MAHOROMATIC: MOTTO UTSUKUSHII MONO/SOMETHING MORE BEAUTIFUL

If they had any more fan service, it’d be hentai 

Abstract:  A direct continuation of the first Mahoromatic series, Suguru Misato’s household gets a new android maid by the name of Minawa to go along with Mahoro.  YessirreeBob, if one android maid is good, 2 is great!  Yes?  Yes?

No.

Seems like Minawa is a runaway from The Management, a faction that’s been introduced in this second series that wants to eradicate the alien threat of Saint for once and for all.  So Suguru and Mahoro take Minawa into their hearts and home and begin to teach her how to integrate into everyday life, all the while trying to figure out just what the heck The Management is up to…Not to mention safeguarding Suguru from the sexual predation of his teacher, Miss Shikijou.

The art’s nice, but that’s all I can commend in this series.  The *cough* writing is absolutely atrocious, with essentially no plot to get in the way of the gratuitous, and I do mean gratuitous, T&A.  There’s not much more I can say.  Sum ergo sum, this one limps its way to an Iron.

Background:  In the first Mahoromatic series, aliens by the name of Saint started beating down earth in the 1960’s, with the terran organization Vesper fighting them every step of the way.  Mahoro was a Vesper combat android who quit fighting the good fight and went to work as a maid for Suguru Misato, the son of Vesper’s former commander who died in a Saint attack.  Along the way Mahoro meets Suguru’s friends, fights a Saint agent named Ryuga who masquerades as a teacher at his school and, most importantly keeps him from succumbing to the outrageous and hilarious feminine wiles of his teacher Saori Shikijo.

But here in the sequel things have moved forward a little bit.  Suguru’s female classmates are all deciding to push the issue with him more and are making their move.  The war between Saint and Vesper has cooled a bit, and both sides are making overtures towards each other about kissing and making up.  But this last development doesn’t sit well with The Management of course, the ultra-uber-top-secret organization that has pulled mankind’s strings since time immemorial.  They’ve got the whole “Death before dishonor” thing going on, and there is NO way that humanity is going to compromise with aliens on THEIR watch!  And since they manipulate history from behind the scenes, their watch never ends.

*Shrugs* They must be a pretty tired bunch then…

But I digress.  Seems like not everyone agrees with Management’s policies.  Or rather, Minawa doesn’t agree with their policies.  And who’s Minawa you ask?  Well, she’s one of Management’s androids, but she’s decidedly NOT a combat model.  How can I be sure?  Well, does being shy, retiring and so klutzy you can’t even walk correctly help one in the middle of a firefight?

I didn’t think so.

Moving right along, Minawa escapes and tracks down the only android to ever survive the war long enough to live a normal life, i.e., Mahoro.  Hence, Mahoro takes an instant liking to Minawa and teachers her about maid work, the meaning of being human, love, and topping the list, just how important big breasts really are.

I’m serious.

Materials and Methods:  Produced by Gainax, those wacky makers of such series as Shinseki Evangelion, Abenobashi Maho Shotengai and Furi Kuri amongst others, the Mahoromatic series represents something…less bizarre.  Of course, when you’re talking about Gainax “Less bizarre” is a completely relative term.  However, no one will dispute they do know how to draw, and since they retained the same character designer from the original series the players in our little show look exactly the same as the original.  And of course, Gainax being Gainax, you can bet your bottom dollar that they rendered the women in loving detail…

All the original seiyuu have returned to reprise their portrayals in the original, with Ayako Kawasumi (Aoi from Aoi Yori Aoshi) taking up the reigns as the title character Mahoro.  Miss Kawasumi seems always to play those girls who are sweet, loving and utterly devoted, and it’s a role she excels at.  I’m telling ya, she gets so much work I wonder where she even finds the time to sleep.  Of course, the character I love most because of her comic relief is Miss Shikijo.  Voiced by Yumi Takada (Princess Aeka of Tenchi Muyo! fame), Miss Shikijo is an over-the-top whirlwind of laughter, literally blowing into every scene she’s in and taking it over.  The newcomer of note is Ai Shimizu (Karen Onodera from Onegai! Twins) who softpedals Minawa so well that she practically melts into the background.  It’s a little annoying that Minawa is that much of a doormat, but the simple fact that Miss Shimizu’s performance was able to elicit that kind of response from me says she did her job.  Actually, I think she did her job too well.

Musically, this one fails to deliver.  Now, I like Ayako Kawasumi’s work, but she simply can’t sing very well.  Her performance of the opening theme “Soreiyu” is, shall we say, lacking.  The one bright spot is the ending theme “Triomatic Ran!Ran!”, a weird, funny and cute little ditty sung by Triomatic, the 3 female classmates of Suguru who are featured in the show and who also sang the closing theme from the first Mahoromatic series.

Results:  *Sighs* What do I say?  Basically, Motto Utsukushii Monno is a replay of the first Mahoromatic series with Minawa replacing Mahoro in the naive android role.  Up the skin factor…Okay, REALLY, REALLY up the skin factor and you have a sequel.  Or so they would have you believe.

First one thing, I couldn’t connect with Minawa.  Yeah, she was written to be all helpless and harmless and what not, but I just found her annoying and frustrating to watch.  At least with Mahoro in the original, she was funny.  Minawa isn’t.  Also, Mahoro seemed to grow and mature and learn during the first series, and that’s something Minawa seemed incapable of doing as well.

Secondly, which I is directly connected to the copious amounts of fanservice in the show, is the fact that the writing here is awful.  Hideous.  Atrocious.  Wretched.

The main thread connecting the Mahoromatic universe together is the whole Saint vs. Vesper conflict.  Well, if they were going to play up that angle, don’t have the first 11 episodes play as your typical harem romantic comedy and then try to create an epic in the last 3.  Seriously, that’s what happened.  For 11 episodes you see the “plot” crawl along with hormones flying every which way with the ladies making plays for Suguru and flashing plenty of thigh, chest and butt, in the process.  And THEN they try to craft a great, epic story that’s meant to enthrall you and wrap everything up in a neat little package?

Well, as a character on an old TV show used to say, “Homey don’t play that”.  What the production team tried to pull off in the last episode especially was so incredibly outrageous and ridiculous I actually got upset after watching it.

And finally, yes, I address the fan service.  If I can remember correctly, every episode had at least 1 shower or onsen scene.  Nevermind that on top of that Miss Shikijo’s Gainax-bouncing through every episode or shoving Suguru between her breasts.  Or that Suguru’s classmates are playing compare and contrast with their respective endowments.  And please, please please ignore the fact that Mahoro is still fixated on increasing her bustline and will use a vacuum to do it.

Conclusions:  There are only 2 reasons to watch this show.  The first is if you want to find out just what happens with Saint and Vesper, in which case you should just watch the last 3 episodes.  The second is that if you want your daily fix of T&A and just too ashamed to rent anything hentai for it, you can watch episodes 1-11.  Otherwise don’t bother.  Mahoromatic: Motto Utsukushii Monno couldn’t decide what it wanted to be, so it tried be everything.  And failed.  Hence, the best it can do is an Iron.