Basic Trope: Japanese character wears kimono as a visual cue that they appreciate traditional Japanese values.
- Straight: Kimika is a Yamato Nadeshiko and so she often wears kimono.
- Exaggerated: Kimika would die for the Imperial Family, rants about how all the stinky gaijin are ruining the beautiful land of her fathers, and never, ever wears anything that wasn't seen in pre-WWII Japan.
- Downplayed: Kimika usually wears modern clothing, but is generally the first one among her friends to try on the new kimono in the store. She is also the go-to expert in her group about traditional Japanese values, though she herself is only a soft example of a Yamato Nadeshiko.
- Justified:
- The story is set in imperial Neo Japan, and wearing anything else than a kimono is treated as treason and an act of anti-national agitation.
- A family believes in the Good Old Ways and wears the kimono as a sign and reminder of this.
- A couple is having a traditional wedding.
- Inverted:
- Kimika wears kimono but is a die-hard yankee wannabe.
- Kimika is noted for having very traditional values, but is never seen wearing kimono, even to weddings or funerals.
- Subverted: Kimika gives off distinct Yamato Nadeshiko vibes, but only appears like that because she's nervous about ruining the ridiculously expensive rental kimono.
- Double Subverted: She's nervous because the kimono came from her family's rental shop, which has been in the family for generations, and was sewed together by her late grandmother.
- Parodied: Anyone putting on a kimono instantly starts acting like it's the Edo period.
- Zig Zagged: Kimika acts traditional because she's worried about ruining her rental kimono, because it came from her traditional minded family's rental shop, but the reason for that is because the dry cleaning would come out of her allowance.
- Averted: Everyone wears a kimono, or no one does.
- Enforced: The show's biggest sponsor is a company selling designer kimono to upper-class traditional-values families, and wants to reinforce their campaign idea that wearing kimono is something that "proper Japanese" just do.
- Lampshaded: " A kimono? Is that supposed to mean you're traditional and cultural and stuff?"
- Invoked: Kimika's parents talk her into wearing kimono to her marriage arrangement meeting, hoping she will appear as better brought up.
- Exploited: Kimika borrows her grandmother's kimono to impress her crush, a modern Samurai from a long family line of Samurai. He falls in Love at First Sight.
- Defied: Kimika visits China, and to avoid provoking her hosts about the Japanese nationalism and the events during the Sino-Japanese wars, gets some neutral western style clothes to wear instead of her normal kimono.
- Discussed: "Hana-chan always makes her mummy sound like such a Yamato Nadeshiko so of course I wasn't surprised to see her grocery-shopping in kimono!"
- Conversed: "— and even while Kimika is seen only for a few minutes during the whole season, the fact she always wear kimono tattoos her traditional mindset into the viewer's brain."
- Deconstructed:
- Kimika's first appearance in a kimono does not leave a good impression on Xiao-Mei's family, whose older members suffered through the Second Sino-Japanese War. They despise her as a result.
- Kimika's insistence on wearing a kimono and other traditional clothing alienates her more modern family members and friends.
- Kimika's insistence on wearing traditional clothing belies her adherence to all traditional values — including ones that are inappropriate for modern times.
- Reconstructed:
- Xiao-Mei realizes that Kimika did not mean to offend her family, and Kimika goes to great lengths to emphasize that she does not condone historical atrocities. They eventually focus more of their conversations on other areas where China and Japan share a more amicable history, such as architecture and philosophy.
- Kimika's modern friends poke good natured fun at her 'old fashioned habits' and she returns the favor. She doesn't have as much in common with them as they do each other, but they're still fond of "Kimono Girl".
- Kimika's insistence on wearing traditional clothing shows her adherence to traditional values but she is able to recognize which traditional values are not appropriate for the modern era and practices only the traditional values that are acceptable to moderners, such as Sacred Hospitality. Her only hostility to foreigners is crushing them in the Go parlor.
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