Mouse (manga)

Japanese manga series

Mouse (stylized as "MØUSE") is a Japanese manga series written by Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Hiroshi Itaba. It was serialized in Hakusensha's Young Animal between 1999 and 2004. Mouse was adapted into a twelve episode anime television series written by Hiroyuki Kawasaki, directed by Yorifusa Yamaguchi, and produced by Media Factory and Studio Deen. In 2005, Hakusensha published a one volume manga prequel titled Mouse Bakumatsu den (マウス ～幕末伝～ ).

For 400 years, there was a family of thieves stealing money and priceless property, particularly those items that were originally illegally stolen. The main motivation is that anything and everything can be stolen, no matter how much they protect that item. And in those years, that thief was only known by one name, Mouse. In the latest version, a young college art teacher named Muon Sorata is the latest to take up the name of Mouse. He is surrounded by three highly devoted and attractive assistants who help him pull off heists of art museums and landmark towers. The thieves have the power and resources to steal entire buildings and take structures out to sea but never get caught. Mouse is also known for not abandoning those who serve him, even if it means his capture.

A college art teacher who is actually a thief under the name "Mouse". He follows a 400 year tradition as Mouse and will not abandon those who serve him. As Mouse, Sorata has access to a vast arsenal of vehicles and machines to help him, all of which are hidden underneath the college where he works. At school he is usually seen messing up with his teacher duties, gaining a stern lecture from Mei, Yayoi and Hazuki (with everyone unaware of their relationship with him). He is a popular teacher, gaining attraction from many of his female students. Though he usually tries to avoid having sex, after becoming drunk he obtains a limitless libido, sleeping with countless women, as well as wearing out the usually sex driven Mei, Yayoi and Kakio with no sights of slowing down; however after he sobers up, he does not remember anything he did. He is friends with Inspector Minami and his daughter Rika, who he sees like a family, though they are unaware he is Mouse. A computer and physics expert, who works at the college's physics department as a math teacher. She had been trained since childhood to be the servant to Sorata, but decided that she would not follow Mouse blindly until she saw him herself, even planning to kill herself if she was made to follow a man she did not respect. When she was injured during a mission, she made the choice to follow Sorata with her heart when he would not abandon her, in spite of her insistence that he do. Her grandfather is the chairman of the school, though the school itself is owned by the Muon family. As the first servant to meet Sorata, she is incredibly loyal to him. As the series progressed she came to realize that she is in love with him, showing jealousy when he goes on dates and being the most worried during his more dangerous heists. A biology expert, so skilled that when she was hired on to the research team, they made sure to staff the team with only females just for her, and is also the college's nurse. When she was a college student, Yayoi was cursed with a fear of men so great that she goes into panic attacks whenever she even sees a man. So she was curious that her classmate, Mei Momozona, engaged in an intimate relationship with a student she was tutoring, Sorata Muon. But later, when a valuable sample was targeted by Mouse to be stolen, Yayoi found herself trapped when one of her panic attacks triggered a major fire in the lab she was in. It was Sorata, who was really Mouse, who had rescued her and allowed her to come out of her shell. She is one of his most devoted servants, and is always trying to make him some concoction to give him more sexual energy. Of Mouse's three servants, Yayoi is the most sexually driven, regularly showing a strong masochistic side from various fantasies of bondage and the likes with Mouse. An expert martial arts fighter, who is also the college's physical education instructor. There are several personalities within her, from a mischievous child to a brave fighter. When Hazuki foolishly tested a memory erasing machine and her many personalities were programmed into its computer, Sorata went in to save her by going in himself. While Sorata went in search of the Kakio family treasure, he discovered Hazuki in what seemed to be a debilitated, emotionally fractured, and dissociated state where she was forced to be completely cut off from the rest of the world. By gaining her trust and promising never to leave her as her family had, Sorata was about to uncover the secret and truth behind the Kakio family treasure. She has a habit of appearing in the strangest places (bathroom, washing machine, etc) while wearing only a kinbaku as well as having a penchant for cosplay.

An organization originally created to protect valuable artwork out of the hands of thieves. However, the organization has lost its way and has become the largest black market dealers of stolen artwork as well as assassins. They are the primary antagonists in the series.