#the beginning has decent foundation but spends too much time trying to hit every shounen trope in the book
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Okay actually yknow what, I'm just gonna do this on here cause I've been agonizing over this for too long
Firstly to prove I'm not insane, and I guess to his credit, the author has mentioned ONS as an inspiration-slash-thing-with-similar-vibes on twitter (archived):
That said, I feel like this really undersells it. Like, you can argue about how much inspiration you can take from a work, and ONS itself takes insane amounts of shit from Devilman, but even still it feels very much like a different story, and not like... the entire first half of the book being largely what you'd get if you just ported the plot of S1 of ONS over into a YA novel with and then altered who the love interest was.
This is long enough already (talking like nearly 4 pages point form on google docs) so I'm just copying it over as is. I only read the book once, so honestly this may have even missed some things. I'd put more effort into this but honestly idk how many people are gonna see this anyways.
Tl;dr no fucking way did you just "watch this while editing"
The Flood || unnamed apocalypse virus
Man-made virus
Kills most of the human population (ons' explicitly kills off 90%, the Flood has killed near 9 billion (earth's population when it was released)/appears to be a comparable rate)
Intentionally caused by Angels cult/Hyakuya Sect + JIDA (revealed in manga/LNs only)
Angels cult || vampires:
Signaturely wear white robes/uniforms + capes
Ons vampires are associated with (fallen) angels
New Nazareth/Sanguinem (city for cult/vampires that protagonist escapes from)
Don't want any more of their kind made (Angels forcing Angel parents to drown their newborns, vampires noted to be generally opposed to making more vampires for unexplained reasons; iirc only progenitors are able to sire and they're supposed to get permission from the vampire council first)
Angels cult || Hyakuya Sect
Religious cult
Doing human (S)eraph experiments
Benji & Theo/Yuu & Mika are children of cult members who use them as test subjects
Causes virus on purpose (manga/LNs only)
Responsible for creating Graces/Horsemen of John (manga/LNs only)
Benji || Yuu:
Only successful version of the (S)eraph experiments
Not fully in control of powers yet/powers emerge over the course of the story
Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members
Brought to New Nazareth/Sanguinem under the age of 12 and lives there for 4-5 years before escaping
Grow up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with Theo/Mika during those years
Important family member dies as they try to escape together
Son of cult members
Posesses (S)eraph abilities from being experimented on by cult
Joins ALC/JIDA in their front-line forces after escaping and being found by Nick/Guren
Seraph || seraphs (humans possessing seraph gene and have ability to turn into them)
Aim to wipe out humanity (but this can be controlled by protagonist with effort)
Very powerful
Created via human experimentation on children by the religious cult that caused the virus
Picture of Yuu in complete seraph form in ons tweet from author
Theo || Mika:
Curly/wavy blond hair and blue eyes
Protagonist's childhood best friend
In love with protagonist, debatably reciprocated
Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members
Grows up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with protagonist, but didn't escape with them
Wants to get protagonist away from ALC/JIDA and live with them
Seen in whites of the vampires/Angels for the majority of the story
Remains affiliated with the vampires/Angels (Theo sides with Angels & Mika is turned)
Soldier for the Angels/vampires
Protagonist often recalls memories of being in the cult/vampire city together as children
Protagonist thinks of them as someone they'll never see again after escaping (Theo stayed with cult, Yuu thinks Mika is dead)
Mika is revealed to be the son of the first vampire, a fallen angel, meaning he's also an angel (manga only)
Other (S)eraph besides Benji/Yuu, but not a fully functional one (Theo injects himself with a failed version of Seraph, Mika's seraph gene is dormant)
Theo's angry outbursts may be based on Mika's anger (though who they lash out at is very different)
Theo's character differences from Mika are almost all traits commonly found in other characters also influenced by Ryou Asuka (betrays protagonist, parallel to protagonist due to similarities but on opposing sides of conflict) (not sure if author knew about Mika being heavily from Ryou or just subconsciously knew the archetype via consuming other anime/manga/JRPGs/etc or just a really funny coincidence)
Upon escaping New Nazareth/Sanginem, Benji's dad/Mika is killed
Nothing can be done to save them
Bleeding out as Benji/Yuu tries to save them as a specific similar imagery (plus I guess gaping hole wounds specifically mentioned (from being shot in the head/arm thrust through stomach respectively))
Specific memories of looking at a map together to plan their escape
Yuu/Benji is forced to keep running alone to the only way out (only bridge out of Acheson/only tunnel out of Sanguinem)
Cult is using human experiments to create humans with the seraph gene/martyrs to turn into Seraph
(S)eraphs aim to wipe out the rest of humanity
The name. Are you kidding me
Protagonist is the only fully successful experiment
Main character and childhood best friend are children of parents in cult
(In the end) main character and childhood best friend are both (S)eraph experiments
The way the Flood is killing Benji has similarities to Yuu in his incomplete seraph form
Dripping blood and black fluid (Yuu: from wings and left eye, right sclera filled with blood and left eye may have burst upon transforming, Benji: from wounds from Seraph decomposing him)
Spitting up black fluid
at a later incident, Yuu's seraph form is triggered by multiple organs rupturing. Benji's organs are liquefying inside him and coming up in chunks as part of the Seraph transformation
Theo's death after injecting himself with Dominion-12 focusing on his shot-through left eye looking like a black hole is similar to Yuu's left eye blacked out by anime gore censor circle in incomplete seraph form
Same type of post-apocalyptic setting:
Plants beginning to cover over a wrecked city (only a few years after the virus broke out, so not super heavily overgrown yet)
Skyscrapers and concrete brutalist architecture specifically shown. Downtown core type of stuff
Graces || Horsemen of John
Created by Angels/Hyakuya Sect (result of Flood virus/called by 6th trumpet (seraph) of seraph experiments)
Beasts that kill humans, just to finish killing off the population
Can be called upon/created/controlled by (S)eraphs
Described as both horselike and spiderlike
Ribs protruding out of chest, fangs, mouths in unusual places, and I think wings (not sure about Graces on that one) are common traits
Picture of a Horseman included in author's tweet about ons
ALC || JIDA
Wear all black
Surviving humans outside of New Nazareth/Sanginem
Fight against Angels/vampires
Rescue Benji/Yuu after they escape New Nazareth/Sanguinem
Secretly aim to use Benji/Yuu's (S)eraph abilities for their own gain
The Watch || Shinoa Squad
ALC/JIDA Moon Demon Company front lines squad
Comprised of teenagers
Protagonist joins them after escaping New Nazareth/Sanguinem to fight back against the Angels/vampires
Cormack is debatably based on Kimizuki (red/pink hair, asshole personality, rare bits of kindness show through exterior (when Cormack prioritizes giving Benji his jacket to block smoke while ALC is on fire, but not nearly as nice of a guy under it all as Kimizuki)
Aisha is like… maybe bastardized Mitsuba if you just take her emotional outburst parts, but I might be reaching on that
Nick || Guren
Leader of ALC & the Watch/Moon Demon Company (strongest section of front-line soldiers in JIDA)
Black hair & eyes (Guren's eyes are dark purple, but could be interpreted as stylized black)
Finds Benji/Yuu after their escape and brings them into their group
Nick is literally just Guren in personality if you age him down a few years and add autism and make him nicer under the exterior. Like even the way he talks and him being mentioned dramatically stomping his leg up on furniture during speeches
Heading ALC/JIDA's intentions to use Benji/Yuu for their own gain
Dehumanizes protagonist yet also having a bit of affection towards them (more debatable for Guren, but he has some rare moments of being caring towards Yuu in a more older sibling/fatherly way)
Erin || Shinoa
Another leader within the ALC/JIDA (though Erin isn't a soldier/in the Watch)
Sympathetic towards Benji/Yuu, protests against Nick/Guren directly for how they treats them
Pastel pink/purple feminine aesthetic
Wears hair at least partly in braids
Benji & Theo's reunion in Reformation Faith Evangelical Church || Yuu & Mika's reunion on the battlefield in Shinjuku
Reunite at first major battle protagonist participates in, but not their first (iirc both only have one minor fight between joining ALC/JIDA squad and this one)
One approaches other from behind, other only realizes who they are a moment after turning around
On opposite sides as ALC/JIDA vs Angels/vampires
"[Name]? Is that you?"
Benji holds a knife to Theo's throat || Yuu stabs Mika through the chest
Theo/Mika went along to fight specifically to find Benji/Yuu
"Abandon everything and run away with me" || "I came here to follow you. I couldn't let the city take you alone. If it wants you, it has to take me too."
Theo/Mika wants to separate Benji/Yuu from the ALC/JIDA (but Mika has good reason, while Theo wants Benji to come back to the cult)
Forced to separate again at end of fight
Picture of Yuu stabbing Mika from this scene is also on ons tweet from author
In general, first half follows the escape from Sanguinem/New Nazareth leaving behind a dying family member who tried to escape with the protagonist but died to let them get away -> get found by JIDA/The Watch upon escape and rescued by Guren/Nick with the intention of using Yuu/Benji as a weapon against those he escaped from due to his nature as a human experiment -> join JIDA/The Watch, meet other members and the leader Guren/Nick -> do some missions with them -> reunite with previous friend-slash-love interest they had left behind (Mika/Theo) at first major battle as soldiers for opposing sides and are forced to part again progression, which isn't super unique but still very specific, and given everything else... yeah
This is by far not the first time an English work has copied a Japanese work and was praised for originality, but "gay trans YA novel rips off mediocre gay vampire shounen" has to be conceptually the funniest and yet there still seem to be 0 google results about it
#hell followed with us#ons#i. i guess this is#devilman influence#technically.#mine#if i get mauled for putting this in the bookblr tag i think im ready#i have other Thoughts on this book but theyre not relevant to this point#also i did not proofread this before posting so sorry if theres any grammatical errors#its from when i read the book about a year ago and ive been stewing in this knowledge ever since#also like... watching ons and praising it so highly as an adult is so fucking funny because its objectively horribly written#the beginning has decent foundation but spends too much time trying to hit every shounen trope in the book#and then later it does that less but the writing overal just gets worse#it has its moments and it has mikayuu and i gotta respect putting canon gay protag + deuterag in modern shounen but#its really not as great as he makes it sound kfdgsjkhns#the pacing of the anime is also kinda slow because there werent actually enough chapters of the manga out to fill the 2 season deal#which. i still dont know how they got that in 2015 but then again ons is still somehow a bestseller despite all this#and they made up the ending (basically everything in s2e12) because the manga wasnt that far yet and they had to bullshit a climax fight#but yeah anyways. ons is a guilty pleasure if you like gay vampires and devilman but its not actually very good#TO BE CLEAR i meant that it felt like if you took s1 and remade it as ya plotwise#not that i think the characters are identical#nick is a lot more like guren in personality than benji is to yuu or theo to mika#its... if i was still actively reading more ya i could support this better but its very interesting because like#mikayuu is running off of the most successfully impactful ship dynamic in shounen in which the characters are foils and/or#pulled to opposing sides of conflict or are hero and antagonist with the hero having tender feelings for the other despite everything#which i think works to bring out#1. the degree of their love for each other because those feelings prevail despite everything#2. the differences in the ideologies of the characters#3. if they are unable to reconcile then the tragedy in the fact that they could have been together had they made different choices#while i feel like ya goes more for the moving on from the guy who has wronged you to the new love interest i guess
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