History Recap / LoveDeathAndRobotsGoodHunting

* FullConversionCyborg: Yan is forced against her will to become a steampunk cyborg to appeal to the mayor's sexual desires. After killing him, she approaches her human friend, who uses his mechanical prowess to revert her back to her fox form.

* MagicFromTechnology: Liang builds an automaton that is able to mimic the shapeshifting of a ''huli jing'', allowing Yan to hunt.

* PunchCatch: After finally having enough of it, Yan intercepts another punch to her face mid-air, crushing the hand of the Governor. And he's stupid enough to take it for a foreplay.
* RapeAsDrama: Sexual assault is featured as part of the female character's plot.

* RelationshipRevolvingDoor: Yan and Liang are PlatonicLifePartners, but aren't actively pursuing any stable contact or relationship, instead just meeting each other by chance once per few years. Despite being very close, they never stay together for long (in the short story they end up living together for over a year, but that's about it).

* RobosexualsAreCreeps: Yan is forced to work as a prostitute in Hong Kong after losing her magical powers and eventually becomes the mistress of the British governor's son, who has a robot fetish and [[UnwillingRoboticization turns her into a cyborg against her will]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Yan encounters a big problem when she finds herself stuck as a human because she has no talents or skills to make her employable - her human form is just a disguise after all. Prostitution is literally her only viable means to survive, [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty which has it's own problems...]]

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Protagonists and (most) background either look really good (e.g. Liang, who after the time skip is muscular and sexy and Yan, who is also really sexy after the time skip) or at least more or less normal, the villains (especially the governor and the surgeons who performed the [[UnwillingRoboticisation forced cyborgization]], including [[BritishTeeth having shitty teeth]]) look ugly as hell.

During the British occupation of Hong Kong, a Chinese spirit hunter's son forms a bond with a shapeshifting ''huli jing''. Based on [[http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/good-hunting-part-1-of-2/ the short story of the same name]] by Ken Liu.

* FormulaBreakingEpisode: The only episode that isn't futuristic in nature and starts out as outright fantasy.

* {{Irony}}: A HunterOfMonsters and {{Fantastic Fox|es}} end up as best friends and confidants. More - he's protective toward her, even before the British come into the picture. Then they band together against people who made their lives miserable. And all of it lampshaded by Liang.

* AlternateHistory: The story is set sometime during the late 19th (or early 20th) century in [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Qing Dynasty]] [[ImperialChina China]] / {{UsefulNotes/British|Empire}} UsefulNotes/HongKong, except that it contains [[FantasticFoxes huli jing]] (and implicitly other magical beings) coexisting with super-advanced {{steampunk}} technology.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Yan express her wish to be able to turn into her [[FantasticFoxes real form]] once again and prowl over the roofs of Hong Kong, climbing to the highest tower. She gets her wish fulfilled - after suffering from UnwillingRoboticisation and then Liang redesigning her new body.

* EvilColonialist: The British, who are portrayed as deprived, power-hungry and insatiable. Even the less awful of them are still condescending racists.

* AttemptedRape: At the end of the short, Yan is about to attack some thugs who are attempting to gang rape a woman.

* FantasticFoxes: ''Huli jing'', a Chinese fox spirit similar to {{Kitsune}}, alleged to feed on the yang of men. In this case they hear the voices of men obsessed by their beauty, which spirit hunters mistake for bewitching them.

* NoNudityTaboo: Being nonhuman, Yan thinks nothing of being in her birthday suit when she meets Liang for the first time. Even as she unwillingly becomes more human, she often wears a loose kimono that exposes most of her skin. For his part Liang is attracted to her at first, but becomes a platonic friend as time goes on and shows no reaction to seeing her naked.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The only episode that isn't futuristic in nature and starts out as outright fantasy.

* RealityEnsues: Yan encounters a big problem when she finds herself stuck as a human because she has no talents or skills to make her employable - her human form is just a disguise after all. Prostitution is literally her only viable means to survive, [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty which has it's own problems...]]
** Likewise, Liang and his father ends up jobless once TheMagicGoesAway. Since their only skills were in [[HunterOfMonsters fighting the supernatural]], they lack any "real" abilities. Liang eventually becomes a maintenance worker. In the short story his father hangs himself due to losing his respect and source of income.

During the British occupation of Hong Kong, a Chinese spirit hunter's son forms a bond with a shapeshifting ''huli jing''. Based on the short story of the same name by Ken Liu.

* AdaptationDistillation: [[http://strangehorizons.com/fund_drives/2012/special-issue-hunting1-f.shtml The original story this is based on]] wasn't terribly long to begin with, but certain elements are trimmed down. These include the explanation as to why magic is dying (British railroads are damaging the chi pathways), a scene where colonialists destroy a Buddha statue (which makes the focus on the Buddha statue when Yan murders the Governor more significant) and why ''Huli jing'' answer people who call for them (being foxes they have hypersensitive hearing). A minor plot point of the British being [[FlatEarthAtheist Flat-Earth Atheists]] is also ommited.

* LuminescentBlush: Liang develops one when he meets Yan -- who had just transformed from a fox into a naked girl -- for the first time. While debunking his preconceived beliefs about ''huli jing'', Yan scornfully takes this as evidence that he's attracted to her.

* AdaptedOut: The survey engineer planning railway and the owner of the Peak Tram are both absent. So is [[spoiler: the governor's son]].

** The governor is only mentioned in passing in the original story - it's [[spoiler: his son]] that uses and abuses Yan.

* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Liang's father is dead in both versions, but in the short story [[spoiler: he hanged himself when being no longer needed due to TheMagicGoesAway]].

** Likewise, Liang and his father ends up jobless once TheMagicGoesAway. Since their only skills were in [[HunterOfMonsters fighting the supernatural]], they lack any "real" abilities. Liang eventually becomes a maintenance worker. In the short story [[spoiler:his father hangs himself due to losing his respect and source of income]].

* UnwillingRoboticisation: Yan is forcibly converted into a cyborg by the [[{{Robosexual}} machine-obsessed governor]]. Liang removing part of her face to reveal machinery implies that there's almost no organic parts of her body left.
** This is still somehow ''better'' situation than what's done to here in the short story. [[spoiler: After she's drugged and gets her legs replaced with prosthetics, she's given a [[SadisticChoice "choice"]]: get the prosthetics removed and be cast away on streets as a cripple or ''willingly'' allow complete violation of her body, with more and more of it being turned into a machine]].

* AdaptedOut: The survey engineer planning railway and the owner of the Peak Tram are both absent. So is [[spoiler: governor's son]].

* {{Steampunk}}: In this case, the sub-genre of Silkpunk -- steampunk technology with British-ruled Hong Kong at the turn of the century.