History Manga / VideoGirlAI

** RobotGirl: Ai, Len, [[spoiler: Mai]]

* ShadowArchetype: [[spoiler: Ai Amano and Mai Kamio]]
** Technically, Ai herself is the ultimate shadow archetype for all Video Girls.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Ai. PlayedWith, as Ai's personality change from the broken VCR turns her tomboyish and {{Tsundere}}. All video girls are supposed to {{Subvert|trope}} this trope.

* AGodAmI: Rolex. He is a "Creator"! He has many traits in common with the Deniurge of {{Usefulnotes/Gnosticism}}!

* AdrenalineMakeover: Mai. She first appears in the manga in a school uniform, but when she returns with the role of Ai's destroyer, she wears a lot of [[EvilWearsBlack black]] and [[EvilIsSexy a bustiér, miniskirt and a cool cape]].

** Of course, Manga/VideoGirlAi's [[PlayingWithATrope toying with this trope]] is a pretty important plot point in the manga. For instance, Gokuraku Video's real role [[spoiler:is to use Video Girls to obliterate their renter's ability to love. The pure hearted are, in the opinion of [[KnightTemplar the people behind it]], too vulnerable and good to deal with [[LoveHurts the harsh realities of love]], and destroying their ability to do so through the loveless Video Girls is the only way to protect them. This was ''supposed'' to be Ai's purpose, but the broken VCR did for that.]] Later on, [[spoiler: a rival TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday opens up across the road from Gokuraku Video named Neo Gokuraku, run by Gokuraku Video's old clerk after he resigned out of disgust, aiming to get to the Pure Hearted first, and give them Video Girls (apparently allowed to have emotions of their own, unlike the Gokuraku girls) who can help them through love's tribulations.]]

* WaterfallPuke: Ai's [[LethalCook cooking]] is bad enough to cause this effect. It also currently provides the trope image.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Nobuko, Natsumi

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Ai.

* JapanesePronouns: Ai [[{{Bokukko}} uses "ore" to refer to herself]] -- yet another side effect of Youta's awful VCR.

It was announced in November 2017 that Video Girl Ai will receive a live-action TV drama sequel in January 2018. Called ''Denei Shoujo ~VIDEO GIRL AI 2018~'', it is set in 2018, 25 years after the original manga, with Shou Moteuchi, the nephew of the original protagonist Youta Moteuchi, as the new protagonist. After his parents' divorce, Shou has lived in his uncle Youta's house. Like his uncle almost 30 years before, he too has secretly fallen in love with a beautiful classmate, in this case a girl named Nanami. However, Nanami has good feelings toward Shou's best friend Tomoaki, so the future of his romance is seemingly hopeless. One day, Shou finds a video tape. When playing it with a VCR coated with dust, a "Video Girl," who was sealed 25 years before, pops out through the screen. Then Shou and the video girl, "Ai," start a strange joint life for three months...

It was announced in November 2017 that Video Girl Ai will receive a live-action TV drama sequel in January 2018. Called ''Denei Shoujo ~VIDEO GIRL AI 2018~'', it is set in 2018, 25 years after the original manga, with Shou Moteuchi, the nephew of the original protagonist Youta Moteuchi, as the new protagonist. After his parents' divorce, Shou has lived in his uncle Youta's house. Like his uncle almost 30 years before, he too has secretly fallen in love with a beautiful classmate, in this case a girl named Nanami. However, Namaki has good feelings toward Shou's best friend Tomoaki, so the future of his romance is seemingly hopeless. One day, Shou finds a video tape. When playing it with a VCR coated with dust, a "Video Girl," who was sealed 25 years before, pops out through the screen. Then Shou and the video girl, "Ai," start a strange joint life for three months...

* SequelGap: A whopping 26 years between the manga, which ended in 1992, and the sequel TV series ''Denei Shoujo ~VIDEO GIRL AI 2018~'', which airs in 2018 and is set in that year.

It was announced in November 2017 that Video Girl Ai will receive a live-action TV drama sequel in January 2018. Called ''Denei Shoujo ~VIDEO GIRL AI 2018~'', it is set in 2018, 25 years after the original manga, with Shou Moteuchi, the nephew of the original protagonist Youta Moteuchi, as the new protagonist. After his parents' divorce, Shou has lived in his uncle Youta's house. Like his uncle almost 30 years before, he too has secretly fallen in love with a beautiful classmate, in this case a girl named Nanami. However, Namaki has good feelings toward Shou's best friend Tomoaki, so the future of his romance is seemingly hopeless. One day, Shou finds a video tape. When playing it with a VCR coated with dust, a "Video Girl," who was sealed 25 years ago, pops out through the screen. Then Shou and the video girl, "Ai," start a strange joint life for three months...

It was announced in November 2017 that Video Girl Ai will receive a live-action TV drama sequel in January 2018. Called ''Denei Shoujo ~VIDEO GIRL AI 2018~'', it is set in 2018, 25 years after the original manga, with Shou Moteuchi, the nephew of the original protagonist Youta Moteuchi, as the new protagonist. After his parents' divorce, Shou has lived in his uncle Youta's house. Like his uncle almost 30 years before, he too has secretly fallen in love with a beautiful classmate, a girl named Nanami. However, Namaki has good feelings toward Shou's best friend Tomoaki, so the future of his romance is seemingly hopeless. One day, Shou finds a video tape. When playing it with a VCR coated with dust, a "Video Girl," who was sealed 25 years ago, pops out through the screen. Then Shou and the video girl, "Ai," start a strange joint life for three months...

Youta goes back to his CoolHouse, plays the video on his VCR... and then the girl pops out from the TV! Her name is Ai Amano, and she's come to help him with his woes. Unfortunately, Youta's VCR was broken, therefore Ai-chan's programming is seriously messed up. She [[ACupAngst lost a few cup sizes]], [[LethalChef she can barely cook]], she's [[{{Dojikko}} clumsy]], [[SayingTooMuch she puts her feet in her mouth]], she [[{{Tsundere}} teases Youta mercilessly]]... and for better or for worse, [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove she develops feelings for him]], when she's supposed to just counsel and console the boy. ''And this is just the start''.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: '''I! WONT! QUIT LOVING! AI, ANYMORE!'''

* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler: Mai can release her magnetic energy as powerful energy bolts to attack and kill people if it's needed, but doing this drastically reduces her own lifespan until she is reduced to nothing. Ai copied her technique to save Yota and Natsumi from Mai's wrath, destroying Mai on the spot, but losing her own life as well. Rolex forced her to live again to continue studying her, though.]]

* WellExcuseMePrincess: Ai twists this trope, in that [[spoiler: she wasn't supposed to be the girlfriend, but fell for the lovable loser she was trying to improve]].

* ArtificialHuman: the Video Girls

** In Video Girl Len, [[spoiler: Ayumi. ''Poor'' Ayumi.]]

* GenkiGirl: Ai, Len

* JerkAss: Ayumi's handsome yet rotten ex-boyfriend in ''Video Girl Len''.
** Takashi purposely [[JerkAssFacade tries to look like one]], so Moemi would stop liking him and start paying attention to Yota. Unfortunately, this idea went horribly wrong.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday - In fact, you can't even ''see'' the Gokuraku store if you're not a genuinely good person. Youta saw it for his selflesness regarding Moemi; the LovableSexManiac Toshiki found the Neo Gokuraku along with Hiromu because he truly cared for his best friend, despite his lecherousness.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Ai

* ShrinkingViolet: Moemi
* StarCrossedLovers: Youta and Ai

* LovingForce: [[spoiler: Manga only: Yota attempts this as a final resort to save Ai from Rolex's control by making her a "real woman". It doesn't ends well, as Ai doesn't knows what Yota is trying to do and pushes him away [[GroinAttack by squeezing his testicles until the pain makes him stop.]] It takes her a while to put two and two together and realize that Yota tried to accomplish one of the abusive conditions that Rolex secretely had imposed upon Ai.]]

* NamesToKnowInAnime: Both CD drama and OAV had famous seiyuu in their casts:
** CD drama: Creator/MinamiTakayama (Ai), Creator/NozomuSasaki (Yota), Creator/KazuhikoInoue (Takashi), Creator/KotonoMitsuishi (Moemi).
** OAV: Music/MegumiHayashibara (Ai), Creator/TakeshiKusao (Yota), Creator/KoujiTsujitani (Takashi), Creator/YuriAmano (Moemi), Creator/HirotakaSuzuoki (Rolex), Creator/KenichiOgata (the Gokuraku old man).

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mapaimageneswu9.jpg]]

** OAV: MegumiHayashibara (Ai), Creator/TakeshiKusao (Yota), Creator/KoujiTsujitani (Takashi), Creator/YuriAmano (Moemi), Creator/HirotakaSuzuoki (Rolex), Creator/KenichiOgata (the Gokuraku old man).

** OAV: MegumiHayashibara (Ai), Creator/TakeshiKusao (Yota), Creator/KoujiTsujitani (Takashi), Creator/YuriAmano (Moemi), Creator/HirotakaSuzuoki (Rolex), KenichiOgata (the Gokuraku old man).

** OAV: MegumiHayashibara (Ai), Creator/TakeshiKusao (Yota), KoujiTsujitani (Takashi), Creator/YuriAmano (Moemi), Creator/HirotakaSuzuoki (Rolex), KenichiOgata (the Gokuraku old man).

''Video Girl Ai'' (電影少女,Den'ei Shojo?, lit. "Video Girl") is a manga series created by MasakazuKatsura and published by Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. It also has an anime adaptation. The manga is published in English by Creator/VizMedia. It was formerly published in the anthology Animerica Extra by Viz. It was started in 1990 and continued until 1993, and fifteen manga volumes were produced. The first 13 volumes tell Ai Amano's story. The last two volumes, which came years later, focus on a new video girl named Len, hence the new name for these two volumes ''Video Girl Len''.

* {{Bokukko}}: Invoked by [[spoiler: Moemi, who in an attempt to get Youta tied to shed her YamatoNadeshiko exterior and become one of these.]] [[spoiler: It fails anyway; she returns to her YamatoNadeshiko behavior, only keeping her short hair.]]

Youta Moteuchi is an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent whose father is always working abroad. Due to his bad luck with girls, he's nicknamed "Motenai" -- "Dateless", and even worse for him, he's in love with a girl pretty much deemed as perfect, the beautiful and sweet Moemi Hayakawa. During a meeting, she tells him she likes Youta's best friend Takashi Niimai... and then Youta, instead of sulking or revealing her feelings, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy promises to help her get Takashi's love]].

* TechnologyMarchesOn: If this manga was ever rebooted, Ai would be coming out of a DVD or a Blu-Ray disc, not a VHS tape.