Anime / Dead Leaves

"We the people, who are dedicated to protecting the common good, do hereby charge you with trespassing, theft, violence, assault, illegal possession of firearms, and a really crappy attitude! You are therefore sentenced to life imprisonment in the DL Correctional Facility on the moon."

One could describe Dead Leaves here. Alternately, one could simply resort to pegging Dead Leaves as an unholy bastard child of FLCL and Superjail! made after doing a rhinoceros-sized dose of super-distilled white china crack cocaine and LSD.

Either way, things are gonna get weird.

Pandy (a woman with a red ring around her right eye) and Retro (a man with a TV for a head) awaken on Earth with no clothes and no memory of their pasts. After deciding that they need clothes and food, the duo go on a crime spree and car chase through the streets of Tokyo, featuring a completely bizarre Neck Snap martial arts move, ridiculous amounts of gunplay, a battle with a giant robot, and probably a hundred dead policemen.

All in about 4 minutes.

And then it gets really fucking weird.

They end up incarcerated in the titular lunar prison facility. After they discover Dead Leaves serves a dual purpose — as a top-secret cloning facility — and all of the prisoners are "cloned genetic garbage", the imprisoned lovebirds orchestrate a mass prison break.

Did we mention the straitjacket sex scene, the prisoner with a drill for a penis, the insane mostly-naked warden, and the creepy children's story about caterpillars?

This OVA shares a director with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Kill la Kill and FLCL's fifth episode — which explains both very little and oh-so-much…

Youtube carries a legal stream of this OVA. It is, however, rated for mature audiences, and thus, you need an account and need to be over 18 to view it.

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This anime provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Pandy is this, given how she gets into a lot of high octane, insane fights, even while pregnant!
• The Alcatraz: The eponymous Dead Leaves facility is a max security prison stationed in the shattered remnants of the moon. Secretly, it's a cloning facility as well.
• Animesque: Dead Leaves inverts this trope; the design aesthetic seems inspired by American underground comics.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Triple Six and Triple Seven have green and blue skin respectively, while many of the prisoners have skin colors that range from being dull to outright vibrant.
• Ambiguous Situation: Given the fact that both the citizens seen on earth as well as the policemen could potentially be clones, as they're all identical in appearance aside from minute differences, with the police all being completely identical, and the only humans who were (presumably) naturally born instead of being cloned being Pandy, Retro, the Doctor, as well as the Warden and her father as well, leaving it unknown what happened to humanity to result in presumably replacing humanity with a bunch of clones and why, exactly they did it, as it could range from either being forced to do it due to some unknown crisis, or they did it for more sinister reasons, making humanity's status and fate up in the air.
• Ambiguously Christian: Triple Seven. He begs God for forgiveness before he and Triple Six go to stop the prisoners in person, and when he approaches Retro to kill him as he's in the process of hijacking a robot, he tells him that "God is waiting for you" and when he tries to stomp on his head, he tells him to "Say hello to God for me."
• Ambiguously Human: The citizens on earth and the police officers may or may not be clones, given how all of them are physically identical with only minute differences, not to mention that the Dead Leaves prison facility doubles as a top secret cloning facility. It doesn't help that the cops also shown working as guards on the Dead Leaves facility, and that one of the prisoners who joins Pandy and Retro resembles one of the policemen to the point of looking like one of them without their uniforms and also having a buzzcut.
• Anyone Can Die: Guards and inmates alike end up slaughtered by various means — and they don't come back. At the end of the OVA, the amount of survivors from the prison break Pandy and Retro orchestrate numbers in the low single digits.
• Appropriated Appellation: Pandy and Retro name each other in this way upon waking up.
  Retro: "That thing around your eye makes you look like a panda bear!"
  Pandy: "Yeah, well, that retro TV on your head makes you look like an asshole."
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Pandy and Retro both receive life sentences for "trespassing, theft, violence, assault, illegal possession of firearms, and having a really crappy attitude."
• Artistic License – Biology: A lot of the mutants display this with how asinine and random their mutations are (looking at you, guy with a butt on his head), but a surprising standout example is Pandy. In just the span of a few minutes, she goes from sporting a flat belly after having sex with Retro, to already visibly pregnant. And then just a few minutes later she births a super baby when the Warden attempts to extract it from her. And said super baby undergoes Rapid Aging over the course of a few minutes as well, until it finally sacrifices itself to destroy the caterpillar monster the Warden turned into.
• Author Appeal: The character designer (and director) also worked on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; take a look at Chinko Drill's... "equipment."
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Pandy and Retro react this way when they're first separated at prison. It's an oddly sweet moment, especially considering the characters and the rest of the story.
  • Pandy's reaction to Retro having his head ripped off by the Big Bad also qualifies, as does their reaction after they finally escape Dead Leaves.
• Ax-Crazy: Retro, The Warden, Triple-Six, and a lot of the inmates qualify for this trope.
  Retro: DAMN, IT FEELS GOOD TO BE VIOLENT!
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: This trope briefly occurs in the first part of Retro and Triple-Seven's fight.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Triple-Seven and Triple-Six, respectively. It gets emphasized when they gear up to fight the inmates, as Triple-Six stays relatively lean... while Triple-Seven bulks up into a massive, muscular frame.
• Book Ends: Both the beginning and end involve Pandy and Retro causing mayhem in a city.
• Cast of Snowflakes: All the characters, outside of the citizens, policemen, and robot minions are all completely distinct and recognizable from one another. It helps that a lot of the characters are mutants who all have inhuman features.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: It's not explained how Pandy and Retro are capable of their unbelievable feats of agility, strength, and dexterity. It's assumed to be the work of the mutant gene cluster in the case of Pandy, but Retro's body seems completely human yet still capable of similar feats. It's implied from flashbacks that Retro may have been experimented on by the Warden's father as a former prisoner, but this was not confirmed.
• *Click* Hello: Pandy's baby makes its introduction to the world by pulling out a pistol and shooting the warden through the stomach — just before it births itself.
• Clothing Damage: Pandy goes from the top half of the prison uniform, to... half of that, during her fight with Triple-Six.
• Curse Cut Short: In the dub, we get this gem, right before an inmate is shot square in the chest.
  "Now, move your asses, ya dumb f-"BANG
• Daddy Issues: The Warden is motivated to go after Pandy by fulfilling her father's wishes, and doesn't take too well to being insulted about that.
• Dark Action Girl: The Warden has her body cybernetically augmented to become extremely powerful and dangerous, with morphing limbs, a boob-mounted cannon, and other weaponry.
• Deadpan Snarker: Retro's delivery was a bit too amped up to be called "deadpan", but Pandy tossed out some cool snarks.
  Pandy [to naked Retro]: "The cold isn't doing you any favors. Trust me."
• Deranged Animation: "Animation that dispenses with all semblance of reality, and sanity, taking the viewer into a nightmare world where anything goes"? Check.
• Disney Death: Unlike the aforementioned inmates, Retro does come back, though they subvert the trope by lacking a body upon return.
• Disproportionate Retribution: One inmate and several others get killed because the first guy was crapping too much.
• Eat Me: What Pandy and Retro's baby does to the giant space caterpillar at the end.
• Elite Mooks: The robotic guards. While the normal guards were definitely able to hold their own against the inmates, the robotic guards tear right through them like wet tissue paper.

• Evil Counterpart: Triple-Seven and Triple-Six are this to Pandy and Retro, personality-wise, as Triple-Seven is stoic and unemotional, yet ruthless like Pandy, while Triple-Six is energetic and maniacal, like Retro. Ironically Retro ends up fighting Triple-Seven while Pandy fights Triple-Six.
• Expendable Clone: Being a clone without the "mutation gene cluster" makes an inmate exceptionally expendable. One inmate remarks:
  "Oh well, even if we all died tomorrow, it's no big deal. There's still a whole 'nother batch of clones to take our place. C'est la vie."
• Express Delivery: Pandy and Retro's baby. The two of them have sex early on in the OVA, and she is visibly pregnant roughly ten minutes later; not long after that, the baby just kind of...comes out of its own volition, but ages super fast and dies in short order, all thanks to the mutation gene cluster.
• Eye Scream: Pandy got that pink patch around her eye after a mutation gene cluster gets jammed in there due to a lab explosion.
• The Faceless: In the few brief flashback shots we see, Retro's human face is always hidden.
• Faceless Masses: Every normal citizen is depicted with the same blank, Eyes Always Shut expression.
• Fat and Skinny: Triple-Seven and Triple-Six. Subverted when they turn into their combat forms, where it's revealed that Triple-Seven is positively ripped.
• Filling the Silence: The vast majority of the quotes on this page are dub-exclusive, as the people in charge of the Japanese script forgot to add much humor until they were at least halfway done.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Triple 7 likes to maim and kill his victims by literally poking holes in them with his fingers or breaking them apart by flicking them.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the scene where the prisoners get shot, a penis flies off and into another's mouth. No, really. At 17:38, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, keep your eye on the robot prisoner's head.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Apart from her cloak, the Warden fights Pandy completely in the buff. A few shots even have her unaugmented breast in full view.
• Gag Penis: Chinko Drill, one of the inmates, has a large drill for a dick. The damn thing even EJACULATES!
• Groin Attack: After one particular explosion, Chinko Drill finds himself landing dick-first into a pile of rubble.
  Retro: "That has GOT to hurt!"
  • He later uses his drill as a weapon to attack 777 as an actual Groin Attack.
• Guns Akimbo:
  • Retro (briefly) uses three guns at once.
  • Triple Six and his two BFG 's.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: When Pandy and Retro free the inmates, one of them can be seen scrambling to cover his junk, as the weight of his straitjacket nearly makes his pants and underwear fall off, resulting in this.
• Humongous Mecha: Used as mere cannon fodder during the initial car chase.
• Immune to Bullets: Triple 6 and Triple 7. No matter how many weapons the inmates unload on them, it barely does anything except maybe piss them off. Triple 7 ends up being less "immune" and "really freaking tough", as Retro manages to take him down by unloading an ungodly amount of lead on him after hijacking a damaged attack robot. And even then Triple 7 survives as a very damaged head, while Retro has to abandon his shredded robot body.
  666: "I wouldn't use those crappy bullets to scratch my ass!"
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Actually a children's story, but close enough.
• Just Desserts: The Warden, Triple-6, and Triple-7 all get eaten by the giant space caterpillar.
• Large Ham: Retro, oh so much in the dub, especially when he fights.
  Retro: "DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE VIOLENT!"
  Retro: "OH DEAR GOD, it's sucking my ASS!"
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Pandy and Retro have no memory of their past, but know how to get out of their straitjackets and handcuffs, and know their way around the prison. They repeatedly lampshade this with mutual confusion.
• Licking the Blade: 666 does this during his fight with Pandy, remarking "I can taste your panties."
• Living Macguffin: The mutant gene cluster that can make the Big Bad all-powerful turns out to be the pink patch around Pandy's eye.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Fired at a bunch of robots with ONE rocket launcher.
• Made of Explodium: If it is mechanical, it can explode.
  • Pandy exploits this by cracking the casing of a statue open and extracting a football sized cylinder - which she then jammed in to Triple-6's torso and detonated.
• Mauve Shirt: Chinko Drill, as well as a few other inmates, such as The Sergeant, the big, skull-faced prisoner who rides a tank, get enough characterization to become endearing.
• Meaningful Name: Pandy and Retro are pretty obvious, but as for Chinko Drill, well..."chinko" is Japanese slang for "penis".
• Mecha-Mooks: Three different kinds. The first is a robot that appears in the police chase which is made out of cube shapes, while the second are a series of red polygonal robots that prove to be absurdly durable, and the final type are a series of blue robots made out of spherical shapes that are heavily armed, which are summoned by 777 during his battle with Retro and Chinko Drill.
• Mind Screw: There has to be some symbolism in there other than the obvious varieties through that children's story...
• More Dakka: Many fight scenes will involve this if any guns are involved. Hell, the fight between Retro and Triple-7 is a good example - both wail on each other for several seconds with ludicrous amounts of gunfire, until Triple-7 FINALLY goes down.
• Mr. Exposition: The Doctor seems to be a parody of this. He gives a speech to Pandy about halfway through that seems to explain the movie's entire backstory... but Pandy is talking over him the entire time, so neither she nor the viewers actually hear what he's saying. Then 666 appears out of nowhere and kills him.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Pandy doesn't have a single bit of muscle on her body, but can casually dent robots and destroy metal walls with her bare hands.
• Nightmare Face: The giant caterpillar near the end.
  • The Warden gets a good one when Retro and Pandy finally meet her, as she makes a disturbing toothy grin right before she rips off Retro's head with her gums displayed and the upper half of her face obscured by shadows with her eyes glowing with a horrible light.
• No One Could Survive That!: Triple-6 and Triple-7, who have been reduced to heads as noted by Retro. The two then fire back that he's just a head too. This is after Triple-6 and Triple-7 were blown to smithereens and shot to hell respectively.
• Number of the Beast: 666 and his sidekick 777, The Number Of The Moose.
• Offhand Backhand: Pandy pulls off one. To a giant robot who dwarfs her in size.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: We don't actually get told if Pandy and Retro even have real names (because after a certain point...does it even matter?). They get "Pandy" and "Retro" because, respectively, Retro observes that the mark on Pandy's eye makes her look like a panda bear, and Pandy retorts that the retro TV on Retro's head makes him look like an asshole.
• Only Sane Man: Retro when he's not around Pandy. Pandy, otherwise.
• The Power of Love: Kinda? Sex breaks Pandy and Retro out of their cell. No, really.
  Inmate: That was some serious boot-knockin'...
• Pregnant Badass: Pandy, through most of the movie.
• Prison Rape: And oh, dear Lord, it's done by Chinko.
  Chinko: You want me to kiss you first?
• Rape as Comedy: Despite the fact that he wants to stick his drill-penis into just about everyone and everything, regardless of its ability or willingness to consent, Chinko's behavior is typically portrayed as merely silly, as opposed to horrifying. But then again, that's probably the point.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Retro and Pandy themselves. Retro is wildly emotional and tends to shout a lot while Pandy constantly has a calm, focused face and usually speaks with a soft, deadpan tone. Triple-Six and Triple-Seven are this as well, as Triple-Six is deranged and sadistic while Triple-Seven is calm yet ruthless. Triple-Seven even has blue skin himself.
• Red Shirt Army: Pretty much the prison's entire population, guards and inmates alike.
• Right Through His Pants: Pandy and Retro have sex while wearing the prison's standard outfit (best described as an overgrown straitjacket).
  That was some serious boot-knockin'!
  • Pandy chides Retro for initially trying to enter the wrong hole.
• Rule of Cool: Probably the only rule with any meaningful consistency in this universe.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Triple-Six turns his arms into swords, while Triple-Seven's body turns into guns.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Drill Penis is a nod to Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
  • Dub-only example: "Let's make like a tree and get the hell out of here!"
• Something Else Also Rises: When the other inmates are listening in on Pandy's and Retro's lovemaking, one of them, a blue elephant-like inmate, can be seen with his trunk looking very erect, filled with veins and throbbing, to boot.
• Southern-Fried Private: The Sergeant, (the prisoner who pilots the tank) in the English Dub is portrayed with a notable southern accent.
• Spoiler Opening: If you look between both words of the title when it appears on screen, you can see the developing fetus of Pandy's baby as foreshadowing.
• Super Sex Organs: One of the mutant prisoners has a giant drill for a dick which he uses as a weapon.
• Surprise Pregnancy: An Exaggerated Trope, given the very tiny timespan between Retro and Pandy having sex and then the signs of pregnancy show. Pandy starts getting morning sickness on the train, and doesn't know what's wrong with her. The doctor quickly clears up the situation and loudly boasts it to the train.
  Doctor: "Looks like SOMEONE'S a little bit PREGNANT!"
  Inmates: "HURRAY!!!"
• The Unfettered: Pandy and Retro acts as this while being the main characters. Their first inclination towards obtaining food and clothing after losing their memories is to cause massive citywide destruction to get what they want and instigate a violent police chase. They then proceeded to breakout by using other prisoners as fodder while slaughtering any enemy who gets in their way. They even disregard the death of their mutant son after no more than a few minutes of pondering.
• Tank Goodness: Two of the prisoners commandeer a tank after they get into the armory and manage to use it to kill the red polygonal robots.
• This Is a Drill: Chinko Drill combines it with Gag Penis, as his pelvis-mounted drill is spectacularly powerful... until Triple-Seven ends up not even fazed by his attempts at attack.
• Transformation Sequence: Triple-Seven and Triple-Six have one before they go to stop the prisoners. They shed their clothes and go barechested and become vastly more muscular, and various guns appear on their person as well.
• Transforming Mecha: Lots here, but of particular note is one that transforms from a dump truck's back.
• Triple Wielding: Retro pulls this off. Somehow.
• TV Head Robot: Retro. Maybe. Considering he was able to impregnate Pandy and his head left a pool of blood after the Warden rips it off on top of his head functioning as a TV monitor, it's hard to tell if he's this or a TV Head Cyborg. Oh, did we forget to mention how he was able to just stick his head on some cobbled-together robot body after being reduced to just a head?
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: From what is shown from Pandy's flashback, the women who inherited the title of the warden from her father was a sweet, friendly child who Pandy used to read to. By the present in the OVA, she's shown to have become a monstrous sadist.
• World of Ham: Every single member of the cast acts with obscene amounts of scenery chewing. Even Pandy, otherwise The Stoic, gets in on it with how much she yells in a fight.
• You All Look Familiar: Both played comically straight and spectacularly averted. On Earth, every single person looks the same (with an Eyes Always Shut face), but on the moon, every single one of the prisoners — even those who show up for a background appearance — possess a unique appearance.

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