"Can you pay with your body?"
Toritateya Honeys (取り立て屋ハニーズ, "Debt Collector Honeys"), or Honeys for short, is a 2021 Japanese television series aired on Hikari TV Channel, about the three Niwa sisters (Reika, Shizuka, and Ririka) who work as debt collectors for Honeys Loan under Loan Shark Gondo.
There is no trope we can't collect:
- Action Girl: Middle sister Shizuka is the martial artist of the trio.
- Actor Allusion: In episode 7, after Shizuka described the hardships of an idol's life, Chako and Ririka, both portrayed by real-life idols, look into the camera and confirm what she said.*
- Affectionate Nickname: Ririka calls Gondo "Gongon".
- And the Adventure Continues: After their debt was paid and they left Honey Loan, Reika comes back there to look for employment for her and her sisters, this time of their own accord and with better pay.
- Anti-Hero: Their priority is always collecting the debt, but in order to do that, they often help the debtors with their problems to put them in a situation where they can manage to pay up.
- Catchphrase: "There is no debt we can't collect".
- Cruel to Be Kind: Ririka and Chako throw hundreds of paper planes around Ririka's college with a picture exposing Michiru's debt problem to force her to seek help. It also helps that her rich friends abandon her after learning the truth.
- Cult: The Freya Garden cult, of which Chako's mother is a member, claims to provide protection for abused women.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Chako might be a Genki Girl, but she grew up with an Abusive Dad, her mother joined a cult to escape him, and she finally ran away from home after two guys, having paid her father for her body, attempted to rape her in her own house (to add insult to injury, she later realized that the payment was only 30,000 yen... about $300). She collapsed right in front of the Honey Loan office, and Reika took her in.
- Evil Debt Collector: Downplayed. While they're not above using violence to collect, more often they create situations to help the debtors earn money to pay their debts on time. Reika also disapproves of Gondo advertising his services to vulnerable groups such as students, who can't borrow money from anywhere else.
- Expy: The sisters took much inspiration from Charlie's Angels, especially the 2000 one with their all-black work uniform, and their employer is also an older man. The Opening Narration even describes them as the dark angels of Tokyo's nightlife.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: An episode features B-list actor Takuro who's drawn into a "Healing Water" scheme, which product is $100 bottled water with claimed healing properties.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: The sisters wear leather jackets when on the job.
- Hollywood Hacking: Ririka can get into any computer network with seemingly no effort. She's also a Gadgeteer Genius and prepares the equipment for their various schemes.
- Honorary True Companion: Chako often helps the sisters in their work. Reika offers her to become the fourth sister after her mother refused to leave a cult to be with her, but she declines, wishing to just be Chako.
- Idol Singer: Episodes 7-8 are about an idol trio stuck with 10 million yen ($100,000) debt after signing an exploitative contract with their producer.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Michiru, who goes to college with Ririka, is overwhelmed with debt as she wants to stay In with the In Crowd in order to find a rich spouse to get out of poverty.
- Indentured Servitude:
- The sisters' mother put them as collateral for her debt, so they're stuck working for Gondo to pay it off. In the climax, it's revealed that Gondo knew all along on whose behalf their mother borrowed the money and could've collected at his leisure, but wrote the collateral part afterwards to give himself an excuse to look after her daughters.
- People who can't pay their debts are made to pay "with their bodies", which usually meant working on the loan shark's fishing boat and catch fishes or helping the sisters do their jobs to eventually pay it off.
- I'll Take That as a Compliment: Gondo considers being called "trash" for his boundless greed a compliment.
- It Runs in the Family: The sisters' mother also worked as a debt collector for Gondo to provide for them, and even shared their catchphrase. She was also the one who suggested the name Honey for the office to make it seem friendlier to potential customers.
- Master of Disguise: Chako is good at infiltrating and gathering intel.
- Parental Substitute: Gondo is the sisters' father figure in many ways, while diner owner Kiyoko, who's their late mother's old friend, is their mother figure. Ririka is particularly attached to them as the youngest and is also the first to forgive Kiyoko after the sisters learned of her involvement in their mother's death.
- Student Debt Plot: One of the ways that Reika shows herself to be morally better than her employers is that she disagrees with advertising debt to students, who are vulnerable as they can't borrow from anywhere else.
- Real Men Take It Black: Ririka tries this to look more mature, but can't take it yet, and returns to her favorite strawberry pancakes.
