Princess Chroma
is a Magical Girl webcomic about a world drained of color and the junior high student named June Summer who has to re-color it. With her mentor, a fluffy winged bunny named Spiders, to instruct her, June must transform into the magical Princess Chroma to restore color to the earth.
Unfortunately, the two don’t get along in the slightest and June doesn't care much for having to fight monsters while wearing a cute dress and shouting catchphrases. When it comes to fighting evil, she prefers a hands-on approach while using her magical mentor more as her personal punching bag than her teacher.
Also check out the Princess Chroma Bonus Reel, which includes fan art, special projects, side stories, and more.
This comic contains examples of:
- Action Girl: June.
- Affectionate Parody: While the comic does poke fun at some of the conventions of Magical Girl stories, it never goes so far as to claim that such stories are inherently wrong. The revelation that Chroma is powered by dark magic, and the kingdom of Elysium did their best to rebrand her as a magical girl for the public moves it closer to Puella Magi Madoka Magica territory than Sailor Moon.
- Almost Identical Twins: Averted. April and Sonny look no more alike than any other siblings.
- Alt Text: If you're not reading it you are missing half the fun, allegedly.
- Animesque: Inevitably, as a parody of Magical Girl stories.
- April Fools' Day: Teasing a Darker and Edgier reboot.
- Badass Adorable: All over the place, but especially June and Spiders.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: June and her two friends from school. June is the tough one, April is the smart, straightforward one, and May is the cute, girly one.
- Bread and Circuses: The original Chroma was branded as a magical girl and a hero of the kingdom to draw attention away from the dark magic source of her powers, the same powers that created the Monochromes. Subverted in that King Brunswick and Leopold covered up the truth for Chroma's own good, as opposed to any sinister motive
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Randall makes his debut doing this and continues to break and nudge the fourth wall from then on.
- Calling Your Attacks: Princess Chroma's magic works in this fashion.
- Carry a Big Stick: June's weapon of choice is a mace.
- Celibate Hero: Leopold, if the Q&As are any indication.
- Cerebus Syndrome: After June's super-powered Freak Out at the end of Chapter Four, the comic starts longer storylines where victory is no longer a foregone conclusion, as well as revealing some of the darker elements of the series' backstory in the flashbacks to the original Chroma. This culminates in June having her head cut off.
- Clark Kenting: Subverted. Despite June's insistence that she isn't Princess Chroma, it's blatantly obvious to her friends that she is.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Sonny lives like everything is a video game, including making cheat codes.
- Color-Coded Armies: Inverted. The villains are "Monochromes", though it isn't immediately apparent because they've caused the whole world to lose its color.
- Crapsaccharine World: Implied in the flashbacks to the original Chroma's life, where the King says that they'll want to see the little girl executed for ACCIDENTALLY unleashing the Monochromes.
- Dance Battler: Princess Chroma does this frequently, even doing a full DDR routine for her Magical Petal Dance
- Dark Is Not Evil: Chroma's source of power is apparently dark magic, the same kind that powers the Monochromes. Leo and Cordelia rightfully wonder if it is evil or could become evil, given the trouble Cupcake caused.
- Deathbringer the Adorable: Invoked by June when she names her cute bunny mentor Spiders, his real name notwithstanding.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: June, especially around Sonny.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Cordelia busts out magic powders with effects ranging from gender change to species transformation in order get back at June...for snickering when she dumped flour on herself.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The entire plot of the story revolves around the fact that the world is now in greyscale.
- Evil Is Petty: In addition to kidnapping June ,the Shade leaves a note for Spiders, which includes an insult in Leet Lingo.
- Forced Transformation: Spiders starts out a Winged Humanoid named Leopold powerful enough to cross into Earth from an entirely different dimension. In his current state, he's an immortal but otherwise relatively helpless bunny rabbit.
- Foreshadowing: The spider web infestation of April's house in Chapter 3
- Free-Range Children: June had a rather troubled childhood with little parental support.
- Full-Boar Action: The Monochrome in Chapter 2 definitely qualifies.
- Fungus Humongous: Lampshaded, when the Shade teleports June to a setting full of giant mushrooms.
- Gender Bender: Cordelia's magic powder has this capability, albeit in a non-sexualized fashion due to the nature of the comic.
- Good Is Not Soft: Spiders, figuratively if not literally.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Spiders is nigh indestructible.
- Gorn: Not the strip itself, but June's favorite show "Blood Grudge" has to qualify.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: June, despite some of her rough edges
- Hammerspace: Spiders can make his wings appear and disappear at will. June also appears to pull her weapons out of thin air.
- Hands-Off Parenting: June's parents are largely indifferent to how she does as long as her grades stay up, be it fighting other kids in the past or Monochromes in the present.
- Hope Spot: At the end of Breakthrough, June is still held captive, but the rest of her gang have teamed up to save her perhaps with some help from the spirit of the original Chroma
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Sonny has mastered this, busting out Dragon Punches and Konami Codes left and right.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: A literal source of power for Cordelia's Powderful magic.
- Jerkass: Cordelia, with some question in more recent chapters, where she's had to team up with the kids she previously detested. Randall, still without question.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: June has her moments.
- Cordelia's shaping up to be this, given how she's helped everyone out during the dire circumstances of Chapter 5.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Randall can understand the speech of the transformed May....by reading her word balloons.
- Lovecraft Lite: A Chthulu-esque monstrosity shows up...to give the heroes a ride. Eldritch monstrosities appear quite a bit, but this is a magical girl story, so they often end up getting beat down.
- Magical Girl Warrior: June is more interested in the warrior aspect than the magical.
- Mentor Mascot: Spiders, the cute fluffy bunny with wings (sometimes), has the considerable task of teaching June how to be a proper magical girl.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The Elysium Prism, the magical trinket that turns June into Princess Chroma.
- Mini Dress Of Power: June absolutely hates wearing it.
- My Greatest Failure: Spiders a.k.a Leopold is haunted by his failure to protect the original Chroma
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Spiders' real name is Leopold, but June's odd nickname for him seems to have stuck.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: The original Princess Chroma. Cleverly subverted in that they're not actually opaque, but dirty and fogged up, which actually becomes an important plot point as it's how she accidentally creates the Monochromes
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Pointed out as early as the second chapter. Not that June puts much effort into the pretense of a dual identity.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Magically given to the Queen by Leopold, complete with opera gloves and Requisite Royal Regalia . Ironically, the Queen prefers to dress as Modest Royalty.
- Princess Protagonist: Chroma is a princess, shouldering great responsibility on pain of death .
- Punny Name: June Summer. April Showers. May Flowers. And so forth.
- Refusal of the Call: Very much so, but no matter how June tries to avoid being Princess Chroma, she just can't seem to shake it.
- Show Within a Show: Blood Grudge.
- Spiders Are Scary: Frequently, as seen in Chapter 3 and Chapters 6. Ironically, the character of Spiders is anything but scary, due to his innocuous rabbit form.
- Splash of Color: Happens whenever Princess Chroma is casting magic or the Elysium Prism is active.
- Stealth Pun: Cordelia has "witching powder" (green skin), "pitching powder" (augmented fastball pitch), "switching powder" (Gender Bender), and a powder whose name she can't remember that turns girls, specifically, into dogs.
- The Grim Reaper: Named Julio, apparently.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: None of June's attempts to quit being Princess Chroma have lasted, due to the Monochromes' repeated attacks.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: With June as the tomboy and May being the girly girl.
- Town Girls: June (Butch), May (Femme), and April (Neither)
- Undying Loyalty: Leopold to the original Chroma, and to her successor, June
- Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: June watches a TV show variant of this. What's actually on the screen is never revealed.
- Volcanic Veins: June exhibits these after being overdosed with light and threatening to destroy everything around her.
- Weak, but Skilled: Spiders' vast experience as guardian of the original Princess Chroma is undercut by the limitations of his bunny form.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 12 ends with Julio killing June by cutting her head off.
- Wham Line: I wish you knew...that I am still here.
