Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden


Genre:Romantic Comedy
Creator:Bunjuro Nakayama
Manga/Anime/Both Anime/Manga
Seasons: 2 OVAs, 12 episodes each
Manga, 6 graphic novels

Spirit of Discord's Rating
3
out of 5
Trigun Kitties

Summary:

Suguru is a kid who lives by himself in a trashed up house, Mahoro is a retired combat android with 398 days to live who becomes his maid. Suguru's teacher is the worst character ever. Clichés abound.


Explanation for Rating:

Spirit of Discord:
I'm going to go out on a limb and admit that I did actually like season one of Mahoromatic. That said, I won't deny that the show was written while reading the big book of anime clichés and common plot devices.

It seems to me that the most important aspect of a show like this (which should be important in any show) is having a cast that the viewer (or reader) actually likes. I mean, if you don't care what happens to the main characters, then why bother watching what happens to them? I don't care about Random Guy A's love life or Random Hero B's ability to overcome evil.

That said, Mahoromatic both fails and succeeds with its cast. Allow me to elaborate:
With the exception of Suguru's perverse teacher and Mahoro herself, the entire cast is made of of normal. Jr. High students, which seems really boring after seeing the fruity casts of Tenchi Muyo! and Love Hina. But just to make matters worse, the characters aren't just unoriginal; most of them are pretty uninteresting too. None of Suguru's 5 friend (who show up in every episode, not the ones that he talks to like once in the show) have any sort of character beyond just being Suguru's friends, but the writers like to pretend that they matter.

All is not lost though, because while most of the cast is worthless, Suguru and Mahoro actually ended up being fairly likable characters. Yeah, I know, I was shocked too. Again, they're still overshadowed by deeper and even more endearing characters, but at least there are some decent characters on the show.

OK, so I've been pretty negative up to this point, but now I do have some good news. Mahoromatic actually did do something that Tenchi Muyo!, Photon, Love Hina, and all of those other "too many women" comedies failed to do. It surprised me. Yeah, that's right, despite the big book of clichés and common plot devices, Mahoromatic actually did something I wasn't expecting. Of course, I can't tell you what, but I can say that it did indeed catch me off guard.

Overall, it's pretty decent. If you've run out of similar shows to watch, then definitely give it a try, but don't expect greatness. A few good laughs, a lot of fanservice, and even a surprise or two; Too bad the characters weren't a little better.

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