The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP! (Hibon Heibon Shabon!) is a shojo fantasy series by Nao Wakasa. Originally a Web Serial Novel released on Shousetsuka ni Narou from 2015 to 2016, it was later published as a series of Light Novels from 2016 to 2017 for three volumes with illustrations by Ica. The novels are translated into English by J-Novel Club and fully released in April 2020.
In a Standard Fantasy Setting where everyone has one spell unique to them, young laundrymaid Lucia works at the royal castle. Her concerns are mundane ones: friends, debt repayment, and chatting to that cute knight who visits on sunny days. Even her spell seems mundane: all it does is conjure up a bubbly fluid that can clean anything...
...including, it turns out, the human soul.
Unfortunately, Lucia's "Soap" is needed for more than just laundry. The Cristallo Sacro that support her world have been corrupted, and the Sacred Maiden summoned from another world to purify them needs all the help she can get. Even worse, this cycle's Maiden- the Troubled, but Cute teenager Maria Nishime- is not happy about being yanked away from everything she knew and loved.
Therefore, the king decrees that Lucia must accompany Maria on her quest to purify the Cristallo Sacro.
This series contains the following tropes:
- Brick Joke: In one of Celes' POV chapters, he explains that the soldiers nicknamed Lucia "Soap Bubble Saint" after her magic inspired them to fight off a dragon. A chapter later, Lucia is confused when someone actually calls her that to her face.
- Dramatic Irony: Celes comforts himself with the thought that, while he's out fighting monsters for the kingdom, his Love Interest will be safe at home. Less than a week after he's left, an army of monsters attacks the city she's in.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: A social example. The adventuring party has been working like hell to placate Maria, who only treats them like shit in return....then Lucia joins them a few days later and gets better results in a hour than they have in months. When Lucia asks why they hate Maria so much, an extremely irritated Eric replies, (paraphrased) "If you had been through what we have, you would understand." A Justified Trope in that nobody can force a friendship to happen, and that compatible personalities count for something. Also, Lucia is the only person that doesn't have ulterior motives for being nice to Maria, which the latter immediately recognizes.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: "Soap" basically generates happiness. No brainwashing, no cost, no prerequisites: it just makes you feel better, no matter how awful your situation is. Lucia's superiors govern her usage of it carefully to prevent addictions.
- Hopeless War: There is no hope of winning against the Sacro's monsters, only of purifying the Sacro before humanity gets annihilated. Extremely powerful warriors or large battalions can slay monsters, but there aren't nearly enough of either to protect the world.
- Idiot Hero: Lucia is fairly stupid, not seeing through Celes' Real Name as an Alias, completely misunderstanding his feelings (both romantic and otherwise), and readily trusting shady strangers. If not for the other members of the party guiding her, she would have ended up shanked in an alleyway.
- Innocently Insensitive: Lucia didn't like breaking off her friendship with Celes after she found out who he really was, but internalized classism is a hell of a thing.
- Light Is Good:
- Both spells of the Purification type are extremely shiny: "Light Arrow" summons a blindingly radiant spear that incinerates evil, and "Soap" summons pearlescent bubbles that reflect any light in the vicinity.
- Lucia's name is a Latin word for light.
- Magical Incantation: Lucia and Maria only need to say the names of their personal spells ("Soap" and "Light Arrow", respectively) to cast them. Everyone else needs Power Crystals. And if you're out of mana, you can't cast anything.
- Meaningful Name: Maria's name has three meanings- "bitter", "rebellion", and "wished-for child"- all of which describe her. It also ends the same way as the name of her Heterosexual Life-Partner.
- Mutual Envy: All three protagonists hate the strain of travelling, and are convinced the others are holding up better than they are.
- Noble Bigot: Lucia doesn't hate the upper classes, but she has a bit of trouble grasping the idea that they have problems too
- Opposites Attract: Lucia and Maria are a non-romantic example, both embodying different types of good. Lucia is gentle and comforting and friendly to everyone; Maria is fierce and pragmatic and proud. They fight monsters, Maria dealing with the truly evil ones who are Beyond Redemption.
- The Pollyanna: Lucia is optimistic about damn near everything, including her indentured servitude and the untimely death of her mother. It's not that she thinks those events were good, but that she knows things could have been a lot worse. At least she managed to find a steady, respectable job. Other people in her position have been sold into slavery.
- Rape as Drama: Lucia gets drugged by a Serial Rapist as a cliffhanger.
- Rousseau Was Right: "Soap" doesn't change the target's morality, as such. It just makes them happy, at which point the target chooses to stop fighting of their own volition. The fact that "Soap" works on monsters too implies that they were Forced into Evil by the Sacro's corruption- something that horrifies the people who've had to kill monsters in the past.
- Slave to PR: This trope is why Celes is so upset by his title of "Dragonslayer". It was forced on him by the higher-ups after a battle in which most of his comrades died horribly, effectively whitewashing their sacrifice to make the whole thing look like a greater success than it was. When he objected to it, the Knight Commander told him that his feelings didn't matter and maintaining the populace's morale was more important.
- Someone Else's Problem: The fantasy world's inhabitants are (mostly) good people, but they deal with all their negative feelings about the war by assuming that the Sacred Maiden will take care of it. They don't care how the Maiden feels about being Trapped in Another World or forced to kill real living beings for the first time ever - largely because they're busy dealing with their own trauma.
- You Need to Get Laid: The Third Regiment has recently been subjected to Training from Hell because their captain wasn't brave enough to confess his feelings to the girl he likes. (They get back at him later.)
