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Music / Sound Horizon

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/72735a88tw1e4cr9agrhhj20xh19y7f5.jpg
Revo, the leader of the band—um, Kingdom of Sound Horizon, sitting in all his majestic glory. note 

Although we do not share
The same place of birth
We embrace the same homeland in our hearts
And crown the same Kingwait, who? 
Laurant! Laurant!
Gloria! Oh... Gloria!
Sound Horizon Kingdom!
Gloria! Oh... Gloria!
Sound Horizon Kingdom!
— The band's anthem.

Sound Horizon is a Japanese band consisting of songwriter Revo and some other people (who tend to vary from one album to the next). Their albums are nearly all Concept Albums, if not Rock Operas, usually with fantasy or science fiction themes. The creator of the band has also done an image album for Gunslinger Girl (translations of which can be found here), an Image Album for the Leviathan manga, a theme song for Atelier Iris 3, the soundtrack for Bravely Default, Bravely Default II, and the opening song for the anime adaptation of Attack on Titan (the latter three under the brand Linked Horizon). They are known for their play-like live performances, and lots of foreign languages.

They have quite a following in Asia (including South Korea and Taiwan), and numerous fan-made music videos have been made to their songs.

As of this writing (2016), almost all of the band's major albums note  have been adapted into manga form by various artists such as Yukimaru Katsura, Sakura Kinoshita (of Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok fame), and Arisaka Ako. Elysion and Roman have also been adapted into novels penned by Ao Juumonji on February 2014 and February 2016, respectively.

In the world of revolving horizons, the following <terminologies of story-telling> [examples] are used:

    open/close all folders 

     The Band in General 
  • Album Title Drop: From Lost onwards usually it goes by this formula, with some degree of variation:
    Narrator: "[Briefly describes the album's general concept]. The __th Horizon. [Title Drop]."
  • All There in the Manual: Some instrumental pieces (such as "Yaneura no Shoujo" and "Raijin no Sawan") have lyrics printed in the CD booklets, not to mention that many of their songs will have references to songs or storylines in other albums.
  • Alternate Character Reading: Every fucking song. Makes a natural translation very difficult.
  • Audience Participation Song: Many of the songs. Some of them are "Asa to Yoru no Monogatari", "Yield" "Hiiro no Fuusha" and "Sunawachi... Hikari wo mo nigasanu ankoku no Chou← Juu↓ Ryoku↑".
  • Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Revo, usually.
  • Battle Cry: Originating from Roman, this has since become one of Sound Horizon's Running Gag, present in every single subsequent releases. Here's a list for you, complete with a short explanation regarding the identity of each general:
    • Roman, "Miezaru Ude": After General Alvarez! note 
    • Seisen no Iberia, "Arasoi no Keifu": After General Ramirez! note 
    • Moira, "Shiseru Eiyuutachi no Tatakai -Heromachia-": After General Amethystos! note 
    • A 3rd Territorial Expansion Tour live-only song, "Umi wo Watatta Conquistadores": After General Cortés! note 
    • Märchen, "Kuroki Okami no Yado": After General Gefenbauer!note 
    • Halloween to Yoru no Monogatari, "Hoshi no Kirei na Yoru": After General Taylor! note 
    • Nein, "Namida de wa Kesenai Honoo": After General Laurencin! note 
  • Bilingual Bonus: The lyrics given in the CD booklets are all in Japanese, but parts are usually sung in another language (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek...). These foreign language bits often have a slightly (or very) different meaning from the lyrics as written in Japanese.
  • Character as Himself: Revo is typically credited by the name of the character he plays in the album.
  • Character Overlap: As least implied character overlap. To list a few:
    • Abyss shows up briefly in Roman as the man who kills Loraine de Saint-Laurant's lover.
    • Moira has a minor character called Orph who suspiciously resembles Orpheus.
    • Elysion features Old Rose, the one-eyed "Crimson Witch" who was banished to the forest. Cut to Märchen, in which a red-clad witch with one eye covered by her hair called Alte Rose ("Old Rose" in German) appears...
    • "Yaneura Roman" all but confirms that Michèle Malebranche has trapped Hiver in a deadly Eternal Recurrence much like the one she suffers.
  • Cool Shades: If Revo isn't dressed as one of the album characters, he's wearing these.
  • Costume Porn: Revo enjoys himself some fancy outfits. The singer girls definitely also deserve a mention; it would be a crime not to, because their seriously pretty dresses can make one drool in envy. These are◊ but◊ a few◊ examples◊.
  • Death of the Author: Invoked by Revo's infamous declaration of, "All interpretations are valid."
  • Door-Closes Ending: In the fourth horizon, five of the songs end with the sound of a heavy door (or, perhaps, a gate) being closed. Fans often interpret this as being the sound of the gates to paradise closing.
  • Epic Rocking: Quite a few in their story albums. Märchen, for example, has a grand total of one song ("Gyoukou no Uta") under six minutes.
  • Eternal Recurrence: One of the band's most prominent themes is how people are damned to forever repeat history. Most of their bonus tracks will end with a snippet of their respective album's first track, all but stating that the characters are trapped in an inescapable loop. This trope is famously defied by Nein, since one of its two protagonists altered the course of history to a degree unexpected by many, and the other was motivated to break free of the loop by an alternate universe incarnation of Revo.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: It was Sublime, the band's erstwhile French narrator, who provided those seductive whispers in Roman's "Miezaru Ude" and "Tasogare no Kenja".
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: For just one example, going by "The Witch and Lafrenze" and "Princess Sleeping in a Rose-Covered Tower," Sleeping Beauty's daughter is abandoned and raised by the fairy who cursed Sleeping Beauty. Eventually, she falls in love with Orpheus, but is used by him, so she curses him so that his Orphean Rescue will fail.
  • Gamebooks: The 2021 single Ema ni Negai wo! was relased on Bluray, rather than cd. This was done as a way to let the listener choose their own route through the songs. As it is only a Prologue Edition there is only one choice to make, which determines which song you get to hear later on. But there are several different versions of some of the tracks and it's random which one you get on each replay. Also, there's a special track with a lower probability of being played and each time a song starts, there's a 0.1% chance that you'll get a version where the character dies.
  • Genre Mashup: Don't be surprised takes a brief turn from Symphonic Metal to jazz in the middle of a song.
  • Genre Roulette
  • Hidden Track: An age-old tradition since the band's infancy. From Roman onwards, they can be unlocked by solving a certain puzzle. Seisen no Iberia's has become a Riddle for the Ages for years because its solution defies logic itself, and so nobody has ever gotten a chance to listen to it.
  • Info Dump: Many, many instances in Chronicle 2nd, due to the album's concept as a massive historical record. Its narrator can take up a good few minutes of one song explaining its plot's background, and a few (most notably "Seisen to Shinigami -Rekishi wo Tsumugumono-" and "Aoi Me no Kaizoku") can practically be called short drama CDs due to the minimum presence of actual singing.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Some of the albums can feel like this.
  • The Klutz: Revo - just ask the other members.
    Mio: What I like most about [Revo] is that he falls down a lot.
  • Large Ham: Jimang. If there's an over the top character in a song, you can bet he's the one playing him (or, in one case, her).
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: As of late Revo fancies having smooth, billowy long hair that seems to change style every month. He's just that kind of guy, you see. Case◊ in point◊.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: A lot of the songs fall to this category, although it's not so extreme in the recent albums. Most obvious example is "Yurikago", "Yield", "Koibito wo Uchiotoshita Hi", "Stardust", etc, etc.
  • Mind Screw: This is what the stories may seem like sometimes. The greatest offender of all may be Roman, due to how the album's plot is structured.
  • Mood Whiplash: Changing the mood of a song on a whim seems to be Revo's hobby recently. It began to show first in Moira, became more prominent in Märchen, and came to be in full effect in Nein. Predictably, fan reactions are...mixed.
  • New Sound Album: Many fans agree that Roman heralded Sound Horizon's "Second Era", in which the songs began to gradually become less experimental like it did in Aramary's era to better attract newcomers. (Notable examples: multiple new singers are hired to better accomodate for Revo's wide array of ranges, the duration and presence of spoken dialogues are massively minimized, more emphasis are put on singing for storytelling rather than info dumping in the narrations like the case with Chronicle 2nd, and Lyrical Dissonance is increasingly avoided.)
  • Only One Name: Revo, Jimang, Aramary, and a large number of the vocalists (REMI, MIKKI, KAORI, etc.)
  • Rearrange the Song: Frequently in their live shows, sometimes out of necessity (as with all of the Aramary songs), but mostly just because they can.
    Revo: So why is REMI singing Utsukushiki Mono? Because she said she wanted to. And Hiiro no Fuusha's violin solo was changed to Acchan's bass solo since he wanted to do it. This is something new we tried this time. We don't need consistency!
  • Revolving Door Band
  • Self-Backing Vocalist: Most prominently during the Aramary era.
  • Shown Their Work: Although most Sound Horizon stories are ostensibly supposed to take place in a fantasy world, Revo inserts a lot of random Western history into the songs. They are sometimes viewed through the lens of Japanese sensibility, but the research is superbly spot-on, considering how...liberal Japanese media can be with history, especially Western ones.
  • Song Style Shift: Particularly in post-Aramary songs.
  • Spoken Word in Music: In recent times the presence of this has been greatly minimized, limited to short narrations and faint dialogues spoken in the background while the singer is performing. In Aramary's era this trope can take up minutes, with several being composed of nothing but narration/dialogues. Chronicle 2nd is the worst offender of this trope, and "Baroque" from Elysion is composed almost entirely of the protagonist's monologue.
  • Supergroup: In a fashion. Revo frequently borrows singers, musicians and voice actors for the band. These include everyone from Saki Fujita/Hatsune Miku to Norio Wakamoto to Marty Friedman to Motoi Sakuraba.
  • The Band Minus the Face: Averted. Sound Horizon gained even more popularity after Aramary left. Although, there are of course still those who believe that the band died with her.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: The Law of Conservation of Detail is in full effect in this band's songs; you are expected to be astute enough to be able to spot them all and form your own interpretation of their meanings. What's awesome is that it doesn't matter if yours are different from others; there's a reason Revo almost never gave us a single Word of God.

Story Albums/Singles:

     Chronicle 

  • All There in the Manual: If you want to know what these instrumental songs mean, you'll have to read the lyrics booklet.
  • Bittersweet Ending: While the world will end like the Black Chronicle foretells, there's a hidden message on its back cover that says the world will be reborn.
  • Blessed with Suck: The girl doll in "Shoujo Ningyou" has the ability to foresee the future. Unfortunately, this only makes her mother use her as a tool to grab cash.
  • Broken Bird: The girl doll, treated by her mothers as nothing but a money-grabbing scheme.
  • Determinator: The mother of the King of Rime from "Juhjyou no Kun ~Itetsuita Majo~" is very close to having a frostbite, but she will not stop walking, all for her baby son's safety.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: What the Black Chronicle prophesizes will occur.
  • Eternal Recurrence: As detailed in "Kimi ga Umarete Kuru Sekai"
    "History repeats itself. Don’t ever forget that. History repeats itself. You can’t ever forget that…"
  • For Doom the Bell Tolls: "Run, it's coming. The bells that toll in announcement of the finale, the flood of the end."
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: The Queen in "Shijin Ballad no Higeki" executes a hapless poet because his poem for her sounds too ambiguous to be taken as a compliment.
  • An Ice Person: The King of Rime, duh.
  • Mystical White Hair: The King of Rime is drawn with snow-white hair, Icy Blue Eyes, and dull gray skin.
  • Snow Means Death: In "Juhjyou no Kun ~Itetsuita Majo~", the witch finally froze to death, but not before saving her son from the same fate, turning him into the King of Rime.
  • Start of Darkness: The events occurring in "Alberge no Tatakai" can be taken as the start of Albers Alvarez's descent into the ruthless warmonger of a man he is in Chronicle 2nd.
  • Time Capsule: "Kimi ga Umarete Kuru Sekai" is a letter to those who will live in the new world written by those that lived in the one before it.
  • Tomes of Prophecy and Fate: The Black Chronicle.
  • Waif Prophet: The girl doll.
  • A World Half Full: In "Kimi ga Umarete Kuru Sekai."
    Your eyes shall reflect… Both beautiful things and ugly things, all of them…

     Thanatos 

     Lost 
  • Benevolent Genie: "Mahoutsukai Sarabanto". And she's really happy to be let out of the lamp she was imprisoned in for so long.
  • Catchphrase: "Wasuremono wa arimasen ka...?" ("Haven't you forgotten something...?"), repeated in nearly, if not in every, track of the CD.
  • Madness Mantra: "Yurusanai ... yurusanai ..." ("Unforgivable ... unforgivable ...") at the beginning and the end of "Hiiro no Hana".
  • Ominous Music Box Tune: "Eien no Shounen"
  • Staking the Loved One: "Koibito wo Uchiotoshita Hi"
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: "Koibito wo Uchiotoshita Hi"
  • This Is Unforgivable!: This phrase is repeated over and over at the beginning and the end of "Hiiro no Hana".
  • Together in Death: After the protagonist of "Koibito wo Uchiotoshita Hi" slays the monster that used to be her lover, she uses the last arrow she has to kill herself.

     Pico Magic Reloaded 
  • Abusive Parents: Keeping your child chained in the attic sounds pretty abusive.
  • And I Must Scream: Michèle Malebranche, in Christopher Jean-Jacques Saint-Laurent's professional opinion.
    "She probably wanted to escape The narrow cage she was trapped in... To the point of monomania. ...but, regrettably her wish was not granted during her lifetime. ...and even now, one century after her death, she is still within that cage..."
  • Apocalypse Maiden: Rein.
    The moment that the girl’s closed eyes open, the world will bear witness to the worst kind of lunatic dream it can fantasize…a cruel reaper[god]…
  • Blood Sucking: Michèle Malebranche
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: In "Yaneura no Shoujo"
  • Gratuitous English: "They there said reloaded!"
  • Nonindicative Name: "Pico Magic" isn't exactly the sort of name you'd expect an album about a torturous, inescapable cycle of death to have - It also has little to no connection to the first Pico Magic.
  • Recurring Riff: All tracks of the "cage trilogy" ("Yaneura no Shoujo", "Ori no naka no Yuugi", and "Ori no naka no Hana") all have a riff in common, indicating they're all part of the same story. This also connects them to Roman, as the later album has a bonus track that also shares the riff.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Implied in "Ori no naka no Hana".
  • That One Case: Or, more accurately, Those Three Cases (all relating to Michèle Malebranche) in "Ori no naka no Hana".
  • 13 Is Unlucky: In "Ori no naka no Hana", the shriveled body of Michèle Malebranche is found under the decomposing corpses of thirteen young boys.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It's pretty easy to see why Michèle Malebranche is so screwed up.

     Chronicle 2nd 
  • Anachronic Order: The chapters of the Black Chronicle (and thus history) isn't necessary recited in the correct order.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: We have Chronica, the incarnation of the Black Chronicle who narrates for a fair amount of the songs.
  • Black Cloak: The uniform for members of the Black Order.
  • The Call Put Me on Hold: The boy in "Raijin no Keifu" lacks the emblem on his right arm that all of the other villagers bear, as well as the power that comes with it. It turns out that this is because he has the Thunder God's actual arm, though he needs the help of The Chief's Daughter to use it and not kill himself in the process.
  • Character Development: Arbelge at first seems like a ruthless warrior, as far as receiving the title as the Reaper, but later turned into a good man after saving a girl injured by his fellow soldier.
  • The Chief's Daughter: in "Raijin no Keifu", though she ends up saving the hero instead of the other way around.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: Lucia was taken into the cult for this reason.
  • Cycle of Revenge: Arbelge asks the young girl he saves to kill him, as that's the only way he can atone for his sins. The girl (aka. Rose Guine Avalon) refuses to in defiance of this trope.
    "You idiot! That won't solve anything! You might be satisfied with just that, but there might be people who want to take revenge for you. That line of logic repeats itself, creating new tragedies..."
  • Diabolus ex Machina: Arbelge successfully screws destiny... as prophesied in the Black Chronicle, which also notes that he is quickly assassinated by a member of the Black Order for deviating from his destined path.
  • Distressed Dude: The boy from "Raijin no Keifu" wouldn't would have been damned if the daughter of the village's chief didn't offer her hand (literally) to him.
  • Doomed Hometown: Belge.
  • Evil Laugh: Noah does this well, as does Roberia.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: Rose Guine Avalon expected that Arbelge would be a giant bear of a man.
  • Fairest of Them All: The queen executed Ballad just because his poem said that a withered flower is more beautiful than her.
  • Final Speech: Or poem, rather - Ballad writes his final poem as he waits in his cell to be executed. Only the prison guard gets to hear the final product.
  • For Doom the Bell Tolls: "The final bell tolls. The execution is carried out swiftly"

     Elysion ~Rakuen Gensou Monogatari Kumikyoku~ 
  • Love Makes You Evil: Something of a theme throughout the album, or at least the Abyss tracks. Apparently, love makes you stab people, push people down stairs, cut people's heads off, set entire villages ablaze, and shoot people.
  • Medical Horror: Ark, at a bare minimum in the manga.
  • No Name Given: Apart from El, Abyss, Lafrenze, and Orpheus, none of the characters have names; They are instead known by their track titles. The siblings from Ark are referred to as Soror and Frater, but that's just "sister" and "brother" in Latin.
  • Schizo Tech: At least in Ark, Soror's brain is being experimented on (using really high-tech and futuristic computer stuff in the manga at that). However, in Sacrifice, people still seem to be in the Burn the Witch! Deliver Us from Evil-believing era of human biology.
  • Surreal Music Video: El's Paradise: Side E.
  • This Isn't Heaven: When El dies, she wakes up in what she believes to be paradise. But then she hears someone crying, and she knows that people don't cry in paradise...
  • Yandere: So many. So, so many.

     Shounen wa Tsurugi wo... 
  • No Name Given: The main character of the story is known in Japan simply as Sword Boy.

     Roman 
  • All There in the Manual: The entire CD. It's impossible to tell, more often than not, what exactly is going on. In particular, "Norowareshi Hōseki" brings up a LOT of questions regarding practically everything, not like other songs (i.e. "11-moji no Dengon (Message)") don't, either.
    • It very quickly gets to the point where, the more you think about it and try to figure it out, the more brainpain you doom yourself to.
    • A lot of critical information (particularly relating to "Norowareshi Hōseki" and "Yaneura Roman") is in the much earlier Pico Magic Reloaded rather than in Roman itself.
  • Artifact of Death: The eponymous diamond in "Norowareshi Hōseki", which brings death to anyone who possesses it.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Pleut.
  • Body Motifs: In "Miezaru Ude", the main character is missing an arm, and this is brought up a fair amount of times in the lyrics. Heck, it's referenced straight in the title (translation: "The Invisible Arm").
  • Creepy Twins: Violette and Hortense, though arguably, they're also quite cute.
  • Catchphrase: "Soko ni Roman wa aru no kashira", or roughly, "I wonder if a story exists there", which is the line that either Violette or Hortense or both will say in each song. Hiver gets his own variant of this phrase ("Soko ni Roman wa aru no darou ka") in the first track.
  • Cypher Language: Somewhat. In the lyrics booklet, each song has a Japanese character replaced with a four digit number. This is important for "11-moji no Dengon (Message)", where a message in the lyrics is written out as a chain of these numbers. Since the vocalist only sings the line in "la" syllables, the actual message needs to be worked out using that code. Not to say that's the only "message" to be found, however...
  • Death by Childbirth: "Tenshi no Chōzō" and implied in "11-moji no Dengon (Message)".
  • Drowning My Sorrows: The blond Laurant in "Miezaru Ude" after the redheaded Laurant severs his arm and leaves him in constant, crippling pain. When the blond Laurant finally encounters the redheaded Laurant for a second time, he seems that he's succumbed to the same fate after losing his own arm.
  • Gratuitous French: Roman translates to "story", and there are French words and phrases scattered throughout the songs. The lyrics in the included booklet don't have the French written out however, but rather Japanese equivalents (which is typical for Sound Horizon). To Revo's credit though, the translations hold unless he's going for a double meaning in the text.
  • Evil Redhead: The redheaded Laurant in "Miezaru Ude".
  • Intellectual Animal: Pleut; in "Hoshikuzu no Kawahimo", she sings with Étoile, even though she's a dog. It's depicted in the manga as a sort of dream experience where a blind Étoile can see her and interact with her.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Hiver.
  • Mad God: "Yaneura Roman" implies that the world in Roman was created by Michèle Malebranche. No go back to Reloaded and realize what that entails.
  • Meaningful Name: A few. To start off, Hiver is "winter" in French, the season of his death.
    • Violette and Hortense refer to "violets" and "hortensia/hydrangea". Also, with a little creativity regarding the flowers' imagery and kanji pronunciation wordplay, you get "death" and "life" respectively.
    • Étoile's name is actually explained and referenced right in the song title, through the song, and in the manga adaption many times. Heck, it's kind of the point of her song to begin with.
    • Étoile's black seeing-eye dog Pleut is French for "rain," and is implied to be the ancestor to an extremely similar seeing-eye dog in World of Rein (from way back in Pico Magic Reloaded). The latter dog guides a girl who traps anyone who sees her eyes in a torturous illusion of endless rain.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted - there are quite a lot of Laurants running around. "Miezaru Ude" in particular features a man named Laurant confronting a man also named Laurant after the latter severed the former's arm. And then Laurencin shows up...
  • P.O.V. Sequel: "Yorokobi to Kanashimi no Budōshu" is implied to be the same story as "Eru no Tenbin", only from the side of the eloping lovers, which is the interpretation the manga takes
  • Pretty in Mink: Hiver once again. His coat's trimmed and apparently lined with the stuff.
  • Recurring Riff: A faintly playing musicbox shows up at the end of most songs when one of the dolls delivers the catchphrase. There are two brief tunes alternating depending on the doll speaking, but both are still recognizable from the first track's melody.
    • Also, there's no way to not recognize a slower version of the chorus' melody in "Asa to Yoru no Roman (Monogatari)" and in the final verse of "11-moji no Dengon (Message)". Plus, "Hiver's Message", a song exclusive to the Triumph III concert, uses a quick chord progression also found in the aforementioned chorus.
  • Runaway Fiancé: Implied in "Yorokobi to Kanashimi no Budōshu"; definitely the case in the manga adaptation.
  • Snow Means Death: As stated earlier with Hiver.
  • Storyboard Body: Hiver, Violette, and Hortense all. In the manga, it's shown that Hiver cloned (for lack of a better word) his facial tattoos onto the cheeks of his dolls. Violette, being the doll relating to death, gets the moon, while Hortense, as the one relating to life, gets the sun.
  • Unreliable Narrator: "Yaneura Roman" suggests that one of the dolls is not quite honest about the stories she finds. ("Reality…fantasy…the world of roman…who is the liar-").

     Seisen no Iberia 
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Shaytan and post-transformation Layla.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Shaytan - though he's grateful enough to be freed that he's willing to give his devotion to the decidedly not evil Layla.
  • Take a Third Option: As thanks for releasing him, Shaytan offers to destroy all of Layla's enemies. Rather than either the Christians or the Muslims, Layla asks him to destroy the holy war itself.

     Moira 
  • Animal Motif: Scorpius (scorpion), Leontius (lion), and Elef/Amethystos (wolf).
  • Anticlimax: Just as Thanatos (hosted in Elef's body) is about to confront and duel with Moira, Eirene interrupts her husband's reading of the story to announce that she's pregnant with twins
  • Babies Ever After: Eirene runs in at the end of "Shinwa no Shūen - Telos" to announce that she's having twins, which are implied to be reincarnations of Elef and Misia.
  • Blind Seer: Misia is blinded after washing up on Lesbos's coast, after which she is rescued by Phyllis and trained as a diviner.
  • Book Ends: The album's bonus track, "Kami no Hikari - Moira", repeats the first verse of "Meiou - Thanatos" before being suddenly cut off. This, when put together with Eirene's twins, suggests that history is going to repeat itself.
  • Break the Cutie: Thanatos spends the entirety of the album tormenting Elef so that he will eventually give in to Thanatos and become his host to fight against Moira.
  • Cain and Abel: Leontius and his half-brother, Scorpius, are warring against each other to hold the throne of Illion. Leontius successfully slays Scorpius, only to be killed by his Long Lost Brother Elef/Amethystos in his siege of Illion.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Orion, at least as a child. Elef thinks it's stupid.
    Orion: One-hit kill! 'The bow bends and a flame springs forth, freezing the night sky over' shot!
    Elef: The name’s too long, idiot!
    Orion: Hush you! This is the essence of Orion-styled archery!
  • Closer to Earth: Eirene, when compared to her erratic, over-the-top husband.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Thanatos metaphorically rakes Elef over the coals so that Elef will eventually rebel against Moira, the Goddess of Fate, and allow himself to be consumed by Thanatos.
  • Dark Reprise / Triumphant Reprise: Dourei Ichiba ~Douloi~ wasn't exactly a happy song to begin with, but its reprise in Doreitachi no Eiyuu ~Elefseus~ tweaks a bunch of the lyrics slightly to a very different emotional pitch. Frankly, with this couple, it's difficult to judge which is darker because they're both dark for different reasons. The first one is more hopeless (with Elef and Misia as the slaves) while the second one is more nihilistic. The fact that you have something close to a Villain Protagonist makes it difficult to judge whether it's more of a Dark Reprise or a Triumphant Reprise.
  • The Dead Can Dance: They just love to party down in Hades.
  • Demonic Possession: After Elef kills Leontius and Isadora, he is consumed by Thanatos and becomes his host so that the god can take the fight to Moira.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Misia's death is the straw that finally makes Elef snap.
  • Deus Angst Machina: Zvolinsky's backstory as claimed in "Jinsei wa Ireko Ningyou" is so over-the-top tragic that it's more played for Black Humor than anything else.
  • Distant Duet: Elef and Misia in "Shiseru Monotachi no Monogatari - Istoria"
  • Divine Parentage: Leontius is descended from the Thunder God. As his siblings, so are Elef and Misia
  • Evil Laugh: Scorpius does this quite well.
  • Evil Redhead: Scorpius.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Elef and Misia during the timeskip
  • Face Death with Dignity: Misia
  • Fading into the Next Song: Very frequently.
  • Faux Action Girl: Alexandra, queen of the Amazonians. She appears twice in the album. The first time, she appears just long enough for Leontius to defeat her and spare her life. The second time, she appears just long enough to die.
  • Four Is Death: 4 minutes and 44 seconds into the bonus track of Moira, the sound of someone whispering "Thanatos" can be heard.
  • Forged by the Gods: Elef's black sword was (probably) made by Thanatos, after all it is black and glows darkish violet in the stage version of "Doreitachi no Eiyū - Elefseus" performed in Triumph of the Third Territorial Expansion
  • Framing Device: The main story is nested in a frame story of Zvolinsky, a Russian billionaire, who is excavating the ruins of Arcadia in order to discover the truth behind the Elefseyan epic, a translated copy of which he reads the story from. For bonus points, the song in question is named "Jinsei wa Ireko Ningyou - Matryoshka".
  • Ghost Song: Misia's ghost sings a duet with Elef in "Shiseru Otome Sono Te ni wa Suigetsu - Parthenos".
  • Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!: The main theme of the album ("FREEDOM. OR. DEATH"). Of course, if the ending is to go by, you're screwed either way.

     Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido 

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/93e5dc71_da59_4aea_9a4a_4b25d6dd4401.jpeg

Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido is the Prologue Album to Märchen, which was released on June 16th 2010

  • Arranged Marriage: One's been arranged for an older Elisabeth, as indicated by "Within this Small Birdcage".
  • Burn the Witch!: Therese is burnt after being accused of witchcraft.
  • The Black Death: What a dying Therese cursed the world with. It ended up killing every villager in the village Märchen and Elise visit.
  • Call-and-Response Song: In a "Hikari to Yami no Märchen (Dowa)", where Elise asks Märchen about the deserted village März and Therese once lived in.
  • Chained by Fashion: Märchen's outfit is made of this and belts.
  • Creepy Doll: Being a sentient child-sized doll dressed in red and black attire who urged Märchen to begin his sick parade of revenge in the first place? Elise, you fit right in the bill.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Therese dresses in dark attire, but she is overall a graceful and kind wiselady who stops at nothing to cure her patients.
"But I have been wishing for naught
even my transient moment of light
has been plundered away for laughs.
Just look at this comical play!
In that case, I shall be a real witch to eternally curse this world!"
  • Gratuitous German: As the settings of this story is based on the medieval Germany, there’re quite a lot of German to spell out.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Elisabeth stated this desire clearly in "Kono Semai Torikago no Naka de".
    "I’ve always wanted to have friends
    But I don't know what such things were"
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Elisabeth, enclosed in her home which apparently is a metaphor of bird cage without knowing the outer world, does not even have any friends until März arrives.
  • Mama Bear: Holy god, Therese. How could she not be after engaging at once in a swordfight two men who threw her son down a well?
  • Meaningful Name: Both Elise and Therese take their name from "Für Elise" ("Therese" coming from the hypothesis that the name of the piece was transliterated incorrectly, and that its real name is "Für Therese"), indicating their connection.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The crimes that got Therese burned at the stake as a witch? Healing sick children, apparently.
  • Plague Doctor: The characters disguised as Plague Doctors are actually Witch Hunters. Thank them that the story even gets started.
  • The Promise: Elisabeth made März promise to her that he'll come back one day, which sadly turns to be an Empty Promise due to his death.

     Märchen 

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1ef9802a_78d6_4d25_bf0a_b9277fde0e62.jpeg

Märchen is the 7th Story CD of Sound Horizon, the first Story CD to have a Prologue Album Maxi - Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido. The album is based on medieval Germany, commonly affiliated with Fairy Tales. The album focuses on 7 different fairy tales with equivalent sin.

  • Adaptation Expansion: "Kuroki Okami No Yado" expands greatly upon "The Man from the Gallows", which is only a few lines long.
  • Ambiguous Gender: The Black Landlady's gender is listed as "unknown".
  • Arc Words: "Ido"note  is a very important word.
  • Amnesiac Lover: Märchen recalls the faint feeling that he was once in love in "Yoiyami No Uta", but is told by the seven dead princesses except Elisabeth that it must have been his imagination.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Elisabeth wished that she wouldn't marry anyone else, only to be crucified by her own brother/father.
  • Big "NO!": Elise's last word is a scream of denial, after some Little Nos of denial too.
  • The Black Death: Gets its bonus track this time around.
  • Blindfolded Vision: All of the dead princesses seem to have this in the live performances.
  • The Brothers Grimm: Some of the seven revenge songs are based on their version of the fairy tales, especially Snow White one. Granted that they’re in German.
  • Chained by Fashion: Märchen's new outfit still had his chains. It is significant.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Elise until she was spurned.
  • Creepy Doll: Being a sentient child-sized doll dressed in red and black attire who is the vessel of Therese's vengeful soul? Elise, you still fit right in the bill.
  • Crosscast Role: Jimang plays the role of the Landlady, and Yume Suzuki plays both Princes.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The "Swing Girl" narrates the background war between farm tools-armed peasants against General Gefenbauer's cannons in "Kuroki Okami no Yado" as "(even without wings), people roam the skies".
  • Cute and Psycho: Once she's revived, Snow White has no trouble in reveling in her stepmother's torturous death with an Evil Laugh, while the Blue Prince can only look on and wonder what the hell he's gotten himself hitched to.
  • Determinator: Elisabeth chose death over being tied into a loveless marriage.
  • Disappeared Dad: The father of the nun in "Kakei no Majo".
  • Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Neither the Blue Prince in "Garasu No Hitsugi De Nemuru Himegimi" nor the Red Prince in "Bara No Tou De Nemuru Himegimi" seem to care that their brides to be are comatose, if not outright dead. In The Blue Prince's case, it can be justified with his "unusual preferences”.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Märchen
  • Fairy Tale: The seven revenge songs are based on one.
    • "Hansel and Gretel": "Kakei no Majo"
    • "The Man from the Gallows": "Kuroki Okami No Yado"
    • "Snow White": "Garasu No Hitsugi De Nemuru Himegimi"
    • "Mother Hulda": "Sei To Shi Wo Wakatsu Kyoukai No Furuido"
    • "Sleeping Beauty": "Bara No Tou De Nemuru Himegimi"
    • "Bluebeard": "Aoki Hakushaku no Shiro"
    • "Saint Kummernis": "Takkei no Seijo"
  • Fantasy Tavern: Kuro Kitsune Tei (Black Fox House), where the second song “Kuroki Okami No Yado” takes place.
  • Foreign Cuss Word: In "Kuroki Okami No Yado", the Landlady shouts "Scheiße!".
  • Friend to All Living Things: The Nun in "Kakei No Majo" is on a friendly term with the animals. Well, they’re her only friends, though.
  • Genki Girl: The main character in "Sei to Shi wo Wakatsu Kyōkai no Furuido". As her stepfamily embodies the sin of Sloth, it's only fitting that she embody the corresponding virtue, Zeal aka enthusiasm.
  • Ghost Amnesia: Märchen remembers nothing of his life as März, until Elisabeth causes him to.
  • Go into the Light: A possible interpretation of the ending of "Gyōkō no Uta".
  • Gratuitous German: Oh, yes. For starters, the title of the album is German for "fairytale".
  • Gratuitous Princess: About half of the girls have no ties to royalty, but that doesn't stop Märchen from calling them the "seven dead princesses".
  • Hand Puppet: Märchen, of all people, makes use of them in "Sei To Shi Wo Wakatsu Kyoukai No Furuido".
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Märchen and Elise
  • Humans Are Morons: Elise stated this clearly in her revenge proposal to Märchen as humans never stop hating everyone.
  • "I Am" Song: "Yoiyami No Uta" - or a "I Have No Idea Who I Am" song, rather.
  • I Gave My Word: Apparently Märchen purposelessly fulfilled his promise as März to Elisabeth when he came to the church. During one of the lives, too, when there's a member introduction, März says to everyone that "März is a man of his word."
  • I Love the Dead: The Blue Prince has, in Märchen's words, "unusual preferences".
  • I'm a Humanitarian: The landlady in "Kuroki Okami No Yado" serves up human meat at her inn, although it's largely because there's not much else available.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Elisabeth is the only princess who turns down Märchen‘s revenge offer, being the same saintly, virtuous person she was years ago.
  • The Killer Becomes the Killed: Most of the villains (except the lazy stepmother and sister, Alterose, and Elisabeth's brother/father) who made the girls die, in the end gets killed by those girls (or anyone they use to kill back) in various ways.
  • Lighter and Softer: "Sei To Shi Wo Wakatsu Kyoukai No Furuido" could be considered the album's Breather Episode. Although it still starts with a girl's death, the song is much bouncier, and the heroine's revenge is nonlethal. Märchen lampshades this, musing how "cute" this revenge is.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Märchen has long black hair which he ties into a Rococo ponytail.
  • Love Hurts: Elisabeth keeps her love for März, even though she must be crucified for that.
  • Love Redeems: Apparently Elisabeth's love is the one that makes Märchen remembers all of his past.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: One way of looking at the album. "This story is fiction. But that doesn't mean everything was made up."
  • Meaningful Echo: "Mother, the light is warm." Have we heard it from a certain young boy?
  • Musical Chores: The heroine of "Sei To Shi Wo Wakatsu Kyoukai No Furuido" sees her chores as so easy "like a dance".
  • My Own Grampa: One of the Seven Dead Princesses that Märchen helps to enact her revenge of is a nun, who manipulates Hansel and Gretel into killing her mother who killed her. Inspired by their action of killing the 'witch', Hansel and his friend Thomas then becomes witch hunters that will kill Therese and throw März into a well, both things that would give birth to Elise and Märchen respectively.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Elise. Actually, Alterose and Snow White's step mother fit this trope better.
  • No Name Given: All of the seven dead princesses, save for Snow White and Elizabeth. Fans have been making up a variety of names for them.
  • Numerological Motif: Märchen sure loves the number seven.
  • Offing the Offspring: The mother in "Kakei no Majo" does this, stabbing the Nun in the chest during an argument and making her a sacrifice.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Märchen has been brought back into the world only to indulge in his impulses for revenge.
  • Painful Transformation: If his screams are any indication, then März turning into Märchen probably isn't a very relaxing procedure. The fact that he's integrating Id into himself at the same time doesn't help in the mental aspect.
  • Palette Swap: The Red and Blue Princes are only distinguished by the color of their tunic. They're even played by the same person.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Gretel's overactive imagination leads her to believe that the old woman feeding them is actually a witch planning to eat them.
  • Precision F-Strike: The Foreign Cuss Word scene in "Kuroki Okami no Yado".
  • Prince Charming: The Red and Blue Princes. That seems to be all they have as a personality.
  • Recurring Riff: All of the sequences where the princesses get their revenge share the melody of the call and response portion of "Hikari to Yami no Märchen (Dowa)".
  • Revenge: What this whole album is about.
  • RevengeSVP: Alte Rose, as per the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In a manner of speaking. Elise encourages Märchen to take revenge on humanity in general (because they're bastards), which Märchen decides to do by granting the opportunity for revenge to those who've also been wronged in life.
  • Rock Me, Amadeus!: "Yoiyami No Uta" features a snippet from "Ode to Joy", followed quickly by "Fantaisie-Impromptu" and "Pictures at an Exposition".
  • Tearjerker: "Takkei no Seijo" and "Gyoukou no Uta". The tears started during Elisabeth and Märchen's reunion, but Märchen's reprise of "This brightly shining era~" in "Gyoukou no Uta" just drove the nail home.
  • Together in Death: After his untimely death, Märchen and Elisabeth finally meet after Elisabeth is crucified.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Elisabeth, who was crucified and declared as a saint.
  • Turn the Other Cheek: Elisabeth is the only one of the seven dead princesses who decides not to take revenge.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The seven dead princesses' are based on this, from gluttony, greed, envy, sloth, pride, lust, ending on wrath.
  • Stealth Pun: The notes Elise hums at the beginning of "Yoiyami No Uta" are from "Für Elise". It also plays on Elise's connection to Therese, as it's been suggested that the piece's title is actually a mistranscription of "Für Therese".
  • Summon Backup Dancers: In the live concerts in a similar vein to Thanatos' in Moira. There's often even one who will dance with Elise in spite of her... motion impairedness (due to being a doll).
  • Widow Witch: The "Witch" in "Kakei No Majo" - not that she hasn't done bad things in the past.
  • Wicked Stepmother: Schneewittchen's and the Well Girl's step mother fell into this category. The Landlady could be in here too. Or maybe not.
  • Woman Scorned: More like Doll Scorned for that couple of seconds in Elise's case.
  • Yandere: Elise could be considered this for Märchen.

     Halloween to Yoru no Monogatari 

  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Diana has a beautiful, ethereal platinum hair in the regular edition cover art. In the concert, her actress wears a regular blonde wig.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Sean's marriage proposal to Kathleen is, uh, hysterical.
  • Artistic License – History: The path of the nameless man in the first track requires him to go from Ireland to presumably the east cost of the US (where most of the Irish coffin ships went, if only because it was the closest part of the country). So far, so good, but the next scene happens in the Mexican-American War, which was in... Texas. Why did he suddenly go from the East Coast to Texas? Never said. From there, he goes to the California gold rush, which was up in California, while he was dealing with a shattered knee from the Mexican-American War. Seems like a long trip for him to make while dealing with a bad leg. Look, it's never impossible that he ventured all the way across the country like that; just extremely improbable given that he's never given a motivation for doing so. The song seems to assume that all of these things occurred in the same place, when the US is a huge country, and any one of the necessary journeys would be a giant undertaking for someone completely on his own.
  • Cute Witch: The girls dress up as this when Trick-or-Treating.
  • Cosmic Plaything: The main character of the first track is this in spades, and so is his sister, to some degree. This can't really be avoided since they're, well, protagonists in a Sound Horizon universe.
  • Everyone Is Related: The protagonist of the first track, the nameless man, and the third track, Kathleen Livermore, are siblings, and later it is revealed that she also shares a surname with her husband, his son’s friend and his mother. It’s implied that the latter two are, respectively, her nephew and sister-in-law.
  • Gratuitous English: Right on the first stanza of the first track. As this single was set in the Anglosphere, well…
  • Happily Married: Kathleen and Sean. The nameless man and Diana seem to have a pretty healthy relationship too despite the man's poverty, but their relationship status is not explicitly stated.
  • Historical Fiction: Not the first time for Sound Horizon, but this single deserves a special mention in that it covers many aspects of 19th century American and Irish history with less fantastical contents compared to previous albums.
  • Large Ham: Sean can never seem to express his joy without SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUUUUNGS!! WAAAAAHHHH!!!
  • Meaningful Name: Diana, the lover of the nameless man, is stated to have “a smile like the moon”. Her namesake is the Goddess of the Moon in Roman mythology.
  • No Name Given: Played with—the main character in “Hoshi no Kirei na Yoru” DOES have a name, but it’s left ambiguous upon which is the correct one. He doesn’t even want to bother with it.
    Nameless Man: "This is the unknown [Fifth story] {Roman} of a nameless, dying man
    Was his name Seamus? Was his name William?
    It’s already a thing of the past."
  • The Pollyanna: Kathleen. Even though she had to go through the Great Famine, had a difficult childbirth, was separated from her older brother, and lost said child she had tried so hard to bear to heart attack, she remained upbeat as ever and never put a grudge against anyone.
    Kathleen: "We have decided not to hold contempt against anyone
    Not even [Fate] {God}, [(Lenny's) first friend] {Johnny}, nor ourselves"
    • From what little we can see of her, Diana also seems to be this as well.
  • Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: The main character in the first track, Kathleen, and Lenny. They're Irish.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Is it Kathleen, Katherine or Catherine? The first one is generally more accepted by fans as it’s the Irish form of the name, given her origins.
  • Tears of Joy: Shed by Kathleen and Sean in two instances, first upon rejoicing at Lenny’s first friendship, then upon discovering that the friend may be related to them.

     Vanishing Starlight 

     Nein 

  • Alternate Continuity: This is the album's plot itself. R.E.V.O., a futuristic-looking sentient sunglasses and cat-eared man, travels to past horizons with his four lady cat friends with the intention of recreating a "happy" outcome for stories we all know ended very, very badly by overturning their major plot points. Some of his efforts turn out well, while others turn out arguably much worse:
    • We meet the blind poet Luna Ballad from Chronicle again in "Na mo Naki Onna no Uta", and this time, her lover Endymion is saved from his grisly fate by making up an additional verse to his ambiguous poem for the Queen. Doing so, however, plunged him into obscurity. In the end, the couple did not end up meeting each other, either, as Luna came to be fed up with being alone for the rest of her life chasing shadows, thus ending her journey abruptly. Even if it's implied that she's going to live a happy new life with the baker who saved her from exhaustion, thus preventing her blindness, this blatant surrender makes her fall into obscurity also, since her sheer determination is what makes the country of Britannia respect and hail her as a hero.
    • "Shokumotsu ga Tsuranaru Sekai" is an alternate outcome to the fate of the protagonist of "Rinne no Sunadokei" from Thanatos. A sudden realization about the infinity of the cycle of life encourages the protagonist to stop moping around, to make her vow to not starve herself to death again, and go on with her life, having learnt that her child could be reborn many times.
    • "Ienakatta Kotonoha", the alternate continuity to "Yurikago" from Lost. The protagonist's child is saved from dying by a proficient doctor named John, who gave the child aspirin. The protagonist becomes the doctor's assistant afterwards, living in bliss with the man she loves (but could never confess her true feelings to). She may be saved from the fate of becoming a lunatic who carries her child's bones around in a cradle by this, but not from the looming Great War.
    • "Nikushimi wo Hanataba ni Kaete" prevents the protagonist of "Stardust" from Elysion from becoming a murderous madwoman by...having her realize that she is a lesbian. After numerous heartbreaks she finally turned her interests somewhere else other than fruitlessly chasing love: taking care of abused children! Yay! Best outcome in the entire album... up until you notice that without her, The Masked Man will never be able to be reunited with his daughter Elys.
    • In "Namida de wa Kesenai Honoo", the woman singing "Honoo" from Roman (who is supposed to be Hiver Laurant's mother) perhaps unknowingly saved herself from dying in childbirth by choosing not to conceive (she is too old to do so by the time her husband came back from war anyway) and becomes a dollmaker, inspired by her love for twin dolls Hortense and Violette. Naturally, due to this, Hiver will remain stuck for an indeterminate time in the boundaries of life and death.
    • "Ai to Iu Nano Toga". It begins by changing Misia's fate in Moira (becoming a Virgin Sacrifice for Hydra the Water God) at the nickest of time by giving her the incentive to run into the forest, where she stumbles into her twin brother Elef. Phew, good! But...  Thanks to an abrupt change of oracle from the Water God, Misia and Elef are finally free of pursuers, and Elef, reunited with his old friends, becomes a pirate. Yay for Elef not becoming a bitter Unwitting Pawn for the God of Death! But...  Thus, without Misia's death, and thus, Thanatos' intervention, Scorpius, the Big Bad of the original album, succeeds in killing both Leontius and Orion, and takes over the world! Thanks, R.E.V.O.!
    • In "Wasurena Tsukiyo", turns out that Elisabeth of Märchen accepted her marriage offer...along with seemingly having forgotten her childhood promise. The marriage is shortly annulled by her husband for her (alleged) infertility, though. Out of shame, her brother kicked her out of the house, and she sought refuge in an abbey, where she later becomes a nun lovingly taking care of disabled children. This may be a good enough outcome for her, but not for Märchen— without Elisabeth to snap him out of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, he will remain bound to the Well, never being reminded of who he really is.
    • Defied by Nöel at the last moment in "Saihate no L". His life may suck ass, but he would never give up the countless support he had received from his friends and fans for a better world.
  • Anachronic Order: This is the 9th album, everyone, not the 8th.
  • Anime Hair: Gino sports a pretty damn impressive mullet.
  • Arc Words: "(She is the) Nein", and "Is the cat in the box alive, or dead?", among others.
    • Track 4: "I'll try believing, once again!"
    • Track 5: "Turn your hatred into a bouquet!"
    • "Welcome to the Attic-Hall 💋 of Western Antiquities!"
    • Track 7: "The flame continues to burn..."
    • Track 8: "Each of us have committed the unforgivable sin of turning against Moira."
    • Track 9: "The moon I look up to at the dusk sky seems somewhat nostalgic."
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Yep, Elisabeth's brother is still the same kind of asshole here. Also, her husband's very reason for the annulment of their marriage pretty much shows what kind of a person he is without saying.
  • Author Avatar: Possibly, R.E.V.O. He's a...complicated example.
  • Auto-Tune: R.E.V.O. sings like this, as well as the Four Black Cat Sisters everytime they're with him. Otherwise they sound normal.
  • Battle Cry: We encounter this yet again. "After General Laurencin—!"
  • Beach Episode: Or beach sequence—Elef and Misia indulges in a brief one near the end of "Ai to Iu Nano Toga".
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The "Girl with a smile like the moon" from Track 3 is initially the protagonist's first, and possibly only, friend. Then she realizes that the boy she has a crush on is more interested in our heroine...
  • Bland-Name Product: In the live version of "Nikushimi wo Hanataba ni Kaete", the coffee shop Stella and Gino met at is named "Starducks Coffee".
  • Call-Back: AND DEAR GOD HOW. This album is positively a Call Back Porn for many fans, especially those who have been following the stories religiously from the very first album.
  • CamelCase: The Four Black Cat Sisters' names are actually written in such a way in the booklet: SCHäu (the bobbed one in orange), RÖhre (the wavy-haired one in yellow), DINg (the braided one in green), and GERät (the messy-haired one in turquoise). Yeah, it's very significant. The reference is so obvious, it would be a crime for this troper to spell it out for you.
  • The Cameo: Chronica, Hortense and Violette, Elise, the Masked Man, and, of course, Michéle Malebranche.
  • Cat Girl: And boy: R.E.V.O. and his lady companions.
  • Deep Sleep: Nöel ends up in this state in the manga ending. It appears his soul is the form of payment Michéle Malebranche prefers for the sunglasses he took. [[spoiler: Just when he's getting his life and career on the right track...
  • Disney Acid Sequence: The music video for "Ori no Naka no Hakoniwa" is trippy and incomprehensible, on top of being making absolutely no sense in the plot's context whatsoever. At least, though, in Revo's own words, it fits the music's beats.
  • The Faceless: Averted at last here by Michéle Malebranche, who, after having absolutely no "official" pictures whatsoever (excluding the manga) despite having appeared in four albums, finally gets one inside the box of the deluxe edition. This applies to a rather large portion of characters as well, such as Hiver Laurant's mother, Endymio, Luna Ballad, and the protagonists of track 3 and 4.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: The purple dress worn by Michéle Malebranche.
  • For Want Of A Nail: The "deciding factors" that R.E.V.O. altered in each songs seem to be pretty minor things, such as the subject's decision of a moment or their timing, but their consequences are so massive if we take the songs' respective albums into context.
  • Fun with Acronyms: If arranged correctly, the first letter of all the album's titles spell out "SHIAWASE NI ONARINASAI" (become happy)—the secret 11-lettered message from Roman.
  • The Gay '90s: Some of the aesthetics of "Ienakatta Kotonoha", such as the protagonist's attire, brings this era, or perhaps its successor, into mind.
  • Genius Ditz: John, the doctor who treats the child of the protagonist in track 4. He trips and spaces out a lot but when the time comes to save a life, he's going to make sure his patient is getting the best result.
  • Genius Loci: R.E.V.O. is literally a pair of sentient sunglasses from the distant future.
  • Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her gracefulness is questionable, but Michéle Malebranche appears in this album wearing an elegant purple dress.
  • Gratuitous English: The English narrations, obviously.
  • Gratuitous German: The narration of the first track.
  • Greek Chorus: The Four Black Cat Sisters replace the Harmonia sisters as this in Track 8, which is set in the album Moira.
  • The Hecate Sisters: Michele Malebranche is literally being this. Her appearance changes from that of a young girl, then to a mature woman, then to an old woman in a literal blink of the eye. Poor Noël.
  • Her Heart Will Go On: Sorry there, Endymion Ballad, but it seems that your GF Luna has a thing with that baker who saved her in the forest...
  • Incest Subtext: Track 8. A ton of them, but the most notable instance infamously remembered by many fans has to be that one where Misia daydreams about inhabiting an empty, deserted island with Elef... The fact that she appeared in certain days of the live tour cradling a baby certainly doesn't help.
  • Ironic Echo: The title of the album itself as a whole signifies R.E.V.O.'s denial against the cruel endings of some stories in the Sound Horizon universe. But in the last track, "Saihate no L", it signifies Nöel's denial against R.E.V.O.'s own denials.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Stella.
  • Lighter and Softer: ...see above and you will know that it isn't really...that easy. It's still up to you to interpret each stories' implications, though, whether good or bad.
  • May–December Romance: The protagonist of "Ienakatta Kotonoha" ends up falling in love with the doctor who saved her son. Thing is, the doctor is depicted in the cover art as a man with completely white hair and thick gray beard, while the protagonist is a ponytailed redhead (or strawberry blonde) with youthful features.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are two women named Luna in this album.
  • Pun-Based Title: "Nein" is German for no, which clearly signifies R.E.V.O.'s denial against the cruel fates of the protagonists featured in this album. It's read exactly how "Nine" sounds, which is the number Revo gave to this album. When you reverse the words, the pronunciation should sound like "Nyan", the Japanese onomatopoeia for cat sound. Additionally, there's this common belief that a cat has nine lives.
  • Rich Bitch: In this continuity Elisabeth unfortunately has to stay in the same roof with a young noblewoman preparing for her marriage by living with the nuns there. Everybody knows that persuading an entire abbey to skip morning prayers, badmouthing a woman desperately seeking shelter a.k.a Elisabeth herself, and verbally and physically note  abusing disabled children are not things a normal, likeable person would do.
  • Spell My Name With An S: When the album first came out, there was a bit of a transliteration conflict among fan translators concerning Gino's full name. One made it out to be "John Jolly Gino", while another one went with "Giorgio Leggiero". Thankfully, whoever edited the live concert DVD seems to be aware of this problem and displayed his official name, "Giorgio del Cielo", during the fashion show sequence of "Nikushimi wo Hanataba ni Kaete" with a huge, bright, generally hard-to-miss typeface.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In-Universe—The first (false) friend of the protagonist of Track 3 and the young noblewoman from track 9 looks too awfully similar. Given that the universe of Nein is basically an artificial plane of reality created by a single...cat-man, well...
  • Taking the Veil: The alternative outcome chosen by Elisabeth in this album. Instead of letting her persistence kill her in a Cruel and Unusual Death, she chose to accept Rhein-Pfalz's marriage proposal this time. It still doesn't end well. Her husband accuses her of being infertile and annuls their marriage, as a result of which her brother exiles her. She ends up seeking refuge in an abbey, where she spends her time taking care of the orphaned children there.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Elisabeth's husband◊. Still doesn't change the fact that he's a major sexist prick.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: You might remember Stella from track 5 as that love-obsessed murderous maniac from Elysion. Here, she's a free-spirited young lady radiating with positive energy who devotes herself to child abuse prevention causes.
  • Troll: Clearly, Michéle Malebranche is being this to both R.E.V.O. and Noël.

    Ema ni Negai wo! 
  • Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: All the characters' names allude to Shinto deities.
  • Sadistic Choice: In the branching choice for Nami's story, you have to choose between ensuring that Nami's baby is safely born, but at the cost of Nami's life or saving Nami's life by making her experience yet another miscarriage.
  • Story Branching: The viewer/listener will have to make choices on certain plot points, which takes the narrative in different directions. The live concerts replicated this by having the audience vote on the plot points in question.

Alternative Title(s): Linked Horizon, Revo

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