Violinist of Hameln



""Tchaikovsky SUPLEX!""

- Flute

""This really is a stupid manga.""

- Oboe

Once upon a time, there was a box containing all the evils in the world. It was opened by a woman named Pandora and the land was plunged in darkness. In a time of castles and kings, demons terrorize the land, enslaving humanity before the might of the demon army. The lands cry out for a hero, and that cry is answered by Hamel, a mysterious cloaked stranger who commands massive power while wielding his Big Freaking... Violin.

Created by Michiaki Watanabe, Hameln spanned 37 volumes of manga and a 25 episode anime that could not be more different from one another in terms of plot, characterizations and overall tone. The series also spawned a half-hour long movie based upon the manga. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, the tropes listed below are from Violinist Of Hameln manga (or are those few that apply to both the manga and the anime).

Over ten years later in 2008, much to the surprise of fans, Watanabe published a Gaiden chapter leading up to a sequel manga entitled Violinist of Hameln: Schelkunchik.

Provides examples of:

"Hell King Bass: "Kill all the women and children in case one of the women gives birth to a child and he grows up to be a hero or something."
 * Action Mom: Queen Horn. Her Incurable Cough of Death does not keep her from being one of the most powerful mages in the world.
 * Affably Evil: Guitar remains polite and cheery even when mass-murdering and torturing people. He also takes Drum treating him as a sidekick with good humour . Also, Vocal pretty much divides his on-panel time between goofing around, making a Butt Monkey out of Orgel, who just managed to establish his reputation as the most vile and non-comedic villain up to that point, only to end up as Vocal's Chew Toy, and indiscriminate, ruthless slaughter For the Evulz.
 * Almost Kiss:
 * Anime Hair: Flute's impossibly voluminous pigtails (which transforms into waist-long hair when loose). But those are nothing compared to Clari's ankle-length blond hair.
 * Anti-Anti-Christ: Hamel in the manga wants nothing to do with the demons, who for their part go out of their way to provoke him into embracing his demon blood. In the anime, though,
 * Armor-Piercing Slap: One of the most epic examples ever,
 * Ax Crazy: Vocal, even by Mazoku standards.
 * Badass Normal: Trom Bone tries to be this in a party full of people who have magic . Even though swordsmanship in this manga is about as "realistic" as you can expect from a shonen series, this makes him nearly useless against major antagonists for most of the story.
 * Beautiful All Along: Just let down Flute's hair, and 'kinda cute' transforms into 'BEAUTIFUL!!'.
 * ...given that the style she normally wears it in could probably take 'supermodel' into 'kinda cute'...
 * Berserk Button: If you harm any of Hamel's friends (especially Flute), may heaven have mercy on your poor, damned soul. And if anyone in your vicinity harms his mother then RUN AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN. Clari can also be described as the psycho big brother, willing to punch anyone through a steel wall that makes his little sister Cornet cry.
 * At the beginning of the manga, trying to touch Hamel's hat is another Berserk Button for Hamel,.
 * Berserker Tears: Let's see who's guilty * checks list* Hamel, Flute, Sizer, Raiel...Trom, * twitches* ...Pandora...Clari * throws away the list* Argh! Too damn long.
 * Bishonen: Includes Clari by default, sometimes Raiel, and definitely Lute. And unbelievably,.
 * Chestra in his human form definitely qualifies as well. And in his true form he looks more or less the same, except for sharper teeth and gigantic demon horns.
 * Bishonen Line: And on this note - while most of the powerful mazoku are humongous monsters in their true forms, the most powerful ones have rather cosmetic differences from humans. Hell King Bass looked completely human, before being reduced to a literally disembodied head.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Hamel and Trom do this in glorious style at one point. To wit -
 * Butt Monkey: Flute. Though she tries to stay upbeat even she complains about it from time to time, describing herself as a "pathetic heroine"...actually, everyone around Hamel gets buttmonkeyed by him sooner or later. Raiel has also been described by the characters as the perfect "comic relief"
 * Calling Your Attacks: A couple of times, mostly played for comedy in the manga (see the first page quote). A rather Narmful example comes from the anime: one of Trom Bone's sword attacks is called "Scissor Slash", but one one fansub translated it as... "Jesus Slash". Hmm...
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Hamel's actions. Also, Flute's mom loves to arrange festivals in Flute's name that are somewhat morbid. For example, there's the Flute Cow festival, where a raging bull representing Flute rampages through the city which is then eaten and the remains used as part of a funeral ceremony...
 * Cooldown Hug: Flute to Hamel,
 * Cool Old Guy:
 * Crap Saccharine World: Let's face it, these people are pretty badly broken inside, even if most of it's Played for Laughs. Then the anime dropped the humor (but kept the art style.)
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The human nations, particularly Sforzando, exhibiting an at best loose understanding of Catholicism. The church is headed by non-celibate magical High Priest Clari and omnipresently symbolized by crosses (Clari and Cornet's weapons and Flute's necklace- which in the manga actually includes a tiny crucified Jesus on it). Later volumes show a questionable definition of angels and the summoning of a massive guardian goddess. Okay!
 * Crystal Prison
 * Darker and Edgier: The anime was probably trying to be this. It failed spectacularly.
 * Demonic Possession:
 * Dirty Old Man: Olin, to a truly ridiculous degree.
 * Downer Ending: The anime.
 * The Dreaded: Great Demon King Chestra inspires fear (and, among the mazoku, awe) in everyone. Even Determinator main characters at one point after his unsealing doubt, if there is any hope left for them. Never mind that his actual presence is so overwhelming, that most humans are paralyzed with terror. One of the most Badass characters in the series still sees Chestra in his nightmares 20 years after the war against the mazoku.
 * Dual-Wielding: Trom Bone's style. Warrior King Guitar also uses it from time to time.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: The end of the manga.
 * Everyone Can See It: Hamel and Flute during the first, oh, 16 volumes, seem utterly determined to not let the other know how they really feel, to the point where they come across as having Belligerent Sexual Tension cranked up to 11. Flute herself very much wants Hamel to respond to the feelings she doesn't really try to hide, but Hamel has a lot of emotional baggage that makes him afraid of opening up to anyone, while desperately craving human contact. Made all the more hilarious since they're constantly mistaken for a couple and their nakama call them out on their feelings constantly and loudly, in front of the other party, which prompts one of them (usually Hamel) to engage in frothing, stuttering spiels about how that's a stupid mistake and/or a filthy lie, usually crossing into Suspiciously Specific Denial.
 * Everything's Better With Princesses: The princess of the country of Sforzando is
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Bigtime. Of all the mazoku only  have any idea what compassion for other people, friendship, love or hope are, although the latter obviously feels none of that. When heroes find strength to persevere in these feelings, their current opponent usually goes into a Villainous Breakdown.
 * Evil Overlord: The four mazoku kings are card carrying examples of this, and so is Great Demon King Chestra.
 * Fantasy World Map: Whenever Hamel makes Magic Music, he uses a real-world classical composition and he or someone explains in detail it's origin such as Mozart composing it in France. However, none of these real world countries appear to exist on his version of earth. Instead there's a bunch of made-up countries named for musical terms.
 * Five-Man Band: The early protagonists (Hamel, Flute, Raiel, Trom and Oboe) are known in prophecy as the "Five Great Hopes". Hamel is The Hero, Raiel The Lancer, Trom The Big Guy (subverted in that he's the smallest), Oboe The Smart Guy (a crow), and Flute The Chick (who is not so much a chick as she hovers between Cool Big Sis and Team Mom.)
 * Five-Bad Band: The mazoku generals and their king.
 * Big Bad: Demon King Chestra.
 * The Dragon: Bass.
 * Evil Genius: Guitar.
 * The Brute: Drum.
 * Dark Chick: Sizer.
 * For the Evulz: The mazoku, have this as their main reason for waging endless war on humans. Those of them, who have their mindset revealed, believe that the humans' whole reason to exist is to suffer and be killed and the mazoku's whole reason to exist is to bestow death and despair upon them.
 * Four Is Death: The Mazoku have four Generals.
 * Gag Series: About 70% of the manga is written to make you laugh, and 30% of the manga is everything else. Has even been referred in universe by one character as a 'stupid gag manga'.
 * Gecko Ending: The anime ended at episode 25 of a planned 30 or so, (around volume 11 of the manga, storyline-wise) due to a lack of budget and failing ratings.
 * Genre Savvy:

Dragon King Drum: "Ain't that always a bitch?""


 * Gondor Calls for Aid: Now is how you start a final battle.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: Hamel was jealous of Trom when he was first introduced because he  all while acting like an innocent brat.
 * Half-Human Hybrid:
 * Happily Married: . Almost sickeningly so. Also,   though they still have arguments for comedy's sake.
 * Healing Hands: The Sforzando royal family Lute can also be considered a healer. At the beginning of the manga it is said that only the women in the family have it-- but at the end, once  Okay Watanabe, what the hell happened to that?
 * Lute is awesome that way?
 * ...actually, that explains so much about ...
 * Actually if you look back to the situation with Ocarina and Sizer that explains how Lute was able to do that.
 * Heel Face Turn: Also
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Of the major characters, . There are several side stories in which this happens, especially parents dying for their children. Lute also gives up his own life to protect Sforzando and save Flute, eventually leading to
 * Siding with humans and trying to prevent the resurrection of/defeat Chestra sort of qualifies for any mazoku,, as the power that grants all mazoku unlimited lifespans flows from Chestra.
 * Heroic Sociopath: Hamel will not hesitate to sell Flute, eat Oboe, use anyone within reach as a throwing weapon, or generally just make life a living hell for everyone.
 * Hooked Up Afterwards: Trom and... if you can belive it.
 * Hope Spot: Most important battles have at least one.
 * Ho Yay: Done very intentionally in the manga with Hamel and Raiel - the other characters flat out accuse them of being gay a few times. And let's not even get into Olin harassing Hamel. And then there's that scene when Clarinet is introduced, and the heavily implied crush Clari may have had towards either Lute or Horn (or both? It's never truly clarified) for most of his life.
 * Watanabe hangs so many damned lampshades in the manga that it's a wonder no one's mistaken it for some kind of deranged chandelier. He draws roses in the background during the yaoi parodies, for crying out loud.
 * Examples of Ho Yay above at no point go beyond gags, though. In Schelkunchik, on the other hand, you cannot help but suspect this, when Schel and Great fall into the same roles that Flute and Hamel played in the original series.
 * I Can Still Fight: Raiel.
 * Raiel is THE Determinator.
 * Infant Immortality: Horrifically averted.
 * Intimate Healing: Sizer does this to Raiel with a  to 'clean his wound'. Pfft, as if we believe that!
 * Jerkass: Hamel in the manga, who routinely humiliates and torments others for his own profit, charges exorbitant prices for hearing his music, and regularly tries to eat his crow companion and closest friend Oboe. Secretly he's really a Jerk With a Heart of Gold.
 * Karma Houdini: Averted with Sizer. She is constantly internally tormented over the fact that she freely murdered innocents before her Heel Face Turn. Even the humans she's protecting frequently call her out on this. So do Guitar and Chestra, but they are doing so to shake her resolve/be a dick, respectively.
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Cornet... hoo boy, Cornet. Granted, she had it coming almost as badly as Chestra himself, but she's almost The Woobie by the end of the manga.
 * Most of the villains' deaths qualify, to an extent, but  gets a particularly spectacular one.   Notably, he's so evil and Badass, that even after this direct Laser-Guided Karma hit he still regrets only not being able to kill even more people, and goes into Don't You Dare Pity Me speech when it seems that heroes cannot bring themselves to really hate him in his current pathetic state.
 * Les Yay: Flute and Sizer, though not as much as the Ho Yay.
 * Licensed Game: The Super Famicom release (sadly Japan-exclusive), which notably averts The Problem With Licensed Games and has an interesting mechanic in changing Flute's costume/form to cross obstacles such as Spikes of Doom.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Gets lampshaded during the Gondor Calls for Aid scene when every single minor character from every chapter comes to the battle. Hamel and the gang can't remember who half these people greeting them are.
 * Love Freak: Raiel, the self-proclaimed Warrior of Love. Hamel mocks this ruthlessly, as seeing anything remotely sexy causes Raiel to collapse from massive nosebleed for most of the manga.
 * Love Makes You Dumb: Raiel, at the start of his crush on Sizer (and pretty much after that too).
 * Magic Music: Pretty much the point.
 * Magic Pants: In the anime, every time Hamel his clothes explode off him dramatically, and they're almost always completely intact when he comes back.
 * Magitek
 * Mama Bear: Late in the series, Papa Wolf appears
 * Meaningful Name: We've got Oboe, Flute, Trombone, Ocarina, Lute, Bass, Drum, and Guitar. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
 * Medium Awareness: The populace seem to know they exist in a Shonen manga. The main cast also tried to change the whole title and theme of the manga when.
 * Mega Manning: Guitar's power on top of being a powerful swordsman/dog is obtaining an opponent's power after licking their blood.
 * Moment Killer: Several times. Especially Chestra. GODDAMN YOU CHESTRA!!!
 * He gets his in Shchelkunchik.  Reader, I lol'd.
 * Mood Whiplash: The manga switches tones from drama, tragedy and angst to heartwarming romance and insane, ludicrous humor, all in the span of a few pages. It's pulled off surprisingly well.
 * Sometimes goes like this: Action secene -> despair -> Dynamic Entry by Hamel's party or someone related to them -> CMOF -> Back to action.
 * Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Local demon is terrorizing a town. The Marrionette Dance may have given Flute strength, but Tchaikovsky gave the Beat Down.
 * Musical Theme Naming: Everyone but Hamel and his mom.
 * Mysterious Parent: Where do I even start?
 * Nice Hat: In Hamel's case, it's a plot point, since ; Flute has two: a more childish pink one that went with her Girlish Pigtails and a more mature one that Queen Horn gives her later on; Raiel's hat's purpose isn't really awesomeness, it just sort of highlights his dweebery; Trom Bone has a cool crown; and Sizer's helmet is made of awesome. There' probably about a dozen more I'm not remembering right now, too. This series knows Nice Hats.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Daimou Sword, which is the requisite big scary weapon of the manga,
 * Nosebleed: Raiel, at the merest sight of a leg.
 * Not Quite Dead: Occurs mostly in the final chapters where  labelled dead and then miraculously heal.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity/Feigning Intelligence: Hamel zigzags between the two, often several times per chapter.
 * Official Couple: That'd be
 * Only a Flesh Wound: As the manga goes on, the injuries suffered and survived by characters in battle grow increasingly more over-the-top, from the comparably tame to . However, first prize has to go to They all survive and recover completely.
 * Orcus On His Throne: Chestra, after being unsealed.
 * Parental Abandonment: Absolutely everyone.
 * Parental Substitute:
 * Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame: The anime version consists mainly of these and copious whining. Slideshow of Hamelin indeed.
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Most of the main characters and major villains can be this if they want, by the end of the manga, but the first prize goes to
 * Pet the Dog: Flute for Hamel.
 * Really, she's more of a Morality Butt Monkey
 * Power Degeneration: Becomes a very major plot point later on.
 * Prophecy Twist:
 * Punny Name: King Chestra's name and title (Ou Chestra in Japanese) form an obvious pun on "Orchestra". Quite fitting, even though his Mazoku generals (if we only replace Sizer with Vocal) form a rock band instead.
 * When you get down to it, virtually everyone in the cast is named after a musical instrument.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Nearly everything Hamel and his party does. Turn into a demon once, scary. Turn into a demon and back 5 pages in a row, damn funny. Also, Horn collapsing from sickness, sad. Horn collapsing, getting back up with doctors all around her, exercising, and collapsing again, funny.
 * Royal Brat: The eight-year-old orphaned prince of Dal Segno, Trom. He matures greatly as the series goes on.
 * Schizo Tech: The technology level is always whatever is needed by the story at the moment.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Pandora's Box.
 * And Pandora's Microwave. And Pandora's Toilet. ...Olin, would you stop already.
 * Ship Tease: Tons. Includes Hamel and Flute, Raiel and Sizer, Hamel and Raiel, Clari and Horn, and Clari and Lute. Strangely enough.
 * Uh, the first two are obvious Official Couples.
 * Shoujo: Parodied in the manga with Raiel's attempts to win Sizer's heart by staging elaborate shoujo-comic scenarios starring her as the innocent schoolgirl with him as the love interest. Since Sizer has no idea what he's talking about, they never work.
 * Shoulders of Doom: Bass and Chestra have pretty impressive ones, Sizer's shoulder armor pieces are longer than her torso but Dark Sizer puts them all to shame in this department.
 * Shout Out: One of the coolest, nerdiest ones ever seen.
 * Horn takes a page from Ultraman's book.
 * Sinister Scythe: Sizer uses one of these. It's got her name on it in huge letters.
 * Spell My Name With an "S": Because of Theme Naming and the author providing some official Romanizations, it shouldn't be a problem for anyone who does their homework (Sizer's scythe has her name carved on it in huge letters and Clari has his on his forehead, for crying out loud), but it does come up.
 * Anime Hamel is probably the biggest offender: because the Northern Capital (Hameln) was never named in the anime, many people thought the Hameln in the title referred to Hamel, so some fansubs tacked an N on the end of his name. This is a bit odd, as since Hamel is the violinist, if Hameln meant Hamel the title would basically be saying that Hamel was the violinist of himself.
 * The word Hameln itself is another example: in Katakana, it's spelled ハメルン (hamerun), which is basically just Hamel's name with an N tacked on the end, so Hameln is one likely spelling. On the other hand, the name is believed to refer to the German fairy tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin, so Hamelin seems more likely if you go with Theme Naming. Some people just transliterate it straight up and go with Hamelun.
 * Actually, the original German name of the town is "Hameln". The "i" spelling is just an anglicization, which happens often with German place names (c.f. Muenchen and Koeln). "Hameln" fits into the theme just fine.
 * Stalker With a Crush: Cornet (in the manga), who kind of Crosses the Line Twice.
 * Twice? She raped it, aborted the baby and took it to court under false accusations of abuse.
 * ...until one of her attempts fuses her with an Eldritch Abomination, at which point she spends the next few volumes of the manga with her own brother, Hamel and everyone else (all apparently blind to the fact that her head is still on that... thing) constantly trying to kill "the ugly mazoku" in as painful a manner as possible. Then, after they figure out that this thing is Cornet, she is passed the duty of local Butt Monkey. By the end of the manga she'd suffered so much karma, some readers actually began feel a bit sorry for her.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side
 * Tempting Fate: At one point, Hamel bought clothes for Sizer to wear after her Heel Face Turn. Catch is all of them are cosplay outfits. Cue Flute saying "I'm glad Raiel's not conscious for this". Next panel shows Raiel bleeding out of his nose ala Ashita no Joe.
 * This Cannot Be!: Every major villain  says something to this effect before going down.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: Every major villain past Drum provokes this reaction at some point. Their actual defeats do not necessarily follow right after that, though.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Hamel.
 * Untrusting Community: Despite his reputation as a hero, nearly every town Hamel visits shuns him or outright attacks him, due either to his selfish behavior or . They generally change their minds after he saves them in a spectacular manner.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Do not be fooled by cartoonish-looking characters and colorful covers. Between gags and parodies, this manga is chock-full with graphic violence, tragedy and horror.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Sizer, to Raiel's dismay, though he cures her of it in a particularly awesome and heartwarming scene. Subverted with Chestra, who fully understands the concept and how to utilize it to cause pain: He will murder your spouse and children in front of you For the Evulz.
 * What the Hell Townspeople?: The villagers of Ansem. . What. The. Fuck?!
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: The party needed to get into Sforzando, which was heavily guarded. Hamel's plan is to disguise the group as a party of Portuguese ostrich sellers, with Hamel as the 'mysterious foreigner', Flute (and Oboe) as ostrich, Trom as...a piece of bamboo, and Raile as a young girl. He was cute enough for Hamel to start hitting on him. Subverted later on when Hamel made Raiel, Oboe, and Trom wear bunny suits in order to lure Flute out of her room (long story). They look absolutely ridiculous.
 * Winged Humanoid: Sizer, known as the "Angel of Death" thanks to her bloodsoaked wings. She actually is revealed to be part angel. Similarly, her mazoku bodyguard Ocarina possesses the ability to turn into a winged humanoid
 * You Have Failed Me: Amazingly averted with named villains, even though Hell King Bass has all the tolerance for failure of a proper Evil Overlord, and Chestra offed his own honor guard because he felt like drinking some blood right now. Well, Bass tries this, but other, more Genre Savvy mazoku leaders manage to talk him down every time.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: It is easy to see that  attempt to reseal the mazoku in the Pandora's Box is doomed to fail. For starters, we're still in the first third of the manga... And indeed, it all was Exactly As Planned by Bass and Guitar.
 * You Have Failed Me: Amazingly averted with named villains, even though Hell King Bass has all the tolerance for failure of a proper Evil Overlord, and Chestra offed his own honor guard because he felt like drinking some blood right now. Well, Bass tries this, but other, more Genre Savvy mazoku leaders manage to talk him down every time.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: It is easy to see that  attempt to reseal the mazoku in the Pandora's Box is doomed to fail. For starters, we're still in the first third of the manga... And indeed, it all was Exactly As Planned by Bass and Guitar.