Daijoubu

• Art: 5
• Story: 5
• Moe Rating: 7

Super Condensed Plot Summary: Poor boy Hayate seeks quick money through loli-kidnap scheme (lolinapping?), but through misunderstanding ends up as a servant in the rich loli’s house where his daily activities involve such “chores” as battling a violent (and heavily armed) robot and a talking tiger and, of course, dressing in female clothing.

With this being turned into an anime for the latest season in Japan, I figured it would be a pretty good place to start this blog’s manga reviews. I’ve given this a fairly high moe rating due to the character of Nagi. The loli alarms start buzzing while just glancing at the cover–which alone may be enough to get some people to buy this book and others to avoid it! But the loli character here (and there’s a maid too!) is not the only focus of this manga–instead its just one element of a comedy series that, to judge by the first volume, seems to be in the anything-goes tradition of classics like Urusei Yatsura.

This manga would also get a decent otaku rating (if I did ratings of otakuness) because it has a bunch of references to anime movies and (I think unusual for manga?) an amusingly ironical author/”narrator” who really adds to the comedy with quirky and very self-aware comments. The “episode” titles are some of the funniest I’ve seen too. I’m curious to see if this series can keep up with the level of quirkiness established here (or if maybe a more involved plot develops). I imagine the impoverished and manipulative parents will show up eventually, but as with other manga with this theme, like Boys Over Flowers, I find myself wondering if Japan has some kind of welfare or dole system! Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the Hayate manga’s entraining mix of genre conventions and humorous asides makes the transition to anime form.