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Hanaukyou Maid Tai is an extreme ecchi. While many harem anime have ecchi, few have it in such large quantities. Tons of uncensored nudity and strong sexual innuendo pervade throughout Hanaukyou’s twelve episodes. Ecchi works best when it is used for laughs rather than elation or arousal. Unfortunately, the majority of Hanaukyou’s ecchi seems intended to arouse the viewer, which it fails to do in most instances. Still, it’s a semi-enjoyable watch if you’re a big fan of harem anime.
The animation is borderline, with characters that are drawn attractively, but move about the screen in a rather jarring manner. There is no repeated noticeable repeated footage, but still frames are used a little too often. The series is done cheaply, with almost no fluid movement, giving the series more of a manga feel, though not an intentional one, like in Kareshi Kanojo No Jijou (His & Her Circumstances). While the characters are attractively drawn, they’re design lacks originality, looking like any other harem anime out there.
There’s very little to say about the music and sound effects, since they both worked well without drawing attention to them. The opening song is a pleasant little soft rock piece explaining the nature of the Hanaukyou Maid Specialists. The ending song is good for a once through, but no more than that. Sound effects are done more than adequately, though nothing in particular stood out as being good, bad, or special.
This is a harem anime, so there are some mandatory cliché’s to click off:
Male lead who is afraid/allergic/shy of women: Check! Taro Hanaukyou is a fourteen-year-old waste of space, whose grandfather has given him a humongous mansion taken care of by several hundred maids, all who are more than willing to have sex with Taro if he asked them to. Sadly, Taro is allergic to women, with the exception of the head maid, Marielle. Taro is a failure at sports, schoolwork, making friends, and life in general, but… he’s such a nice guy! Taro is about as cliché a harem lead as they come.
Cute little girl character who loves the male lead: Check! Cynthia/Grace is an adorable little blond with a split personality (this would be a terrible plot contrivance, with the terrible explanation for it. However, this is pure comedy, which makes it easily forgivable) who spends most of the series smiling widely at Taro.
Scientific computer genius character who screws up and blows things up on accident: Check! You’ll know her when you see her.
Main female lead who is in love with the male lead: Check! I was certain that Marielle, the purple haired head maid, was being voiced by Kikuko Inoue, my favorite voice actress, who does the voice of Belldandy in Ah My Goddess!. She is actually voiced by Rie Tanaka, who did the voice of Chii in Chobits, as well as Yomi from Azumanga Daioh. Resume aside, Rie does a spectacular job voicing Marielle, elevating a cliché character to the top of the pile with her sweet voice and understated yet readily apparent romantic feelings.
Cute animal: Missing! Where’s Ryo-Ohki? Where’s Pochi-san the alligator? Oh well.
The rival: Check! Ryuka, a fellow multi-millionaire, considers herself and her company to be in constant battle with the Hanaukyou, though her feelings are completely one-sided from Taro’s standpoint.
The story is as cliché and simple as it comes. Taro lives out his days in the mansion, being constantly sexually assaulted by maids, who make him turn different colors whenever they embrace him. Why do the maids seem so interested in having sex with a fourteen-year-old boy? Who knows.
As a pure comedy, there are three important questions to ask: Is it funny? How often is it funny? How funny is it? The answers are “Yes”, “Frequently”, and “Somewhat. A handful of belly laughs over the course of the series, but mostly light chuckles and smiles.” I’m tempted to recommend Hanaukyou Maid Tai regardless of its faults, but there are so many better harem ecchi comedies out there. If you have not seen Love Hina, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Ah My Goddess! TV, Mahoromatic Season 1, or He Is My Master, put Hanaukyou Maid Tai at the bottom of the pile. If you’ve already seen everything, this series is good for a once over. Hanaukyou is funny, but not funny enough.
