Maid Sama! (2010)

[会長はメイド様!]

Director: Hiroaki Sakurai
Studio: JC Staff
Starring: Ayumi Fujimura, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Kazuyoshi Shiibashi
Episodes: 26

Synopsis:
The tough-as-nails student council president of a formerly all-boys school finds herself in an awkward position when one of her classmates discovers her part-time job working at a maid cafe.

Impressions:
This is another viewing experience I can thank a Youtube mashup for. I just needed to see a few of the early comedic scenes to get me interested and I was quickly hooked once I started watching the series proper. This makes for a nice contrast to Wolf Girl and Black Prince, which I saw shortly beforehand. One of my big issues with Wolf Girl was Kyouya's emotionally abusive ways, but our male lead here is far more benign and playful. Yes, Usui torments Misaki constantly, which some people may not appreciate, but he never goes out of his way to hurt her. As for Misaki, I like how strong-willed she is. She can take it too far, but she learns to mellow out a bit as she goes on. In fact, the character arcs for Misaki and Usui both are fairly satisfying to see develop. Besides the main duo, we've got a decent supporting cast, not terribly well-developed, but they serve their purpose. The writing quality drops a bit when Shintani is introduced in the latter part of the series and his character doesn't feel like it's handled all that well, but the school festival two-parter at the end is a decent closing. There's more to the original source, as you might imagine, but it doesn't look like a sequel is in the offing. Overall, it's no masterpiece, but it is an enjoyable watch you should consider giving a shot.

Rating:
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