MM! [Light Novel]

[serenade_beta]

MM!
For some reason, I can't post "MM" without it changing to "Mm"...

Light novel series from MF Bunko J.
Currently 3 volumes out with volume 4 to come out soon.

Author: Akinari Matsuno
Illustrator: QP:flapper

Spoiler for covers:

I only learned of the existence of this series when it was falsely announced to have an anime adaption, but it turned out to be a nice read. Not all that special, but a nice read. Oh, and I love the illustrations.

The basic plot set-up is... let's see...:

One day in middle school, a girl came into the classroom and slapped Sado Tarou after telling him to die, the protagonist of the series. At that moment, he awakened to masochism. The fact that there were plenty of classmates still in the classroom really sucked and, of course, was outcasted after that event.
Yes, Tarou has masochistic body constitution that awaken whenever he is hit, cursed at, etc. etc. by females (only females, does not happen with men). Of course, he doesn't like this and he normally isn't a masochist, but he sadly has that side to him because of a rather... unfortunate reason...
Anyways, time-skip to high school (first year). Tarou has found a girl he likes and wants to confess to her. But he worries that if his M side awakens around her, she'll get creeped out. So he asks his friend, Tatsukichi, for help. Tatsukichi suggests the 2nd Volunteer Club.
Without going too much into detail, Tarou is forced to join the 2nd Volunteer Club after the president, Mio, decided to figure out a way to fix his body.


Without going too much into detail or spoiling too much, characters:

Spoiler for Volume 1 (first appearance):

Sado Tarou - Protagonist and has a masochistic body constitution. Was horribly outcasted after his little "show" in middle school. Wants to confess to "Shihori-hime". Works part-time at a convenience store, where Shihori-hime walks by everyday at around the same time.

Isurugi Mio - President of the 2nd Volunteer Club. Calls herself "god"... Very pretty, but tends to act sadistically. Of course, rather than being a sadist, it's more simply like she tends to resort to violent solutions. Athletically adept (unfortunately for Tarou, who tends to be on the receiving end of her attacks), but intelligence... not so much. Protective of Arashiko.
There seems to be a reason for the way she acts... <--still no revelation in 3 volumes...

Yuuno Arashiko - The person that slapped Tarou in middle school. Best friends with Yumi.
Has a horrible case of androphobia and hits men when they touch her. Often late or absent to school.

Hayama Tatsukichi - Tarou's best friend. He was the only one that stayed by Tarou's side during middle school after that slapping/M event and the main reason Tarou managed to make it to the end of the year.
Once dated Mamiya Yumi, but broke up for some reason.

Onigawara Michiru - Nurse working in the infirmary of Tarou's school. Tends to show no emotion and likes dressing cute girls up in outfits. Prefers to be called by her first name, since her last name sounds scary.

Sado Shizuka - College student and Tarou's older sister; Has a brother complex and wants to marry him and do other stuff with him...
Looks a lot younger than she is... kinda loli-ish in that way.

Sado Tomoko - Tarou's mother. Shizuka's love rival for... yes... Tarou.

Shihori-hime - Tarou's first love. He knows nothing about her, except that she passes by the convenience store that he works at around the same time everyday.

Doumyouji - Despite having very good looks, he is a hardcore otaku who loves 2-D characters far more than 3-D.

Spoiler for Volume 2 (first appearance):

Hanahira Mii - A student in the Cooking Club at Tarou and Tatsukichi's school. Very rich and thinks she can get anything she wants with money (that she carries around by the bunch) and constant tries to bribe people. Knows Tatsukichi and wants revenge on Mio because of a past event.

Spoiler for Volume 3 (first appearance):

Mamiya Yumi - Best friend of Arashiko's and Tatsukichi's ex-girlfriend. Moved away and goes to an all-girl's school now.
An expert of her family's massage techniques and anyone massaged by her will end up feeling very good and lose their ability to think straight.
In a way, tends to be a coward and use rather underhanded tactics.
Has a habit of massaging people, especially cute girls, and tends to get very excited while doing it.

Spoiler for Volume 4 (first appearance):

Ayasegawa Kirino - Leader of the Mio-sama Fan Club. She has a collected personality and is considerably good at acting. As the leader of the Mio-sama Fan Club, she considers Mio to be a perfect being...
Meganekko.

Katagiri Shiho - Member of MFC, yet at the same time, states she has no attraction or love for Mio at all and doesn't mind talking down or hurting Mio. Almost always has a calm and collected expression, and practices Aikido.
Student Council President.

Spoiler for Volume 5 (first appearance):

Hiiragi Noa - Genius with 200+IQ. Head of the invention club, and is a famous troublemaker around the school (Mio-level). Loli character, with both a loli body and a child's way of speaking.

Himura Yukinojyou - Lolicon assisting Noa. Also seems to carry pictures of young girls with him...

[technomo12]

um is this a manga or light novel???

[ac3y]

According to OP, light novel.

[NeoSam]

I got hyped up about this when I falsely announced an anime adaptation, at that time I read lots of people's comments about the light novel series, and got really excited >.< guh I wish for an anime adaptation >.<

Anyway there's a different MF Bunko J light novel series that's getting animated: Kanokon

[serenade_beta]

I hope this gets animated someday (in the near future)...

Spoiler for volume 4 thoughts:

Half-half, I guess.

The first half of the volume was very funny.
Because of the incoming play, he and the 2nd Volunteer Club takes drastic measures and uses hypnosis on him to suppress his masochism. Unfortunately, his suppressed pervasiveness ends up taking on different forms like exhibitionism or lolicon-ism.
In the end, they gave up and settled with "gay" until the festival and play was over.
So Tarou ends up loving Tatsukichi, which bothers Tatsukichi and Yumi...
And the play turned into a mess (funny way) when Tarou just rushed onto the stage and dived at Tatsukichi, and Yumi comes along but gets thrown into the crowd by Tarou, and everything just gets messed up.
In the end, thanks to Kirino whipping Tarou a lot with a whip, he snaps back into masochism.

The second half... was good when they tried to be funny, but the drama was at the "sudden development!" level, when every new character this volume pops up one after another (just the two with chara-designs).
The part where Tomoko and Shizuka try to enter the Miss Contest was funny, and Mio's "weak" side was cute too.
Then we have the drama... Where Kirino reveals she is the head of MFC (Mio-sama Fan Club) and they kidnap him with the help of chloroform. Then Shiho pops up from the club and states she plans to turn Tarou into a "bloody festival". Then she uses Aikido to counter Mio's punches at her and talks down on Mio, saying she isn't God and is only worth something on the outside and her inside is hollow (somewhat true, besides the hollow part...).
She gives up for the day after Mio manages to get a hit on her thanks to Tarou, but this just means she will be back...

Of course, the volume has to end with Tarou getting beat up by Arashiko and Mio.

Mii also makes a cameo appearance, when she chases cross-dressed Tatsukichi off the Miss Contest Stage...

The last half of the volume was definitely Mio-centered and was for developing her. It worked to an extent, but nothing was told about her past, which definitely has something important explaining her current personality. Shiho might even know about it. Mah, guess that will have to come in a later volume...
Arashiko takes a backseat this volume, but she shows clear jealousy through the volume when it was Tarou x Tatsukichi and Tarou x Mio.

[Matt122005]

Hmm、wonder if anybody whos not involved in translating a novel right now would like to translate this series and add it to baka-tsuki as an ongoing project. The novels look very awesome.

-Matt

[DeotoxSlayer]

Main character's a Masochist, he's in love wiht a girl that we know nothing about, his Sister's in love with him, and His mom is also in love with him. This sound...ver interesting

[serenade_beta]

Congratulations, Akinari Matsuno-sensei! MM gets a manga adaption in Comic Alive!
If the art in the manga is this ("abnormal school love comedy" *laugh*) or like the sample at the back of vol.5, then I have nothing to worry about.
Now the only thing left is a real anime adaption!
--

Mm... I wonder if it's because the novels I've read recently didn't really have any moe art, but I moe-ed a lot over volume 5's illustrations...
Here are some illustrations from the past 4 volumes (couldn't find scans of vol.5 except 1... also, for some reason, the scans missed some pictures...):

Spoiler for illustrations:

Spoiler for volume1:

Spoiler for volume2:

Spoiler for volume3:

Spoiler for volume4:

Spoiler for One color illustration from vol.5:

QP:flapper's illustrations really are great.
--

Spoiler for vol.5 thoughts:

Fuu... As I thought, this really is an entertaining novel. The very last chapter on Mii was... whatever-ish. Though Yumi somehow clinging onto a helicopter was...

I wonder if Tarou's flashback to his father is going to be important later on. Couldn't get very serious though, when his father told him not to lose to masochism.

Mio... complete tsundere now...? Except that as a side-effect, she goes S (actual person doesn't even realize she's S) on Tarou more than ever. Iyah, as cute as ever. And she even gets plenty of illustrations on the back of the cover.

Yuuno gets a good chapter to herself, but it's been obvious that she likes Tarou for a while now.
Speaking of which, it's a bit unfortunate that her confession was "reseted" during the chapter where Tarou got amnesia.
Speaking of that chapter, Shizuka and Tomoko need to restrain themselves...

The chapter with the new characters...
At first, I was a bit skeptical over it because the novel seemed to have gone on a rampage into some strange territory with hentai power or hentai energy... But it turned out to be a great(?) story, and hilarious as well.
And, for better or for worse, yet another girl has fallen in love with Tarou. That makes five now.
The part where Tarou used the power of perverts around the world strangely reminded me of Inukami. *shock*
Lolicon is scary... Super lolicon. It can't be MM without a pervert appearing...

Hmm、wonder if anybody whos not involved in translating a novel right now would like to translate this series and add it to baka-tsuki as an ongoing project.

Complete agreement. Maybe someone should make a thread in the requesting section of baka-tsuki's forum...

[Sterling01]

I just picked up Vol 1 today and for what presents it self as it's pretty good

[Castle]

Are there English translations of this light novel available, either online or dead-tree versions?

thanks

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Castle

Are there English translations of this light novel available, either online or dead-tree versions?

thanks

No, there are none, unfortunately.

[frubam]

reading the descriptions vol1 spoils, I'm reminded of M_to_N_no_Shouzou, which isn't half bad itself.

[Matt122005]

Someone should really translate this series. It looks like a really interesting comedy.

I was at my local japanese bookstore and saw a copy of one of these there USED. I didnt get it though cause it was later on in the series. But still, I'd really like to read it.

-Matt

PS. Oh well, guess its a good thing I'm learning Japanese. lol

[serenade_beta]

The Drama CD's information:

http://www.edge-records.jp/title/mm/

Release Date: 3/24/2010

Cast:
Sado Tarou : Suzuki Chihiro (Luke from TOA, Hanzou from Sumomomo momomo, etc.)
Isurugi Mio : Ishiguro Chihiro (Not really any major roles, JP wiki link)
Yuuno Arashiko : Horie Yui (Naru from Love Hina, Siesta from Zero no Tsukaima, etc.)
Onigawara Michiru : Kuwashima Houko (The person whose characters always seem to be dying)
Sado Shizuka : Nonaka Aoi (Fuuko from Clannad, Kafuka from Zetsubou Sensei, etc.)
Sado Tomoko : Hisakawa Aya (Faruko from AIR, Minamo from Azumanga Daioh, etc.)


Well... At least Mio didn't turn out to be Kugimiya, which I felt was really likely to happen. Though I don't really know this Ishiguro Chihiro...

[serenade_beta]

http://www.edge-records.jp/title/mm/sample/mm_cm01.php

CM/Voice sample
Oh? Mio's voice isn't bad at all...

There is going to be a big announcement in March...
Finally anime?!

[Darknemo2000]

Who is the main girl? Mio (I am guessing the blonde) or that other girl? Because so far looking at the illustrations gets me impression that there are more cover illustrations of that blue/violet/purple whatever the colour shoulder length hair girl than Mio.

[kuroishinigami]

light novel already on volume 8 XD. no more spoiler on this series? this seems pretty interesting, though right now I have too many light novel that I haven't read so I have to pass on this one for now ><

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Darknemo2000

Who is the main girl? Mio (I am guessing the blonde) or that other girl? Because so far looking at the illustrations gets me impression that there are more cover illustrations of that blue/violet/purple whatever the colour shoulder length hair girl than Mio.

Double main; I don't think one of the girls is more "main" than the other... supposedly.
Though maybe Mio more than Yuuno... Especially, popularity.

Originally Posted by kuroishinigami

light novel already on volume 8 XD. no more spoiler on this series?

Me: Sorry, time and motivation got...
2nd Me: You're halfhearted as always...
Me: (´・ω・｀)

Pretty much just common love-comedy stuff in different situations. Not all that many major developments...
Well, recently, one...

Spoiler for recent volume (8)... I think:

Tarou is now going out with Yuuno.

Mio-sama... (´・ω・｀)

Volume 7 was, in a bad meaning, chaos...
The others were the usual level of interesting-ness.

Anyways, more illustrations:

Spoiler for volume5:

Spoiler for volume 6:

Spoiler for volume 7:

Spoiler for volume 8:

Spoiler for Gaiden:

Spoiler for Volume 9 cover:

[Darknemo2000]

Mio is a tsundere so its a given that she will be more popular. Its a rare for a tsundere who is one of the mains to not be popular.

[Lummie]

I hope it gets an anime because it seems kinda interesting, still wondering about who is who in those illustrations like Darknemo.