Mardock Scramble

"Why me?"

—Rune Balot

A three volume novel by Tow Ubukata (published by Viz Media's Haikasora label in English as a single omnibus volume). An OVA series was commissioned to be animated by GONZO with character designs by Range Murata, this was later cancelled and instead a series of three films were released between 2010 and 2012, animated by GoHands, with a dub + subtitled release by Sentai Filmworks in America and Canada, Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand, and Kaze in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Rune Balot is a teen prostitute whose life is saved after an attempted murder by being cybernetically enhanced. Partnered with a cyborg mouse who can transform into any tool or weapon, she has to defend her life by putting away the man responsible using her new abilities to sense her entire environment and control any nearby electronics.

Tropes used in Mardock Scramble include:

• Action Girl: Rune, when she begins to use Œufcoque for combating the Bandersnatchers.
• Bland-Name Product: The movies have Wisa (credit card).
• Body Horror: The Bandersnatch Company, in spades.
• Bottomless Bladder: Averted
• Broken Bird: Rune. Oh so much...
• Cool Shades: Shell wears a pair of color-shifting Chameleon Sunglasses.
• Conspicuous CG
• Dark Action Girl: Rune as standard, but particularly when she begins to enjoy killing the Bandersnatchers in horrible and painful ways. Also applies with regard to her disregarding Œufcoque's initial pleas for her to stop abusing his powers.
• Department of Child Disservices
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Rune's abuse of Œufcoque's powers late in the first movie is very strongly reminiscent of rape, especially considering the latter's reactions to it.
• Edible Theme Naming
  • Rune Balot (a chick boiled inside its own shell)
  • Œufcoque (from the French for soft-boiled egg, Œuf à la coque)
  • Doctor Easter
  • Shell Septinos
  • Dimsdale Boiled
  • The Bandersnatch Company: Mince, Welldone, Rare, Medium, Fresh/Flesh.
• Emotionless Girl: Balot's unique selling point as a prostitute.
• Empty Shell: In an odd protagonist version, Rune starts as this. She gets better, though.
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Paradise's security forces include flying sharks. They're perfectly friendly off-duty, though.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Welldone the Pussyhand (indeed all the Bandersnatchers)
• Eye Scream: Mincemeat the Wink
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: See directly above.
• Fingore: Medium the Fingernail
• Flying Car: Anti-gravity hover cars, to be precise. Rich people show off by getting old-fashioned cars, to show they have the money to waste on gasoline.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: The Doctor's Tech Glasses display information. This only really comes up once, though.
• Gravity Master: Boiled, and Paradise's sharks, both through the power of magnets.
• Groin Attack
• Guns Akimbo: Rune, sometimes. It makes sense, since she really is that good, and Œufcoque can generate new magazines inside the guns to reload. If she ever needs a free hand, she can just toss a gun and have Œufcoque generate a whole new one later.
• Human Resources
• Impossibly Cool Clothes
• Interspecies Romance: Rune and Œufcoque, as well as Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Second Combustion.
• It Got Worse: Rune's entire life.
• Mad Scientist: Easter is a heroic but still eccentric version of this.
• Made of Iron: Boiled and the Bandersnatchers.
• Mega Corp: OctoberCorp
• Mentor Mascot: Œufcoque
• No Periods, Period: Averted
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The Doctor and Rune look completely harmless (and Œufcoque usually looks like part of Rune's wardrobe). They are not. They particularly take advantage of this to play a couple of fools (and wardrobe) to rob a casino blind. The casino is almost certain nobody can be that lucky, but can't prove it for sure.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Sapient Cetaceans: Tweedledum the dolphin.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Humpty-Dumpty... and Charles Ludwig sounds awfully familiar.
• Technopath: Rune
• The Stoic: Boiled.
• Too Many Belts
• Uplifted Animal: Tweedledum.
• Vehicular Theme Naming: The book and chapter titles are all related the internal combusion engine.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Œufcoque is implied to be able to literally Turn into anything.
• We Can Rebuild Her