Mahoromatic: Tadaima Okaeri

When I watched the last tragic episode of Mahoromatic so long ago I secretly hoped that one day they would bring her back. This 2 parter, Tadaima◇Okaeri, is hopefully the start of many more new episodes in the life of Mahoro, Miniwa and Suguru.

The story takes place between day 270 and day 267 of the remaining days left for Mahoro and involves the old gang coming together to create a maid cafe for the local shopping district festival. The show has a slightly different feel to it than the original series, this one feels glossier, brighter and it affected a lot of more panty ... shots and hints of Mahoro's hidden sexuality. However, Miniwa is still falling over, and Chizo is still enjoying her food. The much disliked Miss Shikijo is still overbearing and thoroughly irritating, while Slash and Ryuuga make an appearance too.
Unfortunately Feldrance is also in the show and the extreme dislike I felt for him when I saw him again did ruin the show for me a bit. Those who have seen the original series will understand his significance in the story

There are the usual scenes of Mahoro and Suguru trying their best to grab that quiet time together and their affection for each other is blatantly obvious. Mahoro was always a very sweet character when she wasnt tackling giant mecha and I am glad they never took that away from her. They also didnt take away her distaste for ecchi, and Suguru's love of ecchi.

Do I recommend the show? of course I do. Any chance to see one of my favourite characters is welcome and I hope that many more of these specials are created and slotted into the series. However, I do hope they will relook the ending of the series and one day create an alternate ending.

Lastly, to see Mahoro sing and smile and watch her facial expressions has alway been fun, and she doesnt let me down, and while it's not quite the Mahoro that I really enjoyed from the original, it is still her, and frankly that is good enough for me. Long may she be with us.

Ahhhh…..Mahoromatic, you are a very charming yet frenzied series when I first watched and reviewed you 2 years ago and I did notice that the show didn’t end there…or at least there’s still some story in the series as the following OVA takes place during season 2 (mainly between episodes 2 and 3). So….yeah, if you remember that ending to the show and thought the OVA was changing things after that, well, you thought wrong.



Suguru Misato lives with two maids, Minawa-chan and Mahoro-san, who are combat robots from the war between the alien life form Saint and the Earth. Both were allowed to live on ... as maids without weapons. While Suguru, Hamaji, Miyuki-chan and three other classmates prepare for a maid cafe to celebrate the Hiryushi town’s 120-years anniversary, Mahoro-san and Minawa-chan are attacked by robots.



So, the whole two-episode OVA is pretty much like the basic structure of the series as I last saw it but it is more restrained than what its usual plot of the show with Mahoro and Minawa being powerful maid weapons and them being hunted by the Management. I will say compared to their last side-story The Summer Special, it didn’t felt like a throwaway episode that relies on the gags only, although the gags appear in here, too. Some gags happened to be funny while the rest is painfully cringe worthy involving one character who really annoyed me during the series’ run.



As I said in the Mahoromatic review (this is just a recap of those characters) is that I do find Mahoro to be a charming, interesting and endearing character who, despite being a robotic maid, is the one character in the show I really felt for and also what else I like about Mahoro is that while some embarrassing moments happen to her, she can be very stern about that but she isn’t being a cold bitch about it.. Suguru…..still an okay character; The “Triomatic” (Miyuki, Rin, Chizuko) and his two friends Toshiya and Kiyomi are nothing that interesting to me; Ms. Shikijo is still the most annoying character in the show, especially when trying to seduce Suguru to himself (and how much I wanted Mahoro to end her); Slash is still cool (He’s a partner) and Ryuga, too. Minawa is still fresh in my mind as the newer addition to the group and she’s clumsy while Suguru’s friend Toshiya is crushing on her deep.



Yes, there is still some fan service in this show but to be fair, it’s more subtle than most shows of this genre turn out to be (remember “This Ugly yet Beautiful World”/ You shouldn’t.) and the fact that aspect doesn’t take over the show. There is also that it’s just GAINAX is control of the series with SHAFT overall being absent in the production and the animation does perform very well and visually an improvement from the 2002-2003 series (the OVA was released in 2009).



The musical score is something that has its cutesy thing going for it and they do fit very well, much like the ending themes to the first two TV series and while I personally don’t care for it, it does rather alright. Now, Sentai Filmworks did license the OVA along with the series from Geneon, they did brought back the dub cast from Bang Zoom Entertainment, with some recasting in some roles. First, as I should’ve said this in the first review, I love Ellen Wilkerson as Mahoro in the dub as I always find her voice acting to be believable as that character. I did like Christine Marie Cabanos as Minawa more or equal to as the previous actress playing her and for Ryuga, Keith Silverstein did do alright but I thought David Lucas was better, not to downplay Keith’s performance. Surprisingly, I did noticed Erik Scott Kimerer, pre-Accel World in this dub.



FINAL VERDICT: This special is like my rating of the series as I did have enjoyment in the series with some problems of what they can come up with. It’s a passable OVA that doesn’t stray too far of the original show. I would say you can stream the two only but if you want the Complete Mahoromatic experience, you should check out this and the series overall.

Ecchi is one of my least favourite anime genres. I started watching this OVA expecting to leave infuriated and disappointed, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw.

This is only two episodes long, and the short length works in its favour. It doesn't have time to linger on fanservice (though it is present), so it focuses more on the important parts of this series: the battles, the romance, and the characters. The battle was quite cool (it had transforming robots!), as were the rest of the sci-fi vehicles and lore, which made me a lot more sympathetic towards this OVA. The characters (with the ... exception of an annoying character who mainly exists in this anime to be sexualized) were likeable as well. The visuals were nice as well -- this has warm colours, a good approximation of cel animation (the original Mahoromatic series was one of the last animes to be cel-animated), and a dash of well-used CGI.

If you want a nice, short OVA to watch in under an hour that has cool battles, a warm vibe, and romance, the Mahoromatic OVA would be a good fit. You need little knowledge of the original series to enjoy it (since the premise is explained in the beginning of the first episode). You can easily avert your eyes from the cringey fanservice elements but not miss out on much either, which is a plus. Even if you hate fanservice (though I suggest you avoid this if fanservice is a trigger for you), you'll be pleasantly surprised, as this OVA will give you lots of other things to enjoy.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good OVA -- nothing groundbreaking or super cool, but it's still entertaining and beautifully animated.