Plot/Story

Mahoro, a powerful female combat android working for the organization known as Vesper, is nearing the end of her life. Because she’s done such a great job, Vesper gives her a choice – remain on active duty where she will stop functioning in 37 days or have her armaments removed and live for 398 days. Her wish is to be a maid for the middle school boy Suguru Misato, who lives alone in a large home after his parents were killed. It just so happens that Suguru is in the market for a maid and despite learning she’s an android, he decides to let her have the job.

Mahoro does the normal maid duties including making bentos for Suguru, keeping his home clean, helping entertain his friends when they come over, and destroying his porn collection whenever she finds it. She must also protect Suguru from the lustful advances of his homeroom teacher Shikijo-sensei, who constantly fantasizes about giving him ‘special’ education.

However, Mahoro’s past soon comes to haunt her as another combat android from the Saint organization comes to destroy her. If that weren’t bad enough, the organization known as The Keepers have their eyes set on Mahoro in order to gain Vesper technology. Can she protect Suguru or will he be the one to protect her?

Characters

• Mahoro Andou – She’s the powerful combat android who takes on the job of being maid for Suguru-san. She’s cute and petite and hates ecchi things. This makes her dealings with the very ecchi Shikijo-sensei very tough, more so since Mahoro’s chest is much smaller than Shikijo-sensei’s. She has a very special reason for wanting to be Suguru-san’s maid. She has the support mecha Slash (who sorta looks like a panther) Sylpheed (which can fly Mahoro around) to aid her in combat situations.
• Suguru Misato – He’s a young middle school-aged boy who’s parents are dead but have left him well provided for to include a nice-sized home. He has a passion for ecchi materials (porn) which he shares with his male friends. Two (possibly all three) of his female friends are in love with him and his sensei lusts after him.
• Miyuki Sakura – She’s one of Suguru-kun’s best friends and someone who loves him a great deal. She’s more tomboyish in nature, but still cute. Her family owns a bath house in town.
• Rin Todoroki – She’s one of Suguru-kun’s best friends and someone who also loves him a great deal. In addition to being very pretty, she’s also has the most developed chest in her class.
• Chizuko Oe – She’s the final of Suguru-kun’s friends, but her love seems to be geared more toward food than Suguru-kun. She’s the cute one of the bunch and goes nuts whenever she tastes Mahoro’s prepared dishes.
• Saori Shikijo – She’s Suguru-kun’s homeroom teacher. She likes to drink and she is a serious shoutacon – sexually into under-aged boys. Her current favorite is Suguru-kun, but when Mahoro comes to live with him, she steps up her actions to seduce him while attempting to put Mahoro down because of her small chest.
• Minawa Andou – She’s a young cyborg who’s escaped from The Keepers. She is rescued by Mahoro and soon becomes another maid in his house when she’s not in school. She’s very shy, but enjoys the company of Suguru’s male friend Hamadi in addition to the affection from her adopted oneechan Mahoro.

There are other characters of note including the male android from Saint, Suguru’s two male friends, and some villain characters. For the most part, all are very interesting characters.

Drawing Style

Bow Ditama-sensei’s drawing style is very good. He manages to capture the intensity in combat sequences as well as the humor in comedy sequences. Of course, he loves to draw female characters in the nude, and ALL of the major female characters are seen nude several times. By the eighth volume, he began to push the envelope with the Japanese censors in how he drew his nude girls. I strongly believe he (and mangaka Nakayama-sensei) are big-time lolicon otaku’s!

Enjoyment

Despite the highly ecchi content (which I don’t like), I found this to be a very enjoyable manga. Having seen the anime first, I was keen to see how the manga story went. The manga story is a little clearer in some aspects, which is good. I have a clearer picture of Saint, Vesper, and The Keepers as this is addressed in the final volume.

The humor in the manga, as in the anime, mostly centers on ecchi topics so you’ve been warned. Despite not liking the ecchi content, I could not help but laugh, sometimes gut-laughter, at some things, especially the bickering between Mahoro and Shikijo-sensei.

Speaking of Shikijo-sensei, her character did annoy me. I guess I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a sensei constantly lusting after her YOUNG student.

I enjoyed the manga’s final chapter better than the final anime episode, where Suguru is 20-years older.

Overall

TokyoPop does a pretty good job with this title. The Japanese honorifics, including “sensei,” are left in the translations, which is always good. Terms like “oneechan” were translated, which I found to be a bit of a disappointment, but one I can swallow. Interestingly enough, translator Jeremiah Bourque left some Japanese words un-translated like “hai” and “ecchi.” This gives the manga a more fan-friendly feel and helps to better capture the spirit of the original text. Considering Jeremiah removed all honorifics from the Slayers novels, I’m glad he decided that a manga so rooted in Japanese culture deserves to be treated with respect. That was the main reason I purchased the title.

TokyoPop also has several color pages in most of the manga volumes, which is a real plus considering how many companies don’t print those.

As such, if you were a fan of the Mahoromatic anime, you’ll want to read this just to get the original story. If you like ecchi humor, lolicon, sci-fi, action, and naked lolicon, then this title will be right up your alley.