Monochrome Factor



Monochrome Factor is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kaili Sorano. First serialized in Mag Garden's bi-monthly Manga magazine Comic Blade Masamune in May 2004. When the magazine ceased publication, the manga began serialization in the new and revamped magazine, Comic Blade Avarus, in September 2007. The series is now completed.

An Anime adaptation produced by GENCO, and animated by studio A.C.G.T., premiered on TV Tokyo on April 7, 2008. It later aired on other networks such as AT-X and TV Osaka. The anime has shōnen-ai themes which are almost completely absent from the manga. Originally running from April 7th, 2008 to September 29th, 2008, the anime consists of 24 episodes.

The story follows the exploits of Akira Nikaido, a lazy high school student. His life changes when he meets Shirogane, a man who suddenly appears and tells him that they share a fate, though Akira is understandably skeptical. Later while Akira is helping a friend Aya she is kidnapped by a shadow monster. This event forces Akira to recognize his role in restoring the balance between the human and shadow worlds.


 * A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss: Occurs in the first episode of the anime. Though it's debatable at first whether Shirogane kisses Akira because it's a crucial part of the contract formation or because he just wanted to.
 * Action Girl: Aya.
 * Adorkable: Kengo.
 * Ancient Conspiracy:
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Presumably part of the reason why Akira is so popular with the girls in his class.
 * All There in the Manual: Though Monochrome Factor is more or less free of this for the most part, Sorano does from time to time include little character profiles in the manga detailing things that don't generally come up in the main narrative--like their favorite food, favorite video games, favorite TV shows, the creator's impressions of their personality, et cetera.
 * Anything That Moves: Kou, at least in the anime canon.
 * Anti-Hero: Akira falls under type 2,
 * Art Evolution: Kaili Sorano's artwork has evolved steadily in just the short few years Monochrome Factor has been running. For the best examples, just compare this scan from volume 1 and this one from volume 8 (sort-of-spoilers for the second one).
 * Author Appeal: Sorano calls Lulu the "God of Boobs," and flaunts her cleavage often. (Especially in that one panel of her and Aya pressing their naked bodies together.)
 * Ax Crazy:
 * Back from the Dead:
 * Bad Boss: Homurabi. And how.
 * Badass Boast: Kou lays one down on  right before their big showdown.

""I'm never gonna say that, you idiot!!""
 * Badass Grandpa: Aya's grandpa is the epitome of this.
 * Badass in a Nice Suit: Sawaki is a pretty snazzy dresser.
 * Badass Normal: Aya. She's formidable with one sword
 * Badass Longcoat:
 * Baseball Episode: Not explicitly Baseball, but the anime did have a tennis and boxing episode?
 * Berserk Button: In Volume 5 of the manga, Kou has a brief run-in with Sawaki, one of Homurabi's Children. Though it's very clear that the two don't like each other, the exchange between them isn't especially hostile. Until Sawaki makes the mistake of
 * Big Bad: Homurabi.
 * Big Breasts, Big Deal: Lulu is a type 4.
 * Bifauxnen: Shou
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Blessed with Suck: Kengo's  makes him extremely powerful.
 * Also, the kings. Incredibly strong, but
 * Bondage Is Bad: Kou, in the anime adaptation, is implied to have a bit of a bondage fetish, present for no other reason than to creep Aya out after she beats him up and he begs for more.
 * Bottle Fairy: Mayu.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Pretty much anyone that gets possessed by the kokuchi.
 * Butt Monkey: God, poor Kengo.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Akira is forced by Aya to apologize for his behavior to Kengo. What does he do?


 * He does, finally, manage to apologize to Aya, and even embraces her,
 * Camp Gay: Shirogane--but only in the anime. Even in the drama CD, where Shirogane still has the same voice actor, he pretty much avoids the camp gay altogether.
 * Catch Phrase: Akira's, especially in the anime, might as well be "Ahou ka?" ("Are you an idiot?")
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
 * Class Representative: Aya is this, and constantly berates Akira for skipping class.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Though this part of his personality is pretty much gone by the current point of the manga, Akira showed some signs of this early on.
 * Cool Big Sis: Kengo's sister, Mayu.
 * Creating Life:
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While definitely a weakling as a kid, years of backing Akira up in schoolyard fights and training himself by night have morphed Kengo into the utter epitome of this. Even Akira, who makes a habit of demeaning Kengo on a regular basis, still is willing to admit that he's strong.
 * Date Peepers: Occurs in one episode of the anime, when Kengo and a girl from their school apparently are going on a date. It turns out she really just wanted someone to confide in about her girlcrush on Aya.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: While the Monochrome Factor universe is split up to a light and dark world, it's stressed that there's no real "good" or "evil" to either side--they both exist in order to preserve balance, and one side can't exist without the other. Slightly subverted in that the "light" side does seem to have a disproportionately high number of "good" characters, but that also may be because we've only encountered a few of them.
 * Dead for Real:
 * Deadpan Snarker: Akira. Sawaki too, on Homurabi's side.
 * Deadly Decadent Court:
 * Death Seeker:
 * Defeat Means Friendship:
 * Designated Girl Fight: Aya vs. Lulu, both in the anime and the manga.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the second episode of the anime (which is known for a lot of invented and embellished Ho Yay subtext), there's a scene where Akira needs to pull a couple of spikes out of Shirogane's back. The camera angles, the characters' expressions, and the fact that both of them are shirtless makes the whole scene look very... inappropriate, to say the least.
 * Doomed by Canon: Seeing as we know from very early on that Akira is Ryuuko's reincarnation, once the Ryuuko-centric flashback arc gets going, readers know exactly how it's going to end.
 * Double Agent: A big part of the second half of the anime is that one of the main characters could be this.
 * The Dragon: Sawaki
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Drives Like Crazy: Though this is pretty much consistent with her role as The Ditz, in the anime Mayu has a little bit of a problem distinguishing between the brake and the accelerator.
 * Easily Forgiven:
 * Embarrassing Nickname: Lulu has a thing for calling Kou "Pochi."
 * Emotionless Girl: Hiryu.
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita: Lulu.
 * Epiphany Therapy: Occurs a lot in the anime.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Kou. Troubled past? Check. Emotional and physical scars? Check. Sexy voice? Check. Looks great with his shirt off? Check. Comfortable with man-on-man scenes? Check. Akira and Shirogane are also great examples.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Master's real name is Shuichi Wagatsuma, but everyone really just calls him Master.
 * Evil Redhead: Homurabi. And also...
 * Evil Sounds Deep: ... Homurabi again. Sawaki too, in his one appearance in the drama CD.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Nanaya,
 * Eyes of Gold: Nanaya.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death: Kaili Sorano almost seems to have an aversion to killing off characters, but when she actually does... hoo boy. Just as a basic rundown:
 * Fingerless Gloves: Nanaya.
 * First Kiss: Shirogane gives Akira this in the first episode of the anime.
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Akira
 * The Lancer: Kengo (the more laid-back variety anyway, as a contrast to Akira's Jerk with a Heart of Gold status)
 * The Chick: Aya
 * Big Brother Mentor: Kou (could also qualify as The Lancer)
 * The Medic: Master
 * Mentor: Shirogane
 * The Sixth Ranger:
 * Flipping the Bird: Akira flips off Homurabi right before their first fight. This could honestly count as a Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?.
 * Frozen Face: Hiryu.
 * Genki Girl: Lulu and Mayu.
 * Go Out with a Smile: Both Ryuuko and
 * Good Is Not Nice: Akira is, overall, a pretty good person. That doesn't stop him from being a complete jerk to the people closest to him.
 * Heir to the Dojo: Aya.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Daisuke Ono as Akira in the drama CDs and anime adaptation.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Healing Hands: Master, with a side of Harmful Healing.
 * I Am Who?:
 * Immortality Begins At Twenty: Pretty much all of the immortal characters appear to be frozen in their late teens or early twenties, with the exception of Shiki.
 * This trope is especially relevant in Kou's case, who appears to have only two distinct life stages:
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
 * Ineffectual Loner: Kou . Though he is very strong, by the time the main story rolls around his power has waned considerably, and any attempts to do anything alone tend not to end well. He gets roughed up so badly while fighting just regular kokuchi that he apparently has to do minor surgery on himself, and his big, climactic battle against, um... doesn't go very well.
 * It Runs in The Family: The Suzuno family. Aya, her father and her grandfather are all sword-wielding, short-tempered people who value honor. Aya's mother is the only non-fighting one, but she isn't too inclined to stop them when it gets out of hand.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Akira.
 * Kill the Cutie: We'd just like to reiterate,
 * Knife Fight: Akira and Nanaya.
 * Large Ham: Shirogane in the anime, hands down.
 * Look Behind You!: After Aya catches Akira and Kengo skipping class, Kengo attempts to distract her by shouting "Oh my! Look over there! A pile of X-rated magazines!" It works.
 * Luminescent Blush: Akira, of all people, starts having them in the anime, whenever Shirogane gets a little too touchy-feely.
 * Mood Whiplash: Sawaki goes from
 * Mysterious Past: Shirogane.
 * Kou's has been the focus of the past several chapters.
 * New Transfer Student:
 * Nosebleed: Mayu.
 * Older Than They Look:
 * Only One Name: Pretty much all of the non-human characters.
 * Ordinary High School Student: Akira, Aya and Kengo.
 * Parental Abandonment: Aside from Akira commenting that his family's Buddhist to get Shirogane (who he first thinks is a crazy cultist) off his back, we've had absolutely no sign of his parents in over fifty chapters. Given his personality, it's not implausible to assume that they're not very close.
 * This might be the case for Kengo too. Though he seemed to have a pretty decent relationship with his parents as a child, they don't really seem to be around much in his teen years. Adding that to the fact that he, Akira, and Kou seem to spend all major holidays together...
 * Partial Transformation: Kou is an interesting example in that he really can't fully transform,
 * Perpetual Smiler: Shirogane is this, though it gets toned down further along in the series.
 * Power Fist: Kengo and Kou use these are their main weapons.
 * Power Incontinence:
 * Rage Against the Mentor: Akira's attempts to find out more about the Shin and kokuchi are frequently rebuffed by Shirogane until
 * Rapunzel Hair: Shirogane, Homurabi and
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Practically all the non-human characters.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Akira in his Shin form.
 * Rose-Haired Girl: Lulu.
 * Royal Blood:
 * Sequel Hook: The Monochrome Factor anime really, really tried to do this, with  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the show's poor reception means it's unlikely to go any further.
 * Sitting on the Roof: Akira and Kengo's favorite spot for avoiding classes.
 * The Slacker: Akira.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Kou.
 * Spared by the Adaptation:  is the only main character who dies in the anime. Justified, since the anime was released before the manga had a chance to kill anyone else yet.
 * Summon Magic: The kokuchi.
 * Sword Cane: Shirogane.
 * Sword Fight:
 * Third Person Person: Lulu.
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Akira has no problem beating the living daylights out of his best friend, sometimes for no apparent reason. But he has serious issues with outright killing, as demonstrated the numerous times he stops Shirogane from killing a person possessed by the kokuchi and
 * Three Amigos: Akira, Kengo, and Aya. Surprisingly enough, there's been next to no romantic development between the three of them, unless you count some potential Ho Yay between Akira and Kengo.
 * Transformation Sequence: Akira, Kengo, Aya, and Kou all have them in the anime.
 * Tsundere: Akira borders on this from time to time--especially in the manga.
 * Underdogs Never Lose:
 * Unexplained Recovery:
 * Unstoppable Rage: Surprisingly, subverted on two counts, and during the same general arc:
 * First there's Kou, who
 * Then there's Akira, who
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Akira and Kengo are this trope.
 * Wolverine Claws: Homurabi has very, very, very sharp nails.
 * Womb Level:
 * Whip It Good: Lulu's main weapon.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Shirogane.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Ghosts: Aya is deathly afraid of ghosts. The spots where "ghosts" are often seen are places where kokuchi gather. The group has to seal up the tears where the kokuchi enter and fight them. Do the math.
 * You Can See Me?: Shirogane is invisible to ordinary humans, so you know this one happens from time to time. Moreso in the anime, for whatever reason.
 * First there's Kou, who
 * Then there's Akira, who
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Akira and Kengo are this trope.
 * Wolverine Claws: Homurabi has very, very, very sharp nails.
 * Womb Level:
 * Whip It Good: Lulu's main weapon.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Shirogane.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Ghosts: Aya is deathly afraid of ghosts. The spots where "ghosts" are often seen are places where kokuchi gather. The group has to seal up the tears where the kokuchi enter and fight them. Do the math.
 * You Can See Me?: Shirogane is invisible to ordinary humans, so you know this one happens from time to time. Moreso in the anime, for whatever reason.