English Dub Review: Akiba Maid War: “Oink It Up! Starting Today, You’re an Akiba Maid!”

Overview: Nagomi Wahira (Alyssa Marek) begins her new job as a maid, living out her fantasy, which takes a hard left turn when she realizes the dark truth behind the Oinky Doink Café.

Our Take: Akiba Maid War is the best kind of mind trip. It is the result of Quentin Tarantino going into a maid café, shooting up on ecstasy and scribbling down his mad musings. If that does not sell you on this show, you need to re-evaluate your life choices. 

Immediately from the gecko, there is a violent oddity set up about the café that intrigues. Enthusiastic newcomer, Nagomi Wahira, looking to fulfill her maid dreams is the perfect lead to relate to and identify with in her shock and awe of the Oinky Doink Cafe’s violent affairs with other rival shops. There is a hilarious juxtaposition established between a lovey-dovey wish fulfillment café and that of their gruesome gang war activities. 

The transition between the awkward and forced attitudes that Nagomi must traverse in the maid business and the vicious new world she slowly, but surely realizes is seamless. That is thanks in part to the dark underbelly gradually making itself known, like the competing shop, Wuv-Wuv Moonbeam. Whether it be the crazy cutesy names of the maid shops, a lazy panda mascot or their eccentrically adorable personas they maintain during work hours, there are plenty of elements that will charm and delight about both of them, especially as their aggressive criminal element shines through. 

Ranko Mennen, a 35-year-old maid and fresh face alongside Wahira, is, without a doubt, the standout of the series. Her deadpan disposition in helping customers is a gut-busting contrast to the perkiness required with that duality being a key attribute of her and the show’s overall appeal. She keeps Nagomi alive in their brutal message they send to Moonbeam. What transpires is a jaw-dropping bullet ridden montage of a fun, fluffy maid song perfectly complementing Ranko’s onslaught makes for a stunning and gorgeously animated stylized montage. The neon and blood bursting sequence highlights the series’ deep understanding of how to meld differing tones together for glorious spectacle and shock, making for an amazing ending as Nagomi seeks to escape the pretty hellscape she has wandered into.