My current run of reviews is on hold but to fill the gap here is my review of Mayo Chiki.
Mayo Chiki is a harem series and that probably gives you a fair idea what to expect but every series in this genre has a gimmick and this week’s gimmick is that lead male Kinjiro Sakamichi has Gynophobia which is the fear of women, either causing his nose to bleed uncontrollably or pass out, apparently this was developed because his mother is a pro wrestler who practises her moves on him as does his younger sister Kureha, nothing traumatic just overly affectionate family.
We then meet Konoe Subaru who is a butler to a rich girl named Kanade Suzutsuki, Konoe is apparently the superstar of the school, really attractive, good at school, good at sports, freakishly strong and totally devoted to his master; only one problem, Konoe is actually a girl who is found out by accident by Kinjiro.
I’ve seen enough Harem series to know what’s going on, he has to keep a secret about the gender thing, Kanade uses that to blackmail him, other girls join in on the fun and Konoe ends up madly in love with Kinjiro. Yeah that’s pretty much it.
Well that’s the story out the way let’s look at the characters.
Kinjiro who is nicknamed Chicken due to the translations in his full name is a typical guy with nothing to work from personality wise other than the chronic fear of women.
Konoe is a highly devoted butler who loves sheep plushies. Funny enough in the anime, no one ever finds out that Konoe is a girl other than Kinjiro despite the numerous times she’s dressed as one in plain sight of everyone and has an obvious bust when not wrapped in bandages, she even leans several times towards being a girl while dressed in butler uniform, at least Ouran’s Haruhi was a convincing male.
Konoe’s master Kanade is just a straight up sadist who uses every form of blackmail to play with poor Kinjiro, and likes to pretend to be his lover, it’s difficult to know when she can be taken seriously as she does this in every single episode.
Kureha is a straight up little sister character whose unique talent is pro wrestling the older brother, nothing special.
Usami is a straight up tsundere nothing special there either.
Nakuru at least tries to be different, by being a supporter of slash fan fiction and supporting the relationship between Konoe & Kinjiro, and yes she thinks Konoe is male. She also has an unhealthy obsession with glasses and for some reason has cat ears, she’s probably the only interesting character in this show.
Finally we have Konoe’s father Nagare whose part of the over protective daddy crowd but it’s hard to sympathize with him when he forged a kidnapping and drew a knife on his own daughter, even if he had no intention of using the weapon and even if the intentions were good, that’s still a dick move to pull.
You may have worked out by the selective language that I found this series disappointing, a real chance was there to pull off a unique story but falls for every single Harem trap and doesn’t leave enough time to recover, ending abruptly at 13 episodes before we resolve any of the plotholes. I’m glad there’s no dub, as it wouldn’t be a very good one even with well-established dub actors.
Final Verdict: It’s not a good series, it opens up to great possibilities but goes for tired clichés instead which leaves the overall experience dull.
