Moeyo Ken (Kidou Shinsengumi Moeyo Ken) is a four-episode OVA (later a Thirteen Episode Anime series) about the (fictional) daughters of The Shinsengumi fighting as Magical Girls in an alternate Meiji-era Japan. This series was created by Ouji Hiroi of Red Entertainment, with character designs by Rumiko Takahashi.
The Mobile Shinsengumi consists of Yuko Kondo (Isami's daughter), Toshie Hijikata (Toshizo's daughter) and Kaoru Okita (Soji's daughter).Their job is to handle any and all supernatural problems . . . with varying degrees of success. There's also Ryunosuke Sakamoto, whose mother, Oryo, is in charge of the Mobile Shinsengumi, and his bakeneko (cat demon) companion Nekomaru.
This series contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Technically the three main girls in the Mobile Shinsengumi, but they border Faux Action Girl territory because they're not always effective at fighting.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After their backstabbing in the last episode, Orya is okay with giving up the Shinsengumi company to Miki. This hilariously backfires on them because they weren't expecting her to just give it up. Then it turns out that Shinsengumi's stock dropped and owes a lot of money, which Miki is now responsible for.
- Anachronism Stew: Quite a few robots, cars, and robots in a mid-late 1800's era Japan.
- Arranged Marriage: Ryunosuke to Ranran, who died protecting her, and was given Nekomaru in order to bring him back to life. However, the catch is that he has to marry her.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Last episode when Nekomaru gives up the last 3 spirits to resurrect the three main girls.
- Big Eater: For a ghost kitty, Nekomaru sure eats a lot.
- Brick Joke: Early on, Yuko comments that Toshie is cold and unfeeling, and might as well be a machine. Episodes later, Toshie sends a robot replica of herself on a mission with the Shinsengumi while she stays at HQ. The robot breaks down, and Yuko thinks that Toshie is a robot. She even says "Oh, Gennai fixed you up!" when she sees the real Toshie later.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Considering how ineffective the Mobile Shinsengumi is, you have to wonder how they manage to get by most of the time. They do sometimes manage to pull off jobs without destroying half the city first however.
- Call It Karma: The Tsubame-gumi, who assisted Yaba in episode 11 with the hail of nikuman, gets hit by the nikuman too. Episode 11 BTW.
- The Cake Is a Lie: The "Waist Busting Western Cakes" made with the "Inflating Flower" that work on the same principle as the nikuman.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Takes a while to happen, but once Ranran appears in episode 11, Okita and Kondo both exhibit this trope.
- Credits Running Sequence: Happens in the intro.
- Da Chief: Oryo Sakamoto (the widow of Ryoma Sakamoto).
- Death Is Cheap: Ryunosuke gets killed repeatedly, only to have Nekomaru bring him back right away.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Okita to Ryunosuke.
- Enemy Mine: Miki helps defeat the Big Bad in the last episode.
- Expy:
- Kankan (The panda) looks a lot like Genma Saotome. Or course, there's no relation to Miki Saotome.
- Toshie looks like a genderbent version of Sesshomaru.
- Considering that the person who did the designs was Rumiko Takahashi, neither is surprising.
- The Tsubame Group speaks Team Rocket to nearly everyone who watches.
- Eye Catch: Shows the three main girls in a maid outfit, along with Nekomaru
- Fantastic Racism: Two minor characters are seen from time to time in a love/hate relationship, and then they finally decide to marry, but the man's mother adamantly refuses to allow the Cat Girl to marry him. This serves as a plot point later when Okita asks Ryunosuke's mother, Oryo, if she was okay with a half-monster daughter marrying her son. Oryo's reaction is one of shock shortly after Okita asks it, and she walks away dejectedly. Unfortunately for her, Oryo wasn't shocked at her question, but rather some cockroaches which were on the wall behind Okita, and apparently didn't hear her question. Later on we find out Oryo's perfectly okay with Okita marrying Ryunosuke if she wanted to marry him.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Gennai, who seems to be an expy of Dr. Tofu, and who's inventions don't always work...
- Gender Bender: In episode 8, Ryunosuke dies (Again) because of Nekomaru's clumsiness with soap. When Nekomaru uses one of his nine lives to revive him, Ryunosuke is in a rather shapely woman's body. With his Modesty Towel only covering his lower half, the boys in the bathouse get quite the eyeful. Plus, a random guy passing him in the street starts to hit on him, so Ryunosuke does what everybody else would do in his situation: Megaton Punch. Why Nekomaru had to use a female soul to revive him is never explained. But basically, the whole episode consists of Ryunosuke trying to cover up his, ahem... gifts, hiding from his teammates, who think he wants to die ( He has to die in order to become a guy again), and running from the Tsubame Group, who want to kill him.
- Gunslinger: Both Toshie and her robot double. One of the robot's guns could qualify as a BFG.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Kaoru, whose mother was a kitsune.
- Heroic BSoD: Oryo suffers from one in episode 2 when Ryunosuke mentions wanting to go back to Shanghai.
- Hopeless Suitor: Okita feels like one, particularly once Ranran shows up.
- Inflating Body Gag: In episode 11, most of the population of Kyoto gets blown up like balloons by cursed nikuman.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Somewhere around halfway through the series after she stops trying to hook up Ryunosuke with Saiyoko, Kondo seems to also have fallen for him. However, she also realizes that Okita likes him too, so holds back in order to give her a chance to confess to him.
- Karma Houdini: Miki sure gets away with summoning monsters that trash the city and imprisoning and trying to sell them off later. They finally get their comeuppance in the last episode however.
- Love Confession: Okita's mother, disguised as Ryunosuke, gives a false one to Okita to keep her distracted as she tries to steal some items in episode 7. This causes her to develop a crush on Ryunosuke.
- The Matchmaker: Yuko constantly tries to think of ways to get Ryunosuke and Saiyoko together, so Ryunosuke will stay in Japan and Oryou will be happy.
- Mistaken for Gay: The three Shinsengumi girls think Ryunosuke isn't interested in women when despite all their attempts at
Shipping him with Saiyoko, and even him seeing them naked doesn't seem to turn him on at all. - Noblewoman's Laugh: Miki does this in just about every one of her appearances.
- Non-Action Guy: Ryunosuke. The action is focused mostly on the three main girls, with the occasional interference of Miki's group.
- Nosebleed: Happens in episode 2 to Ukon after the octopus does some Clothing Damage to Miki.
- Perpetual Poverty: The Mobile Shinsengumi often seems to be barely getting by. Despite that, their stock seems to keep rising, and they can somehow afford all the food Nekomaru seems to eat at the restaurant where Saiyoko works at. Not to mention all of Gennai's weird inventions.
- Robot Girl: Hijikata has one made in her exact likeness.
- Romantic False Lead: Saiyoko could count. For a little more than half the series, the episodes are about Yuko trying to get Ryunosuke together with Saiyoko, because he apparently has a crush on her (Information taken from Nekomaru). However, she gets demoted to background character around episode 9.
- Running Gag: Yuko constantly breaks her swords every time she uses them.
- Sarashi: Yuko Kondo and Kaoru Okita wear these around their chest.
- Schizo Tech: The guns seem quite advanced for the time era, not to mention robots.
- Skewed Priorities: Kondo seems a bit too obsessed with getting Ryunosuke and Saiyoko together, even at the expense of doing her regular job.
- Skinship Grope: Yuko does this to Kaoru in the first episode, teasing her about her small breasts.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: After Ryunosuke's (who was Okita's mother in disguise) Love Confession to Okita, she seems to invoke this trope whenever Ryunosuke is brought up.
- Taking You with Me: Ranran and Kankan both trap Montague by falling on top of him, then having Okita summon her gods to banish him.
- Terrible Trio: The Tsubame-gumi: Miki Saotome and her henchmen Ukon Tanaka and Sakon Suzuki.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Saiyoko does it to a Gender Bender Ryunosuke in episode 8, and then mistakes that for him being a girl the whole time.
- Unexplained Recovery: Happens to Ryunosuke multiple times, as well as some of the other characters.
- Unknown Rival: Miki's group is largely this to the Mobile Shinsengumi girls, who don't seem to largely care about Miki at all.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Plays a pivotal role later in the series. Monsters are largely treated as less than human, or exotic things to be captured and exported for profit in the case of Miki's group. And later with Okita.
