Forum - View topicREVIEW: Maid Sama! [Omnibus] GN 1
|
Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2910 |
|
||
|
I'm thrilled to hear this omnibus had come across well and done the series as a whole a favor in drawing in new readers. It's absolutely a case of "it gets better over time" which can be a ridiculous sell for newcomers.
Cannot wait to own this whole series; I had my doubts I'd ever get to. |
|||
|
|||
|
Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
|
||
This series suffers from the "Shintani paradox"; The series was a struggle until the love rival was introduced but if he was introduced earlier... Wait, I'm only supposed to talk about Misaki and Usui since this is just the first two books. That's a problem with this series, I can't. Much like Special A it's a "As good as the girl is, the guy is just better" set up and that's pretty much their character. The series constantly used Misaki's two jobs in place of character, "she's mad at male students, she's interacting with customers. She's helping the female students, she's helping her fellow maids". Usui has it worse off as everything he does is to get a reaction out of Misaki. He not only doesn't have a personality, he doesn't have a life. And that part never got better. Anyway, I have the anime for Shintani. As for the manga... well there are a few things later on that the anime only hinted at like spoiler[Suzuna always knew Yuu was always watching Misaki because she was always watching him,] but they don't do anything with it. And that is Maid Sama's secret shame: The love rival isn't just the better guy, he's the better character. I love his backstory... I can't stop. Talk about Usui's design? I love the implications behind Shintani's scar... |
|||
|
|||
mandisaw
 Posts: 140 |
|
||
They are the same person!! LOL And Zen from Akagami is their fantasy counterpart :heh: Lala/HanaYume "house style" indeed... Maid-sama ended up being an unexpected treat for me. I dismissed it at first because of the stalker-boyfriend-ish premise, but the anime drew me in once I got a better sense of the characters. Misaki is a classic "thinks (s)he's got it all figured out at 15" protagonist, with a strong case of "if I don't trust anyone, no one can hurt me (again)". Very appealing in a complex/tender way, and watching her develop emotionally/socially was a major draw for me. As for Usui, so much about him that's awesome is spoiler-laden. Maid-sama's on my personal "wish it got a second season" list, specifically because I feel like Usui's entire character arc got shorted/omitted. spoiler[(And Misaki's rocky family reunion :sigh:)] I agree that it seems like the author was unsure of what kind of romance she wanted to write (stalker/jerk boyfriends are/were a popular trope), but certainly by vol. 2, Usui's admonitions about "you're a girl" didn't seem like put-downs to me. Rather, I saw it as his version of "no one is an island; you don't have to carry the weight alone; it's okay to ask for help". Which, again, given his own background/situation one wonders if he wasn't essentially telling himself that at the same time. |
|||
|
|||
DarkCyradis
 Posts: 78 |
|
||
|
I still own the original Tokyopop versions and surprisingly, I actually really liked the original translation (VIZ's is totally redone and sounds kind of weird to me in some parts). I preferred the pretty, powder blue covers on the TP ones too--this weird mauve thing going on with the VIZ omnibuses is meh. Glad to see the series get picked back up to be finished, though. Misaki's such a great heroine~~
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group