Web Animation / AoHaru Manga Library

Profile picture, which doesn't include Keiichi Sato

My name is Keiichi Sato.

—The basic introduction of the hero, Once per Episode.

AoHaru Manga Library is a YouTube-based manga channel. It's an anthology of one-shot Rom Com stories with a set of recurring cast, usually involving the plain-looking but nice Keiichi Sato and one (or all) leading ladies whose names are either 'Yui', 'Noa', or 'Nagisa' (and occasionally 'Kanae') but having different surnames in every story. Each story usually offers different backgrounds and settings.

The English channel can be found here and here. The Japanese channel can be found here and here (titled 'Tokimeki Days')

Aoharu Manga Library features examples of these tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Several episodes portray Keiichi's parents as deadbeat ones who take the antagonist role.
  • My Parents Forced Me to Marry the CEO's Daughter But We're Poor Farmers…: Keiichi's parents are being impulsive gamblers who squander his grandfather's farm and its tools, pulled Keiichi out of college just to manage the farm, set him up to an Arranged Marriage with a CEO's daughter named Yui while micromanaging his spending only so he can provide for their gambling addiction. Thankfully, Yui and her father are reasonable people (even if Yui started out a bit spoiled), and eventually Keiichi just flat-out disowns his parents.
  • I Was a Runaway Boy with No Money and a Woman Rescued Me. But 7 Years Later, She...: Keiichi's mother married another man with a daughter, Kanon. Both of them then exercise Parental Favoritism at Keiichi's expense. Later, the father tries to buy off Nagisa's restaurant without her consent because he thinks of himself as a property salesman pro, not realizing that he was scammed. Keiichi defends Nagisa's restaurant with his own education, and even Kanon rejects them, actually preferring Keiichi's kindness and not amused with how her parents favor her at the expense of Keiichi.
  • I Was Forced to Marry Yakuza's Daughter For Parents' Debt But She's Actually...: Keiichi's parents accrued a debt with the Yakuza via gambling in the past, and now they overly depend on Keiichi to pay off the debts with his work on a diner and an Arranged Marriage with the Yakuza patriarch's daughter, Nagisa, who turns out to be hardworking on her own and falls for him for real. The parents also do not even congratulate Keiichi on his birthday. Thankfully, the Yakuza patriarch turns out to be a reasonable man and approves Keiichi and Nagisa's relationship based on mutual trust and affection. When the parents' gambling addiction and abuse of Keiichi are revealed, the patriarch is more than happy to relocate said deadbeat parents to a harsh working place somewhere near the seas, where the oldest worker there is in their nineties.
• Abusive Workplace: Keiichi may start his story working in such a place. Between having a Bad Boss who disrespects him or a colleague who tries to steal his credits or a female co-worker turning out to be a Gold Digger to other co-workers who are too dependent on him doing most of the jobs (and sometimes don't lift a finger when Keiichi is in a pinch) or extremely tight and stressful work hours to the point Keiichi may fall sick or be undernourished, or perhaps all of them at once, it usually shows just how bad the workplace is. Thankfully, Keiichi will eventually decide to just call it quits and move on to a much better workplace, while said abusive workplace falls apart because Keiichi turns out to be the sole reason they're still standing, and they have just driven him off.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: In stories revolving around Keiichi getting dumped, it's usually because his first girlfriend is attracted to his antagonist's bad boy attitude. This usually comes back to bite them in the end.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: This is generally zig-zagged. Many of the heroines take this form, especially when they're cast as CEOs, but it's usually Nagisa who gets this role, as she often has to play as the cold beauty with a tough exterior to be eventually melted after the encounter with Keiichi, especially if she's in a harem episode; she'd look like the tall and cool one compared to Yui and Noa. However, she's just as likely to play as a sweet-natured lady with the same model.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Since this series deals with the same niche as RomCom Manga Chan (Romantic Comedy manga dubbing featuring Universal-Adaptor Cast using the same names for the protagonist and love interest), AoHaru Manga Library has its own character equivalents with RomCom Manga Chan:
  • Keiichi Sato is the equivalent of Kent Honda, the Ridiculously Average Guy protagonist who wins through his tribulations via hard work compared to his more extravagant rivals.
  • Yui, Noa, and Nagisa take turns filling in the heroine spot usually handled by Mary Toyota alone, making them a decomposite equivalent for Mary.
• Androcles' Lion: Keiichi's kindness will eventually lead him to help someone in trouble without looking into their background, while the antagonist will be ignorant and even ruin Keiichi's life for it. Later, it turns out that the one Keiichi saved is a figure of power who does their best to repay the favor and make the antagonist suffer for their callousness.
• Bad Boss: When the stories are about office life, the male antagonist will usually be a corrupt chief or boss who makes Keiichi overwork, takes all the credit for himself, and eventually proves to be incompetent at the same time too.
• Beg the Dog: When the antagonists get their karma after messing with Keiichi, most of the time, they will beg him for help and mercy when everything has gone downhill for them. However, either Keiichi himself or the heroine will reject their pleas and leave them on their own.
• Benevolent Boss: Whenever Keiichi or any of the heroines is a company CEO or a section chief, you can expect them to be supportive to their subordinates and will protect them from bad business rivals, especially those who have been proven to be bad news.
• Beauty Is Bad: Played straight and inverted at the same time. In various stories where the antagonist is a young male character, they will most likely be a handsome young man with an extroverted personality, clicking with the popular trend to contrast with Keiichi's more plain looks and introverted personality. However, their personalities tend to be extremely shallow, only valuing other people for their looks and outer accomplishments. On the other hand, the heroines are flat-out beautiful, but they are also good people who don't flaunt their beauty. In fact, it's the heroines who sometimes appear homely and unattractive at first, but turn out to be a complete knockouts in both looks and heart later.
• Cheater Gets Cheated On: Keiichi's girlfriend of two years dumped him for a more handsome guy. The very next day, she wants to get back with Keiichi because the handsome guy was a playboy who messed with other girls.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: A recurring theme of the story is that Keiichi is an honest student or worker, whereas his antagonists tend to be cheaters who constantly screw the rules to get ahead in life, often at Keiichi's expense. However, Keiichi's hard work eventually pays off while giving him fortune, while the cheater's prosperity will be just temporary and disaster awaits afterwards.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In certain stories, Keiichi is depicted as an unassuming nerd who's pushed around by his peers but is secretly someone of high position (like a company CEO) who is competent, intelligent, and just likes to keep his life simple. When his status is revealed, he calmly and brutally gives a Humble Pie to his bullies.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The earliest stories had Keiichi being depicted as a high school student. In later stories, Keiichi is depicted as a young adult working as a salaryman in a company.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In ''A Beauty Asks Me to Pretend to Be Her BF So She Could Get Back at Her EX Who Cheated on Her?!'', Keiichi's ex, Miharu, appears to be the typical greedy dumper at first. However, during the school trip, she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with how her new boyfriend, Daigo, goes so far to mislead both Keiichi and Nagisa in the mountain at night by tampering with the two's direction to their camps for no clear reason. She ends up exposing Daigo because of her own conscience before both Keiichi and Nagisa come back safely. She also proves to be an aversion to the typical Gold Digger: After everything is over and Daigo's punishment is described, she apologizes to Keiichi and doesn't try to rekindle their relationship.
• Fair-Weather Ex: One of the more common forms of female antagonists in this series. In the beginning, they callously dump Keiichi for his low-key and humble attitude, which would not give them some quick money, and hook up with a richer, more elite boyfriend. When Keiichi's hard-working attitude pays off and he gets rich, or he's revealed to be rich all along, they immediately try to hook up with Keiichi again, going so far as to dump their previous elite boyfriend (if the boyfriend is stupidly smug, then it's because the boyfriend falls into hard times when their scheme crumbles, but it's also likely that said previous boyfriend is actually a Nice Guy too, making him a sympathetic victim). Keiichi does not fall for this and rejects them without fail.
• Gold Digger: Types of these characters (usually the female ones) appear a lot as antagonists due to the abundance of stories of Keiichi getting dumped because he's too humble or not having a luxurious lifestyle. More often than not, they're also examples of Fair-Weather Ex. This gets used so much that the series occasionally plays around with this trope:
  • In I Took Over a Shabby Inn and My GF Dumped Me! When I Help a Drenched Beauty..., Momoka is a downplayed, sympathetic take of the trope: She genuinely supports Keiichi in his attempt to run the inn (most of the characters in this stage just let Keiichi do all the work for them), but their efforts do not bear fruit and the inn is in the red. This causes her to panic and break up while apologizing. She returns later when Keiichi is able to restore his inn, and after being rejected again, she amicably departs from Keiichi and Yui, admitting her mistake in breaking up in the first place. Notably, throughout the whole video, she is not portrayed as being smugly condescending like the rest of the examples.
  • In Got Dumped On the Day I Propose to My GF! So I Went to Mixer But Somehow My Ex..., the 'Gold Digger' character is... Yui. Since she usually plays the heroine, she instead subverts the trope: She is revealed to have played the villainous Gold Digger archetype because she wants to save her family's factory from debts, and the only way to do it is to marry her and Keiichi's Evil Former Friend while dressing him up as a 'rich elite'. She doesn't want Keiichi to get tangled in her family's debts, so she has to reject him even if she feels bad about it.
• Good Is Not Soft: Keiichi may start the series being a pathetic wimp with no backbone despite being a good person, but he eventually Grew a Spine and is able to talk down and reject the bad guys' insults and bribery while standing up for his principles. Certain stories also have Keiichi already being able to stand on his own.
• Graceful Loser: Sometimes, the antagonist knows they've done wrong in the end and takes their defeat with grace, making peace with Keiichi.
  • After cheering up a dull, plain looking girl crying in a park…: Usui dumps Yui after realizing that her dull, nerdy look will damage his reputation, but he wants to go back to her after she turns out to be beautiful. Yui rejects him for being interested in her on a superficial level, while Keiichi loves her for her personality and kindness. Rather than running away in despair, Usui instead just sighs in defeat, acknowledging that he really isn't the man for Yui, wishing her and Keiichi happiness as a couple.
  • Female CEO is Going Bankrupt When Employee Betrays! I, Known as Useless, Remains..: Nagashima gathers all of Nagisa's employees to quit her company en masse because he disagrees with Nagisa's new approach, which doesn't go well with an old-timer like him. Keiichi stays, however, and single-handedly saves Nagisa's company, while Nagashima's new company struggles and goes out of business. The next time they meet, Keiichi and Nagisa are on a recruitment drive and have actually considered re-recruiting Nagashima. After apologizing for the betrayal, Nagashima declines their offer to return, as he has found peace in his new, quieter job as a salesman and is still feeling guilty about the damage he caused. Keiichi and Nagisa accept his rejection with no hard feelings, and he sees them off while politely bowing.
  • I Took Over a Shabby Inn and My GF Dumped Me! When I Help a Drenched Beauty...: After Keiichi's inn is back in business, Momoka asks if she can return being his girlfriend. After Keiichi rejects her normally, she immediately recognizes that she just cannot beat Keiichi's new girlfriend (Yui) and wishes them luck.
• Harem Genre: In stories where Nagisa, Yui, and Noa appear together, they usually end up forming a harem for Keiichi.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Out of the named heroines, Kanae has only played the heroine a few times. Sometimes, she's playing the gold-digging antagonist or a supporting character like an Adorably Precocious Child.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Company CEOs and presidents, even when they're not played by the good guys, are usually portrayed as reasonable and strive to be good, law-abiding corporate people who try to create the best workplace environment while giving the customers the best service. It's usually the section chief or bosses who are negatively portrayed.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Karma is often mentioned whenever Keiichi reaps his fortune while the antagonist reaps their misfortune, as it's showing that Keiichi's good deeds and the antagonist's bad deeds finally catch up to them.
• Karma Houdini: In stories where both Keiichi and the heroine get dumped by their first girlfriend/boyfriend, the ones who get humiliated are the ones who humiliated Keiichi. The heroine's dumper usually goes unmentioned and may have gotten away scot-free.
• No Accounting for Taste: Early in the story, Keiichi is someone who can never spot the red flags that the girl he's pining for is actually a selfish Gold Digger, leading him to get cruelly dumped. He grows over it later by rejecting the same girl once she comes back, trying to reignite their relationship only after Keiichi becomes successful. Sometimes also lampshaded by Keiichi himself that he used to have 'bad taste with women' and only learned by experience with said Gold Digger.
• No Antagonist: There are several stories where there are no antagonist characters; it's just Keiichi dealing with his own awkward feelings towards the heroine while trying to be as supportive as possible, or they get into a misunderstanding on their own.
• Nice Guy: A constant trait of Keiichi in all his roles is that he's an overly nice and kind guy who looks like a Bully Magnet and doesn't like to stand out, thus being expected to 'finish last'. Karma always proves that expectation wrong.
• Offended by an Inferior's Success: While only rarely said, most male antagonists do terrible things to Keiichi because of the belief that they're among the superior elite people, thus deserving more credits, but the down-to-earth, humble Keiichi whom they perceive as inferior has achieved more through hard work. This breeds jealousy, leading the antagonists to steal Keiichi's credits (or girlfriend) in order to one-up Keiichi. However, this will bite them in the ass without fail.
• Popular Is Evil: The male antagonists are usually obsessed with maintaining popularity, looking down on the lesser ones, especially Keiichi or whenever the heroines look plain. Similarly, the female antagonists are only interested in the most popular one so they can get more money and materialistic wealth from him. This is sometimes inverted when it's the heroine who's popular: either she is a Class Princess who never lets her popularity get in the way of common sense, or she learns the hard way how her attitude damages her standing and decides to make amends.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Reina in Said I'll Start a Company But GF Dumps Me! At Employee's Wedding Few Years Later.. is known as one of the most vicious 'Gold Digger ex-girlfriend' characters Keiichi ever faced. After dumping Keiichi for trying to start a new business, she goes to marry a rich man who works for a company, and it turns out to be Keiichi's company, where he's the president and her husband's richer boss. Realizing this, she becomes obsessed with getting back to Keiichi, ignoring her own husband. She persistently stalks and harasses Keiichi with either messaging, telephone barrage, present-giving, or stalking... to the point that Keiichi has to call for the services of a detective and asks for the husband's cooperation out of concern for his mental health. Before she's busted, she also attempts to shred the evidence against her. And even when she's divorced, she still mounts one last attempt to get back to Keiichi, to the point that her parents have to grovel to apologize to Keiichi and disown her.
• Relationship Sabotage: The male antagonist will always try to destroy Keiichi's relationship by stealing his girlfriend away from him out of spite. In some stories, the antagonist will also attempt to steal the heroine away from Keiichi, only for her to reject him.
• Removing the Crucial Teammate: When Keiichi gets fired from his company by a Bad Boss, the company will start go downhill because Keiichi was really the one in charge of everything, forcing the antagonist to beg him to come back, but Keiichi rejects him because he is comfortable with his current position in another company or he has started his own company.
• Shout-Out:
  • While the name 'Akuma' is often used for the middle-aged Bad Boss antagonist character, it's used again in the episode I Helped a Girl Who Got Fired from a Company, She Became A Rich CEO GF!?, where it turns out that this particular Akuma is the son of a company president who also happens to be a gamer (as he played Yui and Keiichi's developed game that becomes an instant hit). Considering that, one may wonder that this gamer president is a fan of Street Fighter and decided to name his son after Akuma/Gouki, only to unfortunately fail in raising him properly, and this Akuma becomes the typical antagonist.
  • In Boss Stole My GF & My Credit and I Got Fired! At Job Interview I Met My Ex-Rival…, Keiichi is an aspiring game developer who's forced to do sales and had his passion project stolen by his colleague Matsumoto while working under 'K Company'. This is most likely referencing Konami and their devastating controversy in 2015/2016 about their exodus to pachinko and mobile gaming, workplace abuse, and the resignation of Hideo Kojima. The reason why this doesn't fall into Take That! is that the story portrays K Company with more respect: Keiichi has more freedom and is able to resign without being blacklisted from the industry; there is no workplace abuse and the problem stems solely from Matsumoto charming everyone and making Keiichi the fall guy. Once Matsumoto's fraud is exposed and causes damage to the company, the CEO simply punishes him rather than continuing to hound Keiichi.
• Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love: One of the recurring themes in these stories that forms the characterization of the antagonists.
  • The male antagonist will be the type of guy who only sees girls based on their superficial looks therefore has a tendency to dump girls that they see as plain, dull, and ugly, and tells beautiful girls that fall for Keiichi's kindness that they're wasting their beauty on Keiichi's plain appearance.
  • Likewise, the female antagonist is usually a shallow Gold Digger who only sees men as how capable they are to give material wealth rather than true love obtained from getting to know and supporting each other even in hard times. In stories where Keiichi is already an accomplished and confident man, he makes it a point to avoid extravagant girls since they tend to be shallow. His preference mostly lies with plain, quiet, and down-to-earth girls since they're less likely to be shallow.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Keiichi's kindness and humility are usually the reasons why the main female (Nagisa, Yui, or Noa) falls for him. The gender inversion also applies in stories where Keiichi starts out as a self-assured, successful man. He has a tendency to ignore the prettier, more extravagant, but more abrasive and arrogant attention-seeking girl and instead goes for the plainer, but more down-to-earth heroine.
• Smug Snake: An antagonist in the stories here tends to be a super smug, fun-chasing extrovert who likes to flex their elite status and look down on the more down-to-earth Keiichi, while usurping his place and being so self-assured that with their riches, they would be way more successful than Keiichi could ever be. When they have the upper hand in the beginning, they act so smug, expecting Keiichi to be crying at the misfortune that they caused. By the end of the story, their smug attitude comes crashing down along with their plans, showing that they are actually incompetent at their field. Meanwhile, Keiichi perseveres with his own hard work ethics, so they usually come back to Keiichi begging for a second chance, but at that point, Keiichi has had enough of their smug shit and rejects them, leaving them to a horrible fate.
• Stealing the Credit: In stories where Keiichi works in a company, the male antagonist will take credit for his hard works because he looks down on him.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Keiichi tells the heroine the story about how he got dumped (by the Gold Digger ex), the heroine will get angry and utter lines to imply that she'll never forgive the dumper. After she calms down, Keiichi takes this as a positive point to acknowledge that the heroine cares for him enough to get angry in his place.
• The Three Faces of Eve: Based on the tendencies of the roles they play, the three heroines fall into this trope (though certain stories can subvert their roles):
  • Noa is the Child, since she tends to be the more lively, innocent type who is of a younger age.
  • Nagisa is the Wife, who usually plays the mentor-ish figure or a figure of authority to keep everyone calm and nice.
  • Yui fills up as the Seductress, since she's usually the middle between the three in terms of age and mostly the closest of age to court Keiichi. Additionally, she tends to be the one to play extravagant roles like a Teen Idol, and she's so far the only heroine who ever played the Gold Digger dumper (though in a sympathetic spin).
  • All these are encapsulated in the episode Sis Passed Away So I Raise Her Daughter! My Ex Disrespects Me at Open School Day..., where Nagisa is Keiichi's dead big sister, Noa is Nagisa's pre-teen daughter whom Keiichi raised in Nagisa's stead, and Yui is Keiichi's co-worker who ends up being his girlfriend.
• Thriving Ex-Crush: This is usually Keiichi's position in the end if he has a Gold Digger ex-girlfriend. After struggling and getting dumped cruelly in the beginning, Keiichi manages to persist and continue to work hard, eventually striking it rich. That's the cue for the ex-girlfriend trying to get back to him because of his newfound wealth, and Keiichi rejects them.
• Tsundere: Certain stories have the heroine being a Tsundere. Usually, Yui is the one saddled with the role. Sometimes it's deconstructed that the Tsundere's antics end up driving people away because they're not being honest with themselves.
• Two-Timing with the Bestie: Keiichi has so many male False Friends (different in each story) who start out being described as his best friends, only to backstab him by stealing his girlfriend. This also often becomes said friend's undoing, because Keiichi's ex will turn out to be a Gold Digger who makes him miserable instead and makes way for Keiichi to court the supportive heroine.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: The story can range between varying scenarios, but mostly takes place in school or office life. Keiichi's role can range from that of an ordinary student to that of a company CEO.
• Unnecessarily Cruel Rejection: Reiko invokes this trope in an unusual way; when her Childhood Friend Keiichi confesses to her, Reiko rejects him harshly, saying that her reputation will be ruined of she dates an "introvert nerd." The unusual part comes from the fact that Reiko actually likes Keiichi, but rejected him because she believes that Keiichi will think she's easy if she says yes immediately. Her plan was to accept his second confession, but it backfired because Keiichi decided to move on and date another girl rather continue pining after Reiko.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Downplayed. In I Prayed to Get a Girlfriend, All 3 of My BFFs Were Actually Super Cute Girls!?, after wishing for a girlfriend in a shrine prayer, Keiichi is absolutely shocked when his 3 male friends come out of hot springs and reveal themselves to be girls. It's less severe than most examples because, after the initial shock, he quickly picks himself up because he's a calm introvert and asks calmly about their reasons.
  Keiichi: '"W,w,w,whyyy… What the heck? What is happening here? WHY ARE YOU ALL GIIIIRRRLSSSSS!?!?" (Hey, God, what am I supposed to do in a situation like this? Laugh about it? Am I supposed to laugh it off? Don't be absurd!)
• Weasel Co-Worker: Keiichi tends to deal with his male co-worker who steals his credit and/or original spouse. This eventually comes to bite the co-worker in the ass, either resigning or getting fired after he gets exposed for his misdeeds.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In certain stories, the heroines are dressing up like guys for varying reasons. They don't even bother with changing names, except for Yui, who's usually changed to the more masculine 'Yuu'.
• Wingding Eyes: Usually the eyes of the antagonistic Gold Digger, once they realize Keiichi has risen to a higher position surpassing the antagonistic rival, will be replaced with yen signs. This is to cue in their true money-grubbing nature that they're just interested in mooching off him as an ATM.
• Workaholic: Keiichi is often the guy who focuses more on his studies, work, and integrity as a student/Salaryman. The bad guys usually ridicule him as being lame for it, but eventually the supporting cast will see it as a positive trait and help balance Keiichi's schedule.