Shibuya Yuuri was an Ordinary High School Student with no truly outstanding features aside from his love for baseball. At least, he was, until he tried to break up the bullying of another student and was dunked in a toilet, which sucked him into another reality — one in which his black hair and eyes marked him as the successor to the title of Maoh, or Demon Lord. Unfortunately for Yuuri, he has no knowledge of this kingdom, its customs, or how to go about ruling it... should he even survive to his coronation. Fortunately, he promptly meets a large number of hot guys willing to help him out.Despite its sometimes serious veneer, Kyo Kara Maoh is first and foremost a comedy, though it grows into an adventure as the story progresses. Even the Yaoi Guys scenario of Yuuri ending up engaged to Wolfram is played for laughs — please don't slap someone unless you mean it. Along with Wolfram's brothers (Gwendal and Conrad), their mother Cheri, and a few other noteworthy mazoku (lit.: demon tribe), Yuuri might just live long enough to be acknowledged as Maoh and bring peace to the world which is currently split along human/mazoku lines... But is fomenting peace really what a Demon Lord should be doing?Kyo Kara Maoh started off as a series of light novels (ongoing), and was made into a manga series (also ongoing), a TV anime series, an OVA and a PlayStation 2 game. The details in each version are slightly different.Remember to put character tropes on the character page.
Kyo Kara Maoh provides examples of:
Aesoptonium: The Miasma in season 2 that causes everyone who is affected to stop trusting each other.
Call Back: The anime frequently calls back to scenes in the past, usually times when Conrad saved Yuuri's life. This happens so often in the latter part of season 1 that the same scene is called back to at least once an episode. Season 2 and 3 are also peppered with call backs.
Catch Phrase: "Normally, it's not my nature to threaten or kill, but I won't have any pity this time. I'll send you down a path of evil to make your own hell. Justice be done!" - the Maoh
Censor Steam: In the OVA #1, Yosak, Yuuri, and Saralegui are enveloped in just enough steam to hide the naughty bits...
Chained Heat: Yuuri and Gwendal are forced to spend an episode in the first season handcuffed together. They're mistaken for an eloping couple, and asked to say a few words of encouragement at a wedding. The garbled speech Yuuri makes has a Crowning Momentof Heartwarming comeback in the third season when he is performing a real marriage ceremony for the bride of the previous forced wedding and her real chosen groom.
Character Tics: Due to his years of knitting as a form of stress relief, Gwendel now makes knitting motions whenever he’s upset, even if there are no knitting needles in sight. They introduce this slightly before the actual knitting, so he does some really weird twitching there.
Chekhov's Gunman: In the first episode, a purple-haired girl gives Yuuri some water to drink. She also has a cameo in the opening credits. We find out much later that she's actually a priestess and the one responsible for activating Yuuri's powers.
Chekhov's Skill: Yuuri's ability to play baseball, along with Conrad's ability to throw.
The Chessmaster: Shinou's plan to destroy Soushu involved controlling every major action of the entire Mazoku race for four thousand years. Does this count as an Ancient Conspiracy?
Chilly Reception: Gwendal all but ignores Yuri upon his arrival at the castle and Wolfram is outright hostile. Despite the fact that everyone else seems pretty happy about Yuri's coronation, these are two of the people who will play a major role in his Demon Kingdom life, so he still has to win them over.
Color-Coded Characters: This series is really fond of this trope. The most obvious example are the main characters' uniforms: Yuuri is black, Conrad is brown, Wolfram is blue, Gwendal is green and Gunter is purple. Although the colors don't match up with their personalities in any obvious way, so it's more like Limited Wardrobe Color Range
Clothing Damage: Conrad and Wolfram humiliate a group of thieves by shredding their clothes.
Crossdresser: Yozak regularly. Wolfram at least twice (not counting his sleepwear), and Yuuri at least three times. There's a Ms. Shinmakoku crossdressing beauty pageant in the video game, in which every one of the main charaters is forced to participate.
The Crossdressing Pageant is crossed-over into the series via OVA. Wolfram's skirt is very short.
Dark Is Not Evil: It applies to most of the Demon Kingdom. There are good people and bad people, but most of the "dark" characters are good and want to do the right thing.
Disappeared Dad: All three of Cheri's sons have different fathers, and none of them are in the picture. Conrad's father in particular is explicitly mentioned to be dead.
Disney Death: Wolfram, at the end of season 2. Faked by Josak in the beginning when Conrad stabs him and pushes him off a cliff..
Drill Sergeant Nasty: While Gisela (whose nickname is "Sergeant") who is normally very nice, but can easily get angry.
Elemental Powers: Among the main cast: Yuuri is water, Wolfram is fire, Gwendal is earth and Gunter is air. Other characters are seen using the same powers.
Fanservice: Yuuri's special royal underwear. Plus much of the rest of the show.
Fantastic Racism: A core element of the story is the hatred between Mazoku and humans and Yuuri's attempts as Maoh to overcome it.
Also, the hatred and fear Double Blacks have to cope with, before Shinou manages to get the Demons to appreciate them, which, by the time the story starts, has expanded into full-blown worship.
Five-Man Band: Yuuri, Conrad, Wolfram, Gwendal and Gunter (although what roles the latter 3 fill is up for debate.)
Gunter makes a really ditzy Smart Guy, and Gwendal makes an uncommonly brilliant Big Guy. So Wolfram is apparently The Chick.
Can also be seen as Three Plus Two, with Yuri, Conrad and Wolfram sometimes breaking off (usually on the smaller adventures) and making a Power Trio while Gwendal and Gunter stay at the castle.
Half-Human Hybrid: Mazoku/human halfbreeds are hated by humans and looked down upon by Mazoku. Entire villages exist with the sole purpose of keeping the halfbreeds away from everyone else.
Heart Trauma: Wolfram, in a way. While it doesn't affect his personality, the fact that he is forced into a reversible death counts as a drastic change.
Heir Club for Men: Shimaron's law stats that women can't inherit property. This plays a big role in the plotline involving Caloria.
Come the third season, Saralegui was a major example of this too. Oh hey Kaworu, Gaara, Judeau, Chrono, Break and a million others played by Akira Ishida. Hell, one of Sara's first lines in the first OVA were a direct reference to Kaworu's first lines in Evangelion.
Hidden Eyes: Yuuri does this when he's about to go into Maoh-mode.
Hot Shounen Mom: Cecilie (AKA Cheri) is a clear example of this trope. She is absurdly hot and dresses accordingly, plus she is quite flirty and often hits on Yuuri much to Wolfram's annoyance.
Also, Miko (AKA Jennifer), while nowhere near as obviously hot as Cheri, is still very pretty.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: The Daikenja to the Shinou. While fairly competend in his own right, it is explicitly stated that the Original King would have lost the war against Soushu, had the Great Sage not become his strategist.
Also: Conrad, Gwendal and possibly Yozak, if one wants to call them "sidekicks". Yuuri would be long dead without them stopping him from a) getting himself killed, b) starting an international incident or c) destroying the world while bringing his form of "justice" down on some poor fools head.
Averted in Yuuri, who has no idea how to fight and survived those sword fights he was forced into through sheer dumb luck. He shows moderate improvement throughout the series, as he's shown to be training with Conrad regularly.
Innocent Innuendo: Wolfram awakens on a ship to hear Yuuri and Conrad having a rather sexual exchange of words. Turns out Yuuri was just getting his contact lenses put in.
In the Hood: Generally villains employ this trope, though Conrad and Wolfram have been known to as well.
Cheri: "I came all the way here just to show him some leg."
Named After Somebody Famous: Gwendal and Anissina, named after figure skating pair Gwendal Peizerat and Marina Anissina. Also the ten nobles, whose family names were all taken from famous figures in literature/drama.
Older Than They Look: Just about the all Mazoku/Demon Tribe could actually fall under this as they are found to age differently than humans. Wolfram is found to be 82 years old even though he looks about Yuri's age.
Especially Cheri, who looks younger than her oldest son.
One True Sequence: Barely averted, as the box on Earth can't be found by Big Shimaron, and therefore results in one box not fought over.
Open Minded Parent: Yuuri's parents already knew about his destiny as Maoh long before he was born, much to his surprise (and annoyance), and they happily embrace his accidental fiancé as part of the family, even though they're both male. His mom even plans to take Wolfram shopping for wedding dresses, to Yuuri's dismay.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Apparently no one knows who Yuuri is if they can't see his black hair and black eyes, even though everything else looks the same. Justified in that anyone who knows him recognizes him, and all anyone who doesn't know him knows is that he has black hair and black eyes.
Parent Ex Machina: Played with pretty much literally in a later episode where Shori loses control of his new powers and gets into a magic fight with Yuuri. Ulrike calls the spirit of their mother from Earth to stop them.
Pet the Dog: Gwendal has a huge weakness for all things cute, and he spends his spare time knitting dolls.
Used in-series to make him less intimidating to Yuuri.
"If it's about Gwen, there's no way Gwen hates you, Yuuri. Because he loves small, cute things."
Playing Pictionary: Nobody can ever figure out what Gwendal's knitted animals are supposed to be.
Please Wake Up: Greta (and Yuuri) when Wolfram died (but it was only a faked death).
In the S3 finale, Wolfram and Greta while Yuuri is totally zonked out after using 99% of his Maryoku to save Janus and no one knows whats wrong with him.
Plot Armor: There's never a reason to worry when Yuuri gets kidnapped. He's always safe really.
Promotion to Opening Titles: Jose, Bob, Shouma, Shori, Hube, Julia, and Don Hiri are put into S2's titles, Darcauscos, the Maids, Greta, Shinou, and Bearbees are put into S3's.
Rags to Royalty: Every day student Yuuri becomes King of a nation.
Ready for Lovemaking: Wolfram tries this at one point (and fails miserably). In the anime this scene is replaced with Yuuri waking up to find Wolfram in bed with him.
Really 700 Years Old: Shrine Maiden Ulrike is 800 but looks like a young girl. (Ondine, introduced later in the anime, was the maiden before Ulrike and looks, if anything, even younger.)
Murata possibly counts. He really is about 16, but he's the reincarnation of the Great Sage - and retains his memories from all of his previous lives over the last four thousand years.
Real Men Wear Pink: Gwendal's knitting, Yozak's crossdressing and Wolfram's strange choice of sleepwear (it's implied that the latter may be a deliberate attempt to get Yuuri to like him by making himself appear more feminine).
Redshirt: Various soldiers assigned to guard Yuuri get killed as a sign that he is in danger. Attacked by ninjas, the guard get killed first. Attacked by a killer sand panda, the soldiers fall into the trap before them.
Reincarnation: Yuuri is Julia's reincarnation and Murata is the reincarnation of the Great Sage.
Reincarnation Romance: Because of the above mentioned reincarnation, there are hints that a possible (one-sided?) reincarnation romance could develop between Yuuri and Adelbert, or alternately Yuuri and Conrad, who may have also had romantic feelings for Julia.
Ryan's sandpanda too, once it's no longer threatening to kill everyone...
Ronin: Geigen Huber, Gwendal's cousin. Even more, Adalbert, who is completely comfortable with his role as an free-wheeling post-racial swordsman, and while he slides increasingly toward idealism and believing in The Messiah, never gives up his independence.
Save Both Worlds: In the end of Season 2, when Soushu is leaking all over into Earth and not even everyone in Shin Makoku can keep the massive armies in check. Granted, they don't actually know Earth is in danger.
Spell My Name with an S: Yuri or Yuuri? Celi or Cheri? Dorcas or Darcauscos? Nikola or Nicola? Arguably much worse with the various surnames.
Stable Time Loop: Yuuri going back in time and meeting Julia makes it possible for him to exist, because it makes her accept her fate.
Stupid Sexy Flanders: With all the Yaoi Guys in this series it's no surprise Yuuri (and the audience) have a few of these moments. Especially regarding Wolfram's sleep wear.
Succession Crisis: Big Shimaron is set to face one at the end of the third season. Saralegui plans to take full advantage of this, aiming to take the throne and unite it with his own Small Shimaron.
Superpowered Evil Side: The Maoh, though not actually evil, is more than willing to beat the stuffing out of anyone who pisses him off
Tracking Device: Ulrike can find Yuuri's location on a super special soul-map thingie.
Translation Convention: It is made clear in the first episode that the characters in the other world are not speaking Japanese, but Yuuri hears it as such, and so we the viewers do as well. This goes double for the English dub, where Yuuri keeps remarking (in English) on the quality of everyone's Japanese in a foreign land.
Translator Microbes: Subverted. Aldebert has to unlock the ability to speak the Mazoku language from Yuuri's spirit. Murata probably remembered the language from the Great Sage's memories.
The Von Trope Family: Subverted, as it has nothing to do with personality, and is actually used correctly to mark nobility in the Germanic-based fantasy realm of Shin Makoku.
The Worf Effect: Wolfram is generally the unlucky victim of this trope.
Xanatos Roulette: The Original King's plan to make Yuuri into his vessel. It crossed thoussands of years and involved Yuuri finding four keys to the Originator.
Yaoi Fangirl: A trio of castle maids spend practically all their screentime taking notes, placing bets, and calculating the odds of Yuuri's various romantic prospects.
Yaoi Guys: Yuuri is really, really apathetic and absolutely chaste with Wolfram. Wolfram, on the other hand, is head over heels for Yuuri.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time between the two worlds gets closer to flowing at the same rate as the anime progresses, however.
It is theorized that some corollary to the Mazoku slow development and longevity gene is that they learn really, really slowly. Not that they're stupid; they can understand things well enough, they just don't form memory, especially procedural memory, without a lot more repetitions than it takes humans.
This helps explain things like Wolfram, and also sheds light on Conrad: his particular genetic mix left him a prodigy among Mazoku for his learning speed (hence his scorn of the other students in the flashback scene where Gunter kicks his ass) and with a ridiculous amount of time to practice compared to humans, since by his age even his fellow martial geniuses are normally bedridden.
Hube and Nikola's offspring grows a bit fast even compared to human infants. If he turns out to have a max lifespan of thirty years, it will mega-suck.
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