As punishment for something really extreme, Norse god of mischief Loki is bound into the form of a human boy and is collecting the evil in men's hearts to restore his status. To accomplish this goal, he opens a detective agency. But Odin, Lord of the Gods, hates him, and is constantly sending the other gods from Asgard the World Of The Gods as assassins. After all, he's destined to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, even though he has no interest in doing so.
Meet Mayura, a paranormal obsessed Miko who bulls her way into Loki's life as his "detective assistant"... and has absolutely no idea whatsoever about the nature of his reality throughout the entire series. Along with her and an interesting group of friends and enemies (mortal and ethereal alike), Loki attempts to figure out the true nature of the situation he has found himself in... and the impact it shall have.
This series provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Loki jokingly refers to Narugami as "Narukami." It's been used so often that even the fans forget what his name is actually supposed to be.
- Accidental Pun: "Who the Hel(l) are you?!"
- Adjective Noun Fred: Mythical Detective Loki
- Agent Mulder: Mayura is fascinated by the occult, and is constantly looking for "Fushigi Mystery". She is completely unaware she is surrounded by gods because ironically, she is truly an Agent Scully.
- Agent Scully: Mayura is an atheist (yes, an atheist Miko) because her mother died when she was a child, despite her praying.
- Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Explored In-Universe, as the manga shows the events of Norse Mythology as Loki sees it. For example, Baldr's death was self-defense.
- The manga has him commenting on how many gods in pagan religions became depicted as demons after the rise of Christianity. Subtle.
- Anti Anti Christ: Loki doesn't want to cause Ragnarok. This is baffling to many other gods, who technically don't want it either, but are still trying to kill him because they feel that You Can't Fight Fate.
- Big Eater: Narukami, Fenrir and Gullinbursti all have seemingly limitless stomach capacity. Lampshaded towards the end of the anime when the trio engage in a competition to ascertain who is the biggest eater of them all - with Gullinbursti emerging as the victor, this vanquished obviously feeling the after effects of chili overdose. Oh the advantages of being a machine. And in the manga's second season, Spica.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Skirnir, wielded by Verthandi in a futile attempt to take down Loki and Narugami, aka the thunder god Thor. Silly girl.
- Calling Your Attacks: The 'magic spell name' variety.
- Canis Major: Fenrir (true form), Hati and Skoll are all enormous wolves.
- Catchphrase: Mayura's "Fushigi Mystery!" (translates as, roughly, "[this is] a fantastical mystery!")
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Mayura, whose daydreams are far stranger than the paranormal going on all around her.
- Club President: and, barring a brief moment, apparently sole member, Mayura of the Paranormal Mystery club.
- Cooking Duel: On a cooking show with deadly magic meat.
- Costume Porn: Many chapter-beginning artworks have this, but Freyr and Freyja are the great offenders as every time they appears, they will have different outfit for each appearance. They are the greatest offender of this trope in this manga.
- Creepy Doll:
- the first episode of the anime features such a doll, Mayura's search for which takes her to Loki's detective agency.
- There's also a less creepy take later on, when Narugami falls for a girl, Yayoi, who turns out to be the mannequin from outside the fast food outlet where he works in this episode, brought to life by the Norn sister Verthandi as part of an elaborate attempt to cause friction between Narugami/Thor and Loki. Yayoi even gets a Heroic Sacrifice, the result of which is a
Tear Jerker.
- Crystal Ball: Urd, in episode 15, makes use of a crystal ball when posing as a fortune teller as part of an attempt to take Loki down.
- Dark Magical Girl: Hel is a lonely antagonist manipulated by the Big Bad into attacking the The Protagonist who has more friends than he can deal with. after working through some issues, she Heel Face Turns
- Defeat Means Friendship: The Norns ultimately become Loki's friends but it took SEVERAL defeats before they gave up. It helps that Skuld didn't really want to fight him due to her crush on him.
- Disguised in Drag:
- Narukami plays the blushing bride at a wedding at the Daidouji shrine after Verthandi kidnaps and imprisons the real bride - a direct reference to Thor's donning the bridal garb in the Poell
, though he was impersonating Freyja. - In the original manga, Narugami also dresses as a bride when a threat is made against her during a wedding to protect her. (It was Loki's idea, just like in the myth, as well.)
- Narukami plays the blushing bride at a wedding at the Daidouji shrine after Verthandi kidnaps and imprisons the real bride - a direct reference to Thor's donning the bridal garb in the Poell
- Eat Me: Attempted by the monster in the Cooking Duel episode. It doesn't work because Loki saw it coming a mile away.
- Evil Plan: For Odin it's 'kill Loki' and until then keep him trapped in a child's form.
- Fetish: In an omake, while Yamino is explaining why Loki hates cars, Mayura and the other uniform-wearing characters begin question why they are dressed as such. Yamino explains that the artist has a uniform fetish."I don't get hot if there's no uniform..."
- Flashback: Invoked by Loki to get Mayura's father to understand why she chose her lifestyle.
- Forceful Kiss: This happens twice to Mayura (if you've read the manga). The first time, Heimdall plants one on Mayura to screw with Loki's head. And later on into the story, Loki plants one on Mayura and receives a slap in return. He determined that Heimdall had placed Mayura under a spell through a kiss, and the way to break it was for Loki to kiss her.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: in miniature: the Norns.
- Genki Girl: Mayura Daidouji pursues fantastic mysterious with great energy!
- Giant Eye of Doom: Odin manifests as such in the anime; his true form is never seen. Creepy, right?
- God in Human Form: Quite a few Norse gods hanging around in Tokyo, working partime jobs, doing detective work, and doing other human things.
- Great Detective: Loki. He's rather picky and only works on cases he's interested in, but it's not uncommon some people around him pushing him to work on cases he's not that interested in.
- Gratuitous English: Actually Gratuitous Old Norse - Freyr's ship Skidbladnir is erroneously called Bladskidnir in the anime. It's correctly called Skidbladnir in the dub, but the Japanese version has the error. Translators have also taken note of it.
- Hell Hotel: Glitnir Mansion. It tries to eat the heroes.
- Hypocritical Humor: Chapter 11. Reiya's relatives are on the hunt for the family fortune. One woman wants it so bad that she skips breakfast. Narugami wonders how someone could be that greedy for money. He then goes to stuff his face. Loki wonders how someone could be that greedy for food.
- Invisible to Normals: Ecchan can be seen by Mayura's cleric father but not Mayura herself.
- Kill It with Water: of a sort: Loki is no fan of the wet stuff. Seeing as he's a god of fire in the manga (not so in the original mythology, that misconception is the result of a confusion with logi, the god of fire)...
- Large Ham: Freyr; who isn't really on anybody's "side" as just having a blast at whatever.
- Last Episode, New Character: Spica, aka Angrboda; the mother of Loki's children appears at their doorstep in the very last anime episode. She's more featured in the manga.
- Leitmotif: "Mama" and "Kind Memories" share the same theme.
- Magic Wand: Loki's staff, Laevateinn, is used for his spell attacks.
- Magic Skirt: No matter how many times Mayura bends over there is never a panty shot.
- Meido: Mayura dresses like a maid in chapter eleven. Loki and Narugami's reactions to her outfit are amusing. Loki suggests that she wear that and do the housework. Mayura says that she's already tried. Again, an amusing reaction.
- Miko: Mayura helps out at her father's temple for a friend's wedding but she doesn't believe in gods.
- Muggle: Mayura has the magical ability of a rock, and not a magic rock (unlike her dad, who can see magic and spirits, even though he doesn't believe in them).
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Frey does this whenever Freya is nice to Loki, although he confuses it for Loki coming on to Freya.
- Mythology Gag: Loki convincing Thor to dress as a bride in-series is a nod to a similar myth, where he dressed as Freyja to recover a stolen Mojinir.
- Noble Fugitive: Loki is being unjustly persecuted by Odin and so he's hiding out in Tokyo, Japan.
- Not a Morning Person: Loki is impossible to wake up in sufficiently early in the morning.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In chapter 7, when investigating the homicide of a hated school teacher, Yamino and Loki decide to disguise themselves as high school students.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Mayura's mother died of a Soap Opera Disease when Mayura was little.
- Hel perceives that Loki, her father, has left her alone. It is likely that Odin has convinced her that Loki hates her.
- Personality Swap: In one episode, Loki takes on the personality of whoever is near him. Hilarity Ensues.
- Phantom Thief: Freyr is introduced as such because every great detective needs to have a rival.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Mayura wears one once when Odin is speaking through her; pink in color, a large skirt, lots of detail in the bodice etc. There is no (in-universe) reason for it.
- The Power of Love: It lets a Distaff Counterpart of a Bob's Big Boy statue sacrifice herself to save Narukami. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Pretty Boy: Loki himself in his true form. He manages to gather a following of fangirls, including Mayura. Also Freyr and Odin.
- Really 700 Years Old: All the gods and giants stuck in human form look like human children or moderate adults.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: whenever a god has glowing red eyes; stuff is going down.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Ecchan is cute enough to pretend to be a child's plushie. Loki was going for something more intimidating.
- Running Gag: Yamino's addiction to mail-order catalogs and, on a few occasions, Narukami's tendency to keep his hand on a hotplate for several seconds before noticing.
- Scaled Up: When Yamino turns into his true form, he is the world serpent, Jörmungandr..
- Screw Destiny:"People are capable of doing things that nobody, not even the gods, can predict. These are miracles."
- Sexy Santa Dress: Mayura wears one for circumstances having nothing at all to do with Christmas.
- Shapeshifting: Yamino's true form is that of the giant Midgard serpent, Jormungand. Fenrir can change into his giant wolf form. To a lesser extent, both Loki and Freyja have adult and child forms - in the latter case the child form being Reiya Ōshima, whose form Freyja was transmigrated into.
- Shout-Out: The entirety of Episode 17 is a reference to Iron Chef with its Cooking Duel.
- Supreme Chef: Yamino cooks for Loki, amazes local house wives and does extremely well on the cooking show.
- Sleep-Mode Size: All the gods in human form look young, especially for Freya, Loki and Heimdall, who look like actual children. Occasionally Loki and Freya get out of it.
- Sweet Tooth: In the manga, most every time we see the main trio at the Enjaku Detective Agency, Loki is seen eating ice cream sundaes, cake, or anything else that has a decent amount of glucose in it. This habit dies down a bit later on.
- Talking Animal: Fenrir, the little black puppy, speaks human.
- Take My Hand! : In episode 21 of the anime, as Heimdall is falling, Loki tries to save him. Heimdall slaps the helping hand away and falls to his death...Until episode 23. It's a Contractual Revival.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Loki gets a hard rock riff when he's about to start taking his enemies down.
- Villains Out Shopping: Heimdall, Freya, the Norns, etc all seem to forget at times that they're supposed to be killing Loki.
- Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Mojinir, Thor's Hammer, disguises itself as a bokken because....Thor is in Japan so it blends in.
- Yamato Nadeshiko:
- Frey discusses it by listing off the traits and calling Mayura one (In the dub, it's translated as "Traditional Japanese Beauty") but she doesn't live up to the trope.
- The "Bob's Big Girl" statue is more of a straight example when she is brought to life: kind, determined, wears a kimono, etc.
