YMMV / Arisa

• Audience-Alienating Ending: Many readers lose interest in reading to the end after learning that Midori and everyone involved gets Easily Forgiven and nobody really learns anything. Some reviews even warn readers to not even bother getting into this series.
• Draco in Leather Pants: There are people who hope that the King will survive his stab wound and live a normal life.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The ending of the manga is played as fully happy, with Tsubasa reconciling with Arisa and their mother and Arisa finding true love with Midori. This ignores that Midori was an ax-crazy killer who manipulated everyone, including Arisa, and she doesn't seem to have learned anything from the experience.
• Paranoia Fuel: The series in general plays on this.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Tsubasa, Shiori, and others being bullied and ostracized for going against the King.
  • They act nasty to varying degrees, but the backgrounds of the King's pawns are very sad. Especially Mariko, whose Friendless Background is easy to relate to.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The series tries so hard to be dark that it can cause this, basically becoming the horror equivalent of narm.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It's a shoujo manga, but is very dark.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Arisa and Midori are still together because they are truly in love. This is after Midori revealed how mentally unhinged he was, was directly responsible for horrific events, manipulated everyone in class (manipulating Arisa, the girlfriend he supposedly loves so much, too), and tried to kill Arisa's twin sister and their mother.

---