Tsuritama

You can't catch fish if you don't go fishing, and you can't make friends if you don't at least try. Which is how relationship-challenged student Yuki finds himself on a fishing trip to a tiny island with three other boys he barely knows. Well, two other boys and Haru, who claims that he's an alien. Not that constantly stewing Natsuki or mysterious Akira are any more likely as prospects for good companionship. But there's something about fishing that makes it unlike any other pastime, and maybe that quiet sense of companionship and hopeful expectation is just what Yuki needs to start charting the unfamiliar waters of personal connections. Or maybe it will turn out that Haru's right and they're going to have to save the entire planet. There are lots of different kinds of fish stories, from the "ones that got away" to the "best catches ever," but whichever way the currents of life take them, for four young men, this trip may turn out to be the biggest whopper ever!

(Source: Sentai Filmworks)

Can be watched at Crunchyroll if you're in the available region. Or proxy.

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Tropes used in Tsuritama include:

• Anime Accent Absence: Averted. Kate the Frenchwoman, Akira's foreign benefactors, and the space aliens all have some kind of accent.
• Anyone Can Die: Coco appears to have been killed by JFX in episode 9.
• Animorphism: Coco can apparently turn into a goldfish.
• Art Shift/Medium Blending: The first episode's introduction, the ending credits, and the eyecatches use a computer-generated artstyle based around clusters of circles and paper cutouts.
• Big Brother Instinct: Natsuki to his little sister Sakura. Haru saying to Sakura that Natsuki'll be teaching him and Yuki how to fish is the only reason Natsuki agrees to do it.
• Bishonen
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Haru, Natsuki and Akira, and Yuki.
• Break the Cutie: Haru, Haru, Haru. Episodes 6-9 did NOT Treat him well.
  • In the span of nine episodes, he went from this to this!
• But Not Too Foreign: Yuki, who is one-quarter French. Akira is also presumably part Japanese.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys
• Cloudcuckoolander: Haru, who, to be fair, does claim to be an alien. Akira gives off this impression as well, surveilling the three boys from odd hiding places like under the sand at the beach and speaking to his pet goose Tapioca.
• The Comically Serious: Akira.
• Cool Old Lady: Kate.
• Dancing Theme: The opening features the various characters performing what is apparently an Enoshima-endemic dance.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: What Haru seems to be.
• Family Business: Natsuki feels obligated to take over the family restaurant, but also wants to leave Enoshima to pursue a professional angling career.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: Haru tries to cheer up Yuki about Kate's hospitalization by telling him that everyone dies at some point.
• First-Name Basis: Haru, Yuki, Natsuki, and Akira all use each other's first names.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Haru in episode 6.
• Gonk: Yuki, whenever he gets extremely stressed.
• Hey, It's That Voice!!:
  • Haru is voiced by Miyu Irino who voices Sora in Kingdom Hearts. Natsuki is Roxas and Ventus. Does that mean Natsuki is Haru's Nobody? Oh and Akira is Gintoki. Haru's sister, Coco, will make you into a a Magical Girl and troll the heck out of you
  • Natsuki has been known to eat souls on occasion...
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: They all follow the formula "[descriptive word] [fishing term]".
• Incurable Cough of Death: Kate seemed to be following this trope, but has since recovered and left the hospital. Yay for Grandma!
• It Got Worse: The second half of the series is very noticably darker than the first.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Natsuki. Strangers and his father see the jerk side but his friends and sister get the gold.
• Keet: Haru.
• Large Ham:
  • Haru.

Haru: Skyyyy....TREEEEEEE!

• • Captain Ayumi.
• Madness Mantra:Haru spouts one in episode 6.

"Fish, human, alien! Fish, human, alien!"

• Meaningful Name: Misaki ("ocean blossom"; the pronunciation also matches "cape" when written with different kanji), the girl at the bait and tackle shop.
• Meganekko: Coco.
• The Men in Black: Akira and his crew of Indians, who are monitoring Haru and Coco.
• Mind Control Device: Haru and Coco's "water guns".
  • Mind Control Eyes: Anyone under its influence. Also, Haru in episode 6. And the fishermen at the end of episode 6.
• Mukokuseki: The Frenchmen and Indian don't look significantly different from the Japanese characters.
• Multicolored Hair: Coco's hair is basically a Palette Swap of Irabu's.
• New Transfer Student: Yuki, Haru, and then Akira, who is 25 years old.
• No Social Skills: Yuki. The poor guy didn't have friends at his old schools--mostly due to how he gets facially expressive panic attacks when nervous.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The organization that Akira and his team work for, who are somehow involved in both the occult and aliens.
• Only Sane Man: Natsuki... so far.
• Parental Abandonment: Yuki's parents. Whatever happened to them is not specified, but Yuki seems to imply that they're alive.
• Parent with New Paramour: One source of conflict for Natsuki and his father.
• Purple Eyes: Space aliens Haru and Coco.
• Redheaded Hero: Yuki
• Real Men Wear Pink: Ayumi, the dude with the pink shirt at the fishing shop.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The ending, "Sora mo Toberu Hazu", is a cover of an existing song by Spitz.
• Saving the World: What Yuki is supposed to be doing by being forced to fish... somehow.
• Scenery Porn: Enoshima is a beautiful, colorful place.
• Shout-Out: Different design elements of Haru and Coco appear to compositely reference Irabu from a previous NoitaminA anime, Trapeze.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Haru and Coco, if they really are siblings. Haru's free-spirited, bubbly, and energetic, while Koko's more serious, calculating, and willing to use her mind control water gun.
• Sinister Geometry: Haru and the dragon can conjure creepy triangular halos.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The cutesy ending theme cuts in as the Big Bad finally begins to take action in episodes 6 and 7.
• Spell My Name with an "S": The Crunchyroll subs give Kate's name as Keito and Coco's as Koko.
• Starfish Aliens: Haru and Coco's alien species can communicate through water, but whenever they try it on a human it just ends up as Mind Control. A powerful enough alien can work via moisture in the air if it's particularly humid.
• Stealth Pun: Haru's obsession with the Sky Tree might have something to do with the fact that the "Tree" is tsurii and "fishing" is tsuri.
• Strange Salute: Akira's crew hold up cards emblazoned with a "D", strike a Ginyu Force-esque pose, and shout "Duck!"
• Stripperiffic: Coco's black bikini and odd silver skirt and gauntlets.
• Sugar and Ice Personality: Natsuki acts coldly towards strangers and people who get on his bad side--like his father and Akira--but gently towards those he cares for, like his sister, Yuki and Haru. His shift in tone from almost callously indifferent to very warm when speaking to Yuki over the course of the first four episodes really illustrates this aspect of him.
• Testosterone Poisoning: Ayumi.
• Theme Naming:
  • Floral Theme Naming: The girls. Coco (coconut), Misaki (doesn't seem to be an actual plant, although it literally translates to "ocean blossom"), Sakura ("cherry blossom"), Erika ("heather"), and Kate (keito/"plumed cockscomb").
  • Gender Blender Name: All of the main boys have unisex names.
  • Temporal Theme Naming: The boys are named after the seasons--Yuki ("snow" for winter), Haru ("spring"), Natsuki (natsu/"summer"), and Akira (aki/"autumn").
• Third Person Person: Sakura.
• Tsundere: Akira when it comes to denying that he wants friends.
• Wham! Episode:
  • Episode 6, boy howdy. An artificial reef suddenly disappears. A giant pink halo appears in the sky that looks like Haru's. It then smashes Haru's halo. Haru goes berserk and starts using his water gun. Akira starts shooting at him before their ship crashes and he goes unconscious. Everything soon goes back to normal...up until the episode ends with a bunch of fishermen doing the Enoshima dance for no reason with the creepiest smiles on their faces you ever did see.
  • Episode 8: The true nature of the Big Bad is divulged (the "dragon" in the fairy tale--a renegade member of Haru and Coco's species), his possible plot is revealed (mind control the entire world via air humidity) and his fleet of mind-controlled fishing ships makes landfall at Enoshima. Akira is disowned by Duck and held at gunpoint by the rest of his unit; meanwhile, a Duck combat unit is en route to Enoshima.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Coco's dialect is...strange. Haru's pitching can sound strange as well.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In episode 7, both Sakura and later Yuki call out Natsuki for picking a fight with their father and slapping his sister respectively. He tells them both to shut up and storms out.