I would start off saying that this manga epitomises the very existence of Akihabara, from my memory of it when I visited 2 years ago. The strange mix of mecha and maids are evident in almost every corner of Akihabara (from a tourist point of view) - one side of the road you'll see maid cafes, cosplayers, cosplay costume shops and anime girls posters. On the other side, full of electronic parts and electronic shops. It is every anime/gaming geek haven. I have to say I was not comfortable sticking around in Akihabara... if you even walk anywhere near a 10m radius of the AKB48 maid cafe, it reeks of sweat and body odour of poorly dressed males lining up for the cafe, burying their heads in their mobile entertainment devices.
I really do have to give credit to the author for creating the idea to marry these 4 genres: maid, mecha slide of life and yuri. On top of that, the author manages to throw in a bit of supernatural, martial art, politics, genius-type characters and war history into the fray. I have to say this manga tries to do a lot in just the 11 chapters that it has released so far.
But, it doesn't really excel in any genre that it has tried - honestly I was wishing the manga to be a bit more of this:
How nice if the yuri manga (or any yuri manga) was like this!
However, the bulk of the manga concentrated around the odd genres in slice of life situations. No, seriously, the plot in each chapter is typically boring, despite how promising the genre-mix sound. It is like everytime the author stumbles across something interesting to explore or go in-depth with, the author backs out to the boring slice of life genre. For instance, in one of the chapter the manga explored an elderly man's romantic past, where he lost touch with the girl he loved when he got shipped off to war. Instead of concentrating and expanding on the supernatural aspect of the chapter that it started out with, it ended off strangely with the old man entering drinking coffee while proclaiming he entered into a wide age-gap relationship with his ex-lover's granddaughter and the manga did not go beyond exploring the supernatural aspect. This is just one example that the mangaka strangely let the story turn weird and die off, despite the initial supernatural hype and promising premise.
Another example would be, probably everybody's favorite, how the mangaka failed to develop the headless maid robot:
The only reason why I sustained on reading the manga was really just so I could write this review properly. And this headless robot maid. Serious.
Hell, I would love to read a story about a headless maid robot! But strangely, it was never mentioned again past the chapter it was featured. It was almost like the author had all those interesting ideas when drawing the manga, but got tired of it mid-way and decide to settle for a boring and perplexing turn of events to end off the chapter.
The only interesting part, I wouldn't even say chapter because I literally only got interested to read more when I read the scene, was when it was revealed that both protagonist of the manga were geniuses in their own specialty but decided to give everything up, or put everything on hold, just so they could fulfill the obligations or promises that had made in the past. And the reason why they were so hung up on the obligations was never properly explained, especially why the maid protagonist choose to throw away her rich and important life just to open a maid cafe beside her mecha-crazed childhood friend. Of course, yuri specs on, the reason is easy to speculate. But seriously, the manga would be so much more interesting if the premise had been explored and built upon, rather than just a touch-and-go.
The best scene in the manga next to the headless robot maid... but unfortunately, also the last scene released in the 11 chapters so far.
Overall, I would really rate this manga 3/10, giving it a point for the author's creativity, another point for yuri and the last point on the art. The art is not bad but seriously, the other mangas I have reviewed previously would probably be a better worth of your time.
But nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed reading this post :3
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