Okashina Okashi
(also known as Strange Candy) was a long-running, manga-influenced webcomic by Emi-Chan (artist/writer), Xuanwu, Kourin, and Tanzy (writers). It features six ordinary Japanese young people (five and one exchange student, technically) who, while visiting visiting Tokyo Tower, are sucked into a portal to an anime-inspired universe and afterwards are dragged from one fantasy world to another.
As you can tell by the above, the comic specializes in skewering anime and manga tropes (with the occasional swipes at Japanese culture in general). The seven principal characters are:
- Keiko Hasegawa: The group's Tsundere. Stand-in big sister to...
- Ellie "Eri-Chan" James: American exchange student, Occidental Otaku, Yaoi Fangirl, Wrong Genre Savvy.
- Petra: Lady of War, gun nut, socially awkward.
- Hoshiko "Ho-chan" Yamano: Not-so Covert Pervert. Keeps a list of "X Ecchi Things To Do With [insert current subject here]"
- Eeichi Shinohara: Ho-chan's Handsome Lech partner-in-crime
- Lycidia: Evil Overlord-in-training.
- Daisuke Dohmoto: The one who opened the original portal, trying to summon his own harem. Team Butt-Monkey, Lycidia's lackey, and a pervert.
Running from 2001 to 2018, the strip tackled just about every anime and manga trope there is (and if they didn't, it's likely the trope didn't exist yet).
Provides Examples Of:
- All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles: Both played straight and subverted. Also a tentacle monster is chibi and apparently a girl. And some tentacles are quite polite and just need a friend to listen.
- Bag of Holding: What the group uses Petra's Hammerspace portal for
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Not sure if this is the trope, but about Takeshi:"His abilities as a manager increase when he wears black sunglasses. Especially if he is indoors."
- Cherry Blossoms: Intentionally overused
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: If it don't sparkle, it ain't bishonen.
- Fan Service With A Smile: Or in Eeichi's case, a wink and a leer. That and the "Beauty Man Garden".
- Fetish: Several characters have them.
- Future Me Scares Me: Eri-Chan runs into a future version of herself. The fact that "Ellie" outgrew her fangirlishness upsets Eri-Chan greatly.
- Harem Seeker: Daisuke, who summoned the rest of the main cast attempting to summon a harem.
- Harmless Villain: Kerisu zig-zags back and forth on this one, at the whim of the comic.
- Handsome Lech: Eeichi (Eri-Chan treats Takeshi this way in an ongoing fit of Wrong Genre Savvy)
- Leeroy Jenkins
- Long-Runners: Rare example of a webcomic that fits the criteria for traditional Long Runner status (10 years) but not Webcomics Long Runner status (1000 strips), due to being a once-a-week strip.
- Logic Bomb: "What kind of ice cream goes in a koan?"
- Love Hotels: The ceiling mirror of one turned out to be a plot hole.
- Medium Awareness: Eri-Chan's Genre Savvy allowed her to sense she was being observed, and escape the comic. She managed to get stuck in the comments section of the website. She was thrilled to learn her life is a manga.
- Modesty Towel: The uniform of the Beauty Man Garden's wait staff.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: A rival appears in this strip doing this laugh.
- No Fair Cheating: When Kerisu is challenged to a Collectible Card Game for his soul, he does terribly and is facing a hopeless situation on his last turn. He then plays a card which makes him instantly win and reveals he had his minions make it for him. When his opponent complains that that's cheating, he replies "Evil Overlord, remember?"
- Noodle Implements: 29 leather straps, 3 pillows, 1 round bed with magic fingers massage system, 7 ferns, 1 potted palm tree, 2 whips, 1 stained glass window, 3 inflatable girls, and doves.
- Reality Warper: Eri is a writer and has unwitingly caused many of the events of the series
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: They get sucked into an MMORPG which enforces RPG mechanics including weapon and armor restrictions. When Petra finds out she's a pacifist healer-type and can't even pick up weapons anymore she's less than pleased.
- Shout-Out: Many. For example, try saying that Daisuke doesn't look like Char Aznable in this.
- Also, take a look at the lower left costume, lower right costume, and wand in the upper left here. And a certain line here.
- And here's one to Axe Cop.
- How about one to NANACA†CRASH!!?
- Shortly after that, the password to get into a lab is "Despair! Girls in contacts have left me in despair!".
- Card games on motorcycles!
- A world like Yume Nikki gets its own arc.
- Plus, there are plenty of anime characters who get Laywer-Friendly Cameoes throughout. Like the cast of three seasons of Digimon in this Sportsland comic. Which then goes on to include a reference to Harvey of all things.
- This comic provides the page image of Wowing Cthulhu, whereas they take pages from Tenacious D's music Tribute and playing the best song in the world to avoid a draconic demon from eating their souls, and when asked with "Be you angels?", the answer is "Nay, we are but men."
- Also, take a look at the lower left costume, lower right costume, and wand in the upper left here
- Plot Hole: Actually used as part of the plot, the characters travel between trope themed realities by going through Plot Holes.
- Tsundere: Eri-Chan (thinks she is), Keiko (actually is, and a Type-B), Petra (type A; dere side only seen in flashbacks or when otherwise separated from the rest of the main cast)
- Whole Costume Reference: Lycidia in the MMORPG world, wears a Pimped-Out Dress that looks just like the dress the Queen of Hearts wore.
