First Impression – MM!

“Almost all characters have at least one mental problem.” Nice observation, Wikipedia.

This was meant to be a tag team post! Waaaaaaaaah! Our dear friend Ryuu has gone missing, so for today I’ll be handling this grand first impressions post of MM! Fall is officially in full swing (as I’m sure you can already tell) so it’s our job here at Metanorn to tell you what’s awesome, and what’s not so awesome! So, are we ready?

He may look normal…

From the get go, MM! doesn’t beat around the bush (No pun intended). We’re quickly thrust into Sado’s world, and learn that he’s a freakin’ intense masochist. If you didn’t already know this, you’re probably watching the wrong anime. He desperately wants to cure his condition so he can confess to the girl of his dreams. His best friend, Tatsukichi, suggests he goes to visit the ‘Second Volunteer Club’ or something rather, where they listen to students problems and try to help them. Think the Ootogi Bank, but you don’t really have to pay them back. I think.

Why does she seem so nice, yet so mean?

Sado goes to visit the club, where he meets Mio Isurugi, the head of the club. Despite their rather graceful first meeting, she turns out to be a bit of a bitch. After literally beating it out of him, Sado finally tells her that he’s an intense masochist, and tries to attack her. Strangely enough she agrees to help to cure him of his masochism. He goes about his day as usual, working part-time in a convenience store where he hopes to catch glimpses of his first love, today, however, she runs away like the speed of a girl running away, leaving Sado rather confused.

Sado get’s his mime on. Also, is it coincidence his name is Sado?

Returning to school, Mio (Maybe I should us Isurugi instead…), armed with a baseball bat and dressed in a maid outfit, starts round one of her therapy. Her reasoning being ‘If she almost kills him, he wont like it’. Funnily enough, it doesn’t work and he just gets sent to the infirmary where awkward conversations take place with Yuuno, and old friend we’ll no doubt learn more about later and the school nurse, Onigawara. After being saved by Isurugi, a strange and meaningful conversation takes place, where Sado is asked whether he would hate a friend if they didn’t tell them something. Purely hypothetical of course. Hypothetical. His honest answer is given and every seems happy about that hypothetical question. That was purely hypothetical.

That dudes got one hell of a slap.

Later that night while working (and after being raped by his mother and sister (seriously)), good ol’ girl of Sado’s dreams comes by, right up to him, about to speak. However, she can’t seem to find the words and runs off again, determined, Sado chases after her, not wanting to back down from his first love. He catches up and grabs her, only to bitch-slapped around the face. To his surprise, he isn’t turned on by the beating, and is amazed, wondering if it was the work of true love… then girl of his dreams opens her mouth. and confesses. Ta da! It’s actually Tatsukichi! He’s a cross-dresser and it turned out that the purely hypothetical question wasn’t actually hypothetical at all! Shock horror! Alas, Sado is all  gravy with his best mate dressing up as a girl, so they hug like real men and bond. And for some reason, Sado joins the club. I’m not quite sure why. Oh yeah, it’s an anime.

Cue Yaoi.

End Thoughts

“Shizuka is Taro Sado’s elder sister. She incestuously loves Taro.” Oh you, Wikipedia.

What’s this? Isurugi might be… NORMAL?!

Dude, that chicks a dude. Dude. Duuuuuuuude.

Unfortunately, I don’t think MM! is the kind of show I would like. For the first few minutes I thought it was similar to Dokuro-chan, then I thought it was something like Shuffle, then I thought it was To Love-Ru. It’s like the anime is going through a mid-life crisis and doesn’t know who it is. I guess I can blame that on some of the characters looks EXTREMELY similar to those from the shows I mentioned. The characters are also, not too special. While I can actually see myself watching the show, I can’t see myself waiting painstakingly waiting for an episode every week like I do with K-ON (Wait, it’s OVER D:), so it seems like something I would marathon. I don’t think I could stand Sado for too long.

In fact, Sado is my main gripe in the show. He’s actually just, well, creepy. Not much creeps me out, I’ll tell you that now. While some things make me flinch and be all like “Ew, that was weird, but okay, I’m all cool now.” (See ‘Ichi the Killer’, the nipple scene…), when Sado went all Super Maso Mode (Lol) it was kind creepy. That’s not to say the show wasn’t funny. There were a few good laughs, but strangely enough, when his friend turned out to be his first crush, I did I double take. It’s the first anime to surprise me in a while (I admit, I didn’t see it coming!), and that’s impressive.

Without a team mate here, it’s a little hard to bounce ideas around. What would Ryuu think of the series? I wonder if she’s M. That’s weird. I wont think about that. But like Wikipedia says, almost everyone has a ‘mental condition’. Even the ones that don’t seem to have them yet. We know that Tatsukichi is a cross-dresser (is that really a mental condition?), Isurugi has some sort of superiority comple (that’s obvious), Yuuno has androphobia (like Inami from Working!!), and I’m pretty sure the nurse will have something. I hope it’s not schizophrenia. Hopefully Ryuu will fill you in if this goes into episodics.

So in the preview… wait, what?! Yuuno is smiling? When she’s with Sado? But, she hates men! What’s going on? Wait. Maybe the nurse is actually psychic. She’s taken control of Yuuno’s body to fulfill her own desire, similar to those of the teacher from SYD. That’s just weird. I hope it’s something more normal than that.

About Hato-kun

I'm Hato, born and raised in glorious New Zealand and a self-proclaimed awesome person. I started writing here in July and I'm loving it so far! I'm Metanorn's go-to Moe Man (lol) and the games guru, so don't be shy to say hello!