Guren: Is he a tragic hero who risked a lot for the world or a selfish jerkass who believed the end justified the means?
Krul's true feelings about being a vampire bring up to question the average vampires' attitude. Are they actually proud of what they are and do really feel contempt towards humans in general, or is this just an attempt to hide the reality that they are nothing more but former humans that unwillingly became immortal beings with most of their emotions and humanity gone for good and are forced to drink blood for the rest of eternity?
Jose, Crowley's squire from the light novels. Is he really a cheerful, optimistic little boy who wishes to fight for Christianity in the Holy War, or is he a Stepford Smiler who lacks any sort of self-worth and thinks that becoming a Templar and killing Muslims is the only way he can earn respect? One of the lines from the light novels is "...coming from a family where honor didn't exist, he put everything on the line for Pride and Honor".
Awesome Art: Be it the anime, the manga or the manga for Guren's light novel, the art of this series is gorgeous.
Krul. Not terribly much screentime, but loved for her design, the fact that she saved fan-favorite Mika and her mature personality. Her fans were enraged by what happens to her near the end of the Nagoya arc, and they're happy she recently gets more screentime as her past is revealed.
Shinya. He rarely appears in the first portion of the series and is mostly there to be part of Guren's storyline, but fans love him for being one of the most likable characters in the series.
Lacus Welt and René Simm. Although they are very minor characters, they're actually rather popular in fanfics, usually being Mika's friends.
The demons are very popular for their interesting designs, personalities and the vast theories on how they became demons and got sealed, how their human lives were and how they came to know Shikama Douji.
Fan-Preferred Couple: On the het side, Yuu/Shinoa, Yuu/Mitsuba, Shinoa/Mika, Guren/Mahiru, Guren/Mito and Mika/Krul. On the homo side, Guren/Shinya, Yuu/Mika, Yoichi/Shiho and Shinoa/Mitsuba are the top popular pairings.
Growing the Beard: It is generally agreed that the second cour marked a major turning point in the anime adaptation.
Yuu and Shinoa have the same voice actors as Ishida Shouya and Nishimaya Shouko of A Silent Voice. In an Alternate Universe, Yuunoa is canon.
Lacus Welt's birthday is 21st August. The same day a solar eclipse happened on 2017, two years after the anime's release! Tumblr artists were quick to notice.
The two main tsunderes of the series, Mitsuba and Mito, happen to have both of their names starting with "Mit".
Late in the story, Ashuramaru despairs that Yu only has eyes for Mika to the exclusion of all else. This becomes oddly prescient as it is later revealed that Yu's original form was as a homunculus created to watch over the original Mikaela. And the form he had was a giant floating eye. "Eyes only for Mika" indeed...
Yuichiro "Yuu" Hyakuya, The Protagonist, was abused by his biological family due to his supernatural nature. Sent to the Hyakuya Orphanage, Yuu was tested and experimented for them yet he found happiness on his fellow orphans. Surviving the apocalypse and being captured for Vampires, Yuu is forced to a serf life and tries to escape, leading to the murder of his family at hands of Ferid Bathory. Escaping thanks to the sacrifice of Mikaela, Yuu joins the Japanese Imperial Demon Army and trains to be able to avenge his loved ones. During the series, Yuu's true nature, use of his Cursed Gear and traumatic experiences start to erode his humanity, turning him into a danger to others and himself. While managing to achieve small victories such as reunite with Mika, befriend the members of the Shinoa Squad and kill important vampires, Yuu's obsession with family and his loss of humanity remains a question to be answered, yet he continues moving fowards, moved for his own desire to have a family.
Mikaela "Mika" Hyakuya, the Deuteragonist, is Yuu's last surviving family. Abandoned by his family and used for the Hyakuya Sect, Mika also loses his fellow orphans in an attempt to escape from the vampires before sacrificing himself to ensure Yuu's escape. Turned into a vampire and forced to work with a species that he hated, Mika started to hate both humans and vampires while also avoiding to drink human blood, surviving with the blood of Krul Tepes and being forced to work alongside his family's murderer. Wishing to reunite with Yuu, Mika manages to escape from the vampires and reunite with him before running away from the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, eventually completing his Vampire transformation after drinking Yuu's blood with his permission. Initially unwilling to work with anyone but Yuu, Mika is forced to accept the help of the Shinoa Squad to protect Yuu and eventually even with his hated Ferid Bathory. Hating his own nature and wishing to become human again, Mika just wants to protect his last surviving family.
Just Here for Godzilla: Even hardcore fans of the series will admit that Mika is the one of the only reasons to keep reading the series.
The King of Salt Explanation The title Yuu is given in the final episode of the anime's second season which quickly became a common way to express displeasure for the anime's ending. Or salt jokes.
Big Brother is watching Explanation Asuramaru turns out to be Krul's big brother, who watches everything through his eyes.
MY QUEEN!!/ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!!! Explanation As mentioned in Ensemble Dark Horse above, Krul scores very well with the fans and almost everyone loves her, so this tends to be the general reaction when she appears onscreen.
Owari no Suffering. Explanation This series has plenty of angst and almost every character has a tragic past.
Seraph of the Gay.Explanation The sheer amount of both Ho Yay and Les Yay has made lots of fans joke about it.
Who's Mitsuba? Explanation Mitsuba's lack of focus and development has many fans, especially on Tumblr, joke about it.
Memetic Molester: Ferid. The fact that he always look like he's going to rape someone doesn't help.
Mind Game Ship: Ferid takes great pleasure in screwing with people's emotions what with him being a sadistic vampire. In particular, he has a peculiar fixation with doing this to Yuu and Mika respectively. Not even his close pal Crowley is immune to his machinations.
More Popular Spin Off: The light novels are widely agreed to be of better quality than the main manga. The fact that Takaya Kagami is already an author helps immensely.
At the very end of the final episode, Yuu wades into the ocean, holds out a hand, and proclaims, 'it's raining'. It's a very silly scene in an otherwise calm but upbeat ending.
Krul's appearance for some. She's supposed to be the leader of a race that consists of evil bloodsucking monsters, but she looks like such an adorable little girl it's hard to see her as threatening. However, considering that she's later revealed to be a more sympathetic villain with a dark past and her true motivation is just to be with her brother again, it's possible that she was never meant to look intimidating in the first place.
The number of times characters preach about family and friendship can get cringe-worthy and ridiculous.
Nausea Fuel: The image of a smiling yet blank young Shinoa strapped to a chair by her arms and legs with the strong visual implication of all of her finger and toenails ripped out.Though as it turns out it was just a ruse played by her older brother to get both Mahiru and Guren to comply with his demands. Shinoa was even innocently in on it without really understanding what was really going on.
How some fans react to Krul/Mika, given that this pairing has heavy age gap going both ways: On one hand, Mika is a 16-year-old teenager while Krul has the body of a 12 to 13 years old little girl; but on the other hand, Krul is a thousand years old woman while Mika is just a little boy comparing to her. And even though biologically, they are not that far apart in age, Krul has explicitly◊ called Mika her son once. Yeah, Krul herself doesn't see Mika that way.
Ferid/Mika or Yuu/Ferid is also this, in a several more disturbing level. His dialogues with them reek of abuse, which is why lots of fans see him as a Memetic Molester.
Aside from Yuu's obliviousness to Shinoa's feelings for him, Yuu/Shinoa is a nice pairing in general... except for one big problem. Shikama Doji, Shinoa's demon, plans to take advantage of her feelings for Yuu to take over her body. Worst scenarios might have her ended up a demon just like her sister. Because of this, some fans decide not to ship Yuu/Shinoa... at least until the Shikama Doji problem is taken care of.
Despite them being the Official Couple of the series, the present Guren and Mahiru can come off like this as well. Not only due to Mahiru being a sociopathic demon, but also that she is the one who killed his entire squad, including Shinya.
Crowley/Shinoa or 'Crownoa' has quite the following.
Despite their limited on-screen time being together, some fans have started to ship Rigr Stafford/Saitou with Urd Geales, due to them both being Second Progenitors and had a history together back when the First was still with them.
There's actually quite some Raimeiki/Gekkouin fanarts on tumblr, in spite of these two having never interacted on-screen. It's probably because they are both sexy-looking demons. However, this is downplayed as chapter 99 onward reveals that all of the demons know each other, which means Raimeiki and Gekkouin do know who the other is, they just haven't been seen interacting.
Shipping demons with their owners is quite common, such as Yuu/Asuramaru, Yoichi/Gekkouin and Kimizuki/Kiseki-O. Although in the case of Yuu and Asuramaru, it's recently revealed that they knew each other a thousand years ago, back when Ashera was still a human, so it's less of a ship in the night than the others.
Super Couple: At least 50 percents of the fandom are fans of Yuu/Mika. They are basically the Madoka/Homura of this series.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Developments starting with chapter 116 have caused multiple characters to essentially abandon their morality. Yuu, not able to live in a world without Mika in it, has committed to a plan that will (temporarily if things go as plan) cause the deaths of many people, starting with Asuramaru who he forcefully consumes for power. In subsequent chapters, he and Mika raid human supply depots for food (needed to fuel Yuu so Mika can dive into his memories for information), causing the direct deaths of multiple human guards (20 by Mika's count) and the potential starvation of others. From the other direction, Shinoa has made a vow that she will bring Yuu back to normal, even if that means killing Mika to do so, something Yuu would never be able to accept. She also glosses over Krul's valid point that Yuu consumed Krul's brother and is very likely mentally gone, and was also responsible for starving the humans by burning their food to prevent Yuu getting to it. It'll be a wonder if the story manages to get back to a point where the protagonists aren't all total Anti Heroes.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Guren slowly became this for some fans, further pushed after the reveal of him causing the apocalypse from resurrecting his friends, and is manipulating Yuu to bring them all back to life even when it could not only destroy him but the entire world for a second time. Rather than being potrayed as a Fallen Hero or Evil All Along and have a majority of the cast turn against him, Guren is continuously treated by the narrative as a Tragic Hero who's actions are justified because he simply wants to make up for his mistake, even though he's technically the cause for all the suffering and the characters (especially Yuu or so he'd like Guren to believe) remain unfailingly loyal to him even though his actions give them no reason to.
Asuramaru, big time. He keeps his hair long, is voiced by a woman in all languages and wears opera gloves and a long flowing dress, really that's just cheating.
It's a lot less confusing when you consider that -maru is typically a masculine name ending in Japanese. Or at least gives the reader a fair shake at guessing correctly.
Win Back the Crowd: The series caught a fair number of people's attention due to its premise, but the slow pacing of the first cour of the anime's run did hurt interest. However, the second cour has received much more positive reception between better pacing and character development.
Many fans have expressed frustrations that out of all the members in the Shinoa squad, Mitsuba gets the least lines, plot-related character development, plot significance, and screentime. She doesn't even have a proper, fleshed out backstory and motivation, unlike Shiho and Yoichi. It seems her only role is to balance out the gender inequality ratio of the squad.
Crowley's comrades from The Story of Vampire Mikaela. They seem like the coolest guys ever who you'd want to be friends with, especially Gustavo and Victor, but they only seem to stick around for five pages of the light novel before getting killed off.
of Krul and Mika's relationship.
