Within just the first episode, MayoChiki makes enticing promises about what the core of the show could actually be. It had me considering any and all of the following possibilities right then and there:
1. ....would it be about the struggle to overcome one's fears?
2. ....would it be about how far people will go to help their friends?
3. ....would it be about finding true love?
4. ....would it be about discovering one's own sexuality?
5. ....or would it merely be about some whacky characters in even whackier situations, with lots of fan service and comic misunderstandings thrown in?
Sadly, although the writer (or writers?) really seemed to want to go in the more "serious" directions 1-4 above, they seemed to be on some sort of leash that would always pull them back to direction 5, never allowing them to truly explore any of the more worthwhile directions. (Not that fan service can't be entertaining in its own right, but after so many tantalizing steps in much more intriguing directions, it ended up feeling rather unsatisfying. To me, at least.)
The plot suggests that it revolves around underage butler Konoe, since all the female characters gravitate towards her and then all hug her during the OP. But strangely, the person telling the story is Jirou, a high school boy who is introduced as being very annoyed with Konoe, who he believes is a much more masculine guy than he is. Yes, you read it right: almost everyone believes that Konoe is a guy, in spite of his long tresses!
Of course, Jirou finds out about Konoe's secret when he stumbles into a toilet booth where Konoe was just relieving herself. (Doesn't ANYONE lock toilet booths or bathrooms in anime?!?) The necessary antics ensue, and Jirou soon finds himself promising Konoe that he won't reveal her secret. because that would cost her her job as butler. And being a butler is everything she he has worked for her whole life. Even when this makes Jirou look even more like a homosexual than he already does to his classmates. And to his own younger sister who already is more masculine than him, because she uses him as a vicitm for her martial arts' practice every morning.
Jirou's self-sacrificing nature really shines through here, since not many people would go that far just to help someone they only just met. Let alone a tom-boy butler who wasn't all that nice to him to begin with. This seemed like the kind of set-up that could well have led to a nice romantic entanglement, I thought. The most important obstacle seemed to be Jirou's fear of women (the medical term slips my mind), which causes him to get nosebleeds whenever a woman touches him. An obvious comedy device, to be sure, but the backstory about him having both a dominating mother and sister who were both martial arts experts, sounded somewhat interesting.
And then things get even more interesting, as Konoe's mistress Suzutski also chimes in. Although she likes to pretend that her interests are mostly of the sadistic kind, and she does like to play the occasional trick on both Jiroe and Konoe, many of her plans do seem to be intended to subtly help the both of them to make progress towards... Well, what? Romance, friendship, overcoming one's own traumas?
At some point, it is revealed that Konoe lost her mother at quite a young age and Jirou emotionally supports her on the anniversary of her mother's death when Konoe visits her family grave. Pretty powerful stuff, I felt.
But then, somewhere around episode 9, this anime simply seems to give up on the more serious themes of the show and it rattles off some lighter episodes. (Although the one about Jirou's martial arts sister feeling sad because Jirou forgot her previous birthday again seemed to hint at this series trying to dig deeper than just the fan service clichés).
And sadly, the show decides to leave most of the story threads it pulled loose dangling and ends it all on a gag episode about a BL-fanatic classmate being worried that nobody would like her for anything more than her breasts. Again, even this plot element had some hints of wanting to be less shallow, as though the writers kept resisting the urge to go 100% mindless fan service to the very end. And, almost as an aside, Jirou does seem to overcome his fear of women by helping this female BL-fanatic over her own fear. But exactly why this happened with someone he had no feelings for remains a little obscure.
Art
Certainly not bad, but some of the character models seemed eerily similar to some used in other shows. Konoe looks (and acts) a lot like Kirinoe from "Ore No Imouto"(released a year previously), while Lady Suzutski has almost the same face as Menma from Anohana. Some minor characters (redhead Masumane whom I hadn't mentioned before) and the big-breasted BL-fanatic in turn seem to have been copied for use in the (more recent) "The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat". I haven't checked if any of those other shows were made by the same studios, but it sure wouldn't surprise me.
Sound
The OP en ED are not at all bad. And the first one was sung by Eri Kitamura, no less. Impressive. Of the voice actors and actresses, the one portraying Konoe (Yuka Iguchi) does the most striking job, I felt. Not only does she manage both her feminine and more masculine voice quite convincingly, she also infuses Konoe's words with real feeling. Hanazawa Kana surprisingly portrays the rather butch younger sister character Kureha who often beats up her older brother. And Eri Kitamura does a very good job of voicing the elitist Suzutsuki. The guy portraying Jirou did all right and portrayed all the right emotions, although he seemed to have fewer challenging lines then his female colleagues.
Character
Well, as touched upon under "Story", the dropping of all of this story's more serious plotlines leaves the viewer guessing which character has progressed how far in which direction. Sure, Jirou seems to get over his fear of women and Konoe gains a new appreciation of what it means to be a butler, but that seems to be about it.
Enjoyment
In spite of this show's shortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. The characters were interesting, many of the comic plot twists felt fresh, the animation and backgrounds were nice to look at, while the voice acting was quite good. All in all, this show made Konoe into an intriguing female butler who is both strong and sensitive. Definitely a memorable and possibly even a classic anime character.
Overall
A show that was apparently never meant to be anything more than a fun fan service romcom somehow continually tried to rise above its premise, only to get pulled right back down to it time and again. Really quite curious, but definitely interesting. Still, I can't help but feel that viewers looking for a "fan service" experience will come away from this feeling a little short-changed. And folks that got hooked on the romance angle will also be left feeling unsatisfied. Perhaps the moral of the story is that shows like "To LoveRu" and "Kimi ni Todoke" really shouldn't be mixed together this way, but should instead stay in their own respective niches?
