Mon Colle Knights
Mon Colle Knights is a mediocre, but funny, low-budget anime that knew it was exactly just that. It can be considered a parody of various things, itself included. The show is gag-driven for the most part and deals with two "teams" traveling to an Alternate Universe to gather six magical items that will enable them to connect their world with the Six Gates world. The lead characters, a Mad Scientist (Ichirobei Hiiragi) who recruited his daughter (Rokuna Hiiragi) and her boyfriend (Mondo Ooya) as "Mon Colle Knights" compete with Count (Ludwig Presto Von Meinstein) Collection and his lackeys, who try to gather the items to rule the world.
By the way, there are a few episodes less upbeat and silly, which begin to pop up a little more towards the end...
Tropes used in Mon Colle Knights include:
- Aerith and Bob
- Affectionate Parody
- Against the Setting Sun
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: In the English dub
- Ambiguously Gay: Prince Eccentro in the dub. However his Japanese counterpart, Count Collection is openly identified as gay.
- Anime Hair
- Anti-Hero: Zaha, post Heel Face Turn. Before that, he was an...
- Ascended Extra: Bacchi and Guuko seem to have become the official mascots of "Shopping Mall Japan."
- Assimilation Plot: Reda's goal, with himself as the center of everything.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A hamster, in this case.
- A Twinkle in the Sky
- Balance Between Good and Evil: The original version pretends this is going on at first, but eventually subverts it thoroughly. The dubbed version plays it straight all the way through.
- Big Bad: Reda
- Big Eater: Beginner
- Bishonen
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the original version, each episode starts with a bit of exposition where the Narrator explains the audience about the world. He is frequently interrupted by the characters who want to take over his job, sometimes they succeed.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl
- Black Blood: And white and fleshy colored as well.
- Blond Guys Are Evil
- Calling Your Attacks: variation, they are spells.
- Card-Carrying Villain: All the villains, though Reda is the only one that fully embodies it.
- Card Games: Is there a reason for the Magic: The Gathering-looking Mon-Cards? No? Didn't think so.
- Cat Smile: Rokuna from time to time.
- Cessation of Existence: Dub only, what Redda wants to do to existence.
- The Chessmaster: Reda.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Guuko
- Chest Burster: The birth of the Tyrant Terror Dragon goes this way.
- Color-Coded Elements
- Combat Commentator: In the few cases of an arena battle, the narrator will manifest within the show)
- Combined Energy Attack
- Cool House: The Hiiragi's place has that gigantic underground lab that shifts the surrounding urban area every time for takeoff. Then there's Count Collection's Supervillain Lair, which is a Big Fancy Castle complete with hangar and pool.
- Cosmic Horror: Oroboros after Reda gained control of it.
- Council of Angels
- Cue the Sun
- Dance Battler: The Black Tango Cat.
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: Reda.
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Defanged Horrors
- Dojikko: Beginner.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: most obvious with the conflicting motivations that various characters cite.
- Dub Name Change
- Elemental Embodiment: The Water Elemental
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Saint and Demon magic.
- Element Number Five: The Time element.
- Everything's Better with Penguins
- Everything's Better with Chickens
- Everything's Better with Monkeys
- Everything's Better with Princesses
- Everything's Even Worse with Sharks
- Evil Plan: Reda shows a rather nice one. He kidnaps Rokuna, forces Mondo to give him the Monmon items and deceives him with a rat disguised as a fake Rokuna, has the real Rokuna trapped inside Terror Dragon's neck, provides Mondo with the Sadistic Choice of destroying Terror Dragon and Rokuna with it or getting destroyed by it himself trying to save her, exiles all his allies to a void, then leaves just before Zaha arrives. Zaha and the knights confront the Terror Dragon, of which either outcome is something that helps Reda: Zaha dead, or the Terror Dragon dead and the enemy stalled long enough to start the ritual - all part of his brilliant plan to summon Oroboros to destroy everything so he can create in their place a world filled with formless souls, free of war and suffering.
- Excited Episode Title
- Expy: Count Dragula, huh? Subtle. While the vampire's name is not mentioned in the original, it has it's own : Sylanprivania is the area's name. Either could double as Homage.
- Fallen Angel
- Fallen Hero: Zaha again
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe
- Fusion Dance
- Gag Dub: A la Samurai Pizza Cats
- Golem
- Genre Savvy: Several characters; including Mondo, Rokuna, Count Collection and Reda.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: The dub.
- Ghibli Hills
- Ghost Lights: Rokuna's introduction in the Japanese version.
- Green Aesop
- Green Thumb: Utahime / Kahimi.
- Healing Hands
- Heel Face Turn
- Hell Hound
- Hellish Pupils: played straight and subverted; good monsters can also have evil eyes.
- Here We Go Again: In the end Reda and Oroboros are defeated, but all the collected Monmon Items are destroyed. New ones are then scattered once again, leaving the heroes and villains exactly where they started.
- Hidden Elf Village
- Holy Hand Grenade
- Hope Spot: Reda practically makes it a sport.
- Hostage for Macguffin
- Hotblooded Sideburns: Professor Hiiragi.
- Hot Springs Episode
- Idiot Hair: Beginner is clumsiness incarnate, Rokuna on the other hand is intelligent and agile.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The Saint Star Dragon (a.k.a. the Golden Dragon), who appears in the finale. It is prophesied to appear whenever needed, and draws his power from all of the six elements in order to undo any evil, no matter how great it is.
- In Harmony with Nature: Lots of of the monsters.
- In the Name of the Moon
- Inverse Law of Sharpness and Accuracy: Played straight for most of the series, but ignored in the finale.
- Knight of Cerebus: Zaha and Reda, especially Reda.
- Laughably Evil: Count Collection and his minions.
- Lethal Chef: Rokuna's food is treated this way, though the effects aren't always as bad as other seem to think. Though, that one dish was moving ...
- Lighter and Softer: The anime to ... everything else in the Six Gates franchise.
- Looming Silhouette of Rage
- Love Bubbles
- Lull Destruction
- Magical Land
- Magic Feather: Luke's bravery axe.
- Magic Music
- Manipulative Bastard: Reda
- Medium Awareness
- Meganekko: Guuko
- Merchandise-Driven
- Minion with an F In Evil: Guuko
- Mons
- Monochromatic Eyes; Half of the angels.
- Mordor; Karon, a white desert.
- Mood Whiplash
- Narrator
- Nature Spirit
- No Cartoon Fish: Arguably irrelevant, since most monsters are drawn realistically.
- Not So Different: Dr Hiiragi and Count Collection, as shown in the first episode.
- Official Couple: Rokuna and Mondo in both versions. Zaha and Shiru only in the original, Luke and Beginner only in the dub.
- Off-Model
- Omnicidal Maniac: Reda
- Our Elves Are Better: Mocked, our elves are deadly afraid of mud and sweat.
- Our Gods Are Greater: In the original version, the Sea Giant is the god of the ocean and Coatl is the god of snakes.
- Ouroboros
- Padding
- Parental Abandonment: In the original version, Rokuna's mother left cause she was bored, leaving Rokuna to tend to the household and an work obsessed dad, much of her early years were lonely. In the dub, she's still around offscreen.
- Perky Female Minion: Bacchi and Guuko
- Perpetual Frowner: Zaha
- Perpetual Molt
- Pettanko: Bacchi
- Pillar of Light
- Prophetic Names: Rokuna and Mondo : Roku + Mon = Rokumon, the Sixgate.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Ogres. Their strength contests are awarded by a blessing and the right to fight a monster.
- Puni Plush: Mainly with the child characters. Slightly less so with certain others such as Namiko, Bacchi, and Guuko. Not present at all with most other characters.
- Rapunzel Hair
- Real Men Wear Pink: Chuzaemon and his cat grooming and pink tutu.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Jaane and Punch Punch
- Running Gag
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The gremlins, Pazuzu and Bahamut (two creatures one one seal) and Coatl.
- Sea Monster
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Oddly averted. The Terrible Trio remains almost entirely out of sight of the heroes during all the drama of the finale, being deliberately shooed in the wrong direction. They end up carrying a vital plot coupon to the Big Bad and thereby more or less accidentally start the apocalypse.
- Shout-Out: During a discussion over a good line to say while leaping out of a burning car, Mondo suggests "Rats! I left my Digimon: The Movie CD in there!". The English cast worked on Digimon.
- Sissy Villain: Count Collection
- Something About a Rose: Count Collection has a massive rose fetish. Never poses without one, and he poses a lot. He's so involved with roses that he even fails in roses, as the mushroom cloud after his ship crashes always assumes the shape of a wilting rose.
- Split-Screen Reaction
- Spiritual Successor: to Time Bokan ("Yatterman", to be specific), according to a staff interview.
- Others would call it a successor to Flint the Time Detective.
- Stock Footage: lots of it.
- Terrible Trio: Count Collection, Bacchi and Guuko, who else?
- Team Spirit: subverted in the final episodes; Team Spirit got everyone sucked into a void and the loner saved the day.
- The Beast Master: Any summoner.
- The Good King: The Green Wind King
- The Imp: Rut/Lucca
- To the Bat Noun
- Tree-Top Town: The elf town.
- Tsundere: Batch, and Rokuna mixes it with Yandere.
- Up the Real Rabbit Hole: Guilty as charged for both teams; monsters usually call the other world "human world".
- Vile Villain Saccharine Show
- Villains Out Shopping: Count Collection and company.
- Winged Humanoid
- Word Salad Title
- World of Ham: In the dub, at least, and most of it is provided by Dr. Hiragi and Prince Eccentro. The original version is pretty heavy on it too, at one point Mondo and Hiiragi deliberately get loud and hammy to escape eating Rokuna's food.
- World-Wrecking Wave
- Worthless Yellow Rocks
- Yin-Yang Bomb
- Zettai Ryouiki: Rokuna.