| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kv.png]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Tsutomu Senkawa was an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary teenager]] living in Tokyo. Birdy Cephon Altera is a [[HeadTurningBeauty beautiful]] and impulsive SpaceCop on a mission to stop a plot by alien criminals that involves Earth. One night, during a battle with the alien fugitive Geega, "Berserker Killer" Birdy accidentally attacks Tsutomu, [[AccidentalMurder fatally injuring him]]. To save his life, Birdy has to [[TwoBeingsOneBody merge with him]]. Now, as Tsutomu gets used to SharingABody with a girl, they both have to work together for Birdy to complete her mission while trying not to interfere with his ordinary life. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Called ''Tetsuwan Birdy'' in Japan, ''Birdy the Mighty'' started as a manga that was left unfinished in the 1980s by Masami Yuki. The animation studio Creator/{{Madhouse}} with direction by Creator/YoshiakiKawajiri and writing by Creator/ChiakiKonaka made a four-part OVA series in the 1990s that finished part of the plot, but still left loose ends. In 2002, Masami went on to do a [[ContinuityReboot reboot]] named ''Birdy the Mighty II,'' starting the story over from the beginning. The series ended after twenty volumes, and a new series after a time skip called ''Tetsuwan Birdy: Evolution'' ran for thirteen volumes. An epilogue chapter was later published in ''Weekly Big Comic Spirits,'' fully completing the envisioned story in 2012. In 2008, a TV series, ''Tetsuwan Birdy Decode'' (''Birdy the Mighty Decode''), with direction from Kazuki Akane of ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' fame, premiered, and in January 2009, the second season, ''Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 02'' (''Birdy the Mighty Decode 02''), premiered. However, ''Decode'' is a loose adaptation set in an AlternateContinuity from ''II and Evolution.'' |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ''Decode'' can be found on Funimation's Youtube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/show/tetsuwanbirdydecode here.]] |
| 8 | ---- |
| 9 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | !!Shared Tropes Across Works |
| 12 | [[folder:A-O]] |
| 13 | * AccidentalMurder: Geega tricking Birdy into fatally wounding Tsutomu by accident is what triggers the plot in all iterations of the core story. While being pursued by Birdy, Geega takes Tsutomu hostage, [[GrievousHarmWithABody throws him at her]], and she accidentally attacks him in reflex. In the original manga and OVA, she electrocutes him to death. In ''II'' she [[TorsoWithAView blows a hole in his chest]] with a punch and in the ''Decode'' anime her punch ''[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe tears him in half]]''! Birdy then [[TwoBeingsOneBody merges with him]] so he can survive until a new body is constructed. |
| 14 | * AccidentalPervert: |
| 15 | ** Tsutomu's dad tries to [[BathtubBonding bond with him in the bathtub]], but [[ShowerOfAwkward finds a naked Birdy in his place]], just as she [[SexySurfacingShot stood up in the bathtub]] giving him a NakedFirstImpression. She [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl isn't really bothered by it]] and [[ForgivingTheAccidentalPervert they simply exchange polite greetings]] before he awkwardly steps out to ask his wife why there's a stranger in their bathroom. |
| 16 | ** In the rebooted manga, Birdy's first meeting with Tsutomu's dad happens in the same manner, but to dispel suspicion she leaves the bathroom (still naked) in Tsutomu's body, making his parents think he's becoming a HomeNudist. When she sneaks out of the house to confront Bacillus, she materializes her uniform into her when she body shifts, but after the fight with Bacillus is over and she changes back, Tsutomu finds himself [[NakedPeopleTrappedOutside naked on the streets in the middle of the night]] forcing him to go {{Streaking}} his way home. Naturally, he bumps into his LoveInterest Hayamiya and she comes to the conclusion he's an exhibitionist. |
| 17 | ** An unusual gender-inverted example in ''Decode'', where Hayamyia, after hearing Birdy's voice in the bath, takes a look out of surprise, only to find a [[NakedFreakOut naked and embarrassed Tsutomu]]. |
| 18 | * ActionGirl: Birdy is a badass CowboyCop that can demolish combat-grade robots with her bare hands and HumanAlien SuperStrength. This applies to most other women in the franchise, such as Moss, Nechla, Capella, and so on. |
| 19 | * AdaptationDyeJob: Birdy retains white and pink hair throughout her incarnations, but how it's colored varies: the original manga and OVA both have it with the right side is white and the left side pink; the remake manga makes it where her bangs are pink, but the rest is white; and Decode makes it where her bangs and the bottom of her mane are pink, but the rest is white. |
| 20 | * AdaptationPersonalityChange: Birdy in both anime on the idea of using lethal force compared to her counterparts in the respective manga. In both the original manga and ''II'', she was horrified by Gomez killing Bacillus and is deeply troubled in ''II'' by the idea she played a role in the death of Hikawa. Conversely, Birdy wasn't bothered by killing Hikawa in the OVA and both there and ''Decode'', she herself was the one who put Bacillus down. |
| 21 | * AdaptationalModesty: In the original manga, Birdy ignores Tsutomu's request to "PleasePutSomeClothesOn" and [[FullFrontalAssault confronts Bachilus in her birthday suit]]. The OVA version of the scene does see her don her uniform right after Tsutomu requests this. |
| 22 | * AdaptationalSkimpiness: While Birdy's uniform has always been {{Stripperiffic}}, her uniforms in the original manga and subsequently [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Birdy_The_Mighty_cover2.jpg the OVA]] tend to look more like a SexyBacklessOutfit. In the remake manga, its sequel ''Evolution'' and ''[[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Birdy_the_Mighty_Decode_DVD.jpg Decode,]]'' the torso section of her uniforms don't even cover the sides. Later in ''Evolution'' she gains a new uniform that takes the skimpiness another level by including a NavelDeepNeckline. |
| 23 | * AliensAreBastards: While not all spacefarers are bad in this franchise, ''many'' of them pose a significant threat to humanity. |
| 24 | * AliensSpeakingEnglish: PlayedWith interestingly in this. If examined carefully enough, you see that in every interaction where there is a potential language problem (i.e. a human and an alien), there can be a reasonable expectation that that alien learned Japanese. For example, Birdy was on Earth for 6 months, working in the modeling business. Aliens that wouldn't know Japanese naturally only speak to other aliens (though of course the dialogue is translated for the viewer), so they are speaking their language. Tsutomu can only understand the aliens because his mind is inside Birdy. |
| 25 | * AlternateContinuity: Four. The original manga was canceled; the OVA picked up its pieces but in a new continuity, but it too was left unfinished. A rebooted manga taking every element from its predecessors started over and ran from 2002 to 2012, while the anime followed a continuity not borrowing any of the core tenants set by the other series. |
| 26 | * AloofAlly: In the instances she helps Birdy, Nechla is very distant and makes it clear she's on her own business. |
| 27 | * AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler: Birdy specifically namedrops Kashu and Nechla before putting an end to the Sanctum Sanctorum.]] |
| 28 | * ArtShift: The animation in the second half of the OVA was more cartoony. Also the animation in the seventh and twelfth episodes of the second season of ''Decode'' is looser and sketchier than the rest of the series, but expresses extreme momentum and force in the scenes where it is used. There is also the obvious difference in art style caused by 12 years sliding by between the OVA and ''Decode'', with most of the characters not even looking similar. |
| 29 | * {{Autodoc}}: Birdy can be seen using tanks with such features to help her heal from battles (which means, pretty often). |
| 30 | * AwkwardFatherSonBondingActivity: Tsutomu's dad attempts to bond with him by [[BathtubBonding joining him in the bath]]. Of course, Birdy happens to shift into her body just at that moment and he [[ShowerOfAwkward walks in on her naked]], giving him a NakedFirstImpression. |
| 31 | * BadassInANiceSuit: Most men that aren't teenagers or kids in this series don suits. |
| 32 | * BathingBeauty: Birdy loves taking baths, having several {{Furo|Scene}} and {{Bathtub Scene}}s. This is due to [[OurShowersAreDifferent her being used to bathing in her spaceship's ]] which prioritizes function over comfort. |
| 33 | * BathtubBonding: As noted above, Tsuotmu's dad tried to do this with his son, but ended up discovering Birdy. |
| 34 | * BatmanInMyBasement: In the manga and OVA, Tsutomu has to keep his situation hidden from his family. This ended up making his family think he's crazy as he seems to be yelling to himself, his father (in an attempt at BathtubBonding with his son) [[AccidentalPervert catching a nude Birdy in the bath after she switched with him]], his family to wonder why the son is [[NakedPeopleAreFunny running around the house in the nude]], and his sister, Hazumi, accuses him of [[{{Crossdresser}} crossdressing]] when Birdy decides to "borrow" some of her clothes. The trope remains in the remake manga, though Birdy has her own clothes for being a little less conspicuous, but it's averted in ''Decode'', where Hazumi has moved out and only checks in on him, and [[ParentalAbandonment his parents have left due to the father's job, leaving Tsutomu alone]]. |
| 35 | * BattleInTheRain: While Birdy had other fights that happened in the rain (the fight with Ondine in the OVA and the rogue marionette in episode 7 of ''Decode''[='=]s first season), the one that best fits this trope is the battle with Nataru over the murders he committed at the end of ''Decode''[='=]s final season. |
| 36 | * BeastMan: The different alien races that don't look human fall squarely under this trope. |
| 37 | * TheBerserker: Birdy, to the point that it could be mistaken that it's how she earned the "Berserker Killer Birdy."...though it bears mentioning, the machine she killed in revenge for [[spoiler:Violin's death]] was known as a Berserker, which is how she earned it. It also bears mentioning that in the remake manga and its currently-running sequel, she goes berserk when pushed enough. |
| 38 | * BigBad: |
| 39 | ** Christella Revi is the [[GreaterScopeVillain overarching]] main antagonist of every continuity. However, she only truly takes up the mantle of being the central antagonist in ''Evolution'', with most of the other continuities being cut short. |
| 40 | ** The OVA series features a MadScientist named Seichiro Hikawa responsible for all the horrible happenings in the story. The character was salvaged and repurposed as Shogo Hikawa in ''Birdy the Mighty II'', who serves as the main antagonist of the first half of the manga, while Seichiro was demoted to a MythologyGag as Shogo's grandfather.[[spoiler: Subverted in that Shogo is actually Seichiro using an alias, meaning the same villain was fully imported.]] |
| 41 | ** ''Decode'' has Satyajit Shyamalan in the first season and Nataru Shinmoyu in the second. [[spoiler: Shyamalan is imported to Evolution and the concept of the character's role there is retroactively the BigBad of the entire franchise.]] |
| 42 | * BigEater: Birdy is one, due to her HumanAlien physiology requiring vast quantities of energy. |
| 43 | * {{Biopunk}}: The society from which Birdy comes has advanced organic technology (for example, their spaceships and some buildings being biological). Their medicine can fix people blown in half, and replace limbs and faces. |
| 44 | * BlobMonster: Bacillus is a green slime monster that can assimilate any living creature, including dogs, people, and in ''Decode'' [[spoiler:Geega]]. |
| 45 | * BodyHorror |
| 46 | ** Geega's transformation into his true form in the OVA involves his real face popping from his neck and part of his real neck inflating before firing a blast. |
| 47 | ** Bacillus is an oozing parasite that bonds and kills the host, then moves on to another. In the OVA, he bonds himself to several dogs at once before getting repelled by [[MundaneSolution dish soap]], then bonds himself to some MechaMooks that Birdy took out earlier. In ''Decode'', his then-current host falls apart, then moved to Geega, who also falls apart--his flesh seems to be literally melting. |
| 48 | ** In the OVA, Seichiro Hikawa tries to recreate his old super soldier project. His experiments ended up mutating the test subjects into hideous monsters. One of his test subjects is ''himself''. |
| 49 | ** In ''II'', Shogo Hikawa's experiments causes his test subjects to similarly mutate into horrible monsters, with strong animal instincts and urges to go with it. |
| 50 | * ButtMonkey: Tsutomu is at the mercy of literally everything around him, especially Birdy.' |
| 51 | * TheCassandra: Keisuke Muroto, a reporter who focuses solely on aliens. Almost everyone dismisses him as a conspiracy theorist. |
| 52 | * CharacterTics: Birdy cracking her knuckles before clenching them into fists. Prepare for some serious ass-whooping. |
| 53 | * CheatedAngle: Birdy's hair in the original manga and OVA with the side of her bangs facing away from the reader/camera being spikier. |
| 54 | * CombatStilettos: Justified in that Birdy uses her heels as kick-off propulsion devices/mini-rockets, though only the remake manga and ''Decode'' versions of Birdy have them. And they make such a cool sound, so who can blame the designers? |
| 55 | * CombatTentacles: Bacillus uses these in fighting Birdy. |
| 56 | * CowboyCop: Birdy has a well-established reputation as a reckless hothead who disobeys standard Federation protocol. |
| 57 | * {{Crossdresser}}: In the original manga, the OVA, and the remake manga, Birdy would sometimes shift into her form, but still wear Tsutomu's clothes, despite being bigger than him. |
| 58 | * DarkActionGirl: Many: Moss, Capella, Lee, Undine, Sylph, and then some. |
| 59 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Birdy's past, [[spoiler: especially regarding the death of her foster mother Violin, who was killed trying to protect Birdy when she was little. Additionally, Birdy, much like other Altans, was subjected to racism and oppression]]. |
| 60 | * DestructiveSaviour: Birdy causes a lot of collateral damage during some of her fights, which causes the local authorities to begin investigating her. |
| 61 | * DisabledInTheAdaptation: The remake manga and ''Decode'' show Tsutomu needing to wear glasses when he's not merged with Birdy. In the original manga and OVA, Tsutomu didn't wear glasses to begin, thus merging with Birdy didn't improve his vision. |
| 62 | * EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Averted. Earth is considered an insignificant backwater planet in the broader universe of the franchise. Ironically, ''completely'' turned on its head in ''Evolution'' where it's revealed [[spoiler: Earth is the origin of the AlternateUniverse that comprises the alien star systems.]] |
| 63 | * FairCop: Birdy is a HeadTurningBeauty SpaceCop. Signs of how attractive she is involved her dealing with a talent scout who thought she could be a FanserviceModel in the OVA and her "Shion Arita" alter ego actually being one in ''Decode''. |
| 64 | * {{Fanservice}}: Though more low-key and tasteful (especially ''Decode'', like all A-1 productions) when compared to other series, it does exist. Usually, [[MsFanservice Birdy]] is the subject. The OVA had few scenes that served no other purpose than fanservice, while at the same time teasing with self-imposed censorship in those very scenes. |
| 65 | * FanserviceCover: The original manga cover had Birdy [[WorkoutFanservice flexing]] naked, but still keeping things tame having back faced the viewer (showing ToplessnessFromTheBack along with {{Sideboob}}) and the page [[ShouldersUpNudity only showing her from the waist up]]. |
| 66 | * FashionableAsymmetry: Birdy tends to employ this in her outfits (most notably seen in the original manga and OVA where her right boot goes to her knee, while the left one goes to the thigh), barring her ''Decode'' uniform and in the original manga and OVA, her bangs tend to be spikier on one side ([[CheatedAngle usually what side isn't facing the camera]]) than the other. |
| 67 | * FantasticRacism: A central theme of the franchise, mostly concerning the discrimination the Altan race suffers at the hands of the Federation. |
| 68 | * FieryRedhead: Well, Birdy's got pink hair and it's only one of two (the other being white), but close enough. Similarly, Capella Titis has mostly pink hair with large sections of white. |
| 69 | * FirstEpisodeResurrection: Tsutomu, though depending on which version you watch, how far into the first episode he dies varies; in the OVA, he dies within the first few minutes while in ''Decode'', he dies when the episode is halfway through. |
| 70 | * FlashbackCut: Violin's death in the OVA. Outside of the sixth and maybe seventh episodes, the teasers to the second season of ''Decode'' could also be considered this. |
| 71 | * ForgivingTheAccidentalPervert: In the original manga and OVA, Birdy simply realizes Tsutomu's dad didn't mean to peep on her when he walked in and just exchanges some pleasant dialogue with him before he leaves. |
| 72 | * FreakyFridayFlip: Happens in ''Decode'' and ''II'' -- After a particularly hard fight, Birdy passes out and Tsutomu awakens to find himself in Birdy's form and [[ShapeshifterModeLock unable to change back]]. The manga is more appropriate to ManIFeelLikeAWoman since the first thing Tsutomu does when he realizes he's in Birdy's body is to grab his chest and groin in disbelief. |
| 73 | * FullFrontalAssault: In the original manga, Birdy senses Bacillus while Tsutomu is bathing in his house and she doesn't hesitate to switch bodies and leap out of the window to confront Bacillus while completely nude, ignoring Tsutomu's protest to PleasePutSomeClothesOn. A combination of CensorSteam, CensorShadow, and SceneryCensor keeps her naughty bits from view during the sequence. |
| 74 | * FunbagAirbag: When Geega throws Tsutomu at Birdy in the original manga, Tsutomu ends up slamming into Birdy and his face ends up slamming into her chest. |
| 75 | * FuroScene: One scene in the OVA and frequent use in ''Decode''. Birdy also [[BathingBeauty loves baths]] in the manga, since it's much more relaxing than the adjustment tub on her ship. |
| 76 | * FusionDance: Part of the series premise is Birdy accidentally killing Tsutomu and merging with him to save his life. |
| 77 | * GenderBender: Part of the premise, given Birdy's and Tsutomu's respective genders. |
| 78 | * GeniusBruiser: |
| 79 | ** Skelezzo, who taught Birdy how to fight, greets his subordinates with a flying attack and runs a successful undercover operation. |
| 80 | ** Birdy herself counts too. Despite being raised mainly for combat, she delves into pretty advanced philosophy of life and moral philosophy. |
| 81 | * GodivaHair: Remake manga and ''Decode'' Birdy. The original manga and OVA versions, not so much. |
| 82 | * HarmfulToMinors: Birdy's past, as not only was she subjected to FantasticRacism like other Altans, but when she was 10, she was the closest thing she had to a mother get destroyed. |
| 83 | * HealingVat: Birdy's ship comes equipped with a few. They keep Tsutomu's damaged body in there for a while and Birdy herself makes use of them when she gets gravely wounded. |
| 84 | * HellishPupils: Birdy has noticeable cat or reptile-like pupils unique to her. There is a reason for this only explored in the remake manga. |
| 85 | * HeroicSacrifice: In the remake manga, Tuto dies while trying to keep Tsutomu alive and in ''Decode'', [[spoiler:Tsutomu (who's just regained his body) takes the Ryunka into his own body so that Birdy can destroy it without killing Sayaka. Fortunately, he's able to share her body again]]. |
| 86 | * HumanAlien: The Altans, a race many important characters like Birdy belong to. |
| 87 | * IHaveManyNames: In a meta sense, the series of robots that Violin and the MechaMooks Birdy deal with. Depending on the incarnation, they're either called Arkazoids (original manga and OVA) or Marionettes (''Decode'', remake manga). |
| 88 | * IdolSinger: Birdy's alter ego of Shion Arita is one. |
| 89 | * ImpossiblyLowNeckline: Birdy's outfit sports this. |
| 90 | * InSeriesNickname: Berserker Killer Birdy. [[spoiler:And it has completely different meaning that it appears at first glance]]. |
| 91 | * ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: Tsutomu's involvement in all of the chaos can be traced back to his decision to go out on a night walk (OVA, manga) or go check out an abandoned house (remake manga, ''Decode'') and incidentally crossing paths with Geega and Birdy. |
| 92 | * IWillWaitForYou: Natsumi tells Tsutomu this after he tells her he doesn't intend to talk about [[SharingABody the situation]] with Birdy in part 3 of the OVA. |
| 93 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: |
| 94 | ** Hayamiya is sharp-tongued, rough around the edges, and picks on her friends when they're late or don't take the things she says seriously, but she obviously cares about them very deeply, and she was the one who came up with telling the world the story of the refugees after [[spoiler:the Ryunka destroyed Roppongi]] in the first season. |
| 95 | ** Her friend Sudou is much the same, which might explain the ShipTease between them. |
| 96 | * JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: The FreakyFridayFlip / ManIFeelLikeAWoman and WholeEpisodeFlashback examples, the former setting it off and justifying the latter, where [[spoiler:Tsutomu had to rescue Birdy after getting stuck in her form and how he learned of her past. In the manga, this knowledge becomes very handy when some of Birdy's old classmates show up on Earth]]. |
| 97 | * LeotardOfPower: Birdy's work outfit. Male officers are also seen wearing the same thing, so it's apparently the Investigator uniform. (The technology level allows shielding, so the lack of coverage isn't a defensive concern.) |
| 98 | * MentalWorld: Whichever one isn't controlling Birdy's body stays in one, still being fully aware of everything that's happening and still being able to communicate with the person in control. |
| 99 | * MoralityPet: |
| 100 | ** Tuto, a shapeshifting AI, who assigned as a partner to Birdy in the remake manga and ''Decode.'' While what don't see how Birdy reacted to what she did to Tsutomu in ''Decode'', in the remake manga she actually suggests covering it up until Tuto points out that he's recording and broadcasting what happened to her bosses and Birdy decided to help Tsutomu. |
| 101 | ** Later in the same manga, Tsutomu becomes this for Birdy, admonishing her to take better care to ensure human lives aren't endangered by her activity. |
| 102 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: This pretty much sums up Birdy's reaction to fatally wounding Tsutomu, most obviously in ''Decode''. |
| 103 | * NakedPeopleAreFunny: Tsutomu's dad [[ShowerOfAwkward catching Birdy in the bath]] (only Birdy was nude in the original manga, but both people were in the OVA and remake manga), Tsutomu [[HomeNudist running through the house naked]] (partly due to the aforementioned event and he was in a hurry to grab a cleaning agent to help Birdy stop Bacillus) in the original manga and OVA, and in the remake manga, Birdy using Tsutomu as a [[PeoplePuppets Person Puppet]] during that version of the said event as well, causing Tsuotmu's family and Hayamiya to wonder what's going on and thinking he might be turning into an exhibitionist. |
| 104 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: DoubleSubverted with Birdy's nickname, "Berserker Killer" Birdy. Turns out it doesn't mean TheBerserker, it refers to the fact that she killed robots called Berserkers. The second subversion comes in when we find out these things give ''armies'' a run for their money. |
| 105 | * NavelDeepNeckline: Birdy's uniforms usually have this as part of the torso section. Towards the end of ''Evolution'', the uniform takes this to another level by going past her navel. |
| 106 | * NobleDemon: Gomez. He occasionally gives Birdy advice and encouragement, and in ''Decode'' he seems mostly against the idea of releasing the Ryunka on Earth. |
| 107 | * NobleTopEnforcer: Gomez in every incarnation, as he works for the terrorist Christella Revi but also lends advice and help to Birdy on a number of occasions. In Decode, this makes him an interesting foil to the first season's villain, Shyamalan, whom he attempts to dissuade from deploying a superweapon on Earth—despite the fact that Gomez is not human, while Shyamalan is. |
| 108 | * NonActionGuy: Tsutomu, although really most of the series' men are this to the point it would probably be easier to list men who demonstrate actual fighting skills. |
| 109 | * NotInThisForYourRevolution: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Birdy's mission in the original manga, OVA, and the remake manga is to arrest Christella Revi, but as Revi had to do with an attack that [[spoiler:killed Violin]], Birdy has a personal axe to grind with her. While this doesn't apply to Revi in ''Decode'' (Birdy doesn't know Revi's on Earth and her mission's somewhat different), in the second season, she also has a personal grudge against one of the escaped aliens she's supposed to recapture for similar reasons. |
| 110 | * OlderThanTheyLook: |
| 111 | ** Hikawa in the OVA looks to be in his twenties, but [[spoiler:he's really a scientist who was active in World War II, though this was more or less using himself as a test subject after meeting Revi as a flashback to before the events of the OVA and his body after his death does show him at his true age]]. |
| 112 | ** Shyamalan as well, if it's truly the case that [[spoiler:he was a casualty of the Six-Day War]], as this would place him in his mid-to-late forties (or even as old as fifty) but he looks no older than late twenties or early thirties. |
| 113 | ** Capella. In the remake manga, it's revealed that although she looks like a child she's older than Birdy. We don't know if this is strictly true in ''Decode,'' but certain things about her, such as her love of alcohol, suggest that there too she's much older than she appears. |
| 114 | * OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Tsutomu, and even more so his friends. |
| 115 | * OrphanedSeries: While the remake manga ran for 33 volumes and received a wholesale conclusion, the original manga just petered out after a while. Similarly, the OVA series and ''Decode'' were left unresolved. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | [[folder:P-Y]] |
| 118 | * PeoplePuppets: Birdy at times tends to take control of Tsutomu's form, much to the latter's annoyance and anger. In the remade manga, she tries to use his body to fight much to his relief, as [[spoiler:he had accepted that the only way to save his friends from harm was for her to transform and fight off a monster. She ends up not being able to fight well in his form, but it all turns out okay in the end]]. |
| 119 | * PleasePutSomeClothesOn: In both the original manga and the OVA, Tsutomu asks Birdy to do this when she goes out to confront Bacillus. In the OVA, she complies, but in the original manga, she ignores the request and confronts Bacillus in the nude. |
| 120 | * PunchCatch: In the OVA, when Birdy and Hikawa finally fight, Hikawa does this to the first punch Birdy takes at him. |
| 121 | * RobotMaid: Violin. |
| 122 | * RobotGirl: Ondine/Undine. |
| 123 | * RoofHopping: How Birdy travels to catch criminals. In remake manga, the U.S. intelligence force calls her with a code name ''Lady on the Roof'' because of this trait. |
| 124 | * SamusIsAGirl: Not a strict use of the trope as Revi isn't an ActionGirl, but in the remake manga and ''Decode'' no one, not even Birdy, outside a few people know that she is a woman. Averted in the original manga and OVA where it's pretty well-known what gender Revi is. In the remade manga, [[spoiler:Tsutomu and his family even end up staying at Revi's house for a little without him or Birdy realizing it -- though that's because in the remake, Revi was born male and is only female due to being the result of a failed case of TwoBeingOneBody herself]]. |
| 125 | * SexyBacklessOutfit: Birdy, especially in ''Decode'' has her uniform exposing her entire back. |
| 126 | * SexySurfacingShot: Happens in the OVA as Birdy can smell Bachilus nearby and her reaction causes Tsutomu to slip into the bathroom while they switch places and her to emerge. |
| 127 | * ShadowDiscretionShot: In ''Decode'' when Birdy's AccidentalMurder via punching Tsutomu is only show via a silhouette, showing his body being ''[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe split him in half]]''. |
| 128 | * ShapeshifterModeLock: |
| 129 | ** Temporarily. See the "Freaky Friday Flip/Man, I Feel Like A Woman" examples. |
| 130 | ** A longer but still temporary mode lock also exists in the remake manga. [[spoiler:During the time-jump after the first series, Birdy's consciousness is put to 'sleep' for a couple of years, which happens to let Tsutomu finish high school and start into college as a "normal" boy.]] |
| 131 | * SharingABody: Part of the series premise is SpaceCop Birdy accidentally killing an innocent OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Tsutomu and merging with him to save his life and she now has to try to maintain his life while fighting alien criminals in their off time, until he gets a new body. Notably, the body changes appearance based on which one of them is in control at the moment. |
| 132 | * SharpDressedMan: |
| 133 | ** Shyamalan, when not in flashback, is always shown wearing expensive tailored suits. |
| 134 | ** Gomez as well. |
| 135 | * ShockAndAwe: In the OVA, Birdy can electrocute people by grabbing them and unleashing an electric shock into them. This is how she [[AccidentalMurder accidentally kills Tsutomu]] and [[spoiler:after absorbing power from an electricity plyon, defeats a MadScientist after he mutated as a result of his own serum]]. |
| 136 | * ShootingSuperman: As seen once in the OVA and twice in ''Decode'', shooting Birdy with a gun isn't really effective to take her down, though she will twitch or get knocked down upon the bullets' impacts and, as she expressed once in ''Decode,'' the impacts do hurt. In the manga, this is explained by a biological shield, but it's not invincible and with proper attacks [[spoiler:can be pierced even by a knife]]. |
| 137 | * ShoutOut: The marionette from the unaired episode of Decode looks almost like [[Anime/GhostInTheShell Major Kusanagi]]. |
| 138 | ** The original Japanese title ''Tetsuwan Birdy''(literally ''Iron-Arm Birdy'') is a parody of ''Tetsuwan Atom'', the original title for Manga/AstroBoy. |
| 139 | * SpacePolice: Birdy. |
| 140 | * SpeciesSurname: Regardless of spelling (see below), names in Birdy's society work differently than in ours. The first name is basically the same as ours, being an identifier unique to the individual. Birdy in Birdy's case of course. The last name is the name of one's species; Birdy's last name is Alta because she is an Altan. The middle name is a bit muddier, as Birdy's is the only one explicitly given: Cephon. It is the name of the [[spoiler:place/spawning device where she was created. It can be inferred that other artificial life forms' middle name works like this, but it is unknown whether 'natural' people's middle names come from some equivalent, or if they even have them.]] |
| 141 | * SpellMyNameWithAnS: The subtitles of the OVA prefer to romanize the last part of Birdy's name as "Altirra," though fans have also used "Altera." The English dub switched "Cephon" and "Altirra" around, resulting in "Birdy Altirra Cephon". Then there's "Altaria" ([[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Uh...]]), used by Funimation on Website/{{Youtube}} for ''Decode''. The DVD release was contradictory, as the subtitles used "Altira", but the credits used "Altera". Though technically, "Altirra/Altera/Altaria" is only used to identify where Birdy's from and her species and really isn't offically part of her name. also, in an in-universe example, on earth in the modeling business, Birdy goes by the name "Shion Arita", which seems to be a corruption of "Cephon Altirra". |
| 142 | ** Revi's android daughter name is either spelt Ondine or Undine. |
| 143 | ** Then there's [[spoiler:Violeen/Violene/Violin]]. |
| 144 | ** Also Bachilus/Botulus/Bacillus |
| 145 | * StandardFemaleGrabArea: Defied in the OVA - when one of the Arkazoids grabs Birdy to get her hit by a train, she ''rips the robot's arms off'' while getting out of harm's way. |
| 146 | * SuperCop: Birdy is a SpaceCop that has [[LightningBruiser superhuman strength, speed, agility, and durability]] [[spoiler:She's also a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke bioengineered]] SuperSoldier]]. |
| 147 | * {{Superhero}}: Again, Birdy herself. |
| 148 | * SuperGenderBender: An interesting variant, where the protagonist doesn't really turn into a female superheroic version of himself but is instead forced to be [[FusionDance fused]] with a female HumanAlien superheroine after she accidentally destroyed his original body. As a result, the two actually are separate characters, but [[SharingABody share the same body]] and can switch between their respective appearance according to the situation. |
| 149 | * SuperSoldier: The specifics on their origins and terminology differ from ''II'' and ''Decode,'' but the gist of it is the Federation employs genetically enhanced warriors in their military and law enforcement divisions. Birdy is one of them. |
| 150 | * StrongerThanTheyLook: While Birdy does have an athletic build she doesn't truly look like the powerhouse she is. She can run along walls and jump over rooftops like it's nobody's business. She can also punch through walls, robots, and people without breaking a sweat. |
| 151 | * SweatDrop: Birdy does this upon finding a bomb just as it's about to go off in the OVA. |
| 152 | * TalkingToThemself: Since Birdy and Tsutomu are SharingABody and the one in control has no means to silently communicate with the one in the MentalWorld they often talk to each other aloud, and characters around them tend to think that they've gone crazy. In the manga, this is even taken so far as Tsutomu not understanding Birdy's superior's speaking, while Birdy herself can. |
| 153 | * TerrorHero: Birdy is one of the rare non-anti-heroic examples. She is known as "Berserker Killer Birdy" (see the Berserker entry on this page for an explanation of that), and also strikes fear into the hearts of her opponents because she is an Ixioran. This trope manifests especially when [[spoiler:the fugitives start being brutally murdered, and the first conclusion they jump to is that Birdy is responsible.]] |
| 154 | * TitleDrop: Birdy does this in a made-up speech in the original manga. |
| 155 | * TrainingFromHell: What Birdy went through as a kid in preparation to be a Federation officer. |
| 156 | * TranslationConvention: As noted under, "AliensSpeakingEnglish", that trope can be explained by either an alienspending time on Earth long enough or in Tsutomu's case with alien languages, via sharing a body with Birdy. |
| 157 | * TwoBeingsOneBody: Part of the series premise is Birdy accidentally killing Tsutomu and merging with him to save his life. |
| 158 | * TykeBomb: Birdy, as part of being a super-soldier, was trained since childhood on how to fight in preparation for her being becoming an investigator. |
| 159 | * UltramanCopy: Birdy herself, given the series premise is similar to the original ''Series/{{Ultraman}}''[='=]s: an intergalactic police officer accidentally mortally wounds someone, merges with them to save their life, and the two merged beings fight evil aliens on Earth. And much like Ultraman's red and white color scheme, Birdy has pink (a shade of red) and white hair and towards the end of the remake manga's follow-up, ''Evolution'', she even dons a pink and white outfit. |
| 160 | * UnstoppableRage: [[spoiler:Birdy's reaction to Violin's death and the realization of her being a robot in ''Decode'' involves completely and violently dismantling the robot that killed her while denying Violin was a robot. Birdy only calmed down after passing out]]. In the manga, [[spoiler:she reacts the same way to Violin's death, going berserk and beating the robot to bits with its own claw. Later, she goes berserk on Hikawa after he learns how to penetrate her shield and slices her up some. In the currently-running sequel, she again goes berserk after finding the photo of a small girl (whom she had just recently met and had to protect) in the files of another of Revi's research centers. Her (and Tsutomu's) rage leaves the entire building in ruins]]. |
| 161 | * VagueAge: Birdy's age isn't specified in either the OVA or ''Decode''. In the OVA, she's clearly older than Tsutomu, but according to Tsutomu, she's too young to drink alcohol, which means she could be somewhere in the 17-19 age range[[note]]The legal drinking age in Japan is 20[[/note]]. Doing the math in the ''Decode'' version, based on references to her past in the second season offer that she's probably at least 24 there. |
| 162 | * VerbalTic: In the Japanese version of ''Decode'', Birdy as Shion Arita tends to accent the "u" sounds in words that have them and add "de arudesu" to a lot of sentences. |
| 163 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: Tsutomu and Birdy generally switch willingly, but there are still exceptions where Birdy takes over (or reverts back to) Tsutomu without warning. |
| 164 | * VSign: In the first three parts of the four-part OVA series, the credits would end with an image of Birdy flashing this. |
| 165 | * WalkOnWater: With a little help of her thrusters, Birdy moves quick enough to ''run'' on water surface. |
| 166 | * WaterSourceTampering: This was Seichiro Hikawa's plan for the people of Tokyo, to turn them into "retro soldiers" by tainting the city's water supply with serum. |
| 167 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: In the remake manga and ''Decode'' series, Tuto. [[spoiler:In the remake manga, he sacrifices himself to keep Tsutomu alive; and in the third episode of the first season of ''Decode'', he's blown up and damaged beyond anyone's ability to repair him as he was. He's later rebult into a computer, but is not the same as he was prior to his death. In the manga, many of his features are rebuilt into Tsutomu's cell phone which was broken with his body, making it a parallel to himself and Birdy.]] |
| 168 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: |
| 169 | ** Christella Revi in ''Decode'' plots terrorist attacks as a way of forcing those in power to make life better for the Altan people. |
| 170 | ** [[spoiler:Nataru]] is also starts out a WellIntentionedExtremist, taking out the group most of the group of escaped aliens for the role in what happened in Season 1 of ''Decode''. He slips into MoralEventHorizon when he kills two of them who disguise themselves as children, one of them even deciding to leave the others in protest of what they're doing. |
| 171 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A central theme in the remake manga, OVA, and original manga, going hand in hand with the themes of [[FantasticRacism discrimination.]] |
| 172 | * YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: In the flashback, we see in the second season of ''Decode'', a lot of Revi's actions are an attempt to force the Federation to improve the lot of Altirrans so they aren't treated with racism and like lower class citizens anymore. A lot of her actions have included terrorist attacks on key government buildings, allying herself with members of the Federation's enemies, and [[spoiler:trying to obtain a DoomsdayDevice]] In the manga, the story is a little bit different. Revi is recognized as a genius and quickly climbs to a high rank in the government science branch despite her race. Her terrorist attack on the central government is inexplicable and followed by several more destructive bombings before disappearing to Earth. |
| 173 | [[/folder]] |
| 174 | |
| 175 | !!The OVA |
| 176 | * AdaptationalBadass: Not by much, but here, Geega actually fights Birdy back when cornered. |
| 177 | * AllThereInTheManual: It had a couple of audio dramas [=CDs=] released to try to help flesh out the universe, but these were largely rendered moot with the rebooted manga. However, between them adapting some stories from the original manga and the ''King of the Labyrinth'' created to celebrate the OVA, Skelezzo, Nechla Geeze, and Kinzel Hower are canon to the OVA series. |
| 178 | * AmbiguouslyEvil: Discussed regarding Revi. Gomez expresses he cannot tell if Revi is an angel or a devil in disguise, and that he will follow her to the end to find an answer. |
| 179 | * AxCrazy: Bacillus and especially Seichiro Hikawa, who makes the former look sane by comparison. |
| 180 | * BarbieDollAnatomy: Birdy in the first part of the OVA, somewhat justified in one case by OutOfClothesExperience. Subverted in the second part near the end when the only view of her front is from the [[ShouldersupNudity shoulders up]]. Averted in the last two parts as she's not in a situation where she's nude. |
| 181 | * BreathWeapon: Hikawa gains the ability to shoot a psychic laser from his mouth in his ClippedWingAngel state. It doesn't do him much good as Birdy defeats him after evading it. |
| 182 | * ClippedWingAngel: Hikawa bulks himself up when facing Birdy, being more than a match for her afterward. Not long into the fight, however, his body literally falls apart and he's reduced to a shriveled mutant with moderately improved psychic powers. |
| 183 | * ColdBloodedTorture: Hikawa inflicts this on a poor man through one of his experiments, exclaiming he is making him "better than ever." The victim in question becomes a runaway beast that Hikawa himself puts down. |
| 184 | * CoolShades: Gomez wears these. Revi also enjoys shades on occasion. |
| 185 | * DeathGlare: When incidentally crossing paths with Revi, Revi unleashes such a frightening piercing glare upon Birdy she is left paralyzed with fear. |
| 186 | * DramaticChaseOpening: The first episode showcases Birdy pursuing Geega through a suburban Tokyo street. |
| 187 | * GreaterScopeVillain: Revi and Gomez, who sponsor and fund Hikawa. We never find out why they do this here. |
| 188 | * HandOrObjectUnderwear: Tsutomu uses his hands to cover himself up and run back to the bathroom to grab clothes while his family was standing around. |
| 189 | * MadeOfIron: In a fury, Hikawa shoots Gomez all over his back and stomps on him with such force it breaks the floor tiles. Gomez inexplicably shows up in the epilogue completely fine. |
| 190 | * MagicPants: The OVA played around with this. Initially, Tsutomu's outfit did not change when Tsutomu changed into Birdy, leading to a girl in boy's clothing kicking monsters around. Later she incorporated her leotard-like uniform into the matrix so she'd be in her clothes, not his, after a transformation. |
| 191 | * MundaneSolution: Tsutomu figures out that Bacillus can be defeated with the use of ordinary dish soap. |
| 192 | * ANaziByAnyOtherName: Hikawa's backstory, motives, and character draw disturbing parallels with the real Unit 731 and Shirō Ishii. To wit: He is a MadScientist from Imperial Japan who was pardoned by the U.S in exchange for research data, then he retired. Yep... |
| 193 | * RageBreakingPoint: When Gomez criticizes Hikawa and decides to shut down his insane master plan entirely, Hikawa freaks out, shoots him in the back, and stomps on him. |
| 194 | * ShockAndAwe: Birdy has the ability to turn herself into an electric conduit, which she uses to absorb the contaminated sewer water Hikawa planned to unleash upon Japan, sending it flying into the sky with him. |
| 195 | * SuperSoldier: What Hikawa was trying to achieve with his experiments in Imperial Japan. Revi is funding him for the same reasons. |
| 196 | * WaterSourceTampering: Hikawa plans to contaminate Japan's sewers with an experimental serum to turn its populace into metahumans enslaved to his will. Unfortunately for him, as he and Gomez know, all his plan would accomplish is wipe out Japan instead with the faulty serum. |
| 197 | * WeWillMeetAgain: Gomez says this to Birdy in the epilogue after their brief scuffle. |
| 198 | !!''II'' and ''Evolution'' |
| 199 | [[folder:#-B]] |
| 200 | * ZeroPercentApprovalRating: |
| 201 | ** Even as the president of his own company, Hikawa is hated and feared by all his employees. Apart from some halfassed reassurances to keep them in line, Hikawa does nothing to make them feel better. Unsurprisingly, the remnants of his staff are much happier under Agni after the time skip. |
| 202 | ** Despite his high standing and how conscious he is of his authority, none of Bishop Mace's subordinates on-screen are shown to respect him, only fearing the trouble he might cause. Nechla even subverts his leadership by doing her job her own way. |
| 203 | ** [[spoiler: The Shyamalan of the parallel world is noted to be viewed unfavorably in his own company and out.]] |
| 204 | * AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: Sayaka's parents used her as the basis (guinea pig) for their neuroscience research, specifically implanting a human conscience into a robot for A.I. development, which later extended to militaristic purposes; the creation of autonomous killing machines that would become the Marionettes we see in the story is founded on the Nakasugi's work. This research was restarted when PMI took over and her father died, though they do try to pull her back in, voluntarily or not.]] |
| 205 | * ADayInTheLimelight: Megius is the focal protagonist of the Memories of a Marionette arc (chapters 121 - 142), which depicts his role in Birdy's childhood up to the tragic Central Tower attacks. |
| 206 | * AdaptationalBadass: Hikawa here compared to his relatively ineffectual OVA counterpart is stronger, smarter, and generally more of a threat in every way. |
| 207 | * AdaptationDyeJob: Sayaka's hair color is dark violet here than blue. |
| 208 | * AdaptationExpansion: Given this is a thirty three-volume manga that was created to fulfill Masami Yuki's vision for the original manga, Birdy the Mighty II expands upon the elements of its predecessors in every way. |
| 209 | * AdaptationalGenderIdentity: [[spoiler: Birdy initially assumes that Revi is male based on Federation data, only to be shocked to learn Revi is female — and then learn that Revi was born male and her current gender is because of a failed attempt to save Tunica Cephon's life by merging her with Revi, much like Birdy was able to do with Tsutomu. Granted, the original manga and OVA, like ''Decode'' after them, never finished their stories, but given Birdy not only doesn't express confusion about Revi's gender, but also refers to Revi with female pronouns from the start and even recognizes Revi on the spot the first time she sees her on Earth in those, it does suggest that those incarnations of Revi were born female.]] |
| 210 | * AdaptationalLateAppearance: Sayaka and Shyamalan debuted in the first episode of ''Decode,'' whereas here they first appear in volume twenty two and twenty six respectively. |
| 211 | * AdaptationalSexuality: Shyamalan is homosexual in this continuity, whereas he didn't have any known sexuality in ''Decode.'' |
| 212 | * AFatherToHisMen: Shigenobu is outraged by Hikawa's complete disregard for the lives of his men. [[spoiler: It's a key reason as to why he decides to dispose of him sooner than later.]] |
| 213 | * AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler: The Sanctum Sanctorum plead with Birdy to reconsider her actions of destroying them at the end.]] It doesn't work. |
| 214 | * AMotherToHerMen: Revi was willing to sacrifice her life twice to Nechla if it meant she would stop killing her workers. |
| 215 | * AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: [[spoiler: Everyone is relieved when Hikawa finally dies.]] |
| 216 | * ApologeticAttacker: During Tsutomu's raid on the hospital a comatose Sayaka is being held at, Chigira does halfheartedly block their path and makes it clear he doesn't want to fight, but restrains Tsutomu regardless. The same trope applies for the confrontation with Ondine!Sayaka right after; it doesn't want to hurt Tsutomu as a hangover from the time it spent with him, as well as Sayaka's memories, but tries to kill him when he persists in defending Sayaka. |
| 217 | * ArmsDealer: PMI (Playmaker Industries), an Agni-affiliated neuroscience corporation, is behind the production and advancement of Marionettes and selling them to militaries across the globe. |
| 218 | * AssholeVictim: |
| 219 | ** Subverted with Nagase Goro, the nosy {{Jerkass}} police detective hounding Tsutomu for suspicions of causing trouble in the neighborhood. While he's not a nice man, he was only doing his job and didn't deserve to be killed by Bacillus. |
| 220 | ** Bacillus himself is set on fire by Salamander and dies screaming of how Gomez could betray him. Considering what a selfish, mass-murdering bastard he is, there's no pity to be had. |
| 221 | ** Bishop Mace gets his brains blown out by one of his subordinates in the middle of ranting over a justification for nuking Earth again. |
| 222 | ** While Neith was thoroughly provoked into acting out of line for a propaganda piece and the actions of the JSDF are portrayed negatively, it's hard to feel bad for her knowing she was a vicious war criminal and TortureTechnician herself. |
| 223 | * TheAlcoholic: Hazumi has a habit of partying out and coming home piss drunk, which has helped to keep her out of the loop of Tsutomu’s various alien guests. |
| 224 | * ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler: Shyamalan and Robert's reckless research in Yggdrasil caused a pinhole accelator to fly off the handle, swallowing Earth with a black hole. This would create the DeathWorld that is the star El Kazan, where the Sanctum Sanctorum and first Altan were founded on.]] |
| 225 | * ApocalypticLog: Maxwell Peridan's forbidden book, the contents of which drive the second half of the manga forward, fueling Revi's alliance with the Empire remnant for a means of unlocking it. [[spoiler: In it is a portable library of documents and books written by [[WhamShot Sayaka Nakasugi]] detailing her career path under PMI and the fall of mankind in another universe.]] |
| 226 | * AllLovingHero: In a story where even most of the heroes are gruff or not-so-nice, Sayaka is unapologetically good and only desires to help everyone with her research. |
| 227 | * AllThereInTheManual: Years after the manga ended publication, Masami Yuki has been occasionally willing to answer questions regarding unresolved or lingering plot points. A notable one is mentioning after the Federation effectively migrated to Earth's orbit, the Arita family had no reason to hide anymore with the newfound peace and subsequent dismantling of the Altan Refugee Network. |
| 228 | * AllMenArePerverts: Tsutomu is a teenage boy whose natural sexual urges are being repressed by virtue of his mind inhabiting a sexy female alien's body. The more the story goes on, the more vivid Tsutomu's erotic fantasies of girls he finds attractive become. Downplayed by the time skip, where Tsutomu grows out of that phase but still keeps a mild lecherous streak in regards to Sayaka. |
| 229 | * AlasPoorVillain: |
| 230 | ** For a measure of "villain" considering his state of mind, but [[spoiler: Gozo Mido meets a pitful end feebly, tearfully reaching out for Hikawa's corpse in the burning wreckage of his manor.]] He is given this treatment by his friends and Shigenobu, [[MercyKill who finally decided to let him go with how far gone he is.]] |
| 231 | ** [[spoiler: Nechla wasn't willingly evil in almost anything she did, nor did she choose her path in life, and finally finds peace in death after murdering her lover. The grief of killing her sends Birdy into mental shock.]] |
| 232 | * AllJustADream: Hazumi’s reaction to the carnage ensuing in Hikawa’s facility before passing out. |
| 233 | * ALighterShadeOfBlack: Although still a sinister corporation dabbling in immoral science, Agni is notably more redeeming and complex as an organization without a megalomaniacal bastard like Hikawa at the helm. While involved with illegal human experimentation, with many of its employees not being kept under the dark over it, Agni is still a large corporation with people of all different kinds of morals and motivations joining it. As Revi notes, as the company continues to grow larger, she will inevitably be unable to control everyone to her desires. This is why she contemplates soon taking the fruits of its research and finally departing Earth for her endgame. |
| 234 | * AllLovingHero: Kred Gahow is of the most straight-up heroic characters in a story filled with anti-heroes and unscrupulous good guys. Kred strives for peace and diplomacy, and he will outright defy the corrupt procedures of the Federation to do what's right. |
| 235 | * AllLoveIsUnrequited: Kred is more or less rejected poitely by Birdy, who has no interest in romance. |
| 236 | * AlliterativeName: '''G'''eorg '''G'''omez; the initials make up the name of his import company cover. |
| 237 | * AlternateUniverse: [[spoiler: What the alien star systems bordering our Earth is revealed to be by the end of the story. The "holy star" El Kazan where the first Altan was born was actually Earth of the future. A disastrous experiment into interdimensional travel in 2040 conducted by Satyajit Shyamalan and Robert Woodman created a wormwhole that swallowed up Earth and overlapped it with the past, wiping out all life on it. The surviving computer systems of the research city, Yggdrasil, used genetic research to restart life; this is why Altans and the other alien races seen bear such an uncanny resemblance to the species of Earth.]] |
| 238 | * AmbiguouslyEvil: Revi and Gomez, but especially the latter, whose enigma is at the center of a mystery Birdy actively tries to uncover. [[spoiler: Both are good people despite their means of achieving their goals, albeit much less so in the case of [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Revi.]]]] |
| 239 | * AmbitionIsEvil: |
| 240 | ** Ackerman of the US Pentagon, who plots to exploit the looking alien crisis to expand America's influence on the world stage. Closely conspiring with him is Tsubaki, the JSDF minister that replaced the ousted Shigenobu. |
| 241 | ** Hikawa is driven by a selfish desire [[ANaziByAnyOtherName to return Japan to its imperalistic ways]] and resume war against China. |
| 242 | * ArchEnemy: Hikawa is a poignant one to Chigira, having ruined his ordinary life and changing the course of his destiny forever. Chigira feels unless Hikawa is dead, he simply cannot move on with his life. |
| 243 | * AnArmAndALeg: |
| 244 | ** Capella gets her left arm melted into a stump after her fight with Salamander. She gets better. |
| 245 | ** Kashu [[spoiler: almost loses half of his torso along with his arm in his attempts to appeal to a brainwashed Nechla's conscience.]] [[{{Determinator}} He trucks along without attending to his injuries to continue trying.]] |
| 246 | ** Koreie Noah of Alta, who had set an initiative for descendants of the Arita family to reclaim Alta, unfairly taking away the freedom of many youths. |
| 247 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: After telling her whole story and motivations to Birdy, Revi asks if arresting her now will ease her visibly troubled conscience. Stunned, Birdy is unable to answer but is still determined to eventually take Revi to a court of law. |
| 248 | * AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler: The Federation was founded by the beings that make up the Sanctum Sanctorum, the same extraterrestrials that produced the previous Altan empires, in a cycle of exercising and maintaining their power and upholding order.]] |
| 249 | * AndNowYouMustMarryMe: Altoros wants Birdy to be his wife after learning of her Etania heritage, so that she can give birth to a fit successor. She wants absolutely nothing to do with it. |
| 250 | * AntiVillain: It's easier to name which villains aren't well intentioned extremists at worst. Most antagonists in the story are misguided or noble in their intentions, with a few standout exceptions of pure evil being Hikawa and [[spoiler: Satyajit Shyamalan.]] |
| 251 | * AscendedExtra: Although Chigira is a very minor character in the original manga and OVA, he is a central character in the rebooted manga, with most of the first half's plot hinging on his existence. In the second half, he still remains a primary supporting character. |
| 252 | * ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Sayaka [[spoiler: freaks out when she's asked by Pencil to come back to help with her father's old research, running right into traffic and falling into a coma.]] |
| 253 | * AttackHello: Skelezzo does this generally when Birdy and he reunite. She reciprocates enthusiastically. [[spoiler: It's also something he used to do with Birdy's predecessor, Gray Cephon, AKA: Georg Gomez.]] |
| 254 | * AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever |
| 255 | ** Birdy and Nechla demonstrate an uncanny ability to turn into {{Kaiju}}-like monsters made of pure bioenergy if enraged enough. [[spoiler: This is because of the way the Sanctum Sanctorum manufactured Ixorians set to become priests in the department of worship.]] |
| 256 | ** [[spoiler: The Sanctum Sanctorum project themselves as colossal god-like beings descending upon Earth, but this is purely an illusion.]] |
| 257 | * ArmiesAreEvil: The Federal Army, natch. |
| 258 | * AttemptedRape: Sayaka was threatened by a gang of delinquents with this between the timeskip, and Tsutomu intervened with Birdy's strength. This is how they met. |
| 259 | * TheAtoner: Revi and Gomez, by the end, [[spoiler: willingly turn themselves in and gracefully take their life sentences after achieving their goals.]] |
| 260 | * AwesomeByAnalysis: |
| 261 | ** Hayamiya [[spoiler: deduces Tsutomu's secret through analyzing everything from the Bacillus incident to some mismatching details about his body, namely his lack of cavities and the notable scar on his ass she saw when younger.]] |
| 262 | ** Revi and effectively Gomez [[spoiler: piece together what's going on with the Sanctum Sanctorum and the origins of the star systems long before unsealing Peridan's forbidden book.]] |
| 263 | * AxCrazy: |
| 264 | ** Bacillus, a parastic alien in uneasy league with Revi, who grows more insane with each body he steals due to the excessive memory overflow. He eventually completely loses it. |
| 265 | ** Shogo Hikawa, a MadScientist affiliate of Revi's at the center of her plans, is almost bestial in nature despite being human. |
| 266 | ** Gozo Mido, the minister of Japanese health and welfare, whose mind has been irrevocably twisted by Hikawa's experiments on preserving his life. |
| 267 | ** Capella Titus and Neith Washgam, kindred spirits in their love of torture and destruction, and being part of the exceedingly corrupt army division of the Federation. |
| 268 | ** An utterly tragic example in [[spoiler: Nechla after her mind is almost fully overtaken by the Sanctum Sanctorum.]] |
| 269 | * BackFromTheDead: Undine after the timeskip, in a way, her consciousness now overlapping with a comatose Sayaka's. |
| 270 | * BadassInDistress: Birdy and Nechla spend most of the ninth volume as captives of Revi and her affiliates. |
| 271 | * BadBoss: At best, Hikawa intimidates his scientific colleagues to keep them in line. At worst (which is near all the time), he throws the lives of his soldiers away to test "results" in droves, claiming he has a bottomless supply of disposable men readily available. Hikawa is also horrifyingly abusive towards his right hand, Lee, beating her for failure and constantly finding new ways to compromise her dignity, such as stripping her down and groping or even raping her while giving her a verbal beatdown. |
| 272 | * BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Revi's Marionettes work primarily as assassins for Gomez when peace isn't an option. In particular, Salamander [[spoiler: kills Bacillus and finishes off Hikawa when he gets an upper hand in his brutal fight with Birdy.]] |
| 273 | * BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: [[spoiler: Nechla's conscience is literally split into two personalities fighting for control after her brainwashing.]] |
| 274 | * BaitTheDog: Nechla introduces herself to Birdy on Earth attacking her with seemingly lethal intent, then seems to be intent on killing Tsutomu's dad when he notices them. When Birdy questions what the hell her problem is, she claims she was just planning on putting him to "sleep." All this gives the impression Nechla is as AxCrazy as Capella. As we later learn, her weapons are capable of inducing sleep without serious harm and Nechla is thoroughly a NobleDemon. |
| 275 | * BarbieDollAnatomy: Averted. Fully drawn female nudity is always on display [[HotterAndSexier this time around.]] That said, this doesn't apply for the Marionette Undine, whose android body doesn't have genitals or nipples. |
| 276 | * BadLiar: [[spoiler: When Natsumi eventually deduces the Tsutomu she's seeing may be an alien, possibly even Bacillus from before, he makes some absolutely feeble attempts at lying that fall flat. It doesn't matter much since soon after, Tsutomu and his friends are abducted by Neith Washgam and the truth is all revealed.]] |
| 277 | * BeardOfEvil: Gomez has a noticeable mustache to compliment his sunglasses for a shady look, although it's subverted in that he is far too complex and compassionate to be considered remotely evil. |
| 278 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Gomez only engages in violence if his family is threatened or if he is sufficiently pestered. Numerous characters, including Birdy herself, find out the hard way it's not good to genuinely anger him. |
| 279 | * BeyondTheImpossible: [[spoiler: Hikawa, a human (albeit empowered), mortally wounds Birdy, an Ixorian that many aliens would have difficulty in scratching.]] Notably, no one else in the series since has come closer to killing her. |
| 280 | * BenevolentBoss: Megius to Birdy. He cares for her well-being, has nothing against Altans, and it's noted any other commanding officer would have fired her long ago for her reckless way of working. Revi is also this, treating her Marionettes and Gomez as if they are equals, often telling them to drop the formalities and talk to her casually. |
| 281 | * BerserkButton: Harming Gomez’s family is asking to get yourself killed, as Bacillus painfully found out. |
| 282 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: Irma, the manager of the Altan Refugee Network and an information broker. She makes it crystal clear she doesn't want anything to do with official Federation business; when Birdy prys her too much, she makes a thinly veiled, grave threat against her to back off. |
| 283 | * BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Gomez takes a triumphant return with Sylph to the story to stop a rampaging Nechla from killing Birdy and Revi when all hope is seemingly lost.]] Cue ass kicking after. |
| 284 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Shyamalan and Robert Woodman take advantage of Sayaka's naivety and lack of willpower with false kindness and lucrative prospects.]] |
| 285 | * BigNo: |
| 286 | ** Nechla [[spoiler: When Gomez decides to give her brain damage instead of killing her.]] |
| 287 | ** [[spoiler: The Sanctum Sanctorum's last words.]] |
| 288 | * BigSisterBully: Downplayed with Hazumi. She likes to tease and wrestle Tsutomu, but is concerned for his well-being and makes sure he studies well. |
| 289 | * BitchSlap: Hikawa gives a vicious one of these to Lee for failing him in recapturing Chigira. |
| 290 | * BerserkerTears: [[spoiler: When Birdy kills the Berserker that killed Violin, and much later, Nechla, she sheds tears of sheer anguish while furious.]] |
| 291 | * BigDamnKiss: [[spoiler: Sayaka gives one to Tsutomu in the manga's closing chapters.]] |
| 292 | * BigBad: [[EvilutionaryBiologist Shogo Hikawa]] for the first half of the manga, [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Christella Revi]] for the second half. |
| 293 | * BigBadWannabe: Hikawa owes an unspecified debt to Christella Revi (later revealed to be providing him the Spirits that de-aged him and advanced his research.), which he resents. He desires to surpass her expectations by forming his own evil immortal army. Due to his [[StupidEvil impulsive stupidity]], however, [[spoiler: he ultimately accomplishes nothing and dies an ignoble death after all his tenuous allies and enemies unite against him.]] |
| 294 | ** His ex-subordinate Lee Shanfa is also this; growing fed up with Hikawa's abuse and trying to strike out on her own with the fundamentals of his plans, whatever she was trying to accomplish is personally squashed by Gomez to bury anything related to Hikawa for good. |
| 295 | * BishounenLine: [[spoiler: When Hikawa de-ages himself to somewhere around his early 20s after he goes into hiding, he becomes a pretty faced man.]] |
| 296 | * BigEater: Birdy's appetite has no limits. Aside from her, many of the Federation investigators taking shelter in Tsutomu's house scarf down all his fridge leftovers. |
| 297 | * BigGood: On Tsutomu's end is Keisuke Muroto, an eccentric reporter who serves as Birdy and Tsutomu's main man for leads on suspicious activities on Earth in regards to aliens and Revi's mysterious cult. Following the time skip, he is Tsutomu's part-time boss and provides leads on Agni. On Birdy's end is commissioner Megius, her initial boss and surrogate father. Megius is fully supportive of Birdy and one of the few Federation agents that isn't corrupt, eventually opening his own covert investigation into the sinister workings of the Sanctum Sanctorum. |
| 298 | * BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Birdy destroys the Sanctum Sanctorum, freeing the galaxy from their sinister control just as Revi envisioned. Unfortunately, their destruction comes at the cost of stranding the star systems from one another, as the Sanctum's grip on galatic politics was revealed to be so great they were managing interstellar travel itself from El Kazan's network. As a result, the Federation and Empire remnants are stranded on Earth with no hopeful way of returning home, forcing them to make uneasy peace. However, all blame is shifted towards Revi and Gomez from Birdy in court and the two face a life sentence, but they take it in stride. The epilogue also illustrates that the world still faces many challenges from newfound racial tensions, and the conspirators from Agni and the Federal Army are still at large or in hiding. On the sweeter side of it, although the scientists on Earth could not find a way to separate Birdy and Tsutomu, they naturally adapted to co-existing and resolved their mental fusion crisis. Sayaka is determined to find a way to separate them and hooks up with Tsutomu for good. The series closes illustrating that Birdy is still determined to make the new world a better place, and Revi is confident in the new generation of youth to make the right choices on where humanity previously failed in the other universe.]] |
| 299 | * BloodierAndGorier: As a hardcore {{Seinen}} series, this series is much, much more violent and gruesome than any other entry in the franchise, most of which are in the {{Shonen}} demographic. |
| 300 | * BloodKnight: You would be hard pressed to find a fighter in this series that doesn't openly enjoy fighting in some capacity. The sole exception is [[MartialPacifist Gomez.]] |
| 301 | * BodyguardingABadass: Revi's Marionettes primarily provide 24/7 backup for Gomez; Gomez himself is one of the strongest fighters in the series. However, they are useful in ways Gomez cannot always account for, such as surveillance or the protection of his family. [[spoiler: When both he and Revi are in prison in the epilogue, they along with Chigira become his family's permanent guardians.]] |
| 302 | * BodyHorror: The fruits of [[EvilutionaryBiologist Hikawa's]] labor are not pretty, to say the least. |
| 303 | * BookEnds: For the franchise as a whole: Birdy starts off chasing alien smuggler Geega. Her last on-screen solo mission in the epilogue sees her chasing down an unnamed alien smuggler. |
| 304 | * BookDumb: Tsutomu. He flunked his initial college entrance exams, something Hazumi constantly berates him for. In a study party with his old friends, Sayaka also notes he's...bad at pretty much every subject. [[spoiler: When they become romantically involved, Sayaka also says she'd like most if he studied harder, something that exasparates him.]] |
| 305 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Revi brainwashes Altoros when he wholly opens up to her, making absolutely sure he serves her every need.]] [[HeelFaceBrainwashing This actually turns out better for the world, as a whole,]] when he gives up his dreams of revenge against the Federation. |
| 306 | * BreedingSlave: [[spoiler: As a result of her possessing genes directly from Etania's lineage, Revi offers Birdy up to Altoros as this to solve the SuccessionCrisis in exchange for his support. They couldn't care less for Nechla, though, and she's set to be disposed of.]] |
| 307 | * BrokenBird: Tunica Cephon and Nechla Geeze, both emotionally stunted women indoctrinated into the department of worship. They were both deprived of freedom, emotions, and in the case of Tunica, subjected to heinous sexual abuse. |
| 308 | * ButNowIMustGo: |
| 309 | ** Chigira [[spoiler: chooses to leave his friends and old life behind to follow Gomez, and by extension Christella Revi, having found a new place to be after Hikawa's death.]] Ryota is left in anguish over being unable to do anything to make him reconsider. |
| 310 | ** Sayaka chooses to leave for the countryside with her mother after she regains consciousness from her accident. She later returns to Japan at Revi's calling, [[WhamEpisode for very good reason.]] |
| 311 | * ButtMonkey: |
| 312 | ** Toshiro Akutsu, Hikawa's leading scientist, whom he constantly bullies around due to his meek nature. Later, he's similarly pushed around by Lee into subordination. |
| 313 | ** Kred's re-introduction to the story sees him hilariously failing to adjust to Earth customs, being promptly chased around by both Federation agents and local police officers, then getting captured by Neith and sexually assaulted during her interrogation. |
| 314 | * TheBusCameBack: |
| 315 | ** Capella reappears on comms to Birdy after recovering from her injuries to Salamander, following [[spoiler: Hikawa's death.]] |
| 316 | ** After being reassigned from his job as Birdy's commander, Megius reappears after the time skip as a desk jockey, using Skelezzo as a mouthpiece to deliver messages to Birdy he otherwise couldn't send from his new position. |
| 317 | * BullyingADragon: |
| 318 | ** Senator Shigenobu the receiving end of this. Hikawa brazenly believes because he curries favor with Mido, he can pettily torment Shigenobu all he likes. Despite Shigenobu reminding him he is the one providing him all his resources and security, Hikawa mocks him and continues to do as he pleases. Unsurprisingly, Shigenobu has his limits and decides to get rid of Hikawa. |
| 319 | ** [[spoiler: When Gomez is faced with the dilemma of killing Nechla against Birdy and Chigira's pleas, as she may reveal his deception to Revi in interrogation, she endlessly ridicules him over the possibility. To be fair, she doesn't care about her life and tells him to hurry up and kill her already.]] |
| 320 | * BusCrash: [[spoiler: Between the time skip, the rat acting as a mouthpiece for the identity of Kidel Forte talking to Tsutomu before the time skip died of old age. A new one fills in for him.]] |
| 321 | * ButThouMust: Koreie's projection to Momiji after she decides to subvert her destiny. When she fully tells him off, he decides to kill her and Birdy. |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | [[folder:C-H]] |
| 324 | * CantKillYouStillNeedYou: |
| 325 | ** Shigenobu planned to kill Hikawa a long time ago, considering only doing so when his research on superhumans is concluded. In the past, Mido requested Shigenobu to get along with him, knowing he resents him. He begrudgingly complied, but his patience eventually runs out. |
| 326 | ** Revi and Gomez [[spoiler: planned to kill Nechla after capturing her, but find more uses for her in her delirious state and begrudingly let her live. In Gomez's case, it's because Birdy pleaded with him not to kill her.]] |
| 327 | * CanonImmigrant: Kinzel Hower, Mace, Sayaka Nakasugi, and Satyajit Shyamalan are all imported from the other Birdy the Mighty continuities. Shogo Hikawa, who is a direct {{Expy}} of Seichiro Hikawa of the OVA, is [[spoiler: later revealed to be Seichiro himself posing as his non-existent grandson.]] |
| 328 | * CelibateHero: Birdy is not oblivious to Kred's feelings for her, but she states romance would interfere with her duties as a police officer and has no interest in pursuing a relationship. |
| 329 | * ChekhovsGunman: Early on in the manga, an Ixorian with long hair is seen in a page explaining what they are. It isn't until late into the timeskip we find out that is [[spoiler: Gomez as Gray Cephon.]] |
| 330 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Nechla and Kashu. |
| 331 | * ChildProdigy: Sayaka is this in the fields of neuroscience and android development. For this reason, Agni seeks to pull her back in for work. [[spoiler: in the AlternateUniverse where she joined with Shyamalan, [[ApocalypseMaiden her stolen work ended that universe.]]]] |
| 332 | * CloneDegeneration: Altoros, The 192nd generation emperor, of a now scattered Altan empire. He is a young man but dying of illness as a result of being the product of a failing cloning process used to produce new heirs with Etania's blood. |
| 333 | * CoolBigSis: Sayaka to Hinako, who looks up to her as a kindred spirit. Made darker considering they both lost their fathers to Agni. |
| 334 | * CooldownHug: |
| 335 | ** Tsutomu leaps into Ondine!Sayaka with this and pleading to spare Sayaka, even though she starts clawing at his sides. |
| 336 | ** Kashu tries this to [[spoiler: appeal to Nechla's conscience during her brainwashed rampage. Unfortunately, Kashu manifests in her mind as something trying to lead her astray from her path and she nearly kills him in response.]] |
| 337 | * CoolShades: Gomez is almost always wearing an awesome pair of shades. They grant him enhanced vision and awareness of his surroundings, making them more than just sunglasses. Sometimes the audience even get a glimpse of how high tech they are from his point of view. |
| 338 | * ComedicSociopathy: Downplayed. There's nothing remotely comedic or amusing about Hikawa, but the sheer depths of his callousness once caused some of his colleagues to break out into comedic expressions when his response to de-escalating a disaster he caused is to simply propose making it harder on them. |
| 339 | * ConflictingLoyalty: Eventually comes to a head with Birdy when she is torn between her loyalty to the Federation and Earth. Despite the danger Hikawa poses to Japan, the Federation has no interest in intervening in human affairs. Birdy chooses to disobey her superiors and forms an alliance with Gomez to take Hikawa down for good. |
| 340 | ** This becomes a major part of Birdy's CharacterDevelopment in Evolution, where her sense of morality proves increasingly incompatible with how corrupt the Federation truly is. [[spoiler: She ultimately chooses to assist Revi over letting Nechla kill her, rendering her a fugitive.]] |
| 341 | * CosmicPlaything: Due to the importance of his genes, Chigira spends most of the first half of the manga being jerked around by one organization after another, from Hikawa Chemistry to the Federation and then some. [[spoiler: He settles with Revi after Hikawa is slain.]] |
| 342 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Plenty, but notably, Shyamalan, who has twisted a neuroscience company that intended to advance A.I technology for helping humanity into a weapons manufacturer that creates killing machines to fuel conflicts across the globe. |
| 343 | * TheCorrupter: Flashbacks to Nechla's childhood also illustrate Mace was in charge of indoctrinating her into worship of the Sanctum Sanctorum. |
| 344 | * CorruptPolitician: Every political involved with Revi's conspiracy is this, notably Ackerman of the US Pentagon, and everyone from the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare. |
| 345 | * CrazyJealousGuy: [[spoiler: Robert is very possessive of Sayaka and deeply resents Tsutomu for his relationship with her. It's to a point Sayaka believes Robert has been looking through her emails to see if she's still in touch with him.]] |
| 346 | * CruelMercy: [[spoiler: Gives Nechla brain damage over killing her, specifically stating it would be crueler to let her live with that and the shame of failure. Plus, it's the only other option to maintain her silence in front of Revi, considering Birdy does not want Gomez killing Nechla.]] |
| 347 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: Kashu is melted alive inside Nechla's monstrous form in a futile last bid to reach out to her.]] Even by the standards of this series, it's an exceptionally painful end. |
| 348 | * CuteAndPsycho: Capella is monstrously evil, but Birdy says she at least looks cute when she isn't exhibiting her psychotic personality (sleeping). |
| 349 | * DamselInDistress: Hazumi unwittingly takes a part-time job offer as a volunteer at Hikawa Chemistry, spurring Birdy and Tsutomu to her rescue. |
| 350 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: |
| 351 | ** From what we once see of her recurring nightmares, Lee lived in poverty and was in debt to the wrong people. As a person prior to her transformation, Lee was in love with Hikawa for rescuing her from her terrible life, believing he would never hurt her. He would obviously never return any affection for her, and of course, he would do more than just hurt her. |
| 352 | ** Nechla was indoctrinated into worshipping the Sanctum Sanctorum since childhood and envied the carefree life Birdy lived. When her faith began to waver, Nechla was severely punished and made to beg for forgiveness so she does not suffer the same fate as Maxwell Peridan. Her role was promptly repurposed into that of an assassin for her masters, being told killing "heretics" is the only way she could attain "redemption." After all that, it's no surprise Nechla is so screwed up deep down |
| 353 | * CurbStompBattle: Gomez is so unbelievably strong that any rare fight he gets into ends with his assailant often brutalized and cowering with no effort from him. |
| 354 | * DeathSeeker: |
| 355 | ** [[spoiler: Nechla pleads for Birdy to kill her after she kills Kashu, provoking her further to make sure she does not hesitate.]] |
| 356 | ** [[spoiler: What Gomez speculates is that Revi plans on confronting the Sanctum Sanctorum with dying fully on mind. He won't see to that, reminding her she must pay for her vast amount of crimes with him in court.]] |
| 357 | * DeathOfPersonality: [[spoiler: Although his memories remain intact, his advisor makes it clear to Shigenobu that Mido was never the same since Hikawa's treatment, being an entirely different man in personality. This is the reason they ultimately decide to let him die with Hikawa in the assault on his manor.]] |
| 358 | * DecompositeCharacter: Shogo Hikawa's appearance and enmity with Birdy is based on the Hikawa of the OVA series, but his grandfather is the one who sports the given name of "Seichiro", with this one being named "Shogo". [[spoiler: Ultimately, subverted, as this time, Hikawa decided to pull a MyGrandsonMyself and the characters are one and the same.]] |
| 359 | * DemotedToExtra: A notable subversion with Shyamalan. While he has vastly lesser screentime in Evolution compared to Decode, only appearing in volume six and thirteen (the final volume), the importance of his role there retroactively makes the concept of his character here [[spoiler: the true chief antagonist of the Birdy the Mighty franchise that includes previous continuities LeftHanging.]] |
| 360 | * DespairEventHorizon: |
| 361 | ** Shigenobu suffered a mental breakdown between the timeskip from the events of the first half of the story. He's replaced in the JSDF by Senator Tsubaki. |
| 362 | ** [[spoiler: Nechla after murdering Kashu.]] |
| 363 | * {{Determinator}}: Most of the characters in the story are strong-willed badasses that will never give up despite the odds. This includes the villains, notably Hikawa, who is possibly the most tenacious and determined of them all. |
| 364 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: Hikawa for the first half of the saga. |
| 365 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Mace attempts to nuke Earth because, in his twisted mind, Nechla undermined his authority and made a fool of him. He tries to use the OrbitalBombardment meant for Revi as an excuse to take Nechla with her. |
| 366 | * DomesticAbuse: Hikawa demeans Lee Shanfa, his secretary, in every way he can from emotional to sexual abuse. |
| 367 | * DramaticShattering: Like in the OVA, when Gomez reminds him of his debts, Hikawa shatters his wine goblet with two fingers after he leaves. |
| 368 | * CruelToBeKind: |
| 369 | ** [[spoiler: After Birdy makes progress on Revi's whereabouts, Megius repeatedly, harshly tells her to resign from the force. This is because Megius knows Sanctum Sanctorum will get involved and is deeply concerned for Birdy's safety.]] It doesn't deter her, and Megius soon joins in on an independent investigation into the department of worship. |
| 370 | ** [[spoiler: Not wanting Towa to grieve or even follow him to his death, Revi callously tells him to forget all about the mother he knew before departing to confront the Sanctum Sanctorum.]] |
| 371 | * TheDragon: Lee is a standard example of this to Hikawa [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal before she defects due to his horrendous cruelty towards her.]] |
| 372 | * DragonInChief: Gomez oversees all of Revi's operations on Earth and she implies he has been protecting her all his life. [[CurbStompBattle We find out what that means when Birdy picks a fight with him.]] |
| 373 | * CynicismCatalyst: The slaughter of Maxwell Peridan and his entire monastery shook Revi to the core, beginning her descent into terrorism. |
| 374 | * CurbStompBattle: While a lot of fights in the series are these, the most notable one played entirely for drama is Maxwell Peridan's failed uprising against the Sanctum Sanctorum. Revi solemnly reminisces that no matter how big his new religion became, they were woefully ill-prepared to engage in combat against the Federation. He and his order were absolutely decimated, and the impact of the incident has left ripples on modern Federation politics. |
| 375 | * DeathByOriginStory: Violin for Birdy's, Tunica Cephon and Maxwell Peridan for Revi's. |
| 376 | * DeathGlare: When forcing an Agni scientist to reveal what they're doing behind the scenes, at the sight of the laboratory, the man snaps and goes into a massive MotiveRant, tearing down Birdy for simply thinking she can do whatever she wants and justifying himself and the research. When he finishes by callously revealing the beast-man intentionally let loose into the city was Hinako's father, Birdy under the influence of Tsutomu's emotions let out an expression of bestial fury moments before hell itself is unleashed on the facility. |
| 377 | * DeathSeeker: |
| 378 | ** Undine!Sayaka feels the only way it can amend for its (Sayaka's) role in creating weapons for war is to kill Sayaka's comatose self and take it with her to the grave. |
| 379 | ** [[spoiler: Nechla implores, if not outright begs, Birdy to kill her after she murders Kashu.]] |
| 380 | ** While Revi does have an endgoal, one has to wonder if she desires to die based on some demonstrations of blatant disregard for her own safety. [[spoiler: Gomez surmises that Revi fully plans on dying in her eventual confrontation with the Sanctum Sanctorum, but he will never see to it that she doesn't pay for her crimes with in court.]] |
| 381 | * DefectorFromDecadence: |
| 382 | ** Revi was originally the head of the Federation's Ministry of Science before defecting for unspecified reasons. |
| 383 | ** [[spoiler: Chigira largely forgoes his loyalty to Revi in volume nine after learning of her plans for Birdy, but his loyalty to Gomez remains undying.]] |
| 384 | * DefrostingIceQueen: Tunica and Nechla are initially very cold to Revi and Birdy respectively, but gradually warms up to them. |
| 385 | * DeepSleep: In-between the time-skip leading to Evolution, the link between her and Tsutomu's mind becomes even more unstable, with one mind threatening to completely overtake the other. To try and prevent this from happening, Birdy goes into stasis for two years, effectively granting Tsutomu full control of a body again. |
| 386 | * DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: As Sayaka tells Tsutomu over a heart to heart, being a wealthy Ojou her life was set on rails her parents established. After her father's company was taken over, she had no idea what to do now that her life of comfort was effectively over. She settles with looking for a career path to hone her talents in order to help humanity. |
| 387 | * DirtyOldMan: Played for absolute horror. [[spoiler: Mido's monstrous libido as a result of Hikawa's treatments sees him unable to control himself in any way, demanding waves of prostitutes that he either tears apart or devours after he's through having sex.]] |
| 388 | * DissonantSerenity: Revi never loses her dispassionate demeanor, even staring death in the face. However, when she is truly angry, she is capable of giving a bone-chilling DeathGlare. |
| 389 | * TheDogBitesBack:Akutsu [[spoiler: sells out both Hikawa and Lee to Shigenobu and Chigira on separate occasions out of fear for his life, directly leading to their deaths.]] |
| 390 | * DramaticIrony: Posthumously. Hikawa, a completely selfish and evil man who thought he was much greater than he was, happened to lay the foundation for well-intentioned Christella Revi and her allies to fight against a conspiracy far greater and eviler than Hikawa could ever have hoped to be. By the epilogue, [[spoiler: the fruits of his labor ironically steer humanity on a better path as it's used to protect the innocent.]] |
| 391 | * DrillSergeantNasty: Skelezzo is this to Birdy in her youth, as her combat instructor. |
| 392 | * EldritchAbomination: Very curiously, Birdy demonstrates the possibility of being this. During her mindless rage-fueled rampage of one of Agni's facilities, Birdy briefly turns into a Kaiju purely made of bioenergy that terrifies the fleeing workers. After she regains consciousness, she doesn't even remember what transpired during her rampage. [[spoiler: As it turns out, Birdy and all Ixorians by extension are products of the Sanctum Sanctorum's efforts at reproducing their numbers but failing, leaving them with genetically spliced super soldiers to work with.]] |
| 393 | ** Nechla's [[spoiler: terrifying form unleashed during her brainwashed rampage. Birdy fearfully even expresses Nechla is no longer anything resembling a humanoid. After Kashu removes the head of this form, it even further devolves into literally looking like an eldritch monster.]] |
| 394 | * TheDreaded: |
| 395 | ** Eventually, Gomez becomes something of a boogeyman to Lee Shanfa and her gang after he curb-stomped all of them at once as a warning to stay away from his family. The mere mention of his sighting then on causes them to change plans, citing they can't ever beat a monster like him. |
| 396 | ** Nechla terrifies Birdy deep down with her infamy as an assassin. |
| 397 | * DrivenToSuicide: The media states this is what Maxwell Peridan did when cornered, but it was Gray Cephon that did him in. |
| 398 | * DullEyesOfUnhappiness: [[spoiler: Nechla sports these for most of volume nine in her brain damaged state.]] |
| 399 | * TheEmpire: What Revi and Gomez surmise the Federation to actually be despite their claims of championing democracy and equality. [[spoiler: As Capella proves through their special military operations to discover and forcibly absorb other planets and star systems into the Federation, it's played straight.]] |
| 400 | * EmotionlessGirl: As a result of her horrible upbringing, Nechla expresses she cannot feel emotions like normal people do. Only Kashu brings out feelings of love and empathy in her. The same for Tunica until she befriended Revi. |
| 401 | * EmpireWithADarkSecret: Inquiring on the true origins of the Federation or the galaxy at large amounts to a death sentence, as Maxwell Peridan and Revi discovered. |
| 402 | * EnigmaticMinion: Gomez is this to a T, as his kind heart and preference for diplomacy betray his dark allegiances. He is a complete enigma to Birdy, who assumes he must be evil due to serving Revi. As he thoroughly demonstrates this is not the case, she is left even more dumbfounded about who or what he really is. |
| 403 | * EnemyMine: Gomez forms a truce with Birdy to end Hikawa once and for all after he proves to be too much of a threat to remain alive. |
| 404 | * EntitledBastard: Mace is very touchy about his authority, repeatedly asserting his role as leader to force his workers into doing his bidding. |
| 405 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: |
| 406 | ** Gomez is frequently taken aback by the depravity of some of his clients, namely Hikawa and Bacillus, or other villains like Capella. Although it's subverted in that the audience discovers Gomez isn't evil at all as the story progresses. |
| 407 | ** Everything about Hikawa shakes Shigenobu to his core. |
| 408 | ** Inverted with Hikawa. Every one of his associates is appalled by his evil, especially Gomez. Hikawa himself has no standards, whatsoever, and his depravity knows absolutely no bounds. |
| 409 | ** Also inverted with Mace. When he fires the first orbital laser down upon Earth, his subordinates are left absolutely stunned while Mace is indifferent until he realizes he missed. When he attempts it again, his crew kills him to salvage the newfound diplomatic crisis on Earth. |
| 410 | * EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Hikawa has a morbid sense of humor to go with his snark. It only disgusts or creeps out others. |
| 411 | * EvilInc: Hikawa Chemistry and its successor Agni, pharmaceutical empires that performs horrendous human experiments under the cover. |
| 412 | * EvilPaysBetter: It's repeatedly mentioned, notably by Hazumi herself, Agni treats their employees incredibly well, with compensations and a very high salary. Some of its disgruntled workers refuse to quit even under pressure from Birdy due to the pay. |
| 413 | * EvilIsPetty: Being evil for petty reasons is one of the main things that define Hikawa's personality besides being a sadistic maniac. |
| 414 | * EveryoneHasStandards: |
| 415 | ** As obsessed as Muroto is with prying Tsutomu for more information on Birdy, he becomes very worried for his safety after seeing firsthand what Agni is like, and implores him to stop working for him (to no avail). |
| 416 | ** Towa is taken aback by his mother's cruel intentions for Birdy and helps her escape from her clutches. |
| 417 | * EtTuBrute: [[spoiler: Mido is horrified and feels deeply betrayed when Hikawa attempts to chop right through him to kill Birdy.]] Birdy calls him a monster for it. |
| 418 | * TheEvilsofFreeWill: [[spoiler: The Sanctum Sanctorum's reasoning for everything they do and lording themselves as gods with mortals to their worships is because they believe without free will, sentient life will not repeat the same mistakes of Shyamalan.]] |
| 419 | * EvilutionaryBiologist: Hikawa, with an emphasis on EVIL. Revi and Agni are also this, but nowhere near as bad. |
| 420 | * ExtremeLibido: Due to Hikawa's experiments on him, Chigira initially cannot control his monstrously increased libido and fantasizes over Birdy while masturbating to her. He immediately expresses fear of what he's becoming after the deed. |
| 421 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: To Noah's credit, he does handle his end with remarkable grace. When the Arita ship's mainframe is about to shut down forever, he realizes how wrong he was and wishes the best for his future descendants and the destinies they make for themselves. |
| 422 | * FaceHeelTurn: Greatly downplayed and subverted with Chigira. After the time skip, he is now on the side of Christella Revi and, as a member of a special forces unit, oversees the shadier aspects of her operations. Not only does he still retain his morals, his true loyalty is to Gomez. [[spoiler: He helps Birdy escape captivity in volume nine at the cost of returning to Revi's side.]] |
| 423 | * FamilyMan: Outside of his job, Gomez is a devoted family man, [[MoralityPet and his Earth family means everything to him.]] |
| 424 | * FanDisservice: Lee is hot and strips naked in front of Chigira upon meeting him the first time, but then promptly undergoes a very unsexy monstrous transformation to provoke him into doing the same. |
| 425 | * FantasticRacism: A core theme and plot point of the series. The discrimination and abuse that Altans suffer under the Federation's jurisdiction is what drives Christella Revi's actions. Late into the plot, the schism between humans and aliens sets the last arcs in motion. |
| 426 | * FangsAreEvil: Hikawa has huge, unnatural canines that are visible when he's flashing a SlasherSmile. And saying he's evil is an understatement. |
| 427 | * FatBastard: Pencil, doubling with FourEyesZeroSoul, works with Shyamalan on militarizing Marionettes. He is also responsible for weaponizing alien technology provided by the Empire remnants. At one point, he's even seen chowing down on pizza while shooting down a Federation starship. |
| 428 | * FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: What Nechla views happening to her if she failed in her mission to capture or kill Revi, and thus she goads Gomez into killing her. Unfortunately, Gomez is aware of this as well and gives her brain damage over killing her, citing it's more fitting for her to live with the shame.]] |
| 429 | * FatalFlaw: Sayaka's submissive and clumsy nature might seem endearing to her friends, especially Hayamiya, but it's played very seriously when it's revealed this aspect of her is [[spoiler: what let Robert and Shyamalan push her around in the other world. This led to the end of that world when they seized her research from her and she was left with no power to stop them.]] |
| 430 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Surprisingly, despite how insane and cruel he is, when addressing civilians (often to lure them into his clinic), Hikawa is capable of presenting himself in a gentlemanly and charming manner. |
| 431 | * FingerTenting: Gomez in moments of deep contemplation often does this. |
| 432 | * FlunkyBoss: The FinalBattle against the Sanctum Sanctorum, who are revealed to be immovable computer terminals, on the star of El Kazan consists of hundreds of Berserker-type Androids vs Birdy and Gomez. |
| 433 | * {{Foil}}: As we learn more about Gomez, it's clear no one resembles Birdy more than him despite her grievances with the man. [[spoiler: Both were mentored by and have a close relationship to Skelezzo, and just like her, Gomez was once an idealistic Federal agent. His original mission of being tasked to arrest Revi even draws parallels to Birdy's current mission. However, through discovering the truth of the world, Gomez gradually took to unscrupulous means to achieve his ideals. Birdy, meanwhile, never lost her sense of idealistic justice even in her darkest hours. This even extends to their fighting styles: [[StrongAndSkilled Gomez is disciplined and extremely skilled]]; Birdy [[UnskilledButStrong simply throws her weight around.]] All in all, Gomez is a male counterpart to Birdy on an openly darker path, but without having truly lost his heart along his journey.]] |
| 434 | * ForbiddenLove: Nechla's love for Kashu is viewed as this by her superiors, and they believe he leads her astray. As a result, Nechla and Kashu are frequently spied upon. They are also only allowed to continue their relationship if Nechla continues to perform her duties as an assassin. |
| 435 | * ForcedIntoEvil: |
| 436 | ** It's made clear that [[EvenEvilHasStandards regardless of how he feels,]] Hikawa will not take Akutsu's resignation. After Hikawa seemingly dies, Shigenobu reassures Akutsu he isn't going to hunt him down. |
| 437 | ** As we learn more about Nechla's past, it's clear she is what Birdy would have become without the love of people like Violin and Megius: A slave to the Sanctum Sanctorum. |
| 438 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: In his mock fight with Birdy, Gomez demonstrates an eerie ability to FlashStep at such speed Birdy couldn't even tell what happened. [[spoiler: This is his power as the Ixorian Gray Cephon.]] |
| 439 | * ForTheEvulz: Although Hikawa does have an end goal, he commits many horrific acts of pure evil simply to sate his bloodlust or pester his rival Shigenobu. Deconstructed in a realistic way when his acts of gratuitous cruelty [[spoiler: alienate all his allies, funding for his research is suspended permanently, and he is sentenced to execution.]] |
| 440 | * ForScience: Compared to many other antagonists with far-reaching or megalomaniacal goals, this is Akutsu's sole motivation for being involved with evil science. |
| 441 | * FriendlyEnemy: Gomez gradually becomes this to Birdy. While he's still on Revi's side and does his job of showing muscle in front of her, he otherwise has no animosity towards Birdy and provides advice if not outright helping her on occasion. By the last chapters, he can't even be considered an enemy as much as a playful rival. |
| 442 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Birdy lays this out on Revi when they finally have a heart-to-heart talk, saying that no matter how much she suffered, it gives her no right whatsoever to indiscriminately ruin the lives of innocent people like herself, angrily telling Revi that she took her mother from her in the Central Tower attacks. |
| 443 | * GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The purpose of the Ixorians in the various conflicts across the galaxy, from the Empire era to the Federation vs Alliance war. |
| 444 | * GeneralFailure: Mace demonstrates to be a lousy commander in chief and Nechla undermines his authority fearing his incompetence. [[DisproportionateRetribution He does not take this well.]] |
| 445 | * GetItOverWith: [[spoiler: Nechla goads Gomez to simply kill her instead of sparing her when he considers what to do with her in captivity.]] |
| 446 | * GentleGiant: Gomez is very tall and built like a brick house but pacifistic unless he feels his family is threatened. The same applies to a lesser extent with the Marionette, Gnome. |
| 447 | * GivingSomeonethePointerFinger: Mace points his finger this way when bossing others around. |
| 448 | * GladToBeAliveSex: Nechla's first time with Kashu was this, being overwhelmed by the influx of emotions, namely love, after living her life up to then as a machine. |
| 449 | * GlassCannon: By her own admittance, Nechla is nowhere near as strong or durable as Birdy, but believes she is more refined in her fighting style. With skill alone, she handily beats Birdy in a real fight. |
| 450 | * GodhoodSeeker: [[spoiler: Robert and Shyamalan in the AlternateUniverse after Sayaka's scientific breakthroughs. [[ApocalypseHow It ends very badly.]]]] |
| 451 | * TheGlassesComeOff: When Gomez is seriously angered or needs to demonstrate his conviction, he takes his shades off and sees others eye to eye, as seen in his initial meeting with Chigira. |
| 452 | * GoldDigger: [[spoiler: In the AlternateUniverse, Robert claims to Sayaka he has no genuine bond with Shyamalan and is just using him to get rich.]] |
| 453 | * GreaterScopeVillain: |
| 454 | ** Revi is this for the first half of the manga, financing and lightly supporting Hikawa from the shadows but otherwise not being active in the plot. |
| 455 | ** [[spoiler: The alternate universe Satyajit Shyamalan casts a shadow over the entire series, being indirectly responsible for everything, and the concept of the character is retroactively this for the entire franchise.]] |
| 456 | * FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: The fight with Undine!Sayaka at the hospital is the most overtly violent one in the series, as she tears human enemies apart into showers of gore during her rampage. |
| 457 | * FanserviceModel: What Hayamiya aspired to be before getting a nasty appendicitis scar. |
| 458 | * TheFederation: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Federation.]] Swearing an oath to not repeat the mistakes of the fallen Altan empires, the Federation champions itself as collection of united governments and species who are all equal to one another. |
| 459 | * FullFrontalAssault: Undine always fights in the nude. Late into the story, [[spoiler: Nechla's powers in her brainwashed state burn her cloths off and she goes on a naked rampage until she starts mutating...]] |
| 460 | * GenocideFromTheInside: Revi speculates the Sanctum Sanctorum subtly encourages the oppression of Altans as a means of systematic genocide. [[spoiler: The truth is they have instigated tensions like those we see with the Altans to ensure sentient life does not stagnate from too much peace.]] |
| 461 | * GetOut: [[spoiler: When Hikawa crawls back to Shigenobu out of hiding and pleads to take him back in, Shigenobu is impressed by his hubris and sics his men on him. It doesn't do him much good, as Hikawa kills all of them and drags the man back to Mido.]] |
| 462 | * AGodIAmNot: In chapter 77, when Tsutomu complains that aliens are "useless," Birdy reminds him that they are not gods. |
| 463 | * GoodAllAlong: Although Kashu oozes shadiness through his occupation as a spy and his relationship with the even shadier Nechla, the timeskip shows he is unapologetically good and an upstanding, hard-working federal agent. |
| 464 | * GoodIsNotSoft: Birdy might be a good cop who prefers diplomacy, but she isn't above often using extreme force to make her enemies submit. |
| 465 | ** Tsutomu, in contrast to Birdy, is less idealistic and forgiving. |
| 466 | ** Applies to most federal agents actually working under the law, such as Megius, Kidel, and Kashu. |
| 467 | ** [[spoiler: While Gomez is revealed to be an all-around good guy, he has no reservations of killing if push comes to shove. There's also the fact his undercover work as Revi's enforcer forces him to oversee and carry out many nasty crimes.]] |
| 468 | * {{Gonk}}: Mido looks like a toad, with a big mouth and gag-like lips. Fittingly, [[spoiler: his monstrous form is akin to that of a salamander, using its massive mouth to devour people whole.]] |
| 469 | * GoryDiscretionShot: When Megius uses his mandibles to bite off an enemy's head, we don't fully see it, and Birdy shields her eyes from the sight. |
| 470 | * TheGreatOffscreenWar: Several. The seven hundred year war between the original Altan monarchy and Etania usurper empire plays a critical role to the background of the story. In the present day, the Federation is waging an ongoing war against the Alliance, but we only hear of it than see it in action. |
| 471 | * HatedByAll: Everyone associated with Hikawa, barring Mido, either despise or deeply fear him, often both. |
| 472 | * HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe: Tunica's corpse after sacrificing her life for Revi from a terrorist bombing. |
| 473 | * HeadTurningBeauty: Momiji's looks are one of the reasons her family inn is popular. |
| 474 | * HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler: Nechla intends on defecting from the department of worship and running off with Kashu, but the sanctum's mental conditioning on her turns Nechla into a mindless slave solely dedicated to her objective of killing Revi.]] |
| 475 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: Throughout history, this is what the Sanctum Sanctorum invokes on certain individuals and even entire races for delving too much on the true origins of the galaxy. Notable victims include Etania, the Altan usurper, and Christella Revi and Maxwell Peridan. |
| 476 | * HesBack: [[spoiler: Shigenobu excitedly comes out of his deep slump when the Federation officially arrives on Earth.]] |
| 477 | * HeWhoMustNotBeNamed: Due to her actions, Revi is vilified in Federation-aligned nations. The mere mention of her name is considered taboo and inspires dread. |
| 478 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: Invoked, literally. Birdy states that, despite her FreudianExcuse, her acts of terror across multiple star systems have made Revi a metaphorical monster. She responds by saying she's aware of this, but one must "become a monster to defeat monsters." |
| 479 | * HeroicBSOD: Birdy's belief [[spoiler: she killed Hikawa shakes her to the core.]] After the timeskip, [[spoiler: when she hears Revi's whole story and realizes how corrupt the Federation is, she falls on all four at the sight of Nechla preparing to kill Revi, at a loss on what to do. Ultimately, she decides to pursue her own justice and snaps out of her funk, defending Revi from Nechla.]] |
| 480 | * HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Violin and Kashu respectively, one for Birdy and the other trying (and failing) for his lover, Nechla.]] In Revi's backstory, Tunica shielded Revi from a truck carrying dangerous explosives, knowing she wouldn't survive. |
| 481 | * HotterAndSexier: It would be an understatement to merely claim how much more rampant {{Fanservice}} is in this series. Female nudity is all over the place, and sexual situations and innuendos are common. |
| 482 | * HotSpringsEpisode: The Millennium's Beat arc, which takes place in the Arita hot springs inn. |
| 483 | * HowTheMightyHaveFallen: [[spoiler: As a result of his stupidity in bullying Shigenobu around, he suspends all funding for Hikawa and attempts to arrest him. In the fallout of the battle between Shegenobu's men, his small army of mutants, and Birdy and Ondine, Hikawa is reduced to a homeless fugitive deprived of resources to even control his Rapid Aging. He attempts to plead to Shigenobu to take him back in, to which he vehemently refuses, forcing Hikawa to make him consent through violence. Even then it doesn't last long as Hikawa is killed in a joint alliance between enemies and former allies alike.]] |
| 484 | * HeelRealization: After getting to know him enough and witnessing his abuse of Chigira, Gomez comes to understand what depraved scum Hikawa is and begins to take measures to stop him, starting with taking Chigira away from him. |
| 485 | * HellishPupils: Birdy has noticeable cat-like pupils that get more emphasized the angrier she gets. When [[SuperPoweredEvilSide she goes crazy,]] they fully become this. [[spoiler: They're a sign of having the blood of Etania in her.]] |
| 486 | * TheHeretic: Maxwell was always viewed as something along the lines of this, constantly questioning the scriptures of the church and having his own ideas on faith. He eventually becomes this outright to the department of worship, and his legacy as a heretic is used to instill fear into their worshippers. In the present, Revi also has the designation and is marked for assassination. |
| 487 | * HumanoidAbomination: Hikawa's faulty beast men and, notably, [[spoiler: Gozo Mido.]] |
| 488 | * HumanAliens: Altans bear an uncanny resemblance to humans, and many of the animal-like aliens seen in the series have human physiologies. There's a damn good reason for this that isn't coincidence, though: [[spoiler: The Sanctum Sanctorum founded all these alien races from leftover genetic data after Shyamalan ended their universe.]] |
| 489 | * HumanityIsInfectious: Gomez explains to Birdy when he arrived on Earth, he had nothing, not even clothes starting off. Through his cover job and new family on Earth, he comes to cherish his friends and family as what's most important to him. |
| 490 | * HumanityIsSpecial: [[spoiler: When discussing with Megius about the fate of the galaxy at large in the epilogue, Revi says this about humanity, stating she believes in the potential of children like Towa, Chigira, and Sayaka to guide humanity from their past mistakes.]] |
| 491 | [[/folder]] |
| 492 | [[folder:I-K]] |
| 493 | * IChooseToStay: Gomez makes it clear he isn't holding Chigira prisoner and allows him to leave his estate should he desire, only warning him of the realistic consequences of him doing so. Chigira chooses to stay with Gomez of his own will despite Birdy's insistence on returning him to his old life. |
| 494 | * IdentityAmnesia: [[spoiler: After Gomez gives her brain damage, Nechla's mind regresses to a child-like state for most of volume nine before Revi pieces it back together.]] |
| 495 | * IDieFree: [[spoiler: As she's dying, Nechla makes peace with her split consciousness, embracing her and saying they will finally depart to a world free of pain.]] |
| 496 | * ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler: Mido devours the prostitutes attending to him whole after he's finished having sex.]] |
| 497 | * ImmortalitySeeker: MadScientist Agata Juuzou's whole motive for helping Agni out. To a lesser degree, while immortality isn't exactly what he's seeking, Altoros gained physical immortality through the Marionette body provided by Revi. |
| 498 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: |
| 499 | ** [[spoiler: Hikawa pierces through Birdy's chest with his sword in their last battle, mortally wounding her. In her subsequent crazed state, she returns the favor by impaling her entire arm through his torso.]] |
| 500 | ** [[spoiler: Birdy impales Nechla her with her arm then uses Crash, killing her.]] |
| 501 | * ItsAllAboutMe: |
| 502 | ** Bacillus and Hikawa are defined by their lack of foresight and intense selfishness, and it's commentated on by Gomez in conversation with Revi. |
| 503 | ** Everything Mace does is to improve or preserve his position of power. His planned second bombing of Earth is out of desperation to finish Revi so he can save face with his superiors and not get demoted for his initial screwup. |
| 504 | * InsectoidAliens: Megius is a praying-mantis-like alien that stands out in a cast full of humanoid aliens. Other characters like Skelezzo enjoy teasing him for his looks. |
| 505 | * InterspeciesRomance: Gomez and Revi are Altans, but both have human sons and daughters. |
| 506 | * IAmAMonster: |
| 507 | ** Chigira suffers from depression and an identity crisis after escaping Hikawa, citing himself as a monster without anywhere to go. Gomez helps him get back on his feet. |
| 508 | ** [[spoiler: Killing Nechla and remembering her unconscious rampage of Agni's lab causes Birdy to slip into deep depression of her identity, fearing she could wind up eventually becoming a monster that has to similarly be put down.]] |
| 509 | * IJustWantToBeFree: |
| 510 | ** Tunica grows obsessed with Revi's daily stories of the outside world, having never had a life outside the department of worship. After being snuck out several times to see the world, freedom is revealed to have been her truest desire. |
| 511 | ** Nechla's truest desire to simply run away from her life as a church assassin with Kashu. |
| 512 | ** At its core, Revi's life goal [[WellIntentionedExtremist is to free the universe from the Sanctum Sanctorum and give free will back to all.]] |
| 513 | * IOweYouMyLife: |
| 514 | ** Kred feels forever indebted to Birdy for saving his life in the Central Tower attacks. |
| 515 | ** When Revi asks Chigira why he doesn't flee when Nechla has them dead to rights, reminding him she was indirectly behind many of his misfortunes, Chigira states he owes a debt to Revi for healing him when he was an infant, as well as giving him a firm purpose on life now. This reveals despite everything, Chigira does not have any regrets or doubts about the path he has taken. |
| 516 | * IrrationalHatred: Even for a racist bully, Kred as a kid took his hatred for Altans to new heights, repeatedly demanding Birdy be incarcerated by police officials for a kindergarten fight. |
| 517 | * {{Keet}}: Altoros becomes a very lively kid after gaining his Marionette body and enjoying the life he previously never had. |
| 518 | * KilledMidSentence: Mace halfway through another rant before one of his men has enough and shoots him in the head. |
| 519 | * KilledOffscreen: We don't see Chigira kill Lee on-screen, but a NightmareSequence in the timeskip confirms she was killed by him. |
| 520 | * KillItWithFire: [[spoiler: As he braces himself for a renewed fight with Birdy, Salamander sends a fireball towards their direction that combusts into a violent explosion, ending Hikawa for good.]] |
| 521 | * KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler: [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Nechla]] can't help herself and murders Kashu in his attempts to reason with her.]] |
| 522 | * KnowledgeBroker: Irma's other job besides running the Altan Refugee Network, albeit always for a price (much to Birdy's chagrin). |
| 523 | [[/folder]] |
| 524 | |
| 525 | [[folder:L-M]] |
| 526 | * LastNameBasis: Chigira is almost never referred to by his first name, Kazuyoshi. |
| 527 | * LeanAndMean:: Although he spends most of his time sitting on his throne, when Mace gets up, he shows himself to be very lean and hunched over. |
| 528 | * LetsGetDangerous: After spending most of the story as a spy and apparent NonActionGuy despite being Ixorian, Kashu dons his armor and makes a heroic last stand against [[spoiler: a crazed Nechla]] despite having just lost his arm. |
| 529 | * LightningBruiser: Just about every Ixorian is this by human standards, even [[WeakButSkilled Nechla.]] The sole exception is Tunica, who was not bred for combat. |
| 530 | * LikeASonToMe: Gomez eventually sees Chigira as his surrogate son, and the latter views him as his father figure. Their loyalty to one another is so great [[spoiler: Gomez is willing to compromise his allegiances to Revi solely to make Chigira happy. By the end of the story, Gomez entrusts him to protect his family as he serves his prison sentence.]] |
| 531 | * LivingEmotionalCrutch: Kashu is practically all that holds together Nechla's humanity. After being indoctrinated into a twisted life devoid of love and joy, he is the only person in her life even now to show her both. |
| 532 | * LivingLegend: Among Altans, Revi is viewed as a legendary figure that rose to prominence despite being a third-rate citizen. Even now among the oppressed populace, she is viewed as a hero that inspires hope among the downtrodden Altans. |
| 533 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: Ironically, even into the very end, Muroto doesn't discover Tsutomu's secret when his high school friends are all in on it. |
| 534 | * MadeOfIron: Practically nothing fazes Ixorians, namely Birdy, apart from other Ixorian adversaries. [[spoiler: Hikawa does find ways to badly hurt her, however.]] |
| 535 | * MalevolentMaskedMan: Chigira often wears a sinister-looking white mask after the timeskip. When Tsutomu inquires about it, he says [[NoodleIncident he received a nasty injury in a training exercise.]] |
| 536 | * MadnessMantra: From Undine!Sayaka: Sasaki..Sasaki...Sasaki... |
| 537 | * MamaBear: Violin was fiercely protective of Birdy and invoked a HeroicSacrifice out of love for her. Gomez's wife, Marie, also boldly stands up to Lee and her monsters to protect her daughter Sara despite being a completely ordinary human. |
| 538 | * MartialPacifist: Despite his strength, Gomez only fights if his hand is absolutely forced. He otherwise leaves violence to Revi's marionettes. |
| 539 | * MasterSwordsman: Hikawa is incredibly skilled with the use of a personal Nodachi, pulling it out on special occasions and swiftly killing his runaway experiments in one blow. He brandishes the same sword in his final battle with Birdy and gives her a battle for her life. |
| 540 | * MeaningfulName: All four of Revi's Marionettes are closely named after Japan's four great spirits governing the major elements of soil, fire, water, and wind. |
| 541 | * AMillionIsAStatistic: Revi casually tells Birdy that she is willing to use multiple billions of lives as a means to an end if she achieves her goals of freeing the galaxy from the tyranny of the Sanctum Sanctorum. [[ShutUpHannibal Birdy responds telling her to not say such stupid things.]] |
| 542 | * MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Lee eventually ditches Hikawa and starts a street gang that sells Type-L blood examples as recreational drugs, which makes her just as much of a threat to Gomez's eyes. |
| 543 | * MoralityPet: Besides Tsutomu being one to Birdy over time, there's Towa to Revi, her son. [[spoiler: Notable in that while her love for Towa isn't enough to dissuade Revi from evil or her ultimate goals, she does acknowledge Towa as one of humanity's potential champions for the future in the epilogue.]] |
| 544 | ** Gomez's love for his Earth family is a core part of what keeps his heart together admist his sinister occupation, and [[BerserkButton lord help anyone that threatens them.]] |
| 545 | ** MotiveRant: Mace explodes into these when his subordinates question him, raving about their duties to their gods, how they must "avenge" Nechla, and so on. |
| 546 | * MuggingTheMonster: As a result of his pacifistic and unassuming demeanor, numerous characters like Bacillus think they can threaten and belittle Gomez for their demands. All of them pay the price, dearly, some with him not even lifting a finger. |
| 547 | * MultiArmedAndDangerous: Megius has four arms, but conceals the second set under his robes for practical reasons: When an Altan thug holds him at knifepoint, he takes him by surprise with his hidden arms while his visible hands are held up. |
| 548 | * MurderIsTheBestSolution: Gomez has little to no tolerance for loose ends that threaten his security. This is a key reason as to why Birdy dislikes him. Also extends to his affiliate, Agni, in regards to whistleblowers and traitors: They WILL hunt you down, something not lost upon its general workers even with their cover stories. |
| 549 | * MyGrandsonMyself: [[spoiler: In reality, "Shogo" is really an alias; Seichiro Hikawa was posing as his own grandson.]] |
| 550 | * MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: Gomez cites his role in personally killing Maxwell Peridan as one of the greatest regrets of his life.]] |
| 551 | * MrExposition: Koreie Noah provides much exposition on the history of the Altan monarchs and Etania empire; Maxwell Peridan provides much exposition on the Sanctum Sanctorum and department of worship. |
| 552 | * MustMakeAmends: |
| 553 | ** Due to Sayaka's inner guilt for being the basis for the Marionettes, Undine!Sayaka feels the only way it can make amends is by destroying every last trace of Agni. This includes Sayaka. |
| 554 | ** Gomez [[spoiler: has always planned to turn himself and Revi in if they achieve their goals, citing they must mmake amends for their vast crimes. This is what happens by the epilogue.]] |
| 555 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: When Birdy snaps out of her crazed state and realizing she nearly killed Hikawa in their battle.]] It sticks long after he bites it as well. |
| 556 | * MsFanservice: The looks of the women in this series are often emphasized for {{Fanservice}}, much more than the other continuities. Most notable is Nechla, who is tall, busty, and her outfits often leave nothing to the imagination. She is also one of the few characters seen on-screen having sex and spends most of volume eight naked in a healing tank with Birdy. |
| 557 | [[/folder]] |
| 558 | [[folder:N-P]] |
| 559 | * NakedOnArrival: Gomez when he landed on Earth. |
| 560 | * NavelDeepNeckline: Revi often wears bath robes with the front completely open in the first half of the manga. |
| 561 | * ANaziByAnyOtherName: [[spoiler: Hikawa, a veteran of Imperial Japan as Seichiro Hikawa, has an end goal is to forcibly reclaim Japanese lands from the foreign "invaders" and restore his nation to its former Imperialistic glory.]] |
| 562 | * NecessarilyEvil: [[spoiler: As the Sanctum Sanctorum the backbone of interstellar travel and Federation technology, Birdy wiping them out at the end effectively strands a large portion of the Federation and other spacedwellers on Earth, forever without a means of returning home, forcing them to make peace and migrate. This is a key reason Revi is imprisoned for life afterward, regardless of his reasonings.]] |
| 563 | * NecessarilyEvil: How Gomez and Revi continuously justify their actions. [[spoiler: They're completely in the right as intentions go, and they're not above thinking their means aren't evil. By the end, they willingly take lives of atonement when it's all said and done.]] |
| 564 | * NervesOfSteel: In the Spring Festival arc, when facing the threat of force by Neith's thugs, Ryota boldly stands up to them to prevent them from hurting his friends any further. |
| 565 | * NervousWreck: |
| 566 | ** Akutsu, who is a weak-willed man that is easily intimidated into subordination. |
| 567 | ** After his initial bombardment on Earth misses thanks to Gomez's intervention, Mace spends his remaining screentime as a stuttering wreck, knowing how screwed he is when the Federation gets word of what he did. |
| 568 | * NeverGotToSayGoodBye: Before he took the flight to his hometown after being excommunicated, Maxwell promised Revi they would meet again. She solemnly narrates they never did after he departs. |
| 569 | * NightmareSequence: |
| 570 | ** Shigenobu [[spoiler: has a dream in which Hikawa succeeded in his goals and he is standing by his side on the frontlines. Hikawa abruptly betrays Shigenobu, and as he's torn apart by his beast men, he dies cursing him.]] |
| 571 | ** Birdy [[spoiler: after killing Nechla has a nightmare where she destroys Japan and Tsutomu curses her for it.]] |
| 572 | * NobleDemon: |
| 573 | ** Gomez may work for Christella Revi but harbors no real ill will. He lends advice and helps Birdy on a number of occasions. He also undermines the interests of villains like Hikawa should they prove to be enough of a threat to his values. |
| 574 | ** Nechla is definitely this compared to others in the department of worship, always wanting to avoid as many casualties as possible and having no real faith in her superiors. |
| 575 | * NonActionGuy: Completely justified in Tsutomu's case, as he's an ordinary high school boy who is inhabitating a badass alien warrior's body. He has no reason to fight or know how to. Also with Kidel and his subordinates: Being diminutive rat aliens that work purely as reconnaissance. Even if they could bite or claw at people, it would do nothing to the genetically enhanced monsters and cyborgs they're up against. |
| 576 | * NonActionBigBad: In a WorldOfBadass like this, Revi distinctively has no fighting ability whatsoever. |
| 577 | * NoSocialSkills: As a result of a privileged, sheltered life, Sayaka is extremely awkward in social situations, with no sense of fashion and a personality that comes off as ditzy. Natsumi and Tsutomu find it endearing, though. |
| 578 | ** In a very tragic way, Tunica's closed life and trauma made Revi conclude that Tunica was brought up as a non-human. She wasn't seen as a living, sentient creature, but a machine and treated as such. This led Revi to enact the ordinary education law for Ixorians, which allowed them to live normal lives as kids. The same law is what gave Birdy her freedom as a child. |
| 579 | * NotAfraidToDie: Nechla is completely flippant about the prospect of death, infrequently making morose jokes of not surviving her missions to Kashu. |
| 580 | * NotInThisForYourRevolution: Nechla tells Birdy her assassination of Revi is not involved with the police or out of any personal moral obligation. His masters told her to kill Revi, and that's it. [[PunchClockVillain Nothing more, nothing less.]] |
| 581 | * NotSoAboveItAll: [[EmotionlessGirl Nechla]] demonstrates a comedic side in front of Birdy when she threatens she'll beat up Kashu for not coming to her rescue instead, exasperating Birdy. |
| 582 | * NoSympathy: [[spoiler: While she does acknowledge the truth in her whole story, Birdy flat out says she has no sympathy for Revi herself after everything she's done in her life as a terrorist.]] |
| 583 | * NumberTwo: Skelezzo is explicitly this to Megius, and Megius sometims halfheartedly reminds him he is his superior when he questions his orders. |
| 584 | * ObviouslyEvil: Hikawa dresses in all black, has HellishPupils, is introduced sipping wine in a decaying mansion from the shadows, and is referred to as a "vampire" by kids that snuck around his house and claimed to see someone. And that's just the start of it. |
| 585 | * OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: Sayaka and Tsutomu by the end. Ryota and Natsumi also hook up.]] |
| 586 | * OldDarkHouse: Hikawa mainly lives in a remote ancient mansion falling apart at the seams. The house is referred to as "cursed" by children that dared to go near it. Officially, it belongs to Seichiro Hikawa, his grandfather, thus Shogo inherited it from him. [[spoiler: Considering Shogo is actually Seichiro, it's his house from the start.]] |
| 587 | * OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Seichiro Hikawa whose youth was rejuvenated by Christella Revi's backing, is pushing his 90s but looks to be in his 30s. When he takes another sip of Spirits after the ordeal with Shigenobu, he rejuvenates to look even younger, appearing to be in his 20s as a boyish man.]] |
| 588 | * OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler: Hikawa undergoes this after being fatally wounded by Birdy, but he doesn't get to do anything with it before he's killed by Salamander.]] |
| 589 | * {{Ojou}}: What Sayaka was before Nakasugi Industries was taken over by PMI. |
| 590 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness |
| 591 | ** [[TheStoic Gomez]] breaks a sweat and panics when Nechla [[spoiler: ridicules him in captivity, dangling the probability of tattling to Revi about his deception if he doesn't kill her.]] |
| 592 | ** [[DissonantSerenity Revi]] abruptly yells in a rage while [[spoiler: interrogating a brain damaged Nechla.]] She quickly goes back to her usual self, however, and never loses her cool again for the remainder of the series. |
| 593 | ** After Capella [[spoiler: takes shelter in Tsutomu's house once the war between the Federation and Earth kicks off, she starts causing environmental damage that leads to the deaths of several people. When she rubs this into Birdy's face and how she does not have the legal authority to control her, Birdy later contemplates killing Capella in her sleep. Fortunately, she reminds herself she is not a murderer, and finds a peaceful alternative to detaining Capella with Gomez's aid.]] |
| 594 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: As an Altan, it's highly unlikely Gomez's real name is Georg Gomez. However, even Revi only refers to him as Gomez, leaving his true identity a mystery. [[spoiler: It's Gray Cephon, an Ixorian ex-Federation investigative agent.]] |
| 595 | * TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: [[spoiler: This is what Gomez's relationship with Revi amounts to at its core. Originally being assigned to arresting Revi as a federal agent before being swept up in her conspiracy, he never let go of his mission. Until he and Revi accomplish their mutual goals of defeating the Sanctum Sanctorum, he will never let her die, nor will he let anyone else (Birdy) take her in.]] |
| 596 | * OneWomanArmy: Every ActionGirl in the series is this, each demonstrating at least one instance of taking on swathes of enemies single-handedly. |
| 597 | * OrderVersusChaos: [[spoiler: What the Sanctum Sanctorum's conflict vs Christella Revi essentially is: the former represents order under their absolute jurisdiction to ensure the same mistakes of Satyajit Shyamalan are not repeated. Revi represents chaos in that, regardless of their reasonings, humanity should learn from their mistakes and be given back the freedom to make their own choices.]] |
| 598 | * OutOfFocus: |
| 599 | ** Despite a constant presence in the early volumes of the manga, once Capella relocates Megius a quarter way through the story, he is not seen or heard from again until late into the timeskip, where he becomes a central supporting character. |
| 600 | ** After the timeskip, Natsumi along with Ryota are notably out of focus with the stakes becoming much higher and focusing on Christella Revi and galactic politics. |
| 601 | ** Despite being the most prominent Marionettes in the first half, Sylph and Salamander are notably out of the spotlight post-timeskip while Undine and Gnome gain more limelight. Although Sylph returns in the last volumes, Salamander eregiously suffers ChuckCunninghamSyndrome. |
| 602 | * ParentalSubstitute: |
| 603 | ** Megius and Skelezzo have served as father figures to Birdy since her childhood, and with Violin's death fully took the responsibility of being her guardians until adulthood. |
| 604 | ** Gomez becomes this to Chigira with the consent of his grandmother, freeing him from Hikawa's clutches and taking him in as his pupil and eventual surrogate son. |
| 605 | * PhotographicMemory: Tunica's power, which later transferred to Revi following their (faulty) fusion process. |
| 606 | * PoliceAreUseless: Tsutomu frequently complains how the Federation agents on Earth only seem capable of doing anything but their jobs. |
| 607 | * PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Hikawa and many others from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as the imperalistic Empire remnants, are very sexist and possess condescending views on commoners. |
| 608 | * PosthumousCharacter: Violin, Maxwell Peridan, and Tunica Cephon are all long dead in the present. |
| 609 | * PrettyBoy: |
| 610 | ** Compared to Tsutomu and Ryota, Chigira has a very feminine face and slender build. |
| 611 | ** Gomez also had a pretty, boyish face in his youth, [[{{Hunk}} but was comparitively ripped during his days as a federal agent.]] |
| 612 | * PrettyLittleHeadshots: Averted. The blaster shot goes right through Mace's left eye and splatters his brains all over his throne. |
| 613 | * ProfessorGuineaPig: Hikawa has extensively experimented on himself, turning himself into the first successful superhuman, granting him his youth, SuperStrength, and other perks at the escalating cost of his already nebulous sanity. |
| 614 | * ProperlyParanoid: Chamberlain, Altoros' dragon, is extremely wary and distrustful of Revi, believing she does not have the interests of the Empire at heart. His concerns fall on deaf ears to Altoros, who wholeheartedly trusts Revi for giving him a new body. [[spoiler: As it turns out, he has every reason to be suspicious of Revi.]] |
| 615 | * PunchCatch: Gomez does this in his mock fight with Birdy, subsequently breaking her arm. [[spoiler: When he meets up with Skelezzo again, the latter tries to sucker punch him as part of his signature AttackHello greeting. Gomez easily catches his fist and remarks he never changes.]] |
| 616 | [[/folder]] |
| 617 | [[folder:Q-R]] |
| 618 | * QuirkyMiniBossSquad: Birdy faces several of these across the story: A group of technologically advanced US Pentagon agents, Revi's Marionettes, and the elite Empire guard. |
| 619 | * RapeAsBackstory: One of the most obscure memories Revi finds during his exploration of Tunica's memory banks is being raped by a vile pedophile clergyman, the sight of which sends Revi into a HeroicBSoD. |
| 620 | * RapidAging: [[spoiler: If Hikawa doesn't periodically dose himself on Spirits, Seichiro will revert to being a man in his 90s. This is why he becomes desperate enough to plead with Shigenobu in giving him his lab and resources back.]] |
| 621 | * RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Hikawa, like an animal, violently rapes Lee early on in making her his subordinate to assert his dominance over her. |
| 622 | * RazorFloss: Kashu's power as an Ixorian is to manifest his bio armor as this. Although he and Nechla [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway deemed it a pretty lame power as kids,]] it is very effective and deadly in practice. |
| 623 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Megius recognizes the injustice and corruption running rampant in the Federation, but he is not prejudiced against Altans and only desires to make the galaxy a better place. |
| 624 | * ReassignedToAntarctica: Not long after Hikawa's death, it's revealed Capella used her connections in internal affairs to relocate Megius, rendering Birdy her defacto subordinate on Earth. |
| 625 | * ReligionOfEvil: The department of worship, dedicated to serving the malevolent Sanctum Sanctorum, is one of the main antagonistic forces of the series. |
| 626 | * ReallyRoyaltyReveal: |
| 627 | ** In the Millennium Beats arc, it's revealed the Chigira family were Altan royalty that descended to Earth with the Arita dynasty. They broke off from the Aritas due to a disagreement over their agendas. |
| 628 | ** Birdy [[spoiler: is directly descended from Etania's bloodline, hence her unnatural strength even by Ixorian standards. Her distinct slitted pupils are also proof of it, and it's one of the first things her captors in Volume 9 check on to verify.]] |
| 629 | * RedOniBlueOni: Hayamiya is the blue to Sudou's red, although she is capable of having a temper. Interestingly, the dynamic of this goes back and forth between Birdy and Tsutomu throughout the story. |
| 630 | * TheRemnant: The holdout of the Altan Etania Empire that eventually make their way to Earth. |
| 631 | * RescueRomance: How Sayaka met Tsutomu, as aforementioned in AttemptedRape. Although it was Birdy in Tsutomu's form that scared away the thugs, something he feels embarrassed over. |
| 632 | * RichesToRags: [[spoiler: After Shigenobu takes everything from him, Hikawa is forced into living in a filthy shithole in hiding since the former also blew up his mansion. Also, this ironically befalls Shigenobu after the timeskip with Gozo Mido's death, as he's reduced to being homeless.]] |
| 633 | * RightHandAttackDog: Compared to the other Marionettes that have integrated into human society, Undine spends most of her time patrolling through the lakes of Revi's forest HQ, killing any suspicious trespassers. |
| 634 | * RidiculouslyHumanRobot: The Marionettes under Revi and Violin are empathetic and independent it calls into question how much of a robot they really are. This is actually a major plot point late into the time skip. |
| 635 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: |
| 636 | ** Undine!Sayaka's rampage of the hospital holding Sayaka herself. |
| 637 | ** Birdy and Tsutomu's destruction of the Agni research facility after learning of how much it's just hurt their loved ones. |
| 638 | [[/folder]] |
| 639 | [[folder:S-V]] |
| 640 | * {{Sadist}}: Capella, Neith, and Hikawa are all extremely sadistic monsters and relish in hurting others. |
| 641 | * SanitySlippage: Hikawa regularly drinks Spirits even when he doesn't have to, and Gomez suggests knocking it off, implying it's possibly the source of his ever degrading sanity. |
| 642 | * ScrewDestiny: [[spoiler: After discovering the destiny laid out for all descendants of the Arita family, Momiji becomes enraged and is determined to never let herself or future descendants bear that tragic burden any longer. With Birdy, she destroys the Arita spaceship, making sure the Aritas from then on aren't shackled by their ancestor's legacy.]] |
| 643 | * SecretKeeper: After the incident with Neith, Natsumi and Ryota know about everything with Tsutomu, but keep it to themselves. |
| 644 | * ShipperOnDeck: Ryota tries to hook Natsumi up with Tsutomu. By the timeskip, Tsutomu becomes romantically involved with Sayaka instead. |
| 645 | * SilkHidingSteel: Beneath the graceful demeanor, Momiji is initially already aware of some of her family's dark secrets, and is more than capable of fighting competently. |
| 646 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: |
| 647 | ** While Bacillus really doesn't accomplish much of anything, his atrocities set most of the first half's plot in motion by injuring Chigira and him subsequently being transferred over to Hikawa's hospital. Also, his actions set the police and Natsumi on leads of discovering Tsutomu's condition and ties to Birdy very late into the story. |
| 648 | ** Yukari Takayanagi, the Agni mole who is killed to shut her up, awakens Birdy in the second half of the manga and sets the protagonists back on the path of Christella Revi. |
| 649 | ** Mace [[spoiler: doesn't last long, but his actions make Earth's military forces recognize the Federation as a hostile force, kickstarting the war arc. There's also the fact Mace is why Nechla is the way she is now.]] |
| 650 | ** Neith as precious minimal screentime after the timeskip, but [[spoiler: her death is the catalyst Capella uses to justify the Federation's aggressive invasion of Earth.]] |
| 651 | ** While Shyamalan has vastly lesser screentime here compared to Decode, only appearing in volume six and thirteen (the final volume), the importance of his role there retroactively [[spoiler: makes his character the true chief antagonist of the Birdy the Mighty franchise.]] |
| 652 | * SinisterSchnoz: Ackerman has a comically large nose and is a ruthless Pentagon agent. |
| 653 | * SmugSnake: Ultimately, this is what Hikawa is at his core despite all his bluster. He has delusions of far-reaching goals, but they are undermined by his impulsive bloodlust, sadism, and actions of wanton evil. |
| 654 | * TheSociopath: |
| 655 | ** Hikawa is a monstrously evil psychopath likened to pure evil by numerous characters. |
| 656 | ** Subverted with Revi. Despite all the implications of being a discompassionate extremist who would sacrifice anything and anyone to achieve her goals, it's thoroughly shown that Revi has the capacity for genuine empathy and remorse. |
| 657 | * SoreLoser: Birdy has this in regards to her [[CurbStompBattle first fight]] with Gomez, eager to pick up where they left off last the next time they meet. Although that rematch never comes to pass, she develops a one-sided rivalry with him for the rest of the series. |
| 658 | * SpannerInTheWorks: Hazumi's volunteering for Hikawa Chemistry directly leads to Hikawa's downfall when Birdy raids their facility initially just to rescue her. After the timeskip, her new job at Agni is what Tsutomu and Birdy use for leads on their illicit activities. |
| 659 | * TheStarscream: Akutsu [[spoiler: betrays Hikawa over to Shigenobu and subsequently gains top control of his Spirits research.]] After the timeskip, he's living the high life. |
| 660 | * StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: Invoked. [[spoiler: Nechla acts callous over Kashu's death and goads Birdy with evil rhetoric, only so she will clear her mind of doubt and end her life.]] |
| 661 | * StrongAndSkilled: Gomez is not vastly physically superior to Birdy, but incredibly skilled and disciplined in fighting. As Birdy's ineffectual barrage of wild attacks fails to do anything to Gomez in their first "fight," he thoroughly criticizes her for being Unskilled, but Strong. He later trains Chigira to do more than just throw his weight around with his newfound powers. |
| 662 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Towa almost looks just like Revi. [[spoiler: He is an almost spitting image of her as a male born child.]] |
| 663 | * SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[spoiler: Ixorians can fall into this when enraged enough, although as Birdy learns by the very end, it can be controlled to simply be a SuperMode with training.]] |
| 664 | * SuperSpeed: [[spoiler: Gray Cephon's, aka Gomez, trademark power.]] Doubling with SuperReflexes on another level from other Ixorians. |
| 665 | * TakingYouWithMe: Said verbatim. [[spoiler: Hikawa screams that he refuses to die in such an undignified way in his last battle with Birdy, and proclaims that if he is to die to his wounds, he will at least take her with him.]] |
| 666 | * TenderTears: [[spoiler: Revi weeps for Maxwell in private when she is inches from her ultimate goal.]] |
| 667 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: Over the course of the story, Birdy frequently finds herself cooperating with the enigmatic Gomez, whom she frankly detests for a variety of reasons. Late into the story, Birdy forms an extremely tenuous partnership with [[spoiler: Revi herself.]] |
| 668 | * SuccessionCrisis: Since Altoros was dying, it was a question of who would succeed him as emperor with Wyrm being ill fit. The issue is not resolved even after he gained a new body, as his Marionette form is unable to procreate. [[spoiler: By the end of the manga, Altoros is still leading the remnants as a healthy boy, but his successor is not named.]] |
| 669 | * SuperSoldier: Hikawa's motivation with his inhumane research is to create an army of super soldiers, and it's for this end Revi and her affiliates support him so much. As we see in the timeskip, he succeeded in laying the foundation for a successful super soldier program. |
| 670 | * TearsOfFear: Hayamiya breaks down in quiet tears after Bacillus' rampage on her school. |
| 671 | * TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Over the course of the story, a wide range of federal space agents take shelter in Tsutomu's house to maintain better contact with Birdy. He has little to no say over them leaving. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking They also almost always eat up all his food.]] |
| 672 | * ThatManIsDead: Towards the end of the manga, Revi [[spoiler: casts aside his identity as Suisho Hinomiya and coldly tells Towa to simply forget that person was ever real and move on with his life.]] |
| 673 | * ThouShallNotKill: Birdy abhors the idea of killing in the line of duty and makes it a point to always arrest her targets; this puts her at odds with many every other Federation agents that have no qualms of killing. When faced with the dilemma of putting down Hikawa for the sake of humanity, she still tries to only detain him until he nearly kills her. In the few instances since where Birdy has killed sentient beings, she was left with absolutely no choice due to the threat her enemies posed. |
| 674 | * TitleDrop: [[spoiler: The last words of the manga are Birdy proclaiming herself as Birdy "the mighty" to her newfound adversaries.]] |
| 675 | * TookALevelInBadass: Under Gomez's tutelage, Chigira controls his newfound powers and becomes a skilled fighter. After the timeskip, he joins the JSDF as an elite special forces soldier. |
| 676 | * TookALevelInJerkass: As we see in flashbacks to Hikawa's earlier life [[spoiler: as Seichiro Hikawa, he was a more friendly man as a young adult but years of no progress on his work dulled him into a cynical man. After rejuvenating his youth, anything decent about him went out the window.]] |
| 677 | * TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Yukari Takayanagi, a mole in Agni who tried to find justice for her deceased brother, who was killed in one of Hikawa's experiments. She is murdered by Agni and the incident is written off as lover's suicide, spurring Birdy and Tsutomu into action and getting involved with the second half of the manga. |
| 678 | * TomeOfEldritchLore: Maxwell Peridan's "forbidden book," a sealed jet black colored box that he stole from the Sanctum Sanctorum when he was ex-communicated. Revi is currently in possession of it and the department of worship is desperately hunting her down to get it back. [[spoiler: What's inside is a surprise when we don't find eldritch text, [[WhamShot but Japanese documents penned by Sayaka Nakasugi.]]]] |
| 679 | * TrainingFromHell: What all Ixorians, and especially those set to be indoctrinated into the department of worship, go through. |
| 680 | * TranquilFury: Apart from exactly one outburst, in the instances Revi is upset, it is always this coupled with a DeathGlare. |
| 681 | * TrulySingleParent: Who Towa's father exactly is is left to interpretation. |
| 682 | * UndyingLoyalty: Subverted with Gomez towards Revi. [[spoiler: Gomez expresses to Birdy that although he agrees wholeheartedly with Revi's endgame, he is watching her very carefully to determine whether she herself is truly just or simply a petty criminal - at which point, he will ditch her on the spot. His loyalty to Chigira, however, is undying to the point he covertly frees Birdy from captivity, going directly against Revi's interests, simply because it deeply hurt Chigira to see her in such a state.]] |
| 683 | * UnlimitedWardrobe: Revi almost always wears a new outfit for every occasion. |
| 684 | * UnscrupulousHero: Gomez is eventually revealed to be this. He might oversee Revi's work, which involves turning a blind eye to some heinous crimes, [[spoiler: but he is always watching her to determine if she is on the just path or not.]] |
| 685 | * UnskilledButStrong: Birdy often gets by throwing her freakish strength and endurance around, but when faced with Gomez he criticizes her lack of real finesse and discipline. Much later into Evolution, she also fares poorly against Nechla, an Ixorian who is comparatively not as strong or durable as her, but a trained assassin who incapacitates her with precise attacks on her non-vitals. Even up to the FinalBattle, Gomez scolds her for her lack of finesse. |
| 686 | * UnstoppableRage |
| 687 | ** Birdy and Hikawa both through phases of this in their absolutely brutal last battle. |
| 688 | ** [[spoiler: Nechla while brainwashed by the Sanctum Sanctorum, in her single-minded pursuit of killing Revi.]] |
| 689 | * TheVamp: After her falling out with Hikawa, Lee uses her looks to seduce his erstwhile right-hand, Akutsu, to manage the Type-L samples for her schemes. |
| 690 | * VigilanteMan: Chigira has a brief stint of this, feeling he must make amends by hunting down the monsters Hikawa unleashes upon Japan. Gomez pulls him out of it, explaining he can't do everything on his own and Birdy is soon to take care of Hikawa for good anyway. |
| 691 | * VillainHasAPoint: Although the scene is not intended to make him seem too sympathetic, flashbacks to Shigenobu's life as a bum shows he does have a point in how Japanese society unfairly holds the homeless in contempt; he went from a man people bowed to, to a nobody random people regularly wished dead. |
| 692 | * VillainousLegacy: Hikawa's actions and work cast a massive shadow over the second half of the manga. Muroto describes it as a "curse." |
| 693 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: Hikawa is famous in Japan and runs a respected pharmaceutical company. After the time skip, he is posthumously villified and his company was subjected to intense legal investigations before being quietly absorbed into Agni. |
| 694 | * VitriolicBestBuds: Birdy and Tsutomu, while often bickering with one another, deeply care for each other and become close friends. Skelezzo also has this dynamic with Megius despite the sheer differences in their personalities, going all the way back to childhood as best friends. |
| 695 | [[/folder]] |
| 696 | [[folder:W-Z]] |
| 697 | * WasItAllALie: [[spoiler: Towa sadly confronts Revi with this when she reverts back to her male form (to confront the Sanctum Sanctorum) and denounces their relationship. He is left without a proper answer, although Revi's comments about Towa in the epilogue indicates he does genuinely care for him greatly.]] |
| 698 | * WasItReallyWorthIt: [[spoiler: Megius asks this of Revi in the epilogue of the manga, saying he implicitly must have known the damage fromdestroying the Sanctum Sanctorum. Revi still justifes herself, stating she has freed the universe and now it is up to humanity to make good use of free will.]] |
| 699 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: Tuto, Birdy's Marker, who dies in the opening chapters against Geega. Birdy is admonished for letting it happen. |
| 700 | * WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler: From the AlternateUniverse, Robert implores Sayaka to join him and Shyamalan in their unethical research and become gods. When she refuses, they kick her out and take everything from her.]] |
| 701 | * WeHaveReserves: Hikawa's belief on his supply of test subjects. He's eventually proven wrong [[LaserGuidedKarma and it leads directly to his downfall.]] |
| 702 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Christella Revi is fighting an evil conspiracy in the form of the Sanctum Sanctorum to free the galaxy from their machinations. In a twist of sharp irony, however, [[spoiler: the Sanctum Sanctorum is this as well: the reason they lord themselves as absolute gods and subvert free will is solely to ensure "mortals" do not repeat the same mistakes of Satyajit Shyamalan. In the end, their conflict vs Revi is best summarized as OrderVsChaos.]] |
| 703 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Although the manga does a good job of resolving many questions from the other unfinished continuities, as well as its own main plot, the fates of Agata and Wyrm Tail (along with his crew) are left unaccounted for by the end. [[spoiler: With the pinhole systems being left asunder after Birdy destroyed the Sanctum Sanctorum and the star systems subsequently losing communications with one another, the fate of the galaxy at large is also left in the air.]] |
| 704 | * WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Undine!Sayaka grows to love Tsutomu from its time with him, and as Sayaka regains consciousness, it states it wishes things could have gone differently. |
| 705 | * WhamShot: Maxwell Peridan's forbidden book revealing [[spoiler: Japanese documents written by Sayaka Nakasugi.]] |
| 706 | * WhatTheHellAreYou: When Hikawa lays out a speech detailing his goals to a demoralized Akutsu, the man says this verbatim to Hikawa in complete disbelief of who or what he exactly is. |
| 707 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 708 | ** Birdy actually considered trying to cover up what happened to Tsutomu before Tuto pointed out that he was recording what happened and hence it was impossible, so Birdy decides to help Tsutomu after all. How serious she was is questionable, but she's reprimanded by her superiors nonetheless. |
| 709 | ** While going through Birdy's memories after she goes comatose following her battle with Undine, Tsutomu calls out Megius on his segregation of Ixorians from the general populace and inaction against the discrimination Altans endure under the Federation. |
| 710 | * WineIsClassy: Hikawa is often seen with a bottle of red wine at hand, which at least makes him seem sophisticated on the surface. |
| 711 | * WithMyHandsTied: In one of the most memorable scenes, Gomez agrees to let Chigira fall into Birdy's custody if she can take him down. He proposes only using his right hand to fight her, much to Birdy's outrage. What follows is Birdy throwing all her weight around with Gomez not even budging before catching and breaking her arm. |
| 712 | * WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Christella Revi was an atypical persecuted Altan child who was forced to attend a private boarding school dedicated to the department of worship due to his potential. Although the life of a clergyman wasn't what Revi desired, he befriended Altans Maxwell Peridan and Tunica Cephon during his days at the school. Tunica, an Ixorian bound to the church had no knowledge of the outside world or how normal people were. Revi quickly became close friends with Tunica but tragically, Revi and Tunica were caught in the middle of an Altan terrorist bombing, and the latter perished due to being unusually frail for an Ixorian. Blaming Revi for her fate, the Cephon science department was pressured by the church to bring Tunica back by fusing her consciousness into a comatose Revi. The operation failed, with Revi waking up to be the only mind in his body. However, Revi gained all of Tunica's memories and powers, becoming hyper-intelligent and rising to become the head of the Ministry of Science despite being an Altan. After seeing through Tunica's darkest memories and files of her creation, Revi began an investigation into the department of worship and the sanctum they serve. Losing his position in the Ministry of Science before his first term even ended, being falsely accused of leaking high-grade weapons to terrorists, Maxwell was excommunicated and slaughtered by federal agents. Revi subsequently lost faith in diplomacy and became a terrorist dedicated to violently finding justice for herself and her people. |
| 713 | * WouldHurtAChild: As Chigira is at the center of advancing his research, Hikawa tortures him with the most heinous experiments imaginable simply to test his limits. |
| 714 | * WouldHitAGirl: Hikawa routinely sexually and psychologically abuses Lee on top of often beating her. |
| 715 | * WorldsStrongestMan: It's evident Gomez is not only implied to be the strongest Altan on Earth but one of the strongest characters in the series (if not the strongest). He defeats Birdy in a mock fight standing still with one arm, and other villains that attempt to pick a fight with him are left terrified after the encounter. |
| 716 | * TheWorfEffect: |
| 717 | ** Birdy, who was portrayed as unstoppable up to that point, is completely humiliated in her first confrontation with Gomez. |
| 718 | ** Chigira's attempts to restrain Undine!Sayaka see him floored with his intestines ripped out, and he proves to be able to do little to nothing against Nechla later on. |
| 719 | ** Gnome, who just defeated Undine!Sayaka without hassle, is one-shot by the reforged Oni now serving Agata. |
| 720 | ** Nechla is worfed by Gomez as well, after having just incapacitated Birdy, although she comparitively puts up a much better fight. |
| 721 | * WiseBeyondTheirYears: |
| 722 | ** Chigira after the time skip. Justified from his traumatic experiences. |
| 723 | ** Sayaka is dorky and shy, but is of prodigious intellect and skill in scientice fields. |
| 724 | * YamatoNadeshiko: Momiji was raised to be this, of the Extreme Doormat kind, with a future laid out for her from the get-go, up to an arranged marriage and bearing children. However, she ultimately subverts this and chooses her own path in life. |
| 725 | * YouCouldHaveUsedYourPowersForGood: Birdy claims Revi could have done so much more good as the head of the Ministry of Science. She agrees but explains how she was forced to resign, meaning she didn't exactly have a winning hand. |
| 726 | [[/folder]] |
| 727 | !!''Decode'' |
| 728 | [[folder:A-F]] |
| 729 | * AlternateContinuity: ''Decode'' is particularly notable in that it does not follow the core precedents left by the other entries in the franchise. It takes after various elements from ''II'' but largely goes its own way. |
| 730 | * AmnesiacLover: After separating [[spoiler:Ryunka from her, Sayaka lost memory of all the time the parasite was growing inside of her. Which means the time spent with Tsutomu]]. |
| 731 | * AttackHello: Birdy's mentor, Skelezzo, does this when Birdy visits headquarters. She reciprocates enthusiastically. |
| 732 | * BeneathTheMask: It's implied in a conversation he has with Sayaka's grandfather that for all the time Shyamalan spends acting calm, charming, and sweet he's actually an extremely lonely and unhappy man whose past has left him with deep psychological scars. |
| 733 | * BetweenMyLegs: Gets used in the first episode of ''Decode'' when Birdy confronts Geega in the abandoned building. |
| 734 | * BerserkerTears: Birdy's crying these when [[spoiler:she's trashing the robot that killed Violin]]. |
| 735 | * BigBadWannabe: Shyamalan. [[spoiler:He falsely believes he's in full control of the Ryunka and wants to use it to fulfill his twisted Darwinist ideals. He winds up being one of the first victims killed by it at the end.]] |
| 736 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: ''Shyamalan'', good grief. He's an expert at looking like an open, charming, boyish young executive while plotting to wipe out large chunks of the human race. It's telling that when he wants to [[spoiler:get Sayaka on his ship and away from Tsutomu]] all he has to do is tell the two of them that he's there to help and they believe him almost immediately. |
| 737 | * BittersweetEnding: Both seasons of ''Decode''. |
| 738 | ** The first season of ''Decode'' [[spoiler:ends with Tsutomu's girlfriend leaving after being separated from the Ryunka, a DoomsdayDevice, and having lost several of her memories]]. The end of episode 11 of season 2 hints at possibly bringing back some of her memories/romance, as she returns for a visit, and asks Hayamiya about all these pictures of her with Tsutomu (back in season 1), and wondering what they're doing there. |
| 739 | ** Season 2 ended with [[spoiler:Moss arrested, but Nataru leaves Birdy and teleports away and Birdy is denied answers about what happened with him and the project that created him.]] |
| 740 | * BloodierAndGorier: Although it still pales to the rebooted manga, Season 2 of ''Decode'' was more in line with that continuity's rhythm, being much more violent than the first season, as it features [[AnArmAndALeg dismemberment]], heads being crushed in, and at one point, a character [[EyeScream getting his eye stabbed]]. |
| 741 | * BreatherEpisode: Episode 8 of Season 2, which focuses mostly on Shouko. At least until the very end of the episode... |
| 742 | * BrotherSisterIncest: Questionable as we don't know how close their DNA is, if at all, but seeing as [[spoiler:Nataru was taken from a lab called "Cephon" as a baby and their origins, it would appear that at least he and Birdy came from the same lab. Neither of them seems to be aware of it, either.]] |
| 743 | * CameraAbuse: Early in the first season, after losing the criminal she was chasing Birdy kicks a piece of debris at the non-InUniverseCamera, which nevertheless tumbles backward and [[SnowyScreenofDeath cuts out with static]]. Especially strange considering this was part of a ([[ThirdPersonFlashback third-person]]) flashback supposedly [[ExpositionBeam shown directly from her memory]]. |
| 744 | * CantHoldHisLiquor: Birdy's resistance to alcohol in Decode is non-existent. She ends up plastered after a single can of beer a few seconds after drinking it. Granted, she's an alien, but still. (Hilariously, Birdy in the OVA doesn't seem to have this problem.) |
| 745 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Birdy and Nataru in ''Decode 02.'' They lived in the same city, but hadn't seen each other for years after a terrorist attack. |
| 746 | * TheChosenOne: Deconstructed with Shyamalan, who is evil precisely because he thinks he's the Chosen One in question and the only ones who matter are him and those he considers equally special. |
| 747 | * ClarkKenting: In ''Decode'', Birdy as "Shion Arita" puts an effort to behave more like an airhead and has her hair brown. However, this is averted in the OVA where Birdy's real hair is visible and doesn't bother acting too differently. |
| 748 | * ClingyJealousGirl: Shouko in ''Decode 02''. |
| 749 | * ClothingDamage: In ''Decode'', [[RobotGirl Ondine]]'s outfit is totally destroyed in a very short period of time. However, as a marionette, she has BarbieDollAnatomy. |
| 750 | * CreepyDoll: Shyamalan has a collection of them. This serves as one of the earliest indications that [[BeneathTheMask there is something not quite right about him]]. |
| 751 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Muroto. When [[spoiler:he runs into Tsutomu during the Ryunka's attack, he gives the kid a ride right up to the police barriers while every other citizen is (understandably) getting the hell ''away''. Then he provides a very effective distraction so that Tsutomu can get to Sayaka]]. |
| 752 | --> "Let's see... [[PreAsskickingOneLiner it's been about two weeks since I've been arrested for obstruction]]." [[spoiler:(proceeds to shoulder-charge several cops)]] |
| 753 | * CuteLittleFangs: Birdy sprouts them in ''Decode''. |
| 754 | * DatingCatwoman: [[spoiler:In the second season of ''Decode'', Birdy meets up with Nataru, an old friend of hers at the same time as she's assigned to track down some escaped criminals involved in the events of the first season and over the course of the second season, develops feelings for him. At the same time, someone's been killing the escapees. Nataru's the one killing off the escapees and fights Birdy when she saves one of the last remaining ones.]] |
| 755 | * DeadlyNosebleed: [[spoiler:Nataru sports one when weakened by his time jumping capability.]] |
| 756 | * DemotedToExtra: |
| 757 | ** In the original manga and OVA series, Natsumi Hayamiya was [[LoveInterest Tsutomu's crush]] from junior high, and had a significant amount of screentime in OVA episodes 3&4 (''"Final Force"''), after witnessing his transformation into Birdy. But in ''"Decode"'', she hardly has any presence at all and is only seen briefly in a couple of episodes. Plus, her role as Tsutomu's love interest is given to Sayaka. (While in the remake manga, she gets a better role as a trusted buddy of Tsutomu and begins going out with Sudou.) |
| 758 | ** Capella is a major character in the rebooted manga. In ''Decode,'' her role is largely taken by Pontiff Nechla while she's later reduced to ''comic relief,'' a far cry from her original self. |
| 759 | ** Egregious with Chigira in ''Decode.'' In the remake manga he was a central character at the center of the whole plot of the first half of the story, but in ''Decode'' he's reduced to being one of Tsutomu's friends, and his role from the manga, or at least a rough equivalent, went to Sayaka instead. |
| 760 | ** Gomez and Revi are barely present in ''Decode''. This is ''incredibly'' jarring considering the former's recurring importance in the manga and the latter being the main antagonist. |
| 761 | * DirtyCoward: Subverted with Valic in Season 2 of ''Decode,'' whom we learn was too scared to go through with a suicide bombing mission (which Nataru, whom he bullied, had also signed up for), but who at the end [[spoiler:defuses a bomb planted by Moss so innocents don't die.]] |
| 762 | * DirtyHarriet: In episode 5 of ''Decode'', Birdy poses as a prostitute at a bar for a short while to figure out who was behind a terrorist attack. |
| 763 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: |
| 764 | ** Shyamalan's treatment of Sayaka when [[spoiler:she goes onto his boat seems ''very much'' like date rape, considering he first convinces Tsutomu and Sayaka to trust him with Sayaka's safety and then proceeds to make Sayaka dress as a bride (Capella even points out that if she didn't know better she'd say he was hosting a wedding) and offers her a drink that knocks her out...]] Made even worse by the fact that Sayaka is in high school, meaning that she'd either be underage or just barely of age! |
| 765 | ** Learning how Altans are treated following Revi's actions, could remind you of how people from the Middle East or of Middle Eastern descent were treated following 9-11 or how people from Japan and people of Japanese descent were treated in America during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII following the attack on Pearl Harbor. |
| 766 | * DissonantSerenity: Shyamalan has this down to an art. He once compares his joy at [[spoiler:awakening the Ryunka]] to that of getting a soccer ball as a little boy! |
| 767 | * DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: A more tragic example. In one episode, a serial killer is hunting and murdering young women with short brunette hair and glasses. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a rogue [[RobotGirl Marionette]] that escaped and is seeking the women because they have similar traits to her creator, who imprinted her with childlike affection, and she ended up killing her "Mama" and the other women by hugging them until their insides ruptured.]] |
| 768 | * DoomDoors: In the second episode of ''Decode'', when Birdy enters the elevator to pursue an android, the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' sound effect is used when the elevator door closes. |
| 769 | * DudeNotFunny: Tsutomu sarcastically asks if Birdy's glad that Tuto isn't around so she can indulge in some creature comforts... [[spoiler:after Tuto was destroyed in the previous episode]]. She responds by making a fist and swapping back to his body long enough to sock him. |
| 770 | * EldritchAbomination: The Ryunka's true form is a giant four-legged monster. |
| 771 | * EnhancedOnDVD: Episode 7 of Season 2's quality is increased immensely compared to the broadcast version. |
| 772 | * EvilGloating: Averted hilariously in episode 5 of the first season, in which Birdy punches Kinzel's mecha, the [[MeaningfulName Amubis 777]] (yes, like Anubis) in the middle of his explanation of why it is so awesome and will own her (to which he responds, "You oughta listen until I'm finished!"). |
| 773 | * EyeScream: [[spoiler:In ''Decode 02'', Nataru viciously stabs his fingers into one of Gatol's eyes.]] |
| 774 | * FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: |
| 775 | ** Shyamalan is fairly sweet-looking and friendly but is also the BigBad of the season and [[spoiler:plotted to unleash a superweapon that had been shown to destroy whole planets]]. |
| 776 | ** Nataru is a borderline case but he is not presented as evil, just incredibly disturbed and emotionally scarred. |
| 777 | * FallenPrincess: [[spoiler:The sheer trauma of losing her grandfather, murdering her maid (who was serving as a ParentalSubstitute), combined with being partially responsible for two unrelated mass slaughters left Sayaka completely broken. ''And then she had her memory of those events wiped'', leaving an empty emotional hole, while unable to even recall her friends or her grandfather's funeral. If that wasn't enough, she ends up on a farm run by her very distant relatives, who aren't exactly handling the situation with depressive, lonely girl in a new place particularly well]]. |
| 778 | * FakeMemories: [[spoiler:When Tsutomu is going through Birdy's memories in ''Decode,'' Megius warns him that some of the things he sees may not be the way things actually happened but only the way Birdy wishes they had happened.]] |
| 779 | * FirstLawOfGenderBending: Tsutomu gains his body back in the first season finale of ''Decode'' only for it to be destroyed again and he's forced back into Birdy. |
| 780 | * FourEyesZeroSoul: The villainous Shyamalan constantly {{Invoke|dTrope}}s ScaryShinyGlasses and his eyes look even ''more'' evil on occasions where his glasses come off. |
| 781 | [[/folder]] |
| 782 | [[folder:G-N]] |
| 783 | * GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: [[spoiler:In ''Decode'', it's revealed that Birdy and Nataru were the results of a program to breed super-soldiers via bioengineering]]. |
| 784 | * GenocideFromTheInside: What would have happened had Shyamalan's plan come to fruition. |
| 785 | * GoneHorriblyRight: A tragic case for a benevolent scientist working on marionettes. [[spoiler:When she asked it to give her a hug, it crushed her to death--then it escaped and began killing women who looked like the scientist, searching for its "mama."]] |
| 786 | * GoodEyesEvilEyes: Shyamalan toys with this--he's a BitchInSheepsClothing so his eyes normally look soft, innocent, and cute, but there are a number of instances in which they switch to looking more evil, especially [[http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/Viscountess_Social_Butterfly/Birdy%20the%20Mighty/5.png when he removes his glasses]]. |
| 787 | * GoryDiscretionShot: To varying degrees. It's common in the first season of ''Decode,'' but ''Decode 02'' doesn't usually bother with it. |
| 788 | * HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: How Birdy kills Tsutomu in ''Decode.'' |
| 789 | * HappilyAdopted: Nataru, for the most part--though his adoptive father's involvement in terrorist activities got in the way of that. |
| 790 | * HelpImStuck: In the first episode of ''Decode'', Hayamiya ends up stuck in a hole in a fence when she and Senkawa go to investigate an abandoned building. |
| 791 | * HeroicRROD: In ''Decode 02'' [[spoiler:the result of Nataru overusing his powers]]. |
| 792 | * HollywoodSilencer: The pistol at the end of episode 8 in ''Decode: 02''. |
| 793 | * ImprobableInfantSurvival: Shyamalan, was the sole survivor of a horrific plague as a baby. When he finds a baby survived one of his attacks, he feels an immediate kinship with it; he thinks that they were both chosen by destiny for a higher calling. [[WrongGenreSavvy He's wrong]], and [[EvilIsNotAToy gets unceremoniously killed by the monster he unleashed for his evil plot]]. |
| 794 | * ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Shyamalan gives such a speech, but as mentioned, he's a deconstruction. |
| 795 | * KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Capella]] receives no punishment for [[spoiler:collaborating with Shyamalan to unleash the Ryunka]] until fairly late in the second season (other than having to work for Irma, something she doesn't always like) and Irma's words to her as she's brought in for trial make it clear that she expects her to come back someday. |
| 796 | * KillSat: An episode of ''Decode'' has a Kill Sat intended to stop the main threat of the first season. As per usual with the trope, it failed. |
| 797 | * KnightTemplar: Shyamalan. Horrific though his plan was, he firmly believed it was in the best interest of humanity. |
| 798 | * KickTheDog: Reversed in episode 6 of season 2 in the memory sequence with Nataru. |
| 799 | * LawyerFriendlyCameo: [[Manga/SgtFrog Giroro]] makes one in episode 5 of ''Decode''. |
| 800 | * LiterallyShatteredLives: This is the fate of anyone hit by the Ryunka in ''Decode''. And if that wasn't enough, their remains proceed to melt as well. |
| 801 | * HumongousMecha: An episode of the ''Decode'' series has a giant mecha that resembles its pilot. |
| 802 | * MamaBear: [[spoiler:Violin, prior to her death in ''Decode'', took out several robots while she was trying to find and protect Birdy.]] |
| 803 | * ManIFeelLikeAWoman: The aforementioned FreakyFridayFlip in ''Decode'' and the remake manga [[spoiler:resorted in Tsutomu briefly in Birdy's form]]. |
| 804 | * ManOfWealthAndTaste: Shyamalan, who runs a multimedia company and enjoys the finer things in life. |
| 805 | * TheMasquerade: ZigZagged to hell and back in ''Decode''. While the population at large is generally unaware of the aliens' presence, and many people don't believe in aliens, one may suspect that Masakubo's obsession with aliens and [=UFOs=] is more than crazy conspiracy theory paranoia. The non-humanoid aliens usually have some kind of disguise to make themselves look human and blend in, but many aliens have revealed themselves, making business deals with human companies and (possibly) governments. Even Birdy has the Shion Arita identity, but [[spoiler:she revealed herself to Muroto, though he may or may not have believed her]]. No cover-up efforts are made at all when [[spoiler:the Ryunka demolishes the countryside]], and everyone knows something weird happened when [[spoiler:the Ryunka completely trashed the Roppongi area]]. The government must have known something was up when [[spoiler:the aliens assaulted a military base and stole a nuclear bomb]]. But on the other side, some aliens living on earth might not even know they are alien, because they either were born there or moved when very small and their parents never told them. [[spoiler:For example, in ''Decode'', it is revealed that Chikira is an Altan, though he may or may not know this.]] |
| 806 | * MauveShirt: [[spoiler:Tuto is clearly set up as a regular character, not only being Birdy's partner on the force but helping explain everything about what's going on to Tsutomu while he and Birdy have to share bodies. Then he's mortally wounded by Bacillus and dies at the end of the third episode.]] |
| 807 | * MindHug: [[spoiler:Tsutomu to Nataru in the last episode of ''Decode 02''.]] |
| 808 | * MistakenForGay: In ''Decode'', Tsutomu's friends first meet Tuto when he brings Tsutomu his gym clothes and demonstrates a [[NoSenseOfPersonalSpace notable disrespect for his personal space]]. They decide to support the two's relationship. |
| 809 | * MistakenForMurderer: In the second season of ''Decode'', several criminals escape, then one by one, each of their members is killed. The survivors assume wrongly that it's Birdy and that she was given orders to silence them for their involvement in the events of the first season. |
| 810 | * MoodWhiplash: ''Decode'' can get very dark at times -- [[AnimeThemeSong Let's go! Have a good time!]] |
| 811 | * NearVillainVictory: [[spoiler:Shyamalan, as it happens, actually ''does'' get his hands on the Ryunka and ''does'' succeed in awakening it. Too bad he can't control it as well as he thought he could....]] |
| 812 | * NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Shyamalan, big time. He is probably the scariest villain in ''Decode'', despite being the only antagonist who's ''human'' in a series crawling with alien criminals including [[BodyHorror a guy with the ability to devour people and absorb their memories]] and a SerialKiller who murders his enemies so violently [[EvenEvilHasStandards he puts even hardened terrorists off]]! It's even more disturbing because [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon he doesn't look it. At all.]] |
| 813 | * NuclearWeaponsTaboo: The Ryunka is rife with nuclear weapons imagery, despite actually being a bioweapon. |
| 814 | [[/folder]] |
| 815 | [[folder:O-Z]] |
| 816 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Birdy uses this in both seasons of ''Decode'' when in her alter ego of Shion Arita. |
| 817 | * {{Ojou}}: Sayaka in ''Decode''. Also an ill girl and [[spoiler:PersonOfMassDestruction]]. |
| 818 | * ParentalAbandonment: Tsutomu's family in ''Decode'', as mentioned in BatmanInMyBasement, aren't present. His parents move to another city for his dad's job, but leave him in the house so he can stay in the same school. |
| 819 | * PerspectiveReversal: The first season of ''Decode'' focuses mostly on Tsutomu and him dealing with all the weird and dangerous situations Birdy gets them into. The second season reverses it, putting much more emphasis on Birdy and reducing Tsutomu's presence. It's even reflected with animation following the closing titles - the first season features Tsutomu, second has Birdy. |
| 820 | * PetTheDog: Shyamalan at one point decides to take in a baby he finds buried in some rubble after an explosion, though it doesn't really sink in much since he's spent the entire scene acting crazy and since [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse we never see that baby again afterwards...]] |
| 821 | * PinkGirlBlueBoy: When Birdy and Nataru are together, starting back when they were kids, Birdy is usually shown wearing pink and Nataru, blue. |
| 822 | * PowerDyesYourHair: [[spoiler:Nataru's hair turns white when he activates his powers]] |
| 823 | * PowerGlows: In ''Decode'', the Ryunka manifests as a blue glow emanating from its host. (Well, that and horrible destruction.) |
| 824 | * PsychoticSmirk: Shyamalan when he's not practicing DissonantSerenity. |
| 825 | * ScaryShinyGlasses: Satayjit Shyamalan does this in spades. |
| 826 | * SecretIdentity: In ''Decode'', prior to being merged with Tsutomu and even afterwards, Birdy assumed the name "Shion Arita". This didn't stop a photographer, Tsutomu himself, or someone from her past from recognizing her. Averted in the OVA when Birdy, outside of taking some of Hazumi's clothes, doesn't bother disguising her hair or acting differently. |
| 827 | * SentOffToWorkForRelatives: After everyone in her family/household is dead, to causes both related and unrelated to the plot, Sayaka is sent to work on a farm with relatives. |
| 828 | * RecurringExtra: In ''Decode'', the two yakuza whose car keeps getting damaged by Birdy. |
| 829 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: [[spoiler:Nataru's eyes turn red to mark the point where he turns into a simply deranged killer with nothing else but hate driving him forward]]. |
| 830 | * RedHerring: In ''Decode'', the plot toys for a while with the idea that the killer from the metro could be [[spoiler:Sayaka, giving a lot of clues indicating being on some sort of rampage, with MissingTime and apparently sleep-walking. Turns out the real killer was a malfunctioning marionette]]. |
| 831 | * RedOniBlueOni: |
| 832 | ** Natsumi Hayamiya ([[{{Tomboy}} tomboyish]] FieryRedhead GenkiGirl) and Sayaka Nakasugi (blue-haired {{ojou}}) |
| 833 | ** In the aliens' camp, there's also Birdy's two superiors, Skeletso and Megius. |
| 834 | ** For that matter, Birdy pulls Red Oni duty with both Tsutomu and Nataru. |
| 835 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:Nataru]] in ''Decode 02''. Once he finds out the people responsible for the death of his friend, he makes sure they die and/or suffer horribly. Even Birdy has trouble against him initially when she tries to stop him. |
| 836 | * RunningGag: Each time those [[BitPartBadguys two Yakuza types]] get a new car, it gets completely totaled right before they are about to take their seats. |
| 837 | -->[[{{Punchline}} Why me?!]] |
| 838 | * ShadowDiscretionShot: In ''Decode'' when Birdy's AccidentalMurder via punching Tsutomu is only show via a silhouette, showing his body being ''[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe split him in half]]''. |
| 839 | * ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Happens in ''Decode'', where the world-destroying parasitic weapon, Ryunka, spreads to the Greater Tokyo Area, petrifying any person into a glass-like substance that [[LiterallyShatteredLives shatters]] into dust, leaving behind nothing but piles of clothing. [[spoiler:The death of Nataru's (one of Birdy's childhood friends and fellow Altarian) buddies from the Ryunka's destruction is what prompts him to go on a {{Roaring Rampage of Revenge}} in the second season against the criminals responsible for releasing it.]] |
| 840 | * SilkHidingSteel: Sayaka, according to both Tsutomu ''and'' Shyamalan, is much stronger than her meek, delicate appearance would suggest (though in Shyamalan's case he might just be flattering). |
| 841 | * SlasherSmile: [[spoiler:Nataru]] sports these as he kills the escaped aliens. |
| 842 | * SlippingAMickey: Shyamalan to [[spoiler:Sayaka]]. It wasn't alcohol, after all - [[HypocriticalHumor that would be illegal]]. |
| 843 | * SmugSnake: |
| 844 | ** ''Decode''[='=]s first BigBad, Shyamalan. |
| 845 | ** Also Kinzel Hower, a minor villain from the first season of ''Decode''. |
| 846 | * TheSocialDarwinist: Shyamalan ([[Creator/MNightShyamalan no, not that one]]) in ''Decode''. He believes that the Ryunka will let him choose the worthiest of humans and destroy the rest. [[spoiler:Boy, was he wrong.]] |
| 847 | * SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:Shyamalan]] was the only person in a gathering of 4,000 to survive a terrorist bombing. This combined with his reputation as a ChildProdigy was his StartOfDarkness. In fact, this seems to be a running theme in the series, if you pay attention. Sometimes there's an explanation provided; other times there doesn't seem to be much reason other than luck. |
| 848 | * StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:Two of the times Nataru uses his powers to go back in time, he caused two of these. The first, when disposing of a bomb that Moss used to try to kill him resulted in him meeting Shoko's brother and the other revealed him as the mystery man who saved a young Birdy during the Central Tower attack.]] |
| 849 | * StepfordSmiler: Shyamalan is one, and he believes Sayaka to be one as well, if his speech to her grandfather is anything to go by. |
| 850 | * TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Natch, though in season 2 of ''Decode'' [[spoiler:out of all of Earth's cities Season 2's villains could have escaped to, it somehow just HAD to be Tokyo. While the city is indeed an apparent favorite for the series's aliens, the group in question were partly responsible for a narrowly avoided Class X annihilation event who's epicenter was Toyko, which led to the firing of a KillSat on the city, the resulting ruins of said firing being a major set piece throughout the season.]] |
| 851 | ** Justified in season 2, where [[spoiler:one of the escapees explicitly says he wanted to go to the place where the Ryunka was used]]. |
| 852 | ** An earlier episode implies that the amount of alien activity in Tokyo is actually not unusual for a city its size. Presumably, every comparable city on Earth has lots of disguised aliens running around, too. |
| 853 | * TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Hayamiya is the tomboy to both Sayaka and Kitamura. |
| 854 | * UnexplainedRecovery: Invoked with Sayaka Nagasuki after a car wreck. She's not expected to survive, but the next day she's fully recovered and cured of her sickness. Her grandfather accepts it as a miracle but their maid is deeply concerned. [[spoiler:For very good reason, as the "miracle" was caused by an ancient biological super-weapon.]] |
| 855 | * UnflinchingWalk: Birdy does this after detonating Bacillus in episode 3 of Decode. |
| 856 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: [[spoiler:Nataru, in spades]]. Shyamalan's case is questionable since we don't get to see what he was like as a child, but his mention of being excited to get a soccer ball suggests that if nothing else, he used to be human enough to enjoy normal children's hobbies. |
| 857 | * VoiceOfTheLegion: During episodes 5 and 6 of Decode 02, [[spoiler:while Tsutomu is [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck]] in Birdy's form when he's on her ship, he was portrayed as speaking with both his and Birdy's voice at the same time]]. |
| 858 | * TheVoice: Revi in ''Decode'' for the most part, as the viewer does get to see her in the last scene of the first season. |
| 859 | * WhatDidIDoLastNight: Sayaka can't recall what she was doing during nighttime for few days, but it definitely wasn't sleeping, going by being bruised and with her bare feet being cut and covered in dirt. [[spoiler:Turns out she was just sleepwalking and it wasn't her murdering women in the metro. This doesn't make her condition or what she does while sleepwalking any less nightmarish]]. |
| 860 | * WhiteHairBlackHeart: [[spoiler:Nataru]]: when his hair goes white it usually means he's about to kill someone, or try to. |
| 861 | * WholeEpisodeFlashback: Two episodes in the second season of ''Decode'', showing Birdy's past. Also an entire volume of the remade manga. |
| 862 | * TheWoobie: InUniverse, Sayaka is this to her classmates due to her sweet personality, orphanhood, and chronic illness. |
| 863 | * TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: Some of the alien vehicles in ''Decode.'' Though it's far from jarring and does blend much better than other shows. Then there is also the ocean liner. |
| 864 | * TwelveEpisodeAnime: The ''Decode'' series. Literally in the case of the second season. |
| 865 | * UniversallyBelovedLeader: Revi among Altans during her tenure as head of Ministry of Science. Even after her fall from grace, she is viewed as a LivingLegend that inspires hope for the downtrodden. |
| 866 | * WritingAroundTrademarks: When Sayaka is dressing up for her recovery party, all her clothes come from stand-ins for famous fashion designers, but still obvious enough to pick the brands up on a fly. |
| 867 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Shyamalan and Nataru. Shyamalan demonstrates a pretty good understanding of concepts such as TheChosenOne and OnlyTheChosenMayWield, for example, but he lives in a world where they don't apply and his behavior just makes him a bad person. In Nataru's case, [[spoiler:he's relying on the idea that enemies who don't die aren't punished, which is perfectly true in a lot of fantasy but ''Decode'' operates under the belief that killing is wrong and almost never justifiable.]] |
| 868 | * YamatoNadeshiko: Sayaka is one of these, or at least on a fast track to being one. |
| 869 | * YouCantThwartStageOne: [[spoiler:Birdy isn't able to find the Ryunka before it's used to kill thousands of people.]] |
| 870 | [[/folder]] |
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