Jake and the Dynamo is a Magical Girl novel series by DGD Davidson. Originally released episodically as a Web Serial Novel, it was eventually published in e-book form. The first novel in the series, The Wattage of Justice, was published by Superversive Press in 2018.
In the far future, remnants of mankind inhabit the city of Urbanopolis, under constant assault by the forces of evil and darkness, represented by the Dark Queen's kaiju army and many other nefarious foes. The city only survives thanks to the benevolent Moon Princess, who had ascended into heaven with the promise to someday return. But the city is not defenseless, as the Moon Princess gave it protectors in the form of magical girls; every so often, a girl is born with exquisite powers to use for protecting Urbanopolis from the relentless monster attacks.
Fourteen-year-old Jake Blatowski doesn't really care about magical girls much, though, and is more excited about his upcoming graduation to high school. Unfortunately, a computer glitch causes him to get moved back to fifth grade, and that's not the end of Jake's troubles. By sheer coincidence, Jake discovers that his new classmate Dana Volt is actually the famed Magical Girl Pretty Dynamo, and he finds himself involved in her battles against the rampaging monsters... and now everyone is convinced he is her new boyfriend. Unfortunately, so is the nefarious Dark Queen, who seeks to take down Pretty Dynamo by targeting her loved ones.
Jake Blatowski really isn't going to have a fun time.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Action Duo: Dynamo and Jake are the badass/action survivor pair, though he has to babysit her more often than the other way around.
- Action Survivor: Jake’s power is not getting killed even when everything is out to get him.
- Aliens Speaking English: The robot dinosaurs speak to each other in English.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Chai Square, a statistician troll who knows his opponents' fighting style exactly, and thus can predict their next action with perfect accuracy.
- Badbutt: Because it pretends to be family-friendly except not really. Pretty Dynamo might qualify for this. The Moon Princess’s personal gang of thuggish magical girls definitely do. And Sukeban Tsubasa, to appear later, is a parody of this trope.
- Big Brother Instinct: Why Jake keeps coming back for more punishment.
- Butt-Monkey: Jake, from the very beginning, is constantly subject to every kind of misfortune.
- Cast Full of Crazy: About everyone behaves more or less eccentrically. Maybe with the exception of Jake.
- City of Adventure: Urbanopolis, where the world comes to you.
- Conservation of Competence: The Dark Queen and her minions. Aaand the magical girls.
- Crapsaccharine World: A world full of cutesy magical girls where getting pancaked by monsters is considered commonplace.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Moon Princess is revered like a deity. Though Christianity still seems to exist, as evidenced by the crucifix worn by Dana Volt.
- The Dead Can Dance: Jake accidentally manages to distract an encroaching zombie horde by playing "Stayin' Alive", as zombies cannot resist a good dance.
- Defiled Forever: After Miss Percy catches Jake in a Not What It Looks Like situation with Dana, she's mainly concerned that nobody will ever marry her now.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Miss Percy.
- Dreadful Musician: Tuneless Ramona, to the point where her singing is a weapon of mass destruction. However, she's convinced that she's a fantastic singer.
- Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Lampshaded by the Dark Queen, who complains that the obligatory darkness in her castle makes it hard for her to see anything.
- Face–Heel Turn: The Dark Queen was apparently once a magical girl, too.
- Familiar: Most every magical girl has one.
- Friendly Target: The Dark Queen decides to target Jake after becoming convinced that he's Pretty Dynamo's boyfriend.
- Geek: Do not ask Jake about his dinosaur cartoons.
- General Failure: The Dark Queen. Perhaps she would have destroyed Urbanopolis a lot quicker if she could grasp the idea of sending more than just one kaiju at a time.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Ralph, upon considering the possibilities of a Pretty Dynamo/Sword Seamstress ship, almost gets a nosebleed.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: They swear like cartoon characters in Urbanopolis. Watch out for Chelsea’s cluster-frick bombs.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Stereotypical Japanese terms such as "baka" (idiot) or "hentai" (pervert) are thrown around a lot, especially by Pretty Dynamo.
- Growing Up Sucks: Magical girls lose their powers upon attaining adulthood. They typically have a lot of trouble adjusting after that, some even ending up in drug rehab.
- The Gunslinger: Rifle Maiden.
- Hates Being Touched: Pretty Dynamo, as Jake often finds out the hard way.
- Held Back in School: Jake, just before graduating to high school, ends up going all the way back to fifth grade.
- Hot for Student: Jake rescuing his teacher from space dinosaurs involves a couple of... awkward moments, including her all but asking for a Now or Never Kiss. No wonder they agreed to forget everything that happened afterwards.
- I Work Alone: Pretty Dynamo works alone. Except when she works with Tesla. Which is all the time.
- Kaiju: The giant monsters dispatched by the Dark Queen which keep attacking Urbanopolis. They're actually referred to as kaiju in-universe.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Most of the cast.
- Mentor Mascot: An additional role filled by the familiars.
- Minnesota Nice: Bossy the cow.
- Mood Whiplash: The novel alternates between moments of rather silly comedy, and truly dark episodes which read like a gritty Deconstruction.
- Musical Assassin: This is Tuneless Ramona's schtick. Both her singing and dancing are so abominable that they're essentially weapons of mass destruction. They're just as dangerous to the innocent bystanders and her allies as they are to the monsters, though.
- Name and Name
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Chapter 5 involves the city being attacked by robot dinosaurs from space.
- No Endor Holocaust: Thoroughly averted. Every monster attack has countless casualties, and death by kaiju is considered common.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Grease Pencil Marionette was created by a genius scientist who died upon activating her, and so she is likely to be the last Robot Girl ever built.
- Not What It Looks Like: In one scene, Dana drags Jake inside a cupboard to yell at him, and they end up falling out. It's at this moment that their teacher walks in and sees Jake lying on top of Dana, gripping her wrists... and this after several instances of him committing "inappropriate conduct" towards her.
- Only Sane Man: Jake certainly feels like this, and it's hard not to agree with him.
- Pervert Revenge Mode: Several times Jake finds himself on the receiving end due to his Accidental Pervert moments with Dynamo.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: After Jake "Barfing Boy" Blatowski is seen with Magical Girl Pretty Dynamo, the newspapers begins speculating whether "Dynabarf" is an official couple.
- Power Levels: All magical girls have a 0-10 "competency rating" assigned by the city's Threat Assessment Board. Tuneless Ramona stands out as having an infinite rating, due to once managing to defeating an Eldritch Abomination.
- Pungeon Master: Chai Square, the statistics-obsessed monster, enjoys making statistic-related puns (at one point he has to stop and explain a particularly obscure one).
- Really 700 Years Old: Grease Pencil Marionette looks sixteen, but as a Robot Girl she does not age, and is in fact over 200 years old.
- Robot Girl: Grease Pencil Marionette, who was meant to be the first of a robot army that was to take the place of the magical girls.
- Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Pretty Dynamo and Jake.
- Secret Identity: Most magical girls keep their civilian identity secret.
- Shipper on Deck: The citizens of Urbanopolis as a whole. They seem to be ridiculously obsessed with shipping the magical girls with each other, or with other people. Speculation on their relationships is darn near Serious Business.
- Shock and Awe: Pretty Dynamo's powers are electric in nature. Apart from electrifying her body and shooting ball lightning, she uses electric weapons.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: One of the monsters mentioned is the Eldritch Abomination Cuss-Lulu, a "a giant octopus with a potty mouth" which is constantly yammering out a barrage of unpronounceable swearwords.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Pretty Dynamo's real name is Dana Volt.
- Supporting Protagonist: Pretty Dynamo has all the superpowers, but the story is told from Jake’s POV.
- Unusual Euphemism: Pretty Dynamo uses "Zap!" as an all-purpose curseword.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Don't ever expect the author to tell you where Urbanopolis is located on a map.
- World of Action Girls: The premise.
