Episodes 1-3 – Akiba Maid War

Subversion, as a composing system, are unable to support a story all on its individual. You can hook an viewers with a significant twist, a shocking surprise early on, but without any substance soon after that, it’s hard for the audience to adhere close to. From its quite 1st trailer, Akiba Maid War is manufactured apparent to us that we could assume some subversive swerve from the forward-struggling with maid-café visuals. That turned out to be an even much more acceptable meta-spin than we could have imagined, due to the fact the twist is not a twist so much as it is the premise. Listed here, the maid cafés of its vision of late-90s Akihabara are fronts for arranged legal exercise. It can be as if someone watched the Roberta-targeted episodes of Black Lagoon and (the right way) surmised “We could make a total exhibit out of this.” As a large fan of equally Black Lagoon and stupidly-self-confident/confidently-stupid anime premises, I could not be happier with the final result.

That self-assurance is the significant driving factor guiding Akiba Maid War‘s results it has an totally severe, stone-confronted motivation to The Bit. The premise seemingly originates out of very simple wordplay, with the Maid or ‘Meido’ in the title also staying read through as “Underworld.” And so it plays the gritty 90s crime thriller straight, just with each and every instance of the Yakuza replaced with maids, total with them retaining up cutesy puns in their dialogue even as they’re having shootouts and lobbing grenades at each individual other. It signifies the sheer dissonance can provide as the joke alone, while the genuine narrative structure of the show nevertheless will get to have legs. The criminal offense genre itself gives plenty of chance for a potent selection of plots, as opposed to trying to wring a entire season’s really worth of leisure out of this pony’s just one specific trick.

Some of the dissonance is a little questionable, of system. The existence of Akihabara’s community of otaku-catering businesses as a large legal underground seems greatly approved in this universe’s twisted vision, with civilians on the street preventing the waitstaff on the streets out of dread, or newscasters reporting on overnight maid café brawls as if they ended up common updates on gang violence. Still newcomer characters like Nagomi or the 3rd episode’s Zoya have character arcs exclusively centered on them not remaining conscious of the true character of the maid company till they joined it. It is really all at behest of promoting that central joke, of study course, that even following we see a maid matron gunned down in the initially episode’s opening, we still journey along with Nagomi’s shock when a bunny woman in front of her catches a bullet amongst the eyes and sprays blood all about her apron (complete with an cute tweety sound effect, because the persons guiding Akiba Maid War are true geniuses).

It really is not 1 joke, it can be a complete universe of jokes. That type of subversion is Akiba Maid War‘s bread and butter (or omurice and ketchup) even following the pig is out of the proverbial poke. The trailer also handled us to items like a shot of the Oinky-Doink Café’s Chief earning herself glance like a badass exterior with a momentary smoke crack, but in the context of the second episode, Main has absolutely cemented herself as an totally ineffectual loser at seeking to navigate this frilly underworld. Yumechi spends the exact episode seemingly exhibiting her prowess at underground gambling, before she certainly beefs her attempt at a Jotaro-Kujo-fashion bluff and they have to conclude things with a shootout in any case. The driving topic of the 3rd episode is the question of no matter whether Ranko can be thought of “sweet,” in spite of the simple fact that every single one of us fell in enjoy with this 35-year-outdated murder maid from the commencing of the initial episode.

The narrative factors that Rako is sweet because of the experience with which she accepts Nagomi’s gifts of hair ties: Sincerity. This sentiment is reflected all through the full clearly show. Even with the cutesy coat of paint as a gimmick, Akiba Maid War is aware it cannot just coast with its crime-thriller principle. There are continue to true, productive twists and turns powering the plots of just about every episode, especially the third a person, which requires numerous mob manager betrayals and incidents involving counterfeit anime girl collectible figurines. It delivers all that even though placing the scene for Zoya joining of the Oinky-Doink crew (the opening theme gamely hoping to cover her recruitment by obscuring her facial area for these first few episodes). This subplot shines in spite of competing for place with the frankly galaxy-mind episode thought of “Maid Fight Club.” It’s an complete iceberg of leisure concentrations, all the way down to an avalanche of Ashita no Joe allusions, complete with lovingly rendered postcard recollections. And the fights them selves are all nicely animated to boot!

From the initial expose of its foretold twist, Akiba Maid War built clear that this was a concept that could maintain alone. The Sopranos but acted out by the workers of a Chuck E. Cheese would even now have the participating plot of The Sopranos, now with the risk of animal-themed puns or outlandish musical quantities. I’m truly hoping we continue on to get issues on the identical degree as the wota-choreographed musical gunfight of the first episode that was these a jaw-dropping emphasize. The 3rd episode strategies that, with hair-tie-hinging debates on the deserves of cuteness between two cross-countering MMAids, and Zoya’s entire-time addition to the personnel foretells probably far more of that variety of mayhem. But I also identify the probability for a authentic ongoing plot, as we uncover what may well be Ranko’s quest for revenge after what she witnessed in the show’s cold opening. It indicates we could be in for a full season of a rock-solid thriller that also characteristics lovable maids and silly animal jokes. It truly is great to have these maids welcoming me, as genuinely, that feels like I’ve occur house.

Ranking:

Akiba Maid War is now streaming on
HIDIVE.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-centered freelancer with a adore for anime and a shelf whole of too many Transformers. He can be identified investing way also much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.