I suspect the whole maid fetish thing may have something to do with "Emma" 's appearing in a seinen magazine, albeit a relatively offbeat one. God knows the author goes on about her own fascination with maids enough in the postscript to the first volume.

Emma herself is the antithesis of the U.S.-style sexy stereotype of the naughty (French) maid, and you rarely see her in anything as allegedly revealing as even a full-length Victorian nightgown or petticoat. But if you look at online advertisements for real-life Japanese maid cafes, it seems as if a lot of the "maid"/waitresses there are surprisingly modestly dressed, too. Certain types of otaku seem to find something fanservice-ishly moe about the mere fact that the girls are wearing maid caps and ruffled aprons and calling them--or, in Emma's case, the male characters--"master."