Hand Maid May

When I first bought the DVD collection at the Anime Mid Atlantic 3, on the first volume you're in Nanbara's room you had to choose the right password to proceed to the main menu. In th first 4 episodes of Hand Maid May, she was a 1/6 scale cyberdoll. Episode 5, was her last time she was a 1/6 scale cyberdoll and was reprocessed by Sara because Kazuya did not pay for her. But thanks to Cyber X, who helped Kazuya special order her for his research, Kazuya got to see May again, this time she had gotten a lot bigger then before. There were some funny parts I liked, (Episode 1). Kasumi threw a potted plant at Nanbara because, he was spying on her. And some neighborhood kids were drawing on his car. (Episode.6) Dr.Hell slipped on a banana peel, because someone left it on the floor. He didn't know it was Kei, who left it on the floor. She was inside the room and heard him outside in the hall. My favorite characters in the series are: Kazuya, Cyber X, Kei, and May. Another cool thing about this series, the character's I liked were that their voices were done by, Steve Cannon, Lia Sargent, and Ruby Marlowe. Also, the soundtrack has all the themes to the show. So in closing, add this one to your collection. You will see what I mean.

Kazuya our male lead is a university student whose hobby is working on his squid-robot, developing its artificial intelligence and speech synthesizer. For some unknown reason one of his classmates Nanbara is secretly jealous of him and plans to give him a computer virus on a disk. When Kazuya runs the program somehow an order is placed to the Cyberdyne Corporation (from the Terminator movies) for a mini-robot. A delivery arrives at his door and inside the box is a doll-sized robot named May. May is a cheerful, enthusiastic girl and every episode she has to talk about trying to do her very best. Nobody ever wonders aloud about how today's technology can produce such a marvel but this issue is resolved in time. Eventually more cyberdolls wind up in Kazuya's apartment building. Even though you might see the various girls as stereotypes - brainy Kei, bubblehead Mami, little kid Rena - they all seemed interesting to me.

I mustn't forget Kasumi, whose mother owns the Kasumi Apartments. She is Kazuya's neighbour and good friend. She has a secret crush on him and drops hints but Kazuya doesn't notice. The ending song "Real Feelings" is a sweet one and from the lyrics it must be Kasumi's song. In it she wishes she was more girlish so he would pay attention but is hopeful that one day he will notice her.

Although it can be said that the setup has been used before (decent, likeable chap somehow winds up with many cute girls vying for his attention) what matters more is how you feel after watching the show. I first saw the fabsub edition at the Ryerson club and I've just seen the first two English-language volumes from Pioneer and I must say that I really enjoyed the series both times. By the way, Pioneer did an interesting thing by labelling the episodes 1/10 and so on to 10/10 to let you know there was a definite end to the series.

There are probably many Anime series that you could watch with your girlfriend and not feel uncomfortable. For me, Hand Maid May was one that walked a thin line. Between "awww..." and "uhh, I see vaginal definition on the pantie shots." Hand Maid May is definitely cute, and FUNNY! However, you may have someone in your life who is too uptight to enjoy it. I enjoyed this series. My wife enjoyed it too. We laughed and cared for the characters even though none of them were truly developed. It is extremely silly. If you are expecting a treatise on romantic relationships with androids then you will be disappointed. It does offer a lot of physical humour and bouncy boobs and stuff. But, in pales in comparison to more serious stories such as Chobits. Just remember this is a COMEDY at heart. I'd have a hard time defining this as Romantic Comedy. So enjoy, laugh and lighten up :D

The story begins when Kazuya Saotome tries to create a Artificial Intelligence. His 'rival' can`t stand this and sends him a virus. Because of the virus Kazuya is sent a package and when he opens it, there`s a living doll in it ! The doll May isn`t bigger than his hand (that`s why it`s 'Hand Maid May', the title) and they become friends. He connects May with his computer, because she`s an A.I.-doll at all. But then there appears someone who tells him to pay .. or they`ll want May back. And Kazuya doesn`t has any money ..

It`s really very lighthearted and I laughed a lot of times because of Kazuya (who`s very shy and a little afraid of girls) and all the girls in it. But after a while (and after a couple of romances; May is really cute and naive and Kazuya too ;) )it`s getting a little more serious. Very good how they created such a tense sphere in the end.

The music is really good, too !

Hand Maid May is a great anime series. I havent had this much fun watching anime sense Ranma 1/2.

Hand Maid May has everything: Hilarious moments, Heart wrenching moments, Tension thats very thick, and an ending that might leave you in tears (but I won't say if that's good or bad)