In my Ebichu review, I mentioned how I was trying to watch every Gainax anime. Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden is another one of the more obscure anime that was produced by Gainax. (yes, Mahoromatic, not MahoROMANTIC like I thought it was) is a 2001 TV anime based on the manga of the same name, which as far as I can tell, probably . This is only a review of the first season, but it also has a second season and some TV specials.

It's about a combat android who was made by a secret organisation called "Vesper" named Mahoro (hence the title "Mahoromatic") who only has around a year of operation time left, and decides that she wants to live her last days as a normal human. She does still want to do work though, and finds a boy named Suguru who wants a maid. Suguru tries to hide this at first, but he doesn't keep it a secret for long and his friends/classmates are in on it almost instantly. The premise isn't really anything super original or anything, but I think it works well enough.

The series is mostly a lighthearted slice of life comedy (with a touch of romance) centered around Mahoro's interactions with Suguru and his friends, and her general lack of knowledge on what it's like to be a normal human (that probably wasn't a good description of it, but oh well). It never forgets about Mahoro's past as a military android or that she doesn't have much time left though. At the end of each episode there's a screen which tells you how much operating time Mahoro has left, with it slowly ticking down and there's an episode that's mostly dedicated to her time at Vesper. In the last few episodes there's a bit of a tone shift in general, and while it does feel very different from the rest of the show, I would say that the last couple of episodes are my favourite. Those last few episodes are also a lot more action focused, but that's definitely my personal preference so I'm not complaining.

The artwork/animation is pretty good. It's not amazing or anything, but it's nice to look at. Mahoromatic was released in 2001, around the time when the anime industry was switching from cel to digital, but the first season of Mahoromatic is actually cel animated (the second season, which was released in 2002 isn't though) and was pretty much one of the last cel animated anime.

I did enjoy this anime, but something I didn't like about it was the teacher character. She seems to be jealous of Mahoro for being around Suguru because she (for some reason) wants to get with him. She has no actual plot relevance or reason to exist (except to annoy every single viewer of the show) despite the fact that she appears in almost every episode.

Overall, even though I had fairly low expectations, Mahoromatic was an enjoyable show and I'm glad I watched it.