Line #153 Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ttkzjn_poster.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:KZ Detective Team.\
3	Clockwise from upper left: Uesugi, Kozuka, Kuroki, Aya, and Wakatake]]
4	[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click for the cover of ''The Missing Bike Knows'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9784062852029_l1.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
5	->I'm Aya Tachibana. I couldn't have imagined that my encounter with four super-eccentric boys would change my life so much.
6	-->-- '''Aya Tachibana''', OpeningNarration.
7
8	Aya Tachibana is a sixth-grader who frets and obsesses over {{fri\|endlessBackground}}[[IJustWantToHaveFriends ends]], [[MiddleChildSyndrome family]], grades, and more. One day, she joins the "Tantei Team KZ" with four very idiosyncratic boys she met at CramSchool. There is the glib and {{attention\|whore}}-grabbing leader Kazuomi Wakatake, the mysterious "[[TheSocialExpert expert of personal relationships]]" Takakazu Kuroki, the smart and {{stoic\|Spectacles}} [[GoodWithNumbers math genius]] Kazunori Uesugi, and the sweet-hearted Kazuhiko Kozuka who is good at [[EncyclopaedicKnowledge social matters and science]]. Aya finds her place among them as the "language expert." "Tantei Team KZ" gets involved in modern-day cases, and even if they bicker from time to time, they collaborate by pooling each of their talents and skills to solve these cases.
9
10	''Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note'' (''The Case Notebook of KZ Detective Team'') is a series of (35 as of March 2021) [[MiddleGradeLiterature tween's]] mystery novels. It is a remake of Hitomi Fujimoto's 1992-1993 {{light novel}} ''KZ Shonen Shoujo Seminar'' by Ryou Sumitaki and illustrated by Komagata. The original novels were published by Creator/{{Kodansha}} since 2011 under the ''Aoitori Bunko'' imprint, targeting a [[MiddleGradeLiterature upper-elementary audience]]. It received a animated adaptation by Creator/SignalMD[[note]]''KZ'' is its first project.[[/note]] starting from October 2015, adopting 4 of the novels as 16 9-minute episodes and aired in Creator/{{NHK}} Education. It is being [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/tantei-team-kz-jiken-note streamed by Crunchyroll]] in most parts of the world[[labelnote:list]]United States, Canada, Central and South America (including the Caribbean), South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa[[/labelnote]]. It also currently has a manga adaptation by Megu Sakura, published in the anthology ''Magazine/{{Nakayoshi}}''.
11
12	[[foldercontrol]]
13
14	[[folder:''Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note'' novels in release order]]
15	# ''The Missing Bike Knows'' (March 2011, Adapted into Manga and Anime (episodes 1-4))
16	# ''The Ripped Page Knows'' (April 2011)
17	# ''The Keychain Knows'' (May 2011, Adapted into Manga)
18	# ''The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows'' (November 2011, Adopted into Anime (episode 5-8))
19	# ''The Green Cherry Blossom Knows'' (March 2012)
20	# ''The Cinderella Express Knows''[[note]]First of a Two-parter[[/note]] (July 2012)
21	# ''The Cinderella Castle Knows''[[note]]Second of a Two-parter[[/note]] (August 2012)
22	# ''The Christmas Knows'' (November 2012)
23	# ''The Backyard Knows'' (March 2013, Adopted into Anime (episode 9-12))
24	# ''The First Love Knows, Wakatake's Chapter'' (July 2013)
25	# ''The Angel Knows''[[note]]Chronologically between ''The Backyard Knows'' and ''The First Love Knows'' with some overlap[[/note]] (November 2013)
26	# ''The Valentine Knows'' (December 2013, Adopted into Anime (episodes 13-16))
27	# ''The Moth Fly Knows'' (March 2014)
28	# ''The Princess Dress Knows'' (July 2014)
29	# ''The Blue Diamond Knows'' (October 2014)
30	# ''The Red Mask Knows'' (December 2014)
31	# ''The Golden Rain Knows'' (March 2015)
32	# ''The UsefulNotes/{{Tanabata}}-hime Knows'' (July 2015)
33	# ''The Disappearing Bishoujo Knows'' (October 2015)
34	# ''The {{Youkai}} Computer Knows'' (March 2016)
35	# ''The Authentic Halloween Knows'' (July 2016)
36	# ''The Idol Prince Knows'' (December 2016)
37	# ''The School's Urban Legend Knows'' (March 2017)
38	# ''The Dangerous Birthday Blues Knows'' (July 2017)
39	# ''The Convenience Store Mask Knows'' (December 2017)
40	# ''The Black Classroom Knows'' (March 2018)
41	# ''The Library in Love Knows'' (July 2018)
42	# ''The Disappeared Black Cat Knows'' (December 2018)
43	# ''The School's Hidden Boss Knows'' (March 2019)
44	# ''The White Witch at the School Gate Knows'' (July 2019)
45	# ''The Cursed Love Story Knows'' (December 2019)
46	# ''The Dangerous Best Friend Knows'' (March 2020)
47	# ''The Dark Sick Room Knows'' (July 2020)
48	# ''The First Love Knows, Sunahara's Chapter'' (December 2020)
49	# ''The Calendar Vampire Knows'' (March 2021)
50	# ''The Cinderella Staircase Knows'' (July 2021)
51	# ''The Haunted Spot Knows'' (December 2021)
52	# ''The Venus Helicopter Mom from Hell Knows'' (March 2022)
53	# ''The Mumbling Soul Knows'' (July 2022)
54	# ''Swooning for you: The Pink Heart Knows'' (March 2023)
55	[[/folder]]
56	----
57	The series also has several spinoff series, and the three series are collectively called ''Jiken Note Series'' :
58	* ''Genie Team G Jiken Note'' (''The Case Notebook of Genie Team G''), which centers on Aya's younger sister Nako, set at four years after the beginning of ''KZ'', when Aya is 16 and Nako is 11.
59	* ''KZ' Deep File'', a more mature mystery novel series starring the boys of the KZ Detective Team, written by Hitomi Fujimoto.
60	* ''KZ' Upper File'', novels in the same style as ''KZ' Deep File'', but with the cast in high school.
61	* ''Justice will not Allow This!''.[[note]]Sore wa Seigi ga Yurusanai![[/note]] This one, while still within the main ''KZ'' universe, has a tenuous connection with the main series: the main detective team in this series are three girls; one of them is Shinobu Nanaki's self-proclaimed suitor. Even then Shinobu isn't the most-featured Nanaki; the series focuses more on his uncle and cousins.
62	%%Series site: http://aoitori.kodansha.co.jp/series/KZ/ (KZ), http://aoitori.kodansha.co.jp/series/G/ (G)
63	[[folder:''Genie Team G Jiken Note'' and ''KZ' Deep File'' novels in release order]]
64	''Genie Team G Jiken Note'':
65	# ''The Christmas Cake Knows'' (November 2014)
66	# ''The Star-shaped Cookie Knows'' (May 2015)
67	# ''The May Donut Knows'' (May 2016)
68	''KZ' Deep File''
69	# ''The Blue Pearl Knows'' (December 2015)
70	# ''The Cherry Hill Holds a Crime'' (October 2016)
71	# ''Someday, It Will Become a Legend'' (May 2017)
72	# ''Dream of the Forest in the Fault'' (November 2017)
73	''KZ' Upper File''
74	# ''Eve of the Paradise Lost'' (June 2018)
75	# ''Hand that Opens the Closed Room'' (July 2019)
76	# ''Mathematician's Summer'' (September 2020)
77	''Justice will not Allow This!''
78	# The Disappearances on the Pearl Island (April 2022)
79	# The Dreaded Dormitories and the Disappeared Club Members (May 2022)
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	----
83	!''Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note'' contains examples of the following tropes:
84	* TenMinuteRetirement: ''The Moth Fly Knows'' have the KZ Detective Team briefly changed to KZ ''Social Service'' Team, and the five kids are already on the way to home visits to local elderly... only when their first client is not in house, while a men in his thirties said he went to hospital...
85	* ADayInTheLimelight: For ''KZ'', two examples so far.
86	** ''The Angel Knows'' is set when Uesugi [[spoiler:seeks treatment on his eyes in Switzerland]]. Thus the rest of the cast doesn't appear in this novel.
87	** ''The Blue Diamond Knows'' is written in Kozuka's voice.
88	* AcademicAthlete: Most of the boys in this series are members of KZ Soccer Team, chosen by [[CramSchool Shumei Seminar]] to be a group of this. Much of the athlete part is already evident in the anime, but the ''first page'' of every novel reminded readers that the KZ team's minimum academic requirement is... to be at top 2.2% in nationwide testing[[note]]The exact language used in the novels is the deviation value of 70; translated into statistics it is equivalent to two standard deviations above mean in a normal distribution.[[/note]]. The only exceptions are Sunahara, who ''was'' in the team but expelled due to conduct reasons, and Kozuka, who is never in the team in the first place.
89	* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: The anime turns each 200-plus-page novel into 4 9-minute shorts, so this is unpreventable. Using episode 1 as example:
90	** In the anime the teacher never explained why the boys were in the Special Class. While in Uesugi and Kozuka's case one can immediately guess (lopsided grades), and in Wakatake's case the reason was given in Episode 3 (Highly fluctuating performance, which also earned his epithet "The Wave"), the reason Kuroki is there was never discussed. In the novels, the explanation is ''absenteeism''.
91	** When Aya introduces herself in front of the boys (and take a snipe on Wakatake), the way the Anime does it makes it difficult to understand why Kuroki calls her the "[[RedBaron language expert]]" right after this. It is because the anime removed her [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojijukugo yojijukugo]] [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness dropping]] from the speech. The following is her speech, with the removed portion in italics.
92	-->'''Aya''': I'm Aya Tachibana. ''Reiseichinchaku''[[note]][[TheStoic calm and collected]][[/note]] Uesugi-kun, ''onkoutokujitsu''[[note]][[NiceGuy gentle, honest and earnest]][[/note]] Kozuka-kun, ''happoubijin''[[note]][[TheSocialExpert everybody's friend]][[/note]] Kuroki-kun, and the snobby ''goganfuson''[[note]]arrogant[[/note]] Wakatake-kun, who can't even tell the difference between a human and a mailbox... It's nice to meet you all.
93	* AlphaBitch: Naho Takeda, at least towards Aya.
94	* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: The four KZ Detective Team boys have "Kazu" in their first names: '''Kazu'''omi Wakatake, Taka'''kazu''' Kuroki, '''Kazu'''nori Uesugi, '''Kazu'''hiko Kozuka. [[spoiler:Broken as of ''The Disappearing Bishoujo Knows'', when Tazuku Mikado joins.]]
95	* AlternateCharacterReading: The first line of ''[[OpeningNarration Aya Tachibana's Monologue]]'' puts it clear: "Write it as 'KZ', read it as 'Katsu'."
96	* AmateurSleuth: The KZ Detective Team is essentially this, somehow of a modern-day ''Literature/TheHardyBoys''.
97	* AgeLift: Made necessary because it's an adaptation of an old LightNovel series for a younger audience; the age of the cast was moved down for several years. As a side effect, sometimes the cast don't act like 12-year-olds; for example, [[spoiler:in ''Tanabata-hime Knows'', a 12-year old boy made a big marriage proposal to Aya ''through her parents'', and the said parents ''do not object''.]]
98	* TheBeautifulElite: The KZ soccer team are definitively considered as the "elite" in Shumei Seminar. While they occasionally have {{gonk}} members like Onozuka, most of the current or former members are quite handsome, to the point that the only non-member male in the case, Kozuka, looks ''a lot'' plainer than the rest.
99	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: This is why Aya ignores KZ Detective Team and even her mother's warning against Sunahara; he shields her from verbal abuses at least once.
100	* BelligerentSexualTension: For those who ship, the relationship between Aya and Wakatake can be categorized as this. Wakatake is brash, impatient and InnocentlyInsensitive to the point that Aya decided to [[HeyYou call him without any honorifics]], but it's also the only pair where both have gone {{Green-eyed\|Monster}} to each other--in ''The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows'', Aya found herself in jealousy when she found Wakatake have been recently dumped, and in ''The Valentine Knows'', Wakatake (together with the rest of the KZ Detective Team) are obviously jealous when they knew Aya is far closer to Sunahara than they think.
101	* BigFancyHouse: Wakatake's large house is surrounded by olive trees, something Aya awed about when she first see it in episode 5. In particular it has a very large library, of which [[ParentalAbandonment during Wakatake's father's absence]] Wakatake uses it as the meeting spot for KZ Detective Team.
102	* BlackmailBackfire: Of the "loss of leverage" type. [[spoiler:In episode 16, as [[TheInfiltration Sunahara]] stated he has evidence against the JapaneseDelinquents group of scamming his foster family, leader Onozuka threatened to expose to the police all the laws the former broke under his orders. However, as it turns out, Sunahara is CrazyPrepared enough to ''not'' break any law.]]
103	-->'''Sunahara''':[[spoiler:Don't underestimate me. I only ever got close to you to gather evidence on you. All the money I said I stole for you were ''mine''.]]
104	* BrokenPedestal:
105	** Aya's first impression with Wakatake, Kuroki and Uesugi. Specifically, Wakatake crashing his bike on Aya, with Uesugi and Kuroki stopping by. First, Wakatake [[InnocentlyInsensitive calls Aya a "moving mailbox."]] And then Kuroki [[HandsomeLech greets Aya as if he is picking her up]]. Followed by Uesugi coldly commented Kuroki for "hitting on a girl again." Understandably, it's hardly a very good first impression for her. Although her opinions on the boys were rebuilt after spending more time with them.
106	-->'''Aya''': My admiration for KZ had just crumbled spectacularly.
107	** In ''The Youkai Computer Knows'', Nanaki's computer mentor pretty much made Nanaki's computer system her botnet. Nanaki was extreme distressed at this development.
108	* ButNowIMustGo: Not after some act of heroism, but [[spoiler:Sunahara]] pretty much uses this phrase at the end of ''The Valentine Knows'' after a romantic discussion with Aya over the starry sky. The reason for him to leave is he's a really bad victim of NotEvilJustMisunderstood, and after having released from arrest twice without any charges, he believes he already gets a bad reputation as a JapaneseDelinquent that he'd rather leave town.
109	* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: {{Downplayed\|trope}}. The KZ Detective Team is not exactly {{bishonen}}, but they are good-looking enough that western viewers often wonder the possibility a case of reverse harem. Being a series written for tweens, that is obviously unlikely. However, this is played the most straight in the ''G'' spinoff; [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/g_2shokai_s1.png the male cast]] there is the most {{bishonen}} allowed in a MiddleGradeLiterature artwork.
110	* CharacterDevelopment: As the series goes Aya seems to be knowing how she approached social skills wrongly.
111	* ChekhovsGun: In episode 14, it reveals Wakatake's cell phone ringer sounds like a police siren. In episode 15, when TheTeam is in a stalemate with the JapaneseDelinquents, [[spoiler:Aya asks Kozuka to call Wakatake's cell phone, which breaks the stalemate.]]
112	* ChickMagnet: The AcademicAthlete nature of KZ Soccer Team make their members to be this. Because of this, Aya's classmates were utterly jealous of Aya being friends with them. Even [[CramSchool Shumei Seminar]] that organizes the soccer team realizes this; to avoid the problem of its members personally receiving a large amount of ChocolateOfRomance over Valantine's, its members are not allowed to accept them personally while the fangirls have to put their chocolates into a collection box, with the recipient written on it.
113	* ChocolateOfRomance: ''The Valentine Knows'' is partly around this, and this trope became several plot points.
114	** Aya found she has nobody to give these to--Sunahara is distant, and she treats the rest of the Detective Team as JustFriends.
115	** [[AcademicAthlete KZ Soccer Team]]'s member are [[ChickMagnet so popular with the girls]] that they're no longer allowed by their CramSchool to accept those personally.
116	** After knowing [[spoiler:Sunahara]] being in a group of JapaneseDelinquents, Wakatake came up with {{exploit\|edtrope}}ation of this trope to check what's happening to the former--by having Aya sending him one of those, since [[LampshadeHanging no boys can resist it]] (the rest of the team agrees). [[GreenEyedMonster The problem is Aya told them she would like to give this to Sunahara, so that's a really good chance]]...
117	** Most of the drama of the story derives from the long journey for [[spoiler:Aya to deliver her to Sunahara.]]
118	** The ending of the arc actually makes the situation between the members of KZ Detective Team ambiguous--they made a chocolate cake at Wakatake's home on Valentine's Day, and share among each other. This can be interpreted from TrueCompanions to ReverseHarem.
119	* ClearMyName: This is Wakatake's motivation for investigating ''The Backyard Knows''; despite his cleaning of the school yard he is still reprimanded for ''not'' cleaning it, which he believes to be some other people dumping trash into the school overnight. [[spoiler:He is right about this.]]
120	* CocaPepsiInc: The third ''KZ'Deep File'' novel involves a MegaCorp called "Misumi," conveniently combining the real-life operations of '''Mi'''tsubishi (in finance, heavy industries and paper) with the structure of '''Sumi'''tomo (having a BlueBlooded patriarch that is widely respected, but holds little actual power).
121	* CoolHouse: In addition to what is detailed at GadgeteersHouse, Nanaki's house in ''The Youkai Computer Knows'' is egg-shaped, highly unusual in Japan where strict building codes mean most houses are modular.
122	* ComicBookTime: At least 17 novels were written when the Detective Team are seventh graders.
123	* ContinuityNod:
124	** Within ''KZ'' itself, the title of a previous novel is often raised when a later novel refers to something that the readers may not recall, for example:
125	-->''I first went to Wakatake's house during ''The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows''.
126	-->'''Aya''''s InternalMonologue, ''Youkai Computer Knows''
127	** ''KZ'' and ''KZ'D'' are taken to be of the same universe; so plot points do cross-reference. Novel titles were no longer cited, however. For example, the opening lines of ''Cherry Hills Hold a Crime'' mentioned the fact that Uesugi had a brief drop in grades. This, of course, refers to ''The Backyard Knows''.
128	* CornerOfWoe: Wakatake has one of this (on top of his dad's swivel chair) at episode 8, due to [[AttentionWhore losing the chance to publicly name and shame Sunahara Meats]].
129	* CramSchool: To put it this way, the cram school called Shumei Seminar is more central to this series than any other school, since KZ Detective Team goes to different schools in the day. This series also got into the cram school system a bit further than most works:
130	** Shumei Seminar divides classes by academic performance, in a way similar to the actual practice in Japan. Aya got to know the KZ because she was sent to the "special class" in the cram school (on top of her current class) for being ''very'' lopsided; she's very strong in Japanese language but very poor in math.
131	** The KZ Soccer Team is actually organized by Shumei Seminar.
132	** The fact that students were kept until pretty late is also handled in the narrative, for example ''The Missing Bicycle Knows'' involves a convenience store robbery while sixth graders are still in cram school sessions.
133	* CrashIntoHello: {{Subverted\|Trope}}. Aya's first impression of Wakatake, Kuroki and Uesugi comes in this way. Specifically, Wakatake crashing his bike on Aya, with Uesugi and Kuroki stopping by. First, Wakatake calls Aya a "moving mailbox." And then Kuroki [[TheCharmer greets Aya as if he is picking her up]]. Followed by Uesugi coldly commented Kuroki for "hitting on a girl again." Understandably, it's hardly a very good first impression for her.
134	-->'''Aya''': My admiration for KZ had just crumbled spectacularly.
135	* DisabledMeansHelpless: [[spoiler:This is one way to explain Uesugi's behaviour in ''The Backyard Knows'', animated as episodes 9-12. It's no longer possible to {{hid\|ingthehandicap}}e the fact that his vision has deteriorated to a point that he can no longer read standard print, something of a DreamCrushingHandicap for a boy best known as a [[GoodWithNumbers math]] [[TeenGenius whiz]]. What he does is attempting to leave his social circle quietly and without any explanation, so as to avoid invoking this trope--as a person who seems to be fixated in maintaining his face, [[DontYouDarePityMe he probably can't deal with sympathy well.]]]]
136	* DownerEnding: The ''[[spoiler:The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows]]'' arc. [[spoiler:Sunahara Meats can't escape from bankruptcy, and Sunahara himself leaves at the end of the arc.]] All after he declares to be Aya's fifth friend, something Aya, of course, happily accepts. The anime ends the arc with this:
137	-->'''Aya''', with a LongingLook: Hey, Sunahara, I'm proud of you. You're my fifth friend, after all. Forever and ever.
138	* EdibleThemeNaming: The two novels in the ''G'' spinoff continues with the MacGuffinTitle convention--and both [=MacGuffins=] in question are desserts.
139	* EdutainmentShow: Being in a children's book imprint somehow enforces this trope, but the twentieth novel ''The Youkai Computer Knows'' takes one step further. That novel introduces a large number of computer science terms, ranging from the several flavours of C, to Deep Learning, and to DDoS.
140	* EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain: Kuroki, Uesugi and Kozuka study in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaisei_Academy Kaisei Academy]]--which has been the top feeder school to UsefulNotes/TokyoUniversity for ''decades''--and cemented their status as geniuses.
141	* EvilCounterpart: The "elite team" that "Phantom X" Onozuka attempts to recruit in ''The Valentine Knows'' is referred as the JapaneseDelinquent version of KZ Detective Team in the novel. In the anime it's more nuanced, recall Onozuka is a former member of the KZ Soccer Team, while one of his recruits, Sunahara is one as well. [[spoiler:Of course the bad news is Sunahara is only there for infiltration.]]
142	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Wakatake never gets the attention he craves, even in the novels.
143	* FreshmanFears: one of the first problems Aya meets when she enters junior high is its social dynamics. She is appointed the ClassRepresentative for some reason, but the local AlphaBitch and her posse immediately ignores her, owing to a rumour about class appointees being the top student of the homeroom (which is TruthInTelevision in some Japanese schools). This is where [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood Sunahara]] enters her life; he saves her by asking the class to keep quiet and invites her to start again. Aya's response? BecauseYouWereNiceToMe.
144	* FriendshipMoment: Several in the ''The Backyard Knows'' arc, in a way that made Aya somehow envious of "the boys' friendship."
145	* GadgeteersHouse: [[TechnoWizard Nanaki]]'s house as shown in ''The Youkai Computer Knows''. He uses his skills to transform his house that [[TheShutIn he's forced to stay before majority]] into this. Specifically, it is pretty much managed by artificial intelligence, including driverless cars, robotic servants, and large numbers of sensors that reports literally everything in the house (to the point of enabling precision agriculture and horticulture). It's also self-sufficient in terms of food production, involving a fish farm and what the novel refers to as miniature farm animals.
146	* GenreMashup: ''Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note'' is a combination of DetectiveLiterature and a {{Middle Grade\|Literature}}-level RomanceNovel, with a bit of ReverseHarem mixed into the latter.
147	* GrayRainOfDepression: [[DownerEnding The latter half of episode 8]], when [[spoiler:the case of the month brings down Sunahara's father company, and he disappears from school.]]
148	* HeroicBSOD: Aya [[ProneToTears isn't good at handling pressure]], but [[spoiler:her Valentine's card to Sunahara being posted in the open in the part of ''The Valentine Knows'' animated as episode 15]] just sent her to TroubledFetalPosition.
149	* HeyYou: Ever since a point in episode 3 when Wakatake says "that's why I hate girls" to her face, Aya always calls without UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics.
150	-->'''Aya''''s InnerMonologue: I'm not calling him Wakatake''-kun'' anymore.
151	* HiddenEyes:
152	** In episode 12, Aya does this when she relays the WhamLine regarding Uesugi's situation to Kuroki and Kozuka.
153	** In episode 15, Aya initially has those when she noticed her Valentine's note to Sunahara is posted to the train station's bulletin board, and people are seeing it as a serious LoveConfession. [[spoiler:Deteriorated to TroubledFetalPosition when she found it was ''Sunahara'' who posted it.]]
154	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The criminals in ''The Backyard Knows''. Basically speaking: they steal some rare butterfly samples from the museum, wanting to sell to collectors. The problem is one of them is particularly poisonous.
155	* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: This is all implied during the ''The Birthday Blues Knows'' novel that the series is Aya taking her senpai's advice of WriteWhatYouKnow to heart. [[invoked]]
156	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All novels, and by extension anime episode titles, are in the format of ''[MacGuffin related to the case] Knows''.
157	* InitiationCeremony: The humiliating type was used in ''The Valentine Knows'' (shown in episode 15). The test for entering Phantom X's "elite team" includes asking the person in question to perform embarrassing acts to prove their loyalty, which mainly involves running around the train station naked. [[spoiler:In Sunahara's case, this involves asking him to post Aya's Valentine note to him in the train station.]]
158	%%* ImagineSpot: Used frequently, usually in hexagonal speech balloons, to show how Aya [[BeneathTheMask feels inside despite appearances]].
159	* ItsNotYouItsMe: Sunahara used that twice in ''The Valentine Knows'' in an attempt in distancing himself from Aya. Neither of them work, Aya's having a crush on him and was overly troubled by his apparent association with JapaneseDelinquents.
160	* JoggersFindDeath: Highly {{Downplayed\|trope}} in ''The Backyard Knows''. Aya observed somebody dumping trash into Wakatake's school's yard from the ''outside'', hence confirming Wakatake's complaint a day before.
161	* JustFriends: [[ReverseHarem Despite how some viewers think about Aya's social life]], she sees her relationships with KZ Detective Team as this, to the point of thinking they're not the people she's going to give ChocolateOfRomance over Valentine's.
162	* KidDetective: KZ Detective Team are middle-schooler {{Amateur Sleuth}}s.
163	* LastNameBasis: The four boys from the KZ Detective Team are usually referred to this way. Of course, [[AlphabeticalThemeNaming with all the "Kazu"'s]], [[JustifiedTrope it's rather confusing the other way round]].
164	* LethallyStupid: The driver in ''The Egg Hamburger Steak Knows'' started off doing PokeThePoodle just to let off steam, but then he switched to switching the meats in his truck, [[spoiler:which ultimately caused the bankruptcy of his employer Sunahara Meat.]]
165	* LimitedWardrobe: It seems the cast only have at most three sets of clothing: school uniforms, the clothes depicted in the page image, and Soccer Team members also have their kit.
166	* LongDistanceRelationship: ''The Valentine Knows'' ends with the relation between Aya and Sunahara improved from StarCrossedLovers to this. It is more than clear that Aya and Sunahara love each other, and they have mutually confessed in this arc. However, Sunahara's [[TheInfiltration brush]] with the JapaneseDelinquents [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood seriously bruised his reputation]] in town, so he declared ButNowIMustGo. Although he promised to meet each other. [[spoiler:Which of course appears in the novels, where he's Aya's classmate again in ''The Tanabata-hime Knows''.]]
167	-->'''Sunahara''': Tachibaba... We can see each other, right?
168	-->'''Aya''': We can, right?
169	-->'''Sunahara''': (Looks at Aya's ChocolateOfRomance) Yeah, I promise.
170	* LoveConfession: By episode 15 Aya and Sunahara have quite clearly confessed to each other.
171	** Aya's Valentine note to Sunahara is seen to be a "legitimate confession" [[spoiler:by the people who read it at the train station]]:
172	-->''I want to believe in you. You have what it takes to find happiness. I give you [[ChocolateOfRomance these chocolates with all my heart]]. Don't forget I'm always rooting for you. Don't give up."
173	** Sunahara said this when he calls Aya later that episode:
174	--> '''Sunahara''': But I was really happy. The {{chocolate\|ofromance}}s and the card were your way of expressing your feelings, right? Right now, I...I like you so much, it's kind of embarrassing. I'm glad I met you.
175	* LoveDodecahedron: Even only from the anime, the more aged viewers can get this between Aya and the boys:
176	** Aya and Sunahara are mutual lovers, with mutual LoveConfession. However, they are hampered by LongDistanceRelationship.
177	** Aya may seem to hate Wakatake, but the dynamics between the two smells of BelligerentSexualTension, including ''mutual'' GreenEyedEpiphany.
178	** There are signs of Aya having a crush on Kuroki at different points, sometimes seeing him the boy of her dreams (episode 2), but since Kuroki is a natural [[TheCharmer charmer]], he may or may not be interested in a relationship with her.
179	** Uesugi possibly has a crush on Aya, but he has a problem on CannotSpitItOut, so Aya doesn't even know this of the fact.
180	* MacGuffinTitle: Most of the books are named ''[Object related to the case] Knows''.
181	* TheMentor: [[spoiler:Wakatake and Uesugi teaches ''G'''s cast on amateur sleuthing]].
182	* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Aya {{discussed\|trope}} this trope with Kuroki during ''The Backyard Knows'', expressing some disappointment that the crime involved in the arc was indeed minor, performed by a perennial small-time criminal without more apparent complexities. [[spoiler:But the story does go that way, although still downplayed: it lead to a case of museum theft which causes the loss of some expensive butterfly specimens.]]
183	* MoodWhiplash: Often invoked.
184	** In episode 2, Aya refuses Wakatake's request to write a notice for a lost bicycle because she thinks Wakatake is being snobby and Wakatake's bicycle has nothing to do with her anyway. Then Wakatake apologizes, saying he makes the request because he thought she is "one of us," and went downstairs. Aya then realized she may have been [[FriendlessBackground losing potential friends]] for being InnocentlyInsensitive, as Wakatake treated her as a friend but not vice versa, and Wakatake's the first person who called her a friend. So she chased downstairs, only for her to realize Wakatake wasn't known for egging people on for nothing:
185	-->'''Wakatake''': Do you feel like writing the statement now?
186	** In ''The Valentine Knows'', Sunahara twice invoked ItsNotYouItsMe to try to distance himself from Aya. In both cases, those lines are right after words that confess his "likeness" to her.
187	* OnOneCondition: In ''The Youkai Computer Knows'', Nanaki is supposed to inherit the family fortune at 20, on the condition that [[TheShutIn he doesn't leave his house before that point]]. He doesn't mind this arrangement, but Aya, recalling her FriendlessBackground, finds this appalling. [[spoiler:Rendered completely moot at the end of that novel, due to the bankruptcy of the family.]]
188	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Sunahara's arrest for assault (which is a big case of CassandraTruth in its own; the person he attacked was trying to burst his father's car's tires) severely affected his reputation so that he was expelled from the soccer team and everyone sees him as a {{Japanese Delinquent\|s}}.
189	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Played straight in episode 9 when everybody else's being gravely concerned with Uesugi's well-being after (1)Dropping off Top 50 in math when [[GoodWithNumbers he usually gets the first place]], (2) skips both CramSchool and the Detective Team's proposed investigation, and (3) for an AcademicAthlete, the impossible feat of [[StaircaseTumble slipping off the staircase]]. Kuroki has to skip the case because of it, possible to handle Uesugi's problem. [[spoiler:Of course. His vision has deteriorated to a point that a complete loss of vision is not impossible.]]
190	* OpeningNarration:
191	** From ''The Ripped Page Knows'' on, the first chapter (titled ''Aya Tachibana's Monologue'' from ''The Keychain Knows'' on) of every novel would include a summary of [[AcademicAthlete what KZ Soccer Team is]], followed by a {{recap\|episode}} of what is essentially the first few minutes of anime, then followed by some different materials. The exceptions are ''The Angel Knows'' and ''The Blue Diamond Knows'', as they are written in Uesugi and Kozuka's voice respectively. And then since the 21st novel, the title of this chapter drops any pretense and just calls it ''To all first-time readers'', but the text has not changed significantly (other than adding a bit about Nanaki of course).
192	** The Anime version uses the following:
193	-->I'm Aya Tachibana. I couldn't have imagined that my encounter with four super-eccentric boys would change my life so much. This is the story of the exciting cases that we, KZ Detective Team, solve.
194	** The corresponding chapter in ''G'' is called ''The Ditzy Character''.
195	* PokeThePoodle: The driver behind ''The Egg Burger Knows'' tend to do this to let off steam, such as blowing up the boss' tires. [[spoiler:Turns to LethallyStupid when he started to spike the beef with pork.]]
196	* ProductDisplacement: The novels doesn't mind talking about the absolute top schools in Tokyo. [[TeenGenius Kuroki, Uesugi and Kozuka]] went into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaisei_Academy Kaisei Academy]], one of the most prestigious schools in Japan, and Mikado mentioned [[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/筑波大学附属駒場中学校・高等学校 University of Tsukuba High School at Komaba]], which on par with Kaisei. These names are displaced in the manga and the anime adaptations. Despite Wakatake and Aya's schools are fictional in the first place, they were anonymized as well.
197	** In the anime Kaisei only referred to as "the elite private school." Wakatake and Aya's schools were not named.
198	** In the manga, Aya's own school is now named ''Kodan'', after the publisher Kodansha, and Kaisei is only referred as "the academically strongest school in Japan."
199	* PuppyLove:
200	** In episode 13, second-grader Nako said she's going to give ChocolateOfRomance to a male classmate over Valantine's.
201	** As for the main recurring cast, despite most of them still [[JustFriends cast their relationships in friendship terms]], it's the kind of friendship where GreenEyedMonster can occasionally occur. (See ShipTease, below)
202	* QuantityVsQuality: This trope was {{discussed\|trope}} by Uesugi in episode 13. As the cast heads home, Wakatake asks Aya how he can get as many [[ChocolateOfRomance Chocolates of Romance]] as possible, and he made it clear he doesn't care whether he likes the girl in question, nor whether the chocolates were given out of courtesy, as long as he gets tons of it. Uesugi then {{facepalm}}s, saying Wakatake probably can't help it, since "guys have a 'quantity over quality' vector."
203	* QuiveringEyes: Aya had them several times.
204	** In episode 7, when she learns that Sunahara's father's company will be punished for one of the staff's TamperingWithFoodAndDrink. [[spoiler:The fact that the punishment involves that company's bankruptcy hasn't even raised yet.]]
205	** In episode 11, when she learns from Uesugi the reason behind the latter's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness strange behavior during the arc]]: [[spoiler:his eye are so bad that he can't even see text anymore. And a moment later, ''both'' the speaker and the listener gets this, as Uesugi mentions any treatment has at most 40% success rate, and bears the real risk of ''a complete loss of vision''.]] And then when she relayed this information (with HiddenEyes) to Kuroki and Kozuka in episode 12, they both get this!
206	** In episode 13, Aya has this when the Detective Team tells her [[spoiler:Sunahara is among the group of delinquents that has been harassing CramSchool students.]]
207	* ReverseHarem: While downplayed due to this being a series about and primarily aimed at tweens, there's no escaping the fact that it's one girl surrounded by boys that she and everyone around her consider to be cool and good-looking, and she even develops some feelings towards some of them. While not as strong as older RH series, it still has the same effect.
208	* ScienceFoils: The KZ Detective Team is formed by a group of lopsided students. Two of them particularly fit in this mold: Uesugi, the StoicSpectacles mathematician, and Kozuka, the BoyNextDoor biologist. In addition, [[TheProtagonist Aya]], the NervousWreck linguist and Nanaki, TheShutIn computer scientist, also adds to this trope.
209	* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Second ''Scene'' Introduction to be exact. Most of the cast has been introduced in the first chapter when they CrashIntoHello, but Kozuka is only introduced at the Special Class classroom.
210	* SelfImposedExile: Sunahara goes into this after the twelfth novel ''The Valentine Knows''. His [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten several brushes]] with JapaneseDelinquents makes [[CassandraTruth everyone in town to believe he is one himself]], which causes him to decide to leave the town.
211	* TheSeriesHasLeftReality: the series is purely realistic for most of the time--it's an {{edutainment\|show}} series for [[MiddleGradeLiterature tweens]], after all. However, Nanaki, introduced in the twentieth novel, claims [[ISeeDeadPeople he has the ability to see spirits]]; and since then there have been paranormal subplots for subsequent novels--but the main plot maintains realistic.
212	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: {{Invoked\|Trope}} in ''The Missing Bike Knows''. When Aya introduces herself in front of the boys of the Special Class (and take a swipe on Wakatake), she decided to show off her strength in Japanese language that the teacher mentioned moments earlier. She does it by dropping [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojijukugo yojijukugo]], four-kanji idioms of Chinese origin, that accurately describes the four boys.
213	-->'''Aya''': I'm Aya Tachibana. ''Reiseichinchaku''[[note]][[TheStoic calm and collected]][[/note]] Uesugi-kun, ''onkoutokujitsu''[[note]][[NiceGuy gentle, honest and earnest]][[/note]] Kozuka-kun, ''happoubijin''[[note]][[TheSocialExpert everybody's friend]][[/note]] Kuroki-kun, and ''goganfuson''[[note]]arrogant[[/note]] Wakatake-kun, who can't even tell the difference between a human and a mailbox... It's nice to meet you all.
214	* ShipTease: One really can't blame older viewers from seeing a harem forming around Aya. Even talking about the 4 (of 19) arcs that have been animated, Aya has been ship-teased with all boys with the exception of Kozuka.
215	** In episode 2, when Kuroki walks Aya home, Aya having ImagineSpot on what kind of man she imagines.
216	** In episode 5, Aya being jealous about Wakatake dating somebody at school (and dumped), despite supposed to be hating him.
217	** In episode 11, Uesugi's calling Aya "angel."
218	** In episode 13, Uesugi tells Aya that while guys usually are "quantity over quality" regarding ChocolateOfRomance, he is not--while blushing.
219	** In episode 14, all four boys from KZ Detective Team gets jealous when Aya says she doesn't mind giving ChocolateOfRomance to Sunahara.
220	** Also in episode 14, Sunahara gives the following of a response when Aya calls her and wants to give him the aforementioned ChocolateOfRomance:
221	--> '''Sunahara''': I lost my breath for a moment when I heard your name. And when you mentioned Valentine's Day, I kind of stopped breathing entirely. Do you have an idea how happy this makes me?
222	* ShownTheirWork:
223	** ''The First Love Knows'' discusses the equipment of a meth lab accurately (beakers, electric heaters, red phosphorus, lots of ventilation), to the point of mentioned it's prepared through pseudoephedrine from cold medicine--of course, far short of providing tweens a meth recipe.
224	* ShoujoDemographic: As MiddleGradeLiterature it is only marketed by its age group--10-12--without discussion of gender. Yet its manga adaptation is published in ''Magazine/{{Nakayoshi}}'', a shoujo anthology, hence putting the series into this demographic.
225	* TheShowOfTheBooks: The anime, being adapted from a series of MiddleGradeLiterature.
226	* SiblingYinYang: Aya and her sister Nako. Aya is introverted, constant worrying, and detail-oriented, while Nako is energetic, carefree and ditzy.
227	* SimultaneousArcs: During ''The Backyard Knows'', Uesugi [[spoiler:leaves for Switzerland to treat his deteriorating eyesight,]] and come back during ''The First Love Knows, Wakatake's Chapter''. ''The Angel Knows'' is about what happened to Uesugi during his time there; and the author actually notes this novel is chronologically simultaneous to ''Backyard'' and ''First Love''.
228	* SpiceUpTheSubtitles: Despite being a family-friendly anime, the Crunchyroll subs have the characters swear on some lines.
229	* {{Spinoff}}:
230	** ''Genie Team G Jiken Note'', a series focused on Aya's little sister Nako, after a 3-year TimeSkip.
231	** ''KZ Deep Files'', a mystery novel series written for older audiences, written by Hitomi Fujimoto.
232	* SpiritualSuccessor: Originally intended to be a tweens' rewrite of ''KZ Shonen Shoujo Seminar''.
233	* StarCrossedLovers: ''The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows'' ends with a downplayed version. Sunahara's family business closed as a result of the case, and he disappeared from school. What Aya gets is his phone number. And that's right after he declared to be Aya's "[[PuppyLove fifth friend]]."
234	* StockShoujoBullyingTactics: In episode 5, Aya as ClassRepresentative was plainly ignored ''when she makes an announcement''. Sunahara saved her by asking the class to keep quiet and invited her to start again, which brought forth her BecauseYouWereNiceToMe despite his reputation.
235	%%* SuperDeformed: Characters are styled like this when portrayed in hexagonal speech balloon.
236	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: ''The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows'' arc involves this, as in how pork get into the supposedly pure-beef patties that Wakatake happened to have eaten, causing some allergic reactions. [[spoiler:It was done by a LethallyStupid driver of the meat processor, who spiked some of the beef shipped to the plant with pork in spite.]]
237	* TeamTitle: Partly so.
238	* TeenGenius: While the academic requirements for the KZ Soccer Team potentially puts most of the male cast in the main series as this, [[GoodWithNumbers Uesugi]] and [[EncyclopaedicKnowledge Kozuka]] plays this trope the straightest.
239	* TroubledFetalPosition: [[spoiler:In the part of ''The Valentine Knows'' animated in episode 15, Aya does this after finding her Valentine card to Sunahara being posted on the train station's notice board, and overhearing that it was ''Sunahara'' who posted it.]]
240	* TwoTeacherSchool: Aya supposedly has two attend two class--Class B and the Special Class. However, the anime only shows Egawa, her instructor in Class B.
241	* UnnecessaryRoughness: Onozuka, a leader of JapaneseDelinquents in ''The Valentine Knows'', was a member of KZ Soccer Team half a decade prior to PresentDay. He was infamous for this, and was forced out of the team as a result.
242	* WallPinOfLove: In the twentieth novel ''The Youkai Computer Knows'', Aya was given this by one of her classmates (which is not part of her recurring cast, mind you). [[spoiler:The plot relevant point is that [[TheNoseKnows Mikado]] noticed the smell of synthetic cannabinoids that rubbed off from him to Aya.]]
243	* WhamLine: In the anime, expect the third episode of every arc to contain at least one of them. However, among those the straightest example would be the one in Episode 11 (''The Backyard Knows, Part 3''). Up to this point, while the rest of the cast [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness have been concerned]] about [[TeenGenius Uesugi's]] recent performance drop and withdrawal from their activities, they assume it as a problem of time management. Only when he comes to Aya's house to say farewell he incidentally blurbs out the ''real'' reason for his own behavior.
244	-->'''Uesugi''': I can't [[spoiler:see]].
245	* WriteWhatYouKnow: {{Discussed\|Trope}} InUniverse. In ''The Birthday Blues Knows'', Aya's senpai at the Literature club recommends her doing this to start creative writing. It is all implied that this series is [[IShouldWriteABookAboutThis Aya following this advice to heart]].

Context Literature / TanteiTeamKZJikenNote