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->''"... She placed a curse on the prince as a punishment for his sins. She said to him, 'You've given up all rights to your beauty, your intellect and your authority. However, the curse will be lifted if you find true love, even as an ugly, savage beast. Your sins will be forgiven and you will return to your original form'. And so, the Beast wanders eternally in search of someone who can love him. That's the fairy tale that has been told in my village for generations." ''
-->-- '''Belle ''', Chapter 6"
''Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost'' (''Rakuen no Bijo to Yajū'') is a terror retelling of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast''. Its author, Creator/KaoriYuki, is very known by her morally ambiguous characters and dark manga (''Manga/CountCain'', ''Alice in Murderland''). And, of course, this manga is no different. However, the dark twists are not there just ForTheEvulz: the manga discusses trauma caused by DomesticAbuse and the dictatorship of beauty. The manga began serialization on Kodansha's ''Palcy'' website in 2019, with a hiatus in 2020, when Yuki had to be hospitalized because of a serious disease. Fortunately, she recovered throughout 2021, and concluded the manga in October of the same year.
Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster. Laetitia hurriedly pushes Belle into the river and is kidnapped; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found in the river wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!
The newcomer has no interest on Belle, but she suspects that this new beast must be the monster who kidnapped her mother. Not having another clues or someone else to turn, she gets a job as his seamstress, in a magical castle full of mysteries... like a beautiful sleeping woman who is also called Belle.
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!!This manga contains examples of:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-D]]
* AbortedArc: [[spoiler: The attempted poisoning never is mentioned again after chapter 7.]]
* AbusiveParents:
** Evance could do a seminar about psychological abuse. When Belle was a kid, he bought her a beautiful bonnet as an excuse to shame her violet hair. After Laetitia’s “death”, [[BreakTheCutie he convinced Belle that she was too ugly to be seen by other people, forced her to slave away as a seamstress]] and drank all the money she earned. When she breaks out, he runs after her with an axe, revealing cruelly that he never believed she was his daughter and that he wanted her to rot inside the house for having taken Laetitia from him. [[AssholeVictim It’s very satisfying when the fake beast stabs him with a claw]].
** According to Giselle, both she and Cyril(a.k.a Beast) were regularly beaten by their parents, as a form of “discipline”. Unfortunately,[[DeliberateValuesDissonance that was common in the 18th century]]. Although in real life nobles normally had the son of a servant (whipping boy) to be beaten in their kid’s behalf.
* ActionGirl: Belle has her moments, when someone gets on her bad side.
* AffablyEvil: La Medium is almost always talking politely and with a [[StepfordSmiler large smile]], even when she is pissed off.
* {{The Ageless}}: Beast, Giselle and the staff have remained alive for 200 years because of the curse. La Medium, on the other hand, has to change bodies and faces to remain young.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Averted. Even after realizing her true feelings for Beast (she's not happy about that) Belle still resents his manners.
* AndIMustScream:
** The women whose faces are stolen by La Medium die and become mindless, mute zombies called “idoles” that try to steal the faces of the living and [[BodyHorror grow mouths on their bodies]]. [[spoiler: Isolde]] is the only one that has kept her sanity.
** [[spoiler: The souls of the idoles are sent to another dimension called Samhain, where they are eventually devoured by the void. According to Isolde, when a woman has her face stolen, she loses her identity and memory; Isolde herself only kept her mind because she is from the Hidden People, but is amnesiac, too (her name was given by the Doctor). Belle remains alive after having her face stolen because she is from the Hidden People through her mother, and also because Beast's rosary helps her to retain her memory.]]
** [[spoiler: La Medium is currently using not only Laetitia’s face, but her entire body. The first time she sees Belle, a tear runs down her face, surprising La Medium and hinting that Laetitia’s soul must be still inside and watching. La Medium supresses that emotiion quickly and [[DeathOfPersonality retakes total control of Laetitia's body. ]]]]
* ApologizesALot: Belle has this tendence of apologizing a lot in awkward moments, because of the emotional abuse inflicted by her father. Beast initially is annoyed about how quickly she changes from "spunky" to ShrinkingViolet, although he notices that the years of imprisonment didn't put out totally the fire on her. [[CharacterDevelopment He eventually tries to be more empathic]], but keeps revolving the jerk door until the ball incident, when he is genuinely nice to her.
* AristocratsAreEvil:
** More specifically, monarchs are evil. Cyril and Giselle’s parents were tyrants that saw their children only as political tools. The king [[spoiler: kept La Medium imprisoned for years and blindfolded magically, so she would believe she was blind. Besides, he took advantage of her love for his son, keeping her happy with the fake promise that she would marry Cyril someday.]] The royalty also made the people of Issus suffer a lot, so it's not hard to figure out why Cyril wanted his parents dead.
** Downplayed with prince Cyril. [[spoiler: He freed La Medium to kill his parents, so he could be crowned as the new king. To have her help, he retold his father's lies that La Medium was beautiful and that he would marry her ([[DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot although it was obvious that she would learn eventually that he was already engaged to Princess Belle]]). So, he had it coming.]] On the other hand, he spent two centuries burdened by guilt after [[DisproportionateRetribution she turned his subjects into crystal statues and deformed his loved ones]], so he was punished beyond what he deserved. Giselle is much more a jerk than him and was pretty awful to Belle, but afterwards she has a HeelFaceTurn for her brother's sake.
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle caused a war that slaughtered the population of his country and set fire on her parents' castle. She saved Cyril's life, but her arms were burned, and she uses that (among other ammunitions) to guilt trip him.]]
** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his lover. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. The queen, by her turn, could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from La Medium, but lets herself to be manipulated by the witch into disfiguring her rival, too. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make Yvonne the new queen. La Medium knows her customers pretty well.]]
* BadassCape: Beast is rarely seen without one. And he is PRETTY badass.
* BalefulPolymorph:
** Except for princess Belle, the curse changed the appearance of everyone in the castle. Cyril's face was turned into a dark, flat, noseless mask with a GlasgowGrin and long, horn-like ears that earned him the nickname of Beast. He says he doesn't care.
** Giselle received the lion's share, with her head turned into a cage with a talking bird (her mind) inside. Although she refuses to leave her room with her entire body until the curse is broken, she uses her bird form to fly around and stay updated on the castle’s rumors.
** Almost all the servants were transformed into anthropomorphic animals. Downplayed with Lucas, who has ram horns, but keeps his human face. Denis, the gardener, became a teddy bear, probably because of his gentle nature.
** The head of Xavier, the butler, was turned into a clock. As a consequence, he’s mute and communicates his orders with gestures to Lucas, who takes his place as the head of the household.
** In a BreatherEpisode, the cat maids commment they used to raise cats before they worked in the castle, [[LampshadeHanging so that's probably why they were turned into felines]]. Which means that the curse transforms people according to their activities or personalities; the butler became a clock because he was obsessed with timings and schedules, the gamekeepers have hound dog faces, etc. Giselle probably became a bird in a cage because even before the curse she was already a sort of shut-in, and repressed by her parents.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Deconstructed. The entire manga makes a harsh criticism of people’s obsession with beauty and youth, especially La Medium. She became rich by changing the faces of nobles, including the queen, [[spoiler: who wants desperately recover her husband’s love, after his lover disfigured her face.]] Justified, because back then women rarely had some money of their own and were forced to depend on their husbands and lovers completely. And beauty was seen as fundamental to keep men’s insterest (In spite of feminist achievements, this kind of mentality still exists, unfortunately).
* BeastAndBeauty: Belle and Beast, of course, with small subversions. Differently from the original fairy tale and its adaptations, he is not tormented about his cursed appearance. And, while he eventually softens up to her, it's Beast who encourages Belle to get back her former self.
* BigBad: La Medium.
* BigDamnHeroes: Beast is introduced [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stabbing the fake with his hand]] in the exact moment the monster is taking Belle to its carriage. [[spoiler: Much later, he makes another entrance opening a hole on the castle's wall with a giant hammer to save Belle from La Vouivre.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Despite not seeing eye-to-eye most of time, Belle and Beast bond because both have a strong GuiltComplex. Also, they have strong tempers that their hard knocked lives couldn't tame completely. Beast gets to admit he identifies himself to her because, before the curse, he was pressed to be what people expected him, too.
->'''Beast:''' I can't turn a blind eye. There's always been something to her. We're a lot alike. She bottles up her feelings and turns into what people want her to be. But there's a voice inside her that never stops crying for freedom.
* BitchInSheepsClothing:
** Giselle. She first poses as Belle’s savior, but locks her up in a basement full of idoles and then almost makes her fall to her death. Afterwards, she lures her into seeing the other Belle, to convince her that Beast was just being “good” to her because she had the same name as his comatose fiancée. When that doesn’t work, she threatens to hurt Belle, but Beast and Lucas catch her red-winged. [[spoiler: Much later, it is revealed that Giselle has became too comfortable with their cursed life and didn’t want a stranger disrupting it - especially because she suspected that Beast could have feelings for Belle and didn't want his heart to be broken again(also, she is prejudiced because Belle is a commoner). But after princess Belle wakes up unexpectadly, Giselle sees the princess entangling Cyril again in her toxic manipulations and realizes that he could be happy with the peasant Belle, who is naive but honest and loves him unconditionally.]]
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse. At first, she seems a kind, [[ProperLady sweet lady]], but it sooms becomes evident she is narcissistic and condescendent. And she uses the WoundedGazelleGambit at every waking moment to keep Beast from saying no to her. He eventually learns to see past that]]
* BlamingTheVictim: After saving Belle from [[spoiler: La Vouivre]], Beast tells her to not be mesmerized by him the next time. He rectifies after calming down, by asking her to go after him if she'll see [[spoiler: La Vouivre]] again.
* BodyguardCrush: Implied with Beast. As much as he says he doesn't care about Belle or [[JerkassHasAPoint complains about how much she gets in trouble]], he keeps saving her life since they first met. [[spoiler: That changes after the Face Arc. When they escape from the nobles in the masquerade, he admits she is the only one he wants to have in his arms.]]
* BrokenBird: Belle. Her gradual recovery is one of the themes of the story.
* ChangelingTale: People in the village believed that Belle was a changeling because of her uncommon violet hair.
* ChickMagnet: Beast. In spite of his cursed form and behavior, La Medium and [[spoiler: princess Belle (after she woke up)]] are still obsessed with him.[[spoiler: Not only girls: Lucas (a transman) became Cyril's chamberlain to stay close to his beloved.]]
** And Belle, of course, but she only met him after he was already the Beast and initially hated him; [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe so her love really came from noticing the good camouflaged in his actions]] (confirmed by Giselle and Lucas), without being influenced by the memory of the gentle, handsome young man he once was.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Beast is accused of this. Giselle and Lucas keep calling him out for taking everyone's burden in his hands and refusing help.
* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: When Belle and Beast first meet, she [[EasilyCondemned threatens him with an axe and accuses him of having kidnapped her mother]], although he had just saved from the fake beast (she probably wasn't thinking clearly, after having been threatened by her own father, carried by the fake to a carriage full of dead women and finding out that there was a second beast). Angrily, Beast knocks her out with a vine, saying he doesn't care if she lives or dies, and she faints thinking she'll be devoured by the wolves. However, in the next day, Belle wakes up in his castle, so he obviously changed his mind.
* DeadpanSnarker: Giselle can be pretty sarcastic, to not say callous, Belle and La Medium have their sharp-tongued moments, too, but there's no doubt that it's Beast who takes the crown.
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:''' I am Antoine, Lieutenant of thid Beast-hunting brigade. And you, Sir, are without a doubt the storied beast! The size of an ox, with black horns and fangs as sharp as a wolf's. A monster terrible enough to send chills down the spine of a grown man... Prepare to face divine, ironclad justice!
-->'''Beast:'''Say, old man, how would you like if I judged YOU based on your looks? Or am I right to assume you're just a mustachioed, out-of-shape clark playing soldier who can't actually fight a damn?
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:'''Why, you!! You stooped to insults, I see!
-->'''Beast:'''You started it! Do these look like horns to you? They're my ears, asshole!
* DontLookAtMe:
** Belle hides her face behind her hair because she thinks she is ugly, much for other people's confusion.
** Giselle hates to leave her room in her complete body because she doesn’t want anyone to look at her faceless head. Especially Lucas.
* DrowningMySorrows: Evance stops working to become an alcoholic, after his wife is gone.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-L]]
* EasilyForgiven:
** Although Belle is quick to talk back to Beast's insults, she shows no grudge for having been magically tossed against a wall when he caught her entering the rose courtyard. True that he didn't see who was trespassing; all the staff knew the place was off-limits, so it would be easy to suppose it was La Medium or one of her minions. Besides, he took Belle's side against Giselle afterwards (still, the girl [[MadeOfIron was lucky to not had been seriously hurt]]. The wall wasn't ''that'' lucky.).
** Discussed with Isolde. She seems to not resent the way everyone treated her before the end of the [[spoiler: Faceless Arc]], when they learned she had a mind and could speak. Even towards Beast, who called her a "thing", told the Doctor to keep her confined and [[spoiler: sacrificed Denis, the only one to treat her with genuine kindness, to save Belle's life. On other hand, if the prince hadn't her locked up, probably some of the servants would have killed Isolde because of their fear of idols. Besides, during her encounter with Belle on Samhain, Isolde tells her she feels on Beast a great pain, because he takes for himself the suffering of others. Also, after she looses contact to Belle, Denis is the only way Beast has to reach the girl, because the former was contaminated by La Medium's magic (he actually apologizes to Denis, saying it's nothing personal). The poor teddy bear was probably doomed, anyway.]] And after everyone finally learns she is sentient and able to talk, he allows her to walk freely around the castle.
** Zigzagged with Giselle. Even after the former saves Belle from the princess' humiliating scheme, she reminds her that the little bird tried to kill her. Giselle dismisses the remrk with a huffy "can't you forget that?" However, when they say goodbye before the trip, they are in such good terms that Giselle even sheds a tear.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In the flashbacks, Cyril's hair reaches the middle of his back and he wears it tied in a ponytail with a bow. After becoming the Beast, he lets it loose to his waist, emphatizing his now wild, careless behavior. Afterwards, when he dresses to go to the capital, he ties his hair in ponytail again - partly, because he had to go in disguise, and men usualy didn't wear their hair loose back then, but that also hints that he's learning to be civil again.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Zigzagged. Belle is the only one in the castle who calls Cyril "Beast" -sometimes "Mounsieur Beast" - and because he asked her so. Everybody else either calls him by his name - Giselle, the Doctor, [[spoiler: princess Belle]], or treats him like Highness or Sir. Naturally, out of the castle people calls him the Beast because they see him as a monster.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Beast gave one of his eyes to La Vouivre in exchanging of magic powers. He received a replacement, with a scar in the process.]]
* FireForgedFriends: Belle and Isolde become friends [[spoiler: after the former’s soul is transported to Samhain]].
* FlowerMotifs: It's a Beauty and the Beast story (even if changed a lot), so it has roses everywhere.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: When princess Belle asks Belle to be her friend, Beast tells his fiancée to leave the other girl alone. As much as he missed her, he knew that the princess would find a way to pick on Belle.]]
* FracturedFairyTale: Better saying smashed and mixed with other fairy tales.
* {{Gaslighting}}: When Belle refuses to follow Giselle because the little bird tried to push her from the cliff, Giselle says that is natural she doesn’t trust anyone in the castle because of their “deformed” appearances.
* GrassIsGreener: It's implied that most of the cursed dwellers in the castle resent Belle's presence because she is a human, thus a reminder of what they have lost. Giselle even voices that verbally, unaware of the things Belle went through in her previous life:
-->'''Giselle:''' You have the gall to call yourself ugly! What's wrong with you?! Your violet hair? Well, at least you have hair! And a face, for all that! How dare you to speak of yourself at a monstrosity like me?!
* GreenThumb: Beast can grown thorny vines of briar roses, which he uses as whips or lassos. It's part of the magic power he gained through a [[spoiler: DealWithTheDevil]].
* {{Grimmification}}
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Beast. He desperately hunts the demons that steal women's faces for La Medium because their source of life are the shards of princess Belle's crystallized heart; however, as he is seen at the crime scenes (and La Medium purposely makes her minions look like him), he is charged with all the murders.
* HiddenDepths:
** In addition to being a competent seamstress, Belle also has a good hand for jewelry. She fixes a broken handcuff for Beast as a thank you - gift for saving her(which inspires him to offer her a job as an excuse for her permanence in the castle, since she really has no where to go) and, later, fixes his rosary. She also knows how to induce vomit because she read a lot during her confinement.
** Despite his grudge towards Belle, Evance built her a bathtub and restroom devices, and kept her informed of all the rumors about the (fake) beast and the kidnappings. As much as he insisted he wished that Belle was taken instead of Laetitia, looks like that he feared to lose her, too(see RedemptionEqualsDeath). Beast seems to realize that, emphatizing that Evance convinced Belle she was ugly to "keep her all to himself".
** Beast is seen reading during a gag-ears-moment. Because of [[spoiler: his contract to La Vouivre]], he can't use magic out of the castle boundaries, but he still has super strenght and agility, at such point he is forced to wear a magical supressing harness under his clothes.
** [[spoiler: Lucas originally was a girl, and Cyril's childhood friend. They used to fence(according to Cyril, she was better than him), but people judged Lucas for her unladylike behaviour. Following Cyril's advice, she decided to be "faithful" to her/his true self, cut her hair and assumed his new identity as a man, scandalizing the court.]]
** Beast met the Doctor when the latter lived as a commoner in a village slaughtered by La Medium's minions. Doctor seems to have some notions about magic, having made for Beast a magical binding so the prince wouldn't destroy things accidentaly (or kill someone) whenever he lost his temper. [[spoiler: During the masquerade, he calls a duke "Albert", and the latter reacts with shock. Moments later, the doctor comes running to warn Beast and Belle they have to go; seems the Doctor is actuallly a noble and the royalty isn't much fond of him.]]
* InsecureLoveInterest:
** Against her will, Belle falls in love with Beast as she realizes the lenghts he goes to free his people from the curse. Still, she believes that he only cares about her because she has the same name as his beloved fiancée.
** [[spoiler: Near the end, Beast reveals he loves Belle, too. Apparently, his love for the princess was [[LovingAShadow more like infatuation mixed with guilt for the "sacrifices" she did for him]] That wears off as he learns to see through her manipulations. But he feels bad because La Medium ruined Belle's life, and forced to honor his commitment to Princess Belle out of pity, because she saved him twice and has no place to go after her reign was destroyed (even if it was her own fault).]]
* JerkassFacade: Beast is arrogant, cynical and boorish, especially to Belle, to whom he initially provokes and belittles for acting as a doormat. However, he is also the only one to care about her (before Isolde steps in). As the story progresses, it becomes clear he tries to drive people away, so they'll not be punished again for loving him. In Belle’s first day in the castle, he doesn’t allow her to eat anything from the table and disgusts her with his JabbaTableManners, but falls in the next moment victim of poison. She learns [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink that someone was poisoning his food]], in the hope of breaking the curse by killing the Beast (he takes that very naturally), and realizes he didn’t let her eat for that reason. In another moment, he drops his cape on Belle and tells her to fix it; she doesn't find any loosen stitches on the cloth, so she suspects that Beast noticed she was wet and shivering. [[spoiler: He starts being openly nicer to her after the faceless arc, though still a little rude.]]
* IWorkAlone: Beast insists into picking up the shards and confront La Medium by himself, alleging that others would just stand in his way. Of course, he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt because of him. Belle won't buy any of this and insists into going to Issus with him. [[spoiler: She gets in trouble out of naivety, but she also proofs she can stand of her own and helps Beast to snap out of his HeroicBSOD, earning his respect.]]
* TheLostLenore:
** Laetitia. Evance punished Belle during five years for her disappearance, even knowing that his wife wouldn't want that.
** Princess Belle can be interpreted as such, although she is not dead. La Medium put her in coma, crystallized her heart and shattered it in a million of shards, using them to power up her minions. Beast hunts them to retrieve the shards and restore the princess' heart, which also keeps her body from crystallizing. And he’s being doing this for 200 years!
* LoveMakesYouEvil:
** Evance combines this with LoveMakesYouCrazy.
** La Medium used to be the "saint" that protected Issus (though their subjects lived poorly, but that was the kings' fault)with her magic. She lived imprisoned, but was okay with that, because she believed that the prince Cyril would marry her someday. When he finally freed her and she found out he was going to marry another woman, Princess Belle, La Medium snapped out and cursed not only the prince, but everyone who loved him. Since then, she started to use her powers for her own pleasure and to collect beautiful women’s faces to wear as masks, remaining eternally love and gracious at the cost of their lives.
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle. She was so obsessed into marrying prince Cyril (Beast) that she provoked a war between their countries, so her parents would be killed and unable to undo their commitment. After she wakes up, she asks for Belle to become her servant to humiliate her out of jealousy. No wonder Giselle calls the princess a "witch".]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: M-Y]]
* MacGuffin: The rosary.
* MasqueradeBall: The king gives one to announce his engagement with the Countess of Villeneuve. Beast takes the opportunity to infiltrate in the palace along with the Doctor and Belle, but things don't go as planned.
* NoPlaceForMeThere: Subverted and played straight with Belle. Despite the insistence of the castle dwellers that she doesn’t belong there, she decides to stay, first because she has nowhere to go (see YouCantGoHomeAgain) and secondly because she has had enough with people telling her what to do:
->'''Belle:''' I see that I’ve come barging into your castle without the slightest consideration for anyone else. But still… you aren’t the one who hired me, Madame Giselle. The Beast… your brother is. I won’t leave until the master of the castle, the man who saved my life, orders me to do so;. Maybe he only did help because of my name… but it doesn’t matter. You have no right to cast me out!
* NotOfThisEarth: [[spoiler: La Medium, Isolde and Laetitia are from an outworld race called the Hidden People, which explains the former’s powers and Belle’s unusual hair color – and probably the reason why Isolde is the only idole to keep her personality, in spite of having lost her memory. They can be recognized through a rose-shaped bithmark, which also protects them (more or less) from evil. Unlike human women, the ones from the other world last more, making possible for La Medium use Laetitia’s body for years. And for the same reason, she wants Belle, too.]]
* ObfuscatingDisability: [[spoiler: Princess Belle uses a wheelchair, pretending she can't walk because of the long time she spent into a coma. The ruse is revealed when Beast prepares to go to the capital, and the princess stands upstairs, leaning on the railing and begging for him not to go. Everybody is shocked because she was able to walk up a flight of stairs ins spite of having left her wheelchair in her bedroom, but she shamelessly lies she [[BlatantLies "crawled all her way to that spot."]]]]
* OminousFloatingCastle: A rare heroic example. Beast’s castle floats away, as he searches for the crystal fragments.
* PlagueDoctor: The only human inhabitant of the castle before Belle came. He makes “experiments” on the idols at the basement, with Isolde as his assistant. Beast don’t approve that much, but [[BetrayalByInaction doesn’t forbid, either]].
* PimpedOutDress: The story happens in an alternate world like 18th centhury France, so all the nobles and rich women wear elaborated, frilly dresses, especially La Medium. Princess Belle's dresses are particulary interesting because they look simpler, but have roses stuck all over it. Even Laetitia was beautifully dressed before her kidnapping, thanks to her husband's hardworking. Belle is also dressed up a few times after coming to the castle and later for the king's masquerade, but that always makes her uncomfortable.
* PossessingADeadBody: The demon killed by Beast in the first chapter possesses Evance’s corpse to continue his mission.
* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler: After suffering a humiliating defeat by Beast and Belle's hands, La Medium gives back all the shards she still had of princess Belle's heart, so the latter would wake up and stand between the two. [[AllForNothing Also, that makes his effort to gather the crystal pieces useless, especially because the princess is not as sweet as she seemed in Beast's fondest memories]] and keeps rubbing on his face that [[ItsAllAboutMe she "gave up on everything for him".]] ]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Belle gives a good one to no one less than La Medium:
->'''Belle:''' Now I see. You really ARE ugly. But the problem isn’t your looks… it’s your heartlessness! You’re not different from that void of idoles. You’re empty!
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Evance gets his consciousness back in his last moments to stop the demon who possessed him from attacking Belle and [[GoThroughMe shields her from the king’s army shoots]]. Although that doesn’t make it up for the emotional scars he left on her.]]
* RevengeBeforeReason:
** Evance is so twisted with grudge that he refuses to hear Belle's arguments that Laetitia might be still alive and threatens to kill her with an axe if she'll not go back inside the house.
** [[spoiler: It would have been enough revenge for the queen to exhibit his new, beautiful face to her rival but no, she wanted her destroyed, too.]]
** It's La Medium , however, who takes the cake. After leaving Issus, she had everything: riches, position and respect of the society. She also took revenge on the people who imprisoned and used her, far much more than they deserved. The young man who broke her heart was disfigured, framed for HER crimes and burdened by the suffering of the people he cares about, for centuries. But that's not enough yet.
* RunningGag:
** Beast's ears are frequently taken by horns, which [[BerserkButton pisses him off]], or stand in the way whenever he has to wear disguises.
** When Belle's rants about how "ugly" she is, people ask what is she talking about, since she is actually pretty.
* SentimentalSacrifice: Well, actually more than sentimental. Beast gets so desperate when Belle [[spoiler:turns into an idole]] that he's willing to use a few fragments of his fiancee's heart to get her back.
* ShooTheDog:
** When the demon/fake beast asks Laetitia if Belle is beautiful, the woman says no and pushes her daughter into the river. That leaves in Belle a permanent scar because her mom was just telling her how much she found Belle lovely moments before; but she was saved from a FateWorseThanDeath.
** [[spoiler: After the ball, Beast reveals the main reason he brought Belle with him was because he wanted to leave her in the human world, so she’ll have a normal life.]]
* ShoutOut:
** The first chapter references Literature/LittleRedRidingHood. Not only Belle wears a cape with hood (red in the cover of the manga), but she goes to the forest disobeying her parents. Twice.
** The reason why Belle wanted so much to go to the forest when she was a kid was because it is the only place red roses grow in that region (red is the only color that matches her hair). In the original fairy tale, Beauty's father starts all the trouble when he picks up a rose he couldn't find anywhere else.
** Princess Belle’s magical coma references Literature/SleepingBeauty.
** A man forced to wear a permanent grin? Sounds [[Literature/TheManWhoLaughs very, very familiar]].
** The floating castle is a probable [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk reference to some]] [[Literature/PrinceIvanTheWitchBabyAndTheLittleSisterOfTheSun specific fairy tales]] or to ‘’Anime/CastleInTheSky’’.
** La Medium's fixed idea of becoming the most beautiful woman in the world brings the Evil Queen of Literature/SnowWhite to mind.
** When Cyril was a kid, he was saved from drowning by someone who left him on the shore, to be found by princess Belle, who took the credits and got engaged to him. Just like in ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid''.
** Giselle and Xavier’s cursed forms seem a nod to {{Surrealism}}, especially Creator/ReneMagritte and Creator/SalvadorDali ‘s paintings.
** Yvonne, the king's lover, has the title of Countess of Villeneuve. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve wrote the first version of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Beauty and the beast]].
** Samhain, [[spoiler: the dimension of the idols]], is the name of an ancient Celtic festival that originated Halloween.
** Beast’s personality and his CharacterDevelopment ressemble ''{{Manga/Inuyasha}}'s'' a lot. Also, both can't let go an old love because they're driven by guilt... and both are target of [[RunningGag gag ears]], too. La Medium, by her turn, has many Naraku’s traits: she uses fragments of a magical stone to create servants which she abuses; she lives off other people’s body parts, toys with her enemies’ feelings and has a sickening obsession about someone who doesn’t love her.
** The scene where Beast has a tantrum because someone(Belle) entered the courtyard seems a nod to the West Wing incident from [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Disney's Beauty and the Beast]].
* SpidersAreScary: La Medium's favorite servants are spiders. She uses them as spies, and rides a giant one in a scene.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Even after learning that her father only wanted to ruin her life, [[StockholmSyndrome Belle can't bring herself to hate him]]. Also, she is still conditioned to behave like when she was his prisoner. It years - months, when it come to fictional characters - for a victim of abuse to get over the self-hatred ingrained on them, and a few still see their abuser with sympathy.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: If there were, the line would be very, very long.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs:
** Before luring Belle to go to the rose courtyard, Giselle asks her "Call me just Giselle", to convince the girl they are friends. After Belle sees the princess "sleeping" there and is expelled by a furious Beast, she confronts Giselle, who disdainfully corrects her: "That's Madame Giselle for you!"
** Deconstructed by Beast, who hears the entire argument. After Lucas picks Giselle with a butterfly net to keep her from attacking Belle, the girl tries to explain, calling him "Sire". He cuts her off, telling her to not call him like this because "it feels wrong".
->'''Beast''': Just call me "The Beast". That's how you've always known me as, right? [[TakeThatScrappy Unlike a certain dumb bird, I don't need you to puff my ego with some fancy title.]]
-> (Everyone stares at him in shock. Giselle's horrified look, especially, is pretty satisfying.
* {{Tomboy}}: When Belle was a kid, she loved climbing up trees and picking up fights with boys.
* UngratefulBastard: Beast expulses Belle from the castle after she helps him to vomit the poisoned food. Probably, he thought it would be better for her to not get involved but still, it was unnecessary and hurtful to drop her downstairs. He quickly changes his mind when Belle's father (possessed by the soul of the fake that Beast had killed hours ago) shows up with the royal army.
* UnrequitedLove: Giselle loves Lucas, who, by his turn, [[spoiler:loves Cyril]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: La Medium. Thanks to her manipulations, she falls into the king’s good graces. Funny enough, her clients don't connect her collection of faces to the poor women who were murdered. Or do not care,as long as that benefits them.
* VomitDiscretionShot: When Beast is poisoned, Belle saves him bya tucking a finger in his throat, but all we see is she telling him to open his mouth with a very creepy look. The next pannel displays a view of the castle with the sounds of his vomiting very aloud, along with a string of curses.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
** After knocking Belle up in their first encounter, Beast could have abandoned her to be devoured by the wolves; instead, he took her to his castle and put Lucas in charge of her.
** [[spoiler: Anybody else would have abandoned Belle or killed her on the spot after La Medium took her face, because she would become an idol; Beast brought her to his castle and argued fiercely with the Doctor to keep from dissecating her. He also sacrificed pieces of the heart of his precious fiancée to save Belle's life.]]
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou:
** La Medium insists that Cyril made her turn the people of Issus into crystal statues and cursed his loved ones. And shey says that ''with a sadistic smile on her lips'' as she makes her spider destroy the statues while Beast can just sit with a ThousandYardStare. Belle promptly [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls her out on that]].
* TheWoobie:
** Belle can be a little annoying sometimes when she talks too much about her 'maman', or her ugliness, but it's impossible to not feel sorry for all the things she goes through. Especially when she is tasked to clean the garden all by herself (with her hands still hurt from the moment she gripped on some vines to not fall to her death), or [[spoiler: after Princess Belle wakes up]].
** As an idole, Isolde is frequently shunned and mistreated by the staff; the Doctor is forced to make her wear a muzzle and occasionally locked up when the castle dwellers complain too much about her presence; also, her temptatives of talking to Belle are initially rejected because the girl is terrified of idols, as part of her trauma. [[spoiler: After the Faceless Arc, however, things change completely. Not only she makes friends with Belle, but also with Giselle, from all people, and is allowed to walk around freely.]]
** Even Beast has his pitiable moments, when you learn about his past or sees him cope with the consequences of his past actions, like when he sees what's left from the people of Issus. [[spoiler: Particularly when he strips his pride to kneel in front of La Vouivre and you see how far he has gone to try and save everyone form the curse.]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre:
** Despite bullying Belle into cleaning the castle, [[EveryoneHasStandards the cat maids are shocked at her low self-esteem]], reminding her that she saved Beast from poisoning.
** When La Medium humiliates Beast by listing all his flaws and wrongdoings to Belle, the girl cuts her off with a ShutUpHannibal, stating that yes, he could be mean and scary, but deep down he was gentle and kind, and La Medium would know that if she truly loved him.
** Beast gives Belle one during the ball, after he finally realizes why she's still haven't overcome her trauma.
-->'''Beast:''' You've put a curse on yourself. After all these years, you should've realized by now. Your mother was lying to protect you from that beast. Your father took advantage of that lie to keep you all to himself. And you've been imprisoned ever since. That's it. You're cursed. Beauty isn't everything, and it doesn't last forever. But it can be a source of power. It can give you an advantage. Looking good can help you in any circunstance. But, one day, no one will remember what you look like. That fact makes the sight of the morning dew or the inumberable stars on the sky all the more humbling. Comparing to them, the beauty of youth only lasts for the blink of one eye. That's why it's so precious. But you still have time. Don't let yourself wilt, still afflicted by your own curse. It would be too sad. I know you feel guilty that you couldn't save your mother. But it's time to forgive yourself. You've suffered too much.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After the royal army's attack, Belle no longer can go back to her village, at risk of being tortured or killed for her involvement with the Beast (even if she returned, she would have to live all alone in the same house she was imprisoned for years), which motivates him to employ her as his seamstress. Neither his sister or servants are happy with that.
[[/folder]]
-------
->''"... She placed a curse on the prince as a punishment for his sins. She said to him, 'You've given up all rights to your beauty, your intellect and your authority. However, the curse will be lifted if you find true love, even as an ugly, savage beast. Your sins will be forgiven and you will return to your original form'. And so, the Beast wanders eternally in search of someone who can love him. That's the fairy tale that has been told in my village for generations." ''
-->-- '''Belle ''', Chapter 6"
''Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost'' (''Rakuen no Bijo to Yajū'') is a terror retelling of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast''. Its author, Creator/KaoriYuki, is very known by her morally ambiguous characters and dark manga (''Manga/CountCain'', ''Alice in Murderland''). And, of course, this manga is no different. However, the dark twists are not there just ForTheEvulz: the manga discusses trauma caused by DomesticAbuse and the dictatorship of beauty. The manga began serialization on Kodansha's ''Palcy'' website in 2019, with a hiatus in 2020, when Yuki had to be hospitalized because of a serious disease. Fortunately, she recovered throughout 2021, and concluded the manga in October of the same year.
Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster. Laetitia hurriedly pushes Belle into the river and is kidnapped; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found in the river wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!
The newcomer has no interest on Belle, but she suspects that this new beast must be the monster who kidnapped her mother. Not having another clues or someone else to turn, she gets a job as his seamstress, in a magical castle full of mysteries... like a beautiful sleeping woman who is also called Belle.
----
!!This manga contains examples of:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-D]]
* AbortedArc: [[spoiler: The attempted poisoning never is mentioned again after chapter 7.]]
* AbusiveParents:
** Evance could do a seminar about psychological abuse. When Belle was a kid, he bought her a beautiful bonnet as an excuse to shame her violet hair. After Laetitia’s “death”, [[BreakTheCutie he convinced Belle that she was too ugly to be seen by other people, forced her to slave away as a seamstress]] and drank all the money she earned. When she breaks out, he runs after her with an axe, revealing cruelly that he never believed she was his daughter and that he wanted her to rot inside the house for having taken Laetitia from him. [[AssholeVictim It’s very satisfying when the fake beast stabs him with a claw]].
** According to Giselle, both she and Cyril(a.k.a Beast) were regularly beaten by their parents, as a form of “discipline”. Unfortunately,[[DeliberateValuesDissonance that was common in the 18th century]]. Although in real life nobles normally had the son of a servant (whipping boy) to be beaten in their kid’s behalf.
* ActionGirl: Belle has her moments, when someone gets on her bad side.
* AffablyEvil: La Medium is almost always talking politely and with a [[StepfordSmiler large smile]], even when she is pissed off.
* {{The Ageless}}: Beast, Giselle and the staff have remained alive for 200 years because of the curse. La Medium, on the other hand, has to change bodies and faces to remain young.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Averted. Even after realizing her true feelings for Beast (she's not happy about that) Belle still resents his manners.
* AndIMustScream:
** The women whose faces are stolen by La Medium die and become mindless, mute zombies called “idoles” that try to steal the faces of the living and [[BodyHorror grow mouths on their bodies]]. [[spoiler: Isolde]] is the only one that has kept her sanity.
** [[spoiler: The souls of the idoles are sent to another dimension called Samhain, where they are eventually devoured by the void. According to Isolde, when a woman has her face stolen, she loses her identity and memory; Isolde herself only kept her mind because she is from the Hidden People, but is amnesiac, too (her name was given by the Doctor). Belle remains alive after having her face stolen because she is from the Hidden People through her mother, and also because Beast's rosary helps her to retain her memory.]]
** [[spoiler: La Medium is currently using not only Laetitia’s face, but her entire body. The first time she sees Belle, a tear runs down her face, surprising La Medium and hinting that Laetitia’s soul must be still inside and watching. La Medium supresses that emotiion quickly and [[DeathOfPersonality retakes total control of Laetitia's body. ]]]]
* ApologizesALot: Belle has this tendence of apologizing a lot in awkward moments, because of the emotional abuse inflicted by her father. Beast initially is annoyed about how quickly she changes from "spunky" to ShrinkingViolet, although he notices that the years of imprisonment didn't put out totally the fire on her. [[CharacterDevelopment He eventually tries to be more empathic]], but keeps revolving the jerk door until the ball incident, when he is genuinely nice to her.
* AristocratsAreEvil:
** More specifically, monarchs are evil. Cyril and Giselle’s parents were tyrants that saw their children only as political tools. The king [[spoiler: kept La Medium imprisoned for years and blindfolded magically, so she would believe she was blind. Besides, he took advantage of her love for his son, keeping her happy with the fake promise that she would marry Cyril someday.]] The royalty also made the people of Issus suffer a lot, so it's not hard to figure out why Cyril wanted his parents dead.
** Downplayed with prince Cyril. [[spoiler: He freed La Medium to kill his parents, so he could be crowned as the new king. To have her help, he retold his father's lies that La Medium was beautiful and that he would marry her ([[DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot although it was obvious that she would learn eventually that he was already engaged to Princess Belle]]). So, he had it coming.]] On the other hand, he spent two centuries burdened by guilt after [[DisproportionateRetribution she turned his subjects into crystal statues and deformed his loved ones]], so he was punished beyond what he deserved. Giselle is much more a jerk than him and was pretty awful to Belle, but afterwards she has a HeelFaceTurn for her brother's sake.
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle caused a war that slaughtered the population of his country and set fire on her parents' castle. She saved Cyril's life, but her arms were burned, and she uses that (among other ammunitions) to guilt trip him.]]
** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his lover. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. The queen, by her turn, could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from La Medium, but lets herself to be manipulated by the witch into disfiguring her rival, too. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make Yvonne the new queen. La Medium knows her customers pretty well.]]
* BadassCape: Beast is rarely seen without one. And he is PRETTY badass.
* BalefulPolymorph:
** Except for princess Belle, the curse changed the appearance of everyone in the castle. Cyril's face was turned into a dark, flat, noseless mask with a GlasgowGrin and long, horn-like ears that earned him the nickname of Beast. He says he doesn't care.
** Giselle received the lion's share, with her head turned into a cage with a talking bird (her mind) inside. Although she refuses to leave her room with her entire body until the curse is broken, she uses her bird form to fly around and stay updated on the castle’s rumors.
** Almost all the servants were transformed into anthropomorphic animals. Downplayed with Lucas, who has ram horns, but keeps his human face. Denis, the gardener, became a teddy bear, probably because of his gentle nature.
** The head of Xavier, the butler, was turned into a clock. As a consequence, he’s mute and communicates his orders with gestures to Lucas, who takes his place as the head of the household.
** In a BreatherEpisode, the cat maids commment they used to raise cats before they worked in the castle, [[LampshadeHanging so that's probably why they were turned into felines]]. Which means that the curse transforms people according to their activities or personalities; the butler became a clock because he was obsessed with timings and schedules, the gamekeepers have hound dog faces, etc. Giselle probably became a bird in a cage because even before the curse she was already a sort of shut-in, and repressed by her parents.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Deconstructed. The entire manga makes a harsh criticism of people’s obsession with beauty and youth, especially La Medium. She became rich by changing the faces of nobles, including the queen, [[spoiler: who wants desperately recover her husband’s love, after his lover disfigured her face.]] Justified, because back then women rarely had some money of their own and were forced to depend on their husbands and lovers completely. And beauty was seen as fundamental to keep men’s insterest (In spite of feminist achievements, this kind of mentality still exists, unfortunately).
* BeastAndBeauty: Belle and Beast, of course, with small subversions. Differently from the original fairy tale and its adaptations, he is not tormented about his cursed appearance. And, while he eventually softens up to her, it's Beast who encourages Belle to get back her former self.
* BigBad: La Medium.
* BigDamnHeroes: Beast is introduced [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stabbing the fake with his hand]] in the exact moment the monster is taking Belle to its carriage. [[spoiler: Much later, he makes another entrance opening a hole on the castle's wall with a giant hammer to save Belle from La Vouivre.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Despite not seeing eye-to-eye most of time, Belle and Beast bond because both have a strong GuiltComplex. Also, they have strong tempers that their hard knocked lives couldn't tame completely. Beast gets to admit he identifies himself to her because, before the curse, he was pressed to be what people expected him, too.
->'''Beast:''' I can't turn a blind eye. There's always been something to her. We're a lot alike. She bottles up her feelings and turns into what people want her to be. But there's a voice inside her that never stops crying for freedom.
* BitchInSheepsClothing:
** Giselle. She first poses as Belle’s savior, but locks her up in a basement full of idoles and then almost makes her fall to her death. Afterwards, she lures her into seeing the other Belle, to convince her that Beast was just being “good” to her because she had the same name as his comatose fiancée. When that doesn’t work, she threatens to hurt Belle, but Beast and Lucas catch her red-winged. [[spoiler: Much later, it is revealed that Giselle has became too comfortable with their cursed life and didn’t want a stranger disrupting it - especially because she suspected that Beast could have feelings for Belle and didn't want his heart to be broken again(also, she is prejudiced because Belle is a commoner). But after princess Belle wakes up unexpectadly, Giselle sees the princess entangling Cyril again in her toxic manipulations and realizes that he could be happy with the peasant Belle, who is naive but honest and loves him unconditionally.]]
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse. At first, she seems a kind, [[ProperLady sweet lady]], but it sooms becomes evident she is narcissistic and condescendent. And she uses the WoundedGazelleGambit at every waking moment to keep Beast from saying no to her. He eventually learns to see past that]]
* BlamingTheVictim: After saving Belle from [[spoiler: La Vouivre]], Beast tells her to not be mesmerized by him the next time. He rectifies after calming down, by asking her to go after him if she'll see [[spoiler: La Vouivre]] again.
* BodyguardCrush: Implied with Beast. As much as he says he doesn't care about Belle or [[JerkassHasAPoint complains about how much she gets in trouble]], he keeps saving her life since they first met. [[spoiler: That changes after the Face Arc. When they escape from the nobles in the masquerade, he admits she is the only one he wants to have in his arms.]]
* BrokenBird: Belle. Her gradual recovery is one of the themes of the story.
* ChangelingTale: People in the village believed that Belle was a changeling because of her uncommon violet hair.
* ChickMagnet: Beast. In spite of his cursed form and behavior, La Medium and [[spoiler: princess Belle (after she woke up)]] are still obsessed with him.[[spoiler: Not only girls: Lucas (a transman) became Cyril's chamberlain to stay close to his beloved.]]
** And Belle, of course, but she only met him after he was already the Beast and initially hated him; [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe so her love really came from noticing the good camouflaged in his actions]] (confirmed by Giselle and Lucas), without being influenced by the memory of the gentle, handsome young man he once was.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Beast is accused of this. Giselle and Lucas keep calling him out for taking everyone's burden in his hands and refusing help.
* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: When Belle and Beast first meet, she [[EasilyCondemned threatens him with an axe and accuses him of having kidnapped her mother]], although he had just saved from the fake beast (she probably wasn't thinking clearly, after having been threatened by her own father, carried by the fake to a carriage full of dead women and finding out that there was a second beast). Angrily, Beast knocks her out with a vine, saying he doesn't care if she lives or dies, and she faints thinking she'll be devoured by the wolves. However, in the next day, Belle wakes up in his castle, so he obviously changed his mind.
* DeadpanSnarker: Giselle can be pretty sarcastic, to not say callous, Belle and La Medium have their sharp-tongued moments, too, but there's no doubt that it's Beast who takes the crown.
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:''' I am Antoine, Lieutenant of thid Beast-hunting brigade. And you, Sir, are without a doubt the storied beast! The size of an ox, with black horns and fangs as sharp as a wolf's. A monster terrible enough to send chills down the spine of a grown man... Prepare to face divine, ironclad justice!
-->'''Beast:'''Say, old man, how would you like if I judged YOU based on your looks? Or am I right to assume you're just a mustachioed, out-of-shape clark playing soldier who can't actually fight a damn?
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:'''Why, you!! You stooped to insults, I see!
-->'''Beast:'''You started it! Do these look like horns to you? They're my ears, asshole!
* DontLookAtMe:
** Belle hides her face behind her hair because she thinks she is ugly, much for other people's confusion.
** Giselle hates to leave her room in her complete body because she doesn’t want anyone to look at her faceless head. Especially Lucas.
* DrowningMySorrows: Evance stops working to become an alcoholic, after his wife is gone.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-L]]
* EasilyForgiven:
** Although Belle is quick to talk back to Beast's insults, she shows no grudge for having been magically tossed against a wall when he caught her entering the rose courtyard. True that he didn't see who was trespassing; all the staff knew the place was off-limits, so it would be easy to suppose it was La Medium or one of her minions. Besides, he took Belle's side against Giselle afterwards (still, the girl [[MadeOfIron was lucky to not had been seriously hurt]]. The wall wasn't ''that'' lucky.).
** Discussed with Isolde. She seems to not resent the way everyone treated her before the end of the [[spoiler: Faceless Arc]], when they learned she had a mind and could speak. Even towards Beast, who called her a "thing", told the Doctor to keep her confined and [[spoiler: sacrificed Denis, the only one to treat her with genuine kindness, to save Belle's life. On other hand, if the prince hadn't her locked up, probably some of the servants would have killed Isolde because of their fear of idols. Besides, during her encounter with Belle on Samhain, Isolde tells her she feels on Beast a great pain, because he takes for himself the suffering of others. Also, after she looses contact to Belle, Denis is the only way Beast has to reach the girl, because the former was contaminated by La Medium's magic (he actually apologizes to Denis, saying it's nothing personal). The poor teddy bear was probably doomed, anyway.]] And after everyone finally learns she is sentient and able to talk, he allows her to walk freely around the castle.
** Zigzagged with Giselle. Even after the former saves Belle from the princess' humiliating scheme, she reminds her that the little bird tried to kill her. Giselle dismisses the remrk with a huffy "can't you forget that?" However, when they say goodbye before the trip, they are in such good terms that Giselle even sheds a tear.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In the flashbacks, Cyril's hair reaches the middle of his back and he wears it tied in a ponytail with a bow. After becoming the Beast, he lets it loose to his waist, emphatizing his now wild, careless behavior. Afterwards, when he dresses to go to the capital, he ties his hair in ponytail again - partly, because he had to go in disguise, and men usualy didn't wear their hair loose back then, but that also hints that he's learning to be civil again.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Zigzagged. Belle is the only one in the castle who calls Cyril "Beast" -sometimes "Mounsieur Beast" - and because he asked her so. Everybody else either calls him by his name - Giselle, the Doctor, [[spoiler: princess Belle]], or treats him like Highness or Sir. Naturally, out of the castle people calls him the Beast because they see him as a monster.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Beast gave one of his eyes to La Vouivre in exchanging of magic powers. He received a replacement, with a scar in the process.]]
* FireForgedFriends: Belle and Isolde become friends [[spoiler: after the former’s soul is transported to Samhain]].
* FlowerMotifs: It's a Beauty and the Beast story (even if changed a lot), so it has roses everywhere.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: When princess Belle asks Belle to be her friend, Beast tells his fiancée to leave the other girl alone. As much as he missed her, he knew that the princess would find a way to pick on Belle.]]
* FracturedFairyTale: Better saying smashed and mixed with other fairy tales.
* {{Gaslighting}}: When Belle refuses to follow Giselle because the little bird tried to push her from the cliff, Giselle says that is natural she doesn’t trust anyone in the castle because of their “deformed” appearances.
* GrassIsGreener: It's implied that most of the cursed dwellers in the castle resent Belle's presence because she is a human, thus a reminder of what they have lost. Giselle even voices that verbally, unaware of the things Belle went through in her previous life:
-->'''Giselle:''' You have the gall to call yourself ugly! What's wrong with you?! Your violet hair? Well, at least you have hair! And a face, for all that! How dare you to speak of yourself at a monstrosity like me?!
* GreenThumb: Beast can grown thorny vines of briar roses, which he uses as whips or lassos. It's part of the magic power he gained through a [[spoiler: DealWithTheDevil]].
* {{Grimmification}}
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Beast. He desperately hunts the demons that steal women's faces for La Medium because their source of life are the shards of princess Belle's crystallized heart; however, as he is seen at the crime scenes (and La Medium purposely makes her minions look like him), he is charged with all the murders.
* HiddenDepths:
** In addition to being a competent seamstress, Belle also has a good hand for jewelry. She fixes a broken handcuff for Beast as a thank you - gift for saving her(which inspires him to offer her a job as an excuse for her permanence in the castle, since she really has no where to go) and, later, fixes his rosary. She also knows how to induce vomit because she read a lot during her confinement.
** Despite his grudge towards Belle, Evance built her a bathtub and restroom devices, and kept her informed of all the rumors about the (fake) beast and the kidnappings. As much as he insisted he wished that Belle was taken instead of Laetitia, looks like that he feared to lose her, too(see RedemptionEqualsDeath). Beast seems to realize that, emphatizing that Evance convinced Belle she was ugly to "keep her all to himself".
** Beast is seen reading during a gag-ears-moment. Because of [[spoiler: his contract to La Vouivre]], he can't use magic out of the castle boundaries, but he still has super strenght and agility, at such point he is forced to wear a magical supressing harness under his clothes.
** [[spoiler: Lucas originally was a girl, and Cyril's childhood friend. They used to fence(according to Cyril, she was better than him), but people judged Lucas for her unladylike behaviour. Following Cyril's advice, she decided to be "faithful" to her/his true self, cut her hair and assumed his new identity as a man, scandalizing the court.]]
** Beast met the Doctor when the latter lived as a commoner in a village slaughtered by La Medium's minions. Doctor seems to have some notions about magic, having made for Beast a magical binding so the prince wouldn't destroy things accidentaly (or kill someone) whenever he lost his temper. [[spoiler: During the masquerade, he calls a duke "Albert", and the latter reacts with shock. Moments later, the doctor comes running to warn Beast and Belle they have to go; seems the Doctor is actuallly a noble and the royalty isn't much fond of him.]]
* InsecureLoveInterest:
** Against her will, Belle falls in love with Beast as she realizes the lenghts he goes to free his people from the curse. Still, she believes that he only cares about her because she has the same name as his beloved fiancée.
** [[spoiler: Near the end, Beast reveals he loves Belle, too. Apparently, his love for the princess was [[LovingAShadow more like infatuation mixed with guilt for the "sacrifices" she did for him]] That wears off as he learns to see through her manipulations. But he feels bad because La Medium ruined Belle's life, and forced to honor his commitment to Princess Belle out of pity, because she saved him twice and has no place to go after her reign was destroyed (even if it was her own fault).]]
* JerkassFacade: Beast is arrogant, cynical and boorish, especially to Belle, to whom he initially provokes and belittles for acting as a doormat. However, he is also the only one to care about her (before Isolde steps in). As the story progresses, it becomes clear he tries to drive people away, so they'll not be punished again for loving him. In Belle’s first day in the castle, he doesn’t allow her to eat anything from the table and disgusts her with his JabbaTableManners, but falls in the next moment victim of poison. She learns [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink that someone was poisoning his food]], in the hope of breaking the curse by killing the Beast (he takes that very naturally), and realizes he didn’t let her eat for that reason. In another moment, he drops his cape on Belle and tells her to fix it; she doesn't find any loosen stitches on the cloth, so she suspects that Beast noticed she was wet and shivering. [[spoiler: He starts being openly nicer to her after the faceless arc, though still a little rude.]]
* IWorkAlone: Beast insists into picking up the shards and confront La Medium by himself, alleging that others would just stand in his way. Of course, he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt because of him. Belle won't buy any of this and insists into going to Issus with him. [[spoiler: She gets in trouble out of naivety, but she also proofs she can stand of her own and helps Beast to snap out of his HeroicBSOD, earning his respect.]]
* TheLostLenore:
** Laetitia. Evance punished Belle during five years for her disappearance, even knowing that his wife wouldn't want that.
** Princess Belle can be interpreted as such, although she is not dead. La Medium put her in coma, crystallized her heart and shattered it in a million of shards, using them to power up her minions. Beast hunts them to retrieve the shards and restore the princess' heart, which also keeps her body from crystallizing. And he’s being doing this for 200 years!
* LoveMakesYouEvil:
** Evance combines this with LoveMakesYouCrazy.
** La Medium used to be the "saint" that protected Issus (though their subjects lived poorly, but that was the kings' fault)with her magic. She lived imprisoned, but was okay with that, because she believed that the prince Cyril would marry her someday. When he finally freed her and she found out he was going to marry another woman, Princess Belle, La Medium snapped out and cursed not only the prince, but everyone who loved him. Since then, she started to use her powers for her own pleasure and to collect beautiful women’s faces to wear as masks, remaining eternally love and gracious at the cost of their lives.
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle. She was so obsessed into marrying prince Cyril (Beast) that she provoked a war between their countries, so her parents would be killed and unable to undo their commitment. After she wakes up, she asks for Belle to become her servant to humiliate her out of jealousy. No wonder Giselle calls the princess a "witch".]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: M-Y]]
* MacGuffin: The rosary.
* MasqueradeBall: The king gives one to announce his engagement with the Countess of Villeneuve. Beast takes the opportunity to infiltrate in the palace along with the Doctor and Belle, but things don't go as planned.
* NoPlaceForMeThere: Subverted and played straight with Belle. Despite the insistence of the castle dwellers that she doesn’t belong there, she decides to stay, first because she has nowhere to go (see YouCantGoHomeAgain) and secondly because she has had enough with people telling her what to do:
->'''Belle:''' I see that I’ve come barging into your castle without the slightest consideration for anyone else. But still… you aren’t the one who hired me, Madame Giselle. The Beast… your brother is. I won’t leave until the master of the castle, the man who saved my life, orders me to do so;. Maybe he only did help because of my name… but it doesn’t matter. You have no right to cast me out!
* NotOfThisEarth: [[spoiler: La Medium, Isolde and Laetitia are from an outworld race called the Hidden People, which explains the former’s powers and Belle’s unusual hair color – and probably the reason why Isolde is the only idole to keep her personality, in spite of having lost her memory. They can be recognized through a rose-shaped bithmark, which also protects them (more or less) from evil. Unlike human women, the ones from the other world last more, making possible for La Medium use Laetitia’s body for years. And for the same reason, she wants Belle, too.]]
* ObfuscatingDisability: [[spoiler: Princess Belle uses a wheelchair, pretending she can't walk because of the long time she spent into a coma. The ruse is revealed when Beast prepares to go to the capital, and the princess stands upstairs, leaning on the railing and begging for him not to go. Everybody is shocked because she was able to walk up a flight of stairs ins spite of having left her wheelchair in her bedroom, but she shamelessly lies she [[BlatantLies "crawled all her way to that spot."]]]]
* OminousFloatingCastle: A rare heroic example. Beast’s castle floats away, as he searches for the crystal fragments.
* PlagueDoctor: The only human inhabitant of the castle before Belle came. He makes “experiments” on the idols at the basement, with Isolde as his assistant. Beast don’t approve that much, but [[BetrayalByInaction doesn’t forbid, either]].
* PimpedOutDress: The story happens in an alternate world like 18th centhury France, so all the nobles and rich women wear elaborated, frilly dresses, especially La Medium. Princess Belle's dresses are particulary interesting because they look simpler, but have roses stuck all over it. Even Laetitia was beautifully dressed before her kidnapping, thanks to her husband's hardworking. Belle is also dressed up a few times after coming to the castle and later for the king's masquerade, but that always makes her uncomfortable.
* PossessingADeadBody: The demon killed by Beast in the first chapter possesses Evance’s corpse to continue his mission.
* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler: After suffering a humiliating defeat by Beast and Belle's hands, La Medium gives back all the shards she still had of princess Belle's heart, so the latter would wake up and stand between the two. [[AllForNothing Also, that makes his effort to gather the crystal pieces useless, especially because the princess is not as sweet as she seemed in Beast's fondest memories]] and keeps rubbing on his face that [[ItsAllAboutMe she "gave up on everything for him".]] ]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Belle gives a good one to no one less than La Medium:
->'''Belle:''' Now I see. You really ARE ugly. But the problem isn’t your looks… it’s your heartlessness! You’re not different from that void of idoles. You’re empty!
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Evance gets his consciousness back in his last moments to stop the demon who possessed him from attacking Belle and [[GoThroughMe shields her from the king’s army shoots]]. Although that doesn’t make it up for the emotional scars he left on her.]]
* RevengeBeforeReason:
** Evance is so twisted with grudge that he refuses to hear Belle's arguments that Laetitia might be still alive and threatens to kill her with an axe if she'll not go back inside the house.
** [[spoiler: It would have been enough revenge for the queen to exhibit his new, beautiful face to her rival but no, she wanted her destroyed, too.]]
** It's La Medium , however, who takes the cake. After leaving Issus, she had everything: riches, position and respect of the society. She also took revenge on the people who imprisoned and used her, far much more than they deserved. The young man who broke her heart was disfigured, framed for HER crimes and burdened by the suffering of the people he cares about, for centuries. But that's not enough yet.
* RunningGag:
** Beast's ears are frequently taken by horns, which [[BerserkButton pisses him off]], or stand in the way whenever he has to wear disguises.
** When Belle's rants about how "ugly" she is, people ask what is she talking about, since she is actually pretty.
* SentimentalSacrifice: Well, actually more than sentimental. Beast gets so desperate when Belle [[spoiler:turns into an idole]] that he's willing to use a few fragments of his fiancee's heart to get her back.
* ShooTheDog:
** When the demon/fake beast asks Laetitia if Belle is beautiful, the woman says no and pushes her daughter into the river. That leaves in Belle a permanent scar because her mom was just telling her how much she found Belle lovely moments before; but she was saved from a FateWorseThanDeath.
** [[spoiler: After the ball, Beast reveals the main reason he brought Belle with him was because he wanted to leave her in the human world, so she’ll have a normal life.]]
* ShoutOut:
** The first chapter references Literature/LittleRedRidingHood. Not only Belle wears a cape with hood (red in the cover of the manga), but she goes to the forest disobeying her parents. Twice.
** The reason why Belle wanted so much to go to the forest when she was a kid was because it is the only place red roses grow in that region (red is the only color that matches her hair). In the original fairy tale, Beauty's father starts all the trouble when he picks up a rose he couldn't find anywhere else.
** Princess Belle’s magical coma references Literature/SleepingBeauty.
** A man forced to wear a permanent grin? Sounds [[Literature/TheManWhoLaughs very, very familiar]].
** The floating castle is a probable [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk reference to some]] [[Literature/PrinceIvanTheWitchBabyAndTheLittleSisterOfTheSun specific fairy tales]] or to ‘’Anime/CastleInTheSky’’.
** La Medium's fixed idea of becoming the most beautiful woman in the world brings the Evil Queen of Literature/SnowWhite to mind.
** When Cyril was a kid, he was saved from drowning by someone who left him on the shore, to be found by princess Belle, who took the credits and got engaged to him. Just like in ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid''.
** Giselle and Xavier’s cursed forms seem a nod to {{Surrealism}}, especially Creator/ReneMagritte and Creator/SalvadorDali ‘s paintings.
** Yvonne, the king's lover, has the title of Countess of Villeneuve. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve wrote the first version of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Beauty and the beast]].
** Samhain, [[spoiler: the dimension of the idols]], is the name of an ancient Celtic festival that originated Halloween.
** Beast’s personality and his CharacterDevelopment ressemble ''{{Manga/Inuyasha}}'s'' a lot. Also, both can't let go an old love because they're driven by guilt... and both are target of [[RunningGag gag ears]], too. La Medium, by her turn, has many Naraku’s traits: she uses fragments of a magical stone to create servants which she abuses; she lives off other people’s body parts, toys with her enemies’ feelings and has a sickening obsession about someone who doesn’t love her.
** The scene where Beast has a tantrum because someone(Belle) entered the courtyard seems a nod to the West Wing incident from [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Disney's Beauty and the Beast]].
* SpidersAreScary: La Medium's favorite servants are spiders. She uses them as spies, and rides a giant one in a scene.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Even after learning that her father only wanted to ruin her life, [[StockholmSyndrome Belle can't bring herself to hate him]]. Also, she is still conditioned to behave like when she was his prisoner. It years - months, when it come to fictional characters - for a victim of abuse to get over the self-hatred ingrained on them, and a few still see their abuser with sympathy.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: If there were, the line would be very, very long.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs:
** Before luring Belle to go to the rose courtyard, Giselle asks her "Call me just Giselle", to convince the girl they are friends. After Belle sees the princess "sleeping" there and is expelled by a furious Beast, she confronts Giselle, who disdainfully corrects her: "That's Madame Giselle for you!"
** Deconstructed by Beast, who hears the entire argument. After Lucas picks Giselle with a butterfly net to keep her from attacking Belle, the girl tries to explain, calling him "Sire". He cuts her off, telling her to not call him like this because "it feels wrong".
->'''Beast''': Just call me "The Beast". That's how you've always known me as, right? [[TakeThatScrappy Unlike a certain dumb bird, I don't need you to puff my ego with some fancy title.]]
-> (Everyone stares at him in shock. Giselle's horrified look, especially, is pretty satisfying.
* {{Tomboy}}: When Belle was a kid, she loved climbing up trees and picking up fights with boys.
* UngratefulBastard: Beast expulses Belle from the castle after she helps him to vomit the poisoned food. Probably, he thought it would be better for her to not get involved but still, it was unnecessary and hurtful to drop her downstairs. He quickly changes his mind when Belle's father (possessed by the soul of the fake that Beast had killed hours ago) shows up with the royal army.
* UnrequitedLove: Giselle loves Lucas, who, by his turn, [[spoiler:loves Cyril]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: La Medium. Thanks to her manipulations, she falls into the king’s good graces. Funny enough, her clients don't connect her collection of faces to the poor women who were murdered. Or do not care,as long as that benefits them.
* VomitDiscretionShot: When Beast is poisoned, Belle saves him bya tucking a finger in his throat, but all we see is she telling him to open his mouth with a very creepy look. The next pannel displays a view of the castle with the sounds of his vomiting very aloud, along with a string of curses.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
** After knocking Belle up in their first encounter, Beast could have abandoned her to be devoured by the wolves; instead, he took her to his castle and put Lucas in charge of her.
** [[spoiler: Anybody else would have abandoned Belle or killed her on the spot after La Medium took her face, because she would become an idol; Beast brought her to his castle and argued fiercely with the Doctor to keep from dissecating her. He also sacrificed pieces of the heart of his precious fiancée to save Belle's life.]]
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou:
** La Medium insists that Cyril made her turn the people of Issus into crystal statues and cursed his loved ones. And shey says that ''with a sadistic smile on her lips'' as she makes her spider destroy the statues while Beast can just sit with a ThousandYardStare. Belle promptly [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls her out on that]].
* TheWoobie:
** Belle can be a little annoying sometimes when she talks too much about her 'maman', or her ugliness, but it's impossible to not feel sorry for all the things she goes through. Especially when she is tasked to clean the garden all by herself (with her hands still hurt from the moment she gripped on some vines to not fall to her death), or [[spoiler: after Princess Belle wakes up]].
** As an idole, Isolde is frequently shunned and mistreated by the staff; the Doctor is forced to make her wear a muzzle and occasionally locked up when the castle dwellers complain too much about her presence; also, her temptatives of talking to Belle are initially rejected because the girl is terrified of idols, as part of her trauma. [[spoiler: After the Faceless Arc, however, things change completely. Not only she makes friends with Belle, but also with Giselle, from all people, and is allowed to walk around freely.]]
** Even Beast has his pitiable moments, when you learn about his past or sees him cope with the consequences of his past actions, like when he sees what's left from the people of Issus. [[spoiler: Particularly when he strips his pride to kneel in front of La Vouivre and you see how far he has gone to try and save everyone form the curse.]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre:
** Despite bullying Belle into cleaning the castle, [[EveryoneHasStandards the cat maids are shocked at her low self-esteem]], reminding her that she saved Beast from poisoning.
** When La Medium humiliates Beast by listing all his flaws and wrongdoings to Belle, the girl cuts her off with a ShutUpHannibal, stating that yes, he could be mean and scary, but deep down he was gentle and kind, and La Medium would know that if she truly loved him.
** Beast gives Belle one during the ball, after he finally realizes why she's still haven't overcome her trauma.
-->'''Beast:''' You've put a curse on yourself. After all these years, you should've realized by now. Your mother was lying to protect you from that beast. Your father took advantage of that lie to keep you all to himself. And you've been imprisoned ever since. That's it. You're cursed. Beauty isn't everything, and it doesn't last forever. But it can be a source of power. It can give you an advantage. Looking good can help you in any circunstance. But, one day, no one will remember what you look like. That fact makes the sight of the morning dew or the inumberable stars on the sky all the more humbling. Comparing to them, the beauty of youth only lasts for the blink of one eye. That's why it's so precious. But you still have time. Don't let yourself wilt, still afflicted by your own curse. It would be too sad. I know you feel guilty that you couldn't save your mother. But it's time to forgive yourself. You've suffered too much.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After the royal army's attack, Belle no longer can go back to her village, at risk of being tortured or killed for her involvement with the Beast (even if she returned, she would have to live all alone in the same house she was imprisoned for years), which motivates him to employ her as his seamstress. Neither his sister or servants are happy with that.
[[/folder]]
-------
to:
->''"... She placed a curse on the prince as a punishment for his sins. She said to him, 'You've given up all rights to your beauty, your intellect and your authority. However, the curse will be lifted if you find true love, even as an ugly, savage beast. Your sins will be forgiven and you will return to your original form'. And so, the Beast wanders eternally in search of someone who can love him. That's the fairy tale that has been told in my village for generations." ''
-->-- '''Belle ''', Chapter 6"
''Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost'' (''Rakuen no Bijo to Yajū'') is a terror retelling of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast''. Its author, Creator/KaoriYuki, is very known by her morally ambiguous characters and dark manga (''Manga/CountCain'', ''Alice in Murderland''). And, of course, this manga is no different. However, the dark twists are not there just ForTheEvulz: the manga discusses trauma caused by DomesticAbuse and the dictatorship of beauty. The manga began serialization on Kodansha's ''Palcy'' website in 2019, with a hiatus in 2020, when Yuki had to be hospitalized because of a serious disease. Fortunately, she recovered throughout 2021, and concluded the manga in October of the same year.
Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster. Laetitia hurriedly pushes Belle into the river and is kidnapped; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found in the river wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!
The newcomer has no interest on Belle, but she suspects that this new beast must be the monster who kidnapped her mother. Not having another clues or someone else to turn, she gets a job as his seamstress, in a magical castle full of mysteries... like a beautiful sleeping woman who is also called Belle.
----
!!This manga contains examples of:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-D]]
* AbortedArc: [[spoiler: The attempted poisoning never is mentioned again after chapter 7.]]
* AbusiveParents:
** Evance could do a seminar about psychological abuse. When Belle was a kid, he bought her a beautiful bonnet as an excuse to shame her violet hair. After Laetitia’s “death”, [[BreakTheCutie he convinced Belle that she was too ugly to be seen by other people, forced her to slave away as a seamstress]] and drank all the money she earned. When she breaks out, he runs after her with an axe, revealing cruelly that he never believed she was his daughter and that he wanted her to rot inside the house for having taken Laetitia from him. [[AssholeVictim It’s very satisfying when the fake beast stabs him with a claw]].
** According to Giselle, both she and Cyril(a.k.a Beast) were regularly beaten by their parents, as a form of “discipline”. Unfortunately,[[DeliberateValuesDissonance that was common in the 18th century]]. Although in real life nobles normally had the son of a servant (whipping boy) to be beaten in their kid’s behalf.
* ActionGirl: Belle has her moments, when someone gets on her bad side.
* AffablyEvil: La Medium is almost always talking politely and with a [[StepfordSmiler large smile]], even when she is pissed off.
* {{The Ageless}}: Beast, Giselle and the staff have remained alive for 200 years because of the curse. La Medium, on the other hand, has to change bodies and faces to remain young.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Averted. Even after realizing her true feelings for Beast (she's not happy about that) Belle still resents his manners.
* AndIMustScream:
** The women whose faces are stolen by La Medium die and become mindless, mute zombies called “idoles” that try to steal the faces of the living and [[BodyHorror grow mouths on their bodies]]. [[spoiler: Isolde]] is the only one that has kept her sanity.
** [[spoiler: The souls of the idoles are sent to another dimension called Samhain, where they are eventually devoured by the void. According to Isolde, when a woman has her face stolen, she loses her identity and memory; Isolde herself only kept her mind because she is from the Hidden People, but is amnesiac, too (her name was given by the Doctor). Belle remains alive after having her face stolen because she is from the Hidden People through her mother, and also because Beast's rosary helps her to retain her memory.]]
** [[spoiler: La Medium is currently using not only Laetitia’s face, but her entire body. The first time she sees Belle, a tear runs down her face, surprising La Medium and hinting that Laetitia’s soul must be still inside and watching. La Medium supresses that emotiion quickly and [[DeathOfPersonality retakes total control of Laetitia's body. ]]]]
* ApologizesALot: Belle has this tendence of apologizing a lot in awkward moments, because of the emotional abuse inflicted by her father. Beast initially is annoyed about how quickly she changes from "spunky" to ShrinkingViolet, although he notices that the years of imprisonment didn't put out totally the fire on her. [[CharacterDevelopment He eventually tries to be more empathic]], but keeps revolving the jerk door until the ball incident, when he is genuinely nice to her.
* AristocratsAreEvil:
** More specifically, monarchs are evil. Cyril and Giselle’s parents were tyrants that saw their children only as political tools. The king [[spoiler: kept La Medium imprisoned for years and blindfolded magically, so she would believe she was blind. Besides, he took advantage of her love for his son, keeping her happy with the fake promise that she would marry Cyril someday.]] The royalty also made the people of Issus suffer a lot, so it's not hard to figure out why Cyril wanted his parents dead.
** Downplayed with prince Cyril. [[spoiler: He freed La Medium to kill his parents, so he could be crowned as the new king. To have her help, he retold his father's lies that La Medium was beautiful and that he would marry her ([[DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot although it was obvious that she would learn eventually that he was already engaged to Princess Belle]]). So, he had it coming.]] On the other hand, he spent two centuries burdened by guilt after [[DisproportionateRetribution she turned his subjects into crystal statues and deformed his loved ones]], so he was punished beyond what he deserved. Giselle is much more a jerk than him and was pretty awful to Belle, but afterwards she has a HeelFaceTurn for her brother's sake.
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle caused a war that slaughtered the population of his country and set fire on her parents' castle. She saved Cyril's life, but her arms were burned, and she uses that (among other ammunitions) to guilt trip him.]]
** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his lover. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. The queen, by her turn, could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from La Medium, but lets herself to be manipulated by the witch into disfiguring her rival, too. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make Yvonne the new queen. La Medium knows her customers pretty well.]]
* BadassCape: Beast is rarely seen without one. And he is PRETTY badass.
* BalefulPolymorph:
** Except for princess Belle, the curse changed the appearance of everyone in the castle. Cyril's face was turned into a dark, flat, noseless mask with a GlasgowGrin and long, horn-like ears that earned him the nickname of Beast. He says he doesn't care.
** Giselle received the lion's share, with her head turned into a cage with a talking bird (her mind) inside. Although she refuses to leave her room with her entire body until the curse is broken, she uses her bird form to fly around and stay updated on the castle’s rumors.
** Almost all the servants were transformed into anthropomorphic animals. Downplayed with Lucas, who has ram horns, but keeps his human face. Denis, the gardener, became a teddy bear, probably because of his gentle nature.
** The head of Xavier, the butler, was turned into a clock. As a consequence, he’s mute and communicates his orders with gestures to Lucas, who takes his place as the head of the household.
** In a BreatherEpisode, the cat maids commment they used to raise cats before they worked in the castle, [[LampshadeHanging so that's probably why they were turned into felines]]. Which means that the curse transforms people according to their activities or personalities; the butler became a clock because he was obsessed with timings and schedules, the gamekeepers have hound dog faces, etc. Giselle probably became a bird in a cage because even before the curse she was already a sort of shut-in, and repressed by her parents.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Deconstructed. The entire manga makes a harsh criticism of people’s obsession with beauty and youth, especially La Medium. She became rich by changing the faces of nobles, including the queen, [[spoiler: who wants desperately recover her husband’s love, after his lover disfigured her face.]] Justified, because back then women rarely had some money of their own and were forced to depend on their husbands and lovers completely. And beauty was seen as fundamental to keep men’s insterest (In spite of feminist achievements, this kind of mentality still exists, unfortunately).
* BeastAndBeauty: Belle and Beast, of course, with small subversions. Differently from the original fairy tale and its adaptations, he is not tormented about his cursed appearance. And, while he eventually softens up to her, it's Beast who encourages Belle to get back her former self.
* BigBad: La Medium.
* BigDamnHeroes: Beast is introduced [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stabbing the fake with his hand]] in the exact moment the monster is taking Belle to its carriage. [[spoiler: Much later, he makes another entrance opening a hole on the castle's wall with a giant hammer to save Belle from La Vouivre.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Despite not seeing eye-to-eye most of time, Belle and Beast bond because both have a strong GuiltComplex. Also, they have strong tempers that their hard knocked lives couldn't tame completely. Beast gets to admit he identifies himself to her because, before the curse, he was pressed to be what people expected him, too.
->'''Beast:''' I can't turn a blind eye. There's always been something to her. We're a lot alike. She bottles up her feelings and turns into what people want her to be. But there's a voice inside her that never stops crying for freedom.
* BitchInSheepsClothing:
** Giselle. She first poses as Belle’s savior, but locks her up in a basement full of idoles and then almost makes her fall to her death. Afterwards, she lures her into seeing the other Belle, to convince her that Beast was just being “good” to her because she had the same name as his comatose fiancée. When that doesn’t work, she threatens to hurt Belle, but Beast and Lucas catch her red-winged. [[spoiler: Much later, it is revealed that Giselle has became too comfortable with their cursed life and didn’t want a stranger disrupting it - especially because she suspected that Beast could have feelings for Belle and didn't want his heart to be broken again(also, she is prejudiced because Belle is a commoner). But after princess Belle wakes up unexpectadly, Giselle sees the princess entangling Cyril again in her toxic manipulations and realizes that he could be happy with the peasant Belle, who is naive but honest and loves him unconditionally.]]
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse. At first, she seems a kind, [[ProperLady sweet lady]], but it sooms becomes evident she is narcissistic and condescendent. And she uses the WoundedGazelleGambit at every waking moment to keep Beast from saying no to her. He eventually learns to see past that]]
* BlamingTheVictim: After saving Belle from [[spoiler: La Vouivre]], Beast tells her to not be mesmerized by him the next time. He rectifies after calming down, by asking her to go after him if she'll see [[spoiler: La Vouivre]] again.
* BodyguardCrush: Implied with Beast. As much as he says he doesn't care about Belle or [[JerkassHasAPoint complains about how much she gets in trouble]], he keeps saving her life since they first met. [[spoiler: That changes after the Face Arc. When they escape from the nobles in the masquerade, he admits she is the only one he wants to have in his arms.]]
* BrokenBird: Belle. Her gradual recovery is one of the themes of the story.
* ChangelingTale: People in the village believed that Belle was a changeling because of her uncommon violet hair.
* ChickMagnet: Beast. In spite of his cursed form and behavior, La Medium and [[spoiler: princess Belle (after she woke up)]] are still obsessed with him.[[spoiler: Not only girls: Lucas (a transman) became Cyril's chamberlain to stay close to his beloved.]]
** And Belle, of course, but she only met him after he was already the Beast and initially hated him; [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe so her love really came from noticing the good camouflaged in his actions]] (confirmed by Giselle and Lucas), without being influenced by the memory of the gentle, handsome young man he once was.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Beast is accused of this. Giselle and Lucas keep calling him out for taking everyone's burden in his hands and refusing help.
* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: When Belle and Beast first meet, she [[EasilyCondemned threatens him with an axe and accuses him of having kidnapped her mother]], although he had just saved from the fake beast (she probably wasn't thinking clearly, after having been threatened by her own father, carried by the fake to a carriage full of dead women and finding out that there was a second beast). Angrily, Beast knocks her out with a vine, saying he doesn't care if she lives or dies, and she faints thinking she'll be devoured by the wolves. However, in the next day, Belle wakes up in his castle, so he obviously changed his mind.
* DeadpanSnarker: Giselle can be pretty sarcastic, to not say callous, Belle and La Medium have their sharp-tongued moments, too, but there's no doubt that it's Beast who takes the crown.
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:''' I am Antoine, Lieutenant of thid Beast-hunting brigade. And you, Sir, are without a doubt the storied beast! The size of an ox, with black horns and fangs as sharp as a wolf's. A monster terrible enough to send chills down the spine of a grown man... Prepare to face divine, ironclad justice!
-->'''Beast:'''Say, old man, how would you like if I judged YOU based on your looks? Or am I right to assume you're just a mustachioed, out-of-shape clark playing soldier who can't actually fight a damn?
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:'''Why, you!! You stooped to insults, I see!
-->'''Beast:'''You started it! Do these look like horns to you? They're my ears, asshole!
* DontLookAtMe:
** Belle hides her face behind her hair because she thinks she is ugly, much for other people's confusion.
** Giselle hates to leave her room in her complete body because she doesn’t want anyone to look at her faceless head. Especially Lucas.
* DrowningMySorrows: Evance stops working to become an alcoholic, after his wife is gone.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-L]]
* EasilyForgiven:
** Although Belle is quick to talk back to Beast's insults, she shows no grudge for having been magically tossed against a wall when he caught her entering the rose courtyard. True that he didn't see who was trespassing; all the staff knew the place was off-limits, so it would be easy to suppose it was La Medium or one of her minions. Besides, he took Belle's side against Giselle afterwards (still, the girl [[MadeOfIron was lucky to not had been seriously hurt]]. The wall wasn't ''that'' lucky.).
** Discussed with Isolde. She seems to not resent the way everyone treated her before the end of the [[spoiler: Faceless Arc]], when they learned she had a mind and could speak. Even towards Beast, who called her a "thing", told the Doctor to keep her confined and [[spoiler: sacrificed Denis, the only one to treat her with genuine kindness, to save Belle's life. On other hand, if the prince hadn't her locked up, probably some of the servants would have killed Isolde because of their fear of idols. Besides, during her encounter with Belle on Samhain, Isolde tells her she feels on Beast a great pain, because he takes for himself the suffering of others. Also, after she looses contact to Belle, Denis is the only way Beast has to reach the girl, because the former was contaminated by La Medium's magic (he actually apologizes to Denis, saying it's nothing personal). The poor teddy bear was probably doomed, anyway.]] And after everyone finally learns she is sentient and able to talk, he allows her to walk freely around the castle.
** Zigzagged with Giselle. Even after the former saves Belle from the princess' humiliating scheme, she reminds her that the little bird tried to kill her. Giselle dismisses the remrk with a huffy "can't you forget that?" However, when they say goodbye before the trip, they are in such good terms that Giselle even sheds a tear.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In the flashbacks, Cyril's hair reaches the middle of his back and he wears it tied in a ponytail with a bow. After becoming the Beast, he lets it loose to his waist, emphatizing his now wild, careless behavior. Afterwards, when he dresses to go to the capital, he ties his hair in ponytail again - partly, because he had to go in disguise, and men usualy didn't wear their hair loose back then, but that also hints that he's learning to be civil again.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Zigzagged. Belle is the only one in the castle who calls Cyril "Beast" -sometimes "Mounsieur Beast" - and because he asked her so. Everybody else either calls him by his name - Giselle, the Doctor, [[spoiler: princess Belle]], or treats him like Highness or Sir. Naturally, out of the castle people calls him the Beast because they see him as a monster.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Beast gave one of his eyes to La Vouivre in exchanging of magic powers. He received a replacement, with a scar in the process.]]
* FireForgedFriends: Belle and Isolde become friends [[spoiler: after the former’s soul is transported to Samhain]].
* FlowerMotifs: It's a Beauty and the Beast story (even if changed a lot), so it has roses everywhere.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: When princess Belle asks Belle to be her friend, Beast tells his fiancée to leave the other girl alone. As much as he missed her, he knew that the princess would find a way to pick on Belle.]]
* FracturedFairyTale: Better saying smashed and mixed with other fairy tales.
* {{Gaslighting}}: When Belle refuses to follow Giselle because the little bird tried to push her from the cliff, Giselle says that is natural she doesn’t trust anyone in the castle because of their “deformed” appearances.
* GrassIsGreener: It's implied that most of the cursed dwellers in the castle resent Belle's presence because she is a human, thus a reminder of what they have lost. Giselle even voices that verbally, unaware of the things Belle went through in her previous life:
-->'''Giselle:''' You have the gall to call yourself ugly! What's wrong with you?! Your violet hair? Well, at least you have hair! And a face, for all that! How dare you to speak of yourself at a monstrosity like me?!
* GreenThumb: Beast can grown thorny vines of briar roses, which he uses as whips or lassos. It's part of the magic power he gained through a [[spoiler: DealWithTheDevil]].
* {{Grimmification}}
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Beast. He desperately hunts the demons that steal women's faces for La Medium because their source of life are the shards of princess Belle's crystallized heart; however, as he is seen at the crime scenes (and La Medium purposely makes her minions look like him), he is charged with all the murders.
* HiddenDepths:
** In addition to being a competent seamstress, Belle also has a good hand for jewelry. She fixes a broken handcuff for Beast as a thank you - gift for saving her(which inspires him to offer her a job as an excuse for her permanence in the castle, since she really has no where to go) and, later, fixes his rosary. She also knows how to induce vomit because she read a lot during her confinement.
** Despite his grudge towards Belle, Evance built her a bathtub and restroom devices, and kept her informed of all the rumors about the (fake) beast and the kidnappings. As much as he insisted he wished that Belle was taken instead of Laetitia, looks like that he feared to lose her, too(see RedemptionEqualsDeath). Beast seems to realize that, emphatizing that Evance convinced Belle she was ugly to "keep her all to himself".
** Beast is seen reading during a gag-ears-moment. Because of [[spoiler: his contract to La Vouivre]], he can't use magic out of the castle boundaries, but he still has super strenght and agility, at such point he is forced to wear a magical supressing harness under his clothes.
** [[spoiler: Lucas originally was a girl, and Cyril's childhood friend. They used to fence(according to Cyril, she was better than him), but people judged Lucas for her unladylike behaviour. Following Cyril's advice, she decided to be "faithful" to her/his true self, cut her hair and assumed his new identity as a man, scandalizing the court.]]
** Beast met the Doctor when the latter lived as a commoner in a village slaughtered by La Medium's minions. Doctor seems to have some notions about magic, having made for Beast a magical binding so the prince wouldn't destroy things accidentaly (or kill someone) whenever he lost his temper. [[spoiler: During the masquerade, he calls a duke "Albert", and the latter reacts with shock. Moments later, the doctor comes running to warn Beast and Belle they have to go; seems the Doctor is actuallly a noble and the royalty isn't much fond of him.]]
* InsecureLoveInterest:
** Against her will, Belle falls in love with Beast as she realizes the lenghts he goes to free his people from the curse. Still, she believes that he only cares about her because she has the same name as his beloved fiancée.
** [[spoiler: Near the end, Beast reveals he loves Belle, too. Apparently, his love for the princess was [[LovingAShadow more like infatuation mixed with guilt for the "sacrifices" she did for him]] That wears off as he learns to see through her manipulations. But he feels bad because La Medium ruined Belle's life, and forced to honor his commitment to Princess Belle out of pity, because she saved him twice and has no place to go after her reign was destroyed (even if it was her own fault).]]
* JerkassFacade: Beast is arrogant, cynical and boorish, especially to Belle, to whom he initially provokes and belittles for acting as a doormat. However, he is also the only one to care about her (before Isolde steps in). As the story progresses, it becomes clear he tries to drive people away, so they'll not be punished again for loving him. In Belle’s first day in the castle, he doesn’t allow her to eat anything from the table and disgusts her with his JabbaTableManners, but falls in the next moment victim of poison. She learns [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink that someone was poisoning his food]], in the hope of breaking the curse by killing the Beast (he takes that very naturally), and realizes he didn’t let her eat for that reason. In another moment, he drops his cape on Belle and tells her to fix it; she doesn't find any loosen stitches on the cloth, so she suspects that Beast noticed she was wet and shivering. [[spoiler: He starts being openly nicer to her after the faceless arc, though still a little rude.]]
* IWorkAlone: Beast insists into picking up the shards and confront La Medium by himself, alleging that others would just stand in his way. Of course, he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt because of him. Belle won't buy any of this and insists into going to Issus with him. [[spoiler: She gets in trouble out of naivety, but she also proofs she can stand of her own and helps Beast to snap out of his HeroicBSOD, earning his respect.]]
* TheLostLenore:
** Laetitia. Evance punished Belle during five years for her disappearance, even knowing that his wife wouldn't want that.
** Princess Belle can be interpreted as such, although she is not dead. La Medium put her in coma, crystallized her heart and shattered it in a million of shards, using them to power up her minions. Beast hunts them to retrieve the shards and restore the princess' heart, which also keeps her body from crystallizing. And he’s being doing this for 200 years!
* LoveMakesYouEvil:
** Evance combines this with LoveMakesYouCrazy.
** La Medium used to be the "saint" that protected Issus (though their subjects lived poorly, but that was the kings' fault)with her magic. She lived imprisoned, but was okay with that, because she believed that the prince Cyril would marry her someday. When he finally freed her and she found out he was going to marry another woman, Princess Belle, La Medium snapped out and cursed not only the prince, but everyone who loved him. Since then, she started to use her powers for her own pleasure and to collect beautiful women’s faces to wear as masks, remaining eternally love and gracious at the cost of their lives.
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle. She was so obsessed into marrying prince Cyril (Beast) that she provoked a war between their countries, so her parents would be killed and unable to undo their commitment. After she wakes up, she asks for Belle to become her servant to humiliate her out of jealousy. No wonder Giselle calls the princess a "witch".]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: M-Y]]
* MacGuffin: The rosary.
* MasqueradeBall: The king gives one to announce his engagement with the Countess of Villeneuve. Beast takes the opportunity to infiltrate in the palace along with the Doctor and Belle, but things don't go as planned.
* NoPlaceForMeThere: Subverted and played straight with Belle. Despite the insistence of the castle dwellers that she doesn’t belong there, she decides to stay, first because she has nowhere to go (see YouCantGoHomeAgain) and secondly because she has had enough with people telling her what to do:
->'''Belle:''' I see that I’ve come barging into your castle without the slightest consideration for anyone else. But still… you aren’t the one who hired me, Madame Giselle. The Beast… your brother is. I won’t leave until the master of the castle, the man who saved my life, orders me to do so;. Maybe he only did help because of my name… but it doesn’t matter. You have no right to cast me out!
* NotOfThisEarth: [[spoiler: La Medium, Isolde and Laetitia are from an outworld race called the Hidden People, which explains the former’s powers and Belle’s unusual hair color – and probably the reason why Isolde is the only idole to keep her personality, in spite of having lost her memory. They can be recognized through a rose-shaped bithmark, which also protects them (more or less) from evil. Unlike human women, the ones from the other world last more, making possible for La Medium use Laetitia’s body for years. And for the same reason, she wants Belle, too.]]
* ObfuscatingDisability: [[spoiler: Princess Belle uses a wheelchair, pretending she can't walk because of the long time she spent into a coma. The ruse is revealed when Beast prepares to go to the capital, and the princess stands upstairs, leaning on the railing and begging for him not to go. Everybody is shocked because she was able to walk up a flight of stairs ins spite of having left her wheelchair in her bedroom, but she shamelessly lies she [[BlatantLies "crawled all her way to that spot."]]]]
* OminousFloatingCastle: A rare heroic example. Beast’s castle floats away, as he searches for the crystal fragments.
* PlagueDoctor: The only human inhabitant of the castle before Belle came. He makes “experiments” on the idols at the basement, with Isolde as his assistant. Beast don’t approve that much, but [[BetrayalByInaction doesn’t forbid, either]].
* PimpedOutDress: The story happens in an alternate world like 18th centhury France, so all the nobles and rich women wear elaborated, frilly dresses, especially La Medium. Princess Belle's dresses are particulary interesting because they look simpler, but have roses stuck all over it. Even Laetitia was beautifully dressed before her kidnapping, thanks to her husband's hardworking. Belle is also dressed up a few times after coming to the castle and later for the king's masquerade, but that always makes her uncomfortable.
* PossessingADeadBody: The demon killed by Beast in the first chapter possesses Evance’s corpse to continue his mission.
* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler: After suffering a humiliating defeat by Beast and Belle's hands, La Medium gives back all the shards she still had of princess Belle's heart, so the latter would wake up and stand between the two. [[AllForNothing Also, that makes his effort to gather the crystal pieces useless, especially because the princess is not as sweet as she seemed in Beast's fondest memories]] and keeps rubbing on his face that [[ItsAllAboutMe she "gave up on everything for him".]] ]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Belle gives a good one to no one less than La Medium:
->'''Belle:''' Now I see. You really ARE ugly. But the problem isn’t your looks… it’s your heartlessness! You’re not different from that void of idoles. You’re empty!
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Evance gets his consciousness back in his last moments to stop the demon who possessed him from attacking Belle and [[GoThroughMe shields her from the king’s army shoots]]. Although that doesn’t make it up for the emotional scars he left on her.]]
* RevengeBeforeReason:
** Evance is so twisted with grudge that he refuses to hear Belle's arguments that Laetitia might be still alive and threatens to kill her with an axe if she'll not go back inside the house.
** [[spoiler: It would have been enough revenge for the queen to exhibit his new, beautiful face to her rival but no, she wanted her destroyed, too.]]
** It's La Medium , however, who takes the cake. After leaving Issus, she had everything: riches, position and respect of the society. She also took revenge on the people who imprisoned and used her, far much more than they deserved. The young man who broke her heart was disfigured, framed for HER crimes and burdened by the suffering of the people he cares about, for centuries. But that's not enough yet.
* RunningGag:
** Beast's ears are frequently taken by horns, which [[BerserkButton pisses him off]], or stand in the way whenever he has to wear disguises.
** When Belle's rants about how "ugly" she is, people ask what is she talking about, since she is actually pretty.
* SentimentalSacrifice: Well, actually more than sentimental. Beast gets so desperate when Belle [[spoiler:turns into an idole]] that he's willing to use a few fragments of his fiancee's heart to get her back.
* ShooTheDog:
** When the demon/fake beast asks Laetitia if Belle is beautiful, the woman says no and pushes her daughter into the river. That leaves in Belle a permanent scar because her mom was just telling her how much she found Belle lovely moments before; but she was saved from a FateWorseThanDeath.
** [[spoiler: After the ball, Beast reveals the main reason he brought Belle with him was because he wanted to leave her in the human world, so she’ll have a normal life.]]
* ShoutOut:
** The first chapter references Literature/LittleRedRidingHood. Not only Belle wears a cape with hood (red in the cover of the manga), but she goes to the forest disobeying her parents. Twice.
** The reason why Belle wanted so much to go to the forest when she was a kid was because it is the only place red roses grow in that region (red is the only color that matches her hair). In the original fairy tale, Beauty's father starts all the trouble when he picks up a rose he couldn't find anywhere else.
** Princess Belle’s magical coma references Literature/SleepingBeauty.
** A man forced to wear a permanent grin? Sounds [[Literature/TheManWhoLaughs very, very familiar]].
** The floating castle is a probable [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk reference to some]] [[Literature/PrinceIvanTheWitchBabyAndTheLittleSisterOfTheSun specific fairy tales]] or to ‘’Anime/CastleInTheSky’’.
** La Medium's fixed idea of becoming the most beautiful woman in the world brings the Evil Queen of Literature/SnowWhite to mind.
** When Cyril was a kid, he was saved from drowning by someone who left him on the shore, to be found by princess Belle, who took the credits and got engaged to him. Just like in ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid''.
** Giselle and Xavier’s cursed forms seem a nod to {{Surrealism}}, especially Creator/ReneMagritte and Creator/SalvadorDali ‘s paintings.
** Yvonne, the king's lover, has the title of Countess of Villeneuve. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve wrote the first version of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Beauty and the beast]].
** Samhain, [[spoiler: the dimension of the idols]], is the name of an ancient Celtic festival that originated Halloween.
** Beast’s personality and his CharacterDevelopment ressemble ''{{Manga/Inuyasha}}'s'' a lot. Also, both can't let go an old love because they're driven by guilt... and both are target of [[RunningGag gag ears]], too. La Medium, by her turn, has many Naraku’s traits: she uses fragments of a magical stone to create servants which she abuses; she lives off other people’s body parts, toys with her enemies’ feelings and has a sickening obsession about someone who doesn’t love her.
** The scene where Beast has a tantrum because someone(Belle) entered the courtyard seems a nod to the West Wing incident from [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Disney's Beauty and the Beast]].
* SpidersAreScary: La Medium's favorite servants are spiders. She uses them as spies, and rides a giant one in a scene.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Even after learning that her father only wanted to ruin her life, [[StockholmSyndrome Belle can't bring herself to hate him]]. Also, she is still conditioned to behave like when she was his prisoner. It years - months, when it come to fictional characters - for a victim of abuse to get over the self-hatred ingrained on them, and a few still see their abuser with sympathy.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: If there were, the line would be very, very long.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs:
** Before luring Belle to go to the rose courtyard, Giselle asks her "Call me just Giselle", to convince the girl they are friends. After Belle sees the princess "sleeping" there and is expelled by a furious Beast, she confronts Giselle, who disdainfully corrects her: "That's Madame Giselle for you!"
** Deconstructed by Beast, who hears the entire argument. After Lucas picks Giselle with a butterfly net to keep her from attacking Belle, the girl tries to explain, calling him "Sire". He cuts her off, telling her to not call him like this because "it feels wrong".
->'''Beast''': Just call me "The Beast". That's how you've always known me as, right? [[TakeThatScrappy Unlike a certain dumb bird, I don't need you to puff my ego with some fancy title.]]
-> (Everyone stares at him in shock. Giselle's horrified look, especially, is pretty satisfying.
* {{Tomboy}}: When Belle was a kid, she loved climbing up trees and picking up fights with boys.
* UngratefulBastard: Beast expulses Belle from the castle after she helps him to vomit the poisoned food. Probably, he thought it would be better for her to not get involved but still, it was unnecessary and hurtful to drop her downstairs. He quickly changes his mind when Belle's father (possessed by the soul of the fake that Beast had killed hours ago) shows up with the royal army.
* UnrequitedLove: Giselle loves Lucas, who, by his turn, [[spoiler:loves Cyril]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: La Medium. Thanks to her manipulations, she falls into the king’s good graces. Funny enough, her clients don't connect her collection of faces to the poor women who were murdered. Or do not care,as long as that benefits them.
* VomitDiscretionShot: When Beast is poisoned, Belle saves him bya tucking a finger in his throat, but all we see is she telling him to open his mouth with a very creepy look. The next pannel displays a view of the castle with the sounds of his vomiting very aloud, along with a string of curses.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
** After knocking Belle up in their first encounter, Beast could have abandoned her to be devoured by the wolves; instead, he took her to his castle and put Lucas in charge of her.
** [[spoiler: Anybody else would have abandoned Belle or killed her on the spot after La Medium took her face, because she would become an idol; Beast brought her to his castle and argued fiercely with the Doctor to keep from dissecating her. He also sacrificed pieces of the heart of his precious fiancée to save Belle's life.]]
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou:
** La Medium insists that Cyril made her turn the people of Issus into crystal statues and cursed his loved ones. And shey says that ''with a sadistic smile on her lips'' as she makes her spider destroy the statues while Beast can just sit with a ThousandYardStare. Belle promptly [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls her out on that]].
* TheWoobie:
** Belle can be a little annoying sometimes when she talks too much about her 'maman', or her ugliness, but it's impossible to not feel sorry for all the things she goes through. Especially when she is tasked to clean the garden all by herself (with her hands still hurt from the moment she gripped on some vines to not fall to her death), or [[spoiler: after Princess Belle wakes up]].
** As an idole, Isolde is frequently shunned and mistreated by the staff; the Doctor is forced to make her wear a muzzle and occasionally locked up when the castle dwellers complain too much about her presence; also, her temptatives of talking to Belle are initially rejected because the girl is terrified of idols, as part of her trauma. [[spoiler: After the Faceless Arc, however, things change completely. Not only she makes friends with Belle, but also with Giselle, from all people, and is allowed to walk around freely.]]
** Even Beast has his pitiable moments, when you learn about his past or sees him cope with the consequences of his past actions, like when he sees what's left from the people of Issus. [[spoiler: Particularly when he strips his pride to kneel in front of La Vouivre and you see how far he has gone to try and save everyone form the curse.]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre:
** Despite bullying Belle into cleaning the castle, [[EveryoneHasStandards the cat maids are shocked at her low self-esteem]], reminding her that she saved Beast from poisoning.
** When La Medium humiliates Beast by listing all his flaws and wrongdoings to Belle, the girl cuts her off with a ShutUpHannibal, stating that yes, he could be mean and scary, but deep down he was gentle and kind, and La Medium would know that if she truly loved him.
** Beast gives Belle one during the ball, after he finally realizes why she's still haven't overcome her trauma.
-->'''Beast:''' You've put a curse on yourself. After all these years, you should've realized by now. Your mother was lying to protect you from that beast. Your father took advantage of that lie to keep you all to himself. And you've been imprisoned ever since. That's it. You're cursed. Beauty isn't everything, and it doesn't last forever. But it can be a source of power. It can give you an advantage. Looking good can help you in any circunstance. But, one day, no one will remember what you look like. That fact makes the sight of the morning dew or the inumberable stars on the sky all the more humbling. Comparing to them, the beauty of youth only lasts for the blink of one eye. That's why it's so precious. But you still have time. Don't let yourself wilt, still afflicted by your own curse. It would be too sad. I know you feel guilty that you couldn't save your mother. But it's time to forgive yourself. You've suffered too much.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After the royal army's attack, Belle no longer can go back to her village, at risk of being tortured or killed for her involvement with the Beast (even if she returned, she would have to live all alone in the same house she was imprisoned for years), which motivates him to employ her as his seamstress. Neither his sister or servants are happy with that.
[[/folder]]
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Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost, also known as Beauty and the Beast in the Fallen Garden(Rakuen no Bijo to Yajū) is a terror retelling of [[Literature/BeautyandtheBeast Beauty and the Beast]]. Its author, Creator/KaoriYuki, is very known by her morally ambiguous characters and dark mangas(Manga/CountCain, Alice in the Murderland). And, of course, Lost Paradise is not different. However, the dark twists are not there just ForTheEvulz: the manga discusses trauma caused by DomesticAbuse and the dictatorship of beauty. Paradise Lost was serialized by Kodansha in 2019, with a hiatus in 2020, when Kaori Yuki had to be hospitalized because of a serious disease. Fortunately, she recovered throughout 2021, and concluded Paradise Lost in October of the same year.
Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster. Laetitia hurriedly pushes Belle into the river and is kidnapped; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found in the river wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!
The newcomer has no interest on Belle, but she suspects that this new beast must be the monster who kidnapped her mother. Not having another clues or someone else to turn, she gets a job as his seamstress, in a magical castle full of mysteries... like a beautiful sleeping woman who is also called Belle.
Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster. Laetitia hurriedly pushes Belle into the river and is kidnapped; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found in the river wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!
The newcomer has no interest on Belle, but she suspects that this new beast must be the monster who kidnapped her mother. Not having another clues or someone else to turn, she gets a job as his seamstress, in a magical castle full of mysteries... like a beautiful sleeping woman who is also called Belle.
to:
Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster. Laetitia hurriedly pushes Belle into the river and is kidnapped; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found in the river wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!
The newcomer has no interest on Belle, but she suspects that this new beast must be the monster who kidnapped her mother. Not having another clues or someone else to turn, she gets a job as his seamstress, in a magical castle full of mysteries... like a beautiful sleeping woman who is also called Belle.
