Left to right: Sora, Miu and Hina. From the Light Novels, Volume 1
Nineteen-year-old Yuuta Segawa has just entered college as a freshman at the Literature Department of Tama University, which is a feat as far as he is concerned. Until three years ago, he was living with his older sister Yuri, who has been his mother-figure ever since their parents died back when he was a child and she a high-schooler. They'd spent years together, with Yuuta loving her fully and Yuri having given up on her outside life for his sake. All that changed when she married Shingo Takanashi, a middle-aged man with two daughters from previous marriages — Yuuta left her side, partially out of disapproval over her husband, but now that past hurts have healed, Yuuta thinks it's high time he repays Yuri's kindness by letting her be happy with Shingo and set off on his own as an independent young man.
One day, however, he receives bad news: Yuri and Shingo disappeared together with the plane they were in while they were on vacation. After a hasty funeral, Yuuta's relatives began arguing over custodianship and distribution of the three daughters of Yuri and Shingo — the youngest of whom is the only child Yuri gave birth to — left behind. Yuuta is baffled by his relatives' disregard for how the girls feel about this, seeing how they're closely-knit despite being born of different mothers, so he decides to man up and adopts them all.
Yuuta's life has definitely made a turnaround: from an independent young man to an adoptive single father of three girls: Sora, a fourteen-year-old middle-schooler with an awkward approach to relationships; Miu, a ten-year-old elementary schoolgirl who's a bit daring for her age; and Hina, the youngest at three years old and Yuuta's only fully blood-related niece. Despite the hardships of his new life, Yuuta, with some help from his friends at the Street Observation Research Club — portly Club President Shuntarou Sako, his handsome best friend Kouichi Nimura, and buxom college sweetheart Raika Oda — vows to persevere and prove himself worthy to be his nieces' legal guardian.
Listen to Me, Girls. I am Your Father! (Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai! or Listen to What Papa Says!) or just PapaKiki!, the official shortened title, is a 2009 Light Novel series written by Tomohiro Matsu and illustrated by Yuka Nakajima (Digital Lover), having ended on March 2015 with 18 volumes published by Super Dash Bunko, owned by Shueisha. As of present it is one of Japan's bestselling light novels, and has spawned six manga adaptations aimed at various demographics and an Animated Adaptation aired from January to March 2012, 12 Episodes.
For those in the US, the anime series can be legally viewed at Crunchyroll
.
Manga Adaptations, the PapaKiki! universe:
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai!: Shounen, running on Jump SQ magazine. Art by Youhei Takemura.
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai! - Miu-sama no Iu Toori: Shoujo, running on Cookie magazine. Art by Tomoo Katou.
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai! - Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi: Seinen, running on Weekly Young Jump magazine. Art by Hirotsugu Miyano.
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai! - Sorairo no Hibiki: Shounen, running on Super Dash & Go! magazine. Art by Tatsuma Ejiri.
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai! - Takanashi no Hidamari: Seinen, ran on Ultra Jump magazine, One single Volume. Art done by a different artist for each chapter.note
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai! - Usagi no Mark: Shoujo, running on Cobalt magazine. Art by MATSUDA98.
These character-centered adaptations occur at different time periods, spanning weeks to months before or after Yuri and Shingo's disappearance, so they rarely overlap with each other; a fan made guide can be found in the trivia tab.
Apart from the these semi-canonical adaptations, the PapaKiki! series was also made into a game, a Dating Sim relased for the Playstation Portable, with the theme being Yuuta developing his nieces' affection towards him. Raika is also an available choice, though none of the four girls grow to love Yuuta as a man. Instead, the scenario aims for a more innocent approach - love for a father-figure, and love for a great friend.
Listen To Me, Girls. I am Your Father! provides the examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Yuuta is not used to living with girls, young ones at that, and lives in a cramped six-tatami house, so he tends to walk in on the girls in the most inappropriate moments, such as while changing and using the bathroom — and that's just at home; he even pulls this off in college, mostly to Raika, who doesn't seem to mind.
- Actor Allusion: An in-universe version happens in episode 5 of the anime. Yuuta's fellow tenant, whose part-time job is a minor seiyuu, first introduces herself holding a watermelon to her head (just like an evil minion in the Show Within a Show that Hina and Miu are watching), and when she decides to leave, she says "For now, I must take my leave! Goodbye!". The villainess in the show utters that exact same phrase seconds later, causing Miu to have a Double Take.
- A-Cup Angst: Sora seems a bit overwhelmed at Raika's bust size while the two are bathing together in episode 7.
- Adaptation Expansion: The manga has five spinoffs, each centered on various characters and set on various time periods before or after Yuri and Shingo's disappearance:
- Yuuta, Raika, Shuntarou and Kouichi — Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi
- Sora — Sorairo no Hibiki
- Miu — Miu-sama no Iu Toori
- Hina — Usagi no Mark
- Minor characters — Takanashi no Hidamari
- A Day In The Lime Light:
- Episode 9 focuses largely on Miu.
- And 10 on Sora.
- Alternate Continuity: Some of the manga have started to overlap recently, showing different depictions of a single event.
- Baby Talk: Naturally, three-year-old Hina speaks these; this is more pronounced in the manga and novels, though characters seem to have no problem understanding anything she says. In Usagi no Mark this comes in masses, as it deals with Hina's kindergarten life, there are other children of her age to join in the baby talk.
- Babies Ever After: In the "After 1" volume of the light novel which took place 4 years after the main story, Sora was pregnant with Yuuta's child and ultimately gave birth to a daughter.
- Big Fun: Shuntarou Sako, Club President of the Street Observation Research Club and a Lovable Sex Maniac with a Comedic Lolicon streak.
- Book Ends: In the anime, both the first and final episodes feature the girls springing a surprise to their father.
- But Not Too Foreign: Miu is born of a Russian mother.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The girls meet a kindly old woman at the beginning of episode 7, who easily makes friends with Hina. They meet her again in the next episode, under the same circumstances. That woman turns out to be the landlady whose daughter gave Yuuta the eviction notice. The older woman was able to convince her daughter to pull back the notice.
- Chick Magnet:
- Nimura attracts college girls. To his credit, he doesn't act incredibly perverted — he believes in treating girls as nice as possible, even if they're just on a one-night stand.
- Yuuta doesn't fare badly either. Currently in the novels (Vol 8, as of this edit), he's got Sora & Miu (puppy love, sure, but it counts), Raika, Sasha, Shiori, and Miki, all competing for his affections. Well, sorta. Sasha might just be playing The Tease.
- Children Are Innocent: Hina is only 3 years old and as a result isn't able to comprehend the seriousness of what happened to her parents. None of the other characters really want to talk to her about it either, largely due to their uncertainty on how Hina would react when she learns her parents will never come back. And then she straight up asks about why they've been gone so long in episode 12...
- Children Raise You: Yuuta begins to notice that he used to live as a carefree college student before taking the girls in; now he has to think seriously about expenses and raising them, and even confronts his relatives who doubt his ability to become a father-figure. Also his relationships with his friends became closer because of the girls.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Raika, the buxom beauty of the Street Observation Research Club. In Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi her ditziness is more notable, is oblivious to her schoolmates' admiration, doesn't take pride of or even notice her looks, and doesn't mind accidentally exposing herself to her clubmates (or Yuuta's nieces).
- Compressed Adaptation: The five manga spinoffs (besides the main one) expand the series universe; treated individually the spinoffs rarely overlap with each other's events.
- Cool Aunt: Yoshiko Sahara, Yuuta's paternal aunt, is his only relative willing to give him a chance to prove himself a worthy father-figure to the Takanashi sisters. While she doesn't yet see him as wholly worthy yet, she at least gets to witness her nephew improve as a young man and a father-figure, and has come to accept the siblings' closeness to each other.
- Cool Big Sis: Yuri took care of Yuuta since their parents' deaths, and with little support from their family to boot, as Yoshiko recalls while noticing how Yuuta is becoming a Cool Big Bro for his nieces. To a lesser, surrogate extent, Raika also shows shades of this, especially to Hina.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl:
- Raika says cosplaying helps her blend in more on her observation studies. Flashbacks also reveal Yuri to be this, as Shingo finds out, much to his delight.
- Sora is dragged into cosplay with the help of her classmate and fellow otaku Yoko.
- Credits Running Sequence: While they're not stationary, the girls are seen running in the opening. Hina in particular looks adorable while doing it.
- Cuteness Proximity: Raika to Yuuta's nieces, Hina in particular. Even the landlady's daughter in episode 8 isn't immune to Hina's charm.
- Depending on the Artist: Obvious, the many spin-offs presents their own styles for the characters, although none of them has jarring differences.
- Determinator: Yuuta's relatives claim he's just too stubborn and delusional in thinking that he can raise Yuri and Shingo's three daughters; the guy doesn't bend, accepts his new role, and vows to work hard for the girls' sakes. At least only his aunt Yoshiko gave him the benefit of doubt, and it is apparently starting to pay off well.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In episode 8, while talking with Raika about his current situation, Yuuta briefly has an Imagine Spot where he's married to her and the girls are adopted. Raika snaps him out of it, then starts writing down the stuff he said during his imagination scene, which embarrasses him a little.
- Disappeared Dad: Little is known of Miu's biological father outside of a dalliance with her mother Sasha, long before the latter's rise as a top model. This makes Miu truly unrelated by blood to her sisters (who at least share a single father) and Yuuta.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sora's first meeting with Yuuta after five years is bad enough as it already is, but when the manga focuses it on this angle, it looked worse.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Yuuta often gets hit by Sora, either out of jealousy or during an Accidental Pervert moment. Raika also tends to hit Shuntarou with a Paper Fan of Doom as well.
- Ear Cleaning: In one chapter of Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi, Raika does this for Yuuta. Right after she's done, she then puts her head on his lap, and has him clean her ears out.
- Emotionless Girl: Raika for the most part.
- Eye Catch: Usually has an interesting view of the various female characters, especially when its Raika.
- Fanservice: Pretty much all versions targeted to male readers have it in one form or another, it just varies on levels of exposure. So far the most egregious is the Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi spinoff manga, which is justifiable given its college setting.
- Generation Xerox: Miu, the blond, playful and daring ten-year-old, is the center of attention among her circles, and is very concerned about fashion and appearance. It comes from Sasha, her Russian mother and a scandalous supermodel infamous for her many, many dalliances with various men.
- Gratuitous English: Hina singing "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star". Darn if she doesn't sound cute singing it though.
- Handsome Lech: Kouichi knows how to score girls, but he also knows how to be nice to them.
- Happily Adopted: Sora, Miu and Hina are very comfortable with Yuuta. Miu has a longer record — her mother Sasha left her with Shingo, believing he makes for a better father than Miu's biological father who simply ran on them.
- Heroic BSoD: Yuuta goes through two of them, once in episode 8 after getting the eviction notice from the landlady, and again in episode 11 when his aunt visits him again and sees how much the living conditions, as well as the girls' declining quality of life at school.
- Higher Education Is for Women: In the Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi series, Yuuta was tricked into thinking he impregnated Raika and would have to get a job to support her while she furthered her education. Only after signing what he believed to be wedding papers, he realized he actually joined the Street Observation Research Society.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sometimes happens to Shuntaro's plans, particularly if it involves blackmailing Yuuta, and then Raika finds out about it...
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: The landlady cheerfully threatens to take Hina away if Yuuta has any more problems after she gives him a reprieve on kicking him out.
- Instant Bandages: Shuntarou has some on his head after Raika hits him with her shoe in episode 1. He then mentions that she's supposed to hit him with the Paper Fan of Doom, which she promptly does.
- Love Interest: Raika to Yuuta and vice versa; neither realizes that their feelings are mutual. Yuuta's nieces are more of The Tease for the sake of Fanservice.
- Male Gaze: Happens from time to time, such as with Miu in the opening credits, and especially with Raika.
- Missing Mom:
- Sora and Miu's biological mothers. Sora's only background is that she is dead. Sasha, Miu's mother, after a brief moment of happiness with Shingo sees her life taking a turn when a war erodes in Russia, her father dies in the coup, leaving her sickly mother alone; with this Sasha pushes her best friend in Japan, Yuri onto Shingo, whom she asks a divorce, thus entrusting Miu with the people Sasha cares the most as she leaves to take care of her mother.
- And of course Hina's mom, Yuri.
- Ms. Fanservice: Raika, the well-endowed Cosplay Otaku Girl who's also quite the airhead, is spot on for her role as this. She also counts as an Innocent Fanservice Girl, never minding having her breasts exposed or go out completely nude.
- Never Say "Die": In-universe example: Despite the family holding a hasty funeral and starting a discussion about the girls' custody, when the issue of Yuri and Shingo are brought up, they are insisted as only missing, not dead.
- New Neighbors As The Plot Demands: the purpose of Takanashi no Hidamari, filling out the rest of the Hachioji Boarding Houses. Although, maybe due to the manga's
Schedule Slip, only two of these side characters (seiyuu Kurumi Atarashi and the landlady Sawako Midorikawa) made it to the anime. - No Periods, Period: Played with; After using Yuuta's restroom for the very first time, Sora is reluctant to let him use it afterwards. When prodded by him for a reason why, she flusteredly told him that yes, she did flush it but he STILL can't use it. Miu whispers something unspecified in his ear, and to his horror he is told he can't use it for ANOTHER hour...
- Parental Abandonment:
- The girls' parents simply disappeared. For Hina, Yuri and Shingo are taken for dead; Miu's biological mother still is alive but apparently not on very good terms with her daughter (Miu's is still declared to be single); Sora's, on the other hand, died long before the story began. Either way, Sora and Miu has already taken a liking to their stepmother Yuri.
- Also Yuri and Yuuta's mom as well.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Miu is a natural blond, stemming from her half-Russian heritage.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: In one chapter of Rojou Kansatsu Kenkyuu Nisshi, Raika meets Yuuta's nieces for the first time in this series, as well as finding out the reason why he hasn't been to the club lately. Yuuta explains the situation to her, and tells her that if things get rough, he'll drop out and find a job. To which she immediately rejects that idea, and invokes this trope on him, saying that she may "never see..." "again..." if he does that. Which to him sounds great, but for Sora, a really bad thing. Then Raika clarifies what she meant, that she wouldn't be able to see the cute girls anymore.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Yuri and Shingo disappear on their plane flight, triggering the whole setting. For Yuuta, what was meant to be a mere week-long furlough with his nieces is slowly turning into his life mission to protect them.
- Posthumous Character: Yuri and Shingo, whose traits are only revealed much after their disappearance. Shingo in particular is only referred as "the husband" in the beginning, so even his name is a reveal. The first thing to be revealed about Sora's mother is that she is dead, nothing more.
- Promotion to Parent: Yuuta, and happens briefly for Raika in episode 12, when she attends an event where Hina is participating in, as Yuuta's "wife", so as to show Hina she still has "parents" who care for her.
- Real Men Wear Pink: The assembly line consists of very muscular guys in rabbit hats and tanktops AND YOU MUST NOT TELL ANYONE. YOU'LL RUIN THE CHILDREN'S DREAMS!!!!
- The Reveal: The fourth Light Novel volume reveals that Miu is not Shingo's biological daughter — she's from a previous dalliance by her mother Sasha long before she became a top model. When Sasha's relationship with Shingo started to go sour, she left Miu with him, believing he makes for a better father, making her a double case of being Happily Adopted.
- Schmuck Bait: Pretty much anytime Yuuta sees Raika being distressed or tied up, it's all a ploy by the research club to capture him or at least get his attention.
- The Stoic: Raika, she doesn't express her emotions, but is clear that she feels joy or anger through certain actions, and she does care for Yuuta and the girls.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Kouichi pairs Yuuta and Raika, whether he actively pursues it or simply wishes on it varies depending on the spinoff.
- When Sasha comes to check on Miu and Yuuta, she supports the idea of Miu marrying Yuuta when she reaches legal age.
- The Tease: Sasha, the first thing she did when dropping at Hachionji was to hit on Yuuta, jokingly saying that Miu needs a married papa, and that's what she was there for; still, it was pretty obvious that she was pulling a Secret Test of Character on Yuuta, to see him resist her teasing, to be a fitting father-figure for Miu, she finds him lovable enough to say Miu will be happier by being his future wife.
- Thicker Than Water: Despite being half-sisters born from different mothers, Sora, Miu and Hina are tightly-knit. It is for this reason that that Yuuta decides to adopt them all instead of letting them be separated among his relatives.
- Title Drop:
- In the first episode of the anime, by Yuri. And in the final episode, by Yuuta himself.
- The end of Volume 1 in the novel.
- Tsundere: Sora, the series even promotes her as this.
- Twice Shy: Yuuta and Raika. Both are interested in each other, but neither can come out with their feelings directly towards the other.
- V-Sign: A favorite gesture of the sisters.
- Wham Episode: Episode 8 When Yuuta is faced with his first major crisis after getting an eviction notice and being told to move out within a month and 11 after his aunt visits and finds the terrible condition his apartment is in, as well as telling him about rumors she's heard regarding the girls' declining quality of life at school. Sora also finds a letter their uncle wrote stating that he would now be happy to take in all 3 girls so that they wouldn't have to be separated, which he admits he didn't even think about the first time around..
- Wham Line: One is delivered at the end of episode 7. For better or for worse, this wasn't present in the novels or in any of the manga.Yuuta: I'm being evicted?!
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- Yuuta's family was quite nice, even if unwilling, for letting him have the 3 sisters to keep them together; he's now their legal guardian. Turns out that he is not, the family is just letting him be a pain reliever for the girls, they're just waiting for the right opportunity to take them away, as Yuuta has no legal rights over the girls yet. It all depends if Yuuta can convince his Aunt that he is a suitable father-figure, that will get him support among other relatives who are even more distrustful of him.
- When searching for a new apartment, the first one Nimura suggests to Yuuta seems perfect: it is larger and has better accommodations than the current one, and it's rent is the same. The problem? Apparently, it's haunted. What.
- You Remind Me of X: Yoshiko sees her nephew Yuuta taking the same path as his sister, Yuri went thought the same phase of family disaproval when she wanted to raise Yuuta by herself. That's why Yoshiko is not completely against Yuuta being with his nieces, she is giving him a chance to repeat Yuri's success when she took care of him.
