Cross Ange - Tenshi to Ryuu no Gakuen

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Cross Ange - Tenshi to Ryuu no Gakuen is a Lighter and Softer High School AU of the main Cross Ange anime. It follows the same basic plot points, strips out the angst, ups the comedy, tones down the mature stuff, draws the characters in chibi style, and puts it all in a series of 4-koma panels.

Basic knowledge of the anime episodes definitely helps, since it references their high points frequently, and it's basically a more comedic alternate retelling of the actual plot.

Tropes used in Cross Ange - Tenshi to Ryuu no Gakuen include:
  • Broad Strokes: The character development of the show is roughly followed, but the rest is plotless comedy.
  • Flanderization: Everyone to varying degrees. Ange's naivety is exaggerated for comedy, Salia's serious tendencies and her secret cosplay fetish are exaggerated for the same, Maggy's one off Dr. Jerk moment in the second episode is expanded into her being a borderline Mad Scientist, and so on.
  • Lighter and Softer: the serious aspects from the original worked are excised entirely or extremely watered down, since this is supposed to be a comedy.
  • Honest John's Dealership: Jasmine's school store is basically this.
  • Mood Dissonance: Since it parallels the actual show but severely tones down the angstier stuff, it causes this when elements from the original show are alluded to but the worst case scenarios from the original do not occur. An example at the beginning is how Norma exist, but they aren't so much persecuted and hated as they are just sent off to a boarding school like environment to learn how to serve society despite not being able to use Mana.
  • Only Sane Man: Saila and Jill spend a lot of time passing this role back and forth.
  • Schoolgirl Lesbians: Transplanted from a penal battalion and toned down from the original work, but this is still present, with Zola being the most straightforward example.
  • Spared By The Adaptation: Ange's mother and Zola. They don't show up much past their canon appearances, but they don't die.
  • Tsundere: Ange, just like the show, but zigzagged. Some of her more abrasive reactions are toned down in the name of being Lighter and Softer, but her mood swings are amplified for laughs.
  • Took a Level In Kindness: Mostly everyone, especially Julio and Sylvia.