Tropes for the characters of Cute High Earth Defense Club Happy Kiss!.
For characters from the first series, see here.
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Earth Defense Club/Happy Knights
Tropes applying to all of them:
- Exotic Eye Designs: Their pupils become star-shaped during their Transformation Sequence.
- Flight: Unlike their predecessors, who could only fly while in Super Mode, flight is part of this cast's natural skillset.
- I Kiss Your Hand: Instead of transforming by using a catchphrase ala By the Power of Grayskull! like most Magical Girl shows or even the previous series, the boys instead transform by kneeling and kissing the hand of Karls' human form.
- In the Name of the Moon:Fiore: Like the flowers that bloom across the world...Stella: Like the stars that shine in the night sky...Luna: Like the moon that illuminates everything below...Neve: Like the snow that gently embraces the land...Spazio: Let's bring happiness to the universe!Fiore: We're the magic knights who bring happiness,All: Karls' Knights, Happy Kiss!
- Kidnapped by the Call: As per the usual for this series.
- Magical Girl Warrior: As usual for the series, gender flipped.
- Magic Wand: They're more akin to short staffs, capable of firing energy beams. They're color-coordinated and have a crystal at the top shaped like an object related to the owner's magical boy name.
- Kyotaro/Fiore: A flower.
- Ryoma/Stella: A star.
- Nanao/Luna: A crescent moon.
- Taishi/Neve: A blue crystal with a snowflake symbol.
- Ichiro/Spazio: A pink crystal with a dark pink swirl. This is the least obvious one, but it probably represents a galaxy.
- Power Gives You Wings: They gain butterfly wings in their Super Happy forms.
- Secret Identity: Only to the school populace, and only thanks to Laser-Guided Amnesia after every monster fight. The identity protection filter from the previous series doesn't get used in this season, so the Magic Knights and the Edelstein know of each other's identities from the start.
- Super Mode: The aptly named Super Happy forms.
- Theme Naming: Surprisingly consistent for their magical boy names this time around: Stellar Theme Naming for the secondary colors, and nature theme naming for the primary colors. All of them are written in Italian, to boot.
- Also evident in the surnames, which follow the tradition of being lifted from real life hot springs.
Kyotaro Shuzenji/Fiore Kiss
- Voiced by: Naoyuki Shimozuru"Magic Knight of the Flowers, Fiore Kiss!"
Tropes associated with him:
- The Ace: Despite his eternal lethargic state, flashbacks show that Kyotaro was incredibly popular with his classmates due to a variety of skills such as painting, being surprisingly good at P.E, and some impressive hand tricks.
- Beautiful Dreamer: The opening sequence shows him asleep with his head in Ryoma's lap.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With Ryoma and Ata as children. His silver hair stands in for blond while Ryoma is the redhead and Ata is the brunette.
- Childhood Friends: With Ryoma and Ata.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His brain is on sleep most of the time, so he is certainly pretty eccentric, especially outside of fights, and it was to the point he once forgot what is the name of a refrigerator.
- Coincidental Dodge: In the swim competition episode, Kyotaro was chosen as his team's rider in the cavalry fight event. He somehow managed to evade all attacks from the other teams while fast asleep.
- Compliment Backfire: He's usually good at giving pep talks to the Victims Of The Week, but his attempt at helping the victim from episode 1 ends up failing spectacularly.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Unlike Yumoto, the energetic fuzzball who took to Battle Lover activities immediately, Kyotaro couldn't care less about being a magical boy and is the laxest of the group.
- Expy: To En from the Battle Lovers. In fact, Kyotaro is a more extreme version of En. While En was lazy, he could still get himself motivated to do stuff if he was feeling bored; meanwhile, Kyotaro is always lethargic and a borderline narcoleptic who has to be forced by his friends into lifting a finger to do anything. That said, the other thing he has in common with En is a Sugar-and-Ice Personality, as ultimately, both do care for their friends despite their lazy natures. In fact, he, Ata, and Ryoma would later be revealed to meet En and the rest of the previous Defense Club when the three were kids, doubling as an Expy Coexistence as a result.
- Friend to All Living Things: For whatever reason, he has a tendency to attract small animals, particularly birds and cats, to him while he's asleep. Even sentient animals like Furanui can't help but feel oddly attracted to his sleeping form.
- Subverted with Karls, who he finds extremely annoying. Kyotaro's reaction to the otter prince trying to rope them into becoming Happiness Knights is to threaten to turn him into a scarf.
- Image Song: "The Voice I Heard Before Going Back to Sleep."
- Lazy Bum: The least motivated of the whole cast. His biggest ambition in life is to be a senile old man, purely so people can take care of him. It's to the point he makes En, the Lazy Bum of LOVE!, look energetic in comparison.
- Messy Hair: Meant to invoke an eternal state of bed hair. His actual bed hair, as seen in episode 1, is barely different from his regular hairstyle.
- Red Is Heroic: Subverted. In the first episode, the other characters nominate Kyotaro as their leader because they believe in this trope, but he can't be bothered to lead properly. They even speculate that the reason Kyotaro got the red color is because he contracted first. This is lampshaded by Ichiro, who under normal circumstances would have fit better (one of the youngest, Hot-Blooded, and has the pink color common to Magical Girl leaders).
- Sleepyhead: If Kyotaro is not moving, chances are he'll fall asleep.
- Sleepy Depressive: Implied. While he did yawn a few times as a kid, and was still rather quiet as a child, he was still more cheerful and energetic as a child, and that was back when he was friends with Ata, however, in the present day, Ata sees him as his enemy, and Kyotaro is much sleepier now.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: There is absolutely no denying he is a Lazy Bum, and he'd rather get some sleep than do anything, but he does care for his friends and he's great at delivering pep talks to the Victims Of The Week. Plus, his Cooldown Hug on Ata proved effective enough to actually get him to perform his Heel–Face Turn and become friends with Kyotaro again as well.
- Super Drowning Skills: Not due to an inability to swim, but because he'll fall asleep while in the water and drown. In fact, it's even a Running Gag.
Ryoma Kirishima/Stella Kiss
- Voiced by: Ryoga Komata"Magic Knight of the Stars, Stella Kiss!"
Tropes associated with him:
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With Kyotaro and Ata as children. He's the redhead while Ata is the brunette and Kyotaro's silver hair stands in for blond.
- Childhood Friends: With Kyotaro and Ata.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Kyotaro's. He often has to drag Kyotaro to class, cover for him when he doesn't show up, comb his bed hair, and also save him when he falls asleep in the water. Nanao even believes that this will evolve into The Caretaker as they grow older.
- Designated Victim: A non-kidnapping related example. It's of Nanao's pranks, as Nanao loves to playfully bully him and make him blush.
- Extreme Doormat: Zigzagged. He'll go along with people's requests most of the time without question (like making tea or massaging Nanao's shoulders) but he's vocal about his dislike of fighting monsters.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Well, not exactly heterosexual, but it's with Kyotaro. Everyone assumes that they'll move in together after high school, and while Ryoma is not sure about that specifically, he knows that he'll stay by Kyotaro's side.
- Image Song: "Oh Say Cry?"
- Laser-Guided Karma: After spending most of episode 9 having fun seeing his friends do embarrassing dares because of the dice game they were playing at the culture festival, Ryoma got the short end of the stick when he had to perform Romantic Spoon Feeding on Kyotaro while being subject to Bridal Carry by him.
- Nice Guy: The most polite and mild-mannered member of the group. A big part of the reason Nanao likes to tease him.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Green eyes, red hair, and a Happy Knight.
- Sweet Tooth: Is very fond of sweets. Yet another thing Nanao will use to tease him.
Nanao Wakura/Luna Kiss
- Voiced by: Takahide Ishii"Magic Knight of the Moon, Luna Kiss!"
Tropes associated with him:
- Authority in Name Only: On paper, he's the president of the Earth Defense Club, but he never does anything with it and his friends don't expect him to. Their club needed a president in order to become official, and Nanao was chosen because he's the oldest.
- The Confidant: Played with. Back in elementary school, Nanao knew a dark and/or embarrassing secret about each and every one of his classmates, which he promised not to tell. So of course Nanao wrote down all of them and put them inside his class' time capsule, which they're supposed to open when they turn 20.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Nanao met Ichiro once in the past when they were children. Ichiro was feeling conscious about how his friends thought he was just a "cheerful idiot" and wanted to change himself, but Nanao told him that he was fine the way he is and to never change. For Nanao, this was just a random kid he was messing with for fun and quickly forgot about, but Ichiro took those words to heart and never forgot about Nanao.
- Friendly Enemy: With Taiju. They became friends back during their first year at Binan High when they ran an ice cream stand at the school festival together, and they remain on cordial terms despite being technically on opposite sides.
- The Gadfly: Likes to tease and is indiscriminate when it comes to choosing his victims. Ryoma is his favorite target, although Ichiro is also another favorite target of his.
- Green and Mean: Downplayed, he is associated with green, on the Defense Club and such does heroic deeds, but he is a major troll to the other members.
- I Was Just Joking: His go-to defense when teasing people, especially Ryoma.
- Image Song: "Sadistically Be Happy."
- It Amused Me: His reason for teasing people. In the first episode, upon learning that their magic wands can shoot beams, Nanao pointed his at Ryoma just to watch his friend squirm.
- Nonchalant Dodge: In the swim competition episode, Nanao and Ichiro play a match of what is essentially Keijo!!!!!!!! in all but name. It only lasts one second, as Nanao effortlessly dodges Ichiro's attack, who goes overboard and falls into the water.
- Perpetual Smiler: Rarely seen without a smile on his face.
Taishi Manza / Neve Kiss
- Voiced by: Rikuya Yasuda"Magic Knight of the Snow, Neve Kiss!"
Tropes associated with him:
- Accent Slip-Up: When irritated or in the heat of battle, Taishi will sometimes revert to delinquent speech before catching himself.
- Affectionate Nickname: Kyotaro calls him "Tai-Tai."
- The Baby of the Bunch: With Ichiro. They are the only first years in the Defense Club, and Ryoma and Nanao even call them "the little ones", much to their chagrin. Based on their birthdates (Ichiro's is August 8th while Taishi's is September 30th), it can be assumed Taishi is the younger of the two.
- Blue Is Calm: Played With, he does have the appearance of a composed and coolheaded Book Smart boy (complete with glasses), but when he loses his shit, he gets Hot-Blooded and goes all Attack! Attack! Attack!. Either way, he is associated with blue.
- Blue Means Smart One: He's the blue-coloured member of the Five-Man Band comprised of five magical boys. He wears glasses, is Book Smart and has a "bookish demeanor".
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In one episode he tries adjusting his glasses only to realize he's in the bath and thus has no glasses on.
- Hot-Blooded: As a reformed delinquent, Taishi tries to present himself as a calm Badass Bookworm but he's very eager to take initiative during battle.
- Image Song: "This is the Manza!!"
- Japanese Delinquents: He used to be one, but he turned over a new leaf before attending Binan High. He tries to keep it under close wraps, but the penultimate episode implies that it's an open secret in the school.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: Plays the Noble to Ichiro's Roguish. When he slips into delinquent mode though, both become Roguish.
- The Smart Guy: Played With. He's certainly Book Smart and will often spout useless trivia related to the current conversation, but when it comes to battles his methods tend to be Attack! Attack! Attack!.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Has the archetype down, as he has glasses, and is (or at least tries to be) The Smart Guy of the group.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Constantly bickering with his close friend Ichiro.
Ichiro Dougo/Spazio Kiss
- Voiced by: Shouta Hayama"Magic Knight of Space, Spazio Kiss!"
Tropes associated with him:
- Affectionate Nickname: Kyotaro calls him "Chiro."
- The Baby of the Bunch: With Taishi. They are the only first years in the Defense Club, and Ryoma and Nanao even call them "the little ones," much to their chagrin. Based on their birthdates (Ichiro's is August 8th while Taishi's is September 30th), it can be assumed Ichiro is the older of the two.
- Book Dumb: Doesn't have good grades, and generally not the sharpest tool in the shed, but makes up for it with his straightforward attitude.
- Cute Little Fangs: To add to his cheerful and Hot-Blooded nature, he has a small fang.
- Easily Embarrassed Youngster: Ichiro is very quick to blush, something Nanao likes to take advantage of.
- Fiery Redhead: More like Fiery Pinkhead, but he definitely is Hot-Blooded and, not counting Karls, has the highest energy of the Defense Club.
- Hot-Blooded: Unlike Taishi, he's more open about it. Everyone else in the Earth Defense Club is aware of it, too.Ichiro: SENPAI, SENPAI, SENPAI SENPAI!!!! (jumps several steps on the staircase at once) GOOD MORNING!!!!Ryoma: The morning screamer has arrived.
- Image Song: "Dash! Dash! Dash!"
- Keet: Fits the trope to a T.
- Motor Mouth: When he gets upset.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The Roguish to Taishi's Noble.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Ichiro is a very... simple boy, to say the least. He's also frequently on the receiving end of an Insult Backfire.
- Skewed Priorities: When the boys suffer from Rapid Aging thanks to a Monster of the Week and are turned into senior citizens, Ichiro becomes really happy after the initial shock because this means he doesn't have to go to school anymore. After the monster is defeated and they turn back to normal, the first thing Ichiro says is how he's sad that he can't escape school.
- Sweet Tooth: Says that he loves anything with sugar in it.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Ichiroku tart (it looks like a roll cake), which hails from the same place Dougo Onsen is.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Constantly bickering with his close friend Taishi.
Karls de Yutari Honyalala
- Voiced by: Takuya Eguchi
Tropes associated with him:
- Ambiguously Brown: He and his brother Furanui both have dark skin in their human forms. While the series itself never touches upon it, the architecture in Honyala Land is visibly inspired by real life Central Asia.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Butterflies can easily distract him.
- Elemental Powers: In the first episode, Karls shows off Playing with Fire and An Ice Person to the Happy Knights in order to learn how familiar humans are with magic.
- The Empath: He can feel happiness, as well as the lack of it. This allows him to detect when a Monster of the Week is born, as well as guide the Happy Knights to it.
- Forgotten Phlebotinum: Karls has many one-off abilities that could be very useful in battle, except he never lifts a finger to help the Happy Knights even when they're at a disadvantage against the Monster of the Week.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Furanui's responsible.
- Human Disguise: Can shift from otter to human form, but spends most of his time in otter form.
- Keet: He's always full of energy, and surpasses even Ichiro in terms of being cheerful and energetic, which is enhanced by his goal to spread happiness to everyone.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Karls can inflict this on people, which is used to make civilians forget about the monster attacks and protect the Happy Knights' identities.
- Magical Girl Queenliness Test: Gender inverted. Karls and his brother Furanui were sent to Earth in order to compete with each other for the throne. Karls believes in the power of happiness, while Furanui believes in ruling by force.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Karls, who is usually in an eternal state of happiness, begins bawling once he learns that his father is in what appears to be mortal danger. Once the Earth Defense Club sees this, they immediately realize how dangerous the situation is.
- Ornamental Weapon: His human form carries a sword, but he never uses it. Heck, it never leaves the scabbard.
- Random Species Offspring: Karls is an otter, while his brother Furanui is clearly some kind of canine. Their father is a platypus and their uncle is a lemur. They're all related by blood.
- Reality Warper: Karls can make the same day happen twice in a row. It's not any kind of time travel or time loop, he can just make two days in a row have the exact same date and not mess up with the calendar.
Student Council/Edelstein Knights
Tropes applying to all of them:
- Heel–Face Turn: Ata performs this following a Cooldown Hug by Kyotaro near the end of episode 11, which is followed suit by the rest of the Student Council, Furanui included, in the following episode after they found out Furanui (and his brother, Karls)'s father is in danger and needs their help.
- Theme Naming: Onsens for surnames in civilian form, precious gems in German in Conquest Club form (diamond/rose quartz/amethyst in comparison to the original gold/silver/pearl).
Ata Ibusuki/Ritter Diamant
- Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa"That which is unbreakable is truly strong. Ritter Diamant!"
Tropes associated with him:
- Childhood Friends: With Kyotaro and Ryoma.
- Cooldown Hug: After Ata is turned into a monster in episode 11, an injured Kyotaro is able to snap him out of it by embracing him and apologizing for not caring about his feelings and hurting him when they were children.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ostensibly the reason he hates Kyotaro so much. When they were children, Kyotaro was athletic, popular, and talented, despite not putting in any effort. Ata's attempts to surpass him led to him becoming jaded and frustrated. The final straw was when they went to Kurotamayu with Ryouma for the first time. Ata had never taken a bath in public and was embarrassed and scared about being naked in front of his friends. His grudge stemmed from the fact that not only was Kyotaro more confident than him, but he hadn't considered his feelings at all and seemingly hadn't cared when a hurt Ata ran away.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As a child, he was very shy and timid, except when he was with Kyotaro and Ryoma. Ironically, the reason he grew to hate Kyotaro was that he was confident and extremely popular without even trying.
Taiju Unazuki/Ritter Rosenquarz
- Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi"Affection and comfort... Ritter Rosenquarz!"
Tropes associated with him:
- Affably Evil: Unlike Ata and Maasa, he does not appear to have any sadistic tendencies and doesn't despise the Happy Knights. In fact, he still keeps up his friendship with Nanao, despite the fact that they're now enemies. Also, in episode three, he admits to Nanao that the main reason that he agreed to join the Edelstein was because the other two student council members were fired up about it and, as the oldest of the three, he feels that it's his responsibility to look after them.
- Friendly Enemy: With Nanao.
- Inconsistent Spelling: His Edelstein name is spelled both "Rosenquarz" (merchandise) and "Rose Quartz" (English subs).
- Meaningful Name: His first name means "great tree" and much like a tree, he's tall and protective of anything under his care...but can also be unforgiving of anything outside it.
- Nice Guy: Unlike his fellow student council members, he's very polite and doesn't have anything personal against the Defense Club. Prominently, in episode three, while Ata and Maasa couldn't give a crap about the ice cream stand owner whose only employee was just turned into a monster, Taiju's immediate response is to throw his coat at Ata and volunteer to run the stand so the owner can leave, despite the other two thinking that he's crazy for wanting to do menial work, and he clearly enjoys the job.
Maasa Shirahone/Ritter Amethyst
- Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka"Noble and virtuous! Ritter Amethyst!"
The secretary, and youngest member, of the student council.
Tropes associated with him:
- Beauty Is Bad: As stated in episode one by the victim of the week, he's considered one of the cutest and most beautiful guys at school. As it turns out, NO, he definitely isn't as cute as he appears. Underneath his "innocent kid" appearance is a cynical and sadistic guy with nothing but disrespect and contempt for most people, bar his fellow student council members.
- Childhood Friends: As it is later revealed, he's Ichiro's cousin and former elementary school friend.
- The Cynic: As it turns out, underneath his cute exterior, is an extremely jaded and hateful guy. It turns out that this stems from his own self-hate.
- The Cutie: An adorable kid who loves fuzzy animals and making sweets to give to other people. It's later revealed that Maasa purposely invoked this trope in order to escape from his embarrassing past.
- The Fake Cutie: As it turns out, he's actually quite the sadist underneath his cute and innocent demeanor, even to the point of internally deriding people as "disgusting pigs" while they are fawning over how adorable he is. When he's in a particularly foul mood, he bakes fat-enhancing butter into his treats to make the people who eat them gain a bunch of excess weight.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: To the students of Binan High School, he is an adorable and childlike first year who loves cute things and making sweets to hand out. In reality, he's a bit of a sadist who thinks most humans are utter scum.
- I Hate Past Me: As a child, his love for sweets lead to him becoming extremely obese. While he wasn't exactly bullied, his classmates' attitude towards his weight hurt him deeply. While studying overseas, he underwent an extreme transformation, losing his excess weight, becoming attractive, and crafting a cute and innocent persona that other people would love and respect. He even went so far as to change his name. It's been years and no one, not even his own cousin (Ichiro) recognizes or remembers him from elementary school. Despite this, he is still disgusted by who he used to be and aggressively forces himself to maintain his new image.
Furanui
A blue fox, who is actually a magical prince from Honyala Land and one of its potential successors for the throne. Other
The previous Earth Defense Club (ALL SPOILERS UNMARKED!)
- Yumoto Hakone voiced by: Kazutomi Yamamoto
Tropes associated with them:
- Continuity Cameo: They previously appeared as protagonists of LOVE!, here making a cameo in Ata's flashback of episode 11, showing up with Yumoto taking a picture of young Kyotaro, Ryoma, and Ata playing in the mud and giving them coupons.
- Demoted to Extra: From protagonists of LOVE! to one cameo appearance in a flashback of an episode, and of the five, only Yumoto had a speaking role, meanwhile, Wombat did not appear at all despite playing a just as important role back then.
- Keet: From the limited amount of screentime they had in Happy Kiss!, Yumoto still seems as energetic as ever, which especially shows when he's the only one of the five that spoke, and all of those lines convey his usual energy.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Although they only appear in one episode in Ata's flashback (episode 11), they are the reason the current Defense Club goes to Kurotamayu, and thus, the final straw for why Ata turned evil to begin with.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: None of them had any idea Kyotaro and Ryoma would unintentionally leave Ata behind and thus start his Start of Darkness.
- Walking Spoiler: Their role in Happy Kiss! can't be discussed without revealing the fact they (unintentionally) played a role in Ata's Start of Darkness, and therefore the reason why spoilers are unmarked for them here.
Monsters of the Week
