Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl: Difference between revisions

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16-year-old Makoto Niwa [[Genre Savvy|thinks he's about to live the dream life]]: with his parents [[Parental Abandonment|conveniently away on business]], he moves out to the big city to live with his 39-year-old aunt, [[Adult Child|Meme Touwa]]. Cue dreams of having the house all to himself, surrounded by pretty city girls and living out a normal adolescent life.

All that comes to a screeching halt the moment he steps into Meme's home to find a young girl -- Meme's hitherto unknown daughter and his cousin, Erio -- wrapped in a futon lying on the front step. Worse than that, she [[Techno Babble|speaks strangely]]. And thinks [[Strange Girl|she's an alien]].

 

 

An anime adaptation by [[Studio Shaft]] began airing in April 2011.

 

* [[Baseball Episode]]: Not so much an episode, but Makoto and Erio join an amateur baseball team in later episodes.

* [[Bishie Sparkle]]: Elliot, Meme ''and'' Erio have glittering hair.

* [[Broken Bird]]: {{spoiler|Erio has shades of this. Just disappeared one day, showed up half a year later with nary a memory as to what happened during that time, retreated into her fond memories of space, tried to do an ET bike moment, broke her leg during that same moment, and retreated even deeper into her space fantasies, as well as a futon.}}

* [[Bumbling Dad|Bumbling Mom]]: Meme ''does'' love her little girl, and the only time she's ever been shown to be serious was when she's thinking about Erio. But that doesn't stop her from showing she has absolutely '''no''' idea on how to be a parent. At best, she's more like an emotionally stunted older sister. At worst, [[Abusive Mom|she's willing to fling her daughter around the house]].

* [[Cute but Cacophonic]]: Don't let Ryuuko cheer for you unless she's standing a good 20 or so feet away.

* [[Cry Cute]]: {{spoiler|Erio near the end of episode 3, after a reality check forced her to admit that she cannot fly.}}

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Makoto

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Elliot, Erio's father, who was apparently Scottish. Meme and him apparently have different world views, and "wouldn't do well living together."

* [[Driving Question]]: Just what happened to Erio to make her lose a year's worth of memories?

* [[Expressive Hair]]: Erio's seems to glitter when she's happy.

* [[Foot Focus]]/[[Does Not Like Shoes]]: Erio often goes barefoot, and there's quite a bit of shots to Erio's bare feet, at least in the anime. Most of the time, we can only see her legs and feet anyway -- her upper body is hidden in a futon.

* [[First-Person Smartass]]: As per [[Studio Shaft]] tradition, Makoto frequently converses with himself.

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Meme had some when she was a little girl. They help make her (more) adorable. Erio follows suit in some later appearances.

* [[Gratuitous English]]: Multiple times, often by Meme as a way to avoid explaining something she said. In Episode 2, Makoto asks for directions when taking Erio on the bike, she responds with "Left Side", "Reright", and eventually "Sunny side up". She also dumbs down her [[Techno Babble]] to explain to Makoto that "I can fly". {{spoiler|During the ending credits of Episode 3, her tallying up the event when Makoto forces her to face the fact that she actually can't is "I can't fly."}}

* [[Hair Antennae]]: Erio. They even have a [[Expressive Hair|life of their own.]]

** Also Meme.

* [[Huge Schoolgirl]]/[[Statuesque Stunner]]: Maekawa stands 179.9cm (around 6 feet). That's very tall for a woman in ''general'', more so for a Japanese girl.

* [[Ill Girl]]: Parodied in Maekawa's introduction. She isn't sick, just hilariously unfit such that she gets dizzy if ''she raises her hands above her head for a few seconds'' Makoto is enthralled.

* [[Imagine Spot]]: Makoto has a lot of these. Hilariously played with during Episode 4 when he's in hospital and imagines seeing Ryuuko, then Maekawa appears under the bedsheets of his bed, and the third person he sees is Meme. At first it seems be another imagination, only to then have him wish it were the case when Meme really does turn out to be under his sheets.

* [[Jerkass Facade]]: Despite constantly ignoring and abusing Erio, Meme does care about her little girl. Her less-than-motherly treatment stems from the fact that Erio prefers solitude, and Meme doesn't really remember [[Really Gets Around|how Erio came to be her daughter]].

** As of episode 4, Erio seems to have started reciprocating Makoto's interest in her, and in episode 5 she outright tells him that she ''likes'' him. Once again, it's currently ambiguous as to whether this is a romantic attraction or just a friendly one.

* [[Lies to Children]]: Makoto comes to realize that ruining Erio's dreams of aliens is not much better than ruining a child's dreams of Santa Claus. {{spoiler|He even (unintentionally) made Erio cry.}}

* [[Likes Older Women]]: [[Zig Zagged]] in several different directions with Makoto. On one hand, he seems to be attracted to both girls his own age as well as Meme, who is 23 years his senior. On the other hand, he tends to ping-pong between attraction and repulsion towards Meme.

* [[Magic Skirt]]: Considering how often the camera follows a low angle [[Male Gaze]] around her, Erio is lucky for this. There was a pretty unavoidable [[Panty Shot]] in the first episode, but it was censored with a flying saucer.

* [[Male Gaze]]: Quite a bit of it with Erio, especially during the ending credits.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Erio Touwa's full name can be spelled out as E.T. No wonder she thinks she's an alien. On top of that, it turns out that her father's name was [[Shout-Out|''Elliot'']].

** [[Genre Savvy|Makoto]] also questions whether Ryuuko/[[My Name Is Not Durwood|Ryuushi]] is also deliberately invoking the term to describe herself.

* [[Mrs. Robinson]]: '''Meme'''. It's part of her complex about getting older and acting childish; she's constantly shamelessly flirting with Makoto (and everyone else).

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood|My Name Is Not Ryuushi]]: Ryuuko, due to [[Alternate Character Reading]] she was given the name by a student in her first year {{spoiler|(read: Erio)}} that quickly spread to everyone else.

* [[The Nicknamer]]: Maekawa seems to like giving people names that she's very comfortable with. To date, Ryuuko is "Ryuushi" {{spoiler|(courtesy of Erio)}}, Makoto is "[[New Transfer Student|Tenkousei]]" and that minor baseball player character is "[[Kana Hanazawa|Hana]][[The Danza|zawa]]".

* [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]: Erio fell off a bridge when attempting to recreate the famous "ET Flying Bike" scene, breaking her leg in the process. {{spoiler|Makoto broke his arm when they did the same thing together.}}

* [[Older Than They Look]]: Meme is 39 years old. She looks -- [[Adult Child|and acts]] -- like she's in her late teens.

** She turns 40 in episode 5. That's enough to make her copy Erio.

** Even after she comes to grips with reality, she still finds being wrapped in one very calming.

** {{spoiler|Meme also uses the futon, even as she tries to come to grips with the harsh truth that she just turned forty.}}

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]]: Gender-flipped -- Ryuuko's teammates constantly tease her about Makoto being her boyfriend, which she vehemently denies. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to be entirely against the idea...

* [[Shrinking Violet]]: Erio comes off as one once she ditches her futon. Meme's teasing doesn't help.

* [[Social Services Does Not Exist]]: If it did here, Erio would've been taken away a long time ago and given some psychiatric examinations.

* [[Somebody Else's Problem]]: Most people's reaction to Erio, including her ''mother''. Makoto is the [[Only Sane Man|exception]].

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Rather than get her professional help for what appears to be a dangerous delusion (she even jumped off a bridge!), Meme allows her daughter to effectively shut herself up in her room and fall further into said dementia. Tragically, this is very much [[Truth in Television]].

* [[Tiny Guy, Huge Girl]]: Makoto to Maekawa.

* [[Unperson]]: Meme initially treats her daughter Erio like this, seemingly avoiding any kind of meaningful interaction, and tries to get Makoto to do the same, but thankfully this trope falls out of play as the series goes on, and they start spending some quality time together.

* [[Unwanted Harem]]: Makoto is often caught juggling his attention between Erio and Ryuuko, thanks to the unspoken rivalry between them. Maekawa, surprisingly, is more laid back about the whole thing.

* [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]]: A lot between Makoto and Ryuuko/[[My Name Is Not Durwood|Ryuushi]]

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Yashiro seems to invoke this trope on Makoto late in the season. Then some really coincidental stuff happens in Episode 13 to make him start questioning if all the stuff he did towards breaking Erio out of her "alien" shell was really a good thing or not.

 

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[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Light Novels]]