Hand Maid May is an anime of the romantic comedy type produced and released here in the States by Pioneer. The series was originally 10 episodes long (can't find an english episode list, will post once I find) so the episodes are numbered in fractions 1/10, 2/10, ect. There was an 11th episode (11/10) that was probably produced as part of a second season before the show got completely canned. It follows the 'life' of Saotome Kazuya, a young college student who is love sick and shy. Life is just peachy, what with the occasional looks up the land lady's daughter's skirts and a failed Squid Research Project (a robot AI type dealy). Yup. But all that goes right down the drain when his self-proclaimed "best friend" and foremost "rival" Nanbara Kotaro gives poor Kazuya a Trojan virus in the form of some dating software. Well, in the process of trying to type in a password he goofed and somehow ordered a cyber doll. Ok, yes, he is a computer geek, so entering a password spoken to you is easy... but the password is "More handsome than other people my name is Nanbara. Arch-Villain of this evil application, I am going to destroy you, Saotome Kazuya! Nanbara-sama is a rich, nice guy. One who doesn't have money is Saotome Kazuya. His whole life, always, not even a penny. Great Nanbara, stupid Kazuya. Bright Nanbara, dark and dull Saotome! I am the sky! I am the king!"... and then more inaudible nonsense (they cut out to show another scene)... followed by "And my dream is to become the CEO of a mega corporation. Saotome's dreams are coward's dreams!" So how's that for a password. Oh. Did I mention the time limit?
So Kazuya goofs on the password and orders a cyber doll while everything is going berserky all around him. Nanbara's Trojan virus succeeds and Kazuya's system becomes infected. Moments later a parcel arrives for Kazuya and guess what, it's the cyber doll. The cyber doll's name is May and she's less than ten inches tall. "Even though I'm small I'll work hard!" After a few small adventures together (picking up additional characters on an average of about every one and a half episodes), May has to be returned to the Cyberdyne Co. because Kazuya can't foot the $1.45 million bill. Surprise surprise some one from the CyberDyne Co. contacts Kazuya about the Squid (named Ikaria) and how they are always looking for programers like Kazuya. So surprise surprise, he gives May back to Kazuya. Only it's not May, it's Super Giant May! Now the size of a full person, Kazuya and May can take the uneasiness of robot-human relationships to a whole new... nothing. It's the Tenchi Syndrome. Too many girls, only one guy...
Characters
Saotome Kazuya - our hero. Geek boy extraordinaire with completely devote, loyal, and entirely too-good-looking-for-any-one's-own-good robot girls(who are all addicted to soap operas) flocking to him like flies to poo. He's in two relationships that he really isn't aware of being in.
Kasumi - Actual person number 2. She's the land lady's daughter who has a big crush on poor Kazuya. There's a ladder connecting their rooms over an alley, and she climbs into his room at free will and she changes in front of her window (Kazuya never seems to notice).
Nanbara Kotaro - Actual person number 3. He's greedy, eccentric, and only out there to witness (and/or cause) Kazuya's demise. He is very open about his intentions and free in his movements. He's a fast talker and moves a lot while he talks. His motions are very fluid-like and his hip thrusting makes sex look like a church.
May - a maid robot. She has a bug in her Maid Program that allows her to fall in love with Kazuya. Her happiness is Kazuya's happiness. Her battery recharger is broken, so to recharge herself, Kazuya fixed her up with a USB cord (coming out of her ass) for a tail. Subsequently she does a lot of ass wiggling.
Sara - a Chinese Cyber Doll with elf ears. She works for Nanbara in exchange for her favorite food, Ramen noodles. Her mission is to retrieve May from Kazuya because he fails to pay his bill, but she falls in love with him.
Rena - a child Cyber Doll. She is stubborn and cries (subsonicly) when she is upset. Her best friend is Ikaria, the Squid (kinda like Sasami's relationship with the Cabbit in Tenchi). After failing to repossess May for CyberDyne, Rena decides to live with Kasumi.
Kei - A blue haired bombshell. She's the super-computer of all Cyber Dolls. The equivalent of a human with an IQ of 50,000. She also failed to retrieve May for CyberDyne and decided to live in the house below Kazuya's (and build a secret elevator so she can show off her panties whenever she gets off of it).
Mami - another Cyber Doll that randomly shows up at Kazuya's door ("sent by his father"). She is an expert housecleaner, cook, and all-around Super Mom. When she's not busy cleaning, cooking, or doing laundry, she likes to meddle with the relationship between Kazuya and May.
Cyber X- a mysterious man in a robot exoskeleton. He always comes just in the nick of time to save everyone.
Commando Z - Nanbara's descedant from the future and CEO of CyberDyne Co. He is just as spastic and stubborn as Nanbara.
Ikaria - what begins as a Squid robot with the AI of a nanosquid quickly becomes one of the funnest characters on the show. He is quickly adopted by Rena and becomes the show's 'mascot' in much the same way Ryoohki did for Tenchi Muyo.
This anime is good. It's one of the funniest I've seen in a while (mostly because of Nanbara... well... no... only because of Nanbara). But it's unoriginal. It's a Tenchi Muyo! clone. It bleeds Tenchi. Kei = Washuu; Rena and Mami = Sasami; Ikaria = Ryoohki; Kazuya = Tenchi; and so on. The similarities are near endless. The only difference is that the Tenchi series have all those spiffy Space Battles and Hand Maid May has... a typhoon...
The animation is mediocre, the music... I didn't even notice any music... But Hand Maid May is a funny series that’s worth watching for that very reason. If funny doesn't make you flock to it, how about getting to see up /everyone's/ skirts? Oh yea. Up the skirts of hot anime robot girls. Who can resist that?