Review: HINADORI GIRL

Nothing hurts like getting your hopes up only to be disappointed, even by obscurities like this. 

HINADORI GIRL, by Mari Matsuzawa.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

While his scientist father is away on the moon, Yoshiki decides to tinker with his dad's greatest invention: Support Robot Sally 001.  She has a special program that allows her to learn about the world in the same way a child might.  This makes it hard to teach her basic things like cooking and cleaning, but makes her very endearing to everyone save for Yoshiki's jealous and quick-tempered sister Akira.  Can they raise Sally right while fending off the vain scientist Tsukiko who wants to steal Sally for herself?

STORY:

I confess that I was expecting Hinadori Girl to be a lot pervier.  That's not entirely unexpected, considering that the mangaka is also known for the fox-girl fanservice fest Inukami! and the anime hate crime that is Recently, My Sister Is Unusual.  It also clearly owes a debt to Chobits, another series about a guy teaching a cute, child-like robot about the world.  What I got instead was much more like a family sitcom, one that's equal parts gentle, goofy comedy and heartstring-tugging.

Weirdly enough, the true protagonist here isn't Sally or Yoshiki but instead Akira.  Most of the chapters her focus on Akira learning to live with Sally and to teach her in positive, constructive ways.  Between this and the Team Rocket-style antics of Tsukiko and her henchmen, I was almost willing to go along with what Hinadori Girl had to offer.  It's not particularly original and at times tries a bit too hard to make Sally precious but I would have happily tolerated this series...if not for the incestuous undertones.

You see, right from the start we are told that Akira has a major brother complex, to the point that she becomes your standard issue jealous tsundere whenever she thinks that other girls might be into her dorky brother or that her dorky brother is doing more than teaching Sally how to sweep and do laundry.  She doesn't even deny it when others ask her about it.  Matsuzawa might be OK with incorporating incest into his cozy comedy about a robot maid, but I'm sure as hell not.

ART:

I wish I cared for the story more because I found the character designs to be rather charming.  In some ways, they're something of a throwback to pre-moeblob times with their fluffy hair, Love Hina-style ahoges, and shojo-style saucer eyes.  The eyes are the real stand-out feature here, as instead of being soft and shimmery they are sharp and focused.  He's also pretty good with emotive faces, a necessity when you have a non-verbal character like Sally.  I also like the way he uses thick outlines to help characters stand out on some of the busier pages.  Even the cover image is well designed, with its simple layout and use of sunny yellows.  There's not even that much egregious fanservice outside of a very brief bath scene.  I just wish all of this was in service of a better story.

RATING:

If you want some cute robot maid antics with some charming art, you could do a lot worse than read Hinadori Girl...so long as you're willing to overlook its derivative nature and awkward incest subplot.

This series was published by DrMaster.  This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available.  All 3 volumes were published and are currently out of print.