Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (Maid Sama!)

Misaki Ayuzawa is a unique phenomenon within Seika High School. In a predominantly male institution, she became the first-ever female student council president through her honesty and diligence. Ever since Misaki got promoted to the position, she has been working tirelessly to ensure a better school life for all girls. Despite that, Misaki is very strict with the boys, which has earned her the title "Demon President."

One day, after hearing a girl cry in the hallway, Misaki encounters Takumi Usui—the most popular boy in the school—as he rejects a love confession. Enraged at what she is seeing, Misaki reprimands him for making the girl cry. However, Usui is indifferent and brushes it off as nothing.

Unexpectedly, Misaki soon runs into Usui again, but this time when she is working at a maid cafe! Embarrassed that someone has found out about her secret occupation, Misaki promises herself not to let Usui destroy her reputation. However, the mysterious boy now begins to visit the same cafe regularly to observe and tease Misaki. When push comes to shove, will Usui still be able to keep the president's secret?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! has also received a drama CD in Japan.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
Side story:	Kaichou wa Maid-sama!: Omake da yo!, Kaichou wa Maid-sama!: Goshujinsama to Asonjao♥

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Usui, Takumi

Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

Ayuzawa, Misaki

Main

Fujimura, Ayumi
Japanese

Hyoudou, Aoi

Supporting

Igarashi, Hiromi
Japanese

Shintani, Hinata

Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu
Japanese

Ayuzawa, Suzuna

Supporting

Ishihara, Kaori
Japanese

Igarashi, Tora

Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi
Japanese

Yukimura, Shouichirou

Supporting

Shiibashi, Kazuyoshi
Japanese

Kanou, Soutarou

Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke
Japanese

Hyoudou, Satsuki

Supporting

Toyosaki, Aki
Japanese

Hanazono, Sakura

Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Matsuda, Akio

Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji

Producer

Sakurai, Hiroaki

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Motoyama, Satoshi

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"My Secret" by Saaya Mizuno (水野佐彩)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Yokan (予感)" by heidi. (eps 1-15)
	2: "∞ Loop (∞ループ)" by heidi. (eps 16-26)

More reviews

Reviews

Sep 27, 2010

Skadi

Recommended

When news of this year's new shows began surfacing, Kaichou wa Maid-sama was near the top of the ones I was looking forward to most. I had read a little of the manga and always found it to be funny. Last year had featured a pretty good run of romance anime and this looked poised to continue that run. Despite the series' fabulous artwork and a lot of great comedy, it is unfortunately a bit of a disappointment.

The premise behind Maid-sama has an initially interesting hook. Misaki Ayuzawa is the newly elected student council president at a mostly male high school. ... She is strict and violent in protection of the female students and in making it a place friendlier to girls. But she has a secret that could ruin her image as the tough and unyielding class president, she works part time in a Maid Cafe to help her family with the bills. Of course this means that the ultimate alpha male at the school, Usui Takumi, will find out about her secret. Blackmail, as only shoujo can do ensues... or does it?

Thankfully the answer is no but what does follow, at least initially is a pretty fun and entertaining back and forth repartee between Misaki and Usui. Misaki is revealed to not be quite the man hating tyrant she is in school and Usui is not the cold, unfeeling ladies man either. The romantic chemistry between the two characters is quite good and builds very quickly early on. But the typical problems that plague shoujo romances soon follow. Relationship development slows to a crawl and nothing of significance happens after the first third of the series until its end. Despite this the series does end with a bang and has a very touching and satisfying conclusion which is probably the only thing that saved it from a lower overall score.

Maid-sama at its best is extremely funny and enjoyable to watch. The series' comedy is really quite good most of the time. But no amount of jokes can hide the fact that it doesn’t have any kind of story what so ever. Misaki's job at Maid Latte is mostly just a gimmick, and besides for a handful of episodes it’s totally unimportant to the plot. Basically what we get is a series of loosely connected stories with the same underlying theme. Even though they are mostly funny it gets tiring when you realize that nothing significant is ever happening. When things do finally start to get interesting between our couple, not unexpectedly a rival appears. Though he is so poorly conceived and much too late to the party to have any real significance. It was almost like someone in the production staff realized with five episodes to go that they nearly made an entire anime without a love triangle. Though despite all of this the biggest flaw is the sheer weight of supporting characters and their overall detraction to the screen time and back-story of the lead characters.

Misaki makes for a good heroine. She is quite funny walking the line between her dictator president and her submissive maid persona's. However she is a bit of your stereotypical tsundere, but it's easy to root for her. Shockingly we really don't find out all that much about her with the exception of some flashbacks of when she was a little girl (which in actuality weren't even about her). Other than learning her father had walked out on her mother and sister, leaving enormous debts and apparently they are also really poor. An aside to Misaki's family poverty though. I thought the way they portrayed her family was kind of offensive. The inside of the house is crumbling and dirty. Walls have paint peeling off them, the floor has holes in it, and their are spider webs and other cliches. Yes we get it, they're poor. Like poor people can’t keep a clean house? Besides this is completely out of character for someone as meticulous as Misaki. When you consider how fanatical she is at school about keeping things clean and orderly the very idea that she wouldn't do the same at home is totally implausible.

Usui on the other hand initially comes off as the kind of love interest I hate. Aloof, privileged, and apparently great at everything he tries he is precisely the kind of ideal man that makes shoujo romances so unbelievable. However it is pretty quickly apparent he isn't your typical leading man. You can tell he is immediately smitten with Misaki from the start and he uses this droll personality of his to push her buttons and amuse himself while at the same time bring her closer to him. I ended up liking him quite a bit. Like Misaki, his past remains as much of a mystery at the end as it was at the beginning. Especially frustrating considering the amount of time that was given to Misaki's childhood friend Shintani who basically only appeared in 4 episodes.

The supporting cast really brings down this series though. As much as I enjoyed the leads, I found the rest of the cast to be uninspired and lacking substance. The main reason for this is that there are just way too many of them. Maid-sama features nearly 30 supporting characters and they take way too much from the ones that are actually important. Even if many of them are likable and funny, they have absolutely zero depth and at best one facet to their personalities. Stories with lots of characters rarely work that well especially when the majority serve no purpose and overlap one another. Too many of them are basically identical to each other and were unnecessary. For example I know having a cross dresser is a shoujo staple but having more than one in the same anime is overkill, regardless of whether or not they both did it willingly.

The anime is well acted and I enjoyed the performances for the lead actors in particular. Though neither of them are rookies by any means, they aren’t the typical names we are used to seeing at the top of a cast either. So I enjoyed hearing some fresh voices for a change. The music is solid but unspectacular. Saya Mizuno's "My Secret" is an appropriate if kind of generic shoujo OP. Both ED songs by heidi are pretty good though and I liked them a lot more.

Artistically Maid-sama is strong. I did enjoy the character designs and the frequent use of deformed and chibi characters to complement the series comedy. The art really brings out the emotions of Misaki and Usui and is able to speak volumes about their feelings for one another even with nothing is being said. The quality of this non audible communication is one of the best I have seen in an anime.

Even though I was ultimately disappointed with this anime, it was not a complete waste of time to watch. If you enjoy Rom-Com anime then you will most likely not be sorry for watching this. The comedy is great; the romance is hit or miss.

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Dec 10, 2010

Bryce-kun

Mixed Feelings

Kaicho Wa Maid-sama, another series put in the category of typical.

Plot:
Typical. The main character, Misaki is your not so average shoujo lead, why? Because she is the head of the student council but also conceals and dark secret; she works in a maid cafe. Big whoop. The plot is very linear she meets the handsome, popular bishie of the school and gradually throughout the episodes romance is suppose to flourish. Slice of life is evident because of school activities, competitions, pesky, convenient love triangles and maid service to make the anime seem related to real life. There's is nothing special about the plot, if you ...

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Sep 21, 2014

Sylvoon

Recommended

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! is far from your regular romance anime and that is EXACTLY why you'll love it. While most anime if they have a romance element tease you by implying character feelings with subtle interactions but no real physical connection such as a kiss and without spoiling much Kaichou doesn't exactly have a lot of physical connections either but it's just so bluntly put you love it. It literally defines your anime dream romance which is why you should watch Kaichou wa Maid-sama! now!

Storyline; 10

While the storyline in Kaichou is not complex and the most intense thing ever you'll fall helplessly in love with ... every element of it. From the comedic side-stories to the annoying childhood friend to the stubborn protagonist not admitting their feelings! There are so many elements intertwined within the story that create this bittersweet mood you can't escape.

Art/Animation Style; 9

Kaichou wa Maid-sama isn't the most recent series but it's art style definitely compares to some recent anime and I would argue effortlessly that it is really easy on the eyes. You'll find as you watch the artist do a fantastic job of really visually allowing you to follow the cute story of Kaichou!

Sound; 8

Despite not having any of my favorite songs Kaichou does bring some nice songs within it's OST that I can sit down and listen too every now and then to really relive the ever amazing experience of watching Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Now I will say I did love the main theme, and don't get that mixed up with the opening, the maid theme is super cute and plays throughout multiple parts of the series. You'll know it fully after five episodes what I'm talking about, it is just so damn catchy!

Character; 10

The characters presented in Kaichou are definitely among some of my favorites. Usui being my male role model because we share this quiet/shy nature about us that allows us to appear mysterious to women and that leads to easily teasing them! Usui you'll find is rather comical, reserved but also just out there. He fits perfectly with Misa and I definitely think you all will too!
Misa now, she is your typical yet slightly cuter Tsundere that we all fandom over! Her characteristics are rather aggressive at first but slowly over time she shows more kindness and even some extra stuff all of you romance lovers will just die over!
As you watch Kaichou you'll find between these two main characters and the perfectly fit supporting characters that you'll be left in the characters shoes on an entertaining adventure of romance, heartbreaks and much more!

Enjoyment; 9

Overall I adored Kaichou and really hope you will too! It's cute, funny and all around enjoyable! All you romance lovers I promise you won't be left dissatisfied like other shoes such as Nisekoi, you will definitely get your plateful with this anime and even some of you comedy lovers will get a certain level of laughs out of this wonderful show!

In the end I gave Kaichou wa Maid-sama a 9/10 for its dazzling ability to keep me on the edge of my seat the entire length of the series! A giant round of applies for the creators of this anime and a huge pat on the back to the author!

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Hyoudou, Aoi

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