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Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful
As a continuation from my post about the first season of Mahoromatic, here's my take on the second season. This post contains spoilers about the ending, by the way.
I found season two to be very much the same as season one. The biggest difference is the addition of Minawa, another android who also ends up living in Suguru's house and acting as Mahoro's younger sister and apprentice maid. She fills the shy and clumsy girl stereotype almost too well, to the point that small gags are even made about it. Minawa adds another type of moe to the show but It's still simple, cute, fanservice-filled fun with some story tacked onto the beginning and end.
Sometimes I get that feeling too....
The story is a bit more interesting and dramatic (maybe a little too dramatic in some parts, given the tone of the rest of the show) than the first season. However, when there are enough episodes between Minawa's introduction and the point where things start moving again that you nearly forget she's a key plot point, it still starts to feel almost pointless.
The one part of the story I really cared about was how it would handle Mahoro's dwindling lifespan. From the start, I figured it would be one of three possible outcomes. 1) She'd actually just die and it would be sad, 2) they'd come up with a plan to lengthen her lifespan early on and the series would culminate with its completion, or 3) they'd throw in a deus ex machina to wrap things up at the very end. I was kind of hoping for the first outcome because it would've been the first time I'd seen it happen in this sort of show. Unfortunately, and as I mostly expected, they went with option three. In fact, I totally called it during episode 12 when Yuichiro told Mahoro, "You truly are Saint's soul." At that point I was practically sure how things would turn out, which didn't help the less-than-great ending at all.
Speaking of the ending, I thought the time skip forward, or at least the way it was handled, was completely unnecessary. The style of episode 14 clashed horribly with the rest of the series and made Mahoro's reappearance even less compelling. I'm a little baffled as to why they handled it that way because the summary of the manga's ending that I've since reading on Wikipedia sounds a lot more fitting. I didn't have high hopes for the ending to begin with but it still managed to be disappointing.
Like the first season, I can only recommend the second to people who are looking for something cute and funny (and a bit perverted) to turn their brain off and laugh at for a while. I'm not sure I'd call it more beautiful but it is more of everything the first season was.
I has a Aria-shachou
It finally arrived! I had pre-ordered this Aria-shachou (aka President Aria) plush from ToysLogic way back in early December and it just kept getting delayed and delayed. But it's finally here and I'm extremely happy with it:
He's just under a foot tall and balanced so that he can sit up on a flat surface without support. (Heck, a slope might be fine too since you can tilt the head forward and back a bit to get the balance right.) Right now I have him sitting on my PC case, next to the Pokémon plushies lined up across my two monitors.
This is the first piece of anime merchandise I've cared to spend money on since the aforementioned Pokémon plushies that I got back when I was eleven. It kind of gives me the feeling that I've started down an irreversible path that will some day see my room filled with all manner of plushies and figures. But right now I'm finding it impossible to be anything but happy about my Aria-shachou.
OM NOM NOM NOM
I just watched Shugo Chara! ep20 while eating Cadbury Creme Eggs. Besides the amusement inherent in such a situation, it made me wonder if the heart's eggs are edible. I mean, they pass through the chest into the heart when re-entering people yet other times they interact with their surroundings as if they were normal, solid objects. So would it be physically possible to eat them?
If so, I think Amu is going about cleaning up the X eggs in entirely the wrong way.
Hahi~
I watched Aria the Origination ep9 a bit ago. I always get that warm, fuzzy feeling while watching Aria. But this time it went beyond that to a melty feeling. After a while it felt like I was in a puddle, dripping off my chair onto the floor.
Then I started noticing the hints as Alice guided Athena around. Suspense built bit by bit as I wondered if it was really going to happen. That, "Good luck," comment by the other undine passing by really drove it home. I was still feeling like a puddle, but a tense puddle, as if I were trying to pull myself back together again—only I didn't even realize I was doing it.
At the big moment I felt a kind of happiness that no other anime has managed to evoke within me. Then at the bigger moment I came as close to crying tears of joy as I've ever been. All the tension leading up to that was suddenly released at once and it left me with that slightly shaken feeling you get after finishing something big and stressful.
But, of course, it had to end with a laugh. And as the credits rolled I evaporated into bliss.
Mahoromatic
I watched the first season of Mahoromatic recently and thought I'd write up my thoughts about it. To start, I should mention that I'm not a big fan of maid, robot, or ecchi (i.e. lots of fan-service) themes in anime, which happen to make up nearly the entire show. I've not seen many shows like it so I have little to directly compare it to. However, I like a change of pace from my usual preferences every now and then and Mahoromatic sounded like it would be a fun watch.
The first thing that struck me was just how clichéd the whole thing is. I expected this though—I mean, it is a maid robot show and you really don't need to have seen any of them to know what they're like. There's Mahoro, the cute female lead who applies for a live-in maid position for Suguru Misato, the standard nerdy, glasses-wearing kid living by himself in a large house. And, oh yeah, Mahoro happens to be the most powerful combat android ever created. Having fought for nine years to defend Earth from an alien invasion that's been kept secret from the general population, she now only has one year to remain operational, provided she avoids farther combat. Mahoro does actually have a reason for applying as Suguru's maid, after being allowed to live as a civilian for her remaining year, but even that's terribly clichéd.
No one watches a show like Mahoromatic for the story, though, so it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is. It can safely be tossed out the window and you won't be missing anything.
The reason I did watch Mahoromatic was simply to laugh at and revel in the cuteness of Mahoro's day-to-day life. The series was produced by GAINAX and SHAFT so the visuals are top notch and Mahoro is indeed cute. Her innocent nature and little personality quirks even make her, dare I say it, moe.
Quite ironically, the show frequently contradicts Mahoro's trademark phrase, "I think dirty thoughts are bad!" There aren't many panty shots, which are usually all too common in anime, but there is an abundance of boobies. In fact, in the very first episode Mahoro gets into the bath with Suguru. We all know the excuse—only to wash his back, she says—and we all know it's just that. I personally don't care one way or the other about fan-service but if it puts you off then you shouldn't bother with this show.
In the end, there were no surprises and Mahoromatic turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. It was shallow, clichéd, mindless, self-indulgent, yet still fun and entertaining. And at the end of the day entertainment is why I watch anime, and it's why I'll be continuing on to the second season.
