Manga / Tomo-chan Is a Girl!

Tomo: Jun! I love you!
Jun: I love you too, bro! [brofist]

— Chapter 1

Tomo Aizawa harbors feelings for her childhood friend and next-door neighbor, Junichirou Kubota. On their inaugural day of high school, she musters up the courage to express her love for Junichirou. However, there's a slight hitch... he perceives her solely as a close friend, oblivious to her femininity. Tomo-chan faces the challenge of winning Jun's heart, as he has always seen her as a tomboyish companion, even mistaking her for a boy during their time in middle school. And so, Tomo-chan's quest for Jun's affection commences...

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! (Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! in Japanese) is a 4-koma manga about a tomboy trying to get her crush to see her as a girl. Though drawn by former hentai author Fumita Yanagida, the Fanservice is very toned down, and for the most part is an easy-going Slice of Life gag comic about Tomo, Jun, and their wacky friends.

The manga had an unusual update schedule: instead of a weekly or monthly serialization, it updated one page every day on the web, like a webcomic. The manga began in April 2015 and concluded in July 2019. In 2018, the manga was licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment for English release and can be found here, with publication of all English volumes concluding on late 2020. It received an anime adaptation by Lay-duce that aired in the Winter bloc of 2023 and is available on Crunchyroll.

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Tomo-chan Is a Girl! provides examples of:

• Aborted Declaration of Love: Tomo steels herself for confessing to Jun for a second time, and the mood was perfect for a confession. However, despite everything working in her favor (no interruptions, no fireworks droning her out, Jun has her full attention and sees her as a woman thanks to her yukata getup), she decided against confessing again due to the insight that it was not the right time and they would not last if they started dating at that point.
• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Carol's mother Ferris is 28 while Carol herself is 15. Tomo quickly does the math and is promptly very disturbed by the implications. An Omake showed that her mother was very developed as a 13 year old to the point that her spouse (who was 16 at the time) thought that she was older than him.
• Action Girl: Tomo has been practicing martial arts since she was a little kid, and joined the boy's Karate club because she was too strong for the girl's club, even in the boys club she is considered The Ace.
• A-Cup Angst: Tomo and Carol are very well endowed, causing Misuzu frequent consternation.
• Adapted Out: The anime adaptation doesn't mention how young Carol's mother is and Tomo's disturbed reaction, since what was already iffy in the manga didn't pass the censors for anime.
• Always in Class One: The whole main cast at the very least is in 1-A.
• Amicable Exes: Inverted, Jun and Misuzu can barely stand each other and constantly make passive aggressive remarks to one another when not being out right hostile. Flashbacks show that they've always been this way, since childhood. On the other hand, they were on good terms during the time they dated.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Carol, while she does have an obvious crush on Misaki-senpai and they later start dating, also has more than a little Ship Tease with Misuzu and isn't above messing with her in vaguely-to-outright flirtatious manners.
  • Misuzu herself can come across more Ambiguously Gay, since not only does she sometimes comes across as in love with Tomo, but her friendship with Carol is full of subtext. That said, Misuzu had dated Jun in the past (for all of three days; the two saw the other as being the means of maintaining a bond with Tomo, whom both feared might drift away from them, but it's revealed that, behind her manipulations, Misuzu actually was excited to have a boyfriend in spite of herself) and has a sort of Ship Tease with Tanabe (with the anime in particular using the second ending theme to indicate he and she are a possible future couple).
  • Mifune and Ogawa are reduced to blushing awe when Tomo destroys a senior who was harassing Ogawa. Ogawa in particular has a very Rescue Romance-coded expression as Tomo walks away badassedly:
    Ogawa: She’s so manly!
• Attractive Bent-Gender: The two gyarus note that when Tomo wears pants along with more androgynous clothing, she passes off for a very handsome young man. Even more so When Tomo is the prince for the Cinderella play; the entire female class goes wild.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Parodied. After lending it to Tomo, Carol gently lifts her headband off of Tomo's head, flips it around and then has it slowly descend into place on her own head as she hums her own fanfare To the Tune of... "See, The Conquering Hero Comes."
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The sports festival has Tomo get sick before the day of a big run. While she does do well and outruns Jun for a lot of it, she suddenly collapses from physical exhaustion. You would think that with all of this buildup, Jun's going to Bridal Carry her for a romantic moment—and you would be wrong, since her collapsing isn't portrayed as cute and she's carried by piggyback.
  • The volume 6 extras have Carol and Misaki try to work up to skinship now that they're dating. Misaki says that he's always wanted to touch something soft of hers, so she sticks out her chest in anticipation... and he reaches for her cheeks instead, saying he was always curious about how they felt.
  • When the girls take part-time jobs at Tanabe's family restaurant, Tanabe's father tears up, saying they need the help because his wife left him to visit her parents for the holidays.
• Battle Aura: Tomo and Jun both sport this from time to time, especially when getting fired up about competition.
• Battle Couple: Tomo and Jun, as fighting maniacs, would be this if they got together, as evidenced when they both take on the group of bullies that attack Misuzu and Carol.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Misuzu's more than okay with helping Tomo get Jun, but Carol implies that she wants the two to change, with Jun turning Tomo into a girlier person. By the end of the festival arc, Jun is walking on eggshells with Tomo, trying to keep up their old dynamic but barely even touching her since she's a girl, while Tomo is slowly realizing what she wants out of her relationship with Jun and becomes frustrated with his current actions.
  • All Tomo wanted when she was in middle school was for Jun and her to start talking and act like friends again. She starts taking notice of him as a boy during the exact conversation where they reestablish their friendship, and for the rest of the chronological timeline she's firmly planted in the friendzone.
  • Tomo's greatest fear for her relationship with Jun, that when he sees her as a woman their all-out friend/rival relationship will disappear, pretty much comes true before and after they get together. The aforementioned festival arc does this as illustrated; and post-confession, Jun's so relaxed and gentle with her that she starts seeing it as treating her like his daughter instead of his friend.
• Beach Episode: Misuzu, Tomo, and Carol take this as an opportunity to have Tomo stand out more to Jun, by having her wear a more revealing bathing suit that emphasizes her femininity. It works, but he doesn't let it show very much. He has to jerk his neck at unnatural angles to avoid looking though, and internally explodes when Tomo licks some ice cream off her bare shoulder.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Carol, Misuzu, and Tomo, respectively. Best seen when they take jobs at Tanabe's ramen shop. Carol draws in a ton of customers, Misuzu plans ahead for the rush and sends Tomo on a shopping trip, and Tomo shows up effortlessly carrying a huge amount of supplies. Tanabe's father wonders if all high school girls are like that, but Tanabe tells him those three are just special.
• Beta Couple:
  • Carol/Misaki, as their relationship parallels Jun and Tomo's in a lot of ways. Where Tomo is trying to get Jun to see her as a woman, Misaki is trying to become more masculine. Both boys don't see their respective girls as love interests initially (actually, it's more complicated than that), while both girls have been trying to get their boys to take their relationships to the next level. Carol and Misaki get more elaboration on their relationship in volumes 5 and 6.
  • Subverted in the case of Misuzu/Tanabe, but in a much, much less significant level. Most of it is wishful thinking by Tanabe, who barely registers anything on Misuzu's radar. It's like the old Colombian proverb goes, it's a fight between a tiger and a tied donkey.
• Berserk Button: While it's already incredibly dumb to harass Tomo; never molest Tomo in front of Jun, seriously, don't. Also, if Misaki-senpai thinks that Carol was hurt, you better hope and pray that both Jun and Tomo are there to hold him back.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Carol, Misuzu and Tomo.
• Book Dumb: Tomo must submit herself to Training from Hell just to be able to pass a math exam with C-.
• Call-Back:
  • Jun thinks back to the very first strip and Tomo's confession when he's wondering about why he's so happy that Tomo asked him to the festival.
  • When Misuzu hears about Misaki's love for Carol, she notes that she couldn't get that impression on him at first, referring to the strip when he nonchalantly brushed crumbs off of Carol's chest.
  • In #300 Misuzu's mother mistakes Tomo for her mother and panics, then after things are explained she asks Tomo "Don't grow up to be like her, okay?" In #482 the exact same scene happens, except this time it's Tomo's father mistaking Misuzu for her mother.
• Casting Gag: Once again, Colleen Clinkenbeard and Jad Saxton voice mother and daughter. Lara Woodhull doesn't voice Saxton's character's younger self here though.
• Chekhov's Gun: #130 mentions that there was a period in middle school where Tomo and Jun didn't speak for a year, only in #670 does this begin to be elaborated. The reason why they didn't talk? Jun was finally starting to see Tomo as a girl and got upset that Tomo was talking to boys and that she said she and him were Just Friends, and so ignored her. He wanted to make up and clear up the misunderstanding, but no matter what he thought about telling her, it would come off as him admitting he had a crush.
• The Chikan: An old man starts to feel up Tomo on the train when she and Jun are going home. Tomo, who was in the middle of internally fretting over not seeming feminine enough, starts misguidedly repressing her instinctual reaction to defend herself. Then Jun notices, and Tomo has to stop him from killing the bastard.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • The obvious and most plot-important one is Jun and Tomo.
  • Carol has had a crush on Misaki for years now, and even pretend married him as children around three times. Misaki, however, seems to be dense about her feelings. Because it turns out that he was under the impression that she isn't serious, this is resolved relatively quickly.
• Cliffhanger: The beach arc ends with Misuzu musing that Jun has no choice but to see Tomo as a girl after the beach arc wraps up, and Jun himself is showing more and more signs of being in love with Tomo. That page was the last one for a month or so.
• Comic-Book Time: Played with. Albeit the backstory takes place in a 10-year period, the main story takes place during a single year, in Tomo, Jun, Misuzu and Carol's freshman year of high school. However, there's a discrepancy early in the manga, where Tomo grows her hair out to appeal to Jun, which would have taken her a considerably longer time than it did (it would have taken her more or less 1 year to grow it that long). This series of chapters were ultimately not adapted in the anime.
• Dissonant Serenity: Carol almost always has the same vacant smile on her face, even when electrocuting some thugs with a taser. Given the series this is mostly Played for Laughs...at least until Carol and Misaki's romance arc ends, where Misaki reveals that he's scared of confessing to her precisely because she's so serene all the time.
• Dope Slap: Carol's mother Ferris delivers one to Misaki after Carol comes home heartbroken thinking that he doesn't love her romantically... except replace the word "slap" with the word "headbutt". Ouch.
• Double-Meaning Title: Aside from stating the obvious fact of Tomo being female, it's also a desperate cry of Tomo trying to make Jun look at her as a woman, as well as Jun's realization that his best friend and competitor is also of the opposite sex, with all of the physicality it implies.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Tomo was able to muster up enough courage to confess. With the subsequent strips showing how shy she is in admitting her romantic feelings, it makes her look very out of character in comparison. (Though it seems that romantic actions are more embarrassing to her than the words themselves.)
• Even the Girls Want Her: In episode 118, a group of boys list attractive girls in the school. Tomo gets mentioned. In episode 120, a group of girls list attractive boys, echoing the former. Tomo gets mentioned. "She's so amazing! Why does she have to be a girl? It's such a waste..."
• Everyone Can See It: It's pretty obvious to everyone that both Tomo and Jun have feelings for one another. Early, Tanabe is under the impression that the two are dating, and only Misuzu's corrections alleviate that misunderstanding. After Misaki's arc, he even straight up tells Tomo that the Karate Club already knew about Jun and Tomo's mutual crushes.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • Jun didn't realize Tomo was a girl until they went to middle school and she showed up in a girl's uniform. Thinking back, he realizes there were signs, like wearing full-body swimsuits at the pool instead of trunks, not bathing with him, and using the girl's bathroom. Then he admits he was in denial to himself, as it's shown that he was enjoying his time with Tomo so much that he didn't (and may not have wanted) to put two-and-two together.
  • One delinquent upperclassman is well aware of the Aizawa Dojo, a collection of terrifyingly powerful martial artists who ignore the law in defense of the weak and whom the Yakuza dare not cross. However, for all that he would never knowingly gain their notice, he maintains a feud with an tall, freakishly-strong first year girl named Aizawa Tomo. After his pursuit for Revenge by Proxy against Misuzu and Carol is thwarted by Tomo, Jun and a Berserk Button-pressed Misaki he is told by Misuzu exactly who he just crossed and to whose family she belongs. Specifically, the massive, freakishly-strong, overprotective Aizawa patriach. She also reminds him exactly what he would do if he ever found out.
• Festival Episode: Misuzu sets up a situation for Tomo so that she can ask Jun out to the fireworks festival happening later on.
• Fountain of Youth: The omakes usually feature pictures of the characters interacting while some of them are de-aged to children. Sometimes it's cute (like Tomo and Misuzu doting on Kid!Carol like big sisters), sometimes... not so much (like Kid!Misuzu with a lash in her hand, riding a nervous Tomo like a horse).
• Freudian Trio: Tomo is the emotional, tomboyish and physical Id. Carol is the air-headed, mostly innocent Ego. With the Spock-like, cold-natured Misuzu being the Superego.
• Funny Background Event: In this comic where Misuzu and Tanabe are bargaining for the prospective wages from his father's ramen shop, Carol and Tomo engage in a cutesy game.
• The Gadfly: Misuzu and Carol each troll their friends in very different ways. Carol in particular, since its difficult to tell if she's being sincere, dense, or trolling.
• Gag Echo: When Misuzu teases Jun about the possibility of Tomo liking someone else, he pushes her from under the awning they were both standing under and into the rain, complete with a superimposed image of her head. Volumes later, and she's able to get back at him for it, pushing him towards a very angry and ready-to-pounce Tomo with the same super imposed imaging on Jun this time.
• Gender Flip: One of the manga bonuses came with a genderswap of the story. Instead of Tomo being the protagonist however, it seems to focus more on "Junko" interacting with all three of the boys.
• Generation Xerox:
  • All three of the main girls strongly resemble their mothers, both in terms of personality and appearance. The main differences are that Tomo's mother Akemi is more observant and Misuzu's mother Misaki seems a little mellower. Carol and Ferris, though, are practically twins. It's also shown that Tomo is somewhat affection-shy like her father is.
  • Tomo and Jun's relationship also resembles her mother and father's, and Jun views her father as a role-model (while Gorou pretty much views him as a son).
• Genius Ditz: Carol, for all her clueless about a lot of social conventions and absent-minded behavior, is skilled at Othello, is a math and science savant, and quickly realizes that all of Misuzu's advice is her attempting to make sure Tomo and Jun don't get together. She even calls her out on it, at first subtly, then explicitly.
• Girliness Upgrade:
  • Much of the manga is Tomo learning how to bring out her femininity in order to make Jun acknowledge her as a woman. Misuzu, and later Carol, help her in this endeavor. Played with in that Misuzu is doing this specifically because she doesn't want Tomo and Jun to get together, being well aware that Tomo acting more girly might strain her relationship with him more than help it.
  • When they finally admit their feelings for each other, Jun throws in that while he's known for months that Tomo was in love with him, he completely missed that her more girly behavior was a deliberate tactic to entice him. That being said, Jun still finds it easier to treat Tomo as a girl when she's wearing more stereotypically feminine clothing, being more willing to jump into situations and try to protect her (such as in the Festival arc). Granted, he feels awkward about doing so because he knows she's more than capable of fending for herself.
• Gone Horribly Right: Misaki tells Misuzu that even though he likes Carol, he's still unsure of confessing because she takes everything else in stride without ever dropping her cheerful personality. Misuzu's response is to push one of her buttons to get a more human interaction out of her. She claims that Misaki only loves Carol in a father-daughter fashion and not romantically, not expecting much, only to be shaken when Carol immediately runs home crying and heartbroken.
• Hidden Eyes: The eyes of Misuzu's father aren't visible during his scant appearances. His hairstyle seems to only be half the reason.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • During the school play, Jun of all people tells Misuzu to talk openly and honestly about whatever feelings she's hiding towards Tomo. Yes, the same Jun who has been dodging his feelings for Tomo at every opportunity, which Misuzu even calls out.
  • Jun tells Tomo that he's okay with her leaving for the afternoon with Carol and Misuzu, telling her that he doesn't want to be the kind of boyfriend who holds her down. Cue Misuzu and Carol, who start hitting him with their bags for being such a hypocrite because, well... it has been his attitude throughout the story that has consistently held Tomo down in the first place. He has no right to say that stuff with a straight face to impress Tomo of all people, and in front of Carol and Misuzu, who dealt with his crap ever since they met him.
• If It's You, It's Okay: After Jun touches Tomo's breast when first seeing her again in middle school, he's shocked at her total lack of reaction. She says she would have socked anybody else, but doesn't mind if he does it.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Carol engages in this, complete with runny nose and hiccups, after Misuzu "breaks" her.
• Instant Expert: Jun takes Tomo skating since she had never gone before, hoping to get to teach her a sport for once. Of course, Tomo being Tomo, she's zooming around the rink within three minutes.
• Irony: Misuzu formulates a plan to get Tomo closer to Jun that involves shoving the latter off a small set of stairs so Tomo can catch him. It naturally backfires. Later, Misuzu trips on a much larger set of stairs and ends up falling onto Tanabe. Misuzu notes the irony as she falls, wondering if it's divine punishment.
• Just Friends: In the flashback to middle school, Tomo talks with some classmates about how she and Jun aren't dating and are just long time friends. Jun, thinking that it would look weird if he said anything, proceeds to not talk to Tomo for a whole year. When she finally learns why he did it, she reassures him to not mind what others might think and that they can just be together "without changing anything"... unwittingly sowing the seeds for her romantic troubles when she finally falls for him and beyond.
• Kids Are Cruel: In the Volume 5 bonus comics, we learn that Misaki and Carol were bullied when they were children because of their foreign blood, this being one of the reasons he's so protective of her.
• Kimono Fanservice: After Akemi finds out that Tomo's going to the summer festival in casual clothes, she puts all of her power into putting her in a yukata, especially seeing why she's going in the first place. Evidently, Jun has a fondness for Japanese clothing as well, so his mind is blown when he sees her.
• Kissing Cousins: Carol and Misaki are distant relatives on her father's side. Carol is also trying repeatedly to get him to notice her as a woman. Later, they start dating.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After the part time job arc, Tomo launches straight back into asking Misuzu for advice on how to get Jun's attention. Misuzu comments that it's been a while since she's been asked that; real time, the arc took months to finish in between hiatuses.
• Leave The Two Love Birds Alone: Seemingly aware that Misuzu is growing anxious of Tomo and Jun growing closer, Carol intentionally invites Misuzu to hang with her and Misaki during the summer festival. As soon as Misuzu spots Tomo and Jun, Carol places a hand on Misuzu's shoulder preventing her from leaving. Misuzu can do little more than silently sulk in annoyance.
• Lethal Chef: Tomo is a terrible cook, whose food only Jun could stomach. Misuzu even comments that, if bad enough, her life might be at risk eating it. Carol goes through a Heroic BSoD teaching Tomo the simple instructions of melting chocolate and remolding them into decorated snacks. However, since all of the above are Tomo's close friends, only Akemi, Tomo's mother, is able to tell Tomo straight up that her cooking is awful.
  Misuzu: Tomo's cooking is deadly. It's the worst.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse:
  • Tomo and Jun's relationship somewhat mirrors Tomo's parents in a way, with her father also being a blockheaded jock completely unused to romance (although it's a bit different).
  • Similarly, the dynamic between the calculating Misuzu and fawning Tanabe mirrors Misuzu's parents, her cold, calculating mother Misaki and extremely doting father.
• Love Confession:
  • The manga begins with Tomo confessing to Jun.
  • Volume eight has Jun finally admitting his romantic love for Tomo.
• Love Confessor: Volume six has Misaki admit to Misuzu that he's actually in love with Carol.
• Love Triangle: Misaki is also smitten with Tomo because of her strength and wants to become a stronger man worthy of Tomo's acknowledgement. Meanwhile, Tomo and Jun like each other but one is trying to do something about it and the other is trying to sort out his feelings and surpass her. Any rivalry or competition the boys have is decimated, however, by the fact that they both want to surpass Tomo and make it a point of friendly competition rather than a romantic problem. We then learn that Misaki loved Carol the whole time, subverting this.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The male karate team's reaction to Tomo joining the male dodgeball team.
• Missed Him by That Much: Tomo and Jun are next-door neighbors, but due to both being on different district boundaries, they went to different schools until middle school. This further exacerbated Jun's erroneous perception of Tomo as a boy, and later, he reminisced that in hindsight, he should have noticed his mistake numerous times before.
• Mistaken for Gay: Both Tomo and Jun have been accused of being gay, Jun because he seems immune to Tomo's looks, while also being completely uninterested in any other girls (both are not true, as Jun is very susceptible to Tomo, and while he purposely avoids other girls, he isn't blind). Tomo gets accused of this for being able to easily attract women and wanting a skinship-style relationship.
• Never Heard That One Before: Tomo was born earlier in the year than Jun and Misuzu, so around her birthday she smugly rubs their faces in the fact that she's technically older than them ("You can call me 'Big Sis' if you want..."). Their unspoken responses show that she does this every single year and they're thoroughly sick of it.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: each of Tomo's girl friends wears a different color sweater.
• No Sense of Direction: Carol, yet she still hasn't noticed this herself, so never let her give directions unless you want to lead a foreigner to the wrong place entirely.
• No Sense of Personal Space:
  • Jun when it comes to Tomo as he is always coming up behind her and slinging his arm around her, he has even been called on it a few times but honestly doesn't notice. When Tomo tried to do the same thing back though he freaked out.
  • Carol can also be this, which usually gets her pushed away by Misuzu.
• No, You: Jun's retort when Tomo brags that she will leave him in her dust during a school marathon.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • During the arc where the punks menace Misuzu and Carol, Misaki finds Carol half-dressed and gets so pissed off that both Tomo and Jun have to hold him back. In reality Carol got dirty because she tripped and fell into a puddle and was changing into her gym clothes.
  • A more lighthearted version occurs after the School Play, when Carol spots Jun embracing Tomo from behind^note In reality, an outright berserker being bodily restrained by one of the very few on campus capable of doing so near a distant haunted house and remarks how 'lovey-dovey' they look. Misuzu, knowing how badly things like haunted houses frighten Tomo and how skewed her flight-or-fight reflexes are, simply notes that it was probably not like that.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: The P.E. teacher meets with Tomo in hopes of getting her to calm down bit when it comes to playing dodgeball for the school's sportfest, as all the girls are terrified of playing with her, much less against her. She initially has trouble when Tomo earnestly and happily espouses her love and excitement for the event, since she doesn't have any other talents to speak of. The teacher ends up putting her with the male students as a compromise.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • Jun is certainly the first place trophy winner of this trope, but Tomo has a strong second place. It soon becomes clear that Jun isn't oblivious to the fact his best friend is a girl. In fact, he developed a crush on her first back in middle school. By the time the series starts, Jun had simply convinced himself that she'd never be interested in anything more than their current dynamic, before acting in denial for a while once it clicks that there really is something there. That said, he was oblivious to the fact that her attempts at a Girliness Upgrade was an attempt to appeal to him.
  • Played straighter with Misaki, who doesn't seem to notice that Carol's been trying to date him for a while now. It turns out to be a similar case to Jun; Misaki likes Carol and has since childhood, but he's been taking care of her for so long that he's just gotten into the routine of treating actions that would normally be weird with boys/girls like everyday occurrences, plus he has never seen her be serious and thus has no idea how she feels. And he keeps saying that he thinks of them Like Brother and Sister, which adds to the problem. The shoe is actually on the other foot, and it's Carol who's been unaware the whole time.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The girls' and later the guys' reaction on seeing Tomo's dodgeball throw.
    Tomo: Taste my anger and sorrow!
    Guy A: What the hell is with those throws?
    Guy B: Who cares! Run for your lives!
  • The leader of the thugs who tried to enact revenge on Misuzu and Carol when Tomo catches him when he didn't even know she was coming.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Apparently, karate's not the only sport Tomo has to play on the male team, as it turns out she's so aggressive that she's usually forced to play with the boys during other school activities as well to reduce the chance of other students getting injured, much to her dismay.
• One of the Boys: Tomo's always been like this, which is why she's having trouble getting Jun's attention now, he just thinks of her as his best bud. It's hinted early on that Jun forces himself to think of Tomo as a guy, with later chapters all but confirming that he does so to prevent their relationship from changing. Anytime he finds himself thinking of her as a girl, he gives himself a Dope Slap.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in that Misaki-senpai's surname is the same Misuzu's mother's given name.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After Misuzu trips and falls onto Tanabe while walking down the stairs, she apologizes for the incident and then asks if he's hurt. The double whammy of (somewhat uncharacteristic) apology and concern immediately makes him wonder if she hit her head.
• Operation: Jealousy:
  • Seems like it was a part of Carol's plan, as her response to learning that Misaki admires Tomo was to force Jun to spend the day with her (up to forcing herself into his bedroom), and telling Misaki all about it the following day.
  • Turns out to be the driving force behind Misuzu's initial advice to Tomo. Ever since Jun came into their lives as kids, Misuzu has been fiercely protective over the bond she has with Tomo and fears that the tomboy will one day leave her behind. Pushing Tomo to be more feminine was a dual attempt to make her friendship with Jun painfully awkward and to reduce the chance of their own friendship derailing by creating more shared interests. Carol repeatedly calls her out on this.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: When Jun inadvertently cops a handful of Carol's chest due to a ploy of Misuzu's (Staircase Tumble ending in Suggestive Collision with Tomo) backfiring, this is promptly subverted due to Carol's easygoing nature... and then inverted when Jun asks Tomo (who's gone very quiet) to hit him so that he can atone, since Carol won't. When Tomo calmly points out that he isn't remotely at fault, he simply reaffirms the request.
• Pilot: The original draft of the comic, as seen on Fumita's Pixiv, was a series of comics titled I Want to Make a Tomboy Blush. They more or less covered the first twenty or so pages of the serialized manga.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The anime straight up does not mention Ferris Olston's Teen Pregnancy situation with Carol. Ferris' design was slightly altered (most notably the cheeks) to make her look a little older than an Absurdly Youthful Mother, and Carol's Mum Looks Like a Sister joke was cut.
• The Promise: When Jun and Tomo were little kids, Tomo got revenge on some bullies on Jun's behalf and retrieved the DS they stole from him. Jun, ever so stubborn, tells her that she can keep it until he beats her in a fair fight. Cut to the present say, and he hasn't made good on that promise quite yet...that is until the arc where Tomo gets sick, and she gives it to him on account of her verbally acknowledging Jun as an equal. He had gotten it back before, but quickly gave it back to her because he didn't see himself as strong enough yet.
• Remix Comic: During the live translations of the Tomo-chan daily strips, some translators and editors started putting out these with alternate gags, varying degrees of Biting-the-Hand Humor, and Take Thats at the comic progression.
• Restrained Revenge: After all the drama in Volume 6, Carol comes to school wearing a bunny mask, which seriously freaks out Tomo and Misuzu... and all she does is take advantage of Misuzu cowering to kiss her on the cheek.
• Revenge by Proxy: An upperclassman with a grudge against Tomo attempts this by preying on Misuzu and Carol. He corners them eventually but Tomo catches up...
• Sailor Fuku: Tomo and Misuzu both wore these uniforms in middle school, as shown in flashbacks.
• School Play: Volume 7 has 1-A perform Cinderella for their School Festival play.
• Sealed with a Kiss: The last comic update ends with Tomo planting a Big Damn Kiss on Jun after years (both in universe and out) of frustration and finally being allowed to date.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: When Carol and Misuzu give Tomo a makeover, they both get somewhat annoyed at how naturally pretty she is. When she's dressed in a yukata, Jun is easily blown away by her beauty.
• Shipper on Deck: Misuzu for Tomo and Jun, even though she really doesn't like Jun that much. One of the tankobon bonus comics has Carol imply that she's not doing it out of the kindness of her heart, but rather to apologize for something. It's also later revealed that Misuzu does consider Jun a dear friend. Both Tomo and Jun's mothers are also shippers (thus the strips "Mach Speed" and "Mach 2").
• Shout-Out:
  • Carol's mom is named Ferris. Carol Ferris, hmm...
  • A Your Name parody poster (Called Your Bread) can be seen in the background of the movie theater.
  • When Akemi was in high school, her class put on a School Play of The Rose of Versailles, and she played the part of Oscar's main love interest Andre.
• Sickening Sweethearts: After Tomo and Jun get together, they're so annoying sweet that Misuzu and Carol both can't stand it.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Misuzu is a non-violent version of this trope. Elegant, proper, beautiful... and also sharply witty, sarcastic, and if you piss her off she will permanently scar you for life with carefully calculated words alone.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Misuzu and Jun do not get along and often compete for Tomo's attention. It also doesn't help that they dated for three days in Junior High.
• Smart People Play Chess: Zigzagged with Carol. She's a complete airhead and she plays Othello, not chess, but she's extremely good at it.
• So What Do We Do Now?: The Nintendo DS was given back to him no questions asked after the footrace, and Jun learns that Tomo has always seen him as her physical equal. However, as soon as he got out of the room, he's confused because he has no lifelong goal anymore.
• Social Circle Filler: Jun had a couple of guy friends he used to talk to in the early strips, but after a while they almost completely phased out, Tanabe aside. Later Tanabe also disappears for awhile (read: Out of Focus almost 3 volumes), and when he returns this is lampshaded.
• Something Only They Would Say: Tanabe obtains Misuzu's contact info, and mentions this to Jun, who immediately suspects her of giving Tanabe a fake number. So he grabs Tanabe's phone and texts her an insult. She responds with a similar insult, causing Jun to note that only she would realize it's actually him and respond as such.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Played for Laughs. In the Volume 8 extra chapter, Misuzu discuss with Carol to help Tomo make chocolates so they don't have to suffer her terrible cooking results. Carol says that if Tomo's cooking is so terrible, Misuzu can just not eat it.
• Status Quo Is God: Whenever Tomo enacts a plan to make Jun see her as a woman, circumstances usually have it so that their relationship snaps back to what it once was and Tomo goes back to the drawing board. No matter how many times Jun's reminded that he also sees Tomo as a woman as well as a friend, and no matter how many times he tries to adjust himself or reset himself to compensate, the two never make a move on each other. This gets particularly evident with the festival arc, where Tomo herself doesn't confess to Jun again, even in a setting perfect for it, because of her insight that it wasn't the right time for them to be in a relationship (among other things).
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Both Tomo and Jun are oblivious to a normal persons way of thinking about things. Carol and Misuzu also tend to weirdly be able to sync their thoughts.
  • When the girls are studying math together, Carol (who's surprisingly skilled in the subject) gives a nonsensical explanation for how she goes about solving a problem ("These two guys are friends, so whoosh! They smack together and bam!, there's the answer!"). This somehow makes perfect sense to Tomo, who reacts like a light just turned on in her head and is suddenly calling the problem easy.
  • In the Volume 2 extras, Tomo looks at Misaki's fighting stance and tells him "the pressure coming from your upper body is weak"; he has no idea what that even means. A few days later he meets up with Jun, who asks to see his fighting stance and says the exact same thing. He still doesn't understand what that's supposed to mean.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The girls' mothers all look just like their daughters, but with different hairstyles. In the case of Carol's mother, they were unsure of whether or not she was her mother or sister until it was outright confirmed.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: During the sports festival, Tomo and Jun treat the marathon portion as a race between the two. At one point, Tomo faints due to intense overexertion (she'd been running all the previous night as well). One might expect a romantic Bridal Carry moment as Jun takes her to the nurse. Instead, however, Jun panics, since someone collapsing suddenly is a terrifying and potentially dangerous situation. He does carry her to the nurse's office, but on piggyback rather than Bridal Carry, since it's far more practical at the moment. Neither party is in any position to notice any potential intimacy from such an act either. Tomo is unconscious and Jun is too concerned for her wellbeing to pay any mind to that sort of thing.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Jun pulls this a lot as a way of maintaining Status Quo Is God. This hints at the possibility that he's more aware of what he's doing from earlier than it seems.
• Those Two Girls: Mifune and Ogawa. They are introduced as Misaki fan girls, and through a series of misunderstandings, they become friends with Tomo. They also seem to have developed crushes on her as well.
• Throwing the Fight: Implied during Jun's duel with Tomo's father, Gorou. Gorou starts throwing wide jabs, creating openings for Jun to strike him, hinting at Jun that the purpose of their fight is not to "win", but for Jun to stand up to him to date Tomo. This further implies that Gorou had already accepted their relationship, but felt that the boy didn't deem himself "worthy" by asking him for permission to date her in the first place.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomo's the brash, sports-loving tomboy, Misuzu and Carol are pretty girly-girls of the Eastern and Western varieties respectively.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Misuzu's attempt to troll Carol's mother immediately falls flat due to Ferris's Cloud Cuckoolander mind. In the end, she wisely choses to just avoid talking to her.
• Town Girls: Of the three main female characters, Tomo is the Butch (being the most tomboyish and athletic of the three), Carol is the Femme (being very girly and often wearing cute, feminine clothing), and Misuzu is the Neither (she's more feminine than Tomo, but unlike Carol she's very aloof and sarcastic).
• Training from Hell: Tomo and Jun were subjected to this from the Aizawa dojo, and they both came out the better for it. The reason it's like this is due to the instructors training their students for actual combat instead of restricted fights. Misaki gets a taste of it himself when he asks the pair if he can get stronger by training where they did (he permanently joins)... and ends up passing out after hours of hard training. Each training session starts with running a marathon, which is when most new students fail out according to Tomo, causing Misaki to wonder why they aren't in the news, and that by making it past it Misaki had actually done really well.
• Truth in Television: When bringing up her grades, Carol mentions that she gets sixties on her English tests, which alarms Tomo, because Carol is a native speaker. Misuzu points out that many native English speakers have difficulty with Japanese-written English tests. In fact, language tests written in a foreign language trip up native speakers in general.
• Unreliable Narrator: When Tomo introduces the audience to her predicament, we're led to believe that Jun is completely oblivious to his behavior around Tomo and treats her no differently than how he used to as kids. However, Jun's behavior around Tomo (and his reactions to their mutual friends pointing it out), even in early chapters, paints a very different story of a teenage boy trying desperately not to see his female best friend in a non-platonic light. Come the second flashback arc, we see exactly what Jun's mindset was throughout puberty to high school regarding his extreme need to treat her the way he does.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Unfortunately, this seems to be the cause of Tomo's woes. Rather than Jun being completely clueless, a flashback shows that when he finally realized that Tomo was a girl, he started having feelings for her... only to overhear her telling her classmates that they're Just Friends. This seemingly caused him to give up on any romantic interest in Tomo, which of course was followed by her developing feelings for him.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The less common "thought they were a boy when they were actually a girl" situation hits Jun like a train in a flashback depicted in the early chapters and again later.
• Unusual Chapter Numbers: Due to a scanlation numbering designation error in the unofficial English translation, the pages of chapter 236.5 (an omake chapter) from page 6 onward are supposed to be 15 individual chapters and not extras, making the designation and numbering from that point onward inaccurate. Whereas the scanlation ended up designating Chapter 953 as the end of the manga, the actual manga ends in about 970 chapters.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Crush aside, Tomo and Jun's friendship is usually shown as a lighter side of this as they argue and fight quite a bit, sometimes physically, but they almost always make up a short time later.
  • Carol and Misuzu also hang out a lot, but also enjoy trading barbs and messing with each other.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Festival arc becomes this. Jun, after having to see Tomo in a more feminine state, is finally starting to see Tomo as something other than a friend, but he can't quite place a finger on his feelings yet.
  • There's a chapter in which Carol just cuts straight to the point with Jun about his relationship with Tomo.
  • The school festival arc ends with Jun confronting Tomo about her wanting to "be the princess", and about to confess something to her before she gets the gravity of his words.
• Wham Line: When Jun tells Tomo that he doesn't think they're actually dating yet.
  Jun: I still haven't asked you out yet, after all.
  Tomo: Yeah, that's right, we still aren't dating yet...
  Beat Panel
  Tomo: HMM?
• Whole Episode Flashback:
  • While Tomo is in her room playing a Nintendo DS, the manga goes back in time to show how Tomo and Jun met and why Jun admires Tomo so much.
  • Tomo and Jun have a second one later on into the story, detailing how puberty went for the pair.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Jun gives Tomo one when she purposefully falls backwards next to him while ice skating, with her plan being to force him to catch her in a Bridal Carry. He does so, but is extremely angry, instantly realising she did it on purpose. Of course, it's Anger Born of Worry: Had he not noticed or failed to catch her, she would have hit her head on the ice, which is extremely dangerous, and could cause a concussion or even damage her skull. He is, obviously, annoyed that she did something so dangerous just to try and get him flustered.
  • Tomo is so livid at Jun after learning that he not only knew her true feelings for him, but also never noticed her efforts to appear more feminine for him that she decks him across the face.
• Will They or Won't They?: Jun and Tomo. Jun just treats Tomo like his best bud, but at the same time, he does react when something happens to make him notice Tomo's rather impressive physique, and gets extremely annoyed when other people pay sexual or romantic attention to her or at the implication that she would ever belong to someone (five volumes in and he never considers himself, of course). They finally get together near the end of the series.
• Would Hit a Girl: Jun, as long as that girl is Tomo. When Misaki asks how he could do that Jun says that Tomo is too good a fighter to try and hold back against (i.e. fighting Tomo is equivalent to fighting for his life). Misuzu is also a girl Jun doesn't mind hitting, though usually only as a forehead flick. Considering that flick can knock her from a crouch to standing, any more would probably kill her.
• Younger Than They Look: Back when Carol's mother Ferris was 13, her body had developed so precociously that Carol's father, a young man at the time, thought she was perhaps 16-18 when they started dating. When Ferris belatedly mentioned her age after they'd already had sex, he was initially horrified. Somehow the misunderstanding ended happily with them getting engaged, though the learning she was also already pregnant was a shock for him as well.

---

Tanabe: I could give them a push... somehow... maybe...
Misuzu: DON'T YOU DARE.
Tanabe: Oh... s...sorry! Of course you don't want anyone meddling in your friend's love life.
Misuzu: You just became friends with Junichiro recently, correct?
Tanabe: Huh? Yeah...
Misuzu: Then listen up. The only one who gets to meddle with those two is ME.
Tanabe: O-okay!

— Chapter 30