* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Admit it, you cheered when Erich [[ShutUpHannibal told off Juli's grandmother]] [[RacistGrandma for making snide, racist remarks about her own grandson]].
* PeripheryDemographic: Initially serialized in a shoujo magazine for elementary school girls, the story's complex and sophisticated themes drew in an unexpected audience, including young men and others who otherwise would never have picked up a shoujo magazine. The popularity of ''Thomas'' helped create the modern PeripheryDemographic for shoujo comics at large.
* ValuesDissonance: Juli's view of [[spoiler: his abuse at Siegfried's hands]] as a "[[DefiledForever sin]]" for which he must atone can be jarring to modern readers. Possibly counts as DeliberateValuesDissonance, since this attitude isn't unrealistic for a student at a conservative, 1970's-era boarding school.