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1[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/minamoto_kaoruko_and_asahi_5592.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:280:And these are the Protagonist's relatives! Imagine the rest of the girls in the story...[[labelnote:*]]''(From left)'': Asahi Momozono and Kaoruko Fujiwara, his cousin and aunt, respectively.[[/labelnote]]]]
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4-> ''The goal of my research is to get a deeper understanding of "Literature/TheTaleOfGenji", and for that, I need someone who understands what Prince Genji went through.''
5-->-- '''Kaoruko Fujiwara'''
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7A modern-day re-imagining of ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'' by Inaba Minori. Terumi Minamoto is a young man [[{{Bishonen}} with a face pretty enough to make people think he is a girl]]. During his middle school years, Terumi was bullied by [[GangOfBullies women who were jealous of his face]] and as a consequence, developed a fear of women, to the point of attending an all-boys high school to escape his trauma.
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9Prior to attending Shiun University, however, he decides to overcome this fear and become someone [[TheCasanova who can have sex with any woman he wants]] but almost immediately after deciding this, his father informs him that he is remarrying and that since their apartment is only big enough for two people, Terumi needs to move out. Terumi's father arranges for him to move in for the time being with his aunt, Kaoruko Fujiwara.
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11Kaoruko just happens to be one of the most beautiful women in the university, who has done much literary work using Literature/TheTaleOfGenji as a base, and is admired and respected by people of both genders. When Terumi arrives at her apartment, she quickly guesses that he was bullied due to his face and that he doesn't have any experience with women. Thinking it would be too boring for him to just lounge around the apartment she offers to help him get over his fear, in exchange of becoming her guinea pig for her research in her "[[GenderFlip Reverse]] [[WifeHusbandry Hikaru Genji Plan]]".
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13Helping him have sex with 14 women shouldn't be too much trouble...right?
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15
16----
17!! Minamoto-kun Monogatari contains general examples of:
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19* AllMenArePerverts: Terumi tries to deny that this trope applies to him but the audience knows better. Men like Murakami and Konoe are less subtle about it. There are also all the men that gawk at Kaoruko, Aoi and Rokujou.
20* AllWomenAreLustful: Just because Terumi gets horny doesn't mean the women don't get horny too:
21** Kaoruko regularly offers her body to Terumi to get him used to the idea that men aren't the only ones who have sex on their mind.
22** Asahi reads perverted manga and masturbates to Terumi after her first sexual experience. Reading a erotic novel highlighting a relationship between cousins only reminds her of the ordeal.
23** Aoi treats Terumi as a sex toy and mentions during their time together that her "switch" was turned on...
24** Hanada is fearful of men but her time with Terumi has caused her to slowly get over that fear. The thought of Terumi touching her sexually gets her excited.
25** Rokujou is ''really'' interested in Terumi and, like Asahi, masturbates to him, this time with a old middle school picture nearby.
26** Semi is happy that Terumi is paying attention to her and respecting their time together. She becomes even happier when Terumi becomes aroused despite her age.
27** Yuu is desperate for a lover and is becoming more and more open to the idea of pursuing a relationship with Terumi as time passes. She even wonders to herself if she has some repressed desires, despite never experiencing sex, let alone a kiss.
28** Tsukasa is excited at pursuing a [[TeacherStudentRomance forbidden relationship with Konoe]] and gets hot and bothered when Terumi stands up to her and gives her a steamy kiss.
29** Tsukiko becomes giddy whenever she observes Terumi attempting to talk with women or is having struggles with his sexual tensions. Being a erotic novelist in training helps too.
30* BaitAndSwitch: The penultimate chapter ends with a one year timeskip, showing a little boy who looks quite a bit like Terumi in daycare. You think this leads to a case of MamasBabyPapasMaybe, [[spoiler:but the final chapter shows that, in reality, the boy is Terumi's baby brother]].
31* CastOfExpies: By the nature of the series, most major characters are to a greater or lesser extent Expies of characters from ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji''. Justified because Kaoruko is intentionally putting women in Terumi's path whose circumstances resemble those of characters from the Tale, who she almost certainly sought out for this purpose.
32* CharacterDevelopment: Terumi and the characters that he interacts with all go through slow but drastic changes over time:
33** Terumi himself no longer freaks out as much around women at large, including his nemesis and cause of his fear, Tsukasa. He is finding it easier to talk with women, becomes more experience with foreplay that eventually leads to sex and is becoming more confident over time.
34** Asahi and Tsukiko both think men are pigs with nothing but sex on their minds. While they may be right about the majority of men in this manga, Terumi is the one exception they find no problem talking to. Asahi herself is falling for Terumi over time despite their relations as cousins and Tsukiko relies on Terumi in order to bolster her writing as an erotic novelist, as well as acting as friendly confidant to Terumi.
35** Aoi's complex towards her father complicates any relationship she may have towards men, despite being a carnivore. Terumi's similar complex towards his mother, as well as his persistent nice guy personality, thaws her normal icy demeanor and she opens up more to him as a result.
36** Hanada has a severe complex towards her breasts due to men ogling them during her childhood and adult years. It doesn't help when she can't go anywhere without guys staring at her lustfully. Thanks to Terumi, she's getting better and is taking more pride in herself.
37** Rokujou's love for Terumi comes to a head when she tries to force him to marry her. Due to Kaoruko's intervention, she was made to realize that unless she changes her personality somewhat, eases up a bit on Terumi, and learns to love his new, more confident demeanor, she won't be able to get Terumi to love her.
38** Semi's interaction with Terumi is breaking her self-imposed notion that "women are forced to stick with the guys they're going out with", even if the guy is a jerk. Kaoruko is hoping for this to succeed in order for Semi to "free" herself from the abusive boyfriend. Starting to become realized when Semi becomes more cheerful and is starting to fall for Terumi.
39** Yuu has been dreaming for years of dating the "perfect" boyfriend who will love her who she is. Terumi is far from perfect but repeated interactions with him made her come to appreciate the guy and learn that one must learn to accept a person, faults and all, in order to have a beneficial relationship. Also, Terumi sees her for the beautiful girl that she is from the start, giving Yuu more self-confidence in her "tomboyish" figure.
40** Tsukasa, Terumi's fear of women personified, is going through this trope as well. Hiding her bitchy personality behind a facade of popularity, she hopes to be ''the'' most popular girl by going out with popular guys, even if the guy happens to be a teacher. When Terumi exposes this and shows her she's not as cool as she would like to believe, Tsukasa starts to grow feelings towards her victim, whether she wants to or not. Terumi is also the only person to see different sides to Tsukasa's personality besides calm, cool indifference, inferring that there is more to her than one would realize.
41* CliffHanger: While the series is a weekly manga, only 8 pages are published per chapter, 9 or 10 if the audience is lucky, as the author has no assistants to help her. But almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger on something Terumi will or will not do.
42* DaydreamSurprise: At several points in the story, some characters allows their imagination to run away with them and the audience is fooled into believing that it's really happening; Terumi sleeping with Tsukasa, Semi hitting on Terumi, etc.
43* DeathGlare: When sufficiently pissed, women give these to their victim. Tsukasa, Kaoruko and Rokujou all give one at several points in the story.
44* DemotedToExtra: Happens with each of the sex targets after their story arcs. Though they do occasionally return to contribute to the story or show what they are up to since their time with Terumi. Some even hinted at wanting to get back with Terumi: Asahi and Aoi.
45* DistractedByTheSexy: A trope that is heavily used in this story. Every target introduced by Kaoruko have the potential to get every guy to stop what they're doing and stare at them. When she can, Tsukasa loves to abuse this trope. Kaoruko herself is the ''queen'' of this trope.
46* DoomedByCanon: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]]. Those who know the story of ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'' will know that [[{{Yandere}} Rokujou no Miyasudokoro]] goes on to [[spoiler: ''kill'' two of her rivals out of love for Genji]]. Terumi makes that very same connection when Kaoruko brings up her {{Expy}} as the third target, and his reluctance makes Kaoruko change the target to Hanachirusato's {{Expy}}. Time will tell if [[{{Expy}} Miya Rokujou]], the fourth target, will follow suit here; already showing {{Yandere}} tendencies down to a tee.
47* TheFaceless: Most men in this manga are like this since they only serve to be mindless idiots who can't help staring at sexy women. Professor Konoe provides some plot but he too is faceless.
48* ForcefulKiss: Terumi is becoming a master of this. Whenever something is not going his way or he can't repress his urges anymore, expect his target to be on the receiving end.
49** Kaoruko has been known to do this to Terumi at times and almost does it to [[spoiler:Yuu]].
50*** [[spoiler:Rokujou DOES succeed with Yuu.]]
51* GilliganCut: While running on an exercise machine at the gym, Terumi was feeling angry with himself for masturbating to Kaoruko's naked body the other day. The coach, who's also one of the targets, tells him not to overwork himself, to which he replies he won't... Cue random guys commenting on how he suddenly collapsed and is in the infirmary.
52* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Chapters 163 and 166 features [[spoiler:Rokujou and Yuu and Rokujou and Kaoruko kissing each other respectively]]. Both times it happened, it was not out of consent but that doesn't stop Terumi, and readers, from blushing.
53* GreenEyedMonster: Similar to the OperationJealousy trope below where an outsider is seen glaring at the current couple.
54* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Aside from the protagonist, Terumi, the only other prominent male character of the series so far is his recurring friend at the university, Murakami, and a teacher who has yet to actually show his face, Konoe. Even Terumi's father, the plot-device that kicked him out of the house in the first place, hasn't been seen since the very first chapter. [[spoiler:The father is shown again in the penultimate chapter in a flashback; he looks like Terumi but older, broader and with glasses.]]
55* LeftHanging: Although Terumi's experiment has ended, there are some unanswered questions or character relationships they would still have to resolve.
56** [[spoiler:It's never shown if Konoe ever gets his comeuppance for his infidelity towards his wife.]]
57** [[spoiler:Ruri hasn't learned about Terumi's true gender.]]
58** [[spoiler:It's never explained why Ruri looks so similar to Yuu.]]
59** [[spoiler:Asahi never finds out that Tsukiko slept with Terumi and what her reaction to this news could have potentially have been. Tsukiko herself is afraid of Asahi ever finding out and its hinted that she wants to pursue a more serious relationship with Terumi. For that matter, by manga's end, despite being in love with Terumi, Asahi STILL didn't get a chance to confess to him again properly.]]
60** [[spoiler:Despite the many hints, it's not shown if Tsukasa decided to pursue Terumi seriously for an actual relationship, nor is it shown if she ever feels remorse for her past bullying behavior. For that matter, Tsukasa's two best friends are never seen again, even though both made up the trio that gave Terumi his trauma in the first place.]]
61** [[spoiler:It's hinted that Murakami gets over his "love" for Kaoruko and has started dating Otome's older sister.]]
62** [[spoiler:As Kaoruko puts it, "Chapter 2" of Terumi's life after the experiment ended, with him being more confident with building a relationship with girls. Notably Yuu and Akashi who didn't want to continue their relationship with Terumi because they believed that he loves Kaoruko more than them.]]
63** [[spoiler:Did Terumi decide to pursue Kaoruko after the experiment ended? The final volume reveals in extra pages not shown in the magazine that Kaoruko and Terumi at long last crossed the line and have slept with each other for three months straight. However, Kaoruko leaves for her new job before anything else can occur so its up in the air if Terumi decided to keep up the relationship now that he doesn't mind having sex with his aunt anymore.]]
64* LuminescentBlush: Terumi is susceptible to this every time he does something perverted or a girl says or does something to him that makes him feel happy. It's the same in reverse.
65* MomentKiller: Often. Many of the chapter cliffhangers are "will Terumi finally make relationship progress and/or get laid?" and the answer in the following chapter is generally, "No." Usually because he loses control and goes too far, though sometimes other people or circumstances end up interrupting.
66* MoodWhiplash: During the Beauty Pageant arc, Kaoruko gives an inspiring speech about how men and women are both equally beautiful and their talents will now have the opportunity to shine during the event. It's ruined immediately afterwards when Professor Konoe [[spoiler:makes a bet with Kaoruko over whether Terumi can win, with the loser submitting to the winner. The creepy overtones, the slimy smiles, and the fact that Konoe is looking forward to practically ''forcing'' himself on Kaoruko is enough to give readers pause]].
67* {{Netorare}}: A trope that is played with in the story. Has not yet developed into the genre everyone knows it for, namely the audience and nice guy protagonist suffering in seeing their sweet girlfriend stolen away by an asshole, and giving into that asshole: mind, body and soul.
68** Terumi's interaction with Semi is an inversion of this trope; Semi's boyfriend is the one implied to be cheating on her and Terumi is comforting Semi's state of mind in the jerk's place. This comes close to being more "Netori".
69** Kaoruko notes how much she hates those type of men.
70** Considering the original tale having Genji sleeping with married women, this makes it questionable about what will happen to Terumi in the story. Terumi himself does not want to invoke this for fear of inciting the guy's wrath. [[spoiler:This partially comes true when Terumi is shown shaking in fear when he thinks Semi's boyfriend is coming home. Thankfully this is not the case and admirably, Terumi was prepared to face the consequences for his actions.]]
71* NoRomanticResolution: Despite starting relationships with a handful of the girls, many unspoken crushes, and [[spoiler:Kaoruko finally having mutually pleasurable sex with him for three months]], Terumi ends the story with no endgame partner at all. Asahi's feelings are still left unattended.
72* OnlySixFaces: Aoi looks a ''lot'' like Kaoruko with a haircut. Otherwise, most of the women in the series and Terumi have very similar rounded heads/faces.
73** Also, Rokujou no Miyasudokoro's yandere face resembles Tsukasa’s face.
74* OperationJealousy: A continuing theme to get someone to feel jealous of a current couple; particularly, anyone currently with Terumi.
75* PoolScene: After workout, both Yuu and Kaoruko relax by the pool. Starts becoming hotter when [[spoiler: Kaoruko offers to kiss Yuu. At that point, both are completely alone and have the pool all to themselves. Unfortunately it goes nowhere.]]
76* RandomPasserbyAdvice: The "love master" advises Terumi that he's aiming too high for beautiful women right off the bat. He should try to focus on "plain" girls first and build his experience from there. By focusing totally on the girl and making her feel like she was good enough to be talked to, she will then give the guy her undivided attention.
77* SettingUpdate: Invoked, kind-of. The whole plot is kick-started when Kaoruko decides to use Terumi as a guinea pig in her plan to recreate the circumstances of ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'' for her research.
78* SexIsInteresting: One of the major important plot elements that makes this story so enticing. Seeing Terumi grow as a character and him having to do fourteen different women of different ages, personality and background makes for an interesting manga.
79* SexStartsStoryStops: Occurs several times throughout the story, and sometimes without warning. Terumi and his target can be talking and then next page might show him and the target making out with each other.
80* ShoutOut: [[spoiler:After getting Terumi out of Rokujou's house]], she advises her nephew to continue maintaining his teacher-student relationship with her... [[http://www.batoto.net/read/_/221514/minamoto-kun-monogatari_ch112_by_vortex-scans/8 all while re-enacting the infamous]] "[[Manga/FutureDiary Yandere Trance]]" pose.
81* SpitTrailKiss: A trope often seen in this manga; many of the women and Terumi love doing this to their respective partner.
82* TheTease: Many attractive women in this manga love invoking this trope, especially to our main protagonist.
83* ThemeNaming: Probably intentional on the part of the author, basically all of the women that Terumi have met so far has at least a name reference to the women in ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'', ranging from one single syllable in ''Hiragana'' (''Asa''gao to ''Asa''hi, ''Waka'' to Ko''waka'', ''Yuu''gao to ''Yuu'') to basically carrying the entire name of their counterparts into theirs (Rokujou Miya and Hana Suetsumu being prime examples.)
84* TitleDrop: In the penultimate chapter, Kaoruko tells Terumi that he didn't end up following Genji's story to the letter, and therefore walked his own path in the end--he lived out "The Tale of Minamoto-kun".
85* WhamEpisode: Chapter 111 reveals that [[spoiler:Kaoruko had told Rokujou about the conquest even before she met Terumi again. Not only that, she seemingly sabotages Terumi's efforts in keeping Rokujou's yandere side dormant, blatantly telling her that Terumi doesn't love her]]. With that, her research has taken a grimmer turn to it.
86** The following chapter softens the impact as Kaoruko explains her actions. Things could've taken a turn for the worse had she ''not'' interfered.
87** In Chapter 157, Tsukiko mentions to her sister Nagiko that in The Tale of Genji, for the character of Rokujou no Miyasudokoro to curse a character to death, another potential love interest MUST have fallen in genuine love with Genji. [[spoiler:Several chapters later, Yuu is starting to fall for Terumi so Rokujou sets her sights on sabotaging their relationship.]]
88* WillTheyOrWontThey: Watching Terumi feel more and more comfortable around Kaoruko, and Kaoruko showing she cares for him after all, even if only [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial for the sake of her research]], does seem to imply they are slowly heading towards giving into incest for real. [[spoiler:By the end, it appears that they don't, despite finally working up to foreplay, but they did have sex for at least three months every night before Kaoruko left for her new job.]]
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