Psychic Academy is a seinen manga by Katsu Aki, which was serialized in Magazine Z from 1999 to 2003. It was adapted to a 24-episode ONA series in 2002.
The story follows the life of Ai Shiomi, a boy with psychic powers, also known as "aura power" in modern day Japan. This ability has emerged in the world, but not all people have it. Aura power itself allows certain elements such as fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, earth, and light to be used by those who have the ability. Which type of power they can use depends on their aura and what they are taught.
Ai agrees to attend the Psychic Academy School after being pressured by his brother. The school is where the elite students go to learn how to use their elemental aura power. Ai knows that somewhere within the Academy is his childhood friend Orina. At school however, she is known as Saara, after her aura code. On his way to his first day at school, Ai encounters a girl named Myuu (Mew). She is another student at the Academy and is a very quiet, seemingly moody girl. Ai also learns that his older brother Zero, a legend amongst those with aura powers, will be one of his teachers.
As Ai struggles with his new school, a life he is not sure he wants; a crazy rabbit takes him as his student. His feelings for Orina and Myuu begin to develop and contrast as the school year progress. Ai also makes discoveries about his rare light aura. To further complicate things, a group of researches try to artificially awaken the dormant aura genes within all humans, heedless of the danger and damage to society it might cause.
A character page is currently in the works.
Tropes used in this series:
- Abusive Parent: Myuu's father used her as a guinea pig, resulting in her powers becoming strong enough to damage her own health and a permanent severe phobia. He cared so little for his daughter that he never bothered to name her.
- Accidental Pervert: Here's a Drinking Game... whenever someone accidentally gropes a girl's breasts, take a drink.
- Ambiguously Brown: The only hint we have of where Tenma is from is "A small kingdom nearby India"... oh yeah, and did we mention that he's actually the prince?
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Inverted. Imagine this... your brother is known as one of the greatest aura-users in the world, even called "The vanquisher of the dark overlord". And yet nearby you, he seems to lose twenty plus years of maturity.
- Battle Aura: Most combat techniques manifest as this.
- Beach Episode: The last part of the manga that got animated. Surprisingly, it's actually a plot-relevant trip to the beach, since it reveals the existence of the Paradream and that the girl that Ai met on the beach all those years ago was Myuu, not Orina.
- Berserk Button:
- If certain aura users feel a certain emotion too strongly, their powers go out of control. For Fafa, it's sorrow. For Myuu, it's rage. Once set off, neither are able to calm down without outside help.
- Do NOT get between Zerodyne and his brother. I repeat, do not.
- Bittersweet Ending: Watabe's scheme is thwarted, but Myuu dies from injuries sustained when she loses control of her powers.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Zig-zagged. It's no secret that Zerodyne is one of the most powerful aura users in the world... yet around Ai (When he's not in danger) he goes flat-out crouching moron.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The color of a person's aura reveals their emotional state, even if they are normal people. When Ai learns to see these auras (something which would normally take months of hard work), his master immediately suggest they pick up some girls with it.
- Damaged Soul: Faafa and Myuu. The setting implies that a person's personality or soul is somehow tied with their aura (possibly justifying the diversity of the auras). The ADCnote experimented quite a bit on them, which resulted in them having phenomenal powers - as well as the above mentioned beserk buttons.
- Dishing Out Dirt: The gym teacher and a hermit are shown to have earth-based powers.
- Elemental Powers: Most auras are expressed like this. Even some of the more exotic ones like Scent, Mist....
- First Girl Wins: But not until the final chapter, and then only posthumously. Of course, the revelation that the girl that Ai met on that beach was Myuu and not Orina only comes a third of the way through the story.
- Gender Bender: Zig-zagged - Ren gave Fafa his heart, causing her to have two personalities and subsequently two auras.
- Girl of My Dreams: Ai meets Myuu in the Paradream before meeting her in person.
- Happily Adopted: Ai, Zerodyne, and all their siblings. The english manga gives some interesting insight, how they might be even closer than most families because they chose to be a family.
- I Just Want to Be Normal:
- This desire is expressed on several occasions. Orina on one occasion states that even though most aura-wielders work for the government, but Orina wants to have a normal marriage and have kids.
- One of the Class A kids hates his power and wants to be normal because his twin was normal, rejected him, then died in a fight. This caused him to develop schizophrenia
- Jerk Jock: The Class A students are full of jerkasses. Justified in that many of them were emotionally disturbed when they were younger. Also, many of them lighten up a little bit.
- Kissing Under the Influence: Myuu and Ai's first kiss happens after they consume an 'energy drink' touted by Ai's brother.
- No Name Given:
- A sizable portion of the cast answers to their Aura Code, a collection of syllables that somehow describes their powers, rather than their actual name. Addressing a person by their actual name is a privilege most aura users reserve for relatives and close friends.
- In addition, Myuu doesn't have a name. Her parents never bothered to name her, as they only saw her as a test subject, not a person. In the end, Ai ends up naming her Suzume.
- Myuu's father also has no listed first name. He is simply Professor Watabe.
- Meaningful Name: Each Aura user's Aura code is made up of words which describe their aura. This code gets longer as more becomes known about the person's aura (because of his time at the ADC, Zerodyne's code has become quite long). Early on, translations have been given for these codes; for instance, Myuu's code meant 'Blazing Rose', while Ai's teacher's meant 'Shining Dappler'. Knowing your code (or at least certain parts of it) is required to effectively use your abilities.
- Noodle Incident: Zero is known as "Vanquisher of the Dark Overlord." How he earned that title, who the Dark Overlord was, and what the hell happened is never elaborated on.
- Power Perversion Potential: Can you imagine what people would use these aura powers for if they were real?
- Psychic Link: Ai with Myuu. Later on, Tokimitsu establishes one with him as well.
- School for Scheming: The Aura reseach center is suppose to be like Academy, but with Professor Watabe at the helm the result is With Great Power Comes Great Insanity to the poor kids in order to insure power for the humans.
- Superhero School/Wizarding School: The whole purpose of the school is teach young psychic to control their power and use their power for good of mankind.
- Twist Ending: The culture festival has a tradition where Junior High kids who have trained their aura powers from much older visit and challenge the high schoolers. Because Ai gained a reputation for single-handedly beating a trained A.D.C professional, he was told that they would test their powers on him. In fact, one girl seems to be specifically targeting him... but as it turns out, she just wanted to meet him and hopes he'll be there for her when she attends the school.
- White Magician Girl: Orina's powers are more based around healing.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Myuu is terrified of rain due to a mostly suppressed memory of when her powers went out of control and started a fire that killed her mother - all she remembers is the sound of the sprinklers going off. It's so bad that she literally cannot bring herself to go outside when it's raining.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Some of the Class A students are legitimately very powerful psychics; however many of them were emotionally disturbed when they were younger. And at least one was schizophrenic. This also isn't even getting into Watabe....
