Line #113 Manga/CastleTownDandelion


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dandelion01.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[SarcasmMode She seems to be enjoying it]].]]
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4	''Castle Town Dandelion'' (城下町のダンデライオン) is a 4koma comedy manga drawn and written by Ayumu Kasuga (known for the designs he drew for ''Literature/GonnaBeTheTwinTail'' and ''Literature/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle''), and serialized in ''Magazine/MangaTimeKirara Miracle!'' [[LongRunner since 2012]], and moving to ''Magazine/MangaTimeKirara'' as of October 2017. An adaptation by Creator/ProductionIMS[[note]]with Creator/StudioComet[[/note]] and directed by Noriaki Akitaya premiered in the summer of 2015.
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6	Akane Sakurada has an issue with being the center of attention. To put it simply, she doesn't like it. The thing is, it's hard to ''not'' be the focus of everyone's attention, when your father just happens to be the ruler of your country. And what's even worse, there's a seemingly endless number of security cameras strategically placed around the town, all set to follow your every move.
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8	You'd think that Akane's life couldn't get any more difficult. You'd guess wrong. Because, seemingly on a whim, dear old Dad decided that upon her graduation three years from now[[note]]In the anime, this is set at the time when big sis Aoi, Akane's big sister and the eldest child of the family, graduates, a year after the beginning.[[/note]] would be the time the country would decide who among the King's children would become the country's next ruler... through a popularity contest.
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10	Fortunately, being part of the royal bloodline has certain... perks. Akane, and indeed all of her nine brothers and sisters, all have special powers. Except those same powers are now ''also'' going to be seen by the public as added appeal for each sibling once it's time to vote...
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12	This series is licensed by Creator/FUNimation in North America and received an English dub, making it the second ''Manga Time Kirara'' title to get an English dub from Funimation (the first being ''Manga/ThreeLeavesThreeColors'' and its broadcast dub).
13	----
14	!!Castle Town Dandelion gives examples of the following tropes:
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16	* AdaptationExpansion: Par for course for a ''Kirara'' 4koma adaptation, where the second half of the first episode is entirely new, and was only done so that viewers could be introduced to each of the Sakurada siblings' abilities.
17	** AdaptationDistillation: While the manga has the story span 2-3 years, the anime condenses these stories all into one year.
18	* AllMenArePerverts: Exaggerated in ''The Princess' Skirt''. After knowing Akane is bottomless for the day and she would have to use the stairs, ''all'' the 10th grade boys stormed out of their classrooms so that they can [[PantyShot have a peek on Akane's panties]].
19	* AuthorAppeal:
20	** Since most Western viewers only knows Kasuga through this and ''Literature/GonnaBeTheTwinTail'', many wonder if she has a GirlishPigtails fetish.
21	** The basic premise of this series are the cameras, and it has been repeatedly mentioned the in-universe population often see her PantyShot. Viewers thus wonder if this series was originally intended as an excuse for Kasuga to write panty shots without actually showing any.
22	* BeachEpisode: Episode 5A, which was mainly adapted from the colour extras of Volume 2. [[spoiler:Downplayed as it is not really a beach; they found the logistics for having a beach vacation [[ModestRoyalty too expensive]] so they faked one from what is essentially a film set.]]
23	* BigBrotherIsWatchingYou: Inverted. The city is peppered with surveillance cameras, but the king himself had them apparently set up to make sure the kids were safe while he was doing his work at the castle. However, once the issue of the election comes up, the cameras ''then'' gain a secondary purpose -- as a ready source of viewing for the public so that they can decide who they would eventually vote for to be the next ruler. In the latter case, people started to discuss these footages as if the royalty were celebrities, PantyShot included.
24	* CastingGag: The romantic subtext between [[Creator/KanaHanazawa Akane]] and [[Creator/SaoriHayami Karen]] can be pretty funny if you watched ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', where they played competing with each other protagonist's two main LoveInterest.
25	* CaughtUpInARobbery: Chapter 9 has some of the cast shopping at a department store on Christmas Eve when a group of robbers holds up the store. The purpose of this segment is to showcase Aoi's ''actual'' RoyaltySuperpower: [[spoiler:within two {{yonkoma}} strips, which won't take more than a few minutes in-universe, she orders the robbers to drop their arms and leave, [[CompellingVoice and they heed her with no questions asked]]. Then she asks all the bystanders to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forget what happened]].]]
26	* AChildShallLeadThem:
27	** According to Chapter 23, Souichirou himself was crowned as a high schooler.
28	** Since all of the Sakurada siblings are under the age of twenty, this will be the case regardless of who wins the election. This is also mostly true in manga, where the election takes place at ''Akane'''s graduation; only Aoi would likely to be above the Japanese age of majority.
29	* ClothingDamage: In Chapter 18/Episode 8A, all of Akane's clothing burst due to a PowerIncontinence of her GravityMaster power.
30	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Sakurada siblings' auras: red for Akane, blue for Aoi, white for Shu, green for Kanade, pink for Misaki, indigo for Haruka, yellow for Hikari, orange for Teru, and purple for Shiori.
31	** It is actually quite exaggerated for Akane; she has an obviously pinker skin tone compared to rest of the cast.
32	** Royal Sakuraka Academy assigns the three grades different trim colors for the students uniforms (skirts and ties for the girls, just the ties for the boys, plus their tracksuits for gym), with red for the freshmen, green for the juniors and blue for the seniors.
33	* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
34	** In episode 5A, after the siblings knew [[spoiler:the "beach" is practically a film set]], Hikari became extremely furious, saying Shuu has been cheating them all along. However, Hikari's anger ceased after Shuu told her the sand and the sea water ''is'' real. Misaki, having overheard the conversation, lampshaded this trope.
35	** In episode 6A, Teru designed an election flier. But because he has a {{shonen}} hero [[MrImagination delusion]], his taglines is immediately seen by his siblings as off-puting.
36	-->To eradicate the root of all evil, and lead the world to its end!
37	* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Akane and Hikari being forced to clean the toilets of the castle. And the castle has a ''lot'' of toilets...
38	* CoolCrown: Worn by the Sakurada siblings in the promotional material for the manga and the anime, and of course, worn by Mr. Sakurada.
39	* ADayInTheLimelight: The series switches the focus on a different sibling each chapter, for the most part.
40	* DeconstructedTrope: The anime seems to deconstruct superpower tropes, albeit lightly, and were mostly resolved in the end.
41	** Aoi's complex about [[CompellingVoice her superpower]] is based on the fear her reputation was not a real one.
42	** Kanade has been haunted by her [[spoiler:crushing Shuu's leg some 12 years ago]], which eventually was due to the misuse of [[ThePowerOfCreation her superpower]] leading to the dematerialization of items she previously materialized.
43	** The anime explained Akane's social phobia ''also'' as a consequence of an superpower misuse: [[spoiler:when she was playing at Karen's house as a child, she destroyed Karen's house as she overexerted [[GravityMaster her superpower]] to fight intruders, putting her into the center of attention ''very'' negatively.]]
44	** Probably due to Akane's experience above, Teru has to make vows to his parents to limit the use of [[SuperStrength his superpower]]. This in turn make him feel useless, since that superpower... isn't one that needs to be used often in TheNewTens Japan.
45	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Creator/YuiOgura (Hikari) and Creator/KaoriIshihara (Kanade), as J-pop duo "[=YuiKaori=]", perform the opening theme, while Ogura solos the ending.
46	* DraggedByTheCollar: Misaki did this to Haruka in Chapter 3/ Episode 5B so that they can go home together.
47	* DramaticDeadpan: Shuu delivers one during an omake when he accidentally goes into the same bath as his sisters. What sells it is how composed he looks during the whole thing even when he's about to get beat up.
48	* ElectiveMonarchy: The King put his successor to ''universal suffrage''.
49	* EvolvingCredits: After Aoi's [[spoiler:real power is revealed]] the opening is changed to make reference to it and her friends.
50	* GirlWatching: The kind of language on Akane's fansite indicates quite a few commoners used the chance to girl-watch the princesses.
51	* GratuitousEnglish:
52	** The title. It's more correct to call it ''The Dandelion of the Castle Town'', but at least the author should add a possessive after "town" if he wants to keep the current word order.
53	** ''Honey Come'', the ending theme; the title is gibberish enough, and it's pronounced as "hanikamu," one word. The song also pronounced "Pick me please!" as "Pikumi priese."
54	* HalfIdenticalTwins: Misaki and Haruka, which look similar enough despite obviously fraternal twins. Averted by Shuu and Kanade; viewers often forget they actually ''are'' twins.
55	* HappilyMarried: The Sakuradas have to be, to have ''nine'' kids.
56	* HeroicBSOD:
57	** Twice in [[WhamEpisode Episode 6]]:
58	*** When a younger Kanade [[spoiler:saw the castle she [[PowerOfCreation materialized]] collapses.]]
59	*** When a middle-schooler Aoi [[spoiler:suddenly found her RoyaltySuperpower is actually CompellingVoice.]]
60	** A continuation of Kanade's case above, animated as episode 10B, have her falls into it again after knowing Shuu's range of motion was permanently damaged because of it, and a perception she ruined Shuu's life as EquivalentExchange for the said castle.
61	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: In the manga the King towers over his wife (and indeed, the rest of the family!). The anime tones this down significantly.
62	* InstantFanClub: Each of the Sakuraba siblings have this. Episode 4B/ Chapter 6 deals with Akane's.
63	* InnocentlyInsensitive: It's a toddler, so it's completely reasonable... but still counts as this trope. In episode 6B Kanade visits a kindergarten as part of her campaign. One of the toddlers drew ''Aoi'' in front of Kanade, and says she's going to vote for Aoi. Just as background, Aoi is first in polls, followed by Kanade.
64	* {{Irony}}: Akane, the sibling who ''hates'' being in the public spotlight, is now determined to be the next ruler of the country so she could put a stop to the public exposure her family (and by extension, herself) is under. Except being the next ruler would put her into even ''more'' public scrutiny. Her older sister Aoi lampshades the holes in Akane's logic with regards to this.
65	--> '''Aoi:''' That's kind of contradictory, isn't it?
66	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The castle incident is traumatic to both Shuu and Kanade. However, while Akane eye-witnessed the entire incident--it happened because Kanade tried curry Akane's favour--Akane did not remember it a single bit.
67	* LoveConfession: Happens in the second half of episode 2. [[spoiler:Satou lets out her feelings for Shuu, but he turns her down as he has to focus on the election. However, he does agree to talk to her about it again once the election is over. Eventually Shuu returns the favour in both anime and manga with different storylines; in the manga they actually ''engaged'' as of Chapter 26.]]
68	* LuminescentBlush: Happens to Akane, Shuu, and Satou. [[spoiler:Akane because she becomes the unexpected witness to Satou's LoveConfession to her brother.]]
69	* MassivelyNumberedSiblings:
70	** It bears repeating, Akane is just the fourth of ''nine'' kids (though four are two separate sets of twins). Mom and dad Sakurada have been busy, for sure.
71	** Satsuki is the oldest of five siblings.
72	* MindControlEyes: People under the control of [[spoiler:Aoi's CompellingVoice]] have this in the anime.
73	* MistakenForIncest: Akane finds her brother, Haruka, looking at pictures of her on a computer screen. She immediately thinks he's having ''those kinds'' of thoughts about her. She tells him, somewhat tellingly, that she's not ''opposed'' to the idea, just concerned what their family and society would say. Turns out that he was just flagging images on a fan site for deletion because he knows how embarrassed Akane gets from public exposure.
74	* ModestRoyalty: Aside from the fact that the Sakuradas are supposedly the royal family, they act like your typical middle-class family. Heck, they don't even ''live'' in the castle; instead, they live in a two-floor flat in the suburbs, and the kids all go to public schools all with minimal supervision from the palace staff (aside from the cameras, of course!). For a casual observer the only telltale sign is the motorcade the King uses to commute to and from the castle.
75	* {{Nosebleed}}: At the end of ''The Princess' Skirt'', this happened to ''all'' the 10th grade boys and Karen after Akane innocently flashed in front of all of them.
76	* {{Nepotism}}: {{Subverted\|trope}}. Sacchan initially thought Hikari got her stardom by this. Of course for viewers, it's hardly the case--when Matsuoka scouted Hikari in Episode 3B, he didn't even know Hikari is the current King's daughter, and he got an OhCrap reaction upon knowing she actually is Princess Hikari.
77	* NotInThisForYourRevolution: {{Discussed\|trope}} in Chapter 20/Episode 6A, when Misaki criticized most of the siblings that are seriously running the election are doing that for their own reasons... until she also falls into this trope. The reasons are, in order of age:
78	** Kanade: [[spoiler:[[TheAtoner to have the power to accelerate the nation's medical technology and thus find a way to cure Shuu's right leg, as penance for accidentally breaking it twelve years ago in the process of saving Akane from her crumbling castle, inadvertently ruining his dreams of becoming a football player.]]]]
79	** Akane: To remove all the surveillance cameras.
80	** Misaki: Wanting Haruka to acknowledge her first among his other siblings.
81	** Hikari: [[AttentionWhore Wants attention]].
82	* PervertAlliance: The Akane Sakurada Fan Club (of which her eldest brother Shuu is a member) groups together to watch Akane be flustered and cute. And when Kanade jokingly tells Shuu that the club president was asking for Akane's hand in marriage, Shuu protests loudly. On top of that, all of the boys in her class unite under the goal of seeing her panties when it looks like she's forgotten her skirt and is about to ascend a flight of stairs. [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Even her bestie, Karin, gets a nosebleed when seeing said panties]].
83	* PowerGlows: As a convention characters will glow up when they use their RoyaltySuperpower.
84	* PowerIncontinence:
85	** Everyone that has RoyaltySuperpower would have random periods of this, called Breakouts. Akane has a similar situation in Chapter 18, but it's due to a fever. When adopted as Episode 8A, it shows ''all'' of the 8 siblings affected by Breakouts at the same time, so that, for example, Aoi has to refrain from speaking to avoid anything she speaks [[spoiler:converted to CompellingVoice]], Shu [[TeleportSpam teleporting randomly]], Kanade [[ThePowerOfCreation materializing random stuff]], and Akane handling with ever-changing levels of {{gravity\|master}}, etc.
86	** Breakouts aside, younger members of the royal family still have problems controlling their own powers usual hours.
87	* PunBasedTitle: The Light/Sacchan duet song is called ''Search Light''.
88	* PunnyName: The ad-hoc group between Light and Sacchan is called "Search Light"--or "Sacchi-Light."
89	* QuiveringEyes: A few times, mainly when realistic consequences set in.
90	** In Chapter 22 (adapted as a part of Episode 6B), Aoi went into this when she asked a security guard to do a handstand and woof at her [[spoiler:[[CompellingVoice he did it with no questions asked]]]].
91	** In Chapter 29 (adapted as parts of Episode 6A and 10B), Kanade had that twice; first when the castle she [[ThePowerOfCreation materialized]] came crumbling down and injured both Shuu and Akane, and later when she overheard the severity of Shuu's injuries and why the castle collapsed--for the latter, the InsertPaymentToUse[=/=]EquivalentExchange nature of her RoyaltySuperpower.
92	* RotatingArcs: This series is structured such that every chapter/segment is focused on one or two of the Sakurada siblings[[note]][[HalfIdenticalTwins Misaki and Haruka]] are often featured together, so are Teru and Shiori.[[/note]]. Other siblings are often brought into the story as story requires, but there're few stories involving ''all'' of the siblings.
93	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: While Akane has a crippling case of shyness, this doesn't stop her from stepping up whenever someone is in trouble, as shown when she goes after a mugger in the first chapter of the manga and the first episode of the anime.
94	* RoyaltySuperPower: Played straight, with each of the Sakurada kids having powers ''because'' their royal bloodline.
95	* SatelliteCharacter: Due to the RotatingArcs [=/=] ADayInTheLimelight format of this series, many characters are only associated with one sibling:
96	** Aoi has her ChildhoodFriends Uzuki, Nanao and Shizuru. The latter three are often seen as [[LampshadeHanging Aoi-sama's attendents]], which annoys Aoi to no end.
97	** Shuu has his LoveInterest, Hana. Although in Hana's case it is eventually averted as she effectively became part of the Sakurada family [[spoiler:as Shuu's fiancee]].
98	** Akane has her Childhood Friend Karen and the vice-class rep Fukushina, which is also secretly the president of her InstantFanClub.
99	** Hikari has Matsuoka, her manager and producer, and Sacchan, a fellow IdolSinger.
100	* SecurityBlindspot: Attempted, with varying degrees of success, by Akane Sakuraba, to preserver her privacy. As she's a princess, and there are over 2000 security cameras monitoring the city she lives in, it's not an easy feat. And the camera pattern gets shifted from time to time to make sure she can't evade the cameras all the time. Once in awhile she'll use her power over gravity to fly, putting her above the scope of the cameras, but this has the disadvantage of providing a PantyShot to anyone below her, and as mentioned before, she's shy. So she can't use that option often.
101	* SheIsTheKing: The country's monarch is always called "King", whether they be female or male
102	* SickEpisode: Chapter 13/ Episode 7A involves an Akane brought down with fever, with Kanade and Shiori the only other people at home.
103	* SiblingSenioritySquabble: Played straight with Shu and Kanade in Episodes 6A and 10B, where Shu has to remind Kanade that he's the older twin between them. Averted with Misaki and Haruka, as Haruka has no problem calling Misaki his older sister, and also had to correct others that said that Haruka was the older sibling.
104	* SliceOfLife: Of an extremely ModestRoyalty with [[RoyaltySuperpower superpowers]] under constant surveillance.
105	* ShoutOut: In Teru's ImagineSpot in episode 11, Hikari (as a warrior) wore [[Literature/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon Hestia]]'s breast ribbon.
106	* SchoolGirlSeries: Mostly averted, despite the reputation of its publisher and five girls as the main characters. Instead, the series includes three their brothers as protagonists with different levels of participation in the plot and borrows part of the tropes from other genres.
107	* SmashingWatermelons: An anime-original bit of episode 5A involves the Sakurada siblings (sans [[NonActionGuy Haruka]]) attempting to do this [[BeachEpisode on the beach]]. [[spoiler:Shiori succeeded in [[SpeaksFluentAnimal persuading the watermelon to split on its own]].]] This skit, strangely, is to showcase Haruka's AwesomenessByAnalysis superpower.
108	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Shuu is basically a clone of his father, except being slightly shorter. They have similar temperaments as well.
109	* SuccessionCrisis: Averted. Not only is their dad the King alive (he's still 38 and apparently healthy), none of the Sakurada kids seem to treat the coming election with any seriousness, and around half of the siblings aren't even interested in being the next monarch[[labelnote:i.e.]]Aoi, Shuu, Haruka, Shiori[[/labelnote]]. Indeed, Akane is only ''maybe'' thinking of going after the crown only because, if she were the ruler, she'd be able to ''order'' all those security cameras disabled.
110	* TalentVsTraining: Hikari decides to become a pop idol to earn support for the upcoming royal election. She is naturally talented and her power over age allows her to change herself to the ideal physique as an idol. Her fellow performer, Sacchi, works diligently to learn choreography and singing and worked hard to get where she is. As such, Sacchi is initially bitter toward Hikari and later fears what would become of her when she sees Hikari actually buckling down and applying herself.
111	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Looks like the entire household likes what Japanese refer as pudding[[note]]which is called creme caramel elsewhere.[[/note]].
112	* UniversalGroupReaction: In one episode, it appears that Akane has forgotten her skirt, and when word reaches her sister Kanade in the Student Council, she summons Akane to the room to find out for herself. Cue a ton of guys who are hoping to catch a glimpse of her underwear as she walks upstairs following. When Akane finds out what's going on, she explains that she had torn her skirt trying to avoid the security cameras, and put on a pair of gym shorts instead. She lifts her sweater to demonstrate, only to show that she was, in fact, wearing just panties under her sweater. Cue a {{Nosebleed}} from every guy, including her brother Shuu, as well as [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer her bestie, Karen]].
113	* ViewersAreGeniuses: At TheStinger of most episodes, a Sakurada sibling will mention their personal idols, which is relevant to what is in their minds. While most of these idols are well-known European monarchs, Haruka's choice [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajah_Mada Gajah Mada]], while fits to his ambition to "''merely''" be TheStrategist, is obscure for anyone who's not an Indonesian nor played ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V''.
114	* WardrobeMalfunction: Chapter 12/ episode 4A deals with a bottomless Akane.
115	* WhamEpisode: Episode 6 of the anime, which is adopted from 4 different chapters. When you know in 25 minutes Kanade is acting so eager in the election because [[spoiler:[[GuiltComplex she ruined Shuu's leg 12 years ago]]]], Aoi [[spoiler:has a real ability that [[CompellingVoice out-Lelouches]] [[Anime/CodeGeass Lelouch]], and she feels ''[[BlessedWithSuck really bad]]'' about it]], you can call it a Wham Episode.
116	* WhatsUpKingDude: As the king wants his children to blend into the normal people as much as possible, this is a given. Princes and princesses are literally walking around the city like any commoner, as long as they are greeted with [[Usefulnotes/JapaneseHonorifics -sama]].
117	* WorldOfTechnicolorHair: The royal family seems to have this problem. Shuu and Teru have more realistic colors of black and strawberry blonde. However, the rest range from peculiar to outrageous. Akane has hair the color of strawberry jam, Aoi has indigo hair, while Haruka has lavender colored hair.

Context Manga / CastleTownDandelion