Ditzy art student Suzu Miyauchi is stuck in a rut. Although she's technically talented at her craft, her work is under fire for "lacking color". It's missing that unique and original touch that makes it hers. While visiting the park for inspiration, she crosses paths with uptight birdwatching otaku Tsubasa Tokiniwa. Tsubasa, who moonlights as the bird-costumed host of a Youtube series about birds named Tori-san, opens Suzu's eyes to the world of birdwatching. There, Suzu finally feels her creative juices flowing and finds the artistic spark she's been looking for. Together with Ayame (Suzu's friend/classmate) and Hina (Tsubasa's friend/classmate) and an aloof nature photographer named Misaki, they set out to appreciate and document the beauty found in the forests and skies of Japan.
Shiawase Tori-mingu ("Happy Birdwatching") is a Yonkoma manga by Kinako Warabimochi that has been serialized in Manga Time Kirara since 2020. It is also romanized as Shiawase Trimming, since "tori-mingu" is a pun on the term the Japanese use to refer to cropping a photograph, "trimming". The manga is technically not a Japanese School Club story, as there's no actual school club. But, like its Kirara contemporary Slow Loop, it borrows the school club series tropes and framework about moe girls doing an activity together to complement a relaxing tale of friendship and pastoral appreciation.
If you watch closely, you might spot the following examples in Shiawase Tori-mingu:
- Animal Gender-Bender: Discussed when it comes to comparing male and female birds with sexual dimorphism, such as ducks.
- Art Reflects Personality: As Suzu becomes awestruck by birdwatching and the beauty of nature, her paintings capture the splendor and majesty of the local bird population.
- Author Appeal: As is typical of a Kirara manga about moe girls doing an activity together, the series is a thinly-disguised vehicle for the author to draw beautiful birds and dump hot, steaming facts about Japanese avians all over the audience.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Played for laughs. When Suzu angsts about how she's too forgettable, Tsubasa says she just didn't notice Suzu because she was focusing on the cute sparrows. She then goes into uncomfortably graphic detail about what she finds cute, causing Suzu to say that's even worse. A few pages later, Tsubasa turns the tables when Suzu swoons over the idea of having an "eternal lover" as cute as a bird, and po-faced Tsubasa says she'll report her for it.
- Big "WHAT?!": In Chapter 2, this is Tsubasa's reaction when she learns of Suzu's painting... but it turns out it's because she likes the kingfisher Suzu painted.
- Bilingual Bonus: In chapter 1, Tsubasa says she's watching sparrows, which are pronounced "Suzume" in Japanese. Suzu points to herself, as if to say "Suzu ... me?"
- Bluebird of Happiness: Suzu mentions the legend in chapter 1, and it's also a part of the manga's punny title.
- Childhood Friend: Tsubasa and Hina, both college freshmen, have known each other since middle school. Since they're close friends, Hina is the only person privy to Tsubasa's secret identity as Tori-san.
- Common Knowledge: In-Universe, Tsubasa points out that mandarin ducks — which symbolize eternal love to the Japanese — only mate for a single season and then part.note
- Crossover: For the 20th anniversary of Manga Time Kirara, Warabimochi teamed up with Okuma Rasuko to produce a two-page crossover with Stardust Telepath.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The series mines a lot of comedy out of analyzing bird behavior in terms of human relationships and sexuality.
- In chapter 1, Tsubasa says that seeing the same species of bird all over Japan is like having an eternal lover, making Suzu swoon at the thought of romance.
- Also in chapter 1, when Tsubasa shows Suzu a kingfisher and says it stands still for a long time, Suzu exclaims "What incredible fanservice!"
- In chapter 2, Suzu orbits around a pair of idling birds with her sketchpad, shouting out words of encouragement like she's a photographer taking glamour shots.
- When Suzu finds out that male ducks turn drab after mating season, she deems it a "scam" akin to somebody letting themselves go after marriage.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Misaki works as a waitress, and she makes an inconspicuous appearance waiting on Suzu and Ayame at the very beginning of chapter 1.
- Embarrassing Hobby:
- Tsubasa is absolutely adamant nobody (besides Hina) find out she dons a costume and films Youtube videos about birds under the guise of Tori-san. Unfortunately, she can't quite shake her character's verbal tic of spouting "-ppi!" at the end of sentences.
- When she was in middle school, Tsubasa considered her entire birdwatching hobby as this, since people usually see birdwatching as an old person's hobby.
- Exposition: Since the manga is (mostly) in black-and-white, the characters often have to exposit just how ostentatious a bird looks.
- The Fashionista: In the volume 2 tankobon intro, Suzu effortlessly tosses together a wide variety of ensembles from her closet, and makes Tsubasa guess what bird she's cosplaying as. Judging by Tsubasa's reactions, she's quite good at it.
- Fictional Counterpart: Michinoku University of the Arts, the university Suzu and Ayame go to, is based on Tohoku University of Art and Design
in Yamagata City. "Michinoku" is a way of calling the Tohoku regionnote , and the artist doesn't even disguise TUAD's distinctive main building◊. - Footnote Fever: As per the stereotype, the Chinese fan translation provides multi-page, illustrated translators' notes.
- Foreshadowing: In chapter 1, Tsubasa accidentally lets a "-ppi!" slip and gets unusually flustered about it, even though her alter ego Tori-san hasn't been introduced yet.
- Forgettable Character: In chapter 1, Suzu laments that (in true Akari Akaza fashion) she's so forgettable she's blending into the background.
- Ham and Deadpan Duo: Suzu and Tsubasa. In chapter 1, Suzu goes nuts trying to emulate a bird's stance and Saying Sound Effects Out Loud, while Tsubasa stares at her and disparagingly thinks "What a wordsmith."
- Have a Gay Old Time: The manga uses an authentic birdwatching term from the early 1900s to describe the "posture" and "attitude" of a bird. Unfortunately, the said word just so happens to be jizz.
- Heel Realization: When Misaki points out that birds are scared of humans, Suzu has a minor existential crisis about how she's a terrifying monster. Later though, Tsubasa points out that the presence of humans keeps some species of birds safe from other predators.
- Hint Dropping: When Suzu tries to recall the details of a bird she and Misaki spotted so Tsubasa can identify it in chapter 7, Misaki (their waitress) keeps popping up at the table to drop hints and jog Suzu's memory.Misaki: Here's your cabbage strips!Suzu: Wait, we didn't order this...Misaki: It's a special, on the house.Manager-san: (Misaki-chan?! You can't do that!)Tsubasa: Strips?Hina: Strips...Suzu: Strips...! Stripes! It had a white body and stripes on its wings!Misaki: (She got it!)
- Hypocrite: The main characters are all avid birdwatchers and avian otaku ... who regularly hang out at a yakitori (i.e. grilled chicken) place. An interviewer for BIRDER magazine actually called Kinako Warabimochi out on this, and Warabimochi laughed it off as "gap moe".
- Implausible Hair Color: Tsubasa's blue hair isn't a stylized tone of black—her character bios before Chapter 14 state her dark blue hair is a special feature of hers.
- It Was with You All Along: This is the advice Ayame gives to Suzu at the beginning of chapter 1, when she's in a funk due to her work "lacking color".
- Iyashikei:
- It's a pastoral Yonkoma that treats birdwatching the same way Laidback Camp treats camping.
- In-Universe, Misaki says she considers Tori-san's videos to be "healing" in chapter 8.
- Literal-Minded:
- In chapter 1, when Suzu laments that people say her artwork lacks color, she wails, "But I made sure to make it super colorful!"
- At the end of chapter 1, Suzu says she hopes to find her Bluebird (of Happiness). Tsubasa tells her that if she wants to find a kingfisher (a literal blue bird) she should look for a big pile of poop.
- When Suzu compares ducks losing their colorful feathers to "letting themselves go", Tsubasa remarks that they don't need to let themselves go since they already live in the wild.
- Local Hangout: A significant part of the series happens in an unnamed yakitori restaurant where Suzu, Ayame, Tsubasa, and Hina frequent. Misaki also works there as a waitress.
- Lost in Translation: The English scanlators leave the word yakitori untranslated, so the quip in chapter 8 where Suzu says it's weird for a bird-lover to work in a restaurant that mainly serves grilled chicken may pass over the reader's head.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Misaki is generally frosty towards the other girls, but she's a huge fan of Tori-san — who is Tsubasa in disguise.
- Luminescent Blush: In chapter 8, Suzu tests how much of a Tori-san fan Misaki is by asking her if she would call herself a "fan-ppi". Glowing hotter than a furnace, an embarrassed Misaki says, "...yep-ppi." Suzu then glows radiantly in return as she beholds the extreme cuteness.
- Manga Effects: When she's shocked, Tsubasa's mouth turns into a diamond and her eyes turn into tall white circles, making her look like a bird herself.
- Match Cut:
- In-Universe. Suzu is watching a video of Tori-san on her phone when she realizes the area in the video looks extremely familiar. She lowers her phone to reveal Tsubasa birdwatching in the exact same spot.
- In chapter 6, there's a match cut between a woodpecker pecking a tree and Tsubasa pecking at a burger so she can hurry up and go birdwatching.
- Meaningful Name:
- Tsubasa means "wing".
- Suzu is two-thirds of "sparrow" (Suzume), which is the punchline of a joke in chapter 1.
- Hina means "hatchling".
- Motor Mouth: Tsubasa often becomes this when birds are involved. This is even lampshaded by the character bios coming with earlier chapters.
- Naughty Birdwatching: Subverted in Chapter 1. While at the park, Suzu noticed a girl drooling and moaning "Suzu" while spying on her with a pair of binoculars. Suzu thought the other girl, Tsubasa, was a Peeping Tom, but it turned out she's a birdwatching otaku and she was watching Suzu-me (sparrows).
- Odd-Shaped Panel: Although it's a Yonkoma, it's not particularly beholden to the format. It frequently breaks the 4-panel format for artistic effect, especially when Suzu (an artist herself) sees a bird that inspires her. In an interview, Warabimochi revealed they actually went to college for filmmaking, and even though they 'fell into' doing manga and find the yonkoma format constraining at times, they enjoy bending the rules and getting as cinematic as possible.
- Painting the Medium:
- When Suzu discovers Misaki is a Tori-san fan, the yonkoma frame turns into stems and flowers to emphasize her joy.
- Warabimochi has stated one of their favorite techniques is to end a column with a character looking up through a pair of binoculars at the start of the next column, which begins with the bird they're looking at, so that the audience "looks up" at the bird along with the character.
- The Peeping Tom: Tsubasa is introduced watching Suzu in the park from a distance with a pair of binoculars, moaning "Suzu" and drooling. Of course, it turns out she was actually watching Suzu-me (sparrows).
- Post-Stress Overeating: Suzu is introduced surrounded by five separate stacks of empty plates while she laments her artwork's chilly reception. Slightly downplayed since those are small-dish-sized, but it's still a lot of food.
- Product Displacement: Hina's expensive binoculars are from a "well-known jeweler"—or, in other words, Swarovski. They're most likely to be a pair of CL Companion binoculars.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Downplayed.
- Tsubasa has blue hair and is very serious, but she tends to wear a dull green jacket. Meanwhile, Hina is bubbly and wears pink/red clothing, but she's blonde instead of red-haired.
- Ayame is mature and confident, and she has blue hair and mainly wears blue. Suzu fits the red oni in spirit, but she has blonde hair and only wears pink half the time.
- Satellite Character: Ayame and Hina don't have a lot going on. They're mainly there for Suzu and Tsubasa to have a conversation partner when the other one isn't around.
- Secretly Wealthy: Hina is filthy rich, since she's the heiress to one of the largest fruit-growing operations in Yamagata prefecture which also does some food manufacturing, but she generally lives on the same modest social level as her friends and fellow college students Tsubasa and Suzu. Suzu only finds out she's rich when Hina buys 100,000-yen binoculars on a whim. Suzu blew all her money on a 30,000-yen pair and is now starving, but fortunately Hina is generous enough to throw a picnic using her family's products.
- Sensitive Artist: Suzu finds herself reinvigorated as an artist through birdwatching. But when Misaki points out birds are scared of humans, Suzu hits a slump as she frets about the emotional turmoil she's causing the subjects of her paintings in her attempts to capture their beauty.
- Shipper on Deck: Hina starts going birdwatching with Tsubasa, but she's less interested in watching the actual birds and more interested in watching the love-birds Tsubasa and Suzu.
- Shout-Out: When Suzu uses her field guide to narrow down what kind of bird she spotted, she imagines herself as a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? using her 50:50.
- Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Tsubasa is a downplayed example. She's the only character with blue hair who happens to be introverted and uncomfortable with meeting people she doesn't know. She also explicitly states she doesn't like being the center of attention. However, she's never shown to be withdrawn or avoiding social interactions in general (aside from being adamant about keeping the identity of Tori-san a secret).
- Technician Versus Performer:
- Tsubasa is an uptight bird otaku who is a wealth of facts and memorized info about birds, whereas Suzu is an enthusiastic amateur who knows nothing about birds yet constantly seeks out the emotional awe and wonder they evoke.
- Suzu is a painter who captures the "feeling" of a majestic bird, whereas Misaki is a photographer who captures the reality.
- Tsundere: Misaki is generally cold and aloof, even while working as a waitress, but she reveals her softer side when she and Suzu bond over Tori-san.
- Verbal Tic: Tsubasa's alter ego Tori-san shouts "-ppi!" at the end of every sentence, which unfortunately bleeds over into Tsubasa's actual speech at the most inopportune times.
- Visual Pun: When Suzu's painting is revealed at the end of chapter 1, we see a bird's outstretched wing overlapping with Tsubasa, whose name means "wing".
- Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 17 is basically a flashback of the early days of Tsubasa and Hina's friendship.
- Writer's Block: At the beginning of the series, Suzu struggles to paint anything worthwhile. When Tsubasa opens her eyes to the majesty of avian life, she overcomes it and paints a beautiful picture of a soaring bird...and Tsubasa.
