Anime / Fractale

Note: Some hair colors not finalized.

"I know it's crazy. But... I thought... that she might be able to fly."

— Clain

Fractale is an 11-episode shonen anime series directed by Yutaka Yamamoto (series production director of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and director of Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens) and produced by A-1 Pictures and Ordet.

Revolving around a futuristic era in Ireland where the world's source of order—the "Fractale System"—has begun to fall, a fourteen-year-old boy named Clain meets the mysterious Temple priestess Phryne being pursued by chance and rescues her. He takes Phryne back to his home and tends to her injuries, but as quickly as Clain begins to bond with the girl, Phryne disappears the next day, leaving behind a brooch for Clain. A female Doppel named Nessa appears from the brooch, and Clain and Nessa both go in search of Phryne while uncovering the secret of the Fractale System.

In doing so, Clain is forced into the conflict between the rebel organization Lost Millennium and the Fractale System's Temple priests and priestesses—both of whom are pursing Phryne—and it grows difficult for Clain to distinguish friend from foe.

Simulcast by FUNimation in North America (and now licensed), with a brief interruption caused by a "Oreimogate" variation in which the simulcast was halted until unauthorized copies were removed from the Internet.

---

This series provides examples of:

• Accidental Pervert: Clain gets this a lot when it comes to Phryne and Nessa.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Promotional posters show Phryne◊ and Nessa◊ as purple haired, but in the anime, Phryne is a brunette and Nessa is a redhead. Also, Enri and Sunda◊ originally had orange hair in their character designs. Clain is originally a blond in the promotional ads, but his hair was a paler shade of blond than his hair color in the anime.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: There's a reason that Nessa and Phryne (as well as Moeran, the High Priestess) have the same hair colour. They are all "Phryne clones." Nessa is how Phryne looked as a 10-year-old while Moeran is presumably how Phryne will look like when she's 40. In the manga, as well as promotional posters, all three of them have purple hair. In the anime, Phryne's hair colour causes Fridge Logic—apparently, as a child, she had red hair. Which turned brown as a teen. And will eventually turn purple.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Lost Millennium's airship Danan.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Clain uses this tactic to search for Phryne in Episode 8.
• All Men Are Perverts: Played for Laughs with Clain, who's not necessarily a pervert but ends up in situations where it would appear that he is one. Played for Drama with Gail, who attempted to rape Phryne in Episode 7, and Barrot, who is far too touchy-feely with his daughter-like figure Phryne for comfort.
• Always Save the Girl: Clain towards Phryne and Nessa.
• Amusing Injuries: Clain is constantly a victim of this, getting kicked around by Enri and Sunda.
• Arcadia:
  • Lost Millennium, who have chosen to live without the Fractale System to achieve "true freedom" from the Fractale System's apparent utopia (advanced medical services, easy-going way of life, and especially brainwashing.
  • Villagers that Phryne, Enri, and Takamii meet while looking for Clain and Nessa in Episode 7 are similar in that they live in a nomadic fashion of herding and seem to basically be Lost Millennium without their "terrorism." Subverted when it turns out the villagers really use their Doppels to work in Xanadu while they pretend to be nomads.
• Artificial Human: Doppels and Phryne's clones.
• Attempted Rape: Gail attempts to rape Phryne after he smacks her in the face with a vase for innocently insulting his sculpture and pins her on the ground, but Enri knocks him out before he can try anything.
• Badass in Distress/Damsel in Distress: Phryne isn't necessarily a damsel in distress, but she is constantly pursued by both the Temple priests/priestesses and Lost Millennium. She is quite capable in protecting herself and fending off against her pursuers, but she gets captured by Lost Millennium in Episode 4, is nearly raped by Gail in Episode 7, and is captured by Barrot in Episode 8.
• Berserk Button: Gail gets enraged at Phryne when she innocently (and bluntly) compares his sculpture to a "nerve-wrecked earthworm [that] is tap-dancing."
• Betty and Veronica: Possibly Nessa (Betty) and Phryne (Veronica) for Clain with Enri filling in as the Third-Option Love Interest.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Nessa., also Dias
• Big Brother Worship: Enri towards her older brother Sunda. She's fairly affectionate towards him and refers to him respectfully as niisama, and he seems to be the only one who can silence her.
• Big Damn Heroes: Nessa in Episode 7 when she protects Clain from Megan. Subverted in that Clain still gets shot by Colin. In the same episode, Enri rescues Phryne before she gets raped by Gail.
• Big Heroic Run: Clain in Episode 2. He gets tired after a while of running, but luckily for him, Nessa meets Clain half way.
• Big "NO!": Nessa when Clain is shot.
• Bittersweet Ending: Phyne and Nessa become the "key," the Temple is destroyed, the clone-producing underground base is a crater and can never produce the "key" again, and Sunda is implied to have died in the final battle. After a full year, Lost Millennium lives in peace growing their crops and living their natural way while Clain stays at home watching over Phryne, who's been asleep the entire time. She finally awakens, only to have Nessa's personality mixed in with Phryne's. In spite of this, Phryne still retains her memories, as she tells Clain that she's always liked him too. Clain hugs her and cries as the series ends panning over the photo taken earlier in the series. Said photo does not portray Nessa, owing to the camera not being able to see Doppels, but can also be taken figuratively to mean Nessa doesn't really exist anymore.
• Blatant Lies/From a Certain Point of View: Whenever Dias gives a helping hand, he'll always mask his true agenda—from giving civilians a vaccine (that really removes their Fractale terminals, rendering them "cured" and unable to connect to the Fractale System) to helping Clain rescue Phryne in Episode 10 while secretly planning on having Phryne killed once she is found.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Enri (blonde), Phryne (brunette), and Nessa (redhead) respectively.
• Blush Sticker: Sanko, the little girl from Granites Village.
• Bookends: A seagull is shown flying to Clain's house in the beginning of the series and away from it in the end of the series.
• Bowdlerise:
  • To his embarrassment, Clain finds out that touchable doppels were used as sex toys, but in the English-language dub, they're euphemistically called "concubines".
  • When Phryne enters the house of the old guy with the camera, she calls him "Mr. Pervert", but in the English-language dub, she calls him just "Mister".
• Boy Meets Girl: Clain meets Phryne. Clain loses Phryne. Clain wants to find Phryne.
• Braids of Action: While Enri appears incompetent and purely there for comic relief, she does manage to capture Clain and Nessa in Episode 2, and she certainly knows how to use a gun from Episode 3 onwards.
• Brainwashing: Implicated with the "offering prayers": the Fractale System uses its "stars"/"balloons" and the Star Festival to control humanity and wipe out any thoughts or questions that go against the Fractale System, in order to maintain the world's order as they see fit.
• Breather Episode: Episode 5.
• Bridal Carry: Clain carries Nessa in this fashion in Episode 7 while they escape Xanadu after learning that Megan and Colin plan to sell them out.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Clain calls out his Doppel parents on leaving him alone in Episode 2, not because families separate to display trust and freedom as they claim, but so they can do whatever they want.
• Call to Adventure
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Clain initially thinks of Nessa as The Load, but he eventually grows to appreciate her.
• Cerebus Syndrome: In spite of its happier moments every now and then, the series takes a darker turn following Episodes 7 and 8.
• Chase Scene
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In Episode 6, Phryne spots several photographs in the antique collector's house and takes then. By the end of the episode, Phryne shows them to Enri and these photographs reveal to the audience that the man is Clain's father.
  • In Episode 8, Clain bandages the injured hand of one of Phryne's clones, commenting that it'll also be easier to find her this way. Clain ends up recognizing her among the clones labeled "useless" that are going to be dissolved.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Clain's hacking skill that is brought to good use in Episode 5 was hinted at in the first two episodes.
• Church Militant: The Fractale System's Temple priests and priestesses.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Nessa develops a quick hatred of Phryne after she slaps Clain in Episode 4. She doesn't want Clain to think about Phryne and refuses to follow Clain when he wants to rescue her. She gets over it in Episode 5.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • Lost Millennium members wear a variety of clothes, mainly from oranges to yellows to greens.
  • Temple priestesses wear purple cloaks, and the Temple's Guards wear green uniforms. The Archpriestess and Barrot wear more distinct red and blue capes/mantles respectively.
• Cool Airship
• Crossdresser: In Episode 7, Clain is forced into this while at Xanadu so he won't stand out as the sole human in a city full of Doppels.
• Curtains Match the Window: Phryne and Nessa in the manga and promotional posters have purple hair and matching purple eyes. Enri and her older brother Sunda had orange hair and matching orange eyes in their character designs, but the anime changed to Enri having blond hair and Sunda having brown hair and matching brown eyes.
• Cute Little Fangs: Enri, seen best when she's crying.
• Design Student's Orgasm: The opening, which true to the name of the series, is nothing but psychedelic fractal visuals.
• Digital Piracy Is Evil: The infamous "Fractalegate".
• Disney Death: When Colin shoots Clain. He gets better thanks to the advanced medical technology of the Fractale System.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Nessa gets really happy when Clain "touches" her in Episode 2.
  • There's also a "suggestive" position between Phryne and a sleeping Clain in the manga.
  • Phryne's relationship with Barrot has implications of rape or other abuse. Phryne claims she doesn't deserve love and constantly refers to Nessa (who resembles Phryne from her childhood) as when she was "beautiful." She comments about how Barrot has been "defiling" her and the rest of the Phryne clones over and over, and Barrot mentions that their history—or them being "bound by abundant love" — is something Clain should know about.
• Doppelgänger: "Doppels" are robot-like virtual beings that humans use to both avoid physical interaction and out of convenience, so that they may travel easily without being tied down. Clain has Doppels for parents and can disable them at will.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Gender-flipped between Clain and Phryne, who kisses Clain while he's sleeping in Episode 9.
• The Dulcinea Effect: When Clain first meets Phryne, he instinctively wants to help her, and she is probably the first, real human he's seen in a while since most humans use Doppels. It really kicks in when Clain is really only concerned about Phryne during the Temple's attack on Granites Village, and he chooses to rescue Phryne, leaving Nessa behind when she refuses to follow him in Episode 4.
• Deus est Machina: The Fractale System was first created in the 22nd century through networking computers and is more or less a religion of sorts.

• Emotionless Girl: The "Phryne" clone who helps Clain look for Phryne in said underground base.

• Enemy Mine: Phryne ends up in this situation in Episode 4. She has the same goal as Sunda and Lost Millennium, but she doesn't necessarily show interest in working with them and ends up as their hostage. She attempts to escape, but ends up back on the airship as a hostage more or less of her own free will.
• Energy Weapon: The Fractale System Guard's weapons of choice. This contrasts with the Lost Millennium's use of missiles and ballistic weapons.
• Everyone Can See It: The Unresolved Sexual Tension between Clain and Phryne.
• The Evils of Free Will: The Fractale system has already done this, enforced by brainwashing (see that trope above). This is why Lost Millennium opposes it.
• Expy: Takamii and Butcher, the minions of Enri, look like copies of Sanson and Hanson from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
• False Friend: Megan is more than friendly towards Clain and helps him find Nessa in Xanadu, but she really planned to sell them out to the Temple all along to get more money.
• Fan of the Past: Clain is a fanboy for antiques, and his room displays a collection of assorted "ancient" objects. In Episode 6, Clain meets an ill antique collector, who is revealed at the end of the episode to be Clain's father.

• Fantastic Drug: The data drug from Episode 1.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Phryne's conversation with Clain in the church seems to indicate that she might not be from Clain's present era.
  Phryne: I heard people who live in this era hate to be restricted and so they don't own their own home. And yet...
  Clain: "People who live in this era"?!
• Flaw Exploitation: Clain and Phryne both putting each other's well-being above their own or anything else. It nearly bites Phryne when she is almost forced into a virginity check in exchange for Clain getting medical treatment after getting shot.
• Foil: Nessa (who "loves" love) and Phryne (who "hates" love).
• Freudian Trio: Clain (Ego), Phryne (Superego), and Nessa (Id).
• Friend or Foe?
• Fugitive Arc: The series begins with Phryne fleeing from Enri, and the rest of Lost Millennium. But she's fleeing from The Temple, as well. Both factions are after her and Nessa for their own agendas. The Temple needs her to merge with Nessa, in order to reboot the Fractale System. For Lost Millennium, she's the key to destroying it.
• Ghibli Hills
• G.I.R.L.: Though not technically an online example, Megan turns out to be the Doppel of Gail.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Classic Nadia flavor too — one girl and two bumbling henchmen of the extreme ends of body proportion.
• Gratuitous English:
  • The ending song. Episode 5 onward averts it by having the same ending theme in Japanese (with slightly different lyrics) instead.
  • Phryne's letter in Episode 9. Aside from grammar, she even spelled her name wrong.
  • The song that the Temple priest/esses sing a few times, notably in episode 11.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The Fractale System and Lost Millennium. The Fractale System is an easier way of life, medically and luxury-wise, but is really brainwashing humans and removing their individuality; Lost Millennium lives life normally without the Fractale System, growing their own crops and having their children learn from books instead of data, but are not above shooting down the Temple priestesses and innocent civilians.

• Heel–Face Turn: One of Phryne's clones helps Clain rescue Phryne in Episode 8.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In the beginning of Episode 3, Clain wonders how Nessa can be so carefree after they had gotten captured by Enri. Moments after they are released, Clain gets in excited fanboy-mode when he sees a bunch of antiques, culminating in an instance where one of the Granite village guards has a rifle trained on him, and Clain's reaction is, "I can't believe he's still using an optical sight!"
  • In Episode 4, Nessa hits Phryne while saying, "Nessa hates it when people hit others!" Of course, since she's a Doppel, her punches go right through her.
  • Sunda forces the "freeloading" Clain to do various chores and work on the Lost Millennium's airship in Episode 5. However, Phryne doesn't have to do a darn thing, though it might have to do with the fact that she is a "hostage." Nevertheless, she does (kind of) help out peeling potatoes in Episode 6.
• I Will Find You: Clain wants to find Phryne. It's also pretty much the whole point of the lyrics in the opening song.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Barrot threatening Phryne with Clain's well-being.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Megan. Justified in that she is a Doppel and her human creator can make her appear in any shape or form.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Phryne, who easily strips her clothes off on a whim.
  • When Clain brings an injured Phryne to his home and gives her a first-aid kit, she immediately undresses (only revealing her under clothes) to take care of her wounds and tells him to leave. Soon after, Phryne approaches Claine topless (her long hair covering her breasts), as she can't reach the back of her shoulder to apply the medicine. Both times Phryne is stoic while Clain blushes heavily with uncertainty of what to make of the situation.
  • In Episode 6, Phryne strips down naked so she can have fun splashing water with Nessa and Sanko in the river.
• Invisible to Normals: Without relying on the Fractale System and the Fractale Terminals, members of Lost Millennium can only see Doppels through special eye monitors.
• Jerkass: Dias. Other than removing innocent peoples' Terminals, he attacks and bombs the Temple's underground base knowing that Clain and Phryne are still inside, and planned to kill Phryne so the Fractale System cannot be restored.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Whenever it looks like Dias is helping out for a good cause, he'll always have ulterior motives. Always.
• Just Friends: Phryne's preferred view of her relationship with Clain in Episode 7, claiming that she has no right to be loved.
• Kick the Dog: Dias, who in Episode 6 nullifies civilians' Fractale Terminals (while masking the process as a typical vaccine for refugees) and forces them to either join his faction of L.M. or get killed; and in Episode 8 cluster bombs the Temple's underground base with Clain and Phryne still inside.
  • In Episode 10, Dias helps Clain by helping Nessa and him reunite with Phryne, but he really planned for his underlings to kill Phryne after she is reunited with Nessa in order to destroy the body of the "key" so the Fractale System cannot be restarted.
  • Gail's attempted rape on Phryne.
  • Barrot forcing Phryne to let him check if she's still a virgin by threatening Clain's well-being.
• Lack of Empathy: Phryne is a little cold to Clain after seeing him easily send away his Doppel parents. She realizes this wasn't the case when she sees a video of an infant Clain smiling with his parents together.
• La Résistance: Lost Millennium.
• Large Ham: Sunda and Barrot have their moments.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Clain assumes that Nessa is Phryne's Doppel, but she has no recollection of Phryne. In Episode 3, Nessa appears to be the Doppel of an actual priestess at the Star Festival, who calls Phryne "nee-sama." However, Episode 8 reveals that the priestess "Nessa" is one of many clones of Phryne from her childhood. Episode 9 has Phryne tell Clain that Nessa and she are two halves of the "key"—Nessa as the mind and Phryne as the body to host it—and when they are one, they will be able to restore the Fractale System.
• Left the Background Music On: Played with in Episode 1, where the day star song is overheard by Phryne and triggers her meeting with Clain.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Clain is left out of the loop by Phryne, who leaves him in Episode 1 without so much as a word or farewell. When she tries to pull this a second time in Episode 4, Clain has had enough of being a pushover and calls her out on it.
• Looped Lyrics/Single Stanza Song: The "day star" song.
  If I am to offer a wish to the day star... I would ask it to shine a light here someday.
  • Phryne and Nessa both sing altered versions of the song at different points, Phryne towards the end of Episode 1 and Nessa sings it during Butcher's funeral in Episode 4. It remains to be seen whether these lyrics are other verses from the "day star" song or whole other songs entirely.
  • Episode 9 finally plays a longer version of the "day star" song.
• Love at First Sight: Clain towards Phryne. Phryne, after becoming one with Nessa to produce the "key," reveals that she felt the same way.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The strange photographer is Clain's father (in person!).
• Luminescent Blush
• MacGuffin: Several:
  • Clingy MacGuffin: Nessa is one of sorts, as she grows attached to Clain because she "belongs" to him and becomes unwilling to be parted from him.
  • Memento MacGuffin: The brooch Phryne left with Clain, which is where Nessa appears from. It seems that Phryne got in trouble for taking the "Doppel information" (AKA Nessa).
• Mad Artist: Gail. He was willing to rape Phryne for insulting his art.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Played with in Clain's encounter with Phryne and Nessa.
• Make a Wish: Wishing to the "day star" works in this fashion. Clain used to wish on the "day star," but after a while assumes it must be "laughing" at him. In the same episode, Phryne wishes for Clain's smile to last forever. It remains to be seen if her "wish" will come true.
• Mauve Shirt: Butcher in Episode 3.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Nessa watching from a distance as Lost Millennium's airship leaves without her mirrors the earlier scene◊ of the "real" Nessa watching from a distance as the airship retreats.
  • When Phryne leaves Clain and Nessa to return to the Temple in Episode 9, it pans out to her walking along a long, unwinding road, the scene almost replicating when she first leaves Clain in Episode 1.
• Meet Cute
• Mid-Season Twist: Episode 7 ends with Nessa unleashing a devestating power that destroys Xanadu, Colin shooting Clain, and Phryne arriving to the scene just as Barrot finds her.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The ending credits are this. A melancholy song plays mourning lost love and at the very end, Nessa clumsily falls backward off a rock looking at a bug.
  • Episode 3, surprisingly, takes a turn for the worse. For an episode that starts off so light-hearted, it ends with the Lost Millennium revealing the Star Festival is a branwashing scheme of the Fractale System... and the shooting of L.M.s, Temple priestesses, and innocent people being killed in the crossfire.
  • Likewise with Episode 4, as everyone is dealing with the aftermath of the previous episode. Nessa (and Sanko) sings the rather lighthearted "day star" song during Butcher's funeral, and when the Temple's airship attacks Granites Village and then chase down Clain and Phryne, Phryne bluntly asks Clain if he's in love with her (which is probably not the best time in the world to ask).
  • Episode 7. An amusing discussion between Enri and Phryne over the latter's relationship with Clain is soon followed by Gail attacking and almost raping Phryne when she innocently insults his sculpture. After Clain and Nessa are relieved that they escaped their pursuers, Colin shoots Clain, and Phryne arrives to witness this just as Barrot finds her.
  • Episode 9. A heartwarming discussion between Clain, Phryne, and Nessa leads to Lost Millennium getting called out on their actions by townspeople. The Lost Millennium preparing for battle against the Temple cuts to Clain, Phryne, and Nessa having another heartwarming moment, only for Phryne to later leave the two in an attempt to stop the Temple.
  • In Episode 10, a tender moment between Moeran and Phryne turns into Moeran choking Phryne out of jealousy, as Phryne is the world's beloved maiden while Moeran is "unloved" by the world. After Phryne reunites with Clain and Nessa, Barrot finds them and embraces Phryne, licks her cheek, and claims that Phryne and he are "bound by abundant love."
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Completely averted on both sides.
• Never Trust a Promotional Ad:
  • The artwork displayed in the promotional ads is quite different from its anime counterpart.
  • And this magazine scan showing Phryne and Nessa smiling peacefully◊ together. They have quite a tense relationship in the anime, but they have made up in Episode 5.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Subverted. Phryne willingly lets herself fall to escape her pursuers, and for a moment Clain almost believed that Phryne could fly. However, when Clain finds her, Phryne is revealed to be unconscious and injured from landing on a cliff ledge.
• No Sense of Personal Space:
  • Nessa sure invades Enri's personal space in Episode 3 by following her everywhere, including through a monitor while Enri's using the bathroom.
  • Megan playfully attempting to seduce Clain and Colin in Episode 7.
  • Barrot practically glomping Phryne by the stomach while smelling her in Episode 8.
• Not What It Looks Like: Clain bringing two girls home carries implications to Enri and his Doppel parents.
• Odd Couple: The Eeyore Clain and Genki Girl Nessa.
• Offscreen Teleportation: As a Doppel, Nessa can disappear or teleport to any given place. In Episode 5, she decided to play hide-and-seek, and was even shown to teleport whenever someone found her.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In Episode 3:
  Nessa: Clain! Do you want to know the color of Enri's underwear?
  Enri: Ahh!! Don't tell him!
  [Clain doesn't pay attention to the conversation and walks away]
  Clain: [thinking about his conversation with the old man] True freedom... I don't really get it. I don't even wanna know something like that.
  Enri: Wha... You don't have to say it that way. I won't tell you anyway!
• One-Woman Wail: Several of the background music tracks feature this.
• On the Next: Averted. There are no next episode previews following the ending credits, which is probably a good thing since Trailers Always Spoil.
• Opposites Attract: Clain and Phryne.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Enri and her mooks arrive at Clain's house looking for Phryne and disguise themselves three times (four times in the manga) in an attempt to get inside. Clain is not fooled.
• Parental Abandonment: Clain feels this way about his parents and eventually calls them out on it.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When Enri notices how left out Nessa feels during the welcome to Granites Village in Episode 3 (the residents cannot see Doppels unaided), Enri gets them to use their eye monitors, allowing the group to see Nessa. One of the residents, a child named Sanko, becomes fast friends with her.
  • In Episode 8, one of Phryne's clones tells Clain where his Phryne is after he bandages her wound.
• Pinky Swear:
  • While Nessa is ill, Clain pinky swears that he'll play a variety of games with Nessa once she gets better.
  • The longer version of the day star song gives mention to a pinky swear.
• Plot Armor: Who seriously thought Clain was gonna die from a gunshot at the end of episode 7?
• Plucky Comic Relief:
  • Enri and her mooks, Butcher and Takamii. Not so plucky and comical when one of them gets killed in Episode 3.
  • Nessa, for her cheerful innocence and naivety.
• Plucky Girl
• The Promise: Clain, Phryne, and Nessa promise to stay together forever in Episode 9.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Almost literally.
• Pursued Protagonist: The manga begins with Phryne escaping several women. In the anime and manga, Clain meets Phryne being pursued.
• Race for Your Love:
  • A more or less platonic version between Clain and Nessa in Episode 2.
  • Played straight in Episode 4 between Clain and Phryne. Clain has to literally chase Phryne down as she's driving off in order to catch her.
  • In Episode 9, after admitting that he likes Phryne, Clain and Nessa run off to find her.
• Rape as Backstory: Hinted at for Phryne, as she seemed to go through some PTSD during her Attempted Rape in Episode 7. The leading theory is that the creepy high priest did it, even though this being true would invalidate her "virgin" status and the need to check for such in Episode 8.
  • Subverted by conventional means since it's been stated that she is a virgin.
  • In episode 11, it is made apparent that Barrot did... something... to Phryne, as the original Phryne's father did to her, thus ensuring that the current Phryne would "match", and could become the key. It seems that that makes Rape as Backstory true for the entire world of Fractale.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Clain is forced to wear pink pants for a bit in Episode 5 after his usual pants are dirtied up.
• Real-Place Background: Taken from the west of Ireland, the show goes into some fairly obscure details, correctly belling the police as "Garda" and containing Irish in a few spots if you look. Luimnigh is the Irish Language name for Limerick City. The town in the second episode appears to be based on Galway City while some elements of Granites are clearly based on buildings in Dublin's Docklands area.
• Red Herring: Played with. Clain initially believes that Nessa is Phryne's Doppel, but Episode 3 shows a Temple priestess who looks exactly like Nessa and refers to Phryne as "nee-sama", indicating that Nessa is this priestess's Doppel instead. However, in Episode 8, the priestess "Nessa" turns out to be one of many of Phryne's clones that resemble Phryne from her childhood. It turns out that Phryne 'herself' is a Phryne clone too, specifically #152589, and the High Priestess Moeran is #141923.
• Rescue Romance: Between Clain and Phryne.
• Rubber Face: After seeing a video of an infant Clain with his real, non-Doppel parents, Phryne notices Clain doesn't smile the same way he used to. She is noticeably dismayed by this and attempts to reproduce his former smile this way. When that fails (but does make her laugh), she makes a wish on "the day star" for Clain's smile to persist forever.
• Running Gag:
  • Characters (usually Enri) referring to Clain as a pervert.
  • Phryne taking off her clothes with no modesty.
• Scandalgate: The series will not be seen in whole until all unauthorized copies of the series are taken down. This could be a new version of Oreimogate. To coin a phrase: "Fractalegate."
  • Some think this is because of Funimation's anti-piracy stance.
  • Thankfully, the situation is resolved and the simulcast now resumed as of January 24.
• Sadistic Choice: Suspicious of how intimate Phryne is with her "precious friend" Clain, Barrot makes Phryne choose between having Barrot check to see if she's still a virgin or letting Clain die without having his wounds treated. Phryne is forced to choose the former, but Nessa interrupts the procedure before it happens.
• Scenery Porn
• Ship Tease:
  • Clain/Phryne and Clain/Nessa.
  • Even Enri seems interested in him. She questions Phryne on her relationship with Clain in Episode 7, is worried for the "naughty jerk" when Phryne and he are captured in Episode 8, and screams out Clain's name when the underground base Clain and Phryne were taken to explodes. She even tries to confess to him in Episode 9.
  • A tiny bit in Episode 10. Sunda punches Dias after Dias reveals that he was planning on having Phryne killed so the Fractale System cannot be restarted. Dias asks Sunda if he's fallen for Phryne, and Sunda walks away without answering. Subverted in that Dias was probably just being a troll and Sunda couldn't stand the guy.
• Shout-Out:
  • Clain appears to be listening to an iPod-like music device in Episode 1.
  • The ending theme's lyrics are from a William Butler Yeats poem.
  • The Bare-Handed Blade Block Clain attempts in Episode 7 resembles Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • Sunda is shot and dying and holds the line at an elevator for Clain, Phryne, and Nessa, giving a vaguely motivational speech, certainly reminds one of a sequence from another anime with a decent amount of mind screw.
  • The city of Xanadu is apparently named after a surreal 80s movie.
• Sleep Cute: In the manga, Clain and Phryne in the church.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism
• Slow-Motion Fall: When Colin shoots Clain in Episode 7.
• Smoke Out: In Episode 4, Lost Millennium uses this tactic to retreat and capture Phryne.
• Spoiler Title: Well, from the look of the titles of Episode 9 and 10—"No Way Out" and "To The Monastery"—things don't look so good for our heroes.
• The Stoic: Phryne, who also doubles as Not So Stoic:
  • Phryne has a moment when she slaps Clain in anger after learning of him awakening Nessa from her brooch, and it only increases when she learns that he also analyzed the brooch's data.
  • When Gail attempts to rape her in Episode 7.
  • Seeing her unfit clones being dissolved in Episode 8.
• Storming the Castle: Twice:
  • In episode 8, Sunda enlists the help of Dias to storm Barrot's Elaborate Underground Base to rescue Clain and Phryne. Nessa gets impatient and goes in alone before they're ready. Good thing, too, because the 3 of them barely get out before Dias blows it up.
  • In episode 10, the entire Lost Millennium attacks the Temple.
• Stripperific: Megan.
• Supporting Leader: Sunda
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: The series started relatively soft and friendly... and then civilians started getting gunned down in Episode 3.
• Take a Fourth Option: Barrot gives Phryne three options when he corners Clain and her in Episode 4:
  Barrot: Well then, Miss Phryne, here's a three-choice question. This world doesn't have much time left, so answer it within 10 seconds. Question 1! What action will this world's beloved maidens take now?
  Clain: Huh? What's that?
  Barrot: A: Go back to the Temple happily, holding hands. B: Go to the Temple while bickering. C: Go back to the Temple for the time being since they're hungry. Now, which one?
  [Phryne turns and drives off]
  Clain: Huh?
  Barrot: What're you doing?! A fourth choice isn't allowed, Miss Phryne!
• Take My Hand!: Clain does this to Phryne's clone, asking her to come with Phryne and him to the shelter before the underground base explodes. She doesn't survive the explosion.
• Time Skip: Averted. The episodes start where the previous episodes leave off at. As of Episode 4, it can be assumed that roughly only five days have passed since the first episode.
• Terrible Trio: Enri, Takamy, and Butcher
• Third-Person Person: Nessa always indicates herself in the third person.
• Those Two Guys: Butcher and Takamii.
• Thwarted Escape: Clain attempts to rescue Phryne from Lost Millennium in Episode 4, but she's not fairly cooperative and Sunda catches Clain in the act.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Phryne is a little taller than Clain.
• Took a Level in Badass: To protect Clain in Episode 7, Nessa unleashes a power that "destroys" the virtual city Xanadu.
• Torches and Pitchforks: The villagers who order Sunda's group to leave.
• True Companions:
  • Clain eventually realizes this towards Nessa, who was more of a "family" to him than his own parents. By the series' end he still thinks Lost Millennium is composed of murderers, but has also grown to think of them as his friends.
  • Lost Millennium. Interestingly enough, a portion of the Granites Village faction actually are a family.
• Tsundere:
  • Enri might possibly be one, indicated by her sweet treatment of her brother Sunda and Sanko, a child from of Granites Village, in comparison to her sour treatment of Clain and Nessa (especially Clain).
  • Nessa seems to be quite the tsundere as well once she becomes rather clingy and jealous over Clain whenever Phryne is involved. Though, she calmed down and reconciled with Phryne over a game of hide-and-seek in Episode 5.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • Clain after getting shot, thanks to the Fractale System's advanced medical technology.
  • Barrot survived the Temple underground base explosion, though not without injuries.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Clain and Phryne.
• Unwanted Harem: Phryne, Nessa, and Enri seem to have some sort of feeling for Clain, while he initially only has feelings for Phryne.
• Unwanted Rescue: Twice in Episode 4. Clain attempts to escape with a captured Phryne on board the Lost Millennium's airship, but she refuses his help and outright slaps him, angered that he awakened Nessa from her brooch. When the Temple attacks Granites Village, Clain hurries to help Phryne, who again rejects his help, but this time Clain refuses to be a pushover.
• Virgin Power: According to Barrot, Phryne needs to be a virgin to become the "key."
  • Virgin Tension: Barrot forces Phryne to let him check to see if she is still "qualified" to be the "key" or not, but before he can, Nessa invades the underground system and prevents it while on her Unstoppable Rage search for Clain.
• We Hardly Knew Ye:
  • Clain's father in Episode 6. He is ill, is unlikely to live for much longer, and isn't mentioned again.
  • The Phryne clone in Episode 8. She, as well as the rest of the Phryne clones, did not survive the Temple underground base explosion.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Lost Millennium and the Temple. See Grey-and-Gray Morality.
  • Alabaster, another section of L.M., removed refugees' Fractale terminals without warning so that they cannot return to Fractale and are forced to follow them or get killed. All the while Dias—the leader of Alabaster—still has his own terminal intact.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 3.
  • Episode 7. Not only is Phryne almost raped by Gail, the episode ends with Nessa unleashing a devastating power that reveals Xanadu's true nature to protect Clain. Almost immediately after, Clain is shot by Colin, and Phryne arrives only for Barrot to find her.
  • The whams continue in Episode 8. Barrot is revealed to be the person who raised Phryne to be the "key" and attempts to see if she's still a virgin. Clain learns that there are countless clones that resemble Nessa (but are really clones of Phryne from her childhood) sealed away because Phryne is the "key" and the useless replicas are destroyed. The Phryne clone who helps Clain rescue Phryne is nearly killed herself and points Clain and Phryne to the direction of the underground base's shelter, but the underground base explodes with Enri screaming out Clain's name.
• Wham Shot: A slightly low-key one, but in episode 6, Clain spends time with an ailing old man who collects antiques, one of which is a camera. At the end of the episode, the man, knowing he'll likely die without the advanced technologies of Fractale, gives Clain the camera. Phyrne overlooks some of the photos the next day, and puts special attention on one. It's a picture of the man with an infant Clain; the old man was Clain's father.
• What Is This Feeling?: Clain feels this way when it comes to Phryne. He feels angry at Phryne for leaving him without a word and wants to get "mad" at her when he sees her again, but is confused by these feelings.
  Clain: She came as she pleased and left as she pleased. People always do as they please. Everyone is like that in the current world. But... why am I this angry?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's quite easy to forget that Clain actually stole a data clip from the junk market in Episode 1, and this small action has little to do with the plot than briefly explain the Fractale System.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Doppels.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In Episode 4, Phryne feels betrayed by Clain for not only awakening Nessa from her brooch but for also analyzing the brooch's data. Later in the episode, Clain returns the favor and calls Phryne out for always leaving him Locked Out of the Loop.
  • In Episode 9, Lost Millennium is called out by a mob of townspeople on their murders and for the underground base explosion.
• Wild Card: Dias. His motives are to ensure the Fractale System will not be restored, but his way of accomplishing said goal is morally ambiguous; really, he leans more on being an extremist than well-intentioned. His schemes include removing civilians' Fractale terminals, bombing an underground Temple base knowing that Clain and Phryne were still inside, and planning on having Phryne killed so the Fractale System cannot be restarted.
• You Are in Command Now: Sunda passes off command of the Granites to his sister, Enri, when he and Clain decide to storm the heart of the temple.

---