Maid Machinegun: A Novel

by Suzuhito Yasuda, ヤスダスズヒト

Plunge into the fascinating, high-stakes world of fanboys and fangirls in Japan’s ultimate novel of manga and anime!

In Tokyo’s Akihabara district, eighteen-year-old Aaliyah is a new maid (aka waitress) at a hopping maid café where otaku (guys devoted to manga) convene to drink tea and talk comics. Aaliyah is determined to make a splash–and her adventures are recounted in this sparkling diary.

Aaliyah’s motto is “I won’t lose, even if I’m about to.” She plans to design a maid photo book, create a super-duper event, and solve all the fanboys’ problems with her brainchild: “A Maid’s Dimly Lit Counseling Room.” But something’s wrong, and it’s not just Aaliyah’s bad Japanese. Why are the other maids suspicious of her? Why is the maid café’s recent hire an incredibly handsome waiter, and why is he madly in love with her? It turns out Aaliyah has her own secret. Now it’s time to find out the truth about the girl who’ll follow her dreams and fantasies anywhere and do anything to become the perfect maid!

Genres: Fiction, Anime

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2008

About the author

Also listed as ヤスダスズヒト.

Reviews

[Kendra]

Maid Machinegun: A Novel (Paperback)
by Suzuhito Yasuda
pg185

isbn

In this book i was not intrested in teh beginning but when you finally get to the middle and end of the book you will be happy uyou read the rest of it.The whole story is very unique how it starts andends.The way they suprise you about what happens and you never think of it makes the book so worth the boring begiinning.
The way the book was written was intresing beccusae they haver the piont of veiw of the main charater as narrarator then they ahve her talking on her blog then they ahve a second narrator in a normal narrator out of the story then there are other poeple commenting on the internet diary so then it goes on their piont of view.So having so many kinds of narration was intresting.

I recommend thsi book for peopl who really liek maids the japanese kind becasuue you learn more about maids and the names of the kinds of groups are correct and the story is very fun when you get to teh middle and the most suprizing part will be the title and how come its the title of the book.People who like anime will probably like this better then other becasue it has to do with the popular trade of maid cafes

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are certainly a few things that I admire about Maid Machinegun. It's cheerful, conversational, and is the first light novel I've read that does a decent job of capturing nerd culture from a female perspective. Unfortunately, it is also a train wreck. The story borders on incoherent, with a final twist that's hinted at once and quickly discarded until the action setpiece at the end, which is probably the biggest problem. It also digs too far into anime and manga culture for newbies, but is too instructive and set on defining things for veterans that might be reading it, leaving it without a clear audience. The structure also drove me crazy. If it had focused on Aaliyah's blog posts and nothing else, it could have been cute, and I didn't even take issue with the guestbook pages, but the interview in the last third of the book was the last straw for me.

Maid Machinegun is interestingly experimental and occasionally cute, but for the most part, it's a disjointed, nonsensical mess. The Suzuhito Yasuda illustrations at the start of the book are cool enough that I'll keep this on my shelf, but really, I can't recommend this book to much of anyone.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s published by Del Rey Manga, but Maid Machinegun is a novel not a manga title — although it does have illustrations by Suzuhito Yasuda. And even though it’s a novel, it explains how maid cafes work and takes the reader through the streets of Akihabara to Comiket — so it’s kind of nonfiction-y, except for the end which is surreal.

Anyway, Aaliyah is a clumsy maid in a small maid cafe in Akihabara. Her goal is to become the best maid she can be, but she’s a little insecure and her clumsiness has more to do with her than her character. She’s eager and she has big plans for her cafe — except the new-hire Kiriya-san keeps annoying her.

Maid Machinegun is meta. It’s a combination of Aaliyah’s diary and message board postings where we follow her misadventures combined with chunks of non-fiction like how to behave at a Maid Cafe (no cameras!), a real interview with a maid from Cafe Mai:lish, and a glossary in the back. Aaliyah is awesome and I always love coming away from a novel with the feeling that I’ve learned something — even if it’s about the variations of moe.

[Lauren]

I barely got into this book, but I don't have the time to see it through. There are too many other books I've begun that I really want to be reading. I wish that more people who gave this 4 or 5 stars had reviewed it, because I'd love to hear what they enjoyed so much and to know whether it's worth picking up again in the future. I will be recommending this to teen manga and gaming fans here at my library, though, as it's something different for them to try out.

[アレツクス コツト · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when i was younger and i loved it. It did get very interesting towards the middle and the end and i loved how the author incorporated the title in the story as to why it is called maid machine gun. I borrowed this from the library and im not one for reading anime based novels but this one totally changed my perspective on novels like these and i do hope to get this book and more like it in the near future.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the book okay, but there was a lot about the humor and concept that I just didn't get.

[Amyrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!!