Since there are not currently very many promising anime we are going back to a genre that they nailed this summer. Mayo Chiki! Is a comedy, school life anime that really shows a lot of potential both in its story as well as its director Kawaguchi Keiichirou. Keiichirou is responsible for directing Hayate No Gotoku a previous hit in the same vein. (He also directed Nyan Koi! So he seems to have a lot of experience and has been very successful in the school life comedies) I have to say I am excited to jump into this series but I have some pretty high expectations.
Almost immediately I am greeted by the popular and overused scene of a lazy/irresponsible brother being woken up and told to get ready for school by the seemingly more mature sister. Don’t get me wrong this is a great scene but I would have liked to have seen this show be more unique. I won’t fault them that much for simply doing what works and it is usually a lot of fun to watch. This is actually a decent set up for some more incest(ish) drama later on in the series. Usually however the siblings turn out to not be related.
While the characters are not entirely unique you get the feeling that there was a lot of time spent in crafting them to fit a decent role in the show as well as provide some all-around fun for the series. In fact the core story point is a very nice example of this (not to give too much away, well… you will find out at the beginning of the show anyway). One of the main female characters in the show is forced to dress and act like a boy. Now this isn’t exactly new in anime and sometimes it is seen the other way around, but to make it one of the main core story points in the series just gives the show that much more appeal.
I would say that Mayo Chiki! is not going to revolutionize the genre or be a huge trailblazer, but what you can expect is a good solid show with some interesting characters and a lot of fun to be had overall. It should be a great anime to just pick up and have fun with and should be much more interesting to watch than most of the other garbage that is out this season.
