Webcomic / My Impossible Soulmate

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My Impossible Soulmate ("MIS") is a romantic fantasy isekai webcomic created by Jocelyn Samara.

Chiaki Koizumi is a daydreaming otaku who longs to confess her feelings to her childhood friend, Fumiko. There's one huge problem however: she is extremely shy and awkward around her. And then she's suddenly transported to another world, and it becomes even more difficult.

This is a standalone prequel to Rain, with Chiaki eventually growing up to write the fictional in-universe manga "Black Wings: Kaminari", Rain’s favorite manga.

The comic updates are posted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It can be read on Comic Fury, DeviantArt and Tapas.

My Impossible Soulmate contains examples of:

• Absence of Evidence: The lack of any squatters in the Oleander Street slum of South Rose City, when the region has a notable homeless population, is a sign that a murderous Demon who is wanted by the authorities has been killing anyone who could report his presence.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Nagisa's birth parents quite literally tried to murder her by throwing her off the side of the Skyfolk's floating homeland when she was a baby simply because she has black wings.
  • Marchosias mentioned that before he was corrupted into a Demon, he had a family with some daughters. And he didn't like his daughters very much due to how chatty they were. Combine that with how his interaction with Arc proved him to be a "look what you made me do" style of abusive bully, and one starts to wonder what kind of lives his daughters had when he was still with them. Near the end of Chapter 6, it's revealed that he's actually the father of Princess Kaminari herself. That's the same Kaminari whose parents kept her locked up and ignorant of the outside world for the first 16 years of her life merely because she has black wings.
• Accidental Public Confession: Chiaki has a public meltdown in a part of the Grand Arcane Library where she very loudly confesses that she has a crush on Fumiko. Thankfully, no one in the GA Library knows who Fumiko even is.
• Aerith and Bob: Inhabitants of The Other World have standard Japanese names like Nara, Nagisa, and Eiji; western names like Keegan, Redginald, and Theodore; and then names like Belial, Sonneillion, and Eligos. Justified, as the latter are demonic names formed as a result of corruption and weren't originally their birth names.
• Age-Restricted Ability: All people are born with magic from one of the seven elements, but babies and toddlers can't control it. In fact, there are stories of children accidentally setting their parents on fire or flooding their house during a temper tantrum. So whenever a baby is born, a special wizard known as a Star Seer determines the baby's elemental affinity and then seals their magic so they can't use it. Their magic can be unsealed later when they're old enough to control it, but many people choose not to get unsealed if their elemental affinity would be a liability to their lifestyle or career.
• Alpha Bitch:
  • Kenta Maeda is a gender-inverted example. He's highly popular at school, being the star player of its baseball team and having high grades, but abusive towards his girlfriend, Fumiko.
  • Aika Nakano is a popular girl who bullies Chiaki for her interests.
• Always in Class One: The main cast is in Room P-1.
• Amazing Technicolor Population:
  • All Nereids have blue skin, though they all vary in terms of hue. Verity of room P-1's students is an example.
  • Demons can have almost any skin color, from the technicolor like Belial (pink) and Seir (sky-blue), to the common like Verrine (standard human flesh-tone).
• Ambiguously Brown: The native people of Kaminari's world have a wide range of skin tones, from very pale to very dark. Played With in that unlike many examples of this trope, they clearly aren't meant to be real world races since they are inhabitants of a High Fantasy world. On the other hand, Played Straight with the Unbound characters, since they come from the "real" world so they do have real ethnicities. Chiaki, for example, is Japanese.
• Animesque: It is an isekai and romance comic that heavily uses the tropes of both genres; and much like Jocelyn’s other works, it takes on an art style reminiscent of '90s manga.
• Anti-Magic: It's eventually revealed that demons are not only unable to use magic, they're flat out immune to it. For instance, Nara shoots a dangerous demon with icicles she conjured, only for them to disappear on contact. Using magic to launch mundane projectiles works though.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite being a fantastical world filled with magic, the idea of "Unbounds" (travelers from another world) is seen by some as nothing more than myths. Most notably, by Nara. Part of this is because, in typical isekai fashion, most if not all of these people are unable to explain how they ended up in this new world.
• As You Know: Jude delivers exposition for his gender curse by opening with "as you guys know", though he is doing this in response to Arc suggesting him to take Nagisa's transition meds.
• Bad Liar:
  • Keegan often fails at lying due to his very expressive tail and ears giving him away.
  • Chiaki is also really bad at lying, thanks to getting flustered and either adding too much detail or saying ridiculous things. This is why she is basically forced to ditch Nara’s suggested "amnesia" excuse and admit she's Unbound by the end of the first chapter.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Demon Marchosias, former general to the late Demon Lord Eligos, is actually Princess Kaminari's father, and therefore the former King of Toria, homeland of the Skyfolk. Marchosias has mentioned having multiple daughters, and certain flashbacks across the Rain-verse have mentioned his wife as well, but the fate and even identity of most of them remain unknown. The one thing we do know for sure is that he treated Princess Kaminari quite horribly as a child, keeping her locked up and ignorant of the outside world just because she has black wings. The demon Seir has also made vague statements about Marchosias "repeatedly betraying" her, but we don't yet have any details on that.
• Blessed with Suck: It's been noted that some people choose to keep the childhood seal on their magic, even if they can afford it being unsealed, because their alignment is incompatible with their lifestyle or race. For instance, being a librarian or farmer with a Fire alignment seems like a bad idea what with all the dust, wood, and paper around. There are also Nereids with a Light alignment like Verity, who has said that she's heard of Nereids sharing her alignment who accidentally electrocuted themselves while swimming.
• Brick Joke: Chiaki's tour of the Grand Arcane Library starts with Verity pointing out the bathroom closest to Room P-1. Later on, Keegan enthusiastically mentions said bathroom when his tour group reunites with Chiaki's.
• The Caligula: King Themis of Nicopolis, who lived many thousands of years ago. He was a hedonistic tyrant who cared more about womanizing than actually ruling. One of his advisors tried to humble him by cursing him with the very same unremovable gender-change choker that Jude now wears. It didn't work. Themis merely executed the advisor for cursing him, and then died himself less than a month later from the excruciating pain of the transformations.
• Carved Mark: Carving a demonic name into somebody is part of the process of corrupting them into a demon - as such, this is a universal feature among them.
• Cast Full of Gay: A staple of Jocelyn's works. The main cast is made up of almost entirely queer people.
  • Chiaki and Nagisa are lesbians (with the former also being demiromantic and the later being a trans girl).
  • Keegan, Belial, and Rhys are bisexual.
  • Redge is gay.
  • Micah and Jude are pansexual and nonbinary/enby, and also use alternate pronouns (they/them for Micah, he/them for Jude).
  • Verity is questioning.
  • Nara is omnisexual.
  • Bonnie is demisexual.
  • Harley is a trans boy.
• Cat Folk: Bastet are a race of demi-humans with sleek cat-like ears and tails. There aren't any among the Pages in room P-1, but Margot the Library's seamstress and Harley of the Little Bastards are both Bastet.
• Chekhov's Gun: When they're leaving to go help their classmates deal with the thieves who robbed their dorm, Keegan asks Nagisa if she can fight. Nagisa says no, but that she has a "secret weapon" she can use "if it's absolutely necessary." Keegan cheerfully declares that that's good enough for him, and doesn't press for any details. Nagisa's secret weapon turns out to be, quite literally, a secret weapon. She's been carrying a magical amulet that holds Princess Kaminari's spear. The dramatic reveal when she takes it out just fizzles, however, because it turns out she's not actually trained to use it.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Grand Arcane Library's uniforms are colour-coded depending on department - Storage wears red, Runners wear orange, Administration wears yellow, Chronicling wears blue, and Maintenance wears purple. Newbies who haven't yet been assigned a department wear green. Considering the Cast Full of Gay, having the entire rainbow represented in the department colours probably isn't a coincidence.
• Color-Coded Speech: The comic uses different-coloured speech bubbles to differentiate named characters. (Chiaki is teal, Fumiko is yellow, etc.) Unnamed/minor characters are given white speech bubbles instead.
• Color Failure: Chiaki suffers one after seeing her new classmates in Room P-1.
• Contrasting Prequel Setting: Rain took place in a grounded, non-fantastical, midsized town. By contrast, MIS mainly takes place in a fantasy world filled with Winged Humanoids, Fox Folk, Fish People, and magic.
• Cool Old Guy: Redge is kind, respectable, and an all around pleasant old man. He started the Page Program to give "stray" teens a chance to have a better future and fought tooth and nail to ensure every single one of them had their place in the GA. He also has hidden depths, as a certain pick-pocket once found out to his surprise.
• The Corruption: A holo-/demi-human is transformed into a Demon by being corrupted by another Demon. This results in the corrupted holo-/demi-human gaining a boost in physical strength and a longer lifespan. However, this process also robs them of their ability to perform any sort of magic.
• Custom Uniform: In the Grand Arcane Library, the only strict requirements for your attire is that you wear the proper color that corresponds to your department and that you adhere to the "white top, black bottom" combination. Otherwise, you can wear your uniform in any way you want, be it long sleeves, jackets, skirts, long pants, etc.
• Documentary Episode: Literally the entire comic is this, though it's a bit more meta than most examples of this trope because the cast member who ultimately produces the Documentary about the rest of the cast doesn't realize it at first. Nonetheless, Chiaki eventually uses her experiences and adventures in Kaminari's world to write and draw Rain's favorite manga.
• Downer Beginning:
  • The prologue starts with Chiaki's crush getting into a relationship before she could confess her love (a relationship which quickly turns toxic) and ends with her being sent to another world when running to break up a screaming match between them.
  • The first chapter begins on a similarly downbeat note, with Chiaki having a Heroic BSoD upon finding out where she is.
• Draconic Humanoid: Drakes are a race of demi-humans with small forehead horns, leathery scaly skin, and slightly Pointy Ears. Erik Westergaard of the Grand Arcane Library's governing board is a member of this race.
• Dude, She's A Lesbian: Nagisa lobs an inverted version of this at Chiaki about herself when Chiaki is shocked by how blase Nagisa is about Chiaki's accidental self-outing. As an added bonus, this comic is the prequel to Rain (2010), i.e. the Trope Namer, making its use here quite appropriate.
• Ear Fins: All Nereids have fin-like ears.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Thanks to Lynn-sensei extensively planning this comic in advance, very little has changed over the comic's run so far. But there is one glaring detail: in the first two chapters, holo-humans are referred to as just "humans". In chapter three and onward, it has been made clear that holo-humans and demi-humans are all human, just different sub-races of the same species.
• Elemental Powers: Every holo-human and demi-human is aligned with one of the seven magical elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Frost, Light, and Spirit) at birth, and has the ability to wield magic connected to it.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Little Bastards intended to steal from the rich nobles at the Grand Arcane only to end up stealing from the main cast instead. Given that what they stole were mainly sentimental items of little monetary value, they make plans to return what they stole before they skip town.
• Everyone Is a Super: All people in Kaminari's world are born with magic. Not everyone is trained to use it, and many people have their magic sealed if it would conflict with their lifestyle or career, but everyone is at least born with the basic ability. Also, Unbound people from the other world gain magic when they arrive here.
• Eyes Always Shut: Keegan’s eyes are drawn in a way where it seems as though he’s perpetually squinting. This is likely a way to emphasize his fox-like features, as this trope in Japanese is referred to as "kitsune no me" ("fox eyes").
• Faking Amnesia: Nara recommends that Chiaki feign amnesia rather than claim to be an Unbound. Chiaki obliges when introducing herself to her new classmates.
• Fantastic Racism: So far, the city of South Rose where Chiaki has found herself has been a pretty cosmopolitan place, where all the different human sub-races mix together freely. However, the history of this fantasy world has some pretty dark spots on it.
  • The Wing Cutters were a cult of holo-human supremacists who would kidnap demi-humans and cut off their ears, tails, and wings. Apparently, it is widely believed that Princess Kaminari put an end to them. They're still around, however, having rebranded themselves under the name The Unification of One.
  • Until recently, white-winged Skyfolk were so suspicious and hateful toward black-winged Skyfolk that whenever a black-winged baby was born, the baby was immediately thrown off the side of their floating kingdom, doomed to fall to the ground and be killed by the impact. Princess Kaminari, herself black-winged, put a stop to the practice, but there's not yet any definitive info on whether general attitudes toward the black-winged by the white-winged have improved.^note In Golem Hall, white-winged Eiji and black-winged Nagisa are such close friends that they call each other "cousin" even though they aren't blood-relatives. So there's at least some hope that the old attitudes are dying out.
• Fantastic Slurs: Bastet and Skyfolk do not like being referred to as "catgirls" and "winged people". Similarly, Bastet and Kitsune do not like being mistaken for each other.
• Fictional Disability: Despite being a Skyfolk, Nagisa can't fly. It's because when she was a baby, her wings were badly broken after she was flung off the side of the Skyfolks' floating homeland. Nagisa doesn't mind her disability leaving her stuck on the ground, though, because even though she doesn't actually remember the incident that broke her wings, she still has a crippling fear of heights because of it. It appears Nagisa isn't subjected to Fantastic Ableism over this, as the other Pages all seem to understand and accept her condition. That being said, Chiaki unfortunately made some Innocently Insensitive comments about it when they first met.
• First-Episode Twist: The comic spends the first five pages setting up a fairly standard Slice of Life high school Dramedy, only to take a sharp turn on page six by suddenly becoming an isekai fantasy.
• Fish Out of Water: Chiaki, obviously. A modern-day Japanese school girl being Isekai'd into a High Fantasy world is a textbook example of this trope.
• Fish People: Nereids are demi-humans with blue skin and fin-like ears. Verity of the Golem Hall Pages is a member of this race.
• Floating Continent: The winged Skyfolk originally lived in the floating Kingdom of Toria. We know this from all the lore-dumps we got back in Rain (2010). However, it appears that sometime before the start of MIS, Toria ceased to exist. In chapter 1, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, Nagisa very briefly mentions "The fall of Toria".
• Forced Transformation: Jude's cursed necklace makes him involuntarily turn female at 9 AM and back to male at 9 PM. Similarly, Belial was involuntarily inflicted with the Demon curse and changed into a Demon.
• Foregone Conclusion: As Chiaki is notable for being the author of Rain Flaherty's favorite manga series, we know she eventually will return to her homeworld. The mystery the comic explores is "how?"
• Fox Folk: Kitsune are a race of demi-humans with fox-like ears and a tail. Among the students in Room P-1, Keegan is this.
• Genki Girl: Verity is excited all the time.
• Genre Deconstruction: One of the many interlocking themes of MIS is deconstruction of the larger Isekai genre of anime. This includes both harem anime that were popular in the 90s (e.g. Fushigi Yuugi) and power fantasies that became more common around the 2010s (e.g. The Rising of the Shield Hero). This deconstruction primarily focuses on how most Isekai main characters immediately understand and accept their circumstances when they get transported to another world, and are usually special and uniquely powerful heroes. Chiaki, in stark contrast, almost immediately has a panic attack that quickly becomes a full-fledged Heroic BSoD when she figures out what happened. And even after she calms down from that, she has many awkward encounters that show her what an utter Fish Out of Water she is now. And all of that is just on her first day. Chiaki does eventually settle down and start making a place for herself in this new world, but she never becomes an action hero. She can't fight and doesn't have any unique special powers. She also has no desire for a bunch of people to chase after her romantically as is common in isekais (she can barely handle one crush). Over all, she's as close to being a completely ordinary person as any Isekai protagonist could possibly be. Literally the only thing special or different about her is that she came from another world, and many people she meets in the new world don't even believe her when she tells them where she's from.
• Genre Shift: Rain was a Slice of Life Dramedy while MIS is a Romantic Fantasy.
• Genre Throwback: The comic is a throwback to '90s anime/manga Romantic Fantasy.
• Golem:
  • About 2700 years ago, the Lilim Dell made nine Golems out of rock and other natural materials which he used to defeat the Demon Lord of his era. These Golems still exist today, standing guard over Dell's tomb. And they are the only Golems to exist, because nobody else has ever been able to repeat his accomplishment. Dell was Earth-aligned, so it's assumed that has something to do with it, but he left behind no notes or instructions of any kind. So nobody has any idea how he made them or how to make their own.
  • Similar to how other demi-humans are combinations of Human and animals, the Hybrid demi-human race is often thought to be a combination of Human and Golem. Like Golems, Hybrids are incredibly durable. Even though they are flesh and blood, they can't be physically injured or get sick and can't be corrupted into Demons. Nobody has any evidence that the Hybrid race are descended from or made from Golems, but nobody has any better ideas about where they came from either. None of the Room P-1 Pages are Hybrids, but Arc of the Little Bastards is a member of that race.
• Has a Type: Belial likes tall guys and short girls. With a greater emphasis on the latter, if only because she's so tall herself that she has trouble finding guys taller than her.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Theo insists he's straight.
• Healing Potion: Spirit stamps can be used to heal wounds, such as Chiaki's head injury.
• Height Insult: Theo is often teased for his short stature, especially by Belial.
• Heroic BSoD: Shortly after waking up from a head injury, Chiaki quickly finds out she had been transported to another world whilst unconscious. To say she takes the situation poorly would be putting it very lightly.
• High Fantasy: In a somewhat unusual move for this type of work, the actual high fantasy elements are mostly background or recent history and not the central point of the story. Instead, the plot generally follows Chiaki as she acclimates to this world, learns of its society and history, and ultimately records that history in the manga she creates.
• Ice Magic Is Water: Played for Laughs. Nara recalls her old teachers jokingly telling her that “being Frost-aligned still means you can still use Water magic if you’re patient enough to wait for the ice to melt".
• An Ice Person: People aligned with the Ice element, such as Nara and Rhys, have the ability to freeze objects and create snow and ice at will.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Belial will not hesitate to beat someone up if they threaten her friends.
• Lethal Kid Hero: Discussed. In chapter 6, after Nara has knocked out the Demon Marchosias, Eiji offers to kill him while he's unconscious. But Marchosias wakes up before Eiji can actually do it.
• Little Bit Beastly: Kitsune and Bastet essentially look like humans with fox ears/tails and cat ears/tails respectively.
• Long-Lived: Demons have a longer natural lifespan than non-Demons. Barring serious illness or injury, they can live around 140 years.
• Love at First Sight: Theo appears to instantly have a crush on just about every girl he meets.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Demons are physically powerful and have an extended lifespan, but the transformation into one robs the person of their ability to use magic. Even some of the stamps can't be activated without a non-demon's help.
• Magically Inflicted Disability: Because Belial was corrupted by the Demon curse, she has lost her ability to cast magic. It's so bad that she can't use many Stamps and can even unintentionally disrupt other people's magic merely by touching them.
• Magitek: "Stamps" are used to infuse non-magical materials with one or more of the 7 magical elements to create stoves, lamps, fridges, water filtration systems, etc. Light stamps are also used as a form of electricity.
• Meaningful Name: A sad example for Belial, whose post-corruption name is the Hebrew word for "worthless," which is probably indicative of how she feels about herself after her corruption.
• Meaningful Rename: Bonnie of the Little Bastards used to be named Euphoria. She changed her name to Bonnie to get a completely fresh start when she ran away from her family. Interestingly, the words "euphoria" and "bonnie" both mean happiness or well-being (depending on the context), but from very different language roots (Greek and French/Latin respectively).
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: A humorous example when Verity shows Chiaki the Golem Hall dorm.
  Chiaki: It's just the one bathroom?
  Verity: Yep.
  Chiaki: For... for all of us? Boys and girls?
  Verity: And Micah too!
  Chiaki: ?
• Never Trust a Trailer: When the comic was first announced, the initial preview and premise made it look like a grounded, high school romance with a simple story of unrequited love. Once the comic officially debuted however, the author revealed comic's other genre, an isekai fantasy.
• No Periods, Period: Averted. Chiaki's period starts up in the middle of an already stressful time. She happens to have pads on her, but needs to restock, but the only person who's around is Nagisa, who doesn't have periods and can only bring her to store to buy some more, which leads to more problems since Chiaki can't read the world's language yet and thus can't tell which product she needs.
• Officially Shortened Title: Jocelyn and her fans frequently refer to this comic as MIS.
• Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: Inverted in this isekai webcomic. Protagonist Chiaki Koizumi has regular black hair, but the world she gets sent to is one where hair colours like green and purple are quite common.
• Our Demons Are Different: In Kaminari's world, Demons are corrupted holo-/demi-humans. How the corruption affects their appearance varies from person to person. These alterations often involve a change in their eyes/hair/skin color or their height, and sometimes some traditionally demonic additions like horns or pointed teeth. Demon demi-humans also retain animal features they had prior to the corruption. For example, a Demon Nereid would still have Ear Fins. A person is changed into a Demon by having a new demonic name carved into them, after which they can never say their original name again, and even answering to it can kill them. They're physically powerful and can live up to 140 years old, but as a cost of the transformation, they lose all of their magical ability. This extends into full immunity to magical effects, so even some stamps can't be activated without help. They also have their eyes turn increasingly red the more people they kill.
• Our Humans Are Different: All the different races we've met so far (Holo-human, Bastet, Kitsune, Nereid, Skyfolk, Hybrid) are just subraces of humans.
• Otaku: Chiaki is this to a tee, with her love of manga, anime, and video games being very pronounced.
• Painful Transformation: Jude's Forced Transformation is very painful, and he fully expects that the pain of it will kill him one day. According to Belial, transformation into a Demon is also excruciatingly painful, so much so that many people don't survive it.
• Parents as People:
  • Chiaki's parents clearly love her a lot, but also don't seem to understand her personal challenges. The comic author has confirmed that Chiaki has undiagnosed cases of both ADHD and high-functioning Autism. So while her parents are aware that she struggles with both school work and relating to her peers, they seem to have no idea why and no particular interest in helping her with it beyond simply telling her that she needs to do better. Interestingly, we've also seen solid proof that Chiaki's mom, Emma, fully accepts and supports trans people. This suggests but doesn't prove that she would be open-minded about other identities and orientations also. Her father's opinions about it, on the other hand, are still a mystery.
  • In stark contrast to Nagisa's birth parents (see Abusive Parents above), her adoptive parents were quite loving and took good care of her, according to her. That said, it's still an open question whether they were fully accepting of her being a trans girl. She definitely experienced some transphobic prejudice from other people in her home town, but maybe her parents were more supportive.
  • Theo's and Verity's parents, the Lord and Lady Ainsworth, were publicly disgraced recently over unsavory rumors that they were allied with the Unification of One cultists (formerly the Wingcutters). After that scandal broke, they sent their children away to the Grand Arcane Library. Oddly, they also convinced Theo that unsealing his magic was too expensive, even though Micah insists it wouldn't be (with the characters speculating that it's a way to control him). The question, then, is: did they do these things to protect their children from the scandal's fallout, or for more sinister reasons?
• Poor Communication Kills: Bonnie and the Little Bastards decide to target the rich noble kids at the Library, not knowing that they're now in Dragon Hall instead of Golem Hall, so they end up robbing the main characters instead. This sets off a chain of events that ends with both the Little Bastards and the main characters all nearly getting murdered by the demon Marchosias.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The more red a demon's eyes are, the more people they've killed.
• Self-Defenestration: After The Little Bastards accidentally robbed the Golem Hall kids at the GA, rather than the wealthy Dragon Hall kids they had been aiming for, they decided they had to give back everything. But 12-year-old Arc had been having fun playing with the ratty octopus plushie they'd taken, and she was upset at the thought of having to give it back. So she jumped out the window of their second-floor apartment and ran away, taking the plushie with her. Fortunately for her, she's a Hybrid, a demi-human race with the durability of a Golem, so the fall didn't hurt her in the slightest.
• Show Within a Show: Inverted. This comic takes place in the fantasy world of Black Wings: Kaminari, which is Rain Flaherty's favorite manga. In other words, this comic literally is the show within a show.
• Subtlety Failure: Chiaki is a chronic case of this trope. She is so bad at lying that whenever she tries to hide something, she only manages to call attention to it instead. Her attempt to follow Nara's suggestion that she hide being Unbound is a perfect case in point; it immediately makes the other Golem Hall pages suspicious of her, and she ends up admitting the truth by the end of the first chapter.
• Tap on the Head: When Chiaki wakes up in the South Rose Hospital after hitting her head on her school's front gate, she still feels a bit of pain but quickly gets over it. Justified, as her wound is slowly being healed by a "Spirit" stamp applied to her head.
• Translation Convention: Lampshaded when Chiaki, who’s Japanese, wonders how she and Nara/Redge could understand each other despite the fact Chiaki had come from another world.
  "We've been talking this whole time and understanding each other. So are they really speaking Japanese? Or...what if it's the other way around? Is it possible I'm not speaking Japanese anymore? How do I not know!?"
• Trapped in Another World: Chiaki is mysteriously sent to another world, with no apparent way to get home to her family and Fumiko.
• Turn of the Millennium: The story (or at least Chiaki's homeworld) is set in the year 2000.
• Unstable Powered Child: Starseers have to seal away a newborn's magic until they are older due to numerous incidents of young children accidentally causing house floods or setting their parents on fire during temper tantrums.
• The 'Verse:
  • MIS takes place in the same continuity as Rain (2010) and is written by the same author. Rain was published first, but MIS comes first chronologically.
  • This comic also shares its universe with another of the author's works called Magical, a Magical Girl-esque story featuring Transgender characters. Relatively early in Rain, the titular main character briefly meets Carmen, one of the protagonists of Magical, on her visit to the gender specialist.
• Water-Triggered Change: If Nereids, like Verity, submerge themselves for an extended period of time, their lower half will transform into a tail that they can use to swim more efficiently.
• Winged Humanoid: Skyfolk, like Nagisa and Eiji, are demi-humans born with wings.
• Wings Do Nothing: Justified with Nagisa, as her wings were broken when she was rescued after being thrown off her homeland as a newborn and are too small to be used in flying, but she still sees views them as a source of pride.
• Workaholic: Implied. After Nara and the Room P-1 Pages were all almost killed by the demon Marchosias, Reg cancelled their classes and ordered them to take some time off to recover from the trauma. Chiaki's reaction was, "Wait, seriously? They can just do that?"
• World of Technicolor Hair: Hair colors like green, purple, etc. seem to be common in the world Chiaki ends up in.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Demon Marchosias, who is on the lam, murders anyone who finds him so they can't report his presence to anyone. When twelve-year-old Arc stumbles onto him, he tells her flat out that the only reason he doesn't immediately kill her is because he's too tired to try to kill a Hybrid (see Golem above).