I'm a Lady's Maid; I've Pulled Out the Holy Sword (2020)

[侍女なのに…聖剣を抜いてしまった!]

Volume 1

Author: Midori Akino
Artist: Genen
Publisher: Gangan Comics Online

Synopsis:
A maidservant at the palace accidentally draws the holy sword of the Hero.

Story/Characters:
I'm not usually a fan of the trend these days of just making the whole high concept the title of stories, but it is a way to draw you in if that high concept appeals to you. The premise here caught my interest and so far, it's well worth it. Our lead Eleanor is pretty appealing, a bit on the clumsy side with shades of tsundere but also a strong moral core. Solid protagonist material. We quickly introduce the obvious future love interest Prince Brea and he and Eleanor have the classic back-and-forth you'd expect from this kind of story. We then introduce childhood friend Reed, who seems to be another obvious love interest. Next up is the introduction of Eleanor's sickly little brother Bradley. Now, if I'm going to have to spoil this next point because I can't talk about the rest of the volume without it. When Eleanor drew the holy sword and became the Hero, Brad awakened as the Demon Lord. I love this setup. You have two siblings who deeply love each other on opposite sides. With the awakening of his powers, Brad is falling to darkness, but Eleanor is the one thing that holds him back. This is obviously a problem for the Demon Lord's servants, Gren and Wolfgang. The two play well into the animal archetypes they represent, nicely complementing each other and bouncing off Eleanor in different ways. In particular, the crafty Gren is great at pushing Eleanor's buttons and getting some good reactions out of her. Gren playing with his shapeshifting ability sets up the next misadventure where he turns into Prince Brea and then Eleanor mistakes the real Brea for Gren. We also see a bit with Brea's brother Claus and expand a bit on the current succession dispute, which dovetails into the discussion Gren and Wolfgang had about blood ties among humans not necessarily being a guarantor of loyalty.

Art:
The art is quite good with appealing character designs. There's some decent visual comedy as well.

Other:
We also get a little short story by the author.

Conclusion:
I really like the setup here. There's a lot of promise and I'm eager to see more. With good art and an appealing cast, there's not much more you can ask for. I'd recommend adding this to your collection.

Rating:
Own It