"Could you even imagine a girl falling from the sky? Well, it might be a good way to start off a movie or a manga. It's a prologue to something mysterious and special. The main character turns into a hero or something and starts a great adventure with that girl. But really wishing for such a thing would be foolish... because there's no way a girl like that would be normal. Being dragged into an unusual world and made into a hero... I bet if that happened in reality, it'd be dangerous and a pain in the ass. That's why I, Touyama Kinji, don't need to encounter a girl falling from the sky."
— Touyama Kinji, Aria the Scarlet Ammo
Many great adventures begin with a surprising encounter, often with a beautiful and mysterious girl. Sometimes the hero runs into her. Sometimes he finds her. And sometimes she descends to him like a gift of the gods. This in particular adds a certain immediate sense that something big is going to happen.
This descent can take many forms. Sometimes she falls safely into the arms of the main character, sometimes she lands nearby, and sometimes she crashes into him like a ton of bricks. The cause similarly can vary broadly. Maybe they were flying. Maybe they literally came from the heavens, Maybe they're lethally clumsy and fell from a building/platform. Or maybe they're just really, really good at jumping.
Wherever she comes from, this girl acts as the trigger for all sorts of adventure to come and often a guide or key to said events. It's an incredibly unusual and surprising event that simply could not be normal. Closely related to Dramatic High Perching, only rather than staying in a high location to create a cool/intimidating impression, one descends from these heights to give the impression of a mysterious origin. The sky has long been associated with mystery and wonders. This is where one will find a mystical Floating Continent, the source of almost any kind of alien visitors, and even Heaven itself. Even when clearly not the case, the appearance of a character to have come from above can still suggest this same wonder and mystery.
Related though not always coincident with Falling into His Arms and Crash-Into Hello, depending on how she falls and how close the hero is at that moment. Not to be confused with Fallen Angel.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Aria the Scarlet Ammo, the story starts with the reluctant Butei Kinji Touyama being chased on a bike set to explode if he slows down when a girl named Aria sweeps down on a parachute and snatches him off and away from the threat. She then forces him to become her partner in her quest to take down a plethora of criminals with mysterious powers and ultimately face off against a global conglomerate of supervillains.
- In the manga Aventura, a minor example can be found at the beginning. Lewin Randit is in the library searching for a way to fix his sword when a girl named Soela falls from several stories up, landing straight in his arms and bringing him crashing down the stairs. This becomes his first encounter with the magic studies branch of his school, and the beginning of all kinds of adventures as he enters this new branch, awakens the spirit of his sword, and begins to learn of his own unique power.
- The central plot of Castle in the Sky begins when Sheeta performs a Leap of Faith to escape her captors and descends safely down to the ground level thanks to her blue amulet, which is when Pazu meets her.
- A Certain Magical Index kicks off when the eponymous Index, fleeing unknown pursuers, falls off a roof and lands on the balcony of Touma's apartment.
- Dragon Goes House-Hunting: Played for Laughs in Nell's A Day in the Limelight chapter, where her father reveals that he fell in love with his wife (Nell's mother) after she fell into him during their marriage interview. No detail is given about how she managed to get up there in the first place, or how the subsequent encounter went.
Nell: Hold up! Why did she fall out of the sky?
- Dream Eater Merry: Yumeji's first encounter with Merry involves her falling out of a tree onto him.
- In the manga Edens Bowy, Jorne is just an average farm boy until one night a mysterious girl named Elississ falls from the sky and crashes straight through the roof to land next to him. He's barely able to get a grip on this before powerful pursuers from the magic floating country of Eden appear to capture her, and she awakens his power as a God Hunter.
- Happy World! starts out with the hero dying and an angelic maiden descending from heaven to restore his life and protect him from his misfortune from then on. In an instant his life is transformed from an endless stream of impossibly bad luck to one filled with magic and the supernatural.
- In Heaven's Lost Property, Tomoki has never had or wanted anything but simple peace in his simple little village. Then one day he's forced by his eccentric upperclassman to help investigate a "hole in the sky", from which the mysterious "angeloid" Icarus falls, inextricably binding Tomoki's life to the mysterious, technologically-advanced world of Synapse.
- Invoked by Rikka in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, who lives in the apartment above the main character and makes her entrance via rope.
- In the manga Love Rush, Reiji's situation (a genetic mutation resulting in women seeing their ideal man when they look at him) goes from bad to worse when Kokoro flies down from heaven on his eighteenth birthday, heralding the imminent arrival of all kinds of supernatural women looking to marry him and inspiring him to actually act on his own feelings toward his Childhood Friend. Doubled down on when later it's revealed that Reiji's life was also changed long ago when a child Kokoro fell from the sky while learning to fly.
- In My Mental Choices Are... Kanade's connection with God and the story proper begin with a literal angel falling from heaven onto him.
- Lampshaded in the anime Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma, where teacher Nobunaga breaks a vessel and a girl appears above and falls into his arm, which he immediately compares to the trope and insists means she's to be his girlfriend/bride.
- Parodied in Omae O Otaku Ni Shiteyaru Kara Ore O Riajuu Ni Shitekure. Shortly after discussing the prevalence of this trope in light novels and manga, a strangely-dressed girl with silver hair and red eyes falls on Naoki, stares at him without speaking, and runs away. The next day he wonders if the "beautiful alien girl" was just a dream... only to discover that she was just a cosplayer who was embarrassed at being seen. She never becomes more than a supporting character.
- Photon: Keyne Aqua's starship is damaged by the villain, and falls to ground on "Sandy Planet," which looks at lot like Earth. Later, The Hero Photon tumbles into a canyon, then into a sinkhole created by Keyne's ship's impact. Photon ultimately discovers Keyne reposed in her "rejuvenating chamber," which for Photon is a Meet Cute; for Keyne, who awakens to this odd li'l fellow in her bed ... not so much.
- Princess Tutu: Inverted, with the male Mytho as the beautiful and mysterious one and female Duck/Tutu as the hero.
- In the first episode, while Duck already knows Mytho as her crush, when Mytho falls out of a window while Duck is watching, she runs to him and is transformed for the first time into Princess Tutu. She catches him with a swirling cloud of flowers before floating down to the ground. This first encounter between Tutu and Mytho triggers the rest of the plot to start moving.
- At the beginning of the second season, an Ironic Echo of the above occurs. Mytho, now under the influence of evil raven's blood, purposely jumps out the window to frame Fakir, and Duck once again becomes Tutu and catches him. While this triggers the plot of the second season the same way as the first, Mytho is not much of an angel at this point.
- Referenced in the OVA of Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren't they?, where the story begins with a tanuki girl fleeing from pursuers running straight off a cliff and falling into the main character's arms. Kasukabe goes so far as to quote Pazu's line from Castle in the Sky.
- At the start of the Black Moon Arc of Sailor Moon (both manga and anime), just as Usagi and Mamoru are about to kiss, a small pink-haired girl (Chibiusa) falls out of the sky (later revealed to be a portal from the future) and lands in Mamoru's arms, before pointing a gun at Usagi and demanding her Silver Crystal. Certainly kicks off the arc in a memorable way.
- In Sekirei, Minato's life had always been normal and peaceful, albeit underwhelming as he consistently fails to enter college. Then one day the sekirei Musubi comes plummeting down on him from above after an immense jump. In an instant Minato is swept up in a battle between these strange beings he'd never even heard of before, and is then made an Ashikabi, a special person who gathers, controls and provides power for many Sekirei in an epic battle of superpowered beauties and their masters.
- In There, Beyond the Beyond, 12-year-old Futaba's life is forever changed when Kiara, a Flower of the Beyond appears from a portal in the sky, and both are immediately pursued by evil wizards seeking to use Kiara's powers. They manage to escape the pursuers by portaling to Kiara's world, and so the adventure begins.
- This Ugly Yet Beautiful World starts with a huge shooting star descending from the sky, flying momentarily next to the heroes and then splitting into two lights that crash in the forest. Each light becomes a girl, whose presence threatens the world and grants the heroes amazing powers.
Fan Works
- In Everqueen, during Isha's arrival on Terra, she materialises well above the surface.
Films — Animation
- The Trope Codifier would likely be Castle in the Sky by Studio Ghibli. Pazu was just an average boy living an average life working in a mining town. Then a strange girl came floating down from the sky, bringing with her pursuing sky pirates, mysteries of an ancient lost city, and all kinds of adventure.
Films — Live-Action
- The Fifth Element: Korben Dallas gets pulled into the adventure when Leeloo (who's just escaped from the lab that recreated her) dives from a skyscraper ledge and lands in Dallas's cab.
- Mary Poppins: The plot kicks off as the titular Magical Nanny descends from the sky with her umbrella to bring fun and wonder to the Banks household. It happens again in the sequel, Mary Poppins Returns.
- The plot of Stardust begins with a young man finding a literal fallen star in the form of a girl.
- Wonder Woman (2017): WWI American pilot Steve Trevor falls into Themyscira and is rescued by Diana, starting her curiosity for knowing the outside world.
Live-Action TV
- Crash Landing on You: Heroine Se-ri and love interest Jeong-hyuk are introduced after Se-ri is blown into North Korean territory after a paragliding accident and Jeong-hyuk finds her. They converse for a bit while she is stranded in a tree, and when he orders her to come down, she lands in his arms. Cue a scramble to get her out of the country as the two fall in love.
Manhua
- In Fox Spirit Matchmaker, Bai Yuechu's story kicks off when Susu crashes through the ceiling onto him.
Video Games
- A plot point in Bravely Default, with the added twist that the girl in question is mistaken for an angel when she isn't one.
- In Diablo III, the story opens with the hero going to investigate a falling star that crashed from above, which turns out to have been an actual angel fallen from heaven.
- In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby's adventure begins when Ribbon, a citizen of Ripple Planet, falls from the sky.
- In Prince of Persia, this is how Prince meets Elika. Doubles as an Establishing Character Moment, as Prince's first response to a strange woman falling on him is to smile and say "Hi".
