Kure-nai



Kure-nai started out as a Light Novel series that ran from December 2005 to April 2008, but has grown to include both a manga (November 2, 2007 – June 4, 2012) and an anime (April 3, 2008 – June 19, 2008, plus OAVs released July 2, 2010 and December 3, 2010) adaption. The anime ends after the first arc. The series takes place in the same universe as Denpa teki na Kanojo.

Shinkurou Kurenai is a 16 year old boy who earns his living by settling disputes between people. This usually involves some degree of violence, which he deals with just fine, as he is very strong and proficient at martial arts.

One day he gets a very special assignment: being the bodyguard of Murasaki Kuhoin, a 7 year old girl from a very rich, plutocratic family. At first he has quite a bit of trouble with her snobbish nature, which is obviously the result of the very sheltered upbringing within the "Inner Sanctuary" of her family estate. As they spend their time together, they start to appreciate each other more and more, leading to a deep friendship which affects their lives immensely.


 * Art Shift: The opening animation compared to the rest of the anime.
 * Berserk Button: Set off by actual physical harm to someone Shinkurou should be protecting.
 * Bifauxnen: Yayoi, Lin, and to some extent Benika.
 * Bifauxnen and Ladette: Lin and Yayoi.
 * Big Fancy House: Well, a really big estate...
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: The Kuhoin family's traditions are... weird, to say the least.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Shinkurou actually manages to . It's a little less dramatic in the manga, and doesn't end the series.
 * Blessed with Suck: Shinkurou's.
 * Bodyguard Crush: Sort of. Murasaki and Shinkurou start caring for each other a lot, but it's obviously not romantic. Also, due to Murasaki's misunderstandings about the nature of romantic relationships (and relationships in general) she sometimes speaks and acts as if she wants to be Shinkuro's girlfriend (or thinks she already is).
 * Bottle Fairy: Tamaki.
 * Brother-Sister Incest:
 * Car Fu: In the snow, no less.
 * Chekhov MIA: Played straight with
 * Children Raise You: one of the reasons that Benika chose Shinkuro for the task of being Murasaki's bodyguard.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Shinkurou. In the manga Tamaki also proves to be a proficient martial artist,
 * Cute and Psycho: Do not let Kirihiko near anything sharp (why do you think her street name is Guillotine?)
 * Cuteness Proximity: Ginko
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: See the Blessed with Suck and Swiss Army Appendage sections.
 * Driven to Suicide:, in the anime.
 * Failure Knight:
 * Fish Out of Water: due to the extremely isolated manner in which Kuhoin women are raised, pretty much everything Murasaki encounters outside the Kuhoin estate is unfamiliar to her.
 * Deadly Change-of-Heart:
 * Hollywood Tone Deaf: When practicing their parts in a musical Yamie proves to be this, and Yuuno even more so, but it goes away for both of them once they stop practicing from the script and start improvising instead.
 * Joshikousei: Shinkurou's female fellow students at his high school.
 * Knife Nut: Kirishima Kirihiko
 * Knowledge Broker: Ginko
 * Living Lie Detector: Murasaki
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Murasaki, to the Nth degree.
 * Lolicon
 * Shinkurou isn't a lolicon, but some of the characters jokingly refer to him as one because of Murasaki. And then Murasaki gets hold of the word without realizing what it really means... It doesn't help that Yuuno's little sister, Chizuru, is always jumping on him too.
 * Love Hotels: Shinkurou lives opposite one.
 * Meaningful Name
 * Murasaki, from the classic Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, was kidnapped as a little girl by the protagonist Hikaru Genji and raised to be the perfect wife.
 * The kanji for Murasaki's name means "purple" or "violet", and Renjou's wife Kazuko makes a statement about sometimes accidentally stepping on violets, which can be taken as a metaphor for her treatment of Murasaki.
 * The second symbol in the kanji for "Kuhoin" is "feng", a mythical Chinese bird which is the king of all other birds, and the third symbol means "imperial palace" or "emperor", both of which are possibly references to the plutocratic nature of the Kuhoin family.
 * Meganekko: Ginko
 * Musical Episode: The characters start practicing for a musical to be held at a local park, but they soon throw away the script and start improvising. One of the best examples out there, it oddly doesn't feel out of place at all.
 * Murder, Inc.: The Akuu Company.
 * Ninja: Yayoi
 * The Ojou: Murasaki. Yuuno Houzuki qualifies to an extent.
 * Ordinary High School Student: Shinkurou, aside from.
 * Parental Abandonment: Parents in the series are either: dead, uncaring, or non-existent. There is one nice parental figure shown, but he's a grandparent.
 * Perky Goth: Yamie, although her perkiness varies.
 * Playing Against Type: Miyuki Sawashiro plays Shinkurou. Aside from the fact that her roles are usually female, she usually plays either "shy and cute" characters or just The Ojou. Shinkurou is neither. But Miyuki actually does play an Ojou-esque character in one episode.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: The anime in relation to the original material. And OVAs, which combine both.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Kirihiko wears one over her mouth, Ninja-style.
 * Selective Obliviousness: Shinkurou seems to be unaware of Ginko's feelings towards him. He'd probably like to be oblivious to Yuuno's feelings for him, but she's too forward for him to ignore it. He still manages it though. Shinkurou puts "effort" into being oblivious, so much so that he doesn't even notice even Yuuno's blatantly obvious love for him.
 * Shoo the Dog:
 * Shrines and Temples: Murasaki visits a shrine with Shinkurou and his neighbors to celebrate that she's seven years old.
 * Sink or Swim Mentor: Benika likes Shinkurou to learn things the hard way.
 * Slasher Smile: Lin.
 * Tear Jerker: . Also, Shinkurou's dream at the end of the series.
 * Swiss Army Appendage:
 * Twelve-Episode Anime: Including two OVAs, that are faithful to manga and novels.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Ginko and Yuuno. While Shinkurou doesn't return Yuuno's feelings any more than he does Ginko's, he does hang out a lot more with Yuuno than with her. Also, when they were little kids he promised that when they grew up that they'd run Ginko's family ramen shop together, but instead ended up learning the martial arts of Yuuno's family and decided to become a dispute mediator instead.
 * Unwanted Harem: A relatively mild case. Shinkurou has Ginko, Yuuno, and Murasaki gunning for him. Shinkurou cares about each of the main three, but in a platonic sense. Tamaki doesn't seem to be interested in Shinkurou romantically, but that certainly doesn't stop her from teasing him every now and then (especially when she's drunk). Yuuno's younger sister, Chizuru, also has a crush on him. Kirihiko is thrown into the mix with her blushes whenever Shinkurou praises her in the manga.
 * Wife Husbandry: Inverted: . Also notice the Meaningful Name in relation to the trope's namesake.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Murasaki varies between believable childish naïveté and unusual wisdom during most of the series, and then has her wisdom turned up to eleven at the end of the last episode.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Benika's plan to "poison the prize". See the page for details.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Murasaki varies between believable childish naïveté and unusual wisdom during most of the series, and then has her wisdom turned up to eleven at the end of the last episode.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Benika's plan to "poison the prize". See the page for details.