Maid Shokun

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Year: 2006

Writer: Nanki Satou

Artist: Akira Kizuki

More Info: Baka-Updates

Manga Review
With the rising popularity of maid cafes, it should come as no surprise that artists have started drawing manga about them. I was surprised to discover that Maid Shokun does not simply fetishize them, but delves into the practical problems of the industry.

But first, the premise: a cute girl gets a job at a maid cafe. This is her first job and she's nervous, both facts serving to shoot her moe factor through the roof. The customers love her.

And she loves the job. One of her coworkers explains that a maid cafe is about more than costumes and expensive parfaits; it creates a safe fantasy space for its customers. That space includes clear boundaries, of course, but within those boundaries the maid is a loving, reassuring presence for the customers. It shares similarities to the customer service at a traditional Japanese ryokan inn, for example.

Then the story begins to deal with the intersection of real life with this shared fantasy. Two of the maids used to work as call girls. Because it combines the razor-thin margins of the restaurant business with the expenses of frilly maid outfits, its pay remains very low. It's also an industry for the young; nobody wants a 30-year-old maid. Our heroine gets a stalker, and has to learn how to deal with that. I don't want to spoil the resolution to that particular subplot, but it surprised me by being a little too neat and tidy.

Near the end of the volume, the cafe's owner reveals that they're thinking of turning it into an adult establishment. This doesn't meant the girls will become prostitutes, just that they'll be allowed to serve alcohol, stay open later, and avoid the public legal scrutiny that comes from wearing fetish-y clothing at a public cafe. The general Japanese zeitgeist may not always remain kind to maid cafes. Unfortunately, our heroine is underage, so she'd have to find another job. Cue tear-filled eyes.

The art deserves attention. The artist demonstrates clear skill in drawing the characters from many different angles, and shifting from sugary, nearly chibi style to much more realistic panels with detailed backgrounds. I'm amazed at how the manga can sometimes look exactly like a screwball comedy and other times like a Kyoko Okazaki character drama.

The characters also have a wide range of subtle facial expression, far beyond standard moods like anger or surprise. This artistic range allows Maid Shokun to portray the employees of the cafe as real young women with hobbies, frustrations, emotions, and apartments of their own. They're not simply curvy cardboard cut-outs meant to move the story along.

There's a fair amount of fanservice. However, rather than nudity, the service focuses on the outfits, from the swirling skirt of the cover to the occasional panels showing the girls in their underwear as they change into their uniforms. While often gratuitous, it never gets in the way.

Overall, I'm impressed. This first volume covers a good amount of territory in a way that's both artistically skilled and as realistic as possible given the subject matter.

(Translation note: "Shokun" means "Gentlemen" or "Ladies," so the title could be translated as "Lady Maids!")

This first volume is available at online merchants like RightStuf and Amazon. Sadly, it looks like this is the only volume to be officially released in English.