Mahoromatic Vol.#03

By: Mike Dungan
Review Date: Monday, November 15, 2004
Release Date: Wednesday, September 01, 2004



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

What They Say
When Chizuko narrowly escapes being flattened like a pancake by an oncoming truck, her savior turns out to be Tou Ryuga, the new cooking instructor at school. But Suguru suspects Ryuga of being another android and asks Mahoro to check out this teacher's lunchtime special. Will Mahoro make Suguru eat his works? Or will her investigation be a recipe for disaster?


The Review
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This volume takes a darker turn than previous chapters. There is a new teacher at school, and his name is Tou Ryuga. He's handsome and very popular with the ladies. As the girls all fawn over him, his attention is focused elsewhere, specifically on Suguru. Meanwhile, Mahoro is forced into a battle with an android which she survives only with the help of Slash, her support mech. The android is Ryuga, an old adversary of hers from Saint, the alien organization Mahoro was created to to combat. He holds a grudge from the battles he's lost to her and wishes to settle the score. Mahoro wants to keep all this a secret from Suguru, so she begins an investigation on her own to determine why he's on Earth and why he's posing as a teacher at Suguru's school. Suguru is a very perceptive young man, though, and he knows something is up, even if he isn't sure what it is. In an effort to do something about it, he holds a party at his house and invites everyone, including Ryuga. When Suguru gets Ryuga away from the others, he explains his family situation to Ryuga, and how important Mahoro is to him. Ryuga is aware that Suguru has just given him a warning, which impresses him considerably. He decides to end his investigation into Suguru, now fully reassured that Suguru knows nothing about his father's association with Vesper. However, there is still the issue of his unavenged humiliation at Mohoro's hands, and he issues a challenge to Mohoro that she has no option but to accept.

Before that battle, though, Mahoro decides to make the most of what may be her last days on Earth and takes Suguru with her to Yokohama for a date. It's a great opportunity for both humor in the form of a jealous Shikijo-sensei following them everywhere, and doomed romance, as Mahoro can't help realizing how she feels about Suguru. Once they return home, Mahoro prepares for one more battle, one she has little chance of returning from.


Comments
The third volume of the Mahoromatic manga is a completely self-contained story and neatly mirrors the third volume of the anime. With the very real prospect of Mahoro not surviving her battle with Ryuga, the feeling of dread is never far from the surface, even in the most humorous scenes. This is the best volume so far, with real drama, romantic tension and an extraordinary battle to end it all on. Bow Ditama's art is sexy as always. He doesn't spend a lot of time on backgrounds, except where necessary to set a scene. The resultant spare feeling makes the characters stand out more.

Unfortunately, there's a noticeable mistake in the translation. Ryuga is described as a cooking teacher, but he's quite obviously a science teacher. Embarrassingly, the blurb on the back cover has a heyday with the cooking puns. Too bad it needs to be reprinted to correct the mistake. Unfortunately, the back cover blurb is simply wrong when it says that Suguru asks Mahoro to investigate Ryuga. The whole point of this volume is that Mahoro is keeping her past a secret from Surugu, and she tells him nothing about Ryuga. An interesting change from the anime is that the leader of Saint is called "Matthew" in the anime and "Mashu" in the manga.

The first four pages are in color, which is a nice touch. The ar reproduction is quite reasonable. The only real extra in this volume are two pages of character introductions in the back of the book. Like in previous volumes, a few Japanese words, like "ecchi" and "hai" are left untranslated. It appears a better effort was made to translate more of the background sounds, though they still have a long way to go before they're up to the level of ADV or Viz in this regard. The front and back covers retain the art of the Japanese volumes. The front features Mahoro ironing a shirt with Suguru's face on it, and the back has chibi images of Mahoro working, and Miyuki and Rin sporting those Suguru t-shirts and nothing else. The covers continue to feature a tactilely pleasing mixture of matte and gloss finishes. They're let down, though, by the inclusion of a black and white Parental Advisory printed on the front cover. While I understand the reason for it, I do wish it had been put on the back cover where is would have served it's purpose and been less intrusive.

The translation error concerning Ryuga is a minor annoyance at most and shouldn't stop anyone from picking up this book. The drama and hearbreak is wonderfully portrayed, and makes this much more than just a maid story with lots of nudity. Strongly recommended.