Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Title: Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Genre: Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life Rating: 8.7/10

Summary: A romantic comedy that centers on the student council head named Misaki Ayuzawa who despises the mostly male, slovenly population at her school, which was once an all-boys school. However, Misaki’s most handsome schoolmate just discovered her secret — that she works afterschool at a maid café. (ANN)

Review: The final review for the Summer 2010 anime, and I saved the best for last. As many of you know Kaichou wa Maid-sama came out during spring and I had iffy thoughts about how it will turn out during my first look. I’m glad to say that I stuck with it because the characters, comedy, and story were very well done. The character development was phenomenal. The romance between Ayuzawa and Usui was perfectly executed. I think what really attracted me to the series as a whole was Usui. For once the guy heroin was actually useful. Beyond useful. I’m so tired of the average Joe, or even well below average Joe getting all these amazing women for the dumbest things. Usui was adored by all the girls for good reason. He had it all: brawn, brains, athletic, etc. It makes sense that ANY girl would fall for him. More importantly he knew what he wanted. He wasn’t the guy where you are screaming at your television, “Just tell her already! How hard can it be?!” 20 episodes in. To compliment his cool (protective) attitude was the hard working tsundere. I’m actually a big fan of these personalities and Ayuzawa couldn’t have been better. Her tough outer shell could only be broken by Usui’s charm and sly actions. There were filler episodes that I didn’t much care for, but the story episodes were always fun to watch. I couldn’t wait to see how Usui came to the rescue at the last second. Now moving onto the negatives of the anime. For one the support characters were awful. All of them had an annoying presence to me. Ayuzawa’s two best friends, co-workers, even fellow students were either boring, annoying, or other negative ‘ing’ work. The ending wasn’t up to par for my taste. There were heart warming moments, but it felt unfinished. I don’t know if making a season two will work (if it is an additional 26 episodes), because that may be too long to wrap things up. I wouldn’t hesitate to watch if there was a second season, but I hope they do a better job with the resolution. The art work wasn’t anything amazing. It wasn’t bad and I don’t consider it a real negative, but it wasn’t something that helped either. Average or slightly above at best I would say. The only thing I could say about the soundtrack is that it fit.  The lyrics were alright and I didn’t mind the beat. It seems as though they tried to make the opening all about Ayuzawa and the ending all about Usui, even the genre. That was a pretty neat tactic.

Final statement: For a guy, this anime isn’t bad to watch if you like tsundere girls like myself. Girls, I don’t see any reason you wouldn’t love this anime because of Usui alone. I would consider it a high priority watch for any romance comedy fan.