A
Kaori Yuki manga set in a dark Victorianesque world, the series centres around a young Earl, Cain Hargreaves. Cain is seventeen, apparently orphaned, rich and eccentric. Unfortunately, his family past will allow him no peace.
Everybody in Cain's family, we are told, has a habit of studying poisons, and Cain is no different. With the aid of his trusted manservant Riff, he uses his knowledge of poisons to seek justice for murder victims, usually by poisoning the murderer. Both halves of the series (see below) begin with murder mystery short stories that Cain investigates before launching in to longer storylines concerning issues close to Cain himself.
Like any good
Crime and Punishment series,
Count Cain brings up just about every kink under the sun. It has
gothic sensibilities, as well as
bad steampunk science.
Abusive Parents,
Incest, and
Magnificent Bastards are a staple. Blood, death, tragedy, and madness also abound.
The series was originally split into two halves, as the creator took a break to work on another series,
Angel Sanctuary. The first part consists of four arcs collected in five volumes, entitled
Count Cain. The second, done some years later, is eight volumes long and entitled
Godchild.
This series provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream: Rebbeca's dolls
- Anti-Hero
- Arranged Marriage
- Art Evolution: The art has changed a lot from the first volume to the fifth; then Yuki Kaori took a break from Cain to work on Angel Sanctuary and when she took up Cain again, the art style was almost completely different from where she'd left off. The mangaka herself even makes note of this in one of the sidebars in Godchild.
- Author Appeal: Brother-Sister Incest, Ho Yay, Foe Yay...
- Ax Crazy
- Battle Butler: Riff, subverted when he has his Face Heel Turn.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: subverted hard in "Scold's Bridle".
- Best Served Cold
- Big Screwed-Up Family: Like you wouldn't believe. The only one who gets off lightly is Merryweather, and that's because she turns out to not really be Alexis' daughter after all.
- Bittersweet Ending: More of the "bitter" variety.
- Brainwashed
- Brainwashed and Crazy
- Break the Cutie: Jizabel's backstory.
- Broken Bird: Mikaela... well... when she's not in her Yandere mode (and gosh then you just wanna hug her). Also Cain was this A LOT when younger. He Got Better.
- Brother-Sister Incest
- Cain and Abel: Ironically enough, Cain is the Abel to his illegimate and completely psychopathic half-brother, Jizabel.
- Cartwright Curse
- The Chessmaster
- Cute Shotaro Boy: Emile.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Emmeline, to a certain extent.
- Did Not Do the Research: Siobhan the French maid, among other things. See Lost in Translation entry below.
- Disguised in Drag: Cain
- Disposable Woman
- Distressed Damsel: Most of the sympathetic female characters end up like this at one point.
- Doomed Appointment: Neil in "Zigeunerweisen".
- Dysfunction Junction: Most of the cast.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Merryweather, plus half the female characters Cain encounters.
- Face Heel Turn: Riff.
- Foe Yay: Cain and Jizabel.
- Freudian Excuse: Averted. Cain would have some justification in invoking it, but he never does. Also averted with Jizabel; the excuse isn't so much "excuse" as it is the actual base of Jizabel's's plot. His abuse isn't just a past event to spur revenge, but an actual plot point for the story and an ongoing point of development.
- Gender Blender Name: Apparently, Kaori Yuki thinks the name 'Cassandra', Jezebel and Gloria are unisex.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Cain's scars, while horrific, are easily hidden; the villain in "Scold's Bridle" has hers on her face and wears a mask to hide them.
- Heel Face Turn: Riff, among others.
- Hollywood Science
- Ho Yay: Cain and Riff, most obviously, along with Jizabel and Cassian... And Cassandra.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: subverted with Cain and Riff.
- In the Blood
- Ironic Nursery Tune
- The Jeeves: Riff but subverted when it's revealed that he is even more mentally unstable than Cain is.
- Jesus Taboo
- Kill 'Em All: Nearly all the minor characters introduced end up dead.
- Knife Throwing Act: Cassian was sold to the circus and performed in one of these for some time. During the series his main weapon remains throwing knives. (Not a very practical primary weapon in real life.)
- Living Doll Collector: Rebecca in "The Little Crooked House."
- Lolicon: A few examples.
- London Town: Where The Streets Are Paved With Excrement version. It is Victoriana, after all.
- Lost in Translation: Some examples are: Merryweather =/= Mary Weather, "primrose" = "prom rose", Baraba company =/= Barabba company named after the thief. For Lucia =/= Rukia =/= Lukia, the mangaka talked about St. Lucia in her freetalk.
- Love Hurts
- Love Martyr: Merryweather, in "The Little Crooked House".
- Mad Love
- Mad Scientist
- Man Child: Gilford.
- Manchurian Agent
- Master Poisoner: Due to his...unusual...hobbies, Earl Cain Hargreaves of Godchild is very knowledgeable in-and collects-poisons.
- Meganekko: Majorie.
- Naïve Everygirl: Merryweather.
- Not Brainwashed
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Cain.
- Older than They Look: Cassian.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Invoked and then subverted, twice in Godchild. Cain doesn't seem to realize that he really should disguise himself more properly before walking into enemy base... Just what made him think it would be okay to just wear glasses after his blonde wig attempt had failed so much earlier?
- Pimped Out Dress: Every single one.
- Princess Curls: Plenty.
- Psycho Serum
- Rape Is Love: Subverted in that the assault drove the victim mad. Further subvertd in that it wasn't really rape and the victim actually planned and provoked it herself for her own sick purposes.
- In a less confusing and way more spoileriffic explanation: Alexis while feeling attracted to his sister, merely threatened to rape Augusta to scare her and drive her away. He didn't realize that Augusta 1) Was way more wicked than he ever was 2) Knew perfectly well that he had the hots for her 3) Reciprocated the attraction completely. Cue Augusta taking her brother's hand in a very suggestive way the exact moment he was trying to forget the subject. The rest is history .
- Rapunzel Hair: Almost all the female characters. Also, Jizabel.
- Royally Screwed Up
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Jizabel.
- Shown Their Work: Kaori Yuki likes to point out that she often has done the research...and jettisoned it in favour of a more interesting development which might otherwise be prevented.
- Spell My Name with an S: Jizabel/Jezebel/Jezabel/Jessebelle...
- Split Personality
- Stuffed into the Fridge
- Tarot Motifs: Delilah. Used incorrectly at some points, and correctly in others.
- There Are No Therapists - SUBVERTED. Because literally, it's Victorian London. Do you have any idea what mental health "care" was like then?
- Together in Death: Riff and Cain. Or is it?
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid:Jizabel.
- We Can Rule Together: Alexis to Cain.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Cain, during the 6th volume of Godchild, minus the accent. He doesn't speak since, well, despite being beautiful like a woman, he sounds very much like a man. His disguise that way is really convincing, and nobody suspects a thing. It was already too late when mayor Gloria did realize who that beautiful woman truly was .
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
- Wife Husbandry: Oscar and Merryweather.
- Yaoi Guys: Riff and Cain.
- Yandere: Mikaila. Oh god, Mikaila. Anyone who get between her and Cain would meet a horrible death in the form of poisonous spiders.
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