Dragon Knights

Rath: Hey, ugly! We are the slayers of the unholy, the keepers of justice, the guardians of truth!
Thatz: We cannot be defeated! We are the Dragon Knights, scourge of demonkind! And, uh... we're kinda lost.

A manga series by Mineko Ohkami, Dragon Knights tells the tale of the war between the Dragon tribe led by Lykouleon, who seeks to protect the world, and the Demon tribe led by Nadil, who wants to take it over. To help save the day Lykouleon sends out his best fighters, the Dragon Knights. Traveling to Nadil's dark castle they cut of his head, ending his reign of terror.

And all of this happens before the first chapter.

Now that the heroes have the head of the Demon Lord, they must protect it from everybody else who might seek to bring Nadil Back from the Dead, or simply claim his power as their own. Of course things are never easy, and with evil plots, foul monsters, and shiny distractions around every corner, the Knights will have their hands full trying to keep their victory as such.

Tropes used in Dragon Knights include:

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: When the specter needs to have a talk with Kitchel, because she refused to talk to a "ghost" he took the physical form of a small, squirrel like creature instead, known as Sacreds in their world, to get her to listen.
• Affably Evil: Can apply to Kharl, he even unknowingly buys flowers from one of the heroes and accepts his invite to lunch. Also Sabel.
• Alien Sky: In the Demon World, the sky's a shade of purple.
• All-Encompassing Mantle: The preferred attire of Shydeman, Shyrendora, and Kharl.
• All Just a Dream: When Rune wakes up from his crossdressing contest nightmare in the Gaiden.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us
• All Your Colors Combined: Not used in battle, but the five Dragon Officers (represented by different colors) were suppose to use their powers together to seal away Nadil's head.
• Almost-Dead Guy: Alfeegi, Kaistern, and Lykouleon are all able to do a few final tasks or past some last words before expiring.
• Amplifier Artifact: The Wind Staff allows Cesia more control over her already potent powers.
  • Cesia herself is an example; it's why she's so desirable to both sides.
• Animal Motifs
• Animate Dead: Sabel's primary power.
• Anime Hair: Kharl's odd, winged bird hair style. Other than that, most of the hairstyles are quite tame.
  • The women (and Gil) often have impossibly long hair.
• Animorphism
• Anticlimax
• Anyone Can Die
• Art Evolution: Ohkami changed her style practically from book to book until the later half of the series when it stabilized a little...
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: There's Varawoo, the fish, and then the giant one-eye monster. And then Diamond Clover and Yusurugi
• Attractive Bent Gender
• Awful Truth
• Back from the Dead: Happens quite a lot.
  • Not exactly willy-nilly - someone else's sacrifice so you can use their body - and sometimes more than one body - is usually required.
  • But... Only about half the characters that die end up staying dead, and even then, some of them make reappearances.
• Badass Longcoat: Worn by Tetheus for most of the series.
• Battle Couple: Rune and Tintlet to a certain extent. Rath and Cesia.
• The Bartender
• Bare Your Midriff: Kitchel, for most of her outfits. Eventually Cesia joins in on the fun too.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: How Nadil decides to welcome Cesia back to his castle.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While he's the most polite and courteous of the knights, Rune's got the worst temper.
• Big Bad: Nadil, of course. And he also doubles as the Evil Overlord.
• Big Eater: Thatz. Food is one of his two great obsessions, the other of course being money.
• Big Good: Lykouleon
• Blind Idiot Translation: Tokyopop's translation work is... less then consistent at times.
• Black Magic
• Bond One-Liner

Tetheus: Just a thought... but you may want to throw this fish back.

• Bound and Gagged: Happens a few times to Rath when the other two knights don't want to deal with him.
• Breaking Out the Boss
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens in the first book when Rune explains to the readers where the Knights are and how they got there. Pops again a few times later on in the series, but not too often.
• Broken Treasure
• Bus Full of Innocents: "Like kidnapping a Kindergarten bus!"
• Canine Companion: Crewger and Illuser.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Rath
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Of course, it doesn't hurt that the author started out drawing Yaoi comics.
• Chekhov's Armoury: Dragon Knights has tons of Chekhov's guns everywhere. Sometimes, they only show up in illustrations or page splashes.
• Co-Dragons: Both Shydeman and Shyrendora act as dragons for Nadil's army, with Shydeman having the power to manipulate bodies while Shyrendora has the power to manipulate minds. Even though it's implied that the two should have the same amount of power, Shydeman tends to act as the leader of the two.
• Combat Stilettos: Even the guys wear them.
• Combat Tentacles: Used by Shydeman and Shyrendora in battle. Eventually results in Body Horror.
• Comforting the Widow
• Conveniently an Orphan
• Cool Sword: We've got your rare, ultimate sword, swords on fire, and your successor's sword.
• Crazy Prepared: Thatz ends up having a butterfly net just when he needs one.
• Creepy Twins: Shydeman and Shyrendora certainly qualify. They've even both got the Evil Albino thing going on. As well as Rim Kanna and her sister.
• Curse: Poor Cesia suffers from these all the time!
• Dark Action Girl: Cesia, when she's in evil mode.
• Dead Little Sister: Actually a dead little niece for Gil, same idea though.
• Dead Person Conversation: Sabel converses with the Death Faerie, Alfeegi.
• Deal with the Devil: When Cesia exchanges herself for Nadil to call off the siege on the Dragon Palace.
• Death Seeker: Rath, as revealed in volume 5
• Death Glare: A favorite of Rune and Alfeegi.
• Demon Head: Not quite so extreme, but Rune and Alfeegi pull this face a lot.
• Demon Slaying: A favorite past time of Rath's.
• Demonic Possession
• Did They or Didn't They?
• Deus Ex Machina: That Diamond Clover thing was NEVER mentioned before!
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: When Kharl invites Nohiro out for a short bite to eat at a cafe. However, it's not clear if Kharl realizes who (or what) Nohiro is.
• Disguised in Drag: Happens to the knights in the first book.
• Damsel in Distress
• Don't Fear the Reaper
• Dragon Rider: What else did you expect of a manga titled Dragon Knights?
• The Dragon: Both Shydeman and Shyrendora take on this role.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Rune, who is quite possibly the queen king of this trope.
• Duel to the Death
• Easy Amnesia: Cesia loses her memory, which then leads to Identity Amnesia. Also applies to Nohiro, who remembers nothing about his past.
• Eighties Hair: Mullets! Which luckily go away over time.
• Eldritch Abomination
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: In later volumes, Ohkami begins to incoporate this fashion into her character designs and illustrations.
• Elemental Baggage
• Elemental Powers: All the Knights are based on elements, resulting in Dishing Out Dirt, Playing with Fire, and Making a Splash with Thatz, Rath, and Rune respectively. Additionally, Cesia adds in wind to the ensemble.
• The Empath: The Star Heaven Princess
• Empty Shell: The basis of Sabel's powers. He finds dead bodies of people, takes their souls, and then creates puppets from the corpses.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Much to Rune's dismay. Of course, once they realize he's actually a boy, they usually back off.
• Evil Eye: The source of Gil's demon powers is the demon seed planted in his right eye.
• Evil Minions
• Evil Twin: Rim Kana uses this to trick the Dragon Knights during their first encounter, leading to Spot the Imposter. And then ironically, she has her own evil twin.
• Eyes of Gold
• Eyepatch of Power: Gil's sporting an eye patch once he comes back!
• Face Death with Dignity
• Facial Markings: Shydeman and Shyrendora.
• Fairy Companion: Ringleys, Meteaura, as well as Nohiro's little entourage.
• Fan Nickname
• Fantasy World Map
• Fisher King
• Flash Back: Happens in both Whole-Episode Flashback and Flashback Cut forms.
• Flipping the Table: Done by Thatz when he's frustrated that the crew can't find a way to get across the dead soul moat to Nadil's castle.
• Flung Clothing: As Rath changes out of his dress disguise to do battle.
• Flying Seafood Special: Varawoo and Garaba, the latter of which is actually used for flying transportation.
• Fog of Doom: Nadil has a giant ocean of souls protecting his castle.
• Fortune Teller: Quite a few of these, including Cesia, Salazar, and Delte.
• Genki Girl: Kitchel
• Ghost Amnesia: Fiji, when Rath, Thatz, Zoma, and Ringleys run into her as a ghost.
• The Glasses Come Off: Kaistern battles without his glasses... it is never explained why.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Interestingly enough, it's only the heroes who have scars. Thatz has his from his former street days. Gil's scars mostly come from torture and self-infliction. Ruwalk has some across his chest from his encounter with the "terrible demon". And Rath has a scar across his neck after his first suicide attempt in volume 6.
• Gory Discretion Shot
• Half-Identical Twins
• Harmless Freezing
• Healing Hands: Fairies have this ability.
• Heel Face Turn: Cesia and Zoma make theirs by the end of the first volume, but other notable examples are Gil, Bierrez, and Sabel.
• Hellish Pupils: Sabel's eyes are shaped like this, as well as Gil's in his demon form.
• Heroic Albino: Kaistern
• Heroic BSOD
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Heroic Sociopath: How to put this...

Rune: Rath! I told you not to kill 'em all!
Rath: You mean that's all of 'em?

• Horse of a Different Color: The darnas.
• How Dare You Die on Me!: Cesia makes a promise to never let Rath get himself killed by his own suicidal tendencies. She does mess up once, but then all she's got to do is bring him back.
• Ho Yay: What do you expect from an mangaka that originally wrote about shounen-ai?
  • Especially invoked with Rath and Kai-stern (at least from Kaistern's side).
  • From Volume 13 Page 146, major ho-yay ensues for a couple of pages between Rath and Karl.
• Hyper Awareness: It's mentioned that Alfeegi's got keen observation skills.
• I Have Your Wife
• I'm Having Soul Pains
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Queen Raseleane.
• Interspecies Romance
• Invisible to Normals: The death faeries.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Gil and his inability to control when he turns into his cat demon form. And Cesia when she turns into a Sacred because of a curse.
• In the Hood: Shydeman and Shyrendora spy on the knights while wearing hooded cloaks.
• I Sense a Disturbance In The Force
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alfeegi.
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: If only because Ohkami can't ever stay consistent with a character design.
• Karma Houdini: Kharl, despite the many problems he causes for both sides and being the direct cause of the near extinction of the Fairy tribe, ends the series in pretty much the same position he was in at the start of it.
  • Although considering his position wasn't great to begin with, it's more of a Left Hanging situation--or even an authorial version of Cruel Mercy.
• Kill It with Fire: Several people in the series use this as their preferred method, such as Gil, Fedelta, and of course Rath, who leaps straight into Pyromaniac levels at times.
• Kill It with Ice: Rath oddly enough can also do this, despite being the Dragon Knight of Fire and his own normal tendencies.
• Kill It with Water: Rune does this as the Dragon Knight of Water.
• King Incognito: Hugh
• Kiss Kiss Slap
• Lethal Chef: Both Rath and Kharl are abysmal at cooking. Rath somehow manages to put sand into porridge and Kharl managed to make a mandrake out of a salad!
• Language of Magic: Whenever Nadil casts the spell on Lykouleon that curses him to bleed to death, he speaks it in a strange language made up of square shaped characters. Quite possibly Black Speech but it's never clarified.
• Last Kiss: Lykouleon and Raseleane
  • And Cesia and Rath though he gets better.
• Licking the Blade: Garfacky does this at least once.
• Life Energy
• Life or Limb Decision
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• Long-Lost Relative: With Tetheus and Shydeman and Shyrendora.
• The Lost Woods: Home to the fairies.
• Love Triangle
• Loyal Animal Companion: Several of these, first we've got the dragons and their knights. Then Lykouleon used to have a pair of demon dogs, Illuser and Crewgar, and Kharl had a pair of birds that helped him with his alchemy.
• Luminescent Blush
• MacGuffin Girl: Cesia
• Mad Alchemist: Kharl, and of course, he's got his Alchemy lab as well.
• Magic Knight
• Magic Music: A flute is needed to open the gates of the Water Realm.
• Magic Wand: The Wind Staff, used especially by Cesia.
• Man On Fire: Done subtly with Fedelta. He's always got a poof of smoke floating away from him. Sometimes Rath engulfs himself in flames too.
• Marionette Master: Both Sabel and Rim Kana have the ability to create People Puppets.
• Meaningful Funeral
• Medieval European Fantasy
• Mind Control: The main power of Shyrendora.
• Multicolored Hair: Ruwalk, Garfacky, Rath, Sabel, and Cesia.
• My God, What Have I Done?
• Mysterious Past: Along with some Dark and Troubled Past as well, leading to Rath's I Am Who?? moment.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Done once when Jilge thought her plan to be successful.
• No Export for You: Ohkami had created a bunch of bonus Dragon Knights chapters after the series had ended, which were printed together in a book in Japan. However, it seems like Tokyopop had little interest in importing it to the US, understandable considering the series' obscurity.
• Nonchalant Dodge
• Off with His Head
• Older Than They Look: Really all of the cast except the humans, of which there are few. Making for a confusing timeline. Most of them are quite possibly Really Seven Hundred Years Old, but it's even mentioned that most members of the Dragon Tribe don't remember their age. At least Immortality Begins At Twenty.
• Omake
• One Head Taller: Not that Kitchel's too tiny, but Tetheus is certainly very huge. And then you've got the Huge Guy, Tiny Girl with Alfeegi and Reema.
• The Only One: Poor Rath, everyone's depending on him. Even the villians.
• Our Dragons Are Different: First you've got the elemental duel dragons, who chose their Dragon Knights and then aid them on their adventures. Then you've got the Dragon Tribe, which is the governing family of their country, Draqueen, and characterized by immortality, eternal youth, Cute Little Fangs and Pointy Ears.
• Our Elves Are Better: Regulators of nature, have the longest life spans of all four species, and the ability to heal.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: They've got four ears.
• Overly Long Name: Kuon Sheena, it's actually just her first name.
• Pillar of Light: Three of these mark the boundaries between the Eastern and Western worlds.
• Poisoned Weapons: How Kaistern goes about most of his battles.
• Portal Pool: Created by Sabel to get around places.
• Power Limiter: The blood crystal that Lykouleon gives to Cesia is meant to seal both her demon personality and powers.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow
• Prehensile Hair: Kuon Sheena as she's possessed by Meteaura
• Put on a Bus: Happens to quite a few characters, most notably Nohiro.
• The Promise
• Only a Flesh Wound: Alfeegi, seriously, it took him forever to bleed to death!
• Quest for Identity: Nohiro
• Quivering Eyes
• Rags to Riches: Thatz used to be a common thief before taking on knighthood.
• Rapunzel Hair: Cesia, Tinlett, and Raselane's hair can reach down to their feet and then some... it seems to depend on Ohkami's mood.
• Razor Floss: Rim Kana's main weapon. Even allows her to have People Puppets.
• Razor Wind: It was a bit more like a razor tornado when Black Cesia did it.
• Recurring Dreams: Rath has the same dream about a battle a couple of times. It's never fully revealed what the dream was suppose to have meant.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Tetheus' eyes turn read whenever he senses a demon near by.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni
• Red Sky, Take Warning: When Nadil first curses the Dragon Lord, the sky turns red back in Draqueen.
• Reluctant Warrior: Rune
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Sacreds
• Royal Blood: Pretty important in Dragon Knights, since most of the plot revolves around how the Dragon Lord lacks an heir to the throne and the crazy measures they have to take to circumnavigate this problem. Members of the royal family are subjected to Blood Magic too. For the Dragon Lord, his blood is like a powerful, super condensed form of light magic, too potent for anyone but the Queen to touch it.
• Sacrificial Lion: Lykouleon is killed by Nadil's curse in the end.
• Sapient Steed
• Saving the World
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Varawoo, a giant demon fish, is sealed away by the Water dragon so that he doesn't flood the world. Of course, this makes things a little tricky when Rune comes to unseal the Water dragon. But it turns out Varawoo can be sealed by multiple things. After Rune releases the Water dragon, Tinlett seals the demon fish instead, until finally Rune returns with enough power to seal Varawoo within himself.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Sinistora, who looks just like the then dead Crewger.
• Shinigami: Shinigami in the Dragon Knights world take the form of Death Fairies, and turn out to be what Reema and Duma truly are. Little is shown about them except that they are visible only to those near death and their job is to lead noble souls to the afterlife after granting them one wish. Interestingly, they are the only characters in the series to wear Eastern styled clothing except for when they decide to done the Black Cloak. Later on, Alfeegi comes back as a Death Fairy.
• She's a Man In Japan: Meteaura was mistaken as male in the book she first appears in.
• Shoot the Dog: Averted, when Lykouleon is unable to kill the crazed Illuser and turns him into Rath instead.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Shydeman is always shown to be the calmer brother, while Shyrendora is more of the hot-headed sister.
• Sleep Mode Size: The Duel Dragons can shrink down into smaller versions when their knights don't need them. It also seems to be implied that a Duel Dragon can only reach its full size when it's knight is present.
• Snow Means Love: Subverted, Rath really loathes snow. Especially since it reminds him of his hatred of Kharl.
• Some Kind of Force Field: The barrier around the Dragon Palace that keeps demons from entering.
• Soul Jar
• Speech-Impaired Animal: The duel dragons, but most noticeably Fire. Not that he lets this stop him from communicating!
• Split Personality: Cesia, who actually manages to have three distinct personalities, and arguably Gil with his demon form.
• Standard Fantasy Setting
• Standard Royal Court: The Dragon Officers.
• Storming the Castle: What the Dragon Knights did just before the series starts, And then later again, when Nadil has to be killed a second time.
• The Stoic: Tetheus.
• Summon Magic: Becomes a major plot point near the end of the series.
• Super-Deformed
• Super Empowering: Cesia has the latent power to exponentially increase anyone else's power with just proximity, she doesn't even have to will it.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Of course, Cesia's evil side claims to be far more powerful than her true self. She even insists that she's the "real" Cesia and is shown to have much greater control over her powers. The same could also be said of Gil, who is more powerful in his demon cat form, but he has no control over his actions. Then arguably Rune, after he's gained the power of Varawoo.
• Sword Fight: Plenty of those.
• Tears of Blood: Rath, being Unable to Cry, actually cries tears of blood instead when Kharl first tries to revert him back into a demon.
• Theme Twin Naming: Shydeman and Shyrendora.
• Time-Delayed Death
• Tomato in the Mirror: Quite a few characters, namely Rath, Cesia, Gil, and Sabel.
• Transformation Sequence
• Trickster: Sabel
• Tyke Bomb: Garfakcy
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Ohkami actually does a good job of keeping the characters outfits different. There's even a chapter where the characters spontaneously decide to change their clothes after being in the same outfits for a few volumes.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Bierrez never gets Cesia.
• Unwanted Revival
• Victorious Childhood Friend: Lykouleon and Raseleane are revealed to have met when they were children in the Gaiden chapters.
• Villains Never Lie
• Visible Sigh
• Wacky Marriage Proposal
• Walking the Earth: Kaistern started out as a wanderer before he met Lykouleon and became a Dragon Officer. Of course, he still continues this mentality though, much to Alfeegi's dismay.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never do get to find out what, exactly, was going on with Nohiro.
• Whip It Good: Cesia's evil side summons a whip.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Rune, though to be fair to him it's never willingly. Of course, when you're as feminine looking as he is even "normal" clothing can end up looking like drag.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sabel is terrified of fairies.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Happens a lot more often during the beginning of the series. The Dragon Knights had to do this a comple of times in drag, then you've got Hugh, and even Cesia's disguise as an innkeeper. Fedelta does a disguise later on in volume 6.
• Winged Humanoid: Several of the characters appear with wings in illustrations or covers, including Rath, Cesia, Rune, Thatz, Zoma, Kharl, and Alfeegi. Then all of the little water light fairies have insect type wings. Rath actually does gain wings for a brief period, and it's implied that in the old days when he lived together with Kharl, they both had feathery wings on their backs. Zoma appears with wings for a fleeting second as well, seen only by the fortuneteller, Delte, foreshadowing his true identity later on.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Tetheus. When told by Kitchel that he can't use his sword on the monsters, he decides to suplex them instead.
• Xanatos Roulette: When the first step in your plan is your own decapitation, you have got to be really confident in the other steps.
• You Can See Me?: Reema to Alfeegi when they first meet.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Not only is practically every color of the rainbow featured throughout the entire cast, Ohkami doesn't even bother to be consistent.
• You Have Failed Me...: Poor Jilge.