"Ohhh? I may exaggerate, but I don't draw anything false, do I?"
— Kogasa, when Yamame complained one of his earlier strips tarnished her reputation
Hang in There, Kogasa-San is a Touhou Project Fan Webcomic story by Mizuki Hitoshi which tells comedically exaggerated stories from his own life and experiences traveling, attending conventions and Dojinshi festivals, and married life in general. The series' main conceit is that Hitoshi uses characters from Touhou (and rarely other anime and manga) as stand-ins for the people in his life, with Kogasa Tatara as Mizuki himself and Sanae Kochiya as his wife.
It is published (mostly) daily on Pixiv, and an English-translated and regularly updated version can be found here
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Tropes:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Suwako and Kanako for Sanae. Kogasa's parents are even weirder from a human perspective, but they don't anger her as much.
- Art Shift: While the comic is usually drawn in a simple, cartoony style, Hitoshi will occasionally show his real talents.
- Author Avatar: Kogasa for the author, Sanae for his wife, and Touhou characters for important recurring people like friends, family, and fellow Touhou doujin makers. Minor characters vary between also being Touhou characters, characters from other anime/manga/games, or just faceless figures.
- Doujin artists will be depicted as the characters they're most fond of/associated with. If the author uses a specific avatar themselves, they'll appear that way in this comic too (like Warugaki as Remilia or Orange Jelly/Dei Shirou as a muscular guy with a flan pudding for a head). Hitoshi will also try to mimic an artist's particular style with their avatar, which is part of the reason people were able to ID Koakuma as Kuresento.
- A special mention goes to Yuzuna99: since she's also associated with Kogasa, her avatar is an even cutesier version of the character (imitating her artstyle) with lighter coloration than Hitoshi's version.
- Sanae's parents are also portrayed as Kanako and Suwako (obviously), while Kogasa's family...are not exactly Touhou characters.
- Doujin artists will be depicted as the characters they're most fond of/associated with. If the author uses a specific avatar themselves, they'll appear that way in this comic too (like Warugaki as Remilia or Orange Jelly/Dei Shirou as a muscular guy with a flan pudding for a head). Hitoshi will also try to mimic an artist's particular style with their avatar, which is part of the reason people were able to ID Koakuma as Kuresento.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A lot of the humor comes from Sanae getting annoyed at Kogasa, but there are also many strips that show just how much the two care for each other.
- Big Eater: Kogasa.
- A later arc gave justification for this: The author is from rural Kochi Prefecture, where "country folks' hospitality is the amount of their food" and "sincerity is measured in Calories."
- Yuyuko, much to Kogasa's despair, for two reasons: Her tastes are expensive, and recently she insists on the author eating as much as her, usually when he's on a diet.
- A friend of his, depicted as Mokou in comic, has an even bigger appetite than Kogasa, easily eating a jumbo-sized bowl of ramen where Kogasa could not.
- A later arc gave justification for this: The author is from rural Kochi Prefecture
- Bratty Half-Pint: Remilia and arguably Flandre.
- Brick Joke: Sanae's Youmu cosplay.
- In the fifth karaoke marathon arc, the manager of the facility is represented as the male version of Ritsuka Fujimaru from Fate/Grand Order. Fans initially believed this was just a nod to the game's massive popularity, but a few strips later when Kogasa goes to speak with the manager, he instead finds the female version of Ritsuka, with the Real Life explanation that the managers had transferred to different stores in the meantime.
- Kogasa mentions during the marriage arc that she wanted to propose to Sanae at Kurobe Dam. After they've gone and left Kurobe Dam in a later arc, Sanae asks where she intended to propose there. Cue Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat.
- Butt-Monkey: Kogasa, most of the time.
- The Cameo: Look at what Kogasa is playing.
- Action Bomb: Look at the screen in the last panel of the above. Kogasa's about to be exploded by a Creeper in-game.
- Kyubey is also a recurring cameo throughout the series. Usually shows up as a less-than-trustworthy Fan Convention organizer whom Kogasa ends up trusting anyway, with terrible consequences.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Kogasa, who got drunk once from a single sip of beer.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: A few strips play this for laughs, such as Kogasa getting upset about Sanae posing for tourist photos with Nazrin (which makes them look like a couple) or Sanae getting outraged when Kogasa tells the story of a business meeting she had with a woman (that took place literally years before Kogasa and Sanae met).
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Changes between Kogasa and Sanae.
- The less we say about Kogasa's parents, the better.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: Sanae, which provides much of the series' fanservice
- Covert Pervert: Sanae isn't very covert about it, generally drawing attention to phallic objects or things that sound inappropriate.
- Sanae's mother, Suwako, also shows signs of this, like getting angry when learning Kogasa's first meeting with Sanae didn't immediately lead to "passionate love" and being curious about Kogasa and Sanae's sex life.
- Creator Cameo: ZUN himself appears in a couple of story arcs; rather than having a stand-in character he's just depicted as a simplistic version of his real-life appearance who mostly "speaks" by chuckling. In his first appearance, Kogasa thanks him for everything he's done and offers a copy of this comic.
- Crack is Cheaper: Being both an Otaku and a Big Eater does a number on Kogasa's budget. Lampshaded In-Universe.
- Crossover: Between Touhou Project and several other franchises when the characters would better suit the situation. The author has incredibly diverse tastes.
- Cue the Rain: Kogasa always seems to be ruining the day by making it rain somehow. It's also discussed in the Anime Boston arc, where a lack of rain at that event is questioned by a fan.
- It still rained though, didn't it?
- Cultural Cross-Reference: One comic titled "Commando" references the "dead tired" Bond One-Liner from the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
- Diet Episode: The first comic after the artist's return in 2022 has Kogasa announce her intent to start dieting. Sanae naturally assumes she either came down with a fever or ate something weird.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Happens more than once to Kogasa, often thanks to Sanae.
- Drives Like Crazy: Ran is shown to be a demon behind the wheel, though ironically, (s)he was the only one exhausted after that driving trip.
- Fan Convention: Occurs frequently, as part of Kogasa and her friends' job involves selling doujinshi at those.
- Fan Disservice: Whenever Kogasa does something incredibly adorable, at least one commenter (and sometimes the author) will remind everyone else that she represents a 40-some-year-old man.
- Food Porn: Rather frequent, given that Kogasa and Sanae are both cardinal foodies.
- The Gadfly: Many characters in the comic get at least one, mostly at the expense of Kogasa. Sanae is the most prominent, though, especially with her Covert Pervert tendencies, which leave Kogasa flustered. However, Kogasa is occasionally able to do this to Sanae as well.
- Gender Flip: The writer is male (as are a few of the other characters). His Author Avatar is female in Canon and is drawn as a female (with female underwear, etc.), and yet considered male in-story.
- H-Game: Kogasa played one of these, with obvious consequences.
- Happily Married: Kogasa and Sanae.
- The Idiot from Osaka: Yamame is usually portrayed in-comic as Kogasa's friend and fellow artist from Osaka. She speaks in a Kansai accent (portrayed as a Southern accent in the translations) and is shown to be not that good at math.
- I Want Grandkids: Mother Suwako isn't even subtle about it, doing things like stuffing the couple with foods that supposedly get people "in the mood" and expressing disappointment when she finds out that they didn't get busy that night.
- Karaoke Box: Kogasa loves karaoke, and often organizes karaoke events.
- Life Embellished: The premise of the comic.
- Made of Iron: Kogasa.
- Meido: In one instance, Kogasa has to dress up as this as punishment.
- Mood Whiplash: Some of the humor comes from either Kogasa, Sanae, or a third party saying or doing something that ruins an otherwise heartwarming moment. For a more serious example, Kogasa had to leave Comiket 81 early because someone she knew had died.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Kogasa is obsessed with food and karaoke, but is still a good person.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Some of the one-shot characters do this. It's unavoidable, due to the author using some of the game's rather distinctive cast members as extras. Averted as of late, as the author reduces non-important characters to featureless blobs, reserving actual Touhou characters for closer friends and acquaintances.
- No Sense of Direction: Yamame. She takes great pleasure in rubbing it in every time Kogasa gets lost.
- Not What It Looks Like: During the Anime Boston arc, Kogasa walks into one of his handlers' hotel rooms and sees Seiga tying Yoshika up shibari-style; awkwardness ensues until Kogasa just plays it off as nothing. The people involved explained in the Danbooru comments that they were doing an art livestream and Yoshika volunteered to be the model; in the commentary Mizuki said that he figured it was on the level since Yoshika was still fully clothed.
- Otaku Surrogate: The comic turns the Touhou characters into otaku, since they are stand-ins for doujin artists. The comic itself reveals most of Kogasa's interests (besides Touhou, he likes Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!), Sanae loves Gundamnote and Kemono Friends and is part of a KanColle doujin circle with Nazrin, Ran loves Hello Kitty, etc.
- Potty Emergency:
- During one trip, Remilia demands that Kogasa stop at a service station, threatening to fill her car with "brown charisma" if she doesn't.
- On a later trip, while Kogasa and Sanae are stuck in traffic, Kogasa needs to go but unfortunately doesn't make it.
- Kogasa makes it in time in a strip from July 2014, but only because a random person is willing to let her use his home's toilet.
- Running Gag: Quite a few.
- Kogasa's obsession with food, which clashes with Sanae's attempts to mind their health; a recurring aspect of this is Sanae punishing any major binges by only cooking sashimi konjac for an extended period of time.
- If Kogasa isn't eating, he's doing karaoke; as of this writing, he's hosted five different 18-hour-plus karaoke marathons (one each year), allowing fans (represented as Majin Gappa from Di Gi Charat) to drop in and participate. A couple of the "Kappa" have even become semi-regulars, occasionally helping Kogasa at conventions.
- "The System", a seeming conspiracy operated by Yuyuko and her friends to make Kogasa (and less often Sanae) eat lots of expensive food and avoid exercise, which of course clashes with Sanae's health-consciousness (see above).
- Yamame gets lost, forgets something vital, and/or arrives late; when other characters do this, the Pixiv comments will label it the "Yamame virus".
- Sanae is unable to come along on a trip for one reason or another (usually workload).
- Wherever Kogasa goes, you can expect it to rain (or snow if it's cold enough) the entire time she's there; whenever this comes up in the comic, Pixiv readers will tag it with "Ability to generate rain in America for a week", referring to Kogasa's trip to California, which was marked by an unseasonable downpour.
- The servant is the one in charge of the relationship, in a reversal of the games' situations. Youmu often keeps Yuyuko on a tight leash, and Ran is strict about Yukari's carefree attitude.
- "Xatu face", an expression of anger and/or annoyance characters make, most commonly seen when they want to go to a particular store and find out it's closed. The name comes from the fact that the characters get a large eye reminiscent of the Pokémon Xatu
- Early 2020 saw the addition of a new gag: Whenever Kogasa indulges in her hobby of tinkering with electronics, readers will add in the Pixiv tag "A person for whom it's written 'manga artist' but pronounced 'jack of all trades'".
- Sequential Artist: A certain amount of the strips are basically about the pain of being a doujinshi artist; there are poorly conducted cons that make substantial losses (q.v. the Madoka Magika convention mentioned under Shout-Out below)elaboration , and there've been cases where he had to attend cons that he didn't want any part ofelaboration .
- Shout-Out:
- An arc about a disastrous Puella Magi Madoka Magica convention set during the show's nascent fandom ends up turning into a Whole-Plot Reference to the series.
- When Kogasa meets Sanae's dad, Kanako, who asks if she and Sanae have considered marriage, Kogasa's initial (half-joking) indecision incites Kanako to charge a Satellite Cannon.
- At a hotel, when Kogasa mentions to Sanae that the food is delivered by a steam train model, Sanae imagines the train from Back to the Future Part III.
- There have been a few nods to Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!; Kogasa's claims that he needs to replenish his "Karaokenium" by singing is based off a similar gag where Mahiro's mother says that she needs "Sononium" generated by cuddling her son. Additionally, in the first karaoke marathon arc Nyarko herself was used as the avatar for the store's manager.
- One strip has Kogasa and Ran visit a Yuri!!! on Ice fan event at Karatsu Castle (Karatsu is the inspiration for Hasetsu, Yuri Katsuki's hometown). Ran and Chen are apparently big fans of the series; Mizuki mentions that the person who Ran represents was "grinning ear to ear" when picking out merchandise, and in the strip Chen tells Ran to buy her three of everything.
- Show Within a Show: Sort of. In one story arc, the characters watch episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Ran starts to mention a Spoiler and gets gapped mid-sentence.
- Slice of Life
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When the group visits JAL and sees a giant airplane hangar, Kogasa and Nazrin imagine the "Theme of MAT" from Ultraman; Sanae notices and immediately says "You two are singing the 'Wandaba' song in your heads, aren't you?"
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: This is considering that the manga is a journalesque affair; the majority of plots are based off of Mizuki Hitoshi's experiences traveling abroad. He sometimes adds commentary to his stories to tell what really happened or to remind the reader that some of the things are embellished.
- Also happened extensively with the Anime Boston arc, since most of the people behind Mizuki's trip are Danboorians and would elaborate on the events of the trip.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: In one strip, Kogasa tells Sanae about an incident where she was the victim of a hit-and-run; Sanae's immediate response is to call up Mother Suwako and ask her to lay a curse on the truck driver (despite Kogasa's protests that it was many years ago).
- Weight Woe: Sanae has this. It affects Kogasa as well, as Sanae actively weight-watches her mate.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Sanae engages in this sometimes, such as when she added homoerotic narration while watching two polar bears at the zoo.
- Yonkoma
