Hand Maid May (2000–2003) User Reviews

Cute and Ridiculous.

[Motown82 · 6/10 · 23 November 2009]

There are probably many Anime series that you could watch with your girlfriend and not feel uncomfortable. For me, Hand Maid May was one that walked a thin line. Between "awww..." and "uhh, I see vaginal definition on the pantie shots." Hand Maid May is definitely cute, and FUNNY! However, you may have someone in your life who is too uptight to enjoy it. I enjoyed this series. My wife enjoyed it too. We laughed and cared for the characters even though none of them were truly developed. It is extremely silly. If you are expecting a treatise on romantic relationships with androids then you will be disappointed. It does offer a lot of physical humour and bouncy boobs and stuff. But, in pales in comparison to more serious stories such as Chobits. Just remember this is a COMEDY at heart. I'd have a hard time defining this as Romantic Comedy. So enjoy, laugh and lighten up :D

Trite Harem Anime

[DavidRsMail · 5/10 · 27 July 2015]

The overused and implausible scenario where the male in the harem anime is inhumanly detached from natural emotion only when it serves the continuation of the indecisive heart of the male member of the harem? That's here.

The lack of earning the woman's loyalty but getting it anyway? This anime has it in spades, and does an over the top job each time.

That being said, it's cute, silly, and fun. I beg of you: don't use your time on this anime. You won't grow much from watching it. I was a fool not to check the reviews on IMDb before watching. But I'm glad it was only 10 episodes.

Artistry is fairly simplistic, but colors are fairly vibrant. Perhaps it has something to do with being produced in 2001.

I'd write a longer review, but I simply don't want to think about Hand Maid May any longer.

A bit silly, but funny

[smirre44 · 5 October 2002]

Another installment in the ocean of maid anime series that's flooding the market these days. You got your Hand Maid May, your Hanaukyo Maids, your Mahoromatic maid, and so on. The storyline is a bit messy and the characters a bit noisy at times, but it gets a chuckle out of you. And it has the required fanservice, such as pantyshots and such, of course.

And it has 11 out of 10 episodes too, in case you just wondered. :) (episode 11 is one of them so-called specials)

another sweet, romantic comedy about a boy who lives with a female robot

[gjhong · 10/10 · 25 June 2002]

Kazuya our male lead is a university student whose hobby is working on his squid-robot, developing its artificial intelligence and speech synthesizer. For some unknown reason one of his classmates Nanbara is secretly jealous of him and plans to give him a computer virus on a disk. When Kazuya runs the program somehow an order is placed to the Cyberdyne Corporation (from the Terminator movies) for a mini-robot. A delivery arrives at his door and inside the box is a doll-sized robot named May. May is a cheerful, enthusiastic girl and every episode she has to talk about trying to do her very best. Nobody ever wonders aloud about how today's technology can produce such a marvel but this issue is resolved in time. Eventually more cyberdolls wind up in Kazuya's apartment building. Even though you might see the various girls as stereotypes - brainy Kei, bubblehead Mami, little kid Rena - they all seemed interesting to me.

I mustn't forget Kasumi, whose mother owns the Kasumi Apartments. She is Kazuya's neighbour and good friend. She has a secret crush on him and drops hints but Kazuya doesn't notice. The ending song "Real Feelings" is a sweet one and from the lyrics it must be Kasumi's song. In it she wishes she was more girlish so he would pay attention but is hopeful that one day he will notice her.

Although it can be said that the setup has been used before (decent, likeable chap somehow winds up with many cute girls vying for his attention) what matters more is how you feel after watching the show. I first saw the fabsub edition at the Ryerson club and I've just seen the first two English-language volumes from Pioneer and I must say that I really enjoyed the series both times. By the way, Pioneer did an interesting thing by labelling the episodes 1/10 and so on to 10/10 to let you know there was a definite end to the series.

Funny, touching, sad .. a great anime, this one !

[gambit1st · 10/10 · 13 February 2002]

The story begins when Kazuya Saotome tries to create a Artificial Intelligence. His 'rival' can`t stand this and sends him a virus. Because of the virus Kazuya is sent a package and when he opens it, there`s a living doll in it ! The doll May isn`t bigger than his hand (that`s why it`s 'Hand Maid May', the title) and they become friends. He connects May with his computer, because she`s an A.I.-doll at all. But then there appears someone who tells him to pay .. or they`ll want May back. And Kazuya doesn`t has any money ..

It`s really very lighthearted and I laughed a lot of times because of Kazuya (who`s very shy and a little afraid of girls) and all the girls in it. But after a while (and after a couple of romances; May is really cute and naive and Kazuya too ;) )it`s getting a little more serious. Very good how they created such a tense sphere in the end.

The music is really good, too !

Well, okay but....

[adx-0a · 8/10 · 4 January 2006]

This is a great anime with some excellent potential, but unfortunately it never takes advantage of its potential. It holds some incredibly funny moments and the possibilities are endless but the whole 11 episodes feels more like one large filler...without any storyline. Okay so there is about 2 episodes which really follow on but add nothing in the way of much storyline (and the storyline given is ultra cliché and you can guess what'll happen at the end of the episode at the beginning). Another area of great potential wastage is the romantic side ('kay so, this is a comedy) Kazuya and Kazumi could be a great couple (with May being the rival), it could work well and be a fan favourite, but as we wait through 258 minutes (+- 23 minutes per episode and 28 minutes for the OVA), no hug, no kiss, nothing but renewed friendship between the two. There are clearly feelings between the two, so why don't they do what we want them to do?!! (no not that you pervs) I meant a kiss. At least it's funny ( The clever and hilarious soapie, Tornado of Love), great voice acting (well in the Japanese version anyway, funny why the Japanese version is almost always better), awesome animation (some of the best I've seen for fluid animation of late) and the promise of love which, sadly, never blossoms. Otherwise good...

Spectacular anime series

[supermappy · 30 June 2002]

Hand Maid May is a great anime series. I havent had this much fun watching anime sense Ranma 1/2.

Hand Maid May has everything: Hilarious moments, Heart wrenching moments, Tension thats very thick, and an ending that might leave you in tears (but I won't say if that's good or bad)

May is so cute<3

[Irishchatter · 8/10 · 16 February 2019]

I really thought this show was very funny and I seriously thought Lia Sargent as English Dub May was absolutely awesome. Her voice definitely suited her character and like it's hard to do a goody too shoes anime girl without being squeaky and over the top but nope, the character was likeable and totally adorable!

I also gotta give an applaud to Robert Martin Klein for voicing Kotaro who's like this type of show off person you really hate but really like at the same time. His over the top personality made you laugh out loud each time with his failed attempt pranks he does to Kazuya.

I normally am not a fan of harem stuff but this one was right up my ally and it is considered one of the good ones out there for me to really like it! I'm giving this bad boy a 8/10!

Now this is funny.

[TimothyMcKann · 25 September 2004]

When I first bought the DVD collection at the Anime Mid Atlantic 3, on the first volume you're in Nanbara's room you had to choose the right password to proceed to the main menu. In th first 4 episodes of Hand Maid May, she was a 1/6 scale cyberdoll. Episode 5, was her last time she was a 1/6 scale cyberdoll and was reprocessed by Sara because Kazuya did not pay for her. But thanks to Cyber X, who helped Kazuya special order her for his research, Kazuya got to see May again, this time she had gotten a lot bigger then before. There were some funny parts I liked, (Episode 1). Kasumi threw a potted plant at Nanbara because, he was spying on her. And some neighborhood kids were drawing on his car. (Episode.6) Dr.Hell slipped on a banana peel, because someone left it on the floor. He didn't know it was Kei, who left it on the floor. She was inside the room and heard him outside in the hall. My favorite characters in the series are: Kazuya, Cyber X, Kei, and May. Another cool thing about this series, the character's I liked were that their voices were done by, Steve Cannon, Lia Sargent, and Ruby Marlowe. Also, the soundtrack has all the themes to the show. So in closing, add this one to your collection. You will see what I mean.

Less is More - Sadly not found here.

[Rirath_com · 22 June 2003]

I really wanted to like this series, and for the first few episodes I did. Saotome, Kasumi and May make for an enjoyable show. But once Kei, Mami, Rena, Sara, and the annoying Nambara get added to the mix, the show is just diluted beyond hope. It's a Tenchi / Hina formula that just doesn't work and too many characters are just plain annoying.

Not to give anything away, but later in the show things come together and wrap up rather well, if quite a bit stretched. The ending is quite nice. This series had a chance of being great, but it ends up simply sub par. If you really like Robo Girl series and Tenchi / Hina series, give it a shot. The first few and last few episodes are quite worth watching. Sadly, the middle is rather filler.

• Rirath_com