Death Jr.
He looks like a walking pirate flag!—The Seep
Forget everything you thought you knew; it turns out that The Grim Reaper is actually a pretty nice guy. Sure; his job involves collecting the souls of the deceased, but he's also happily married, with a son, and enjoys spending quality time with his family. His son, the titular star of the series, is the same—but a great deal more naive.
Together with a Ragtag Band of Misfits who look about as bizarre as himself, Death Jr. goes on various misadventures (some of which he or Pandora Boxley arguably caused to escalate in the first place), with a good dose of humor and violence along the way.
Originally an action game by Backbone Entertainment released for the PlayStation Portable, Death Jr. was intended to branch out into its own massive, media-branching franchise, with the first adaptation being a graphic novel written by Gary Whitta, and illustrated by Ted Naifeh. While the video game recieved mixed reviews (the general consensus is that it delivers in the action department, but doesn't really take advantage of its universe to convey an interesting plot), the graphic novel was very well-reviewed, boggling to those people who barely even knew the game exists. Both the game and graphic novels recieved sequels, many an arguable improvement from their predecessors, although they didn't come close to pushing the series into the mass-franchise the creators had hoped. Perhaps out of realization that the PSP wasn't a big success, the series abandoned its original exclusive deals with Sony, and began to appear on Nintendo platforms. Unfortunately, when Backbone Entertainment was bought by Namco soon afterward, it seemed to force the franchise into limbo, but hopefully not forever.
Games in the Death Jr. Series:
- Death Jr. The First game and the beginning of the series. For the PSP.
- Death Jr: Roots of Evil. The sequel. made Pandora a playable character. Originally for the PSP; later ported to the Wii with improved graphics and motion controls.
- Death Jr and the Science Fair of Doom. For the DS.
Books in the Death Jr. Series:
- Death Jr. Volume One. The first book, in which Death Jr. inadvertantly screws up the laws of life and death.
- Death Jr. Volume Two. In this book, Death Jr. is tempted by the evil Bureaucracy; the long-lost fifth horseman of the apocalypse, into screwing his father over; together they must set things right again.
- Pandora: A Death Jr. Manga. Predictably, this is A Day in the Limelight for Pandora, in which she must save Death Jr. from an evil Clingy Jealous Girl.
- Death Jr. and the Cryogenic Storm. The proposed third book in the series, which unfortunately was put on hold indefinitely after Backbone was bought-out.
- Action Girl: Pandora becomes one.
- All Myths Are True: Though some of them have been tampered with in rather amusing ways.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: In the first game, at least.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: Death Jr. and his friends.
- Crapsack World: Debatable. Though it's dark, it's not without fun, and not without morals.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Death, Death Jr, and their friends...although the Seep is still a Jerkass.
- Deadpan Snarker: The Seep. Sometimes moves out of the "Deadpan" territory, though.
- Dead Baby Comedy: Fortunately not the only type in the series, but a bit of an issue in Volume One, with a rather macabre Running Gag about DJ's cat dying.
- The Seep ought to be mentioned too, for the sake of being a pickled fetus, though technically he isn't dead. (He is quite a comedian, though!)
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: See the trope below.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: Unless you died, of course.
- Emo Teen: Stigmartha.
- TV Genius: Smith.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Pandora claims to have learned martial arts from playing Street Fighter. As such, she's given names to her moves and frequently calls them out.
- Meaningful Name: Pandora Boxley is named after the legend of Pandora's box. Stigmartha is a pun of "stigmata." Smith and Weston are named after a firearms manufacturer—though why is not explained.
- They're inventors who handle DJ's weapon upgrades.
- Perky Goth: Pandora qualifies; Stigmartha...not so much.
- The Grim Reaper: And his wife and son.
- They Killed Kenny: Pandora has died and recovered twice in the series.
- Ugly Cute: All of the kids could qualify, although many of them are far more on the side of cute, despite being dark. Exception below, however...
- Uncanny Valley: Though Pandora is pretty cute in the 2-D art, her 3-D model is rather horrifying, even in the Wii version.
- You Are Grounded: Happens a fair amount to DJ—perhaps unsurprisingly, as his actions have a tendency to put the world at jeopardy.