まほろまてぃっく ただいま◇おかえり Review 01
Mahoromatic: I’m Home-Welcome Back Special
Mahoromatic: Tadaima-Okaeri – 01

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mahoro and Minawa attempt to wake Suguru up where Mahoro finds he’s hidden porn mags in the upper part of his bedroom window. After breakfast, Chizuko, Rin, Miyuki, Toshiya, and Kiyomi arrive. The girls are going to run a made cafe and want Mahoro’s advice in terms of being a maid, in terms of costume, and in terms of foods. While the guys work on constructing stuff for this cafe, the girls pick and customize their maid uniforms and enjoy the great deserts that Mahoro makes.

After they get everything done, Shikijo-sensei shows up since the girls need an adult to run the cafe. Mahoro is not happy about this, especially since Shikijo-sensei is after Suguru, but she is happy to have Shikijo-sensei help make cheesecakes. Afterward, everyone heads to the public bath for a soak and some stress relief where Rin, Chizuko, and Miyuki give Mahoro a new, red maid uniform. It is a bit short so Mahoro is embarrassed, but since Suguru likes it, she does too. Minawa gets one as well.

The girls and Suguru head to school with Shikijo-sensei literally in tow to get some supplies and are observed by a member of Management, who decides to get his plan underway. So while Minawa is separated from the others, a bunch of small droids attack. Minawa fights them but loses her hair ribbon. Going to retrieve it, she is defeated but both Suguru and Mahoro realize something is wrong. Mahoro arrives in time to rescue Minawa as two mecha units descend to battle her.

Thoughts/Review:

Wow. It has been eight years since the anime first came out and about eleven years since the manga debuted. Hard to believe.

I’d forgotten that Shikijo-sensei is voiced by TAKADA Yumi, the voice of Aeka in the various Tenchi Muyo! series. So it took some getting used to hearing “Aeka” and her shoutacon sayings when it came to her going for Suguru. ^_^;;;

The first thing I noticed about this special is that while it is still full of fanservice and ecchi content, the ecchi factor has gone way down. I seem to recall that the original TV series had detailed nudity and that was not present here. Shocking to me to say the least, though I’ve heard that the rules for nudity have become stricter in Japan. I have absolutely no problem with that since I could do without the ecchi content.

It was nice seeing the old gang back together again in this story that takes place during the TV series (the 2nd one I think). However, the keyword in that sentence is “old.” The crew of GAINAX pulled this from the shelves and when any production company pulls out one of their old hits, they have to do certain things. As such, all of the key elements were hit — Minawa is clumsy but a warrior when needed, Mahoro is perfect and still bickers with Shikijo-sensei, Shikijo-sensei still lusts for Suguru, Suguru still hides his porn, Chizuko still loves Mahoro’s food, Rin and Miyuki still do what they do, Toshiya crushes on Minawa, and Kiyomi is just there.

Of course, Mahoro still says (and even writes this time) her trademarked “Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu!”

Add to the above a bit of conflict from “Management” and you have all the elements that were present in the original two TV series. Unfortunately, after the initial nastalgia factor passes, there’s really nothing here to grab folks. Those looking for the ecchi are going to be disappointed with the lower levels of that. Those looking for the comedy of the original two TV series aren’t going to find anything that really makes them laugh. The action aspects are a yawner because if you’ve already watched the first two anime series, you already know that there’s nothing that will happen to anyone, thus any sense of drama is gone.

I will say that GAINAX did perform the barest of recaps to establish who Mahoro is and roughly that this TV special takes place during the 2nd TV series after Minawa arrives.

So, what we end up with is the first of two episodes that have the “been there, done that” feel to it and that’s rather sad. I don’t think the second episode will be any better.