Manga / The Dangers in My Heart

I'm messed up...
— Ichikawa, Karte 1

The Dangers in My Heart (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu, or BokuYaba for short) is a shonen Romantic Comedy manga by Norio Sakurai. It began serialization in 2018 in Weekly Shonen Champion, later moving to Champion Cross a month into publication, and moving again to Manga Cross after the website merged with Champion.

Kyōtarō Ichikawa is utterly convinced he is the tortured main character of a "fearsome psycho-thriller" centering on "the dark side of adolescence." A recluse and isolated from the rest of his classmates, he spends his days fantasizing about ways to destroy the peaceful junior high life his classmates share. Surely this is a tale of a person at the very bottom caste of his school, who hides murderous impulses that lurk at the very bottom of his soul...

Right?

Not really. In actuality, this piece of work is a ridiculously sweet Rom Com about Ichikawa trying to maintain the peace (while still claiming he is a being of evil), and Anna Yamada, his class' idol who actually is a bit strange herself.

Think The End of the F***ing World meets Teasing Master Takagi-san, and you've got The Dangers in My Heart.

The manga has received multiple accolades, including a nomination for the 2020 Manga Taisho Award and taking first place for the 2020 Next Manga Award (web manga category) and the 2021 Tsutaya Comic Award Grand Prize. It is currently licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.

An anime adaptation by Shin-Ei Animation premiered on April 2, 2023. Simulcasted on HIDIVE here. The English dub later premiered on August 26, 2023. A second season was announced and start airing on January 6, 2024.

A Spin-Off called “Tsuiyaba, or "Twi-Yaba”, premiered in Japan on December 2023; adapting the many extra chapters posted on Norio’s Twitter Account. HIDIVE would later release it on January 1, 2024 on their service.

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The Dangers in My Heart provides examples of:

A-F

• Accidental Pervert:
  • Ichikawa also has his fair share of inadvertently finding himself creeping on Yamada, but it's implied that Yamada is every bit as self-conscious about her own attraction to Ichikawa.
  • Discussed when Adachi feels the need to ask an editor for Akita Shoten to what degree lucky lecher moments have a basis in reality during a class trip.
  • In a Vol.2 extra, Yamada decides to hide behind the bookshelf and drop/shove books onto Ichikawa for funsies. When Ichikawa retaliates, he shoves a book right into her chest without knowing. She then gives up and leaves.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Ichikawa’s not one to laugh in general, but even he can't help but chuckle when Chii tells him about how Yamada tried to wipe Crêpes cream off her face with more cream.
• Adaptational Badass: Episode 23 adds in Ichikawa giving Adachi "The Reason You Suck" Speech regarding his crush on Yamada during their mock-cavalry battle, and him head butting Adachi when the latter wants to give up the game.
• Adaptation Deviation: Yamada isn't actually shown have been sniffing Ichikawa's jersey through subtle details throughout the chapter, and she gives it back to him in the library (Though there is a motion implying she was right before Ichikawa walked in). In the anime they head to the nurses' room instead, and the crime in progress is shown.
  • In Karte 108, Kobayashi tells Ichikawa about Yamada's audition. In Episode 24, she only comments on Yamada and Moeko and Yoshida show up before Kobayashi could elaborate any further. This leads to Ichikawa finding out about it on his own. Ichikawa passingly cheering her up as a group leader comes much later in Episode 25 after they send Yamada off. (And it's played less for laughs)
  • The class makes a walk through the Torii gates directly after Karte 109. The anime instead leads to the events of Karte 112, as a result of having Ichikawa running towards the girl's area for Yamada.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Episode 3 expands Ichikawa's Love Epiphany toward Yamada by having her drop the drawing he gave her, now in a protective case she's been carrying it around in. There's also a flashback montage of her right before Ichikawa realizes he likes her.
  • In the manga, the Baki manuscript from Karte 25 isn’t actually shown. Episode 5 of the anime displays a page of Baki fighting Musashi Miyamoto.
  • Ichikawa’s Mushroom Samba dream of Yamada size-shifting gets extended, whereas it was two panels each in the manga.
  • The Family restaurant scene with Nanjou Senpai. In the manga, Moe quickly bails Ichikawa out when Nanjou spots Anna's name on Ichikawa's phone. In Episode 11, Ichikawa stands up to him and flat out refuses to give him Anna's contact info.
  • In Episode 23, the Mock-Cavalry battle is expanded with Ichikawa tearing into Adachi for declaring he likes Yamada; pointing out he just thinks she's pretty, never got to actually know her, and was fussing about the meaning of some "friend" chocolate Moeko gave him and the rest of the class, Ichikawa states he has no right to say he likes her. This also expands Adachi's own feelings of conflict. The anime also adds in Moeko later throwing a towel over Adachi's head after the battle.
  • Episode 24 adds more to Ichikawa's learning about Yamada choosing to stay on their school trip for his sake, as opposed to going to an audition for "Kimi-Iro Octave"'s live action series...
    • The episode keeps the two coming across each other the dormitories, and also adds Yamada looking at her phone, getting spooked by Ichikawa shwoing up and accidentally throwing her phone in the air. Ichikawa manages to catch it for her and sees an event scheduled for the audition.
    • His later "Eureka!" Moment presents flashbacks of moments in the episode itself, showing him piecing things together. In addition to him sharing his earlier troubles in school with her in Episode 12 to contextualize her reasoning for why she's staying on the air. Ichikawa's reaction is also played up, shedding for Yamada upon figuring she was crying over the phone and he didn't figure it out from her breathing. They also add him running to the girl's dormitories to see her, leading to the events of Karte 112.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head:
  • In Karte 49, Yamada does a simulation of this to give Ichikawa a good night's sleep over the phone by having him stroke his own head four times. Unbeknownst to Ichikawa, she's stroking the head of one of her stuffed animals at the same time.
  • She does it directly in Karte 133.
  Ichikawa: Don't touch.
  Yamada: Do touch.
• All Men Are Perverts:
  • Ichikawa has a special hatred for some of his male classmates (especially Adachi) because they're constantly making crude sexual observations of Yamada and her friends.
  • Adachi is pretty much disliked by Yamada's friends because of his tendency to talk about sexual things at inappropriate times, though Yamada herself is at least polite about it. He has such a poor understanding of when it is or isn't appropriate to talk about such things that he even asks a manga editor about lewd images in manga (asking if artists get themselves into those situations for research purposes) and openly drools over a swimsuit idol when he happens to see a poster of her in the manga studio. When Yamada mentions she and said idol are acquainted, he rattles off details about her chest size, pretty much disgusting both Yamada and Chii. He only realizes his blunder when he notices the Death Glare everyone is shooting at him.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Ichikawa has this opinion about his mother when she comes to school for a parent-teacher meet. He's especially horrified when it turns out his mother is sitting right next to Yamada and her much more glamorous mother while waiting for him. His mom adjusting her own sitting posture when Yamada's mom tells her daughter to do so really doesn't help.
  • Out of two of the times when Adachi's mom appears on panel, she's publicly dragging him by the collar or the ear.
• Ambiguous Situation: In Karte 33, Ichikawa and Yamada get their Phys Ed. jerseys mixed up in the chapter before. Ichikawa finds out before her and wisely keeps her jersey in his backpack while Yamada obliviously (perhaps..) puts his on during class. He tries to tell her that without alerting anyone else in public to no avail. While they eventually give each other’s jersey back at the library, Ichikawa also noticed that Yamada was subtly covering the nametag on (his) jersey between after-class and now, making him wonder when she realized they switched right down to when they were still in class.
• Anguished Declaration of Love:
  • Yamada turns down Nanjou for the last time, stating that she likes "someone else" and indirectly confirming to Ichikawa that she's in love with him. She breaks into tears from the emotional discharge of actually verbalizing her feelings for Ichikawa to someone else for the first time.
  • Kyōtarō cries from anxiety upon finally confessing to Yamada, while also convincing her to go to the live drama audition of Kimi Iro she wanted rather than miss it for his sake.
• Animal Motif: Cats for Ichikawa (standoffish, moody, solitary) and dogs for Yamada (energetic, social, loyal). Sometimes it's interchangeable.
  • In Karte 3, they both make cat sounds in the library to fool Kanzaki and Hara.
  • In their Vol.3 profiles, Ichikawa answers “cat” to what animal that people think he could be. And by "people" he means Yamada, who frequently compares his standoffish and solitary behavior to that of cats.
  • In an extra for Karte 12, she talks to Ichikawa about a stray cat she keeps seeing that keeps distancing itself from her whenever she approaches it. However, she manages to get closer to it each time. She got as close as one meter recently… as she stands close to Kyōtarō, who gets flustered and runs behind a bookcase.
    Yamada: See?
  • In Yamada’s Vol.3 profile, she answers to large breed dogs. In addition, cats and Welsh corgis (She keeps one as a pet) are her favorite animals. Yamada wears a dog-themed apron for cooking class In Karte 59. In Karte 89, Ichikawa gives a doggy-bone bracelet to her as a gift for White Day.
  • When asked whether she’s a cat or a dog, Ichikawa initially thinks of Yamada as a large breed of the latter. When he makes a “stay” gesture close to her, she impulsively rubs her head against his hand like a cat.
  • In Karte 37, Yoshida looks up figures of dogs and cats showing places where you can and can’t touch them, with a cat figure displayed as an example. She and Moeko draw one for Yamada on the chalkboard.
• Arc Words:
  • "Cute" (Kawaii), is the word Yamada wants to be called by Ichikawa the most and the one word Ichikawa struggles the most to call her. At least until Karte 89 and when it finally happens is considered a point of progress for the two.
  • "It's Okay", first uttered by Ichikawa when Yamada brings up the prospect of them getting placed in different classes for their third-year. Then she uses it when he gets anxious about delivering the farewell speech. The two adopt the phrase for whenever they're about to deal with something difficult.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: In Karte 109.1, Yamada fakes sleeping near Ichikawa and gets annoyed when he figures it out. She tells him to “do something”, but he thinks she’s talking about some kind of gag. She just rolls with it.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • While giving Yamada a ride on his bike, Ichikawa stops at a traffic light before the local police station and imagines getting busted by the police for two-person bicycle riding, along with his and Yamada’s reputation suffering and Yamada losing her part-time modeling job. Before he can bring it up she asks if he prefers chocolate or calpis-flavored Papico. His answer, chocolate, apparently means he’s the type who fears change. Ichikawa then decides to just ride past the station with her anyway.
  • In Karte 63, Yamada admits to Ichikawa that she constantly worries she's making her loved ones upset, and that they just aren't telling her out of politeness. Ichikawa tries to reassure her that he's not like that and that he'd have no problem speaking up and being brutally honest with her if she ever did something he didn't like. Yamada then brings up how he started avoiding her in the days leading up to the winter break, and expresses doubt that it was really just because he was busy like he said. Ichikawa, who had been giving her the silent treatment over a misunderstanding, then lied about it afterward to avoid hurting her feelings, is caught completely off guard and can only apologize and confess he's not as strong as he makes himself out to be.
  • Karte 75; Adachi brings Ichikawa to get girl advice from Nanjou. When Nanjou says that men and women can't understand each other, Ichikawa, who had been acting somewhat sheepish around him until then, calmly argues that you can in fact find shared similarities with a girl who's largely different from you and suggests trying to get to know and emphasize with them. Nanjou is silently taken aback by this… though not so much that it stops him from suggesting lingerie as a gift (Adachi asked).
• The Artifact:
  • Promotional material and extras would still have Ichikawa introducing himself as someone who possess "murderous impulses" despite the fact it was long ago that he dropped his Chuunibyou antics and some of the material referencing events that happened after he stopped "trying to kill Yamada", some material would also have Ichikawa still calling Moeko "a slut" even when they are pretty much Vitriolic Best Buds at worst now and Ichikawa has a much higher opinion of her.
  • The school library starts out as the most common location in the series, serving as a frequent hangout for Ichikawa and Yamada. Initially for their own individual privacy, and steadily becoming a platform for them to grow closer to the point where Ichikawa worries about Yamada getting banned for bringing snacks in there and no longer having a reason to keep being around him. As the story progresses, their relationship develops to the point where they don't need the library as an excuse to see each other anymore and it's seen less and less outside of extras as they spend time with each-other outside of school. It later on serves as the spot where Yamada finally confesses to Ichikawa and they become an actual couple.
• Audio Erotica: Ichikawa becomes a bit self-conscious about puberty finally causing his voice to crack and change. Yamada, upon hearing about this tells Ichikawa the following:
  Yamada: Once your voice changes... call me all the time, okay?
• Bait-and-Switch: On several occasions, Yamada has forced a sweet into Ichikawa's hand, only to reveal it's just the wrapper and Ichikawa realizes she expects him to throw it away for her.
  • Kana brings out a graduation album for the occasion of Yamada's visit to their house, to Kyotaro's annoyance. And then to his surprise, when it turns out to be Kana's book. Then it turns back to his annoyance again when she takes his response as an excuse to look through his album instead.
  • At the end of Season 1 of the anime, Yamada hands him an empty bag of kappa ebisen^note basically Japan's equivalent of prawn crackers. Then she hands him a piece of actual candy before the credits roll.
    Yamada: Just kidding!
    Ichikawa: Thank you.
• Beautiful Dreamer: While Yamada is sleeping aside from him in the infirmary in Karte 12, Ichikawa monologues about how white her skin is and compares her to a sculpture… then she opens her eyes. She has no problem with the staring since it’s someone she knows.
  • Yamada is sleeping beside him again in a Volume 8 extra, this time on her bed. He again comments on her beauty while she's sleeping... and remembers the above situation, and figures out she's faking sleep. He calls her out and an annoyed Yamada gives him a light punch.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted and Played for Drama when Anna gets hit in the face with a basketball. She seems to get over it quickly until her nose starts bleeding, revealing a fracture later. She spends a few chapters with a nose plaster, with the person who threw the ball feeling super guilty that the injury is interfering with her modeling job.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: While still within his “murderous-urges” phase, Ichikawa mused in chapter 1 about seeing Yamada’s “beautiful face contorted in pain”. The sight of her suffering from a nose injury horrifies and hurts him almost as much as it does her, and his delusions stop afterward.
• Big Damn Hug: Yamada gives Ichikawa an "apology" hug in Karte 43, to make up for her Fake-Out Make-Out from last chapter making him uncomfortable and causing him to avoid her. She tries to back off thinking he Hates Being Touched, but he pulls her back and assures her that he doesn't, leading to another hug.
  • She gives him another one in Karte 57, when he confesses to his feelings of isolation from his earlier time in middle school up until he started connecting with her. This time, he hugs her back.
  • Ichikawa gives Yamada one in Karte 63. Previous events (From her childhood, to Ichikawa breaking his arm for her) feeding into her Guilt Complex and a fear of her loved ones getting sick of her leads to Yamada breaking down in tears. When Yamada brings up him avoiding her for two days back in Karte 43 and doubting why he did it, Ichikawa gives her a Cooldown Hug and apologizes for not telling the truth.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Hilariously subverted. Yamada initially tries to kiss Ichikawa after finally confessing to him. They fumble around getting their faces to connect and do a quick Headbutt of Love instead. Double Subverted when Yamada kisses him on the cheek and runs out of the library yelling loudly celebrate.
  • Played straight in Karte 127. The two share their First Kiss in a stairway during Kana's concert after Yamada hears the song the Ichikawa siblings wrote; a remodel based on Yamada's Love Confession.
  • Karte 140 has Ichikawa initiating his own kiss for the first time, to ease Yamada's admitted guilt about having sexual thoughts about him and to ensure his goal of keeping Yamada from saying "I'm sorry" on their date.
• Big Eater: Yamada loves to eat, often asking for (and getting!) extra portions for mealtimes. She also loves snacking on sweets and candy, and part of the reason she and Ichikawa start getting closer is that she spends quite a bit of time in the library secretly snacking while he goes there to read.
• Birds of a Feather: While the duo are opposites in personality and their hobbies don’t mix that much, both of them overall are benevolent (In Ichikawa’s case, more than he’d acknowledge) to a fault, self-conscious and anxious, Endearingly Dorky, and lacking in athletic coordination.
  • Both of them have an active imagination, even if they’re positive and negative respectively. Yamada frequently comes up with random games and quizzes to challenge Ichikawa on the spot, and he gets into them more than he initially reacts. Even on the occasion when Ichikawa disects would-be scenarios like zombie apocalypses and/or last meals to eat, he's still adding details.
  • Both of them have self-esteem issues and feel inadequate at what they set out to do. Kyōtarō’s failure to get into the private school he wanted after elementary led to his barrier-building and self-loathing nature in the present. While looking through her photo album in Karte 63, Anna shares a history of her practicing ballet, the piano, swimming, etc. in her youth. She cried and quit immediately afterward whenever she felt that she couldn’t measure up to peers who got in later than her. She also believes that in her parents and friends’ efforts to console her after personal setbacks, they'll eventually see her as a burden after one too many.
• Blatant Lies: In Karte 1, Chii accuses Yamada of sneaking off to eat snacks. Yamada denies this, despite crumbs all around her mouth.
• Blessed with Suck: When the class changes seats in Karte 41, Ichikawa is placed across from Yamada... and he can't see any notes from behind her during class. That, and Adachi is seated near them. Hara manages to get Ichikawa's seat rearranged so that Yamada's not blocking his line of sight. Ichikawa's right next to Adachi, but hey, at least Yamada is still close behind him.
• Breaking Speech: Karte 85.3 reveals that Ichikawa did this in 4th grade to another student named Hosaka, who denied going out with Moeko and called her a hag. After seeing her crying, Ichikawa confronted the boy and told him that he would be financially ruined with defamation charges, forcing Hosaka to apologize to her while bawling his eyes out. Present! Moe actually calls Ichikawa scum for this when she finds out.
• Bookends:
  • Volume 3 starts with a chapter focused on Yamada trying and failing to get Ichikawa's LINE number, while the last chapter has her finally getting it. This also happens in the anime, but through a single episode due to the order of the chapters being adapted changing.
  • Yamada and Ichikawa’s first meeting and most frequent hangout spot is at the school library. In Karte 113, it ends up being where Yamada chooses to respond to his Love Confession in Karte 110 with her own.
  • Volume 8. The first chapter of the volume has Yamada questioning if she and Ichikawa are in a relationship, in the final chapter the answer becomes an unambiguous “yes“.
  • Volume 9. It begins with Ichikawa writing down Yamada's confession and it ends with him re-writing it for Kana's song.
  • Besides The Tag, "Twi-Yaba” starts with a segment of Ichikawa struggling to greet Yamada in the morning and it ends with a segment of Ichikawa struggling to say goodbye to Yamada.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Discussed between Ichikawa and Adachi. The latter notes that he can no longer… “get off” to Yamada and brings this trope up. Ichikawa thinks this means he doesn’t like Yamada seriously because he does think of her sexually. However, when Ichikawa asks what else Adachi likes about Yamada, he only brings up her legs. Ichikawa proceeds to leave feeling more uneased than usual by his perverted antics.
• Chocolate of Romance: The nature of conveying feelings through chocolate is discussed throughout Karten 72-74.
  • Adachi annoys Moeko and the rest of the class with his desperate attempts to find any sort of secret romantic feelings in the chocolate Moe’s giving out, right down to one of the nuts for being vaguely heart-shaped. Both Adachi and Moe’s opinions about this trope leave Yamada unsatisfied after she gives Ichikawa chocolate in the library, with the existence of "friend” chocolate rendering the line of how feelings are conveyed blurry.
  • Yamada sticks some chocolate paste on Ichikawa’s mouth and draws a heart at the corner of it before leaving. Ichikawa then buys a box of Melty Kiss and gives it to Yamada on his way home, reminding her that she said she was a boy at school.
• Chuunibyou: While he keeps it to himself, Ichikawa has this bad, often having "dark" thoughts about his classmates and life in general. Justified because he actually is a middle school student. However, as his relationship with Yamada progresses and he opens up socially, he gradually leaves this mindset behind.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Yamada shows shades of this where Ichikawa is concerned. In Karte 31 when Moe unwittingly interferes with her attempt to get his contact details and then gets his details herself, Yamada shoots her a terrible Death Glare.
  • Likewise, in Karte 35 when her best friend Chii asks Ichikawa to teach her science, Yamada sits with them looking hugely annoyed. When Chii accuses her of secretly improving her grades by asking Ichikawa to teach her, Yamada sourly notes that he's never taught her anything. Then when Chii leans toward Ichikwaw, Yamada takes hold of Chii's shoulders and gently pulls her away.
  • In Karte 72, Moeko gives out handmade chocolates to all the boys in her class. Yamada grumpily eats the last one just to make sure Ichikawa doesn't get it.
• Collective Death Glare: In Karte 4 Adachi heads over to Yamada's circle of friends for one of his strange and perverse personality quizzes. He's met with a paint-melting glare front lined by Yamada and backed up by the other three. He nearly loses his nerve. Nearly.
  • When Yamada and Ichikawa's group arrive at their work observation (a magazine office), their classmate Adachi notices a poster of a model on the wall. Yamada mentions she's worked with her before, and Adachi begins rattling off details about her that make it obvious he's leering at said model and hoping to run into her (or other models) at the office. He only shuts up when he realizes that not only are his classmates glaring at him, but so are office workers who overheard him.
• Coming of Age Story: In addition to being a romance between two middle schoolers, The Dangers In My Heart is about the young Ichikawa shedding his biases, insecurities and the barriers he built to protect himself from being hurt over the course of his time in middle school; growing as a person and beginning to believe in/love himself. The same goes for Yamada herself, coming to terms with her own weaknesses and worries.
• Commonality Connection: Yamada loans Ichikawa three volumes of Kimi No Octave after their work-study trip. After Ichikawa returns the books to her in Karte 44, Yamada asks what his favorite part was while she searches the pages of one book to share hers. Just as she found it, he says it’s a moment where the couple shares messages via notebook. Much to her surprise and delight, that’s also her favorite.
• Company Cross References: Ichikawa's work-study trip was to Akita Shoten, the real-life publisher of the manga. As such, various manga published by the same company were name-dropped, discussed, or displayed around the office, including Norio Sakurai's previous works Mitsudomoe and Rororro. Baki the Grappler in particular became the main attraction, with a footnote at one of the manga extras apologizing to "Itagaki-sensei" and the anime even showing one of the original manuscripts in full detail.
• Conversational Troping:
  • A surprising amount of characters do this. Besides Ichikawa always likens Yamada's antics with her Girl Posse to a Moeinvoked manga come to life (and trying very hard to convince himself he isn't a participant himself), Chii thinks a lot of Yamada's goofball moments is put on and is seemingly chagrinned that she's constantly playing the role of her Straight Man. Moe also seems to be surprisingly aware of event flags for someone that claims to not play many video games.
  • Even Yamada will comment on her funny situations with Kyōtarō, such as when she borrowed his raincoat for a complicated trip to a convenience store for an umbrella.
    Yamada: (defensively) I promise I'll come right back!
    Ichikawa: I wasn't doubting you...
    Yamada: Famous last words, eh?
    Ichikawa: Would you go already?
• Corrupt the Cutie: Done in Karte 112 when Yamada and her roommates engage in girl talk, and one of them explains to her how adults sometimes just have sex and decide afterward whether they're compatible or not. A horrified Ichikawa (hidden in Yamada's futon) overhears and is further horrified when Yamada whispers into his ear and asks if she's an adult.
• Cram School: Ichikawa frequently mentions that he attends one in between school breaks. It's also how he met his friends Kinoshita and Tadano before elementary school.
• Crash-Into Hello: Yamada tends to greet Ichikawa by deliberately bumping into him, to his chagrin. He's wondered at least once if Yamada intends to mug him.
• Cuteness Proximity: Ichikawa becomes so enamored by Yamada’s new blonde-hair that his inner monologue devolves into jumbles of connected words before finishing at "CUUUUTE!!!"
• Death Glare:
  • Ichikawa often has one as he listens in on the shenanigans that go on in class.
  • Yamada gives an epic one in Karte 31 when her friend Moeko unwittingly prevents her from getting Ichikawa's contact details and then gets those details herself. The glare is so powerful that Ichikawa is taken aback.
  • She demonstrates it again in Karte 68 when Moe pulls off a Boyfriend Bluff with Ichikawa in a well-meaning but misguided attempt to throw Yamada's mother off the track.
• Delayed Reaction: On a walk from school in a Vol. 4 extra, Ichikawa lets Yamada touch the hand belonging to his fractured arm to see if he feels pain. Then they continue their walk and talk about the prospect of Yamada getting an injury while unknowingly still holding hands. Then they realize they’re holding hands on the next page, but neither of them brings it up or lets go and continue their conversation as naturally as they can.
• Did Not Do the Bloody Research: One Twitter comic features Ichikawa in a cap with the words "SUPER FUCK" written across it in English. Even if it's pretty in-character for someone like Ichikawa to wear it, it's still a little jarring given the younger demographic the series is targeted at.
• Didn't Think This Through: Ichikawa, when he sends Yamada a picture of his arm in a sling from falling down a hill in Akita, and then the picture of snow he took at the exact moment he got his arm broken. In both instances he thought that they could laugh over it, genuinely not expecting how much Yamada actually cares for him. While the first time could be forgiven, he really should have known better after that, not considering that Yamada would blame herself since he said he was taking photos of snow for her in the first place.
• Discarded, Not Delivered: Near the end of Karte 124, Yamada is typing "I miss you" to Ichikawa. But she relents from sending it, feeling guilty about sending pictures of herself in swimsuits she was shopping for while he was busy studying. Then he texts her hello, assures her that she's the exact opposite of a bother to him, and messages "I miss you" himself.
• The Ditz: Among Yamada's circle of friends (and to Ichikawa), she's this. Ichikawa once managed to convince a teacher to let Yamada off the hook by basically pointing out that Yamada was such a ditz that she probably wrongly admitted to the crime she was accused of. He wisely did this by using such abstract language Yamada didn't fully get that she was being subtly insulted, but she mentioned feeling put out despite her gratitude. (She more or less got the hint in the manga.)
• Erotic Eating: Sometimes Yamada does this, seemingly without meaning to. Only Ichikawa seems to notice, so it's entirely possible it's all in his head.
  • That said, when she does stuff like open her mouth to show she just handed him an empty wrapper and the actual sweet is in her mouth, it often results in Something Else Also Rises.
• Epic Fail: Ichikawa steps up to solve a math problem in front of the class, in order to signal Yamada that she’s wearing his jersey (And to keep Adachi, who was called to solve it, from finding out.) Not only does she not seem to pick up on anything despite gazing at him, Ichikawa holding his thumb to his chest makes the class think he’s making a "leave it to me" pose regarding the problem (Which may explain why Yamada was gazing at him). And he fails said problem.
• Everyone Can See It: Plenty of characters have noticed there's something going on between Yamada and Ichikawa when watching them interact:
  • Both Hara and Nanjou's friend Mamiya figured it out by watching how they act around each other in the library.
  • Kana notices her brother has feelings for Anna when she sees them talking over the phone, and then realizes Anna likes him back when she remembers she came to visit him while he was sick.
  • When Ichikawa admits to Moeko that he might like Anna, she tells him she's already known about it for ages.
  • Yoshida can be seen quietly putting the pieces together when Ichikawa shows up to Yamada's home on the day the girls were meeting up to make Valentine's chocolates, while Yamada dresses up nicer than usual for the occasion.
• Eyes Always Averted: Ichikawa generally speaks to other people like this, though he'll properly look his teachers in the eye when talking to them.
• Eye Scream: Yamada tries to put glasses on Ichikawa’s face in Extra 54.2. But she also wants to surprise herself and keeps her eyes closed-shut while doing it, resulting in him getting poked in the eye by the glasses' temple.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: Deconstructed. Yamada draws Ichikawa’s face close to hers to ward off Nanjou as he's walking into the library. It works and he leaves, but Ichikawa feels "used" as a result and the feeling is only worsened overnight by his own pessimism. It comes to a point where he avoids meeting or interacting with her for two days.
• Family Eye Resemblance: The Ichikawa family (Sans Kyōtarō’s dad, who never opens his eyes) all have blue concentric eyes.
• Fate Drives Us Together: Beyond them sharing the library, Ichikawa crosses paths with Yamada at a magazine shop, on the way to school or from school, at the nurse's office, near a snack shop and at a restaurant by sheer coincidence.
• First-Name Basis: Yamada calls her friends by nicknames or first names, and Moe is the only one of the Girl Posse who calls her "Anna".
  • After several chapters of calling each other by last name, Yamada starts making an effort to call Ichikawa by this. Initially she asks if it’s okay to call him “Kyo” after a basketball game with him. She seems to chicken out the next day and goes back to calling him “Ichikawa" without realizing afterward. She settles for just calling him "Kyōtarō" after spending the night at his house, though she still calls him "Ichikawa" in public so that no one gets any ideas.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: After getting hit with a stray basketball, an angry Ichikawa is about to toss it back at whoever did it. He stops at the last second when it turns out to be Yamada and he just returns it. Ichikawa also notes that she tends to leave herself open. This is all moments before she gets hit in the face with a basketball because she was staring at him for too long.
• Flowers of Romance: There's an illustration celebrating June the 12th, the anniversary for Ichikawa and Yamada becoming an actual couple, features the two leads in a field of flowers. Ichikawa is putting a flower hat on Yamada’s head while holding a bouquet behind him.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Using another one of Nanjou’s pickup lines, Yamada tells Ichikawa that her family has a bunch of games at their house and suggests inviting him over under her breath. Her father invites Ichikawa to play games with him the first time they meet (he’s also the only one who actually plays video games there.)
  • In their Volume 3 profiles, Yamada answers "Nico Kouda" on who her favorite actress is. The woman herself first appears in Karte 81.
  • In Karte 16, Yamada tells Ichikawa she’s quitting the basketball club after her nose injury, with a rather forlorn look on her face. Later in Karte 63, we learn she’s already quit several activities and hobbies throughout her youth.
  • When Ichikawa reveals that his friends in elementary moved to private school in Karte 56, Yamada is about to say something but relented and move on to another subject. As it turns out, she also failed to get into private school amongst her other short comings in her childhood.
  • When Ichikawa is reading through pigman1209's self-pitying tweets in Karte 96, we're shown one complaining about being ignored by a cab driver. This gives us an early hint to the identity of the account's owner, as it's the same thing Nico Kouda was crying about in Karte 81.

G-O

• Girl Posse: Chii, Moeko and Serina are prepared to guard Yamada and deflect questionable male attention from away from her at a moment's notice. Ichikawa notes that their process in doing this oddly resembles a tactical battle formation.
• Gone Horribly Right: In Karte 115, Ichikawa starts to worry that his family may have seen the piece of paper he wrote Yamada's Love Confession down on, and tries to cover for himself by claiming that he's been writing lyrics. Unfortunately for him, Kana happens to be struggling to write a new song for her band at the time, and begs Kyōtarō to show her his "lyrics" for inspiration. When he finally relents, she thanks him by giving him two tickets for her next show, meaning Yamada will be one of the first people to hear a song very obviously based on her own confession.
• Go Through Me: On a night walk through the neighborhood with Yamada in Karte 92, Ichikawa notices what seems to be a stalker following them. Although he’s terrified, he places himself in front of Yamada prepared for a confrontation. Fortunately, it’s just Kyōtarō's dad, who didn't know whether to just call out to his son.
• Graceful Loser: After confessing to her after the farewell ceremony, Nanjou humbly accepts Yamada’s decline and leaves. Moreso, after she confessed that she liked someone else, Nanjou figured out that it was Ichikawa (Who was in the same room) and tried to stall the nurse from coming in to let them have a moment.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • As his feelings for Yamada grow, Ichikawa becomes much less tolerant of boys talking about her in a sexual way. Even before that, he was very wary of other boys who approached her. He is at least willing to acknowledge they aren't complete scumbags, as is the case with Nanjou-senpai who Ichikawa distracted by "accidentally" sending his bike crashing into a canal but who helped him fish it out.
  • Yamada is this whenever other girls get too close to Ichikawa. She shoots a Death Glare towards him and Moeko while the two are exchanging their LINE, and silently moves Chii a few feet from him when she gets too close.
• Guilt Complex: Yamada will feel immediate guilt and responsibility for any inconvenience that she even thinks she causes others. At most, she's quick to apologize. At worst, and sadly quite often, she'll break into tears. This applies even if it's not something she actually did and someone's doing something on her behalf, such as Ichikawa getting his arm in a cast while taking pictures of snowfields in Akita for her, which he proposed. She later admits to having developed a fear of her friends and loved ones eventually hating her from a history of many screw-ups.
• Headbutt of Love:
  • In a Vol.7 extra, Yamada puts a handful of sakura petals on Ichikawa’s head and starts a game; whoever loses all the petals on their head first along their walk home loses. Yamada spends so much time trying to trick him into moving his head (and failing) that she bumps into a pole. Ichikawa immediately rushes to see if she’s alright and loses most of his petals. Then Yamada “loses” by bumping her head into his to trade her petals.
  • By the time they’ve both confessed by Karte 113, they attempt a Big Damn Kiss but ultimately fumble about it and settle for this trope. Then Yamada kisses him on the cheek.
• Held Gaze: While forced against each other while riding an elevator with so many people, Ichikawa keeps his eyes closed so that he wouldn’t have to stare at Yamada for too long. By the time he hears the ding, he opens his eyes and sees Yamada staring into his face even after the other occupants leave.
• Heroic RRoD: Played for Laughs. After delivering the farewell speech to graduating students, Kyōtarō turns white and collapses from the exhaustion of having to speak to so many people. While has to be taken to the infirmary, he recovers well enough.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs:
  • Ichikawa has bangs that go over his right eye. It's notable enough that at one point when his hair is brushed aside during a race, Yamada teases him by pointing out it's the first time she's seen his right eye.
  • Yoshida has long bangs as well, but not to the extent of Ichikawa's.
• Holding Hands: On their first out-of-school hangout, Yamada has Ichikawa hold one side of a shopping bag with her, to keep them from getting separated and most likely to simulate this trope unbeknownst to him. There also happens to be an adult couple doing this behind them. By the end they’re forced into holding hands for real when a crowd of people block their view of each other on a train. They kept holding hands on their walk home, unsure of when to let go.
• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Quite often early on, Yamada unknowingly curses Ichikawa with a Raging Stiffie after getting too close to him.
  • It also goes both ways. Ichikawa gives her an ear stimulation when he was just trying to quietly tell her to hide some candy from the librarian. In trying to keep Yamada from seeing some magazines that she models for in his bedroom, he pins Yamada to the bed and seemingly awakens a collar bone fetish in her.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The title of every main chapter is a first-person statement beginning with either "I" or "We", such as "I Met Up With Her" or "We Got Separated". The chapters themselves are called "kartes", which is a medical term in Japan for a patient's chart; signifying Ichikawa being cured of his Chuuni condition as the story goes on.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: While overhearing Yamada crying to her mother on the phone from a basketball injury, Ichikawa also starts crying and briefly questions himself on why.
  • To her initial confusion, Yamada cries from anxiety while shooting a movie scene where she acts out as a rebellious daughter. She confides to Kyōtarō later on that she may have been unknowingly drawing inspiration from him admitting to feeling anxiety around his parents during Yamada's stay over at his house.
• Indirect Kiss: Yamada gives Ichikawa some medicine for a headache. When he reaches the sink for water to drink the pill down, he sees a cup already wet, checks medicine to see a pill missing and realizes Yamada already drank from the cup. He almost forces himself through it until he hears Yamada suddenly get up and leave the infirmary, swallowing the pill down his throat dry with a startled gulp.
• Injured Limb Episode: The Ichikawa family's trip to Akita in Karte 50 is cut short when Kyōtarō suffers a nasty fall exploring the woods, fracturing his right arm. He spends the rest of the winter break and the start of the next semester with his arm in a sling and has to adapt to using his non-dominant hand for everything.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Ichikawa is an example of the "no social skills" variety. Because of his low self-esteem and general unfamiliarity with social interaction, he often misreads or completely misses Yamada's attempts to get to know him or spend time with him. Generally, she laughs it off and finds it kind of adorable, but on one or two occasions she clearly feels taken aback.
  • In Karte 33, Hara is surprised/amused that Yamada has never had a boyfriend, figuring that she of all people ‘’had’’ to at some point. While Hara wasn’t really trying to mock her, Yamada was clearly not amused. At all.
• Internal Homage:
  • At the very start of the series Yamada first looked at Ichikawa with seeming indifference before turning her head away. Ichikawa does the same in Karte 43 in an effort to ignore her. Both scenes are choreographed in three panels. In Karte 75, the order is reversed with Yamada looking at Ichikawa.
  • Karte 85 homages the moment of Ichikawa's Love Epiphany where he realizes that Yamada likes him in the infirmary; secretly watching her from behind the curtains of his sick bed much like how he was watching from underneath a bed during the incident of her nose injury.
  • Karte 113 has Ichikawa entering the library to find Yamada snacking on chips, with her in the exact same posture and framing as when they had their first encounter there.
  • The covers of both Karte 40 and Karte 121 both present Ichikawa and Yamada in the storage room. Only 121 shows them as more physically developed and intimate.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: In an Omake chapter, Yamada gets Ichikawa to roleplay a zombie scenario, to which Ichikawa claims he'd shoot a zombified Yamada without hesitation. Hearing this, Yamada begins slowly lurching towards him moaning. Ichikawa to his surprise does indeed hesitate, just for a second, as Yamada pulls Ichikawa in for a pretend bite. Both of them can be seen blushing as Yamada draws closer to his neck.
• Interrupted Declaration of Love: Upon gifting Yamada with a bone bracelet, Ichikawa encourages himself to finally confess that he likes her. He stops once he sees her crying Tears of Joy after he says she's "so cute he could die" with it on, opting to dry her tears instead and be comfortable with their moment as of now.
  • In Karte 101, he tries again to confess to Yamada while they’re behind the library curtains. The mood gets ruined when they see their new classmate Hanzawa standing there watching. He tries to do it again, and Hanzawa’s standing even closer.
• I Was Just Passing Through:
  • Ichikawa rushes to the Home Economics room to grab Yamada a cup so she can mix water in with her Nerunerunerune ^note  Mix-it Mix-it candy before lunch break ends. On his way back with the cup, he sees Yamada already mixing her candy at the school sinks. Upon her noticing him, he then pours himself some water and drinks from the cup to save face.
    Yamada: Oh, how refined!
    Ichikawa: (Thinking) Shut up!
  • Yamada “accidentally” bumps into Ichikawa while he’s in line at a food court and chats with him about his sister. Just when she decides to order soft serve, she finds out that she left her wallet upstairs prompting Ichikawa to ask if she came to get food in the first place. After a pause, Yamada says that she came for the bathroom. Which he points out is upstairs. After she leaves for her wallet, he realizes that she only came just to talk to him.
  • In Karte 61, Moe comes across Ichikawa searching for “something” (a doggy keychain from his family trip that he gave to Yamada as a gift) out in the snow. She says that she was on her way to Yamada’s home and allows him to come along, something that he obliges to knowing he has a better chance of finding it close to where Yamada lives at. When he meets Yamada herself, Moe suddenly gets a “call” that her brother is in the hospital and walks off. A character Q&A revealed that she completely forgot about her brother’s “incident”.
  • In Karte 74, Yamada visits Ichikawa on Valentine's Day night, claiming that she's changing up her walking route with Wantarou and just happened upon his house. She's also carrying a bag with a chocolate muffin for him.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Played With. While he’s confessing to Yamada, Ichikawa prioritizes convincing her to not skip out on a drama audition she really wants and attend their school field trip just for his sake, arguing that he can have fun on the trip even without her around... and then stating that it's because of her that he's at such a point. However, it's not a permanent or severe sacrifice to begin with and Ichikawa isn't forsaking his love for Yamada for her happiness. Instead, the result of this ends up with Yamada later confessing to him in kind and finally becoming his girlfriend.
• Iyashikei: Despite Ichikawa's best efforts, the manga is most notable for how sweet it is.
• Just a Kid: After Yamada comes back to school with a nose plaster from getting hit in the face with a basketball, her friends remark in the middle of Kobayashi consoling her that accidents are bound to happen. Yamada's mom and modelling manager apparently said the same thing, saying "You're in middle school. These things just happen." which according to Yamada hurts more than her nose.
• Kill the Ones You Love: It doesn't actually happened but while playing through a zombie scenario, Ichikawa does reluctantly "kill" the "zombie" Yamada. And even though it's not real, he does shoot himself afterwards since he can't imagine living in a world without Yamada.
• Last-Name Basis: The student cast addresses each other by their last names, as is typical of their age group. Yamada uses first-name basis with her friends, while Moe is the only one who calls her "Anna". When Yamada and Ichikawa are forced to call each other by first name, even if one of them isn't around the other, the two either stutter or get tongue-tied.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In Karte 35 Ichikawa is shanghaied into helping Chii study (since he scores so highly in science). She points out that she's surprised he's able to speak normally, since as far as she remembers he often speaks in very wobbly and shaky speech bubbles.
  • During their school trip, Kyōtarō accidentally winds up in the girl's room alongside other girls thanks to their teacher mistakenly thinking he was Chii (not helped by his face being hidden by a towel at the time since he'd just come out of the bath). When Yamada slips into her futon right by him, he mentally demands to know why he keeps getting into these situations.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Kana figures out that Ichikawa gave his “lost” dog souvenir to Yamada as a gift, stealthy leaves the one she bought next to him on the couch, and leaves out the house.
  • In extra chapters where the two stroll into the nurse's office, the nurse herself is suspiciously outside the room or sleeping in a bed with a peaceful smile on her face.
  • Nanjou tries to do this for the two after Yamada rejects his confession, moving out of the infirmary and even trying to stall the nurse from coming in. He’s shocked when Ichikawa immediately tries to leave, and resigned when Yamada comes right out and both of the two walk away from each other.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Ichikawa buys Yamada a bottle of Milk Tea, her favorite drink, to help her cheer up after they’re unknowingly left behind by their work-study group (Which she feels is her fault). 36 chapters later, Yamada reveals that her parents used to treat her to her favorite meals whenever she got upset.
  • Ichikawa shares a few similarities with her father; bangs that cover their face, nonstandard eye designs, introverted personalities, odd and aloof methods of interaction, somewhat gloomy expressions, and a love for video games.
  • During the parent-teacher conference, Kyōtarō’s mom awkwardly adjusts her posture just as Yamada did at her mother’s request.
• Longing Look: Among the first signs of her growing interest in him, Ichikawa catches Yamada staring his way during basketball practice. When they later get cramped together in an elevator, she stares into his face for a few seconds in a daze. After completely falling for him, she does it consciously with a smile.
• Love Confession: Kyōtarō confesses to Yamada on Karte 110. Yamada responds to his feelings in kind on Karte 113.
• Love Epiphany: Ichikawa realizes he's paying more attention to Yamada than his other classmates, but chalks it up to the fact that she's such a lively and beautiful person she automatically draws attention. But then she gets smacked in the face by a basketball, starts bleeding from the nose and needs to be taken to the nurse's room. He follows her there and overhears her tearfully apologizing to her mother for getting hurt (since she had a photoshoot coming up). He starts shedding tears from empathy and realizes that he likes her.
• Love Interest vs. Lust Interest: Ichikawa has a crush on Yamada, looks out for her, and spends time getting to know her. Sho Adachi also has a crush on her, and much to Ichikawa's annoyance, he can't shut up about whatever sexual fantasies he has about her. When Ichikawa asks Adachi about anything else he likes about Yamada besides her face, he gets confused and goes on about the rest of her looks.
  Adachi: Is there anything other than that?
  Ichikawa: (thinking) There are plenty of things!
• Love Letter Lunacy: Adachi (with Ichikawa as his begrudging accomplice and witness) tries to put a "thank you" letter in Moeko's locker as thanks for the (friend's) chocolate she gave out for from the Valentine's Day Episode. Adachi botches his attempt to act cool by throwing it in the locker without looking, resulting in it being put in Yamada's locker instead and a misunderstanding where Yamada and Moeko think Ichikawa was secretly giving a love letter to the former. Ichikawa has to sit them both down for a talk while he thinks of way to clear things up... which is never done even after Adachi's mom drags her son along to thank Moeko himself. Yamada still ends opens the letter thinking it's from Ichikawa.
  Dear lovers, the chocolate was totally delish. SUPER thanks. Keep on doing all the stuff I love. Kiss kissy kiss. (Imagine Spot of Ichikawa blowing a kiss)
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Yamada eats the last piece of chocolate that Moeko left on Ichikawa’s desk specifically so he wouldn’t eventually eat it, and then declares herself to be a dude for Valentine’s Day. Later on, Ichikawa buys a box of Melty Kiss chocolate and gives it to her, reminding her about what she said.
    Ichikawa: That’s what you said back in the classroom right? That today you’re a boy.
  • Kyōtarō overhears Anna rehearsing a Love Confession scene from Kimi Iro Octave for an audition for its live action adaptation, though she says it with a lack of zeal due to her conflict between going for the audition and attending the school trip to Nara with Kyōtarō. Her own confession for Kyōtarō later on is modeled after her rehearsal using the same dialogue. Not only does she say it with more confidence, but she switches out “I like you” with;
    Anna: I love you!
• Male Gaze: Played with often. Ichikawa at worst tends to put himself down if he finds himself sneaking glances at Yamada, other times he becomes hyper aware and his eyes dart everywhere in panic whenever Yamada very suddenly draws closer to him. On the other hand, Adachi's most flagrant bout of leering at Yamada comes while Yamada finds herself tangled in a net in the middle of an obstacle course, which to Adachi's sick head must probably resemble shibari ropes. His leer is so intense his character model changes and Ichikawa intervines by blocking him with cheering fans.
• Meet Cute: Played with. Yamada and Ichikawa are classmates, but apparently didn't really interact much until he happened to walk into the library when she was stuffing her face. He also lent her a retractable knife when he saw her trying to work on a class project (In an amateurish manner. She tried ripping the paper with her bare hands before he handed his knife over.)
• Mistaken for Flirting:
  • After a seat rearrangement in class, Ichikawa tries to come up with a way to tell Yamada that she was blocking his view of the blackboard without bringing up her height. He starts with “I could only see you”, right when Yamada was moping about him taking notes from Hara. He isn’t able to finish his sentence when he notices Yamada is swooning over what he just said.
  • When Yamada asks (over text) what Ichikawa said about her to his sister, he tells her that they’re friends... “at least for now.” Ichikawa meant that that’s the explanation of what he’s going with. Yamada's focused on the “for now” part, and gets giddy assuming that he’s talking about a future Relationship Upgrade.
• Mistaken for Gay: Ichikawa has intervened in Adachi's antics enough that Adachi wonders out loud if Ichikawa's coming onto him.
• Mood Whiplash: On Valentine's Day 2021, Sakurai uploaded a sweet, romantic comic to her Twitter with Ichikawa buying Yamada a box of chocolates as a gift. A few days later, she followed it up with a page where Yamada messages Ichikawa to complain about she's having to work out extra hard to burn the calories from those chocolates, but phrases it in the most suggestive way possible.^note For those who can't read Japanese, she's saying she's "bouncing up and down" and "covered in sweat" because she's using an exercise ball.
• Musical Episode: Karte 127 is a rare manga example but besides the first few pages, the whole dialogue is the song Primary Color is playing. Volume 9 even had a special edition that included the song on a CD.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Ichikawa has this when Yamada confronts him for avoiding for two days when he was under the false assumption that she was only using him to ward off boys trying to pick her up. He realizes that he’s wrong about her when Yamada starts using tissues that he left for her in the library after her nose injury.
  • Both of them share this moment when Ichikawa shows Yamada pictures of snow that he took for her on his family trip to Akita, including one taken at the exact moment where he got his arm broken, severely underestimating how she’d react. Yamada feels guilty about him getting injured because of something he was doing for her, while Ichikawa tries to tell her it’s his own fault in a panic.
• Non-Verbal Miscommunication: In the first scene of the series, Yamada catches Ichikawa staring at her while she's joking around with her friends and gives him an icy look before turning away, which Ichikawa interprets as her being disgusted by the sight of him. According to the 'Episode Zero' bonus chapter though, this was just because Yamada has a habit of reflexively tensing up and making a serious face whenever someone notices her goofing off due to her mother always reminding her to behave herself in public.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Yamada sometimes comes right up to Ichikawa when talking to him, often making him back up in a flustered panic. She seems to do this subconsciously, though, because on the one occasion Ichikawa moved right up to her to whisper in her ear (to warn her a teacher was coming and to hide her candy) in Karte 37, she's the one who jolted away.
• Not So Above It All: Ichikawa pretty much thinks of the other boys in his class as perverted morons and lambasts their sex talk/antics in his head. While he doesn't go as far as them, it does make him curious when it comes to Yamada.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Ichikawa usually thinks to himself in moments with Yamada; that for all their differing traits on the surface, they have similar doubts and worries.
  • When Yamada glares at Moe in Karte 31, Ichikawa internally notes he's familiar with those murderous eyes.
  • When Adachi awkwardly admits to Ichikawa that he "can't jack off to Yamada anymore" (while still only referring to her in sexual terms), Ichikawa wonders if he feels disgusted at the exchange because he knows he's thought about Yamada in sexual terms as well, let alone all the times it's implied Ichikawa has had to go relieve himself after feeling overwhelmed by her.
  • He bought a dog souvenir from Akita to give to her In Karte 51, knowing she likes dogs. When he meets Yamada again next chapter he gets cold feet, considering giving a girl a souvenir as something heavy and that him knowing she likes dogs is "creepy". Ichikawa also brought back her muffler from their last hangout, only for Yamada to confess that she wanted to give it to him as a gift but didn’t think he would like it. This is what makes him hand over the souvenir, while noting that they're a bit similar.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Subverted. In Karte 30 the school staff found a candy wrapper in the library and put up a sign forbidding snacks. Ichikawa thinks that Yamada will no longer go there for brunch and that they’ll stop meeting as much. Yamada casually goes back to snacking anyway. Eating food in the library was already forbidden in the first place and a sign isn’t changing anything. Although they both still make a bigger effort to hide the snacks after the librarian almost catches her eating chocolate right after Yamada says the above.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • In Karte 18, a teacher walks into the chemistry lab to find Yamada kneeling in front of Ichikawa behind a desk, coughing and covered in a sticky substance. Ichikawa quickly confesses that the two of them snuck in to prepare a dessert in one of the beakers and Yamada accidentally spilled it on herself, which gets them both in trouble, though almost certainly not as much trouble as they'd have been in had he not explained himself.
  • In Karte 100, Ichikawa and Yamada hide under the teacher's desk when Moe and two of their new classmates walk in while Yamada is in the middle of attaching a new wallet chain to Kyōtarō's pants. After their classmates leave, Ichikawa stands up with Yamada's foot on top of his new chain. Ichikawa is standing with his pants down and Yamada still on the floor right when Moe walks back in for something she forgot.
    Moe: I'm never covering for you two again!
  • In a bonus comic set some time after the above Ichikawa runs into Yoshida outside a convinience store, who promptly begins checking him out and snaps a picture of his butt with her phone. Ichikawa wonders if she's hitting on him until she grabs his wallet, at which point he assumes he's being mugged and runs off. Neither of these is the case — Yoshida had just noticed he was wearing the wallet chain Yamada gave him and wanted to send her a photo of it.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • Even though Ichikawa realizes he likes Yamada fairly early in the series, he often misses or misreads cues that show she likes him in return. For example, at one point Yamada tries to subtly get him to give her his LINE but all her hints soar right over his head.
  • While it's pretty clear Yamada likes Ichikawa, she at times doesn't seem to realize how some of her actions are really affectionate (such as having no problem clasping hands with him... in order to pass him some sweet wrappers to throw away for her).
  • Chii is an unusual case in that she's oblivious to the love between Ichikawa and Yamada, despite it being fairly obvious to most other characters who watch them interact.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Ichikawa in Karte 60, when he absentmindedly shows Yamada the picture he took of some snowy scenery (Which he said he would take for her on his trip to Akita) right before he fell and broke his arm. He initially thought they could laugh over it until he saw the horrified look on her face.
  • Karte 68; basically everyone's reaction to the presence of Yamada's father Yuki.
  • Karte 70; when Anna tells Ichikawa that her father called him “Yamada” before being corrected. Ichikawa realizes to his horror that Yuki remembers seeing him sneaking out of their apartment, saw the name tag on what he thought was his gym shirt, and found out that the boy walked out wearing his daughter’s clothes.
• One Head Taller: Yamada is taller than Ichikawa. How much taller? When they stand facing each other, Ichikawa's face is roughly somewhere between Yamada's breasts, something he always realizes fairly quickly.
• Opposites Attract: Ichikawa is nearly about the size you’d expect from a middle schooler, while Yamada has been incredibly tall for her age since elementary school. Ichikawa is pessimistic, sarcastic, shy, diligent, and very observant. Yamada is outgoing, ditzy, prone to teasing, clumsy and it tends to take longer for her to read the room. He spends his time isolated and his interest lies in the macabre, video games and different kinds of manga. While she spends time chatting with her friends or eating sweets, and reads only shoujo manga. On a narrative level, Ichikawa's thoughts are presented to the audience as a show of how methodical he is, while Yamada’s are strictly Show, Don't Tell showing her simple yet ambiguous nature.
• Or Was It a Dream??: In Karte 114, Ichikawa wakes up the day after Yamada's Love Confession wondering if it was just a dream. Then he sees a note on his desk showing he wrote the confession down word-for-word.

P-Z

• Painting the Medium:
  • The original Japanese version of Karte 30 uses two fonts for the narration boxes; a brush-stroke font and a modern font most of the rest. This implies that Yamada's thoughts are being translated along with Ichikawa's.
  • Under Nigorikawa Lucifer's influence, Ichikawa's narration boxes are inverted into black space with white text.
• The Power of Love: Ichikawa has pushed himself to do things that he’d consider impossible for him and out of his comfort zone, even on a subconscious level where his body moved and/or his mouth opened in dissent with his thoughts. Because Yamada was present, and he desires and values her company that much. He realizes this by Karte 124 and tells Yamada as much when she apologizes for “bothering” him (texting for his opinions on swimsuits she’s shopping for) while he’s studying, likely worried about her Guilt Complex.
• Praetorian Guard: Yamada's friends form one when they walk together in order to protect Yamada from boys only after her for her looks. Each of them even has a role: Chii Kobayashi is the vanguard, Moeko Serine is the bannerman who uses her outgoing personality to Draw Aggro and Serida Yoshida is the rearguard who brings up the rear.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The manga consists of 11-page main chapters, some of which are standalone and end on gags, along with a bunch of short extra chapters. The anime changes or omits certain details, and switches the timeframe of events so that each chapter can flow into the next within episodes and merges a few extras in. Karte 21 is added between Karte 42 and 43 to fit in with the narrative, and two separate scenes of Nanjou talking to Yamada and Chii are merged together.
• The Quiet One: Ichikawa doesn't actually speak that much early on outside of his monologues. His teacher is impressed that he spoke more than usual when getting Yamada out of a bind, and Moeko expresses surprise that he talks at all. He becomes more comfortable with speaking over time (mainly with Yamada), which led to Chii lampshading how he mutters as though he's talking with squiggly speech bubbles.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The anime has Ichikawa give one to Adachi in Episode 23. When the latter shouts that he likes Yamada outloud during the mock-cavalry battle, Ichikawa tears him a new one and breaks down Adachi's feelings as shallow.
  Ichikawa: Don't go claiming you like Yamada without knowing a damn thing about her! No guy who let himself believe that chocolate from Sekine meant something gets to claim he likes Yamada!
  Adachi: I get it okay!?
  Ichikawa: You don't though! Yamada is so much more grown up than the rest of us! She's incredible, following her dreams, working harder than anyone. Yo can't go claiming to like her just because she's cute and pretty! Cause listen, I'm telling you that's not what liking someone is about!
• Refuge in Audacity: In Karte 3, Yamada suddenly realizes she's being a third wheel when Hara and Kanzaki meet up in the library. She suggests there's a cat (actually Ichikawa, after he dropped a book while watching behind a bookcase) in the library and urges Ichikawa to imitate cat sounds. Yamada is so unimpressed by his poor "meow" she stands up, declares she's looking for said cat, and then walks away to mimic a cat herself. She and Ichikawa wind up mimicking cats yowling at each other until Hara and Kanzaki leave.
• Relationship Upgrade: As time goes on, it becomes increasingly more obvious that Ichikawa and Yamada are a de-facto couple, despite neither of them actually bringing it up and only a small group of people being aware of it. Eventually, Kyōtarō and Anna become an official item in Karte 113.
• Returning the Handkerchief: Ichikawa hands Yamada his box cutter so that she can properly work on her group's school project (She was ripping the paper with her bare hands), and she leaves without giving it back. Ichikawa finds the cutter on his desk the next day, and judges from its warmth that Yamada kept it in her hands on the way to school so she wouldn't forget.
• The Remake: Karte 72 adapts the events of two of the bonus Twitter comics into a full chapter with more polished artwork, with Moeko giving out friend chocolates to the boys in her class and Yamada challenging Ichikawa to a game of chocolate Shogi. Karte 73 would continue this trend, with Yamada and Ichikawa discussing what kind of chocolate you'd give to someone to tell them you love them.
• Romantic Ride Sharing: An extra after Karte 19 has Yamada suggest holding onto Ichikawa while riding his bike so she doesn’t fall off. Thinking of this trope, he refuses.
  • Yamada rides on Ichikawa's bike again in Karte 74/Valentine’s Day, this time gripping his side and leaning into him.
• Romantic Spoonfeeding: And usually, it's by accident or circumstance.
  • During cooking class in Karte 59, Ichikawa eats a piece of burned pancake that Adachi made before Yamada could, grabbing her arm and shoving a fork-full in his mouth. He also forces himself to compliment it.
    Ichikawa : Ah man, Adachi's burned shit is the best thing ever. I'll take it all day. Yummy yummy.
    Adachi: (Flattered) Wha-...stup-! Man, don't you love me too much?!
  • In a Volume 5 extra, Yamada plots and fails to get Ichikawa to hold her hand. She settles for putting a piece of candy in his mouth while he’s holding on to his bike and gripping her bookbag to keep her from tripping off a ledge.
  • In a beach chapter, Ichikawa forces himself to eat a really tall cup of ice cream that Yamada was holding while taking a picture when it's about to collapse.
  • Yamada has Ichikawa cool off her Takoyaki and opens her mouth for him to feed her in Karte 77.
  • In Karte 106, Ichikawa mistakes a close, mouth-wide Longing Look from Yamada for her wanting some Bento that she made for him and awkwardly shoves some in her mouth. She clears it up, but ultimately doesn't mind anyway.
• Rule of Symbolism: In Karte 30, titled “I Melted”. This refers to Yamada’s own heart "melting” when Ichikawa grasped her hand in order to hide a piece of chocolate that she was about to eat just before the school librarian could see it, fearing that Yamada would get banned from the library. The warmth from Yamada's hand melted the chocolate into a crudely shaped heart (at least in the manga).
  • Karte 31 shows Ichikawa walking past Yamada with her phone in hand, displaying her attempts to share LINE with him going over his head.
  • The Illustration for Karte 42 is a butterfly flying out of Yamada's hands, foreshadowing the chapter's following strain in her relationship with Ichikawa. That same butterfly appears over the two in the illustration of the next chapter where they reconcile.
  • Ichikawa calls his murder reference book “armor”, for when he goes to school and to keep from getting close to others. He drops the book on the ground when Yamada gives him a hug, after he confessing his issues with school in his first year.
  • Ichikawa and Yamada growing closer is visualized via their changing distance in the library. Yamada is always seated at a table while Ichikawa starts off standing behind the library's bookcase reading a book. Then he shifts to standing across from her, coming closer to the point of talking distance, and finally sitting right next to her in Karte 35. There's also an extra chapter highlighting this, with Yamada herself subtly lamp-shading how close he's gotten over the semester.
    • This also applies to their positions in class. The story starts with them sitting far from each other with Yamada in Ichikawa's line of view. Then after basically becoming friends, the class changes seats and they're seated criss-crossed. During their 3rd year, they end up seated next to each other thanks to Hanzawa immediately trading seats with Yamada for reasons.
  • The illustration for Karte 60 show Ichikawa and Yamada seated next to each other enjoying a moment. With a shadow looming over Ichikawa holding his phone, hinting at the upcoming riff between them. Karte 63 features a similar cover of them seated at Yamada’s apartment, this time with a shadow over Yamada when she shares her childhood, insecurities and the source of her Guilt Complex.
• Running Gag: Moeko expressing that she wants a “Boyfwiend”, followed by Kobayashi and Yoshida not caring.
• Satellite Character: Whenever Adachi and Kanzaki are perving on the girls in their class, they're typically joined by a third classmate named Ohta. However, while the former two frequently appear on their own and have subplots focusing on them, Ohta is only ever seen when he's engaging in the rest of the group's antics.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Ichikawa is an over-thinker, more likely to pick up on situational cues than Yamada is, has better problem-solving skills and usually bails her out/amends whatever hurdle gets thrown at them. By comparison, she’s far more extroverted, playful, and intimate, and is the one who initiates their interactions just for the sake of having them.
• Saying Too Much: On a few occasions, Chii gossips to Ichikawa about things Yamada said (Usually concerning him) or did (Like her eating habits) while Yamada herself is feebly trying to get her to hush or just pouting at her.
• Secret-Keeper: The few people who're aware of Ichikawa and Yamada's closeness (e.g. Moeko and Hara in school) keep it to themselves, recognizing that for some reason the two of them don't want people to know about how close they are.
• Secret Relationship: Discussed by Yamada with Ichikawa in Karte 28 at the end of their work-study trip. After she brings up the possibility of Kanzaki and Hara dating, she follows up on how kids back in her elementary school days got together and openly held hands in the hallway. Then Yamada says that she personally finds this trope more fun and asks Ichikawa what he thinks.
  • Overall, it's downplayed. The two walk home together, begin hanging out outside of school together and try to keep their level of closeness to each-other a secret from their classmates, especially at the start of their third-year to avoid Kankan's desire to throw a flashmob celebration for class couples. But they’re an unofficial couple throughout and actually question if they've been dating the whole time or not. It’s played straight by Karte 113 when they do start dating for real, but ironically it’s by then that they gradually start letting people close to them know.
• Serenade Your Lover: Played With in Karte 127. Ichikawa doesn’t sing the song Moving Forward. Kana does with her band. The song originated from his note of Yamada’s Love Confession to him in the first place before Kana used it as inspiration (read: basically just copying) for lyrics. Kyōtarō adjusted the song further before the show and made it into a love letter to Yamada. And Yamada was attending the show.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: The fact that Ichikawa's libido manifests into an imaginary, evil-looking version of Nigorikawa with black wings called Lucifer heavily suggests as much.
  • In Karte 141, when Yamada is revealed to have kept the condom they found at Nico's house she starts crying, calls herself a bad person, and admits to thinking about "bad things" about Ichikawa; namely sexually. Not helped by the fact that Kana's friends left them in a Love Hotel. Ichikawa kisses her and admits he had those same thoughts, then he takes the condom Yamada put in a trash can and has her keep it for when they're both ready.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Near the end of Volume 10, Ichikawa takes Yamada out on a date and makes it his goal to keep her from saying "I'm sorry" throughout the day. Long story short, they later end up at a Love Hotel, where Ichikawa finds that she still kept the condom they found in Nico's house. Yamada, shedding tears, admits to having "bad thoughts" that she feels taint her feelings for Ichikawa. Then as she's about to apologize, Ichikawa kisses her on the bed and postpones anything else until they're both ready.
• Sick Episode: Ichikawa stays home after catching a fever in Karte 37, after he forgot his rain coat last chapter and forced himself to bike ride through the rain. Yamada visits his house to give him some ice cream from school and he impulsively invites her in for tea. Then he succumbs to his fever and nearly passes out while changing clothes, leading to Yamada tending him back to bed. Something he thought was a dream in his delirium until Kana later gives him a poorly-written "Get well soon!" letter from Yamada herself.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Both Ichikawa and Yamada pretty much only have eyes for each other. Yamada is the only person Ichikawa actually interacts with regularly, while Yamada often seeks him out and apparently had no interest in boys before him.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Yamada is one for her classmates Kanzaki and Hara. Ichikawa also takes an interest in their developing relationship, though he claims not to care about it.
  • Meanwhile, Hara herself is one for Yamada and Ichikawa, being the only one to have seen them interact with each other one-to-one.
  • Double Subverted with Kana. Kyōtarō is worried she'll start acting like this as soon as she finds out about Yamada, but when she does she assumes her brother developed an unrequited crush on a girl well out of his league, and tries to let him down gently. At least, until she realizes Yamada was the same person who came to visit him while he was sick, at which point she immediately starts pestering him to ask her out.
  • When they go up a year, Yamada and Ichikawa wind up in the same class, and many of their classmates pick up that there's something between them. Many of them are quite eager for the pair to just make it official.
• Shout-Out:
  • Naturally comes with a school trip to a manga studio (Akita Shoten). There’s a poster of Norio Sakurai’s Rororro! in the office they’re in. Adachi, Moe, and especially Yoshida are fans of Crows. Then they (plus Ichikawa) get hyped seeing a manuscript of Baki.
  • When asked about the manga he reads in Karte 26, Ichikawa names Mitsudomoe (another work by Sakurai), Magical Girl Apocalypse, Squid Girl, and Beastars.
  • Ichikawa's LINE profile is a picture of Rem. Moeko notices this when she adds him to her contacts and says she prefers Rem's sister, Ram.
  • An extra in Karte 58 has Yamada in a cheap Inosuke cosplay, dual-wielding rulers with a bag over her head with Inosuke’s boar mask doodled on it.
  • One Twitter comic pokes fun at Ichikawa's resemblance to GeGeGe no Kitarō's eponymous Kitarō, with Moeko joking that he might fire off remote-controlled geta or shoot out hair needles if he gets angry. Later on, Yamada finds him making a paper doll of Papa Eye in the library.
  • In Karte 98, Yuki gives Ichikawa his friends code so they can play Monster Hunter together.
• Show, Don't Tell: One of the narrative devices the manga is known for. Ichikawa is the only character whose thoughts are textualized for the audience to see, leaving visual elements as setups for events, or as indicators for the intentions of other characters in moments when he's not describing them to himself. The most significant interactions between Ichikawa and Yamada come through poignant gestures of affection, rather than through just dialogue. Not once have they declared their love for each other, but they do. This eventually changes on Karte 110, as Kyōtarō confesses to Yamada.
• Show Within a Show: Kimi-Iro Octave. ^note Or Your Color's Octave in english. Or just Kimi Iro or Kimi Oct for short., a shoujo romance manga that Yamada reads (And the only manga she seems to read). Ichikawa becomes a regular reader after she loans her books to him. Certain scenes in the series are used as parallel to Ichikawa and Yamada's growing relationship; The female lead is an identical clone of Yamada and the male lead Nigorikawa shares a significant number of Ichikawa’s personality traits (Which he subconsciously denies). Nigorikawa himself eventually manifests into a imaginary representation of Kyōtarō’s growing self-esteem and true desires.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • A downplayed moment in Karte 27, where the two get left behind by their work-study group at the transit. Ichikawa admonishes himself for smiling about being alone with Yamada.
  • Ichikawa and Yamada are trapped in the school storage unit in Karte 122. She doesn't let him see it, but Yamada is actually excited to be trapped with her boyfriend. Then when he suggests calling Moe for help, she grabs his phone and puts it in her chest pocket.
• Something Else Also Rises:
  • On a few occasions when Yamada is really up close to Ichikawa and he realizes just how attractive she is, he often slouches in response.
  • Yamada becomes painfully aware of how she affects Ichikawa in Karte 112, when he's hidden in her futon and waiting for a chance to flee, and the close proximity (and her whispering in his ear) causes the natural reaction to occur. Her leg winds up between his, and she's stunned into silence when she realizes what the stiff thing she's touching really is.
• So Proud of You: Yamada is smiling when the boys in class ask Ichikawa for his LINE at the end of their 2nd year.
• Smells Sexy:
  • When Yamada is caught at school while it's raining, she borrows Ichikawa's raincoat to rush to the convenience store and buy an umbrella (and snacks). After they part, Ichikawa realizes the raincoat is filled with her scent and continues to wear the raincoat home long after the rain has stopped.
  • When the pair accidentally switch their sports jerseys after P.E., Ichikawa finally catches up with Yamada in the library to switch back. He notices some grains of rice on the collar and chalks it up to Yamada's messy-eater tendencies, but it's all but stated that Yamada was smelling his jersey right before he came in.
  • When Ichikawa winds up at Yamada's house and has to take a bath (they were out too long in the snowfall and Ichikawa's hand is still in a cast), he immediately notices the scent of the shampoo and recognizes it as the smell of Yamada's hair.
  • While Yamada is taking a bath at the Ichikawa household, she sees the men's body wash and almost squeezes some out before she hears Kyōtarō come in with a change of clothes for her.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Karte 45, Ichikawa arrives 30 minutes early in Shibuya where he’s supposed to meet Yamada. To make sure he had the right meeting spot and not because he got excited. Yamada arrived earlier than that, and tells him that she wanted to be sure it was the right spot.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Discussed. When Kana brings up the idea about the two’s "hearts changing" as they grow up, Ichikawa immediately thinks of Yamada’s modeling/acting career and becomes fearful of them growing apart. Especially after hearing her affirm that she loves it. When Yamada invites him to watch her during work, Ichikawa goes along to defy this trope and learn more about her.
• Suicide as Comedy: Played With in one of Vol 2.’s extra chapters. Yamada pretends to be a zombie and is about to bite Ichikawa, but he rallies and "shoots" her. Then, after seeing her "dead" body on the floor and imagining her as an actual zombie he had to put down, he puts his "gun" to his head and shoots himself too. His internal narration notes, "If Yamada died, I'd die too."
• Sweet Tooth: Yamada loves her sweets. And candies. And crepes. And...
• Tears of Joy:
  • Yamada spent a day walking in front of the Ichikawa household to see an update on Kyōtarō’s fever, after a first visit to his house quickly ended with her getting him to bed after he nearly passed out. When she hears from his mom that he’ll recover soon, she cries in relief. Then she walks away laughing so that Kyōtarō’s mom wouldn’t notice her tears and walks face-first into a pole.
  • Kyōtarō sheds these in Karte 85 after he overhears Yamada confessing that there's someone else she likes to Nanjou. He recalls their recent interactions together, along with his own tearful Love Epiphany towards Yamada, and realizes she's talking about him.
  • In Karte 89, Kyōtarō presents Yamada with a doggy bone bracelet and helps put it on for her. In addition, he finally calls her cute out loud, which makes her start crying.
  • Both Kyōtarō and Yamada in each of their Love Confessions to each other.
  • From Karte 127 to 128, Yamada sheds some tears after listening to the song composed by the Ichikawa siblings, mostly because it's Ichikawa using her confession to him in addition to spelling out his own love for her again.) She kisses Kyōtarō for the first time and gives Kana a hug while breaking down in tears.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: The focus of the earlier part (about Volume 1) of the manga, as Ichikawa keeps repeating to himself that he'll do something "evil" to his classmates or to Yamada. Of course, it's all talk.
• Think Unsexy Thoughts: Ichikawa delves into this at times whenever he gets inadvertently stimulated by Yamada.
  • He counts the prime numbers after seeing Moe, who’s being used by Yamada as a replacement chair, grope Yamada For the Lulz.
  • Yamada accidentally shows him her unzipped back while they’re both in a changing booth. He calms down after getting a text from his sister for his opinion on clothes she’s trying out (She’s in the same store).
  • In an extra chapter, Ichikawa gets the thought of Yamada bathing him in his head. He calms himself down immediately by plastering his sister’s face on Yamada’s.
• Through His Stomach:
  • Yamada makes some bento for Ichikawa before their 3rd-years' Cultural Sports festival.
  • After confessing to Yamada's parents that they’re now dating, Kyōtarō asks her father to teach him how to make her favorite soup.
• Throwing the Distraction: Ichikawa does this when he sees Nanjou (a particularly pushy senpai with a reputation of being a playboy) is on the verge of brow-beating Yamada into giving him her contact details. He sends his bike hurtling downhill until it crashes into the nearby canal, successfully distracting Nanjou... along with everyone else in the vicinity.
• Twice Shy: Initially. It's pretty obvious Yamada genuinely enjoys being around Ichikawa, and Ichikawa all but admits to himself he likes, maybe even loves her, but neither of them knows how the other feels. It's not until later that they put two and two together.
• Unequal Pairing: Downplayed. While both are in middle school, Yamada has a modeling/acting career and makes basically ten times Ichikawa's allowance. While she has no power over him and wouldn’t exercise any in the first place, their social differences cause Ichikawa feelings of inferiority. Her later affirmed love for her job leads to him feeling a sense of distance from her and admits fearing that she’ll eventually forget about him as they grow up. When he arrives at Yamada’s modeling job with a pastry gift for her, he sees the extravagant food they have on set (including the same treats he picked out) and runs off until Yamada finds him. She then confesses that she felt insecurity about her job and thought about quitting; Ichikawa asking if she loved doing it in the first place made her keep trying and invite him to watch her in the first place.
• Unknown Rival:
  • Nanjou has a reputation of being a playboy and has his eyes set on Yamada. He has absolutely no idea that he has a rival in Ichikawa, who is so far ahead of him as far as Yamada's concerned that Nanjou himself isn't even at the starting line. He does get an inkling when he and his friend Mamiya happen upon Yamada and Ichikawa in the library.
• Was It All a Lie?: After Yamada pretended to be in an intimate moment with Ichikawa to ward off Nanjou, Ichikawa heads knee-deep into his pessimism and assumes the worst of her; that their relationship was just a long ruse to ward off boys and avoids meeting Yamada for two days. It takes her coming to him and apologizing to him in tears to realize that it definitely wasn’t.
• Wall Pin of Love:
  • Yamada ends up doing this with Ichikawa in Karte 26, when too many people get cramped with them in the elevator. The "love" part comes from her staring into his face after the ride down.
  • In Karte 43, Yamada is confused as to why Ichikawa has been avoiding her and not visiting the library. In an act of desperation, she has to flag Ichikawa down, chase after him, and then grab and press him into a wall to get him to talk. The "don" part of her kabedon results less from her hand hitting the wall and moreso Yamada slamming Ichikawa against it.
• Warts and All: Moe recalls a story in elementary school where Ichikawa made a boy apologize for going too far in rejecting any insinuation about liking her and calling her a hag. She seems flattered at first until Ichikawa reveals that he viciously guilt-tripped him into doing it with a Breaking Speech to take him down a peg, to the point where he was crying. By then she’s just appalled. Yamada on the other-hand is awestruck by his sense of justice either way.
• We Are Not an Item:
  • Played With. No one ever pin-points anyone specifically, but when a couple of girls insistingly assume that Yamada has a boyfriend she vehemently denies it... Twice. Both to them and then to Ichikawa, who's standing right next to her pretending to mind his business.
  • When Yamada’s manager Suwa states he’s going to have a problem if Ichikawa’s relationship with her is going to interfere with Anna’s career, Ichikawa is more confused than even the least bit intimidated and tells him that they aren’t dating, leaving Suwa embarrassed. Ironically, this gives Kyōtarō hope when he was worried about him and Yamada not looking like a couple to anyone.
• What Is This Feeling?: During basketball practice, Ichikawa muses about how his thoughts and actions haven’t been syncing throughout his interactions with Yamada. But he can’t tell exactly what he’s feeling until after Yamada gets her nose busted by a stray basketball.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Deconstructed. While he doesn’t particularly like Nanjou-senpai, Ichikawa thought it was harsh how Yamada pretended to get intimate with him in order to ward Nanjou off once he saw the look of disappointment on his face. In addition, Ichikawa felt like he was being used and convinced himself that their friendship up to that point was a long ploy to ward off other boys, and avoided meeting Yamada for two days. His standoffish act makes her confront him about it, and he realizes that he was being too harsh on her.
• What You Are in the Dark: The main ethos of the series. Ichikawa and Yamada do not behave the same way when they're alone together compared to when they're in class. In front of others, they're seldom in any sort of contact. When they're alone together, they are playful and tender.
• Women Are Wiser: Played with. Ichikawa definitely comes off as being smarter than Yamada, but Yamada is clearly much more social. That said, sometimes she doesn't notice when she's being slighted, such as the time Ichikawa watched her on a TV program and realized that a lot of her scenes were edited out. He worries that she'll be depressed at school, but the next day she's just happy she got to be on TV.
• Worth It: Ichikawa is understandably shocked by his bike actually falling into a drainage ditch after deliberately throwing it to save Yamada from getting pressured for her Line... then his excuse/joke about it makes Yamada laugh and call him funny. The anime version of his reaction is a Longing Look. In the manga he thanks his bike and apologizes to it.
• The World Is Just Awesome: Ichikawa says as much in Karte 110 during his Love Confession that Yamada helped him see the world in a better light, stating that he's come to enjoy going to school and hanging out with his classmates even without her involved.
• Write What You Know:invoked In Karte 4 and a bonus story included in Volume 7, Kyōtarō describes some of the characters in a fantasy light novel he's writing; the hero, Trapped in Another World and shunned by its people due to being cursed to steal the life of anyone he touches, and the heroine, who looks suspiciously like Yamada and is the only one willing to look past his curse and see him for who he really is. While he insists that it's all fictional and has no basis in reality, the parallels to how he views himself and his feelings towards Yamada are apparent.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Ichikawa gets this frequently, even from himself.
  • On their way back to school, Ichikawa confesses to Yamada about how he used to hate going and didn't fit in thanks to his interest in murder psychology. Now he does enjoy coming to school, and stumbles on attributing that to his time spent with her until Yamada cuts in and doubts that anyone but him convinced him to come.
    Ichikawa: That is... probably... ya... yama-
    Yamada: D-doubt it was anyone else who helped you with that though? I mean, if you hadn't come to school on your own, then you wouldn't be talking like this with me or any other kid, right? Or something, (handing his book back) here!
  • On their way to deliver the farewell speech to the school, Nigorikawa pops up and delivers a Rousing Speech to Kyōtarō, telling him that he, no one else, is the one who believes in himself the most.
  • For once, he delivers this to Yamada In Karte 63. After their Cooldown Hug, Ichikawa summarizes that her parents treated her to meals after she got upset and quit activities was so that she wouldn’t stop testing herself later, because they believed that she would bounce right back.
  • Ichikawa admits that he likes Yamada to Kanzaki, and solemnly asks if he thinks it’s laughable considering their respective social standing. In a completely genuine tone, Kanzaki says he has no idea what he’s talking about; everyone knows Ichikawa is a Nice Guy, that it’s good for him to set high goals for himself, and adds in his farewell speech as to why he’s cool.
• You Are Not Alone: In Karte 69.2, Ichikawa is standing out alone in front of a vending machine at night, apparently a hobby of his that makes him feel at peace. As he’s deciding what to get from the vendor, he keeps thinking about past moments with Yamada related to drinks. Afterward, he visits Yamada's place and calls her out to give her one or two of the drinks he picked, and thinks to himself “I can’t be alone anymore."
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Ichikawa is not pleased by Kanzaki’s approval of him picking Yamada as a Judo partner because her uniform smelled bad. Specifically by Kanzaki's assumption that Ichikawa has a fetish for smelly girls, and not that he was covering for Yamada.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That: Ichikawa keeps repeating to himself that he's a twisted individual who will do dark stuff to the people around him. Of course, this is just him being Chuuni at full crank.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: When Hara writes her classmates’ family names on tombstones for a cemetery backdrop she was painting with Ichikawa, the class is shocked and Adachi pegs Ichikawa as the one who did it while Hara is out of the room. Fearing for Hara’s sake, Ichikawa assumes blame until Hara comes back and clears things up that she was just using common family names.

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