Juuzawa Juu: You said you were a covert government operative, right? Then I suppose I’ll also reveal my true identity. In truth, I was a king in my previous life.
Serial Killer: Poor you! You're insane, aren’t you?
Juuzawa Juu: Everyone in this world is insane. It is because they’re insane that they don’t notice... How twisted the world really is!
Juuzawa Juu was just a normal delinquent teenage boy, spending his days getting into fights he would much rather avoid. One day, however, a strange girl named Ochibana Ame finds him and tells him that he was a king in his past life, and that she was his knight. She pledges fealty to him and swears to serve him as the knight she (at least believes) she once was. Originally, he wanted nothing to do with her, but when his classmate is murdered by a serial killer, he looks to her for help in solving the case.
Denpa Teki na Kanojo ("Electromagnetic Girlfriend") is a series of Light Novels written by Kentarou Kotayama and illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto; three volumes were published from 2004 to 2005, and the series has remained unfinished since then. The novels were adapted to two OVA episodes that were released in 2009. The books and the show take place in the same world as Kure-nai.
Denpa Teki Na Kanojo provides examples of:
- Above the Influence: Much to Hikaru's chagrin at the time, Juu. She thanks him later for not taking advantage of her when she was distraught from being rejected by her crush.
- This could be the reason Juu will never upgrade his relationship with Ame: He will not take advantage of a Crazy Sane girl.
- Action Girl:
- Ame, of course, though her sister also counts.
- Her sister Hikaru counts more, as she's actually trained in martial arts.
- As do Yukihime and Madoka... you know what, this show is just filled with badass ladies.
- All Deaths Final: People die off in droves, and no, they don't come back.
- Arc Words:
- First OVA: Juuzawa Juu is a King.
- Second OVA: I want to be happy.
- Ax-Crazy: Let's just say that the serial killer is just the beginning of the crazy.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The true reason behind Ame's fierce dedication to Juu is that he comforted her when the two of them were younger.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Played straight and subverted. Ame is quite scary when Juu is being threatened, but even the more obnoxious characters can be quite frightening in the right circumstances.
- Bodyguard Babes: At the school, Juu tries to confront Ayase and she pulls a razor, then all the girls run to protect a surprised Juu. Justified because Yukihime and Madoka are Ame's friends, and is logical she asked them not to solve the case, but help Ame to protect Juu.
- Boring, but Practical: One of Ame's favorite weapons is a stun gun. Hey, it works.
- Breaking Speech: Ayase has one to give to anyone who listen.
- Central Theme: to explore the ways in which humans rationalize trauma.
- Chaste Hero:
- Juu, despite being a delinquent, is a pretty nice guy, and will never take advantage of a lady, even if she offers herself willingly.
- And let's not forget Yukihime.
- The Chikan: Juu is Frameup to be one of them by The Conspiracy
- Coincidental Broadcast: This happens a lot in the two OVAS… until you realize that the Big Bad of the first OVA invoked this trope when a magazine mentions the mysterious Serial Killer as the first step of the Evil Plan to get the protagonist Lured into a Trap. All of the other cases play the trope straight.
- Crapsack World: Many things can be said about this show. That it is a positive take on the human condition is not one of them.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Whether she's actually right about being Juu's reincarnated knight or simply delusional, Ame is certainly effective.
- Crazy Sane: This is the Central Theme, to explore the ways in which humans rationalize trauma. The antagonists (and one of the protagonists) had a Dark and Troubled Past, and the only way they found to keep themselves functional in the world after crossing the Despair Event Horizon was to become Crazy Sane. So They Look Just Like Everyone Else! until they have their particular Freak Out…
- Dark Magical Girl: The Big Bad of each OVA:
- Satsuki Miya seems to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to Juun, but she really is a Green-Eyed Monster because she perceives Juu as The Stoic.
- Ayase Ichiko: She doesn't have parents in the picture and she's a Broken Bird. She lacks true friends. She also claims that gaining enough happiness points will make her a Karma Houdini. The eerie part is that it seems to work: she seems faster, smarter and more ruthless than Ame. There is a confrontation between the two, but instead of being a Curb-Stomp Battle, Ame uses Break Them by Talking.
- Driven to Suicide: Ayase's brother, in front of Kaori, because Kaori dumped him for another guy.
- Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much everyone in this show is at least a little bit crazy.
- Fake Relationship: In the second episode, Juu is accused of feeling up girls on the train. Fortunately, Ame's sister Hikaru is there, recognizes him, and pretends to be his girlfriend to stop him from getting in trouble with the police. This leads to a whole mess of trouble later, as the girls who accuse Juu were actually members of the Happiness Club, and decide to make both Juu and Hikaru's lives miserable by spreading nasty rumors about both of them.
- Fatal Attractor: Juu is definitely this. The only sane girl who has displayed interest in him was Fujishima Kanako. The rest of them? Stalker with a Crush Serial Killer Miya who killed Fujishima and tried to kill him), a Manipulative Bastard, (Shirashi, who tried to kill him) a Tsundere Hikaru, who proposed him Sex for Solace and tried to kick Juu's ass, Ax-Crazy Yukihime and Ame who claims to be his Magical Girlfriend (she is only Crazy Sane). Oh, and he also picked the interest of The Bully, Kuraki who only wanted to destroy his life.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Absolutely averted pretty much every time (just as a warning).
- Idiot Hero: Juu is a victim of the Dulcinea Effect, tries to Save the Villain through Stupid Sacrifice, and is Too Dumb to Live trying to help others... but all those things inspire all those around him.
- Improbably Female Cast: The only male cast member is Juu. Everyone else (except the serial killer) is female. Revealed that's not entirely true; Miya helped.
- Insane Equals Violent: Played straight and subverted. Many characters in the series are violently insane, but some characters are mentally ill in a more traditional (and less destructive) way.
- Invisible Parents: Juu lives alone, but he refuses to discuss it because he doesn't want their sympathy.
- Kinda Busy Here: Exactly the words Kuraki tells Ame while she is trying to steal Kaori's happiness by choking her.
- Lady and Knight: Inverted, Juuzawa Juu is a King (the Lady), good looking, admirable guy with dignity and nobility that inspires everyone around him, even his enemies, and Ochibana Ame is The Knight as a strong, brave girl of virtue sworn to protect him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: When Shiraishi pushes Juu out into traffic to metaphysically "steal" his happiness, the car swerves out of the way and ends up hitting her instead. Yukihime even states afterward that karma worked out right for once.
- Magical Girlfriend: Maybe Magical, Maybe Mundane Girlfriend. Parodied. Juun is only pretending to be a Delinquent and is really a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold. Ame is beautiful, kind and utterly devoted to him. She's special, like having Past-Life Memories of Juun being a King and she being his Knight. Ame's family and friends interfere to ensure Juun doesn’t abuse her. Juun plainly tells Ame "You're Insane!" (opinion shared by everyone else In-Universe) and kicks her out his house after her attempt to From Roommates to Romance. However, Ame’s insanity doesn’t explain the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane scenario: Ame is an accomplished Defective Detective Action Girl who really saves Juun hide, and she has Offscreen Teleportation and a real psychic link with Juun that really works except when the plot demands it doesn't.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The scene where Juu remembers that he gave a crying Ame a doll with the figure of a King when both of them were little kids could perfectly explain Ame's Past-Life Memories of being King Juun’s knight. However, it could not explain the Psychic Link Ame has with Juun.
- Meido: As it turns out, Ame, Yukihime and Madoka all work at a Maid Cafe. Or, at least, Yukihime does; Madoka just hangs around.
- Mysterious Informant: Juu gets a phone call with only a word with a distorted voice saying park, the place where the Serial Killer would strike next. Subverted because the informant is really The Man Behind the Man trying to get Juu Lured into a Trap.
- Mysterious Waif: Ame plays this up when she introduces herself to Juu the first time.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The speech Ayase gives to Shiraishi after her plans for the "Happiness Club" are ruined. Unfortunately, as it turns out, they're not.
- Path of Inspiration: Not exactly religious, per se, but the Happiness Club has a disturbing enough metaphysical outlook to qualify. They believe that there is a limited amount of happiness in the world, so if they want to be happy they need to make someone else unhappy. Thus, they resort to various kinds of harassment, collecting "happiness points" as they do so, creating a sort of perverse Karma Meter. Of course, the whole thing is a plot by Ayase to gather everyone in the Happiness Club together so she can steal all of their happiness at once... by burning them all alive. The intended result is to gather enough Happiness Points to resurrect her dead mother. It doesn't work, of course.
- Past-Life Memories: Ochibana Ame declares to Juuzawa Juu that Juu was the the Lemurian Continent King thousands of years ago, and Ame was his knight who Cannot Tell a Joke. Ame sincerely believes this, Juu (and everyone else) answer is You're Insane!.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Getting to Ayase's house, we learn that she has been keeping the mummified corpse of her mother in the futon where she died, for months if not years. Of course, the first thing we see is not the body, but the swarm of insects that had been festering in the corpse.
- Rape as Drama: Miya is shown being raped by the serial killer in the first scene. She later goes on to assist, and even encourage the dastardly acts of Kiyoshi, because he is her Onii-san... and perhaps because of a little Stockholm Syndrome.
- Red Herring: The first OVA has Juun suspecting Ame being a Detective Mole: A girl with bangs who acts like a Mysterious Waif with Past-Life Memories, capable of Offscreen Teleportation, menaces one of the murder victims and Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon at the scene of the crime. When questioned by Juun, she invites him to her Room Full of Crazy where she is revealed as an Otaku of Serial Killers and fantasy who has a lot of insightful theories about the assassin. And then this dialogue:Juun: So, what is your impression about the criminal?
Ame: A person who has a sense of duty to something.
Juun: For example, a person who believes herself a Knight working for her king?
Ame: That possibility doesn’t lack merit. - Remembered Too Late: At the hospital, Juu (dreams? remembers?) a Because You Were Nice to Me moment that involves a doll with the figure of a King. This is a mundane explanation for Ame's Past-Life Memories. If Juun would have remembered that when Ame first met him, things could have been even worse for him.
- Sacred First Kiss: Hikaru ends up giving hers to Juu to keep up the act that she is his girlfriend. She later berates him about it, though.
- Save the Villain: Juu will try to save the Big Bad of the first OVA with an epic You Are Not Alone speech after the Big Bad wounded him with a razor. This noble act maybe brings back the Big Bad from the Despair Event Horizon, maybe…
- At the second OVA, he will try to save the Happiness Club from a Death Trap.
- Sex for Solace: Hikaru proposes this to Juu after she has been rejected by her true crush thanks to the Malicious Slander from the Happines Club.
- Stalker with a Crush: This is an
Alternative Character Interpretation for Ame's actions and probably the most accurate. - Stockholm Syndrome: After being raped by the serial killer, Miya becomes his accomplice, taking pictures of the victims just before they're killed and posting them on the internet. She even helps to finish the job when the severe beatings he gives the poor women don't quite work.
- Stupid Sacrifice: Ame stands between a drugged Juu and the first Big Bad holding a razor. Juu pushes Ame to his left side, she hits a wall, is momentarily unconscious and the Big Bad wounds Juu. If Juu would have pushed Ame to his right side, she would have not hit anything and would have been capable of helping Juu.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Ame seems to have a lot of trouble expressing her emotions, but she starts opening up more to Juu as time goes on.
- Juu fits this trope too! Remember when Miya says he is so cold and call him a Tsundere? a better term could be a Kuudere: Sugar-and-Ice Personality (Tsundere is more "Sugar and Fire").
- There Are No Therapists: And boy, howdy, could they use them. Look at a character, any character in this series. Are they (currently) alive? Then chances are they could use a few (hundred) sessions with a decent psychologist.
- Those Two Guys: Yukihime and Madoka. Of course, Yukihime is Ax-Crazy, like about 50% of the cast, though it seems like Madoka has some degree of control over her.
- Title Drop: You may not realize it, but the English name of the series is "Electromagnetic Girlfriend"
- Too Dumb to Live: Juu, after seemingly defeating the Serial Killer, takes time to answer his cellphone looking other way. Guess what happens. Later he will stage a Stupid Sacrifice for Ame. Then he will go through a room in fire to Save the Villain and talk with a person with a severe case of Sanity Slippage in an ideal place to Make It Look Like an Accident. In all those cases, he is saved by Ame or Laser-Guided Karma.
- Tsundere: Mina invokes this trope to explain Juu attitude.
- Class Representative Fujishima Kanako Tsun approach to Juu is I Shall Taunt You about his delinquent hair and attitude about school chores. She shows her dere side when she confides to him her dream to be a translator.
- Ochibana Hikaru Tsun side is Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male. Her dere side is to Protectorate Juu when he is victim of Malicious Slander… only to revert to Tsun claiming I Was Just Passing Through, Think Nothing of It and That Didn't Happen
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's questionable how much the serial killer actually believes his insane ramblings, but if he does, then he qualifies. If he doesn't, then he's absolutely irredeemable. He gets into irredeemable territory anyway when he rapes Miya.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Anyone who tries to hurt Ame or Juu will fit this description.
- Unwanted Harem: Juu seems to be heading in this direction, though it would help if his "harem" didn't all have serious issues to work out.
- Yandere: Miya is the first major example, but is quickly followed by Kazuko, Ayase, and Kaori Shiraishi.
