Yay or Nay?: Hand Maid May (Anime)

Such a throwback to early 2000s anime! I forget how I found this anime, primarily because it was recommended on my YouTube channel after watching Hiiro No Kakera (see my earlier review on that one).  Thankfully, it was not the tragedy that was that anime, and it seemed like a short, feel-good anime. But my first reactions to it wondered just exactly what I was seeing. And...why I was seeing it. 

But I won't spoil it here! Read below to find out my thoughts! 

So what is this ten-episode anime about? 

The opening song to the anime can be found here!

Now onto the review! 

The Story

The story centers around a second-year engineering student, Kazuya Saotome, whose dream is to design artificial intelligence, currently in a robot that looks like a squid (named Ikaria). He lives in a small apartment, across from the landlady's daughter Kasumi. One day, his self-proclaimed "best friend/enemy" Kotaro Nanbara gives him a computer program that's supposed to help him further his research, infects his computer and accidentally orders a "cyberdoll" from a AI Corporation called "Cyberdyne". This introduces him to a tiny little robot called "May" who befriends and has a strong relationship with Kazuya. Unfortunately, as he does not know why she's been ordered, the company sends a representative back to collect May, teaming up with Nanbara to reclaim May. This begins the first arc of the series, and begins to build up the relationship between May and Kazuya, as well as introduce new members of the cast. 

My Thoughts 

Sooooo, there's a lot of fanservice in this one, mainly because it's a harem manga (I did not know this before I started watching it, so I was confused at first). Although I should've known because Hiiro no Kakera is a reverse harem anime (one of my favourite types personally). There, I said it. But yeah, was kinda wondering why there was so many obvious, more explicit-ish shots (like for example the USB cord up her ass, and no I'm not kidding about that!!). Then I thought Kazuya's character might be a perv, but that wasn't it. It was just a surprise at first. 

I digress.

It's actually a really cute and funny anime. It's short and quick, but that didn't stop me from actually getting invested in characters. There's about three major arcs in the first "season", and I feel like they wanted to do a second, but didn't have the budget to get it done. That's a shame, since the first season ended on a really interesting note. I thought the characters Kazuya and May were really adorable, although I also loved the characters Kei and Reina and Kasumi. There's a real bond between all of them (very clearly shown actually), and it's clear that they all become a little family. While the anime's plot itself might be a little slow or disinteresting, it's the banter between the characters that makes the show. This is, at least to me, a "slow" anime done correctly. Even when there's nothing going on, there's still something happening to keep me at least somewhat interesting. 

Above all, my favourite character was surprisingly Nanbura. I watched the dub for this one, it's not bad at all, and it brought back memories of me as a five year old going to my grandmother's before kindergarten and watching episodes of Cardcaptors and Sailor Moon. The voice actor who played him was fantastic. He was hilarious, vivacious, and full of energy, which matches Nanbura completely. From a story standpoint, he can be the "enemy" but he can also be the friend. It's his eventual fondness for May, and his cyberdoll assistant Sara that leads him to grow closer to Kazuya, and even assist them in times of need. It shows he's not a complete asshole. He's just sometimes egotistical and misguided. I particularly enjoy his monologues, and later, his interaction with the character Totaro. 

Sara is also a favourite of mine. She loves ramen and spews sass. Much like myself :P 

Nanbura and Sara

His animation is particularly hilarious, and just as enjoyable as it looks: 

Going back to the review though, there was some obvious cons to this anime. Two glaringly obvious ones stood out to me. The first, well, it was the slow nature of the story. To fully enjoy this anime, you need to be okay with the fact it doesn't move at a fast pace until maybe episode five or six. Up until that point, the episodes are rather repetitive and just add to the queue of characters we've introduced at this point. I mean, as I've said, they still make things happen, but not much action is introduced. That was okay for me, but for some people it may get boring. The other negative point is that nothing is really explained. While I understand that it's a short "feel-good" anime, I don't think that's a valid excuse. The largest arc is around episode nine, and there's some pretty big things happening. I won't spoil, but I will say it has a lot to do with timelines and the future (yeah, I bet you never saw that one coming from the synopsis I gave you!). So, when things do happen, they aren't explained. How did this happen? You will ask that. Why is this happening? You will also ask that. You will most definitely ask, how does this timeline work, and isn't it now ruined? When you get to a certain point that is. I actually found myself thinking about that more often than I probably should've, but I want answers! I feel like, again, at one point it would've been, but it just never happened. But still, these are some obvious problems with the anime. 

My Rating

It's funny, it's cute, and it's adorable. It's full of energy and arguably, it's innocent at heart. The dub I approve of, as well as the sub. You can find this one for free on YouTube, or any anime streaming website most likely. In terms of buying, if it was cheap or on sale, I'd probably get it, but I wouldn't pay 60$ for it, especially when online platforms offer it at no cost, and in reasonably good quality. You either laugh and have a good time with it, or you may be bored by it. I really did enjoy it, but as I've repeated, obviously there were some flaws and reasons why it didn't get a season 2 (or if it did, a dubbing in English). 

For that reason I'll give Hand Maid May: 

⭐⭐⭐

It's a good anime, and one that's perfect for a day when you're bored, or maybe want to have a day to throwback to the 2000's. Give it a try! 

~Meghan