|
Back | Anime titles | anime in romaji order | Shoujo | W.M.T | Old Anime | Manga titles | Blog Home
Information | |
Title (English) | Hand Maid May |
Title (Japanese) | Hand Maid Mei | Advertising Fantasy Novel |
Notes | 10 episodes. Also on R2 DVD (with 11 episodes). |
Classification | - |
Synopsis | For those who aren't familiar with HMM, it is a comedy about Kazuya, a college student who is a computer major and is trying to develop artificial intelligence programs for robotic toys. He accidentally "orders" a "Cyber Doll" and receives a Barbie sized sentient maid robot. The show then goes through many typical ( almost de rigure ) situations of fembot shows - keeping the hyper naïve May out of trouble, handling the appearance of other hyper dolls, keeping an ambitious friend from stealing May, and so on. One cliché that is avoided is the "first love" cliché, since Kazuya has a very sexy and willing next door neighbor who is a real girl. (Dave Baranyi) |
Review | I just finished watching the first episode of the new Pioneer/Wowow sci-fi comedy series "Hand Job May", oops, I mean "Hand Maid May". From the previews I had expected this show to be just another "fembot" series - and I was right, but it is a fembot series with a sense of sophomoric humor that somehow endeavors to reach beyond simple panty shots and jiggling female breasts to achieve a sort of "style".
The story is about Kazuya Saotome, a second year college student who is a bit of a computer nerd, both for hardware and software. He has a cute and usually underdressed neighbor named Kasumi Tani who is a first year college student and who has a ladder between her bedroom window and Kazuya's room. Kazuya spends much of his time trying to make robot toys ( such as a robot squid at the beginning of the show ) and otherwise blushing at Kasumi's cleavage or panties. ( As you may have gleaned by now, "Hand Maid May" is not a "girl's show" by any stretch of the imagination. ) Kazuya is given a program from his very strange friend/competitor(?) Koutarou Nanbara which will supposedly speed up Kazuya's computer, but instead, while malfunctioning it somehow links to something called the "Cyberdoll Net" where Kazuya accidentally orders a "Cyber Maid". The doorbell rings an instant later and there is a tall, oddly dressed babe with a box for Kazuya. The babe at the door disappears before getting Kazuya's hanko and Kazuya discovers that the box contains a very life-like and sentient 1/6th scale "cyber maid" named May. May is designed to be like a 17 year old - but a 17 year old Playmate. ( Pioneer is obviously planning ahead to sales in the US and is trying to make the characters somewhat "of age" ) May enters lots of data about Kazuya and is ecstatic that they have the same birthdays. She then shows him the "super powers" that she has - she can act as a TV remote!!! But all this wears down her battery and she collapses just after telling Kazuya that her re-charger is still in the box ( which has fallen out the window ). Kazuya finds the box and the charger, but the charger was damaged, so Kazuya had to repair the alien/advanced technology as best as possible. When he finished he was faced with finding the "socket" on May to plug in the charger, and you can "guess" where the socket is. The episode ended with Kasumi coming over and getting introduced to the Barbie Doll-sized May. From the ending of the show ( which looked as if it will become the opening ) and the info on the Wowow web site at: http://www.wowow.co.jp/lineup/handmaid/index.html and the "official" "Hand Maid" site at: http://www.hand-maid.net/ it appears that May will be joined by other "full scale" hand maids. BTW - the episode was listed as "1 of 10", which is in itself odd. Overall, the show was more entertaining than I expected - as long as it sticks to comedy and keeps Kazuya "connected" with his "real" neighbor I'll watch it - it's fun enough summer fare. (Dave Baranyi) I'm certainly doing a lot of "the end of" posts recently. This one is the end of "Hand Maid May", the recent 10-part Wowow fembot show. To an extent, a 10-part TV series seems more like an OAV, and "Hand Maid May" also "felt" a lot like an OAV. The graphics were nice and bright, the music lively, the girls often in a state of undress and the plot very light.
Ho hum, another series with cute fembots, one thinks. In fact "Hand Maid May" turns out to be a refreshing variant on the genre. Cute and clueless playmate May is only a foot high, and some of the best scenes exploit May's small size. This show is a bit ruder than some (no prizes at all for guessing where May's charger plugs in). The usual ingredients are turned over with refreshing energy; it's not serious but not completely dumb. Recommended as light entertainment. Yes, you are reading right - an 11th episode has been added to the 10 episode Wowow/Pioneer fembot comedy series from last year, "Hand Maid May". The 11th episode is included in the final DVD volume from the series, PIBA-1235. Surprising to me, the 11th episode is just as much fun as the other 10 episodes, not something that Pioneer has been done successfully in "bonus" episodes for other series.
I liked this show because it well presented the form of 'idealized fake family' which
many lonely otaku people are longing for (g). No pressures of real parents or family.
No effort should be made to get nice girlfriends. And daily life was such cheerful
like spending in the clubhouse after school. Pioneer and its staffers are well aware what
male otaku people are wishing for.
|
Credits | |
Episodes | 11 |
Release | Jap:DVD, US:VHS, US:DVD |
TV Showing | See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here. |
Date | 2000 July 26 - 2000 September 27 |
Production | Pioneer |
Broadcaster | WOWOW |
Animation | |
References & Help | Look up the latest data on this title at: Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) , or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001). Help & further information. |
|