Webcomic / Noblesse

He would like some ramen.

"I did not give you permission to move. Nor did I give you permission...to breathe."

— Cadis Etrama Di Raizel

Noblesse is a Korean webcomic about a 'noble', a powerful race once worshiped by humans, waking up from an 820-year slumber to find a modern city. After successfully navigating the traffic signals to find an old servant, he enrolls in high school to learn about this new world and modern technology, in the process drawing the attention of a massive conspiracy somehow connected to his long slumber.

The original Korean version of the comic can be found here. The official English translation can be found here.

Beware of Late Arrival Spoilers. The series is a Long Runner by Son Jae Ho, with more than 500 short chapters that are released weekly, various short comics, a sidestory, a Web Novel & two OVA, one a loose adaptation of some of Season 1 and the other a canon prequel, and in October 2020 received a 12-Episode Anime series, continuing from where the first OVA left off. Who Raizel and Frankenstein are and how they got here are Driving Questions, and some of the reveals are game-changing enough that it's hard to discuss the characters without spoilers from chapters 300+. The Production I.G OVA's intro text contained information not revealed until the climax of Season 3. The series officially came to an end at 543 chapters.

---

This comic provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Shinwoo and Ik-han's development seems to have been dropped from the story completely ever since the KSA agents failed to recruit them into the Korean government.
• Acrofatic: Hammer
• Adaptation Distillation: Noblesse: Awakening is a heavily compressed adaptation of Volume 1 that fits 78 chapters into 30 minutes. Since Dr. Crombel didn't appear in it, all references of him were cut in the 2020 anime, including the Dr. Aris's arc.
• Adaptational Context Change: In the 2020 anime, both Union and Lukedonia go to Korea to investigate the coffin, seemingly with a good grasp on the situation. DA-5 are sent to continue where Jake and Mary have failed and the nobles are sent to arrest Rai under suspicioun of killing the previous Lord. Most of the drama in the first half of the webtoon was actually caused by literally nobody aside select few people knowing that the Noblesse even exists.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • Rai, Seira and Regis have Lukedonian names instead of Korean; but "Frankenstein" would be pushing it a bit if he wasn't probably from Europe. It's a red flag when a character's name doesn't suit their probable origin: Teira isn't a Japanese name, and Tesamu is a Union spy.
  • The noble clan leaders' soul weapons also have this case: On one hand, we have unusual names like Kartas, Izarok and Ragnarok, but on the other hand, we have Blood Witch and Death Scythe. Justified: at least two of those weapons were named by humans at different times and places, and their names may or may not be translated out of the nobles' language.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: The Previous Lord.
• Art Evolution: Just compare any of the early chapters to the latest ones. The difference is remarkable.
• Artifact of Doom: The Blood Crystal. Humans considered Ragnarok one.
• Authority Equals Asskicking:
  • Every executive of the Union appears to far outpower his bodyguards or even the most trusted of agents. Same with the nobles, with one exception the strongest noble holds no authority whatsoever.
  • Also true for the werewolves.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Happens so frequently that it provides the page image for the trope. Those on Rai's side always make it a point to go into fights in their best suits. While villains rarely dress well, those who do (such as Crombell and Yuri) can't be taken lightly either.
• Badass Normal: Han Shinwoo. Beats down trained agents, a (kinda)vampire, and can even hold his own against low-end supers. He's an otherwise normal high school student.
• Battle Couple: An Sangeen and Na Yonsu.
• Beauty Equals Goodness For a "shounen" series, it certainly emphasizes a lot on androgynous male beauty. & you can bet almost every attractive bad guy you see will be working for the protagonist by the end of the arc.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: More like beauty must not be tarnished, as far as Rai is concerned. He frowns upon any sort of Clothing Damage, even something as minor as a coat button becoming unfastened after a fight.
  • The Beautiful Elite: There are entire chapters dedicated to how awesome the main characters look. Movie stars and idols don't stand a chance against them, dropping whatever they're holding just to stare at them. One of Rai's friends is the idol Suyi, and the webtoon makes a point of comparing her and other idols to nobles. It's possible that the human tendency to become obsessed with celebrities is a holdover from when we worshiped nobles.
• The Bermuda Triangle: Now you know why various aeroplanes and boats go missing here; it's actually the Noble's homeland, Lukedonia, under enchantment to make it intangible, invincible and undetectable..
• Big Damn Heroes: Once Rai and Frank shows up, the battle is pretty much over.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome:
  • M-24
  • Subverted in chapter 245, where he's revealed to have been saved by the Union. Then double-subverted in 255 as this person is actually a shapeshifter who has taken M-24's powers and identity.
• Blood from the Mouth: Rai.
• Blood Magic:
  • Gradeus becomes more powerful when his blood is shed.
  • Now there's the Blood Crystal.
• Bloody Murder: Rai. Also, the Lord.
• Bond Creatures: Nobles can turn dogs, horses, humans and other animals into this if they drink their blood.
• Brick Joke: In Ch. 142, Frankenstein presents his own versions of 'D'. One is essentially a suicide pill that gives you a 200% boost(Not just from their own power, but 200% more than the original 'D'!) before it completely burns out your life force. While M-21, Tao and Takeo stand dumbstruck, Frank adds that he made it "strawberry-flavoured, so at least it will taste good". At the end of Ch.151, Dr. Arith steals Takeo's D pill and collapses while gushing over the taste of strawberry in her mouth.
• Cast from Lifespan: Rai Several of the Union's creations also are either this or using their powers damages their bodies.
• Charm Person: Humans react very strongly if they sense noble auras - Regis has to constantly conceal his aura, Seira and Raizel's and when a room full of people become fascinated by Raizel he's worried he slipped up. In the novelization, people are stopping in the middle of a busy street to stare at Rai until he remembers to shield, and the staff at a fast food place gives him and has friends a lot of free food as basically an offering. It's easy for a rogue noble to get humans to worship him in Rai's Adventure - it may be ancient instinct for humans to worship nobles.

• Collective Death Glare: When Shinwoo greets Rai who has all the girls fawning and squeeing at him at school, they all send him a glare out of jealousy.

• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • ALL fights so far that have involved Rai. It's a big deal when the opponent draws his blood. Inverted while playing Counter-Strike. "Frankenstein...I experienced death today."
  • Frank doesn't have much problem with his opponents either early in the webtoon — at least after his full powers have been released.

• Deal with the Devil: The criminal selling of contracts to humans - humans got power, including mind control, but the nobles could now mind control them and owned their souls.
• Ditzy Genius: The Previous Lord and his work on soul weapons. Karias is also a fountain of sage advice and tactical smarts when he's not calling the Lord Big Sis.
• The Dreaded: Rai, and to a lesser extent Frankenstein, The Lord, and Muzaka.
• Dub Name Change: In the Animated Adaptation, the main setting is moved to Japan and the names are changed from Korean to Japanese.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady:

• Essentially every male character to those not used to the art style
• A couple of the werewolf warriors areee incredibly ambiguous until their inevitable shirtless fight scene.

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In his first appearance, M-24 kills a guy for very little reason, with M-21's permission. Later, M-24 is usually shown as a Gentle Giant, and both he and M-21 clearly try to avoid unnecessary killing; the shift seems to happen around the hospital incident, when it's mentioned that they ordered the infected to avoid killing anyone, and after that they're suddenly uncomfortable with murder.
  • The early chapters of the first Story Arc have a vastly different feel compared to later on due to the focus being on the Ye Ran High School students, which are characters that become almost non-existent as the series goes on.
• Evil Former Friend: Lagus Tradio to Gejutel.
• Expy:
  • Rai and Regis, respectively, looks like Byakuya and Hitsugaya.
  • Rai definitely looks a lot like Byakuya in certain parts.
• Family of Choice: Finally made official when a furious Frankenstein declares he's not letting anyone escape when they did this to "my kids."
• Fan Boy: Dr. Crombel picked the wrong person to brag about his 'superior' knowledge to.
• Fantastic Racism: To the werewolves and Lagus Tradio, the real fight is over which of their species will get to be the superior one and rule the obviously inferior humans.
• Fatherly Scientist: Frankenstein when he likes you and isn't in a mood to troll: there's more than one reason he runs a school.
• Gas Leak Cover Up: Used once by Tao to explain in lieu of the schoolchildren getting kidnapped again.
• Genius Bruiser: The Math teacher at the high school they all attend; he looks like a typical Giant Mook...but in Korea, being a teacher apparently requires you to be at least the top at your high school in terms of physical strength.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Frankenstein's reason for founding a school.
• God Guise: The villain in the Rai's Adventure sidestory.
• Grim Reaper: The stories are based on the Loyard clan.
• Healing Factor: Pretty much any character with a superpower also has this as A Required Secondary Power. A specialty of werewolves.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Ragnarok, soul weapon of the noble Lords. Kate in the Rai's Adventure sidestory.
• Hidden Elf Village: Lukedonia.
• Hive Mind: Dark Spear.
• Hollywood Hacking: An entire chapter.
• Honor Before Reason: Clans Landegre and Loyard are accused of this for dying 'meaningless' deaths to protect humans.
• Human Resources: The Union and the Blood Crystal. Large numbers of people were killed to produce Dark Spear.
• Humans Are Special: Frankenstein argues this, and the Previous Lord wanted nobles to learn from and be more like humans.
• I Am Not Left-Handed:
  • "Release": After Frank lets loose his full powers, he become strong enough to one-shot Marie.
  • And now Rai reveals that he has a seal restraining his powers. Not that he actually needed to, but because he was facing the Lord and decided he needs to show her the "proper courtesies".
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter is referred to as Episodes (Ep.)
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Rai. He even ends up with a puppy in the webnovel.
• Lampshade Hanging: Muzaka casually remarks that he always seems to be showing up at the end of a fight, after doing so about three times in quick succession.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: How the Noblesse maintain The Masquerade. The Union apparently has the technology to do so, as well, but generally prefers the kill-everyone approach instead.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Shown here:
  Ik-Han: You're joking, right? That's impossible! It's not like we're in a manhwa or anything...
• Lightning Bruiser: Anyone who can fight is extremely fast and agile.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • It's revealed in chapter 93 that Rai's closet consists of nothing but copies of their school uniform. And he still takes time deciding what to wear.
  • Tao, Takeo and M-21 also seem to have these.
• Made of Iron: Every non-human, but Shinwoo is one too; despite being having an ordinary physiology, he takes much more abuse than a normal person could survive.
• Mad Scientist:
  • Dr. Cromwell. Frank also seems to have been one in the past. He learned how to fake being one so the Union wouldn't use hostages like Tesamu against him.
  • Turns out the Union is full of mad scientists. Aside from Crombell, we have 9th Elder and Ignes.
• Magic Pants: Jake, when he transforms into his final form in chap. 77.
• Mama Bear: Noble soul weapons run on this trope. The reason Roctis turned to the dark side.

• The Mole: Crombell has some at his disposal:
  • First is Yuri, his regular mole for the Union.
  • Then some minor moles in 12th Elder's Navy fleet.
  • There's also Mark, who has absorbed M-24's appearance, memories and powers to spy on M-21 and his team mates.
• Monster Mash: Nobles, contractors and mutants fit vampires; the infected is a vampire/zombie; Frankenstein; werewolves exist and Tao's cables make him the mummy.
• Mood Whiplash: Comedy at the beginning of a chapter...violence at the end. And vice-versa.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Almost every single mundane task that Rai accomplishes. Special mention for opening the door.
• Mr. Fanservice: Any Bishounen mentioned above but especially M-21, who not only gets the most Shirtless Scenes, but also has a very sympathetic backstory.
• Mugging the Monster: Happens so frequently that they should put a count or something.
• Muscles Are Meaningless:
  • It seems that so far, more muscles a character has, more likely he'll get his ass handed to him.
  • Averted for the mortal characters, for the most part, with more athletic builds corresponding to strength and training. There just aren't all that many purely mortal characters around, and since the power-sets range from psychokinetic to biokinetic physical strength doesn't mean a lot.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Don't bother, they wouldn't let you. Especially Rai — he'll make you kneel.
• Neat Freak: Frankenstein.
• No Delays for the Wicked: Subverted. Even an Evil Secret Organization isn't beyond the reach of telemarketers.
• Not So Invincible After All: Rai.
• Oh, Crap!: In Chapter 278. The look on the faces of the 6th and 7th Elders when Rai informs them why he has appeared before them is a thing of beauty.
  Rai: You have attacked human beings. You have harmed those I must protect. ...You are now offenders I must remove.
  • Rai of all people has one at the end of chapter 436, because Frankenstein is (apparently) close to death.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rai dropping a cup of tea is depicted and treated very dramatically, and it is in fact a very dire sign.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Shinwoo, Yuna, Ik-han and Sui.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • Addressed in the beginning. Rai interprets the chopsticks for his ramen to be stakes, and the garlic in his ramen to be Shinwoo's attempt at poisoning him. He starts to tell them it's futile, but all of the other students just get annoyed with his muttering and tell him to just eat the stupid bowl of ramen.
  • Neither the Noblesse nor Nobles are vampires, but they are capable of creating them. Aside from M-24's vampire-like mutant, there have been no vampires in Noblesse so far, but there were vampire plagues in the backstory and Frankenstein may technically be one.
  • Also a Brick Joke much later. After the situation with Lukedonia is resolved, Raskreia sits down to a meal with Rai, who serves... ramen. Her reaction is almost exactly the same as Rai's, but it's Seira who explains the 'portable stakes' and garlic to her. He even gives her packs of instant ramen as a farewell gift.
• Ontological Mystery: The story starts with Rai waking up and finding a man who calls him master: who they are and how they got here are gradually revealed over hundreds of chapters.
• Out of Focus: Shin-Wu & the other kids become increasingly less important in season 2, & have been reduced to cameos for comical interludes between serious story lines. Noblesse S was a text-only side story that focused more on them interacting with Raizel & Frankenstein, but it was unceremoniously discontinued.
• Parental Substitute: Gejutel and later Rai and Frankenstein for Regis and Seira.
• People Jars: M-21, Takeo, Tao, and some unknown experimental subjects of The Union were seen in these.
• Psychic Link: Seira has one to let her know if anything happens to Regis
  • Crombel has one to his higher-level minions.
  • Rai and Frankenstein have a True Contract that is closer to Mindlink Mates.
• Psychic Powers: Nobles.
• Prime Directive: Nobles and werewolves were supposed to leave humans alone instead of trying to take us over until we evolved enough to defend ourselves.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Shinwoo's first fight against the the infected.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: First the DA-5, then the Cerberus.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Frankenstein cooks, sews and becomes Seira's housekeeping teacher. It doesn't matter if you're an enhanced human or noble clan leader: if he tells you to wear a pink apron and do the dishes, you wear a pink apron and do the dishes.
• Really 700 Years Old: Pretty much the entire Noble race. Rai and Frank are confirmed to be over 800 years old, and almost certainly well over a thousand. The teens period happens at around 200 years for the Nobles, and a 500-year-old barely registers as over 20.
• Redemption Promotion: M-21, Tao, and Takeo all eventually get hired as security guards at Frankenstein's high school.
• Refuge in Audacity: Everything M-21 does to screw with Shark. Everything.
• Roof Hopping: None of the super-powered characters seem to understand what sidewalks or public transportation are used for. Rai is especially fond of this.
• Screw Destiny: Goal of the Previous Lord.
• Screw You, Elves!: Frankenstein's opinion of nobles before he met Rai.
• Secret Police: The Noblesse. Their existence was known only to the clan leaders, their job was to mind-read and mind-wipe nobles and they could execute anyone at will.
• Serious Business:
  • There are many examples, but notably making and eating ramen. And tea.
  • Also: Videogames, door-opening, clothing. Pretty much anything Rai does — especially as he's trying to understand and master modern technology.
• Sex Is Violence: The 5th Elder in her first fight with Frankenstein. So much. She apparently loses this trait in later appearances... though she does seem to retain a crush on him (possibly even reciprocated), so perhaps it's because she's not fighting him the other times.
• She Is the King: Erga Kinesis di Raskreia is the Lord.
• Ship Tease: There's a huge one between Seira and Shinwoo in chapter 296. It's notable in that every ship tease before that were one-sided and unrequited, or simply comedic. Everyone noticed this ship tease, in-universe and out, and it came complete with romantic lighting and blushes.
  • The Lord and Rai, once she visits the human world.
  • Possibly Frankenstein and the 5th Elder; if so, this one's a lot more subtle. Frankenstein seems a lot more willing to perform favors for her than he would for other characters (though perhaps that's just because her favors always seem to end up in him fighting powerful enemies), and she shows signs of having a crush on him as well.
• Smug Snake: Jake and Shark were very smug, both of them were also very pathetic, seeing as they were demonstrating their so-called superiority by beating up those much weaker than themselves.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Done fairly believably. The Union is implied to be neck-deep in dirty and dangerous business around the globe, so the fact that the few agents sent to South Korea all happen to die, disappear, or turn traitor doesn't immediately capture their full attention.
• The Stoic:
  • Rai, Seira, Crance.
  • When Raskreia gets angry, earthquakes happen, so normally she's this.
• Suicidal Overconfidence:
  • Jake and, a few chapters later, the Infected.
  • Everyone from the Union. Everyone.
• Supernatural Elite: Tao brings up the trope explaining nobles.
• Sympathetic Magic: If a noble drinks your blood, they own your soul but can give you power in exchange.
• Transhuman Treachery: Enforced: enhanced humans had better follow the Union party line or else. When a Union enhanced human shows concern for human life, they'll either be adopted or killed by their own side.
• Vampire Hunter: Frankenstein.

• Wham Line: Not the largest of twists, but this one line reveals that Frankenstein isn't the one behind the wheel anymore; it's the Dark Spear in control of his body.
  Frankenstein: I'm not the type of power you can dare control, you pathetic meat.
• Written by the Winners: Subverted: he kicked their asses, and the Union's version of history still paints Frankenstein as a traitor to humanity who stole their research.
• Yandere: Rael and Urokai Agvain. Possibly Yuri, given how he reacts to being told he's not Seira's type.
• You Have Failed Me: 12th Elder and the captain of Cerberus don't react well to the rest of the Cerberus taking a beating.
• You Shall Not Pass!: M-24 tried this with Jake. While he did get himself killed, he managed to buy enough time for Rai to make a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• You Will Be Assimilated: Dark Spear.

---