Trapeze



Irabu the Psychiatrist (although it's generally referred to as Trapeze) is a series of short stories about psychology from 2002-2006 by Hideo Okuda and follows the misadventures of the psychiatrist Ichiro Irabu, his nurse Mayumi, and the several patients they treat at Irabu General Hospital. (Before you ask, his father owns the place. Could you imagine this guy running a hospital? ...brr.) Unlike other doctors, though, Irabu's eccentric treatments demand that his patients have to get worse before they get better.

The short stories are compiled into three books: In the Pool, Trapeze, and Mayoral Election. However, only the first of these has been released in English. Ten stories from all three books were adapted into an anime in 2009 (also titled Trapeze) along with an eleventh, original story. Three stories from In the Pool were adapted into a film in 2005 and the story "Trapeze" into a live-action made-for-TV movie in 2005 and a stage play in 2008, too, but you're probably here because of the anime.

And don't you dare go making the assumption that this show was animated anywhere near normally. It makes viewers fear for their own mental health. The show has a surreal visual style with psychedelic colors, trippy imagery, constant art-shifts, and occasional live-action.

In the Pool

 * "In the Pool": The story of Kazuo Omori, a man in the magazine business. Omori discovered swimming could help relieve his work-related stress, but there's a fine line between doing something for healthy stress relief and pathological obsession over it. Not to mention that he's got other things to worry about besides work. Adapted as the first plot thread of the film.
 * "Making a Stand": The story of Tetsuya Taguchi, a salaryman who, after dropping a book onto his morning wood, finds that it's become permanent. Adapted as the second thread of the film and the second episode of the anime.
 * "Trade Show Model": The story of Hiromi Yasukawa, a trade show model.
 * "Cell": The story of Yuta Tsuda, a high school student with a texting problem. Adapted as the sixth episode of the anime.
 * "Double Check": The story of Yoshio Iwamura, a journalist. Iwamura finds himself wondering if he has OCD when he notices that he obsessively worries about whether he left the stove on (as in, to run back home to make sure everything's fine). Adapted as the third thread of the movie (with a female protagonist, Suzumi Iwamura) and the eighth episode of the anime.

Trapeze

 * "Trapeze": The story of Kohei Yamashita, an aerialist who has problems accepting the new foreign aerialists who can't speak a damn word of Japanese and keep dropping him. Adapted as the first episode of the anime.
 * "Hedgehog": The story of Seiji Ino, a Yakuza who has a case of OCD that manifests as a phobia of sharp objects. Adapted as the seventh episode of the anime.
 * "My Father-in-Law's Wig": The story of Tetsuro Ikeyama, a neurologist and an old friend of Irabu's. Ikeyama has been having compulsive Imagine Spots as of late of himself doing impulsive and often dangerous things. Adapted as the fifth episode of the anime ("My Father-in-Law's").
 * "Third Base": The story of Shinichi Bando, third baseman for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows who develops yips out of fear of the new kid. Adapted as the fourth episode of the anime.
 * "Lady Author": The story of Aiko Hoshiyama, a writer who is a woman. Hoshiyama is overcome with nausea whenever she brainstorms, wondering if she'd already used that plot. Adapted as the third episode of the anime; the protagonist is instead male (Junichi Hoshiyama) and the episode title is changed to match ("Romance Novelist").

Mayoral Election

 * "Owner": The story of Mitsuo Tanabe, owner of a newspaper and the baseball team the Mighty Japan Great Powers. Adapted as the tenth episode of the anime.
 * "Anpon Man": The story of Takaaki Anpo, a student at Tokyo University.
 * "The Business of Charisma": The story of Kaoru Shiraki, a narcissistic actress. Adapted as the ninth episode of the anime ("Talented Child Actor") with the male Hiromi Yasukawa as the protagonist.
 * "Mayoral Election": The story of Ryohei Miyazaki, a worker for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Meanwhile, the anime's eleventh episode is titled "Canary" and is an original scenario about Hideo Tsuda, an emergency room surgeon at Irabu General and the father of Yuta Tsuda from "Cell".

Tropes:

 * Afraid of Needles: Ino the yakuza. The needle phobia goes into pure Hilarity Ensues combined with Dr. Irabu's obvious needle fetish...
 * All Star Cast: Mostly big voice actors, but Yumi Sugimoto (Mayumi) is a pretty popular one as well.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Dr. Irabu.
 * An Aesop: If you have problems, see a mental health professional.
 * Also, from the last episode: Pay attention to your relationships, those act as "canaries" for your sanity.
 * Animal Motifs: Although they may already be present, Mayumi's "vitamin shots" will always induce them with the exception of Tanabe and Hideo Tsuda . Yamashita the trapeze artist is a penguin; Taguchi the erect is a rhino (he's horny); Hoshiyama the romance novelist is a chicken laying empty eggs; Bando the baseball player is a (racing) horse; Irabu's colleague Ikeyama is a chameleon; Yuta Tsuda the texting addict is a woodpecker ; Ino and his rival are both neurotic toy dogs ; Iwamura the reporter is a raccoon; Yasukawa is a performing sea lion.
 * Art Major Biology: Occasionally the details of a case break from reality for the sake of the story, although it's instantly noted whenever this occurs.
 * At the Opera Tonight: A major plot-point in episode 5, and the major occurence is quite literally an example of Truth in Television (specifically a rotoscoped excerpt from the Real Life opera The First Emperor about Qin Shi Huangdi).
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The anime. They even turned two female patients male to keep it going.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Irabu. The least of his eccentricities is probably his fetish of the backflow of blood into a syringe.
 * Couch Gag: Every episode has end-credits artwork pointing to the subject of the next episode, ending with the patient ending up at Dr. Irabu's office and a promo for the next ep.
 * Deranged Animation: Yes.
 * Early Bird Cameo: Taguchi appears in the first episode, but we don't learn his name or the reason he's walking doubled-over with both hands over his crotch until the second.
 * This is becoming a running theme in the show, as every patient so far has had a cameo in an earlier episode. Helps that they're all being treated concurrently.
 * Eleven Episode Anime
 * Epiphany Therapy: An odd example, but it's definitely there. Rather, there are no loud, spectacular epiphanies, but the psychological problems seem to just quietly stop existing. Keep in mind each patient sees Irabu for, at most, a week, and we've been dealing with deep-seated stuff like obsessive-compulsive disorder and dissociative identity disorder. The series finale has an interesting example of epiphany therapy in that.
 * Though mostly averted in episode 8...
 * Evil Laugh: While Irabu is not evil per se, he definitely laughs like this.
 * Expressive Mask: Irabu's mascot bear head, occasionally.
 * Expy: Mayumi is a lampshaded one of Ringo Shiina in the novels, but this troper personally doesn't see it in the anime or the film, if it's there at all.
 * Eye Scream: Ino wears a pair of goggles on the off-chance this trope might occur, since he's terrified of sharp objects.
 * Faceless Masses: More precisely, if you don't have a speaking part, you're a moving cardboard cutout. Pretty much lampshaded in episode 5, where a couple people on a train and a lecture hall full of college students suddenly become human with comical "pop" sounds just to gasp.
 * Former Child Star: Shiraki/anime!Yasukawa.
 * Gag Penis: Taguchi.
 * Gender Blender Name: There are two Hiromi Yasukawas in this series: a woman in the books ("Trade Show Model") and a man in the anime ("Talented Child Actor"). Apparently Mr. Yasukawa is a Mythology Gag. Lampshaded in the gg fansub ("They turned Hiromi from a female model into...MichaelJackson").
 * gg's lampshading is a bit of Truth in Television:
 * The Hecate Sisters: Inverted completely by anime!Irabu; he's male, his oldest form is an Adult Child, and his youngest form is a Deadpan Snarker.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Iwamura in the film; Iwamura in the anime goes from writing sports articles to a teen mag and back again, but makes his big break with an expose.
 * Jukebox Musical: by Denki Groove.
 * Kuudere: Although Mayumi's only deredere moments so far are to and to.
 * Male Gaze: Anytime Mayumi shows up, but turned Up to Eleven during episode 2--all of episode 2--to visualize the permanent hornyness of the patient.
 * Market Based Title: According to the English noitaminA website, the official English title is Welcome to Irabu's Office :).
 * Medium Blending: Or "hybrid animation", as the show calls it.
 * Mind Screw: This get even worse in episode 11.
 * Minor Injury Overreaction: Every time somebody gets a shot. A bit justified; thicker needles hurt, man!
 * Names to Know In Anime: Talk about an All Star Cast...and this may just be the only series where you'll see them in live action!
 * Hiroaki Hirata: Tetsuro Ikeyama.
 * Miyu Irino: Yuta Tsuda.
 * Mitsuo Iwata: Yoshio Iwamura.
 * Shinichiro Miki: Junichi Hoshiyama.
 * Toshiyuki Morikawa: Kohei Yamashita.
 * Daisuke Namikawa: Shinichi Bando.
 * Ryotaro Okiayu: Mitsuo Tanabe.
 * Romi Park: The youngest Irabu.
 * Takahiro Sakurai: Tetsuya Taguchi.
 * Naughty Nurse Outfit: Mayumi.
 * No Export for You: Only the first book, In the Pool, has been released outside of Japan, and that was back in 2006.
 * Older Than They Look: Tanabe, who looks maybe 30 but was a young man during the post-war reconstruction..
 * Pen Name: Hoshiyama's real name is Toriyama.
 * Raging Stiffie: A week-long one as a psychosomatic ailment, even!
 * Real Song Theme Tune: The ending, "Shangri-La". Granted, it's a slight remix.
 * Security Blanket: A yakuza has one in episode 7.
 * Also Ino's skier's goggles in the same ep.
 * Shown Their Work: The narration is interrupted from time to time to Info Dump psychology facts relevant to the plot. In one case it's also used to point out something that wouldn't work in real life, but was used in-show for the sake of the storyline.
 * This Troper actually finds it quite interesting how the Info Dump sessions are in part designed to remove stigma re mental health treatment. It's also interesting how there are slightly different diagnosis criteria between Japan and the US.
 * Spirit Advisor: Irabu, to a degree. After Mayumi's shots, Irabu's patients see and talk to him everywhere; it only became obvious that he was in a place it was impossible for him to be in when he's shown on the baseball field with Bando...during a game.
 * Although he is there physically from time to time, as shown in episode 5.
 * And shown to especially hilarious effect in episode 7.
 * Split Personality:.
 * Super OCD: Two aversions out of three ain't bad...the one example, didn't start off so extreme, though.
 * Also averted, with exception of Iwamura, in the anime.
 * Tall Dark and Bishoujo: Mayumi.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The anime uses instrumental mixes of various famous Denki Groove tunes, including the anime's opening, "Upside Down", as its soundtrack.
 * Trickster/Stealth Doctor: The closest one can come to describing Irabu. Half the time he drives his patients up the wall with his childish antics and hair-brained folk cures. The other half of the time he gives advice to the patients to take self-centered actions. All of this usually is intended for the patients to eventually reach an epiphany and help them help themselves.
 * This Troper would go so far as to say that Dr. Irabu's therapy consists of a combination of placebos (the infamous Vitamin Shots) and essentially encouraging his patients to embrace their inner child or at least their true feelings.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Apparently Irabu does not stand out at all compared to all the normal-looking people around him.
 * Visual Pun: In "My Father-in-Law's": Swing and a miss!
 * ~What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?~: Removing Ike's father-in-law's toupee. Accompanied by a golden light and an operatic bellow.
 * Even more hilarious when you consider
 * ~What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made On Drugs?~
 * Widget Series
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Yamashita's purple, Taguchi's green, Hoshiyama's red and yellow (possibly an aversion, since his actor has his hair colored the same way), and Bando is a sort of auburnish, but Irabu takes the prize--just look at him.