AKIBA MEIDO SENSOU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyMeido Jinsei (Maid Life!)

REVIEWS

• 

  Alicemagic18

  84/100
  This is some PA Works' next level of trolling

  “Okaerinasaimase, Goshujinsama!”

  Simple words, yet it’s charming to see that greeting when you go inside a café with full of cute maids. They were dressed in black uniforms, a white aprons on the outside, and most importantly, their smile. They will escort you to your seats and will serve your meals. They serve Parfaits, Karage, Salads, and Omurice with a special message from them, written in ketchup. Customers will feel very special while you’re inside the café. When you exit the café, they will greet you again to see them next time. That’s the daily life of maid cafes and their masters. That’s why I pictured this show. A slice of life comedy anime full of cute maids and their daily lives. That’s where I’ve been mistaken.

  WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK?

  After witnessing the unexpected airing of Pairipi Koumei from Spring 2022 and its Chinese dance, PA Works is back with another of their anime originals. It’s been a long time since they made an anime original like Aquatope of the White Sand. This time, they released something different. Something less likely we’ve never seen before. I found myself getting trolled by this show because it isn’t what I’m expecting. I didn’t read the synopsis and see the trailer in the first place.

  At the very beginning of the show, it seemed different. You may think that the story is not supposed to be like that. The show introduced the main character, that is yearning to experience the life of being a maid and decided to work in a maid café in Akiba. Nagomi decided to work in a café called, “Oinky Doinky Café”, where they wear a pinkish uniform, and some of them wear a headband of pig’s ears. She later experienced her first day of the job until that night. Ranko began to shoot other maids with a dual-wielding pistol in front of her and witnessed the corpses covered in their blood. I didn’t expect that to happen and made me curious about what the heck is going on. I had assumed this will be another CGDCT anime by PA Works but apparently, it’s a show where maids are considered yakuzas, and killing amongst them is a normal occurrence. I thought it was supposed to be a slice-of-life maid show but I made a mistake. The next thing that happened is I found myself enjoying this show.

  The story is kind of a troll by making an idea about maids and maid cafes and turning them into some sort of bloodbath war. I’m not sure where to start, but I think all maid cafes are like running a ruthless business. Tons of slapping energy, action, and thriller slapped together into a show not just for comedy, but one-of-a-kind entertainment. I didn’t find myself bored every time I watch the ongoing episodes. What I like about the story are its uniqueness and creativity. The concept is interesting but shown in a subaverage way. Each episode has its own story when they found themselves fighting with other maid cafes for the sake of their café and lives. But when they all come in together, you’ll know that something will supposed to happen. Imagine a world where yakuza don't hang out in small offices, entertaining only people that owe them money, but instead, they run maid cafes... as cute maids. Sound ridiculous? That's because it is. That's also the plot of this show. In this world, maid cafes are part of syndicates, maids use knives, swords, and guns to kill their competition, and they do long stretch in prison. Yet somehow, they still attract and entertain otaku in their cafes. The comedy itself is very entertaining. I found myself laughing so much because of the execution of the punchline, where every maid got killed all of a sudden. The segments in this show are very witty like the boxing match, baseball match, poker match, rooftop scene, and many more. Although the story didn’t have complexity, it was engaging and most of all, full of violence.

  What I like about the characters are they full of energy. Some of them were annoying but you couldn’t help but laugh. Their interactions are entertaining even sometimes also absurd. The characters are also fleshed out, and most of them are interesting. Panda can be somewhat the funniest character in the series, alongside Manager. I thought that she was just a mascot while she was a maid too. The manager is way too crazy for the situation. She is sometimes annoying because she always sells her staff to war to earn profits. Even though, she’s also an entertaining one. I like the character development of Nagomi because even though she was forced to join the war, she didn’t quit. She wanted to prove to other cafes that Oinky Doinky members are not pigs. Ranko is probably the best character in the series because she is full of violence. I thought that she was just the cold-hearted one, but she’s the one who loves Oinky Doinky the most. She values her co-workers, especially Nagomi’s determination to solve the conflicts without acts of violence.

  The sounds are also good. It is well-suitable for most of the parts. Some parts sometimes look like a punchline because of the music, but they know how to put the music into some serious parts. The OP slaps hard and it sounded 90s electronic vibe. The lyrics are just the dialogue of a common maid to the customers, but the way they distorted and make it suspenseful is amazing. The dance at the end was good too and I didn’t expect that because of its nature. I didn’t listen to the ED that much but it sounded like the songs from Yakuza.

  The animation and art style are also good as expected from PA Works. Although the quality isn’t that perfect, it’s pretty suited for the show. The style can be very weird but also mesh super well. The art direction is also presented and they took their sweet time to animate every scene even the violent ones. It seems that they ran out of budget when they produced Paripi Koumei. It’s not a high-caliber, but a good one.

  Akiba Meido Sensou is certainly a strange show but certainly has left an impression on its viewers. I recommend it to those who want to be entertained and experience some strange violence. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s very creative. Chaotic, strange situations, insane, and stupidity in a good way, blended all in one show. Akiba Meido Sensou is definitely worth to see!

  Story: 8/10
  Animation: 7/10
  Characters: 8/10
  Sound: 8/10
  Entertainment factor: 9/10
  Enjoyment: 9/10

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• 

  Mcsuper

  75/100
  Good Entertainment Value, But Had Even More Potential

  Maids. The epitome of cuteness, the pinnacle of omurice, the zenith of “Moe Moe Kyun”. That’s what we know them as nowadays, but what if in the past, they were these dark, heartless beings that felt like the yakuza? Shocking, I know. It’s an interesting concept, and something that worked so well to start, with in my opinion, one of the best first episodes of the entire year. It’s a perfect show to turn your brain off, and just enjoy the mindless action that Akiba Maid War brings, and entertainment value it does bring, but I felt it could have done more with its concept.

  STORY:

  The story revolves around Nagomi Wahira, an admirer of the maids at maid cafes. Wanting to join in on the fun, she decided to travel to Akihabara, to work at Ton Tokoton, a pig-themed cafe. Things are all going swimmingly, until she has to run an errand, which gave her a dose of reality that maids in this world wield guns and knives, ready to kill fellow maids. The first episode was so over the top, with themes from Quentin Tarantino movies such as Kill Bill being seen, along with a happy go lucky song to accompany the killing. It felt so dumb, yet so entertaining, but I was left wondering, how could the story progress from here? Maybe there would be turf wars or something?

  I was a little disappointed to see that it ended up being a bit of a “heist-of-the-week” type show, with no real direction, minus a few episodes that felt a bit more plot heavy. The nonsensical narrative worked at first, but it didn’t work forever. I would have appreciated a more structured approach, while keeping some of the nonsense intact. It would have made the characters better, and whenever a character did something memorable, it would feel more earned.

  Overall, just a lack of direction, and it was hard to get a handle on what the show was trying to achieve.

  ART:

  Pretty good, as expected of P.A. Works, but I believe it could have been better. Some of the action sequences could have been more fluid rather than using stills or limited movement.

  MUSIC:

  The OP and ED are both awesome in my opinion, pretty fitting of the show. The soundtrack isn’t the most noticeable apart from the song from Episode 1, which was a big highlight of the show.

  CHARACTERS:

  An aspect that holds the show back is definitely the characters. With the lack of plot direction, the character development was very unbalanced among the cast, with only two characters getting any time to shine. Nagomi was a reason why this show is just good, but not great. She’s your typical protagonist, holding her sense of morality, trying to keep peace in the world, and prevent violence. Many terrible things happen to her and the cafe, but she never snapped, never gave us something really intriguing to talk about. It felt like the show was playing it safe in their insanity, as even some hatred from Nagomi’s side toward other maids would have been more interesting. Instead, time and time again, she gets bailed out by others, and never achieved anything too worthy of note.

  The other character that stood out, and a fan favourite, was Ranko. She’s a very stoic character, and with her lack of emotion, her maid mannerisms when serving customers was quite funny, but that’s not what I’m here to focus on. She doesn’t hesitate a lot when killing others, and protects the cafe very well, but in doing so, I think she stole the spotlight a bit too much, and prevented development for the other maids in Ton Tokoton. A bit more of a balance of development in the characters would have worked better in my opinion.

  The other maids aren’t too notable, but they have their respective moments, and Tenchou, man is she just useless.

  ENJOYMENT:

  Like I said, the first episode was of my favourite episodes of this entire season, and perhaps even the year, but the other episodes felt like they could be more insane, and I never felt like we reached the peak that was the first episode’s antics.

  THEMATIC EXECUTION:

  The atmosphere of the maid world in general was nice, but the themes were a bit out of place at times. The comedy was sub-par throughout, but at least the violence was graphic and enjoyable to see. Some plot twists could have been executed with more care for sure.

  OVERALL:

  As some popcorn entertainment that you can turn your brain off watching, it’s decent enough, but if you were looking for a coherent story about maids, it might not be the best show to watch. To me, it was good, but it had the potential to be great, and it just didn’t hit that mark.

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• 

  ZNote

  34/100
  What happens when a Yakuza game and a maid café have a child.

  Akiba Maid War’s premise rests on asking a rather simple question: what happens when a Yakuza game and a maid café have wildly-passionate sex and produce an offspring that gets twelve episodes to show what it’s capable of doing? There is beauty in linking two things together that you would never imagine should be put together. It triggers a kind of fascination – just how are these two things supposed to work when you put them in a blender? In the spirit of that disparity, the series wastes no time in showing that potential. It starts with is a campy bloodbath as bullets fly from Ranko’s gun, while Nagomi stands in terrified awe of the carnage she witnessed.

  It is not just that the moment itself is positively shocking, but more intriguing instead is the manner by which that shock is conveyed. Nagomi, who entered Akiba and started working at Oinky Doink Café all wide-eyed and eager to please, couldn’t have possibly imagined this outcome. Within the course of a single evening, her entire preconception about what maid life is like was completely destroyed. Who could blame her for being so taken aback and scared? Maid cafés rest on the aesthetic of servitude for the patrons, the sensation that your every whim is adorably accommodated with cuteness so plastic that it’s kind of hypnotizing to experience.

  A part of Akiba Maid War’s initial draw is seeing what lies behind that plastic veneer, what kinds of darker and seedier undercurrents lie in wait. The bloodbath set against the Oinky Doink Café girls performing a song-and-dance routine highlights this perfectly. All that beautiful lighting and adherence to 1990s moe aesthetic rings with a deep, deliberately-garish irony. If the premise of the series rested on a question, the first episode ends likewise for the viewer: what the heck is coming next?

  Yet despite hedging its bets on the inherently-funny juxtaposition between Yakuza-style storytelling wrapped in a maid café backdrop and aesthetic, Akiba Maid War always feels like it is restraining itself from actually letting loose. The first episode’s sheer insanity was for the purposes of making a good first impression; the rest that follows is nowhere close to being as crazed, nor as inherently comedic. This is a twofold problem, with the primary reason for this is in its treatment of Nagomi. While Nagomi is ostensibly the main character in terms of setting up the story and serving as the fish out of water who comes to work at Oinky Doink Café, Ranko is the character who is actually given the things to do in regards to action. Ranko has moments of muscular thuggery goodness aplenty, blowing away enemies with guns or grenades and treating the world she resides in completely straight.

  Since Ranko hogs so much of the spectacle spotlight, this reduces Nagomi to primarily being a spectator to the action, a side component who can do little more than bear witness to the insanity rather than take a more-proactive role in Akiba’s chaotic choreography. Granted, she does not have the insane training or life experience that Ranko does (and in terms of actual age, Ranko is in her thirties while Nagomi is a younger woman), nor has been in Akiba nearly as long. As such, she is underequipped to deal with the fallout of everything that transpires.

  The show therefore sets up a classic interplay between Nagomi and Ranko, that the battle-hardened veteran of Akiba’s bloodwar will, in time, have her edges somewhat softened by Nagomi’s naïve, optimistic, and demure personality. One represents the recognizable maid lifestyle while the other symbolizes the reality of what the maid lifestyle is actually like in Akiba. But even within this dynamic, Ranko takes centerstage such that the balance never rights itself. In part because of the first episode’s crazed battle sequence, Nagomi finds herself outclassed not only in terms of prowess, but in being capable of carrying the story’s main intrigue. The idea of learning about and seeing Nagomi change (the extent of that is highly-debatable, which I’ll get to later) becomes increasingly less enticing when the show has so brazenly highlighted someone else.

  Such is Ranko’s presence as the main fixture of the story that it also comes at the price of nearly everyone else. It is easy to forget that there are other maids besides her and Nagomi who work at Oinky Doink. The other maids both within and outside Oinky Doink, along with their manager, serve as little more than providing exposition dumps and being ancillary or orbital presences in the story. At most, each of the others may have one moment where they are allowed to step forward and move beyond the confines of what the anime has allowed for them, only to be thrust back into the background when their moment is over.

  The ways in which the characters change therefore are mostly relegated to how they conduct themselves in the café (you have to master ketchup messages, right?) and less about how they carry over into a larger whole of Akiba’s brutal tapestry. Yumechi, Shiipon, and Zoya’s presence act more as placeholders. While the show does, in theory, give them things to do and developments to undergo, any sense of actual lasting development is either quickly resolved at an episode’s finish, or relates moreso to the power of friendship. For a show that is willing to engage in bloodsport at the drop of a hat, it is so curious that Akiba Maid War would default to all the maids being friends as its constant takeaway, and not in a way that contributes to the show’s comedic juxtaposition. Because of its stubbornness to not break out and cause a serious shake-up of the status quo (until it comes at far too late an hour), the rest of the maids are surprisingly undefined, which sadly makes Oinky Doink feel less like an ensemble and more akin to “Two Maids, and Then the Others Who Just So Happen to Be There.”

  The inability to let the other maids strut their action-packed stuff ties into the second way the series feels restrained, which is that the narrative is debilitated by its sense of routine. Just about every episode of the series follows the same pattern: something bad happens because of the café’s financial straits, often because the manager is a greedy idiot chasing a quick buck. The situation thus involves the Oinky Doink maids finding themselves roped into a terrible situation with their lives on the line, which Ranko then more or less helps—if not single-handedly—get them out of. Although the various events presented hint at a larger-overarching tale relating to Nagomi, Ranko, Oinky Doink, the rest of the Akiba maid area involving financial or hierarchical politics, or what it means to “be a maid,” an actual sense of progression feels wanting. It reads far more as an “episodic problem of the day” format, which while in and of itself is nothing to look down upon, gets repetitive and old very quickly. Even if the episodes themselves might be amusing, they’re not funny enough either as straight melodramatic comedy or as meta comedy to give Akiba Maid War more of a half-life.

  And part of this lack of half-life and debilitating routine brings me back to Nagomi. As the outlier to the insanity surrounding her in Akiba, she is the one who is most in need of having to adapt in order to survive. But the show has no time for this; whether it be in its attempts to not take the focus off Ranko, or because of the need to maintain the status quo for as long as possible, her naivety is still ever-present. Nagomi never really learns; constantly being surprised by some kind of dark twist in Akiba’s maid life stopped being excusable after that first episode’s battle. When she finally does undergo a transformation of some sort in the middle of the series, it is largely, just like in the show’s treatment of the other maids and their own sense of growth, put on the metaphorical bus and sent away. The series steadfastly refuses to make Nagomi more of a combatant for too long, opting instead to have her be an idealist in a setting that does not behoove this.

  Perhaps that explains Akiba Maid War better than anything else I’ve written here: it’s constantly defaulting to ideas that would have been better off being strapped to a grenade and thrown into a rival building with truly reckless abandon. It only really knows how to play it safe. In trying to ideally rest on the laurels and initial appeal of its edgy tone in the maid backdrop, it doesn’t cast that aside and really indulge in that tension and go full-fledged into the stylistically-adventurous valley. The dance sequence in episode one was the show loading only one bullet into its chambers, firing it, but never reloading…though as far as Nagomi is concerned, she’d probably wonder why someone was carrying a gun in the first place even into episode ten.

  There is, however, one takeaway that does give me reason to be optimistic. Between this year’s earlier Ya Boy Kongming! from the spring and Akiba Maid War, PA Works as a studio seems to be headed in the direction of trying out the crazy-on-the-surface and seeing if it works, adaptation or not. For all intents and purposes, I hope that they continue along this trajectory. Anime is a better place in general with wacky ideas like these. When it succeeds, it’s infectious and easily becomes the talk of the town.

  And I do sincerely wish that I enjoy their next experiment more than this one.

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