* {{Adorkable}}:
** Cooro's naive personality makes him very lovable.
** Marca's a cute nerd.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The backgrounds are gorgeously illustrated.
* EpilepticTrees: The presence of what appear to be [[spoiler:sunken skyscrapers]] in one chapter has led some fans to theorize that the series takes place in [[spoiler:a post-apocalyptic future]].
* {{Fanon}}: Husky being [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} trans]] is a somewhat popular one. It would make sense too, if not for the fact that he confirmed to Nana that he's male by [[NakedPeopleAreFunny flashing her]].
* GatewaySeries: One that, due to its relative obscurity, is likely to be left forgotten for a little bit at first--''+Anima'' was very likely many western folks' first forage into the world of manga, no doubt helped by the fact that it was localized around the same time manga and anime were just starting to become big in the west and was often sold/advertised in children's book selling venues (such as Scholastic book fairs).
* GeniusBonus: The word "anima" means "soul, spirit" in Latin. In Jungian psychology the anima is an individual's true inner self, or soul.
* HoYay: [[HoYay/PlusAnima Has its own page]].
* JerkassWoobie: Igneous. He may be prejudiced towards +Anima and Kimunle, but he has his (a little twisted) reasons and tries to serve his country with all his strength. At the end he (in a sense) loses [[spoiler: two people he loved because of Anima.]]
* MemeticMolester: After all his interactions with Cooro, it's hard not to see [[spoiler:Fly]] as a pedophile.
* MemeticMutation:
** The series' obscurity has basically become a meme in and of itself; despite likely being many people's [[GatewaySeries first forage into manga]], the series is still extremely obscure and has a fairly limited fandom, at least in the west. Fans often joke, somewhat [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecatingly]], about the fact that they're probably the series' ''only'' fans.
** Related to that, we have "ANIME ADAPTATION ''WHEN'', JAPAN!?" and variations.
* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: When Cooro shows a tiny bit of free will Fly lies to him to crush the little bit of resistance Cooro built up.]]
* NightmareFuel: [[http://www.mangainn.net/manga/chapter/26717_anima-chapter-07/page_11 THIS.]] [[http://www.mangainn.net/manga/chapter/26717_anima-chapter-07/page_21.html AND ESPECIALLY THIS.]]
** The giant leeches that Senri saves a little girl from in Nana's introductory arc.
** Nana's past, particularly her father chasing her through the forest at night with a '''machete'''. The poor girl still has nightmares about it, and maintains a fear of being anywhere near a forest after the sun's gone down.
*** Also some FridgeHorror; Nana's safe, but her dad is drunk, irrational, has a deadly weapon, and is headed home where Nana's abused and exceedingly vulnerable mother is...
** Cooro's birth. [[spoiler:His mom died while pregnant with him and, following the custom of her village, was left out for the crows to eat. The crows start eating her and then ''baby Cooro bursts out of her stomach and flies after them'']].
** Doubling as a TearJerker, the entire "House of Apples" chapter, wherein a woman named Emma starts seeing Cooro as a substitute for her son, who ran away to join the circus, only for Cooro to leave and her husband finally having to remind her that their son [[spoiler:died at the circus and is never coming back]].
** [[spoiler:Fly's entire character when he shows his true, selfish, monstrous colors]].
* NoYay:
** While it ''might'' be intended as DeliberateValuesDissonance, there's something ''really'' squicky about the fact that Igneous' roughly 5 or 6 year old cousin is [[ArrangedMarriage engaged]] to a boy who is at least 16. Not helped by the fact that the boy ''blushes'' several times in her presence.
** [[spoiler:Fly's behaviour with Cooro is just ''creepy'', from the wing-touching, to calling him "my angel", to stalking him a lot throughout the series, etc. His interactions with Blanca are just as bad, as he seems to outright speak to her as if she's his lover and it isn't helped by the fact that he's been experimenting on her to the point that she's desperately trying to escape. While she isn't human and thus the concept of age may not apply to her, she still very much looks like a child]].
* ParanoiaFuel: [[spoiler:Fly is searching for Cooro and will stop at nothing until he's found him]].
* PortmanteauCoupleName: Some fans call Husky/Nana Nasky. Cooro/Husky has Coorha/Coorrha (based on Husky's real name). Senri/Rose has Senrose.
** Occasionally, ship names are just initials; H/N, C/N, H/C, etc.
* TearJerker:
** All of the kids' pasts, but special mention goes to... most of volume 10, really, and chapter 55 'Goodbye' in particular.
** Also, [[spoiler:Sinon's transformation into a +Anima. He thinks he's going to be mauled to death by lions, looks up, sees a bird in the sky, and just... reaches out]].
** The "House of Apples" chapter, an alarmingly dark installment in the series--the kids stumble upon an apple orchard owned by a husband and wife named Tim and Emma, whose son, Sept, apparently ran off to join the circus. For a while all seems well, but it becomes increasingly clear that Emma sees Cooro as a substitute for Sept, and appears keen on keeping him around. Since Cooro likes it there and has never had a mother before, Nana and Husky end up wondering if Cooro would be happier there and ultimately opt to leave without him. But Cooro follows them, crying that they left him behind. He then goes back briefly (with his wings showing) to return Sept's bandana. Because of his wings, Emma believes Cooro was a black angel and so does Tim, who drops this bombshell to show the readers what's really going on...
-->'''Tim:''' Remember Emma? We got a letter from the circus six months ago. [[WhamLine Sept is never coming home. He was taken by the black angel.]]
** Senri's reaction to seeing Penny's stuffed teddy bear, especially when you learn later why he reacted that way.
-->'''Senri:''' Where is...the bear's father?
* ToyShip: Any of the pairings between Cooro, Husky, and Nana.
* ValuesResonance: Despite the fact that nowadays there's more acceptance of people who are different (disabled, LGBT, etc.), discrimination, stereotypes, and wild misconceptions about said differences still run rampant, even to this day, and considering how realistically the issue was portrayed in this manga, this is all the more relevant today. The authoress was right to tackle such a sensitive issue as this, even if it was primarily a fantasy and published in the year 2000. We need more manga like this!
* ViewerGenderConfusion: Husky is a guy? Really?
** Not restricted to the viewer.
** Some viewers mistook Cooro for a girl when they saw him on [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/da/%2BAnima_vol01.jpg the first cover]]. The fact that he's exactly on the border between shota and bishonen mixed with the fact that, on that cover, he [[UnfortunateCharacterDesign kind of looks like he has breasts]] certainly doesn't help.
* TheWoobie: ''ALL OF THE MAIN CAST'', for varying reasons.
** Nana's father abused her and her mother, and chased her to the woods with a knife when she accidentally stabbed him while trying to protect her mother. The group of girls she joined up with hated her because they thought she was showing off her +Anima powers.
** Senri witnessed his father die and lost his right eye [[spoiler:to the one who killed his father and also passed on his +Anima to him--which possibly led to Senri later being ostracized by his tribe--after which he's abducted and sold into slavery]].
** Husky was nearly drowned to death [[spoiler:by one of his father's wives who wanted ''her'' son to have the throne]], and he spent a good chunk of his life away from his family.
** Cooro was [[spoiler:born a +Anima]], and because of that, he doesn't know what it's like to truly be human.
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