Maid-chan no Anime: Centaur no Nayami (A Centaur's Life)

Konnichiwa! Maid-chan desu!

At one point in time, the four legged animals died out and thanks to their extinction, the animals with six extremities rule the word.

That is the start of Centaur no Nayami, a biology lesson in school. It is a very normal school, with a slightly above average rated student body (as someone else will later explain).

All the human races are in the class of Kimihara Himeno, as it is now normal. Discrimination has been strictly banned and “security personal” keeps an eye (or more) on that. Unusual in the race mix is only that Himeno is in it. Hime, as her friends call her, is one of the few centaurs. She is also quite the beauty and that makes her a sort of school celebrity.

Her close friends are Gokuraku Nozomi, a tomboyish demon girl, and the calm, always composed (and often teasing) Naraku Kyouko.
As you can see, for the humans except centaurs, two of the six legs mentioned in the biology lesson have changed. Some people have wings, others horns. There is also a diversity in ear forms.

The biology teacher also muses that if humans had developed from four legged creatures and had not so many differences in looks – just, for example, skin color – then there surely would have been less racial discrimination and wars.
If Maid-chan would drink, she would have spit her tea to the other side of the town. Just because humans have less legs to worry about would not make them less idiotic! Maybe even more, or what do you think?

Nozomi, the tomboy, works in her family’s karate dojo as teacher, even in such young years, and is liked much by her young students. Quite impressive, isn’t it? Equally impressive is Kyouko, who sometimes helps her father, who is a writer, especially when it comes to keeping the deadline.

Even more impressive is another friend of Hime, the class representative and student council president Mitama Manami, who lives in a shrine. She not only does the work in school, Manami also has to care for four small siblings and, in a way, for her father. And she looks so dignified as a Miko!

There is also a human race that lives in the water. The Mermaids (both sexes available) have their own cities and schools for practical reasons. For the hentais of you Maid-chan has a hint: The girls normally don’t wear swimsuits that cover the top, that is just for the guests (who are exited enough) when they have joint lessons.

The group of Hime is later joined by very unusual transfer student: Quetzalcoatl Sassassul. She is from the Antartica-people, a race of snake-like intelligent and logical people. She has come to Hime’s school to better understand the other races.
Maid-chan can only wish her good luck with that!
Since the era of discrimination is not long ago, and Sassassul is a very important guest, there are always a few concealed agents watching that nothing happens to her, like Nozomi hitting Sassu on the head for saying something stupid.

The anime follows those girls in their daily life and the adventures that they have, for example with Manami’s little triplet sisters, the Chi-tachis and the even smaller Sue, who easily gets ill. And not to forget Hime’s little cousin Shino.

There will be learning groups, activities like Yabusame (centaur bow shooting), stealthily date-watching and of course the pool visit. We can even see the class representative being fired up and competitive.

Who will win? Nozomi might be a karate teacher, but Manami routinely carries a triplet of sisters around! Maid-chan is not telling you the winner of the class-arm-wrestling-tournament, you have to watch yourself!

Good steps, but not followed through

But should you really watch Centaur no Nayami?

The anime is slice of life with comedy. The setting is interesting. But…

There are many buts, too many in Maid-chan eyes. Take the anti-discrimination police, or whatever they are. There is a lot of talk about what bad things happen to you of you discriminate, but nothing ever happens. You should think there would be news about that topic, or anything else, but no.

Same goes for the toilets. “There are now toilets for all races” is said, but it just means the total boring toilet you use with bigger doors. For peoples with tails or the body of a horse!
Maid-chan needs a few reserve CPUs for all her disbelieve!
In a country that is the six-leg equivalent to one where the toilets measure your blood pressure and tell you the latest stock prices?
Even the censoring fog is the same!

The author had a nice enough starting idea, and did some steps to explore it, but just when it gets interesting, he jumps away. Always.

The result is a slice of life that often does not feel like slice of life because of the setting. The comedy element is easy to forget, because jokes are rare. The individual points on the timeline are presented without any connection and in the last third there is so much historical and place jumping even Maid-chan almost got confused. It was nearly as strange to watch as Nozomi in a cute dress!

And why that frog appeared is still a mystery. Only to show that you should not judge people by their handshake?

Conclusion

Maid-chan is not sure if she should be annoyed, disappointed, pity the author or all three. Centaur no Noyami (Centaur’s worries) should be renamed Watcher no Nayami!

With just a bit more deepness on the author’s side, a bit more storytelling and more consequence on the comedy, this anime could easily have ended up with 8 points, even with the often cheap background art.
Instead Maid-chan can only give 6/10 points on the totally objective Maid-chan scale.

Maid-chan hates to see potential go wasted, and Centaur no Nayami has a lot of that.

See you next time!