Ryouma (left) and Emilio (right)
Sekainohate de Aimashou (世界の果てで愛ましょう; "Let's Love at the Ends of the World") is a 2008 manga by Takeda Sun.
Yano Ryouma is an average Japanese Schoolboy, but he's a pushover: so easygoing and unassertive that his classmates take advantage of his good nature by dumping all the boring work of preparing for the school festival on him. When half the school is destroyed in a freak incident caused by alien Prince Emilio's Cool Gate malfunctioning Ryouma finds the Prince pinned in the debris. Unable to rescue the trapped Prince, Ryouma nevertheless sacrifices himself to protect Emilio during the subsequent landslide caused by his efforts. Admiring Ryouma's spirit, Emilio slips the unconscious boy a potion that turns him into a girl, and thus the consort of the heir of a Magitek filled space empire resembling a Medieval European Fantasy. Hilarity ensues as Prince Emilio repeatedly attempts to court Ryouma while the latter tries to convince Emilio to turn him back into a boy.
Sekainohate de Aimashou provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abduction Is Love: As soon as Emilio took a liking to Ryouma, he changes Ryouma's sex, brings him to the other world, and declares they will be wed. After a botched escape attempt, Emilio decides Ryouma can go home to adapt to life as a girl, by which point Emilio had endeared himself to Ryouma by saving him from slavers.
- Abomination Accusation Attack: Ryouma accuses Emilio of not caring whom he hurts or kills when he uses his powers. Emilio is angered (he knows exactly what it feels like to kill someone, so he actually cares a lot) but he at least tries to use his magic more judiciously afterwards.
- Alpha Bitch: Alicia, a princess from the alien empire Titania, was introduced as such. After some Character Development, she appears to be heading to Lovable Alpha Bitch territory though.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Emilio unilaterally decides Ryouma will be his wife, and turns him female so they'll be able to have children. In the earliest chapters, he outright threatens violence at Ryouma, or Earth in general, for objecting.
- Arranged Marriage: Emilio's original intention to travel to Earth was to find a suitable candidate for his consort to stave off persistent proposals of political marriages.
- Bifauxnen: Alicia's head of staff, Camilla. The only hints that she's not male are her name and all the rest of Alicia's servants seem to be women as well.
- Beta Couple: Alicia develops a crush on Yuuji, and he's starting to show signs of reciprocating it, much to Ryouma's distress.
- Big Brother Attraction: Yuuji has lusted after his older brother for years, and now that Ryouma's a girl, he's having a much harder time resisting it.
- Big Little Brother: Yuuji is taller and stronger than Ryouma, even before the latter turned into a girl.
- Break the Haughty: Ryouma inflicts housework on Emilio to teach him the true value of things.
- Broken Ace: being forced to execute his older brother broke Emilio, which is why he went adventuring off to the border worlds in the first place.
- Bros Before Hoes: Ryouma's classmates invoke this to get Ryouma to cheer for the Judo club. Ironically, they're appealing to Ryouma's sense of manliness to get him to act like a girl.
- Brutal Honesty: Ryouma does not mince words with Emilio. It's one of the things he likes about her, since he's spent his whole life dealing with sycophants, flatterers and schemers. Naturally, Ryouma has to take it too far.
- Cain and Abel: Emilio became the heir to the throne when his older brother, the first born, tried to kill him in an attempt to safeguard his position (Which Emilio never wanted in the first place) but failed and ended up being killed instead.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Yuuji somehow gained the strength to break walls and leap over buildings after working for some time in Alicia's inn.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome:
- The first aspect of Ryouma's personality which drew Emilio's attention until he became completely enamoured with him.
- Yuuji ("Do I need a reason to help someone?") also shows some shades of this, suggesting that the quality might run in the family.
- Cool Big Sis: Ryouma, at least through Yuuji's eyes. Otherwise she tends to avert this trope
- Cowardly Lion: Yet another thing Emilio finds endearing about Ryouma is her willingness to stand up (even to him) for what's right despite her evident fear.
- Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose: Ryouma does this unintentionally to Yuuji, and nearly fries his brain.Yuuji: "She's deadly!"
- Crocodile Tears: Averted. Ryouma often wins arguments with Emilio by crying but her tears are always genuine.
- Date Peepers: Played straight when Ryouma decides to peep on Emilio's official duties while disguised as a servant girl. It's not a date but all of the usual aspects of the trope are played out as if it were.
- Defrosting Ice King: Emilio starts defrosting as soon as he comes under Ryouma's influence, though he sometimes relapses.
- Determinator: The other aspect of Ryouma's personality that initially attracted Prince Emilio.
- Doting Parent: Ryouma becomes one in a daydream. Unfortunately, he's a doting Mom. Cue Catapult Nightmare.
- Double Standard: Played With. When Ryouma insisted on wearing only underwear indoors in a hot summer day, the rest of the household begged her to reconsider, only to be rebutted with the fact that they were doing the same. In the end Ryouma persisted just to spite Emilio.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Ryouma was always small, and his face looks hardly any different as a girl. The only difference now is he has a curvy body and D-cup breasts.
- Entitled to Have You: Emilio considering his authority as the prince of a more powerful world all he needs for Ryouma to marry and obey him.
- Everyone Can See It: The girls in Ryouma's class are very skeptical of Ryouma's constant He Is Not My Boyfriend protestations regarding Emilio.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Ryoma grows her hair out in the epilogue. She gets a Motherly Side Plait to drive home the point she's Emilio's queen and mother of his child.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Ryouma is a skilled cook despite being a former male due to his years of cooking for his family, while the natural born girls featured in the series can barely cook due to their lack of experience. But it also plays into the Third Law of Gender-Bending by implying that he was already somewhat feminine even before his Gender Bender.
- First Law of Gender Bending: No one on Earth has the power to reverse Ryouma's sex change, and Emilio outright refuses to change him back, as he decided Ryouma will be his bride and just has to adjust to it in the meantime. Ultimately, Emilio gives Ryouma a potion to change back with, but by that point Ryouma had already fallen in love with Emilio and turns it down.
- Foreshadowing: One of Ryouma's Imagine Spots is recapitulated in the Distant Finale.
- Gender Bender: Emilio feeds Ryouma a potion that turns him female. It's implied Emilio could easily change him back if he wanted, and in the oneshot he outright states it happens all the time on his planet.
- Human Aliens: Most of the aliens featured are of this variety. If they're not Space Elves.
- Hypocritical Humor: Ryouma often expresses a girl's low opinion of men, despite his insistence that he's still one of them.
- I Choose to Stay: When Emilio finally gives Ryouma the antidote, Ryouma decides not to take it.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Ryouma. Not only does he want to be a boy again (though he's wavering on that) he definitely wants to maintain his role as the heart of his family and refuses to allow Emilio's cooks, maids and guards from taking over the Yona household here on Earth. Of course, that unwittingly puts him in the position of nurturing Emilio too...
- Imagine Spot: Ryouma has these all the time, becoming more and more unsettling as he and Emilio become more involved, culminating in a Catapult Nightmare where he imagines himself as a princess and a mother and is shocked to realize both ideas have some appeal.
- Inelegant Blubbering: even Emilio realizes he's gone too far when he reduces Ryouma to a blubbering puddle on the palace floor.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Earth is viewed as such by Emilio and the rest of the aliens.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason Emilio eventually gives Ryouma the antidote, and one of the reasons Ryouma ultimately refuses to take it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Emilio is very self-centered and has no qualms against turning Ryouma into a girl so that he can marry him against his wishes, he genuinely cares for Ryouma and would take extreme measures to protect him.
- Jumping the Gender Barrier:
- Emilio deliberately turned Ryouma female to make them romantically compatible, and is confused when Ryouma doesn't immediately see him as a good match. Ultimately, Ryouma does decide to stay female and fall in love with him.
- The boys at Ryouma's school immediately become enamored by Ryouma as a possible girlfriend.
- Yuuji mentally acknowledges his Big Brother Attraction was intense before, but complains that his brother becoming female as "unfair".
- In the pilot, Emilio makes Ryouma female specifically so they can have children. He ends up changing Ryouma back, then makes himself female, which is something he'd mentioned as quite ordinary on his planet.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Yuuji suffered from this after an accident, causing him to mistake Ryouma as his girlfriend and even tried to be intimate with him. After he recovered his memories, he lapsed into a Heroic BSoD and even attempted suicide. Thankfully, he was saved by a passer-by.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Emilio readily admits that he needs Ryouma to cope with his life.
- Magic Pants: Alicia's clothes never get damaged whenever she transformed into her giant form. In chapter 42, it was revealed that those clothes were made in Titania. Earth-made clothes however, do not have such magical properties and the inevitable occurred when she transformed while wearing an Earth-made kimono in that chapter.
- Magitek: The space empire is powered by a force known as "mana" and so far, only members of royalty are shown to be capable of directly utilizing this force.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Upon waking up naked and female, Ryouma grabs his breasts and looks as himself in the mirror. However, there's no lust in his mind, as he's focused purely on more practical concerns like "How do I go to the toilet?"
- Men Don't Cry: Emilio can't stand seeing Ryouma cry, and usually gives in on anything that reduces Ryouma to tears. (If he doesn't it means the situation is deadly serious.) This leads to odd juxtapositions of Ryouma gloating "I'm a guy" to celebrate a victory won through tears.
- Not What It Looks Like: Ryouma is horrified that people will think he's engaging in Man, I Feel Like a Woman when he's interrupted examining his newly feminized self in the a mirror
- One Head Taller: Emilio is one head taller than Ryouma.
- Only Has Same-Sex Admirers: Even when Ryouma was male, the guys around him tended to lust after his effeminate looks, as did his younger brother Yuuji, but no mention is made of any female admirers. Emilio also took an interest in Ryouma, though not because of his appearance, and was not satisfied with it being a same-sex attraction. After he becomes a girl, Ryouma's an outright Dude Magnet, and the male students all openly and unashamedly compete for his favor.
- Plucky Girl: Ryouma, though he'd argue about the "girl" part.
- Portal Door: Inter-dimensional gates (which appear as giant doors) are the primary mode of transportation in the alien space empire.
- Promoted to Parent: After Ryouma and Yuuji's mother died while they were both young, Ryouma ended up taking over most of his mother's household duties.
- Prone to Tears: Ryouma either cries at the drop of a hat or is Trying Not to Cry, but they're usually tears of anger, frustration, fear or joy, shading into Berserker Tears when she's angry.
- Royally Screwed Up: Besides the brother he had overthrown at the beginning of the series, Emilio has other brothers who are all rulers of independent fiefdoms and legitimate heirs to the imperial throne. They are also extremely paranoid to say the least and would pursue all means to snatch the right to the throne away from Emilio....
- School Uniforms are the New Black: Ryouma wears hers constantly, though she often takes off the jacket or replaces it with a sweater.
- Second Law of Gender-Bending: Ryouma's protests that he's still a guy quickly come of as denial, as he rapidly adjusts to living as a girl, and seems to like the idea of being Emilio's wife more and more.
- Selective Obliviousness: Ryouma refuses to view Yuuji in any way except as an innocent little brother.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Played with. Alicia almost drowns because she is much heavier than a human her size, but that's still much less massive than her giant form would have to be.
- Shipper on Deck: Alicia's servant Camilla is actively helping her with Yuuji, such as making sure she's in situations where they'll be together she's too embarrassed to invoke on her own.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Ryouma's a lot calmer while Yuuji's more outspoken.
- Sibling Rivalry: Literally weaponized within the empire.
- Spoiled Brat: Emilio's younger brother Prince Alex, though Ryouma soon figures out that he's lashing out because he's terrified.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Ryouma initially hated feeling attracted towards Emilio a few times, mentally insisting they're both guys, especially when considering the idea of becoming a mother.
- Super Mode: Alicia and the rest of the Titanians can turn into giants when they are enraged. Alicia especially hates other people seeing her in that form though.
- Tears of Fear: Ryouma cries freely when frightened and Emilio frightens Ryouma a lot, especially in the beginning.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body:
- Despite his resistance, Ryouma's body becoming female makes him find Emilio attractive, even fantasizing about being Emilio's wife, although Ryouma doesn't show any attraction to other men. Ryouma's mannerisms and behavior also become very feminine without any apparent effort, even despite his stated wishes.
- Emilio ends up trapped by his half-brother Nikolai and transformed into a yeti-like beast. His new bestial instincts were slowly overriding his rational mind and would have caused him to devour Ryouma before he managed to suppress those instincts with The Power of Love.
- Third Law of Gender-Bending:
- Ryouma was already considered feminine when he was male, as he was gentle, nurturing, and skilled at domestic tasks since his mom had died. After becoming female, his body alone seemingly makes him moreso over time.
- Ryouma was far from stoic as a guy, but is outright Prone to Tears as a girl.
- From the first moment Ryouma wakes up female, he's forcibly put in a ballgown by Emilio's servants. Besides attempting to hide his sex change from school for one day, it's pretty much all skirts and dresses for Ryouma, who doesn't seem to have any problem with this. According an omake, his logic was basically "I would stick out too much dressing as a guy, and since my old clothes don't fit anyway..."
- Ryouma quickly becomes attracted exclusive to the prince despite expressing a low opinion of him, even acting like a Clingy Jealous Girl when she thinks he's getting too much attention from others. By contrast, Ryoma never shows interest in girl on-screen in either form, but had quite a Porn Stash of girly mags saved up from when he was male.
- The girls at school are rather quick to see Ryouma as one of them, allowing Ryouma into "girls-only" spaces like the locker room even before Ryouma is willing to admit he belongs there.
- Time to Step Up, Commander: Titania cuts off Alicia's funds, forcing her to take responsibility for providing for her people for the first time in her life. It's a humiliating and humbling experience but ultimately she is much the better for it.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gyoza (fried dumplings, AKA "potstickers".) It's Ryoma's specialty, having learned it from his mother. While he's flattered that the prince likes his gyoza enough to introduce gyoza to his own world, he is not happy to learn that Emilio thoroughly messed it up in the process.
- Tsundere: After Ryouma gets over his initial fear of Emilio he starts showing traditional Tsundere tendencies, along with a heavy dose of He Is Not My Boyfriend. The dere-dere side usually comes out when he's afraid Emilio will either get hurt or hurt someone else on his behalf.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Ryouma to Haruki, a friend of Yuuji.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Ryouma pulls this off once, masquerading as a servant girl while hiding in Emilio's world.
