Kaichō wa Maid-sama!

 

Maid Sama!, known in Japan as Kaichō wa Maid-sama! (The President is a Maid!) is a shōjo manga series by Hiro Fujiwara. It is currently serialized in Hakusensha's monthly shōjo manga magazine, LaLa. There are currently 11 published volumes under the Hana to Yume Comics imprint in Japan. In their Anime Expo 2008 panel, North American publisherTokyopop announced its various newly licensed series and that Kaichō wa Maid-sama! would be titled Maid-sama!. An anime adaptation began airing on April 1, 2010.

Plot

Seika High School, once an all-boys school notorious for its wild students and for generally being a terrifying place for girls, has recently become a co-ed school. With the female population still a minority and living in fear of the over-the-top antics of the males, Misaki Ayuzawa takes it into her own hands to reform the school and allow the girls to feel safe in the rough environment. Training, studying and even becoming the first female student council president of the school, Misaki has gained a reputation among the male students body as an uptight boy-hating dictator and as a shining hope for the teachers and fellow female students. However, despite her tough-as-nails appearance, she secretly works part-time at a maid cafe in order to support her family. Unfortunately, her hard-earned reputation is threatened when the popular, attractive, and somewhat impassive Usui Takumi takes an interest in her after discovering her in a maid uniform after school. Afterwards he start to rescue her and she slowly start to have feelings for him.

List of Maid Sama! characters

Maid Sama!, known in Japan as Kaichō wa Maid-sama! , literally The Student Council President is a Maid! is a shōjo mangaseries by Hiro Fujiwara. The story centers around Misaki Ayuzawa, the student council president of the previously all-boys high school who is particularly strict on the boys, and her relationship with Takumi Usui who after he discovers that Misaki works at a maid café to support her family.

Main characters

Misaki Ayuzawa

Voiced by Ayumi Fujimura (anime) and by Sanae Kobayashi (drama cd)

Height: 165 cm

Weight: 49 kg

Age (class): 17, Class 2-1

Blood Type: B

Special Skill: Aikido

Favorite Things: Working Hard

The protagonist of the story, Misaki Ayuzawa (Ayuzawa Misaki) is the first female student council president at Seika High and known for her extremely demanding and aggressive attitude towards boys. She relentlessly attempts to reform them to live up to what she considers are acceptable standards of behavior. Though many of the male students fear and even hate her, the ones who get to know her come to see that she's actually very fair and willing to help anyone who needs it.

She eventually becomes widely respected for her exceptional academic ability, her great athletic skill, and her many accomplishments as president. Her negative attitude towards males is mostly attributed to her father amassing a huge debt and then disappearing. Misaki became determined to make sure her spacey and helpless mother, Minako would not have to work so hard to support both Misaki and her younger sister, Suzuna. To this extent, she secretly, and at first reluctantly, works as a maid-waitress at Café Maid Latte. Misaki is always driven to do her best regardless of the endeavor, and has a strong sense of justice, though she also has a tendency to forget her own well being in the process of helping others. Misaki harbours feelings towards Usui and often blushes when he's around her. She recently turned seventeen. She always says that she hates Usui, but it usually means she loves him. Eventually, she realizes her feelings for Usui who in fact already knows. She is never honest about her feelings towards Usui, instead lying and acting violently whenever awkward moments are brought up. In Chapter 51, she attempts to confess her feelings to Usui, but is interrupted by Usui who apologises and asks her to wait just a bit longer.

Takumi Usui

Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto (anime) , Tomokazu Sugita (drama CD)

Height: 186 cm

Weight: unknown

Age(class): 17, class 2-2

Blood Type: O

Specialty: Everything

Favorite Activity: Stalking and successfully holding his reputation as a 'perverted outer-space alien'

One of the most popular boys at Seika High, Takumi Usui (Usui Takumi) appears to take little interest in anything and prefers to observe things as they unfold. He proves to be extraordinarily talented in a number of different fields, including cooking, the violin, chess, and table etiquette.

He's in fact an illegitimate child; his rich English mother (whose maiden name is Usui) had an affair with an unknown Japanese man. She died giving birth to Takumi. To keep this fact secret, his English grandfather sent him to his grandmother's family in Japan, thus having little contact with his older British half-brother and family. He was adopted by his mother's cousin. Most of the education he received was through tutoring, partially explaining his academic excellence.

After becoming bored with isolation, Usui decided to attend a standard high school (which was chosen randomly from a book with his eyes closed). He moved to a high-rise condo to attend Seika High. During his first year at Seika, he quickly became popular among the girls, but not being interested in them, he systematically rejected them whenever they confessed to him. At the beginning of his second year, he develops an interest in Misaki and learns her secret. He regularly tells Misaki he likes her, but she dismisses his behavior simply as a joke or harassment. It is because of this habit, along with his uncanny ability to appear whenever Misaki needs him, his diverse and unusual skills, and the fact that he survived jumping off the school's roof into the swimming pool that Misaki often refers to him as a "perverted outer-space alien". Regardless, he continually helps and watches over her, offering insightful advice on how to deal with the boys at Seika effectively and even becomes possessive of her (especially around Shintani Hinata). At one point, he tells Kanou that he doesn't want to date a girl seriously, but later on, Kanou realises that dating and deeply caring for someone are two different things to Usui. Usui truly cares and loves Misaki but he is waiting for the right time for them to be together and officially date each other. In Chapter 51, he interrupts her confession with a kiss, asking her to wait just a little bit longer until the time is right.

Secondary characters

Seika High School

        

       Hinata Shintani (Shintani Hinata)

Voiced by: Atsushi Abe

Misaki's childhood friend who came to Seika High in search of his first love. His first appearance was in chapter 26 were it was also revealed that Misaki was in fact his first love, however this love was one sided. When they were children, he was an overweight boy who Misaki helped back to his feet when he fell from a tree. He fell in love with her, but soon moved away to live with his grandfather in the countryside when his parents died. When he returned, his appearance changed considerably from losing so much weight (supposedly from eating nothing but vegetables), though he remains a glutton. He is also one of the few people who know about Misaki's part time job, he loves Misaki very much, and hates Usui (because they are rival of Misaki's love).

He admires Usui's strength and talent, though Usui seems indifferent to Shintani. Dispite this there are times when Usui does see him as a threat when it comes to Misaki and this rivalry is shown as two feuding dogs about to face off against each other. He refuses to give up on Misaki despite being fully aware of her and Usui's feelings for each other, having resolved prior to moving that he would not let Misaki having a boyfriend deter him. Misaki's mother and sister both note that he physically resembles Misaki's father, reacting to this he claims that he would never abandon the people he cares about.

    

       Shouichirou Yukimura (Yukimura Shōichirō)

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (drama CD), Kazuyoshi Shiibashi (anime)

The Vice President of the Student Council, Shouichirou Yukimura (Yukimura Shōichirō) tries to help Misaki where he can, and enjoys office routine. At first, he, like the rest of the student council, is fearful of Misaki, but he eventually comes to be on fairly close terms with her and Usui.

Yukimura is hard-working, earnest, and capable of doing most administrative work, but is not athletic to any extent, especially in comparison to Misaki and Usui. His gentle, almost feminine demeanor and slight stature make him appear somewhat weak, a fact he is sensitive about. He's both terrified and awed of Usui, after Usui kisses him as a "reward for his hardwork" and Usui claims that he liked it (a ruse to restore Misaki's confidence). Yukimura has a seven-year-old sister named Ruri. She appears in episode 20, showing that Yukimura is a caring older brother who is not very prince-like (according to Ruri).

                

       Naoya Shirakawa (Shirakawa Naoya)

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (drama CD), Mitsuhiro Ichiki (anime)

A male student at Seika High School who initially dislikes Misaki because of her forceful methods of reforming Seika. He and his friends discover that she works at a maid café early on in the story, but after she is defended by Usui, they quickly become her biggest fans, as well as regulars at Cafe Maid Latte, often referred to as the "idiot trio." His nickname is “Shiroyan.”He also used to be a delinquent in middle school known as White Demon.

      

      Ikuto Sarashina (更科 郁斗 Sarashina Ikuto)

Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara (drama CD), Takuma Terashima (anime)

The second of the “idiot trio,” which includes Shirakawa Naoya and Ryuunosuke Kurosaki. A closet otaku, he is actually good at drawing manga illustrations and enjoys writing. His friends call him “Ikkun.”

    

       Ryuunosuke Kurosaki (Kurosaki Ryūnosuke)

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (drama CD), Yoshimasa Hosoya (anime)

The third member of the “idiot trio” who frequently visit Cafe Maid Latte, nicknamed “Kurotatsu.” Known for being the perverted one and likes "erotic things". Also used to be a delinquent in middle school with Shiroyan.

    

       Sakura Hanazono (Hanazono Sakura)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa 

A good friend of Misaki's and one of the few female students at Seika High, Sakura is friendly and cheerful and, like the rest of the girls, relies on Misaki for protection from the wild behaviour of the boys. She is quite popular amongst the boys, but frequently rejects their confessions; in particular, she’s rejected ex-rugby captain Masaru Gouda (Gōda Masaru) one hundred times. According to Shizuko, Sakura falls in love without carefully considering what the person is really like, as exampled by her persistent feelings for Kuuga, the two-faced, womanizing singer of the popular rock band Yumemichi from a nearby high school.

   

       Shizuko Kaga (Kaga Shizuko)

Voiced by: Yū Kobayashi

One of Misaki and Sakura’s friends, a sensible and intelligent girl who often spends lunchtime with them. She is quite the opposite of Sakura. Shizuko is a member of the flower arranging club and is good at math, but isn’t very good at physical activities. She has an older brother in university and a younger sister in junior high school; according to Sakura, the three of them look very alike.

    

       Soutarou Kanou (Kanō Sōtarō)

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi

A withdrawn male student who is initially against Misaki as the student council president because of her aspirations of increasing the female population of Seika High. In order to sabotage her presidency, Kanou tries to hypnotize Misaki, Usui, and the student council into ruining Misaki’s reputation. It is revealed that his gynophobic attitude comes from his mother abandoning his family when he was young (ironically the very opposite of what Misaki experienced) and his father warning him to be wary of women, and after failing to hypnotize Misaki, she punishes him by assigning him to work closely with his female classmates during the school's cultural festival, in hopes of forcing him to get over his fear. The punishment is ultimately successful, and he slowly becomes friendlier with Misaki and the rest of his female peers, as well as with Yukimura (who gives off the aura of a female, as Kanou states).

Though he runs against Misaki during her re-election as President, he opposes using underhanded means to gain victory, remaining on good terms with her. He also knows about the relationship between Usui and Misaki and often wonders why they won't admit that they like each other.

    

       Maria Miyazono (Miyazono Maria)

A young and attractive English teacher at Seika High. She may have non-Japanese ancestry because of her name and the comments on her looks. She's an acquaintance of Tora Igarashi who made her join Seika High, in order to make Usui quit. Wearing revealing clothes as well as having a large bust and being very short, she attracts the attention of male teachers and students. Misaki instinctively protects her from them, causing Maria to fall in love with her. Initially thought of by Misaki as a potential rival for Usui, Maria confesses her love to Misaki.

Usui is in fact a former student of Maria's mother. She has a 'habit' of falling in love with girls. She has a fiance, Shinji, but she only considers him as a mere childhood friend. She also knows about Misaki's part time job. She's Igarashi's right hand person to make Usui move to Miyabigaoka High School.

Ayuzawa House

        

       Minako Ayuzawa (Ayuzawa Minako)

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi

Misaki's mother. She appears to be somewhat sickly, but does her best to support Misaki and Suzuna by working as a nurse at the hospital. Although she is grateful that Misaki is helping her with their financial problems, she also wants nothing more than for Misaki to have more fun and go out more often as a high school teenager. She becomes acquainted with Usui at the train station in chapter 35 and sees him as a very gentle person and the exact opposite of her husband. Usui has stated that she is open minded.

   

       Suzuna Ayuzawa (Ayuzawa Suzuna)

Voiced by: Kaori Ishihara

Misaki's younger sister. She is very apathetic and shows little to no emotion. She does not work at any part time jobs and appears to be in middle school. In the anime, she often enters magazine contests and always seems to win food prizes. Her first appearance occurs late in the manga, while she is a frequent recurring character in the anime.

Maid Latte

          

       Satsuki 

Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (drama CD), Aki Toyosaki (anime)

The manager of Café Latte and Misaki’s boss; a 30-year-old woman who has a tendency to voice out her fantasies. She is a cheerful woman who enjoys her job because it allows her to make others happy. She is very understanding of Misaki’s circumstances, knowing that Misaki does not particularly enjoy working at a maid café, and is perceptive of other people’s feelings. Satsuki also ends up hiring Usui as a part-time cook, much to Misaki’s chagrin.

   

       Honoka 

Voiced by: Kana Asumi

An employee at Café Latte. She can become somewhat maniacal about getting in character for her job and criticizes Misaki for her initial resistance to acting parts outside of her comfort range, as well as for being ashamed of working at Maid Latte and hiding it from her peers. Also when Honoka was asked to describe what she feels and thinks about Misa she says "hate, because her good work is making her look bad."

   

       Erika 

Voiced by: Mariya Ise

A college student working at Café Latte. She notes that Misaki is strong and picks up work quickly, and claims that it doesn't feel like Misaki is younger than her. She has a tendency to eavesdrop and is described as having a “voice fetish.”

   

       Subaru 

Voiced by: Kana Ueda 

An employee at Café Latte. Like Honoka, she does not have a full-time job and makes a living from part-time work. She considers Misaki to be hard working. Subaru can be distinguished by her glasses.

       Sayu and Gon-chan

Voiced by: Harumi Sakurai and Yuko Gibu

Two other employees at Café Latte. Sayu is 18 and Gon-chan is 20 years old. They do not appear often.

       Sen and Mochi

The two kitchen staff at Café Latte. Both girls made their appearance in episode 15.

      Aoi Hyoudou Hyōdō Aoi)

Voiced by: Yuki Kaida (drama CD), Hiromi Igarashi (anime)

Satsuki’s nephew, the son of Satsuki's older brother, and a junior high school student who enjoys dressing like a girl. Likes "cute things", and being the center of attention. His androgynous features allow him to pass off as a girl and his female persona is well-known as a cute internet idol. Aoi enjoys toying with the feelings of men, but is eventually exposed as a boy by Misaki. He is generally short-tempered and has little patience. He becomes embarrassed after doing something kind or showing affection for someone; then suddenly becomes angry (he can't show his true feelings very well). Misaki is under the impression that he hates her; he frequently scolds her for her poor fashion sense and unfeminine strength. Even so, it seems he has some sort of interest in her. He later yells at Misaki for not being more decisive about her relationship with Usui, and for leading Shintani on, even if she was doing it unintentionally. It's this scolding that eventually pushes her admit to Shintani (and probably for the first time, clearly, to herself) that she does in fact have feelings for Usui.

Nagisa Hyoudou (Hyōdō Nagisa)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi

Satsuki’s younger sister and Aoi's aunt. Nagisa is the manager of a beach house known as “Ocean House.” She asks for Satsuki and her employees to come and work at her beach house during the summer since her shop is not as popular as she would like. Nagisa is somewhat tough on Aoi for trying to dress like a girl because her older brother sent Aoi to her beach house to become more masculine.

UxMishi

          

       Kuuga Sakurai

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima

Vocalist of the rock band Uxmishi. While he seems sweet and kind to his fans but in reality he is very arrogant, rude and insensitive to others feelings. It is due to his attitude that Misaki dislikes him as he was very insensitive to Sakura's feelings while hitting on Misaki herself. Later on, he seems to change and has gained feelings for Sakura because she's the only one who earnestly cares for him. He shows that he has feelings for Sakura when he is acting jealously toward Usui and being annoyed by the fact that Sakura is happy being with Usui and Misaki. He also said that he'd be long gone if it wasn't for her.

       Shou

Voiced by: Yuuki Ono

Guitarist of the rock band Uxmishi. Shou doesn't express himself that much.

      Kou

Voiced by: Kazuyuki Okitsu

Bassist of the rock band Uxmishi. Kou is very respectful and always scolds Kuuga's rude behavior.

      William Adam Yuuji

Voiced by: Hideki Nakanishi

Drummer of the rock band Uxmishi.

Miyabigaoka High School

         

      Tora Igarashi (Igarashi Tora)

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura

The Student Council President at Miyabigaoka High School, he initially appears as a gentleman who marvels at Misaki and the changes she has brought to Seika High, offering her a chance to come to Miyabigaoka with an exceptional loan. He is quickly revealed to be a lecherous young man who has become bored with the women surrounding him, who are easily submissive because of his wealth. He enjoys causing drama around him and he thinks that money can buy anything. Misaki's strong will and outright rejection of his monetary bribe to have her join the Miyabigaoka Student Council captures his interest. It is later revealed that Tora has some ties to or knowledge of Usui's past or background, which he may be exploiting to some as of yet unknown end. We can say that Igarashi Tora is the antagonist of the anime and manga.

He also knows about the relationship toward Misaki and Usui. He often says or does things that render Misaki speechless. He said that he has feelings towards Misaki, but it was just bait so he could tell her that Usui is richer than him. He confuses Misaki with his manipulative way of speaking.

  

      Kanade Maki (Maki Kanade)

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno

The Vice President of the Student Council at Miyabigaoka High, he and Igarashi attempt to buy out Maid Latte and change it into a butler café. Misaki and Usui are able to prevent him from realizing his plans through a competition. In the end, he realizes that Maid Latte is different from other cafés.

  

      Hirofumi Koganei (Koganei Hirofumi)

Voiced by: Fumihiro Okabayashi

A bespectacled student at Miyabigaoka High School who looks down upon Seika students. After insulting two students for taking an interest in chess, they hit him and Misaki forces them to go with her to apologize to him. When she discovers the reason why they attacked Koganei, she demands that Koganei apologize to her students as well. He agrees, only on the condition that they defeat him in chess, which Usui does with no trouble despite Koganei ranking fourth in the nation as a chess player. He was originally intended to be the president of Miyabigaoka High School Council by the author, but rejected by the editor.

Seisen Middle School

        

       Gouki Aratake

Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara

The strongest delinquent in Seisen Middle School, he is an old friend and kohai of Shirokawa and Kurosaki. He used to be a pushover and a bit of a crybaby. He was saved by Shirokawa and Kurosaki once when he was being bullied, and immediately started looking up to them after that. Constantly seeking to become stronger, he kept his delinquent ways even after the two have graduated and retired from delinquency. He later kidnapped Yukimura, who was dressed like a girl and who he mistook as Shirokawa's girlfriend, and challenged the idiot trio to a fight elsewhere.

It also happens that he and Aoi apparently go to the same middle school.

Other

      Gerard Walker

He is Takumi's older half-brother. He appears to be a successful businessman who also smokes. He seems to want to learn more about Takumi's activities in Japan as he had his bodyguard spy on him.

He and Takumi appear to be on bad terms, most probably due to the fact that Takumi is the illegitimate child of Gerard's mother. He seems to be the complete opposite of Usui, unskilled at cooking and just about every other perfect thing Usui does. Even though they don't have the same father, they really do look very similar; the only noticeable difference being their personalities and hair color. He first appears in page 30 of chapter 50 in the manga.

      Ruri Yukimura

She is Yukimura's younger sister. Her first appearance in the anime is episode 20. Once she sees Usui she immediately calls him her "ouji-sama" (prince). After a date in which Misaki devises several 'methods' in order to get Yukimura to look more prince-like, Ruri decides that Takumi-sama's 'princess' is not her. At first, Ruri disliked telling people that Yukimura was her brother (which made Yukimura very upset), but she eventually sees the 'prince' in him and she and Yukimura get on good terms again.

Cedric ( Morris Family)

Gerard's bodyguard. Quick and amazing like Usui. Considered cute at Maid Latte. In chapter 53, it was revealed that he despised Misaki and that if she didn't want to get hurt, she will leave Usui/the Walker family alone. Part of his dislike associates with his idea of how butlers and maids are supposed to be like (dedicated servants to distinguished people) and dislikes pseudo-maids as a result, though he understands Misaki's situation over her family. However, he feels that someone like Misaki is not suited for someone like Usui. In Chapter 54, he was taken aback, because he sees the resemblance on how Gerard treats him as Usui treats Misaki.Constantly spies on Misaki and Usui.