Line #52 ComicBook/Wayward


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wayward_04_1.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''We're the new gods of Japan.'']]
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4	''Wayward'' is a 30-issue comicbook series written by Creator/JimZub, drawn by Steve Cummings and published by Creator/ImageComics. [[{{Animesque}} Also possibly the closest thing you can read]] to ''Japanese schoolchildren fight monsters'' outside of manga. The main protagonist is Rori Lane, a troubled teenager from mixed background who is just moved from her dad in Ireland to her mom in Japan... and things get weird from there.
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6	It has been optioned for a TV series as of June 2017.
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8	!!Tropes found in this work include:
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10	* AbsoluteXenophobe: The spider demons. Even compared to the other monsters.
11	* AfterlifeAntechamber: [[spoiler:Rori and Ohara land here in Issue# 25, due to the events of the previous issue. Rori considers staying and simply passing on to the afterlife to avoid hurting anyone else further, but Emi convinces her to take them back.]]
12	* AGodAmI: Rori declares herself and her allies the new gods of Japan [[spoiler:while being possessed]].
13	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Ohara loses control over her powers and ends up assimilating an entire love hotel to form a 50-body of stone and building material.
14	* BadBoss: Rori's mom's boss [[spoiler:and murderer]].
15	* TheBerserker: Ayane. Shirai too when his hunger takes over.
16	* BewareTheQuietOnes: Nikaido is the shyest most soft spoken guy you'll ever meet. [[spoiler:He can fry your brain.]]
17	* BewareTheSillyOnes: Ayane is pretty much an adorably silly GenkiGirl... until a fight comes along and gleefully clobbers something to death.
18	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Nurarihyon.]]
19	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The plans of the Youkai are foiled and new myths can be born into the world now that Rori has freed it from fate. However, Inaba, Shirai, and Rori herself are killed in the process, countless people are dead, and no one is sure what the future will bring.]]
20	* BlackMagicianGirl: What [[spoiler:Rori]] evolves into.
21	* BlatantLies: Emi claims she is late for dinner because she joined the Drama Club. Well, we could call them that...
22	* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Poor poor Rori. [[spoiler:She loses everything by the end of the first arc.]]
23	* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Shirai gets shot by the military and killed, only to revive himself while being unable to feel anything.]]
24	* CassandraTruth: Discussed after the first meeting and fight between Rori and [[spoiler:Shirai]]. They could try to tell the authorities that they caused all the property damage, but who would believe them anyway? So they decide to not even bother and just walk off.
25	* CatsAreMagic: Ayane has connection to cats. Surprisingly she isn't [[CatsAreSnarkers snarky]] or [[CatsAreMean mean]], but kind of [[MoodSwinger erratic]].
26	* CharmPerson: The Ganacanagh, a supernatural seducer of women.
27	* ChildOfTwoWorlds: Rori, being born of Celtic and Japanese magic. This was ''intentional'' as it means that she can act as a new source of power and magic was used to lure her mother there to fall in love with her father.
28	* DarkAndTroubledPast: All of the original kids, as a prerequisite to [[PowerAtAPrice gaining their powers]].
29	** Shirai's parents abandoned him to die when he was nine because his body rejected normal food and they believed he was cursed. He has to live with a HorrorHunger now as a result and without them.
30	** Rori's family fell apart and the other kids made fun of her, leading to her need to [[SelfHarm cut herself]]. Her true power only awoke when it got worse and [[spoiler:her mother was murdered]].
31	** Nikado was treated as a mute and a burden to his family, with his father implied to be absuive to him and his mother, until their emotions eventually turned him into a bomb and he blew up for the first time. Since then he didn't trust himself around normal people and lived as a runaway in isolation.
32	*** This would have been the case of Ohara [[spoiler:with her parents and brother murdered, if Rori didn't rewrite fate so that they didn't know she existed.]]
33	* DishingOutDirt: [[spoiler:Emi]] can control manmade materials, so it's not dirt technically. But in Tokyo concrete, glass and plastic is much more easily available anyway.
34	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Nuraihyon kills himself once Rori destroys the Weave, robbing him any chance of success and getting rid of the old ways for good. Though he does note that while he didn't win, neither did the kids.]]
35	* {{Druid}}: Rori's father studied under them, and thus became one.
36	* DueToTheDead: Ayane conducts a traditional Obon ceremony for [[spoiler:Rori. And when her spirit fails to answer concludes that she must be alive.]]
37	* DyingDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler:Ayane tells Rori that she loves her as she dies of her wounds inflicted by the Ganacanagh.]]
38	* TheEmpath: Nikaido.
39	* EmotionBomb: Nikaido is referred to as this in the literal sense. He absorbs the emotions of others around him and turns them into energy, so if he's around a lot of people at... say, a hospital, he'll end up [[AngstNuke blowing up an entire floor]] ''and'' influence them with emotions.
40	* EndOfAnAge: The crux of the series. Magical beings are in a position where their era is being overtaken by the future, not only in Japan, but in Ireland and all over the world. Dealing with that is the goal of the BigBad by bridging it, but other places are resorting to other methods as well, which puts Rori's group in the middle.
41	** The Sidhe have been resisting the change and hording the magic to the extent that its suffocating the next generation of magic.
42	* FlippingTheBird: Segawa replaces security footage with a still image of him doing this to the camera.
43	* ForeignExchangeStudent: Rori.
44	* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Shirai is cursed with the need to eat [[AbstractEater spirit energy]] and an accompanying HorrorHunger, he goes to school like everyone else and hunts evil spirits for food after classes.
45	* GossipyHens: The girls in Rori's school.
46	* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:The Tsukimono takes over the Minister of Defense's body in Issue #19.]]
47	* TheGrimReaper: The Sluagh, who come for Ayane. Rori has to incarnate them so they can fight them off, but doing so marks the group.
48	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Shirai gets his body torn in half by the Oni and the lower half is devoured.
49	* HealingFactor: Ayane has one. [[spoiler:Which was why she was surprised when it stops working after being attacked by the Ganacanagh. It's explained that since her power is rooted in Japan, leaving it broke the connection and thus stopped her healing factor.]]
50	* HeroicSacrifice: Hyakume sacrificed himself to give Shirai his TrueSight.
51	** Shirai later sacrifices himself [[spoiler:by taking in the power of Gashadokuro and the rest of the dying and suffering spirits caused by the Oni to gain the power to fight back long enough for Rori to get to the Loom.]]
52	** Inaba and Rori [[spoiler:do so as well in the final issue to bring things to a close.]]
53	* IFightForTheStrongestSide: Inaba joins Rori's group because she was captivated for their strength and believes in this.
54	* IJustWantToBeNormal: Rori most prominently. Shirai also considers his powers a curse.
55	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Inaba gets skewed by several of her own kind of Youkai as a betrayer in the final issue while buying time for the others to escape, killing her.]]
56	* InstantRunes: Well, instant ''kanji'' but you get the point. [[spoiler:Rori's magic makes these appear in the threads. Her father also has this power, though he uses more traditional Celtic runes.]]
57	* ItHasBeenAnHonor: [[spoiler:Ayane apparently dies in Issue #20 while telling Rori that she was happy to know her.]]
58	* ItsPersonal: For Rori when [[spoiler:her mother is murdered]]. For Ayane when [[spoiler:Rori apparently dies]].
59	* KillOnSight: By Issue #26 the group has been labeled as terrorists and the military has been given these instructions.
60	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Rori rewrites reality so that Ohara's parents didn't remember she existed. While it was done so that they didn't run the risk of being killed like her mother [[spoiler:as that would be a requirement for her power]], she didn't actually ''tell'' Ohara.
61	* LoveHotels: [[spoiler:When the military gets involved and starts searching for them, Ohara and Shirai take a room in one of these, where no one would ask questions.]]
62	* LudicrousGibs: This series is surprisingly bloody at times, but special mention goes to the demise of the envoy sent to the spider demons.
63	* MadeOfEvil: Oni [[spoiler:are made from the souls of humans who are so irredeemably evil that it blossoms within them. Nurarihyon takes a murderer who killed more than forty people and turns him into one.]]
64	* MagicVersusScience: The monsters are magic, humanity is science. The main cast is stuck right in the middle.
65	* MagneticHero: Rori keeps attracting the RagtagBunchOfMisfits for her own annoyance really.
66	* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Staple of monster politics. For example [[spoiler:Rori's mother gets killed before her to show what happens to people betraying the organization that keeps up the masquerade. Her crime? She hid Rori.]]
67	* MalignedMixedMarriage: Rori's parents. They're already divorced at the beginning of the series. [[spoiler:Part of that is because her father was compelled to break it up by his commitment to the Formoire.]]
68	* {{Masquerade}}: There is one. One of the stated goal of the villains is to protect it.
69	* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Shirai [[spoiler:becomes able to sense death unfolding after the Oni starts tearing apart the city to lure them out.]]
70	* TheNeedsOfTheMany: [[spoiler:Why Rori's father destroyed their family. It was because the Formoire told him to.]]
71	* NeverBeHurtAgain: Shirai vowed never to be weak and helpless again after his parents left him to die.
72	* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Ohara Emi's introduction in issue #6. Yeah. She so jinxed it.
73	* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Nurarihyon]] is willing to go to pretty extreme lengths to maintain order for the sake of the future--as long as HE rules.
74	* {{Obake}}: The Tsukumogami, who wait around for objects to get old enough to [[AnimateInanimateObject possess them]]. When they find out that Ohara can somehow help them speed up the process, they start swarming her to do that against her will and threatening to kill her. Afterwards they decide to make her their queen and serve as her army.
75	* OfficialCouple: Ohara and Shirai.
76	* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Most ''heroes'' before their power manifests.
77	* PapaWolf: Rori's father. [[spoiler:The moment he learns she's in trouble, he goes to Japan to get her back. And when the Ganacanagh charms her and stabs Ayane, he shoves his own knife straight into its forehead.]]
78	* ParentalBetrayal: [[spoiler:Rori's father stabs her InTheBack in Issue #24, essentially sacrificing her.]]
79	* PeoplePuppets: The leader of the Dirt Spiders, Jurogumo, does this to Rori.
80	* PersonOfMassDestruction: [[spoiler:Nikaido, when his empath powers go out of control, as well as Rori who fights like a natural disaster.]]
81	* PossessingADeadBody: [[spoiler:Ayane returns from the dead by having the essences of a bunch of cats flow into an old woman who they'd been in the care of after she died from old age.]]
82	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Loom [[spoiler:is made from the soul of an infant weaver.]]
83	* PowerAtAPrice: Power comes from sacrifice, as stated by Rori. The price for all of the kids who developed powers were [[DarkAndTroubledPast tragedy]] and sacrificing their ordinary lives.
84	* RageBreakingPoint: Ohara [[spoiler:after Shirai is briefly killed. She promptly starts ripping the heads off the military unit that came after them.]]
85	* RealityWarper: Rori, [[spoiler:using a combination of her inherited magic.]]
86	* RecycledInSpace: ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''...[[{{Animesque}} in JAPAN]]!
87	* TheRunaway: Nikaido. The team literally finds him sleeping in an alleyway.
88	* {{Seers}}: Rori, whenever she is within the weave. It allows her to see possible futures.
89	* SelfHarm: [[spoiler:Rori's prone to cut kanji in her own flesh when she feels overwhelmed by a situation.]]
90	* ShipTease:
91	** Rori and Ayane.
92	** Ohara and Shirai.
93	* ShootTheHostage: [[spoiler:When Inaba takes Segawa hostage, Nurarihyon gives the order to shoot through him once he runs out of patience.]]
94	* SlasherSmile: Ayane when in her battle madness mode.
95	* StealthHiBye: Ayane is very good at this. Not surprisingly with her cat connection.
96	* SuperpowerfulGenetics: [[spoiler:Rori's weaving power comes from her mother and her rune magic comes from her father.]]
97	* SuperPowerMeltdown: [[spoiler:Rori]] over the murder of her mother... it blows up the house. [[spoiler:It doesn't kill her and Shirai though, but it damn sure makes it look like it.]]
98	* SuperSenses: Rori's power [[spoiler:at least at first]] is seeing the mystical threads connecting things. In practice this meant being able to spot magic, always finding a way out and [[FlightStrengthHeart never getting lost]].
99	* SurroundedByIdiots: [[spoiler:Nurarihyon wishes to "build a bridge" to close the ever-widening gap between "the past" and "the future", but the main cast, being teenagers, have no respect for the past and just impulsively follow the whims of their emotions while the youkai are conservative to a fault and willing to fight to the death sooner than embrace the changes of modern times. He expresses no small amount of frustration at all of this.]]
100	* {{Technopath}}: Segawa can interfere with networks and connections, including the weave.
101	* SpannerInTheWorks: Rori. [[spoiler:Her birth, which was orchestrated because of foreign druids, changes the nature of the weave and allows her to break the hold the Japanese Myths have over magic when their time has long since passed.]]
102	* TrueSight: Shirai gains this ability from one spirit that he eats.
103	* UnfortunateNames: Rori. It opens her up to countless ''loli'' jokes from her Japanese schoolmates.
104	* ViciousCycle: [[spoiler:Once Rori enters the weave, she sees that history will constantly repeat itself if she uses its power to try and get rid of the old ways by replacing them with her own desires. She opts instead to make it so that ''no one'' can control the weave.]]
105	* VisionaryVillain: [[spoiler:Nurarihyon wishes the future had some of the introspective virtues of the past and also tries to make the youkai adapt and get with the times. He also has ''very'' little tolerance for things he cannot control.]]
106	-->'''Kitsune:''' You called us here, [[spoiler:Nurarihyon]]. What's this all about?\
107	'''[[spoiler:Nurarihyon]]:''' '''The future.''' It's '''always''' about the future.
108	* WalkingTheEarth: [[spoiler:Ayane decides to do this at the end of the series, to find the new myths Rori put out into the world. Though she makes it clear she can come back if they find a cat and call for her.]]
109	* WhamEpisode: Issue #24. [[spoiler:Rori's father stabs her.]]
110	** Issue #28. [[spoiler:The Oni starts terrorizing the city and Ayane returns from the dead.]]
111	* {{Youkai}}: The antagonists are primarily these while the series takes place in Japan.

Context ComicBook / Wayward