Three Leaves, Three Colors

Plot

The story revolves around the everyday life of three high-school girls who all have a kanji "葉" (literally "leaf") in their names, and have different features - hence the translation of the title, "three leaves, three colors".

"Three leaves"

Futaba Odagiri (小田切 双葉, Odagiri Futaba)

Voiced by: Mai Kanazawa (Japanese); Jeannie Tirado (English)A cheerful and energetic girl featuring an extraordinary large appetite. She always wins the food challenges held by restaurants, so that many restaurants place her on blacklists; and actually she did this just for being adequately fed instead of getting the awards. She is not good at studying, but does well in cooking. Her given name literally means "double leaves".

Teru Hayama (葉山 照, Hayama Teru)

Voiced by: Ayaka Imamura (Japanese); Tabitha Ray (English)The class representative of Futaba's class. she features the "haraguroi" personality, which means, she acts nicely to other people while she is actually mean to them; Serina and Asako are always her victims. She is excellent in study, but does very poor in sports. She can't resist cute little animals. Her surname literally means "leaf" + "mountain". She has a cat named Beelzebub, which her sister claims that it was because the cat is surrounded by flies when they found it.

Yōko Nishikawa (西川 葉子, Nishikawa Yōko)

Voiced by: Yū Wakui (Japanese); Alexis Tipton (English)A girl in the same grade but different class to Futaba and Teru. She was raised in a rich family, but before the story starts, her mother died and her father's enterprise went bankrupt; as a result, she has to lead a frugal and ordinary life on her own, while she still speaks and behaves with the demeanor of a noble girl, and still longs for her previous rich life. She was very lonely since that misfortune, until Futaba and Teru run across her at the start of the story, and befriend her. Her given name means "leaf child".

Other characters

Serina Nishiyama (西山 芹奈, Nishiyama Serina)

Voiced by: Machico (Japanese); Felecia Angelle (English)Classmate of Futaba and Teru, and friend of Asako. She is exceeded by Teru in many aspects, such as the grading in study, and the competition for the position of class representative, thus she sees Teru as her main rival; but she always becomes a victim of Teru's haraguroi personality in their confrontations. She loves cute little animals, like Teru. Her cat is named Eternal because she wishes it to live a long life, as her previous cat has died.

Asako Kondō (近藤 亜紗子, Kondō Asako)

Voiced by: Aina Suzuki (Japanese); Dawn M. Bennett (English)Classmate of Futaba and Teru, and friend of Serina. She is air-headed and always hurts other people unintentionally. Typically, she often tries to help Serina when the latter confronts Teru, but her efforts always hurts her friend instead.

Mitsugu Yamaji (山路 充嗣, Yamaji Mitsugu)

Voiced by: Kenji Akabane (Japanese); Kyle Phillips (English)Former manservant of Nishikawa family. After the bankrupt of Nishikawa's enterprise, he lost that job and has to make a living with multiple part-time jobs; nevertheless, he still tries his best to take care of Yōko.

Shino Sonobe (薗部 篠, Sonobe Shino)

Voiced by: Rika Momokawa (Japanese); Sarah Wiedenheft (English)Former maid of Nishikawa family. After the bankrupt of Nishikawa's enterprise, she lost that job and starts a pâtisserie. She accepts Yōko as a part-timer to support Yōko's living. She is actually over 30 years old, but has the appearance of a teenager girl. She has the tendency to sneak into Yōko's wearing a high school girl uniform, to her dismay.

Kō Hayama (葉山 光, Hayama Kō)

Voiced by: Asuka Nishi (Japanese); Bryn Apprill (English)Teru's elder sister. In contrast to Teru, she features an angelic personality, although her innocent mind occasionally brings about unintentional hurts. She always makes foods that she claims to be good for health, but with terrible taste and smell.

Yū Takezono (竹園 優, Takezono Yū)

Voiced by: Haruka Watanabe (Japanese); Alison Viktorin (English)The son of the rich Takezono family which had dealings with Nishikawa family. He regards Yōko as his fiancée even after Nishikawa's misfortune, and despite he is only a boy of ten years old or so.

Sakura Usuda (臼田 桜, Usuda Sakura)

Voiced by: Nao Natsuno (Japanese); Jill Harris (English)Futaba's little cousin. Being a girl of only 11 years old, she has a life plan to her fifties involving becoming an idol and later a noblewoman. She is the classmate of Yū, and lists him as "the first backup of boyfriend", and behaves intimately with him when they meet, much to his annoyance. Despite thinking of becoming an idol, her singing is terrible.

Hajime Tsuji (辻 一芽, Tsuji Hajime)

Voiced by: Kotone Kuwayama (Japanese); Morgan Berry (English)A high-school boy with the appearance of a middle-school student. He often participates in food challenges, like Futaba, but always loses to her, and thus hates her. Despite his appearance, he is one year older than Tsuji, and quite popular in school as a mascot due to his cuteness.

Sasame Tsuji (辻 小芽, Tsuji Sasame)

Voiced by: Chiemi Tanaka (Japanese); Madeleine Morris (English)Hajime's younger sister, and Yōko's classmate. She looks quite like her brother so that the "Three Leaves" once mistook they are twins. She tries to stop Futaba from participating the food challenges to avoid Hajime being annoyed, and fails; on the other hand, she admires Yōko and wants to befriend her. When she learns Futaba and Yōko are friends, she gets into a dilemma. She is Yōko's first friend among her classmates.

Kōsei Nishikawa (西川 孝清, Nishikawa Kōsei)

Manga

Sansha San'yō began as a Japanese manga series by Cherry Arai and was first published in Manga Time Kirara 's February 2003 issue. The manga is serialized at Manga Time Kirara except between December 2003 to January 2007 when the manga is serialized at Manga Time Kirara Carat. Twelve tankōbon volumes of the manga were released between June 28, 2004 and March 26, 2016.

Anime

A 12-episode television anime adaptation by Doga Kobo premiered on April 10, 2016. It is directed by Yasuhiro Kimura and written by Hidoaki Koyasu. Jun Yamazaki provided the series' character designs.

The opening theme is Clover♣Kakumation (クローバー♣かくめーしょん Kurōbā♣Kakumēshon, Clover♣Revolution) by idol unit Triple♣Feeling, and the ending theme is Guchōki Parade (ぐちょーきパレード, Rock-Scissors-Paperade), still performed by Triple♣Feeling.

In episode 12, the song School High Touch! (スクールはいたっち！ Sukūru Hai Tatchi!) is used as an insert song, which is also performed by Triple♣Feeling.