UzaMaid!

Overview

UzaMaid! is the second shoujo ai, comedy, slice of life series of the season along with Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. However, this series tries opts to double down on the comedy aspect instead of taking the moe route as Ms. Vampire did.

But don’t get me wrong, this series definitely includes moe elements, it just doesn’t have that classic moe look and feel to it at all times. Some episodes are even dark and depressing, which isn’t something you would expect from the cover art (pictured above).

While this series was enjoyable and the comedy was good at times, it simply wasn’t as enjoyable as other, similar series. I don’t think there was ever a week where I didn’t want to watch the latest episode, but it was never a high priority as far as I was concerned and I often pushed it back a day or two.

So just what is UzaMaid! all about? The basic premise is that a former JSDF (Japanese Self-Defense Force) officer retires from the military and becomes the maid for a seven-year-old half-Russian, half-Japanese girl. However, the maid is a lolicon, and the young girl wants nothing to do with her.

Throughout the series, Tsubame, the maid, comes up with a variety of plans to make Misha, the young girl, fall in love with her. Meanwhile, Misha, along with her pets, concoct plans to get rid of their new maid once and for all. It’s kind of like Tom & Jerry, but, you know, if Tom was a super buff, lolicon, former JSDF member and Jerry was a small, Russian girl.

Characters

The first of the two main characters is Misha Takanashi, the aforementioned half-Russian, half-Japanese girl. Misha’s father is never shown in the series, but we can assume that he died or left at some point before Misha ever actually formed any memories about him since he’s never even mentioned.

Her mother also died when she was around five or six years old, and so now Misha lives with her stepfather, Yasuhiro Takanashi. But, unlike with her actual father, Misha cares deeply about her mother and doesn’t allow anyone into the room which was once her studio, including the new maid, Tsubame Kamoi.

In fact, Misha tends to see the maids Yasuhiro hires as replacements for her late mother, which is something she gets angry about. Because of this, she’s chased away a number of maids in the past.

As an aside, both Misha’s appearance and attitude remind me of a younger version of Illya from Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya.

Tsubame, however, isn’t your typical maid. As a former member of the JSDF, she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to be the best maid possible. Not only can she cook and clean, but she can also repair anything and even fight off a bear if need be.

But, although she seems to be both the perfect maid and bodyguard, Tsubame is obsessed with young, blonde girls like Misha. And, it’s actually her unconditional love for Misha that keeps her around more than her expertise at being a maid or the skills she developed while serving in the military.

As for the supporting characters, there’s only four that I can think of who play any sort of significant role in the anime. These are Yasuhiro, Midori, Washizaki, and Morikawa.

As previously mentioned, Yasuhiro is Misha’s stepfather who married her mother shortly before she died. While Misha has accepted him as her guardian, she still refuses to refer to him as “daddy” as he wants. Despite this, he’s vowed to be the best father she could ask for and spares no expense on her.

That said, Yasuhiro doesn’t quite know how to interact with Misha and so she typically stays in her room alone with her pet ferret (and later hamsters). Because of this, one of the most important jobs for Tsubame is to play with Misha so that she isn’t lonely all day while Yasuhiro is at work.

Midori Ukai, or Midorin as she prefers to be called, was Tsubame’s commanding officer in the JSDF. However, despite her originally being in a position of power, Midorin is an extreme masochist, which caused many of those serving under her to lose respect for her, which only further fueled her masochism.

While in the JSDF, Midorin fell in love with Tsubame, specifically with the harsh way she treated her, and left the military soon after Tsubame did. However, unlike Tsubame who now works as Misha’s maid to pay the bills, Midorin comes from an extremely wealthy family and just spends her days trying to get Tsubame to fall in love with her (not unlike what Tsubame does with Misha).

Mimika Washizaki and Yui Morikawa are Misha’s two friends from school. Washizaki was the first of Misha’s friends who took care of the class pets with her. She’s basically just a standard second grader, so there’s nothing else to mention in regards to her.

Morikawa, however, may be my favorite character of the series. Since Misha is half russian, many of the other kids in their class think she’s cute due to her blonde hair; this is something Morikawa can’t stand, because she believes herself to be the cutest and most popular girl in the class.

As a result of this, Morikawa is constantly challenging Misha to all kinds of contests to decide which of them is better, with Misha always winning without much effort. Some bonus facts about Morikawa are that she loves fashion, has her own theme that plays whenever she appears, and refers to Tsubame as “the master.”

Conclusion

In the end, UzaMaid! is a 6/10 as far as I’m concerned, which means it falls into the “fine” category. It was enjoyable, but I feel like there have been other series which better execute some of the things it was trying to do.

If you watched this series and found yourself liking Misha’s character, then I’d recommend checking out Prisma Illya, which is the magical girl route of the Fate series. The series aren’t very similar, but as I mentioned earlier on, the characters of both Misha and Illya are.

As for those who either watched or were thinking about watching this anime because cute kids doing cute things is cute, then let me direct you to one of my favorite anime from 2018, Mitsuboshi Colors. It’s about three elementary school girls who run around their town playing make believe and harassing the adults.

While this next series I’m going to recommend is considered a romantic comedy, I think you’ll find that this isn’t really the case. Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! is an anime which tackles some tough family issues and situations in what I thought was a pretty good way.

It’s about three young girls who are adopted by their roughly 20-year-old uncle. The new family of four then all live together in a one room apartment and must learn how to both adapt to and make the best out of their new situation.

The reason I’m recommending that series as well is because I feel like it did a much better job of showing some of the struggles step-family members go through than what we saw from Misha and Yasuhiro.

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