"When the Earth begins to perish, the Messiah will descend from the Heaven on wings of light. Clad in darkness, he will be so little yet he will be so immense. Surely he shall bring salvation to everyone. The four saints shall appear to offer him their assistance. One will give the Messiah courage, one will give the Messiah light, one will give him wings, and one will shield from his enemies."
— A passage from from the Holy Scriptures of the Old Church of Selakiel.
Shinya Yumiki is your average schoolboy, who is rather plain and gets bullied a lot. He has a close friend, Ryohei Sakakiyama, the son of a local hospital's doctor who stands for Shinya and is more than happy to defend him. Nonetheless, Ryohei can't be there all the time, so Shinya still gets his own (un)healthy dose of bullying either way.
One day however, all that changes when a girl named Haruna suddenly appears on Shinya's life, proclaiming that the young man is The Messiah who will bring salvation to Celestia, her homeworld. Thus, Shinya's tale of adventure, betrayal, and salvation begins.
Watashi no Messiah-sama is a manga series which ran from 2002 to 2007 in the Monthly Gangan Wing magazine, later collected into 12 bound volumes. It was written by Suu Minazuki, the author who would later go on to write Heaven's Lost Property.
Watashi no Messiah-Sama contains examples of the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: Ryohei had shades of this, as the following passage demonstrates. In one story arc, he conquered Holy Selakiel Empire and brought food to the starving people of its capital. The townsfolk quickly descends to anarchy, much to his horror. In the process of calming the populace, he then nearly fainted on the stage, revealing that he is just as starved as the townsfolk because he refused to eat the food he collected for the townsfolk. Considering his goal is resurrecting a Natsue at the cost of Haruna's life, though...
- All-Loving Hero: Shinya, who's strives to protect even his enemies.
- Art Shift: The earlier editions are drawn in typical shonen-leaning-to-seinen style. The later editions use shoujo-ish style with a copious amount of bishonen.
- Ascended Extra: Tetsunosuke Nanashi (to elaborate: his name roughly means No-name Steel-boy), from being one of the side characters to being the master of Ilburn, one of the 13 Warriors, for a short while and battling Agito more or less to a standstill.
- Assurance Backfire: Mui tells Hime not to worry about the self-destruct button on the vehicle they're riding, since she did include it. Which was exactly what was worrying Hime.
- Ax-Crazy: Agito, fitting a god of insanity. Genya, to a degree, gets rather upset, to put it lightly, when Shinya defeats him.
- Badass Longcoat: Ryohei constantly wears one. It's most pronounced in the final showdown.
- Badass Normal: Ryohei before his Face–Heel Turn. Shinya at the first volume (before gaining the power of Ishtelte) is one too.
- Balkanize Me: Arguably, the process has just started with the separation of Kyushu under Shinya's homeroom teacher's order. It's unclear if it stayed being a separate nation, though.
- BFS: Adelhayd's sword relative to herself and Shinya. Also, unsealed Hitenoubu.
- Big Bad: Sariel is initially portrayed as this, although halfway through we knew he is really not the leader. Turns out he actually is The True Emperor.
- Big Red Button: Curiously, most of Mui's invention has this.
- Black-and-White Morality: The series starts off with distinct good and evil groups, but as the story moves on...
- White-and-Grey Morality: You'll only see this at the very end, really. Lilu is just lashing out to Haruna and had no real malice behind her actions. Xeon was saddled with his guilt for maiming/killing Hime's teacher. Agito was severely abused by townsfolk for his ability to communicate with monsters. Ryouhei only wanted peace of mind after Natsue died. Sariel is fed up with his position and only wanted to die, though he also wanted Celestia to be saved from its millennia-old cycle of doomsday. Yup, everyone wants to save the world.
- Book Ends: The story ends the same way it started; Shinya meeting Haruna on the school rooftops.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Aina, in one instance, blabbers about the eighth tankoubon on sale at stores now.
- Broken Bird: Suuri, a minor character, is this at the beginning. Shinya brought her smile back.
- BSODs, either villainous or heroic, happens with some regularity.
- Catch Your Death of Cold: Hime catches a cold from wandering through cold and snowy plains, despite being alone.
- Cleavage Window: Hime. The "window" is smack-dab on the center of a tankoubon cover when Hime was featured in it, no less.
- Cloudcuckoo Lander: Mui, so very much. Tarutaru is also one with her... interesting concoctions.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Shinya. The rest of his family died in a plane crash, while his grandmother died not long before the events of the manga.
- This turns out to be a case of Deceased Parents Are the Best, since in one Tell Me About My Father moment between Shinya and Ryohei's father, he remarked that Shinya grew up just like his father. Shinya's father, a good friend with Ryohei's father, does not give up and eventually cured his wife (Shinya's mother) of an unspecified terminal illness.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: One side-story comic implies Tarutaru as this. Later on while the Messiah's party went looking for Vaul's Idol, we saw her capable of powerful magic on her own right. Shinya can count as one, too, with his meek disposition and pacifism concealing his hidden powers.
- Curbstomp Battle: Shinya versus Agito, and later Shinya versus The Queen. Shinya versus The Queen's battle can be described as Shinya shouting "Delete!" four times.
- Cute Mute: Tarutaru, who never speaks in word balloons.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Natsue Genjou, Akie's sister and Ryohei's love interest. Ryohei went mad over her death. Except that he's actually not. He accepts her death secretly, but acts all bitter and vengeful because he wants Shinya to go save the worlds.
- Dark Magical Girl: Lilu. Haruna, too.
- Death Seeker: Sariel, of the I Cannot Self-Terminate type. Ryohei, to a degree.
- Demoted to Extra: Early on, we are lead to believe that the monster Zoa-Evil Katla is a boss or at least a strong monster. Turns out that it's merely a Mook of some sort and appears in the hundreds in major battles.
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Aina, who is actually The Guide to Salvation in human form.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Shinya. After going through the physical and emotional grinder, we can say that he really earned his happy ending.
- Emo Teen: Shinya... add the Messiah aspect, and we have Emo Jesus!
- The Emperor: Ryohei, although in the end it's revealed that Sariel is actually the real one.
- The Empire of Holy Selakiel, however, is more of a theocracy than a typical empire... their leader, for instance, carry the title Pope. There's also one much smaller (its size is around a third of Holy Selakiel) similar empire named New Auriel, with their leader Pope Edeth Harla Eluadeth. The two empires, naturally, is at war with each other.
- Evil Plan: Sariel's gambit, which is only revealed in its entirety near the end of the series. Well, not so much as an evil plan than a big, system-wide Batman Gambit.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin on many things.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Gets played with on Hime, since there is one flashback scene depicting Hime with a shorter hairstyle than in the present. It's plausible that she grew it longer after the massacre Lilu wreaked upon the town she and Haruna was in at the time.
- Expy: Ikaros looks quite similar to Haruna (more so with her long pink hair), as is Tomoki to Shinya (before the Art Shift). This may be a case of the author re-using character designs.
- The Four Gods: Both the Emperor's and the Messiah's side had a set, consisting of The Wing, The Shield, The Sword, and The Thunder.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Mui is one. She is forced into becoming one because she cannot use magic despite being born into a family of powerful mages. The family disowned her, and she was taken under another, older Gadgeteer Genius' wing for a short while. Her creations tend to malfunction spectacularly though.
- Genki Girl: Mui.
- Good All Along: Ryohei. It turns out that he does not have any intention of opposing Shinya whatsoever, and he played along with Sariel and Co. because he wants to go where Natsue is.
- Grand Theft Me: Vaul bodyjacking Haruna around the middle of the series, leading to Shinya's reveal as The Messiah to the citizen of Earth.
- Great Offscreen War: Not that great a war, but it is implied that Shinya lost his memories (and became a bit more buff), Celestian monsters appeared on Earth, and The Guide to Salvation got destroyed by Vaul in the time gap between Watashi no Messiah-sama and ''Watashi no Messiah-sama ~lacrima~'', the later run of the manga.
- The war between Holy Selakiel and New Auriel is also mostly offscreen, with a few battles ( although they may be more appropriately called slaughters) depicted to paint a worse picture on Sariel.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Natsue.
- Heel–Face Turn: Most noticeably Xeon and Lilu towards the end, although the latter is more of a Heel–Face Revolving Door.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Several sacrifices are made, but only two are ultimate:
- At the end, Lilu literally gives her life to Shinya, who's very dead at that moment.
- The last one is Sariel, sacrificing his life so the Messiah can save the world.
- Jerkass: Vaul. Also, The President of The US and The UN, who puts a bounty on Shinya and Haruna's head. The president more so, since he still orders the assault to carry on even after he had heard Haruna pleading to just kill her (the root of Earth's problem) and spare Shinya.
- Katanas Are Just Better: There are western-style swords, but two of the strongest sword-users in the world (Hime and Xeon) wield long katana. One scene even lampshades this, when Aina dueled Hime for the girl who would date Shinya. Hime the katana user dominates the whole fight not because of the katana, but the vast difference of skill.
- MacGuffin: Vaul's Idol can count as this.
- Magical Girlfriend: Haruna.
- Major Injury Underreaction: "Oh, this? Don't worry about that." That's Lilu with several huge shards in her back. Not that it matters, as she gives her life away seconds after.
- The Man Behind the Man: Sariel is arguably the man behind all the mess.
- Marionette Master: Genya, a rather minor antagonist and later messenger-of-sorts.
- Master Swordsman: Xeon, and Hime's mentor/love interest Youji. Hime after Adelhayd unsealed Hitenoubu won over Xeon, but it's not quite clear if it's merely a difference of power or truly an increase of skill.
- Messianic Archetype: Shinya, whether he likes it or not.
- Mood Whiplash: Often since they are a part of Minazuki's Signature Style.
- Named Weapons: Hime's Hitenoubu and Xeon's Kongouyasha, among others.
- Prophecy Twist: Double subversion. Sariel switched Haruna and Lilu's fates... But Lilu was still the only one who could awaken the Messiah.
- The Omniscient: Sariel with his Song of Nornil ability, but he is...
- Not So Omniscient After All, as Shinya proved him wrong, defied Sariel's prediction, and makes him bleed for the first time.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Several previous villains/antagonists help the heroes out for these (stated) reasons, notably:
- Mashiro has an ongoing feud with Ryohei, and later also Shinya.
- Surprisingly, Genya considers Shinya worthy of this, which is much more noble than the impression left after their first meeting.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: For the readers, anyway. Representative Amatsuka of Japan has blond/white hair, wears white, and has two suspicious-looking bodyguards, one looking psychotic and one looking calm. Granted, this works for Sariel because they are not in Celestia.
- Physical God: Sariel. Shinya at the end, with backing from all the 13 Warriors plus his own power as The Messiah is only a hair short of this, too.
- Plot Device: Atropos, the sword that can sunder the rules of causality. The Curbstomp Battle between Shinya and The Queen lampshades this, as it is implied that The Queen cannot be defeated without Atropos.
- The 13 Warriors which are essential in summoning the blade are also these alongside being Plot Coupon, too, since they can actually be used in combat (if rarely, in some cases. Ishtelte gets most of the action, while Adelhayd and the others not so much).
- Both of the Guides are initially more a MacGuffin than Plot Device. Aside of revealing snippets of vague (and often already obvious) info, they contribute nothing to the plot aside from serving as the holder of the 13 Warriors and being a rallying banner of their respective sides. That is, until Aina's arc happened.
- Power Nullifier: Mui builds one by tinkering on Shinya's vacuum cleaner, which becomes quite important for the Messiah's party in a few occasions. It nullifies Celestian magic by sucking out elemental particles from Celestia's air.
- Pretty Boy: Genya claims to be the second most beautiful creature in Celestia.
- Raised by Wolves: Agito, The God Of Madness was raised by monsters, and as a result has a sway over them.
- Razor Wind: Fuujin of The 13 Warriors' power.
- Red Baron: Many character has their own awe(or terror)-inspiring nicknames, like Xeon "The Lion Lord" and Sariel "The Angel of Death".
- The 13 Warriors had one for each of them, like Lightning Lord Ishtelte, Sword Saint Adelhayd, Spear King Ilburn, and True Emperor Sariel.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: There's quite a few pairs with this dynamic, like Hime's red to Xeon's blue (originally Xeon's red to Youji's blue), or Haruna's blue to Lilu's red.
- The Reveal: There are a few, equally jarring ones, notably Shinya's reveal as The Messiah to Earthlings which leads to There Are No Global Consequences about halfway through, Haruna's betrayal towards Lilu about three-quarters along the way, and the revealing of Sariel's nature and gambit near the end.
- Running Gag:
- There's always a different sign from the principal that tells people not to go up to the roof, every time someone does.
- Hime is frequently getting blown up by Mui's inventions, so she's understandably very cautious while riding one of her vehicles.
- Shock and Awe: Ishtelte, Shinya's first-acquired power as The Messiah.
- Speed Dating: Shinya and Aina's date is like this, if only in the time it takes to complete it (ten steps).
- Spell My Name With An S: Adelhayd or Aldehyalt? Atropos or Atlopos? Mui or Miu?
- Stripperiffic: Lilu's standard garb for her Priestess of Domination persona. Haruna when bodyjacked by Vaul also counts.
- Sword Beam: Hime and Xeon sports these as ultimate attacks towards the end of the series.
- There Are No Global Consequences: The second variety. To quote, once the protagonist is forced to do The Reveal about his powers in front of the media and military and declare that he would go against the world if he had to, things get chaotic very quickly. His school sides with him against the world and secedes from Japan, declaring independence with armies of tanks and ninjas led by a eerily hyper-competent teacher, while different nations send in special ops forces to wipe the protagonist and his companions out, which results in a secondary character getting shot and dying, causing her love interest (the so-far unawakened Big Bad) to perform the biggest Face Heel Turn of the series, propelling the main plot to it's finale.
- Token Mini-Moe: It's rather uncertain if Tarutaru is one, but Adelhayd certainly qualifies.
- Too Dumb to Live: In the early chapters, a general is convinced that if they can kill Sariel they will turn the tide of war. Not that they're wrong, but... yeah.
- Tsundere: Lilu and Hime has shades of this, while Genya is arguably a male example. No major character sport twin-tails though, although Lilu has a twin bun hairstyle.
- Unexplained Recovery: there are two significant instances: the first is Suuri, when Shinya resurrected her after she got killed by Genya, and the second is the result of Sariel's gambit in the final showdown, in which Haruna got better in the end after dying in that fight. Arguably, The Guide To Salvation also pull this off after being burnt by Vaul offscreen by becoming Aina.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Akie Genjou. Not only once, but twice. She fell in love with Shinya, who fell in love with Haruna later on. Ryohei loves her older sister Natsue.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Xeon, every single time he opens the seal on Kongouyasha.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Essentially, Sariel's ability.
- Worthy Opponent: See The Only One Allowed to Defeat You above.
