KAICHOU WA MAID-SAMA!

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyKaichou wa Maid-sama!
SPECIAL ComedyKaichou wa Maid-sama!: Omake dayo!
SPECIAL ComedyKaichou wa Maid-sama!: Goshujin-sama to Asonjao♥

REVIEWS

• 

  Daemonplay

  75/100
  An exploration of common fantasies and behavior

  Going into this show I definitely would not have expected my attention and interest to turn to an analytical side regarding psychology and behavior. And while that might not be the most evident point of view from which you can judge a show (mostly because I doubt that the aspects I'm going to mention were implemented with the conscious knowledge of their nature) it might still be useful to explore it from that angle.

  But let's start with the typical criteria first. While it's not a show that can shine with expressive animation due to its lack of scenes where such things would be extremely obvious I didn't find it in any way bad. It's decent and doesn't break your immersion which is the most important aspect. Regarding art I want to mention the (two) different styles they use quite frequently throughout the show. One being way more detailed than the other "chibi-like" style which was often used for comedic relief. Overall while no artistic masterpiece it was sufficent enough (btw I've never seen so many "close-up-flower-shots" in one series before).

  Shaking up my usual order a bit I want to talk about the soundtrack next. I definitely didn't expect it to be a powerhouse of diversity (which in most cases isn't even that great as a coherent theme throughout is more effective in my opinion) in regards of instruments used and overall tone and it definitely isn't. But the most important aspect when it comes to musical accompaniment is that it fits the current scene and underlines what's visually happening in front of you. That's something it did for me most of the time. The OP was not very unique visually speaking (which really isn't a trademark of romcoms) but the song used was quite good and I was satisfied with that combination.

  With that out of the way I want to get into the main bulk of this review its heart so to speak which is the analysis of characters and their interaction. As mentioned in the opening paragraph I found quite a bit of value in watching this show with attention to psychological aspects. It is in many ways an exaggerated (how much so depends on your own personal experiences) portrayl of human dating concepts. It shows us the effects of the famous "pareto principle" regarding human pair-bonding in action. While quite interesting scientifically speaking here it simply boils down to almost every girl throwing themselves at one of our two main characters Usui (or that one lead singer that appears in two episodes). In this sense Usui's "perfection", which might be seen as boring by a few people, as it takes away all tension or "outside-threats", allows the show for exactly this exaggerated view of human relationships. In a way it is quite ironic that even our quite independent (and in the beginning rather feministic) main character Misaki falls prey to exactly this allure. Something else that is very noticeable is that the show doesn't hide the very real phenomenon that if you are attractive you can get away with much more even crimes like harassment and stalking compared to people that are not attractive. In the very regular event that Usui possessively interferes with a situation not to his liking, the show even glorifies stalking a bit. An aspect that I personally don't even find that bothersome as it has its basis in reality but which could seem quite annoying when looking at the show through a different lens.

  Overall I can say that Kaichou wa Maid-sama! has been an interesting watching experience for me. It's a show that could benefit from a second season and everyone who has watched it probably agrees that the aftermath of the ending would have been more interesting to see story-wise compared to the path leading up to it (but I guess that's very the Manga comes into play). If you are a fan of aspects like uncertainty in outcome in regards to story or ambiguity in regards to character-goals and motivations then you might find some aspects a bit lackluster. However if you also like psychological analysis of human behavior like me or you are a fan of (female) fantasy explorations then you'll have quite a bit of fun with this one simply seeing how these things are quite evident.

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• 

  makunochi

  20/100
  Childish, disturbing, and not a normal human's idea of romance!

  Very light spoilers ahead, almost spoiler-free.

  I tend to be very wary when it comes to the Shoujo genre due to the amount of clichés I'll be facing ahead of me. But it's alright, I do not mind a cliché as long as it's well executed.

  This one was disastrous.

  The characters: 1/10

  I think the worst thing about the anime was its characters. Extremely horrendous, from the main characters to the very useless ones. Let's start with the main characters:

  Takumi Usui: I think I should start making a list of my most hated characters, and I'm sure Usui will top that list. I have never seen such an atrocious character in my life like this before. If I had one word to describe Usui with, it will be: stalker.
  Usui is a literal stalker that started following Ayuzawa everywhere she went. We don't see much about his character. We don't see him doing anything but stalking Ayuzawa. It's beyond me why every girl in the school worships him. They don't like him, they literally worship the dude. Every single person in the school worships him, let it be male or female. For no damn reason. Sure, he's good looking, but that's all. He's a cold, emotionless, expressionless character that rejects girls in the worst way possible. He does not to talk to anyone, has no friends, and does not do anything but stalk Ayuzawa. It seriously got creepy. He would even casually pat her head, half-hug her, or calls her 'his maid' or 'his' in front of people, despite her continuously telling him not to 'casually touch her.' He repeatedly makes her uncomfortable and tensed. I don't know about you, but if the girl I like does not like my presence, I wouldn't be around her 24/7. He went as far as pretending to be a stalker when there were rumours of stalkers targeting maids so 'she'd be ready.' That's the kind of a creep he is.

  Misaki Ayuzawa: The demonic Class President who scares off boys and helps girls. As it's quite obvious in the synopsis, Misaki isn't your average girl. She's not so very feminine, an Aikido kickass, and a workaholic. She's a very cheesy character of the not-like-other-girls theme. But a character can only get so cliché. Misaki exceeded the limit. The anime wanted to show how much of an oh so strong independent woman it got so annoying. She's the top in academics, the top in sports, the Class President who handles all kinds of responsibilities and organises events. And she also has a part-time job as a maid in cafe. She's hardworking, determined, selfless, accepting, thoughtful, hot-headed and a tomboy. On top of that, she does not have a single breakdown. She's completely one dimensional, annoying, and boring. I think it's the worst version of a tsundere I have ever seen. A very forgettable character. If anything, she came off as a sadist who likes to scare boys, and a masochist who likes to be in pain.

  The supporting characters: You shouldn't really expect any meaningful supporting characters when the main characters themselves are one dimensional, so here I am, repeating again, every single supporting character is a stupid, one dimensional airhead.
  And seriously, what is WRONG with the whole stalker idea? Not only does Ayuzawa have a main stalker, she also has 3 other stalkers that go to her cafe every single day until they're penniless because Ayuzawa is 'kawaiiii', even though she was their enemy at the beginning and they hated her guts. It IS NOT OK to stare at a girl at your school every day at her part-time job.

  The supporting characters can be distributed into 3 groups:

  A. The stalkers: mentioned above.

  B. The dumb airheads: all her coworkers at school and basically every other girl in the anime.

  C. The worshippers:
  The worshippers are basically the rest of the school. We have:

  1. 5 boys who look exactly the same, who worship Ayuzawa because of how smart she is and how much they want to be like her. (They also follow her everywhere in the school)
  2. The rest of the school: Usui worshippers. Every time he opens his mouth, they fangirl and drool (Not literally) at his words. Like he's a god.

  The story: 2/10
  One point for the idea. It's your typical tough girl with an oh-I'm-not-like-other-girls theme, and your average hot boi that everyone is head over heels for while the only person who grabs his attention is the one who does not give a damn about him -- the tough girl. It's a very famous cliché especially in the Shoujo genre and if it can be done well, then it can be good. I think this version of it was the worst I have ever read/seen. The anime is mostly a very tedious Slice of Life about overused one dimensional characters. It's dragging, extremely boring, full of unnecessary details with a very shitty romance--if I dare call this creepy thing they had a romance. Nothing ever truly happens. Romance lovers should skip this anime as well, there's a very limited amount of 'romantic scenes', and a lot of awkward ones. (Though, to be fair, the final scene at the final episode was decent.)

  The Art: 4/10
  It was cringy. The characters are well-drawn but would alternate between a decent drawing and a crappy 5-year-old scribbles a lot.

  The sound: 4/10
  It was okay. The openings aren't very bad and the voices are kind of decent, but the music was a bit underwhelming. Easily forgettable.

  Enjoyment: below zero.
  Nothing about the anime was enjoyable, there is not a single thing you can find even slightly amusing and not a single character you can root for. It was torturous.

  Overall: 2/10 Appalling. A very terrible experience.

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• 

  SakurauchiLily

  20/100
  Misaki's reverse character development is just the tip of the iceberg in the horrible journey of watching this show.

  I started watching Maid Sama expecting something along the lines of a girl from a blue-collar family getting a job as a maid for some wealthy guy and falling head over heels in love with him. What I got was anything but that.

  Maid Sama basically tells the story of Misaki Ayuzawa, the student council president at a formerly all-boys school with a reputation for having a rowdy student body. Though she strives to improve the school and make the male students less misogynistic, she remains unpopular among said boys due to her harsh, strict demeanor. However, she then meets Takumi Usui, a guy known for rejecting every girl who confesses his love to him. As the story progresses, Usui appears more and more in Misaki's life, discovering her job at a maid café, which she doesn't tell to anyone, and making her lose her harsh demeanor.

  If you skipped through my review and scrolled to the end, you probably would've seen the score I gave Maid Sama. Yeah, I didn't like it very much. As stated in this review's summary, I absolutely hated how Misaki's character evolved throughout the anime. Sure, she might have been a little too strict at the beginning of the series, but she was independent and strived to make things better for the female student body. By the end, she's just become a damsel in distress and she's practically dependent on Usui for emotional support; a tragic outcome for a once-strong female character.

  Speaking of Usui, I HATE him. No seriously, I absolutely despise him, more than any character in any anime I've seen. To sum him up, he's basically a Gary-Stu who's good at absolutely everything, has no weakness and spends all his free time stalking Misaki like some kind of creep. Somehow, he never got the idea that he should stop, even after constantly getting chewed out for his actions by Misaki. I thought we were going to learn why he acts like that in an episode where Misaki and her friends stalk him for a change, but the whole thing amounted to nothing and we still don't know anything about his backstory by the end of the anime. Oh, and I read somewhere that he only likes Misaki because he "doesn't like girls that are too feminine." Speaking of which, there's this truly baffling scene where he thanks another character by kissing him ON THE LIPS. Yeah, Usui's probably just gay and denying it.

  There are other characters in the anime, though they're either as flat as sheets of paper, or they amount to nothing. There's this incessantly irritating transvestite named Aoi who adds nothing of value to the show and just takes up screen time while acting like a spoiled brat, and a series of quintuplets who follow Misaki around for an episode before disappearing into thin air, to name a few. There are antagonists, though they just hit on Misaki, act perverted and get told off by Usui because of course, he's always there for her. Because of course he is.

  This anime ran for 26 episodes and they all basically follow the same formula: Misaki gets into trouble due to her being stubborn, before Usui barges in, somehow inspires her and saves everything. Then everyone's happy until the next episode, where the same thing occurs. It's repetitive, monotonous and I can't believe I sat through the whole thing. The art isn't really something to write home about either and some of the backgrounds especially are lacking in detail.

  For whatever reason, I thought that Hiro Fujiwara, the creator of Maid Sama, was a man and that Usui was basically an idealised, Gary-Stu version of him. However, it turns out that Fujiwara's a woman! I guess this technically lends credence to the theory that Usui is supposed to be her ideal lover, though this doesn't make him a better character, nor does it make Maid Sama anywhere near good.

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