Shonen Maid

To be honest, I really enjoyed this Anime more than any other Slice of Life based anime. It had a more calm environment and the story was absolutely beautiful. I loved the characters and their way of style. The art actually matched the calm setting as well. Sounds actually went on with the anime since some of the background music was wonderful and matched the theme. I'd definitely recommend this because of how wonderful this anime is in Slice of Life. It is possible that even If someone whom does not like Slice of Life based Anime would love this.

Shounen Maid is an anime series that really caught me off-guard. There's nothing too appealing about the cover and the show's premise sounded like it came from a female fanfiction but what caught me off-guard is this turned out to be a heartwarming slice of life show between a kid and his uncle(There's NO YAOI or Shotacon, I can assure you that) [Story]: I actually believe that this is one of the most underrated slice of life anime I have ever seen. I've seen a lot of people who avoided this show because they think the premise is crazy (boy dressing up as a maid, I don'tblame them) or they think it's some gay show or something. Also, this is by 8bit, a studio known for creating a shit ton of harem shows. If you can get over the fact that an elementary school kid is wearing a maid outfit then you'll see the great things that Shounen Maid has to offer. If not then your loss, I suppose The story of Shounen Maid is basically about a kid named Chihiro, whose mother has just died, was left homeless and now his uncle, Madoka, shows up and decides to take care of him. His uncle then forced him to wear a maid outfit..Heh, I was joking about the last part. He wasn't forced, more like Madoka was just joking around but Chihiro decides to take his joke seriously and he now wears that maid outfit most of the time. The show doesn't really have much of a story but rather, it's focused on the heartwarming and amazing relationship development between Chihiro and his uncle. That's the main reason why I love Shounen Maid. Well, there a few more reasons why I love the show. For instance, the comedic aspect of the show is really good. I really love the character dynamics between Chihiro and Madoka because most of the time, it leads to hilarious moments like Chihiro being the mature kid and having to take care of Madoka and Madoka acting like a dumb little kid. The characters are also fun to watch but I'll talk about it more in the "Characters" section. ______________________________________________________________ [Art/Animation]: (8/10) This is my first time watching an anime from 8bit because most of their shows are harem and I'm not a big fan of harem. The visuals looks good and the animation is a-okay. The character design felt a bit weird to me at first because of their big eyes (KEY's character design still takes the number 1 spot for having big-ass eyes) but I got used to it after a couple of episodes. ______________________________________________________________ [Sound]: (9/10) I love the show's OST, especially when it comes to the dramatic scenes with a dramatic OST playing in the background. Those sad and dramatic soundtrack are one of the reasons the emotional scenes were effective at gripping my heart and making my eye tear up from time to time. Now the OP and ED theme song(s) The OP theme song is "innocent promise" by TRUSTRICK. I honestly fell in love with the Opening Song the moment I heard it on the first episode. The singer's voice is beautiful and the song's melody was great. The ED theme song is "Zutto Only You" by Uchouten BOYS. I'm not a big fan of boy's idol song. I don't like them, I don't listen to any and I don't think I will. I mean, I'm a straight guy, after all. The ED theme song is my guilty pleasure. Even though I don't like Boy's Idol songs, I somehow fell in love with this song and I've been listening to it for like the past 2 months........ "It's not like I'll listen to more boys idol songs in the future, idiot..." -Me ______________________________________________________________ [Characters]: (9/10) The characters is what pulled me into this show. They're one of the main reasons why I fell in love with Shounen Maid. The main protagonist of the series, Chihiro Komiyo, is a character that I really adored and if I ever decide to have kids (I doubt I will), I'm sure I would want my son to be the same as Chihiro. Chihiro is an elementary school student who loves to clean, cook and do all the housework. Haha, Chihiro is like the first kid I've ever seen who likes to do chores. When kids these days are asked if they want to do chores, they're going to be like "Nope" and they'll back to playing video games or whatever. This is what I love about Chihiro. He's a hardworking sweet young kid who's different from a bunch of kids I've met within the past few years of volunteering. Chihiro's personality can be a bit of a tsundere sometimes and his personality just kills me. Then we have, Madoka Takato, Chihiro's uncle who decides to take care of him. Wow, I didn't know Madoka gave up being a God and switched genders just to go back to this world and take care of a sweet young kid? I'm just joking, this ain't Madoka from the Madoka series. Anyways, he's a dress designer and he's a lazy guy who barely knows how to clean his own mess or barely knows how to cook. He always messes it up and Chihiro always comes and scowls him for it. Madoka is surprisingly a very nice guy and not once, did I see him get angry nor did he ever get on a mean streak with anyone. Then there's the rest of the supporting characters. We have Keiichiro Shinozaki, Madoka's assistant who makes sure that Madoka is on a right track in terms of his schedule and also makes sure that he makes his costume. I really love how he's able to put up with Madoka's laziness and his other shit. There's also Miyako Ootori, a cheerful young 16 year old girl who also works as a maid in Madoka's house and she works under Chihiro. She's a maid but she's surprisingly not good at both cleaning or cooking but she eventually improved after Chihiro decides to teach her how to cook and clean. Some maid she is. I really like her character and her cheerful personality. One final character I want to talk about is Chihiro's mother. Yes, she's dead but she makes an appearance (more like in Chihiro's flashbacks) from time to time so we, the viewers, get to know more about her and how great of a mother she is instead of just some mother who died. She is a hilarious mother and a kind mother who, despite the hard life that she had, never gave up on his son and still took care of him until her death. I honestly shed a few tears whenever she appears in one of Chihiro's flashbacks. ______________________________________________________________ [Enjoyment]: (8.5/10) I came in to this show with no expectations whatsoever and at the end, this show really surprised me. It made me laugh and it made me cry from time to time. I really enjoyed this show. ______________________________________________________________ [VERDICT] "Shounen Maid" is one of the most underrated anime I have ever seen and I already stated my reasons above as to why not a lot of people have watched this show. It's just a heartwarming story between Chihiro and his uncle and there's like no Yaoi in this series at all. I also forgot to mention the show's target audience is female but I'm a straight guy who still manages to love the series so....... [OVERALL]: (8.5/10) Pros: +Heartwarming moment between Chihiro and his Uncle +Amazing Relationship Development between Chihiro and his Uncle +Comedic aspect of the show is well done +Great Emotional Scenes +Nice Soundtrack and Great OP and ED theme song +Amazing Cast of Characters Cons: -Character Design felt a bit weird at first

People beware, despite it doesnt have explicit shounen ai, you can feel the implied shounen ai in the behaviour of characters, is obvious main characters of this anime are gay (or bi), even when story never develop any romance between them. I don't care about it and actually I enjoy this show, but I am surprised to read reviews which can make you feel this doesn't have anything to do with gay characters, when it does. I mean, this is not kuroshitsuji (which already have some "almost gay moments"), no, this is closer to loveless or super lovers, believe me, if you don't like shounenai you would feel akward watching this anime in so many moments.

I’ve never watched a series that so perfectly encapsulates the iyashikei genre. Everything about it is so warm and simple, I’m shocked that so few people bring up this series when discussing the slice of life genre. However, I think one of the main things that turns people away from this show is how it seems like a show made for shotacons at first glance, but trust me, it’s not that in the slightest! Shounen Maid is a slice of life series about Komiya Chihiro, an 11 year-old boy whose mother passed away. But when he happens to run into his uncle who he had neverbefore heard about, everything changes for him. Upon discovering how unkempt his uncle’s mansion is, he decides to become his maid in exchange for getting to live with him. Hence the title, “boy maid.” The show’s plot is easygoing, and most of it is fairly episodic, though there are plot points that are introduced in certain episodes that continue throughout the show. The show is mostly comedic, however there are still a couple of moments that did a good job at being emotional, both the comedy and the emotion are handled well. I feel like this show also avoids an issue that many slice of life anime have where they end up being boring rather than simple, this show is simple while still being sincere and heartfelt. The show’s art can also be described as simple. It’s not the most unique or memorable, but it’s cute and matches the show’s tone well. One of the things that does stand out is Madoka’s mansion, it’s very intricate and elegant, you can tell a lot of thought went into designing it. The character designs were also nice, I don’t have much to say about them, they match the characters well. The voice acting also matched the characters well. Natsumi Fujiwara did an especially good job at voicing Chihiro. The soundtrack was nice, it has a very calm and warm feeling to it. The opening and ending are both good, they’re very upbeat and fun. The characters were all very loveable, which is good since slice of life shows have to rely on having a good cast of characters in order to be enjoyable, since the plot isn’t a big focus. Madoka’s relationship with Chihiro was very sweet, watching Chihiro slowly grow closer to him was very cute as well. A lot of people seem to mistake their relationship for being romantic, though I believe Madoka is just very affectionate with Chihiro because he cares about him. Keiichirou and Miyako were nice inclusions to the cast as well, Keiichirou had moments where he was shown to care about Chihiro too, though in a less extreme way than Madoka. Chihiro’s grandmother was a character I was expecting to be far more one-dimensional than she actually was. The scenes with her really made her a more sympathetic person. Overall, I really enjoyed this series. It was very sweet and comforting, and I think if you enjoy the slice of life genre or series that focus on familial relationships, you'll enjoy this series too. Definitely don’t write this anime off like a lot of other people have! Rating: Story - 7/10 Art - 7/10 Sound - 7/10 Character - 8/10 Enjoyment - 8/10 Overall - 8/10