This is the story before the world fell to ruin because of a mysterious virus that appeared on Earth which killed every infected human over the age of 13, and vampires conquered the surface. Guren Ichinose, a sixteen-year-old, enters the magical training school, First Shibuya High. What he was waiting for was suppression from the Hīragi Family who leads the overwhelming sorcerer organization Order of the Imperial Demons, and a reunion with his childhood sweetheart Mahiru Hīragi.
Kodansha began the novels' publication in January 2013 and completed the series in December 2016, with a total of seven books.
A manga adaptation was announced on May 1, 2017. The manga began in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine on June 6, 2017, and ended on February 4, 2022. It has a total of twelve volumes.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Yorick: In book 6, Guren cradles his father's decapitated head before he carries it away along the headless corpse.
- All of the Other Reindeer: As the heir to the Ichinose family, Guren is ridiculed and treated like a "rat" at Shibuya High, which is governed by the Hīragi family.
- Attempted Rape: In book 4, the Thousand Night Soldiers attempt to rape both Sayuri and Shigure, and Guren tries to rape Mito when he's possessed.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: The Hyakuya Sect use zoo animals for their messed up experiments and transform them into Four Horsemen of John.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Saitō and all men of the Hyakuya Sect wear suits and are well-trained in advanced spellcraft.
- Big Damn Heroes: In book 4, Guren grabs the sword that turns him into a demon to rescue his friends from being killed during the Hyakuya Sect's attack on the school. In return, Shinya, Goshi and Mito save Guren from being fully possessed by his demon and place a Power Limiter to make him go back to his human self.
- Big Damn Kiss: In chapter 18 of the manga adaptation, Guren and Mahiru share a passionate kiss right before they make love.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The most powerful clan in Japan, the Hīragi family are totally screwed up.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The Order of Imperial Demons, led by the Hīragi family, are brutally tyrannical, cruel and inhumane in its rule, oppressing the Ichinose family just to show their power and performing human experiments with demons using the Hīragi children. Meanwhile, the Hyakuya Sect are an evil cult that uses orphans in experiments with the Seraph of the End and threaten to bring the end of the world by breaking the taboo. The Order of Imperial Demons tries to stop the Hyakuya Sect's experiments to prevent the extinction of humanity.
- Car Fu: In book 3, Guren runs his motorcycle into a female vampire. She easily catches the vehicle and throws it right back at him, but it hits a passing-by taxi instead.
- Child by Rape: 500 years prior to the series, the Ichinose family served as the top family under the Hīragi. However, both the first and second sons of the Hīragi family fell in love with the daughter of the Ichinose family. The second son won her love. In retaliation, the first son castrated the second son and raped the Ichinose daughter, impregnating her with his child.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Guren and Mahiru met and fell in love when they were five years old, but their families forbade them from seeing each other for ten years until they finally reunited in high school.
- Childhood Friends: Narumi and Shusaku are shown to have been friends since they were little while serving under the Ichinose clan together.
- Continuity Cameo:
- Mika makes a brief appearance a few times when he's seen shopping with Saitō, as well as when Guren and later Mahiru visit the Hyakuya Orphanage.
- Yu appears when Mahiru visits his prison cell at the Hyakuya Sect's experimental facility and when Saitō drives him to the Hyakuya Orphanage shortly before the catastrophe strikes.
- Ferid makes appearances in books 2 and 7.
- Corrupt Church: The Brotherhood of a Thousand Nights, also known as the Hyakuya Sect, is a crazy cult.
- Cruelty by Feet: In book 6, Guren reports to the Hīragi headquarters where Tenri Hīragi scolds Guren for the look in his eyes and forces him to kneel before him while he stomps on Guren's head enough to make it bleed.
- Cyanide Pill: In book 4, Sayuri and Shigure attempt to take suicide pills so they can avoid being raped by Saitō's men and used as hostages against Guren. Saitō takes away the pills before they can swallow them.
- Dating Catwoman: Guren and Mahiru are childhood sweethearts with a lingering attraction to each other. After Mahiru is corrupted by her demon personality and betrays the Hīragi family to work with the Hyakuya Sect, she asks Guren to come over to her side multiple times, but he refuses as he's unable to let go of his morals and friends. They still sleep together.
- Destructive Romance: Guren and Mahiru's relationship is the trigger of the downfall of both and the near extinction of mankind. Mahiru's love for Guren drove her to develop the Cursed Gear so they could survive the apocalypse together, but the process caused her demon to corrupt her and ultimately erase all traces of her human personality, leaving nothing but a cruel and murderous monster in human skin. She then aims to break Guren and make him into a demon too. At the end, Mahiru succeeds when she brutally kills all of Guren's friends and pushes him into starting the ritual that resurrects his friends in exchange of the lives of 90% of humanity.
- Downer Ending: In the final chapter of book 7, the fully corrupted Mahiru kills all of Guren's friends, resulting in his transformation into a demon. Mahiru then stabs herself with Guren's sword and becomes sealed inside it. Having lost his friends and lover, Guren gives into despair and chooses to commit the taboo that resurrects his friends at the cost of nearly all human life on Earth, starting the catastrophe.
- Fake Relationship: Shinya was selected by the Hīragi family as Mahiru's fiancé after he was the only boy to survive their torturous, lethal tests. From their first meeting, Mahiru made very clear that she was really in love with Guren and had no intention of marrying Shinya, but she still pretended she did like Shinya to play along with her family's expectations. Shinya didn't mind much to be a fiancé for appearances, but he did get curious about Guren after hearing Mahiru talk about him all the time.
- Fan Disservice:
- In book 1, Seishirō rips off Sayuri's shirt as he beats her to a pulp and humiliates her in front of the students watching their sparring match.
- In book 4, Sayuri and Shigure are stripped to their underwear when they become victims of sexual assault from men of the Hyakuya Sect. Later, a possessed Guren forcibly kisses a traumatized Mito and rips open her blouse. Once she realizes there's something wrong with him, Noya (his demon) tells her that if she wishes to save Guren, she has to strip and kneel for him. Thankfully, Goshi stops this just in time.
- Feuding Families: The relationship between the Hīragi family and the Ichinose family is not exactly great, due to a very nasty feud between brothers of Hīragi family over a woman of the Ichinose that happened 500 years ago. Since then, the Hīragi family has oppressed and humiliated the Ichinose and their servants.
- Forceful Kiss: In book 4, Mito is forcibly kissed by Guren while he's possessed by his demon.
- Foregone Conclusion: Due to the state of the world in the main manga series, the audience knows from the beginning that 90% of the world's human population will die on Christmas regardless of what Guren and his friends do to prevent it.
- Frame-Up: In book 5, Kureto frames Guren as a traitor and forces him and his friends to escape to Kyoto in an attempt to deceive Mahiru and make her come out of hiding.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The six main heroes are three boys (Guren, Shinya and Goshi) and three girls (Sayuri, Shigure and Mito).
- Human Shield: In book 6, Saitō ambushes Guren at his apartment and uses Shigure and Sayuri's unconscious bodies as shields, causing Guren to accidentally slice Shigure's arm off.
- Just Before the End: The novels take place during the eight months before a virus kills 90% of humanity on Christmas.
- Just Friends: Guren friendzones both Sayuri and Mito after they confess to him.
- Love Hotels: In book 5, Guren's squad goes to Kyoto in order to kill Mahiru as they were tasked by Kureto, and arrive to a love hotel to spend the night. Guren does note that, as they're six teenagers, three boys and three girls in a hotel room, it would've been a funny situation if they were normal high school students.
- Megaton Punch: In book 1, to test Guren's strength, Shinya hits Guren so hard that the latter goes flying in the air, breaks several ribs, coughs up blood, and loses consciousness.
- Mistaken for Gay: In book 5, Guren and his friends have to spend the night at a love hotel in Kyoto. A normal couple spots Guren and Shinya at the hotel, obviously thinking they're there together for the hotel's actual purpose.
- Off with His Head!:
- In book 6, Sakae Ichinose is executed by beheading.
- At the end of book 7, Mahiru beheads Sayuri, Shigure, Goshi and Mito.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Mahiru sacrificed her own humanity so her little sister, Shinoa, wouldn't be experimented on by the Hīragi. Tenri Hīragi knew about this all along, as it was thanks to Mahiru's sacrificed that she completed her experiments on Cursed Gear, something she's later praised for in the Vampire Reign era.
- Offing the Offspring: Tenri Hīragi is perfectly willing to have his children killed on numerous ocassions, he doesn't really care about them either.
- He's actually indirectly responsible for Mahiru's death.
- He told Guren he was free to kill Seishiro because he managed to trick him into thinking that Kureto had betrayed the Hiragi house when it was actually Mahiru.
- One Cast Member per Cover: The first four covers of the manga adaptation have a different character on the cover; Guren on Volume 1, Shinya on Volume 2, Mahiru on Volume 3, and Kureto on Volume 4.
- Parental Favoritism: Tenri has an intense case of favoritism towards his eldest daughter Mahiru. It's pointed out by Mahiru several times in the novels, she mentions it regularly to make fun of Kureto.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Vampires attempted to stop the virus that wiped out most of humanity, but only because if the humans die out, so would they. This is also why they oppose the forbidden research of the Seraphs of the End who go after sinners (i.e. Humans).
- Prequel: The series is set eight years before the Seraph of the End manga story. It shows us how the Cursed Gears were created and the origin of the virus that caused the apocalypse.
- Public Execution: In book 6, Guren's father, Sakae Ichinose, is executed in front of a big crowd of soldiers and cameras that broadcast it live. To rub salt in the wound, Guren is forced to pick up the corpse in front of everyone.
- Puppy Love:
- Guren and Mahiru fell in love during their secret meetings when they were five years old.
- The 7-year-old Akane has a crush on the 8-year-old Mika.
- Security Cling: In book 3, when Mahiru's human personality is still in control, Mahiru clings to Guren as she cries and he embraces her to comfort her.
- Sex for Solace: At the end of book 3, Guren goes to Mahiru's bedroom and finds her crying as she feels her human personality fading away because of her demon's possession. Guren sleeps with Mahiru to comfort her. Unfortunately, this results in Mahiru's "weak" human side completely vanishing and her demon side completely taking over.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: In the manga adaptation, all that's shown of Guren's sex scene with Mahiru is them jumping into bed together, then the scene cuts right to them putting their clothes on.
- Shameful Strip: In book 1, in the middle of a public duel, Seishirō beats Sayuri senseless and rips her uniform to expose her underwear to the audience until Mahiru intervenes.
- Ship Tease: Guren have many ship teases moments with his female squad members and Mahiru.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: At the end of book 3, Guren asks Mahiru if the darkness inside her will disappear if he sleeps with her. Before she can finish her answer, Guren cuts her off with a kiss and they proceed to make love.
- Sibling Rivalry: Goshi mentions that the Norito family favors his younger brother over him. They start to treat him better when he begins working for Kureto with the rest of Guren's squad. Norito obviously points out the hypocrisy of the situation, especially given his brother had started to become more friendly towards him because of his new position.
- Sibling Triangle: The entire conflict between the Hīragi and Ichinose clans started when two Hīragi brothers fell in love with a woman of the Ichinose clan. The brothers fought for her love, but she chose the younger brother. The older brother retaliated in the worst way possible and the Ichinose were ridiculed by the Hīragi for the centuries to come.
- Sneeze Cut: In the manga, Guren lies to Mito about Shinya calling her cute and makes her blush. The next panel shows Shinya sneezing.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Guren and Mahiru. They liked each other since they were five years old, but the family feud between the Hīragi Family and the Ichinose Family forced them apart. When they reunite ten years later, Mahiru has been corrupted by her demon side, and only tragedy awaits her and Guren.
- Supporting Harem: The story revolves around Guren's relationship with Mahiru and their unavoidable tragic fate. While Sayuri, Shigure and Mito all have unrequited feelings for Guren, he rejects their affections, and the only target of his romantic interest is Mahiru.
- Take My Hand!: Shinya reaches out his hand to catch Guren when he's falling in the air during their fight with a female vampire.
- Taking You with Me: Subverted in book 4. Guren faces Mahiru alone, stabs her through the shoulder and jumps from the twenty-fifth floor with her. He says he does not have the will to stab her in the heart, but he can at least die with her. However, before they crash against the ground, Mahiru slows their fall with her sword and throws Guren back into the wall to save him. She continues falling and breaks her leg, but it heals almost immediately thanks to her demonic power.
- Team Hand-Stack: In book 4, when Guren denies having companions, Shinya disagrees and tells him to take responsibility and lead their squad. All three hold out hands to him. He takes their hands and calls them tiring.
- Their First Time: Guren and Mahiru have their first time together at the end of book 3.
- There Can Only Be One: Shinya was a student at one of the Order of Imperial Demons' many kindergartens throughout Japan. He was then selected, alongside several talented children, to be the potential mate for the heir leader of the Hīragi Family, Mahiru. The boys were put through terribly harsh tests and forced to fight each other, with any failure resulting in being eliminated through death. At the end, only Shinya was left and he was chosen as Mahiru's fiancé.
- Truth Serum: In book 2, Guren is injected with a truth serum multiple times when Kureto has him tortured for information about the Hyakuya Sect. He could go more than three days without saying anything because he had received training on resisting poisons, drugs, and torture.
- Twisted Christmas: From the start, it's announced that most of humanity will be wiped out by a mysterious virus that will spread on Christmas. Book 7 takes place on Christmas and it ends with Guren's friends being brutally murdered by Mahiru right in front of him and Guren deciding to break the ultimate taboo to resurrect them, even if only for ten years, which results in the catastrophe that nearly drives mankind to extinction.
- Uptown Girl: Guren was born into the Ichinose family, a low branch of the the Order of the Imperial Demons that's ruled by the Hīragi Family whom they despised. At five years old, Guren and the Hīragi heiress Mahiru fell in love despite their family positions keeping them apart.
- Wizarding School: The First Shibuya High School is run by the religious sect known as the Order of the Imperial Demons, led by the Hīragi Family. The school specializes in training magic users.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In book 3, Kureto has Shinoa kidnapped and locked in the school's torture chamber ti intimidate Guren and force him to give up information about Mahiru's betrayal. It looks like Shinoa's fingernails have been torn off, and her face is covered with bruises. However, Kureto reveals that this is actually all makeup and Shinoa was not actually tortured.
