Mayo Chiki!

Story
It's about a girl who hides the fact that she is a girl so she can be a butler but Kenjirou finds out about this by accident and he is menaced to hide this or she will make him disappear, the story is ok even if this sounds silly but there's no ending, that bothered me, it ended with a normal ep. like a little back story for one of the girls he met before and didn't appear much but the story is ok justno good because of this.

Art & Animation
The animations was very good, the details, the landscape is great, the characters design are ... very good too.

Sound
The sound is very good, the VA was very good, the OP and ED are not bad.

Characters
The characters are interesting, all of them are different and refreshing in a comedy and not just the normal or cliche characters on other anime series, they all were good, they were funny, they had their purpose and even if this was a harem they don't like Kenjirou at the first time they see him.

Enjoyment
A mix of everything made this really enjoyable, i got a very good enjoyment from this and in a episode two girls appear and they happen to look like the sisters from KissxSis; This would have been even better if they didn't make that final episode 13 the ending, it looked more like a 6th episode to be honest and it was a let down, this didn't have a proper end.

Mayo Chiki is really just another typical high school/fan service anime with plenty of boob shots, a cat girl, a main character who can't interact with females, a hyperactive younger sister and the female/man butler combo. Visually Mayo Chiki is well animated and the character designs are well done, even though they all seem a little too familiar. There is nothing new which makes this series stand out from other anime of the same genre so I don't expect anyone to watch this series and regard it at one of their favourite animes of the year, but it does make for a good gap filler ... in between some of the better releases planned for this summer. This is an easy to watch anime, there is nothing complicated or mind blowing about the story or the visuals but in the end it's still a fun series to pass the time while waiting for something better to come along.

Review by Charles Shepherd
www.electricbloomwebzine.blogspot.com

**contains spoiler!**









I enjoyed this anime, up until the end. As some of the other reviews say, as a rom com, it's lacking in the romance part. The entire anime, you can tell that the romance is there, but never really goes beyond a few awkward moments and a few kisses, the two never really get together. In the end, I longed for more, and to see where it would go with the two, but they left it up in the air, and with no sign of a second season to possibly wrap things up. As I said, I enjoyed the anime, but the end was ... very lacking and had me wanting more. Kinda like opening your favorite cereal in the morning, only to find that there isn't enough left for a nice bowl of morning cereal.

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

Everybody has a weakness. This may be physically or psychologically. For some people, they try to cure this weakness to make themselves a stronger person. In Mayo Chiki, Jirou tries to do just this with the aide of the lady butler Subaru and her mistress Kanade. What we are left with is a fun show without much substance.

STORY

The story revolves around Jirou, a high school boy who has the worst case of gynophobia (fear of women) ever. One day at school, he discovers the secret of Subaru the boy butler -- he is actually a she in disguise. ... In order to keep this a secret, Subaru and her mistress Kanade decide to help him overcome his weakness.

First off, the show is very sexual in its content, more so than I knew going in. Almost every joke and situation has sexual connotations attached to them. Meaning, the show is probably best for an older audience.
That being said, I thought the comedy was fun. Many of the gags repeat themselves more than once over the course of the show, but I always found myself laughing at them.

Besides the comedy, romance is also a major part. I found the romance elements to be fine for what they were. It is gradual but ends on an unsatisfying note. This is because not only is the show left completely open-ended, but the final episode of the show does not continue at all from where the second-to-last one left off. Meaning, the actual ending for the anime adaptation is really bad. This is unfortunate, but something that appears to have been unavoidable.

As for the rest of the story elements, they were oddly placed in. Many things that are introduced are either immediately resolved or touched on for an episode and pretty much forgotten. Off of the top of my head, this includes things such as Subaru's weakness and Jirou's father. With this in mind, the writing for the plot itself can be described as bad.

ANIMATION

The shows art is fine for its time period. Nothing flashy but nothing bad either. It is just another generic looking anime.
The character designs are fine as well.

The actual animation was, again, fine. They don't go out of their way to showcase their skills, but the character movements and some of the fighting scenes were animated satisfactorily.

CHARACTERS

To be honest, I actually enjoyed Jirou (the MC), Subaru (the female lead/butler), and Kanade (butler's mistress).

Jirou was interesting mainly due to his gynophobia and general awareness. He wasn't a dumb MC by any means, and his phobia allowed for some interesting scenarios. I wish they would have explored his character a bit more than they did, but for this type of show, I guess what I got should have been expected.

The same goes for Subaru. Being a girl dressed/perceived as a boy is unique in a lot of ways. This allowed for funny characterization and enjoyable misunderstandings. Again, small character development is present but not enough to truly care about the character.

Finally, with Kanade, I mainly found her to my liking because she was the smartest. That is to say, she moved all of the events along mainly due to her families power. Plus, because she is very confident in herself throughout all of the show, she pretty much dictates how the characters will act or go about their business. She provides a sense of direction that was probably needed for the show itself. Besides that, I enjoyed her character a lot, simply because she had no qualms with constantly teasing everybody to no end.

My gripe with them is that this is mainly it. They have their schtick and they stick with it for the entirety of the show. Granted, they wouldn't be the characters they are without them, but I would have liked to have seen some growth in one way or another out of any of them.

Besides these three, I found the other minor characters to be fine with the exceptions of Nakuru (the glasses loving girl) and Nagare (Subaru's father). Those two were pretty annoying and I kind of hated their characters.

SOUND

For me, the OP and ED are too generic. In other words, they are not good. Forgetful and non-catchy is not a good mix.

I will say, one of the pieces of comedy that the show liked to use was the "music drop". Meaning, when sappy music is playing only to suddenly cut short for comedic effect. Surprisingly, this worked on me almost every time. Perhaps it is just easy to get a laugh out of me, but I liked the way in which they "music dropped" almost every single episode.

As for the voice acting, I thought everyone was appropriate in their roles, with no outstanding performances.

ENJOYMENT

I actually really liked this anime. I found myself laughing all the time, even if many of the sexual jokes were reused over and over. I would always found myself smiling when Kanade was teasing Jirou to no end or when Kureha was fawning over Subaru. The comedy it presented was nicely done and made me grin like a fool.

When it comes to romance, I am a bit biased in that I love it to death. That being said, I loved the romance elements. I liked how shy Subaru would get around Jirou or how Usami played a nice tsundere character. It's not the best romance in anime, but it serves its purpose nicely enough.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, all over the place with shoddy ending

Animation: Fine, serves its purpose

Characters: Fine, start unique but fall flat

Sound: Fine, OP and ED are no good but OST is somewhat good in context

Enjoyment: Great, lots of laughs and nice romance aspects

Final Score: 5/10

Mayo Chiki! is the story of boobs…I mean a love story intricately crafted around a unique premise. I mean a bare bones romance/drama/comedy about a guy butler who is actually a girl and has romantic time with the guy who discovered she was a girl.

Based on a light novel series (which should be a given for any anime I’ve reviewed lately), Mayo Chiki! is not as bare bones as I previously stated, but doesn’t innovate in any way. It’s a very likeable anime that isn’t bogged down by anything but its sheer use of cliches.

Story
Mayo Chiki! is the story of a girl named Konoe Subaru. ... She is a butler, but as a butler she must pretend to be a man due to some sort of familial something-or-other. Her mistress is amazingly rich because her father is the head of the schools, which apparently pays well enough in Japan to allow them to own a mansion, two butlers, two maids, a limousine, and a private hospital. On top of this, the mistress doesn’t have to wear a school uniform because she’s too rich and good for that. Then again, Konoe the butler guy/girl gets to wear her butler clothes around school as well.

Anyway, Jirou, a typical high school boy with gynaphobia (I’m sure you can figure out what this means on your own) enters the stall with Konoe in it (she has to use the mens’ room as she is pretending to be a guy) and he sees her cute panties. Thinking her to be a perverted male, there’s a fight and before we know it, with just a simple shove, her butler shirt unbuttons and Jirou is groping her breasts.

So now he must protect her secret that she is a female and he ends up going on crazy misadventures with her and her mistress. The mistress and Konoe seem to be falling for him, and they both try to cure his gynaphobia.

While the story is an original premise, it enters the obligatory anime romance/drama cliches:
-Pool episode
-Beach episode
-Hot spring episode
-Festival episode
-Bath scene

And we all know what this means! FAN SERVICE! And while it doesn’t really hit panty territory (we see them off the girl a couple times and on the girl once) it provides gratuitous breastage and lots of thighs. These episodes in no way innovate upon the basic formula that we’ve come to expect of episodes such as these, but they are funny and don’t come across as totally cliche.

So most of the story revolves around the romance between Jirou and Konoe, and it does focus on some other characters who they become friends with along the way. Meanwhile, the whole school thinks Jirou is gay with Subaru since nobody has yet to figure out he’s a she.

The plot never exactly does anything totally exciting, it just provides the basic skeletal outline for a decent romance/comedy. Nonetheless, it does it well enough that you keep watching it and want to see what happens next.

Animation
The animation is good. Characters look good and cute and all that. Backgrounds look nice. The ambiance of the show is very bright most of the time, a lot of bright colors really helping make the show easy on the eyes. The animation is also smooth. It’s not really, really fantastic animation, but it is pretty good.

Sound
A theme song that is good. An ending song that is meh. Music in the middle that is okay. The characters voice actors are all good and once again, I don’t have a lot to really talk about in this section.

Characters
This is where I really find my personal tastes being at odds with my critic tastes. Konoe is awesome, says one side of me. The other side tells me that she’s good, but not that great. They are combating each other and I think I’m going to choose my personal tastes over that of my critic. I loved Konoe. She wasn’t the most emotionally riveting character, not in the slightest, but she was a good character who was different from most anime girls. She was likeable in her want to protect and serve her mistress as a boy, but also likeable as a girl who really had no friends and met Jirou and was falling for him. The romance between the two is compelling because of this strange scenario and is the only reason it really works.

Jirou himself, as our main protagonist, is merely okay. His gynaphobia is funny and he certainly is entertaining, but he’s cookie cutter minus the gynaphobia. His sister is the same, cookie cutter and not really compelling. There is a typical tsundere girl who rides on a moped and isn’t all that exciting.

But the mistress is also a good character. While at first she seems like a bad guy with ill intentions, she slowly grows on you and you see that she truly is a good guy. I personally feel she had some romantic ideas about Jirou, but the series doesn’t really pass beyond the stage where characters admit to each other. It’s all implied.

Overall
Mayo Chiki! is entertaining and provides two cool characters, but is an otherwise fairly basic specimen. One thing I noticed is two instances where it had some promotion for Aria the Scarlet Ammo seemingly. There is a poster in the background of one episode, and one character dresses as Aria. I guess the same studio did these two anime? The animation is somewhat similar. It also brings up a great comparison:

There are anime out there that are not good story-wise or character-wise but are nonetheless really fun to watch. As a critic, I am usually thought of as that guy who reviews based on how good everything is. If everything is excellent, then it gets a ten, but when there are a lot of inadequate things, it gets something less than five.

That’s not true with me. I do base my scores on how good the story, animation, sound, and characters are, but I also base it on something I can’t explain in paragraph form under a header: entertainment value.

Now let me explain that comparison I’ve been getting at:

Mayo Chiki!, just like Aria, has a lot of faults, but it is entertaining. That’s the bottom line.

Mayo Chiki, a story about a guy who discovers the secret the butler of his school idol, Suzutsuki. the secret was, the butler, konoe is actually a girl. not a pretty-boy like everyone imagined. the reason i watched this anime was because the manga(up to chapter 15) was really good and funny. i planned on reading the manga for a second time but i found out its anime just finished airing so i watched it instead, only to be disappointed by its quality.

Story:
... the story starts off quite well, to prevent Kinjirou from spreading the secret of konoe, Suzutsuki made a solution where she will help Kinjirou get rid of his gynephobia(fear of women) in return for him to shut his mouth about the secret. the characters later on become closer to each other because each of them have their own secret.

like i said, i watched this anime because the manga was good. it turns out the final chapter i read(15) was episode 7 of the anime and also the final episode where i can say it's good. after that, i'll give this anime just a pitiful 4/10 for its story. theres not much to say. all the episodes are like stand alone episodes that has nothing to do with the anime. even if you skipped the whole thing and got to episode 11&12, i doubt i'll affect your understanding towards the the story because all the other episodes has no plot or whatsoever.

for your info, the final episode is the 13th episode is the final episode, and again, this really is just ridiculous. this is the episode on the 'taned-megane' girl. what i'm saying is, episode 11&12 is the real ending. from my point of view, why can't they just make episode 13 into episode 11 and make the ending episode 12&13 instead? or they could even just make it into an ova instead?

saying all that, the comedy isn't that bad. the ending was alright. i just hate to see 12/13 episode animes having ridiculous episodes that could have been replaced with something related to the story line.

Art/Sound: nothing special. op was enough to get my attention for two episodes, so i guess it's mediocre.

Character:
if it weren't for the characters, i wouldv'e given mayo chiki a 5/10. the protagonist wasn't that great. it's your usual rom-com protagonist who's a natural playboy. the character i liked the most is Konoe. when you first watch her, your impression of Konoe will definitely be a tsundere as she was really mad when Kinjirou discovered her secret. it turns out she was just a lonely fellow with no friends. Kinjirou becomes her first friend and crush so she tries to protect their friendship at all costs but at the same time wanting her relationship with him to go beyond friends.

Konoe greatly resembles Koaru(Ladies Versus Butlers) and Chalotte(Infinite Stratos). these kind of character tend to have a double personality due to the fact being forced to cross dress. they show a poised,cool figure to the people other than the one who knows their secret.

Another interesting character is Kanade, a yandere character is a perfect contrast for a gynephobic person. She uses Kinjirou to return her relationship with Konoe to what it originally was.

Overall:
i'd only give it a 6/10. it's disappointing to see such a good story that could've been way better gone to waste. it's like good coffee with no sugar in it. -.-

5/10
Before i begin im gonna be really honest with u guys mayo chiki(my chicken)lacks common sense and logic on so many levels it sucks.from story to characters its all messed up your typical love anime with tons of fan service,unnecesary characters and moments that will leave you like wtf just happened.

Our story begins when our protagonist discovers a secret of their high schools most famous guy Subaru-sama is actually a girl,it just so happens that Subaru is the bodyguard to the headmaster's daughter Kanade.(***spoiler;the part how he finds out she is a girl is amazing he falls on her in a way in which her ... shirt happens to tear itself and he is literally pressin her tits wtf,watch it u will understand***)anyway the story is random and out of order u get a birthday of a completely unnecessary character,a fight scene where people jump on knife,too much people fainting everywhere its not good.

Characters are even more messed up or unnecessary,Konoe, Subaru is a fine character but rest just suck.lets just say she is keeping her secret as a girl from other people,Suzutsuki, Kanade is a good or bad character i still cant decide,she will leave u thinking who is she what is she doing and all that crap,Sakamachi, Kinjirou now the real problem when your main character is lame,cant fight,doesnt stand out from the crowd and just takes beating this shit happens he has a rare case of gynophobia(fear of being touched by women) so he has constant nose bleeds which i dont understand why they even kept to make it funny?well no body laughed at it,right?(rest of the characters were unworthy of mention so ill sum it up in 5 or less words )Narumi, Nakuru-the glasses loving weird girl who writes tons of erotic shit,Sakamachi, Kureha sister of Kinjirou whose only role is to beat up her brother,Usami, Masamune bunny girl whose character actually makes sense as the only love rival of Subaru

Sound and art are not worth mentioning i just skipped the whole thing.

Overall this anime is like this review really crapy and going no where with the plot,all i learned from this anime is if you have a stupid plot story that doesnt go anywhere,tons of unnecessary characters and a stupid joke that doesnt stop this happens.its even worse than "Ookami san and the small breast jokes".
Final verdict-kill it with fire,twice
-caiou

Alright, just a one I suppose I should mention before I start this review- it's my first one. Bear with me, please! *^* Also...beware of spoilers ; u ; I'll try my best to avoid them.

So...what exactly made me give this show, Mayo Chiki, as bad of a score as I did? Well, I suppose that there's two reasons: first off, I usually find harems to be pretty meh, and also, I was let down. You see, not knowing much about the anime before diving into it, I figured it would be different than other harems, with a strong female lead (Konoe), rather than one ... who got all squirmy and constantly having their breasts fondled. Well, I shouldn't ever come to that conclusion. After all, this is a harem, and all harems NEED to have the fondling, it seems.

Story: 5

I thought the story was just, okay. I mean, it was plenty creative- a story about a teenage girl who became a boy so she could serve her mistress as a butler. If that was the story all on it's own, than I'm sure this would have been rated better. However, it isn't. There was the romance intertwined in the story that made me squirm way too much in the worst of ways. It was too generic, and it felt too much like other rom-com/harems out there. Still, there were parts to the story I liked, don't forget that. I thought Konoe's familial issues were interested, and I wished there would have been a part where her and her father made up. However, it was left up in the air, which did not make me happy.

Also, I don't understand why the 13th episode even existed. It might be that Hulu has the last 2 in the wrong order, or that 13 was a special add on for a DVD, but it confused me. The story was closed up at 12 and I was happy then. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy watching a Nakuru episode >:3

Art: 6
To be honest there isn't much to say here. It's not that much different than other shows, with a style that doesn't bother doing anything different. It is also the kind of art-style that isn't afraid to make their girls as big-breasted as possible. Look at Nakaru as example (even if she doesn't like them). I guess that this should be the time for me to go on a short rant about one thing that ruined Konoe for me a little bit. How come she has completely average breasts, but still managed to be a guy? I know that she straps them down, but still. Again, average, but not that terrible. Not much noteworthy in this department. Shall we go on?

Sound: 6
Actually, the theme song was really nice, one of those songs that will remain in my head for hours after watching the show (I've even caught myself humming to it once or twice ;3), though the insert music is nothing noteworthy or memorable. Actually, that's a lie. There was the ONE song where all the maids were singing Happy Birthday to Kureha. Not living in Japan, I'm not sure if that's a common song they sing there (maybe at Maid Cafes?), but it was really annoying, and I wanted it over right from the start. Other than that, I guess I like everything, but nothing better than just good.

Character: 3
Yeah....I didn't enjoy the characters much at all. Usually I don't mind the characters from Harems, as most will try to find more creative characters, as annoying as they will probably end up being. While yes, there were a few characters that I thought were creative (Kanade is an example of a character you don't see so much, and her sadistic personality was pretty good...ish), most of the time I was rolling my eyes.

Let's start with the Main Character- the straight man: Baka Chicken. Uh, I mean, Sakamachi Kinjiro. He seemed like a good guy at first, and actually, through the story I liked him okay. It's just that the some old nose-bleeding gags got on my nerves. How come he barely managed to improve on his 'illness'? Kanade promised, though I have a feeling that she just liked to taunt and torture him.

After Baka Chicken, there's Subaru Konoe, the butler who's actually a girl. She's basically the only sane character (Baka Chicken is sane too...just boring) throughout the series, but she got on my nerves too. I can understand her insecurities about things, but sometimes she would over-react, and had a terrible, terrible temper. The more she lashed out at Baka Chicken, the more angry I'd get myself. And then...you know what happens. *eyeroll*

The other main character of this show is Kanade Suzutski, who's the sadistic mistress of Konoe. She's always pissed me off, not gonna lie. Though she's made me laugh once or twice, everything she does seems too cliche, and it's really hard to like her when she's constantly harassing the chicken and her butler.

The other (not as important) characters were probably my favorite. Though Kureha had the same issues as Konoe (beating Baka Chicken up), Nakuru and Usami (Bunny), were enjoyable. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the BL Fanatics, being one myself, so Nakuru was an obvious favorite of mind, though she was annoying at times. I hated Usami at first, considering ultra-tsuns like her were too cliche and annoying, though after awhile, I realized I liked her a bit. She seemed to understand things better than most of the others, realizing that Subaru was actually 'dressed as a girl', though she never learned her secret.

All in all, annoying characters, with a few, and I mean few redeeming qualities in them. Each one irritated me at some point, and tried to hard to be funny to be that funny.

Enjoyment: 4
I didn't enjoy the show that much. There were time that I was bored, and others when I was rolling my eyes or cringing. There was little to no laughter. It all felt too similar to others shows that I watched, so without relatable characters (all far too bizarre to be), I didn't feel there was much reason to watch Mayo Chiki at all.

Overall: 5
This wasn't the worst show ever, it just wasn't great. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes over-the-top everything, even if it's executed poorly and ends up being annoying. Decent at best.

Mayo Chiki is the example which confirm that too much romance between characters is a bad idea, above all in an anime supposed to mix ecchi and comedy. In fact, I think the anime missed its target. Sometimes it’s funny and there is a lot of action, but sometimes you also are waiting 2 or 3 episodes just for a fucking common love story. It pissed me off to have to watch 19 minutes of a boring story to catch the little moment of fun.

But it clearly doesn’t match neither to (typically) a girl who wants to see a great love story, since ... there still is a couple of pervert scenes and some ecchi. So after watching Mayo chiki, I’m still wondering who was the public who was targeted. If you’re going to give a try, just watch the three or four first episodes : if you like it you can go ahead, but if you feel it’s too boring you can stop since it’s almost the same rythm all along.

For a spoken review, use the link to go to my review on my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x-OHMdNKaM

So, another week in the month of February, and another ecchi show to review. This time we will be reviewing Mayo Chiki, a show that I thought had an original feel in a genre flooded with stereotypes and unoriginality. This show seemed like just enough of a breath of fresh air to me to the point where I actually found a great deal of enjoyment in this show compared to other shows of the genre, and that’s saying a lot. So let’s find out what makes this show so ... special in the third review of ecchi month, where I review an ecchi show every Saturday in the month of February, Mayo Chiki.

Story:
Mayo Chiki is a story about Sakamachi Kinjirou, a boy who has developed gynophobia because of constant abuse by his pro-wrestler mother and aspiring pro-wrestler sister. This causes his nose to bleed whenever he comes in contact with a girl. Where the story really kicks of is when Jirou wanders into the boy’s bathroom only to discover the most popular boy in school, the butler of the principal’s daughter, Konoe Subaru, is actually a girl! This means Jirou has found out her secret, and she will do whatever it takes to keep it a secret. When the principal’s daughter, Suzutsuki Kanade, finds out about about his gynophobia, she promises to cure him in exchange for keeping the gender of Konoe a secret, because if it is found out that Konoe is a girl, she can no longer be Kanade’s butler. And of course, with a setup like this, ecchi moments and the buildup of a harem is sure to ensue as the characters take on the usual antics of an ecchi comedy. Now where I feel this show gets that original feel I mentioned earlier is in its concept. While granted, it’s not the most original, I feel it gave me enough to say “Hey, this isn’t so bad for an ecchi comedy,” and because of that little bit of effort put in to create a different type of ecchi harem my enjoyment was increased. Now of course, because I signed myself up to do this ecchi month thing, I’m really just taking everything as it is, meaning that I will be reviewing these shows for what they are as opposed to reviewing them based on the normal criteria. That being said, for an ecchi harem, this show did a fair amount of things that I was pleased with, but of course it was not without its fair share of low points. This show’s construction focuses heavily on ecchi-based comedy. A construction like this really leaves no room for anything dramatic, but this show decides to throw some in the mix anyway. Is this a bad thing? Well, it’s hit or miss depending on how, and the extent, to which it is used. Mayo Chiki’s moments of drama fall under 3 categories: trivial moments that have no place in the show, moments that are used to drive character development, and moments that are used to give us something that we don’t see in anime nowadays, ACTUAL ROMANTIC PROGRESSION. Whoa now, don’t get too excited, this isn’t like some Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry romantic progression, nut we will get to that in a second. There are some moments in this show where dramatic tension is introduced, and it really feels out of place within the show to the point where it takes away more than it adds. Thankfully, these moments are few and far between, but you can clearly tell when it happens. The second type is the dramatic tension used to give characters development, and the upside to this kind is that the show tones it down to the point that characters get much needed development without it feeling overbearing. The last type is used for actual romance progression. While there wasn’t enough romantic progression to make me feel completely satisfied, it had enough to the point where I felt the show didn’t start at square one in terms of the relationship between the 2 main characters, and that was enough for me especially in comparison to other shows in a genre where genuine romantic resolution always seems out of grasp . In terms of ecchi, this show has a ton, with the main character’s condition being the center of it. A majority of these scenes consist of your standard boob grabs, shower mishaps, etc, and these scenes are the major source of the show’s comedic style. Lastly, the show ends on an open conclusion, but leaves you with just enough to be satisfied with it. With no second season confirmed, it doesn’t look like there will be a continuation on the story’s conlusion, so what you see it what you get. So for the story of Mayo Chiki, it really sets up an interesting concept within the genre, or at least interesting enough to capture my intrigue. With the show mainly revolving around ecchi comedy, there is hardly any room for dramatic tension as shown by the moments the show try to add some only to fall on its face, but the show was able to incorporate some dramatic tension to allow for character development and romantic progression that was toned down enough to not take away from the value of the show. And don’t get your hopes up when I say romantic progression, because it’s very little, but at least the show didn’t feel like it ended at square one like all harems out there. I’m looking at you Nisekoi. The conclusion for this show is an open one, with no continuation by way of a second season confirmed, but leaves you with JUST enough to make you feel satisfied by the end. And the ecchi for this show is very heavy given the main character’s condition, and if its ecchi you want you’ve come to the right place.

Characters
While the characters for this show are something to be desired, just like everything else about this show up to this point, they are just a bit better than other ecchi harems. The main characters have a bit of backstory that doesn’t seem overbearing or forced, and as opposed to the archetypes of characters driving the comedy, it felt as though it was the character’s individual personality that was the medium for the comedic scenarios. The first character of Mayo Chiki is Sakamachi Kinjirou. The protagonist of the story, Jirou is a second year high school student who discovers Konoe's secret. He suffers from gynophobia causing his nose to bleed whenever a girl touches him. He reveals the cause to be his mother and sister practicing their wrestling moves on him on a daily basis for 10 years, and he states his nose bleeds when a girl touches him because his body developed the reflex because he believed his mother and sister would stop beating him up once he started bleeding. He was forced to sign a contract with Kanade Suzutsuki to help him rid his fear of girls, however he was to keep Saburu Kanoe's secret of really being a girl to himself, otherwise according to Kanade Suzutsuki, an unidentified body (Kinjirō's) may appear in the sea of trees around Mount Fuji within a month or so. As he (by force) signed the contract he was saved from said fate. Jirou is basically your standard harem protagonist, but he does have a tad bit of backstory that gives us insight into why he does what he does, making him just a bit more than just your standard harem protagonist. But aside from that, there is nothing that really makes him stand out or be memorable at all. The second of our main protagonists is Konoe Subaru. Subaru serves as butler to Kanade Suzutsuki even though she is female. Her father will only allow to maintain her position (and fulfil her family tradition) if she can spend the entire 3 years in high school without anyone discovering her true gender. As a result she must cross-dress. Fortunately her physical features allow her to pass as a boy provided no one looks too closely. Complications arise when one day, Kinjirō accidentally discovers her secret. Although she initially hates Kinjirō, both because he discovered her secret and for being a "pervert", over time she warms up to him and he becomes her first friend. As a result she becomes less cold and more outgoing. Her father even notes that she has started looking forward to going to school. Eventually she falls in love with Jiro. Konoe’s character was actually surprisingly good. She is given a good amount of backstory shown through dramatic scenes and never becomes to overbearing given the context of the show, and this really makes her character stand out amongst the cast. But alas, despite this she is still rather shallow, being a generic crossdressing tsundere throughout most of her screen time. The next character, and definitely the most memorable of the show is Kanade Suzutsuki. Kanade is the single daughter of the high school's principal, who, on the outside, behaves well like a rich man's daughter. On the inside, she is revealed to be quite sadistic and threatens Kinjirō on his greatest fear and using his gynophobia to make him suffer. She is shown to enjoy tormenting and teasing Kinjirō by using his gynophobia against him. However, she did give thoughts about finding a way to cure his gynophobia although her methods to do so are generally overly complicated or humiliate him in some way and she does not deny that she finds them amusing. She notes that Kinjirō is the first, and only, man who is willing to talk her down and she has fallen in love with him as a result. Her character doesn’t have anything that makes characters good like development or backstory, but the thing that makes Kanade so fun is her personality. Most of the time is shows of this type, characters are just shells with archetypes used solely for the sake of comedy. But the thing I did like about this show it that, as opposed to the comedy being driven by character’s one defining trait, it’s more driven by their personality, with Kanade being the best example. Her personality shines throughout the show, and makes her a very fun character with her sadistic schemes and antics. She is also the main source of ecchi in the show, mainly with her constant agitation of Kinjirou’s gynophobia. The rest of the cast is somewhat lackluster, but all are loveable in their own way despite lack of anything that, you know, makes good characters. Masamune Usami blackmailed Kinjirō, with the picture of him and Subaru on a mock date, to be her boyfriend up until the end of their school fair. Kinjirō accepted because of the condition that she will not spread the photo with Subaru and Kinjirō going out together. However she later becomes friends with Kinjirō and later falls in love with him. She is your standard tsundere-ish character, but she has some development as the show progresses, although this development is nothing new. I do thing she isn’t a terrible character, but her development is kind of like someone giving you a piece of candy you’ve had a thousand times. You don’t hate it and you’re happy to have it, but you’ve had it so many times you can’t help but want something different. It’s really standard development for characters of the genre, but isn’t terrible. Kureha Sakamachi, after watching and following Kinjirō and Konoe, believing him a male pervert cross-dresser, attacks Konoe to reclaim Kinjirō, only to be quickly defeated in turn. After this incident, still believing her a male, she has fallen in love with Konoe, much to Kinjirō's dismay. While tomboyish most of the time, she tends to try and act feminine when Konoe is around. Her character is solely here for the sake of fun, and considering she is voiced by Kana Hanazawa, I can’t hate her no matter how little development she has. She’s definitely my favorite character in the show and by far the most fun. Lastly, and certainly least, is Nakuru Narumi. She’s a perverted BL lover who always wears cat ears and has a glasses fetish. Yep. That’s it. Nothing here by way of anything, and one of those characters that makes you question why she’s even in this show. The characters of Mayo Chiki, while being nothing really special, did have some things to make them lovable, and some even had good backstory and development. While these characters are lacking, I really did enjoy a majority of them, even for an ecchi harem cast.


Art/Animation
The art and animation were really nothing special. I’ve said it before, but there aren’t many shows of this type with real artistic variety. Shows like Nisekoi and Saekano were masterful, and really individualized themselves, but a majority of these shows just don’t seem to be capable of producing something of much merit. But these shows really don’t need it. You come for the ecchi, you stay for the ecchi (if that’s your thing) and as long as the art isn’t jarringly bad you don’t really care either way. The character designs were good for this show, feeling individual and adding to the characters personality and is really the only standout thing in terms of art.

Sound
The same goes for the sound. With no real atmosphere to be created, there really is no need for an immersive atmosphere. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like for an OST to strive to be different, but I guess that’s too much of a stretch. Again, you don’t come for the masterfully composed OST, you come to watch some lucky fellow be swooned by a number of girls wishing you could be in his place. The OP and ED were good, but didn’t stand out either. The voice actors all did a good job, but Konoe’s character did take some getting used to. She wasn’t bad enough to the point of being distracting, but was a little irritating, but that went away after I got used to it. Also, Kana Hanazawa was as beautiful as always. MARRY ME PLEASE HANAKANA.

Overall
Mayo Chiki is a show that is really hard to recommend to anyone who doesn’t like ecchi harems. If you like ecchi harems, I would say this show does enough to make it interesting and I would recommend before any other, but for someone who doesn’t like ecchi harems, I would say stay as far away as humanly possible. While this show is somewhat of a breath of fresh air for ecchi harems, it’s really oversaturated with ecchi harem tropes in terms of the antics of its characters and this would make it really hard for someone who dislike these types of shows to find any enjoyment in whatsoever. The story has just enough to it to make It feel somewhat different, but as previously stated is oversaturated with ecchi harem tropes. There is romance progression, but just enough to the point where the show doesn’t feel as though it started from square one like all ecchi harems. The characters may not have been amazing, but they were all lovable, and it really felt as though their personalities where what was driving the comedy as opposed to their archetypes. Art, animation, and sound were nothing to write home about being very average and cookie cutter with exception to the character designs and Kana Hanazawa. Lastly, the ecchi is highly prevalent, focusing mainly on your standard boob grab shower mishap, etc. For this show being a review in Ecchi Month, the amount of ecchi just as much as I was hoping for. In the end, this is a show I can only recommend if you like ecchi harems. It felt like a breath of fresh air within the genre, but it terms of being something people who aren’t a fan of ecchi harems can enjoy, it is definitely not so. As for alternate recommendations, you should watch Date A Live. Because lets be real, if you liked this show, you have a liking for harems, and this was a fun one for me especially for a harem. Also, you should watch OreShura. Aside from this show’s hideous ending, it’s one of my favorite harems out there.

This is a pretty typical slice of life high school harem. If you enjoy that genre then this will be worth your time. The cross dressing butler is a unique thread, but not uncommon. This one was executed well, but with the weak ending that almost all harem anime have. There is also an unnecessary 13th episode which is more of a side story.

The show hits all the tropes: hot springs, maid cafe, fireworks, etc. You will be frustrated at times with the strict adherence to the usual harem formula, but the characters are good enough to keep you watching. ... This is not a great anime, but enjoyable enough to spend an afernoon on.

Warning the review u r about 2 see contain *SPOILERS*: Plz watched the anime be4 read this spolier review, thx :3.

Mayo chiki is just a typical rom com anime dat come with the harem as an extra bonux :3. Or 2 me atleast since im deeply inlove with Harem genre XD, HOWEVER the overly & unnecessary ecchi reel'y pushed me off farther n farther away from this anime... Anyways, lets start with the story shall we :3.

Story: 7
as 1st the story was very intriguing, the concept of gurl-dressed as boy & the harem + reversed harem fusion-ed 2gether r no doubt very excited 4 ... my taste in anime XD! However, again, imho the overly ecchi r real'y annoyin, rather than focusin more on vanilla Romance & Comedy as the anime suppose 2 be, its went toward the direction of da cliches Harem n Ecchi... even tho i love Harem, i believe its kinda unfair 4 da viewers 2 experience these Extra genres ;P, especially the Ecchi part.

Sound: 8
Very fun & excitin music, 8/10 4 me.

character: 5/10 ( was originally 7/10 for me)
Good overall since its juzt a typical "harem" rom com wat can u expect moar ?? it was perfectly fine as it is until Subaru father shows up.... his overprotected & overloved of him toward his own daughter reel'y gave me a creepy feelin everytime his face showed in the anime.

Enjoy: 6/10.
If it doesnt have unnecessary ecchi & subaru father in it, then it would be 8.5/10 imho.

overall: 6/10
Its an O.K rom com, nothin special, nothin memorial, cliches plot as it suppose 2 be, some what enjoyable, nothin much 2 complained'bout beside the Ecchi stuff (i said Ecchi a lot i know, lol! sorry~ ^0^ ....)

Not recommended if u r not into Harem & Ecchi or just vanilla Harem :3.

Mayo Chiki is one of THOSE romance anime.You know the ones I'm talking about. The 12 episode romance anime with a meaningless filler 13th episode which ends with no closure and a cliffhanger state which seems that a season 2 will come but never does and so you end up reading the manga/light novel for the ending. The ending honestly killed it for me. Now onto what I liked and Didntlike

What I Liked:
-Interesting characters
-Lovely ship
-Potential love triangle
-Enjoyable story
-Art is really good

What I didn't like:
... -The Ending
-No season 2 :'(

There's not much to complain about really I honestly enjoyed it but the ending it just killed it off for me. Also another thing,apparently everyone loses their minds over nudity but it's not really all up in your face in this anime like highschool DXD and it doesn't really take away from the story. However with all this said I still Don't think this is some sort of groundbreaking anime. Sure it may not me the surprising with a plot twist which is twistier than a spring,it relies on some cliches like the female MC misreading a situation running off then the Male Mc comforting her explains everything and the female Mc starts crying from joy but it was still quite enjoyable. But seriously what were they thinking with the ending we need season 2!

Firstly, If you like a show where you have a proper ending, then this is not for you! Hence "Mixed Feelings" recommendation.
Show is overall an 8.5/10.

Reason: The show ends on a cliffhanger for a second season, and episode 13 is a filler episode. Not to mention a mid tier 6/10 episode, and as a closing episode a 3/10. Actually makes me cringe with anger on why the producers just stuck the last episode at the end instead of in the middle.

Secondly, The part that really hurts is that the show is really good! a 8.5 average, the only reason the show is marked around ... a 7.3 is of no proper ending. definitely a great show to watch if you don't care about going to the Manga to finish the story.

Hmm.. I guess you could say the show is great but upsetting.
if you don't care, then hit this with a reaction. 💀

When I first started watching this anime it was rather enjoyable, until I reached the final few episodes everything just went hay wire I was extremely disappointed with the ending because its like they were lazy to think of a better ending.

I would recommend this anime though because it was enjoyable but I just have to say better not watch till the end because its rather disappointing.

Story - the story was great at the first few episodes but it started to make absolute no sense when it started to reach the final few episodes.

Art - The art was actually decent if i say so myself.

Sound ... - The sound was a bit messed up but it was still great.

Character - the character designs are actually surprisingly well done.

Enjoyment - Well I would recommend you to just watch till the mid point of the anime because the last 3 episodes are a real disappointment.

Overall its a decent anime to watch but I wouldn't really recommend it, its just a waste of time really.

Finishing this, I have only one thought: disappointed. I think some others might also feel that.

Don't get me wrong - this is a good anime. But my criticism is that there's nothing significant at all about this series. It's just like a lower-tier version of any other high school romance harem anime. The plot isn't deep enough: I think some scenes have so much potential to be better, but yet they miss out the chance to develop on it. There is also minimal character development from my point of view, which is extremely frustrating. I know that throughout the story, the character personalities changes, but ... the changes are barely noticeable. I've not read the light novel, which might be great (who knows), but the anime, in my opinion, is very typical to any other high school romance to the point that it gets boring at times.

For those thinking to watch this anime, I won't stop you as it's not that bad. For those who are seeking something that will be extremely worth watching, I recommend you miss out on this one as there are much more romance anime that are far better.

Okay, first off, i've already watch this anime twice. Also reading their manga. So, i don't think i can get any wrong.
First time i watch this anime i feel really cringe. Like hell alot. LIke "How is that possible?" And then i realise this anime was a freakin' comedy show. So, I think this was my wrong, because i think the story will be so cool. But then, this anime is so standard.
Second, i like those seiyuu's and they voice is adorable and match to the character.
Third, I love how their staff/animator working the character eyes. They're so glazed. And I've never seen ... before.
Fourth,I feel like the main character isn't that chill than i expected. He was really really got played with Kanade or the Ojou-sama.

Conclusion, i don't really enjoy this anime. Tbh, i dont really like fan service. And i just want to watch a calm anime. But, it depends on personality. This anime also make me feel annoyed because Kanade. I think she was just a rich people who don't know what she gonna do with that all money. And yeah, just by reading the manga till the end make me feel wronged.

As I started watching, I was pleasantly suprised. The show had a fun premise and the art looked great. One of rare occasions when I actually like a romance anime... Though that quickly changed. The show introduced some annoying, horrible, clitche characters that completely fucked everything up. I thought the whole keeping a secret about being a girl and having to deal with women phobia plot was a good choice and could've been filled trough all 13 episodes. Simple, yet fun story.

"No, yeah let's add a retarded fanfiction writer, an overly annoying little sister and some bitch with a pole up her ass and ... let them have their own filler episodes or even participate in any episodes because that would be great."

Nobody cares about these characters because they are meaningless. I am genuenly confused how did the writers failed so hard. I know this anime is just for a cock tease but come on. This just shows how the creators totally didn't care at all. A wasted opportunity is what it is.

I'm just frustrated because I happen to actually enjoy the show in first glance but the execusion wasn't great. Especially the ending...

TAFKA (The Anime Formerly Known As) Mayo Chiki!
now more commonly known as
THE anime to not get a 2nd season for trying too hard for a 2nd season.

Yeah yeah, everyone moaned about the ending not being conclusive and instead, just a "filler". I agree, but I don't even think that is the problem.

You see, the characters' profile and their entrance are all brilliantly designed. Then there's a gender mix up that constructed all kinds of intrigue.
The first 4 episode and perhaps a new after are easily 10/10.

Then I found myself coming back to this site to lower my rating again and again.
...
It does not even matter how irrelevant episode 13 is.

The last 4 episodes are easily the most boring episodes out of everything I ever watched. 1/10

In fact, on reflection, episode 10 has way less plot than episode 13. I suppose people complain less because it's not the last one, which means you are supposed to wrap up the story.

The characters are just already running all their old traits. The jokes are tired as well. All 4 episodes could have been written by anyone who has half a brain.

If you are out of really good anime to watch then I'll say it's worth a watch for the first half, maybe first 9. I dragged myself through the last 4 and I'd say it's fine if I just not bothered.

Also, I happened to have watched some subbed and some dubbed. Both for episode 1 and I have to commend the English dub for reworking the dialogues into what is fitting in English as well as more witty and energetic than the Japanese version (as far as the subtitles can tell me). Although later in the series it seems to be the opposite like these really cringey dialogues that should only happen in Japanese, for example "please save me from crying about myself). It's like the English team lost interests or don't know what could possibly make it better.

English voice actors (from the US, I guess) since the recent years have always been high quality. All the girls have very polished voices like they trained very hard at reading and singing. The only problem is, they don't sound like teenagers. To me, they all sound positively 25+. If they try to be more nasal or whiny to act young that would make it even worse (it's not TOO bad in this aspect for this title). So mental note to myself when deciding whether to watch English dubbed: the the characters are typically adult like in Cowboy Bebop then I guess it's ok. If the characters are like 10 year old then no.

It's like Ladies versus Butlers but this time lady is the butler!

Ok so main characters are Kinjiro Sakamachi, guy who has extreme gynophobia, or fear of women and cross-dressing girl Subaru Konoe who wants to be a butler like her father so she has to hide her gender. Kinjiro accidentally learns Subaru's secret and is forced by her master Kanade Suzutsuki to keep it secret from the rest of the school. Suzutsuki has sadistic tendencies but she is also interested in curing Kinjiro's gynophobia that causes nosebleed and fainting if he even touches a girl so she is not all-bad despite her sadism, ... she also deeply cares for her butler Subaru.

Story 7: Kinjiro and Subaru become friends and develop romantic feelings for each other that everyone can see, but all sorts of other girls also appear to Kinjiro's life (this is harem after all) and of course cause him a lot of nosebleed. Funny thing is that since no one knows that Subaru is girl (which is actually obvious) everyone thinks her and Kinjiro as gay lovers. Subaru-sama is very loved among girls of the school and she(or he) as not one but two fan clubs, another one dresses like Ku Klux Klan- probably reference to similar joke in Baka to Test. It is pretty obvious that only Subaru has chances with Kinjiro so harem feels pretty pointless and I think this story would have been better as romantic comedy. Moments with other girls mainly feel like pointless fanservice. There is a lot of ecchi and at times it follows completely crazy anime logic. Like when in the first episode Kinjiro accidentally fells on top of Subaru and all her buttons come undone in a blink of an eye to reveal her breasts.... that's ridiculous even in ecchi anime. Kinjiros relationship with Subaru actually develops in a nice manner though. Huge problem is the final episode of the season that ruins the development by making a side character Nakuru Narumi (Fujoshi girl who supports KinjiroxSubaru romance) part of his harem. This was extremely bad way to end the show since it ruins the feeling of development Kinjiro reached with Subaru in the second last episode and all those episodes prior that.

So if you are not that interested in Nakuru's character or harem aspect I recommend you skip the last episode!

Art 6: Nothing very bad, pretty good looking anime. Character designs are rather generic and I personally was bothered by the fact that they didn't even try to make Subaru to look like a boy when she is cross-dressing. She has long hair and cute ribbons and stuff while she is supposedly looking like a boy. If they wanted long hair but boyish look I think long simple ponytail would have been better option. Now she looks more like a very girly boy - a trap who is surprisingly really a girly girl and no trap.... or some kind of fake-trap....double trap- or Trap-trap... Admiral Ackbar would be proud.

Sound 6: Nothing too special. Opening and ending songs were ok. Voice acting was pretty good. Subaru especially sounds a lot like a boy while she doesn't look like it. That saves part of believability of this cross-dressing plot. At times she sounds like girl as well when she is not acting like a butler. This was well done. Other VA:s are ok.

Character 6: Main character is mainly a generic nice guy, but extreme gynophobia makes him a bit unique. He has an actual reason to be afraid of lucky pervert moments. Thanks to her violent wrestler sister he can also take a lot of physical damage. His name has a pun of chicken, but he is definitely not the worst coward in anime history. Subaru is a bit of a tsundere at first, but she becomes sweet towards Kinjiro pretty fast. She haven't had any friends before so she is very happy to befriend with Kinjiro and quickly realizes she wants even more. Overall I did find her rather likable character, she has clear motivations, she acts in a way that is surprisingly realistic for anime character and develops feelings for Kinjiro in rather natural way. Other characters include Subaru's master Kanade, sadistic rich girl who was bit frustrating at times and Kinjiro's little sister Kureha who "tests" wrestling moves to her brother daily, being the main cause of his gynophobia. She still loves his brother deeply in non-incest kind of way and is attracted to Subaru whom she thinks is a boy like everyone else. Because this is harem there are also other "options" for Kinjiro like Masamune Usami, textbook tsundere and character I don't think this show really needed, same with Nakuru Narumi, big busted and cat-eared fujoshi girl. Nakuru is alright as side character, kinda fun, but her attraction to Kinjirou felt forced to me and addition to harem in the last episode felt wrong to me. I really liked the joke about Masamune's apartment being haunted. Ghosts were just chilling out there and she paid no attention to them, that was so unexpected visual gag that it was kinda clever.

Enjoyment 7: It was alright show, ecchi and humour, cute and funny stuff. Enjoyable.

Overall 6: Main idea was nice, Kinjirou and Subaru were a good couple that developed nicely, ecchi was not bad, but at times it was too unbelievable. Harem-aspect was the biggest weakness of this show, there were not much actual competition between the girls, Subaru was the only real option for Kinjirou, so would've been better without this forced harem-aspect. Sure most girls didn't know Subaru is a girl too but that would only make Jiro look gay and any attempts by girls hopeless. Especially that last episode made failure of this as harem comedy clear and I recommend that if you like JiroXSubaru more than forced attempt of harem leave that one out.