YMMV / Yotsuba&!

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Torako blowing smoke in Yotsuba's face a Kick the Dog moment, or was she trying to show her that smoking is not cool after she had previously said she was cool for doing it?
• Angst? What Angst?: Yotsuba was either orphaned or abandoned overseas, then taken in and raised by Koiwai. Justified since Yotsuba is too young to remember much about her birthplace or birth parents, and anyway, what matters to the story is that she's happy and healthy now.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Cardbo/Danbo, the cardboard robot, who got an action figure despite having only appeared in two chapters that are far apart, and he has even ascended to the noble position of Official Mascot of Amazon.co.jp. Just don't tell Yotsuba it's Miura in a costume made for a school assignment. He even comes with his own customizable plastic model! BEHOLD!
• Fan Nickname:
  • Yotsuba appears on 4chan's 404 Not Found page, and is thus known as "404 Girl".
  • A recurring character that Yotsuba sometimes plays with was called "Dotty" by the fans, after her eyes being always drawn as two dots. After being unnamed for a good while, she was eventually given the official name "Mi-chan" in the chapter "Yotsuba & the Sandpit".
• Friendly Fandoms: Thanks to the two works sharing the same author and brand of eccentric humor, you'll find a lot of Yotsuba&! fans who are also fond of Azumanga Daioh, and vice-versa.
• Hard-to-Adapt Work: Word of God states that this trope is why the manga is in permanent No Adaptations Allowed status: despite its gag-a-day nature and relatively simply premise, the series is a features a good number of jokes that are only able to work in the format of a comic, to the point where attempting to adapt the series into an anime or live-action series would result in a poorly-done Compressed Adaptation.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: With the green hair and the red-sleeved t-shirt, Yotsuba resembles a genderbended gijinka of Craig Slithers.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Fuuka is often unfavorably compared to Asagi, whose beauty is constantly praised and has gotten the attention of Jumbo and Yanda. Yotsuba goes as far as to call Asagi and Fuuka the "pretty sister" and "not-pretty sister" respectively before she remembers their names properly in the 2nd chapter. Though there are times when we are reminded that yes, Fuuka is considered very attractive, like when Jumbo does actually call her a bishoujo (a "pretty girl") when he meets her, he's just also quick to demote her to "just a shoujo" after he meets Asagi. Likewise, Torako is surprised that Fuuka would be rejected by a boy in one chapter; indeed, she only mentions Fuuka's supposedly fat legs as a possible reason for that (which, as stated below, Asagi immediately refutes).
  • There are also instances of boys her age showing interest in her because of her looks. It's also fair to note that while this makes up a good portion of the chapter in which Fuuka's status as "plain" gets sort of established, Fuuka isn't actively rejected by the boy she likes. She just sees him on the street with a girlfriend. That she was turned down is more of a misunderstanding caused by Yotsuba's poor understanding of the situation.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Fuuka is frequently stated to have fat legs, and is even teased about this by Asagi and their mother. Look at a picture of Fuuka alongside any other teen girl character in the series, and see if there's any major difference in their body types. Then again, Asagi and mom are jerkasses at times, so they could just be messing with her. Asagi even tells Tora off once for saying she has fat legs, saying Tora is just too skinny.
• Les Yay: Asagi is never seen socializing with anybody outside of family and her neighbors—except for Torako. Asagi and Torako also love to go on long outings together, and some people feel those show all the telltale signs of actual dates. It helps that the outings we know of do indeed seem like date spots; an Okinawan beach, a Hot Air Balloon race, and a Firework Display. Its also shown that these outings are always, or at least planned, for just the two of them. It doesn't help that when Jumbo demands to know who "Tora" is, after Yotsuba draws a picture of Asagi and her, in which it is impossible to tell Torako's true sex. Yotsuba describes Tora in a way that sounds like Tora is Asagi's boyfriend^note  In the original Japanese Yotsuba doesn't use any gender specific pronouns, much to Jumbo's dismay. It becomes something of a running gag later on.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Yotsuba is used as a mascot by some Image Boards, most prominently 4chan, which uses a clover as its logo and runs on a modification of Futaba called Yotsuba.
  • It is also exemplified within the series by the teddy bear Duralumin, who shares a name with a metal alloy but is really Yotsuba's mispronunciation of Ena's stuffed bear Julietta.
  • Many artists (especially on Pixiv) have drawn other characters in the pose Jumbo, Koiwai, and Yotsuba make on the back cover of the second volume.
• Moe: 5-year-old Genki Girl Yotsuba is incredibly adorable and is is fawned over even in-story by fellow characters who mostly have a soft spot for her.
• No Yay: Fuuka is frequently shipped In-Universe with Koiwai, and once or twice with Jumbo. For western fans, because Fuuka is 16-17 years old while Koiwai and Jumbo are in their early 30s, it can be a little disturbing to ship her with them. Azuma's author notes occasionally imply that he doesn't seriously pair Koiwai and Fuuka (in particular, noting that he considered it disturbing to have Fuuka's classmates call Koiwai attractive), suggesting that he intends it to be Played for Laughs.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • Yotsuba herself is the loveable mascot of 4chan, and Anonymous is fiercely protective of her.
  • The series has found unexpected popularity as a practical way to learn how to read Japanese. Since it takes the perspective of a five-year-old girl with a limited understanding of the language, it makes concepts simpler for non-Japanese speakers to grasp in real-life usage — characters speak like real people rather than the exaggerated speech you often find in manga, and kanji terms are often placed directly next to their hiragana spellings thanks to how Yotsuba often repeats what she hears. As a result, many people have picked up the series solely to brush up their Japanese skills.
• Sacred Cow: An unusual example in that, while the work itself is fair game, the character of Yotsuba is heavily shielded from criticism and the usual online nastiness. Nobody wants to see Yotsuba&! Rule 34, and any attempt to ask for/create one on 4chan will result in vitriol. The Unacceptable Targets trope index was almost named "Yotsuba Is Off Limits". The little that is out there focuses on adult characters.
  Description of Yotsuba on Danbooru: 4chan uses her as a mascot/on their 404 pages and hold her in high enough regard that asking for porn of her gets angry reactions and most often even bans.
• Shipping:
  • A popular ship is Koiwai x Fuuka, prompted by their multiple interactions (including classmates asking Fuuka if Koiwai is her "husband") and hinted at in Azuma's proto-comic for Yotsuba&!, "Try! Try! Try!". The multiple blush-inducing situations that Fuuka experiences around Koiwai (including the paper-cup telephone conversation and a comment in Chapter 67 about how her eyebrows are cute as they are) do not help this. That Azuma in a side comment was "scared" by Fuuka's classmates finding Koiwai attractive hasn't deterred shippers.
  • In chapter 61, Koiwai gives Yotsuba a "helicopter ride" (swinging her around by the arms so her feet leave the ground). Then Asagi lines up to try it, and seeing them circling each other hand in hand, Torako comments that "they seem to get along together really well". A few chapters later, Koiwai teases Jumbo with a picture of it.
  • Close friends Asagi x Torako shipping, as seen in the Les Yay entry.
  • Koiwai and Jumbo's closeness with each other have garnered a few fans for the ship. Koiwai is never seen with other friends (besides Yanda), Yotsuba is convinced Jumbo is his only friend, and some panels of the two of them with Yotsuba make them look a lot like two fathers with their daughter.
  • Miura tends to get shipped with Ena as they hang out with each other a lot and no one else their age. She's also more frequently and more disturbingly shipped with Jumbo due to their Sitcom Arch-Nemesis friendship.
  • There has been some Yanda x teenaged Yotsuba, since if she was older their relationship would have all the makings of a Slap-Slap-Kiss romance.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Hardly bloodthirsty but it pops up on occasion. For example since the Balloon arc, some have started to prefer Koiwai with Asagi over Fuuka, and then ship Fuuka with Jumbo. Of course there are those who still prefer Asagi with Torako and Fuuka with Koiwai.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: No one can resist Yotsuba's cheerful attitude toward her life, NO ONE.
• Watch It for the Meme:
  • Or in this case, Read It For 404 Girl.
  • The same can go for Danbo/Cardbo, too.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Miura has Boyish Short Hair and wears boyish clothes, so many readers mistake her for a boy in her first appearance. Even Jumbo has to ask if she's a boy or girl not long after first meeting her.
  • Torako also has short hair and doesn't dress femininely so she can confuse readers too. The only physical hints of her gender are her chest and the slight eyelashes found on most of the female characters.
  • Koiwai has shaggy shoulder-length hair and his facial features and body type are on the softer side, so readers often mistake him to be female until they see Yotsuba calling him Daddy in the first chapter. It doesn't help that he's sometimes drawn next to Jumbo, whose height and breadth really make him look feminine by comparison.

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