Tokko (manga) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a Japanese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

written and illustrated by Tohru Fujisawa. An anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

series directed by Masashi Abe, animated by AIC Spirits and Group Tac

Group TAC

Group TAC was a Japanese animation and computer graphics studio located in Shibuya, Tokyo, and founded in 1968. They have worked on movies, videos, TV shows, and commercials, and have contributed to all stages of the process, including planning, production, sound effects, and so on...

and based on the manga first aired in Japan on April 15, 2006 and ran for 13 episodes. The anime series has been licensed in the United States by Manga Entertainment

Manga Entertainment

Manga Entertainment is a producer, licensor and distributor of Japanese animation in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand...

, with its first volume released on March 20, 2007. SciFi Channel (now Syfy

Syfy

Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

) aired all 13 existing anime episodes of Tokko as part of its Ani-Monday line-up from June 18 to September 24, 2007 at 11:30 p.m. EST. Episode 1 was shown again at 12:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, April 22, 2008. Chiller

Chiller (TV channel)

Chiller is a 24-hour American cable and satellite television channel specializing in horror and suspense programming. conglomerate NBCUniversal.- Origin :...

, another NBC Universal

NBC Universal

NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...

network, began airing the series at 2:00 AM, ET on Monday, June 14, 2010 (11:00 PM, PT, Sunday, June 13, 2010). Episodes 1-4 were aired in order, followed by a repeat of the same episodes immediately afterward. Episodes 5-8 aired on Monday, June 21, 2010 at the same times the first four episodes aired. Episodes 9-13 aired on Monday, June 28, 2010.

Background

Officially known to the general public as Special Mobile Investigation Troops Second Division, Special Public Safety Task Force, or Section 2 under the supervision of the Public Security Intelligence Agency

Public Security Intelligence Agency

The is the national intelligence agency of Japan. It is administered by the Ministry of Justice in the government of Japan, and is tasked with internal security and espionage against threats to Japanese national security based on the Subversive Activities Prevention Act.As the national agency with...

after the Special Mobile Investigation Troops relinquished, with some of its members recruited from the police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

force. It was established after the Machida massacre was secretly investigated to discover that the perpetrators were demon

Demon

call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...

s from the netherworld

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

, brought into reality by the actions of alchemists creating the "Box of Dirge" (or "Druj", as the DVD English subtitles say) to summon a devil, with each of the 108 pieces being taken by a powerful Phantom to ensure the pathway remains open. Over time, the pieces were gathered and another gate was opened at Machida, with many of its residents slaughtered by the demons that emerge. Under the command of Superintendent Ryoko Ibuki, she had recruited promising members, who happened to be survivors of the Machida massacre, such as Kureha Suzuka and had them trained to use melee weapons such as swords and daggers to dispatch the greater Phantoms, along with their lesser Human Face larva parasites, that were coming out of giant holes caused by unnatural earthquakes in Japan's Kanto region since most firearm

Firearm

A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...

s do not incapacitate or kill them.

They operate similarly to the MIB

Men in Black

Men in Black , in American popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...

in the Men In Black movies

Men in Black (film)

Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent D'Onofrio. The film was based on the Men in Black comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, originally published by Marvel Comics. The film featured the creature effects...

or the Center in the Martin Mystery

Martin Mystery (animated series)

Martin Mystery is an animated television series by Marathon Production. It is loosely based on the Italian comic, Martin Mystère.-Plot:...

series, arriving moments after the demons are in the confirmed area or have left the said area. Section 2 also has a technical support staff

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

, mostly researchers and forensic scientists that quietly dispose of bodies, either infected by the demon

Demon

s or were attacked by the former, or demon body organs including Human Face larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

s that were killed by Section 2 members during their operations. The unit is backed by a small number of wheeled armored vehicles and have officers dressed in black suits.

Their actions have come under harsh criticism from certain officers, including Kaoru Kunikida, for conducting their operations in secretive manners and for covering up the deaths of either civilian

Civilian

A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...

s or police officer

Police officer

A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...

s, informing the public via news releases that deaths or injuries caused by demons were done by armed or insane criminals.

Plot

During the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, a wealthy family had a puzzle box created in order to gain immortality, not knowing that it would in fact open a portal to the demon world. 108 demons were unleashed, shattering the device into 108 fragments which they then absorbed. Once extracted from demons and reassembled, the 108 fragments can be used to close the demon's portal, which if allowed to grow will result in the destruction of all humans on Earth.

A young man named Ranmaru Shindo lives with his younger sister. They moved from Machida (a city located in the western part of Tokyo’s greater metropolis) 5 years earlier, after the massacre of their parents in their apartment complex, which was attacked and overrun by unknown assailants who ruthlessly and brutally killed almost everyone in several buildings in the complex.But in reality, someone used the puzzle box to create a portal to the demon near the Machida apartment complex, whence came the demons who killed most of the residents.
He has been having recurring dreams of a girl for some time, but they are now growing more frequent. She seems to be covered in blood holding a giant sword.

According to manga sources, the Tokko storyline takes place in the year 2011, while the massacre occurred in 2006. In the anime so far, the year has not been mentioned.

At the beginning of the tale, Ranmaru graduates from his cadet class to become a new investigator for The Special Mobile Investigation Troops First Division to avenge his parents' death. Later on the day of his graduation, he sees the girl from his dream wearing a police uniform. She is a member of Section 2, known officially as Special Public Safety Task Force, or Tokko for short, being under the eye of the Public Security Intelligence Agency. Throughout the story, it is explained that there are many rumors about Tokko, one of which is that they use swords to execute criminals and that body parts are often found at the crime scenes Tokko investigates. There are also rumors that they aren't even human.

All members of Section 2 bear a tattoo ( except for Ibuki who is not a symbiont). This is their "symbiont tattoo", which marks them as carriers of a "phantom", one of the 108

108 (number)

108 is the natural number following 107 and preceding 109.- In mathematics :One hundred [and] eight is an abundant number and a semiperfect number...

demons. Not all of the symbionts are with Section 2. A symbiont may be good or evil, but the spirit's alignment is unknown until it is awakened within the host. The tattoo also imparts a type of protection from other phantoms and expands after the phantom’s awakening. Only symbionts have the strength, speed and endurance to kill the demons with bladed weapons. Using the symbionts, Section 2 hunts down the other Phantoms, dismembering them to get the 108 fragments to close the Machida hole before it expands and the entire world is covered with Phantoms.

Characters

Ranmaru Shindo

One of the original survivors of the Machida massacre alongside his young sister Saya, he joined the police force to find out who was responsible for murdering his parents. Posted as a non-uniformed officer in the Shibuya Precinct as a detective in the Tokki division, he finds out during his work that demons from the dark realm were responsible for orchestrating various massacres in order to destroy Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Later on, he joins the Tokko division so as to save the country from being overrun by the demons. He suffers from Post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...

due to the massacre and the deaths of his parents when he and his sister were still in college and high school. He originally had brown hair, but dyed it to yellow with bits of orange after graduating from high school. His symbiont tattoo is on his right arm and a second appeared on his left shoulder after his 'awakening'.

Since he survived the Machida incident, all Phantom demons were given instruction to finish him off, as well as any other witnesses who have seen the events. As he and Saya were the only survivors of the Shindo family, the two became very close after they were tragically orphaned. It can be inferred that he has feelings for Sakura Rokujo during the series where they are alone on the roof of a building talking of how they were glad to meet. In the anime he also kisses her before taking her shard of the box.

Sakura Rokujo

One of the survivors of the Machida massacre, she was the woman haunting Ranmaru's dreams of his parents and neighbors being killed by a Phantom demon. Working in the Tokko division in the Shibuya Precinct, she handles a broadsword in dispatching the Human Face larvae zombies. Her symbiont tattoo is on her right shoulder. It is also hinted that she may have feelings for Ranmaru when she kissed him before she went into his psyche in order to help save him from being possessed. Later on, she is forced to face her own brother when symbionts inside of him have possessed him and turned him into evil. In the final episode Ranmaru stabs her with his sword (and kisses her) to gain her shard, hinting that she dies, however at the end of the episode she is laying in a hospital bed apparently in a coma then wakes up and we hear evil laughter (not Sakura's).

Saya Shindo

Younger sister of Ranmaru, she joined the police force as a uniformed patrol officer after surviving the Machida massacre with her big brother. In the course of the series, she gets wind of the demons responsible for conducting murders in Tokyo and assists her brother in eliminating them. Unlike her brother, she does not experience Post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder

as she opts to forget the memories of the events in Machida. Like her brother, she gets targeted for assassination by the Phantom demons in order to keep the real truth of the Machida massacre a secret from the public, as she was one of the survivors of the multiple murders. When not in police work or in danger from being assassinated by the Phantoms, she nags Ranmaru like a mother, such as telling him to finish his food or go have himself checked up for any injuries. She cares deeply about him and will do everything that she can to make sure that he is okay.

Kureha Suzuka

A young prodigy who joined the police force at the age of 18 with the rank of Lieutenant, she is posted in the Tokko division. Her symbiont tattoo, like Sakura, was on her right shoulder.

Her preferred weapons are two daggers that have two retractable blades. Kureha does not appear to wear a shirt with the black leather jacket and pants (which are signature to the Tokko division), revealing a black tattoo of a butterfly above her pierced belly-button. In fact the jacket is the only piece of clothing she wears on her upper body when in Tokko uniform, mostly leaving it unzipped. Originally having brown hair, she changed it to blonde after the massacre as a means of moving on after her parents were killed by Phantoms and the death of her younger brother, Akito, at her hands. Kureha is very interested in Ranmaru, especially on his looks and his history. In fact, she had kissed him when they visited the cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

where her family was resting. However, nothing more would come of this when the relationship between Ranmaru and Sakura began to flourish further in episode ten, though she would still tease and idly flirt with Ranmaru though the rest of the series.

Takeru Inukai

One of Tokko's first male officers recruited by Ryoko after demons kidnapped his sister. He had been a martial artist (implied to be kendo) before joining the police. He usually dresses in black clothing and wears black shades. He is later killed by Sakura's possessed brother back in the ruins of the Machida apartment in episode eleven.

Ryoko Ibuki

Commanding officer of the Tokko division with the rank of Major, she is responsible for the Tokko's operations in conducting anti-Phantom operations in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. She prefers guns over other weapons and has a good aim.

Kaoru Kunikida

Head of Tokki division in the Shibuya Precinct. Hates the Tokko division and its members for being so secretive, especially when his fellow officers were murdered by the Phantoms and its human-controlled slaves via Human Face larvae. He is insistent in finding out the reasons why Tokko exists and its agenda, to the cost of possibly losing his job over this. He is especially infuriated when Ranmaru leaves his division for Tokko. He appears to have a daughter named Ruru (most likely a nickname) and is also a womanizer.

Based on various side remarks on Kaoru during certain events in the series, it is apparent that he might have been a gangster in his youth before he decided to reform himself as a police officer. His rough behavior and language also fit the general stereotype of a yakuza. It is also said that his daughter "doesn't like him because he tried to get in the tub with her"

Mikae

She is Saya's childhood friend and colleague who is continually trying to be paired up with Ranmaru. She develops a crush on him later on.

Ogata

Having the rank of Councilor, he is the main link of Tokko and the government in battling the Phantom demons.

Ichiro Hanazono

Ranmaru's best friend and partner. They graduate together and are assigned to the same commander. They can be some troublemakers when together. Ichiro often calls Ranmaru a pervert and says that he has something for his younger sister. In actuality Hanazono has a crush on Saya and often gets mad at Ranmaru for always being around attractive women, stating that he used to think Ranmaru was loser. Eventually Ichiro accidentally, or rather intentionally, starts a rumor that Ranmaru is secretly dating all of the women from Tokko, including Yukino from the crime lab.

Yukino Shiraishi

The "hottie from the crime lab" as she is often referred to by Ranmaru's colleagues. Her mother died prior to the Machida incident, with her father becoming obsessed with his research soon after. Saya set her and Ranmaru up on a blind date that ended up in them finding out more about the phantoms. Later on, on a second date they were attacked by Yukino's father after he turned himself in a hybrid of human and phantom. Leaving her job awhile after, Yukino gives Ranmaru the info behind the murderer of her mother who caused the Machida incident.

Manga

Tohru Fujisawa had created a 3-volume manga series of Tokko from February 25, 2004 to April 25, 2004. The third volume, known as Phantom Hunter, is a side story detailing two siblings (male and female), who happen to be survivors of the Machida massacre. It has been said by numerous fans that it would most likely continue to be published since there are some unfilled holes in both the anime and manga series, such as their current endings.

Anime

A 13-episode anime series has been directed by Masashi Abe and had a run in WOWOW

WOWOW

WOWOW was the first private satellite broadcasting and pay TV station in Japan. It has its headquarters on the 21st floor of the Akasaka Park Building in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo...

from April 15, 2006 to July 29, 2006. Japanese DVDs have been released starting on August 24, September 21 with an additional release on November 23, 2006. It was broadcast in the U.S. on the Sci Fi Channel

Sci Fi Channel (United States)

as a part of its Ani-Monday block of anime programming from June 18 to September 24, 2007 at 11:30 p.m. EST. The anime's opening theme is "Nothing" and the ending theme is "Sherry", both by dB. The Tokko Original Soundtrack
TOKKO Original Soundtrack
Tokkos original soundtrack was released in stores across Japan on June 28, 2006 as part of its release with the TOKKO TV series. This does not include the opening and ending themes...

was released on June 28, 2006 in stores around Japan with some making its way through Amazon North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

in the subsequent months. It includes eleven tracks without the opening and closing themes from the anime.

Episodes

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Radio

A radio drama had taken place on October 11, 2006. It had briefly expanded a bit on the events after the anime had ended.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.