Anime / Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation

Announced in August 2012, Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation, licensed as just Hyperdimension Neptunia, known originally in Japan as Choujigen Game Neptune The Animation, is a Pragmatic Adaptation of the Hyperdimension Neptunia video game series.

Taking place in an Alternate Continuity from the rest of the series, this anime takes place in a Gamindustri that has just signed a friendship treaty between the four nations, after constant war. The anime follows Neptune and a select cast of allies and villains from the series through an original story that mixes in heavily-compressed and heavily-altered variations on the plots of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 and Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory.

The series was animated by David Production and premiered in the summer of 2013. The series is available for legal streaming in sub and dub by Funimation here.^note You need to register for a free account before it will let you watch due to age restrictions.

The series consists of 12 regular episodes, and an OVA called The Promised Happily Ever After (True End) was released on March 26, 2014, unofficially referred to as the thirteenth episode. A second OVA, Nep's Summer Vacation, was released on July 3, 2019 with a Blu-Ray of the original 13 episodes. Another OVA, Nep-Nep Festival, was released on December 21, 2021, and lastly, Little Purple Sunshine on September 8, 2022.

Note that there are spoilers from the games and unavoidable spoilers on this page, so You Have Been Warned.

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In addition to those on the main page, this adaptation provides:

• A-Cup Angst:
  • Blanc/White Heart in episode 8, after Vert/Green Heart sees her chest with a look of disappointment on her face, causing the former to cover up her chest and comments that the latter "changed a tone in voice"^note In the Japanese version, she instead says "you looked at my chest when you said that".. Later, when asked by a customs official for the R-18 island if she and Plutia really are over the age of 18, they keep hitting yes, but the official just keeps asking them due to their lack of a bust. White Heart then slashes the screens, and smashes the alarm button when it goes off. She also gets annoyed after seeing two Verts bounce their boobs in the OVA.
  Blanc: Just when I thought she couldn't get any more annoying.
  • Vert, who's quite busty herself and proud to show it off, starts to feel insecure after seeing Yellow Heart's G-cups jiggle.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In Victory, where Peashy was captured, Neptune was ashamed about it, but it didn't really affect her. Here, she is reduced to a sobering mess over not spending enough time with Peashy after seeing her Brainwashed and Crazy, to the point that Iris Heart gave her a hug to make her feel better after they were fighting each other.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Iris Heart, while still sadistic, is far less a threat to the heroes than in the games, only limiting her sadism to her enemies, and while the other CPUs aren't unsettled by her sadistic pleasures, they aren't as afraid of her unlike in the games, making her more of an Good is Not Nice Anti-Hero than a Token Evil Teammate Villain Protagonist.
  • Though still a villain, Arfoire is given a case of this after suffering defeat twice from the CPUs and even helps them stop Rei, although she does have her reason for doing so. She also lacks her Omnicidal Maniac tendencies from the games.

• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Plutia is a lot nicer here than in her debut game, as while she had her moments of kindness there, those were largely overshadowed by her controlling, self-centered, and borderline jerkish behavior, where she would intimidate and bully her friends by threatening to transform if she doesn't get what she wants in spite of being aware of how much her sadism disturbs them. In the anime, she's a Kindhearted Simpleton who acts like a supporting ally to the other CPUs and shows a lot more self-control over her Iris Heart form that she didn't have in her introduction game. Iris Heart herself is also shown to have several moments of genuine compassion that she didn't have in the games, such as hugging a broken Neptune about what happened to Peashy and even telling her that she genuinely likes her^note  A similar situation happened in the games when Blanc lost her powers and suffered a Heroic BSoD, but it was revealed afterwards that she only acted "nice" to her so she can see her cry even more .
  • Neptune is nowhere near as rude and selfish as she was in Victory, and is much closer to how she was in mk2. She treats Nepgear far better here, whereas in Victory she was an Aloof Big Sister who didn't hesitate to leave her own sister in another dimension for a whole decade while she and her friend slack off in the former's home dimension. This characterization would be carried over to the games proper, Re;Birth1 and VII in particular, where she gets a good dose of Character Rerailment.
  • Even the Ultra versions of Noire, Blanc and Vert get this in the first OVA. While they still bicker with each other as shown in the elevator scene, its not as mean-spirited as in Victory, and they do get along with Plutia, the Hyper versions of Neptune and Vert, and each other quite well, acting much more like their Hyper Dimension counterparts.
• Adaptational Seriousness: Not that she's devoid of any comedic moments, but Iris Heart in the anime is less of a rape-happy Heroic Comedic Sociopath she was in the games and shows more rationality, as the anime focuses more on her positive aspects, with her Comedic Sociopathy being heavily downplayed and only directed at the villains; the only time she did attack her friends (i.e. Neptune in Episode 9), it wasn't Played for Laughs and had a reason to confront her (Neptune supposedly lying to herself).
• Adaptational Villainy: While The Seven Sages were always the villains, in Victory they were Noble Demons who had their moments of sympathy, were actually pleasant to their enemies and each other, and underwent a Heel–Face Turn by the end. In the anime, they're a lot more openly hostile to the CPUs, acting more like legitimate threats to our heroines. However, it's also a zig-zagging example; Abnes isn't affiliated with them and Arfoire decides to save the CPUs alongside Warechue by taking away Rei's powers from her by the end of the anime, even telling them that she doesn't want to see the world destroyed in spite of her hating them.
• Adaptational Wimp: A downplayed case for certain antagonists. Linda/Underling is much more submissive in dealing against the CPUs whereas her game counterpart would have the backbone to stay and fight, despite it being hopeless. CFW Trick is also a lot weaker here than his game counterpart, who took the efforts of the four CPU Candidates and the Makers to take him out.
• Adaptation Drift: The anime adapts a few plot points from mk2 for the first half of episodes and Victory for the second half. And while it does change a few elements from those two games for the sake of the adaptation, as well as being an Alternate Continuity from the start, the anime mostly stays true to the games it's adapting from. But starting from the 13th episode, the anime began to distance themselves from the games by having an entirely original story. This would continued further with the three OVAs (Neptune's Summer Vacation, Nep-Nep Festival, and Little Purple Sunshine), as while it does take a few elements from VII (such as Adult Neptune saving the other Candidates from a monster attack and a brief cameo from Uzume at the end of the 4th OVA), the anime had already became its own thing, even including elements exclusive to the anime like the Purple Heart's Lilac COOL Processor in the 2nd OVA and Adult Neptune's Gen. Unit Processor in the 3rd OVA, the latter of which would later be reincorporated back into the games with Dimension Tripper Neptune: TOP NEP (which was based on the anime) and Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Due to the anime focusing more on Plutia's compassion and having Iris Heart's victims almost always be the bad guys, any moments of her threatening or abusing her friends is discarded entirely in favor of presenting her as a genuine ally to her teammates. Iris Heart even helps soothe Neptune after she breaks down over Peashy being taken away, even outright telling Neptune she loves her. Likewise, none of the heroes fear her as they did in the games, since they weren't victims to her punishments, not that they aren't disturbed by her behavior.
  • It's revealed in this series that Abnes is not affiliated with The Seven Sages, as she says that she does her job all by herself.
• Adapted Out: While the anime adapts the mk2 and Victory storylines, there are a notable few things that were never mentioned or seen at all.
  • The anime's take on the mk2 storyline takes out three of the Four Felons (CFW Judge, CFW Brave and CFW Magic), the Mascots and the Gamindustri Graveyard. It is a bit subverted in that the Goddesses are held captive in the same vein as they were in mk2 and Arfoire dons an appearance during her battle with the CPU Candidates that is strikingly similar to CFW Magic.
  • The Victory storyline of the anime takes out two other members of the Seven Sages (Mr. Badd and Copypaste), as well as Croire (although she would eventually appear in the 2019 OVA). It's subverted with Abnes later when it's revealed that the anime's version of her isn't even a part of the Seven Sages.
  • The Victory storyline also omits the Ultra Dimension versions of Noire, Blanc, Vert, IF, and Compa^note While the latter two don't have much of a focus in Victory anyways, they do serve a role as two of the three adopted children Plutia and Neptune take care of, with their Hyper Dimension selves instead taking their place, or at least in the final battle. This ends up affecting the plot in a major way, as it's instead Plutia (and later Peashy) who enters Neptune's home world rather than the other way around. Though much like Croire, they would later make their debuts in the OVAs (Ultra Noire, Blanc, and Vert in the first OVA; Ultra IF and Compa in the third, albeit in the form of a one-frame cameo).
  • The other Makers, barring IF and Compa, are also taken out with the exception of MAGES., who appears in a cameo at the very beginning of Episode 1, and 5bp., who gets several speaking roles. This is consistent with later games in the series, which also omit all Makers other than IF and Compa.
  • Of the Oracles, only Histoire is given a major role (mainly because she's, well, Histoire). Kei and Mina are Demoted to Extra, and Chika only appears in a tiny cameo in the end credits and as a doll made by Plutia at the very end of the first OVA, despite the fact that, in the games, Chika is the closest thing Vert has to a sister.
• Advertising Disguised as News:
  • To keep up with the track record of Nepstation, Episode 3's has a promotion for nao's "Dimension Tripper!! (which has the full opening of the anime)" CD.
  Neptune: FYI, this isn't stealth marketing! This is blatant marketing!
  • What elevates this to Brick Joke status is that the character advertising it is 5pb., who is voiced BY nao, and even is holding what is very obviously that exact CD.

• Alternate Universe: Episode 7 confirms the suspicion of the anime that it is yet another universe separate from the others, completely unrelated to the video games directly. The one who does this confirming? Mini-Histy.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The Shares. It's the source of the Goddesses' power, and it's implied that in the past wars broke out over it. You know, just like oil. Shares can be extracted from the Goddesses' bodies, and it does look like oil.
• Badass Adorable: Neptune herself is a pretty good example. Don't let her cute appearance fool you. She's capable of fighting and kicking ass by using a sword. The other CPUs along with the CPU Candidates are pretty good examples as well.

• Badass Biker: IF's rocking with that motorbike of hers while shooting at a monster Gangsta Style.

• Battle of the Still Frames: Happens briefly in episode 1, as Uni takes pictures of Neptune and Nepgear fighting Dogoos.

• Berserk Button: Neptune not remembering her name is this for Arfoire.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • In episode 7, Neptune and especially Arfoire find out that Plutia may not be the nice lady she appears to be when she turns into Iris Heart. Iris Heart delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle to Arfoire, and beats her so brutally that Neptune says she's going to try and limit her transforming as much as possible.
  • The other goddesses find out in the next episode, when Plutia transforms to punish Linda for having lied about being a reformed criminal after they found out she spiked the drink that made Neptune more embarrassed.
• BFG: Uni's weapon is a huge gun when in her HDD mode.
• Big-Breast Pride: In episode 2, Vert tries a hostage exchange with Rom and Ram. Trick, however, refuses, and when he looks at her breasts, he mentions that looking at those only makes him think about how they'll sag when she gets older. His remark hits a nerve, and Vert proceeds to beat him up.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Neptune saves Noire from the ancient dragon in the first episode.
  • Blanc saves Rom and Ram in episode 2.
  • All of the Candidates saving the Goddesses in their HDD in Episode 5.
  • Neptune and Nepgear getting surprise support from the other goddesses in Episode 12.
  • Arfoire and Warechu in Episode 12 who save the CPUs...
  • Peashy saves Neptune from some monsters in episode 13 and then Neptune does the same thing for Yellow Heart.
  • Adult Neptune saves Nepgear, Uni, Rom and Ram from a giant bug monster in Nep's Summer Vacation in the same way that Neptune saved Noire in episode 1.
• Big Sister Instinct: Laying a hand on Ram and Rom with the intent to harm is the last thing you want to do if you want to get away from Blanc alive.
• Big "WHAT?!": All of the main girls at the end of episode 6 do this, when Plutia shows up.
• Black Comedy Rape: Subverted. Instead of helping Black Heart raid Anonydeath's facility, Iris Heart is getting too busy with Underling, complete with flames surrounding them. Immediately after that, Underling mentions she's lucky to have gotten out with her virginity and Iris Heart breaks into Anonydeath's base, presumably with the info Underling gave.
• Book Ends:
  • Episode 6, relatively begins and ends with someone falling from the sky onto Noire.
  • Episode 3 begins and ends with the opening and closing themes of mk2.
  • The first and last episodes mark the beginning and break of the friendship treaty. Though it really only gets abolished because "We don't need a piece of paper reminding us that we're true friends."
  • Episode 8 begins and ends with Plutia calling Neptune and her friends spoilsports.
  • In the OVA (Episode 13), Peashy does the same savior kick as what Neptune did in Episode 1.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Peashy, who is turned into Yellow Heart as the result of being given Share Energy by Rei and having her memories be taken away by Anonydeath. Also, some citizens in each country have risen in an anti-goddess revolution. Both cases are Anonydeath's fault.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Just like in the games, Neptune says how she's the main character.
  • A rather infamous moment occurs during a concert in the cold opening of Episode 3...
  5pb: "And now, for my next song... Dimension Tripper!"
  The titles begin at that exact moment, the opening song being Dimension Tripper
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Neptune is actually quite a competent politician and warrior in the 1% of the time she actually gives-a-damn enough to get off her butt and do something for a change.
• Brought Down to Normal: Both Nep and Vert are unable to transform for the entirety of episode 13, by virtue of being in the Victory universe, where different rules apply. This means that they do no fighting, but a whole lot of running instead. Except at the end where Neptune decides to attack the monsters that were giving Peashy problems.
• Bullying a Dragon: Arfoire lures Neptune, Nepgear, and Plutia into a trap in episode 7 by kidnapping IF. At first she has the upper hand, as Neptune can't stand eggplants, Nepgear is having trouble fighting the minions alone, and Plutia just stands around while being poked/prodded by Arfoire's eggplant soldiers. After Plutia says she doesn't like what Arfoire is doing, the latter says she can do whatever she wants. This then causes her to transform into Iris Heart, and she likewise says the same thing to Arfoire, giving her a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• The Bus Came Back: After a ten episode absence, 5pb. finally returns in Episode 11 and Episode 12 respectively.
• Butt-Monkey: Noire is often the victim of loner jokes from Neptune. In episode 6, not only did Neptune fall on her, but Anonydeath took multiple pictures of Noire cosplaying to the point of embarrassing her.
• Call to Agriculture: Arfoire hatches up a scheme to defeat Neptune by taking advantage of her dislike of eggplants, and buys an entire eggplant farm. After being violently reformed by Plutia, she decides there's nothing left to do but actually tends to the farm since she had no money left for anything else. Warechu sticks with her, but still charges her by the hour.
• The Cameo: MAGES. appears right at the start of the first episode.
• Camping Episode: The Second OVA, Nep's Summer Vacation involves The Goddesses, Candidates, IF, Compa and Histoire going on a camping trip during the summer.
• Cheerful Child: Ram and Peashy default as this, due to being relatively young girls with energetic natures. Rom can also be this when she's playing with Ram.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Arfoire comes in with Warechu and takes down Rei Ryghts with the Anti-Crystal, something not seen since Episode 5, in the final episode.
• Colourful Theme Naming: Noire, Blanc, Vert are respectively black, white, and green in French, as well as the colors of the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

• Cooldown Hug: Neptune hugs Peashy in episode 10. In the same episode, Iris Heart hugs Neptune to heal the latter from her Heroic BSoD.

• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Purple Heart easily dispatches the ancient dragon in the first episode.
  • Iris Heart delivers one to Arfoire in episode 7.
  • Neptune and Nepgear deliver one to all of the monsters on both sides of the dimensional portal during the 2nd OVA when they show off their new transformations.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Neptune, who ends up scattering paper in Noire's office, and also accidentally sends pictures of Nepgear to her citizens instead of her personal email.
• Cuteness Proximity: Rom and Ram use this on Abnes in episode 4 to trick the latter into helping them train in combat. Mostly by being a bad guy and letting the others whack her a few times.
• Cute Slime Mook: The Dogoos end up causing some trouble for Neptune and Nepgear in the first episode. They're a hassle when they group up, but are otherwise harmless.
• Debut Queue: The first episode gives screentime to Neptune, Noire, and their sisters Nepgear and Uni, while the second one focuses mostly on Blanc, Vert, Rom and Ram.
• Distracted by the Sexy: How Compa distracts Warechu from watching over the Goddess containment field. Subverted though, in that he knows what Compa is up to and that the field doesn't need his oversight.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The Dogoo fight overload has moans and groans from Nepgear, and then she was covered in that slimy mess. The Stinger says that the shares became popular because of the end result.
  • Arfoire gleefully feeds IF eggplants while IF groans, blushes and drools.
• Do Not Try This at Home: Neptune tells the audience not to pull a power cord the way Histoire did.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Uni's pet bandicoot is named Clutter in the Japanese version, and Cratchy in the English dub.
  • The name of the computer programmer Vert hires to fix Noire's hacking problem is changed from Tsuige to Setag to preserve the Sdrawkcab Name Shout-Out to Bill Gates.
• Dungeon Bypass: Played for Laughs, as usual. Turns out that the daunting, 10,000-floor dungeon filled with all sorts of dangerous nastiness... has an express elevator built into it that leads from the fourth floor directly to the 9999th floor. As Plutia notes however, the ride itself is trying, but in a different way.
  Plutia: But riding in an elevator for two hours is boring.
• Dynamic Entry: Neptune performs one on a dragon in the first episode.
• Enemy Mine: Arfoire and Warechu suddenly show up in Episode 12 and not only defeat Rei Ryghts, they also save Gamindustri in the process! Because, in her words, Arfoire wants to eventually rule Gamindustri for herself and needs it intact to do so.
  Arfoire: (shows up behind Rei offscreen) I'm afraid that won't do!
  Arfoire: After all, this planet is going to be mine someday and want it to be in tip-top shape.
  Rei Ryghts: Piss off, weirdo.
  Warechu: (puts an Anti-Crystal down) Okie-dokie, Grandma! It's all ready!
  Arfoire: SLEEP IN THE MURKY DEPTHS OF DESPAIR!!
  (Throws her own Anti-Crystal at the other one, forming a barrier that contains and destroys Rei's Share crystal. Rei has an Oh, Crap! expression as the loss of her Share crystal causes her energy ball to dissipate. Energy starts to flow out of her as she undergoes a painful transformation...)
  Rei Ryghts: AHH, NO! DON'T TAKE MY POWER AWAY FROM ME!!
  (Her efforts are futile however, she continues to scream as she reverts back to her human form... this time, for good.)
• Et Tu, Brute?: Said almost verbatim by Histoire in episode 1 when Nepgear chooses to slack off with Neptune.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Arfoire may be a villain who has a grudge against the CPUs, but she doesn't want to see Gamindustri destroyed by Rei, as evident by her taking away the latter's goddesses powers from her alongside Pirachu.
• Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": Neptune. She's been called either "Nep", "Nep-Nep", "Neppy" or "Neptuna", depending on the character she interacts with.
• Evolving Credits:
  • Peashy, Plutia, and Mini-Histy get added into the ED sequence after episode 8.
  • The opening changes in episode 10, while keeping the same song from the earlier episodes. It also shows all of the heroines introduced since the beginning of the show.
  • Kei, Mina, Chika and MAGES get added in the opening of Episode 13, but they still don't have any screentime within the episode though, except the final scene as dolls that Plutia made.
• Exact Time to Failure: As with most of the things in this franchise, deliberately invoked in episode 13, with three hours being the amount of time Neptune and Vert can stay in the Victory world. If they don't get the cure for the Bad End Syndrome in time, the gate to their own universe closes, and they're both stuck there for three years until the gate is ready to open again. Nep being Nep, she manages to find a way around this anyway.
• Exotic Eye Designs: The goddesses have the computer power button symbol in their eyes when they transform.
• Foregone Conclusion: Since the anime takes place during the events of Victory, both Peashy and Plutia would have to leave this dimension and go back in order to be introduced over there as well. This would also mean that Peashy would have to know barely anything about Neptune once she arrives back. However, the anime ends up retroactively explaining why Peashy insists on calling her "Neptuna" and why Neptune's specific pudding is so awesome.
• Force Feeding: Arfoire does this to IF with a couple of eggplants in episode 7 after kidnapping her and using her as a hostage to lure out Neptune. IF does not have a good experience with this, and at the end of the episode, comes to hate eggplants just as much as Neptune does.

• Funny Background Event:
  • Blink or miss it, in episode 3, Uni as Kupokitty pulls Neptune, who constantly pinned Noire, where they both became Dogoo.
  • In episode 4, Abnes becomes a punching bag for the Sisters, while IF and Compa reading a VR manual books.
  • In episode 6, Neptune chasing Peashy while IF, Compa, and Histoire discussing her guardian.
• Gamer Chick: Virtually all four main CPU girls, with Vert and Neptune being shown playing games the most in the show. In the second opening, all four of them play a game well into the night and into the next day, with Histoire getting mad at them for it.

• Go Through Me: The White Sisters shield Purple Heart from White Heart's attacks after the latter goes ballistic and accuses her of stealing the other nation's Share energy.

• Hate Plague: In Episode 10, Anonydeath uses a black mist on the Eden Soldiers and other nations' citizens that causes them to go to war with each other.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Neptune and Abnes in episode 2, when both are trying to insult the other by calling each other little girls and pointing out various things about them.
• Heroic BSoD: Neptune goes through one in episode 10 after learning that Yellow Heart is Peashy, sitting in a Troubled Fetal Position while Eden's riots overwhelm Gamindustri. After refusing Plutia's invitation to play some games given what's going on, she realizes that moping around isn't going to solve the situation either and snaps out of it.
• Heroism Motive Speech: Each of the Candidates gets different version of this.
  • Nepgear: She doesn't want to keep relying on her sister.
  • Ram, Rom: They hate Arfoire and want to beat her up, but it's also implied that they simply hated being powerless to protect their friend. Nepgear was getting curb stomped, after all.
  • Uni: She no longer cares about her inferiority complex.
• Heel–Face Turn: Yellow Heart in Episode 13. Seeing as Peashy was able to transform after her memories fully recovered, Yellow Heart was also able to help/assist Neptune as well.
• Hilarious Outtakes: One in-universe one at the end of each episode.
  • Episode 1 has Rei Ryghts handing out copies of a Nightmare Fuel inducing "explosion of art" done by her voice actress.
  • Episode 3 replaces this with Neptstation to advertise the opening's single.
  • Episode 8 has a regular episode preview instead... except it gives a joke episode title that invokes In Which a Trope Is Described.
  • Setag gets the spot for episode 9 preview, but the outtakes ended before she can say anything.
  • At the end of episode 9, Rei Ryghts reads something. When Anonydeath tells her he can't hear her, she blurts something erotic. He then asks who told her to read erotic lines out loud.
  "Wait, are you reading self-insert erotica?!"
  • Episode 10 has Plutia give Nepgear a weird looking doll, and when the latter complains that it looks different, Plutia then has a scary aura as well as a Death Glare, and asks her to take good care of it. Nepgear timidly complies.
• Hypocrite: Though it was only an outtake, Abnes, despite claiming to be the savior of little girls, doesn't help Ram and Rom when they are kidnapped by CFW Trick, even though she stumbles upon his hideout!
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The X (Y) of Z. For example, episode 2 is named "The Terrorist (Lickorrist) of Lowee" and episode 4's titled "The Resolve (Turn) of the Younger Sisters". The exception so far is episode 3, but it uses a similar structure regardless.

• I Lied: The goddesses run into Linda again in episode 8, whom they haven't seen since episode 2 after she helped Trick kidnap Ram and Rom. At first they seem ready to give her a beatdown, but Linda promises that she's a changed person. Shortly afterwards however, she is caught spiking the drinks she was serving to them, and when Plutia calmly asks why she did that, Linda explains that she's a villain and won't change so easily. This causes Plutia to transform into Iris Heart, who then spanks her so badly that Linda seems to have reformed for real, although she suffered from Dull Eyes of Unhappiness along with speaking like a robot.
• Intimate Lotion Application: In episode 8 when the girls go to the beach, Vert rubs sunscreen on Nepgear's back in a rather lewd manner, and even ends it by groping Nepgear's breasts and offering to lotion there too, but this causes Nepgear to back off blushing and stammer that she can handle the rest herself.
• In Which a Trope Is Described:
  • The joke preview for episode 8 that runs at the end of episode 7. It gives the title as:
  "The Paradise (Island) Forbidden" "...on which people will DO THINGS to other people and forget wardrobe malfunction because there might even be some tonguing and it'll be like 'Oh no, Neptune is so embarrassed~~'!"
  • The real title for episode 8, according to the same preview's voice track, is "The Stirrings (Prelude) of the Nightmare"... but the aforementioned long title was the one actually used.
• Improbable Weapon User: Compa uses a giant syringe to fight with.
• Improbably Female Cast: Virtually all of the important characters are females, and also the leaders of their various countries. In fact, the only males seen are villains, as even the civilians and soldiers shown are women.
• Innocently Insensitive: When Planeptune's shares suddenly jump up in episode 11, Neptune eagerly invites the other three CPUs to celebrate, but they all feel like she's just rubbing her success in their faces while their own shares are falling.
• Intimate Healing: When questioned on what he's doing to Rom and Ram, Trick claims he's healing them... by licking and touching them. He doesn't really convince anyone of it though.
• Irony: Nepgear and Blanc help Neptune destroy the Pong Laser by bouncing her off their weapons.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In Episode 13, after Vert tells Iris Heart that Neptune's not here and asked if they could wait a little longer, Iris Heart tells Vert that she can't risk it and that she's gotta deliver the flowers to the girls, in which Vert agrees.
  Iris Heart: You can't risk this. You need to deliver those flowers to the girls.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Iris Heart. She can show real compassion to other people, it's just that she doesn't take any bullshit from others. This becomes apparent when Neptune finally breaks down after Peashy disappeared. Iris Heart initially attack Neptune because Neptune was trying to keep this secret and overwork herself. After Neptune breaks down and becomes honest about the fact that she should have spent more time with Peashy, Iris Heart ends up giving her a big hug instead.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Plutia. While she isn't all that bright, she's one of the friendliest characters in the anime, showing that she loves and cares for her friends behind her ditziness and would protect them from any threats.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Noire's transformation sequence into Black Heart shows her doing this.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Not only does Neptune tell the audience not to pull a power cord the way Histoire did, Histoire accidentally broke the glass representing the fourth wall's camera in the first episode four minutes in.
  • 5pb announces her next song is "Dimension Tripper." The show immediately cuts to the OP, which is Dimension Tripper, and is sung by 5pb's voice actress.
• Lens Flare Censor: Parodied mercilessly, bordering invokedTake That, Audience!. The censor lights are actual sentient entities called "Mysterious Light Kelp" found in the waters of R-18 Island, and they are drawn to lewdness, body parts that need censoring. Because they physically exist, they can be blown off by strong gusts of wind, at which point it become obvious that the girls are wearing swimsuits all the time. Except Nepgear.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: Happens in episode 6 when IF and Compa see something crazy, and the Lily Rank between Nepgear and Vert gone through the roof.
• Leitmotif: Yellow Heart's theme in Victory has its anime remix.
• Loners Are Freaks:
  • When Noire complains about Neptune in the first episode, the latter comments that her constant uptightness is why she doesn't have any friends. She then tries to claim she has friends, but Neptune comments that little sisters don't really count, in Noire's case, her sister Uni.
  • This comes into play again in episode 12, after Neptune realizes that Rei's attempts to destroy their world was due to the fact that she was a huge control freak, and therefore no one liked or believed in her after a while, causing her civilization to eventually collapse.
• Male Gaze: Nepgear and Neptune's transformation in the 2nd OVA deserves a special mention as it's basically them stripping their clothes off. When the last bit of cloth that would leave them naked is removed, they're transformed.
• Marshmallow Hell: Vert does this to Nepgear at the beginning of episode 6 in an attempt to deepen their bond. Neptune gets a bit jealous when she sees them doing it too, along with Vert telling Nepgear to call her "onee-chan", or big sister.

• Medium Awareness: Neptune as she constantly breaks the fourth wall. In episode 13 in particular, she references tropes themselves.

• Missing Child: After playing with their friends, Ram and Rom wander off for just a moment only to be kidnapped by the pedophilic Trick. Needless to say, Blanc does not take it well.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Episode 3 begins as a lighthearted dinner at Leanbox where the goddesses try to get it going thanks to Vert's online addiction, along with them having goofy VR fights. By the end of the episode, the goddess have all been captured, and are being tortured by Arfoire, as Nepgear can only watch.
  • Episode 8 closes with Peashy being brainwashed and kidnapped by Rei Ryghts, before being ominously brought to Anonydeath. This is followed immediately by the peppy and happy ED sequence.
  • Episode 9 follows suit. Several of the main character are surrounded by soldiers, a possible war being declared, and Nepgear wondering if they're going to have to fight Peashy/Yellow Heart. The regular ending then starts playing.

• Mundane Made Awesome: When Peashy hits Neptune in episode 6, the screen pauses on that scene for a moment while also doing an Art Shift.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The fight scene has Purple Heart's and Noire's battle dialogue. And Ancient Dragon is also one of the first optional bosses.
  • nao's concert uses Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 opening. It is glorious.
  • The last episode starts with a reenactment of the Conquest End from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 (in where Nepgear is forced to kill her sister with the Gehaburn), only to reveal that it's All Just a Dream caused by a fever that makes all of the Candidates have a nightmare (named "Bad End Syndrome").
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Purple Heart's black dress in the beginning of episode 1 has a plunging neckline.

• No-Sell: Everyone that fights Yellow Heart doesn't seem to do any damage to her at all.

• Non-Indicative Name: Despite the removals of Mister Badd and Copypaste, Rei's anti-CPU group is still called "The Seven Sages". Then, Abnes would reveal that she isn't a part of the organization, making the group be comprised of four members (Rei herself, Anonydeath, Arfoire and Warechu) instead of the seven members they had in Victory.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Trick isn't interested in older girls, and will treat them with contempt. Rom and Ram, on the other hand...
• Oh, Crap!: Anonydeath is shocked when Iris Heart shows up inside his HQ in Episode 10.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Arfoire depowers Rei Ryghts in the last episode, just because she doesn't want anyone else destroying the CPUs before she can.

• "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: Used for the joke episode 8 preview. Purple Heart threatens to delete the save data of any viewers that don't watch the next episode.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Neptune is usually cheerful and energetic, but in Episode 9 and especially Episode 10, she becomes eerily quiet, stoic and traumatized when she's traumatically depressed and sad about Peashy being taken away and her getting kidnapped by Rei and Anonydeath. She even tried to make Peashy remember her. After Eden's defeat, however, Neptune goes back to being the trademark Genki Girl we all know and love in the following episodes. She even made up with Peashy in Episode 13.
• The Pollyanna: Ram comes off like this due to her energetic and peppy nature.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Several of the characters when they transform. Notably Black Heart's hair goes from Black to white and Green Heart's blonde hair turns light green.
• Power-Up Letdown: Nepgear's first transformation is completely useless against anything powerful. Even an untransformed Uni is stronger than her.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Although parts of first episode mirrors the beginning of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (aside from Neptune treating Nepgear much better), elements from the first two games are also incorporated as well as anime original elements.
  • In order to convince the populace of bad goddesses and need for reform, Rei Ryghts attempts to send out flyers. While the ones in the story are nicely written, the one in the Hilarious Outtakes are... well, they are described by Compa as an "explosion of art".
• Red Herring: Several of the goddesses travel to R-18 island due to hearing about a gun battery being placed there. Said gun's only purpose seems to be to shoot bubbles however. Meanwhile Rei Ryghts claims to be Peashy's mom, and takes her away before any of the other girls are aware of what's going on. However, this entire ruse ends up being a Red Herring as well, since the gun battery is holding the share amplifier for Peashy.

• Refuge in Audacity: The Beach Episode. In order:
  • You must be over 18 (hence "R-18 Island"), but the system is dodgy. It cannot recognize flat-chested as over 18, so Blanc destroys the system when it denies her.
  • You either come in nude or Stripperiffic, no exceptions. If you happen to be nude on the beach, "Mysterious Light Beams" (this is completely literal) will come and cover up your parts.

• Schizo Tech: They have contemporary technology (computers, the internet, and image boards) and science-fiction tech (the floating platforms IF and Compa travel on), but they don't have any efficient means of transportation to go fight monsters, and have to walk through the forest.

• Sdrawkcab Name: Zeige's syllables reversed is the transliteration of "Gates". The fansubs follow suit by calling her Setag.
• 7th Episode Twist: The majority of the endgame from Victory are compressed into Episodes 6 through 8. They also have a much higher meaning when you know why Peashy wants Neptune's pudding and why Plutia loves making dolls.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: The CPUs, their sisters, and their oracles clean up real well in the first episode.
• Shout-Out: The series has its own page.
• Spared By Adaptation: CFW Trick and Arfoire. Though they are defeated by the main cast still, they do not get destroyed like their video game counterparts.
• Spoiler Opening: The second opening has a Freeze-Frame Bonus that spoils Rei's HDD form as a shadow just before she is relevant. Interestingly, both Abness and Anonydeath are shown in front of her, the former of which was not relevant to the storyline in Victory and the latter being The Dragon.
• Something about a Rose: When Plutia first transforms into Iris Heart, she has a black rose held in her mouth, for some reason.

• Straw Loser: Arfoire posits that the world without Goddesses would be better because everyone would become the master of his or her own destiny. The Candidates are quick to bash this idea of her, saying that she's just jealous of the Goddesses' power. Note: the franchise never treat dependency on the Goddesses as a bad thing, but the reverse has.

• Take That!: Neptune makes fun of Noire's lax security in episode 6.
• Taking You with Me: After Rei's attempt to destroy the world is thwarted repeatedly by the heroines, she attempts one last explosion with the little bit of energy she has left to kill them all while they're weakened. However, Arfoire rescues them by stealing Rei's last crystal and destroys it using the same anti-crystal technique she tried on them earlier on.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Shortly after it seems the Dogoos are taken care of in the first episode, Neptune comments that victory is guaranteed. Before she can finish that sentence however, a large swarm of them suddenly pop up into the scene.
  • When Black Heart comments that she's cleared out the cave of monsters a short while later, an ancient dragon shows up.
  • Noire in episode 6:
  Noire: Impossible! A security breach is about as likely as being hit by someone randomly falling on you from the sky.
  Neptune: (screaming) MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! Out of the way! (Neptune then crashes into Noire)
  • Neptune misses Noire in the outtakes.
• Terror Hero: Whenever Iris Heart appears, anyone who opposes her is going to be extremely frightful of her afterwards. A noteworthy example was with Linda in the 8th episode, where after she poisons Neptune and lied about redeeming herself, Iris Heart proceeds to teach her a lesson by repeatedly whipping her until she's left as a broken shell of her former self. When Iris Heart appears again in episode 10, having suddenly transformed and landed right in front of Underling after an explosion goes off, Linda is shown to be looking very nervous, being well aware that she's the same person who tortured her, a fact that Iris Heart takes advantage of and tries to "take care" of Underling.
• Tickle Torture: Employed by the Dogoos in the first episode after they overwhelm Neptune and her friends.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: IF and Compa. Compa ends her sentences with "desu" (which she pronounces "dessOOO"), a very girly affectation. IF, on the other hand, rides a motorcycle and is a crack shot with an automatic pistol.
• Trademark Favorite Food: As seen in episode 7, as well as Victory, Neptune's favorite food is custard pudding.
• Transformation Sequence: Each Goddess has one, just like in the games, and who the Goddess is determines exactly how nude they get. Noire and Vert have very fanservice-y transformations that strip them down to underwear. Blanc and Nep on the other hand, have their entire body glowing. Then again, they would have to animate Neptune's rather drastic change in body type, which could look quite unnerving depending on how they did it, though it is anyone's guess their reasoning for doing it in Blanc's case.
• Trauma Conga Line: Neptune suffers from this in episode 9 and episode 10 because she goes through this after Peashy's been taken away, meaning that she got kidnapped and held hostage by Rei and Anonydeath. Thankfully, she breaks out of that from episodes 11-13 and went back to being the Neptune multiple people all know, love and care about. She and Peashy also made amends with each other as well.
• Troll: While Anonydeath is labeled as this, it came to Rei who was able to out-troll him. Rei was the actual contractor for Anonydeath, but he mentioned in Episode 11 that she would have to be really good to do something like this. Add this to how Rei actually acts when first confronting Neptune in the anime, and remember that she does this for much longer in Victory, and she acts as an even crazier jerk.
• True Companions: It takes the efforts of all of the goddesses in episode 12 to stop Rei from destroying their world. They are able to do it because Rei's brutal oppression of her people caused them to stop believing in her, thereby causing the collapse of her civilization Tari. Neptune/Purple Heart calls her out on this as well.
• Twinkle in the Sky: Happens to Trick after he fights Blanc in episode 2.

• Unsound Effect: In Episode 8, Iris Heart says "Boing" in Gratuitous English (at least in the Japanese version) when Linda runs right in front of her boobs.
  Boing!
• Verbal Tic: Ironically, Neptune calls out Zeige for having "biru" as one. Keeping in the theme of her character, they change this to "Bing"^note the Microsoft search engine in the dub. This can also be transliterated as either "Bill" (as in Bill Gates) or "bill" (as in M$). She talks in bills!
• Villainous Rescue: In episode 12, Arfoire saves the heroines from Rei's attempt to blow them all up. Although Neptune thanks her, Arfoire still considers them enemies.

• Vocal Evolution: Most notably Black Heart whose voice was either higher or barely different from her human form in the first three main games. The anime and PP Producing Perfection might have something to do with it.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Tari has, for some unfathomable reason, this type of gun that is able to wipe out cities.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 3 is where the fun stops and starts off the Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 plot where the four goddesses are captured by the enemy and thus the four sisters must rescue them.
  • Episode 5 gets one dropped with an unexpected character coming in: Peashy appears at the end of the episode. Episode 6 follows suit with Plutia.
  • In episode 8, the Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory plot begins when Peashy kidnapped by Rei Ryghts and Anonydeath.
  • In episode 9, the goddesses discover a new goddess, Yellow Heart. They're also shocked to find out its Peashy, and what's worse, she has no memory of them, especially Neptune.
• Wham Line: Neptune voids the friendship treaty at the end of episode 12, stating that it was no longer needed as they had become True Companions during all of the stuff they did and went through during the show.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In episode 11, White Heart attacks Purple Heart after finding out that the latter's share of Share energy was skyrocketing at the cost of all of the other cities of the other goddesses going down. She accuses the latter of stealing their Share energy. However, by episode 12, she realizes after calming down that it wasn't Neptune stealing it, but rather Rei using old Tari technology.
• Whip of Dominance: Plutia's HDD form Iris Heart was always a cold-hearted Sadist with a Dominatrix-motif since her debut game, but the animated adaptation reinforces this by turning her sword into a Whip Sword. She also can summon a riding crop when she wants to give someone a slower and kinkier form of punishment, which Linda learned about the hard way.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In episode 7, Neptune says she hates eggplants because of their smell and taste. So naturally Arfoire uses it against her later on, by kidnapping IF and Compa, and forcing Neptune to fight in an eggplant farm. Both Arfoire and Warechu get soundly beaten by Iris Heart, IF becomes afraid of eggplants as a result, and Arfoire takes care of the farm with the help of Warechu.
• Wolverine Publicity: The three Oracles that replace the Goddesses when they were kidnapped in mk2 (and MAGES.) appear only extremely briefly in the first episode (and not even then, in Chika's case) and in the last episode's credits.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Seemingly the case, as Nep gets left behind in the Victory universe in episode 13. Then subverted in quick order, by virtue of Nep invoking her rights as the main character.

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