Anime Hajime Review: Mahoromatic – Automatic Maiden

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Mahoromatic – Automatic Maiden. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

The Earth is fighting a secret war against alien invaders. Despite the odds, humanity has managed to turn the tables and are winning the fight. This is all thanks to their ultimate weapon, Android V1046-R Mahoro (voiced by Ayako Kawasumi).

After years of constant combat, Mahoro’s life energy is almost depleted. As thanks for her indispensable work, Mahoro is given the chance to live her final days as a normal human. Though knowing nothing but battle, she does hold one dream dear to her heart.

In the civilian world, Suguru Misato (voiced by Fujiko Takimoto) lost his parent at a young age. Since then he has only known loneliness. Too bad that doesn't keep the house clean. So he decides to hire a live-in maid. Suguru is beside himself when the applicant turns out to be the beautiful Mahoro. 

Though their meeting would appear random, Mahoro chose to be at Suguru’s side. Her time may be short, but she plans to give every second she has left to Suguru. All the while fearing a past that is sure to be coming back to haunt her.

Series Positives

On the surface, Mahoramatic – Automatic Maiden would seem like the type of series I would pull at random. That’s not actually the case. Something about this one grabbed my attention. It wasn’t the story. It wasn’t the actors. It wasn’t the source material. Those had almost no role in my decision to watch this show.

Mahoro

I say, “almost no role” since Mahoromatic’s sudden robo-maid premise wasn’t uninteresting to me. No, the biggest determinate was who produced this series.

Suguru

This was a co-production. One of the two was Gainax. You know, the studio behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, and Panty and Stocking. You can see it too. This show had Gainax’s mark all over the place. For better and for worse. And while Gainax’s involvement was a factor, everything came down to who they decided to partner with.

Mahoromatic is one of the first entries in Shaft’s library. That’s right, that Shaft. The studio which gave us Hidamari Sketch, Madoka Magica, and the Monogatari series. This was their early days. A time before Akiyuki Shinbo, the director of the aforementioned Shaft series. The company had yet to build the abstract reputation they have now.

I knew this going in, so I wasn’t expecting it. The novelty of seeing the origins of one of my favorite production studios was too enticing. Yet while that was a thing, it didn’t end up mattering much.

This series may have Shaft’s name attached to it, but that didn’t mean anything. As I said, this was before the reasons why I love the studio. That and their involvement was hard to notice as it hid in the shadow of Gainax. So, the Shaft label wasn’t as powerful here as it would otherwise be today.

Where did that leave Mahoromatic? It was fine. Problems and all, it was fine.

Mahoro and Suguru

Whenever it was just these two, everything was good. And it was these two for most of the series. The first episode was a great introduction. Not only for Mahoro and Suguru but for the show. It gave us a good idea of who we were going to be following.

Let’s start with the lesser of the two, Suguru. He was inconsistent. Though more often than not, he was a good male lead. For instance, Suguru was able to stand up to a gun wielding maniac. He may have been scared out of his mind, but he still did it. He knew how to not be a pushover. Until he was one.

In a later confrontation, Suguru had trouble standing up to a bunch of street punks. Sure, there were a lot of them and he would’ve no doubt got his head kicked in. Yet there was no weapon being shoved in his face like before. Even when the gang turned on Mahoro, Suguru remained quiet. I could’ve given him a pass if he had trouble standing up for himself. Except it wasn’t always for himself. Again, he was inconsistent when deciding when to step in.

This was a small part of Suguru’s character. Granted the weakest part of his character, but not who he was most of the time.

What made up for his shortcomings was Suguru’s awareness. He had a good sense of when things weren’t okay. He noticed when the people close to him were troubled. And he could tell when others were acting suspiciously.

For example, when a ghost from Mahoro’s past came back, Suguru could see Mahoro’s demeanor change. She was nervous. She felt anxious. She wasn’t her normal cheerful self. Mahoro knew how to put on a strong face to fool most everyone. Except for Suguru.

Now due to his age and lack of experience, Suguru couldn’t get the whole picture. This caused him to act at the last minute where things could go at their worst. He couldn’t quite nail down when to be a prevention. Be that as it was, Suguru was always there when he was needed the most.

As one of the two leads, Suguru was fine.

Mahoro, on the other hand, was great. Now you’d think since she was my favorite character of the series, I’d have a lot to say about her. The answer is I do, but much of what I could talk about isn’t that positive. That doesn’t have to do with Mahoro herself. It’s more a gripe on how she was used in the story. 

Let’s get over the fact Mahoro was adorable. What made her so good was her genuineness. This included her temperament and personality. But it has to do more with who she was in the past.

Before living with Suguru, Mahoro was Earth’s best warrior. That wasn’t hearsay. It was evident in how she carried herself. She was proficient in everything she did. She wasn’t the clumsy maid character. She wasn’t an airhead. She wasn’t dense. She was more than capable of handling herself.

Adding to that, Mahoro knew she was an android. She knew she had only lived a life of combat. There were aspects of the civilian world that were mysteries to her. Yet due to her training and experience, she was adaptable.

Mahoro could play along with anything until she had the full grasp of what was going on. As evident when Suguru tried to hide the fact Mahoro wasn’t human. To her, it wasn’t a big deal, but it was for Suguru. She saw him trying to keep this quiet and helped build a narrative on the spot. Whenever she realized she was about to make something more complicated, she didn’t go forward with it.

This partnership between Mahoro and Suguru went a long way into getting to know them better. The series got to spend more time delving into who they were as people. Mahoromatic didn’t need to spend too much effort clearing up avoidable misunderstandings. Or at least that was true with these two.

Again, this series was at its best when it was just Mahoro and Suguru.

Series Negatives

There's a season two. I’m interested in said season two. Yet I’m not confident the problems from this season got fixed. There are two reasons I base this off of.

The first is when season two started. A whole seven months after the conclusion of the first. That tells me season two was planned well before the conclusion of season one. That, by itself, isn’t the problem. The last time I looked at a series with such a small gap between installments was even shorter. Four months.

That series was Black Lagoon. And to be fair, Black Lagoon is much better than Mahoromatic. Yet the length between seasons shouldn’t cause much alarm. Or at least that would be the case if it weren’t for my second reason. Gainax wasn’t able to stop itself.

Even with season two right around the corner, there was still a Gainax ending to this series.

Where credit’s due, it wasn’t like the other Gainax endings I’ve seen. It didn’t become ultra-philosophical like Evangelion. It wasn’t infuriating like Panty and Stocking. But it was boring. My God was it boring.

Mahoromatic dragged at the end. There was no purpose or point behind doing so either. Which is why I’m considering this to be a typical Gainax ending. And that’s what has me super nervous.

If this is what happened at the end of season one, what’s going to happen at the end of the series? Plus, with Mahoro’s life countdown being a thing, I’m expecting a rough ride.

Except, this is all speculation. I could turn out to be wrong. I hope I am. There’s no point in blaming this series for things I haven’t seen yet. Besides, there are plenty of other things I can talk about.

Mahoromatic was very hit or miss. Most of that had to do with its comedy, but that wasn’t the only thing. Mahoro trying to live a simple retirement, that was a hit. The whole alien invasion thing, that was a miss. This series wanted to fit two separate stories into one.

Mahoro’s past, the secret organizations, aliens coming to Earth, felt so removed from the rest of the show. Whenever Mahoromatic did focus on this aspect it was too goofy for its own good.

At times, it attempted to be serious, but all the while tried to remain light hearted. When this show actually picked a tone it worked better than when everything got mixed.

This, by the way, is what I meant when I said I didn’t care for how Mahoro got used in the series. When we got glimpses into her past, they came at the worst time. It was why the ending dragged. The story set up the climax. The battle even started. Then the show did a full episode explaining why this fight was important for Mahoro.

That was dumb. Why did you do that? The series had already given enough information to make everything work.

Also, Suguru was popular with the ladies. Okay, why though? When introduced, Suguru was no better than your average kid. Mahoromatic kept this image going for a while too. Then, out of nowhere, we learned that he was brilliant. His athleticism was outstanding. And every female he was close with had a crush on him.

We learned all that in about ten seconds and it was never brought up again.

Plus, there was something else that didn’t make sense. Why did Suguru want to keep Mahoro being an android a secret? Sure, it would’ve been a difficult thing to explain. But you could’ve done it. Mahoro didn’t care. Her organization didn’t give her any orders to keep it a secret. Surguru was the only who thought it would be a problem.

This was silly. Or I want to say that was what it was. Instead, it allowed Mahoromatic’s biggest problem to be reoccurring.

Saori Shikijo

F@#$ this character. Saori Shikijo (voiced by Yumi Takada) was insufferable.

Saori was Suguru’s teacher. She had an affinity for younger boys. So, her thing was trying to seduce Suguru. Yet only Suguru. I must have sneezed when the show explained this because I don’t know why this was the case. Regardless, she was always around.

The joke with Saori involved the lengths she went to, to be alone with Suguru and Mahoro’s subsequent prevention of that. As well as Saori's constant belittlement of Mahoro’s much smaller chest size. This was never funny. It was annoying.

Also, Saori believed Mahoro to be a teenager. Why was this a fight she felt she needed to win? Whatever that reason may have been, it was enough to have her in damn near every episode. Not to say she appeared for a bit. No, that would’ve been too easy. Saori was a major player in this series.

This sucked so much. Every time she came on screen, a jack hammer went off in my head. The show even played it off as cute whenever Mahoro suggested removing Saori. Often with violence. Was it wrong for me to think that would’ve been fantastic? I don’t care.

Final Thoughts

Oh, I just remembered. This series had nudity in it. Like, a lot of it. Consider it a scale tipper if you want to check it or not.

Despite my issues with this show, I am looking forward to watching the second season. I want to know what will be the ultimate fate of Mahoro and Suguru. That alone is what makes this one worth recommending.

The leads were strong. They had to deal with a lot of nonsense. As well as a constant headache. But they pulled it off. I have no problem saying Mahoromatic – Automatic Maiden is worth a look.

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