Clockwise from top-left: Rinko, Aoi, Sapphie, Garnet, Minami, Diana and Ruby.
The first anime series of the Jewelpet franchise, which started airing in April 2009.
Set in the fictional city of Takaragaseki, the main heroine, Rinko Kougyoku, meets Ruby when the latter is tasked by the Gods to find the Jewelpets who fell in the human world. Rinko and her friends decide to help her, while stopping the evil Jewelpet Diana from doing the same. This season spends more time on the human world than other seasons.
Tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Jewel Stick is fairly well done CG, but all the more obvious among the low budget 2D animation.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Italian opening
. Every other dub just dubbed the Japanese songs. - Artificial Riverbank: The most famous scene of the first series is probably the first time Ruby causes an explosion and sends everyone flying down a riverbank. A variation of the scene featuring only her also appears in the OP.
- Battle of the Bands: In the first series, the Jewel Game where Kris is betted is a music contest between Dian and Kris (who dance to a rap tune) vs. the Mascot Trio and the staff of the Strawberry Cafe (who sing "Strawberry Time").
- Beach Episode: Episode 20.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Rinko is hit with this hard when Dian learns about her wish for a prince to come and sweep her off her feet and disguises himself as the human prince, Andy, and very quickly wins Rinko over, despite her friends protests that she stay away from him. Long story short, she ends up hypnotized, kidnapped and forced to take part in a wedding where she hands over the Jewel Stick, ultimately resulting in Dian becoming corrupted and Rinko’s true love, Akira, Taken for Granite right in front of her eyes.
- Betty and Veronica: Rinko has Akira as the Betty and Andy as the Veronica.
- Brainwashed Bride: When Prince Andy (actually Dian in disguise) proposes to Rinko, and she says "yes," he magically renders her unconscious and kidnaps her, proceeding with the wedding. He then conducts a ritual during the wedding to take the Jewel Stick from Rinko.
- Christmas Episode: Episode 38.
- Colony Drop: Episode 44 is about Dian's plan to use Alex's powers to summon an asteroid and destroy the world.
- Conveniently Seated: All the major characters sit at the back of the class presumably so the rest of their classmates don't have to be drawn.
- Credits Running Sequence: Half of the ED is Rinko walking through a Deranged Animation background and being joined by Minami, Aoi and their Jewelpets.
- Cub Cues Protective Parent: In episode 10, the Phantom Herb Thieves try to steal a tiger cub to sell it. The parent appears and it doesn't seem to support their idea.
- Dawn of an Era: The end. After thousands of years of not knowing of each other's existence, the human world and Jewel Land become fully connected and look forward to a future where they work together. Quite possibly the most positive ending of any Jewelpet season.
- Descending Ceiling: Episode 25, the gang walks into a room in Diana's lair and the ceiling starts lowering. Ruby's explosions save the day by opening a hole in a wall.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In Episode 28, a radio plays the theme song.
- Dodgeball Is Hell: The Jewel Game that stakes Lapis is a game of dodgeball where the impact of the ball is powered by insults. King is chosen to play in it because he's impervious to insults... except, as it turns out, Lapis'. This is the first Jewel Game where Rinko and co. lose.
- Dream Episode: The New Year's episode is mostly set in various characters' dreams. This is due to the Japanese belief that whatever you dream on that day affects your luck for the rest of the year.
- Dream Within a Dream: A variation of this by having Rinko wake up from her dream while being in King's dream.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Jewelpets introduce themselves with the full names of their jewels, and later request to be called by their nickname, which is the name they're known by officially (e.g. Rald is introduced as Emerald, and King as Onyx).
- And, of course, there's no Jewelina; instead there are four goddesses with specialized instead of omnipotent powers.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After a long battle with Dian where humanity was at stake, he and Diana reform and humans and Jewelpets are allowed to live together in harmony and mutual support.
- Emoticon: Episode titles sometimes have this. Examples: episode 30 "Kuru Kuru (@_@) - Day When Sushi Belt Stood Still" and episode 3 "Bye Bye (>_<) - Arisugawa-san".
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Big Bad Dian lives in a freezing area, despite the fact that he hates cold.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Episode 41, between Rinko and Andy.
- Feud Episode: Rinko and Ruby get into an episode-long fight when the latter wets the former's bed in episode 23.
- Flying Broomstick: Almost all the Jewelpets get around on flying brooms.
- Tour, Diana and Dian have personalized broomsticks. Diana's is pink, Tour's is gray and Dian has a pimping gold one that turns into a dragon.
- Rinko, Minami and Aoi also ride brooms when they go to Jewel Land in episode 14.
- Forced Transformation: In episode 32, Rinko's mother Sayuri Kougyoku is transformed into a fishcake by Diana the cat.
- Gladiator Games: The Jewel Games apparently used to be this before they were forbidden. When Dian revives them, they take on various, non-violent forms.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The focus is on collecting all the Jewelpets. The Jewel Game where Amelie is bet also features this on a smaller scale, as the task is to collect more runaway babies than the opponent.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Episode 46 has Rinko and Diana, who're stuck in Dian's prison, making sweets for Valentine's Day.
- Gratuitous English: The Jewel Pocketbook has written on its cover, "Eyes of jewels that shine, glittering with luck and good fortune."
- Great Offscreen War: Dian's rebellion, which serves as his and Diana's backstory, and how the Four Majos stopped it.
- How We Got Here: Episode 10 starts with all the characters apparently lost in a jungle, with Ruby enjoying herself in a field of flowers. Ruby notices it and remarks to the audience that they need to step back a little in the story.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Ultimately, the fight against Dark Dian boils down to ridding Dian of the influence of Dark Magic.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Keigo Tatewaki (early 20's) with Rinko and friends (14).
- Interspecies Romance: King, a dog, loves Lapis, a cat, who comes to return his feelings near the end.
- Kimodameshi: Episode 18.
- Love Triangle: Akira-Rinko-Andy/Dian.
- Made of Explodium: Ruby's magic causes explosions when cast. She does get it right sometimes.
- Magical Incantation: Puri Puri Pururin Prism! Open! Jewel Heart!, Puri Puri Prism Jewelrhythm! (Jewel name) Jewel Flash!, Puripuru Puropuru Puriphony! -Jewelpet Name- Jewel Return! and Dark Dark! (Jewel name) Eyes Power!
- Masquerade: Human governments are working to keep humanity in the dark about Jewel Land all the magical stuff. It's why Takki is dispatched to keep an eye on Rinko and co.. It doesn't work at all and they've more or less given up by episode 11.
- Meido: The main cast, sans Aoi, wear this in episode 7.
- Monster of the Week / Victim of the Week: The first half of the series has a formula where Rinko and co. find someone with a quirk or a problem (victim), and that someone awakens a Jewelpet (monster). Later we have the Jewel Eight arc which drops the victim aspect. Do note that not all episodes used this.
- Monster of the Aesop: The Jewelpets are a benign variation on this trope, responding to people who are lacking in the virtue they represent and helping them overcome their weakness.
- Ruby, the Jewelpet of Courage, appears to Rinko because she is shy and afraid to make a speech in front of the whole school.
- Garnet, of Love, appears to Minami because of her difficulty in declaring her feelings to Hisashi.
- Sapphie, of Friendship, appears to the lonely Aoi and helps her realize where her true friends are.
- King, of Health, appears to Genshiro, who suffers extremely from old injuries but tries to hide it.
- Kaiya, of Independence, helps Mint realize that she does not have to take crap from Diana and that she can forge her own path.
- Mood Whiplash: Episode 47 had this. Though it begins as a riot on protecting Rinko from Dian/Andy at first became a serious kick in the balls moment. After the dating scene, Rinko fell in a trance due to Dian's magic and her friends finally knew Andy is Dian. Worse of all, she got taken away from her friends, crushing both Nanase and Ruby's spirits.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In episode 3, Sapphie casts her friendship spell on Ewan Backgregor, prompting him to loudly declare Aoi as his best friend.
- No Romantic Resolution: Minami / Hisashi (Hisashi never learns of Minami's feelings), Aoi / Naoto (love each other but suffer from Twice Shy), Ruby / Tour (Tour's feelings for Ruby are never made clear).
- Potty Failure: In episode 23, Ruby wets Rinko's bed. Rinko gets mad at her, and Ruby retaliates with telling everybody that she also wets the bed regularly. They stay mad for the rest of the episode.
- Running Gag: Ruby's exploding magic and Tatewaki's name getting constantly mispronounced.
- Saving Christmas: Episode 38. Dian brainwashes Io and decides to ruin Christmas by stealing the presents from Santa. You know what the heroes have to do.
- School Festival: Episode 31 has a culture festival going on at Rinko's school.
- Serious Business: In episode 44, Rinko and co. have to win a Jewel Game of kick the can, or else the world gets destroyed by a meteor.
- Shipper on Deck: Ruby and Nephrite are rightfully convinced that Rinko and Akira are meant for each other, despite their protests.
- Ship Tease: Tatewaki and Flora. Mostly it's the scene where Flora pleads with him to not confront Dian.
- Tatewaki and Rinko also had their moments. Akira even briefly looks at him as a rival in love.
- Sage's blushing when Mint abuses him.
- Snowlems: Type III. Dian's Elite Mooks that guard his ice fortress consist of these.
- The Song Remains the Same: The French dub didn't dub "Strawberry Time". Instead it used subtitles.
- Storming the Castle: Episodes 25-26, wherein the gang invades Diana's bigger-inside lair.
- Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats: The first series starts out with the Jewelpets arriving in the human world and the government doing everything it can to conceal them from the public. But as it quickly turns out, neither humans or Jewelpets see what the big deal is, so this gets quickly dropped through a press conference in episode 11.
- Total Eclipse of the Plot: Episode 43 is about a lunar eclipse.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Seems to be played straight at first, but episode 11 explains that Raku Majo cast a spell on Takaragaseki which causes the population to accept Jewelpets without question. However, the spell is only active in Takaragaseki, so there's trouble when a cursed Takki leaks the secret to the press. He implausibly solves the problem by appealing to the good will of the mass media not to reveal the existence of Jewelpets to the world.
- Valentine's Day Episode: Episode 46 pulls this off despite the busy plot by having Rinko and Diana bond in prison by making chocolate for their love interests.
- Versus Title: Episode 22 is titled "Bachi Bachi☆ Rinko VS Akira".
- Wacky Racing: Episode 34 (one of the Jewel Games).
- Wham Episode: Episode 51. Dian turning into a hideous monster not even the legendary Jewelpet Opal could defeat.
