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Galadriel

  • Romania
  • Joined Jun 25, 2009
  • 31 / M

Maid-sama!

May 31, 2011

Kaichou wa Maid-sama

Woot! I'm back with more reviews! Been a while since i reviewed a show on A-P, fuck the lack of time not me! Even though exams are drawing near i still have time to watch anime or read manga. Damn i have no hope. Enough with briefing, time for the real thing:

Plot: "President of the Student Council at the almost-all-boys Seika High School, the hard-as-nails Misaki Ayuzawa works every day to make life easier on the small population of co-eds who have enrolled there. Though an unholy terror to all things male during school hours, in order to provide for her impoverished family, she secretly works after school at a maid cafe in Akihabara. However, when campus hottie Usui Takumi wanders into the restaurant during her shift, suddenly she finds her reputation in school at his mercy..." (site synopsis)

Story: Even though I finished watching Kaichou wa Maid-sama long ago, I’ve been caught up in some strange and unexpected business that made me postpone doing this review sooner, however better late than never. Kaichou wa Maid-sama from the moment it was announced people expected this one to be a big hit. The manga was popular way before the anime was announced, and the content that it has and the theme that it debats at the beginning surely managed to form a big fan-base in no time. What Kaichou presents is actually a simple romantic story but with a comedy aspect, sometimes well thought with very funny moments, with a tasteful humour but dragged way too long. The story centers on a high school girl named Misaki Ayuzawa. Even though she appears to be a normal high school girl, she has a big responsibility on her shoulders. Her father left her mother with a huge debt and to repay it she needed to get a job so that she can help her mother to pay the bills and to live a poor but normal life together with her younger sister Suzuna Ayuzawa. In order to cope with such a huge responsibility she had to strengthen up and become a reliable person and also an organized person. She became the student council president in a school where in the past it was an only all boys highschool but recently it got co-ed. By becoming a dictator she placed the welfare of the feminine side first so that the influence of boys may diminish. But this thing proved to be very difficult since all the time she had to do more than just her normal job. One boy in particular always proved to be very annoying since he did not do anything bad for the school nor for the teachers nor for other people but he attracts attention with his good looks and by the fact that he always rejects the proposals coming from other girls. Misaki stands firm and confronts the boy, his name is Usui Takumi. However this ends when Misaki’s secret has been exposed to Usui, he sees her when she was working part-time at a maid café, which Misaki did her best to keep it as a secret so that her reputation won’t fall. Thinking about it, since the school at that time was filled with delinquent boys, the fact that she was seen as a ruthless dictator might’ve been a stimulant so that they should stop harassing the girls, however if the secret was known by the guys they would have used it to exploit her weakness and all the thing would’ve went out of control. Nevertheless, Usui offered his help since Misaki is the kind that works too hard for other people’s sake while ignoring her own welfare, in other words a workaholic, and from this point on a strange but an imminent love relationship begins. One thing makes this show so popular, and that is the comedy aspect that I mentioned at the beginning. While the beginning of this show seemed to be a bit more serious, what is about to come are some big waves of laughter and shocking scenes (shocking not in a negative way). The romantic plot moves in slow motion but it surely develops mainly because Usui always hanged around Misaki, when she needed or not. How will their relationship develop and will Misaki be able to accept Usui and his own feelings in the end? What about her own feelings, will she notice them and accept them? I guess we all know the answers since this show does not seem like a melodrama to end in a dramatic way but the one thing that I was kinda disappointed in, was that they needed over 26 episodes so that they can reach a damn conclusion, when this could’ve been ended much earlier with room for more development. Nevertheless, Kaichou wa Maid-sama is not a show to be overlooked that easily, since it provides what fans look for mostly.

Animation and Sound: When we speak about a studio like J.C. Staff (Ai Yori Aoshi, Azumanga Daioh, Hatsukoi Limited, Kimikiss Pure Rouge, Tsukihime, Nodame Cantabile, Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Toradora, etc) we speak about good animation quality, design and directing. Even though this studio has a long history with both good shows, average and bad shows I have to admit that they did their best when it comes to animation issues and Kaichou is yet another example. Somehow this studio has a tendency to adapt romantic shows (with the romance aspect being in the center or as a side aspect is really not important) rather than mindless shounen shows which is another reason why they managed to impress. As for the sound, pretty much forgettable, the soundtracks are so shoujo~ish that it makes you sometimes burst into flames and quickly overlook them, however the only good point about this show regarding sound issues are the background sound where we can see several improvements. As for voice acting, it was pretty good even though there aren’t so many popular names among the cast, Misaki being voiced by Ayumi Fujimura (Kara no Kyoukai, Hatsukoi Limited, Kaze no Stigma, Letter Bee, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, etc) and Usui being voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto best known for his role Asu no Yoichi and To Aru Majutsu no Index.

Characters: Character wise I was once again impressed. Misaki surely has a very interesting personality, a ruthless dictator at school, a kind person around the other female students, a hardworking one when it comes to both school and family issues, she places the welfare of others in front of her own. However the only person which she can’t handle very well and her true self is revealed is of course Usui. He does not have a bad influence around her but somehow he is always around whenever she needs help. By pulling several pranks he managed to see more moods and reactions from Misaki and without knowing a true and strong relationship develops, which Usui does not try to deny while Misaki strongly tries to keep her feelings locked inside, catalogating Usui as a perverted alien whenever he pulls a prank against her and makes her feel embarrassed. As for the other characters, even though they have a less important role to play in this show they help in building the relationship between Misaki and Usui while they are also developed and not left behind.

Overall: Kaichou wa Maid-sama has everything a good show should have. Though sometimes drama is the aspect that makes a romantic show more spicy, for this one it did not need it since the comedy aspect of it did a great job. I admit that I prefer romantic dramas over romantic comedies but this was up until I encountered this show. I hope for a second season of this show, since the manga is still ongoing.

~Enjoy and Cya Around~

8/10 story
9/10 animation
7/10 sound
10/10 characters
8.5/10 overall

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