Web Animation / There she is!!

The signs that appear everywhere throughout the series, hinting that the romance in question may meet with some obstacles.

There she is!! is a five episode Web Animation series by Amalloc of the Korean web animation team SamBakZa, and an allegorical, Romeo and Juliet-esque story about the hatred and prejudice between the Japanese and Koreans, represented by cats and rabbits (which-is-which goes unstated), while one pair of Star-Crossed Lovers finds themselves in the middle of it.

The series is drawn in the Korean Manhwa style, done without dialogue to K-Pop music. It's about Doki, a girl rabbit who meets up with Nabi, a boy cat, and falls in love with him, much to his initial dismay.

The first episode, "There she is!!" introduces them, and she commences to chase him all over the city with hearts trailing after her all the while. He tries simply avoiding her; then, when that doesn't work, he tries to convince her they're not suited to each other due to prevailing prejudices about Interspecies Romance. She is unconvinced. He even tries to fix her up with other rabbits, which only serves to tick her off. Finally, he gives in, then realizes he's starting to return her affections. Their relationship begins.

The second episode, "Cake Dance" has Nabi doing the nice thing and bringing Doki a birthday cake. She waits patiently for him at the party and eats the cake a relative baked her, unaware of the tribulations he's going through trying to get her cake delivered safely, including being attacked by the Jjintta Set (a gang of spiky bunnies), whose leader, Il-ho, is misinformed by member Yi-ho that Nabi is forcing himself on helpless Doki. The cartoon ends with a young bunny girl in a situation that mirrors the beginning of the episode—Nabi helps her out by carrying her to her destination on his shoulders. A Shout-Out to his earlier insistence that they're not a couple comes in the only English line in the episode.

The third episode, "Doki & Nabi" finally officially tells the viewer their names. Doki continues with her over the top professions of love, including a press conference to announce their first date, and Nabi gives in a little more to his feelings. But during the proper date Nabi inadvertently insults Doki with his behavior. He realizes what he's done, though, and asks her out again. She's delighted, and they plan happily for another date. But someone really doesn't like the idea of their romance...

The fourth episode, "Paradise", has Doki and Nabi officially romantically involved. But the anti-cat and bunny romance prejudice is a major obstacle, and things stop being cute and funny and quickly take a turn for the dark as they officially become the absolute most hated people in their area. They are kicked out of a cafe because of their Interspecies Romance. They are accosted and attacked in the street. Doki is injured in such an attack, which Nabi takes very hard. Nabi doesn't resist the leader of the Jjintta Set when he attacks due to having spied on Doki. Nabi still ends up in jail, separated from his phone. This leads to an unfortunate misunderstanding, when Doki calls him and gets no answer, as Nabi has begun distancing himself from Doki for what he believes is her own protection.

The fifth and final episode, "Imagine", begins with Doki leaving to go to Paradise on her own, having only texted Nabi to tell him goodbye. He tries to get her on the phone, but she already threw hers away. Thus begins his race to catch her before she walks out of his life forever.

A crowdfunding campaign was launched in order to fund an additional 6th episode focusing on the Jjintta Set as well as a DVD compilation of all the episodes and extras with the goal being met and surpassed on February 11, 2016. On August 18, 2020, after less than half a decade in development, the bonus episode was finally released under the title Another Step. It premiered on Newgrounds for a 3 day limited run until the 21st. On March 31st, 2024, the episode was uploaded to Youtube on Sambakza's Youtube channel.

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This series provides examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Subverted. It's not just social mores that scare Nabi away from reciprocating to Doki - it's because Doki's just a bit too forward with her affections for him. The entire first episode is about him trying to avoid her habit of smothering him in demonstration of her feelings. She does everything from presenting him with a cake while he's using a toilet to cutting down a giant tree he climbs to get away from her.
• Action Girl: Pi in "Another Step."
• A Friend in Need: When Yi-ho's gang, the protesters, and both Sam-ho and Pi all work together to move the excavator that fell on Il-ho, Yi-ho climbs under the massive construction equipment barely held off of the ground without hesitation. He wraps his arms around Il-ho and acts as a living rope, and he and Il-ho are pulled to safety.
• All Love Is Unrequited:
  • Common fan theory believed Il-ho of the Jjintta Set has a crush on Doki, however it was revealed that he cares about Doki and Nabi's relationship because his parents are a female rabbit and a male lion.
  • Also with the Gray Rabbit, seen several times to be chasing after Hana, the band manager friend of Nabi and Doki's. Subverted in the end as Hana appears to show interest after he gives her flowers
• All There in the Manual: Much of the backstory of the characters is only available in the character page at SamBakZa, since it can't be properly conveyed in a series without spoken lines.
• Amusing Injuries: Nabi suffers an embarrassing amount of them.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Another Step focuses on the three ruffians "Jjintta Set". It's also much more combat oriented than the others.
• Arc Symbol: The yellow sign with the (/) symbol over a heart with a cat and bunny, indicating that this city does not support cat and rabbit romances.
• Ascended Extra: Pi was a background character introduced in Step 2 that has barely any presence beyond hitting on Yi-ho. She makes sparing appearances in a couple others, but she is a major character with a lot of focus in Another Step.
• Aside Glance: Nabi gives one towards the end of Step Five, during the Call-Back to Doki's daydream, as if to say "Eh, it's the best I can do."
• Attempted Rape: The Jjintta Set leader is under the mistaken impression Nabi is trying this on Doki, but he chastises his henchman when he sees Doki is actively pursuing Nabi.
• Badass Longcoat: Pizza, the large scar-eyed cat and bodyguard of Hana. When a protestor flings an egg at Doki in Final Step, he catches it, and proceeds to give the offender an offscreen ass beating.
• Badass Minds Think Alike: After Pi takes down three members of Yi-ho's gang, she shouts to Il-ho. Il-ho grabs her hand, spins her in a circle, and tosses her hard through the air. She sails down and kicks the large rabbit fighting Sam-ho, and Sam-ho grabs the rabbit's hammer mid fall and uses it to smash the prison bars off the cage (freeing the hostages).
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The three male rabbits Nabi presents to Doki as an alternative boyfriend.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Doki is one of the sweetest, kindest fictional characters in existence. She's also extremely dangerous when angered.
• Big Eater: Doki was offered a humongous tiered birthday cake, and consumed the whole thing in a few bites because she wanted to make sure her guests ate only the cake that Nabi was bringing.
• Blank White Eyes: The stares of people who see Nabi and Doki together.
• Blind Alley: Nabi hides in one from the various animals chasing him in the second episode.
• Bodyguard Crush: Slightly implied between Hana and Pizza.
• Book Ends: Both the first episode and the series open and close at the vending machines.
• Break the Cutie: Nabi initially gets pissed when he sees Doki gets hurts, but when he realizes she will only be hurt worse being with him and he cannot protect her, it just breaks him.
  • Doki breaks when the hedgehog dies, straight up followed with Nabi not answering the phone, leading to her abandoning everything and going off alone.
  • Il-ho used to be a kinder and happier child who was viciously attacked by others at his school because he is a cabbit. This led him to become angry at the world. His brothers are implied to not have faired any better, which is why they all are the way they are.
• Brick Joke: In the first episode, Doki's Imagine Spot has her envisioning Nabi as a prince dancing with her and carrying her off on horseback. In the final episode, he goes through the exact motions of that Imagine Spot while dodging the objects being thrown at him and Doki, capping it off with carrying her off on her suitcase.
• Broken-Window Warning: Step 3: Nabi & Doki ends with a rock through a window. In Step 4: Paradise, we see it was Nabi's window... and that there are more rocks.
• Brutal Brawl: The final fight between Yi-ho's gang, and the combined might of Sam-ho, Il-ho, and Pi. Everyone is just aiming to hit hard and quick. There are some flashy moves, but more than half the blows are people just throwing punches.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Half the city in which this series takes place is occupied by bunnies. Doki is the funniest and cutest, though.
• Call-Back: When Nabi is leading Doki away from the protesters in Step 5, he goes through the actions Doki imagined him doing with her in Step 1 (ballroom dancing, running with her, and horseback riding)
• Card Game: A Kickstarter campaign was started at the end of 2016 by a small group of fans. SamBakZa stated they were helping out with the art and other parts of the card game.
• Cardiovascular Love: All over the place, mainly with the Heart Symbols originating mostly from Doki. They seem able to turn solid, as Nabi is seen buried and conked on the head by them.
  • Whereas Doki showers Nabi with hers, Nabi's are more precise, with one small one showing up at the end of the first episode, as he watches Doki force down a cup of fish juice, and a huge one showing up in the third episode, as he watches Doki care for her animals. Hilarity Ensues when the animals pick up on this.
• Carrying a Cake: The whole plot of the second episode.
• Central Theme: Interracial relationships and the stigma against them is not healthy. Let people be happy.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The first three episodes are pretty light and comical, but the fourth episode... dear God... Then the fifth mixes both.
  • The sixth also goes are hard as it can by focusing heavily on combat and having an extremist group that begins convincing others violence is the answer.
  • Step Six also introduces a Cerebus Retcon as it reveals the Jjintta Set aren't scruffy because they are Teen Delinquents, but because they are cat/rabbit hybrids who grew their fur out to better blend in.
• Character Development: A surprising amount given the length of the videos and the lack of spoken dialogue: Nabi learns to ignore what others think as he grows to love Doki. According to the artbook, he goes from a timid, indecisive figure with no intentions to challenge the anti-interracial status quo to someone willing to fight for his right to love Doki.
  • In a single episode, the entire Jjintta Set gets numerous advances to show who they are, and why they act the way they do. They're all cabbits who are mistreated by society because they are the children of a rabbit and cat union.
• Cheated Angle: Nabi's head always seems to be facing forward, even if he's looking to the side.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • When Nabi realizes that the inter-species prejudice will harm Doki, his colors change. It's subtle; his green scarf is faded when he sees her hurt in the hospital. And while he's huddling in his apartment, it fades to grey altogether, and the rest of the scenes featuring him for the rest of the episode are in gray-scale. Doki, who still has hope for their love, remains in color until the last moments of episode four, when after dropping her cell phone and losing hope, she too becomes gray. Nabi's scarf turns green again when he realizes he doesn't want to lose her and begins his run to catch her.
  • The green ribbons on all of Doki's pets indicate her love for Nabi, as they match his green scarf. He only realizes this himself when he sees she's tied green ribbons to the barren tree near her house. And the chick that leads him there is a bright, vibrant yellow.
• Combat Parkour: Sam-ho starts the final battle by throwing a chain, getting it hooked on debris, and then riding it upside down using his legs like a zipline. When he reaches his destination on the field he lets go and delivers a flying kick to one of the gang members.
• Continuity Nod: If you watch steps 3 and 4 back to back, you'll notice the window-breaking rock at the end of 3 is in the exact same position on the screen as 4 starts.
• Cool Bike: Il-ho's motorcycle.
• Comically Missing the Point: In Another Step, Il-ho and Doki have a conversation where he tells her that her theoretical children will be hated for being cabbits, however Doki finds a solution: have so many children that this is a moot issue since they will have each other. Il-ho falls over in comedic shock at her answer.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Despite being a three person gang against at least ten people, Yi-ho's gang barely scratches any of their opponents. It doesn't help that Yi-ho himself isn't participating (likely unable to bring himself to beat his brothers and girlfriend).
• Cross-Popping Veins: These show up from time to time in typical fashion, when a character is annoyed.
• Culture Justifies Anything: Society hates the idea of cat/rabbit romance, and ostracizes their children as half-breed cabbits. The characters who act this way in narrative all behave as if their hatred is justifiable and right because it's just what their culture does, but the narrative goes out of its way to portray this as negatively as possible.
  • In Another Step, the concept is also given a flipped form in which some Cat/Rabbit supporters become extremists who accept the idea of violence against those who are protesters, with characters like Pi utterly shocked because she feels this kind of violence is morally wrong no matter the justification. The scene where this is revealed to her is dimly lit, with the characters in darkness but everyone's phones lit up showing the support sign.
• Cute Little Fangs: Nabi has these in the beginning of Step 3.
• A Day in the Limelight: Another Step focuses heavily on Yi-ho, Il-ho, and Pi.
• Death Glare:
  • Terribly cute and innocent Doki does this when angered.
  • Everyone gives this to the Jjintta Set when they dog-pile Nabi through the door, causing him to drop the birthday cake, in Step 2. Subverted as they're invited in as well.
  • Averted when she tries this on an angry mob that recognizes her as Nabi's girlfriend, and they just keep charging her.
• Deconstruction: Step 4 could very well be interpreted as a deconstruction of the first 2 steps in which the anti-interspecies romance issue was taken as something comical. In step 4, it's taken more like a real life taboo, with more realistic consequences.
  • Which would make Step 5 a Reconstruction.
• Defacement Insult: Shows up big-time during Step 4 as the people of the city turn against Doki and Nabi for their relationship.
• Despair Event Horizon: Nabi hits this when he visits Doki in the hospital in Step 4. Seeing her in the hospital bed, he is initially filled with rage as he remembers their relationship and is furious at those who would harm someone like her. However, this becomes despair as he realizes that because of her relationship with him, she will continue being hurt by people and that there is nothing he can do to protect her from this as long as they remain together.
  • Doki is one of the most optimistic characters, but the combination of her pet hedgehog dying from injury and Nabi ignoring her makes her lose all hope.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When the entire community becomes aware of Doki and Nabi's interrelationship, they basically treat them like mass criminals.
  • Il-ho and his brothers were bullied for being cabbits. It's not only not their fault for being born in the first place, but they cannot help that their father is a lion and their mother is a rabbit.
  • After a stressful bath in which he flashes back to the bullying he endured as a child, Il-ho enters the living room and tries to harshly kick Pi out of the apartment since she is a cat. When Yi-ho intervenes, Il-ho fights him and this escalates until Yi-ho is thrown out of a window..
• Dumb Muscle: Sam-ho according to the Sam Bak Za website, which describes him as "a little less intelligent, but the strongest of his brothers." These traits show in Episode 2 when he accidentally spits inside his mask without removing it first (the dumb), and in Another Step with having a wrecking ball and another unidentified, large object as part of his arsenal and taking on a rabbit opponent double his size (the muscle).
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Starting with Step 4, the extent of the hatred Doki and Nabi suffer at the other townspeople is shown. They are regularly talked down to and refused service for simply being an interracial couple. This continues escalating to the point that Doki is hurt and ends up in the hospital. Step 5 has Nabi regretting breaking up with Doki (even if he did so for her safety), and decides to forget about societal expectations to be happy no matter what. Another Step shows that Nabi is still running from the occasional hate mob, but he and Doki are getting married and that's good enough for them both.
• Easter Egg: Only available in the swf versions of the episodes.
  • By clicking on the Bulldog Mansion billboard (disabled since the original release when it led to the group's web page), and the fish flying in the moon, both in Step 2.
  • Also, there is one at the beginning of Step three: before it starts, move your mouse to the top right corner for an alternate beginning.
• Endearingly Dorky: Invoked by Nabi in Step 1 as part of his attempts to get Doki out of his hair by setting her up with a rabbit — one of the alternative suitors is a little bunny boy with huge Opaque Nerd Glasses and his nose stuck in a book. But of course, she doesn't take to him any more than the Pretty Boy or the Hunk.
• Eyes Always Shut: Hana, the band manager and friends with both Doki and Nabi.
• Eye Scream: Yi-ho is seen bleeding from the left eye when Il-ho pulls him out from under the collapsed excavator.
• Face–Heel Turn: Yi-ho.
• Face Palm: Hana gives an epic one in Step Two, complete with a mushroom cloud of smoke, in response to the grey rabbit giving Doki a cake that isn't the one Nabi is bringing.
• Fantastic Racism: Cats should only be romantically linked with their own kind, and the same is true for Bunnies. This prejudice is why Nabi ran from Doki and resisted his growing feelings for her.
  • Cabbits are treated as being neither cats nor rabbits. They are ostracized moreso than others for simply being born as the children of cats and rabbits, inheriting from both parents. Even cats and rabbits can be friends (regardless if interracial love is taboo), but cabbits are hated just for being cabbits. This is a major reason the Jjintta Set is the way they are since they are treated as if they don't belong.
• Feud Episode: Played much more seriously than this trope usually is. the entire story is basically one huge fight between Yi-ho and Il-ho which starts when Il-ho has a bad flashback to his traumatic childhood and tries to harshly kick Pi out of the apartment, resulting in Il-ho and Yi-ho fighting and ending when Yi-ho is tossed through a window. Il-ho tries to spend the next several days calming down while Yi-ho becomes an extremist who inspires a gang to attack anyone who is against the cat/rabbit love movement started by Doki and Nabi. In the end, this results in a huge fight in a construction yard, and it only ends when Yi-ho thinks Il-ho has been crushed to death.
• The Final Temptation: During Nabi's Race for Your Love in Step 5, he runs into the Jjinnta Set and Il-ho offers him his own ticket to Paradise so that Nabi may find happiness elsewhere. Nabi immediately grabs the ticket and tears it up, determined to be with Doki. Il-ho takes notice of his resolve and proceeds to drive Nabi to the airport.
• Foe-Tossing Charge:
  • Doki throws anyone and anything out of her way while chasing Nabi early in There she is!!
  • And another one involving Doki's pet rhino in Step 5.
• Foreshadowing: When Doki is in the hospital in Step 4, look quickly or else you'll miss it but the tickets to Paradise can be seen underneath her hands.
  • The rock-through-the-window at the end of episode 3.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In Step 5, one of the rabbit Anti-Interracial protesters is having a Meet Cute moment with a cat from the Pro side.
• A Friend in Need: Oh so many in "Imagine", but Yi-ho sliding off his motorcycle (injuring himself in the process) so Il-ho and Nabi can make the light is this combined with True Companions. It might even have a dash of Heel–Face Turn, considering he's the one who misinformed Il-ho about Nabi in "Cake".
• Friend to All Living Things: Apparently the non-anthro animals of this world just love Doki, to the point where her pet hedgie jumped off her and put itself in between her and an angry mob, at the cost of its life.
• Funny Animal: World populated by the same, as well as the non-talking kind.
• Funny Background Event: Around the beginning of Step Five after Nabi breaks through the crowd with the help of Doki's pets, to the right is a rabbit and a cat of opposite standpoints falling in love.
• Furry Reminder: Enforced in step 1, 2, and 3, where Nabi performs parkour, runs on all fours when running fast, and sharpens his claws. Nabi's favorite drink is a fish drink, and Doki's favorite drink is a carrot drink.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Il-ho tries to do this to Nabi in Step 4. It doesn't work, but does spark a riot after Doki and Nabi's supporters misinterpret Il-ho's motives, getting both of them arrested.
• The Glomp: Doki likes to does this to Nabi, to his (initial) chagrin.
  • Pi does this to Yi-ho after he saves Il-ho and the fighting stops.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Doki's when angry, and the eyes of the angry, prejudiced cat and bunny population of their city. Treated to a No-Sell in Step 4, where a group of protesters find Doki with her pets. When they start to threaten her, she starts into her trademark glare; instead they chase her down, trample her hedgehog (who later dies from his injuries), and ultimately put Doki in the hospital.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Subverted. The Jjintta Set is only a comedic, not terribly credible threat in "Cake Dance" and become wary friends with Nabi. Not so much in Another Step where Yi-ho and his new gang are a genuine threat.
• Gratuitous English:
  • "Wish your love cake delivered safely."
  • "IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE IN PEACE!"
  • "The one and only love will. take. ME THEEEERE."
• Gratuitous Spanish: In the song for episode 2. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro!
• Half-Breed Discrimination: The Jjintta Set are half-breed cabbits. We see Il-ho in a flashback being held down and spray-painted by both cat and rabbit kids for the crime of being a cabbit.
• Hated by All: In Step 4, Doki and Nabi are hated by literally EVERYONE. (save for their close affiliates) Nabi's house is heavily defaced and vandalized, Doki gets jumped by a mob, and they're both pretty much treated like mass murderers.
  • The Jjintta Set are cabbits, children of cats and rabbits. They were bullied as children, and ostracized by society as adults. Since nobody accepts them, they interact with just one-another. They are basically hated for being born as if they had a choice in the matter.
• Heel–Face Turn: Yi-ho.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Doki's poor little hedgehog dies for his mistress.
  • Il-ho throwing Yi-ho to safety from the falling excavator. He ends up crushed under it instead.
• He's Back!: Nabi begins his Race For Her Love with one of these in Step 5.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode after the first is named "Step(number)" before the proper title. The fifth and last episode is listed as "Final Step".
• Imagine Spot: Four in the series:
  • Doki imagines Nabi as a great romantic hero, riding off into the sunset with her on horseback in the first episode.
  • In the same episode, Nabi imagines the same thing Doki does, but with great sadness that he can't convince her that their relationship is going to be a very bad idea.
  • The third appears in Step 4, when Nabi imagines the already injured Doki being beaten up even more due to their relationship.
  • Another in Step 4 has Doki imagining what her and Nabi's life would have been like, had they gone to Paradise.
• Interspecies Romance: Doki and Nabi. She's a bunny. He's a cat. They are in love and they fight prejudice!
  • the existence of the Jjintta Set is because of a lion and a rabbit who fell in love and had children. Il-ho is the eldest.
• Ironic Echo: Done visually; in Step 1, Doki has several fantasies with a rosy border around the screen, and later Nabi has the same fantasies, but with him crying and with thorns as a border. And this deviantArt page illustrates the Final Step echoing some of the images from Step 1.
  • Yi-ho using the symbol of the Cat/Rabbit Supporters during his mission. It's an image of a smiling rabbit and cat, and it has hearts. Meanwhile he is having his gang viciously attack all protesters, and they're keeping them in a makeshift prison in a construction yard.
• Ironic Episode Title: Paradise, which involved the couple being attacked by protesters.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After an angry mob hurts Doki, Nabi begins to distance himself from her under this belief.
• Le Parkour: Nabi in step 2, right between arriving at the party and meeting the bunny gang.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Nabi steels his resolve at the beginning of Step Five, nothing will stop him from getting to Doki.
  • Pi, Il-ho, and Sam-ho walking up to Yi-ho and his new gang, knowing they're going to have to fight through his gang to release the hostages.
• Love at First Sight: Doki for Nabi.
• Mad Love: How Doki and Nabi's relationship starts. She keeps stalking him and restlessly chasing him around despite his clear lack of interest and his attempts to keep her away from him. Doki's love craziness reaches its apex midway to Step 3, only to vanish almost instantly afterwards, making her pretty much normal for the rest of the series.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Doki and Nabi's Interspecies Romance causes them to be shunned and attacked by the people around them.
• Meaningful Background Event: Blink and you'll miss it, but when Nabi shoves his way out of a crowd in Final Step, a bunny protester has a Crash-Into Hello with a cat. From the sudden heart that appears, it looks like it's going places.
• Meaningful Echo: After the big hug at the climax of Step 5, Nabi dances with Doki,◊ runs off with her,◊ and rides a mighty steed with her into the sunset.◊ All of this is similar to the fantasy Doki had for them in the first step.
• Mighty Roar: Il-ho before being crushed by the excavator. Thanks to being half lion, he releases an incredibly loud roar that gets everyone to stop fighting. The roar is complete with an aura of a lion head over him.
  • The Jjintta Set's father also did this to a then-young Il-ho in his childhood flashback, to stop him from angrily wrecking their home and as punishment for disrespecting his mother.
• Mood Motif: A Suspiciously Similar Song to "Greensleeves" (credited as being called 'Greensleevs" in the credits...) plays at the beginning of Step 5.
• Mood Whiplash: Step 4... or more precisely, the very end of Step 3 which takes the series from lighthearted to ominous.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Yi-ho is saved by Il-ho, he sees his brother crushed by an excavator that fell when the building collapsed. He rushes towards it a couple times, tripping repeatedly before falling on all fours and mourning the death. Luckily for him, everyone works together to lift the excavator just enough, and Sam-ho signals to Yi-ho, who wastes no time crawling under the machine and quickly moving his brother to safety.
• Necktie Leash: Played straight in step 4, except with a scarf instead of a necktie.
• No Animals Were Harmed: At the end of "Step 2: Cake Dance"
• No Name Given: Although there are a handful of recurring characters in the series, only a few of them have been given names who are only referenced in the characters page.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Nabi is quite adept at dodging:
  • He dodges the Jjintta Set in Step 2: Cake Dance and Doki's hearts in Step 3: Doki & Nabi. Interestingly enough, there is a set of hearts he doesn't dodge, and ends up getting buried.
  • And Final Step: Imagine, Nabi pulls Doki out of the path of the Fantastic Racists' projectiles — turning it into an impromptu dance.
• Not What It Looks Like: The leader of the Jjintta Set attacks Nabi for breaking things off with Doki. He happens to accidentally do this in front of a Pro-Interspecies-Romance demonstration who see Nabi as a hero of their movement and the act as a Hate Crime. This is immediately set upon by an Anti-Interspecies-Romance demonstration, turning into a riot which leads to Nabi getting beaten and arrested.
• Oh, Crap!: One of Nabi's most frequent facial expression, especially in the face of Doki's affections early on and the anti-InterspeciesRomance mobs later on.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Pi is incredibly strong and takes on opponents near double her size (and succeeds). Sam-ho as well for going one-on-one with a large rabbit opponent.
• The Power of Love: Not only do they unintentionally spark a race war, Nabi and Doki solve it with their love. Quoting a review on This Very Wiki, "it's not love saving the day as some vague all-powerful force - it's characters acting *out* of love and choosing to face obstacles because of it."
• Prejudice Aesop: The show is about a Doki, a rabbit, and Nabi, a cat, falling in love, only to find that society at large is conspiring against there relationship. The message of all this is that there's nothing wrong with interracial relationships, and love deserves to be respected and fought for instead of shunned. As a Korean production, this aesop is specifically a statement about discrimination between Koreans and the Japanese.
  • Another Step furthers this motif by specifically talking about interracial children. Since the Jjintta Set are all cabbits, they aren't accepted by either cats or rabbits. This isn't something they chose, can control, or have any way to change. They were born cabbits whether they wanted to be or not, and they handle it in different ways from repressing their anger, to ignoring it, to outright using it as fuel to do horrible acts in the name of a "greater good". The narrative does its best to show they are not bad people, but society treats them that way, and only accepting people like Doki and Nabi or Il-ho's girlfriend Pi seem to accept them as they are. Said characters are also treated as much more noble in character for doing so.
• Race for Your Love: Not only does Nabi make a desperate rush to get to Doki before she gets on the plane, but all of his and Doki's friends and relatives help.
• Rage Breaking Point: Step 4 sees Nabi be reaching his utter limit with being harassed with his relationship with Doki.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Doki's little hedgie is willing to fight for his mistress.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Nabi's Despair Event Horizon is symbolized when his scarf loses all color.
  • The ribbons on the barren tree near Doki's house look a bit like the leaves it lacks. In one of the last scenes the tree sprouted leaves of the same color.
  • Yi-ho shaves his ears to reveal they're more cabbit-like than rabbit-like, so that anyone who sees him will know who he is and where he stands as the leader of the gang.
• Rules of the Road: The image for this page is the "no cat and bunny romance" sign that dominates the landscape of the city in which Nabi and Doki live.
• Scenery Censor: In Another Step, Il-ho steps out of the bathroom from his bath to kick Pi out of their apartment without anything on, with the windows and the business sign covering his lower half. Amusingly, Pi never reacts to Il-ho's nakedness, while Sam-ho comically falls off his pull-up bars in shock, and later wraps a towel around his brother before the fight starts.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Played for Laughs in episode 2. Nabi spends an entire episode delivering cake to Doki's birthday party, only to be tackled right at the finish line. Of course, she loves that he did it for her, so it's definitely not a loss.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Nabi towards Doki for the first two episodes, including altering the final text of the second episode to read "Wish your cake be delivered safely" rather than "Wish your love be delivered safely".
• Shout-Out:
  • To "Hot Fish", another of the SamBakZa animations. The happy flying goldfish appears in Step 2 and Step 4. And Nabi feeding Doki hot bread at the end of Step 3 is a direct shot-for-shot reproduction of a scene in "Hot Fish"
  • Pokémon: There's a sequence in Step 3 wherein Nabi, still afraid of the anti-Cat and Bunny Romance prejudice, backs off from Doki during their date. She shows off she has ways of keeping him with her, including handcuffs, lariats, and a Pokéball.
  • The bikes that the Jjintta Set are riding in Step 5 are clear references to AKIRA, the one with the eyepatch's bike looks just like Tetsuo's bike, and he even does the same sliding crash that Tetsuo did, though much more intentionally.
  • The beginning of Step Six, which takes place concurrently with the last scene of Step 5, shows the Jjintta Set parking on an overpass outside the airport and being confronted by a particular pair of bunny-and-fox cops.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: Doki, in step four. Her hedgehog dies. Among other heartbreaking things.
• Spiteful Spit: The Jjintta Set all do this to intimidate Nabi after he accidentally crashes into Sam-ho in Step 2. Sam-ho is wearing a surgical mask when he does this, however, so all he does is gob up the inside of his mask, to Il-ho and Yi-ho's exasperation.
• Stalker with a Crush: Doki, at first. She chases Nabi around the city and can't take "No" for an answer. She gets better, but only after it becomes apparent that Nabi likes her back.
• Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Rather unfortunately, Doki and Nabi's relationship begins with her chasing him around all over the city. If the genders were switched, it probably wouldn't come off as funny.
• Stalking is Love: Doki spends the entire first episode chasing Nabi around until he finally stops fighting back and reluctantly agrees to date her. He soon begins to like her back.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: A rabbit and a cat kept apart by an interspecies taboo.
• Start of Darkness: Il-ho throwing Yi-ho through the window convinces Yi-ho to fight against the system that lead someone like Il-ho to his self-loathing and anger (not to mention the hatred he himself has faced). He takes it really far.
• Take a Third Option: Nabi ends Step 4 resigned to never see Doki again, but decides to pursue her in Final Step. He approches the Jjintta Set as he tries to get to the airport, and Il-ho gives Nabi the other ticket to Paradise so he can join her. Nabi rips up the ticket; they'll make it work here or not at all, anything else is running away.
• Telecom Tree: In its final episode, Nabi the cat desperately tries to get to the airport before his girlfriend Doki leaves. All the friends and relatives who have been with them since episode 2 pitch in and help get him there, including calling forward to help stop Doki so Nabi has his chance to get there.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Well, more just protest signs. But the mobs are angry, to be sure. Angry enough to beat up young Doki and, accidentally or not, kill one of her pets, anyway.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Carrots for Doki, fish for Nabi. Doki tries to get Nabi to eat carrots, and at the end of the first step she tries fish (though with the assistance of a clothes peg on the nose). This last part is meaningful because it's where Nabi starts returning her affection (albeit in a subdued way) - it shows she's willing to do anything for him.
• Trampled Underfoot: Although it's not shown onscreen, this is the likeliest explanation for what happened to kill Doki's pet hedgie.
• Tsundere: Doki is a Type B. She's usually sweet to Nabi, but she has been known to shove his face full of carrots, or chop down trees to get to him, when she's not snuggling him aggressively. Not to mention getting quite violent on those rabbits Nabi tried to fix her up with in Step 1.
• Vague Age: It's unclear just how old Doki and Nabi are supposed to be. They both seem to live alone and Nabi apparently has a job delivering newspapers, but their designs are noticeably shorter and more childlike than the more obviously adult characters. That said, Hotfish presents them as the analogues of a pair of senior highschoolers.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Yi-ho's goal is to stop the rampant hatred of cat/rabbit love (and as a byproduct the hatred of cabbits), but his methods include attacking all protesters who stand against their goal, and then locking them up like prisoners and holding them captive.
• Where It All Began: The series ends, full circle, at the vending machines where Nabi and Doki first met.
• Yandere: Doki, to a limited extent in the first episode. She WAS willing to chop down a tree just for Nabi.

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