Crown is a Shoujo manga series written by Shinji Wada and illustrated by You Higuri, which was serialized in Princess Gold from 2005 to 2008 and compiled into six volumes. The manga was licensed in English by Go!Comi, but only made it to volume 2 before the company's shutdown.
Mahiro, a cute Ordinary High-School Student, is orphaned by a tragic accident, and some shady types are after her. Mahiro doesn't know it, but her necklace is the crown jewel of Regalia, and Mahiro may be the rightful heir! Luckily, her long-lost brother Ren, now working as a mercenary, returns to take care of her, along with his partner Jake; they both are, of course, just as hot as they are badass. An over-the-top exercise in shoujo genre cliches, combined with shonen-esque action sequences.
This work provides examples of:
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Lady Fibula, oh so much. When she was younger and a well-intentioned patriot who wanted to become a good queen and her country's prosperity, she was a beautiful woman ; but after her Start of Darkness, she became ugly and fat; and the more she plunged into evil, the uglier she became.
- Broken Bird: Angela's was cruelly betrayed for money by his parents and then by his adopted mother. He came to put his affection in jewels, as he considers they would never betray them, unlike people. But Mahiro and her little gang worm their way to his heart little by little, and he permanently gets better after Condor's Heroic Sacrifice.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Ren and Mahiro like each other a lot. There's a very, very faint suggestion that they like each other "like that."
- But Not Too Foreign: Ren and Mahiro are half-Japanese (through their mother), half-Regalian (through their father).
- Creepy Crossdresser: Promptly experiences a Heel–Face Turn and gets added to the harem.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Bad guys come after Mahiro, get their butts kicked by Ren and Jake, and then hang around and help with the housework.
- Dressed in Layers: Ren and Jake apparently wear camouflage gear and bulletproof vests under everything.
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: The Creepy Crossdresser requires payment in gems, since he wishes to cover himself in things as beautiful as he is.
- Foreign Fanservice: Ren. Particularly oddly explained: Ren and Mahiro come from an Asian kingdom where everyone is blonde. Suuuure.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Regalia's current ruler, Lady Phoebula, is eeeeevillll.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Condor has a cross-shaped scar similar to Sousuke Sagara's, except it's located right under his left eye. Doesn't help that Condor looks a lot like Sousuke.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Jake, who, much like Guy of Tales of the Abyss, is ill at ease with cute girls, and literally freezes when embraced by one. Since Mahiro has a tendency to do this without thinking, Hilarity Ensues.
- Heroic Sacrifice: in volume 3, Condor
heroically and tragically dies by Taking the Bullet for Mahiro. - Homoerotic Subtext: Strictly for fanservice, and lampshaded. "Why are we taking a shower together?"
- Legion of Lost Souls: Ren and Jake are former members of the French Foreign Legion.
- Memento MacGuffin: Mahiro's necklace, the titular "Crown", which also happens to be a Mineral MacGuffin.
- Noble Fugitive: Mahiro, although she doesn't know it.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Condor, whose real name is Chondrite Bourne. His real name is used from time to time, but he's only mostly referred as Condor.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: Mahiro's necklace, the titular "Crown", is the crown jewel of Regalia (although she doesn't know about this), and of course the evil usurper is after it.
- Patriotic Fervor: Lady Fibula's Start of Darkness: she actually was a well-intentioned person who wanted her country's prosperity and rise in power in the world above all, but her plans went downhill when the King of Regalia, with whom she was planned to marry with, fell in love with the woman who would become Ren and Mahiro's mother and married her instead.
- Sprouting Ears: Mahiro, because she's soooo cuuuute.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Far too much for a shoujo series.
- Troubled, but Cute: The Condor.
- Unwanted Harem: There's Ren and Jake, then they pick up The Condor and the Creepy Crossdresser...
