Little Ran, and Big Ran
Little Ran Uruma can’t wait to grow up and become a sorceress like her mother, so with the help of a magical pair of sneakers, she transforms into an adult and sets off! Her father and older brother Jin try to keep her safe at home, but Ran is determined to advance her powers and have adventures of her own!
Even though Ran looks like an adult during her transformation, she doesn’t really know what perils the outside world holds. When she meets rich playboy Otaro Mikado, has she actually gained a friend or a foe?
Meet the Urumas, a slightly dysfunctional family of four sorcerers in the city of Haimachi. Mom, the most powerful sorceress on Earth, works away from home sealing an ancient evil to keep the world safe. Dad picks up the slack and takes care of the family. Except when he's out, which is when the older brother Jin finds himself in the unenviable position of keeping tabs on his sister Ran, a willful girl with too much power and too little wisdom.
Ran and the Grey World, also known as Ran To Haiiro No Sekai is a Fantasy manga by Irie Aki, which ran in Harta magazine from 2008 to 2015. The official English translation was released by Viz Media in November 2018.
This manga provides examples of:
- Animal Motifs: Crows for Zen, wolves for Jin, snakes for Outarou, and an ocelot for Hibi.
- Barrier Maiden: Almost all of the Black Wings clan act as guardians for the door between the insects and the sorcerers' village. Special mention given to Shizuka, who is far stronger then any of the villagers.
- In the last chapter Ran shows that she is just as capable a barrier maiden as her mother.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: The fish in the Uruma pond never stay alive for long when Ran is practicing her magic training. Ran always feels terrible when it happens.
- Bedmate Reveal: After Jin goes into heat he wakes up naked in bed with an equally naked Sango.
- Big Eater: Almost any sorcerer after their magic is depleted. Scenes filled with enormous, room-sized plates of food or towering meals are common.
- Blow You Away: Nio's specializes with air-based magic, and can do this .
- Cerebus Syndrome: The story starts as a mystical and upbeat journey of a magical family. Then a bug gets loose.
- Child Prodigy: Nio. Ran would count as well if she had better control of her magic.
- Covered with Scars: Most, if not all, of the Kurobane have several scars over their bodies. Zen in particular is full of them
. - Declaration of Protection: Ran promises that she'll protect Outarou, no matter what. This doesn't go well.
- Dual Age Modes: Ran is ten, but whenever she feels like it she tends to age herself up to something around eighteen.
- Evil Eyebrows: Outarou, so you can kind of see why Jin and Hibi find him suspicious.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Outarou's generally bad personality when it comes to anyone but Ran and the stylish tortoise pattern glasses sort of put him in this category. And he wonders why Ran's friends find him suspicious...
- Friendless Background: Ran, though it's a little hard to see why even if you take into account how strange she might seem from the outside.
- It's been revealed in Chapter 42 that Zen has never officially shown Ran as his daughter, so most people don't know that they are related. Additionally, Ran was bullied when she was younger by other sorcerer kids for her poor control of magic.
- Frying Pan of Doom: At one point, Ran asks Tamao for a spell to make someone lose their memories of something, who then hands her a frying pan.
What soon follows is a wacky chase scene spanning an entire chapter.
- Heroic BSoD: Ran after the end of the insect war, when she realizes how much her selfishness hurt people in the process.
- Hot Witch: Ran's Mom Shizuka for sure, and Ran herself in her older form.
- Idle Rich: Outarou is the president of some powerful company, but we only see him in his office in one panel and he's sleeping at his desk. His secretary even tells him to just go home if he isn't going to do any work.
- Jerkass: Outarou, total womanizer and Rich Bastard extraordinaire. His only redeeming feature is his love for Ran, and even then he's constantly trying to sleep with her. At least, until his demise.
- Ladykiller in Love: Eventually. He does end up caring for Ran in the end.
- The Jeeves: Gogou, Outarou's butler.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hibi, who bullied Ran for a lot of her school life, absolved to apologize for everything he did to her and offers to be her first friend.
- Loss of Identity: In his childhood, Jin left home for 2 years because he lost his way home and was found by a family and treated as a pet so much he forgot who he was. He eventually remembers who he is and comes home, but would befriend the child that took care of him when he came back to school.
- Lost World: The village that guards the gate is hidden in a deep mountainous valley that can only be entered from specific underground entryways.
- Living on Borrowed Time: Even though Ran does save Outarou from the parasite, it's already rendered him a walking corpse kept alive by Ran's magic. He only gets a few hours left to say goodbye before dying.
- Kill It with Fire: The sorcerers most effective weapon against the bugs is a special magical flame. Ran taking away the ability to use fire caused a lot of trouble in the final battle.
- The Law of Conservation of Detail: You can tell how important a character will be from how well-drawn they are.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Shizuka to Zen respectively. Adult Ran serves as this literally for Outarou eventually.
- Masquerade: The magical world and the mortal world are very clearly separated in Haimachi. The only one that is fully clued in is its mayor, from a pact that spans generations. The only time the masquerade should break is when an absolute catastrophe cannot be avoided. That said, it doesn't stop Ran from accidentally causing havoc at school or Nio purposefully doing it.
- Mass Super-Empowering Event: It's said that the ancient evil appearing somehow led to swathes of humans awakening powers to combat them, giving birth to their magic.
- Meaningful Name: Appropriately, Ran’s name is written with the kanji "乱," which means “revolt, rebellion.”
- Morph Weapon: Zen's go-to attack is a hammer that increases at will and at larger sizes creates a shockwave when swung.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Tamao-sensei, who was thrown out as a child because of this.
- Muggle with a Degree in Magic: That doesn't stop her from being the leading expert on magic in the story.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Considering what happened with Outarou, it's not surprising that Jin would feel this way towards Ran.
- Nipple and Dimed: The author doesn't shy away from drawing areola on both men and women.
- Noble Wolf: Ran's brother Jin, who is a beast sorcerer that transforms into a wolf at will. Chapter 41 even has the author label him as 'the Uruma Family guard dog'.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: With Nio in a filler chapter in Volume 5, and with Hibi in Chapter 32.
- Precocious Crush: Ran towards Outarou.
- Pretty Freeloader: Tamao starts staying in the Uruma household after she's appointed as Ran's magic tutor, but she more often than not comes off as this.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Outarou. Also serves as the major villain of the series.
- Real Men Wear Pink: We get a few scenes with the Uruma men cooking from time to time (Zen in particular seems to enjoy it), and Hibi aspires to be a florist in the future, even having his own successful corner in his parents' flower shop.
- Secret-Keeper: Hibi eventually becomes this for Ran's age-shifting ability.
- Shotgun Wedding: Jin and Sango, though they were already properly engaged.
- Tengu: The Black Wings are obviously tengu, and the other beast sorcerers might be as well.
- Unlikely Hero: Hibi, a normal schoolkid, and the only person left at the climax that can do anything to help after the entire Uruma family is incapacitated by the insect-puppeted Outarou, simply because he ended up wearing a charm that rendered him invisible to it.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Ran has incredible amounts of magical power and potential, but doesn't really know how to use it.
- When She Smiles: Both Outarou and Hibi are stupefied by Ran's smile at different moments. Inverted when Ran gets this way when she sees Hibi smile for the first time.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Most of the characters, including Ran, Jin and the Black Wings and White Foxes.
