows: Oscar.
- Bishie Sparkles: Sharon. One even hits Break in the head...
- Bishonen: Of the main cast, Gil, certainly, as well as Vincent and Jack. Most other young-ish male characters also count.
- A notable example is Liam; the fact that no male nor female pronouns were used to refer to him for some time didn't help. They fixed this in the anime however, giving him less feminine features and a decidedly male voice.
- Blond Guys Are Evil: Vincent. On the other hand, Oz is blond, so...
- Blue Blood: The 4 Duke Houses.
- Boat Lights: Vincent has one red eye and one gold eye.
- Boke And Tsukkomi Routine: Break and Sharon.
- Blood Splattered Innocents: Vincent at the Tragedy of Sablier...but possibly not so innocent.
- Blue Bishonen Ghetto: Pandora Hearts is arguably a textbook example of this.
- Brainwashed And Crazy: Gilbert, with respect to the enemies of his master (both Oz and Jack). In chapter 38, a flashback to 100 years ago when Jack rescued him and Vincent off the streets shows a mysterious old woman implanting various compulsions in Gilbert's mind, including an intense need to kill his master's enemies. In chapter 33, Vincent happily exploits the hell out of the brainwashing in order to manipulate his dear brother Gilbert into trying to kill Alice... possibly AGAIN. Gilbert is also driven to attack Oz's father, who was responsible for sending Oz into the Abyss in the first place, but Break manages to snap Gilbert out of it in a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- Breaking The Fourth Wall: All the anime omakes start off with the characters thanking the viewer for buying the DVD usually with funny results, and even shows a cut where the film crew is standing nearby.
- Breather Episode: The chapters where Oz, Alice, Gil and Oscar sneak into Lutwidge to visit Ada, Oz's sister. Subverted, as Oscar states that it was exactly his intention to let the gang have some silly fun for once, and some of the Baskervilles show up to cause trouble halfway through.
- Episode 20, right after Lutwidge, plays this straight. It's also freaking hilarious.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Break
- Butt Monkey: Gilbert. Age is inconsequential: Gilbert is often the target of Oz's bullying, Alice's eccentricities, Break's... sadism and even Sharon has had a few notable moments. And this is just from the core group. Even the mangaka has her own potshots at him, often describing him as "useless" or "seaweed head".
- Calling The Old Man Out: Gil tried to do this for Oz, but it didn't really work. At the end of the anime, Oz finally does it himself. By giving Alice enough power to one-shot Gryphon.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Almost everyone gets sloshed (apparently on one bottle of wine) in episode 20, but Gilbert runs the gamut from misaimed belligerence to sloppy begging to a cute but slightly disturbing reversion to childhood. Then he passes out.
- The Chessmaster: Vincent
- There's also Glen Baskerville, by whom it's not certain how much is still being controlled, and to some extent Zai Vessalius.
- Chick Magnet: Gil in the anime, who was almost attacked by a hoard of frothing horny schoolgirls while in Lutwidge Academy.
- The Chosen One: Oz is said to be the key to obtaining the Will of the Abyss, which explains why so many people are interested in him. He also has part of the soul of the country's hero inside of him.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: The second Oz talks to a lonely kid, he swears to bring the kid's dad back. Easier said than done.
- Colour Coded For Your Convenience: Baskervilles wear blood red cloaks.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Poor Gilbert.
- Comes Great Insanity: Yeah...you don't want to come near Alice when she's in B-rabbit form... Or Oz when he's playing with that scythe.
- Cool Gun: Gil's got some nice revolvers.
- Cooldown Hug: Alice does this to Oz in chapter 44.
- Conveniently An Orphan: Vincent and Gilbert's parents are mentioned all of once, and they never say if they have any other family that could have cared for them.
- Cute Shotaro Boy: If you can count Oz as one. Early Gil as well.
- Creepy Child: In flashbacks- Vincent, very much so.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Break Curb Stomping Cheshire in his own reality.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: Episode 20. My sides still hurt from the laughter...
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: Alice "kissing" an upset Oz on the cheek. It can also count as a Crowning Moment Of Funny since she's actually biting him. Hard.
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: The anime has some seriously awesome music, particularly the version of "Lacie" with Surprisingly Good English vocals.
- Dark And Troubled Past: Pretty much the entire main cast.
- Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good: Alice, the black rabbit, is the heroine of the story, while The Will Of Abyss, the white rabbit, isn't someone you want to stumble upon... Seriously.
- Deal With The Devil: Making an illegal contract with a Chain will end up with the contractor eventually being sucked into the Abyss.
- Dethroning Moment Of Suck: What many of the fans consider the final episode of the anime to be. (Particularly fans of the Manga)
- Dissonant Serenity: Even after stabbing his best friend, being sent into the Abyss, and being attacked by Chains, Oz is able to joke around and happily eat cookies.
- Disappeared Dad: What happened to Sharon's father?
- Dream Melody: If someone's playing "Lacie," it's a cue to pay attention to them.
- Dysfunction Junction: An arguable example, considering the main cast.
- Well, let's see. Oz went for years at a time without seeing his father, was told he was disgusting by said father, and then got thrown into Abyss by him. Gil is a Failure Knight trying to make up for the fact that he was mind-controlled into attacking his best friend and who lived through the Tragedy of Sablier. Alice used to be human but was murdered, and she has a Literal Split Personality / Evil Twin... thing. Break signed an illegal contract to try to change the fact that the family he was bound to protect was betrayed and massacred, then was dragged into the Abyss and had his eye torn out, only to have the family die off anyway. I dunno about you, but that strikes me as a bit dysfunctional.
- Eldritch Abomination: Chains, oh so very much.
- Emotionless Girl: Echo. Partially subverted when she disobeys Vincent to save Sharon, and she later tells Oz that Vincent annoys her.
- Estrogen Brigade Bait: Gilbert.
- Even The Guys Want Him: Both Oz and Gil apply.
- Evil Is Sexy: Lottie, so damn much. And the author is aware of that.
- Evil Twin: Will of the Abyss...or maybe not?
- Eye Scream: Break is missing his left eye because the Will of the Abyss ripped it out.
- Vincent also has a tendency to take scissors to eyeballs.
- Eyes Of Gold: Gilbert. Vincent also has one golden eye.
- Face Framed In Shadow: The leader of the Baskervilles.
- Failure Knight: Break's backstory.
- Gil, also, although he did get Oz back and he's trying very hard to make sure not to fail him again. Possibly to make up for having failed Jack?
- Fan Nickname: The Will of the Abyss is called Alyss or White!Alice by many fans.
- Feuding Families: Nightray and Vessalius.
- Fetish Fuel: So much... noble dresses... chains...
- The number of pieces of fanart on pixiv that have Gilbert either genderswitched, dressed as a maid or both is... Interesting, to say the least.
- There's also that odd poison antidote you can only give to people by frenching them, apparently...
- Foe Yay: Vincent and Lottie. So much.
- Future Badass: Gilbert.
- Generation Xerox: Oz will probably look exactly like Jack in a few years. And Sharon looks like a shrunken version of her mother.
- Ghost Lights
- Go Ask Alice
- Grand Theft Me: Chapter 39 shows that Glen has no permanent body of his own and must possess others to continue ruling the Baskerville household. 100 years ago, Gilbert was chosen to be his host.
- Green Eyes: Oz
- Hair Of Gold: Jack is a male example, although he doesn't think he is a hero at all.
- Hair Raising Hare: the Blood-Stained Black Rabbit will mess you up. The White Rabbit is worse.
- Happiness In Slavery: Echo. Subverted, once you get her talking about her "beloved master"... Gil's devotion to his bullying master Oz approaches this as well.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Jack right about up until the end of the Cheshire Arc. Has heavy elements of Face Framed In Shadow as well.
- Hellish Pupils: Lottie's pupils make it easy to tell that she's creepy.'
- Healing Potion: Vincent bribes Break with this after he poisons both Sharon and Echo...then gives Echo said potion by frenching her.
- Heroic Albino: Break
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jack went through a particularly horrifying sacrifice to seal away Glen in order to keep the peace, which involved Jack being physically separated into five pieces. At the end of chapter 42,one of Jack's dismembered arms is shown.
- Hey Its That Voice: The Baskerville's leader is Arawn.
- Hidden Weapons: Break's cane is a concealed sword.
- Echo and Lottie both have hidden knives up their sleeves. Alice also uses some utensils to good advantage when possessing Oz in the beginning.
- How We Got Here: Episode 12 explains to us how Oz, Gil and Alice ended up in line for a three-round arm-wrestling match for Gil's hat. Of course, since it's Oz talking, we learn that Gil is a useless moron and Oz is The Hero. (It's true.)
- Ho Yay: Oz and Gil have a close relationship, and Gil seems to enjoy finding excuses to touch Oz and unbutton his shirt. In addition, Gil's devotion to Oz can seem somewhat... obsessive at times. Although there is a reason for it, it's unlikely to discourage the shipping. At all.
- Gil's younger brother, Vincent, is extremely possessive of him. Extremely.
- And then there's Jack and Glen Baskerville, tragic "best friends".
- Hell, even Break and Reim have their occasional moments. It's most apparent around Chapters 30-32 and Chapters 42-43.
- And Break seems to engage in some playful flirting with Oz at times.
- I Have The High Ground: Alice goes out of her way to provide examples for this trope.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Alice's dress comes to mind.
- It's more of a coat, really.
- Innocent Flower Girl: Oz meets one. It doesn't end well.
- Intimate Healing: In order to prove to Break that the antidote for Sharon really works, Vincent administers the antidote to a poisoned Echo by kissing her. Lottie pulls the same trick on Ada in the anime.
- Its All My Fault: Usually when Gil is angsting about not being able to protect Oz,even though he was only a kid at the time and there was really no way he could have stopped the Big Bad without getting himself killed.
- Japanese Pronouns: When he was young, Break convinced Gilbert that he had to start using 'Ore' in order to be more like his idols, Oscar and Oz. When Gil is older, he gets drunk and forgets which form of "I" to use. While he's going "Ore? Boku?" Break starts making hilarious suggestions like "washi" and "ora."
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Eliot. Some might say he's just a tsundere though.
- Arguably, Break. It's not always obvious that he does have a heart, but he's got his moments.
- Oz himself, particularly in that scene where he made Gil sign a contract making him officially his servant for life... the purpose of which was to cement the fact that Oz must always protect him, since a master's task is to take care of his servants. Oz was still a jerk about it.
- Kid Anova: Oz really likes younger girls. He occasionally comes off like Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club
- Kid With The Leash: Several contractors, Oz and the little girl they meet early on.
- Killer Rabbit: In white and black varieties.
- Knight Templar Younger Brother: Vincent.
- Knowledge Broker: Rufus Barma
- Laser Guided Amnesia: Conversely, Trauma Induced Amnesia.
- Les Yay: Sharon likes to dress Alice up and even got her to call her big sister.
- And there's also Lottie, Ada, and the poison. Not that I'm complaining, Heavens no!
- Lolicon: Kinda. Oz never misses a chance to flirt with younger girls, but he's 15, so....
- Though after escaping the abyss, he's technically 25, so there we have it.
- Jack and Alice, anyone? Although we don't really know her age, he refers to her as "a sweet, cute little girl" as well as a "very precious person".
- Lonely Rich Kid: The whole story pretty much starts as Oz being this.
- Love Makes You Evil: Most prominent examples are Glen who apparently lost it when his love, Lacie, died as a sacrifice to the abyss, and Vincent, although that's supposedly brotherly love. (Except this is Vincent.) Lottie also obeys Glen's every order out of love, and many other characters go through such a phase when a person they care about is in danger, often with scary results. See Oz in Cheshire's dimension, Break's past, Gil's issues with his Master, etc, etc.
- Manipulative Bastard: Rufus Barma, Vincent, Break (maybe)
- The Mad Hatter
- Marshmallow Hell: Done to Oz by Lottie, notably.
- Martyr Without A Cause: Oz
- Missing Mom: Lotta people. Mainly Oz, Eliot, and Sharon.
- Moe: Little Gilbert. And then Oz puts him in situations that only increase his moe-ness.
- More Than Mind Control: What Vincent pulled off with Gilbert in chapter 33 has elements of this.
- Must Have Nicotine: Gilbert has tried to quit smoking eight times but to no avail. A special manga omake even chronicled his ninth time trying to quit.
- Nakama: In volume eight, Alice uses this to refer to Oz, Gil, Break, and herself, while Oz and Gil snatch Break into a pseudo-group hug. It is adorable.
- My Death Is Just The Beginning: With both Jack Vessalius and Glen Baskerville.
- My Greatest Failure: Both Break and Gil's backstory have elements of this. Hell,this is practically their entire backstory.
- Names To Know In Anime: Akira Ishida voices Break in the anime.
- Necromantic: The goal of many an illegal contract, which usually fail to work and backfire horribly on the contractor.
- Nice Hat: Gilbert's hat is very becoming on him.
- There's also Break's chain, The Mad Hatter. However, although it is a nice looking hat, seeing it is not a good sign. Break himself sometimes sports one.
- Nightmare Fuel: Chains.
- Nostalgic Music Box: "Lacie," the song played by the watch Oz finds at the beginning of the series.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Break
- The Ojou: Sharon is a prime example of this, along with her mother and grandmother.
- Older Than They Look: Break and Sharon don't age during the ten year timeskip.
- Rufus Barma is a man in his seventies, but you wouldn't know by looking at him.
- Lottie and the rest of the Baskervilles seemed to apply, but Chapter 41 clarified that the Baskervilles fell into the Abyss 100 years ago and popped out in the present time - making them a normal age after all.
- Something like this also happened to Vincent and Gil, who were around eight and nine years old at the Tragedy of Sablier.
- Zwei/Echo seems to apply to this as well.
- Alice was alive and visually the same age a hundred years ago, too.
- One Sided Arm Wrestling
- Omake: Two manga Omake and 5 anime Omake's so far....
- Overprotective Dad: Subverted a bit with Oscar. (Don't ever tell him you think his precious niece Ada is Hawt.)
- Paper Fan Of Doom: Sharon, her mother and her grandmother. Don't even think about messing with the Rainsworth women.
- Hell, Sharon has dozens of them hidden in her dress all the time! In two colors, white and yellow!
- Parental Abandonment: Oz's dad sucks. A lot.
- Peek A Bangs: Break's bangs cover the left side of his face, but this is because his eye socket is empty. Cheshire's bangs cover the right side of his face. This is not a coincidence. He has Break's left eye.
- Pimped Out Dress
- Poisonous Friend: Gil isn't a very efficient one (yet), but he's terrified that he seems about to become one for Oz. What with those overprotective murderous urges, attempt to kill Alice and all... Oz had a moment when he wanted to be this for Alice and stop her suffering by killing her. Vince, though, is a very effective one for Gilbert, very much against Gil's will. Vince caused the Tragedy of Sablier in order to protect his brother.
- Power Trio: Oz, Alice, and Gilbert. Jack, Alice, and Glen.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Lottie, Fang and Dug
- Rapunzel Hair: Jack. A braid that long... fluttering in the wind?
- The Reason You Suck Speech: Eliot gave a nice, lengthy, angry one to Oz.
- Red Eyes Take Warning: Vincent was discriminated against one hundred years ago because of his red eye.
- Break has reddish eye color as well and during his time as an illegal contractor was known as The Red-Eyed Ghost.
- Rip Van Winkle: 10 years passed while Oz was in the Abyss.
- Room Full Of Crazy: Alice is in one when she first appears.
- Rules Of Orphan Economics: Jack pretty much randomly decides to adopt Vincent and Gilbert, making them his "servants" and just being incredibly kind and awesome and takes care of them until something goes horribly, horribly wrong: The Tragedy of Sablier.
- Screw The Rules I Have Connections: How Oz and the gang manage to get away with most of the stuff they do. (They work for Pandora)
- Serious Business: Gil really is very attached to his hat. Epic arm-wrestling ensues.
- Sinister Scythe: B-Rabbit uses a scythe. Later on, so does Oz himself, who offhandedly lampshades how, strangely, his body knows exactly how to use it.
- Slasher Smile: Lotta people. Especially the Baskervilles and Will of the Abyss.
- Smarter Than You Look: Oz is a lot more clever then he likes to let on.
- Smart People Play Chess: Vincent has one particular scene where he shows his badass-ness in a game of chess.
- Smoking Is Cool: Gil, who can often be seen with a cigarette in his mouth in angsty situations.
- Spell My Name With An S: Was it Bezalius or Vessalius? Bezarius?
- And is it Reo or Leo? Sharon, or Shalon? Elliot with double 'l's or with a single?
- Don't forget Sabrié, actually Sablier (meaning 'Hourglass' in French)
- Don't even get me started on 'Liam' vs 'Reim'...
- The official guidebook confirms each these as "Vessalius", "Leo", "Sharon", "Elliot", and "Reim", though subs and scanlations still do whatever suits the weather that day.
- Spot Of Tea: Break and Sharon are almost always drinking tea.
- Split At Birth: Alice and Will of the Abyss. Seriously.
- Stoic Spectacles: Heavily subverted with Reim, who in his constant flailing and panicking is anything but stoic.
- Sweet Tooth: Break and Sharon, but especially Break.
- Tear Jerker
- Third Person Person: Echo.
- Those Two Guys: Elliot and Leo. Their usually being in the same place at the same time is justified by Leo being Elliot's servant. It's likely they'll pop up in the plot of the story again, considering Elliot's ominous recurring nightmare and that he's heir to the Nightray house.
- As well as Elliot's claim to have composed Lacie.
- Toy Ship: Oz and Sharon? Alice? ...ECHO?
- Took A Level In Badass: Gilbert, it seems, after Oz has been gone for 10 years. But we quickly find out that he's not so much a badass as he is incredibly good at putting up a tough front. But still miles more badass than the timid little kid we start out with.
- Trauma Induced Amnesia: Several characters.
- Troubling Unchildhood Behavior: As a kid, Vincent like to chop dolls up with scissors, and he stabbed out the eyes of human!Alice's cat.
- Tsundere: Alice is a prime example.
- Sharon and Echo have tsundere qualities as well.
- Echo is really more of a kuudere, given that she's just deadpan rather than violent.
- Elliot is called a tsundere by the fanbase.
- Tug Lover War: Episode 17. "My master!" "No, my servant!"
- And then again in Ep. 20, this time with all parties involved drunk out of their minds.
- Uke: GILBERT. 'Nuff said.
- Unmoving Plaid: Sharon's dresses.
- Unsound Effect: All over the place. The very first page of the manga has "taking off glove" as a sound effect, for example.
- Voices Are Mental: When Oz is being possessed by Jack, he speaks with an adult voice.
- Well Done Son Guy: Oz.
- We Would Have Told You But: Episode 8. Break and the rest of Pandora use Oz, Gil, and Alice as bait to see what the Baskervilles would/could/are capable of doing.
- Where The Hell Is Springfield: Despite the heavy Victorian Era themes and the fact that a Big Ben replica appeared in the manga and the fact that "Sablier" means "hourglass" in french, it is never explicitly stated where the hell all these characters are from.
- White Haired Pretty Boy: Break
- White Haired Pretty Girl: Will of the Abyss, Echo.
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Gil fears cats. With a passion.
- Yandere: Lottie, Will of the Abyss definitely. Probably Oz as well. And Vincent.
- Gil's devotion has a pretty dark edge. Hinted early in; outright shown in chapter 33, where Vincent goads him into saying/resolving to kill anyone who hurts or snatches his master away from him - no matter who it is.
- Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Will of the Abyss. After reading her backstory,it's pretty hard not to feel sorry for her.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Vincent promises Break an antidote to cure Sharon if he destroy Alice's memories. When Break obeys, Vincent drops it off the balcony.
- You Should Know This Already: 10 years passed while Oz was in the Abyss, and Raven is Gilbert.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Break. Although he still looks young, he's essentially rotting on the inside and his two chains put an extremely heavy strain on him.
- Zettai Ryouiki: At times, Lotti.
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