Mnemosyne: Difference between revisions

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Also known as ''Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi'' (''Daughters of Mnemosyne'') and marketed in the United States as ''Rin -Daughters of Mnemosyne-'', ''Mnemosyne'' is a six episode anime television series and light novel produced by Xebec that follows private investigator Rin Asougi, an immortal woman, as she takes odd jobs and tries to avoid the mysterious connections to her past.

 

All in all, the series is a total [[Seinen]] bait, featuring nigh everything older male audiences' hearts may desire: cute girls, [[Cool Old Guy|respectable guys]], [[Mind Screw]] of a plot, alcohol and blood in equal proportions, a considerable amount of [[Yuri Genre|Girls Love]]... and both types of sex, take your pick. And all of the above without ever going over the top with it. Be prepared to wince a couple of times, though.

 

 

* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: Subverted {{spoiler|by Rin's tush, which is too big to fit under the lasers}}.

* [[All Myths Are True]]: {{spoiler|The story of Tajimamori, based on an actual Japanese legend (except that he searched for Mandarin oranges and not time spores) and considering the nature of the Guardian's castle, the story about the traveler, too.}}

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: Apos. Which kind of makes sense, {{spoiler|considering his [[Hermaphrodite|true nature]]}}.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Starting with [[The Reveal]] for episode two, it has been established that not even Immortals are safe. {{spoiler|Maeno, Yanigahara, and Mimi's Dog, which is immortal.}}

* [[Badass]]: Rin, by far - although she cheats a bit by being [[Nigh Invulnerability|nearly invulnerable]].

* [[Badass Bookworm]] - Mimi, especially in Episode 6.

* [[Bad Santa]]: Though {{spoiler|Laura}} doesn't plan on stealing Christmas, she ''does'' {{spoiler|blow up an apartment building and shoot Rin}} while wearing a Santa outfit, even shouting [[Catch Phrase|"Hohoho, Merry Christmas"]] while she's at it.

* [[Bait and Switch Credits]]: The last portion of the opening credits shows Rin, alone and in the buff, leaning on a pillar in the middle of mossy ruins, with a swarm of angels descending on her in a buildup to a [[Bolivian Army Ending]]. This never happens, since the closest thing to that {{spoiler|doesn't happen amidst ruins - the castle is still ''very'' intact - and Rin is screwing Tajimamori; therefore, she is neither alone nor standing}}.

** Played semi-straight in episode 6.

* [[Big Friendly Dog]]: Mimi and Rin's dog Genta. {{spoiler|Big friendly ''immortal'' dog.}}

* [[Body Horror]]: The potent-and-bloody yet seamless blend of death and sexuality in ''Mnemosyne'' would make HR Giger himself proud.

* [[Bottle Fairy]]: Rin and Mimi seem to spend much of their time drinking.

* [[Career Killers]]: Laura, and {{spoiler|the stamp assassin}} or whatever the hell he's called, from episode two.

* [[Cartwright Curse]]: Rin arguably qualifies for this. {{spoiler|Yanigahara, who apparently bedded her before, and Ihika, her boyfriend in episode five.}}

** {{spoiler|And let's not forget Tajimamori himself, who gets stabbed by Apos ''while they're making out''.}}

* [[Chains of Love]]: With the "love" being used in the most ironic sense possible.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: {{spoiler|Ivan}}

* [[The Chessmaster]]: It's hard to tell if Apos is one of these, or if he [[Padding|just plays chess to kill time.]]

* [[Cloning Blues]]: {{spoiler|Maeno}}

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: {{spoiler|Time Spores from Immortals are blue, while Time Spores from Angels are red.}}

* [[Dashed Plotline]]: 1/20/14/30 year skips between the first five episodes (the sixth follows the fifth immediately).

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Rin in the first episode...

'''Rin''': "So instead of a lost cat, I found a lost man." }}

* [[Dead Sidekick]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Apos kills Rin first when she comes to rescue Mimi and [[Left for Dead|leaves the latter to her fate]].}}

* [[Depraved Bisexual]]

** Also, {{spoiler|Yggdrasil's talk about women eating 'white blood' to become pregnant.}}

*** ''And'' the way Apos/Rin/whoever act whenever they {{spoiler|eat time spores}}.

* [[The Dragon]]: Laura, but it only becomes evident when she starts {{spoiler|ordering Angels around.}}

* [[Dramatic Chase Opening]]: Rin, [[Fan Service|nearly-naked]], being chased through a building by Laura. How they got there is never explained.

* [[Evil Twin]]: {{spoiler|Laura is eventually redesigned to look like Rin. Apos even uses her as a [[Replacement Goldfish|Replacement Sex Toy err... Goldfish]].}}

* [[The Faceless]]: {{spoiler|Tajimamori}}, the as-of-episode-4 unnamed man with a beard shown in the opening and closing credits. {{spoiler|Is also [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]] when it is revealed that he is the person that Rin is always talking to on the phone.}} We get a full view of his face in episode five.

* [[False Camera Effects]]: [[Lens Flare]].

* [[Fan Disservice]]: Quite a bit of the "service" in this series arguably qualifies...

* [[Final Speech]]: {{spoiler|Yanagihara}} gets a short one.

* [[Forgotten Superweapon]]: Rin's [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Shotgun Glove]] doesn't appear again until episode ''five'' where she uses it to {{spoiler|kill three Angels in Mimi's [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|overrun temple]].}}

* [[A God Am I]]: Apos, {{spoiler|and for good reason too, in a [[Squick|sick, twisted way]].}}

** He was preceded by {{spoiler|his father, Tajimamori, and succeeded by Rin.}}

* [[Good People Have Good Sex]]: Bad people have... something else entirely.

* [[Good Thing You Can Heal]]!

* [[Gorn]]: The stuff that happens to Rin is at times quite gruesome.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: Which actually makes it ''worse'' in a few cases. Surprisingly used often considering how violent this show is overall.

* [[Hermaphrodite]]: {{spoiler|Apos.}}

** Presumably, {{spoiler|Tajimamori}} is also one of these, considering they have the same job.

**** It actually seems that to be Guardian you have to {{spoiler|have aspects of both an Angel and an Immortal; Tajimamori was lucid and long-lived despite being an Angel, missing out on the healing ability, Apos is obvious in having literally everything, and Rin gained wings and the ability to affect Immortals}}.

* [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]]: The person Rin talks to on the phone in every episode. {{spoiler|Eventually revealed to be Tajimamori, [[The Faceless]] man with a beard from the credits. He was the Guardian of Yggdrasil, at least until Apos replaced him.}}

** [[Akira Ishida]]: The voice of Apos.

** [[Colleen Clinkenbeard]]: Voices Rin in the dub.

** [[Hitomi Nabatame]]: The voice of Ruon in episode 4.

** [[Jamie Marchi]]: Voices Mimi in the dub.

** [[Mamiko Noto]]: Rin's sexy yet gentle voice.

** [[Rie Tanaka]]: The voice of Sayara.

** [[Sayaka Ohara]]: Voices Laura.

* [[Hollywood Cyborg]]: As {{spoiler|Laura}} continues to get horribly maimed, she is eventually turned into one of these once the appropriate technology is developed.

** Don't forget Sayara. Though her machinery may be just a [[Powered Armor]].

* [[Holographic Terminal]]: Everybody's using these by episode five.

* [[Hot Shounen Mom]]: {{spoiler|Rin, for the rest of ETERNITY. 30 years from now, it's gonna be SO awkward for her son to be repeatedly asked "Is that you cute LITTLE sister?" again and again...}}

** Her ''son''? Think bigger: her entire bloodline will have to answer that question until the end of time!

* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: X(s) Don't/Doesn't X. Episode six is gonna be an [[Odd Name Out]].

* [[Idiot Hair]]: Mimi

* [[Immortality Hurts]]: ''Seriously.'' The tagline for the English release of ''Mnemosyne'' even said, "It only hurts '''forever.'''

* [[Immortality Inducer]]: Any female who happens to get in contact with a {{spoiler|Time Spore}} becomes immortal. This also applies to dogs, apparently. Furthermore, a recurring theme throughout the series is how humanity in general craves it.

** And for that matter, {{spoiler|Yggdrasil}}

* [[Jekyll and Hyde]]: Subverted when it turns out that {{spoiler|the 'Rin' who killed immortals and tried to attack Mimi in episode five was actually [[Evil Twin|Laura manning a cyborg copy of Rin]].}}

* [[Just Between You and Me]]: Sayara does this in the first episode {{spoiler|as well as the third, after it turns out that she also became immortal}}. In the fourth episode, the honor falls to {{spoiler|Ruon}}.

* [[Karmic Death]]: {{spoiler|Sayara is killed by the zombies she created. [[No One Could Survive That|Or so we thought...]]}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Laura {{spoiler|throwing Ihika's Time Spore out the window}} in episode six. Seriously, [[Psycho Lesbian|she's got issues]]...

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: {{spoiler|Mimi's dog.}}

* [[Knife Nut]]: Rin has at least several push knives on hand at all times.

* [[Kill Sat]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Mimi hacks into one of the [[Mega Corp|Maeno Group's]] microwave satellites to try and stop Apos' plan, only to have the seraph's egg still standing there [[Out of the Inferno|without a scratch as the flames die down]].}}

* [[Laser Hallway]]: Combined with [[Air Vent Passageway]].

* [[Last Kiss]] {{spoiler|Rin's goodbye to Maeno}}

* [[Legal Jailbait]]: Mimi, oh so very ''very'' much.

* [[Library of Babel]]: {{spoiler|Yggdrasil appears on a regular basis and sheds time spores around the world, which it uses to collect 'memories' of whatever they touch. Immortals and angels get special mention.}}

* [[Lock and Load Montage]]: Episode five has Rin buying a new suit and digs up a weapons cache she stored in her grave.

* [[Locked Into Strangeness]]: Kouki gets a gray streak in his hair starting in the second episode, presumably at the same spot that {{spoiler|he shoots himself in in episode one}}.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Apos, probably more so than being a [[The Chessmaster|chessmaster]] even though he plays chess every now and then. There's nothing [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent]] about how he goes about doing it, either.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: With a little knowledge of japanese, the Maeno (前, "in front of", 埜, "field, wilderness") family names suddenly start to make sense in context:

Maeno Mishio (前埜美汐): "Beauty of the Tide of the Field Before You" }}

** Considering how closely tied to Rin's character and destiny the Maeno family ends up being, it's interesting to notice their names all correlate the owners to some important event or situation in Rin's life similar to what their name implies (Kouki showing Rin the bright side of life, Yuki raising Teruki alone, with Teruki later proving to be the initial trigger to Rin {{spoiler|recovering her memories}}, and Mishio awakening Rin to the new and beautiful experience of parenthood). It's also interesting to note how the first kanji in their family name is precisely the kanji to indicate something in front of something else, alluding to the fact that they were always beside Rin, partly because {{spoiler|of their destiny as descendants of Tajimamori}}.

** Yggdrasil seeds the world with {{spoiler|time spores}}, creating immortals and angels for the purpose of {{spoiler|collecting additional data through their experiences}}. [[Sarcasm Mode|Yeah,]] ''[[Sarcasm Mode|really]]'' [[Sarcasm Mode|amazing]].

** [[Bottle Fairy|Immortals don't get hangovers.]]

** Inverted in episode five, where Mishio considers the possibility of Rin being the [[Identical Grandson|daughter]] of the woman (also Rin) that she saw in a 30-year-old video.

* [[Naughty Nuns]]: Mimi {{spoiler|who actually looks like a real nun, until the point of the yuri orgy.}}

* [[New Era Speech]]: Inverted, since {{spoiler|it's Rin who does it in the end, and actually means what she says in a positive light.}}

* [[The Nineties]]: The first two episodes.

** {{spoiler|Apos is [[Hermaphrodite|male]] ''[[Hermaphrodite|and]]'' [[Hermaphrodite|female]], thus making him/her/it both an Angel ''and'' an Immortal.}}

* [[No Name Given]]: Though a university lecture in episode five hints on the identity and name of the bearded man who Rin talks to on the phone [[Once an Episode]], it's only revealed in episode six.

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: {{spoiler|Presumably, unless their Time Spores are eaten/stepped on/whatever, immortals can regenerate entirely from just them.}} This probably explains how {{spoiler|Rin survived after what happened in Episode five. Angels aren't so lucky, though.}}

** {{spoiler|The immortal who survives a '''nuclear explosion at ground zero'''}} in episode six.

** {{spoiler|When Rin eats the time spore in}} episode 6, it's revealed that the spore {{spoiler|was indeed Maeno's Time Spore and not just some random spore.}}

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Though she seems [[The Fool|carefree and happy-go-lucky]], Rin instantly reveals herself to be one hell of a [[Badass]] when the going gets tough.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Sayara gets three in a row. {{spoiler|The first when Rin appears, unharmed, in Sayara's office after being tortured to death, the second when Rin gets up ''again'' after being shot to death, and the third when she hears a knock at the door and runs out of the room...[[Karmic Death|into a mob of the zombies she created]].}}

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: It's only soft, but since it was combined with the [[Ominous Pipe Organ]], the [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] pretty much punctuates and intensifies the disturbing atmosphere of {{spoiler|Apos raping Mimi while she is chained and nailed to a stone lamp post, revealing himself to be a hermaphrodite, and ''using Rin's own hand to dig her Time Spore out of her,'' '''all in the span of three minutes'''.}}

* [[Once an Episode]]: Rin, Mimi, and vodka threesome. This is not the case in episode five and seems, um, unlikely to be thus in episode six...

*** {{spoiler|Yggdrasil showing up and shedding some Time Spores,}} with Rin and/or Mimi staring at the event for a couple of seconds. Averted in episode five, where {{spoiler|the tree is only mentioned as a rumor/seen in the credits, and the only time spores shown are either from immortals, or already in the hands of Apos. Episode six makes this a borderline case. Five out of six ain't so bad, is it?}}

** Lesbian sex scenes

* [[Our Angels Are Different]]: '''Very''' different.

* [[Our Presidents Are Different]]: In this case, we have a President Buffoon, who {{spoiler|allows Apos to manipulate him into starting some kind of war involving time spores. It was completely irrelevant to the plot, however, and it's only briefly mentioned in the epilogue that America has fallen into civil war.}}

* [[Private Detective]]: Rin, minus the [[Private Eye Monologue]].

* [[Psycho Lesbian]]: Sayara and '''especially''' Laura.

* [[Save Point]]: Essentially how immortality works. {{spoiler|Once a Time Spore enters your body, it records your physical condition at the time and then 'reloads' it whenever you're injured/killed/get a haircut/whatever.}}

* [[Scenery Porn]]: To the point of sometimes being distracting.

* [[Shower of Angst]]: Rin in episode 5.

* [[Shower Scene]]: Rin from episode one, and the second informant in episode 3.

* [[Show Some Leg]]

** A partial example would be {{spoiler|Mimi using a [[Kill Sat]]. Guns don't really get much bigger than that...}}

* [[Spoiler Opening]]: Subverted by the {{spoiler|Root of Yggdrasil. Although in the opening credits, it appears with Rin, Mimi, and Laura at the top, it's ''Apos'' and Laura who end up topping it off}}. We also see {{spoiler|all of the Maenos, as well as Sayara and both of the informants}}, however none of these really register until you've seen them in the episodes proper.

** Laura's standard outfit is a black catsuit, but it's not particularly tight, so it's more [[Badass]] than fanservicey. (Except for one brief, inexplicable shot where it was unzipped enough to [[Absolute Cleavage|show off her cleavage]].)

** Rin fulfilled the trope when she went [[Air Vent Passageway|exploring air vents]], but not with a traditional catsuit: She wore a black, skin-tight shirt and pants. The shirt had a zipper, and for added [[Fan Service]] [[Bare Your Midriff|bared her midriff]] and [[Vapor Wear|did not feature a bra]]. She also dressed Kouki up in a similar but [[Double Standard|less fanservicey]] outfit.

** {{spoiler|He does just that in episode five, and using Rin's own hand to do it, too.}}

** Also, {{spoiler|Ruon to Teruki}} in episode four.

* [[Take My Hand]]: A weird example, which starts with {{spoiler|Rin and Tajimamori, then Maeno lends a hand, and then ends up being Rin and Mishio. Don't ask how, just [[Take Our Word for It]].}}

** This is symbolic of {{spoiler|Tajimamori, Maeno, and their entire bloodline}} living through Mishio as Rin's sworn protectors.

** Subverted on one occasion. Rin runs away after seeing Laura's explosive vest, so Laura simply takes it off and throws it after her.

* [[Technology Marches On]]: Played for laughs in Episode 2, where Mimi retorts Koki's remark about screwing up a computer job by saying "This is a top of the line 16-bit 40MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM with a 300MB hard drive with all the bells and whistles."

* [[Torture Technician]]

* [[Turbine Blender]]: Rin lands inside a running airplane engine in episode four. Her last thoughts are "''This'' may be too much even for me." {{spoiler|Though, of course, she gets better... after 20 years of continuous regeneration.}}

* [[Unknown Rival]]: While Laura goes [[Psycho Lesbian]] with her obsession with Rin and spends considerable amounts of time thinking about how to kill her, the latter considers her nothing more than a nuisance.

* [[Virtual Celebrity]]

* [[Waking Up At the Morgue]]

* [[We Can Rebuild Him]]: {{spoiler|Laura}}, ''after'' she gets dissected and made immortal by Apos.

** Though Rin and Mimi don't seem to mind and find odd jobs to do to pass the time.

* [[A Wizard Did It]] (how did {{spoiler|Rin regenerate from a single time spore within a few days?}} Yggdrasil did it!)

** Might not count, since this was stated outright and was important for several other scenes.