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Joshikousei

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And there are four of them to boot.

Tomo: Question! Mr. Kimura, why did you decide to become a high school teacher?
Mr. Kimura: 'CUZ I LIKE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS, THAT'S WHY!

Literally "a female high school student", but the term is invariably used to refer specifically to cute high school girls wearing Sailor Fuku, or sailor suit-styled uniforms. Many Japanese men refer to them under the nickname "JK" or "JC."note  Note that the term may be used interchangeably with 'seifuku', which means any general "school uniform", but is often used to describe the sailor outfits in particular. Although seeraafuku have been replaced by blazer-style uniforms in most high schools, the vast majority of anime girls still wear them.

That Japanese has such a compact, productive phrase for this image implies that it's an important archetype in the Japanese psyche, and this is borne out by how often sailor-suited school girls still appear in both manga and anime.

See also School Sport Uniform and School Swimsuit, for when the girls wear something that shows a little more skin.

This is mainly a Japanese cultural trope but is found prominently in anime. The Western equivalent is Catholic School Girls Rule. However, given that many Japanese high schools have abandoned the sailor uniform, which nowadays is a characteristic indicator of middle school girls, more professional-esque styles of uniform have become a popular replacement - popular not just among schools but also among viewers - so the two are beginning to merge. Joshikousei are very prominent in anime/manga, to the point where the vast majority of female characters will either be high school girls or at the very least be in the same age group (should high school not exist or should their occupation prevent them from going to school). In fact, one of the main reasons why most male protagonists are ordinary highschool students is so they can be surrounded by high school girls.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • For Amanchu!, Kozue Amano designed some very pretty school uniforms, with hints to the outfits worn by the undines in her other main work, ARIA. The frilly petticoats really set them apart, although they might be a bit warm in summer. And they may also not be the best fit for more chubby students.
  • The SSS uniform in Angel Beats!. Note that it is not the same as the one the NPCs wear.
  • The girls' uniform at Butei high in Aria the Scarlet Ammo.
  • Azumanga Daioh, though the girls here wear modest-length skirts and full-coverage tops.
  • Mato and Yomi's uniform in the Black★Rock Shooter OVA.
  • Bleach has Karin and Yuzu wear these after the Time Skip.
    • Lisa Yadomaru wears one, but it's tight enough for her to expose her midriff.
  • In Cardcaptor Sakura, the girls at Seijuu High School wear uniforms like this. The Protagonist's mother, Nadeshiko, actually married Fujitaka while still in her school uniform, according to her cousin Sonomi.
  • In a manga adaptation of Fate/EXTRA — Fate/EXTRA CCC Fox Tail — we have Saber, who presents herself as a "JK Saber", complete with Gyaru Girl styling, to boot. Her True Name is Suzuka Gozen.
  • In Fruits Basket, Shigure is so tickled about visiting Tohru's school because he knows how the girls will react to him, he sings a little Joshikousei song.
  • Great Teacher Onizuka: The girls at Holy Forest Academy wear uniforms like this.
  • The girls of Hanasaku Iroha have to wear a blue-and-white seifuku to school.
    • Ohana's school in Tokyo has a thicker navy-colored seifuku.
  • In Hanaukyō Maid Team La Verite episode 8, Konoe Tsurugi and Yashima Sanae both dress in sailor fuku costumes.
  • The standard uniform in Haruhi Suzumiya.
  • Higehiro: Sayu seems to not have any clothes except her school uniform (until Yoshida buys her some), so she wears it all the time.
  • In Gakuen Hetalia, Hetalia: Axis Powers's take on a High School AU, Seychelles and Hungary appear in Western-style uniforms. Belarus and Ukraine appear in concept art, and Taiwan appears in this in the concept art, compared to the more Western uniforms the other girls have been seen wearing. In the regular canon, Norway and Sealand also sport Danshigakusei uniforms.
  • The very aptly named anime High School Girls (its Japanese name was literally ''Joshikousei''), based on the long-running manga series of the same name.
  • High School Of The Dead. Granted, they do rip up and alter their uniform so they'll be more versatile, and later change out. And considering the zombie apocalypse is taking up their time, I doubt they'll be going to school anymore.
  • The iDOLM@STER: Several of the idols are High Schoolers, though their schools don't appear much.
  • Inuyasha: Kagome is rarely seen outside of her school uniform; in this case, hers is green and white with a full-coverage top and a miniskirt.
  • Joshi Kausei is literally named after this, since the main characters are high school girls.
  • Ami Nekota and Nanami Momozono from Kamisama Kiss have this as their school uniform.
  • Lucky Star:
    • One of Hiyori's Image Songs is called "Default Joshikousei Nyan". ...Nyan?
    • The title of the OVA is "JK".
  • The Florian sisters both wear school uniforms before switching over to their Formula suits in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection despite neither of them going to school (or even being from Earth, for that matter). Kyrie is wearing one because Iris told her it's the latest fashion, and Amitie's outfit is never explained. Made even more confusing by the fact that the move takes place on July 22, two days after the official start of Summer Vacation in Japan.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth just puts the armor over the school uniforms the girls are already wearing. Averted in their final armor as there's no more hints of the said uniforms underneath the armor.
  • March Comes in Like a Lion: Hina has this look half the time while she is still in middle school. She loses it when she actually is in high school later on the series; the one she moves on up in, Rei's, has abandoned the look.
  • Mazinger Z: Sayaka Yumi in the Go Nagai manga (in the anime she didn't go to school due to her work at the Institute, thus she didn't wear any uniform). Ironically, given that she was created by the man who introduced Fanservice in manga, she wears a modest-length skirt.
    • In Shin Mazinger Zero she wore her sailor fuku constantly since her first appearance.
    • In Mazinkaiser, Sayaka wore a Western-styled uniform instead.
  • Nonoka in Mitsuboshi Colors.
  • The high school uniforms in My-HiME just have the short skirt part; the middle school uniforms are the classic white-with-blue-trim seeraa style. Nao spices hers up with Zettai Ryouiki.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka and Rei are in their uniforms when not in battle.
  • Haruhi Fujioka's (from Ouran High School Host Club) old uniform from middle school was a dark-colored seifuku.
  • Of sixteen continuities, only seven Pretty Cure series feature female characters wearing Sailor Fuku - Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Doki Doki Pretty Cure, HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, Go! Princess Pretty Cure, KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, and Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure. Of course, technicalities run rampant here - for instance, Heartcatch's Sailor Fuku is only for the middle schoolers and during the winter season (during the summer, it's a skirt/blouse combo) and the high schoolers wear more of a Western uniform (it helps that they both go to the same school)- and let's not get into Itsuki.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena has the "ridiculously short skirt" version.
    • Completely averted by the title character for all but one episode. She wears short shorts. Everyone's got legs in this series.
  • As has been mentioned Sailor Moon has the famous Sailor Senshi uniforms based on middle and high school Sailor Fuku. As well as these the girls have their actual school uniforms, from main characters alone we see the uniforms of at least 6 schools across the series,note  with Rei getting double points as hers is a Catholic school kind (and boys actually give her more attention than the others when they recognize the uniform). Chibiusa also wears one to attend Juuban Municipal Primary School but it's not the school uniform.
  • Soul Eater:
    • The girls' Spartoi uniforms usually are in the sailor style.
    • Kim and Jackie's original uniform also slightly resembles a seifuku, having the collar and tie.
  • While for the most part they evade this, continuities where a female member of the Tenchi Muyo! cast goes to school, they end up wearing one of these. Interestingly, what type of uniform differs - the uniforms worn in the first movie, Tenchi Muyo in Love, were black and white and very modest, yet whenever we see Sasami go to school, it's the usual red, white and blue and short skirted.
  • Each Tokyo Mew Mew girl attends a different school; Ichigo and Retasu both wear seifuku. In the largely discredited sequel, all five originals and the new character attend the same school, chosen for its "cute uniforms".
  • The protagonist of Wandering Son brought one when he was in sixth grade. Later on in the manga, several side-characters begin going to a high school that uses Sailor Fuku.
  • The main characters from Wasteful Days of High School Girls (Joshikousei no Mudazukai in Japanese).
  • In Zombie Loan, this is somewhat averted. The uniform only has the collar. The rest doesn't really resemble seifuku.

    Comic Books 
  • In SpyBoy, SpyGirl spends most of her time in her sailor fuku school uniform (although it is possible that this is a costume from her TV show and not a real school uniform). However, given her age, she is almost certainly a high school student as well as being an actress and a secret agent. Either way, this is her standard outfit till she transfers to Alex's school in the U.S. and starts wearing casual clothes to blend in.

    Fan Works 
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Alexis "Lexi" Luthor is intent on spending her high school years at U.A. as one (despite earning a doctorate at the age of 7) to live out her Occidental Otaku fantasies and to indulge in her interest in studying an alien like Izuku. She even namedrops the trope.
    Lexi: In the spring, I'll start managing LexCorp's Japanese branch here in Tokyo, set up shop at a fancy hotel somewhere, and spend my days living the life of a good little JK.
  • Applies to the Nijigasaki Academy girls during their high school years in Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee.

    Film 
  • Gogo, O-Ren Ishii's henchwoman in Kill Bill.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Kamen Rider Agito: Kazaya Mana is a less straight example, since she doesn't wear the sailor suit.
    • Kamen Rider Double: Two of Shotaro's informants, Queen and Elizabeth are apparently schoolgirls. "Joshikousei" is Shotaro's nickname for Akiko, since she behaves more like a child than her actual age of 20.
    • Kamen Rider OOO: Mezool's guise is a school girl... for about one episode. Then she changes into another outfit. One wonders why...
    • Mostly avoided by Kamen Rider Fourze: all the main female characters are schoolgirls, but don't wear a sailor uniform, and their skirts aren't short. Miu initially wears a tight cheerleading uniform with a miniskirt, but leaves school halfway through the show, and from then on is only ever seen in her casual clothes.
  • A rare American example: Claire, from Heroes, and her iconic cheerleader garb. The second season even gave her a revamped (but less frequently seen) blue outfit.
  • Referenced in Glee when Santana claims that Rachel's schoolgirl-esque outfits would turn on "a Japanese businessman with a very dark and specific fetish."

    Video Games 
  • Many Dating Sim games are set in high school or, more frequently now, colleges with uniforms.
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has Yuriko Omega, a young woman with Girlish Pigtails, Psychic Powers, and questionable mental health who fights for the Empire of the Rising Sun in a schoolgirl uniform.
  • One of Sakura's custom titles from Street Fighter IV is "High School Girl" in the English version and most likely Joshikōsei in Japanese.
  • In The King of Fighters 2003, Athena Asamiya, Hinako Shijō, and Malin form a team called "Joshikōsei Chiimu" (High School Girls Team). Even more so, Hinako goes the Sakura way and fights while wearing her uniform.
  • In Psycho Soldier, Athena used to wear a blue seifuku as her fighting uniform. She does this again from KOF XI on — and it's very cynically lampshaded by Kyo Kusanagi (who used to fight in a gakuran), of all people:
    "Uhm, is this a publicity stunt? (...) No one at your age wears school uniforms anymore!"
  • Ling Xiaoyu has a school uniform as an 'optional' costume in her appearances in Tekken. Often she's wearing it in her ending animations, too.
  • Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia has the playable Reyvateils, Teen Misha and Aurica both have their own school uniforms outfits as the rewards for completing the diving quests.
  • The main character of Persona 3 when playing as a female, as well as all female classmates, since they attend a modern Japanese high school. They even fight in them rather than street clothes, despite all battles taking place long after school hours.
  • Love Plus, naturally, as with many a Dating Sim game and as a Spiritual Successor of the Tokimeki Memorial series.
  • Speaking of Tokimeki Memorial 's Spiritual Successors, one of them, Mitsumete Knight, despite being in a medieval / fantasy setting instead of an High School one, has roughly 1/3 of its main girls cast (5 out of 16) composed of school girls, because in the country the mercenary main protagonist fights for, the military grounds he trains at are located next to the country's main Academy campus.
  • Touhou Project has only two examples of this, one fanon and one canon, despite its large cast of cute girls:
    • Sanae Kochiya is often viewed as this in the fandom, since she's from the outside world but moved to Gensokyo since her deities moved there.
    • Sumireko Usami, however, is canonically a high school student, though she also happens to have psychic powers and is thus able to hold her own against the other characters.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV has Hikaru, the only person skipping around in the demon-infested Tokyo at her leisure sans armor or weapons. The Reveal shows why she can do so.
  • Infectonator! has a ridiculously attractive News Reporter that keeps track of the player's progress. Most of the games have several unlockable Sexy Whatever Outfits for her, one of them being a Sailor School Uniform.
  • Yandere Simulator: Three of the possible options for the girls' uniforms at Akademi are seifuku (a red, white and blue one, a blue and red one, and a brown, red and white one), while the other three have sweaters or blazers. 1980s Mode, which takes place in, well, the 1980s, locks the player into the brown, red and white seifuku (which makes sense since seifuku were still popular back then).

    Western Animation 
  • Lily from Kappa Mikey wears this. Apparently, it's part of her (non-superhero) costume from the LilyMu Show, but she wears it off the set. Notably, Lily is never seen attending school.


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