Risky Safety - Television Tropes & Idioms

Ebony and ivory...

Omishi Magical Theatre: Risky☆Safety is a particularly underloved 1999-2000 anime series based on a manga by Ray Omishi, which has as its main selling point overpowering cuteness.

Junior-high-schooler Moe Katsuragi is depressed upon seeing her crush with an older girl. The depths of her despair attract a tiny Shinigami named Risky, who will go to great lengths to capture her soul upon death. Risky gets as far as her initial pitch, which causes Moe to laugh... prompting Risky to disappear and the sudden appearance of equally tiny apprentice angel Safety. Turns out that the pair share the body.

Comprised of 24 eight-minute episodes, Risky☆Safety manages to start with Slice of Life comedy and make it even Lighter and Softer than previously thought possible. As Moe goes about her daily life, now accompanied by the bossy Risky and the klutzy Safety, she comes to learn what her happiness really entails.

This show provides examples of:

Adaptation Dye Job: For both Risky and Safety. In this case, Safety's hair color is changed from blue in the manga to cyan (or green, depending on the viewer) in the anime, while Risky's outfit, crimson in the manga, becomes grey.
Balloon Belly
Because Destiny Says So: The final arc of the series had The Moment of Destiny dramatically altering character's fates, and to some extent their personalities. Some characters, Safety included, are willing to give up and accept the changes, but...
- Screw Destiny: Risky sets her straight with this trope.
  Risky: "I'm a shinigami who's brave enough to follow her own will! Isn't that the same for you, Safety?"
Big Eater: Risky, apparently...in the first episode alone, she apparently ate an entire box of chocolate kisses in about ten seconds. Chocolates which are the size of her head.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Moe, surprisingly enough.
But Now I Must Go: After successfully beating their destinies, Risky and Safety inform Moe that they have to return to their superiors now to await punishment. They vanish, telling her not to cry and that they'll always be friends. They return in the end though, presumably to spend the rest of Moe's life with her.
Cultural Cross Reference: A shrine kami compares Moe and Yuya's relationship to Anakin and Amidala's. This gag originated in the Japanese script.
- Additionally, two episode titles are references to the Austin Powers series. Ray Omishi must really like American movies.
Cute Little Fang: Risky has one.
Failure Is the Only Option: For Risky, at least. She receives increasingly-irritated nastygrams from her superiors over her failed scams for Moe's soul.
Fan Service Pack: Risky is shown in episodes 14 and 15 as being much more... ample.
Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Again, Risky. During the aforementioned episodes 14 and 15, her clothing really accentuated her bust.
Hey, It's That Voice!: For being such a short series, the show has a very impressive cast in both Japanese and English.
- Moe is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto in Japanese and Julie Ann Taylor in English.
- In the dub, Risky and Safety have different actresses. One of them is Sandy Fox, who plays... Risky. The other one is Michelle Ruff.
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Risky delivers one of these to Safety near the end, when she's ready to give up and just let her friend's destinies get rewritten.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: In one episode, Safety wonders what if she never gets rid of the spell the love arrow has on Lani, and then supposes she might be forced to marry him. She then has a random vision of herself and Lani being married, then to the two of them in a hotel, and then just as the vision stops Safety starts panicking, saying "I don't even want to think about what comes after that!"
Growing the Goatee: The final six episodes are more serious in tone (though not overly so), featuring a mythical entity called the Moment of Destiny that dramatically alters the leads' personalities, fates, and even their memories.
Genre Shift: The Fractured Fairy Tale which turns into a Space Opera, mentioned below, and one episode even is played out like a silent film, complete with black-and-white and sepia tone.
Hilarious Outtakes: The DVDs include dubbing out-takes.
- Curse Cut Short: One out-take has Sandy Fox messing up her line, and saying, "Aw, cra-!" before it cuts off.
In Love with the Mark: Kade was sent to kill one of the Momotaro. They fell in love instead.
Inter Species Romance: Lani the Pomeranian is in love with both Risky and Safety, thanks to Safety accidentally shooting him with a love arrow. Needless to say, it's unrequited.
Japanese Honorifics: Safety is extremely polite and always uses an appropriate honorific when talking to someone. On the other hand, Risky is the exact opposite: she is very rude and never uses honorifics.
Les Yay, with a dash of Foe Yay: There's people who ship Risky and Safety as a couple. No, really (may contain spoilers).
- Also, Moe's friends Suzuko and Kotone. Come on, there has to be something going on there...
- As well as Risky and Kade. Seriously, Risky looks devastated when she tells the part of Kade falling for a Momotaro, she starts a full-scale war when she believes Kade has been kidnapped (let that sink in. Risky started an entire war to get one girl back home, and the girl isn't even royalty, or that important to the tribe), and believes Kade to be Brainwashed when hearing she's in love with Wakatake.
Risky: Bastard. You must have brainwashed her!
Meganekko: Safety, and occasionally Moe.
- Blind Without 'Em: Again, Safety.
Moe: Take a wild guess. Applies to most of the cast, come to think of it.
Naked Underwear First Impression: Moe first spots Risky while the latter is putting on her clothes.
Odd Couple: Risky and Safety, although a variation, as they don't live with each other, but share each other's body.
One Head Taller: Moe is a head taller than her boyfriend, Yuya. She has to bend down a bit to kiss him in the second-to-last episode.
"On the Next Episode of..." Catch Phrase: This changes slightly depending on who's delivering the line. Risky uses "Yoroshiku, baby!" while Safety reads the line straighter, but sticks "desu no" to the end.
Purple Eyes: Risky. Moe too, but hers are more bluish.
Sharing a Body
Shinigami: Risky, who has a lot of skull motifs in her clothing, is a cross between the "Grim Reaper" and "shoulder devil" portrayals.
Something Completely Different: Done twice, first with telling a story from the pair's past, and second to turn the story of Momotaro into a Space Opera.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Wakatake, one of the Momotaros, and Kade, a shinigami.
Sweet Dreams Fuel
The Woobie: Fazzy, in her little arc. Arguably Moe as well.
Tear Jerker: Fazzy's mini-arc. Risky and Safety's seemingly-final goodbye to Moe.
The Faceless: Moe's parents, Yuya's father. We hear their voices, and the most we see of any of them are their hands or their legs.
Trademark Favorite Food: It seems that Risky has a thing for chocolate kisses.
Tsundere: Risky, arguably.
Verbal Tic: Safety ends most of her sentences with the archaic desu no.
Viewer Gender Confusion: It's not obvious that Risky is female at first glance. Maybe that's why she's often shipped with Safety.
- Although some people still ship her with Safety, even after The Reveal...
- The dub was apparently confused too, referring to Risky as "he," "him" and as "Mister Shinigami" in a few episodes before switching to female pronouns after it was apparent she was a girl. This was done deliberately to preserve the surprise of The Reveal in the absence of the gender-neutral pronouns used in the Japanese version.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Safety.
You Can't Fight Fate: Ultimately averted.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Safety in both the anime and manga versions.
- Though it's more of a greenish-blue shade in the anime.