Manga / Servamp

From left to right: Licht, Misono, Tetsu, Mahiru, Kuro, Tsubaki, Sakuya, and Mikuni.

Servamp is an Urban Fantasy manga created by Strike Tanaka and revolves around Shirota Mahiru, an Ordinary High-School Student who loves simple things and hates complicated ones. One day he rescues an injured cat on his way home from school, takes him to his apartment and names him Kuro. Turns out Kuro is no simple cat but the Servamp of Sloth, the first of the seven original vampires or Servamps representing the Seven Deadly Sins, and incredibly lazy. And Mahiru finds himself caught up in a vampire war when a mysterious eighth Servamp, Tsubaki, decides to attack the seven Servamps...

The manga began serialization in Monthly Comic Gene in 2011, and is still ongoing. An anime adaptation made by Brains Base aired in the summer of 2016.

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This work contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Sakuya's parents. They made his older sister jump off the balcony to get the life insurance money and later attempted to do the same to him. He was only saved because Tsubaki was there to turn him into his subclass.
  • While he wasn't an actual parent, Touma was also one to Tsurugi.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • A subclass can only be killed by being exposed to sunlight (unless they're Tsubaki's subclass) or having a Servamp drink their blood.
  • Tsubaki is said to be the only surefire way to "kill" a Servamp by breaking the item they received from their Eve.
• Actor Allusion:
  • In the first drama CD, Licht talks about swimming and sounds a lot like Haru in the process. This may or may not be intentional.
    Licht: It’s not that you want to be taught "some kind" of swimming. It’s "what" you want to be taught. It’s not "whatever’s fine, I just want to swim". It’s "what kind" of swimming you want!
  • Hearing Mike McFarland as Belkia in the English dub is hilariously amusing, considering the fact that this isn’t the first time he’s voiced an antagonistic, over-the-top character who acts like a showman. Heck, he even uses the same voice he used for Buggy!
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Tsurugi, Yumikage and Jun first show up in episode 5 of the anime (adapting material from volume 3) while their first appearance in the manga was only in volume 8.
• Adaptation Distillation: The anime cuts out many a manga moment for the sake of putting as much plot and content as possible into twelve episodes, although how much the story will be simplified still remains to be seen.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • In the first episode of the anime, maximum distance starts kicking in as soon as Mahiru kicks Kuro out of his apartment but doesn't seem to be a problem in the fight against Berukia later, despite the distances there being far greater. The manga explains this; instead of getting kicked out, it has Kuro tell Mahiru that if they get separated for too long something bad will happen.
  • The anime never explains that Tsubaki and his subclass are immune to sunlight, leaving the question why people like Sakuya can walk around in broad daylight.
• Adapted Out: Since the meeting of the Servamps didn't make it into the anime, the Servamps of Wrath and Gluttony have suffered this fate, at least until Kuro's flashback. Tinker also doesn't appear in the anime, with her and her coworkers (aside from Shuuhei) being replaced by an early introduction of the Tsurugi trio.
• Alliterative Family: The Alicein family. Their first names all start with the syllable "Mi": Mikage, Mikado, Mikuni and Misono.
• All-Loving Hero: Mahiru doesn't really want to fight, let alone kill anyone - not even Tsubaki himself.
• All Myths Are True: There have been rumors of vampire sightings and attacks in the city lately; needless to say, they're all true.
• Alternate Character Reading: Every freaking where. Especially notable with the Servamps' aliases, which always have another meaning hidden in the character reading, but it also occasionally shows up in dialogue.
• Ambiguously Evil: C3 as a whole. It's very hard to say whose side they're on, let alone what they're up to.
• An Aesop: Face your fears and don't run away from them. And trust your friends.
• Animal Motifs: Each one of the Servamps has an animal form that they're associated with. Kuro's a cat, Tsubaki's a fox, Lily's a butterfly, Jeje is a snake, Hugh is a bat, Lawless is a hedgehog, The Mother is a wolf. World End is a small boar.
• Animation Bump: The second half of episode 9.
• Art Evolution: The characters look older and less cutesy as the story goes on, and the shading style also changes quite a bit over the course of the series, just like the amount of detail.
• Audio Adaptation: There have been three drama CDs so far, and three more have been announced. They're notably Lighter and Softer than the manga.
• Backstory: Everyone gets their fair share sooner or later, from Mahiru to Sakuya to the Alicein family to the Greed pair to... you get the point.
• Battle Butler: This is what all the Servamps were apparently created for, but Lily deserves special mention.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason why people flock to both Mahiru and Tsubaki.
• Berserker Tears: Tsubaki when he captures Lawless/Hyde after the latter killed many of his subclass.
• Big Fancy House: Misono's house.
• Bookends: Mahiru's speech to Kuro from the first episode is repeated in their fight against Tsubaki in episode 12.
  Mahiru: "Someone. Someone." That's what everyone says. Because it's easier for them, or because they can't do anything. But the world keeps turning because that someone appears. And this time... that someone isn't me. It isn't you, either. It's... you and me, Kuro!
• Brains and Brawn: Misono (brains) and Tetsu (brawn) have this dynamic, especially in later chapters.
• Butt-Monkey: Shuuhei seems to attract bad luck. He knows how to deal with it though.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The vast majority of the cast is male. The female characters in the series can be counted on one hand.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Not two characters look even remotely alike (except for Yuri and Mari, and they're twins). Even Mahiru's three female classmates (only one of whom is named) are easily recognizable when they have a cameo in one of the 4-koma omakes.
• Catchphrase: Almost every named character has one.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Kuro.
• The Chessmaster: Misono.
• Chick Magnet: Kuro in cat form. Lily is implied to be one too.
• Childhood Friends:
  • Mahiru, Sakuya, Ryuusei and Koyuki. The memory with Sakuya turns out to be fake. He's only been with Mahiru and the others for a year.
  • Tsurugi, Yumikage and Jun, who have been friends since elementary school.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mahiru. No matter what, he's always trying to help and save everyone - even his enemies.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The entire cast to varying degrees - except for Mahiru.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • Mahiru: Orange
  • Kuro: Blue
  • Misono: Purple
  • Lily: Pink
  • Licht: Black
  • Hyde: Yellow
  • Tetsu: White
  • Sakuya: Green
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Noticeable with Mahiru and Kuro. Mahiru, the nicer and more outgoing and energetic one of the duo, has a warm color scheme while quiet, withdrawn, awkward Kuro's color scheme is cold.
• Complete Immortality: The Servamps cannot die no matter what happens to them. With one exception. Those who have their item destroyed are slowly left withering away with their strength deteriorating, and it has been hinted by Tsubaki and others that they'll eventually disappear completely.
• Compressed Adaptation: Many funny moments or side plots from the manga didn't make it into the anime, simply because the airtime is needed to move the plot forward.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Mahiru's mother is dead, we don't know anything about his father, and his uncle isn't at home a lot. He's glad about it when he brings Tetsu and Hugh home and wonders how he should have explained all that weirdness.
• Cooldown Hug: Mahiru gives one to Tsubaki of all people in the anime.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover of the first volume features Kuro (the deuteragonist), making him look like the main character while Mahiru (The Protagonist) still hasn't gotten a cover.
• Crazy-Prepared: Shuuhei.
• Curtains Match the Window: Mahiru (brown eyes and hair) and Misono (purple).
• Cute Kitten: Kuro in cat form. He also tries to use this to calm Mahiru down, but it doesn't work.
• Dancing Theme: The anime ED shows the entire main cast dancing, with varying results.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Pretty much everyone to some extent. It's actually easier to list the characters who don't suffer from one.
• Daywalking Vampire: Tsubaki and his subclass, as they are completely immune to sunlight. Downplayed with the other Servamps; they're unaffected by daylight, the only thing harmful to them is direct sunlight - and even then they simply transform into their animal forms.
• Divided We Fall: As pointed out by Mahiru. The Servamps and C3 both want to stop Tsubaki, but they can't do anything because they don't trust each other.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme is sung by Takuma Terashima, Mahiru's seiyuu. The opening also qualifies to an extent; it's a song by OLDCODEX, whose singer is Tatsuhisa Suzuki - who also voices Tsubaki.
• Dumb Muscle: Tetsu is amazingly strong, but he admits that thinking isn't really his forte.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The chapter 1 cover illustration shows Misono and Lily (not introduced until chapter 4), Mikuni and Jeje (first appearance in volume 2), a slightly different-looking Hugh (volume 3), and a guy who may or may not be an early version of Lawless (volume 5).
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Some early illustrations from chapters one and two show Lawless without his black streaks and glasses, Hugh with a completely different hairstyle and outfit, and Jeje without his paper bags. Mikuni also looks slightly different, but that may probably be attributed to Art Evolution more than anything.
  • Kuro has "Don't Wake Me Up" written on the back of his coat in the first chapter. The print later disappears, probably because it was hard to draw and/or unnecessary.
  • The pilot chapter shows even earlier installment weirdness, with the characters' personalities being slightly different (Mahiru, for instance, wasn't as tough or energetic as he is in the series, and Kuro could smile), and the differences in character design ranging from Mahiru's different hairstyle and clothes to Kuro looking like a generic vampire wearing a coat with purple fur, among other things.
• Emergency Transformation: How vampire subclass are created - they have to drink a Servamp's blood when they're dying or just died. Lily especially uses the method in that way, turning dying children he rescued into vampires to allow them to continue living.
• Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: The vampires almost always act the age they look, regardless of their actual age and the amount of time they've already spent as vampires. With the exception of Hugh, who behaves mautre most of the time despite physically being 5 years old.
• Emotionless Girl: Otogiri.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Tsubaki is shown to care about his subclass a lot. In one scene he is even shown crying and apologizing to the ones that were killed by Lawless. He then proceeds to personally seek revenge. Mahiru also notes that he always shows up to save one of his subclass, no matter how insignificant they may be.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Kuro is never seen without them.
• The Faceless: Jeje's face is always hidden under three paper bags with smiley faces on them. Yes, really.
• Fake Memories: Mahiru thinks he's been friends with Sakuya since their childhood. In reality, he's only known Sakuya for a year, but Sakuya altered his memories to make him think they were Childhood Friends.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Misono doesn't want to have anything to do with Mahiru at the beginning and the two often bickered, but it got better.
• Floral Theme Naming: Tsubaki and his gang. There's Tsubaki himself (camellia), Sakuya (cherry blossom), Higan (spider lily), Otogiri (hypericum), and Lilac and Shamrock, among others.
• Flower Motifs: Tsubaki's name means camellia, and he's often depicted with camellias (including him carrying them around and dropping them out of his sleeve). Meaningful Name comes into play here, as camellias are a symbol for death. Higan is also depicted with and represented by spider lilies on more than one occasion.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Most of the vampires, to varying degrees. Kuro deserves special mention for outright calling himself one.
• The Gadfly: Mikuni sure likes messing with people. Especially Jeje and Shuuhei.
• Gentle Giant: Tetsu and Lily, the two tallest members of the main cast and probably the nicest (along with Mahiru).
• Get Out!: Mahiru's initial reaction to Kuro is to try and kick him out.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Mahiru and Kuro, Misono and Snow Lily, Tetsu and Hugh, and Tsubaki and Berukia, among others.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Finding out about Tsubaki's true motives is a major plot point.
• High School AU: The characters occasionally get thrown in one in the manga omakes, although there is No Fourth Wall and they're all too aware that they're just playing roles. The third drama CD also has an episode set completely in this AU, complete with a Dating Sim parody.
• Hikikomori: Kuro is a self-proclaimed one.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Tetsu watches a soccer game on TV and starts cheering, Hugh declares that a real vampire doesn't get excited over sports like that. The next panel has him sitting on Tetsu's shoulders, cheering even louder than his Eve. Later we also get Mikuni and Tsurugi, who violently deny that they're anything alike... while talking in sync.
• Identical Panel Gag: The two yonkoma omakes about C3 trying to decide who has to buy lunch make use of this. The first and last respective panels are identical in both strips, except for the slightly altered dialogue.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: The vampire twins at Misono's house. Yuri has long hair while Mari's hair is short.
• Idiot Hair: Misono. Some characters even call him that as a nickname. His personality is the exact opposite of the stereotype though.
• Immortal Immaturity: The vampires' mental age is usually the same as the age they look; the subclass kids at Misono's still act like children despite probably being far older, Kuro acts like a typical stressed-out lazy teen, and so on. Hugh is an exception, usually speaking and thinking like an adult, but even he has his childish sides.
• Irony: "Deal with," the title of the anime's opening song, considering that Kuro's Catchphrase is "Can't deal." Becomes even more ironic (and meaningful) once you realize the opening song's singer is also Tsubaki's voice actor.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kuro. No matter how often he states that he's too lazy to do anything, he's always there to protect his friends - especially Mahiru.
  • Licht, too. He doesn't look it, but Higan observes that he gets stronger when he has someone to protect.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Mahiru travels into the depths of Kuro's soul after the latter falls into a Heroic BSoD, finds out about and faces his guilt, talks him out of it and brings him back.
• Lampshade Hanging: Everywhere, usually courtesy of Mahiru or Kuro.
• Large Ham: Berukia, Tsubaki and World End.
• Lazy Bum: Kuro.
• Meet Cute: A non-romantic example. Mahiru and Kuro first meet properly when Mahiru stumbles upon human form Kuro sitting in his living room watching TV and eating ramen, mistakes him for a burglar, and attacks him with a mop. And that's only the beginning.
• Missing Mom: Mahiru's mother passed on before the manga proper. So did Misono's mom. Both his biological mother and his step-mother, that is.
• Mood Whiplash: Frequently happens when the cheery ending song comes on after a dark episode, or even a gloomy Cliffhanger.
• Mr. Fanservice: Snow Lily aka the Servamp of Lust. His constant undressing is a Running Gag.
• Mukokuseki: For the characters in general, with quite a few Japanese blondes or redheads (although this is a work with technicolor hair, so those aren't even the most unlikely hair colors), and for the Servamps in particular. None of them (except for Tsubaki, probably) are originally Japanese, but their original ethnicities are impossible to tell, even In-Universe.
• The Napoleon: Misono — short, smart and a Tsundere.
• Odd Name, Normal Nickname: One of The Mother's subclass vampires is named Ray, which is short for Rayscent.
• Older Than They Look: Shuuhei is in his early twenties but can pass as a high school student.
• One Bad Mother: The Servamp of Wrath's alias is The Mother. Subverted because while she is a Perpetual Frowner to the point of a Death Glare (and Lily is terrified of her), she actually seems to be kind of nice.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: All Servamps are referred to by their nicknames instead of their pseudonyms except for Lawless — until his nickname is revealed to be Hyde.
• Only Sane Man: Mahiru is often referred to as the sole tsukkomi of the series.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Mahiru.
• Our Vampires Are Different: The most powerful vampires must each serve a human whose blood they drink, and have other weaker vampires under their control. The Servamps also don't have to drink blood to survive, and even when they do, they don't actually feed on their Eve's blood but on their willpower.
• Plot Armor: The Servamps cannot die, but this is later subverted. When the contract item they got from their Eves gets destroyed, they're left almost powerless, with their strength and life slowly fading away.
• The Power of Friendship: One of the central themes of the series.
• Power Trio: C3's three aces - Tsurugi, Yumikage and Junichirou.
• Pungeon Master: Mahiru's uncle.
• Really 700 Years Old: The vampires, naturally.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: All vampires have red eyes.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lots of them. Some of the pairs include:
  • Mahiru (red) and Kuro (blue).
  • Misono (red) and Tetsu (blue).
  • Licht (blue) and Lawless/Hyde (red).
• Rescue Introduction: Mikuni and Jeje are introduced saving Mahiru and Kuro from a tricky situation against Berukia, Otogiri and Sakuya.
• The Reveal: Chapter 100 finally revealed what is Tsubaki's goal. The person who created all the other Servamp's, revealed to be Count Saint-Germain, is actually still alive. He is not only Tsubaki's Eve, he also plans to use Tsubaki as a new vessel for his revival as the 9th Servamp.
• Running Gag:
  • Misono falling asleep at nine o'clock sharp every evening, often mid-sentence. He later learns to stay awake until ten.
  • Kuro trying to calm Mahiru down by going all Cute Kitten on him, failing and getting hit. The next panel usually shows him in human form, complaining that Mahiru can hit such a cute cat.
  • Lily's constant attempts to strip.
  • Mikuni pretending that Abel is alive, only to act weirded out when anyone else does the same.
• Second Episode Introduction:
  • Tsubaki isn't introduced until the end of chapter two, after the fight against Berukia has ended, and first appears in episode two of the anime.
  • Misono and Lily also first get introduced in the second episode.
• Seven Deadly Sins: The entire theme of the Servamps.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: C3 appears to be able to do this to the Servamps, as shown when Kuro (in cat form) sits on Mahiru's head when they enter the base and suddenly finds himself transformed into human form and unable to move. While he's still sitting on Mahiru's head.
• Shared Family Quirks:
  • When Mahiru first sees Kuro in his human form, he tries to chase him out with a broom. When his uncle comes home and also sees Kuro, he does the exact same thing - even saying the same words as his nephew!
  • Also happens when Mahiru meets the father of the Alicein brothers, who quickly displays both Misono and Mikuni's Character Tics.
    Mahiru: (thinking) He really is the father of both...
• Shorter Means Smarter: Misono and Hugh are the shortest members of the main cast and also the smartest.
• Significant Birth Date: Both halves of the Lust Pair are born on holidays associated with love - Valentine's Day and White Day, respectively.
• Spell My Name With An S:
  • Misono's last name. Arisuin? Alisuin? Alicein? It depends on the country. According to the official translation, it's the last one. But in the German and French translation, it's Alisuin.
  • Tsubaki's best friend. According to official sources, he's called Berukia, but Funimation calls him Belkia, the German translation calls him Belukia, and he's sometimes also spelled Berkia.
• The Stoic: Nothing ever unsettles Tetsu. When asked about his dislikes in his character sheet, it even states that he can't think of any.
• Super-Empowering: All Servamps possess the ability to create other vampires - the subclass.
• Super-Strength: Tetsu. It's never explicitly stated, but no normal human should be able to throw a coffin with Mahiru and Kuro on top on the roof of Misono's Big Fancy House.
• Taking the Bullet: A non-lethal example in the anime. Sakuya jumps in front of Mahiru to protect the latter from a blade Tsubaki sent his way, severely injuring himself in the process but not dying thanks to Tsubaki healing him.
• Tarot Motifs: Throughout the C3 arc, several characters and chapters are given these. Such as star for Tinker/Izuna.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: At one point Mahiru wonders why all the Servamps are turning up in his neighborhood, seeing as they probably come from different parts of the world. It's hinted that this is no coincidence. Eventually averted when Mahiru and Kuro are both sent to London in chapter 90.
• Tsundere: Misono. He gets better.
• Undying Loyalty: Mahiru to his friends. Also Tsubaki's subclass to Tsubaki.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Mahiru and Kuro care about each other a lot. Doesn't keep them from bickering nearly all the time. It is even more appearant in Lawless and Licht, while one teases the other verbally, the other never hesitates to kick him across the room.
• Weakened by the Light: Downplayed; the Servamps are only affected by direct sunlight, and even then they only transform into animals. For their subclass, however, sunlight is one out of two possible ways to die.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Many characters (including humans) have blue, purple, green or pink hair. Nobody seems to mind.
• Yandere: According to Word of God, Sakuya is this.
• You Watch Too Much X: Happens in the first fight against Berukia.
  Mahiru: Take him down!
  Kuro: You've read way too much shounen manga...
• Younger Than They Look: Tetsu is 14 but commonly mistaken for a high school student.