What's Love After World Domination? ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN!
Earth is facing the threat of Gekko, a nefarious organization bent on world domination. Standing in their way is Gelato Five, a Five-Man Band of young heroes.
A seemingly generic premise for a sentai show, save for one complication: Fudō Aikawa, leader of Gelato Five as "Red Gelato", and Desumi Magahara, one of Gekko's top generals as the "Reaper Princess", are secretly dating!
Thus, Fudō and Desumi must try to balance their romance and their duties to their respective factions, all without completely exposing themselves to either.
Love After World Domination (恋は世界征服のあとで, Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato De) is a manga written by Hiroshi Noda and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu, which was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine from 2019 to 2022. The manga gained an English release in ebook form starting in 2021, as well as an anime adaptation directed by Kazuya Iwata for Project No.9, which began airing in April 2022.
Compare to Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman. The OVA side story has a similar Dating Catwoman plot.
Trope Explanation time!!
- A-Cup Angst: Beast Princess is quite insecure about her own bust size compared to her colleagues Reaper Princess and Steel Princess. This is highlighted during the Beach Episode where she's embarrassed that the swimsuit she's been provided is far less skimpy than the other Princesses'.Beast Princess: Hey, Steel. Don't stand next to me.
- Abusive Parents: Desumi's father was a former member of Gekko who signed up his daughter without asking her and pressures her to go full-time at the organization instead of university. While he's Laughably Evil and claims to love Desumi, it's clear he treats his daughter as a second chance at greatness since he never made it past a grunt while she's already a Princess. His single-minded focus on Desumi's career with Gekko also causes him to neglect Urami, who has been suffering from bullying for years. He only seems to talk to Urami to brag about Desumi's success.
- Accidental Hero: Fudo heads off on a dangerous stealth mission to Gekko's headquarters under the pretense of sabotaging a secret weapon their computer detected, when in reality he just wanted an excuse to go see Desumi. The hijinks that ensue during Desumi's frantic efforts to hide him from her coworkers wind up destroying said weapon anyway.
- Actor Allusion:
- Lindsay Seidel has voiced a villainess in another tokusatsu-related work.
- Quite fittingly, the narrator of the show is Fumihiko Tachiki, who was one for other Toku shows like Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider W.
- Hiroki Yasumoto (Culverin Bear) had previously voiced another bear.
- The same goes double in the Latin American Spanish dub, since many of the voice actors previously worked in the Power Rangers franchise, the American version of the Super Sentai franchise:
- Jorge Santos (Super Sentai Gelato 5's Morpher) previously voiced Zordon and Gosei.
- Carlos del Campo (Culverin Bear), had previously voiced Bulk since Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to this date.
- Carlo Vázquez (Fudo Aikawa/Red Gelato) previously voiced Heckyl.
- Georgina Sanchez (Desumi Magahara/Reaper Princess) previously voiced Mia Watanabe/Pink Samurai Ranger.
- Ruben Leon (The narrator) previously voiced Adam Park/the second Black Ranger.
- Eduardo Tejedo (Prof. Big Gelato) previously voiced Wrench.
- Adaptational Location Change: In the manga, the theme park episode is all but stated to take place in Universal Studios Japan, complete with various shout-outs to the media franchises featured there. In the anime, the location is changed into Yomiuriland, which is also a real-life amusement park, and its dog mascot LandDog is prominently featured throughout the segment.
- Advertised Extra: The first anime opening gives the other members of the Gelato 5 as much focus as Fudo and way more than Desumi, despite the fact that they're pretty much supporting characters at best. Of the four, Haru/Pink Gelato gets more spotlight once she becomes Fudo and Desumi's Secret-Keeper.
- Affably Evil: Quite a few members of Gekko fall under this. General Bosslar even sends Fudou get-well flowers when he's hospitalized with appendicitis, stating he sincerely hopes Fudou's death will not come at anything but their hands.
- Age-Gap Romance: Desumi's parents; volume 3's omake reveals that when they first met, her mother was 20 and her father was 38.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys:
- Inverted, Desumi is a villainess but she falls for the virtuous Fudou. This trope can also be played with and gender-inverted with Fudou, the hero who loves Desumi, although Desumi herself isn't a bad person.
- Gender-flipped (albeit unknowingly) with Hayato/Blue Gelato and Kiki/Beast Princess, as there's at least three chapters with him trying to woo her so far, although despite her attitude toward him he's not aware of her identity.
- All There in the Manual: Desumi's parents' names are first given in volume 3's omake: her father is Desuo and her mother is Kirumi.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: What the members of Gekko think the Beastification Offer is, and are genuinely shocked to find out it is actually an option.
- Anti-Mentor: Fudo and Desumi are genuinely smart, but they have such unique ways to solve math problems (muscle analogies for Fudo and replacing the proper terms and process with cutesy gibberish for Desumi) that Haru finds being tutored by them to be completely worthless.
- Anti-Villain: Desumi is a Nice Girl that only joined because her parents (her father in particular) signed her up for the job interview without telling her and aced it to the point of automatically being made a Princess. Strangely, despite their stated goal of world domination, this can apply to some degree for all the members of Gekko who get along with each other and are quite Affably Evil.
- Bad Date: Fudo, being an exercise-obsessed himbo, comes up with a first date with Desumi that's just going to a gym and working out, then going for a long run and eating energy bars afterword. Desumi tells him she needs to use the bathroom, then disappears, at which point Fudo's teammate Misaki calls him and tells him that he'd better not have taken his date out to the gym or anything dumb like that. He panics and thinks he's ruined his shot at romance, but it turns out that Desumi was actually enjoying herself and just ran off to buy some drinks because the energy bars were dry.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Fudou is shown bare-chested a few times (e.g. on the beach), but his nipples aren't shown.
- Battle Couple:
- Steel Princess and Culverin Bear become a formidable pair in battle after the former works up her courage to confess to the latter.
- Desumi and Fudo become one at the end of the series, as Reaper Princess and Reaper Prince.
- Beach Episode: Chapter 11/Episode 6 sees the Gelato 5 heading to the beach, and the Gekko troops heading after them.
- Bears Are Bad News: Culverin Bear is a literal bear man with two large cannons on his back as well as a high ranking member of Gekko. Ironically, he is quite popular among children.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Near the end of the series, Fudo and Desumi have their first kiss in broad daylight, just as a camera crew is approaching them, then proceed to disclose their relationship to the public.
- Bland-Name Product:
- Fudou uses "Gaagle" for help trying to plan his first date.
- The manga's version of Uno is "Uuno", while the anime's is "Unon".
- In the anime, Fudo's cellphone has the "MINE" messaging app, referencing the LINE
messaging app. - Fudou tries to use a virtual assistant on his cellphone called "Suri", an obvious reference to the virtual assistant "Siri" by Apple.
- Manga: Gelato member Yellow Gelato/Misaki Jinguji uses a "Mimion" mask as a disguise to infiltrate an amusement park to confront a Gekko operation.
- Manga: The main character love birds use a "Harry Patter" hat and cape as a disguise to visit the amusement park together.
- By the Power of Grayskull!:
- "Freezing Change!" used by the Gelato 5.
- "Welcome Evil! Punish Good! Reaper Change!" used by Desumi.
- "Death Comes Marching In Like A Lion! Beast Change!" used by Beast Princess.
- Christmas Episode: Chapter 27 sees Fudo and Desumi on a Christmas date, followed by a two-parter about their first shrine visit of the year.
- Cliffhanger:
- Episode 8 ends with Desumi checking who's at her dorm door, thinking it's Haru, only to see her father and younger sister at the door. And Fudo's in the room with her.
- The end of the manga's first volume has Haru sitting down next to Desumi and Fudo, revealing she knows about their relationship.
- The end of the second volume has covert photos of Fudo and Desumi sent to the Gelato 5's base, revealing someone's spying on them.
- The end of the fourth volume has Fudo and Desumi visiting her hometown, only to run into her family; her father promptly insists that she and 'Mudo' stay overnight at the family home.
- The end of the fifth volume has Desumi catch sight of Professor Big Gelato's granddaughter Hyoka move in to kiss Fudo.
- Clark Kenting:
- Desumi and the other Princesses all have secret identities and attend the same high school despite the fact that their villain costumes aren't very obscuring. It's particularly egregious for Steel and Beast Princess, who don't wear any kind of masks but are never recognized.
- Fudo's identity is widely known, but whenever he wants to blend in in public he wears glasses. It never fails to convince.
- Inverted with Daigo, who is at least better covered up than Fudo, and yet is still recognized, much to his bafflement.
- Crack Ship: In-Universe when Fudou and Desumi use their hero and villain identities respectively at the school festival. Everyone questions why a couple would dress that way and think it’s ridiculous to think Red Gelato and Reaper Princess could be a couple. Due to the Refuge in Audacity of doing so and that many people are wearing costumes, the couple are able to take a picture on the famed love spot, with no one being the wiser of them actually being the real deal.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Even after Gekko replaces Gelato 5 as Japan's superhero team, their members still dress in dark colors with skull iconography.
- Dating Catwoman: The entire premise is themed around this trope, focusing on the leader of a Sentai team and the newest member of an evil organization falling in love while trying to keep their relationship under wraps.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune:
- Misaki's voice actress, Nene Hieda, is one of the eight members of DIALOGUE+, the idol group that performs the anime's ending theme.
- Yukari Tamura, who is one of the singers of the opening, provides the voice for Ultimate Phantom in the last episode.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: On numerous occasions Desumi has been quick to resort to violence against Fudo in fits of jealousy, even when she's well aware Fudo didn't do anything wrong and has had hours to contemplate how best to handle her emotions. It's always either played for laughs or treated like this is an entirely reasonable response to going through a hard time.
- Dumb Muscle: Downplayed. It's not that Fudou's stupid, per se - he's smart enough to score in the top ten of his school year - it's just that his idea of a good time is physical training, and most everyone who knows him thinks he's a simple, straightforward guy with a brain dedicated to muscles.
- Emo Teen: Desumi's sister Urami is a shy and gloomy middle schooler, which is unfortunately perpetuated by the constant bullying she receives from her peers and the lack of emotional support at home.
- Entertainingly Wrong: At the beach, Beast Princess assumes Desumi's actions are all part of the mission, including what she thinks is Desumi being utterly ruthless in taking down Fudou, when in fact she's just on a beach date with him.
- Epic Flail: Desumi's weapon of choice.
- Evil Versus Evil: The final arc focuses on Gekko refusing to merge with another supervillain organization. Gekko instead merges with Gelato 5 and becomes the new superhero team,
- Faceless Goons: The standard outfit for Gekko's footsoldiers includes a face-covering helmet that looks like a skull.
- Fake a Fight: Both Fudou and Desumi engage in every battle like this. This includes Fudou/Desumi sending clues to each other about the fighting maneuvers he/she will use to prepare accordingly.
- The Family That Slays Together: Desumi's family are all supporters/members of the Gekko Organization. Including her dad, a retired trooper, and her younger sister Urami, who plans to join after she graduates.
- Five-Man Band: The Gelato 5, as fitting of a sentai team: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Pink.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Fudou and Desumi attend an event at Desumi's School Festival as their costumed alter-egos to avoid being recognized, since with it being a festival everyone will assume they're cosplayers.
- Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Because the series focuses heavily on the Romantic Comedy aspect, it isn't until Episode 12 when there is an actual threat that we see how devastating Gekko and Gelato 5 can be with their abilities.
- Forgotten First Meeting:
- A minor case. Haru/Pink Gelato was saved from some hoodlums by Desumi while the latter was in her civilian guise, leaving Haru with the words "Get stronger" which is what partially inspired her to join the Gelato 5. While both remember the incident, Desumi doesn't realise the person she saved was Haru until the latter brings it up.
- Oddly, Desumi has another one with Daigo/Green Gelato. When she was seven, he took her as his protegee in martial arts, but she effortlessly beat him every time they fought. Desumi always addressed Daigo as her "big brother" and erroneously chided him for "going easy" on her. When they meet again years later, they initially don't recognize each other.
- Friendly Enemy: When Fudo gets appendicitis, Gekko cares enough to send "Get Well" flowers.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: In Chapter 27, Fudo has his bad angel pop up in the form of a demon Misaki, tempting him to kiss Desumi.
- Gyaru Girl: Anna's typical look at school, with long hair in a side ponytail, short skirt, jersey tied around her waist, piercings, and non-regulation contacts.
- Heel–Face Turn: By the end of the series, Gekko replaces Gelato 5 as the resident superhero team of Japan, with three former Gelato 5 members in their ranks.
- Henshin Hero: The Gelato 5, being a sentai squad. Desumi inverts this by being a henshin villain, although her physical capabilities were pretty much superhuman before she joined Gekko, and it turns out Beast Princess is a henshin villain too.
- Hidden Buxom: Steel Princess ordinarily wears bulky, figure-obscuring armor. The first time she removes it, Reaper Princess and Beast Princess are shocked to discover she's even more buxom than Desumi. Note that Steel had spent the entire episode decrying herself as unattractive and unfeminine.
- Homage: The entire thing is a parody of the Super Sentai franchise, down to giving the team the same color and number assignments as the one that started it all. Gekko are also an obvious homage to SHOCKER, the first villain group from Kamen Rider, complete with generals with beast modifications.
- Hope Spot: When Desumi is told that as part of her imminent promotion to Beast Commander, she'll be fused with an animal like all the others, she's horrified. But then she sees Drone Rabbit, who came out of the procedure more or less looking like a Cute Monster Girl, and thinks maybe it wouldn't be so bad as long as she got fused with something cute. She's immediately informed they're going to fuse her with a gorilla.
- Hospital Hottie: The Blood Princess, Kira Sanzugawa, is the school nurse where the Princesses attend and, just like the rest of them, is very attractive.
- Hypocritical Humor: Culverin Bear says that just because Gekko are at the beach, it doesn't mean it's a vacation... while lying back in a chair, wearing shorts, shades and a lei, with Steel Princess holding a massive drink for him.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: How Haru, who has a crush on Fudou, ultimately responds when she learns of his relationship with Desumi, deciding not to interfere with them.
- I Was Quite the Looker:
- Subverted. Fudou's mother says she used to be a looker in Volume 2's omake/Episode 5's stinger, showing Desumi a photo of her and Fudou when he was a child, but the only thing that's visibly changed between then and now is her hairstyle.
- Played straight with Desumi's mother, who looked similar to Desumi when she was in her 20s.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Chapters are called Battles.
- Interspecies Romance: Gekko Organization members Steel Princess (a human) and Culverin Bear (a beastman) are dating after Steel Princess confesses to him. Downplayed, as a later chapter reveals that the beastmen of Gekko are modified humans, rather than artificial creatures.
- Kayfabe: Desumi and Fudo engage in this to keep their relationship secret, faking fights with each other.
- Killing Intent: When Daigo/Green Gelato challenges Desumi, with the stakes that he’ll either abandon his attempts to recruit her, or she’ll join the Gelato 5 (which would mean breaking up with Fudo), she gets a black aura and slips into her Reaper Princess voice right before defeating Daigo in seconds, in his transformed state, no less.
- Leave Him to Me!: Or Leave Her To Me. Anyway, Fudou and Desumi use this as an excuse to step out of the sight of their allies/enemies so the two can have some peaceful time between each other... at least, until the battle is close to ending.
- Lethal Chef: When Desumi wanted to help her colleague Steel Princess/Kyoko Kuroyuri to be more feminine by teaching her to cook, the result was so bad, it was censored out.
- Love at First Sight: Fudou states this as why he fell for Desumi.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Desumi has five younger siblings, as seen during a video call with her family.
- Master of Disguise: Ran Ran, courtesy of Latex Perfection and ninja-level disguise skills; she pulls off a damn good Fudou, despite him being much taller. It is possible to see through her disguises, if you're familiar enough with the person she's impersonating.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Desumi is a slender young woman who's an absolute terror in hand-to-hand combat, and ordinary humans are no match for her.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Urami doesn't take Desumi dating very well and muses about wanting to pummel Fudou once she joins the Gekko.
- Narrating the Obvious: The narrator is prone to this. For example, the first time Fudou asks Desumi out on a date, the narrator breaks in with "Allow me to explain" and then tells the audience what a date is.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: Gekko, though they feel like an Affably Evil organization than an outright malicious one.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The celebrity actress Fudo is assigned to work with in the wedding commercial is named Anna Hashimoto (橋本 杏奈), who is clearly based on real-life actress Kanna Hashimoto (橋本 環奈), with their names differing by only one kanji/kana character.
- No Social Skills: Ran Ran has no experience with socialization, and approaches friendship and love as an outsider.
- Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: How Fudou reacts after agreeing to his first date with Desumi and only realizing once she's left that he has no idea what you actually do on a date.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Fudou's idea of a disguise for their first date is to wear glasses and slick his hair down. Desumi is impressed.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Desumi, full stop. She only joined Gekko because her father enlisted her without her permission. When Beast Princess learns about this, she wonders if that's how Desumi can be so carefree.
- Refuge in Audacity: At the school festival Fudo and Desumi want to get to a famous love spot and have their picture taken, but they need to not be recognized... So they go in full Red Gelato and Reaper Princess get-up and are mistaken for some cosplayers who like crack ships.
- Running Gag: The narrator jumping in with “ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN!” to deliver exposition.
- School Festival: Desumi and the other Princesses' school holds a festival in chapters 19-20, with Fudou and Desumi trying to fulfill one of the school's legends and be bound by eternal love.
- Secret Identity:
- The Gelato 5 avert this, with their civilian identities being publicly known. Gekko's Princesses, however, play it straight, hiding their civilian identities.
- That said, because the Gelato 5's identities are publicly known, as far as Desumi's family are concerned she's dating a Gekko footsoldier called 'Mudo'.
- Secret-Keeper: Haru Arisugawa/Pink Gelato becomes this for Fudou and Desumi. There's also Anna Hojo, a.k.a. the Heat Princess, albeit they do so with less than pure intentions.
- Sentai: While their name hints at it, the anime makes it clear from the outset that the Gelato 5 are an ice cream-themed squad, with introductions and attacks to match.
- Sick Episode: Chapter 9, adapted as the second half of Episode 5, sees Fudou getting hospitalized with appendicitis.
- Smarter Than You Look: Fudou wrote a detailed training manual, complete with pictures with detailed commentary, and does well enough academically to be in the top 10 of his school year, showing he's actually quite smart.
- Spotting the Thread: Ran Ran first joins the other Princesses while disguised as Fudou. Desumi quickly figures out that it isn't her boyfriend but her colleague because the biceps are too big and he removes his shoes properly at the genkan.
- Stripperiffic: Desumi's costume, fitting for a Toku villainess. Beast Princess's costume is another example.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Wearing just a Stripperiffic outfit does not protect you from being exposed to the cold. Not long after a mission at the mountains, Desumi gets sick.
- The Gelato 5's most powerful weapon is the Gelato Claymore, a sword which is made by combining all of the Gelato 5's unique weapons, including the weight of each weapon. So after it's formed the first time, Red (who's already quite battered from the earlier fight) can barely lift it by himself, let alone use it.
- Teens Are Monsters: Most of Gekko's Princess series are teenage girls who attend the same high school, though it's subverted in that the Princesses shown thus far are pure Punch-Clock Villains.
- Their First Time: Desumi forgoes a promotion because part of her promotion would be her transformation into a beast woman (a gorilla) and she plans to eventually have her first time with her boyfriend Fudou.
- Third-Person Person: Fresh Blood Princess/Sanzugawa Kira speaks of herself in the third person (when she talks about her love for Gekko leader Bosslar).
- Two Girls to a Team: The Gelato 5 have Yellow and Pink.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Desumi's parents when they were younger; her mother had a striking resemblance to Desumi, while her father was short, pudgy and already had a receding hairline.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter:
- Fudo and his mother are a gender-inverted example; he's tall, handsome and well-built, while his mother has a cartoony, square-shaped face and a short, chubby physique. Still, they do share a passing resemblance.
- Desumi and her sister Urami are very cute compared to their fat, balding father.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Fudou is a Nice Guy who never pressures his girlfriend about leaving Gekko or to change herself, stating he loves her for her. Even when the possibility of her becoming a gorilla-girl monster is presented, he only cares about what she wants and is willing to support whatever decision she makes.
- What Is This Feeling?:
- Neither Fudou or Desumi have much experience in romance.
- Ran Ran has no idea what love and friendship are, despite Drone Rabbit's efforts to get her to socialize. She comes to understand and like the feeling after Desumi invites her to a pajama party with the other Princesses.
- You Didn't Ask: Quite a few of the beastified generals express anger at how it turns out a general can decline the process to be transformed after Desumi does so, with them originally believing saying no wasn't an answer until then. So the option actually existing makes them pissed how that wasn't mentioned alongside the beastification offer.
