Hyde and Closer

Magic and killer teddy bears, nice mix!

Men aren't people who spend all of their time thinking of themselves, ya know.

Thirteen-year-old Closer Shunpei, commonly called Shun, is not exactly what you'd call a prodigy. In fact, he is a klutz, and a coward to boot. He is fully aware of this, but doesn't really have the motivation to do anything about it. That is, until a living monkey doll attempts to kill him, saying that if he is killed, any magician who kills him will be granted immense magical power, because as it turns out, he is the grandson of one of the most powerful mages in the world. However, even though Shun is now the target of nearly all the magicians world-wide, he is not alone; his teddy bear, Hyde, comes to life in order to man Shun up for the challenge ahead, and to top it off, Hyde's magic weapon is a chainsaw stuffed inside of him called Texas Chainsaw.

Full title: Magical Ban Removal!! Hyde and Closer. Has been picked up by Viz Media and now available for purchase in the west.

Tropes used in Hyde and Closer include:

• A Boy and His X: A boy and his magically-animated chainsaw-wielding teddy bear!
  • You mean his magically-animated chain-smoking chainsaw-wielding teddy bear!
  • With a Nice Hat!
  • And who drinks honey. With an ice cube. As if it was bourbon. Top that.
  • A Boy and his manly teddy bear, that teaches the previously mentioned boy the values of a true man, acts like a dapper gangster and basically, if he was a baby instead of a bear, this series would be Reborn. Said teddy bear also is/does everything stated above. Jenga.
• Apologizes a Lot: Pacqwa
• The Atoner: Kazan
• Badass: Hyde fills the series' badass quota most of the time, but Closer has his moments as well.
• Big Bad: The Watchman
• Big Damn Heroes: How Hyde shows us he isn't just a stuffed teddy-bear. ^{[dead link]}
  • They don't get much more BDH than this. ^{[dead link]}
• Catch and Return: Closer obtains an artifact that allows him to capture the force of an enemy's attacks, store it, then return it, right back into his enemy's face. It's power is limited, though, to the battery life of the artifact, which is a cell phone. However, while it has battery power, it can contain an enormous amount of force, even up to containing the force of a thrown house and sending the power right back into the face of the doll that threw it. During the battle with Watchman's first servant, the battery ran out of power, so we can only hope that Closer can get a recharge.
• Chainsaw Good: Hyde, without a shred of doubt.
• Catch Phrase: "I guess this lesson was too heavy for you; smell you later!"
  • Lampshaded in one chapter when Closer asks if he can say it this time.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Closer, as part of his Cowardly Lion status.
• Complete Monster: Asmodai and Lonoa. To wit, Asmodai killed five innocent survivors in an accident with his magic abilities, including his own mother, who was pregnant with him at the time simply because they forgot to count him as a survivor. And Lonoa's only joy in life is to watch living things slowly decay and die. Even the Watchman says that they deserve the moniker of "true evil", and he's their boss!
• Cowardly Lion: Closer, Closer, Closer. Runs away when he can, but willingly faces fear and pain if it means he can save his friends. Hyde tries to knock his cowardly tendencies out of him.
• Creepy Doll: All over the place.
• Crazy Awesome: Hyde, no contest. Magically animated teddy bear? Check. Fights with a chainsaw that is stored in his back, and is three times his size? Yup. Is also our hero's teacher of magic (and life in general)? Oh yeah.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: The way Closer finds out that his experiences in Chapter 1 weren't All Just a Dream.

"A man takes his eggs fried and in silence!"

• Defeat Means Friendship: Closer manages to gain a few allies as a result of sparing their dolls rather then destroying them.
• Dem Bones: Shakka-Shakka Mekki the Mambo Skeleton.
• Fighting Series
• Funny Afro: Ana's is part of her backstory.
• Heroic BSOD: Closer suffers this after Hyde is cut in half from their first fight with The Watchman.
• Heroic RROD: Tomiko manages to gain a more human-like form that increases her attack power at the cost of Shindou's lifeforce, turning him into an old man; luckily for him, the effects are reversed when she changes back.
  • Hyde counts, too. His magic is a battery-style type, meaning he runs on a limited amount of magic which will eventually burn out. The harder Hyde fights, the more magic he uses, and the closer he gets to becoming inert.
  • Fixed with Hyde, now that Closer is using his own magic to power Hyde instead.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Whenever a curse doll's core (which is the only thing keeping them moving) gets destroyed, the curse rebounds on the human that was controlling it and causes them bad luck, or even raw physical injury.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: The only explanation as to how Hyde can fit a big honking chainsaw in that small body of his.
• I Lied: The whole reason magicians are after Closer in the first place is because The Watchman lied to the entire wizarding world, saying that killing Closer would grant them the power of the Shunpei clan. In truth, Watchman was just using Closer as bait to lure out his grandfather.
• Incendiary Exponent: The climax of Hyde's fight with Tomiko.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Hyde's weapon is called the Texas Chainsaw. I wonder what movie THAT name was inspired from...
• In Medias Res: The second half of the series actully begins with Closer and his bunch finding the Resentment egg and initiating the final battle. The story then stops just as thing are about to get crazy and flashes back to what happened between the end of the first half up to that current point.
• The Idiot From Osaka: Ana speaks in the Osakan dialect, expressed as a southern accent, even though she's from Mexico.
• Killer Rabbit: Hyde and a number of the dolls he and Closer face.
• Nice Hat: Look at the page picture and take a guess.
• No Fourth Wall: Chapterr 49 has The Watchman himself address the reader regarding the existence of true evil. He then goes to narrate the story of a boy who was so vindictive that even as a fetus he used his magic powers to curse and kill five people...inluding his own mother who at the time was pregnant with him. After that he tells us the story of a little girl who had been raised by a cult and was so warped by her experiences there that only joy in life now is to watch living things decay and die. The Watchman then concludes by asking the reader if this people do not deserve the moniker of "true evil", and then revealing that "Even as we speak, they are working by my side, ACTING AS AGENTS TO FURTHER MY GRAND DESIGNS!!"
• Prehensile Hair: Tomiko, Shindou's doll, has this as her usual attack.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Egg containing "Resentment" which is what Watchman is after and wishes to break in order to destroy humanity.
• Shonen Upgrade: Texas Chainsaw HURRICANE!
• Shout-Out: Texas Chainsaw, huh? Gee, I can only wonder where that came from.
  • Desmond was surprisingly looks similar with Marvin The Martian.
• Slasher Smile: From Hyde, it's generally a clear sign that you'd better start running.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle: For a moment, it looks like the series is going to end without Resentment being unleashed and without ever having to fight the Watchman, but then suddenly, Resentment cracks open and a monster starts climbing out, the Watchman grins, saying that it's time, and then you get a To Be Continued. Oh Crap.
• You Shall Not Pass: One of Closer's powers is to create a barrier around himself and others to avoid attacks. It doesn't always work, though.
  • It's also able to use it to contain enemies, in order to prevent them from attacking.
• You Suck: This is the case with Shun early in the manga.