History Manga / MAR

Poor Ginta just can't get a break. He's nearsighted, does poorly in school, isn't athletic, and to top it all off, is really short for his age. He has quite the imagination, however, having had the same dream of the fantastical world of Märhaven, where he's the hero that saves the day, a total of 102 times. This only makes him a bigger laughingstock at school, except for his childhood friend Koyuki who very much enjoys Ginta's imaginary adventures. Then one day, a mysterious portal appears in the middle of his class room and its guardian summons Ginta to the world beyond. With litte hesitation, Ginta steps through to find himself in the land of his dreams. Not only is Märhaven real, but Ginta is now strong and agile and best of all, no longer needs his glasses to see! Thus begins Ginta's adventures in Mär Heaven.

The anime's North American release ran on {{Cartoon Network}}'s {{Toonami}} (after a more consistent run on Toonami Jetstream), however [[ScrewedByTheNetwork schedule irregularities]] ensured its tenure was short lived. Due to that, the English dub was discontinued as well.

* {{Adaptation Expansion}}: A HUGE example in the anime, especially near the end of the series.

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind - Though, as a twist, it's [[spoiler:Ginta and the Caldian Orb]] inside [[spoiler:''Babbo'''s]] mind.

* BigScrewedUpFamily - [[spoiler: Dorothy is Diana's sister, who's Snow's stepmother and also the Queen of the {{Big Bad}} ]]

* ClothingDamage - Happens a lot in the anime. Dorothy and Alviss are the main victims.

** He does notice that Snow is an attractive young girl when he carries her off the battlefield in the third round, and when Dorothy gives him a kiss for helping her at the story's start, he blushes and apologies to Koyuki, which he notably doesn't do when Snow {{crash into hello}} with him, twice!

** Nanashi definitely as well, seeing how he acts like and is in fact a skirt chaser all of the time. However the few matches that he loses are because he went easy on his opponents

* {{Died Happily Ever After}}: Chimera of all people, after seeing Ian and Gido reunited.

* {{Disproportionate Retribution}}: [[spoiler: This was what lead to Chimera's StartOfDarkness when her wedding was crashed and her groom killed all because he was a former (and by then reformed) Chess member. If that wasn't enough the mob that killed him turned their hatred on her, scarring her face horribly and even RAPED her. WhatTheHellTownspeople!!]]

* EyesAlwaysShut: Ian. He opens them slightly when being creepy.

* {{Gecko Ending}}: An rather odd example in that the manga ended ''before'' the anime.

*** More of a case of {{Hoist By His Own Petard}}. They loved killing too much (to which even Phantom couldn't stand). So they fore went the usual easy method in favor of trying to appease their sick pleasure. Course they ended up underestimating the Mär crew and wound up face in the dirt.

* {{Gondor Calls For Aid}}: Anime only, in typically the final battle.

* {{Grand Theft Me}} In the final battle [[spoiler: Its revealed the Danna who Ginta faces actually being possessed by the true big bad, a evil orb]].

* HeroicSacrifice - [[spoiler:Danna dies in his fight against Phantom.]]

* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum - Utterly averted. Most notably, the [[YearInsideHourOutside Training Gate]] is introduced early and used often; every character not participating in the current day's fights will be training inside, and everyone goes inside to train on the days off.
** In battle, the big weapons and guardians are used often, but saved for late in the battle, but this is {{justified}} because it takes time to build up synchronization with one's [=Ärm=]. Using a big guardian too early will result in it being as [[IncrediblyLamePun hÄrmless]] as a soap bubble, as [[BadAss Alan]] is all too willing to explain to an unfortunate Rook.

* {{Karmic Death}}: Rapunzel [[spoiler: after taking it upon herself to kill her fellow teammates if they lost (or tied in poor Aqua's case). Say the least after she lost her battle to Dorthy, Phantom has her killed personally (in the manga, she decapitated, which was one of her favorite killing methods.]]

* LoveAtFirstPunch - Jack and Pano.

* {{Official Couple}}: [[LoveatFirstPunch Jack and Pano]], [[SickeninglySweethearts Ian and Gido]] and [[spoiler: [[BelligerentSexualTension Alan and Chaton]]]].

* PerkyFemaleMinion - Candices's (one sided) relationship with Phantom. Also Chaton and Aqua.
* PrincessesPreferPink - Snow.
* PsychoSupporter - Peta, Rolan... hell, the ''entire Chess organization'' qualifies for this.

** In the first episode, Ginta is playing a Video Game that closely resembles ''FinalFantasyVII''
*** Ironic considering Ginta looks very much like Cloud Strife.

** Phantom to Alviss. It creeps the other out.

* TheChosenOne - Ginta

** Well that and its the law of their floating continent. She ''has'' to do it.

** Wait, whose the Tomboy? And whose the Girly Girl? Because Dorothy and Snow were kinda a combination of both! I mean, sure Snow wasn't-mega tomboyish, and Dorothy wasn't mega-girly...but Dorothy also wasn't mega tomboyish, and Snow wasn't super girly. They both were feminine and girlish and both could fight.
* {{Together In Death}}: [[spoiler: Chimera...or rather, Irene and Märco]]

* {{Unresolved Sexual Tension}}: Ginta and Dorothy. In the anime though, he resolves it with Dorothy [[spoiler: by not choosing her.]]

* WhenYouSnatchThePebble - After Gaira's {{training from hell}} that he puts Ginta and Jack through, Alvis asks for a showing of their power now. He takes two stones and fires them towards the two from behind. Ginta, intelligently moves out of the way, impressing Alviss. Jack instead punches the stone, shattering it. He then is seen rolling on the ground because the stone injured his hand. Alvis notes the power increase, but notes that Jack is still an idiot, while Ginta merely freaks out at nearly being lobotomized.

* {{Fairy Tale Motifs}}: They're Everywhere, most notably Aqua's storyline has paralells to the Non-[[{{Disneyfication}} Disneyfied]] {{The Little Mermaid}}.

* WhenYouSnatchThePebble - After Gaira's {{training from hell}} that he puts Ginta and Jack through, Alvis asks for a showing of their power now. He takes two stones and fires them towards the two from behind. Ginta, intelligently moves out of the way, impressing Alviss. Jack instead punches the stone, shattering it. He then is seen rolling on the ground because the stone injured his hand. Alvis notes the power increase, but notes that Jack is still an idiot, while Ginta merely freaks out at nearly being lobotomized.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes - Alan, the most {{badass}} of anyone on Team Mär, has a crippling cat phobia. This turns out to be a problem when he has to fight a CatGirl.
* WordSaladTitle

* [[spoiler:KillTheCutie - Aqua, a Chess bishop, is killed by Girom after her draw against Nanashi, even though she SUCCEEDS in winning RockPaperScissors against Rapunzel. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Ginta does NOT take it very well.]]]]

The manga also got a sequel called ''Mär Omega'', which is neither written nor drawn by Anzai. It features a cast of entirely new characters apart from Babbo (with one or two original characters making cameo appearances). It also doesn't follow the same format as the first one. YourMileageMayVary on how good it is.

** Ironically this happened to [[spoiler:Rapunzel herself]].

* {{Disproportionate Retribution}}: [[spoiler: This was what lead to Chimera's StartOfDarkness when her wedding was crashed and her groom killed all because he was a former (and by then reformed) Chess memeber. If that wasn't enough the mob that killed him turned their hatred on her, scarring her face horribly and even RAPED her. WhatTheHellTownspeople!!]]

* {{Disproportionate Retribution}}: [[spoiler: This was what lead to Chimera's StartOfDarkness when her wedding was crashed and her groom killed all because he was a former (and by then reformed) Chess memeber. If that wasn't enough the mob that killed him turned their hatred on her, scarring her face horribly.]]

* [[spoiler:KillTheCutie - Aqua, a Chess bishop, is killed by Girom after her draw against Nanashi. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Ginta does NOT take it very well.]]]]

* KarmaHoudini - Girom. Sweet blue monkey hell, ''GIROM''. No matter how many atrocities he commits, the only punishment he ever gets is getting blasted into the sky and punched unconscious. And he never learns his damn lesson.

* HeroicSacrifice - [[spoiler:Danna dies in his fight against Phantom.]] [[IGotBetter He gets better, eventually.]]

* HeroicSacrifice - Danna dies in his fight against Phantom. [[spoiler:[[UnexxplainedRecovery he gets better, eventually.]]]]

* MushroomSamba - In the War Games, Jack gets a rematch with Pano. He seeds her with special mushrooms that give her hallucinations. They go like this: The volcanoes around the battlefield erupt, the mushrooms become caterpillars, the caterpillars become [[EverythingsPrettierWithButterflies butterflies]] and the [[MoodWhiplash wasteland becomes a field of flowers,]] the butterflies become bats, vines wrap her up, and ''then'' Jack, much better looking than he really is, appears and offers to remove the mushrooms if she gives up, which she [[DistractedByTheSexy does immediately.]] In fact, [[HypnotizeThePrincess he leaves one behind on purpose so she would still think he's handsome.]] He accidentally knocks it off when he goes to hug her, and the hallucinations wear off in the span of a few seconds.

* HeroicSacrifice - Danna dies in his fight against Phantom. [[spoiler:[[HeGotBetter he gets better, eventually.]]]]

** Well who else could Nanashi possibly be? He doesn't seem to originate from any of the FracturedFairyTale, unlike [[SnowWhite Snow]], [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Dorothy]], [[PeterPan Alviss]], and [[JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack]]. I have no clue where Alan comes from, though.

* MeaningfulName - Dorothy, being a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', whose most powerful Ärm is a giantic dog named Toto, a giant robot, a crucified scarecrow, and a flying lion, as well as a psychotic quilted doll ([[Literature/LandOfOz books only]]); Snow, being a ShoutOut to SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarves, whose Ärm are all ice based; Jack, being a ShoutOut to JackAndTheBeanstalk whose [=Ärm=] are mostly based around plants and gardening. See a [[ThemeNaming theme developing here]]?

** In battle, the big weapons and guardians are used often, but saved for late in the battle, but this is {{justified}} because it takes time to build up synchronization with one's [=Ärm=]. Using a big guardian too early will result in it being as [[IncrediblyLamePun hÄrmless]] as a soap bubble, as [[BadAss Alan]] is all too willing to explain to an unfortunate Rook.
* HoYay - You'd guess the anime was made by YaoiFangirls
** Not really, the anime just up the {{Fanservice}} compared to the manga which was known for it's {{Gorn}} instead.

* YaoiFangirl - Candice, presumably. She's in love with Phantom, yet she says she doesn't mind if he also stays with Alviss and Rolan.

* SoYouWantToLiveForever - Phantom [[spoiler:and the zombie tattoo.]]

* {{Defictionalization}} - ARMs were sold as jewelry in real life, although presumably sans magic powers.

*** Hands? Her body was broken, but her limbs were still fully functional. Ghost ARMs consume the soul.

A shonen action manga/anime by Anzai Nobuyuki, who also created ''FlameOfRecca''.

* PinkBoyBlueGirl - Roland and Candice, mostly noticeable in the Ghost Chess arc, when they appear together often. Roland is mild mannered, delicate, gentle and looks like a girl. Candice is loudspoken, rude, loves to fight, has an immense ammount of bloodlust and even gropes females now and then.