[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arjuna_9929.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Why do you have to kill?]]

''Earth Maiden Arjuna'' (''Earth Girl Arjuna'') is an {{Anime}} written and directed by Shoji Kawamori and produced by Satelight and Bandai Visual. With a total of [[TwelveEpisodeAnime twelve episodes]] with an original run between January 9, 2001 ? March 27, 2001 on TV Tokyo. One additional episode was included on the DVD but was included in subsequent reruns.

The story follows Juna Ariyoshi, a Japanese high school girl chosen to be the ''Avatar of Time'' and entrusted with saving the dying Earth. Opening with her trip to the beach where an accident results in her death. As Juna's spirit leaves her body, Juna sees the dying Earth, [[GreenAesop the planet's suffering is visualized by worm-like creatures]], the Raaja. A young boy named Chris appears before Juna and offers to save her life if she will help the planet, she agrees and is resurrected. The series chronicles Juna's attempts to save the planet with help from international organization SEED.

Think ''CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' crossed with an existential discourse on human's role in nature [[hottip:*: the combination of which makes for some ''very'' interesting viewing]], ''AnInconvenientTruth'' and a ''lot'' of angst. And {{UsefulNotes/Taoism}}, lots of {{UsefulNotes/Taoism}}.
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!!This anime provides examples of:

* AuthorFilibuster: Chris has a checklist on {{UsefulNotes/Taoism}} and crosses subjects off the list everytime he opens his mouth.
* AuthorTract: WordOfGod that this series expresses his ideas on several subjects, like, for example, natural farming and ecology.
* BerserkButton: it might be a good idea to not be in the vicinity when you're telling the girl with excessively powerful psychic powers [[spoiler: that you're going to leave her country to die.]] Or at least, find a way not to be in the building when she levels it.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: ''Don't'' mess with Chris.
* BrattyHalfPint: Cindy
* ClingyJealousGirl: Cindy towards Chris.
* ContemplateOurNavels: most of the series is an existential discourse on nature and humanity. What do ''you'' think?
* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler: Chris]]
* CrypticConversation: Chris
* {{Deconstruction}}: It looks like an average MagicalGirlWarrior show... for an episode.
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: Don't experiment with the incredibly dangerous substances, please? You might bring about the ''[[ApocalypseHow end of the freaking world!]]''
* EffortlessAmazonianLift: Arjuna can hold Tokio in her arms without even noticing the strain.
* FacialMarkings: Less a marking than an actual stone, Juna has a magatama on her forehead.
* [[GaiasLament Gaia's Lament]]
* GaiasVengeance: TheDayOfReckoning is nigh!
* GlobalWarming
* GreenAesop
* HarmonyVersusDiscipline: Actively changing Nature to solve problems with Science only causes bigger and bigger problems.
* HeyItsThatVoice For the English dub, which uses voice actors from TheOceanGroup:
** Juna and [[AndrewFrancis Tokio]] are [[Anime/MonsterRancher Holly and Genki]], respectively.
** [[BradSwaile Chris]] is [[RanmaOneHalf Mousse]], teen/adult [[Anime/DragonBallZ Gohan]], several major characters in the ''Gundam'' series, [[Anime/{{Hamtaro}} Maxwell]], and [[DeathNote Light Yagami]], just to name a few.
* HumansAreBastards
** Befitting the GreenAesop, there are scenes where humanity at large is portrayed as either assholes or destructive ignoramuses.
** Mostly {{jerkass}}es. Moral of the story: Don't try to use [[MadScientist ridiculously unsafe and possibly malignant techniques]] to [[DontTouchItYouIdiot experiment with radioactive substances!]]
** Towards the latter parts of the show, [[spoiler:where Raaja-infested Japan is quarantined,]] it's hinted that the outside world eventually abandoned both the victims and the remnant government as a means for a cover-up. Of course, Arjuna isn't pleased at the slightest.
* {{Humongous Mecha}}: The Earth Guardian Ashra, near the end of the series it ends up moving somewhere faster than 16,000 miles an hour.
* InHarmonyWithNature: the point of the series.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Cindy
* LetsGetDangerous: SEED thought Juna was an incompetent high school girl who could be easily managed. [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter And then they made her mad.]]
* LonelyRichKid: [[spoiler:Tokio]]
* MagicalGirlWarrior
* MamaBear: ''don't'' threaten Juna's friends, family, or country. If you are alive after having completed the actual threat, you will [[UnstoppableRage live to regret it.]]
* {{Meganekko}}: Sayuri
* MessianicArchetype: Chris, then [[spoiler: Juna]]
* MysteriousWaif: Chris
* NatureSpirit
* NoPreggerSex: Inverted with squicky results.
* PsychicPowers
* RageAgainstTheMentor: Juna does this a lot due to Chris's love of being cryptic. It doesn't help that when she actually takes his statements at face value, he gets mad at her.
* RuleOfSymbolism: The communion scene at the end after the [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]], just to stress the religious parable. Funnily enough, the symbology is Christian, while the rest of the anime is a Taoist tract (with a heroine named after a Hindu hero and lots of Hindu imagery scattered across the series, for good measure).
* ScienceIsBad: The wasteful, reckless science-driven modern thinking caused Japan being overrun by humongous worms. Makes a nice FantasticAesop, too.
* SekaikeiGenre
* SinkOrSwimMentor: Chris is rather tight-lipped on the subject of exactly what Juna's supposed to be doing or how she should accomplish it. He usually just chucks her into the action and tells her to figure it out herself, because that's [[TheOnlyWayTheyWillLearn the only way she will learn]].
* SpaceWhaleAesop: If you screw up the environment, then giant worms will rise up from the ocean, rampage across the Earth, and... [[spoiler: provide the starving people with an alternate food source.]]
* SquatsInAName: All the Hinduist name dropping and symbolism it's just that: this Arjuna and the Hindu hero of the ''Baghavad Gita'' share nothing but being archers.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: SO MANY TIMES! I'll have her Meriken burger, damnit!
* TheThingThatGoesDoink
* TransformationSequence: Complete with StockFootage, although it only gets used a few times.
* YokoKanno
* WrongGeneticSex: One of the female ecology activists has this, with the implication that it was the result of the polluted environment.
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