Tokyo ESP


Tokyo ESP is a Japanese manga series by Hajime Segawa. It began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine on February 26, 2010, and finished on July 26, 2016. It follows a high school girl named Rinka Urushiba who lives with her father in poor conditions. This leads her to work part-time as a waitress. Her life changes when she gains the ability to use extrasensory perception. An anime television series adaptation aired from July to September 2014.

Plot

Tokyo ESP begins with Rinka Urushiba as a fairly normal high school girl, though she is a bit poor and her father who is a police officer is her only family. This forces her to work part-time as a waitress after high school in order to raise money for them to secure rent and food. One day, she sees a penguin and some glowing fish swimming through the sky. Rinka might have thought it was a hallucination if there had not been another witness with her. This witness is a boy from her school with a strangely scratched-up face. Out of curiosity, she touches one of the glowing fish, which causes her to pass out. After she wakes up, she finds out that she has developed the power to phase through inanimate objects such as the floor of her apartment. She meets a fellow high school student named Kyotaro Azuma who has the ability to teleport. The two of them use their ESP powers to take on individuals who have decided to use them for evil. However, there is an organization that is planning a bigger scheme to secure utopia with their ranks consisting of strong ESP fighters and users.

Characters

Main characters

;Rinka Urushiba
;Kyōtarō Azuma
;Ren Jōmyaku
;Zeus Tetsuya
;Rindō Urushiba
;Kobushi Kuroi "Black Fist"
;Murasaki Edoyama
;Ayumu Oozora
;Pandaemon Youdani
;Peggi
;Parrot

Antagonists

;The Professor/Hokusai Azuma
;Minami Azuma
;Kozuki Kuroi
;Lin Lianjie

Others

;Nabeshima
;Reia Ōzora

Production

Plans for Tokyo ESP started when Segawa was still doing his Ga-Rei manga, discussing ideas with his then editor and supervisor when the latter suggested that his next work should be based on superpowers. Segawa suggested that his protagonist should be based from someone in the Matrix series with the comical ability to use his fart as a weapon with the addition of drama before the supervisor told him to take out the farting ability. Segawa decided to go with the female lead like he did with the Ga-Rei manga series. During brainstorming, Segawa pitched an idea to his staff that the female could have fearsome superpowers due to the concern that the female lead will not be prominently known if a male character helps her out, which was met with some opposition from his supervisor again.

Media

Manga

Tokyo ESP is written and illustrated by Hajime Segawa. It began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine with the April 2010 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released on July 26, 2010, and thirteen volumes have been released as of June 22, 2015. The English translation for the manga was released as 2-in-1 volumes in America.

Volume list

Anime

The opening theme song is "Tokyo Zero Hearts" performed by Faylan, while the ending theme is "Kyuusei Argyros" by Yousei Teikoku.

Episode list

Merchandise

Some of the merchandise being released by Kadokawa Shoten include phone cards, tumbles and drawings autographed by Segawa.

China ban

On June 12, 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Culture listed Tokyo ESP among 38 anime and manga titles banned in China.