Birdy the Mighty: Difference between revisions

Tsutomu Senkawa was an ordinary kid living in Tokyo. Birdy Cephon [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|Altirra/Altera/Altaria]] was a beautiful Space Federation law enforcement officer on a mission to stop a plot by alien criminals that involved Earth. One night, during a battle with the alien fugitive Geega, "Berserker Killer" Birdy accidentally attacks Tsutomu, fatally injuring him. To save his life, Birdy has to [[Fusion Dance|merge with him]]. Now, as Tsutomu gets used to sharing a body with a girl, they both have to work together for Birdy to complete her mission.

* [[Batman in My Basement]]: In the OVA, Tsutomu has to keep his situation hidden from his family. This ended-up making his family think he's crazy as he seems to be yelling to himself, his father (in an attempt at [[Bathtub Bonding]] with his son) [[Accidental Pervert|catching a nude Birdy in the bath after she switched with him]], his family to wonder why the son is [[Naked People Are Funny|running around the house in the nude]], and his sister accuses him of [[Cross DresserCrossdresser|crossdressing]] when Birdy decides to "borrow" some of her clothes. Averted in ''Decode'', where the sister has moved out and only checks in on him, and [[Parental Abandonment|his parents have left due to the father's job, leaving Tsutomu alone]]. The trope remains in the remake manga, though Birdy has her own clothes for being a little less conspicuous.

* [[Bio PunkBiopunk]]: The society from which Birdy comes has advanced organic technology (for example, their spaceships and some buildings being biological). Their medicine can fix people blown in half, and replace limbs and faces. Beyond that, {{spoiler|Birdy and Nataru are artificial bioengineered humanoid weapons, and the Ryunka is another, probably artificial, biological weapon}}.

** Bacillus is an oozing parasite that bonds and kills the host, then moves on to another. {{spoiler|In the OVA, he bonds himself to several dogs at once before before getting repelled by [[Mundane Solution|dish soap]], then bonds himself to some [[Mecha -Mooks]] that Birdy took out earlier. In ''Decode'', his then-current host falls apart, then moved to Geega, who also falls apart.}}

* [[Cross DresserCrossdresser]]: Birdy (in the OVA) would sometimes shift into her form, but still wear Tsutomu's clothes.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The basic premise is remarkably similar to a long-running arc in [[Marvel]]'s [[Captain Mar -Vell|Captain Marvel]] series, where an ordinary guy must share his body with a powerful superhero who has his own identity and motivations, right down to the two being able to talk to each other.

* [[Doing It for Thethe Art]]: ''Decode'' was commercially unsuccessful, but still produced a second season of excellent quality. Sadly, it looks like the series will have another cliffhanger ending.

* [[Earth Is the Center of Thethe Universe]]: Completely averted. Earth is considered an insignificant backwater planet in the ''Decode'' universe.

** [[Funbag Airbag]]: When Geega threw Tsutomu at Birdy in the original manga, Tsuotmu ends up slamming into Birdy and his face end up slamming into her chest.

* [[Gambit Pileup]]: deconstructed. In the beginning, there are several factions involved, along with multiple wild cards, a chessmaster, and neutral but interested parties. And that's just the first season, on the alien side. However, instead of there being any [[JustAll AsAccording Plannedto Plan]] and [[I Know You Know I Know]], bad intel and lack of information reigns supreme, with things devolving into a chaotic world where the law of unintended consequences dictates the outcomes of events more than anything else. No one really knows what the hell is going on, except maybe the viewer, and even they, who see a lot more than any given character must think quite a bit and infer a lot to figure out what really happened and why.

* [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]]: Hikawa in the OVA and Shyamalan in the first season of ''Decode''. Hikawa was messing with a serum that was supposed to create [[Super Soldiers]] that had a history of mutating people into monsters and used himself as a subject, while Shyamalan tried to control the Ryunka, a weapon capable of killing everything on the planet. {{spoiler|Hikawa ended up being turned into a monster in the last episode of the OVA and Shyamalan, [[Too Dumb to Live|being literally in the same room with a not fully-mature Ryunka while messing with it in his efforts to control it]] was one of the first to die in the final episodes of the first season of ''Deocde''. In the remade manga, Hikawa also uses himself as a test subject, but ends up doing ''too'' good against Birdy causing her to go berserk and rip him apart before Tsutomu could calm her down.}}

* [[I Have Many Names]]: In a meta sense, the series of robots that {{spoiler|Violin}} and the [[Mecha -Mooks]] Birdy deal with. Depending on the incarnation, they're either called Arkazoids (original manga and OVA), Dolls (remake manga), or Marionettes (''Decode'').

* [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]]: The [[Freaky Friday]]/[[Man, I Feel Like a Woman]] and [[Whole-Episode Flashback]] examples, the former setting it off and justifying the latter, where {{spoiler|Tsutomu had to rescue Birdy after getting stuck in her form and how he learned of her past. In the manga, this knowledge becomes very handy when some of Birdy's old classmates show up on Earth}}.

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Birdy, and the [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|Undine/Ondine]] even more so.

* [[The Social Darwinist]]: Shyamalan ([[M. Night Shyamalan|no, not that one]]) in ''Decode''.

* [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]: The subtitles of the OVA prefer to romanize the last part of Birdy's name as "Altirra," though fans have also used "Altera." The English dub switched "Cephon" and "Altirra" around, resulting in "Birdy Altirra Cephon". Then there's "Altaria" ([[Pokémon (Franchise)|Uh...]]), used by Funimation on [[YouTube]] for ''Decode''. The DVD release was contradictory, as the subtitles used "Altira", but the credits used "Altera". Though technically, "Altirra/Altera/Altaria" is only used to identify where Birdy's from and her species and really isn't offically part of her name.

* [[The Masquerade]]: [[Zig Zagged]] to hell and back in ''Decode''. While the population at large is generally unaware of the aliens' presence, and many people don't believe in aliens, one may suspect that Masakubo's obsession with aliens and [[UF OsUFOs]] is more than crazy conspiracy theory paranoia. The non-humanoid aliens usually have some kind of disguise to make themselves look human and blend in, but many aliens have revealed themselves, making business deals with human companies and (possibly) governments. Even Birdy has the Shion Arita identity, but {{spoiler|she revealed herself to Muroto, though he may or may not have believed her}}. No cover up efforts are made at all when {{spoiler|the Ryunka demolishes the countryside}}, and everyone knows something weird happened when {{spoiler|the Ryunka completely trashed the Roppongi area}}. The government must have known something was up when {{spoiler|the aliens assaulted a military base and stole a nuclear bomb}}. But on the other side, some aliens living on earth might not even know they are alien, because they either were born there or moved when very small and their parents never told them. {{spoiler|For example, in ''Decode'', it is revealed that Chikira is an Altan, though he may or may not know this.}}

* [[Tokyo Is the Center of Thethe Universe]]: Natch, though in season 2 of ''Decode'' {{spoiler|out of all of Earth's cities Season 2's villains could have escaped to, it somehow just HAD to be Tokyo. While the city is indeed an apparent favorite for the series' aliens, the group in question were partly responsible for a narrowly avoided Class X annihilation event who's epicenter was Toyko, which led to the firing of a [[Kill Sat]] on the city, the resulting ruins of said firing being a major set piece throughout the season.}}

* [[Training Fromfrom Hell]]: {{spoiler|What Birdy goes through as a kid in preperation to be a Federation officer.}}

[[Category:Studio Ghibli (C unit)]]

[[Category:Birdy the Mighty{{PAGENAME}}]]