History Manga / Yotsuba

* SenpaiKohai: Yanda is Kowai's kohai (whether from work or school is unclear), so Kowai lets him regularly visit even though Yotsuba constantly antagonizes him.

* ProtagonistTitle: Little Yotsuba who is, of course, the main protagonist of ''Yotsuba''.

* SempaiKohai: Dad's ''kohai'' Yanda, whom Dad lets visit even though Yotsuba constantly antagonizes him.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The various translations of the manga can result in this, even on this very page. Is Yotsuba's teddy bear named Duralumin or Juralumin[[note]]There are decent arguments for either translation. Duralumin is a real word and concept Yotsuba is likely to have overheard but not understood, but she originally comes up with the name while trying to say the name of Ena's bear, Julietta, a joke that doesn't work if the name starts with D.[[/note]]?

* IncrediblyLamePun: Fuuka's [[WeaponOfChoice weapon of choice]]. Perhaps fortunately, most get LostInTranslation.

* MindScrew: Asagi's [[WeaponOfChoice weapon of choice]].

* SliceOfLife: Each chapter is an episode in Yotsuba's literal daily life -- as in taking place on sequential, or nearly sequential, days. Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Yotsuba%26!_chapters details the exact calendar]].

* ComicBookTime: Although the story is about Yotsuba slowly growing up, with even chapters taking place on a specific date over the course of the same year, the manga is always set in the present. This allows for things to exist in the story that would not have existed in 2003 when the manga launched, such as digital SLR cameras, the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}} (and later the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch), and even smartphones.

* PottyEmergency / PottyFailure: Suggested by Yotsuba when Koiwai bends over to grab his wallet and finds he left it at home.

* AdultFear: Naturally, seeing how the series often focuses on a 5-year-old GenkiGirl and her father (or a grown-up friend looking after her). Sometimes even PlayedForLaughs, others not so much. Examples include Yotsuba riding her bike by herself to Fuuka's school, and Yotsuba wandering off from her supervision. The latter one is even invoked when Dad asks everyone to hide when she wanders off to teach her a lesson about getting lost.

* ComplimentBackfire: Played straight at Fuuka: "People look cool on bicycles ... even Fuuka." Yotsuba was musing to herself with no one around, so Fuuka never heard this. A weird variant with Asagi when Yotsuba played OppositeDay and blurts out, "Asagi's an ugly old hag!" Definitely heard by Asagi, who has no idea what she's doing and is understandably not pleased.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Yotsuba's only, and it's green -- everyone else's is normal. This ends up being {{justified}} with the revelation that Yotsuba was adopted from another country and isn't Koiwai's blood daughter. ''Which'' country she comes from is never elaborated upon (the Ayases' best guess is the United States, specifically Hawaii), but it does explain why Yotsuba is the only character with unusual hair.

* MondegreenGag: Characters mishear Yotsuba any time she sings. The humor usually doesn't [[LostInTranslation translate out of Japanese well]].
* MundaneMadeAwesome: EVERYTHING in Yotsuba's world is awesome, and "today is always the most enjoyable day." From delivering milk, to riding a bike, to going to the supermarket, each trip is like an Odyssey to Yotsuba.

* MissXPun: Due to an incident where she bungled introducing herself in class, Hiwatari nickname is "Miss Stake".

* {{Mondegreen}}: In-universe example -- Yotsuba any time she sings. The humor usually doesn't [[LostInTranslation translate out of Japanese well]].

It stars a {{cheerful|Child}}, [[GenkiGirl energetic]] five-year-old girl named Yotsuba Koiwai, who moves into a new neighborhood with her adoptive father. She doesn't know very much about the world around her and is incredibly curious, but her father and their new neighbors (the Ayase family) are willing to help her out...or get dragged along in her wake, as the case may be. She does, technically, know the meaning of "restraint", but she has [[{{Malaproper}} trouble pronouncing it]]. The odd title comes from how [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming every chapter]] (but [[OddNameOut one]]) is named "Yotsuba & [Whatever]," where [whatever] is the new thing or concept she encounters that day, and the exclamation mark comes from her way of [[GenkiGirl throwing herself full-throttle]] into anything she does.

* ComicBookTime: Although the story is about Yotsuba slowly growing up, with even chapters taking place on a specific date on the calendar, the setting is always set in the present. This allows for things to exist in the story that would not have existed in 2003 when the manga launched, such as digital SLR cameras, the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}}, and recently, ''smartphones''.

* FloatingTimeline: While each chapter takes place on a specific date, which in 82 chapters has run from mid-July to the start of November, the official word is that each chapter is set in the year it's published. This allows Azuma to keep technology and pop-culture references current, instead of stuck back in 2003 when he started.

* SempaiKohai: Dad's ''kohai'' Yanda, whom Dad lets visit even though Yotsuba instantly hates him with a hatey five-year-old hate.

* ShownTheirWork: Comes up in the most unusual places. The bears in the teddy-bear shop are based on actual designs. The ridiculously-expensive Steiff one even has the trademark button (the one Yotsuba chooses to be Duralumin, however, is generic).

* TakeThat: One chapter features Yotsuba attempting to imitate a "{{moe}}" pose in an attempt to further boost her attempts at asking Kowai to buy her something at a store, only for him to immediately call the act "sickening," a visible jab at the moe cliches as a whole that ''Azumanga Daioh'' previously became associated with. [[invoked]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Yotsuba's only, and it's green -- everyone else's is normal. This ends up being {{justified}} with the revelation that Yotsuba was adopted from another country and isn't Kowai's blood daughter; ''which'' country she comes from is never elaborated upon (the Ayases' best guess is the United States, specifically Hawaii), but it does explain why Yotsuba is the only character without dark hair.

* ToiletHumour
%%** [[ItMakesSenseInContext THIS POOP IS DELICIOUS!]]
** In general, mentioning a bodily function makes Yotsuba burst into the giggle-fits you'd expect from a five year old.

* TakeThat: One chapter features Yotsuba [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwkAgT_XMAMGB1L?format=jpg&name=orig attempting to imitate]] a "{{moe}}" pose in an attempt to further boost her attempts at asking Kowai to buy her something at a store, only for him to immediately call the act "sickening," a visible jab at the moe cliches as a whole that ''Azumanga Daioh'' previously became associated with. [[invoked]]

** In Chapter 87, Yotsuba draws a picture of ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' and shows her grandma. She describes it as "fighting with lots of dogs".

* {{Foil}}: All of the Asagi girls have a friend who serves as their foil.

** In the original ''Try!Try!Try!'' one-shots, Fuuka (who has a ponytail) is a textbook {{tsundere}} with a short temper and a blatant crush on Yotsuba's dad. Azuma reflected on this later, saying that the tsundere personality had become so clichéd that he wanted to do something different, and Fuuka became a more nuanced character in the final manga as a result. The only remnant of her previous characterization is that she commonly gets NotWhatItLooksLike moments when interacting with Koiwai.

** When Fuuka asks Yotsuba what her dad does, she gets it mixed up and says "konnyaku" (a jelly from a type of potato) instead of "honyaku" (translations). Later on when shopping with them, Fuuka asks Koiwai a question about making konnyaku - when he gives a vague answer, she assumes it's a trade secret and leaves him confused.

** [[ItMakesSenseInContext THIS POOP IS DELICIOUS!]]

* {{Yonkoma}}: The "intermission" in Volume 4 comprises four-panel strips of Yotsuba and the Ayase girls in the vein of Azuma's [[Manga/AzumangaDaioh previous series]].

''Yotsuba&!'' (''Yotsuba to!'' in Japanese) is an ongoing SliceOfLife comedy manga by Creator/KiyohikoAzuma, creator of the acclaimed ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', first starting serialization in 2003, just under a year after ''Azumanga Daioh'' finished its run.

''Yotsuba&!'' started life as a series of one-shots released in 1998 under the name ''Try! Try! Try!''. These comics were largely the same as the serialized series, but with some significant differences in character designs and personalities. After writing ''Azumanga Daioh'' from 1999 to 2002, Azuma decided to revisit the setting he created earlier, tweaking the characters and slowly refining his style. The series has been described by one reviewer as "printed joy" and rightly so. Azuma manages to create a series that's both [[{{Iyashikei}} feel-good happy]] and side-splittingly hilarious. Not for nothing is the series motto "Enjoy Everything."

Despite its popularity, the series is [[NoAdaptationsAllowed unlikely to receive an animated adaptation]], with Azuma himself [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com.au/news/2008-12-04/yotsuba&creator-kiyohiko-azuma-addresses-anime-rumors explaining]] his belief that Yotsuba [[HardToAdaptWork isn't well-suited to an animated format]]. It does, however, have an anime spinoff, ''Anime/{{Nyanbo}}'', featuring catlike creatures of the same species as Yotsuba's cardboard robot friend, Danbo. Yotsuba makes a non-speaking cameo in the end credits of each episode.