Kagerou Nostalgia

"Once there were two clans, the Hi and the Yu. Haku, the last king of the Yu was reborn 500 years ago. Princess Mio of Hikami, Kamui of Kai, Kidou of Adumi, Rai of Ryudou, Shiretsu of Kogami and someone from Kouragi tried to seal the spirit of King Haku. Many years later their souls inhabit six NEW bodies and together, they fight once again."

So it says on the front of the first volume of Kagerou-Nostalgia: the Resurrection, a manga series by Satomi Kubo. Anyone who's picked up this book, is likely very confused as to just what on earth is going on. This is because Resurrection is actually the second half of the series. Unfortunately, it is the only half to be licensed for release in North America. The first half is available only online and in Japan. Further adding to the confusion, only the first six chapters (out of five volumes) have been uploaded onto most manga sites, making keeping up with the plot difficult at best. As a result, much of the information on this page will be largely conjecture.

This is a pity, as Kagerou-Nostalgia is a rather well-written take on an old idea: that of resurrection and rebirth. When the series opens, we are in an AU of medieval Japan. Nearly eighty percent of the country has been conquered by General Kiyotaka Kuroda, and the remaining twenty percent is hard pressed to stay free and unoccupied. We are introduced to Kazuma Shudo, a 14-year old mercenary hired by one of the nations that is resisting Kuroda. A proficient swordsman (swordsboy?) Kazuma is able to use his spiritual power to fight Kuroda's armies of monsters and People Hunters, sadistic soldiers who live only to slaughter. As the story progresses, Kazuma is introduced to five other teenagers with similar abilities: Shiranui, Fuwa, Mizuki, Akira, and Goki. Gathered together by Princess Mio XI, they begin to realize that they all knew and fought alongside each other five hundred years ago and have since been reincarnated: a fact that makes them a target for Kuroda's mysterious master, Gessho Kuki, Shadow.

This show provides examples of:
 * Zero-Percent Approval Rating: Excepting his wife, we've yet to meet anyone who actually likes Kuroda. Even Ranmaru and Rikimaru find him unpleasant, and they're working for Gessho.
 * Abusive Parent: Fuwa's dad; possibly Mizuki's stepfather.
 * Action Girl: appears to have been one of these before her Gender Bender. She was one of the last survivors on a battlefield that had been utterly devastated by Gessho's troops, and managed to survive a bout against Rikimaru while she was still an unpowered human. That one battle was enough to convince Gessho that he wanted her as part of his forces. She was pretty good. From the looks of things the original Princess Mio was one as well.
 * The captain of the 4th Ninja Squad is somewhere between this and a Dark Action Girl. Her morality's ambiguous to say the least.
 * Ancestral Weapon: Several of the kids are armed with the weapons of their previous incarnations. Kazuma's BFS belonged to Kidou, his previous incarnation, Mizuki's bow was weilded by Kamui, his predecessor, and both Mizuki and Fuwa have utilised the Spear of Rai.
 * The Archer: Mizuki uses an extremely large, powerful bow as his Weapon of Choice. It fires energy arrows and can make it rain purifying light. To say he has a nasty effect on any demons in the area would be an understatement. The same weapon was used by his ancestor, Kamui of Kai.
 * Arranged Marriage: Mizuki Kamurogi and Princess Mio XI. Judging from his devotion to her, willingness to serve as her right-hand man in Kagerou-Nostalgia, utter horror when, and  it was likely a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
 * Armour Is Useless: Averted thus far with Ranmaru and Rikimaru who cover themselves in plate from head to foot and have yet to sustain any serious injuries, while dealing out absolutely horrific damage in response.
 * Badass Long Hair: Goki, Gessho
 * Badass Preacher: Shiranui is a priest (or perhaps more accurately a priest's apprentice). He's also about as Badass as this setting allows any of its protagonists to be. Given Gessho's reaction to his ghost appearing during his interrogation of Shiranui, it's fair to estimate that his master was this as well.
 * Badass Longcoat: The Sufu Ninja Squads, especially Squad 2 (Fuwa's) leader. Fuwa himself also counts.
 * Badass Normal: Squad 2's leader again. He repeatedly claims to have no spiritual powers.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Captain of the 4th Squad. She even has a hole cut in the back of her cloak so she can show off on both sides.
 * Because Destiny Says So: The entire point of the series. You want to live in peace? Too bad, you're a reincarnated hero. Go save the world. Gessho takes this to a pathological degree, claiming it his destiny to annihilate the Hikami clan and our heroes. And since fate cannot be denied, he might as well do it.
 * Berserk Button: Don't tell Bima that she's impure. Don't compare any of the heroes to the People Hunters. And go ahead: try and touch Kazuma. I dare you.
 * The Big Bad: Gessho Kuki appears to be this so far. What with the whole story about sealing King Haku though, it's entirely possible that he will be replaced as things progress. Hasn't happened so far though.
 * Gessho has been revealed to be "The Shadow", a being of.
 * Big Brother Mentor//Parental Substitute: Ranmaru to Goki
 * Bigger Bad: Possibly King Haku of the Yu. Depends entirely on whether he is a separate entity, or if Gessho is his host.
 * BFG: Shiranui's ancestor, Kagerou used one of these.
 * BFS: Kazuma's weapon of choice by The Resurrection. It's wider than his head, at least as long as he is tall, and was wielded by his previous incarnation. Before that he used a normal samurai sword...which on a 14-year old, is still freakin' huge. One of Kuroda's bodyguards carries an even bigger one, shaped like a six-foot meat cleaver.
 * Blade on a Stick: The preferred weapons of Gessho's top three soldiers: Ranmaru, Rikimaru, and . Fuwa has also used the one he inherited from his previous incarnation on occasion.
 * Body Horror: Pick one of the monsters on Kuroda or Gessho's payrolls.
 * Character Development: All of the main cast have had some, but Kazuma is the best example. When he first appears he's an alienated, antisocial freak, who Hates Being Touched and maintains an aloof, superior attitude as a means of emotional self-defence. By the first volume of The Resurrection, he's the leader of group, willing holds Akira's hand to help her activate her spiritual powers, and has a vested interest in keeping both his friends and the Hikami Clan alive. He's also lost a lot of his Angst, though none of the attitude.
 * Kazuma didn't have a problem with women touching him, just men, after Shimari attacked him.
 * He's also not around many women in the first part, so it's hard to say. Moreover, his helping her is still a pretty big step for our antisocial friend.
 * The Chick: Akira. She's the weakest member of the group, and has the least experience with her spiritual pressure. She's also the most emotionally sensitive, and is concerned with the feelings of the other members. She has required help from both Shiranui and Kazuma to so much as activate her abilities, yet is still an integral part of the group. She even has the royalty connection.
 * Chick Magnet: Shiranui. He's got Princess Mio XI, Akira, and every other female in the cast fawning over him.
 * Child Soldiers: Kazuma is the straightest example, operating as a mercenary since before his fourteenth birthday, but the main cast can all be seen in this light. Shiranui is a demon-killing priest at fifteen, is essentially Hikami's commander-in-chief by The Resurrection, Fuwa's been a ninja since his preteens and was a monster hunter before that, and  has been working for Gessho for almost as long. Even Akira is starting to have altogether too much experience with battlefields.
 * Conveniently an Orphan: Fuwa, Kazuma and Shiranui are all orphans. Not so for Mizuki who has a rather antagonistic relationship with his stepfather, Akira (her father is dead, her mother is not), or  whose father is apparently.
 * Crapsack World: The alternate version of feudal Japan that the kids inhabit sucks hard. Eighty percent of it is ruled by Kuroda, who allows his soldiers to butcher random villages just for the Hell of it. The rest of the country is poor, hard-pressed, and shrinking, relying on mercenaries and a few spiritually powerful children to maintain independence. Corrupt lords continue to support Kuroda and the People Hunts, whether openly or secretly. People who oppose the Hunts get arrested to avoid provoking him. And so far, the heroes haven't been able to change much. By Resurrection the clan they were trying to protect is all but destroyed, their army and infrastructure are in ruins,, another member is losing his mind from stress, and the group is scattered far and wide. They haven't even managed to kill a single major villain. Perhaps Kazuma puts it best: "In the end...we were powerless. Again. We fought like mad, but all that's ever left is the devastation." It's going to take a lot of effort before this world even remotely improves.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Gessho vs Shiranui lasts about two seconds before Shiranui is all but burnt to a crisp. And that's with his defensive wards in place.
 * Dead Little Sister: Kazuma has got an epic case of this (even though she was his older sister). If you happen to even look at him the way his sister used to, expect violent retribution. Screaming, ranting, violent retribution. It's the entire reason he signs on with Shiranui in the first place. First Kazuma beats him up for looking like his sister, than he decides to protect him because he can't allow someone who so closely resembles her to die.
 * Determinator: Kazuma and Fuwa. It's nearly gotten both of them killed on occasion.
 * Doomed Hometown: Kazuma is the sole survivor of the attack on his village. Also true for the town that he is first shown defending. To be fair to him, the second one would have been destroyed a lot sooner if it wasn't for his efforts. The town of Sufu, where Fuwa lives, also gets totalled.
 * The Dragon: Rikimaru, Ranmaru, Kuroda, and even  could all be seen as Gessho's Dragons, with Kuroda leading the army and serving as his figurehead while the other three protect him as bodyguards. Of them, Rikimaru and Ranmaru are probably the closest to the archetype, with Rikimaru having served Gessho the longest, and Ranmaru being slightly more obsessively loyal.
 * Given that Gessho typically keeps Rikimaru with him while sending out Ranmaru to do the diry work it seems that Gessho at least considers Rikimaru to be his Dragon, even if story-wise the two of them more or less hold the role equally.
 * Driven to Suicide:  attempts to kill himself following his love interest's death as he no longer sees a reason to live. He is prevented before he can carry it out though.
 * Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Shiranui and Goki constantly feature these. Kazuma had them pre-Character Development.
 * Emotions vs. Stoicism: Fully present in the backstory, during the war between the Black/Yu and Scarlet/Hi Clans. The Yu Clan embraced emotion and selfishly doing what you wanted over anything else; the Hi Clan disciplined their emotions until they practically didn't have any. Will doubtlessly come up again, given Haku (the last Yu) king's status as Sealed Evil in a Can.
 * Emotionless Boy: Goki, who has a grand total of two settings: violence, and apathy.
 * Epic Flail: Ranmaru's weapon is somewhere between this and a Blade on a Stick. The staff can break apart while remaining joined by a chain.
 * The weapon that Fuwa's previous incarnation used also exhibits properties of this, the blade can be launched and remains connected to the staff by a chain.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Played straight with Princess Mio XI. Akira is now attempting to do the same, with limited success.
 * Evil Overlord: Kuroda rules feudal Japan with an iron fist. Might count as a Sorcerous Overlord given his spiritual powers.
 * Evil Redhead: Goki is one of these. His ancestor Shiretsu, on the other hand, was a Redheaded Hero.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Fuwa's boss, Captain of one of the Ninja Squads. He has quite the reputation for Badassery in-story.
 * The Faceless: Goki during his first appearance.
 * The Fatalist: Gessho. Believes that it is his fate to exterminate the Hikami clan (why hasn't been revealed yet). "Destiny cannot be denied" is pretty much his catch phrase.
 * Female Misogynist: to a degree.
 * Femme Fatalons: Bima, the demonic Vamp.
 * Gender Bender: . Hoo boy. Where to start. was woman, who hated her own gender. So, when she signed on with Gessho she had him change her into a man, . Sound simple enough? But wait: once a month he changes back into a woman for just one night. Did we mention that  Yeah, it's complicated like that.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Kazuma
 * Handguns: Shiranui carries two, one somewhat resembling an automatic, while the other is clearly a revolver. Both have been blessed for use against demons, and as such have been used heavily, not only by Shiranui, but by other members of the cast.
 * Hates Being Touched: Kazuma has a bad case of this during the first couple of chapters, to the point where he'll instantly attack anyone who so much as makes contact with him. There's a reason that even his fellow mercenaries think he's psychotic.
 * Heel Face Revolving Door:
 * The Hero: Kazuma Shudo. There may not be a full Five-Man Band in place, but Kazuma is definitely this. Somewhere between Kagerou-Nostalgia and The Resurrection Kazuma has gone from Shiranui's bodyguard to being the leader among the five kids, if not Hikami itself . Both Shiranui and Fuwa come to him to request leave, Akira turns to him for advice and leadership, and in combat situations he even gives orders to Mizuki. On top of that, he's the protagonist to boot.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Subverted by.
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: Fuwa. He's in bright yellow.
 * Hired Guns: Kazuma's profession of choice before Shiranui recruits him, earning pay equal to the number of men he kills. And he gets paid a lot.
 * Hot-Blooded: Kazuma again. Charges monsters with just a sword? Check. No respect for personal safety? Check. Ready to fight at the drop of a hat? Way check.
 * Humanoid Abomination: Gessho Kuki. What is he?
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Some of Kuroda's demons seem to fall into this category. Hell, some of Kuroda's soldiers seem to fall into this category.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Initially Kazuma, with some serious Loners Are Freaks overlap. He's deliberately isolated and antisocial, avoids human contact at all costs, and directs all his energies--to the point of obsession--towards slaughtering Kuroda's troops. He . Mizuki also starts out like this.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kazuma, although it's initially very well hidden. More like psychotic Jerkass with a Heart of Gold, really. He's evolved into a more typical example by The Resurrection.
 * Mizuki also falls under this, albeit from the opposite direction: he's cold, blunt, remote and tells himself that he really doesn't care about anyone else but himself, when in reality he actually cares a lot about the others, and especially Princess Mio XI.
 * Jerkass Facade: As discussed above, Mizuki. He's even managed to fool himself.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Oddly enough, no. Kazuma uses one during the first few chapters, but by The Resurrection has upgraded to a distinctly Western-looking BFS.
 * Kid Hero: The main cast are in their mid-teens, and are stuck with the job of being the leaders of a resistance movement, the defenders of Hikami, and one of the few groups to oppose the People Hunters. Destiny sucks.
 * Kid Samurai: Kazuma used to be one. You know, before monsters killed his entire town and ate his sister. Good-bye wannabe dojo instructor, hello child mercenary.
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Load-Bearing Boss: Bima. When she's slain her castle collapses, and the army of monsters Gessho gave her runs amok. Ranmaru flat out states that Bima's death is the reason for this. Justified as magic was involved with Bima serving as the anchor for it. Generally speaking, the death of any major demon causes their monsters to turn on everyone around them.
 * Loners Are Freaks: When we first meet Kazuma he's antisocial to the point of being in full-on Psycho Loner territory.
 * Love At First Sight: . She was so pretty he couldn't bring himself to kill her,  . Good work, lover-boy.
 * Love Hurts: Minor example with . It's left him pretty depressed. See  for why.
 * The Man Behind the Man: To the public, General Kuroda is the one to be feared, a military dictator who's managed to take control of most of Japan, ordered the slaughter of thousands, and is Hell bent on the conquest of the few remaining holdouts. But the one who's really in charge is Kuroda's master, Lord Gessho.
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard: Shiranui's mentor, the Monk of Ruin was killed by something, probably.
 * Meaningful Name: A few. Fuwa's means "Unbreakable" which fits quite nicely with his upbeat, indefatigable personality. is the male version of a female name which  . Shiranui's name translates to "Unknown Fire", a good fit given the mystery surrounding his past and that of his previous incarnation. Also an in-universe example, as numerous characters (including, unfortunately, Gessho) have drawn attention to his name, and targeted him because of it.
 * The Mole: is an especially damaging one. It is unclear exactly what happened, but sometime between chapter six of Kagerou-Nostalgia, and chapter one of The Resurrection, he appears to have faked a Heel Face Turn, possibly as the result of Defeat Means Friendship. Whatever the case, it would seem he became a key member of the group, playing on their shared past together to keep anyone from becoming suspicious, before  Later chapters suggest that he at least partially regrets this.
 * Morality Pet: Kuroda's wife, Yasha, and their son serve as his.
 * Mr. Exposition: Mizuki serves as this immediately after he, Kazuma, and Fuwa are introduced. Odd, seeing as he's relatively silent for the rest of the series.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Gessho Kuki, Shadow. Would you trust a guy with a name like that?
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Shiranui suffers through a particularly horrific one in the early chapters. He and Kazuma are staying with a woman whose husband left, planning to travel to the capital and assassinate Kuroda, leaving her and their daughter behind. The husband subsequently returns with a band of mercenaries and massacres the town; when his wife confronts him and accuses him of People Hunting, he does not seem to understand what she is talking about. Shiranui realises that the man has been tainted by the darkness in the capital and purifies him. Nice job breaking it, priest.
 * No Export for You : The first chunk of the story is only available in Japanese. Only minimal amounts of the story have be translated online creating giant plot holes.
 * Not So Stoic:  for a few seconds after  . Gessho gets a scary one during a chat with Shiranui.
 * Offing the Offspring:  seriously (as in grabs by the throat and starts throttling) contemplates doing this to  . He relents at the last minute and they hug instead. Of course, whether they're actually related is open to debate. Fuwa's dad rather comically attempts this against him in a flashback.
 * Only One Name: Fuwa doesn't have a first name. His mother died before she could tell his father what it was and Fuwa was too young to remember it, and his father was too lazy to give him a new one. Shiranui also lacks a full name.
 * One-Winged Angel: Gessho starts shifting into this randomly during the middle of a conversation with Shiranui. Also counts as a very freaky Not So Stoic moment.
 * Bima also does this during her fight against Kazuma, Fuwa and Shiranui.
 * Our Demons Are Different: They look human, albeit with some animalistic features, and are all working for Gessho or Kuroda. How they're being controlled hasn't really been addressed. Gessho seems to summon them from a dark void in the middle of his castle, and uses them to give orders to his monster armies. Many seem to have sexually perverse and/or cannabalistic tendencies.
 * Power Tattoo: Shiranui has several, desgined to prevent demons from tainting his pure soul.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Kazuma is not a bad guy. But we wouldn't reccommend picking a fight with him either. He's a scary, scary little punk when he's angry. And he's angry a lot.
 * Reincarnation: The premise of the series.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Ranmaru has been in Gessho's service for over a hundred years. Rikimaru has been with him even longer. Gessho is so old that even Rikimaru knows almost nothing about him.
 * Revenge: Gessho is The Shadow and.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: All the of the main characters previous incarnations. Princess Mio XI too.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: King Haku. Probably.
 * Shell Shocked Senior: Kazuma, of the "high-school senior" variety. Or in his case, freshman.
 * Simple Staff: Shiranui uses one. When he isn't shooting people.
 * Sissy Villain: The oh so effeminate Shimari.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: It ain't Berserk, but Kagerou-Nostalgia definitely leans towards the cynical end of the scale. Basically this story is what happens when you take your classic shonen protagonists and drop them off in a Crapsack World. So far they've achieved nothing of import and have lost far more then they've gained. Whether or not they can Earn Their Happy Ending remains to be seen.
 * The Smart Guy: Shiranui has many of the characteristics of this role. Out of the group he has the lowest spiritual pressure, but makes up for it with magic tattoos that protect him from corruption, a wide knowledge of demons and spirit power, and packing heat. He's probably the smartest member of the group, and serves as a White Mage, as he's also their healer.
 * Smug Snake: Mizuki's adopted father, Lord Mitsufusa Kamurogi, who suffers from a combination of overconfidence and thinking he's much smarter than he really is. Arriving in Hikami after  he plots to seize control of it, using his own rank and impressive spiritual power, and Mizuki's current status as regent. It's not actually a bad plan, but Kamurogi forgets some key details: checking that there's no one else around with similar spiritual prowess, and making sure that Mizuki actually likes him enough to help him. End result, Kazuma, Akira, Mizuki and Fuwa run him out of town.
 * Sociopathic Soldier: Many of Kuroda's troops, as well as the various mercenaries they hire to assist them. Then again, you've got to be pretty evil to join a People Hunt, let alone brag about it the way a lot of them do. Where does Kuroda hire these guys?
 * Spikes of Villainy: Ranmaru and Goki both feature minor versions of this. Not Rikimaru though, oddly enough.
 * The Starscream:  seems to be somewhere between this and Bastard Understudy with regards to Gessho. He tells Yasha at one point that he wants all of Gessho's power for himself, and Rikimaru and Ranmaru clearly do not trust him. He also acts independently relatively frequently, and   although Kuroda himself has yet to take a direct role in this.
 * Starter Villain: Shimari, the demon who killed Kazuma's sister. He appears in the first chapter to torment Kazuma some more, serves to force Kazuma and Shiranui to work together, and promptly dies.
 * The Stoic: Mizuki and Goki both have shades of this. When Shiranui walks away from him at one point without explaining or saying a word Kazuma accuses him of "Pullin' a Mizuki."
 * Gessho appears to be a villainous version, complete with an inability to understand normal human emotions. This leads to a rather disturbing Not So Stoic moment during his conversation with Shiranui, one that crosses right into One-Winged Angel territory.
 * The Strategist: Gessho pretends to be one for Kuroda.
 * Survivor Guilt: All of them have it to one degree or another, having outlived a Mentor (Shiranui), a fiancee (Mizuki), a father (Fuwa), and a friend (Akira). Kazuma is the worst though, still blaming himself for surviving the massacre of his Doomed Hometown, as well as the subsequent carnage around him.
 * Tattooed Crook: Kuroda's two bodyguards are covered in tattoos. Including ones that resemble additional eyes. Creepy pair.
 * Tsundere: Akira. She's deredere towards Shiranui and Princess Mio XI, tsuntsun towards Mizuki and Kazuma, and flips back and forth with everyone else.
 * Unholy Matrimony: As you read it becomes increasingly clear that Yasha is every bit as evil and manipulative as her husband, Kuroda; she just hides it better. Apart from a minor scuffle in Volume 1 of The Ressurection they seem to get along quite well (and what's one instance of Domestic Abuse between genocidal villains?).
 * The Vamp: Bima, one of the demons from the first half, who attempted to seduce both Shiranui and Kazuma. Made worse given that they're in their teens and look younger, while she was at least (physically) her twenties or thirties. It almost works too, at least until Shiranui's tattoos kick in.
 * The Voiceless:  at first (and he still doesn't talk much now). Kuroda's bodyguards don't speak either.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Subverted. Akira calls out Mizuki on his apparent manipulation of  in order to seize control of  . This wasn't his goal actually (he was just trying to rebuild the ruined nation, and needed to give everyone someone to follow), but her words drive him over the edge, resulting in.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Shiranui is a rare, heroic example.
 * White Magician Girl: Shiranui looks like a male example at first. He's a priest, he hates bloodshed, and he's never killed another person before. He even helps patch up Kazuma after a battle. Of course, during said battle, he nearly kills Shimari, a demon, with the guns his master gave him.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: All of the main characters are in their early to mid teens but have grown up pretty fast. Justified by the war, and their status as the reincarnations of adult heroes.
 * Would Hurt a Child: Played very straight with Ranmaru and Rikimaru. If Lord Gessho wants you dead, they will kill you, no matter how old you are. Most of Kuroda's soldiers are similarly ruthless, with some taking great delight in killing those too young to fight back.