Silent Möbius



The year is 2026. Tokyo is under attack from the Lucifer Hawk, alien life-forms that feed on human flesh. The Attacked Mystification Police (Abnormal Mystery Police in one volume of the manga), or AMP, an all-female squad of police officers is tasked with hunting and destroying the Lucifer Hawk.

The AMP uses a mix of magic and high-tech gadgets to fight these monsters and their human allies. Along the way, some of them find love. And they find out most of the truth behind the Project Gaia disaster in 1999 that first opened the gate to the world of Nemesis and unleashed the Lucifer Hawk's on Earth. Let's just say that just about all of them had parents, grandparents, or other close people involved in the screwup.

Silent Möbius started in 1991 as a manga by Kia Asamiya, and was later adapted into two movies and a 26-episode TV series. The setting is heavily influenced by Blade Runner and many exterior shots have an uncanny resemblance to shots from Bubblegum Crisis.

Feel free to check out the character list.

Silent Möbius contains examples of:

 * All-Encompassing Mantle: Standard gear for villains, and the AMP uniform has one that seems to be optional. It also occasionally appears on civilians who're tired of the constant rain.
 * Alternate Continuity: The TV series differs significantly from the manga and movies on several points, especially Katsumi's introduction to the AMP.
 * Art Evolution: Compare volume 1 of the manga to volume 12. It is possible to guess when a panel was drawn based on the length and pointiness of a character's nose.
 * Amazon Brigade
 * Ancestral Weapon: Grospoliner, Jesso, and Nami's weapons
 * Audio Adaptation: There are a number of drama CDs for the franchise, ranging from audio versions of manga chapters to original plots.
 * Big Bad: Ganossa Maximillian
 * Big Fancy House: Lebia's fully-automated house, complete with indoor pool. The Yamigumo estate also counts despite being underground.
 * BFG: Kiddy uses one at the end of the manga. Her usual weapon is the Graviton.
 * BFS: Grospoliner, Katsumi Liqueur's giant sentient magical sword
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Katsumi, when possessed by an evil sword
 * Break the Cutie: Basically what happens to Yuki.
 * But Not Too Foreign: Katsumi's mother Fuyuka is Japanese whereas her father Gigelf is of unspecified (though presumably foreign), origin.
 * Cain and Abel: Rally Cheyenne and her sister Rosa.
 * Car Fu: Nearly every major character tries to run over an enemy at some point. When done with the Simurgh, this becomes Ramming Always Works. Or would if they weren't fighting Lucifer Hawks.
 * Cartwright Curse: Dating an AMP officer is bad for your health. Only one couple gets a Her Heart Will Go On deal, but the others still get plenty screwed over.
 * Cool Ship: The Simurgh command vessel.
 * Cyberpunk: General setting and Lebia's schtick. Specifically, Cyberpunk With a Chance of Rain, a fact frequently lamented by the main characters.
 * Empathic Weapon: Grospoliner, Gesso, and the evil Medium (which takes over anyone who wields it).
 * Evil Weapon: Medium
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: We have a Cyborg, a Mage, a Psychic, a Miko, and a Technomancer fighting a demonic invasion under the command of one of said demons' half-human spawn.
 * Fantastic Drug: One episode/chapter focuses on a drug called Domel, a performance enhancer with terrible side-effects.
 * Five-Man Band: Katsumi Liqueur, Kiddy Phenil (also The Big Guy), Lebia Maverick, Nami Yamigumo,Yuki Saiko, and Rally Cheyenne; later Lum Cheng and Mana Isozaki. Possibly overlaps with The Squad.
 * Flash Back
 * Whole-Episode Flashback: Mobius Klein, which reveals part of the Project Gaia story. The first movie is not far short of an example.
 * Flying Car: The AMP Spinners and Rally's limo.
 * Functional Magic: Hermetic magic, Onmyodo, something or other based on Bhuddist mysticism, Chinese elemental magic, maybe a couple other types. The effects are usually the same: flashy lights and a big explosion.
 * Hermetic Magic: Katsumi's power, inherited from her father, complete with Instant Runes.
 * As a Miko, Nami uses Onmyodo, mostly ofuda.
 * Generation Xerox: Katsumi, Lebia, Nami, Lum Cheng, and Rally share powers with their parents (grandparent in Lebia's case). And now they're trying to fix what the older generation screwed up.
 * Gratuitous English: Attacked. Mystification. Police.
 * Half-Human Hybrid with Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad:
 * Hand Cannon: The Graviton, which is actually AMP standard-issue in the Manga. Both Lebia and Yuuki use them at one point.
 * Healing Factor: High-level Lucifer Hawk heal very quickly from just about anything.
 * Heroic BSOD: Katsumi, repeatedly, in the films and TV series.
 * Hollywood Cyborg: Kiddy by way of We Can Rebuild Her.
 * I Have the High Ground
 * Kill Sat:
 * Law Enforcement, Inc.: The Tokyo police department has been privatized, with multiple sponsors/owners. Towards the end of the series,.
 * Miko: Nami Yamigumo lives in an underground Shinto shrine and fights with ofuda and holy water.
 * Multinational Team: Kiddy is Australian, Lebia is American, Lum Cheng is Chinese, Katsumi is of mixed heritage and spent most of her life in Hawaii, and Cheyenne is almost certainly not a Japanese name. Somehow, they all speak perfect Japanese.
 * Neat Freak: Nami
 * No Ending: The TV series leaves a lot of loose ends.
 * Number Two: Mana Isozaki to Rally Cheyenne.
 * Omake: Volume 8 of the manga has some funny 4-panel strips, including Lebia trying to convince Kiddy to cosplay as Robo Cop.
 * Only the Chosen May Wield: Grospoliner, Gesso, and the various relics of the Yamigumo family, which seem to be bound to specific bloodlines.
 * Overtook the Manga: The TV series ending just says that the final battle has begun.
 * Parental Abandonment
 * Pillar of Light
 * Powered Armor: Mobile Police officers use these, usually for riot patrol. Sadly ineffective against Lucifer Hawks.
 * Pro-Human Transhuman
 * Psychic Powers: Yuki's schtick, along with a couple other characters.
 * Razor Floss: Wire's main weapon, used in both his cop-killing sprees.
 * Refusal of the Call: Less refusal, and more "flight from" in Katsumi's case. Pretty much every time she learns something bad about her family history, she has a Heroic BSOD, usually paired with an outright Flight from the Call, generally to the outskirts of town.
 * Sacrificial Lion: Roy,
 * Save Both Worlds:
 * Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Rosa's Stripperific outfits.
 * Shout-Out: Lebia's AI companions are Huey, Duey, and Louie along with satellite Donald. Oh, and Louie has the form of a featureless black monolith.
 * Again, the Omake strip with Lebia trying to convince Kiddy to cosplay Robocop. Also, those proposed upgrades look to be either stock Super Robot powers or something more specific.
 * The whole setting owes some inspiration from Blade Runner.
 * Shower Scene, combined with Shower of Angst: Katsumi in the first movie, coming to grips with the existence of monsters and magic.
 * Space Elevator: Spiras, whose main role in the plot is to get blown to pieces.
 * Sphere of Destruction
 * Stable Time Loop: How Yuki met her love interest and got a great deal on her apartment
 * Technopath: Lebia's main ability, with sufficient backup equipment.
 * Tyke Bomb: Yuki's backstory- drugs and genetic manipulation to create psychic weapons. It ended badly.
 * Undisclosed Funds: Lebia and Rally show signs of having large sums of money at their disposal, though how much is never revealed.
 * Whip It Good: Rosa
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Rally despite her age (around 40)
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Katsumi (Blue), Nami (purple), Kiddy (Green in most versions, but a redhead in the anime), and several others