Ichigeki Sacchu!! Hoihoi-san (一撃殺虫!!ホイホイさん One-Shot Bug Killer!! Hoihoi-san), is a manga by Kunihiko Tanaka (character designer of Xenogears/Xenosaga Episode I) that spawned a PlayStation 2 game and a 10-minute OVA.
Sometime in the 21st century, insects have become immune to all pesticides. To combat the rising plague of cockroaches and other household pests, the tiny, doll-like extermination androids known as "Hoihoi-san" were created by Mars Pharmaceuticals. People can also (and at the same time) treat them as dolls, by dressing them up in costumes and buying accessories for them. The manga focuses on the lives of people involved in the Hoihoi-san franchise, including Mars Pharmaceuticals executives, sellers, customers and rival companies developing similar androids to Hoihoi-san.
This manga straddles the line between satire and Affectionate Parody of the action figure business in Japan on one axis, while contrasting moe and insectile horror on the other axis.
Bandai also released Hoihoi-san and Combat-san as 1:1 scale Chogokin action figures, and Kotobukiya released 1:1 scale model kits of some of the characters, like the derivative Hoihoi-san Mini.
See also Busou Shinki and Frame Arms Girls, for other 1:1 scale adorable little fighting robot girls that have more advanced technology and more autonomy.
Ichigeki Sacchu!! Hoihoi-san provides examples of the following tropes:
- All There in the Manual: Unless you read the manga, you'll never know why Combat-san fared so poorly in the OVA (see Restraining Bolt below.) To be fair, the OVA did ship with the manga, but that doesn't help you if you watch it online.
- Auction: Mu-chan loots poor Aburatsubo in an online auction.
- Awesome, but Impractical: That Beam Rifle attachment looks cool for Combat-san, right? Unfortunately, the third-party manufacturer did not set the electrical requirements correctly and the resulting electrical fault overheats and shorts out Combat-san.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Compared to Hoihoi-san, they're friggin' enormous.
- Body Horror: The face of Life Size Hoihoi-san opens up to reveal the horrid inner workings when she goes into Berserk Mode.
- Boom, Headshot!: Combat-san does not play well with Hoihoi-san at first.
- Brick Joke: Page 19 in the manga, Aburatsubo complains about never finding a free Hoihoi-san figurine in the package giveaways of his sausages. 79 pages later, Mu-chan mentions in her web diary that she's bought every single one in the city.
- Chainsaw Good: One of Combat-san's main weapons.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Mu-chan's brain doesn't seem to work like those of normal folk.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Furuyashiki, an employee of Mars Pharmaceuticals, has all kinds of crazy ideas about how to develop Hoihoi-san and attends Doll-ke in Cosplay... as Hoihoi-san. He ends up getting fired after the convention and scooped up by the American corporation Xentex, where he creates Pest-X-san for them using all those rejected ideas. It becomes an overnight success while Mars stagnates because they seem to have developed Hoihoi-san as much as possible. Xentex ends up buying out Mars and putting Furuyashiki in charge, where he leads the company back to success.
- Companion Cube: Hoihoi-san, to otaku hero Aburatsubo.
- Computer Virus: Aburatsubo unwittingly uploads a virus to Hoihoi-san which causes her to do a cute pose and then destroys her hard drive.
- Cute Machines: Well, given that they are deliberately made to look like adorable little dolls... Their accessories help to accentuate this, as do the aftermarket doll clothes female owners make for them.
- Cute Giant: For a certain view of "giant", the Life Size Hoihoi-san. Even then it's still pretty big as it stands as tall as the door frame goes.
- Emotionless Girl: Unusually for the trope, Hoihoi-san really is an emotionless killing robot, albeit only of unfriendly insects. Which makes it especially creepy with the cheerfully laughing voice add-on or the smiling face attachments.
- Energy Weapon: Both Hoihoi-san and Combat-san have laser rifles you can purchase, with Combat-san's appearing in the anime. Aburatsubo's power bill noticeably increases the next month.
- Epic Flail: Hoihoi-san has a mace-and-chain.
- Flight: Hoihoi-san has a flight pack for dealing with flying vermin. It's recommended that you not leave her running during meals and while having guests over.
- Four-Fingered Hands: The dolls in both manga and OVA. Averted in model kits in real life and video game.
- Gory Discretion Shot: All the killed cockroaches are portrayed in both the manga and the OVA under a censorship mosiac, as though their bodily condition after being exterminated by Hoihoi-san was too distasteful to be portrayed.
- Grenade Launcher: An add-on mentioned for Hoihoi-san but never shown.
- Grievous Bottley Harm : Aburatsubo regretted teaming a sake bottle with the Pouty Face accessory. Hoihoi-san looked like a depressed and abusive alcoholic.
- Happy Holidays Dress: One of Hoihoi-san's costumes is a cute Santa outfit. If you value your sanity, do NOT look in Santa's sack.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Hoihoi-san in the PS2 game.
- Kitsch Collection: Mu-chan's rather excessive Hoihoi-san collection gets so massive it causes her apartment to suffer a partial collapse from violating the weight limits.
- Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: depicted In-Universe.
- The manga is filled with varieties of Hoihoi-san.
- The Pest-X-san limited edition came with a Cool Bike.
- Living Toys: The dolls walk the line between this and Companion Cube. They're nearly self-aware and nearly inanimate.
- Meido: Hoihoi-san's standard outfit.
- Moe: Deliberately invoked by the adorable figurines with their cute outfits. Then deliberately subverted by having the figurines fighting horrid insect vermin, the outfits stained with ichor.
- Mood Dissonance: Used heavily throughout the manga for humorous effect.
- Off with His Head!: Changing Hoihoi-san's outfits requires gently pulling off her head at the neck. Aburatsubo finds this disturbing.
- Otaku: Several different flavors come out.
- Cosplay:
- Mu-chan dresses up for the Doll-ke convention.
- The department chief for the manufacturer of Hoihoi-san dresses up for Doll-ke, invoking Creepy Crossdresser.
- Dolls: Aburatsubo and Mu-chan both have way too many vermin-killing figurines.
- Military: The dolls have a lot of weapons.
- Technology: Check out the specifications for each doll at the end of the manga.
- Cosplay:
- OVA: The manga shipped with a 10-minute OVA anime.
- Rage Quit: Aburatsubo doesn't handle it well when Combat-san blows up his Hoihoi-san.
- Restraining Bolt: The Sundome-kun put on Combat-san is a literal restraint to prevent her from attacking Hoihoi-san.
- Robot Girl: Hoihoi-san and Co.
- Powered Armor: Originally a proposed design for dealing with Combat-san; becomes a reality thanks to American manufacturers.
- Shout-Out: In the short OVA adaptation, the HUD point-of-view of Hoihoi-san resembles the Terminator's and/or Robocop's in terms of targeting/identification.
- Slasher Smile: Using the smiling face kit along with the insect-killing Talking Hoihoi-san is only advised for those over 15 years old.
- Transforming Mecha: The Oboro model of Pest-X-san can transform into Super Exterminator mode.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: It's the year 20XX. Just advanced enough for some vicious natural selection in insects and improved figurine automation.
- Toys: In-universe, they straddle the line between toys and pest exterminators. In real life, Hoihoi-san and Combat-san have been released as 1:1 scale high-quality action figures under the Soul of Chogokin toyline.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Showing horrid insects is one thing, vomit is apparently quite another.
