YMMV / Innocent

• Americans Hate Tingle: For some reason, the character of Subyss is generally disliked by most French reviewers, mostly due to being over-the-top.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Despite Marie's rape being a core reason for her hatred of men, the effects of her rape aren't explored in-depth.
  • Zero doesn't show any angst while witnessing the constant gore of executions.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Anne-Marthe a selfish, intriguing sociopath or an intelligent dynast wanting to uphold the clan and its moral code? Her actions can be interpreted both ways. The opinion in the Russian fandom seem to lean on her being a cold-hearted, albeit effective dynast.
• Anvilicious:
  • The comparison of the nobility and Marie Antoinette as social media influencers or modern day elites is.....not really subtle.
  • The theme of discrimination against woman can also be this, especially in Rouge.
• Awesome Art: The series is particularly renowned for its detailed, graceful art which is frequently considered to be some of the best in the industry.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • In Chapter 86 of Rouge, Charles, after years of hiding his true self and believing that what he was doing was for the best of the Sanson family, finally, finally breaks out of Anne-Marthe's teachings - symbolized by him using a fire-poker to tear through her portrait.
  • In Chapter 2, Marie's manipulations ensure that Count De Luxe's pardon is overturned and that he will be punished; cue a glorious Villainous Breakdown on De Luxe's part.
• Complete Monster:
  • Subyss is a Torture Technician attached to the Parisian Parliament who views suffering as an art form and admittedly sees himself as the mirror image of Charles-Henri Sanson. The latest member of a lineage consisting of professional torturers, Subyss takes sadistic pride in causing pain and uses everything at his disposal to break the human body, including strappado and impaling a man through the chin before forcing him to ingest melted sulfur. When Subyss is called to extract information from the benevolent Robert-François Damiens, he horribly tortures the man for two entire months to make him confess to false accusations, comparing his situation to a "dansieur leaping in the depths of Hell" and almost killing him before the day of his execution arrived. Wasting no time in getting drunk to distract himself from the fact that he was fired, Subyss comes back to his senses only after hearing Robert's screams.
  • Count De Luxe is an utterly loathsome member of the Royal Court with a fervent hatred for commoners. Introduced kicking a child worker in the face for trying to eat bread, De Luxe develops a rivalry with the good-hearted Alain, whom he mocks for being an individual with a mixed race. Discovering that Alain intended to open a school for any children regardless of status or assets, De Luxe burned the school with the students inside, killing all of them. Confessing to have started the fire, De Luxe cowardly executes Alain even after the latter had spared him and has him incriminated as a rebel who wished to overthrow the country, assuming the position of a "hero who saved France" while personally refusing to accept responsibility for his crimes, claiming that the "cries and screams of those maggots burning alive were cries of joy".
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Marie's lack of empathy and remorse, impulsivity, lack of regard for the lives of others, manipulation and aggression shown throughout the series most likely point to her having Antisocial Personality Disorder.
• Fan Fic Fuel: There are many events that are ripe for development, as they're either implied or skipped over, such as:
  • How Marie told Charles-Henri about being raped by Griffin
  • Andre's childhood as the personal servant for the Sanson family, as well as what happened during the eight years he worked as a gravedigger after he was fired.
  • What Marie did to raise Zero and educate them, as well as what Marie and Andre did after having left for England as Charles-Henri mentioned in chapter 88.
  • What did Zero do after helping Marie with her "execution"? Along with that, what did they do while on their journey?
  • The lives of the rest of the Sanson children that grew up under Anne-Marthe's rule.
  • How did Madame du Barry and Charles-Henri react to seeing each other as she was being sent up to the platform to be executed? See They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character below.
• Moment of Awesome: Marie’s revenge against Count De Luxe. When the bastard’s on a way to a dinner party in his honor Marie kisses him on the lips....and in doing so places a powerful hallucinogenic into his system that causes them to hallucinate his victims. This in turn causes him to rant loudly about his REAL motives for killing Alain and to reveal that he had not only burned children to death but utterly enjoyed it. Then after Louis XV overturns his pardon and orders him executed Marie (who is the executioner) reveals what she did, forces him to the ground when he tries to run and then cuts the bastard’s head off. What makes it even more awesome is that while she could have just killed the guy, she did it the way Alain wanted AND not only ensured that his reputation was restored but that De Luxe died like one of the rabble he so hated.
• Jerkass Woobie: Yeah, Marie can be a bitch, but you'll definitely want to hug her for all of the awful things that have happened to her since she was 6.
• Narm: The manga is deliberately theatrical and melodramatic almost all the time, which can make some scenes come off this way. The sex scene between Marie-Jeanne Becú and Charles is just one of many examples.
• Squick: The Duke of Orleans giving Lord Louis Auguste a dildo in the shape of his own penis as a gesture of petty spite during the latter's first night in bed with Marie Antoinette, inviting him to use it and see which one satisfies her more.
  • Andre blushing while staring at an 11 year-old Marie changing is this. Marie has to call out his name twice to get him her jacket and snap out of it.
  • Nineteen year old Marie instigating a sexual relationship with the 14-year old Marie Antoinette
  • Jeanne not only being gang-raped, but also getting raped by an older man with very, very late stage syphilis. Ugh.
  • The entire sequence of "Anne-Marthe's" (aka Marie Joseph) BDSM -and-spur session with Charles-Henri deserves a mention with the incest undertones. Marie laps up some of Charles' blood that splattered on her face, and she even asks him if he wants another round of it.
  • 14 year old Antoinette being forced by her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, to watch a couple have sex (presumably servants), as a way to "educate" the young princess on her eventual duty.
• Tear Jerker: Quite a few but the most prominent in the series are Charles tragic friendship with Robert Damiens and Alain's murder at the hands of Count De Luxe.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being a prominent character for the majority of Innocent, as well as the reason that Charles becomes a more traditionally masculine figure, Madame du Barry is only mentioned in a summary box as the once pure nun who became one of the many people executed by Charles-Henri.
  • When Marie is smuggled away to England in chapter 87, one would expect that she'd later return, and, coupled with Robespierre's growing paranoia of being killed by her, would also come to execute him in the same way that he had ordered for her. What actually happens is that, in the final chapter, a random man, dressed as Marie, goes to the Hôtel de Ville, shoots Robsepierre in the mouth, gets arrested, and reveals to Robespierre and the others that Marie is still "alive" through the people. Robespierre and Saint Just's executions are little more than summaries following their arrest.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: We meet Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy trying to scrape by on the dirty streets of a Parisian slum, and while the resentment of the nobility that is felt by the poorer classes are understandable given context, Jeanne's excessively belligerent attitude and spiteful behavior toward Marie Antoinette do little to endear her to the reader.

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