Review: MY MAID, MISS KISHI

With spring on the horizon, it's time for some spring cleaning.  That makes it the perfect time of year to look at a few of the many maid manga out there, such as this recent digital offering from Kodansha.

MY MAID, MISS KISHI (Maid no Kishi-san), by Kano Kashiwagi.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

Kiichiro Hayase is the heir to a corporate conglomerate.  He's young, handsome, wealthy beyond measure, polite...and hopelessly klutzy.  That's why he relies upon his personal maid, Miss Kishi, to manage the little details of his everyday life.  Miss Kishi is as capable and reliable as he could ever hope for, but he begins to wonder why he's never seen her smile.  Thus, Kiichiro takes it upon himself to show his gratitude by finding a way to please Miss Kishi.  How do you find a gift for a maid who wants for nothing, isn't impressed by fabulous displays of wealth, and never seems to change her expression?

STORY:

My Maid, Miss Kishi is one of those manga that's built entirely around one single joke.  The details may change from chapter to chapter, but the premise of the joke remains the same.  That's perfectly fine if the joke is a good one, but this series struggles to muster even a sensible chuckle out of it premise.

I wonder if the problem is that our leads are too sedate for the comedy.  Obviously this is part of the point with Miss Kishi, that her professional demeanor and lack of facial expressions makes her a hard person to read.  This shouldn't be a problem with Hayase though, considering he's the one pulling out the stops and enduring pratfall after pratfall just to figure out what she may or may not like.  He's weirdly calm through it all, which undercuts the desperation (and thus the humor) in his need to communicate his feelings to her.  Thus, most of the jokes rely on him either escalating his displays of gratitude to ludicrous degrees or being so blase about all his various falls, trips, and rips.  I do at least appreciate that he isn't trying to buy her love.  He's genuinely grateful for her hard work and simply wants to communicate that to her.  It's clear that getting these two together is the ultimate end goal of this story, but Kashiwagi clearly wants that relationship to come from a place of mutual understanding versus him steamrolling his way into her heart with his wealth.

ART:

The artwork of My Maid, Miss Kishi is also quite understated - mundane, even.  A surprising amount of effort (or at least tracing) is put into the backgrounds, even if it's mostly a parade of various mansion rooms, hallways, and offices.  The character designs themselves are equally down-to-earth.  While the faces are still recognizably anime in their styling, their bodies, poses, and clothes are as realistic as reasonably possible.  It's up to the reader to determine if this approach helps the comedy through tonal contrast or hinders it by not playing to the inherent silliness.

RATING:

If you want a low-key romantic comedy, My Maid, Miss Kishi is a perfectly valid option.  Like the title character, it doesn't do much to stand out but it's competent at what it does.  It might not be for everyone, but those down for its particular strain of humor will likely love it as much as Hayase loves Miss Kishi.

This series is published by Kodansha Comics.  This series is complete in Japan with 6 volumes available.  All 6 have been published digitally and are currently in print.