Maid Sama!, Volume 1

this is a about a girl who is the student council president of her school while obsessively protecting her secret of working at a maid cafe as a part time job. I initially thought that it would be very trashy, with a brainless, cute, mediocre girl who suddenly for some reason catches the eye of a gorgeous, perfect, sexually-harassing guy who just seems to have the hots for her alone despite having a horde of women lining up to be his girlfriend. and on top of that, a maid cafe setting, like "urgh" you know... well, there are some of those elements here but the thing about this that made me like it so much was the heroine. she is freaking amazing and she terrorizes all the delinquents in the school, not in a cute way. a demonic way. she is fiesty, not pretend-fiesty. she's smart, capable and cool. and in a hidden-sort of way, she is also cute because, as usui (male lead) says, she is cutest when she is trying her best. it is refreshing that the leading man in a shoujo manga can appreciate that; most of them are just morons. also the romance is good. it is actually funny when they fight, not annoying as it is too often in shoujo manga. of course as it progresses, the girl got more into the guy and the romance got more heavy with all the blushing and the heart-beat-skips and getting-more-distracted-when-in-the-presence-of-the-heartthrob and less of the funnies (sad), but it took the girl really some time to fall for the guy. most of the others are "aiya, he's so cute, I love him. kya" urgh recommended, try it out!!!

Loved this manga! When a girl is in charge of student cousil, keeping the boys in line, and hating the boys of her school, no one expects her to actully be a waitress at a maid cafe! I mean come on, top of class and beats up every boy that even scares a girl, can't really expect her to say, "Hello Master!" In a maid outfit!, can you really? Hilarious, headstrong, and brusting onto the manga scence, Maid-sama!

When I first heard the title "Maid Sama!," I was sure it was a shonen harem manga. You don't hear of too many shojo with the word "maid" in the title. But this is one of the few that do. Misaki Ayuzawa goes to a school that only recently started accepting girls. She's smart and a hard worker, and she managed to become the school's first female school council president. Misaki strictly enforces the rules at school, especially with the boys. She doesn't care much for men and is seen as a strong, independent woman. However, unbeknownst to her classmates, Misaki has an after-school job as a waitress at a maid cafe. She hates having to play such a sexist role, but she needs money, and it has to be an easy job if she's going to keep up with her school work. Misaki tries to keep her job a secret, but then Usui, the most popular guy at school, finds out. He starts frequenting the cafe, and Misaki thinks he's just laughing at her. But he may have deeper motives... This is all pretty formulaic. Misaki is a pretty typical heroine. She's strong and self-sufficient, and she thinks guys are pigs. She's also completely oblivious to Usui's advances. I appreciated the fact that she doesn't need the hero to save her from tough situations. Usui is the kind of hero who's popular, cool, and reserved. All the girls love him, but he's interested in the heroine's inner strength. Usui is more mature than Misaki and tries to advise her, even though she just gets angry. He likes to tease her to get her flustered, but you know he's just waiting for her to come around. Fortunately, though, he doesn't try to make her think he's blackmailing her. He's straitforward with his intentions, though Misaki doubts his honesty. The story is certainly nothing new, but the manga-ka puts in fresh scenarios to keep it interesting. I especially liked her take on the popular school festival plot. The pacing is also good. The art's nothing special, but it's pretty. It won't really wow you, but the characters are still plenty good-looking. "Maid Sama!" doesn't break any new ground, but it's good at what it does. If you like this kind of manga, it's a good one. It's also good for those who haven't read much shojo as they won't notice the cliches. Most shojo fans should find something to enjoy here.

I'm not the biggest fan of shoujo manga typically, but Maid-sama! is really a cut above the usual formulaic love story. What impressed me most was the main character, Misaki Ayuzawa, who is the most unrepentantly cool, tough girl protagonist I've ever seen in shoujo or shounen manga. You read on the back cover that she's the top of her class, student council president and physically strong enough to contend with the average boy, which makes her sound like some kind of overachiever's Mary Sue, but she's really not--her portrayal and the writing in this manga are so smart that she comes across as a real, fleshed out character--the sort of fair but abrasive overachiever who WOULD be student council president at your own school. As realistic as her archetype is, it's not one that's seen in shoujo manga too often and having her star in a love/growing up story is very refreshing! So now that we have this unusual but very interesting main character to follow, we've got this really hilarious set-up to go along with her: ball-crushing Misaki the Student Council President has a secret double life as a sweet, subservient (if only superficially) maid at a Maid Cafe. It's a long story how she got to working there despite her dislike of the festishy job, but one day, a boy named Usui from her school sees her at work and discovers her secret! Surprisingly, Usui doesn't blab it to the whole school and instead starts visiting her cafe regularly, trying in his own way to become Misaki's friend (she really doesn't have any, though everyone admires/respects or hates/fears her). Usui is, of course, the school heartthrob and a genius/super martial artist in his own right, but unlike most of those heartthrob types, he's strangely tepid and typically doesn't get involved with girls. He finds in Misaki an interesting enigma and ends up falling for her. So far, it's one-sided in this volume, but he does win man-hating Misaki's respect and there is much potential for an interesting relationship between them in the future. Very interesting story! (and funny as all hell too~) I also HAVE to mention the beautiful one-shot story called "A Transparent World" that is included in this volume. Really sweet and sad (but hopeful?) love/friendship story about a really shy girl named Michiru who befriends her long-time secret crush--after he dies and comes back as a ghost! Don't worry, it's not scary at all--really funny and sweet, actually. Beautifully written and quite different in tone to Maid-sama! but just as fabulous. I highly recommend this volume to all fans of interesting manga~