Right after I finally finished watching the last two episodes, I was so disappointed in how the series ended. However, then I realized that the fact that I was disappointed meant that KnMG had somehow become a decent anime series in my mind. I had some pretty low expectations of KnMG going in, but the series largely met and occasionally exceeded my expectations.
Story
The plot for this series is pathetic and barely ever shows up. Basically Naeka is trying to survive until her next birthday so she can inherit tons of money. The plot is only there to form a basis for Kogarashi and Fubuki to be in Naeka’s life, and this plot is generally ignored throughout the first season. If you care about a good story, don’t bother watching this series.
With that said, the somewhat stand-alone episodes are occasionally very funny. KnMG looks like a mediocre fanservice comedy, and many of the episodes start off like a typical mediocre fanservice comedy. However, oftentimes KnMG will suddenly twist the joke in a crazy way that will leave you saying, “OMGWTF?!?!?!” and this is where KnMG’s strength lies. Especially in the middle of the series, the jokes were sometimes so surprising and so funny that I started looking forward to the next crazy thing that Kogarashi would do. Unfortunately, the humor is uneven, and so there are some episodes that just have uninspired breast jokes and little else.
Characters
Kogarashi is clearly the motor that drives this vehicle, but he is at his best when he jumps into the scene and then quickly exits. His various Maid Guy powers are generally amusing, and I especially liked Maid Guy Voice whenever it left the victim forced to watch the fish market guy (Uomatsu Maguro) scrubbing. The draw of most of the episodes was finding out the latest Maid Guy power and watching Kogarashi torment some poor scrub villains.
The rest of the cast generally doesn’t pull weight, with the exception of Fubuki (on occasion). I guess Kousuke does as much as a lower-importance side character can, but Naeka is rather bland. The humor seems to be more situational than character driven, which may be why the series starts to falter towards the end.
Tilt
While the anime art stays true to the manga style, this means that KnMG is quite ugly. The art is consistently bad, but I think it is mostly on purpose. I found the OP annoying but catchy and the ED instrumentally good but vocally bad.
Verdict
This series isn’t for everyone, and it is highly uneven. Most of the episodes are rather cliche with a few zingers thrown in, but there are a few episodes that are surprisingly awesome (e.g. the tennis match, the training episode, and the computer virus episode) and unusual. KnMG definitely fills a certain niche, even if some of the episodes are incredibly skippable. If you like comedies with fanservice (and don’t mind the ugly art), KnMG will probably please you and occasionally wow you.
Kabitzin’s Rating: 3/5
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I get that impression too, especially with Madhouse doing the production.
Overall, Maid Guy was fun and did something rare: I went in with zero expectations and came out surprised and entertained.
My main problem with this show (and that was like four episodes into the series) was the fact that other than Kogarashi, the show rarely had anything else that could carry it. He almost never got support from other elements of the series to help out. That being said, it was a fun watch a lot of the time, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it as long as there was more Kogarashi involved.
You were expecting way too much here – it’s a comedy which only works if you accept the ridiculous elements as is, and then sit back to watch Kogarashi do his thing. It’s sorta like watching the Simpsons – you don’t look for biting social commentary (it may exist, it may not), but for Homer doing stupid things.
After those last two episodes, I felt the need to downgrade Kamen no Maid guy from ++ to +. Luckily, it’ll get a chance to redeem itself with an OVA.
Just as kukuku.
Kogarashi is the only important thing in this show, and his potential was, sadly, wasted.
I liked it… I hope there is another season…
Thanks for the review. I wasn’t sure whether or not to watch this one, even though a lot of bloggers followed it. I’m okay with fanservice (but it’s not a high priority) but if there’s not a lot else to carry it, I’d rather move on and find something else.
Like Baka-Raptor, I felt a slight let-down at the end. I expected something glorious. Perhaps it’s because I read about its awesomeness in a few blogs and that’s why I picked it up.
That said, the strength of the show is in the fillers – perhaps the best being the Maid Cafe episode with the fake oppai.
I agree that Kogarashi works best as an in-and-out quickly comedy injection, but doing this puts too much of a load on the rest of the cast. Most of the time it’s the straight-guys that carry the show and there’s too little Kogarashi.
How does this show stand against those of its kind: (Cromartie, Sexy Commando, Detroit Metal City, etc?)
otou-san: Prior to the lame ending, KnMG impressed me as well and there were some rather brilliant gags that caught me off guard. I think the anime might actually have had better art than the manga, which is both disappointing and frightening.
TheBigN: I see Kogarashi as a great spice, but too much of him can be overpowering. In some of the really good episodes he didn’t even appear that much (like the tennis one). The main problem, as I see it, is that Kogarashi is soooo much better than any other character that there is a real drop-off every time he is not on screen.
Haesslich: Hey, I came in with really low expectations; it was Kogarashi who made me hike the expectations way up!
Baka-Raptor: Is there really going to be an OVA? I bet it will be at an onsen.
Peter S: Yeah, he was like a star player toiling away on a crappy team.
EvilDevil: Although they are technically limited by the number of days that Naeka has left (about half a year), I bet they could go on with several more seasons if they wanted to. The premise is just so open-ended, and only the last few days would really have any plot advancement.
Caitlin: I think some of the episodes are worth watching, but you can safely skip the boring ones (they don’t contribute to the plot either, so you wouldn’t be missing anything)
ghostlightning: Kogarashi adds that OMGWTF-flavor, but the other characters just cannot live up to his awesomeness. It’s interesting that you bring up other series like DMC. With a lot of these types of shocking comedies, it is very hard to keep the laughs coming and avoid falling into the same tired jokes. In terms of art and early shocking jokes giving way to some less funny material, KnMG is very similar to the series you mentioned (from what I have seen).
Exactly my point. Some episodes did have the supporting cast pick up the slack, but most didn’t. It could have been a contender. ;_;