Line #22 Manga/HollowFields


1	[[quoteright:335:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HollowLucy_4657.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:335: Step one: put his [[SoulJar soul in a box]].]]
3
4	''Hollow Fields'' is an OELManga series written and illustrated by Australian artist Madeleine Rosca and published by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment. Spanning three volumes, the first was released in June of 2007, with the final volume out on January 6th, 2009. ''Hollow Fields'' placed Rosca among four winners of the first ever [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Manga_Award International Manga Award]] in Japan.
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6	It follows the adventures of a girl named Lucy Snow as she attends [[BigBad Miss Eleanor Weaver]]'s [[AcademyOfEvil Academy for the]] [[MadScientist Scientifically Gifted and Ethically Unfettered]] (also known as [[{{TitleDrop}} Hollow Fields]]); where steam-powered teachers, called Engineers, teach students various aspects of mad science. Each week, the student with the lowest grades gets sent to the Windmill, whence no one has ever returned. She barely manages to avoid detention with the tutelage of the mechanical box Dr. Bleak and soon decides to investigate the mysteries of the windmill with her new [[{{WithFriendsLikeThese}} friend]], Claude [=McGinty=]. All the while, Lucy must try to make nice with the other students, some of whom are [[{{EnfantTerrible}} out for blood]].
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8	A prequel, titled ''The Clockwork Sky'', tells the story of Mr. Croach's niece, Sally Peppers, and his most recent creation, a robotic police boy named Sky, who has the mysterious ability to dream.
9	----
10	!!Tropes Demonstrated:
11	* AlphaBitch: Summer Polanski.
12	* AndIMustScream: Anyone who has had their soul transferred to a clockwork device, which includes [[spoiler:Doctor Bleak and Francine]].
13	* ArtificialHuman
14	* BadPowersGoodPeople: [[spoiler:[[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Doctor Bleak at the end, when he plans to make benevolent use out of mad science.]]
15	* BeingGoodSucks: Summer admits this [[spoiler: when she begrudgingly enrolls under Doctor Bleak's new rules, knowing that she'll have to use mad science respectfully from now on.]]
16	* BetaBitch: Carmen [[spoiler:until her HiddenDepths show]].
17	* BigGood: [[spoiler:Doctor Bleak, the husband of Miss Weaver and an acclaimed scientist in his day. By the end of the story, he takes command of Hollow Fields, and promises to teach mad science for the sake of good.]]
18	* BigRedButton: [[spoiler: Summer's death machine falls apart once the huge screw on its top is gone. ]]
19	* BioAugmentation: One of the classes at Hollow Fields.
20	* BittersweetEnding: Volume 3 ends this way. [[spoiler:Miss Weaver is vanquished, and Hollow Fields is now under the leadership of Doctor Bleak, who promises to teach students how to use mad science for ''good''. However, Claude is forced to stay on the premises, due to a lethal TrackingChip [[ChekhovsGun implanted on him much earlier in the story]], Francine is still missing a body, and Hollow Fields is in a state of ruin.]]
21	* BlindObedience: Miss Notch in the present. [[spoiler: In flashbacks, she's still clearly doubtful of Miss Weaver's intentions.]]
22	* BombDisposal: Miss Weaver's test for Lucy.
23	* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors
24	* ChildProdigy: Nearly all the Students
25	* ClockworkCreature
26	* ClockPunk
27	* CoolToy: Owned by Lucy.
28	* CompanionCube: Except this one really does talk.
29	* CreepyChild: [[spoiler: The Windmill Children]]
30	* CurbStompBattle: Any battle with Carmen's golem. [[spoiler:It loses to Lucy after being tripped over, then defeats Mr. Croach by grabbing him and throwing him aside.]]
31	* CynicalMentor: Doctor Bleak is one to Lucy. He's invaluable to Lucy's knowledge and survival within Hollow Fields, but insists that the other kids are irredeemable and can't be trusted. [[spoiler: He eventually realizes that this isn't the students' fault, but the system they're kept in.]]
32	* DeathTrap: [[spoiler: Summer builds one of these to get rid of Lucy and Claude.]]
33	* DoomsdayDevice
34	* DudeWheresMyRespect: [[spoiler: Stinch catches on by the climax that none of the other Engineers have given him the respect he deserves, and has a VillainousBreakdown because of this.]]
35	* EatingLunchAlone: Lucy and Simon.
36	* EmptyShell: [[spoiler: Miss Weaver's goal in her personal experiment is to be able to remove children's bodies of their personalities, making them capable of being vessels for the aging Engineers. The thousands of failed experiments have become this anyway, having lost their memories and essentially become [[NightOfTheLivingMooks a horde of zombies]].]]
37	* ElegantGothicLolita: Summer in the Remnant Room chapters, along with a ParasolOfPrettiness.
38	* EnfantTerrible: Summer Polanski
39	* ExtranormalInstitute
40	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Carmen is willing to help Summer [[spoiler: lower Lucy and Claude into a DeathTrap, only to be horrified when she realizes it will actually ''kill'' them, rather than just scare them]]. This is when her HiddenDepths begin to show.
41	* EvilFeelsGood: Summer's moment under BeingGoodSucks implies that she really enjoyed being a malicious MadScientist.
42	* EvilWeapon: Stinch's Crook
43	* FormerFriendOfAlphaBitch: [[spoiler:Carmen dumps Summer after the latter shows herself to be an UngratefulBastard.]]
44	* FreudianTrio
45	** Lucy is the [[TheKirk Ego]]: [[IncorruptiblePurePureness compassionate]] [[NaiveNewcomer to a fault]], but is a quick learner and [[IndyPloy can act in dire situations]].
46	** Claude is the [[TheSpock Superego]]: pragmatic to the point of appearing uncaring, his first instinct is to run away from trouble, even if it means abandoning his friends.
47	** [[spoiler:Carmen]] is the [[TheMccoy Id]]: timid and [[ToxicFriendInfluence easily influenced]], she is nonetheless fiercely protective and supportive of her friends.
48	* GadgeteerGenius
49	* GiantEqualsInvincible: Averted
50	* GirlPosse: An Elementary School version.
51	* {{Gonk}}: Miss Scurt. Just imagine Stinch in drag.
52	* GraveRobbing: It's an actual class.
53	* GreenEyedMonster: Summer is very often this.
54	* HateSink: Summer Polanski [[EstablishingCharacterMoment makes her debut]] sucker punching Lucy and berating her, and continues to [[KickTheDog torment her]] in every other appearance. Worse yet, she has the highest grades in the school, meaning she isn't being sent to detention anytime soon.
55	* HospitalHottie: Miss Ricketts
56	* HotTeacher
57	* [[{{IfICantHaveYou}} If I Can't Have You]]: [[spoiler: Summer claims that it's NothingPersonal, but if Lucy hadn't teamed up with Claude, she wouldn't have activated her DeathTrap on them.]]
58	* ImmortalityImmorality
59	* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Lucy is too nice to be corrupted by the negative atmosphere of Hollow Fields.
60	* {{Irony}}
61	** When Lucy first joined Hollow Fields, she was given flak by ace student Summer for being too naive. [[spoiler: Under Doctor Bleak's authority, Lucy is now the ace student, and Summer is the BlackSheep for stubbornly keeping her old ways.]]
62	** In flashbacks, Miss Weaver insisted on transferring her body to a clockwork body instead of a steam-powered one, as she trusted her field of research more than she did this new, then-unfamiliar science. [[spoiler:She doesn't survive in the end because Lucy was able to take advantage of her weakness: the WindUpKey needed to keep her body in motion.]]
63	** Miss Rickets was the only Engineer to [[spoiler:transfer her soul to a child's body for an extended life span]], and [[spoiler: disappeared in the end along with Miss Weaver because she resembled the sister of one of the Windmill Children (and couldn't fight them off with her now child-like strength)]].
64	** A painful example is described under YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler:Claude is the student most anxious to leave Hollow Fields, but is the only one in the end that can't leave at all]].[[note]][[spoiler:The Engineers choose to stay out of loyalty, while [[AndIMustScream Bleak and Francine]] could be carried off the premises with assistance.]][[/note]]
65	* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: [[spoiler:Summer shows signs of warming up to Lucy in Chapter 8, only to drop her and Claude into a DeathTrap.]]
66	* JustFollowingOrders: Miss Notch's [[FatalFlaw defining character flaw]]. [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan As a human]], she readily obeyed Miss Weaver's commands, even when she knew what she was doing was wrong; her expressions of uncertainty show this]]. In the present, she remains Weaver's most loyal Engineer, even though she doesn't share her malicious intent or even ''act'' evil.
67	* KidsAreCruel: Lucy Snow has difficulty making friends with any of the other kids, who either bully her alongside Summer or just push her away. Then again, [[JustifiedTrope these are mad scientists in training]], and influencing them to be nice like [[NiceGuy Lucy]] is ''not'' on Miss Weaver's agenda.
68	* LateForSchool
69	* LosingYourHead: [[spoiler:Mr. Croach's body completely falls apart in the climax, reducing him to this in the ending.]]
70	* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler: The Windmill turns out to be this for the failed experiments. Being too brain-dead to realize their situation, all they care about are the new kids that are sent here every week, in which they show excessive glee.]]
71	* MadDoctor
72	* MadScientist
73	* MechaMooks
74	* MoodSwinger
75	* MyLittlePanzer: Summer's rabbit, and [[spoiler: Dino, after some alterations]].
76	* [[NiceGuy Nice Girl]]: Lucy Snow, who stands out among the meaner kids.
77	* NinjaMaid: Miss Notch
78	* NoIndoorVoice: Mr. Croach. For someone with a decaying body, his larynx holds up very well.
79	* TheNoseless: The art style makes noses appear almost never, especially with the children.
80	* NonuniformUniform: Lucy wears stripped red and black tights/leggings, where most of the other girls wear plain socks, tights and knee/thigh-highs.
81	* PlotCoupon: [[spoiler: The Key to Hollow Fields]].
82	* PluckyGirl: Lucy.
83	* RayGun: Specifically an Ivy-Ray
84	* RedEyesTakeWarning: All the Engineers have these by the time Lucy shows up, though at least some of them had different colors once.
85	* [[{{Room101}} Room 101]]: The Windmill. [[spoiler: DoubleSubverted: At first, Simon tells Lucy that [[LotusEaterMachine it isn't so bad in the Windmill]], only for him to retract his statement when he realizes how much worse she and Claude will be punished than the others.]]
86	* SacrificialLamb: Upon his introduction, Simon was the only nice kid in Hollow Fields other than Lucy. He’s the first character shown to be sent to the Windmill, [[spoiler:but later re-appears as a ghoulish shell of himself]].
87	* SadistTeacher: Miss Weaver and Mr. Croach are the most obvious examples, but most of the Engineers fall under this.
88	* SchoolForScheming: Hollow Fields itself, and an occasionally mentioned rival school called Great Gears.
89	* SchoolNurse: Miss Ricketts.
90	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules
91	* SpookySilentLibrary
92	* SteamPunk
93	* StockholmSyndrome: [[spoiler: The Windmill Children look up to Miss Weaver, despite her having put them in their state of mind in the first place.]]
94	* StrangerInAStrangeSchool
95	* TrashTheSet: [[spoiler:The Engineers bring Hollow Fields to ruin in Volume 3.]]
96	* TwoGirlsAndAGuy: Lucy, Claude, and [[spoiler: Carmen]].
97	* VerbalTic: Miss Notch refers to female students by "mademoiselle."
98	* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: The Windmill Children. Knowing what happened to them in the Windmill, why it happened, and what they've become are all ''huge'' spoilers that tie into the central mystery behind Hollow Fields.]]
99	* WasOnceAMan: Most of the Engineers.
100	* WindUpKey: [[spoiler: Miss Weaver depends on one to keep her body in motion.]]
101	* WomanScorned: In the flashbacks, Miss Weaver is revealed to [[spoiler: have been Dr. Bleak's wife. He didn't respect her as a scientist, and in order to further her own goals and get him out of the picture, she put his soul inside a clockwork box.]]
102	* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler: Claude spends the entire series trying to escape from Hollow Fields. He seems to get this opportunity in the end, but is stopped by the TrackingChip implanted on him, even though Miss Weaver has already been defeated and the other students have the freedom to leave.]]

Context Manga / HollowFields