English Dub Season Review: The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Yuuri is the owner of a small estate in the countryside. When a new maid named Lilith suddenly appears in his life, he is determined to find out the truth about her. Although her identity and purpose are unknown, she works unnaturally hard, and her skills at cooking and laundry are so perfect it’s almost scary. In addition, her purple eyes… It’s like they’re about to take you in.

He thinks she’s so incredibly mysterious that she must be up to something. And he’s so suspicious that he can’t focus on anything else, which is a problem.

This is a story about a lonely boy and a mysterious maid developing a bond little by little.

Our Take:

The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious is an anime adaptation of a manga series written and illustrated by Wakame Konbu. It began as a webcomic before beginning serialization in Square Enix’s Monthly Gangan Joker magazine in January 2020. It is directed by Misuzu Hoshino, with Mirai Minato serving as chief director and screenwriter. Machi Yoshino designed the characters, and Koji Fujimoto and Osamu Sasaki composed the music. ≠Me performs the opening theme song “Su, Suki Janai!” (“I- I Don’t Love You!”), while Yui Horie sings the ending theme “Himitsu no Niwa no Futari” (“The Two People in the Secret Garden”).

We always suspect that someone isn’t what they seem to be. They could be a manipulative psychopath underneath their influential personality or even worse. The same applies to a mysterious maid who arrives out of nowhere to serve us. In the case of someone like Yuuri, it’s more than just suspicious. It’s highly suspicious.

This is one of the shows that left me with a lot of conflicted feelings. At first glance, The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious looks like a harmless concept that features a young boy’s imagination running wild regarding his new maid. But since this is the world of anime I’m dealing with, it’s bound to have a few dirty things thrown into the mix. After watching the first few episodes, I hate to admit that my hunch is correct. It delivers what I expect based on the title alone like the other anime shows with long obvious titles. However, it also had several moments that made me question the writers responsible for the source material. To be clear, I haven’t read the manga it’s based on, so this is my first time experiencing this concept.

Regardless of this idea, what matters to me is whether or not its enjoyability factor overshadows its oddly suspicious plot as its own series. There’s also a matter of whether a manga like this can translate well as an anime. It’s easy to admit that based on what I’ve seen, there are plenty of moments that fans of the manga would enjoy seeing, including the character dynamics. However, the series doesn’t do much to distract me from its discomforting out-of-context scenario despite its moments of charm and light-heartedness.

The season’s plot consists of Yuuri (Macy Anne Johnson) being suspicious of his new maid Lilith (Natalie Van Sistine), who arrives following the death of his parents. As Lilith performs her duties as a maid, Yuuri attempts to figure out her true objective and expose her for who she truly is. During the process, Lilith playfully teases Yuuri for his suspicious ways, only for him to unintentionally admits her gorgeous ways, which embarrasses her. However, as the season progresses, the two grow to trust each other when the secrets of Lilith’s past slowly come to light and Yuuri develops real feelings for her.

The first three episodes offer a formulaic structure featuring a series of scenarios filled with out-of-context running gags, including Lilith “seducing” Yuuri. While it provides a few moments that made me chuckle, it lost its luster surprisingly quickly by the third episode for several reasons. One is the repetitiveness. The jokes were amusing and playful the first couple of times, but they slowly became tedious to the point where it slowed the plot’s first half down a bit. The other is the concept itself, affecting not only the season’s first half but also the second half. With the romantic aspect centering on a young boy and his older maid, the show struggled to balance its innocence with its pedophilic context, making it more problematic than hilarious. It’s one of the things that made me feel a bit uneasy when it’s used as a narrative instead of a small joke, anime or otherwise.

It’s not until its fourth episode, “Does the Young Master Like Pudding?” that the formula starts focusing on the characters and plot, with Yuuri dealing with his parents’ death and Lilith attempting to make him happy. Additionally, it further explores Lilith’s past and her reason for her sudden arrival at Yuuri’s mansion. The rest of the episodes also improved on the humor and heart, although the series retains its questionable context. As a result, the show became a little more tolerable compared to how it was introduced in the first couple of episodes.

Its charm is mainly due to the character dynamics, particularly Yuuri and Lilith. The relationship between a master and their butler has been represented multiple times. However, some have portrayed it by treating the characters as equals and having them respect each other as a family, mainly Batman and Alfred from the Batman shows and movies. The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious is another suitable example of that representation. Aside from its repetitive formula, the banter between the main characters is often humorous regarding their awkward dialogue, but it also grows more heartfelt when the two slowly warm up to each other. Amid these scenarios, their chemistry represents a healthy sense of sincerity and tranquility that isn’t shown in other media involving this pair.

Macy Anne Johnson, who recently voiced Nanako Kogure in Remake Our Life, did a decent job providing likability to Yuuri. He can be a bit excessive with his running gag sometimes, but he suitably reflects a child’s wild sense of imagination toward a stranger. I would also give credit to Natalie Van Sistine as Lilith. By the end of the first episode, I was immediately convinced that Sistine fits the role perfectly regarding the delivery of her teases and embarrassing reactions. Sistine also did pretty well with the moments outside her running gags, especially in the final few episodes.

The supporting characters were also respectable with their personalities and arcs, including Natsume Nakashima, voiced by Kristi Rothrock. Natsume is a strict maid who attempts to bring Lilith back to their former master but gradually grows fond of her and Yuuri when she admits her love to Lilith. She’s also a last-minute addition to the season one cast that provides more interest to the show’s formula. The only character that left me as conflicted as the concept was Tsukasa Gojouin (Kelsey Maher). Like Yuuri, Tsukasa also has a weird childlike imagination about a misinterpreted topic. Throughout the season, Tsukasa fantasizes about the “forbidden relationship” between Yuuri and Lilith due to her love of romance manga and novels. While it isn’t without her humorous setbacks, significantly when she’s disrupted by her butler Fujisaki (Corey Pettit), her imaginative nature can be a little tough to swallow, mainly her high-pitched voice.

The show’s animation is produced by two different studios: Blade and Silver Link. Silver Link is known for producing multiple series like The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated, an adaptation of the manga series by Wakame Konbu, the same author behind The Maid I Hired. I haven’t watched Great Jahy, but I can see why Silver Link is chosen to develop these two shows. The style representing its serene and vibrant backgrounds and character designs effectively showcased Silver Link’s trend of sublime animation in the drama element outside of action-heavy scenarios.

Overall, The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious is a suspiciously enjoyable series whose charm and heart often overshadow its questionable context. It can be repetitive during the first couple of episodes regarding its narrative. However, it quickly became a delightful and visually enchanting experience that resembles a warm hug when it gets to its fourth episode. Unfortunately, its concept can be challenging for me to recommend to anyone unfamiliar with the source material, especially those sensitive to these topics. I highly doubt this series would get a second season based on how it ended, but I won’t be surprised if it does, considering its fanbase.