まほろまてぃっく ただいま◇おかえり Review 02
Mahoromatic: I’m Home-Welcome Back Special
Mahoromatic: Tadaima-Okaeri – 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mahoro defeats the two Management mechas as Suguru gets Minawa-chan to safety. Summoning Sylpheed, Mahoro takes out the last missile weapon, which destroys the cargo plane of Management. Number 227, Peldrance, pays Minawa a quick visit before leaving when Mahoro arrives. With the school heavily damaged, Ryuga-sensei and Slash arrive. Ryuga volunteers to repair the school using Saint technology and tells Mahoro to repair her damaged costume as her panties are showing. His and Slash’s subsequent remarks about Mahoro’s exposed panties nets them a beating.

With Cafe Trois open, business is brisk. However, Chizuko, Rin, and Miyuki arrange to each take a solo trip with Suguru around the festival under the guise of drumming up more business. Chizuko takes her turn last and when she and Suguru return, all of the cakes have been sold out. Mahoro produces a special cake she’d been saving for after the event but after setting it on the table, she has a major wardrobe malfunction. The girls get her a new set of clothing and send her and Suguru to the festival. The girls take Minawa on the festival, but Rin and Miyuki find themselves a bit depressed that Suguru is with Mahoro. Mahoro changes back into her maid costume and she and Suguru rejoin their friends for the fireworks.

Thoughts/Review:

Since this is a trip down memory lane via a new story, GAINAX had to get in the rest of the stuff fans expect. So, that started with Mahoro’s defeat of the Management mecha, Ryuga-sensei and Slash eying Mahoro’s panties, Minawa having a moment to deal with what she is, then the fun with friends. Of course that means that we get to see the three female friends of Suguru “date” him slyly, Mahoro have her costume go to shreds, Mahoro “date” Suguru at the girls request, the girls deal with their feelings fur Suguru all the while Chizuko enjoys the food. Then Mahoro and Suguru have a moment before rejoining their friends. Did I miss something?

While I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this trip down memory lane, it really made me think that unless GAINAX wants to explore things AFTER the end of the anime (or manga), then there’s not much point in this. After all, there’s nothing new to say and unless you can find something outrageously funny (such as the Summer Special done in 2003), then there’s not much to be gained here.

I found that GAINAX seemed to do this on the cheap as the animation was rather poor at times. One would think that if they were going to pull one of their classics off the shelf, they’d have given it a bit more polish in the production. Instead, it seems that GAINAX just went for the quick buck over the higher production and subsequent lower buck. Oh well.

I noticed that Ditama-sensei, the artist of the original manga, did the artwork for the eyecatch this episode.

In the end, while an enjoyable trip down memory lane, this anime has no rewatch value to me and I don’t think it could be slipped into the second TV series very easily either. I think this anime will disappoint most fans of the original anime, whether their interest was ecchi (though there is some fanservice but not the nudity of the original TV series), comedy, or story.