Mx0

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Mx0 (Emu Times Zero) is about a hot-tempered boy named Taiga Kuzumi who has failed the entrance exam to Seinagi Private High School. With little memory of what had actually happened, he sets out to confront the girl who had burst out laughing at him during his interview, sure that she is to blame, only to be mistaken by a teacher for trying to sneak out instead of in. Turns out that Seinagi is actually a Wizarding School, and due to a complicated chain of events ending in said teacher being blown up, now everyone believes him to be an elite magic user--when he can't use magic at all!

Now Taiga has to put his wits to the test in order to keep up that cover, or both he and the teacher will be in very big trouble.

Tropes used in Mx0 include:
  • Accidental Pervert: Taiga many times, but the one that stand out the most is him trying to protect the girls from the other boys using magic to peep. Surprisingly he was caught trying to help and punished by the females.
    • However, that was because they saw him in the shower room. It's stated that they did find out all the facts and his name was cleared later on, so, a slight subversion here in that he never gained a reputation for it.
    • A little bit later after the student body knows him a bit better he expects to be punished for somehow ending up in the girls only swim time, but they just laugh and say it's OK because they know he didn't mean anything bad. It probable didn't hurt that he just saved like half a dozen girls from drowning though.
  • Action Girl:
    • Kuzumi Kokuha is a no brainer every appearance has her kicking somebody's ass usually Taiga's and someone else.
    • Mikuni, Hiragi's friend, unlike most other girls uses direct physical fighting methods.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Mizuki likes Taiga, but he is blind to her affections. Koishikawa likes Mizuki, but she disliked him even before she started to crush on Taiga. Lucy has a thing for Taiga, but he can't even fathom loving her or Mizuki because he is crazy for Hiragi. Who also has a thing for him. And then the series ends without settling any of the romantic subplots.
    • Subverted by Tsugawa and Megane they start dating midway through the series and stay together happily ever after to the best of our knowledge.
  • Anti-Magic: Taiga eventually trades in his fake magic card for one whose sole ability is to use up the points stored on it to create an anti-magic field. After sufficient training, Taiga is able to control the field's size, shape, and location around him.
  • The Archer: Daimon's specialty. And it's frightening.
  • Awesomeness By Analysis: Taiga manages to defeat several powerful mages by seeing their power and using their own limitations against them. During the Class matches he defeats two people, defeated one forced the other to retreat, only taking one injury because he knew exactly how to work around their power after seeing it once before, and he only used some twigs and two rocks.
  • Badass Normal: Taiga's older, shorter sister Kokuha. She makes Taiga look positively weak.
  • Badass Boast: Taiga uses this to avoid fights, and get out of performing magic in class. It has a decent success rate.

Taiga: "What is this? Your level isn't high enough for me to use magic. Since this is nothing, how about you go away and we can do this some other time?"
(Taiga's thoughts): Please do so!

  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Lucy the rest keep their clothes on.
  • Batman Gambit: Taiga uses a few of these along with his bluffs to get by. He would pretty much be Batman, except he uses leaves, sticks and rocks instead of state of the art gadgets.
    • The school principal is hinted to have some sort of gambit going on by making Taiga keep his MO instead of normal magic, but that is never resolved.
  • Beta Couple: Tsugawa and Megane: their classmates cannot forgive their happiness.
  • Berserk Button: Call Taiga's sister Kokuha "little". I dare you.
  • The Berserker: Koishikawa keeps running straight at a problem with more magic bullets. He knows it's a bad strategy but it's the one he likes.
  • Big Eater: Karusone Natsuko as seen in the Cultural Festival arc. Taiga only beats her at eating magically enlarged food by shrinking it in his mouth with M0.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: Koishikawa and Daimon
  • Blatant Lies: Taiga's modus operandi for why he does not use magic. His most common excuse is that he believes should only be used in an emergency.
  • Blood Knight: Koishikawa and Ise.
    • Ise gets better after having a fight with Taiga.
  • Boobs of Steel: Mikuni at least for their class.
  • Bromantic Foil: Ise Kaoru.
  • Butt Monkey: Because his whole class thinks that Taiga is invincible because of his magic skill, they use him to test out new spells and anything dangerous. It prompts him to hide from them a few times.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Taiga to Hiragi and vice versa. Mizuki to Taiga.
  • Casting a Shadow: Kagenuma a student in Taiga's class.
  • Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: Hiragi to Taiga early on during a Locked in a Room moment.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: The man behind the incident at the Culture Festival made his accomplices wear crosses in one way or another to be recognizable.
    • Also part of the normal school uniform.
  • Clark Kenting: A large part of the drama is Taiga trying to keep his reputation intact.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Lucy has shades of this.
  • Cool Chair: Taiga has one when he first transfers in. It just adds to his persona as the biggest Badass magic user in the school.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Lucy the mandrake.
  • Determinator: Taiga in general. Exemplified when he was in a spirit form he tried so hard to climb a vertical wall that he caused his real body to start bleeding. All so that he could gain a little more power, and make Hiragi's dream come true.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Lucy is continently absent during the Cultural festival when they were dealing with the bomb threat. Her Mandrake Network and her ability to inform the teachers in a completely anonymous way would have made things a lot easier for Taiga and team. Taiga lampshades this.
  • Distant Finale: Quite abruptly.
  • Does Not Like Men: Mizuki says this but she really only seems to dislike her Stalker with a Crush. Also there is no way that she at all in any way likes Taiga!
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: When the girls with the largest bust size use magic to make their boobs lighter and then pass out, Ise Kaoru, gets this trope thrown in his face when he starts to ogle. The boys get over their initial trepidation though...
  • Empathic Weapon: Nagai's hat Rocky.
  • Everyone Can See It: Everyone knows that Taiga and Hiragi love each other except them...
  • The Faceless:
    • Tokita Mako's face is either always hidden, or only her mouth and chin is seen. This is part of a joke that her chest is so big that one can tell who she is with just her chest alone.
    • Most of the Third-Year Magic Executive Committee members faces are not shown.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Taiga. Everybody thinks he has a Gold Plate and is capable of destroying the Home Ec room with one spell and defeating a teacher. Of course, he can't use magic period and has to bullshit everything.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Flying Broomstick: Just for racing during the Cultural Festival.
  • "Friend or Idol?" Decision: When Taiga passed the first level of the Black Plate exam, Lucy had used up almost all her magical life force to help save him. Otoya, the previous principal and examiner, told him he could revive Lucy but it would cost him passing the exam. Taiga accepts the deal instantly. Turns out Lucy would be just fine. Otoya only wanted to see how Taiga would react and if he would forget that others had helped him to this point.
  • Gag Boobs: As stated above, Tokita Mako.
  • Game Breaker: M0 in the world of magic. As it can erase any magic, it is described as "the strongest shield and the strongest halberd." When one learns to manipulate the shape of the M0 area of affect it becomes a very dangerous force.
  • Gang of Bullies: Taiga beats up one absent mindedly, beats one up to take out his frustration, and got kicked out of his first school for defeating another. Kid does not like bullies.
  • Gender Bender: Taiga Kuzumi after he was sprayed with a magic medicine called Lady Go.
  • Goal in Life: Both Hiragi and Taiga have the same goal: to obtain a gold-level plate before graduation so they can revive Hiragi's mother. Though Hiragi has no idea Taiga plans on using his wish at graduation for this in the event she fails.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Taiga's only form of offense.
  • Good with Numbers:
    • Hiragi shows this talent during the cultural festival. When solving a rather large logic and math puzzle game.
    • Then Daimon does the puzzle even faster with a bored look on his face.
    • Taiga on the other hand could not even grasp the concept.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. Taiga has to bust his ass and wits to keep up the illusion of being a genius wizard, as he has no magical skill at all.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Taiga's fight against an illusion of his sister in his second magical exam.
  • Hot-Blooded: Tsugawa and Taiga
  • Hot for Teacher: While it wasn't her teacher in particular, Kokuha does develop a crush on Hiiragi-sensei
  • Human Shield: Taiga uses a couple in the first chapter while fighting Ise.
  • It's Personal: Koishikawa finds out his crush likes Taiga.
  • Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: A magic student in the magic game specialized in warp magic. However, the process took a very long time and in the meantime,the two halves were in separate locations. Hilarity Ensued.
  • Inspector Javert: Vice-Principal Kagami despises any rule-breaker regardless of mitigating reasons. He starts an investigation of Taiga due to inconsistencies that could expose not just Taiga's unorthodox and rules-violating entry into school but also ruin Hiragi-sensei and the Principal.
  • Instant Runes: Izumo when using her Calligrapher's Soul ability
  • Invisibility: One of Hiragi's powers she can use it on herself or others.
  • I Will Definitely Protect You: Taiga says this to, who else, Hiragi.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Former Principal.
  • Lap Pillow: Taiga gets one from Lucy during an exam and she is ecstatic about it.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Taiga's memory of the entrance exam, the Lotus Eater Machine challenge, and what happens to students when the graduate, among other things.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Tsugawa is the fastest man in class F! No, really he uses a skateboard and is a fast a tough fighter. Although his magic messes up more often than not.
  • Little Miss Badass: Kuzumi Kokuha, a champion martial artist, she can kick Taiga's ass, in fact, the fact she used Taiga as a 'punching bag' for so long is the reason he is so tough now.
  • Locked in a Room: Taiga and Hiragi early on to make them work past Taiga holding the Idiot Ball a few chapter before.
  • Loophole Abuse: In the Lotus Eater Machine test mentioned below after Taiga and the other two that passed pull Ise Kaoru and Hiragi out of theirs stating that there is no rule that says they cannot.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Part of the magic exams requires you to leave a Lotus Eater Machine room within 10 minutes. If you do, you pass that portion but lose your memories of inside the room. If you don't, you keep your memories but fail.
  • Lovable Coward: Taiga in many aspects, he does everything he can to get out of an actual fight so that he can stay in one piece and keep his reputation. He can and will fight when he has too, but bluffing, running, and letting his classmates fight for him are his favorite tactics. This only applies to magic fights, any other threat he is the first person running in the most dangerous direction.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Ise Kaoru. Not to the girls in the school at least. They hate him.
  • Love Potion: Proving that he was under the influence of one is how Taiga and Mizuki become acquainted.
  • Made of Iron: Taiga goes though the meat grinder pretty much every magical competition because he is sent though the most dangerous and difficult parts, and he has no magic, but he always manages to keep right on going no matter how damaged he gets.
  • Master of Illusion: Hiragi's is a rare heroic example. Although master is debatable.
  • Meaningful Name: Kagenuma uses shadows as his magic. Kage means shadow.
  • Mega Manning: Later in the story, Taiga gets a black card that allows him to store one spell
  • The Messiah: Taiga is this to the mandrake plants. Considering everyone else grinds them up to use in potions is not all that strange.
  • Moment Killer: Hiragi-sensei is one when he pulls Taiga away in a whirlwind fashion as his daughter was about to confess her real feelings.
  • Naughty Tentacles: Mizuki encounters some in the cave where Lucy is from.
  • Oblivious to Love: Hiragi and Taiga respectively and Taiga to Mizuki. Ise Kaoru even notes the last one.
  • Older Than They Look: Kuzumi Kokuha, Taiga's older sister, she is 19 years old but looks more like a 10 year old.
  • Old Master:
  • One-Liner: Hilariously parodied with Taiga, who's forced to come up with increasingly sappy repartees to cover up for his lack of magical talent. Of course, the excuses never fail to impress his audience.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Otoya Hanasaki possesses Taiga's body while the later is working on an upgrade of his plate. While Taiga cannot use magic, the ghost possessing him still has access to his magic he had in life. Hilarity Ensues
  • Parental Abandonment: The only person we ever see in Taiga's family is his abusive older sister Kokuha. Do they never question why he come home beaten up from school just about every day?
    • While the family is put far in the background, we do know they exist. When Taiga is sent back in time to fix his entrance interview his mother asks his sister to bring his entrance folder to him.
  • People Puppets: One of Michiyo Inui's powers.
  • Pixellation: Parodied in that a special juice was splashed around which causes the object splashed to appear pixellated, often leading to many counts of its Not What It Looks Like.
  • Power Levels: The strength of a mage can be judged fairly well by the color of their plate. The strongest levels are Gold, Ruthenium, and likely Platinum. A full list can be found on the other wiki.
  • Pungeon Master: Michiyo Inui does this because Hiragi finds puns uncontrollably hilarious.
  • The Quiet One: Kagenuma a student in Taiga's class. Even when he does speak no one listens to him.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Lucy while it's only maybe 8 inches long she's about 6 inches tall. So we get the effect.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The Principal who is open to finding unique solutions to problems, even if they aren't exactly within the rules.
  • The Resenter: Matsuda hates the Student Committee for not accepting his membership.
  • The Reveal: Tokita Mako's face is shown in the final chapter.
  • The Rival: Daimon and Taiga are this to each other.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Taiga had one between the first and second chapter. A student at his old school was being bullied, so he attacked 12 upper classmen in retaliation. It's also why he was even able to switch into Seinagi.
    • He also had one after Daimon insulted and attacked Hiragi in the Class Matches. He used MO for the first and only time that match because of it.
  • Secret Keeper:
    • Eventually Mizuki and Hiragi learn of Lucy. They had been wondering why he said that name so much when he was alone...
    • Also Taiga, Hiiragi-sensei ,and the Principal all keep the secret of how Taiga became a student.
    • Lucy is a Secret Keeper of many of Taiga's secrets.
  • Shout-Out: Niigaki-sensei's smoke magic refers to Super Mario Bros.
  • Smart People Play Chess:
    • In the Principal's office, we have seen Principal Hanasaki playing against Hiragi-sensei. Hiragi-sensie almost always won.
    • In the Cultural Festival Arc, bombs have been planted around the campus and the bomber says the Magic Executive Committee must win against his people to get hints to where the bombs are located. One of the challenges is playing shogi. Hiragi, as she is Kuzumi's assistant, plays this challenge. She not only beats Daimon but thinks he' the bomber's ally, he doesn't even realize her next opponent is the one she has to look for and so plays him without any hesitation.
  • Spider Sense: Taiga has a simple version of this because of living with his sister Kokuha.
  • Stable Time Loop: The events surrounding Taiga's entrance exam.
  • Stranger in a Strange School
  • Tap on the Head: Happens a few times and a one shot villain has a KO hammer that has this ability.
  • Training from Hell: Kokuha using Taiga as her punching bag as he was growing up may have actually been this.
  • Tsundere: Mizuki plays this as straight as she possible can.
  • Vancian Magic: How the Black Plates work.
  • Waif Fu: Kuzumi Kokuha is a master of this.
  • Warrior Therapist: Taiga pulls this in his fight with Ise and in the process saved his friendship with Nagai. Taiga was happy to get out of that fight with as few injuries as he did, and surprised it worked.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Hiragi can turn herself invisible with her powers, but when Taiga had to face her once he kept yelling bad puns to make her laugh and give away her position.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Daimon openly insults Hiragi's illusion magic as it has no offensive powers.
    • Heart Is an Awesome Power/Shut UP, Hannibal: When Kuzumi defeats Daimon, despite the latter's powerful offensive magic, Kuzumi points out when Daimon faced against Higari-looking-like-Kuzumi, she marked his King's crown with the last of her magic and that is what allowed Kuzumi to track him even in the dense forest.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Students and teachers alike see no problem with grinding up fully sentient Mandrakes, after all even if they are mentally the same as humans and feel love and pain just as we do they are just ugly plants if you take away their illusion magic.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: Taiga only has his anti magic supernatural ability wise.
    • Ise Kaoru in class F can only makes things magnetic, but after Taiga gave him some ideas on how to use it he became quite good with it.
  • Worthy Opponent: Daimon, after the Magic Class Battle, considers both Kuzumi and Hiragi such people.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: Taiga defeats one of the card thieves by suplexing him into his own magic hammer.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Taiga is sent back in time to fix his entrance exam so he becomes a real student. However, circumstances happen so he ends up saying the same thing the first time, making Hiragi laugh at him once more and fueling his drive to get to know her.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: On the school uniforms.
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