Shinigami Death Punch
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Shinigami Death Punch (also called Shini Punchi by a large part of the fanbase) is a Web Comic that started on a Japanese site late in 2010 or 2011. Even though there wasn't an official translation into English,[please verify] a variety of fan transcriptions - and a bit of creative guessing by the fans - gained it something of a fandom among English speakers by 2012.
The comic revolves around two teams of shinigami, White Team and Black Team, performing missions in the mortal world to collect souls and bring them across the river Styx and into the Underworld. Most of the plot arcs revolve around Purple, the newest member in the White Team and basically a complete failure at being a shinigami.
At some point in the early to mid 2010s it appears that Shinigami Death Punch simply disappeared from the web, at least as far as Google and other search engines are concerned. Since no link was ever given for the work in this article, it is not possible to even point the prospective reader toward a Wayback Machine archive
Tropes used in Shinigami Death Punch include:
- Badass in a Nice Suit: It's the uniform.
- Bi the Way: Blue appears to swing for both teams - or all of the teams - but no big issue is ever made of this. Not that being indiscriminate seems to be doing him much good.
- Bishonen: Teal. That hair.
- Bookworm: Yellow, as evident by the fact that we see his books more often than his scythe.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the introduced Shinigami thus far are known primarily by their color, which also indicates their rank. It does make telling the characters apart pretty easy.
- Cool Shades: Apparently part of the shinigami uniform, at least during missions (and appropriately making everything on missions seem more Badass). Ignored most of the time by Pink, whose look is more adorable than badass.
- Custom Uniform: Purple and Pink, who have strayed so far from the "uniform" that they aren't even obviously wearing a uniform anymore.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Black Team is not actually the bad guys. In fact, recent updates suggest that, if anyone, it's the White Team.
- Dark Secret: Purple being half-human. It's not a secret to the readers, but it is to the other shinigami, and the repercussions of it getting out would no doubt be catastrophic.
- Dress Code: Hell apparently has one.
- Not that anybody really follows it.
- Ho Yay: Mostly between White and Purple. Although it's going past subtext, at least on White's part.
- Light Is Not Good: At all.
- Love Makes You Evil: Revealed to be Red's motivation for going Ax Crazy. You'd be pretty pissed too, if your boss forced you to kill the one you love.
- Man in White: ...White.
- Mildly Military: The organization of hell, although it's possibly meant to be structured more as a bureaucratic company.
- Mismatched Eyes: Purple has mismatched eyes: one yellow and one brown. This is probably indicative of his mixed heritage, but the sunglasses make them easier to hide.
- Nonuniform Uniform: Everyone's jackets and weapons are different, and most of the characters put other spins on it.
- Oblivious to Love: Purple, towards pretty much everyone, but White in particular. (He's oblivious to Blue's blatant come-ons, too.)
- Ominous Music Box Tune: The ending theme features lyrics set to a very ominous music box tune
- Plot Pants: Plot hoodie, in Purple's case. He gets his hoodie at the end of the first plot arc, marking him as the official main character, and whatever else he ends up wearing, the hoodie always comes back. Turns out it doubles as Magic Pants, which explains why an ordinary hoodie can survive hellfire.
- Rainbow Motif: Most of the colors of the rainbow have been introduced at this point, as well as White and Black.
- In fact, Pink is the only character that doesn't fall into this trope right now.
- Rose-Haired Girl: Pink, of the "Cheery and Optimistic" variety. She's not anyone's love interest (yet), though.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Pink has a scarf, though the 'of asskicking' is debateable.
- As of Pink's backstory arc, it's really not that debateable anymore.
- Shinigami: Obviously. Of the Psychopomp variety, in this case -- possibly intentionally, since the comic contains multiple references to Greek mythology. They act as both escorts and guardians of the afterlife, but don't actually cause the deaths. Or, at least, they're not supposed to.
- Ship Tease: Constantly with White and Purple. Nearly every scene with them plays on this in some way, especially once White starts getting protective.
- Sinister Scythe: Every shinigami has some variation of one, making for a truly ridiculous number of scythes. Can actually tie right back into Weapon of Choice, since scythes are used as everything from Blue's nunchucks to Purple's disproportionately large scythe.
- Sinister Shades: All of the Shinigami. For some reason, this is the part of the uniform that almost never gets ditched.
- Suit-Up of Destiny: Purple. Although he goes from the standard suit jacket to the average clothes of a hoodie, it's still his hero-costume-switch.
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Red and Pink really shouldn't switch makeup.
- Yandere: Girl Orange, although her violence is not limited to the object of her affection.
- Ambiguous Gender: Gray.