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Also known as Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi (Daughters of Mnemosyne) and marketed in the United States as Rin -Daughters of Mnemosyne-, Mnemosyne is a six episode Urban Fantasy anime television series and light novel produced by Xebec that follows private investigator Rin Asougi, a member of the Always Female immortals, as she takes odd jobs and tries to avoid the mysterious connections to her past, while fighting against the sinister Always Male angels and their leader, Apos.

All in all, the series is a seinen, featuring nigh everything older male audiences' hearts may desire: sexy girls, respectable guys, Mind Screw of a plot, alcohol, blood, and a considerable amount of sex in all flavors. Be prepared to wince a couple of times, though, as the series often blurs the line between its sex and violence, and fully exploits its main character's immortality to put her in situations that often lead to what would be the end of a horror story.

Often confused for an OVA, thanks to its risque content, monthly airing rate, and modest episode number, when, in fact, it aired on AT-X network, whose tenth anniversary it was to commemorate.


This series contains examples of:

  • A God Am I: Apos proclaims himself God at the end of Episode 5, since he is both man and woman, both angel and immortal.
    • He was preceded by his father, Tajimamori, and succeeded by Rin. Presumably, anybody who becomes Guardian of Yggdrasil qualifies for this.
  • Air-Vent Passageway: Attempted, but Rin’s rear ends up being too big to fit under the lasers.
    "Uh, your-"
    "Don't you dare finish that sentence!"
  • All Myths Are True: The story of Tajimamori, based on an actual Japanese legend (except that he searched for Mandarin oranges and not time spores) and considering the nature of the Guardian's castle, the story about the traveler.
  • Almost Dead Guy: Kamiyama and Yanagihara in episode 4.
  • Amateur Sleuth: Mishio Maeno talks to herself and in the process does a lot of Shout Outs to Sherlock Holmes as she investigates Rin. At best, though, she only tries to be this.
  • Anyone Can Die: Starting with The Reveal for episode two, it has been established that not even Immortals are safe. Maeno, Yanigahara, and Mimi's Dog, which is immortal, all die.
  • Augmented Reality: Becomes so prevalent in the near future of the last couple episodes that a skilled enough hacker can effectively turn himself into a Master of Illusion - the thought of turning their AR interfaces off simply never occurs to people anymore.
  • Badass Bookworm: Mimi, especially in Episode 6.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Rin's preferred attire is a business suit, giving her something of a Bifauxnen-like appearance.
  • Bad Santa: Though Laura doesn't plan on stealing Christmas, she does blow up an apartment building and shoot Rin while wearing a Santa outfit, even shouting "Hohoho, Merry Christmas" while she's at it.
  • Bait-and-Switch Credits: The last portion of the opening credits shows Rin, alone and in the buff, leaning on a pillar in the middle of mossy ruins, with a swarm of angels descending on her in a buildup to a Bolivian Army Ending. This never happens, since the closest thing to that doesn't happen amidst ruins - the castle is still very intact - and Rin is screwing Tajimamori; therefore, she is neither alone nor standing.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Apos wanted to permanently secure his position as Guardian of Yggdrasil. In the end, Apos got exactly what he wanted, hysterical screams of terror as he is literally dragged into Yggdrasil notwithstanding.
  • Big Bad: Apos, a mysterious angel who leads the Always Male angels, enemy of the Always Female immortals, and is the Arch-Enemy of Rin. He himself is actually a cross between angel and immortal. He manipulates the other villains Rin fights and seeks to secure a permanent position as Guardian of Yggdrasil by feeding Rin to it, then turn all men and women into angels and immortals to spark worldwide war, purely For the Evulz.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. Rin arrives in time to save Mimi, only to get herself casually killed by Apos.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Mimi and Rin's dog Genta. She is also immortal.
  • Blessed with Suck:
    • Being immortal is pretty nifty, overall, but there are a few issues: first, your body will always regenerate to the state it was in when you first became immortal. That's fine if the subject happen to receive the Seed of Yggdrasil while you're young and healthy, but if they do it while wounded, they must endure an eternity of suffering. Rin ends up as one of the last people on Earth to wear glasses (see below) since she was born with bad eyesight and attained her immortality millennia before corrective surgery - so if she had any now, her eyes would just heal back to their original, defective state. Second, and more importantly, immortal women become paralyzed with suicidal lust in the presence of angels... which normally results in them feeding themselves to the monster.
    • The angels themselves, meanwhile, get a far rawer deal: they become flying, indestructible, superstrong monsters, but they also lose their sanity, essentially turn into animals interested in nothing except the consumption of immortal flesh and which are doomed to die and evaporate in a matter of hours.
  • Blind Without 'Em: Episode one hints that Rin had eye problems when she became immortal (and thus, can never be cured), so now she's forced to replace her Stoic Spectacles whenever they're destroyed. She seems to be able to see reasonably without them, but they're always the first things she goes for when retrieving her clothing.
  • Body Horror: The potent-and-bloody yet seamless blend of death and sexuality would make HR Giger himself proud.
  • Bound and Gagged: In Episode 1, Rin is strapped down and tortured by Sayara. In Episode 3, Rin is bound to the handrails of a sinking ship. In Episode 6, Rin is chained to a table and ball-gagged in front of a chained Angel by Laura. Then there is Apos' torture victim in various episodes.
  • Brain Uploading: Ruon did this to herself after being killed by her father.
  • Breast Attack: A rare dead serious example. Sayara's begins her torture of Rin by stabbing her in the breast, through the nipple.
  • Brand X: Back in the 90's era, Rin and co. used pagers branded as 'Rocket Bell'.
    • The anime doesn't seem too shy about using things that are copyrighted almost to the letter.
  • Camera Abuse: The camera gets splattered with falling blood in the very first scene. It has also gotten wet during Shower Scenes.
  • Cartwright Curse: Rin. Yanigahara, who apparently bedded her before, and Ihika, her boyfriend in episode five both die. Then it turns out Ihika is Not Quite Dead and Apos even gets Rin to kill him, by turning the guy into an angel and literally locking them in a room together. Tajimamori himself gets stabbed by Apos while they're making out.
  • Chains of Love: With the "love" being used in the most ironic sense possible.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: A rather interesting case in episode three is that what the gun actually is isn't shown at all, and is only hinted at until The Reveal. Shogo's Time Spore is kept in a jewelry case next to some pictures of him. After Maeno leaves to save Rin, all that's shown is the empty case, though from the shape of the cushion, it becomes evident that whatever was in there was small and round. It's eventually used again when Rin takes it from Mishio... and EATS IT.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Ivan
  • The Chessmaster: It's hard to tell if Apos is one of these, or if he just plays chess to kill time.
  • Church Militant: Mimi's temple comes complete with a laser cage, pressure sensors, and nuns that use both guns and katanas.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Time Spores from Immortals are blue, while Time Spores from Angels are red. Furthermore, Yggdrasil's regular spores are dull and don't glow, while time spores that haven't touched mortals yet are yellow.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Last episode, After Rin enters Yggdrasil's roots.
  • Contrived Coincidence: As of episode five, Rin and Mimi have gotten involved with three generations of Maeno. Then again, it might not be coincidental, as Rin has been acting as Teruki's Mysterious Protector ever since his father died. A more proper example would be Rin finding Maeno's Time Spore after getting shredded by a jet engine and spending 25 years at the bottom of the sea.
    • Naturally, it's no coincidence, since all Maenos are direct descendants of Tajimamori, Rin's immortal secret benefactor and lover (and former Guardian of Yggdrassil).
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl: Mimi wears a Meido outfit in the early 1990s, and in episode 4, after losing her clothes to an explosion, she wears a ridiculous Stripperiffic costume much longer than necessary.
  • Damsel in Distress: Mimi depends on Rin and other immortals to protect her. It is then reversed in the final episode with Mimi having to rescue Rin from the castle.
  • Dashed Plot Line: 1/20/14/30 year skips between the first five episodes (the sixth follows the fifth immediately).
  • Deadpan Snarker: Rin in the first episode...
    Mimi: "Rin! You were suppose to find our client's lost cat!"
    Rin: "So instead of a lost cat, I found a lost man."
  • Dead Sidekick: Subverted; Apos kills Rin first when she comes to rescue Mimi and leaves the latter to her fate.
  • Deathless and Debauched: Apos has numerous tortured immortals in his lair to help pass his time. A few shots focus on him playing chess with an immortal who is bound and gagged, blindfolded, and has knives and swords stuck through her and kept inside so her wounds don't heal.
  • Deal with the Devil: Apos likes to make these. Notable examples include Yuki's brother, Sayara, and Ivan from episodes five and six.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Sayara, a sexual sadist who rapes both Rin and Kouki.
  • Disconnected by Death: Subverted; some several seconds after the sniper pulls the trigger and the phone line going quiet, Yanagihara reaches for the handset and give Rin his findings. Furthermore, he manages to reminisce about that time he managed to bed Rin, before finally kicking the bucket.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • The symbol of the Guardian resembles an uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes.
    • Yggdrasil's talk about women eating 'white blood' to become pregnant. And the way someone acts whenever they eat time spores.
  • The Dragon: Laura to Apos, but it only becomes evident when she starts ordering Angels around.
  • Dramatic Chase Opening: Rin, nearly-naked, being chased through a building by Laura. How they got there is never explained.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: But not for the purpose of disguise; Rin's hospital gown gets completely destroyed when she's trapped in a facility in one episode, so she borrows the clothes of one of the two guards who she just killed. It fits surprisingly well.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Apos is consumed by his own Yggdrasil egg, and Rin forcibly feeds him Laura's time fruit so he'll know the pain he put her through, while Laura gets to finally die. Rin, Mimi, Teruki, and Mishio all live to the end credits, and Rin births Tajimamori's son, whose descendants will in time connect all of humanity to Yggdrasil.
  • Eternal Love: Between Rin and Tajimamori.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: In episode 5, Genta growls at Laura after she gets a cyborg body that looks just like Rin.
  • Evil Twin: Laura is eventually redesigned to look like Rin. Apos even uses her as a replacement sex toy.
  • Exotic Eye Designs: It's not noticeable at first, but all the immortal woman have a distinct 'shine' that runs horizontal across their irises. Sayara gains them when she becomes immortal.
  • The Faceless: Tajimamori, the as-of-episode-4 unnamed man with a beard shown in the opening and closing credits. Is also He Who Must Not Be Seen when it is revealed that he is the person that Rin is always talking to on the phone. We get a full view of his face in episode five.
  • Fanservice: The series has a lot of female nudity and enough softcore sexual content it would probably have merited an NC-17 rating if it were made as a movie in the US.
  • Flashback: Flashbacks generally have a sort of watery distortion to them both in terms of video, and audio, and are also seen from the perspective of whoever is experiencing them.
  • Fast-Roping: How the Self-Defense Force breaks into Rin's office.
  • Final Speech: Yanagihara gets a short one.
  • Forgotten Superweapon: Rin's Shotgun Glove doesn't appear again until episode five where she uses it to kill three Angels in Mimi's overrun temple.
  • Friend on the Force: Tamotsu Yanagihara, a police detective who passes information to Rin on several occasions (and once slept with her).
  • Genre Shift: Mnemosyne can be broadly classified as an Urban Fantasy series, with the immortals, angels, and Yggdrasil existing in the background of a world that is Like Reality, Unless Noted, but the shift in the last three episodes, especially the closing duology, to a setting 20 Minutes in the Future turns it more into Science Fantasy.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Immortals can bounce back from nearly anything: Rin variously survives and regenerates from being shot, tortured with a nailgun, blown up by a de facto suicide vest, and even being sucked through a jet engine, though it takes her 25 years to come back From a Single Cell that time, and she loses her memory until the next time she's "killed". The only surefire way to kill an immortal is to remove her time fruit, and if brought near the roots of Yggdrasil, the fruit itself will regrow them.
  • Goo Goo God Like: Rin's son, who is a more subtle example. Instead of being all powerful, he is the first of a bloodline of humans who will be directly connected to Yggdrasil.
  • Gorn: The stuff that happens to Rin is at times quite gruesome.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Which actually makes it worse in a few cases. Surprisingly used often considering how violent this show is overall.
  • Götterdämmerung: By episode five, Laura has hunted the immortals down to near extinction, Yggdrasil hasn't made an appearance in thirty years, and Apos even mocks Tajimamori in his own room, calling him a 'former god'.
  • Gratuitous English: The Anime Theme Song "Alsatia" by Galneryus, which is known for writing their lyrics in English.
  • Groin Attack: Female-to-female example, played for horror. Part of Sayara's torture of Rin involved shoving a hook attached to a chain into her vagina. Not content with that, Sayara then tortures Rin further by pulling the chain.
  • The Gunslinger: Laura, though she also uses explosives without much reservation.
  • Hand Cannon: Laura's handgun from episode four, which has enough recoil to blow Rin several feet back. The former has no problem using it one-handed since, by then, she's a cyborg.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Rin and Mimi seem to spend much of their time drinking.
  • Healing Factor: Being immortal means
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Maeno giving what was left of his humanity to save Rin's life.
    • Subverted when Mimi also pulls one of these, only to be saved by the person she was trying to save in the first place.
  • Hermaphrodite: Apos, as it's his way of being both an angel and an immortal so he can be a Guardian, and he quite clearly identifies as male. But despite popular Fanon, this isn't the case with Tajimamori, an angel, who eats empty time spores to stay immortal, or with Rin, an immortal, who can grow wings once she becomes a Guardian.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: The person Rin talks to on the phone in every episode. Eventually revealed to be Tajimamori, The Faceless man with a beard from the credits. He was the Guardian of Yggdrasil, at least until Apos replaced him.
  • Lock-and-Load Montage: Episode five has Rin buying a new suit and digging up a weapons cache she stored in her grave.
  • Locked into Strangeness: Kouki gets a gray streak in his hair starting in the second episode, presumably at the same spot that he shoots himself in in episode one.
  • Lodged-Blade Recycling: Rin pulls it off in episode three after being vivisected to death, killing her torturer with the scalpel he accidentally dropped inside her stomach.
  • Luke, You Are My Father: It is eventually revealed that Apos is Tajimamori's son.
  • Magical Library: Yggdrasil appears on a regular basis and sheds time spores around the world, which it uses to collect 'memories' of whatever they touch. Immortals and angels get special mention.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Apos, probably more so than being a chessmaster even though he plays chess every now and then.
  • Market-Based Title: In America, Funimation is marketing the series as RIN ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Present (or at least Mayfly December UST), but it doesn't really come up. Thanks to the time scale of the series, mortals age and die, but nobody ever dwells on it.
  • Meaningful Name: With a little knowledge of japanese, the Maeno (前, "in front of", 埜, "field, wilderness") family names suddenly start to make sense in context:
    Maeno Kouki (前埜光輝): "Brightness of the Field Before You"
    Maeno Yuki (前埜有紀): "Chronicle of the Existence of the Field Before You"
    Maeno Teruki (前埜輝紀): "Chronicle of the Radiance/Shine of the Field Before You"
    Maeno Mishio (前埜美汐): "Beauty of the Tide of the Field Before You"
    • Considering how closely tied to Rin's character and destiny the Maeno family ends up being, it's interesting to notice their names all correlate the owners to some important event or situation in Rin's life similar to what their name implies (Kouki showing Rin the bright side of life, Yuki raising Teruki alone, with Teruki later proving to be the initial trigger to Rin recovering her memories, and Mishio awakening Rin to the new and beautiful experience of parenthood). It's also interesting to note how the first kanji in their family name is precisely the kanji to indicate something in front of something else, alluding to the fact that they were always beside Rin, partly because of their destiny as descendants of Tajimamori.
  • Men Get Old, Women Get Replaced: Almost all recurring female characters being (or becoming) immortal. The lead characters Rin and Mimi are immortals and remain at the same physical age throughout the series' 65-year span, while their nameless female informants are replaced with their own younger apprentices after every Time Skip. Meanwhile, guys like Tamotsu, Maeno, and Teruki are allowed to reach venerable ages on-screen. The only obvious exception is the Big Bad Apos, but he is eventually revealed to be a hermaphrodite.
  • Mundane Utility:
    • Yggdrasil seeds the world with time spores, creating immortals and angels for the purpose of collecting additional data through their experiences.
    • Immortals don't get hangovers.
  • My Grandson, Myself: Rin takes this route when visiting a person she met back in WWII.
    • Inverted in episode five, where Mishio considers the possibility of Rin being the daughter of the woman (also Rin) that she saw in a 30-year-old video.
  • Naughty Nuns: Mimi actually looks like a real nun, until the point of the yuri orgy.
  • New Era Speech: Inverted, since it's Rin who does it in the end, and actually means what she says in a positive light.
  • The '90s: The first two episodes take place in them.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Shotgun Gloves. And Rin herself.
    • Apos is male and female, thus making him/her/them both an Angel and an Immortal.
  • No Name Given: Though a university lecture in episode five hints on the identity and name of the bearded man who Rin talks to on the phone Once an Episode, it's only revealed in episode six.
    • Also, Apos' immortal 'opponent'/bound slave whenever he's playing chess. In episode five, it's hinted that she is actually Laura, and that the Laura that tries to kill Rin Once an Episode is an android being remote-controlled by her.
    • The show loves toying with this: none of the informants are ever named on-screen, and Laura's name is only given in episode six (unless you watched the trailer or the credits).
  • Noodle Incident: Rin's "view" of Oda Nobunaga, which leaves Mishio's sense of history in tatters.
  • No One Could Survive That!: Rin even survives falling into a running airplane jet engine, despite her doubts about her chances. It takes her decades though to get resurrected, with amnesia to boot.
    • She also survives getting her time spore pulled out, though it turns out that it's not-so-bad-as-it-apparently-seems.
  • Not Afraid of You Anymore: The way Rin turned the tables on Apos in the very end, thanks to her having received the powers of Yggdrasil.
  • Not Quite Dead: Presumably, unless their Time Spores are eaten/stepped on/whatever, immortals can regenerate entirely from just them. This probably explains how Rin survived after what happened in Episode five. Angels aren't so lucky, though.
    • The immortal who survives a nuclear explosion at ground zero in episode six.
  • #1 Dime: Yuki's Brother's Time Spore, which eventually becomes Maeno's Time Spore, which is eventually lost, and then later found by Rin when she washes up on the beach. Subverted in that even if she didn't forget everything, she probably wouldn't even know that the two of them were connected. Then again, it could probably be just some Angel Time Spore that fell into the water.
    • When Rin eats the time spore in episode 6, it's revealed that the spore was indeed Maeno's Time Spore and not just some random spore.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Though she seems carefree and happy-go-lucky, Rin instantly reveals herself to be one hell of a badass when the going gets tough.
  • Oh, Crap!: Sayara gets three in a row. The first is when Rin appears, unharmed, in Sayara's office after being tortured to death, the second when Rin gets up again after being shot to death, and the third when she hears a knock at the door and runs out of the room... into a mob of the zombies she created.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: It's only soft, but since it was combined with the Ominous Pipe Organ, the Ominous Latin Chanting pretty much punctuates and intensifies the disturbing atmosphere of Apos raping Mimi while she is chained and nailed to a stone lamp post, revealing himself to be a hermaphrodite, and using Rin's own hand to dig her Time Spore out of her, all in the span of three minutes.
  • Ominous Pipe Organ: Whenever Apos and Rin are in proximity of each other in episode six.
  • Once an Episode: Rin, Mimi, and vodka threesome. This is not the case in episode five. Episode six plays with it- Rin asks for some water, before realizing she is in a castle and Mimi is nowhere to be seen.
    • Rin getting maimed/killed, which is actually closer to thrice an episode on average. Also, Rin talking to He Who Must Not Be Seen on the phone, even after she gets amnesia. Though in that case, it was more of the phone line opening up so that He Who Must Not Be Seen can listen to her voice like some stalker.
    • Yggdrasil showing up and shedding some Time Spores, with Rin and/or Mimi staring at the event for a couple of seconds. Averted in episode five, where the tree is only mentioned as a rumor/seen in the credits, and the only time spores shown are either from immortals, or already in the hands of Apos. Episode six makes this a borderline case.
    • Laura showing up to shoot Rin full of holes then blowing herself up with Rin once that fails. She even starts using a sword in episode six.
    • Lesbian sex scenes.
  • One-Gender Race: Immortals are Always Female, and Angels are Always Male. Unless you take the third option, as Apos does.
  • Our Angels Are Different: In here, they spawn from human males with time spores, are Always Male counterparts to the Always Female immortals, and have an instinctual desire to have sex with and devour immortals.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: In this case, a President Buffoon, who allows Apos to manipulate him into starting some kind of war involving time spores. It was completely irrelevant to the plot, however, and it's only briefly mentioned in the epilogue that America has fallen into civil war.
  • Out-Gambitted: Apos has Laura killed when she tries to mess up his plan by attempting to feed Rin's time spore to angels.
  • Playing with Syringes: Sayara's cloning and immortality project. When she's not just doing it for fun, that is.
  • Precision F-Strike: From the dub: "MERRY FUCKIN' CHRISTMAS!"
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Rin gets one in the first episode, though the recipient doesn't actually die. From the dub:
    Rin: "It's such a shame when the good die young." (gunshots)
  • Private Detective: Rin, minus the Private Eye Monologue.
  • Professional Killer: Laura, and the stamp assassin from episode two.
  • Red Spider Lilies of Mourning: In episode three, red spider lilies on a black background is a visual motif used when discussing the bioweapon "Higan", which was Tested on Humans on the so-called "Death Island".
  • Razor Floss: Yet another piece of Rin's arsenal of concealable weapons.
  • Really 700 Years Old: May be literally so with some of the girls. Rin at one time even says that it has been centuries since she had a lover (although it also raises the question what Mimi is to her then). In fact, Rin is at least, a thousand years old in episode six while Mimi can't be much older than one and a half centuries - at the time Rin met her, she was already wearing her trademark killer suit which only went into fashion in the 20th century. That, and Mimi didn't know the person Rin met back in WWII.
  • Running Gag: Every episode but 5 has Rin wake up with a splitting headache (Usually a hangover) and yelling at Mimi to get her some water. Mimi brings her a bottle of vodka instead.
    Mimi: Come on, vodka means water in Russian, you know.
  • Save Point: Essentially how immortality works. Once a Time Spore enters your body, it records your physical condition at the time and then 'reloads' it whenever you're injured/killed/get a haircut/whatever.
  • Scenery Porn: To the point of sometimes being distracting.
  • Sexposition: One episode had a scene where Mimi had an orgy with a group of other immmortals. Meanwhile there was a voiceover that discussed their battle plans against Apos.
  • Sex for Services: The informants demand sex as payment.
  • Sexual Karma: Most of the series' sex scenes are either transactional or non-consensual, and are portrayed as such. Rin's love scene with Tajimamori in the final episode is a thing of beauty that they both clearly enjoy.
  • Shout-Out: In episode 1, the pharmaceutical company executive's laptop is named "cylon".
  • Shower of Angst: Rin in episode 5.
  • Shower Scene: Rin from episode one, and the second informant in episode 3.
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: Mishio uses Laura's Hand Cannon to kill an angel.
    • A partial example would be Mimi using a Kill Sat. Guns don't really get much bigger than that.
  • Someone to Remember Him By: Rin with Tajimamori, though she presumably raises the baby as a single mother since Taji was killed by Apos.
  • Spoiler Opening: Subverted by the Root of Yggdrasil. Although in the opening credits, it appears with Rin, Mimi, and Laura at the top, it's Apos and Laura who end up topping it off. We also see all of the Maenos, as well as Sayara and both of the informants, however none of these really register until you've seen them in the episodes proper.
  • Spy Catsuit: Sort of.
    • Laura's standard outfit is a black catsuit, but it's not particularly tight, so it's more badass than fanservicey. (Except for one brief, inexplicable shot where it was unzipped enough to show off her cleavage.)
    • Rin fulfilled the trope when she went exploring air vents, but not with a traditional catsuit: She wore a black, skin-tight shirt and pants. The shirt had a zipper, and for added fanservice bared her midriff and did not feature a bra. She also dressed Kouki up in a similar but less fanservicey outfit.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Apos has a serious obsession with Rin, and of course, in his own 'special' way. He goes so far as to remodel Laura to look just like Rin and even rapes her even though she's a cyborg. Even after he claims to be just after her time spore, he doesn't just go out of his way to dig it out of her.
    • He does just that in episode five, and using Rin's own hand to do it, too.
    • Also, Ruon to Teruki in episode four.
$$* The Stoic: Rin.
  • Stoic Spectacles: Rin's glasses are sure as hell not Nerd Glasses.
  • Strapped to an Operating Table: Someone gets tied to something nearly Once an Episode. Most notably, Rin is strapped to a chair and tortured in episode 1, and vivisected on an operating table in episode 3, both times by Sayara.
    • Episode 4: Ruon straps Teruki to a table. Episode 5: Apos chains Mimi to a rock. Episode 6: the Yggdrasil roots try to do this to Rin inside the egg.
  • Supernaturally Young Parent: Rin, for the rest of eternity.
  • Take My Hand!: A weird example, which starts with Rin and Tajimamori, then Maeno lends a hand, and then ends up being Rin and Mishio.
    • This is symbolic of Tajimamori, Maeno, and their entire bloodline living through Mishio as Rin's sworn protectors.
  • Taking You with Me: Laura does this a lot, but never succeeds due to both parties usually being immortal.
    • Subverted on one occasion. Rin runs away after seeing Laura's explosive vest, so Laura simply takes it off and throws it after her.
  • Technology Marches On: In-Universe and Played for Laughs in Episode 2, where Mimi retorts Koki's remark about screwing up a computer job by saying "This is a top of the line 16-bit 40MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM with a 300MB hard drive with all the bells and whistles." They go from that, to Koki's granddaughter literally wearing virtual clothes in episode 5.
  • Techno Wizard: Mimi has claimed to be capable of hacking into the CIA, MI6, and Special Forces Section II. Furthermore, in episode six, she hacks into a Kill Sat belonging to Teruki's company and tries to stop Apos with it.
  • Time Skip: Happens Once an Episode. Considering Rin and Mimi are immortal, it's not surprising that the series took place over a period of 65 years, with the epilogue taking place at least nine months after the climax.
  • To the Pain
  • Torture Technician
  • Turbine Blender: Rin lands inside a running airplane engine in episode four. Her last thoughts are "This may be too much even for me." Though, of course, she gets better... after 20 years of continuous regeneration.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: Episodes 3-6, which are set in 2011, 2025, and 2055 respectively.
    • That is, considering the anime was first released in 2008.
  • Unknown Rival: While Laura goes Psycho Lesbian with her obsession with Rin and spends considerable amounts of time thinking about how to kill her, the latter considers her nothing more than a nuisance.
  • Virtual Ghost: Ruon, and with a touch of AI Is A Crap Shoot.
  • Virtual Celebrity
  • Waking Up at the Morgue
  • We Can Rebuild Him: Laura, after she gets dissected and made immortal by Apos.
  • Wham Episode: 4 already had some serious wham moments, but they upped the ante in 5.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Amongst other catches, when you become immortal, your current physical state is recorded, and you will forever return to it. Bad vision? You can't fix it with surgery. Virginity? You will be deflowered each time. Dying of grievous wounds in extreme pain? Prepare for more pain.
    • Though Rin and Mimi don't seem to mind and find odd jobs to do to pass the time.
  • Why Won't You Die?: Laura has done everything in her field of expertise to kill Rin, from blowing her to pieces with a shotgun, to doing a Taking You with Me with a claymore mine, to using high-tech large-bore bullets, to pouring acid on her. By the fifth episode, she even admits to have become obsessed with figuring out how to kill her.
  • The World Tree: Yggdrasil, source of the Time Spores, is visible in the opening credits as an ominous background entity that easily dwarfs Tokyo skyscrapers.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Apos and the angels will outright devour women.
  • Yakuza
  • Yandere: Sayara, Apos, and Ruon
  • Zip Me Up: Rin, to tease Teruki.
  • Zombie Gait: Sayara's zombies in episode 1.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Daughters Of Mnemosyne, Rin Daughters Of Mnemosyne, Mnemosyne No Musume Tachi

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Kouki Doesn't Commit Suicide

"Cats Don't Laugh". After escaping the Aoyama Pharmaceuticals lab, Kouki wonders if he is in fact one of the clones that were created there, and what to do with himself next. Rin hands him a pistol and tells him it's up to him whether he lives with the pain, or chooses not to. She returns to the truck, and we hear a gunshot. However, later, back at her and Mimi's office, Kouki shows up with his head bandaged: apparently he jerked the gun aside at the last moment and only grazed himself, and states that whether or not he's a clone, he's the only one who can live his life, and asks them if they're hiring.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

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Main / BaitAndSwitchGunshot

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