I’ll say this for P.A. Works, they’ve certainly reinvented themselves. While they still periodically do a boilerplate PAW series (you know it when you see it, and at this point they’re all basically identical), they’ve branched way out. They finally did a manga adaptation, and had a rather large success with Paripi Koumei (and a pretty hype one coming with Skip and Loafer). Appare-Ranman! was basically unrecognizable for a PAW show. But Akiba Maid Sensou really ups the ante. This is not your father’s P.A. Works by any stretch of the imagination – even if it is an original.
But is it good? Well… It’s certainly pleasant enough visually. It features airtight direction from veteran Masui Souichi (lots of big shows at many different studios, recently Heaven’ s Design Team and the Rascal franchise). And it has some quite funny moments in the premiere – ones that are supposed to be funny (which is important). But a lot of the impact comes from the shock factor as the episode pulls a major misdirect at about the halfway point. Such that even if you knew the basics going in, it’s still pretty jarring (and well-done). But you can only cash in that chip once – once it’s played, it’s played.
The maid trade (Akiba is the epicenter but by no means the exclusive locale) is a lot like the idol trade. There’s not much good than can be said about it – it plays on dysfunction and depression and misogyny, and a lot of the money it produces goes straight to crime bosses. Not only is it not something to be celebrated, it’s not something to be trivialized. No girl should ever dream of becoming a maid, as the nominal protagonist of Akiba Maid War does. It’s an ugly business run by people with ugly hearts and ugly minds.
As with idol series, maid series (there are fewer to be sure) can fall into certain categories. There are the puff pieces which straight up glorify the trade because their production committees profit from it (more an issue with idol shows), and those we can dismiss as paid advertisements out of hand. There are those which feint as if they’re going to be critiques, but end up basically being apologists. Then there are straight-up farces, and that seems to be the category Akiba Maid Sensou falls into despite its extreme and rather graphic violence. But something like that can wind up up a little closer to the truth than it would have you believe (and maybe even than it intends).
As someone who dislikes this element of otaku culture, I can’t help but view a series like this through the lens of what it says about its subject. I think Akiba Maid War is just trying to be an absurdist piece which depicts the Akiba maid scene as a blood-stained battlefield. And you know, that’s pretty much a neutral for me – it just boils down to whether it’s entertaining. I sort of liked the premiere for the reasons listed above – it’s sometimes funny, it does a good job with the Tarantino moments, and plays off the contrast between what it depicts on the surface and in its reality quite effectively.
That said, I have definite concerns about the staying power – again, for reasons listed above. The surprise factor is played out, and any entertainment points from here on are going to have to be earned. I don’t feel especially connected to any of these characters (or their situation), nor do I know if any of them will get real arcs. But we do have a really solid director here and PAW guarantees a certain baseline of production values, and perhaps most importantly Akiba Maid Sensou at least isn’t like every other cute girls or isekai series on the schedule. Let’s sit tight and see how it plays out.
Joshua
October 7, 2022 at 10:19 pmAllow me to slide towards the pessimistic, bringing the hype back down to earth, side regarding this show. The whole thing you brought up regarding the maid trade is interesting, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ultimately said nothing about the subject apart from flaunting its waifus. Also, the fact that it takes place in 1999 should’ve at the very least given it some social commentary, since it was a pessimistic time for Japan during the Lost Decade and the aftermath of the 1997 Asia financial crisis, and people there genuinely feared that society would eventually devolve into crime and lawlessness, which would be interesting in the context of mafia gangs controlling the industry in this series. Even the 80s flashback should suggest how the rot that led to the 90s economic downturn was already in place before the bubble era.
Unfortunately, I’m afraid that it won’t even say anything about this time and place, which was a serious issue when the idol performance during that shootout wasn’t even period accurate (it sounded just like any twee modern idol song rather than songs of that time). Whatever this has to say about the maid industry or economic anxieties of the mid-90s is likely going to be whitewashed away as the series progresses in favor of trying to copy Zombieland Saga without understanding that series to begin with. They’ll just assume that waifus being wacky but also idols promoting Akibahara tourism and the maid industry is going to be an instant hit just like ZLS’ similar successful combo. And watching this premiere gave me big red flags that it could go down the same path as the latter. This *is* Japanese tech company, CyGames, helming this series after all with the help of the studio that gave them UmaMusu; it wouldn’t surprise me if it became increasingly more compromised to fit more commercial/corporate interests.
Also, was Paripi even *that* successful? Outside of the OP, it seemed that it was largely overshadowed by other big shows that season despite the acclaim it got and it didn’t particularly sell all that well (less than 1000 copies for each volume) on BD.
Guardian Enzo
October 7, 2022 at 10:55 pmBD sales don’t mean dick anymore apart from the really big shounen titles (and not all of them) and idol shows, basically. Paripi had a nice bump in manga sales and generated a lot of secondary income for important players on the production committee.
I don’t disagree with any of your criticisms about Akiba, and I don’t expect it to have legs. The staff is good but it’s a one-hook wonder. As to the whole time shift I don’t really get it, since all it does is fill the series with anachronisms.
Joshua
October 21, 2022 at 2:39 amThree episodes in, and your concern that it would be a one-hook wonder grows more and more valid with every passing episode. What a serious waste complete with trying so hard in vain to copy the Zombieland Saga structural formula of wacky idol waifus doing something different in each episode complete with a dumb manager saying stupid shit. Except, it’s not even all that enjoyable since the episodes that came after this amounted to a “wacky” casino hustling episode and a “wacky” MMA episode with a Russian waifu who becomes a new recruit in the maid mafia. Both of them get one upped by Ranko, who’s clearly calculated and engineered by focus testing to be the waifu of this season with her gun-totting “step on me” attitude and shit. What a load. And whatever extreme violence that was present in the premiere’s last 2 minutes is almost non-existent here.
You’d think that with this supposed hype it’s getting on ANN and shit that it’s this underwatched hype masterpiece, but it seems that it’s largely muted in its reception (particularly with its social media presence being so pitiful, with its Twitter account just barely getting to 20k followers).
And why yes, the anachronisms are super distracting considering the time period it’s supposedly taking place in. I do wonder Enzo, if it should’ve been designed around the political/socio-economic anxieties of the Lost Decade?
Guardian Enzo
October 21, 2022 at 6:57 amI just know I lost interest pretty quickly.
Joshua
October 24, 2022 at 4:07 amCouldn’t even sit through the second episode? The praise this show is getting in Western corners is just baffling.
Haraga
October 7, 2022 at 11:15 pmMaybe you felt that this comparison would be way too obvious, but I’m still surprised there’s no mention of Zombie Land Saga, I think the concept is really similar, and even the way the first episode plays out with its shock value created by the dissonance of its two main elements was close enough. There we had the idol industry being so abusive that it never loses its grip over its targets even after they die, here we have maid cafes that turn out to be glorified fronts for gangs.
As with ZLS, the success of this show depends on two things: 1) whether comedy writing remains inventive and consistent 2) whether character writing steps up so that viewers can care about the characters. While I remember your opinion on ZLS wasn’t that positive, I’d still argue the show ultimately succeeded with both its comedy and character writing, with this show, though I enjoyed the premier, for some reason I lean more toward skeptical.
Guardian Enzo
October 8, 2022 at 12:23 amZLS was a stylish fraud IMHO, but it was slick and won its share of fans. It didn’t really come to mind for me here – I found the tone to be totally different.
Joshua
October 8, 2022 at 4:50 amGranted, I thought similarly to Haraga, but it’s in structure, not tone. CyGames probably believed that they could replicate that show’s success because it had a formula that they thought they can repeat: waifus + local tourism + idols + wacky = more money
The problem was that much of ZLS’ success came outside of the CyGames machine though. None of the creators of the series particularly liked idol anime, CyGames was utterly baffled by the end product and had no clue how to market it or turn it into a mixed media franchise w/ gacha, and much of the bolder ideas (like making one of the zombie leads trans) were smuggled in without the company knowing it. It was a success that caught CyGames completely off-guard, making them only some of the money due to their minimal involvement in that show’s production committee. In a time when companies want *all* of the money though, I believe CyGames thought they needed to become far more hands-on so they can reap more of the profits compared to ZLS, which is why I felt this maid series felt more cynically designed and meddled with from the outset.
Raikou
October 9, 2022 at 9:24 pmHmm…I still having some skepticism for this anime, but maybe I should try it..
Kinda off topic, but since you said Tarantino moments, what are your favorite Tarantino movies, Enzo?
Guardian Enzo
October 10, 2022 at 12:01 amI’m not that huge a fan TBH. Obviously Pulp Fiction but I think he’s gotten increasingly tiresome ever since.
Joshua
November 18, 2022 at 8:31 amSo mid-season report? Not good. You’d think that the stakes could be raised with the presence of villainous maid gangsters and a gang war that’s about to turn hot (particularly with a death of a background maid that’s supposed to be seen as highly shocking and traumatic), but they remain as twee and non-existent as ever. It can’t even be seen as an absurdist work or even a piece of social commentary, because it somehow wants to be taken seriously with its po-faced melodrama, while also wanting to juggle its *wacky* hijinks on top of that all in the service of having nothing really to say about its setting, period or premise. It’s also ironically bloodless, because you don’t get any major characters killed off in order to show that no one is safe in this turf war, despite all of that blood being spilt from random background maids. Even one of the villains doesn’t even get ceremoniously killed off, but just beaten around and talk no jutsu’d into running away, only to be killed by her partners for her incompetence; again, highly telegraphed ahead of time and fails to paint them as a real threat. Ranko being a total Mary Sue doesn’t help matters.
Worse, it seems that with its po-faced melodrama now, that it seems to be heading towards the direction of cloying BS. That the solution to ending this gang war according to our main characters is going to be convincing the other gangs that they should put down their guns and be glad to be pure-hearted maids who serve others and make them happy because their purpose in the maid industry is to make people in Akibahara happy. It’s sadly the most logical conclusion I can think of from all of this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my prediction is correct in December. Gimme a fucking break.
Now onto dreading CyGames’ next attempt to replicate the success of Zombieland Saga next season, only this time trying to court the fujo demographic: https://youtu.be/C-HwxSZcv3I
Joshua
December 17, 2022 at 11:14 pmI think I get it now, the reason why this show doesn’t work. It’s not just that CyGames and Tencent (yeah that Chinese tech company) tried to recapture the same success that Zombieland Saga had i.e. waifus + local tourism + idols + wacky = more money, but everything about its writing, from newbie screenwriter Yoshihiro Hiki does that thing that all of those modern Hollywood blockbusters do to try to waive off the potential criticisms about their premises. Namely that self-insulating, self-aware irony that passes off as “comedy” these days where everyone has to keep joking and pointing out how dumb, stupid, ridiculous and lame all of this in their quips, which sadly in today’s environment is considered an endorsement by people who claim they want “fun” and not “joylessness” if no one makes those fast unfunny quips. That’s why this show has to keep insisting on “WACKY” hijinks like one of the worst baseball episodes I’ve seen in recent memory, that throws everything at a wall, hoping that any of it sticks, because irony is all this show has going for it, even at the cost of actual character development or plot (not even a death of a background maid affected our glorified audience surrogate for very long because she’s back to her regular self right after one episode involving a ninja maid cafe).
The constant comparisons seem to be films like Hot Fuzz, Tarantino’s films or even the side quests in the Ryu Go Gotoku games, but those films and games have a thematic, narrative and subtextual throughline that this show doesn’t have for much of its running time. It instead reminds me of those tonally dissonant comedies that assumes that dead bodies are inherently funny because it’s “ironic” (unless it’s intentionally dissonant which this isn’t). Oh and those Melissa McCarthy comedies where we’re supposed to laugh at people being stupid, pathetic and insecure (as seen in one “funny” scene where the manager annoyingly screams out all of her insecurities and how pathetic she is to the audience).
The worst part easily is at the end of the series when it actively tries to go serious, attempting to mimic the yakuza films of old, and even trying to say something after being irony poisoned for the past 9 episodes. Everyone gets sidelined except for that Mary Sue Ranko in order to try to resolve this whole gang war plot that this show didn’t seem interested in and constantly pushed into the background, in what appears to be a blatant attempt at treacly sentimentality. Oh and that Mary Sue got shot as well, and it’s treated as some shocking tragedy which got reversed the following episode when they never actually followed through on that (again reiterating how ironically bloodless the whole show was). None of its attempts at the “emotional” element felt remotely genuine because there was no proper build-up to it and no real investment in our characters to make it matter much in the end outside of the third act. Not even any sort of social commentary like those aforementioned yakuza films that it desperately wants to satirize because it gestures at potential ideas like exploitation, but again, it never follows through on that and ultimately says nothing except for some deeply troubling messages about the maid industry it’s glorifying straight at the audience. Then proceeds to give the pure-hearted audience POV maid Nagomi the entire maid empire to her on a silver platter that she rules to this very day (hence setting the show in 1999, nothing else).
Ugh, I feel like I’m an outlier when it comes to this series because I don’t understand why this got literal *unanimous* praise online. Probably because it endears to that “wacky Japanese” stereotype that Westerners love while also including the kind of “ironic” comedy that they’ve become so numb to from all of those Marvel/DC films. It doesn’t seem particularly popular in spite of this inexplicable acclaim. Not sure if the reception is any better in Japan though, considering that it barely even has 35k followers on social media.
Guardian Enzo
December 17, 2022 at 11:40 pmBelieve me, the praise has not been unanimous.
Joshua
December 18, 2022 at 2:07 amYou mean in Japan then? I felt like I was going mad because I felt like I was being the sole dissenter as all of the Western sites I go to were being so hyperbolic in their praise, and I know you already dropped it by episode 2. There’s something in here about this supposedly being a genius parody of yakuza films but I’m not seeing it here. Even most of those films were about *something* and had things to say like the so-called “gangster” films that Scorsese makes and didn’t glamorize them unlike this series (complete with the hideous subtext that comes with glamorizing the “maid mafia”).
Guardian Enzo
December 18, 2022 at 10:41 amWell, on MAL (which is probably 95% Western-viewed) it’s at a so-so 7.5 aggregate score. I mostly see anime commentary here or on twitter, and there it’s been decidedly mixed. Nothing close to universally positive.
Joshua
December 23, 2022 at 2:07 pmGood lord! I can’t believe I was this close in my predictions on the ending to this pile of total nothing weeks before the actual finale. And Nagomi *had* to tell everyone the purpose of submissive maids through yet another anachronistic idol song. Only thing that I was off on was that Ranko stayed dead, the show (flimsily) tried to link back to the 80s flashback in this premiere, and the bad maid in a fit of rage shot Nagomi in the back effectively crippling her as one final party trick up its sleeve to milk its last bit of shock value. And yet, it’s utterly bewildering how little any of this shit even mattered regardless because they gave no reason to even care prior to all of this.
Currently it’s now at 7.7 on MAL bewilderingly. Really curious to see if this is even remotely popular in Japan (once the BDs come out as well).
Also, the industry looks even more bleak if tech companies like CyGames and Tencent get their way and we get more swill like this, UmaMusu and PriConne.
Joshua
December 22, 2022 at 1:27 pmI’m specifically referring to the glowing reviews on ANN, the commenters who not only strongly agree with those reviews but hail it as a masterpiece (and do the same on Twitter), and the fact that several geek sites gave it glowing coverage, including put it on their best anime of 2022 lists such as Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/23507272/akiba-maid-war-review-hidive
Of course, it’s hard not to assume that they are also shilling for that streaming service competitor to Crunchyroll called HiDive and giving this show overwhelming praise is what will get readers interested in subscribing to that service (which may not survive their parent company, AMC’s financial problems they’ve been having lately). afaik even on Twitter, the official account is barely above 35k followers, so I think that’s a more accurate barometer of its “popularity” than this “praise”.