Bizenghast

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Bizenghast is an ongoing manga-influenced comic series written and illustrated by M. Alice LeGrow. It is currently being published in English by Tokyopop, which has released seven volumes as of June 2010. The eighth book will be coming out April 2012. The series has also been adapted into a novel by Shawn Thorgersen, with illustrations by LeGrow.

Set in the haunted town of Bizenghast, the story follows an orphaned teenage girl named Dinah. After trespassing in an ancient mausoleum, she is tasked with returning each night to free the ghosts within the building. Dinah is assisted by her best friend, Vincent, and two of the four tower guardians of the Mausoleum, Edaniel and Edrear. Later on, the team realise there may be more to Bizenghast than meets the eye, and something is unfolding around one Addie Clark and a strange incident many years ago.

Tropes used in Bizenghast include:

• Aerith and Bob: The human characters all have normal names, such as Vincent Monroe, except Dinah, whose last name is Wherever.
• Anyone Can Die: Vincent in volume 4, Elala in volume 6.
• Anything That Moves: Edaniel. He cheated on Nareesha with a sock puppet, and in volume 6 he hits on his own brother.
• Art Evolution: As the books go on the art becomes much more refined.
• Artifact of Doom: Seeds, pieces of the afterlife, will kill any mortal who looks at them.
• Author Appeal:
  • LeGrow likes Lolita clothing. Can you tell?
  • She also created Nareesha specifically because she wanted a full-figured woman to be considered beautiful.
• The Beautiful Elite: Dinah and, to a lesser extent, Vincent. The huge wardrobes? Check. The perfect hair and makeup? Check. The huge beautiful houses? Check. The riches? Check. Dinah is also rather talented at drawing and has been described as good-looking. Some of the ghosts may somewhat count such as in Ixi's dream. Played with in that regardless of how rich and beautiful they are, Dinah's considered a freak and a lunatic by the other students at school, and Vincent is secretly miserable and has immense feelings of resentment towards his parents for always being away.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The Ark of the Covenant contained a piece of the afterlife, which was uncovered to kill people.
• Bi the Way: Edaniel.

Dinah: It's like we're in someone's closet. Edaniel: Funny, I haven't been in the closet since 1978.

• Big Beautiful Woman: Nareesha.
• Bishonen: Edaniel (in his human-ish form) and Edrear.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Edrear's armour is actually an exoskeleton.
• Bland-Name Product: Jacy's department store.
• Blondes Are Evil: Her Little Ladyship and Maphohetka.
• Blue Eyes: Vincent and Dinah, although Dinah's eye color varies in colored illustrations.
• Bonus Material: Some of the books have pictures of cosplay outfits made by the author, volume 4 has some old Concept Art, and volume 6 has a short Self-Parody comic.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Edaniel does this in volume 3.

Edaniel: My God... there's people reading this book!

• Can't Have Sex Ever: Edrear has an irremovable exoskeleton. Not that this has stopped fanfic writers.
• Capital Letters Are Magic: The Seeds.
• Character Development: Most noticeably, Dinah. This is lampshaded in volume 5.

The Mausoleum: You have come far in your time at the mausoleum. The Dinah who first came to me would not have kept her head upon being separated from her friends. She would not have sought them out in this strange place without fear.

• Charm Person: Maphohetka.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The ghosts saved by the main characters come back to help them at the end of volume 6.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Edaniel's default facial expression.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Edaniel.

"I almost choked to death on a Dick Tracy watch once. In retrospect, I should not have eaten it box and all. But the bottom line is that communism is bad for your eyes. [beat] I mean television. I get those confused."

• Cool Big Sis: Elala was this to Edaniel. She's the only person he won't hit on and is extremely protective of her.
• Costume Porn: And how!
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: "I'll give you a terribly unfashionable haircut!"
• Driven to Suicide: How Plague and Brenda ended up in the Mausoleum.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A stuffed animal that looks like Edaniel can be seen in Dinah's room before she meets him. Unless it IS Edaniel, spying on her.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Dinah.
• Evil Clown: Bali Lali is subversion, as she is not evil, but freakish-looking. At the start she seems cruel, but in later books she is shown to be deeply loyal towards the Mausoleum and its safety. She maintains some crazy tendancies, but at heart will seriously injure no one... unless you are trespassing.
• Fan Nickname: Her Little Ladyship is a variation. Initially, she was listed in the script simply as "ghost", but fans started referring to her as "Her Little Ladyship", and the nickname stuck.
• Fish Out of Water: Edrear is implied never to have left the Mausoleum for personal reasons before volume 6.
• Funny Animal: Edaniel's preferred form is that of a cartoony green cat.
• Giant Spider: Bali Lali.
• Good All Along: Addie Clark.
• Half-Identical Twins: Okay, Elala is actually older than Edaniel, but she still looks like him with longer hair and a dress.
• I See Dead People: Dinah.
• Important Haircut: Dinah's hair is cut while she's coming to terms with Vincent's death.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Always from Edaniel. Always.

Edaniel: It gave us time to talk about the absence of back-parts in society. Dinah: Again?! You were talking about that when we left! Edaniel: Yes. And now we've comb full-circle.

• Infant Immortality: Averted.
• Info Dump: Played with in volume 1: Edaniel grabs a pillow, sits on it and then says "I like to be comfy in the midst of long convenient blocks of exposition" then proceeds to give the much needed exposition to both the heroes and the audience.
• Interspecies Romance: Suggested between Dinah and Edrear, and to the max with Edaniel, who will make out with anyone (he also has a girlfriend, Nareesha).
• Meaningful Name: In-story example. Learning the meaning of Erzebet's name helps Vincent solve a riddle.
• Mister Exposition: Edaniel. He even Lampshades it.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Addie Clark.
• Monster of the Week: Up till volume 6.
• More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Edaniel has giant spiky teeth that take up over half his cat-face.
• Never Learned to Read: Edrear, according to Edaniel. Further proof of this is that he signs his name with an X.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: When he goes to the human world, Edaniel prevents Dinah from noticing him by hiding his face behind an issue of "Not Edaniel" Magazine.
• Noodle Incident: Edaniel, and tabletop games:

"So anyway, there's pancakes everywhere. And I tell Fran to get a spatula, and he's like "Dude, I'm a Night Elf, I don't cook." And I'm like "They're cooked already, just pick them up." And he says no! Says he's gonna go start a band or something, I dunno. It was at that moment the shoe came flying from the living room, right at my head, and all I hear is a bunch of ranting in German. And that is the last time I agree to a tabletop game with people I met over the internet."

• Only Six Faces: Comes into play. Even Dinah and Vincent share one, though the old people of the town are mainly spared.
• Our Angels Are Different: They have the obvious white robes and wings, but have a halo of fire instead of light.
• Parental Abandonment: Vincent's parents are always traveling, and he suspects they don't intend to ever come back.
• Perpetual Smiler: Edaniel in his cat form.
• Poke the Poodle: "Get off her, you creep! I'll scratch your eyes out! I'll give you a terribly unfashionable haircut!"
• Previous Player Character Cameo: Inverted -- in the last chapter of volume 6, the main character (Muffin) of M. Alice's next manga series appears on the very right of a panel walking next to the resurrected.
• Pungeon Master: Good lord Edaniel. They're usually quite terrible, too.
• Running Gag:
  • "Can you part your hair in the back?"
  • "And then I said any club that would have her as a member wasn't worth joining."
  • Anything Edaniel says about Communism.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Elala.
• Scenery Porn: There are tons of panels with nothing but detailed drawings of the scenery.
• Shout-Out:
  • The cover of volume 5 was inspired by the music video for "Don't Come Around Here No More."
  • Edaniel briefly picks up a whip and puts on Indy's trademark hat before talking about the Ark of the Covenant.
  • Edaniel, wearing a beret that he didn't have before, says Hey, skirts do have pockets! Myth busted!
  • In volume 5, a bellhop comes in who looks strikingly like Vincent. His name? Valentine.
  • In one panel, Edaniel is wearing a cat collar that says "Xenu" on it.
• Skirt Over Slacks: On Edrear's first foray into the human world, Edaniel convinces him that human men wear this all the time.
• Smug Snake: Her Little Ladyship.
• Spoiled Brat: Again, Her Little Ladyship. Dinah had shades of this when the series began, but has since moved away from it thanks to Character Development.
• Stick Figure Comic: The "Dinah in Ghostland" comic at the end of volume 6.

Edaniel: This vault is the home of the minimalist ghost! He takes everything in his world and turns it into nothing! That's why we've become stick people!

• Stylistic Self Parody: The "Dinah in Ghostland" comic at the end of volume 6.
• Took a Level in Badass: Gradually happens to Dinah, thanks to Character Development.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Featured prominently in one dream.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Bizenghast itself.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Dinah is never shown in the same clothes twice. Not even her nightgown. Justified considering she made all those outfits by her self and had lots and lots of free time before the series, and she seems to come from a rich family if her room is any indication. Vincent also has a huge wardrobe, but his parents are rich.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The first volume mentions that there are numerous other ghosts haunting Dinah's home besides Addie Clark and that she's tormented by them frequently. The rest of the series none of them beyond Addie Clark are mentioned, and their abuse on Dinah has apparently stopped.
  • Dinah's horrifying dream virus that she contracted to save Vincent from death after he caught it in Plauges' dream that granted her a dress made of bones and left her acting strangely (i.e. calling her aunt "Mom") just kind of... vanished somewhere in the plot.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: The three-time world champion is Nareesha, whom the author purposely gave a very full figure due to being sick of this title being given to stick-thin women in other works.