Minami Tanaka -- Junjou Maid Bukkoroshi Kiss（純情メイドぶっころ主KISS）

 

It's been the case with a new anime season that I would write about the theme songs for the fresh anime a few weeks after they had begun. One exception has been for the "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン...Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid） franchise for which the opening themes were so delectable that I wrote about them even before or just when the first episode exploded out of the gates.

That was when I was still doing the anime-and-food Sundays with my anime buddy. I don't do that anymore; it's now waiting until the whole series gets broadcast a few months later before I get to see it, so when a scene from a new season's anime pops up and has me repeat watching it, I definitely know that another exception has made its presence known.

I am not sure whether there is such a thing as watercooler talk among the anime fandom following a particularly intriguing episode, but this one would be my candidate. A few weeks ago, I looked at one site to see what would be showing for the fall season when my eyes landed on a poster for one show titled "Akiba Meido Senso"（アキバ冥途戦争...Akiba Maid War）. At first glance, I assumed that it would be a comedy about maids from different backgrounds bantering on in their cafe like the rakugo ladies on "Joshiraku"（じょしらく.... Girls In Rakugo), which came out a decade ago. Then I saw the above trailer and said "Nah!"; with all of the censor bleeps and pixelation, this was going to be different. My buddy caught Episode 1 last weekend and he just told me that he couldn't believe what he had seen.

Well, I did see a few scenes on YouTube last night, and one of them did have me repeat watching it as I remarked above, and I've got a feeling that a lot of folks who caught "Akiba Meido Senso" have probably done the same. I never thought that I would see a smooth melding of yakuza movies and maid cafe culture, but it's happened. John Wick and The Bride from "Kill Bill" would have stood up and applauded the relatively older but still stunning maid, Ranko Mannen（万年嵐子）, who went totally and simultaneously wotagei and Meiko Kaji（梶芽衣子）on her maid pursuers in Akihabara which automatically became the world's most dangerous area. Blood and frills...what a concept!

And the massacre was choreographed to a cutesy maid tune sung by one of the other characters, Yumechi（ゆめち）, as played by seiyuu Minami Tanaka（田中美海）. That high-pitched voice struck me as something familiar, and as it turns out, Tanaka had played one of the members of Franchouchou of "Zombieland Saga" fame, little Lily Hoshikawa（星川リリィ）. The lass had the fans dying figuratively with "Junjou Maid Bukkoroshi Kiss" (The Pure Maid's Killer Kiss) while Ranko had the maids dying literally. Animators at P.A. Works must have loved coming to work every day to do this scene.

The song might come out as a single by Tanaka or it could be included in the soundtrack for "Akiba Meido Senso" or both. It was written by nobara kaede and composed by Yusuke Kato（加藤裕介）. It's still early days to say that this anime will be the hit of the season, but Episode 1 looked really promising. As long as we see some more Ranko going all Meiko. Speaking of whom, let's watch some of her carnage.