Follow TV Tropes

Following

Webcomic / 5 Elementos

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cincoelementos10_3092.jpg
"¡Que comience la era de los elementos!"
note 

"The world. A finite home, quite big and composed by hundreds of elements."
Kaji

5 Elementos (5 Elements) is a Spanish "manga", written by Jesús García Ferrer (aka Jesulink), set in a fantastic world. This world is ruled by elementals, people with the power to control nature's elements (going from fire to viruses to shit. No, really).

After the world's most powerful warriors (called the Five Elements) betray the king of their nation and then disappear, the new king erases all of the nation's historic records, to "create a brand new nation". Many years later, Kaji Llamaviva (the protagonist, a 13 year old kid), along with his friend Zap and some kids that hate him (and Sokar), starts investigating the Five Elements to discover what really happened, and if the official version is actually true, or the government is keeping a masquerade.

The mood is mostly comic, but it has moments of tension, suspense and drama. It has won the award to the best manga of Spanish author twice. It began in 9/24/2008 and came to an ending nine years later, on September 2017.

As for now it is only in Spanish: [1]But it seems an Italian team is translating it to Italian: [2]

Now with a character sheet.


Tropes:

  • Absolute Xenophobe: The king of Nimbo looks like one. When, after a long time they have appeared in his kingdom, he meets Belenus and his team, he shouts at them, insults them, asks if they came for war, threatens them, threatens to attack their homelands, and expels them from his kingdom.
  • Academy of Adventure
  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Sauce did this for a while, after being hit by one of Zap's lightning beams.
  • Accidental Aesop: Used in-universe after Dino presses Kaji's Berserk Button and he accidentally burns the school:
    Lambda: I hope you've learned something from yesterday.
    Zap: Fire burns.
  • A Death in the Limelight: Leo Davín had been a minor character used for comic relief until he showed Hidden Depths near the end of arc 4. Then in the last chapters of arc 5 he makes up his mind to help the main characters cross the sea. In the hopeless fight against the arc's final boss, he makes a Heroic Sacrifice using Level 5 to become sand and drown Briz, while at the same time causing an earthquake to break the wall and send the main characters' ship into the ocean.
  • Age-Appropriate Angst: Poor Benjamin was 8 years old when his mom died in the Zero Day.
  • All According to Plan: Benjamin's plan seemed to be turning out pretty smoothly... Until chapter 46 that is. Now that is sanity has been put to question, tough, we yet have to see how much further might he have planned...
  • All There in the Manual: A lot of information is found only in the book format, including backstory of the elemental world, or the elements of certain characters.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Matarratas explains that an Alcahest elemental could manipulate all the elements.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Sauce's mother Acacia takes the gold here, calling his 13/14-y.o. son a baby all the time and so on. It doesn't help at all that Sauce's male classmates consider her hot.
    Sauce: I don't want to go to a hot spring [on a school trip] with my mother!
    Nizo: But the rest of us do!
  • Anachronic Order: The two flashback chapters of Benjamin's chronicles have this, partly to reflect Benjamin's (present-day) mental state, partly to put the climax of the chapters in place, and partly to leave readers in the dark about some things that happen in between.
  • And Call Him "George": The Plantigordis ("Fattyplants") are this trope embodied: they're plant-creatures that turn animal energy into vegetal energy... by extracting your energy while they love you.
  • Anti-Villain: In a way, Mierdófilus after he becomes the head of the elemental mafia, as he's using the resources of the mafia to help the heroes.
    Mierdófilus: You see, little ones. The world is changing and the mafia is changing along with it. In fact, we have your friend's money. If it's his, I don't see why we should keep it here. We'll give it back to him in full. In fact, if he's in trouble and according to you he's been unfairly imprisoned, we can help you set him free. The government plays with its rules... we play with ours.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Sôkar when fighting big!Uroboros, as he doesn't want to kill him, but he's left with no other choice.
  • Arc Words: "Sing in the giant cold dry. Where Uroboros sleeps, Aya gets help. Beyond my death."
  • Armor-Piercing Question: "What do you want, Benjamin?". "Peace". "And what do you do to achieve that peace you crave so much?".
  • Art Evolution: Partly intentional, according to Word of God.
  • Artificial Human: Hiedra's team, created by Dr. Bombastus. Special mention to Kei who was made with the power of controlling both fire and shadow.
  • At the Crossroads:
    • In the Labyrinth, the paths taken by the five main characters meet near the end. Conversed by Kaji as he narrates.
    • The same things happen to Ember and Sebastian in the Ember's Chronicle chapters, and as Ember narrates, he uses the same phrases that Kaji used 22 chapters before (and some 30 years later).
    • Obviously, the phrase reappears in the Benjamin's Chronicles, now on a figurative crossroads, with Kaji and the main characters following Benjamin's footsteps.
  • Awesome by Analysis: Dino, Bombeta, Leo, Pi, Matarratas, Benjamin, Bombastus, Briz, all of them are good. But Angelo, a painter who has made observing the world his mission in life, he can know exactly what kind of person you are, what might you be thinking and even what your intentions might be by looking at you, looking at your eyes and reading your reactions.
  • Badass Teacher: All of them, of course. It's a world where everyone has elemental powers. But Dino and Leo take the cake.
  • Bad Liar: Bore Loftur as a child was notoriously bad.
    Alphonse: You're a kid hidden by Colonel Llamaviva. The question is, why?
    Bore: I don't know who's that Belenus guy.
  • Battle Aura: Katai is basically a fire aura. It makes the user stronger, faster, and lasts longer than common Katotsu.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill: In the fight of Leona versus Nimbo, Ember starts taking charge of an isolated group of soldiers when they wouldn't react to attacks against them because there was no one ranked higher than a lieutenant around. Played with in that Ember actually outranks captains, but he's undercover as a private.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Stating that Kaji and his father are similar. Beating Lluvia in a fight. Defying Matarratas' intelligence, saying anything offensive towards his dead relatives, specially his grandfather Sebastian. Talking about "legends" during Leo's class. Talking casually about Benjamin in front of Ember.
    • Zap may act like a moron most of the time, but harm Ouroboros and he'll unleash a thunderstorm in your face.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: Bombastus, when found by king Alphonse, kills himself by drinking poison so Alphonse could not take information on Lluvia from him.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: Lluvia believes that this applies to all people.
  • Black Magic: "Dark elemental arts".
  • Blackmail: Kaji implies that he knows about Matarratas' secret lab in order to get his cooperation.
  • Blatant Lies:
    • "I am fine". Unlike most instances, this wasn't used for comedic effect.
    • Used for drama when Karol told Kaji that maybe he was going to see Benjamin if he stayed in Leona City and tried hard to win the League.
  • Blind Seer: The Was family members, shadow elementals, are always blindfolded. They feel the world with their soul, but they can't read or see images.
  • Blood Knight:
    • Lluvia is happy at the perspective of going through the League again because she will be able to kick asses.
    • Hiedra went for blood wen she attacked Zap.
  • Bold Explorer: Kru, Benjamin and Kaji, in their dangerous search for truth.
  • Boss Fight: Finalmigo (Finalfoe) is the boss of the Labyrinth.
  • Boss Room: The last room of the Labyrinth, where the main cast fights Finalmigo.
  • Boss Subtitles: Done once per arc.
    • Arc 1: Finalmigo, the Final Enemy
    • Arc 2: Anpepón, the Mentalist Soldier
    • Arc 3: Desangrador, the Scary Chemist
    • Arc 4: Kei, The Boy with Two Elements
    • Arc 5: Captain Briz, the Cold Breeze.
    • Chapter 74 in arc 6 has no less than six boss subtitles, one for each of Gigante's Great Captains.
    • And in the very last chapter: The King of Leona – Alphonse Hangul
  • Boss Vulnerability: Matarratas thinks Finalmigo is a type two: "Surely he'll attack, then get vulnerable and we hit him three times".
  • Bottomless Pit: One of the Labyrinth's obstacles.
  • Brainwashing for the Greater Good:
    • Desangrador said he was going to do this to Anpepón after he attacked the main cast. It's actually a case of Can't Kill You, Still Need You. He also ends up killing him.
    • Some people believe that the king's policy of forgetting about the past, even science and history, is for the better.
  • Breath Weapon: Griposo breathes flu, incapacitating his opponents once he is able to grab them.
    • The giant plant snakes from the black temple breath poisonous gas.
    • Colonel Tiburón, water elemental, had Magnum Aquashot, an extremely strong water cannon from his mouth.
  • Bullfight Boss: Finalmigo has shades of this.
  • The Bully: Nizo, but we only see him annoying Kaji (and once in a while Sauce). Lluvia is this to almost everyone who has any interaction with her.
  • By the Eyes of the Blind: The Kimikoho is a special eye technique that allows virus elementals to see all the elements that compose nature and every being or thing, thus making them able to manipulate them with ease. Matarratas inherited it from his grandfather, Sebastián Flu Rattengift.
  • Calling Your Attacks: At least the level.
  • The Captain:
    • There are many captains in the military. However, the Four Colonels are the true military bosses.
    • Nimbo's army has the six Great Captains, each being tougher than the previous one... except maybe for Noctio, since absolutely no one knows what the hell his element, ununoctium, is or does.
  • Captain Ersatz: Look at the long haired guy in Hiedra's team of the League and try not to think of Orochimaru.
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: First chapters make you believe it is going to be just an Affectionate Parody of manga. Later chapters switch from funny to serious more often. Word of God says this was completely intentional: since it's a webcomic, and Raruto (the author's previous manga, a parody of Naruto) had gotten quite some audience, Jesulink didn't want to scare them away by changing the style too suddenly.
  • Chekhov's Gag:
    • "When using the dreamworld technique, (Anpepón) is so vulnerable that a mischievous 13 year old kid with bad ideas could beat him".
    • "Everything that you see well built was made by an earth elemental" They build good walls, alright.
    • Zap describes Desangrador (meaning "Bleeder") with: "He dissects animals, and that thing he wears at his back could be a corpse. He looks trustworthy." When Desangrador later saves the heroes, he goes: "I said he looked trustworthy." When he finally is revealed as a villain, he goes: "I told you he looked trustworthy, not that he could be trusted."
    • Zap asks Sôkar how to say "five" in Ancient, just to replicate a Spanish joke with that number. But Sôkar only knows the Ancient numbers up to four. Turns out the Ancient numbering system is in base 5, meaning there are only single-digit numbers up to four.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Someone stole soporifics and rubidium form Mat's bag...
  • Chekhov's Skill: When Kaji had a heart attack, Matarratas taught Zap how to reanimate somebody by using electric shocks. Later, that ability comes in handy when he has to revive Sôkar
  • The Chew Toy: Mierdófilus. That doesn't mean he can't steal the spotlight from time to time. However, as of the final chapters, Mierdófilus has become the boss of the Elemental Mafia, and is actively helping the heroes.
  • Childhood Friend Romance:
    • Sirona and Belenus, Kaji and Chisp's grandparents.
    • Of the Unlucky kind: Flama, an old friend of Kaji, from when he lived in Leona City.
  • Child Prodigy: Kaji's father, Ember, is this with his elemental powers. His brother, Benjamin, is an intellectual genius.
  • Child Soldiers: If you win the League, you can be a high ranked soldier, even if you are a teenager.
  • Chocolate Baby: In the world of 5 Elements everyone seems to be Caucasian, but the report on elemental genetics in the volumes gives many cases where this would apply to the child's element, even if it's never brought up in the manga proper. In particular, if both parents are the same element, the child will have the same element too, which gives Fridge Horror to the flashback scene where Ember (not as alarmed as you'd think he'd be) suggests that Kaji might be a water elemental because he's crying.
  • Chrome Champion: Karbô has a skin made of graphene (atom-width graphite), two hundred times stronger than steel.
  • Class Trip: Dino forced this, so all of Kaji's class can go with him to Leona City. That way, Kaji will have to do the Super Work, and Dino, Lluvia and Nizo will be able to annoy him anytime they want.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Melon Pijollama is an interesting example: he insists that he and Kaji are long known rivals, he usually talks about their "old times" and how he "used to beat him daily". None of this has actually happened, and Kaji met him for the first time at the exhibitions in the Elemental League.
  • Coincidental Accidental Disguise: Kaji just wraps a scarf around his face and says that he is a steam elemental called Vaporín ("Steamy") to enter the Labyrinth. It turns out that there is a kid called Vaporín, and Kaji looks almost like him. Of course, once the real Vaporín shows up, the examinator thinks he is an impostor.
  • Colonel Badass: The four Colonels at the time of Day Zero. We got a good sample of their power in Belenus's Chronicles. And when the cast was fighting Desangrador, they were really fighting Colonel Ébola.
  • Colonel Kilgore:
    • Not actually colonels, but many soldiers with high ranks were shown enjoying the Zero Day greatly and killing people out of fun.
    • Out of the current colonels, Colonel Tortuga fits this trope to a T. After so many years of peacetime after the Day Zero War, he'd been waiting to enjoy a good war. He gets so absorbed in the fight that he'll even risk the one thing the kingdom is battling to defend. And he's definitely willing to leave flanks uncovered in order to attack the enemy with full strength. This is all despite being colonel of a division that specializes in defense.
    Colonel Made-up: That's quite an offense for the defense division.
    Colonel Tortuga: You know what they say about the best defense.
  • Colossus Climb: The yótum is as big as your average skyscraper. And there is no weak spot.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Water elementals have blue hair, plant elementals have green, fire elementals (mostly) have red, virus elementals seem to be violet and so on...
  • Comically Missing the Point:
  • Cryptic Conversation: Bombastus' is quite fond of this, mostly by muttering to himself or speaking like everyone else knows what he knows. Lluvia reacts accordingly.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • The Five Elements were famous for this. Also Lluvia to Bombeta and Fósforo in the Elemental League. And much later, Ember to Pierre Curry.
    • The main cast did this to some monsters in the Labyrinth. Except Matarratas.
    • Briz will lecture you and evaluate your fighting style while swiftly kicking your ass.
    • This is a nearly constant side effect of being Ken Válbrandur. Most fights were meaningless and quick to him.
  • Custom Uniform: Each rank on each of the four military divisions has a specific uniform. The author has shown the uniforms for the lowest rank in each division.
  • Cute Bruiser:
    • Or at least, as cute as you can think Lluvia is...
    • Even when Lluvia and young Benjamin are extremely strong and powerful, they pale in comparison to little Belenus. He was able to beat captains with a stick, fight giant bears for fun and run across a continent in a few days. Hell, Noto Loftur found him living with the bears since he was an infant.
  • Dad the Veteran: Ember was a soldier. He currently is a SS soldier.
  • Damage-Sponge Boss: Both Finalmigo and the yótum, even if both of them are later destroyed in one hit
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Level five, in which the elemental break their energy magnets, the energy field that binds their power and bodies together, to create a humungous explosion of elemental energy and truly becoming an embodiment of their element for a short while. It's not impossible to survive using it, but you would have to be a member of the Five Elements.
  • Darkest Hour: The end of chapter 37. Let's see: Lluvia and Matarratas had been captured by Bombastus' "children", Sôkar is on the verge of death since his shadow bond with Lluvia has been cut, Zap is all alone against a foe much more powerful than him, and Kaji has lost his fire powers and is also close to death.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Matarratas may be quite jerkish, but he isn't evil. And Sôkar is probably the nicest guy around.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Everyone. Specially Lluvia and Matarratas. They mostly suck at it too.
  • Dean Bitterman: Dino (the school's principal) subverts this: even if he is jerky with almost everyone, he is sadistic only to Kaji. Until chapter forty something, that is.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Sorta. After Matarratas and Hiedra's battle, she says she likes him before falling down.
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    • The Ancient Language is the language of the Ancients, an ancient tribe, of ancient customs.
    • Kaji's team for the League is called "Fire13". Guess which elemental branch all the members belong to.
  • Determinator: Lluvia keeps attacking the yótum, even if it's totally useless.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The government will kill you if you are found investigating the previous era, or looking for information about the Five Elements. It doesn't matter if you are 13 years old.
  • Disappointed in You: Dino to the main cast, after the Heliopolis adventure. It hits Lluvia pretty hard.
  • Distinction Without a Difference: Subverted: "You're grounding me?" "Grounding? I prefer to call it in another way. But that's how it's called, I'm not gonna change the name now".
  • The Ditz: Karol, Kaji's mother, can have shades of this sometimes.
  • Doom Magnet: Lluvia accuses Kaji of being this. She could be right, but she isn't exactly a pacific little girl...
  • Draft Dodging: Kaji wants to lose the League in order to do this.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Lluvia instantly becomes this after Matarratas asks her to train him in order to be a better fighter. Sokar found it quite amusing.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The birds Hugin and Munin have two: they have a small scene added to chapter 8 in the printed volume, and a one-panel-wonder cameo in chapter 33, before their debut in chapter 38.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: Dino, Leo and Lambda have a comfortable base inside a mountain, with a huge sofa, a fridge, and, obviously, alcohol. Leo's lab is here, so he can work on his inventions without the police trying to arrest him.
  • Eldritch Location:
    • The Sheetworld, the place where your energy goes when it's imprisoned in a paper sheet.
    • The uncrossable Ocean (now you know why the first lines described the world as "a finite home"). And also the Labyrinth's mental world, arguably.
  • Elemental Embodiment:
    • The yotums are elemental giants that live far away from elementals. An ice yotum has appeared in the story, and a rock yotum has been mentioned. There are also some other elemental animals, like these.
    • Adler's Level A Ornáguila. It's a giant fire eagle which Adler uses as transport.
    • "Monigotes subnormales" (retarded doodles; [3]), composed in 90% by their element, which are said to have so much energy inside that they'd be hella dangerous were they not retarded.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Water beats fire, lightning beats water and metals (or anything that is an electric conductor), virus beats plants, and many others.
  • Elemental Powers: Fire, Water, Earth, Virus, Psyche, Paper, Egg, Shit... Void.
  • Elemental Punch: Katotsu is a level 1 fire technique that allows you to ignite a part of your body (mostly your fists) to make fire punches or kicks.
  • Element No. 5: Void, Alphonse's/A. Kilin's element is on par with the other basic elements
  • Emergency Transformation: While fighting Karbô, Zap finally revives Sôkar, who binds with him so they can face Karbô.
  • The Empire: It's now pretty obvious that the kingdom of Leona after Day Zero (which spans the whole world known to its citizens) works like this. It's obviously militaristic and totalitarian, and only the gravest punishments fall upon those who dare seek the truth of the past and disseminate "misinformation" about it, regardless of who they might be (also, for the worst cases, they're willing to manufacture evidence to point to other crimes, and you won't get a fair trial; the only way to get rid of the death penalty is to happen to have information the King needs and know how to keep it secure despite torture and pysche elementals). The kingdom has some fans in the story, like Captain Briz, who idolizes the State and will try to push you behind the Despair Event Horizon if you challenge it.
  • Empty Promise: Well, Karol didn't promise Kaji that Benjamin was going to appear, but she said it to stimulate him. He found out and ran away crying.
  • Energy Ball: More like Virus Ball. But it was confusing at the time.
  • Everyone Meets Everyone: Fire 13's first meeting is this.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: That fat guy of Leftovers 5? His name is Fatass. And the little one? He is Dwarf.
  • Extranormal Institute
  • Familiar: Hugin and Munin, the Was family giant, dark, adequately verbose, shadow elemental crows. They were not aware of Sokar's dirty business, but they decide not to tell his parents.
  • Fantastic Racism: Ember is this in spades, and it causes people to think Kaji is one as well. It's also very common between fire and water elementals. Also people in general against virus elementals, since they harm or downright kill anything they touch. Also, psychic elementals are feared and despised due to their ability to read minds. This led to the annihilation of air and earth elementals, all of them killed during the chaos of the Zero Day.
  • Fartillery: Fart is an element too.
  • Father, I Don't Want to Fight: Ember would love for Kaji to become a soldier, but Kaji always answers this.
  • Faux Affably Evil: SS Captain Kold Briz has no trouble with having a polite chat with you while his subordinates are smashing your friends in battle, or even before freezing you where you stand by himself. But sure, push him long enough and he will lose his cool.
  • The Ferryman: Chisp Llamaviva will transport you across the Labyrinth's lava pit for a golden coin.
  • Fireballs: And Magmaballs. Virusballs as well.
  • Flanderization: Lluvia started as a very kind girl, and even after Kaji angered her, she looked at him with a "poor guy" expression after he ran away from the fire in the school. Now she is just a jerkass who treats everyone badly, specially Kaji. Sokar seems to be the only exception.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Leonardo Davín is quite skeptical about legends in general, even considering that he lives in a world of elemental embodiments and superpowers.
  • Floating Platforms: Roco tries this to cross the lava pit in the Labyrinth. He falls.
  • Follow in My Footsteps: Ember would like Kaji to be a soldier.
  • Forbidden Zone: the Ocean. It's impossible to cross, deemed "the End of the World", and since the Day Zero it has been closed off to the population by a giant wall. Everyone who has tried to cross it is dead, even water elementals. Although some legends disagree...
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Remember that mysterious red sparkle on the cover of chapter 21? Well, it turns out it's actually Alanka, a fire demon inside Kaji which doesn't show up until chapter 39, released almost two years later.
    • Chapter 9 (released in May 2009) has a soldier barging into Colonel Cerilla's office, saying that Captain Briz ordered him to tell Cerilla that Ember's son (Kaji) is taking part in the League's exhibitions. Fast forward to chapter 51 (June 2013), where not only Briz shows up and recognizes Kaji, but it's very likely that he's the captain in charge of the SS.
    • You know that symbol of the five elements on the spine and the clasp of the diary? As of November 2013, it turns out the old king had a belt with that symbol, and it shows up on the walls of Alphonse's room. It is a reference to the fifth basic element, Void, the element of the royal family, which is hardly known outside of the king's family and their closest associates.
  • For Science!: Bombastus' main drive for everything, from helping Benjamin with his plan to kidnap Lluvia.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: Kei is burning the book and Bombastus kidnaps a poisoned Lluvia. Kaji must make a desicion. While the rest of the team pursues the kidnappers, he stays and tries to save the book and convince the others to stay. This leads to a fight with Matarratas.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Leo. He has invented a power analyzer, and Dino says he has more gadgets. He has a mechanical hand as well, wich he calls his "good hand".
  • Genki Girl: Flama can be a light one sometimes.
  • Gilligan Cut: Played straight.
    Kaji: What about the address? Why don't we go check that out first?
    Matarratas: Oh, sure! Let's go to an address written down in a genocide's diary! Then we can drop by the jail to get tortured! Aw, come on! There's no way in heck I'm going there!
    (Cut to the poor zone of the city)
    Matarratas: I still don't quite get how you convinced me.
  • Girl Next Door: Flama has some aspects of this towards Kaji.
  • Girl with Psycho Weapon:
    • Lluvia can control her razor-sharp umbrella with her powers (it has water inside). It's also a Sword Cane.
    • Hiedra uses her plant powers to transform her arm into a branch and pierce her enemies.
  • The Good King: Leona's former king, Gylfi Hangul the First, was at first bent on war and conquest just like most of his neighboors and his colonel's were. But once Belenus Llamaviva showed to him the ideas of the world he craved to create, he wholehearteadly changed his old principles and gave full support to Belenus's pacifistic and revolutionary ideas. He even defended him from the attacks of his fellow colonels and was not swayed when said colonels tempted him with the potential of a new incredible resource that could be used as a weapon. This, of course, costed him his life on the Zero Day, killed by his remaininig colonels and his own son.
  • Granola Girl: Plant elemental Sauce, and his mother, Acacia.
  • Great Big Library of Everything: Leona City's is actually just a big library, but due to the general lack of books in the whole country, specially about history, it's treated like this.
  • Great Offscreen War: The Zero Day can be considered this. We got some images on the Chronicles, but not much was revealed. Until the Belenus Chronicles. There we learn the Zero Day was sparked by greedy colonels and a particularly bloodthirsty prince.
  • Green Aesop: The tale/play "Bifrost and the tree". Revealed to drive a huge part of the plot.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Desangrador is quite frustrated by the fact that the Kimikoho allows Matarratas, as it did with Sebastián, to find and create the most complicated formulas with ease.
  • Groin Attack: Lluvia likes doing this, when she is not trying to kill you. Also Sokar does this from time to time.
  • Guardian Entity: Ouroboros, the giant snake that "guards the Alcahest".
  • Guile Hero: Captain Kru tried to talk Benjamin into becoming this to achieve the peace he wished for. Now, we can't be sure if he really meant it...
  • HA HA HA—No: Leo's response after Zap asked if they could build their own killer robot.
  • Hammerspace: The place where stuff goes when absorbed by shadows. It's called "shadow memory" and it's limit to absorb matter is proportional to the user's own power. Munin has enough shadow memory to swallow and teleport enormous boulders.
  • Handicapped Badass: Hodr Arian, the "Blue Leviathan", member of the Five Elements. Blind but deadly.
  • Healing Hands: Or teeth, in any case. Ouroboros has a healing bite. It's quite effective.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power:
    • Dino can imprison your soul inside a paper sheet. Don't make him mad. He also has shown a great battle prowess while fighting Desangrador/Ébola.
    • Captain Cherry is a bubblegum elemental, and she is extremely efficient.
    • The much ridiculized Heart element is, according to an interview by the author with the fans, the ability to literally control hearts, even though it could have other properties as well.
    • Fatass is an egg elemental. He can totally drown you in a giant egg yolk.
  • He Knows Too Much: Played for laughs, Ember thought Colonel Cerilla was going to do this to him. Played completely straight against people who investigate about the past.
  • Hellfire: This is what the Dusk Virus causes on fire elementals. It can burn without oxygen, and even burn fireproof materials. Crisol hypothezises that it works like a mini nuclear fusion, chewing the elemental's energy away.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Often comes with certain Wham Lines.
    • Igna, when she found out Benjamin was under arrest.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • When Zap is about to be killed by Finalmigo, Kaji intercepts it, and Finalmigo pierces his body.
    • Adler's brother blew himself up using Level 5 to save Ember from Dr. Ebola.
  • Hidden Depths: Dino and Leo. It involved Dino's father, who died in the Ocean trying to reach the legendary new world he had dreamed so much about. That's why Leo hates legends and myths, since he is afraid that his frineds, who also believe, could meet the same end.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Kaji is a not so bad example.
  • Hot-Blooded:
    • Igna, Benjamin's wife, couldn't be anything else than a fire elemental.
    • Barley, beer elemental and great friend of Dino. Also a member of his team when he won the League.
    • After getting to know Bore Loftur, one could expect his element to be fire or magma, not air. In the present day he's gotten a lot better. This is implied to be because his impulsive decision to take out Kaliza's king led to Nimbo conquering that country, giving Bore far larger problems in the long run.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: A shadow elemental specialty is to return attacks to their owner. Karbo was literally defeated by his own hand.
  • Hot Teacher: Lambda, even though she is 68.
  • How Do You Say: Orubak is Ancient for Jerkass.
  • I Am Not My Father: Kaji, even if many people thinks that he is like Ember.
  • The Idealist: Captain Kru saw young Benjamin as this, and it amused him a lot, even if he said he was jealous of his possitive thoughts.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness:
    • Kru believes Benjamin to be this, and Benjamin in turn believes Kaji to be this.
    • It was Noto Loftur, Belenus's adoptive father who began this, stating that Belenus's kindness is the more outstanding of his many qualities.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Inverted when Captain Briz asks to see Lluvia's ticket card from the blood control analysis.
    Rain: Right, the card... I left it home so I wouldn't lose it.
    Briz: They don't give you any cards. You're a liar.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: Belenus Llamaviva breathes this trope. He was one of the most, if not the most powerful character of the entire series, yet the comic offers no explaination for this. As a kid, he was already the Wolrd Strongest Man, being able to easily beat giant animals and cross the entire conintent in a single day by merely running. He also aged at a slower pace than normal people, looking in his thirties when he was close to sixty. His origins and those of his vast powers are a complete mystery, given that Noto Loftur found him abandoned in the middle of a forest as a babey.
  • The Infiltration:
    • The (9-person) team tried to infiltrate Coral Town so they could reach Angelo's museum to find out more about him, being the man who made the Five Elements portrait of Heliopolis and all that.
    • Mierdófilus is leading a huge group to do exactly the same (minus the museum part) after escaping the elemental mafia.
  • Infinity +1 Element:
    • Alcahest is theorized to be a variant of this, see Inverse Law of Complexity to Power below. Though its existence is hypothetical at first, and even when it's now clear that Lluvia is an alcahest elemental, she can't use those powers yet.
    • Kilin's element of Void It was strong enough to easily kill the strongest character in the story.
  • Informed Ability:
    • "Sokar can move in darkness just fine". He can't.
    • In chapter 39 he does lead Zap through the dark. That was probably just the labyrinth confounding his shadow powers, Played for Laughs.
  • Insane Troll Logic:
    • Zap could have this as his element: "I'm the architect because I'm a lightning elemental".
    • "It's all so ancient and it's full of texts in Ancient [language]. Coincidence? You bet."
    • (Talking about a stage play:)
    Zap: I don't complain 'coz I'm the protagonist.
    Matarratas: The heck, protagonist? You're a tree!
    Zap: That's why. The play's called "Bifrost and the tree". And I'm the tree.
    • "Love is deaf"
  • Insistent Terminology: A man once says "it would be the end of humanity". He quickly corrects himself: "i mean, of elementality".
  • Instant Fan Club: Gold elemental Arturo has one. Money is the reason.
  • Insufferable Genius: Matarratas can be quite annoying sometimes, but he is getting better lately.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Belenus and Sun Wuko, but not so much as one could think as Belenus is above 50 years old while looking around his early thirties
  • Intoxication Ensues:
  • Inverse Law of Complexity to Power: Elementals of "pure" elements can control both its element and any element descended from it - so a copper elemental can only control copper, while a metal elemental can control every metal, including copper. An elemental that could control the theorical fundamental element Alcahest would be able to control all substances in nature. Though the fact that they can control more elements doesn't necessarily give them an advantage, it all depends on hard work and training.
  • Jaw Drop: Dino did this when Kaji beat Lluvia.
  • Jerkass:
    • All the main cast and many others have their oportunity. Special mention to Hiedra, who appears in the League and doesn't even need provocation.
    • Griposo is only in the League to screw aorund as much as he can, out of spite for being fired from the army for stealing money.
  • The Juggernaut: Karbô, graphene elemental, a nigh-invulnerable gargantuan man.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • Lluvia is a total bastard with everyone, all the time. Nothing ever happens to her.
    • At least until she gets kidnapped and drugged, and might have gotten experimented on if the main cast hadn't come to her rescue on time, or she hadn't escaped. May start getting better now.
  • Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: Chemists were treated like this in the old days. Now, the main cast qualifies, and those who share their secrets.
  • Keeping the Enemy Close: Late king Hangul decided to make Ébola a colonel, despite being the prime suspect of poisoning colonel Hacha, invoking this trope. It would eventually backfire. Horribly.
  • Kill It with Water: Lluvia tries this against Kaji. Several times.
  • King Mook: Finalmigo is a bigger, armoured version of the common Labyrinth enemies.
  • Lady of Adventure: Flama is willing to win the League and become a soldier.
  • The Lancer: Alphonse, aka Aither Kilin was this to Ken Válbrandur in the Five Elements. He backed his decisions up and helped keep the peace in the team. Too bad he killed Válbrandur for being a pacifist
  • Large Ham: Captain Briz turns slowly into this when he goes fanboy over the Elemental League.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia:
    • Kaji never remembers anything after the Dusk Virus powerups.
    • Alanka can't remember anything before waking up on comic. He just remembers he was "Be"'s friend, but can't even remember who that person is. Turns out to be Belenus Llamaviva, aka Ken Válbrandur.
  • Last-Minute Project: Nizo did his Super Work about the return trip form Leona City.
  • Lava Pit: One of the Labyrinth's obstacles.
  • Leave No Survivors: Many rebelled soldiers played this back in Zero Day.
  • Let Me Get This Straight...: Lampshaded in "So you're saying the watchman has a son, that he's in your class and that he beat Lluvia in a fight?!" "That's a good summary of what we just said."
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: "Asskicking time".
  • Lightning Bruiser: Karbô, a rock golem-like giant man who moves almost as fast as Zap.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: Matarratas tells Zap to electrify Finalmigo to cut off the commands reaching it. It backfired.
  • Little Miss Badass: Lluvia can crush giant boulders with one punch effortlessly and drown you in seconds with a tidal wave. She was also the strongest fighter in a school for super powered kids.
  • Little Miss Snarker: Lluvia again.
  • Look Behind You: Subverted, there is actually an ice giant behind Arturo and Nizo.
  • Lost World: While, apparently, the Ancient city of Kenko, found by the Five Elements in the new world, has no trace of advanced technology, it is in perfect state of conservation and many ancient slabs are found, wich speak volumes about Aya's legend.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: The Labyrinth is a dreamlike mental world created by Anpepón to test the students of the Beluga School. It's full of Death Traps and Your Mind Makes It Real, but they rescue you if something awful ever happens (at cost of failing the test, of course).
  • Made of Phlebotinum: Ghosts, or spectre elementals, such as Lambda, are entirely made of spectre element. They are not the souls of deceased people and are actually alive. They appear one day at random, never age, and then one day dissapear suddenly, with no previous warning.
  • Mad Scientist Laboratory: Matarratas has a secret lab, with a sign that Rubeola made to annoy Mat. Kinda subverted because Matarratas is not crazy, and he believes works there with Desangrador to make an antidote so virus elementals can touch living beings without harming them. Desangrador's fits better, because he actually is Colonel Ébola, the most murderous psychopath in the story so far.
  • Magic Antidote:
    • The Dawn Project, initiated by Colonel Ébola, and then continued by Desangrador (Ébola in disguise) and Matarratas with the goal of creating an antidote that would allow virus elementals to touch living beings without harming them. Turns out it was a ploy to re create the Dusk virus, planned by Ébola all along.
    • Special mention to the Green Vaccine, design to destroy all kind of virii and bacteria, except the ancient super virus, like Dusk virus. It's a perfect vaccine for most people, but it's death for virus elementals.
  • Mana: Vital Energy.
  • Masquerade:
    • The premise of the comic.
    • The government has ordered a massive blood exam on the whole country. Every person must assist, and there are soldiers in every frontier to prevent prople from skipping it. Something big is going on. Sota theorizes it's due to Lluvia. It happened after Bombastus found out about her, and he killed himself so Alphonse could not get intel from him about her.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": The main cast when they found the yótum.
  • Medium Awareness: From time to time, in the first arc and maybe the start of the second. It gets slightly more serious after that.
  • Mentor Archetype:
    • Benjamin for Kaji, Desangrador for Matarratas, Igor Adler and his SS comrades for Ember, Kru for Benjamin...
    • For Lluvia, this would be the whole Dino Team, specially Dino and his sister Sota. When you see Sota talking to Lluvia about maturing a bit and try not being a jerkass all the time, you know how important her words are for Lluvia.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Kru, Benjamin...
  • Metaphorgotten: Colonel Cerilla, a burger lover, can't help this at times:
    Colonel Cerilla: An army is like... a burger. It has bread, lettuce and a delicious sauce all over it. You can have it served with...
    Ember: My colonel?
  • Military Academy: Many, but you have to win the League if you want to get a higher rank some day.
  • Military Brat: Ember, as well as his sons Kaji and Chisp.
  • Mind Rape: Demencio uses his psyche elemental powers to twist your mind until you have no strenght left. He is quite creative.
  • Mood Whiplash: One of the author's distinctive tropes.
    • Zap did, of course, have a line to this effect at the end of the Belenus's Cronicles... but it feels kinda out of place even for him.
    • Ébola's guardian/assistant spiderlike creature, Haselti, has two pairs of eyes, one happy and one aggressive, which he opens or closes according to his mood.
    • Meta example: at the end of each chapter, the author writes some lines along with the next release date. At the end of Belenus's chronicles chapter three, serious and action packed, he writes: "The chronicles continue on january 17... i hope, because i will be a dad again and my daughter didn't make an appointment to be born, but the date will be around that. Happy holydays for everyone! ^_^"
  • Mook Maker: Desangrador has some capsules that can turn inanimate objects into living servants. Their overall power depends in what object you use the capsule in, and the resultant mooks can develop their own personality, but they seem to obey their master doubtless.
  • The Mole:
    • Kru was said to be this by the Elemental Sages, helping them against the "sect" that researched about the Five Elements.
    • Alphonse Hangul, aka Aiher Kilin, the Magician from the Five Elements, grew disgusted with Belenus's pacifistic ideals, betrayed him, conspired with the remaining colonels, murdered his father the king, ignited the Zero Day and finally killed his teacher
  • Monochromatic Eyes:
    • Many characters have this, mostly for the art style.
    • When they are not Blank White Eyes due to the Dusk Virus being activated...
  • Morph Weapon: Hugin is able to merge with Sokar's Wascythe to increase its power greatly and give it self-consciousness.
  • Mr. Exposition:
    • Matarratas and Kaji do this from time to time, but the main Mr. Exposition is Dino.
    • "This old man... never wastes an opportunity to talk about science".
  • Muggles: Unlike most works with this kind of setting, averted. Everybody has elemental powers.
  • Mundane Utility:
  • Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: The robot teacher Lapicero (mechanical pen) becomes this when his software fails, or when he wants to scare someone. He is normally very nice to children. Then again, his software has a tendency to fail...
  • My Eyes Are Up Here:
    • Rubeola says something like this to Kaji once. It doen't seem to bother her much, actually.
    • Actually she does seem to want to hit on Kaji (when she's 18 and he 13). In fact, in an ambiguously canon side story both end up together in a hot spring (her being drunk), and all of a sudden she goes "Have you ever touched a boob?" and really goes after him until Zap sneezes, electrifying the water.
  • Mysterious Informant: It wasn't Benjamin... It's Adler.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
    • It looks like a running theme with virus elementals: Matarratas means literally Ratkiller / Rat Poison, Desangrador means Bleeder, Varicela means Chicken Pox, and of course, Dr. Ébola.
    • Also Demencio, psyche elemental.
  • The Narrator: Kaji. Ember, Benjamin and Familiar Alanka in the Chronicles.
  • Neck Lift: Lluvia does this to Nizo.
  • Never My Fault:
    • Lluvia extends this to "it's all Kaji's fault, always". Dino is fond of blaming Kaji for everything as well.
    • Characterization Marches On tough.
  • Nice Guy: Even if he is quite serious, Sokar fits this trope very well.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Cloudy Wars, the two kings of the Western world fought each other all the time. Then newcomer to the Western world Bore Loftur decided to end the fight himself by defeating Kaliza's king Kilimanjaro... only for Nimbo's king Gigante to use the Evil Power Vacuum to invade Kaliza, at which point Loftur was powerless to stop him. After that, Bore and the Society of the Eagles he founded focused on surviving prosecution and gathering strength until the resurgence of Aya.
  • The Nicknamer: Nizo seems to be this. He sucks at it.
  • Nightmare Face: Corrupt Captain Pierre Curry. It's even lampshaded when he states that he can't drink water in a glass, because he will spill it from a side.
  • No Indoor Voice: ROCO!!!!
  • No-Sell: The enemies in the Labyrinth are immune to Matarratas's virus-based attacks.
  • The Nothing After Death:
    • In a flashback, Benjamin tells Kaji that when you die, the elements that compose your body return to nature to create more life, and your "soul" just stops existing.
    • But as stated by Sôkar's father in the same chapter, that's no more than a guess. After all, since ghosts aren't really ghosts, there's no way to know for sure. At least until we really learn how Aya works.
  • Obviously Evil: Desangrador. Turned out he wasn't. Turned out he is Dr. Ébola.
  • Ocean Madness: When crossing the Ocean this will happen eventually. The infinite waters, covered by a neverending mist that screws your sense and orientation is able to undermine the confidence and sanity of great warriors like the Five Elements. Specially once all the fish, the wind and the tide practically dissapear at once.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: How did Chisp enter the Labyrinth? He doesn't want to answer.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Many times, the most famous may be one of Lluvia when she tried to drown Kaji, only for him to vaporize the water in an instant and then punch her in the face.
    • Also when Zap and Sôkar thought they had defeated Karbô for good, only to have him get up and strike back at them.
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: For what little we've seen of him, Pi seems to be this. Lampshaded:
    Pi: As you apply soft fire on their bodies, I'll be applying vaccines and controlling their pulse. Though well, I want you to know this is not my field. I'm a mathematician.
  • One-Hit Kill:
    • Most of the common enemies in the Labyrinth suffered this from the main cast. Also, Lluvia killed Finalmigo in one hit once she stoppped laughing.
    • Kaji destroys the yótum with one attack when the Dusk Virus activates for the first time.
  • One-Man Army: All of the Five Elements, specially their leader, Ken Válbrandur since his childhood..
  • Only in It for the Money: Mr. Aquarrica is willing to destroy Beluga Town to get Ember fired and take mount Pito from him, so he can make a water park there.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Pi, the sanest guy known among Dino's friends, and the only serious member of his League team. He has become even more serious since his marriage.
    • To be fair, Sota can be quite reasonable when she wants to, just like Dino.
  • Parental Abandonment: Sorta, Flama's parents don't really care that much about her.
  • Parental Favoritism: Chisp tries to make Ember act this way towards him, to get money.
  • Parental Substitute:
    • Rubeola is this to Matarratas. Also Desangrador, until the second arc.
    • Benjamin, Kaji's uncle, used to be more parental than Ember.
  • Passing the Torch:
    • In Benjamin's own words: "I thought everything would turn alright... I failed, Kaji, I messed everything up. I made grave mistakes... I can't keep this up... You are the only one I can entrust this to..."
    • "Such a pathetic result... I expected more of myself"
  • Photographic Memory: One could say Jaro Hallormour, earth elemental, had this with stone and ground. He was able to determine exactly where he was by comparing the ground he was standing on to that of other places. And he was able to recreate the lost final slab from the black temple, by remembering the sigils carved on the stone in spite of not being able to know what they meant.
  • The Plan: More than one seem to be in action right now...
  • Plausible Deniability:
    • Kaji, a fire elemental, has red eyes and hair, wears red gloves, and his shirt is red and has the fire symbol prominently placed. But when he's west of the Ocean, where fire elementals are extinct, he'd better wear his shirt back to front (with the symbol covered by his backpack) lest he's recognized as a fire elemental.
    • When Zap tells the soldiers that Kaji's a tomato elemental, it works. Apparently that element does exist...
  • Playing a Tree: Dino's play doesn't have enough characters for all of the children to play, so many of them ended up doing the filler parts of forest animals, a shepherd and even a rock and a cloud, yeah, really. In a literal example Zap got the part of the tree, he was quite happy and excited about it because he was the titular character along with Kaji's Bifrost.
  • Please Wake Up: Bombastus's henchmen kidnap Lluvia and take her away, cuttin her bind to Sokar. Later, when Zap tries to wake him up, Karbo insists that Sokar is dead.
  • Plot coupon: the numerous stones and slabs with ancient scripts Belenus has found and studied in his life could be seen as this, each one a step to understand the message of the ancients. An the legend of Aya.
  • Plot Point: In the very first episode, Kaji told Ember he would become a soldier in order to live in Leona City with Benjamin, and thought he would soon forget it. Seven chapters later, we find out he hasn't.
  • Poison Is Evil: Averted with Matarratas, a virus elemental (in this comic, poisons, bacteria and viruses all fall under the virus element). Even if he's a Jerkass and has quite different ideals from Kaji's, he has shown to have a heart of gold.
  • Power Levels:
    • Attacks are classified in levels from 1 to 5. Subverted because the levels aren't defined by the power of the attack, but for how the element is used wich in tern defines how difficult is to master. There's also Level A, wich symbolizes the elemental's "animal energy", and can consist on elemental summons, transformations, or even fusions with the particular animal.
    • Remember that "animal" in this work refers to any elemental being different from the "human" elementals. For example, Alanka, a fire demon, is Kaji's, and formerly Válbrandur's, level A.
  • Power Nullifier: It seems Desangrador can do this. It's also one of the Kimikoho's abilities, by dissassembling matter in the elements that compose it.
    • Kokoro, a mysterious technique that Adler used on Kaji is also this.
    • Given what we now know about the Six Bases, it's quite likely that it was Kokoro what Desangrador used in chapter 2 to nullify Kaji's and Matarratas's powers.
  • Power of the Void: King Alphonse's element. Ask Belenus.. Oh wait, you can't because he died for this reason.
  • Power Trio: Lambda is the Superego, Dino and Leo are both Ego and Id.
  • Pressure Point: Belenus Llamaviva, fire elemental, could cause miniature explosions on his enenmies to make them fall unconscious without really hurting them. He once stopped a whole squad of soldiers like this.
  • Promotion to Parent: Rubeola to Matarratas.
  • Psychic Powers: Psyche elementals. Up to now thay have demonstrated being capable of create illusions, mental worlds, read minds and "shut brains down".
  • Psychic Static: Zap unconsciously does this all the time. His thoughts are so weird, crazy and incoherent that Psyche elementals trying to read his mind are left in complete confusion. Unfortunately, this doesn't protect him from Mind Rape.
  • Psycho Serum: The Dusk Virus is something like this. It corrupts you little by little while eating your energy away, consumming you and making you go mad.
  • Psychotic Smirk: It means Dino has a plan, and Kaji won't like it.
  • Punny Name: Often referred to the element that person controls: Kaji Llamaviva (Fire Livingflame) is a fire elemental, Zap is a lightning elemental, and so on.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Lambda does this trying to convince Dino of not going to Leona City. She fails.
  • The Quiet One:
    • Lolo, the guide to Leona City, seems like this, but he is actually a party beast. We don't get to see him like this until the end of the second arc, but Leo informs us about the things he does.
    • Wap is a more straight example.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Kaji thinks this about his Fire 13 teammates. Magmuto and Wap may be this, but Bombeta is actually quite good.
  • Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: "I have headache or stomachache".
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Matarratas gives one of the most spectacular speeches ever to Kaji as they fight in "Virus and Fire".
    • A minor one given by Demencio to Lluvia about her group of "friends". The worst part is that Lluvia can't help but believe him, even if she doesn't want to.
  • Removed from the Picture: Belenus, aka Ken Válbrandur, is missing his head on his Heliopolis' Portrait depiction. It has been burned off, apparently by Benjamin and the mark connects with H. Arian's left eye. Angelo is not amused.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Kaji is easily replaced by Fire 13 in the second League.
  • Retired Badass: Noto Loftur, Belenus's adoptive father, is a retired rebel fighter against military and political corruption from the air kingdom. Except he never retired.
  • Revenge: Lluvia was actually scared that Reborn! Uroboros would attack her after what happened in the temple. Of course, being an Alcahest elemental, she has nothing to be afraid of.
  • The Reveal:
    • Lluvia is an alcahest elemental, having caused a fire at school when she was little.
    • Ken Válbrandur is Belenus Llamaviva, Kaji and Chisp's grandfather and Alanka's partner.
    • Leo is an earth elemental. Not a reveal for Matarratas or Lluvia tough.
    • There are five primal elements: fire, water, earth, air and void. That's why the alcahest symbol has five points. "Damn, speaking of revelations!" indeed.
    • Desangrador is Ébola
  • Revive Kills Zombie: Or rather, Vaccine Kills Virus Elemental. Matarratas had to infect himself with new viruses after Hiedra shot him with a powerful vaccine.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Reborn Uroboros. The fact that he's quite affective doesn't help.
  • Rock Bottom: Kaji often says that his current situation couldn't be worse. God, is he wrong.
  • Running Gag:
    • Strangely shaped rocks, Matarratas and Zap's bitter relationship, Sokar kicking people in the nuts, Zap's anecdotes from the orphanage, and also references to the author's first work Raruto (a parody of Naruto).
    • Also taking KV, the initials of Ken Válbrandur, to mean "kulos vuenos" ("nice butts" misspelled blatantly). And Kaji's various nicknames: his surname is Llamaviva (Livingflame), and he got as nicknames Llamamuerta (Deadflame), Llamamoco (Snotflame), and even Llamabesos (Kissflame).
  • Secret Police: The SS. Ember is one of them.
  • Sadist Teacher: Dino and Lambda are this, specially to Kaji. They are not actually evil, they are just jerks.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Zap.
  • Sarcasm Mode: "Kaji! Does it hurt much?" "No... I'm just bleding to death...".
  • School for Scheming: Ébola / Desangrador's job as a teacher is only a facade.
  • School Idol: Arturo is close to this. Again, money.
  • School Play: In the third arc.
  • Screw Destiny: Benjamin and Bombastus prefer making destiny with numbers and possibilities.
  • Secret-Keeper:
    • Zap keeps silence about Kaji's book. Eventually, Lluvia, Matarratas and Sokar become this as well. And then, Dino and his former League Team, Rubeola, as well as possibly Lambda, join the bunch.
    • And none of them nor Adler told anyone that Kaji is the one that killed the yótum.
    • The kids also keep silence about Kaji's Dusk Virus, and Matarratas is even helping him counter it.
  • Secret Society Group Picture: Heliopolis' Portrait. It depicts the Five Elements without their masks, but Ken Válbrandur's face is burned. Of course.
  • Selective Obliviousness: When Lieutenant Adler comes to the school to perform the labyrinth trial, Dino has a Suspiciously Specific Denial that they're having cock fights at school, and heavily hints that they might be selling alcohol to minors ("I didn't want to have a bar! I was forced to!"), but Adler dismisses it because it's "not that kind of inspection".
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Played for laughs when Lluvia and Sokar begin describing the book's symbols and its spine.
  • Shadow Walker: This is the power of Shadow Elementals.
  • Shapeshifting: Comes in two variants, animorphism to a particular animal, and turning into your element. The first variant, and maybe also the second, can be partial.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns:
    • Although the most goofy member of the cast is Zap, for whom this trope doesn't apply, a lot of the more minor characters get this. Since the main characters join the League in arc 4, their classmates are only ever seen in two or three reaction scenes (except for Sauce and Flama, who get some continuity-mandated screentime at the end of arc 4; and Mierdófilus, who still gets a scene in arc 5, plus a short side story at the end of it).
    • On the other hand, this trope is played with for Chisp and Glasses as well as Mierdófilus, since their long-running comedic storylines (dating back to arc 3 in the latter's case and arc 2 for the former) in the end manage to tie into the main storyline and influence it in small but significant ways.
  • Sinister Scythe: Sokar's level 3.
  • Snipe Hunt: Part of Mr. Aquarrica's plan, he needed the teachers out of town, so his assistant told them the yotum was in the mountains.
  • Sociopathic Soldier: Pierre Curry, and many more briefly shown during the Zero Day flashback.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: "Diagnosis: he's bleeding a lot".
  • Soul-Powered Engine: Bombastus gives the main cast a lightning energy receptor connected to his vital energy, so the main cast would be able to track him and they would come to trust him.
  • Spider-Sense:
    • It looks like young shadow elementals can feel the changes in their host's energy, even if the host is far away.
    • Not quite. They feed on the host's energy, and they can as long as they're joined by the shadow, which can stretch as far as a hundred meters. But if they're farther than that, or the shadow is blocked (say, by a wall with no gaps), the shadow elemental will die. Or not.
  • Stepford Smiler: Anpepón Anatolia is a type 2.
  • Stern Teacher: Don't talk without rising your hand first during Leo's classes. Sit straight, don't talk too loud, don't be a class clown. And never begin talking about nonsensical myths and legends. Those are for Literature class.
  • Storming the Castle: The Five Elements did it on Day Zero. Easy for them. Not really tough.
  • A Storm Is Coming: Near the end of the second arc.
  • The Strategist:
    • SS captain Faraday seems to be this. In Dino's team, this is Pi's job.
    • Benjamin takes the gold in this. If only his sanity weren't so questionable these days...
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Steelspikes is a gunpowder elemental. This is his standard power.
  • Sucky School:
    • Beluga Town's: their teachers are lazy jerks and the education plan doesn't seem to be pretty good. Interestingly, the "out of date textbooks" quirk is inversed, due to the new kingdom's politics about forgetting history.
    • In the first two volumes it's said that at least some of the books used are written by the teachers themselves. It's even pointed out that one of the books (on theory of the elements) has an appendix added illegally by another of the teachers (allegedly because it's illegal to teach that at that age in public schools).
  • Summon Magic: Level A is capable of this, like Sokar's shadow crows, Hugin and Munin.
  • Super Mode:
    • The Dusk Virus seems to be this. With some drawbacks.
    • Both Rubeola and Dino have one.
    • Bubblegum elemental Cherry is able to turn herself into a fat, kinda grotesque, resistant bubblegum golem.
  • Super Smoke: Dr. Ébola has the power of turning into a huge cloud of toxic miasma. With big evil eyes.
  • Super-Soldier: SS soldiers are this and, of course, the Five Elements.
  • Sword Cane: Lluvia's level 3. It's actually a sword umbrella.
  • The Symbiote: Young shadow elementals need to have their shadow joined to their host's, or they'll die ( unless they summon enough strength to switch hosts). At least the shadow can stretch as far as 100 meters.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded.
  • Tactical Suicide Boss: Finalmigo hits himself while trying to hit Sokar.
  • Team Pet: baby Ouruboros.
  • Temple of Doom: the Black Temple from the ancient city of Kenko in the new world. It even has huge vines that act like serpents and have a severe poisonous bite.
  • The Tease: Rubeola sometimes does this to make Kaji feel awkward, like saying how she LOVES redheads, and later saying that "with this light, your hair is specially red".
  • Technical Pacifist: Belenus Llamaviva aimed to create a world where fighting would not be necessary, but he had to enter the army to gain power first, so he had to pwn every enemy that stood in his way. Occasionally overlaped with Badass Pacifist.
  • Teleport Spam: A shadow elemental ability.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
    • The main cast in their objective. Even more now that they share so many secrets and that they will compete in the League, as a team. Hilarity Ensues.
    • The Five Elements weren't much better. Hard headed and direct but enthusiastic Hallormour argued with cold, distant and pragmatic Arian many times and they would usually end threatening each other. Hot blooded Bore didn't help much with that. Fortunately, they all were bound by, if not friendship, their mutual respect for Válbrandur, his ideas and his power. Except Alphonse.
  • They Would Cut You Up: Not only does Hiedra try to do this to Matarratas, but even Bombastus after his pseudo/semi/maybe-Heel–Face Turn seems excited about doing it on Alanka.
  • Third-Person Person: ROCO!!!! again.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Belenus Llamaviva always hated killing, anyone. It comes back later to bite him in the face.
  • Tickle Torture:
    • Nizo and Tarantula do this to Kaji and Lluvia. While they are sleeping, inside the Labyrinth. Fighting Finalmigo. Not cool.
    • As the main cast thinks this is an ability of Finalmigo, Zap starts laughing without any provocation.
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: The book written by Ken Valbrandur (leader of the Five Elements) is treated like this. Maybe the fact that is written in an ancient language helps a bit.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Almost everyone by the second League. Special mention goes to the snot team.
  • Totally Radical: Crisol tends to do this to relax the work atmosphere. Ember is annoyed by it. A lot.
  • Touch of Death: Virus elementals most distinctive characteristic, when not in full control of their powers.
  • Tournament Arc: The second arc is about the Elemental League, an anual competition wich includes fights, among other challenges. If you want a decent position at the army (which is pretty much saying a job that doesn't suck), you have to win it.
  • Training from Hell:
    • Dino puts Kaji through this to make him learn Katai. If he could't burn 100 papers at the same time without expanding the fire and without wasting energy, all the remaining papers would cut him at once.
    • At the end of the third arc, Matarratas asks Lluvia for training. He quickly repented.
  • Training the Peaceful Villagers: Beluga School has Combat class, in wich the students learn to use their powers for offense and defense. Even when Kaji points out that public school aren't allowed to train their students in the Five Levels style of combat, Dino just doesn't care about that (and surely many more) law(s).
  • The Trickster: Sota, Dino's sister and member of his team when he won the league is presented as this. She even uses cards as her weapon of choice.
  • Tropperiffic
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
    • Lluvia threatened to kill Fósforo if Kaji refused to fight her in the Elemental League.
    • In a lower level, Chisp acts a lot like a mafia boss and threatens his teacher with burning his bycicle "by accident". He is 8 years old.
  • True Companions: The main cast is slowly turning into this. At the end of the depressing and shocking Belenus's Chronicles, Lluvia of all people raises Kaji's morale by claiming they are frineds, and they will get out of danger together. It triggers a group hug.
  • Turns Red: Finalmigo can level up when he is about to be defeated.
  • The Unfavorite: Ember: "Look Karol, my son Chisp befriends elementals of the fire branch. Not like your son Kaji" Karol: "Both of them are our sons" Ember: "Yeah, whatever".
  • The Unreveal:
    • A minor one in chapter four, that turns into a big one in hindsight: As Kaji's narration says "I guess all of us have secrets. Secrets that, sooner or later, will come out to light", Dino is about to use Leo's power analyzer to snoop on Kaji's blood, but the machine breaks right at that moment. It's only after you know about the Dusk virus that that moment becomes significant.
    • Leo's element was played in a similar way: it was just about to be revealed many times in the series, until the mindblowing reveal that he's a not-so-extinct earth elemental. Of course, he'd always been passing for a rock elemental, so that could've been revealed instead.
    • The cast found out that Benjamin is in prison way after the readers.
  • Unusual Euphemism: "My elemental parts!!".
  • Veteran Instructors: Ember.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Mr. Aquarrica brings an ice giant to crush some of the town so Ember, the town guardian, will get fired. Too bad Ember is out of town, and the destruction scales out of control.
  • The Virus: Three of them, apparently.
  • Virus and Cure Names: Subverted. The Dawn Project isn't about creating a cure for the Dusk virus —in fact, the virus is implied to have been extinct back then—, but about creating a Power Nullifier that would allow virus elementals to touch other people. Then again, the Dawn Project is actually a cover to recreate the Dusk virus.
  • The Wall Around the World:
    • The Ocean, seemed as an uncrossable infinite sea, is considered this, specially because some theories say thet if you manage to venture deep enough the mist will somehoe bounce you back without you even noticing and you wll eventually be back to square one. This is the reason the world is called "a finite home" in the very first panel of the story.
    • After Day Zero, the government under the new king actually built a wall all over the coastline, making it impossible to cross over to the ocean. Almost as if there was something beyond that the King wanted suppressed...
  • The Watson: Whenever there's need for some exposition about well-known facts in the elemental world, chances are Zap's the one who asks for it.
  • War Is Hell
  • We Were Rehearsing a Play: When people hear Matarratas shouting about his experience during Kaji's Dusk virus's first burst, he wants to say this, but he gets nervous, and says that it's for a ballet.
  • Wham Episode:
    • "Under the Rain"
    • Chapter 52 "Skeptic" is a bigger one: It's revealed that Ken Valbrandur is Belenus Llamaviva, Kaji's deceased grandfather. Belenus was also Alanka's former partner.
    • Belenus's Chronicles 5.
  • Wham Line: "Nice diary"
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
    • Amor (a heart elemental) is getting prepared to fight some birds during a the Labyrinth, while boasting about the power of love. The birds beat the crap out of her before she can end her speech.
    • Dino, as a paper elemental combat professor, is treated like this sometimes.
    • The lizard-rider cork elemental states that he still has to find any utility for his powers.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Even if Kaji was never your typical morally right protagonist, it goes overboard when he chooses keeping Ken Válbrandur's book from fire over saving Lluvia when she was left unconscious and being kidnapped. After that, he forbids Zap from following the bad guys while carrying Sôkar, when it'd do him harm to be far from her, and he was quite weak already. And if that wasn't enough, he goes as far as to fight Matarratas when he tries to follow them.
  • When I Was Your Age...: Ember does this a lot, and describes his younger days as total crap.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • Once Ember is revealed to be a SS soldier, he beats captain Pierre Curry in one hit.
    • Also Finalmigo and the yótum.
    • Kold Briz is so strong that he could beat all the adults in the protagonist team with just one hit, and he even froze Dino solid.
  • World Tree: Aya. A gargantuan ash that concentrates all of the elemental energy of living beings when they die and redirects it to the land so new beings can be born. It greatly fulfills the Fisher King and the Empathic Environment aspects of the trope.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Lluvia thinks this about Kaji. She was wrong.
  • Wreathed in Flames: Level 1 Katai consists in this.
  • You Killed My Father:
    • Or rather, You Killed My Grandfather and Many Scientists. If Matarratas could talk to the Five Elements in person, he would tell them this. Altough he doesn't know this, he was killed by Ébola, not the five elements.
    • YOU KILLED MY FAMILY!!!
    • In the backstory you have Thomas Strom pulling a "you killed my brother".
  • You Didn't Ask
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: When Sokar prevents Finalmigo from finishing Kaji off.

Alternative Title(s): Cinco Elementos

Top