A Channel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Channel is a Japanese Seinen Yonkoma by bb Kuroda. The story is about the daily life of Run, a second year High School student, her classmates Yuuko and Nagi, and first year student, and Run's childhood friend, Tooru.

An anime adaptation by Studio Gokumi aired in spring 2011.

Not to be confused with A-Channel, the former name of Canadian TV network CTV Two.

It was serialized from 2008 to 2021 in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Cat for 170 chapters.

Tropes used in A Channel include:
  • Adaptation Expansion
  • Alertness Blink: For example, when Run tells the other girls that Tooru is an honor student.
  • Batter Up: Tooru deploys a baseball bat anytime boys get too friendly with Run.
  • Beach Episode: Episode 5, when the girls head for Kamakura.
  • Between My Legs: This shot shows up in episode 2.
  • Bland-Name Product: The Bonyo keychain Yuuko buys to forget a horror movie.
    • Paskin Robbins Ice Cream
    • iBod
    • Pocari Sweet & Coco-Cola
    • Geeple
    • A Hamaha speaker in episode 7.
    • Lawsom convenience stores.
  • Bittersweet Ending: There's a growing consensus that the anime ending qualifies. Tooru realizes that there is going to be a time, coming very soon, that she will still be in High School but the other three will be either in the workforce or at college -- either way, not in her life anymore. She resolves to make the most of the last year they have together.
  • Blue with Shock
  • Butt Monkey: Yuuko can't seem to catch a break, whether it's being tormented by her friends, teachers, dogs, her own misunderstandings, or pure bad luck. And it's hilarious!
  • Cherry Blossoms The shot of the first episode.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Run. She even forgets her panties!
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Tooru does a version of this with juice in episode 8.
  • Festival Episode: The second half of episode 7.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble Tooru, Run, Nagi and Yuuko.
  • Genki Girl: Yutaka. Tooru finds her annoying.
  • Going Commando: At one point Run forgets to put on her panties. She runs away upset when she thinks Tooru might be thinking that it isn't normal.
  • Gratuitous English: Run in episode 3. "No Music No Life" and "Mada (still) No Music Life"
    • Nagi and Tooru mentions Yuuko's "nice body" on several occasions.
    • Nagi mentions "nice shot" at Run being able to toss a soda can onto the trash barrel at school.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
    • Every episode has a regular Japanese title and a secondary title in English that always starts with an "A".
    • All song titles on the soundtrack are English words starting with the letter A.
  • Image Song: At least one per episode, with one song for each of the main girls in episode 7 (half of which was a Karaoke Episode). It is 'A channel' after all.
  • Iyashikei The girls have a care free life with nothing to worry about.
  • Joshikousei
  • Karaoke Box: The first half of episode 7. Even Satou-sensei gets in on it.
  • Lolicon: Both Yuuko and Run point out that Tooru doesn't have to be so self-concious of her small body, since there are people who are into that.
  • Magic Skirt: The girls frequently fall down or throw their legs in the air but no looky-loos. Tooru even sticks her bum in the air to put on her socks during one sequence but still no action.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Yuuko does this to Tooru at one point to prevent her from intimidating a boy Run was talking to.
  • Nonuniform Uniform: Nagi and Tooru almost always wear their respective beige and purple cardigans over their school uniforms.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Tooru's first impression of Yuuko is seeing her in a compromising situation with Run. This is what starts her hatred with Yuuko.
  • Only One Name: This is the case with all of the students. None of their last names have been mentioned, and even during class the teachers are on First-Name Basis with them.
  • Panty Shot: Averted hard.
  • Pet the Dog: Tooru is fond of small animals and children, often giving kids candy. Also she is a great help in the classroom.
    • She finds Yutaka annoying, but she's perfectly fine with showing the girl her notes or helping her with problems.
      • She even feels lonely when Miho drags Yutaka away, which sends her into an impromptu identity crisis.
    • Yuuko on the other hand...
  • Sailor Fuku The uniforms the girls wear.
  • Sarcasm Failure: Nagi has no words when Run freaks out ("Who are you?") over Nagi's letting her hair down. This despite Nagi having jokingly done the same thing not one full minute before.
  • Schoolgirl Series A series about four school girls life.
  • School Swimsuit: Tooru's had the same one since elementary school. It doesn't help that she's flat chested.
  • Serious Business: Nagi takes the Ibod very seriously.
  • Shout-Out: In the third episode of the anime, Nagi shouts "'They're not panties, so it's not embarrassing?'! It sure as heck is!"
  • Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Tooru just doesn't like Yuuko, although she mellows out somewhat during the course of the series.
  • Sneeze Cut
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Run and Tooru look just like young versions of their respective mothers, except for very slightly different haircuts.
  • Tsundere: Nagi describes Tooru as this, Run forgets what one is and imagines Tooru with a spear.
  • Tsurime Eyes: 75% of the main cast!
  • Twelve-Episode Anime A very short series of only twelve episodes.
  • Weapon of Choice: Tooru favors her baseball bat whenever she feels the need to defend Run from the attention of boys.
  • Wiki Walk: When talking about schoolgirls running the possible risk of being abducted by strangers, Run ends up wondering if aliens are able to speak Japanese or not.
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