Magical Domiko! Transform me into an adult!
Nanaka is a 17-year-old high-school student who's completely obsessed with preparing her college exams, to the point of being looked down upon by her classmates. She's extremely frustrated by her childhood friend Nenji, an immature punk who keeps getting into fights with the local bullies. On a fateful day, Nenji decides he's had enough with Nanaka's nagging, and tells her to sod off.
She doesn't take the news well.
After fainting dramatically, she falls down a flight of stairs, hits her head violently on the pavement, and has to be taken to the hospital. There, it appears that she has complete amnesia from age 6 and upwards, ending up with the personality she had when she was 6. There's no telling when she will be back to normal, if ever. Nanaka's father urges Nenji to help her recover, and to protect her in the meantime. Nenji manages to cook up an acceptable explanation to Nanaka: they both "magically" grew up from 6 to 17, which is a game they used to play at that age in imitation of her favorite Anime, Magical Domiko. But they will still have to grow up mentally.
Hilarity Ensues when she has to go back to school. Most of her classmates misinterpret her childish behaviour as flirtiness and hate her even more. Nenji has great trouble trying to prevent her from perpetually humiliating herself. But the most surprising part is that, however tiresome she can sometimes be, the 6-year-old Nanaka is sweet, cheerful, earnest and as a whole much more loveable than her 17-year-old self. One wonders what the heck went wrong with her growing up. Should Nenji really try to bring her back to normal?
Nanaka 6/17 is a fun light-hearted (if sometimes bittersweet) comedy about growing up and how much one should change between childhood and adulthood. There's no easy answer though, and it does not end with a forced Happy Ending.
The manga, written and illustrated by Ken Nagami, was serialized from 2000 to 2003 in Weekly Shonen Champion before being adapted as a Thirteen Episode Anime in 2003. All thirteen episodes of the English dub are available
on YouTube and Hulu, though the last five episodes are mislabelednote .
Provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Nanaka's dad is nice, but entirely clueless.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted for Nenji: Nanaka is fed up by his attitude, and Amemiya only starts being interested in him when the plot has him become gentler. But inverted with Nanaka, who suddenly becomes popular with boys because of her "bold" and "shameless" behaviour.
- Amemiya is an interesting case : she was actually interested in Nenji ever since in her childhood when he defended her from bad kids, but when meeting him again in High School, she was frightened by him as he has become a violent Delinquent. And then, as said above, her interest kicked back in when he started to mellow out.
- Alpha Bitch: Amemiya starts as this before mellowing out; Chie Kazamatsuri later on.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Amemiya to Nenji, under the rain to boot, in Volume 8, Chapter 64 of the manga ; and repeated in Volume 10, Chapter 86, again (at least a part of it) under the rain.
- Anime Hair: Nenji's wild haircut is lampshaded heavily.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Nenji fails pulling it off in episode 3 due to Nanaka's interference.
- Bittersweet Ending
- Both of Nanaka's Split Personalities may have disappeared, but thanks to them she finally became a more complete person, and reached her goal of becoming a fine adult; Nenji even confirms it in one of their talks. And, after she fell into a coma caused by the disappearance of her 6-year personality, the manga ends when she finally wakes up one month later, called by all the friends she made during her Coming of Age Story, who gathered specially for her. Nanaka tells them: "I'm back", and they heartwarmingly welcome her back with a "Welcome back!". Looks more like a Happy Ending here.
- Butt-Monkey: Arashiyima to his sister, Nanaka's dad to Nanaka.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Yoshida makes minor appearances in episodes 6 and 7 before before his actual introduction in episode 8.
- The Chew Toy: Arashiyima. The poor guy gets effortlessly beaten up by Nenji repeatedly, his little sister keeps hitting him with a stick, and more generally he suffers complete humiliation every time he appears on screen.
- Amemiya too, as her repeated attempts at getting Nenji's favours get systematically foiled, and, in the manga's New Year chapter, she even get a "Daikyou" ("Worst Luck") mikuji which advises her to give up on unrequited love. Subverted in that she scores him in the end, in the manga that is.
- Childhood Friend Romance: In the manga, Nanaka is Unlucky. Victorious Amemiya scores Nenji, even though it's implied it'll only be completely set in stone when Nanaka will wake up from her coma, as both Amemiya and Nenji agreed to put their relationship on hold so that Nenji can fully concentrate on taking care of Nanaka until then.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Nanaka isn't too fond of Kuriko, especially after she spends too much time with Nenji in episode 5. The feeling is mutual with Kuriko towards Nanaka.
- Color Failure: After Nanaka has a fight with Nenji, she angrily brushes off her dad's attempt to spend more time with her. It affects him so much that he stays in that same exact position until the end of the episode.
- Happens to Nenji in episode 8 while sick.
- Coming of Age Story: Nenji ; also, this is the manga's Myth Arc regarding Nanaka.
- Cranial Eruption Arashiyima.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: 6-year-old Nanaka.
- A Day in the Limelight: The
Bonus Episode is centered around a day in the life of Amemiya rather than on Nanaka or Nenji. - Delinquents: Nenji and Arashiyama.
- Disappeared Dad: Nenji lost his father when he was 8. It's a plot point at least two times in the manga : it's his Freudian Excuse for becoming a violent Delinquent, and it helps him Spotting the Thread when 17-year Nanaka pulls a Batman Gambit in order to get rid of her 6-year Split Personality, as 6-year Nanaka would never have any memories of Nenji's father's funeral.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Poor Arashiyima, and sometimes Nenji.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: 17 year old Nanaka has them on the school trip to Kyoto.
- '80s Hair: Arashiyima's mullet is mocked by Nenji, of all people.
- Episode on a Plane Manga-only, volume 8, chapter 70 : Nanaka goes to USA for a while to take her mind off things, and the plane she's in get hijacked ; it's at this time that her second Split Personality, Hiro, emerges, and promptly beats the shit out of the terrorists.
- Exact Eavesdropping
- Eyes Always Shut: Nanaka's dad.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Obviously, Nanaka can't go permanently back to normal before the last episode.
- Forgot the Call: Nanaka.
- From Bad to Worse: Poor Nenji in episode 8. He catches a cold, and Kuriko, Nanaka, and Amemiya all make it a point to take care of him. Hilarity Ensues as the first two girls make a mess of things as they continually try to one up each other, with Amemiya largely being caught in the middle.
- Genki Girl: Nanaka as a 6-year-old.
- Girl Posse: All much worse than the actual Alpha Bitch.
- Growing Up Sucks: Nanaka and Amemiya.
- Heir to the Dojo: Arashiyima, who has no fighting skills and couldn't care less, to his sister's distress.
- Hopeless Suitor: Amemiya probably feels this way through most of the series. Doesn't help that 17 year old Nanaka rubs it in with Nenji being the "most precious thing to her in the world." in one episode.
- I Let You Win: Manga-only. In Satsuki's Backstory, when she and Nenji were little children, he stole her bokken, gave her a piko-piko hammer, and told her that if she manages to hit him with it, he'll give her back her bokken. She tries many times, and fails ; but, when she tearfully says that the bokken is a treasured birthday present from her brother, and swears to get it back, Nenji lets her hit him, and give it back.
- Imagine Spot: Amemiya has one of Nenji in episode 8.
- Important Haircut: Satsuki, near the end of the manga.
- Innocent Innuendo: Nanaka tends to slip quite a few if these from time to time.
- I Will Wait for You: At the end of the manga, invoked by Amemiya, who, in her thoughts, ask for Nanaka to wake up soon from her coma, so that, one day, she could ask her blessings regarding Nenji, who, up until there, stayed at Nanaka's side so he takes cares of her, even though he and Amemiya are now a pair.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nenji, though he quickly loses the "jerk" part.
- Kabuki Sounds: Whenever Satsuki Arashiyima talks, as part of the joke.
- Kick the Dog: 17-year old Nanaka, most notably in episode 7 when she walks right past an injured child.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia => Split Personality: Nanaka's mental condition, which started as the former, and evolved as the latter when the 17-year, aka the original, personality re-emerged; and in the manga, she later develops a second Split Personality, Hiro, which is Nanaka's Wish-Fulfillment of the person she wants to be.
- Last Episode, New Character: In the anime, Rinko "Orin" Yuudate makes only one short appearance near the very end of the final episode.
- Lethal Chef: 6-year-old Nanaka and Kuriko.
- Lightning Glare: Kuriko and Nanaka.
- Lover Tug of War: Happens to Nenji between Kuriko and Nanaka in episode 5 when they both want Nenji to go with them to the theme park.
- Happens again in episode 8, this time with a sick Nenji in Color Failure mode.
- Love Triangle: Turns into a Love Dodecahedron as the series progresses though.
- Magical Girl: In the Show Within a Show Magical Domiko.
- Memento MacGuffin: Nenji's kindergarten badge for Amemiya, which she got in her childhood after Nenji lost it when he defended her from bad kids who picked on her.
- Missing Mom: Nanaka's died just before she was 6.
- Older Alter Ego: Magical Domiko is one of these series and Nanaka thinks she is subject to the trope (but stuck).
- Otaku: Yoshida.
- Overnight Age-Up: Discussed. In order to explain to Nanaka how they suddenly (from her perspective) went from 6 to 17-year-olds, Nenji lies that like in Magical Domiko, they were "magically" aged up, but are now stuck at 17.
- Parental Abandonment: An important theme of the manga, as the loss of one of their parents is how Nanaka and Nenji ended so screwed up.
- Pet the Dog: Amemiya, repeatedly)
- Precocious Crush: Kuriko for Nenji.
- Promotion to Parent: Nenji.
- Rerun: Magical Domiko In-Universe.
- The Rival: Chemical Kemiko to Domiko in the Show Within a Show.
- Running Gag: Arashiyima constantly getting beat on by his sister, who always says he's wide open to an attack, and then hits him on the head.
- Show Within a Show: Magical Domiko, a Magical Girl anime that Nanaka was a big fan of as a child. After she gets amnesia, Nenji convinces her that she's aged herself up to 17 as an Older Alter Ego just like Magical Domiko does.
- Split Personality: Nanaka develops a case of split personality disorder after her accident, which causes her to occasionally revert from her 17-year-old self to her 6-year-old self, and sometimes vise versa.
- Squeaky Eyes
- Stalker with a Crush: Arashiyima, played for laughs.
- Take a Third Option: When Kuriko and Nanaka force Nenji to take one of them to the Pop'N Land theme park in episode 5, he decides to take both of them, or else he won't go. Both girls reluctantly agree.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nenji pretty much lays it out to Nanaka while back in her 17 year old state of mind on the school trip. She responds by giving him repeated slaps.
- Time-Compression Montage: The Magical Domiko play.
- Token Mini-Moe: Kuriko.
- Training Montage: Nanaka learning to play the piano.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The premise of the series.
- Unwanted Harem: Nenji's got at least 3 girls who want him, a 6 year old, a 17 year old who thinks she's 6 years old, and regular high school girl who's the sanest of the bunch.
- Verbal Tic: 6-year-old Nanaka often utters the nonsensical phrases "Ha-ya-ya!" and "Ha-wa-wa!"
- We Want Our Jerk Back (Don't We?): Nanaka, who at 17 is very much a nagging bitch, unlike 6-year-old Nanaka.
