Mahoromatic Vol. #04

By Mike Dungan     January 26, 2005
Release Date: December 01, 2004



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Bunjuro Nakayama, Bow Ditama
Translated by:Jeremiah Bourque
Adapted by:

What They Say
After Ryuga decides to live on Earth as a human, he and a skeptical Slash duke it out. Mahoro jumps in the middle of the brawl and implores everyone to just get along. When things settle down, they can finally get onto bigger and bodaciously better things: breast enhancements, bombshells, and beautiful relationships! Tighten your nuts and bolts - it's going to be a bumpy ride!

The Review
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Ryuga's feud with Mahoro settled, he decides to follow her lead. He'll settle in and live as a human. Slash is having none of it, however. He doesn't trust him, and the two fight it out, only to be stopped by Mahoro, who wants them to all live peacefully together. Suguru's fascination with photo books of spectacularly well-endowed nude models leads to Mahoro to try a mail-order machine which promises to give her everything she wants. But these things never work quite as planned. It does lead to some very funny scenes with Mahoro, Miss Shikijo and Suguru, however.

Saint is slowly making their presence known by flying unmanned spaceships, allowing them to be photographed so that the inevitable first contact won't come as a complete shock. As Mahoro and Miss Shikijo end up spending a night together drinking and having fun, a Japanese reporter travels to New York to talk to a homeless man about an incident that happened in 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, something that some individuals want to keep secret.

The next two chapters have Mahoro going to high school. Vesper has learned there is a series of bombs planted around the school. The bomber has left clues which Mahoro is desperately working hard at deciphering. As the job takes several days, she ends up making friends with a couple of the girls there, one of whom happens to be Miss Shikijo's younger sister. Shiori is the complete opposite of her bigger sister. She's quiet, reserved, and as undeveloped in the breasts as Mahoro, which gives the two of them something to bond over. She's also quite the James Bond fan, which ends up figuring prominently in the clue to locate and disarm the final bomb.

In the final chapter, we are introduced to the Keepers. They are a world-spanning shadow government that has controlled human history longer than anyone can remember. They do not welcome the arrival of Saint, and are even less happy about any attempt by Saint and Vesper to reconcile their differences. They utilize a group of "men in black" called the Repairers to make sure everything goes according to their script. A quiet fishing trip with just Suguru and Mahoro is interrupted when the Repairers arrive.

Comments
Mahoromatic is a surprisingly enjoyable combination of outrageous full-frontal nudity fanservice, political thriller, and character driven drama. Bunjuro Nakayama's inspired story is full of brilliant humor and surprisingly emotional scenes. the plot device of giving Mahoro only a limited amount of time to live, but leaving Suguru ignorant of the fact, adds an air of gravity to the story that is never far from the surface. The counter at the end of each chapter showing how many days Mahoro has to live (223 days at the end of this volume) is a somber reminder of her mortality. Bow Ditama's art is sexy and dynamic. He creates very cute characters with deceptively simple linework. He doesn't spend an excessive amount of time on backgrounds, allowing the characters to tell the story.

The cover is a mixture of glossy and matte finishes, using the image from the Japanese tankouban of Mahoro watering the yard with Guri playing with her. The back cover has cute images of the various characters gardening. Set against the white background, it's all very eye-catching and well-done. There are four pages of color art at the front of the book, which is very welcome. As with previous volumes, all Japanese honorifics are retained, as well as a few Japanese words, such as "hai", "ecchi", "sensei" and "sempai." It's a unique experiment, but a successful one in my opinion. In earlier volumes, editor Luis Reyes left too much of the background sound effects and kanji in the art untranslated, but it's much better in this volume. Things like background classroom chatter actually has the word "chatter" inserted, which is a great step forward. The adaptation by Anna Wenger reads as smoothly as always, with great differentiation in how the various characters speak. An extra is two pages of character introductions in the back of the book.

Mahoromatic is a book I always pick up as soon as it hits the store shelves. It's handling by Tokyopop is one of the best in their line-up. The better handling of sound effects in this volume just make it that much better. The introduction of the Keepers marks the point at which the story begins to move on to a much darker tone. This title has surprising emotional depth, making me long for the next chapter, but dreading the approaching end. Just like living with Mahoro.