Kind of like Love Hina, but the protagonist tries his best to show the world he’s a pervert. Add in some yuri/shojo-ai moments and this book is sort of a refreshing addition to the harem comedy genre.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Mattsu / Asu Tsubaki
What They Say
A raunchy harem comedy in the vein of Love Hina! He Is My Master follows the day-to-day life of Yoshitaka, a 14-year-old pervert with a major superiority complex and a uniform fetish to boot. After inheriting the family fortune after his parents die in an accident, Yoshitaka decides to fire the old staff and hire some new live-in maids to help him look after his estate. Unfortunately, he gets more than he bargained for when three hot girls, along with a pet alligator named Pochi, show up to fill the positions!
Packaging:
I really like manga covers that use a minimum number of colors and then maximize the number of shades. The cover for this first volume succeeds on that front. Blues and greens dominate the color scheme as Izumi, Mitsuki, and Anna sit on a couch in front of Pochi the alligator. The back cover is cool with eight individual pictures of characters and a story synopsis. Seven Seas’ books always rank high on the print quality for me, but this volume seems a little dark. There are a fair number of panels too dark to tell what’s going on. Another unfortunate is the original color pages are at the start of chapter four, so since they’re not the first few pages of the book they’re black and white in this version. Extras include an honorifics guide, omake, a bio on the artist and author, and translation notes.
Artwork:
Mattsu obviously has a loli/maid fetish. I like the character design, the girls are cute and their maid uniforms touch all the fetish bases; frills, exposed cleavage, frilly hair-band, choker, long gloves, short skirt, apron, and thigh-highs with frills at the top. I especially think the long gloves are a nice touch and it’s no secret how much I love thigh-highs, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen ones with frills on them. My enjoyment for the art kind of stops there. When Asu takes her time, like the first page of each chapter, the characters look great. However, most of the book appears rushed with the characters almost becoming simplified sketches with little detail, especially the eyes. The overuse of screen tone is just out of control.
Text/SFX:
Just like the story reminds me of Ken Akumatsu’s Love Hina, so does the amount of text on every page. There is so much dialogue that I was impressed with how well the translation/adaptation read. I only noticed a couple grammar mistakes and one of them was probably the letterer’s fault. Honorifics remain and the SFX are translated alongside the original Japanese SFX.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The beginning of this story starts like so many others; fourteen-year-old boy loses parents in a car accident. However, this is where it stops. Unlike most orphans in manga, Yoshitaka is ‘I’m rich bitch!’, I mean like oil baron loaded. Then again, money can’t buy you happiness, but Yoshitaka is sure going to try. Since he doesn’t have any siblings, he decides to hire a live-in maid. Expecting a nice old lady to come to his rescue, Yoshitaka is more than pleasantly surprised when two young sisters show up for the position. This is where I really find enjoyment in this book. Yoshitaka is just as perverted as most of us, so he quickly takes advantage of the situation by hiring both Izumi and Mitsuki on the spot and dressing them in super ecchi maid uniforms. The only problem is that Izumi won’t stand one iota for Yoshitaka’s pervy maneuvers and Mitsuki has a pet alligator that doesn’t care much for Yoshitaka.
With his own small harem started, Yoshitaka begins his new life as ‘Master’. However, Izumi is quick to squash Yoshitaka’s attempts at taking pervy advantage of various situations and Mitsuki is obsessive with competitions. Whether it’s pitting Yoshitaka against Pochi for Izumi’s ‘affections’ or Yoshitaka against Izumi and Mitsuki’s father (who is also a pervert) for Izumi’s affections, Mitsuki is a real troublemaker. Turns out, Izumi and Mitsuki ran away from home because their dad wanted to kill Pochi. But when their very young mother discovers the situation with Yoshitaka, she makes it very clear that she wants Izumi to seduce him so she can marry rich. This whole scenario is hilarious as Dad does his best to defeat Yoshitaka and take his girls home, while Mom does her best to thwart her husband. Now for my own personal tastes, I would have hired Mom on the spot when she mentioned how nice it would be to work as another one of Yoshitaka’s maids. I like older women, what can I say.
The rest of the book follows Yoshitaka, Izumi, and Mitsuki’s adventures at school and with the ‘Mitsuki-chan’ fan club. This also introduces Anna, Yoshitaka’s classmate who has a huge crush on him despite the fact that everyone else at school hates him. Of course, since Izumi is the hottest girl around, even Anna eventually falls in love with her and becomes another Yoshitaka maid. Anna is pretty bold too, aside from kissing Izumi any chance she gets, Anna will also beat down Yoshitaka at the slightest possibility that he might do something lecherous to Izumi.
In Summary
I know, I know, the harem comedy haters out there are saying ‘Oh great, more crap’. Yes, it is another harem comedy, but this time, the protagonist is a rich punk that can buy almost anything he wants and he’s open about his perverted fantasies. Yoshitaka is not only open about being perverted, he also acts out by peeking on his bathing maids, making them wear skimpy maid uniforms, watching them change clothes, lifting their skirts to take a peek and generally taking advantage of any situation. Not only is this a refreshing attitude for a harem comedy’s lead character, but it also leads to some very humorous moments.
This book is funny, but with all of Yoshitaka’s flaws and Izumi’s Naru complex there is some potential character development on the horizon. So at this point, this series could go up or down. Will the author show Yoshitaka learning how to treat people with respect? Will the tug-of-war between Yoshitaka’s perversions and Izumi’s indecision continue to supply laughs? Just how bold will Anna’s physical advances on Izumi become? Will Izumi and Mitsuki’s hot mom ever become a maid? Only time will tell, but if you’re into harem comedies or loli/maid fetishes then you should try this series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: C+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: July 30th, 2007
MSRP: $9.99
