Barajo no Kiss

Barajou No Kiss (薔薇嬢のキス), and also known as Kiss of The Rose Princess, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Shouoto Aya. It has been serialized in Asuka Magazine since 2008, and has been collected in 2 tankōbon volumes by Kadokawa Shoten.

Plot
As a young girl, Anís Yamamoto received a rose choker from her father, who said that a punishment would befall her if she ever took it off. But one day, she loses her choker and finds out the punishment: to be the Dominion of four rose knights and go through more tragedies. She is soon shown the unstable devil's seal, a seal created by the first dominion to banish the devil from the world. By invoking the true contract with the four Rhode Knights, she reseals the seal. However, she must now use her newly attained power to search for the Arcana cards, pieces of the devil's seal that have been strewn across the world.

True Contract
The True Contract is a binding process that ties the rose knights and their Dominion together in a vow, increasing their efficiency of magic usage. After all four knights exchanged vows, they change regalia which amplifies this efficiency even more.

The True Contract is only the first of 4 stages each requiring an awakening, or an advancement in the relationship between Dominion and knight. The final stage requires "blood marriage".

Yamamoto Anís
Important: "Anís" is the real name, confirmed by the official website and the CD Drama. "Aníse" is only for the English pronunciation, which is not the real name.


 * Age: 16 years old
 * Position: Rose maiden, Dominion, Head Lord Knight
 * Fears: Thunder, fire, earthquakes and her father's wrath, should she take off the choker.

A cheerful character who always wore a rose choker which her father gave her. He told her that if she ever took it off, she would be punished. Anís was unable to take it off until it disappeared after Ninufa, a bat-like-creature, bowled her over. After Ninufa scurried away, Anís found that she was holding a Red card. She ignores the fact and runs after Ninufa to get her choker back when a monster attacks. Itsushi-sensei, the librarian, tells her that she must kiss the card she was holding. When she does so, Kaede appears out of the card calling her "master". Anís becomes the Dominion, able to summon any of the four rose knights. However, whenever the knights use their power, they drain the life force from her blood. This causes Anís to believe that becoming the Dominion is her punishment for losing her choker. Although the choker she was wearing only brought Anís in the center of attention, for fear of her father's punishment she begins searching for it with the help of her Rose Knights. Apparently one of her special powers as a Dominion as that she is able to call forth a black whip-like rope filled with thorns to used to beat them into submission, or to collar them (much to the delight of the black and white roses). Also whenever the Rose Knights use their abilities it drains her life force.

Higa Kaede
Kaede is the Knight of the Red Rose, at first, he didn't seem to like Anís as he had a grudge against Anís beating him in the sports festival. He lives in a temple and often has fights with Tenjou for stealing his followers.Soon it is shown that he cares for Anís saying " whether or not you were the Dominia, I would still..."(implying that he would still protect her). Kaede also specializes in attack magic.
 * Age: 16 years old
 * Position: A Rhode Knight, Knight of the Red Rose

Tenjou Mitsuru
Tenjou is very handsome and embarrassingly devoted to his duties as a Rhode knight, and to Aníse -which embarrasses her- which makes her the envy of all the other girls in school. He seems deeply popular among men as well -much to the mortification of Aníse-. His special skill lies in healing. An example would be when he heals Mutsuki and Kaede when they become injured. It is heavily implied that he's very much a masochist. Even going to far to provoke Anís into slapping him and turn her thorn whip into a collar to drag him to do her bidding. "I couldn't ask for a better Master, really... Beating me on top of tying a collar around my neck... OH Lady Anís, truly is amazing." Mitsuri also likes Anise a lot. He even says Kaede " One day Anise will be mine" even though he said he was only joking, the serious look in his eyes makes Kaede feel worried.
 * Age: 17
 * Position: A Rhode Knight, Knight of the White Rose, Student council president

Kurama Mutsuki
Mutsuki has a very dark aura around him and hardly talks to anyone. He is reluctant to accept Aníse as his master, referring to her as a wench, and a missy. He likes the darkness and says that he is not a human, but a "dark stalker", which has the power to commune with nature and live longer than humans. Other abilities besides flying are unknown. He has "search and seizure" specialties; strings that are controlled by him appear from his fingers and he has an acute sense of smell and perception. He says that he spent many years in solitary slumber, waiting for his master to arrive/resurrect. According to rumors he puts curses on people and is the head of delinquents. Implied that he is a masochist when he seems satisfied when Anise smacks him around, and seems jealous of the white rose when he gets collared by the rose whip. He also falls in love with her as well. In chapter 11 he uses his string to keep the red rose away from Anís.
 * Age:Unknown
 * Position: A Rhode Knight, Knight of the Black Rose

Asagi Seiran
Asagi is the Knight of the blue rose and is not often at school because he is mostly sick. When he is sick, Asagi stays by himself inside the greenhouse filled with roses, and ironically his illness may be an allergic reaction to roses, as he appears fine when he isn't around them. He specializes in "Alchemy" or rather "science". He is also very cute, cute enough to be a girl. He is the sacrificial rose that was made in the past to help seal the devil's seal. His memories and Kaede's memories are not real, so he plans to use his body to restore the seal. In chapter 11 he is saved from the seal. His rose is not found in nature, because they replace the yellow rose with the blue rose. But even so he cares a lot about Anise. Once he asks her if she would accept his love and when she does not get what he says, he changes the subject about the love potion thinking it might be too soon.
 * Age: (15) Technically just under three years old
 * Position: A Rhode Knight, Knight of the Blue Rose

Narumi Itsushi
Narumi is the most knowledgeable authority on the "Rose Contracts" which binds the Dominion and the Rhode Knights. He is a mage as well.
 * Position: the Classical studies teacher.

Yamamoto Schwartz
Yamamoto is Anís's father and the person who gave Anís the choker. He gave it to her with a specific reason in mind- to hide her from "The Society". He is a really powerful mage and plans to revive the devil by allowing the devil's seal to deteriorate, since the seal cannot be repaired if the Dominion isn't found.
 * Position: Anís's father.

Ninufa
Ninufa is the guardian beast of the Four Cards which summon Rose Knights. It looks like a bat/cat. It smashed into Anís shortly before her choker disappeared, and accidentally left behind one of the four rose knight cards, the red card-which summons Kaede. Later, it gives Anís the remaining three cards.It states that It guards the cards, and Anís has possession of the cards, so therefore it tends to hang around her.

Kusugi Haruto
Haruto is Anís's old classmate from Osaka who transferred to her school and has an Osakan accent and cracks bad jokes. He is extremely obsessive about Aníse and at one point in time states "If you keep being so cute I will have to kill you". He is the Yellow Rose and is an ex-Rhode Knight. He tried to kill all of the other knights to be the "true knight" His alternate personality as the Yellow Rose makes him hate the other Roses because back in the past, he got betrayed and his life force was used to perform the devil's seal. In reality, he was very jealous of the red knight for becoming the true rose. The yellow rose then tried to break the seal, but then used his life to restore it when he failed. Haruto mistakes it as a betrayal. In chapter 11 Anís slaps him and tells him that no matter what she will like him as a friend. After they save the blue rose Aníse gets sucked into the seal. Haruto pushes her to safety and says "... the punishment is not over" as he gets sucked into the devil's seal.
 * Age: 16
 * Position: Ex-Rhode Knight; the Yellow Rose