Kaichou wa Maid-sama! review

My review of Kaichou wa Maid-sama!…

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! is a shojo series, a slightly above average one in my opinion, that’s focused mostly on the light, romantic comedy style of shojo anime as opposed to the emotional dramatic style. From the first episode and on, one can see that the colors in the series are sharp and vibrant, with the characters constantly being chibi-fied and drawn with many types of comedic anime iconography. The show even goes so far as to put in bubbly backgrounds and on-screen text for things like sound effects and descriptions of what a character is feeling or doing, further increasing the “light, funny shojo manga” mood of the series. In this sense, Maid-sama! is a shojo series like Kare Kano and Itazurana Kiss as opposed to Kimi ni Todoke and Vampire Knight. However, while the former two titles tend to be more comedic, they also have plenty of drawn-out scenes of emotional monologues and tear-jerking drama. Maid-sama!, however, is faithfully consistent with being a light romance comedy, with its few dramatic scenes never being enough to make your eyes water.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! follows a very familiar shojo plot – at least one of the main characters is reluctant or uncertain about their feelings for the other, and episodes are composed of situations that force them to become closer, while also giving time to subplots involving minor characters from time to time. In the case of Maid-sama! however, I was surprised at how relatively few episode took the focus away from the main couple, Misaki and Usui. Even episodes revolving around minor characters like Kanou and Hinata led to some relationship development for Misaki and Usui. There were some exceptions, such as the episodes about Aoi and Sakura and UmeMishi, but for the most part the series puts the majority of its focus on the main couple.

So now that I’ve established that Maid-sama! is all about comedy and the romance of its two main characters, how does it fare with these themes? For comedy, I have to admit that I don’t think I laughed at much of anything in the series besides a few humorous exchanges between Misaki and Usui. Maybe it’s because the overall comical feel of the show didn’t make any of the funny scenes stand out, or perhaps the style of humor just doesn’t affect my funny bone. It’s not that the hyperbolic comedy and character-driven gags weren’t fun to me, just not funny, if that makes any sense.

As for the romance between our main couple, Misaki and Usui, I thought it was executed pretty well and enjoyed almost all of their scenes together. I did notice that their relationship throughout the series didn’t really develop much – from beginning to end, Usui was in continuous love with Misaki while Misaki was in continuous denial of him. It was only in a few later scenes, and of course the last episode, where we see that she’s finally getting over her reluctance. The fact that Misakai wants to keep her part-time job as a maid a secret seems like it’s going to be an important plot element at first, but besides being a device for some filler-ish episode plots and a few instances of bribery from Usui, it becomes less important as the series progresses (kind of like Nogizaka Haruka’s secret).

Looking at our couple as individual characters, Misaki is definitely in the class of tomboyish, tsundere shojo protagonists as opposed to meek, girly ones. I like the fact that she’s tough without being bitchy and tsundere without being violent. Her main flaw is that a lot of the things she says and does are typical of her character archetype. Usui on the other hand, is quite unique in my opinion, and I found him to be one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in a while. He’s open to his feelings for Misaki right from the beginning and never falters, but he also loves to mess with her and act in vague, mischievous ways that confuse her into getting closer to him, while at the same time he’s always there when she needs him to save her from harm. I could never predict whether he was going to be honest and affectionate or manipulative and sneaky. As far as shojo male protagonists go, he’s not your typical nice guy or your typical snob, but somewhere in between. He’s just full of surprises.

The rest of the Maid-sama! characters have their own charms, though none of them are that memorable (besides our “trap” Aoi perhaps?) But since the show is a light comedy series that’s mostly focused on its main couple, it’s not concerned with creating extensive development for minor characters.

I don’t have much to say about the music and animation in Maid-sama!, since they’re both average, but I would like to comment on the ending. I did like how it gave us a sense that Misaki is finally starting to be honest with her feelings about Usui, but I didn’t like how abruptly it ended after that. If it wanted to go with this “return to the (slightly updated) status quo” ending, the rest of the characters, like Suzuna, Aoi, the girls at Maid Latte, the “idiot trio,” and even Hinata should have had their own little parting scene at the end (some of them didn’t even appear at all in the final episode). Without giving a nod to the rest of the characters before ending, it just seemed abrupt to me.

To summarize, despite following the typical shojo comedy storyline, Kaichou wa Maid-sama! is fun nonetheless, with an entertaining main couple. The lack of emotional scenes and the insistent shojo-style animation and on-screen text could be annoying to some, but unique to others. I would recommend this series if you’re looking for simple, light, comical shojo fun that’s never too serious or emotional.

And as usual, since the original manga is still ongoing, we may see more Maid-sama! in future anime seasons.