Anis and all her boys, not that she wants them.
Kiss of the Rose Princess (Barajou no Kiss) is a Shoujo manga by Aya Shouoto that ran in the magazine Asuka from 2008 to 2011, compiled in 9 volumes. This would be your bog standard Shoujo manga except for the author's fondness for subverting, inverting, genderflipping, and generally tossing about the tropes common to the genre.So you think your father is a Manipulative Bastard out to ruin your life? Anis Yamamoto would like to compare notes if you wouldn't mind.
First her father straps her with a choker that won't come off and he claims is an amulet of protection. When said choker finally does come off (through no efforts of her own) she finds herself saddled with four teenage boys calling themselves her 'Rose Knights,' who use her blood to fuel their magic, a vague prophecy of doom, and then her father decides to come home.
Anis can summon the boys via color coded cards and order them to do her bidding. They must do what she says or get beaten with rose thorns. Downside to having a quartet of hot guys who have to do your bidding or face rose thorns of doom is that said magic is powered off her blood. (This is strongly implied to be the only reason Anis doesn't run around trying to take over the world.) Her father is trying to replicate the Rose Contracts for reasons unknown and likes to mess with Anis's head on the side.
It was licensed for English release by Viz Media in 2014.
Examples of tropes found in Kiss of the Rose Princess:
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Averted. Itsushi worked as Schwartz's apprentice but it's actually Schwartz who became "evil", and now Itsushi keeps his apprenticeship as memories of Old Shame.
- Angst Coma: Mutsuki, having spent years in sleep, suffers amnesia after killing his older brother. Averted as he collapsed before actually killing him.
- Audio Play: Two drama CDs featuring audio enactments of the first two volumes were released during the series' run. In addition to that, two short original drama CDs were available for a limited time through a mail order to the Asuka magazine.
- Archnemesis Dad: Pity poor Anis, not only is her father the school doctor, he is literally out to ruin her life in the most sadistic ways possible.
- Artificial Human: Seiran. He looks like a teenage Bishōnen. He's actually a three-year-old homunculus.
- Always Save the Girl: Subverted as the Rose Knights are forced to do this by their Magically-Binding Contract.
- Gender Flipped with Anis and her knights because when they are in trouble she'll ignore everything else to save them.
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Near the end of the series, when Tenjou does a Face–Heel Turn, he kidnaps Anis and has her wear a wedding dress to force her to max out his awakening.
- Badass Longcoat: Mutsuki and Tenjou are really fond of these. Though all the boys except Kaede gets in on the action at least once.
- Become a Real Boy: Galacta is obsessed and in love with Anis because she represents everything that she had wanted in her life: to be a normal girl, and live a normal life.
- Because Destiny Says So: Mutsuki is partially motivated to steal Anis's heart because the first Rose Princess and the Black Rose Knight became a couple.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Kaede and Anis.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Anis and the Rhode Knights get ready to face off against the church, Yakou, Idel, Itsushi, and Haruto come Back for the Finale.
- Big Man on Campus: Tenjou is the most popular boy in school.
- Bishie Sparkle: Tenjou does this all the time.
- Bodyguard Crush: All the knights develop feelings for Anis.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Yocteau was contaminated by the miasma of the demon lord when the yellow rose broke the seal 200 years ago. He begged Mutsuki constantly to kill him permanently so he could die as himself.
- Breakout Character: Mutsuki.
- Brought Down to Normal: This will happen eventually when the Rose Princess reaches the final stage of awakening with any one of the knights. Once a knight gets engaged to the Rose Princess, the other knights will lose all their powers.
- Calling Your Attacks: Tenjou loves to do this, and Anis loves to lampshade it.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Inverted as the only one that Tenjou is perverted around is Anis.
- Can't Catch Up: Seiran gets introduced, summoned, and powered up after Kaede, Tenjou, and Mutsuki. He's also the one who gets summoned the least and is only seen fighting on two occasions.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Occasionally lampshaded.
- Cavalry Betrayal: Mutsuki, joined his brother who is with the Villains. Averted as Mutsuki and Tenjoh were The Chessmaster planning to know the location of the machine.
- Childhood Friends: Kaede and Seiran live near each other and have known each other since they were little, except any memory Kaede has of growing up with Seiran are actually Fake Memories because Seiran is an Artificial Human. Anis and Haruto were also childhood friends.
- Clingy MacGuffin: The cards... won't... go... away...
- Color-Coded Characters: The Knights. The color of their rose matches their hair.
- Costume Porn: The knights' uniforms that appear when they create a true pact with Anis are very elaborate. Tenjou also has a lot of crazy costumes he'd like to show off to Anise.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: When the knights find out who stole Anis's first kiss, that's all they can focus on, and they get so violent it even scares Anis.
- Creepy Child: Seiran. In one chapter, he whips up a high end explosive in about 3 seconds, and detonates it with a smile on his face. He has apparently been using hallucinogens on Kaede for years, admits to trying to dose Anis with a love potion, carries around an acid strong enough to melt steel, and his medicines, although effective, are so horrific that they make there drinker's "See Hell", according to Kaede.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Anis gets these pretty much any time she has to deal with Tenjou for an extended period of time. Or whenever Kaede talks back to her, which is often.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Anis. So, so much.
- Cuteness Proximity: Seiran is so adorable that he captures the attention of many girls (and sometimes even guys!).
- Damsel out of Distress: Anis will not take any of these dimension warping shenanigans sitting down, thank you very much! She may have just been informed that her father intends to sacrifice her to a seal of unknown demonic origin and otherwise make her life hell, but she is not going to just sit around and mope. No. She is going to kick her Knights' collective asses into gear and they will obey or they will get the rose thorns of doom.
- Dangerous 16th Birthday
- Dark Magical Girl: Galacta/Ella, Anis' Evil Counterpart.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mutsuki has plenty of those moments, but he really has a Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
- Deal with the Devil: Shiden gave up his left eye to Yocteau to grant Ella/Galacta's wish of living her life as a real girl.
- Decoy Protagonist: Is it the red or black knight? The
Word of God has given immense Back Story and Character Development to only one of the knights. - Defrosting Ice Queen: Gender Flipped with Mutsuki.
- Determinator: Anis will always see through her plans and make sure everything is all right if she can help it.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Galacta/Ella, but not before giving a Dying Declaration of Love to Anis.
- Diet Episode: In a side story, Anis summons the knights so she can use up her energy to lose weight.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Galacta hates it when people call her by her name, Ella.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: Anis and the Rhode Knights enter an idol competition to win an Arcana Card. However, the Arcana Card is the second place prize, so Anis tries to come up with plans that would give them a better chance of earning second place.
- Dogged Nice Guy: All the Rhode Knights for Anis.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Seiran is often noted to be "so cute that he could pass off as a girl."
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: When Kaede and Anis give a heartfelt speech about The Power of Friendship to Seiran, Seiran immediately thanks Anis, ignoring Kaede.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Haruto does this with Anis... averted though because he doesn't actually die. He just gets teleported to China. Yeah, I don't know either.
- It's played straight with Galacta, who admits Anis is everything she's wanted to be and loves her for that.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Dominion Galacta incorporates lolita in her outfits.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Tenjou forces Anis to give him a stage three awakening, but the thorns from awakening are supposed to encircle him entirely before it's complete. The thorns end up circling around Seiran's card instead, so Seiran ascends to stage two.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Yakou refuses to manipulate or hurt his fans during the battle against the Rhode Knights.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Tenjou is shown having a horde of adoring fans of both genders. His vice president is rather, ah, devoted.
- The Everyman: Kaede
- Face–Heel Turn: Near the end of the series, Tenjou sides with the church and turns on Anis and the knights, forcing her to marry him.
- Fairytale Motifs: Three pieces of artwork were centered around fairytale themes. The "Little Red Riding Hood"-themed image featured Anis as Little Red Riding Hood, Kaede as the Huntsman, and Tenjou as the Wolf. The "Beauty and the Beast"-themed image featured Anis as Belle and Mutsuki as the Beast. "The Little Mermaid"-themed image featured Anis, Haruto, and Seiran.
- Fake Defector: Mutsuki's betrayal to the team had been planned by him and Tenjou the whole time to allow Mutsuki to get close to Yocteau.
- Fake Memories: Seiran is not a real human. The memories Kaede had about growing up with him were all fake and induced by the hallucinogen-emitting roses in Seiran's garden.
- Female Gaze: This was not a manga written with boys in mind.
- First Girl Wins: Gender Flipped. Punishment 40 reveals that Kaede won the Love Dodecahedron.
- Flower Motifs: Roses are commonly used in the series, and each knight is represented by a rose. Using this chart of rose color meanings
:- Kaede is represented by the red rose, which stands for love.
- Tenjou is represented by the white rose, which stands for innocence (Japanese meaning).
- Mutsuki is represented by the black rose, which stands for bitterness.
- Seiran is represented by the blue rose, which stands for miracles/the impossible (Japanese meaning).
- Haruto is represented by the yellow rose, which stands for jealousy (Japanese meaning) and friendship (Western meaning). He is later represented by the gold rose.
- Idel is represented by the orange rose, which stands for faith (Japanese meaning).
- Yakou is represented by the lime rose.
- Yocteau is represented by the gray rose.
- Shiden is represented by the violet rose, which stands for elegance (Japanese meaning).
- Anis's father, Schwartz, is represented by the silver rose.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Yocteau, Mutsuki's older brother, wants him to do what he failed in doing.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Tenjou is sanguine, Kaede is choleric, Mutsuki is melancholic, and Seiran is phlegmatic.
- Green-Eyed Monster: 200 years ago, the Yellow Rose Knight became jealous of the Red Rose Knight and betrayed him by breaking the seal to the demon lord. The yellow rose was sacrificed to rebuild the seal and the blue rose was created to take the spot he vacated.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The Arcana Cards.
- He's Not My Boyfriend: When Mikage asks Anis about her relationship with Kaede, she says this. Sadly, this was just moments after Kaede realizes his feelings for Anis, and overhears their conversation.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Mutsuki switches sides a lot because of the Foreshadowing from his fragmented memories and his conflict between choosing his loyalty to Anis over that of his brother's dying will. Haruto is this too — he starts out being Anis's friend to being the first main antagonist towards Anis, and sacrifices himself to seal the gate to the demon lord. Then he comes back as the gold rose under Ella's lead... but only just to help her save her father.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Yakou and Idel are very close to one another, to the point that Yakou donated one of his kidneys to Idel.
- I Have Many Names: The knights are given a variety of names like: xx Rose, Knight of the xx Rose, xx Knight.
- Kaede gives an extra to Mutsuki by simply calling him "Black"
- Mutsuki's original name is Quess
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While the other knights are actively pursuing Anis, Seiran doesn't mind if Anis doesn't return his feelings as long as he can see her smile, and he even tries to help Kaede out with his feelings for her sometimes.
- The Idiot from Osaka: Haruto is from Osaka and he wants Anis to be part of his Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. Of course, his cheerfulness is pretty much Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Idiot Hero: Anis is this straight up.
- Intimate Healing: When Anis falls unconscious trying to save Yakou, Seiran revives her with medicine and administers it through a kiss.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Neither Kaede nor Mutsuki were pleased to see Anis as their Rose Princess, but as time went on, both of them warm up and eventually fall in love with her.
- Kissing Cousins: Because Anis' mother was from the church run by Tenjou's family, and the members of the church interbreed, Anis is Tenjou's distant cousin. That doesn't stop him from making advances on her and trying to carry out the church's orders into marrying her.
- Large Ham: Tenjou, oh, so very much, when he talks about Anis. The first moment he reveals his hamminess, Anis realizes she's been Loving a Shadow the entire time.
- The Load: Seiran sees himself as this in chapter 26 because he hasn't reached his awakening.
- Love at First Sight: Seiran fell in love with Anis at first sight, and it's implied that Tenjou did the same. This also happened with Lissa and Schwartz in their first meeting involving Crash-Into Hello.
- Love Dodecahedron: All of the Rhode Knights (including Haruto) are in love with Anis, but who she likes has yet to be decided until the end, where it's implied she and Kaede hook up. Meanwhile, Tenjou has a horde of fangirls and fanboys who adore him. Mikage/Ella/Galacta takes a liking to Kaede, but she's actually in love with Anis.
- Luminescent Blush: Anis is prone to this.
- Magic Contract Romance: Anise and her Rose Knights. Not that she wants a "until the end of time" romance with any of them.
- Magic Idol Singer: Gender Flipped with Idel Suzumura and Yakou Hasuzaki.
- Make Some Noise: Idel uses soundwaves to attack.
- Mentor Mascot: Ninufa is a surprisingly creepy one.
- Mr. Exposition: Thank you, Itsushi Narumi. Without you, we would probably never know what the hell was going on.
- Next Tier Power-Up: After the Rhode Knights complete the true contracts, they ascend to the next stage, which requires them to have awakenings based on their bond with Anis to claim their strongest powers.
- Not Quite Dead: Mutsuki killed his brother; however, 200 years later, and he's back via Functional Magic.
- Odd Friendship: Seiran and Ninafu are very close friends. Ninafu even made a pair of pajamas for Seiran so they could match.
- Official Couple: Though the manga ended in an abrupt rush, Kaede x Anis is pretty much official.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If Tenjou's not being a Large Ham, something is wrong.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Mutsuki isn't a Vampire, he's a Dark Stalker. Oh.
- Plucky Girl: Anis again.
- Power Incontinence: Hasuzaki Yakoh can control fragrances in hypnotic quantities, but when he gets exhausted he'll start feeling the effects of his own hypnosis.
- Prince Charming Wannabe: Oh, Tenjou, it works with everybody else except Anis, huh?
- Protectorate: Anis for her Rose Knights.
- Psycho Rangers: Galacta/Ella and her four fake knights: violet, silver, gold, and gray.
- Making a Splash: Shiden's main attacks use water.
- Necromancer: Yocteau's attacks are centered around death.
- Raised by Grandparents: Seiran lives in a Big Fancy House with his grandparents, though his grandparents are part of the Fake Memories implanted in Kaede.
- Red String of Fate: Or rose vines of fate in this case.
- Redemption Equals Death: Galacta (though she only becomes a scythe for Anis), and also Yocteau.
- Replacement Goldfish: The blue rose was created specifically to replace the yellow rose, as the yellow rose had been sacrificed to seal the gate to the demon lord 200 years ago. This means that Seiran is an artificial human meant to take up the role Haruto had been taking up the entire time. Also, Tenjou's church has been making clones out of Kaede, Seiran, and Mutsuki in secret to succeed their powers.
- The Rival: All knights eventually see each other as rivals for Anis's affection, which Anis desperately tries to avoid.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Anis is colored with pink (or strawberry blonde) hair, and is the emotional support of the group.
- Royal Blood: Mutsuki, who's apparently a prince.
- Sacred First Kiss: Kaede's was stolen by Mikage (Galacta/Ella); Anis's was stolen by Mutsuki during the pageant. Averted since Anis decides that her first kiss was with Ninufa when they first met a la faceplant.
- Say It with Hearts: If Anie is suddenly spouting hearts in her sentences just do whatever the heck it is she wants or face rose thorns of doom.
- School Festival: An entire two chapters worth.
- Had to wait until Mutsuki spurn his Instant Cosplay Surprise on Anis for that.
- School Idol: Tenjou is one of the biggest idols in school.
- Screw Destiny: Anis refuses to use Seiran to seal the gate to the demon lord even though that was his purpose for existing.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Seiran does this for Kaede and Anis, even though he admits to being in love with her.
- Tenjou does it for Domina Galactica and Anis.
- Shrines and Temples: Kaede lives in a Shinto Shrine, Tenjou lives in a Church, Mutsuki lives in the Church's basement. Are we sensing a theme yet?
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Like many other girls at school, Anis admired Tenjou at first. When she learns of his true personality, she drops him like a hot potato.
- Something about a Rose: Why, yes, it's a manga that uses a lot of rose motifs.
- Spell My Name With An S: Anis's name is officially spelled "Anis" according to the artbook for the series, Jewel's Rose. Prior to the book's release, fans romanized her name as "Anise" or "Agnes", and some people still use those romanizations. Viz's translations decided to go with "Anise."
- In addition to this, fans romanize the knights' collective name as "Rhode Knight", but in chapter 15, when Anis imagines the knights debuting as a Boy Band, the name is written in English as "Rhodonite." A pun, perhaps?
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Mutsuki. Everything that's vital to the plot gets revealed. Heck, the fandom even finds out where he sleeps.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Schwartz and Lissa, the woman who would give birth to the next Rose Princess, Anis. Because Lissa was a member of the church, she was not allowed to be with him.
- Student Council President: Tenjou
- Super-Deformed: The artwork does an Art Shift to Super-Deformed figures during comical moments.
- That Came Out Wrong: Lampshaded by Kaede the moment he says it.
- Those Two Girls: Anis's best friends, nicknamed Nana-chan and Hiro-chi, appear very sparsely in the manga.
- Title Drop: The last line in the manga? "That was the kiss of the rose princess!"
- Token Evil Teammate: Mutsuki, especially in regards to him being a "Dark Stalker" and tons of Foreshadowing about him being a traitor to the team.
- Took a Level in Badass: Anis does this more than once.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Tenjou, oh god. All he really wants is for Anis to command his every being.
- Even Seiran just wants her to order him around.
- And now, Kaede's normality is gone.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Mutsuki, I guess having your whole race killed by your brother, and then you killing him was enough to put you to sleep for 200 years. It took Dreaming the Truth to start remembering everything.
- Tsundere: Anis towards her Knights. It's completely justified when it comes to Tenjou. (And he likes her that way)
- Undying Loyalty: The knights to their dominion.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Yakou has powers so strong that at one point it overwhelms him and renders him unconscious. Anis is surprised by this and initially assumed that he was weak since he collapses every time he uses his powers.
- Unwanted Harem: Anis and her Rose Knights. Though god help you if you mess with any of them as she will find away to kick your teeth in.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Tenjou and Mutsuki are best friends, even if neither are willing to admit it in public.
- Was It All a Lie?: Kaede feels this way when he finds out the truth about Seiran.
- We Are as Mayflies: Mutsuki, who lived during the yellow rose incident, which was 200 years before the main story.
- Wild Card: Rhodecia. Idel specifically tells Anis that he and Yakou are not on their side, but affirms her that she and the knights know them better than everyone else.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Seiran doesn't mind being the Sacrificial Lamb to keep the gate to the demon lord sealed because he was made for that purpose. It takes Anis and Kaede to convince him that they value him as an individual instead of a substitute for him to come back.
