Tokyo ESP
Urushiba Rinka is having a strange day.
She was an ordinary girl with an ordinary life, until a flying penguin and a swarm of glowing fish swimming though the air changed everything. Rinka soon finds that she is involuntarily moving through things, walls, the floor of her apartment... and her clothes.
And she is not the only one who changed. A strange boy name Kyoutaro Azuma can teleport, her father can move things with his mind... and any number of petty criminals are using ESP to run wild.
Azuma is using his abilities to become a superhero, albeit with mixed success, and he wants Rinka to join him...
From the Author of Ga-Rei.
Tropes used in Tokyo ESP include:
- A God Am I: A depressing number of ESPers decide to go this route.
- Action Girl: Even before gaining her powers Rinka was capable of man handling multiple thugs.
- Affectionate Parody: Azuma is something of a send up of any one who ever wanted to be a comic book super hero.
- Ascended Fanboy: Azuma. And Rinka is the person who inspired him to become a superhero.
- Bully Hunter: Rinka.
- But for Me It Was Tuesday: Heroic inversion. Rinka saved Azuma from thugs six months before the story began and then promptly forgot about it.
- Clark Kenting: Averted. Azuma uses a mask to conceal his face and Rinka tries to keep hers hidden.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Azuma’s guiding philosophy.
- Curb Stomp Battle: The only way to describe the battle in Chapter 12.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Invoked. Azuma explicitly tells Black Fist that there are nobler and better paying uses for her powers than crime. Then she says money isn't an issue for her.
- Dark Action Girl: Black Fist and Minami.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Azuma dear, even if this trope is in full effect that costume of yours is not going inspire trust.
- Deconstruction / Reconstruction: A bit of both for the super hero genre.
- Leaning closer to deconstruction as of late.
- Dowsing Device: One of Minami's allies has one that allows her to detect ESPers.
- Gonk: Quite a few of the unnamed female characters.
- Hannibal Lecture: Minami delivers one to Rinka during their fight.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Used realistically. All of the ESPers have trouble controlling their powers at first, but the main characters experiment and practice with them until they get the hang of it.
- though not knowing that she can't phase through organic matter does turn out to be a problem
- It Is Beyond Saving: How The Professor's group views society as a whole.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Rinka. But her conscience won't have any of that.
- Intangible Girl: Rinka. Also another girl who used her powers to attempt murder. Rinka had them taken away using Peggy and turned her over to the police.
- Jumped At the Call: Azuma
- Kick Chick: Rinka and Minami.
- Master of Illusion: The Professor ESP ability. And he's very good at it.
- Missing Mom: Rinka’s missing her mother. Her father claims that she’s working overseas.
- Papa Wolf: Rinka’s father. A bit of a deconstruction when his concern for Rinka causes his psychokineis to run amok. He does a fair bit of property damage when she wasn’t in any real danger.
- Perpetual Poverty: Rinka and her father.
- Police Are Useless: Azuma certainly thinks so.
- Reality Ensues: Azuma and Rinka Catch Black Fist, and the police lament that they don’t have any evidence besides the word of a guy in a crow mask. One of the problems present is that there are no laws against ESP.
- and the now superpowered Yakuza Rinka beat up? They burn down her apartment building in front of her without a backward glance
- Retired Badass: Rinka's father, a former cop.
- Shout-Out: A group of guys who look suspiciously like the Ghostbusters are the antagonists of one chapter, and Murasaki's Yakuza boss father has a notable resemblance to a certain Spartan king.
- Rinka's father looks like some guy who worked with the MOE's SDCD.
- Also, during his days as a cop, he was renowned by his coworkers and feared by the criminal element as Wolverine, due to the way he uses his escrima sticks.
- Looks like Yoda was recruited by the MPD to serve as their martial arts instructor.
- Shown Their Work: Rinka's explanation of Kali (aka Arnis/Escrima) after using dual batons to beat up yakuza goons. The Philippine archipelago is also shown during her explanation.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Minami and Azuma.
- They Would Cut You Up: Fear of this trope is why Azuma and Rinka don’t go to the authorities.
- This Is Reality: Heavily used.
- What Could Have Been: Segawa started brainstorming the idea while finishing up Ga-Rei, according to omakes, one of the ideas involved a Matrix-style hero who had the power to leap across buildings and blow holes into concrete... using farts. Ultimate move: explosive fart! Tragic Backstory: farted in bed and accidentally killed his wife! His editor immediately vetoed it. Same thing happened with the editor when Segawa started a suggestion to have a female protagonist, only more fearsome and doesn't rely on a male protagonist.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Azuma gets some pretty horrific demonstrations as to why life is not like comics.
- Rink is called out because she was focused on trying to go to the beach while the situation was getting worse.
- White-Haired Pretty Girl: Rinka, though she may just be a really, really light-color blond.