MM!

Taro Sado is a high school student who lives his day to day life with a big secret—he's a masochist! Encouraged by his cross-dressing best friend Tatsukichi Hayama, Taro asks the Second Voluntary Club for help with his problem and ends up joining the club after they vow to "fix" him.

However, it turns out that all of the members of the club have some serious issues. The club leader Mio Isurugi is a self-designated god who is afraid of cats, Arashiko Yuuno has a severe fear of men, and the club advisor Michiru Onigawara is a sadist who enjoys making people cosplay.

Together with other wacky characters such as Yumi Mamiya, a talented masseuse and Yuuno's best friend, and Noa Hiiragi, the president of the invention club, they all learn about the importance of acceptance and kindness.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Isurugi, Mio Main

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Sado, Tarou Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Yuuno, Arashiko Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Hiiragi, Noa Supporting

Yahagi, Sayuri Japanese

Hayama, Tatsukichi Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Onigawara, Michiru Supporting

Tanaka, Rie Japanese

Sado, Tomoko Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Himura, Yukinojou Supporting

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Mamiya, Yumi Supporting

Gibu, Yuuko Japanese

Sado, Nanaha Supporting

Chino, Takatoshi Producer

Sasao, Akimasa Producer

Nagasawa, Tsuyoshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Takadera, Takeshi Sound Director

Reviews

Nov 1, 2010

OdysseusUlysses

Recommended

There are many animes out there that have perverted characters in them, in fact most do, but animes that focus completely on one characters perversion are few and far between. Most are terrible porn like crap, but some like MM manage to do all that is necessary to be respected in this genre, namely be funny and have good characters.

-Story-
The story follows Tarou who on the surface seems like a normal high school guy but in actual fact he's got a problem, he’s a hard core masochist (he experiences sexual pleasure from pain for those who didn’t know).Trouble is he wants to be ... normal, so on the advice of a friend he seeks help from a club called the 2nd Voluntary club. Were the leader of the club is a sadistic, egotistic girl who accepts the challenge of ridding Tarou of his masochism…
While this story line is far from revolutionary it’s still something that I’ve never came across before, which makes it refreshing to know there’s still new ideas out there. It’s funny as hell watching Tarou get tortured or put in embarrassing situations. The idea of characters from anime being S or M has been around for a long time but this is the first show I’ve seen to make it the central theme of the story and it works great with plenty of great comedy and romance moments

-Characters-
The characters of this show are great and have more depth than you would first expect, while most seem cliché this actually make the show that much funnier as it’s great to see your stereotypical girls thrown into the world of S and M. Of course the backbone of this show is the strange relationship between Tarou (masochist) and Mio (sadist) which is no surprise but there is some good side characters in this show too, like Yuno Arashiko a girl with a terrible fear of men but she is able to like Tarou because his masochism makes so that he is very unlikely to hurt her. And another sadist (the school nurse) and Taros friend who i can’t say much about or id spoil too much.
-Enjoyment-
As this anime is mostly a comedy there's quite a lot of jokes in it naturally. Most are S and M jokes but thankfully there's little to no echhi in this anime. The rest of the comedy is at the expense of Taro as he gets his gets violently beaten by women (mostly Mio) which does little to cure his problem, rather it aggravates it. The humour won’t appeal to everyone but i think it’s quite good and better than many other animes of this type out there at the moment.

-Art-
The art work is good, clean, clear but nothing that you wouldn't expect in this day and age but it helps make the show and its endless stock of jokes that much better.

-Overall-
Overall I greatly enjoy watching this anime and will continue to watch it to the end, the story’s refreshing , the humour is great, the characters are interesting, the arts good and overall it’s fun to watch. . Any fans of S&M will really love this anime as it’s filled it so if you’re looking for something funny and not too serious then this is perfect for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 20, 2010

Detective

Mixed Feelings

If you're looking for more of the same, then you're in luck. MM!, wittily titled after the protagonists masochism fetish, takes every character design and comedic gag as by the book as possible, for the absolute level of comfort viewing. MM! is enjoyable for what it is, a harem anime centered around a club that helps people, but it doesn't strive to go beyond it's original premise and ultimately that is where it falls short. Note that the numerical value I have awarded this anime with does not mean anywhere near as much as what I've said textually about it.

Story: 5/10
The story begins with Sado ... having an uncontrollable urge to yell in joy about being abused by women. He seeks help by going to a certain club led by a self-proclaimed God named Mio. He later is introduced to an androphobic girl, a school nurse, crazy inventor, and even discovers his best friend enjoys cross-dressing. That's about as how deeply as the plot goes - you've seen all of this before no doubt. MM! is like the foundation of a house that doesn't get built on. It doesn't provide anything more than a mindless viewing. Though I enjoyed a fair portion of the story about Yuno, even her story was riddled with cliche and lacked the depth other androphobic females have had in the past. I just felt let down after a very interesting exposition with nothing to support it thereafter. I had hopes Sado's masochism would be psychologically analyzed, possibly a reason why he enjoys being abused so much, but I was hoping for too much. The comedy in MM! was a turn-off for me. The anime is riddled with over-referenced anime and the physical abuse humor wears off by about the second episode. In short, MM! is not a show you watch for plot nor is it a show you watch for humor. I'm unsure why you watch it then.

Art: 6/10
Harem's never let me down - every female had different color hair! Sadly though, the creativity doesn't extend further into the show. The art design looks like a sloppily made Kanokon or Ladies vs Butlers with a huge gloss effect applied. There are numerous moments of re-used animation, ridiculous unattractive facial distortion, and awkward movements. As for the backgrounds, nothing to complain about for a school anime, but once again nothing that sets it apart.

Sound: 8/10
A saving grace in my opinion. I enjoyed Ayana Taketatsu (Azusa Nakano from K-ON!) as Mio, and at first I was a little worried on how I'd feel about her voicing a dirty-mouthed blonde girl but there was no reason for fretting. Her voice was the funniest thing in the anime. The OP "Help!!" was great in both versions of it being sung. The ED was also pleasant to my ears but it was nothing too notable.

Character: 5/10
Sado - likes being hit by women
Mio - likes hitting Sado, and her excuse is that by hurting him a lot he will be cured of his masochistic illness
Yuno - like Inari from Working! but less cute and less believable as a character
Noa - loli who invents things that usually end up with a Dragon Ball reference (frustrating amounts of them)
The rest - characters that a harem anime would most likely have in it

I should be grateful that at least one character had decent development in this anime, because expecting any development from a harem anime is silly to begin with. The characters were all good enough, but once again they were weak and for the most part unlikable. Between all the fists flying in this anime (used as tools of perversion for Sado) and the ridiculous plot development (Noa tries to make all men in the world perverted at one point - this is not an anime to take seriously) it was hard to really make room for characters I guess.

Enjoyment: 5/10
I watched an episode of MM! a week, and then it ended. I will undoubtedly delete this anime off my computer and move along with the next anime Xebec has to offer. MM! did nothing but consume my time each week without instilling any feelings for the anime. Of course as harem standards go, MM! is not poor - it has a decent amount of fanservice and the protagonist isn't an asshole. That in and of itself is enough to make it passable, but there are harem anime that are at least more interesting out there.

Overall: 5/10
Unless you're new to anime MM! won't spark more than a passing glance. The phrase holds true - once you've seen one harem anime, you've seen them all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 22, 2015

ratchet573

Not Recommended

MM! is the harrowing story of a man plagued by masochism who attempts to overcome his love of pain through the help of a girl two years older who runs a club that grants wishes. Together with this lovely female companion he embarks on an epic quest through the streets of Tokyo in an attempt to cure himself. Along the way he meets a girl who has a severe dislike for men and hits any man who touches her and they fall in love. It both touches your heart and warms your body with its realistic portrayals of masochism, androphobia, and human relationships.

No, I’m just ... screwing with you. You can only wish for an anime that good when watching this giant pile of mediocre donkey droppings. You may notice how lately I’ve been reviewing romantic comedies in the small hope I’ll find something with a decent romance, funny comedy, and likeable characters. But I’ve been failing miserably.

MM! is a typically boring, rarely funny, and overly cliché anime with one redeeming characteristic. It’s kind of like Baka and Test, but not the funny first season. More like the drab, underwhelming second season.

MM! has a fairly basic make-up. A guy named Tarou Sado (Teeheehee, sadomasochism) is a total masochist and gets off to when girls beat him up and violently attempt to kill him. To cure this he goes to the Second Volunteer Club where he meets a tiny, feisty girl named Mio Isurugi. He also reacquaints himself with the girl who originally started his masochistic ways, Arashiko Yuuno. She has androphobia and beats on men who touch her, due to a near rape by a male student in her middle school years. I likened her to Lisbeth Salander, though a much, much, much more shallow version. There’s also a cross dressing friend and a loli inventor girl with no friends. But that’s not too important.

What’s more important is how Mio goes about attempting to cure Tarou’s masochism. This is the major problem with the whole show for me. We see that Tarou, unlike real people, does not have a limit to how much pain he can take. He enjoys his genitals being thoroughly destroyed, he enjoys his face getting rearranged, he enjoys eating bad food made by a girl. This guy must be like Superman or something, because he takes more pain than anyone should possibly be able to. And Mio doesn’t appear to understand that he likes it, and I guess she thinks she will eventually get him to reach a limit or something? She continually beats him and does terrible things to him but he enjoys it all. So it’s not working, maybe you should try something else?

I mean, she does. We have the classic hypnotism episode that goes in directions I wish it hadn’t. Maybe I’m just not used to crossdressing/gay humor. But I didn’t find it funny as much as I did disturbing.

So is there really a story? Can I stop this long tirade here and quit with the complaining? NO! There are two rather random episodes. One introduces the obligatory loli character, Noa. She’s an inventor and has no friends. So, she decides to invent a machine that will turn everyone in the world into perverts.

…
….

On top of that being idiotic and not even funny (maybe when I was fourteen I would have laughed my ass off but at this point in my life I find that to just be a lame excuse for a laugh) it turns into some sort of Kamen Rider/Dragon Ball Z referencing fight that is ridiculous. I know it’s a cartoon, and I need to suspend my belief in reality, but it’s just so inconsistent with the rest of the show. The episode felt like it didn’t belong. It came out of nowhere, it did nothing but introduce our little inventor, and it wasn’t funny.

The problem with pretty much every episode minus maybe two or three is that it has no far-reaching consequences, does nothing to progress the story or build the characters, and this isn’t a straight up comedy. We’ve seen before that you can mix a good plot with good characters and some comedy elements. The problem here is that whatever romance is developing is undefined. Especially toward the end when you wonder whether there is a love triangle going on or Tarou likes only one girl.

I complained about this with Baka and Test and will do it here too. DEFINE THE ROMANCE! The last episode wasn’t even a good last episode, it felt like it belonged mid-way through the series. The episode before that was the only time anyone came out with their true feelings and Tarou forgets about it before he can act upon this. Thus, we’re left with what feels like an incomplete anime. Maybe they were expecting a second season?

And yes, I know it’s based off of a light novel series. But the least that we can get is a clear ending. Just admitting feelings is all I ask. It is not a romantic comedy if there is not a romance developed and defined at the end.

Now that I’ve raged over nothing, let’s talk about the animation.

It’s good. Characters and backgrounds are colorful. I especially liked the girls school uniform, it was purty. As far as smoothness goes, it’s alright in that respect. Otherwise not much to complain about.

Sound? Well, the opening is pretty bad. Never have I heard truer words in an opening theme song than “Oh my God is Jesus Christ”. Why do the Japanese try to speak English and fail miserably? It’s like the song from Clannad, just listening to the lyrics is laughable. I mean, they make more sense than the lyrics to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, but are still awful. The ending song is not bad as much as mediocre. Music during the show is once again mediocre. Nothing that evokes emotions or you want to put on your iPod. Character’s voices are all lovely.

And while on the subject of characters, they are all fairly underdeveloped and boring. Tarou is nothing more than an oblivious teenage guy with an issue that needs to be fixed. He doesn’t seem to have any emotions besides pleasure and fear, though sometimes he does exhibit some sentimentality that could have developed his character if there had been more moments like it. Mio is like a combination of Haruhi Suzumiya and Taiga Aisaka. She believes herself a god and is a feisty little high schooler. Yuuno is the only character of any worth, though not much. She has a defined background and a reason for being the way she is, and she is the only character that seems to exhibit any kind of emotions.

All the minor characters fit their roles as either: A.)Useless or B.) Useless but for fan service. Michiru the photographer/nurse, Noa, Tarou’s mom and sister. They all seem to just be there for fan service and maybe to create some stupid plot device. One of these is the fact that Tarou’s mom and sister are fighting over Tarou because they both love him in a creepy way. Now, the sister thing I’ve kind of gotten used to, it seems to be used in comedies a lot. But the mom wanting to marry her own son? What? What about Tarou’s father? Maybe that could have used some explaining.

The only character I found to be funny was Tarou’s manager at the convenience store. He loves his body pillow and at one point has an action figure he carries around and asks what he should buy. That was funny for some sort of psychotic reason. Otherwise, the characters are all cardboard cut outs and unexciting.

I wanted to like MM!. I wanted to like Mio, who I found to be absolutely adorable. I wanted to laugh and revel in the sheer craziness. But I couldn’t. Or more precisely, I rarely could. MM! has so many conventional plot devices (club goes out to do something), characters (Mio, Noa), and settings (the obligatory beach and school festival episodes) that it just feels like it stitched together other anime in a caricature of what a romantic comedy should be.

MM!’s only redeeming factor is that it has pretty animation.

Overall, if I had the choice between ripping out my eyeballs with serrated spoons coated in poison while simultaneously being burned alive, and watching MM!, I’d probably tentatively choose watching MM!. But if I did not have to choose in such extreme circumstances, then I would not watch MM!. It’s mediocrity at its absolute finest.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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