Himeko's like a queen - and this is a kingdom of girls.
Misaki
Girls Kingdom is an ongoing yuri light novel series by Nayo. It's been released in English by J-Novel Club.
Misaki Hotaru just wanted a fresh start and a free education after her mom had to sell their home to pay their debts, which is why she applied to Amonotsuka Academy, which offers tuition free room and board. Little did she realize that Amonotsuka Academy is a school for rich girls, who are on the Societal Arts track, and the maids that will work for them after they graduate, who are on the Domestic Arts track, and has no idea that she's signed up to train as one of the latter. Even better, when she climbs over a fence to try to get to the entrance ceremony on time, she's caught by one Himeko Amonotsuka, the chairman's daughter!
Fortunately, all is not lost. After a short back and forth about why Misaki is climbing fences, Himeko decides to help her, for her own personal reasons, by making Misaki her personal fake seraph for one year. This golden contract, supposedly unbreakable, means that no one else can take her as their maid, and she is guaranteed employment as a maid in her mistress's household when she graduates. Naturally, getting to be the seraph of one of the most popular girls in school gives her a lot of attention, whether she wants it or not. There is also a silver contract, which makes its bearer an exousia, but this doesn't come with all the benefits Seraphs get, and can be withdrawn at any time without consequence but still binds the one who gets it to the one who gave it.
Throughout this year, Misaki has to deal with all sorts of things, like learning proper table manners, acting as a proper maid, saving a failing on-campus restaurant, and even having an encounter with a vampire and a vampire hunter, all while deepening her bond with Himeko and befriending the other members of the Sky Salon and their seraphs.
Has nothing to do with matriarchies or kingdoms where Princesses Rule.
Tropes Applying to Girls Kingdom:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: The school is known as Amonotsuka Academy, and the various salons all have alliterative names, including the Sky Salon, the Paradise Palace, and the Mauve Manor. While no explanation for this is never given, it's probably just a tradition started by someone who really likes alliteration.
- And Your Reward Is Edible: Erisu thanks the Kokonoe twins for helping get her menu in order and making her restaurant popular by sending them cookies... made to suit her personal tastes. Needless to say, they do not appreciate the gift. To be fair, they were extremely harsh towards her Exousias' cooking, which was tailored to her tastes.
- Bathtub Bonding: Himeko and Misaki do a lot of this as the story goes on, talking about the things that bother them, or just generally chatting, with lots of Skinship Grope going on.
- Batman Gambit: A very simple one. Misaki, Himeko, and Angelica know that Saeko values her reputation at the school, even if it's not necessarily the best. They also know that most students won't have heard about Saeko breaking her Seraph contract with Matsuri. This means that when Matsuri accidentally breaks an expensive vase in the Societal Arts building, Himeko and Angelica use these two facts and a little lying (claiming there were witnesses when there were not) to make it sound like Saeko broke her Seraph contract with Matsuri over a simple, if expensive, accident, which would send her reputation into the gutter and shake the very foundation of the school's Seraph system. Saeko sees through the plan but decides to go along with it anyway because she doesn't want to ruin her reputation, restoring Matsuri's Seraph contract permanently. This also has the side effect of making Himeko and Misaki's Seraph contract permanent as well, because Himeko realizes just how bad it would look if she broke her contract with Misaki after a year.
- Beautiful Dreamer: At the beginning of summer vacation, Misaki, after preparing for the day, watches Himeko sleep, saying that she has a beautiful sleeping face (as well as a beautiful awake face, though she finds it awkward to stare at Himeko while both are awake). Immediately after, however, she gets turned into Himeko's impromptu body pillow for the next half hour, complete with an illustration of Himeko smiling in her sleep with her arms wrapped around a very surprised Misaki's waist.
- The Beautiful Elite: According to Misaki, all the girls in the societal arts program are beautiful refined young ladies. It makes sense as the only way to get into that track is to be the daughter of a major donor to the school and it's intentionally a very high-class establishment.
- Big "WHAT?!": When Kagura realizes she's been had by her own seraphs, who constantly taught her the wrong way to eat chicken on the bone like an elegant lady for years on end, she lets one out and starts ranting at them. The twins deny everything and play ignorant, leaving her fuming.
- Bilingual Bonus: Inaho breaks out Sinhala, of all langauges, in the second book. Specifically, she says “ආයුබෝවන් සැප සනීප කොහොම ද?", menaing "Hello, how are you?" She gets whacked with a paper fan for her troubles.
- Censor Steam: In one illustration of Himeko and Misaki in the bath together, Misaki's chest can't be covered by her hair like Himeko's can, so censor steam is used to hide her naughty bits. Most of the time, however, something else is doing the blocking, like her arms.
- Clique Tour: Since the Salons make up most of the cliques, Misaki and Kirara essentially go on one when asked to deliver high quality tea leaves from Inaho's farm to all the other Salons, as a way of introducing them to the Sky Salon's newest seraph and Exousia.
- Cool Crown: every salon head and the student council president has a tiara to mark their status, usually designed to reflect the salon they lead. For example, the Mauve Manor's tiara has a plant-like design with thorns and the Sky Salon's has stars.
- Didn't Think This Through: Kirara challenges Minako to a volleyball game to get her to accept a sponsorship deal with Kagura if she and Misaki win. However, she failed to consider that Minako is stated to be a world class volleyball player, and that they have no chance of beating her. In the end, after nearly severely injuring the duo, and with them getting nowhere near scoring, Minako calls it off for reasons of safety, and they're no closer to getting her to accept Kagura's sponsorship offer.
- Dragged by the Collar: The twins like to drag Misaki to wherever they need her when they get the chance, usually by locking their arms around hers and walking. Misaki once describes it as looking like they're dragging some alien creature but seems so used to it that she doesn't resist.
- Elevator School: No word on an elementary school, but Amonotsuka Academy has a middle school, high school and college for the societal arts students. The story takes place exclusively in the High School area, however.
- Exclusive Clique Clubhouse: Each Salon has their own room, where members can congregate and spend time together. There's no official rule against going to another Salon's room, though it's expected that you will only do so if you have business with them or are invited. Nor is there any rule about having friends outside the salon you're a part of. Salon leaders can try to take over other salons as well, through a Salon Struggle, which is basically a competition between the two salon leaders (or, more specifically, the challenging salon leader against everyone who has paid to have rights to the salon), where the competition and rules are decided by the defender. They're apparently quite rare, and the one we see revolves around table manners of all things.
- Fun Size: There's an entire Salon for the Societal Arts students who are fun sized. The Paradise Palace (or Petite Palace, as it's also called) is only for those Societal Arts students who are 4'9" or shorter. This is because the salon head's Seraph utterly adores small girls and is the reason Inaho can't join despite being otherwise interested: She's 4' 9 1/2".
- Furo Scene: At least twice a book there's a scene where Misaki is bathing with Himeko, with one exception (Matsuri in book four), with it providing a good opportunity for the characters to discuss whatever's going on, set up some Ship Tease, or create some funny moments
- Genre Shift: to Urban Fantasy, of all things. In the third book, Angelica is revealed to be a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, which becomes much more relevant in book four, when a vampire hunter comes for her.
- Grin of Rage: Mei offers one up when she finds Misaki cleaning crumbs off Erisu's face, because she wanted to do that. Misaki wants to leave when she sees this, but can't because Asuka has invited them to stay for tea and sweet and it would reflect very badly on her, Kirara, and their mistresses if they left before having such.
- Got Me Doing It: For a little while after her visit to the Paradise Palace, Misaki has to consciously stop herself from calling it the Petite Palace after noticing how small everything is and hearing Mei refer to it as such multiple times.
- Halfway Plot Switch: An artifact of how the books were changed when brought to the US, where two volumes were merged into one, meaning the original eight books became four, is that one plot wraps up roughly halfway through each book, and a new one starts shortly after, along with giving a refresher on all the characters you were just reading about.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Between Misaki and Himeko. For example, Himeko loves to stroke Misaki's pigtails and hand feed her donuts, and Misaki is very affectionate with Himeko as well. It gets to the point where Saeko calls out how lovey-dovey the two of them are near the end of book four, in case the reader somehow missed it.
- In-Series Nickname: The Paradise Palace is also known as the Petite Palace, because the only ones allowed to join are societal arts students who stand 4'9" at the tallest.
- It Amused Me: Why Shion told the head of the British themed Salon, The Gloriana Guesthouse, about Sakura's arrival from Britain. She found the resultant competition amusing, and a great way to get back at Himeko.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Villain may be a stretch, but even though Asuka wins the Salon Struggle against Kagura, Kirara, and Misaki, she doesn't get the Sky Salon. This is because there are others who paid for the right to the salon and she has to beat all of them as well, with the Kokonoe sisters being next, and beating her handily.
- Meido: All the Domestic Arts students are in training to become these. If they're lucky, they'll even be guaranteed employment under one of the societal arts students when they graduate. Their uniforms are designed to emphasize cuteness over fanservice, being covered in frills and coming down well below the knees and up to the neck, making them fit this trope over French Maid.
- Naked Apron: The Kokonoe twins tell Misaki that if she ever brings someone to the Sky Salon that's not a member and hasn't been cleared with Kagura, they will make her serve all the members for an entire day wearing nothing but an apron. Misaki is not dumb or shameless enough to see if that threat has any teeth, though, meaning it remains just a threat.
- No Antagonist: Most stories lack any sort of antagonist, instead focusing on Misaki solving specific mundane problems, like figuring out why a restaurant is pulling in so little foot traffic or what to do with her first paycheck. Even when there's someone who could be called an antagonist, they're usually focused on someone else and Misaki ends up being dragged along into whatever's going on.
- One-Gender School: It's a school exclusively for rich girls and maids-in-training, so it makes sense there wouldn't be anyone with a y chromosome on campus.
- One-Steve Limit: While never noted, there are two aversions: Misaki the protagonist and Mizuki, a minor character working at Erisu's Ecole Kitchen, and the Kokonoe twins, both named Ayaka.
- Put on a Bus: A number of prominent characters go home for summer vacation in the middle of the fourth book, including Kagura, Kirara, and the Kokonoe twins. This leaves a very minimalist cast for the second half of the book.
- Rash Promise: Offering a normally unbreakable contract that's meant to last until graduation, can only be broken for a very good reason, and acts as the foundation for the whole mistress/servant idea the school operates on, for only a year was not Himeko's smartest decision, as she realizes at the end of book four. Especially true if you're the Deputy Chairman and most popular girl in school.
- Releasing from the Promise: Minako fully intended to keep her sponsorship with the sports shop in her hometown even after she went pro, but when the owners learn that Kagura wants to sponsor her to promote her new line of sporting goods, they immediately tell her to take that sponsorship instead, promise or no promise. To make sure she goes for it, they even threaten to drop their sponsorship regardless of whether she takes Kagura's.
- Sequel Hook: Book four ends with a note that things are going to get crazy soon.
- Stepping Out to React: Inaho makes a joke about how her height and the number of visitors to Erisu's restaurant are alike, in that neither are going up. Having reminded herself of her Height Angst, she excuses herself to the bathroom to cry. Her seraph, Haruka, says to let her be and that she'll return at a comically appropriate moment.
- Tempting Fate: Misaki does an excellent job of tempting fate to screw with her at the end of book four. Specifically:Given how little threat Lutia was, I doubt she'll (Angelica) be all that busy.
In my mind I was so casual about the whole thing. I could never have imagined what was really going to happen. - This Is My Chair: The Societal Arts students all have their favorite places to sit in the cafeteria, with spots open around them for their seraphs and exousias. There's an unspoken rule that no one can take their seat from them. Also, the Sky Salon, at least, gives every member their own private area, intrusion upon which without permission is very much frowned upon. Misaki points these facts out many times, though no one is shown violating these rules.
- Too Much Information: Before Misaki and Kirara can ask Mei about what she did with her first paycheck, she instead starts rattling off random information about her mistress, Asuka, thinking they're after blackmail information. This results in us learning about things like the heart shaped birthmark on her butt among other unnecessary details before they can get her back on track. It's telling about how dedicated she is to her mistress's every detail that they react with frustration instead of becoming disturbed, as Misaki herself notes.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Whenever a plan is made, the narrative usually cuts off before we hear a word of it, pretty much guaranteeing its success. This includes the plan for what sweet to offer Sakura to get her to join the Sky Salon (fruitcake) and how to get Saeko to take Misaki back as her seraph (a Batman Gambit revolving around a broken vase). The one time it doesn't, when Himeko is teaching Misaki and Kirara proper table manners in preparation for the salon struggle, it goes off the rails because Kagura does one step the wrong way and Kirara feels obligated to follow her lead during the actual contest, which costs them the win.
- Vampires Hate Garlic: Subverted. When Lutia tosses a string of garlic at Angelica, which Misaki expects to work. Instead Angelica tosses it aside, not bothered in the least.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Angelica is a powerful vampire, sure, but she's also a really sweet and caring girl, who just wants the best for the academy (and gets the blood she needs from her family's blood bank). Problem is, the vampire hunters have returned, and they want her dead.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: During the ghost incident in the third book, Angelica pulls a map of the school out from between her breasts. Misaki is so surprised that she says she deserves a reward for not openly reacting to this.
