All The Tropes

Dead Leaves

One can describe Dead Leaves here. Alternately, one can describe the end result of an unholy fusion of FLCL and Superjail made after doing a rhino-sized dose of super-distilled crack cocaine and LSD.

"We the people, who are dedicated to protecting the common good, do hereby charge you with trespassing, theft, violence, assault, illegal possession of firearms, and a really crappy attitude! You are therefore sentenced to life imprisonment in the DL Correctional Facility on the moon."

Either way, things will get weird.

Pandy (a woman with a red ring around her right eye) and Retro (a man with a TV for a head) awaken on Earth with no clothes on and no memory of their pasts. After a brief crime spree through the streets of Tokyo, the duo end up incarcerated in the titular lunar prison facility. After they discover Dead Leaves serves a dual purpose -- as a top-secret cloning facility -- and all of the prisoners are "cloned genetic garbage", the imprisoned lovebirds orchestrate a mass prison break.

Did we mention the sex scene, the prisoner with a drill for a penis, the insane warden, and the strange children's story?

This OVA shares a director with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, and FLCL's fifth episode -- which explains both very little and oh-so-much…

Both Netflix and YouTube carry a legal stream of this OVA.

Tropes used in Dead Leaves include:
  • Action Girl: Pandy
  • The Alcatraz: Dead Leaves
  • Animesque: Dead Leaves inverts this trope; the design aesthetic seems inspired by American underground comics.
  • Anyone Can Die: Guards and inmates alike end up slaughtered by various means -- and they don't come back. At the end of the OVA, the amount of survivors from the prison break Pandy and Retro orchestrate numbers in the low single digits.
  • Appropriated Appellation: Pandy and Retro name each other in this way upon waking up.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Pandy and Retro both receive life sentences for "tresspassing, theft, violence, assault, illegal possession of firearms, and having a really crappy attitude."
  • Author Appeal: The character designer (and director) also worked on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; take a look at Chinko Drill's... "equipment."
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Pandy and Retro react this way when they're first separated at prison. It's an oddly sweet moment, especially considering the characters and the rest of the story.
    • Pandy's reaction to Retro having his head ripped off by the Big Bad also qualifies, as does their reaction after they finally escape Dead Leaves.
    • A bit of Reality Subtext (see below) makes this especially funny and heartwarming.
  • Ax Crazy: Retro, The Warden, Triple-Six, and a lot of the inmates qualify for this trope.

Retro: DAMN, IT FEELS GOOD TO BE VIOLENT!!!

  • Badass: Retro, Triple-Six, and Triple-Seven
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: This trope briefly occurs in the first part of Retro and Triple-Seven's fight.
  • Book Ends
  • Click. "Hello.": Pandy's baby makes its introduction to the world by pulling out a pistol and shooting the warden through the stomach -- just before it births itself.
  • Cloning Blues: Being a clone without the "mutation gene cluster" makes an inmate exceptionally expendable. One inmate remarks:

"Oh well, even if we all died tomorrow, there's still a whole nother batch of clones to take our place. C'est la vie."

  • Clothing Damage: Pandy goes from the top half of the prison uniform, to... half of that, during her fight with Triple-Six.
  • Daddy Issues: The Warden
  • Dark Action Girl: The Warden
  • Deadpan Snarker: Retro's delivery was a bit too amped up to be called "deadpan", but Pandy tossed out some cool snarks.

Pandy [to naked Retro]: "The cold isn't doing you any favors. Trust me."

  • Deranged Animation: "Animation that dispenses with all semblance of reality, and sanity, taking the viewer into a nightmare world where anything goes"? Check.
  • Disney Death: Unlike the aforementioned inmates, Retro does come back, though he subverts the trope by lacking a body upon return.
  • Eat Me: What Pandy and Retro's baby does to the giant space caterpillar at the end.
  • Elite Mooks: The robotic guards.
  • Erotic Eating: Pandy sure does love that hot dog...
  • Express Delivery: Pandy and Retro's baby. The two of them have sex early on in the OVA, and she is visibly pregnant roughly ten minutes later; not long after that, the baby just kind of...comes out of its own volition, but ages super fast and dies in short order, all thanks to the mutation gene cluster.
  • The Faceless: In the few brief flashback shots we see, Retro's human face is always hidden.
  • Faceless Masses: Every normal citizen is depicted with the same blank, Eyes Always Shut expression.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the scene where the prisoners get shot, a penis flies off and into another's mouth. No, really. At 17:38, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, keep your eye on the robot prisoner's head.
  • Gag Penis: Chinko Drill, one of the inmates, has a large drill for a dick.
  • Groin Attack: After one particular explosion, Chinko Drill finds himself landing dick-first into a pile of rubble.

Retro: "That has GOT to hurt!"

    • He later uses his drill as a weapon to attack 777 as an actual Groin Attack.
  • Humongous Mecha: Used as mere cannon fodder during the initial car chase.
  • Immune to Bullets: Triple 6 and Triple 7.

666: "I wouldn't use those crappy bullets to scratch my ass!"

Retro: "DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE VIOLENT!"
Retro: "My ass! OH DEAR GOD, it's sucking my ASS!"

  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Pandy and Retro have no memory of their past, but know how to get out of their straitjackets and handcuffs, and know their way around the prison.
  • Licking the Blade: 666 does this during his fight with Pandy, remarking "I can taste your panties."
  • Lull Destruction: The dub is an example of this totally working. The vast majority of the quotes on this page are dub-exclusive, as the people in charge of the Japanese script forgot to add much humor until they were at least halfway done.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Fired at a bunch of robots with ONE rocket launcher.
  • Made of Explodium: If it is mechanical, it can explode.
    • Pandy exploits this by cracking the casing of a statue open and extracting a football sized cylinder - which she then jammed in to 777's torso and detonated.
  • Mauve Shirt: Chinko Drill, as well as a few other inmates, get enough characterization to become endearing.
  • Meaningful Name: Pandy and Retro are pretty obvious, but as for Chinko Drill, well..."chinko" is Japanese slang for "penis".
  • Mind Screw: There has to be some symbolism in there other than the obvious varieties through that children's story...
  • Mismatched Eyes: Pandy has one red eye and one blue one.!
  • More Dakka: The basis of several fight scenes, most obviously Retro vs. 777.
  • Mr. Exposition: The Doctor.
  • Nightmare Face: The giant caterpillar near the end.
  • The Number of the Beast: 666 and his sidekick 777, The Number Of The Moose.
  • Offhand Backhand
  • Off-Model: The visuals are extremely stylized and there is actually no model. Yes, even Off-Model can be good.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: We don't actually get told if Pandy and Retro even have real names (because after a certain point...does it even matter?). They get "Pandy" and "Retro" because, respectively, Retro observes that the mark on her face makes her look like a panda bear, and Pandy retorts that that old-school TV on Retro's head makes him look like a dumbass.
  • Only Sane Man: Retro when he's not around Pandy. Pandy, otherwise.
  • The Power Of Love(making): Sex breaks Pandy and Retro out of their cell. No, really.
  • Prison Rape: And oh, dear Lord, it's done by Chinko.

Chinko: You want me to kiss you first?

  • Pregnant Badass: Pandy, through most of the movie.
  • Reality Subtext: A twofer: not only are the English voices of Pandy and Retro married in real life, but Pandy's voice actress became pregnant with their first child while working on the movie.
  • Redshirt Army: Pretty much the prison's entire population, guards and inmates alike.
  • Refuge in Audacity: The original script plays out as an action movie with small pockets of comedy here and there. The dub of the OVA, however, borders on Gag Dub -- while keeping the original script as intact as possible.
  • Right Through His Pants: Pandy and Retro have sex while wearing the prison's standard outfit (best described as an overgrown straitjacket).

That was some serious boot-knockin'!

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