Yotsuba&!/Characters
Here's a list of characters and related tropes for the manga series Yotsuba&!.
The Koiwai Family
Yotsuba Koiwai
Our viewpoint character, a five-year-old with a very energetic outlook on the world.
- Bad Liar: Not that she's noticeably worse than any other five-year-old.
- Cheerful Child: As it says every chapter, "Today is always the most enjoyable day."
- Cloudcuckoolander: Justified because of her age, but even her dad thinks she's a little weird.
- Constantly Curious "Yotsuba and" The theme of the titles are always her interacting with the very world viewed by her innocent eyes.
- Curtains Match the Window: In addition to her green hair, Yotsuba also has green eyes.
- Determinator: Yotsuba will deliver Fuuka her milk, even if she hasn't a clue where Fuuka's school is, or even what a school is. Because a milkman delivers.
- Expressive Hair: Her pigtails rise and fall with her (rapidly changing) moods.
- Genki Girl: In spades. And the trump suit. This gets Lampshaded by Asagi: "Her default rate of movement really is running."
- Happily Adopted: She doesn't care one bit about the exact nature of her parentage. Koiwai is "dad" and that's that.
- Improbable Hairstyle: Obeying the Rule of Cute, Yotsuba's hair is always in those four little pigtails, even when sleeping, swimming, taking a bath, etc.
- Malaproper: She mostly knows the words, but how to say them is still a little beyond her.
- Meaningful Name: It means "four leaves" as in "four-leaf clover". Thus her hair.
- "Yotsuba" and "Koiwai" are also both brands of dairy products in Japan.
- Mistaken Nationality: Based on her appearance, strangers constantly assume Yotsuba a foreigner, and indeed she was born in another, unknown country. As a result, some students at Fuuka's school try to speak to her in English because all gaijin are American.
- Parental Abandonment: We know nothing about her origins except that Koiwai found her somewhere overseas, which Yotsuba claims was "an island 'to the left'".
- Plucky Girl: Delivering milk is Serious Business.
- Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Hers is Yanda.
- Sunny Sunflower Disposition: She's such a Genki Girl, she appears with a bouquet of sunflowers in the cover of the 1st volume. A later chapter even sees her fascinated by sunflowers in Jumbo's shop, and wanting to buy some.
- Super Drowning Skills: Suprisingly averted, Yotsuba can swim quite well. Koiwai, Jumbo and Fuuka on the other hand...
- Sweet Dreams Fuel: Her very existence.
- Third Person Person: Childishly, in the original Japanese (mimicked in the Yen Press translations); she combines this with an innocent imitation of her father's masculine language -- the effect is hysterically funny but is, alas, Lost in Translation.
- Trademark Favorite Food: As expected for a five-year-old, Yotsuba really likes ice cream. She also has a fascination for cup ramen.
- Curry is also a favorite of hers. In fact, one of the songs of the Image Album is called 'Eating Curry (Very Delicious)'.
- Twin Tails: Technically, quad-tails.
- Why Did It Have To Be Eyeballs?: Yotsuba is terrified of anything that has huge eyes, or anything that looks like a huge eye. Ironic considering her own are pretty big.
- X Meets Y: Think Osaka plus Chiyo plus Tomo.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair: Which makes her an oddity among the cast's otherwise realistic character designs.
Mr. Koiwai / "Dad"
Yotsuba's adoptive father, he works at home as a translator. He's devoted to her, but isn't exactly the most driven parent who ever lived.
- Adult Child: Can be this sometimes when friends are over or when playing with Yotsuba.
- Children Raise You: Possibly. He sometimes acts childish along with Yotsuba.
- Cuteness Proximity: Put a guinea pig in his vicinity and he just melts.
- Good Dad: So very much.
- Hot Dad: According to some of Fuuka's classmates.
- Mr. Fanservice In the summer he would always be wearing just his underpants.
- No Name Given: We have never learned his given name. Even Jumbo calls him by his family name. It's eventually revealed to be Yousuke.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's more than willing to tolerate, if not participate, in Yotsuba's antics. On those occasions in which she does misbehave, the hammer will come down hard, sometimes overlapping with Scare'Em Straight.
- The Slacker: He doesn't even wear pants in the summer, if he has the choice.
The Ayase Family
The Koiwai's next-door neighbors, frequently visited by Yotsuba.
Asagi Ayase
The oldest Ayase girl; Yotsuba looks up to her (figuratively and literally). She seems to enjoy it.
- Badass: Hey, she WAS the only one to disarm the revenge-fueled water-gun toting Yotsuba. She even blasted Yotsuba right back! Nobody else is that badass.
- Chaste Teens: Despite her attractiveness, she is never seen dating anybody, though Fuuka said she used to have a boyfriend. Some fans suspect she and Torako are an item, though.
- Cool Big Sis
- Cuteness Proximity: She gets this every so often around Yotsuba.
- Long Hair Is Feminine In contrast to the short haired Torako.
- Sweet Tooth: She gets it from her mother. They sometimes clash over it.
- The Unfavorite: She and her mother do not exactly get along, played mostly for laughs.
- Considering the fact it's Generation Xerox clashing.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Torako's Tomboy.
- Trickster Mentor: To Yotsuba.
Fuuka Ayase
The middle Ayase girl, and the one who seems to have the worst luck. Her travails, of course, go right over Yotsuba's head.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Though Koiwai in chapter 67, thinks this just makes her cuter.
- Butt Monkey: Her life can kinda suck.
- Dreadful Musician: Fuuka, drop that ukelele. And stop singing.
- Friend to All Children: Especially prevalent during the Autumn festival.
- Generic Cuteness: Often mocked for either her plain looks, eyebrows, or pudginess compared to her older sister Asagi. Doesn't stop her from being popular with her classmates though.
- Kind of averted in that she is actually regarded as being fairly attractive. For instance, Jumbo's initial reaction to her was to exclaim that she's a bishoujo, only to drop the "Bi" when he meets Asagi because...well, it's Asagi.
- Girl Next Door
- Go Nagai Sideburns: Her hair seems to give this sort of visual effect, kinda like Kagura.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Her sense of humor leaves much to be desired.
- Is That Cute Kid Yours?: Apparently Fuuka's classmates thought Yotsuba was her child.
- Joshikousei
- Ms. Fanservice: Shows off a lot more skin than any other female character, including wearing short skirts, swimsuits and turning up in sexy outfits on colour pages.
- Pungeon Master: Of the incredibly lame variety. Her father enjoys them, but Asagi and Jumbo don't.
- Ship Tease: Usually with Koiwai.
Ena Ayase
The youngest Ayase girl, she's the closest to Yotsuba in age and thus plays with her most often. Likes bugs, amphibians, and teddy bears.
- Berserk Button: Don't do anything that isn't environmentally friendly, or keep calling any of her bears Duralumin.
- Cheerful Child: Although not quite at Yotsuba's level, Ena still generally has a sunny disposition.
- Cool Big Sis: The younger variety; Ena seems to go further than Fuuka or Asagi in treating Yotsuba as a little sister.
- Daddy's Girl: Though Mr. Ayase loves all of them very much, Ena seems to be his little girl.
- Considering the other two don't even recognize him sometimes...
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She likes playing with her teddy bears with Yotsuba.
- Granola Girl: She tends to be more environmentally conscious than others as well as having a fondness for recycling, but she doesn't mind eating meat or helping clean fish for a meal.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Miura in terms of looks and general personality but a bit subverted in that she looks like the girly girl but has some tomboy interests.
Mrs. Ayase
The mother of the three girls.
- Happily Married She at the very least isn't complaining about her marriage.
- Housewife
- Long Hair Is Feminine: Subverted her hair is short like a boy's.
- Like Mother Like Daughter/Generation Xerox: She and Asagi are quite alike, but don't tell either that.
- No Name Given: Her given name has not been revealed so far.
- Only Known by Their Nickname / Team Mom: Yotsuba calls her "mom". She treats Yotsuba as if she were her own daughter.
Mr. Ayase
The father of the three girls.
- Happily Married
- No Name Given
- Parental Abandonment: He's coming close to it due to him working all the time. Asagi rejects him for it.
- Salaryman
- Satellite Character
Friends
Takashi "Jumbo" Takeda
Koiwai's best friend, whose nickname hints at his most notable feature. A decent guy, if a little overenthusiastic around Asagi.
- Adult Child: Gets into a rivalry with a ten-year-old girl over going to Hawaii.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Has a large crush on Asagi.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows
- Friend to All Children Yotsuba gets along with him very well. So does Ena and sometimes Miura.
- Gentle Giant: He's a florist and is childish at times.
- Hot-Blooded: Moreso than others; he shares it with his dad.
- Only Known by Their Nickname His real name is Takashi Takeda but everyone calls him 'Jumbo'.
- Phrase Catcher: "You're huge!"
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: He corrects his dad after he assumed Fuuka was his new girlfriend.
- The Big Guy Very tall for the average height of a Japanese man.
Miura Hayasaka
Ena's friend, who's not all that nice to Yotsuba (though she doesn't actively try to be mean; she just doesn't have everyone else's patience). Hates slimy things, in contrast to Ena.
- Bifauxnen
- Deadpan Snarker: On occasion.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Yotsuba thinks she's a princess after seeing the apartment complex she lives in.
- Jerkass: Miura has a tendency of playing mean pranks on Yotsuba. Which usually backfire.
- Miko: Was dressed for the part during the Autumn Festival.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Pulls this off as one of the matsuri maidens during the autumn festival.
- Shorttank: She prefers sports clothing to tanktops, though.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: With Ena, a bit subverted in that she looks like the tomboy but has some girly girl interests.
Torako
Asagi's friend, she has a somewhat more aloof personality. Yotsuba seems to confuse her even more than the rest of the cast.
- Cool Big Sis: See Smoking Is Cool.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Toward Yotsuba, since she's not used to kids. The process is still ongoing.
- In-Series Nickname: Since her name looks like "Tiger Child" when written out, Yotsuba calls her Tora/Tiger.
- Perpetual Frowner
- Smoking Is Cool: Or so Yotsuba thinks.
- The Stoic: Though she'll show emotion when the situation calls for it.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Asagi's Girly Girl.
- The punchline of chapter 77 specifically plays off this dynamic.
"Yanda" Yasuda
Koiwai's kohai who gets a kick out of taunting Yotsuba. Unfortunately for him, everyone treats him exactly like he deserves.
- Adult Child: This guy enjoys being Yotsuba's Sitcom Arch Nemesis.
- Butt Monkey: He brings it upon himself.
- Drop-In Character
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Koiwai and Jumbo put up with him more than hang out with him.
- Jerkass: Why he's the Butt Monkey.
- Kick the Dog: He initially went out of his way to be mean to Yotsuba, though he seems to be getting better.
- Mr. Fanservice: One of the few young and attractive guys around.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His real last name is Yasuda, but no one calls him that. His given name is completely unknown.
- Perpetual Poverty: He barely even has money to eat well, at least until the end of the month.
- Salaryman: White shirt, tie and all.
- Sempai-Kohai: Probably the main reason Koiwai has anything to do with him.
- Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Of Yotsuba. He even seems to take delight in invoking the trope in regards to her.
- Straight Man: Thinks the way that Koiwai and Jumbo go along with Yotsuba's antics is incredibly weird. However he's Not So Above It All at times.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He practically lives off instant ramen.
- Tsurime Eyes
- White-Haired Pretty Boy
Miss Stake/Shimau
A classmate and friend of Fuuka's. Her real name is Hiwatari, but acquired her nickname when flubbing her introduction to her class.
- Happy Dance - Done by Shimau, Fuuka and Yotsuba while baking a cake.
- Lost in Translation - The joke behind her nickname.
- Nice Hat - Her Chef's Hat when baking a cake.
- Only Known by Their Nickname - Her name's Hiwatari, but everyone calls her Shimau/Miss Stake.
- Satellite Character - Satellite to Fuuka. She also only appears in a few stories.
- Back to Yotsuba&!