Kekkaishi

• Main
• Characters
• Trivia
• YMMV
• Headscratchers
• WMG
• Crowners
  • Awesome
  • Funny
  • Tear Jerker
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

Yoshimori and Madarao

Kekkaishi is an anime and manga series centering around 14-year-old Yoshimori Sumimura and his 16-year-old neighbor/childhood friend/"partner" Tokine Yukimura. During the day, they are just ordinary (if slightly sleep-deprived) high school students, while at night they defend their homes and school grounds from monsters (Ayakashi) by conjuring multi-use barriers (Kekkai). They're eventually joined by the half-ayakashi Gen Shishio, and much later by Souji Hiura, a rather odd young man in his own right.

The story is not just as simple as that, however, as the protagonists find themselves and their protectorate involved in the devious plots of evil societies and megalomaniacs whose desires reach farther than mere destruction.

In America, the anime premiered in May 2010 on Adult Swim (with English dubbing) and on Hulu in early 2011 (in Japanese with English subtitles). The manga concluded in 2011. Yoshimori, Tokine and friends appear in the Massive Multiplayer Crossover game, Sunday VS Magazine Shuuketsu Choujou Daikessen.

Tropes used in Kekkaishi include:

• Action Mom: Yoshimori's mother, Sumiko.
• Accidental Pervert: Yoshimori has one memorable moment in the manga. Luckily for him, he isn't caught. Unluckily for him, he's entirely aware of how bad his blunder is and gives himself no end of grief over it.
• Actor Allusion: In the dub, Yoshimori gets pissed off over being called "shorty".
  • In Episode 24, one of Yuri's friends picks up a cute puppy. The girl in question is voiced by Carrie Savage.
  • Another FMA shoutout comes when Yoshimori is training with the crows. At one point, he calls himself a pipsqueak, using the exact same tone of voice Ed Elric would.
  • Ichiro Ogi is a huge guy who happens to hide behind a mask. And he's voiced by J.B. Blanc. Hmm...
• Alien Geometries: The Castle of Karasumori. It's MUCH bigger on the inside, among other problems. The Kokuboro castle seems to fit this too, though since it was created by a rather capricious and unpredictable Kitsune, it's not surprising.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Poor Gen.
• Aloof Big Brother: Masamori acts nice to Yoshimori around others, but once behind closed doors he is down to business.
• Alpha Bitch: Mao.
• Exclusively Evil: Averted. While the Karasumori grounds do mess with ghosts' heads, they still have the capacity to listen to reason. Or at least to the person about to kill them.
• Anti-Hero: Child Yoshimori is a Type I. Gen is a very obvious Type III. Masamori is a subtle Type III, with a little bit of Type IV thrown in.
• Armor-Piercing Slap: Tokine on Yoshimori, for putting so many people in danger by forcing them to rescue him from Kokuburo Castle. Even Masamori was impressed.
• Asleep in Class: Yoshimori has monster-fighting duties every night, so he sleeps in class (and naps on the roof during breaks) practically every day.
• The Atoner: Hazama Tokimori.
• Awesome By Analysis: Mamezou.
• Ax Crazy: Kaguro. Made even worse by the fact that he can sprout a limitless supply of swords from his body, making it impossible to disarm him.
• Badass
  • Gen
  • Yoshimori's mom, Sumiko. Her back-story has her killing a Land god for giggles, and the next time we see her, she curbstomps a Dragon; a being with power firmly on a Land god's level.
  • With proper focus, Yoshimori is capable of really awesome stuff.
• Barrier Warrior: Kekkai
• Battle Aura: Yoshimori's initial attempts at Zekkai.
• Battle Couple: Yoshimori and Tokine always go on patrol together. He has a crush on her but while she's normally cold there are moments to hint otherwise.
• Big Bad: Byaku or Hime for the Kokuboro arc; later arcs have no shortage of potentials, either.
• Big Eater: Uro-sama loves donuts and stacks them on his extendable fingers.
  • Mahora-Sama is nigh Pac-Man gone wrong. Seriously. This is not a stretched interpretation.
• Big Fancy House: The Sumimuras and the Yukimuras; lampshaded in a Day in The Limelight.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Urukai is reformed under Masamori, Karasumori is permanently sealed away, Shichirou becomes the new head of the Ougi clan, the Sumimura and Yukimura houses are freed of their duties and have overcome their rivalry, and Sousui and Yumeji have been dealt with. However, Yoshimori's mother sealed herself in with Karasumori to keep the seal permanent.
• Bishounen
• Bishounen Line: While not exactly Bishounen, most ayakashi become more humanoid the stronger they get. This is explained as most ayakashi wanting to be human
• Black and Grey Morality: The leaders on both sides of the main conflict are very nasty. It's just a decision between which flavor of nastiness you prefer. The main cast are pretty much straight-up good guys.
• Blood Knight: Kaguro.
• Blow You Away: One of the Ougi Clan's abilities.
• Breast Expansion: For one hilarious page, courtesy of a happy tengu. Sen was not amused.
• Calling Your Attacks: Necessary for Kekkaishi techniques, although at least they only consist of one word.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the manga, Yoshimori collects a bunch of Kouya's hair after his death, and gives it to Masamori for proper burial on the dog's home mountain. Much later on, we learn that Masamori has resurrected Kouya using said hair. Later still, he's even done something similar to Mudou!
  • It's brief, but it gets mentioned a couple of times that humans have turned into ayakashi in the past. It is implied that Gen's family's less than accommodating martial arts tradition may have effected the existence of his ayakashi side.
• Cherry Blossoms: There's a sakura tree on the Karasumori school grounds that blooms sporadically out of season. Ayakashi seem to enjoy it a lot.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Sumiko.
  • And so do Madarao and Hakubi.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Yoshimori, mostly at the early chapters/episodes. It's much more noticeable in the English version.
• Conspicuous CG: For the most part, Kekkaishi is an example of the right way to mix computer graphics and hand-drawn animation. The barriers and Instant Runes are done so well that you could watch the whole series without realizing how they were done. But then you see a car moving and it all goes to hell. Automobile animation is still the kryptonite of CG.
• Cool Big Sis: Tokine plays this role to Yoshimori in flashbacks and the beginning of the series proper.
• Cool Old Lady: Tokiko isn't incredibly friendly, but barring time outside of flashbacks and the series proper, she's likely taught Yoshimori as much, if not more helpful things about techniques and people than his own granddad.
• Covert Pervert: Sen and Shuu.
• A Day in the Limelight: Heisuke Matsudo and Risa (Lisa) Kagami and their big battle.
  • Kekkaishi really seems to love this trope. Everybody from Madarao to the teachers at Yoshi's school get in on the act at some point.
• Daiju The series started out like this, but after a while the focus shifted to stopping Byaku.
• Dead All Along: As of Chapter 316 it's revealed that Tokimori is only in a semi-physical state and is sticking around only because of a feeling of obligation to the Lord of Karasumori, his son.
  • Yumeji and Sousui.
• Bling Bling Bang: Heisuke Matsudo produces an ornately-decorated flintlock pistol when attempting to defend himself from Shion's attack.
• Deadpan Snarker: Madarao and Hakubi practically never pass up an opportunity to take a cynical jab at Yoshimori when he screws up. They also frequently snipe at each other too.
• Deal with the Devil: Heisuke
• Deflector Shields: Of the personal variety.
• Defusing the Tykebomb: Yoshimori attempts to do this to Hiura.
• Determinator: Lampshaded.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Princess finds a seed in the grapes she was eating. Byaku responds by saying that he will make sure it doesn't happen again. And that whoever prepared the fruit will be thrown into the abyss, never to return.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Gen
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Kagemiya Sen.
  • Also Lord Tan'Yuu in the shrine where Masamori kills Mudou.
• Eek A Cockroach: Tokine does not like the little buggers. She even goes so far as to call them "dark creatures," and if she ever runs into one, she will make hilarity ensue.
  • Tokiko shows it runs in the family.
• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Yoshimori pulls this off often, such as unleashing a MASSIVE Zekkai to kill Kaguro, and also unlocking the ultimate Musou State to save Karasumori from Yumeji's minions. Deconstructed when he tried to invoke this deliberately when the school was being swarmed by ayakashi butterflies. His solution was to create a massive kekkai and try to Metsu and destroy only the butterflies and nothing else. When Tokiko correctly points out that he has no idea how to do this, he out right says "You don't know what you can do until you try". Tokiko had to create a clone of Tokine and challenge him to destroy the fake and not the real one, with the same kekkai, to get him to come to his senses.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: Kaguro
• Evil Plan: In the first arc it was the Kokobouro trying to take over Katasumori.
• Evil Versus Evil: Yumeji is partaking in Shinyuuchi-hunting and attempting to destroy Karasumori. Sousui is murdering Urakai members one by one, even the good-ish ones like Okuni.
  • A fair amount of infighting occurs among the senior members of the Kokuboro as the organization (and the castle they operate from) literally falls apart. Most notably Kaguro vs. Aihi.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kaguro doesn't take kindly to people taking women hostage during fights.
• Expy: The true form of demonic swordsman Kaguro is a really obvious homage to Shishio Makoto, with whom he also shares obsession with drawing out the true power of the protagonist, just to provide himself with an interesting opponent.
  • Grandfather Sumimura looks incredibly similar to Dr. Wily as well as Heihachi Mishima (albeit an obviously less buff version of the latter).
• Extreme Doormat: Byaku, turns out to be this, always acting to fulfill the desires of other people because he cannot figure out his own.
• Eyes Always Shut: Shuu.
• Face Death with Dignity: After being fatally wounded by Kaguro, Gen is finally able to find peace and dies with a serene smile on his face.
  • Princess and Byaku also meet their end this way as Kokuboro dissolves around them.
• Face Fault: Tokine does this a lot, as do the two ghost dogs. The manner in which their faces reset afterwards changes throughout the anime series.
• Face Plant: Happens to Yoshimori in an early episode of the anime when Tokine trips him using a small kekkai.
• The Faceless
  • The Princess, a fox spirit, during the beginning of the Kokuboro arc.
  • Yoshimori's mother, Sumiko. For a long time, all we ever see of her face is her enigmatic smile.
• The Fair Folk: Ayakashi are quite similar to them in mindset, if not in form.
• Familiar: The kekkaishi "landlords".
• Famous Last Words: The pâtissier ghost said "Cabbages..." before his death.
• Fan Service: averted for the most part.
  • Princess' robes show a fair amount of cleavage in some scenes, however.
  • And for the ladies, Yoshimori's training scenes. He does them shirtless when he could easily do them with a shirt on.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted in the manga. Tokine has many talents, but cooking isn't one of them.
• Fertile Feet: Lord Uro cause moss to grow on anything surface he touches and later, to make up for all the food he stole, he sprouts strange plants for all the victims bearing as their fruit the food he took several times over.
• Feuding Families: Between the Yukimura and Sumimura clans, over which of them is the "true and legitimate heir" to the guardianship of Karasumori. Yoshimori and Tokine, however, think it's pointless and stupid, have no interest at all in continuing it, and show fondness for each other.
• Foe Yay: Kouya and Madarao, what with the way Kouya really wants Madarao back, and the way Madarao left him for Yoshimori's predecessor.
• Functional Magic: The Kekkaishis' ability to use barrier magic in very creative ways makes it a ridiculously awesome offensive and defensive technique. It also has practical applications off the battlefield as well, as Yoshimori demonstrates by keeping his grandfather at bay when he's trying to sleep.
• Funny Background Event
• Genre Savvy: The first MIB who attacks Karasumori. When fighting a Determinator who relies on Heroic Second Wind, kill him quickly.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: "Please do not point at me"
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Ayakashi who avoid humans for too long fade away.
• Gone Horribly Right: Tokimori just wanted to gift his unborn son, Lord of Karasumori with powers. He succeeded.
• Good Is Not Nice: Masamori, although he does a good job of hiding it when he needs to. Gen is a more obvious example.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Tokine's scar on her hand and arm is shown a lot, since the events around it had such a large impact on forming Yoshimori's personality.
• Gratuitous English:
  • The school's English teacher even gets knocked out once for using it too much.
  • Hakubi is pretty fond of calling Tokine "Honey".
• Green Lantern Ring: Kekkai have simple enough rules, but can still be used for an astonishing variety of things.
• Handsome Lech: Sen-chan has shades of this. The fact that Tokine wears shorts under her skirt is borderline Serious Business to him.
• Hannibal Lecture: Masamori gets a devastating one from Mudou.
  • Mudou gives one to Yoshimori and Masamori in his first appearance. He then builds on it by offering Masamori a Sadistic Choice - save his own life or his brother's - and this works in perfect concert with his previous mind games.
  • Kaguro gives a couple to Gen, and later deconstructs Aihi's psyche when he decides to kill her for his own amusement.
• Healing Factor: Part of Gen's skill set. Ayakashi who don't have one can gain it via Karasumori's power.
• Heroic Sociopath: As with Badass, this trope is also deconstructed with Gen.
• ~Hey, It's That Voice!~: Vic Mignogna as Yoshimori Sumimura, Laura Bailey as Tokine Yukimura, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Aihi, and Barbara Goodson as Tokiko Yukimura.
• House Husband: Yoshimori's dad, Shuji Sumimura.
• Hotblooded Sideburns: A manga-specific Omake reveals that one of Yoshimori's prototype character designs had these. His "ultimate shikigami" has 'em like whoa.
• I Am Your Father: It hasn't been revealed to the little one yet, but in Chapter 312, Yoshimori figures out that Tokimori is actually the father of the child-like lord of Karasumori.
• I Am Your Opponent: Yoshimori to Kagurou
• Invisible to Normals: In addition to many the many beings naturally invisible to humans without supernatural perception, there's also the kekkai around Karasumori, which prevents outside observers from noticing the real world effects of nightly violent battles.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Grandfather Sumimura, and just about every female technique user in the series.
  • Masamori hides his heart of gold more than most, but he's the type that dirties himself to keep those he loves above the muck.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The plot of the manga has noticeably shifted to a vast and complicated power play within the Urakai. The pieces are falling into place, but the whole picture has yet to be revealed. And every time a new piece falls into place, more gaps in the overall scheme of things appear.
• A Lady on Each Arm: Ougi Shichirou
• Law of Conservation of Detail: The Yagyou team appearances are a prime example. Same goes for the Council of Twelve.
• Lethal Chef: Tokine's attempts at baking are an absolute disaster.
• Likes Older Women: Yoshimori likes older girl Tokine. Later in the manga, he saves another girl of similar age from a high fall and she briefly becomes his Stalker with a Crush. This has led to others accusing him of preferring older girls.
• Limited Wardrobe: Practically all the characters who don't have to interact with the general human population on a daily basis suffer from this. Pretty much the only exceptions seem to be Yoshimori and Tokine, who can occasionally be seen wearing normal clothing in addition to their school and kekkaishi uniforms.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Oh yes.
• Load-Bearing Boss: The end of the Kokuboro arc.
• Love Makes You Evil: Sousui did all of that for Suigetsu. His wife. He never wanted to kill her, and only wanted his memories back, and when he finally remembered everything, he committed freaking suicide.
• Luminescent Blush: Yoshimori from time to time.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Kekkai magic has some simple rules that are explained right at the beginning. Despite this, there's enough wiggle room for a lot of creativity on the part of the users.
• Magic Skirt
• Maneki Neko: In episode 48 of the anime, one of these is among the objects chucked out a window when Sen is chewing out Yoshimori.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Masamori projects an attitude of the caring commander, devoted family member and overall nice guy, but resorts to cruel deception and ruthless extortion without blinking, when it serves his purposes.
  • In many ways Sen is in training to become one. He already knows how to play Yoshimori like a fiddle.
• Marshmallow Hell: Atora to Gen.
• The Masquerade: The Kekkaishi have to hide the fact that Ayakashi visit the school every night.
• Mind Control: Byaku implants living insects in his victims to Mind Control them.
• Missing Mom: Until Chapter 284.
• Moe: Yuri.
• Mood Whiplash: Though thankfully, such moments are handled quite well.
• Mundane Utility: Magically conjured barriers for exorcising demons are also handy for holding things in midair, tripping people, and keeping your obnoxious grandfather from bugging you while you're sleeping. Similarly, semi-autonomous magical constructs can be used to make a decoy in order to cut class.
• Must Have Caffeine: Yoshimori can be seen drinking up to four coffee-milk packets in one go. It's a necessity of his Triple Shifter life style.
• {{Truecompansions Best Friends}}: Yoshimori, Tokine and Gen. Also, the Yagyou team.
• Names to Know in Anime: The seiyuu
  • Arisa Ogasawara: Ryou Shishio
  • Eiji Miyashita: Gen Shishio
  • Hiroaki Hirata: Kaguro
  • Hiroyuki Yoshino: Yoshimori Sumimura
  • Hisao Egawa: Yoki
  • Kenjiro Tsuda: Byaku
  • Rie Saitou: Tokine Yukimura
  • Yoko Honna: Risa (Lisa) Kagami
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Tokine, sometimes to mock Yoshimori, but occasionally to inspire him.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Ghost dogs.
• The Nose Knows: Madarao and Hakubi.
• Not Quite Flight: Kekkaishi can use their powers to continually create midair platforms, allowing them to travel long vertical distances and engage flying enemies.
• Now Which One Was That Voice?
• Obake: The Ayakashi.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Sousui, so very much.
• One-Winged Angel: Tons. Most ayakashi transform into bigger, tougher and uglier forms if they manage to stay within Karasumori's bounds long enough. Then there are ayakashi masquerading as humans, who assume their true forms in battle. Madarao enters one of these if his collar is taken off. Inverted with Yoki, who becomes smaller and more compact as he powers up, turning from a Mighty Glacier to a Lightning Bruiser.
• Onmyodo: The Kekkaishi's shikigami.
• Otaku: Yoshimori is a cake and sweets otaku.
• Owl Be Damned: The shirahago turn into one.
  • With REALLY freaky looking eyes.
• Pet the Dog: Literally, for Gen.
• Pillar of Light: Yoshimori vs Kaguro.
• Power Tattoo: Inverted, as Gen's flame-rope tattoo actually limits his power use, filling him with burning pain when he's using too much of his ayakashi side.
  • Played straight with the Houin mark.
• Power Trio: Yoshimori, Tokine, and Gen.
• Prehensile Tail: All nine of Princess' tails are capable of wrapping around things; one of her frequent means of attacking an opponent is to practically mummify them in her tails with only their face exposed.
• Razor Wind: The Ougi Clan's standby.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Yoshimori and Tokine.
  • Masamori makes a good Blue Oni himself.
• Roof Hopping: Bonus points go to using kekkai as hopping platforms.
• Sadistic Choice: Tokiko had to foist one onto Yoshimori to prevent him from probably killing everybody in the school in an attempt to save the students from a swarm of (obviously Invisible to Normals) ayakashi butterflies.
• Say My Name: "YOSHIMORIIIIIIII!" "TOKINEEEEEEE!" "SHISHIOOOOO!" "Stop shouting my name so much."
• Scenery Porn: The manga's volume covers. And that's just the beginning...
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The more we learn about what Karasumori probably is, the more sinister it seems, but ultimately subverted, though no less dangerous.
• The Seven Mysteries: More like seventy-seven, due to the school being built over the anime equivalent of a hellmouth.
• Sexy Mentor: A relatively subtle example, but in the last chapter, Yoshimori is clearly trying to invoke this trope when he offers to teach Tokine how to cook when no one else is at his house. Tokine counters by offering to mentor him in math, which terrifies Yoshimori.
• Shipper on Deck: Madoka, Tokine's best friend, seems to be fond of the idea of Tokine getting together with Yoshimori as she finds the fact that the two are childhood friends appealing. Kyoko and Ayano support Yurina, a classmate of Yoshimori, since they think she has feelings for Yoshimori after misinterpreting the two's rooftop discussions on spirits as romantic confessions. Yoshimori's father is also apparently a Yoshimori/Tokine shipper.
• Ship Tease: Tons between Yoshimori and Tokine. And Byaku and the Princess, of all people.
• Shocking Swerve: The return of Hazama Tokimori in Chapter 296
• Shonen: Yoshimori is 14. He wants to get stronger so he can protect Tokine. And he does.
• Shout-Out: Kouya and Madarao give us a shoutout to FMA, or more precisely, Edward Elric's Berserk Button when Madarao calls Yoshimori "Shorty."
  • This comes up again in Episode 25, where Tokine (like Winry) claims she likes taller boys and Yoshimori immediately goes Blue with Shock for several minutes. Doubles as an Actor Allusion in the dub.
• Shut UP, Hannibal: Yoshimori does this to Kaguro, but Kaguro doesn't really seem to mind.
• Sitting on the Roof: Yoshimori practically lives on the school roof. Well, sleeps there, anyway.
• Skirt Over Slacks: Tokine.
• Slasher Smile: Kaguro has one plastered on his face on a near constant basis.
  • Yosimori gets a humorous variant now and then when planning out a particularly ambitious cake castle.
• Sphere of Destruction: Masamori's Zekkai.
• Spit Take: Yoshi, pretty spectacularly, when Masamori asks him if he still likes Tokine.
• Spoiler Opening: Gen shows up in the anime's OP.
• Standing in the Hall: Yoshimori has to do this in one episode, but cheats by putting the bucket atop an invisible kekkai. Silly kekkaishi, that never works!
• Star-Crossed Lovers: While the whole "coming from rival familes" thing fits Yoshimori and Tokine, the trope grand prize goes to Tokimori Hazama's affair with the Princess of Karasumori, who he was hired to protect.
• The Stoic: Byaku practically never shows any emotion, even in the heat of an intense battle.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: Kekkaishi have the ability to sense when an Ayakashi enters the Karasumori site.
• Sweet Tooth: Yoshimori.
• Tear Jerker: Gen's death. Made even worse since he never knew that his sister didn't blame him for the events of their childhood. In other words, he died thinking that the only family member who ever really loved him as a kid now hates him...when she never, ever did.
  • The true backstory of Karasumori, Tokimori, and Princess Tsukikage.
  • Also, the backstory of the Sousui and Suigetsu, Michiru and Kakeru.
  • Yoshimori's mom.
  • In other words, lots and lots.
• Theme Naming: All of the males who were born into the Sumimura family have given names ending with -mori. All of the females born to the Yukimura family have given names that begin with Toki-. Both apparently derived from the founder of the Karasumori Kekkaishi, Hazama Tokimori.
• The Thing That Goes Doink: A shishi-odoshi is shown several times at Urakai headquarters and in both the Sumimura and Yukimura family gardens.
• Those Two Guys: Tabata and Ichigaya, Yoshi's buddies at school.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Yoshimori loves his coffee-flavoured milk. Uro-sama has a thing for donuts.
• Training Montage: Used multiple times for interplay of drama and humor.
• Triple Shifter: Yoshi's School, Home and Kekkaishi duties. As a consequence, he bunks classes to go sleep on the roof and is addicted to coffee-milk
• Tsundere: Tokine, very mildly. Yoshi's got a few of the traits himself.
• Tyke Bomb: Hiura appears to be one of these.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Jury's out until the end, but it looks like it's getting subverted.
• Unskilled but Strong: Yoshimori, though he is improving.
• Verbal Tic: Ohkigiburuma, otherwise known as the kyo-kyo-kyo-KYO-KYO-KYO-KYOOOOOOOO monster.
• Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Somehow, Tokine still manages to get good grades. Yoshimori, not so much.
• Walking Wasteland: Chushinmaru, Lord of Karasumori, wiped out whole towns and forests due to his uncontrollable power to drain life-force. That, as much as his power to strengthen Ayakashi, is why he was sealed.
• Weak but Skilled: Tokine's lack of strength is made up for by her precision, as noted by Tokiko when she tried Masamori's multi-kekkai technique.
• Weirdness Magnet: Karasamori's lord attracts Ayakashi wherever he goes.
• We Have Reserves: Masamori is disgusted when the rest of the Urakai leadership show casual, callous disdain about the rank and file. They explicitly state that their men are of no consequence, and that as long as the leadership survives the Urakai will live.
• Whack a Monster: Yoshimori and Tokine end up fighting a mole-like Ayakashi in episode 10 of the anime, Yoshimori at one point even trying in vain to smack it with his weapon as it repeatedly pops up out of multiple holes.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Our heroes will let all kinds of supernatural critters live, as long as they don't come to power up and wreak havoc. As soon as they become a threat, however, they're killed without hesitation. Justified by the fact that even if an Ayakashi has a good reason for wanting to gain power from Karasumori, the power itself makes them more evil and out of control.
• The Worm That Walks: Byaku.
• X Meets Y: Shaman King meets Bleach.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Tokine, especially the 'iron core' part. Her classmates see her as noble and pure and call her 'The Florence Nightengale of our age'.She's really a scarily competent and rather ruthless ActionGirl. However, she does perform tea ceremonies with her grandmother in traditional clothing.
• Youkai: The Ayakashi, which are any monster, ghost, spirit, or demon. These can be broken down into:
  • Obake: Living shapeshifters.
  • Tsukumogami: Possessed household objects.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Although they tend to become red Oni, thanks to Karasumori making spirits get drunk with power.
  • Ghosts: The Patissier ghost arc.
  • Kitsune: The entire Kokuboro arc.
  • Gods and Demons: It's hard to draw the line, really.