Line #23 Manga/SorcererHunters


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SorcererHunters_TVTropes.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:280:They were called Sorcerer Hunters.]]
3
4	''Sorcerer Hunters'' is a light novel and manga series written by Creator/SatoruAkahori with art by Ray Omishi, which was adapted into a 26-episode anime TV series and 3-part OAV, both produced by XEBEC with the TV series as their first work. The series also spawned various video games and radio dramas.
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6	The Spooner Continent is ruled by "Sorcerers", mages who rule over the [[{{Muggles}} "Parsoners"]] as a noble class. With their magical powers, they can exploit the Parsoners virtually at will. However, there are rumors of those who will punish any Sorcerers who abuse their powers and harm the innocent - a mysterious band of five teenagers, the "Sorcerer Hunters".
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8	Meanwhile, CasanovaWannabe swordsman Carrot Glacé, his {{Bishounen}} little brother Marron, [[ClingyJealousGirl Clingy Jealous]] ActionGirl Chocola Misu and her UnluckyChildhoodFriend ShrinkingViolet little sister Tira, and borderline MachoCamp muscleman Gateau Mocha [[WalkingTheEarth Walk The Earth]]... and you can see where this is going, can't you.
9	----
10	!!''Sorcerer Hunters'' provides examples of:
11	* AdaptationalModesty: Tira and Chocola's outfits are a lot more modest in the anime than in the manga, probably because the only way a faithful reproduction of Chocola's outfit wouldn't involve flashing her nipples every other frame would be is if her top was glued on.
12	* AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler:It's ultimately revealed that the Spooner Continent is actually set at least a generation after the God of Destruction rampaged over the land, seeking to annihilate the world to recreate it.]]
13	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Carrot actually finds it easier to get a date after TheReveal that [[spoiler:he's possessed by the God of Destruction]]. The village girls think it makes him cool and mysterious.
14	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Downplayed. Whilst the powers that Sorcerers wield does incline them to rule cruelly over the Parsoner majority, nothing inherently says a Sorcerer has to be a sadistic, self-absorbed monster. Their powers simply make it easier to indulge their dark sides, and many do succumb to the temptation, to say nothing of how the basic premise of the series is a band of elite assassins hunting the worst Sorcerers of all. A small number of sympathetic Sorcerers do appear, at least in the AnimatedAdaptation.
15	* AmbiguouslyGay: Marron. According to one postscript in volume 10, the initial story made him openly gay; the wording didn't make it clear how much this aspect was changed.
16	* ArtEvolution: Tira's outfit changed from orange in the series to black in the [=OVAs=].
17	* BabyMorphEpisode: Episode 8 "The Forbidden Fire" has the Hunter sans Carrot infiltrate a sorcerer's seemly noble crusade of fighting evil spirits in nearby ruins when in reality, he deages his victims and tortures them until he gets tired.
18	* BeachEpisode: Anime Episode 4 " The Fireworks of Love" and Manga Chapter 10 "Beware of Beach Babes" has the Hunters head to the beach for a little R&R.
19	* BestHerToBedHer: Gateau's younger sister Eclair once vowed that she would never fall in love with any man who couldn't beat her in a fight.
20	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Marron, Mille, Tira, [[spoiler: Abricot, Cinnamon]]...
21	* BewareTheSuperman: The Sorcerers are treated as nobility to keep them from ''really'' causing trouble.
22	* BoisterousBruiser: Gateau and Onion
23	* {{Bowdlerize}}: For the TV series, the costume designs were changed significantly due to broadcasting restrictions.
24	* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Gateau and Carrot in the second volume of the manga.
25	* ChivalrousPervert: Carrot may be a hopeless lech, but if he learns that a pretty girl already has a boyfriend, he will immediately leave her alone.
26	* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: This is apparently Tira's main job, with the Cloudcuckoolander in question being Carrot. Between whipping Carrot's monster forms until he changes back and smacking Carrot around in human form to make him suspend his lecherous idiocy to concentrate on work, she spends more time keeping him in line than she does hunting sorcerers directly.
27	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Carrot and Tira's voice actors, Shinnosuke Furumoto and Creator/MegumiHayashibara, sing the opening theme for the TV series. Hayashibara also performed the OVA's ending theme along with Chocola's voice actress Creator/YukoMizutani.
28	* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Tira and Chocola constantly abuse Carrot, which is supposed to be seen as funny. Granted, he is a pervert.
29	* DubText: Marron is more or less asexual and doesn't really pay attention to Gateau's flirting, but the dub adds lines about his possible homosexuality.
30	* DuelingMessiahs: Big Mama vs Sacher Torte. Both believe that the world is not a nice place anymore, but while Big Mama strives to heal it, Sacher Torte wants to destroy it and rebuild it from scratch, believing it too far gone for redemption. Big Mama's dedication to maintaining the world is so absolute, she even [[spoiler:attempted to ''kill'' Carrot so he wouldn't turn into the God of Destruction]].
31	* EdibleThemeNaming: ''Everyone.'' All named from desserts. Relatively obvious are Carrot, Onion, Abricot (apricot), Count Potato Chips, and Cinnamon Tea; there's also Tira Misu, Chocola (chocolate) and Marron (chestnut). Gateau, eclair, and mille-feuille are all French pastries. Sachertorte is a rich Austrian chocolate cake. Even [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_%28dessert%29 Charlotte]] is a food name. Satoru Akahori is fond of this trope, and practically everything he writes uses it.
32	** Abricot's maiden name is ''Anzu'', which is Japanese for...apricot. So her name is basically Abricot Apricot. Double EdibleThemeNaming!
33	* EpisodeOfTheDead: Manga chapters 11-13 "The Spellbook of the Necromancer" and OVA episode 2 in which the Hunters battle a necromancer named the Death Master who's turning living humans into his [[VoodooZombie zombified slaves]].
34	* EsotericHappyEnding: The ending of episode 9 of the anime attempts to present itself as a BittersweetEnding, but fumbles the landing. [[spoiler:Anna Pastry kills the Sorcerer Lord Croissant who was keeping her hostage on his estate out of misguided love, which she never wanted and instead wanted to return to performing on the stage. The problem is that Anna is under a curse that leaves her trapped as a cat. Croissant could temporarily turn her back into a human on the nights of the full moon, but wasn't strong enough to break the curse fully. So, with Croissant dead, Anna is stuck as a cat for the rest of her life and will never return to the stage again anyway; at least before she could be human on a select few nights!]]
35	* {{Expy}}:
36	** The artist notes in the manga that Eclair's initial appearance is deliberately based on a certain female fighting game character, who is clearly Cammy from ''Franchise/StreetFighter''. Not only that, but Eclair's brother Gateau is said to have been designed in the image of Guile. The artist also notes the village elder's similarity to Yoda of ''Franchise/StarWars''.
37	** You can also spot ''tons'' of Expy Extras in the background of various manga panels, especially in the beach episodes, and {{Cosplay}}s of characters from ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'', ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', ''Anime/UruseiYatsura'' and ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', amongst others. In the 'Iron Chef' chapter, most of the cast of ''VideoGame/{{Angelique\|KoeiTecmo}}'' seems to be in attendance.
38	* FaceHeelTurn[=/=]HeelFaceTurn: Eclair, Gateau's younger sister in the manga.
39	** Plus a vanilla FaceHeelTurn in the backstory [[spoiler:Sacher Torte, who later does a bit of a turn again, but unfortunately RedemptionEqualsDeath]] and numerous HeelFaceTurn examples [[spoiler:Sirius, the village elder and his lover]].
40	* FanDisservice: You'd think a butler who lives to please his master and crossdresses would be hot. Unfortunately, the master is a small child with a lisp and the butler is little old man. Pass the BrainBleach, please.
41	* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler: Tira in the manga]].
42	* ForTheEvulz: A lot of sorcerers perform a wide variety of atrocities on the local population for no reason beyond their own entertainment.
43	* GainaxEnding: The last episode of the anime has an ambiguous ending. [[spoiler: Sacher kills all of Carrot's companions, then starts smacking him around to try to force him to unleash the God of Destruction. Big Mama commits suicide, and then proceeds to track down the other hunters in the next life so that she can awaken their memories of their previous life. This somehow allows them to come back to life with an apparent powerup, but instead of defeating Sacher, they run to embrace Carrot and celebrate the fact that he didn't give in. Sacher refuses to admit that he was wrong and flees, Mama somehow revives herself, and the world goes back to its daily routine. Then the series ends on a scene in the next life where someone like Carrot is hitting on a girl who looks like Daughter.]]
44	%%* GenkiGirl: Daughter, Eclair after her HeelFaceTurn in the manga.
45	%%* GentleGiant: Gateau
46	* GodInHumanForm: [[spoiler: The Sorcerer Hunters are all the reincarnations of five deceased gods. Carrot is the reincarnation of Hakaishin, God of Destruction, whilst Tira, Chocola, Marron and Gateau are the reincarnations of Apros, Qurin, Yaksha and Karlman, who were respectively the Gods of the West, South, East and North and who perished after subduing Hakaishin]]
47	* HealingHands: Tira has the power to heal others in the manga. The manga connects this to her past incarnation as the goddess Apros, whose divine portfolio was healing.
48	* HarmlessVillain: Potato Chips is a sorcerer who repeatedly causes trouble for the heroes, but as he's basically just a kid who's trying to pick up girls, most of the problems he causes are more accidental than intentional. This is why he makes it through the series alive.
49	* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:In episode 11 of the anime, Yukke initially attempts to perform a Forbidden Magic spell in hopes of reviving his dead parents with the same excited eagerness as his twin brother Kuppa. When he ''sees'' the result, however, he is horrified -- and even more aghast when Kuppa crushes the seed-like remnants of their victim's bodies, causing them to die when he had the power to return them to normal. Yukke becomes completely opposed to Kuppa's mad scheme
50	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Marron in the anime, Tira and Gateau in the manga.]] [[UnexplainedRecovery They come back, though.]]
51	** And [[spoiler: And Mama and the Haz Knights, in the manga]]. [[spoiler: They don't.]].
52	%%* HotSpringsEpisode
53	* HotterAndSexier: The OVA. Tira and Chocola get their all black {{dominatrix}} attires faithfully adapted (minus the swastika on Chocola's hat) and the first episode especially indulges with the nipple shots.
54	* IdenticalStranger: Chapter 14 "Carrot Turns Into a Girl?!!" has the gang meet Ginny who's essentially Carrot with boobs and a side ponytail. After beating her admirer/Sorcerer of the Day, Carrot naturally hits on her.
55	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Carrot and Onion are jerks, but they do care for each other and their friends.
56	* KnightTemplar: Sacher Torte will create [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a better world]] At Any Cost(tm).
57	* LastOfHisKind: Daughter and Sirius are the last of a species of Winged People in the manga, which is never expanded on past volume 6.
58	* LikeBrotherAndSister: The reason Carrot's not into Chocola or Tira.
59	* LotusEaterMachine: The anime episode with the magic Chocola that grants the Hunters' wishes; Carrot gets split into ''three parts'' to grant both his wishes and the Misu sisters'. The episode also proudly [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall leans on the fourth wall]].
60	* LoveFatherLoveSon: Millefeuille's thing for Onion seems to have passed down to Carrot. Though to be fair, he likes teasing everybody, he just enjoys flirting with those two the most.
61	* LoveTriangle: A SiblingTriangle between Carrot and the Misu sisters. Either sister fine with the other winning Carrot's heart to the point when [[spoiler:Tira wins in the manga, Chocola has no problem wanting to make it AFamilyAffair.]]
62	* {{Lunacy}}: Episode 9 of the AnimatedAdaptation features a Sorcerer who draws his power from the moon. The fuller the moon is, and the more exposed it is in the night sky, the greater his powers are. In particular, it's declared that under the light of a full moon, his spells and his HealingFactor would make him virtually invincible, and that not even the Sorcerer Hunters might be able to defeat him. [[spoiler:His unwilling lover defeats him by stabbing him in the heart whilst the moon is covered by a cloud.]]
63	* MadonnaWhoreComplex: Ultimately, Tira and Chocola's former selves, Mother of West Apros and Holy Demon Kurin, respectively. [[spoiler: Naturally, Carrot marries the younger, cuter, less aggressive and more maternal of the two sisters, while the older, sexier, and more ruthless one cheerfully asserts herself as his mistress.]]
64	* MageSpecies: The difference between Sorcerers and Parsoners is a genetic trait; having it lets you use magic, lacking means you can't use magic. At least, not ''that type'' of magic...
65	* MagicAIsMagicA: There are at least two different forms of magic in the setting. Sorcerers use one type of magic, which requires a specific gene. Eastern Style Magic, as practiced by Marron, doesn't require the Sorcerer Gene.
66	* TheMagicGoesAway: [[spoiler: Reviving the God of Destruction drained all the magic in the world, and destroying him didn't bring the magic back. As such, by the end of the manga there are no more sorcerers, and therefore no more need for Sorcerer Hunters.]]
67	* TheMagocracy: The Sorcerers are the ruling caste of the Spooner Continent, as their magical powers simply allow them to crush any attempt by the non-magical "Parsoners" to resist their wills, causing the Parsoners to declare Sorcerers their rulers mostly in hope that this would appease them and keep them from being too cruel. That said, there is a hierarchy of Sorcerers, and it's possible for Sorcerers to become impoverished if they mishandle their holdings.
68	* MamaBear: Abricot Glacé. In the manga, [[spoiler: she took on a DEMON LORD to protect Carrot. When said demon tried to possess her to capture Carrot, she ''[[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]]'' to stop him]].
69	* MarketBasedTitle: Creator/{{ADV Films}} released the second half of the series as "Spell Wars: [-Sorcerer Hunters' Revenge-]" to persuade the American market that the anime had [[GrowingTheBeard Grown The Beard]].
70	%%* MiniatureSeniorCitizens
71	* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: According to Millefeuille, Carrot's zoanthropy works in this way adapting to whatever magic he absorbs and transforming into the appropriate form needed for the moment.
72	* NoFourthWall: Happens constantly, but especially courtesy of Potato and his butler. The most blatant example is a chapter near the middle of the manga where Carrot thinks the series is ending, and proceeds to promise all his teammates their ideal endings. An author [[CreatorCameo cameo]] jumps in just in time to ruin the ensuing Carrot/Marron HoYay, and explain that Carrot got the chapter title wrong.
73	* NoGuyWantsToBeChased: Carrot's reason for spurning Chocola and Tira's advances.
74	** Well, it's also because they regularly beat him senseless with whips and imprison him when he tries to chase girls and are just generally terrifying.
75	%%* NotAsYouKnowThem: What happened to Carrot in the sequels is pretty traumatizing. ZCE: What sequels, and what happened to Carrot?
76	* OlderThanTheyLook: Salad Chips is ''35'' for a good portion of her appearances, but looks like a junior high schooler.
77	* ParentalAbandonment: Quite a few dead or missing parents in this one, folks.
78	** Add ParentalBetrayal, as [[spoiler:Chocola and Tira's surrogate father, Sacher Torte, does a FaceHeelTurn and becomes the BigBad]] during their backstory.
79	** MissingMom: Carrot and Marron's mother, Abricot.
80	*** Though [[spoiler:she manages to [[UnexplainedRecovery get better]]]] in a surprisingly well-justified way.
81	%%* PersonalityPowers
82	%%* ThePowerOfFriendship: Especially in the anime.
83	%%* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler: Carrot and Tira in the manga, quite literally. '''Twice'''.]]
84	* SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan: [[spoiler:Carrot has the "God of Destruction" sealed within him. This is the source of his shapeshifting powers, and also means that Big Momma is willing to consider ''destroying Carrot'' if it seems like he may turn into a threat to the world.]]
85	%%* ShapeshifterGuiltTrip
86	* SleepsWithEveryoneButYou: Carrot is a Hits On Everyone But You towards Tira and Chocola - probably because the way they act when they take their coats off scares him. Naturally, the only girl either of these two is willing to lose Carrot to is the other, so this behavior just inspires more such treatment.
87	* StayInTheKitchen: Gateau's attitude toward Eclair, even going as far to ''slap'' her when she wants to get in on the adventuring. Extra weird because she's the stronger of the two.
88	* StockFootage: Three notable ones: Carrot transforming, and Chocola and Tira stripping off their outer layers to reveal their fighting outfits. Expect to see at least one in virtually every episode.
89	* SympatheticMurderer: [[spoiler:Lord Croissant in episode 9 of the AnimatedAdaptation. He's called out early in the episode as one of the rare Sorcerers who actively protect and help their people, but it turns out he murdered Gateau's first Sorcerer Hunter partner, Opera, because it was the only choice he had to rescue the woman he loved from an evil Sorcerer named Bagel, who had transformed her into a cat.]]
90	* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:Kuppa the Sorcerer in episode 11 lost his mother and father at a very young age and all he wanted was to somehow bring them back. So he spends years using Forbidden Magic to steal the souls of Parsoners and combining them with a portrait of his parents, murdering his test subjects when each experiment is a failure. In the episode proper, he attempts to use the souls of his own twin brother Yukke and Yukke's beloved Sanchu, convinced he's finally perfected the spell. Though the Sorcerer Hunters kill him, even they express sympathy, for his motivation was simply to have his beloved parents back.]]
91	* TokenHeroicOrc: Partly because the Sorcerer Hunters do go after the most evil and cruel of the Sorcerers, the few Sorcerers who show up who ''aren't'' sadistic sons of bitches stand out.
92	** In episode 10 of the AnimatedAdaptation, there's a Sorceress who is a reluctant partner in the business of running a BloodSports arena featuring gambling debtors transformed into monsters and made to fight to the death; she clearly hates helping the ringleader and doesn't actively get involved. She even develops a crush on Gateau, who lets her live but also turns her down.
93	** Episode 11 of the AnimatedAdaptation has Yukke, one of twin Sorcerer brothers. [[spoiler:Whilst his brother Kuppa went screaming off the deep end and became obsessed with using Forbidden Magic spells to try and resurrect his parents by stealing the LifeForce of Parsoners, destroying his victims when each attempt failed, Yukke wanted nothing to do with this, spending years trying to persuade Kuppa to stop and sacrificing his own LifeForce to resurrect Kuppa's victims as apple trees in a desperate attempt to atone for his brother's crimes.]]
94	%%* ThirdOptionLoveInterest: Mousse in the manga.
95	* ThreePlusTwo: The manga started with Carrot, Tia and Marron with Gateau and Chocola coming in ch. 6.
96	* TimeShiftedActor: In the anime, Lake's younger and adult selves are voiced by Creator/ReiSakuma, while her older self is voiced by the late Creator/MasakoSugaya.
97	* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: [[spoiler: Chocola in the manga. Not that she lets this stop her - she proceeds to declare herself Carrot's mistress and tries to horn in on Carrot and Tira's relationship ''on their wedding night'']].
98	* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Carrot's disturbed when he discovers that Millefeuille's actually male. Millefeuille is still happy to continue flirting; Carrot's reaction after the reveal falls under StupidSexyFlanders, as seen above.
99	* WeHelpTheHelpless: The whole point of the Sorcerer Hunters is that they travel the world, battling the worst of the Sorcerers in order to protect the Parsoners, who are too weak to defend themselves against the cruelties of an unrestrained SorcerousOverlord.
100	* WellIntentionedExtremist:
101	** The Sorcerer of episode 6 of the anime is a young boy who sought out a Forbidden Magic spell that can [[TakenForGranite turn people into crystal]] in hopes of using it to protect his Parsoner sister from the many dangers of the world. [[spoiler:He's one of the few Sorcerers who fight the Hunters and lives, because he chooses to give up his Forbidden spell when his sister begs him to do so.]]
102	** The Sorcerer of episode 9, Lord Croissant, is called out as one of the rare Sorcerers who protects and helps the people he rules over. [[spoiler:But he also keeps the opera singer he loves a veritable prisoner on his estate out of a combination of possessiveness and the fact she's under a curse placed on her by a rival Sorcerer that keeps her trapped as a cat, and he can only restore her to human form on the nights of a full moon. Also, he murdered a Sorcerer Hunter named Opera so that the Sorcerer who transformed his love interest would let him rescue her.]]
103	* WhamEpisode: Episode 8 "The Forbidden Fire" reveal not only the dark and troubled past of Sorcerer Hunters, but reveals Zaha Torte and causes Carrot to go berzerk in his beast mode... ''[[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening without getting hit]] [[DefenceMechanismSuperpower by magic]]''.
104	%%* WoobieDestroyerofWorlds: [[spoiler:Charlotte, Big Mama's traumatized little brother]] in the manga.
105	* WouldRatherSuffer: [[spoiler:Anna Pastry in episode 9 hires the Sorcerer Hunters to kill Lord Croissant, the Sorcerer who loves her, because he won't let her leave his mansion and return to performing on the stage. Despite the fact that, as Croissand points out, she's under a powerful curse that traps her in the body of a cat; she can't be human unless he works magic to restore her humanity, and even he can only do that on the nights of the full moon. She doesn't care, because being unable to perform dismays her that much.]] [[spoiler:Ultimately, she's the one who fatally stabs Croissant, choosing a life as a cat over her current life.]]

Context Manga / SorcererHunters