(L) Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

I agree. <3

I second that. I dare say, she's the hottest "guy" in this anime. I'd go gay for her.

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

I dunno, I think all this stuff is way more obvious in the manga, but yeah, aside from a bit of Gary Stu-ish hyperbolic perfection at everything, I really don't believe there's anything bland or objectionable about Usui's character.

The problem is that "Gary Stu-ish perfection" is the thing we see 98% of the time from him, at least in the anime. If it weren't for all your postive posts about Usui and the manga hinting, I would probably hate the guy already . Well, maybe not hate, since he also has a funny side and he isn't 100% perfect (though dangerously close to it).
When the other guy started to talk about playing chess, I just knew Usui was going to be the one competing with him, and of course beating him easily no matter what the other guy's level is. Is there anything Usui can't do? :3

And I'm having mixed feelings about the way he treats Misaki. Sometimes, he can be surprisingly considerate, and other times he just acts like a jerk, like at the end of this episode. Even if he's just teasing her/joking, he should know what Misaki's limits are already. Those are the kind of moments that make me dislike him.

Now about the episode itself. That new "rival" looked totally lame to me. I couldn't help but laugh when we saw him in his limo with two bitches at his side. I'm still curious to see how Misaki will handle him, and I hope she'll manage to do it by herself, like last ime. I don't mind Usui giving her a hand as long as he doesn't steal the spotlight, Misaki needs to be the one teaching that bastard a lesson, preferably with a good lariat at the end of it.

[SonOfHeaven]

Originally Posted by TJR

Massive skip coming right up. Ep. 9 appears to cover the third sidestory, while Ep. 10 covers Ch. 20.

That is an pretty big skip(How many total episodes is this series?). I want to see chapters 18 and 19 get animated. Wonder why they'll skipping chapters.

[Darknemo2000]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

In conclusion, this episode was bad. I guess I could try to rationalize it by saying that getting three episodes out of the way in one shot is a good thing in order to get to some more satisfying material later in the series faster; however, I am not confident this anime has been executed well enough to keep anime-only viewers riveted for that long. Furthermore, this level of treatment of the material cheapens the series in general. This episode didn't even provide me with the basic level of enjoyment I got from episode 3-6, so I must say I am rather disappointed. In any case, I might repeat this at the end of the series, but I highly encourage everybody who hasn't here to check out the source manga eventually, and perhaps even read it concurrently with the anime. Not that the anime doesn't manage to be enjoyable on its own (as I said, even I liked episodes 3-6 overall), but particularly for episodes like this, I think the manga will significantly supplement your enjoyment of this series.

This is JC Staff... And that's why I wasn't happy to hear it will be made by JC Staff. While animation is always at least mediocre and voice acting is pretty solid, they are very notorious for showing no respect for the original source and doing lots of rushing and skipping, so I'd say brace yourself for even more ridiculous skipping/rushing in the future.

[Dralha]

Spoiler for Ep 7:

The series seemed to lack a direction up until this point, but now that there's an antagonist of sorts, and relationship tension between the two protagonists, it's gotten a lot more interesting.

Chess game scene was great.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

:P Going gay for a girl dressed up as a guy, might not end up being so gay after all...The influx of these kinds of comments somewhat troubles me, though. Usui should be consistently waaay hotter than Misaki (dressed as a guy) can really hope to be; it's not even a question for manga readers. The fact that Misaki is so easily able to overtake him for so many viewers here seems to be bit of a reflection of J.C. Staff's failure to make Usui's 'sexy' scenes actually sexy.

Or it could be that the majority of posters here are male, know that "Misaki-kun" is a girl, and thus don't mind "going gay" for her. By already knowing who she is, all possible mental walls are down, and she's seen as doing a mere cosplay rather than truly being a guy.

[Master_Yoma]

Misaki is just so cute wearing glasses

Yep that a man kiss

[rg4619]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

failure to make Usui's 'sexy' scenes actually sexy.

I think that's a rather naive way of looking at it. Whether this was decided by the director or the production committee, there's a clear intention to downplay male "sexiness", presumably to make the show more palatable for a different audience (not an unsurprising idea given all the otaku/moe hooks). There's some hope that hardcore otaku will give the series a chance instead of writing it off like other shoujo series.

Similarly, the on-going Durarara! was adjusted to reel in a fujoshi audience.

The fact that Misaki is so easily able to overtake him for so many viewers here

Reverse traps have always enjoyed some popularity with male fans. It isn't because viewers have homosexual tendencies, but rather the balance between femininity and masculinity weighs strongly enough toward the former that they know the character can't truly be a guy. Usui would never become an object of desire, unless the animators gave him a complete feminine makeover.

No, what they're obviously doing is trying to save time by combining elements of various roughly related chapters to save time. After all, we have to try to get to the juicy later chapters, and by simply going 2 chapters per ep, we won't get there.

Yeah, structurally, the show wouldn't work so well if they opted for a blow by blow adaptation (especially given how long the manga spins its wheels). This is one series where some significant rearrangement would help, although it's certainly going to be a tough job.

As always, I'd also like to remind everyone that neither J.C. Staff nor Hiroaki Sakurai are responsible for preparing the scripts and story structure. That's Mamiko Ikeda's job, and as such, there's little reason to draw conclusions based on how another team's show was handled (and I don't think anyone could possibly argue that, say, Railgun, Aoi Hana, Hayate 2, and Uraboku were adapted with the same methodology. You can go ahead and cherry pick certain shows all you like, but it's ignorant).

[zebra]

Personally, I didn't find epsiode 6 that entertaining. The brothers had their cute moments but they didn't click so well with me. They were just loud D:
Ep. 7 now was way more enjoyable for me, laughed a lot again. I wondered the whole time how Misaki stuck up her hair for it to look short like that. It's impossible with my hair D:

I kind of have to remind myself that Misaki is screwed up when it comes to males. I kind of forgot her hatred in the middle.

As for Usui; for me it's pretty clear that he is and behaves like a jerk, but cares genuinly for Misaki. I mean I would have kicked the guy in the jewels for just looking under my skirt so casually. His behaviour isn't portrayed as overly positive, but I also don't think his jerkness is really emphasized. It's more like the focus is on the moments were he does something 'nice' and him jumping Misaki should be seen as hot. Even when you like dominant males and cut him slack because he isn't serious, he still pushes the line a big deal. I actually wonder how Misaki only ends up screaming one sentence at him and then it's done

I felt bad for him though when

Spoiler for ep 7:

he saw how Misaki reacted to the kiss and his confession. I still think he is at fault, since his behaviour led to the whole situation and Misaki's reaction, but I can't loathe him for falling for her and expressing it like a ten year old. I lol'ed hard when he tongued the poor other guy. He's screwed up himself, so I sympathize with him after all xD

Hope the next eps are funny too~

[DragoonKain3]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The problem is that "Gary Stu-ish perfection" is the thing we see 98% of the time from him, at least in the anime.

Hmm... I think this is exactly the problem for me. All that's shown right now is Gary Stu, and without anything else to latch on (ex. his motivations, his past, his dreams, etc.), its rather a tall order to feel anything for the guy.

[Forsaken_Infinity]

Can't believe I didn't post in this thread yet.

Regardless, I liked episode 7 too. Usui can't get any better, I don't see why people are complaining that he is bland, point me to one another character who is as perfect as Usui is, even in imperfection. And the very fact that he doesn't always bail out Misaki right away but gives her enough of a leeway to work things through, combined with the fact that he doesn't even bother making a favorable impression every time on the girl he likes is enough to prove that he isn't really a knight-in-shining-armor kind of person. He is definitely interesting and I would think going a bit over the top is allowed in an anime like this where everything is a bit over the top anyway. He is a pleasure to watch and I really would like to know what goes inside his head...too bad he doesn't exist lol.

The highlight of the episode was Misaki-kun, no doubt. But yeah, that YukimuraxUsui kiss scene was total win.

I haven't read the manga....I won't until the anime is over so could the people that have read the manga cut it out with the "anime is crap, go read manga now" stuff already? I don't wanna be spoiled and reading the posts in this thread only lessens the fun I can derive from the anime.

[Crisis]

I am slightly disappointed at a few things.

I had high hopes for the anime after watching the first few eps but now I am heartbroken.

The assault attempt on Misaki, the gay kiss ..... can't recommend this to any younger kids anymore. Why can't there be a decent anime which doesnt go into sex themes? Just comedy for once - pure comedy.

And what was the point of the gay kiss???? Was it necessary? Did it achieve anything at all? Thanks JC for ruining the anime for the younger audience.

Btw, why in the preview do we see Misaki in a bathrobe while the other school's student prez enter?

[chikorita157]

Episode 7 was a pretty intreating episode. I liked the chess match, it was pretty funny. I wonder what will happen next between the rivaling schools.

The reverse trap was pretty funny as he saw through it anyways.

[Mentar]

If only there was an anime (or RL movie, I don't care) in which the process of playing chess was properly handled. It's only a pet peeve of mine (being a club player), but any serious chess player (let alone national level ones) gets ulcers the way it's depicted ^_^;

Seeing the awkward way they move pieces... taking other pieces by using your own chess pieces to topple over the other one (*argh*)... using a pawn to take a Queen on a promote-a-pawn motion... or the general notion that serious players would be shocked by a 1-move checkmate... *ze pain*

Did anyone EVER come across an anime or RL movie which actually deals with chess in a way that it's obvious people know ANYTHING about it?

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Did anyone EVER come across an anime or RL movie which actually deals with chess in a way that it's obvious people know ANYTHING about it?

Code Geass.



..............................
...............................

Nah, just kidding. I don't remember ever coming across an anime/manga with serious chess. I've always dreamed about Nobuyuki Fukumoto using it in one his manga. I guess the closest you're going to get is Shion no Ou, dealing with Shogi.

[zebra]

Yeah, I found it amusing how hard they tried not too show the board too much or to name any moves

Just: "BELIEVE it's an interesting game! And they're damn good at it!"

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Code Geass.

Damn. You got there before i could say it.

[xris]

OK, here's the warning.

This is an anime-only discussion thread. If you want to discuss the manga or compare the anime to the manga then post in the manga thread not here.

No-one is stopping you from discussing the manga but just do it in the correct place, not here! Do not, repeat, do not discuss the manga here. It doesn't matter if you use spoiler tags or not, you may not discuss the manga (not even under spoiler tags!).

If I spot any further possible manga spoilers in this thread then I'm going to award a 3 day ban (no warning, no notice) to anyone who is foolish enough to ignore this request. Please bear in mind I've yet to start watching this series so I may be over sensitive as to what may be or may not be a spoiler so to be on the safe side I suggest to heed the warning. Better yet, recent posters better clear up the recent posts and remove all manga discussion before I accidentally read them and spoil my enjoyment of the anime series.

Finally, from the forum rules

1.2 Do not insult or harass other members
Insults, harassment, flaming, trolling, baiting or other similar abusive behaviour towards other members of The Forum will not be tolerated.

[Lord of Fire]

I think calling Usui's actions "sexual harassment" is a bit too much. He teases her by putting her in somewhat embarrassing situations, but, apart from kissing her, he has yet to truly lay a finger on her in a way that would qualify him as being a sexual predator or just a plain jerk. While he may act that way towards the other girls, remember that that's their point of view and not his. Every action he's done so far is for their own good: instead of them wasting time with a guy who doesn't want to get involved with girls, he basically tells them that there are other guys they'd do better focusing their attention on before they'll be disappointed (and hurt) even more if they decide to stick with him.

I think it's quite clear that Misaki is developing feelings for Usui, but her extreme hatred for all things male is making her confused. She wants to hate him, but those feelings are getting in the way, causing conflict. It's making her realize that her view on (some) men is changing and she doesn't want that, most likely because of the same reason she doesn't want boys at her school know that she's a part-time maid: she thinks it will make her look weak and that the boys will use this 'weakness' to control her.

And about the "girls says no, but means yes" bit: isn't that typical tsundere behavior – the more she claims to hate a guy, the more she actually likes him? While I can agree that her emotional outburst in this episode is probably more honest than anything she has said to him so far, I still think it's merely her way of showing that she needs time to cope with the feelings she's experiencing, and has never felt before, rather than that she actually wants him out of her life or genuinely dislikes what he's done to/for her up till now.

I'm pretty sure Usui knows what she wants, but for her sake, he decides not to push it any further, knowing that he'll end up hurting her (and himself) if he pushes too far. He'll probably stay at a distance for the time being, waiting for her to determine where to go from here, all the while still watching her back.

[Mentar]

So you think that the manga page I listed is wrong? Misaki was lying in her outburst?

And when she was _happy_ that for once Usui was NOT around her, she way lying to herself, too?

Yes or no.

Just because it's clear that there WILL eventually be developments in this direction doesn't mean that they have already started.

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by Mentar

So you think that the manga page I listed is wrong? Misaki was lying in her outburst?

I couldn't care less about the manga. I don't read it, and I don't like it when people take a manga as the sole and absolute truth when it has an anime adaptation.

And when she was _happy_ that for once Usui was NOT around her, she way lying to herself, too?

Yes or no.

I said she's lying to herself about hating him and that she's slowly warming up to him. However, that doesn't mean she loves him either.

Misaki's outburst told Usui that he was taking things too far and he figured that, in order to get her to accept him, the best thing to do is to leave her be. Still, I don't think she truly meant it when she said she hated him.