Akiba Maid War

Episode 12

I don't think we had any more cause to doubt it, but any fears that Akiba Maid War might take itself too seriously for its finale are dispelled pretty early on. We get a cut to the Oinky-Doink crew at Ranko's funeral, which by all accounts should be the ultimate expression of grief and regret. But then the first thing we see at this gathering is a memorial photo of Ranko in her baseball uniform, of all things, and I just burst into sputtering laughter. Then it's revealed that seemingly all the other photos for the service are also of Ranko in the baseball getup, alongside remarks from passerby about murdered maids always using this same funeral hall. It's wry, it's goofy, and it's the most confident Akiba Maid War has been since the first episode.

There are still spots of comparatively serious reflection among all this calculated absurdity. Nagomi's trip to blood-red revenge-based rock bottom is tempered with her reflecting on the mementos of Ranko's happy times. Ironically, Nagomi herself was the one who imparted those keepsakes without even meaning to. Her arc has always been overshadowed by Ranko's presence or tonally offbeat subplots like her experience with Nerula, but her mourning trip down memory lane does cement her place at the heart of the show.

The note that Akiba Maid War chooses to go out on is a strong invocation of the power of maid café culture. In itself, that seems like an absurd excuse for some of the most naked appeals to an otaku's disposable income, and yet it's still touching in its own way. There's value in a place where all are greeted with "Welcome Home," the same way we see Uzuko was back when she was an adorable street urchin. Cleverly, this is where the main gimmick of the show comes full circle, linking the "family" aspect of the maid café kayfabe with the pop cultural understanding of "family" in the mafia sense.

That pastiche-with-purpose approach defines the big, final scene for Maid War. It's an absurd about-face of the first episode on every level, down to Nagomi putting on a song-and-dance number that match-cuts guns with glow sticks just like Ranko's initial rampage, only this time it's all the same event, and it becomes clear even before the finish that it has worked: The hearts of all the other maids have literally been touched. Uzuko was never going to be able to hold control of this outlandish industry because she rejected the camaraderie of other maids. Walking in and taking that mental headshot from the memory of Ranko symbolized how she was dead already.

So then, Uzuko shoots Nagomi in the gut as she dances.

And Nagomi just keeps dancing.

It can't go on forever, of course. By this point we understand that Akiba Maid War is not a show that was going to spawn a sequel season or a bigger franchise, but it doesn't need to. It, and Nagomi's dance, have made their piece clear. What follows—Uzuko resignedly shooting several more rounds into Nagomi offscreen before every other maid at last rebels against her approach—is a perfect encapsulation of gritty cinema. Yes, it features 100% more people in panda suits hucking a bamboo spear through the antagonist at the end, and yes, those credits are closed out with Nagomi's own rendition of the enka-styled Moe Moe Kyun song. But those goofy embellishments still can't distract from this definitive mic drop of an ending.

Akiba Maid War does close out with a short epilogue, explicitly showing that Nagomi's efforts does reform Akihabara into a state more like how we know it today. And it reveals that Nagomi herself actually survived, growing into a spunky, wheelchair-spinning 36-year-old maid who would do Ranko proud. It's nice, but ultimately just icing on the cake after that pre-credits blowout. Akiba Maid War was easily recommendable from the first shots it fired, but now I can tell people to watch this show just to see how it sticks the landing.

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Akiba Maid War is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.