The Little Detecto: Difference between revisions

The physics behind [[The Little Detecto]] is never explained. It just detects the thing that is the local [[Serious Business]].

 

 

Compare [[Thing-O-Meter]], a comedy trope. Contrast with [[Everything Sensor]]. [[The Little Detecto]] is different from [[Everything Sensor]] because it's not an EVERYTHING sensor. It detects only the one thing that is [[Serious Business]] here.

== Anime and Manga ==

 

* On ''[[Pokémon]]'', Officer Jenny (Junsa in the original) just happened to have a sleep wave detector in her pocket when the situation called for it. Dogasu (he compares the dub to the original) says [http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/kanto/ep027.html here]:

{{quote| The whole thing is fine at first. We're presented with a mystery, and for a little while there the story makes some very logical progressions...but then everything just goes all to hell when Junsa (and, later, the Rocket-Dan) pulls out a freakin' sleep wave detector. Because, y'know, that's what police officers just happen to carry around with them at all times. I can totally imagine Junsa's orientation day at the police station. "OK...here's your badge, your gun, and your standard issue sleep wave detector. Good luck."}}

* In ''[[Love Hina]]'', Kaolla Su produces a device that detects turtles... and some kind of pot, the two words being homonyms in Japanese.

** She later upgrades it to detect Keitarou and Naru.

* About the only good thing about the Brand of Sacrifice from ''[[Berserk]]'' is that it lets Guts know when the demons are coming for him by bleeding.

* In [[Digimon Tamers]], the D-Arc is able to detect where are the Digital Fields, which contain Digimon that crossed to the real world.

{{quote| '''Hiei''': I only came to find the source of the vile noise... and kill it.}}

* In addition to being the source of a [[Magical Girl]]'s power and {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar|their effective phylactery]]}}, Soul Gems in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' are also handy Witch detectors as shown in the second episode, glowing brightly when they're close to a Witch's presence.

== Live Action Television ==

 

* [[The Muppet Show|Bunsen Honeydew]] once invented a gorilla detector. It completely failed to detect the gorilla until after it had already attacked his computers, and him. Bunsen originally attributed the failure to the fact that the attacker was not actually a gorilla.

* [[Doctor Who]] memorably featured the timey-wimey detector. [[Buffy-Speak|It goes ding when there's stuff.]] The [[Magic Tool|sonic screwdriver]] is used this way at times, too.

*** In the original series (during the late [[Tom Baker]] era) and the TV-Movie, the Cloister Bell is less of a detecto and more of a major league [[Red Alert]] klaxon. It signals when the TARDIS itself is in danger of destruction.

** The classic serial "The Android Invasion," in which androids are passing as humans, has a robot detector. It's a small box with a single red indicator light on it.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

== Video Games ==

 

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', a bomb disposal expert creates one which specifically searches for the aftershave his Apprentice turned [[Mad Bomber]] applies to all his bombs. It turns out he no longer applies it to ''all'' his bombs.

* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, there's also the Item Finder, which shows you when you're close to items... which can be everything from medicine, to Poke Balls, to glass flutes, to [[Vendor Trash|chunks of gold.]] How it picks these up and ignores everything else is never explained other than "It's just a game, [[MST3K Mantra|relax.]]"

** In Diamond and Pearl, in the Sinnoh Underground, you also have a "radar" which lets you find things buried in the ground and walls. These can be both traps and "orbs," which you use to [[Global Currency Exception|buy things down there.]]

** ''Pokemon Colosseum'' has a character that can detect an "aura" around Shadow Pokemon. ''XD'' replaces her with a device that looks like a DBZ Scouter.

* ''The [[Elder Scrolls]]: Morrowind'' had three detection spells, Detect Magic, Detect Creatures, and Detect ''Key''. While the last was very handy, one wonders what aspect of keys makes them detectable vice any other particular object. (Although it does serve a kind of [[Mundane Utility]] versimilitude. One can only imagine a wizard inventing it after turning his laboratory inside-out trying to figure out where he left his keys last night)

* In the Warhammer 40k game Dawn of War-Retribution, during the Ork Campaign when pursing teleporting Eldars, trusty second in command, Mister Nail-Brainz, set his git-finda to "Pansy" mode.

 

* In ''[[Wall ERP (Roleplay)|WALLE Forum Roleplay]]'', Leonard Ghertivel has a device that detects all the specifics of various robot hardware/upgrades upon scanning of the robot in question.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Vanessessary Roughness", [[Evil Genius|Dr. Doofenshmirtz]] "just happens" to have a [[Green Rocks|pizzazium]] detector [[Crazy Prepared|in his top pocket]] after he and his [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|daughter]] stumble upon a sample [[Villains Out Shopping|at the mall.]] It comes in handy when Baljeet snags the [[MacGuffin|pizzazium]] first.

** In "The Chronicles of Meap", Phineas converts a GPS into a "cute tracker" to find an adorable alien the boys call "Meap". Isabella, who harbors a crush on Phineas, is annoyed that the device apparently ignores her, until Phineas reveals that he deliberately had it ignore Isabella's cuteness. When he adjusts the device to stop ignoring Isabella, it [[Readings Blew Up the Scale|self-destructs]].

 

== Real Life ==