Hyakko

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
A small part of the crew: Tatsuki, Torako, Hitsugi, Suzume and Ayumi

Good job!

Hyakko is a comedy Slice of Life manga by Haruaki Katou that started serializing in 2006 on Comic Blood magazine. A 13-episode anime adaptation was broadcast in 2008 by Nippon Animation.

Kamizono Academy -- this is where four freshmen meet up by pure chance. Torako Kageyama, Suzume Saotome, Tatsuki Iizuka and Ayumi Nonomura -- their misadventures, along with a colorful support cast, are what this series is about. A unique brand of humor is present throughout.

Tropes used in Hyakko include:
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council -- They take care of most school policies as the principal adheres to a "hands-off" policy on his interference.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys -- A minor female character is strongly attracted to Kitsune, practically drooling over the evil/treacherous aspects of his character.
  • Aloof Big Brother -- Gender-flipped; Torako is revealed to have an Aloof Big Sister who follows this trope in almost every way.
  • Art Evolution: Quite a bit. Just look at Ayumi in the first chapter, and then again 29 chapters later.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other -- Torako has some of this dynamic with her brother and sister.
  • Badass Mustache: The principal.
  • Beautiful All Along -- Torako actually manages to be cuter than Ayumi when she goes for it. Inori is a more typical example. After Torako remakes her, she turns out to be quite cute.
    • Toma gets pretty cleaned up as well for the festival.
  • Berserk Button -- Tatsuki does not like being ignored.
  • Bi the Way -- Nene. She casually reveals it...while inspecting Ayumi's panties. She is more of a schoolgirl lesbian though, since she focuses way more on girls than on guys, though this is more of her being shown around the main cast more.
  • Big Eater -- Suzume.
  • Bishie Sparkle -- Kageyama Oniyuri's legs.
  • Blank White Eyes -- Hitsugi, a lot, although it doesn't necessarily show her emotional state: at least once she's had Blank White Eyes while smiling cheerfully.
  • Blinding Bangs -- Inori.
  • Blind Without'Em -- Chie.
  • Body Motifs -- The Kageyama Siblings each have a single accessory adorning their left ear.
  • Brand X -- Trickstar Coffee, Pockily snacks, and the T-Phone.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall -- At the beginning of the Student Council Elections arc (see Serious Business below), Torako witnessed a vicious assault and wondered in shock "Is this really Hyakko?"
  • The Charmer -- Ayumi has some of this, even though she doesn't quite realize it herself. Torako does realize it, and in episode six uses Ayumi as a sort of human cuteness shield to protect her from Tatsuki's anger.
    • Minato arguably qualifies as well, but she doesn't use it quite as much to her advantage as she could.
  • Cat Smile -- Koma sports a perpetual one, along with Eyes Always Shut.
  • Cheerful Child, Teen Genius, Token Loli -- Hitsugi, who fills all of these roles at once.
  • Chewing the Scenery -- Nene has her moments.
  • Class Representative -- Nene. Torako is shocked that she doesn't have glasses like every other example of the trope.
  • Cloudcuckoolander -- Suzume, the quiet one of the group, who tends to speak very little. When she does, it's usually a little strange. Also, she turned up at the front gate in her gym clothes once, to the surprise of everyone (and the delight of Nene).
    • Also Hitsugi's friend Yagi, who at one time, greets her with a sweeping leg hold and enjoys acting out non sequiturs.
  • Cool Old Guy -- The Principal, he lets the student council run the programs and wears a freaking general's uniform while overseeing the school-wide BB-gun battle competition.
  • Custom Uniform -- Despite Nene's attempts to check if everyone's in their uniform (not that she is), several characters in the main cast wear the school uniform with at least some variation.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond -- Minato.
  • Delinquents -- Ushio, who talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
  • Demoted to Extra -- Hitsugi is relegated to a far less important role in the anime, and never interacts with the main four at all, which mirrors the first few volumes of the manga as she wasn't promoted to the same grade yet, so there is still hope for her in the next season--if there ever is one.
  • Dirty Old Man -- Nene certainly acts like one, although she's not nearly bad enough to qualify as a full-on Depraved Bisexual.
  • Dojikko -- Minato.
  • Elevator School
  • Elaborate University High -- So elaborate that the entire first episode is spent wandering around it, trying to find a classroom.
  • Erotic Eating -- Somehow, Ayumi invoked this trope for Torako. With noodles. Also, Torako with a chocolate-covered banana on a stick while at a festival, in chapter 29. The resulting Nosebleeds are particularly grand; Nene gushes blood, while Shishimaru passes out from blood loss. Nene immediately suggests they go for hot dogs later...
  • Everything's Better with Penguins -- The school mascot.
  • Evil Laugh: Chie is introduced with intense Mad Scientist vibes, including the laugh. Then the others with her in the school's robotics laboratory tell her to knock it off.
  • Expressive Hair -- Suzume's Odango.
  • Expy -- Koma has an uncanny resemblance to Tamami from Chocotto Sister.
  • Face Framed in Shadow: The principal. Even in the daylight we don't actually see anything more than his mustache.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence -- Torako at one point uses excessive violence against a teacher to prevent being caught after breaking a window.
  • Former Teen Rebel -- Amagasa-sensei, who used to be known as "The Wolfblade".
  • Four-Girl Ensemble
  • Friendless Background -- There are very strong indications that Tatsuki had no friends before high school.
  • Gadgeteer Genius -- Chie, also the meganekko.
  • Gaussian Girl -- When Torako first meets Hitsugi, she invites the younger girl to "Call me Torako-oneechan!" As Hitsugi hesitantly does so, everything about her face except the eyes goes blurry. "SO CUTE!"
  • Genki Girl -- Torako, by far.
  • Hollywood Tone Deaf -- Torako and Ushio. Oh. My. God!
  • Honest John's Dealership -- Koma.
  • Hot for Teacher -- Torako seems suspiciously glad to run into Amagasa-sensei during the Halloween festival. Shishimaru certainly thinks so.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl -- a friendship example: Kumahiko and Torako, who both grew up in the same neighborhood and went through elementary and middle school together. Though Oniyuri's flashback indicates Kumahiko grew remarkably tall in the last year or two; during middle school he and Torako were much closer in height.
  • Huge Schoolgirl -- Minato.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers -- In the school survival game, Ushio and Minato caught Nara apparently alone and opened up on him with full-auto BB guns. He wasn't alone after all -- Shishimaru of the Kendo Club protected him by swatting all the BBs out of the air with his bokken. Ushio had time to say "That's impossible" before Nara capped her and Minato with a single BB each.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold -- Ushio (acts like a jerk as part of her Delinquents persona) and Torako (who just tends to be a bit too Genki for her own good, but is good on the bottom).
    • Also Kumahiko is painfully shy around women and usually nice if given a reason.
  • Jerkass -- Torako's brother Kitsune, at least towards the girls, though he is a little bit nice to Ayumi.
    • Nara. He's so nasty that the artist draws his teeth looking like a bear trap. He's even harsh to the girl who's in love with him ... except that he can't stand to see her cry.
  • Karaoke Box
  • Knowledge Broker -- Kitsune, the "All-Knowing Spirit." He demands a secret -- the more embarrassing, the better -- as the price for information.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: For a 12-episodes anime, there's certainly a large cast.
    • The title page for Chapter 40 has pictures of all the students in class 1-6 -- 40 of them -- and then, throughout the chapter, the family name of any class member who's shown is displayed (including the ones we already knew) ... and there's a class discussion going on, so just about everybody is shown. If it doesn't put names to all 40 students, it certainly comes close.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac -- Nene. Her kind of behavior would certainly get guys in trouble.
  • Magic Skirt
  • Male Gaze -- This is a Seinen series after all.
  • Meaningful Name -- There are a lot of names, but the most obvious is Kageyama Kitsune, who has shifty fox eyes and also has the nickname of the "All-Knowing Spirit".
  • Mondegreen -- Ushio's karaoke session is rendered as a string of nonsense language when she's really singing out the Zodiac, which is relevant to the show's Theme Naming.
  • Mood Whiplash -- Episode 12 inserted drama yet to be seen in the series.
  • Nosebleed -- Nene is susceptible to these when she gets a cute girl overload.
  • Not Blood Siblings -- Torako is actually a step-sibling of Kitsune and Oniyuri.
  • Odango Hair -- Suzume.
  • Ojou -- Tatsuki, except she doesn't give off the vibe.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall -- One instance is Tatsuki's thought bubbles actually being narrated by Nene before Tatsuki tells her to stop.
  • Placeholder Titles -- During the original broadcast, it wasn't until episode nine that the opening finally had animation of its own.
  • Real Trailer, Fake Movie -- Episode six features an extended and epic preview for the next episode that resembles an action flick (something like a cross between Neon Genesis Evangelion and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) more than the slice of life school comedy the show actually is. The "trailer" ended with an acknowledgment that the actual episode "might not" be accurately represented. "Please forgive us."
  • Robot Me -- Mecha-Torako, Torako's stand-in.
    • Also, Mecha-Suzume.
  • Sacred First Kiss -- Torako loses hers to Suzume.
  • Scenery Porn
  • Sensei-chan: Gender-flipped, Amagasa-sensei is very informal with his students, and has met Torako on occasion while online gaming.
  • Serious Business -- Student Council President elections in volume 5 of the manga. Threats, attacks, information brokering, backstabbing and politicking... One would almost think the candidates involved were jockeying for control of a criminal organization, not a student council.
    • And the deciding factor for the entire thing? A freaking mixed martial arts match. Complete with fighting ring.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely : Gender-flipped, again with Amaga-sensei, when he not only retains his makeover appearance the next day (when everyone else who had one reverts to their usual appearance) but attempted improved on it.

Torako: He still looks the same ... and he's evolved?!

  • Ship Tease -- Torako and Touma, definitely. The culture festival ladles out an extra spoonful of teasing for Kitsune and Ayumi, too.
  • Shrinking Violet -- Inori, right down to the hair covering the eyes.
  • Shout-Out -- To Genshiken, which gets mention as one of the school's clubs.
    • Nene gets the facial expression and diction of Lupin in one of her most lecherous moments.
    • During a school-wide shooting tournament, teachers Amagasa and Fumizuki dress up as Lupin and Jigen respectively; this was Amagasa's idea.
      • Also, one of the teams, using a sniper, was called Team Golgo.
    • Torako starts dropping references to Ushio and Tora once she learns Ushio's name.
    • In chapter 41, the school's Halloween-themed culture festival is full of Shout Outs to anime, manga, games, movies, and TV shows given that everyone's in some kind of costume. Spider-Man, Angels, Marisa, Suwako, Mega Man, Morrigan Aensland, Golden Darkness, and Friend, to name just a few.
    • The "next episode preview" that follows episode 6 -- see Real Trailer, Fake Movie above -- includes a scene of Sadako-lookalike Inori crawling out of what appears to be a well.
    • Chapter 35 has Kumahiko being introduced to a variety of the girls, in hopes of helping him with his shyness. He towers over Hitsugi, and Tatsuki says she thinks she's "seen this scene in a Ghib○ film before." Kumahiko agrees that "It's like I'm some giant she met in a forest!"
    • Much of Chapter 39 is a flashback describing why Ayumi became so lonely and shy (see Friendless Background above). The person narrating it uses aliases based on Project A-ko for the other two sides of the love triangle ... although the names used don't match up with the personalities of the A-ko characters.
  • Slice of Life
  • Stalker with a Crush -- Torako tends to act like this toward Touma, which she even openly admits.
    • And if you think that's bad, never let Minato owe you a favour.
  • Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl -- Inori unintentionally gives off a Sadako vibe. This is cited by name in Chapter 35, not only the narration but Kumahiko actually calling her "a Sadako."
  • Talking to Herself: In a kind of Meta example, the seiyuu for Torako (Orikasa Fumiko) and Tatsuki (Michiko Neya) have each voiced Riza Hawkeye in different seasons.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo -- Tatsuki.
  • Theme Naming -- All major female players have the kanji for one of the twelve animals of the Zodiac in their names. The lead four relate to The Four Gods.
  • Thirteen Episode Anime: Including a OVA, that's twelve minutes.
  • This Is My Name on Foreign -- Before a dodgeball game, Torako has fun translating peoples' names as literally as possible.
  • Those Two Girls: Hitsugi and Yagi in the anime.
  • Tsundere -- Touma Kazamatsuri, although Torako argues that she has no deredere side.
    • This troper thinks Tatsuki is a bit of this as well.
  • Visible Sigh
  • Vitriolic Best Buds -- Tatsuki and Torako develop into something of a type 2 version, though it's not apparent even to Tatsuki until the others run off after school one day without her and she wonders sadly if they abandoned her. They didn't; at Torako's insistence, they raced to Tatsuki's home ahead of her to give her a surprise visit. Torako's usually doing something to annoy Tatsuki, and Tatsuki is usually complaining that she doesn't want anything to do with Torako while yet going along with Torako's latest idea.
  • Wacky Homeroom
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? -- Parodied extensively in the anime. Torako loves to set these moments up, only for them to fall completely flat, such as trying to serve in tennis.
  • Whole-Episode Flashback
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