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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Geneon [Pioneer]
Salesrank: 94380
Released: August 14, 2001 |
| Our Price: $1.80 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Nanbara is furious! Nanbara, the self-absorbed, pompous, overbearing villain of our show has always resented Kazuya, the constantly distracted hero, and developed a virus to exact his ultimate revenge. Unfortunately, "revenge" became an accidental delivery of a 1-foot tall cyborg maid whose sweetness is only exceeded by her cheerfulness! Will Nanbara's schemes of revenge ever become realized? Will Kazuya be able to pay the $1,450,000 bill? Join May and our new cast of lunatics for a wild ride to explore the cutting edge of computer peripherals...
Description of Hand Maid May - Maid to Order (Vol. 1):
The romantic comedy Hand Maid May feels like pieces of Oh My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo, El Hazard, and Steel Angel Kurumi cobbled together. The premise is no more improbable, the characters no sillier, the holes in the plot no more egregious than in those comedies, but the elements never quite gel, and the show plays like a rerun, even on the first viewing. Kazuya is a computer nerd, trying to create a squid version of the famous robot-cat Doraemon. When a virus zaps his system, he inadvertently orders a Hyperdoll--a girl one-sixth normal size. May tries to perform a maid's duties despite her diminutive stature, and the inevitable mismatched attraction arises. When Kazuya can't pay the $1.45 million bill, May is repossessed by the Cyberdyne Corp. But a kindly robot offers to provide him with a replacement--free of charge. A full-sized version of May appears and they pick up where they left off. But Kazuya's kindness attracts other beautiful Hyperdolls. The predictable contretemps include the jealousy of Nanbara, Kazuya's self-proclaimed best friend and worst enemy. Things take a weird turn when Kazuya's and Nanbara's descendants arrive from the future and begin messing with the story line. The low-key romance is juxtaposed with jiggle shots and risqué jokes. The original series ran 10 episodes--a pointless 11th OAV has been added--and the episodes stretched over three discs. The fourth contains supplemental material. (Rated 13 and older: brief nudity, minor profanity, violence, risqué humor, alcohol use) --Charles Solomon
Hand Maid May - Maid to Order (Vol. 1) Reviews:
A fun little anime, not to be missed! 
2009-02-23 - atthecon.com reviewed this anime. This was a fun little anime, not too deep, not too much fan service or slapstick. A lot of fun. If you like this type of genre then you will enjoy this anime. 4/5.
A fun series that has aged well but has a few plotholes and feels rather... incomplete
2009-01-20 - This was a very enjoyable series, even watching it 8 years after it's vintage release date for the first time. At first, I had my reservations watching this series, I'm an avid anime fan who likes some semblance of groundedness in the plot. With the subject matter being about robotic maids, I thought it might end up being like some sort of parody with tons of fan service and not really taking the romance seriously at all.
In actuality, after watching, I can tell you that I was able to take the series fairly seriously despite the fan service and some of the rather, "over the top" comedic scenes you'll see in some romantic comedies. Overall, the series is rather an innocuous one, I would say it has a lot in common with shows like Chobits and Ah! My Goddess. Though there is a TON of fan service, the romantic relationships are developed in a platonic way.
Among the half dozen female characters, most are there just to liven things up, even the villain is more fun than menacing. Think of Urd & Skuld arguing over who gets to watch their favorite series on TV(If you haven't watched AMG, imagine the antics of two sisters arguing over watching a drama or a guy's all action show). That's what you get with the character interactions outside of the main couple. As for the main couple, this is where the focus of the plot is for the greater portion of the series. Most of the "meat" of the show deals with May, a robotic cyberdoll developing and understanding her "emotions" mostly concerning love, over the main protagonist, Kazuya, a college student who is also interested in creating AI. At first it would seem that all emotions concerning sentimental things are completely foreign to her. As for whether she can experience these feelings at al or not, it is revealed she is able to experience emotions just like a real human being. As the episodes go on, May comes to better understand the more sentimental parts of life and her own feelings and appreciation of past experiences. As the relationship between May and Kazuya develops, we're also introduced to more and more characters, who are mostly just there to keep things fun.
Okay, now I'm going to talk about the issues I have with the series, unfortunately I can't address these issues without giving major spoilers so:
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
The formula of advancing their "innocent" romantic relationship and having amusing scenes with the various characters each episode gets interrupted near the end of the series as a "Plot Explosion" arrives. This is where I start to have issues with the series. Prior to this, at the 2nd to last episode, The series starts to get serious by talking about the nature of what gives a robot it's personality, and how memories and life experiences are what make them special and unique. They also talk about how important memories are, and how May desires to have more special memories, such as the memories May has from going out on a date with Kazuya to an amusement park(which is featured in a previous episode). So far this is all good and sits well with me, I'm actually starting to get attached to the characters at this point, and as I think this series is starting to pick up pace and race toward a very sweet and sentimental conclusion between the characters, the utterly ridiculous plot twists arrive.
Personal Comment: Okay, be prepared for a very long diatribe, which may go over your head, but it really does contain some serious thoughts about some of the more mature themes one might face with such a series, so I encourage you to try to read and understand it. The following two very long paragraphs is a detailed explanation of what I thought wasn't well explained in the series, and after that, is what I would have liked to have seen them do to make a more solid series.
All of a sudden, at the second to last episode, the plot device of having time travel is introduced to us, as shadowy characters who are seen to be spying on our protagonist for a second or two a couple times from previous episodes but never explained are revealed to actually be time travelers who are descendants of our protagonists from the far off future. Apparently they've come because a "retro virus" from the past has occured which will wipe out the memories of all the cyber dolls in the future. As previously discussed, the loss of memories for a cyber doll is roughly equivalent to death for a human. All of the cyber dolls are infected, except for May, who has a rapidly evolving operating system which is able to protect her from the virus. Why she has this is not clearly explained; either it is a result of having spent time with Kazuya, or that she has a unique OS that has been programmed from Kazuya from the future. Anyway, the plot holes are not that big of a deal, given that this series was not to be very realistic in the first place, but rather focus on relationships and amusement. The real plot twist occurs when May decides to have the viruses transferred to her and have her deal with all the viruses herself (how a virus can be transferred from one cpu to another and be deleted from the transferee, but couldn't just be deleted I have no idea, another problem I see is that it also doesn't mean immunity from the virus if something similar were to occur in the future as well.) And they do mean transfer, because, as a key point of this plot twist, is that May must store the data of the viruses somewhere, apparently an "empty" black box component has been installed inside each cyberdoll. After much debate whether the procedure is safe or not for May, our protagonists decide to use this box as the place to store the virus for May to wipe out seeing as how it is "empty".
After having all the viruses transferred to her, May is able to heal the viruses in all the cyber dolls in the present and the future. But at the same time cyberdolls are regaining conciousness; in perhaps what could have been one of the most bittersweet scenes ever, May is revealed to have completely lost her memory as she repeats the lines from when she is first introduced in the series, apparently the empty black box, is a place which is used by cyberdolls to store their memories. And this, puzzling to me, is pretty much where the series ends, after a scene of shock where the characters react over how she has lost her memory, they come together and all vow to help May(Who is confused and has no idea why everyone is acting so strangely, as she just lost all her memories) in her "second life".
This last scene is hardly satisfying, after having talked about how having ones memories wiped would be equivalent to death for a cyber doll, I would have liked to have seen additional episodes with Kazuya coping with the fact that May is no longer the same cyber-doll or person as he came to know her. I would have liked to have seen how he deals with the conflicting memories he has of the past May and her present self, and how he treats her knowing that she no longer has those memories. I would have also liked to have seen there relationship blossom more, at least to a point where they know eachothers feelings. The way the series ends is a lot like the way the series starts, there is a beginning, a middle, and then a new beginning, ignoring all the crazy plot holes, at the conclusion of the story, I think there is still room for a much more dramatic half of a series. Maybe some of the plot holes could be addressed in this half as well. However, we just get a 11th episode which appears to be filled with filler and doesn't deal with issues associated wtih May at all, but rather random jokes between the characters. The 11th episode is filled with all original content, but does nothing to advance existing relationships or the plot. Perhaps they intended to have a filler episode before advancing the story again? I believe the story was an original story created just for the TV anime... (As opposed to a manga or visual/light novel adaptation) what their exact intentions were is hard to tell.
All in all, Hand Maid May is a good series, well worth watching, but if you watch anime seriously like I do, be prepared to scratch your head a little at the conclusion and to feel like you wanted a different ending or there to be more episodes. Also, if you want a deeper look into the relationship and problems one may face with a robot/human relationship, Chobits does a really good job at elaborating this theme, I would also say Chobits has a lot less fan service and has a more serious tone, though it is still very fun and facetious at times.
Not My Cup of Tea 
2007-07-01 - When writing this review I had to click the "I am over the age of 13" and maybe that's the problem and why I disliked this anime. You must be 13 or under male to enjoy this series. If you like a lot of fanservice you'll love this series and I'm not saying I don't like a little fanservice but this series seems nothing but. They beat you over the head until you beg for them to stop. The start menu is confusing and I almost thought I had a defective disk until I hit every option and it took me to the real menu. The villian is extremely annoying and Sara whose main job is to repo May is incompetent. It's story after story of how they fail to repo May along with panty shot after panty shot. You'll never mistake this for any anime with a substantial plot. I understand this is harem anime but there are good series that fit under the genre. Gertrude Stein once said, "A rose is a rose is a rose" meaning things are what they are. This anime is a turd is a turd is a turd.
Short and sweet
2005-06-20 - I'm kind of up in the air about this series. While the amazon review basically calls it a waste of time, I don't agree. Hand Maid May is a short and sweet series. While it is basically a harem comedy ala Love Hina or Steel Angel Kurumi, it did have a couple of elements that made it stand out.
1. Unlike Hideki in Chobits, or the guy from Love Hina, Kazuya strikes me as a nice, NORMAL guy. I still, to this day, can't figure out Hideki's attraction, but Kazuya generally seems to care about everything, and everyone. This helps to explain everyone's attraction to him. OK, I got that
2. May is a very sweet character. She tries very hard, and she seems genuine. Or, as genuine as an anime character can be. This point comes in handy when you have to belive her love for Kazuya. I'm sorry, but the romance in Steel Angel Kurumi was unrealistic, and as much as I love Chobits...I never once believed Chi had anything approaching feelings. May, however, makes me believe.
3. I didn't feel any of the ridiculousness of characters I did in Love Hina. Naru, for instance, drove me nuts with her Keitaro, you pervert shouts every 5 minutes. Come on...cut the guy a break...especially when it isn't his fault. Ahem. While Mom was over the top, I felt that the characters in HMM were very genuine and entertaining.
4. This is SHORT! You almost can't get hung up on the oddities or inconsistencies in this series because it is so short. 11 episodes does not take too long to watch, and the story wrapped up quite nicely by the end. (unlike ANYTHING by gainax!)
All in all, I'd say this series is worth the watch. It is a heartwarming, if unoriginal, tale.
amazon hates long animes 
2005-06-03 - This series ran a 10 episodes series when amazon said their was a pointless one more added 11th episode I was mad at them cause more means the better you can't get enough of "Hand Maid May" cause it has a lot of brief nudity and sexually women. One character on hear is a computer nerd but that's fine by me.
