Steam Detectives is a manga by Kia Asamiya, who created it for his son. It was serialized from 1994 to 2000, starting out in Monthly Shonen Jump before moving to Ultra Jump in 1996.
The scene is Steam City, a London-ish city which represents an entire civilization run by coal and steam power. Because of steam, the city is sometimes covered in a mist. Villains take advantage of the steamy mist to hide and execute their evil plans.
Only a few dare venture into what's beyond the steamy mist. They are known as the Steam Detectives: Narutaki, his nurse-assistant Lingling, and his Megamaton robot Goriki.
It was later adapted into a 26-episode TV anime series produced by Xebec, which aired from 1998 to 1999.
This work provides examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: Often used by Narutaki with his equally-abnormal gun.
- Accidental Hero: Narutaki foils a bank heist (unintentionally) while chasing a lost cat across town. Even the criminals remark on how pathetic they are.
- Amazing Freaking Grace: Kia Asamiya uses this
in some intervals during the story, usually to great dramatic effects. - Androids and Detectives: The series pairs young detective Narutaki with a Robot Buddy named Goriki. Together, they fight crime.
- Ascended Fangirl: Ling Ling appears in Steam King's third novel, much to her surprise.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Machine Baron and Crimson Scorpion are common victims.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Said word for word by Ling Ling in episode 19.
- Breather Episode: Episode 13, wherein there's no criminal activity whatsoever and the best job Narutaki could get was tracking down a stray cat.
- City Noir: The setting. It has a lot of crime.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: Crimson Scorpion, a female thief who loves precious gems and jewellery.
- Color Animal Codename: Crimson Scorpion.
- Combat Medic: Ling Ling is a nurse, and she has been known to get involved in the action.
- Dagwood Sandwich: Episode 13. Narutaki orders one at a street-side stand because he is very, very bored. He has to squish it down to the size of a normal sandwich and eat it all in one go when the stray cat he's been after all episode wanders by.
- Deadly Doctor: Lang Lang
- Determinator: In one scene, Narutaki is barely hanging onto the side of a bridge that was just blown up by Le Bled, who has him a cane-gunpoint. A bomb is set to explode at a nearby hospital in a matter of minutes. When taunted about how he planned to get out of his perilous situation, Narutaki simply says, "Not Give Up."
- Distressed Damsel: Ling Ling, sometimes.
- Exploding Calendar: An early episode uses the X'ed days variation as the Machine Baron counts down to a significant date, and plays it pretty much straight.
- Expy: Le Bled is very reminiscent of Char, and Night Phantom looks like a villainous Batman.
- Evil Counterpart: Le Bled and Lang Lang to Narutaki and Ling Ling. Their Megamatons too, except Le Bled's can fly.
- Fighting from the Inside: Steam King
- For Science!: Where Dr. Hsu and Dr. Guilty disagreed on about using Megamaton technology.
- Great Detective: Narutaki. He's the son of a great detective, and he's a very skilled Kid Detective himself.
- Heroic BSoD: After failing to deliver a vaccine in time to save a sickly girl, Narutaki falls into despair.
- Hospital Hottie: Ling Ling and Lang Lang. Both are hospital workers who are quite attractive.
- Humongous Mecha: The Megamatons are minor examples, quite often used as Robot Buddys.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Ling Ling to Steam King
- Incurable Cough of Death: Le Bled's reason for doing what he does; he wants to live his life to the fullest before he dies.
- Inspector Javert: Onigawara displays this trait in an episode where Goriki (and Narutaki, by extension) are framed.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Steam King and King Steam/Emperor of Steam
- Kid Detective: Narutaki, son of Steam City's greatest detective and a child genius.
- Laughably Evil: Machine Baron.
- Limited Wardrobe: Ling Ling, who wears her nurse outfit almost nonstop. Except when going swimming or in the bathtub, of course.
- Manchild: A dangerous one with Steam King.
- Marilyn Maneuver: Leads to an "Eureka!" Moment, followed by
Accidental Innuendo. - Mineral MacGuffin: A rare meteornite (from a meteorite; NOT a misspelling) which would be cleaner than coal and power Steam City for 200,000 years.
- Mundane Utility: Goriki possesses a tong attachment, used for delicately picking up pastries. When he accidentally crushes it, causing the cream to spill out, he then adopts a Pose of Supplication.
- Nice Girl: Ling Ling is very sensitive and very caring to others.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Steam King
- Older Sidekick: Ling Ling to Narutaki. She's an adult while he's still a kid.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: After getting slapped by Ling Ling for seemingly inexplicable reasons (at least to Narutaki), Narutaki angrily hurls his cup of coffee against the wall, only for it to bounce around like a superball instead of shattering on impact. He then opens a window to let it out, only to have it circle the ENTIRE EARTH, come back, RING THE DOORBELL, and force itself down his throat, which he then coughs up. Even for a slapstick moment, this is way out of left field. Ling Ling has a similar moment with a hairbrush, which ceases its rebounding upon coming bristle-to-face with an angry Ling Ling, even APOLOGIZING VOCALLY for "causing trouble".
- Actually, scratch that. The entirety of episode 13 qualifies.
- In the manga, Narutaki comes face to face with an actual dragon, wings, breath attacks and all. This is the only time a purely fantastic moment happens in the entirety of the manga's run.
- Pink Means Feminine: Ling Ling wears a pink and white nurse outfit and is very sweet and ladylike.
- Recap Episode: Episode 18.
- Rocket Punch: Several Megamatons, including Goriki and Shadowbolt.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Teng Shing, a gigantic hamster.
- Samus Is a Girl: "Justice" is actually Anna. Absolutely not related to that other Justice, although the trope still applies.
- Shout-Out:
- One of Crimson Scorpion's targets is Silent Möbius, said to be one of the world's greatest jewels.
- In episode 11, Ling-Ling re-creates the iconic flying skirt scene from The Seven Year Itch.
- In episode 19, Le Bled quotes a line from Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again as he flees the scene.
- Kuroneko-sama appears on a cat of cat food.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Crimson Scorpion is fond of them. Narutaki ain't fooled.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Ling Ling and Lang Lang, complete with contrasting colors.
- Split Personality: Steam King
- Steampunk: It ain't called Steam City for no reason.
- The Stinger: After every preview for the next episode, a still frame of a completely random scene from the episode (totally regardless of its importance in the plot) appears for a few second, with some cheesy music.
- Stock Footage: Whenever Goriki is called upon and sent through the underground pass.
- Team Pet: Teng Shing for the main cast.
- This Is a Drill: Goriki's standard Finishing Move. Also used by Narutaki as one of his gun's special attachments.
- Victory Pose: All the time. In particular is when Goriki (finally) places a pastry on his tray without it getting squashed. He is then summarily charged hundreds of times for the one pastry he succeeded in getting, as well as all the failures. Cue Heroic BSoD.
