Line #46 Literature/MirageOfBlaze


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MIRAGE.jpg]]
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3	''Mirage of Blaze'' is a {{light novel\|s}} series written by Mizuna Kuwabara and illustrated by Kazuma Toujou (from volumes 1 to 11) and Shouko Hamada (volumes 12 to 42), which was published from 1990 to 2007 for 42 volumes. It was adapted into a thirteen episode anime season in 2002. A three part OVA titled Rebels of the River Edge was released in 2004. The translation of the light novels can be found [[http://www.asphodelshaven.com/translations/novel here]]
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5	Ougi Takaya is a seventeen year old [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent high school student]] whose life changes drastically when he is attacked by a man with supernatural powers, a confrontation which awakens the same abilities in him. The man identifies himself as Naoe Nobutsuna and claims Takaya is Lord Kagetora, adopted son of Uesugi Kenshin whom he has sworn to [[BattleButler serve]]. He reveals that the source of their powers stems from the fact that they are Possessors, souls who have been possessing human bodies for over four hundred years.
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7	With Kagetora as their leader, the Possessors have been fighting the Feudal Underworld, an army of vengeful spirits of samurai who fell during the Warring States era. Some of these spirits are also able to possess bodies and do so in order to restart the wars, this time to end them in their favor. Takaya has [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no memory of this]] however and and refuses to believe he is Kagetora. As he begins to remember however, he becomes [[TomatoIntheMirror increasingly distraught]] and begins to draw on Naoe for support, but Naoe is neither the [[SexyMentor mentor]] nor the [[BattleButler convenient protector]] Takaya thinks he is.
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9	One of the main themes that make Mirage of Blaze stand out is the [[LoveMakesYouCrazy complicated]] [[BodyguardCrush relationship]] of Kagetora and Naoe.
10	----
11	!!''Mirage of Blaze'' provides examples of:
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13	%%* AllTakeAndNoGive: Kagetora and Naoe are this trope.
14	%%* AmbiguouslyGay: Kagetora, [[spoiler: though by the end of the OVA, it's not ambiguous anymore as he has finally accepted Naoe as a potentional lover]].
15	%%* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Naoe to Kagetora.
16	%%* AsiaRuneChant: whenever the Possesors exorcize spirits or summon creatures or guardians.
17	* AwfulTruth: Naoe [[spoiler:is basically sitting on a ticking time bomb, he knows when Kagetora remembers that they'll fall back in their old pattern of hate and love]].
18	%%* BadassBiker: Haruie
19	%%* BattleButler: Naoe.
20	* BlackAndGrayMorality: The spirits the protagonists are fighting against have entirely selfish aims at conquering the modern world, but as the series goes on, we find our main characters have some major skeletons in their closet as well.
21	%%* BodyguardCrush: Naoe [[spoiler:has been madly in love with Kagetora for over four hundred years]].
22	* BreakTheCutie: Kagetora[[spoiler:'s adoptive father sent him off as a hostage of the Hojo, he was raped and then forced to commit seppuku to escape dishonor when the castle fell]].
23	%%* CherryBlossoms: [[spoiler:Incarnation of Takaya's corpse.]]
24	%%* TheChessmaster: Naoe, [[spoiler: who manipulated both Kagetora's family and the Feudal Underworld to save Kagetora]].
25	* {{Cliffhanger}}: [[spoiler:Naoe shot dead and Takaya going mad. Takaya kidnapping and kidnapping again. Nagahide's bodily death. Takaya removed from Uesugi clan. Naoe going over to Oda. Takaya's soul reaching near the limit.]]
26	%%* CreepyCrossdresser
27	* DrivenToSuicide:
28	%%** Kagetora [[spoiler:when forced to commit seppuku]].
29	** Only some inversions [[spoiler: Kagetora/Takaya attempts suicide in volume 20 when the mental and emotional tolls of everything he'd dealt with reaches a breaking point, but Naoe saves him. Also, Naoe had attempted suicide in the past but he'd kept this hidden from Kagetora.]]
30	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: In order to stop Yami Sengoku, Kagetora is forced to use the last of his soul life. Not only does this kill Kagetora/Takaya, but this ''prevents him from ever reincarnating again''. He lives long enough to ''finally'' confess his love to Naoe before he dies in the latter's arms. Naoe put in his own breast the Takaya's broken nearly soul. Takaya's soul seemed pounded but freezes in him. He decided to stay alive repeat the possession until the limit of his own soul in order to prove the eternal love to Takaya.]]
31	%%* TheFourGods
32	* GenderBender
33	** Haruie [[spoiler:is a male Possessor who's using a woman's body]].
34	** Also Kagetora [[spoiler:who was forced to possess the body of his lover, effectively turning into a woman]].
35	%%* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Haruie
36	* HufflepuffHouse: [[spoiler: The Oda clan. They play a fairly significant role in the backstory of the series are implied to an extremely powerful faction, with Kagetora having died in a previous battle against them, and in the ''Rebels of the Rivers Edge'' OVA, it's stated that numerous other clans formed a coalition against them, but we never actually anybody from the Oda clan in the series. Likewise, the coalition against Oda doesn't get much focus.]]
37	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Uesugi Kagetora, Naoe Nobutsuna, Haruie Kakizaki, Yasuda Nagahide, UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin, Houjou Ujiyasu, Houjou Ujimasa, Houjou Ujiteru, UsefulNotes/TakedaShingen, UsefulNotes/DateMasamune, Date Kojirou
38	* IAmWho: Kagetora [[spoiler:is the leader and the strongest of the Possesors]].
39	%%* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Naoe is willing to do ''anything'' for Kagetora, and has proved it repeatedly.
40	* IfICantHaveYou: Naoe [[spoiler:is prepared to kill Kagetora and himself so that Kagetora will "never belong to anyone else"]].
41	%%* {{Immortality}}: The Possessors
42	* IntimateHealing: Naoe [[spoiler: right before ending the spell that was keeping Kagetora's soulless body alive, used what looked like a farewell kiss to pass Kagetora another ProtectiveCharm, effectively saving him]].
43	* IntimatePsychotherapy: [[spoiler:When Naoe and Kagetora ''finally'' consummate their relationship in volume 20, it's in the aftermath of Kagetora being horribly betrayed, receiving a death curse on his eye, and a suicide attempt. The sex allows Kagetora to see the toll Naoe's love has had on his own body--from a hideous scar on his chest from having protected Kagetora, to seeing scars of Naoe's ''own'' suicide attempts over his love for Kagetora.]]
44	%%* JidaiGeki: The many flashbacks of the Possessors' past lives.
45	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Kagetora, [[spoiler:unable to handle the pain of his lover's death and Naoe's part in it, choses to forget everything]].
46	%%* LoveMakesYouCrazy / LoveMakesYouEvil: Naoe
47	%%* ManlyTears: Naoe and Kagetora during Naoe's breakdown.
48	* MayDecemberRomance: Kagetora and Naoe, [[spoiler: subverted as Naoe's body is eleven years older than Takaya's, but their souls are both hundreds of years old]].
49	%%* MurderTheHypotenuse: When Naoe [[spoiler:forces Kagetora to possess the body of his lover]].
50	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Naoe [[spoiler:after [[NearRapeExperience nearly raping]] Kagetora, but then again, who wouldn't crack after four hundred years of [[AllTakeAndNoGive mental]] [[UnresolvedSexualTension torture]]]].
51	%%* NearRapeExperience: Naoe and Kagetora.
52	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Aside from vengeful spirits, there also exist guardian spirits who are bound to a single place.
53	* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The Possessors [[spoiler: who are able to break the reincarnation cycle by possessing human bodies. Of course this is a [[MoralEventHorizon really bad thing to do]], but they [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do what they have to]]]].
54	* ParentalAbandonment: Kagetora [[spoiler: who got sent off as a hostage by his father during the Warring States era, and in the present his father abandons him again, preparing to sacrifice his soul for the "greater good"]].
55	%%* PowerGlows
56	%%* ProtectiveCharm
57	%%* RapeAsBackstory: Kagetora
58	%%* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Houjou Ujiteru [[spoiler:turning on Ujimasa and allowing himself to be exorcised by Kagetora to save him]].
59	%%* ReincarnationRomance: Naoe and Kagetora, and also Haruie [[spoiler: who is looking for his long-lost lover, thought it's not technically reincarnation as they escape the cycle of rebirth by by possessing bodies]].
60	%%* SarcasticDevotee: Naoe who mocks Kagetora's weakness, Haruie, and Nagahide who's borderline insubordinate.
61	%%* SayMyName
62	%%* ScaryShinyGlasses: Chiaki
63	%%* SexyMentor: Naoe, in the beginning, subverted [[spoiler:when he angrily tells Kagetora he is ''not'' a mentor nor a [[BattleButler convenient protector]]]].
64	%%* SingleTargetSexuality: Naoe has only ever loved Kagetora.
65	%%* SmokingIsCool / SmokingIsGlamorous: Naoe, especially in the OVA.
66	%%* SnowMeansLove: The end of the OVA.
67	%%* SparklingStreamOfTears
68	%%* StraightGay: Naoe and Takaya.
69	* TomatoInTheMirror: Kagetora [[spoiler: who is not the OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent he thought he was but in reality an ancient warlord of the Warring States era who's possessed the body of a boy, ousting his soul in the process]].
70	%%* TroubledButCute: Takaya.
71	%%* TrueCompanions
72	%%* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: More so for Kagetora than Naoe.
73	* UnresolvedSexualTension: [[spoiler:Four hundred years of it too, no wonder Naoe has reached his breaking point. Still he initially manages to mask his feelings for Kagetora perfectly, but when Kagetora dreams of his lover's death, Naoe realizes he will soon remember everything and drops the act. Naoe eventually snaps and forces himself on Kagetora, the event triggering Kagetora's memory of how he was raped while a hostage. It serves as a wake-up call for Naoe, who goes into [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone shock mode]] when he realizes [[NearRapeExperience what he almost did]].]]
74	* WhatBeautifulEyes: Naoe comments on the brilliance of Kagetora's eyes.
75	%%* YaoiGenre

Context Literature / MirageOfBlaze