Hand Maid May
Hand Maid May is an eleven episode comedy anime series released in Japan in 2000, centering on the adventures of 19-year-old engineering student and hopeless nerd Kazuya Saotome and a hand-sized robotic cyberdoll named May that Kazuya accidentally orders from the Cyberdyne Corporation website while trying to fix the damage caused by a computer virus. May is programmed to serve Kazuya's needs and desires, but must be plugged into Kazuya's computer at night to recharge her batteries because her standard charger was damaged when he first received her.
Further complications develop due to May, the first being his inability to pay for her. This causes Kazuya's rival Nanbara to try to take May away with the aid of several of his own cyberdolls (all of whom wind up falling for Kazuya).
Tropes used in Hand Maid May include:
- A Twinkle in the Sky
- Bokukko: Kasumi
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Used a few times, but a superb example occurs in episode 7 (spoilered since it's such a fun surprise). The scene is at a Dutch Angle indicating the characters' surprise at Mami's... arrival, and Kasumi stomps on the floor until they're level again.
- Casanova Wannabe: Nanbara.
- Catch Phrase: May's "I'll do my best!"
- Crowning Moment of Funny: Lot's of them during the episodes. On of the best ones happen in episode 8. The trio Sara and May followed by Nanbara fight a storm while going after kazuya. During that Nanbara has 3 (impossible) unfortunate events. The best part is when he was supposed to have the 3rd unfortunate event. He stops looks for it (finds nothing) and imediatly after that he gets soaked wet by a truck that "was just passing by" exclamating (according to the subs) "Is this a cartoon?!?!?!"
- Cute Little Fang: Mami
- Ecchi
- Enter Stage Window
- Face Fault
- Festival Episode
- Friendly Enemy: Kotaro Nanbara, the self-proclaimed "best friend and worst enemy".
- Girl in a Box
- Goldfish Scooping Game
- Gratuitous Japanese: The English subtitles translate Cyberdoll Mami's Gratuitous English into Gratuitous Japanese; the dub averts this trope.
- I Have the High Ground: Cyberdoll Sara leaps up onto a power pole to aid in her search for May. Kotaro Nanbara has to climb up the more conventional way.
- Keep It Foreign: See Gratuitous Japanese, above.
- Kid From the Future: Cyber-X and Commando Z, who are descendants of Kazuya and Kotaro, respectively.
- Kikuko Inoue: The voice for Mami.
- Landlord: Kasumi Tani.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Rena, whenever she's not getting her way.
- Meido: The cyberdolls.
- Name's the Same - May will be back. (Okay, wrong character, but still.)
- Otaku: Kisaragi.
- Panty Shot: A lot.
- Personal Seals
- Ridiculously-Human Robots: The Cyberdolls.
- Rie Kugimiya: In perhaps her first role as a Tsundere girl wearing thigh-highs.
- Robot Buddy: Ikariya, the robot Kazuya is building.
- Robot Maid: May.
- Say My Name: The soap opera.
- Shallow Love Interest: May would be a bit short on characterization if her crush on Kazuya wasn't a part of the plot.
- She's All Grown Up: Not in the usual way, mind you.
- Show Within a Show: The soap opera.
- Sitting on the Roof: Variant: The ladder between their apartments serves as the private place for Kazuya Saotome and Kasumi Tani. But since it becomes practically an expressway in the anime, they head for the traditional roof escape later.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Subverted with Kotaro Nanbara. He actually is very good at the things he does, but people don't like him.
- Squick: Cyberdolls can bear children. Who thinks of designing that functionality!?
- Exactly the same person who insists on treating them like actual people rather than machines, being the entire point of the series.
- Third Person Person: Rena
- Token Loli: Rena
- Ten Episode Anime, plus one
- Tomboy: Kasumi Tani
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cyberdoll Sara loves ramen.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kasumi
- Verbal Tic: Mami says "Ara Ara Ara" ("Oh my my!" in the dubbed version) quite frequently
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Mami was created with this idea in mind; she's a domestic genius who wears a kimono (and she's voiced by Kikuko Inoue), but in a variation she has american traits and can skate up walls.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Rena, plus Kasumi and other Cyber Dolls at times.