Shina Dark



Shina Dark: Kuroki Tsuki no Ō to Sōheki no Himegimi (シャイナ・ダルク 〜黒き月の王と蒼碧の月の姫君〜, Shaina Daruku, literally "Shina Dark ~King of Dark Moon and Blue Moon's Princess~") is a manga written by Bunjūrō Nakayama and drawn by Yukari Higa. It ran from 2006 to 2009.

Welcome to the cursed island of Shina Dark. This island is called home by the dark lord Exoda C. Claw aka Satan. He's as powerful a being as you could ever hope to meet. Feared and hated the world over for the infinite amount of atrocities he's committed. He's.....actually a really nice guy who just wants to chill out around the castle and relax... After a month long nap he awakens to find that the rest of the world has made up another ridiculous rumor and blown it way out of proportion and that has caused his little island to be crowded with a thousand beautiful women meant to be his mistresses/sacrifices. Worse yet is that since they have set foot on his island they are all believed to be cursed and are now shunned by their homelands. What's a couch potato Satan to do with 1000 women who won't / can't leave? Who can say?

As the story progresses, Exoda attempts to do a little nation building in an attempt to get the women on the island interested a little more in their own lives and less depressed. Among the women sent to his island there is a princess from each of the two major empires surrounding his island. Not wanting anything to do with ruling a kingdom himself, he sets up the two princesses as the head of the new country. He then works, primarily, in the background to support the fledgling country through some of the problems it faces both from without and from within.

The English translators used "Satan" in place of "Maou" or "Demon Lord". While the translations tend to make more sense this way from a Western perspective, the use of "Satan" is more of a title than a nickname.

""The numeric gauge shows its life-force at... 10,000!" "What!? 10,000!?""
 * Above the Influence: One thousand young women are dropped on Exoda's door step with every expectation of being used, abused and exploited as his slaves. Exoda's first response is to send them all home. When it becomes clear that's not an option, he accepts responsibility for their suffering and founds a representative government to secure their rights and freedoms.
 * Accidental Pervert: Satan is believed to be such a pervert that it is hard for him to not be mistaken for one.
 * Especially when a little girl crawls into his bed at the end of the first chapter.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Noel's hair is jet black. In the music videos, it's PINK!!!
 * It's also pink in the color pages of the manga, so the videos could well be accurate.
 * Almighty Janitor: Exoda definitely subscribes to Eddie Riggs' philosophy: if a leader does his job right no one knows he's there.
 * Amazon Brigade: Considering most of his island's population is women, due to the below-mentioned Malicious Slander, and Galett training many of the women to be guards to better defend their new home from any one who threatens it, Exoda has a fairly large one and it is growing.
 * Angry Guard Dragon: The dragon guarding the lowest part of the vault is this only when someone not authorized comes in ... or when the contract ends and no one bought the extension or life-time policy.
 * Anti-Anti-Christ
 * Arc Break: At the time of this writing, the manga has stalled because its host magazine stopped publication.
 * A eight-minute AMV has been released, so there is potential that this will become an Anime sometime in the next year or two.
 * It's been three years after they released those videos. That and the manga has finished serializing in 2009. Left Hanging does not even begin to describe it.
 * Batman Gambit: Exoda organizes a monster hunt so Galett and Christina can overcome their differences.
 * Battle Butler: Vincent.
 * Berserk Button: Don't hit a woman in Clow's presence. Seriously, don't.
 * Betty and Veronica: Christina and Galett, respectively
 * Bishonen: The butler has this look down well... which doesn't help his problem of constantly being mistaken as the "evil overlord." So does the Prime Chancellor of Vansable.
 * The Caligula: The Queen and First Prince of Estgloria, who are living extravagantly to the detriment of the people.
 * Celibate Hero: Despite his unearned world reputation as a pervert, Satan will run away at top speed if some of the girls in his "harem" try to hit on him.
 * He seems to be a case of The Mourning After for Cynthia, a woman we only see in a painting.
 * Despite being an Ecchi series, the two main girls seem to have no real interest in bedding anyone either after their first attempt to sacrifice themselves to an unwilling Satan. So far.
 * Chessmaster: Well, a master of Chess anyway. Christina wins every game she plays against Exoda.
 * Chick Magnet: Nicely averted. The girls are only attracted to Exoda when they realize that he's a genuinely caring person, not because he's the male lead.
 * Cooking Duel: Accomplished via haggling
 * Crazy Cultural Comparison: People from the East and the West living in Shina Dark get into little fights over their Culture Clash frequently. (Forks v. chopsticks, etc.)
 * Creepy Doll:
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Satan seems like a lazy bum who likes nothing more than relaxing and tries to avoid doing anything that even resembles hard work (running the country he created in what can only be described as his backyard). And he really is like that. But if someone actually forces him into doing something, they will quickly be reminded why the whole world pisses its pants before him.
 * Dance Battler:
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Exoda.
 * Defector From Decadence: The Second Prince of Estgloria remembers his father's love for the people, is disgusted at the Queen's excesses, and cares deeply for Christina.
 * Determinator: Deconstructed and reconstructed with Galett. She's a strong and charismatic leader, but her Heroic Willpower is the result of a life where she had the choice of becoming strong or lying down in a gutter to die.
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Seriously, he's an Immortal Demon King who could have killed the women and ravished the world if he wanted to. Instead he treats them with kindness and even creates a country for them. You think they would like build a shrine for him or something? Hell no!
 * He probably wouldn't want something like that anyway.
 * Ecchi: Lots of bath house shots of two main busty female protagonists.
 * And the maid. And even the Token Mini-Moe.
 * The Empire: The Vansable Empire is conquering the world with extremely advanced technology.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Satan actually has a LOT of standards, but he is downright pissed when he finds out he's expected to sleep with Maple, who is under 10 years old. He seems displeased about whats in the book about him as well, given that from the sounds of it, most of it may very well just be pure fiction.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Shortly after the manga starts, Satan gives up control of the island to Princesses Christina and Galett.
 * Expy: Noel is very similar to Mahoro from Mahoromatic. Just substitute the two locks of hair growing out of the sides of Mahoro's head for elf-like ears of about the same length.
 * Lampshaded in chapter 20, complete with Shout-Out.
 * Finger-Poke of Doom: Satan does this to the hero who shows up in chapter 1.
 * Furo Scene: Nearly 1/2 of all chapters involve the one or both of the two main girls bathing in the castle's gigantic bathroom. Since it was originally Satan's personal bathroom, he gets caught there a lot.
 * Genius Ditz: Christina is terrible at everything she tries
 * God Save Us From the Queen: The Queen of Estgloria, Christina's home country.
 * Heroic Self-Deprecation: Both Christina and Galett have crushing self-esteem issues. Galett's are just better hidden behind her Action Girl facade.
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: Hajime.
 * Hit Points: Matilda has an eyepatch that can see them, but Galett seems aware of her own.
 * Ill Girl: Christina.
 * Intrepid Merchant: The Layla Sisters
 * It Makes Sense in Context: "What a glorious Satan day!"
 * Jerkass: The so-called hero who comes to fight Exoda in chapter 1.
 * Les Yay: Invoked with Christina and Gallett. The preview asks whether they will become slaves to darkness (showing them separately in their Stripperific outfits) or a light in the darkness (showing their hands clasped).
 * Malicious Slander: Just how does Satan have this horrible reputation anyway, and why does it keep getting worse every time he goes for a long sleep?
 * The scapegoat effect. He's so legendary for being evil, people just pile of different things about him in new stories during his periods of being gone. Since he isn't around to refute them, and by the time new things are added to his "legend" the people who were around during his last reign are dead, the result is a sort of "George Washington and the Cherry Tree" taken to an extreme.
 * Meido: Noel
 * Mistaken for Servant: When Exoda is in his casual fishing clothes, it is hard to tell he is the "Satan". When one boy came to the island to kill him, Exoda was able to stay quiet and let the boy think Vincent is "Satan" as he ran off.
 * Modest Royalty: Discussed by the Layla sisters when Noel and company sell a valuable magical artifact to buy food for the inhabitants of Shina Dark, and then the Queen of Estgloria purchases it when her citizens are starving.
 * That's partially because what is a priceless artifact for the rest of the world is just another old piece of junk for Exoda, who acquired more treasures and magical items than he cares to list (including a Humongous Mecha and a sword that was Cursed with Awesome). Heck, the only reason they sold the crown was because it was less troublesome than going trough the trap filled maze and fighting off the dragon that guards the treasure.
 * Mundane Utility: During the Beach Episode, one mage uses an ice spell to make ice for crushed ice treats.
 * Naughty Tentacles: Octovia. You can't have a fantasy ecchi series without at least one tentacle monster.
 * Noble Demon: Exoda C. Claw. The demon part is debatable, but the nobility isn't.
 * Old Retainer: Vincent.
 * Parental Abandonment: This can also be implied for a great many of the girls who were sent to be sacrifices.
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Satan is believed to be this, Noel shows the potential to be this, and it is hinted that the butler is in between the two in terms of power scale.
 * Pettanko: Noel. Frequently jealous of Galett and Christina.
 * Plucky Girl: Galett.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Satan is a legendary being that sleeps for ages and awakens periodically until a hero puts him down -- and he has a butler and maid that hang around with him too.
 * Robot Girl: Noel is one, making her even more similar to Mahoro.
 * RPG Mechanics Verse: Characters occasionally make reference to hit points and the like.
 * Schizo-Tech: Of the two main nations, the Vansable Empire (Galett's birthplace) seems to have steam-powered technology.
 * And then there's the modern respirator that appears when Christina gets sick.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Satan, supposedly. He does sleep for ages and wake when certain astronomical events occur.
 * Seems like powerful monsters start awakening worldwide whenever he does.
 * Shout-Out: Satan's basement is basically a very large shoutout to the Disgaea series.
 * Probably unintentional, but...


 * Sink or Swim Mentor: Exoda tries to ensure that Galett and Christina, and by extension the rest of Shina Dark, can rule themselves without him. Of course, he's also pretty lazy.
 * Stealth Mentor: ... He also makes a good job of no one (except Vincent) finding out about this.
 * Stripperific: Galett and Christina had been sent to Shina Dark under the impression that they would be Exoda's concubines so they had planned their wardrobe accordingly.
 * Super-Deformed: Marple is so tiny and cute!
 * The Unfavorite:
 * Christina thinks that she's this to the people of Shina Dark.
 * Both Princesses were this to their home nations.
 * Unwanted Harem: Pretty much the premise of the manga. Something of a deconstruction as well. Every member of the harem is there because someone deemed them expendable or unwanted.
 * So it's an Unwanted Unwanted Harem?
 * Also noteworthy for being an actual harem of old (namely a king/ruler/lord/husband/sheikh and several lovers), and truly unwanted because he isn't annoyed by advances or anything, but just doesn't want to cope with 1000 women as love interests.
 * Upper Class Twit: The First Prince of Estgloria.
 * Villains Out Shopping: Exoda enjoys spending his free time out fishing.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?:
 * Noel and the Layla Sisters haggling
 * Christina playing chess.
 * Wicked Stepmother: The Queen of Estgloria, who sent her off to be Satan's consort.
 * Yank the Dog's Chain: There's a moment in chapter 1 where the inhabitants of Shina Dark think they'll be able to go back to their families. Then reality sinks in.