Monica's Gang

This is only a small portion from the Loads and Loads of Characters present in the series.

Monica's Gang (originally titled Turma da Mônica) is a hugely popular Brazilian comic book series that has been running since the 1960s. It was created by Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Souza.

The series has countless comic books, strips and almanacs, and is divided in several branches. The main one features four main 7-year-old kids and takes place in Sao Paulo:

  • Monica (Mônica): Main character and leader of the Four Kid Band. She started out making appearances in Jimmy Five's strips, but ended up getting the spotlight soon afterwards, much to the boy's jealousy. She has Super Strength is always wearing a red dress (her wardrobe's full of these). Oh, and NEVER call her buckteeth, fatty or shorty, unless you wanna get some bunny bashings from her. Yes, she'll beat you up with her blue plush bunny.
  • Jimmy Five (Cebolinha): He used to be the main character of his own comic strips, but ended up losing the spotlight to Monica soon after; maybe that's why he makes endless "infallible plans" to get her bunny and take over the block. He has only five single strands of hair, something nearly impossible for a kid like him, and when speaking, he swaps the 'r' for 'l' (or 'w', depending on the version you're reading).
  • Smudge (Cascão): Jimmy Five's best friend. A pigpen at heart, he has aquaphobia and will refuse to take a bath at any cost.
  • Maggy (Magali): Monica's best friend, and basically the poster girl to the Big Eater trope; she loves to eat, particularly watermelons, but never gains any weight or anything, being very skinny in contrast with her red-clad friend. She also tends to be rather girly sometimes.

The other groups created by Maurício include:

  • Chuck Billy 'n' Folks (Turma do Chico Bento): A Brazilian child hillbilly's life. It includes a true Five Kid Band, with the protagonist, his girlfriend, his smart best friend, his dumb best friend and the Japanese-descendant friend.
  • Horacio's World (Turma do Horácio): A vegetarian T. rex who muses about life. The only character whose stories are all written by Mauricio.
  • Bug-a-Booo (Turma do Penadinho): A ghost and his monster friends. They like to scare people, and most of the times fail miserably.
  • The Cavern Clan (Turma do Piteco): A caveman dealing with his prehistorical life. There are dinosaurs alongside the giant mammals, of course (protagonist Pitheco was even the one who found Horácio's egg).
  • Tina's Pals (Turma da Tina): A teenager and her friends, which include her blue-haired best friend, her chubby best female friend and said friend's boyfriend.
  • The Tribe (Turma do Papa-Capim): A group of Brazilian native-americans.
  • The Funnies (Turma do Astronauta): A Brazilian astronaut's journey through the cosmos. Frequently stumbles by classic sci-fi characters (a story had him sending his ship to be fixed; Kirk and Spock, Darth Vader, E.T. and the crew from Lost in Space are in the mechanic too)
  • Lionel's Kingdom (Turma da Mata): A group of jungle animals. The English title has the name of the ruler of said jungle (a lion, of course), but the main character is the elephant Thunder (Jotalhão), originally created for the ads of a tomato sauce (which had a realistic elephant on its cans, but eventually changed to Thunder).
Tropes used in Monica's Gang include:
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Franklin with Marina (and it was Love At First Sight!). Eventually, They Do.
    • Also, in the Cavern Clan, Tooga towards Pitheco. She wants to marry him, but he doesn't want engagement with her or anyone else.
  • Alpha Bitch: Carmen. She's not as mean as the textbook Alpha Bitch, but she's still a mini-bitch nonetheless (think of the trope and mix it with Go-Karting with Bowser, and you'll have an idea).
  • Alternate Universe: While the manga itself is considered one to the kids' gang (even according to Word of God), its issue #36 adds in another AU, a Crapsack World in which Jimmy, who didn't care about getting better from his speech impediment, does indeed rule the street by being a gigantic asshole to everybody, asserting his authority through threats of exposing their secrets. Even the teachers at the school don't get any respect from him. He only grows out of it when the rest of the gang decides to not care about the blackmail and come clean with each other, thus breaking the hold he had over them. Plus, when Smudge's uncle (a powerless, Corrupt Corporate Executive version of Captain Fray) tried to get a hold of Franklin's world domination machine, built at Jimmy's behest, he was sent to an uninhabited planet because, since it was built in such a hurry, there was nothing in it to specifywhichworld the user wanted to rule. Seeing it could have happened to him, Jimmy loses his jerkiness. The reason for all this? Monica had moved away from the neighborhood while they were still children, essentially leaving a vacuum in her friends' lives. When she came back all grown up, no one recognized her.
    • Other differences in this AU: Maggy didn't learn to put her appetite in check, so she grew fat; Bucky is shy and insecure, while Sunny is more outgoing and confident; Franklin is a nebbish geek who can't find it in him to approach Marina; Nutty Ned is still a teacher, but has a lot more composure (despite being apparently aware of the AU), and he's the target of Maggy's juvenile crush; Nimbus is a failure at magic; and Sunny's sister didn't make it into the space program, working at a fast food joint instead.
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Many characters: Thunder the green elephant (Jotalhão), Franklin's dog Blu (Bidu), Jimmy Five's dog Fluff (Floquinho) - who is also green - , and more.
    • Lampshaded in one story when a kid wanted his father to get him a green elephant. When the father let him play with Thunder, the kid was disappointed since he wanted Thunder to ripen.
    • There's also the show-off dog that occasionally shows up on Blu's comics, Glu (Bugu), who is yellow and shaped like an egg. Oh my.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Sunny.
    • Word of Gay, somewhat.
    • In the site listed in Memetic Mutation, Bucky, who has a girlfriend but is in waaaay too many embarrassing moments. And Curly.
  • Anatomy Anomaly: The main characters don't have toes, with the only exception being Jimmy Five (actually, the only characters who have toes are those who regularly wear shoes - except for Chuck Billy and his buddies). Also, Glu is the only dog with no nose (he also walks on two paws, so you might wonder if he's a dog at all...)
    • Lampshaded in an 80s story where Monica finds out she has no toes and, along with Smudge, decides to complain to Mauricio about it. He manages to convince them by telling them that this is one of the traits that make them unique characters, and then goes back to his sketching board and gets horrified upon trying to draw Monica with toes.
    • About Glu, he actually is an alien. He was sent to Earth to escape from an Alien Invasion at his planet. It turned out that the invaders were just encyclopedians.
  • Anti-Hero: Monica is Type III, Jimmy Five is either IV or V, Depending on the Writer. They both shift up the scale to Type II in the manga.
  • Art Evolution: Compare this with this (this [dead link] even more).
    • Well, there is an entire team working in Monica stories, so this may be a subversion. Just pick up any of their running comic books (except for the Teen Gang series) and see how much the art varies from story to story. Therefore, it's more like Art Shift (though Mauricio's own drawing style has gotten closer and closer to his characters' depictions in the comics over the years).
  • Art Shift: One story was about Jimmy Five and Smudge swiping supporting character Marina's magic pencil and being transported to various comic book worlds. Much Shouting Out ensues.
    • Also, compare the covers of the manga version to the inside. Has gotten more consistent lately, but the difference is still pretty glaring.
  • Ascended Extra: Monica and Chuck Billy started as minor characters. Both are protagonists now.
    • Minor case: Smudge and Maggy were secondary characters, and in 1982 and 1989, respectively, gained their own series.
  • Author Avatar: Mauricio appears often in the stories, and the rest of the writing staff appears sometimes.
  • Badass Adorable: Monica.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension / Slap Slap Kiss: A basic description of Monica and Jimmy Five's relationship. Somewhat downplayed in their teen incarnation, when Jimmy - ahem, Jim - is much less of a Jerkass, but not entirely since both him and Monica are more accepting of their relationship by then.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Maggy is one of the most unambiguously good characters in the comics, but don't mess with her friends.
  • Big Ball of Violence: Every time someone's fighting, it devolves into this. Even if it's one of the typical Curb Stomp Battles Monica has with the boys - and even if it's only Jimmy getting beat up.
  • Blind Without'Em: Specs.
  • Boring Invincible Hero: Monica reaches this status sometimes, specially when she's not the star of the title or the story and still beats the villain (great example is a Batman Forever parody where she was Nicole Kidman's character Chase Meridian, while Jimmy played Batman and Smudge was Robin; as she was being held captive by The Riddler - Franklin - and he threatened to spread out Batman's secret identity, everyone suddenly started insulting her - including Batman and Robin!!! As a result, she got so angry that she broke out by herself and started laying down the law on everyone in the room - so much so, she even managed to separate Nimbus and Nick Nope, who had been fused into that story's version of Two-Face.
    • Lampshaded once, after beating up some vampires who offended her:

Monica: Sorry, Smudge. I know this is your comic book, but they've just gone too far.

  • Bratty Half-Pint: Junior, and how.
  • Butt Monkey: Usually either Smudge or Sunny, but pretty much every boy in the gang has been one at a point.
  • Canon Foreigner: Several minor characters from the manga, including the Hot Teacher whom Maggy has a crush on and the weight-conscious Maria Mello.
  • Can't Stand Them Can't Live Without Them: Pretty much what Monica feels about the boys: they get to her nerves at every turn, but she would risk her hide for them anyway.
  • Catch Phrase: Whenever Glu sets foot in Blu's stories, he has to shout "Hello, mom!".
    • And say "bye-bye, mom!" whenever Blu literally kicks him out of them.
  • The Chew Toy: Sunny, whose "secondary character" status is frequently mentioned, even by other secondary characters (he's a recurring victim on the Tumblr mentioned in Memetic Mutation, which even did a whole day featuring panels of "Sunny sucks").
  • Chickification: Maggy in the manga, as if she wasn't enough of a chick.
  • City Mouse: Chuck Billy's cousin. Chuck himself serves as a Country Mouse when he goes visiting him.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl : Rosie Lee has her moments to the point where she throws a fit everytime she sees Chuck with another girl, despite Chuck showing that he only has eyes for her.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Nutty Ned, a psychiatric hospital escapee whose job is making Jimmy Five's life a Non Sequitur Scene.
    • Also, as of late, everyone in the gang seems to be getting a piece of the cake, thanks to the new writing team (responsible for what you see in the 2000s stories mentioned in the It Runs on Nonsensoleum entry below). Many times the characters show an absurd lack of consideration for the problem at hand or whoever should be helped: case in point is this story, where Jimmy gets his head stuck in the bathroom sink while trying to wash his hair (or lack thereof).
  • Comic Book Time: Used and lampshaded. The main cast is always six, nevermind the fact the series has been running for over 40 years. Every year there's a special edition featuring one of the main characters' 7th birthday. However, they always return to being six years old again. In a recent example, someone asks Jimmy how old he's turning. "Seven," he replies, "just like evewy other year."
    • At least, we know when to expect birthday stories for the main characters: Monica's in March 21, Jimmy's in October 24, Smudge's in November, (date not certain; it's only known that he's a Sagittarius), Maggy's in May 8[1] and Chuck Billy's in July 1.
    • In one of the late-2009 issues, it is implied that all of the birthday stories are actually about THE ONE AND ONLY BIRTHDAY PARTY they will ever experience - the 7th birthday party. This means, for example, that every Jimmy's birthday-themed story reveals one of the events that happened in his 7th birthday party. Again, the main character of this story is... Jimmy Five.
    • This changed with the Spinoff Teens manga.
    • The Sliding Time Scale is alluded to in a recent special issue released by the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in which Maggy's mother was stated to be pregnant of her in 2002, while Monica and Jimmy appear as babies in 2006 (complete with rewriting the infamous Zidane headbutt into one of her first bunny-bashings gone wrong: she tried to hit Jimmy, but the bunny slipped off her hand all the way to Berlin).
  • Cool Big Sis: Sunny's sister Xabeu, who also doubles as a Stacy's Mom of sorts.
  • Cool Teacher / Badass Teacher: Nutty Ned of all people in the manga spin-off.
  • Crap Saccharine World
  • Crossover: Issues #43 and #44 of the manga cross the characters over with many Osamu Tezuka characters. Mauricio and Tezuka had been close friends when the latter was alive, and the idea had been in the works for quite some time, even before Tezuka's passing.
  • Cute Bruiser: Monica, no matter what the boys may say.
  • Depending on the Writer: Everyone.
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Smudge seems to have a knack to always say improper things at the wrong time. This is usually what crashes Jimmy's "infallible plans", but he has given himself away many other times.
  • Dolled-Up Installment: The Monica games for the Master System and Sega Genesis are edited Wonder Boy games.
  • Everythings Better With Bunnies: Monica's weapon is Samson, a plush bunny. Also, one of the branches (the aforementioned Funny Animal branch, Lionel's Kingdom) includes a rabbit couple with dozens of kids.
  • Everything Talks (On some most of Blu's stories.)
  • Failure Is the Only Option: There's a reason why Jimmy Five's schemes for taking over the block are "infallible plans" (actually, anything he deems "infallible" IS bound to fail). Related, Smudge's inability to not join the schemes, even though he knows they'll fail.
  • Flanderization: Sooo much in the late years (since the last decade, or even right at the end of The Nineties). The kids are much more hyperactive and have some traits amped up so as to come across as almost negative - for example, having the resident Big Eater flying into a frenzy at the slightest mention of anything food-related, and using Sunny's perceived "lack of notability" to make him the all-around Butt Monkey (something he was never known for before). Also, they tack in lots of OOC Moments (many of these shown in the Memetic Mutation link - the period can be told by the art style), if only for Rule of Funny.
  • Forgets to Eat: Used to be one of Junior's defining characteristics (though he was intentionally neglectful), just so he could act as a foil to Maggy. While he has not lost this one, his role in the stories has shifted deep into Bratty Half-Pint (especially towards Jimmy Five. Poor Jimmy).
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Monica is (very much) choleric, Jimmy Five is sanguine, Smudge is melancholic, and Maggy is supine.
  • Four Kid Band: The remaining role is usually filled by a supporting character (usually Franklin as The Smart Guy).
  • Gender Bender: One comic about Monica's birthday has her and her friends turning into the opposite gender.
  • Gender Equal Ensemble: Two boys (Jimmy Five and Smudge) and two girls (Monica and Maggy)
  • Genius Ditz: Maggy.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: During one episode, Jimmy Five, wanting to get more than just five strands of hair, accidentally ends up with Monica's hairdo and is mistaken for her multiple times. At one point, when it's his mother that makes the mistake, he exclaims, "Mom, it's me!" and opens his towel showing her his genitals to prove his point, with the expected reaction from her. TL;DR, he flashed his own mother. (It's the avatar for the parody site mentioned in Memetic Mutation.)
  • Green Aesop: Occurs WAY too often in this series.
    • A considerable amount of Chuck Billy's comics are all about that. Deflorestation, pollution, "how living in a city turns you into a sedentary paranoid" - if his cousin is involved in the comic there is a 99% chance that the story will be about that -, or how the "bad men" will hunt innocent animals for money. He has been turned into several kinds of animals and even engaged into conversation with a waterfall and the Sun himself.
      • Parodied in one of Jimmy Five's stories, when the title character says "Wait, do you think I like to live in nature, green and stuff? Who the heck do you think I am? Chuck Billy?"
    • Most of Tom-Tom's comics are also like this, with emphasis on pollution. That, or how teamwork is important.
  • Grey and Gray Morality
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Again, Monica.
  • Hammerspace Hair: Fluff.
  • Handsome Lech: Bucky, at least when his girlfriend is out of sight.
  • Hypocritical Humor: one of the occasional plot devices, especially in short stories.
    • Of note, any stories where we can see Vanilla's point of view.
  • Image Song: Enough for a full album.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Monica uses a blue stuffed rabbit to beat the boys (the ones who annoy her) up.
  • It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Several Jimmy Five's stories in the late 2000's. Before that, it was just the stories with Nutty Ned or his dog, but lately he's been dwelling in the absurdism every now and then (and not only him, it must be said). However, back in 1985, in his issue #155, he had a VERY weird story in wich he, while fleeing from Monica, finds the stairwell that connects heaven and hell, and as he walks upward, he starts to become a spirit. He then threats Monica and claims that he is becoming a DARK GOD, with flames and all. Then, Angel comes from heaven and tells Monica on how Lucifer became a fallen angel and turned several angels into demons by descending the stairwell (this prompted Heaven to shut it down and switch to a one way elevator). AND THEN, Smudge appears and manages to trick Jimmy into giving him the marbles Smudge did lend to him once, and somehow throws Jimmy back to land. When Monica and Angel are about to thank Smudge, it reveals that he is really Satan and used the illusion to stop Jimmy from becoming another God, since God himself is more than enough to be his rival. Mind Screw much? Oh, by the way, the story is titled as "O Deus Cebola", or "Jimmy the God". For some reason it is nearly impossible to find any sort of info regarding that story.
  • Jerkass: Jimmy can be one of these many times, and not only to Monica. He has been seen setting up infallible plans to make Smudge bathe, and even used Maggy's appetite as a weapon against Monica, for instance. A real Enfant Terrible. But, in general, he falls more into Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
    • Although Jimmy could fall into Alternative Character Interpretation. Is he a Jerkass like described above? Or is he just giving payback for people constantly making fun of his speech problems? Early stories show people pulling pretty mean-spirited jokes about it. Not to mention that the Alternate Jim in the manga became an utter jerk BECAUSE of people picking on his speech problems. That's enough to make a lot of people bitter.
    • Bucky in the manga.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: A few of their movies have never seen a DVD release.
  • Legacy Character: A story acknowledges the fact that Denise's appearance is inconsistent by saying she's just a character played by various animated actresses.
  • Lethal Chef: When Monica cooks, it sometimes gets to this. Just see her health juice [dead link] recipe.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Played very straight, particularly with Monica. One certain picture has her looking at her wardrobe... which is chock full of red dresses just like the one she usually wears.
    • Averted with the manga. Every issue all the characters have different clothes.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Yeah.
  • Long Pants: You see someone wearing social pants and shoes, they're like this. Except in the rare case that the pants and shoes are different colors, or they're drawn in promo artwork (i.e. not within a story).
  • Meat-O-Vision: Done with Maggy, of course. [dead link]
  • May the Farce Be with You: Coelhada nas Estrelas/Star Warp, and the sequels O Feio Contra-Ataca and O Retorno de Jedito.
  • No Fourth Wall: Characters frequently mention panels, the writing staff, the reader, and lampshade facts such as the barefoot-walking characters not having toes.
    • One amusing 3 letter panel had Jimmy and Smudge running away from Monica only for Jimmy to smile and suddenly stop after seeing the "End" graphic at the corner... of the second panel. The third panel shows a beat up Smudge berating whoever made that mistake.
    • Also, one Chuck Billy story had him racing Zeke in many occasions, with Zeke always failing to beat Chuck. Then, at the last page, Zeke proposes to see who could get to the end of the story faster. After Chuck zips out of the panel, Zeke simply pulls a pencil out from his pocket and writes "END" at the corner of the frame he's in. Only half a page later, Chuck is still running, and looks up and sees how Zeke managed to fool him.
  • Only Six Faces: Lampshaded. The series often jokes about this with characters commenting about "how they can't tell each other apart when they're bald because everyone looks alike". Most of the child characters have the same facial features (the only tell-tale difference being nose shapes aside from other facial nuances - like the dirt strokes on Smudge's cheeks) and the differences between their body types are subtle.
    • This was even lampshaded by Sunny in one story: "That's the good thing on Mauricio's characters all having the same face... No one can tell them apart!" (as Jimmy was wearing a bushy blonde wig to look like Sunny, who wanted to sneak out of his room despite being bedridden)
  • Out-Gambitted: In the issue #35 of the manga, Jim somehow managed to outgambit himself, by creating another persona to attend to a costume party held by 3 rich people (One of them being Carmen's aunt), so he could spend a romantic night with Monica without needing to defeat her first. Naturally this creates a 5th competition for Monica's affections. May Double as a case of Love Makes You Dumb
  • Panty Shot: Happens alot, especially in the animated versions. Doesn't help that the dresses the girls wear have short hemline (in fact, in Monica and Maggy's cases, they look like T-shirts that go just below the waist).
  • Parental Bonus: Some stories [dead link] won't be well appreciated by kids.
  • Parody Names: Played oh so very straight. More often than not, a celebrity or licensed character/series makes a cameo in the strips, but their names are slightly changed to something that creates a pun and is close enough to the original to avoid copyright infringement. Examples include: Pokemão instead of Pokemon, Darti Vesgo instead of Darth Vader, Superomão instead of Superman, Ton Cruzes instead of Tom Cruise... However, the jokes make more sense and are funnier in Portuguese. This, invariably, sometimes ends up leading to Bland-Name Product and Lawyer-Friendly Cameo.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Monica, duh.
  • Post Modernism: The lack of Fourth Wall leads to this. The original Marina story had the real Marina (Maurício's homonymous daughter) invading the comic, only for dad to reveal at the end of the story that he created a character based on her.[2]
  • Power Trio
    • For the girls: Monica, Maggy, and either Marina or Denise (with Marina as the third member, they even formed their own Charlie's Angels team in a few stories).
    • For the boys: Jimmy Five, Smudge, and usually Sunny.
  • Prehensile Hair: Jimmy Five.
  • Reality Warper: Nutty Ned.
  • Roger Rabbit Effect: Occurs in some of their films.
  • Room 101: The prospect of getting wet is this for Smudge.
  • Shallow Love Interest: Deconstructed with Isabel, Bucky's girlfriend. Especially in the manga, where she grows out of it.
  • Serious Business: Monica's stuffed rabbit for a lot of the boys in the block (mostly Jimmy Five and Smudge). The plans to try and steal it away from her have included time traveling.
    • Also, Monica's self-given title of "ruler of the street", which sometimes ends up giving her a control freak behavior.
      • The title is one the boys gave to her, not one she made herself. She just won't let it go out of spite.
  • Ship Tease: Since, aside from Monica and Jimmy, there is another boy and another girl completing the leading cast, many readers try pairing Smudge and Maggy together (and some alternate future stories even have them as a pair), despite them already having a girlfriend and a boyfriend, respectively.
  • Shout-Out: Many, especially in late years, when Smudge became a diehard Star Wars Star Warp fan, among other things.
    • This panel is so ridiculous, what's awkward about it is not finding people like Mega Man (who only appears in one of the following panels) among all the blue people.
    • Manga Issue#35 had a lot of them. A costume party with the characthers dressed as many famous figures such as: Franklin as Sherlock Holmes, Sunny as Kratos, Todd as Mario, Marina as Dorothy from Oz, Jeremiah as Mace Windu, Tikara as Samurai Jack, Denise as Harley Quinn and many others.
  • Shrinking Violet: Maggy, except when she's hungry (which many writers have played with as being 99% of the time).
  • Split Personality: Blu is the only character who appears in two different kind of stories; in one he is a normal dog, and in the other he is a director/actor of comics, is totally personified (walking by two feet behind the sets, and walking like a normal dog when acting) and is famous for the strips in which he talks to objects. No, really. And the objects talk back.
    • The most prominent object is Ms. Rock. Yes... A female rock.[3]
  • Speak of the Devil: Sometimes, whenever a Mauricio character mention death or the verb "die", Lady McDeath (a female and comedic Grim Reaper from Bug-a-boo's stories) appears.
    • But this gets nowhere near to Nutty Ned in this respect: whenever someone speaks of being "nutty", "nuts" or something along these lines (e.g. "who would be nutty enough to do.....?"), here he comes.
  • The Speechless: Hummer, who only speaks in "hmmmm".
  • Spinoff Babies: In reverse, and throughly denied by die-hard fans who claim the series is Ruined FOREVER, despite them obviously not being the intended demographic and the original series still be going on.
  • Spoiled Brat : Monica is one on her worse days.
  • Stock Monsters: Bug-a-Booo's gang is this.
  • Super Strength: Monica, sometimes to hilarious extents (in one single-page comic she literally blew the world away from her with a sneeze). Maybe that's why the bunny bashings hurt so much.
    • In the early issues, it was revealed that she used to keep a brick inside Samson. Nowadays she really possesses super-human strenght, and her mother revealed that some of her family members also have the power.
  • Tagalong Kid: Junior, and ocasionally Jimmy Five's little sister.
  • The Beautiful Elite: Sometimes you may think that the manga was drawn by CLAMP.
  • The Movie: Quite a few. "As Aventuras da Turma da Mônica" ("The Adventures of Monica's Gang", the first movie ever released[4] and the movie where the aforementioned Crowning Moment of Heartwarming scene with the mice came from) and "A Princesa e o Robô" ("The Princess and the Robot"), both from the Eighties, as well as the more recent Cinegibi (literally, "Comic Book Movie") series (currently with four movies), and one about Time Travel that got released in theaters are noteworthy mentions.
  • Time Machine: Franklin builds so many of them that many times characters lampshade how it's basically the only thing he does (Smudge makes fun of it in this episode). In fact, one of these is what triggers the events of the aforementioned Time Travel movie.
  • Token Minority: Let's see... Jeremiah is the standard "token black boy", but there's also Doreen (blind girl), Luca (boy in a wheelchair), Hummer (who was initially only mute, but was retconned as deaf as well) and some others..
    • However, take in mind: Brazil is a highly syncretic country where prejudice is not tolerated. So some comics incentivate social inclusion of some groups. The stereotypical depictions, common in works of other countries, are averted here, excluding of course Antonio Alfacinha and his father: they are Portuguese, have a thick accent, love cod and the elder one works in a bakery.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Monica and Maggy.
  • Totally Radical: Some of their slangs sound dated to modern-day speakers - which is a mortal sin when you have a parallel "Teen" imprint.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Everything for Maggy, but watermelon takes the cake. It's completely normal to see her gobbling an entire one down.
  • Tsundere: Monica is Type A; she may beat Jimmy Five (and Smudge) up in most of the comics, but they are also good friends, and in some stories set in the future, they are married with children (not to mention them becoming a full-fledged Official Couple in the Teen Gang imprint).
  • Took a Level in Badass: Jimmy Five- ahem, Jim - grows some backbone in the Manga and starts to call out Monica on her violent tendencies and bossy attitude.
    • Example 1: Issue #23, which is a whole Shout-Out for Death Note, just switching "Death" with "Laughter", with Jimmy himself as the story's "Kira" ("The Great Clown" here). At one scene, when everyone is their school is discussing the Clown's identity, Smudge says that because Monica is so hotheaded, she would be a potential target for the Clown. An then this follows:

Monica:Is that true, Jim? You really think I deserve a laughing attack?
Jim:You know what, Monica? Smiling wouldn't kill you! It's a pain in the ass to put up with someone who is always stressed! You may feel comfortable with that big temper of yours...but we're the ones who suffer to put up with your fretfulness!
Smudge: Now he really made it...
Maggy: I gotta go get my order...
Marina: I left a drawing unfinished...
Monica:H-how do you have the nerve to...
Jim:And I'll tell you more: If that Clown actually exists, I bet you are on his list!

    • Example 2: Issue #26, where two brothers who are professional rollerbladers,[5] are bullying everyone around their city and acting like colossal pricks. Monica, getting fed up with their attitude, challenges them to a rollerblading contest, dragging Maggy, Smudge and Jim into it, without asking them about it in the first place. None of them, of course, knows how to skate. At some point, Jim falls again trying to skate and Monica starts yelling at him.

Monica: That won't do it! That won't do it! You don't have a drop of effort, Jim!
Jim: Hey, that's not like it. I'm doing my best!
Maggy: Both of you are trying hard and...
Monica:Yeah, right! It looks like you're goofing off for me! How can I know if I can count on you for the contest?
Jim: Count on me? Count on me?! COUNT ON ME?! So you want to know if you can count on me? I NEVER said I knew how to skate! I DON'T! And still, I'M HERE! WEARING THIS STUPID OUTFIT! SCRAPING MYSELF ON THE FLOOR! AND ALL BECAUSE SOMEONE MADE A ROLLERBLADING CHALLENGE, WHEN SAID PERSON DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SKATE! AND STILL, SHE GOT HER FRIENDS ON A STUPID CONTEST! WITHOUT EVEN ASKING THEM! AND NOW YOU WANNA KNOW IF YOU CAN COUNT ON ME?

  • Took a Level in Jerkass : Monica in the manga.
  • Tuckerization: Considering most characters are based on people Mauricio knew, common. Maggy, Monica, Nimbus (Mauro in real life), Nick Nope (also called Mauricio in real life) and Marina are his children (Jimmy Five's sister also fits in the English version, where she's called Mary Angela), Smudge and Jimmy Five are childhood friends, Chuck Billy and Zeke were brothers of his grandma (he didn't knew them, but the grandma always told stories), Tina is a school acquaintance and Horacio, a childhood friend who became a teacher.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: Smudge's pet pig is named "Chovinista" (Chauvy in the English translation).
  • Violence Is the Only Option: Monica, particularly in the newspaper comics, where it's easy to make quick joke with either a beating or threatening to do so.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Nutty Ned stories are a prime example of this.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: As much of a Nice Girl Tsundere that Monica is, she can sometimes be really bossy and irrational and when she wants to do something, she's not above using violence to convince the boys to do as she wants when they're minding their own business.[6] Granted, Jimmy does call her out on this in the Manga.
    • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Regarding Monica's actions described above, there's the "Threaten your friends with violence or boss them around so they do what you want, and beat them up if things don't go your way." message.
  • When I Was Your Age: Jimmy Five's father once told Jimmy that, with Jimmy's allowances, he once bought stuff for home. Jimmy then asked how his parents did to live off ice cream and sweets.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Occurs sometimes - the Star Wars and Batman Forever parodies mentioned above, a Romeo and Juliet retelling (in which Monica disagrees with Shakespeare's ending and forces the Prince of Verona - Sunny - to give them a happy one)... - with a recent series even compilating old ones and creating a few new ones.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Smudge to water. And not large bodies of water, like in having Super Drowning Skills; even a glass of water can make him shiver. Many times the writers have invented wild ways to avoid him from getting wet, like having him flap his arms like wings to escape from lakes. Also, while his teen version has shown to get over his fear to a certain degree, he is still not very fond of the idea of bathing.
    • Also Monica, while being superstrong and brave, has her own girly fears (like pretty much every other girl in the gang): she will shriek and cower at the sight of any mouse, bug, worm or what have you. Needless to say, Jimmy had used it to his advantage more than once.
  • Will They or Won't They?: There is also some argument as to Monica and Jimmy's relationship over this (pretty much since they are the only main characters without any kind of engagement). While, as kids, they never get together due to him not seeing her as more than just a friend (and, in the worst-case scenarios, he deems her too ugly to be date-able - she had made advances on him before), as teenagers, they go one step further, even though he is still too shy to admit it once and for all. So much so, that in one issue, it's Monica who takes it upon herself to have the initiative, by stealing a kiss from Jim. Though he runs away flustered (with her chasing him, "just like the old times"), one can see that deep down he liked it.
    • And he finally retributes the favor in issue #22.
    • They're not exactly official yet. That might change in the upcoming issue #34.
      • They did, but broke up in the end of issue #34. So they're back to square one.
      • It sounds more like Unresolved Sexual Tension if you ask me.
  • Write Who You Know: Most characters are based on Maurício's family (best example being the characters based on his children - Monica, Maggy, Marina, Mary Angela, Nick Nope and Nimbus) and childhood friends.
  • Written Sound Effect: Shows up in both the comic book and the animated versions.
  1. ↑ both Monica and Maggy share their birthdays with Mauricio's namesake daughters
  2. ↑ furthering the Mind Screw: since Franklin's Unrequited Love for Marina was at first sight, he originally fell in love with the real one!
  3. ↑ Mostly due to the fact that Portuguese doesn't have a neutral gender, so rocks are feminine. But yeah.
  4. ↑ not counting a TV live-action adaptation/spoof of Romeo and Juliet
  5. ↑ Carmen's cousins, no less
  6. ↑ E.G:Forcing Smudge and Jimmy to celebrate the "National Poetry Day"(Which is 14th March in Brazil) while Smudge was minding his own business and Jimmy wanted to watch a soccer game on tv when it wasn't even 14th March, just because she felt like it. And when Franklin told then when the actual Poetry Day was, Smudge and Jimmy walk away pissed off at Monica and the story ends when her turning to Franklin saying "See what you did?" and she beats Franklin afterwards.
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