Mendol Ikemen (also known as Mendol ~Ikemen Idol~) is a Japanese Drama recounting the story of three girls named Asahi, Nami, and Hinata, aspiring idols who as a result of various reasons (mainly failed auditions, but witnessing a crime in the case of two of them, and an aborted suicide in the third) decide to instead become male idols.
They of course meet many troubles due to such a condition, including at least one of them being hit on by another girl. More here
. The series is notable for featuring the three members of the AKB48 subunit no3b, and they perform the ending song as such group.
Tropes Contained In This Work:
- Awful Truth: The supposed lesbian manager is really former Doggy of Animal Crush, meaning she's actually a Creepy Crossdresser who's been fooling Marilyn all along. Marilyn doesn't take this well, and runs out.
But wait... Have they been having G-Rated Sex this whole time? Well, no, it was an actual sex change as revealed by a bed scene later on. - BDSM: Totally serious. The manager has a whip and everything. And in episode six, instead of whipping the trio, she whips the assistant (who groans in pleasure).
- Beautiful Dreamer: Asahi/Riku
- Better to Die than Be Killed: The band commits hara kiri. It's fake though, since they use prop knives.
- Betty and Veronica: Asahi has a nice (but slightly stalkerish) Jiro as her "Betty" and the more perverted director Katsuyuki as "Veronica."
- Casual Kink: The manager will suddenly start attacking her assistant sexually, sometimes while she's in the middle of pouring coffee. Or sharing food with just their lips, while licking each other's neck.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The manager. Besides being into anything that moves, and having some serious fetishes, she has some weird dream about having real men as an idol group. Men... who are women, because other men won't do.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: The manager's assistant. Also doubles as a lover.
- Depraved Bisexual: The manager seems a tad on the insane side, and definitely pursues both men and women to some extent.
- Everyone Lives
- Expy: The manager looks like the girl from Pulp Fiction.
- Farce: It has all the trademarks. People blurting out things they shouldn't, people walking in on people in compromising situations, Casual Kink, and absurd situations. Plus some of the chase scenes are just that ridiculous, like people trying to sneak away on the other side of a bush, and running into the very person they were trying to avoid.
- Generation Xerox: Asahi/Riku is most like Doggy (the manager), Nami/Kai is most like the current director of Monkey studios, and Hinata/Kuu is most like Usshi. Lampshaded, for Asahi in her Take Over the World moment, saying that she sounds surprisingly like the manager.
- Giftedly Bad: Hinata's singing when in a group is not terrible, but her solo singing of something called "the Angel Song" is so painful that everyone covers their ears in agony.
- Hitman with a Heart: Kuroda. Subverted, when he decides he has no use for Hinata and drugs and kidnaps her. Double subverted, since he also saves them by faking their deaths.
- Idol Singer: Pretty much all the main characters.
- If It's You, It's Okay: When Ray finds out "Kai" is actually a girl, she takes all of five seconds to kiss her. Nami (as Kai) mentions liking guys, so this is probably a case of that too. Also Marilyn, for the manager, after finding out she's really a guy.
- Incompatible Orientation: Asahi's love interest Katsuyuki decided that because he likes her (dressed as Riku), he must be gay.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: The girls make a Suspiciously Specific Denial about seeing a girl in a "pink" and "frilly" dress, and have to run away as a result.
- Larynx Dissonance: When in front of several men in the second episode, they keep saying stuff in very girly voices, and have to keep adjusting their voice.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Ray and Nami. Also the manager's girlfriend, Marilyn. The manager, isn't, because "she's" a he.
- Magical Gesture: The manager frequently makes motions straight out of Pulp Fiction.
- Marshmallow Hell: When visiting a club, the girls get this.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ray, finally deciding to pursue Kai, comes right as the band fakes a hara kiri style suicide. It of course, screws up their entire plan, because Hinata responds by asking about the kiss. They all break character to respond to her, and the jig is up.
- The Nose Knows: Marilyn, the manager's assistant, is able to identify who Asahi has been with.
- The Omniscient: The manager, apparently. The girls are chasing a thief around town, and by radio she tells them where she went to just now.
- And again with having knowledge that Jiro knows their secret.
- Portmanteau Series Name
- Punny Name: See the name in print, and it's usually hyphenated as Mendol-Ikemen. This is something like "Men-Idol Pretty Boy", using the rough translation. But if you see the title online it reads mendolikemen or "Men Do Like Men." All though this series is also about girls liking other girls, at least one of them has a former boyfriend who is seeing their "male" persona.
- The Reveal: Happens twice in one episode. The first time, however, the guy doesn't realize what he sees.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Obviously.
- Secret Identity: "Kai" is Nami, "Riku" is Asahi, and "Kuu" is Hinata.
- Shinto: Nami is at one point sweeping the entrance as a Shrine Maid.
- Skinship Grope: Gender Flipped, with one of the guys doing this to Riku's breast, and then commenting on how "firm his chest is."
- Stalker with a Crush/Dogged Nice Guy: One of the girl's former boyfriends (Jiro) is at the first concert.
- Status Buff: While trying to outrun a mugger, then mugger in question uses Haste.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Katsuyuki goes a bit nuts because he's attracted to Riku, who he's convinced is a guy. So much so that he dives on top of Asahi because she looks like Riku, but is female.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Several, but one in particular:Kai: I wasn't thinking Ray was cute, not at all.
- Sweet on Polly Oliver: Most of the romantic interests.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: The entire premise of the story.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Hinata gets one, where Nami and Asahi (as Kai and Riku) talk her out of jumping during their concert. Also counts as The Reveal, since they mention something she said about being an angel, which they heard while they auditioning together.
- Take Over the World: Part of the manager's grand scheme of using the band. Largely Played for Comedy, as Asahi interrupts this speech to talk about her own plans in that regard.
- Third-Person Person: Hinata.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Asahi is dating Jiro and is a high school student, Nami works for a moving company and dates Ray, and Hinata is pretty much back to her "normal" self. But... There's another epilogue after that, where they meet up again and try to become female idols.
- Whip of Dominance: Sakeo is a eccentric idol manager who is so strict and domineering that she uses a whip to intimidate the girls, hitting them with it whenever they're out partying, or doing something wrong. She also has a Dominatrix side and uses the whip for fetish purposes, often hitting her Cloudcuckoolander's Minder assistant with it.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Gender Flip. They get chased by the mafia, and have to make up a disguise on the spot. Later, the manager notices them, and decides they'd make great male idols.
- Yakuza: The reason the girls are like this is due to being chased by yakuza. Although, they are never mentioned as such, and could just be thugs.
