Ninja Maid/Playing With
Basic Trope: The maid is a badass fighting machine.
- Straight: Alice's maid Lucy breaks out some kung fu moves.
- Exaggerated: Lucy is a black belt in karate, runs her own dojo, and is the best fighter in the story.
- Justified: Alice needed an inconspicuous, female bodyguard, so she hired kung fu expert Lucy to pretend to be her maid.
- Lucy is a martial artist who takes a job as a maid because she can't find any other work, for some reason.
- Inverted: Alice breaks out the martial arts skills to protect her maid, Lucy.
- Battle Butler
- The badass bodyguard with the mad kung-fu skills is revealed to be surprisingly adept at housework.
- Subverted: Alice thought Lucy knew kung fu, but when an enemy appears Lucy cowers in terror.
- Double Subverted: It turns out Lucy was just pretending and pounced when the enemy their turned their back
- Parodied: All maids are expected to know kung fu, and part of the standard job interview involves defeating other household servants in a fight. Young girls are taught martial arts in school to be better suited to the job of domestic workers.
- Deconstructed: After a violent episode in young Lucy's life, she began to study martial arts to ensure that she would never be a victim again. She's poor, so she takes a job as a domestic servant. When Alice is attacked, Lucy protects her, to everyone's amazement. However, none of Lucy's co-workers can look at her the same way after this, including the butler who once crushed on her but is no longer interested because No Guy Wants an Amazon.
- While skilled, Lucy is still outmatched against an armed assailant, as she can't carry her weapons to work and her broom isn't made to withstand being used as a melee weapon.
- Reconstructed: However, Alice is immensely grateful and officially employs Lucy as her personal bodyguard, keeping the maid attire just so she'll remain undercover. Lucy's co-workers gradually adjust to this new situation, and she gains the attention of Daniel, who loves stronger women.
- Zig Zagged: Lucy fights off an enemy, but later it turns out that was just luck.
- Averted: The maid has no fighting skills.
- Enforced: The writers want to give a lower-class character a Crowning Moment of Awesome to prove they're not elitist, so they let Lucy fight off the enemies.
- Lampshaded: "Wow, I'd never have expected that from a maid, Lucy."
- "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to clean up this blood before it stains the carpet."
- Invoked: Alice is looking for a maid because she needs someone to protect her.
- Defied: When planning his attack on Alice, Bob waits for Lucy's day off.
- Discussed: "So, Lucy, any chance you have mad fighting skills?"
- Conversed: "Just you wait. The maid always knows kung fu in anime."
Allow me to escort you back to Ninja Maid, Master, and rest assured: I cleaned up the assassins and booby traps myself.