Country girl and fabric geek Mayuko Tokita goes to Tokyo, and she ends up finding work on the prestigious artisan lingerie shop Emotion, ruled by the eccentric genius creator Mayumi Nanjo. At first, it looks like this job is bound to fail: Mayuko is clumsy, has absolutely no sense of style, and sees no point in spending dozens of hours making a garment that will only be looked at by a handful of people.
As time goes by, however, she will come to realize that there is more to the world of lingerie than meets the eye...
Atelier (not to be confused with the video game series) is a 2015 live action TV show created by Fuji TV and Netflix, running for 13 episodes.
Atelier includes examples of the following tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: Early on, Mayuko is shown rather envious of her friends Yuri and Sari when it comes to bust size, and gets pretty defensive when teased about her lacking in that area.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Emotion is in its Darkest Hour, Saruhashi resorts to begging his business contacts and acquaintances for money, enduring scorn and ridicule in doing so. He plays it off when he gives the money to Ms. Nanjo, but she isn't fooled, and acknowledges the sacrifice he made.
- The Beautiful Elite: Emotion's primary clientele...at least at first. The high price tag comes part and parcel with Ms. Nanjo's drive for perfection, but we quickly learn that her desire is for ALL women to be able to feel as beautiful as they deserve, and she is very willing to compromise on prices when she is able. This eventually leads to her allowing the creation of a more affordable "second line" of products, despite Emotion's commitment to custom work.
- Butt-Monkey: Kaji spends his earliest episodes being ignored, interrupted, and sent to clean stuff.
- Camp Gay: Miki, the other regular at the coffee shop/bar Mayuko and Yuri hang out at.
- The Cavalry: Zigzagged. As Mayuko is getting overwhelmed prepping for Emotion's runway show on her own, many of the people she's met come to her aid, lending kimonos, set pieces, music, and so on. It looks like they'll be able to overcome this hurdle...until the day of the rehearsal, when Mayuko realizes that all of these things, as beautiful as they may be, don't mesh into their theme and simply distract from the focus of the show, Emotion's lingerie. With only a week left, she's forced to scrap most of what they've already prepared, and is left at her wits' end. Then Miki offers his services as show director, organizes everything once again, gets Yuri to come replace Kaji when he gets sick, and Sari makes it back to Japan just in time to replace an injured model for the climax.
- Consummate Professional: The show loves professionalism, but Miki exemplifies this trope the most. Once he's hired as show director, he does everything to make sure the show is as perfectly-run as possible, even at the expense of his employers' feelings.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Vanderbilt's Fujimura, though he's more ruthless than evil.
- Costume Porn: Atelier does this for lingerie. Especially in episode 2, where we are shown the creation of a fancy made-to-order bra in exquisite detail.
- Country Mouse: Mayuko and Yuri are both from Nagano, which is fairly "rural" in comparison to Tokyo. The usual traits are downplayed for the latter, though, as she's from a wealthy family and is already quite fashionable.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Mayuko's final confrontation with Ms. Nanjo, breaking ties with her in such a way as to stoke her creative passion once again.
- Darkest Hour: Episode 5. On top of Mizuki and Fumi being gone and their Em product line stalled, Vanderbilt's sues Emotion to prevent them from holding their trunk show, and as a consequence of the lawsuit the bank discontinues their business loan. With no new clients and no cash flow, Emotion is on the verge of bankruptcy, and Sosuke even resigns so they'd be spared having to pay his salary.
- A Day in the Limelight: Episodes 10 and 11 act as this for basically everyone at Emotion other than Mayuko herself, who almost doesn't appear at all. The first focuses on Ms. Nanjo's backstory, while the second splits time between her and Mizuki, Saruhashi, and Rin.
- Deadpan Snarker: Ms. Nanjo. Saruhashi gets his moments, too.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Not Ms. Nanjo, as might be expected at first. The ice queen title actually goes to Chika Nagai, the new editor-in-chief of Conscious magazine, who starts off frosty and antagonistic towards Emotion. Part of it may have been a facade of stoicity and control due to the competitiveness of her position, but it isn't until the very end of the series that she begins to treat the protagonists cordially and sincerely.
- Determinator: Mayuko. No matter how down she gets, she'll get up and keep moving forward, not just in what she has to do right, but in terms of how to grow further as well.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Rin Nakatani appeared in the very first episode, as one of several unnamed store clerks Mayuko visited. The only thing that set her apart then was her saying she was a customer of Emotion's. Much later, she befriends Mayuko and offers her advice now and then, and in Episode 9, she unexpectedly quits her job to join Emotion, becoming a regular from then on.
- Eccentric Fashion Designer: Ms. Nanjo, to a T.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The opening shot for quite a few scenes shows the Ginza Wako store and its clock tower as shorthand for the setting.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Sosuke gets called Hime ("Princess") by his coworkers, as a play on his last name Himeji.
- Saruhashi is called Saru ("Monkey") by Ms. Nanjo, but this might be more of an Affectionate Nickname, as he never seems offended by it, nor does she use it to tease him.
- Face–Heel Turn: Mizuki and Fumi desert Emotion to make their own brand sponsored by Vanderbilt's, though Mizuki promptly gets a Heel–Face Turn, and Fumi is shown in a very sympathetic light later on, showing how she still loves Emotion, but had to leave to fulfill her dreams of having her own brand.
- Figure It Out Yourself: As she watches Mayuko prep for the runway show, Ms. Nanjo's expression shows that she thinks something is amiss, but she doesn't say anything. After the former finally realizes that what she created wasn't what she actually wanted and scraps the plan, Reiko asks their boss why she kept silent if she already figured it out. She answers that it was a realization Mayuko needed to make on her own in order to grow.
- Follow in My Footsteps: The final conflict between Mayuko and Ms. Nanjo basically takes this form, as they face the fact that their aesthetics and the direction they wish to take as creators are completely incompatible. The pain of the realization for both of them is heightened by the amount of affection and respect they have for each other, and it plays out very much like this trope between a daughter and mother. In a rare take on the outcome, though, it's eventually Ms. Nanjo who buckles for various reasons, and Mayuko, realizing she doesn't want her boss to compromise her ideals, is the one to take the more drastic step and break away of her own volition.
- The Intern: Kaji, who's still in college.
- Ironic Echo: "Do you think there's anyone who goes around saying, 'This how I really feel'?"
- Hero of Another Story: Mayuko's best friend Yuri Kouno, who started at same time she did but at a bridal shop. Though the focus remains on Mayuko and Emotion, the two often hang out after work or otherwise cross paths, and we get enough glimpses to be aware of Yuri's own growth at her job and life. It's done well enough that it'd be easy to imagine a series running parallel to this one, but starring Yuri instead.
- Hidden Depths: Many of the characters, but the largest gap is probably Kaji. He starts off as the Butt-Monkey, and later shows his eagerness to help out, though he isn't given any task requiring particular skill. However, when we finally get a glimpse of his apartment, we see the elaborate fabric dyeing project he's doing for graduation, and he mentions that his family runs a traditional dyeing workshop that he intends to take over. He's also shown to be a lot more emotionally mature than he looks, and becomes a confidant for Mayuko late in the series.
- High Heel Hurt: After being allowed to attend a high-class company party so long as she dresses properly for it, Mayuko buys a dress but forgets about the shoes until the last day. She spends the day breaking them in, stumbling and wincing the whole time and complaining about the pain. When she has to make a rush delivery later, she takes one step and switches to her regular flats in frustration...only to forget to switch back to the heels when she heads to the party.
- Male Sun, Female Moon: The association of the moon with femininity is directly invoked when they decide to have it as the theme for Emotion's runway show.
- Married to the Job: Ms. Nanjo. We only find out late in the series that she had a husband and son, but left them long ago to focus on her work. Her son Seiran does try to re-connect with her, but by then she's already concluded that while she still feels love for him, she knows too little about his life for a relationship to exist.
- Meaningful Name: The kanji "mayu" in Mayuko's name is the word for "cocoon", and comes from the silkworm cocoons used in her father's silk factory. Watching silk being made there as a child is the reason she's such a fabric geek.
- Naïve Newcomer: Mayuko, fresh out of college at her first job.
- Old Retainer: Reiko to Ms. Nanjo.
- Parental Abandonment: Subverted in that it's Mayumi who abandoned Seiran to focus in her designer career.
- Put on a Bus: Happens to Sosuke, when Emotion gets in financial trouble due to the Vanderbilt lawsuit.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fumi and Mizuki, respectively. Both being designers working under Ms. Nanjo, they're often found together. Fumi is the more cheery and social one who is more easily influenced, while Mizuki is more serious and clear-headed, but prone to worrying.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ms. Nanjo delivers a few pointed ones to Mayuko early on for dismissing the fashion industry and failing to be considerate of a customer. Though they are harsh, Mayuko herself quickly sees they are justified, and grows a little more into her job each time.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite initial impressions, Ms. Nanjo is this, and even more so as the series goes on.
- Rebuff the Amateur: After Mayuko drives herself into a corner trying to plan a runway show on her own, Miki scolds her for looking down on the pros. If she truly wants to impress industry professionals with her show, then amateurish heart and determination won't cut it, and she needs to be willing to shell out money for the best in show direction and production.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Mrs. Ono. She still mostly remembers things and is generally okay, but occasionally gets confused or wanders off.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Vanderbilt's managed to get a bunch of magazines to write articles on their Story brand, even magazines that usually didn't feature lingerie. Ms. Nanjo actually thought this was a good thing for the industry at first, but when Mayuko later tries to do the same with Emotion, she finds out that Vanderbilt's simply paid all the publishers to feature the same article full of empty selling points, rather than anything based on the brand's merits.
- This gets an awesome Call-Back later on, after the smashing success of Emotion's runway show. Mayuko buys a bunch of magazines again, and this time they all have articles on Emotion...articles with actual, relevant content that they didn't have to pay the magazines to write, with Conscious even using Emotion's own logo. It's a tacit but clear sign of the victory of honest business and craftsmanship over Fujimura's underhanded tactics.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: As you can probably guess, this happens to Mayuko early on the series.
- Spiritual Antithesis: Atelier is this to The Devil Wears Prada. The beginning of the series is almost a Whole-Plot Reference to the movie's, but the overall tone is decidedly more idealistic, and the story diverges due to the fundamental differences in their "boss" characters, Mayumi Nanjo and Miranda Priestly. While both are well-known fashion trendsetters and demanding, Married to the Job perfectionists, Mayumi's fickleness is that of an Eccentric Artist, as opposed to Miranda's Control Freak tendencies. She can be blunt and harsh, but her displeasure is usually earned, and unlike Miranda, her praise and warmth can also be earned. She lacks Miranda's untouchability and power, and thus has needed the help of others on several occasions, but in such cases is able to show gratitude in a way Miranda could never allow herself to. All-in-all, the differences allow Mayumi to have much more positive relationships with others than Miranda does, leading to a more positive tone.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Yamazaki points out one of the very cute models in a magazine is his daughter, to Mayuko's and Yuri's disbelief.
- Unmentionables: Being that the main setting is a high-class lingerie shop, scenes with models or customers in their underwear are common. Yet none of those scenes are really played for fanservice, so they don't quite fit as Lingerie Scene. Instead, the industry and Japanese society's attitude towards women's lingerie are examined rather seriously and respectfully, falling closer to this trope.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Perhaps not "best" per se, but Mayumi Nanjo and fashion writer Shuko Oyama have this kind of relationship. They'll argue, bluntly point out faults in each other's work, and volley insults at the drop of a hat, but there's clear professional respect beneath it all. Despite her outward resistance, Mayumi does take Shuko's criticisms to heart, and Shuko is sincere with her praise when it is due. We later see the two of them and Reiko basically hanging out like old friends, and it's revealed that Shuko had been following Mayumi's career since the very beginning; the latter's success came in no small part due to the former's articles.
- Wham Shot: At the end of episode 4, the word "Story", the theme for Emotion's next trunk show, appearing in a product launch notice from Vanderbilt's Tokyo, signalling that Fujimura had just poached Mizuki and Fumi from them and stolen their product idea at the same time. The show switches at that point from Mayuko's entry into the fashion industry to its first major dramatic arc.
- Will They or Won't They?: Apart from the obvious one between Mayuko and Kaji, we get one later between Mayumi and Yamazaki.
- Workaholic: Ms. Nanjo, so very much. When the company takes a break (at her own suggestion), she gets bored to death in short order.
