Mahoromatic

I think dirty thoughts are bad!

The Earth has just thwarted one of those pesky alien invasions, thanks to the actions of the superpowered combat android Mahoro. As a reward, she is given the freedom to live the rest of her operational life (just over a year) however she chooses. Mahoro chooses to spend her days serving Suguru Misato, as a maid. However, some people didn't get the memo.

In the second season, Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful, Mahoro is joined by her "little sister" who is a completely Terran Robot Girl Maid (and, initially, a failure). There are even the makings of a small harem with the male lead's schoolmates (though the feel is more of a close group of friends or a Nakama rather than a true harem).

At its core, Mahoromatic is a comedy with strong dramatic (even tragic) elements. As a comedy, it offers several laugh-out-loud moments. In fact, its signature Catch Phrase -- "Dirty thoughts are bad!" (or Japanese in Romaji: "Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu!") -- shows up in many variations on the net and in other animes. The ending in the anime version is much darker than in the manga - and every episode ends with a screen showing how long Mahoro has left to live. You have been warned.

Tropes used in Mahoromatic include:

• All Men Are Perverts
• Ancient Conspiracy: Management (or the Keepers, depending on the translation)
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Mostly averted.
• Beach Episode: episode 4
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: The Saint, somewhat
• BFG: Mahoro's gun in episode 11, which is powered via the electric grid, and causes a city-wide blackout when she powers it up.
• Breast Expansion: While not quite board flat herself, Mahoro is fairly insecure about her relatively small bust. She's, therefore, understandably upset in the dream sequence episode where her mail-order breast enhancement device works on Shikijo, and even the male Suguru (and also Minawa in the anime), but not on her.
• Broken Faceplate: Ryuga gets his helmet smashed open in his battle with Mahoro.
• Catch Phrase: "I think dirty thoughts are bad!"
  • An idea that seems common to all androids and cyborgs alike.
• Christmas Episode
• Dancing Theme: Very simple dance steps used in 1st ED and 2nd ED.
  • What look like very simple dance steps are almost certainly a case of No Budget verging on Special Effects Failure. Remember the episode where Mahoro spends days practicing to be able to lead the Obon dance, and how dumb it seemed that anyone would have to repeatedly practice waving their hands from to the left of their shoulders to the right of their waist? If you've ever watched the real thing, you'll understand why it could take weeks of practice. The Bon Odori is an intricately choreographed dance, and the handwaving was just a low-budget shorthand for it. It's not hard to imagine that with a budget, the Mahoro Mambo would have rivaled Hare Hare Yukai.
• Downer Ending: After a half-hour of gags and Fan Service, each episode ends with a reminder of Mahoro's expiration date. So the series finale shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, right?...
• Fan Service: From the maid who insists on bathing with her employer, to the well-endowed teacher who lusts after schoolboys, to the giant mechanical crab that rips off women's swimsuits, this series certainly isn't lacking for Fan Service.
• Fridge Logic: Why can't Mahoro's power supply just be switched out at the end of the time limit?
  • Perhaps because she uses volatile memory for data storage, and so switching the power off for any length of time wipes her memory? The power supply may even be in such a location that removing or accessing it destroys Mahoro's memory as well, eliminating the possibility of an external power supply.
• Funbag Airbag: Poor Suguru...
  • "Poor"? Yes, since he doesn't welcome it.
• Gag Boobs: Miss Shikijo. Even more so with that Breast Expansion device...
• Gainax Ending: On that note, take a wild guess as to who made the anime.
  • They were twisting the ending of the manga, where Mahoro does come back and all's well that ends well.
    • To explain this: In the manga, several years have passed, and Suguru now works for Saint. His friends still live around him, and they notice the emotional barrier he has put up despite his apparent friendliness, as a result of the trauma of having Mahoro self-destruct in front of him. Unbeknownst to him, Mahoro was reincarnated as a baby immediately after her death, raised by Ryuga, and remembered her past life after reaching her teens. She meets Suguru in the garden of his house.
  • In the anime:
    • there is some debate as to whether or not Mahoro comes back in the flesh or not. It is mentioned that Saint is releasing "a memory" back to Suguru before moving on, and in the haunted school episode it's implied that unfulfilled purposes can create ghosts. Mahoro may have come back as such a ghost, and Suguru died in the epilogue episode, making the haunted school episode an example of Foreshadowing.
    • It could be implied that Suguru is just drunk and possibly crazy. He's half-psychotic as it is. He became a renegade, and threw away all connections to humanity except Gils - who literally stabs him in the back with his own sword for the bounty on his head. Suguru yanks the sword out, decapitates Gils, and loses it because... this reveals that Gils is an android. (He really hates androids now, and spent the last twenty years obsessed with killing them all.)
    • With Saint moving on into the void once again, Matthew decided to leave behind the memories gained as "Mahoro" in a new physical body. Still undecided on Suguru's fate, though.
    • Whether or not Mahoro really came back, Gainax went out of their way to imply that Suguru's wound was mortal (including some heavy foreshadowing from Shikijo). Now there's a hell of an ending - "Yay! Mahoro's back, possibly with an immortal body! Just in time to... watch Suguru die."
• Giant Enemy Crab: A robotic version.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Mahoro did a Suicide Attack on Feldrance who wanted to kill Suguru. Suguru's Grandfather smuggled Slash in the party to wipe out The Management's leadership, it was shown at the that he didn't survive too.
• How Dare You Die on Me!: Okay, she doesn't DIE, but still.
• Humans Are Bastards: The Management
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy^[context?]
• Lover Tug of War
• Marshmallow Hell
• Mundane Utility: Mahoro uses her powers to cook, clean and search for ecchi (to trash it).
• Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Until you hit the Title Drop.
• Pair the Spares: Miyuki and Kawahara in the manga epilogue.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: In the manga, brains of "scrapped" cyborgs are used for facility management in the Keepers' headquarters. While still conscious.
• Recap Episode
• Shoot the Hostage: Mahoro was forced to do this with Suguru's father in the background story.
• Shout-Out:
  • Slash, to Cyborg009, with his "acceleration device".
  • In one of the episodes, Mahoro wears different dresses, two of which look like dresses that Minmei from Macross wore on occasion. You can see where the animators obviously got some of their mecha influences from.
  • Greg Stilson, United States President.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears
• Stealth Clothes: Suguru and his grandfather wear Stealth Clothes to spy on Mahoro and Minawa taking a bath.
• Theme Tune Cameo: Mahoro hums part of the opening theme while walking home in one episode.
• The Thing That Goes Doink: At the hot springs in episode 10.
  • Also a visit to Rin's house in the second season.
• Those Two Guys: Suguru's porn buddies Kawahara and Hamaguchi, though Hamaguchidoes step into the spotlight a bit in the second season and in the manga epilogue, he did marry Minawa.
• Title Drop: Not "Mahoromatic" itself, which is just a silly portmanteau, but the Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo drops its subtitle (Something More Beautiful) at a climatic moment.
• Torpedo Tits: In a spoof of a robot attack in Mazinger Z.
• Twelve-Episode Anime: Season One, Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden, has twelve episodes. Whereas the second season, Something More Beautiful, got fourteen episodes.
• Universal Driver's License: Mahoro has the skills to drive/pilot/operate practically every vehicle in her world. She presents a literal Universal Driver's License on-screen once.
• Unwanted Harem: Miyuki, Rin, and Chizuko, to Suguru. Only Chizuko is willing to admit to herself that she's an Unlucky Childhood Friend.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Chizuko's descriptions of Mahoro's cooking in general fit this (and the sounds she makes whenever she tries one of Mahoro's new recipes verge on Orgasmically Delicious), but the ultimate example is in season two, episode 6: her exposition about Mahoro's curry lasts a good minute and a half!
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Episode 10 reveals more about Mahoro's life of fighting the Saint and her friendship with Suguru's father.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Subverted: when Suguru starts asking around about his teacher, Ryuga, both his friends and Shikijo suspect an onset of yaoi, and are respectively squicked and devastated.
• Zigzag Paper Tassel: The title page illustration for chapter 8 showed Mahoro dressed up as a Miko, holding an ōnusa in one hand and exorcism sutras in the other. (This chapter is about searching for ghosts at school.)