MAR/YMMV

• Angst? What Angst? - Rather than complain about their problems, characters on both sides use their angst as motivation to beat the crap out of their opponents.
  • Ginta sorta subverts this in a few scenes where he does feel genuinely homesick; but he quickly gets in over his head enough that he really doesn't have time to angst.
• Complete Monster: While Phantom is a Base Breaker, most Chess Pieces including Halloween, Girom, Rapunzel, and King are these.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: In the anime, Chaton doesn't attend the party that was designated for MAR Heaven and stays outside feeding a baby Loco. Alan looks for her outside and asks her why she isn't in the castle with them. She turns away and starts crying and tells him that she's a Chess Piece and would only cause problems for him if she stayed any longer. In her mind, Loco insists that Chaton is playing tricks again and asks the audience Who Would Be Stupid Enough...? to listen to her? Cue, Alan goes up to her, takes her hand and gives her a communication ÄRM telling her that this would allow them to stay in contact. He then tells her that she's a member of Team MAR now and if anyone tried to say something about it otherwise, he would always protect her. Cue, she smiles at the ÄRM and then hugs him. She then asks them when they're going to get married. Alan freaks out and shouts what she was talking about and how he never mentioned anything about marriage. However, the way he gives her the ÄRM is similar to how a man asks a woman to marry him.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The English anime's OP.
• Die for Our Ship: Snow is the main victim of this whenever the pairing concerns Ginta with someone else.
  • ESPECIALLY Yaoi pairings. Poor girl :(
• Draco in Leather Pants: Phantom and for very good reasons.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Alviss is by far the most popular character in the series given that almost all artwork and fanart is mainly about him. It's even lampshaded in the series by Edward and Belle.
• Fanon Discontinuity - Most MAR fans, do not acknowledge MAR Omega as part of the canon-or a sequel. Mostly because, it was done by a completely differently mangaka, Ginta isn't even the main character, and the original main team characters are now basically support cast-or background characters.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Nanashi/Dorothy is largely supported in the fandom due to their Belligerent Sexual Tension that they have.
  • Jack/Snow is surprisingly more popular than Jack/Pano (if only because of the Ghost Chess arc) on forum discussions.
  • On the Ho Yay/Foe Yay side, you have Ginta/Alviss, Phantom/Alviss and Rolan/Alviss with the first two being nearly tied.
• Ho Yay - You'd guess the anime was made by Yaoi Fangirls
  • Not really, the anime just up the Fan Service compared to the manga which was known for it's Gorn instead.
• Invincible Hero - All of the team members are this to a degree, but Dorothy takes the cake (She's the only other member of the group not to lose in any of the fights. Ginta himself is justified during the War Games because his loss, as captain, would mean that the entire team would lose.).
  • Anzai Nobuyuki kinda wrote himself into a corner when he made the rule that loss of the captain of the team in the War Games was instant game over for the heroes' side. Ginta pretty much was designated from the spot that he wasn't going to lose. At least not on the tournament anyway.
  • To be fair though he did lose against Phantom the first time
• Moral Event Horizon - The Zonnen members of the Chess are an entire group of this. They go so far past the horizon that even Phantom despises them; they are also restricted from being promoted above the rank of rook, and they are isolated as far away from the other Chess as possible. Which is odd considering that most of the Chess members aren't any better.
• Needs More Love - Despite being the kind of series made to attract as much of an audience possible, there's barely any active fans in the English fandom. Not helped that review sites claim it to be just another generic shonen manga.
• Nightmare Fuel - You've gotta admit, there are some scary things in this series. For example, the character Chimera, whom, upon having her mask broken off, she is shown to have a mass of multiple eyes on the right side of her face. Also, Pinocchion, just Pinocchion.
• No Yay - Kolekkio/Jack scene during episode 33. Also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
• The Scrappy: People who watch the series tend to dislike Snow greatly whether it’s for shipping reasons or because she often needs to be rescued.
  • Take That Scrappy: Fans were cheering when Alviss literally left Snow to die by the King’s hands in the anime and while she dies in Ginta’s arms, fans were probably cheering or mourning for Nanashi instead of crying over her temporary death.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot - The series started out as a perfectly respectable adventure series, and was setting up for an epic journey across the country. Then the next episode cuts to them already at their destination and the majority of the series is spent on a fighting tournament. This wouldn't be so bad if the battles weren't such a step down from those of Flame of Recca. Fortunately, the anime fixes some of these things by adding filler arcs that don't have to do with the tournament and the aftermath which included the Ghost Chest arc and the final arc which had a much more satisfying ending than the original manga.
  • Also Babbo being Phantom's former weapon, we could have gotten scenes where Babbo switches back and forth betweeen his current gentleman self and the psychotic past alter ego.
    • Of course he was possessed by the Orb, the main villain of the series.