Line #32 Manga/ApollosSong


1	[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apollos_song.jpg]]
2
3	''Apollo's Song'' is a manga created by Creator/OsamuTezuka. It was originally serialized in ''Shukan Shōnen Kingu'' in Japan in 1970 (1970 /04/ 26 - 1970 /11/ 22).
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5	It tells the story of a boy named Shogo Chikaishi, who grows up lonely, bitter and angry because of his mother's hatred for him. This leads Shogo into a pathological hatred of love and sex, killing animals as they mate or nurture their young. After murdering a hen, he is arrested and taken to a mental institute.
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7	When he receives electric shock therapy, Shogo gets an out-of-body experience and meets the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. For his hatred of love, she condemns him to be reincarnated in different timelines, suffering pain and heartbreak, in order for him to find the true meaning of love.
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9	Through the manga, Shogo encounters love as a soldier in Nazi Germany, as a pilot stranded on an island with a beautiful photographer, and as a revolutionary in a far-future world ruled by synthetic humanoids, only for it to end in tragedy every time. In the modern world, an encounter with a nymphomaniac and Shogo's murderous hatred of love cause more deaths, forcing him to go on the run from the police, where he shacks up with a female athlete named Hiromi, who puts him through a fierce training regiment in order to become a marathon runner... and, almost by accident, teaches him to fall in love. But even as Shogo learns his lesson, fate is not kind to him or his lover...
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11	----
12	!!Tropes included
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14	* AbusiveParents: Shogo's mother. She had him very young, with her pregnancy likely being unplanned, so she is bitter towards him, mostly ignoring him and tossing money at him occasionally to get him to leave her alone. During one of her [[PrimalScene clients visiting]], she catches Shogo hiding behind the fridge and beats him with a broom until he's covered in bruises and crying. Shogo is clearly traumatized.
15	** To ''really'' twist the knife in further, after this act of physical maltreatment, she outright '''says''' she should've never had him, even calling herself a "fool".
16	* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Shogo's mother was pretty young when she had him. Lampshaded by her co-worker at the bar.
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18	* AuthorTract: During the 2030 chapter, Tezuka manages to squeeze in a GreenAesop alongside the series' usual one of "Love is painful and complicated."
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20	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Shogo has abused animals since he was a kid, from cats to butterflies.
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22	* TheBartender: Shogo's mother is this as her regular job, though she looks, acts and dresses like a HighClassCallGirl, and during a conversation with one of her usual clients, he offers to take her on a vacation
23	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Naomi in Chapter 2 is brutally attacked by many animals at once, but the most she ever shows for it are some scratches.
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25	* BreakTheCutie: Poor, poor Elisa... She loses her parents to the Nazis,[[spoiler: is gang raped by a group of soldiers after Shogo helps her escape the concentration camp, and is not even allowed a peaceful death, since the soldiers that find her and Shogo together take her naked body away, intending to use her body for [[HumanResources unsavory purposes.]] ]]
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27	* CrapsackWorld: Earth in the year 2030. Pollution kills most humans on the planet, leading to synthetic beings taking control of Earth and making humans their slaves and guinea pigs.
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29	* DefiledForever: When [[spoiler: Elisa is [[RapeAsDrama gang raped by the Nazi soldiers]], she believes she isn't good enough for Shogo anymore. [[TogetherInDeath Shogo doesn't care, and they hold hands and lay together until they die from their injuries.]] ]]
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31	** Naomi tries to kill Shogo because of this, believing her fiance will leave her.
32	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Not only do Shogo and Hiromi die, Athena punishes him to endure pain and suffering whenever he finds love for the rest of eternity. ]]
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34	* EveryoneHasStandards: Shogo's mother may be an abusive bitch, but even she didn't want Shogo to get hit by a car.
35	* EvilChancellor: Prime Minister Bibimba, who serves under Queen Sigma but [[spoiler:turns against her when she sympathizes with a human lover too much.]]
36	* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Hiromi falls down a cliff and her eyes are blinded by branches when she tries to save Shogo from suicide.]]
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38	* ExpendableClone: Sigma the Synthean Queen doesn't care when Shogo kills her repeatedly, since she has made clones of herself with similar memories to come replace her until he gives up.
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40	* FreudianExcuse: Shogo's [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]] is part of the reason he hates love, as well as seeing other kids being treated much more affectionately than he ever was.
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42	* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: While Athena ''does'' prod Shogo to explain the source of his hate (which he obliges very begrudgingly), she still sees fit to punish him by initiating the series of love trials via incarnations immediately afterward.
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44	* HateSink: Shogo's mother ''certainly'' qualifies, given she's a horribly unfeeling and physically abusive parent who's also directly responsible for her son developing a vicious hatred of love.
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46	* JerkassGods: Or goddess, in the case of Athena. Shogo did bad things, but the deck was pretty much stacked against him from the get-go on account of his abusive and neglectful mother. Furthermore, right [[spoiler: before his death]] he's clearly learned the meaning of love, with the head of the asylum he was committed to even exclaiming in astonishment that Shogo has been cured in response to Shogo's last words. He certainly did not deserve to [[spoiler: endure pain and suffering related to love in all his future incarnations, which Athena sentences him to at the end]].
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48	* LoveHurts: Pretty much the whole ''point'' of this series.
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50	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Didn't help that Shogo had sociopathic tendencies to begin with.
51	* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Shogo has ''no idea'' who his father is, not helped by the fact that his mother insists each one of her clients is his father.
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53	* NaziProtagonist: Shogo is first reincarnated as a Nazi soldier. Oddly, he keeps his Japanese name and it only gets one simple remark from another soldier.
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55	* NoSwastikas: When Shogo is reincarnated as a Nazi soldier, there is a noticeable lack of swastikas shown among his and the other soldiers' uniforms.
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57	* PunishedWithUgly: [[spoiler:The Sigma clone who got surgery to be more like a human is sentenced by Prime Minister Bibimba to have her head replaced by a very ugly misshapen woman's head. She is so ashamed she hides her face with her hair until she dies.]]
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59	* ReallyGetsAround: Shogo's mother, who is implied to be something of a HighClassCallGirl.
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61	* ReincarnationRomance
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63	* ReusedCharacterDesign: Sigma the Synthean Queen looks like an adult [[Manga/MarvelousMelmo Melmo]].
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65	* ShootTheShaggyDog: Shogo and Naomi's love affairs always end in tragedy.
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67	* SlapSlapKiss: Shogo and Naomi in "No Man's Land".
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69	* SonofaWhore: Shogo.
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71	* StarCrossedLovers: Shogo and Hiromi in their various incarnations.
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73	** Also a young couple whose love was not permitted by their families. The girl survives the suicide attempt, however, but [[DrivenToSuicide drowns herself a few pages later]].
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75	* TimeTravel: The main plot.
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77	* {{Tsundere}}: Naomi
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79	* UsedToBeASweetKid: Shogo.
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81	* UterineReplicator: Used by the Syntheans in the 2030 arc.
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83	* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Sigma, The Synthean Queen in 2030 demands to see what human sex is like. It doesn't end well.
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Context Manga / ApollosSong