I can’t believe it: compared to the beginning, episode two and three are much better. But don’t get me wrong here because that in no way means Mayo Chiki has reached a level I’d call good or great. Far from it.
Sure, Mayo Chiki doesn’t rely on stupid undressing acts anymore or a stupid butler girl acting stupid but unfortunately the series compensates that by using cliché filled stuff we’ve seen dozens of times. I also have the feeling that I’ve seen some of the characters a couple of years ago in a series, where the main character and his sister become butler and maid in a filthy rich household of three sisters. Especially the one eyed maid and the now non-SM master remind me of that series that shall be named.
Some of the stories felt eerily familiar, too, although I give credit for being lightning fast at that. The second episode basically consists of two separate parts. The first part is (also not only) about a date to cure his illness (MM! anyone?) whereas the second part is about the physical examination and the resulting goal to hide stupid butler girl’s gender (Ouran High School Host Club anyone?). The third episode contains an indoor beach episode (again, Ouran anyone?) and a kidnapping (The series that shall be named, anyone?).
What surprised me a little bit was how the master girl grew on me a little bit, although her actions are the usual clichés again, being so over the top and ridiculous that I couldn’t do anything else than shut down my brain. Well, by the end of the third episode I also smelled a love triangle in the making but who cares. It also could become a harem or worse. Who knows…
Besides the characters we saw in the beginning the third installment adds the father of stupid butler girl to the bunch, who’s as over the top doting as a stereotype character of a fanservice series can be. Well, the cast acts more or less how expect them to act. The sister is head over heels for stupid butler girl, thinking it’s a cross-dressing guy. The master wants to be lovey-dovey with her stupid butler girl and starts to fake-date glasses guy. Glass guy is the honest good guy who acts heroic when time calls for it. Stupid butler girl has some bad memories from the past and slowly gets lovey dovey with glasses guy. And the school not only’s filled with news stands but also with many variations of hardcore fangirls.
Mayo Chiki is a typical generic fanservice comedy, anyone could see that from the beginning (including me I might add). This by itself is not horribly bad but on the other hand this series adds nothing new to the mix and it doesn’t even try to. It relies on well-known clichés, well-known stereotypes and well-known stories.
And I don’t have to wait for the series to end to know that no matter what happens, in the last minute or so everything will be reset to our beloved status quo again where the main character acts “funny” and stupid one last time. This will cause the usual mayhem where the harem girls go after the main character until the whole scene freezes and fades to black.
Again, all of this is not bad per se because there are some funny and fanservice filled moments. It’s enough to laugh a little bit and sometimes even have a nice time. But it doesn’t justify using any energy to blog about something that uncreative, so I will drop it but will continue to watch for two or three episodes.
Mayo Chiki: Dropped.
I’m okay with an anime copying a FEW elements from different animes, as long as it takes those elements and gets creative, innovative and serious with it. I mean it’s like the phrase goes “there’s nothing new under the sun.”
What did you expect? “Mayo Chiki” is SEINEN, after all. It’s targeted at Japanese men from ages eighteen to fourty-four. It’s just another one of those wish fulfillment harem animes where the typical, dislikable male lead WILL get together with the cute female lead. I think senien written by a female authors tends to be little more realistic (not trying to be sexist here.)
Ah, well. Best not complain about lack of drama or good plot, and enjoy it for the reason that it’s meant to be pure entertainment and nothing else.
You might laugh but over the years and many sneak previews I’ve been trained to expect nothing of movies or series (be it anime or Hollywood or whatever). And the last thing I’d expect of a harem comedy is drama or plot. The only thing I expect on a higher level is: “whatever you throw at me, be good and creative with that”. Mayo Chiki could’ve been so much better if the creators at least added some twists or spins to the generic clichés we’ve come to love and hate. I’m on your side when you write that “as long as it takes those elements and gets creative, innovative and serious with it”. Mayo Chiki is everything but that.