Same City. Same family restaurant. Different set of oddballs.
WWW.Working!! (WEB版WORKING/Web-Ban Working!!) is the title of the print release of a 4-panel Work Com Webcomic by Karino Takatsu, set in a certain city in Hokkaido in a branch of the family restaurant chain Wagnaria. It started in 2002, titled just Working!!, before its print cousin, but its chapters were only compiled in print form from 2015 to 2017.
An anime adaptation aired during the Fall 2016 season, though the series itself was a favorite subject for April Fools jokes ever since its spinoff's anime started.
Daisuke Higashida's family life has run into a bit of a snag. A straight-laced student with good grades and attending a good high school, his world is turned upside down when his father is suddenly laid off. Now forced to look for some part-time work to be able to maintain a semblance of a regular high school life, he lands a job at a nearby family restaurant. There he's forced to very quickly adapt to the very quirky personalities of his new co-workers, at the same time keep family-related stress from driving him insane.
Tropes found in WWW.Working!!
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents:
- Sayuri's mom like to probe in on her daughter's affairs quite a bit, and asks pointed remarks frequently.
- Yuuta's father will beg everyone for money, even kids. He also wants Yuuta to marry Shiho, purely for financial reasons.
- Animal Motifs: The entire cast for the spinoff is likened by
the author to cats, compared to dogs for the main series. - The Cameo: The person Higashida passes by during the start of the first episode is obviously Takanashi. Doubles as a Call-Back to the first episode of the first season as well, as it happens right after Souta pets the kitten on the street.
- Childhood Friends:
- Sayuri, Kisaki, and Daichi have known each other since grade school.
- Yuuta and Shiho first met as kids, and have supported each other throughout their lives.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Yuuta turning down Shiho when they were kids was what started her down the path of bitterness.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Much like its predecessor, the opening theme is sung by the seiyuu of the three leading ladies and the ending is sung by the seiyuu of the three leading men.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Almost every female character is shown to either physically hit the male characters, or at least cause them a lot of mental anguish as is the case between Shiho and Yuuta. If the roles were reversed, all of the male characters would likely be in jail, or at least have a restraining order placed on them.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Shiho in episode 7 when it looks like Yuuta can finally pay his debt.
- Dysfunction Junction: Again, played for laughs, but much like the previous Wagnaria this branch's employees are anything but normal people.
- Daisuke's part of a family that's experiencing recent financial hardship, but he seems to be the only one who's taking the situation seriously. His parents and his younger sister seem to be content in laughing the situation off, which aggravates him to no end.
- Hana's mom is rarely at home because she's busy with her cooking show. Her dad was exiled because he developed diabetes from his wife's cooking.
- Sayuri can apparently see ghosts, and regularly treats these ghostly visitors as if they were regular customers to Wagnaria. To double the irony, Sayuri claims that she's never seen a ghost in her life. Hmm. Also she's the daughter of exorcists.
- Yuuta is hardworking but perpetually poor, despite working three other jobs on top of his work at Wagnaria. This is because his family is heavily in debt, and almost all of his earnings go to trying to pay them off. As a result he has to rely on restaurant leftovers and the kindness of customers to get through the day.
- Shiho is a rich ojou with no concept of social tact, whose first instinct when faced with a problem... is to keep throwing money at the problem until it either gives up, or goes away. Oh and it's her family that Yuuta's family owes money to.
- Kisaki is a single mom trying to raise her baby daughter Hime, and yet seems to try and avoid doing as much actual work as she could get away with, by browbeating the other waitresses with her intellectual superiority (she went to a good university before she had Hime). Fitting, as supplemental material point to her being Souma's ex-girlfriend, with him being Hime's father.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Daisuke reveals his motives for seeking work during his interview.
- Hana displays her roughness when she punches the manager.
- The manager shows his incompetence when he asks how to spell a simple word and gets a basic math problem wrong.
- Sayuri attends to a patron apparently only she can see after her introduction.
- Kisaki is first seen slacking off in the break room, and browbeating others through random trivia questions.
- Shiho attempts to placate some unsatisfied customers and co-workers with stacks of money, and believes herself to be above the common folk.
- Yuuta laments his family being in debt and having to work other jobs to make up for it, to the point that the cooks give him leftover food.
- Expository Hairstyle Change:
- Hana grows her hair out when Daisuke says he prefers longer hair, which makes it pretty clear that she's genuinely pursuing him.
- Rui gets her hair cut when she hears that Daisuke prefers longer hair, signifying that she's over him.
- Everyone Has Standards: Daisuke doesn't like Miri, but he wouldn't subject even her to Hana's chocolates.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Including Miri and Rui and excluding the infant Hime, there are six male and female characters in total in stark comparison to the main series, which had the females markedly outnumbering the males.
- Hand Wave: Daisuke's school normally doesn't let its students take part-time jobs. However, one of the teachers learns of his situation from his father and allows him to keep his job, conveniently eliminating the problem.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Sayuri serves guests only she can see, but she doesn't believe in ghosts and says she hasn't seen any either.
- When Shiho goes to retrieve Saitou after he runs away, she berates him for dwelling on the past and treating Sayuri to the point she thinks he hates her. The other bodyguard remarks that what Shiho said could apply to her and her treatment of Yuuta too.
- Innocent Innuendo: When Daisuke tells Rui about Hana coming to visit the raccoon he took in recently, his wording makes it sound like Hana is clinging on to him each day. Rui takes the thought and runs with it.
- Irony: Kisaki brings her daughter to work because she thinks her mother spoils her. Her daughter's name is Hime. That literally means "princess".
- Kimodameshi: The focus of the second half of episode 3. Shiho has her bodyguards forcefully kidnap the rest of her coworkers just to get them to participate.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Like the other WORKING!! seasons, this one ends with one of the characters thanking an unseen customer on their way out. The way the scene plays out, it could be interpreted as her thanking the viewers for watching as well.
- My Greatest Failure: Yuuta considers the moment he rejected Shiho's feelings his greatest regret.
- Near-Death Experience: Miyakoshi's Valentine chocolates are apparently so bad, that they send anyone who eat them to a very personal meeting... with Saint Valentine himself. While Daisuke was the victim in the first episode, it's heavily implied that other members of the staff already fell victim to this before, and are not interested experiencing it again.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The normally passive-aggressive Sayuri grabs Masahiro by the collar and asks for an exact percentage when he says he relatively likes her.
- Official Couple: By the end of the series, the official couples are Sayuri and Masahiro, Yuuta and Shiho, and Daisuke and Hana.
- Only Sane Man: Daisuke feels like the only normal person in a restaurant of oddballs, and the only straight-thinking member of his family.
- Pair the Spares: Played with in one episode when Yanagiba makes a relationship chart where she offers to connect her name with Kouno's, but it's never brought up again.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Daisuke's efforts to tutor Hana in episode 2 come to naught as she reveals at the end that she slept through the exams, and failed as a result.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Hana's mom is a big supporter of Hana x Daisuke and tries to hook the two up.
- Yuuta's dad supports Yuuta x Shiho because if they get together Shiho's father will get rid of their debt. Reasonably Yuuta has issues with this.
- Sick Episode: Episode 9 of the anime focuses on Sayuri and Miri being sick in separate segments.
- Spin-Off: An odd case, as technically the web version of Working!! came out before the serialized manga. However since everyone is much more familiar with the latter (and its three-season anime adaptation), it's mostly become this for the series.
- Sustained Misunderstanding:
- When Daisuke tries to explain to Rui that he's taken in a raccoon, Rui thinks he's talking about a convenience store. Daisuke then says the name of the raccoon, but Rui thinks he's talking about the convenience store's name. Kisaki steps in to clear up the confusion.
- After another chocolate-induced visit to St. Valentine, Daisuke goes to apologize to Hana. He's talking about stowing chocolate she made at an earlier date and not eating it, but she thinks he's apologizing for giving her mouth to mouth, and his statements only reinforce that thought.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: A very tiny bone. When Yuuta says he "lost" a lottery ticket that would've taken him out of debt, Shiho chides him for losing it. She then offers to reduce his debt by 500 yen, and later gives him a tin of fish instead of the usual dog food she offers.
- The 'Verse: If it wasn't already obvious, this series is set in the same city in Hokkaido that the serialized manga/first anime took place in, as well as Servant × Service.
- Time Skip: Unlike the first anime, which took its time in showing the passing of time, a whole year passes in the first half, with each episode advancing time by about three months.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Shiho's motivation for her behavior towards Yuuta. She liked Yuuta better when he was snarky and treated her like a person and not someone who is really rich, and not the meek, extreme doormat he eventually became. She hopes that by treating him roughly she can get his old personality to come back out.
- Work Com: It's pretty much a sitcom set in a restaurant, complete with a cast of oddball employees.
