Tantei Gakuen Q

Detective School Q or Tantei Gakuen Q is a 22 volume manga by Seimaru Amagi that ran from 2001 to 2005. It was adapted into television in 2003, albeit incompletely, spanning a mere forty-five episodes covering only the beginning of the manga, leaving out most of the plot. Later, the series was also adapted into a live action drama.

This story involves a group of students called the Q class of Dan Detective School, founded by Retired Badass Detective Morihiko Dan, the best detective in Japan. These students, led by Kyū Renjō, form a Five-Man Band and are task to solve seemingly unsolvable mysteries, as well as to battle a criminal organization led by Pluto who had a past with Morihiko Dan and a mysterious connection with one of the students...

Now has a character sheet that could really use some love.

---

Detective School Q provides examples of:

• Action Girl — Shino and Yukihira, though each gets hit with the Distress Ball at least once.

• Adrenaline Makeover — Subverted. Kuniko drastically changed her looks between a very traumatic incident and her arrival to Class A, but it takes her much more than that to fully blossom.
• Affably Evil — Anubis
• Becoming the Mask — Ryu was supposed to be The Mole, but he fell in love with Kyuu grew fond of Kyuu, Megu, Kazuma and Kinta for real. as time passed.
• Break the Cutie — More than once case is a painful, slow, tear-jerking breaking process for either victims, Sympathetic Murderers or witnesses, the top examples being Miyo Fuuma, the three Ichinose siblings, Kuniko Tooya, Mitsuru Hoshou and both her boyfriend and her half-sister Arisa, Midori Tachikawa, and Yuri Hitsuji. And in-story, Ryu gets progressively broken as he develops more.
• Brown Note — The "Banquet of Evil" violin solo drives a violinist into increasing insanity as soon as he hears it, and it's mentioned that a mysterious person is forcing three other people to hear it as well through cellphone calls. The reason? It was the favorite musical piece of a brilliant player who was handicapped and killed herself... after an horrible trap staged by the other four (it was actually three because her boyfriend has never considered that this could lead to tragedy). Who end up murdered by the girl's fellow violinist and boyfriend. And had he not done it, they would've died at the hands of the girl's half-sister.
• The Cameo: You can find a cameo of Kindaichi Hajime among the wave of people taking the exam in the first chapter.
• Chick Magnet — Ryu. Older women, young girls and little girls blush at the sight of him.
  • If you count the Ho Yay with Kyuu and the Foe Yay with Anubis, he falls squarely into Even the Guys Want Him.
• Cut Short — The anime faithfully followed the manga and was on track towards greatness when it literally committed suicide overnight, abruptly cutting short at a point in the manga where the real story was hardly beginning to unfold, and we mean almost 2/3rd of the plot, leaving virtually every damn thing in the air, and throwing in a Gainax Ending on top of that. And it ruined all prospects of the series making it to the top of the popularity charts. Considering the manga's incredible plot and characters, the fans were not pleased at all.
  • What makes this even more regrettable is that the manga has never been completely translated to this day.
  • Not to mention replacing Kerberos with a villain who didn't have even one quarter of his charisma. We never saw King Hades, and even the ships weren't developed beyond Ship Tease before they went down with it.
• Cute Bruiser — Kuniko, when she stops cowering after someone else's back.
• Dark Action Girl — Kaori
• The Dog Was the Mastermind - There's an epic "Whaaaat!?" moment when the high priest behind five murder cases in the Kamaikakushi village is revealed to be the cute and innocent Fuuma Mio, who later turns out to be another Anti-Villain as a result of More Than Mind Control that Broke the Cutie.
• Evil Is Cool: Kerberos, this guy has Magnificent Bastard status among the fans.
• Evil Is Sexy: Kerberos again. He probably has more fans than even the heroes.
• Expy - Kintaro to Kindaichi Hajime; he even has a similar Catch Phrase.
• Faking the Dead — The businesswoman Hanayo Ichinose tried this to save her enterprise. She got plastic surgery and returned under a disguise to stop her Smug Snake sister's machinations and check on her three children... and ended up dead because the two eldest didn't recognize her and thought she was the Smugsnake's accomplice, so they killed her to protect their baby sister.
• Faux Action Girl — Kuniko has a huge Action Girl potential, but is too emotionally frail. Somewhat understandable if we consider her past, though.
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero - Kyu
  • The Lancer - Ryu Amakusa
  • The Big Guy - Kintarō Tōyama
  • The Smart Guy - Kazuma Narusawa
  • The Chick - Megumi Minami
  • Mentors - Morihiko Dan, Katagiri-sensei, Nanami-sensei, Hongou-sensei.
• Forced to Watch: In the Boarding School case, Megumi is kidnapped and then Bound and Gagged, having to helplessly watch as her masked kidnapper (and the culprit) murders the Student Council President.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Hongou-sensei not only has a huge scar on his face, but his hands and arms are covered with knife marks.
• Guile Hero (All of them)
• Handicapped Badass (Dan is a Guile Hero who's wheelchair-bound and is still a pretty good shot.)
• Heir to the Dojo — Kuniko, whose family has an Aikido dojo
• Hot Springs Episode — Two murders happen in onsens. Only one of these mini-arcs has fanservice, as Kyuu and Kinta first fail to get Ryu naked in the springs and then try to peep on a Sexy Secretary bathing on the other side... and end up beaten by Megu, whom they get to see in the nude. The incident is actually plot-relevant, as it drops hints about the murderer - said Sexy Secretary.
• Ho Yay (Kyuu and Ryu. And how.)
  • Forget subtext, in the anime it's practically explicit. Ryuu's first apparition says all.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Kerberos.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies Satoru had to leave Kyuu and his mom when he started investigating Meiousei/Pluto, only watching them from a distance. The single time he attempted to approach little Kyu directly, he was kidnapped by Meiousei, and Satoru went all Papa Wolf on them and singlehandedly got his kid back. Few later, though, he was killed.
• Manchurian Agent - Pluto does this all the time to its clients and its own agents as a failsafe. On the trigger, they'll kill witnesses, or themselves, or go insane... it's not pretty.
• Karma Houdini: Kerberos. As if being Magnificent Bastard wasn't enough, he escapes the heroes at the end too.
• Master of Disguise - Nanami, and pretty much every member of Meiousei, specially Kaori.
• Madness Mantra - Kaori's "Tartarus... Tartarus... Tartarus..."
• Meitantei - the genre
• More Than Mind Control - Apparently, what made Miyo Fuuma a murderer.
  • Also applied on several culprits, courtesy of Meiuosei itself. Basically, they give you the means to carry your revenge and keep an agent close as a monitor, but when said revenge is foiled, they force you to either kill yourself or murder the person who blows your cover. And if a Meiousei agent is captured by the police, another will activate some sort of Mind Control that will make them kill themselves as well.
• Murder.Com
• Names to Know In Anime: Megumi Ogata (Kyu), Koichi Tochika (Ryu), Hideo Ishikawa (Kintaro), Tomoko Kawakami (Kazuma), Houko Kuwashima (Megu), Hideyuki Tanaka (Morihiko Dan), Aya Hisakawa (Shino Katagiri), Shinichiro Miki (Kotarou Nanami), Hikaru Midorikawa (Anubis), Nobuo Tobita (Saburomaru), Tomoko Kaneda (Kuniko), Satsuki Yukino (Sakurako Yukihira), Akira Ishida (Masami), Mariko Kouda (Mitsuru - she's also Playing Against Type)
• Open-Minded Parent — Kyuu's mother
• Pettanko — Sakurako Yukihira, much to her displeasure.
• Photographic Memory — Megu's main ability. Also, Shino's deceased Unlucky Childhood Friend Masami, whose murder is resolved by Class Q.
• Plucky Girl — Megu, Yukihira, Shino Katagiri. Kuniko wants to become one, but she still has a long way to go.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni — Nanami and Tatsumi
• Self-Made Orphan — Akihiko and Kunihiko Ichinose thought they were protecting their little sister Kaoru from their Smug Snake aunt Sachiyo by killing her accomplice. Said accomplice was their mom, Hanayo, under a disguise. Whoopsie.
• Sexy Secretary — Yuri Hitsuji. Who also happens to be the Sympathetic Murderer of the case she's in.
  • Shino Katagiri can be considered as Morihiko Dan's sexy secretary too.
• Shipper on Deck — Megu's Cool Big Sis Akane ships Kyuu/Megu.
• Shrinking Violet — Kuniko
• Smug Snake — Many culprits, but specially Sachiyo Ichinose.
• Team Dad — Morihiko Dan, and Tatsumi Hongou is a sterner version. Nanami counts more as Big Brother Mentor due to his closer approach.
• Team Mom — Shino Katagiri
• Title of the Dead - Episode 22 "Dinner of the Dead", that deals with the murder of a food connoisseur.
• Tsundere — The Type B Megu is all sweet and light and gentleness, until Kyuu comments on her panties or flirts with other girls. Yukihira is a Type A, quite more competitive and tsuntsun.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit — Midori Tachikawa, Kazuma's favorite teacher at his elementary school, did this to get money from life insurance. Which wasn't even for herself, but for her seriously ill baby's treatment. Kazuma unmasks her, but also makes sure she gets a lighter sentence and the money she needs for her child.
• Yamato Nadeshiko — Kyuu's mom, to a degree
• Zettai Ryouiki — For a Shrinking Violet, Kuniko manages to hit a nice Grade B.
  • Sakurako Yukihira also qualifies for a Grade A.