Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Hercule, Nero, Sherlock & Cordelia


In a World in the not too distant future, where people have "Toys", inherent supernatural powers, detectives and thieves square off. To aid the detectives in proper use of their Toys, the Holmes Detective Academy has been established. Four trainees, Sherlock Shellingford, Nero Yuzurizaki, Hercule Barton and Cordelia Glauca, have formed a unit by the name of Milky Holmes. Under the guidance of Opera Kobayashi, they seek to defeat Arsene and her band of thieves. Though they need to get along with each other first.

While conceptually based on a PSP Visual Novel, the series was Anime First. It aired in the fall of 2010 with a sequel starting in January 2012. Avaliable online through Crunchyroll and the sequel through niconico.

Tropes used in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes include:
  • Absolute Cleavage: Arsene
  • Absurd Altitude: The final battle between Arsene and Milky Holmes takes place on a chunk of rock hovering into the upper atmosphere.
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Henriette has complete control over the school and its students from her position as student council president.
  • Affably Evil: For all that she is the greatest thief ever and the eternal nemesis of both Milky Holmes and G4, Henriette generally comes off as a very nice girl, who's using tough love to help Milky Holmes get their toys back.
  • Animation Bump: Very random.
  • Anti-Hero: Kokoro Type V
  • Anti-Villain: Gentleman Thief Tvpe I
  • Apologetic Attacker: Hercule, while swinging an entire crane.
  • Arranged Marriage: Claris has one she's trying to get out of, prompting her to switch with Sherlock. As it turns out, Pero didn't want to get married either.
  • Art Shift: When Sherlock is about to use Baritsu in episode 4, her face is shown in the style of shounen fighting anime (thicker lines, bruises). Happens whenever it happens.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Cordelia is a big fan of Kobayashi Opera and she becomes his disciple.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Baritsu, secret martial art(?) taught to Sherlock by her grandfather. It requires her to hold other people's hands. And then it does nothing.
  • Axe Crazy: Milky Holmes in Season 2 after, the Phantom Thief Empire destroyed their garden.
  • Badass Adorable: In contrary with her strangely adapted anime version, Cordelia in the game version has shown to be a very capable fighter, to the point able to fight off Stoneriver quite easily and counter high kick Arsene.
    • Also Milky Holmes with their toys.
  • Balloon Belly: Milky Holmes after eating a lot.
  • Barrier Warrior: Kokoro, her Toys is creating a golden shield. So that's where the golden mask she smacks Sherlock with comes from...
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: The final battle versus Arsene takes place in outer space.
  • Beach Episode: Episode seven. Kokoro is in a School Swimsuit, among other things.
    • Ironically, while the rest of the cast appear in swimwear, Twenty is the only one who keeps his clothes on for the whole episode.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted, Cordelia looks like a mummy after she was stuck in a coffin with the creepy narcissist Twenty.
    • Also in episode 4 Sheryl after being attack by the bear was seen with blood on her head
  • Berserk Button: Stoneriver hates being called a coward, Twenty hates being called ugly, and Rat hates being called Rabbit.
    • In Season 2, they all learn to never destroy Milky Holmes' garden.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Kokoro of all people, in episode 10. It's not all that unexpected. It's her job to guard the area.
  • Big Eater: Nero. Milky Holmes in general.
  • Bishonen: Buta after absorbing the lard of the entire city.
  • Blue with Shock
  • Bokukko: Nero and Kate.
  • Brain Bleach: Sheryl whipping and dripping hot wax upon Prince Pero, who is dressed in nothing but a thong.
    • Whenever Twenty starts overacting. Which is all the time he's onscreen.
  • Brick Joke: At the end of episode 1 of the second season Milky Holmes' chicken get roasted by fire. Guess what they're eating at the start of the episode.
  • Brought Down to Normal: In the first episode, no less. Also Kobayashi's backstory in the game.
    • And in the last episode.
  • Butt Monkey: Cordelia during episode 2. This is probably a parody of the main characters of World Masterpiece Theater series, whose primary traits are perseverance and selflessness (and beauty).
  • Call to Agriculture: The first episode of the second season. To the point that they forget they're detectives.
  • Cameo: Kobayashi in his commercials.
  • Cassandra Truth: In his first scene at the school Twenty outright states that he's a gentleman thief. One of his pupils responds that she doesn't know what he's talking about.
  • Catch Phrase: "Kokoro-chan!" "Don't call me Kokoro-chan!", an exchange that's bound to happen at any point after Kokoro appears.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The plate from the princess wedding was used to block a blow to the head from a sword.
  • Chest Blaster: Arsene Boyoyon Missile!
  • The Chew Toy: The entire Milky Holmes team, especially Cordelia and Sherlock, and don't forget Kokoro.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Mori Arty vanishes without a word at the start of season 2, only to inexplicably reappear for a gag at the end of episode 8.
    • And Opera Kobayashi is nowhere to be seen.
  • Cipher Scything: Kobayashi Opera is nowhere to be found, Sherlock Shellingford is now the main character (sort of).
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Cordelia. In fact, her delusion can manifest to certain degree in reality.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Milky Holmes are kept at the brink of starvation, living in conditions that make some prisons look luxurious.
  • Covert Pervert: Hercule?!
  • Cute Little Fang: Tsugiko
  • The Ditz: Sherlock.
  • Darkest Hour: By the end of episode 10, Milky Holmes have lost all credibility as Great Detective, unable to use their Toys at all, is expelled from the school, losing friendship with Genius 4, losing sympathy from Arsene, Losing the Team Spirit, and even Kamabokko left Sherlock in shame.
    • Episode 7 of season two has Arsene finally give up for good. Destroying the flower of hope given to her by Milky Holmes and proceeded to destroy the school and abandon the Gentleman Thieves.
  • Death Dealer: Twenty
  • Decoy Damsel: Henriette in episode 11. Yes, Arsene kidnaps herself.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Arsene crosses it in season two. Her first act after crossing it is to destroy the flower of hope Milky Holmes gave her.
  • The Ditz: Sheryl
  • Doppelganger Attack: Seen in the finale.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Henriette before her Despair Event Horizon only with Oolong Tea
  • Dying Message: When Rat has been not murdered, he writes a message that looks like "MH". It's actually I-3. Sonia's room.
  • Even Kamabokko Is Ashamed: episode 10. Kamaboko returning to Sheryl and co in episode 11 marks a turning point for the Milky Holmes.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Especially when those bears can uppercut you.
  • Expy: Don't you think that Sherlock looks like Tsukasa? And Kokoro is strikingly similar to Sousou Motoku?
    • For that matter , Saku Touyama looks a lot like Luka. One of the eyecatches even shows her as TakoLuka.
  • Failure Hero: All the heroes are constantly failing to stop the Gentleman Thieves. What's worse is that every lose is a major humiliation that's supposed to be funny.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Milky Holmes will never get their Toys back unless it's important to the plot, and even then, it's only temporary.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: Twenty
  • Foe Yay: Arsene has a clearly unhealthy fascination with Sherlock. Both Sherlock.
  • Four Is Death: There are four thieves serving as the primary villains.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble: Both Milky Holmes and the Genius 4
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sherlock is sanguine, Nero is choleric, Cordelia is melancholic and Hercule is phlegmatic.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Buta, a minor character used only for gags up that point, becomes the greatest threat to all of Yokohama in late season two. His desire for lard threatens to drain the life out of the whole city.
  • Funbag Airbag: Sherlock gets stuck in Henriette's breasts, which are animated (at that moment) to be larger and bouncier than usual.
    • This becomes a Chekhov's Gun. Sherlock realizes that Arsene's breasts are as bouncy as Henriette's. The exact same breasts, in fact.
  • Gag Boobs/Gainaxing: Henriette
  • Genki Girl: Sherlock
  • Gender Flip: Episode three of season two does this in its Eyecatch, providing more or less official male versions of Milky Holmes. The fanbase seems okay with it.
  • Gentleman Thief
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Whenever someone's toys activate.
  • Golem: The Sherlock Holmes statue in front of the school comes to life, jumps through the window (and gets a perfect 10!) then possesses his granddaughter.
  • God Is Good: The God of Lard.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: The finale sees Mary and Kate, Princess Claris, Irene, and Sonia helping the girls towards their goals, directly or indirectly.
  • Cordelia Gray Rain of Depression: Accompanying Milky Holmes' Darkest Hour at the end of episode 10.
  • Great Detective: Genderbent, chibified, and then force-fed hallucinogenic mushrooms.
  • Gratuitous English: Twenty uses a lot of English, like describing his "beautiful face and looks".
    • "CyBWA!"
    • The driver in episode 2 of season 2.
  • Hair Decorations: Mostly notably Sherlock's ginormous ribbon in her school uniform.
  • Harmless Freezing: Kokoro's karma bites her this way. She uses Talking with Signs for her usual exasperation.
  • Hammerspace: Rat's bombs, the C4 from Nero's test.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: "One heart in two bodies!", Mary and Kate. Which they will announce every time.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!
  • Hoist By Her Own Petard: Kokoro
  • How We Got Here: episode 6 of the second series.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Ever since the museum episode, Kokoro can pull a golden mask out of nowhere and uses it to hit Sherlock whenever she calls her "Kokoro-chan".
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The episodes also share their name with detective fiction.
  • Idol Singer: Kokoro in the Summer Special. She quickly gives it up when she sees G4 and Milky Holmes need her.
  • Identical Stranger: Sheryl switched with Princess Claris
  • Idiot Hero: Milky Holmes
  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me: Irene stuffs Kokoro into the trunk of her father's car and then goes home. The rest of the Genius 4 don't even notice.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Kokoro uses a Golden Budda Face to scold Sheryl.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: "My dad's company is going bankrupt" can be written in Japanese as "tousan no kaisha ga tousan", which Irene said at some point in eps 4. This is a somewhat common pun.
  • Informed Ability: Everyone. Milky Holmes, Genius 4, and the four thieves are all played up to be massively competent in some way or another. From what we see of them, this is, um, not the case.
    • Arsene finally shows she is competent in season 2. When she curbstomps everyone and destroys the school by herself.
  • Innocent Flower Girl: Cordelia's paradise is a flower garden, and she has flowers in her hair. Yet, it's subverted. She's probably the most demented member of Milky Holmes beneath her exterior.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Sherlock's, this is part of what led Milky Holmes to their Darkest Hour. Seriously, any sane human will have the Face Palm of their lives watching Sherlock's line of thought.
  • Jerkass: Nero can be quite a bit of this at times. Which is not all that surprising, considering who she is based on.
    • Kokoro, all the time. The Sick Episode is all thanks to her.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Stone River.
  • Large Ham: Twenty, Cordelia and Cherry the artist Hercule models for.
    • The driver in episode 2 of Season 2.
  • Larynx Dissonance: Arty, for some reason, is voiced by Motoki Takagi. A male voice actor.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Milky Holmes in the end after crash forgets that Henriette is actually Arsene and apparently everything about them being detectives at the start of the second season. Hercule seems to remember some of it.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: G4 knows it's going to happen to Kokoro in episode eight, and when it does, they treat it as expected.
    • In fact nearly anything bad that happens to Kokoro is her fault.
  • Last-Episode New Character: Mori Arty, the girls' new roommate, who doesn't appear until after the credits have rolled in the finale.
  • Likes Older Women: Prince Pero fell in love with Miss Marple. It was probably the Gag Boobs.
  • Living with the Villain: Arsene/Henriette is the student council president, Stoneriver/Ishinagare is a janitor, Twenty/Mr. Nijuuri is a teacher, and Rat/Nezu is a classmate of the Milky Holmes.
    • And at the end of episode 12, Mori Arty becomes Mikly Holmes' roommate.
  • Losing the Team Spirit: Happen amongst both Milky Holmes and the Thieves.
  • Luminescent Blush: Sported almost constantly by Hercule. It's her motif.
  • Mad Bomber: Rat, though of the Three Cards, he's the most ignored.
  • Made of Iron: Stoneriver
  • Magic Skirt: In episode 4 Sherlock and Kokoro end up buried head first in the ground, and in both cases their skirts stay upright.
  • Magical Girl
  • Marshmallow Hell: In episode 6 Sheryl actually gets stuck in Henriette's breasts and tries to struggle to get out, for about 20 seconds.
  • Master of Disguise: Arsene. Her disguise even allow her to be shorter and with less body mass than her normal self.
  • Master of Illusion: Arsene again, adding to her improbable disguise skill. Not that she needs it; see Paper-Thin Disguise below.
    • Arsene Illusion Toy has evolved to the point that she is now a Reality Warper.
  • Mind Over Matter: Sherlock. Sherlock Holmes shows his mastery over it in episode 9.
  • Mishmash Museum: Yokohama Museum holds, amongst other things: a desiccated corpse of an alien, the Rosetta Stone, and Venus de MiloHama, the last of which is about to be stolen by Arsene.
  • Most Definitely Not a Villain: Arsene keeps denying that she is Henriette, even after her identity's been revealed.
  • Motor Mouth: Cordelia at times
  • Mouthful of Pi: In perhaps the most extreme example, Claris (as Sherlock), only needs to say the first two digits, the ones everybody knows, to convince Milky Holmes and G4 that she isn't Sherlock.
  • Mundane Utility: During the Beach Episode Stone River uses his sword as a fishing rod.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Sherlock constantly calls Rat "Rabbit" instead, which annoys him quite a bit.
  • The Napoleon: Kokoro.
  • Nice Hat: All the girls have one in their Milky Holmes outfits, but Nero and sometimes Sherlock keep wearing it outside that. Also Twenty and Rat.
  • Noodle Incident: How Kokoro got beaten up is, to her annoyance, completely left out of the How We Got Here of s2e6 until the end.
  • Odd Job Gods: The God of Lard.
  • Off-Model: Like the animation bumps, these moments will appear at random.
  • Oh Crap: Phantom Thieves reaction to a psycho Milky Holmes after the former destroyed the latter's garden.
  • Once Per Episode: One or more members of the Milky Holmes thrown into jail. Which is hilarious, considering they are supposed to be the detectives. It's made even worse that Henriette is always behind their detainment.
  • Onee-Sama: Cordelia, and also Irene: even though she's younger than the detectives.
    • All four girls look up to Mary and Kate this way, despite the fact that they're clearly thieves.
  • Oral Fixation Fixation: Saku has a lollipop in her mouth almost constantly.
  • Otaku O'Clock
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Thieves, in their civilian identities, make no attempt at disguising themselves or acting any differently. Milky Holmes hasn't caught on.
    • Taken to an extreme when Henrietta falls ill. They find the Arsene costume in her closet, put it on her, and apparently even style her hair to match. Their conclusion? Henrietta cosplays.
  • Pet the Dog: Henriette got this when she let Milky Holmes keep Kamaboko.
    • She gets plenty of these.
    • Even after the events of episode 7 Arsene made sure that all the students except Milky Holmes were transferred to new schools without worry.
  • Pixellation: When Kokoro insults the Toy-less Milky Holmes on TV, she gives them the middle-finger... which is censored.
    • Sheryl's grandfather's mystery "medicine"
  • Playing with Fire: Rat's Fire Toy
  • Pointy-Haired Boss: Kokoro is the Apparent leader of G4
  • The Power of Friendship: Lampshaded, played straight, and parodied.
    • Absolutely DEFIED in episode 4, with a huge bribe of bananas.
  • Powers Via Possession: In episode nine, the girls get possessed by the ghosts of their grandfathers and Cordelia's grandmother (the famous detectives for which they are named) and gain some of their physical attributes in addition to their brainpower.
  • Prince and Pauper: Sherlock and her body double, Queen Claris, swap places for a day so Claris can get out of marriage.
  • Princess Curls: Kokoro
  • Psychic Powers
  • Reality Is Out to Lunch: When Henrietta/Arsene's power is out of control due to a combination of sickness and Sheryl's poisonmedicine. Everyone in the vicinity is suddenly put into a bizarre version of Momotaro. And the effect stays for sometime for the thieves.
  • Real Place Background: Season 2 episode 6 takes them to Kamakura by train, passing Enoshima island along the way, however the Great Buddha statue has been replaced by a meditating Great Detective.
  • Red Armband of Leadership: Worn by Kokoro.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted with Hercule.
  • Relationship Voice Actor: Three members of G4 are voiced by Ryoko Shintani, Yukari Tamura, and Miyuki Sawashiro, fans of Galaxy Angel knows them as Mifiuelle Sakuraba, Ranpha Franboise and Mint Blanchmanche.
  • Running Gag: Kokoro adding a zero every time she states her IQ.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: The Yokohama forests are home to bears and these in the form of giant lemmings.
  • Room Full of Crazy: What Cordelia draws during her short imprisonment includes, amongst other things, depiction of herself as Jeanne d'Arc.
  • Sequel Hook: The introduction of Mori Arty.
  • Shirtless Scene: Twenty just can't keep his shirt on. Even though he's the girls' teacher.

Twenty: You girls are just like my shirt, pathetic.

  • Shrinking Violet: Hercule
  • Shout-Out: Episode eight has the Toys Ninja Magic - Phoenix!, a combined attack out of nowhere.
  • Shout-Out Theme Naming: Every character is named after a famous character from detective fiction.
    • Sherlock Shellingford is named after (and is possibly a descendant of) Sherlock Holmes.
      • Genius Bonus: Doyle's early drafts call the detective Sherringford Holmes, a name later used by some sources to refer to his eldest brother.
    • Nero Yuzurizaki is named after and has some personality quirks of Nero Wolfe.
    • Hercule Barton is named after Hercule Poirot.
    • Cordelia Glauca is named after the detective woman Cordelia Gray.
    • The absent mentor of Milky Holmes, Opera Kobayashi, is probably named after Yoshio Kobayashi, the adopted son of Kogoro Akechi, who himself lead a boy detectives club.
    • Kokoro Akechi, Tsugiko Zenigata, Hirano Hasegawa, and Saku Touyama are named after fictional Japanese detectives Kogoro Akechi, Heiji Zenigata, Heizo Hasegawa, and Toyama no Kin-san respectively.
    • Arsène is named after the infamous Gentleman Thief Arsène Lupin.
    • Stoneriver is obviously named after the bandit Goemon Ishikawa who stole gold and valuables and gave them to the poor. His mundane alias, Ishinagare, can even be written with the kanji for Ishikawa.
    • Rat is named after Nezumi Kozo, a Robin Hood like thief. His surname translates to "mouse", even.
    • Twenty is named after The Fiend with Twenty Faces, eternal rival to Kogoro Akechi.
    • Irene Doala is obviously named after Irene Adler.
    • Mori Arty is named after Professor Moriarty, who was Sherlock Holme's archenemy.
  • Sick Episode: Episode eight. Milky Holmes gets sick (it's all Kokoro's fault) and Henriette takes care of them. Then she gets sick. Then things get weird.
  • Slapstick Knows No Gender
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: Nero is suddenly wearing glasses while reading a book for a single gag in episode 5.
  • Smashing Watermelons: Tsugiko is attempting to do this in episode seven, but Sherlock gets in the way and gets a Cranial Eruption.
  • Standing in the Hall: In episode two, though everyone foists their buckets on Cordelia.
  • Status Quo Is God: Milky Holmes regains their toys in episode 12, but loses them immediately after the battle.
  • Stealth Mentor: Henriette/Arsene.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: All the thieves' human names are rather obvious giveaways for their code names.
  • The Stoic: Saku.
  • Student Council President: Henriette.
  • Super Senses: Cordelia.
  • Super Strength: Hercule
  • Taken for Granite: Stoneriver's Toy. To be precise, he temporarily turns them into mannequins.
  • Taking the Heat: Cordelia sacrifices herself rather than let Kamaboko, who she believes to be the one thing gelling the girls together, be thrown out. Her innocence is proved and the cat is allowed, though her brief time in prison did involve Cordelia drawing a Room Full of Crazy.
  • Team Mom: Tsugiko is this to G4 in the game. She watches out for the other members of her team and is always the first in line to discipline Kokoro whenever she gets out of line.
  • Teen Genius: Kokoro constantly mentions that she graduated from Harvard at 13, but compared to what Irene pulls off, she's laughably incompetent.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: After being expelled from the school, Milky Holmes gives up. Or would have, if it wasn't for Sherlock's utter refusal to accept defeat.
  • Teru Teru Bozu: The girls hang up a bunch of these during a heavy rainstorm. Sherlock also hangs up herself.
  • Team Pet: Kamaboko, the cat Sherlock finds and brings home.
  • Technopath: Nero
  • Took a Level In Badass: Arsene and her three followers show off how much more powerful they are in Season 2 when they she fights them. Arsene wins.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Buta after becoming the fake God of Lard attempted to suck the lard out of everyone and planned to cover the world in lard in order to make a Lard Age.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: When the girls finally get their Toys back, the OP kicks in to help them.
  • The Napoleon: Kokoro
  • This Is a Drill: There a guy actually called Drill
  • This Loser Is You: Milky Holmes pretty much. Turns into a Chekhov's Gun against Buta's loser power
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Arsene wants to fight Sherlock on equal terms and won't let anything else get in her way.
  • Thunder Shock: When Milky Holmes are about to be expelled. Lampshaded by Rat, who wonders if anyone else saw the lightning.
    • Could also be foreshadowing: Look at Sherlock's eyes right before the lightning: They went into Toys mode.
    • Arsene can do this in season 2.
  • Time Bomb: In the first episode. The girls fail to defuse it.
  • Tomboyish Name: Our heroine "Sherlock" is just one of many, since the girls tend to have names that reference famous (male) detectives.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Sherlock, but especially in episode 10. It's the last straw for everyone. Even Arsene, who was awed with her altruism, got fed up with her.
  • Vague Age: According to the Milky Holmes Twitter, Sherlock and Nero are 15, Hercule is 16, Cordelia 17, and Henriette? "You should never ask a lady her age." She's young enough to be the student council president, but is also an established Phantom Thief...
  • Verbal Tic: Sherlock uses "desu" quite often.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Arsene, thanks to Sheryl. And no, it's not because Sheryl is a competent detective. Exactly the inverse, actually.
    • She gets an even worse one in season two. And this time, leaves and disbands the school for good.
  • Visible Sigh
  • Waif Fu: Hirano, and in the episode 9 of the second season she is shown practicing martial arts at a dojo.
  • The Worf Effect: Genius Four (and the rest of the Yokohama detectives) are easily defeated by the Thieves Empire in episode 11.
  • Worthy Opponent: Henriette was willing to put Milky Holmes through all that trouble to return and strengthen their Toys so she could face them on equal footing.
  • X Meets Y: Great Detective versus Gentleman Thief meets Shugo Chara filtered through Puni Puni Poemi lens.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Sherlock's shocking pink hair is the most glaring example.
  • Yuri Fan: Cordelia's "Garden of Flowers" delusions have strong Yuri undertones (and overtones).
  • Zettai Ryouiki: G4 except Saku.
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