Minna! Esper Dayo! (みんな！ エスパーだよ！, Minna! Esper Dayo!) is a 2013 Japanese twelve-part science fiction comedy television miniseries adapted from the seinen manga series Minna! Esper Dayo! written and illustrated by Kiminori Wakasugi. It aired on TV Tokyo from April 12 to July 5, 2013. The show's theme song is Japanese-language song "(Where's) The Silent Majority?" by the Japanese singer-songwriter Yu Takahashi. It was followed by a 2015 TV special titled All Esper Dayo! SP.
Contents
Plot
Yoshirō Kamogawa, a student at East Mikawa High School in Aichi Prefecture, discovers that he has psychic powers. Over the course of the series he discovers that he and his childhood friend Miyuki both have telepathic powers, Mr. Teru who operates the local Seahorse café has the power of telekinesis, senior Yōsuke Enomoto has the power of teleportation, student outcast Yabe has the power of clairvoyance, Hideo is a psychometer, Ms. Nastume and Mr. Hayashi have telekinesis, Pao can hypnotize people, and others in the town have powers as well. Yoshirō finds that many seek to use their newfound powers for perverted and trivial pursuits, but Yoshirō himself dreams of using his powers to protect his crush, the new transfer student Sae Asami who transferred in from Tokyo, and ultimately save the world. Meanwhile, a pair of ESP researchers who have been laughed out of Tokyo University visit the town to study the people with these powers and to stop them from being destroyed by evil psychics.
Production
The series is the first adaptation of the seinen manga series Minna! Esper Dayo! written and illustrated by Kiminori Wakasugi. It was followed by a 2015 TV special directed by Sion Sono with much of the same cast but without Kaho. A 2015 theatrical film adaptation of the source material, titled The Virgin Psychics, was also directed by Sion Sono but had some changes in casting.
Broadcast
The series premiered on TV Tokyo on April 12, 2013, and ran weekly episodes (with the exception of May 17) until its twelfth and final episode aired on July 5, 2013.
Home video
The TV series was made available for purchase on DVD and Blu-ray from TV Tokyo on August 23, 2013. The DVD box costs 15,200 yen and the Blu-ray box costs 19,000 yen. Extras include a documentary about Sion Sono and a special about the making of the series.