The one on the right, in the cute pink dress, is a guy named Kou, who has to pretend to be a girl. The one on the left, with the big boobs, is a girl named Tsukiko, who has to pretend to be a guy. note
Samurai High School is a manga by Kashiwaba Hiro, which ran in Shonen Sunday Super from 2009 to 2011.
The story focuses on a pair of Half-Identical Twins. Sakakido Kou, the brother, is very feminine, excels at cooking, cleaning, arts and crafts, while Sakakido Tsukiko, the sister, is masculine, loves fighting and is a combat genius. The twins learn about the Samurai High School, where men test their strength and women test their femininity. For the man who stands at the top, he will be appointed Shogun, and for the girl who stands at the top, she will get to choose who she wants to marry. However, since the students are judged by how well they fit their gender roles, the only way they can attend is by swapping places. If they are to be found cheating, they and their family will be exiled to the moon for 500 years.
So get this, Kou is a guy who pretends to be his sister, being named Tsukiko, behaving like a feminine girl, which is his nature. Tsukiko is a girl who pretends to be her brother, being named Kou, behaving like a masculine boy, which is her nature. And then sometimes they aren't swapped (like during the beach episode), but then they have to put on the others personality.
Has nothing to do with the TV series with the same name, not to mention the American anime-inspired comic Ninja High School.
Samurai High School provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: School nurse Tomita is in love with Onikanda, whom he affectionately calls "Oni-chan". The latter is repulsed by this and wants nothing to do with him.
- Action Girl: Tsukiko is a martial arts expert who loves physical training and fighting. She's also one of the strongest characters in the series.
- Alice Allusion: When entering Kamiyama's dream, it quickly turns out to be a version of Alice in Wonderland, as is immediately lampshaded on the second page. The characters from the story are all played by characters from this manga, but sometimes with different characterization, as this is how Kamiyama envisions them.
- Alleged Lookalikes: Tsukiko and Kou are portrayed as Half-Identical Twins and can switch identities at whim without anyone noticing, even though their vastly differing height, body type, hairstyle and facial expression makes their appearances very distinct from each other.
- And the Rest: When naming the people who have to take a make-up exam, Onikanda calls out Kamiyama, Sakakido, Takeyama and the rest, with the first three being main characters and the rest is made up of those who are side characters at best.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Nothing escapes Mariri's keen eyesight, and she could immediately tell that Tsukiko is a girl by a single glance. She's also the only one who can tell when Tsukiko and Kou pull a Twin Switch.
- Berserk Button: While Kou is normally timid and passive, he becomes bossy and aggressive whenever his sister is concerned.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Kaya's father does not appreciate guys coming near his daughter, and even has 5 underlings to beat up anyone who dares make a physical contact with her.
- Butt-Monkey: Nobody really takes Kamiyama seriously (except perhaps his two bodyguards), and every time he tries to draw the spotlight to himself, he either gets ignored or snarked. He also gets frequently beaten up by Tsukiko.
- Character Development: Kamiyama grows from being a completely self-absorbed Upper-Class Twit, to actually showing concern and even respect for his "low-class" friends. This culminates in him ditching his rich peers during his birthday party when they went too far to insult his newfound friends.
- Comical Overreacting: All the time. Whenever something happens that is out of place or unsettling, even if it's only a little, someone will react with a gaping mouth and/or eyeballs popping out. Occasionally justified, since some of the things happening are indeed very ridiculous.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Although Kou and Tsukiko look attractive no matter which gender they portray, the school nurse Tomita is generally seen as a creepy pervert, because of his unwanted flirtatious habits while being the aforementioned trope.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Near the end of the series, Habama deals one to three of the best students, including Tsukiko, who at that point was one of the strongest characters in the series. However, she gets up after that, and continues to fight, until Kamiyama intervenes.
- Cut Short: It starts rushing towards the end in Chapter 24 with Kou and Tsukiko's scheme exposed and rapidly wraps things up in the next chapter, with the two being allowed to continue attending the school. Sadly, some side plot elements are Left Hanging.
- Dark Horse Victory: In the "King and Queen contest" held on Chapter 15, the teachers started betting on who would win: Kou or Sakurada. But near the end of the competition, Kamiyama accidentally activated some trap that messes up the arena. Tsukiko splits with Sakurada to save him, while Sakurada himself left to be with Mariri. The winner is some random couple who weren't even named.
- The Dividual: The bodyguards for Kamiyama, apparently dubbed "Left" and "Right", look pretty much the same, and always look after their master together.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Sakurada clearly loves Mariri more than she does him — he eagerly tries to get her on a date with him and behaves like an excited puppy around her, while she only cares about marrying the strongest of the strong and is obsessed with trying to get Tsukiko marry her younger brother.
- Doppelgänger: This is what the White King turns out to be for Tsukiko in the Alice Allusion dream sequence. The latter is actually kinda shocked, since he was described as a shitty guy, frightening man and a demon. Well anyway, since he has to be defeated to get Kamiyama to wake up from his dream, these two identical people engage in a fight. What makes this interesting is that they are both incredibly strong, and deal heavy blows to eachother, which they take on with ease.
- Double Standard: The boy Tsukiko has a crush on could accept the idea of losing a fight to a underclassman better than he accepts the idea of losing to a girl, as evidenced when he learned it was Tsukiko and not Kou who defeated him. And that's because he used to encourage her before the beginning of the series.
- Dream Land: After Kamiyama ends up being stuck in a dream for 20(!) hours after using a machine that manipulates his dreams, Kou and Tsukiko use this dream machine to dive into his mind to wake him up, leading to an Alice Allusion, as mentioned above.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: The only time when Kou actually kinda looks his gender is when he is shirtless, and not wearing his wig. Kinda. Otherwise he looks super-girly, and has child-like mannerisms too.
- Eaten Alive: In the Beach Episode, Tsukiko and Kamiyama fell of a cliff and got eaten by a giant fish. The whole thing is Played for Laughs, and the story continues in the next chapter as though it never happened.
- Effortless Amazonian Lift: Tsukiko can easily walk while carrying three people. She can even chase a thief while carrying them.
- Expy: Kaya is a very obvious parody of Princess Kaguya.
- Gag Series: Almost everything that happens in the story is Played for Laughs, and any time a serious conflict arises, it rarely affects anyone too badly and gets resolved rather quickly.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: During the boys' entrance exam, Tsukiko uses Kamiyama to beat up giant monsters. It was pretty much the reason the latter was able to pass, as the examiners thought they were working together.
- Heroic BSoD: Tsukiko went to a brief comatose when she discovered that her crush, Sakurada, has a fiancée.
- Horny Vikings: You know a school has badasses attending when one of the teachers is a damn viking, with big horns on his helmet, an eyepatch, chestplate and a big thick bushy beard.
- How We Got Here: Chapter 16 of the manga. It started with the twins being followed by members of the newspaper club and then it went back to when and how it began. Chapter 23 also invokes the trope.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Namisa, who is desired and beloved by every single student in the school, is suprised to be ignored by Tsukiko (who goes by Kou's name, and is believed to be a guy), and gets jealous of Kou (who goes by Tsukiko's name, and is believed to be a girl) for being clingy towards Tsukiko. Of course, she falls in love with "him" and becomes even clingier than Kou at times. And Tsukiko does not really give a damn.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A humourous variant: Namisa's obsessive fan club seem to be surprisingly alright with her declaring "Kou" as her Prince Charming. Some of them even helped her prepare a wedding ceremony with "him", knowing that it will make her happy.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: One of the guys Tsukiko defeated had this reaction upon learning it was her and not her brother who defeated him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kamiyama is an annoying Upper-Class Twit who looks down on everyone around him (calling them "low class" or "commoners") and treats Tsukiko as his servant. Despite this, he becomes genuinely concerned for her when she got sick.
- Lethal Chef: Tsukiko's first attempt to cook almost destroyed the kitchen, and caused physical injuries to her classmates.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: When Tsukiko decided to enter school as a boy, she considered cutting her hair but her brother said it'd not be necessary. Just holding it in a ponytail would be enough. He was right. Also, he wore a wig to pose as his sister.
- Magical Realism: The series features aliens, monsters, and various strange creatures, and Kamiyama frequently dabbles in what appears to be some weird form of magic. But the story focuses more on the twins' life as they try to assume each other's identities without being found out by the rest of the school.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: A platonic example. Sakakido Kou, the younger brother, is very good at doing house work, such as cleaning, cooking and sewing; whereas the older sister, Tsukiko is very much a samurai-like fighter.
- Megaton Punch: When Kamiyama lands his face on Tsukiko's breasts for the first time, her unsettlement causes him to get punched straight through the roof.
- Mistaken for Gay: After rescuing Tsukiko from the farce wedding that Namise had set up for them, Kamiyama brought her back to school by Bridal carrying her. Since Tsukiko was in a male disguise, this becomes a scandal when their school mates mistook them for a couple.
- Ms. Fanservice: Although there isn't much Fanservice, when it does show up, Tsukiko is the focus.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Kou is very dependent on his sister and constantly behaves like a Clingy Jealous Girl for her. He gets enraged when other people, be they guy or girl, gets too intimate with Tsukiko.
- Never My Fault: In the first chapter, Tsukiko says the reason she's mistaken for a guy is that her brother doesn't act like one.
- New Old Flame: Averted with School Idol Namisa, who was revealed to be Kamiyama's childhood love interest. But aside from that initial reveal, their past relationship was never really touched upon, and neither are interested on rekindling their love.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Shogun Habama is clearly based on President Barack Obama. They share similar facial features and, as Obama is the first black U.S. President, Habama is the first Alien Immigrant who got elected as Shogun.
- Non-Action Guy: Kou is a weakling who can barely lift a bat.
- Oh, Crap!: When leaving the Kamiyama residence in the night, the security system takes notice of them and, believing them to be intruders, starts pointing and firing multiple machine gun turrets at them. Cue "Oh Crap!" faces, as seen here
. - Out of Focus: Kou started off as a co-star with some chapters giving him focus, but he gets relegated to supporting character status as the series became more focused on Tsukiko
- Polar Opposite Twins: Sakakido Kou and his sister Sakakido Tsukiko are Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Martial Shogun Habama is a very easy-going guy despite his power. During his visit to the school, Tsukiko and Kamiyama started to fight and accidentally crashed in front of him, he simply laughed about how lively the students are. Later, when Tsukiko's true identity is discovered, he gets moved by her passionate speech, and allows her to continue her studies as herself, only giving her and Kou a punishment of a 6 months worth of supplementary classes, rather than a 500-year exile that was the rule.
- School Idol: Namisa is pretty much worshipped by all the male students in Samurai High.
- Serious Business: Tomita takes school plays very seriously and was willing to beat the crap out of his "beloved" Onikada when the latter failed to do the same.
- Shipper with an Agenda: Of sorts. Mariri is fascinated Tsukiko's willpower and wants her to be a part of the Kamiyama family. But since she obviously can't marry her herself, she would rather ensure that Tsukiko marries her younger brother, Tomoza.
- Shout-Out
- In the physical assessment chapter, Tsukiko's punch is measured as over 5000. This references the famous Dragon Ball line (it was changed to 9000 for the dub because it fit the mouth flaps better).
- In the Christmas Episode, a Santa applicant was dressed like Mario and trying to get down a chimney that looked like the pipes from the Mario games.
- During the Snow White play a few panels have Tommy and Kaya appearing as Tsukikage-sensei and Maya from Glass Mask.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Tomoza Kamiyama is an annoying loudmouth who never misses the opportunity to scream about how great he is, despite the fact that he's an incompetent moron who can barely achieve anything without his two bodyguards, and is taken seriously by no one. His older sister, Mariri, is a very charismatic Aloof Dark-Haired Girl whom the whole school admires, and is even considered an Onee-sama by Namisa.
- Skinship Grope: Mariri, already aware that Tsukiko is posing as a guy, calmly walks in on her while she is showering. The latter desperately tries to cover herself in the steamy room, but when Mariri has her in her reach, she drops her towel and firmly grabs Tsukiko's breasts. Seductively commenting on their size, Mariri moves their wet bodies closer together, laying a tender hand on Tsukiko's thigh, while bringing her face to the other, and, as the water drops roll over their skin, she whispers into the flustered girls' ear, asking if she will marry her brother. Who is a mean, arrogant, self-centered rich kid, that Tsukiko beats up on a daily basis due to her dislike of him. Cue a big "what!".
- Suicide as Comedy: When their grandpa realises he can't be Santa Clause, he instructs the oblivious Kou to tie a rope into a knot, resulting in the boy cheerfully holding up a noose. Grandpa then tries to hang himself while on his hospital bed, getting a comical reaction from Kou, who realises what just happened. It goes even further when, after this attempt fails, he tries to choke himself on rice, so Tsukiko resorts to grabbing his feet and swinging him up and down to make him spit it out.
- Suggestive Collision: Somehow it occurs multiple times throughout the story that the well-endowed Tsukiko lands her breasts on Kamiyama's face, or Kamiyama's face lands on her breasts, and it's always accidental. The funny thing is that Kamiyama never realises that he just copped a feel of a girls' breasts, since he's not aware that Tsukiko is, in fact, a girl. It does say something about how idiotic he really is to never notice it.
- Super-Strength: At the end of the entrance exam, Tsukiko floors a bear the size of a flipping house in one move. Her power is put on display numerous times throughout the manga, like when she shattered a boulder with her fist, or when she beats up Mooks. When pretending to be "Tsukiko", therefore taking on the role of the sweet, fragile girl that Kou puts up, this becomes jarring for people around her.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Tsukiko disguises herself as a guy, so that she graduate as Samurai High's top (male) student and eventually become the Shogun.
- Sword Beam: In the dream sequence chapter, during the final battle between Tsukiko and her doppelgänger, the White King, they can apparently use sentai swords to do this trick, as a showcase of their immense power.
- Tareme Eyes: Serves to make Kou even more cute and feminine than he already is.
- Those Two Guys: Kamiyama's two bodyguards who solely exists to follow him around and get the brunt of his weird antics.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Exaggerated. The Kamiyamas' patriarch is a diminutive man whose height barely reaches a normal person's knee. His wife is a gigantic woman that is at least two times taller than everyone else.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: For all her manliness, Tsukiko doesn't really appreciate being mistaken as a guy, and behaves like a normal, smitten teenage girl whenever she's around Sakurada.
- Tsundere: Kamiyama is a Type A towards Tsukiko, and Kaya (when agressive) is a Type A to Kou.
- Tsurime Eyes: With Tsukiko, this stresses her tomboyish nature. Also makes her glares more effective.
- Twin Switch: Kou and Tsukiko entered Samurai High School by posing as each other. They occasionally switched back whenever Tsukiko wanted to go on a date with her crush or watch her idol.
- Two-Teacher School: The only teachers we get to see are Nobara and Onikanda. Other staff include Tomita "Tommy", the school nurse, and the mostly unseen principal.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Simultaneously played straight and gender inverted with the Kamiyama family. Tomoza and Mariri are quite good-looking. Their parents are Gonks who barely look human.
- Upper-Class Twit: Kamiyama is a "high class samurai" who constantly flaunts his status and wealth, and never goes anywhere without his two bodyguards.
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Kou and Tsukiko were newborns at the beginning of the manga.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Kou wears a long-haired wig and dresses to assume Tsukiko's identity in Samurai High.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Samurai High School trains girls for this role.
