Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok

File:Lokiragnarok.jpg

Also called Detective Loki. The original Japanese title, Matantei Loki Ragnarok, is a pun on the word Meitantei, which means "Great Detective". (Matantei being "Demon Detective Loki".)

As punishment for something really extreme, Norse god of mischief Loki is bound into the form of a human boy and is collecting the evil in men's hearts to restore his status. To accomplish this goal, he opens a detective agency. But Odin, Lord of the Gods, hates him, and is constantly sending the other gods from Asgard the World Of The Gods as assassins. After all, he's destined to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, even though he has no interest in doing so.

Meet Mayura, a paranormal obsessed Miko who bulls her way into Loki's life as his "detective assistant"...and has absolutely no idea whatsoever about the nature of his reality throughout the entire series. Along with her and an interesting group of friends and enemies (mortal and ethereal alike), Loki attempts to figure out the true nature of the situation he has found himself in... and the impact it shall have.

Tropes used in Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok include:

• Accidental Pun: "Who the Hel(l) are you?!"
• Agent Mulder: Mayura is fascinated by the occult, and is constantly looking for "Fushigi Mystery". She is completely unaware she is surrounded by gods because ironically, she is an...
• Agent Scully: Mayura is an atheist (yes, an atheist Miko) because her mother died when she was a child, despite her praying.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Explored In-Universe, as the manga shows the events of Norse mytholgy as Loki sees it. For example, Baldr's death was self-defense.
  • The manga has him commenting on how many gods in pagan religions became depicted as demons after the rise of Christianity. Subtle.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Loki doesn't want to cause Ragnarok. This is baffling to many other gods, who technically don't want it either, but are still trying to kill him because they feel that You Can't Fight Fate.
• Apocalypse Maiden
• Autobots Rock Out: When Loki summons his staff.
• Big Badass Wolf: Fenrir. Also, Hati and Skoll might qualify as lesser badass wolves.
• Big Eater: Narukami, Fenrir and Gullinbursti all have seemingly limitless stomach capacity. Lampshaded towards the end of the anime when the trio engage in a competition to ascertain who is the biggest eater of them all - with Gullinbursti emerging as the victor, the vanquished obviously feeling the after effects of chili overdose. Oh the advantages of being a machine.
• Bishonen: Loki himself in his true form. He manages to gather a following of fangirls, including Mayura.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: Skirnir, wielded by Verthandi in a futile attempt to take down Loki and Narugami, aka the thunder god Thor. Silly girl.
• Calling Your Attacks: The 'magic spell name' variety.
• Canis Major: Fenrir's real form.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Mayura, whose daydreams are far stranger than the paranormal going on all around her.
• Club President: and, barring a brief moment, apparently sole member.
• Cooking Duel: On a cooking show with deadly magic meat.
• Covert Pervert: Loki has tendencies to be one in the original manga... At least, he likes cute girls.
  • "Ignoring them is a crime!"
  • No, no, he likes adult women just as much.
  • Kotaro seems to know this about Loki, as well.
• Creepy Doll: the first episode of the anime features such a doll, Mayura's search for which takes her to Loki's detective agency.
  • There's also a less creepy take later on, when Narugami falls for a girl, Yayoi, who turns out to be the mannequin from outside the fast food outlet where he works in this episode, brought to life by the Norn sister Verthandi as part of an elaborate attempt to cause friction between Narugami/Thor and Loki. Yayoi even gets a Heroic Sacrifice, the result of which is a minor Tear Jerker.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Episode 12 features Kotarou trapped inside a castle generated by the demonic Nidhogg in the guise of Dracula in a crucifiction pose, held in place by high school fangirls. Episode 9 features Mayura bound to a tree and, in episode 25, an artificial Mayura is chained to a pole atop a hill in a graveyard and speared by at least one of two Grim Reaper lookalikes.
• Crystal Ball: Urd, in episode 15, makes use of a crystal ball when posing as a fortune teller as part of an early attempt to take Loki down.
• Cute Shotaro Boy: Loki, who can gather loads of fangirls around him sometimes.
  • Also Heimdall, though he is a considerably nastier individual and has no fangirls. (Well, in-universe, anyway...)
• Dark Magical Girl: Hel has some of the features of the trope.
• Deadpan Snarker: Loki pulls this off often and well, whether it be in the anime or manga series.
• A Death in the Limelight: Oh, hey, a Heimdall episode? ...Yeah.
• Defeat Means Friendship: The Norns though, to be fair, it was actually SEVERAL defeats...
• Disguised in Drag: Narukami plays the blushing bride at a wedding at the Daidouji shrine after Verthandi kidnaps and imprisons the real bride - a direct reference to Thor's donning the bridal garb in the Poell, though he was impersonating Freyja.
  • In the original manga, Narugami also dresses as a bride when a threat is made against her during a wedding to protect her. (It was Loki's idea, just like in the myth, as well.)
• Eat Me: Attempted by the monster in the Cooking Duel episode. It doesn't work.
• Everyone Chasing You
• Fetish: In an omake, while Yamino is explaining why Loki hates cars, Mayura and the other uniform-wearing characters begin question why they are dressed as such. Yamino explains that the artist has a uniform fetish.

"I don't get hot if there's no uniform..."

• Flash Back: Actually invoked by Loki to get Mayura's father to understand why she chose her lifestyle.
• Forceful Kiss: This happens twice to Mayura (if you've read the manga). The first time, Heimdall plants one on Mayura to screw with Loki's head. And later on into the story, Loki randomly plants one on Mayura and recieves a slap in return.
  • Not quite random. Loki had determined that Heimdall had placed Mayura under a spell through a kiss, and the way to break it was for Loki to kiss her.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: in miniature: the Norns.
• Genki Girl: Mayura Daidouji
• Giant Eye of Doom: Odin manifests as such.
• God Is Evil: Odin is pretty much insane.
• Great Detective
• Gratuitous English: Well, actually Gratuitous Old Norse - Freyr's ship Skidbladnir is erroneously called Bladskidnir in the anime.
  • It's correctly called Skidbladnir in the dub. But the Japanese version has the error. Translators have also taken note of it.
• Hell Hotel: Glitnir Mansion. It tries to eat the heroes.
• Hime Cut: the Norn Verthandi.
• Hypocritical Humor: Chapter 11. Reiya's relatives are on the hunt for the family fortune. One woman wants it so bad that she skips breakfast. Narugami wonders how someone could be that greedy for money. He then goes to stuff his face. Loki wonders how someone could be that greedy for food.
• Invisible to Normals: Ecchan
• Joshikousei
• Kill It with Water: of a sort: Loki is no fan of the wet stuff. Well, seeing as he's a god of fire...
• Large Ham: Freyr; who isn't really on anybody's "side" as just having a blast at whatever.
• Last-Episode New Character: Spica, aka Angrboda; the mother of Loki's children appears at their doorstep in the very last episode. She's more featured in the manga.
• Leitmotif: "Mama" and "Kind Memories" share the same theme.
• Love Makes You Evil: The bird keeper.
• Magic Wand: Loki's staff
• Magic Skirt: No matter how many times Mayura bends over there is never a Panty Shot.
• Master of Illusion: so, so many...
• Meganekko: A male example, Yamino
• Meido: Mayura dresses like one in chapter eleven. Loki and Narugami's reactions to her outfit are amusing.
  • Loki suggests that she wear that and do the housework. Mayura says that she's already tried. Again, an amusing reaction.
• Meitantei
• Miko: Mayura helps out at her father's temple for a friend's wedding.
• Mismatched Eyes: Loki gets these briefly, in episode 13, prior to his temporary return to his true form. His right eye becomes red, his left stays green.
• Muggle: Mayura has the magical ability of a rock. And not a magic rock (unlike her dad, who can see magic and spirits, even though he doesn't believe in them).
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Loki jokingly refers to Narugami as "Narukami." It's been used so often that even the fans forget, what his name is actually supposed to be.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Frey does this whenever Freya is nice to Loki, although he confuses it for Loki coming on to Freya.
• Mythology Gag: Loki convincing Thor to dress as a bride in-series is a nod to a similar myth, where he dressed as Freya to recover a stolen Mojinir.
• Names to Know in Anime
  • Takahiro Sakurai as adult Loki
  • Yui Horie as Mayura Daidouji
  • Shinichiro Miki as Yamino Ryusuke
  • Romi Paku as Heimdall
  • Takehito Koyasu as Frey
  • Omi Minami as Hel
  • Mamiko Noto as Verdandi
  • Mai Nakahara as Skuld
• Noble Fugitive: Loki (see above).
• Norse Mythology: The writer is rather well-versed in what they're deconstructing, actually.
• Not a Morning Person: Loki.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In chapter 7, when investigating the homicide of a hated school teacher, Yamino and Loki decide to disguise themselves as... You guess it - High school students.
• Parental Abandonment: Mayura's mother died of a Soap Opera Disease when Mayura was little.
  • Hel perceives that Loki, her father, has left her alone. It is likely that Odin has convinced her that Loki hates her.
• Peek A Boo Haircut : Heimdall
• Personality Swap: In one episode, Loki takes on the personality of whoever is near him. Hilarity Ensues.
• Phantom Thief: Freyr is introduced as such because every great detective needs to have a rival.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Mayura wears one once when Odin is speaking through her.
• The Power of Love: It lets a Distaff Counterpart of a Bob's Big Boy statue to sacrifice herself to save Narukami. It Makes Sense in Context really applies here, because that moment is practically a Tear Jerker.
• Ravens and Crows: One of Loki's occasional animal friends seems to be a crow.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: All the gods and giants stuck in human form.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: whenever a god has glowing red eyes; stuff is going down.
• Rent-A-Zilla
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Ecchan.
• Rose-Haired Girl: Mayura and Hel.
• Running Gag: Yamino's addiction to mail-order catalogs and, on a few occasions, Narukami's tendency to keep his hand on a hotplate for several seconds before noticing.
• Scaled Up: When Yamino turns into his true form.
• Screw Destiny:

"People are capable of doing things that nobody, not even the gods, can predict. These are miracles."

• Sexy Santa Dress: Mayura wears one for circumstances having nothing at all to do with Christmas.
• Shapeshifting: Yamino's true form is that of the giant Midgard serpent, Jormungand. Fenrir can change into his giant wolf form. To a lesser extent, both Loki and Freyja have adult and child forms - in the latter case the child form being Reiya Ōshima, whose form Freyja was transmigrated into.
• Ship Tease: So much between Loki and Mayura.
• Shout-Out: The entirety of Episode 17 is a reference to Iron Chef.
• Supreme Chef: Yamino
• Sweet Tooth: In the manga. Most every time we see the main trio at the Enjaku Detective Agency, Loki is seen eating ice cream sundaes, cake, or anything else that has a decent amount of glucose in it. This habit dies down a bit later on.
• Talking Animal: Fenrir
• Take My Hand : In episode 21 of the anime, as Heimdall is falling, Loki tries to save him. Heimdall slaps the helping hand away and falls to his death...
• Until episode 23 at least... Somewhat of a Contractual Revival.
• Thanks for the Mammary: This page. Briefly.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Loki gets a hard rock riff when he's about to start taking his enemies down.
• Villains Out Shopping: Heimdall, Freya, the Norns, etc all seem to forget at times that they're supposed to be killing Loki.
• Wedding Day: Of course has yet another god battle behind the scenes.
• When Trees Attack: Embla.
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Narukami aka Thor hasn't seemed to have invested much in his avatar's finances prior to arrival.
• Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Mojinir, Thor's Hammer, disguises itself as a bokken.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Subverted in that Frey calls Mayura one, but she gives little evidence of living up to the trope.
  • The "Bob's Big Girl" statue is more of a straight example when she is brought to life: kind, determined, wears a kimono, etc.