Line #9 Manga/Othello


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_othello_01.jpg]]
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3	''Othello'' is a manga series created by Satomi Ikezawa. It was serialized in the [[ShoujoDemographic shojo]] magazine ''Bessatsu Friend'' from 2001 to 2004, and compiled into 7 volumes.
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5	It tells about Yaya Higuchi, a girl who's always dreamt of becoming a singer, but due to her shy nature, she's always been bullied. Now in high school, she still feels isolated, even by her "best friends": her only way to escape reality is by dressing up in lolita fashion and talk with fellow fans of her favourite band, Juliet.
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7	However, once even this secret is brought to light and mocked upon, she snaps and develops a SplitPersonality: Nana, a hot-blooded ActionGirl who will turn Yaya's life outside down without her even knowing.
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9	Not to be confused with ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'', a Shakespeare play. The title of the manga is probably inspired by the board game (which was itself named after the play).
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11	----
12	!!Tropes included:
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14	* ActionGirl: Nana is so skilled at fighting and defense she can even jump to a train in motion without getting injured.
15	* AlphaBitch: Seri is usually the one to handle Yaya's bullying.
16	* BewareTheNiceOnes:
17	** The reason why Nana was born from Yaya's stress. Nana is the complete opposite of Yaya, and will do anything to protect her.
18	** Yaya's cosplay buddies are a NiceGirl troupe. But if they catch you insulting them or attacking one of their own, it's a mercy if all they do is draw on your face.
19	* BigSisterInstinct: Even though they are the same person, Nana treats protecting Yaya as this. To the point that [[spoiler:even when she disagrees with the messes that Yaya gets herself into, Nana will always help out the original personality]].
20	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Yaya manages to overcome her fears and debut as a singer, as well as start dating Moriyama. However, Nana has faded from her mind after her CharacterDevelopment, but it's implied she still lives somewhere inside her.]]
21	* BullyingADragon: Most of Yaya's bullies when they encounter Nana don't get the memo that putting Yaya in danger or insulting her only triggers Nana to come out and protect her. [[spoiler:Shuko, who is a NiceGirl all things considered, manages to disable Nana merely by telling Yaya that she became a different person]].
22	* CatchPhrase: Nana's "Heavenly punishment!" followed by "Justice is done!"
23	* CharacterDevelopment: Both Nana and Yaya undergo parallel character arcs and character growth.
24	** [[TookALevelInBadass Yaya]] learns to stand up for herself, overcome her fears and pursue her dreams and desires rather than simply be a people pleaser and forcing Nana to solve her problems.
25	** [[TookALevelInKindness Nana]] in a parallel arc, learns to think before simply beating up Yaya's bullies and also tries to be her own person and figure out what she wants outside of violence.
26	** Their parallel arcs highlight how the two personalities share things in common which foreshadows [[spoiler: their SplitPersonalityMerge]]
27	* ConcertKiss: [[spoiler: During Moriyama's band concert, Nana climbs the stage and kisses him.]]
28	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Yaya and Nana.
29	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Nana has a flaw where she doesn't consider how her actions can bring negative consequences to Yaya. Her violence often causes a CycleOfRevenge which got Moriyama hurt. She also doesn't think about how spending nights working or recording music might tax Yaya's body.
30	* TheDitz: Nana's only flaw is being very clumsy, which occasionally is the cause of her turning again into Yaya.
31	* ElegantGothicLolita: Yaya as her "Mimi" persona.
32	* ExtremeDoormat: Yaya has tolerated all her life being bullied and being toyed with by her supposed friends, without ''ever'' following her own wishes. Her cosplay hobby helped her to escape reality, but once this is discovered, she develops the Nana personality. However, since her original personality isn't aware of Nana's existence, she thinks she's going crazy and losing her memory, making her even more pitiful.
33	* FalseFriend: Seri and Moe at the beginning of the story, Megumi later on the plot. Nana sees through all of them, though.
34	* FluffyTheTerrible: Shouhei has an alligator called Elizabeth. She's extremely violent, specially around Nana.
35	* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Yaya. Everyone she befriends ends up being a bully or mostly ignoring her existence. This doesn't stop her from thinking of them as friends, though.
36	* HandsomeLech: Shouhei.
37	* InformedAttractiveness: Shouhei is considered to be as beautiful as a prince in-universe.
38	* JerkassHasAPoint: While it was a moment of BrutalHonesty and causes disaster for everyone in the long-term, Shuko is correct when she tells off Moriyama for [[spoiler:keeping Yaya's split personality a secret from Yaya. It was something that Yaya should have known a long time ago. Moriyama admits that she's right]].
39	* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Yaya is sweet, soft-spoken and wears mostly light coloured dresses. Nana, on the other hand, prefers jeans, tank tops that show her belly and has a much more sexier look in her eyes than Yaya.
40	* MissingMom: Yaya's mother died when she was in elementary school.
41	* TheMissusAndTheEx: Yaya ends up meeting Moriyama's ex Shuko
42	* NewOldFlame: Shuko. She's quickly dealt with, though, since she is a NiceGirl.
43	* NiceGirl:
44	** The other cosplay girls are this to Yaya, or Mimi as they know her. When they see she's morose about Moriyama telling her not to visit her concert -- the reason being that Moriyama's band is having Nana sing -- they tell her to go and enjoy herself and not worry about them.
45	** Shuko is the only romantic rival that is perfectly cordial to both Yaya and Nana. [[spoiler:While her moment of telling Yaya about her split personality is BrutalHonesty, she is correct that Moriyama shouldn't have hidden the truth from Yaya]].
46	* NiceGuy: The construction grew that lets Nana work the night shift with them to WorkOffTheDebt [[spoiler:to Megumi]]. After they are impressed by how she delivers justice to Megumi, and in addition to her pulling her own weight, they give her a tiny bonus out of their various paychecks.
47	* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: Moriyama and Yaya.]]
48	* OneSteveLimit: When Megumi enlists Yaya's help to find Nana, they look through the school directory. There are at least four Nanas, including one Nanako. Megumi realizes none of them are ''the'' Nana and wonders if she's a dropout. Yaya wonders the same thing.
49	* PleaseWakeUp: [[spoiler: When Nana vanishes, Yaya begs her to come back and stop hiding. Moriyama has to break the bad news to her.]]
50	* ReadTheFinePrint: Nana thinks that it was pretty stupid for Yaya to sign a contract from Megumi [[spoiler:without checking the details. Rather than meet celebrity singers, it was to escort creepy men. What's more, Yaya can only get out of it if she pays the fees and steals back the contract]].
51	* RealWomenDontWearDresses: Zigzagged and ultimately subverted. At first it seems that [[ActionGirl Nana]] is forced to solve problems that [[ShrinkingViolet Yaya]] gets herself in leading to this dynamic. But Nana's violence often causes problems and gets Moriyama seriously hurt and Yaya successfully starts to stand up for herself in her own way. The story lands somewhere in the middle that there are pros and cons to everything and every personality.
52	* TheRockStar: Moriyama wants to become this. [[spoiler: Shohei is a straight example.]]
53	** [[spoiler: Yaya is persuaded to pursue her own singing career]]
54	* RomanticFalseLead: One may think Yaya will get romantically involved sometime in the story with her platonic idol crush, or at least develop the plot in a LoveTriangle involving them and Moriyama... [[spoiler: but once Shohei is revealed to be an older (and rather creepy) man her platonic crush seems to disappear.]]
55	* SecretKeeper: Moriyama, Shuko, and Shohei.
56	* ShrinkingViolet: Yaya.
57	* SplitPersonality: Nana to Yaya.
58	* SplitPersonalityMakeover: Yaya has TaremeEyes and barely noticeable lips. She usually also wears her hair properly tied in a bun or pigtails. Nana, however, has TsurimeEyes, very flashy lips and likes to loosen her hair, making it look longer than when she's Yaya.
59	* SplitPersonalityMerge: [[spoiler:As Yaya overcomes her fears, Nana decides to disappear from her mind. However, sometimes Yaya still acts like Nana.]]
60	* StockShoujoBullyingTactics: Yaya withstands getting pictures of her dressed as a lolita shown to the whole class, being forced to sit in her chair with a tack on it, being forced to beg and then getting a bucket of water thrown of her... Luckily, Nana has got her back.
61	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
62	** As Shuko points out in her WhatTheHellHero moment to Nana, delivering "justice" violently, even to people who deserve it, doesn't solve problems outright. In fact, it tends to make things worse because the other person will engage in a CycleOfRevenge. This is what happens to Yaya with her bullies as Nana retaliates.
63	** Nana spends an entire night working with a construction crew. The next morning, Yaya wakes up sore all over and confused.
64	* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Shuko is the only person that manages to put Nana in their place, by [[spoiler:telling off Nana for resorting to violence for every problem, then telling Yaya that she has a split personality that's taking over her and acting violently]].
65	* TalkingToThemself: Yaya and Nana.
66	* VisualKei: Juliet, Yaya's favourite band, followed this style. She seems to imitate it too when she doesn't dress up as a lolita.
67	* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: As SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome shows, Nana punching all of Yaya's bullies brings mixed results. However in a hilarious subversion, Nana [[spoiler: beating up Keisuke does successfully get him to back down where Yaya's more peaceful route of apologizing and begging failed.]]
68	* WardrobeMalfunction: [[spoiler: During the concert where Nana replaces Moriyama, her blouse gets tied with the bass' strings and gets ripped off. She quickly takes it off and replaces it with a nearby piece of cloth.]]
69	* WhamLine: When Seri and Moe try to make Yaya sit on a tack, Nana shouts internally to Yaya, "I can't use a mirror anymore!" and takes over to save Yaya.
70	* WhatTheHellHero:
71	** Shuko actually manages to put Nana in her place by [[spoiler:calling out Nana for how her violence only puts Moriyama in danger, and that you can't solve every problem by beating the tar out of everyone. Much as Shuko would like the world to be that way, violence isn't always the solution]].
72	** Then she delivers another one to Moriyama for [[spoiler:not telling Yaya about her split personality. She's completely right, as Moriyama acknowledges]].
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Context Manga / Othello