Very early on, before a lot of information had been released about the characters, some people shipped Kyle and Michaela by virtue of them being respectively Kaito and Miku. Once it was revealed that Michaela was in love with Clarith, this mostly stopped.
Ma/Gallerian got some popularity after the release of the song "The Muzzle of Nemesis". However, after the novel "Judgment of Corruption" reveals that Ma is Gallerian's mother fans stopped shipping them.
Adam/Eve after "Original Sin Story: Crime" revealed they are twins. Although many fans of the ship simply ignore this.
Alternate Character Interpretation: Because mothy writes his characters to be complex and morally ambiguous, this often occurs among his villainous characters.
Eve Moonlit and Allen Avadonia each deserve a special mention. Is Eve an Ax-Crazy sorceress with a deranged psyche or a broken woman whose delusions were a result of the Venom given her? Is Allen a Jerkass who glorifies the murder of innocent people in order to protect his sister, or is he a selfless sibling acting in extremely conflicted circumstances?
In-Universe example with Margarita Blankenheim, where the "Gift" PV ponders whether she was a psychopath who took joy in killing others, or if she was simply manipulated by Julia.
Elluka Clockworker, throughout the series. Is she an ultimately good, heroic sorceress struggling to do her best in a complicated world of ambiguous morality, suffering from friendships with people she will ultimately outlive and the trauma of her past, or is she a selfish, hysterical, and callous witch who does whatever she wants and is increasingly desensitized to the suffering of others as her endless life goes on? The reveal that she's actually an amnesiac Levia, and her subsequent absorption into Ma upon this reveal only makes her more clouded as a character.
Irina Clockworker. Is she a victim of the circumstances of her birth, broken by factors in her life she couldn't possibly control and pursuing vengeance because it's all she has left in the world, or is she a cruel, jealous girl who only needed a small push to fall into villainy because she never sought to fight her true nature as an HER? Her genuine love for Lemy in the Pierrot novel and becoming a part of the evil entity Ma makes her nature even more muddled. And once her soul is expelled through her reincarnation as the Master of the Court/Doll Director, it just makes her character even more confusing.
Another In-Universe example with Gallerian Marlon in his novel; Sickle, as well as some of Gallerian's allies (and former allies) question if he's actually gone mad and turned against the morals that he had as a youth, or if he was always willing to cause injustices to get his way and in his youth his desires just happened to align with what was just. Sickle makes a point of saying that, while he watches Gallerian, he can never really see what's going on in his head, so his motivations for everything he does can be questioned this way.
Americans Hate Tingle: Allen. As of the release of the Epic of Evil fanbook, Allen was rated the most popular character in the Story of Evil by Japanese fans, several comments shared in the book praising his loyalty and devotion to Riliane. Meanwhile, Allen is reviled in parts of the western fandom as being boring and/or a doormat for that same devotion.
Archive Panic: Being such a large narrative with scores of material, often new fans end up confused where to start with even just the songs alone; many more, unless they constantly prowl for updates, end up missing out on tons of information brought on by new releases and new translations. It's common for many fans to take one arc in the series and stick with it, rather than keep up with everything at once.
Whether or not Allen is overused as a character became a minor split among some fans, with his inclusion as a POV character for Cloture, presence in several short stories, and his reincarnation into the Tailor of Enbizaka novel. What side you're on typically depends on if you think of him as an overarching protagonist similar to the likes of Elluka, or just a Creator's Pet that mothy decided to keep around.
The increasingly heavy reliance on plot twists to move the plot forwards has polarized many fans. While some are appreciative of how it keeps the story interesting and unpredictable, others find the repeat revelations of varying scale to be contrived and gratuitous, as well coming to the detriment of things like character development and pacing.
The Reveal that Kayo killed the Miroku family out of revenge is probably the most controversial twist in the series. Either it's a good twist that makes Kayo more interesting and tragic, or it's a completely gratuitous twist that throws a perfectly fine narrative and creates a heaping amount of Fridge Logic.
A part of the fandom was displeased upon seeing the series evolve from a fantasy world of magic, witches, demons and gods to a sci-fi universe of robots, parallel dimensions, space travel and virtual reality. Others view the changes as a natural progression of the story, with those same sci-fi elements having been present or at least foreshadowed from very early on, just with less focus.
Continuity Lockout: As can be expected with a series this long spanning across so many different media, although to mothy's credit he makes many efforts to keep fans in the loop in case they missed out on an installment of the series, such as including story summaries, glossaries, timelines, and occasionally explaining in the narrative itself.
Creepy Awesome: Banica Conchita is beloved by the fandom, despite (or because) she's a monstrous cannibal who will eat everything, even the most disgusting things imaginable, and eventually becomes an actual demon.
Cry for the Devil: Duke Venomania, among other tropes, gets this because of his horribly abusive childhood leading him down the path to evil in the first place. We as an audience don't see the whole story in full until after everything has fallen apart.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Gumillia is never officially said to suffer from any developmental disorder, but she's often stated to have difficulty expressing her emotions properly or reading other people's, has stilted and awkward speech patterns, and has hyperfocused interests (especially later when she's obsessed with Rin Chan). All of this could be chalked up to her being a former spirit but Michaela shares none of these traits despite reincarnating in the same way.
Duke Venomania is infamous for this, since despite brainwashing, kidnapping and raping countless women, there are some fan girls who want to willingly join his harem at their own free will due feeling bad for his troubled past, and being handsome, and....did we mention that he's really handsome? Some fans have (at least jokingly) suggested that this means his charms have an effect in the real world as well.
Gallerian is popular enough that even mothy had questioned why he had so many fans, commenting that he intended the character to be a complete scumbag.
While no designs have been released for several of the members of Venomania's harem, fans generally agree that they look like the Vocaloids and UTAUs their names reference, such as Tette Cetera resembling Kasane Teto or Priema Soap appearing like Prima—some fans have even tried to identify these members as extra harem girls in the Venomania manga based on their hairstyles.
Similarly, Maria Moonlit/Alice Merry Go Round's design has never been officially released either, with the only thing we know about her being that she's based on Miku. Most fans, however, believe her to look like the character depicted in the song "Madam Merry Go Round". Certainly helped by Gammon claiming that "Madam Merry Go Round" is what would become of the Master of the Court if she continued to pursue her "utopia" and sure enough the Master of the Court ended up reincarnated as none other than Alice Merry Go Round.
Fanon Discontinuity: The Original Sin Story novel was poorly received by the English-speaking fandom and many fans act like it doesn't exist.
Go to any group of mothy fans and say that "The Last Revolver" is undeniably the song for Wrath. We dare you... Became Hilarious in Hindsight when it turned out to be a prequel to the song for Wrath instead.
Any new fan who says that the Daughter of Evil characters were reincarnated as Vocaloids. The theory originated from a fanmade PV for Re_birthday, which was commonly mistaken for canon. This also became Hilarious in Hindsight when Riliane ends up being reincarnated as a Rin lookalike in the Fourth Period.
Calling any of the Evilious characters by the name of the VOCALOID that represents them will surely get you a swift correction from mothy fans, especially after the collaboration the series had with Project SEKAI. However, unlike the above-listed examples, it's not technically inaccurate to refer to the characters by their VOCALOID names in a certain context, since the VOCALOIDS are the basis and the representatives of these characters, and were originally just Animated Actors for them. Even Project SEKAI itself treated them as the same from a gameplay perspective despite not elaborating on the relationship between the VIRTUAL SINGERS and the Evilious Chronicles characters.
Fandom Rivalry: Ironically, one has grown between the Evilious Chronicles fandom and the larger Vocaloid fanbase. The two used to be Friendly Fandoms with each other back when the series started, but as the light novels were released and the Evillious Chronicles displayed itself as an increasingly complex series with its own internal canon and characters, it became very difficult to enjoy and understand more casually as Vocaloid fans tended to do. Thus there was a split between those more interested in Evillious than Vocaloid as a whole and those who just liked the songs. Evillious fans will sometimes get frustrated with Vocaloid fans who often mistake characters for each other or are unfamiliar with basic plot points, and Vocaloid fans will sometimes disparage the Chronicles for being difficult to understand by the songs alone. Master of the Heavenly Yard is the most symptomatic of this, as while it's one of the songs with an official PV, said PV is borderline incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't read the accompanying light novel of the same name, with entire swaths of it being text descriptions of events or disembodied quotes from the characters with no accompanying pictures, which also makes the PV more difficult to follow for English only fans without subtitles. While there's still some overlap between the two, the two fandoms largely prefer to be separated. However, this has calmed down in the recent years.
First Installment Wins: While the rest of the Chronicles undeniably has its fans, it's the original "Story of Evil" series, which kickstarted the franchise back in 2008, that remain the most iconic and popular of the bunch. Especially to those outside of the fandom. Likely because of this, whenever the series gets represented in other Vocaloid media, it's usually the "Story of Evil" songs that get represented above all else, particularly the first two songs in the series, "Daughter of Evil" and "Servant of Evil".
Mothy's notoriously bad Engrish in official translations and, most egregiously, "The Muzzle of Nemesis" PV, which English fans cite has having ruined the drama of the song. Engrish in the PVs and lyrics have existed even back in the early years of Evillious (an example of the former is Moonlit Bear's inexplicable "Do you wish it for the one who loves?" or "What do you hope to the moon?") but were less emphasized and subsequently less remarked upon by fans.
The tendency for novel adaptations of mothy's songs to have discrepancies with the songs themselves. In previous installments they were so minor as to draw no notice (such as Venomania seemingly recalling his old face as Cherubim in the song but having none of his memories in the novel, and Margarita mentioning having a mother in the song but her mother dying in childbirth in the novel, etc), however there was a great deal of outrage with it in the Tailor of Enbizaka novel, as the change altered a fundamental premise of the story instead of just a backstory note (the change being that Kayo did not do her murders as a result of her psychosis).
Friendly Fandoms: The Evillious fandom shares a bit of overlap with many other Vocaloid based light novel/manga/song series fandoms, the Kagerou Project, in particular, being one of the more well known in that run. This is in part because these other series were likely inspired by the Chronicles' success.
I Knew It!: Way before The Clockworkers (Irina and Kiril) were revealed to have such a big impact on the story, many parts of the fandom were convinced they would be represented by Iroha (due to Irina's love for cats) and Kiyoteru, respectively. It was confirmed they played those characters in the second "Original Sin" Album.
A huge amount of fans guessed a line in Evil Food Eater Conchita was about her being abused by her parents, but it never actually was explained, so that theory lost a lot of popularity. Guess what happened in the novel?
Albeit it was based on a translator taking liberties in their subs, but a lot of fans did still guess that Gallerian was killed by the Wrath character. The details were the only things off (the most common theory was that Gumi's character was related to Tony Ausdin).
What's more, fans insisted from the beginning that "The Last Revolver" and the Wrath song were related, the only thing off was that Gumillia wasn't involved in either song at all.
A few people actually guessed that Seth and the Mask of Intentions were related. Seth actually being the Demon of Wrath was seen coming by practically no one.
Meta Salmhofer. Growing up without parents and engaging in a life of crime and terrorism for a while, she had a change of heart after giving birth to twins, and resolved to protect her children from being used by the scientists, only to get murdered and her children kidnapped by Eve. She mentions in her song that she's never been loved by anyone. Ever.
Venomania, once hisbackstory is revealed. Literally his only crime in being born was that he was ugly. Yet for this, his mother commits suicide, he's locked in a basement for years and years, and when he's finally brought out he's treated worse than a servant. The brother and childhood friend that he managed to get close to, respectively, plotted to kill him and cruelly made fun of him (even if she didn't really mean it, he thought she did). After killing his whole family in a fit of rage, he was just about to kill himself.
Conchita as a child. She was forcefed and terrorized by her mother so that she was dangerously overweight, suffered the destruction of her whole family, and the one bright spot in her childhood—her engagement to Carlos, who was starting to really care about her despite her appearance—is ruined when she sees a wineglass at her engagement dinner, triggering her PTSD and causing her to eat so violently that she scares them all off. The person she grows into is an abominable monster—but you can't help feeling sorry for the poor, abused girl that she once was.
Riliane Lucifen d'Autriche is the last princess of Lucifenia. When she was young, she was separated from her twin brother and suffered from memory loss as a result of exorcism. After the deaths of her parents, she was Lonely at the Top and only became further isolated as her tyrannical rule made her enemies. When the revolution breaks out, she's abandoned by all of her servants except for her twin brother, who reveals his true identity before getting executed in her place. Once she matures and realizes the depth of her cruelty, she spends the rest of her life regretting everything she's done and trying to atone. Despite her misdeeds, the sheer amount of humbling experiences she goes through and the fact that a lot of her tyrannical rule was due to Demonic Possession makes her a sympathetic figure.
Memetic Molester: Kyle Marlon, due to his epilogue in the Fanbook stating that he started living with Yukina Freezis after traveling the world as a painter. (Although with no dates specified she could well have been of age by that point.) There's also his engagement to Riliane and crush on the physically teenage Michaela. The fact that he was possessed by the Demon of Lust at the time didn't help...
An early one was "IT'S ALL KAITO'S FAULT!" due to the fact that whenever something went wrong in the Seven Deadly Sins series, a character played by KAITO would usually be the indirect cause.
Before the truth came out about how the hell Conchita was so thin, it was a widely accepted meme to say that it all went to her boobs.
People joking and complaining about when the Wrath song is coming out was fairly common before its announced release, particularly claiming the wait was making them angry.
The wacky names of some of the characters have become memes on their own, such as Neruneru Nerune and Murararamurajakotasupopopo (what Muzuri originally wanted to name Banica).
This is even lampshaded in Quartets of Evil, when Banica names her daughter Larakinaboshinogotokuamuuru, meaning "cute." Even Vlad is surprised!
The hilariously screwed up version of Clarith from "Aku Musu" has become a spokesperson for frustrated fans.
From The Muzzle of Nemesis video we have the line "She decided to revenge" and the Nemesis Facepalm◊. See Narm below.
Referring to scissors when jealous of someone (usually someone who has Evillious merchandise)
Referring to Gallerian as trash became very popular with fans after mothy referred to him as such in reference to his disbelief on how popular he was with fans.
As if Gallerian isn't greedy enough to begin with, fans like to interpret his greed in.... Another meaning.
"EVERYONE IS EVE", in reference to the revelation that said character unconsciously takes over the identity of numerous other characters in the series, including Mikulia (who died before Flower of the Plateau) and Platonic and Margarita (who died long before the audience meets them and were always Eve as far as the narrative is concerned). On top of that, she's also the Demon of Sloth. On its way to becoming a Discredited Meme, having been used excessively for at least a year on end even as new revelations unrelated to this one are released, to the point where several fans are sick of hearing it.
As the reputation of the Chronicles grew and the series only continued to grow more and more complicated, *not understanding what's going on* or at least pretending not to has itself become a meme in the fandom.
A little while after the Clockwork Lullaby album came out, "self-aware Kiril" became a meme (based off of Kiril saying, "Vocaloid, huh?" in the album near the end when talking about the Third Period souls singing).
Kayo from "The Tailor of Enbizaka" song got this from a handful of viewers who didn't understand that the man she killed wasn't a cheating husband, just that she believed he was. Some fans of the novel have also expressed doubt that she did anything wrong at all due to the fact that, rather than being a psychotic stalker, she was taking revenge on Kai for causing her family's death and only pretended her psychosis was responsible for more complex political reasons. This is all ignoring that she brutally murdered innocent people and effectively terrorized the town for a personal vendetta.
Hansel and Gretel when they're not busy being creepy.
Moral Event Horizon: Actually subverted in many cases, particularly with the Seven Deadly Sins Series protagonists. Various events are presented as such in the songs, while in the overall series proper (particularly after Master of the Heavenly Yard came out) these characters end up being redeemable in some sense after all. Some notable exceptions to this are:
Prim. She can cross this in one of several places, depending on whether you consider what happened first in the timeline or what the audience got to see first, but the most damning thing comes when the audience finally sees the whole picture: She triggered two decades' worth of international suffering and warfare, all for the sake of spiting one woman who died halfway through this plot. In her last appearance in the series she's (basically) unconscious the entire time.
Ma. Her horizon is hard to pinpoint as well, but she's definitely crossed it by the time she reveals that she never cared for Nemesis at all, and sent Hanma to kill her rather than raise her. In the end, she's the only character who's completely erased from existence instead of moving on or being cleansed to start a new life in the next world.
"The Muzzle of Nemesis" video has such Gratuitous English gems as "She killed lover" and "She decided to revenge" in the text, although fans love the video anyway.
Narm Charm: In the Clockworker reprise of "Recollective Music Box," it's sung by Hiyama Kiyoteru with varying and oddly tuned pitches that make it sound almost whiny and comical when not considering the lyrics. Considering that the song is about how the two women in the world he loved most are dead, the strange pitches can come across as him singing as he's holding back tears, varying between complete and utter depression for low parts and wailing for the chorus.
Evil Food Eater Conchita, both the song (where Banica's menus get displayed on-screen) and the novel, where we have such delightful scenes such as Banica eating a plate of worms for her dessert.
Certain parts of "The Lunacy of Duke Venomania" might initiate this instead of a fetish.
One of the images in the PV for "Flower of the Plateau", depicting a naked Mikulia graphically mutated into a flower in a disturbing sexual fashion.
"Tailor Shop of Enbizaka"; the guy she's stalking doesn't even know her. He doesn't even know she's stalking him. She then starts killing his family. The poor guy doesn't even figure it out until it's too late.
Eve Moonlit and the sheer amount of influence she has over the Chronicles, as revealed in the novel version of "Gift From The Princess Who Brought Sleep". She can hypnotize you into believing she's anyone and you wouldn't even know that you're palling around with a tiny doll.
Praising Shows You Don't Watch: As the majority of mothy's work outside of the songs have yet to receive proper or readily available translations, the majority of the fandom who praises the plotlines and characters introduced in the books and manga are going off of what fan translators have told them rather than reading it themselves.
Spoiled by the Cast List: The Muzzle of Nemesis Pixiv Preview included a cast list that revealed that there are two Postmans, and one of them is Allen Avadonia before the novel was even released.
Rooting for the Empire: Conchita. She's charismatic enough that some fans root for her plan to taste all the foods in the world (and other worlds).
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Fan reactions to seeing that the cast list of the (non-canon) fourth theatrical adaptation of the Daughter of Evil added on some unknown male characters, merged a few minor revolutionaries, removed Elluka and Gumillia, and chose not to give most of the characters colored wigs. Unlike many adaptations of Evillious, this one has actually striven to be more faithful to the source material, so those expecting total accuracy were angered once they learned of the differences. Some Japanese fans even speculated on getting refunds. This only got worse when the musical actually came out.
Tough Act to Follow: The Evillious Chronicles is mothy's most successful and well known work—so much so that anything else he makes is quickly dropped by much of its fans the minute they realize it's not related to the series (English fans in particular, who have trouble accessing material to begin with and don't want to expend the effort).
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Most of the prominent characters are either reprehensible or are missing so much information that it's impossible for them to stop said awful prominent characters or break out of their own destructive patterns. This dynamic endures for in-story generations and arguably is never disrupted. And the story literally ends with the complete destruction of the world that most of the story takes place in. Even with the promise of reincarnation for several characters, it can still come off as an Esoteric Happy Ending.
Behemo Barisol mostly claims to be a crossdressing man, but given the fact that he refers to his "sister"/alternate universe counterpart Levia Barisol as his "ideal self" (whilst also being kind of vague as to what he means by that) and his acknowledged status as a lying liar who lies, it's not hard to interpret him as a trans woman instead.
Michaela is often read as a trans woman, after the reveal that in a previous life she was Lich's brother who got Michaela as a nickname when Held misread her name off the class registry; despite this, she's known exclusively as Michaela outside of references to the past. Like other people who reincarnated into forest spirits (who have No Biological Sex) her memories of her old life were blocked off, and when Elluka transforms her into a human woman she seems fully comfortable as such (if a bit confused by Elluka's insistence she has to be a woman) and uses this form even centuries later. She's the only known character whose gender changes over multiple reincarnations, not counting forest spirits, and even then Lich, Eater, and Gumillia all retained their previous gender identities after leaving the forest and getting human/humanoid bodies.
Unexpected Character: Few people were expecting Rin from 10 Minute Love to appear in master of the heavenly yard, much less for her song to be confirmed as part of the Evillious Chronicles canon.
The Un-Twist: The reveal that, unlike the other awakened sin vessels, The Master of the Graveyard is literally Banica as opposed to an Identical Stranger that took on her appearance was not surprising to anyone.
Kiril Clockworker. He grew up as a ghoul child, had to watch the two people he loved most try to kill each other (one succeeding), unintentionally destroyed his homeland, and ended up a poor, miserable and crazy old man in a broken country who lost his gift to make music boxes. His tearful version of "Recollective Music Box" from his perspective just makes you wanna give the guy a hug.
The Patient from Blood-Stained Switch. She has a murderous split personality that she's terrified of, was bullied by a classmate that she was implied to have a crush on, and she was implicitly raped by her own father, whom her other personality later killed. In the Muzzle of Nemesis light novel, it's revealed that she eventually committed suicide in the clinic she was being treated in.
Woolseyism: In the early days of the fandom, translators usually took some liberties with the source material. Some of the ones made official by mothy are frequently bemoaned by the fanbase, but "Daughter of Evil" (the phrase also translating to "the evil girl/daughter") is often praised as giving the series a more unique flair, and is endorsed by other people working on the series in addition to mothy.
has a scene that becomes this after the release of "The Muzzle of Nemesis".Master of the Hellish Yard: Hey Ma!Ma: I'm not your mother!
