The year is 2026. Tokyo is under attack from the Lucifer Hawks, alien life-forms that feed on human flesh. The Attacked Mystification Police (Abnormal Mystery Police in one volume of the manga), or AMP, an all-female squad of police officers is tasked with hunting and destroying the Lucifer Hawks, led by the mysterious man Ganossa Maximillian.
The AMP uses a mix of magic and high-tech gadgets to fight these monsters and their human allies. Along the way, some of them find love. And they find out most of the truth behind the Project Gaia disaster in 1999 that first opened the gate to the world of Nemesis and unleashed the Lucifer Hawks on Earth. Just about all of them had parents, grandparents, or other close people involved in the screwup.
Silent Mobius began as a manga by Kia Asamiya which ran in Comic Dragon from 1989 to 1999. It was later adapted into two movies (by AIC) in 1991 and 1992, and a 26-episode TV series (by Radix) in 1998. The setting is heavily influenced by Blade Runner and many exterior shots have an uncanny resemblance to shots from Bubblegum Crisis.
Feel free to check out the character list.
A sequel subtitled QD Paranormal Police has been launched in 2013, taking place 17 years after the events of the original.
A stage-play adaptation has been announced for Spring 2017.
Silent Mobius contains examples of:
- All-Encompassing Mantle: Standard gear for villains, and the AMP uniform has one that seems to be optional. It also occasionally appears on civilians who're tired of the constant rain.
- Alternate Continuity: The TV series differs significantly from the manga and movies on several points, especially Katsumi's introduction to the AMP.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Lucifer Hawks actually manage to merge with the AMP building, and turn it into a Kaiju-sized monster.
- Art Evolution: Compare volume 1 of the manga to volume 12. It is possible to guess when a panel was drawn based on the length and pointiness of a character's nose.
- Amazon Brigade: The AMP are entirely staffed by women.
- Ancestral Weapon: Grospoliner, Jesso, and Nami's weapons were all passed down to their current wielders.
- Audio Adaptation: There are a number of drama CDs for the franchise, ranging from audio versions of manga chapters to original plots.
- Big Bad: Ganossa Maximillian, the man who leads the Lucifer Hawks on behalf of the ruler of Nemesis and aims to conquer Gaia. He is also the one who sabotaged the Gaia project, an attempt to untie both worlds, out of envy.
- Big Fancy House: Lebia's fully-automated house, complete with indoor pool. The Yamigumo estate also counts despite being underground.
- BFG: Kiddy uses one at the end of the manga. Her usual weapon is the Graviton.
- BFS: Grospoliner, Katsumi Liqueur's giant sentient magical sword.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Katsumi, when possessed by the evil sword Medium.
- Break the Cutie: Basically what happens to Yuki. After Katsumi's possession by Medium, Yuki's ability to see the future goes out of control. It's not pretty.
- But Not Too Foreign: Katsumi's mother Fuyuka is Japanese whereas her father Gigelf is of unspecified (though presumably foreign), origin. At least in the anime series, he is revealed to be a descendant of the Lucifer Hawk.
- Cain and Abel: Rally Cheyenne and her sister Rosa, who utterly despised her for siding with humans, as they were both hunted down by humans in their childhood.
- Car Fu: Nearly every major character tries to run over an enemy at some point. When done with the Simurgh, this becomes Ramming Always Works. Or would if they weren't fighting Lucifer Hawks.
- Cartwright Curse: Dating an AMP officer is bad for your health. Only one couple gets a Her Heart Will Go On deal, but the others still get plenty screwed over.
- Cool Ship: The Simurgh command vessel, which looks like a giant zeppelin.
- Crapsack World:
- Even before the introduction of the series, the world is in such a tarnishing state and was falling gradually. The reason Gigelf Liquer opened the doorway for Lucifer Hawk to enter is precisely to save the decaying Earth. However it simply sped up the decay as the Lucifer Hawks began preying on mankind and destroying much of civilization.
- In an interesting twist to this trope, this is also the prime reason the Lucifer Hawks were so eager to open a portal into Earth. It is implied their world is decaying too, in particular their food source is dying out, and this is the catyclist for the series' conflicts.
- The Cracker: Lampooned by Lebia. When Katsumi finds out her paycheck was withdrawn seconds after being deposited, Lebia investigates and then jokes to her teammates that she could theoretically hack into police payroll and reinstate the funds cause it's only bits of data.
- Cyberpunk: General setting and Lebia's schtick. Specifically, Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain, a fact frequently lamented by the main characters.
- Cyborg: Kiddy by way of We Can Rebuild Her. Lebia and other Visionaires have implanted computer systems.
- Empathic Weapon: Grospoliner, Gesso, and the evil Medium (which takes over anyone who wields it).
- Evil Weapon: Medium, who possesses anyone that tries to wield it.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: We have a Cyborg, a Mage, a Psychic, a Miko, and a Technomancer fighting a demonic invasion under the command of one of said demons' half-human spawn.
- Fantastic Drug: One episode/chapter focuses on a drug called Domel, a performance enhancer with terrible side-effects. It's based on the bodily fluids of a captive Lucifer Hawk.
- Flying Car: The AMP Spinners and Rally's limo.
- From Bad to Worse: After Roy is killed, Katsumi disappears, then returns six months later . . . only instead of Grospoliner, her sword is Medium. Long story short, Katsumi turns against the AMP, and joins up with Ganossa.
- Functional Magic: Hermetic magic, Onmyōdō, Buddhist mysticism, and Chinese elemental magic. The effects are usually the same: flashy lights and a big explosion.
- Generation Xerox: Katsumi, Lebia, Nami, Lum Cheng, and Rally share powers with their parents (grandparent in Lebia's case). And now they're trying to fix what the older generation screwed up.
- Genre Mashup: Urban Fantasy meets Cyberpunk.
- Gratuitous English: AMP (in the AMP unit) stands for Attacked Mystification Police.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Rally and Rosa Cheyenne are half-Lucifer Hawk, while Katsumi (in the anime at least) has some distant ancestry among the Lucifer Hawk on at least her dad's side.
- Hand Cannon: The Graviton, which is actually AMP standard-issue in the Manga. Both Lebia and Yuuki use them at one point.
- Healing Factor: High-level Lucifer Hawk heal very quickly from just about anything.
- Hermetic Magic:
- Katsumi's power, inherited from her father, complete with Instant Runes.
- As a Miko, Nami uses Onmyodo, mostly ofuda.
- Heroic BSoD: Katsumi, repeatedly, in the films and TV series.
- Kill Sat: Lebia's satellite Donald, which she ends up having to use when the Lucifer Hawks take over the headquarters.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: The Tokyo police department has been privatized, with multiple sponsors/owners. Towards the end of the series, Rally manages to buy a controlling interest to prevent the shutdown of the AMP.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: The source of Yuki's antique coffee grinder and the Stable Time Loop example below.
- Magical Particle Accelerator: A large one underneath Tokyo played a major role in Project Gaia, which also involved actual magic.
- Miko: Nami Yamigumo lives in an underground Shinto shrine and fights with ofuda and holy water.
- Multinational Team: Kiddy is Australian, Lebia is American, Lum Cheng is Chinese, Katsumi is of mixed heritage and spent most of her life in Hawaii, and Cheyenne is almost certainly not a Japanese name. Somehow, they all speak perfect Japanese.
- No Ending: The TV series leaves a lot of loose ends.
- Number Two: Mana Isozaki serves as Rally Cheyenne's right-hand woman.
- Omake: Volume 8 of the manga has some comedic 4-panel strips, including Lebia trying to convince Kiddy to cosplay as RoboCop.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Grospoliner, Gesso, and the various relics of the Yamigumo family, which seem to be bound to specific bloodlines.
- Pillow Pistol: When Ganossa ambushes Roy in bed the morning after he slept with Katsumi, Roy picks up a pistol from under the pillow to defend himself. It doesn't help.
- Powered Armor: Mobile Police officers use these, usually for riot patrol. Sadly ineffective against Lucifer Hawks.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: Both Rally and Katsumi are half-Lucifer Hawk, but fight for the side of humanity.
- Psychic Powers: Yuki's schtick, along with a couple other characters. In the last episode, she uses it to save everyone from a Kill Sat.
- Razor Floss: Wire's main weapon, used in both his cop-killing sprees.
- Refusal of the Call: Less refusal, and more "flight from", in Katsumi's case. Pretty much every time she learns something bad about her family history, she has a Heroic BSoD, usually paired with an outright Flight from the Call, generally to the outskirts of town.
- Save Both Worlds: Ganossa is scheming to destroy both Nemesis and Earth.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Rosa's Stripperific outfits. Katsumi gets one after her Face–Heel Turn as an Evil Costume Switch.
- Sex Signals Death: Roy, the morning after he and Katsumi consummated their love, gets killed by Ganossa.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: When Katsumi and Roy sleep together in episode 20, we only see their nude silhouettes in bed as they talk, and then a shot of them liking their hands together before the scene fades away. When we return to them, it's the morning after and Katsumi is showering while Roy is still in bed under a Modesty Bedsheet.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Episode 9 has a Male Gaze shot of Lebia climbing out of her indoor pool in a skimpy bikini while she talks to Katsumi.
- Shout-Out:
- The Lucifer Hawk on the wing of the plane in the first episode Homages the famous The Twilight Zone episode starring William Shatner.
- Lebia's AI companions are Huey, Duey, and Louie along with satellite Donald. Oh, and Louie has the form of a featureless black monolith.
- Again, the omake strip with Lebia trying to convince Kiddy to cosplay RoboCop. Also, those proposed upgrades look to be either stock Super Robot powers or something more specific.
- The whole setting owes some inspiration from Blade Runner.
- Shower of Angst:
- Episode 19 has a shot of Kasumi standing depondent under the spray of the shower as she reflects on the events of the previous episode. She's only seen from the shoulders up.
- Katsumi in the first movie, takes an angst shower while coming to grips with the existence of monsters and magic. And then monsters pour out of the showerhead and try to eat her.
- Space Elevator: Spiras, whose main role in the plot is to get blown to pieces.
- Stable Time Loop: How Yuki met her love interest and got a great deal on her apartment
- Technopath: Lebia's main ability, with sufficient backup equipment.
- Tokyo Tower:
- Site of a major data center that plays a role in Labia's spotlight chapter.
- Tokyo city hall also appears as the resting place of Grospoliner until Katsumi claims it. It is heavily damaged and apparently long-abandoned.
- Tyke-Bomb: Yuki's backstory- drugs and genetic manipulation to create psychic weapons. It ended badly.
- Undisclosed Funds: Lebia and Rally show signs of having large sums of money at their disposal, though how much is never revealed.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Mobius Klein, which reveals part of the Project Gaia story. The first movie is not far short of an example.
