Rio -Rainbow Gate!-

The Howard Resort and Casino is a lavish entertainment venue, where Hollywood stars and people from the upper class gather to place their bets. The motto is "It's all for the customer." One of the celebrities of this casino is Rio Rollins, a female dealer known as the Goddess of Victory for her superhuman luck. Rio's congenial nature makes her a target for manager Tom Howard's titillating ways of promoting the casino, and drawing new friends to her side, including a new trainee from Russia, the granddaughter of a wealthy businessman staying at the casino, and her childhood friend. There are 13 Gate Cards, and one who has them all will hold the title of Most Valuable Casino Dealer. Rio and her friends engage in elaborate casino games to win the cards so Rio can find her mother, with hijinks ensuing, of course.

A series of pachinko games, Rio was adapted into an anime titled Rio -Rainbow Gate!-, which aired in the winter 2011 season.

Not to be confused with Blue Sky Studios' Rio.

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Tropes used in Rio -Rainbow Gate!- include:

• Absolute Cleavage: Cartia
• Action Girl: Rio who can hold off five men without breaking her smile in a Meido outfit pretty much qualifies.
• All Men Are Perverts: "Miss! Miss! Miss!"
  • Interestingly, the men chanting this can't really seem to make up their minds. They start with "Miss!", but then they start to genuinely cheer Rio on, wanting her to win the game. Which is probably why they get treated to a(n accidental) Panty Shot by Rio at the end of the episode for not being total perverts.
• Alliterative Name: Rio Rollins. Her mother Risa counts too, and is even kown to have gone by the nickname "Double R" for this bit of alliteration.
• Awesomeness By Analysis: Elvis, though if he gets one little thing wrong, he falls to Rio as easily as the rest.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The end of the Flying Casino arc.
• Bare Your Midriff: Rio's normal outfit, Dana, Linda and Tiffany.
• Batman Gambit: Rio does this in episode 8
• Beyond the Impossible: Special mention goes to the Sky Resort, a building that flies without any visible propulsion, defying all kinds of physics and gravity laws.
• Big Bad: Cartia
• Bigger Is Better: A gigantic roulette nonetheless.
  • And then episode 5 gives us the most extreme slide.
  • A gigantic holographic space game.
• Born Lucky: Rio
• The Brute: King
  • Book Dumb: He knows the alphabet up to Q and can count to 28.
  • Idiots Can't Catch Colds: His family never caught a cold for 300 years.
• Bunny Girl: Everywhere. It's a casino.
  • As of the 6th episode, even Mint can wear one of those.
• But Not Too Foreign: Rina's father is apparently Japanese. He's also Rio's father, acknowledged in the last episode where she's called "Rio Rollins-Tachibana".
• Carrying a Cake: Episode two ends with Ania bringing in a victory cake for Rio. Given Ania's nature, it was only a matter of time.
• Chainmail Bikini: Worn by most of the female main cast during the game of "Concentration Bomber".
• Chekhov's Gun: The fact that Choco is made in China becomes important later in the series.
• Chinese Girl: Yang-Yang & An-An. Although An-An is really Choco, disguised as a girl by Yang-Yang.
• Cute Shotaro Boy: Jack
• Crippling Overspecialization: Also overlaps with What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?. Yang-Yang's magic can only be used on things made in China. This gives her a wide range of objects, but an obvious weakness.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Carlos in the final episode slices up the Casino guild weapons and he's a cop.
• Dark Skinned Greenhead: Linda
  • Tan Lines
• A Date with Rosie Palms: Howard. Episode 4. "I could go for thirds." With accompanying suggestive hand gesture.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Played with. Elvis and Orlin both end up helping Rio to regain her confidence. And Misery doesn't exactly hang out with or help Rio and her friends, but she does warn Rio about part of Cartia's plans. Played more or less straight with Jack and, in the end, with Rina.
• Demonic Possession: Rosa gets possessed at a couple points.
  • Big Eater: The ghost of Misery loved to eat lots of chicken wings when she was alive, and still does so as a ghost, making Rosa do so while possessing her. Rosa ended up wondering why she didn't lose weight while trying to go on a diet.
• Did I Say That Out Loud: King after revealing that he shattered the coin.
• Did Not Do the Research: In Episode 5, Mint mentions to the audience that the tallest city in the world is Potosí, Bolivia. In reality, the tallest city in the world is La Rinconada, Peru. She also erroneously stated that the height of Potosí is 4070 meters, twenty meters below it's actual height of 4090 meters.
• Dirty Old Man: Tom Howard, definitely. Especially how he takes every opportunity possible to make a Ms. Fanservice out of Rio, much to her disdain.
• Disappeared Dad: Rina and Rio's dad is at first thought to have abandoned them both to be with Risa. It turns out that both Risa and he are working undercover as police officers.
• Damsel in Distress: Rina gets hit with this trope. Subverted, due to a revealed Face Heel Turn.
• Dojikko/Cute Clumsy Girl: Ania Helsing, who is clumsy enough to cause Disaster Dominoes. Lampshaded by Elle.
  • She trips on a tree and three trees fall down on cars.
• Emotionless Girl: Ille doesn't seem to react like a normal person would. She usually just repeats any line her sister Elle says.
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Well, holographic sharks in this case. Which Rio uses to surf on.
• Face Heel Turn: Rina
• Fan Service: Lots and lots of it.
• Fear of Thunder: Rio.
• Foreshadowing: Rina was suspicious when she finds out about Rio's role as a Gate Card Holder. Cue Episode 8.
• Funny Afro: Carlos Tanaka.
• Gainaxing: Rio, especially when skimpily dressed.
• Genki Girl: Linda, who, for Yoko Hikasa, is Playing Against Type. Most of her characters aren't this chipper or high-pitched.
• Ghost Lights: The ghost of Misery, a former casino owner who also loved to gamble.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Mint's bear, Choco
  • And so does the very first Villain of the Week, though he's a male example.
• Gonk: That guy in episode 4.
• Gotta Catch Em All: The 13 Gate cards, which grant one the title of Most Valuable Casino Dealer. Rio has one, and competitors with the rest come to challenge her.
• Gratuitous English: "Have a lucky day!" in the Howard Casino ad videos, and Bull Hard, who speaks in a garbled mess of English and Japanese.
  • "Are You Leggy?"
• Hair of Gold: Ania, perhaps due to her hailing from Russia.
• Heroic Bastard: Rio is implied to be this.
• Heroic BSOD: Rio got hit so hard after she lost against Rina, it took a Stealth Mentor to bring her back.
• High-Class Glass: Mint's grandfather goes all out on the rich guy look, having a top hat, monocle, cane, three piece suit, the works.
• Hot Mom: Risa Rollins.
• Hot Witch: Dana, who works as a magician and fortune teller at the Howard Resort, dresses like one.
• Hypocritical Humor: Ille and Elle remark on the oddity of the hacked Linda repeating everything she says twice, while half of Ille's dialogue is just her repeating whatever her sister says.
• Idiot Hair: Mint and Tom sort of.
• Ill Woman: Rina's mother.
• I'm Thinking It Over: In an early episode, Howard is threatened with death if he does not allow Rio to wager ownership of his casino resort. He gives Rio several conflicting answers as the Death Trap gets closer and closer to killing before Rio decides to go through with the wager.
• Instant Cosplay Surprise: When Howard changes Rio into her Barely-There Swimwear, she only realizes this after she's magically changed into it.
• Intertwined Fingers: Elle & Ille in the opening credits.
• The Klutz: Ania Helsing, whose hobbies include falling down a lot and playing dominoes with slot machines.
• Large Ham: Tom Howard.
• Last-Episode New Character: Two mysterious figures are standing on the top of Howard's Resort at the last few minutes of the final episode: a caped man and a young blonde girl, both with sinister smiles, possibly suggesting a second season to come.
• Losing Your Head: Linda the Robot Girl is prone to this due a loose locking device after impact damage to her back. This contributes to her loss when she challenged Rio.
• The Magic Poker Equation: Rio's abilities cause extreme luck. Subverted differently: the first episode has her winning the big hand with a pair of twos over queen-high.
• Male Gaze
• Monster of the Week: Really, take away any adult content and this show would be a straight Saturday morning cartoon.
• Mascot: Rio herself, having started out as a mascot for a series of pachinko machines in Japan.
• Missing Mom: Rio was abandoned by her mother, Risa Rollins, who had to disappear to protect Rio from the Casino Guild (which plotted to kidnap Risa after she won all the gate cards). And she also happens to be good friends with Tom Howard.
• Modesty Towel: In the Hot Springs Episode. Then the towel comes off...
• Ms. Fanservice: Rio, but she doesn't like it. Not one bit, especially when Tom Howard puts her into it one way or another.
• Multicolored Hair: Rina has blonde on top, purple on bottom.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Even a simple game of poker is represented as a duel on par with Saki's mahjong. Scratch that, it's at Akagi levels already.
  • A Flying Casino.
• Oddly Visible Eyebrows
• Peek-a-Bangs: Misery though it fits into Uncanny Valley since her hair is transparent.
  • Dana
  • King
• Perpetually-Shiny Bodies
• Phenotype Stereotype: Ania.
• Playing Card Motif: Each of the Gate Holders is assigned a number or face value to their card. In numerical order:
  • Two: The Joker
  • Three: Elvis
  • Four: Linda. The card was given to her by Cartia while Jack controlled Linda during the battle.
  • Five:
  • Six:
  • Seven: Rio
  • Eight: Dana
  • Nine:
  • Ten: Yang-Yang
  • Jack: Jack Mighty
  • Queen: Merciless Queen
  • King: Strong-Armed King
  • Ace: Rina
• Poker
• Random Number God: Out in full force.
• Rapid-Fire Typing
• Red Headed Heroine: Rio herself
• Revenge Before Reason: Rina wants revenge against Rio and her mother, for stealing their father away. Cartia took full advantage of this to make Rina an Unwitting Pawn.
• Robot Girl: Linda
  • Motor Mouth: How Linda speaks for the first time in the series, before she knocks herself on the head to recaliberate her speech.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot
• Sequel Hook
• Sexophone: Played straight and subverted.
• She's Got Legs: Rio. Most other female characters qualify, but Rio wears this ultra-short skirt as part of her standard uniform.
• Shy Finger-Twiddling: Rio after being offered the job of training Ania.
• Single-Minded Twins: Ille and Elle Adams
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Elle is talkative while Ille is The Quiet One.
• Sinister Silhouettes: Risa Rollins
• Soft Water
• Spanner in the Works: Misery did not plan for Ania's clumsiness when she tried to take over the Howard Casino.
  • Nor did she plan for Rina spiking her favorite Chicken Wings with super hot chilli peppers when she challenged Rio.
• Stealth Mentor: Joker aka. Risa Rollins
• Stripperiffic: Rio, involuntarily. Tiffany's bunny suit has Bare Your Midriff, Cleavage Window AND Underboobs.
  • By episode 11, just about everyone all of Rio's friends (including Mint!) end up in such outfits during a challenge.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Concentration Bomber punishes the players with an explosion if they don't find matching cards, but due to a programming error, if played, the entire complex the game is located in also explodes.
• Tarot Troubles: The show pulls the typical "the Death card was drawn" played-for-drama bit during a reading for Rio and Rina. Whether or not the Lovers card drawn at the end will be relevant in the next episode or not...
  • And later comes to fruition when Risa reveals her true plan.
• Token Mini-Moe: Mint, although she's generally exempt from the Fan Service.
  • Subverted in episode 11. She's in quite a skimpy warrior-esque outfit, including a notable shot that completely shows her legs, and they're quite... long.
• Too Dumb to Live: What sane poker player would throw away most of his hand when he was only one card away from a straight or a flush in hopes of getting three queens? Sure, it's possible, but when you're fighting the title character and you're not even trying to cheat that's just asking to get beat down.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Misery the Monster of the Week loves chicken wings.
• Transformation Sequence: Rio does this prior to or when engaging in the Gate Challenges.
  • She does it as well in the regularly playing daily video greeting seen in the various monitors around the casino where she says "Have a Lucky Day!", though this was Tom Howard's idea, resulting in the obvious Fan Service being clearly seen by all who view it; needless to say it's yet another of Rio's pet peeves.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: Carlos Tanaka, who does so rather dramatically by swiping at the antagonists with a katana, and destroying their weapons in the process, before showing his badge.
• Unwitting Pawn: Howard during the Flying Casino arc and Rina by the final gate battle.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Happens to Rio at least once an episode.
  • Rio's wedding dress gets ripped at the skirt by Mint after the latter trips and grabs it at the end of episode one, much to the delight of Tom Howard. Gets followed by a Scream Discretion Shot by Rio.
  • Almost happens to Rio during the virtual beach volleyball game in the giant roulette challenge in episode 2, when the top of her bikini gets undone, but somehow it gets fixed shortly after.
  • One instance borders on Clothing Damage, where Rio and her childhood friend Rina are pitted battle of skeet shoot where they shoot coins. A miss by the shooter (when it's her turn) results in her (already skimpy clothing) getting undone piece by piece (in fact the first one results in an Absolute Cleavage).
    • And at the end of that challenge which resulted in a draw, Rio, whose hotpants were undone in the match, ends up absentmindedly dropping them in full view of the spectators, much to her horror.
  • To date, the only time she never got hit with this trope is at episode 5.
  • After not being hit with this trope for how many episodes, she gets hit again; in episode 10. This time, though, she actually lampshades it.
• Weasel Mascot: Chip.
• Winds of Destiny Change: Not only does Rio have extraordinarily good luck for herself, she changes the environment so everyone gets some of that luck when she's in their presence.
  • Apparently, they call it roll ruler.
  • Taken Up to Eleven in the final episode.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Rosa
• Xanatos Roulette: Cartia's plan.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Blue for Elle and green for Ille and Linda.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Ania is a Grade A. Rina's is also pretty high-ranked.