Kiwaguro no Brynhildr
For 10 years, Murakami Ryouta has been tormented by the death of his childhood friend Kuroneko, whom he had been really close to. The guilt he feels because of her death had 2 effects on his psyche: motivates him to fulfill a childhood promise he made with with her to show aliens do exist (at his 16 years of life, he's already third-ranked in school and is on fast track to become a NASA researcher), and left him with a deep inability to communicate and understand the opposite sex.
One day, a girl who looks exactly like Kuroneko appears before him. Her name is Kuroha Neko, and from then on, a story of horror, experiments, human communication and despair begins.
Kiwaguro no Brynhildr (in some places called Gokukoku no Brynhildr) is a manga by Okamoto Lynn, the creator of Elfen Lied. It keeps the science-fiction horror tone and massive gore of previous works.
Tropes in Kiwaguro no Brynhildr include:
- Accidental Pervert: Ryouta grabbed Kuroha's boobs once by accident.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Kana insists that Ryouta wants to molest her every single time he's around; she even does this when he carries her out of a burning house.
- And I Must Scream: Milder example with Kana who is like this due to experiments -- she can only move her fingers a bit to type on her keyboard to communicate.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Harnessed is the button-like thing on the nape of magic users. Due to how things are transliterated to Katakana, it's easily possible to miss that the real transliteration is her nest (which gets written in the same way), an obvious reference to where resides the parasite inside the magic users' bodies.
- Break the Cutie: All the magic users come prebroken for your convenience. You could think that further breaking is on the menu and we wouldn't blame you for it, anyways.
- Detached Sleeves/Opera Gloves: Part of Kuroha's school uniform.
- Eldritch Abomination: The horrendous thing that remains when a magic user is destroyed with her Harnessed's down-left button gives all vibes of this. Might be an alien life form that parasites the magic users' bodies and gives them their powers, but this is unconfirmed.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Kana, complete with Princess Curls.
- Fan Service: Averted as of chapter 9, in stark contrast with previous works.
- Gorn: Okamoto indulges in this each time more and more; just compare the post-accident Ryouta in episode 1 to the fight with Saori in chapter 9.
- Hair Decorations: Kazumi wears a headband.
- Improbably-Female Cast: All of the magic users shown until now are teenage girls.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Everytime Kuroha uses her powers, she loses a part of her memory.
- Leotard of Power: Saori wears one.
- Mysterious Transfer Student: Kuroha's arrival sets the whole plot in motion.
- Seers: Kana is one.
- Spoiler Opening: The manga begins with Kuroha bleeding on the floor and Ryouta stabbing her, screaming "If only you didn't exist.. If only you have stayed dead!". All of this in a desolated and annihilated landscape, with the shadow of a girl watching the scene the only extra detail. Knowing the author, this can't possibly end well.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Kuroha has traces of this (she only lacks the tall part a bit).
- Techno Babble: Ryouta's explanation of RSA[1] leaves a lot to be desired.
- Time Master: Saori's second power is to revert time back for one minute.
- Transfer Student Uniforms:
- Because Kuroha never attended school, she wears a self-made uniform (see page image).
- Kazumi's uniform consists of clothes she found at the abandoned village.
- Truth in Television: In chapter 6, it's revealed that Kazumi's magic is her capability to factor very large integers with ease, and that makes her capable of breaking security of many systems. Then again, the explanation and theory exposed in the chapter would make mathematicians and cryptographers cringe.
- Undead Tax Exemption: Kuroha can only attend school because she knows a very skillful hacker.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Kuroha's hair is either dark blue or Shiny Midnight Black while Ryouta's hair is light green.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Kuroha wears thigh-high black stockings to a short dress as her school uniform.
- ↑ the de-facto example of real-life asymmetric Encryption