History WesternAnimation / KappaMikey

* SuperDeformed

* {{Sweatdrop}}

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl - Lily and Mitsuki alternate between this:

-> --The very last lines in the show

* PortmanteauCoupleName: InUniverse, Ozu tricks Gonard and Lily into a fake relationship purely for ratings purposes. "Lilynard" is printed on newspaper headlines, and on Gonard's T-shirt- he later rips it off to reveal another that says "Gonuki", saying, "ya never know..."

The show is available on iTunes. It is also succeeded by one {{Spinoff}} mini-series that is available on Website/YouTube and has-you guessed it- never seen the light of day in United States television.

* MediumBlending: While Mikey's animation (as well as the American citizens) are flash-animated, the Japanese people are animated using anime.

* FreakyFriday: The episode ''Manic Monday'' parodies both the trope AND the film on which it is based, where the two yin-yang heroines switch bodies in a standard story formula.

* ContestWinnerCameo: The winner of an online fan contest arranged by the studio appeared, and voiced herself, in the second season finale.

* AdobeFlash: A more infamous example of its use, but also one of the earliest of its use as well. The company, Animation Collective, were well known for specializing in using it.

* RealityEnsues: On surprising occasions. "Live LilyMu" showed what would happen if someone kept screaming her vocal cords out for an extended period of time, repeatedly. (Go on, guess who).

* TheLastHorseCrossesTheFinishLine: The episode "Big Brozu" featured Ozu's Elder twin brother Brozu. One of the characters spent most of the episode wondering how "Ozu" managed to be in two places at the same time.

---

The initial response from the show's premiere was met with less-than-positive reviews, and there is still a large body of haters (professional animators, actual otaku, ThatDudeInTheSuede, in particular). That said though, it does have its fans and following (the fact it has two seasons is proof of that). And it is generally agreed, if one looks past the attempted parody aspect, it's a decent and amusing animated workcom series if nothing else.

* AdobeFlash (a more infamous example of its use, but also one of the earliest of it's use as well. The company, Animation Collective, were well known for specializing in using it.)
* AlwaysIdenticalTwins - Ozu and Brozu
* AnimatedActors (with a twist)
* AnimationBump - They are rare, but can usually be found in places where the animator got free reign to do what he/she wanted with a given shot, and particularly in the Karaoke Episodes, where the beat of the music ruled the animation.

* AnimeThemeSong - One of the few, if not ''only'', instances of a J-pop band writing an original song for an American cartoon! ''Hey! X2 Look! X2'' was performed by the Beat Crusaders (best known for ''Tonight, Tonight, Tonight'', the 4th opening in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''), and was the only piece of music for ''Kappa Mikey'' that was not written in-house. This band tended to sing mainly in English and were influenced by the United States heavily. They also performed the original theme ''Hit in the USA'' for ''Manga/{{BECK}}''.
* AnticlimacticParent - The story of ''La Cage Aux Mikey''. Taken one step further when it turns out Mikey's parents CAN'T make it to dinner, so he hires two other characters to play his parents.
* ArtShift - It's amazing how smoothly Mikey and the Americans are animated... but they make up about 5% of the characters! The other 20% are okay-looking anime, and the remaining 75% are ''chibi''.
* [[BigDamnMovie Big Damn Fan Movie]] - [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yLy1_iacvU Well,... the trailer, at least. ...and a damned GOOD one!]]
* BookEnds - The Lily Mu sequence bookends [[OnceAnEpisode each episode]]- the first time, the take is ruined, and the second time, they get it right and it is changed to incorporate whatever lesson was learned. Though they did get it right on the first take a few times.
* BottleEpisode - ''The Clip Show'', along with being what it obviously ''is'', features about eight minutes of original animation, the seven main characters, no new designs, and takes place indoors, mostly in the studio.

* BreadEggsBreadedEggs - One writer, or a pair of writers, depends on this a lot as jokes in a few episodes.
* BrickJoke - In one episode, Mikey accidentally destroys Ozu's precious bonsai yree. In a later episode Mikey pulls out a katana, cutting everything in sight, including, you guessed it, a bonsai tree. Both even catch on fire after losing all of their branches.
* BrokenTreasure - Mikey at one point loses the photos containing Mitsuki's fond memories, and frantically takes replacements before she gets wise.

* CartoonPhysics - If Mikey is an example of a ''Western'' type of animation, shouldn't he have ''more'' cartoon physics than the anime characters?

* ClipShow - The second season includes one, framed by Guano being forced to make his OWN clip show of ''Lily Mu''. Played straight AND spoofed on occasion..

* ConspicuousCG - Most of the vehicles and robots. Always used in the Lily Mu segments. Surprisingly, any background with a building in it is ''also'' CG!
* ContestWinnerCameo - The winner of an online fan contest arranged by the studio appeared, and voiced herself, in the second season finale.
* {{Continuity}} - Pops up on occasion.

* CreditCardPlot - Hog Day Afternoon begins with this.
* CreditsGag - ''Mikey At The Bat'' ends with various crew members creating baseball-related middle names for themselves.

* CultureClash - Mikey constantly fails at grasping the world he has entered. At one point, he even mistakes Japan as having a president instead of a prime minister, and after some persistent correction from his friends, winds up calling him "Prime Minister The President". His Japanese friends occasionally have the same problem with American facts.
* CutawayGag - Of the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' variety, though not used so much as to make the show memorable for it.
* DerangedAnimation - to an extent. It's enhanced even more during the songs of ''The Karaoke Episode''.
* DistaffCounterpart - Brozu's assistant to Ozu's. Ozu's assistant is one Yes Man and Brozu's is known for the CatchPhrase "No Way".
* DrunkOnMilk - Guano, after he quits, in ''Script Assassin''

* EdutainmentShow - Averted: it's clearly not, but being set in a country other than where it was made and is seen, basic facts pop up on occasion that the target audience (little boys) may not have known about beforehand. This leads to some TruthInTelevision examples, such as how Japan has to recycle all their garbage to conserve space on their small island nation (there really ''are'' tons of recycling cans in every building), or how kabuki actors are all men.
* EpunymousTitle: While most of the audience might not realize it, the name Kappa Mikey is based off of Kappamaki: A type of sushi.
* FaceFault - Parodied in a few episodes where Mikey, as an American cartoon character, can't do it, no matter how hard he tries.
* FanBoy - Several appear throughout the series. An episode focuses on Mikey getting kidnapped by a duo of teenage fanboys and becoming a member of their club held in their mom's basement!
* FashionShow - The episode ''Fashion Frenzy''.
* FeudEpisode - Several.

* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome - Gonard eats a radioactive sandwich and becomes super-intelligent in ''Go Nard Hunting''.
* ForgottenBirthday - The first third of ''Like Ozu Like Son''.
* FreakyFriday - The episode ''Manic Monday'' parodies both the trope AND the film on which it is based, where the two yin-yang heroines switch bodies in a standard story formula.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent - ''Live [=LilyMu=]''- Gonard is on-stage doing a prop comedy sketch for the audience and says, "Now if you want milk with those eggs..." We cut to Ozu giving his team a pep talk backstage, where in the background we hear a cow's moo, a hard punt, Gonard's scream, and a crash.
* GagSeries - And how!
* GassHole- Gonard on most occasions, though after she accidentally ate ice cream with "fart powder" on it, Mitsuki became one during the series finale, "Live [=LilyMu=]."

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff - in-universe: ''Lily Mu'' was very popular in [[{{Ruritania}} Buttswana]].
* GreenAesop - "Mikey Kappa"

* HowTheCharacterStoleChristmas - Not the focus of the special, though... and it only lasts a minute.
* IdiosyncraticWipes - Two words: dancing sushi.
* {{Irony}} - [[NoExportForYou This never aired in Japan]]. It was otherwise MTV Network's first ''global'' acquisition and was translated into at least 15 languages. ... given what the show is trying to say, it's actually not surprising.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot - The Christmas episode.
* KaraokeBox - The entire two-part episode ''The Karaoke Episode'' focuses on this activity. Each character even has their own ImageSong during the course of the episode.
* LampshadeHanging - "We go through this every time, Mitsuki. You tell me not to do something, I do it anyway, things go wrong, I try to fix it, it gets worse, we talk about our feelings, and everything's cool! So chill'ax, already!"
* LoveAtFirstSight - Mitsuki to Mikey in the pilot, Mikey to Lily in the pilot.
* LullDestruction - Pauses are filled in by cartoon noises for the slightest bit of movement.
* {{Macekre}} - in-universe: When ''Lily Mu'' is imported to America, it's edited to make Guano the star of the show and Mikey's character is changed to a fairy and a background character.
* TheMagnificentSevensamurai - There is an episode where the five crew members are called by a little boy to save their playground from a garbage man intent on turning it into a landfill. The boy is under the impression that they are heroes instead of actors, and the [=LilyMu=] crew is [[AllPartOfTheShow under the impression that it's all a publicity gig!]]
* [[EveryoneMeetsEveryone Mikey Meets Everyone]] - The pilot episode.
* {{Mouthflaps}} - Subverted. Only the anime characters have mouths that just go up and down when they talk in a normal indoor voice and never accentuate what they're actually saying, while Mikey's mouth covers the full spectrum of movements.

* [[FiveManBand Ozu's Five Man Band]] - As with any band, these can overlap, flip flop, and mix into any of these characters.
** TheHero - Mikey
** TheLancer - Lily
** TheSmartGuy - Guano
** TheBigGuy - Gonard
** TheChick - Mitsuki
** [[{{Mentors}} The Mentor]] - Ozu
** KidAppealCharacter - Yes Man

* PaperThinDisguise - Several instances. Sean Schemmel does a drop-dead hilarious Swiss accent!
* ParodyEpisode - Several. One of them involving ''TheRing'', of all things (though possibly because it was based on a Japanese horror film). Another episode parodies ''MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', although its title is a play on ''Film/TheLadyVanishes''.
* PortmanteauCoupleName - in-universe: Ozu tricks Gonard and Lily into a fake relationship purely for ratings purposes. "Lilynard" is printed on newspaper headlines, and on Gonard's T-shirt- he later rips it off to reveal another that says "Gonuki", saying, "ya never know..."

* RealPlaceBackground - Most of the show takes place in the Ginza area of downtown Tokyo. Yoyogi Park, Nagano, and the Yodo River are also real places.
* TheRashomon - The episode ''Splashomon'' presents an utterly and hilariously absurd version of this.
* ReactionShot - All subtropes are covered, and used so frequently, it gets annoying.
* RiskyBusinessDance - Briefly in "Mikey Impossible".

* SpinOff - ''Dancing Sushi''
* SplitScreenPhoneCall - Featured in several episodes. Lampshaded by Lily, who, at one point, pushes a horizontal split-screen line into Mikey on the other end.
* StatusQuoIsGod - A lesson is learned at the end of every episode, but by the next episode, [[StaticCharacter no one changes.]]
** Lampshaded: when Mikey messes something up again, Ozu muses with Guano and Yes Man that they should probably start holding Mikey responsible for his actions. They [[{{Beat}} think about it]], then ''laugh''.

* TakeThat - To how American dubs, particularly 4Kids, always edit anime shows to ridiculous levels.

* TheLastHorseCrossesTheFinishLine - The episode "Big Brozu" featured Ozu's Elder twin brother Brozu. One of the characters spent most of the episode wondering how "Ozu" managed to be in two places at the same time.
* TheMusical -- Or rather, the Karaoke Episode.
* ToiletHumor - The punchline of many situations is usually just farts or thereabouts.
* TrueCompanions - All five crew members are only together because of their occupation- an anime show. This also makes it a WorkCom. They usually despise or don't understand each other, yet you can bet that at the end of any episode, they will discover something about one another they admire. Same goes for Ozu and Yes Man.
* {{Tsundere}} - The two heroines Lily and Mitsuki can arguably personify the two behaviors the trope describes toward their attitudes toward Mikey (Lily is tsun-tsun, Mitsuki is dere-dere). However, both have been known to switch behaviors on occasion.

* ViewersAreMorons - Self-admitted in this show.
* YetAnotherChristmasCarol - Played straight and subverted in the middle.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair - Gonard and Mitsuki.

-> - The very last lines in the show
----

The initial response from the show's premiere was met with less-than-positive reviews, and there is still a large body of haters (professional animators, actual otaku, ThatDudeInTheSuede, in particular). That said though, it does have it's fans and following (the fact it has two seasons is proof of that). And it is generally agreed, if one looks past the attempted parody aspect, it's a decent and amusing animated workcom series if nothing else.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: In one episode where Mikey's great grandfather Cincinnati Tex, who looks like Mikey with brown hair, a baseball uniform and a twirly mustache.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong - The instrumental score is filled with original tunes that try and fail to disguise the songs they are built over.

* ChannelHop - ''Kappa Mikey'' was produced solely for Nicktoons Network, but because it was controlled by their larger parent network Nickelodeon, new episodes sometimes premiered there first. When episodes stopped airing on Nick but continued on Nicktoons, some took this to mean it was canceled.

* AdobeFlash (a more infamous example of its use! But also one of the earliest of it's use as well. The company, Animation Collective, were well known for specializing in using it.)

-->'''Guano:''' (throws desert off the table) [[IllTellYouWhenIveHadEnough NO! I think YOU have enough!]] You're not the-- BOSS of me! NO one is! Not Ozu, not no one! (falls off the stool)

* AdobeFlash (a more infamous example of its use!)

* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity