There’s definitely been plenty of anime that is a copy of another series. For every Devil Hunter Yohko, there’s a Demon Fighter Kocho, and so on. Some of these copycats work sometimes, while others can be horrendous failures. Today’s series is something of an in-between: a show that while not perfect, still manages to be entertaining in it’s own right. It takes elements from an iconic series, but it doesn’t take too many elements so as not to be a complete copy. With those words said, let’s look at the quirky Hand Maid May, and see if it’s a 100% copycat.
Story/Setup
Hand Maid May centers around Kazuya Saotome, a second-year engineering student at Ochanomizu Industrial University, that also happens to be something of a nerd in his off-time. It’s his dream to create a robot (or Doraemon, as he calls it. Curiously, it happens to look like a squid.), and spends a majority of his time creating it and it’s artificial intelligence. His jealous friend/enemy Kotaro Nanbara gives him what looks like information that will help his project, but instead it’s a virus that will destroy his work. In the process to fix his system, Kazuya accidentally orders a so-called “Cyberdoll” from the Cyberdyne Corporation website. His order appears at his house not too much longer afterwards. What happens afterwards is where things get interesting.
Kazuya opens his package, and out pops the Cyberdoll known as May. An “Artifical Intelligence” no larger that a Barbie (Maybe larger), May immediately settles into Kazuya’s life, and helps him out with things inside & outside his apartment. Over the course of the show, more cyberdolls appears at his home. Some are trying to take May away (Because he technically didn’t pay for the order), while others are merely interested in Kazuya’s life. This causes some friction with his friend Kasumi Tani, the 18-year old daughter of the apartment complex’s owners, who has feelings for Kazuya. A couple other life events happen, but they don’t seem to break apart the group, who always pull through with high spirits.
Like I said above, I consider this series to be a partial copy of another show. A partial copy of Chobits, to be exact. There’s definitely some parallels between Hand Maid May, and the previously mentioned series: there’s the issue of technology becoming more human, our obsession with the latest piece of equipment, conflicts that arise when we get more connected to our machines than our humanity, etc. The major difference is that while Chobits takes these issues more seriously (More so in the manga, slightly less in the anime), Hand Maid May is considerably more lighthearted. For a majority of the show, it takes more of a comedic & fan-service route, with only a couple moments devoted to the seriousness that these issues might raise. Only towards the end of the series do things become darker, but even then this is fleeting, as the situation is fixed, and everything goes back to normal. If you were thinking that this would be exactly like Chobits, and has the same amount of that show’s maturity, then you’d be wrong.
Animation
Right off the bat, Hand Maid May is a show that can be easily identified as a series from the early 2000s. It’s apparent that computer animation was used to primarily animate this show, or at the very least used to supplement a more traditional pencil-and-paper animation style. It’s actually managed to age surprisingly well: there’s definitely moments where the computer side of things hiccups from time to time, but overall the two sides (If indeed two styles are being used) mesh together nicely. The computer animation smooths out the traditional pencil-and-paper, while the pencil-and-paper brings an old-school feeling to the show. By today’s standard, Hand Maid May isn’t a magnificent looking anime, but it’s a simple looking anime that doesn’t strain the eyes.
Voice Acting
For a title from the 2000s, Hand Maid May’s voice acting was surprisingly well done. There’s definitely some roles that are mediocre (Mostly secondary characters), but this is due more to how old the dubbing is. All of the other voices in the show are perfectly adequate: the actors don’t put in a massive amount of effort, but the effort they do put in is more than enough for what they’re given. I was actually surprised to hear some familiar voice actors in this series almost immediately: Lia Sargent, Wendee Lee, Bridget Hoffman, and Michelle Ruff bring their iconic voices to the roles they were given, and out of all the voices given, it is these four actors that put out the most effort, and thus they are the most memorable.
Characters
Hand Maid May’s cast of characters are simple, but distinct. They’re simplistic because there’s not much to their character: the show gives you precisely what it wants you to know, and whatever else is left to your design. Nothing more, and nothing less. Despite that, what background you are given about these characters is enough for you to pay attention to the series. You learn their general mood, feelings, and habits. You can even feel the believability of their shift in emotion, but again, there’s not much going on. What is going on is that each of them are their own person (Or Cyberdoll, in the case of the obvious): they all have their own personalities & habits, thus making them their own individual. They don’t necessarily stray far for their core being, but small things do change when it’s required to do so.
Availability & Pricing
Hand Maid May was a Geneon/Pioneer title, and like many series put out by those companies, they haven’t seen a re-release to this day. I’ve only been able to find it on FYE & Amazon, but the prices are rather high. Of the two, FYE’s pricing is a little more reasonable (Yet still rather expensive): For a brand new copy of the complete series, the cost is $76.98 dollars, with FYE members having to pay $69.28 dollars instead (That’s still expensive, but slightly less so). The pricing for a collection of the series on Amazon is a horrific $99.99 dollars. Used copies vary at both locations: FYE used pricing is probably all over the place, but Amazon has a more consistent used price range, going from $34.99 to $59.95 dollars. Used is the smartest way to go in this circumstance, as new copies are probably too expensive for the average otaku.
Overall Impression & Rating
Hand Maid May isn’t necessarily a show with staying power. It’s attempt, whether purposeful or not, to copy Chobits comes back to bite it in the ass. Most moments where the opportunity to try & deliver a meaningful message aren’t used properly, and when it actually tries, it doesn’t try enough. If you take the “Chobits Copying” out of the equation, then you have a mildly entertaining series. The humor in it is fun, and the fan-service, while excessive in some moments, can probably delight anyone who loves that kind of stuff. Simply put, Hand Maid May might not be the most memorable anime, but it is certainly an entertaining anime.
Hand Maid May gets a 7 out of 10
With this review out of the way, it’s time for our 3rd music review, and our first look at one of the big 4 of Thrash! See you soon!
***
By the way, the Cyberdyne Corporation in Hand Maid May should not be confused with the Cyberdyne Systems company from The Terminator. Wouldn’t want to order miniature killing machines, now do we?
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