"Oz Vessalius! Your sin... is your very existence!"
Oz Vessalius is a young boy with fatherissues who is about to come of age and be recognized as the heir to his family.But during his coming of age ceremony, Oz is attacked by the mysterious Baskervilles and is sent to the Abyss for the crime of 'existing.' There he meets an amnesiac being named Alice/B-Rabbit - a monster called a 'chain' who cannot leave the Abyss without making a contract with a human. Together, Oz and Alice make it out of the Abyss only to be met in the real world by three agents of Pandora who inform Oz that he has been missing for ten years instead of just a single day.Now a part of Pandora, Oz works with them to find illegal contractors, recover Alice's lost memories, and to unravel the mystery of who the Baskervilles are and why they sent him to the Abyss.Pandora Hearts is a manga by Mochizuki Jun, sponsored by Square Enix. It was made into an anime series airing in 2009. Yen Press is publishing the English language version of the manga for North America, and NIS America has announced their intent to localize the anime in a bid for new ground.WARNING: Major Alice in Wonderland allusions, ye with sanity be warned.
Gilbert and Vincent's parents can be considered this since they left the children on the streets where they were abused and mistreated until Jack found them.
Looks like Duke Nightray was like this as well, at least to the point of pretty much allowing his son to die, even though he easily could have stopped it. Lots of abusive parents in this series, huh?
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Gilbert has once given Alice one. An omake shows that she liked it so much that she did things like stealing some candy from Break just so he'd give her more.
Alas, Poor Yorick: Retrace LXX has a moment with Gilbert cradling Glen's head in his arms.
Arc Words: When you hear the phrase "A darkness that swallows up everything", you know something crucial to the plot is going on. It's been used to describe the Abyss, Leo's eyes, and Jack's view of the world.
When Gilbert has to crossdress to help solve the mystery in one of the drama CD stories. And how!◊
Also, in Chapter 48, Oz turns up in a maid outfit. Despite the fact that its not nearly as revealing as Gil's was in the first anime omake, it's certainly nosebleed-inducing.
Break appears in a fine ladies' outfit for a promo card from Animate.
And then there's the whole "Maid-ora Hearts" omake thing, in which everyone wears a maid outfit. Young Gil also does in at least one anime omake.
Author Avatar: In the form of a black cat with a mustache in the Author's Notes for each volume.
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, as all but one of whom were killed by a rival family. She did. Instead, they were betrayed again a few years later, and no one got out alive.
The Beautiful Elite: Oz, Alice, Gilbert, Break, Sharon, Jack, Vincent, Elliot... it'd be easier to name the people who don't fall under this.
Bilingual Bonus: Alice's battle theme, "Bloody Rabbit" is sung in Kajiura Yuki's own personal language, a mix of Spanish, Latin, Japanese, Italian, and whatnot. People refer to it as Kajiurian or Kajiurago.
Of the main cast, Gil, certainly, as well as Vincent and Jack. Most other young-ish male characters also count.
A notable example is Reim; 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.
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 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.
Break the Cutie: Happens (or has happened) to most of the cast. Much to the point that the housecat and his killer(s) are not spared.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: All the anime omake start off with the characters thanking the viewer for buying the DVD, usually with funny results, and eventually cut to where the film crew is standing nearby.
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 (Retrace XXVIII in the manga), right after Lutwidge, plays this straight.
Also played straight in Retrace XLVII: Unbirthday.
Brutal Honesty: The manga towards the readers in Retrace 60. Instead of a recap page, there was a black page with one simple statement written in white: "Elliot... he died."
Butt Monkey: Gilbert. He 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".
Gil tried to do this for Oz, but it doesn't work at all. At the end of the anime, Oz finally does it himself by giving Alice enough power to one-shot Gryphon.
Vincent did this to Duke Nightray after Elliot's death.
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.
Gil in the anime, who was almost attacked by a hoard of frothing horny schoolgirls while in Lutwidge Academy.
To a lesser extent in the manga, too. Retrace 49 has a horde of noble females swarming around him and Vincent. We already knew Vincent was this as well, but this time we see them well-dressed at a noble party. All the girls are happy, inside and outside the universe.
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.
Chapter LI reveals that the Baskervilles were chosen by the golden lights of the Abyss.
Alice in B-rabbit form. Or Oz when he's playing with that scythe.
Or Gil, if it has something to do with Oz, like when he tried to kill Alice in Retrace 35 since Alice was "snatching away his beloved master", or in Retrace XIX when he pointed his gun at Jack for sending Oz to look for Alice
Cooldown Hug: Alice does this to Oz in Retrace 44.
Conveniently an Orphan: Vincent and Gilbert's parents are mentioned twice, and they never say if they had any other family that could have cared for them.
Creepy Child: Vincent in flashbacks. Oz when "gathering information." The children of the House of Fianna, who have been simultaneously brainwashed into forgetting their Dark and Troubled Pastand made into the contractors of Humpty Dumpty by having them drink his blood. Duke Nightray has a lot to answer for...
Cute and Psycho: Many characters, even without being Yandere, can still manage to be rather frightening. Notable examples are Lily and Lacie.
Dark Is Not EvilandLight 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.
Dream Melody: If someone's playing "Lacie", it's a cue to pay attention to them. Just make sure you're looking at the right person.
Dysfunction Junction: 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, is amnesiac, 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. This is only touching the main cast.
Early-Bird Cameo: Young Elliot and Leo appear in episode 11, where they both see Gilbert first entering the Nightray mansion. The latter also counts as an Adaptation Induced Plot Hole due to their meeting actually taking place far later than that.
The Faceless: Jack (at first), the Headhunter, until Retrace 61, the Chain "Raven", of which we only get to see feathers until Retrace 55, and Lacie until Retrace 65.
Foreshadowing: That official picture of Jack, dressed in black and kissing the hand of an unknown person, has gained LAYERS of meaning since the traumatic revelations of Retrace 65. The mangaka, when asked, stated that who the hand belongs to "is of no consequence". Also, the official art of Gilbert obsessively cradling a skull has become a lot more sinister in light of recent chapters.
There happens to be a website dedicated to the symbolism in the official pictures.
Oz will probably look exactly like Jack in a few years, and Sharon looks like a shrunken version of her mother.
Probably justified in Oz's case in that apparently, his body IS Jack's body. The existence known as "Oz" is actually the chain B-Rabbit.
Alice resembles Lacie, who turns out to be her mother.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: You're not allowed to show minors drinking alcohol on Japanese TV, so they got around this by cheekily pointing out that, due to messed up aging and so forth, all of the are old enough to drink even though they don't look it. Or not human in the case of Alice and the doll.
Girl in the Tower: Alice 100 years ago, so much. Before her was Lacie.
Grand Theft Me: Retrace XXXIX shows that Glen has no permanent body of his own and must possess others to continue ruling the Baskerville household. Gilbet was lucky enough to evade this fate 100 years ago.
Subverted in Retrace LXVIII. Turns out that "Glen" is merely a title given to the leader of the Baskerville family, contracted to all the necessary Chains, and thus has the authority and power to meet with the Will of the Abyss personally. Potential "Glens" are determined by an unknown set of criteria, but it appears that there's a direct correlation between being related to a potential "Glen" by blood and being a "Child of Misfortune".
As of chapter 65, Jack has taken complete control of Oz's body and used it to stab Leo with one of B-Rabbit's chains.
Also strangely averted in chapter 70 in that, apparently, it was Jack's body all along.
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.
Harmful Healing: Played with, in a way. The reason why Elliot is a Humpty Dumpty contractor is that Leo made him drink its blood to 'forget' (read: erase) the mortal wounds Elliot received while they were looking for the children in Sablier. When Elliot remembered those forgotten memories, the wounds came back.
Lottie's pupils make it easy to tell that she's creepy.
Zwei seems to have similar pupils. As does Leo.
Healing Potion: Vincent bribes Break with an antidote after he poisons both Sharon and Echo... and then, to prove the antidote works, Vincent gives Echo said potion by frenching her.
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 Retrace XLII, one of Jack's dismembered arms is shown.
Retrace LXV reveals that it's not Jack's, but Glen's body that got split (his head was in one of the Sealing Stones).
Elliot rejecting Humpty Dumpty despite his Incuse being one quarter from completion comes to mind, as well.
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.
In Spite of a Nail: Break, when he was still Kevin Regnard, asked the Intention of the Abyss to prevent the massacre that killed the family. However, they still die later on due to his absence.
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.
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.
Leo seems to feel this way with Elliot's death, as well as other things, as of recent chapters.
I Work Alone: Sharon calls Break "Mr. One-Man-Show" because of this.
Japanese Pronouns: When Gilbert was young, Break convinced him 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," "ora," and "gil-gil."
Elliot. Some might say he's just a tsundere though. By Retrace XL or so it's fair to say that Elliot is a much nicer guy than he wants to show.
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.
Lecherous Licking: Several examples; see the trope page for details.
Let's Get Dangerous: Break. He even says "time to get serious" at one point in the anime, which Alice takes as her cue to GTFO without needing further instruction. Every time he puts on his game face (usually by whipping out the Mad Hatter, though revealing the concealed sword does the trick too), everyone craps their pants, but the sudden air of panic is no damper whatsoever to his flamboyant attitude. He still snarfs candy and talks with hearts in his speech bubbles as he watches his opponents slowly bleed to death.
Like Father, Like Son: Alice (physical appearance, falling for a Vessalius, being locked in a tower) and the Will of the Abyss (physical appearance, psychotic tendencies) to their mother Lacie.
Kinda. Oz never misses a chance to flirt with younger girls. In appearance, he looks 15, but after escaping the abyss, he's technically 25. Then there's Jack and Alice. Although Alice's real age is not fully confirmed, she is hinted to have been 13 before her death and transformation into a chain (she appears to be 13 mentally and physically, but is technically 113), Jack refers to her as "a sweet, cute little girl" and "very precious person."
It's eventually revealed Oz is technically over a hundred years old, having originally been a sentient stuffed rabbit owned by Lacie and later Alice. On the other hand, he doesn't remember any of it.
Glen/Revis probably counts. Lacie was a young adult when he impregnated her, but in flashbacks, she still appeared to be a prepubescent when he asked for her participation in his "experiment."
Lonely Rich Kid: The whole story pretty much starts as Oz being this.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Quite a few, most noticeably Vincent and Jack, with his braid. Leo and Rufus Barma also count, along with Break, who had a ponytail right after being spit out of the Abyss, and Gilbert, whose hair is at least long enough to tie back.
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. Oz seems to also be heading this way with Alice and Leo with Elliot as of recent chapters.
As of Chapter 65 this may be subverted with Glen, and played straight for Jack.
Magic Pants: When Alice turns into her rabbit form, not only do her clothes grow with her, but her miniskirt turns into a pair of pants! (Probably justified by magic.)
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.
Nostalgic Music Box: "Lacie," the song played by the watch Oz finds at the beginning of the series.
Vincent, during Retrace XLVI, as can be seen here.
Happens again in Retrace LXI. He even comments that "It's not like me... to get carried away like this."
Number One Dime: Gilbert treasures his hat. When it gets lost in an early chapter, Gilbert forces Oz and Alice to help him and is desperate to find it. In Retrace 24, it's revealed Ada gave it to him.
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 LXI 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 time of the Tragedy of Sablier.
Alice was alive and visually the same age a hundred years ago, too.
Oz can technically be considered twenty-five years old. Except that he was originally a pair of stuffed rabbits owned by Lacie. If you count his age from the time he was given sentience by the Abyss, he's over a hundred years old.
If you consider this by year of birth, the only major characters who aren't in some way Older than They Look are Oscar, Reim, Zai, Ada, and Lady Rainsworth.
As of Chapter 49, with the reveal that Reim is a contractor, it seems likely that he is this, too.
Overprotective Dad: Oscar, who may not be Ada's real father but treats Ada like his own daughter. In Retrace 24, he is outraged that Ada is "in love with someone," and drags Oz, Gilbert, and Alice to help look for Ada in her school in Lutwidge and find out just who she has a crush on. Though hints point to either Gil (treasuring the hat that Ada gave him) or Elliot (as she was disappointed that she couldn't return his school bag to him), it later seemingly turns out to be Vincent.
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!
Not to mention Gil and Vincent's parents, who abandoned them on the streets because of Vincent's red eye.
Worse than that, it seems like their mother sold them to a circus.
Peek-a-Bangs: Break's bangs cover the left side of his face because his left 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.
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.
Vincent, Break, and Cheshire all have... well, one red eye each. Vincent was discriminated one hundred years ago because of it. Break was known as "The Red-Eyed Ghost" during his time as an illegal contractor. Cheshire is a villain, and his eye was originally Break's.
Oz gets these in Retrace LVI when he used B-Rabbit's power.
Lacie, according to Retrace LXVI.
Relax-o-Vision: In the sixth DVD special, the intro to the Omake does this.
Rip Van Winkle: The Abyss tends to do this to whoever is able to escape it.
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.
And then in Retrace LXV Gil is revealed to be Glen's servant.
The revelation that Lacie and Glen (the black-haired one we know whose name is Oswald, that is) are actually brother and sister has debunked quite a lot of fics that pair the two as lovers.
Ada/Gilbert was sunk when it was revealed that the person the former was dating was Vincent, of all people.
Oz/Alice are the prominent example. They are also the closest to an Official Couple. And there's Oz/Sharon which is more of a fleeting crush and Oz/Echo. Worth noting that most if not all Oz ships aside from Oz/Alice constitutes of Oz putting on his flirty disposition.
Also, Sharon/Break, Elliot/Leo, Ada/Vincent although that treads into Official Couple, Gilbert/Oz, Jack/Alice, Break/Alice, Gilbert/Alice, and Reim/Lily with a side of Squick.
Jack/Lacie has been teased since Retrace LXV. It is one-sided on the former's part and ambiguous on whether the latter reciprocates or not. Retrace LXXI implies and Retrace LXXII confirms that Lacie reciprocated Jack's feelings.
Shotacon: Break constantly teases Sharon about how she likes "younger boys," much to her protest.
Shoot the Dog: In Retrace LXIX, it is revealed that Oswald, upon becoming the next Glen Baskerville, was forced to do this to his younger sister Lacie by tossing her into the abyss. It was mentioned that all the other Glens with Children of Misfortune as siblings were forced to do this as well.
Rearrange the name "Alice" and you'd get the name "Lacie," the one who drove Jack out of his depression and the supposed lover of Glen Baskerville whose death drove him insane/evil. The significance hasn't been revealed yet, but given the Mind Screw nature of the series, and the fact that the name Lacie was used by Lewis Carrol to refer to the original Alice in his books, it can't be a coincidence.
In Retrace LVII, another character named Celia is mentioned.
It turns out that Lacie is Alice's mother.
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. Break sometimes pulls these, too.
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)
Or 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.
Those Two Guys: Elliot and Leo start out as this, with their usually being in the same place at the same time justified by Leo being Elliot's servant; in later chapters, they completely break out of it by 1) gaining large scenaristic importance, and 2) one of them getting Killed Off for Real.
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.
The Abyss' power can turn even humans into chains. Results include the aforementioned example on Body Horror and Alice, who used to be human before somehow becoming B-Rabbit.
Humpty Dumpty, who used to be one of the previous Glens before having that body abandoned in order to take over Oswald.
We Would Have Told You, But...: Retrace VI and 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.
Pop out here and there, especially as of late, but most notable is Retrace LXV: Collapse. Or, more appropriately, seventy pages of the status quo getting ground to itsy bitsy pieces.
Oh, that doesn't even begin to cover it. This is the sort of WHAM that literally invalidates everything we thought we knew.
Then we have Retrace LXX: Oz. Poor Oz faces the Tomato in the Mirror problem. Or, more specifically, the Rabbit In The Mirror...
When She Smiles: In which Alice smiles and does cute things, Oz blushes and/or laughs, and Oz's feelings towards Alice grow.
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" and "Reveille" could mean "clock" or "to wake" (depending on the spelling/accent) in French, it is never explicitly stated where the hell all these characters are from.
Whole Episode Flashback: More like a Whole Arc Flashback, starting from Retrace 66, though Retraces 70 and 72 do take some time to look at the present for some moments.
With Friends Like These: Applies to a lot of cast in different ways, but the most for Reim, who is stuck with dubious pleasure of being Break's closest friend (or, at least, they seem to know the most about each other, what with Reim working out Break had gone blind pretty quickly.) Apparently that means he gets to do Break's paperwork, chase him around to attempt to make him DO said paperwork in the first place, be the butt of a number of Break's schemes and jokes, and, on a more sombre note, gets to watch him waste away and die.Lucky him.
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.
As of Retrace L, Leo is also one. Stating that "If Elliot has an enemy, no matter who he may be, I'll kill him! Even, for example, if it is you [Oz] or even myself."
"Alice, don't cry. Whoever makes you sad, whoever hurts you, I will destroy them. All of them...With my own hands!" Said with an unsettling smile meant to reassure little Alice.
He was already Yandere for her from back when he almost tore apart the Abyss in order to get rid of everything that hurts Alice and causes fear within her, including Alice herself. He even calls Alice his sun.
Jack to Lacie: "Lacie, whoever you are, I don't care... Because your presence here right now... is the only thing that ties me, Jack Vessalius, to the world." As of Retrace LXXII, he plans to bring the world to Lacie because she loves the world so much.
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.
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