I’m not quite sure how I feel about this show, but it is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) so it is probably worth keeping an eye on.

The title Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko is literally “Electromagnetic Wave Woman and Adolescent Man” but it could be more idiomatically translated as “The Young Man and the Tinfoil Hat Girl.”

Makoto Niwa (Miyu Irino) is forced to go live with his aunt Meme Touwa (Ai Nonaka) in a small seaside town. Meme seems pretty flaky and he is astonished to learn that she has a daughter about his age.

If his aunt is flaky his cousin Erio (Asuka Oogame) seems to have several loose screws. She spends most of her time wrapped in a futon, looking more or less like a sushi roll with legs. She claims to be a space alien. Her obsession with aliens dates back to when she disappeared for a few months and was eventually found with no memory of where she had been. Naturally she attributed this to an alien abduction.

The second episode feels disturbingly like the start of a dating sim adaptation. (Boy transfers to a new school and meets a bunch of pretty girls, each with a distinctive quirk.) This is probably a red herring. Obviously the only relationship that counts is the one between Makoto and Erio.

In the third episode Makoto decides that he can cure Erio of her delusions by proving that she can’t fly a bicycle like ET. The reasoning behind this approach seems somewhat deficient.

I have no idea where this is going. It doesn’t look or feel like Madoka Magica (which was awesome but probably not replicable.) Based on Shinbo’s other works, this might be a quirky offbeat slice-of-life comedy like Arakawa under the Bridge. Or it might turn really dark and sad like ef–A Tale of Memories and ef–A Tale of Melodies. Or it could go in an entirely different direction. This guy is anything but predictable.