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Orphans Takemoto and Ryo Ninomiya are ordinary high school students witness a strange light descend from the skies and then split into two. Upon investigating it, they find a cute girl who doesn't seem to know who she is. Her appearance, along with that of her "little sister" Akari, shake up the simple lives of the town with the joy of seeing the world for the first time. The story follows Hikari and Akari in their learning about humanity at its brightest and darkest, as well as their own mysterious origins.
It also contains more than its share of Fan Service.
While it starts out as a simple Magical Girlfriend series, it ends up being more like a Lighter and Softer version of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Created by Studio Gainax and animated by both Studio Gainax and Studio Shaft. This page could use a little more love.
The series provides examples of:[]
- Affably Evil / Punch Clock Villain: Ionoious. He behaves exactly the same both before and after his mission to aid Hikari in her destruction of the world: polite, friendly, accomodating, even apologetic about the job he has to do.
- Accidental Kiss: Between Those Two Girls during the Beach Episode.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Hikari and Akari are anthropomorphic personifications of extinction and survival respectively... they just don't know it.
- Moe Anthropomorphism at that!
- Animal Motifs: Metamorphic insects.
- Beach Episode
- Best Beer Ever
- Bottle Fairy: Both Jennifer (who spends about 80% of her screentime drunk or drinking) and Ionious (who Jennifer is always forcing to drink).
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth
- Butt Monkey: Takeru Takemoto (for most of the episodes)
- Fan Service: The series even lampshades it: in one scene, Jennifer gets kinda cozy with Takeru, and a guy screaming "Aww yeah!!" can be heard in the background.
- Festival Episode: Obon festival, to be more precise. Made plot relevant since it is during this festival which people honor the deceased that Hikari first comes to understand death.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Quite a few:
- Hikari - Cynthia Martinez (credited as Goldie Fawn) - also played Mikako from Voices of a Distant Star (a Makoto Shinkai piece)
- Akari - Jessica Boone - also played Sayuri Sawatari in The Place Promised in Our Early Days (another Makoto Shinkai piece)
- Mari - Luci Christian - also played Deunan Knute in Appleseed and Mikura Suzuki in Mezzo Forte
- Hot Scientist: Jennifer to a tee.
- Hot Springs Episode
- Humans Are Special
- I Kiss Your Foot: Ryo to Akari when she steps on some glass.
- Indirect Kiss: At the end of the Beach Episode.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Akari & Hikari (pictured above left to right).
- I Will Protect Her: Takeru to Hikari. The twist in this case is that Takeru an Extended Definition Organism designed to prevent the Seventh Mass Extinction... that Hikari is here to cause.
- Les Yay: Between Those Two Girls during the Beach Episode. The Accidental Kiss mentioned above.
- Mad Scientist
- Male Gaze: "Yep, definitely a girl."
- Magical Girlfriend: Hikari is a classic example, and Akari is more of a Magical Little Sister.
- Marked Change
- Marshmallow Hell
- Meaningful Name: Justified: Hikari and Akari have no names at first, so Takeru and Ryo give them descriptive names
- Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis is a recurring theme in This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, once the Cerebus Syndrome and rampant butterfly symbolism kick in. Besides the aforementioned blood-red butterflies, Hikari and Akari will transform the world, one way or another.
- Mind Screw
- Mood Whiplash: The tone of what begins as a silly Fanservice anime turns *very* serious starting about episode 8.
- Motifs: as well as the insects, DNA-type patterns show up quit a bit
- Name's the Same - There's happens to be another anime with a young pair of romantically-linked teens that are also named Takeru and Hikari.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Obfuscating Drunkenness in Jennifer's case.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Jennifer
- Robot Buddy: Both Ioneous and Kuon.
- Rule of Three: Those Two Guys are convinced that a third girl will fall from the sky, solely because of this. It doesn't happen, of course. Technically, there already are three girls: Hikari has a split personality
- Actually the other personality you are referring to is Hikari and Akari combined not another personality.
- Shout-Out: Please Teacher, Ikki Tousen, Urusei Yatsura, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mahoromatic and in the English dub, The Simpsons.
- Like Takeru's transformation is not a shout out to Devilman... Sheesh...
- Shipper on Deck: Most of the supporting cast, but Those Two Girls most vocally.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Ryo is a soft-hearted Cloudcuckoolander, his little sister Kimi has it together, and takes things like bringing a hungry homeless girl into their house seriously...
- Skepticism Failure
- Squeaky Eyes
- Stop Helping Me!: Hikari gets a big one of these from Mari during the beach episode.
- Super-Powered Evil Side: Hikari's lighter-haired red eyed, much more forward alternate personality tasked with causing mass extinctions.
- Talking to Themself: Hikari
- Tempting Fate: "Well don't worry, your school isn't going to just instantaneously collapse..."
- The End of the World as We Know It
- The Talk: It's implied that Takeru got this from his parents, as well as Those Two Guys. Of course, he did just bring home a girl who he found naked in the woods, and is blatantly infatuated with him.
- Those Two Guys: Who also happen to be rather Genre Savvy.
- Unfortunately for them, they haven't noticed they're Those Two Guys.
- Transformation Sequence: Takeru provides a notably male-only version
- Tsundere: Mari is a Type A. Played With: When her inability to spit it out finally results in her screaming at Hikari and breaking out her Super-Powered Evil Side to bring the Endofthe World As We Know It.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Mari, also a Kissing Cousin.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If Mari hadn't bitch slapped Hikari, the whole End Of The World As We Know It situation would never of come up. Thanks for ruining What Could Have Been!
- What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Hikari coming to understand the darker sides of human emotion is a strong part of the Mood Whiplash in the later series.