Mayonaka Densha

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
From left to right: Hatsune Rondo, Thomas Bellman, Jack Terry, Jessica Queen and Morris Redwood. They fight crime...Mostly.
"They won't fix me just yet...."
—Dear Boss Letter, Jack the Ripper (Also the comics tagline)

Mayonaka Densha is a Historical Fantasy web comic hosted on Comic Fury, written and drawn by Himitsu Notebook. Mayonaka Densha (Or The Midnight Train) details the life of Hatsune Rondo, an Ordinary High School Student and Sherlock Holmes fangirl who is somewhat disenchanted with her surroundings in modern Japan, mainly due to her vacant, neglectful mother, and dreams of living in a romantic Victorian city. One evening, Hatsune is mysteriously whisked back in time to Victorian London of 1888 after missing the last train home and boarding another train that turned up at midnight.

There Hatsune has a very brief run-in with Jack the Ripper only to be saved by a kind hearted orphan named Thomas Bellman. When Hatsune asks Tom for help, he introduces her to his boss, who happens to be none other than Sherlock Holmes himself, who offers Hatsune a temporary position in the Baker Street Irregulars until she finds her way home. Hatsune joins Tom and his two best friends, Jack Terry and Morris Redwood in their quest to take down the many criminals that infest London, along the way going up against and eventually befriending the rich and haughty Jessica Queen. At first, Hatsune's dreams seem to have come true, living in a world she's always imagined with a group of close friends plus some good old fashioned justice on the side, but strange things from Hatsune's past begin to surface from Hatsune's past, particularly as she begins to fall in love with Tom, murders get more and more gruesome, and her brief encounter with the Ripper just doesn't seem to leave her alone.

The series appears to have stopped updating in 2013, partway through volume 15.

Tropes used in Mayonaka Densha include:
  • Action Dress Rip: Done by Irene Adler during the museum heist when all the lights go down and even referenced by name in the comments.
    • Subverted by Jessica in Volume 4 who manages to kick a criminals ass and keep her dress intact.
  • Action Girl: Jessica Queen
  • Almost Kiss: In Volume 4 at Agatha Queen's ball, Hatsune and Tom almost kiss only to be interrupted by Jack hurling Jessica Queen's hair decoration at them. Tom later reveals he only tried to kiss Hatsune because Irene Adler told him to
    • Subverted in Volume 7. After Hatsune returns home after running away from Tom when the two argued, he asks her for a kiss. She accepts but turns her head away at the last minute, so Tom kisses her neck.
  • Amateur Sleuth: The Irregulars
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Hatsune screams to Tom that she loves him from the window of a bank that she is being held hostage in. He doesn't hear her over the shouting crowd.
  • Apologises a Lot: Louis Morecambe.
  • Arranged Marriage: Jessica Queen and Louis Morecambe. Jessica is less than happy about this.
  • A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: One murder case that the Irregulars investigate is a man, Hugh Avary, who was convicted of killing his sister, Roxanne, and the woman he was having an affair with, Louise, for seemingly no reason. Sherlock manages to deduce that the real situation is that Louise and Hugh barely knew anything of each others lives outside of their affair and Louise did have a tendency towards stealing Hugh's belongings. Hugh was put off by this behaviour, but was also very concerned about his dying sister, so broke it off with Louise to take care of her full time. Louise read about this in Hugh's diary, completely lost it and not knowing that she was his sister, stabbed Roxanne to death but then found out afterwards and attempted to kill herself. Hugh attempted to grapple the knife out of her hand but she was killed anyway.
  • Art Evolution: Compare the artwork of Volume 1 to these previews of later volumes. Hell, even just look at the banner in comparison to the older volumes!
  • Attempted Rape: Twice in Volume 5. During the investigation of the Parton manor, Victor Parton after catching the Irregulars rifling around sensitive documents which prove that Victor Parton is trying to kill his wife, he says he'll let them leave alive if Hatsune gives him some form of "physical paymet". She politely declines. After the Irregulars run away and shack up in a barn outside the house, he tracks them down and attempts to rape Hatsune again, only this time to be thwarted by Tom.
    • Later on in the same volume, Constance gets taken hostage by a group of New York bank robbers, one of whom attempts to rape her. The attempt is thwarted by Hatsune who knocks Constance's attacker out with a chair.
    • Again in Volume 8, during the Irregulars raid of the police station Jessica is pinned down by a group of policemen, one of whom rips her shirt open. This attempt is thwarted by Morris who proceeds to brutally murder every single policeman in the room.
    • One last time in Volume 9, where Tom is almost raped by Francis Reuben while attempting to find Hats. Cordale thwarts this attempt by shooting Francis in the head before shooting himself.
  • Author Avatar: Hatsune's one friend Kyoko who appears very briefly at the beginning is a huge otaku who loves Kaito Kid.
  • Ax Crazy: Morris. He shows in Volume 8 that he has no qualms with and is quite adept at brutally murdering criminals.
  • Black and Grey Morality The Irregulars for the most part are the heroes, but have exhibited that they are willing to hurt people if justice prevails in the end.
    • In Volume 4, Tom pushes the Icarus Killer off Big Ben, thinking that he had killed Hatsune and that if he allowed him to live he'd only kill more people. He apologises while doing it and is clearly traumatized by the act later.
    • This is never more prevalent in all of the characters than during Volume 8, when Jessica, who even admits that she considers herself a villain, teams up with the Irregulars to take on a greater villainy, that being the London police force that Cordale completely corrupted. Hatsune ends up having to brutally beat guard dogs and criminals for the sake of self defence, but is clearly very traumatised by her actions after the fact.
  • Blatant Lies: Hatsune's excuse for all her anachronistic technology.

Hatsune: Japan hasn't done trade with Britain yet! See Britain is an awful long way from Japan! A-and...relationships between the countries aren't too good!
Tom:...Right.

  • Big Brother Instinct: Jack towards Neelah and Tom to a certain extent.
  • Body Horror: The murder of Mary Kelly. Extra nightmare fuel considering that it actually happened. And the description given by the first doctor on the scene was an abridged version of the actual report.
  • Bonus Material: Every volume ends with a section entitled "Speshul feeechures!" with extra drawings and previews of volumes to come.
  • Born in the Wrong Century: Hatsune longs for Victorian London right from the beginning, although she may have been over romanticising it in her head.

Hats: Now...19th century London, There's a Steampunk paradise! Gaslights, Gothic architecture, detectives and thieves...
Kyoko: But...it was all sewagey...and eww...Plus Jack the Ripper was there

  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Holmes, as always
    • The Irregulars themselves to a certain extent. Their methods are somewhat unorthodox but they usually get the job done.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Hatsune is half-Japanese, half-British
  • Cheerful Child: Neelah, a young Indian girl and the only girl who Jack seems to be able to tolerate
  • Christmas Episode: At the end of Volume 9, following the death of Inspector Cordale Hatsune and Tom note that they'd been so wrapped up in the case that they hadn't noticed it was almost Christmas. A party at Sherlock's house ensues.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Hatsune narrowly avoids this when she's kidnapped by two of the police departments alleged Torture Technician's who want to know more about Jack the Ripper. They proceed to sexually harass her and threaten her with a Chinese torture method, The Lingering Death, or slow slicing. The men are interrupted by their higher ups before they can do anything.
  • Cute and Psycho: Morris's sudden jumps from sugary, sweet cuteness to acting completely serious or just slightly...not right...suggest he may be one of these. And the brutal murdering, that definitely seems like a red flag.
    • All ambiguity is later throw right out the window when he murders a group of corrupt policemen. There is also implications that he might actually have a split personality.
  • Dances and Balls: Naturally, given the period setting. In Volume 4, the Irregulars have to stake out Jessica Queen's mothers 40th birthday ball for a killer who is supposed to strike there. Hatsune cleans up nicely.
  • Demoted to Extra: Watson, despite being a central character in the original Sherlock Holmes, is very rarely seen.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Torture Technician Francis Reuben. He's confirmed by Holmes to be a convicted murderer and rapist. He sexually harasses Hatsune while interrogating her, but he also seems to be hitting on Jack here.
    • Later on he also attempts to rape Tom.
  • Derailing Love Interests: Averted with Jessica Queen and Louis Morecambe. Jessica is presented with an arranged fiance who, as opposed to Jack, is kind, caring and deeply in love with her and stays that way but despite all this (And despite Jack being a massive Jerkass and seemingly not into girls) she isn't able to bring herself to love Louis, but the prospect of having to break his heart is one she doesn't relish.
  • Did Not Do the Research: Prevalent mainly in the older volumes and fully acknowledged by Himi who claims that when she first started the series she just didn't care. Some really glaring mistakes were revised and corrected later on though.
  • Driven to Suicide: Inspector Cordale, who was driven to madness by Jack the Ripper, manipulating him to completely corrupt the entire police system just to demonstrate the Ripper's power. He exposits this to Hatsune, and then shoots himself in the head.
    • Jessica Queen. After months of being engaged to Louis Morecambe attempts to throw herself into the Thames but is rescued by Jack.
  • Disposable Fiance: Louis Morecambe to an extent, although he has yet to be disposed of.
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Jack to Tom in Volume 12.
    • Also Jessica to Jack in Volume 6.
  • Everyone Can See It: Hatsune and Tom. Everyone and their goldfish is pointing it out to the two constantly, including Sherlock.
  • Forced to Watch: Victor Parton, as punishment for the Irregulars rifling through his things, threatens to rape Hatsune and make Tom watch. Sherlock shoots him in the shoulder before he can actually carry this plan out
  • Freak-Out: Happens to Hatsune frequently and on differing levels of freakiness. It often just involves having a hysterical emotional fit or just freezing up but at one point Hatsune flies into complete rage and attempts to strangle a street urchin simply for hitting on her. Oddly enough, he doesn't seem too put off by this later on.
  • Good People Have Good Sex: Hatsune telling Tom about how she was brutally raped by a boy in her class two years ago is followed by Hatsune finally admitting her feelings for Tom and the two of them having loving, passionate sex.
  • Gorgeous Period Dress: There's certainly a few parasols, corsets, bustles, ballgowns and such.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Jack, with very little provoking

"You've got this whole thing wrong! Why do you think I'm in love with him? He's a boy, that's just...wrong!"

  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Jessica Queen goes from saving the Irregulars lives to trying to burn the Irregulars alive for her own amusement then right back to actively helping them and saving their lives again.
  • Heroic BSOD: Played for laughs. Hatsune quite literally has one of these when she starts over thinking the damage her time travelling could have caused, complete with a blue screen appearing in a box above her head.
    • Played straight later on in Volume 6, when Hatsune catches Jack the Ripper in the act of dismembering Mary Kelly. The Ripper then walks up to her, says hello to her and just leaves much to the utter bafflement of the police. Hatsune is so traumatized by this that she is unable to speak for a short period of time, her face stuck in the same blank staring expression. Tom manages to pull her out of it with The Power of Friendship.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Jack and Tom are childhood friends.
    • Hatsune and Kyoko are also implied to be this.
  • Historical Domain Character: Several figures involved with the Ripper murders show up briefly, even Mary Kelly herself gets a few lines before her horrible demise. Inspector Abberline makes a brief cameo along with Dr George Bagster Phillips and Dr Thomas Bond, the first doctors on the site of Mary Kelly's murder, seen rifling through Mary Kelly's corpse.
  • Innocent Cohabitation
  • Inspector Lestrade: The man himself does make one or two appearances.
  • Interrogated for Nothing: Subverted in Volume 7. The police subject Hatsune to Cold-Blooded Torture trying to get Hatsune to talk about a Jack the Ripper murder. Hatsune did witness the crime scene in full but was so traumatised that she was unable to remember it
  • Jack the Ripper: The main antagonist (Although you don't see him that often)
  • Large Ham: Jessica, particularly on her elaborate jewel hiests.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Hatsune lamenting that her life must be turning in to a shojo manga for something to so conveniently interrupt her and Tom's kiss during the ball.
  • Love At First Sight: Jessica to Jack. He doesn't reciprocate.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Hatsune is very much in love with Tom, whether her love is reciprocated or not is somewhat ambiguous, Jack seems to have very strong feelings towards Tom and hates Hatsune as a result, unfortunate for Jessica as she is in love with Jack. And where Morris fits into all of this, we may never know.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Very strongly implied by their pillow talk that Sherlock and Irene are actually Tom's parents
  • Master of the Mixed Message: Tom, due to being completely Oblivious to Love and not at all versed in how to interact with girls. In a scene in Volume 4 where Tom washes wax off Hatsune's back asks her if she's ever been in love, then immediately afterwards tells her that he's not in love with her and the thought of the two of them together is just weird. Right before letting her climb into bed with him because she's scared, wearing not but her underwear.
  • Medium Awareness: Hatsune and Tom both get quite literally jabbed in the head by text boxes with “curiosity” written in them. To the extent of drawing blood.
  • Mind Rape: Only a mild case, but Hatsune almost looses all sense of identity and passes out just from Jack the Ripper brushing past her
  • Murderers Are Rapists: Francis Rueben, Inspector Cordale's right hand man.
    • Also Victor Parton of Volume 5, a man trying to kill his wife for her inheritance money, who tries to rape Hatsune.
    • All of the criminals occupying the police station in Volume 8
  • Nice Guy: Louis Morecambe
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Volume 7 gives us the inexplicable appearance of two people running the "Moran and Baileys" cafe who are totally not Bernard Black and Fran Katzenjammer.
    • Also, a recurring pianist/stationary shopkeeper named Amanda with a husband named Neil, refereed to by the authour as "Not-Amanda Palmer".
  • No Periods, Period: Implied in Volume 6, when Hatsune complains about an aching stomach, later on notices her hands are covered in blood and then passes out.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Tom, Jack and Morris all allegedly have cockney accents but none of their dialogue is written as so.
    • Word of God later says that perhaps Tom doesn't have a cockney accent after all, as he was raised in Sherlock's home by Mrs Hudson.
  • Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Hatsune's mum is like this to her daughter all the time.
  • Oh Crap: When Hatsune realises exactly what Jessica Queen actually planned to steal during the museum hiest.
  • Older Than They Look: And act in Morris's case, he's actually 15 years old.
  • One-Hour Work Week: While Tom would have to be at work constantly to afford the lifestyle he lives (Which it's constantly stated that he is) He still seems to have a strange amount of free time. And his schedule working as a delivery boy is altered as the plot demands.
  • Only Six Faces: While there are some subtle differences like nose size and freckles and such and Jessica's lips are a lot thicker than the other characters, most of them look pretty much the same.
  • Parental Abandonment: More or less all of the main characters to varying degrees.
    • Hatsune's father left for no particular reason when she was five years old, causing her mother to turn into a vacant, hollow shell who paid her no attention throughout her entire childhood. Hatsune considers her mothers negligence to be akin to complete abandonment.
    • Tom has no memory of his parents save for one, of a woman crying and apologising. He was more or less raised by Sherlock's landlady Mrs Hudson who apparently kept a very nanny-like demeanour in an attempt to stop him getting too attached to her and vice versa.
    • Jessica Queen is missing a father, explainable as her mother is a three time divorcee.
    • So far there has been no mention of Morris or Jacks parents whereabouts.
  • Parental Neglect: Hatsune has only ever briefly known parental love in her life, the rest has just been dealing with her cold and distant mother never saying a word to her. The main reason Hatsune is unhappy with her life in Japan is because of this. Hatsune tells Tom a story about how when she was a child she tripped and fell down the steps to her flat, had to haul herself all the way back up them and phone for an ambulance alone. Her mother didn't help Hatsune, rather told her to stop crying because she was being a distraction. Apparently Hatsune's mother wasn't always this way and was actually once a very loving mother, she just began acting like that when Hatsune's father left for unexplained reasons. Hatsune believes that she probably would've been better off if her mother had always been neglectful, as having love snatched away from her like that is much much crueller.
    • Jessica is a slightly less drastic case, her mother doesn't pay much attention to her except to shout at her for being a disappointment.
  • Police Are Useless: Lestrade and his men either seem contribute absolutely nothing or make matters much much worse whenever they get involved.
    • In Volume 5, a group of American bank robbers hold up a bank that Hatsune just happens to be in then rig the front door with dynamite to stop any of the hostages from escaping. Lestrade comes along and attempts to break the door down, and despite the protests of Hatsune and the hostages, eventually ends up blowing up the entire bank, fortunately after the hostages escape.
    • This is brought front and centre in Volume 8 in which Inspector Cordale, a man brought in to replace the severely injured Lestrade, manages to kill every officer in his station and replace all the policemen with criminals.
    • Jessica Queen manages to hitch a ride with the police in Volume 3 just because Tom tells them a very transparent lie about her not being the Scarlet Midnight Thief, despite being dressed like her.
  • Rape as Backstory: After 11 Volumes of Hatsune's increasingly strange behaviour, miniature flashbacks and freak-outs, it is finally revealed that her damage is that she was tricked by a boy she had a crush on in middle school into believing that he loved her, then subsequently was sexually abused, groped, forced to perform oral on him and then eventually taken to a hotel room and raped, while having a broken bottle jammed into her thigh. As a result, she became severely depressed, ill and borderline suicidal for a long period of time. While she eventually recovered somewhat with the help of Kyoko, it left her with a very very deep self loathing, as she blames herself for the entire thing, believing that it was her own fault for being naive and falling into his trap. It also informed her reluctance to get physical with Tom.
  • Rape Is Okay When Its Female On Male: Averted when Jessica almost rapes an unconscious Jack, only to stop herself and break down into tears. Hatsune witnesses this and realises just how emotionally damaged Jessica is.
    • Earlier on in Volume 4, this trope is played somewhat straight, even though there's no actual rape involved. Jessica starts groping and aggressively hitting on Jack, all played for laughs.
  • Rescue Romance: Tom does this both Hatsune and Jack (Depending on how one interprets their relationship)
  • Running Gag: Hatsune and Jack greeting each other cheerfully with insults (And usually descending into childish bickering right afterwards)

Hatsune: Howya' doing you thoroughly unlikable human being?
Jack: It's most sickening to see that you're still alive!

Mother:That's nice dear.

  • Sleep Cute: Hatsune and Jack, of all people, after working from the early hours of the morning at the post office.
  • Spot of Tea: If the characters are drinking anything, more often than not it will be tea. Hatsune and Tom are seen enjoying tea frequently together. In fact, the first thing Tom does for her when she comes back to his house is make her a cup of tea and Hatsune talks about how much she loves tea but was never allowed to have it at home because her mother always hated it, then proceeding to educate Tom on ice tea, which he considers an absolutely absurd concept.
    • Following Hatsune's trauma after witnessing a Ripper murder, Tom's first order of business is to make tea. That's the British for you.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: Constance kisses Tom in front of Hatsune, knowing full well that Hatsune is love with Tom, and right after Hatsune saved her from being raped by a bank robber
  • Team Mom: Irene Adler
  • Their First Time: Hatsune and Tom, despite the fact that they are both virgins (Well, technically) have theirs at the end of Volume 12, and it's surprisingly devoid of awkwardness
  • They Fight Crime: The Irregulars. For the most part.
  • Tsundere: Both Jack and Hatsune have shown shades of this. Jack and Hatsune both even call each out on how the others personality goes all sweet and mushy whenever Tom is in the room.
  • Unmoving Pattern: Hatsune's ball gown in Volume 4.
  • Under the Mistletoe: Where Hatsune and Tom have their First Kiss.
  • Victorian London
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Hatsune and Jack adopt this dynamic slowly as the story goes on.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Hatsune in Volume 5, right after witnessing an innocent banker get shot in the head right in front of her.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Hatsune and Tom's dancing around each other is almost excruciating.
    • The same could also be said for Jessica and Jack, although the feelings are clearly all on Jessica's side. Jack doesn't even seem to like her.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Hatsune may or may not be one of these judging by her reactions to Sherlock and Watson's bromantic bickering.
    • Confirmed in Volume 9 when Hatsune suffers a massive Nosebleed after witnessing Holmes and Watson kiss under the mistletoe, even going so far as to ask them to do it again.
  • You Gotta Have Purple Hair: Hatsune (whose windows match the curtains), even though the rest of the cast have normal hair (and eye) colours.
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