MM!
Taro Sado is a masochist. For years, this has left him unable to confess to a girl he saw at his job. At the advice of his friend, he goes to join the school's Second Volunteer Club. The first one is for normal volunteer purposes. The second is for personal problems and everything else. When he arrives, Taro meets Mio Isurugi, the club president with a sadistic personality, and Arashiko Yuno, a shy girl who's also part of the Volunteer Club. A masochist and a sadist meet, and Hilarity Ensues.
Based on a series of 10 Light Novels,[1] MM!, after a false alarm from the creators stating they wanted to be adapted into an anime in late 2007, was finally adapted into a Twelve-Episode Anime in fall 2010.
Tropes used in MM! include:
- A-Cup Angst: Mio and Noa.
- Adults Dressed as Children: Shizuka and Tomoko attempting to enter the school's beauty pageant.
- A God Am I: Mio, naturally.
- Abuse Is Funny When It Is Female On Male: Come on, Taro's begging for more! It has got to be funny.
- Action Prologue: The series opens with on Mio chasing down Taro with a bokken (wooden practice sword), very nearly killing him.
- Adult Child: Taro's mother and older sister.
- All Women are Doms, All Men are Subs
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Tomoko and Shizuka's "phase four". Old photo albums and everything else from Taro's childhood is brought up.
- Animated Adaptation: Based on the Light Novels.
- Attempted Rape: How Arashiko came to not like men in the first place.
- Attractive Bent Gender: Tatsukichi whenever he crossdresses. Now, also Taro in episodes 8 and 12.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Happens to Tatsukichi and Taro, who get it from different girls (Mio kicked Tatsukichi; Arashiko punched Taro).
- Author Existence Failure: Sadly, Akinari Matsuno passed away shortly after publishing the 10th novel, which ends on a Cliff Hanger. The manga artist, Hyouju Issei, will likely continue the manga using the novels as a basis.
- Balanced Harem: Mio and Arashiko have equal chances with Taro. Other love interests, like his sister and mother, are Played for Laughs.
- Batter Up: Mio, complete with projectile baseballs.
- Beach Episode: Episode seven, which also counts as a Festival Episode.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mio appears as cute as can be when Taro first meets her, but that facade is pretty quickly stripped away ten minutes into the first episode alone.
- Berserk Button
- Blue Eyes: The Sado family.
- Blue with Shock: Taro's reaction when he sees his sister Shizuka enter the beauty contest. Followed with a Color Failure when he sees their mom Tomoko follow suit.
- Bromantic Foil: Tatsukichi seems this to Taro, though subverted since Yumi likes him.
- Bunny Girl: Arashiko and Mio thinks this'll help get rid of Taro's hypno-induced Single-Target Sexuality for Tatsukichi. It doesn't work.
- Buxom Is Better: Played straight, subverted and inverted. Taro (and most other males) certainly notices Arashiko's "gifts", but at the same time Mio is still considered by many to be more beautiful, despite lacking horizontally. Inverted with Yukinojo, who very much does not like his beloved Noa using her special pills.
- Camera Fiend: Michiru always has her camera at the ready to take shots of Mio's latest de-M-ing device or cute people in lavish get-ups. Especially cute people in lavish get-ups.
- Catch Phrase: Arashiko's "I'm scared of men!" cry every time Taro accidentally touches her physically.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Arashiko
- Chekhov's Skill: Taro's masochism finally works for him in during his fight with Yoshioka in the third episode. Now, that's using your M!
- Child Prodigy: Noa was a super genius back in her childhood days, and she's definitely not getting any dumber every minute.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Taro. Masochistic on the outside; nice on the inside.
- Class Representative: Kirino Ayasegawa.
- Cliff Hanger: The 10th (and final) novel ends with Taro being confessed to by Mio, when he is already in a relationship with Arashiko. By this point in time Noa already confessed as well.
- Clingy Jealous Girls
- Tomoko and Shizuka are this for Taro.
- Or between Noa and Yuno in Episode 6, as they bicker over Taro.
- Yumi is this for Tatsukichi.
- Combined Energy Attack: Taro uses one to stop Noa's incoming destruction, gathering the energy of perverts from around the world.
- Comedic Sociopathy
- Mio takes this to unparalleled levels.
- Michiru takes it much further, being an actual sadist, while Mio is merely a rather violent tsundere.
- Cosplay Otaku Woman: Michiru has costumes for any occasion, and will dress people up in them just so that she can take pictures of them in her get-ups.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Tatsukichi is voiced by Rina Sato. And guess what, the voice isn't the only thing Tatsukichi's crossdressing.
- Cry Cute
- Mio in episode 9, after being frightened by a bakeneko (monster cat) in the Horror House, revealing to Taro her fear of cats.
- Mio again in episode 12, when she finally gets her first ever birthday celebration.
- Cuteness Proximity: Arashiko around animals. Any animal.
- Dancing Theme: The ED, in a few parts.
- Date Peepers: Michiru, Arashiko and Tatsukichi on Mio and Taro's date/love therapy session.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Mio, sort of.
- Dropped a Bridget On Him: Tatsukichi is Taro's mystery girl.
- Does Not Like Men
- Yuno tends to respond with a punch whenever a guy touches her (even accidental ones). Tatsukichi doesn't invoke this when he's crossdressing.
- Yumi even more so, though it's out of plain old disgust rather than a phobia.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady
- Tatsukichi, according to his backstory. His height doesn't quite help matters either, really.
- Mio makes Taro pull this off to bring in customers in Episode 12.
- Dysfunction Junction: Oh, where to start?
- Taro suffers from a very extreme case of sexual masochism, which is of course the central point of the show.
- Tomoko and Shizuka both appear to want to jump Taro's bones, something he definitely does not want. Oh, and both of them are incredibly emotionally stunted.
- Yuno has extreme androphobia, though thanks to the efforts of the Second Volunteer Club she has started to get better.
- Yuno's friend Yumi, in contrast, isn't as androphobic as her, but she's definitely not as straight, either.
- Tatsukichi enjoys dressing up as a woman, and displays some dissociative tendencies as manifested in his "Ojou" persona.
- Noa is extremely maladjusted thanks to Child Prodigy exploitations during her childhood, and definitely has a complex about her appearance.
- Yukinojo, Noa's pedophilic admirer, goes on a rampage whenever he senses she decides to use some growth pills that turn her into a lady befitting her age.
- Mio spent most of her childhood in and out of hospitals, or at least bedridden, and so isn't the best at interacting with others. Worse still, it looks like she's starting to enjoy her "treatments" for Taro.
- Michiru enjoys taking pictures of cute girls, especially when they're in costumes, and her reactions tend to suggest that kind of enjoyment.
- The Dōmyōji Shop Manager whom Taro's acquainted to in the festival half of the Episode 7 is rabid Otaku with a lusty craze for Eroge girls.
- Kirino Ayasegawa is the ringmaster of Mio's Instant Fanclub... and a viciously fanatic one at that.
- Easy Amnesia: Episode 11.
- Fan Service with a Smile: The cat Maid Cafe at the festival.
- Fetish: MM! wouldn't be MM! without it.
- Becomes a plot point (as in literal fetish fuel) in episode 5. Specifically, Taro uses a piece of Noa's Mad Scientist tech to transform his perversion into raw power, effectively becoming a Super Saiyan for the duration of the episode.
- Foot Focus: Some of it comes up here and there; the most prominent one being in the show's introduction sequence.
- First Episode Spoiler: Tatsukichi is the "girl" Taro is after.
- First Kiss: Happens between Mio and Taro in Episode 4, as part of a plan to cure Taro's masochism. Yes, it was both their first times.
- First-Name Basis
- Yuno and Taro get on these terms with each other in Episode 2. But it turns out Taro didn't fulfill his end of the bargain. And Yuno is using it as a way to get around her androphobia... because that's also the name of a dog that she used to own.
- Mio doesn't quite realize that she called Taro by his first name for the very first time in Episode 11. She also calls his name out in the last episode.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Noa
- Gainaxing: Arashiko
- Generic Cuteness: As far as contemporary typical anime standards go, no-one is seriously ugly in this show.
- Gratuitous English: All over the place! Blatant mentions ahoy!
- Strike one: The opening theme. Oh God, the opening theme.
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"No, Jesus Christ is oh my God!" |
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- Strike two: fourth episode. Theoretically, if Taro upsets Mio, he gets a kick in the face. "Oh, mai God-doh!"
- Strike three: Episode Eight had "Pretty Heart Max!" and "Let's! Over the rainbow!" and "My sweet honey!"
- Hello, Nurse!: Just another one of Michiru's bright ideas to get Arashiko to satisfy her fetishes again.
- Hot Mom: Tomoko, Taro's mom, who is so young and cute she looks like Taro's little sister.
- Humongous Mecha: Noa specializes in these, at various scales. She also has one that turns into a cannon.
- Hypno Fool: The premise of Episode 8. Taro isn't convinced at first, but not long after, he begins to develop even stranger fetishes.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Noa
- Ill Girl: Mio, of all people.
- Incest Is Relative: To the Sados. Well, two out of three of them, that is.
- Brother-Sister Incest: Taro's not exactly having enough personal space with Shizuka around.
- Parental Incest: And then there's Tomoko...
- Incurable Cough of Death: The Wham! Episode where Mio suddenly has Blood From the Mouth! Impending Death! The entire series takes a darker turn! Or it's just another deliberately Invoked Trope Played for Laughs.
- Indirect Kiss: In Episode 8.
- Informed Attractiveness: Most characters commented on how beautiful Mio is, but really she's not more beautiful than Arashiko or any other girl... or for that matter, She!Tatsukichi.
- Innocent Innuendo: When it looks like Taro and Noa are going at it, the camera pulls back to reveal they're playing a children's game.
- Instant Fanclub: The Mio-sama Fan Club, or MFC for short. Very fanatic and vicious. The leader of it being Kirino Ayasegawa. They don't like it when Taro hangs out with Mio.
- Japanese School Club
- Jerk Jock: Yoshioka. Hell befalls any girl that rejects him. Too bad his last victim turned out to have a "boyfriend" who's Made of Iron. And said guy managed to punch him out, leaving him for his last "girlfriend's" best friend to finish the job.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Happens twice in episode 8.
- Knight of Cerebus: Yoshioka. Everything turns Darker and Edgier when he's around.
- Knight Templar: The Mio Fan Club thinks that by hanging out with Mio, Taro will ruin her life. The club would use any methods necessary to get rid of Taro if it will maintain Mio's lifestyle in the way the club sees it.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Taro in Episode 11.
- Lolicon: Yukinojo takes this Up to Eleven.
- Love Dodecahedron: (Sort of?) Tatsukichi, Yumi, Noa, and Yukinojo could probably fit in there somewhere. Taro had a crush on Tatsukichi's alter ego until he found out that Tatsukichi and the alter ego were one and the same. Yumi showed interest in Arashiko, but also Tatsukichi. Yukinojo likes Noa, who in turn likes Taro.
- Love Letter Lunacy: In Episode 5.
- Lover Tug of War: Episode 4. Arashiko << Taro >> Mio. With real tug ropes to boot.
- Love Triangle: A potential Type 3, or possibly Type 7, with Mio and Arashiko both showing interest in Taro. Granted, Taro is probably happy to be with any girl who will satisfy his masochistic urges, but only Mio and Arashiko seem to have deeper feelings for Taro (or vice versa).
- Made of Iron: Thanks to his masochism, Taro has a very high pain tolerance. This allows him to hold himself pretty well when he is getting beat up by Yoshioka, who is an amateur kick-boxer in Episode 3.
- Magical Realism: The setting of the anime shifts more and more towards this as the story progresses. Unusually, most of the magical and sci-fi aspects of the story are fueled by the characters' perversions.
- Male Gaze: Everywhere, but special mention goes to a triple ass shot [dead link] in the Beach Episode.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Taro recovers from amnesia, he learns things that makes him see himself as a horrible cross-dressing pervert with no limits as to who he would have his way with.
- My Lolicon Radar Has Gone Off: Yukinojo knows when Noa is using her pills.
- Naked Apron: One of Michiru's ideas for a photo shoot at the end of Episode 6.
- Nice Girl: Arashiko, so much so you'd wanna take her home with you too.
- Nice Guy: Despite his masochism, Taro's actually a do-good dude.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Tatsukichi in his Ojou persona.
- Oblivious to Love: Taro's not quite feeling the affection from anyone in his Unwanted Harem.
- Selective Obliviousness: He knows of his mother and sister's affection and wants no part of it, though.
- Oddly Visible Eyebrows
- Off-Model: Legs just don't bend that way.
- Older Than They Look
- Shizuka is Taro's older sister.
- Teen Genius, Noa.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Ominous chanting of some sort serves as Taro's Leitmotif when he's having powerful masochist moments.
- Once Per Episode: Mio trying some new torture method on Taro to "cure him" usually involves her dressing up, thanks to Michiru-nee-sensei, natch.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Episode 5's second half consists of an elaborate shounen action parody in which Taro foils a plan to turn the world into perverts using a Rider Belt and his own extraordinary perversion, which turns him into ero-Super Saiyan. Seriously.
- Overnight Age-Up: Noa has an aging potion that makes her stop looking like an grade schooler and start looking like a woman. Yukinojo does not respond well.
- Panty Shot: Completely averted. Even with such load of fanservice and ecchi, and even more "shotty" scenes, not a single one occurred to viewers. ... Until episode 12, that is. Mio saved it for Taro's Christmas present.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Mio and Taro while invading their rivals shop.
- Paper Fan of Doom: As if Mio's baseball bat isn't enough already...
- Pocky Kiss: Episode 12. Thanks to Mio's overcompetitiveness, she and Taro wind up accepting a challenge to this, much to their chagrin.
- Playing House: Noa roped Taro and Arashiko into this in episode 7.
- The Power of Love: Mio's date was a shot at de-M'ing Taro. Like most of the other tries, it fails.
- Punny Name: Sado, the Masochist (Sado-Masochism).
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Taro's pervert level.
- Rearrange the Song: The OP has two variations, "Hell side" (just Mio) and "Heaven side" (Mio and Arashiko). Both are used as openings.
- Recursive Crossdressing: Rina Sato voicing Tatsukichi.
- Running Gag: Every time Taro accidently touches Arashiko, she'll beat him up. Taro, being a masochist, enjoys every second of it.
- Sarashi: Arashiko in Episode 10.
- School Festival: Episode nine.
- School Nurse: Michiru Onigawara. And yet, it's Taro bringing Mio to the hospital when she goes down with fever.
- Sensei-chan: Quoth Mio Isurugi, "Michiru-nee".
- Shana Clone: Mio
- Shout-Out
- Yumi is a subtle nod to Kenshiro: she's a practitioner and successor to a martial art style that causes pain and pleasure to her opponents with a single finger, much like Hokuto Shinken. She even assumes his Tenha Kasattsu stance when she is about to punish the girlfriend beating loser Yoshioka at the end of Episode 3. She also has a tendency to use Kenshiro's high-pitched Bruce Lee style Kiai when she rapidly strike the pressure points of her enemies with her fingers. Finally, her surname "Mamiya" also happens to be the name of the love interest of Kenshiro's best friend Rei.
- Perhaps one to Eden of the East in the beginning of episode 4.
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Michiru: I pray for your success. |
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- In Episode 5, Mio dresses up as Louise with a wizard hat. The episode also features a Kamen Rider belt that turns the user into a Super Saiyan. Also, after all students in the school have been turned into perverts, there's a scene of two girls confessing their love for each other in a style nearly ripped straight off Mariasama ga Miteru.
- In the opening, figures of Manaka, Azusa, Miharu and Asuka can be seen. The first three share the same seiyuu as Mio.
- Episode 6 for Mio donning Sheryl's concert clothes.
- Episode 7 brings back the Super Saiyan Kamen Rider belt and Fist of the North Star.
- Episode 8 features Himura paraphrasing Raoh's Famous Last Words, Taro dressing up a la Tuxedo Mask, and Taro and Noa flirting by dropping Pretty Cure references at each other.
- The opening of Episode 9 has Hatsune Miku and Black Rock Shooter viewed from the back. Also, at the start of the episode, there's a very obvious color-swapped Miku holding an equally color-swapped leek, and a Ruri Dakimakura.
- Episode 10's second Eyecatch has the shop owner pose with a blue Bardiche, a microphone, and a guitar. Also, an unconscious Taro has a dream of Mio kicking him into the sky and screaming "Looks like I'm blasting off again!" before vanishing into A Twinkle in the Sky. And for some reason, the final scene bears some resemblance to Evangelion, of all things. Interesting...
- Episode 12 has the shop owner visiting the cake store, ordering cake for himself, and spare ribs for his Nozomu figure.
- Smashing Watermelons: Only the watermelon is Taro's head.
- Skinship Grope: Mio, or pretty much any cute girl who runs into Yumi and her godly massage techniques.
- Sound Only Knockout: Yoshioka when being punished by Yumi, accompanied by Psycho Strings.
- Split Personality: If Tatsukichi is called "beautiful", he slips into an Ojou-like personality that praises himself and damns everyone else. Especially Mio.
- Teen Genius: Noa
- Tiger Versus Dragon: Shows up in episode 10.
- There Are No Therapists
- Taro's unchecked masochism is the most obvious example; he seems to feel his best option lies in a school club rather than seeking professional help.
- A more serious case is that of Yuno. Her Attempted Rape left her so androphobic she can't even share a train car with them for fear of close contact, yet no mention of her getting professional counseling is ever made and she relies entirely on Mio and Taro to overcome her phobia (this is justified, however. See Values Dissonance in the YMMV tab).
- Third Person Person: Noa
- Title Drop: Episode One ends with Mio referring to Taro as an MM!
- Too Kinky to Torture: Taro. Though he has his limits. He may be a masochist, but he doesn't want to actually die.
- Tsundere: Mio is a type A. Arashiko is a type B.
- Twelve-Episode Anime
- Unmoving Pattern: In the ED.
- Unwanted Harem
- Taro so far has Mio, Arashiko, Noa, Tomoko and Shizuka.
- An in-series example In Episode 7 when they were playing house and everybody claimed to have a relationship with Taro.
- Verbal Tic: Noa, with her child-like "desu".
- Mio hypnotizes Taro into saying "hugetastic boobs".
- Weirdness Coupon: The most bizarre stuff happens whenever Noa gets involved.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Tatsukichi, all the way.
- Taro also pulls this twice. He was so convincingly feminine that the second time it happened, it was used and abused in a cafe to bring in male customers.
- Why Did It Have to Be Cats?: Mio's afraid of cats. Even cute little kittens. So much so in Episode 9 she broke down crying in Taro's arms after a bakeneko (monster cat) hologram spooks her out inside the Horror House.
- Wife-Basher Basher: Taro usually doesn't like to hurt people. However, upon finding out that Yuno's fear of men steams from being beaten by an abusive boyfriend Yoshioka who then spread rumors of her sleeping around for refusing his sexual advances, he storms to his boxing gym and, despite lacking any fighting skill and with words of inspiration from Mio, eventually knocks him out and ultimately leaves him at Yumi's mercy.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The colors of the main cast are as many as there are personal problems.
- Arashiko: medium purple
- Yumi: carnation pink
- Noa: jade green
- Mio: golden blond
- Michiru-sensei: indigo
- Tatsukichi: blond
- Taro: prussian blue
- Yukinojo: silver blue
- The unnamed shop owner: blond
- Zettai Ryouiki: Oh, wow... Mio and Noa have a lot in common!
- ↑ With the 10th ending on a Cliffhanger that will never be resolved, see Author Existence Failure below