Mayo Chiki!

Mayo Chiki! (まよチキ!) is a Japanese light novel series written by Hajime Asano and illustrated by Seiji Kikuchi. The series' twelve volumes were published between November 2009 and July 2012 under Media Factory's MF Bunko J imprint. A manga adaptation illustrated by NEET was serialized in Media Factory's seinen manga magazine, Comic Alive between July 2010 and November 2013. A spin-off manga series called Mayo Mayo! (まよマヨ!) was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine, Nyantype between November 2010 and October 2011. An anime television series adaptation aired in Japan between July 7 and September 29, 2011. Mayo Chiki! is an abbreviation of Mayoeru Shitsuji to Chikin na Ore to (迷える執事とチキンな俺と, lit. The Stray Butler and Myself the Chicken). The anime has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America.^[3]

Plot

The story revolves around Kinjirō Sakamachi, a 17-year-old high school boy who suffers from gynophobia. The gynophobia makes his nose bleed every time he has physical contact with a female. While using the men's washroom he accidentally discovers that the popular and handsome butler Subaru Konoe is in fact a girl. Now that Kinjirō knows about Subaru's secret, he must work together with Subaru and her sadistic mistress, Kanade Suzutsuki, to protect Subaru's secret from being discovered.

Characters

Kinjirō Sakamachi (坂町 近次郎, Sakamachi Kinjirō)

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (Japanese), Blake Shepard (English)

The protagonist of the story. A second year high school student who discovers Subaru's secret. Frequently just referred to as Jirō, he suffers gynophobia in which his nose bleeds whenever a girl touches him. He reveals the cause to be his mother and sister practicing their wrestling moves on him on a daily basis for ten years as part of his training. He states his nose bleeds when a girl touches him because his body developed the reflex. He believed his mother and sister would stop beating him up once he started bleeding (as his blood would ruin the carpet). As a result, he can take pain well and is fairly competent as a fighter which is kept sharp by his sister, Kureha, who wakes him up every morning with a series of beatings. He is shown to enjoy instant noodles. When he was young, his father died from an illness, but not before telling him that his name means "stand by me". His father also told him to become a man - a man strong enough to tell others that they will be protected by him. However, the words often causes Kinjirō to wonder whether he can keep that promise. He was forced to sign a contract with Kanade to not reveal the secret of Subaru and find a way to cure his gynophobia. Later in the story, Kinjirō confesses to Konoe, to which she accepts and they share a passionate kiss (chapter 34). He hates it when people call him his full name as, due to the Japanese culture of putting the family name before their given name, it creates a pun on the English word chicken as his full name is Sakamachi Kinjirō.

Subaru Konoe (近衛 スバル, Konoe Subaru)

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi (Japanese), Genevieve Simmons (English)

Female protagonist of the story. A second year high school student who works as a butler for the Suzutsuki family and suffers from aichmophobia. When she was young she was noted to be antisocial and was not close to anyone which worried her mother. She dresses like a male due to family circumstances where one of the family has to serve Kanade's family as a butler. Being an only child, she has taken on the role and has to cross-dress. Kanade's father has allowed Subaru to be his daughter's butler only if she can spend the entire 3 years at school with her true gender undiscovered. Her physical features allow her to fool everyone into believing her to be a boy until one day, Kinjirō accidentally discovers her secret. Despite her petite figure, she is shown to be a very strong fighter and she initially hates Kinjirō, both because he discovered her secret and for being a "pervert". However, upon learning his secret she quickly warms up to him and they become friends and eventually falls in love with him as well as becoming less cold and more outgoing. Konoe finally confesses to Kinjirō and the two embrace in a passionate kiss under a starry night sky (chapter 34). Her father also noted that ever since they became friends she started looking forward to going to school. Like Kinjirō, she enjoys instant noodles and is also a fan of the popular "Lost Sheep" series of plush dolls.

Kanade Suzutsuki (涼月 奏, Suzutsuki Kanade)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese), Carli Mosier (English)

The daughter and only child of the high school's principal, who appears to behave as a rich man's polite and elegant daughter should, but is revealed to be quite sadistic. She is shown to enjoy tormenting and teasing Kinjirō by using his gynophobia against him. She does, however, give serious thought to finding a way to cure his gynophobia although her methods tend to be overly complicated or humiliate him in some way and she does not deny that she finds them amusing. She notes that Kinjirō is the first, and only, man who is willing to talk her down and she has fallen in love with him as a result. She is also implied to be a bisexual as she has claimed that Subaru was her first love.

Masamune Usami (宇佐美 マサムネ, Usami Masamune)

Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese), Margaret McDonald (English)

Usami is a member of S4 or Shooting Star Subaru-Sama, but quit afterward and is also a member of the crafts club. She is shown to have considerable leg power which she uses in the form of kicks. She is shown to be a good cook, partly because she lives on her own and has to cook her own meals. She blackmailed Kinjirō, with the picture of him and Subaru on a mock date, to be her boyfriend up until the end of their school fair. Kinjirō accepted because of the condition that she will not spread the photo with Subaru and Kinjirō going out together. However she later becomes friends with Kinjirō and the others and is in love with Kinjirō. Her name is noted to sound similar to the Japanese word for rabbit (ウサギ - Usagi) which becomes the source of Kinjirō's nickname for her; Usamin, her own nickname for him is "stupid chicken". She later allows Kinjirō to call her by her first name, Masamune.

As a gag, Usami is shown to be able to attract ghosts if not living together with them perfectly (ghosts appear in her photos and randomly pop out in her apartment).

Kureha Sakamachi (坂町 紅羽, Sakamachi Kureha)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Caitlynn French (English)

Kureha is Kinjirō's younger sister who is a first year in high school and loves martial arts. She is a member of the crafts club. After watching and following Kinjirō and Subaru, believing him a male pervert cross-dresser, she attacks Subaru to reclaim Kinjirō, only to be quickly defeated. After this incident, and still believing Subaru to be male, she falls in love with Subaru, much to Kinjirō's chagrin. While tomboyish most of the time, she tends to try and act feminine when Subaru is around. Due to her father dying from an illness she gets extremely worried whenever her brother gets sick.

Nakuru Narumi (鳴海 ナクル, Narumi Nakuru)

Voiced by: Kana Asumi (Japanese), Allison Sumrall (English)

The cat-eared student that is spying Kinjirō and Subaru. She is a busty first year and a member of the crafts club along with Kureha, she is also revealed to be the chairman of the "Let's warmly protect Subaru-Sama committee" and is shown to have a fetish for glasses and boy love which is expressed through her manga drawing of Kinjirō and Subaru (much to their chagrin). She is shown to be quite perverted, using a sheep ticket to coerce Subaru into reading a graphic novel of her and Kinjirō out loud prompting an offended Subaru to throw the book out a window. She apparently becomes drunk when she drinks carbonated drinks, and, in that state, gains an ability known as the "Stripping Drunken Fist", where she can take off a person's undergarments almost instantaneously. Nakuru later falls in love with Kinjirō due to his kindness towards her.

Nagare Konoe (近衛 流, Konoe Nagare)

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese), David Wald (English)

Subaru's father. Head Butler of the Suzutsuki family and Kanade's father's butler. He is shown to loathe Kinjirō (partly because Konoe ends up explaining that he accidentally groped her) and is suspicious of his intentions towards Subaru. He beats him up during his trip to the pool as he was acting as a kidnapper. This later created an estrangement between him and Subaru which only further increased his loathing towards Kinjirō. He is shown to be in excellent fighting condition, much like Subaru, when a punch by Kinjirō didn't even make him flinch although he is apparently no match for his daughter. Despite Subaru's consistent mistreatment of him, he is shown to dote on his daughter and is very protective of her.

Jirō Sakamachi (坂町 次郎, Sakamachi Jirō)

Voiced by: Eiji Miyashita (Japanese), Christopher Ayres (English)

Kinjirō and Kureha's father and their mother's coach. He suffered at her hands much as Kinjirō does at his sister's. Before dying from an illness, he asked Kinjirō to become a good man. Kinjirō uses his name so that no one will make a fun of his full name.

Schrodinger Narumi

Narumi is Nakuru's older sister and only appears in the manga series. She has been shown to be very protective of her younger sister and excels in sports. After hearing about him dating her sister she challenges Jiro to a series of events during the sports festival. The real goal however was to get Nakuru to fight in Jiro's place in order for her to become a stronger person. As the series goes on Jiro and Narumi become good friends, with her giving him much needed advice. Narumi is short for her age and small busted which results in her teasing Jiro for being into Loli types of girls.

Akemi Sakamachi (坂町 明美, Sakamachi Akemi)

Kinjirō and Kureha's mother and female pro wrestler. She is called "Queen of Knockouts". She has beaten everyone she has sparred with and now no one wants to face her, so she travels around the world fighting dangerous animals.

Media

Novels

The first volume of the novel was published on November 25, 2009.^[4] Twelve volumes of the novel were published in all by Media Factory under their MF Bunko J imprint.^[5]

Manga

Anime

Reception

Theron Martin of Anime News Network criticized the series for its indistinguishable animation and for not deviating away enough from its given genre, but concluded that "[I]t delivers just enough on its humor, character development, fan service, and charm to be entertaining, however, and for series like this, that's enough."^[6]

References

External links

• Official light novel website (Japanese)
• Official anime website (Japanese)
• TBS's official anime website (Japanese)
• Mayo Chiki! (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Mayo Chiki! at the Internet Movie Database