Migi & Dali (ミギとダリ, Migi to Dari) is a mystery manga series as well as the final work of Nami Sano before her death. The series was serialized in the manga magazine Harta and ran from 2017 to 2021.
Set in 1990, the story begins with the Sonoyamas, an elderly couple from Origon Village, adopting a beautiful and good-natured boy by the name of Hitori. However, the boy has a secret. As it turns out, Hitori is actually a pair of twins—Migi and Dali—pretending to be one person in order to find their mother's murderer, who also lives in the village.
An anime adaptation was made by Geek Toys and CompTown and began airing in October of 2023.
The series includes the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: On the night she died, Metry was trying to get a 5-year old Eiji back and reunite him with his brothers. However, he didn't recognize her and pushed her away, causing her to fall to her death.
- Adults Are Useless: Averted in Micchan's case as she saves Migi and Dali's lives multiple times throughout the story with her final time being as a ghost.
- Baby Be Mine: Reiko Ichijou is actually infertile so when Metry gave birth, she took Eiji away from her as he resembled his father the most.
- Bathos: Just because it's a mystery-drama about twin brothers avenging their dead mother does not stop the series from having a lot of goofy over-the-top moments in the mix. After all, the author did previously work on Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto.
- Bed Trick: Reiko pushed her maid Metry to have sex with her husband while disguised as her, resulting in the birth of Migi, Dali and Eiji.
- Big Brother Instinct: A good way to get on Dali's bad side is to hurt his younger brother Migi.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Reiko is attempting to strangle Dali to death when Micchan comes in and distracts her with dust enough to make her let go of the scarf she's using. After fighting off Reiko with Sardine also helping, Micchan uses this opportunity to free the twins and help them escape.
- During the final arc. Reiko has locked her husband, the twins, Karen and Maruta in the secret room and Eiji has decided to set the house on fire in order to commit suicide. Everyone locked in tries to break the door open unsuccessfully but just when all seems hopeless and everyone is about to suffocate, Akiyama manages to break it from the outside.
- Chekhov's Gun: Akiyama's bird suit. During the final arc, he uses it to distract the police so that the twins and Maruta can successfully sneak into the Ichijou household.
- Coordinated Clothes: Migi and Dali are shown to always be wearing matching sets of clothes. This is Justified though as they are pretending to be one person and it would be strange if Hitori showed up wearing different clothes than before.
- Disguised in Drag: Dali occasionally dons the disguise of a girl named "Sali".
- Distant Finale: The final chapter takes place 3 years later where Migi, Dali, Akiyama and Maruta are still friends.
- Dub Name Change: The anime changes the twins' fake name to "Solo."
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After being orphaned at the age of 5, being ostracized by most of the other kids for coming from an orphanage, being accused of Micchan's murder and part of Dali's face getting burned, the twins finally get a happy ending when the Sonoyamas eventually find out about them and love and accept them as they are, so they no longer have to pretend to be Hitori. In addition, the murder charges against them are cleared.
- Foil: The Sonoyamas and the Ichijous whose families consists of the parents, two children and a dog. While the Sonoyamas come off as bumbling at times, they're Happily Married, want Hitori to live a normal happy life, and after finding out about the twins, love both of them equally. The Ichijous on the other hand, appear to be the picture-perfect family on the surface but turn out to have issues of their own. Said issues being Akira having affairs with other women and Reiko's mental instability and obsession with perfection and according to Karen's comments about acting as a hostage for the Be Birds, she feels as though Reiko (greatly) favors Eiji over her. In addition, both families are adoptive (at least on Reiko's end for the Ichijous) parents for at least one of Metry's children but while the Sonoyamas officially adopted Hitori into their family which the twins wanted to happen, Reiko stole a baby away from his mother and Eiji grew up believing that she was his actual mother.
- Forgiveness: Eventually both of the twins forgive Eiji for accidently killing their mother though it takes Dali a bit more time to do so.
- Good Parents
- When she was still alive, Metry was a loving mother who tried her best to take care of the twins despite their circumstances.
- The Sonoyamas are shown to be kind and caring people who want their adopted child to have a happy life. When they do find out about Migi and Dali, they get both of the boys Christmas presents and love them just as they are.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: What Migi and Dali try to pass Hitori off as, a kind and helpful boy with blonde hair. Though Migi fits this trope a lot more than his brother Dali.
- Happily Adopted: Migi and Dali make Hitori come off as this in front of their adoptive parents and after the Sonoyamas find out the truth, the twins become this for real.
- Hope Spot: Micchan is successfully able to help the twins escape death and get out of the Ichijou household and is telling them to go to the police when Reiko comes up from behind and slits her throat.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Migi and Dali are identical twins, with only their hair bangs being slightly different to help the audience tell them apart. By the end, Dali's face is scarred in a fire, creating a more obvious distinction between him and Migi.
- Ironic Name: "Hitori" means "alone," the obvious joke being that "he" is actually two people. Extends to the English dub, which changes the name to "Solo."
- Irony: Despite working as a psychiatrist, Akira was completely unaware of his wife's mental instability and in fact made it even worse due to him neglecting her in favor of having affairs with other women.
- Kids Are Cruel: A lot of the other kids in the story pick on the twins either because they came from an orphanage or because of their poor social skills. The only exceptions to this trope seem to be Akiyama, Karen, Eiji and eventually Maruta.
- Matricide: Eiji killed his biological mother Metry by accident. After he finds out the truth, he murders his foster mother Reiko, this time willingly.
- Moving-Away Ending: The series ends with Dali moving away to go to a specialist school, while Migi stays at Origon Village to become an artist. Despite being separated, Migi knows he and Dali will always be connected in their hearts.
- Name and Name: The series is about the titular pair of twins, Migi and Dali.
- Official Couple: By the end of the story, Karen and Maruta become a couple.
- Revenge: Migi and Dali's main goal in the story is to get revenge on the person who murdered their mother.
- Sanity Slippage: Reiko used to be fairly sane if a bit of a perfectionist. However, her sanity began to crack after finding out that she's infertile and then it fully goes out the window after she sees that her husband prefers Metry over her.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: In The Stinger for Episode 11 of the anime, "Clair de Lune" plays as Eiji murders Reiko.
- Took a Level in Idealism: Migi starts similar to his brother in terms of personality but becomes more trusting of others as the story goes on.
- Trickster Twins: The entire premise is about the twins Migi and Dali deceiving everyone around them by pretending to be one boy through lots of trickery.
- True Companions: The time the final arc rolls around, the twins become this with Akiyama and Maruta where they all work together to find out the truth about the Ichijous as well as clear Hitori's name, dubbing their group the Be Birds. During the final chapter which takes place three years later, its shown that all four of them are still good friends.
- Twincest: Migi develops a crush on "Sali", unaware that's actually his twin Dali in drag. Later on, Eiji also falls for "Sali" and even gets a kiss, which becomes really awkward when it's revealed Eiji is Migi and Dali's long-lost triplet brother.
- Twin Switch: Migi and Dali are twins pretending to be a single boy named "Hitori". They're almost always together, frequently switching places to not let anyone find out their secret.
- Twin Theme Naming: Migi and Dali mean "right" and "left" respectively in Japanese.
- Twisted Christmas: Migi and Dali's mother was murdered on a Christmas Eve.
- Would Hurt a Child: Reiko has no qualms about trying to kill the main characters. There's also the matter of her trying to "re-educate" Hitori and later on Eiji.
