Animal Yokochō


Animal Yokochō is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryo Maekawa and serialized in Ribon Magazine, Ribon Original and Ribon Bikkuri. It is the story about a little girl who has a doorway to another world in her room, from which three bizarre and frequently-annoying stuffed animal-like creatures emerge to make her life "interesting". This manga's characters originally appeared in Ribon Original as quiz column's characters.
The manga won the award for children's manga at the 51st Shogakukan Manga Awards.

Plot

The gate to AniYoko

It is explained in the anime that AniYoko itself is an alternative world inhabited by stuffed-animal-like creatures. The only method of travel between AniYoko and the human world is through a door mounted on the floor of Ami's bedroom. The Trio has given many conflicting and spurious explanations for how the door got there, but the real answer may never be revealed to Ami nor the viewer. Still, nothing overly sinister appears to be involved, as Kenta said in the second story, "That's the setting for the story, so don't worry about it", breaking the fourth wall, something that happens often in the show.
The door is two-way. It is most often used by the Trio to enter our world and interact with Ami, who they seem to find strangely fascinating. Ami could go through the door herself and enter AniYoko but, due to the insistent Trio and their strange often frightening stories, has yet to do so in the anime and AniYoko itself has never actually appeared, with only a dark space being shown whenever Ami looks inside. Scenes of AniYoko do appear in the Trio's recollections and stories, but these often are immediately shown to be false, and no objective AniYoko scenes have ever been shown. On one episode, it has shown Iyo's bedroom.
The presence of the door and the Trio seems to have had some effect on Ami's room itself. Ami and the Trio frequently find that they can go to many other places, such as a jungle, a forest, a baseball stadium and an RPG-style dungeon, without actually leaving the room.

Characters

;Ami Matsuzaki
;Iyo
;Kenta
;Issa
;Mr. Yamanami
;Ayako Matsuzaki
;Kumiko Takeda
;Catherine Maekawa
;Others:
  • Match & Pitch. and Naoko Suzuki
  • Shima Shimako.

Media

Anime

Episodes

  1. A new friend - The door has opened - 11 October 2005
  2. Let's bake a cake - Let's do our homework - 18 October 2005
  3. Puzzled punch - Dark pan - 25 October 2005
  4. Catalog shopping - Catching a cold - 1 November 2005
  5. Secret diet - Fan letter - 8 November 2005
  6. Fortunetelling Paradise - The BIG Fight 15 November 2005
  7. The story of Kenta's scarf - Iyo Affair - 22 November 2005
  8. Art of punchlines- AniYoko Shiritori - 29 November 2005
  9. Playing Cards - Autumn's Terror - 6 December 2005
  10. Exchange of Diaries - Murder of Yamanami-san - 13 December 2005
  11. It's my Birthday - Snowball Fight - 20 December 2005
  12. Christmas -Curing Insomnia - 27 December 2005
  13. Spring Cleaning - Hotspring - 3 January 2006
  14. Everyone's Superb - Watching the House - 10 January 2006
  15. Ku-chan's First Appearance - Truth of Kenta - 17 January 2006
  16. Preventing Cavities - I have many Interests - 24 January 2006
  17. Yamanami Battle 2 - Speech Meet - 30 January 2006
  18. The day before the field trip - Ami's First Love?! - 7 February 2006
  19. Valentine - Big Discovery - 14 February 2006
  20. Rival? - Adults? - 21 February 2006
  21. Video War - Issa's Special Abilities - 28 February 2006
  22. Rabbit and Tortoise - Investigation Team - 7 March 2006
  23. Mini Mini Big Adventure - AniYoko Newspaper - 28 March 2006

Music

;Opening themes:
  1. Tondemo Nothing ~Doki☆Doki Animal Yokocho ~ by Ami with Iyo, Kenta, Issa
  2. Love Chu You!! by Ribbon Girl
;Ending themes:
  1. Fantasista Girl by The Indigo
  2. Sweetie by Fumiko Orikasa

Animation

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Games