Angel Densetsu

File:Angel Densetsu 8968.jpg

Kitano, the scariest looking Nice Guy ever.

Angel Densetsu (エンジェル伝説 , Legend of Angel) is a Shonen manga created by Norihiro Yagi (who also created Claymore). Serialized in Shonen Jump, the story spanned 15 volumes.

It has more Trope Tropes than Tropes.

Angel Densetsu is a story about Seiichirou Kitano, a kind and naive boy with the heart of an angel, but the sinister looks of a devil. This causes many (hilarious) misunderstandings, leading people to assume that he is a villain or heroin addict, and results in him unknowingly receiving the title of being the head thug, or "school guardian" at his new school. This causes him to become a legend that brings many thugs to challenge him (which leads to even more misunderstandings that further his Badass image). Kitano, for pretty much all of the series, remains blissfully unaware of his reputation, and is frequently confused by the odd behavior of his classmates and teachers around him.

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Tropes used in Angel Densetsu include:

• Abusive Parents - Ikuno's father is implied to be one, at the very least of the Training from Hell variety.
  • Ryoko's father isn't a sterling example of parenthood either.
• Accidental Hero - Although Kitano is genuinely heroic, his rumored fighting prowess comes from this.
• Action Girl - Both Ryoko and Ikuno are.
  • It is to note that Ikuno started out as a Dark Action Girl, going so far as to punch out and KO twenty male students that casually replied that they were good at fighting after she asks them so, just to try and get over her fear of Kitano. She gets better, though.
• Actual Pacifist - Kitano, which makes all the rumors around him all the more ironic.
• All Amazons Want Hercules - It's not that Ryoko doesn't like men, it's just that she can't fall in love with anyone weaker than she is, in body or in spirit. Kitano turns out to meet her criteria in both areas, albeit not in the manner she was expecting.
• Art Evolution - Done in a very big way as Norihiro develops his style.
  • One of the most significant changes is that Kitano looks NOWHERE as horrifying as he used to as the art is refined, by the end of the series, his face is completely unrecognizable from the beginning. It may be a case of Fridge Brilliance, as more people grow to know and accept Kitano, he looks less and less like a devil both to the cast AND the Readers. However, The Dreaded Kitano from the beginning could be considered much funnier.
• Art Shift - Used at a point in Ikuno's rampage through the school to...disturbing effect.
• Asleep in Class - In one chapter, Kitano comes to school exhausted and sleepy, and his strange efforts to stay awake make him seem scarier to his classmates.
• Attack Pattern Alpha - "Triangle Formation Alpha", which basically means "Everybody surround that guy and then jump him."
• Ax Crazy - Ikuno, after her first "defeat" at Kitano's hands, goes on a rampage.
  • Everyone who meets Kitano pretty much assumes that he's Ax Crazy, much to his chagrin.
• Back for the Finale - Just about every thug and main character shows up in the last volume of the series.
• Badass Decay - In-Universe example: Ogisu thinks he's suffering from it. He was the strongest guy in his former school; the first day he transfers he picks fights with five random people: Kojima, Kuroda (sorta), Yuji, Ryoko and Kitano. After a few days he takes on Ikuno. Being slapped around by everyone (including two girls) weighs him down pretty heavily.
  • During the last battle, he realized that realistically, he's just a badass amongst comparatively uber-strong people. He settles to be "Hekikuu's #8", and proceeds to kick ass.
• Badass in a Nice Suit - Kitano's father is a Salaryman, but ends up falling into this trope because people mistake him for a Yakuza member. The shades actually help him a bit; he's even scarier without.
• Badass in Distress - Ryoko has gotten into fights she couldn't handle on her own exactly twice: once when Katayama took her down with a cheap shot, and once when she twisted her ankle while dispensing her third consecutive beatdown to a group of obnoxiously persistent thugs. Both times, Kitano was there to bail her out.
• Battle Cry - Everyone interprets Kitano's "KIIIEEEEE!!" as being this. Same with his father's "GOOOOOOOOHHH!"
• Beauty Equals Goodness - The Subversion is the entire point.
• Berserk Button: Hurting someone else is the only way to get Kitano or his father to actually use their "Double Palm Press" or "Super Slap" on anyone. Even then, in Kitano's case, the effect is less Unstoppable Rage (or his father's Tranquil Fury) and more "I'm sorry, but I need to stop you before you hurt anyone else."
  • Attacking Kitano in front of his "family" will result in, at minimum, two girls and a blond berserker beating you senseless.
  • Whenever Kitano believes Takehisa is trying to kill himself, it also invokes a berserk reaction as he rushes to save his friend and teach him the value of life. The first time he performed the Double Palm Press was against Kojima to get him out of the way quickly because in his peripheral vision he'd seen an injured Takehisa engaging in a knife fight and thought Tekehisa was trying to commit suicide.
• Betty and Veronica - Ryoko (being Betty) and Ikuno (being Veronica). Though funnily enough, even though Ryoko is the Betty, she's still more violent than the Betties usually found in other series.
  • What makes it funnier is that Ikuno at times lampshades it later on, much to Ryoko's dismay when she fails to prove otherwise.
• Beware the Nice Ones meets Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil - During the Koisa arc.
• Book Ends - The "At the end of this dreamless, hopeless, inhospitable century there was a boy who possessed a serenely honest and simple heart" speech is the first thing that is read in the series and it reappears in the last chapter, however there is an addition after the part where it describes Kitano's thuggish appearance which describes how, even though he looks like that, his heart helped him make friends.
• Braids of Action - Ryoko's got 'em.
• But Not Too Foreign - The Halford siblings seem to play Race Tropes straight look-wise, they are half-Japanese, half-American, speak perfect Japanese and even claim that they are not proficient in English. However the trope ends up justified by deconstruction: they were born and raised in Japan and, looks aside, they're not foreign at all. Their classmates (and assorted Japanese Delinquents) try to invoke it straight, but it gets defied mercilessly.
• Butt Monkey - Poor Ogisu seems to be here just to be beaten up by everyone, everytime. Kuroda at least contributes a lot to the story.
• Calling Your Attacks - Ryoko's father starts doing this when attacking Kitano, meshing martial arts terms with hammy language about vanquishing demons. Ikuno comments how ridiculous this is.
  • Halford Kick!
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Kitano can take a lot more abuse than just about anyone else in the series, and the few times he pushes people, they fly away.
• Chick Magnet - Despite looking like a heroin addict that comes out of a Horror manga, Kitano does awfully well with the ladies. He has three girls who fall for him, and one male underling that adores him a bit too much.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Kitano, often.
• Combat Pragmatist - Katayama may not be the guardian of Hirin, but the fact that he is this trope incarnate is what makes him really dangerous.
• Comically Missing the Point - Kitano asks Takehisa to stop getting into fights because he's afraid that he'll get hurt. Takehisa says he understands, he'll just get stronger so he can fight without getting hit once.
  • Also, people completely miss the point of mostly EVERYTHING Kitano does or says. Which makes most of the plot happen.
    • A certain amount of Fridge Brilliance applies as well; since people assume Kitano is a junkie, anything that seems strange or is a non sequitor is put down as the ramblings of a guy high on drugs.
• Complete Monster - Almost everyone In-Universe thinks that Kitano is one, and is deathly afraid of him.
• Confusion Fu - Trained fighters have a hard time fighting Kitano because he often reacts to their attacks in a completely unexpected manner—usually because he doesn't actually realize what's going on, and is trying to do something completely unrelated to the fight.
• Covers Always Lie - Kitano does not have actual angel wings.
  • Then there's this which seems to depict the student council president and his flunkie as the heroes.
  • The anime goes one step further, the opening credits feature Kitano flying around, and people staring at him like he's Superman. Also averted, again, the whole thing is clearly metaphorical of what happens to him in the story, Character Development wise.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass - Doubly twisted with Kitano: he seems badass at first glance; when you know him you find out he's a gentle, caring person, and Actual Pacifist; then when someone is in danger he 1-hit ko's all the baddies around. Kuroda gets a humorous moment of this too: he hits his head, forgets for a moment how much of a coward he is, and is able to stand his ground against Ogisu.
• Dark Mistress - After befriending Kitano, Ryoko tends to be treated like a "gangster's moll," to her embarrassment.
• Deadpan Snarker - Yuji and Ikuno.
• Defeat Means Friendship - Most noticeably with Yuji and Kuroda, though Kitano didn't even know that he "defeated" them.
• Delinquent Hair - Takehisa's spiked blond hair and complete lack of eyebrows, and Ogisu's bright red pompadour. Kitano gels his naturally-spiky hair down in an attempt to avoid being seen as a delinquent; a quick gander at some of the other tropes on this page can tell you how well that works.
• Determinator - Not only Kitano has put up with this treatment for so long, he's actually developing rapid reflexes from being hit so often. And this is only for him to be able to Turn the Other Cheek.
  • Put this into perspective, a kid thinks Kitano is a demon (as usual), and asks his Action Girl friend Ikuno to beat him up. Kitano doesn't know why Ikuno's beating him, but he specifically tells that unless I know why I'm getting beaten up, I will always rise again.
• Digging Yourself Deeper:

Kuroda: N... No, it wasn't Kitano-san who did this to me ... and it wasn't from some unfamiliar girl kicking me, it just started flowing as I stood here, thinking of you ... Ah ... no, no they weren't like ... those kind of thoughts ... I just, um, really want to eat chocolate when I think about you ... B ... But wait, that doesn't mean I really want to eat you! I just ... Kuroda's Lackeys: (What the hell is he saying?)

• Dogged Nice Guy - Kitano
• Driven to Suicide: A running gag in the first few chapters is that Kitano thinks Takehisa is suicidally depressed, and assumes that whatever threatening actions he's taking or injuries he's sustained are the result of his attempts to hurt himself.
• Entendre Failure / Un Entendre - Kitano always speaks extremely literally and without deceit, and assumes that everyone else around him does, as well. Thus, he often ends up misinterpreting what other people are saying to him, and people usually end up interpreting his entirely-innocent comments in the most evil and threatening way possible.
• Expy - Ikuno gets an expy of herself in Norihiro Yagi's later manga Claymore. She looks amazingly like that series' protagonist, Clare.
  • The episode in which Kitano dreams of the film he's watched the night before feels very different too, after reading Claymore, just take a closer look at his sword and the oni's eyes.
  • Leo, the boy that gets Ikuno to beat up Kitano once, looks a lot like Raki.
• Emotionless Girl: While Ikuno does have emotions, she appears to be completely unaware of them and is quite surprised when she finds herself acting on them..
• Empathic Environment - Most people feel cold and death hanging in the air before they see Kitano.
  • Kitano's house is even worse, as its dark and creepy aura forces its neighbors to move away. Sure, the manga gives a perfect explanation for the house's darkness (Because of their small irises, Kitano and his dad can't withstand bright light) but still...
• Even the Guys Want Him: Kitano. Also overlaps with Chick Magnet.
• Every One Calls Her Friend #A: Ikuko, until her name's revealed. Some still call her so even then.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Inverted. Kitano cannot follow the conversation of the people around him about 80% of the time because they are talking about doing bad things, or fighting. He just cannot understand that anyone would ever want to do either of those things. People can be actively attacking him and he will still not get the point.
• Face of a Thug - Kitano! The whole plot is driven and catapulted by how he looks like a horrible thug that does drugs and kills people with impunity, which causes everyone to fear and respect him. Of course, all of that is false, and he's the nicest person on earth.
  • Lampshaded by Hishida Haruka, who tries to make him less scary. She succeeds... for several panels (Kitano does look like a normal person with his hair down). What she doesn't know that his hair, when not secured with his hair gel, tends to go up, and this makes him scarier. See Looks Like Cesare entry below.
• Finishing Move - Whenever Kitano uses what Ikuno dubs as his "double palm strike", that usually means the fight is over and he wins. Two things about it: it's a standard shove, yet it's just that strong, so strong it makes people fly.
  • Quote from a mook: I didn't know humans could fly.
  • His dad has a different one: a simple, muhfugginly strong slap.
  • In both case, it's their first, last, and only aggressive move.
• First Girl Wins: Looks like she's going to have to earn it, though!
• Five-Man Band / Five-Bad Band ... yeah, it's a bit complicated...
  • The Hero: Kitano (who is considered The Big Bad by more or less everyone)
  • The Dragon (initially) / The Lancer (more so as the story develops): Yuji
  • The Smart Guy: Ikuko (AKA Ryoko's Friend #A), mostly because she's the only sane one.
  • The Brute and The Chick: Ryoko. She is mellowing out, but remains quite Ax Crazy toward everyone else in the world who is not Kitano.
  • The Big Guy: Kuroda. Ogisu loses the position on account of not being physically big.
  • The Dark Chick: Ikuno, even after her Heel Face Turn.
• Flanderization: In the beginning, Kitano was aware his appearance scares people but later episodes show he's too stupid to notice. Is he that dumb or or is he in a state of serious denial?
  • A bit of this a bit of that probably. He seem to be aware to an extent of his aspect (have in mind that he try to keep his hair flat to minimize it) but to be completely unaware of the full aura of creepiness he involuntarily irradiate. The few times he has been directly confronted with the fact border Tear Jerker status (it hurts him), and he tend to misattribute any related reaction to a misunderstanding and/ or a fault from his side.
    • A certain degree of Fridge Logic might apply. In flashbacks we see that the staff and students of his previous school really like Kitano. He's expecting the same to happen in Seikaku; that people might be put off by his appearance at first but will eventually tumble on to how much of a nice guy Kitano is.
• Flash Step - Kitano starts pulling this stunt during and after the Date. Goes Up to Eleven in the photography arc.
• Friend to All Living Things - Kitano saved Ryoko from a bee, without her knowledge. He let it go rather than squish it, and he's not stung.
  • Changed in the anime, he now scares any animal in sight.
  • Ryuichiro and Midori Kitano get this too in the Whole-Episode Flashback. Lamarck Was Right indeed.
• Funny Foreigner: The American father of the Halford twins, who has not really managed to assimilate into local culture (or even speak semi-fluent Japanese) even after 20 years of living there.
• Generation Xerox - A later chapter has a flashback depicting Kitano's father who was similarly feared as a demon, despite being a kind and gentle person, and was the protector of his school.
• Gentle Giant: Kitano's tall and thin, and his dad's built like a brick house. Neither would intentionally hurt a fly.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes - Both played straight and subverted. Ikuno has much narrower eyes than Ryoko and is correspondingly much more cynical and a dirtier fighter, and Ryoko's friend notes that Ryoko's own eyes were much narrower previously before she mellowed out. Subverted though with Kitano of course, who has the narrowest eyes of any character and is The Messiah.
  • Especially in the anime, almost everybody but Kitano has soulful puppy eyes (particularly when confronted with/by him), perhaps as an intentional contrast.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Kitano has one on his face, but it only comes up twice.
• Happily Married - Kitano's parents, of course.
• Haunted House - In one of the later chapters, Kitano and Ryoko must brave a ghost-infested haunted house to help a little girl find her lost cat. Subverted when it turns out that there aren't actually any ghosts in the house — just Ikuno and her dad, who moved into the house because it was cheap. Double-subverted in that there was a ghost in the house at one point (the little girl looking for her lost cat, in fact), but because Ikuno and her dad kept ignoring it, it eventually wandered outside to bother passers-by instead.
• Heroic Albino - While Kitano probably doesn't literally have albinism, he is unnaturally pale and sensitive to light.
• Heel Realization - Hilariously inverted in chapter 71, where Ikuno realizes that rather than 'accidentally' beating up thugs, she is to her surprise, "a lot nicer of a person than [she] thought"
• Horrible Judge of Character - Pretty much everybody who meets Kitano, but a few characters really stand out.
  • The principal.
  • Ryoko's father, Heizo.
  • Kitano himself, as he often thinks that school thugs are nice people, and mistakes normal people for hoodlums.
  • Student Saeki Yumi subverts this by seeing a hint of the real Kitano, then exemplifies the trope when something hilarious and terrifying happens to reset her option of him. Twice.
• Hot Shounen Mom - Midori Kitano, in a Morticia Addams kind of way.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl - Kitano's dad is ludicriously buff and gigantic, while his mom is normal-sized. Kitano himself is One Head Taller than Ryoko.
• Idiot Ball - Kuroda's is permanently glued to him, but Kitano's is pretty sticky too.
  • Hell, everyone, really. No matter how inept Kitano shows himself to be at fighting, everyone keeps believing his more-luck-than-brains dodges of serendipity are some kind of ultra-special secret martial arts technique. It's like everyone poops out half their brains when they see him.
    • It's more that Kitano shows a natural ability to either avoid or minimize damage by retreating at the instant of impact (a skill doubtlessly acquired by years of people attacking him based on his appearance) and mistake it for a honed martial arts technique. His "finishing move" aside, how many of his opponents end up on the ground generally is a total fluke, depending on the circumstances and often, Kitano is the only one around to see it, causing people to make the usual assumptions.
• I Know Mortal Kombat - Kiyomi Kaburagi is a pretty convincing ninja, considering her training is in photography. She even has Hammer Camera Space.
• In Love with Your Carnage - Arguably, quite a few characters that admire Kitano because of how Badass he appears to be (especially when it looks like he single-handedly took on a whole army of people).
  • Yuji is initially this way with Kitano.
  • Ryoko too has her moments.
  • Ikuno too. She even said it outright more than once.
• Insane Troll Logic - Kitano is very guilty of this, but Kuroda takes the cake trying to explain why old Russian spies posing as teenagers are throwing stones at him (It still makes NO sense whatsoever, even in context).
• I See London - Sana Halford accidentally gives her father and brother a look up her skirt after she collapses in shock from seeing Kitano through their home's window.
• It Got Worse - The myths circulating about Kitano. Anything he does, no matter how innocent, ends with more people worshiping and fearing him.
• It Runs in The Family - Apparently Kitano's incredibly scary looks were inherited from his father (who looks like a Yakuza) and his mother (who is so abnormally beautiful that it scares people).
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy - while Ikuno is interested in Kitano, she'd prefer that he and Ryoko to get together... so she can become Kitano's mistress and they'd all be together.
• Japanese Delinquents - A lot of them. Of course, the character that everyone thinks is the evilest delinquent of them all turns out to be a wonderful person.
• Kissing Cousins - Midori Asai (AKA the future Mrs. Kitano) and her cousin Chuji in the Days of Our Youth arc. Neither of them is particularly dedicated to the relationship, however: Chuji sees Midori as just another girl in his harem, and Midori is... well, the future Mrs. Kitano.
• Kissing Discretion Shot - The conclusion to 15 volumes of sexual tension.
• Kubrick Stare / Slasher Smile- Basically Kitano's default expression.
• Lampshade Hanging - Lots and lots of it, especially when the Large Ham is around.
  • "You are a very loud person."
  • And to the Shonen genre: "Who do you think you are? An enemy character in a fighting manga?"
• Large Ham - Kuroda. He usually addresses Ryoko by screaming her full name, gives a passionate monologue about the personal sacrifices that Soviet spies have to make after he saw a girl he didn't recognize, and is prone to maximum volume declarations of his plans to elope with Ryoko. Kikuchi of the photography club doesn't get a lot of page-time, but he seems to have similar tendencies. In the course of two pages he tells Kitano that that he'll give him an ass-whupping with the Power of Friendship and then makes the case for being a Knight Templar. One of the other photography club members hangs a lampshade on it.
• Lightning Bruiser - Takes hit after hit and keeps getting up, moves faster than most people can follow, and if pushed, hits hard enough to literally send humans flying. If Kitano wasn't an Actual Pacifist, he'd be this.
• Looks Like Cesare - Kitano is unnaturally pale; when his hair stands up, he "looks like Ryuk".
• Loud of War - Kuroda, without any kind of amplification device... and without any clue he's actually doing it. (Not that he usually has any clue whatsoever, mind you.)
  • Ryoko's father does this quite a bit too.
• Love Triangle - There's one between Kitano, Ryoko, and Kuroda. Later, there's one between Kitano, Ryoko, and Ikuno.
  • Evolves into a (luckily toned down) Love Dodecahedron later on. Kitano is The Messiah and loves everyone, Ryoko loves him and they're the Official Couple. Kuroda cannot wrap his brain around this and continues to hit on Ryoko despite being routinely kicked in the face. Yuji and Ikuno have a crush on Kitano and start to be Foe Yay for each other. Ikuno gets a shota admirer and Kitano a loli one (who are brother and sister). Leo appreciates Kitano, but Sana really dislikes/is jealous of Ikuno. Oh, and Kitano gets a Stalker with a Crush too.
  • Ikuno takes the cake; she openly states that she supports Kitano and Ryoko's relationship and thinks they should get married... so that she can move in with them as Kitano's mistress.
• Love You and Everybody - Ikuno likes Kitano... and Ryoko, and Ryoko's friend #A, and Takehisa, and Kuroda, and Ogisu, and....
• Made of Iron - Kitano. There's a trick to how he can withstand so many blows, but even without it, he can take punishment like nobody's business. Goes double for his father: punks that tried to beat up Kitano's dad when he was younger ended up getting hurt themselves.
• Manipulative Bastard - The Student Council President.
  • He's a bit more like a Smug Snake, seeing how he ended up when his plan backfired on him and was rendered impopular after the student body see his True Colors. He's never heard from again until the last few pages in the final chapter.
  • Ryoko and Ikuno's fathers believe their 3-way fight with Kitano's father was engineered by Kitano.
• Malicious Slander - Many characters end up spreading more rumors of Kitano's "murderous ways" and "gangster connections".
• The Masochism Tango - Kuroda thinks that Ryoko hits him because she likes him. Of course, she actually likes Kitano, the guy that she treats nicely and doesn't hit.
• Melee a Trois - Between Kitano's, Ryoko's and Ikuno's fathers.
• The Messiah - Kitano. Seriously, there aren't many characters out there that are as pure-hearted or kind as him. To elaborate, he apologized to Ikuno after she had beat the stuffing out of him the day before because he would not go down which, as Leo pointed out, hurt her emotionally because she did not want to attack him. He was crying as he apologized to her.
• Meaningful Name - The town of Hekikuu (blue sky). Kitano says he often looks at the sky because it's so blue and beautiful. (Scoring another point with Ryoko in the process.)
  • Deconstructed a bit with Seiichirou Kitano, "Sei" is written as "truth".
• Miles Gloriosus - Kuroda
• Missing Mom - Hilariously subverted.
• Mistaken for Badass - Makes the whole series.
• Moment Killer: During chapter 83 Yuji and Ikuno both have to fight the urge (and Kuroda) to do this. Then a rival gang boss shows up and does it anyway.
• Mugging the Monster - There are several instances where someone threatens Ryoko and Ikuno thinking they are weak because they are girls, and proceeds to get beaten up by them.
• Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters - The delinquent version of this is definitely in play, as the "Chief Bully" is referred to as a "Guardian" of the school, and it's demonstrated that this is usually a put-on, given that Kitano needs to be identified as a good Guardian. After being reformed by Kitano, Yuji takes on a lot of "noble Yakuza" mannerisms and behaves as a neighborhood friendly gangster who just happens to be a high school student.
• Nightmare Fetishist - Ikuno and Ryoko.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant - Kitano
• No Ending - The protagonists were getting totally out of hand for the author by the end of the series, so he tied up what he could and left us with a "the manga stops here, but they're going on with their lives" message. However the very end does feature a great Grand Finale.
• No Name Given - Ryoko's petite, short-haired friend is this during the first part of the manga. We eventually learn her given name is Ikuko about halfway through, but her family name (Hirayama) isn't made explicit until the final volume.
• Oh Crap - Asai's expression, during the Days of Our Youth arc of Kitano's parents when they were young.
• Only Sane Man
  • Ikuko (aka "Ryoko's friend #A"), as the only member of the main cast who isn't either a hoodlum, a martial artist, or a complete idiot, ends up as the much-ignored voice of reason.
  • The Vice-Principal is the only one who knows that Kitano is not evil. He never tells anyone.
• Overprotective Dad - Ryoko's father, who thinks she is being manipulated by the devil incarnate.
• Panty Shot - Largely averted: Ryoko loves high kicks but we rarely see anything when she uses them (with the occasional exception). Bonus points for doing this with canny camera angles instead of a Magic Skirt. It's even lampshaded.
• Personal Appearance Tropes
  • Death Glare
  • Face of a Thug
  • Manly Tears
  • Slasher Smile
• The Dreaded - Subverted hilariously. Most of the insanely nightmare-ish looking drawings of Kitano would normally scare the shit out of readers if they were present in a Horror manga - the only thing is that his kindly thoughts and good hearted intentions are shown clearly to the reader, making it funny instead. Of course, that doesn't prevent him from being The Dreaded to the other characters In-Universe.
• The Power of Love - Invoked and Subverted oh so much during the time when the local Schemer convinces Kuroda that he must save Ryoko from Kitano using The Power of Love. Too bad for him that she doesn't want to be rescued.
• The Power of Friendship: Invoked and Subverted. Nothing resists the aura of Kitano.
• Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh: Most fights against Kitano look like this to the outside observer.
• The Renfield - Vice-President Koide. Sudo even bemoans the fact that his only "pawn" is a bumbling moron that can't seem to get things right.
• Sadist Teacher - Well, actually the principal - he's constantly hiring thugs and correctional teachers to try to get Kitano expelled (because Kitano "is a demon!"). In a kind of subversion, most of the teachers in the series are afraid to pick on Kitano.
  • Further subversion in that the one who causes the most trouble for Kitano actually has truly good intentions... but is going about it all wrong and said poor efforts only do further damage.
• Scars Are Forever: Kitano has one on his face after Takehisa slashed him. It only appears when he's agitated.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend - Subverted. Kitano initially denies that he has special feelings toward Ryoko, but after a moment of thought, tells people while blushing, "Sorry, I think I just lied. I guess I really do like Ryoko-chan after all."
• Shrouded in Myth - This trope is Kitano.
• Slice of Life
• Sneeze of Doom - Kitano's sneezes sound like screeches of death that causes lesser men to run in fear
• Stealth Hi Bye - Not so much on the "bye" part, but Kuroda has the amazing ability to suddenly appear in front of people, screaming their name at full volume.
• Stop Helping Me! - Hishida Haruka is the most feared of the Shadowy Seven, not for her fighting ability (she has none to speak of), but because her well-meaning efforts to help someone inevitably end up making life worse for them somehow.
• Superhero Sobriquets - As the series goes on, Kitano starts collecting nicknames. A LOT of nicknames:
  • Hekikuu's guardian, the greatest guardian of them all, the demon of Hekikuu, the first-year guardian of Hekikuu High. The devil himself, manifested into our world. The final boss, the ultimate weapon. Also, the human weapon, the last boss, the god of slaughter and pillage, the guardian of Hell, bloody Saburo, and exploding Goro.
  • Kitano and Ryoko together are known as: The most powerful violence couple in history, and the strongest couple in Hekikuu.
  • As the cast grows, the collected group is known as The Kitano family, or Kitano-san's Hekikuu army.
  • Back in the day, Kitano's father was known as the devil guardian.
• Team Rocket - Kuroda and Those Two Guys with him; also, the female photography club president and her nerdy male followers.
• Tempting Fate - "But hey, what if she fights with Kitano-kun and she falls in love with him too?" Rrrright, never talk about my boyfriend, ever again.
• Tenchi Solution - Proposed by Ikuno, that if Kitano and Ryoko get married in the future, she will become his lover to maintain the status quo.
• Those Two Guys - The guys who are always with Kuroda. Lampshaded hilariously in a discussion between the Student Council President and the vice-president on how there's not much info on those two and that it was a miracle to get their full names at all.
• Too Dumb to Live - Kuroda; his Idiot Ball is so big it powers a good third of the story. (We even have Word of God he has that specific role.)
• Took a Level in Badass - Kitano starts out as a Determinator who's really, really good at taking punches, but by the end of the story he becomes so good at dodging that he's nearly at Flash Step levels.
• Transfer Student Uniforms - Due to transferring to so many schools (her father is a guidance counselor), Ikuno refuses to change her uniform again.
• Turn the Other Cheek - When Ikuno beats Kitano because of a promise she made to a boy, he kept rising until the boy told her to stop out of grief. Upon being told by Ikuno that It's All My Fault that she beats him, he promptly collapses. Why? Because he thinks he made her so angry that he deserved every punch and kicks Ikuno threw at her. He collapses in relief because that meant their friendship would now not be in trouble as he didn't do anything wrong. My God...
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife - Or demonic Yakuza-looking guy with a so pretty she's incredibly creepy wife.
• Unexplained Recovery - Parodied. Kitano was thought to have died fighting a Yakuza (his father) earlier. His classmates were absolutely terrified when he came to school later that day.
• The Un-Smile: Oh GOD Kitano...
• Unknown Rival - The first time that Sudo tried to antagonize Kitano, Kitano genuinely had no idea of who he was or what he was doing here. Being thoroughly ignored was a pretty low blow for someone as full of himself as Sudo.
• Unwanted Rescue - Kuroda's idea of "rescuing" Ryoko from Kitano with his Power of Love. Of course, not only is Kitano a kind-hearted and wonderful person who would never do anything bad to her (or anyone), Ryoko doesn't want to be rescued, because she likes Kitano.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid - In the Days of Our Youth arc, Midori claims that Chuji used to be one. By the time of the story, however, there is very little evidence of this remaining.
• Villain Sue: In-Universe, to the characters who don't know Kitano, he seems to be a Complete Monster, Manipulative Bastard, Enemy to All Living Things and a Noble Demon with really good publicity all rolled into one.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend - Ryoko.
• Waif Fu - Ryoko, partially justified because she's a martial artist and everything, but she's 1.67 meters tall and weighs 49 kilos (just a bit under 5'6" and a bit over 100 pounds, for the metrically challenged).
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?
• Where the Hell Is Springfield? - There's no Hekikuu in Japan.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl - Averted with most delinquent characters who have no problem attacking girls and will only use this phrase as an excuse after they've had the crap beaten out of them by a girl; played straight with Kitano, in the sense that he is an Actual Pacifist, but violence against women is the closest thing he has to a Berserk Button.
  • His father seems to be quite similar, in the little we've seen of him.
• Yakuza - One of the many rumors about Kitano is that he has relations with the Yakuza. His father also looks like one, and so does Heizo.