The series is a collection of Japanese

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

s by Masashi Okita, with illustrations by Unaji. The series started with the release of the first volume in August 2006 titled , and as of January 2011, 12 volumes have been published by

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

under their

Dengeki Bunko is a publishing imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). It was established in June 1993 with the publication of '' Hyōryū Densetsu Crystania'' volume one, and is a light novel imprint a ...

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation by Kurumi Suzushiro started serialization in the April 2010 issue of ASCII Media Works'

shōnen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent girls and young women), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adult women), ...

magazine ''

Dengeki Daioh is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) under the ''Dengeki'' brand. Many manga serialized in ''Dengeki Daioh'' were later published in ''tankōbon'' volumes under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Co ...

''. A 12-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation by

J.C.Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was ''Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Food ...

aired in Japan on AT-X between July 1 and September 16, 2010, and has been licensed and dubbed into English by

Funimation Entertainment Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

to be aired on American network television and released to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

. The English-dubbed version of the anime adaptation was subsequently licensed and distributed by

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatr ...

and

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...

to Australia and the United Kingdom, respectively.

Plot

Set in the fictional Otogibana City, ''Okami-san & her Seven Companions'' follows the lives of Ryoko Okami (the eponymous Okami-san) and her friends, or companions, throughout their service as members of a "trading" club known as the Otogi High School Bank. At the start of the series, Ryoko and her partner, Ringo, are on a routine service assignment when an unseen stranger assists them. The following day, Ryoko encounters a boy in her class named Ryōshi Morino, a secret admirer of hers, on her way home from school. After being confronted by Ryoko, Ryōshi confesses his love for her and that he had been following her, a confession that is immediately turned down by Ryoko on the basis that he is weak. However, Ryōshi vows that he will become strong enough to be worthy to stand by her side. Later on in the series and with the help of the bank, Ryoko and Ringo discover that Ryōshi was the person who helped them on their service assignment and Ryōshi aids the pair in a fight on another service assignment, thereby prompting Ryoko to accept Ryōshi as someone who she can trust to watch her back. The series progresses in this manner as Ryoko develops romantic feelings for Ryōshi, while also parodying fairy tales such as "

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Brother ...

", "

The Ant and the Grasshopper The Ant and the Grasshopper, alternatively titled The Grasshopper and the Ant (or Ants), is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 373 in the Perry Index. The fable describes how a hungry grasshopper begs for food from an ant when winter comes and is ...

"'','' "

The Tortoise and the Hare "The Tortoise and the Hare" is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in wh ...

", "

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

", "

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel ...

", "

The Little Match Girl "The Little Match Girl" ( da, Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, meaning "The little girl with the sulphur-sticks", i.e. matches) is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story, about a dying child's dre ...

", and so on.

Characters

Otogi Bank

The main characters are part of a high school club called the Otogi Bank. The bank is an organization which sends its members to solve issues from various students seeking help, who then incur debts that they must repay with favors at the Otogi Bank's discretion. Ryoko is a member of the club, and her seven companions are the other members of the club at the start of the series (Ryoshi joins the club in the first episode but is not one of Ryoko's seven companions). ; : :A tomboyish high school girl who is fierce like a wolf and fights thugs using special Neko Neko Knuckles developed by one of the members of the Otogi Bank, Majolica le Fay. In everyday life, she maintains a strong, dismissive facade to disguise her true self: a kind person that is quite fearful of particular things. Although generally hostile towards Ryōshi due to his cowardice, she accepts him as someone who can watch her back in fights soon after they first fight together. As the series progresses, she develops romantic feelings for Ryōshi, going as far as to dream about him, but continues to treat him roughly. Because of this, Ryoko's character fits into the

tsundere is a Japanese term for a character development process that depicts a character with a personality who is initially very harsh before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time. The word is derived from the terms ('to turn away in d ...

category of

idioms. In addition, she is a close friend of Ringo Akai, whom she met shortly after leaving her junior high and was the first person that she befriended in Otogibana City. When her boyfriend Shirō attempted to rape her, he tricked everyone she knew into thinking that she was the one responsible for it. Unable to convince them of the truth, she left her junior high. Ryoko is based on the wolf from the various fairy tales, such as "

", though on several occasions she is shown to be very different from her base character. ; : :A shy boy who cowers when confronted by other people and so keeps his distance. It is explained in the anime that he suffers from ophthalmophobia, a fear of people staring at him.''Okami-san & her Seven Companions'' anime, episode 1 He has a crush on Ryoko and following a failed confession to her, he is somehow enrolled into Otogi Bank, where the others hope to use his low noticeability to avoid being detected. However, Ryōshi is much braver when hidden in darkness, and fights from afar using a wrist-mounted slingshot armed with pachinko balls with extreme precision, as shown when he knocks a baseball flying in midair about to hit Otsū. He is also known to perform well in fist fights if Ryoko is in danger. He is based on the hunter in the fairytale "

" who captures the wolf or Okami-san. ; : :A petite red-haired girl who has been longtime friends with Ryoko. She is the one who recruits Ryōshi into Otogi Bank. She is a close friend of Ryoko Okami, and is always trying to involve herself with her best friend's love life. Like Ryoko, she tends to smile to hide her true feelings, and admires Ryoko for trying to become stronger. She is based on the Little Red Riding Hood from the folktale of the same name, though some aspects of her scheming, manipulative personality closer resemble the poisoned apple ("Ringo" means apple) of Snow White, a fact which is occasionally referenced by the narrator and other characters. She is also the half sister of "Snow White" Shirayuki Himeno and feels responsible for her past. However, thanks to Ryoko, she moves on from the past. Aiden Foote of ''THEM Anime Reviews'' describes her as the "most conniving of all Lolitas and frequently referred to as evil by the dry voiced and witted

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

." ; : :Liszt is the president of Otogi Bank; he is described as clever and laid-back, but resourceful. He sometimes disguises himself and

cross-dresses Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

in order to gather information. He is based on the grasshopper in "

". ; : :Liszt's cousin and secretary in the club. Does most club paperwork, and is based on the ant in "

". ; : :The club's

maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

who has an obsession for returning favors. When she was young, she was saved from a car accident by a boy who died before she could thank him, resulting in her having a fear of not being able to return a favor. She is based on the crane from the Japanese tale ''

Tsuru no Ongaeshi is a story from Japanese folklore about a crane who returns a favor to a man. A variant of the story where a man marries the crane that returns the favor is known as . According to Japanese scholar Seki Keigo, the story is "one of the best know ...

''. ; : :A first-year transfer student who is a year older than the rest of the gang. He acts as a playboy and sometimes flirts with girls although he has a girlfriend, Otohime. He is based on the title character from the Japanese tale ''

Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who in a typical modern version is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There he is entertained ...

''. It is ''heavily'' implied that he is in an intimate relationship with Otohime, and he occasionally enters a "gentleman mode". ; : :A girl with an obsessive crush on Tarō, who cares for her greatly but on some occasions is scared of her. It was thanks to Tarō's motivation that she changed from a chubby bullied elementary student to a thin beauty. Although Tarō often runs from her advances, he does have special feelings for her, and can even be considered her boyfriend. She is based on Princess Otohime from the Japanese tale ''

''. The reason she is called turtle is because Otohime from the legend was a turtle on land when she met Tarō. Her relationship with Mimi Usami is related to the fable, ''

''.''Okami-san and Seven Companions'', episode 3 ; : :Called Majo for short, she is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who builds various devices such as Ryoko's Neko Neko Knuckles. She is based on the sorceress

Morgan le Fay Morgan le Fay (, meaning 'Morgan the Fairy'), alternatively known as Morgan , Morgain /e Morg e, Morgant Morge , and Morgue namong other names and spellings ( cy, Morgên y Dylwythen Deg, kw, Morgen an Spyrys), is a powerful ...

. She takes the role of a

fairy godmother In fairy tales, a fairy godmother () is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies. In Perrault's ''Cinderella'', he concludes the tale with ...

at times.

Secondary characters

; : :Nicknamed Momo-chan-senpai, she is disciplinary committee member of Otogi High School. She is bisexual and will sometimes make suggestive passes at Ryoko, while using her 'dumplings' to get assistance from naive boys. She is based on the titular character from the Japanese tale ''

Momotarō is a Folk hero, popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as ''Peach Boy'', but is directly translated as ''Peach + Tarō (given name), Tarō'', a common Japanese given name. ''Momotarō'' is also the title of various books, ...

'', and is often accompanied by a trio of students whose names and appearances are based on the Monkey, Dog and Pheasant that accompany Momotaro on his journeys. ; : :She is Ryōshi's aunt. She is a novelist who writes romance stories, using her pen name "Yuki" and just happens to be Ryoko's favorite, and landlady of apartment "Okashisou" where Ryoshi lives. She is based on Japanese tale ''

Yuki-onna is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore that is often depicted in Japanese literature, films, or animation. She may also go by such names as ''yuki-musume'', cited by ("snow daughter"), ''yuki-onago'' ("snow girl"), ''yukijorō'' (雪女郎, ...

''. ; : :She is based on the hare from the Aesop's fable "

". She is Tarō's and Otohime's childhood friend, and since very little she has held hostility towards Otohime, calling her with the mocking nickname of "turtle". ; : :A second year student that requested aide from the Otogi Bank in episode 7, where she went on a double date with Okami and Ryoshi. Afterwards, she occasionally makes appearances. She is based on the Jizō from the Japanese tale ''Kasajizō''. ; : :The principal of Otogi High School, who often requests certain 'services' from the bank in exchange for a lot of the club's more expensive items. He is based on the Genie of the Lamp from ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...

''. ; : :The main antagonist of the series. He is the student council president of Onigashima High School, a school of delinquents intended to conflict with Otogi High School. During middle school, he attempted to rape Ryoko but after that he spread bad rumors about Ryoko. He is based partially on ''

The Boy Who Cried Wolf The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom "to cry wolf", defined as "to give a false alarm" in e''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'' and glossed by the ''Oxford ...

''. However, like other characters, he's drawn from multiple sources; in this case, he is also based on the

wolf in sheep's clothing A wolf in sheep's clothing is an idiom of Biblical origin used to describe those playing a role contrary to their real character with whom contact is dangerous, particularly false teachers. Much later, the idiom has been applied by zoologists to v ...

figure. It may be noted that the kanji 狼(Rō) translates as wolf. ; : :She is the half-sister of Ringo. She is based on ''

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...

''. (Shiro means white, Yuki means snow.) Himeno is often seen providing for her seven younger siblings (presumably

septuplets A multiple birth is the culmination of one multiple pregnancy, wherein the mother gives birth to two or more babies. A term most applicable to vertebrate species, multiple births occur in most kinds of mammals, with varying frequencies. Such bi ...

) who are based on the '' Seven Dwarves'' from the same story. ; : : A third-year student at Otogi described by the narrator as a "pretty boy." Knowledgeable about Ryōshi and the Otogi Bank, he takes it upon himself to "train" Ryōshi, even taking part in joining Ryōshi and company to Onigashima High School to save Okami because when he was younger, he was saved by Okami from a bunch of delinquents. His hair is shaped into cat ears, and his name, attitude and mannerisms are catlike. He is apparently a skilled fighter who easily overcomes Ryōshi. He is based on ''

Puss in Boots "Puss in Boots" ( it, Il gatto con gli stivali) is an Italian fairy tale, later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for hi ...

''. He is first shown in episode 6 where Ryoko saved him from the delinquents in a flashback. Neko means cat in Japanese. ; : :She is Ryoko, Ringo, and Ryōshi's classmate. She is based on ''

.'' "Machi" in her name, Machiko, sounds like the word match. She appears in the last episode of the anime, attempting to win over Ryoshi. She and her father had been in serious debt, so she had been working towards paying off their debt. Her reason was so she could marry into his family, as she believed he was rather wealthy after seeing him outside his aunt's boarding complex with his "expensive" dogs. Later, when Ryoshi protects her from a group of debt collectors, she begins to really develop a crush on him. She becomes the newest resident of the boarding complex where Ryoshi lives and was able to let go of him after hearing just how much Ryoko meant to him. ; : :In the anime, the narrator tells the tale and regularly makes sarcastic and offensive remarks about the characters at which main characters often break the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

to glare at her.

Media

Light novel

Manga

adaptation, illustrated by Kurumi Suzushiro and titled , was serialized between the April 2010 and October 2012 issues of

. The first

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

volume was released on September 27, 2010, the fourth volume was released on November 27, 2012.

Anime

The

series by

, titled , aired from July 2, 2010, to September 17, 2010. The opening theme is "Ready Go!" by

May'n , better known by her stage name , is a Japanese singer from Nagoya. Aspiring to become a musician since childhood, she began her music activities in 2003 upon passing an audition held by talent agency Horipro International. She made her major de ...

while the ending theme is by OToGi8. At

Otakon Otakon ( ) is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. It stands for Otaku Convention. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to ...

2010, North American anime distributor

announced that they had acquired the right to the anime and streamed the series on their video portal before releasing the series on home video on April 3, 2012. The series made its North American television debut on September 10, 2012, on the

Funimation Channel Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

Episode list

References

External links

Anime official website

Okami-san - The Official Anime Website from
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Okami San Book series introduced in 2006 2006 Japanese novels 2010 manga Anime and manga based on light novels Dengeki Bunko Dengeki Daioh Kadokawa Dwango franchises Funimation J.C.Staff Light novels Madman Entertainment anime Romantic comedy anime and manga School life in anime and manga Shōnen manga