Pimp that Manga: Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Let me start off by saying tsundere heroines are not my typical preference in my mangas. Never have been, never will be. That’s one reason I didn’t like Hana Yori Dango and its ilk. I find the hate-not/hate-like-love progression rather exhausting in a manga medium, whereas I enjoy it at times in dramas because the bickering has the 3D sizzle to it. So let it be said that Kaichō wa Maid-sama! (The Student Body President is a Maid!) must be doing something right, because this manga has a tsundere heroine and is like a mash-up of about a bajillion predecessors (most notably Ouran High School Host Club), yet it manages to rise above it all and create its own unique identity that I actually like. Maid-sama is like an otaku’s wet dream, except it really has a sensible and decent nugget of goodness within that aims beyond creating something amusing. Anytime a manga makes me want to marathon it in one night, I know its doing something right. Currently serialized in LaLa, fourteen tankoubans have been released in Japan so far but I have an inkling the story is nearing its conclusion so this won’t be a drawn out process of following along for years on end.

The manga centers around Ayuzawa Misaki, the female student body president at a high school with predominately male students due to the school being formerly an all-boys institution. Misaki is physically strong and mentally tough so she sets out to bring the delinquent male students in line so that the minority female student body can feel safe and secure attending this school, plus it’ll allow the school to attract potential female freshman who might otherwise be afraid of attending. All of this makes Misaki public enemy number 1 of the male students, and garners her the interest of the cutest and coolest guy in school Usui Takumi. One day Takumi discovers Misaki’s Big Secret, which is that this uptight boy-hating upstanding student body president actually works a part time job at a Maid Cafe (where she wears a cute sexy outfit as a waitress pretending she is the maid to the customers who visit the cafe). Takumi ends up keeping Misaki’s secret and helping her each step of the way, during which our OTP fall in love and the encounter even more unforeseen obstacles (*psst* Takumi’s background is the same as Suoh Tamaki in Ouran). This might sound silly except the execution is surprisingly awesome. Continue reading