Let’s begin this episode where Nagomi Wahira gave some hair ties to Ranko Mannen where she’s really concerned that Ranko’s hair bangs gets in her way in washing her face. Aww, that’s really sweet from Nagomi-chan!
But yes. it looks like this 30-something maid tries to be cute, although let’s not forget that Ranko Mannen is a veteran maid who took down enemies without batting an eye.
Now then, let me introduce this character who will be important on this episode. This is Kijima-san, the boss of a large figurine company where he and his goons are selling their products to one of his clients, although the truth is that they’re selling an imitation of the real thing at absurd prices.
Anyways, looks like Ranko Mannen encountered Kijima and his goons as he look down on maids who hand out flyers across the street. Of course, Ranko won’t forgive him for insulting maids who work hard for a living, so the only solution is violence!
However, a Russian woman named Zoya stopped Ranko before she went in for the kill towards that scumbag dealer, saying that maids should be cute and not being violent.
It’s really ironic for Zoya to say that as maids on this show are actually violent in addition to acting cute in front of their customers. Still, Zoya will return later…
With that said, the employees from Ton Tokoton café went to Akiba Fuwa-Fuwa Sweets Club for an errand. I hope this maid café has cute and fluffy things… right?
Just kidding, Akiba Fuwa-Fuwa Sweets Club has an illegal catfight club where maids fight to the death while patrons bet on which maid is the strongest.
Of course, this led to match-fixing where some maids will rig the match in the opponent’s favor, therefore the café she represent will have a big payout if she loses the match on purpose.
With that said, Ton Tokoton will have to let one of its employees become a punching bag to a rival maid.
Surely, the manager would put Nagomi, Shiipon, or even Yumechi into the ring since they’re weak as hell. C’mon, she needs some sweet cash by sacrificing one of her employees.
But nope, Ton Tokoton chose Ranko Mannen as their representative where I have a feeling that she won’t throw the match in exchange for some petty cash.
Meanwhile, here’s Kijima again where he’s showing a rare figurine of Grace Inomata (or Grace-tan) to one of his clients, Ms. Taira who owns the Akiba Fuwa-Fuwa Sweets Club.
And speaking of Taira-san, she’s really fond of Grace-tan so much that she’ll pay a lot of money to get her hands of the rare figure, even though Kijima is selling a phony to a shmuck like Taira.
By the way, Grace Inomata is the main heroine of Legendary Fighter Nobuaki, an old anime show aired in the 70s similar to Ashita no Joe. It’s no wonder why Taira-san is very fond to that specific character, which is why she wanted Ton Tokoton to lose the match in order to collect the prize money just to buy an imitation of the real thing.
Anyways, let’s see what happened to the match where Ranko Mannen is expected to lose the match on purpose.
Oh boy, looks like Ranko didn’t listen to the manager’s words as she knock out the reigning champion Pure Milky Masami in the first round.
With that said, Ton Tokoton café didn’t get the money as they failed to deliberately lose their match against Pure Milky Masami.
However, the only person who’s really angry is Taira where Kijima mock her for having Pure Milky Masami lose against a no-name maid who’s unaware about the match-fixing deal.
Looks like Taira won’t get her hands on the Grace-tan figure, although I wish she would not get it at all given that Kijima is a shrewd man!
Sadly for Kijima-san, looks like his scamming days are over when Taira put a bullet through his head. Seems that violence is the only option when your plan is not working as it should.
Of course, Taira-san is still not aware that Kijima brought a phony figurine as he kept the real thing somewhere in his pocket.
But that doesn’t matter for Taira-san as she’s really pissed and demanded the Ton Tokoton café to rig the finals match in Akiba Fuwa-Fuwa Sweets Club’s favor!
Should they failed to do so, the Akiba Fuwa-Fuwa Sweets Club will bring hell towards their small maid café.
For the manager, she promised to Taira-san that Ton Tokoton café will rig the entire match in her favor, even as far as betting their organs as collateral.
First of all, why does the manager went naked while wearing an eyepatch? Does she want to look cool? I don’t think so! More importantly, betting their pancreas or even their kidneys in exchange for money is suicidal. Hell, the possibility of Ranko Mannen losing her next match is nil!
But speaking of Ranko Mannen, she took Kijima’s corpse into the truck of a car until Ranko stumbled upon the rare Grace-tan figurine. Logically, Ranko would give the real thing to Taira-san without the extra charge.
However, Taira-san ignored Ranko Mannen as she kept the figurine into her pouch. Also, she wrote a note in front of the door as Ranko hops that Taira-san would read it.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that Taira-san would ignore the note as she expects Ranko to lose. And who’s her final opponent?
Well, it’s none other than Zoya where the Russian woman is actually working as a maid for the Akiba Fuwa-Fuwa Sweets Club.
It’s really ironic that Zoya, who said that maid can’t become violent because it’s not cute at all, is using violence to destroy a hardened veteran maid.
Anyways, Ranko Mannen is in danger of losing to a Russian fighter where she might die in the ring with a fatal blow. Oh yeah, looks like Nagomi’s hair decs got wrecked by Zoya’s swift roundhouse kick!
Fortunately, Nagomi Wahira got a spare one. I’m glad that Nagomi still believes in Ranko Mannen even though her ideal world of maids has already shattered from the first episode.
But let’s return to the match where Ranko is making a comeback against Zoya. At this point, they’re evenly-matched but I’m really interested on Zoya’s backstory where she didn’t come to Japan to follow her dreams.
You see, Zoya’s life back in Russia is pretty hard where she trained various martial arts during her lifetime, all while Zoya’s parents forbid her to buy cute things like dolls and dresses.
It’s quite devastating to see Zoya’s harsh childhood where she was denied to have a happy life in Russia. That is until she stumbled upon a TV program where it shows maids in Japan.
Anyways, she went to Japan after becoming an adult and joined the maid industry right off the bat. Unfortunately, customers are not too pleased with Zoya where everyone mocked her for not being cute, let alone smile a bit.
That really hurt Zoya very much, but she’s still continues her dream even though Zoya is working in a cutthroat dog-eat-dog environment where the strongest survives.
Now then, it’s time for the finale where Zoya got a nasty straight punch by Ranko Mannen. I have to say that Ranko doesn’t want to throw the entire match.
But speaking of Ranko Mannen, it looks like she made a rare compliment to Zoya, saying that she’s cute despite being one of the toughest adversaries ever faced. In any case, looks like Ranko spared Zoya’s life this time.
However, it appears that Kijima’s goons caught wind regarding their boss’ murder as they pin the blame on Taira thanks to Ranko’s note. Seriously Taira, you should have taken the real Grace-tan figurine instead of snubbing her.
Likewise, Taira won’t go down without a fight as she’s ready to shoot those goons down. Let’s hope that she has a spare revolver ’cause 5 rounds is not enough.
So in the end, nobody wins on this episode as Taira-san failed to get the genuine figurine, while Kijima and his figurine goons failed to scam his client by selling an imitation. Seriously, both parties died thanks to Ranko Mannen.
As for Ton Tokoton, while the maid café survived another crisis, the manager and Shiipon will have to sell their organs now that they lost the bet. It’s a stupid idea to bet on their liver or pancreas in the first place!
Fortunately, Yumechi had a great idea of selling this rare (and genuine) Grace Inomata figurine as it fetched a high price. That’ll cover the expenses that the manager made for selling her organs along with Shiipon as collateral.
I have to say that both Kijima and Taira are screaming in hell right now as they learned that the real figurine of Grace Inomata was bought by some random millionaire thanks to Yumechi.
While it sucks that both parties got screwed by one of Ranko Mannen’s follies, what about Zoya? I mean, I expect that Russian maid getting killed by some disgruntled goon.
No, she survived as Zoya joined Ton Tokoton at the end of this episode. And get a load of this as she managed to smile and act cute like a true maid. Oh Zoya, you’re really are living the maid dream!
Anyways, this is the most enjoyable episode I’ve ever watched in Akiba Maid War as Ranko managed to befriend a Russian maid thanks to a catfight, one that’ll be remembered in the underground history books. Oh, and two stupid people trying to outwit each other and fail because of a goddamn expensive figurine. Well then, I’ll see you next time!
The Anime Rambler - By Benigmatica 