Yosh!
No, not Yoshi... Though technically it's spelled the same way.
A webcomic by Phil "Sage" Brown that details the life of average Otaku named Phil, who lives with his not-so-normal roommate Kate and his pet penguin PenPen somewhere in Florida. At first, the art is a bit rough and the story pretty much completely random, though an overarching, serious plot eventually does develop, which involves robot girls, catgirls, anime conventions, magic, mad science, romance (in liberal, non-story-derailing doses), and ninjas. Has a budding character sheet.
Join the madness here. (Yosh recently[when?] moved to katbox.net)
Tropes used in Yosh! include:
- A Wizard Did It: The Weirding. Literally caused by a wizard (they call them 'Magi') in the backstory. In an odd twist, the wizard didn't mean to do it.
- Action Girl: Lien.
- Allergic To Cute: Axel, which is used against him when he has a momentary Freak-Out.
- Anti-Villain: A lot of effort is put into humanizing the Five. In fact, at this point pretty much the only members of the Five and their servants that are actually evil are the Twins.
- Art Evolution: As time passes, the comic's coloring and art improve, right around the time that the story picks up. The coloring style doesn't settle for a while, though.
- The Atoner: Kate's father.
- Author Avatar: Phil is based off off the artist Philip "Sage" Brown, and Axel is based off the writer, Alex Peterson.
- Badass: Lien, Tom, Shisou, and Axel (aka Dark Lord), without a doubt.
- Badass Longcoat: Axel, complete with Cool Shades and a really hot familiar.
- Berserk Button: For Tom or Toyoko, threatening Miyo is a big one.
- Bishonen: Blue's convention friend, literally named "Mr. Bishie."
- Ninja: Too many to name straight up.
- Calling the Old Man Out: How Kate's reunion with her father goes, at first.
- Dead Little Sister: Rieko, Cain's older sister, died in the chaos that followed the "Weirding" because she was a chimera, and his desire to resurrect her is the reason why he's working with the Five.
- Dark-Skinned Redhead: Serena. She actually had black hair, and blue eyes, before she gained her powers.
- Deadpan Snarker: A few characters demonstrate this now and then, but Nami tends to do this a lot, especially when it comes to Shiden.
- Defector From Decadence: Lia, Hue
- Element Number Five: Somewhat subverted in that the Fifth Elemental Power is actually a pair of elements: Life and Death, each of which has its own user. Also present are demonic and celestial magic, both of which are implied to be weaker than elemental magic.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Shiden's apartment complex.
- Fan Service: Oh yes.
- Faux Yay: The Demoness loves to invoke this, such that she and Blue compete for the title of The Tease.
- Fantastic Racism: Played with. While Chimeras aren't completly hated, people do tend to look down on them. This has been slowly getting better according to the backstory.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Quite a few members of the cast, namely Kate, Blue, and Rieko (though the latter case is even more unusual than most, even by the series' standards. There is a reason for this.
- Heel Realization: Emi
- Hyperspace Wardrobe: Lampshaded in this comic [dead link]. Apparently Shiden carries costumes around for just such an occasion.
- Magitek: Shiden's robots.
- Orichalcum: Used by Shiden's creations as a Power Source.
- Our Demons Are Different: Though quite possibly a succubus, the Demoness has yet to be shown doing anything succubus-like outside of teasing everyone with her sex appeal. Penpen prefers spending time engaging in a gelatin fetish over acting like a Demon Prince; his cousin (who has yet to be named) hasn't seen much character development yet, but so far he's not evil. Axel's Demon is the only one reminiscent of a demon (both in appearance and personality).
- Otaku: Phil, to the point that he knows manga occurances by panel
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Quiz Host: Err- OK! How about quoting page 52 from Volume 6 of ×××HOLiC- last panel? |
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- Replacement Goldfish: Averted. Cain goes to a lot of trouble to bring his real sister back from the dead.
- Robot Girl: Miyo is only the first of these, built by Phil's frenemy Shiden. Past a certain point, he has entire facilities full of them, performing a wide array of jobs from assistants to bodyguards. They also play with the notion of Ridiculously-Human Robots, as they do have emotions and desires separate from their programming (which Shiden did allow for), as well as needing sleep and food (or reacharging).
- Shoot the Dog: Axel, and Cain, to the Fire Magus.
- Sour Supporter: Axel isn't exactly thrilled that the other heroes have befriended Lia due to his past history with the Magi, but he ultimately decides to (grudgingly) go along with it.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: Lien
- Super-Powered Evil Side: Axel shows off his when the Magus of Fire, Josephus, uses him as a portal to the afterlife to help Cain resurrect Rieko.
- The Ditz: Phil, in spades. Occasionally, though, it's shown that he's not as dense as he looks to be, and it's slightly lessened as time goes on, especially once he finds out he's the Null.
- The Load, The Fool: Phil, again--he's just a regular human, with no real abilities aside from a really sunny disposition and a kind heart. Interestingly, his ability to recover from what would be considered intense physical trauma actually goes from a comedic device to an actual ability - as the Null, similar to Asuna, he naturally nullifies magic and magic artifacts, though his area of effect extends a bit beyond his body. But unlike the previous Null, for less explained reasons, he is also Nigh Invulnerable, capable of surviving hellfire, painful falls, and hits from training machines made for robots with no trouble.
- The Magic Comes Back: Both as part of the backstory and during the story.
- The Unpronounceable: Penpen's real name.
- Throw It In: This page was made after a fan was offended by this strip, fearing that people in the USA really thought that South Americans were cannibals.
- Unusual Ears: The aforementioned Half Human Hybrids and Robot Girls, the latter of which homage Persocoms.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cortex will do anything to stop the Magi, including attacking a diner full of civilians just to get one girl and, more recently, trying to steal several priceless artifacts. Of course, the latter turns out to have been a Xanatos Gambit in order to gain access to an ancient magical seal.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Axel is...less than pleased when he learns how the group has made friends with Lia.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: A Magi's power can go very easily to their head. One of them, Emi, realizes it when she catches herself trying to smite some kids over a perceived slight, only to be stopped by Phil.