Manga / Good Luck Girl!

aka: Binbo Gami Ga

Ichiko Sakura is a sixteen-year-old high school girl and the "princess" of Butsume High School: smart, strong, beautiful, wealthy, talented in just about any skill, and even blessed with a great rack. Naturally her abnormally good fortune is cause for concern among the gods: Ichiko is unknowingly absorbing the "happiness energy" of everyone and everything around her — threatening to accidentally break the world's karmic balance. They decide to dispatch Momiji, goddess of poverty and misfortune, to Ichiko's place in order to steal her power before it causes more havoc.

Unfortunately, Ichiko becomes quickly aware of Momiji's mission (the fact that she was openly threatening to suck her luck out with a giant hypodermic needle also helps), and not even Momiji's divine powers can save her from Ichiko's infectious luck, even as the world constantly finds ways to help Ichiko escape. Even so, Momiji won't stop until she accomplishes her mission, while Ichiko tries her darndest to send Momiji packing, and everybody else finds themselves thrown into either side of this epic battle between fortune and misfortune personified.

Good Luck Girl (JP: Binbougami ga! ^note lit. "You Poverty God!") is a comedy manga written and illustrated by Yoshiaki Sukeno for Jump Square, which was serialized from June 4, 2008 to July 4, 2013 and compiled into 16 volumes. It received an Animated Adaptation by Sunrise (with direction by Yoichi Fujita, the same one behind Gintama, and musical score by Masashi Hamauzu of Final Fantasy X and XIII fame) in the summer of 2012. Funimation is currently streaming episodes of the series on its website and released it in November 2013.

The mangaka later went on to make Twin Star Exorcists.

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This work contains examples of:

• A-Cup Angst: It's easier to list who isn't bothered by their chest size than the opposite, given Buxom Beauty Standard is the law of the land in this manga:
  • Momiji is none too pleased about being flat-chested, made worse by the fact that her target is incredibly stacked.
  • Keita's eldest sister Rika is also this, and her complex only increases whenever her siblings mention Ichiko.
  • Relative to her size as a giant, Yamabuki is this too. Momiji enjoys pointing this out to bug her.
  • Nadeshiko as well. She straight up orders a boob job when Keita says he'd prefer any breast size other than perfectly flat (which she is).
  • Inverted on exactly two occasions; once, when Ichiko gets embarrassed from having her chest get to the point where it pops a button off right in front of her crush, and Natsume in general, who despises her large chest and never misses a chance to complain about it.
• The Ace: By virtue of being Born Lucky, Ichiko is the best at everything she tries.
• Adapted Out: Nadeshiko had more presence in the manga but is barely in the anime at all, relegated to some background appearances. Lampshaded by the Once an Episode ending "Oh, Nadeshiko!" where she quickly points out her background cameos before the next episode preview.
• All Men Are Perverts: Aside from exceptions like Keita and a few minor male characters, this trope is very much in effect.
• Ambiguous Gender: Author's notes for Sekienmaru leave it vague as to which gender they belong to. The name is masculine, the appearance is not. Rika treats Sekienmaru like a girl that wears boys clothes, despite their embarrassment about female clothing.
• Anime Accent Absence: Double Subverted by Bobby, who has an American accent and poor grammar... although in his case it's really an affectation to get sympathy from native Japanese.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Two from Momiji to Ichiko in Chapter 12 of the manga, when Ranmaru is trapped under the wreckage of the old school building
    Momiji: Hmm, this is surprising...Are you possibly...afraid to be close to other people?
    Ichiko: Who ever said that, you misfortune god!!! Besides, the only person important to me is Suwano—
    Momiji: But Suwano-san isn't here anymore, is he!?
  • More questions come for Ichiko in Chapter 13:
    Ranmaru: Why do you keep pushing people away? Did something happen in the past?
    Ranmaru: Then why did you show me what happened...your past! Isn't it because you don't want to go through those feelings again?! Isn't it because you don't wanna be like that bitch Kurumi?!
• The Artifact: Momiji being there at all by the later volumes. She was originally sent there to stop Ichiko's enormous flow of good luck from interfering with the rest of the town, and to get her to share her fortune energy with others instead of hogging it for herself. After Ichiko gets her restraining pendant and experiences enough development for her to spread her fortune around willingly, Momiji has no further business being there than to freeload.
• Art Shift:
  • The character designs frequently flip to that of another series, most commonly making normally cute girls look like the ultra masculine males of Manga/Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • From three different volumes: Ichiko, Momiji, and Yamabuki are surprised.◊
• Bathtub Bonding: Momiji forces Ichiko and Keita to take a bath together once after turning Keita's bathroom into a hot spring in the middle of a snow mountain.
• Battle Butler:
  • Via flashbacks, it appears that Suwano used to be one, and also taught Ichiko his skills.
  • Nadeshiko's butler, Shinobu.
• Beautiful All Along: Momiji usually goes around like a hobo (justifiable with her position). When she finally cleans up however... damn.
• Big Ball of Violence: Momiji and Ichiko fighting turns into this in chapter 33 of the manga.
• Big-Breast Pride: Ichiko views her F-cup breasts as another benefit of her abnormally high luck. She even views it an a compliment whenever people try to make fun of her large breasts.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: In Episode 5's "This Week's Nadeshiko-ga", in retaliation for her airtime count per episode dwindling to one scene last episode, Nadeshiko breaks out into a rant:
  They [the animators] say, colleague to colleague, "Why is this girl here when she doesn't even appear in the manga?" Those pen-pushing plebs working on this show can all go to hell!
  • Apparently the animators weren't pleased, so her skit on Episode 6 got cancelled due to... time constraints.
  • In the final arc, Ikari gives out some references to various Jump manga. Ichiko and Momiji are quick to call him lame for being a fan of the magazine at all.
• Biting the Handkerchief: Nadeshiko frequently does this, due to her over-the-top melodramatic style.
• Blessed with Suck: Good fortune energy is not necessarily a good thing: If your luck is too good, you never learn good sense and just burn through your luck with foolish decision making. Further, without bad luck to balance it it's likely you'll never properly learn empathy, so you'll be all alone, quite possibly when you need the help the most. In summary, with an imbalance between fortune and misfortune, you're either completely broke with horrible luck or lonely, cruel and with poor sense with good luck.
• Bodyguard Legacy: Nadeshiko Adenokouji has this relationship with her butler Shinobu. Shinobu's family has served the Adenokouji for generations, with each member assigned to a given person, Shinobu ending up with Nadeshiko since childhood. He's also tasked with eliminating threats behind her back to ensure her safety.
• Born Lucky: Ichiko was born with a very high luck quotient, so much that it actually brings misery to those close to her. Momiji is sent to balance out her insanely good luck.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Repeatedly invoked throughout the manga, with various characters referring to Ichiko (directly or indirectly) as the main character.
• Barefoot Poverty: Part of Momiji's bum guise is wearing only one shoe, leaving her left foot bare, barring the times she wears disguises or takes the one shoe off to go completely barefoot. One wonders how uncomfortable she must be walking around with off-balance steps.
• Call-Back: In Episode 4, Momiji delegates to Momo'o the task of stealing Ichiko's fortune. Kumagai retorts by reminding her of her vow at the end of Episode 2 to personally deal with Ichiko.
• Cerebus Syndrome:
  • The final two episodes are dark for a gag series, which covers Momiji losing her powers, genuinely befriending Ichiko, and nearly getting wiped from existence.
  • The story stops being pure comedy with occasional sad moments the minute Tanpopo rears her head. From then on, there's a lot more action and a lot more drama incorporated, but it's still overall lighthearted.
• Cherry Blossoms: When Tsuwabuki confesses to Ichiko, the cherry trees behind her bursts into full bloom, even though it's November.
• Chekhov's Gun: The enormous dog form Momo'o takes in his flashback chapter comes in handy come chapter 48, where he uses it to distract Suzuhikohime.
• Chick Magnet:
  • Keita, just by being himself, manages to snag the affections of three girls. Alas, he's Oblivious to Love.
  • While Ranmaru is clearly in love with Keita, she herself has attracted quite a number of girls, including one minor character who hates Ichiko.
• Children Do the Housework: The five Tsuwabuki siblings were abandoned by their parents. The eldest daughter, Rika, is in charge of the domestic tasks such as cleaning, cooking and laundry while her older brother Keita works multiple jobs to earn money for the family.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Chapter 6's title. "As Thanks She'll [XXX] You And [XXX] Your [XXX] As You Shiver In [XXX] You'll [XXX] Until Morning."
• Cluster F-Bomb: In the original manga and sub, both Ichiko and Momiji drop a "fuck" in practically every other sentence, especially around each other.

• Combat Sadomasochist: When it involves a woman, Inugami can go into this, especially because it helps him transform. He also has a Super Mode when he becomes a sadist. Works against him when he fights Ranmaru; he felt a little too much pleasure after being kicked off a highway, preventing him from attacking until he felt pain again. Ranmaru, on the other hand, couldn't bring herself to hurt an adorable dog.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Courtesy of Ichiko and Momiji's squabbles.
• Compliment Backfire: A small moment in the epilogue had Natsume come to Chisha's defense and chastise the rest of the group for making fun of the latter's small chest. The way she goes about this is by making sure to emphasize that Chisa's flat-chested every other word, and only at the end of the sentence calling her bust size cute.

• Cooking Duel: Between Ichiko and Momiji, of course, and they both mess up trying to make stew, with Ichiko's dish destroying their judge, Kuroyuri.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Nadeshiko's attempt to trap Ichiko involved dropping her down a hole and forcing her to eat a certain number of dishes before she can reach the surface. Ranmaru wasn't so lucky.
• Cultural Cross-Reference: In episode three of the anime, Ichiko walks past a "Quick-E-Mart," a reference to the Kwik-E-Mart from The Simpsons.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Misfortune gods by their very nature sound like something negative, but in truth they're supposed to show humans that even during hard times there can still be happiness to be found in human bonds. Without misfortune, there is no empathy. If you look at what Ichiko's life has been like you'll see that despite all her amazing luck and talent she had no family, no friends and no happiness. When does she start opening up to people? When a deity representing bad luck manifests to make things a pain for her. The bond between Momiji and Ichiko makes Yamabuki start to consider making Momiji her replacement.
• Dirty Old Man: Suwano shows shades of this. When Ichiko orders him to drive out an unconscious Momiji (then in a nurse outfit) after a failed attempt to suck her luck out, he has quite an interesting comment...
  Suwano: "Your friends sure have quite interesting hobbies."
  Ichiko: "Don't get any ideas, you old creep!"
  • He also drives Momiji to what looks like a makeout point before bothering to ask where she actually wants to go.

• Disabled Deity: Misfortune gods, like Momiji and Kuroyuri.
• Divine Ranks: Momiji is just a normal misfortune goddess, albeit one with an unusual amount of power. She answers to Yamabuki and possibly some other middle management types like Chisha. Yamabuki is the head misfortune goddess, but herself answers to the former head goddess, who is the head of the clan. Somewhere wayyyy above them are the gods people would actually be more familiar with like Izanagi, but the entire plot line of the story is almost certainly far beneath their notice.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Momiji gets melted cheese all over her face it's drawn to look like a more...adult substance.
• Don't Try This at Home: In Episode 4, Bobby says this word for word (with a sign below) as he stares at Momiji giving Momo'o a drink of hot water straight out of a white-hot kettle.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Momiji tries to use this trope to her advantage in Chapter 6 by egging on a nerdy guy to protect Ichiko. It backfires, because the guy comes to fall in love with Momiji, because she was always by his side cheering him on...Or maybe not, since Ichiko shows that she is hurt by the fact that he fell in love with Momiji.

• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Momiji has a habit of eating Ichiko's meals. The first time she does this is when she helps herself to Ichiko's birthday cake while explaining how other people are affected by Ichiko absorbing their happiness energy.
• Enemy Mine: Ichiko and Momiji form an "enemy mine" alliance against Yamabuki in Chapters 27-28.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Ranmaru is extremely popular with girls, even when she makes no attempt to hide her gender. Akane, a minor returning character develops a major crush on her.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Arguably, Momiji has one in Tanpopo. Both try to fix the problem of Ichiko having extraordinary good luck and both are pretty different from the standard god of their alignment (the former a misfortune god, the latter a fortune god), but while Momiji is usually lazy, tries to focus her plans of attack on Ichiko alone and genuinely wishes not to harm innocent bystanders, Tanpopo is very driven, focuses primarily on attacking Ichiko's friends and has no compunctions of doing things such as letting Sorata be hit by a motorbike or threatening to kill Ranmaru and Nadeshiko in horrible ways if Ichiko doesn't surrender to her if it means achieving her goal.
  • The second half of the series has Ikari for Keita. Like Keita, he was born in unfortunate circumstances and was only saved with the intervention of meeting (and falling in love with) the massively fortunate Kanna/Ichiko. However, unlike Keita who had his family to ground and temper him, Ikari had nobody else who truly cared for him except Kanna. When she died, Ikari broke and turned his hatred to the rest of the world.
• Evolving Credits: Not the most noticeable but the character Nadeshiko is slightly more visible in the opening credits of each episode of the anime, starting with not being there, then getting to the point of exchanging a wave with Ichiko.
• Exact Words:
  • Ranmaru claims that if Ichiko beats her she'll leave the school immediately. She does. Then she transfers in again the next day and Ichiko has to lament not saying something like "You'll never appear before me again."
  • Tsuwabuki gets some strength enhancing beads from Bobby by offering to introduce him to a college girl at work. She's fat, has bad skin and glasses and is obsessed with yaoi.
• Familiar:
  • Ichiko has the ability with her somin shourai to transform her good luck into cute representations of the Eastern Zodiac to aid her.
  • Kumagai is eventually established to be Momiji's familiar.
  • Safron serves as a familiar to Yamabuki.
  • All of the misfortune gods seem to have their own familiars.
• Fanservice:
  • Momiji also has her share of the series's fanservice, like a Modesty Towel and her various outfits.
  • That "priestess" outfit Bobby made Ichiko wear is really just her running around in a skimpy P.E. uniform: a white T-shirt hugging her bust, a track jacket Coat Cape, and to show a ton of leg, Spandex athletic tights. Just to toss in a little more service, she's also barefoot.
  • Ranmaru. Her default outfit has a couple of it: Sarashi and exposed midriffs.
  • The boys get this almost as much as the girls. Especially Keita.
  • The entire visit to the Public Bath in which you see a lot of both the guys and the girls.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Ichiko pretty much has this with everyone in her life save Suwano.
• Floral Theme Naming: Most characters are named after flowers and plants. For example, Ichiko's surname (Sakura) is cherry blossoms and Momiji is autumn leaf.

• Gag Series: Starts out as one, but once Volume 8 rolls in, it switches between comedy and a regular battle manga.
• God Is Good: The gods are portrayed as being near-universally well intentioned and necessary for humanity. They have little faith in humans to behave appropriately, but still try to help them out anyway.
• Gratuitous English: The opening and ending themes of the anime.
  • The opening has the following as the first two lines in the song: "1way, 2way, 3way, 4way/Go way, go way, there, you, make my day!", and later, "1way, 2way, 3way, 4way/No way, no way, now goodbye, bad day!" Figuring out what the hell either of those mean would probably make anyone's day.
  • The ending theme has the line, "She says only backbiting," which is phrased weirdly, but still makes sense in the context of the song, and if you know what "backbiting" means.^note to talk negatively about someone behind their back There's also the more straightforward lines, "I love you, I love you" and "I love you, I love you, baby", which appear later in the song.

• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Ichiko VS Momiji, Ichiko VS Ranmaru...Heck Ichiko VS Anybody.
• Heart of Happiness: While fighting with Momiji, Ichiko accidentally throws her out a window and runs to the balcony looking concerned. Her "Did I go too far?" is slightly marred by the big happy heart at the end, however.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Momji and Kumagai in episodes 12 and 13 of the anime when Ichiko and Ranmaru bathe them, unknowingly stripping them of their Poverty God powers as well as their jerky personalities.^note They get better.
• Hero Killer: Natsume. She messily ends the lives of divine characters introduced through the series, including Momo, Konjiki-Hime, and Tanpopo.
• Hide Your Lesbians: It's implied that Tanpopo and Konjikihime may be in some sort of relationship, but it's not addressed or dwelt on much apart from some reference in the omakes.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ichiko is unable to get Nadeshiko to come with her to Suwano's house due to her being punished for tricking and leaving her family during the events of Volume 8. Nadeshiko's butler even thanks her for the unexpected events, as now he's able to keep her under his watch.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Played for laughs. Apparently just to screw with Ichiko, Momiji really likes to play this up. It's hinted in a fourth wall breaking moment that this wasn't originally intended when Ichiko complains about people mistaking Good Luck Girl for a yuri manga. But now? Now Momiji amuses herself by acting like Ichiko's girlfriend.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Despite her gullibility and being prone to breakdowns when not being taken seriously, when Yamabuki decides to extract Ichiko's luck herself, she quickly shows that she's more than a match for Ichiko and her luck. It takes an alliance/fusion from Momiji and pleading for mercy to stop Yamabuki from doing so.
• Humanizing Tears: Ichiko, the haughty school princess, occasionally breaks down crying to show she is not just that:
  • In the first episode she sheds tears while fearing for her butler Suwano's life after he nearly succumbed to a heart attack, pleading for him not to leave her all alone.
  • She does so again when Ranmaru sincerely offers her friendship.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The episode names of the anime are taken from a line of dialogue in the episode.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Part of Ichiko's resentment towards Keita stems from the fact that, though materially poor, at least he has siblings who love him just as much as he loves them back, in stark contrast to her own life — rich in belongings but poor in care.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Generally children are safe in this series, but one time they came close to killing one off: Sorata is nearly killed by an oncoming motorcycle.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Momiji by Tanpopo in chapter 34. ^note She gets better
• Important Haircut: Chapter 60- Momiji is in danger, as the bad guy has made his move! The clock is ticking and we have to leave immediately! Right after Ichiko gives herself this symbolic bob cut and changes her clothes.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When Ichiko interrupts the misfortune god ceremony, Momiji warns her not to say that Chisha is a traitor since nobody will believe her right then. Instead, she appeals to what Yamabuki would want if she hadn't been captured, which is a pretty effective argument. Chisha herself then screws it up for her side by saying that Ayame is dead when so far as anyone there should know she's only missing like Yamabuki, indicating she knows the exact status of both. Only Ikari's side should know that.
• Innocent Innuendo:
  • Inverted Chapter 44 has Konjikihime hearing Bobby and Tanpopo from in a room and assumed it is a Not What It Looks Like moment. Only for it to be exactly what it sounded like.
  • Played straight, however, with Ranmaru and Momo in chapter 54. They were telling their friends about the combination attack they accomplished during their mountain training, but the way they word it made it sound like they've been having sex.
• In-Series Nickname: Ichiko is called "Chichiko" by jealous female classmates and Kota. This translates very nicely to "Tit-chiko" or "Tittyko" in English.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Non-romantic example. At the end of Chapter/Episode 1, Ichiko formally relieves Suwano of his duties after surviving myocardial infarction. While she made it sound like she's firing him for incompetence (barging in her bath because she screamed over Momiji's appearance, adding too much sugar on her birthday cake, and then falling ill), she then encourages him to move over to the countryside and marry again after four years as a widower (and also to help him regain some positive energy). Outside his room, Ichiko tries to tell herself through tears that she's always been used to solitude... and then Momiji moves in a week later.
  • Chapter 56 has a comedic variant, where Nadeshiko and Ranmaru force themselves to wish Ichiko and Keita well in romance when the latter asks the former to come to his house (he was really asking for a study session).
• The Jeeves: Kikunoshin Suwano, Ichiko's butler and Parental Substitute in lieu of her frequently-at-work parents.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: No matter how selfish, condescending and bitchy she is, deep down Ichiko genuinely cares for the few people she can call her friends, such as Suwano, Keita, Ranmaru, and, to some extent, even Momiji, going to such lengths as scavenging a landfill just to find a box full of Suwano's letters to her and searching for Keita after he got lost in the woods searching for her.
• Karma Houdini: Ichiko's three jealous female classmates organized her kidnapping and attempted gang rape and never suffer any punishment. Two of the guys are knocked out by Ranmaru but beyond that nothing happens to them either.
• Kick the Dog:
  • What makes Tanpopo so dangerous. She doesn't go after her targets, she goes after their loved ones. As a random couple and Momiji find out the hard way.
  • Ikari erasing Tsuwabuki's memories of Ichiko follow by Shaga severing the bonds Ichiko had with everyone.
• Kids Are Cruel: Kurumi Minowa, Ichiko's grade-school friend, whose actions traumatized Ichiko so bad that Ichiko had to adopt a bitchy attitude as a defense mechanism, so that she wouldn't be hurt by betrayal again.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • Tanpopo and her posse effortlessly crush Momiji and Kumagai in Chapter 30, taking them out of action.
  • After Ikari shows up, things get really dark, really fast. And bloody.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Aoki lambasts that Keita seems like "the protagonist of a harem manga" when he learns that not one, but three girls are in love with him and want alone time with him.
• Lethal Chef: Luck doesn't help Ichiko or Kanna with cooking, apparently.
• Living Toys: Many gods have these types of companions, the most important of whom is the very ugly, scar faced teddy bear Kumagai.
• Lonely Rich Kid:
  • For all her arrogant attitude, Ichiko is also this, unsurprisingly. It also helps that her parents are more often at work than with her, with only Suwano as companion.
  • Nadeshiko also qualifies, though she's always surrounded by maids and Shinobu.
• Loser Leaves Town: Ichiko after defeating Ranmaru forces her to leave school... only for her to come back the very next day.
• Loophole Abuse: 'Bout stretchin yer arm in tennis. Of course you'd think that Momiji's stunt of using multiple copies of herself and multiple balls would be illegal.
• Macross Missile Massacre:
  • Ichiko unleashes one of these on Momiji with her familiars in the anime opening.
  • One of the item gods actually transforms into a VF-1 Valkyrie and unleashes a Macross...Nicknack...Massacre in Chapter 48 that consists of a rice cooker, a japanese tea-cup, a rubber fish, a shogi piece, a lucky cat statuette, an airhorn, a coffee mug, a matroshka doll, a piggy bank and a small sign.
• The Magic Goes Away: Once a god's work is done in the human world, virtually no trace of their time there remains. By the end of the series, Momiji and friends finally leave Busumetsu, taking all of their goodies with them. The humans live a wacky but relatively mundane life afterwards.
• Market-Based Title: Even though it was simulcast under its Japanese name, its American release is retitled "Good Luck Girl" (which decribes Ichiko as opposed to Momiji).

• Meet the In-Laws: Volume 9's visit to Suwano's house is not initially this, but becomes one thanks to all of Ichiko's other friends having some excuse for not attending except for Tsuwabuki.
• Mistaken for Romance: Keita's little sister has had rumors going on in her school about her dating a boy. The evidence they gather is that a curly headed person in masculine clothing walks alongside her in the mornings —something that Sekienmaru does to help protect her. In order to dispel the rumors (and to avoid Keita's wrath from being mistaken as her boyfriend) Sekienmaru forces himself to dress like a girl when going out with her, which works perfectly.
• New Transfer Student: Momiji and Ranmaru, to Ichiko's Class 1-A. Botan has a brief stint as a student as well. Lampshaded in Volume 3 (and the anime) — when a classmate asks their advisor why so many transferees are getting placed with them, he responds that a main character from a manga is in their classroom.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Nadeshiko Adenokouji is a self-taught Ninja, Stalker with a Crush, ojou, Childhood Friend, crybaby, and Cute Clumsy Girl. Surprisingly, the plot mandated many of these elements.
• No-Dialogue Episode: Chapter 15 serves as this, since the subject of the chapter, Kumagai, is essentially mute. Dialogue only comes up in the last two pages, when he has no more focus.
• Non-Indicative Name: Fortune and misfortune aren't quite as simple as they appear. They do consist of good and bad luck respectively, but there's more to it than that. Without steady effort, you'll use up your fortune and it will ruin you. Unless you're a freak like Ichiko, the world won't hand itself to you on a platter no matter how amazing your luck or ability is. Too much fortune also leads to arrogance, greed, callous behavior and abandoning of virtue. Misfortune, on the other hand, brings people together, begets empathy and brings true happiness to those that don't fret over it. Neither is strictly good or bad and you need both to be a balanced individual, something pointed out from the very start. The super fortunate Ichiko is actually miserable beneath her arrogant exterior at the start of the story.
• No One Could Survive That!: After Ranmaru accidentally falls off a thirteenth-floor window and lands back-first on a car's roof, she still has the strength to get up and challenge Ichiko to a duel with no more than a little temporary blood on her face. Both Ichiko and Momiji are impressed as they invoke this trope.
• No Periods, Period: Averted. Momiji brings hers up a few times. She even uses it as her excuse for why Tanpopo was able to successfully bushwhack her.

• Not What It Looks Like: Subverted. Konjikihime overhears the priest talking about two soft things that would seem like they'd be heavy to carry around all the time while in a room with Tanpopo. Konjikihime, after a moment of panic, assumes she must be about to run into this cliche with the priest actually holding her hand puppets. Nope, he's groping her.
• Obviously Evil: Kurumi. Her hateful facial expressions shouldn't have fooled anyone, but somehow Yusuke, who both Kurumi and Ichiko had a crush on, didn't notice that when Kurumi badmouthed Ichiko in front of him, resulting in Yusuke's instant fallout with Ichiko.
• Obvious Stunt Double: This is actually what Nadeshiko's "body doubles technique" is— a bunch of other people dressed in her outfit and a wig. She even gets caught trying to cheat in a footrace with this technique.
• Offscreen Reality Warp: After moving into Ichiko's closet, a scene in the anime plays out with her opening and closing it multiple times showing Momiji and Kumagai parodying other shows such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Dragon Ball.
• Ojou:

• Ichiko has the wealth of an ojou, but not the personality.
• Momiji, Ichiko and Ranmaru all wear the ojou outfit in an eyecatch for episode eight.

• Pair the Spares: After Ichiko and Keita hook up, Ranmaru is immediately paired off with Momo'o and Nadeshiko with Shinobu. Only Nadeshiko has a real shot with her man though, as Momo'o goes away with the rest of the gods.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Ichiko's parents are still around, though they spend more time on work than they do with her, leaving her butler Suwano to become her father-figure in their absence.
  • Keita's parents ran off on him and his four younger siblings claiming to "search for Atlantis" with a huge debt to boot. This is the reason he takes on multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Ranmaru, especially after her father beat it into her to inherit his karate dojo.
• Perpetual Poverty: The Tsuwabuki siblings. This is the reason Keita, the eldest, takes on multiple jobs.
• The Pig-Pen: Momiji. Justified, because it's what keeps her alive.
• Playboy Bunny:
  • Momiji seems to like this outfit a lot, even if she has to shove random objects down her front for it to fit.
  • In the final volume, virtually every girl in the cast wears this outfit on the opening pages.
• The Power of Love: Invoked by Momiji by making Ichiko and Keita be open about their feelings for each other while fighting together, and giving them items that can boost their strength using those affections.

• Public Bathhouse Scene: Chapter 12, which has Ichiko resort to going to a public bathhouse because Momiji clogged her tub from the muck of a dirt god. All the usual happens here too, such as boys trying to peek on the girls in the bath, while the opposite happens as well.
• The Psycho Rangers: Botan's posse for Ichiko's during her arc. Suzuhikohime is as brash and boyish as Ranmaru, Ungaikyou is as petite and childish as Nadeshiko, and Botan herself is a more naive and kinder Ichiko. Unsurprisingly, they get their mirror matches in Chapters 48 and 49.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: As of volume 13, there have been 3; Tanpopo's posse, Botan's (though they're only helping her under contract with their real boss), and the final villain's.
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: The anime takes the manga's joke to extreme levels. A pause and a rewind are usually needed in order to catch everything.
• Remember the New Guy?: Zig-zagged with Adenokouji. Ranmaru may remember her but Ichiko and Momiji don't.

• Rich Bitch: Ichiko, as well as Nadeshiko Adenokouji, another (maroon-haired) rich kid in her school, are quite mean.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Ayame, one of Momiji's comrades, becomes the first divine being to die at the hands of Ikari's lieutenant Natsume in Chapter 57, in an unexpectedly bloody way.
• Say My Name: Ichiko finally says Momiji's name after she drops her off a bridge and into the garbage boat in the final episode.
• School Festival: Chapter 46, and the climax of Botan's arc, takes place during the Sports Festival for Taian Academy. The final arc takes place during the Autumn school festival.
• Second Place Is for Winners: Chapter 40 features a local contest for the elderly population. The winner would receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawai'i, but the seniors were way more interested in placing second for the free massage chair.
• Sequel Hook: Lampshaded with a fake trailer at the end of the final episode. After that, there's a bit of text that says that Ichiko and Momiji's adventure is just beginning. However, the anime didn't get a seconds season so you'll need to read the manga to finish the tale.
• Serious Business: The tennis match and the cooking match in episode 9 are treated as serious business.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Momiji and Rindou. In the former's case though, it's inevitably revealed to not be a good thing.
• Seven Deadly Sins: One of the god items Momiji had was a sentai Anthropomorphic Personification squad of the Sins called the Super Evil Rangers Taizine. Each one could morph into a single Sin-based duplicate of the target human, with Wrath Red, Lust Pink, and Greed Black taking up most of the focus. Interesting to note that Envy wasn't green.
• Shout-Out: So many they needed their own page.
• Sick Episode: Chapter 28 is about Ichiko catching a cold for the first time in her life.

• Stating the Simple Solution: Chapter 23 has Ichiko, Ranmaru, and Nadeshiko go through hours of taking photos to make the perfect shareable one and exchange it with Keita's own. While Momiji is happy Ichiko is actually trying to bond with her friends, she then asks why they didn't just take a picture with Keita if they wanted his pictures so badly.
• Stumbling in the New Form: Momiji switches bodies with Ichiko, intending to ruin her life by framing her for various misdeeds. But she barely makes it out the front door before she gets tired out from running with the heavy assets that she normally lacks.

• Supernatural Hotspot Town: Ichiko's hometown becomes one as more and more gods descend upon the place, either getting caught in the crossfire of Ichiko and Momiji's feud or having their own machinations involving Ichiko.
• Supporting Harem: A variation in which the female lead is the POV character instead of the male. From the moment Keita first appears, it's very obvious he and Ichiko will hook up. Other girls such as Ranmaru and Nadeshiko also have a crush on Keita for the laughs and to get jealous reactions out of Ichiko.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Following the incident at the Public Bathhouse, Ichiko comes to school in glasses and a face mask as she is embarrassed to show her face after accidentally exposing herself to Keita. Ranmaru comes in a luchador mask as she is also devastated, and both freak out over the fact Keita saw them nude. Then Keita shows up... with a paper bag on his head and walks into the classroom. Ichiko takes her mask and glasses off and sits at her desk, realizing it only makes sense Keita is embarrassed since he was naked too.
• Take a Third Option: The girls' solution to the deification of Busumetsu City, which would otherwise kill any non-deity present when the city ascended to the world of the gods: turn everyone into gods.
• Tempting Fate: The fake trailer at the end of the final episode outright states that it's probably jinxing itself by showing a trailer for a second season when a second season hasn't been announced.
• Theme Music Power-Up: One for the manga, long after the anime aired. As Momiji and Ichiko start dealing back the damage to Ikari in their deified modes, "Make My Day!" is supposed to play over the scene (they also have "INSIDE OUT UPSIDE DOWN" play when they emerge).
• Title Drop: The last line in episode 13. However, the title loses all its punch once Ichiko starts yelling the line at Momiji more often in the latter half of the series.
• Too Good to Be True: When the Fortune God Tanpopo blesses Tsuwabuki's family with the Screaming Good Luck Owl, they're suddenly blessed with riches, the gratitude of a wealthy old man, and more food, warmth, and clothing they could ever ask for. While the kids (save Sorata) are elated, Tsuwabuki himself is not—he worries that all their good karma will come back to bite them. He is right to worry, as Tanpopo's gift is actually a device meant to cause unavoidable bad luck after accumulating enough good luck for a person. In the family's case, 20 years of good luck will come crashing down on them in the form of Sorata dying an early death.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The main point of the narrative is showing how Ichiko gradually changes from a selfish, mean, and arrogant Rich Bitch to a better person who cares about others and is willing to help thanks to Momiji's guidance and making new friends who she can trust.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Momo'o likes it when he gets beaten up.
• Touched by Vorlons: The source of Ichiko and Ikari's powers. Also invoked by Ichiko and Momiji once they realize Ikari's deification process of the whole Butsumetsu City cannot be reversed in with little time available, so they decide to make all the townspeople into deities instead to ensure the latter's survival.
• Trickster Mentor: Momiji is something like this when trying to make Ichiko a better person.
• Trojan Veggies: Discussed. Momiji's method for giving Ichiko a magic necklace to stop her from absorbing other people's happiness energy is compared to this trope.
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • There are several Tsukumogami in the manga, thanks to a god-item ping-pong paddle that makes and destroys artifact gods.
  • The Artifact God team:
    • Botan, the spirit of a scarf, who has a god-item that lets her transform into other objects such as a drill, a jet, or a machine gun.
    • Huguruma Youbi: The spirit of a wheelchair, she can transform into an awesome mecha.
    • Suzuhikohime: A sharp-toothed pervert-girl created from Japanese ceremonial bells, who's very strong and has a variety of sonic and mystic abilities.
    • Ungaikyou: A mirror that can pull out your soul and can reflect anything, including reality.
  • Sekienmaru: Tsuwabuki's Ambiguous Gender cart with a Kansai accent, probably because it was built for commerce.
• Unknown Rival: Kuroyuri is convinced that Momiji is her rival. Momiji knows but barely even pays attention to her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: According to Momiji, Ichiko's perpetually good fortune is the result of unconsciously absorbing the positive energy of others, leaving them with nothing but negative energy. This hits Ichiko close to home when Suwano nearly succumbs to a heart attack after many years under her service (and unconscious energy vampirism).
• Verbal Tic: Botan always ends sentences with -su.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: This is the basis of Momiji and Ichiko's relationship, as illustrated by the opening and closing themes.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!:
  • Chapter 9/Episode 6B focuses on Ichiko not being her usual self due to a Heroic BSoD after a stay with the Tsuwabukis created emotional conflict between her and Keita's sense of personal happiness. Momiji comments that it's not fun challenging Ichiko under such a state. Thus she, Bobby and Momo'o set out to return her to her usual self.
  • Momiji also changes in Chapters 17-18/Episodes 12-13, where she becomes cuter, nicer, and polite, due to being completely cleaned from a bath which strips a God of Misfortune of all her powers. This also extends to Kumagai, who becomes a standard teddy bear that is equally nice. Then he accidentally gets thrown in the garbage truck, returns to normal, and convinces Momo'o to help him return Momiji back to normal as well!
  • Bobby briefly becomes a genuinely humble and celibate monk after a spell gone wrong makes near every girl in his vicinity reject him. Inugami is horrified and wants him back to normal, which only happens when the curse is lifted and Momiji shoves him into Ichiko's breasts.
• Weirdness Censor: There are some reactions to the antics of Momiji and co., but mostly brushed off afterwards.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The last thing Ikari does in the story is ask for a favor, while looking at his subordinates ... and that's it!
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: It's not that Ichiko's parents don't love her, it's just that they're so busy, they haven't been able to come see her since she was a baby. They barely even have time to attend her birthdays.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 36 covers how Momo'o met Momiji and became the extreme masochist we know him as today.
• World of Action Girls: All the girls in the main cast are major ass-kickers. The guys don't stay behind, but there's less of them.
• World of Ham: A lot of the characters like to shout and scream out what they're thinking. Just look at Ichiko and Momiji's arguments for examples.
• Wrestler in All of Us
  • Ichiko is prone to use submission moves on people when she gets physical.
  • Momiji does a German suplex as a wake up call to Ichiko.

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