Corpse Princess
Makina Hoshimura is a Corpse Princess ("Shikabane Hime") -- an undead girl who must earn her way into Heaven by tracking down and killing 108 Shikabane, monsters formed from the regrets of people who die violent deaths.
Things get complicated a year after she returns from the dead when Ouri, the adopted brother of her contracted monk, starts stumbling across her missions and taking an interest in the whole thing. Makina insists he doesn't get involved, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, a renegade monk is using Shikabane to fuel his own power and direct it towards evil...
The Corpse Princess manga began publishing in April 2005. The first of three Anime adaptations, Shikabane Hime: Aka, was created by Studio Gainax, and began broadcasting in October 2008; a follow-up, Shikabane Hime: Kuro, began broadcast in January 2009.
American and Canadian distribution rights have been picked up by Funimation. In a surprising move, the company has offered subtitled episodes for download from its website, and also placed them online on their YouTube channel; when this proved popular, episodes were also made available from the company website. The best part? These are completely legal, and unless you download, are also 100% free. Australians and New Zealanders can also watch the show's first two episodes for free, courtesy of its Antipodean distributor Madman Entertainment, by visiting the Madman Screening Room.
Tropes used in Corpse Princess include:
- Accidental Pervert: Ouri, a couple of times. Surprisingly, little to no attention is paid to him doing this.
- Action Girl: The Shikabane Hime, even though their Contractors generally kick-ass big time as well.
- Amusement Park of Doom: In episode 7 of Kuro.
- And I Must Scream: What happens to a Shikabane Hime after they kill 108 Corpses. Instead of going to heaven, they become unkillable monsters and are bound in a coffin for eternity. Having this happen to his girlfriend triggers the Big Bad's Start of Darkness.
- Also Makina's killer's comment: "I see your arms and legs have grown back. You looked so pathetic begging for your life with those bloody stumps."
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Ouri.
- Anti-Villain: Akasha. At first he seems like the normal evil Jerkass, but when you hear about why he went rogue, what happened to his Shikabane Hime, and what REALLY happens when your Shikabane Hime kills 108 Shikabane you may start to sympathize with him, if not just feel sorry for him.
- Anyone Can Die
- Attack Reflector: One episode featured a shikabane who could make his opponent take any damage they try to inflict on him. When Minai hit him in the face, she got thrown back as if she was the one who got hit, with a bruise on her face in the same spot she hit the shikabane.
- Author Appeal: At least one person involved with making the anime adaptation must have thought this; compare Rika in the manga [dead link] to the anime version.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Minai's perfered fighting style is unarmed with only her spiked gauntlets.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: A Shikabane is fairly ordinary looking/attractive until it goes all crazy and stuff, at which point they turn into horrible monsters for more power. Justified Trope? Maybe.
- Big Brother Complex: Makina. So very much.
- Big Damn Heroes: How Ouri first meets Makina in the manga.
- Biker Babe: Minai is shown on her motorcycle briefly in one episode.
- Blank White Eyes
- Blood Brothers: Ouri and Keisei become some sort of this, because to contract a Shikabane, the Contractor must have his own blood written in his palm by his Shikabane. This contract is transferable. Before Keisei died, he transferred the glowing red seal of Makina to Ouri.
- Boobs of Steel: While it is true that some of the series' Action Girls are quite buxom, this trope is really more inverted than played straight. Itsuki and Freshe are by far the bustiest Shikabane Hime, but they are relatively weak fighters compared to Makina and Kamika, both of whom have fairly modest assets, not to mention Saki, who's too young to have developed breasts at all. And Nozomi, one of the bustiest girls in the series, is just an ordinary high school student with no real fighting ability whatsoever.
- Bottomless Magazines: Makina fires something like 500 rounds each from her dual machine guns before changing magazines.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Nozomi in episode 19 and 20
- Buxom Is Better: this is the opinion of Ouri's friend Ushijima. He openly complains about the lack of busty women in their class and obsesses over Nozomi because of her breasts, calling her "Omune-sama" ("Breast Goddess" in the dub).
- Cain and Abel: Makina and Hokuto. Turns out that Makina's ancestors are the Cain.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: A ghost cat frequently appears from nowhere and rant cynically about Ouri's "real nature". Only Ouri can see it, even though every character is aware of the supernatural. Creepy.
- Amongst the Epileptic Trees is that the cat is really part of Ouri's self, since souls permanently leave this world upon death. So it's an Uncatty Resemblance.
- It is, and it's revealed in the creepiest way possible.
- Interestingly, several of the Shikabane Hime take notice of it, as well as Akasha.
- Children Are Innocent: They are, but the grudge in being a Shikabane twists their innocence the terrifying way.
- Clothing Damage
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Played straight with the Shikabane. Though most of the time they're quite difficult to kill, they drop like flies in the few instances where there are loads of them.
- Creepy Child: Ouri was like this, and also a death-obsessed boy. He got better...maybe. Also Hokuto.
- Cute Bruiser: Saki.
- Daiju: The first anime was this until Akasha showed up.
- Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: Ouri's 16th birthday is when he has to take over for Keisei after the latter's death.
- Deus Ex Machina: The Shikabane Hime restore their connection to their contracted monks through The Power of Friendship.
- Domestic Abuse: Minai's backstory. Her boyfriend beat her and she eventually snapped and killed him then commited suicide.
- Dragon Ascendant: Akasha.
- Drop the Hammer: Saki in the anime; in the manga, she has An Axe to Grind. In both cases, they are ludicrously oversized, and apparently stored in Hammerspace.
- Dual-Wielding: Kamika wields two katanas.
- Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Ouri's Zadan. It's because he's born from a Shikabane.
- Emotion Eater: Toya of the Seven Stars. She attaches balloons to her victims. These balloons cause their happiness to grow to its peak. At which point, it explodes and kills the victim. Or its final monstrous form could devour its victim. Toya was the result of a poor family going to an amusement park, then committing suicide.
- Empathy Doll Shot: In the second episode at the scene of a school bus crash.
- Hair Decorations: Itsuki. Damn, that is one huge bow.
- Everyone Can See It: Makina and Ouri's feelings for each other. Saki, Itsuki, Takamasa, and Fleshe all either allude to it or point it out outright several times.
- Evil Albino: Hokuto. Also an Expy of Rei ...and sharing her Rebuild actress as well.
- Fan Service
- Fingerless Gloves: Minai.
- Foreign Fanservice: Fleshe.
- Gainaxing: It is made by Gainax.
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Only young women within a certain age range can become Shikabane Hime.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Minai. In the DVD bonus episode, Minai says she knows some boxing, which is what she uses to fight Shikabane.
- The Grim Reaper: Hokuto is as close as possible to being an embodiment of Death, and it's the fault of Makina's ancestors.
- Guns Akimbo: Makina and several other Shakabane Hime wield their guns this way.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Ouri is revealed in Kuro to have been born when a heavily pregnant woman was killed by a hit and run accident, but her obsession/regret over having never held her child allowed her to come back as a Shikabane, the child surviving in her womb and being born as Ouri. Several characters wonder if this makes him human, Shikabane, or something else entirely -- including Ouri himself.
- Healing Factor: All the Shikabane and Shikabane Hime to some degree, but especially Makina after Keisei's death, due to the curse she acquires because of her attachment to him.
- The Heartless: Shikabane
- Hot Chick with a Sword: Kamika.
- Hot Librarian: Kamika, high priest Sougen's Shikabane Hime.
- Hot Springs Episode
- Improbable Weapon User
- In My Language, That Sounds Like...: 'Makina' means 'machine' in Filipino. Oddly fitting, since the girl's a frickin terminator when she's pissed off.
- Inverted Portrait: Makina in the Title Sequence.
- Little Miss Snarker: Saki has a habit of speaking aloud her contracted monk's inner thoughts.
- Love Triangle: A rather complicated one, with both romantic and platonic elements. Makina definitely has some romantic feelings for Keisei, but he loves her in a strictly platonic sense, more as a little sister (which makes sense, since he was adopted by her family). Ouri and Keisei of course have a strong mutual bond as brothers, and Ouri shows some signs of a romantic attraction to Makina, particularly later in the series. So as far as strictly romantic feelings go it's a type 5 with Ouri at A, Makina at B, and Keisei at C; however, accounting for platonic feelings makes it more a type 7 early series, moving to type 8 later on as Makina and Ouri's relationship grows.
- Magical Girl Warrior: The Shikabane Hime are a rather darker variant.
- Master Swordsman: Kamika. She even has the title "Sword Princess" due to her skills.
- Maybe Ever After: Despite the cliffhanger ending, the last dialogue between Ouri and Makina before the cliffhanger scene implies this:
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Ouri: Brother once told me that we're not here for the dead. A monk's duty is to lessen the pain for those who the dead leave behind. I know I'm still new at this, but I can help you. So please, let me. |
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- More Dakka: Makina. Prefers MAC-11 machine pistols.
- Murder-Suicide: Part of Minai's backstory.
- Night of the Living Mooks: This show is basically about beautiful undeads killing horrific undeads.
- No Ending: The DVD-only last episode is actually a prequel, taking place before any of the other events in the series start, and does nothing to resolve the loose ends left by the regular "ending".
- Non-Action Guy: Ouri. At least until he begins training to become a contracted monk.
- 108: Shikabane Hime must kill 108 Shikabane, the traitor monk uses 108 Shikabane to fuel his dark power.
- One-Winged Angel: All Shikabane have two forms; an (almost) perfectly human-like one and a far more monstrous one that they typically need to turn into to make full use of their powers, though they are often still supernaturally powerful even in human form. Shikabane Hime are implied to be locked into their human forms as part of the ritual that turns them from Shikabane into Shikabane Hime.
- Ouri gets one when the Shiryo created by his mother merge with him near the end of Kuro, giving him a form akin to a monstrous, pseudo-bipedal, quasi-dragon creature made of black gunk and covered in staring eyes and gaping, fang-filled mouths.
- Otaku: Umehara-sensei, his Shikabane Hime Fleshe, and Keisei.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Shiryo are the disembodied souls of people who were close to becoming Shikabane, but they lacked the emotional intensity needed to fully revive. The nameless black cat that follows Ouri around, his "brother", is a gestalt of the Shiryo born from all of the children who died at the hands of his mother.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Shikabane are the supernaturally powerful undead forms of people who die harboring intense regrets or obsessions, which enable them to possess their bodies and return to a pseudo-life.
- Playing Against Type: In the dub, Akasha, Ena, and the black cat are played by actors who are more known for lead heroes than villains.
- Power Fist: Minai's spiked gauntlets.
- Razor Floss: Rika.
- Recap Episode: Episode 13.
- Relationship Voice Actor: A lot of it in the dub.
- Religion Is Magic: The Kougane Sect are an order of Buddhist Monks who have a wide variety of magical powers due to their faith. Most prominently the Zadan techniques, which "borrow power from the stars and the gods to create miracles".
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge
- Sarashi: Kamika, at least in the extra-Fanservicey, Clothing Damage-filled ending sequence (she's too Badass to get much Clothing Damage in the show proper).
- Shrines and Temples: The main characters even live in one, which doubles as an orphanage.
- The Stoic: Takamasa. After his inability to kill his buddy-turned-shikabane caused the death of a lot of people.
- Stripperiffic: Rika, Minai and Freshe for starters.
- Super Soldier: The Kougonshuu is basically exploiting the Shikabane Hime for their ability to fight Shikabane. The traitor monk disagrees with this practice.
- Sword Beam: Kamika can do this with her dual katanas.
- Synchronisation: A Shikabane Hime can heal most wounds very quickly if her Contracted Monk is nearby, but the wounds pass to the monk. Conversely, if a Contracted Monk is severely wounded it causes great trauma for his Shikabane Hime, and if he is killed then usually the Shikabane Hime, being cut off from his Rune, dies as well.
- They Call Him "Sword": Kamika has the title/nickname "Sword Princess".
- Took a Level in Badass: Ouri in Kuro.
- Training from Hell: All Contracted Monks must undergo this.
- Vapor Wear: Though it is confirmed late in the series that Makina does wear a bra, we never see any sign of panties. If she does wear anything under that skirt, it has to be a thong.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sadahiro.
- What Have I Become?: All Shikabane are this way.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?
- Zettai Ryouiki: Makina, of course.