Kairos is the moment to seize. The decisive point when everything changes. That fraction of a second that can change a destiny. Whoever masters Kairos is invincible.
Kairos is a French comic book written by Ulysse Malassagne. It follows the story of Nills and Anaëlle, a young couple who goes to stay at an old house where Anaëlle used to live. In the middle of the night, creatures come through the fireplace of the house and take Anaëlle away to a strange world, and Nills follows them in to save his love.
Kairos was released on April 25, 2013, with the final book released January 30, 2015.
Provides Examples of
- Action Girl: Anaëlle gets kidnapped by dragons, but not before giving them a good old-fashioned butt kicking; dragons.
- Action Mom: The Queen of the dragons. She is shown to have great skill with magic, and even uses it to fight.
- Ambiguous Situation: At the beginning of the comic, Nills and Anaëlle seem to be in a light "situationship" though weather they are/were a couple or weather Anaëlle saw him as just a friend is left unanswered. By the end of the comic however any remote chance of the two somehow reconciling their differences and being together get drowned is blood and violence on Nills's part.
- An Aesop: To paraphrase Kuma: "The hardest thing for a knight is not to slay a thousand dragons for his princess :it's knowing that no matter what he does, she does not belong to him.
- Anaëlle delivers one towards the end, telling Nils that before loving someone else, one must learn to love themselves first.
- On a deeper or a more meta level: Any relationship must be based on a mutual understanding and communication between the partners. Nills rushing ahead without thinking or trying to understand Anaëlle's situation definitely ruined whatever chance of rapport he may have had with her and vice versa.
- Badass Adorable: The little dragon girl is unfazed by the prison break, and even taunts the guards.
- Badass and Child Duo: Nills and the little dragon girl.
- Badass Normal: Even before he began his gradual transformation, the General remarks on how incredible that Nills survived going through the portal to their world. According to him, humans don't normally survive.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Anaëlle does this when a dragon is about to kill Nills.
- Bit-by-Bit Transformation: If you look closely at the trailer/concept art and comic, this seems to be happening to Nills. Why he's transforming or what he's turning in to has yet to be revealed.
- Book Ends: The story begins with Nils and Anaëlle arriving at the cottage and finding the key to the house. The story ends with Nils returning the key to its hiding place and leaving the cottage, albeit alone.
- Deconstruction: The entire series ultimately deconstructs the entire concept of a knight saving the princess from dragons. For one, our "knight" Nils steadily becomes monstrous as the series goes on. Our "princess" Anaëlle never asked to be saved in the first place, and the dragons are her people.
- Dull Surprise: Kuma lampshades that Nils is exceptionally unfazed for an ordinary human who stumbled upon the dragons and their world.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Anaëlle tries to open the door to get inside, Nils simply uses his head and tries the back door and opening the front door from the inside. In the process, Anaëlle's bashing her way inside mildly injure Nils. In a reversal of their roles, it's Nils who's bashing his way to get "inside" the castle, whilst Anaëlle gets in the easy way and uses her head to fix the problem. And this time, he's the one who unintentionally "hurts" Anaëlle (by killing her family).
- Anaëlle's insistence on maintaining her independence clashes with Nils' request that they live together as a couple. Their differing views hints that things won't turn out well by the end of the quest.
- Nills stabbing the dragon captain in the eye when he suspects he'll harm Anaëlle. This hints that not only is Nils capable of combat but also his Blood Knight tendency towards protecting her.
- Ghibli Hills: The house is in the middle of a picturesque forest, and much of the setting is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli's style.
- Go for the Eye: Nills does this to the dragon who is trying to kidnap Anaëlle. The result is Eye Scream.
- Heel Realization: Before he's sent home, Nils admits to Kuma that the latter was right about the former allowing his rage to control him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In trying to pushily advance their relationship and later so desperately save Anaëlle, Nills actually pushes her away from himself and essentially shatters whatever slim chance he had with her in the first place.
- Icon of Rebellion: Nills becomes this to the oppressed citizens of the kingdom.
- I Choose to Stay: Anaëlle willingly choses to remain in Dragon World since it is her home and she intends to end the monarchy in favor of a democratic system. Nills on the other hand *has* to go back to human world since turning into a Dragon is apparently lethal for humans, then there's the fact that by the end he is basically a mass-murderer.
- Internal Reveal: It isn't until towards the ending of Book 2 that Nils learns his kidnapped girlfriend Anaëlle and the returned princess are one and the same.
- Let Them Die Happy: Towards the end, a weakened Koyot asks Nils if the latter found Anaëlle. Nils answers that he did, leaving out that his quest didn't end as he hoped. To this answer, Koyot responds with a content "All's well that ends well", before he dies from blood loss.
- Noble Fugitive: Anaëlle was hiding in the human world.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The dragons are more humanoid than traditional dragons. They walk on two feet, have hands, and even wear clothes like humans.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Anaëlle gets one in the third installment[1]
. It also appears to be a Battle Ballgown. - Puny Earthlings: The dragon queen does not have a too high of an opinion when it comes to humans, regarding them as limited beings blind to the greater truths of the universe and magic. The regular dragonfolk seem to be a bit more neutral and amicable.
- Rebellious Princess: Anaëlle ran away to the human world because she was expected by tradition to marry against her will.
- Rescue Romance: Averted. One can sense that Nils was hoping that rescuing Anaëlle would somehow earn her love. But given her fierce wish for independence, it ultimately doesn't work out that way.
- Royal Blood: The reason why Anaëlle got dragged back to the dragon realm is because she is the only one fit to rule due to this.
- Rule of Symbolism: When Nils returns to the human world, he is still a dragon man with literal blood on his hands and it's winter outside the cottage. By the time spring arrives, he's a human again, apparently ready to start over and move on with his life.
- Secretly Selfish: Anaëlle accuses Nils of this when he claims his killing the royal family was all for her. She points out that, in his rage, he was only thinking of himself.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Nils kills Anaëlle's parents and brother, she is not won over. Even if they were evil tyrants who ruled the land with an iron fist, they were still her family.
- That Man Is Dead: Inverted. Anaëlle points out that Nils isn't the same humble man she left behind in the human world. And she's not too far off.
- Trapped in Another World: Another trope deconstruction - while Nills more or less willingly hurled himself through the fireplace portal after Anaëlle, she herself was neither technically trapped or in another world since the Dragon World is her home and she is the next (and last) in line to the throne and rulership of it.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: The Dragon Kingdom is the "Inside", whereas our world is the "Outside". A couple days in the Dragon World can equate to months. This is evidenced when the little dragon girl comments that Anaëlle has grown quickly after being gone from their kingdom for a relatively short while. Meanwhile, Nils returns to our world while it's winter. Bear in mind, it was summer when he left.
- You Monster!: When Nills and Anaëlle meet up again, she basically gives him this, because his rage literally turned him into a dragon, and he killed her brother and parents.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Downplayed. Kuma implies to a humbled Nils that just as Koyot viewed the young man's quest as noble, Kuma too thought his intentions were somewhat noble. At least in the beginning. It's also played straight when he offers words of comfort that Nils is capable of moving on with his life without Anaëlle.
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Nills is disturbed when he finds out that Anaëlle is being forced to marry her own father to inherit the throne. The Queen states that the dragons have different morals than humans, and that this is necessary.
