Mahoromatic - Something More Beautiful Volume 2 - Hectic Holidays   Starring (voice): Ai Shimizu, Ayako Kawasumi and Fujiko Takimoto MVM RRP: £15.99 MVD2306 Certificate: 15 Available 26 July 2010

Mahoro, once a deadly android constructed by Vesper to counteract an alien incursion now has an equally difficult task to undertake, to clean and take care of Suguru as his live in maid. As her body clock ticks down to termination she has to deal with teenage life in all its forms...

Mahoromatic Automatic Maiden: Something More Beautiful (2002) is a science fiction romantic comedy, directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, from an original Bunjūrō Nakayama manga. Even for an anime disc this is distinguished by having no extras whatsoever, so all you get for you hard earned cash is five episodes (eps 6-10).

For those of a nervous disposition it should be pointed out that this series is Ecchi, which means the oddly brazen nipple is on show and enough pants to start a pants factory. This isn’t like Hentai, which is animated pornography aimed at an adult audience, this is more the sort of thing which will get prepubescent boys hot under the collar, without the risk of getting arrested. As you can imagine this means that the plot lines of most of the episodes are tenuous at best.

This disc opens up with the New Year celebrations looming large, good will to most men but not for Mahoro and Miss Shikijo and their barely disguised rivalry, which brings the sort of japes which would warm the heart of a seventies farce fan. The show is only missing a vicar and some ill timed pants dropping to make it a classic.

Ah! The Hiryu Dark Martial Arts Festival, a smorgasbord of foam filled violence, something which does not sit well with Mahoro, which is ironic for an android killing machine. Will Suguru listen to her? Will he hell! Every young lad wants to be hit in the head with a foam Q-tip.

Can a show like this hit a low note, when taste has left us so far behind, possibly not? In the fourth episode Suguru’s grandfather arrives to pass his expertise on the fairer sex only to find the lad living with his bevy of beauties. Still, there’s always the ancient art of sneaking up on bathing beauties, before such skills are lost to future generations. Now you understand why you should listen to your elders.

Episode nine and Valentine’s Day is upon the household with the old tradition of giving and receiving chocolate, actually that sounds grosser than the actual episode was. With so much chocolate on offer, whose will Suguru favour? I’m seriously thinking that at this point this anime may be warping my mind.

And so we reach the last innuendo filled episode and we're back to the plot, anyone else remembers that there was supposed to be a plot? Well the Management is back and they want Mahoro, whether it’s for her pants or her ability for killing thousands is a bit unclear, but the plan relies on them successfully kidnapping Suguru. Will this work? Will it hell.

The single disc follows the same format set down in the first disc with the audio being offered in only English 2.0 or Japanese 2.0 with subtitles. The story is not deep so either track is acceptable. The picture is a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer and is pretty sharp.

Either I am warming to this show or it's melting my mind, so that I just don’t care. Either way, having seen two volumes of this admittedly stupid show, I’m really starting to like it.

6

Charles Packer