MM! – 12 (Final)

Episode 12 Final –  A Christmas Wish – クリスマスの願いごと (Kurisumasu no Negaigoto)

This episode was standard for the most part, but the little curveball at the very end really threw me off. That being said, Xebec did a rather decent job with wrapping up the story in a good manner, bringing us a surprisingly satisfying conclusion to MM. Based on the preview from last week, I had expected this episode to have healthy amounts of fanservice, random gags, and Tarou-centric jokes, which were all in this episode as expected. The more serious twist at the end involving Mio’s seldomly celebrated birthday was unexpected though, and did leave the show off on a “warm, fuzzy note” that definitely fits the holiday spirit at this time of the year.

For the vast majority of the episode, the story focused on Mio, Tarou, Yuuno, and everybody else trying to grant wishes for people that had requested it via their “Christmas version” of Tanabata. In the end, the entire cast is split into two groups, with each group helping out a bakery that had requested help. Of course, it ends up that the bakeries are right across the street from each other (and thus, competitors). Good ol’ Michiru-sensei decides to make Tarou the prize, which got everybody quite motivated to beat each other (haha, didn’t see that coming :P). The bakery-centric story was the usual fluff, with plenty of gags and jokes to go around. After the “almost kiss” scene between Mio and Tarou via pocky eating, we get crazy stuff happening such as Yuuno and Noa doing some fanservice “rabu love” advertising, and even our two traps are called out for a performance. All in all, the first half of the episode gets crazily hectic, with plenty of laughs to go around.

What was a little sneaky on Xebec’s part was the inclusion of the story involving Mio’s birthday in the last 8-10 minutes of the episode. Considering how this episode had been standard fare (for MM, at least), with tons of random gags and such, I liked how the rest of the episode took a more balanced approach between drama, character development, and humor. Mio, in all her excitement, accidentally sold off goods that were meant for a little girl’s birthday, so she frantically tries to get the stuff for the party organized in time. However, as they were singing the birthday song for the little girl, Tarou actually noticed Mio singing “Happy Birthday” to herself.

Afterwards Tarou pretty much sacrifices himself by insulting Mio, so that she would chase after him and be distracted while Yuuno, Tatsukichi, and the rest of the group prepared a last minute surprise birthday party for Mio. The key moment here was that, even when Mio was threatening Tarou to oblivion while under her foot, he somehow actually managed to overcome his masochism, and ignore it enough to get back on track with his distraction antics. A little subtle moment there, but it certainly did show us that Tarou can overcome his masochism when necessary, which is a rather important little fact to note. That being said, kudos to Tarou for having the guts to fake out a confession, only to replace it with a “flat chest” joke. If Mio had caught Tarou after that joke, Tarou would probably have hit a new level of pleasure regarding his masochism =.=;

All in all, the ending was satisfying in the sense that we got some nice Mio character development, as well as a rather pleasant way of wrapping up the story (for now). The show does leave off on a very open ended note, with no real conclusion brought to either Mio or Yuuno’s relationship with Tarou, and lets not even start mentioning the side characters like Tatsukichi and Noa. Tarou still suffers from masochism, Mio still has her superiority complex, and Yuuno still has her fear of boys. None of the problems really get resolved, but this show still was fun to watch because of it’s rather charming characters. The first half of this show was significantly better than the second, though, with a great balance of character development, seriousness, and humor really making the first half shine. The second half, on the other hand, was practically all random gags, and it wasn’t until this final episode where we got some nice development. Either ways, MM turned out to be a rather fun show to watch, and I certainly wouldn’t mind a second season to wrap up any loose ends and such.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.3/5

P.S. I think this episode had this show’s first, and only, blatant panty shot. Considering how the studio is Xebec, I’m rather surprised that it actually took this long for one to show up.

Screenshots and new ED theme are later in the post.

ED02 – Happy Birthday, my holy day by Ayana Taketatsu (竹達彩奈) (Warning, some spoilers in the ED video)