Manga / Princess Resurrection

Princess Resurrection (Kaibutsu Oujo, literally "Monster Princess") is a supernatural manga by Yasunori Mitsunaga, which was serialized in Monthly Shonen Sirius from 2005 to 2013 and later adapted as an anime by Madhouse in 2007. The story revolves around the adventures of a young boy named Hiro Hiyorimi who is hit by a truck at the start of the series. He is killed, but revived by the master of the maid driving the truck, a mysterious woman simply referred to as "the Princess" ("Hime"). Through her blood he becomes a nigh-immortal servant under her command, though he must periodically drink it again to preserve his new existence.

Rounding out the cast are Flandre (a diminutive android maid who can only say "fugah"), Riza (a werewolf halfbreed who originally comes in search of the Princess for revenge), Reiri (a local vampire who just likes stirring up trouble), and occasionally the Princess' sister, Sherwood.

Making appearances are the Princess and Sherwood's other siblings, locked in a deadly competition to take the family throne. Even though she has no interest in the throne she is forced to fight them regardless, along with the many monsters who have designs on her family's special blood.

This series has the blessing of Universal Pictures (the Japanese branch was a sponsor of the anime) and so can use everything from classic Universal monsters to Back to the Future. Which they have.

An OVA of Princess Resurrection was later announced in 2010 and much to the delight of the fans, it was more faithful to the manga (both visually and tonally), had much better animation and all of the blood was retained.

In November 2017, a sequel series named Princess Resurrection Nightmare was released, appearing to feature the cast sometime after the end of the first series.

There's a Spin-Off manga called Naqua-Den that stars Nakua, the spider deity that partners with Hime.

Now with a Character Page. Contributions welcome.

---

This series provides examples of:

• Afterlife Express: Chapter 39, "Princess Express".
• All Just a Dream: The episode "Princess Coma" has the characters trapped in a collective dream. They're aware of it but can't wake up.
• Amnesiac Hero: The entire cast experiences this at the start of Nightmare. They're mostly brought up to speed by Flandre, but don't know what happened to cause it.
• Anachronic Order: The manga generally moves forward in a linear fashion, but between major arcs the chapters jump around in non-linear fashion (and some minor but long arcs are interleaved with one another and random Monster of the Week chapters). This gets more pronounced the later in the series you go.
• And the Adventure Continues: In the end, in the final battle with Silvia, Hime overwhelms and cancel out her powers, stripping away both their powers. Due to this, both are no longer declared royals and finally free of the royal battle. Sherwood is deemed the winner by default. Syivia and Fuhito go on to lead their own lives and Hime moves into another mansion along with Riza (who was banished from werewolf society for socializing with a vampire), Reiri (who was allowed to stay within hers but choose to stay with her friends), Flandre, Hiro and his sister Sawawa (still clueless as ever to the supernatural goings-on). Though the fight is over, Hime knows it'll start up again someday and, even though she no longer has to participate, starts to make plans to aid Sherwood when the time comes.
• Art Evolution: The character designs get a little looser as the manga goes along.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In chapter 58, it's revealed that shortly before his death, Emil seemed to have done some form of this, to put a stop to the Royal fights. He's still not an adult though.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: How werewolf society works.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Happens sometimes when Hime is fighting alongside someone, even Hiro.
• Badass Family: Riza, her brother and her father. Also from what we see in the 2nd and 3rd OVA, Hime came upon her fighting skills honest. Her brothers (excluding Severin) and sisters all kick ass.
• Bad Future: One chapter has a disaster happening; and Hime (and Reiri) surviving in a hostile future long enough to tell the present how to prevent it.

• Battle Butler: Hiro. At least that is what he is supposed to be, when he is not active as a Blood Warrior.
• Beach Episode: A boat episode, actually.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Hiro turns from spinless unkillable wimp into badass later on in the manga, not quite awesome badass just badass enough to get the job done.

• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Hime, Reiri and Riza.

• Blood Knight: Riza.
  • All werewolves. It's mentioned they view close-quarters combat as "play".
• Blood Magic: Hime's blood is used to keep Hiro alive.
  • In the anime, it's not blood; more of a oddly-colored flame Hime uses. In Sherwood's case, the same flame comes from her big toe.
    • May count as Fridge Brilliance if you think about it. If the royalty are Phoenixes, that flame IS their blood.
    • Not once the manga reveals that a phoenix can bestow the flame of life and create flame warriors, more powerful versions of the blood warriors who don't require blood and who have flame powers of their own.
• Bloodless Carnage: Annoyingly so in the anime. They don't even use the Blood Magic.
• Body Guard Crush: Hiro shows signs of this towards Hime, although it could just be the blood warrior part of him getting clingy.
  • When he was dying in the opening pages and he sees Hime for the first time he thinks on how beautiful she is. So there is at least a physical attraction before the whole Blood Warrior thing.
• Brain in a Jar: The Professor. It's a very big brain, too, with what appears to be extensive cybernetic enhancements.
• Butt-Monkey: Hiro early chapters in manga and episodes in anime is this.
• Cain and Abel: The royal siblings are awfully competitive.
• Captain Ersatz: The very concept of Blood Warriors is a blatant take-off of the Wu from 3×3 Eyes, with Hiro standing in as a younger, wimpier Yakumo. Or to be more general, Vampire creating human servant/renfield. It's actually lampshaded by hiro as he thought Hime is a vampire at first.
• Captain Obvious: Bucchi, Hiro's friend from school.
  Gillman:"Not good! I'm stuck in a bottomless swamp!"
  Bucchi:"Oh no! One of our guides has gotten stuck in a bottomless swamp!"
• Chainsaw Good: In chapter 11, Hime dual wields two chainsaws to fight off the pharaoh.
  • And she also appears on the first volume of the manga with one. Overall chainsaws seem to be her iconic weapon, despite her using them only occasionally in battle.
    • In the anime, chainsaws are heavily used to symbolize Hime herself. There's even a skull-and-crossbones in the EP, with a feminine skull (really!) and two chainsaws as the crossbones.
• Character Tics: Hime likes to wrap a lock of hair around her finger when she speaks.
• Charge-into-Combat Cut: Done frequently, mostly because the group has to figure out exactly what they are fighting. By the time they do, the chapter nearly over.
• Chekhov's Gun: Like you would not believe. Even if the series seems like it's packed with Monster of the Week filler, almost NOTHING that happens in it doesn't come back later in the series.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For all the time that Hiro looks like a wimp, he can be surprisingly badass when Hime's in danger. (Much more so in the manga than in the anime.) In the anime, he acts more as a Human Shield, as well as a Morality Pet for Hime It is stated by Sherwood, and noticed by Hime, that Hiro has the potential to be the greatest blood warrior. Hiro, being Hiro though, runs away before it is explained.
  • Future Badass: His older self actually comes out of nowhere and saves Hime from getting killed by Silvia, easily beating her subordinates in the process, despite how Silvia seems to be on top of everything.
• Cute Little Fangs: Hime, Sherwood, Riza and Reiri.
• Cute Monster Girl: (Points to the above list)
• Dancing Theme: Riza, in the ED.
• David Versus Goliath: Flandre defeats a Godzilla-type monster by breaking its little toe.
• Decoy Protagonist: You think Hiro would be, but no he's just the catalyst that kicks off the plot. This is Hime's story and he's just along for the ride.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Most of the main characters join Hime and Hiro this way.
• Didn't Think This Through: Riza's invasion of Duken's mansion would have gone a lot smoother if she had stopped to listen to anything that Reiri said.
• Dirty Coward: Severin. Just seeing that his sister is willing to stand up to him is enough to make him panic.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Basically each time Hiro gets a...donation of blood from Hime or Sherwood he has to suck it from them in a bit of a suggesting way really.
  • The Ancient Spider Deity will protect any humans that worship her, as long as the humans will make sacrifices to her (that was the reason she conflicted with Reiri and Riza at the school). When a super storm threatens the city, the Spider deity is waiting to get more presents in her Shrine to do something about it. Given she provides a service to the human community, in return that community owes her both respect and sacrifices. She has the same mentality that a Yakuza boss.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Hime does not like to be called by her birth name, Lilliane, but two of her brothers do it anyway.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Hime and Sherwood.
• Emergency Transformation: Hiro, and later, the mermaid girl.
• Enigmatic Minion: Flyman, Mad Scientist, has won Zeppeli's recognition as a brave operator. He is onto something, but nobody is sure what.
• Ephebophile:The hospital director has some shades of this to Hime.
• Epic Flail: Hime uses a flail to fight werewolves.
• The Empath: Partially averted in that Sawawa regularly gets a sense of foreboding when her brother is in danger, then promptly ignores it and eats some more ice cream.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Reiri.
• Eviler than Thou: Vampires and Nobles who think nothing of feasting on humans are horrified that anyone would think of unleashing the Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Justified; after all, if their food source is gone, what are they suppose to eat?
  • Also justified in that monster could turn into zombies with a scratch, see Hime disallowing hand to hand combat see Hime's city destruction. As if normal is not bad enough imagine vampire/werewolf/minotaur/giant spider zombies, or even a Cthulu zombie.
• Eye Tropes: Pretty much owns it due to the Monster Mash nature of the series. Just the main cast alone is plenty, spoiler alert.◊
  • Hime: on top of Red Eyes, Take Warning also possess Hellish Pupils. She also does a great deal of Hidden Eyes Pretty much all the royals are like this.
  • Hiro: normally a wimp. appear Badass on anything related to Hime, and when his hair turns white and his pupils turn hellish and eyes became Glowing Eyes of Doom, run.
  • Flandre: Fuga(Normally my eyes are Mind-Control Eyes but while starting up they are Electronic Eyes.)
  • Liza Wildman: daughter of the great warrior Volg Wildman likes to do Hidden Eyes when angry, usually followed by beating the life out of her source of anger.
  • Reiri: Could turn her eyes to Hypnotic Eyes and her bats have the swirly eyes of dizziness.
  • Others:
    • Faceless Eye: The Great Race of Yith
• Fanservice: Besides blood, the OVAs are packed to the brim with Male Gaze and breast bouncing, though they also include some Female Gaze in the 3rd OVA.
  • At the Manga and the Anime, no royal degrades herself to a cheap fanservice! They have MagicSkirts In a Beach Episode in the manga, Sherwood wanted to wear a swimsuit, but Hime would not tolerate that! Both of them always wear their Elegant Gothic Lolita costumes (even in their Beach Episode). However, the OVAs shows Hime as a victim of Clothing Damage.
• Fantastic Racism: Between Riza and Reiri, and vampires and werewolves in general. Riza herself is subject to some very cruel prejudice from full-blooded werewolves, who regard her as a "stinking half-human bastard."
  • It should be noted that Riza's brother was willing to give his life for her, and that the only werewolves shown to be cruel to her were the trio who broke the taboo about becoming Blood Warriors, and a group in a monster prison whose respect she quickly earned.
  • Maybe Reiri is also a victim of Fantastic Racism?: the Werewolf men always recriminate Riza that she is allied to a vampire, Sherwood exclaimed that she cannot believe she was helping a vampire, and Gilliam mocked Hime because she chose Reiri as a servant. Keiza claimed that supremacist vampires, if not controlled by blood, are not only incompatible as servants but dangerous to royalty. Riza, who knows Hime and Reiri relationship, calls Hime “eccentric”. It seems that in the Monster Kingdom, everyone think of vampires as selfish jerks who only look after themselves. To be just, all the vampires characters that we have seen so far (Zeppeli, Duke Kiniski and Caroline Lugosh) were portrayed like that, but Reiri has been kind with the school girls even before she met Hime, (she doesn’t want to transform them into vampires, and when the old spider deity threatened them, Reiri defended them).
  • It has been said several times in the manga that Reiri is an outcast from the vampire society. Reiri seems to be the exception to the jerk vampire rule.
• First-Episode Resurrection: Hiro.
• Flirty Voice Ploy: Reiri uses the flirty voice ploy to draw in Hiro in order to turn him. She's also quite flirtacious with Hime when planning to drink her blood.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Reiri, who only sucks the blood from willing humans (not counting her plot to get at Hime) and only through pinpricks on their finger so as not to bite them and turn them into vampires. She even goes out of her way to fight a spider deity (along with Riza) who was preying on her fellow schoolmates to keep them safe.
  • Vampire Detective Series: At chapter 53 of the manga, Reiri invokes this subtrope:
  Reiri: You're right, this requires my skills as a Detective.

• Giant Squid: The octopus in chapter 84. It was originally masquerading as a sea serpent. It surrenders peacefully.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Riza, a half-werewolf, among other characters.
• Hammerspace: Various articles in Hime's arsenal of often-unconventional weapons.
• Happiness in Slavery; Basically becoming a bloodwarrior means this one way or another.
• Headless Horseman: There is a headless horseman in both the manga and the anime. Both were a result of an empty suit of armor/ghostly horseman getting it's head stolen and running amuck looking for it.
• Hellish Pupils: Hime, and all the other Royals. Blood Warriors, and notably Hiro, also get them when entering a combat trance (triggered by their master/mistress being in mortal danger).
• High-Pressure Blood
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Duke Kiniski. He imprisoned Hime's sister Silvia and drank her blood for his own pleasure (via a tap implanted in her body), but ended up as a Blood Warrior as a result. When Silvia manages to free herself from captivity, he's left without a blood source and ends up as a shriveled corpse.
• Horse of a Different Color: Our heroes ride undead pandas.
• How We Got Here
• Humongous Mecha: Flanders.
• I Am X, Son of Y: "I am Riza Wildman, Daughter of the Werewolf Warrior Borg Wildman!!" Doubles as her Catchphrase.
  • It seems all werewolves do this as an introduction.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: "Princess This-Or-That". The pun is more obvious in Japanese, since Hime's name means "princess".
• Idiot Hero: While not genuinely stupid, it's shown that werewolves don't plan very far beyond "Kill something." Lucky for them, that usually works. Usually.
• Immortal Life Is Cheap: Hiro dies. A lot.
  • Future Hiro trades his regenerative ability for a single indefinite lifespan. However, he compensates for the loss of his Death Is Cheap ability by taking several levels in Badass—enough to take on Madeline and Silvia by himself—thus making sure his life won't come cheap. Much to the surprise of Hime and the readers
• Improbable Weapon User: Hime. Rapiers and flails are archaic, but relatively normal. Chainsaws are less so. Jackhammers and candelabra are much less so and a hospital defibrillator attached to a robot girl's battery are in a whole other ball park.
• It's All My Fault: Reiri tricks Hiro and bites him. Riza chases after Reiri. When Reiri escaped Riza and Hime told her that Hiro could die, she screamed this phrase.
• Kaiju: The Godzilla-like monster that attacks the Professor's lab in Chapter 32.
• Kiss of the Vampire It's not real clear on it, but judging by Riza and Hime's reactions they looked like they were enjoying being fed apon.
• Lady and Knight: Hime as the Bright Lady and Hiro as her White Knight. In fact, excluding Emile and the mermaid, all Royals are some variation of this.
• Lesbian Vampire: Reiri, although she might swing both ways.
• Limited Wardrobe: Pretty much everyone, but especially Hime, who always wears the same outfit (not that she doesn't look good in it).
• Little Miss Badass: Hime and Sherwood.
• Lovable Coward: Reiri will use all of her powers as a vampire to flee from fights. In her defense, she always heads straight for any non-combat solution to their current problem. It's not out of fear; but rather practicality. She isn't as good at combat. This tends to irritate Riza; but that's a perk for Reiri.
• Magic Skirt: Hime, no matter what she's doing, no matter how precarious the situation, or even how undignified the position she winds up in (like thrown over an android's should, for instance), she will never fall victim to a panty shot. Reiri, on the other hand...
  • Averted twice with Hime in the first of the new Ovas.
  • Played with with Riza's skirt. Though we haven't seen anything, she's had two panty shots observed in-universe.
  • Reiri is an intersting case. In the manga, she utterly averts the Magic Skirt trope. However, in the anime it's played completely straight. The OVAs have her solidly averting the trope again.
• The Man Behind the Man: The hospital director is a subordinate of Zeppeli.
• Meaningful Name: Subverted — Hime's actual name is Lilliane. (Protagonist Hiro is another story, as is Riza Wildman.)
• Meido: Hiro's sister, Sawawa. The trope's invocation is even pointed out in the translation notes of the first volume of the manga, as she goes to a cafe on her downtime while still in her costume. Also, Flandre and her sisters.
• Mind Hive: Something Silvia brings up in 83: we keep saying "phoenixes" but when have we seen more than one, excluding the princes and princesses? Never. That's because there IS only one phoenix. The winners of every generation of Royals, their mothers, father, aunts, uncles, whoever are absorbed into the Phoenix's collective consciousness.
• Mind Screw: Whatever it was that happened to Emil. Seriously, what the hell?
  • And the nine-year time skip. It involves a chrono-bomb and at least two divergent timelines.
• Mistress and Servant Boy: Hime and Hiro.
• Monster Mash: Practically every known monster in the book and then some. One chapter even dealt with ''pod people''.)
  • Not to mention the member of the Great Race of Yith who briefly turns up.
• Monster Lord: The entire Royal Family.
• Mooks: A typical tactic of the villains is to swarm their adversaries with mooks, whether of the mummy, zombie, or vampire variety.
• Ms. Fanservice: Reiri. Riza has a few gratuitous shots, but not nearly as many as Reiri.
• Must Be Invited: Reiri required an invitation to enter Hime's home, but was free to enter at will once that invitation was given. This trope also came to bite Duke Kinski in the butt, when he seeks to replenish his supply of Royal Blood using Hime's corpse, only to find out that she's alive and well, and denying him entry to her home. Even needed an invitation to enter a long-abandoned cabin that obviously had no inhabitants or owners.
• No Death Run: Hiro survives alone for nine years to protect Hime without dying once.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The manga just loves these, with whole chapters building up to potentially-epic confrontations between the main characters and their enemies... only to show the aftermath of said encounter a page later without missing a beat.
• Ojou: (Hime and Sherwood)
• Ominious Clouds: Hime's mansion is always surrounded by a mass of swirling black clouds in an otherwise clear sky. It is also under constant attack from all manner of monster.
• Once an Episode: Hime kills something with something.
  • Was even lampshaded in a "next time" bit by Flandre at the end of the third volume.
• The Other Darrin: the voice cast of the anime is apparently getting entirely replaced in the upcoming OVA.
• Our Souls Are Different: Literally for Royals. It's not the blood and flesh that makes a Royal special but the Royal themselves that make it special.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They seem very old school, but not everything is known about them yet. They don't like sunlight, but it only seems to weaken them at most. The same goes for water, though they can't cross it. They can be killed with a stake, but crosses and churches have no influence over them. Biting infects the victim, who behaves more like a zombie than a vampire. They like blood, but it doesn't seem that they need much of it. They can fly, and they can turn into a swarm of bats, as well as communicate with regular bats.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: They can be hurt by silver, have Voluntary Transformation and heightened senses, and their strength is tied to the phase of the moon. Riza is different in her own right because she's a Half-Human Hybrid. So far, the only difference is that she can only transform her forearms and isn't quite as strong, but still pretty badass.

• Overdramatic Dating Commotion: Downplayed. Thinking that Hiro is going out with Reiri, the boys in his school shoot daggers at him.
• Pokémon Speak: Flandre, and all her siblings, as noted below.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Riza, who wears her father's race and name as a badge of honor in spite of being a "filthy half-human". Most if not all werewolves also seem to fit this trope.
• Psychic Link: Subverted with Sawawa and Hiro; see The Empath.
  • Played straight with the royals and blood warriors. When their master is in danger, they will know.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Riza is the red, with Hime or Reiri acting as the blue.
• Refuge in Audacity: How does Reiri get away with sucking her classmates' blood? She just calls it a "special ceremony" and sucks it from their fingers. One of her "victims" even inadvertently lampshades it. She does this in front of Hiro no less, who is shocked and amazed.
• Resurrective Immortality / Immortality Inducer: The blood warriors, most noticeably the protagonist Hiro. When a person dies, one of the royal siblings can bring them back to life with their blood. This makes the blood warriors semi-immortal; when killed, they will come back to life, and even non-fatal wounds will heal quickly. However, there is a price to pay: the blood warriors have to drink royal blood every few days or they will die for real. So they have to follow, and fight for, one of the royal siblings to survive. And of course, they have to die before they can become semi-immortal to begin with.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Flandre and her siblings. Emile's android Flanders is not subject to this because he's a Humongous Mecha.
• Robot Girl: Again, Flandre and her siblings.
• Robo Family: Each of the royal siblings have their own android who are also called siblings; Flandre, Francisca, Francette, Flanders and Franz - and probably several more.
• Royalty and Nobility Tropes:
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Severin and Silvia.
  • Decadent Court
  • The Evil Prince: Severin.
  • Prince Charmless: Severin.
  • Royal Blood: Literally.
  • Royally Screwed Up
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Everyone except Severin. Even Silvia.
  • Warrior Prince: Gilliam.
  • The Wise Prince: Emile.
• Scenery Porn: The alien infestation of chapter 76 is breathtaking.
• Shoo the Dog: Hime and Emile subtly do this to Hiro, Keziah and the mermaid Madeline so they won't have to be involved in the war between Hime, Silvia and Fuhito.
  • Averted by Hiro, though, who ain't going anywhere, even though he doesn't need Hime to live any more.
• Shout-Out:
  • Hime's resurrection spell is either an affectionate shout out to or a shameless ripoff of H. P. Lovecraft, depending on how charitable you're feeling.
  • Sherwood has a bunch of Romance of the Three Kingdoms references, ranging from her Zhuge Liang fan to the sworn pandahood.
  • The recharging station Flandre uses is remarkably similar to the ones used by The Borg.
  • A bug-headed scientist, a la the original The Fly (1958); Triffids, IIRC; The aforementioned Pod People; the series LOVES referencing classic sci-fi/horror. Chapter 13 even features a monster designed along the same lines as the imfamous Rat-Bat-Spider from Angry Red Planet. How's that for obtuse references!
    • Later it's even worse: An old member off the Great Race of Yith appears in one chapter as an assasin, and a squid creature judge in chapter 23 bears an uncanny resemblense to the Venusian from It Conquered the World.
  • The verbal tic of the android siblings could be a shout out for Foobar. Makes sense consider its use and derivation.
  • Trioxin is used to reanimate very dangerous zombies.
  • Chapter 32 features a classic Godzilla style Kaiju.
  • Chapter 35 is a massive shoutout to Jeepers Creepers.
  • Oh a car that can travel time when it goes 88 miles per...Hey wait a minute!
  • Dukan and his dog look awfully familiar....
  • One of Hime's brothers tries to destroy Flanders with a megapartical cannon in chapter 39. Flanders responds with a Photon Cannon.
  • In chapter 48 there is a scene that involves an axe, a door and Sawawa
    • Also the painting in the entrance
  • The whale bus of chapter 57 may be lifted from a series of pictures from 1899-1910 imagining France (and the rest of the world) in the year 2000 (the last image in particular).
  • Chapter 59 has a tape recorder and possessed bodies.
  • Chapter 70 has a Pyramid Head Captain Ersatz.
  • Another one from chapter 70 will seem familiar to fans of Cyborg 009.
  • In chapter 72, there's mention of a Shoggoth and what appears to be a Sarlacc.
  • Sylvia and Fuuhito are last seen eating at Cafe Nyarlathotep.
  • In one episode, while driving along the road, Riza, Hime, and Hiro encounter a bridge that is out, its girders twisted upward towards the road, reminiscent of the bridge being out in The Evil Dead (1981).
• Slave to PR: The Royal Family plays with this. Reiri and Riza converse on this trope when they realize all the royals live in mansions in the top of a hill—the Royals not only have to win, they must display courage and fitness to rule, so they need to show no fear... but they send assassins to dispose of one other. This leads to awkward family dynamics, in that even when one of them claims to feel no hostility towards the others, they're not believed. And yet it's necessary for them to be admired among the monsters: when Reiri asks Riza if she would follow a cowardly Hime, Riza immediately answers "No".
• The Slow Path: Flandre stays behind when the crew goes to the past and deactivates. Back in the present, they find her and take her to her creator to be repaired.
  • When Hime is trapped in the Bad Future; Reiri decides simply to survive long enough to find her and tell her what happened, so they could tell their present selves.
• Smug Snake: Severin. Hime calls him out on it.
• The So-Called Coward: Reiri will always run from a fight; to the consternation of Riza. However, she always uses her escape to achieve a goal to help the people in the party who are better at fighting.
• Stable Time Loop: One chapter had Hiro test for a time travel experiment and ended up in the past as a ghost as a side effect. Despite being told not to interfere with anything (even though it seem he couldn't anyway since he was a ghost.) He manages to save a young Hime from an assassination attempt by her older brother. Ironiclly the older Hime actully remembers the encounter.
  • Additionally, Hiro plants the idea in past-The Professor's head to make a time machine and will thus choose Hiro to take the test in the future. Stable time loop indeed.
• The Starscream: Vampires are notoriously this; everyone is rather surprised at how loyal Reiri is to Hime; if playful. Most of Hime's enemies are shocked that she's trusting one.
• Stealth Pun: In the final episode of the anime Flandre acts hostile and rebellious towards the entire cast and almost brought danger towards the town. It wasn't until Prince Emil tightened the bolt on Flandre's head that she returned to normal. The joke? Flandre had a screw loose!
• Succession Crisis: Hime and her siblings are fighting each other to see who will take the throne.
  • Well the rest of her siblings are. Hime wants nothing to do with it. Unfortunately that doesn't stop some of her more determined siblings from coming after her.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Hime. Stoic and cool-headed but not above helping or saving her subjects. Excluding Severin, the affection she displays to her siblings is also genuine.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Flandre, and all her siblings.
  • Justifed in that the androids were built SPECIFICALLY for heavy combat. The maid part is secondary, and Flanders subverts the trope all together being a Humongous Mecha
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: All the Gillmen. Lampshaded at least once.
• The One Guy: Hiro is the only guy who lives in Hime's mansion, because the other occupants are his sister, Hime, Flandre, Riza, occasional visits from Reiri, as well as Sherwood and her team. Would be good for him except for the fact he's just their Chew Toy.
• Theme Naming: The Robo Family.
• There Can Be Only One: Every new generation of Royals must kill each other off until only one is left to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
  • This is explained in chapter 83: The adult Royal, The Phoenix, is a Mind Hive. They only NEED one.
• This Is a Drill: Francette, one of Flandre's sisters, loses an arm. Due to a lack of appropriate replacement android parts, she now has a drill for an arm. This doesn't seem like a bad thing.
• Time Travel: Hime and her retainers get sent 2,000 years in the past by a vengeful spider deity. They manage to go back to the present thanks to Flandre, who however has to stay behind. When they are back, they see a shrine that wasn't there before: it was erected to house the powered-out Flandre.
  • Later Hiro in classic fashion.
  • An arc dealing with Elder Things and a time bomb resulted in two Himes. One in the present and one thrown in the future. The latter eventually figuring out how to undo things and make her future not happen.
• Title Drop: But only in the manga, and it only works in Japanese.
• Tomato Surprise: Hime and her siblings are actually immature phoenixes. The reason they must kill each other is that as adults they cannot die and there must be only one living royal from each generation; otherwise the kingdom falls into chaos.
  • Yet, according to Hime, they need the assistance of an already mature member of the royal family to become adults. Which makes one wonder why they don't just select one of the kids and leave the rest.
  • Even worse, the candidate most likely to succeed in such a contest would seem to be the most psychotic, ruthless one.
  • Because, as revealed later in the manga, the mature royals could choose not elevate the survivor, as they did in the last round, and some of the rules are designed so that the winner emerge victorious in a manner befitting a royal. Inspiring loyalty and coolness under pressure are two incredibly valuable traits in the battle.
  • Supposedly, Hiro is in for on of these in the future, judging from a comment by one of the royals. We just don't know what it is yet.
• Took a Level in Badass: Hiro, just compare him from earlier chapters to [1]◊ this. Even Reiri was surprised.
• Traintop Battle
• Truer to the Text: Unlike the TV series, the 2010 OVA's are more faithful to the spirit of the manga and the characters more accurately resemble their manga counterparts.
• Tsundere: Riza.
  • Reiri has shades of this. Most notably seen when Riza says goodbye to everyone, seeing no need to serve Hime any longer. When informed that Riza will come back, Reiri replies, "I-It's not like I want her to come back." while blushing.
• Unwanted Harem: Subversion (and how!). This time the girls are clearly in the position of power, and know it.
  • What's more the harem doesn't really happen. Riza is just good friends with Hiro, and Reiri actually hits on Hime and Riza more often. The end theme is a complete fake-out.
• Verbal Tic: Flandre and all of her siblings, Francisca, Francette, Flanders (NOT that Flanders) and Franz: Hooba ('Fuga' in the original).
  • Which leads into some rather odd conversations between the androids.
• We ARE Struggling Together: After Dr. Franken explains to the Big, Screwed-Up Family that there is a threat they must fight it together, this trope is enacted in full force.
• Weirdness Censor: Not only is the entire town seemingly ignorant of the weird happenings of the series, but Hiro's sister Sawawa is completely oblivious to all this, despite being part of the house's staff.
  • She did seem to think something was strange when Reiri licked up her blood after she cut her finger.
• Weirdness Magnet: Being around Hime means that Hiro has to deal with an endless stream of supernatural interlopers.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 56 Emil was turned into a blood warrior by Silvia and ends up killed. His whole guard has been decimated and his mermaid given away to serve Silvia.
  • Chapter 58: The soul of Emil tells Hime to become the next ruler.
  • Chapter 70: The truth of the previous round of fighting is revealed and that there's a new royal sibling in the mix, one more powerful than all of them and who's already wiped out one generation of opponents.
  • Chapter 77: Gilliam dies, leaving the battle count down to four. He, like Emil, wishes for Hime to be the next ruler. Sherwood says the same thing (though she gets better). What's more, Silvia now knows of Hime's power.
  • Chapter 83: We learn that the winners of the succession battle are absorbed into the Phoenix's Mind Hive, Silvia has seemingly killed or absorbed Fuhito with her powers and Hime and Emile (by way of Keziah) make their Blood Warriors into Flame Warriors, thus ending their dependence on their particular Royal.
• Will They or Won't They?: Played with in the last episode of the anime where Hiro almost kisses Hime, but she slapped him at the last moment with Reiri commenting "You were too slow Hiro." Should be noted she didn't try to stop him before everyone else saw them together. Manga wise their relationship seems to be a bit above master-servant, but below lovers.
  • Riza and Reiri, according to the fans.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Done twice in the series and both times by Hime's siblings.

---