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R2 DVD Reviews
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 00:00 |
 Mahoromatic sticks to what it's good at & serves up a volume full of ecchi comedy, and in the process pushes Saint / Management / Vesper issues into the background for a while. If only it could stay this was forever...
6 - How Happy It Is
From Christmas to New Year, and it time for kimonos and shrine visits - and Mahoro's making sure that everyone does it properly. Shame, then, that she lets her ongoing rivalry with Shikijo-sensei kinda overshadow the event. No matter, everyone else is having fun - Chizu on a food-tasting spree, Hamaguchi trying his luck with Minawa again, and Suguru probably wondering when his life will resemble anything that could be called "normal"...
7 - Don't Ever Come Back Again!
It's time for the Hiryu Dark Martial Arts Festival, where the inhabitants of Hiryu take to the streets to beat the living daylights out of each other. Well, that's the old tradition, anyway. Nowadays, the aim is far more level-headed - remove the marker from your opponents (a flower on their head), and the last one standing wins. Suguru's planning on taking part this year, despite Mahoro's disapproval - he's had to sneak out of the window to get there, and when Mahoro goes after her errant master, she finds herself having far too much fun...
8 - Grandfather & Grandson
Vesper, as ever, have been keeping a close eye on both Saint and Management. While Saint are still quiet, what they're seeing from Management is beginning to worry them - they look like they're readying for war, and by the look of it, it can't be far away. In the meantime, Suguru's grandfather is coming to visit. The president of a major manufacturing company, he's a man with influence - and a mind that's far more perverted than Suguru's could ever be. Not to mention a determined streak that quickly rubs Mahoro up the wrong way. But then, she can't really give too much trouble to her commanding officer, can she..?
9 - Sweeter than Love, But a Bit Bitter
It's almost Valentine's Day, and as all Japanese girls know, that's the day for putting the love in your heart into making delicious home-made chocolates to the one you love. Mahoro and Minawa have got the chocolate-making part sorted, but Mahoro's wondering how to go about giving them to Suguru, while Minawa's just wondering what this "lovey-dovey feeling" that Mahoro keeps talking about really is. Like 369, she's having trouble with this concept of "feelings", which really are a mystery to her. Come the big day, meanwhile, it's Ryuga who seems to be on the minds of all the girls...
10 - Things I Like
It seems that Management have been using Minawa, promising her unspecified rewards if she'll gather information on Mahoro's capabilties. When they realise that the information they've been getting isn't going to be of much use to them, though, they change their plans, deciding instead get their information directly - by capturing Mahoro. That means that Minawa now has new orders: to lure Mahoro out by kidnapping Suguru. Cue Mahoro to the rescue...
Hectic Holidays is the title of this volume, and it's a good description of what you get - of the 5 episodes here, three are focussed on holidays or festivals of one sort or another, which between them lead to plenty of opportunities for the gang to get together & have fun, and for Mahoro to compete with Shikijo-sensei. If the UK release hadn't fiddled with the episode count a little, the Christmas episode would have been here too, as it was for the US release, but given that we only have to spring for three volumes instead of four I'll let that slide. :)
Story-wise, I have to say that for most of the volume "what story??" would be an apt description - although that's not a criticism. For New Year / Valentine's day, you have the gang getting together & doing what any anime characters do over those holidays - gift exchanges, shrine visits & chocolate deliveries respectively, all wrapped up in fanservice. These episodes really aren't going to blow you away with their plot revelations or originality, but that's not the point - if you've grown to like the characters after 15 or so episodes of their antics, what goes on here will be enjoyable simply because of who you're seeing on screen. Personally, I could do with a little less of Shikijo, but every series has to have its terminally-annoying character, and if that's her role then so be it.
The main plot kicks back in again with the visit of Suguru's grandfather, and that comes from his role in Vesper - if there's anyone who could be said to truly know what's going on with Vesper, Saint and Management, he's your man, and there are one or two short scenes between him and Mahoro where you realise that he's almost come to say goodbye. But they're just brief moments wrapped in more of the comedy that typifies this volume - you see them, think about them briefly, then get back to being distracted by Shikijo's mammaries or Sakura's pantsu. Shallow? Hell, yeah.
This is more what Mahoromatic should be. I've never been much of a fan of the darker Saint / Vesper side of the story (we'll get quite enough of that on the next volume, thank you...), but the lighter side of the show has always been well worth watching. There are a few short scenes here that link into the main story, such as Minawa's continuing dreams about 369, but thankfully it's not the main emphasis. Another recommended release.
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