This is a story about young women who cosplay and the love and passion they share.
Masamune Okumura is an otaku with only one true love: his favorite character, Liliel. He is now both the president and only member of his school's manga club, after all the other members graduated, but he is satisfied watching his favorite anime all day long in the clubroom, even if he is all alone, because he only loves 2D girls and has no interest in real girls.
That is, until a first-year student named Lilysa Amano, who is just as much of an otaku and a passionate fan of Liliel as he is, joins the club. Lilysa dreams of becoming a cosplayer, and so she recruits Okumura to be her official photographer. Despite his initial misgivings, Okumura quickly bonds with Lilysa and decides to help her with her quest to join the cosplaying world. And so, Okumura must deal with a hard question: can he feel love for a real girl if she is a cosplayer who looks just like a fictional character?
2.5 Dimensional Seduction (2.5次元の誘惑リリサ, Nitengo-jigen no Ririsa) is an Ecchi manga series written and illustrated by Yu Hashimoto. It began serialization on Shueisha's Shounen Jump+ website in June 2019. In June 2021, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they licensed the series for English publication under their Ghost Ship imprint. The first volume was released in English in February 2022.
An anime adaptation for the work was announced in December 2023. The anime is made by J.C. Staff and premiered in July 2024.
An online RPG game developed by Aiming and Team Caravan, with the subtitle Angels on Stage (天使たちのステージ, Tenshitachi no Sutēji), was announced during Jump Festa 2024. It was released on September 3, 2024.
2.5 Dimensional Seduction contains examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Chapter 128 is about the announcement of an anime adaptation of a In-Universe manga, and Chapter 165 follows this up, as it features the cast coming together to watch the first episode. The issue is that, as acknowledged at the end of Chapter 128, it takes a lot of time to make an anime, and only a few months at best passed between these two chapters, so the timeframe doesn't make sense. This is because they are both a Leaning on the Fourth Wall moment where the cast discusses their own anime under the pretense of talking about an In-Universe work, which wouldn't work as well if Chapter 165 hadn't been published together with the release of the anime's first episode.
- Adaptational Modesty: The anime adaptation makes small changes to the outfits worn by Liliel and related characters so that the girls show less skin while cosplaying.
- Adaptation Expansion: Mikari falls Out of Focus in between Chapters 37-48, as the story shifts fully to introduce Nonoa and Aria as their own respective Arc Heroes. Mikari doesn't return to being a more consistent cast member until Chapter 49, allowed to join the manga club's Paratroopers cosplay since she got approval from her agency, at which point it's revealed she has been slowly changing her public image to present herself as someone who does cosplay casually, so her agency wouldn't protest against her cosplaying in public with the club. Episode 14 of the anime adds a new scene near the end depicting her interview with a magazine that was alluded to by Aria, while Mikari explains her plan in her inner monologue, setting up her future appearance in Aria's arc later on.
- Adapted Out: The anime skips over Chapter 17 of the manga, where the manga club participate in a café for the festival.
- Almost Kiss: In Chapter 162, Mayuri and Eli bring their faces very close while talking, until they notice they are being watched and quickly separate.
- Anti-Escapism Aesop: Chapters 108 and 109 have Marina directly telling Okumura he needs to face reality and stop with the declarations of only loving 2D woman. As she puts it, he was using this excuse to cover the fact that he doesn't love himself, and thus, is afraid other people won't too. It's acknowledged that his escapism into the world of manga gave him support in a moment of emotional distress, but it's also made clear he won't ever regain his sense of self-love or be able to enter a relationship with someone until he admits he wants to live in the real world and find a real girl he can love. This becomes the main theme of Okumura's character arc going forward.
- Approval of God: In-Universe. Yoichi Higarashi-sensei/Yo Kisaki, the author of Liliel: Side Story, is really happy to see the manga club bringing his characters to life through cosplay, and not just for giving him the chance to see his daughter again. He even takes notes of how the outfits look in 3D to use as reference in his work.
- And This Is for...: In Chapter 108, Okumura still beats himself over his inability to feel love, believing he can only be loved by Liliel. An enraged Marina, who is already bearing her heart to him, slaps him across the face, before following it up with several blows, one for each of the girls in the manga club. A punch for Lilysa, a knee for Mikari, and at least two off-page attacks for Aria and Nonoa.
- Art Shift:
- When the Four Heavenly Queens of Cosplay are first mentioned, Ogino and Okumura are briefly drawn in a much more detailed and photorealistic style than usual to emphasize how unnecessarily dramatic they are being. The anime repeats the gag with the Five Rising Stars in Episode 12.
- In Episode 11 of the anime adaptation, as Lilysa and 753♡ start geeking out together, 753♡ is briefly drawn in the style of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, realizing she actually likes talking to Lilysa, her face becoming more angular like Phantom Blood or Stardust Crusaders.
- As the series goes on and Okumura starts letting people into his world, allowing himself to love again, the photos he takes of Lilysa are depicted in color, and drawn in much more detail to show his growth. The most significant shift is in Chapter 170, where he doesn't even use the camera itself, but is the culmination of him falling for 3D girls instead of 2.5D ones, where he sees Lilysa in full color and with a more photorealistic artstyle.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- In Chapter 35 (the end of Episode 11 and the beginning of 12 in the anime), Mayuri and the headmaster go over the manga club's cosplay report, with them discussing the possibility about making their activities public. As Lilysa enters the classroom, a group of boys are looking at her Liliel cosplay from Cossto, with the class murmuring silently as she enters. Mikari then gets Lilysa's attention, telling her to look at the blackboard, as if her identity's been discovered and the headmaster's bullying concerns were correct... only for it to actually be about Lilysa having failed all her subjects, and she has to attend remedial classes, with no one having discovered her identity. Episode 11 even ends on a cliffhanger of the moment before the blackboard is shown to sell the moment.
- Nonoa's first scene frames her as an obsessive hater who has something against Lilysa. In actuality, she desperately wants to be Lilysa's friend but lacks the social skills to convey that properly, and her constantly angry faces unfortunately do her no favors.
- Bland-Name Product: Zig-zagged. Some anime and manga owned by Shueisha like Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya can be name-dropped no problem, while various other things tend to be named something different or are referenced in a copyright dodging way (eg. Splash Mountoon 3 being used in place of Splatoon 3, a Galarian Mexwth instead of a Galarian Meowth from Pokémon Sword and Shield, Cinderella (1950) being called Ashrella, etc.).
- Central Theme: "Loving yourself" is a recurring theme that shows up in different forms in many of the Character Focus arcs of the series. This is often accompanied by another message that you shouldn't internalize comments made by others and let them define your self-image.
- Cerebus Retcon: The very first thing we learn about Okumura is that his mother left him when he was a child and he got rejected by the girl he liked when he was in middle school, but he is fine with all that because of his love for manga and anime, which leads to him rejecting contact with the real world. To say he was putting on a tough front would be quite the understatement. When we actually get a look inside his head later, it's revealed he was deeply traumatised by his mother leaving, even being told that he was the reason why his mom left their family. Being rejected by the girl he liked reinforced the idea inside his mind that the problem was with him, and that he was a bad kid people didn't love. As such, he decided to preemptively avoid any relationship with girls to ensure he would never be rejected again. As he would admit later, he is a broken person, and he needed help.
- Club Stub: While it wouldn't be downright disbanded, the manga club almost got demoted to a research circle, which would make the main characters lose the room they had been using. Getting Mayuri to become the advisor of the club solves this issue, but they still need to provide a report of their activities in order to be reinstated.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- The relationships presented in the manga the main cast reads have a curious tendency to perfectly match with their own interpersonal relationships. Sometimes this happens because they choose to cosplay as a character they relate to, but there are also times there is no explanation for it besides coincidence. For example, while Mikari notes that she always liked Miriella because she also suffers from unrequited love, she has known both the character and Okumura for years before Lilysa met Okumura, and their Love Triangle wouldn't match the one from the manga so perfectly if Lilysa hadn't chosen to cosplay as the character Miriella was jealous of, which she had already done before meeting the two. On top of that, it was Lilysa who suggested that Mikari should cosplay as Miriella, without knowing about her feelings for Okumura.
- It just so happens that the new teacher at Okumura and Lilysa's school is a former cosplayer that Lilysa met at an event previously.
- The way the identity of Aria's father was uncovered is based on a number of coincidences that it's almost a miracle. The first, is that Aria's father was a mangaka, specifically of Valkyries Battlefield, a manga that Okumura had loved as a kid and sent his first fan mail for. However, this detail wouldn't be revealed until Nonoa discovered that Aria had cosplayed as the main character from that old manga, despite her initial insistence that she was unfamiliar with manga as a gyaru. After her goal of making a cosplay that can catch his attention has been set, Aria overhears that her father might have actually died years ago. Okumura finds this a bit suspicious, and is able to nail down why; the main character of Valkyries Battlefield and Liliel: Side Story are drawn so similarly, and that Aria's father is actually the mangaka of the series that Okumura and Lilysa are so passionate about, noting that if he was dead, then the latter manga wouldn't have existed at all. The character Okumura spots specifically is Ariel, who is directly based on Aria, and is the character she could cosplay as for the arc.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: As indicated by the premise, the main female lead is one, and she gets to meet plenty of others through the course of the series. One of the main points of the series is to explore the many reasons why one chooses to become a cosplayer.
- Dancing Theme: The first ending theme of the anime, "Watch Me," features Lilysa and Mikari dancing with some cuts to show the rest of the cast. Then it changes to the two girls dancing on a stage while all the other characters watch, with Mayuri, Okumura, and Magino waving around glowsticks as if they were supporting an idol duo.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Lilysa and Okumura realize too late that by focusing entirely on the contents of their first ROM, they forgot to make a cover for it. The result is a box full of entirely white discs that they have to sell somehow.
- In Nonoa's introductory arc, she really wants to become Lilysa's friend, despite the many misunderstandings created because of her scary facial expressions. The big one she beats herself over is inviting Lilysa to a Cinderella Stars event, but realizing too late that she only cosplayed as Liliel before and not necessarily any other characters. While Nonoa thinks she made Lilysa crunch out for a gacha character she didn't know, things fortunately work out for Lilysa, as Cinderella Stars had a collaboration event that added Liliel as a Guest Fighter.
- The entire manga club suffers from this in Chapter 88. Upon realizing that you can see the 3D models of the characters from the Magical Girls game if you pulled the character from the gacha five times, they start spending all their resources to try and do so, until Marina discovers they could simply look online for videos made by people who already did it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two volumes are very different from the rest of the series, for a number of reasons:
- The focus was almost exclusively on Ecchi and harem antics. Not long after, the series would establish itself as a character-driven drama with some Fanservice elements. The closest that comes is Mikari's angst about her unrequited feelings for Okumura, but even that can be dismissed as being part of the harem antics. The manga itself would lampshade this in Chapter 128, where the cast discusses the upcoming anime adaptation of a manga they follow, with Lilysa and Nonoa wondering how it will deal with the early chapters that were heavy in the Fanservice.
- The fanservice was a lot raunchier than in later volumes. This is easily seen when one looks at Mikari's first cosplaying session, where she and Lilysa not only strike sexy poses, but also reproduce the Ecchi scenes from Liliel's manga in front of Okumura. In later chapters, the cast strictly sticks to posing and don't go further.
- The comedy was pretty different at first. There is a noticeable lack of the absurdist, over-the-top type of humor that became prominent later on, with the comedic moments being relatively down-to-Earth. The characters also didn't drop lots of references to real-life works at first, but would do it constantly in comedy-focused chapters later on.
- Elite Four: This series has the Four Heavenly Queens of Cosplay, except they are actually a subversion, as they aren't really a group. The fancy title is just the peculiar way the otaku fandom chose to refer to the most popular cosplayers (possibly coined by cosplay photo blogger Mr. Camera), but it doesn't mean anything besides being a sign of popularity. The four women all work on their own and only occasionally meet during events, sometimes by pure coincidence. Magino points out that even the number four is arbitrary, as there are plenty of talented cosplayers out there. It's a minor plot point that, since Mayura has all but openly retired, there is a spot open for a new queen to take.
- Exposed to the Elements: The manga club being able to cosplay during Winter Comiket for a long time without freezing (save for Lilysa sneezing once) is explained by Lilysa taking measures against cold when she was making the costumes. This explanation ignores how they are leaving some skin exposed to the cold air because that's how the outfits are designed. This should be a particularly big problem for Aria, who is wearing the most Stripperiffic outfit of them all. Chapter 97 jokingly suggests Aria is actually feeling the cold the least because she is the most extroverted of the group and has a good metabolism.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In chapter 157, Lilysa is revealed to not be a part of the Paratroopers group that the manga club is doing, with her Liliel being taken up by Xiaoyu-chan instead. Mayuri, confused, asked where she was, worried that she didn't complete her costume in time. Yoki then chuckles, revealing that Lilysa made another costume; with it flashing back to Lilysa first asking the other Queens to coordinate their cosplay with Mayuri's character from Vampire Hunters 5, only on one condition: Lilysa cosplays with them as well. It briefly shows panels of Lustaloette teaching her little sister Lililonette in-game, along with a picture of the latter's design, before it fully reveals that Lilysa would be joining their group as Lililonette.
- Fourth Wall Psych: Tsubaki, while having a renewed resolve to enjoy the moment of cosplaying, still has self-doubt about enjoying the activity in internal monologues. While Tsubaki literally punches her thought bubble apart (and later slashes at it with her rider's crop), the other characters see it as her punching at nothing (though there are some leftovers of the shattered thought bubble), with Tsubaki commenting she was just having an internal monologue.
- Friendly Rivalry: The ideal relationship between cosplayers, or so the main cast believes. Some cosplayers will inevitably become more famous than others, so there is always something of a competition going on when multiple cosplayers meet in an event. Nonetheless, it's repeatedly stated that they should all be friends and support each other as fans of the same culture.
- Hard Truth Aesop: One is delivered In-Universe in Chapter 35. As the Headmaster puts it, while people love to say that kids need to make mistakes to learn from them, the truth is that some "mistakes of the youth" are far too harmful to be dismissed as learning experiences. While it may sound ideal to let students take control of their own lives, adults need to exercise some control over them for their own safety, because some mistakes must be avoided. He also acknowledges that adults don't know everything, but they do have more life experience than teenagers, and that difference matters. As such, he and the student council decide to allow the manga club to be reinstated as a club, with the condition that their activities will only be known between them instead of being public.
- Hidden Depths: Parodied when the subject of dancing is brought up and it turns out all the female otaku in cast are great dancers. According with them, all otaku learn to dance through their exposure to Dancing Theme in anime.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Has its own page.
- Honorary True Companion: Nonoa and Aria can't officially join the manga club since they don't even study at the same school as the cast. Nonetheless, they are best friends with the members of the club and so they spend a lot of their time in the club room discussing matters of cosplay and simply having fun, so everyone treats them as if they were members of the club. By the same token, Marina is allowed to to keep going to the club even after graduating from school as a special alumni advisor.
- Intimacy Via Horror:
- In Chapter 66, the manga club go through a landowner-approved abandoned Kimodameshi, with Mikari hoping to invoke this by pairing up with Okumura. To Mikari's dismay, Aria gets paired up with Okumura instead. True to the trope, Aria gets scared while Okumura helps stabilize her, to the point Aria realizes she may have a crush on Okumura, despite deducing Mikari's feelings for him.
- In Chapter 167, the manga club once again go to a haunted house activity set up by the old men looking to revitalize the area, this time with Mikari managing to get paired up with Okumura. While she's excited at first, the actual fear from the house's haunted atmosphere overwhelm her potential intimate opportunities with Okumura. Once they escape from what appears to be a real supernatural monster, Mikari considers the experience Worth It as Okumura holds her in a Bridal Carry.
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The series often allows the members of the manga club to get away with doing things they should not be able to do for the sake of comedy and references, with the only explanation given being that they are hardcore otakus. Examples include Nonoa being able to actually build stuff through an Animal Crossing reference, Lilysa sewing clothes so fast she becomes invisible to the other characters, and Okumura developing the ability to Flash Step out of the club room in the blink of an eye when needed.
Tsubaki: How exactly does watching us cosplay help [Okumura and Lilysa] make progress anyways?
Aria: Don't bring logic into this Bakipiyo. - It Will Never Catch On: Subverted. When Yuki tried to present her cosplay as an art project in college, the teacher bluntly told her they can't approve the idea. He explains that society doesn't see cosplay as anything more than a hobby, and there is no point in making a piece of art that no one will come and see, since the point of art is to make the audience engage themselves into thinking about the work. Thus, the faculty can't accept her cosplay as a valid art project unless Yuki proves cosplay can be seen as art. But while the teacher is blunt that this isn't easy, he doesn't doubt that Yuki can do it.
- Karaoke Box: The manga club go out to sing karaoke as part of a wrap-up party for the cosplay café, with every single main character (including Mayuri) getting the chance to sing their heart out.
- Kimodameshi: Double subverted in Chapter 66. During their beach trip, Mikari wants to do one so she could jump into Okumura's arms. Okumura, however, shuts her down by noting that trespassing on private property without just cause is against the law, and they shouldn't just replicate what they see in manga. After he recalls incidents of college students getting arrested for doing these things, the whole club apologizes for their recklessness. Then Mayuri shows them a flyer of a landowner-approved abandoned cemetery tour as part of the city's efforts to attract visitors. True to form, a group of elderly men try to (safely) spook the girls, though they get annoyed when Okumura No-Sells their scares.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Chapter 128 of the manga is all about the cast discussing the announcement of an anime adaptation for a manga they like, and speculating on how it would be, obviously alluding to the real-life adaptation of 2.5 Dimensional Seduction. Marina does directly address the readers at one point, informing them that the fanservice scenes of the manga are uncensored in the printed version, with Okumura commenting on how she shouldn't just casually break the third wall like that.
- Chapter 165, which just happens to be released on the same day as the first episode of the anime adaptation, is about the cast coming together to watch a new anime. And it just happens that everything they have said about the In-Universe anime also applies to the real life adaptation of this work, from Kaori Maeda playing the main female lead to the ending theme being a Dancing Theme (complete with silhouetted versions of the anime being replicated in-universe).
- In chapter 166, Okumura claims that he doesn't want to be made into a harem manga protagonist. After a Beat, the girls answer with an unanimous "Too Bad!"
- Chapter 173 keeps the tradition of referencing real-life developments under the pretense of talking about In-Universe stuff by having the cast play a game called Lily Star, which is supposed to be the official Liliel game. Given that Mayuri and Okumura sing the anime's first opening theme while doing it ("Shutter Chance"), it's obvious the game is a stand-in for the 2.5 Dimensional Seduction: Angels on Stage! game.
- Life Imitates Art: In-Universe. When Lilysa collapses from heatstroke in the middle of her photoshoot at Summer Comiket, Nonoa takes it upon herself to carry the girl to the infirmary. However, they were still in their cosplay when this happens, with a nearby photographer grabbing a pic that makes it look like a scene from Liliel: Side Story, where Nokiel carries an unconscious Liliel. This photo goes viral for a bit, giving Nonoa a lot of new followers, and gives them another chance of standing out.
- Meaningful Echo: Chapter 70 closed on the title of the chapter, "2.5 Dimensional Lilysa," with the photo that Okumura took of Lilysa's cosplay having more detail than usual, as Okumura becomes more aware of how he's an active part of the girls' lives and that he is capable of love. Exactly 100 chapters later, in Chapter 170 (the title even being called Chapter 70 + 100), Okumura realizes he's fallen for 3D girls, with the chapter also closing on the title of the chapter, "3 Dimensional Lilysa," as Okumura isn't viewing a 2.5D girl in cosplay, but the real Lilysa Amano in the real-world, signified by the art shifting to something more photorealistic as well.
- Monochrome to Color: In the digital releases of the manga, which are in monochrome, whenever Okumura undergoes a significant amount of Character Development, he takes a photo that appears more realistic and is a two-page color spread, which signifies how he's reconnecting with the world around him and learning to love again.
- In Chapter 70, the last page changes to an all color illustration as the manga club look at the photo Okumura took: a Liliel wearing her swimsuit, in color, created when Okumura sees the Lilysa in her Liliel cosplay, saying she loves him, as Okumura becomes more aware of how he's an active part of the girls' lives and that he is capable of love.
- In Chapter 137, the colors briefly come in as Erika tells Okumura that he shouldn't be afraid to love people again, Erika even saying how his world will light up in color when he lets love back into his heart, Okumura himself and the world around him being the only colored panels.
- Chapter 141 is literally called "A World Colored By Love", with colors gradually being added in as Okumura and Lilysa try to take another photo. It starts as a Splash of Color when Okumura gradually lets himself be loved again, first with his eye and the trees in his camera's viewfinder. Color then spreads to the forest, and eventually himself, as he resolves to himself that it's okay to be in love. The chapter's last three pages are all in color, as Lilysa internally says "I love you" to Okumura, and Okumura saying "I love you...Lil-", ending on a two-page photorealistic spread of Lilysa doing the first pose they took together.
- Chapter 170 is the culmination of Okumura's character development, but the significance this time is him seeing colors not through the camera, but through his own eyes. Both chapters 169 and 170 were him realizing that he's fallen not for 2.5D girls in cosplay, but 3D girls. What he sees in color is a three dimensional Lilysa, now more realistic than ever, in her swimsuit.
Reflected in his eyes, a girl in technicolor.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The cast cosplays as cat maid nurses for the maid cafe the student council was doing during the school festival. Marina, who wanted to use this chance to reveal her real self to everyone, came up with this cosplay to represent all sides of her personality: the side that just wants to live free (cat), the side that wants to get praised for doing what she is told (maid), and the side that can't resist helping others (nurse). While it only has personal meaning for her, everyone dresses like this (except Torajirou, who obviously dresses as a butler rather than a maid). They do it again in a later chapter at the request of Midori, who enjoyed it more than she expected.
- Oh, Crap!: Right before their first event, Lilysa points out that they were so focused on the content of their ROM that they forgot to think about the cover. Okumura's face upon seeing the completely white pile of discs shows he does not believe they have a good sales prospect, which they are proven correct.
- Real After All:
- In Chapter 66, the manga club visit a graveyard that has been repurposed to be used as a part of a Kimodameshi by the local geezers, who intentionally use various props to try and scare the kids. These include a floating corpse, a spirit ball, and even a giant yokai/urban legend-esque prop. While the geezers admit that everything was set up, the one the club encountered that was declared the most scary, a giant three-meter tall wiggling woman, wasn't one of theirs. Lilysa also ends up capturing a real spirit in a net that occasionally follows her around as a Will-o'-the-Wisp.
- Implied in the Volume 11 Bonus Chapter "Culture Festival Date," where Aria and Okumura go through a haunted house, where she's scared out of her wits and clinging to Okumura. As they exit, Okumura spots one last horror prop, which is a shadowy figure with bulging eyes. When Okumura describes this prop to Aria, Aria nervously tells him that there wasn't anyone like that.
- Chapter 167 zig-zags this. The manga club once again participate in a landowner-approved haunted house escape room game set up by the old men, where the goal is to bring five dolls to the kitchen. According to the old men, they based it off of a real haunted house that was nearby. As it turns out, the address the old men sent the manga club to was the real haunted house, evidenced by how the club keeps encountering real supernatural horrors as they collect the dolls. The old men get concerned, as if they are at the real haunted house, they can't bring the dolls together, no matter what. Once Lilysa completes the ritual, it ends on a retelling of the urban legend, along with the implication she was attacked by the monster. Lilysa is fine in the next chapter though, and none of the events from Chapter 167 are acknowledged.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- In Chapter 25/Episode 9, Lilysa realizes that her cosplay's skirt has gone missing, despite having packed it. Magino theorizes that someone likely took it by accident, which was indeed the case. If one goes back to re-read the previous chapter, the same cosplayer with hair buns that spoke to Lilysa (named Izu-chan) returns in the following chapter when Okumura tracks her down, having accidentally taken Lilysa's skirt in a rush. The anime foreshadows this moment in Episode 8, where a despondent Lilysa sets her skirt next to her suitcase while Izu-chan starts packing her things in a panic, accidentally taking the bag that had Lilysa's skirt in it.
- In Chapter 105, Torajirou notes that he hadn't seen Marina Abe all day, but Okumura feels like she was watching them from somewhere, complete with small panels that showed her hiding behind certain objects. Keep a close eye out, and Okumura was correct in that Marina was hiding somewhere in the page, witnessing her friends give each other Valentine's day chocolates. Specifically when Torajirou gives Okumura a box of chocolates in the student council room, and as Nonoa and Aria walk down the hallway holding hands.
- Running Gag:
- Whenever Okumura is carrying an object, regardless of how heavy it is, he'll always be carrying it without issue. While he does have a hidden muscular frame under his uniform, the gag gradually escalates to him holding several objects with one arm and a stack of suitcases with his pinky.
- Whenever someone says the characters are a part of the cosplay club (including its own members and even advisor), Okumura always corrects them by saying they're the manga club.
- Without fail, whenever the manga club watches Liliel: Side Story together, Okumura and Lilysa always scream out Liliel's name during a climactic episode, sometimes joined by someone new who later becomes a fan after watching with them.
- Whenever the manga club get ready to hype themselves up, they'll always say "Liliel... Explode!", which usually shocks some nearby onlookers or eavesdroppers, who will respond with "Explode?!"
- Every time Marina Abe sees a potential homoerotic ship she can invest in, her eyes turn into flowers.
- Nonoa being depicted as Super-Deformed, to the point some characters think its her natural state, calling her the mascot character at various points.
- Tsubaki Hana acting like an dog, Sprouting Ears when she is particularly excited.
- School of No Studying: The characters mention going to class, but the series isn't very interested in showing them there. Instead, they seem to spend all their time in the club talking about anime, manga, and cosplay. This comes back to bite Lilysa when it's confirmed she has been neglecting her studies to focus on her hobbies, but nobody else is doing as bad in school as her even though they aren't seen studying either (with the exception of Aria, who casually mentions how she bombed her tests, but not to the same extent as Lilysa).
- Serious Business: Cosplaying. Granted, there are professional cosplayers in the cast, so it makes sense they would take the subject seriously. Still, this series treats a meeting between two popular cosplayers in the same event with all the gravitas of a battle scene in an action manga, and cosplaying often ends up as the key to solve personal issues of the characters. The cast also loves to make speeches about how much they love cosplay and what made them become cosplayers; it's basically a form of communication between girls in this world.
- Sexiled: During the Christmas party in Chapter 91, Okumura notes that his sister asked him not to come back home that day, pondering that she probably has a "guest".
- She Is the King: In the original Japanese, the Four Heavenly Queens of Cosplay are called shitennō, which literally translates to Four Heavenly "Kings". The English release changes that part to Queens, averting this.
- Shout-Out: Has its own page here.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The cosplayers who were present during Lilysa's first event. They are very minor characters who rarely show up in the series, but without their help, Lilysa wouldn't have been able to cosplay as Liliel during the event. As it was that experience that gave her the determination to keep cosplaying for a long time, and also made her the center of attention of the otaku community, without that group of cosplayers the series wouldn't have much of a story to tell.
- Take That!: While Chapter 128 is practically a celebration of the series getting an anime adaptation, it ends on Lilysa asking Okumura what he'd think if their favorite manga got a live-action adaptation instead. Okumura doesn't give an answer, but seeing that the question is framed dramatically, it might not be a good one.
- Tamer and Chaster:
- As the series went on, the fanservice elements became less prominent, with the focus shifting into a more serious and dramatic character-driven story.
- The anime, besides giving the girls Adaptational Modesty, also cuts some of the fanservice moments of the manga, and changes some of the scenes that it does adapt to downplay the eroticism.
- Invoked In-Universe by the mangaka of Liliel: Side Story, as Aria's father wasn't comfortable about his daughter cosplaying as one of his characters, Ariel, and wearing a skimpy outfit. The solution was to redesign most of the characters to wear skintight full-body outfits (Mariel and Bakiel being the exceptions, as he didn't expect more girls would join the group of four cosplayers he met), but Nonoa questions if they don't just make them look more erotic instead, much to Aria's obliviousness.
- Tempting Fate: The series starts with Okumura monologuing about how he doesn't care about real girls. Cue Lilysa walking into the room.
- True Companions: The manga club becomes this after it gets more members. All the girls (and Okumura) are very supportive towards each other and spare no effort into making their time together the most fun thing possible for everyone.
- Wham Line: At the end of Chapter 136, Erika gives some advice to Okumura about his photos and his complicated feelings towards the girls around him, concluding with one line that greatly changes one's understanding of his emotions and relationships:
Erika: It wasn't one-sided. There are some photos you just can't capture, Okumura-kun. You're really in love with Mikari-chan, aren't you?
- What Are Records?: Lilysa and Okumura often ask these types of questions to Mayuri when she talks about her experiences as a cosplayer and how technology and techniques have evolved to elevate cosplay as an art form.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Okumura and Lilysa meet a trio of crossdressers during their first event. While they do briefly tease Okumura upon noticing he didn't realize they were girls, they are otherwise written as nice people who got a good first impression of the two rookies, and wish them well.
- You Are Not Alone: Lilysa, after fainting in the middle of their first Summer Comiket and failing to capture the attention of the crowd, is hard on herself for not leading the group effectively. Lilysa tries to place the burden on herself, believing it is her problem to fix, until Nonoa grabs her by the collar and calls her out on her behavior. A crying Nonoa tells her to stop pushing them away, as they're friends. Mikari and Aria chime in as well, saying they're in this together, and ask for pointers on what poses they should do.