History Manga / CentaurNoNayami

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Centaur_no_Nayami_02_9702.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Being a teenaged centaur can be rough sometimes.]]

Himeno Kimihara is a rather shy but friendly Japanese high school girl, the only daughter of an average middle-class family. She goes to a normal high school, hangs out with her close friends Nozomi and Kyouko, and generally has the same dreams and worries a girl her age is expected to have -- like falling in love or simply mulling about whether or not she overeats everyday.

However, Himeno ''also'' happens to be a centaur. This in itself isn't much of a big deal though, when literally ''everyone else'' on the planet display characteristics that ''might'' mark them strange if they lived on our world -- like wings, tails, and animal ears.

Written by Murayama Kei and serialized in ''Comic Ryuu'' magazine, ''Centaur no Nayami/セントールの悩み'' (or Centaur's Worries) follows Hime as she experiences first-hand the highs and lows of being a teenager along with her friends.

Although at first glace just another Slice of Life series that replaces humans with fantasy races, it soon becomes apparent that the author put a ''lot'' of thought into figuring out just how such races would act, live, and even interact with each other in a contemporary setting. The world-building is impressive, to say the least, and likely the main draw to non-Slice of Life fans.

Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment under the name ''A Centaur's Life''.
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!!''Centaur's Worries'' gives examples of the following:

* ActionGirl: Himeno proves to be quite skilled in archery, especially when sent to the past for a little bit. Nozomi is also the heir to a martial arts dojo.
* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: The Antarcticans were the first civilization on Earth. It wasn't the Antarcticans' idea to become a HiddenElfVillage, rather their isolated home in Antarctica couldn't be reached easily before the invention of the plane.
* AlternateUniverse:
** Hime's world is very similar to ours, but evolution took a slightly different path that led to most land vertebrates being six-limbed and Antarctica being inhabited by intelligent reptiles.
** In chapter 56, [[spoiler:Hime and Shino are summoned to a fantasy version of Dark Age Europe, and are magically capable of understanding the humans there and vice versa]].
* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Many chapters focus either on world building, or things totally unrelated to Hime and friend's little slice of Japan. Or the ''setting'' for that matter.
** Chapter 8.5. Seemingly set in the real world (meaning there are ordinary humans in it), it focuses on a puppy (with a girl's face) being taken care of by the daughter of the family.
** Several chapters focus on the shenanigans that the Antarcticans have been doing behind the scenes, which among things, include trying to influence other races via proxy (as shown in the Sea God festival), experiments in reviving extinct subspecies (the Tiger-centaur chapter in China), or ''fighting aliens'' (the Midwestern US chapter).
** Himeno and Shino are at one point sent into an alternate world where magic is real but everyone is human, this is also implied to be an Antarctican experiment gone wrong, [[spoiler: as a giant Antarctican shows up at the end shoots the two with a gun of sorts and they wake up at the same place and time they disappeared with no memories.]]
* BaseballEpisode: Chapter 9. Unsurprisingly, centaurs make excellent baseball players.
* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: Hime (girly), Kyouko (sensible) and Nozomi (tomboy).
* {{Bifauxnen}}: Nozomi and her cousin, Akira. Omaki even more. And some minor characters really look like boys.
* BigFancyHouse: It turns out that the father's side of Hime's family owns one of these, a holdover from the time where the family were still landed Samurai.
* BlatantLies: One [[BonusMaterial side-story]] had Kyouko as a BlackMage, killing a chicken-shaped "vegetable" for a magic spell.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Kyouko, Nozomi and Hime, respectively.
* BoyishShortHair: Nozomi. Justified, as she finds maintaining long hair like Hime's a big bother.
* BuxomIsBetter: Hime. She gets a love letter that actually it's just an appreciation of her bosom. And Nozomi agrees. A racial traits of mermaids, too, as Komori quickly points out.
* CallingTheOldManOut: After performing a cleansing ritual on a box and having to (very uncomfortably) ask for a donation, Manami returned home to her father. Out of guilt for having to beg for donations despite feeling like she hadn't actually done anything, she lashed out at her father's work ethic and painting hobby. She laid down an ultimatum and told him to either to quit his day job and be full-time real painter, even if it means her resenting him for it, or quit his painting and work full time to support the family of himself and five children (including Manami herself and the youngest, IllGirl Suetsumu).
* [[CatGirl Cat Species]]: A whole species of them. The Class Rep's father and her triplet sisters are examples of these.
* CerebusSyndrome: There's hints this may happen. There appears to be a rather horrifying AlienInvasion going on quietly in the background, and the main characters are beginning to notice some strange things.
* CheerfulChild: Himeno's cousin Shino, and class rep Manami Mitami's triplet sisters.
* ChekhovsGun: Remember the movie that scared little Hime in chapter four? ''The Fear from Antarctica'' comes back to play a role later.
* ClarkesThirdLaw: In chapter nineteen Kyouko discusses the similarities between really advanced science and magic with Sasasul derailing the scary storytelling and turning it into a skeptic's meeting for a moment.
* ClassRepresentative: Manami Mitami. Lampshaded in-series in how she was pretty much born for the role.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Shino doesn't want to share her cousin with ''anyone''.
* UsefulNotes/ColdWar: The Antarcticans are depicted somewhat as the old USSR, opposed to this universe's USA.
* CoolBigSis: The Class Rep to her trio of catgirl sisters, and Himeno to her cousin Shino, while Shino is this to an even younger centaur girl from kindergarden, Maki-chan.
* CoolDownHug: Kyouko does this to her big brother after he is depressed from losing a baseball game. He makes some comment about her being really flat-chested to break the serious atmosphere.
* CosplayOtakuGirl: Akechi. Will find just about ''any'' excuse to dress her classmates in the dresses she made. Works out in her favor during the Cultural Festival, when she is put in charge of the costumes.
* CostumePorn: A lot of thought went into designing extremely fashionable outfits for a centaur.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: A world similar to out own, where cute monsters go about their business peacefully, and tolerance is a basic requirement. Sounds good! Except...
** There are a million seemingly innocent things that can get you jailed for "hate crime", including accepting a lift from a centaur friend (you slave driver!) or being an angel who cut off the wrong bit of hair (you're rejecting your race! You are guilty of hate crime against ''yourself''!). Made worse by...
** The fact that ''talking'' about hate crime is a hate crime. Not only could you could be arrested without having any idea what you did wrong (after all, no-one's told you about it...because they're not allowed to), but you could be arrested for trying to ''warn'' something that their actions might be illegal.
** Japanese hate crime laws are so strict that just insulting or stereotyping someone based on racial characteristics can result in the ''death penalty''.
** A flyer early in the series mentions "a royal license for reproduction". So...who gets this license and who doesn't..?
** Scary looking armed guards accompany a group of teenagers on a school trip.
** On said school trip, the guard is standing in front of a sign which states that anyone caught littering will be [[DisproportionateRetribution shot on sight!]] Looks like Kyoko really wasn't joking about being executed for accepting a ride from Hime...
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: While she's far from a moron, Hime is usually a Shrinking Violet. [[spoiler:When trapped in an alternate universe, she keeps a level head bordering on aloof stoicism and shows a surprising amount of cunning, competence, and strategic planning]].
* DatePeepers: Himeno, Nozomi, and Kyouko follow Sasasul on a date at an art museum. Various security/intelligence agencies are also following the Antarctican and the three friends are almost picked up as terrorists.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Several chapters don't feature Hime at all, and instead focus on her relatives (her cousin Shino), her friends and classmates (Sasassul and Manami the class rep), or their families (Manami's younger catgirl sisters). One chapter even focuses on the Recurring Extras, a catguy and mermaid couple who've appeared in the background several times.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In chapter 4, Himeno and her parents watch a news report about the first centaur president of the United States being elected on the Democratic Party ticket, and Himeno's dad remarks that the guy's got a lot on his plate, between foreign affairs, military deployment, and his efforts at health-care reform... sound like [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama anyone we know]]?
* DoingInTheWizard: Despite what it might look like angels, imps, centaurs, cat people etc. are nothing but human subspecies naturally evolved, nothing magical or mythical here. Even the angels' halos are explained as just IdiotHair with a funny shape.
* DramaticIrony: A teacher gives a political speech thinly disguised as a biology lecture. In it, she states that if only quadrapeds had survived, humans wouldn't look significantly different from each other, except for slight variations in skin and hair colour. She gravely asserts that if this "perfect" world had existed, the lack of serious differences between humans would have meant that the world would never have had the serious racism problems that their own world faces. If only that were true.
* DudeLooksLikeALady: Some of the boys look like girls, similar like some of the girls look like boys.
* {{Expy}}: A chapter, which focuses on merpeople instead of Himeno and her friends, has a half-mermaid-half-satyr who looks like Himeno. She has the same face and similar hair. The biggest differences are the species characteristics and the small breasts of the mermaid (this rare, considering that mermaids are very busty women).
* EyesAlwaysShut: Kyouko and the rest of the Naraku family.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** Whenever present-day Hime takes a bath.
** The chapter focusing on the merfolk festival can be taken as this, as males and females both typically wear nothing but "bikini bottoms" and the females tend to be bustier than the average for other races, while the males appear toned. Of course the beginning of the chapter is two mermen looking at a magazine with girls dressed more modestly in bathing suits.
* FantasticRacism: Racial equality is a relatively modern thing in this AlternateUniverse and still a sensitive topic, as seen in the overly strict anti-hate laws - e.g. riding a centaur is illegal, the centaur being willing notwithstanding, because of a past history of centaurs being enslaved to be used as mounts. The "serpentines" (reptilian inhabitants of Antarctica) still face prejudice outside their native continent, as do the South American amphibians. We see a lot of the human species either whispering or thinking in thought bubbles very unkind thoughts about the Antarctican character (in particular, they're usually unduly suspicious that she'll report them to some government office for no reason).
* FaunsAndSatyrs: One of the humans sub-species, not any more wild or debauched than any of the other sub-species. Kyouko is a satyr, but since her legs are regular "human" legs, not goat legs, she's probably a case of MixedAncestry.
* FieryRedhead: Inverted. While Himeno is carrot-topped, she's actually more of a ShrinkingViolet.
* FiveTokenBand: {{Invoked}} and {{Exaggerated}} InUniverse. All of the MagicalGirl anime for young girls (though it can be reasonably assumed a great deal more cartoons besides) in this world, as an unwritten rule, must have a supporting cast containing a magical girl of each race, with the main character's race changing every episode.
* ForeignExchangeStudent: At the end of the third volumen Quetzalcoatl Sasasul, a [[SnakePeople serpentine girl]], tranfers to Hime's class.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Once in a while soldiers could be seen around, reflecting the desegregation laws.
* GhostStory: Chapter nineteen has Hime and the crew telling each other ghost stories as a kind of courage test at the suggestion of the Occult club's vice-president.
* GirlishPigtails: How Himeno styles her hair when she goes to school. Turns into MegaTwintails at one point due to how long her hair had become.
* GodGuise: When Hime is summoned [[spoiler:to a fantasy version of Dark Age Europe, she uses her supreme archery skills to convince everyone she is a divine being to intimidate the humans]].
* HairDecorations: Class Rep's hairpins, Hime's hairties.
* HeinzHybrid:
** The various human subspecies can interbreed successfully, although some combinations may have high rates of congenital defects, as is the case with centaur/angel pairings. In accordance with Mendelian inheritance laws the offspring may belong to one of either parent's subspecies or it might have traits from both parents, as seen in the youngest of Manami's sisters, Suetsumu, who has angel wings from her mother's side and cat ears and tail from her father's side. It's even possible for traits of grandparents or earlier to manifest themselves, and all humans are said to possess some amount of genes from all races; as such there are rare occasions where humans are born with the traits of three races, and theoretically it's possible to be born with traits from ''all'' races.
** The nameless House Familiar has every feature of the bipedal subspecies.
* HeirToTheDojo: While it's not glossed upon in-series, Nozomi is part of a well-known family of martial arts practitioners.
* HistoricalInJoke: A mention of a possible centuar-queen of Russia is a shout-out to a rumor that Alexandra the Great liked [[DoubleEntendre to ride horses]].
* HiveCasteSystem: The Antarctican government system (soldiers are apparently legless, only the queen lays eggs).
* HolyHalo: A racial attribute of the Angels. Subverted in that it's actually just a piece of hair, that can even regrow when (accidentally) cut off.
* HornedHumanoid: Of different types too. Kyouko for example is a satyr-type, while Michi's like a unicorn.
* HorseArcher: Pun aside, this is apparently a traditional role of Himeno's family. Both her mother and her aunt are these as well. Likely connected to how Japanese centaurs actually served as Samurai cavalry in this world's history, as well as how centaurs are associated with archery in Greek mythology.
* HostageSituation: In chapter eight, with the bad guy using [[spoiler:Manami's younger sister, Sue]] as a HumanShield.
* HugeSchoolgirl:
** Himeno. Justified in that she ''is'' a centaur, and towers over all of her classmates barring some of the guys like Komori.
** Sasasul is even taller than Hime, even though most of her height comes form her long neck.
* [[HypercompetentSidekick Hypercompetent Assistant]]: Kyouko's apparently this to her father, having almost single-handedly eased the workload of his editors, and helps him keep focused enough to always submit his drafts on time.
* IfItsYouItsOkay: Hime doesn't mind really kissing Nozomi.
* IllGirl: The Class Rep's little sister Suetsumu gets tired easily, and sometimes gets a fever if she over-exerts herself. Current medicine has yet to determine [[SoapOperaDisease what's causing it]]. May actually be a DisabilitySuperpower or CursedWithAwesome property because the House Familiar said only Suetsumu can sense her existence.
* ImTakingHerHomeWithMe: Apparently has happened to Suetsumu a few times, including being mistaken as a new 'doll' by a dog she and the Chi-triplets had been playing with when visiting a friend.
* IncestSubtext: PlayedForLaughs when Kyouko's older brother had her make him a lunch for school once and she decided to put 'LOVE' in big bold letters on it to embarrass him when his friends assumed this trope.
* InfoDump: Chapter sixteen has Sasasul explaining to her school mates what Anctartica is like.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: In chapter 0, Nozomi's first idea for settling Himeno's anxiety over how her private parts look is searching the internet for porn, but Himeno's family doesn't have a computer.
* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the PointOfDivergence being in ''evolution'', many things worked out the way they did in our world--for instance, ''{{Literature/Frankenstein}}'' and ''{{Literature/Dracula}}'' were both written by the same people at the same time, and adapted into the same movies, with the only difference being that the creatures are an Angel and an Imp respectively.
* InterspeciesRomance: A real possibility, as the Class Rep's family demonstrates.
* LectureAsExposition: Chapter 5.5, a primer on evolution and race relations in this alternate reality.
* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: Despite the obvious differences, the world is not much different from our own. They seem to have the same geography countries and cultures. Much of the appeal of the manga is noting the small differences having so many different species living together would make to our society.
* LittleBitBeastly: The centaurs aside, some of the other races like the Satyrs and Angels look mostly like normal Humans except with some animal attributes, like tails or wings.
* LongNeck: The Serpenti-- ''ahem'', Antarticans have necks about 3 feet long. A big part of why they unsettle everyone else (besides being, y'know, snake people.)
* MamaBear: Manami's reaction to [[spoiler:someone taking her youngest sister hostage at their own shrine?]] Asks for (and is given) a spear and threatens to ''kill'' the idiot if he doesn't let go of the hostage that instant.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
** While it is strongly implied that that she was [[spoiler:the local shrine's god]], just who or what was the seventh kid who played with Manami's sisters?
** Was it really a god that appeared at [[spoiler: the mermaids' festival]]?
** Antarctica is up to some wacky stuff: [[spoiler:dissecting aliens, masquerading as other species, reconstructing the extinct tiger-taurs, etc.]]. Science is probably involved, but how much is from their science and how much is research into the supernatural?
* MeaningfulName: Guess who gets compared to a princess, and usually gets the role during dramas or plays? Hime[[note]]"princess" in Japanese[[/note]], of course. This does create problems when the script calls for a PrincessCarry, though.
* {{Meganekko}}: Hime's mom during her high-school years. Later on Miura, the mermaid class rep during their class' summer trip.
* {{Miko}}: Surprise, Manami the Class Rep is ''also'' Manami the shrine maiden. Apparently her family maintains the local shrine.
* MissingMom: The absence of Manami's mother is ''very'' noticeable, especially when one considers the size of the family (five girls all told).
* MoodWhiplash: With its LikeRealityUnlessNoted setting, sometimes reading chapters feels like reading a feel good local story in a newspaper, then flipping the page and reading about a mass shooting in a foreign country.
** An early side story is a cute and heartwarming look at a girl who takes care of a human-faced dog. Then the girl gets a phone call from her mother. [[spoiler:The mother [[AbusiveParents verbally abuses her]] and tells her to get rid of the dog, even if she has to kill it.]]
** Chapter 42 starts out as slice-of-life with political overtones, focusing on a farming family in America. [[spoiler:Then it goes into sci-fi horror with aliens [[PuppeteerParasite infesting/replacing people]], and [[GainaxEnding no real ending]]]]. Chapter 43 is a cute four page short sharing a story about the Chi-triplets.
** Chapter 49 is a story about a boy in a Nazi forced labour camp. [[spoiler:It's back-story for the elderly businessman that shakes hands with the amphibian business man in Chapter 33.]] Chapter 50 is a story written by Akechi that's laden with {{fanservice}} and takes jabs at RPG tropes.
** Chapter 56 starts out with Himeno teaching her cousin how to use a bow in a tournament... and then they find [[spoiler:an alien dog that teleports them into a medieval fantasy world, Army of Darkness style]]. It gets weird from there.
* {{Mukokuseki}}: Merpeople find Kyouko's looks "exotic", although besides her "eyes always shut" face she is drawn just like the rest of the cast.
* MundaneUtility: Angel wings can apparently be used as an extra "mantle" to warm themselves during winter. Obviously the Class Rep gets annoyed whenever someone else tries to use hers in this manner.
* MysteriousAntarctica: Although serpentines do have diplomatic relations with other countries, their civilization and how do they survive in the frozen continent are complete mysteries. Sasasul clears some of those mysteries in chapter sixteen.
* NapoleonBonaparte: Features prominently in the eventual emancipation of the Centaur slaves in Europe. How? By turning those freed centaur slaves into his armored cavalry, who then wreaked havoc on the armies that Napoleon's forces went up against. As Napoleon's armies advanced, the success of his centaur soldiers then inspire the other centaur slaves to rise up in revolt. Eventually it comes to the point where the English parliament is forced to emancipate its own centaur slaves as a counter to Napoleon (as well as a deterrent to a rebellion). Things then snowballed from there.
* NippleAndDimed: The mangaka is not afraid to show nipples on females, regardless if their children, teenagers or adults.
* OhCrap: The reaction of everyone at the shrine during the New Year's festival [[spoiler:when some hooligan not only causes a car crash in front of it, but also takes the Class Rep's youngest sister Sue hostage.]]
* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Our Angels]] [[OurDemonsAreDifferent And Demons]] Are Different: So far they're just two of the many humanoid species, sharing a common ancestor with the rest. Apart from obvious physical issues that halos, horns, wings and tails cause and their societies' reactions to them, they're not really more special or bizarre than any other race.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: They are just a human sub-species and not particularly violent or rowdy, unlike their fantasy counterparts. Their equine looks is just evolutionary convergence (this world's horses are actually hexapodal).
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: They look normal until about knee-level when the legs merge into a sea serpent-like tail, they need to breathe air like any other mammal, and they kind of slither around in waist-deep water at their school.
* OurNudityIsDifferent: The mermaid population that lives near the sea tends to go about topless, only covering up when wearing ritual clothing or when they know they will be interacting with people from the mountains.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Antarcticans don't believe in the supernatural.
* ParentalSubstitute: Manami has pretty much been forced to stand in for her mom in taking care of her younger sisters and looking after the house.
* PointyEars: A trait of the "Imps", like Hime's friend Nozomi, and their classmate Komori.
* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Because of their physical differences, this world is plagued with a history of even worse racism and violence than our own. The races seem to live together in peace now (with the exception of some of the more "[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman exotic]]" or isolated races), but the anti-racism laws are so strict that, for example, riding a centaur is a hate crime even if the centaur is the one offering, and all magical girls shows must include magical girls of every race with the main character changing every episode. Society even stresses "unity" over individuality.
* PoolEpisode: Chapter seventeen.
* PrincessCarry:
** Done by a longear for his siren/mermaid girlfriend at the end of Chapter 7. Seeing this causes Hime to wish someone would do the same for her, which prompts the response below:
--->'''Kyouko''': You'd have to date a crane (the construction vehicle)!
** In chapter 1, Hime recalls the time she played a princess in a class play when she was in elementary school. The guy playing her prince is holding her like this (albeit with his arms under her abdomen rather than her back, since she's a centaur) and clearly about to collapse from the strain.
* QuirkyCurls: Hime's hair. Akechi points out however that with some effort, it can turn into RegalRinglets.
* RapunzelHair: Himeno's impressive fall of hair.
* RecurringExtra: There's a catguy and mermaid couple that show up once in a while.
* TheReptilians: The Antarcticans, or [[SnakePeople "serpentines"]]. Somewhat demonized and antagonistical, they are the only species shown some silent prejudice. They are even rumoured to be of alien origin (in fact, they're of the dinosaur family, like birds).
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: As mentioned above, the Antarctican serpentines face segregation due to this view and their mysterious, isolated culture.
* SameSexTriplets: Manami's AlliterativeFamily Chigusa, Chinami and Chiho.
* SchoolgirlLesbians:
** Not Hime and her friends, but their classmates Akechi and Michi. No one seems to find it strange though.
** When Nadeshiko walks in on Akira asleep wearing only a T-shirt, she takes a good long look between her legs and blushes. Later, Nadeshiko states she might be bisexual and that if Akira was a boy, she'd kiss her. Akira blushes and says in that case she'll have to wear boy's clothes more often.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Hime and her friends can give the ''Anime/LuckyStar'' girls a run for their money at times. Chapter 54 consists almost entirely of a discussion of ''armpit hair''.
* SecurityBlanket: Mr. Steppy, the bathroom stool Hime used to use as a child.
* SecurityCling: Hime and Sasasul momentarily cling together while watching ''The Fear From Antarctica.''
* ShoutOut:
** ''The Fear from Antarctica'' is adapted from a novel and it has a black-and-white version and a color one, just like ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld''.
** Another movie appears to be ''ThreeHundred'' [[InSpace with centaurs]].
** Two characters on a date pass [[Creator/HPLovecraft Love Hotels Craft]] and Literature/{{Gormenghast}}, neither of them named for conventionally romantic works.
* [[SingleMindedTwins Single Minded Triplets]]: Three of the Class Rep's little sisters are almost a hive-mind. So much so that they're collectively called "Chi-chan" as if they're one person, anyway. Chapter 38 shows they even ''dream'' in unison.
* SlasherSmile: Sasasul attempts at smiling like a human are disastrous.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Despite the problems mentioned under CrapsaccharineWorld, on the whole the work is on the ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' end of the scale.
* SnakePeople: The Antarcticans. FantasticRacism against them is taking longer to die down than most others, since ReptilesAreAbhorrent.
* StrayingBaby: The Chi-chan triplets wandered 20 kilometers away within ''five hours'' of taking their first steps.
* StunnedSilence: Pretty much the reaction of everyone in Hime's class [[spoiler:when Hime kisses Nozomi for real during play practice]].
* TheTalk: The first chapter is basically Nozomi and Kyouko heroically reassuring Hime that she is normal "down there".
* TechnicallyASmile: [[http://www.mangareader.net/centaurs-worries/15/5 Sasasul's smiles are horrifying]].
* TheissTitillationTheory: InUniverse example in chapter 35 with a group of mermaid boys looking at a magazine of a girl in a bikini. It becomes this trope because, as noted in OurNudityIsDifferent, mermaid girls go topless unless they have to do otherwise.
* ThoseWackyNazis: There are neo-nazis in this alternate world, and they have their old penchant for [[StupidJetpackHitler secret weapons]].
* {{Tomboy}}:
** Nozomi gives this impression. Her short and boyish MessyHair does not help matters any.
** Omaki as well. She looks even more boyish than Nozomi.
** Akira looks virtually identical to Nozomi, except she has a satyr's hooves and horns, and an even more boyish figure.
* TwoFistedTales: The backstory includes a LostWorld populated with snake-men, a modern Aztec empire, mass [=UFO=] sightings and neo-nazis: not your average SliceOfLife setting (even if you ignore the centaurs).
* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Nozomi's cousing Akira has the exact same face and hair like her. The main difference is that Akira is half-imp and half-satyr; she has horns, goat legs and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking wears glasses]].
* UnscaledMerfolk: The tail doesn't begin until knee-level (their bodies are normal above that, avoiding TheMermaidProblem), it is long like a sea serpent's, and they kind of slither around in waist-deep water. At least in school, to keep the books dry. They ''do'' originate from the sea, from aquatical primates.
* VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: All land vertebrates on this Earth come from a lineage of hexapodal amphibians (including humans), although some (like tigers and cats) may have lost some of them in the evolutionary road. However, even those that only have four limbs still have internal remnants of central limbs, which either evolved into other organs or are just too small to see from outside.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Hime is afraid of snakes since she saw ''The Fear from Antarctica'' when she was a kid.
* WingedHumanoid: "Imps" and "Angels". Himeno's friend Nozomi is an example of the former, while the Class Rep is an example of the latter. {{Downplayed}} in that their wings cannot actually be used to fly.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Manami the Class Rep is way too serious and world-weary for a teenager her age. This is due to all the responsibilities she's had to take up at home, like taking care of her younger sisters and looking after the finances of the local shrine, on top of the ones she holds at school.
* WorldBuilding: An impressive case with regards to its setting, given how this is technically a Slice of Life story about teenaged girls.
* {{Xenofiction}}: A rare ''total'' example in the medium.
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** The various human subspecies can interbreed succesfully, although some combinations may have high rates of congenital defects, as is the case with centaur/angel pairings. In accordance with Mendelian inheritance laws the offspring may belong to one of either parent's subspecies or it might have traits from both parents, as seen in the youngest of Manami's sisters, Suetsumu, who has angel wings from her mother's side and cat ears and tail from her father's side.