Manga / Maiden Rose

Maiden Rose is a Boy's Love manga by Fusanosuke Inariya, which began serialization in 2005 and is still ongoing. It received a two-episode OVA adaptation in 2009.

Set in a world embroiled in a complex war (ca. 1930), Taki Reizen, the heir to an aristocratic family especially favoured by the Emperor, leads his countrymen against the encroaching threat from both their enemies and their volatile allies. However, his position as savior to his people and his authority in the military are now being undermined, primarily by his acceptance of a knight from an enemy country, Klaus von Wolfstadt, who is something of a loose cannon. He is also Taki's lover.

Despite the story being about a relationship between two men, it is notable for the sheer scope of the political and military backdrop that spur on much of the plot, and the series' author Inariya Fusanosuke has embedded such rich imagery and symbolism into the mythos it truly stands out in its genre. At its most basic, Maiden Rose poignantly examines the pressures of duty and social expectation as they clash with the complexities of human desire and emotion.

Not to be confused with Rozen Maiden.

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Maiden Rose provides examples of:

• Ace Pilot: Both Klaus and his mother are Ace Pilots.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Klaus is often compared to a mad dog or a wolf.
  • Berkut means golden eagle, a species used to hunt wolves.
  • Taki is likened to either a bird or (in a flashback) an alley cat by Klaus.
  • The omake takes this even further.
• Anachronic Order: The manga shows the main characters' childhood (mostly Klaus'), their time in the Military Academy, and the present day; the storyline jumps back and forth quite a lot.
• Armchair Military: There in every administration that we see. In Volume 2 the brass from Taki's country are particularly obstructive and serve as a contrast to the type of frontline leader Taki is.
• Art Shift: It's easy to see that the manga and the omake are drawn by the same mangaka, but the style is different.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: During a surprise nighttime training exercise, Taki and Klaus end up being the only students still not defeated. The moment they decide to take on all the attackers together they pull out their knives and stand back-to-back, laying the foundation for their future Battle Couple status.
• Badass Longcoat: The army greatcoats all qualify, but Taki's is the best example.
• Battle Couple: The Commander and his Knight, naturally.
• Berserk Button: Do not hurt and mock Klaus if you don't want Taki's sword through your hand.
• Berserker Tears: Taki when he attacks Klaus singlehandedly beat up following harassment from students at military academy.
• Big Entrance: Hasebe is about to kill Klaus when suddenly his sword is shattered. Following this is a two-page spread of an ill Taki standing in the doorway, sporting a Death Glare, katana drawn, wearing a Badass Longcoat as a Coat Cape blowing in the Dramatic Wind against a stream of white light, with some flower petals floating around for good measure. The shocked looks from the others are pretty well warranted at that point.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The protagonists are the heroes by virtue of being the protagonists and ultimately sympathetic in spite of their glaring flaws, but their enemies lack the sympathetic point-of-view and seem heartless by comparison.
• Blue Blood: Taki, Klaus, Theodora and Katsuragi to start with.
• Bodyguard Crush: Klaus' relationship with Taki can be seen as this. Klaus often bows down to Taki and has expressed his desire to protect and defend the country with him.
• Bottled Heroic Resolve: Klaus, when he goes on the raid. Less effective than expected, probably because that wasn't the first time he used drugs.
• Broomstick Quarterstaff: A bunch of Luckenwalde students shows up armed with brooms and buckets to haze Taki on his first day. By the time we see any action, it's Taki holding the broom and mopping the floor with his attackers.
• But I Would Really Enjoy It: Taki really shouldn't want Klaus (or anyone, actually). But he does and Klaus wants him too, and that makes things quite difficult.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Justified because of the military setting. There are female characters: Duchess Theodora, Claudia, Taki's and Klaus' mothers in flashbacks, the nameless nurses, etc., but the cast is predominantly male.
• Caught in the Rain: The first time Klaus and Taki made love.
• The Champion: Klaus to Taki.
• Chekhov's Gun: The book Taki once wrote "danke schön" into. It seemed to be only a reminder of the days when the relationship between Klaus and Taki was happier. It actually saved Klaus' life when Berkut shot him and the book subdued the force of the bullets.
• Child Soldiers: The children of the military officers, but they don't really fight.
• Cliffhanger: Thankfully not always. But ending a chapter with the promise of a duel between Taki and Klaus, and then going back to the days in the Military Academy counts as one.
• Coat Cape: Most memorably when Taki stops Chamberlain Hasebe from killing Klaus, as Dramatic Wind was in full effect.
• Coitus Uninterruptus: Klaus has a conversation with a boy who's outside the door while raping Taki.
• Colonel Smooth and Captain Rough: Taki is self-possessed, formal, and kind, whereas Klaus is brazen, frank, and none too polite.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Klaus has to give up his country, his family, and all his privileges to be Taki's knight. Taki wishes to be the beloved and respected leader of his division and he also wants Klaus.
• Counting Bullets: Klaus manages to call Berkut's bluff because he knows he's used all his bullets. Unfortunately for Klaus, Berkut has a second gun.
• Cue the Sun: Although things are about to go from bad to worse, volume 2 manages to end on a somewhat hopeful note with a scene of the young cadets walking towards the wreckage as the sky lightens.
• Culture Clash: There are some not-so-irrelevant things in Taki's country that Klaus doesn't know about. Taki also got into trouble in the Military Academy because he didn't know the customs there.
• Cultured Warrior: Several members of the cast, given how many of them are also Blue Blooded. Katsuragi is the one who really flaunts it but he's also more of a Desk Jockey these days than a fighter.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Taki almost killed Berkut after he mocked Klaus' defeat. His beating up all of his would-be hazers with their own cleaning supplies is an even more extreme (if less serious) example.
• Cutlass Between the Teeth: Klaus does this with his knife during the nighttime training exercise, presumably to free up his hands for something else.
• Death by Transceiver: Subverted. By the time Klaus and Yamamoto get ahold of the Murakumo crew, Yamamoto is panicking and yelling about how the captain is hurt until suddenly there are several gunshots and Yamamoto's screams. After a prolonged static-y silence Taki (on the receiving side) begins to freak out himself before Klaus comes on the line and says everything's under control and they're heading their way.
• Death Glare: Taki has made a specialty of it.
• Divided We Fall: Eurote and some aristocrats from Taki's country are so determined to get rid of Taki because he's second-in-line to the throne that their in-fighting becomes a great asset to the Western Alliance who they are currently at war.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Klaus kissing Taki's sword. 'Nuff said.
• Doujinshi: Inariya has made several, some purely for comedy or fanservice (the Hallowe'en specials) and some quasi-Canon ones about events that couldn't fit in the storyline (In Their Room at Luckenwalde series)
• Dramatic Wind: So the badass longcoats can look even more badass.
• Enemy Civil War: Inverted. The Western Alliance happily finds themselves getting a breather while Eurote and certain elements from Taki's country focus on eliminating Taki, the one commanding the front against the Western Alliance. They note how monumentally stupid and fortunate this is for them, and launch a full strike.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Klaus and Taki spent a fair chunk of the Luckenwalde doujinshis at a bar in the town, but the owner is never referred to as anything but "barkeep".
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Taki's home is a Japan-like country and Klaus came from a land that resembles Germany. Eurote resembles pre-revolution Russia.
• Femme Fatale: Duchess Theodora is darkly beautiful, ruthless and has a pretty coat.
• Flashback: The days in the Military Academy, Klaus' and Taki's childhood, when Klaus and Taki first met, etc.
• Flower Motifs: The relationship of Taki and Klaus is full of flower motifs, including wisteria, cherry blossoms, and roses.
• Forbidden Zone: No Man's land.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Klaus and Taki meet briefly in the middle of a forest by chance when they are young and make something of a Promise. Years later, they meet again and Klaus recalls but continually dismisses the memory, until their Relationship Upgrade, when he realizes from Taki's scent that it was him.
• Functional Addict: Klaus exhibits the Deconstructed form of this trope. He is implied to have been addicted to morphine in the past, so once he is injured and needs it to help enhance his performance it's not very effective and he has to increase dosages. As one would expect, he doesn't stop using it after that and it's still up in the air whether he'll be able to curb the addiction again or not.
• Genre Mashup: Boys' Love + During the War + Love Hurts + Adventure/Action
• Giant Poofy Sleeves: Claudia's clothes but not too over the top.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Averted. With his tiny body and pretty face Taki does look like a typical uke, but he has just as narrow eyes as Klaus. Not in the omake, though, where his eyes are ridiculously big.
• Gratuitous German: Klaus is a typical German name and "von Wolfstadt" means "of the town/city of wolves". The name of the Military Academy is Luckenwalde Armor School ("wald" meaning "forest") and the textbooks are written in German. In one instance Taki actually writes "Danke schön"^note "Thank you" in Klaus' book.
• Greater Need Than Mine: Azusa did this after he and Klaus were found at the riverbank. Probably because Klaus' wound was more serious (there is a difference between being shot in the leg and the chest), Klaus' rank is higher, he didn't abandon Azusa on the train and Azusa thinks his duty as a soldier is more important than his life anyway.
• Guns Akimbo: Klaus uses both of his guns at times.
• The Handler: Klaus has one in Taki's country. When he tells Klaus he's getting out soon and Klaus should too before he dies there, Klaus mocks him for getting too attached to him.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Klaus has one of these during the night exercise at Luckenwalde. Early on Taki is knocked unconscious and Klaus carries him away from the combat, his trauma from losing his former comrades surfacing as he just waits for Taki to wake up. When Taki finally comes to he acts cold and aloof as usual and they go over how bad their situation is, made worse when they hear the barking of dogs. Then Taki stands up, pulls out his knife, and the following conversation ensues:
  Taki: "Klaus von Wolfstadt, I ask you to join me."
  Klaus: "There we go."
• High on Catnip: This gag appears in one of the bonus comics, where a chemical weapon attack against the cat side is actually bombing them with catnip, to great effect.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Cadet Yamamoto adores Klaus-sama and wants to be like him when he grows up, and he told Klaus outside his doorstep that he will be stronger and more useful on the battlefield like Klaus and Taki, while inside the building Klaus was brutally raping Taki.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Guy
• Idealized Sex: Simply put, there's way too much semen in many of the sex scenes for one person (usually Taki) to produce. And it's painfully averted at one point, when Klaus is way too rough and Taki actually requires a doctor.
• I Kiss Your Hand
• Impaled Palm: Be careful about touching Taki, Berkut found out the hard way.
• Improvised Weapon: When his classmates come armed with Broomstick Quarterstaffs to haze him, Taki promptly improvises with their improvised weapons, using the broom as a sword and tripping people over the buckets, other supplies, and their own comrades.
• Intertwined Fingers
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Citing the fact that as Klaus' disavowal of his citizenship means he can't be tried for war crimes, Hasebe canes Klaus brutally before deciding to just kill him when he won't talk. Taki stops him.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
• Katanas Are Just Better: Taki's sword is probably a katana. It does certainly look like one... well, what else could it be? It's a really Cool Sword and he can use it quite skillfully.
• Kiss of Life: Taki brought Klaus back to life this way after he was found unconscious and not breathing.
• Lady and Knight: Maiden Rose and Knight.
• Lap Pillow: Klaus fell asleep on Taki's lap after being 'interrogated'.
• Lens Flare Censor: Sometimes used during the sex scenes. Occasionally Barbie Doll Anatomy is also present, except for one example, there isn't any censoring in the 'sex on the train' chapter.
• Love Hurts: This is a manga about a very troubled relationship.
• Magical Realism: There is a definite spiritual element going on that is not fully explained but is acknowledged in-story as drawing all the characters together.
• Meaningful Name: Taki's three subordinates are named after components of Shinto rituals, alluding to his status as a savior and their positions as his protectors. "Azusa" is written with the same character as "azusa-yumi", the traditional Japanese bow which protects the inner chamber of Ise Shrine (the most important Shinto shrine). "Moriya" is taken from "Mamori-ya", Shinto arrow talisman used for spiritual protection. "Date" is written with the characters of "exorcist shield". This is also Theme Naming.
• Mexican Standoff: Klaus and Berkut have a brief moment when Berkut's sword is at Klaus' neck while Klaus' gun is pointed at Berkut's head. Unfortunately for Klaus Berkut notices immediately that the gun is jammed, but luckily Azusa starts firing from behind before Berkut can do anything about it.
• Military Academy: Luckenwalde, where Taki went to study and met Klaus for the second time.
• Military Maverick: Both Klaus and Taki at times. And it gets them in trouble.
• Mr. Fanservice: Klaus' design eschews the Bishōnen aesthetic for this.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Klaus, after he realized he went a little too far with Taki.
• Nasty Party: Princess Theodora's introduction has her eating a nice dinner with her cabinet ministers on their private train. Or rather, she's eating, and they're lying dead on the table after ingesting a little too much poison.
• Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: Averted in a couple instances, particularly in Taki's Curb-Stomp Battle with Berkut.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Azusa wanted Klaus to leave him because of his injured leg, but Klaus refused to forsake him.
  'No way. I won't give those guys a single one of you. Not this land. It's people. You. You're all my master's pride. We're going back. Taki's waiting.'
• Oblivious Sister: Claudia does know that Klaus 'wants Taki so much that he'll throw away everything', she seems to understand this and wishes the best for her brother, but she probably isn't aware of how exactly Klaus' and Taki's relationship works.
• Official Couple: Klaus and Taki
• Omake: Uses the Rule of Funny with Taki as a Moe cat, Klaus as a wolf, a Tank-cum-tentacles and Black Comedy Rape.
• One Head Taller: Taki is tiny even for his country and Klaus is huge even for his. This is the unsurprising result.
• OVA: PrimeTime made a two episode OVA based on the first volume.
• Pocket Protector: The textbook Taki wrote in slows down the bullets that Klaus takes in Volume 2, causing the wounds to be non-fatal.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Given how much ass-kicking there is in the manga these show up fairly often. One of the more memorable ones is after Berkut recovers from the train being derailed by two antitank missiles and comments that Taki must be insane to have done that. Cue Taki standing on top of the wreckage with his katana replying, "and yet, I still haven't managed to finish you off, have I?"
• Queer Flowers:
  • Taki and Klaus are a gay couple and their relationship is full of flower symbolism. One of which is the rose.
  • The symbol of Taki's division is a three-leaf rose. Taki is also the current shinka, or "flower of the Emporer," and is therefore the titular "maiden rose" represented in his family crest and his military division. Moreover, Taki is mysteriously followed by the scent of flowers.
  • Klaus's family has traditionally gardened roses for generations, and the men of his family feel a calling for a "flower," without which they are incomplete. However, none of the men have found this "flower" due to a broken promise. Klaus outright states that he has given up everything in pursuit of Taki specifically because Taki is the "flower" of his family myth.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Klaus and Taki.
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: Justified when Klaus' gun happens to jam in the middle of a Mexican Standoff (which is just bad timing) and when he gets out of that he can't fix it anyway because his one arm is badly wounded and the morphine has finally worn off. The problem is then promptly solved by his teammate fixing it for him.
• Right Through His Pants: Klaus never takes off his pants.
• Royally Screwed Up: There are nine prominent families that are connected to the Emperor. The results are not pretty.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Taki puts his life on the line on the battlefield.
• Sarashi: Klaus, after he is wounded.
• Say It with Hearts: Enrico does this a lot when he's in charm mode.
• Scars Are Forever: Berkut's scar. Averted with Klaus, who often has bandages on his face and torso, but his scars are temporary.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: There isn't any significant difference in how the male characters dress, but this trope is used with the two more important women. Claudia's clothes aren't revealing, she doesn't wear make-up and she is kind, understanding, one of the very few genuinely pure characters. Duchess Theodora has skimpy clothes, high heels, she uses lipstick, and she is a cruel and dangerous antagonist.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Taki and Klaus, once again.
• Shadow Archetype: Katsuragi seems to shape up to be this for Taki. Like Taki, he is of royalty and used to have a "knight" (who is implied to be very close to him). Unlike Taki, he has an It Amused Me attitude about the war and more tellingly, Second Lieutenant Surugi calls him the traitor that caused the tragedy in No Man's Land.
• Shirtless Scene: Klaus likes to wander around wearing only bandages on his torso.
• Shower of Love: Well, Klaus and Taki did have sex (at least half of it) in the shower, but that sure wasn't an example of good sex.
• Shrouded in Myth: As mythical as the relationship between Taki and Klaus can seem at times, things get even vaguer when you start working outward from them (ie. Taki's mother, Klaus' ancestors, the wolfman and the founders of Reizen). It also occurs within the story to Klaus in examples like the nature of the Reizen sacred ground, which is incredibly important to Taki and his countrymen and yet no one can adequately explain to Klaus.
• Smoking Is Cool: Klaus
• Snooping Little Kid: While everyone is in a fluster about the train about to invade the territory, cadet Yamamoto notices a suspicious guy and convinces his friends to follow him. They discover the man is a spy passing information to Eurote, and the boys' efforts end up revealing that there are in fact a lot of spies in their ranks adding to the chaos.

• Straight Gay: Both Klaus and Taki, though Klaus is interested in women too.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Like passengers trains hit with anti-tank missiles.

• Tank Goodness: The Murokumo and the Onokami. Especially the Onokami, being a Ferdinand
• Tarot Motifs: Appear in the Wheel Of Fortune doujinshis, naturally.
• A Taste of the Lash: Hasebe canes^note or whips, in the OVA Klaus while he is tied to a chair during interrogation for treason.
• Theme Naming: All the regiments on Taki's side are named after flowers. Appropriately, Taki's Rose Commander.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Why you don't force your way into Taki's land. He uses a Ferdinand, a tank used to destroy other tanks, for firing on the train of Duchess Theodora. Berkut even commented on how insane it was.
• To Absent Friends: In "Wheel of Fortune" Taki and Klaus go out into town to "mourn like soldiers" after the death of four of their comrades, although the focus is concentrated on Taki's reaction to the deaths rather than the fallen themselves.
• Train-Station Goodbye: Averted against all expectations by taking out the 'goodbye' bit, and essentially starting the story.
• Traintop Battle: After jumping on top of the train Azusa asks why they are going in through the last car and fighting their way to the engine room rather than running across the top straight there. Klaus lampshades the impracticality of this tactic as their footsteps would give away their location and they'd just be target practice.
• Tranquil Fury. Taki, as Berkut found out the hard way.
• Unequal Pairing: Taki is the master, and Klaus is his knight.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Taki truly cares about his soldiers and they love and respect him, the children look up to him and want to be like him, etc.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: For an Official Couple who have already gotten together, Taki and Klaus have loads of this, especially after Klaus swears to never touch him again, thinking that's what Taki wants. It leads to things like 40-panel-long hugs.
• Unwitting Pawn: By launching an offensive against a train invading his country without orders Taki ends up playing right into Theodora's hands, and is placed under house arrest.
• Uptown Girl: Gender-inverted and zigzagged. Taki is second-in-line to the throne in his own country. When Taki and Klaus first meet Klaus is of the nobility. Eventually, Klaus' family loses that status because the monarchy is dissolved when the country falls to the Western Alliance, placing him as a wealthy middle class. Later, when Klaus becomes Taki's knight, he has to renounce his country, his name and his status and becomes the lowest of the low in Taki's country. Their romance has been developing through all of this, but really comes into force after Klaus has lost his upper-class status.
• Walkie-Talkie Static: Represented visually in the Death by Transceiver incident.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Klaus has said before that Taki has "such beautiful eyes". Taki thinks the same about Klaus' gold eyes.
• Wouldn't Hit A Woman: Subverted. At first, Taki commented on how chivalrous Berkut was because he asked his associate to take care of Duchess Theodora while he fights with Taki, but then Taki attacked her without any qualms and probably would have killed her if he was not stopped by his own soldiers.

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