A subgenre of
Slice of Life,
Schoolgirl Series tend to revolve around a group of female classmates and their antics and adventures during and after school. Depending on how comedic they are, such series may feature a rather unusual school where
highly unrealistic things happen. Having an
Adult Child teacher in control of a
Wacky Homeroom is not uncommon in
Schoolgirl Series though a
Straight Man educator may be swapped in to form a contrast with the outrageous behavior of the main heroines. A
Sensei-chan character may be thrown into the mix in order to incorporate some kind of friendly adult perspective.
Schoolgirl Series can also have more serious or romantic elements, but are similar in how their main focuses are on the
day-to-day activities of a group of girls in school and the friendships that grow through them. Sometimes there is a main heroine in the story and if that is the case, the series may have some
Coming of Age elements.
Male characters may appear, but they rarely enter into the main cast and if they do they are
outnumbered by female ones. Occasionally, this element is used to such a degree that one may wonder why
Everybody is Single and yet people rarely mention relationships or dating in many of the more comedy-centered
Schoolgirl Series.
In Japan, these kinds of series can overlap with
Moe and are more likely to have men as part of their
Multiple Demographic Appeal (if they are not outright targeted toward them) than is the case with most Western examples of this trope. Even so,
Schoolgirl Series rarely delve into
Fanservice.
Tropes Commonly Associated with Schoolgirl Series:
- A-Cup Angst
Especially for the Genki Girl and Cloudcuckoolander characters.
- Adult Child
Often overlaps with Sensei Chan if the character is a teacher.
If female, then often is Christmas Cake.
- Beach Episode
Almost mandatory for any self-respecting Schoolgirl Series.
- Big Breasts, Big Deal
Usually the Shrinking Violet/Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
- BishoujoSeries
- Chaste Teens
Ties into Everybody is Single.
- Cloudcuckoolander
Will overlap with Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! if the character is a Genki Girl.
- Dojikko
- Everybody is Single
- Hair Decorations
- Four / Five Girl Ensemble
May also overlap with Five Woman Band.
- Generic Cuteness
- Genki Girl
- Girlish Pigtails
- The Glomp
- Inside Shoes
Often are Color-Coded for Your Convenience to tell upperclassmen from lowerclassmen.
- Japanese Honorifics
Especially -chan.
- Joshikousei
- Karaoke Box
Not as often as the Beach Episode usually with the Hollywood Tone Deaf.
- Les Yay
Often, but not always.
May go so far to overlap with a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship.
- Meganekko
- Moe Moe
- Nonuniform Uniform
As a way to tell the characters apart, especially if the show has Generic Cuteness.
- Ojou
Often has a Big Fancy House, sometimes more than one and is a ditzy character as well.
Expect Type 1 if she is a main character, Type 2 if she is a Sitcom Arch Nemesis (although this is less common).
- One Gender School
Quite a few series take place at all-girl's schools, so the number of male characters can be limited as much as possible. If it's not this, than there usually seem to be a lot more girls around than guys (which is sometimes justified by letting the series take place in an art club or something similarly "girly").
- Puni Plush
Often, but mostly dependent on the art style.
- Rapunzel Hair
Usually the Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
- Sailor Fuku
- School Festival
Being a High School genre and all.
- Shrinking Violet & Tall, Dark and Bishoujo, in the same character more often than not.
Will often have a Hime Cut and be well endowed, but self-conscious.
May overlap with Meganekko / Tsundere character.
- Skinship Grope
Often the primary basis for the Les Yay elements.
- Tareme Eyes
Often the Cloudcuckoolander and Genki Girl characters.
- Token Guy
Often the only guy in the series.
- Tsundere
May also be a Meganekko and often the Only Sane Woman, but also can be Not so Above It All.
- Tsurime Eyes
Often the the Tall, Dark and Bishoujo character.
- Two-Teacher School
One of them will be the main Sensei Chan, while the other will often be her friend.
- Unlimited Wardrobe
- Vitriolic Best Buds, often between the Tsundere character and the Genki Girl
Often, but not always a Childhood Friends and Tomboy and Girly Girl / Red Oni Blue Oni relationship, especially if the Tsundere in question is the Straight Woman / Only Sane Woman.
- Weight Woe
At least one character will be sensitive about her weight gain.
- Yonkoma
Almost a rule if the series in question is a manga.
Examples
Anime & Manga
- Doki Doki School Hours is the earliest example in this list and as such is seen as the codifier of some of the most important tropes.
- Azumanga Daioh, however, is generally considered the biggest Trope Codifier for schoolgirl series, following the enormous success of the both the manga and anime, and it established many of the character tropes commonly associated with this subgenre.
- Hidamari Sketch features a group of girls who live in the Hidamari Apartments and attend a nearby art school together. One of their teachers at their school, Yoshinoya, sometimes seems much less mature than they do. In some ways the series tells the story of how the main heroine, Yuno, matures from being a naive freshman to being more of an adult.
- Sketchbook revolves around the mostly female members of an art club and their chicken-obsessed, energetic teacher Ms. Kasugano.
- Lucky Star mainly focuses on the core group of friends of Konata, the twins Kagami and Tsukasa, and Miyuki along with a few of their classmates and relatives. This series hangs a lampshade on the Everybody is Single part of a good many Schoolgirl Series when the group wonders why Miyuki does not yet have a boyfriend. It also only has two named male characters that appear for more than a couple of minutes (aside from Anime Tenchou), Konata's dad, Soujirou, and Minoru Shiraishi.
- K-On fits the Schoolgirl Series template to the T, telling the story of a group of girls who are members of a light music club at an all-girls high school with the spunky "Sawa-chan" playing the role of club sponsor. There is really only one named male character that reappears in the anime and he is the brother of a club member. He never appears in the original source material.
- GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class focuses on a group of girls (and a couple of boys) at Ayanoi High School, most of whom are enrolled in G.A., a class that specializes in arts.
- High School Girls, also known as Girl's High.
- Tamayura can be considered as one. The girls may not spend much time at school, but they are often depicted in their uniforms.
- A Channel is such, plus a few Les Yay overtones.
- Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight combines this with Twenty Minutes into the Future.
- Hyakko
- Kimi To Boku is a rare gender-inverted example.
- Ro Kyu Bu has some shades
- Yuru Yuri is one of these, focusing more on humour and Yuri Genre elements.
Webcomics
- Destiny Fails Us revolves around a group of girls making their way through their final years of high school.
Comic Books
- The Four Marys, a long-running strip in the Bunty girls' comic paper in Britain. It's about four girls named Mary that attend a girls' boarding school, and have (usually) age-appropriate adventures. Named male characters come from outside the school and generally appear for one story arc only.
Literature
