Back to the Vaults: “Hand Maid Mai” Review
ハンドメイドマイ

A while back, I saw a post on Twitter/X, where someone remarked on the character designs of Hand Maid Mai, the spinoff of Hand Maid May. It prompted me to do a C.A.R. rescue post, but then I got to thinking, “How would this anime be today?” At only one episode before bankrupcy of the OVA’s distribution company halted production, I figured I’d rewatch for old time’s sake and see what’s what.

The Story, in Brief

OZU Hideo works as a video editor for an AV movie company, but dreams of being a legitimate director. He has a small apartment of the roof of his company’s building. Hideo receives an email from his childhood friend, KUROSAWA Mai. Mai is now an up and coming actress, but she invites him to her suite at a luxury hotel. As requested, he bring the videos he’s recorded of Mai over the years.

Initially, things seem cordial, but then Mai gets angry and destroys Hideo’s new camera. She accuses him of being a stalker. Mai’s producer, the middle aged OOSHIMA Kouzou, offers to pay ¥10M for Hideo’s video tapes. He declines, leaving the tapes with her. In frustration, he gets drunk, but on the way home, he’s intercepted by a Cyberdoll named Sara Mark II. She gets his authorization for a purchase and leaves.

At his apartment, Hideo finds three girls in maid outfits, looking like Mai at various stages in her life — Mii, Ai, and Mai. The next morning, the girls tell him they are from the future, purchased for him by a client. Further, they all can function as cameras and have full editing software. The AV director dumps work on Hideo, but the company’s editing computers are fried.

Cyberdoll Mai helps him put together the film, but there’s a missing scene. Aya, the AV actress, films the scene with the three Cyberdolls as Hideo directs. The film gets finished, but Hideo learns that the film his former friend Mai is to star in is a documentary of her life, using the footage he made. The three Cyberdolls offer to help Hideo make his own film about Mai.

Hand Maid May This Ain’t

Although Hand Maid Mai is the spinoff of Hand Maid May, it lacks the charm of the original. Sure, the original had a plot that didn’t make sense, bad animation at times, and a lot of pointless, ecchi content to cover the various sexual fetishes of the audience (loli, dark elf, maid, mother, girl next door, etc.). And yet the charm of the characters, combined with the stupid yet amusing comedy overcame all of the other shortcomings.

For this first of what was supposed to be three episodes, Hand Maid Mai offers no charm at all. I suppose Wonderfarm thought that since Hand Maid May was ecchi and beloved, increasing the ecchi will make the spinoff even better. They were wrong.

Further, it doesn’t help that this spinoff series centers around an AV production company. So a great deal of the episode deals with filming, editing, and producing the company’s latest AV product. I’m not interested in any of that. Thus using these three, “identical” Cyberdolls for AV purposes was not even remotely enjoyable. Heck, Cyberdoll Mai ended up crying as a result of the filming session. Who thought this crap was funny or a good idea?

Childhood Friend Turned Famous

The central plot of Hand Maid Mai is Hideo wanting to be a movie director, and his childhood, female friend becoming famous, thus needing to break ties with him. I don’t know which direction Wonderfarm would have gone with the story. On one hand, we might get a Macross situation where the MC initially falls for the idol, but ends up with someone else. That someone else could be the Cyberdoll age variations of Mai. Heck, it might even be the AV actress.

On the other hand, we could have the situation where Mai is sleeping with her middle aged producer and president of the agency she works for. But then she realizes she threw her one true love away. Hard to say, but I will admit that I wish the final two episodes, which reportedly were made, could be released so I could get a resolution to the story.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up things with some final thoughts.

• Cyberdoll Sara from the first series gets a cameo as a “Mark II” version. For some reason, we don’t get to see her face though.
• Kasumi from the original series gets a small cameo with lines when Hideo walks past the apartment complex from Hand Maid May. Here too, we don’t get to see her face for some reason.
• The character designs of Hand Maid Mai are…different. One gets used to them, but they almost look AI, even though in 2003, that wasn’t a thing. I think it was just the way the digital artwork was done then.
• I guess Cyberdyne Corporation specializes in sending advanced AI to the future. 😅
• The reference to FireWire gave me a laugh. Years ago, I had a PC that had an old USB connection and some FireWire ports. I haven’t seen a FireWire port in years, though they still exist.

In the end, Hand Maid Mai has a sliver of interest, but otherwise lacks the charm of its predecessor.