Kagurazaka Kimito is chosen for this dubious honor, mostly because he seems utterly average; however, the school leaders also seem to have concluded he's a homosexual with a muscle fetish. When Kimito hears that the alternative may be castration (to protect the girls' purity), he eagerly plays along with this misconception. Now he'll just have to survive the attention of many high class young ladies that are completely out of touch with the world!
Shomin Sample, short for Ore ga Ojōsama Gakkō ni "Shomin Sanpuru" Toshite Rachirareta Ken ("I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner"), is a Japanese Light Novel series by Takafumi Nanatsuki, which was published from 2011 to 2016 for 11 volumes. A manga adaptation was serialized in Ichijinsha's Comic Rex magazine from 2012 to 2018. A drama CD was released on February 20, 2013. An anime television series adaptation by Silver Link premiered in October 2015.
Provides examples of:
- Accidental Marriage: Since Kimito saw Reiko nude in episode two, they'll just have to get married. However, for the most part nothing really comes out of it in-series until the end, though Reiko certainly hasn't forgotten about it at any point.
- The Ace: Reiko is popular, intelligent, athletic, and does fairly well at everything. Except possibly singing, as her 'opera' aria shattered windows and was described by Aika as sounding like a dying wildebeest, whereas she protests people always complimented her opera singing.
- A-Cup Angst: One aspect of Aika's feelings of rivalry toward the far more busty Reiko.
- Adapted Out: Karen's little sister Miyabi was removed from the anime.
- Amnesiac Hero: It's hinted throughout the series that Kimito used to be a part of high society before something happened that caused him to lose his memories, and that his life as a normal commoner from then on is all that he remembers.
- Later on, the story clears the situation up: Kimito is a commoner, but he did end up temporarily switching places with Miyuki's brother in his youth, which he doesn't remember. He manages to regain his memories soon after it's revealed to him.
- Berserk Button: If you're making a mockery of MaxBurger, Kimito would like to take this time to kick your butt.
- Big Brother Attraction: While they aren't related in any way, Miyuki still considers Kimito her older brother despite being in love with him.
- Birds of a Feather: Aika and Karen become this after the former tries to help the latter become more popular
- Bland-Name Product:
- Shomin Land! The commonest place on Earth!
- MxBurger or MaxBurger
- Dance Dance Volcano
- Star Bacchus Coffee, where you can get a foamuccino!
- Breast Expansion: Aika.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Hakua is a child prodigy in math and science, with a tendency to take off her clothes and write mathematical formulas all over the place.
- Couch Gag: Each heroine periodically gets a cover of her raising her skirt.
- Cuteness Proximity: Karen suffers extremely from this. With most cute things, the closer she gets, the dumber and more instinctual she gets. It's at its worst when she's around little girls like Hakua.
- Exploited by Hakua herself; she just has to put up a cute act and people around her, like Kimito, will do just about everything she wants (which is mainly being doted on and spoon-fed).
- Dancing Royalty: Aika-sama is an instant master at Dance Dance Volcano.
- Date Peepers: Which has unexpectedly realistic consequences. During Hakua's "date" with Kimito, the entirety of the former's maid staff simultaneously go on break to watch the date. At the end of the chapter, the maids are lambasted by Miyuki for slacking off on work and missing important phone calls.
- Ditzy Genius: Hakua is smart, well educated, and a child prodigy. She also has a habit of writing complicated mathematical formulas all over the place and has a tendency to take off her clothes in the process.
- Dreadful Musician: Reiko. Her rendition of "Ave Maria" (in EITHER language) was enough to shatter glassware and windows, as well as make chandeliers fall.
- Ecchi: For starters, each Manga volume has one of the girls lift her skirt for the reader.
- Eyes Always Shut: The school president from episode 1. When her eyes open, things get scary.
- Fanservice Pack: Aika gets bustier over the manga, from completely flat to a modest handful.
- Fetish: The school thinks Kimito has a homosexual muscle fetish. He does however have a heterosexual leg fetish, specifically for thighs.
- First-Person Smartass: Kimito is very snarky in the light novels and manga.
- Fish out of Water: Deconstructed, since all the girls are sheltered aristocrats; exploring the outside world after receiving no preparation for its realities results in some serious culture shock, and most tend to not have successful lives after graduating as a result note . It's also the reason why Kimito was abducted in order to defy this outcome.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: The female uniform skirts all wedge on the ass to show the outlines of the buttocks. Bonus points that they are often used for Panty Shot purposes for this series.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Take a good look at the moon in the opening credits, just as the UFO is towing Kimito past it. Stand on your head if necessary. It appears to be Dandy Sakano
, aka the 'Gets' comedian as referenced in the manga and opening theme. - Gadgeteer Genius: Welcome to Hakua Lab!
- Gyaru Girl: Reiko dresses up as a kogal-styled gyaru for episode 4.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Reiko gets very jealous when she finds out that Aika spends time with Kimito. She also get jealous when Aika and Karen spend more time together and later become best friends.
- Hime Cut: Karen sports this hairstyle and lifestyle.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Aika's main purpose is to become popular. Karen also wants friends.
- Idiot Savant: Hakua. She can't dress herself and (at least until meeting Kimito) has a strictly regimented schedule, yet she is a scientific genius.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Parodied with Aika. Aika is too kind and pure at heart to the point that she's easily manipulated, as Kimito observes. On the other hand, it should be noted that Aika is a bit of a tsundere, and is easily manipulated to believe outrageous things from Kimito.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Hakua again, considering she rids herself of clothes very often, but neither does she consider it weird, nor does she even remember doing it. Naturally, due to these factors, Hilarity Ensues.
- Japanese School Club: The Commoner Club.
- Kuudere: Miyuki is apparently one as she kisses Kimito awake every morning.
- Macho Camp: One of the more serious aspects to the show is that if Kimito is straight, the school will castrate him or cause him to permanently disappear. Good thing he's gay! Yes sir, he loves muscle guys!
- Magic Skirt: In the opening theme, Karen's skirt defies gravity as she hangs upside down from a tree. Averted in the series itself at points.
- Marshmallow Hell: Aika nearly suffocated when Reiko fell on her.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Kimito, thanks to his Childhood Friend Eri telling the school that he has a muscle fetish. Bear in mind that it was a pair of girls asking about him that she told the lie to.
- Aika and Reiko find themselves in this predicament after Kimito finds them on top of each other in their underwear with a YuruYuri manga on the floor, much to their dismay.
- Outside the anime, the cellphone conversation between Kimito and his male friend about how the former misses male interaction leads to the latter thinking as much, due to the unintentional Homoerotic Subtext coming from Kimito's explanations.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Kimito again on account of Older Than She Looks Hakua's always clinging to him, making him feed and dote on her, and then spontaneously stripping at the drop of a hat. Reiko and Aika claim to be worried about him committing a crime in their absence, while Karen's just jealous.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Since the female students in the academy have been sheltered for so long with little to no knowledge of how the outside world works, anything that is considered mundane for normal people (like ordering at a fast food joint) easily amazes them. Frequently lampshaded by Kimito.
- Not What It Looks Like: Kimito accidentally walks in on Aika and Reiko wrestling on his bed in their underwear (long story), which immediately gives him the wrong idea and embarrasses them, and in the anime, even has them crying out the trope name as he's leaving. It also really doesn't help that a volume of YuruYuri was on the ground next to them.
- Nice Guy:
- As is the tradition with every harem anime, Kimito is a friendly guy at heart despite the false rumors about him.
- Similarly, nearly every girl in the academy who isn't Miyuki Kujou fits into this bill, considering their upbringing, especially Aika, who Kimito observed to be "too pure."
- Older Than They Look: Hakua is 14 years old, but looks much younger.
- Overcomplicated Menu Order: Aika practices endlessly to get her MaxBurger order right. Stage fright stops her, but she later busts out a horribly complicated order perfectly at Star Bacchus Coffee, while advising others on a good starter order.
- Painted-On Pants: Not just pants, even skirts somehow look skin-tight on the girls.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: Hakua's genius must be unfettered, at least by clothes. This causes a lot of stress for Kimito and the others.
- Prince and Pauper: Near the end of the manga, it's revealed that Kimito temporarily switched places with Itsuki Kujou, Miyuki's older brother, when they were kids. The arrangement was originally supposed to last a couple of days, but it was stretched into a month-and-a-half.
- Rewatch Bonus: Miyuki wishing Kimito wouldn't wake up whenever she greets him in the morning takes on a whole new meaning when we find out she kisses him until he wakes up.
- Rule of Funny: Nothing about the premise would change if Kimito really was gay, but much of the typical harem antic humor would have to be abandoned or replaced by something else.
- Running Gag:
- The Manga covers all feature each girl in the same pose lifting her skirt and giving a Panty Shot to the viewer. Even Miyuki.
- The Light Novel covers have everyone do the heart-hands pose.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: All of the girls are out of touch with the outside world. This is what kicks off the plot, as the graduates of the school tend to genuinely not be able to function in society.
- Shipper on Deck: Hakua's entire maid staff wants to see her end up with Kimito. One maid even faints when she sees Hakua feeding Kimito.
- Shout-Out:
- Kimito's bookshelf contains some familiar manga titles.
- Reiko becomes a fan of Ayano Sugiura ("I love how serious and hard she works so as not to reveal her well-meaning intentions").
- Aika likes Akari but Reiko says she "lacks presence".
- In episode 8, the fortune-telling app on Kimito's smartphone is a clear parody of Sailor Moon.
- In the manga, Kimito and the girls play a Street Fighter only for Ryu and Ken end up being Gender Fliped and it's not really a fighting game.
- The dance-in-a-bun during the OP is a reference to Sazae-san, one of the oldest manga/animes in Japan.
- Episode 12 of the anime runs on shout-outs and Rule of Cool: there is a Battle Butler who delivers fight scenes that wouldn't be out of place in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (down to the visuals), Slow Doors resembling those of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Matrix Raining Code, a Humongous Mecha that heavily resembles a Transformer and Karen defeats said mecha after claiming she trained in a room where time flows differently, to which Kimito can almost fully say "Room of Spirit of Time".
- Show Within a Show: During the second episode, Aika reads the entirety of the In-Universe manga Avatar Tonfa!
- Shrinking Violet: Aika is very shy around her classmates.
- Spoiled Sweet: All of the female students are extremely kind and polite. The school specifically teaches the traits important to being a Yamato Nadeshiko. However, this is also a primary cause of the culture shock alumni have to deal with upon leaving the school.
- Super Gullible: Aika has a habit of believing anything she's told no matter how ridiculous it may seem. Kimito often exploits this just to get a quick laugh.
- There Are No Therapists: Despite an evident and abundant need for them. Kimito routinely lampshades their prominent absence.
- Token Mini-Moe: Hakua.
- Tsundere: Aika is a Type B kind, even given the nickname "tsun-pure" from Kimito. Although it should be noted that unlike most tsunderes where the "tsun" side if often acting violent towards the male love interest, Aika's "tsun" side is more in lines of being a Shrinking Violet. Karen is a straighter example.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Reiko and Aika. It's hard to tell whether it is this or Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, when they aren't talking and when they're telling each other what they really think of each other.
- Voice Actor: Eri is a game seiyu in-universe.
- Wham Shot: Kimito's assigned maid, Miyuki Kujou, treats him with contempt and disrespect, awaking him each morning with the hateful words "I wish you had never woken up." This becomes a wham line when it's revealed that every morning she kisses him until he wakes (naturally he has no idea). Now re-read her greeting.
