Mayo Chiki!

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Mayo Chiki features many great things like comedy, romance, and storyline. You could say it is like a high school romance except with a lot of strange situations. Although the romance evolves from perverted situations it is what makes this a great manga to read. Especially how the main character can't touch a girl, but is forced to by other characters.
(10) Storyline- The storyline is done really well in this manga because it starts off by the protagonist, Jiro discovering the most loved butler by girls is actually a girl. Getting knocked out by Subaru the butler Jiro is forced to cooperate with Suzutsuki to ... keep Subaru's secret, but then develops into a romance because of Jiro being Subaru's first friend and characters trying to cure his gynophobia.
(10) Art- The art is done really well with the character emotions when something dramatic will happen during the awkward romantic moments. Especially how the characters would respond by their faces and think wrong. There are also great details added to convey the romantic comedy moments.

(10) Character- Each character has a unique type of personality that is fun to figure out.
Jiro - One of the main characters the story focuses on and is the character that struggles to cure his gynophobia. Jiro is the first character introduced in the manga when it begins. He keeps away from girls to make sure he doesn’t pass out from a nosebleed. Once he is forced to be cured by Suzutsuki he suffers from going through a lot of treatments. The thing in Jiro's character that is interesting to look at is how he responds to Suzutsuki's treatments and what happens to him just to cure his problem.
Suzutsuki- Another main character in Mayo Chiki, who tries to cure Jiro of his gynophobia in exchange Jiro has to keep Subaru's secret. She doesn't really care what happens to Jirou while he goes through his treatment. She has a mysterious type of personality so you don't know how she really is like. Her personality is interesting because sometimes she does want to help Jiro, but most of the time she tortures him.
Subaru- A main character in Mayo Chiki who is discovered to be a girl by Jiro and stays by him to make sure he doesn't say her secret. She obeys her master command no matter what it is, which makes her a very interesting character. When she is with Jiro she reacts awkwardly to him causing them to be in strange situations. She usually thinks the wrong way to something that isn't.
(10) Overall- Everything was done pretty well and I give this manga a 10 because of the great content it has. You just don't know whats going to happen next in the dramatic parts of the story. If you are looking for a book that features both comedy and romance then Mayo Chiki would be a great book to read.

What do you get when you put a gynophobe, a cross-dressing butler and an assorted bunch of other wacky characters in a highschool drama? A rom-com. No surprise there. I mean, we are talking about anime, right? But does this series, Mayo-Chiki, make a good case for its own blend of crazy love-sick comedy? Let's find out.

Story

The story of Mayo-Chiki opens with the resident MC/ gynophobic extraordinaire, Sakamachi Kinjiro, walking in on his highschool's number one pretty boy butler Konoe Subaru using the commode...while wearing girls underwear. From there, Konoe, along with her master Suzutsuki Kanade, embarks on a journey to rid Kinjiro ... of his disorder, all while keeping her gender a secret. The premise, while not as ground breaking as the series wants you to believe, is better than the tried-tested-and-tired "random girl falls from the sky" opening. It may not be much more realistic, but the premise adds to the initial upbeat mood of the series. Its comedy, especially in the early chapters, is the focus of the action. Situations like a staged kidnapping at a water park and an "elopement" vacation, combined with Kinjiro's "gynophobia treatment" let the series start strong in the comedy department.

However, when the romance aspect begins to enter focus, the quality of the storytelling becomes somewhat rocky. Kinjiro begins to jump from one situation to the next, each punctuated by a girl's "I love you" at the end of the chapter. This line is said at least once a chapter when the 3/4's mark comes around and the situations surrounding it almost seemed forced. In one case, a girl self-hypnotizes herself to deliver her feelings, while another rejects Kinjiro with a "friendzone confession". I commend the series for not having the MC constantly chase after all the girls and instead try to set his priorities straight, but the cost is that some characters, like the cat-eared Nakuru, get left out of the action. That being said, near the end, Kinjiro is able to pick his girl, get approval from the proper authorities and bring back the comedy that was falling a little flat for a grande finale.

Art

The art meets expectations and maybe even surpasses them a little. Each character has their own feel and theme, from the seductive mistress Suzutsuki to the kooky Kureha. The panels are organized nicely, guiding the viewer's eyes from one thought/picture to the next and the fan service is actually rather pleasant. Even though it is more or less in every chapter, it almost never feels like a punch in the gut (*coughsekireicough*).

Characters

The majority of the characters of M-C have stereotypical influences. There's the tsundere Usami, the loli elder Schrodinger, and the little sister Kureha to name a few. There are also some characters that don't quite fit into a stereotype, such as Konoe and Suzutsuki, due to their more dynamic characters. Sakamachi Kinjiro has the unique distinct of being the only rom-com protagonist who I didn't forget the name of half way through the work. His gynophobia makes him much more polite than his other genre counterparts, yet he is able to keep up with all the crazy situations he finds himself in with relative ease. Overall, the cast is quite solid indeed.

Enjoyment

I hate rom-coms. I loathe harems. Both of these aspects of anime largely feel like souless commercial panderings whenever I encounter them. I'm being brutally honest here. However, despite my predisposition, I can't help but smile whenever I see Sakamachi get a nose bleed from one of the dozen hugs he gets from the females of the series. The characters are full of life and unlike other series, they have lives and worries outside the protagonist that aren't just back drops. They grow with the audience and while the 3rd quarter of the series is a bit of a dip in quality, this series knows when to call it quits and how to wrap up a story with friendships intact. I would recommend this series to both rom-com fans and to those who want to give the genre another shot.

Overall grade: 7/10

Mayo-Chiki doesn't blow minds, but what it does do is make a world full of solid characters, great comedy set ups and steady romantic subplots. It might have its dips in quality, but with a nice premise, tasteful art and a whole-lotta heart, this series shows there's hope for the rom-com genre yet!

So what are you waiting for? Don't be a chicken! Read Mayo-Chiki today!

I actually kinda enjoyed this manga even though it has so many flaws.

The story is based on a gynophobic MC who learns that the most popular boy in school is actually a girl. It's a pretty stereotypical high school romcom harem type manga, so there's not much plot to be talked about. However, the plot is also where the manga draws its greatest offense. I am not sure how, but the amount of times main plot points were discarded to fit the story are actually insane. The pacing is also all over the place (though it's better here than in the anime). The relationship between ... the mains is sped through at a ridiculous rate in the beginning, then slows down to a relative standstill as other girls are introduced. They gynophobia is only really used if the situation calls for it and is mostly just an excuse for girls to have physical contact with the MC. The number of times the characters have to move two a new house is also staggering. All in all, the plot leave much to be desired if you want to look at it from a storytelling standpoint. The dialogue was also difficult to follow some of the time throughout the story, but this is probably a translation issue.

The characters aren't too much better. They pretty much fall into standard tropes, and aside from a few nice scenes where their actual character gets to shine, they're mostly just fighting to get with the MC and have no real development to speak of. I guess the tsundere and the rich girl do get their own little times of character development, but that's about it. There's also a few characters that I think the author wanted to do more with, but are kinda just there for like two chapters and never show up again but are treated as pseudo-main characters.

The art style is fine, nothing much to say here.

Overall, this is not great from a critical point of view. That being said though, this manga does have its own sort of charm to it. It's kinda fun seeing these girls fight one another for this MC in their own little ways, and the ending is pretty sweet and well deserved.

tl;dr- don't read it for what it actually is, but rather what it tries to be