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Man, what a great chapter. Maid-sama is back in form. I'm even willing to forgive the tepid resolution to the Walker family arc in hindsight. As romance goes, in this manga's best moments, Usui x Misaki are unbeatable.
Reading through the start of the latest chapter reminded me that I stumbled across Maid-sama before I got into yuri. Misaki's considerable cross-gender appeal, and Miyazono-sensei's orientation, are all things which should gratify me from that perspective. Altogether this manga has always demonstrated an extremely diverse and open-minded treatment of gender roles, despite the fact that the star couple is as heterosexual as you can get. That just raises the series' value in my eyes, and makes me truly glad to hold it as one of the holdouts/classics of romantic shoujo manga.
I love the characterization exposited in Usui and Misaki's mature consideration of their future. Usui characterizes his life before Misaki as aimless--with neither a goal nor the groundedness to care for the happiness of others. I confess that I grew up along with Usui--that the emptiness of his life before Misaki was one of the very first things which drew me to his character. As the years passed, I found myself undergoing the same transformation of finding something to care about, and coming to embrace the bonds and interconnections of reality which would become part of the journey of pursuing it. To see both Usui and Misaki arriving at the same state, embracing reality, envisioning and devoting themselves to a concrete future they see in front of them, gives me incredible joy for them. This subtle underpinning of, beyond mere romance, Usui and Misaki's journeys of personal growth raises Maid-sama again to the very heights of what I consider shoujo manga.
If this chapter is to mark the beginning of Maid-sama's conclusion, then I cannot imagine a better start. This was great. I cannot wait for future chapters.
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