Anne Freaks

Mitsuba, Anna, and Yuri.

Anne Freaks is Yua Kotegawa's second manga series (following Ottori Sousa), serialized in Shônen Ace from July 2000 to August 2002, and collected into 4 volumes. It follows three teenagers and their quest to destroy the terrorist organization that connects them.

After apparently murdering his mother, Yuri Kitagawa tries to hide the body but is stopped by a mysterious young woman who tells him that he's "doing it wrong" and offers to do it for him, in exchange for helping her kill her father, the leader of a cult/terrorist organization called Kakusei. Yuri later learns that her name is Anna Todo and that she would not hesitate to kill in cold blood if anyone stands in her way. From there he gets caught up in a tangled web of terrorism, murder, and outrunning the police.

Along the way they also meet Mitsuba Maezono, another kid who is connected to them. He seeks revenge against the Kakusei Group for the murder of his father and older sister, who acted as a mother to him. Along the way they are pursued by the Public Safety section, lead by Inspector Nishikama, who are determined to stop them; and Sergeant Shono, one caring police officer - herself a wife and mother - who still believes the kids can be saved.

---

Tropes used in Anne Freaks include:

• Action Girl: Anna rules this trope. She later becomes Yuri's Action Girlfriend.
• Bad Habits: When Inspector Nishikama and the Public Safety section track down the group at the Church of Christ where they are hiding, Moe disguises himself as a Reverend and leaves the Church to help them escape later.
• Badass Normal: Anna. See Little Miss Badass below.
• Catapult Nightmare
• Children Are Innocent: A driving question in the series.
• Christmas Cake: Possibly Inspector Nishikama. While her age is never revealed, she openly admitted that she never married and has no children.
• Christianity Is Catholic: Averted, the priest in the manga is actually from the Church of Christ.
• Complete Monster: Invoked, since Shono actually Anna one to her face. Anna almost seems to have a point to killing at first, but then we find out she just enjoys it.
• Cowboy Cop: Sergeant Shono.
• Cross-Popping Veins: These pop up from time to time among the three.
• Cult
• Dissonant Serenity: Anna is a master at this.
• Downer Ending: Given the subject matter, this was more or less a Foregone Conclusion.
• Enfante Terrible: Anna. Most definitely. Also played with, since Sergeant Shono actively tries to prevent the kids from being thought of as this by the authorities.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Several of Anna's outfits have this look to them.
• Friend to All Children: Even after being suspended and risking termination from her job, Sergeant Shono did everything in her power to bring Anna, Yuri, and Mitsuba back from the "dark side." She felt that, as they are children who are products of their environments, they can still be helped to start their lives over. Eventually she witnesses Anna's true nature first-hand and calls her a "monster" after Anna stabs her in the back, literally. She appeals to Yuri but, in the end, he betrays her by ending her life to be with Anna. Also, Anna admits that she likes children and arranges for Yuri and Mitsuba, who both "voluntarily" agree, to stop a bombing at an elementary school. See Wouldn't Hurt a Child below.
• Girlish Pigtails: Anna wears her hair this way in an early chapter.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Anna, when she has one in her possession.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: In a weird way; Anna's eyes are standard manga eyes, but Kotegawa does something just barely different while she's in her homicidal rages that makes them look perfectly blank. The effect is a bit unsettling.
• Hot Librarian: Inspector Nishikawa's glasses add to her professional inspector demeanor.
• I Have Come Too Far: Yuri eventually begins to feel this way.
• Infant Immortality: Brutally averted, since this is an Anyone Can Die manga.
• Japanese Delinquents: Mitsuba was one before his family was murdered by the Kakusei Group.
• Kansai Regional Accent: Mitsuba, rendered as more slang-y and coarse language in the English translation.
• Little Miss Badass: Anna again. See Badass Normal above.
• Megane: Yuri.
• Meganekko: Inspector Nishikawa, although she has more of a Hot Librarian look and is anything but sweet. She is cunning, shrewd, and determined to achieve her desired goals in whatever manner she can get away with.
• Mistress and Servant Boy: Anna with Mitsuba and Yuri, but especially with Yuri. Since he is in love with Anna, Yuri tends not to complain too much about all of the chores he does for her.
• Moral Event Horizon: If you were rooting for Anna and Yuri since the beginning of the series, wait until near the end of the manga when Anna asks Yuri to join her in her world by killing Shono, and he willingly chooses to do so, slitting the throat of what is the most sympathetic character in the series. Oh, and Shono leaves behind her a husband and a little kid ? Yeah, shining example of this trope, especially since even the characters acknowledge it.
• Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Mitsuba gets hung by the neck with a rope by the Kakusei Group on the roof for quite some time and he's still conscious and able to speak before he gets down. His larynx, however, gets severely injured.
• No Ending: There are a HUGE number of loose ends still left untied at the end of the series.
• No Smoking: Averted. Several times throughout the manga Anna - who is a minor - is seen smoking openly. Moe also smokes.
• Only Six Faces: A recurring problem in Kotegawa's works that makes its first apparition in this manga. Compared to her first manga, Ottori Sousa :
  • Anna = cunning/evil-looking Mizuho Kubo.
  • Yuri = Tatsuya Akiba, when he doesn't wear his glasses.
    • Also, when Yuri loses his glasses for the fourth volume, he doesn't just look like Moe, he practically is Moe.
  • The Priest = Akihito Sanada.
• Ordinary High School Student: Yuri and Mitsuba - until they meet Anna and find out where they really came from.
• Parental Incest: Yuri's mother is heavily implied to have sexually abused him.
• Police Are Useless: The police in general have never been able to prevent or catch any of the cult members involved in the mass killings taking place.
• The Reveal: Yuri did not actually kill his mother, she committed suicide and he stood by and watched. Yuri's mother did tell him not to call the ambulance, so for Yuri it was more like respecting her wishes. However, he could have called for one anyway and that's something Yuri acknowledges to Mitsuba later.
• Sadistic Choice: Near the end of the manga, Yuri has to choose between fatally stabbing Sergeant Shono and staying with Anna, or go with Sergeant Shono into custody to restart his life, leaving Anna whom he loves and her world behind forever. He chose Anna.
• Say It with Hearts: Becomes a Running Gag with Anna, and eventually Yuri and Mitsuba start doing it.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Shono has this ideology. It ends up killing her.
• Stalker with a Crush: One of Yuri's classmates, played rather cruelly when Anna kills her to keep her quiet about seeing Yuri bury his mother.
• Storming the Castle: Anna, Sergeant Shono, and Inspector Nishikama infiltrate the Kakusei building for their own reasons.
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Yuri's mother in his hallucinations.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Where to start... Anna smokes, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
• True Companions: In a twisted, bizarre form. Also a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
• Unholy Matrimony: Anna and Yuri. And becomes even more true as the manga goes on.
• Waif Fu: Though not as unrealistic as some examples, some of the stunts Anna pulls are truly impressive considering that she's maybe 100 pounds soaking wet.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Yuri and Mitsuba prevent a bombing at an elementary school, due to Anna's subtle machinations. See Friend to All Children above.
• Yakuza: Kominato and Moe are both under the employ of the Usuba Group, who are rivals to the Kakusei Group.