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Hidamari Sketch
alt title(s): Sunshine Sketch
Yamabuki High School's arts program attracts students from all around the country. The Hidamari Apartments is a small apartment block across from Yamabuki High School, infamous for housing weirdos from the arts program.
—customary introduction to the Hidamari Apartments at every year's welcoming party

Hidamari Sketch is a Slice Of Life anime series centering on a young girl named Yuno who is accepted into the Yamabuki High art school and moves into a small apartment building nearby. She makes friends with other girls living in the building, and cute things happen.

Animated by Studio Shaft based on a 4koma by Ume Aoki, this series is best known for its slow pacing, focus on artistically inclined characters, and nutbladder-busting levels of cuteness. A second season, Hidamari Sketch x 365, aired about a year after the first, and a third, Hidamari Sketch x ☆☆☆ ("Hoshimittsu"), is currently airing.

The manga is also known as Sunshine Sketch.

This series provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Distillation or Adaptation Decay - Depends on who you ask. Certain gags were removed in the anime (Yuno and Miyako being drunk) or changed. (Yoshinoya changing her outfits in the "Brutus" episode; in the manga, she actually suggested become a nude model.) On the other hand, the introduction of Chika and Misato added flavour to the anime.
  • Adaptation Expansion - When we compare Hidamari Sketch and Lucky Star, both yonkoma started to be serialized in early 2004, we can see that Hidamari Sketch has much fewer story arcs than the other when animated (also at the same time, first half of 2007) due to Aoki's style (pretty much a story arc a month). Studio Shaft has inserted a large amount of content in the two seasons of anime, most importantly:
    • Animating Chika, Sae's sister who was only referenced and unnamed in the manga.
    • Essentially played up the Romantic Two Girl Friendship between Hiro and Sae. This also includes more Natsume time, as she barely appears in the manga.
  • Adult Child - Yoshinoya. She lives with her parents, has outright declared she's always 17, and is freaked out at the prospect that Yuno might mature earlier than her.
    • Yuno's parents didn't look that mature either.
  • Affair Hair - The incident described in Sprouting Ears, below, happened because Yuno's father found a hair (of Sae's colour) in Yuno's room, something he construed to be Yuno having slept with Sae.
  • Alien Abduction - Yuno gets abducted◊ shortly after relaxing on the school roof... but it was All Just A Dream.
  • Anachronic Order - Even though it's a simple Slice Of Life series, its episodes don't take place in chronological order. Luckily, each episode gives a calendar date in its title. And even then, it's not that easy putting the anime canon in order, when you consider that there are 27 episodes, split 12-2-13, and a DVD-only episode. Some episodes are even split into two segments, dealing with events which could be months apart. Fortunately, the manga is somewhat in order. For the sake of those wondering, here is the list of season 1 and 2 episodes in chronological order.◊ Notice that the series ended the day before it began!
    • The third season subverts this to a degree (at least for the first half of any given episode, which takes place at least a day or two after the last), but then plays the trope straight by using a story from the previous year.
  • Ascended Extra - Chika, Sae's younger sister. She was only referenced to and wasn't given a name in manga, but her role was greatly expanded in the anime, especially in X365.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny - Subverted. Miyako has all behavioural traits of ADHD, yet it didn't seem to affect her functioning; she appeared to be the best performer of the Four Girl Ensemble, both artistically and academically. Attention deficit and hyperactivity, yes; disorder, quite not.
  • Author Avatar - The Hidamari Sketch mangaka manifests as a Metapod-lookalike named Ume-sensei, never interacting with the real characters or influencing the story in any way.
  • Bad Ass Old Guy - Despite having a noticeable case of shakers, the Principal is certainly agile in all kinds of physical activity.
  • Bait And Switch Credits - The OP for the first season shows Yuno walking in on Sae on top of Hiro in a suggestive manner, but the part of the manga where it comes from (sadly, a Not What It Looks Like moment) isn't adapted until the second season. (See also Mythology Gag for the more minor details.)
  • Berserk Button - Hiro's weight and/or figure. Miyako pushes this button fairly often. Also, don't flip Yuno's eggs, or say Sae is in any way masculine.
  • Big Eater - Miyako, if given the chance.
  • Bland Name Product - Among others, Hiro's "Pony" television.
  • Blank White Eyes - Yuno does that all the time; while Hiro does that when the paranormal is involved.
  • Blind Without Em - Sae mistakes a soup ladle for a clam from one foot away.
  • Boarding School - Strange variation. Certainly Yamabuki is not one, but as discussed in the page quote, the main characters came from different places around the country so they need to rent apartments— and Hidamari Apartments, our point of focus, is one of them.
  • Book Dumb - Subverted. Miyako may look as if she has ADHD, but her junior high grades were so good that she exempted the academic portion of the Yamabuki High entrance exams. Just that others would rather believe her "I came in through the back door" joke. This subversion was lampshaded in the character sketches:
    Surprisingly, she does good in school!
    • The English exam arc in manga volume 4 probably imply Yuno is actually the book dumb person. She failed the English exam since she spent too much time preparing for math, but her math wasn't any good either...
  • Brilliant But Lazy - as discussed above, Miyako is not Book Dumb, but every time we saw her in class, she dozes off.
  • Cannot Spit It Out - Sae has trouble telling her little sister Chika how much she really cares for her.
  • Chalk Outline - Played with. Miyako drew a chalk outline of Hiro at where she passed out, despite Sae's objection over taste. Sae ended up envying Miyako though, as Miyako drew the outline in the style of Amedeo Modigliani...
  • Chaste Teens - None of the girls show any real interest in boys (or girls, for that matter). Hiro passes on a rejection letter to the one boy who sends her a love letter. Sae was apparently a hit with the ladies back in junior high, but doesn't seem to have ever actually been in a relationship. Ship Teases aside, Sae and Hiro's relationship also stays purely platonic.
  • Cheerful Child - Although overage, Yuno fits in this trope by all counts without going into Pollyanna.
  • Christmas Episode
  • Class Trip
  • Clingy Jealous Girl - Natsume to a very mild degree, according to the Volume 4 special. Her jealousy of Sae's closeness with Hiro and the fact the two share the same class (and apartment building) manifests in her contrary reactions to Sae.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander - Miyako is sometimes like this, while Yoshinoya practically lives there.
    • Yuno can be like that sometimes, when she gets her cute-gasm.
  • Color Coded For Your Convenience: And symbol coded as well.
  • Color Failure - Sae and Hiro when Yuno and Miyako first mention that Yoshinoya is their teacher.
  • Coming Of Age Story - The main premise of this story, if not particular clear to some, is on Yuno's wanting to be mature. It is kind of lampshaded when she was overjoyed on any suggestions that she has matured whatever small bit.
  • Cool Big Sis - Subverted. Sae's Cannot Spit It Out towards Chika is mainly due to she wanted to play a Cool Big Sis front even she isn't. Lampshaded, when she repeated the entire thing with Yuno, and failed miserably.
  • Corner Of Woe - The Four Girl Ensemble was having a chankonabe—or sumo wrestler's hot pot—prepared mainly by the weight-conscious cook Hiro. And then Miyako and Sae uttered lines usually reserved for sumo wrestlers—likely to be incidental— and prompted Hiro herself to leave her apartment and sit in the Corner Of Woe in the backyard.
    • Yuno almost walked off into a garbage pile of woe in one chapter upon discovering that someone she thought as more talented than her was forced to leave school while she was still there. The anime handled this scene somewhat differently, by only giving Yuno a spotlight.
  • Cosplay Otaku Girl - Yoshinoya-sensei uses her cosplay tendencies for everything from modeling for her art class to making personalized greeting cards. She is very offended, however, at the suggestion that this is cosplay.
  • Cranial Eruption - Especially when Miyako annoys Hiro.
  • Creepy Twins - To Yuno at least.◊
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Miyako, Miyako, Miyako.
    • Season 1: Miyako helps a heavily feverish and half-unconscious Yuno into a fresh set of pajamas (and finds a mole).
    • Season 2: Sae apologizes to Hiro after the two spend most of the episode avoiding one-another like the plague, and Hiro collapses into Sae's arms in tears. Again, Miyako throwing Sae a pillow to help her cushion Hiro falling in her lap makes it another insanely sweet scene.
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: Hoshimittsu's opening is more this than the usual Earworm.
  • Cultural Cross Reference: Miyako likes to invoke strange English references, especially in the anime. Even in manga, she invoked Gift Of The Magi in the Christmas party—to the puzzlement of our other very Japanese tenants.
  • Curtain Clothing - In the Festival Episode, Miyako wanted a yukata so she could get free sweets but didn't have one, so she thought of using the curtains to make a "modern" one. She ended up borrowing one of Hiro's, though and Hilarity Ensues.
  • Curtains Match The Window - With the expection of the Principal who is Eyes Always Shut, all characters are like that: Yuno is brown, Miyako is yellow, Sae is blue, Hiro is pink, Yoshinoya is green, and the landlady is brown, Chika is light purple, Natsume is blue-green, Nori is blue gray and Nazuna is blond.
  • Cuteness Proximity - Yuno's love for cute things is already listed in the character sketches, but this girl certainly has some weird reactions towards cute things—such as petting paint brushes after thinking about the animals their bristles came from.
  • Deadpan Snarker - Nori.
  • Disturbed Doves - More of the disturbing kind, actually
  • Ditzy Genius - Miyako may look like a Genki Girl with ADHD, commonly subjected by the deadpan snarking by Sae, but her artistic abilities is certainly levels above the other members of the Four Girl Ensemble, and also subverted the Book Dumb trope.
    • She needs a spell checker, though.
  • Dude Magnet: Nazuna, starting from kindergarten.
  • Ear Cleaning - When Hiro, Miyako, and Yuno walk in on Sae's room and find her asleep on the floor with a note on the progress of the story she's writing, Hiro kneels down and puts Sae's head on her lap. Yuno, charmed at Hiro and Sae's intimacy, runs over and offers Hiro an ear pick, to Hiro's confusion.
  • Early Bird Cameo - The two new tenents of the Hidamari Apartments, Nori and Nazuna, were de-faceless masses-ized among other admission exam takers in the second season OVA.
  • Ear Worm - OP of every season.
  • Easter Egg: While there are definitely others, This Troper paused at this frame◊ in the first episode of the third season because he thought the numbers looked odd. It turns out the numbers in the middle (4-8322-7549-6) are the ISBN-10 number of the first Hidamari Sketch manga. Also, the ones at the bottom are pi to 13 digits.
  • Eenie Meenie Miny Moai - When others build snowmen, Miyako builds snow-moais.
  • Engaging Conversation - In one of the 4koma, Hiro offers to make some soup for Miyako, who is feeling nauseous from the alcohol she accidentally drank. Miyako and Sae respond with dual Visible Silence followed by dual "Will you marry me?" The title of that yonkoma is "Sae said it while sober".
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - Despite her being a minor character in the manga and having only recently been introduced in the anime, western fans have latched onto Arisawa like moss to a rock.
    • Understatement. Word Of God: She had Arisawa gave her cell phone number to Yuno because she was already popular among Japanese readers.
  • Every Episode Ending - Yuno (or any character who's the center of the episode's story from the second season) got a Furo Scene reflecting that episode's events at the end of each episode.
  • Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs - Yuno's X-shaped hair clips are her defining physical characteristics. Also, Nazuna wears hair hands.
  • Everyone Calls Him Barkeep - No name have been given for the Principal or the Landlady; they were just referred by their occupations.
  • Executive Veto - Word Of God: she wanted one of the Four Girl Ensemble to be a Wholesome Crossdresser, but was shot down by the publisher, or at least that's what The Other Wiki says.
  • Expressive Hair - Hiro's hair is so animated as to be almost alive. Sometimes it happens when she gets excited or agitated, but sometimes it's just to add a little motion to an otherwise still shot.
  • Faceless Masses - Often color-coded by gender and labeled "BOY" and "GIRL".
  • Fanservice - Fairly mild in the TV seasons proper—but then there are the DVD specials.
    • The third season has more of this.
  • Festival Episode
  • Fever Dream Episode - Yuno had one. Most of the episode is spent in dream, but there are still scenes in the "real world" from time to time. Oddly, some of Yuno's dreams turn out to be remarkably accurate to what happens at school that day. The episode also contains a very sweet scene, when Miyako decides to help out Yuno.
  • First Name Basis - Subverted; Miyako was just being a Genki Girl when she asked Yuno to call her on a first-name basis, and settled on Yuno's nickname.
  • Foot Focus - Especially prevalent in the third season.
  • Four Girl Ensemble
  • Fragile Flower - Nazuna, one of the new residents of the Apartments. Her lack of confidence is even worse than Yuno's.
  • Fridge Logic - How did that cat lying on Miya while she was sunbathing leave such a perfect tan line of its paw?
  • Furo Scene - Once An Episode we get to see Yuno reflecting on the show's events in the bath. The main cast also once attends a public bath together, which is typically used for the purpose of comedy and not so much for fanservice.
  • Generic Cuteness - Hiro worries a lot about her weight, but any differences in body frame she may have aren't really that noticeable. On the other end, Sae is supposed to be Tall Dark And Bishoujo. Yuno is still adorable, though.
  • Girlish Pigtails - Nori spots them, even she may not fit into the general stereotype so well....
  • Goofy Print Underwear - Yuno was deeply embarrassed when a locker room prank exposed her kitten-print underwear. OK, she doesn't wear those every day...
  • Gratuitous English - Miyako spells out "LOVE AND PIECE" in the snow and gets corrected later by Hiro; she also likes peppering her speech with English, even up to Mother Goose references. See also Motifs, below. The labels are usually right, except... "Hidamari Sckech"?
    • Volume 4 has an example that showed both Miyako and the mangaka's gratuitious English. Miyako said grammar is the comparative of gram— gram, grammar, gramax!
  • Growing Up Sucks - After the girls start watching part of the new version of Lovely Chocolat, their old favorite TV show, Sae notes that they're still watching it even though they're in high school. (and are therefore supposed to be out of the Fleeting Demographic). Upon hearing this, Hiro's hair falls flat, and she laments about how growing up is no fun.
  • High School Rocks - A lot!
  • Hollywood Pudgy - Hiro is excessive nervous over her weight and figure, but that's something not visible to us.
  • Hollywood Tone Deaf - Yuno shows signs of this, except only for one song. Miyako is the inverse of this, being able to replicate Yuno's off-key singing perfectly.
  • Huge Schoolgirl - The opening of the first anime season has the girls running together and Miyako is the tallest of the bunch, beating even the willowy Sae by a small margin. This is seldom addressed in any version, though, except in comparison with Yuno who is at the other extreme.
  • I promised myself I wouldn't cry - Appreantly that's why Natsume became such a tsundere towards Sae, according to the Natsume special in Volume 4.
  • Idiots Cannot Catch Colds - Miyako invokes this (referring to herself) when Yuno falls ill, and even when she was in the admission interview of this very prestigious high school.
    • Lampshadeed in the Fever Dream Episode (and the corresponding manga chapter), when all the eight classmates around Miyako were struck down with the 'flu. Although, to be fair, Miyako is more a Ditzy Genius than a real idiot.
  • Image Song - Both seasons, though much more extensively in the second season. Even the Principal gets to sing. Beyond that, the bug that lives on their roof (Ume-sensei) has an album!
  • The Ingenue - Yuno. She certainly had Character Development, but she is still relatively childishly naive compared to others.
  • Intertwined Fingers
  • In Vino Veritas - Yuno. Cheerful Teen into straight-faced Deadpan Snarker (?) ranting It Just Bugs Me about various Nonindicative Names when drunk.
  • It Just Bugs Me - (manga) Yuno starts ranting about various misnomers (like "goldfish") when drunk.
  • Karaoke Box - Needs some special mentioning since the Four Girl Ensemble went there because Hiro found she can burn calories by singing. Also, Yoshinoya loves the place.
  • Lemon Wacky Hello - Hiro wrongly bought alcoholic juice at Yuno and Miyako's welcoming party, and the two freshmen got drunk. While Miyako is still herself, the generally innocent Yuno started ranting about It Just Bugs Me's...and Sae uttering an Engaging Conversation even she was not drunk...
  • Les Yay - Of course there's the teasing between Hiro and Sae, but Miyako tends to take her flirting with Yuno pretty far at times.
    • Hiro X Sae:
      • See the picture at Engaging Conversation.
      • See Not What It Looks Like, below. Yuno came into Sae's room to ask for School Festival ideas— and directly after that incident cleared up, Sae picked up a picture of lilies as an example of what she drew last year. The If You Know What I Mean content of this went up by exponential levels in the anime.
      • At the Christmas party the Four Girl Ensemble exchanged gifts. Sae got Hiro's—a ring—and after a little trouble found it fit perfectly on her ring finger. Sae immediately blushed at how misleading this might be, and Hiro told her (or perhaps just thought to herself) it was okay if she didn't wear it on her left hand.
      • This◊ page from 2009-06:
        Sae: (smiling) You and I will always be together, so we'll never feel down.
        Hiro: (full blush) Sae... so you can say such things so naturally after all...
      • In episode 3 of the third season, we see Hiro sleeping. She smiles, stirs a bit and whispers: "Hhhmmmmmm... Saeeeeee..."
      • Some scenes in the second season OP have elements of this, including Intertwined Fingers.
      • Or Sae's opinion on Hiro when they moved in...
        Sae: (blush) I think you're like a sugar candy...
      • Last but not least, Hiro, as it is pointed out numerous times in series, acts quite a good deal like Sae's wife.
    • Miyako X Yuno
      • Miyako loves to hop into the tub with Yuno.
      • In episode 4 of Hoshimittsu, Miyako and Yuno play around with lace curtains and pretend to be brides.
        Miyako: Do you take me to be your wife?
        Yuno: I do!
        (Nori sweatdrops)
      • Interestingly, Yuno X Miyako is the name of one particular strip where Miyako tries wearing Yuno's X-shaped hairclips. The result is... Yuno calling Miyako "Miyacchi."
      • The "Because We're Such Close Friends" strip◊ where Yuno really wants to join in Nori/Nazuna's Skinship Grope of Miyako but backs off in embarrassment.
    • Nori X Nazuna
      • At the end of the 4th episode of Hoshimittsu, Nori invites Nazuna to the school's cafeteria while holding her hands, calling the invite "a date" and finally with Hiro's heart-pattern curtains in the background.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac - Yoshinoya, in the manga. She's able to suggest going nude at the drop of a hat, and comments that Yuno's small butt looks cute. Understandably, most, if not all, such references did not make it to the anime.
    • Some of the things that did make it into the anime involved one scene with Yoshinoya-sensei deciding to go Hadaka Apron style - which usually involves a girl wearing an apron and nothing else (although she did wear a small bikini underneath it), after seeing another class in the middle of cooking.
    • She also tries to kiss an unconscious Hiro.
    • And then there's the time when Hiro—walking home from shopping—encounters a smiling Yoshinoya in a heavy trenchcoat in the middle of summer. Just as Hiro finishes asking her what she's doing, Yoshinoya flings open her trenchcoat and appears to flash Hiro, causing her to drop her bag out of shock. (As revealed a moment later, Yoshinoya had been wearing a new swimsuit underneath, and that's what she had wanted to show off.)
  • Love Letter Lunacy - Hiro did receive a love letter from an unnamed upperclassman and she calmly rejected him. The ones who got nuts were, however, Sae, who freaked out at the prospect of Hiro having a boyfriend, and Yoshinoya, who was sent to the hospital for being a Date Peeper.
  • Love Triangle: Type 4, with Natsume at A, Sae at B and Hiro at C.
  • Magic Skirt - Read the page quote over there.
  • Malaproper - Nori.
  • Measuring Day - Volume 4 has an entire chapter on this. If even Yuno skipped breakfast for the day, it's not hard to guess what did Hiro do...
  • Memetic Mutation - Ow my nutbladder!
    • "oh god yoshinoya is hot"
    • The fansubs for the first season extended this by adding memetic comments from a familiar source throughout. Your Mileage May Vary on the comedic value of lines like "Oh ho, why not eyecatch ourselves?"
  • Moe Moe
  • Motifs - The show combines a variety of abstract visuals such as half-tone patterns, photographs, and labels to make the show seem like it's made out of a collage, which matches the characters' interests perfectly.
    • Colored backgrounds patterned with simple two-dimensional shapes and especially a half-tone relief pattern◊ are commonly used in place of realistic backgrounds or solid colors. They're used when the show is illustrating something abstractly. In addition, objects being talked about or used by a character are often abruptly shown on one of these backgrounds.
    • Photographs of real objects are spliced in seamlessly with animated objects. For example, Yuno's alarm clock and teddy bear are both depicted using photographs.
    • Objects or groups of objects are individually labeled in English. For example, a tea set is shown and each teacup is labeled "teacup".
    • The colors of the mailboxes outside the apartment are almost never the same, sometimes changing in the same scene. In an episode where Yuno stays home sick, the mailboxes each show the body temperature of their tenant◊ with Yuno's mailbox being a different color from the others.
    • Each character has a "symbol". Yuno's is her 'X' shaped hair clips, Sae's is her glasses, Hiro's is her spikey odango, Miyako's is the cat-paw shaped tan line she got when she slept on the roof with a cat on her belly, Nori's is a mouse, and Nazuna is her hair band. The characters' actions are often illustrated abstractly by showing their symbols on a patterned background. For example, Yuno's symbol is shown wobbling forward to illustrate her walking over to her friends.
    • There was one strip when Yuno entered a gift shop and found some of the animal toys fitting her co-tenents: for Hiro, a sheep; for Sae, a black cat, and for Miyako... a dancing flower.
  • Ms Fanservice - Yoshinoya-sensei's love for cosplay makes her fill this role on several occasions.
    • There's also an incident in Volume 4 of the manga (and Episode 3 of Hoshimittsu) where she describes the electives for the Junior class where she describes the electives (2D, 3D and digital arts) while framing various body parts with her hands in a suggestive fashion and inviting the students to 'touch them once they'd made their selection'.
  • Mysterious Past - There are lots of rumors about Yoshinoya-sensei's past and the little information she gives just adds to the mystery.
    • Miyako also has one of her own, as she occasionally drops comments about having to navigate using the stars along with an incident involving a lack of lifeboats and having to learn to swim quickly in the middle of the ocean.
      • Associated her love of seafood, I guess her family should be into fishing.
  • Mythology Gag - The anime openings (at least x365's) make reference to scenes in the manga that never make it into the anime, such as Yuno's 4koma-robot and camouflage Santa. Even they put in some frames that had just went to press. See also Bait And Switch Credits.
  • Nonindicative Name - Yuno's aforementioned drunken rant was mainly about this.
  • Not A Morning Person - Hiro.
  • Not What It Looks Like - The second season has Yuno walking in on Sae posed on all fours over Hiro and starts freaking out. Turns out the two were practicing for the school play, with Sae being the criminal. I wonder what the crime was. Oddly, this scene is depicted in the OP for the first season, making it Bait And Switch Credits at the time.
    • Two examples of this appeared in the same chapter in manga volume 4, all related to Yoshinoya. At first, she invited Miyako to the Art preparation room to test out some of the costumes she made, but she declared to the whole class "...take off your clothes and give me every thing; it'd be quick! (heart)". And Yuno and Miyako went at night, and in the next day, when Yoshinoya came again... "Yuno, is this the bow that you left in the room last night?" Certainly the other students got the wrong idea.
  • Novelization - This series is made into a light novel—mainly the manga's story made into words, that is.
  • Odango - Hiro. She was annoyed that she couldn't braid her hair into these when it's humid, and Miyako once saw Hiro's odango as cream puffs in one episode, when Hiro's class was making cream puffs in the home economics class.
  • Oddly Named Sequel - Hidamari Sketch x 365 and Hidamari Sketch x ☆☆☆, the latter also qualifying as a Lucky Charms Title.
  • Older Than They Look - Of course Puni Plush made everyone like this, but Yuno needs specific mention. At 144 cm, she's not short by yonkoma standards, as she's still taller than the Izumi-Kobayakawas and Nodamiki, but This Troper and his girlfirend agreed, her proneness to really childish mood swings makes her more like 7 than 15. Actually part of this series' premise was on her trying to grow out of this.
  • One Head Taller - Subverted. Miyako is much taller than Yuno, and Miyako did tuck Yuno under her chin quite often, but those incidents were never romantic in nature.
  • Only One Name - Rather, No Two Names. Everyone.
  • On The Next Episode Of Catch Phrase - "We'll be waiting at the Hidamari Apartments, please come and watch!" (On occasion Yamibuki High School is used instead of Hidamari Apartments, in accordance of next episode's content.)
  • Paper Thin Disguise - When preparing to sneak by the "No trespassing" sign on the stairs leading up to the school's roof, Yuno dons the Cool Shades she first used to counter her motion sickness.
  • Parental Abandonment - Used straight. Yamabuki is Nazuna's local school, so why is she living in Hidamari now? Her father was sent to work elsewhere just before school started. Unexectedly, Nazuna's mom followed him because "he's useless living alone." Poor girl.
  • Perpetual Poverty - Miyako is generally low on cash, to the level that in one strip, since she didn't even have the 300 yen for lunch, she decided to drink water instead. Her apartment has the lowest rent because of damages, including a leaky roof.
  • Pettanko - Remember Sae's rant when she and her classmate baked cream puffs.
    • Also see Sae's response when Hiro and Yuno discuss Sae's choice of '2D arts'. Yuno suffers this to a degree, but isn't as self-conscious about it.
  • Photo Montage - Several episodes (including a special that actually featured the characters playing with a Polaroid camera) feature photo montages over spoken conversation.
  • Placeholder Titles - Studio Shaft was again unable to meet the deadline for Hoshimitsu's OP, so for the first 2 episodes it was just a very simple one with a lot of stars. The finished version first appeared at episode three. The ED remained similarly incomplete until episode four.
  • Playing Against Type - Rie Kugimiya plays Chika, and the latter is certainly not a Tsundere.
  • Portmanteau Series Nickname: HidaSketch.
  • Puni Plush - The characters look very young for their supposed age, especially in the nude.
  • Romantic Two Girl Friendship - Sae and Hiro, very frequently the subject of Ship Tease. Hiro talks about giving Sae chocolate for Valentine's Day and how Sae watched over her all night when she was sick; the OP even has the Not What It Looks Like moment with Yuno walking in on them (with the context not even being given until the second season). Sae spends an entire episode (the 2nd special) freaking out when Hiro gets a love letter in her shoe locker, complete with an excited Yuno and Miyako misunderstanding the letter as coming from Sae. And then there's the second season's opening...
    • Yuno and Miyako also have their moments, which usually are attributed to Miyako's extreme bubbliness and careless attitude toward nudity or physical closeness in general. Miyako also appears to be very open-minded about relationships (see Schoolgirl Lesbians) and hops in the bathtub with Yuno the day they meet, since her own water supply doesn't work. Uh-huh. One time Miyako even tells Yuno that she thinks she is very pretty◊. Yuno in turn voices her wish to Miyako that they might one day have the same relationship as Sae and Hiro.
    • Natsume wishes she had this with Sae. Poor girl should be more honest with herself.
    • Nori and Nazuna have their moments as well—Nori is very protective of Nazuna, in any case.
  • Rule Thirty Four - Carries the dubious reputation of having the first iPhone eroge based on.
  • School Festival - Being in an arts class meant the Bunkasai is really cultural. Students have to put on display their art pieces and SchoolPlays. This school festival arc was about Yuno's quest for a topic for the aforementioned art piece.
  • School Play - Yuno is the stage technician for one in the School Festival, and Miyako, realistically, the horse. In that same episode, Yuno walks in on Hiro and Sae practicing for a play, ending up in the above-mentioned Not What It Looks Like moment.
  • Schoolgirl Lesbians - Subverted when Yuno runs into two flustered girls in the bamboo bushes behind the school, who tell Yuno not to tell anyone as they run off; Yuno calls out to them asking if they're going out, which they quickly and strongly deny (most likely just visiting a statuette there). Miyako also at one point thinks that Yuno has a crush on a female sempai and encourages her to "follow her true feelings". And back in Sae's junior high days...
Chika: She even got valentine chocolate from other girls in class.
Miyako/Yuno: I knew it!
Sae: What do you mean you knew it?
Miyako: Sae-san, is that where you got that wealth of love stories to tell?
Sae: No way. Chika, don't tell such useless things.
Hiro: It's nothing shameful to hide. Sae is also cool from the eyes of a girl.
Miyako: Whoa! What a bold statement!!
  • Natsume is painfully tsundere for Sae (see below) but can't catch a break, being the losing corner of a Love Triangle. Played up to the hilt in episode 12 of x365 when Sae joins Natsume for lunch, with the latter first getting combative before quieting down. We even get a few Male Gaze shots in that episode; when Natsume watches Sae enter the cafeteria (focusing on her hips), watching her eat (focusing on her lips), and again as Sae walks away... The flowers, the spring out of her hair, and the luminescent blush seem to put it straight into Schoolgirl Lesbians territory. The very last episode has her praying at a shrine to become more honest with her feelings. And guess who wrote that passionate fan letter that Sae got?
    • She does get a few moments of happiness later on, including the x365 OVA where she gets to ride a bike with Sae to help return something one of the soon-to-be-tenants has dropped, after being ordered to 'get on' and to 'hold on tight'.
    • And this all began thanks to Sae just being nice to Natsume when the latter was scared and upset at being at a new school by giving a few kind words and a smile.
  • Schoolgirl Rival - used by Natsume to hide her crush on Sae.
    • She gets over it to an extent with the shrine visit, which has helped create a few less-awkward moments for her later on.
  • Selective Obliviousness - How much more evident does Sae's crush on Hiro have to be to become recognized?
    • The same counts for Natsume's respective crush on Sae. In episode 10 of x 365 is nearly gets spelled out for Sae, for crying out loud!
      • Let's say, in Hoshimittsu even Natsume's classmates knew she's having a crush on Sae... and encourage her to get over her contrary responses to spend some time with Sae, getting her to walk Sae home (across the street). A crush indeed.
  • Sex As Rite-Of-Passage - (cough) When Yuno says something that sounds mature to Yoshinoya, Yoshinoya worries that Yuno has "become mature" before her, complete with a rather suggestive imagination bubble of Yuno.
  • Shiritori - in an episode the group played this while sitting around watching Miyako's apartment leak.
  • Shout Out
  • Show Within A Show - Fashionable Detective Lovely Chocolat
  • Single Stroke Battle - The principal defeating Yoshinoya during the athletic festival.
  • Sitting On The Roof - Miyako does it on the Hidamari Apartments' roof, usually with Stray Cats. Yuno, on the other hand, does this on the roof of Yamabuki High School, but for a different reason...
  • Slice Of Life - So, "sketch."
  • Smashing Watermelons - There is no Beach Episode (only a pool episode) in this series. However, Yuno finds an inflatable watermelon-like beachball in the shed and plays around with it in this manner, "just to get the feeling."
  • Smoking Is Cool - The heavy smoking of the girls' landlady is generally depicted as something cool, despite her efforts to quit.
  • Spoiler Opening: Mostly averted in Hoshimittsu's first episode due to the Placeholder Titles, we only get a short clip of Nori and Nazuna.
  • Sprouting Ears - As a one-time thing, Sae sprouts cat ears and tail purely out of surprise/confusion when Yuno's dad angrily points at her and shouts "It's YOU!" as she walks in. (He mistook her as Yuno's boyfriend based on a stray hair he found in Yuno's room—after first asking whether it belonged to a cat.)
  • Strong Family Resemblance - Played with. When Miyako first saw Yuno's parents, the first thing she thought was their lack of hair clips.
  • Super Deformed - At the drop of a hat. Its kind of superdeformation was even coined wideface.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel - Hidamari Sketch x 365 gains a lot by better comedic timing and greater focus on the relationships between the main characters.
  • Sweet Tooth - Hiro. Like eating meal replacements with sweetened condensed milk.
  • Tall Dark And Bishoujo - Sae.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes - It's cute. It's really, really cute. Ever since a thread on 4chan in which a user posted concerns over a painful "nutbladder" accompanied by pictures from Hidamari Sketch, the default response to such pictures (usually of Yuno) is along the lines of "OH GOD MY NUTBLADDER!"
  • Team Chef: Hiro.
  • Theme Tune Cameo - The second season anime ends with the first season OP.
  • Tomboy And Girly Girl - two pairs. Miyako as the extroverted and boyish type and Yuno being much more introverted and soft-spoken one; Sae's "masculinity" was often lampshaded by Miyako while Hiro is overtly declared by the author as "wife material."
    • Let's see if Nori and Nazuna became the third...
  • Too Long Didnt Dub - Yen Press' translation decided not to translate many of the punch lines to the level that This Troper need to frequently consult the translator's notes.
    • One particular example are the two strips on page 90 of Yen Press' Volume 3, quoted verbatim below:
      • Strip 1, from frame 3 on:
        Miyako: Maybe it's "chijou no motsure." (Lover's fights)
        Yuno: Chijou (on the floor)?
        Yoshinoya: Chijo!!?
      • Strip 2:
        Miyako: Hmm. Hidamari Apartments is going bara bara  *.
        Yuno: Huh!? I guess so.
        Yuno: Bara bara... (Thoughts of Hiro leaving Hidamari)
        Yuno: Bara bara  * ... (Thoughts of Sae breaking the entire building)
        Yuno: Bara bara  *... (Thoughts of roses growing on Hidamari's roof
  • Tradesnark - sound effects are commonly have the R symbol attached.
  • Tsundere - Natsume, Sae's Unknown Rival, keeps going up to Sae as if trying to pick a fight, then runs off flustered for some reason. Her actions are enough to put identify her as a Schoolgirl Lesbian. Sae's failure to mention her sisterly feelings feelings for Chika and (probably romantic) affection for Hiro also often make her fit this trope.
    • Judging to some of the strips in Volume 3, the writer considered her one already. In another story arc in the same volume, her thing with Chika certainly extended to Yuno... Also see Cool Big Sis, above.
  • Twelve Episode Anime - both seasons.
  • Two Teacher School - Sort of averted. There are only two named teachers, Yoshinoya and Mashiko, but there are a lot of unnamed teachers teaching other subjects—Yoshinoya and Mashiko appreantly only teaches studio arts.
  • Urban Legend Love Life—As Sae mainly writes romance novels, our co-tenents naturally questioned about her love experience. Sae claimed to have had eight boyfriends in junior high, needing to switch everyday, if not having waitlists. Which the rest of the characters realize is a bit too ridiculous to be true, they are nice enough not to call Sae out on it though.
  • Unreadably Fast Text (Miyako's crossword puzzle, along with the proverbs displayed on the first episode of the second season.)
  • Visible Sigh
  • Visible Silence
  • Wacky Homeroom - This is an arts magnet anyway.
  • Who Would Want To Watch Us - In the manga, when the four girls attempt to draw yonkoma.
    • Hiro actually gave us four... pieces of rice cakes.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy - In recent manga Yuno has the tendency to think things in terms of shoujo manga.
  • Yonkoma

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