Anime / Rage of Bahamut: Genesis

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, is an anime which began airing in October 2014, animated by MAPPA of Terror in Resonance and Kids on the Slope fame. It serves as a prequel to the Video Game Rage of Bahamut.

Mistarcia is a magical world where humans, gods, and demons mingle together. In the past, the black-and-silver-winged Bahamut has threatened to destroy the land, but humans, gods, and demons overcame their differences to fight together and seal its power. The key to that seal was split in two, one half given to the gods and the other to demons, so that they would never be united and Bahamut never released. Now, two thousand years later, the world is in an era of peace — until the day a renegade demon steals the gods' half of the key.

The plot follows Favaro Leone, a roguish Bounty Hunter working for the eccentric god Bacchus, and his friend-turned-mortal-enemy, Kaisar Lidfard, a fallen knight turned Bounty Hunter, as they escort said demon, Amira, to the realm of Helheim, whilst Heaven, Hell, and the mortal world alike do their level best to stop them.

A second season was confirmed in May 2015, and started in April 2017. Titled Virgin Soul, it is set ten years after Bahamut's most recent defeat by the alliance between Mankind, Heaven, and Hell. The protagonist this turn around is a 16 year old girl named Nina Drango, who can transform into a dragon whenever she gets too excited. She finds herself stumbling into the continued conflict between demons, humans, and angels, with a human king antagonizing both supernatural sides for yet unknown reasons.

The series also has a manga adaptation, titled Shingeki no Bahamut: Twin Heads. It's still focused on Kaisar and Favaro as they go through the country.

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The Rage of Bahamut seasons provide examples of:

Genesis

• A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss: Amira kisses an unconscious Favaro after the latter repeatedly rejects her demand of being her guide to Helheim. Favaro later wakes up the next day and learns that he has an irremovable demonic tail. He then has to comply with her demand it the hopes that the tail will be removed.
• Action Girl:
  • Amira is more than capable of defending herself even without resorting to her demon form. She even goes hand-to-hand against zombies, which for anyone else would just be a one-way trip to zombification.
  • Jeanne D'Arc. She led a truly massive army against Azazel's battleship and is capable of killing giants with a few slashes of her lance. In Episode 7 she kills Pazuzu and gravely injures and drives off Azazel, who was tied down fighting Favaro and Kaisar.
• Action Prologue: The series starts amidst a battle between the titular Bahamut, and an alliance of gods, devils, and humans standing against it.
• Androcles' Lion: Also portrayed as a Sword In The Stone ordeal. A dragon had its hand pierced by a barb of Bahamut, which couldn't be removed for thousands of years. Amira, though strong, couldn't pull it out, but Favaro could, and in exchange the dragon gives the party information on the situation with Bahamut.
• And the Adventure Continues: Favaro and Kaisar ride together for more adventures in the epilogue.
• An Arm and a Leg: Kaisar willingly lets Favaro cut off his left arm in the final episode to make the deception they were trying to pull on Gilles de Rais much more believable. He gets a mechanical arm at the end to replace it however.
• Angels, Devils and Squid: Bahamut may be a giant dragon instead of a squid, but is still an Eldritch Abomination that is neither angel nor demon and whose very existence can turn the world into a charred wasteland should it awaken again. The logical conclusion to his existence was to form an alliance against him.
• Animation Bump:
  • The action scenes in the series are noticeably more fluid than the rest of the episode.
  • Then there's the dancing sequence between Amira and Favaro in episode 2, which was choreographed using real dancers.
• The Anime of the Game: For Rage of Bahamut.
• Anti-Hero: Favaro will eventually do the right thing, even if there's plenty of self-centered backstabbing in-between.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Favaro and Kaisar in the ending illustration for episode 1.
• Bad Liar: Favaro, whose face screams dishonest! whether he likes it or not.
• Badass Army: The Orléans Knights led by Saint Jeanne are more than capable of going toe-to-toe with the Legions of Hell.
• Bait-and-Switch: When arriving at the docks in Episode 4, Favaro and Amon take a while to recognize each other, and just when they're about to hug in reunion, Favaro punches him.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Jeanne brings an entire army to ambush Azazel's ship in Episode 5. Azazel returns the favour in Episode 7 by besieging the city with an even bigger army of demons.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Between Favaro and Amira at the end of the series.
• Big Eater: Food seems to be the main thing that can get a reaction out of Amira outside of her quest to get to Helheim. Her first reaction to every one of the increasingly strange succession of creatures in episode 4 is "Is it tasty?".
• Binge Montage: Amira and Favaro get drunk in episode 2. Then they dance and have some fun.
• Bittersweet Ending: Bahamut is sealed, however, since Amira is now the God Key, she is sealed along with Bahamut. However, Favaro knows its still out there somewhere, and will be waiting for its return.
• Breather Episode: After the action packed episodes 1 to 5, 6 serves more of exposition.
• Book Ends: The show begins and ends with Favaro and Kaisar crossing a bridge on horseback.
• Bounty Hunter: Favaro and Kaisar, though the latter would rather not be one.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: A number of the angels are these of which they lead the rest. These include Michael and Gabriel to name a few.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Hits hard in episode 10.
• Character Development: Favaro and Kaisar rub off each other by the end. Favaro becomes more heroic, and Kaisar becomes a little bit sneaky.
• Childhood Friends: Again, Favaro and Kaisar. Or used to be in any case, before the raid that saw Favaro's father killed and Kaisar's father executed.
• The Chosen One: Legend tells of a chosen knight who will arise to save the world from Bahamut. Jeanne D'Arc is convinced she is that chosen one. It turns out that Favaro, who picked up Bahamut's barb without a hitch, is the chosen knight, and becomes the one who lands the final blow on Bahamut.
• Colossus Climb: Favaro executes a textbook example on Bahamut in the final episode (with help from Kaisar and some ropes), complete with sigil-stabbing.
• Contralto of Strength: Jeanne speaks in a very deep gruff tone, and is bar none the strongest human character in the series.
• Cool Horse: Both Kaisar and Favaro's horses qualify. Both are capable of effortlessly riding across rooftops. The former is dressed in elaborate armor and is stated to be the last bastion of the Lidfard fortune. The latter singlehandedly rescues Amira in a truly epic fashion.
• Cool Versus Awesome:
  • Episode 4 gives us demonic fishmen versus zombie pirates.
  • And Episode 6 gives us titan zombies versus giant iron golems.
• Council of Angels: The angels have this for their faction.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • What happens when Amira goes against... anything, actually, when she's in her demon form. Everything she's faced so far has lasted three good hits at most. She then has one given to her by one of the strongest angels in Heaven.
  • Bahamut versus anyone and everyone. That fight with Satan and Odin and Zeus in the prologue? A fluke. It starts nuking everything once it's unleashed in the finale.
• Cute Monster Girl:
  • Cerberus, like her depiction from the card game, is a cute dog-eared girl that wears plushie puppy hand puppets.
  • Rita who is a loli zombie necromancer.
• Deer in the Headlights: The human king in the prologue ignores his men's pleas to retreat to safety as he marvels at the destructive fight between Satan, Odin, Zeus and Bahamut. The clash is reflected in his eyes, but then Bahamut makes a final attack that sweeps the countryside towards the king, and the screen turns white.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: The demons have a hierarchy of such.
  • At the top is Satan. He was the mightiest demon lord who turned himself into the Demon Key to seal Bahamut along with Zeus's God Key.
  • Lucifer is another demon lord who united most of The Legions of Hell in the current era. Under his command are high-ranking demons like Azazel, Pazuzu and Cerberus.
  • Beelzebub is a rival to Lucifer and leads his own faction, with the enigmatic Martinet being his direct subordinate.
• Delinquent Hair: There's Kaisar's gigantic pompadour, although otherwise he's quite the opposite of a delinquent.
• Detachment Combat: Rita is capable of throwing her arm around since she's become a zombie. She usually does it to interrupt a quibble between Kaisar and Favaro.
• Draconic Abomination: The titular Bahamut may look more or less like an archetypical dragon, but it's mountainous in size and so powerful and destructive that it forced the gods and demons into an Enemy Mine to seal it away. It's also impossible to kill, as its existence transcends time and space, and if it is slain it will simply be reborn.
• Enemy Mine: Several times over the course of the series, the forces of Heaven and Hell have had to put aside their differences to deal with the greater threat that is Bahamut.
  • The prologue has the armies of Satan and Zeus sealing Bahamut for the first time.
  • Azazel throws his lot in with Rita and Bacchus after Beelzebub makes his power-play.
  • And in the final episode, all the surviving Gods, Angels, and Devils, led by Lucifer himself, join together to try and seal Bahamut a second time.
• Evil Gloating: Azazel takes his sweet time fighting Favaro and Kaisar, due to how amusing he finds the whole situation he created in the first place. Proves to be his first major downfall, since his ego tripping distracted him enough for Kaisar to use himself as a throwaway for Jeanne's attack.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The setting seems to be a mismash of early-Renaissance Spain and Italy, with lots of others sprinkled throughout. In the first episode, a background character tosses his sweetheart an apple with "ja te volim" ("I love you" in Serbian and Croatian) carved into it in what looks like Church Slavonic letters.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Greek gods, demons and angels from Christian folklore to zombies, giant monsters, Jeanne D'Arc herself, and the world-destroying Bahamut.
• Foreshadowing: Easy to spot for those who've played Dungeons & Dragons, but the moment Martinet appeared, his boss Beelzebub wouldn't be too far behind.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Rita gives Kaisar a much needed punch to stop him from killing Favaro in rage.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Rather than the expected kraken, this is what attacks Amon's ship in episode 4. Amira makes short work of it, but is disappointed by the taste.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Amira is definitely of mixed parentage; after all, demons just can't walk into Heaven. Beelzebub created her by forcibly ripping an angel's soul and putting some of his demonic essence in.

• Hidden Villain: Whoever sent Amira off on her quest to Helheim is secretly working to unleash Bahamut on the world and was powerful enough to repel even Archangel Michael and smack fallen angel Azazel around. Beelzebub is revealed to be the Big Bad, but then Gilles de Rais sabotages the former's plan with the slight nuance of awakening Bahamut simply for watching the world end instead of controlling its power.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Episode 11 is titled "All Roads Lead to Abos".
• I Am Not Weasel: Hansa is NOT a duck, thank you very much, he's a god who just happens to look like a duck. And he's based on a goose ("Hamsa" means "goose" in Sanskrit).
• Impoverished Patrician: Kaisar, who was born from an old knight family that had fallen on hard times after his father was disgraced. He blames Favaro for his current situation, as well as his Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job as a bounty hunter.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Kaisar's vendetta and emotional speeches cause him to tear up midway through his fight with Favaro in Episode 5. He then gets punched by Rita's detached hand.
• In Vino Veritas: Amira becomes a lot more gentle and expressive during the Binge Montage.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: Jeanne D'Arc herself appears in the story and is an extremely straight example. Born a simple peasant girl in a remote village, after hearing the voice of the gods, she is now the leader of the Orleans Knights armed with the legendary spear Maltet, which she uses to kick a lot of ass. Then again, in this series, the gods definitely exist and regularly appear and speak to humans.
• Just Like Robin Hood: The modus operandi of Favaro's father while he was alive was that of an honourable thief. This was not unanimous, as Amon reveals he always found Barossa's lifestyle to be not cut out for him, leading to Amon's betrayal.
• Large Ham: Kaisar. If there's one thing that will shake the screen, it's him yelling Favaro even when the latter is not around.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Azazel exploits Kaisar's grudge against Favaro to try and eliminate the latter.
• Light Is Not Good: Heaven and its inhabitants certainly aren't evil, but they're arrogant, heavy-handed realpolitik-aficionados prone to Fantastic Racism. Michael is the only one of the four Seraphim to insist that they include humanity in on their plans, at least to a certain extent.
• Little Miss Badass: Rita is far from being a helpless child; she was already a centuries-old necromancer in her first appearance, and she only gets more dangerous once she becomes a zombie (though she's probably closer to being a lich given that she retains her intelligence and can reanimate the dead), she is shown to take down Azazel's minions with little trouble. Her infection powers also save the day more than once.
• Little Miss Snarker: Rita, again. She's presented as the most no-nonsense character out of Favaro's travelling companions, and having lived for over 200 years, she doesn't mince words when noting she has to deal with the equivalent of kids from her perspective.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Turns out that Favaro is this to Kaisar. After the death of their fathers, Kaisar was quick to assume that Favaro used him all along to gather information on the raid. Favaro just plays along with it in order to give Kaisar a motivation to go on living after having lost everything in his life.
• Loveable Rogue: Favaro, who's quirky and lecherous for a professional bounty hunter.
• Luke, I Might Be Your Father: Lavalley gives subtle hints to Amira that he's related in a way to her mother, starting with both possessing the same pendant. The clueless Amira simply assumes he's her father.
• MacGuffin Turned Human: Amira reveals that since she absorbed the 'soul' of Heaven's God Key, that she has become the God's Key.
• Mr. Exposition: The dragon that resides between worlds acts as this in episode 8, giving the trio of Kaisar, Favaro, and Amira the rundown on Bahamut and why Amira's so crucial to his awakening.
• Ms. Fanservice: Most of Cerberus' appearances consist of her lounging around in suggestive poses with her stripperiffic getup, as well as providing some cutesy comedy relief with her sockpuppets' interactions.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The different costumes Amira tries on in episode 2 are all based on cards from the Rage of Bahamut game.
  • There's a gag on a real-life mythological being: Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Greek underworld, is a demon girl who has two sockpuppets with dog designs on them that talk to each other.
• Necromancer: Rita, who used the Black Bible to raise her parents and the rest of her village after they got massacred during a monster attack.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Rita, the snarky Really 700 Years Old necromancer zombie loli may qualify. So do the moment where they fly away from the demon castle on a zombified dragon.
• Older Than She Looks: Despite looking like a 12-year-old girl, Rita is a two hundred years old necromancer.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Favaro actually destroys his Bounty Hunter bracelet to prove to Bacchus that he's serious about rescuing Kaisar and Amira.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Rita, who manages to retain her snarky personality even after getting zombified. Kaisar even lampshades how unusual it is, but an interruption happens and we never get to hear her explanation.
• Portal Cut: In episode 5, the Orleans Knights shut down the portal going to Cocytus right when Azazel's Living Ship is in the middle of entering it. A fountain of blood promptly starts pouring out of its now severed head.
• Recap Episode: Episode 6.5.
• Rivals Team Up: The fifth episode has Favaro and Kaisar put their differences aside to save Amira.
• Road Trip Plot: Initially, the series was about Faaro and Amira going to Helheim, and every episode had their misguided attempts to head there.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Amira's occasionally-revealed cute side (which comes out much more easily when she's tipsy) would imply she's a good example of one.
• A Round of Drinks for the House: Favaro's policy every time he successfully hunts down a bounty is to spend it all before morning, often leading to this.
• Rule of Cool: Within the first episode, we have Favaro and Kaisar riding their horses on rooftops and blade locking in midair.
• Running Gag:
  • Kaisar's "FAVARO!!!".
  • Favaro always tries to convince Amira with a serious look that he doesn't have the eyes of a liar, before reverting to his goofy expression, earning him a slap from her.
• Sapient Steed: Favaro's horse, who goes to rescue Amira and forces Favaro to tag along.
• Say My Name: Kaisar really likes to shout Favaro's name. Even just after waking up!
• Screw Destiny: Delivered by Favaro:
  "Screw this! To hell with fate! ... We can change fate, as much as we want, whenever we want! Screw this "destruction is our only fate" crap!"
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The titular Bahamut has been sealed for over two millennia following the epic Action Prologue in which gods and demons banded together against its apocalyptic power. The barrier that keeps its slumber in place is maintained by thousands of angels, but they are slowly getting decimated by Bahamut's violent signs of awakening.
• Shout-Out:
  • The name of the village that Favaro and Amira first escape from? Wyatearp.
  • The different costumes Amira tries on in episode 2 are all based on cards from the Rage of Bahamut game.
  • Favaro Leone, and possibly his father, Barossa.
  • The story of Rita's village in episode 3 is practically cut-and-paste from the backstory of the city of Louran in Terranigma with some minor differences.
  • Jeanne's super-spear the Maltet may be a reference to the legendary spear of the same name from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
  • Favaro deals with Bahamut with a well-placed stab to the sigil after some climbing.
  • Bahamut being in deep slumber, so long that he in fact has overgrown with greenery, is something that also happened in Final Fantasy V.
• Skilled, but Naive: Amira is a one-woman powerhouse, capable of taking down towering monsters on her own, but she's painfully uninformed about the world in general.
• Sword and Sorcery: The series can be categorised as such as it bears several of the defining qualities of the subgenre.
• This Cannot Be!: Beelzebub is incredulous that Bahamut wouldn't listen to him after being revived. Turns out even he was being manipulated.
• Title Drop: Episode 12 is titled "Rage of Bahamut".
• Unstoppable Rage: Bahamut spends all of its screentime trying to nuke everything in sight, and only stops if sealed, seeing nobody can outright kill it.
• Villain Teleportation: Senior demons are capable of this, and when combined with their immunity to non-magical weapons, it makes them extremely difficult to kill. Even being fried by a divine Wave Motion Sword wasn't enough to stop Azazel from bugging out when a battle turned against him.
• We Used to Be Friends: Kaisar and Favaro were once childhood friends, but little did Kaisar know that Favaro was the son of a thief. When the raid that led to both their fathers' deaths (Barossa killed in the raid, and Laurus Lidfard shamed and executed for letting the tribute to the king be stolen) happened, Kaisar was quick to assume that Favaro used him all along to gather information on the raid, something that haunts him even to this day.
• Wham Episode: The entirety of episode 10. To enumerate:
  • Jeanne gives in to a moment of self-doubt when she's burned at the stake, which is enough to give Martinet an opening to corrupt her, turning her into "Dark Jeanne".
  • It is revealed that Amira's entire existence was a lie, and her mother wasn't even her mother at all. Her sole purpose was to bring both keys sealing Bahamut together. Needless to say, she doesn't take the revelation well.
  • And to top things off, Martinet also manages to corrupt Favaro by the end, turning him into a full-fledged demon.
• You Don't Look Like You: Averted for most of the part, seeing there are multiple versions of a same card in the original game, and the anime adaptation takes only one. For example, Satan appears in his "Prince of Darkness" design, while Odin takes on his "Father of Men" appearance. Beelzebub is conspicuously the only recognizable demon whose looks completely differ from the game.
• Younger Than They Look: Amira is chronologically only five years old.

Virgin Soul

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Azazel seems fond of patting Mugaro on the head. When they reunite in Episode 19 long after Mugaro reawakens as El , Azazel gives him another one anyway.
• Ambiguous Syntax: When Azazel tells Nina about activating her powers, he suggests "embracing" her in the Japanese version. Nina takes it in the sexual connotation instead of the literal (he'd just hug her) and runs off.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Virgin Soul follows a new protagonist, Nina Drango, a wannabe bounty hunter. It also has a former villain, Azazel, as the deuteragonist.
• Anti-Hero: Azazel has changed from a Card-Carrying Villain to a Type IV anti-hero as a response to the massive power shift that resulted from humans defeating and later enslaving demons. He's really not any better a person than he was before, but since its now humans that are now being the abusers and Azazel is fighting to protect the destitute fragments of his kind, his role has more heroic traits, if only by circumstance.
• Arc Words: "Dance with him/her/me" for Charioce and Nina together. Their relationship began with a dance, and their desire to see each other again hinges on wanting another dance together. And after the finale, it's all they can do to be intimate, since one can't see and the other can't speak.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Kaisar's overall goal in the first season was to restore his family's honor and obtain the position of knighthood. After helping resolve the crisis involving Bahamut, he was accepted into knighthood and within the ten year timeskip he rose the position of captain. However, his position mainly requires him to enforce laws of slavery and abuse against demons, actions that defy his standards of what knights are supposed be.
• Beyond the Impossible: Angels and demons had been at war for centuries, and even after they made a truce, there was still the occasional skirmish with both sides itching to renew open battle. Then within the ten year timeskip, the human city, Anatae, puts an end to the Forever War by developing weapons strong enough to overwhelmingly crush any demon opposition, as even the demon capital, Cocytus, falls before Anatae's power.
• Both Sides Have a Point: The demon/angel/human triangle has been taxing on humanity as a whole, and after how demons had acted during the Bahamut conflict, it's not hard to see why Charioce is putting humanity first over demonkind. However, it's also true that the demons weren't the source of the conflict, and indeed it was a human who sought to release Bahamut in the first place. Despite his terrible planning and conflict resolution, Azazel isn't wrong in wanting to free his people from a punishment that isn't wholly deserved.
• Bread and Circuses: Enslaved demons are forced to fight in gladiatorial fights. Later on in the second cour, Azazel and Kaisar are made to fight here.
• Cliffhanger: Episode 21 ends with Alessand apparently killing Mugaro in an act of betrayal.
• Cinderella Plot: Used with the fairytale theme of the second ED, with Nina acting as the poor burdened peasant girl to Charioce's Prince Charming.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Azazel leads a demon ambush to assassinate the king during a parade. However, the key component was to have Nina transform and draw most of Charoice's forces into fighting her. Azazel takes for granted that he can arouse her into her dragon form and doesn't even bother to tell her the plan, only to find he can no longer charm into a transformation. The result is the demon forces getting brutally routed.
  • In episode 12, the angels invade Anatae, led by El. Due to El's depowering abilities, the magitechnology Onyx Soldiers' are so dependent on stops working. The armor is too heavy to carry conventionally, making the soldiers sitting ducks to the angels' attack. Charoice's airborne forces are weighed down and have little offensive abilities to fight with, while his mechanized giants are rendered immobile, some crushing the nearby soldiers with the slightest loss of balance. Anatae is also signifigantly more open the angel sanctuaries, allowing the angel's to take advantage of their flight abilities to outmanuver any organized defense.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Charoice's army is very dependent on magitechnology. Mugaro/El can remove the magic fueling that techology, rendering it useless metal.
• Dances and Balls: Season 2 has the crew attempt to infiltrate Charioce's ball.
• Death of a Child: Mugaro, a boy no more than ten years old, is stabbed and killed by Alessand in Episode 20.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Charioce's ultimate plan consists of this; all of his reign as king was just to prepare a weapon to kill Bahamut once and for all. In the finale, the heroes do manage to subdue him with the weapon. Ultimately this is subverted, given the nature of Bahamut.
• Dance of Romance: Episode 6 has Nina and Charioce share a dance during the festival, kickstarting their romantic subplot. They have another one in Episode 20, at the ball in the castle. By the end, this is all they can do with each other to communicate, given that Charioce went completely blind and Nina went mute, leaving all other forms of intimacy besides physical contact useless.
• Foreshadowing: Rocky's entire existence serves as this to Kaisar's eventual fate in the finale. Where Rocky serves as Rita's familiar and is Kaisar's reanimated hand, Kaisar himself gets killed in the penultimate episode and revived by Rita in the end.
• Here We Go Again!: As it was a recurring plot point of Genesis, Favaro watches the carcass of Bahamut disappearing in the final episode of Virgin Soul, implying that the dragon can never be truly killed.
  Favaro: Bahamut isn't dead. Isn't that right, Amira?
• Hidden Elf Village: Nina comes from a village of dragonfolk, people with enhanced physical abilities that can transform into dragons at will. However, Nina's dragon transformation is much more powerful than the rest of her village, cannot be controlled consciously, prone to berserk rampages, and can only be caused by Nina's sexual arousal. Nina eventually leaves for Anatae, so she can shed the stigma of being a danger to the village.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The second half of the series makes Bahamut into the greater threat again, given that Charioce's whole plan hinged upon using Dromos as the weapon that finally kills the dragon. The final battle centers around him.
• Hope Spot: A failed ambush turns into a bloodbath on the demon's side, but Mugaro's interference prevents further casualties by disabling the Onyx Soldiers' armor. Kaisar even succeeds in disabling both Charoice and Azazel from the fight, making it seem like negotiation might be possible. Unfortunately, Sofiel abducts Mugaro, allowing the Onyx Soldiers to regain their power and overpower the remaining resistance.
• Humans Are Bastards: After conquering Coctyus, humans have abducted and enslaved most of the demon population. The enslaved demons are either forced into grueling labor, implied sexual services, or forced to fight each other in the gladatorial arena. Dead demons are chopped up and their organs are made into ingredients for magic, with the implication that this was the fate of some living demons as well.
• King Incognito: When out in public, Charioce puts on civilian garb and a set of Purely Aesthetic Glasses in order to become "Chris". He ends up spending time with Nina in this disguise in Episode 6.
• Lost Superweapon: Gabriel is horrified to discover Charioce XVII used the knowledge stolen from the gods to build a weapon called Dromos, a device from a time before gods, humans or demons ruled Mistarcia. It is comparable to Bahamut. Then subverted in the finale, where it's only through the power of a Dragonfolk that it stood a chance of temporarily destroying Bahamut's body, even transforming into a dragon. It's ultimately inferior to Bahamut when relying on humans.
• Lost in Translation: After Nina saves Azazel from Charioce's army and both woke up in Rita's house, she tells him her secret about transforming into a dragon when her heart races because of attractive guys, claiming that since she can't control it, she won't be of any use of him. This results in Azazel arguing that if she can't control herself then he will control her, and in the subbed version, we get this gem of dialogue:
  Azazel: Let me make love to you, and turn you into a dragon! ^note The punchline is that in Japanese this was a pun, because the word Azazel used was "idaku" which can mean both "to embrace" (basically, to hug) or "to sleep with someone"; Nina being already embarrassed and nervous around him, and on top of that naked in his presence and he half-dressed, took the latter meaning and freaked out while Azazel meant the first one.
• Mêlée à Trois: During a major battle in episode 7, Azazel and Charoice lock blades only to get interrupted by Kaisar, who wants prevent them both from killing each other. Kaisar succeeds in defeating them both non-lethally, but gets overwhelmed when the Onyx Soldiers to regain their magic.
• Mundane Utility: Rita spawns a horde of zombies just to act as a "bridge" for her and Kaisar to cross the sea during the final battle.
• Odd Couple: Azazel and Mugaro. Azazel is a demon who used to be a sadistic thug that tormented humans for fun. Mugaro is called the "holy child" and has an affinity for Holy magic.
• Our Demons Are Different: More like "our demons are similar to humans". Rather than being the notorious sadomasochists they are presented as in most fiction, most demons feel the same capacity of emotions that humans do. Their ultimate goal is not to dominate humans, but to free their population from human oppression and live independently of human influence.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • When the group is hiding in the demons' slums, they all wear disguises to look like demonfolk. Most of these disguises boiled down to wearing different clothes, dying their hair, and wearing fake horns.
  • Charioce's disguise as King Incognito is not any more convincing, just a turban, a pair of glasses, and a casual outfit. In episode 17 he gives away the glasses and the turban, and Nina starts to worry that people will recognize him.
• Persecution Flip: History indicates that some demons (including Azazel) have tormented humans in the past for fun, maiming them, killing them, or tricking them into killing each other. Now, humans are torturing and enslaving the demon population as a whole. The trope is zigzagged due to not all demons possessing this misanthropic attitude prior to the war.
• Prison Episode: Episode 9 has most of the cast in prison, with the focus being Favaro explaining what happened to him during the timeskip that led to his capture.
• Rage Against the Heavens: King Charioce XVII does not want demons or angels interfering with human affairs and he feels the best way to do that is by exterminating them with his military might. Though he does spare demons he thinks would be good for slave labor and he kills the angels in covert raids so he does not anger Anatae's population, as many of them are still fervent worshipers of angels and gods.
• Realpolitik: There's a reason why Charioce is harsh in his regime. He wants enough power to unlock and use the superweapon Dromos and permanently beat back Bahamut, and to do that, he needed as much manpower as possible, leading to the enslavement of the demons.
• Rule of Symbolism: Considering this anime is modeled after The Renaissance, this is not surprising:
  • In episode 2, Mugaro rescues Azazel by using his holy magic to depower the Onyx Soldiers and float Azazel to safety. The loss of magic makes the Onyx Soldiers' armor too heavy for them to stand, forcing them to their arms and knees which makes it look like they are bowing, and holy light surrounding Azazel and slowly lifting him up makes it look like he is ascending to heaven all while an Ethereal Choir plays in the background. Out of context, the whole scene looks like portrait about holy reverence.
  • In episode 5, Azazel assembles the demons in a cave, wearing war torn garb, telling them to keep true to their rebellion in spite of their overwhelming defeat. The scene parallels the beginning of John Milton's Paradise Lost, when Lucifer rallies the demons together after suffering defeat in the war against God.
  • Episode 9 has Jeanne's impregnation with Mugaro likened to Mary's pregnancy with Jesus, since both were virgins and got their children from divine origin.
• Senseless Sacrifice: We learn in the final legs of the story that Bahamut's re-sealing, as well as all of the races losing important warriors, only barred his return for a relatively short amount of time, given he wakes up from his slumber in the finale. And Charioce sacrificing his sight and all the blood he shed to kill Bahamut was for nothing as well, as Favaro senses the beast is still alive.
• Spanner in the Works: It was all completely unintentional, but Charioce meeting Nina in his "Chris" disguise ended up throwing a huge wrench in Azazel's plans; she became so enamored with Chris that night at the festival that she doesn't seem flustered at all around Azazel, who knows she can transform if she gets flustered enough.
• Spoiler Ending: The first ED had subtle hints to what plot points come up later on in the story. One scene, for example, had Favaro carted off somewhere in the background while Nina is adventuring. She also gets a Game Over when she encounters Charioce in his disguise "Chris". Sure enough, when Nina first sees Charioce she gets taken to prison as an accomplice in the demon rebellion, and Favaro turns out to have been jailed for a long amount of time.
• Stealing the Credit: Episode 15 shows that the gods downplayed their role in Bahamut's revival and name themselves as the people who averted the crisis in the first place.
• This Means War!: Gabriel orders the armies of Heaven to converge on Abos following Amira's departure from Anatae, assuming the demons will capture her and use her to unseal Bahamut. Coincidentally, Beelzebub delivers a similar speech in the Demon realm to move his legions on the same location.

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