Kimi to Boku



Kimi to Boku is a Shounen and Slice of Life manga that has an anime adaption revolving around four Childhood Friends--Kaname Tsukahara, Shun Matsuoka, and twin brothers Yuki and Yuta Asaba--and a new transfer student, half-German and half-Japanese Chizuru Tachibana, who joins their circle, as they enter "their 17th spring" of high school.

A sequel started airing as a part of the Spring 2012 Anime.

This series provides the following tropes:
"Fuyuki: [earlier in the chapter] If she calls the house when I'm in the shower and my parents... My parents end up answering it... If, if that happens, and they ask me, who was that just now? H-How... am I supposed to answer..."
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Many of the love interests or love triangles end up like this to a degree. Chizuru develops a crush on Masaki, who's oblivious and has a crush on Shun, who's also oblivious and later into the series. Hisako has feelings for Kaname, who in turn has feelings for Hisako's older sister. Yuki seems interested in the cafeteria worker Kayo but their relationship doesn't go beyond one-sided mild interest, and Yuta gets a girlfriend named Takahashi in Chapter 9,  Subverted in that
 * Almost Kiss:
 * Beauty Mark: Chizuru has one under his right eye.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Chizuru and Masaki.
 * Bishounen: Arguably, all of the boys, but twins Yuki and Yuta get the most attention In-Universe.
 * Bridal Carry: Chizuru carries Masaki to the infirmary after she gets hit by a ball in Chapter 26.
 * Brutal Honesty: Akira.
 * The Bus Came Back: Takahashi appears in Chapter 26 to give Yuta some Valentine's Day chocolate
 * But Not Too Foreign: Chizuru is half-German.
 * Butt Monkey: Kaname, who is often the butt of jokes, and Chizuru, who often gets hurt by either Kaname or Masaki.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Masaki in her feelings for Shun, and Chizuru in his feelings for Masaki.
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys
 * Childhood Friends: Kaname, Shun, Yuki, and Yuta. Koichi and Akira. Kaname and Hisako.
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Chizuru.
 * Class Representative: Kaname.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Shun, Yuki, and Yuta.
 * Colour Coded for Your Convenience : When they don't dress in matching clothes, Yuta wears blue and Yuki usually wears red or yellow.
 * Cool Teacher: Koichi.
 * Cross Dresser: Shun, Yuta, and Chizuru during the cultural festival.
 * Cuteness Proximity: Shun, when it comes to anything cool or cute-related.
 * The Cutie: Shun.
 * Dance of Romance: and Chizuru/Masaki during the sports festival.
 * Date Peepers: Kaname, Shun, Yuki, and Chizuru not-so-subtly spying on Yuta's date with Takahashi.
 * Daydream Surprise: Chizuru has a dream about Masaki undressing. Cue him waking up with a red face.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Yuki and Yuta.
 * Dogged Nice Guy: Masaki is a gender-flipped version for Shun, while Chizuru plays this trope straight in regards to Masaki.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me: Due to Masaki's petite stature, she is prideful and hates being offered help, taking it as being looked down on. This changes after Shun goes out of his way to help her, while others would merely give up after getting rebuffed.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Chizuru after mistaking Shun for a girl.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Shun, whose effeminate looks get him mistaken as a girl often.
 * Dumb Is Good: Shun is so naive that he needs his friends to explain that Boyfriend + Girlfriend + Bedroom - Parental Supervision does not equal "studying".
 * Extreme Doormat: Takahashi.
 * Everyone Can See It:
 * Everyone can see that Masaki has a crush on Shun... except Shun.
 * Chizuru doesn't figure it out for a while too, but once he does, he realizes that he likes Masaki.
 * Fairy Tale Motifs:
 * This is the theme of Shun's and Yuta's crossdressing cafe during the cultural festival.
 * Played with when Chizuru views Kayo as a Cinderella-figure as she's a pretty girl working as a cafeteria worker. When two students give her trouble and ask for extra food (due to Yuki getting extra food because he got a wrong order), Chizuru assumes that their Cinderella is a "fragile girl who never complains even when she's being bullied" and attempts to be her Knight in Shining Armour. Before he gets the chance to, it turns out that Kayo is able to handle herself rather coolly, surprising the gang.
 * Fan Boy: Ryunosuke towards Yuki.
 * Five Man Band
 * Flash Back: There are several chapters dedicated to the gang's time in preschool to Koichi and Akira during their elementary and high school years.
 * Flower Motif
 * Generation Xerox: When the gang visits their old preschool, a boy there has a crush on one of his classmates and gets jealous of Kaname's interactions with her, mirroring Kaname's Precocious Crush on Kaori-sensei and getting jealous of Koichi's interactions with her.
 * Genius Ditz/Idiot Savant: Yuki is surprisingly athletic in spite of his indifferent reaction towards sports.
 * Girl Next Door: Hisako to Kaname.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Pretty much the whole gang. Also, Koichi and Akira.
 * Holding Hands: Masaki holds Shun's hand while he walks her home, but the moment sours when Shun suggests that they must look like siblings after a woman notices that they're "getting along well." During the haunted house in the cultural festival, Masaki thinks that she grabbed onto Shun's hand after getting scared, but it turns out to be Chizuru's.
 * Hot Mom: Kaname's mother.
 * Hypocritical Humor: The "Chocobanana" guy making fun of Chizuru's height during the cultural festival has elements of this
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
 * Chizuru often goes out of his way to help Masaki whenever it concerns Shun, in spite of his own happiness. Notable examples include retrieving Masaki's lost bear key chain that she received from Shun, cheering her up whenever she feels embarassed or feels that Shun got the wrong idea about something, and when he used his own Christmas present (a ribbon for Masaki) to replace the messed up ribbon on Masaki's present for Shun. Subverted in that this doesn't stop Chizuru from romantically pursing Masaki.
 * Imaginary Love Triangle: A preschool-aged Kaname gets jealous when he thinks that Kaori-sensei might prefer Koichi over him.
 * Imagine Spot: Ryunosuke has this in Episode 8 involving different scenarios between Yuta and the gang (e.g. Super Sentai, samurai, delinquent fights).
 * In Series Nickname/The Nicknamer: Chizuru gives everyone nicknames: Kaname as "Kaname-chi," Shun as "Shun-chan," Yuki as "Yukki," Yuta as "Yutan," and Masaki as "Mary" after "Mary had a Little Lamb." Kaname also calls Chizuru as "Monkey Boy."
 * Indirect Kiss:
 * Hilariously discussed as Yuki worries about this when he has to drink from the same tea cup as Kaname, to his annoyance.
 * In Chapter 20, when rumors spread that Kaname and Masaki are dating because two girls thought they saw them kissing, Chizuru attacks Kaname and tries to get the Masaki's indirect kiss through Kaname.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Shun's younger brother Fuyuki.
 * Keet: Shun and Chizuru.
 * Letting Her Hair Down: Kayo does this a few times, and it's during one of these occasions that Yuki notices her hair is curly/damaged.
 * Likes Older Women
 * Twice has Kaname had crushes on older women: his preschool teacher and his neighbor's sister.
 * Yuki seemed awfully interested in the cafeteria worker Kayo.
 * Love Confession:
 * Love Hurts: In Chapter 26, Masaki attempts to give Valentine's Day chocolates to Shun, but sees him getting confessed to by another girl, so she runs off upset. The next chapter resolves things with Chizuru and Masaki eavesdropping on Shun later politely declining said girl's confession.
 * Love Interest: Each of the guys get their own (e.g. Hisako's sister and Hisako for Kaname, for Shun, Kayo for Yuki, and Takahashi for Yuta) or even a Love Triangle (e.g. Shun/Masaki/Chizuru and Hisako/Kaname/Shizuna).
 * Love Triangle: Chizuru develops feelings for Masaki, who has feelings for Shun, who is oblivious.
 * Sibling Triangle: Hisako has feelings for Kaname, who in turn has feelings for Hisako's sister.
 * Meaningful Echo: In Chapter 18, where it turns out both Fuyuki and Mamiya are both nervous about what they're supposed to tell their parents about the other.
 * Meaningful Echo: In Chapter 18, where it turns out both Fuyuki and Mamiya are both nervous about what they're supposed to tell their parents about the other.

"Mamiya: [later in the chapter] I mean, if you walk me home... What if my parents see you and ask, "Who was that just now?" ... How am I supposed to answer that...?

Fuyuki: Ah... Who knew it'd be so embarrassing when two parties like each other. ... Just say I'm your boyfriend."

"Kaname's Mother: What's more important to you, Kaname-kun? Studying or your mother?
 * Meet Cute:
 * Megane: Kaname, Koichi, and the Class Representative during Koichi's and Akira's high school years.
 * Memento MacGuffin: Kaname carefully keeps a photo of Hisako, Hisako's sister Shizuna, and himself during a barbecue. This hints at his feelings for Hisako's sister (to Hisako's personal annoyance). Masaki strongly cherishes a bear key chain given to her by Shun at a summer festival.
 * Mistaken for Aliens: When Akira first meets Koichi, he mistakes the latter for this after watching a television show with a similar premise.
 * Moment Killer: Hisako's older sister Shizuna has a particular when she walks in on in Chapter 61.
 * My Beloved Smother: Kaname's mother.
 * New Transfer Student: Chizuru. Koichi in elementary school.
 * No Name Given: Hisako's sister's name is not given in the manga and is only called "Oneesan." The anime adaptation gives her a name: Shizuna. Also, Takahashi is only known by her last name in both the manga and anime; the anime credits reveal her first name, Rina.
 * Named By the Adaptation
 * Not Good With People: Yuki, who ignores people whose "voices don't resonate with [his] heart." Kaname points out that he merely doesn't listen.
 * Not What It Looks Like:
 * Twice in Chapter 20 between Kaname and Masaki. Two of Masaki's classmates see Kaname and Masaki sharing an umbrella together and mistakenly think they kissed. This only furthers when Masaki later purchases a gift for Shu and two guys start teasing Kaname because he's holding it (so they're under the impression that it's for him).
 * Kaname also suffers from this in the same chapter with Chizuru, who, thinking that Kaname and Masaki are dating and kissed, tries to take Masaki's Indirect Kiss through Kaname. Koichi bumps into them and assumes that Kaname and Chizuru must be the ones dating.
 * Oblivious to Love: Shun towards Masaki and Masaki towards Chizuru.
 * Odd Friendship: Koichi and Akira.
 * Oedipus Complex: The gang (minus Shun) just love to tease Kaname when it comes to his mother because they almost act like they're a couple.

Kaname: [Spit Take]

Yuki: Come on, she asked you something. "What's more important, me or your work?"

Chizuru: Don't make a girl cry!

Kaname: She's not asking me that! It's not like a fight between a man and a woman or something!

Yuta: Kaname, no matter how good you are at studying, you can't even understand a woman's heart.

Kaname: What's this about a woman's heart!"

"Yuki: Falling in love with your preschool teacher is a little precocious, isn't it?"
 * Older Than They Look: In his high school years, Akira gets this reaction.
 * One Degree of Separation: Kaname, Shun, Yuki, and Yuta have known each other since preschool, their high school teacher Koichi and his best friend Akira helped teach the gang's preschool class on an occasion when they were in high school, and Yuki played with Chizuru a few times as children.
 * Only Sane Man: Kaname.
 * Patient Childhood Love Interest: Hisako to Kaname.
 * Pettanko: Masaki.
 * Pinky Swear: In a flashback, Akira promises Koichi that he'll do his best (and subsequently pass the school year) on the test in this fashion. He doesn't pass the test, but manages to pass the school year after crying to his teacher about having to "cut his fingers off," taking the pinky swear seriously.
 * Plucky Girl: Masaki.
 * Precocious Crush: Kaname had a crush on his preschool teacher Kaori-sensei and the trope is almost described word-for-word by Yuki.


 * Sacred First Kiss: A preschool chapter involves Shun worrying over his first kiss.
 * Secret Relationship: Briefly between Yuta and Takahashi in Chapter 9/Episode 7.
 * Second Year Protagonist
 * Schoolgirl Series: Gender-inverted.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: Hilariously averted in Chapter 16. When a foreign woman is convinced that Chizuru is her son Michael and tries to bring him back home to America with her, she notices Shun and mistakes him as Chizuru's girlfriend. Chizuru goes along with it, probably thinking that it would help the situation, but it only makes things worse when the woman decides to bring both of them with her, leaving them to beg for help from the rest of the gang.
 * Ship Tease: Shun/Masaki, Chizuru/Masaki, Kaname/Shizuna, Kaname/Hisako, Yuta/Takahashi, and Yuki/Kayo. Even Kaname/Masaki is teased in one chapter, though it's more Played for Laughs and a double case of Not What It Looks Like.
 * Shounen
 * Showthe Forehead: Hisako and Kayo.
 * Shrinking Violet: Takahashi.
 * Sick Episode: Yuta in Chapter 4, Kaname in Chapter 7/Episode 4, and Chizuru in Chapter 44.
 * Single Minded Twins: Yuki and Yuta.
 * Slice of Life
 * Student Council President: Kaname.
 * Theme Twin Naming: Yuki and Yuta.
 * Tsundere: Kaname, Masaki, Chizuru, and Hisako.
 * Twice Shy: Shun's younger brother Fuyuki with his girlfriend Mamiya.
 * Umbrella of Togetherness: Played with in Chapter 20. Kaname offers to share his umbrella with Masaki after she loses hers, and they are mistaken for a couple by two girls. Chizuru and Masaki later bump into each other while shopping and it starts to rain, but they don't have umbrellas. A shopkeeper assumes they're a couple and offers them an umbrella. Masaki, still rattled from her earlier mishap and not wanting Shun to get the wrong idea again, refuses and runs off. The next day, Chizuru helps Masaki with her present for Shun, and a grateful Masaki offers to share her umbrella with him, to Chizuru's delight.