Manga / Midori Days

aka: Midori No Hibi

That's not a hand puppet, folks.

Why does my hand have breasts on it?!

Midori Days is a manga series by Kazurou Inoue. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from September 2002 to July 2004. An anime adaptation by Studio Pierrot aired from April to June 2004.

Seiji Sawamura is a high school delinquent — a rude, disrespectful punk with a "bad dude" air and a skill for fighting that can lay out entire gangs with his "devil's right hand". But underneath his tough guy exterior is a noble soul who won't hesitate to defend an underdog. He's also lonely and unlucky in love. His reputation is so frightening that no girl he knows, other than his 10-year-old neighbor Shiori Tsukishima, wants his attention or to be seen with him.

This state of affairs grates on him — failure after failure weighs on Seiji's mind, until one day, alone at home, he bemoans the fact that he seems destined to live his life with only his right hand as his lover, and swears that he will accept any girl who will have him. When a strange girl's voice echoes "Really?" in the empty room, he is understandably surprised and confused — but it's nothing on how he feels a few moments later when he discovers that his right hand has turned into a miniature teenaged girl named Midori Kasugano. He really should have picked a better choice of words...

Midori, it turns out, was a perfectly normal girl from another school who idolized Seiji from afar. How she turned into his hand neither knows, but she's happy with the situation even if Seiji isn't.

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This series provides examples of:

• A-Cup Angst: Midori suffers from this a couple of times due to Seiji being around girls who have big breasts.
• Accidental Pervert: Seiji's initial idea to get Midori restored to her body is to put the Midori on his right arm onto her unconscious real body, hoping this will get her soul back into her body. However, he never expected her mother to have put Midori's body into bed naked. As such, when she returns with some tea, it looks to her like Seiji is trying to fondle Midori's body. Ms. Kasugano faints, and the household staff chase Seiji over this.
• Adaptation Distillation: The manga goes off on some long tangents and introduces so many characters who fall for Seiji that his "unlucky with love" status becomes more of an Informed Flaw. The anime drops the rest of the crushes/stalkers and limits the focus on Seiji, Midori and Ayase. Additionally, Kouta is removed from the equation, instead retaining both his own original crush on Midori and his desire to make Midori do the right thing and return to her home and family.
• Adapted Out: The anime is much shorter than the manga and omits several characters, most importantly Nao and Lucy.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Rin's boyfriend, Hisashi Sakisaka, is a treasure hunter who is constantly in the pursuit of the next big find.
• Allegedly Dateless: Despite often bemoaning his bad luck with girls, Seiji has far more options for a lover than just his right hand.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted and defied. Seiji looks like a bad boy and displays the typical teenage rebelliousness, but that's all he does. However, his reputation is such that girls shun him rather than being turned on by him. While Ayase is briefly moved when he saves her from a gang, it's only when she sees Seiji's kindness and willingness to sacrifice himself to protect others that she actually falls for him.
• All Just a Dream: Seiji and Midori both had the same dream: Midori was back in her body, but Seiji ended up as her right hand.
• All Love Is Unrequited:
  • Seiji confessed his love to twenty girls and was rejected by every one.
  • Kouta loves Midori and Seiji.
  • Midori, Ayase, and Shiori love Seiji. Seiji ends up with Midori.
• Alone Among the Couples:
  • Seiji strikes out with a local girl. Then, as if to mock him, he finds himself surrounded by lovey-dovey couples while on his way to school. He doesn't take it well. The anime has him get shot down by the same girl, after which he goes to a movie theater to sulk. When he realizes he's the only one there without a date, he vents his frustration on the crowd and storms out.
  • In Chapter 17, Seiji finds himself alone in a cafe full of happy couples. Midori tries to cheer him up. The key word being "tries".
• Americans Are Cowboys: When Lucy's friend Daniel shows up to try and bring her back to America, he's dressed in typical cowboy attire.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In Chapter 74, after Ayase once again fails to confess her feelings, she says this to Seiji:
  "Why did I have to fall in love with an asshole like you!?"
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 72, Midori asks Seiji this question while he's seating on a bench:
  "Am I a burden?"
• Attractive Bent-Gender:
  • When Seiji dresses as a girl to catch a pervert on the train, his buddy finds Seiji "just his type".
  • When Kouta crossdresses, Seiji finds him incredibly attractive. So did the female gang that forced him into it.
• Audible Sharpness: Played for Laughs when Seiji draws a kitchen knife to cut Midori's bandages. He ends up scaring the crap out of the two girls who were trying to avenge their boyfriends.
• Badass Adorable: Nao has done the following:
  • In Chapter 34, she battles her father's Mecha Nao.
  • In Chapter 48, during the school's ski trip, when she displays her badassery via a dynamic entry.
  • In Chapter 56, during the mud wrestling competition, she drops an Olympic gold medalist, who was better than twice her size and nearly three times her body weight, in one move.
  • In Chapter 77, she decimates a mechanized army in seconds flat.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: Midori, of all people, does this in Chapter 41 when she saves Seiji from a delinquent who tries to attack him from behind.
• Beergasm: Rin is quite the drunkard.
• Betty and Veronica: Ayase is the Veronica to Midori's Betty for Seiji's Archie.
• Beyond the Impossible: Averted. Seiji's best friend, Miyahara, tells him about the rumor going around which claims he hurt his right hand by punching out a yakuza's car. Seiji becomes exasperated and points out how ridiculous that sounds.
• Big Fancy House: Midori lives in a mansion. Seiji is shocked when he first sees it.
• Bittersweet Ending: Midori loses her memory of being Seiji's hand, but is able to finally confess her love for him in her real body. This is ultimately averted on the bitter part in the manga, which ends with Seiji giving Midori the diary she used while she was attached to him. The anime implies that he tells her about it himself, as they go on a date over the end credits.
• Bland-Name Product: There's Game Non Stop, Takamizawa's "Camon IOS" camera, and Play Girl.
• Blank White Eyes: How would you react to meeting Midori?
• Blue with Shock: Happens to various characters, to the point where it almost becomes the equivalent of Azumanga's Blank White Eyes.
• Bottomless Bladder:
  • Averted for comedy, since Midori has to go everywhere Seiji goes. And when he lost the use of his other hand too...
  • Played straight with Midori, since she's only present on his arm from the waist up. In the manga, this is even talked about.
• Bromantic Foil: Miyahara for Seiji. Seiji's a capable fighter who's a chick magnet, while Miyahara's a Butt-Monkey.
• Bully Hunter: As strong as Seiji is, he only fights with bad people (i.e. other delinquents, who are mostly shown to be real scum) and he protects the weak. This is deconstructed in that the other gangs start to target the people around Seiji just to challenge him, something Seiji is aware and not proud of.
• Bystander Syndrome: The crowd of students who do nothing to stop Ayase from getting dragged off by four guys who pretty much say they plan on raping her. You can hear the crowd whispering amongst themselves, saying that a stuck up girl like her deserves it.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • Midori before she becomes Seiji's hand. Averted after she becomes separate again.
  • Ayase after Seiji saves her from a gang.
  • Somewhere around the quarter to half-way point of the manga, Seiji becomes this towards Midori. Part of what precipitates the finale is Seiji finally overcoming this.
• Captain's Log: Midori writes in her diary while Seiji is asleep.
• Caretaker Reversal: Seiji accidentally drinks a bottle of alcohol, and Midori tries to take care of him. When he wakes up, he feels great, but Midori is sick.
• Cat Girl: This is one of the costumes Shiori wears in order to gain Seiji's attention.
• Censor Steam: The steam from the hot springs neatly obscures Rin's lower body in Chapter 14. Her breasts are still in full view, though.
• Character Development:
  • After being a rather extreme Shrinking Violet for much of her life, when Midori finds herself attached to Seiji's arm, she takes a leap of faith and confesses her love for him. This, combined with the fact that she doesn't have to be shy since she's hidden from sight most of the time, causes her to go from being a garden variety shrinking violet to an eccentric, fun-loving, Hypercompetent Sidekick. Afterwards, her development is her coming to realize that her relationship with Seiji can't last forever and that ultimately she must one day return to her real body.
  • Seiji goes through some throughout the series, moving away from Violence is the Only Option and developing a gentler, more socially apt side, underlined by his becoming less and less critical of Midori. While he tends to blow off Midori's advances as airheaded or insincere, after reading her diary, he comes to appreciate the depth and complexity of her feelings, giving him the courage to acknowledge that he appreciates and cares for her as a human being and not just a hand.
  • Ayase initially regards Seiji with contempt, believing him to be just another delinquent. After he saves her from being kidnapped (and possibly raped), her attitude towards him begins to change. The manga has her fall for him almost immediately afterward, whereas the anime has her feelings change gradually. Both versions reveal that she's not nearly as harsh as she lets on.
• Chekhov's Gun: Seiji and Midori think they've gotten Takamizawa to forget about the whole thing. But his digital camera didn't.
• Cherry Blossoms: This is seen in the opening credits.
• Chick Magnet: Seiji is one, though he doesn't seem to notice this.
• Class Representative: Ayase in all but actually being the representative. One panel in the manga shows that Ayase isn't the actual class rep, it's just that everyone always looks up to her instead of their real class rep.
• Comically Missing the Point: Seiji on the proper use of guitars.
• Cool Big Sis: Rin is a brutal and drunken version, but still loving.
• Corner of Woe: Ayase withdraws into one after she fails to seduce Seiji with her new swimsuit, which she had chosen with the express purpose of showing off her figure.
• Costume Porn: Some of Midori and the doll's outfits.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Midori has had some pretty lewd dreams and fantasies, though she doesn't actually get more explicit than Sexual Euphemisms. She also seems pretty eager to help Seiji in the bathroom. She entertains the idea of taking the "right hand girlfriend" idea a step further, but waves it off since they aren't actually dating.
  • Ayase happily fantasizes on how Seiji's going to save her from drowning, including mouth-to-mouth, and later on, how they'll warm each others bodies while naked (and not only the temperature goes up). Her most blatant moment is when she and Seiji accidentally switch videotapes after running into each other. She was expecting to have a story about a young boy and his faithful dog. She ends up with a piece of Seiji's Porn Stash. Her response? Take notes.
  • Kouta's imagination runs wild when he's with Seiji, and there's more than a couple suggestions that he's bisexual and coming to terms with it. In particular, he imagines what it'd be like if he too were attached to Seiji like Midori is and he keeps getting frustrated that he always imagines himself as Seiji's left, non-dominant hand.
• Crash-Into Hello: Ayase has a habit of deliberately lying in wait where she knows Seiji will walk when she tries to set up a date scenario, so that she can initiate it via ramming into him.
• Cross-Popping Veins: More realistically done than usual.
• Curtains Match the Window: Midori and her mom have green hair and eyes.
• Death Glare:
  • This is a skill Seiji uses very effectively.
  • Rin is the only one who can use it effectively on Seiji in turn.
  • When Kouta uses it, it resulted in Puppy-Dog Eyes instead.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Ayase is this in the anime. The manga portrays her more as a tsundere instead.
• Delinquents: Seiji and his gang along with the other rival groups.
• Demon Head: Rin pulls this off once or twice.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Chapter 61, one of the panels has it where it looks like something bad is going to happen to Rina.
• Dragged into Drag: Kouta is saved from physical torture by the Crimson Angels when they decide to force him into dresses. They are instantly smitten with how cute he looks, and start fighting among themselves as to who gets to play dress-up with him.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: A 38-year-old man with a son, no less.
• Eagleland:
  • Lucy is an American. You can tell because she has American flag panties.
  • Lucy's friend Daniel wears cowboy gear.
  • The Native American shaman. He's shown in a surprisingly nice light. He is the only one of an entire crowd of traditional medicine and religious men that knows what really happened to Midori.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Seiji. Not only is he a Chick Magnet, he has a cute boy head over heels for him. One who previously didn't show any interest in guys, no less. And his best friend fell for him when he went undercover as a girl to catch someone who was cutting up girls' skirts.
• Everyone Has Standards: Takamizawa may be a doll otaku with some very disturbing attitudes towards women, but even he knows that taking upskirt photos with a cellphone is not acceptable behavior.
• Face of a Thug: Seiji. This is part of the reason why he constantly has a stream of bullies challenging him, which lead to how he became so good at fighting. Unfortunately, this creates hell for him when it comes to dating.
• False Camera Effects: Seen in the anime version, mainly during Seiji's fight scenes, which often include Shaky Cam effects.
• Fanservice: In both the manga and anime. For example, Ayase flaunts her sex appeal in Chapter 22. Midori is often seen naked (mostly topless since she is attached at the waist to Seiji's writs) or being accidentally groped. Rin also doesn't seem to have any problems being naked around Seiji despite his protests, and she is one of the more buxom female characters.
• The Fettered: For all that Seiji's feared, he never starts fights for fun nor does he ever go after those who are weaker than him. Instead, he only uses his strength to defend himself and/or others, and he's even willing to take a beating without defending himself if it means it'll permanently keep bullies from hurting others. Rin and Midori are the first to see this aspect of Seiji.
• First Girl Wins: Seiji ultimately ends up with Midori once she returns to her body.
• First Kiss: In Chapter 20, Seiji inadvertently gives this to Ayase. It was meant to be a kiss on the cheek, but ends up being a kiss on the lips thanks to Midori's attempt to stop him.
• Flag Bikini: Lucy wears American flag panties.
• Flung Clothing: Shiori does this when she reveals that she's wearing a gym outfit underneath Rin's school uniform.
• For Science!: This is the the credo of Dr. Shirou Makinoha.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In episode 8, Seiji and Midori switch places where Midori is in her body while Seiji is her right hand.
• Gagging on Your Words: Seiji is incapable of saying "I love you" to Midori, even in a throwaway or joking matter.
• Genki Girl:
  • Midori during her time as Seiji's right hand, which serves as the crux of her character development. Considering what she was like before, she's much more assertive and energetic.
  • Lucy has Midori beat by a country mile, as seen when she easily outpaces Ayase, during a 10k while somersaulting.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Shiori's stepmother does this to her in order to show the latter how much she cares about her.
• Giant Food: While it's not considered giant to anyone else, Midori greatly enjoys having her "favorite choco-banana ice cream in an extra large size".
• The Glomp: When done by a girl on one's right arm, it can be painful.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Naongu, which is lampshaded by her creator, Shirou, when she develops a conscience.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It's very easy to get Seiji riled up, especially if your name is Midori. It's mostly Played for Laughs, though.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: Seiji covers himself with his hand when his sister drops his shorts in front of a crowd. Unfortunately, the hand he uses is Midori, leading to her being passed out and foaming at the mouth.
• Hilarious Outtakes: The English DVDs have several, including a running gag about Midori taking the covert out of Covert Pervert and Seiji slowly realizing that his relationship problems are due to being a closeted homosexual.
• Hyperspace Mallet: Nao has one of truly epic proportions which will knock seemingly anything out with one hit.
• I Have This Friend: Near the end of the manga, Ayase tells Seiji a story about a guy her "friend" likes. The more she talks, however, the more it becomes clear that she's talking about herself. She ends her story by finally confessing her feelings to him.
• I Never Told You My Name: When Seiji goes to Midori's house for the first time in the hopes that he can somehow get a clue to as to how to get Midori off of his arm, Mrs. Kasugano notes that it's Seiji and asks him to enter. Seiji immediately notes that he never gave his name. It's the second indication he has as to the depths of Midori's crush on him, since even her mother knows him on sight.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode of the anime is titled "X of Y" with the Japanese particle "no" written in romaji than kanji.
• Imagine Spot:
  • An interesting take where these are presented as a very short movie, complete with title and credits; being a reader of romance novels and manga, Ayase's also take the form of shojo manga starring her and Seiji.
  • In the manga, Kouta is prone to these and he gets frustrated not only because he's imagining himself with Seiji, but he's somehow subordinate to Midori.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Rina seems to love Seiji's old brutal ways.
• Incompatible Orientation: Kouta is in love with Seiji who has no interest in boys.
• Intimacy Via Horror: Ayase manages to get a date with Seiji, having watched the movie three times beforehand to locate all the scary parts that would justify her giving Seiji a Security Cling. Unfortunately, it fails every time. In the first instance, it happens because Midori falls victim to this, which startles Ayase and distracts Seiji in his attempts to hide Midori.
• Invulnerable Knuckles: Played straight in an urban legend about how Seiji hurt his infamous "devil's right hand", while punching through a yakuza's car.
• James Bondage: Osamu and Kouta exist to be taken hostage to lure Seiji into fights.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Seiji acts like the delinquent most expect of him. However, anyone who gets to know him will know that he's a nice guy underneath that.
• Joshikousei: All of the girls to varying degrees, but a permanent feature for Ayase, who's rarely seen outside her school uniform.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Midori uses the fact that she can't remember a particular day when it's said she went back to her old body as proof that should she go back, as she will forget everything about her time on Seiji's hand.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Seiji thinks that his problem is not being able to get a girlfriend, but that's actually just a symptom of his general inability to interact non-violently with others. Having to protect Midori and her secret, and deal with wacky people he can't just punch, brings out his better qualities.
• Loser Protagonist: Seiji sees himself as this. He has no girlfriend, his only friends are more like minions and nobody in his school likes him. But he's actually a pretty cool guy.
• Lost in Character: In one chapter, Seiji and his friends skip school to watch a film shoot featuring their favorite actor, Aikawa Shou. The actor playing Shou's yakuza underling isn't impressing the director, so the director looks around and immediately casts Seiji and the others as the delinquents. They go to Shou and ask for advice on how to act, and he tells them, "When you're given a role, you have to become that role completely." Cue them completely overreacting during Shou's death scene. Hilarity Ensues.
• Loving Bully: Nekobe and her gang of girl delinquents are all this for Kouta. At first, they just want to boss him around because they can. Then they decide that they want to dress him as a girl to humiliate him. However, he's just so damn cute that their attention shifts from cruelty for its own sake to just plain wanting him. In fact, the first time, Kouta slips away when they're busy arguing over who gets to spend time with him.
• Mad Scientist: Shirou Makinoha, who's obsessed over how Midori ended up on Seiji's hand.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Subverted by Nao as she has more interest in Midori than Seiji.
• Magical Girlfriend: Midori, who becomes Seiji's right hand.
• Magical Native American: The Indian Witch Doctor is the only one to correctly identify Midori's condition.
• Magnetic Girlfriend: Midori becomes this for Seiji as he goes from having no girlfriend to being a chick magnet.
• Martial Arts Headband: Ayase sports one momentarily when she sets out to become Seiji's girlfriend.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: At the beginning of the story Seiji bemoans that becoming a chronic masturbator is his fate, as his badass Delinquent status actually seems to make it harder to get a girlfriend. He specifically says being stuck "with his right hand for a girlfriend", then it happens literally. Ironically, having Midori on his hand effectively prevents him from masturbating, as she throws out all his porn. A few chapters are dedicated to Seiji attempting to relieve the built-up pressure using his left hand, but Failure Is the Only Option.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Midori has green hair and eyes, and "Midori" means "green" in Japanese.
  • Nekobe, the leader of the Crimson Angels, has a constant cat smile, and "Neko" means "Cat" in Japanese.
• Megaton Punch: Ayase's a pro when it comes to these. They're justified or, at least, understandable given the circumstances:
  • She delivers a brutal one after Seiji accidentally steals her first kiss.
  • Shortly after Seiji recovers from sleeping pills, he finds her straddling him. This causes him to have an erection. She becomes flustered and decks him.
  • She gives Seiji one when they get lost during the school's ski trip, and end up at a love hotel. While she's in the bath, she gets startled by a bug, which prompts him to check on her. When she glomps onto him, it takes them seconds to realize she's stark naked, upon which Seiji gets sent into orbit.
  • The bastard who took advantage of her, while pretending to coach her. Ayase finally sees through his bullshit and dispenses justice.
  • Miyahara gets one near the end of the anime when he starts waving porn videos around, while asking her for help.
• Memetic Badass: In-universe example: Seiji's reputation around the school, specifically regarding his right hand. When he pretends it's broken to hide Midori, the stories only get wilder.
• Minor Living Alone: Seiji lives alone, since his parents are said to be traveling abroad and his older sister, Rin, lives with her boyfriend. She drops by, every other month or so, to give him enough funds to cover food and expenses.
• Modesty Towel: Seiji wears one in his own bathtub. Normally, this would be an egregious example of this, but it's perfectly justified here since there's a girl on his arm. Midori, on the other hand, doesn't usually cover herself in the bath with him and doesn't seem to have much of an issue with him seeing her breasts in general.
• My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Rin to her kid brother, Seiji. But Seiji is usually this towards all other gangs.
• Nailed to the Wagon: Seiji, like many teen boys, likes to indulge in masturbation. However, with Midori taking the place of his dominant hand and being awake when he is, he can't. One chapter is devoted to him trying to get Midori to pass out early so that he can relieve some pressure with his left hand while she sleeps. He fails due to a satchel switcharoo.
• Nerds Are Pervs: At a convention, Seiji sells hand puppets of Midori. Two nerdy customers take one and start taking its clothes off, leading to Seiji beating the crap out of both of them.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: Takamizawa quickly loses interest in a girl that looks like his favorite doll when he learns that she's actually a fearless martial artist.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: While it's heavily implied that Seiji would regularly deliver these prior to the start of the series, the only one shown in the series is done to him. In this case, it's brought on by Seiji himself as he hopes that this will keep delinquents from attacking and kidnapping innocent people in order to get at him.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Shiori does this while wearing a leather dominatrix outfit.
• Nostalgic Music Box: Midori has a music box on her bedside table where her real body is laying. Its melody is heard once or twice coming from the box itself when her mother opens it, but the rest of the time the melody is used in Midori's flashbacks.
• Not What It Looks Like: Seiji's first attempt to return Midori to her comatose body made her mother faint on the spot and nearly got him lynched by a horde of angry servants.
• Oblivious to Love: Seiji is usually dense in terms of him noticing how much he's a chick magnet:
  • He can't help but be aware of Shiori's crush on him because she pesters him about it every chance she gets. He wishes she'd find someone her own age and leave him alone.
  • This is averted with Midori, as Seiji is repeatedly made aware of her feelings. However, he brushes her off due to her size and because she's attached to his right arm, which he explains (albeit bluntly) during the first episode.
  • Seiji asks Ayase if she was serious about being in love with him, which she denies by saying it was joke. He doesn't believe her at first until she begins acting disinterested in him.
  • Though Lucy's wild about him, she isn't his type. Plus, his best friend, Miyahara, has a crush on her. So Seiji tries to help him get together with her.
• Ocular Gushers: Seiji gets these whenever he's depressed about not having a girlfriend. The first episode of the anime shows him stuffing his face amidst a crying spell.
• Of Corpse He's Alive: One chapter deals with Midori dealing with household issues while Seiji's knocked out due to drinking some alcohol. This includes having to drag Seiji's body over to greet a pizza delivery man and a textbook saleswoman and fighting off a thief that broke into Seiji's home.
• Older Than He Looks: Karate master Aoi Sakajima, a manga-only character who looks and acts like a 10-year-old. The only reason people actually study under him is because he's so cute.
• Otaku: Takamizawa is a doll otaku.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: Feudal-era Japan with Seiji as a wanted swordsman during the Days Special chapter.
• Parental Abandonment: Seiji's parents are said to be traveling abroad, and his big sister lives with her boyfriend, leaving him on his own.
• Parent with New Paramour: Seiji helps Shiori get over her initial dislike of her new stepmother.
• Pedestrian Crushes Car: Played for Laughs when Seiji's best friend, Miyahara, tells him about the rumor going around the school that says he injured his right hand by punching out a yakuza's car.
• Playful Cat Smile: Nekobe has this effect constantly.
• Porn Stash: A couple of chapters in the manga deal with Midori clearing out Seiji's porn collection.
• Power Perversion Potential: Midori sometimes fantasizes about some of the things she could do as Seiji's right hand, but never follows through on them.
• Precocious Crush: Shiori has a huge crush on Seiji and she does everything she can in order to win his affection.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Often used by Kouta, and occasionally by Midori.
• Quivering Eyes: When Midori does this it's usually either played for laughs, or to endear her to the audience.
• Red Baron: Seiji is known in town as "Mad Dog" Sawamura. His right hand has a title of its own, being called the "Devil's Right Hand".
• Refuge in Audacity: Daniel's extreme condescension towards non-Americans, including trying to cheat in blatantly obvious ways and expecting them to work, combined with his frequent use of racist slurs are just so over-the-top ridiculous that they'd only seem believable in a period piece.
• Repeat Cut: In the anime, this happens when Ayase hugs Seiji when she confesses to him.
• Rescue Romance: Ayase develops a romantic interest in Seiji after he rescues her from a gang.
• Running Gag: Pretty convenient how Ayase's "friend" always seems to skip out on her, which always leaves her with an extra ticket she can't simply throw away. Of course, Seiji doesn't have to go if he doesn't want to, she just figures she should throw the offer out there.
• Scary Shiny Glasses:
  • Takamizawa uses his glasses to hide his otaku obsession. The lenses will crack to show that his emotions are becoming too much to contain, then appear undamaged when he has control again. When he's being sincere but still scary, one lens will clear while the other is opaque.
  • Rin whenever she's plotting something embarrassing for Seiji.
• Selective Obliviousness: Seiji desperately wants a girlfriend, but is completely oblivious to Midori and Ayase's feelings for him. In the case of the latter, the hot and cold way she treats him, plus his own inexperience with romance, is an understandable reason for it. His treatment of the former's regular talks about her love of Seiji comes across more as someone who just doesn't know how to react to it.
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: Kouta gets one of these scenes early on.
• Shown Their Work: When the Native American shaman's house is shown, there is a tipi in his yard. However, he lives in South Dakota, making his tribe one of the few that actually used tipis.
• Shrouded in Myth: Seiji thanks to his friend's constant rumor spreading.
• Silent Bob: Nao. Often says volumes with actions and usually says no more than two words when she does speak.
• Small Parent, Huge Child: One dojo owner looks like a junior-high girl, while his son is bigger than any other character in the series.
• Snow Means Love: The last episode of the anime has Seiji and Midori together while it's snowing.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: Midori does this a lot, usually as part of a gag. More than once, it's a result of her own attempts at stopping Seiji from getting close to other girls backfiring.
• Spin-Off: Aoi Destruction, which follows the adventures of the feminine dojo owner and his colossal son.
• Spotting the Thread: Seiji and Midori are desperately trying to preserve their secret from Takamizawa, the doll otaku, and they nearly pull off convincing him that Midori is simply a normal doll, and that Seiji is just a closet otaku himself. And then, Midori sneezes, and things spiral out of control.
• Stealth Clothes: Takamizawa; he doesn't wear the "standard" outfit, but they're clearly this anyway.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Kouta is often squicked by his crush on Seiji, particularly after the Imagine Spot where he found himself fantasizing about being Seiji's left hand.
• Suggestive Collision: Played with and subverted twice:
  • The first incident happens when Ayase invites Seiji to her house for a home cooked meal. After several failed attempts to get him to notice her, she gives in, slips, bumps into Seiji, and ends up like this. At least until Seiji notices the kitchen's on fire.
  • It happens again after they get lost in the mountains during the school's ski trip and end up at a love motel. When Seiji tries to turn out the lights, he activates the bed's controls, causing Ayase to literally fall right in his lap. The moment gets ruined when Nao's father appears.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Seiji swore in the first page of Chapter 3 not to get into a fight ever again. Guess what happens on the next page?
  • Seiji goes to a department store to get more doll clothes for Midori, believing that he'd go somewhere that nobody would recognize him. Almost instantly after telling Midori this, he runs into Takamizawa.
• That Poor Cat: This repeatedly happens to Jigoru in the anime.
• They Would Cut You Up: Seiji's fear of what would happen should Midori get discovered by the wrong people. More specifically, that they'd cut her off, leaving him with one less hand and likely killing her.
• Through His Stomach: Ayase, in the throes of her crush on Seiji, "accidentally" brings an extra lunch and has no choice but to offer it to him.
• Throw It In!: In-Universe, Seiji's gang gets minor parts in a movie featuring their favorite actor, and get a little too into it.
• Training from Hell: Rin put Seiji through a form of this as a child.
• The Trickster: Seiji's elder sister, Rin.
• Troubled, but Cute: Seiji. He is often treated as having a Face of a Thug despite how cute girls actually think he is. He's a delinquent who can't stand bullies and stands up to them whenever he can, meaning he's always in trouble.
• Tsundere:
  • Ayase towards Seiji.
  • Seiji towards Midori, especially in the manga.
  • Shiori towards Tohyama.
• Unwanted Harem:
  • Seiji's is twice as large in the manga, which includes one guy.
  • Kouta has one in Nekobe and the Crimson Angels, a gang of four female delinquents.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Zigzagged. Seiji's delinquent image stands in stark contrast to the nice and peaceful kid that he was in his childhood. This is subverted in that anyone who gets to know him finds out he still has a heart of gold, it's just that it's hidden under a thick layer of anti-social behavior which scares everyone away.
• Violence is the Only Option: Ayase gets a hard lesson in this when a gang of delinquents invades the school looking for Seiji. She tries to see them off with firm authoritarian scolding, only for the leader to smack her in the face and drag her off with the blatant intention of raping her, and all the other students just stand helplessly around muttering that somebody ought to notify a teacher. It's only Seiji showing up to beat the shit out of the gang that saves her from a horrible fate.
• Visual Pun: In the manga, Ayase is sitting on Seiji's lap after he's been knocked unconscious. She goes in for a kiss right as he wakes up. She has a shocked look on her face - and a large banana appears in the background.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: When Seiji meets Lucy, he sees her American flag panties. The comparison image? Rocky wrapped in the same flag.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Quite a few times in the manga:
  • Seiji does this a couple times to catch a subway pervert and to raise some money.
  • Kouta does this too many times to count.
• Woman Scorned: You don't want to go near Midori when she's angry.
• Yaoi Fangirl: In the manga, Seiji's first crush, Yukino, ends up becoming this.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Seiji refuses to sell Midori to a famous figure collector for half a million yen, the collector tells the other figure otaku that such devotion should be an example to all. Cue awkward photo with Midori puppet wearing otaku. As a Brick Joke, when Takamizawa brings Seiji to show how Midori has inspired him to follow his dreams, the others there are impressed that the "God of Doll Otaku" was there to wish Takamizawa well, with Seiji strenuously objecting to the nickname.