Foreground: Akira Shirase, Misao. Background: Hideki, Oze, Yoriko, Sae, Saki, Jou. Not shown: Akizuki
*Overdramatic Swooshing*
"HISSATSU! DOUBLE COMPILE!"
*sequence rewinds, sits back down*
*sequence rewinds, sits back down*
"Not that there's any need for that." *pushes button*
Battle Programmer Shirase, also known as BPS, is a comedy anime series about Akira Shirase, a computer nerd who lives on his own in an apartment owned by his niece. He is also a world-famous rogue programmer with super hacking abilities who doesn't work for money, though he will occasionally work for rare computer hardware and other otaku treats. His great-niece Misao lives next door, feeding him and providing plot complications as needed.
Ran for a single season from 2003 to 2004 that consists of 5 episodes, broken into 3 segments of 10 minutes apiece.
This series contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The series ends without delving deeper into BPS's alma mater, Miura Programming School (MPS).
- Accidental Pervert: A running joke is that Shirase and usually Misao are repeatedly found in innocent but suggestive positions.
- Action Girl: When she was in Middle school, Sae wiped the floor with three older male delinquents to save Akira. Later, as an adult, she steals a policeman's bike while completely drunk.
- Adjective Noun Fred
- Affluent Ascetic: Shirase comes from a rich family and has mad computer skills which could earn him a good income, but chooses to live modestly.
- Alliterative Name: Yoriko Yunoki, Yon's real name.
- Arc Words: What he lost, what he gained, and what he saw in the infinite outskirts of the Internet.
- Artistic License – Military: Despite being a Navy officer, Yoriko wears what looks like an enlisted working uniform (with a tie) and white sailor cap. And her sleeve patch looks like the Army Sergeant Major insignia.
- ASCII Art: The ASCII bunny virus that jumps from a monitor to a cell phone in the first episode.
- Bridge Bunnies: Yon-chan's team.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Shirase, oh so very much.
- But Not Too Foreign: The King of America seems to be of Japanese descent. Yon is Japanese American.
- Calling Your Attacks: Lampshaded, as shown in the page quote.
- The Chikan: Saki compares Shirase to this when he has to grope her for her phone. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Child Prodigy: Yon-chan is twelve and leads the US Navy's cyber-warfare division.
- Colony Drop: Shirase's The Three Sisters Re-entry special attack.
- Color Failure: Shirase's first in-person encounter with Yoriko Yunoki was ... surprising.
- Computer Virus: The basic tool of trade in the anime for both white hats and black hats.
- Creation Sequence: An arc starts by showing the creation of a physical magazine, from cutting down trees for the paper until it's displayed on a stand at a convention where Shirase considers purchasing it.
- Dirty Kid: Yon-chan is... mature for her age. Being a Child Prodigy hacker, she must have seen quite a few things.
- EMP: The CDS Cannon.
- Everything Is Online: Apparently the Japanese and the United States military keep nuclear warheads online, with only software firewalls and no physical disconnect. Now that's HARD CORE!
- Fan Sub: The head director apologized for the show having to end, specifically addressing: "To those who enjoyed the show on TV and to those outside the broadcast area who took special measures to watch the show on their PC monitors and to everybody who watched it subtitled overseas without permission."
- Finishing Move: BPS has Double Compile (overloading an attacker's machine by countering all their attacks at the same time) and Three Sisters Re-entry (hacking and redirecting three abandoned Soviet Kosmos satellites for atmospheric re-entry, sacrificing two to be burned up so that the third can enter the atmosphere fully intact and hit the target on the surface).
- First Name Basis: Saki promotes Akira's status before he has to grope her for her cell phone. As any socially-conscious woman would!
- Geek Physiques: Shirase and the King of America demonstrate the two standard body types allowed.
- Gonk: Vandal hacker Oze Rintaro, aka the King of America.
- Gratuitous English
- "DOUBLE COMPILE!!!"
- "OH... NO!!"
- "Jah, so long!"
- Hollywood Hacking: It's really not possible for a computer virus to physically jump from a monitor onto a nearby cell phone (even if it's just a visualization, phones at the time didn't have Wi-Fi and couldn't be on the same network as the PC). Rule of Cool, indeed.
- Host Club: Saki works as a hostess in a host club. Don't worry if you missed that scene, the doorway is shown for exactly 1 second.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Akizuki, the continually-recast agent who hires Shirase in every episode.
- Kimono Is Traditional: For the marriage interview.
- Majorly Awesome: Yon-chan is a US Navy Lieutenant Commander (often mistranslated as Major, which is the equivalent rank in the other services, in most subs).
- Mind-Control Device: Used for the diabolical purpose of getting people in marriage interviews to fall in love.
- Moe
- Deliberately invoked with a doujinshi SCSI card.
- Deliberately subverted with the cat-eared guy selling doujinshi to Shirase later.
- Ojou: Misao lives in a big house and does ballet.
- Otaku: Shirase appears to be versed in Anime and Manga, as well as Technology.
- Overclocking Attack: This is used several times, via virus attacks and Techno Babble.
- An entire building is attacked by overloading the power and detonating gas lines and gas tanks in the parking garage.
- Power lines are deliberately severed via overload.
- A virus attack causes electronic equipment to put out microwaves, resulting in an explosion. Because laptops and magnetrons are so similar!
- Playful Hacker
- Rapid-Fire Typing: Akira uses this to epic levels, using a variety of input devices, including a Chorded keyboard, a Mobile phone and six keyboards at once.
- Running Gag: Several.
- Whenever Akizuki (in each of his various incarnations) arrives to enlist Shirase's aid, he is almost always in some kind of compromising position, usually with Misao. The agent then proceeds to have a total nervous breakdown at the implications before recovering and deciding to just ignore it completely. With a laugh track at the punchline. Said agent always has Single-Target Sexuality for "Isabelle Adjani, large-breasted foreign actress" and worries what his estranged son would think of him associating with such depraved men.
- What zany Otaku-centric device will Shirase work for this time?
- From the opening and closing intros, Mau Mau! What the heck is "Mau Mau", anyway?
- Smoke Out: Ninja transvestite!
- Techno Wizard: Unless you think it's normal to be able to electrocute someone with high speed internet?
- Thanking the Viewer: See Fan Sub above for the odd variant.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Despite the huge difference in ages, there's a constant undertone between Akira and Misao. Mostly this just powers the jealousy as each finds more acceptable partners.
