Zettai Karen Children

"We're absolutely lovely, and that's why we won't lose!!"

The adventures of a trio of middle-school girls with Psychic Powers and their long-suffering supervisor in a world where those with power are both treated with prejudice and form the most prominent crime-fighting organization in the world, BABEL. Oh, and did we mention the girls are the three most powerful known espers around?

From the creator of Ghost Sweeper Mikami, and animated by the people who brought us Hayate the Combat Butler, this is a fun, entertaining series which is a lot smarter than it first appears. In 2010, the series got an OVA set during the girls' middle school years.

Has a character sheet.

The TV series has been licensed for Region 1 streaming and DVD under the tentative name Psychic Squad. Kaoru, Aoi, Shiho and friends appear in the Massive Multiplayer Crossover game, Sunday VS Magazine Shuuketsu Choujou Daikessen.

"Kaoru: Queen of Catastrophe Aoi: Lightspeed Goddess Shiho: Untouchable Empress"
 * Abusive Parents—Notable in their absence, just about every parent or surrogate shown is at the very least well intentioned or executes a Heel Face Turn. Of course it's implied that a number we don't see range from neglectful to Complete Monster.
 * Action Mom—Minamoto: marksman, scientist, homemaker. In one episode he forces his kidnapper to eat her vegetables and take a bath, and washes her panties . He cleans in his spare time and his bento lunches are worth fighting a war over. He even has a moe moe apron.
 * Actor Allusion—In the anime, Mio is voiced by Rie Kugimiya-yes, that Rie Kugimiya. In one episode, Mio refers to herself  as the "Tsundere Queen(s)". Rie Kugimiya is also known as the "Queen of Tsundere"...
 * All Bikers Are Hells Angels—Subverted. Turns out that the bosozoku gang that Naomi investigates are loud and unpolished, but really a bunch of softies, and when a crook blackens their name, they don't take it at all well.
 * All of the Other Reindeer—A very pleasant aversion comes when the Children rescue some bank employes from the Normal People. The bank manager thanks them and says that he considers the Normal People to be idiots.
 * Angst—Minamoto spends many a sleepless night worried about the legal and social discrimination faced by espers, most especially the three under his care. It's kept far, far away from Wangst because it isn't self-centered and he generally focuses that energy on productive endeavors, such as giving the Children the opportunity to go to school.
 * Anime Hair—most of the cast is usually in uniform, and the same age: you really need the hairstyles to tell them apart in combat scenes.
 * Anti-Villain—Kyosuke. He's a marginally sane, sociopathic terrorist who's preparing for a war against Muggles. He's also helping, protecting and providing a home for espers who have nowhere else to go because the Muggles rejected them, doing his level best to help Minamoto keep Kaoru alive and sane (even if it's for his own purposes), and he's about the only one who's doing anything to stop Black Phantom.
 * Anything That Moves—Kaoru, verging on Depraved Bisexual. She's even hot for her sister and her mother.
 * Art Shift—Kyosuke has some outdated concepts of what the anime adaptation will look like.
 * Badass Adorable—It'd be easier to list a major character who isn't. Minamoto and Kaoru are just the most obvious.
 * Badass Nickname—All three of The Children's future selves (as seen through precognition) have a Badass Nickname that the Big Bad likes to refer to their present selves as, which mostly just confuses them.

"Shiho: "The pain and hate of the fish which were brutally murdered... it's delicious.""
 * Badass Normal—Minamoto, by way of being The Chessmaster, having enough Heroic Willpower to resist psychic control, and going through Training from Hell to condition his body to resist the psychic abuse Kaoru routinely inflicts on him.
 * Batman Gambit—Minamoto is an exceptional tactician.
 * Beach Episode—Offering The Children a chance to kick butt while wearing bathing suits. And a chance to the men on the beach to admire Fujiko's body from up close while she sleeps when sunbathing.
 * Becoming the Mask—Subverted,
 * Berserk Button—The main cast members go any length to protect each other. Jumping into bullet fire, breaking international laws, enduring torture: no problem. But hurt Minamoto and Kaoru has an Unstoppable Rage that even Hyobu wants nothing to do with.
 * Betrayal Insurance -- is ordered to always carry ; he feels pretty conflicted about it.
 * Beware the Nice Ones—Shiho, who can be unexpectedly nasty when sufficiently provoked.
 * As the manga progresses, this gets more extreme - in the beginning, Shiho would just tell someone's emberassing secrets, lately her first proposal to deal with a bad guy hidden in a cloud who had pissed her off was using thermobaric bombardment, her second
 * Just don't anger Minamoto if you don't feel like being clobbered to death with an alligator.
 * Or if you don't feel like having a bottle smashed against your head. Or if you don't feel like having your mansion demolished by a hijacked drill truck. Seriously, don't piss this guy off.
 * BFG—The Blaster weapon Minamoto was given . It doesn't look that big, until you see it next to a regular pistol...
 * Big Badass Wolf—Hatsune has the ability to transform into a wolf, aside from having other wolf-like tendencies.
 * Big Eater—Hatsune, which comes with her wolf-transformation abilities.
 * Black Comedy Rape—Kaoru at times really skirts the line with her harassment of Oboro.
 * Bodyguard Crush—Barret and Tim, towards the Power Trio.
 * Born Winner—High level espers, and Level 7s in particular.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall—Shiina is doing this more and more as time passes. (this and Shout-Out are becoming staples of his works) However the wall is always there, no one, so far, was able to escape trouble via genresavviness.
 * With the possible exception of Shiho, who calls BABEL's new submarine a "victory for CG" when the girls are talking about how cool it is.
 * Then there's the OVA. The robot duplicates of The Children explain to the audience (but confuse the rest of the class) about the making of the OVA and the possibility of a season two.
 * Bridge Bunnies—Hotaru and Natsuko, the receptionists at BABEL, who later (after being promoted to field agents) get replaced by Chizuto and Tae.
 * Bullying a Dragon—Done to all espers as well as some normals. Considering what espers can do and how it's the normals' fault some of them go bad in the first place, a lot of them may just be Too Dumb to Live.
 * The previous supervisor takes this to awful levels. In the anime, she forces three preteen girls to wear irremovable collars, and repeatedly states that she considers them to be animals. Unforgivable mistreatment of any child, and not any way to ensure that your resident people of mass destruction grow up happy and well-adjusted. This is actually toned down from the manga, where she subjects The Children to Electric Torture.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer—With about two exceptions, everyone at BABEL is superhumanly competent and off the wall weird.
 * Muscle Okama: Hard Gay leather freak. Brilliant diplomat.
 * Minamoto more or less averts this, and thus is stuck as the Only Sane Man.
 * Calling Your Attacks—Kaoru loves this, using "Psychic [Whatever]!" at any opportunity.
 * She considers this so important, she'll actually stop, mid attack to come up with a suitable name.
 * Cameo—Nagi and Hayate. Episode 33 has full and voiced appearances by several members of the Hayate cast, with Nagi and Hayate being the most major.
 * Also, Dorothy, Ginka Toramizu, Shiro Inuzuka, Tadao Yokoshima, Tiger Torakichi, Eila Juutilainen, Sanya Litvyak, Perrine Clostermann, Yukata Kobayakawa, Minami Iwasaki, Ink Nijihara, Mario and Nabeshin make appearances. These ones are easy to miss.
 * In episode 40, the Karen Girls, the ones who sang the OP make an appearance.
 * In episode 27, Kaoru blames her behavior on "that Nikkumaru": Nikkumaru Sarutobi, the skirt-flipping ninja hero of 80's manga/anime Sasuga No Sarutobi. The Karen Girls also appear on the magazine Hyobu is reading, along with Ghost Sweeper Mikami.
 * Chaste Hero—Minamoto is dedicated to the well being of his charges to the point that he doesn't have much of a social life.
 * Chekhov's Toymaker—Mr.9, who turns out to be
 * The Chessmaster—Minamoto
 * Chick Magnet -- Minamoto.
 * And regular Minamoto.
 * Child Soldiers—Kyosuke and Fujiko joined military, when they were 10.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl—Kaoru doesn't like it when anyone tries to disrupt the team's dynamics.
 * She especially doesn't like it when Minamoto starts paying attention to anyone besides herself (though this is done in a cute way).
 * One incident after the Time Skip hints that her jealousy might be getting a bit more serious.
 * To be fair, all of the girls are pretty clingy to Minamoto. And occasionally they do get jealous at each other.
 * Clothing Damage—To show that the girls are growing... Except for Aoi, who is still quite a Pettanko.
 * Combined Energy Attack—Parodied in one episode, where Kaoru asks for the energy of the perverts of the world while training with Naomi.
 * Comedic Sociopathy—So very much. Poor, poor Minamoto...
 * Cooldown Hug—shown here
 * Creepy Child—Shiho, oh so very much.

"I go anywhere my interest leads me. I do anything I want to. I kill anyone I don't like. That is all."
 * When she first met Aoi she bullied her and mutilated her toys because she figured people were going to be afraid of her anyway so they may as well hate her first (she also did it because Aoi annoyed her by being a normal kid worried about her relatively non-destructive power). This was when she was four.
 * Creepy Half-Identical Twins—The Little Mice
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass—To all appearances, Sakaki is an absent minded skirt-chaser who works in the lab. Then he disarms someone at 500 meters with a hand gun. He later frightens off one of the more ethically challenged members of PANDRA with a Death Glare when Shiho and Minamoto are in danger.
 * How about his introductory storyline in the manga? Where his response to  is to calmly use his powers to stem the bleeding and keep the bullet from entering  heart, then directing several others in its removal. All the while, perfectly calm, despite the obviously excruciating pain he's in.
 * And now, in a recent arc, he decks himself out in warpaint and CHOPS THE HEAD OFF OF A LION.
 * I'LL GIVE YOU TOXOPLASMAAA!
 * Crouching Scholar Hidden Badass—We knew that Minamoto a top notch scientist, marksman, expect tactician and that he had special forces training, but it still a suprise to see him put a submission grapple on a level 7 Esper. Oh it doesn't work out of course, but it's still pretty Badass.
 * Cute Little Fangs—Hatsune still sports them when she's in her human form.
 * Dancing Theme—The second ending theme, though only twice out of all the times it's played.
 * The music videos for the two opening themes also feature three young female singers dancing while in cosplay - full dance versions here: Over the Future & My Wings.
 * Dark Magical Girl—Mio.
 * Dark Messiah—Kaoru, as the Queen of Catastrophe, is prophesied to lead a war against non-espers.
 * Date Peepers—The Children spy on a supposed date between Naomi and her art teacher.
 * The chief get his date peep too... using spy satellites.
 * Kaoru spends an afternoon jealously following Aoi and Shiho around on their dates. She eventually teams up with the Chief to take date peeping past eleven.
 * A particularly hilarious variation happens when Minamoto goes to his home town for a marriage interview with a girl which happens to be his childhood friend. Since the Chief and Fujiko and Kyousuke are interested in this, and bring their men with them to participate in peeping, it ends up in a chaotic all-out battle between BABEL and PANDRA.
 * Darkskinned Blonde—Lt. Mary Ford fo the Americ... I mean, Comerican espers.
 * Deadly Dodging—Firing homing missiles at Lightspeed Goddess Aoi is bad for your health.
 * Deal with the Devil—Or Kyosuke, who's close enough.
 * Delayed Reaction—A Running Gag with Mio, who takes a while before realizing why having no air to breathe is bad for you.
 * Dirty Old Man—Kaoru is this in spirit, while Supervisor Tanizaki is a more straight example.
 * Though after the Time Skip, Kaoru develops a modicum of modesty, at least when it comes to Minamoto. Other girls are still fair game.
 * Distracted by the Sexy—Kaoru has trouble focusing goes completely gaga when around hordes of busty women, often screwing up her missions because of it.
 * The Ditz—Kojika.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?—Muscle Okama uses crotch blasts.
 * What do his crotch blasts do? They make things "harder" or "softer".
 * A non-sexual example of this trope is the scale used to describe the power levels of espers. The Description of the effects of espers at various levels appear to be taken almost word for word from the JMA earthquake scale, making the heroines literally Persons of Mass Destruction.
 * Dude, She's Like, in a Coma—In the first episode, when Kaoru encounters a woman who's been Taken for Granite, she takes the chance to look up her skirt and fondle her thighs, to the irritation of Aoi.
 * Eagle Land—Comerica, standing in for America. You begin to notice it's not really America when the stripes on the flag are vertical.
 * That and the name are about the only differences, though.
 * The Empath—Shiho.
 * A pretty unnerving use of it, considering her age.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending—Minamoto, after 50+ episodes of constant devotion has advanced the chance of a good future by a grand total of 2%. Even so, Fujiko treats it as a significant accomplishment, and The Children tell him that they're aware of, and grateful for everything he's done.
 * Enforced Cold War—BABEL and PANDRA can't seriously fight each other because Kaoru's heart and mind are the most important prize. Kaoru loves almost everyone on both sides, so using lethal force would prejudice her against whoever started the fire.
 * Other thing is they seem sometimes to even like each other.
 * Even Evil Has Standards—ESPer supremacist group PANDRA is totally opposed to the brainwashing esper Terrorists Without a Cause Black Phantom. Black Phantom is slightly disturbed at themselves for turning children into Tyke Bombs, and remedies this by "not letting them get infected with emotion so they can live unaware they they're human".
 * Everybody Lives—In the anime, there has not been one individual killed yet, despite how narrowly several people have escaped death.  is the most blatant example, since this leads to a Like You Would Really Do It effect that slightly trims back the drama.
 * Eviler Than Thou—Episode 37 introduces the criminal organization Black Phantom. One Brainwashed and Crazy esper assassin sent by the organization was able to take on Hyobu, and it took a.
 * , but yes.
 * Hyobu was trying to save his opponent, not kill him. He was about to give up and take off the gloves when Kaoru smacked him into a wall. A minion later notes that most of his injuries came from Kaoru.
 * The assassin did manage to give Hyobu trouble thanks to his ability to manipulate bullets. Specifically, he manipulated the bullets that had been left inside Hyobu's body for the last few decades.
 * Excited Episode Title
 * Expy—Most character will seem very familiar if you've read Ghost Sweeper Mikami (Shiho, for example, seems to be growing up with all the morality and softness of Reiko), but the only true expy so far seems to be Dr. Chaos / Col. Grisham.
 * Eyecatch—Like Hayate, Shiritori is being played across it.
 * Fantastic Racism—Espers are subjected to this by normal people, with very few exceptions.
 * Flipping the Table -- Lampshaded by Aoi regarding the interview room for Takeshi-kun and his father.
 * Foe Yay—Kyousuke and Minamoto occasionally have a bit of this going on - Kyousuke might be after Kaoru, but he does seem to love playing with Minamoto.
 * I think we can safely declare Minamoto/Kyosuke canon.
 * Also Wonderfully Lampshaded by Patty in this Comic.
 * And now Feather is openly flirting with Minamoto.
 * Foreign Fanservice—Lt. Mary Ford, "the big breasted-er, foreign, woman."
 * Fountain of Youth—Minamoto ends up getting regressed to The Childrens' age.
 * Freudian Excuse -- Deconstructed by Minamoto in the last episode.
 * Any number of PANDRA members imply that they have back grounds like this, though they're treated with much more sympathy.Sometimes
 * Friendly Enemy—BABEL has a shoot on sight order for Kyosuke, but otherwise, The Children and PANDRA members are just as likely to snark at each other, visit amusement parks together or ask for help as actually fight.
 * Taken to a whole new level when Kyosuke hijacks a country to allow Mio and the other young members of PANDRA to attend school with The Children under the aegis of diplomatic immunity.
 * Furo Scene—in a twist, Minamoto gets one of these when the children teleport at home while he's taking a shower. He even chases them off throwing things.
 * Gagging on Your Words: In an omake Kyosuke is forced to admit that he and PANDRA can't remove the bomb implanted in Sai's head, but he would rather die than say Sakaki is better than him at something.
 * Gambit Pileup—Fujiko and Kyosuke both have their own plans for . Minamoto has his own ideas and doesn't want either of them telling him what to do. We still don't know Black Phantom's true objectives (if they have any).
 * Gambit Roulette—Usually, Minamoto's planning is completely believable, but in the episode where he, even if we accept that he  , he still got lucky in that Kaoru was the Child being threatened instead of Shiho (who lacks direct combat powers).
 * Genre Savvy: Given that Kyosuke is a Master of Disguise who gets a little too much enjoyment from disguising himself as Minamoto Tim doesn't lower his gun when Minamoto says "It's me", Tim  checks the finger prints. It actually is Minamoto, but BABEL needs to give the kid a raise.
 * Girls Love: Episode 36 takes a potshot at the genre. It may qualify as an Indecisive Parody; while Kaoru and Sakaki's lustful Lampshade Hanging is clearly a gag, the vase of white lilies, focus on the girls' hands, subtext, and  are all hallmarks of the genre played completely straight.
 * Go-Karting with Bowser: The Children and PANDRA's younger members go  Kyosuke and Kaoru also frequently hang out together, even going on dates from time to time.
 * The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: BABEL are the good guys, and Black Phantom and the Normal People are evil. PANDRA are more nuanced bad guys who spend more time helping The Children than fighting them.
 * Goo-Goo Godlike: Kaoru once put her mother in the hospital with a psychic temper-tantrum. Her family later admits to fearing that it might happen again.
 * Gratuitous English -- "The Children" for a start (yes, the "The" is important and capitalised), then we have BAse of Backing Esp. Laboratory. Goofier than that is the PANDRA ad in episode 27. "Let's join us!"
 * In the manga version, it's actually hard to find chapters whose titles don't contain gratuitous English. Of course, in English translations of the manga this is lost for obvious reasons.
 * Groin Attack—Happens to Okama a lot, and Shiho in particular happens to specialize in threatening it.
 * The Gunslinger—Shiho has become one in more recent episodes.
 * She was always one in the manga, but they censored it in the anime until it was necessary for the story to turn Darker and Edgier. Apparently Psychometry gives you Improbable Aiming Skills by knowing where the bullet will go. Which also explains Sakaki's Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass.
 * Hair Antennae—Kojika, the guardian of HOUND, sports a set.
 * Hard Gay—Muscle Okama. A leather getup and psychic crotch beams that turn people to stone. Really. With some Camp Gay mannerisms thrown in for good measure.
 * But damn, Looks good in a business suit. Wonder who his tailor is.
 * Hates Being Touched—Inverted trope. People go out of their way to avoid physical contact with psychometers. Sakaki expresses open jealousy that Shiho has people willing to hug her and hold her hand.
 * Heart Is an Awesome Power—Psychometry. It seems like the kind of thing that wouldn't be much use in combat (and it actually isn't at first), until Shiho explains that psychometry grants Improbable Aiming Skills and lets her use any weapon like a prothe second she picks it up. Don't believe it? Toss her a shamsir and see how long you live.
 * Heavy Sleeper—Fujiko
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath—Fujiko
 * Hollywood Density—Kaoru stuffs her shirt with gold bars without ripping it, even though she has no powers due to ECMs.
 * Honor Before Reason—The Children get very agitated when Minamoto does the pragmatic thing rather than the right thing. In one instance he lets the Big Bad get away rather then subject The Children to the sight of a normal human shooting an esper in cold blood. Unusually for the this trope, it works for the best. The fact that Minamoto honestly tries to live up to this standard has Kaoru reacting to Kyosuke's nastier actions and beliefs with horror and disgust in later episodes.
 * Kaoru goes way, way out on a limb to trust Mio and the other PANDRA kids at their word, even though she is very much aware of the risk.
 * Hot-Blooded—Kaoru, so very much. Fujiko was this when she was younger; nowadays she takes her craziness in a different direction.
 * Hot Shounen Mom—Kaoru's mother in particular. Her older sister isn't bad either. ALSO: Minamoto's mom. Seriously.
 * Hot Springs Episode—Kaoru proves to be rather Genre Savvy in this episode, trying to make sure all the expected tropes play out.
 * Idiot Hero—Though not dumb per se, Kaoru certainly has elements of this.
 * I Have the High Ground—Naomi's favorite entrance.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal—The Children really want to go to a normal school and deal with other kids. Minamoto makes it happen for them, but things sure ain't easy.
 * The underage children of PANDRA make the same decision, much to Kyosuke's chagrin.
 * Minamoto had the same experience as a child, and it for the basis of an offer that Kyosuke makes for him
 * Image Song
 * Improbable Aiming Skills—In the manga, Sakaki manages to hit a power staff carried by a man standing on top of a passenger jet in flight, using a handgun. It's implied that psychometers like Sakaki and Shiho use their powers to aim.
 * He can also throw scalpels down the barrel of a helicopter-mounted gun, apparently.
 * In the End You Are on Your Own—Kaoru is the Children's combat machine. Aoi and Shiho support her, but she's the only one with blasty powers.
 * In the Name of the Moon—Complete with Sentai-style smoke-bombs at the end. Lampshaded by Aoi, Minamoto, hell anyone who's watching as they all think it's a bit silly. The speech is never the same one twice. Even when Aoi's going on a mission alone, she still does a heroic speech. While it doesn't turn out completely perfect, the finale even has The Hound trying their hand at one.
 * Invocation—Sure, Minamoto doesn't need to call out "Released!" when he deactivates the limiters with his phone, but it looks cool.
 * Ironic Echo—In an effort to kill The Children, the Normal People are willing to let three civilians suffocate to death in a vault, and say that it is "a small sacrifice". Much later, some members of PANDRA blows up a plane to flush out a Black Phantom agent. They call it "a small sacrifice".
 * Jekyll and Hyde—Arabian princess Sera and her colder ancestor Masara.
 * Kansai Regional Accent—Aoi (Kyoto to be precise).
 * Kawaiiko—Fujiko is eighty years old and, of course, overdoes the cute to compensate. She doesn't quite manage the Moe however.
 * Kick the Dog -- Just in case there was any worry of the PANDRA sliding into Anti-Villain territory, they blow up a plane to smoke out a Black Phantom agent, smugly explaining that normals have no right to live. In front of Kaoru. Given that Kyosuke has bent over backwards to paint PANDRA as La Résistance, you'd think he'd have explained the whole "hearts and minds" thing.
 * It's then followed up by Kyosuke erasing Kaoru's memory of the incident so that she'll be more likely to join them in the future. Not to mention the whole "trying to turn a young girl into a living WMD against Normals despite knowing that this will eventually lead to her death."
 * Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand—Kyosuke does this to Minamoto when the latter has the blaster drawn on him. He actively taunts Minamoto into shooting, because he knows that if Minamoto does take him down, Kaoru will come away with a grudge and the esper-human war will be assured.
 * Knight of Cerebus—The second season is generally a lot more serious than the first, what with, Future!Kaoru and all, but Black Phantom's appearance is by far the closest the show comes to playing for keeps.
 * Legion of Doom—PANDRA
 * An unusual example of the trope as the members of PANDRA are genuinely loyal to one another.
 * The Normal People and Black Phantom are both non-sympathetic examples, notable in that they're non-esper groups.
 * Les Yay—Kaoru falls under another trope, but when she wants to follow Mary into the bath, the other Children are right behind her...
 * Likes Older Women—Kaoru, for sure. Note her reaction to "the great armada" in the second Hot Springs Episode.
 * Little Miss Snarker—As a ten-year-old ultrapowerful mind reader, Shiho is naturally suited to the role. Like Guu, she's more playful and deadpan than actively sarcastic.
 * Lolicon:
 * Minamoto being accused of this is a running gag.
 * Momotaro calls Kyosuke this on occasion in order to annoy him.
 * Lotus Eater Machine—Kuromaki's power. She's known as the Dreamweaver, and traps Minamoto inside his own mind. Then Kaoru decides to join him in there.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac -- Kaoru. She loves the ladies, and isn't above flirting with Minamoto either.
 * Also Sakaki, who occasionally makes use of his position as the resident BABEL physician to convince female patients that he needs to check their chest.
 * Fujiko has a streak of this as well.
 * MacGuffin—Arguably the prophecy about, since none of it gets addressed in the end.
 * Made of Iron—Kaoru regularly throws people against walls, causing massive craters, without seriously hurting the people themselves.
 * An omake in the manga shows Minamoto working out frequently so his body can take the brunt of Kaoru's frequent psychic temper tantrums.
 * Magic Skirt—In the anime.
 * Manly Tears—Minamoto cries a river when Kaoru and the others graduate from elementary school.
 * Meganekko—Aoi
 * Memory Gambit—Phantom Daughter. Four different personalities, only one of them (possibly) is sure what's going on.
 * Men Can't Keep House—Averted hard with Minamoto.
 * Mind Over Manners—Shiho is not shy about using her powers to tease Minamoto.
 * Mood Swinger—Naomi, though not without reason. Her supervisor is something of a Dirty Old Man. Her tendency to quickly go from calm and collected to throwing Tanizaki into a wall made Naomi's Code Name change from "Kitty Cat" to "Wild Cat" early in the series.
 * Morality Chain—Reconstructed or Subverted depending on interpretation. The Children start off trying to please Minamoto because treats them with kindness and discipline rather than the negelect and abuse of their previous supervisors, and they are violently protective of him as a result. Eventually, they get older and mature enough that they do the right thing without supervision.
 * Morality Pet—One of PANDRA's functions is as an entire organization of morality pets to Hyobu.
 * Ms. Fanservice—Fujiko.
 * Hotaru does it while taking a shower.
 * No Ontological Inertia - People turned to stone by Muscle Okama are inexplicably healed when he is arrested.
 * May be subverted as those were power-nullifying cuffs they put on him.
 * That and he receved the mother of all nutshots, which was jus' about where Okama was firin' his beams...god that didn't sound right at all...
 * No Social Skills—Hatsune. Without Akira's help she'd probably be roaming the woods somewhere.
 * Not Quite Flight—Aoi's Chain Teleport. It's a rather bumpy ride but it gets you where you're going at supersonic speed.
 * Occidental Otaku—Ex-Black Phantom Espers are the most Otaku like of the cast (the two boys are always going on about Moe and 2D, while the girl is a Yaoi Fangirl), but it is heavily hinted that Black Phantom gets its espers from outside Japan in most, if not all, cases. Also one of the Comerica agents is a massive fan of Japanese Culture, though Traditional culture more than Otaku culture.
 * It is implied in the manga's Chapter 203 and Episode 46 of the anime that the otaku behavior of Bullet, Tim, and Patty is an odd sort of coping mechanism for their loss of memories after getting freed from Black Phantom's control.
 * The supplement 4koma for Chapter 198 show that Yuuri (schoolgirl form) has inexplicably collected Chil Vermillion anime figures without Mirage's approval, and the supplement 4koma of Chapter 234 shows that Black Hanzo wearing a "Maruto" shirt - which prompts Mirage to ask "are all of our Espers into that kind of thing...!!?"
 * Older Than They Look—Kyousuke doesn't look a day over 20, but is really in his 80s. The same for Fujiko.
 * Omake—Plenty of them. In a slight subversion of the trope, some of them are more or less Canon.
 * Omniscient Morality License—Fujiko and Hyobu both claim this because they know one of Lieutenant Ikyuugo's premonitions; Hyobu believes it's inevitable and must be brought about, Fujiko has a plan that might stop it. Minamoto doesn't buy either.
 * Out-Gambitted—In the more light hearted stories, Kyosuke frequently assures his comrades (mostly Magi) that he has a brillant plan to lure Kaoru to PANDRA. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Overnight Age-Up—Minamoto is hypnotized by the Big Bad into seeing the girls as fully-grown women. The girls decide to have fun with this much to his dismay...
 * Papa Wolf—Minamoto. So very much.
 * Person of Mass Destruction—Pretty much all characters treat those three girls like that in the beginning. Minamoto might be the first to think of them first of all as persons. Kaoru definitely is one and is still growing into her powers, Fujiko and Hyobu are already there. Aoi and Shiho don't cause big blasts, but Aoi can teleport people into solid matter, among other things, and Shiho's power suddenly becomes really scary when applied to international politics or stuff like launch codes.
 * Pet the Dog—You know the made-of- Squick Tanizaki? Yeah, that one. He was one of Suma's most outspoken critics.
 * Phenotype Stereotype—Ken McGwire, one of the Espers from America Comerica.
 * Power Incontinence—When Kaoru suffers a head whack early on, her psychokinesis goes out of control. There's a reason for the Power Limiter. Other espers are later shown to have had trouble with their powers while young.
 * Power Levels—The girls are Level 7, which equates to weapon of mass destruction. Hyoubu Kyousuke isn't given a level, probably because he's completely off the scale.
 * Actually his powers are mentioned in same chapter he's introduced, he's a hybrid type with use of 7 power types between 2rd and 4th level, however as he can combine their effects it does make him far more powerful then some one with only 1-2 of those powers would be. Not to mention 80-ish years of practice
 * Power Limiter—Very essential here. High level espers without limiters can unintentionally damage themselves and others.
 * Power Nullifier—The ECMs are the wide-area weapon version of the above limiters. And even then they're no match for Hyoubu.
 * BABEL has the ECCM, which nullifies the nullifier.
 * In the pilot chapters of the manga, Minamoto did actually have (unknowingly) an esper ability - he was a living ECCM.
 * Power Gives You Wings—Kaoru manifests a pair when facing off against one of Mio's copies merged with a bulldozer. The second opening theme (titled "MY WINGS") plays this up even further by granting all three of The Children wings.
 * Prehensile Hair—Appears to happen to Chisato's hair extensions in an omake. It's really just Kaoru's psychokinesis.
 * Promotion to Parent—Minamoto has his current job is because he's the parent figure Kaoru and the others need but never had. In somes cases he's more responsible than their actual parents.
 * Psychopathic Manchild—Kyousuke. He does avenge a young girl who is severely wounded in a suicide bombing - but only because the bomber ruined the good mood brought on by the flowers she sold him . Later, he says to the leader of the terrorist group :


 * Punch Clock Villain—Kazura invokes this claiming PANDRA and BABEL should get along because they work in the same place. Subverted when Aoi retorts that cops and robbers work in the same place. Double subverted when Aoi and Kazura proceed to get along just famously.
 * Real Men Wear Pink—Kaoru squees at the sight of Minamoto in an apron.
 * Reality Warper—Kyosuke's telekinesis is so powerful and finely controlled that it tends to work like this.
 * Running Gag—Quite a few:
 * A BABEL esper throwing a superior into a wall. First it was Minamoto and/or chief Kiritsubo, now it's Tanizaki.
 * Minamoto and Kyosuke being called lolicons.
 * IMPURE!
 * The 4-koma 'supplements' depicting the anime and OVA in a really retro style, much to the cast's consternation.
 * Sacred First Kiss—The girls are very upset when they lose theirs to Fujiko.
 * Which is perhaps a bit odd in Kaoru's case, since Fujiko should be right up her alley.
 * Maybe she wanted either Minamoto or Oboro to be her first? The First Kiss is Serious Business in Japan.
 * Sad Clown—Shiho and Sakaki are more heavily affected than they let on when people flinch at the thought of touching a psychometer.
 * Samaritan Syndrome—A major pain for high level espers on BABEL's payroll. Vacations, birthdays and school days can all be cancelled in an emergency.
 * Sapient Cetaceans—Lieutenant Ikyuugo, one of the friendly espers, is a dolphin. Kaoru is disappointed to learn that he's inedible.
 * Scarpia Ultimatum—Variation: At one point, if Hanae doesn't use her hypnosis to become The Children's adult forms and try to seduce him, Fujiko will cut the funding to her hospice.
 * Screw Destiny—The basic premise of the plot is to stop a war that's been predicted between normals and espers. Or, more specifically,
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Connections—The Children are allowed to go to school because Minamoto and the Chief are putting some serious weight behind it.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers—A running theme. PANDRA believes that they don't have to obey the rules because they're powerful enough to blast their way through anyone trying to stop them (and in Kyosuke's case, he's pretty much right), and the threat of this (along with plain old bigotry) is the impetus behind the Normal People's terrorism. BABEL is caught in the middle, and it doesn't help that not all of their members are perfectly responsible with their powers either. Many one-off villains also have this as their motivation, such as the telekinetic bank robber.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy—Tied to  Start of Darkness.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong --
 * Shipper on Deck—Fujiko ships Minamoto/The Children.
 * Shiritori—For the eyecatches.
 * Shout-Out—quite full of them, not at Ghost Sweeper Mikami levels, but Shiina is getting really good with this trope. Often enough the reference is lampshaded pretty heavily too.
 * Kaoru wants to purchase a toy in one episode that resembles Haruhi almost exactly. Considering who Kaoru is voiced by, this doubles as an Actor Allusion.
 * Much later, we have this scene. Also doubles as an Actor Allusion.
 * "Psychic Endless Eigh-"
 * There's even a Shout-Out to Detroit Metal City when Kaoru shows up in a Krauser mask.
 * The best shout out is chapter 126/episode 46, where a notebook that can change the future launches the cast into a Death Note homage, starring Sakaki as L.
 * Further on Death Note appears again in the form of the Children copying Light's various methods for hiding the note pages. Results in a Gambit Pileup.
 * Kaoru uses Light's method for hiding her diary.
 * There's a Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei spoof at Minamoto's marriage interview and a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure one in the manga version.
 * In the manga, the spoof is in a dream sequence.
 * In the manga, Fujiko wears C.C.'s 'suit' at one point. Also an Actor Allusion.
 * A Yonkoma gag strip has Kyosuke cosplaying as Gin Ichimaru. Also an Actor Allusion.
 * Another one has a Haruhi reference where he asks espers to join him.
 * A small subtle one in the Anime, Kaoru's Pyschic Shield (probably most clearly seen in episode 7) is identical in shape, colour, and style to an AT Field.
 * The picture here is similar to a scene from Project A-ko
 * In the anime, Animorph Hatsune can morph into a Bowdlerized version of Sirene.
 * Sakaki is a doctor who detests the Japanese medical hierarchy and wields scalpels as weapons.
 * Cosplayed here.
 * Surprisingly nobody else seems to have caught The World Only God Knows ref in this page
 * Kaoru gets a hat and accompanying outfit.
 * And here the girls freak out a la Kazuo Umezu.
 * Carrie, a purely psychic alter-ego/bodiless twin of Minamoto's ex.
 * To LOVE-Ru: when Lala's here, you know fanservice is not far!
 * In the manga, the Voight-Kampff test is used to identify espers and gauge their Power Levels.
 * Incidentally, the
 * Kaoru's sister cosplays Hatsune Miku.
 * In another omake, Ninja Hanzo has a Sharingan.
 * When Minamoto grows younger by 10 years, the girls force him to cross-dress and he ends up looking a little similar.
 * Chapter 272 shows PANDRA's senior members in a dogfight with a boy flying on a broomstick with glasses and lightning shaped scars on his face who uses a wand to cast a "Spell of Death" in the skies above London.
 * Show Within a Show: Zettai! Chil Chil and the Gundam mashup God Robo.
 * Sleep Cute—The Children do this on several occasions.
 * Something Else Also Rises—In one episode, Kaoru gets a picture of Oboro while she's changing. While she's rapidly gushing about Oboro's "attributes," her camera lens is extending and retracting.
 * Split Personality -- Phantom Daughter AKA Mirage AKA Yuri/The Doll AKA Feather. Yuri is just a "container", Phantom and Mirage are opposite personalities and Feather is an unknown interloper.
 * Arabian princess Sera, due to possession.
 * Stay in the Kitchen—Minamoto is a credible leader, fighter, and tactician, but he's on a team full of the world's most powerful espers, often fighting another team of the world's most powerful espers, and his teammates occassionally tell him to get out of combat. Kyosuke loves rubbing Minamoto's face in this.
 * The Strategist—Minamoto's second-biggest contribution to the Children (after being the Team Mom) is through cunning ploys that would make Zhuge Liang proud.
 * Strawman Political—Subverted with the radical normals. While a lot of the anti-esper stuff they do is over the top, it does get taken to that extent with real life hate.
 * Superpower Lottery—Level 7 espers in general are vastly more capable than espers at lower levels, even Level 6s. Kyosuke, who is basically a Reality Warper thanks to his phenomenally precise telekinesis, is broken even by Level 7 standards..
 * Superpower Meltdown—Kaoru, semi-frequently.
 * Super Registration Act—Espers face significant legal restrictions in Japanese society, including being excluded from normal schooling unless their powers can be completely suppressed.
 * Sweet Tooth—Shiho consumes large amounts of pocky.
 * Taking the Bullet—Minamoto nearly does this for Kaoru. The ensuing Unstoppable Rage disintegrates the bullet, and very nearly the person who fired it.
 * And in a later episode, the actually does it to save Taizou.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo—Naomi.
 * Team Dad -- Magi. Kyosuke cares deeply about his followers but a responsible, organized individual he is not. In the manga back story we see that Magi has actually raised several espers into adulthood, and has the unenviable duty of riding herd on PANDRA as Kyosuke's straight man.
 * Teen Genius—Minamoto, in his past and when he was hypnotized and had his memories regressed to when he was 12.
 * Theme Tune Cameo—The Children sing an off-key version of the first ending theme in a karaoke bar at one point.
 * Time Skip—In the last episode of the anime (and a similar point in the manga), the show jumps ahead a few years, the most prominent change being that The Children are a little older and have spiffy new uniforms.
 * Talking to Himself—Episode 24 has interaction between Momotaro and Mio, both voiced by Rie Kugimiya.
 * Teleporters and Transporters—Aoi and Mio
 * The Thing That Goes Doink—Episode 11, the Hot Springs Episode, naturally features a brief shot of one of these.
 * Theme Music Power-Up -- "Over the Future" is played at least once an episode during a battle or similar situation.
 * The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized—At least three different groups. Exaggerated to the point of parody when one of the Normal People goes "We're the Normal People! We'll make mistakes that are careless and unpleasant!"
 * Third Person Person—Fujiko.
 * To the Batpole—When the super-submarine BABEL-2 launches, a full sequence for the launching comes with it.
 * Parodied in episode 35 when they speed up the sequence by a factor of five and The Children comment, "Wah! It's fast."
 * Took a Level in Badass—after being press ganged from being a lab technician into becoming the supervisor of the Children, Minamoto is sent to the "hellish training" of the JDSF special forces. He comes back as BABEL's resident Badass Normal.
 * As of their latest appearance, the Normal People seem to have become much more competant terrorists (for all the good it does them.)
 * Torture Always Works—Subverted. The Normal People torture Minamoto for information and it doesn't work. When they bring Kaoru into the room for additional leverage, they just fall into a trap Minamoto had prepared before hand.
 * Transformation Sequence—The act of disabling the girls' power limiters also causes them to transform to their default BABEL uniforms, despite this not being necessary for them to use their powers.
 * In the above submarine episode, the girls are put in scuba-like suits, then transform into their BABEL uniforms... then five seconds later are right back in the scuba gear.
 * Aoi is good enough to teleport their clothes on, if an explanation is needed.
 * Kaoru will probably be quite happy to take advantage of that.
 * Tsundere—Kaoru has a tendency to express frustration or embarrassment by throwing Minamoto into a wall. She does this less as she gets older.
 * "I'm stuck between appreciating how moe she is and being pissed off!"
 * Totem Pole Trench—Kaoru, Aoi, and Shiho do this while infiltrating a school.
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm—the previous supervisor, Suma. Thankfully BABEL drops her like an annoyed tarantula.
 * Unskilled but Strong—The girls' relative lack of training or combat experience frequently puts them at a disadvantage against weaker but more experienced espers.
 * Villains Out Shopping—When Kyousuke isn't organizing PANDRA or plotting, he's...playing video games with Momotaro. And losing.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds—Kaoru and Miu.
 * Kyosuke and Momotaro.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess—Minamoto is usually a devotee of the Batman Gambit, but during a training exercise against the The Children he finds out that the chief is rigging the contest. Minamoto takes it in stride and decides that it can work to his benefit
 * Weasel Mascot—Momotaro, Kyousuke's psychic flying squirrel.
 * Wham! Episode—OVA episode #1 sends the message loud and clear in the first two minutes: the OVA isn't going to be nearly as lighthearted as the TV series.
 * The "As Time Goes By Arc" in the manga. HOLY crap...
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?—Minamoto at first thinks Momotaru is a dangerous animal to be put down rather than a being with rights. Kaoru doesn't take it well. Later in that episode, this is discussed when Kyosuke comments that he doesn't see himself as human and humans don't either, and challenges Minamoto to shoot him and prove his point. Of course, the Normal People see all espers as nonhumans who should be destroyed.
 * What Measure Is a Non Super—The flip side of the above. As far as he's concerned, Kyosuke and other espers aren't part of humanity, and humans need to be destroyed for the protection of the esper race. Minamoto and BABEL try to Take a Third Option and work for harmony between humans and espers, while The Children don't even make us-and-them distinctions in the first place.
 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?—Invoked by Kyosuke when he explains why he doesn't kill Minamoto. Kyosuke knows that Kaoru would immediately hunt him down like a dog, and he recognizes that Minamoto is the most devoted guardian that Kaoru has (and Kyosuke hates him for it).
 * Wife Husbandry—Attempted, but only partially successful: Naomi's supervisor Tanizaki engaging in this is the reason she changed from a sweet and quiet girl to a Mood Swinger once The Children helped her realize it.
 * Later, when Minamoto and Aoi visit Aoi's home during a mission, her father and brother worry that Minamoto might be trying something similar with Aoi. Aoi's obvious fondness for Minamoto does not help matters.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Although ten, Shiho has a pretty good idea of how dark the world can be thanks to her powers. Minamoto finds it a little disconcerting that even solving murder cases by psychicly extracting clues from the murder weapons doesn't really upset her.
 * Ten-Minute Retirement --
 * The Worf Effect—In his initial appearance, Grisham 'ESPer Killer' is a Cloudcuckoolander Badass Grandpa in a Badass Longcoat who manhandles and manipulates BABEL and Comerica. His second appearance? Jobbing to some punk who decides Grisham is Not Worth Killing.
 * Admittedly, said 'Punk' is capable of going head-to-head with Major Kyosuke, and it eventually took a Limit Break from Kaoru to stop him. He was also under More Than Mind Control at the time, making him immune to Grisham's telepathic attacks.
 * X Meets Y -- Powerpuff Girls meets X-Men.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko—Aoi seems to be growing into one. And were he not a male Minamoto would fit the role to a T.
 * Yaoi Fangirl—Patty of PANDRA. Needless to say, she's thrilled by the Foe Yay between Hyobu and Minamoto.
 * You Can't Fight Fate—Kyosuke constantly states that Kaoru's future Face Heel Turn is inevitable, and that Minamoto's attempts to resist are pointless, but he's not above using Laser-Guided Amnesia to make sure fate stays inevitable.
 * Subverted in that he is trying to avoid the fate of
 * You Have Failed Me...—Averted. Kyosuke's treatment of his underlings is a textbook example of Genre Savvy villainy.
 * Played straight with Black Phantom:
 * You Shall Not Pass—Done nearly verbatim by the professor from the Carrie Flashbacks to the G-men. They don't take him seriously. Then the school football team gets involved...
 * Zettai Ryouiki—Mio sports this look. The Children get it as part of a costume upgrade when they hit middle school.