Yoke (anime) (Johnsonverse)

Yoke (Japanese: ヨク) is an American comedy animesque series created by Addie Choe. It was produced by TMS Entertainment for Cartoon Network and aired from March 14, 2018 to December 13, 2023.
== Premise ==
Yoke chronicles the life of a tomboyish teenage girl named Yoke Fukuyama, who lives in Morita, Tohoku with her brainy older sister Mayu Fukuyama, kindhearted younger stepbrother Hiro Ichijō, workaholic stepmother Taeko Ichijō, and caring father Akira Fukuyama, attends Watanabe High School, and leads the school's skateboarding club, consisting of Rumi Hinode, Ren Aoki, Asahi Higasa, and Kenji Kotobuki. Each episode is narrated by Yoke herself, framed as a journal entry. The first two seasons take place during Yoke's sophomore year, the third and fourth seasons during her junior year, and the final season during her senior year.
Johnson has been ambiguous as to where in the Johnson multiverse the series is set, or if it is even part of said multiverse. Following the series finale, the "Ask Chronius" feature on MySpace revealed that Yoke n' Pals is in a timeline that Chronius (the Time God who oversees the entire Johnson multiverse) created just so he could watch some normal slice-of-life fluff instead of having to see another Epsilon sub-timeline where things inevitably go off the rails and he has to decide whether or not to intervene; he's considering giving it the designation "Delta", as the original Delta Timeline (the Godzilla anime trilogy) was averted thanks to Haruo and Yuko traveling back in time to avert Godzilla Earth's creation and ensuring the rest of the multiverse could exist.
== Characters ==
=== Fukuyama-Ichijō family ===
* Miyoko "Yoke" Fukuyama (English: Erica Mendez, voice reference; Japanese: Mikako Komatsu, voice reference) is the protagonist, the leader of the Skateboarding Club, and the middle child of the Fukuyama-Ichijō family, aged 16-18. She is an aroace, streetsmart and snarky tomboy who usually hangs out with boys outside of Rumi and frequently plays sports, though her passion lies in motorsports; Yoke is also an avid gamer and horror buff, as well as a fan of metal music (with Metallica and The Rock-afire Explosion as her favorite bands) and various series and franchises such as Star Wars, Ludicrous World (a parody of Looney Tunes), earlier seasons of Family Guy, Phineas and Ferb, Sonic the Hedgehog, South Park, Cancer Man (a parody of Breaking Bad), Transformers, Godzilla, Clownfish Ahoy! (a parody of SpongeBob SquarePants), Spider-Man, The Muppets, The Rock-afire Explosion Show, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Bluey, Caped Baldy (a parody of One Punch Man), Yellow-Haired Ninja (a parody of Naruto), Dark Owl (a parody of Batman), Detective Jenny, RWBY, What a beautiful duwang (a parody of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Redo Life (a parody of Re:Zero), and D is for Dragon (a parody of Kobayashi's Dragon Maid). She is very agile and hates wearing skirts, dresses, heeled shoes and jewelry, to the point where she shredded her prom dress immediately after getting back from prom in a season 2 episode. In one episode, she boasts that the only challenge she failed in her life was when she tried to watch five episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians in a row, only to give up after ten minutes even after making snarky comments while watching. Despite her tomboyishness, Yoke had a princess phase when she was younger (even being an avid collector of princess dolls), a phase she looks back on as a "total embarrassment". She gets her driver's license in the fourth season and graduates from high school in the series finale, along with Rumi.
* Mayu Fukuyama (English: G. K. Bowes, voice reference; Japanese: Haruka Shiraishi, voice reference) is Yoke's intelligent, somewhat aloof 17-19 year-old sister. Despite maintaining a facade of confidence, she is socially awkward, a trait that she begins to overcome after becoming Hideaki's girlfriend. She graduates from high school in the fourth season, and marries Hideaki in the final season; the final episode has Mayu start writing a novel based on her high school life.
* Mashiro "Hiro" Ichijō (silent; vocal effects provided by Lexi Marman) is Yoke and Mayu's deaf, kindhearted yet snarky 13-15 year-old stepbrother who has feminine interests such as baking and ballet, as well as attending home economics class. Because he is deaf, he communicates with other characters via (subtitled) ASL, only making vocal effects such as gasps, laughter and yawns.
* Taeko Ichijō (English: Veronica Taylor, voice reference; Japanese: Kikuko Inoue, voice reference) is Hiro's 42-44 year-old mother and a reporter for JSDI News. She is strong-willed and very devoted to her children. She and Akira were friends in elementary school, and married when their respective children were very young; Taeko's first husband is never seen, though he is implied to have been extremely abusive towards Taeko and Hiro.
* Akira Fukuyama (English: Dave B. Mitchell, voice reference; Japanese: Akira Ishida, voice reference) is Mayu and Yoke's 47-49 year-old father. He works as a car mechanic, and is greatly devoted to his children like Taeko. Like Taeko's first husband, Akira's first wife is never seen; it is implied that she died when Mayu and Yoke were infants.
* Shiro Fukuyama (English: John Stephenson, voice reference; Japanese: Norio Wakamoto, voice reference) is Yoke and Mayu's 80-82 year-old paternal grandfather who served in the Vietnam War, having reached the rank of sergeant by the time he was honorably discharged.
* Emi Fukuyama (English: B. J. Ward, voice reference; Japanese: Midori Katō, voice reference) is Yoke and Mayu's 78-80 year-old paternal grandmother and a retired lawyer.
* Natsuki Fukuyama (English: Marc Thompson, voice reference; Japanese: Shin-ichiro Miki, voice reference) is Akira's 52-54 year-old elder brother who owns a startup tech company.
* Kana Fukuyama (English: Lauren Tom, voice reference; Japanese: Yuu Asakawa, voice reference) is Akira's 54-56 year-old elder sister who is an airport security guard.
* Hideaki Nakamura (English: Townsend Coleman, voice reference; Japanese: Chafûrin, voice reference) is Hiro's 65-67 year-old maternal grandfather and a retired train engineer.
* Sayaka Nakamura (English: Mona Marshall, voice reference; Japanese: Masako Nozawa, voice reference) is Hiro's 63-65 year-old maternal grandmother and the owner of Nakamura Bakery.
* Yui Nakamura (English: Katie Leigh, voice reference; Japanese: Megumi Ogata, voice reference) is Taeko's 45-47 year-old, tough, snarky elder sister whom Yoke admires. She played hockey in college and currently works as a hockey coach.
* Yuko Nakamura (English: Karen Strassman, voice reference; Japanese: Yukari Tamura, voice reference) is Taeko's 39-41 year-old, fashionable younger sister, a TV model, and Yui's rival.
* Peter (Frank Welker) is the Fukuyamas' pug dog. He is named after Peter Parker.
* Miles (Frank Welker) is the Ichijōs' Bombay cat. He is named after Miles Morales.
* Cindy (silent) is the Fukuyama's telescope goldfish. She is named after Cindy Moon.
=== Skateboarding Club ===
* Rumi Hinode (English: Krizia Bajos, voice reference; Japanese: Ayane Sakura, voice reference) is Yoke's 16-18 year-old, snarky and cynical goth best friend since childhood and Naomi's bisexual girlfriend. Like Yoke, Rumi is a horror fan. She is a rebellious student who frequently gets in trouble for wearing earrings to school, as they are against the dress code. Rumi was conceived by her infertile single mother via IVF.
* Ren Aoki (English: A. J. LoCascio, voice reference; Japanese: Tomokazu Sugita, voice reference) is the strongest member of the team. He is also the token heterosexual of the club.
* Asahi Higasa (English: Zeno Robinson, voice reference; Japanese: Daisuke Ono, voice reference) is the smartest and tallest member of the team, as well as Kenji's boyfriend.
* Kenji Gogatsu (English: Josh Keaton, voice reference; Japanese: Hiroshi Kamiya, voice reference) maintains a suave and confident facade, but can be as snarky as Yoke. He is also Asahi's boyfriend.
=== Recurring characters ===
*Suzume Gogatsu (English: Stephanie Lemelin, voice reference; Japanese: Mao Ichimichi, voice reference) is Mayu's wheelchair-bound best friend. She is much nicer than Mayu, though she has a witty streak and can get her facts wrong at times.
*Aika Arakawa (English: Kimlinh Tran, voice reference; Japanese: Wakana Maruoka, voice reference) is an energetic, eccentric (though not stupid) and bisexual 15-17 year-old fashionista on the autistic spectrum; her interests include fashion, boys, romance, fads, and shopping, though she's also a closeted geek, coming out in the fourth season, and she is obsessed with keeping a schedule. She is also the only character with multiple casual outfits, wearing a rotation of ten different outfits. In the second season, Aika becomes Ben's girlfriend at the school's sophomore prom.
*Benjiro "Ben" Mikan (English: Jason Griffith, voice reference; Japanese: Takeo Ōtsuka, voice refefence) is a neurotic, germophobic artist on the autistic spectrum, and Aika's boyfriend. He carries a bottle of hand sanitizer with him at all times. He is also obsessed with animation.
* Naomi Fujisaki (English: Kimberley Anne Campbell, voice reference; Japanese: Sumire Morohoshi, voice reference) is a pansexual Afro-Japanese STEM student who takes her work seriously and has an optimistic viewpoint.
* Yurika Yuasa (English: Kelly Hu) is the host of The W News, Watanabe's closed-circuit news broadcast, and Camila's best friend. She is polite, ladylike, soft-spoken, and proper, but has an excellent sense of humor.
* Camila Koiwai (English: Anairis Quiñones) is a student of Mexican ancestry with aspirations to become a heavy metal rockstar, and Yurika's best friend. She has a very wild, energetic personality, and is a fan of heavy metal singer Tina Currey.
* Hideaki Sakurai (English: Max Mittelman) is Mayu's crush and later boyfriend. They get married in the final season. Hideaki is an aspiring rockstar.
* Emi Yasuhara (English: Kate Higgins) is Watanabe's head cheerleader. Unlike many stereotypical cheerleaders, Emi is among the smartest students in school. She also displays several un-ladylike traits such as eating messily.
=== Adults ===
* Misato Hirasawa (English: Kath Soucie, voice reference) is the math teacher.
* Poko Wakasa (English: Stephanie Nadolny, voice reference) is the gym teacher.
== Development ==
The series began development in 2016. Originally, it was going to involve Yoke and her life in high school, going through multiple names such as Fukuyama Five and Yoke n' Pals, but it was changed to focus on her family life.
==See also==
*Gallery
Category:Johnsonverse