It follows the life of a preteen Naïve Everygirl named Yuko Kawai, dealing with the typical problems of the adolescence, her relationship with her friends, and her Unresolved Sexual Tension and eventual relationship with her best friend Hiroshi.
This series provides examples of:
- The Ace: Hiroshi is a smart student, a great soccer player, and a popular Chick Magnet. In Yuko's eyes he is also a case of He Is All Grown Up. He's also a reasonable boy who says and does the right thing in every situation (except when it comes to love, since he can be Innocently Insensitive to Yuko).
- All Love Is Unrequited:
- In the first two episodes, Yuko's friend Takako has a crush on Hiroshi who has a crush on Yuko. Takako gets over it very quickly though, and immediately becomes a Shipper on Deck for Yuko and Hiroshi in the rest of the story.
- Natsumi's love for Hiroshi and Fuyuki's love for Yuko (the latter only revelaed near the end) are also unrequited.
- Baseball Episode: A softball episode, actually. One early episode focuses on a softball game with boys and girls playing together, and Yuko being nervous because she is the worst player in the team. After training every day with Hiroshi, Yuko gets better at the end of the episode.
- Book Dumb: Yuko, as a typical Stock Shoujo Heroine, doesn't do too well in school.
- Bowdlerise: The anime is still remembered in Italy for an episode that was infamously censored in the worst way possible. The entire episode is about Yuko getting her first period. In the Italian dub, in order to censor anything related to menstruations, all the dialogues were completely changed and the main plot point became "Yuko had a nightmare and she is worried about it being a premonitory dream". The result is utterly ridiculous, it's not clear why Yuko and her father blush when talking about this supposed nightmare, the tampon becomes an "anti nightmare talisman", and many scenes make no sense whatsoever. To make things even more confusing, the episode title is translated literally from the Japanese, "Major changes". What do these "changes" have to do with premonitory dreams?
- Boy Next Door: Hiroshi is literally this to Yuko. Yuko herself is a female example.
- Chastity Couple: Even after they start dating, Yuko's friends point out that Yuko and Hiroshi seem more Like Brother and Sister than an actual couple, since their biggest romantic moment was Hiroshi kissing her on the forehead. It takes a long time for them to have a real First Kiss.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Yuko and Hiroshi. Strangely enough it was Hiroshi who figured out his feelings for Yuko first and has been in love with her for a long time. She was very surprised when he confessed to her in the first episode. Yuko, on the other hand, starts to see him in a different light throughout the series and realizes that he is more than just a friend.
- Diet Episode: In one episode, Yuko tries to lose weight because she thinks she is too fat.
- Dogged Nice Guy: One story is about a boy with a huge crush on Takako. While she's rude to him, he keeps courting her in a friendly way. It helps that Takako is trying to hide that she likes him back, something she admits at the end. After the boy moves away, they keep in touch.
- Downer Ending: Most episodes have a happy ending and a proper conclusion, except one episode which ends with a cliffhanger with Yuko being mad at Hiroshi and refusing to forgive him. They will make peace in the next episode.
- Dub Name Change: Yuko is called "Yumi" in the Italian dub for some reason. Exactly, changing a Japanese name to... another Japanese name. In a similar way, Takako becomes "Rika".
- Everyone Can See It: Everyone can see that Yuko and Hiroshi are attracted to each other, even before they start dating.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Hiroshi used to wear glasses as a kid. After removing them in junior high, he suddenly becomes a Chick Magnet.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Takako is rude, stubborn, and abrasive, but she has a hidden softer side that shows in several occasions.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Takako has one of these with her boyfriend at some point.
- Lovable Jock: Hiroshi is part of the soccer team and a friendly Nice Guy.
- Naïve Everygirl: Yuko means well but is the typical naïve and shy teenage girl who is insecure and vulnerable in every situation.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Yuko and her two best friends in later episodes. Yuko always tries to please the other two (nice), Takako is a rude Tsundere (mean), and Kitano is a bit shy but can often argue with Takako (in-between).
- No Antagonist:
- All the characters love Yuko and just want the best for her, so the main character has no antagonists or rivals. At most, she has disagreements with her friends or with Hiroshi. The closest thing to a recurring rival may be Natsumi, who is also in love with Hiroshi causing Yuko's jealousy, but Natsumi is very much a Nice Girl who genuinely respects Yuko and understands that Yuko is the only one loved by Hiroshi.
- The first episode has two older students in the school band who act like Alpha Bitches to Yuko and Takako (also because of Takako's provocations), but then they are never seen again.
- Oblivious to Love: Yuko is generally clueless when a boy is interested in her, until the boy tells her to her face.
- Perspective Flip: In one episode after the Series Fauxnale, the beginning of the anime is retold from the perspective of Fuyuki, a Satellite Character friend of Hiroshi. We learn that he was secretly in love with Yuko since the beginning, and that he was jealously watching Hiroshi and Yuko falling in love with each other.
- Poor Communication Kills: Yuko and Hiroshi are extremely close, they are really attracted to each other, and they both know it, so their Relationship Upgrade shouldn't be a problem at all... in theory. They still manage to have many arguments and misunderstandings, usually caused by Hiroshi being Innocently Insensitive and Yuko being easily offended, when things would have been resolved much more quickly if Yuko talked with him clearly instead of getting upset.
- Relationship Upgrade: Most of the story is about childhood friends Yuko and Hiroshi evolving into an Official Couple.
- Satellite Character: Most characters outside of Yuko, Hiroshi, and Takako (and to an extent, Yuko's new friend Kitano later on) are mostly sidekicks who are not very important in the story and their roles mostly revolve around the main three.
- Series Fauxnale: The episode 39 was supposed to be the finale. Due to good ratings in Japan, the anime was renewed for 8 additional episodes.
- Shipper on Deck: All the classmates (boys and girls) ship Yuko and Hiroshi since the beginning. Among the shippers, there are also Takako and all the girls, even though all of them have a crush on Hiroshi, they still think that Yuko is the only lucky one who is destined to be with him. Even the teachers and the parents ship them.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Yuko and Hiroshi are never attracted to other people other than each other.
- Stock Shoujo Heroine: Yuko has most of the characteristics. She's a cute Naïve Everygirl with a red bow in her hair, is painfully shy, insecure, and Prone to Tears even for the smallest things, but she can be feisty when she wants to be. She's not very good at school, not very good at sports, and has an insecure crush on the most popular boy, even though she already knows he's in love with her. Also, everyone in her class likes her, because she's creative, kindhearted, and a good friend.
- Tsundere:
- Yuko is kind and well-meaning, but it's easy for her to angry and upset, especially when it comes to her Love Interest Hiroshi.
- Takako is mostly harsh. She has a caring and sensitive side, but is often too stubborn to show it.
- Those Two Guys:
- Shikito and Fuyuki are those two friends of Hiroshi. They both get more focus in the last few episodes.
- Mari and Rumiko are those Those Two Girls who are friends with Yuko and Takako.
- Twice Shy: Both Yuko and Hiroshi know about each other's feelings, but they are often too shy and confused to express them clearly, leading to all their misunderstandings.
- Weight Woe: In one episode Yuko wants to lose weight because (in her opinion) she doesn't look good in a swimsuit.
