Otome Youkai Zakuro

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Otome Youkai Zakuro is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Lily Hoshino. It started running monthly in the seinen manga magazine Comic Birz in November 2006.

Spirits and humans have long had a grudge against each other, but that's about to change. During the Meiji Era, Japan has now established the Department of Spirit Affairs to handle relations between humans and youkai. Three new recruits - Kei Agemaki, Hanakiri Ganryu and Riken Yoshinokazura, are going to team up with three half-spirit girls - Zakuro, Susukihotaru and the twins, Bonbori and Houzuki. The relationships are tense, but relations between humans and spirits - and, perhaps, romance? - are about to begin.

Otome Youkai Zakuro was adapted into an anime in the fall of 2010 by J.C.Staff.

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Otome Youkai Zakuro contains examples of:

• Action Girl
• Alternate Universe: Although it's hard to pinpoint when does it exactly happen, it's the Meiji Era with Youkai integrated into society.
• Arranged Marriage: It's for the power.
• Art Shift: Whenever the spirits are using their power, everything becomes otherworldly.
• The Atoner: Tsukuhane. It's nearly too late for Omodaka to realize this.
• Badass in Distress
• Big Bad Friend: Lieutenant Hanadate/Omodaka.
• Bishie Sparkle: Used very sarcastically with Kei, when he's trying to appear cool.
• Bishonen
• Blue with Shock: Kei pulls this almost every time he's around spirits when he first starts working with Zakuro and the others.
• Brother-Sister Incest: Lieutenant Hanadate / Omodaka is Zakuro's half-brother and he wants to do this. Averted.
• Broken Bird: Zakuro, though she keeps it together better than most examples of this trope.
  • Her mother can be seen as this, too.
• Break the Cutie: Tsukuhane was repeatedly broken by the Elder of the Village of Oracles, then broken by her own son.
• Catgirl: Itsue in episode 7, though unlike most she's more of a Cute Monster Girl than sexy woman with cat ears.
• Cherry Blossom: In the first episode, which is about flower-viewing.
• Clingy Jealous Girl/Yandere: The Black Widow.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Zakuro is upset with Kei she gets her own back on him by taking advantage of his fear of Youkai and telling Sakura and Kiri he wants to play with them.
  • In episode 8 Kushimatsu uses the more usual Standing in the Hall punishment on Houzuki, Bonbori and Hanakiri with the addition of a third bucket on their heads as well as in each hand,
• Curtains Match the Windows: Agemaki's blond and he has yellow eyes.
• Cute Little Fangs: All that half-spirits, plus Mugi.
• Cute Shotaro Boy: Hanakiri. Houzuki and Bonbori see him as their plaything, sort of.
• Cute Demon Girl: All four heroines.
  • Mugi the child demon in ep.4, too.
• Dead Little Sister: Daidai.
• Death Equals Redemption: Daidai.
• Disguised in Drag: In chapter 3 of the manga, Zakuro convinces Agemaki to crossdress in order to find a creep targeting girls in the restroom.
• The Empath: Susukihotaru.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Omodaka loved his mother. It's rather complicated though. Let's just say Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas After All...
• Evil Weapon: The katana that turns anyone into a killer. Even demure Susukihotaru.
• Expy: Riken is like a Meiji, military version of Ryu from Kimi ni Todoke.
• Fantastic Racism: While spirits are considered citizens, they're treated as second-class citizens by the humans, at best.
  • The Village of Oracles are far worse, seeing as they kidnapped pregnant women just to create hanyou, then treat them like dirt.
• Freudian Excuse: And one of the classics.
• Fox Girl
• Genki Girl: Bonbori and Houzuki.
• Gentle Giant: Riken.
• Giant Spider: The Black Widow.
• Green Thumb: The girls use cherry blossom branches and flower petals as part of their special powers.
• Grotesque Cute: Sakura and Kiri, the spirit-children who store the girls' weapons in their body. But when they pull those weapons out from the inside, it's just plain grotesque...
• Half-Human Hybrid: All the girls.
• Happiness in Slavery: Byakuroku decides that there is no point to finally having freedom, since her only purpose in life was to protect her sister and her sister already died, so she offers herself to Omodaka as his Property of Love. He accepts and they survive together in the end.
• Hellish Pupils: The girls gain them when they use their powers.
• Heroic Bastard: Zakuro
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Mamezo, a fanged, bipedal, rabbit thing that functions as a Bag of Holding for Zakuro, is Accelerator, Yoichi Karasuga, Luke Ainsworth, and the perverted space alien from Kaichou wa Maid-sama.
  • Kei used to be a Knight, not a Lieutenant. Coincidentally, both seem to have trouble with certain creatures...
    • Not to mention he's Cloud Strife in every game (and movie) where he's been voiced.
  • Susukihotaru is Kanade, Kobato., and Kagome.
  • Zakuro is Nagisa, Juvia, Nagisa, Mai, and Serina Iori Flameheart
  • Houzuki is Naru, Eri, Chie, Hitomi, and so many more...
  • Tsukuhane is Erza, Yuuko, and Milly
• Ho Yay: Subverted, since Mamezo acts like this toward Kei just to tease him. Justified, Mamezo is Zakuro's Bond Creature.
• Hot Chick with a Sword: Zakuro. Or Hot Chick With a Kukri. Rather odd, as a kukri is a Nepalese weapon made famous by the Gurkha mercenaries.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Riken towers over Susukihotaru. Kei is also noticbly bigger than Zakuro.
• I Am a Humanitarian
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: In Japanese the second word of each chapter/episode title is made of a single syllable repeated twice followed by "to". The first part is "Iza yoyo to" the second is "Aka koko to.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty
• If I Can't Have You: Rangui says a variation of this to Omodaka.
• Invisible to Adults: Itsue, Kei's old pet who turned out to be a cat spirit.
• Interspecies Romance: Duh, obviously.
• In the Name of the Moon: When they're about to enter a fight which then leads to..
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Played straight and subverted. The lyric is innocent and fits the nature of the girls very well, but they only sing it when there are bloody supernatural battle to be fought, as it's part of their power-up...
• It Got Worse: In Episode 3, women and children are missing from a village and the viewer is led to believe that they have been spirited away. It turns out that they weren't; they were all eaten by a monster who is especially fond of the smell of their corpses as they rot in his stomach. And then? Then the monster reveals that pregnant women are the tastiest.
• Jerkass: The Elder of the Village of Oracles. Both of them.
• Karma Houdini: For all horrible, horrible things he did, Omodaka sure got away nearly unscathed.
• Last Second Chance: And eventually Omodaka takes it. Redemption Earns Life
• Let's Duet: The trio of alternating ending songs featuring Kei/Zakuro, Riken/Susukihotaru, and Bonbori/Ganryu/Houzuki.
• Little Bit Beastly: The four heroines.
• Lovable Coward: Kei.
• Love Confession: Between Riken and Susukihotaru in episode 4. The fact that the feelings were telepathically communicated makes the moment even sweeter.
  • Kei and Zakuro in the final episode (He does it twice), the second time is followed by a little more.
    • Ganryu and both Bonbori and Hazuki in the final episode. Canon OT 3
• Love Makes You Evil: Hanadate, Byakuroku, Rangui
• Love Triangle: Kei, Zakuro, and Hanadate.
  • Rangui sees this between herself, Zakuro, and Omodaka..
• Love Dodecahedron: Subverted in Episode 9 when the Raccoon maids think the Official Couple 's (except the OT 3) have partnerswapped. They did not.
• Mama Bear: Tsukuhane.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Hanadate/Omodaka.
• Magic Music: The song the girls sing in order to power up.
• Meiji Era: Zakuro loves to call anything Western "jesuit".
• Mind Control Eyes
• Mukokuseki: For something about Japanese in Meiji Japan, this series is full of foreign-looking characters. Even the other characters lampshade how Kei is "blond". Tsukuhane, Zakuro's mother is also blond.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Rangui tries this on Zakuro.
• Non-Lethal KO: In episode one, despite the fact Raiju is stabbed in the top of it's head it's seen moments later apparently unharmed.
• Non-Malicious Monster: The little shadow that Zakuro and the crew dealt with in Episode 2. Driving it out of its home is a justifiable cause for retaliation.
• Odango Hair: Zakuro used this to bind her ears.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Although Zakuro doesn't know it.
• Petal Power: The twins, but to a limited extent. They can use petals for offense and defense, but only while they're singing.
  • They can also be used to track people, but again, only while one of them is singing.
• Pinky Swear
• Playing Against Type: Satoshi Hino is credited as the voice of Riken Yoshinokazura. He barely sounds like him, almost emulating Tomokazu Sugita if anything.
• Power Limiter: Zakuro's necklace
• Princess Curls: Houzuki and Bonbori have really elaborate hair curls, almost on par with Sernia Flameheart.
• Save the Princess
• Self-Made Orphan: Hanadate claims to have done so. Eventually it is revealed he didn't.
• Shock and Awe: Raiju.
• Shrinking Violet: Susukihotaru.
• Shirtless Scene: Beginning of episode 4.
• Single-Minded Twins: Houzuki and Bonbori.
• Skinship Grope: Not quite a straight example of the trope, but Houzuki and Bonbori love to cling to Hanakiri, and personally wipe the sweat off his body after his training.
• Spoiler Opening: It's fairly easy to tell that Hanadate is the masked man in the OP and ED long before the official reveal in episode 9. Having the same hairstyle aside, when was the last time you trusted the seemingly perfect bishie that was a rival to the Official Couple?
• Standing in the Hall
• Theme Music Power-Up: The OP, "MOON SIGNAL", starts playing when Zakuro awakens to her full power for the final battle.
• Theme Naming
  • Floral Theme Naming: The hanyou and youjin with some exceptions. Zakuro: pomegranate, Susukihotaru: Miscanthus sinensis, Houzuki: winter cherry, Kushimatsu: pine tree, Sakura: cherry blossom, Kiri: paulownia.
  • Colorful Theme Naming: Byakuroku: patina green, Daidai: orange.
• The Stoic: Riken.
• The Tease: Houzuki and Bonbori, to the extent they could be seen as being Loveable Sex Maniacs, too.
• Tsundere: Zakuro. She alternates between a Luminescent Blush and yelling at Kei. Apparently, she got it from her mother.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy: Houzuki and Bonbori's entire existence seems to be teasing this for Hanakiri. Whether or not they're serious is another matter.
  • They are.
• Unusual Ears: Remove these and you wouldn't even know they're half-spirit.
• Wham! Episode: One could think it's a nice and fluffy romance series... until the end of episode 10.
• The White Prince: Kei.
• Why Did It Have To Be Spirits -- Kei is supposed to be a fearless military man. But deep inside, he's deathly afraid of spirits. And now he is on a mission to bridge the people and the spirits...
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Susukihotaru, and the landlady Kushimatsu. Well, women in this era are supposed to be Yamato Nadeshiko, so Zakuro is the one who stands out.
• Youkai