Literature / Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere

Just an ordinary student council tasked to rule the country, protect the people, and save the world

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon) is a set of school fantasy light novels written by Minoru Kawakami and illustrated by Satoyasu, which was published under the Dengeki Bunko label from 2008 to 2018 for 29 volumes. It has been adapted to an anime produced by Sunrise Studio 8 and a manga which ran in Dengeki Daioh.

In the 20th century, it was discovered that there were ten universes parallel to our own, called Gears. Each Gear had their own fantastical races and laws of nature called Concepts. When it was found that the eleven Gears were destined to collide and destroy each other, the other ten Gears were destroyed and their Concepts were incorporated into our own. Using these new laws, mankind and the other races were able to uplift themselves to the state of gods, leaving behind a used and barren Earth. Before leaving, they activated three machines called the Elemental Gods to repair the planet in the event it was needed again. With that, they ascended to Heaven to live among the stars.

Unfortunately, even with their power and enlightenment, war would once more break out between the uplifted races. The war caused the deaths of most of the populace, destroyed the laws of causality, and forced the survivors to return to Earth. The Elemental Gods had repaired the planet, but had done so too well: The planet was now overgrown and inhospitable towards life. Through the power of their Emperor, the Japanese islands were cultivated to once more become livable, and were renamed the Divine States. For a time the survivors bickered and warred with each other despite their precarious predicament, until they began to implement the policy of History Recreation.

Using the Testament, a book connected directly to the concept of fate, the survivors could manipulate the Concepts to retrace their steps and rediscover the secret to their lost divinity by re-enacting history. In order to facilitate this, history was split into East and West and staged in different areas: Eastern history would be recreated in the Divine States, while Western history would be recreated in a pocket dimension made by the Emperor called the Harmonic Divine States. Starting from 10,000 BC, the system worked well to stop pointless wars by making skirmishes pre-determined, in line with historical battles. Tragedy wouldn't strike again until 1413 AD during Japan's Nanboku-chou Wars, when the three Regalia of Japan which the Emperor was using to maintain the Harmonic Divine States disappeared.

Without the Regalia, the Harmonic Divine States collapsed onto the real world, severely damaging the planet as well as over-writing over small areas of reality. The Harmonic States banded together and invaded the Divine States in retaliation, conquering them. As penance for destroying the Harmonic Divine States, the locals had their lands stripped from them, were barred from forming a standing army, and had their power limited to only what was needed for History Recreation. In order to continue on, each nation would take on both Eastern and Western history simultaneously. The countries as they are now each represent a European country active in the 30 Years War, as well as a daimyou in Japan's Sengoku era.

The Testament, which is supposed to update automatically and show recorded events up to 100 years in the future, abruptly stopped updating in 1548. This is assumed to mean one thing: in 1648, something will happen that will destroy the concept of fate, destroying the universe. The deadline is approaching fast, with no clear plan in place besides P.A. ODA's mysterious Genesis Project. The story begins on the Far East's only remaining "land", the Quasi-Bahamut Aerial City-Ship Musashi, and centers around its Student Council, led by their president Toori "Impossible" Aoi. When an automated doll resembling Toori's deceased childhood friend, Horizon Ariadust, appears on the ship, the stage is set as he prepares to pick a fight with the rest of the world to get back her lost emotions and save the world from the impending apocalypse.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere is chronologically the fourth entry of six in author Minoru Kawakami's universe, though the entries haven't been produced in that order.

The animated adaptation of the first volume produced by Sunrise began airing in the Fall 2011 season, with the manga starting publication at the same time. The second season began broadcasting in Summer 2012. The series is licensed by Sentai Filmworks, and is available online at Crunchyroll.

Baka-Tsuki has an active translation project for the novels The Ending Chronicle, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Clash of Hexennacht, CITY Series, On a Godless Planet and Rapid Fire King.

Note: Some spoilers for the light novels are here!

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Provides examples of:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: This series set the trope on a new level as every nation here is ruled by a student council.
• Action Girl: Most of the girls are competent and strong fighters in some way or another.
• Adaptation Distillation: The anime adaptation covers the entirety of the initial four books from the light novels. It leaves no major event behind, but it excludes and compresses lengthy elements like conversations between minor characters and world exposition.
• Adults Are Useless: Subverted. All students in Musashi must graduate when they are 18 but everywhere else have no age limit to graduate. So, in Musashi the adults is forbidden to actual battle but allowed to give support. Everywhere else adults, i.e. Pope Innocentius, can join battle.
• After the End: The setting is a far future in which Earthlings were forced to abandon a devastated Earth and travel to outer space, only for an intergalactic war to force them to return to Earth even though Japan is the only country with a hospitable environment. In order to recover the lost knowledge needed for space travel, Earthlings are reenacting human history according to the Holy Book Testament.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Musashi, formal name Interconnected-Type Quasi-Bahamut-Class Flying City-Ship Musashi, is a Quasi-Bahamut-class vessel in which the independent territory of the same name is housed. It primarily serves as a flying city, with many basic functions such as residential, commercial, administrative and industrial areas located within the eight individual ships that compose the Musashi.
• Alien Sky: In the setting's future version of Earth, there are two moons in the sky; the original one and one made of ether.
• All Men Are Perverts: Most of the male characters in the cast have high libido and perverted behaviors, especially Toori. The first anime opening brings attention to this by showing Class Plum's male students eagerly looking at Tenzo's porn magazine.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Several of the Ten Spears of P.A. ODA that oppose Musashi several times through the light novels are actually the future children of some students of Class Plum. They came from a Bad Future where the world was destroyed and their parents died. Their main motive is to Set Right What Once Went Wrong with a Well-Intentioned Extremist plan to save the world in the current timeline, but they're also taking out their anger against their young parents for leaving them alone in a post-apocalyptic world.
• Bad Future: Turns out the Apocalypse already happened in another timeline. In that future, Toori and Horizon died when the latter couldn't be saved from execution. Destiny continued to commit suicide which resulted in the world being destroyed. The only survivors were the children of a few members of Class Plum, who then traveled to the past in order to prevent the Apocalypse this time around. Most of them joined P.A. ODA to serve as members of the Ten Spears under Toukichirou Hashiba.
• Badass Boast: S2 E12, by Musashi's students:
  We have already been punished by the Testament Union! We must carry the possibilities of our King, and the emotions of our Princess! But we must never give our King or Princess cause for grief!
  • And Tres España's response:
  We're saturated with our own downfall! The empire where the sun never sets declares to the nation where the sun never rises: We are invincible! Victory will be ours! Glory will be ours!
• Balanced Harem: Horizon is Toori's only love interest in the early volumes, but she eventually invites Asama and Nate to form a harem for Toori because his magic contract will kill him if he ever gets sad and she wants him to have more lovers who can give him the emotional support he needs to stay happy all the time. Although they initially held back because of Toori's love for Horizon, Asama and Nate gradually stop repressing their feelings for Toori and he reciprocates. While Horizon is still the main heroine, Toori gives Asama and Nate the same amount of attention and love as he does for Horizon.
• Battle Couple: Margot and Malga, the lesbian witch couple known together as Zwei Frauen. They're Musashi's main offensive air force.
• Battle Harem: The three members of Toori's official harem are the Robot Girl Horizon, who can wield all of the Deadly Sin Armaments, the archer Miko Asama, and the half-werewolf knight Nate.
• BFS: The swords are huge.
• Big Damn Hug: In Episode 12 of Season 1, Toori and Horizon are trapped inside a mental space that was going to disintegrate them if Toori doesn't deny his "sin" of causing Horizon's accidental death when they were children. They break free from the barrier when Horizon convinces Toori that her childhood self never blamed him for what happened to her and she accepts to take Toori's hand. Toori then pulls Horizon into an embrace as both return to reality alive.
• Bridal Carry:
  • In the first episode of Season 2, Toori falls into Tenzou's arms and has to be carried by him this way. Tenzou feels outraged that the first person he carried in his arms was a naked man.
  • Luckily for Tenzou, he gets to carry Mary in his arms like this after he saves her from her execution.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Class 3-Plum, bordering Ragtag Bunch of Misfits each of them has distinct notable character and has their own quirks.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • Toori and Horizon were childhood friends, but the latter's tragic death separated them for years. As a teenager, Toori meets Horizon again after she's been resurrected as an automaton and he falls in love with her. Horizon reciprocates as she slowly gains back her human emotions.
  • Asama and Nate, who are also Toori's childhood friends, are in love with him. They thought they didn't have a chance with him because he loves Horizon, until Horizon tells them she's perfectly willing to share Toori with them. Asama and Nate eventually come to terms with their love for Toori, and he's more than happy to take them as his lovers.
• Cloning Splits Attributes: By stabbing himself with his gravity sword, Walter can use the gravity to spread his molecules out, splitting himself into two bodies. Because his body is just spread out over a wider area, each clone body is less dense than when he has a single body, and he still only has a single consciousness controlling both clones, so it's noted by Tenzou to be a difficult technique that's easy to disrupt. While Walter was able to duel Futayo, one of the strongest students from Musashi, to a standstill using a single body, using his clone technique he was easily overwhelmed by Milton, a small talking crow.
• Cool vs. Awesome: Episode 9 showcases the fight between Futayo Honda and Kimi Aoi in an Acid-Trip Dimension where Futayo uses her Tonbokiri spear and Kimi simply utilizes dancing. All of this is done to a club house remix of P-01s' Leitmotif. Definitely much better than it sounds.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Kazuno delivers one to a God of War in episode 5.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • Futayo allies with Musashi after Kimi snaps her out of her indecision whether to aid Horizon Ariadust or not.
  • Muneshige Tachibana and Gin Tachibana, near the end of the second part of volume two.
• Diegetic Visual Effects: Whenever Toori gets naked, a sign frame always appears over his crotch. Although it seems to be just a stylized Censor Box, it actually appears in universe as part of his contract with the god of entertainment, allowing him to include nudity in his comedy routines without worrying about public indecency.
• Divided for Publication: All volumes are divided in chapters, some in two while others are in three, but keeps the same numbering.
• Doorstopper: While the series is made of "light" novels, the novels aren't that light as you can see here◊ ^note starting from the far right side and the lower half, the first row of novels are actually The Ending Chronicle, another series by Minoru which is loosely connected to this series, and also got "heavier" as it progressed.. For a quick comparison, all books that compose The Lord of the Rings amount to 1178 pages; the second volume of Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (Shita Chp.) is 1152 pages long.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Toori is on the receiving end of these a lot, although it's usually justified in that he's often making sexist remarks to female characters such as his teacher. He is also immune to damage (though not pain) from women thanks to the contract with his god, so long as it's part of a gag.
• Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Toori Aoi uses a more subtle version of this to change Horizon's mind when he rescues her.
• Emotionless Girl: Automated dolls lack human emotion, given they're really machines. P-01s/Horizon is a special case since she possesses a human soul, but her emotions were removed and distributed among the Deadly Sin Armaments.
• Emotions vs. Stoicism: Toori and Horizon have this conflict, highlighted in their debate near the end of Season 1. He's cheerful, optimistic and makes his decisions based on his emotions and instincts. She's an emotionless machine who makes her decisions completely based on logic. Toori has to resort to Reverse Psychology to get to some sort of agreement between them.
• Excalibur: In England, there's the legendary sword Excalibur, but is represented as two swords: one called the "Excalibur Caliburn" and the other the "Excalibur Collbrande" ("Collbrande" being a variant on the spelling of the mythological Caliburn).
• Fallen Angel: A subspecies of black-winged angels that betrayed God long ago. Between the three common angelic subspecies, they are the ones with the most potential but as they have a feeble constitution, the usage of abilities causes them a backlash with negative influence on their own bodies.
• Fanservice: Most of the female cast are buxom beauties who get lots of Male Gaze.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: In this future, you can easily find robots, deities, elves, fairies, werewolves, angels, demons, witches, ninjas, dragons, ghosts and so on.
• Floating Continent: Originally in the Harmonic Divine States, England was Tsushima island. As it was really small, they raised earth crust from the bottom of the sea and established themselves in a floating piece of land.
• The Four Gods: The Four Divine Gods of War: Jizuri-Suzaku, Michiyuki-Byakko, Seiryuu-Bushin and Hidamari-Genbu.
• Four Is Death: GENESIS is time period four of The 'Verse and the time when the apocalypse is supposed to happen.
• Functional Magic: Through the use of a Mouse, characters can access the Ley Lines and extract ether from inside to create ether fuel necessary to perform magic abilities and spells, as well as using Divine Weapons or Testamenta Arma.
• Future Slang: "Judge"^note Judgement and "Tes"^note Testament. They're used as a confirmation of an action, such as responding to a question or confirming an order from authority, much like the Japanese "Hai" is used as a formal "Yes".
• Gingerbread House: The Reine des Garous Turenne's former home is a candy house located in the middle of a forest in Hexagone Française.
• Great Offscreen War: The Harmonic Unification War was a war between the real world and the Harmonic World that occurred after the collision between the Divine States and the Harmonic Realm. It lasted 31 years, from 1457 to 1488 TE. After the war, the Divine States were split amongst the Harmonic Divine States, and a small portion was allotted for the Divine States, whose name was later changed to the Far East. The establishment of the Testament Union would later place the Far East under provisional rule.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The conflict between Musashi and the Harmonic Divine States. Each of the Harmonic Divine States has custody of one of the Deadly Sin Armaments that contain Horizon Ariadust's emotions and Musashi wants to retrieve them to give Horizon her emotions back and to save the world from the apocalypse, since Horizon has the power to operate all of the eight the Deadly Sin Armaments at once. However, the Harmonic Divine States don't want to hand over the Armaments since it could endanger the current balance of the world and History Recreation. Several of the characters of the Harmonic Divine States, such as Tres España and England, are shown to be fairly decent people outside of battle.
• Groin Attack: Toori getting hit in the groin is a Running Gag.
• Half-Identical Twins: From the Date clan, Masamune and Kojirou were born twins. Masamune is a girl and Kojirou is a boy, but they still look nearly identical to each other.
• Happily Married: This series has several example like Tachibana Gin and Munechige, Fusae Era and Takakane Hironaka, and Kazuno and Tadakatsu Honda.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Thanks to Magitek, it's possible for people of the same sex to have children through combined samples of their DNA, like hair. The lesbian couple Margot and Malga are planning to do this in the future. Later in the light novels, they meet their daughters from the future who were born through the process mentioned. There's also Masanori Fukushima, who was also born in the future from two women in Class Plum, Futayo and (very implied) Masazumi.
• Humongous Mecha: Gods of War; while typically fielded by the Testament Union, Naomasa of the Engineering Club at Musashi Ariadust Academy has fixed up an old one for her personal use.
• Hybrids Are a Crapshoot: Elves can live upwards of a thousand years, so they age and mature slowly. Half-elves, elf-human hybrids, age mentally at the same rate as elves but physically at the same rate as humans, so most half-elves never develop beyond the mental capacity of children. The few exceptions are more akin to child geniuses than adults.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Minor case regarding Nate's (or "Neito's") correct romanization of her name: while The Anime Network uses the latter, the original novel spelled her name in unadulterated English using the former.
• Kid from the Future: Most members of the Ten Spears in P.A. ODA are Class Plum's children from the Bad Future. Nagayasu Hirano, Takenori Kasuya and Katsumoto Katagiri are Toori's children by Asama, Nate and Suzu respectively, Kiyomasa Katou is the daughter of Tenzou and Mary, Yoshiaki Katou and Yasuharu Wakisaka are the daughters of Margot and Malga, and Masanori Fukushima is the daughter of Futayo (and possibly Masazumi). In addition, the teacher of Class Plum, Makiko Oriotorai, is the future daughter of Toori and Horizon with Kimi having acted as her surrogate mother.
• Kissing Cousins: Futayo says that if she had to marry someone, she would choose her second cousin Masazumi. It's Played for Laughs since Futayo obviously doesn't have a good grasp on what marriage is. Funnily enough, Masanori Fukushima is their Kid from the Future, although it's unclear what was Futayo and Masazumi's relationship in that timeline.
• Kissing Discretion Shot:
  • When Toori and Horizon kiss at the end of the first season, the camera zooms out and we only see Horizon from the back.
  • Same thing happens when Tenzo and Mary share their True Love's Kiss in Episode 11 of Season 2.
• Layered World: In this future, Earth is inhospitable except for Japan. Originally, the Divine States occupied most of the land of Japan, while Another Dimension, called the Harmonic Realm, was constructed for the rest of the human population. But in the year 1413 of the Testament Era, a magic relic was lost and the Harmonic Realm collided with the Divine States. This began the Harmonic Unification War where the population of the Harmonic Realm invaded and conquered Japan, renaming it as the Harmonic Divine States.
• Ley Line: Earth Pulses are paths that supplies Ether to the earth and space with a similar function as human blood vessels.
• Like Cannot Cut Like: In episode five, during Tadakatsu Honda and Muneshige fight's, Honda's Tonbokiri and Muneshige's Lypē Katathlipsē canceled each other's attack because the former is the prototype of the latter.
• Loads and Loads of Races:
  • Our Angels Are Different: Also known as the Celestials. Their wings can be used for flight, spreading the wings and accumulating air within them to glide through the air and land and by ejecting the compressed air can even perform something closer to midair jump or a jet acceleration, achieving a way of flying far fiercer than the mere wingbeats of a bird. Due to the hereditary impressive Ability capabilities they hold, the angels serve in sacred temples and are known as the "Messengers of God". There are two types of angel; the Fallen Angels and the Descended Angels.
  • Our Elves Are Different: Elves are known for their elegance, higher power output, agility and slower aging process of their bodies. Their main distinguishable trait is their long Pointy Ears. Their ability to live for up to a thousand years makes them important people in the system of History Recreation, as they can inherit many names and hold influential positions thanks to their extended lifespans.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: When someone who dies still linger to life and there is some kind of regret, the soul remains on the world as a residual shaped existence, with their principal component being only ether. It is difficult to identify someone as a ghost due to their appearance being the same as they when they were alive. Their only distinction is that some of their body parts are blurred (mainly the legs). Physical attacks don't work on them, as the blow goes through the ether, but they are able to carry and stand on physical objects. They can eat victuals but require to be consecrated before. There are three main types of ghost, the Floating-type, Suicide-type and the ghosts those who wished to be like this, the Reassigned-types.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Mermaids are a race of fish humanoids that lives under the water. Like the legendary creature of the same name, their upper body is that of a human and the tail of a fish.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolves are spiritual entities that absorb and eat other beings. They never age, always keeping their best physical conditions, have the ability to repel attacks with their ether-based defenses and their superhuman strength is similar to the one of the Gods. They can show their true forms as complete monsters under the light of the full moon, easily surpassing the combative capabilities of the human world dwellers.
  • Robot Girl: The automated dolls are robots shaped like women, usually used to work as maids.
  • Wolf Man: The Half-Wolves, a race of wolfmen human-eating beings, fusion between a wolf or humanoid wolf with a human being, as it seems there are two patterns of human-wolf amalgamation.
• Long-Lived: Elves, a race of people who can live for hundreds of years.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Every single woman; how much "mage" or "warrior" there is depends on the person and their abilities.
• Magic by Any Other Name: The magic-like powers and Magitek in the setting run on what characters call Ether.
• Magitek: All advanced technology in the setting, from the flying ships to the automatons, are powered with magic (or Ether as they call it).
• Marry Them All: Polygamy is perfectly acceptable in the setting because having concubines in addition to a Top Wife is validated by the history recreation. The light novels start building up towards this resolution when Horizon proposes Asama and Nate that the three of them should form a harem for Toori because she wants the other two girls to help her keep Toori from ever getting sad (his magic contract will kill him if that happens), and her greatest wish is for Toori and herself to be surrounded by people who are close like family to them. Asama and Nate are reluctant when Horizon first proposes the Polyamory, but they eventually give in and Toori is more than happy to have them. Toori eventually consummates his relationships with Horizon, Asama, and Nate, and thanks to Time Travel, he already has a fully-grown daughter with each one of them (plus a son with Suzu, although she isn't part of the harem).
• Marshmallow Hell: In the final episode of Season 2, Margot and Malga use a new move in which Malga ends up pressed against Margot's breasts. Malga admits it feels good.
• A Mech by Any Other Name: The Humongous Mecha are called Gods of War.
• My Greatest Failure: Weaponized by the barrier surrounding Horizon's holding cell while awaiting her suicide, which forces anyone touching it to relive their greatest sin, and, unless they manage to completely deny it, disintegrates them.
• Named After Somebody Famous: As the current date being reproduced is during the Sengoku era, many characters have names either reminiscent or precisely those of important players in the era.
• Official Couple: There's multiple confirmed canon couples from early on; Toori Aoi and Horizon Ariadust, Margot Naito and Malga Naruze, Shirojiro Bertoni and Heidi Augesvarer, Muneshige and Gin, Tenzo and Mary. Later volumes of the novels add more couples, such as Kiyonari Ulquiaga getting paired with Narumi Date, as well as Noriki with Ujinao Houjou.
• One Cast Member per Cover: Each novel cover features a female member of the cast. The only exception is Volume 10-B featuring both Malga and Margot. Only the titular heroine Horizon has two covers (on Volumes 1-A and 11-C).
• One World Order: The Harmonic Divine States and their academies/governments are under the leadership of the Testament Union, organization which oversees the process of the History Recreation dictated by the Testament.
• Opposites Attract: The main couple are the Keet Toori and the Emotionless Girl Horizon.
• Parental Abandonment: Many characters lost one or both parent, i.e. Honda Futayo, Nesshin Tousshinbara, Horizon Ariadust. Some are still alive, but being The Ghost like Aoi siblings' father.
• Patron God: Kimi's patron goddess is Uzume, the Japanese goddess of celebrations, parties, and eroticism. Everything Kimi does, from her makeup, to the way she walks, and the way she dresses acts as an offering to Uzume. In exchange, Uzume fulfills Kimi's wish that, "The only ones who can touch me are those I wish to wither away for", turning Kimi into a untouchable Stone Wall protected by a seemingly endless series of barriers, particularly while she's singing and dancing to increase the value of her offerings.
• Pocket Dimension: Avalon is a space created in England to research the artificial Apocalypse.
• Polyamory: Later in the light novels, Horizon tells Asama and Nate that she's open to share Toori with them, reasoning that they can support each other and make sure Toori always stays happy, since feeling sad will literally kill him because of his magic contract. Although initially surprised by Horizon's proposal, Asama and Nate eventually accept their own love for Toori and he's happy to take them as his lovers with Horizon's approval. After Nate loses her house in a battle, Asama and Nate move in with Toori, Horizon and Kimi, forming a dynamic with Toori as the husband, Horizon as the Top Wife, Asama and Nate as the concubines, and Kimi as the girls' sister-in-law.
• Punched Across the Room: Happens to Toori in episode 6 of season 1 after he makes some sexist remarks about his teacher. Hilariously he goes through the wall of their class, and he ends up in the room next door.
• Rescued from the Underworld: Near the end of the light novels, Toori violates the rules of his contract by crying. This is in fact done on purpose so Asama and Nate can bring him back from the spirit world. The two then have sex with his soul 1501 times to let him return to the world of the living.
• Robosexual: The main romance is between the human male Toori and the female automated doll P-01s aka Horizon Ariadust.
• Scenery Porn: The anime adaptation has very high-quality sceneries and backgrounds. Even the CG portions look amazing.
• Schizo Tech: The series blends modern (and extremely advanced, futuristic) technology with 13th-16th century Japanese architecture.
• Screw Destiny: Deconstructed. Turns out the real cause of the Apocalypse is destiny trying to screw itself. During the Age of Dawn, humanity created a personality for destiny, but it couldn't stand seeing all the death caused by tragedy and wars. Thus, Destiny eventually began slowly killing itself in a process that became known as the Apocalypse.
• Sensual Spandex: The female clothing of choice in the setting are ridiculously skintight bodysuits.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Crops up in the form of the 9 Armor of Deadly Sins. In an unusual twist, "sloth" is split into two halves representing "anguish" and "dejection", while "vanity" is an extension of "pride". According to Motonobu Matsudaira, all of the original eight pieces, and thus, the Seven Deadly Sins themselves, ascended from the discontinued Armor "Envy", the operating system housed within P-01s aka Horizon Ariadust.
• Sex Magic: There is a ceremony to resurrect the dead that needs someone of the living to travel into the spirit world and have sex with the spirit of the dead person 1501 times. This is exactly what Asama and Nate do to bring Toori back to life in one of the final volumes of the light novel.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the anime, Kimi is seen reading a magazine with the cover featuring Diana Zonburg from The Ending Chronicle.
  • While held prisoner by the K.P.A. Italia, Horizon reads a magazine about metal songs and style. The metalhead on the cover is a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Krauser II from Detroit Metal City.
  • There's a very obvious Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Quest shout out in episode 9 of the second season.
• Showgirl Skirt: Crescent-shaped skirts combined with Sensual Spandex are the standard female school uniform in the Harmonic Divine States' academies.
• Sleep Cute: Toori and Horizon fall sleep together while holding hands at the end of Season 1.
• Song of Prayer: The "Song of Passage" is a popular folk song in the Far East the begs the gods in heaven for safe passage despite one's fears. Kimi makes particular use of it as part of her abilities as a Dance Battler, using the song and her dance as offerings to her Patron God to become an unstoppable fortress so long as she keeps dancing and singing.
• Thanks for the Mammary: It doesn't matter what someone's archetype is in this series, because they'll be able to abuse the setting's Sufficiently Advanced Science to be badass. Kimi, a dancer, is literally untouchable in combat. Shirojiro, a merchant, can fight giant robots with his bare hands. Toori, a fool, is a bottomless energy well. Neshinbara, an author, can make anything happen just by writing it. And they're the support types. Armed characters will do anything from be a shield, to cut anything they want, to summon legions of the undead instantly, to ground flying ships in single blows, and anything in between.
  • Toori gropes the breasts of his own teacher in the very first episode.
  • In Episode 4, he gropes Nate's breasts after Kimi tricks her into letting him do it.
• Their First Time: Volume 9-A has Toori and Horizon's first time. It's completely Played for Laughs with Horizon literally jumping on Toori with a somersault senton, Toori getting disappointed when Horizon can't even feel the penetration because of her automaton body's sensory block against pain, and due to an accident caused by Asama, the entire sex scene gets a live audio broadcast to all their classmates.
• Themed Harem: Toori has a small harem formed by three of his childhood friends, Horizon, Asama and Nate.
• The 'Verse: Horizon is the series that takes place in the GENESIS era of Kawakami's universe. It's the distant future of The Ending Chronicle (AHEAD era) and On a Godless Planet (EDGE era), as well as the distant past of Clash of Hexennacht (OBSTACLE era) and the CITY era series.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Deadly Sin Armaments. Each one is said to have the power to destroy an entire city.
• Wham Episode: Episode 5 in season 1, when Motonobu causes a reactor meltdown in Mikawa, and reveals that P-01s is Horizon Ariadust and has an Armor of Deadly Sins in her.
• Winged Humanoid: There's a race of angelic beings with feathered wings. Margot and Malga are the recurring examples.
• World of Badass: It doesn't matter what someone's archetype is, because they'll be able to abuse the setting's Sufficiently Advanced Science to be badass.
• World of Buxom: The series is sort of infamous for the ridiculously large boobs of quite a few female characters. Even without having the biggest breasts, many of the women are still well-endowed. Hell, even the Humongous Mechas have large breasts.

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