The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious, Ep 11 [END]: Always

Lilith’s former boss visits her when Natsume and Yuuri are out of the mansion. Is he here to take her back from Yuuri?

Episode 11 – “It Must Have Always Been…”

Hmm.

The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious solved one puzzle before the season ended. What does Lilith call her master from the mansion where she worked with Natsume? Lilith addresses Yuuri as “bocchama (坊ちゃま, ぼっちゃま),” which means “son (of others) or young master.” She must have called him that when she lived at his house for a year before attending maid school. Bocchama has more status than the similar bocchan (坊ちゃん, ぼっちゃん) because it follows the rules of politeness for –sama and –san. By contrast, Lilith calls her old employer “danna-sama (旦那様, だんなさま),” which means “husband or master of the house.” There are so many ways to call someone “master” in Japanese. So the way a maid chooses to address her boss tells you about her relationship with him.

Heh.

The evidence of last week’s The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious Christmas party is all gone. Lilith cleaned up and put away the decorations. Natsume and Yuuri are shopping buddies now! Oh? That’s a stretch limousine parking in front of Yuuri’s mansion. Are Cadillac luxury cars a thing in Japan? Ooh! It’s Lilith’s old master and Natsume’s current boss! Is he here for Lilith or Natsume? Or both!

Confirmed. The pink yarn that Yuuri knitted in the last episode was a present of mittens for Natsume. Talk about knitting bonds with your natural enemy. Yuuri doesn’t hold back on anything in The Mysterious Maid. He makes Lilith blush with his litany of how she makes him feel. But he’ll also spit facts at Natsume about her laziness. There we go! The twin-tailed tsundere went into her dere-dere mode with Yuuri. Don’t get Yuuri started. He’ll make Natsume confess her feelings to her master next. Good for Natsume. She told Yuuri point-blank that there are different kinds of love. But telling someone is still embarrassing. Yuuri does not have that problem.

Lilith can breathe a sigh of relief. Her old boss only came to visit, not drag her back to his mansion. Ah. He’s there to bring back Natsume! Oh good! The master got Lilith to tell the audience about her past! The Mysterious Maid made us wait until the season finale to solve Lilith’s mystery. She was an orphan whose parents died in a car crash. Then she was passed around relatives’ houses until she arrived at Yuuri’s parents’ mansion. They were family friends of Lilith’s parents. They decided to give her a permanent home. I’m still confused why Yuuri doesn’t remember Lilith living with him before she went to the maid academy. Who did that? Who told Lilith her purple eyes were creepy? Suspicious! Gah! Even toddler Yuuri has charm. Lilith only stayed a year before going to boarding school.

Lilith met Natsume and Fujisaki at the Snowgoose Private Academy. Then at the master’s mansion, where she worked with Natsume, she learned of Yuuri’s circumstances. That explains the strong urge behind the premise of The Mysterious Maid. Oho! Natsume didn’t need the master to pick her up. Yuuri won’t let the master have Lilith back! Natsume, gone too soon!

Uh oh. The last time Lilith was alone with Yuuri was when he confessed his love for her in the eighth episode of The Mysterious Maid. She still hasn’t told him how she feels about him. Going out means a date! Yuuri can still make Lilith blush after all this time. Let’s check in with Tsukasa before the end of the season. She’s happy to see Lilith and Yuuri on a date, but Fujisaki won’t let her interrupt. Fujisaki looks like she regrets butting into Lilith’s date too!

The Mysterious Maid makes sure all of Lilith’s date outfits look like bustier corsets matching her maid uniform. You know why! Aw. Yuuri took Lilith to his parents’ grave marker. He tells them that he’ll be fine because he has Lilith. How many times can this kid propose marriage to Lilith without proposing marriage? Hey, it’s still Christmas Week. Look at the street decorations! They’re not the prettiest things in Yuuri’s sight. Geez. That boy does not quit with the romantic lines. Ooh! Lilith asked Yuuri what kind of love he meant when he said that. Natsume noted that earlier. The boy is mature enough to know what he doesn’t know. All the confessions come out now. Lilith admits that Yuuri’s compliments make her so happy she turns beet red!

It’s epilogue time for The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious. Lilith made a snowman of Yuuri, so Yuuri made one of her. I see the coal moles on her cheek! And all the little snow children! A warm ending. Original creator Wakame Konbu made an end card for the audience.

Final Thoughts.

The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious wisely chose to end at eleven episodes. Even for a slice-of-life anime, where nothing is supposed to happen, the overall plot quickly ran from the end of summer vacation to just past Christmas. I liked the comedic gag of how the unfiltered Yuuri made Lilith blush. But we needed to see them in more situations to keep the reactions coming. The beginning of the season had plenty of material for those situations because the pair had just met. Any circumstance works to set up the jokes because getting to know the characters and the setting offers low-hanging fruit. After Lilith and Yuuri became comfortable with each other, the setup of Yuuri spying on the suspicious maid didn’t work anymore. After that, we started meeting Yuuri and Lilith’s friends, but the comedy felt less manic.

I loved Lilith as the busty dark-skinned fanservice machine of The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious. My only complaint was that we didn’t see her in more outfits and other places. Choosing the fall season to show Yuuri and Lilith build their relationship offered the fun costumes of Halloween and Christmas. But where was the beach episode? The hot springs inn trip? All the things in Tsukasa’s romance novels? Artist Wakame Konbu helped us out if you followed her Twitter timeline. But I wanted to see those sexy situations in animated form. If a second season happens, the structure should be episodically disjointed. That works for a gag comedy because we need to see the beautiful Lilith blush at Yuuri’s eager compliments. A season-long story arc is not necessary.

Did you enjoy Lilith, the suspicious maid? Did the age-gap shotacon aspect bother you? Do you want to see more of Lilith’s purple eyes teasing you? Let us know in the comments and on social media!

The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious (Saikin Yatotta Maid ga Ayashii) streams on Crunchyroll and VRV in English subtitles and dubbed in multiple languages.