After having vivid daydreams of a barren and far off world, a teenage delinquent named Ryuji Akasaka finds himself transported to it after a near fatal accident. He learns it is a post-apocalyptic future where people have been oppressed by the Kingdom of Doma for ages and starts a journey to bring them freedom and find the truth behind the downfall of mankind.
This manga features the following tropes:
- After the End: The story is set 300 years after a nuclear war. In Japan, only a few cities and villages remain, most of them under the thumb of the oppressive Doma kingdom.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The remaining one of the five Doma supercomputers, IV, decided that a future where mankind is oppressed by a single kingdom would be better than to let them start another nuclear war. However, it eventually broke down, so for most of the bad future's 300 years all the misery in the world was just the fault of Tadashi's evil descendants who held into power.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: The final page is of Ryuji being hailed as the new King of Doma and sitting upon a throne on a pile of rubble, thinking of how to best restore civilization and all the knowledge lost by people.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ryuji remains stuck in the post-apocalypse, lost Tadashi and failed to redeem King Najah, but he is crowned as the new king and has the chance to lead the people of Doma to a bright future.
- Body Horror: One of the leopards who live by the forest village is covered with infections and has blank eyes, likely as an effect of radiation poisoning. Somehow it is incredibly sturdy despite that.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Goji, a cheerful strongman who Ryuji frees from a Doman squad before his invasion of their fortress.
- Bookends: The story begins with Ryuji pretending to drop a delinquent down the rooftop of their school and ends with the King of Doma falling to his doom as Doma IV collapses, even as Ryuji tries to convince him to flee.
- But Now I Must Go: Sal decides to leave at the end rather than help Ryuji any more, as he's killed many people from both sides of the war and grew tired of all the conflict.
- Call-Back: At the ruined Tokyo Tower, Kaze asks Ryuji about why is is bright during the day and dark at night, where does the sun and moon go and why does it rain. When he becomes king, Ryuji monologues that the time has come to teach the people about all those things.
- Catapult Nightmare: Ryuji dreams of meeting a still young Tadashi who's been in cold sleep, and jolts awake as his friend collapses to bones before his eyes.
- Crapsack World: The story is set 300 years after a nuclear apocalypse. A super computer called Doma IV has decided to let the remains of civilization be ruled by an oppressive kingdom in order to supress the development of technologies that could lead to another nuclear war.
- Crucified Hero Shot: After Ryu wakes Tadashi from cold sleep, he is captured by the Domans and held on display before the slaves until he starves.
- Darkest Hour: The destruction of Sepah by the Doma army, who already had eliminated the Village of the Tower to steal their modern firearms. Keppel drags Rokko to a pointless death when their tank is overwhelmed by bazooka fire and Zavah gets killed while holding the line for Ryuji, Kaze and Cheet. To add insult to injury, a message from Tadashi about Doma IV's management of the world being a good thing demoralizes the hero. Ryuji is devastated by this defeat and, with no way to fight Doma, attempts to give up on his mission for some time.
- Dead Man Writing: Tadashi's final message to Ryuji, after he went down with Doma IV, is that the "Legend of Ryu" was simply a prayer he input into Doma IV, meaning all the rest was Ryuji's own hard work. He then entrusts Ryuji with the future of mankind.
- Designated Girl Fight: After Ryuji refuses to take either Kaze or Mitsuko to invade Doma fortress with Sal, Mitsuko tries fighting Kaze off as they go out anyway. Suddenly Kaze is easily able to disarm her, after spending the story as a mostly passive figure. Although this is supposed to prove Kaze's worth as a warrior, she doesn't do that much more fighting for the rest of the story.
- Disney Villain Death:
- Ryuji attempts to kill the forest guardian beast by luring it to a mountain top and setting it on fire while he jumps off with a hang glider. The leopard jumps on Ryuji as he leaves, so the boy manages to stab it on the head in the spur of the time. The creature then falls off and is impaled on a tree trunk for good measure.
- Najah XIV refuses to escape from the self-destruction of Doma IV with Ryuji and falls into a pit as the machine collapses.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Ryuji starts the story plagued with visions of the Bad Future.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The King of Doma is disturbed when Tadashi tells him the old civilization nuked each other out of trivial motivations, but he still believes the kingdom he built is any better.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": King Najah XIV is introduced by name, but afterwards is only ever called by his title.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: After surviving the nuclear apocalypse, Tadashi let Doma IV create a future where mankind is ruled by an evil tyrant in a dystopia so that they'll never gain the knowledge to build modern technology again.
- Faux Action Girl: Kaze gets hyped up as a fighter worthy of her father's legacy, but when she does fight... with a gun and not a sword, she is overwhelmed, injured and captured. Afterwards she escapes and brings reinforcements to the final battle, including Mitsuko. All of the girls' actions during the war are offscreened except for Mitsuko getting hit in the arm by an arrow!
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Ryuji is inexplicably warped into a dystopian future where civilization has been set back to the medieval ages and has to convince the ignorant locals to help him fight against Doma.
- Fling a Light into the Future:
- Ryuji finds a time capsule from 2001 with medicine, books and a gun. The unknown person who buried it begs whoever found it to not let the mistakes of Project Doma be repeated.
- Despite being directly responsible for Ryuji's troubles in the future, Tadashi also creates the Legend of Ryu by inputting the phrase "Ryu shall come across time, and he shall rule the World" into Doma IV. He also leaves a battle tank for Ryuji to use, which proves helpful for some time.
- Foreshadowing:
- Tadashi's introduction shows his concern for the global food crisis as he researches it on a computer that is "smart" and not violent like Ryuji. After the collapse of civilization, Tadashi's own Doma IV supercomputer designs a violent dystopia that's not much better.
- Tadashi first implies Najah is his descendant when he notes the king's thirst for knowledge comes from his bloodline.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Ryuji is already disturbed over his killing of a soldier in self defense when he is set into a duel to the death against Ledah, the leader of the rebellion against Doma. Ledah forces Ryuji to fight seriously and kill him to prepare the boy for the trials to come.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Ryuji is warped to the future for the third and final time on a rainy day.
- Hate Sink: Najah XIV is a ruthless tyrant with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The older figures in the story pity him for being raised as a Tyke Bomb and Tadashi even begs Ryuji to redeem him, but the King does not change and dies during the final battle.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sal spies on Ryuji through the first half of the story and is responsible for the fall of Sepah, but lets him invade Doma and wake Tadashi out of curiosity for what the boy's actions may bring. Towards the end he goes out of his way to keep Kaze and Cheet safe, as in truth he is an ex-slave and deep down he does want Doma to be defeated.
- Human Pincushion: While attempting to clear the way for Ryuji and Kaze when Sepah is under attack, Zavah is cornered and stabbed by several flying spears. He still manages to toss one at Najah in defiance before dying, which manages to scratch the king's face.
- Killed Offscreen: Gad is killed offscreen and his entire Village of the Tower is razed to the ground by Doma's forces, who take all of their weaponry to counter the battle tank obtained by Ryuji.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Tadashi reveals that it was him and his children who created Doma IV, meaning the King who just stabbed him is one of his descendants.
- Missing Child: The whole time displaced chosen one thing forces Ryuji to leave his mother behind. When he meets her for the final time he hears she had gone sick with despair after his disappearance, and Tadashi makes sure to keep an eye on her after Ryuji is gone for good.
- Mundane Object Amazement: The post-apocalyptic people other than the King of Doma all live in complete ignorance and believe firearms and explosives are magic.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon being woken from deep sleep, Tadashi doesn't even acknowledge Ryu and just observes the still ruined world shaped by his own Doma IV in silence. After admitting what a mistake the Doma project was, he self-destructs the machine and lets himself die with it.
- Near-Villain Victory: The King defeats Ryuji in their final duel, only to fall to his death as Doma IV explodes before he can kill the savior.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Jukah village is protected from outsiders by a leap of leopards, but they are extremely dangerous to the villagers themselves and start attacking all of them after Ryu ends up killing one to protect a boy.
- Ryuji informs Tadashi about the Doma Kingdom and Tadashi promises Ryuji he'll study to fight such a future before they're separated for the final time. But after Tadashi becomes a scientist involved in the Doma project the apocalypse leaves him dispirited and he enables the Bad Future Ryuji arrives on instead of preventing it.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Najah lets Ryuji roam around freely to let him solve the mysteries of the past, which lets the boy grow strong and influential enough to pose a threat to him.
- Keppel steals the tank from Ryu out of jealousy and leaves him imprisoned, which turns out to be for the best as he is then ambushed and killed by Doma's now heavily armed forces while Sepah is destroyed.
- Nightmare Sequence: Ryuji can't seem to sleep without dreaming about his mother and best friend crumbling to dust or about his insecurities as the chosen one.
- Protagonist Title: Ryuji Akasaka is The Chosen One and his prophecy is tied to a large dragon statue that holds the world in its mouth.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Ryuji barely survives the final battle and Najah is seemingly killed in the collapse of his fortress. Although the fall of Doma brings hope for peace in the post-apocalypse, the hero loses everyone from his past life and is left sat upon a throne of rubble, wondering how just one guy is supposed to salvage an era where all knowledge has been lost.
- Ray Gun: Tadashi keeps one when he goes into cold sleep and uses it to save Ryuji's life. Naturally, it runs out of juice before it can be too useful for Ryuji once he gets it.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Ryuji first uses a gun to drive the Doma army away and is treated like a messiah by the Enos villagers, he chastises them for their ignorance and superstitions, stating it's because of that they're ruled by Doma in the first place... but as they keep cheering him on, he can't help but just raise the gun and play at being a hero.
- Riddle for the Ages: It is never explained how Ryuji was warped forth and back across time to set the Stable Time Loop of Tadashi getting involved in the Doma project and creating the Legend of Ryu. Said legend was just a prayer from Tadashi set upon Doma IV, so it is likewise never explained who built the statue of a dragon holding a sphere in its mouth that was worshipped by its believers.
- Sacrificial Lion: Zavah helps Ryuji and Kaze for half of the story but performs a Heroic Sacrifice during the destruction of Sepah City, marking the lowest point of Ryuji's quest. He gets a substitute named Goji later on who is likewise killed, rather uncerimoniously at that, in the failed infiltration of Doma when Ryuji is about to awaken Tadashi.
- Save the Villain: Tadashi begs Ryuji to save the King and build the future with him. Although Ryuji does try, the King is unable to look past his pride and ends up dying in the collapse of Doma IV.
- Scenery Gorn: At the Village of the Tower, Ryuji is shocked when he notices the collapsed and ruined Tokyo Tower in the distance.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story: The Village of the Tower is unceremoniously destroyed offscreen by the Doma army, undoing all the good things Ryuji had accomplished there.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Ryu's hopes are barely uplifted when a message by a middle-aged Tadashi mentions cryogenic sleep technology. He finds Mitsuko's father was the sole survivor out of a group that went into cold sleep after the apocalypse and set up a village on the other side of a poisonous valley. The man's already long dead by the time Ryuji finds the village, but when Sal finds the room with the capsules he remarks there's also one in Doma and Ryuji correctly bets on it holding Tadashi inside.
- The Starscream: Due to disagreeing with Najah's handling of the Ryu problem, Farr sends assassins after him but they botch the job. Najah not only survives but instantly knows Farr was the one responsible when he doesn't bring the remaining assassin alive and later personally kills the man once he fails to take over Sepah.
- Tank Goodness: Ryuji finds a tank stuck in ice that was left by Tadashi and uses it to protect the village of Sepah, but it eventually is quickly destroyed when the Doma army arms themselves with rocket launchers.
- Toplessness from the Back: A shot of Mitsuko from behind as she gifts the armor she's wearing to Kaze is all the fanservice the story provides.
- We Can Rule Together: Najah asks Ryuji to join him at Doma Fortress so they can solve the Riddle of Ryu together. Ryuji refuses, and prevents Najah from killing him by arguing that would only take him further from the truth.
- You Have Failed Me:
- The King executes Farr for his failure to take over the city of Sepah, knowing he was a traitor who had already attempted to send assassins after him.
- The King plans to kill Tadashi after Doma IV is repaired, and stabs him once the machine is instead used to destroy the gates of Doma fortress.
- You Killed My Father: In the beginning, Kaze only tolerates Ryu's killing of her father Ledah in self-defense because he's supposed to be the chosen one.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Tadashi plegdes his loyalty to Najah in exchange for Ryuji's life. Najah lets him get Ryuji untied from his cross... and has all the nearby slaves killed. Later, Tadashi saves Najah from Ryuji and promises to fix Doma IV in exchange for Ryuji's life, but this time the king tries to have Ryuji killed and to execute Tadashi after he gets what he wants. Tadashi realizes this and sneaks his laser ring on Ryuji beforehand.
- Wham Line: Ryuji is in the middle of trying to kill the King when the recorder from Tadashi gives a message of his involvement in Project Doma, claiming that Ryuji's mission might be the wrong path for mankind."Ryuji... you might not believe it but I, Yukawa Tadashi, am working as a member of Project Doma team now! And I've finally started to realize just how wonderful "Doma IV" is..."
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Kaze reprimands Ryuji for wanting to kill the remaining leopards at the Village of the Forest instead of taming them, and wonders if he'll become as ruthless as the Doma King.
- Ryuji is disgusted that Tadashi would save Najah and promise to repair Doma IV, not knowing why he would be so attached to the king.
- Where It All Began: On chapter 50, Ryuji and Sal invade Doma via the execution grounds where Ryuji was forced to kill Ledah in the beginning of the story.
- Wild Card: Sal claims to have become a neutral observer while working as a spy for Doma. His actions lead to the destruction of both Sepah and Doma, as he has enough kindness to save Kaze and her reinforcements surpass his expectations. After he saves Najah from the rebellion but fails to convince him to escape the kingdom's demise, he turns down Ryuji's request to work for him and leaves to parts unknown.
