YMMV / Wild Knights Gulkeeva

• Adaptation Displacement: The anime, though hardly known, is better known than the manga and novels related to it. However, it's unknown whether or not this is Anime First.
• Angst? What Angst?: Touya and the main characters seem to cope with death easily. When Onimaru died, Touya was so upset he dropped a vocal Precision F-Strike and almost started to cry. But in the next episode, he was perfectly fine, and did not mention Onimaru's name at all for the rest of the show. When Shiori, a very young and terminally-ill girl died, Greyfus actually did break down crying. But in the next episode, he was back to his old self, he seemingly forgot about her, and he did not even mention her name at all, similar to Touya's situation. It's possible that this was intentional to show that the protagonists have become so hardened that they can chalk up these characters' deaths as mere necessary losses.
• Base-Breaking Character: Touya. He's either a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and a very competent, albeit occasionally brash warrior, or he's an arrogant protagonist who cares more about being a hero as opposed to caring about his friends and family. His death and subsequent resurrection in the penultimate episode definitely did not help, as many fans agree that Kira, who is much nicer and smarter, should not have sacrificed himself to save Touya after he got himself killed because of his idiotic actons.
• Complete Monster:
  • Prince Zaza is the ruler of Norsetia and the leader of the Darknoid army. Destined to restore his home planet, Athaelia, to a more inhabitable state, Zaza decided to perform the Grand Transmutation, a dangerous spell capable of draining all life from planet Earth. With various Darknoid minions at his disposal, Zaza sent them to attack various cities around the world to find the magical Bouethers, resulting in thousands of deaths. After all the Bouethers were uncovered, Zaza transported a Darknoid fortress to Japan to destroy most of the military forces, while he slowly gathered more power to complete the Transmutation. When Queen Millennia and her forces surround Zaza and try to get him to surrender, he ignores her pleas and uses his powers to kill or wound the queen and most of her soldiers. Once the Transmutation starts, Zaza transforms into the Devil and tries to kill the protagonists when they arrive to stop him. Although he claims to care about Athaelians, Zaza was more than happy to kill any Athaelians who disagreed with his plans and showed no concern when his own soldiers were slaughtered.
  • "The Nightmare in the Morning": Dancer is a Darknoid mercenary hired to kill the Legendary Knights and Beast Warriors. Against his employers' wishes, Dancer opted to use the Devil's Core to take out the heroes, despite knowing that it'll blow up planet Earth and exterminate the Darknoids as well. When the other Darknoids inform Dancer about how devastating the weapon is, Dancer chooses to activate it anyway since he was ordered to defeat the heroes by any means necessary. After Dancer is fatally wounded trying to escape from the Darknoids, he uses his last ounce of energy to transfer his powers to Onimaru, corrupting him and setting the Devil's Core to crash into Earth.
• Evil Is Cool: Lem, for being a level-headed Chessmaster who always seems to come out on top of every situation he finds himself involved in.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Greyfus' Running Gag about him trying to fix things (or breaking them) was utterly heartwrenching in "The Howl Through My Fangs".
• LGBT Fanbase: All the major main characters are Mr. Fanservice without exception, so this was to be expected.
• Popular with Furries: If there's one thing that stands out about this anime, it's the sheer amount of attractive anthro characters. There's tons of fanart of Greyfus, Tedium, Beakwood, and Garriel scattered across the Internet, and most people who found out about said show are involved with the Furry Fandom.
• Too Cool to Live: Kira, the kindness protagonist in the whole show and the true Gulkeeva who was destined to stop the Darknoids. Doesn't help that he died resurrecting Touya, a divisive character who got himself killed by being reckless.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The anime features lots of swearing, grisly deaths, children repeatedly in peril (with one even dying onscreen), loads of violence, and deals with very traumatic topics like learning to become a warrior and accepting the loss of a relative or loved one. It's also based off a shonen manga from Shōnen Sunday Super.

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