Akiba Maid War: First Impressions

gamerant.com:

The following article contains spoilers from episode 1 of Akiba Maid War. To catch up on the latest episode, it's available for streaming on HIDIVE.

The cute maid aesthetic has always been popular, especially in Japan — and now more than ever, with kawaii culture taking over the mainstream, what better time is it to than to introduce some cute maid girls? Akiba Maid War's maiden episode premiered on October 6th and so far it's managed to charm the hearts of kawaii and dark comedy fans alike.

In the year 1999, Nagomi Wahira starts her dream of working at a maid café. Though given the popularity and high demand, there's a lot of competition, and when it comes to this kind of business, it's a cutthroat industry. Literally.

Madoka Magica: Peak Existential Horror

At the beginning of the episode, it is the year 1985. Three maids pull up to a tea house. As one of them prepares to enter, she is shot by another maid wearing a different uniform. Aside from this brief interaction, there is no context given. This is the perfect attention grabber to show the audience that what they're about to watch is no normal slice-of-life anime. Come the next scene in 1999, and we see the main character excitedly on her way to start her first day as a maid, along with another girl, Ranko.

Given her excitement, she's a little too enthusiastic about her new job and the first day doesn't exactly go as she expected — but at least she has another chance to redeem herself! A simple errand of delivering a letter to a competing maid café is assigned to her and Ranko. A simple enough task, until they encounter what looks to be a torture session between the manager and an unfortunate employee. After the letter is revealed to be an instigator, Nagomi becomes