Hanaukyo Maid Team
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Hanaukyo Maid Team, known in Japan as Hanaukyō meido tai (花右京メイド隊) or Maid in Hanaukyo, is an anime and manga bishōjo series created by Morishige.
Hanaukyo Maid Team is about a young boy, Taro Hanaukyo, who has inherited a vast family fortune and, more importantly, the near hundreds of employees working at the family mansion. While dressed and referred to nominally as 'maids', there are discrete albeit sometimes unusual departments for most of the employees (including Defence, Science, Catering, etc.). Presumably the various extensive projects in the house pay for most of its expenses.
The original anime, which aired as part of the omnibus program Anime Complex, was cut short when the series ran into production issues. Continuity was later rebooted for the new series Hanaukyo Maid Team - La Verite (Hanaukyō Maid Tai - La Verite in Japan). Many of the early episodes mirror each other closely, with some variations. Both anime versions use the same voice actors.
The English La Verite anime is licensed by Geneon in North America. Studio Ironcat licensed the manga in North America; Ironcat as of 2005 went out of business having only released the first three volumes of the manga in English. There are currently no plans for another company to pick up the licence and release the remaining volumes.
Characters
- Taro Hanaukyo (花右京太郎 Hanaukyō Tarō): A short, quiet, patient and persuasive boy who inherits his mysterious grandfather's home. A common source of humor is his dealing with the overeager work ethic of the maids. He is put off by fawning women. (In the original anime series, this was exaggerated into a near-allergic reaction to any contact with a woman except one.) He is rather blatantly attracted to Mariel. His name is spelled as "Tarou Hanaukyo" in the first English volume of the manga. In both animes, he is voiced by Yuki Kaida (甲斐田ゆき).
- Mariel (マリエル): At the tender young age of 16, she is informally seen as the 'head' maid of the house. She is essentially the 'perfect' maid - attentive, polite, demure, intelligent, and beautiful. Her devotion is alluded to border on obsessiveness and becomes a major plot point later. (In the original anime series, she had purple hair rather than blue.) She is voiced by Rie Tanaka (田中理恵).
- Ikuyo Suzuki (鈴木イクヨ Suzuki Ikuyo): One of Taro's friends, a maid with thick glasses and often sporting a sly mischievous look. She is the head of the Technology Department, and specializes in mechanics and odd inventions (some of which blow up or otherwise malfunction in rather hilarious ways). Rather oddly enough, she is also an otaku. In one episode rife with nods to other anime, she brings several other characters to the world-famous "Comic Market" ("Komiketto" for short in Japanese) in Tokyo with her self-made dōjinshi. She is voiced by Moyu Arishima (有島モユ).
- Konoe Tsurugi (剣コノヱ Tsurugi Konoe): The head of the Security department, she wears a military uniform under her maid apron. She has a severe personality but usually has everyone's best interests at heart. She has a soft spot for dogs, one of the rare times she breaks her overserious visage. The "e" part of Konoe is actually an outdated katakana character "we" (ヱ). She is voiced by Akiko Hiramatsu (平松晶子).
- Yashima Sanae (早苗八島 Sanae Yashima): A dark-skinned maid also working in the defense department, she appears in the later Hanaukyo Maid series. She specializes in hand-to-hand combat but unfortunately is rarely taken seriously by the other maids who she reprimands often. She also has to constantly correct other people, insisting that Sanae (typically a first name for girls) is her LAST name. While Konoe sees her as a pupil, Yashima herself is hopelessly and rather blatantly in love with Konoe. This often has her daydreaming up various lesbian fantasies with Konoe returning her feelings...resulting in rather embarrassing moments. In the original anime, she is voiced by Yukako Hayakawa (早川由佳子). In La Verite, she is voiced by Akeno Watanabe (渡辺明乃).
- Cynthia (シンシア＝ランドラヴィジャー) / Grace (グレース): A silent, young blonde girl who was praised, exploited, and subsequently shunned for her genius. She seemed to develop another personality named 'Grace': a vocal, stubborn, and tougher personality to protect herself. They apparently take turns at being 'aware' while the other sleeps, although they can speak to each other. It was later implied this arrangement is physically detrimental and exacerbated by 'Grace's tendency to overwork. She is voiced by Tomoko Kaneda (金田朋子).
- Ryuuka Jihiyou (慈悲王リュウカ Jihiyō Ryuka): Would-be master of an equally wealthy rival house to the Hanaukyos, annoyed with the condition she would become master of her house if she married the head of the Hanaukyo family. She was even more enraged to find the current head to be a 'whiny midget,' but later grows to like him somewhat. She is a military fan and later strikes up an obsessive competition to beat Mariel and prove herself, to the point of joining the household as a maid. Her bluntness and short temper sometimes comes in handy. Naturally, Ruka's home seems to also have a vast staff, but of handsome men rather than cute maids. She is voiced by Rieko Takahashi (高橋理恵子).
- Hokusai Hanaukyo (花右京北斎 Hanaukyō Hokusai): Taro's grandfather. He is voiced by [[]] ().
- Lemon (れもん), Marron (まろん), and Melon (めろん): Identical triplets who work for the Physical Health Department (お側御用隊 Osoba Goyou-tai). Because of their questionable imaginations, this usually consists of them attempting various lewd acts on Taro around and during bedtime, which he nonetheless seems to avoid. One possible explanation for this is the fact that all three are rather blatantly in lust with him. Lemon is voiced by (????), Marron by (????), and Melon by Yuuya Yoshikawa (吉川由弥).
Hanaukyo Maid Team La Verite
This animation was a remake of the original Hanaukyo Maid Team series. Rather than a pure ecchi anime, the remake has a more complete ending than the original series. The original series does not has a complete ending, although at the ending of episode 15, Ikuyo was putting a tape into the recorder to record the series' episode 16-18, but those episodes never came to a public release. The animation quality for La Verite was noticeably higher than the first series.
Compared to the manga, the remake is much closer to the plot of the manga than the original. It talked about the truth of Mariel, her miserable past and destiny. However, the remake is quite unique and different when comparing to other "Harem" or "Maid" animations, because the conclusion of this anime is anti-master/enslaved-maid, while the series itself seems to have the obedient maids (and to the most, Mariel) as the selling point. It can be considered as a more humanistic animation comparing to other master/enslaved-maid anime like DearS.
"It is meaningless if she becomes a puppet," was what Taro said before the rescue of Mariel, and, perhaps, is the moral of the remake.
See also
External links
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