22 July 2014: I hope the Tokyo ESP anime doesn't forget to have fun.
Hey, I remember you.
I'm a fan of the Tokyo ESP manga which I discovered after working backwards from the Ga-Rei Zero anime to the Ga-Rei manga. One of the things I like about Tokyo ESP is that it never takes itself too seriously. It has fun with the subject matter and engages the reader by peppering the pages with little gags. The mangaka, Segawa Hajime, also provides short comics detailing the hazards of the creation process and creative decisions leading up to the finished product.
Hey, I remember you.
Through two episodes, the Tokyo ESP anime seems to be striving for the same tone as Ga-Rei Zero, for better or for worse. I personally enjoyed Ga-Rei Zero a great deal, but I know a lot of viewers were put off by its drastic tone shifts. (Yomi pretends to be a lesbian! Everybody dies horrible deaths! Yomi fights with an absurd loaner weapon!) I liked it, but it can be jarring.
Nice hat.
Hopefully, the Tokyo ESP anime won't merely strive to be an action series (although it's got plenty of that) and forget that its main character is a girl with basically two superpowers: (1) Phasing through solid objects. (2) Kicking people upside the head. Technically that puts her one up on Cure White when it comes to comparing personal arsenals. Rinka doesn't have a transformation sequence or a battle costume, but she does have a familiar, a flying penguin. See, it's that kind of show. A high school girl with legs that go up to her neck hangs out with her flying penguin friend and sometimes kicks deadbeats in the kisser.
The waddling is just for show.
My biggest worry is that the anime will try to make Rinka's male foil, Azuma, a more dependable character and less of a well-meaning doofus. The anime already has a few changes from the manga, but nothing too drastic so far. Well, Steven Seagal isn't in the anime anymore. I'm guessing all those eerily familiar characters will get redesigned. Those characters guarantee the Tokyo ESP manga won't ever get licensed for an American release. There would be lawsuits.
Nice hat.
One change for those of y'all who freak out about this sort of thing: There may be more fan service in the anime. For example, Rinka falls through the bath naked in the anime instead of in her underwear like she does in the manga. In one of the manga's end comics, Segawa specifically addresses the decision to not leave her naked for the manga due to publication concerns. Does this mean the anime will more closely represent the author's original vision? Eh, could be. Segawa does seem especially devoted to drawing Rinka's gams. There is that.
