Life Of Maid - Television Tropes & Idioms

Life of Maid (Maid-san No Hibi) is a Touhou 4koma series on Danbooru and Pixiv by an artist by the name of colonel_Aki. This series stars the cast of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and their friends in the Magical Land of Gensokyo. For the most part, "speech" is expressed through images (while many strips are fully silent), with only a few background signs, and the humor is character, rather than pun, based, making the series "translate" well.

Can be accessed here

(Danbooru), here

(Pixiv, Japanese), or here

(artist's personal blog, Thai). Note that Danbooru links, as always, are NSFW due to ads.

See also Mado Magi Panic, a fan-made parody doujinshi of Puella Magi Madoka Magica by the same artist.

The daily lives of the Scarlet Devil Mansion residence features examples of:

Abnormal Ammo / Torpedo Tits: Kinda. Flandre slaps Sakuya in the back and... well...
A-Cup Angst: Sakuya keeps trying to get a bigger chest using pads (mention this and she'll hurt you).
Animal Wrongs Group: Yuuka is a one-woman Plant Wrongs Group.
Art Evolution
Art Shift: A little bit during Life of Maid #11 and #27.
- And when Patchy loses her DS.
- Again in a strip with Kogasa.
- Then with Race Queen Marisa.
Ass Shove: When Patchy gets sick in #15, Eirin prescribes a spring onion up the rear as treatment (a real folk remedy that people used to use in Japan). Patchy doesn't take it well.
Badass Biker: Zig Zagged. Upon seeing a motorbike, Meiling imagines herself as one, though her reputation with vehicles is not the best in the world. So she tries to ride it and sure enough she crashes into Nitori's lab. However, Nitori then fixes it up, and soon she is driving it like a real off-road *
or rather, on-sea
champion. Two weeks after the fact, however, she finds herself washed up on the sea, found by fishermen.
Baka: Cirno.
Beach Episode: Which is strange since there are no oceans in Gensokyo.
Berserk Button: Never, ever defile Meiling's ramen. It will not end well for you.
- Never mention Sakuya's pads if you don't want to end up knifed.
- If you live with Reimu, never play for the other team.
Beware the Nice Ones: Keine, who keeps a portable moon to were-ify herself and bring her wrath down on bad students.
Big Eater: Yuyuko in spades.
Butt Monkey: Meiling happens to be the butt of most of the jokes. Mostly involving Sakuya's knives.
- Rinnosuke, the unluckiest shopkeeper and food stand owner ever, the latter mostly because of the involvement of Yuyuko. Though things are looking up now Sakuya's working for him. Including stopping Yuyuko.
Cool Old Guy: Youki Konpaku
Curb-Stomp Battle: What Meiling wanted to be a SDM vs Eientei volleyball match ends up as one when Sakuya teams up with Eirin instead.
Deep Immersion Gaming: Gensokyou Fighter IV. Crosses over with Bland Name Product.
Dragged By The Collar: How Sakuya and Eirin solve their problems with Patchouli and Kaguya
Dream Sequence: Youmu has one where Yuyuko is all grown up.
- Yuyuko also has one with her Crazy Awesome Cow.
Drives Like Crazy: Ah, Meiling, Meiling, Meiling...
Everything's Better With Sparkles: As Yuyuko shows us in #53...
- Then there is the sparkle battle between Yuyuko and the cow.
Fan Nickname: Yuyuko's cow is referred to as Moecow by the fans.
Fanservice:
- Patchy dressing/undressing. "Don't open it!"
- Race Queen Marisa.
- Strip #26 and #27, with Sakuya in her own little world.
Five Finger Discount: Marisa indulges in a spot of shoplifting from Rinnosuke's shop, unaware that Sakuya has just applied for a part-time job there and is more than capable of getting his goods back from her.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Ikuchuu and Charmokou.
Giving Them the Strip: Santa Rinnosuke tries this in an attempt to escape from Marisa. It works, but also leads to an extremely unfortunate Not What It Looks Like moment when Youmu walks in on him standing over a sleeping Yuyuko in his underwear while breathing hard...
Heavy Sleeper: Meiling can usually be found sleeping at the front gate, but only seems to be able to sleep sitting up. So much that her body seems to have memorized the position. At least until gravity kicks in.
- Yukari is introduced as one as well.
Hello Nurse: Hong Meiling in Strip #280.
Hikikomori: Patchouli and Kaguya are portrayed as such.
Hilarity Ensues: In the next panel and or comic strip.
I Know Mortal Kombat: A Double Subversion maybe? Meiling's driving skills are put to the test in a videogame parody of Initial D. She does just as well as she does in real life.
Kiss of Life: Hoped for by Patchouli from Marisa...
Love Triangle: Alice, Patchy and Marisa. Which promptly gets subverted when Marisa picks Reimu instead.
Love Makes You Crazy: Or at least blind; Patchy and Alice are easily swayed by a robotic version of Marisa that Nitori made for a simple prank.
Marshmallow Hell: Yuugi tries to comfort a lost and terrified Flandre, but...
Me's a Crowd: Rinnosuke pretty much shows up in EVERY shop.
- Even in London, during a seminar for Maids, he's freaking there. Sakuya finally noticed his omnipresence.
Meido: Sakuya. In the "World Maid" arc, Meiling replaces Sakuya as she and Youmu goes to the titular, Shout Out-filled seminar. She starts by destroying the place.
- After that, it's Flandre's turn to be head maid. At least she is assured to destroy the place.
- And after Remilia's rage clean, everyone dresses as a Maid!
Miko: After accidentally spilling some desserts onto Sakuya and Youmu's clothes, Reimu gets them to wear fresh miko clothes to invoke this trope (and get some extra help at the shrine as well).
- Some time later, Reimu enmikoes Flandre. The result is... overwhelming.
Moe: Every one of the characters, but especially Yuyuko.
Mundane Utility: Youki Konpaku uses his swords skills to...cut fish. Overlaps with What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?.
- Satori uses her mind reading skills to give her the edge in ping pong against Flandre.
- And Sakuya's time-stopping ability proves quite useful in stopping shoplifters.
  - And stopping gluttons.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nitori creates a robotic clone of Marisa to fool around with Patchy's emotions, which works very well. However, Tewi, befitting her troublesome nature, steals the control device in a fit of mischief. In fighting for the controls they cause Robo-Marisa to flail wildly and eventually break its head off, much to Patchy's and Alice's disbelief. Tewi, of course, runs away before Patchy and Alice find out who caused this whole mess.
Oh Crap: Patchy's expression when she realized she left her yaoi under her bed when Sakuya was cleaning her room
Our Vampires Are Different: Remilia and Flandre turn out to be really scared of Dracula movies.
- Also, sunlight has no effect on them whatsoever.
Pixellation: Meiling and Reisen as a result of the Volleyball match.
- As well as Patchy's weight after eating every other strip.
- Once more with Flandre's Lethal Chef chocolate making skills.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sakuya, when she is pissed off. Occasionally overlaps with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Same with Reimu.
Robot Me: Nitori makes a Robo-Marisa to screw around with Patchy's emotions. Marisa herself is surprised to discover her robotic clone after its head fell off.
Running Gags:
- Sakuya's breast envy, and her handy uses for time stopping.
- Meiling's crazy driving, her sleeping, and her being the recipient of Sakuya's most frequent wrath.
- Yuyuko's habit of cleaning out every food shop Rinnosuke owns and eating anything that even remotely looks like food.
- Patchy's crush on Marisa, her endless quest for a DS, her yaoi, and her hikikomori lifestyle in general.
- Reimu's ever-empty donation box and her competition with the Moriya Shrine.
- Marisa's habit of stealing things.
- Keine's portable moon and her CAVING tendencies.
- ...and possibly more I can't remember.
School Swimsuit: Patchouli attempts to get the others in one to no avail.
Patchouli: "Weird... This school is weird!"
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Suwako and Tewi after the whole Robo-Marisa scheme falls apart.
Serial Escalation: How lazy can Meiling get?
- As well as Yuyuko's eating habits..
Sexy Santa Dress: The third Christmas Special features, Reimu, Sakuya, Yukari and Eirin each wearing one, when they team up to deliver the year's Christmas presents to the Gensokyo residents. Reimu and Sakuya's are at least warmer looking than Eirin and Yukari's though.
Shout Out: One for Monster Hunter.
- Pokémon gets one too.
- Haruhi Chan with the "DA-ME" (NO) sign (strip #54).
- Endless Eight (strip #101).
- Meiling tries to sneak past Sakuya in a cardboard box...
- Patchy refuses to go to school and is willing to fight using a very familiar wand...
- Here's a game! Count the Maid references.
- Remilia, dead in the ring.
- Patchy makes a chocolate of herself for Marisa, only for a traumatic scene to be reenacted.
- Remilia is dogpiled in her sleep and has dreams of a certain steamroller scene. WRYYYYYYYYYYYY!
- When running away, Flandre has a familiar backpack.
- It's not a good idea to slack off in Keine's music class. She doesn't just transform, she gets possessed by the spirit of METAL - much like a certain teacher from a rather popular recent anime.
Spinoff Babies: Kind of - Life of Maid-chan, a spin-off that reverse everyone's age.
Super-Deformed: Around half the cast are portrayed as children.
Time Stands Still: When Sakuya is involved, it tends to happen. ZA WARUDO!
Troll: Is one way to describe the Suika/Flandre/Cirno trio.
Tsundere: Sakuya is apparently one of these towards Meiling.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?: Youki Konpaku as...SANTA CLAUS.
Waddling Head: Yukkuris are pets at very high prices.
Work Off The Debt: Poor Meiling.
Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Rinnosuke is often seen working various jobs. The same with Youki. However Youki's case is to pay for Yuyuko's food bill.
- Koakuma has the same problem as Youki...
- Rinnosuke's food based jobs always result in him getting put out of business by Yuyuko. He at least made an attempt to resist the first time. Yuyuko then proceeded to break out her fan from PCB...
Yank the Dog's Chain: Patchy can't seem to catch a break with these, which all but cements her status as the series woobie.
- Case in point: Patchy finally gets a 3DS after working her ass off...only to have it eaten by Yuyuko just two strips later.
Yaoi Fangirl: Patchouli is apparently one...