Junior high school student Kyou and her sister, elementary school student Asu, live together in a cheap run down apartment since their mother died and their father ran off to hide from loan sharks. They are very close, rarely missing an opportunity to let the other know how much they care for each other. They are also mostly low on cash, but manage since Kyou holds a job delivering newspapers. Asu holds the fort by doing household chores and is also quite a good cook, which gets appreciated by Kyou a lot.
The show deals with the sisters' ordinary daily lives and the people they encounter. Their relationship tends to be barely on the right side of saccharine sweet, since they are very clingy and hardly ever seem to quarrel. They also often respond dramatically to events, making them worry about each other too much and panic immediately over little stuff. Still, the sisters' characters are endearing enough to pull it off and some of the other characters contrast nicely with them — especially the Echigoya sisters.
Binbou Shimai Monogatari ("Poor Sisters Story") is a seinen manga by Izumi Kazuto, which was serialized in Monthly Sunday Gene-X from April 2004 to June 2006. An anime adaptation ran for 10 episodes in 2006.
Tropes:
- Big Fancy House: Kyou and Asu lived in one before their father sold it to pay his friend's gambling debt.
- Big Sister Instinct: Kyou toward Asu, which is very justified, considering the circumstances.
- Cannot Spit It Out: For all the love they share, Asu and Kyou surely are bad communicators.
- Cherry Blossoms: Appearing during most intimate moments between the sisters - thus a lot. Not so much in the manga, though. Also, a chapter about cherry blossoms actually has a case of dealing with the need to remove the dying cherry tree, which they are very attached to.
- Fix Fic: Kyou's version of The Little Match Girl. In which, there are two match girls (expies of Kyou and Asu) and their happiness despite the fact they haven't sold any matches and the weather is horrible is enough to convince two passing rich girls (expies of Kinko and Ginko) that they must be magic matches. They buy the entire stock.
- Here We Go Again!: By the end of the show the girls have grown stronger through experience and just go on.
- Lethal Chef: Kinko once makes a lunch box for her sister with "anything"Ginko: She makes anything... anything
- Meaningful Name:
- Kyou means "today" and Asu means "tomorrow", signifying the moments in life one should pay attention to.
- Kinko (金子) and Ginko (銀子) mean "gold child" and "silver child" respectively, indicating that the Echigoya sisters come from a rich family.
- Off to Boarding School: A non-villain example, when Asu and Kyou move in with their aunt she intends to send Kyou to one, but they convince her that it would be better for them to remain together.
- Parental Abandonment: Asu and Kyou's father abandoned his children to escape loan sharks.
- Promotion to Parent: Kyou with regard to Asu. Likely also Kinko toward Ginko.
- Rags to Riches: Asu and Kyou briefly move in with their rich aunt, but choose to return to their normal lifestyle shortly afterwards.
- Wealth's in a Name: Kinko and Ginko are written to mean 'gold child' and 'silver child' respectively, indicating that they come from a rich family.
