The Cosmopolitan Prayers or CosPrayers for short is an 8-episode Magical Girl show by m.o.e. about an Ordinary High-School Student, Koto Hoshino, who gets sucked into a parallel world and is recruited by the titular team of magical girls to fight evil and free the sun goddess Amaterasu, whom Koto was accidentally tricked into sealing away.
Has two spin-offs, Hit o Nerae! and Love Love?, both of which make it clear that CosPrayers is a fictional Show Within a Show; Hit o Nerae! deals with the producing side of production, while Love Love? deals with the screenwriting/casting/directing side.
Tropes found in CosPrayers:
- Anime Chinese Girl: In and You have this design in CosPrayer mode, complete with Odango.
- Barrier Warrior: Priscilla's specialty is shields, which she creates with her sash.
- Black Blood: The giants in the first episode bleed purple blood when struck by Scarlet's blade.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Takitsu is a white-haired girl with red eyes who dresses all in black, which probably should have tipped off the heroes that she's secretly evil.
- Crucified Hero Shot: In Episode 6, the girls all get bound to crosses as part of a weird ritual. One of them even gets whipped by her love interest so hard that her clothes tear off.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The dark knight is actually the girls' mentor in disguise, and the dark towers are there for everyone's protection.
- Frilly Upgrade: When the girls do a finishing move, they power up to a slightly fancier version of their usual outfit. Scarlett gets trim on her wimple and a longer skirt, Remi gets a face veil and a bigger waist-bow, etc. They all get another much foofier Frilly Upgrade in the final episode.
- Gainax Ending: The girls defeat the villain by singing in unison. Rainbows are also involved.
- Gratuitous English: The ending theme uses several English lyrics at the start of certain verses, like "go be myself" and "promise", with improper pronunciation for the former.
- In the Name of the Moon: Koto makes a speech of this sort while posing against a flaming background."Goodbye, evil spirits! Goodbye, sorrow! Miko Fighter Mizusu! I will purify your soul!"
- Meaningful Name: All of the girls' Magical Girl names are references to their cultural themes: Miko has a Japanese theme, Sister is a reference to European nuns, Dian = (American) Indian, Rabian = Arabian, and Sari is East Indian.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Koto gets tricked into performing a ceremony, which releases darkness in various places in Japan and seals Amaterasu in all towers. Crus later reveals that Amaterasu doesn't exist.
- Paper Talisman: In and Yon can throw paper talismans that explode.
- Pun-Based Title: The title is a pun on "cosplayer."
- The Reveal: Takitsu is the villain and she's been manipulating the heroes to help her all along. Destroying the dark towers is what will free her.
- Spin-Off: Hit o Nerae! and Love Love?, both of which make it clear that CosPrayers is a fictional TV show; Hit o Nerae! deals with the producing side of production, while Love Love? deals with the screenwriting/casting/directing side.
- Sword Beam: Koto cuts the ground with her sword, causing a red wave to fly.
- Tentacle Rope: Koto gets tied up and suspended upside down by the slimy tongue-tentacles of one Monster of the Week. She's wearing nothing but a leotard when this happens, and the camera thoughtfully provides several close-up shots of her crotch and tentacle-bound thighs.
- Transformation Sequence: Averted; unusually for a Magical Girl show, the girls transform instantaneously with just a flash of light.
- Villainous Princess: Princess Takitsu, seemingly the benevolent daughter of Amaterasu, is actually an Omnicidal Maniac goddess.
- Virgin Power: Only pure-hearted virgins can be CosPrayers.
- Visual Innuendo: A mirror that displays Takitsu rises from a beam of light, located right below Koto's crotch.
Tropes found in Love Love?:
- Dye Hard: In-Universe. Youko is a redhead, but she turns blonde for her character in "Cos-Prayers".
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Hikaru, who grew up with 6 older brothers.
- Older Than They Look: Sayaka. Her short height and childish behavior commonly lead people to believe she is younger than her actual age of 14.
- Primal Fear: Miku has a fear of heights which frequently causes problems during stunts.
- Secret-Keeper: Naoto is the 17-year-old script writer of the fictional children's TV show Cosprayers, although apparently only the show's producer, Mitsuki Ikita, is aware of this. To the rest of the cast he is simply the Making Of camera man. It is later revealed that the whole cast had secretly known that Naoto was the script writer from that start.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Natsumi is under the belief that she was only enlisted for her looks and that her acting is of poor quality.
Tropes found in Hit wo Nerae!:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Mitsuki's little brother plays repetitive pranks on his older sister Ikita by fliping up her skirt to reveal her printed panties to let the public see how childish she is and ridicule her.
- Fangirl: Mitsuki is a fan of the detective movie genre. She was planning to work on the third installment of the detective genre film, "The Rowdy Detective". The film is canceled, and she suddenly finds herself chosen to be the assistant producer of a new film.
- Older Than They Look: Mitsuki is often mistaken for a grade schooler due to her height and appearance.
- The Prankster: Mitsuki's little brother and Sayaka that acts childish, sometimes lifting the skirts of her fellow cast members to reveal their panties.
- Unknown Rival: Kenjirou. He was originally intended to be the producer for the new film but decides to take a break. He watches Ikita's failures and comments on them throughout. As a result, Ikita hates him, but he is not aware of this fact.
