In the world of anime, there are a variety of clichés and stereotypes that are repeated throughout. These can be for simple nostalgic imagery, or simply to pull in a certain type of crowd. However, what separates most series is the reliance on these things and the ability to also tell an interesting story, with great characters and lovely animation. Mayo Chiki, unfortunately, prefers to go with the grain.
Kinjiro Sakamachi, a high school student, suffers from gynophobia. To the point of where he'll get a nose bleed whenever he has physical contact with a female and can cause him to also pass out depending on the length of physical contact. During an incident in a restroom, he happens to find that the extremely popular and good looking bishie butler Subaru Konoe is actually a girl. Subaru and her master, Kanade Suzutsuki, who is more of a sadist and the mastermind, decide to "help" cure Kinjiro of his gynophobia. Thus, our story begins!
While the concept itself is not new, nor is the story itself is somewhat fresh, what makes it interesting is the relationship between Subaru and Kinjiro. Boy finds out girl's secret, boy keeps it a secret and slowly becomes friends with girl. Girl and boy slowly start to develop feelings, and girl struggles with the fact that she wants the relationship to progress but the boy is too dense and ends up missing this meaning. Had the show stuck to this formula and build the show around this with comedy elements, it would of been a much stronger show and would of been far stronger overall as a series. Sadly, we end up with a bombardment of ecchi scenes, and a plot that goes little to nowhere with clichés jam packed.
Mayo Chiki's biggest issue is while it does deviate from the plot itself, it seems to have a difficult time staying on track. For the first several episodes, the show actually sticks fairly well to the meat of the story and is fairly enjoyable. However, as the show progresses and we are introduced to Masamune Usami and Nakuru Narumi, we are forced to accept the fact of what this show truly is. Pure fan service and stereotypes. Sadly, for the remaining half we are forced to sit through awkward fan service and un-funny comedy scenes from time to time until we get to the big episode. Episode 8 introduces us to the big chance for the plot to change. Subaru looks to Jiro, and express to him that she doesn't want to be just friends and the episode ends. What's going to happen next? Is she going to confess, or is she going to keep it buried inside? Suspense builds and anticipation grows and then the next episode is.. Kinjiro working at a maid cafe? Wait, what? Oh by the way, that huge plot point? Simply thrown away in two lines of casual dialogue in the episode. Moments like this completely take me out of the show and frustrate me to no end, because this is the big moment for Mayo Chiki to really come out and shine, but it completely throws it all away for two filler episodes that do nothing with the gynophobia, or Subaru and Kinjiro.
While the show itself has one episode left, it's rather obvious that the episode is going to do little to nothing with the plot itself, as the story seems to be completely wrapped up for this first season. What are we left with? Thirteen episodes of disappointment and broken promises of what could of been a decent show. By no means are the characters bad, and at times Mayo Chiki shows signs of intelligence, but never does anything with it than simply pander to a type of crowd.
Art (7/10)
The one aspect of Mayo Chiki that definitely shines through is the animation itself. Characters are fluid and scenes are rather bright and full of color. While the show isn't exactly an action series, the scenes that do have Kinjiro being beaten up by his sister, Kureha, and whenever he does get kicked around by either Usami or Subaru do look rather nice.
Probably one of the biggest shames about this series is it's well animated and very few short cuts are used, yet it is used for random fan service scenes.
Sound (8/10)
Sound, like with animation, is also rather well done. While I found the opening singer to be more ear-grating, the introduction is rather nicely done. Voice actors do a rather nice job with their lines, and I felt that Satoshi Hino, who voiced Kinjiro, really stole the show. By far being rather diverse with his dialogue. However, Yuka Iguchi (Subaru) and Eri Kitamura (Kanade) really did a nice job as well. With Eri really helping give Kanade that sadistic personality, yet at the same time giving glimpse of just how fragile she can actually be and Yuka giving Subaru a diverse vocal range of when she pretends to be a man, and her normal speaking voice.
By far the strongest part of Mayo Chiki.
Overall (4/10)
Mayo Chiki was actually one of my genuine surprises for 2011.
I was rather impressed with just how well constructed the series was, despite the fact that it was obviously meant to be a throw-away show just for a specific type of audience. However, it became painfully obvious that the show wouldn't break the chains it was bound in and simply ended up embracing them. While the show isn't terrible by any means, it's not going to get any new fans unless you enjoy anime cliches, a decent amount of fan service and a plot that panders around.
If Mayo Chiki ever ends up with a second season, I can only hope that the creators will take a chance to deviate from the norm a bit more and present us with a surprise, which is what I was hoping for the first season to be.
