Gorgon Academy is the only school where the cute girl sitting next to you may really be a giant catfish.
During the 1990s, cryptids and mythical creatures around the world gained the ability to switch between a human form and their normal form, and any mix thereof. The only way a disguised Cryptid can be identified is by their unusual hair color, and some were lucky enough to not even have that. The younger Cryptids are sent to a school called Gorgon Academy, where they can be around others like them and learn how to avoid discovery by humans.
The show itself centers around the six students residing in the Nessie Dorm at the titular school. It's mostly Slice of Life meets Urban Fantasy, with a hearty spoonful of comedy and Author Appeal.
This show provides examples of:
- Author Appeal (The main reason this show exists is because the creator is a total cryptozoology nut.)
- Author Avatar (Isa, who has the rare distinction of being a villainous one.)
- Ax-Crazy (Katrina, Isa, and post-possession Iggy.)
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy (The Loch Ness Monster was actually five different monsters of five different species, the Bell Witch was two ghosts that were simply only seen separately, and after the Transformation, entire families, including those of at least three major world leaders, magically wrote themselves into history.)
- Berserk Button (God help you if you mispronounce Lis's name.)
- BFS (Phoenix's scythe and Isa's battleaxe.)
- Bifauxnen (Phoenix. Pax is also shown as being this in the future.)
- Butt-Monkey (Taro. And Daniel. And Devin. And almost every other named male character.)
- Cannot Spit It Out (Poor Taro.)
- Chekhov's Gunman (Daniel, who appears in the first episode, leaves due to a "mysterious sickness slash injury slash plot device", and then reappears in Season 2 as Phoenix's apprentice.)
- Cute Ghost Girl (Arabella.)
- Cute Monster Girl (The Cryptids in their partially-transformed state state are this. Their true forms? Not so much.)
- Dark Is Not Evil (Phoenix, Devin, and Belladonna, despite being The Grim Reaper and a pair of angel/demon hybrids, are on the side of good.)
- (Chuck, too, after Katrina lets him go and possesses Iggy instead.)
- Deadpan Snarker (Lis.)
- The Ditz (Arabella)
- Embarrassing First Name (Asherah Pax and Aiolos Taro Kawasaki.)
- The Everyman (Daniel until his sort-of death, which is actually the beginning of his importance in the story.)
- The Fair Folk (Iggy is a pixie.)
- Fille Fatale (Belladonna seems oddly flirtatious for a ten-year-old girl.)
- Foil (Pax and Taro are this for each other.)
- Freudian Excuse ( Katrina, although what she did was way worse than what anyone else had done to her.)
- Gender-Blender Name (Iggy's real name is Igraine. Don't expect to learn this just by watching the show, though. "Taro" is also commonly a girl's name.)
- Genki Girl (Pax.)
-
Genius Bonus ( Arabella and Katrina being related shouldn't come as a surprise when you learn that Arabella was one of the two spirits that made up the Bell Witch, whose fake name was Kate.) - Hard-Drinking Party Girl (Working Phoenix is scary. Non-working Phoenix is... not.)
- Heel–Face Turn (Chuck.)
- Heroic Sacrifice (Iggy voluntarily being possessed by Katrina to save her friends smacks of this.)
- Heterosexual Life-Partners (Leila and Arabella. Pax and Lis seem to become the Vitriolic Best Buds variation of this in the later seasons. As of season 2, Leila and Arabella have officially become a couple.)
- Huge Schoolgirl (Leila.)
- Jerkass (Pax.)
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold (Lis, Phoenix, and in the later seasons, Pax.)
- Kuudere (Lis.)
- Les Yay (Unavoidable considering the gender ratio of the cast. Leila and Arabella might actually be and later ARE lesbians, and Pax just seems to love getting especially close to Lis and Iggy.)
- Looks Like Cesare (Phoenix.)
- Light Is Not Good (The angelic-looking Belladonna is actually a Jerkass and a bully, although she's still technically "good".)
- Luke, I Am Your Father (Katrina and Arabella are actually twin sisters.)
- Man Behind the Man (Katrina to Chuck, Isa to Katrina.)
- Meaningful Name (Think for a moment about what Lis repeatedly asserts her name rhymes with. Also, "Devin" (an angel/demon hybrid) is just one letter away from "devil".)
- Mind Game Ship (Pick either Man Behind the Man pair. Chances are, people who ship them portray them as this.)
- The One Guy (Taro. Well, until Daniel, Devin and Chuck come into the picture.)
- Our Monsters Are Different (The entire premise of the series.)
- The Pollyanna (Arabella. Even after the Cerebus Syndrome takes effect. Especially after the Cerebus Syndrome takes effect.)
- Pronouncing My Name for You ("Lis! Rhymes with hiss! Not that hard!")
- The Quiet One (Leila and Devin. Lis starts as this, too.)
- Quirky Work
- Really 700 Years Old (Pax and Taro are kitsunes and therefore approximately two hundred and forty-seven years old, Phoenix is as old as the concept of Death itself, and Arabella has been a teenager since the 1600s.)
- Red Eyes, Take Warning (Inverted—the good ghosts are the ones with red eyes.)
- Running Gag: "I'm a GUY!"
- Sacrificial Lamb (Although her fate wasn't actually death, Iggy did certainly seem to exist solely to be possessed in Chuck's place.)
- Seven Deadly Sins (Isa is all of them. At once. Not that you wouldn't do what she says anyway.)
- Shrinking Violet (Leila.)
- Sibling Yin-Yang (Pax and Taro, despite being twins, are polar opposites.)
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl (Katrina)
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal (Pax and Taro. Oh. So. Much.)
- (Phoenix Morte is female.)
- Villainous Crossdresser (Chuck. Not of his own free will, though.)
- Weirdness Censor (Regular humans can't see Cryptids in their real forms. The few humans in the series that can (except Daniel) usually turn out to have been Cryptids themselves all along.)
- Wholesome Crossdresser (Phoenix. It's part of her job.)
- Wise Beyond Their Years (Devin, on the rare occasion that he speaks.)
- The Woobie (Pretty much everyone as the series progressively gets darker.)
- Yandere (Iggy, after Katrina possesses her.)
