Kanamemo

Yahoo!

Middle school student Kana Nakamachi has just lost her grandmother, her only remaining family member. Fearing that the repo men will take her too, she packs up what she can into a knapsack. With just that and the clothes on her back, she sets off to find a place to stay. Meanwhile, the Fuhshin News office is looking for work, and the closest thing they've been able to find is a stray cat. With no one willing to take Kana in, she ends up having an unfortunate run-in with one of Fuhshin's employees, who's out for a bike ride, and gets knocked unconscious.

When she wakes up, she finds herself in the office. They're willing to take her in. The Fuhshin News is an odd place. With an all-girl staff full of oddballs, Kana tries her best to adjust and make her way in the world as a delivery girl.

Based on the Yonkoma manga by Shoko Iwami, the series got an anime adaptation in the summer of 2009.

Tropes in Kanamemo include:
"Kana: The senior members of the shop said that if that electric meter is spinning rapidly, someone is inside.
 * A-Cup Angst -- Subverted. Kana says that she would be quite patient and says that she'll grow up to be pretty tall and busty.
 * Played straight, however, for Mika on the 5th episode.
 * Adorkable -- Kana can technically be seen as this, as well as Yume.
 * Adult Child -- While Haruka does have a few moments of maturity, and was even mentioned that she goes to college, we really mostly see her act like this
 * Alien Abduction -- No aliens or abductions have appeared in the series, but that doesn't stop Kana from thinking that they have.
 * April Fool's Plot -- Chapter 26 of the manga has signs of this. It starts with Hinata and Haruka creeping out Kana involving demons. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Art Shift -- Yume's "recollection" of one of her childhood stories shifts into a crayon style drawing.
 * Beach Episode -- Probably the world's first musical pool episode. Even if the destination of Waterland is never reached, there are still plenty of swimsuits and fanservice.
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished -- Averted. It's quite common for everyone to get dirty, considering they deliver newspapers.
 * Berserk Button --
 * Beware the Nice Ones -- Interestingly, Kana herself in the manga.

Mika: It's clearly spinning.

Kana: Hello! Please come out! And if you don't come out, Mika-chan is going to strip nude and dance around! (chuckles)

Mika: WHO THE HELL WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"

"Hinata: We got flashlights and candles?
 * Big Eater: Surprisingly enough, Kana. Helps that she can cook.
 * Big No: Done with Kana on the end of the 6th episode.
 * It's done by everybody (except Saki) in the manga on chapter 6.
 * Blank White Eyes -- Kana does this frequently.
 * Blind Without'Em -- Haruka
 * Bokukko -- Hinata
 * Bottle Fairy -- Haruka
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick -- Slight variation in the manga:

Haruka: I have them. (is shown to have a whip)

Hinata: (throws a whip at Haruka)I don't need whips!"

"Haruka: The way Kana speaks her words seem like you're drunk. If only I had such way with words...
 * Buffy-Speak -- Especially from Kana in the anime.
 * Lampshaded by Haruka:

Saki: Well, you spoke Spanish once, didn't you?

Haruka: I thank Ricky Martin."

"Yuuki: It's a cat with a mustache.
 * Butt Monkey -- Haruka.
 * Captain's Log -- The manga does a better job at this, since Kana has a diary early on, while the anime crosses Talking to The Dead and Monologue territory.
 * Captain Obvious -- Done and lampshaded wonderfully on a chapter in volume 3, when the girls are finding a girl's cat:

Hinata: (Deadpan) Why thanks, Yuuki, I realized that I was blind for a second.

Yuuki: Well, answer me this; do you see stuff like this everyday?

Hinata: No, but you didn't need to point him out. Who else thinks that was unnecessary?

Mika: (deadpan) I think this comedy act is unnecessary. Can we just get the freaking cat already?

Kana: She's right. We'll then check if that mustache is real or not.

Mika: THAT'S NOT THE REASON WE--whatever."

"Yume:No worries, nothin' like a little cat poop laser to solve the problem."
 * The Cast Showoff -- Again, the Musical Episode.
 * Cameo -- Of a sort; the ending picture in every episode features fan art done by various manga artists, including Kurogane Ken, Miyabi Fujieda, and Kakifly.
 * Cartoon Physics -- No doubt makes the charm of the show, with Saki's hair being alive one time, and pretty much almost anything involving Haruka.
 * Cast Full of Gay -- Four of the seven main cast members are shown to be inclined towards females, and none show any interest in males, not that they have many opportunities to.
 * The manga has 5 out of 7. Who's the other lesbian? Believe it or not, it's.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: Turns into more of a dramedy during the second half of the anime series.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl -- Yuuki in regards to Yume. ** Well, she is not so clingy overall, but compensates for that with extreme fits of jealousy--which Yume luckily manages to defuse quickly.
 * Cloudcuckoolander -- Haruka. She's a Psycho Lesbian lolicon, gets drunk most of the time, and has really pervy imaginations.
 * Then there's Yume, who kinda overdoes it when it comes to sweets.

"Haruka: VIVA LA TYPHOON!"
 * Kana, as well. She once thought her friends were kidnapped by hamster aliens.
 * Curtains Match the Window -- Every girl. Just look at the pic above.
 * The Ditz -- Haruka confirms herself as one on chapter 4 of the manga.
 * Deadpan Snarker -- Hinata and Saki.
 * To the point that Word of God mentions that he enjoyed writing those two so much, he made them sort of wise-cracking duo starting in Volume 3.
 * The rest of the cast show possible signs of this, sometimes dragging the show closer to World of Snark territory...
 * Deliberately Cute Child -- Saki, outside of the office, is very skilled at putting on the "innocent elementary schooler" act.
 * Depending On the Writer -- Kana has a pretty bad case with this on the manga. She can be either be happy, easily panicked, nervous, confused and/or shy to slightly deadpan, snarky, a trickster and/or can even be a tease. The anime averts this...until the last episode were she goes on her trickster self with Mika.
 * Makes you wonder, though, why doesn't she become a trickster to people like Haruka?
 * Dirty Old Woman -- Haruka may not be old enough to qualify, but mentally she's already there.
 * Dojikko -- Kana
 * Double Standard -- Hardly any male characters could be as blatant a lolicon as Haruka and get away with it with audiences.
 * Downer Ending -- Played for Laughs in episode 9.
 * Executive Meddling -- An OVA was planned...then were forced to cancel it due to modest sales of the DVD. They instead worked on Kissxsis, unfortunately.
 * The reason why the 5th episode had more Censor Steam than the TV version?
 * Positive example: head writer Rika Nagase wanted a slightly more dramatic direction with Kana to make her character deeper and easier to sympathize with. She also said that the musical episode was indeed an Affectionate Parody of musicals, along with some inspiration from The Producers.
 * Cute Kitten -- Bunta, the kitten that Yume brought home, serves as the series' mascot and becomes a mainstay of the office.
 * This kitten also serves as the default censor image. In which there are a lot of. See episode 5.
 * Episode 6 ramps this Up to Eleven...in a scary way.
 * Festival Episode
 * First-Name Basis -- Though it takes a full episode for it to happen, Kana and Mika do eventually shift to this with each other.
 * Gangsta Style -- Of the "bandana around mouth" variant done by Mika on chapter 22.
 * Gayngst -- Subverted for a change. What appears to be yet another unhappy ending for an anime lesbian couple, complete with talk of Yuuki "growing up" and coping without Yume, turns out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding on Kana's part of a matter involving a visit to the dentist and a return home for a memorial service, with Yume and Yuuki happily reunited at the end of the episode.
 * Gratuitous English -- While searching for subscribers, Kana and Mika encounter "Aran Smythee", who speaks English about as well as one might expect of an American character in a comedy anime.
 * Bonus points goes for the fact that the national anthem was playing was during that scene.
 * Gratuitous Spanish:

"Kana: Supposedly it's a pun on the word memorandum, since "Kanadiary" wouldn't catch on, wouldn't you agree, Yume?
 * Gross Up Close-Up -- Episode 6 has one of these.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! -- Yui Horie as Haruka, Rie Kugimiya as Mika and Aki Toyosaki (this anime premiered only months after her first main role in K-On!)
 * Hide Your Lesbians -- Completely averted with Yume and Yuuki. They are clearly shown to be an item.
 * Kana doesn't seem to think they're that close, though, which is quite confusing.
 * Hot Springs Episode -- Public bath version. Includes Haruka trying to Skinship Grope Kana and Mika.
 * Hypocritical Humor -- Episode 5 has Yume hugging Kana at one point, of course, Yuuki being a Clingy Jealous Girl, scares Kana (and everyone else). A few minutes later, Yume scares Kana, with Yuuki then being annoyed with Yume for doing that.
 * Imagine Spot -- Haruka. They're never innocent, and usually involve Kana. Her first one was wondering which anime archetype (a Dojikko, a Tomboy, an Ill Girl or a Tsundere) would end up working at the office. In her ideal world, it would be all of them.
 * Ms. Imagination -- Considering how much Haruka does this.
 * Kana has these, too, with a bit of Cloudcukoolander.
 * I Am Not Shazam -- Lampshades it's title on an omake in the manga, also referring to infamous examples such as the Die Hard and Avatar examples:

Yume: I'm just worried that it's gonna have the John McClane or Na'vi effect.

Saki: Ugh, I hate that."

"Hinata: DING! Full equipment!"
 * Improbable Age -- Saki Amano really is that young, and she's the one running the entire operation. It's immediately lampshaded by Kana.
 * Improbably-Female Cast
 * The Jimmy Hart Version -- Was that the Pirates of the Caribbean theme on episode 13?
 * Kissing Discretion Shot -- Averted!
 * Konami Code -- In the Manga.

"Hinata: It's a good thing Haruka isn't a guy."
 * Lampshade Hanging

"Hinata: (deadpan) You're making me sick with these awesome antics. What the the hell is this shit?
 * Late for School -- Haruka deliberately attempts to invoke this from Kana.
 * Lethal Chef -- Yume is a pastry chef in training, and tends to put too much sugar into whatever she cooks. Yuuki is the only one who enjoys eating Yume's food repeatedly tells herself she enjoys eating Yume's food because she's her girlfriend. When cooking something which really should involve sugar she does much better, except for one episode where she mistakes the salt for the sugar and makes salty cookies.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac -- Haruka. Yes, even when sober.
 * Love Bubbles -- Caution: Yume and Yuuki in close proximity might cause severe drops in visibility!
 * Lolicon -- Haruka, very very very clearly.
 * Meganekko -- Haruka.
 * Metaphorgotten -- Yuki gets a very elaborate one in episode 11.
 * Mood Whiplash -- Plenty of slapstick humor and silly dialogue to go around - but we're frequently reminded that Kana is a recently orphaned junior high school student. Averted in the manga, though.
 * Mr. Vice Guy -- Hinata is both a valuable member of the Fushin News and a greedy penny-pincher who saves every last coin she can get her hands on. Partly because she's failed her college entrance exams more than once.
 * Musical Episode -- For no apparent reason, episode four has everyone breaking out into song and dance. Doubles as Crowning Music of Awesome and Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * Negative Continuity -- The end of episode 9 suggests that Haruka was arrested (Played for Laughs and/or Rule of Funny, possibly). It goes back to status quo in the next episode.
 * New Transfer Student -- Mika
 * Ojou -- Mika
 * Official Couple -- Yume and Yuuki.
 * Offscreen Teleportation -- Haruka and Yume do this every once in a while
 * Only Sane Girl/SanityBall -- Zigzagged between either Kana, Hinata, Mika, Saki or Yume.
 * Opposites Attract -- Bubbly Yume and quiet Yuuki.
 * Good-natured Kana and sarcastic Mika have something of this as well.
 * On the manga (and on the 13th epsode of the anime), though, Kana seems to enjoy making fun of Mika for a bit.
 * Out of Focus -- The manga also focuses on Kana's school life. The anime has only bits and pieces.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation -- Where. To. Begin.
 * For starters, in the manga, Kana is able to get over her grandmother's death quite easily, while the anime has a more realistic interpretation of this, as well as better Character Development. She's also more of a Shrinking Violet.
 * Yume and Yuuki's relationship is more overt and noticeable, as they kiss on the very first episode, and quite often are implied to make out.
 * The character of Marimo is added in the anime, a former employer who had similarities with Kana, only supposedly she was really clumsy and is a ditz (which is odd, because her both appearances has being well-mannered) It gave a bit of character development for Saki.
 * Mika gets to hang with the whole Fuushin News gang by the 5th episode, The manga didn't have her hang out with them until the 3rd volume.
 * The scenes in Kana's school are quite non-existent, as well as Kana's other friends (who, oddly enough, are in the opening), which probably explains why Mika appears so quiet.
 * The pop culture jokes are also pretty much gone, focusing more on the slapstick and clever dialogue.
 * Some of the episodes aren't even stories in the manga (episodes 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12), some are taking stories from the manga differently.
 * In the manga Kana gradually develops romantic feelings for Mika and even teases Mika sometimes. The anime reverses this, or at least plays up Mika's feelings for Kana while making Kana oblivious to Mika's feelings, in an attempt to make Mika more of a Tsundere.
 * Precision F-Strike -- The manga has chapter 12 do this with Hinata, who can't seem to believe Saki's act:

Saki: Think about the money. You'll feel better."

"Hinata: Delivering on rainy days really sucks. We have to wear rain coats, and get our feet wet.
 * Prehensile Hair -- Saki, but only in the second episode.
 * The Pollyanna -- Parodied on chapter 14 of the manga: (it's even called "I Can't Be A Pollyanna".

Kana: We can't dry our laundry, either.

Hinata: The roads get slippery too, and then...

Kana: It won't make things better if you keep talking about it. How about you stop thinking about the negatives and focus on the positives?

Hinata: Like what?

Kana: Like...

(beat)

Kana: Rainy days suck."

"Kana:
 * Poor Communication Kills -- Episode 10, no doubt. Kana thinks that Yuuki wouldn't live without Yume, with Yuuki going as far as being as over-dramatic, only to turn out that she had a denture problem.
 * The Quiet One -- Yuuki.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship -- Mika seems to form forms a crush on Kana during the course of the series. It's rather one-sided for the most part, though. Saki had a similar friendship with Marimo, a former employee, and seems to have transferred some of her Tsundere tendencies over to Kana in Marimo's absence.
 * Kana×Mika is far more blatant in the manga.
 * Volume 3 has

Mika:

Kana:

Mika:

Kana:"

"Hinata: Do you know about me? I originally thought I would have to (beep) with (beep) to (beep).
 * Refuge in Audacity -- The primary reason Haruka's a Base Breaker and not The Scrappy.
 * Rule of Funny -- A grown, busty girl molesting little girls, a lesbian couple being really together, and a Kindergarden aged girl being in charge of a delivery service. Yeah, it's weird, but really hilarious.
 * Grown Lesbians -- Yume and Yuuki are boldly in love with each other. They share several kisses in the first episode already and are not shy to display their affection.
 * Screwed By the Network -- Inverted. The 5th episode was censored on TV, but the DVD version was also censored with tons of steam. However, the TV version looked like there was no steam, and considering it aired on TV Tokyo (which is an amazing accomplishment to do, by the way), this is jarring.
 * Shout-Out -- The manga makes a surprisng amount of pop culture references to some pretty obscure stuff.
 * A simple version: chapter 24 makes references to Spirited Away, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro.
 * Sequel Hook
 * Serious Business -- Pretend riding a bike, apparently, as
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts -- Yume and Yuuki, most of the time.
 * Sick Episode -- A string of colds hits everyone at Fuhshin except for Haruka and Hinata. Yume and Yuuki end up proving that love really is the best medicine.
 * Slapstick Knows No Gender -- The anime focuses on this kind of humor.
 * Social Services Does Not Exist -- So, a young girl loses her only remaining relative, and the only organization that checks in on her place is the repo men?
 * Sound Effect Bleep -- Done...strangely in episode 13, as is Kana making random noises when Haruka asks her to badmouth her.
 * Instead, the manga does this, which is immediately lampshaded by Kana, combined with Medium Awareness:

Kana: I cannot understand you with so many words ommitted."

"Mika: I don't give a frig!"
 * Spaghetti Kiss -- Haruka and Kana in one of Haruka's Imagine Spots.
 * Stat-O-Vision -- Haruka has a loli power level scanner built into her glasses as revealed in the 5th epsiode.
 * Super-Deformed -- The ending theme.
 * Take Our Word for It -- We never get to see Kana's first attempt at a salesman smile -- just everyone's horrified reactions.
 * Talking to The Dead -- Kana converses with her grandmother at the start and end of every episode in the anime.
 * Team Chef -- Kana, taking over the position from Yume, who's not quite cut out for the job.
 * Team Pet -- Bunta.
 * Theme Naming -- The surnames of the main cast all relate to a direction, with Kana's surname having the kanji for "center" in it.
 * The Tease -- Curiously,.
 * Three Is Company -- After Yume leaves without warning, Yuuki's reactions to a cavity and a few Coincidental Broadcasts end up making Kana go crazy.
 * Tsundere -- Mika Kujiin, as her seiyuu should indicate...

"Yume: Yuuki shall be more proactive in bed."
 * Too Much Information -- While playing a game of Sugoroku:

"Kana: Aren't you taking this a bit too seriously?
 * Tsurime Eyes -- Hinata.
 * Unknown Rival -- Mika Kujiin, who works at a rival newspaper office, considers Kana to be her rival. The feeling is not mutual. It gets lampshaded:

Mika: It's a habit. Competition delights me."

"Yuuki: The real saying is 'If the wind blows, the bucket maker has good sales.' Which means that sneezing is proof of you being cursed by someone. In order to get rid of that curse, you need to obtain a straw doll. Additionally, you need long nails, which in turn leads to a lot of business for nail makers, causing a supply shortage. As a result, construction of houses becomes almost impossible, and everybody has to live in pit-like dwellings. That in turn leads to less wood being used, and less forests being cut down. Because the forests are being protected, the CO2 levels are reduced, and everybody is happy because of an environmentally responsible lifestyle. (stutters for several more seconds until steam comes out her ears, then passes out)"
 * Wham! Episode: Episode 8 of the anime introduces a character that wasn't in the manga, as wella bit of backstory of the Fuushin Gazatte before Kana came. Drama ensures.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous? -- Kana promising to tell a small secret from Mika on the 13th episode. Let's just say it's bizarre.
 * Wiki Walk -- Yuuki indulges in one, right before collapsing from a fever.


 * Wise Beyond Their Years -- Saki, by quite a bit.
 * With Friends Like These... -- Haruka is somehow friends with everyone despite her pervertedness causing her being the Butt Monkey. She deserves it most of the time, but still, you'd think Saki (who, before Kana came, was Haruka's frequent victim) would fire her after all that.
 * Yuri Genre