Hanaukyo Maid Tai: La Verite

Hanaukyo Maid Team: La Verite
Also Known As: HMTV
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Format: 12 Episodes
Allegiance: M.O.E.
Director: Nonaka Takuya
Vintage: 2004
Intelligence Agency Report by: Orax
Upon his visit to his mother’s grave, Taro is invited to live at his grandfather’s house by Mariel, the head maid. To his surprise he also inherited the whole Hanaukyo Mansion including all the beautiful maids who work there. As these maids do their best to service their new master, Taro also gets to know these maids and appreciate their hard work. As he gets closer to these maids, Taro grows increasingly interested in whether Mariel is really helping him as a maid to her master, or perhaps something more.

Field Agent Report by: Orax 
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
8.00
8.25
8.50
8.75
7.75
Overall 8.00
(not an average)

Gone is Taro’s woman phobia, gone are the short sweet episodes of silliness and instead replaced by a more plot heavy version of Hanaukyo Maid Tai. While this series is a retelling of the story of HMT, it actually meets a proper conclusion in terms of plot. Thanks to the obvious differences between the two, I enjoyed this series a lot more than HMT.

To demonstrate how different the two shows are, the first two episodes of this series cover approximately what the four first episodes did in HMT. The main difference is that this series took the time to develop its characters, eliminating the rushed feeling that came as a result of having 15 minute episodes. Even though some scenes were repeated, the series rewards you with a more fleshed out background to some of the more important characters.

Another difference between the two series is the art style. It’s clearer, crisper, and generally far more attractive than the original. Character designs sport a much more modern look, and while the ecchi that dominated the first series still exists, it is far less frequent. The reduced ecchi content decreased the role of the triplets Lemon, Melon, and Marron to my disappointment, and as a result the series lost some good laughs. But if comedy is sacrificed for drama and plot, I don’t mind then. It wasn’t until the last few episodes that I was really surprised to what HMTV could do. The art quality gets put to the test as the series actually shows some nice action scenes.

Better plot, better animation, and better character development, HMTV turns out to be everything that I knew the story from HMT could, and should have been. A little comedy was sacrificed for plot, but it definitely worked out for the better. If you’ve seen the first Hanaukyo Maid Tai, it is an absolute necessity to get this series.