Nope, still no idea why he’s doing it.
Rarely has one person so exclusively been the reason a show is on my radar – and mid-table to boot – as with Kimi wa Meido-sama. But it really wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for Watanabe Ayumu. Everything about this series looks, frankly, as generic as it gets. But Watanabe is arguably the top director in TV anime at the moment. When he’s not doing theatrical work typically he does either prestige projects or big commercial monsters (like Comi-san wa Comyushou desu. – maybe he likes series with a period in the name?). Or a mix of both like his next project, Tongari Boushi no Atelier.
Well, Kimi wa Meido-sama is none of those things. It’s not an awards darling or a big seller. The reviews are middling. The premise – a former assassin goes to work as a maid for a high school boy living alone – well, it would literally struggle to be more cliched (charitably one could say “timeless” I suppose). So my interest here is twofold. First, with Watanabe-sensei directing, maybe it will be really good. And second, to see if the quality that made Watanabe decide to direct it becomes apparent.
What we got struck me as exactly what one might have predicted. That is, a totally generic anime comedy executed very well. To be sure there’s nothing overtly offensive so far, and the series seems to have a certain amount of heart. But there’s also nothing that stands out. Nothing that would make you say “oh, so that’s why!”. You have the boy living alone, the utter dojikko maid, even a guest appearance by Truck-kun. Nothing here that hasn’t been anime’d a hundred times or more. So truthfully, what the hell is going on here?
Who know, maybe Watanabe had a gap in his schedule and wanted to sleepwalk through a production and cash the check. I’m kind of amazed anyone even though to ask him, though. It’s sort of interesting that we got an actual kid (Kumagai Toshiki) as the male lead – teens being played by actors their actual age are extremely rare in TV anime (that’s probably down to Watanabe). But not much else here is surprising or frankly that interesting. I guess this is just one of those mysteries that will never be explained.
