History Manga / PeepoChoo

* ShadowArchetype: Morimoto is a Milton that never got any healthy outlets for his behavior. Both come from a place of weakness and both like [[spoiler:obscure, poorly regarded]] foreign media that they imitate in order to have an "escape" from the ills of their world (Milton for the harshness of Brooklyn, Morimoto for feeling weak and powerless). However, Milton eventually got to see the place he idolized so much and had his friends call him out when he made trouble; by contrast, Morimoto kept trying to get ''in'' trouble in order to become a hardened criminal, and his behavior was enabled by Aniki until he became too big a problem to ignore.

%%* KnifeNut: Fate

* ContemptibleCover: Volume 1 of the collected editions, with its focus on Reiko's bosom.

* BrokenPedestal: When Miyamoto learns that [[spoiler:Aniki]], the one who started his life in crime and who he thought was more than just his friend, was the one arranging his assassinations he [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves coldly shoots him down]] with the gun [[spoiler:Aniki]] gave him.

* CasanovaWannabe: Jody likes to pretend to be more successful with the ladies than he is [[TheBlindLeadingTheBlind to the American comics nerds that frequent the store]]. His luck at landing actual ladies is even worse--none of them find his come-ons attractive and the only reason they give him the time of day is because he resembles Beauty Judy.

* QuestForSex: Why Jody even gets excited about going to Japan; he's a virgin desperate to stamp his card, and he heard from Miguel that he can get all the ladies he wants for free there. [[spoiler:He nearly succeeds after a long string of failures, but he gets interrupted by Gill masquerading as Fate.]]

* WidgetSeries: The titular show. The Japan comics publisher even invokes the trope, calling upon it as unique Japanese weirdness sweeping the nation. [[spoiler:In reality, it was weird even for Japan.]]

* {{Irony}}: The greatest twist of all for ''Peepo Choo'' was in its success in America. [[spoiler:As a ''seinen'' manga and a break from Plum's norm of childrens' works, nobody understood it and it tanked horribly. However, when ''Peepo Choo'' was introduced to the States as a weird piece of children's media, it was a runaway success. Plum's one chance to break out from his shell turned out to be an extension of his regular work after all, [[DramaticIrony he would never learn of any of it after getting shamed out of the industry.]]]]

* {{Irony}}: The greatest twist of all for ''Peepo Choo'' was in its success in America. [[spoiler:As a ''seinen'' manga and a break from Plum's norm of childrens' works, nobody understood it and it tanked horribly. However, when ''Peepo Choo'' was introduced to the States as a weird piece of children's media, it was a runaway success. Plum's one chance to break out from his shell turned out to be an extension of his regular work after all.]]

** [[PlayingWithATrope However, that's not all there is to this trope--]] Milton starts off as this, but the narrative makes it clear that he's supposed to be sympathetic and he learns his behavior made others feel uncomfortable, ending the story a lot better adjusted. Gill is also respectful outside of his hitman job. On the flip side, the parts of Japan are shown to be quite boorish and shitty too, such as the drunk old men, the bigger pressure to conform, or the yakuza.

* BigEgoHiddenDepths: Jody has a conscience somewhere underneath that crass exterior. He lies about his sex life to appear cool, and Milton's involvements in the Japan trip only happens because Jody fudged the results in his favor despite being annoyed by his fanboyism for ''Peepo Choo''.

* SugarAndIcePersonality: Reiko puts up a tough front to everyone after a string of people using her and making her feel unwelcome. Once peolle get to know her though, she gradually becomes nicer and more expressive once she expresses her real desires.

* TakeThat: The money-grubbing American manga publisher and their boss are a venomous (but not unjustified) caricature of Creator/{{Tokyopop}} and their founder Stu Levy.

* {{Eagleland}}: A solid Type II. The Americans we see in the series are rather dumpy, loud, and obnoxious to each other and to other people, while American men in particular are called out for wanting to have sex with Japanese women. American violence as represented by Gangsta culture and ''Brick Side'' gets a huge focus too: it's portrayed as fast, in-your-face, and disrespectful. Morimoto's transformation into a thug has a lot more emphasis on the American rudeness from other Yakuza.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first chapter establishes that Milton does all of Jody's work while Gill's not paying attention in order to score free figurines and merchandise from the comic book store. After the first few chapters, we never see Milton work again, with Jody doing a subpar job at best.

* {{Eagleland}}: A solid Type II. The Americans we see in the series are rather dumpy, loud, and obnoxious to each other and to other people, while American men in particular are called out for wanting to have sex with Japanese women. American violence as represented by Gangsta culture and ''Brick Side'' gets a huge focus too: it's portrayed as fast, in-your-face, and disrespectful. Morimoto's transformation into a more thuggish criminal has a lot more emphasis on the American rudeness from other Yakuza.
** [[PlayingWithATrope However, that's not all there is to this trope--]] Milton starts off as this, but the narrative makes it clear that he's supposed to be sympathetic and he learns his behavior made others feel uncomfortable, ending the story a lot better adjusted. Gill is also respectful outside of his hitman job. On the flip side, the night life of Japan is shown to be quite boorish and shitty too, such as the drunk old men or the yakuza.

''Peepo Choo'' is a satirical manga by Felipe Smith. It's notable for being one of the first manga series ever to be written and drawn by a mangaka from outside East Asia, but first published in Japanese by a Japanese publisher. It was serialized in the magazine ''Morning Two'' for its run, and then collected in three volumes.

** Jody looks especially guilty for making fun of Milton after [[spoiler:they both learn ''Peepo Chuu'' was a failure in Japan and Milton punches him when he mocks the boy for it]].

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:''Peepo Chuu'' isn't famous at all in Japan; it bombed hard.]]

** A Norwegian and a Kenyan operate a clothing shop that specializes in “American” attire while pretending to be from the Brooklyn. They aren’t exactly hot on the business practice and outright say they don’t even like Americans, but everyone in Japan assumes that they as foreigners are from America so they might as well use it to their advantage.

* HeroicBSOD: Milton has one near the climax of the story, after he realises just how little he knows about Japan and how different it is from his expectations,on top of learning that [[spoiler:his favorite anime failed in Japan and he's been making a fool of himself]].

** [[PlayingWithATrope However, that's not all there is to this trope--]] Milton starts off as this, but the narrative makes it clear that he's supposed to be sympathetic and he learns his behavior made others feel uncomfortable, ending the story a lot better adjusted. Gill is also respectful outside of his hitman job. On the flip side, the night life of Japan is shown to be quite boorish and shitty too, such as the drunk old men.

* BigEgoHiddenDepths: Jody has a conscience somewhere in that crass exterior. He lies about his sex life to appear cool, and Milton's involvements in the Japan trip only happens because Jody fudged the results in his favor despite being annoyed by his fanboyism for ''Peepo Choo''.

* CentralTheme: Cultral misconceptions. Milton is under the impression that Japan is unilaterally accepting of anime and manga and just as easily understand why an American kid would like ''Peepo Choo'', while Jody goes on the "trip" thinking he'll get an easy lay with Japanese girls. Reiko thinks American men are are horndogs from the cradle to the grave, and Morimoto is a full believer of the gangsta lifestyle. They even go through some body image stereotypes as well, like Milton thinking Japanese girls were supposed to be small and cute. As the story shows, while there is some truth to some of these claims, it obviously isn't the whole of either country, and they can't expect it to be that way.

* TeensAreMonsters: Miki's classmates are particularly nasty bullies, first being introduced trying to force her to eat a tampon and bullying her for being an "ugly nerd". Jody isn't much better, and is pretty much Milton's personal buy until the end of the series.

* MobWar: Gill's sublplot consists of him taking hits in Japan so he can start cleaning out well established crime families. On the side, Morimoto's reckless behavior almost causes chaos among the other groups.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Fate
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Gill develops a bad case of this for Morimoto.

* ShadowArchetype: Morimoto is a Milton that never got any healthy outlets for his behavior. Both come from a place of weakness and both like [[spoiler:obscure, poorly regarded]] foreign media that they imitate in order to fuel their (Milton for the harshness of Brooklyn, Morimoto for feeling weak and powerless). However, Milton eventually got to see the place he idolized so much and had his friends call him out when he made trouble; by contrast, Morimoto kept trying to get ''in'' trouble in order to become a hardened criminal, and his behavior was enabled by Aniki until he became too big a problem to ignore.

* TeensAreMonsters: Miki's classmates are particularly nasty bullies, first being introduced trying to force her to eat a tampon and bullying her for being an "ugly nerd". Jody isn't much better, and is pretty much Milton's personal buy until ghe end of the series.

* BuxomIsBetter: This is everyone else's attitude to ReIko, although [[DCupDistress she doesn't enjoy it too much]].

* BuxomIsBetter: This is everyone else's attitude to Rieko, although [[DCupDistress she doesn't enjoy it too much]].

In Japan the characters are mirrored by Reiko, a cynical teenage gravure idol fed up with her work, Reiko's [[FanGirl otaku girl]] friend Miki, Morimoto "Rockstar", a psychotic gangster obsessed with his own idea of African-American gangsta culture, and Fate's target, and Aniki, Morimoto's boss who hired Fate to deniably kill him because of his AxCrazy-ness.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Reiko. The men she knows only like her for her body, the foreign guys moreso than others, but the women don't want her around because they think she might steal their men.

* {{Eagleland}}: A solid Type II. The Americans we see in the series are rather dumpy, loud, and obnoxious to each other and to other people, while American men in particular are called out for wanting to have sex with Japanese women. American violence as represented by Gangsta culture and ''Brick Side'' gets a huge focus too: it's portrayed as fast, in-your-face, and disrespectful. Morimoto's transformation into a more thuggish criminal has a lot more emphasis on the American rudeness from other Yakuza
[[PlayingWithATrope However, that's not all there is to this trope--]] Milton starts off as this, but the narrative makes it clear that he's supposed to be sympathetic and he learns his behavior made others feel uncomfortable, ending the story a lot better adjusted. Gill is also respectful outside of his hitman job. On the flip side, the night life of Japan is shown to be quite boorish and shitty too, such as the drunk old men.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A lot before the reveal of [[spoiler: ''Peepo Choo'' being unsuccessful in its home country]]:
** When Milton first goes to a Japanese convenience store, he says he can't find any magazines that mention the series. [[spoiler:While it isn't mentioned, the children's anthologies don't carry the supposedly kid friendly series either.]]
** Most of the people we meet in Japan don't recognize the Peepo Dance, with the exceptions of Miki, who's already shown to be into obscure interests, and a hobo, [[spoiler:who only knows about it by virtue of being its creator]].