Cat Planet Cuties

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

One summer, a message from outer space is sent to Earth, carrying only the message "We're coming to play!", setting several organizations into motion.

Kio Kakazu lives an ordinary life on the Japanese island of Okinawa with the girl next door, an old friend he watches movies with, and his party-loving uncle. At a funeral for his grandfather, he meets a Catgirl named Eris, who claims that her ship crashed near the site, and was looking for some food. Surprised, Kio accidentally takes a sip of his uncle's beer and passes out immediately. A few hours later, he wakes up to find Eris sleeping in his bed. She is a Catian, one of the aliens who sent the original message, and she's here to learn all she can about Earth. However, both she and Kio are unaware of the organizations close to them that want to investigate the aliens for reasons unknown.

Originally a series of Light Novels, Asobi ni Iku yo! (あそびにいくヨ!, litreally "Let's Go Play!") was further adapted into both a manga and an anime. The anime series aired in the summer of 2010 produced by AIC. An OVA was released in the Spring 2011 season. Funimation, which licensed the anime under the name Cat Planet Cuties, released the series in 2012.

Tropes used in Cat Planet Cuties include:
  • A-Cup Angst: Aoi, though she's not too terribly distraught about it. It does become an issue later on during a conversation with Minami.
  • Accidental Pervert: Kio and most of the cast to be honest.
  • Achilles' Heel: Seemingly the Dogisian Goujyuu Powered Armor has a weak point where it can be shut down and immobilized.
    • Two of 'em, actually - the suit shuts down if you try to use it to attack a Dogisian.
    • Also the Catian Latex Space Suit deactivates when the user is 'In heat', with no visible Override Command. While it is a safety measure, it also can leave the user vulnerable.
  • Action Prologue: Shows Aoi in action, and one of her many missions where she actively kills people.
  • Action Girl: Manami and Aoi.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The anime covers the 7 volumes of the manga published so far, but the light novels that the manga is based on are up to 14 volumes and still going.
    • The anime covers the first four light novels, with the ending borrowed from book 6, Momiji's opening action in episode 1 scene adapted from a flashback in book 9, and a side story from book 9 used as episode 9 (Lawry). In the first 10 books, at least, Manami is not a haremette, so a lot of scenes in episodes 3, 6, and 8 are original.
  • Adorkable: Kio. Manami calls him an Otaku but the other girls point to her that it's a part of his charm.
  • Affectionate Parody: The continous Lampshade Hanging, Cameos, Shout Outs and playing of common genre tropes to their logical consequences put this series squarely into this category.
  • Alien Catnip: A literal case.
  • Aliens Speaking Japanese: They even call their planet "Earth", but decided on "Catia" to avoid confusion.
  • All Part of the Show: Aoi and Manami set out to rescue Eris and Kio, while the director they stole the boat from keeps the cameras rolling, despite his crew's warnings that the show was not according to the script.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Dogisian Assistaroids taking over the Catian mothership in episode 10. The command staff manage to avoid capture by shifting the bridge out of normal space-time, but they're effectively trapped there until they can be rescued.
  • An Asskicking Christmas: Episodes 10-12
  • Angels Pose: Done (minus the silhouette) by Aoi, Manami and Eris in the opening.
  • Anime Accent Absence: While the aliens speak perfect Japanese, Jack, Manami's friend from the Company, has a significant accent to hers.
    • Almost all the Earth-native characters speak Kyushu dialect, as well.
  • Awesome By Analysis: Aoi
  • Awesome Yet Practical: The Catians' Christmas present to humanity. Nothing says 'profitable working relationship' quite like a gigantic space elevator in the shape of a Christmas tree.
  • Badass Adorable: Aoi
  • Badass Automaton: Most Assistaroids, especially the four named ones.
  • Balanced Harem: Kissed by ALL THREE, and still no girl in the lead
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Played straight for the most part. Completely averted in the OVA and the DVD/Blue-ray versions. Nipples galore.
  • Bathtub Bonding: Manami and Aoi. And Kio and Assistaroid 6, sorta.
  • Beach Episode: For a very short time, Aoi and Manami change into bunny girl swimsuits. Episode seven is a more traditional beach episode.
  • Beam Spam: Episode 10
    • The dog lady's ship in episode 12 has a form of attack like this as well.
  • Bedmate Reveal: Hint: it's probably not Kio's uncle.
  • Big Bad: Jens
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Aoi and Eris.
  • Bland-Name Product: Somy, OIAV, and PanaX among others.
    • The Shimaneko (Striped Cat) Delivery Service counter in Episode 4. Notable as the same episode had earlier included a Shout-Out to the delivery service being parodied, Yamato ("Kuroneko"/"Black Cat") Transport.
  • Blood on These Hands: A consequence of Aoi's previous work.
  • Boobs of Steel: Whilst most of the Catians count thanks to their Powered Armour and... generous figures, the Dogisian arms dealer Jens probably takes the cake.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the OVA, Ichika has a copy of the script for the OVA and reads narration from it.
  • Bridal Carry: Kio does this to save an unconscious Aoi in episode 5, much to the latter's delight once she starts to wake up.
  • Buxom Is Better: Both Itokazu-sensei and Manami react to Eris with "Those aren't from around here."
    • Aoi just goes "Imported?!"
      • Becomes a plot point in Episode 7 Aoi's jealousy of Eris comes to the fore, and this is one of the points Aoi is jealous of.
  • The Cameo: In the beginning of Episode 3, Kämpfer's Natsuru and Shizuku, along with their Messengers, can be spotted in the crowd of onlookers. Akane and Mikoto are among the students at Kio's school in episode 7.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Aoi towards Kio. Manami is much more subtle about this, but Aoi later calls her out on it, telling Manami that she's suffering from this trope as well.
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: Kio.
    • Eris, too. Though that's apparently more an issue of her being, or soon to be, in heat.
  • Cat Fight: And dogfights too.
  • Catgirl: Eris, and several other members of her species, are part of the cast. Taken to the point that the only other male Catian in the series aside from Kio in episode 12 is only shown in a flashback, and we only get to see his chin.
    • According to the novels, the Catian female/male ratio is 30:1. No wonder Eris is so quick to suggest sharing Kio, as it's most probably the norm among Catians.
    • Ichika is also a cat girl with real cat ears and tail as revealed in The OVA and on the light novels
  • Censor Box: The Assistaroids do this in the sauna scene, not unlike the censor sign guy in Hayate the Combat Butler. Averted in the DVD release.
  • Censor Steam: Often combined with Lens Flare Censor, to the point that half the screen can be obscured at once.
  • The Chessmaster: Jens, whose plan for ruining Catian relations with Earth is really quite impressively thought-out. See Magnificent Bastard.
  • Chekhov's Spaceship: Eris's spacecraft is seen a few times early on in minor roles, then has a very important role in the last few episodes.
  • Clarke's Third Law: Ichika quotes this in episode 8 to explain her "magic" scrolls.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Manami, although she won't admit it. Gets a little interesting in episode 2 as she spies on them talking. Several times as she's listening in on their conversation, she ends up snapping pens in her hands as she hears some of the things Eris says to Kio.
    • Eris gets a little jealous in episode 12, when she sees both Aoi and Manami kissing Kio before their Suicide Mission, which prompts her to also kiss him.
  • Conspicuous CG: The AI avatar for Eris's personal spacecraft, and the turrets on the catgirl cult's flagship.
    • Every car sans Maki's in the first shot of episode 2. Note that it has more lines and choppier movement.
  • Cool Boat: Antonia's luxury yacht/waterborne Big Fancy House/high-tech battleship. In fact, it's Too Cool to Live, metaphorically speaking.
  • Cool Starship: Several, the Catian mothership especially.
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl: Antonia, the leader of a cult of these kinds of people.
    • Eris, though not an otaku, certainly appreciates the effects of cat ears combined with school swimsuits on the bureaucracy of Japan.
  • Couch Gag: The Opening Narration at the start of each episode, gleefully spoofing that of one classic show after another.
  • Crazy Prepared: A few characters usually seem to have exactly what's needed for a particular incident, especially Kio's uncle, Manami, and Aoi.
  • Crowd Song: With Lawry singing only a few bars, the entire cast starts harmonizing to Captain Future's "Oira wa Sabishii Spaceman", no matter where they are. It's worth noting that the dub went to the effort of translating and having the entire cast sing the song as well.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Aoi and her apporting abilities.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Sara loves cats, and is easily wooed by an Assistaroid. To emphasize, Sara was one of the top candidates to join the SAS, but her weakness to cats lost her that opportunity.
  • Cute and Psycho: Despite being the happy-go-lucky Catgirl Eris happens to be, she is definitely not one of those characters you would want to frustrate.
    • And Aoi too, you will probably freak out when she pull out that Hand Cannon out of thin air. These 2 are rather interesting variant that they are (sort of) in love, but without becoming Yanderes.
  • Cyber Cyclops: The Dogisian battle droids.
  • Death in All Directions: What Jens's ship specialises in, unleashing both generous Beam Spam and a classic Macross Missile Massacre (or three) in the finale.
  • Defeat by Modesty: When Manami and Aoi's training is interrupted by a sniper and her spotter, they counter with their convenient clothing-erasing bullets and send them running with nary a thread between them.
    • Well, not running, per se - as in the next scene we see they've been shipped back to Jens in a wooden crate, only wearing some onmyodo tags.
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Catian anti-matter shells, which have no effect on organic matter.
  • Digital Piracy Is Evil: One law strictly enforced by Orsonians is that of copyright.
    • Doctor Durel is quick to point out that the Captain Future Insert Song can be purchased online.
  • Diplomatic Impunity: The reason Aoi and Manami aren't arrested for treason.
    • Manami tries to justify her and Aoi's jobs as SP and the fact that Kio's house is now the Catian embassy site as an excuse to let her shoot off, but Kio would have none of it (check Japanese laws and cultural attitudes on guns) and wouldn't take her excuse.
  • Dissonant Serenity: In episode 2, Eris sweetly tells a government agent that she will beat the utter crap out of him and his cronies after she confirms that they are in league with dog aliens. She even cracks her knuckles with a smile on her face.
  • Do You Want to Copulate?: Hormone-overdosed Catians on their mating seasons act pretty... bold. Probably because of this their whole culture seems to be quite frank about sex.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Aoi tells this to Manami when the latter continues to insist on trying to hook her up with Kio, even they have a slightly more pressing matter of attempting to get into space and stop the Catian mothership from crashing into Earth.
  • Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): No one seems to care about the headlocks that Manami likes to put Kio in.
  • Driven to Suicide: Assistaroids are programmed to do this if they are given an impossible command unless given a verbal override in 10 seconds. Aoi's samurai-themed Droids, upon realizing they can't perform a quick draw stunt due to a lack of the necessary fingers, immediately try to commit Seppuku.
  • Drop the Hammer: Eris and her Assistaroids have hammers that can vaporize tanks. (And clothes; no fanservice here, though, since the tanks are driven by male soldiers.)
  • Emergency Transformation: Since the Catians' ship won't take direct orders from a non-Catian and Kio is the only one with the authority to give orders, Kio has to be transformed into a Catian to save the day.
  • Evolving Credits: Not so much evolving as the ending alternates every time, though there is a unique ED in Episode 9.
    • The Assistaroids in the opening credits change constantly, reflecting episodal changes.
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: With a Pinball Projectile. Aoi is quite The Gunslinger.
  • Exclusively Evil: The Dogisians, according to galactic law. The one we've seen so far is an alien arms dealer, and trading with them is deemed illegal.
  • Expy: A full-figured, happy-go-lucky, immodest alien girl with various mechanical gadgets cohabitates with the male lead? Are we sure she's from Catia and not Deviluke?
  • Fanboys: The organization Beautiful Contact. Being fans of Hard Sci-fi, they are not pleased the First Contact humanity might get is a Catgirl.
    • Also the catgirl cult in episode four.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Weapons loaded with Catian ammo become this.
  • Fan Service: And plenty of it.
  • Fantastic Anthropologist: Eris' job, apparently.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Currently, there are alien catgirls, alien doggirls, a "recall" esper, and onmyoudo magicians, as well as alien bunny girls being alluded to in episode 5.
    • Ichika is a native catgirl sage who is hundreds of years old. She was born human and magically converted into a catgirl, complete with a tail, and cat ears which she conceals under her hat.
  • Faux Paw: First episode. It's a Catgirl show, after all. Only rarely used in later episodes, though.
  • For the Lulz: Aoi seems to invoke this trope during episode 1 when she shoots at her driver in the car. It's not made clear if she did it for this trope, or to vent some frustration for the fact that he just happened to show up while she was trying to set up a date with Kio.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: The files on Kio, Eris, Aoi, Manami and Itokazu-sensei briefly seen in episode three come with a lot of info on them, some of it trivia (like Itokazu-sensei's reason for her love of Hard SF) and other really interesting (like Aoi's surprising family circumstances).
  • Furo Scene
  • Gag Boobs: Eris. A few of the older Catians are bigger, but hers are the ones that are Played for Laughs.
  • Gender Blender Name: JACK (though it's actually an acronym, and lampshaded by Kio when he points out it sounds like a guy's name), and Melwyn.
  • Genre Busting: About half fairly standard ecchi romance/comedy. The other half is a thriller.
  • The Glasses Come Off: ... when Aoi gets serious.
  • Godiva Hair: Most of the Catian crew are subjected to full-frontal nudity at some point or another. Their tails just oh-so-conveniently cover up their crotches, and only just barely.
  • Gratuitous French: Manami, in describing what she thought Kio and Eris were doing.
  • Green Lantern Ring: Captain Kuune's Multi Task Organizer. It can even do Lego Genetics Engineering on the spot!
  • Groin Attack: Part of Manami's arsenal. Kio gets hit twice.
  • Guilty Pleasure: Oh drooool yesss, precioussss, it issss.....
  • Guns Akimbo: Yun-Fat and its twin handguns.
  • Gun Porn: Manami and Aoi are weapon fanatics.
  • The Gunslinger: Manami, Aoi and the catgirl cult enforcer maids.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Episode 3, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference; according to the fine print in Aoi's DIA file, she has an alien half-sister who is older than her because of a Time Dilation Field.
  • Hammerspace: The bells worn around the Catian's necks. The captain's bell, which gets handed to Kio later on, seems to be even more awesome than even Eris's bell.
  • Hands-On Approach: Aoi teaching Kio how to shoot.
  • Harem Hero: Kio is a Type 1, although he wants to be a 2A. Unfortunately, Eris doesn't seem willing or able to show him how to fight (probably justified in-universe since the Catians don't have a treaty with Earth yet, so may not be seen as "legal"). Aoi teaches him how to shoot in one episode, but he never puts the training to use outside that one scene. Also, both Aoi and Manami seem more interested in figuring out his feelings for them.
  • Healing Hands: Eris' cell phone thing can fix minor head trauma and presumably much more.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Aoi and Manami both attempt one to prevent a space station from crashing and obliterating Okinawa.
  • How Unscientific: Jens' reaction to Onmyodo, word by word.
    • However, it doesn't stop her from buying Onmyodo tags on the black market, or using them effectively against the Catian mothership in episode 10.
  • Humongous Mecha - Unyuu from Episode 4 is turned into one of these in Episode 7, in a attempt to make him "feel like a real Assistaroid". He even comes with a missile launcher and Frickin' Laser Beams - which get used.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Aoi's weapons can come out of nowhere and materialize in thin air.
    • Justified. Aoi has the ability to warp any object within 50 metres of her.
    • Captain Kuune and other high-ranking officers also have access to a Hyperspace Arsenal through their neck-bells.
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Manami displays face-palmingly poor trigger discipline in episode 6, waving a revolver in Kio's face with her finger on the trigger. The gun had just been emptied, but that's no excuse—and she only gets worse later, when she loads the revolver and waves it around in a fast-food joint, once slamming it down on the table while pointed at Aoi.
    • It was quite justified that even though Manami is a gun nut, it was shown that she barely know how to handle guns. And seemingly Kio is better at marksmanship than she is.
  • I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Manami's motive for trying to hook Kio up with Aoi.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Antonia, once Kio calls one of her maids out on it during episode 5. Up to that point, she was wondering why despite having a lot of money and anything she could ever want, whether it was a devoted cult/fanbase, and a Maid Corps who was ready to serve her every need, she still felt somewhat empty inside. Once Kio brings up her lack of friends, she decides to help them out, and later genuinely becomes friends with them, and seems to get better.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Aoi when describing her situation to Manami in the bath.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Both the random mooks and even the Ninja Maid squad can't seem to shoot straight at all, like shooting full auto in a narrow train carriage without hitting anyone. The only time the unnamed mooks can hit anything is when the target is invulnerable.
    • In part, this is a example of Truth in Television - as anyone who's ever fired a full-auto weapon knows...there's enough jitter caused by the multiple recoils as to make perfect (or even reasonable) accuracy nigh impossible.
  • Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Courtesy of the Dogisians.
  • Improbable Age: 16 year olds sent on a First Contact mission, being Intelligence agents, working as experienced black-ops...
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Aoi, with the most spectacular example probably being when she neutralizes a sniper round aimed at Manami by shooting her with an anti-matter bullet at exactly the right time and placement for the clothing-erasing effect to absorb the shot.
  • Innocent Aliens: "We've come to play", and they mean it. And Eris keeps using porn as reference for Japanese etiquette.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Eris sees no problem walking around the house in a partially-buttoned shirt.
    • Nor do the rest of the Catians.
  • Instant Expert: Unless they got some offscreen training earlier, both Aoi and Manami seem to know how to fly in space, as well as dodge some Beam Spam from the dog lady's ship.
    • It was their assistaroids who did the flying.
  • Ironic Echo: "It's alright, it's not like you'll lose anything if we saw it."
  • Isn't It Ironic?: Jens says that she doesn't want her race to die like dogs. She points out the irony.
  • Jumped At the Call: Manami, who always wanted to be a field operative.
    • Applies to both her and Aoi when Eris mentions having them work as security for the temporary Catian Embassy, aka Kio's house.
  • Laser Blade: On a stick, Aoi's melee weapon of choice.
  • Laser Sight: Justified since it is IR and thus invisible to naked eye, probably a rangefinder.
  • Late for School: Antonia, Maya and Sara all have a piece of toast in their mouths when they transfer. Specifically invoked by Antonia, who learned about it by reading shojo manga.
  • Latex Space Suit: All of the Catians. Aoi's isn't a spacesuit per se, but given what we've seen her duraflex suit shrug off, hard vacuum probably isn't beyond its capabilities.
    • All three of Kio's girlfriends put on latex suits before suiting up --Sol Tekkamen Suiting up -- in Episode 12.
  • Leotard of Power: Standard Catian uniform; some are actually a type of Powered Armor. They function the same way for male Catians, as well.
  • Lethal Chef: Aoi, though it's a very minor example since she was only just then learning how to cook. When Kio tasted her cooking, he only grimaced a little bit and commented on its unique taste.
  • Lens Flare Censor: Usually on Eris when she's walking around the house. Those clothes don't cover much.
  • Licensed Game: In July 27, 2006, Idea Factory made, Cat Planet Cuties ~ Chikyû Pinchi no Konyaku Sengen~, a video game adaptation for the PlayStation 2.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Antonia. She wasn't in the suit at all.
  • Love Epiphany: Manami has one during episode 6, while conversing with a Kio replica in the Catian holodeck, who tells her that he's always liked her, but never took it to the next stage because he thought her calls to a "Jack" meant she was seeing someone already. She sheds a few tears as she starts to realize her feelings for him. Luckily for her, Eris is more than willing to share him with both her and Aoi.
  • Macho Camp: The movie director.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Jens launches some of these in episode 12.
  • Made of Iron: Even without her combat suit, Aoi survives getting knocked out out the back of a moving subway car with little more than a few bruises.
  • Magic From Technology: Ichika's Onmyodo tags; they're indeed magical, but magic is as much a part of Physics as other universal forces, according to her. And then she mentions Clarke's Third Law almost word by word.
    • The Dogisians even manage to reverse-engineer the talismans, and make both a time-freeze variant and a exploding one able to cut through Catian ship armor - that space debris couldn't dent.
      • More like bought the talismans. In episode 11 Ichika said those talisman are sold by mages who aren't too picky about their customers.
  • Maid Corps: Antonia's.
  • Male Gaze: Constantly. Constantly.
    • Not quite constantly - inverted during that scene in Episode 3 with Kio in the bath. Although the second half of the scene did invoke this trope.
  • Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor: Even though Eris is a Catgirl, with all that entails (including being in heat), she mentions that the Catian and human reproductive systems are compatible.
    • Episode 12 reveals that human and Catian DNA differs by only 10^-15%.
      • Depends on translation/translator: some specify that human DNA is only .001% Catian
  • Marshmallow Hell: After rescuing Eris, Kio gets his face buried in her chest.
    • In the OVA, Kio briefly gets subjected to a Marshmellow Pie Hell when his head is trapped between Manami's chest, Aoi's butt, and Eris' next move during a game of Twister. All three girls are aware of it.
  • Meaningful Name: In Greek mythology, Eris was the goddess whose actions indirectly started the Trojan War. In THIS show, Eris is a Catgirl alien whose very presence causes several secret societies and black ops organizations to come gunning for her all at once.
    • Becomes FAR more literal in Episode 10 when the Dogisians take a far more...active role in trying to get rid of the Catians. That is, if you define a sneak attack on the Catians' ship that's sent it into a collision course with Earth, the Captain of said ship being neutralized by Dogisian Assistaroids, and Kio being left in command by said Captain as being a "bit more literal"
  • Mecha-Mooks: The Assistaroids employed by both sides. They do show some intelligence and emotion, though (at least the Catians'); most of the Catian Embassy's Assistaroids are named, or at least numbered to differentiate them.
  • Megane: Kio
  • Meganekko: Aoi, Itokazu-sensei, and Doctor Durel, though Aoi can see just fine without the glasses, it turns out she needs them for something else.
  • Mood Whiplash: In the first episode, compare any scene with Kio and/or Eris to any scene without them. You would think the channel was switching back and forth between two completely different shows.
    • Episode 10 as well - Seems to start out as a standard angsty Christmas harem episode - ends with the Catians' ship about to crash into Earth, the Captain having been infected with mind-stopping nanomachines, and Kio about to take command of the situation and save the day. All in about 15 minutes. Whew!
  • The Mole: Manami's father works for the CIA, and she begins spying on Eris in the first chapter/episode.
  • More Dakka: Jens' starfighter in episode 12, which can unleash both Beam Spam and Macross Missile Massacre.
  • Narrator: Ichika narrates throughout the whole series. It's only revealed that it was her in the OVA, when the other characters have to point out that she missed her cue to continue expositing the story. She pulled out the script of the show and starts reading from it for the rest of the episode, including one scene where she's reading the lines for the show itself in a recording studio.
  • New Transfer Student: Eris, Antonia, Sara and Maya.
  • Nice Guy: Kio; he sure keeps his own Porn Stash but he is pretty much "look-but-don't touch" type. He is really scared when Eris tried to sleep with him.
    • The girls at his Film Club outright call him this and put him in the "diamond-in-the-rough" category.
  • Nice Hat: Ichika wears one.
    • Which conceals a big secret!
  • Ninja Maid: Acting as enforcers of a ... catgirl cult???
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Aoi, earning her the codename Akuun Momiji - Bad-luck Momiji. (a few times in the novels, her codename is given as Akuen Momiji; her English-speaking enemy in book 9 translates that as "Calamity Momiji")
    • Eris' service drones. They can withstand being shot down in a helicopter by a tank with nothing worse than a few scorch marks. They're essentially Servbots with a cat theme.
  • No One Could Survive That / Not Quite Dead: The pirate captain in episode 1, who supposedly died when he blew up the ship, somehow survived and is seen in episode 11. He goads Aoi into shooting him, saying she's nothing more than a killer, which Aoi promptly complies with. Luckily for him (maybe), she had Catian ammo loaded, so all that happens is he loses his gun and some of his outfit.
    • Aoi should probably have been crippled or killed after she fell out of the moving subway car, but she didn't even end up with any bruises or abrasions other than some scrapes on her left arm when she stood up immediately after getting kicked off. Her fast recovery is noticed later on.
  • Nosebleed: Not a direct shot though, just in a form of Discretion Shot in Episode 7.
  • Now or Never Kiss: Aoi first gives Kio one of these causing Manami and Eris to get jealous and kiss him as well.
  • Oblivious to Love: Kio
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Eris beating up the scientist and wrecking the laboratory she is held captured in in episode 2 offscreen.
    • In Episode 5, an obvious cue (looking back) for a Fan Service scene is skipped to set up a twist. Kio and Eris exchanged clothes so Kio can use Eris' power armour and make an escape, Eris' idea.
  • Opening Narration: Not the show's own, though. The show uses modified versions of other shows' opening narration. If you didn't even know some of the listed shows had a narration, they did in their Japanese dub.
  • Oral Fixation Fixation: Dr. Durel is almost never seen without something in her mouth.
  • Overly Long Name: If you think JACK was that long, that is not the longest one.
    • The record right now goes to Antonia Lirimonie Norfedras Papanorgas Arecroteles Cnorses Morfenoss.
  • Parental Abandonment: Aoi's parents kicked her out after finding out about her apporting abilities
    • There might be more to the reasons why her parents left her behind if the DIA file on her from Episode 3 is accurate.
  • Patient Childhood Love Interest: Manami
  • Pervert Revenge Mode: Manami can skirt the line between this and Unprovoked Pervert Payback when Kio sees her in unfortunate positions. Really, beating the guy up for walking into his own living room? Or coming running to help you after hearing gunfire in a public street?
  • Petite Pride: Chaika from the Catian ranks.
  • Phenotype Stereotype: Jack, also an example of Americans Are Cowboys.
  • Playing Cyrano: Manami does this for Aoi towards Kio, but the latter learns that the former is still in love with Kio too, due to certain dialogue, clues, and gestures Manami gives throughout the series. Aoi then calls Manami out on this in episodes 11 and 12, combined with a Don't You Dare Pity Me!.
  • Polyamory: -- Having more than one mate is not taboo on Catia, so with Kio's house being the official Catian embassy, it's soil is Catian territory, and therefor all three girls can share Kio without any problems. Kio doesn't seem to mind this decision... too much.
  • Porn Stash: Kio has a few magazines. Not very secret, though, as even Manami knows where they are.
    • And Eris keeps finding them... and using them as cultural references.
  • Powered Armor: Aoi's Goujyuu Powered Suit. Also Eris' Latex Space Suit is a light version of one. Jens has the same type as Aoi's
    • Turns out that the armor is actually Dogisian (Jen's race) technology.
  • Power Perversion Potential: More technology than power, actually; Chaika explicitly says that the Caitians use their Super Multi-Purpose Room to satisfy their sexual urges.
  • Pretty Freeloader: Eris, but only temporarily at first, as she had a mission to accomplish (namely collecting information about Earth).
  • Product Placement: Played straight with the current A&W logo and subverted in the very next shot with Manami's "OIAV" laptop.
    • And when we're at computers - you don't have to be too perceptive to notice that OS on screen after closing credits of episode 9 is Windows 7 (taskbar and general looks).
    • Also see Gun Porn, they do put THAT much detail on the guns in close up view.
  • Psychic Power: Aoi is an Apporter.
  • Real Place Background: The show is set in Okinawa, and spends its opening, eyecatches and "On the Next..." showing it off.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: In-universe, Kio's friends in the Movie Club call Eris 'too unrealistic' an alien for their movie. Undeterred, she gives them a flyover—whereupon the cameras pick up the ship's energy emitter probes (necessary to stabilize it for low-velocity atmospheric flight), which just happen to look exactly like strings suspending the ship.
    • Also Itokazu's group wanted to get rid of Eris at first just for THIS reason alone.
  • Retro Rocket: Kio is into classic SF, it seems.
  • Robot Girl: Lawry
  • Rubber Forehead Aliens: Catians and Dogisians perfectly fit the trope. In the first episode, disbelief in Eris' species is expressed because she looks indistinguishable from a catgirl cosplayer. It doesn't help that she has both human and cat ears. Later in the same episode, Eris points out that her species was also rather shocked at how similar their race looks to Humans. In fact, they originally called themselves Earthlings and their planet was called Earth before they learned about Earth. Being the more advanced race, they decided to be courteous and rename their planet to Catia.
  • OVA: "Come Drop By"
  • Scenery Porn: It's like a vacation brochure for Okinawa.
    • The author of the light novels is a native of Okinawa and is proud of his home.
  • Serious Business: The OVA involves everyone in the main cast playing various games, with prizes on the line that are either precious or embarrassing for each of the contestants. Given what's at stake, Aoi and Manami are particularly desperate to win.
  • School Swimsuit: The Catians actually hold a conference in them at Eris' suggestion (which was, in turn, Kio's porn stash's suggestion).
  • Senseless Violins: Aoi carries her tools of the trade in a cello case in Episode 3.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Manami invokes this trope when Kio mentions her talking to Jack on the phone, and assuming that it was a guy she was dating. This comes to haunt her when he (or rather a duplicate of him in the Catian holodeck) tells her that the reason why he stopped acting shy around her was because when he thought she had a boyfriend, he let go of his feelings for her, and treated her as "one of the guys", since he felt he didn't have a chance with her.
  • Shipper on Deck: Manami is currently trying to ship Aoi and Kio.
    • In episode 12, Eris basically switches to shipping a Type 2 Tenchi Solution... and she gets it.
  • Shoot the Messenger: Subverted and lampshaded. Aoi nearly killed her driver at point blank and clearly stated that she purposely missed because she just let him off the hook.
  • Shrinking Violet: Aoi in attitude, though her past as an immigration bureau agent would make one think otherwise.
    • This is more of a Japanese cliche that's seen in multiple shows - the person put through Training from Hell Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training; these skills having been deemed unnecessary by the people doing the training. Multiple examples of this exist all through Japanese anime - and Aoi's no shrinking violet when the action starts, she just doesn't know anything at all about intimacy, or boy/girl relationships.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own page
  • Shower Scene - with Jens in episode 9, and Eris in episode 2.
  • Sleeper Hit: What was once labeled as a "generic shit harem" turns out to be a royal rumble with all possible organizations you can think of with tons of action. /a/nons themselves acknowledge this show as the "darkhorse" of the season.
  • Space Elevator: Catians' Christmas gift to Mankind.
  • Special Effects Failure: In-universe example - in the OVA, the movie with Aoi and Manami in it has a guy in a rubber suit which catches on fire, which seems to be accidental. The guy in the suit even pats one of the fires out.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Eris/Elis/Elice.
    • Also Catia/Cathea/Kyatia.
    • Antonia/Antnia
    • Muttley/Matray/Matlay/Madlay
  • Starfish Aliens: Noteable by their absence, at least as far as races we've SEEN goes (the Orsonians may be a different matter, though) - much to the frustration of the Beautiful Contact Society, who go as far as deciding to threaten and - if necessary - KILL earth's first alien contact (as far as they know), simply because she doesn't fit their idea of what an alien SHOULD be.
  • Strip Poker: In The OVA, The Female Catia Cast play strip mahjong, and strip poker strip, and there is strip chess with Jens loosing to Muttley as well as strip rock paper scissors whith Kio and some of the female cast and Kio is winning [1]
  • Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: As incredibly advanced as Catian technology is by our standards, the unseen Orsonians scare the crap out of pretty much every other space-faring race out there.
  • Super Multi-Purpose Room: The Catians have a multipurpose virtual reality room capable of producing any type of environment and simulating anything... or anyone.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: There is no one inside the Earth-made Assistaroid suit. It is a robot that was created and there is no one inside.
    • Despite this, both Kio and Eris know Antonia is inside that "robot", but they largely play along until the end.
  • Taking You with Me: The pirate boat captain tries this on Aoi when he blows up his ship in the beginning of episode 1. Except that both of them survive.
  • Talking with Signs: The assist droids communicate in this fashion.
  • Their First Time: Eris' first mating season. Kio is way too "pure-pure", though, and she has to prematurely end it because of some embarrasing incidents.
  • The Nudifier: A theme in Catian weapons design seems to be to neutralize your opponent's weaponry non-lethally. They often simply erase anything they hit that isn't living tissue.
  • This Is Reality: Time after time Kio has to remind everyone that Catians are real aliens.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Aoi gives a passionate one to Eris on the beach, stating all the reasons Kio would choose Eris over her. Eris responds by hugging her and telling her that she knows how Aoi feels, then they get interrupted by a dog attack before Aoi can respond.
    • Manami also gives Eris a tongue-lashing in episode 12, stating similar reasons to Aoi about how she came in and "stole" him away from her. After hearing her gripes, Eris smiles, and suggests the three of them sharing him, which immediately shuts both of them up. Cue a confused Kio wondering what's going on.
  • Those Two Guys: Kio's two male friends in the Film Club. The other two girls could probably count as female versions as well.
  • Title Drop: In the first minute of the first episode, and at the end of episode 2.
    • In every single episode, at the Eyecatch, spoken by various characters.
  • Token Loli: Antonia, Melwyn, and Ichika. It's hard to tell if Chaika is this or just flat chested.
    • In the light novels, Chaika has three daughters; the youngest is 3-4, the oldest 16-17. She and Kuune were childhood friends. Ichika, on the other hand, is an immortal catgirl sage created hundreds of years ago on Earth with magic. Melwyn is 12.
  • Tomboy: Manami said that when they were young, Kio was shy around women and she was able to get along with him due to her unfeminine personality..
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Manami and Aoi, respectively, though Aoi is by far the more deadly of the two..
  • Took a Level in Badass: Kio, who goes from 'standard-model Unlucky Everydude' to 'capable of tearing apart a Humongous Mecha with his bare hands' after getting his own suit of Powered Armour. The rest of the cast were suitably astonished.
  • Transformation Sequence - Subverted; although the senior Catian officers can use this to change into their uniforms, Chaika isn't given that privilege and has to change manually.
  • Tsundere: Manami, a Type A
    • Aoi towards Manami, later on in the series anytime Manami brings up the subject of Kio; a type B situation.
  • Twelve-Episode Anime: Including, Come Drop By, the OVA
  • Tyke Bomb: Aoi.
  • Uncanny Valley: The Assistaroids' current appearance is a conscious effort to avoid this. Lawry, an older generation humanoid Assistaroid, explains it to Kio in a manner that wouldn't seem out of place in Chobits.
  • Unfazed Everyman: Kio and his friends in the Film Club, in stark contrast to everybody else in his life.
    • Kio shows increasing signs of being an Action Survivor. And he might even be an Ordinary High School Student yet.
    • Nope; he's a Catian now. Though he wants to be turned back.
      • Technically, if the OVA is after the series, then Kio has already turned back.
  • Unrequited Love: Both Aoi and Manami feel this way towards Kio, and they both resent Eris because they feel she's the reason why they won't stand a chance against her with Kio. At least until Eris mentions sharing him between the three of them.
  • Unusual Ears: Becoming more so now that more races are being introduced.
    • If you look, you'll see that the Catians have four ears - the two cat-style ones on the tops of their heads, and two very human-shaped ones in the usual places - usually covered by their hair.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The assist droids are out in the open, and the people of Okinawa barely react. When they do, it's usually a quick, positive acceptance based on their cute appearance.
    • Unusually, Eris' unusual body parts also seems to be ignored by a lot of people. Lampshaded by Manami.
      • Since Catians have FOUR ears, with two very human-looking - it's easy for Catians to pass as human cosplayers with good costumes. Slips into Uncanny Valley when it's forced on the humans' attention that these are indeed real aliens - - such as in the diplomatic negotiation in episode 3. School swimsuits didn't help there at all.
    • And then there was one time Manami kept waving a revolver inside a regular restaurant. No one really reacts about it.
      • It's Japan. Handguns are nearly nonexistent outside the police and the armed forces. However, realistic replica airguns are perfectly common, and people are likely to assume that any gun they see is one of these, unless it's actually fired. Furthermore, it's legal to carry around a gun in Japan, it's just illegal to buy or sell them.
    • Unless some major peace/alliance treaties were signed in this universe, it's a bit odd that there are NATO tanks and helicopters on Russian soil. They sort of try to justify it in-universe, but it's still kind of Hilarious in Hindsight that the Russians are allowing M1 Abrams tanks and Apache helicopters to roam on their lands like that.
      • The Dogisians have THAT MUCH political power. It's the reason why Antonia could not book a flight with a rocket anywhere in the entire world.
  • Verbal Tic: Rulos, Eris' ship AI ends most sentences with ~deshi.
  • We Have Reserves: The Dogisian attitude to their assistaroids.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Explicitly brought in by Lawry, forming the basis of episode nine.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: In episode 11, a terrorist seen in the first episode comes back and calls Aoi out for being a Tykebomb who's spent her life killing without love for the country that made her that way, and now she's fighting for a world she's never even seen. She eventually says Shut UP, Hannibal and dissolves his gun with Catian bullets.
    • Borders on a Subverted Trope - there's a trope overused in action movies where the victim tries to (and succeeds) in guilting their captor into letting them go by bringing the captor's faults to their attention. In Aoi's case, it fails - as the expression on the terrorist's face reveals.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Chaika
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: You are in a Harem Show with Cat Girls, Antonia, not in a Shoujo.
    • One could also make an argument for most of the human race for trying to insist on seriousness in a universe inherently skewed toward silliness on the sliding scale.
    • Poor Maki doesn't live in a universe of Starfish Aliens. The members of Beautiful Contact try to KILL Eris because she doesn't fit the Starfish Aliens trope. At the very least, she'd accept Little Green Men as an alternative.
  • X Meets Y: It's Full Metal Panic! meets Please Teacher!
  • You Are in Command Now: Happens to Kio when the Catian ship captain hands him her bell after falling unconscious to a Dogsian ambush. Cue salutes from the Catians, the droids, and shocked expression on the humans.
  • You Are Number Six: Played literally and said word for word in the subtitles in episode 3 when the Assistaroids are numbered to make them easier to use, number 6 is the one we actually see being assigned a number.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Common in the Catian uniforms.
  1. ↑ He was blindfolded and they kept using scissors to his rock
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