Kakeru Hase is just an
Ordinary High School Student left alone at home after his mother and sisters go on a vacation to Hawaii (and with his father away on business). No sooner had their cab left than Kakeru proceeds to do what boys his age do — watch TV all he wants, play games for the entire summer break, and uncover his
Porn Stash (as well as his father's). For him, life is too peaceful...
...That is, until he discovers a beautiful naked girl in his bedroom. The girl — Ayano Fujimura, as she calls herself — is a psychic escaping the Greenhouse, an enigmatic organization who captures such savants like her and experiment on them. Earlier, she and her fellow psychics are forced to jump off a cliff to elude the Farmers, the personal troops of the Greenhouse, but not before their leader, Joi Touma, asking her to find Kakeru himself.
Kakeru is ultimately dragged into the fight together with Ayano and Joi, as well as their other allies — Xiao Long Bai and Kaito Himura — despite lacking powers... or so he thought he doesn't.
Psycho Busters is a seven-volume manga adaptation of a three-volume light novel series by Tadashi Agi (under the pen name "Yuya Aoki", the same one he used for
Get Backers), with art by Akinari Nao.
The manga provides the following tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: Not that they mean to... Besides Ayano can be just that innocent.
- Astral Projection: Ayano's powers, which often manifests naked (not that she minds it, but as for the boys...).
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Kakeru defeats several powerful psychics mostly by figuring out their weak points and brutally exploiting them.
- Badass Normal/Badass Abnormal: Kakeru thought he had no psychic powers, until later he discovers that he has the power to control time and space within the range of his Perfect World.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Kakeru — and to a less extent on the perverted aspect — Kaito, Xiao Long and Joi.
- Combat Medic: Xiao Long.
- Cosmic Retcon: Kakeru traveled back in time to avert the past events that led to Tomoe's death and her father Arata Ikushima's Start of Darkness, knowing all too well that he may never come back — which he surprisingly does.
- Cursed with Awesome: Not a few naysayer are warning against Kakeru using his time-and-space manipulation abilities at will.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Xiao Long and Takemaru.
- Death Equals Redemption/Redemption Earns Life: Oddly played by Ikushima in the end. After Kakeru mortally impales him, Tomoe's spirit appears to comfort her father and allow him to accept his fate, making sure they are Together in Death. Then the latter trope is applied when Kakeru travels back in time (at the risk of permanently deleting him from existence) to prevent Tomoe's death and thus indirectly avert her father's Start of Darkness.
- Deus ex Machina: Kakeru's reappearence in the end, after he erases himself from existence. There's very little explanation to it and the title of the last chapter is "Miracle".
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: One of the bonus Yonkomas has Joi and Kaito marveling at how big a giant cyclops is.
- Five-Man Band
- The Hero: Joi Touma, clairvoyant leader of the fledgling psychic La Résistance.
- The Lancer: Kakeru Hase, the protagonist and fledgling Reality Warper/Time Master.
- The Big Guy: Kaito Himuro, the Hot Blooded pyromancer.
- The Smart Guy: Xiao Long Bai, specialist in qigong, a special technique that requires lots of thinking.
- The Chick: Ayano Fujimura, the {[telepath|y}}
- The Sixth Ranger: Four ex-members of the Greenhouse — Maya Kasuga, Master of Illusion with a crush on Kakeru; Shou Amamiya, teleporter and erstwhile Punch Clock Villain; Takemaru Hidaka, telekinetic; and Fuyuko Isshiki, summoner.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Ikushima.
- Heroes Want Redheads: In the manga, Ayano is drawn with dark red hair.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: All the psychics.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Kakeru.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Ayano; it really doesn't help that her teammates are all guys...
- Mobstacle Course: Of zombies!
- Meaningful Name: The kanji for Kakeru means 'flight', and fleeing is one of the things he does best; Takemaru means 'fierce'.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Joi.
- Official Couple: Kakeru and Ayano in the end.
- Playing with Fire: Kaito.
- Prophetic Dreams: Joi's power is seeing into the future.
- Psychic Powers: Hello! It's called Psycho Busters for a reason!
- Reality Warper/Time Master: The nature of Kakeru's powers.
- Ret Gone: The ultimate fate of the Ikushima who served as Big Bad of the series; in his place is the kinder Hot Dad whose daughter Tomoe never died and thus caused his Start of Darkness. Kakeru was also supposed to have vanished for good after traveling back in time to retcon Ikushima and Tomoe's destinies, but he got better.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Joi.
- Start of Darkness: Ikushima used to be a loving father, until Tomoe died in a bus accident.
- Tempting Fate: In the first chapter, Kakeru says that there's no way that the exciting stuff he sees on TV or videogames could possibly be true. Guess what happens next.
- Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Starting in volume 3.
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