Midori Days

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That's not a hand puppet, folks.

Why does my hand have breasts on it?!

The story of a boy whose girlfriend is also his right hand. No, not like that.

Seiji Sawamura is a high school delinquent -- a rude, disrespectful punk with a "bad dude" air and a skill with 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 11-year-old neighbor Shiori) 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. She has surprising mobility -- not only can she move his arm at will, but if she wants to go somewhere, she can, and drag him along behind her however unwilling he might be. And to be honest, under any other conditions Midori would be a stunning catch -- beautiful, domestic, utterly devoted to him, and filthy rich. But it's all outweighed (for Seiji, at least) by the fact that she's now not much bigger than a Barbie doll and grafted onto the end of his arm. Then there are the complications borne of the fact that his deadly, gang-beating right cross now has big aqua eyes and a cute giggle... And on the distaff side, what about Midori's original body, now in a coma and watched over by her tearful mother?

Although against his will, Seiji finds he's starting to like Midori, he still has vast problems with both her existence as part of his body, and the impact this has on his "tough guy" image. Often he treats Midori like an embarassing acquaintance with whom he doesn't want to be seen. Still, Midori's love forgives all, and as it turns out she has a playful and even mischievous side that no doubt helps her extract a little revenge for his more brusque and insulting moments.

Naturally there are always complications -- attempts at revenge by the gangs whom Seiji has defeated, pressures at school, unpleasant relatives, the constant strain of hiding Midori from the world, and of course, now that he is in an apparently permanent relationship with a girl, other candidates finally start appearing. What's a poor tough-guy type supposed to do?

Despite its bizarre (indeed, borderline-nightmarish) premise and the gang-based violence that kicks it off, Midori no Hibi is actually a comedy, although it blends a few surprisingly sober and serious elements with its mostly-slapstick humor. There are hints that it will actually develop into a strange kind of love story between Seiji and Midori (who by the third episode habitually wears a tiny T-shirt emblazoned "I (heart) Seiji"); getting there will probably be a trip. Surprisingly, the show is free of the obvious Hentai humor it could generate about their relationship.

It's surprisingly well-animated, especially for a television series; the opening credits have some positively glorious animation of clouds and other natural phenomena, character movement is smooth and natural, and it isn't stinting on multiplane and other depth-simulating effects.

Now available in the United States under the title Midori Days.

Tropes used in Midori Days include:

• A Cup Angst: Midori suffers from this a couple of times.
• Adaptation Distillation: The Manga goes off on some long tangents, but the anime focuses on Midori and Seiji.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Hisashi Sakisaka
• 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 women shun him rather than being turned on by 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. See Freaky Friday Flip below.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Kouta loves Midori. Midori, Ayase, and Shiori love Seiji. And Seiji confessed his love to twenty girls and was rejected by every one.
• Americans Are Cowboys: When Lucy's friend Daniel shows up to try and bring her back to America, he's dressed in...well, typical cowboy attire.
• Anti-Hero: Seiji is a Type II or a Type III.
  • At the series starts he has some elements of type 1. He's struck out with over 20 women and he is a delinquent.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "... Am I a burden?"
  • "Why did I have to fall in love with an asshole like you?"
  • Actually, the last week is just full of these.
• Armor-Piercing Slap: Shiori's step mom belts her one, to show her how much she cares.
• Attractive Bent Gender: When Seiji dresses as a girl to catch a pervert on the train, his buddy finds Seiji "just his type". Likewise, when Kota cross-dresses, Seiji finds him incredibly attractive. So did the female gang that forced him into it.
• Audible Sharpness
• Barehanded Blade Block: By Midori, of all people
• Best Beer Ever: Rin.
• Beyond the Impossible: Averted. One of Seiji's classmates claimed he did this by punching out a car but Seiji sweatdrops and says that's impossible.
• Big Fancy House: Midori's
• 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
• Bland-Name Product: Game Non Stop, Takamizawa's "Camon IOS" camera, and Play Girl.
• Blank White Eyes: How would you react to meeting Midori...?
• Blinding Bangs: Suzuka, Kamaki's right hand woman
• Blue With Shock
• Bottomless Bladder: Averted for comedy, since Midori has to go everywhere Seiji goes. And when he lost the use of his other hand too...
• Breast Sponge: Midori to Seiji of course. She keeps her towel on, though.
• Bromantic Foil: Miyahara
• Cannot Spit It Out: Midori before she becomes Seiji's hand, and Ayase after Seiji saves her.
• Captain's Log: Midori's diary, written while Seiji is asleep.
• Caretaker Reversal: In one episode, Seiji accidentally drinks a bottle of sake, and Midori tries to take care of him. When he wakes up, he feels great, but Midori is sick.
• Catgirl: A costume, not a "true" catgirl, but nonetheless...
• Cat Smile: Nekobe, a minor character, has this effect constantly
• Character Development: Midori took a big jump at the start of the series (which we don't find out until much later). After being a rather extreme Shrinking Violet for much of her life, when she 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 garden variety Shrinking Violet to an eccentric, fun-loving, Hypercompetent Sidekick.
  • Seiji himself 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 as the series goes on. 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.
• 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: In the opening credits, also in one picture Kota has of Midori
• Chick Magnet: Seiji
• Class Representative: Ayase, or at least the audience is led to believe. 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.
• Costume Porn: Some of Midori and the doll's outfits.
• Cool Big Sis: Rin is a brutal and drunken version, but still loving.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Midori has had some pretty lewd dreams and fantasies, though she doesn't actually get more explicit than This and That. She also seems pretty eager to help Seiji in the bathroom...
  • Ayase happily fantasizes on how Seiji in 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).
    
    Ayase's most blatant moment was when she and Seiji accidentally switch video tapes after running into each other. She was expecting to have a story about a young boy and his faithful dog. She ended up with a piece of Seiji's Porn Stash. Her response? Take notes.
• Cranial Eruption
• Cross-Popping Veins: more realistically done than usual.
• Curtains Match the Window: Midori, natch. And her mom.
• Cute Shotaro Boy: Kota Shingyouji
• Death Glare: A skill Seiji uses. When Kouta uses it, it resulted in Puppy Dog Eyes instead.
• Delinquents
• Dragged Into Drag: Kota 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.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The upper panel on this page.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: A 38-year-old man with a son, no less...
• Eagle Land: Lucy Winnlad is an American, you can tell because she has American flag panties. Her friend Daniel is so stereotypical and Type Two that he takes Refuge in Audacity.
  • Also Lucy came to Japan to get away from him.
    • People tend to forget 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 Creepy Otaku Have Standards Takamizawa may be a doll fetishist with some very disturbing attitudes towards women, but even he knows that taking upskirt photos with a cellphone is not acceptable behavior.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Seiji. Not only is he a Chick Magnet, he has a Cute Shotaro Boy head over heels for him.
• Face of a Thug: 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
• Fan Service
• First Girl Wins
• First Kiss
• Flag Bikini
• Flung Clothing
• For Science!: The credo of Dr. Makinoha Shirou, as shown here
• Freaky Friday Flip: In one episode, Seiji and Midori switch places
• Gagging On Your Words: Seiji is incapable of saying "I love you" to Midori, even as a throwaway and joking way.
• Gecko Ending: The anime is much shorter than the manga, and leaves out several females, most importantly Nao Makinoha and Lucy Winladd
  • On the other hand, it happened just before the manga ended, and the final resolution itself is almost identical.
• Genki Girl
• 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" ... of course, until it melts over her head.
• Gratuitous English: Just a phrase here and there
• Glomp: when done by a girl on one's right arm, can be painful...
• Hair Colors: Mainly Midori; while Seiji is blonde, a flashback suggests that he bleaches his hair, while all other characters seem to have normal hair colours. Which makes the female lead's unique hair colour more unreal and interesting.
  • Notably, in the anime at least, the real Midori's hair is more of a dark green than the bright green of her smaller self...
  • Midori's name is written with the kanji for 'beautiful bird', but it's a homophone for 'green'.
• Hachimaki: Ayase sports one momentarily when she sets out to become Seiji's girlfriend
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Kittan? What happened to your hand?
  • If Shiori really wants to be friends with Seiji, she should use a Starlight Breaker.
• How to Become A Love Interest: Ayase uses a bunch of these in one episode to try to get Seiji. Hilarity Ensues
• Hyperspace Mallet: Nao has one of truly epic proportions which will knock seemingly anything out with one hit
• I Have This Friend: Ayase finally spits it out.
• Imagine Spot: An interesting take on the trope, where the Imagine Spots 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
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Yes, he made a "helping hand" joke
  • How about Midori? It's Japanese for green. Guess what Midori's hair color is.
• In Love With Your Carnage: Kamaki Rina seems to love Seiji's old brutal ways, just look at that face
• Invulnerable Knuckles: Played straight in an urban legend about how Seiji punched through a car.
• James Bondage: Osamu exists to be taken hostage to lure Seiji into fights
• Jerk With a Heart of Gold
• Joshikousei
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Over and over!
• 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.
• Mad Scientist: Shirou Makinoha, who's obsessed over how Midori ended up on Seiji's hand.
  • Most disturbing moment: when he sprays Midori with glue (which looks weird for glue).
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: subverted by Nao Makinoha, she has more interest in Midori than Seiji
• Magical Girlfriend
• Magical Native American: The Indian Witch Doctor is the only one to correctly identify Midori's condition.
• Magnetic Girlfriend
• Meaningful Name: Nekobe, leader of the Crisom Angels, has a constant Cat Smile.
• Megaton Punch
• 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.
• Modesty Towel: Seiji wears one in his own bathtub. Normally would be an Egregious example of the trope, but it's perfectly justified here since there's a girl on his arm. (And then the towel falls off . . .)
• My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours
• Nerds Are Virgins: So that's what breasts look like.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: From an 11-year-old Shiori in a leather domme outfit, yet...
• 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.
• 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 maids.
• Oblivious to Love: Seiji. Good god, the guy has so many female AND male suitors, yet laments about how he can't find a girlfriend. It took pretty much the whole series for Midori (who was the most straightforward about her feelings out of all the characters) to make him understand how much she loves him; she had to be literally grafted to his arm to succeed, also.
  • What makes it extra hilarious is that it's heavily implied that he liked Midori in return from the beginning of the series, and he gets really attached/possessive very fast. VERY, VERY oblivious.
• Ocular Gushers
• Of Corpse He's Conscious: One manga chapter deals with Midori dealing with household issues while Seiji's knocked out due to drinking some tequila. This includes having to drag Seiji's body over to greet a pizza delivery man and a textbook salesman and fighting off a theif 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: Shuichi Takamizawa, a doll otaku who covets Midori
• Out-of-Genre Experience: Feudal-era Japan with Seiji as a wanted swordsman during, Days Special.
• Panty Shot
• Parental Abandonment
• Parent With New Paramour: Seiji helps Shiori get over her initial dislike of her new mother
• Porn Stash: A couple of chapters in the manga deal with Midori clearing out Seiji's collection of adult magazines / tapes.
• Precocious Crush: Shiori's efforts to win Seiji's affection, especially in episode 6
• Power Perversion Potential: See Fetish Fuel above
• Puppy Dog Eyes
• Quivering Eyes
• 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: (Ayase hugging Seiji when she confesses to him in the anime.)
• Rescue Romance (Ayase develops a romantic interest in Seiji after he rescues her from a gang.)
  • In the manga, it wasn't quite a romantic one when he saved her. When he took a beating to save a friend and ensure said friend wouldn't get kidnapped to draw him out again, however, she started to understand him more and fall for him.
• 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 plotting something embarassing for Seiji.
• Schoolgirl Lesbians: Kamaki and Suzuka.
• Selective Obliviousness: Seiji desperately wants a girlfriend, but is completely oblivious to Midori's and Ayase's feelings for him
  • At least with Ayase, it's at least understandable given how hot and cold she treats Seiji. However, given how much Midori talks about love, it boggles the mind how he can miss it.
    • He doesn't mis it, he just doesn't reciprocate the feeling.
    • Well, he does get better.
• Shout-Out (Episode 4's visit to a "figurine shop" briefly displays recognizable tributes to Rei Ayanami, Cardcaptor Sakura and at least a dozen other anime girls; there's also a parody of the Toho Studios standard movie opening. Also, in chapter 57 in the manga, there were two characters who were clearly cosplaying as Naruto Uzamaki from Naruto and Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece)
  • The Makinohas were flush with these. A robot controlled by wristwatch? Check. A cyborg that's mobile without legs, had feelings, and the head is self-sustained? Check. A bunch of mass-produced androids, that suspiciously looks like something from Zentradi? Check.
    • I cannot believe that this troper is the only one who noticed Crocodile's Hook on this page.
    • Or Gash's book on this one
    • Or the Final Fantasy X's Yuna and Rikku.
    • Is she reading a manga version of A Clockwork Orange, or am I just seeing things?
    • In Chapter 40, Rin pulls a Shin on a biker who was unfortunate enough to overtake her.
    • Did anybody who read the manga notice that Lucy and Kamaki bear more than a striking resemblance to Tiffany and Chairperson, respectively?
    • I always thought Lucy reminded me, physically, of Winry. The fact that her last name is Winrad might suggest that this is intentional.
    • There's also the Beniko chick from Midori's school, who looks a helluva lot like Benio from Ouran High School Host Club. Name's (almost) the same, even!
• 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.
• Snow Means Love: The last episode of the anime.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears
• Spin-Off: Aoi Destruction, which followed the adventures of the trap dojo owner and his colossal son.
• Squeaky Eyes
• Stealth Clothes: Takamizawa; he doesn't wear the "standard" outfit, but they're clearly Stealth Clothes anyway
• Strange Girl: Nao Makinoha
• 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...
• That Poor Cat
• They'd Cut You Up: Well, off at least...
• 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: 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
• Trickster: Seiji's elder sister
• Troubled but Cute
• Tsundere: Ayase towards Seiji, and Seiji to Midori -- especially in the manga. Shiori is also a tsundere to Tohyama.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kota, a rare male version
• Unwanted Harem: twice as large in the manga, including one guy
  • Kouta has his own Unwanted Harem in Nekobe and the Crimson Angels, a gang of four female delinquents.
• Visual Pun: A possible example occurs when Seiji is punched to the ground in a bowling lane. Does this mean the gang member scored a strike?
• Wearing a Flag On Your Head: When Seiji meets Lucy, he sees her stars-anstripes 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; Kota does this too many times to count
  • In the Manga both Kota and Seiji crossdress on two separate occasions. Although on one on those times Kota did try to kiss Seiji so I'm not sure how "wholesome" it is...
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Kota; just look at this.
• Widget Series
• 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