Cos Prayers

The Cosmopolitan Prayers or Cos Prayers 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.

On the internet, the series is probably best known for inspiring the minor meme "worse than Cos Prayers," in which the show is used as a litmus test to determine the relative quality of other shows, e.g. "So you say X show is really terrible, but is it worse than Cos Prayers?"

Tropes used in Cos Prayers include:

• Anime Chinese Girl: In and You, complete with Odango.
• Anime First: Although it did sort of have sequels with Love Love and Smash Hit.
• Arabian Nights Days: Remi's costume
• The Archer: Iko
• Barrier Maiden: Priscilla's specialty is shields, which she creates with her sash.
• Big Bad: Takitsu
• Blade on a Stick: Scarlett fights with a three-bladed spear.
• Braids, Beads, and Buckskins: Iko's costume
• By the Power of Greyskull: "Charm Up!"
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Takitsu is a White-Haired Pretty 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.
• Dark Magical Girl: The Dark Mikos
• Fan Service: A major feature of the show.
• 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.
• Girlish Pigtails: Remi, reflecting her desire to stay a child forever.
• Hot Chick with a Sword: Koto
• Hot Springs Episode: Episode 2.5.
• Humongous Mecha: The White Goddess
• Incredibly Lame Pun: The title is an engrish pun on "cosplayer."
• Jerkass: Scarlett
• Lady of War: Priscilla
• Magical Girl Warrior: With a priestess/cosplaying theme.
• 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.
• Panty Shot: Plenty of 'em.
• Parody Retcon: In the sequel, Smash Hit, Cos Prayers is a Show Within a Show that's Stylistically Sucky.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Takitsu
• 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.
• Single-Minded Twins: In and You. They even talk in unison.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Remi and her giant lazer bazooka.
• 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.
• The Smart Guy: Iko
• Training from Hell: Scarlett puts Koto through this.
• Transformation Sequence: Averted; unusually for a Magical Girl show, the girls transform instantaneously with just a flash of light.
• Transformation Trinket: The Cosmo bracelets.
• Trapped in Another World: In the first episode, Koto and the others get stuck in the parallel dimension.
• Virgin Power: Only pure-hearted virgins can be Cosprayers.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Takitsu.