AoHaru Manga Library is a YouTube-based manga channel. It's an anthology of one-shot Rom Com stories with a set of recurring cast, usually involving the plain-looking but nice Keiichi Sato and one (or all) leading ladies whose names are either 'Yui', 'Noa', or 'Nagisa' (and occasionally 'Kanae') but having mostly different surnames in every story. While the antagonist's names differ in each story, a recurring name for the male antagonist is 'Yuji' (though it's been used for Keiichi's ally as well). Each story usually offers different backgrounds and settings.

The English channel can be found here, and secondary channels here and here. The Japanese channel can be found here and its successor (titled "Tokimeki Days") here.

AoHaru Manga Library features examples of these tropes:

• 0% Approval Rating: In a business setting where Keiichi and an antagonist coworker are appointed as team leads, often, the team under Keiichi thrives while the antagonist's team suffers (unfair treatment, inefficient methods, the antagonist claiming credit for their work, etc.), and by the end, pretty much everyone on the antagonist's team end up wanting to work under Keiichi instead.
• Abusive Parents: Several episodes portray Keiichi's parents as deadbeat ones who take the antagonist role.
  • My Parents Forced Me to Marry the CEO's Daughter But We're Poor Farmers…: Keiichi's parents are being impulsive gamblers who squander his grandfather's farm and its tools, pulled Keiichi out of college just to manage the farm, set him up to an Arranged Marriage with a CEO's daughter named Yui while micromanaging his spending only so he can provide for their gambling addiction. Thankfully, Yui and her father are reasonable people (even if Yui started out a bit spoiled), and eventually Keiichi just flat-out disowns his parents.
  • I Was a Runaway Boy with No Money and a Woman Rescued Me. But 7 Years Later, She...: Keiichi's mother married another man with a daughter, Kanon. Both of them then exercise Parental Favoritism at Keiichi's expense. Later, the father tries to buy off Nagisa's restaurant without her consent because he thinks of himself as a property salesman pro, not realizing that he was scammed. Keiichi defends Nagisa's restaurant with his own education, and even Kanon rejects them, actually preferring Keiichi's kindness and not amused with how her parents favor her at the expense of Keiichi.
  • I Was Forced to Marry Yakuza's Daughter For Parents' Debt But She's Actually...: Keiichi's parents accrued a debt with the Yakuza via gambling in the past, and now they overly depend on Keiichi to pay off the debts with his work on a diner and an Arranged Marriage with the Yakuza patriarch's daughter, Nagisa, who turns out to be hardworking on her own and falls for him for real. The parents also do not even congratulate Keiichi on his birthday. Thankfully, the Yakuza patriarch turns out to be a reasonable man and approves Keiichi and Nagisa's relationship based on mutual trust and affection. When the parents' gambling addiction and abuse of Keiichi are revealed, the patriarch is more than happy to relocate said deadbeat parents to a harsh working place somewhere near the seas, where the oldest worker there is in their nineties.
• Abusive Workplace: Keiichi may start his story working in such a place. Between having a Bad Boss who disrespects him or a colleague who tries to steal his credits or a female co-worker turning out to be a Gold Digger to other co-workers who are too dependent on him doing most of the jobs (and sometimes don't lift a finger when Keiichi is in a pinch) or extremely tight and stressful work hours to the point Keiichi may fall sick or be undernourished, or perhaps all of them at once, it usually shows just how bad the workplace is. Thankfully, Keiichi will eventually decide to just call it quits and move on to a much better workplace, while said abusive workplace falls apart because Keiichi turns out to be the sole reason they're still standing, and they have just driven him off.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: In stories revolving around Keiichi getting dumped, it's usually because his first girlfriend is attracted to his antagonist's bad boy attitude. This usually comes back to bite them in the end.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: This is generally zig-zagged. Many of the heroines take this form, especially when they're cast as CEOs, but it's usually Nagisa who gets this role, as she often has to play as the cold beauty with a tough exterior to be eventually melted after the encounter with Keiichi, especially if she's in a harem episode; she'd look like the tall and cool one compared to Yui and Noa. However, she's just as likely to play as a sweet-natured lady with the same model.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Since this series deals with the same niche as RomCom Manga Chan (Romantic Comedy manga dubbing featuring Universal-Adaptor Cast using the same names for the protagonist and love interest), AoHaru Manga Library has its own character equivalents with RomCom Manga Chan:
  • Keiichi Sato is the equivalent of Kent Honda, the Ridiculously Average Guy protagonist who wins through his tribulations via hard work compared to his more extravagant rivals.
  • Yui, Noa, and Nagisa take turns filling in the heroine spot usually handled by Mary Toyota alone, making them a decomposite equivalent for Mary.
• Androcles' Lion: Keiichi's kindness will eventually lead him to help someone in trouble without looking into their background, while the antagonist will be ignorant and even ruin Keiichi's life for it. Later, it turns out that the one Keiichi saved is a figure of power who does their best to repay the favor and make the antagonist suffer for their callousness.
• Analogy Backfire: During I Came Back from a Work Trip to Find My Wife Cheating With My Boss! We Split, But…, Keiichi's cheating wife Ann cited the story of The Tortoise and the Hare when comparing his business strategy to her new squeeze Yuya, calling Yuya the hare while Keiichi's the tortoise. Problem is, the tortoise won in that story, and sure enough Yuya's business strategy ultimately collapses while Keiichi winds up thriving.
• Bad Boss: When the stories are about office life, the male antagonist will usually be a corrupt chief or boss who makes Keiichi overwork, takes all the credit for himself, and eventually proves to be incompetent at the same time too.
• Beauty Is Bad: Played straight and inverted at the same time. In various stories where the antagonist is a young male character, they will most likely be a handsome young man with an extroverted personality, clicking with the popular trend to contrast with Keiichi's more plain looks and introverted personality. However, their personalities tend to be extremely shallow, only valuing other people for their looks and outer accomplishments. On the other hand, the heroines are flat-out beautiful, but they are also good people who don't flaunt their beauty. In fact, it's the heroines who sometimes appear homely and unattractive at first, but turn out to be complete knockouts in both looks and heart later.
• Beg the Dog: When the antagonists get their karma after messing with Keiichi, most of the time, they will beg him for help and mercy when everything has gone downhill for them. However, either Keiichi himself or the heroine will reject their pleas and leave them on their own.
• Benevolent Boss: Whenever Keiichi or any of the heroines is a company CEO or a section chief, you can expect them to be supportive of their subordinates and will protect them from bad business rivals, especially those who have been proven to be bad news.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When delivering punishment onto the antagonist(s), Keiichi makes sure to be as thorough as possible to make sure they won't try anything like again, with the antagonist(s) often finding their lives completely ruined.
• Bitch Alert: An antagonist in this series (regardless of gender) is easy to spot: If you see the character spamming smug laughters ("Haha!", "LOL", "*snicker*", or in Japanese language, "-w-") early on, then it's a good chance that they're a Smug Snake antagonist who thinks that their life will always be smooth sailing at the expense of others, waiting to face their downfall (along with their ego) at the end of the story.
• Broken Pedestal: My Folks Only Cared For My Little Bro, So I Left! But On His Wedding Day…: Akira's junior, Nishiyama, used to think he was a great boss, but ends up losing all respect for him thanks to his putting down and dismissive attitude toward his older brother, Keiichi.
• Broken Record: My Coworker Took My Credit & Thinks I'm Useless! I Quit, But Six Months Later…: Yusuke attempts to woo Keiichi's girlfriend, Yui, but she straight up rejects him while telling him that he's not popular with the ladies. Yusuke, with his delusion of the opposite, is unable to believe those words were directed at him, and questions this three times. Keiichi even lampshades how many times he was going to repeat it.
• Character Narrator: Nearly all the episodes start with Keiichi's "I'm Keiichi Sato" introduction, and he also gives exposition throughout the story.
  • Nagisa takes the role in My Coworker Teases Me For Loving to Save Money & Cook My Meals! But the Cute CEO… and Yui in The Main Contractor CEO's Daughter Canceled a $20M Project the Day Before Launch!.
• Cheater Gets Cheated On: Keiichi's girlfriend of two years dumped him for a more handsome guy. The very next day, she wants to get back with Keiichi because the handsome guy was a playboy who messed with other girls.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: A recurring theme of the story is that Keiichi is an honest student or worker, whereas his antagonists tend to be cheaters who constantly screw with the rules to get ahead in life, often at Keiichi's expense. However, Keiichi's hard work eventually pays off, giving him fortune, while the cheater's prosperity will be just temporary, and disaster awaits afterwards.
• Childish Villain, Mature Hero: Keiichi is always the hard-working hero who handles things maturely and professionally. He's usually introverted and doesn't like showing off and seeking thrills. On the other hand, the antagonists are always going to be materialistic, thrill-seeking show-offs who depend too much on their pride. They are usually seeking shallow enjoyments that only benefit themselves. They eschew hard work and always try to find a way to mock Keiichi and look like they're dominating him (which, in the end, always backfires).
  • I Saw My Old Boss Who Fired Me & My Secretary Got Upset When She Saw Me Cleaning!: Yuji Saito, who thinks too highly of himself, complains how no one understands his greatness and people only pay attention to Keiichi, arguing that he's older than Keiichi, and at the end, he's reduced to pathetically crying and throwing a tantrum like a baby.
• Child Prodigy: Sayaka is a second grader, but she is a tech wiz who can create apps with ease. With the help of Yui and Keiichi, she was able to make their company successful with her game.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: There are a few company CEOs who clearly have no qualms abusing their position to do whatever they want, such as the Nepotists who don't bother their disciplining their children (usually daughters) even when it's clear they're just lazing around without doing their jobs properly. In the end, their companies usually go bankrupt.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In certain stories, Keiichi is depicted as an unassuming nerd who's pushed around by his peers but is secretly someone of high position (like a company CEO) who is competent, intelligent, and just likes to keep his life simple. When his status is revealed, he calmly and brutally gives a Humble Pie to his bullies.
• Didn't Think This Through: In the case of coworker antagonists, when Keiichi does a better job at them, they impulsively quit their workplace near the end even when the others try to give them advice, claiming that the company is not the right fit for them, or stubbornly claiming that Keiichi's method is "inefficient" (despite its clear success). It usually ends in these ways:
  1. They find a new job, but their prideful attitude makes them outcasts.
  2. They struggle with keeping a stable employment and are job-hopping.
  3. They try to start their own company, which quickly faces hardships (and goes bankrupt not long after, leaving them in debt).
  4. They are unable to land a new job at all.
• Disowned Parent: Nearly all videos with Keiichi having bad parents will have him declaring that he's cutting ties with them at some point, usually the end.
• Disowned Sibling: Like what's stated above, in cases where Keiichi has a sibling who received Parental Favoritism and thinks less of their brother because of it, he'll cut off ties with them as well.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The earlier stories followed the normal romcom pattern of Keiichi meeting and helping the heroine, usually in a school setting. In the later stories, not only Keiichi is a young adult and who works in a company (either a salaryman or any other positions like a cook or even CEO), the romcom elements take a backseat and become dressings of the new meat of the story, being how the kind, hard-working, mature Keiichi outwit the thrill-seeking, glory-hound, yet incompetent and immature antagonist in a workplace environment.
  • The cover pictures of earlier videos usually depict the early problem and the story's end result. In the latter videos, it instead portrays the beginning parts of the story, which can lead to various Red Herring and shows that there is another issue to be tackled after the pictures. Also early thumbnails didn't point out character roles in yellow captions.
• Entitled to Have You: In some videos, the jealous male antagonists express this toward Keiichi's girlfriend/wife or the female lead. Likewise, the female antagonist, more often than not, Keiichi's ex-girlfriend/wife, try to get back together with him after he reaps the reward for his hard work, hoping to ride the coattails of his success.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In A Beauty Asks Me to Pretend to Be Her BF So She Could Get Back at Her EX Who Cheated on Her?!, Keiichi's ex, Miharu, appears to be the typical greedy dumper at first. However, during the school trip, she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with how her new boyfriend, Daigo, goes so far to mislead both Keiichi and Nagisa in the mountain at night by tampering with the two's direction to their camps for no clear reason. She ends up exposing Daigo because of her own conscience before both Keiichi and Nagisa come back safely. She also proves to be an aversion to the typical Gold Digger: After everything is over and Daigo's punishment is described, she apologizes to Keiichi and doesn't try to rekindle their relationship.
  • In My Childhood Bud Stole My GF a Long Time Ago! When I Went Back to My Hometown..., Rin starts out as the ex who ridicules Keiichi after she is about to marry Takuya. But then, Takuya tries to "advise" her father, which will bring trouble to his family business, but ultimately it's only to sate his own ego and grudge against Keiichi. Getting her struggling father and family involved in an eventual disaster does not sit well with her, so Rin ends up apologizing to Keiichi, begrudgingly telling Yui that she's actually the better match for Keiichi, and eventually assisting Keiichi in putting an end to Takuya's schemes, all to protect her family.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Occasionally, Keiichi's relationship with the female leads and/or the antagonist will be Childhood Friends, former classmates, etc.
• Evil Is Petty: There are plenty of antagonists who go the extra mile just to poke fun at Keiichi, such as: arrogant exes who try to show off with their (usually) just-as-arrogant new partners or refuse to give Keiichi proper service at an establishment due to still seeing him as some "broke loser", nepotism-daughters who tattle on their CEO daddies just because Keiichi told them to do their jobs properly, business owners who end their deal with Keiichi's business for personal reasons, superiors/coworkers who give him grief over his educational background, etc., who meet up with Keiichi again after a long time and mock him for "still being a loser" and make sure to rub in their overinflated sense of superiority in his face, which eventually ends up backfiring.
• Evil Laugh: The antagonists, especially the arrogant, self-entitled ones, let these out when they screw Keiichi over in the beginning.
  • My Boss Dumped My Prototype and Me But the Rival Company's CEO...: Fujii lets one out as he plans to steal Keiichi's product and pass it off as his own. It doesn't end well, as he ends up getting an incomplete version of the schematics, leading to defective products.
• Fair-Weather Ex: One of the more common forms of female antagonists in this series. In the beginning, they callously dump Keiichi for his low-key and humble attitude, which would not give them quick money, and hook up with a richer, more elite boyfriend. When Keiichi's hard-working attitude pays off and he gets rich, or he's revealed to be rich all along, they immediately try to hook up with Keiichi again, going so far as to dump their previous elite boyfriend (if the boyfriend is stupidly smug, then it's because the boyfriend falls into hard times when their scheme crumbles, but it's also likely that said previous boyfriend is actually a Nice Guy too, making him a sympathetic victim). Keiichi does not fall for this and rejects them without fail.
• Fake Pregnancy: Keiichi's exes do this on rare occasions, either to guilt him into letting her go so that she can be with her new catch without hassle, or claiming that the baby is his so he'll be obligated to support her.
• Formula-Breaking Episode:
  • A New Hire from a Top College Looks Down on Me! I Assign Him a Major Deal and... breaks the usual formula that the romcom ends with Keiichi and the heroine (in this case, Nagisa) about to tie the knot and live happily ever after. Instead, the end shows the antagonist (Yuji Saito) still being stubborn and about to get more miserable (by being kicked out of his own house).
  • My Boss Who Took My Ex Also Took My Sushi Reservation! But...: For once, Keiichi's breakup with an ex-girlfriend was an amicable one. His ex, Rina, turns out to be a decent person who, after learning that her husband was trying to take advantage of Keiichi in hopes of getting free food, defends Keiichi and eventually decides to divorce her husband.
  • My Dad Gets Remarried & My Stepsis, Who's in College, Kicks Me Out! But…: The antagonistic stepsis in question is named Yui, a name which the viewer would normally expect to be reserved for the heroine. And unlike the previous cases of Nagisa, Noa, or Yui who start off arrogant and hostile before warming up to Keiichi, this Yui never makes amends with him, blaming Keiichi when his absence at home starts causing trouble for her, even though she was the one who forced him out, and it's not until she faces the typical end-of-story antagonist hardship that she comes to regret her mistreatment of Keiichi.
• Gold Digger: Types of these characters (usually the female ones) appear a lot as antagonists due to the abundance of stories of Keiichi getting dumped because he's too humble or not having a luxurious lifestyle. More often than not, they're also examples of Fair-Weather Ex. This gets used so much that the series occasionally plays around with this trope:
  • In I Took Over a Shabby Inn and My GF Dumped Me! When I Help a Drenched Beauty..., Momoka is a downplayed, sympathetic take of the trope: She genuinely supports Keiichi in his attempt to run the inn (most of the characters in this stage just let Keiichi do all the work for them), but their efforts do not bear fruit, and the inn is in the red. This causes her to panic and break up while apologizing. She returns later when Keiichi is able to restore his inn, and after being rejected again, she amicably departs from Keiichi and Yui, admitting her mistake in breaking up in the first place. Notably, throughout the whole video, she is not portrayed as being smugly condescending like the rest of the examples.
  • In Got Dumped On the Day I Propose to My GF! So I Went to Mixer But Somehow My Ex..., the 'Gold Digger' character is... Yui. Since she usually plays the heroine, she instead subverts the trope: She is revealed to have played the villainous Gold Digger archetype because she wants to save her family's factory from debts, and the only way to do it is to marry her and Keiichi's Evil Former Friend while dressing him up as a 'rich elite'. She doesn't want Keiichi to get tangled in her family's debts, so she has to reject him even if she feels bad about it.
• Good Is Not Soft: Keiichi may start the series being a pathetic wimp with no backbone despite being a good person, but he eventually Grew a Spine and is able to talk down and reject the bad guys' insults and bribery while standing up for his principles. Certain stories also have Keiichi already being able to stand on his own.
• Good Parents: In stories where Keiichi is blessed to have parents that care for him, they often help out with his business, sometimes even to put the antagonist(s) in their place.
• Graceful Loser: Sometimes, the antagonist knows they've done wrong in the end and takes their defeat with grace, making peace with Keiichi.
  • After cheering up a dull, plain looking girl crying in a park…: Usui dumps Yui after realizing that her dull, nerdy look will damage his reputation, but he wants to go back to her after she turns out to be beautiful. Yui rejects him for being interested in her on a superficial level, while Keiichi loves her for her personality and kindness. Rather than running away in despair, Usui instead just sighs in defeat, acknowledging that he really isn't the man for Yui, wishing her and Keiichi happiness as a couple.
  • Female CEO is Going Bankrupt When Employee Betrays! I, Known as Useless, Remains..: Nagashima gathers all of Nagisa's employees to quit her company en masse because he disagrees with Nagisa's new approach, which doesn't go well with an old-timer like him. Keiichi stays, however, and single-handedly saves Nagisa's company, while Nagashima's new company struggles and goes out of business. The next time they meet, Keiichi and Nagisa are on a recruitment drive and have actually considered re-recruiting Nagashima. After apologizing for the betrayal, Nagashima declines their offer to return, as he has found peace in his new, quieter job as a salesman and is still feeling guilty about the damage he caused. Keiichi and Nagisa accept his rejection with no hard feelings, and he sees them off while politely bowing.
  • I Took Over a Shabby Inn and My GF Dumped Me! When I Help a Drenched Beauty...: After Keiichi's inn is back in business, Momoka asks if she can return to being his girlfriend. After Keiichi rejects her normally, she immediately recognizes that she just cannot beat Keiichi's new girlfriend (Yui) and wishes them luck.
• Grew a Spine: In several variations.
  • Either Keiichi or the heroine will eventually decide that they will not abide by everything the main antagonist does and eventually call it quits, striking out on their own and eventually finding success while the antagonist fails.
  • Sometimes, there are stories where the antagonist's spouse is either a doormat or a Nice Guy by default. After seeing how toxic the antagonist is, they find the strength to break up and oppose the antagonist. They may end up in a better fate, but sometimes they have to go through certain hardships first.
  • The nameless co-workers of Keiichi, if they're portrayed sympathetically, may find Keiichi growing a spine on his own to be the push they need to grow their own spines and call it quits on their own before they sink with the ship the antagonist is steering. They may end up well if they jump into Keiichi's new, better workplace.
• Guys Want to Chase: I Was Rejected By My Cold Childhood Friend But The Most Beautiful Girl in School..: Reiko's belief in this trope is what costs her a relationship with her Childhood Friend Keiichi, whom she had a crush on. After Keiichi confesses to her, she cruelly rejects him because she believes that if she says yes immediately, he'll think she's easy, her plan being to wait for him to ask her again later and then say yes. Her assumptions turn out to be wrong when Keiichi asks another girl out, and they end up in a relationship.
• Harem Genre: In stories where Nagisa, Yui, and Noa appear together, they usually end up forming a harem for Keiichi.
• Hate Sink: The supply of despicable people is in no short supply on this channel, but Fujii from My Boss Dumped My Prototype and Me But the Rival Company's CEO... certainly stands out. He purposefully dumps coffee on Keiichi's prototype just to be petty and blames him for a mistake that is not his fault, talking about having him transferred to a dead-end position where he could go about life as if he went through early retirement. Later at Keiichi's new workplace, he visits just to rub it in and be an ass, and when he hears that Keiichi's work actually has value, he makes plans to steal it. However, he only manages to get his hands on the incomplete blueprint, which lacks the waterproof feature, landing him in trouble with the customers, so he tries to bring Keiichi back to make him the fall guy. When he gets busted for stealing Keiichi's incomplete product, he drops all pretenses and suggests to his CEO to bring Keiichi back and pin all the blame on him, but the CEO is a good man and refuses. As a last resort, he pathetically begs Keiichi for help, but the latter smugly throws his early retirement comment right back at him before asking Fujii's boss to make sure he gets proper punishment, leaving Fujii screaming a Big "NO!". A few days later, all of Fujii's misconduct comes to light, and he gets hit with damages for patent infringement, forcing him to quit, and with his crimes all over the news, he's left struggling to find a new job.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Out of the named heroines, Kanae has only played the heroine a few times. Sometimes, she's playing the gold-digging antagonist or a supporting character like an Adorably Precocious Child.
• Heel–Face Turn: Although it's rare, sometimes there are stories where the character who's supposed to be an antagonist at the beginning of the story ends up changing their mind, turning over a new leaf, and becoming a better person. It's either due conscience coming knocking, Keiichi's influence finally reaching them, or the other antagonist is about to cross a line even they're not willing to cross.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Such is the case with company CEOs and presidents (even when they're not played by the good guys), who are reasonable and strive to be good, law-abiding corporate people who try to create the best workplace environment while giving the customers the best service.
• Hospital Epilogue: One of the end-of-episode misfortunes that the antagonists face is ending up in a hospital, often due to stress, from the aftermath of their schemes causing it to be more difficult in their work environment.
• Interabled Relationship Stigma: "My Little Bro Stole My GF & They Both Dissed My Current Wife! But…": Keichii's brother, Mitsuaki, and his wife, Rikako, criticize Keichii when they learn his fiancée is in a wheelchair, saying that he can barely take care of himself and would make his own life harder by marrying a disabled woman.
• Invited as a Joke: Episodes involving mixer parties typically have the antagonist inviting the protagonist to the party for the purpose of making themselves look good by using the protagonist as a foil. However, said antagonist's plan is always foiled when the protagonist gets along better with the other gender than the antagonist.
• Ironic Echo: Occasionally, the antagonist will throw some mocking words in Keiichi's way at the beginning, and at the end, when they're in trouble, those words will be thrown right back in their face.
  • My Parents Favor My Little Bro So We Cut Ties & I Thrived as an Entrepreneur! But…: When Keiichi decides to leave home due to no longer being able to bear his family's poor treatment, he receives a farewell gift of a measly 3,000 yen, stating that it ought to be plenty for him to get by. Later, after Keiichi exposes their poor work ethics and gets them demoted, he gives both of them farewell gifts, which contain 3,000 yen, and Keiichi even throws his father's words that it ought to be plenty for them to get by right back at them.
  • My Boss Dumped My Prototype and Me But the Rival Company's CEO...: Fujii gets Keiichi blamed over his own screwup, which results in the latter getting transferred to Aoigawa Village, "where the nature is peaceful, the trains run every hour, and he'll get to spend life as if he went through early retirement" according to Fujii's words. Later, after Fujii's attempt to steal Keiichi's product fails due to getting the incomplete plans, resulting in defective products, and the fact that Keiichi had already filed a patent long before Fujii tried, his wrongdoings end up exposed. Fujii pathetically tries to beg Keiichi for help, only for Keiichi to smugly throw Fujii's "where the nature is peaceful, the trains run every hour, and you'll get to spend life as if you went through early retirement" comment right back at him before requesting Fujii's boss to make a wise decision regarding Fujii, which ends with him being fined for patent infringement and struggling to find a new job due to his crimes being aired all over the news.
  • My Best Friend Betrayed Me Once Our Company Became Successful and I Lost My GF But: Akui forces Keiichi out of the company they found together and steals his girlfriend, stating that "having just one person as the president should be enough, right?" Some time later, Akui ends up in a tough spot, with the company about to go in the red, and tries to convince Keiichi to come back and bail him out, to no avail. Not only that, Keiichi decides to sue Akui for changing the CEO registration without his permission and for other crimes. Desperate, Akui brings up how his company employees could be inconvenienced, but Keiichi simply states that he will help them all and smugly points out how Akui was right about it being better if there were only one president. Afterward, Akui gets arrested and is set to face prison time.
  • I Turned Down The Attractive Coworker's Confession, But I Saw Her at a Mixer…: Keiichi's coworker, Hayato, tries to prove that he's better than Keiichi by taking on extra work, only to bite off more than he can chew. When Keiichi expresses his concerns, Hayato accuses Keiichi of underestimating him because of his good standing and warns him that "Overconfidence is dangerous, you know?" Later, after Hayato messes up big due to his over-commitment, among those who call him out are Keiichi, who says, "Overconfidence is dangerous, you know? Especially at your age!" Hayato notes how his own words have been turned back on him.
  • I Cut Ties With My Mom 'Cause She Only Cared About My Big Bro! Years Later…: Keiichi's brother, Toshiya, believes that Keiichi is a fool for choosing to go global while his company, Tokimeki, is small, and arrogantly claims that his own company, Dokidoki, will make Keiichi's a prime example of what not to do. However, a year later, Tokimeki thrives, and Toshiya tries to copy what Tokimeki did; however, he neglects to put in all the proper research that Keiichi did before, and as a result, Dokidoki doesn't see the same success that Tokimeki did. After Yui, along with Keiichi, explains where Toshiya and his company failed, she adds that she wants to thank them for being a "prime example of what not to do."
  • My Parents Worshipped My Doctor Brother & Mocked My Pay & Kicked Me Out, But...: Keiichi's family, thinking that Keiichi is wasting space in their home with his seemingly low income, tells him to move out and be independent, not realizing that his income seemed low because he was paying for the utilities. At the end, when Keiichi's brother Shuto gets fired for negligence, the parents are unable to pay the bills as a result and beg Keiichi to come back, but Keiichi refuses, stating that since his parents still have Shuto and they can still work, they should become independent for once.
    Keiichi's dad: You need to move out and be independent right now!
    (Later)
    Keiichi: (To his dad) You've got my brother, and you and Mom can still work. How about becoming independent for once?
  • On a Work Retreat with 5 Contractors, They Ditched Me! So, I Went to…: When Yuuya bails on the construction contract he had with Keiichi, he points out that they never finalized the contract yet. Later, after Keiichi is forced to step in to help restore order on the site due to Yuuya's careless conduct, the client, Mr. Ishimaru, expresses doubts about continuing to work with Yuuya's company as a result. Yuuya tries to argue, stating that Mr. Ishimaru considered giving his company a new contract, but Mr. Ishimaru reminds him that they never finalized that contract, while also informing him that this is the same thing he did to Keiichi's company.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: A competent, benevolent company CEO (either Keiichi, the heroine, or a good supporting character) may be introduced as a lowly janitor, but they're actually going undercover to expose corruption within their own company. The antagonist will usually ridicule them based on that lowly position, outing them as the source of corruption. If Keiichi is not the CEO/janitor, then he will be the one to treat the 'janitor' with kindness, which eventually makes the undercover CEO realize his true value.
• Karma: This is often mentioned whenever Keiichi reaps his fortune while the antagonist reaps their misfortune, as it shows Keiichi's good deeds and the antagonist's bad deeds finally catching up to them.
• Karma Houdini:
  • In stories where both Keiichi and the heroine get dumped by their first girlfriend/boyfriend, the ones who get humiliated are the ones who humiliated Keiichi. The heroine's dumper usually goes unmentioned and may have gotten away scot-free.
  • In office stories, employees who go along with the antagonists' antics are often unmentioned at the end of the story, getting away from the karma of driving Keiichi away (unless they transfer to Keiichi's new workplace and realize the errors of their ways). However, sometimes they are mentioned to be "having a hard time finding another job".
  • Occasionally, there are consultants or business partners who are hired by the antagonists, who give them seemingly good advice, only for things to start going wrong for the antagonist, with the other person insisting that they're right, and the antagonist being unable to back out or being too stubborn to rely on Keiichi. At the end, when the antagonist suffers, the other person sometimes loses credibility as well, or they get away with it.
  • I Was a Runaway Boy with No Money and a Woman Rescued Me. But 7 Years Later, She...: At the end, it's revealed that the person Keiichi's stepdad ended up paying to buy Nagisa's shop off of was actually a scam artist, and while Keiichi's parents suffer for their Parental Favoritism toward his stepsister, Kanon, there's no mention of the scammer facing consequences.
• Knowledgeable, but Unskilled: Often, Keiichi's skills are underestimated due to his low educational background, with a superior favoring another coworker because their educational background is higher. However, it soon becomes clear that the other employee's educational level is no substitute for Keiichi's expertise.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Later Japanese videos are dubbed from the channel's sister channel, Tokimeki Days since the original Japanese AoHaru channel is inactive.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to channels like Trouble Busters, Hana's Romance Journal, Mani Mani People, I'm Anton!, etc., the antagonists are less malicious, and less likely to try and sabotage the protagonists. Even in earlier videos where the antagonists were more malicious and inclined to potentially criminal behavior, it's still on the low scale.
• Loophole Abuse: I Got Fired for Voluntarily Fixing the Company’s System & Got Kicked Out! But…: Mr. Watanabe, after causing trouble to Yui's company, Tokimekilium Corp., due to his company's weak system security, refuses to let Keiichi look into his systems, reasoning that he is a former employee (though what he really wants is to dodge responsibilities). Then, Yui, on the grounds that her company hired Watanabe's, requests permission for her team to look into it, and he agrees, believing that they won't know what they're doing. Then, once she makes him swear not to go back on his word, she hires Keiichi, thus granting him access to Watanabe Electric Inc.'s systems now that he is a worker at Tokimekilium Corp., much to Watanabe's dismay.
• Manchild: I Saw My Old Boss Who Fired Me & My Secretary Got Upset When She Saw Me Cleaning!: Near the end, when Yuji's unprofessional work behavior is exposed and he gets told to take responsibility for his actions, he starts whining about how no one appreciates his "talents" and everyone only praises Keiichi despite being younger, going far as to cry and throw a tantrum on the floor like a little baby, clearly showing that his physical and mental age do not match up.
• Marriage of Convenience: This can go two ways.
  • It's set up so that Keiichi's family can benefit even if it's at his expense, but he ends up meeting the female lead this way.
  • Keiichi's already married before the story begins, often as part of some business arrangement, but his wife and in-laws start taking advantage of him, which eventually leads to divorce.
• Meaningful Name: Sometimes, the antagonists have names that suit their role, such as Akui ("Aku" meaning "evil") from My Best Friend Betrayed Me Once Our Company Became Successful and I Lost My GF But.
• Momma's Boy: Numata from The Chief Took My GF When I Got Sick During a Work Trip & Was Hospitalized! But… is revealed to be one, as Keiichi's ex, Rena, finds out the hard way. He leaves it to his mother to manage his finances and considers having her move in with him and Rena, which leads to her dumping him.
• Nepotism: Happens when the antagonist is related to someone major in the company and tries to lord that position over the other employees. They usually end up getting put in their place by their more reasonable and fair relative, or if the relative is also the antagonist, then the main antagonist and their relative suffer together.
• Never My Fault: More often than not, there are employees who are dead set on their beliefs on the right way to do their jobs, compared to Keiichi's, even when the results clearly show that it's not working. This often leads to them quitting on impulse, claiming that the current workplace doesn't "appreciate" them, which leads to them facing hardships afterward.
• Never Trust a Title: A lot of titles claim that Keiichi "got fired," but that's exaggerated, as what actually happens is either Keiichi resigning voluntarily, or the antagonist simply throwing some passive-aggressive talk at him.
• Nice Guy: A constant trait of Keiichi in all his roles is that he's an overly nice and kind guy who looks like a Bully Magnet and doesn't like to stand out, thus being expected to 'finish last'. Karma always proves that expectation wrong.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Honestly, this is what happens in stories where the male antagonist steals Keiichi's girlfriend/wife, as by the end, Keiichi no longer has to put up with his ex's selfish whims, while leaving room for Nagisa/Noa/Yui to come in and bond with Keiichi romantically.
• No Accounting for Taste: Early in the story, Keiichi is someone who can never spot the red flags that the girl he's pining for is actually a selfish Gold Digger, leading him to get cruelly dumped. He grows over it later by rejecting the same girl once she comes back, trying to reignite their relationship only after Keiichi becomes successful. Sometimes also lampshaded by Keiichi himself that he used to have 'bad taste with women' and only learned by experience with said Gold Digger.
• No Antagonist: There are several stories where there are no antagonist characters; it's just Keiichi dealing with his own awkward feelings towards the heroine while trying to be as supportive as possible, or they get into a misunderstanding on their own.
• No Listening Skills: Some of Keiichi's family who treat him as The Un-Favorite often miss out on him telling them some big news such as him getting a high position at a company or him marrying/being lovers with someone in such position, and when they find out later, their typical response is asking why he didn't tell them, only for Keiichi to retort that he did and they didn't listen/ignored him.
• Offended by an Inferior's Success: While only rarely said, most male antagonists do terrible things to Keiichi because of the belief that they're among the superior elite people, thus deserving more credit, but the down-to-earth, humble Keiichi, whom they perceive as inferior, has achieved more through hard work. This breeds jealousy, leading the antagonists to steal Keiichi's credit (or girlfriend) in order to one-up Keiichi. However, this will bite them in the ass without fail.
• Parental Favoritism: Keiichi is a frequent victim of this, where his parents dote on his sibling while treating him like an afterthought because the sibling appears to be doing better than Keiichi. In the end, either Keiichi is revealed to be more successful or the arrogant sibling ruin themselves, which leads to his parents trying to get Keiichi's help, playing the family card, but he is having none of it and simply cuts ties with them, leaving his family to wallow in misery.
• Plot-Inciting Infidelity: Some of the stories begin with Keiichi's girlfriend/wife cheating on him.
• Popular Is Evil: The male antagonists are usually obsessed with maintaining popularity, looking down on the lesser ones, especially Keiichi, or whenever the heroines look plain. Similarly, the female antagonists are only interested in the most popular one so they can get more money and materialistic wealth from him. This is sometimes inverted when it's the heroine who's popular: either she is a Class Princess who never lets her popularity get in the way of common sense, or she learns the hard way how her attitude damages her standing and decides to make amends.
• Pride: This is usually the main hubris of the antagonists: They're too self-absorbed with their superficial image and early superficial position, thinking of themselves as being better than everyone else, and they cannot stand it when they have competition. When Keiichi shows himself to have attained a higher position via hard work, they will usually attempt to one-up Keiichi, but will fail due to not noticing their own flaws and lack of actual skills, and thus their worldview and fate will come crashing down.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Reina in Said I'll Start a Company But GF Dumps Me! At Employee's Wedding Few Years Later.. is known as one of the most vicious 'Gold Digger ex-girlfriend' characters Keiichi ever faced. After dumping Keiichi for trying to start a new business, she goes to marry a rich man who works for a company, and it turns out to be Keiichi's company, where he's the president and her husband's richer boss. Realizing this, she becomes obsessed with getting back to Keiichi, ignoring her own husband. She persistently stalks and harasses Keiichi with either messaging, telephone barrage, present-giving, or stalking... to the point that Keiichi has to call for the services of a detective and asks for the husband's cooperation out of concern for his mental health. Before she's busted, she also attempts to shred the evidence against her. And even when she's divorced, she still mounts one last attempt to get back to Keiichi, to the point that her parents have to grovel to apologize to Keiichi and disown her.
• Rage Quit: In certain company episodes, there are arrogant employees who cause trouble or fall behind on their work because their pride prevents them from seeing how beneficial Keiichi's style is, which leads to them deciding to quit right then and there rather than trying to adapt. They often have trouble finding new jobs, or if they manage to, their stubbornness makes it difficult at their next workplace.
• Recurring Element: This rom-com typically repeats certain elements.
  • The protagonist's full name is always Keiichi Sato.
  • The heroine's given name is either Yui, Noa, or Nagisa.
  • The male antagonist will often be named Yuji (his most common last names being Tanaka or Saito). Likewise, the female (often a Gold Digger) antagonist is often named either Hiromi, Kaho, or Misaki, making the names the Evil Counterpart of Yui, Noa, and Nagisa.
  • Company names will usually be based on the channel's names. There are "Tokimeki," "Dokidoki," "Todoroki," "Days," "Aoharu," "Skylight," "Wakuwaku," or anything that sounds similar.
• Red Herring: Occasionally, there may be some characters who receive favoritism from the antagonist (such as siblings who are more favored by parents over Keiichi, or a coworker who has the Bad Boss's favor) or seem to be the antagonist themselves, but when it comes down to it, actually turn out to be on Keiichi's side.
• Relationship Sabotage: In this kind of story, the male antagonist tries to destroy Keiichi's relationship by stealing his girlfriend/wife away from him out of spite. In some versions, the antagonist also attempts to steal the heroine away from Keiichi, only for her to reject him.
• Removing the Crucial Teammate: When Keiichi gets pressured to leave his company by a Bad Boss, the company will start go downhill because Keiichi was really the one in charge of everything, forcing the antagonist to beg him to come back, but Keiichi rejects them because he is comfortable with his current position in another company or he has started his own company.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Some of the antagonists are former classmates of Keiichi's who assume he's still the same "loser" as back then and gives him some trouble, only to be proven wrong later, which eventually bites them back.
• Seven Deadly Sins: There's a good chance that the antagonist(s) in each story will display behavior matching at least one of the Sins. For example:
  • Yusuke from My Coworker Took My Credit & Thinks I'm Useless! I Quit, But Six Months Later… displays all of the Sins: He's very proud of the fact that he's held the top salesman position for months, which he lords over Keiichi, and he considers himself to be very popular with women, being in denial when told that he's not (Pride). He steals a major contract from Keiichi to receive credit for it (Greed). When he finds Keiichi with Yui, he shows jealousy that a "loser" like Keiichi has such a beautiful girlfriend (Envy) and promptly makes moves on Yui to have her for himself, right in front of her boyfriend, no less (Lust). He tries to use his self-proclaimed knowledge of good food places to justify his self-grandiose popularity with women, emphasizing the indulgence of food rather than the necessity (Gluttony). When the contract he stole from Keiichi gets canceled, he storms into the other company's building and aggressively demands to speak with the person in charge, stubbornly refusing to leave even when the receptionist tells him he cannot visit without an appointment, causing a scene (Wrath). Finally, Yui, the person in charge of the deal, lists key details which led to the deal falling through: Yusuke took too long to respond to questions from Yui's support team, he neglected to give proper instructions to using the product, he left out the customization options that the client requested, and most importantly, his credit-thieving tendencies, all examples of Yusuke's lack of diligence to his job (Sloth).
• Seven Heavenly Virtues: In contrast to the antagonists, Keiichi throughout the series shows all examples of the virtues: He is a humble person, and never brags about his accomplishments to make himself look good (Humility). He hardly ever gets mad, even when the bad guy antagonizes him, only doing so if they try to hurt someone he cares about, or when he's calling them out for their Never My Fault tendencies, and even then, it's more of a righteous anger (Patience). He does not care about material wealth, or for receiving credit that's not his (Charity). And he makes sure to congratulate his coworkers for their achievements, without showing envy, even when it's the antagonist (Kindness). He takes his work seriously and is always willing to lend a helping hand to those who need it (Diligence). He likes to live modestly and enjoy the simpler life and foods; the only times where he splurges being as part of some big event, such as proposals (Temperance). Lastly, his romances with the three Heroines is built on mutual, genuine love and trust, not out of superficial means like the antagonists' (Chastity).
• Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love: One of the recurring themes in these stories that forms the characterization of the antagonists.
  • The male antagonist will be the type of guy who only sees girls based on their superficial looks, therefore has a tendency to dump girls that they see as plain, dull, and ugly, and tells beautiful girls that fall for Keiichi's kindness that they're wasting their beauty on Keiichi's plain appearance.
  • Likewise, the female antagonist is usually a shallow Gold Digger who only sees men as how capable they are to give material wealth rather than true love obtained from getting to know and supporting each other even in hard times. In stories where Keiichi is already an accomplished and confident man, he makes it a point to avoid extravagant girls since they tend to be shallow. His preference mostly lies with plain, quiet, and down-to-earth girls since they're less likely to be shallow.
  • It even works in a non-romantic manner: Keiichi (and also the heroine) is the one who usually has true love and passion towards the field of job he's in, by giving his all to study and engross himself in the field and ensuring that his consumers and clients are genuinely happy. On the other hand, the antagonists will ridicule Keiichi's passion and love as lame and unnecessary, and their approach tends to be for quick and easy money and fame without any actual passion for the job and acting condescending towards their consumers and clients (which is always a recipe for disaster).
• Shout-Out:
  • While the name 'Akuma' is often used for the middle-aged Bad Boss antagonist character, it's used again in the episode I Helped a Girl Who Got Fired from a Company, She Became A Rich CEO GF!?, where it turns out that this particular Akuma is the son of a company president who also happens to be a gamer (as he played Yui and Keiichi's developed game that becomes an instant hit). Considering that, one may wonder that this gamer president is a fan of Street Fighter and decided to name his son after Akuma/Gouki, only to unfortunately fail in raising him properly, and this Akuma becomes the typical antagonist.
  • In Boss Stole My GF & My Credit and I Got Fired! At Job Interview I Met My Ex-Rival…, Keiichi is an aspiring game developer who's forced to do sales and had his passion project stolen by his colleague Matsumoto while working under 'K Company'. This is most likely referencing Konami and their devastating controversy in 2015/2016 about their exodus to pachinko and mobile gaming, workplace abuse, and the resignation of Hideo Kojima. The reason why this doesn't fall into Take That! is that the story portrays K Company with more respect: Keiichi has more freedom and is able to resign without being blacklisted from the industry; there is no workplace abuse and the problem stems solely from Matsumoto charming everyone and making Keiichi the fall guy. Once Matsumoto's fraud is exposed and causes damage to the company, the CEO simply punishes him rather than continuing to hound Keiichi.
  • After My Work Trip, I Found My Name on the Resignation List! I Decided to Quit and... features a scenario where the antagonist, Yuji Saito, abuses the hell out of the term 'family' to describe his outdated workplace and paying his employees to act like the part, all while using the term selfishly to his own benefits. This looks like a perversion of the 'family' line popularized by Dominic Toretto, but what makes this episode a Shout-Out to the franchise and its "family" meme is that there's also The Cameo of a bald guy who looks like a thinly veiled Vin Diesel (unnamed as the setting is in Japan, so he couldn't be named indirectly as Dom) as a contractor who rejects Yuji's proposal (yet accepts Keiichi's) and eventually admonishes his 'family' values (together with Keiichi and Nagisa).
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Keiichi's kindness and humility are usually the reasons why the main female (Nagisa, Yui, or Noa) falls for him. The gender inversion also applies in stories where Keiichi starts out as a self-assured, successful man. He has a tendency to ignore the prettier, more extravagant, but more abrasive and arrogant attention-seeking girl and instead goes for the plainer, but more down-to-earth heroine.
• Smug Snake: An antagonist in the stories here tends to be a super smug, fun-chasing extrovert who likes to flex their elite status and look down on the more down-to-earth Keiichi, while usurping his place and being so self-assured that with their riches, they would be way more successful than Keiichi could ever be. When they have the upper hand in the beginning, they act so smug, expecting Keiichi to be crying at the misfortune that they caused. By the end of the story, their smug attitude comes crashing down along with their plans, showing that they are actually incompetent at their field. Meanwhile, Keiichi perseveres with his own hard work ethics, so they usually come back to Keiichi begging for a second chance, but at that point, Keiichi has had enough of their smug shit and rejects them, leaving them to a horrible fate.
• Stealing the Credit: In some stories where Keiichi works in a company, the male antagonist will (try to) take credit for his hard works because he looks down on him.
• Stolen Credit Backfire: As stated in Stealing the Credit above, the antagonist(s) in some episodes tries to take credit for Keiichi's work, and inevitably, this happens.
  • My Coworker Took My Credit & Thinks I'm Useless! I Quit, But Six Months Later…: Yusuke snags a contract from Keiichi, declaring that he would do it better as the company's top salesman, with the general manager and section chief taking Yusuke's side, leading to Keiichi's resignation. Six months later, the contract gets terminated and Yui, the person Keiichi originally signed the contract with, states that in addition to Yusuke's incompetence at handling the contract, him being a credit stealer was the major factor in why she ended the deal, finishing off by saying that Keiichi would have never let those mistakes happen. Eventually, this reaches Yusuke's CEO, who promptly punishes Yusuke and the two superiors that supported the former's unethical behavior, resulting in their resignation and transfers respectively.
  • Boss Stole My GF & My Credit and I Got Fired! At Job Interview I Met My Ex-Rival..: Keiichi's boss, Matsumoto, takes credit for Keiichi's game proposal and steals his girlfriend, causing Keiichi to become uncomfortable at his workplace when no one believes him that Matsumoto stole his credit and leave the company. And so, Matsumoto and Keiichi's ex, Tanaka, are given free rein to take Keiichi's work and put it into production, however, the finished product ends up crammed with too much of their own preferences, completely deviating from Keiichi's proposal, and as a result, the sales flop and online reviews outright call it the worst game of the year. When they later confront Keiichi (who had since joined Yui's company and developed an award-winning game), he and Yui shut down their complaints, criticizing them for their self-centered mindset, and state that they deserved such results.
• Superdickery:
  • Several cover images make it look like the heroine of the video is doing something terrible to Keiichi because he slighted them. However, a few minutes in the actual video will show that she had a good reason for doing it, and they patch up in order to confront the true antagonist later.
  • My Failing Inn Was About to Shut Down, but When I Helped Out These Sisters has a rather effective one: The cover image shows Keiichi helping out two little girls, Ami and Kurumi, by providing them a stay in his inn, but also shows a well-fed Ami smiling and saying that they should shut his inn down. It turns out that she only says that because she and Kurumi are kid geniuses in inn management and she suggests shutting the inn down temporarily so it can be renovated and improved to save it from failing.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Keiichi tells the heroine the story about how he got dumped (by the Gold Digger ex), the heroine will get angry and utter lines to imply that she'll never forgive the dumper. After she calms down, Keiichi takes this as a positive point to acknowledge that the heroine cares for him enough to get angry in his place.
• The Three Faces of Eve: All these are encapsulated in the episode Sis Passed Away So I Raise Her Daughter! My Ex Disrespects Me at Open School Day..., where Nagisa is Keiichi's dead big sister, Noa is Nagisa's pre-teen daughter whom Keiichi raises in Nagisa's stead, and Yui is Keiichi's co-worker who ends up being his girlfriend.
• Thriving Ex-Crush: This is usually Keiichi's position in the end if he has a Gold Digger ex-girlfriend. After struggling and getting dumped cruelly in the beginning or before the story begins, Keiichi manages to persist and continue to work hard, eventually striking it rich. That's the cue for the ex-girlfriend trying to get back to him because of his newfound wealth, and Keiichi rejects them. Latter stories actually invoke the trope: Keiichi already had some issues with his girlfriend with their overly spendy and luxurious lifestyle, but the moment he gets dumped, he takes it with a big smile because he knows that his time to thrive with his own hard work ethics, without said greedy Gold Digger to burden him, has come.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Some episodes have the female lead being hostile towards Keiichi before he ends up winning them over through his kind personality.
• Tsundere: Certain stories have the heroine being a Tsundere. Usually, Yui is the one saddled with the role. Sometimes it's deconstructed that the Tsundere's antics end up driving people away because they're not being honest with themselves.
• Two-Timing with the Bestie: Keiichi has so many male False Friends (different in each story) who start out being described as his best friends, only to backstab him by stealing his girlfriend. This also often becomes said friend's undoing, because Keiichi's ex will turn out to be a Gold Digger who makes him miserable instead and makes way for Keiichi to court the supportive heroine.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: The story can range between varying scenarios, but mostly takes place in school or office life. Keiichi's role can range from that of an ordinary student to that of a company CEO.
• Unnecessarily Cruel Rejection: Reiko invokes this trope in an unusual way; when her Childhood Friend Keiichi confesses to her, Reiko rejects him harshly, saying that her reputation will be ruined of she dates an "introvert nerd." The unusual part comes from the fact that Reiko actually likes Keiichi, but rejected him because she believes that Keiichi will think she's easy if she says yes immediately. Her plan was to accept his second confession, but it backfired because Keiichi decided to move on and date another girl rather continue pining after Reiko.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Downplayed. In I Prayed to Get a Girlfriend, All 3 of My BFFs Were Actually Super Cute Girls!?, after wishing for a girlfriend in a shrine prayer, Keiichi is absolutely shocked when his 3 male friends come out of hot springs and reveal themselves to be girls. It's less severe than most examples because, after the initial shock, he quickly picks himself up because he's a calm introvert and asks calmly about their reasons.
  Keiichi: '"W,w,w,whyyy… What the heck? What is happening here? WHY ARE YOU ALL GIIIIRRRLSSSSS!?!?" (Hey, God, what am I supposed to do in a situation like this? Laugh about it? Am I supposed to laugh it off? Don't be absurd!)
• Villainous Breakdown: Some antagonists react this way when they face loss at the end.
  • My Wife Collapsed & I Got Fired After I Took an Emergency Day Off! But My Wife is…: After Yoshida is confronted for the mess he caused with the Tokiday project, he randomly confesses his feelings to Yui, even though he had already been informed that Yui is married to Keiichi (though considering his eyes had a dizzy look in them, it's possible that due to being unable to accept that he was being taken off the project, his brain malfunctioned and caused a lapse in memory). Yui and Keiichi simply respond to this by hugging each other while saying "Ta-da!", right in front of him, leaving him completely dejected that she won't even give him the time for an actual answer. Eventually, Yoshida loses all confidence and resigns, struggling to find a new job due to the word of the incident getting around.
  YouTube comment: (Commenting on Yui and Keiichi's response to Yoshida's "confession") Yui and Keiichi used Ta-Da! A critical hit! It's super effective!
• Weasel Co-Worker: Keiichi tends to deal with his male co-worker, who steals his credit and/or original girlfriend/wife. This eventually comes to bite the co-worker in the ass, either resigning or getting fired after he gets exposed for his misdeeds.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In a few earlier stories, the heroines dress up like guys for varying reasons. They don't even bother with changing names, except for Yui, who's usually referred to as the more unisex 'Yuu'.
• Wingding Eyes: Usually, the eyes of the antagonistic Gold Digger, once they realize Keiichi has risen to a higher position surpassing the antagonistic rival, will be replaced with yen signs. This is to cue in their true money-grubbing nature that they're just interested in mooching off him as an ATM.
• With Friends Like These...: Keiichi often has the bad luck of being friends with guys who backstab him and snatch his girlfriend and/or business from him. Unfortunately for the so-called best friend, they often end up meeting a sticky end because the girlfriend turns out to be a demanding Gold Digger or he doesn't have the right skills to run the business without Keiichi.
• Workaholic: Keiichi is often the guy who focuses more on his studies, work, and integrity as a student/Salaryman. The bad guys usually ridicule him as being lame for it, but eventually the supporting cast will see it as a positive trait and help balance Keiichi's schedule.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In stories where the antagonist steals Keiichi's girlfriend, they'll expect Keiichi to act out like someone who got Cuckolded in a Netorare genre, like being in anguish and expressing distress and envy as they flex on how they stole his girlfriend. Unfortunately for them, Keiichi always finds a way to move on quickly (via the default heroines), or in certain cases, Keiichi is all too willing to let go of the girlfriend because she proved to be too problematic (usually Gold Digger issues), and the antagonist, already providing him a "polite" way to let her go, ends up suffering the Gold Digger's vices instead.
• Yes-Man: This is usually a "supporting antagonist" role in office works. Keiichi's co-workers who do not support him until he quits are often being people who gets roped into the antagonist's antics and can do nothing but agree to their antics until everything comes crashing down on them too. They usually end up being unable to find a new job after the story ends, as they're considered complicit to their company's downfall and it paints a bad image on them.
• You Can Keep Her!: Keiichi says this to Numata regarding Rena in The Chief Took My GF When I Got Sick During a Work Trip & Was Hospitalized! But… after the latter thinks the former was trying to get back with her, when it was the other way around.
• You, Get Me Coffee: In some stories where Keiichi is returning to his previous workplace branch after being away, he is greeted by an arrogant new worker (occasionally a nepo-baby) who mistakes him for a newbie and believes they can boss him around, such as running errands for them, until they learn that Keiichi is not a newbie and is in a higher position than them.
• You Owe Me: When Keiichi has parents who practice Parental Favoritism, they often find himself in need of his help and state that he should help them for family's sake, conveniently ignoring how Keiichi was treated as lesser by said family. Keiichi responds by expressing the bare minimum gratitude for raising him, but he doesn't owe anything beyond that.
• Youngest Child Wins: Happens in stories where Keiichi is the younger sibling, coming out on top over his arrogant older sibling who has their parents' favor.