On the tiny, war-scarred South Pacific island of Blefuscu, there is a quaint hotel called the Voynich Hotel. While it's a comfortable enough place to stay, it's a bit run-down and antiquated, and the staff is quite eccentric. The owner is a huge man who always wears a mask and was a famous wrestler. There only seem to be two maids, one who looks like she's in her early teens and another who is strangely emotionless. The chef is suicidal and has a creepy crush on the owner. There may be a ghost hiding in the boiler room in the basement. Also, since Blefuscu is essentially in the middle of nowhere and mostly deserted, the Voynich has a well-deserved reputation for being a hiding and meeting spot for people on the wrong side of the law.
While the story has a number of intersecting plotlines, one of the most central characters is Kuzuki Taizou, a Yakuza who has left his life of crime behind and has come to Blefuscu to hide from his clan, as he has taken quite a bit of their money. As he settles into life at the hotel, he gradually finds himself drawn into the strange goings-on, which include drug dealers, assassins, Serial Killers, detectives both human and robot, and even devils. Overarching everything is the legend of the Three Mothers, sister-witches who lived on the island until they were killed by Spanish invaders centuries ago...or so the legends say.
This manga provides examples of:
open/close all folders
A - F
- All Love Is Unrequited:
- Mamiya apparently had a crush on Kurosawa when they were schoolmates, but it came to nothing. As his ghost leaves her, he wonders how things would've turned out if she'd been a man.
- Mischa has her eye on Taizou when they first meet and is very flirtatious, but when she sees him in the pool, she visibly deflates.*sigh* I've seen enough Yakuza movies to know what those tats mean.
- All Myths Are True: The legend of the Three Mothers, their struggles against the invading Spanish army, and their respective fates form much of Blefuscu's local mythos. The story eventually reveals that everything in the legends actually happened, and a lot of the rumors about their fates after their deaths/defeat are on point as well.
- And This Is for...: In ch. 4, the manga artist Haraki uses a glass to listen through the wall to the conversation next door. When he switches to a wine glass for better reception, he hears one of these declarations. It's revealed to be Snark.This is for my father! This is for my mother! This is for my little sister!
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: After falling in love with Taizou:Helena: The mafia, the poachers, the Spanish armada. Even our teacher in Russia...I feel like I could love them all!
- Art Evolution: The unique stylization remains, but the characters do gain more even proportions as the manga goes on.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: One chapter revolves around the ghosts in the hotel starting to do this en masse and against their will. The devils pull them back down, and they figure out that Helena's unconsciously doing this with her power by singing along to her new CD, and with Berna's help start to run her ragged via sabotaging the hotel to distract her.
- At the Crossroads: The devil Demona meets Snark at a crossroads to negotiate the final terms of their deal. She reveals during this that she's the devil who made the infamous trade with Robert Johnson.
- Back from the Dead:
- Tenebrarum, although because of how she was killed, she didn't come through the process completely intact and hasn't gotten any better.
- Both Suspiriorum and Mamiya's sister are brought back to life, although in different ways and, like Tenebrarum, not exactly as they once were.
- Holon says that it's possible for devils to escape Hell and return to the mortal world after they're killed. Later, Ashkelon shows up none the worse for wear after dying.
- Demona freaks out at a request for this.You want to bring people back from the dead?! This ain't freakin' Dragon Ball!
- Balking Summoned Spirit: Snark was given three wishes by Demona in exchange for her soul, two of which were spent prior to the start of the story. After killing Kurosawa, Snark learns that he was going to propose to her, and she summons Demona and asks for him to be brought Back from the Dead as her last wish. Demona, however, becomes very agitated and balks at the request; the why isn't directly stated, but her reaction implies that it's either impossible or leads to very bad things if tried. Snark reluctantly accepts this...and asks to have her boobs made a lot bigger instead.
- Beat Still, My Heart:
- Suspiriorum's heart was still beating even after she was beheaded and dismembered.
- Helena pulls Taizou's heart out, cradles it lovingly, and even kisses it...and then panics and slams it back into his chest when he starts showing distress.Taizou: [after Helena and Berna leave his room] W-was my heart always this far to the right?
- Big Damn Heroes: Helena has two significant instances:
- She pops up just in time to keep Taizou from handing his soul over to Ashkelon in their card game.
- Later, she arrives at the hotel just in the nick of time to stop the Yakuza from finally killing Taizou.
- Black Comedy: The story has a lot of violence and dark material but almost everything still has a comedic tinge to it.
- Blood from the Mouth:
- Ashkelon spews blood from his mouth just before dying, due to eating the poisoned cake Snark had given to Demona.
- Snark knows that things are going From Bad to Worse when her coughing leads to this, with a truly massive amount coming in the last few minutes before Demona claims her soul.
- Bloody Hilarious:
- The Voynich sees several gory deaths over the course of the story, but the maids just brush this off as no big deal and get everything spic and span again.Helena: [in a room that looks like someone exploded] Oh dear. So many stains to get out.
- Helena's rather invasive means of curing Taizou's hangover: she sticks her hands in his belly and starts messing around. Along with detoxing his liver, she cleans his dirty lungs and removes his appendix.
- The Voynich sees several gory deaths over the course of the story, but the maids just brush this off as no big deal and get everything spic and span again.
- Boom, Headshot!: A number of side characters are taken out in this manner via sniper fire. One of the criminals killed in ch. 2 is still missing half his head even as a ghost.
- Boy Meets Ghoul:
- Sleuth Brigade member Professor falls in love with the eldest of the Three Mothers, Tenebrarum, despite her zombiefied state and damage to her mind.
- Haraki encounters the ghost of Mercero, the philosopher and mathematician who died in his hotel room years back, and who the drug is now named after. She seems to take a shine to him almost immediately, and he ends up writing a manga for her.
- Brick Joke: The end of an early chapter implies that Berna eliminated the loudmouth Yakuza brothers. Turns out they were stuck in time at the restaurant they went to and don't come back until the last page of the story. They're floored by their bill.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Taizou arrived on the isle with a big briefcase stuffed full of the money he took from his clan's coffers.
- Bullying a Dragon: Even after being told by Ashkelon to watch his step around her, Holon taunts Helena about the diminished state of the Mothers when she confronts him after he dismembers Berna. She smashes him across the room and then snaps off his remaining horn in contempt as he lies stunned and bloodied. He only saves himself from getting killed by agreeing to close down his hotel and become a guest at the Voynich.
- Came Back Wrong:
- Tenebrarum, thanks to not dying in a way that would actually work, has become a kind of Revenant Zombie who is noticeably decayed, has mental issues, and is incontinent.Ashkelon: She is dead...but a witch's soul just keeps on tickin'. If they don't die just right, they end up walking around all dead-like.
- Mamiya's sister got her arms swapped by Berna when she was brought back to life.
- Berna knows that she isn't really Suspiriorum despite having that Mother's heart, and doesn't quite have all of Suspiriorum's skills down pat.
- Tenebrarum, thanks to not dying in a way that would actually work, has become a kind of Revenant Zombie who is noticeably decayed, has mental issues, and is incontinent.
- Chekhov's Gag: Taizou's heart getting relocated proves to be extremely important near the end of the story, as it's what saves him from dying from his torture at the hands of the Yakuza.
- Circus of Fear: Downplayed. The amusement park near the town is old, broken-down, and largely abandoned. The ferris wheel still works, though, and is where a handful of plot-important occurrences take place. The Mercero dealers meet up there before being sniped by Kurosawa, and their ghosts are apparently stuck in the cart they were sitting in before Helena brings them to the hotel. Taizou and Helena's first date finishes there; it's a bit awkward at first because they chose the cart the dealers' ghosts are stuck in and they're eavesdropping the whole time. Finally, Kurosawa snipes Tamara and tries to kill Mischa and Carrie from the ferris wheel.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Taizou is brutally tortured by his former Yakuza cohorts when they finally catch up to him, including cutting off one of his ears and most of his fingers, and taking out an eye.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Helena looks and acts like a perky, happy-go-lucky teenager, and seems to be a bit of a ditz at times, while Berna is emotionless and can be somewhat spacey. Don't let that fool you. They'll do whatever it takes to keep the peace in the hotel, and have no qualms about making anyone who creates problems serious enough to catch their attention disappear. Even devils know to mind their manners around them.
- Crushing Handshake: Mamiya gives the owner one after he gets her and her sister settled into their VIP suite. He walks out of the room wondering if his hand's broken; a doctor confirms it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Holon easily defeats Berna when she confronts him about his hotel threatening the Voynich, but is then thrashed by Helena.
- Mamiya runs afoul of Helena, and winds up with her severed head mounted on top of the hotel's peak.
- At the end of the manga, Taizou's former associates catch up to him and brutally mutilate him. When Helena walks in on this, she paints the room with their blood.
- Cyborg: One of the members of Taizou's clan is a huge man with a mostly-robotic head and a transparent casing for his brain. He's killed off-panel by water dripping from a leak in the ceiling into his head.
- Deal with the Devil: Snark traded her soul to Demona for three wishes, which she uses for the Demon's Claw +2, the Rabbit of Truth, and big breasts. Before the final wish is decided on, Demona informs her that she only has about a month to live before her soul is claimed.
- Dissonant Serenity: The cover art for vol. 3 of the English translation shows Helena in front of a window smiling, and with bloodstains on her apron, the wall, and the bedding in front of her.
- Don't Look At Me: Tenebrarum never says this outright to Professor, but she fears how he might react to the advanced rotting of her body caused by her Power Incontinence healing his legs and begins to hide from him and have Berna make excuses for her not being able to see him.
- Dope Slap: Tamara bops Carrie on the head for smoking their supply.Hey! No sampling the merchandise!
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Helena has a brief moment of this at seeing how badly Taizou has been injured by his torturers.
- Eating Contest: This is one of the main events during the harvest festival. Fatty has won the last two years and intends to win again, with Alice's sister timing his practice runs.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Helena gets flustered when she sees Taizou undressed for the first time in the laundry room.
- Eye Take:
- Leader goes bug-eyed when Berna lifts her skirt to show him her scars.
- Taizou has an epic one when Helena walks out of the hotel for their date wearing an extremely lewd shirt.Helena: [to Berna] He told me to go change.
- Eye Scream: Several characters lose eyes due to differing forms of puncturing trauma, including arrows and knives. How Taizou lost his isn't explicitly revealed, although in the circumstances at the time, it could've been anything.
- Fanservice:
- A couple of the early chapters are accompanied by still art of the female cast in swimwear. The rather decayed Tenebrarum is there too, in the altogether.
- When the teacher/student couple in a later chapter spend the day on the beach with Alice, Sexy, and Leader, Alice lets the woman borrow one of her sister's swimsuits, which looks like it's a sneeze away from being indecent.
- Fanservice with a Smile: When the Voynich is going through major financial trouble, part of Helena's plan to bring in more customers involves putting Berna and Emelia in new uniforms that take advantage of their ample assets.Emelia: *looking at her pushed-up, very exposed bosom* I don't know...I think I'm too old to dress like this.
- Fantastic Drug: Mercero is a drug obtained from a marijuana-like plant. It can be smoked, with effects that appear to be much stronger than regular marijuana and with much more addictive qualities, as Carrie and Haraki are both shown with withdrawal symptoms.
- Fantasy Contraception: In a grisly take, Snark uses the ergot
growing on the wheat in the courtyard behind her house to take care of the side effects of her pre-kill trysts. Leader discovers the evidence in the tunnel under the courtyard when she dumps him there. - First-Name Basis: Haraki realizes something's happened between Helena and Taizou when he hears her say "Taizou-san" instead of "Kuzuki-san".
- Foreign Culture Fetish:
- Since Blefuscu can only get a public broadcast station and an anime-only channel on TV, Helena has soaked up anime. She's also a manga fan, is thrilled when Haraki brings her some Japanese candy, and at the group dinner where the guests meet each other, she says that she'd love to go to a maid cafe in Akibahara.
- Mamiya's sister is a huge fan of Guilty-chan, the mascot of the island's amusement park.
- Foreshadowing: Helena is missing an eye, and Berna seems to be stitched together. Helena is revealed to be Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears, who was shot in that eye by a Spanish arrow and believed to have been killed. Berna was created by Lachrymarum after Suspiriorum was killed.
- Fun T-Shirt: When trying to help Helena on her date with Taizou, Berna picks out a shirt that reads "OPEN FOR BUSINESS"note with an arrow pointing down. Taizou immediately makes her change out of it.
- Frankenstein's Monster:
- Berna's true nature—she's a patchwork simulacrum given life by the heart of Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs. This is first revealed when Taizou sees the stitching on her neck at the end of the first chapter, and made even more apparent when she shows Leader her scars and when Helena has her wear a sexier uniform.
- Mamiya's sister becomes a lesser version of this. Berna found her sliced in two in Taizou's room but was able to put her body back together in the same manner as her own body and restore her to life.
G - L
- George Washington Slept Here: Chuck Norris once stayed in the hotel, and had an impromptu bout with the owner that is rumored to have actually cost him a tooth, which is supposedly kept in the small pouch hanging in the lobby. Taizou is floored to learn all this.
- Half the Man He Used to Be:
- Peace has her body from the waist down obliterated by a land mine.
- Mamiya's sister is sliced in two at chest level by Snark, with the cut also severing her arms.
- Headbutt Thermometer: Helena does this to Taizou after he wakes up from his three-day fever sleep.Taizou: Not even Adachi Mitzuru would still use that cliché. Aw, who'm I kidding...yes, he would.
- Hell Hotel:
- The Voynich Hotel's Weirdness Magnet nature is partly because it's built over Tenebrarum's grave, and the magic of the Mothers still influences the area.
- A more literal version is the Codex Hotel, created by the devil Holon on the grounds of the donut shop. It draws a lot of traffic away from the Voynich until Holon makes the mistake of harming Berna, and shuts it down and relocates to the Voynich to keep Helena from killing him.
- Horns of Villainy: All the devils have horns; Ashkelon has one, Holon has two that give him the stereotypical "goat-horned devil" look, and Demona has two that curl downward like a laurel wreath.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: Carrie apparently gets horny when she's high. In the chapter that introduces her and the other Mercero dealers, she's utterly wasted and tells Tamara that she's going to be having some quality time in the bathroom. Tamara tells her to mop the floor this time.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Snark learns that the coughing fits she's been having are a symptom of the time before Demona collects her soul drawing to a close.
- Internal Reveal: The audience knows very early on that Alice's older sister is Snark, but the first (human) character who learns this is Leader, in ch. 61.
- Is This What Anger Feels Like?: Helena has never had a relationship with a man before, so when a model shows up on the island for a photo shoot and catches Taizou's eye, she experiences jealousy for the first time and becomes so stressed that it makes her throw up.I've read about it in books...can't say I like it.
- Kid Detective: The Sleuth Brigade is a group of kids (with the exception of "Maid" (Berna)) who have dug into a lot of Blefuscu's myths and legends and are keen to figure out the secrets of the Voynich, especially what's in the basement.
- Lap Pillow: Berna's first appearance is when Taizou passes out on the couch in the lobby; he wakes to find his head in her lap. When he jumps away from her, she offers for him to lay back down.
- Land Mine Goes "Click!": Both played straight and played with. When Emelia's family is killed by a mine, it clicks under the car tire, as does the mine Sexy steps on. However, the sound of the mine Leader steps on is represented by a skull in a black speech bubble. He and Peace react as you'd expect.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Part of what happens to Taizou's torturers is the same as what they did to his aniki, and threaten to do to him: their back tattoos are peeled off and pasted to the wall.
- Limited Wardrobe: Taizou came to Blefuscu with the clothes on his back (a button-down shirt, slacks, and a tie) and his briefcase and that's it. In ch. 17, Helena notices the funk coming off him, freaks out when he says his clothes haven't been washed yet (remember, this is a tropical island, and he's been walking around in the same clothes for two weeks at this point), and drags him to the laundry room.Helena: Part of a maid's duty is to make sure our guests are clean!
Taizou: No, I don't really...
Helena: Nuh-uh!
Taizou: I have some urgent...
Helena: Nuh-uh! - Losing Your Head:
- Helena realizes that the bloody box outside the Voynich contains Berna's pulled-apart body when she hears "I'm sorry" from inside. Later, Berna and Helena converse as Helena stitches her body back together.
- Berna tells Holon that Suspiriorum's head continued to speak even after she was beheaded, and that it was taken back to Spain as a rare treasure. Later, the ghost of one of the drug dealers mentions a tale about "The Singing Witch Head" being bought by a Mafia don for €500K.
- Love Epiphany: Helena realizes that she's truly falling for Taizou when he not only buys her a new Glass Eye, but puts it in himself at her request.
- Ludicrous Gibs: While Snark's kills tend to get blood everywhere in the room, the true example is in ch. 66, courtesy of Helena reducing the Yakuza to chunky salsa. Let's just say, the room got a fresh coat of red paint, some new wall art, and interesting decor.
M - R
- Major Injury Underreaction: Berna's emotionless demeanor extends to harm to herself. At one point she pulls a locked door completely off an old van to free a trapped animal, and doesn't even blink when she sees that the stress broke all the fingers on her hand.
- Make an Example of Them: Taizou learns part of what happened to his aniki for betraying their clan: his back tattoo was flayed off and hung on the wall of the clan's headquarters. Helena later does this to his torturers, although their tats are pasted to the wall by their blood.
- Man Bites Man: When one of the Yakuza gets too close to Taizou after stabbing him, Taizou bites his nose off.
- Mask of Power: The Rabbit of Truth, a mask shaped like a rabbit's head that transforms thoughts into speech and allows the user to see past glamours and illusions.
- May–December Romance: Lachrymarum, a thousands-of-years-old witch, falls in love with a mortal man who appears to be in his 20s or possibly 30s.
- Moe Greene Special: According to legend, the youngest of the Three Mothers, Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears, took an arrow to the eye and disappeared. Sure enough, Helena is missing her right eye.
- Mugging the Monster: Mamiya makes a huge mistake when she pulls a gun on Helena, and pays dearly.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Snark is hit with this when she learns that Kurosawa was going to propose to her and asks Demona to resurrect her kills, or at least Kurosawa as her third wish. Subverted, however, when a panicky Demona manipulates her into changing her mind.
- Naked Freak-Out: Played for Laughs when Ashkelon walks into the hotel's VIP suite just after the female devil Demona has apparently come out of the shower, wearing nothing but a Modesty Towel around her neck. Mortified, she screams...and covers her single eye instead of her body.Demona: EEEK! PERVERT!
Ashkelon: Why are you shielding your face?! There's a vase right there, at least stand in front of it! - Off with His Head!:
- Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, was killed via beheading.
- While Taizou and Mischa are trying to find Tepes in the forest, Mischa points out a skull stuck on the top of a very tall tree. Apparently it belonged to a poacher that came to the island, but was found dismembered the next day. This gets repeated several chapters later when Helena pulls Mamiya's head off and sticks it on a spike on top of the Voynich.
- When Berna confronts Holon about his hotel being a drain on the Voynich, he first pops the stitching holding her right hand on her arm and then does the same to her head.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Tamara, Mischa, and Carrie all have a moment of this when they see Taizou's Yakuza tattoos in the pool. Carrie and Mischa go wide-eyed while Tamara has an "oh, great" expression.
- Ashkelon is very nervous when Helena spots him in the donut shop.Helena: And what are you doing here?
Ashkelon: Who, us? We're just eating some donuts, ma'am!
[Taizou shows up and Helena leaves with him]
Holon: She's the youngest of those three sisters, right?
Ashkelon: If I could give you just one piece of advice...it'd be to mind your manners around her.
- Older Than They Look: Invoked a couple of times:
- Helena looks like a teenager but...[to Emelia] I won't give you the specific number, but when it comes to age, I'm way older than you.
- Mamiya's sister tells Alice she's 21 but she looks and behaves like she's around Alice's age, and is called a child by Snark post-bisecting.
- Helena looks like a teenager but...
- Pistol-Whipping: The leader of the Yakuza torturing Taizou smacks Helena in the side of the head with the butt of his pistol hard enough to crack her false eye.
- Poisoned Weapon: In the legend of the Three Mothers, Tenebrarum was killed by a poisoned arrow.
- Potty Emergency: While Carrie is...occupied in the bathroom, Tamara realizes the hard way that the milk she drank had gone bad. She ends up having to go in the bushes outside the hotel.
- Power Tattoo: The Three Mothers have tribal tattoos all over their bodies. Taizou first sees some of Helena's when Berna invites he and Haraki to their room to visit, and eventually sees all of them.
- Rain of Something Unusual: In the last pages of the story, as Helena reveals to Taizou that she's a witch, it starts raining frogs.
- Recursive Canon: The Voynich Hotel manga appears in-universe, being Haraki's masterpiece.
- Red Right Hand: All the devils' hands and forearms appear to have been dipped in blood that never goes away.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
- Subverted. Suspiriorum says that she's going to kill a few thousand Spaniards in the wake of Tenebrarum being shot with the poisoned arrow, but Lachrymarum tearfully asks her to wait so that they can spend Tenebrarum's final moments together.
- Mamiya's sister slaughters the leadership of Taizou's Yakuza clan, believing that they hired the sisters to kill him only to double-cross and eliminate them.
- RPG Elements: A few RPG references are scattered throughout the story. Some are simply used as one-time gags ("A cypress stick! [...] Just like in Dragon Quest! They use these to kill Drackies!") and some are somewhat more serious (which isn't saying much, given the nature of the story), like the Yakuza having their attack and defense values tattooed on their bodies (with Taizou's aniki also having a B+ magic resistance), and the existence of a tool called "the Demon's Claw +2".
S - Z
- Sexiled: In ch. 40, Taizou accepts Helena's invitation to her room. Later, Berna returns to the room and discovers that the door is locked. She congratulates Helena and walks away wondering where she's going to sleep.
- Shapeshifter Weapon: The "Demon's Claw +2" are prosthetic arms whose fingers can turn into blades sharp enough to cleave a human body with ease.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: The Voynich Hotel overall is more on the comedy-dominant side of the scale, as despite all the dark events that occur, it never completely loses its comedic tone and has a lot of gags throughout.
- Sorry, I'm Gay:
- After Kurosawa snipes Tamara, Carrie holds a note up to the window saying they'll show the killer their boobs if they're spared. He shoots the note out of her hand.Sorry girls, but you're barking up the wrong tree.
- Based on the last part of their final conversation, Kurosawa may have rejected a Love Confession from Mamiya in this manner, which would explain her hostility toward him and use of gay slurs.
- After Kurosawa snipes Tamara, Carrie holds a note up to the window saying they'll show the killer their boobs if they're spared. He shoots the note out of her hand.
- Spit Take:
- Professor does one when the Sleuth Brigade is eating at Alice's sister's restaurant and...Sexy: If it came from the man I loved, I would even drink pee!
- Taizou does one when Helena excitedly asks him if he impregnated her.
- Professor does one when the Sleuth Brigade is eating at Alice's sister's restaurant and...
- Squick: Invoked a few times:
- Berna's ringtone on her cell phone is someone having a horrible attack of diarrhea. Leader and Sexy are noticeably disturbed.[Berna answers the phone and leaves the junkyard]
Sexy: ... Tell her to get a new ringtone or she's out.
Leader: Y-yeah... - Olga is grossed out when Kikaida reveals that his hands have realistic fingerprints.
- Berna's ringtone on her cell phone is someone having a horrible attack of diarrhea. Leader and Sexy are noticeably disturbed.
- Stress Vomit: Along with this being induced by her feeling jealousy, Helena is worked to the bone by a combination of tourist season traffic and the ghosts in the hotel causing havoc and ends up puking from that stress.
- Stripped to the Bone:
- Mamiya's right arm has the meat blasted off. Not smart, pulling a gun on Helena.
- The Yakuza torturing Taizou are skeletonized in the space of 4 seconds. Really not smart, ignoring Helena's warning to the previous assassins.
- Talking Animal: The one-eyed cat can talk to Alice via the Rabbit of Truth, and also talks to the ghost of the pointy-haired mobster.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Two minor characters introduced in a late chapter are a college teacher and his former student who are on their honeymoon. Helena goes absolutely gaga when she learns this, and has Emelia prepare a traditional marriage dish for them.
- That Russian Squat Dance: Done by Helena and the Mothers' teacher shortly after Helena arrives at the teacher's home in Russia.
- Time Skip: There is a five-year time-skip in Chapter 67, focusing on the Sleuth Brigade and how they've changed in the years since the reveals about Alice's sister and how they affected the group.
- Trademark Favorite Drink:
- Kikaida has two espressos every morning.
- Holon is very fond of pure calpis, but notes that it doesn't pair well with fish or meat.
- Trash of the Titans: Berna and Helena share room 101, which is cluttered, full of bags of trash, and has rats living in it, in stark contrast to the cleanliness of the rest of the hotel.
- True Sight: This is one of the Rabbit of Truth's abilities With it, Alice sees through Holon's illusions and knows that he's a devil.
- Tuck and Cover:
- In the backstory, Peace did this to save Leader from a land mine, dying in the process.
- Leader does this to save Sexy from a land mine. When the smoke clears, they realize that Kikaida also did this to take the brunt of the blast.
- Uncatty Resemblance: The cat Berna rescues from the locked van is black and is missing its right eye. She names it Helena.
- Vomit Discretion Shot:
- The local chief of police and another cop get sick off-panel at one of Snark's kills. The chief leaves shortly thereafter to go vomit again.
- Fatty throws up off-panel after the Sleuth Brigade enters Tenebrarum's chamber in the hotel basement because of the stench of decay and excrement inside.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
- Kikaida, unlike the police chief, starts puking like crazy when he's brought into the room where Snark's victims are. Turns out the spaghetti alle vongole he had for lunch didn't agree with him.Olga: Don't puke up such refined food!
- Helena's bouts of Stress Vomiting are also shown in all their glory.
- Kikaida, unlike the police chief, starts puking like crazy when he's brought into the room where Snark's victims are. Turns out the spaghetti alle vongole
- Yakuza:
- Taizou and his aniki; they planned to leave that life behind, but only Taizou truly got to get away...and not for long.
- One early chapter has two thuggish brothers from a different clan show up. They give the owner grief, then recognize Taizou and plan to let his clan know where he is. They disappear shortly thereafter.
- In the last chapters, Taizou's clan finally catches up to him. Bad things happen.
- Your Days Are Numbered: This is apparently a condition of deals with devils, which varies depending on what's desired and the amount of work the devil has to do to get it. Demona gave Robert Johnson a 10-year window between the closing of their deal and her taking his soul. When Snark closes their deal, she learns she only has a month to live.
