The Momotaro and his harem-err, his animal companions.note
Momogumi Plus Senki dishes out the adventure of the cute protagonist Yuuki Momozono, the reincarnation of Momotaro in Aitan Academy to break the curse of his body before he turns 17, or else, he's finished with the reincarnations of his animal companions, against the onis who cursed him in his previous life. It was started serialized in Asuka in 2006, by the author Eri Sakondou.
This manga provides examples of:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The onis are this for the highschool division of Aitan. Never explained clearly about the other division, though.
- Animal Motifs: Some characters are not only reincarnations of human characters in history or folklores, but also from the animal characters.
- Batman Gambit: Done interestingly in chapter 9-12. Shaoran tried to pulled this off by calmly swinging her scythe around, knowing Kou would escape with Yuuki and later Yuuki would return anyway because he needs to cut her head off to undo his curse, and intimidates Yuuki so that his animal companions would came and save him, and then kill her, so that Yuuki's curse is broken a step ahead as well Kou gaining his freedom from the oni society.However, after she told Yuuki that the "Weeping Red Oni" is good only from human perspective and told Yuuki and Kou the continuation of that story, Yuuki pulled this back on her, knowing she won't kill him anyway, then after she lost her cool because the beast companions didn't show up, he uses that chance to caught her, and that she is after all the sacrificial blue oni from that story who sacrifices herself so that the red oni can live happily in human society.
- Butt-Monkey: Many guys have their own moment of this, but Masahiko certainly takes the trophy and Kou is the runner-up. Ironically, the one who bullies Masahiko is the literal monkey Beast Knight, Sawa.
- Color-Coded Characters: The onis. They are even called with their color-code, which is: Red Oni, Blue Oni, Green Oni,Purple Oni, Sakura Oni, Yellow Oni, and Black Oni. Actually, it's not referring to their hair nor eye color, but horn.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Just ask Kou how his relationship with Shaoran goes.
- Defeat Means Friendship: The onis. Inverted in Kou's case that he was considered "defeated" when he offers friendship to Yuuki.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Yuuki, full stop. From the very beginning his Unwanted Harem consists of more guys than girls (there's only one girl Yukishiro in his animal companion team, and two males, Sawa and Masahiko. ) Then some of the onis became quite close with him as well...Subverted that initially Kikyou doesn't know Yuuki is a guy, and Kou barely had any other friend so he can't tell the difference of being normal friend and trying to make a romantic approach. Also Sawa himself, who got the reincarnation of The Little Mermaid fall for him... And said mermaid reincarnation is a guy.
- Gratuitous German: The real name of the "Snow White" Freier Ein (Freier means fire when Ein means one) and her prince Eis (means ice).
- Mask of Power: All beast-type reincarnation have this as their Awakening Tool.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: This manga have several examples, being originally a shoujo manga. Notable examples are Sawa, that despite looks like typical anime bishounen, is the ace of the sports major that even famous for their ""Heavyball Dodgeball" and it's just as what you think it is:It's dodgeball with bowling ball. And he's even stronger with his mask on. The gender flipped reincarnation of the grandpa from Momotarou, Shibaura Kyouko, that looks like typical cute girl in shoujo manga, is the strongest of the agriculture major that's full of beefcakes. Shaoran , who despite her slender build can easily swing her large scythe. and Kikyou, who also looks slender but easily curbstomped the clearly MUCH MORE built Sakurako with only one finger.
- Off with His Head!: The basic method to defeat an oni and undo the curse. However, this generation of onis offer other terms, should the terms done they will undo the curse willingly. (said other terms are different for each onis). Hilarity Ensues.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Many characters are better known for the name of their names from their previous life than the name of their current life. For example, Yuuki himself is better known as the Momotarou rather than his real name, the Issun Boushi's real name is Shin'ya Wan'no, the Red Oni's real name is Kou Kureuchi, etc...
- Our Demons Are Different: Still more different than typical oni. The oni here is basically Humanoid Abomination and daily, they looks like average human, but they can unseal their power whenever they want. Whenever they unseal their power, however, the defining trait of an oni appears: The horn. And they can seal the power and the horn back whenever they want, too.
- Reincarnation: The entire premise of this manga. Almost everyone is a reincarnation of a character from Japanese folklores... Turns out it's not only reincarnations from Japanese folklores, but also, the international major, who consists of reincarnations of western fairytales.
- The Ace: Yuuki's major companions and the onis are this for their respective major. Sawa for the sports major, Yukishiro for the literature major, the Grandpa's reincarnation Kyouko for the agriculture major, Kou for entertainment major, Uraha for music major, the list goes on...
- The Bully: To answer how much of a bully Sawa is , jusk ask Masahiko. To answer how much of a bully Shaoran is, just ask Kou.
- Undying Loyalty: All of Yuuki's animal companions have this. As much it's etched in their genes and Yuuki isn't the only one with animal companion in Aitan, perhaps all animal companions are this for their respective master.
- Unwanted Harem: Yuuki's animal companions are basically this. Also some of the onis eventually became this too.
- Youkai: The ethnology and folklore major is full of these. FULL.
