Even Gainax Makes Mistakes

Mahoromatic is the worst anime show Gainax has produced in its 20 year-history. I'd like to go more in depth with this opinion, but I find it difficult to write about something I enjoyed so little. Perhaps when I get a ton (a TON) of free time, I will force myself to re-watch it so I can write a more coherent scathing review.

Suffice it to say, there's a number of problems with Mahoromatic. The first is that it's directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, who admirably got the Gainax studio back in the business of creating anime, but unfortunately cannot direct to save his life. The second problem is the characters: Suguru is the bland Japanese male in most lesser, non-Gainax anime, Shikijo-sensei is a single joke on repeat, while Mahoro is that awful type of anime female who embodies the Japanese female ideal of 100 years ago, namely, submissive to the point of Suguru-worship. Mahoro lives to make Suguru happy, and although there's some explanation for this in the plot, her character has nothing to do with reality and has zero to say about humans or their emotions. Mahoro Ando of Season II is (amazingly) even worse-- a lobotomized cutie pie who, again, seems to be some sort of ideal woman to Japanese otaku.

Mahoromatic also couldn't pick a genre and stick with it. It schizophrenically flips back and forth between action and ecchi, and although the action has its moments, the ecchi is so shallow and repetitive that it's hard to stand more than one episode per sitting.

Granted, there was some good in Mahoromatic. The music, although not by Gainax's main man Sagisu Shiro, is fun, light anime fare. The animation looked fantastic. But beyond that, I think that fans of Evangelion, Kare Kano, and the older Gainax anime will not be able to stomach Mahoromatic. It is also laboriously slow for fans of newer Gainax, used to the breathless pace of the FLCL and Re: Cutie Honey. One of the problems may be the original manga-- the show followed it faithfully until the 2nd half of Season II, an original ending written by Gainax. The ending of Season II, although loathed by Mahoromatic fans, is not surprisingly the only part I recall being remotely interesting.

Links:

Mahoromatic Official Page

Animefan - scans of the JP Mahoromatic DVD boxes and inserts

Mahoromatic Love 3.0 - fan site with an interesting note on the connection between Mahoro and a certain Hennessey whiskey...!

Mahoromatic Revival Project - fan site by a fan who despised the final ep and wants Gainax to change it. Keep dreaming, buddy!

Sand Camel Productions - Fan edit project to create a new cut of Mahoro.