http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheGreatestDemonLordIsRebornAsATypicalNobody
Left to right: Ginny, Ard, and Ireena.
The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody (Shijou Saikyou no Dai Maou, Murabito A ni Tensei Suru, literally "The Greatest Demon Lord in History Is Reincarnated as Villager A") is a novel series written Myōjin Katō. The series originated as a Web Serial Novel which was released on Shousetsuka ni Narou from 2017 to 2022, later being procured by Fujimi Shobo and published under Fujimi Fantasia Bunko with illustrations by Sao Mizuno from 2018 to 2022 for a total of 10 volumes. A manga adaptation published in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan magazine was serialized from 2019 to 2022, and an anime adaptation by SILVER LINK. aired in the spring 2022 anime season.
The Demon Lord Varvatos is bored that he has no challengers and no one understands him because he is so powerful. He decides to kill himself and reincarnate as an average boy. 3000 years later, he reincarnates as the human Ard Meteor, but he still has all his awesome powers and knowledge. The world has changed; the different races are no longer at war and live together side by side. He and his childhood friend, the elf Ireena Litz de Olhyde, enroll in the Academy of Magic, where they quickly befriend the succubus Ginny Fin de Salvan. So he begins his new life, protecting his friends and stopping an evil conspiracy.
This series contains examples of:
- Adaptational Modesty:
- Ginny and Ireena sneak into Ard's room to try to seduce him. In the light novel and manga, Ginny wears nothing but ribbons over her privates and Ireena wears lingerie. In the anime, they are both in nightgowns.
- Elzard kidnaps Ireena to use her as a Human Sacrifice. In the light novel and manga, Ireena is stripped naked, forcing Ard to cover her with his jacket when he arrives to rescue her. In the anime, she is fully clothed.
- The School Festival Cosplay Café maid outfits are more modest in the anime.
- In the light novel and manga, Olivia gets stripped naked in her tournament fight against Ard. In the anime, her clothes stay intact.
- Adaptation Expansion: The first episode of the anime expands on Ard's childhood and the beginning of his friendship with Ireena compared to the light novel and manga.
- Balanced Harem: Ireena and Ginny have equal amounts of screentime and fanservice with Ard. When Queen Rosa shows interest in bearing Ard's children, Ginny immediately wants to include her in a harem solution, to Ireena's dismay. Meanwhile, Ard is still pining after Lydia, the lost love of his past life.
- Beauty Contest: The School Festival has the Miss and Mister Beauty Contest. Ginny and Ard are the winners.
- Cleavage Window: Ginny and Ireena outfits amounts to dresses that show off their cleavage.
- Cool Sword: The weapon Ard used when he was slashing away against purple slimes and other beasts.
- Cosplay Café: Ard's class hosts a maid café during the School Festival with the maids in very risqué outfits designed by Ginny.
- Everybody Knew Already: Ard’s parents and Weiss have been aware that he is the reincarnated demon lord since he was a child. When you combine the fact that both his parents are openly gay, meaning that he was born between an impossible pair, with him being a Child Prodigy it was easy for them to put two and two together.
- Future Imperfect:
- Ard watches a play about the life of Varvatos and is disappointed that it depicts his former lover Lydia as a sweet, romantic girl when in reality, she was a hardened warrior.
- When the party gets sent to the past, Ireena and Ginny learn that the historical records got some people wrong.
- A Handful for an Eye: As a veteran warrior, Lydia is willing to fling sand to gain an advantage.
- Kill It with Fire: When a bear attacks Ard, he promptly burns it to death.
- Marry Them All: Ginny keeps insisting on Ard to form a harem with his multiple admirers, but Ireena is strongly opposed to the idea. According to Ireena's future daughter, however, there's at least one possible future where Ard does get a harem.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Played with due to the fact that it isn’t established whether he's actually attracted to Rosa or is simply The Proud Elite, but the Prime Minister was so offended by Rosa asking Ard to impregnate her that he offered to take his place so that a commoner wouldn’t taint the royal bloodline. Rosa told the guards to dispose of the pedophilic minister.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite what the title says, Ard's parents (and his Childhood Friend's father) are Famed in Story Retired Badass heroes, already making him far from a "typical nobody" since birth, and that's not accounting for his Story-Breaker Power and knowledge from his Past-Life Memories.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Varvatos decided to be reincarnated as an ordinary commoner, vastly reducing his powers, so as Ard, he's only about as powerful as a commoner. But that's by his time's standards. What he didn't count on was that the average power levels of the populace have drastically declined since then, so by modern standards, he's still crazy overpowered and wondering why everyone's using such basic, weak spells.
- Offhand Backhand: Ard burns a bear to death when it attacks him from behind.
- School Festival: The second arc takes place during the festival of the Laville Magic Academy.
- The Slow Path: Olivia and Sylphy were retainers of Varvatos and are still alive in the present.
- Tamer and Chaster: The anime heavily tones down and removes the fanservice from the light novel and manga.
- Time Travel: The third arc has a mysterious boy sending Ard, Ireena and Ginny 3,000 years into the passt to kill omeone who calls himself the Demon Lord.
- Tournament Arc: During the School Festival, there's the Great Sword King tournament where prize id a replica of the sword Vald-Galgus.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: This happens to Olivia in episode 7 when Ard accidentally blasts her far away.
- Unwanted Assistance: When offered a teaching position at the academy, Ard was planning on using his inexperience as an excuse to turn it down, only for Weiss to start praising how much Ireena’s talent was the result of Ard’s guidance. It didn’t help matters that Olivia was there. Who mentioned that Varvatos was often praised for his extraordinary talent in teaching.
Ard: SEE, WHAT YOU’VE DONE, DAMMIT?
- Wizarding School: The Laville National Academy of Magic.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: Sylphy went to train in a dungeon for three years. Only when she came out did she learn time flows differently inside the dungeon and she was gone from the outside world for 3,000 years.