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Team Mär

Ginta Toramizu

The main character of the series. Once a loser at his school for being one of the least athletic and non-intelligent person in the school with terrible eyesight. His father went missing six years ago and is now being raised by his alcoholic mother. He has a passion for video games and fantasy though and recently, he had the same dream of the same world 102 times with him as the hero. His only friend is Koyuki who believes in his story. Then one faithful day, the Gatekeeper Clown allowed him to go to MAR Heaven. In MAR Heaven, that’s when his life changed for the better as he decided to become the world’s hero and find his missing father.

• Accidental Kiss: With Snow when he saves her the first time. Both freak out because it was their first kiss. The second time it happens when they save Snow from the Chess Pieces in the anime, there isn’t much of a reaction and both admitted it wasn’t like that.
• Always Save the Girl: He’s very determined to save Snow AND Alviss when the situation calls for it.
• Anime Hair
• Ascended Fanboy
• Blue Eyes
• Boring Invincible Hero: Justified because he has to win his match or the entire team loses. This is also subverted in the anime fillers where he tends to lose like during the Ghost Chess arc.
  • However outside of the tournament, he has a tendency to lose, most noticeably to Phantom and the Ghost Chess.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: He passes out after he drinks.
• Can't Stand Them Can't Live Without Them: Ginta sees Babbo as an annoying toy that didn’t listen to him at the beginning because he was not taken seriously. He leaves Babbo alone and realizes that he likes Babbo’s annoying personality near him and goes to save him. This trope comes back multiple times though despite making up.
• Chaste Hero: To an extent but he does blush when Dorothy or Snow kisses him.
• Character Development
• Chronic Hero Syndrome
• The Chosen One
• Disappeared Dad
• Dumb Blonde: At the beginning.
• Expy: Of Kaoru from Flame of Recca. This might actually play a huge role in the Epileptic Tree in terms of determining whether Nanashi is Joker from Flame of Recca. The major hint is that they got the same VA in the anime; they’re the same age and have the same hyperactive personality with the major difference is that Kaoru is on the suicidal side.
  • Another thing is the way is Nanashi treats Ginta as Joker treats Kaoru. He’s very playful around him but respects him as a fighter and is willing to do things that will make them stronger.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water
• Genre Savvy: Very genre savvy at the beginning. He thinks he’s The Hero given cool powers to fight evil and demonstrates being able to get by in MAR Heaven on his own before he was appointed a mission to save Snow which leads to the War Games eventually.
• Hair of Gold
• The Hero
  • Idiot Hero: Grows out of it when Character Development hits especially in the last season.
• Heroic BSOD: When Snow dies in the anime, he goes into a huge depression. He gets over after he realized that Alviss pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to open a path to the King in order to avenge her and his other friends.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Jack.
• Hot-Blooded
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Pulls this off with Alviss in the Ghost Chess filler arc. It almost works until he is forced to retreat to his anger.
• Improbable Weapon User: He fights with Babbo that is generally a kid’s toy (kendama). However, he can turn Babbo into either into whatever he wishes from the stones he gave him.
• Keet
• Kid Hero
• Jumped At the Call
• Light the Way: His fourth form of Babbo, Alice using healing magic and is used to counter Darkness ÄR Ms.
• Made of Iron
  • The Determinator
• The Mario: He is well balanced compared to his other team members.
• The Messiah/The Heart: Without Ginta, the group falls apart.
• Motoko Kumai
• Nerd Glasses: At the beginning before he could see better.
• Say My Name: He screams Alviss’ name a lot and that’s during the Ghost Chess arc.
  • He also screams Snow’s name when she dies in his arms.
• Ship Tease: With Snow, Dorothy and Alviss. The anime seems to aim for both Dorothy and Alviss though. Luckily at the end, he seems to revolve some things with Dorothy, Snow becomes Koyuki but unfortunately, he doesn’t solve anything with Alviss.
• Spike Spencer: While not his most famous role, it's still a pretty enjoyable one.
• Summon Magic: He only has three ÄRM Guardians or four in the anime. They are Gargoyle, Alice (who is also a healing ÄRM), Puss and Boots and the Shiny Gargoyle in the anime.
• This Loser Is You: He starts out as this but then grows out of it once he reaches MAR Heaven.
• Took a Level in Badass: Per training gate though it prevents any real conflict in his fights except outside of the War Games.
• Unwanted Harem: He’s got Snow and Dorothy chasing after him constantly. And if you believe that Alviss has feelings for him too then that’s three potential love interests. He doesn’t choose any of them in the end.

Babbo

Ginta’s main weapon that he uses to fight. Babbo is a rare ÄRM because it has the ability to talk. Naturally, this actually makes him annoying. He tries to act like a gentleman but ends up acting like Ginta. He calls himself The Hero and calls Ginta and Jack First and Second servant reprehensively. He was actually Phantom’s ÄRM in the War Games six years ago and killed many people. He had a different personality back then but he doesn’t remember now. It’s the reason why Alviss tries to destroy Babbo at the beginning but changes his mind because of Ginta. Babbo sticks with Ginta in the end when he shows signs of switching personalities. At the end of the anime, he lives with Alan, Chaton and Loco as they form a weird family.

• Amnesiac Dissonance
• Banjo Ginga
• Can't Stand Them Can't Live Without Them: He generally announces that he hates Ginta because he’s annoying but very early on, he realizes that he can’t do anything without Ginta. They eventually make up at the end of the episode but the tropes comes back multiple times.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He tries to be this but…
  • Casanova Wannabe: He ends up being this because he’s a talking ÄRM.
• Game Breaker: In universe example. His powers allow Ginta to choose his form every time he gets a stone to insert into him. Naturally, Ginta could abuse this trope and make himself unstoppable but Ginta goes for balance.
• Improvised Weapon User: Babbo himself is this until Ginta turns him into a sword, hammer or gun.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To Ginta.
• Living Weapon: The only one that constantly active, this is because he was the previous Caldain elder.
• Soul Jar
• Small Name, Big Ego: Views himself as a gentleman despite being shaped like a ball and cup toy.
• Stripperific: His 4th form Alice. He always gets embarrassed when Ginta uses that move because it has to do something about Ginta’s fetish.

Dorothy

A witch from the land of Caldea who searches for rare ÄR Ms. Her past and motive is unknown because she keeps it to herself (until she meets Ginta). She fell head over heels with Ginta shortly after he saved her and as a result, will listen to him whenever he tells her to do something. Her mission is to kill her older sister Diana who had fled Caldea with rare ÄR Ms. She is based on Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and uses a combination of Darkness, Wind and Guardian ÄR Ms based on those characters.

• Armor-Piercing Slap: She gives one to Ginta after they fail to save Alviss from Phantom and are forced to leave Nanashi and Alan behind.
• Badass: She was the only member of Team MAR that didn’t need the training gate at the beginning and never loses a single match. Of course, the losing a single match does become subverted in the Ghost Chess arc.
• Bait and Switch Lesbians: Dorothy becomes a victim of this in the anime where the female villains have a tendency of grouping or tearing her clothes off.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension and Slap Slap Kiss: With Nanashi.
• Betty and Veronica: She is the Veronica to Snow’s Betty.
• Big Screwed-Up Family: Her sister is Diana who is the Queen of the Chess Pieces and her niece is Snow.
• Blow You Away
• Cain and Abel: Subverted. They both love each other dearly. However, by Caldea’s rules, Dorothy must kill her older sister for committing treason in their home town.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Played for laughs compared to Snow.
• Clothing Damage: There are at least five battles where her dress does not survive. In the manga in only happens once though but after Phantom is defeated and it gets into the Ghost Chess arc, she loses her clothes more often and not and more of it the more it happens. Ginta lampshades this in the manga.
• Casting a Shadow
• Curb Stomp Battle: Almost all her battles result in this.
• Cute and Psycho
• Cry Cute: She cries after Diana comes back to her senses telling her that she always loved her little sister. She cries again when Ginta has to leave.
• Dark Action Girl/Black Magician Girl: She was pretty nasty before encountering Ginta and is the only member of the group that is looking for a fight despite the fact she has a goal in mind.
• Dark Is Not Evil.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her: After she kills her sister Diana, the King comes out of nowhere and kills her. She gets better.
• The Glomp: Toward Ginta.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: While they are both attractive, Dorothy would be the snarky sibling. However, by Caldea’s rules, she must kill her sister.
• Hot Witch
• I Gave My Word: She promises Ginta that she won't kill anyone anymore if he asks for it. However, she cannot keep the promise concerning killing her older sister.
• Iron Woobie: In universe example after the group finds out about Dorothy's past and what her homeland is forcing her to do.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To her team.
  • Jerkass: To Everyone else
• The Lancer: She shares this roll with Jack.
• Lethal Chef: She’s just as bad as Snow.
• Lightning Bruiser: She is very fast and powerful and can hold her own without Guardian ÄR Ms.
• Loveable Rogue
• Loyal Animal Companion: Her Guardian ÄRM Toto but for obvious reasons.
• Meido: She became this in the Tokyo arc anime filler.
• Ms. Fanservice
• Mysterious Past: At the beginning.
• One-Hit Kill: During round 4 of the match, she easily defeated the opponent under ten seconds.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Rescue Romance: She started opening up to Ginta after he saved her.
• Rose-Haired Girl
• Royals Who Actually Do Something
• Saki Nakajima
• Sexy Butt Monkey
• She Who Fights Monsters: She’s willing to get her hands dirty to make sure she completes her mission.
• Ship Tease: With Ginta and Nanashi.
• Stalker with a Crush: She comes off as this toward Ginta at times.
• Summon Magic: Her main battle strategy is to summon Guardian ÄR Ms to do her bidding. Most of the time though, she finishes off with her weapon ÄRM.
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
• Tsundere: Type B unless she gets serious or when concerning Nanashi in which she becomes type A.
• Warrior Princess

Snow

The princess of MAR and the stepdaughter of Diana the Queen of the Chess Pieces. Her mother died at a young age and her father ended up marrying another woman who turns out to be a evil woman that was using him and eventually took over MAR Heaven. She was forced to run away from her kingdom and her last resort was to get her dog Edward to find help while she encased herself in ice. She was saved by Ginta and later joined him on his journey. She is actually the fantasy version of Ginta’s friend Koyuki and at the end of the anime, the two merge together to become one and stay with Ginta. Snow uses ice and water themed ÄR Ms and relies on the usage of Guardians then her own strength. She then became a representative of MAR in order to take back her kingdom. She is based on Snow White from "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs".

• Accidental Kiss: With Ginta. Same description as above.
• Action Girl
• A-Cup Angst
• Ai Shimizu
• An Ice Person
• Authority Equals Asskicking
• Badass
  • Badass Adorable: Her Guardian ÄRM Yuki-chan which is basically a big snowman.
  • Badass Damsel: Both times she has been captured have her put to sleep. However when she wakes up, she’s able to do some damage. The Ghost Chess arc has her using her ice magic as a sniper to destroy the clock on Alviss’ chest.
  • Badass Princess
• Betty and Veronica: She is the Betty to Dorothy’s Veronica.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Big Screwed-Up Family: Her stepmother is trying to kill her and her aunt is Dorothy who is competing with her for Ginta’s affections.
• Brown Eyes
• Cannot Hold Her Liquor: She has the same problem as Ginta. One sip and she’s an out of control maniac.
• The Chick
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Only shows signs of this when Dorothy is hitting on Ginta.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: What causes her death? The King burns her alive. Alviss has to run in the fire to get her out before she completely burns, but by the time he gets her to Ginta, you see the damage that is done to her. In fact, her body is much darker and she really seems to suffer due to her elemental weakness.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the anime, she is killed by the King and dies in Ginta’s arms.
• Disappeared Dad: Subverted in the anime when it turns out her father was alive the entire time.
• Damsel in Distress: She only needs help twice but in the anime, they make it seem like she’s been held captive longer due to fillers.
• Double Standard: The main reason she is seen as The Scrappy and is a huge Base Breaker in the fandom is because of this trope. Because she gets captured by the Chess Pieces twice, she is automatically labeled as the girl that can’t do anything. However, the same can’t be said for Alviss who gets captured more easily than she does (and without putting much of a fight compared to her hesitating to attack) and he’s loved for it for obvious reasons.
• Expressive Pendant: The snowman pendant she wears tends to imitate her expressions.
• Glass Cannon: Snow’s attacks are very powerful when they hit, but she can’t take that much damage.
• Kill the Cutie: In the anime where she snaps at the King for killing Nanashi and tries to kill him but he ends up burning her body instead. She gets better.
• Lethal Chef
• Making a Splash
• Messianic Archetype
• Plucky Girl: Her defining character trait.
• The Pollyanna: Lampshaded by the characters.
• Princesses Prefer Pink
• Ship Tease: With Ginta and Jack in the anime.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Subverted.
• Technical Pacifist: She hates fighting but is a good fighter.
• Tomato in the Mirror: She is Koyuki. Hinted in the manga but played straight in the anime.
• Took a Level in Badass: Upon acquiring a Water Guardian but sadly this same Guardian is what leads to her capture. Played straight in the Ghost Chess arc where she snipes Alviss' clock from a distant and is able to handle herself against the Ghost Chess minions.
• Warrior Princess
• The Woobie: In universe example especially by how Alan and Edward describe her to Ginta at the beginning.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Alviss

A young man that watched the War Games six years ago. He admired the leader Danna and was often scolded by the other adults who believed that a kid shouldn’t hang out with them. He was unlucky enough to be cursed by Phantom’s Zombie Tattoo. For six years, he lived in doubt that he wouldn’t be able to get rid of the tattoo until he brought Ginta to MAR Heaven. Slowly he began to open his heart up to the group, as he believed that they would save the world he loves. Alviss has a fairy companion named Bell that he loves deeply. He focuses on Darkness ÄR Ms whether they are curses or guardians. He is based on Peter Pan from the Peter Pan series.

• A Fate Worse Than Death/And I Must Scream: Alviss almost falls into this trope if Team MAR didn’t save him. Basically, he would have been Phantom’s "slave" for all of eternity and would never have the free will again. However, it turns out that Alviss could still see what he was doing even under hypnosis meaning that he would have been forced to do things that he didn’t want until the end of time.
• Ambiguously Gay: He only seems to lose his Stoic personality when concerning the guys of the groups. Additionally, the episode where Dorothy was in a swimsuit, Alviss was the only one that wasn’t drooling/blushing at her appearance. (He looked more shocked than anything.)
• Anime Hair: Arguably.
• Badass: This was the guy that could take on a group of Chess Pieces single handedly without the help of anyone at the beginning…alas…
  • Badass Decay: In the anime where he is prone to capture and the Ghost Chess arc, he was hit by Wimpification.
• Barrier Maiden: Played with due to Stable Time Loop. Alviss is the reason why MAR Heaven is saved in the present hence he can’t die at that point of time.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT threaten Bell. He WILL unleash Holy Hell upon thee.
• Bishonen: Obviously. And HOW.
• Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: The Zombie Tattoo grants the person immortality when it covers the body entirely. Alviss sees it as a curse while Rolan sees it as a blessing.
• Blue Eyes
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The result of the hypnotism.
• Bratty Half-Pint: When he was younger.
• Break the Cutie: Anime fillers love this to him specifically the last arc where he finds out that his idol Danna is actually the King that killed all of his friends. He can’t bring himself to fight back and that’s all King needs in order to stab him which said wounds would later kill him.
  • And of course there's the Ghost Chess arc. In fact, Phantom was intentionally trying to break him so he would submit to the Zombie Tattoo and be forever immortal with Phantom.
• Broken Bird: After his failed suicide, Alviss hardened his heart and trained so he could bring someone to MAR Heaven in order to defeat Phantom. Bell originally kept his spirits up but once Team MAR was formed, he opened his heart up to everyone, and this plays a vital role in the Ghost Chess arc as The Power of Friendship is what ultimately saves him from A Fate Worse Than Death.
• Casting a Shadow
• Character Development: By the time he opens up to the group, he's a different person.
• Clothing Damage: Similar to Dorothy who always has dress ripped, Alviss keeps getting tears in his clothes and technically got it ripped in the Ghost Chess arc.
• Cry Cute: In the manga, he starts crying when Ginta has to go back but he hides what he really feels when he tells him that he “Won the bet” (referring to how he saved the world by bringing Ginta in MAR Heaven). In the anime, he starts crying when he thinks he’s getting taken in by Phantom’s words and can’t break out of the hypnosis.
• Cute Shotaro Boy: When he was younger.
• Dark and Troubled Past
• Defrosting Ice King
• Despair Event Horizon: Has crossed it multiple times in his life. The first time resulted in Alviss trying to kill himself but failed because Alan told him to get stronger. However, when Ginta fails to remove the Zombie Tattoo with the healing ARM that is supposed to heal all Darkness ARMS, Alviss gives up on trying to find a way to remove it. Ginta has to encourage him AFTER the War Games by giving him a key and reassuring him that this key will help him remove the Zombie Tattoo. Alviss crosses it two more times when he was being controlled by Phantom and one last time when he sees that the Zombie Tattoo is close to covering him completely, the one ARM that could grant any wish was given to his younger self in order to cause the Stable Time Loop and Candice and Rolan take Phantom and flee their location makes Alviss give up again. He can't pull himself out of this one no matter what his friends do and Rolan makes it worse by killing himself in front of Alviss making Alviss realize that it was his fault that Rolan killed himself.
• Distress Ball: He throws this during the Ghost Chess filler arc. See What an Idiot! and What Could Possibly Go Wrong? below.
• Dude in Distress: In the Ghost Chest anime filler. Took the gang so long to save him.
• Double Standard: The audience loves him because he became the Dude in Distress during the Ghost Chess arc. Snow is captured twice and she’s instantly bashed as the girl that can’t protect herself when in reality, they put Snow to sleep to prevent her from escaping while Alviss was under hypnosis that wavered between conscious and unconscious state.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Just like everyone else, this happens to him, but he gets better.
• Emo Teen: He acts like this sometimes.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Let's see, Bishounen? Check. Dark and Troubled Past? Check. Clothes get ripped off in battle? Check. Cries at the end of the series and has a wonderful smile? Double check. The main victim of Ho Yay/Foe Yay moments and plays the role of the Dude in Distress? Triple check.
• Even the Guys Want Him: In canon example…Phantom who is obsessed with him.
• Face Heel Turn: Subverted and played straight. Alviss pretended to get captured claiming he wanted to be with Phantom. No one falls for it; not even Phantom who hypnotizes him as a result. Then he temporary switches sides until Team MAR saves him.
• Foe Yay: With Phantom and Rolan. Up to Eleven in the anime where Phantom continues to stroke his cheek, hypnotize him to join his side and put a chain around his neck claiming property over him.
• Fragile Speedster: Alviss is ridiculously fast in combat and usually hits the opponent multiple times after the fourth battle in order to win. However, as demonstrated in the battle with Rolan, he can’t take that many hits.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Besides the dog collar he was forced to wear, he changed into a darker outfit when being controlled.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He is the only character that survived an encounter with the King. He uses the last of his powers to open the gates to the castle where the Queen and King are. The minute Ginta and Dorothy teleport away, Jack and Bell could only watch in horror as Alviss starts to disappear.
• Hidden Depths: He comes off as rude and emotionless at the beginning but that's to hide his insecurities as well as his low self esteem issues that would make him do suicidal things.
• Hypnotize the Princess: When Phantom realized that kidnapping him wasn’t enough, he does this to him in order to swear absolute obedience. Cue, the fangirls are screaming.
• Hypno Trinket: The watch that is attached to Alviss during the Ghost Chest arc acts as this. Slowly Alviss begins to lose his will to fight over Phantom and alters his personality before he falls complete control over him.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The King takes advantage of Alviss' weakness and stabs him. However, this wound is not enough to kill him so while Alviss is able to do damage to the King and later open a portal that can get Ginta and Dorothy to fight him, the wound is too much and he too dies shortly after.
• Interrupted Suicide: Absent in the manga but in the anime, Alviss tried to kill himself after he got the Zombie Tattoo from Phantom. Alan had to slap him in order to get him to snap out of it and fight fate.
• It's All My Fault: When the King attacks him, Nanashi, Snow, Jack and Pano, Alviss can’t help but feel it was his fault that Nanashi and Snow were killed. It doesn’t help that Nanashi told Alviss to take Snow and get Ginta and he couldn’t even save Snow who jumped out of his arms, attacked the King and got burned to a crisp. Hence he pulls of a Heroic Sacrifice to make it up to them.
  • Before that, he thinks he's at fault when Rolan decides to kill himself because he can't be with Phantom.
• Jerkass -> Jerkass Facade: In the beginning, he DID curse Jack and threatened to kill Babbo but eventually reveals that it was all an act as he's a much nicer person when he opens up.
  • Jerkass Woobie: After you watch his backstory AND during the Ghost Chess Arc.
• Jumped At the Call: You wouldn’t think that by looking at him, but when the Chess Pieces appeared after six years, the first thing he did was ask Alan for help. When he didn’t help him, Alviss went to the village himself to deal with the Chess Pieces.
• Lust Object: To Phantom.
• Made of Iron: Like pretty much everyone else...
• Mind Control Eyes: Along with the chains, he gains this when controlled by Phantom and when he’s in Phantom’s presence.
• Mind Rape: The victim of this by Phantom in the Ghost Chess arc.
• Mr. Exposition: In the beginning before the role was passed onto Alan and Gaira.
• Mr. Fanservice: Lots of Clothing Damage and then some. In fact, his shirt gets ripped off as much as Dorothy loses her outfit.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: He doesn’t seem affected when Dorothy was wearing a bathing suit. And when he accidentally grabbed her breast when he tried to stand up, he didn’t notice until she screamed.
• The Power of Trust/The Power of Friendship: He had a hard time trusting people, especially Ginta at the beginning. He opens up though in the end.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When in the presence of the enemy, his Mind Control Eyes become these.
• The Rival: To Ginta at the beginning before he comes to trust him.
• Say My Name: During the Ghost Chess arc, he constantly screamed Ginta's name especially when he was trying to break free from his mind control.
• Sexy Butt Monkey: It's not his fault that he's constantly losing his shirt, getting harassed and then some.
• Ship Tease: He has moments with Ginta especially in the anime.
• The Smart Guy
• Slasher Smile: Combined this with Red Eyes, Take Warning and you got a a psycho on the loose.
• So Beautiful It's a Curse: He's constantly called a pretty boy in the series to the point that he might as well get use to it. However, this has earned him unwanted attraction from Phantom who he hates with a passion.
  • Which leads to a funny moment when Rapunzel calls him ugly and he's insulted as he's used to be called beautiful, not ugly.
• Soichiro Hoshi
• Stable Time Loop: In the anime, when he goes into Misty Castle to retrieve the ÄRM that could save him from his cursed fate, he sees his younger self in the castle. He let’s his younger self get the wish. However, his younger self does not understand why he was given a dagger and promptly throws it away and leaves the castle. Alviss takes the dagger, chases after his younger self and then gives him back the dagger telling him that when he was older, he would understand the dagger. This dagger was used to use the Gate Keeper Clown and summon Ginta to MAR Heaven thus saving the world.
• The Stoic: When he first appears, he seems to be this. However…
  • Not So Stoic: He is prone to anger easily compared to the other characters and the minute he sees Phantom tends to have him either snap or freeze in fear. Additionally, he begins to break out his true personality as he hangs out with his friend.
• Took a Level in Badass: Six years after the first War Game & After his various "days" in the Training Gates and after being Mind Raped by Phantom.
• Tsurime Eyes
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid
• Villain Protagonist: In the beginning.
• What an Idiot!: In the Ghost Chest anime filler, he goes to Phantom’s layer by himself in order to lure Phantom into false security. He was already falling under the hypnosis under Phantom but shouting “Prepare yourself” while trying to kill him with the key was what got him in the predicament in the first place. Because Phantom literally lampshades Alviss' plan to his face, it might as well be an in universe example.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Okay, the enemy you hate the most puts a clock on you to speed up the Zombie Tattoo that makes you lose your sanity and mind the longer it is on. What do you do? You let yourself get captured by the Ghost Chess, infiltrate their base and claim to want to join Phantom so you can kill him? Sounds like a great plan only it’s NOT FOOLING ANYONE!
• When He Smiles: Lampshaded in the series the few times he has smiled genuinely as seen here.
• Wimpification: Suffers from this A LOT in fanfiction and it became in universe and literally almost canon when he was captured by Phantom.
• Yaoi Guys: Probably the biggest in the series.
• You Can't Fight Fate <-> Screw Destiny: Concerning the Zombie Tattoo, Alviss switches between trying to get rid of it and giving up on the idea. When Ginta tried to cure the Zombie Tattoo with Alice, Alviss seemed to have given up the idea of ever getting rid of the tattoo. Cue to Ginta giving him the key, Alviss’ confidence goes back up. While in the manga, he succeeds in putting the key into Phantom, in the anime, he misses him and results in the mind control. When finally freed from Phantom’s grasp though, the zombie tattoo is almost completely filling his body and almost gives up again…and he would have if Phantom didn’t accept death.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: DUH.
• You Got Spunk: From Danna and Phantom. Too bad the latter took it beyond just complimenting him for it.
• Yuri Lowenthal

Jack

A younger farmer boy who lost his father six years ago in the War Games. He lives with his mother on the outskirts of the main cities of MAR often tormented by the wolves that eat their crops and threaten to kill them daily. Until he met Ginta, Jack was very cowardly but after Ginta and Babbo teach him what it’s like to be man, he joins them on their journey. Eventually, he is thrown into the War Games and when he realizes that his dad died here, he swears to avenge his old man by killing the one who ended his life. He uses plant themed ÄR Ms and a fire Guardian. He is based on Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk.

• Accidental Pervert: It depends. There are times where it was intentional but the first battle with Pano was unintentional. Then again, when you tied a woman up in your vines and proceeded to “have your way with her” (make her surrender), it’s no wonder the entire crowd turned against you.
• Bishounen: In Pano’s mind.
• Butt Monkey: Lampshaded in the series when Loco actually turns him into a monkey.
• Character Development: Compare his cowardly personality at the beginning of the story to being relatively calm during the Ghost Chess arc.
• Daisuke Sakaguchi
• Disappeared Dad
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Subverted! He's the only member of Team MAR to be alive when Ginta faces the King. This is supposed to be a callback when Ginta first came to MAR and Jack was his only companion.
• Improvised Weapon User: His weapon of choice is a shovel.
• Gonk: Lampshaded by many characters when he gets Pano, as they cannot see what she sees in him.
  • Ugly Cute: However, he's seen as this as time goes on.
• Green Thumb
• Groin Attack: Pano gives it to him twice.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Ginta.
• Kill It with Fire: He does this to win his final match in the War Games.
• The Lancer: He shares this role with Dorothy.
• Lethal Chef: Ironically because he’s a farmer.
• Lovable Coward
• Love At First Punch: He falls for Pano hard after she beats him.
• Magikarp Power: His shovel is considered one of the weakest and most normal ÄRM compared to everyone else’ but cue to Dorothy giving him stones, he’s able to increase it’s power to the point where he can use plant moves.
• Official Couple: With Pano.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He is generally the weakness member of Team MAR (some would argue that Snow is weaker) and while he does win some matches, it is often forgotten for the other characters that pull off an amazing fight. Subverted in the anime where he gets more fights outside the War Games.
• Ship Tease: He’s gotten a lot of it with Snow especially during the Ghost Chess arc.
• The So-Called Coward
• Took a Level in Badass: Starts out as the weakest member of Team MAR that was easy to cower when he was forced to fight. However by the end of the War Games, he has matured greatly, avenges his father, hooks up with Pano and generally becomes the calmest member of the group when the Ghost Chess arc hits.
• Unlucky Everydude: Compared to Ginta, he was just a normal a kid that just wanted the wolves to go away and he ended up as one of the representatives of MAR.

Nanashi

The new appointed leader of the Luberian Thieves. He first appears and attacks Team MAR after they invade his territory. He then later joins the group in hopes of getting the Chess Piece that killed his men. While huge ladies men with a very perverted personality, he is very honorable and would not harm a girl if he can’t help it. He fights mainly with electric themed ÄR Ms. He is hinted to be Joker from Flame of Recca especially after Galian found him.

• Badass: His battle record does not seem impressive when compared to others, but in his fights, he makes it very clear that he could easily win if he were actually motivated enough. If someone earns his ire, he more than demonstrates exactly why he's the leader of the Thieves Guild.
• Blade on a Stick: He fights with a trident.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension/Slap Slap Kiss: With Dorothy.
• Brilliant but Lazy: Alviss sees him as this according to their fight in episode 50.
• The Charmer
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the anime when he protects Alviss and Snow from the King. He gets better.
• Easy Amnesia: Concerning Galian.
• Ethnical Slut: Encourages the other members to get a girl like he does or they're uncool. Part of his argument with Alviss is how he needed to chill out.
• Expy: Many people think that Nanashi is Joker from Flame of Recca. They have the same personality, the habit of hiding their eyes, and same poses. Babbo comments that Nanashi smells exactly like Ginta which hint that he’s from Tokyo. This is also backed up by the fact that when the Luberian Thieves found him, he had a wound in his chest. In Flame of Recca, Joker is stabbed by the enemy and uses his powers to teleport himself into another world to make sure that said enemy wouldn’t follow Kaoru.
• The Glomp: In the anime, he’s not afraid of touching Dorothy. Cue, she punches him the face.
  • He also tries the same thing to Alviss. Cue, he gets pushed off.
• Handsome Lech
• Harem Seeker: And a very successful one.
• Ho Yay: With Galian before he left Luberia and Alviss. It gets to the point with Alviss that he can’t get out of his bubble.
• Jerkass Facade: Of sorts. He is the one who reminds Ginta that casualties are a part of war whenever Alan or Dorothy kills one of the Chess Pieces. Despite this, he is one of the most honorable fighters in the war and the only person he kills is the man he was originally after.
• Loveable Rogue
• Masaya Onosaka
• Memetic Sex God: In universe example with all the girls swarming him after every battle and even when he doesn't fight, he has two girls around his arm every time.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He will not stop to touch Dorothy and he has clung to Alviss more times than not.
• Revenge: His motivation for joining Team MAR.
• Sexy Man, Instant Harem
• Ship Tease: With Dorothy.
• Shock and Awe <-> Psycho Electro
• Supreme Chef
• Tall, Dark and Handsome
• Weak-Willed: He gets possessed often in the filler arcs…
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Which is why he loses or ties with many of the female Chess Pieces. Subverted concerning Dorothy in the anime filler where he actually electrocuted her and in the Ghost Chess arc where he punches Chaton in the face and tries to attack Snow. To be fair, he wasn’t himself during the Ghost Chess arc.

Alan

The oldest member of Team MAR and the second strongest man in all of MAR Heaven who fought in the War Games six years ago with Danna and Gaira. He was a rather confident man in his youth back then and that was what cost him in his battle with Halloween in which he was forced to share a body with Edward. He mellowed down over the years but he still is able to maintain his strength that he couldn’t flex often. He took care of Alviss during the War Games prior to this incident. While the biggest badass of the series, he has a huge fear of cats and freaks out at the sight of them. However, that does not stop his growing relationship with the Chess Piece Chaton. He fights with fire themed ÄR Ms and his fists.

• The Ace: This guy was so cool that he had to be given a small weakness in order to not have him be killed off because he's more awesome than the rest of the cast.
• Ambiguously Brown: More so in the anime than in the manga.
• Badass
  • Handicapped Badass: At the beginning, he could only stay out of Edward for one day before he disappeared. However, this trope becomes subverted when Ginta heals him.
• Battle Couple: With Chaton whether he likes it or not.
• The Big Guy
• Cool Old Guy
• Curb Stomp Battle: Whenever he’s on screen, it becomes this. Subverted with Chaton who beats him easily.
• Dating Catwoman: Literally with Chaton whether he likes it or not. Eventually, he does start falling for her and the two main barriers of her being a Chess Piece and his fear of cats vanishes at the end of the anime.
• Dramatic Irony: He has a fear of cats but ends up with the Catgirl in the end.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the anime like everyone else but he gets better.
• Epic Fail: His battle with Chaton to the point where everyone on his team starts booing him.
• Fusion Dance: Forced into it with Edward By Halloween.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: He does this to Alviss six years ago when the kid just got the Zombie Tattoo and tried to kill himself. He tells him to fight the curse and live.
• Hidden Heart of Gold
• Jurota Kosugi
• Kamehame Hadoken: One of his main attacks that he often uses with Chaton.
• The Lady's Favour: Gender flipped. He gives Chaton a ÄRM that allows the two to communicate with each other when they go their separate ways. Chaton cries when she receives it. Doesn’t do any good in the end though because Alan dies at the end of said episode and the ÄRM disappears as well.
• Megaton Punch
• Mighty Glacier: He's very powerful but he's rather slow moving around the battlefield. This might be justified as he doesn't want to waste his energy chasing after fast opponents.
• My Greatest Failure: In his mind, his greatest failure was not being able to save Alviss from Phantom when Phantom forced the Zombie Tattoo on him. While he stops Alviss from killing himself, he and Gaira ended up leaving him to train on his own for six years to grow stronger and mature. However, when he sees Alviss again six years later, he frowns at how far the tattoo has spread on Alviss’ body.
• Official Couple: With Chaton in the anime.
• One-Man Army: For the most part.
• Papa Wolf: He was very protective of Alviss during the first War Games. Now, he’s very protective of Snow due to sharing the same body as Edward.
• Parental Substitute: For Alviss and Snow.
• Perma-Stubble
• Playing with Fire
• Power Fist: His weapon of choice.
• Refusal of the Call: He didn’t respond when the Chess Pieces started attacking. This pisses Alviss off greatly.
• Scars Are Forever
• Sitcom Arch Nemesis: With Halloween. It gets to the point where Halloween allows Alan to participate in the War Games because of their rivalry.
• Smoking Is Cool
• Ship Tease: With Chaton. Taken Up to Eleven in episode 96.
• Tall, Dark and Handsome
• Team Dad
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Edward in the manga.
• Weaksauce Weakness: His fear of cats.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?: Loco states this outright when Chaton starts crying, telling Alan she’s a Chess Piece and shouldn’t be with him anymore. Alan falls for this trick HARD as he gives her a communication ÄRM that would allow them to stay in touch and tells her that it no longer mattered if she was Chess Piece or not because she is a member of Team MAR now and would always protect her.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Chaton in the anime. They do.
• Why did it Have to be Cats: He has a HUGE fear of cats that Chaton uses to beat him. Alas, his guardian cat doesn’t unleash his fear at all. In the anime, he gets over this fear the longer he stays with Chaton. And he ends up with said Catgirl in the end.
• You Are Worth Hell: He tells Chaton this as he gives her one of his ÄR Ms that allows them to stay in touch saying that even if she’s a Chess Piece, he wouldn’t leave her side and would fight for her.

The Chess Pieces

The King

Danna

• Big Bad: Just look at what he's done to Phantom's life and the entire world.
• BFS: A jagged one.
  • His true form has a scythe.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He's the evils inside the Orb Diana stole ten years ago.
• Eldritch Abomination: true form is a horned, mummified corpse with a lower torso of several mud-like barely humanoid faces.
• Grand Theft Me: Of Ginta's Father; also Babbo.
• Kill'Em All: What he does in the anime when he appears in person, to both the Chess soldiers and the MAR Team.
  • Hero-Killer: Everybody in MAR except Jack and Ginta are killed by him.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Since he possessed Danna's body, he attempted this on Ginta. It didn't work.
• The Man Behind the Man: The one who made Diana the way she is.

The Queen

Diana

• Beneath the Mask
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
• Blow You Away
• Cain and Abel: Subverted. She loves her younger sister dearly but by Caldea rules, Dorothy must kill her. To prepare for the day, she gave Dorothy everything she needed before she committed the treason.
• Dying As Herself: She addresses Dorothy as the loving big sister she once was, before dying.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight
• Evil Stepmother: To Snow.
• Femme Fatale
• Greed: taken Up to Eleven. That's what alerts people like her retainers at Lestava about her true nature. And it isn't even limited to what she could get her hand on in her own world.
• It's All About Me
• Magic Staff
• Woman Behind The Man: Phantom is only her puppet.
• Michiko Neya
• Promotion to Parent: To Dorothy.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
• The Chessmaster: Not only is she the one behind the Chess Pieces, she’s also the reason the Cross Guards existed.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry
• Villain with Good Publicity: Very much so. As the Queen of Lestava, she was popular with the people and loved by her stepdaughter Snow. When the 1st war came, she gave the good guys powerful weapons to fight the Chess Pieces. The war is over, and all is well, until her close retainers notice that she's suddenly getting more villanously greedy day by day, and appears to harbor ill intentions for her stepdaughter.
• You Have Failed Me...: Invokes one to Phantom after he loses to Ginta. Although she doesn't kill him but just leave him to his own device, he pretty much commits assisted suicide thereafter.

Phantom

The puppet leader of the Chess Pieces and the strongest Knight of them all and serves as the main villain of the series for the most part. He is also from the land of wizard Caldia, like Dorothy. He is an immortal being that come back to life after getting killed hence he continues to reign terror on MAR Heaven for many years. The first War Games, he fought against Ginta’s father Danna and they both kill each other in the end. However, it proved futile as six years later, he is revived and continues the same hell that he did six years ago only to fight his enemies’ son Ginta. Phantom loves staying on the sidelines to watch the fights and loves to see how Ginta will grow. Phantom has a huge obsession with Alviss and constantly tries to get him join his side by force. What happens to him depends on the anime and manga. In the manga, he is defeated by Ginta and accepts death by Alviss’ hand. In the anime though, he flees with Candice and Rolan to a deserted island and forces a Ghost ÄRM on Alviss which would speed up the processed of the Zombie Tattoo. Phantom then waits for Alviss to give him because in his mind, he wins the final game against Ginta if Alviss accepts defeat and turns into one of his possessions for all of eternity.

• Abduction Is Love: Poor Alviss...
• A Father to His Men: Played with. This only seems to concern most of the Knights but mainly Peta, Rolan and Candice. Everyone else is considered trash.
• Affably Evil: Well in his minion's eyes anyway.
  • Faux Affably Evil: What the main cast views him as.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In universe example. His death in the anime is rather depressing. Despite all the things he did, he was saddened when he found out that Rolan killed himself in order to be with him. He even apologies to Candice before asking Alviss to kill him. Alviss can’t do it so Phantom takes his hand and puts the key to his heart. See also Despair Event Horizon below.
• Beyond the Impossible: This guy is the no.1 Knight for a reason. The reason becomes apparent during the fight with Ginta. He is shown to be capable of summoning up to five Guardians at the same time, a feat unaccomplished by any powerful fighters before. Dorthoy said outright that this is impossible. Most people can only summon one Guardian due to the incredible stress on stamina, mental strength and magic power. And he isn't restrained to using techniques of this level only once during the battle.
• Bishonen: When he doesn't act Ax Crazy.
• Big Bad: Or not.
• Break the Cutie: See Despair Event Horizon below.
• Blood Knight: He's really a Smug Super, Smug Snake and Arrogant Kung Fu Guy all wrapped into one; not that he realizes it.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: by the King.
• Chekhov's Gun: Remember the rule of Caldean wizards that family members of criminals must hand out the punishment themselves? Another case happened twenty years before Dorothy's. Think it's bad for Dorothy to kill her own beloved big sister by rules? Turns out it's no better when the family refuse to deliver the penalty.
• Cute and Psycho
• Disc One Final Boss: Even when he’s defeated, Snow still needed to be saved and the Queen and King needed to be taken out. In the anime, Team MAR has to also go through the Ghost Chess resulting in another Rescue Arc to save Alviss this time.
• Dark Is Evil
• Despair Event Horizon: He was just an innocent, 10-year-old kid who was attracted to the Caldean Orb due to his own unusually strong magic power, and was charmed into committing a taboo by that same evil presence. He was promptly chucked into prison, all the while quite clueless to the magnitude of his transgression. After a while his parents came to bring him back home, and all seemed well, his mom even cooked him a good meal. Next morning, he woke up to find his parents both dead, having taking their own lives because they couldn't find the resolution to kill him. He ended up in prison for ten years and would likely have rotten there until he died, had Diana not gotten him out, and then he fell under the influence of the same dark force that caused his parent's deaths and his imprisonment. Then he managed to find a girlfriend, but she left him the moment she knew he consented to being a zombie, a curse bestowed on him by the bad guy above, again. Oh, and this bad guy is also responsible for her death, and barred her and her friends from entering heaven by sealing their souls inside a cave (note that they won't be released until 6 years later, when Ginta arrives in MAR-Heaven). He spent the next ten years fighting, and dying for, then resurrecting only to fight for that bad guy. After he loses, said bad guy releases his hold on him, allowing him for the first time to reflect on his life: everyone he ever loved are dead thanks to said bad guy, his opponent's ideals completely trumph his, and all he's left with is the immortality he no longer finds cool. No wonder he becomes such a depressed wreck of angst after the War Games.
• Dead Gazelle Gambit: Pulled one on Ginta in one of his disguise, just so he could tick off Ginta even more.
• Depraved Bisexual: Anime version. He seems to lean toward boys until you find out about his girlfriend.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Them being his parents, his girlfriend Alma and his best friend Peta. Cue him Angst when he realizes he has lost all of them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He values courage as Alviss found out with great cost on his part, and does not support random abuse of power against subordinate at all, as Rapunzel finds out the hard way.
• Evil Mentor: To Rolan.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the manga, he just sits calmly in his throne as Alviss moves in for the kill, and his last word was a farewell to MAR-Heaven. Taken further in the anime, where he literally forces Alviss' hand to do so, when the later hesitates after witnessing his Pet the Dog moment with Candice. In both version, he goes out with a smile.
• Forceful Kiss: He attempted this on Alviss at least twice. The first time was during Ginta’s nightmare and the second was when Alviss got captured and he had him in his grasp. Fortunately, Alviss was smart enough to pull away fast enough the second option. The first one, Nanashi saved him. Then again, this was Ginta's dream so...
• The Four Loves: Elaborated in the anime. His parents loved him even and had to kill themselves because they couldn’t harm their own son. Alma rejected him, but still loved him despite what he became and created the key to end immortality. Finally Peta, Rolan and Candice love him and will stay with him until the end of time. All of these don't dawn on him until he's about to die, though.
• Freudian Excuse: He has a huge one that explains why he wants to destroy all of MAR Heaven. Being sentenced to death by the elders of Caldea but your parents taking the fall for you that forces you to be sentenced for life and then your girlfriend turning on you after you gain immortality is enough to drive anyone over the edge.
• Genre Blind: He has multiple opportunities to kill Ginta but he decides to let Team MAR grow stronger so he can have a good fight.
• Hypocritical Humor: He despises a group in the Chess Pieces for being too barbaric called the Zonnen when his direct followers in the knights are worse, including himself.
• I Just Wanted To Be With My Loved Ones: Later comes out with this as part of the reason he finds immortality so awesome. Played straight as I Just Want to Have Friends when he tries everything he could to make Alviss into a zombie like him, so that he won't be alone.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: His reaction when Alviss is finally in his base. Comes with a staggering amount of intimate interactions forced on Alviss.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: While not as apparent as it is with Candice, he constantly talks about Ginta becoming more ripe so he'll be more satisfied with the battle.
• Kick the Dog: A lot, considering who he is. To name a few examples, he kills Alviss' friends right before his eyes, then proceeds to curse him with the Zombie tattoo, revealing that once the curse is complete, the boy will be just like him. He disguises as a nice boy and befriends Ginta for a short while, then pretends to be killed by Peta right before Ginta's eyes, just to raise his fighting spirit. Oh, and when Candice tries to comfort him after Peta's death, he responses with his usual sweet talks to her..until he gets really close, and whispers into her ears that she will never replace Peta.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: The reason he abandoned his humanity. He changes his opinion to Who Wants to Live Forever? after Ginta defeats him.
• Lust: He lusts for power after being brainwashed by the King and also lusts for Alviss.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Memetic Molester: An in universe example. He’s ALWAYS commenting about Alviss to the point that it goes to creepy levels. He licked Alviss’ tears for crying out loud!
• Mind Rape: He’s always trying to pull this off on Alviss and it’s successful in the Ghost Chess arc temporarily.
• Mitsuki Saiga
• More Than Mind Control: He was being controlled by the King.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: After he has Alviss under his control, he orders the Ghost Chess to eliminate Team MAR so they won't interfere.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast
• No Sense of Personal Space: Toward Alviss.
• Oblivious to Love: Technically, he's not unaware of Rolan's devotion and Candice's crush andto him. However, it only hits home just how much these two care for him, when the former (apparently) commits suicide for him, and the latter unconditionally accompanies him to the end , and even then, refuses to give him up to death at the hands of his enemy. The realization makes him realize he's not alone, and helps him embrace death.
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Pet the Dog: He is very kind to Peta who he sees as a best friend and Rolan who he took under his wing when Rolan had no one to turn to. He's polite, but mostly indifferent to Candice's obvious crush on him; but when she, under circumstances, becomes the final one by his side at the end of the Ghost Chess arc, he treats her almost lovingly and with gratitude, and even saves her from getting thrown into the ocean after she loses a battle with Ginta at the expense of his remaining magic powers.
• Purple Eyes
• Redemption Equals Death: Seeing how much Candice and Rolan cares for him and being forgiven by Alma's ghost makes him acknowledge the futility of immortality, and embrace death.
• Shotacon: Again with Alviss. He started having affections for him at the age of ten and gives him a Zombie Tattoo for standing up to him. In the manga where he barely pays Alviss any attentions during the course of the War Games, but taken Up to Eleven in the anime.
• Single-Target Sexuality: He seems to be only interested in Alviss, We found out that he still loved his dead girlfriend Alma a lot though.
• Single Tear: When Peta died. In both versions, it's what alerts Ginta to the possibility that Phantom is not heartlessly evil through and through.
• Stalker with a Crush: Toward Alviss.
• Swiss Army Appendage
• Tall, Dark and Handsome
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Years after Alma died, he still has not gotten over her.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid
• Villainous Breakdown: It's his own fault for letting Ginta live after their first real fight, He goes semi-apeshit after being hit once in their rematch to the point Ginta was much stronger than he was. Which leads him to a massive..
• Villainous BSOD: He becomes completely disillusioned with his immortality, as it is finally clear to him that Danna's ideal and, by proxy, Alma's opinion about his undeadness, are right in the end. He accepts death as soon as Team MAR come knocking on his door in manga version, and after a longer struggle in the anime, arrives at the same conclusion.
• Villainous Crush: On Alviss.
• We Can Rule Together: Invokes this trope on Ginta and Alviss. It doesn’t work on Ginta. With Alviss however… it worked, but because of hypnosis.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: One way to look at his personality due to Alternate Character Interpretation.
• Yaoi Guys: The third victim of this trope often to Squick levels though.

Peta

• Bloody Murder
• Blood Magic
• The Dragon: To Phantom, had the entire group reestablished for his resurrection.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He's killed by Nanashi, the leader of the thieves he exterminated earlier in the series.
• Nice Hat
• Only Friend: To Phantom.
• Social Darwinist
• The Strategist
• Undying Loyalty: Because they have the same ideas.

Halloween

• Kill It with Fire: His Arm theme.
• I Will Punish Your Girlfriend For Your Failure: To Ian. Which prompts the guy to skips several levels in badassery to save her.
• Mask of Power
• Sitcom Arch Nemesis: With Alan.
• Social Darwinist

Chimera

Ranked the 4th most powerful Knight of the Chess Pieces, Chimera is a deadly opponent that was able to knock out Gaira in the preliminaries. Chimera looks like a monster created by the Chess Pieces that never talks. As a result, many people think that Chimera is a male. However, when Dorothy blows away the mask It turns out that Chimera is in fact a dangerous woman. Her original human name was Irene who was destined to marry a Chess Piece named Marco who she loved dear. Despite Marco reforming himself despite being a Chess Piece, an angry mob barged into their wedding ceremony and demanded that Marco pay for the crimes the Chess Pieces committed. Marco told her he would be fine since he is a reformed man. She waited for him for days in the church until the men came back with only Marco’s ring finger. She freaks out when she realizes that they killed her husband and then they kidnap her and do unimaginable things to her that range from messing up her body to implied rape. She finally manages to escape them and tries to kill herself but Peta gives her hope and allows her to get her revenge on the people that took her Marco away. Chimera fights with Ghost ARMs.

• Being Tortured Makes You Evil : As well as being raped.
• Blood Knight: One of the Chess Pieces who wanted to fight Ginta.
• Body Horror: Her Ghost Arms are unpleasant.
• Break the Cutie
• Broken Bird
• The Brute
  • The Dark Chick
• Dark Is Evil
• Defiled Forever
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it in the backstory.
• Died Happily Ever After: After seeing Ian and Gido reunite, she dies from the wounds that Ian inflicted her with.
• Freudian Excuse: Her lover, a former Chess Piece, was killed by a group of vengeful villagers. That and being tortured and raped drove her insane.
• Gender Blender Name: Chimera is more of a name used for an animal but many people thought that Chimera was a man because of it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Out of all people, Chimera jealous of Gido who continues to love her boyfriend despite the horror she has been put through. She changes Gido back at the end when Ian proves his love is true and wishes for them to be happy.
• Interrupted Suicide: In her backstory, she tried to kill herself after she escaped but Peta saved her.
• Lightning Bruiser: Catches Dorothy the fastest of Team Mar completely off guard initially.
• Mask of Power: A creepy skull one at that.
• Mie Sonozaki
• My God, What Have I Done?: She realizes what sort of Monster she became and turns Gido human again.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast
• The Quiet One: Comes off as this at first. But once the mask is removed, she starts talking.
• Rape as Backstory
• Redemption Equals Death
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Has a skull mask To hide her equally hideous multi-eyed face.
• Samus Is a Girl
• Tragic Monster
• The Voiceless: Until her mask comes off.
• Was Human Once: Or once a woman.
• White Mask of Doom
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Oh God, Chimera has went through the most shit out of all the Knights. Her soon to be husband is killed despite reforming himself. The men who took him gave the ring finger back to her literally and then they kidnapped and raped her multiple times before she escaped. It’s no wonder she went crazy.
• You Gotta Have Green Hair

Rolan

• Anti-Villain: He’s not evil at all. He hates killing above everything and is very talkative and helpful toward Team MAR. He just won’t turn his back on Phantom…ever.
• Apologetic Attacker
• Beware the Nice Ones: Oh god the Ghost Chess arc...
• Bishonen
• Bungled Suicide: Implied at the end of the anime.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He shows signs of this during the Ghost Chess arc when Alviss tells him that Phantom likes him better. Cue, the two start fighting.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: This feminine looking guy is one of Phantom’s most trusted comrades and will kick your ass if you underestimate him. Alviss learned that the hard way.
• Driven to Suicide: In the anime when he realizes that Phantom will be killed and he can’t do anything about it.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady
• Epic Fail: His introduction…he shows up late for the match and then he trips upon landing. Alviss questions why he was stuck fighting the idiot.
• Everything's Better with Chickens: Has Cockatrice which be described as a green chicken with petrifying breath.
• Evil Is Dumb: Played with. He’s very intelligent; he doesn't like using it though unless Phantom is concerned.
• Expy: Of Raijin from Flame of Recca. Both are really nice people and seem to be on the wrong side. They stick by their Master’s side always because he has done something that has earned their eternal respect and both hide the fact that they are competent fighters. They both have the same Epic Fail entry as well.
• Heartwarming Orphan
• Heel Face Turn: Subverted! He almost pulled one but changed his mind and stayed with Phantom and Candice.
• I Owe You My Life: The reason for staying with Phantom is that Phantom took him in when no one else would.
• Light Is Not Good: He doesn’t have light magic but his color scheme fits this. He even has angel wings when he uses a Guardian ÄRM.
• Mad Bomber: His powers allow him to blow things up.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: With Candice.
• Moe: He may be older than Alviss but somehow manages to pull this off in-universe.
• Morality Pet: To Phantom in the anime.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Alviss questions his respect for Phantom during their rematch that makes him rethink everything he has done. He stays with Phantom in the end.
• Nice Guy: He’s one of the nicest Chess Pieces you will ever come across.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Did I mention that he was a high-ranking Knight?
• Odd Couple: With Candice.
• Parental Abandonment
• Punch Clock Villain: He’s only evil on the battlefield and even on the battlefield he tries not to kill his opponent.
• Sissy Villain
• Suck My Rose
• Susumu Chiba
• Technical Pacifist
• Technicolor Eyes: They’re pink.
• Undying Loyalty: To Phantom, even becoming a zombie to be at his side forever.
• Whip It Good: And it explodes too.
• Yandere: In the Ghost Chess arc, he tries to kill Alviss when he tried to kill Phantom. Even if Phantom likes Alviss better and accepts death, Rolan wouldn't take it.
• Yaoi Guys: The second most used victim of this trope.

Weasel

• Affably Evil: He's polite and acknowledges his enemies, but has also killed his former best friend Jack's father and killed an entire castle with a tree.
• Green Thumb: Serves as the Evil Counterpart to Jack.
• Evil Old Folks
• Kenichi Ogata
• Satellite Character
• Spell My Name with an "S": Several translations have made their own interpretation of what Weasel's name is, including Vizard, Vizel, Pizel,Veezle, Pizel and Vidar.
• Worthy Opponent: To Jack.
• You Killed My Father: He was the one that killed Jack’s father. However, he admitted that it was a good fight and his father was one of the best opponents he had.

Ian

• Always Save the Girl: He'll do anything to save Gido. Anything.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: His favorite tactics.
• Expy: Of Gin from Bleach. They would go to extreme lengths to save their love interest meaning they would go to the enemy side just to get their revenge.
• Eyes Always Shut: When they’re open, you better look out.
  • Made funny in the last episode where he opens his eyes widely because he sees Ash without his mask.
• Love Makes You Crazy: He was willing to change his personality just to get his girlfriend back.
• Punch Clock Villain: At first.
  • Not So Harmless: After his Training from Hell.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Gido but a deconstruction.
• Spam Attack: He likes to use lots of weapon.
• Perpetual Smiler
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Gido is turned into a monster by Chimera, he basically goes through hell to get stronger to get revenge on the people who did that to her. He takes his anger out on Ginta who tells him he's got the wrong person before focusing on Chimera.
• Took a Level in Badass: After he sees what happened to Gido. Several levels in fact, as he jumps from a mere Rook to a Knight.
• Training from Hell: How he became a badass in the first place.

Magical Roe

• Heel Realization: Upon realizing what the Queen wants to do to Snow, he decides to sacrifice himself to save Snow.
• Monster Clown: He looks like a piedmont, but is more on the Affably Evil side on the Knights' morality pole.
• Redemption Equals Death: In the anime, he sacrifices his life to save Snow and apologizes for kidnapping her. Averted in the manga.
• Tomokazu Seki: His seiyu

Galian

• Ambition Is Evil: He leaves Luberia because he feels that he needs more power that being the leader of a ragtag bunch of thieves can't grant.
• Heel Realization: In the anime when he realizes how much of a prick he was hence why he's allowed to come back.
• Psycho Electro : While he is calm, he did betray his friends to the Chess and is an Evil Counterpart to Nanashi
• Tall, Dark and Handsome
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Nanashi allows him to come back to Luberia at the end of the anime. In the manga, he doesn’t.
• Yasunori Matsumoto: His seiyu.

Ash

• Adult Child
• Anti-Villain: He's really on the wrong side that even Ginta comments on that.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Although he does actually care for others.
• Casting a Shadow
• The Faceless: He’s always wearing a skeleton mask.
• Friend to All Children: Always seen playing with kids.
• Katsuyuki Konishi
• Punch Clock Villain: He doesn’t want to fight kids at all, which is why in battle, he would go after adults.
• The Un-Reveal: Subverted. A lot of people joked about not being able to see him without his mask. He takes it off when Ginta defeats him and again when he goes see Ian and Gido in the ending. Naturally, Ian’s expression is priceless.

Candice

• All Love Is Unrequited: With Phantom as he still loves his dead girlfriend. Subverted in the anime, where he appears to reciprocate her feelings to some extents, after seeing just how far she would go for his sake.
• The Baroness
• Bodyguard Crush: On Phantom.
• Clothing Damage: Some of her outfit is torn when she fights Kappel after she suspects that he plans on betraying Phantom. She doesn’t mind at all.
• Combat Sadomasochist: When fighting Jack, the more he hit her, the more it seemed like she was having an orgasm. And then let’s not get started with her fight with Dorothy in the anime.
• Dark Action Girl
• Depraved Bisexual
• Expy: Of Harley Quinn from Batman.
  • She is also very similar to Neon from Flame of Recca. Both are madly in love with their leader and are extremely sadistic in battle. Also, both softened up after their battle with the main characters. It takes Candice longer though in the anime, and she’s still crazier than Neon though.
• Eyepatch of Power
• Kumi Sakuma
• Laughing Mad
• Love At First Defeat: Why she's smitten with Phantom.
• Love Makes You Crazy/Love Makes You Evil: She will do anything for Phantom.
• Mad Love: She is dedicated to Phantom.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: With Rolan.
• Morality Pet: To Phantom in the anime, at the end of the Ghost Chess arc.
• Odd Couple: With Rolan.
• Orgasmic Combat
• Pet the Dog: Besides Phantom whom she is dedicated to, she is rather kind to Rolan who she doesn’t see as a rival.
• Psycho for Hire
• Psycho Lesbian: In the anime where she has so much fun touching Dorothy in all the wrong places.
• Replacement Goldfish: Phantom declares that she cannot be one for his best friend Peta, when she tries to comfort him after Peta's death and cheer for him in his incoming battle. Later though, he's remarkably kinder to her when she's determined to stay by his side even until his death, as they both know it.
• Slasher Smile
• Taken for Granite
• Too Kinky to Torture: Because it empowers her and her sadism.
• Walking the Earth: At the end of the anime.
• Yaoi Fangirl: The Ghost Chest arc hints that she’s this since she doesn’t really seem to mind Phantom feeling up Alviss at all. She only minds if Alviss is trying to kill him.
• Yandere/Cute and Psycho
• You Are Not Unloved: To Phantom. Thanks to this, he attains some peace of mind before dying.

Pinocchio

• Artificial Human: The only Chess piece to be known to not be a human of any kind, rather a puppet brought to life by Diana.
• Actor Allusion: He's a more violent variation of the wooden puppet boy.
• Bad Liar: As another feature taken from its namesake, it comes off as more of sarcasm though
• Black Eyes of Evil
  • Eyes of Gold
• Evil Redhead
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Technically wood, but it still counts
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous
• Pinocchio Syndrome: Very obvious
• Space Whale: His summon is a whale that eats his opponents, based on the whale that eats the actual Pinocchio.

Rapunzel

• Abusive Parents: Doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all, so it's not much of a Freudian Excuse
• Ax Crazy
• Berserk Button: Being called ugly, despite repeatedly calling others ugly.
• Gonk: Not that she knows it.
• Knight Templar Big Sister: She's got a huge soft spot for her little brother Girom and her only redeemable trait.
• Karmic Death: She's kill by Ian, who proceeds to take her place as a Knight, by her favorite method of killing, no less.
• Off with His Head: Her favorite method of killing, to which he does to any teammates if they lose.
• Prehensile Hair: Her most powerful move.
• You Have Failed Me...: Any Chess that loses under her sight.

Kouga

• Daisuke Gouri
• Gonk He is aware of his own appearance, which is why he hates pretty boys like Alviss (hence he goes for the face in battle).
• Green-Eyed Monster: He is jealous of Alviss' looks and constantly berates him for them to the point where when he attacks, he goes for the face.
• Highly-Visible Ninja
• Karma Houdini: A lesser example then Girom but after the War Games, he tried to attack Alviss again and got beaten. In the anime ending, he’s alive with Girom by his side.

The Bishops

Chaton

The strongest Bishop of the Chess Pieces. She doesn’t seem to fit with the group due to her happy go lucky and playful personality. She battles Alan in the semi-finals and beats him due to his fear of cats. However, after the match, she begins to idolize him (and in the anime, she falls in love with him). As a result, she doesn’t hesitate to cheer for Team MAR and goes as far as to switch sides after the War Games to be with Alan. It weighs down on her that she will not be accepted into society because of being a former Chess Piece and she does not want what happened to Chimera to happen to her. In the end though, Alan and Chaton settle this problem and hook up. She fights with animal themed ÄR Ms.

• Action Girl
• Ambiguously Brown
• Anti-Villain: She wasn’t really a villain to begin with.
• Battle Couple: With Alan whether he likes it or not.
• Blue Eyes
• Break the Cutie: In the anime, she is forced to watch Loco sacrifice her age to save them from the Ghost Chess and then she is forced to watch Alan die in front of her which sets her off.
• Catch Phrase: “You’re so cruel old man~”
  • This phrase becomes Harsher in Hindsight when Alan dies. She says it again because he’s leaving her behind.
• Catgirl
• Cats Are Mean: Subverted. She is however cunning but that’s what Loco thinks.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She seems to be this at the beginning and especially during the Ghost Chess arc where’s she’s wondering the desert with Loco. Of course, this actually helps because she uses it to get captured by the Ghost Chess and save everyone.
• Cry Cute
• Darkskinned Blonde
• Despair Event Horizon: She crosses it when Alan is killed in the anime. She gets better when he is alive.
• Forceful Kiss: She gives at least two of them to Alan. One was during their battle and the other was when she thought he died because of the Ghost ÄRM and gave him CPR which was more of a kiss. Alan freaks out on the first kiss but the second one, he doesn’t react to her kissing him.
• Friendly Tickle Torture/Tickle Torture: She does this to both Alan and Loco.
• Genki Girl
• Heel Face Turn: More apparent in the anime than in the manga.
• Heroic BSOD: In the anime when Alan dies, she breaks down crying and then disappears until the last episode. She went to find Alan’s killer but isn’t successful.
• Hidden Depths: In the anime. While happy go lucky, she does care for what people think of her with someone on Team MAR because she is a Chess Piece hence she has a Heroic BSOD when Team MAR see Snow’s father is alive and hides in the forest to cry because she doesn’t want to get judged. Loco tells the audience it’s only a trick to see what Alan would do but everyone begs to differ.
• It Was a Gift: The ÄRM that Alan gives her is important because it’s from him and it symbolizes there soon to be marriage. Alan has no idea what she’s talking about on the marriage part though but judging from the ending, Alan doesn’t seem to mind that idea at all.
• Kamehame Hadoken: One of her signature moves that catches everyone off guard.
• Lost Wedding Ring: Not by choice. When Alan dies, the ÄRM he gave her (which looks more like an earring than a ring) disappears with him.
• Love At First Sight
• Love Makes You Crazy
• Love Redeems
• Miyu Matsuki
• Mood Killer: When Loco sacrifices herself for her, she starts crying. However, Alan tries to give her comforting words and she instantly stops to hug Alan and tricks him into saying yes about taking care of Loco as a couple. Naturally, Loco is pissed off that Chaton didn’t cry for that long.
• Morality Pet: To Loco.
  • Morality Chain: This causes Loco to sacrifice her age to the point where she would never communicate with her again to save Chaton during the Ghost Chess arc.
• Official Couple: With Alan.
• Perky Female Minion
• Punch Clock Villain: She’s not even evil hence she cheers for Alan during his match. And when Ginta beats Phantom and all the Chess Pieces retreat, she’s the only one that stays to hug Alan.
• Ship Tease: With Alan.
• Stalker with a Crush: On Alan and it’s played for laughs.
• Stripperific
• The Trickster: During the Ghost Chess arc. To specify, she forces Loco to switch places with General using the Mirror ÄRM. She then gets them both captured and taken to where Alan and Nanashi are being held. She then pulls her Kamehame Hadoken on Sara and knocks all the Ghost Chess out and then gets Loco to switch bodies again.
• Villainous Crush: She is infatuated with Alan.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Alan. They do in the anime.

Hamelin

• Musical Assassin

Emokis

• BFS: It acts as a Magic Mirror as well
• Gonk

Girom

• Abusive Parents: His excuse of being crazy but it doesn’t cut it.
• Karma Houdini: The biggest in the series. His only punishment was losing his sister Rapunzel to Ian. That's it.
• Serial Killer

Aqua

• The Cutie
  • Kill the Cutie
• Kawaiiko
• Making a Splash

Mario

• Small Name, Big Ego
• Smug Snake

Garon

• Bald of Evil
• Killed Off for Real: By King in the anime adaptation. He revives from it later on.
• Super Strength
• Noble Demon

Kannochi

• Blood Knight: The only legitimate one in the entire organization

Mr. Hook

• Curb Stomp Battle: Gets one from Alviss who doesn't use an Arm during their fight

Korrechio

The Rooks

Loco

The strongest of all the Rooks. A young girl that uses Darkness ÄR Ms and is first had seen infiltrating the ice palace where Snow is kept with Ian. She later battles Nanashi in the second round and while she won the round, she lost the battle because Nanashi chose not to kill her. Loco is actually a thirty two year old woman that was given the box with cursed ÄR Ms. At first, she uses it to kill people but eventually, she befriends Chaton and starts to see people in a different life. This causes her to sacrifice her life in order to protect Chaton during the Ghost Chess arc. She is forever a baby now being taken care of by Chaton and later Alan near the end of the series.

• Blue Eyes
• Defrosting Ice Queen: In the anime at least.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness
• Emotionless Girl: At the beginning until she starts to soften.
• Fountain of Youth: The Darkness ÄR Ms make her younger each time she uses it.
• Heel Face Turn: In the anime.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the anime, she chooses to save Chaton over going to get the ÄRM that could reverse her age. She turns into a baby as a result.
• Kuudere
• Little Miss Badass
• Little Miss Snarker
• Merlin Sickness: Due to the powers of her Darkness Arms.
• Older Than They Look: She's 32.
• This Is Going to Suck: She starts saying this more often when she starts doing good deeds. It leads to turning herself into a baby in order to save Chaton.
• Token Loli

Fugi

• Blow You Away
• Razor Wind

Leno

• Killed Off for Real: By the King, but gets revived when the King dies.
  • Death by Adaptation: He lives in the manga without dying a first time.
• Improbable Weapon User: Two pincer like weapons on each arm.
  • Playing with Fire: It's secondary power.

Pano

• Kuudere: During the War Games and after her brother's death
• Love At First Punch: With Jack.
• Ms. Fanservice: She wears a BANDEAU, for crying out loud.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Averted.
• Tsundere: During both her battles with Jack.

Ali Baba

The Pawns

Gido

• Morality Chain: To Ian.

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