He Is My Master 1
Opening: "Truth" by Okui Masami: They sure didn't wait to start the service. Poor Izumi.. ;) For those that have to know, the yuri girl who was looking lecherously at Izumi is Anna, and y'all will meet her soon enough.. Anyways.. nice song.. and for some reason I've always liked the thing where they have the camera(?) fly by each character and stuff ;)
Ending: 「愛情のカタマリ」 "Aijou no Katamari" by Izumi, Mitsuki, and Anna: Sung by the three maids, with cute static backgrounds drawn by Tsubaki Asu, one of the authors of the manga.
Izumi (CV: Asano Masami) and Mitsuki (CV: Shimizu Ai) have decided to leave home and fend for themselves without relying on anyone. The only problem is that they can't find work or a place to sleep, so they look for somewhere.. and as the rain falls they pass by a gigantic mansion. And posted near the gate: "Urgent! Taking applications for live-in maid". Izumi's not too good at housework, but Mitsuki excitedly says it'll work out somehow. So they enter the gate....
And in a river Mitsuki sees some fish and takes a look. She slips and almost falls in, but Izumi pulls her back up.. then falls in herself, getting soaked. At the door, Izumi starts taking off her soaked clothes.. then the door opens and a guy looks out to see quite a sight ;) Izumi proceeds to call him a pervert and throws a tanuki statue at him.. Ouch... Izumi and the guy exchange some words, but Mitsuki breaks it up by mentioning that they saw the post about hiring a maid, and he lets them in.
That guy's living all by himself in the big mansion. His parents died in an auto accident and left him all alone with quite a bit of money. He's looking for live-in maids to have some people around the house so he won't be lonely. Izumi apologizes for earlier and introduces herself (14 years old, btw), along with little sister Mitsuki (13). The guy is Nakabayashi Yoshitaka, and he takes them to the bath so they can get warmed up a bit from being outside in the rain.
It's a pretty nice big bath as could be expected, and Mitsuki's pretty excited (she's usually rather genki). Much service. Expertly placed obstructions keep us from seeing things we aren't supposed to see ;) And after the bath... they're dressed in maid uniforms, much to Izumi's dislike, and head off to meet Yoshitaka in the parlor.
Izumi voices her displeasure, but Yoshitaka says they're maids, so wearing maid outfits is natural ;) He's the master of the place, so what he says goes. He doesn't need people like his previous maids that don't listen to him.. Izumi calls him the worst, and leaves with Mitsuki.. Yoshitaka's not going let this chance of having two middle school girls as his maids.. over next to the wall is a bag that Mitsuki told Yoshitaka to not open, no matter what. Even though a cute girl told him that.. he does it anyway. And out comes...
A big green thing that eats him ;) Izumi and Mitsuki hear his screams and return. The alligator, whose name is apparently Pochi, spits Yoshitaka out. He didn't like him. Mitsuki explains to Yoshitaka that Pochi was just tasting him. Always something he does when he meets someone for the first time ;) And Pochi's an alligator, btw. Pochi spots Izumi and his eyes turn into hearts... he then starts chasing after her. He's very attached to Izumi ;) While Izumi runs away Yoshitaka notices something lacking in the maid uniforms he made for them... Pochi almost catches Izumi, ripping her skirt, making it shorter. Pochi finally catches Izumi and jumps all over her, then returns to his bag, fully satisfied :)
While Yoshitaka reviews what he caught on his video camera, he asks why Izumi and Mitsuki are doing what they're doing. Working as maids isn't something middle schoolers would do normally. He doesn't want to be called the worst by someone like Izumi. She left her house because she didn't like her parents so they're pretty much the same, aren't they? Similar types like them work well together.. though they're his maids now, of course. So they should call him Master... *SMACK!* Izumi slaps the heck out of Yoshitaka. Ain't like God's looking or anything so it's fine.. Well, perhaps somebody is looking, in the form of the two authors of the manga, Mattsu and Tsubaki Asu, who are on a cloud watching some kind of TV program. Don't know if they were watching Izumi, though ;)
Izumi and Mitsuki have taken Yoshitaka to his room, then leave. Izumi doesn't want to be around a guy like him, no matter how nice the house ;) Yoshitaka wakes up and lets out a nice big "kusoo~~!" upon realizing that they've left. That night, Izumi and Mitsuki camp out at a lake, still on the mansion grounds. Seems Izumi fell into the river yet again, so she's a bit cold. After having some bread, they talk about the kind of house they'd like to live in. Mitsuki drew up a pretty detailed plan. Izumi, when she was a kid, wanted to live in a treehouse ;) And so together, sharing a blanket they sleep...
While Yoshitaka draws up his next evil plan... no... his design for Izumi and Mitsuki's new maid uniforms with shorter skirts. He ain't gonna let them get away ;)
I've read the first two volumes of the manga (scanlated, in English for once) so I'm pretty familiar with He Is My Master. It didn't exactly follow the first manga chapter, taking a rather slow pace actually, but no complaints here. It looks like we'll have the first of many fun contests Mitsuki (btw, Mitsuki's my favorite character) thinks up next time in "That Vase Is 5,000,000 Yen..." ;)
Voices fit the characters well, though I had to try hard to not hear Momono (from Mahoraba) when Izumi spoke, lol. No complaints about animation either, as Gainax and Shaft have recreated the look and feel of the manga well. And they've delivered plenty of service for those that like it. One of the authors of the manga, Mattsu, doesn't like drawing panties or scenes without clothes (but to draw as risque as legally possible, he and Tsubaki Asu decided on those skin-colored spats for the school PE uniforms you saw in the OP), so you wouldn't see those too often in there, but it looks as if there'll be plenty in the anime. I'm sure Anna will be very happy with that ;)
Don't expect anything too serious from He Is My Master, as it's pretty clear in the manga that it's a gag manga, making fun of a lot of things. Looking forward to having more fun watching it :) I'll definitely keep blogging it, but I don't know exactly how for now...
Pretty funny episode, all round. I probably missed a few jokes, so I'll check out the first sub, at least.
There's only so much meido I can take, though, and those new uniforms might well drive me away. But I'll try watching it a bit longer.
For me the most memorable moment of the episode was the Cardcaptor Sakura wand in the OP, which was flying out of Yoshitaka's hands along with his other cosplay..materials. :p
It's been a while since I read the manga but I don't remember quite as much fanservice as this. Although that puts me off, I'd agree that the voices are just right and the animation is pretty good ;-) I'll definitely be watching more but I'll have to rely on subs in the future because my limited Japanese just isn't up to it. Benkyo, Benkyo ^_^