Tantei Gakuen Q

Detective School Q or Tantei Gakuen Q is a 22 volume manga by Seimaru Amagi that ran from 2001 to 2005. It was adapted into television in 2003, albeit incompletely, spanning a mere forty-five episodes covering only the beginning of the manga, leaving out most of the plot. Later, the series was also adapted into a live action drama.

This story involves a group of students called the Q class of Dan Detective School, founded by Retired Badass Detective Morihiko Dan, the best detective in Japan. These students, led by Kyū Renjō, form a Five Man Band and are task to solve seemingly unsolvable mysteries, as well as to battle a criminal organization led by Pluto who had a past with Morihiko Dan and a mysterious connection with one of the students...

Now has a character sheet that could really use some love.

Detective School Q provides examples of:

 * Action Girl -- Shino and Yukihira, though each gets hit with the Distress Ball at least once.


 * Adrenaline Makeover -- Subverted.  drastically changed her looks between a very traumatic incident and her arrival to Class A, but it takes her much more than that to fully blossom.
 * Affably Evil -- Anubis
 * Becoming the Mask --  was supposed to be The Mole, but  . as time passed.
 * Break the Cutie -- More than once case is a painful, slow, tear-jerking breaking process for either victims, Sympathetic Murderers or witnesses, the top examples being . And in-story,   gets progressively broken as he develops more.
 * Brown Note -- The "Banquet of Evil" violin solo drives a violinist into increasing insanity as soon as he hears it, and it's mentioned that a mysterious person is forcing three other people to hear it as well through cellphone calls. The reason?
 * The Cameo: You can find a cameo of Kindaichi Hajime among the wave of people taking the exam in the first chapter.
 * Chick Magnet -- Ryu. Older women, young girls and little girls blush at the sight of him.
 * If you count the Ho Yay with Kyuu and the Foe Yay with, he falls squarely into Even the Guys Want Him.
 * Cut Short -- The anime faithfully followed the manga and was on track towards greatness when it literally committed suicide overnight, abruptly cutting short at a point in the manga where the real story was hardly beginning to unfold, and we mean almost 2/3rd of the plot, leaving virtually every damn thing in the air, and throwing in a Gainax Ending on top of that. And it ruined all prospects of the series making it to the top of the popularity charts. Considering the manga's incredible plot and characters, the fans were not pleased at all.
 * What makes this even more regrettable is that the manga has never been completely translated to this day.
 * Not to mention replacing Kerberos with a villain who didn't have even one quarter of his charisma. We never saw King Hades, and even the ships weren't developed beyond Ship Tease before they went down with it.
 * Cute Bruiser -- Kuniko, when she stops cowering after someone else's back.
 * Dark Action Girl --
 * The Dog Was the Mastermind - There's an epic "Whaaaat!?" moment when the high priest behind five murder cases in the Kamaikakushi village is revealed to be
 * Evil Is Cool: Kerberos, this guy has Magnificent Bastard status among the fans.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Kerberos again. He probably has more fans than even the heroes.
 * Expy - Kintaro to Kindaichi Hajime; he even has a similar Catch Phrase.
 * Faking the Dead --
 * Faux Action Girl -- Kuniko has a huge Action Girl potential, but is too emotionally frail. Somewhat understandable if we consider her past, though.
 * Five Man Band
 * The Hero - Kyu
 * The Lancer - Ryu Amakusa
 * The Big Guy - Kintarō Tōyama
 * The Smart Guy - Kazuma Narusawa
 * The Chick - Megumi Minami
 * Mentors - Morihiko Dan, Katagiri-sensei, Nanami-sensei, Hongou-sensei.
 * Forced to Watch: In the Boarding School case, Megumi is kidnapped and then Bound and Gagged, having to helplessly watch as
 * Good Scars Evil Scars: Hongou-sensei not only has a huge scar on his face, but his hands and arms are covered with knife marks.
 * Guile Hero (All of them)
 * Handicapped Badass (Dan is a Guile Hero who's wheelchair-bound and is still a pretty good shot.)
 * Heir to The Dojo -- Kuniko, whose family has an Aikido dojo
 * Hot Springs Episode -- Two murders happen in onsens. Only one of these mini-arcs has fanservice, as Kyuu and Kinta first fail to get Ryu naked in the springs and then try to peep on a Sexy Secretary bathing on the other side... and end up beaten by Megu, whom they get to see in the nude.
 * Ho Yay (Kyuu and Ryu. And how.)
 * Forget subtext, in the anime it's practically explicit. Ryuu's first apparition says all.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Kerberos.
 * Its Not You Its My Enemies
 * Manchurian Agent -  does this all the time to its clients and its own agents as a failsafe.   it's not pretty.
 * Karma Houdini: Kerberos. As if being Magnificent Bastard wasn't enough, he escapes the heroes at the end too.
 * Master of Disguise - Nanami, and pretty much
 * Madness Mantra - 's "Tartarus... Tartarus... Tartarus..."
 * Meitantei - the genre
 * More Than Mind Control - Apparently, what made  a murderer.
 * Also applied on several culprits, courtesy of . Basically,
 * Murder Dot Com
 * Names to Know In Anime: Megumi Ogata (Kyu), Koichi Tochika (Ryu), Hideo Ishikawa (Kintaro), Tomoko Kawakami (Kazuma), Houko Kuwashima (Megu), Hideyuki Tanaka (Morihiko Dan), Aya Hisakawa (Shino Katagiri), Shinichiro Miki (Kotarou Nanami), Hikaru Midorikawa (Anubis), Nobuo Tobita (Saburomaru), Tomoko Kaneda (Kuniko), Satsuki Yukino (Sakurako Yukihira), Akira Ishida (Masami), Mariko Kouda (Mitsuru - she's also Playing Against Type)
 * Open Minded Parent -- Kyuu's mother
 * Pettanko -- Sakurako Yukihira, much to her displeasure.
 * Photographic Memory -- Megu's main ability.
 * Plucky Girl -- Megu, Yukihira, Shino Katagiri. Kuniko wants to become one, but she still has a long way to go.
 * Red Oni Blue Oni -- Nanami and Tatsumi
 * Self Made Orphan --
 * Sexy Secretary -- Yuri Hitsuji.
 * Shino Katagiri can be considered as Morihiko Dan's sexy secretary too.
 * Shipper On Deck -- Megu's Cool Big Sis Akane ships Kyuu/Megu.
 * Shrinking Violet -- Kuniko
 * Smug Snake -- Many culprits, but specially Sachiyo Ichinose.
 * Team Dad -- Morihiko Dan, and Tatsumi Hongou is a sterner version. Nanami counts more as Big Brother Mentor due to his closer approach.
 * Team Mom -- Shino Katagiri
 * Title of the Dead - Episode 22 "Dinner of the Dead", that deals with the murder of a food connoisseur.
 * Tsundere -- The Type B Megu is all sweet and light and gentleness, until Kyuu comments on her panties or flirts with other girls. Yukihira is a Type A, quite more competitive and tsuntsun.
 * Wounded Gazelle Gambit --
 * Yamato Nadeshiko -- Kyuu's mom, to a degree
 * Zettai Ryouiki -- For a Shrinking Violet, Kuniko manages to hit a nice Grade B.
 * Sakurako Yukihira also qualifies for a Grade A.