He Is My Master

He Is My Master (これが私の御主人様, Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama) is a gag comedy manga which ran in Monthly Shōnen Gangan, later spun off into a television anime series in the harem genre^[1] with a lolicon aspect.^[2] The manga is authored by two individuals: Mattsu (まっつー) who does the story and his ex-wife Asu Tsubaki (椿あす) who does the artwork. Because of their acrimonious split, the manga will probably be drawn by someone else soon.^[3]

Seven Seas Entertainment announced on November 27, 2006 they now have licensed the right to the English translation of He Is My Master and has begun to release the series July 2007.^[4][5]

Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime and released the complete collection on October 10, 2009; with distribution handled by Section23 Films.^[6]

Plot summary

A 14-year-old millionaire Yoshitaka received an enormous inheritance as a result of his parents' death in an accident. Later after firing the original maids, he needed to be looked after so he decided to hire new live-in maids. While originally expecting an elderly woman to take the job, two runaway girls, Izumi, 14, and Mitsuki, 13, end up accepting the job as means for a home and income. Another girl, Anna, later becomes a maid as well, and all three live in the mansion with Yoshitaka. The boy pulls some clichéd pranks throughout the story.

Characters

Main characters

Yoshitaka Nakabayashi (中林義貴, Nakabayashi Yoshitaka)

• Voiced by: Junko Minagawa

Yoshitaka is the 14-year-old boy who inherits his parents' fortune. He is described by others (and an episode title) as "the boy in the midst of puberty who inherited his parents' fortune and was living all by himself with no supervision and has surrounded himself with tender young girls in a huge mansion, thus living out his fantasies and creating his own world of desire as he makes them serve him". He installed scores of hidden video cameras throughout his mansion, and can efficiently record or snapshot instances and events he finds pleasing. His media archive is routinely browsed by Mitsuki each night from the comfort of the sisters' bedroom computer. Yoshitaka is never addressed by his family name except by some of his classmates; he is addressed either as "Yoshitaka" (with and without honorifics) or as "master" throughout the story. Yoshitaka is hated by nearly everyone in the story, as a boy who flaunts his money. Izumi hates him and often refers to him as an "inhumane pervert with a lolicon fetish" but, deep down they both seem to have feelings for each other shown in episodes 10-12 where it is clearly stated he loves her. He even has a closet full of extra (suggestive) clothes for the girls (i.e.: sailor suits and bunny costumes), Yoshitaka made them all by himself, as he is said to be a natural genius, when it comes to sewing outfits, such as a making a wedding dress for Izumi, however Izumi states he would waste his unique talent on his fetishes. He would never waste a single millimeter, making an outfit's skirt longer than it needs to cover the most important parts.

An early panel in the English version of the He Is My Master manga. Mattsu's art style is markedly different from that used in the anime adaptation.

Izumi Sawatari (沢渡いずみ, Sawatari Izumi)

• Voiced by: Masumi Asano

Izumi is one of the three girls who get hired by Yoshitaka. While reluctant about working there she has to work for Yoshitaka as she has a huge debt to pay off. Because Yoshitaka is the way he is, Izumi repeatedly stamps on him and hands out pay to him. She is impossibly strong (shown in various episodes) and has rather large breasts for a 14 year old.

Izumi never uses an honorific suffix (-san, -sama, -kun etc.) after Yoshitaka's name. While this usually means the speaker is very close to the person, this could also mean a grave insult. Izumi uses it to show her contempt and complete lack of respect for him. As a result, Yoshitaka often places the more difficult (and often pointless) tasks on Izumi. Izumi was originally going to be the "normal" character of the series but she turned out to show violent tendencies towards Yoshitaka and became the "doll" of the household: Everyone, including Mitsuki, messes with her in some sort of sexual tendency much to Izumi's dread. Be it flipping her skirt or attempting to remove her bra, Izumi is constantly being harassed.

Out of all characters, Izumi, is the one who drives the plot the most, being the subject of nearly every episode. She was even addressed by the sixth episode's title, saying that 'He is my master' is "The story about Izumi Sawatari".

In episode 9, during Izumi's tropical photoshoot, Yoshitaka appears and mentions that "the ones who want [her] photobook are the extreme maniacs anyway." Izumi is 14 years old, the same age as Yoshitaka. While frowned upon in the West, in Japan, girls under 15 years of age (sometimes as young as 11 or 12) who pose for photobooks are quite popular. Referred to as a gravure idol, or a Japanese idol and model who poses for photographs and videos, more well-known idols include Mao Kobayashi (born in 1992) and Saaya Irie (born in 1993).

Mitsuki Sawatari (沢渡みつき, Sawatari Mitsuki)

• Voiced by: Ai Shimizu

Mitsuki is Izumi's younger sister, by one year, and is hired by Yoshitaka along with Izumi. By using photographs from Yoshitaka's media archive, she signs Izumi up for a "Net Idol" website, which later, with revenue from Izumi's performances, helps Izumi pay off her debt. Mitsuki herself actually becomes very rich because of Izumi's popularity. Mitsuki always (when under Yoshitaka's contract) refers to Yoshitaka as Goshujin-sama or "Master". She even has her own fan club from her own school and other schools as well. She frequently comes up with (weird) competitions whenever two characters have divided opinions, most of the competitions ends up with Pochi playing some kind of key role that results in a bizarre conclusion, she seems to favor Yoshitaka during these competitions and usually requires Izumi (albeit unwillingly) to compete. She loves the maid uniforms while as Izumi thinks they are way too revealing. Mitsuki even sang a song at a festival entitled "I'm a cute maid at a pervert's house!" Although usually portrayed as a cute character, she has interests one would not normally suspect of a cute character, such as heavy metal music.^[7] At one point in the manga, it is even suggested that Mitsuki has torture equipment.^[8] Mitsuki is a smart character, planning everything to the smallest detail. Her biggest plan in the anime adaptation, even went one month into the future, and finally made sure that Izumi, beside having paid off the debt ends up accepting to live in Yoshitaka's mansion and being happy.

Anna Kurauchi (倉内安奈, Kurauchi Anna)

• Voiced by: Kana Ueda

Anna is the third girl hired by Yoshitaka.She's bisexual and constantly tries to do perverted acts with Izumi, who is mostly disgusted by her lesbianism. She was originally attracted to Yoshitaka, but because of Izumi's relentless effort convincing her to stay away from Yoshitaka, she mistook it as sign of interest, thus she fell in love with Izumi and became Yoshitaka's maid in order to follow Izumi. She even dreams of traveling to the Netherlands to arrange a same-sex marriage, going far as to study the language. She is discouraged later in the episode, finding out that being under 16, they cannot be married (yet). Her inability to cook is the subject of many jokes in the story. She was originally going to be the "innocent" member of the group, but her personality reverted to that of Yoshitaka's. The authors describe her as the "yuri supplier of the group".

Pochi (ポチ)

• Voiced by: Kyousei Tsukui

Pochi is an alligator which belongs to Mitsuki and the reason Izumi and Mitsuki ran away from home. Originally, Pochi's parents lived at Mitsuki and Izumi's home. However, one of the alligators attacked Mitsuki, causing Mitsuki's father to have the alligators taken away and put down. Mitsuki finds an egg belonging to Pochi's parents, and discovers that she was partly responsible for what happened to Pochi's parents. Pochi is one of the reasons why Izumi and Mitsuki stay at Yoshitaka's mansion because Mitsuki will not go anywhere without a spot for Pochi. Pochi likes cute girls and often tries to rape Izumi in the anime (In the manga, he is actually more respectful of her, though still perverted.) He strongly dislikes males.

Note: Pochi is often used to name reptiles as if they were domesticated pets such as pet dogs, similar to the name Spot in western society. Similarly, Pochi is the name of the pet dragon in Keio Flying Squadron.

Minor characters

Sawatari, Father (沢渡父, Sawatari Chichi)

Mr. Sawatari is Izumi, Mitsuki, and Karin's father. His given name is unknown. Upon hearing the rumors of Yoshitaka, he immediately approached the mansion to demand the return of Izumi and Mitsuki. All his attempts at retrieving Izumi and Mitsuki fail, usually when his wife, Mizuho, abruptly stops him. Like Yoshitaka, Mr. Sawatari is a lolicon pervert, although he wishes to "not be put in the same category." Mr. Sawatari is highly attracted to his two daughters in a perverted way (seemingly stronger when the girls dress up). Izumi has even once said "I've seen how you look at us!" referring to herself and Mitsuki. This is played up more in the anime, where it is revealed that the reason the girls ran away from home in the first place was because they grew tired of resisting his constant sexual advances towards them, with him always declaring "I love both you just as much as your mother! Just as much!" as he regularly tried to seduce them.

Mizuho Sawatari (沢渡瑞穂, Sawatari Mizuho)

• Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara

Mizuho is the mother of Izumi, Mitsuki, and Karin. Compared to her husband, Mizuho is very young, having Izumi at the age of 16 and being age 30 during the story. Also in contrast to her husband, she is not concerned at all with two of her daughters in the hands of a perverted teenager, and will allow a love relationship between Izumi and either Anna (stating that "love has nothing to do with gender") or Yoshitaka (stating that he should "feel free to go crazy"). She and Mitsuki are very similar, as Mitsuki has learned almost everything from her mother.

Karin Sawatari (沢渡かりん, Sawatari Karin)

• Voiced by: Rumi Shishido

Karin is the younger sister of Izumi and Mitsuki. Unlike her two sisters, she stayed behind rather than run away. After learning of her sisters' whereabouts, she visits them occasionally, although Izumi discourages her in order to keep her away from Yoshitaka's grasp after Yoshitaka becomes attracted to her when Karin is in the child's maid costume. Karin is a typical 5 year old; sweet and innocent. She is oblivious to Yoshitaka's perverted nature as well as the harassment that Izumi receives on a daily basis. Like Mitsuki, she loves alligators, especially Pochi. She believes that "anyone who likes alligators can't be bad." Yoshitaka tricks her into thinking he likes Pochi (when in fact they are often rivals) to make Karin like him.

Shinji Kume (久米伸治, Kume Shinji)

Kume Shinji, along with other upperclassmen, formed a bodyguard squad after being impressed with Mitsuki's appearance, and aid Mitsuki with difficult tasks on various episodes. He is addressed by his friends as "Kume Shin".

Alicia (アリシア)

• Voiced by: Natsuko Kuwatani

Alicia appears in one episode, and is a sadistic French blonde. She whips Yoshitaka effortlessly with her beautiful, crimson whip.

Seiichirou Nakabayashi (中林誠一郎, Nakabayashi Seiichirō)

• Voiced by: Romi Park

Seichirou is Yoshitaka's cousin. Seichirou was raised in a similar lifestyle as Yoshitaka, but was plummeted into poverty upon the death of Yoshitaka's parents. Upon finding Mitsuki's website, Seichirou made a financial comeback by forming a production company. Through a series of contests, he was able to take possession of Izumi momentarily. In terms of personality, Seiichirou is also a lolicon uniform fetishist who loves peeping pictures and playing girl simulation games like Yoshitaka, but also is a crossdresser.

Takami Sugita (杉田多可美, Sugita Takami)

• Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi

Takami is the only daughter of the Sugita family, a family that has rivaled the Nakabayashi family for generations. As Yoshitaka hit bankruptcy, Takami seized the opportunity to claim the Nakabayashi estate. Her disposition is nothing short of arrogant and haughty. She also has an interest in Mitsuki's production ability, since Takami was runner-up in the Net Idol competition.

Mattsū (まっつー) and Asu Tsubaki (椿あす, Tsubaki Asu)

Mattsū and Asu Tsubaki are the authors of the He Is My Master manga. Within the story, Mattsū and Asu are represented as an alligator and hamster, respectively. An image of them on a cloud in heaven appears each time Izumi (and once Yoshitaka) mentions kami-sama (神様); "the gods watching over me". This happens once per episode.

Anime

Episodes

Recurring gags

In every episode God is mentioned and it shows avatars of the show's creators doing actions. Occasionally the avatars do something relevant to the plot (such as draw a picture of clothing and stick a fountain pen in Yoshitakas head to make him think he drew it).

At the end of each episode, with the exception of episode 9 and 10, 4 recurring gags are shown; the first gag shows an exhausted Izumi either in bed or bathing. The second gag shows Mitsuki working on her photobook of Izumi's revealing pictures taken from hidden cameras earlier on in the episode. The third gag shows a frustrated Yoshitaka in a small, messy room working on draft designs for new outfits for his maids. The fourth gag shows an aerial shot of the mansion with Yoshitaka ranting or manically laughing, and two numbers show up. The first number is the amount of damages Izumi must pay off for that particular day, and the second number is the amount of money she has left to pay, listed in yen. And, in some of the episodes it shows Mitsuki's earnings for that day.

Anime soundtrack

Opening theme song:

• Masami Okui - TRUST

Ending theme song:

• Izumi, Mitsuki, and Anna - 愛情のカタマリ (Aijō no Katamari)

Reception

The anime series received mixed to negative reviews.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

On Anime News Network (ANN), the DVD Complete Collection of He Is My Master was reviewed, and was given an overall cautiously positive rating, saying "This is not a masterpiece but is definitely better than it could have been". High points of the series mentioned are Yoshitaka's (the male lead) very evil personality, which is very refreshing to see after hundreds of indecisive and weak male leads in harem-fanservice series similar to this. Other good points are the comedy and plentiful fanservice. One of the biggest negative points in this series are the stereotypical elements that freely abound the series. Cliches are left and right, and sometimes detract from the comedy. ANN rated this anime in 5 categories, the average of which was a B-.^[13]

References

Further reading

• Alexander, Matthew (September 13, 2007). "He is My Master Vol. #01". Mania. Demand Media. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. 
• Smith, David F. (July 2007). "He Is My Master Vol 1". Newtype USA 6 (7). p. 106. ISSN 1541-4817. 

External links

• (Japanese) Official authors' website
• (Japanese) Official He is My Master website
• He Is My Master (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Seven Seas Entertainment page for He Is My Master