Anyone remember the freeleech period BoxTorrents (now BakaBT) had back in December last year? Yeah, I still have anime I got during that stockpiled. But I've been working through them and ticked another off the list just now. (Only four more two-season series to go, whoo~) Over the past two days I watched Hand Maid May.

My immediate impression of the series was a cross between Chobits and El Hazard. Basically, it's a harem anime with cute android girls of mysterious origin and some drama revolving around the usual dilemmas presented by human/android relationships in anime. Plus it's got a hilariously incompetent rival character who reminds me entirely too much of Jinnai Katsuhiko. (Which is kind of awesome.) And it's got a lot of fan service. All that's missing are the giant insects.

Did I mention the loli (though not tsundere) android happens to be voiced by Kugimiya Rie? I had no idea she was in it until her character showed up and I recognized the voice. This isn't the first time this has happened, either; Hayate no Gotoku!, which I recently finished, is another example. It's like some invisible force draws me to her loli roles.

Anyway, it was a fun little series and easy to speed through since it's only ten episodes plus one special. Nothing special or spectacular, and very predictable, but still amusing.

Since the series was from 2000, watching it also reminded me just how spoiled I've become by H.264 encoded anime. The version I got was a DVD rip, so decent quality source... but encoded in DivX 5. After the OP there was a full-screen fade from white to black that was literally painful to watch. One time I didn't realize I was leaning forward in my chair, and thus really close to the screen, and I forgot to look away during that bit. I believe I muttered, "Oh my God, it hurts," after being assaulted by the eye cancer at point blank.