Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Manga / KaguyaHime

Go To

1[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px_kaguyahime_vol1.jpg]]
2
3English name: ''Princess Kaguya''.
4
5Akira Okada is your typical schoolgirl... who looks like a boy, is crushed on by all her female classmates, and was adopted. Oh, and by the way, her attention-starved adopted sister is ''very'' attached to her, and her artist of an adopted mother makes her model for her in the nude. Among other things.
6
7This all changes when two boys appear out of the blue to take her to a mysterious survival camp on deserted Kabuchi Island, where they claim was the orphanage they all grew up in, together with a bunch of other kids... as human sacrifices for the unearthly and cruel Princess Kaguya.
8
9And from there, it all goes downhill, mixing myth, sci-fi, murder mystery and complicated romance going every which way no matter the gender. Expect lots of LesYay, NoYay, {{Squick}}, MindScrew, and ''very'' twisted moral issues.
10
11A manga by Reiko Shimizu, ''very'' loosely based on ''Literature/TheTaleOfTheBambooCutter''. It ran in ''Magazine/LaLa'' from 1994 to 2005.
12----
13!!''Kaguya Hime'' provides examples of:
14* AbusiveParents: Akira was her adoptive mother's lover. But [[spoiler:she claims she liked it]]. Vol 10 shows [[spoiler:her biological mother, who meant to have her killed]].
15* ActionGirl: Yu-Ling, Akira, Chun-Lan and the other servants.
16* {{Angst}}: And ''how''.
17* BewareTheNiceOnes: Apparently a favorite.
18** Miller: quiet, delicate, frail and girly-looking, [[spoiler:blind]]... and ''loves'' to beat up on people. Do not provoke him, and especially not by calling him girly.
19** Satoshi: looks like your stereotypical top-grades student, complete with glasses and a calm and polite personality. Participates in the U.G. Camp because he's injured or killed at least one person.
20** Nobuo: scary-looking but adorable, sweet, childish... and [[spoiler:TheMole]].
21** Midori: if anything, being a physical wimp ''makes'' him willing to be an absolute JerkAss to Yui from time to time... [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold possibly for Yui's own good sometimes,]] but when he gets seriously pissed with Yui, he simply won't change his mind and [[BitchInSheepsClothing won't care that it makes Yui absolutely miserable]]. He's still TheWoobie though.
22** Mayu: the sweet-looking, brainless, helpless young blonde [[spoiler:who let her mother die in front of her eyes for what she did to Akira, and threatens to kill anyone Akira gets involved with]].
23** From vol 10 on, [[spoiler:Akira starts getting murderous urges... and acting on them]].
24* {{Bifauxnen}}: Akira and Yu-Ling, of course.
25%%* BishieSparkle: Miller is the worst perpetrator, but Akira and Yu-Ling sometimes get them as well.
26* BodyguardCrush: Gao Li-Shi on Yu-Ling [[spoiler:then Akira]]. Also, kind of, Yui on Midori, insofar as Yui self-appointed himself as Midori's protector.
27* CallBack: In vol 6, one of Mayu's LoveBubbles-filled fantasies involves her as the Literature/SleepingBeauty when Akira shakes her awake. Later in the same volume, [[spoiler:Julian]] dreamily compares an unconscious [[spoiler:Miller]] to the same princess - in a much more serious atmosphere.
28* DistressedDude: Everyone is very aware that Midori is this. [[BadassInDistress Miller]] subverts this by saving himself every time.
29* DudeLooksLikeALady: Miller, of course, to his endless dismay.
30* EngagementChallenge: Akira steals a page from Princess Kaguya's book, but they aren't [[ImpossibleTask Impossible Tasks]] this once.
31* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Akira, even when they don't mistake her for a guy.
32* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Miller, even when they don't mistake him for a girl.
33* EveryoneIsBi: Mostly but not only because of Miller and Akira. Except for Maggey and Mayu, who both definitely think men are dicks.
34* {{Fanservice}} (Oh, Miller.)
35* FateWorseThanDeath: What happened to [[spoiler:Katsura]], as seen in vol 13.
36* FauxActionGirl: Maggey is an army instructor. You really couldn't tell.
37* GentleGiant: Nobuo. Gao Li-Shi as well, to a lesser extent as he is a very competent bodyguard.
38* GrandTheftMe: Many variants happen because of the mess with the [[spoiler:clones and their original bodies they're supposed to give organs to]]. Some are terrifying.
39* HeroicSacrifice: In vol 7, [[spoiler:as thanks for Miller's existence having saved his life as a child and because his own body is now rotting away, [[StalkerWithACrush Julian]] makes sure to get killed and to have ''his'' eyes transplanted to Miller, giving him his sight back... and a brand new life, when the donors were supposed to be hunted all over the world.]] Doubles as RedemptionEqualsDeath, with the death being planned and necessary for the redemption.
40* HeterosexualLifePartners: Yui and Midori are not, in fact, doing it. Despite [[MistakenForGay what]] ''[[MistakenForGay everyone]]'' [[MistakenForGay thinks]].
41* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:Akira starts taking revenge and playing with the lives of those who played with hers and the other children's]] by volume 10.
42* ImprobableAge: All the sacrifice children are [[YourDaysAreNumbered under 16, for obvious reasons]]. Some really, really don't look or act like it, and many already work or are in the army. Miller has already played in many films and at least one sex scene.
43* JerkAss: Sogyon Kim, [[spoiler: Katsura and Kaede's "original"]]. Any sympathy he gains from being a weak child with heart problems is swept away when [[spoiler:after getting Kaede's heart transplanted, saving his life, he is completely careless with his own body because, if something else were to happen to him, ''there's still another clone to get other organs from''.]]
44* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sutton, as demonstrated when he nurses [[UglyCute a bird]] back to health.
45* JustEatGilligan: Done very seriously in vol 3 when the cast is stranded on the island with a food crisis and [[spoiler:some of the cast try to bully Midori into killing himself because he's a useless mouth to feed.]] Also part of the reason Miller [[spoiler:hides his blindness.]]
46* KissingDiscretionShot: Usually averted, but the angles in one scene in vol 6 deliberately make it impossible to know whether [[spoiler:Julian]] really kissed [[spoiler:Miller]] or just nuzzled his face ''very'' tenderly. Given the atmosphere, staring, and "Literature/SleepingBeauty" reference, though... it was most likely the former.
47* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Midori is Yui's, and he ''hates it''. Other pairs can probably be interpreted to have this dynamic (Akira as Mayu's, Miller as Nobuo's, Katsura and Kaede as each other's, Yu-Ling [[spoiler: then Akira]] as Gao Li-shi's...)
48* LoveBubbles: Any time Mayu is with Akira.
49* LoveDodecahedron: Would be a simple cyclic LoveTriangle, except everybody wants Akira. Except Yui, whose feeling towards Akira are ambiguous while he seems to only live for Midori. Midori, like everybody, wants Akira. Akira, of course, wants Yui - ''and'' Mayu, but won't let herself touch Mayu. Mayu loves Akira but thinks sex is a horrible, dirty thing, and threatens/blackmails her into promising not to ever sleep with anyone. Oh, and everybody wants Akira. And then there's everybody else.
50* MenDontCry: Averted. Notably, badass Yui cries ''much'' more than Akira and girly Midori.
51* MoralityPet: Akira initially thought Midori was this to Yui, but... [[SubvertedTrope not really]]. In vol 13, one of mafia boss [[spoiler: Mamoru]]'s henchmen cheerfully remarks that [[spoiler: Kaede]] has become this for him, goes on to make a joke about [[HoYay how it looks from the outside]]... and promptly apologizes, worrying for his life, when [[spoiler: Mamoru]] [[DeathGlare glares at him, saying absolutely nothing]].
52* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Mayu can't stand the thought of Akira being "dirtied" and having sex.
53* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Yui can.]]
54* PsychoLesbian: Although a bondage-wearer perv, Maggey is nice enough to be mostly harmless (beyond groping of strangers), and Chun-Lan is funny more than anything... but Mayu can get seriously scary.
55* StalkerWithACrush: Mayu doesn't start off as a stalker, having the advantage of being Akira's adopted sister, but when they're separated, she will do anything to find Akira. Julian is this to Miller to some degree (but [[spoiler:an ultimately [[SilentScapegoat ''really nice'' one]]]].
56* StarCrossedLovers: Nobuo's backstory. [[spoiler:The girl he wasn't supposed to love ''also'' loved someone ''else'' she wasn't supposed to, either.]]
57* TechnicalVirgin: The Princess Kaguya was forbidden from sleeping with men, but women (errr, [[OurAngelsAreDifferent female celestial beings?]]) were a-okay.
58* TenLittleMurderVictims: Suspicious accident strands the U.G. Camp participants on the island, one more guy dies, food starts to disappear... ''[[WhackAMole Someone]]'' doesn't want them to leave the island. [[spoiler:Becomes [[TheMole a mole]] once found out.]]
59* TokenMinorityCouple: Averted: the two resident lesbians on the island can't stand each other and Akira keeps making everything complicated.
60* [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Unlucky]]/VictoriousChildhoodFriend: The Midori/Akira/Yui triangle of ambiguous and less ambiguous feelings and sexualities makes it... complicated to know who is which.
61* WifeHusbandry: It's unclear just how planned this was, but Shoko adopted Akira just to spite her ex-husband and forbade her from calling her "mother" from the start, with the words "I don't intend to ever be your mother".
62* YourDaysAreNumbered: The sacrifice children are to die beheaded on their 16th birthday. Previous cases have been "accidents", but Midori has cancer and his estimated time left to live coincides with his birthday. (Doesn't explain what's supposed to happen to his head...)

Top