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ローゼンメイデン 
As usual this is just a preview albeit a rather exciting one. The connection between Mai-HiME and Mai Otome is more or less confirmed by these two episodes. Having said that, I must say that just like in HiME, do not expect any detailed explanation about them. If I have to assess the series as a whole, I think this has been a fun but rather shallow series. There were some missed opportunities which I think should have been explored a bit more. I also think the resolution to the series was a bit rushed but thankfully the action scenes pretty much make up for it. And I really hope the OVA will reveal more background story about this universe and its possible connection to Mai-HiME universe.
Episode 25 begins with an all out war between Garderobe's supporter and Artai's faction. While this happens, Nao, Natsuki and a few other Otomes break into the heavily guarded Garderobe. Inside the school, Miss Maria and Yukariko are also seen disarming the guards so Irina can get access into Fumi's chamber and reactivates the Otome's robe. Natsuki eventually manages to enter Garderobe but her presence is detected by Nagi who orders his henchmen to attack them. Natsuki almost got shot by one of the soldiers but thankfully Shizuru appears in time to save her. Things, however, becomes dire when slave tanks launch an attack on Yukino and Annan leader. Thankfully for the two leaders, Arika, Mashiro, Mai and Mikoto appear in time to intercept the attack. Mai then tells Arika to go to Natsuki's side while she takes care of the slaves. At the same time, Miyu is seen swimming underwater, heading towards the ruin of Fuuka Gakuen when she is suddenly confronted by a bunch of Orphans.
At the same time Irina manages to activate the Otome's power. Because of this, Natsuki transforms into her robe and produces a large rifle to shoot the command tower. Unfortunately the clashes between the two power ends up deflecting into Garderobe and ruins whatever hard work Irina had put into place. Just when things look grim, however, Arika appears to block the tower's blast and destroys it in the process. Tomoe, who saw this is not happy and proceeds to attack Arika. She then confronts Shizuru and tells her that she knows Shizuru lied to her. At the same time, a group of flying slaves gather in the sky and activates Rena's anti-materialiser. This effectively cuts down all Otome powers including Arika. Chie, who sees Arika falling down, immediately flies to catch her. Unfortunately, she's attacked from the back by Tomoe who suspected that Chie will betray them. Everyone is now at the mercy of Tomoe and her valkyries but at the last minute, Midori and her Aswad group appear and make a mincemeat out of Tomoe.
After Tomoe is defeated, Youko tells Arika and Mashiro to join their hand. This in effect reactivates Arika's robe again. Because of this Arika and Mashiro fly towards the tower in order to destroy Rena's anti-materialiser. They are briefly confronted by an injured Tomoe but she's no longer a match for Arika who cuts down Tomoe's robe, causing the other girl to plunge to the ground. At the same time, Arika and Mashiro arrive in the area where Rena's remain is being confined in a capsule. After saying good-bye, Arika decides to destroy the capsule, effectively eliminating the anti-materialiser. As this happens, the spirit of mother and daughter hug each other. When Arika comes out of the tower, she is seen wearing Rena's blue sapphire robe. Things, however, is not over because Nagi has ordered Nina to activate the harmonium. As a result, Godzilla-Nina appears and begins her march of destruction towards the city while the Garderobe faction watches from afar.
Episode 26
Episode 26 begins with Godzilla-Nina creating a whirlwind tornado around the city. The columns decide to use their power together to stop the whirlwind. At the same time, Miyu is seen arriving in the main hall of Fuuka Gakuen. She immediately runs her Trans Global Materialise System and activates the Guiding Star by turning its colour from blue to red. This in effect, gives all Otome their power back. Once this happens, all Otome flies towards Godzilla-Nina and uses their power to stop her while Arika, Mashiro, Natsuki, Mai, and Mikoto go together to destroy the Harmonium. Kazuya decides to send Maya and Akane to help out the other Otome and in the process, Akane reveals that she and Kazuya has not consumated their relationship because they got busted by the masked men at the hotel. Meanwhile, Arika's party is constantly stopped by slaves after slaves so she gets help from other Otomes, including the now young Miss Maria.
But when they got blocked by another slave, Mai has no choice but to tell Arika and Mashiro to go ahead while she, Natsuki, and Mikoto take care of the rest. Because of this Arika and Mashiro goes ahead to confront Nina. Arika and Nina immediately fight each other and eventually flies towards the outer space. Nina constantly attacking Arika but Arika simply blocks the attack, frustrating Nina in the process. In the end, however, Arika manages to get through Nina by convincing her that they can start over. The two are about to hold hands when all of a sudden the Harmonium burst open because it can no longer able to contain Sergey's life. The power of the Harmonium immediately takes over Nina's body and transforms her into the black Otome seen in the first opening theme. Mashiro tries to deactivate the Harmonium but it rejects her over and over again. This time around, however, Arika decides to take the initiative to attack Nina so she produces her weapon and proceeds to run it through Nina's robe.
This in effect destroys Nina's power and eliminated her contract with Nagi. Meanwhile inside Garderobe, Nagi is apprehended by the Otome and Sergey is taken by Youko and the others to be given proper care. In the outer space, Arika is seen cradling the seemingly still alive Nina as the two float in space together. The series end with a ceremony of a new agreement between Aswad and the reannointed Queen of Windbloom, Mashiro. Nagi is now seen being Mikoto's prisoner, forced to do hard labour. Arika decides to stay and help Mashiro to rule Windbloom. On the other hand, in a little castle far from Windbloom, Nina is seen taking care the still unconscious Sergey. He eventually regains his consciousness but seem to have lost any memory of his previous life with Nina. Nina tells him that her name is Nina and that his is Sergey but doesn't tell him the rest of the details. Nina's locket also now contains the picture of her and her friends instead of her and Sergey together.
Garten's impression:
Okay, I have finally calm down from the excitement and able to process the information a bit better. I think in general, the ending is a lot better than HiME ending. However, the writers have cleverly thrown a huge amount of fireworks and fight scenes to distract the viewers from the fact that certain elements of the story were never properly explained. In the end, we still don't know much about Miyu, the blue/red star, the sudden Orphans/Fuuka Gakuen shot. It's like the writers suddenly throw all of these references to Mai-HiME without any intention to explain most of them. But then again, they never really explained the reason for Orphans' existence back in Mai-HiME so I guess it's kind of futile to expect them to address some of the more complex mythology this time around. This is part of the series that has frustrated me time and time again. The series could have been very interesting but as it is now, it stops at being exciting.
Because of this, I'm just going to address what actually works well in this series. To me the theme of friendship lost and regained during wartime is a very interesting concept. In my opinion, it should have been the main focus of the series. And I wish the source of the conflict was difference in ideals as opposed to the existence of a man in the girls' life. Moving on to other elements, I think I like the humour in this series a bit better than the one used in Mai-HiME. The Akane/Kazuya pairing are particularly excellent source of comedy gold. Villain-wise, Tomoe is a much interesting albeit unbelievable villain in comparison to Nina. I feel that the majority of her anger are misdirected to Arika, who's never done anything to her. It's also hard to believe that she's still alive after suffering from the injuries she received in episode 26. But as far as psychotic character goes, she's fun to watch since she'll never win. Kudos to Rie Tanaka for making her character this interesting.
Why in god's name are there no reviews?!!
Ermm....
HOT DAMN!!!! Mikoto on Mai's shoulders....Hot. Space Battle...Hot.
Okay. Now I see why there are no reviews.
That was damn awesome! I enjoyed every second of it. There were so many silly moments and action-packed moments elegantly combined to make one hell of a finale.
I hope the OVAs address Mai's love life. If Sergey is indeed Tate, things are going to be uncomfortably AWKWARD!
Oh..and Nina. I really like you and I know that you care for your friends...and really, you seem like a cool chick...but that haircut is fugliest piece of sh*t haircut I've ever seen in my life. What is wrong with you?
And, for pete's sake, did they have to make Natsuki utterly useless until the very end? So sad.
Tomoe was hilarious.
Unbelievable. No one actually die except Erstin. How is that possible? It's so unfair that a b*tch like Tomoe gets to live and Erstin is still dead.
Shadow, John Smith pushes up daisies too.
Was very nice but I would have liked it to end differently. Instead they could have had where the 12 original HiMES got their powers back and children( the beasts they summoned) and had all the other otomes be...lesser HiMES.(I think if eveyone had a child it would be too much trouble).
Ah yeah, Smith is also dead. So it seems only the Schwarz-affiliated people are dead. But I also want Tomoe to die a horrible death. She's going to be a big problem in the future for both Arika and Natsuki. Unless she's thrown to jail too. I'll bet the 4 OVA will include her as one of the characters.
I totally blanked, but Fia, Argoss, and Lumen all died too.
... okay. So Nina gets impaled by Arika (Sunrise indulges their impaling fetish not once, but twice)... and then keeps Nina alive so they can start anew as friends?
Well, I guess 'it' (the sexual relations of Episode 24) is a little more acceptable to Sergey, Nina, and Sunrise if Sergey doesn't remember that he brought Nina up... :P Not sure how I feel about that... but at least this battle sequence seems to have been better done than SEED Destiny's.
But who knew Miss Maria could look like... like that? Or, for that matter, that Arika without the ugly robe would look... well, Rena's hairstyle is much better than the pigtails, IMO.
and Mimi too. wow, I have a terrible memory.
have not watch the anime yet but it seems like sunrise did change arika's robe to blue after all...wait thats her mother's robe. so does that mean that if the last gem's owner's body is not destroy the gem wont work for the next gem holder??(btw arika looks dam hot in that new robe)
The little thief died too.
Miss Maria is, like, the prettiest one of them all. LOL. She seems really strong too.
It's awfully convenient for Nina that Sergey has forgotten about Rena, Arika, and the fact that Nina is his daughter.... Oh well.
Lastly, I love how Mai and Mikoto seem to just be playing along with the rest of them (quite fitting for the almighty beings that they are), and how everyone just leaves Nina to Arika because they are friends.
oh ya have to add this but u sure can laugh at the way they look at miss maria when shes in her younger form
ANd from another one of the screenshots I saw for this... with the Launch sign... did anyone else get a SEED flashback? "Strike OTOME, launch!"
omfg. sergay looks so freaking young ande hawt.. nina.. i guess you''ll have to see if he goes for you this time instead of arika... it'll be funny if you guys end up together in the ova's or something.. thought its doubtful seeing as Nina looks like shes not going ot tell him about the past for a while, btw the hair cut isnt so bad ppl.. lol
Arika you're the priettiest otome ever .. lol
except that new robe kind ewwish lol
Go NatXShiz
KAzu/ Akane go for the sex man~!
Congratulations Nina! Now you can boink your dad as much as you want. And I feel sorry for Sergey but relieved at the same time that he won't know that his own daughter has done everything in her power to get him into her bed. Ugh.
And Miss Maria, I have one word for you: "Hubba, hubba".
Oh wait that's two words. I can't count -_-;;
And while I'm at it, Nina's final robe is so ugly it's not even funny.
My brain pretty much melted down when we got to see young Miss Maria. HOOOOOT.
All in all, a better ending than I feared and overall, very good.
One bit I rather liked was when Mashiro pulls the knife on Nagi. I was like 'CUT HIM! YEAH!' But she couldn't, for Nina's sake. ^^;;
This finale rocked!!!!!!!!! I had my doubts, but this was amazing!!! I agree, Miss Maria is workin it! :D God I need another season!
OMG MIYU activated the Death Star...People can survive a thousand foot plummet, and re-entry.
Finally Natsuki shows her quality, and she has a big old cannon to boot. At least it was not a total reset. Darn I wish Nagi was sent to the Gulag kolyma means death. I guess we have to settle for him being forever out manuevered by Mikoto, though it is somewhat of poetic justice since Mikoto is not he brightest person in the world.
Arika gets new hair cut and robe, and she looked damn good in it too, why revert back to anty and pink puff?
If the scuttle butt about 3 OVAs is more than an April fool's joke I demand less Nina and Sergei and more one everyone else.
Sergei lives aggghhhhh! Ignorance is bliss indeed.
Miss Maria kicks arse and her robe, wow... Nekomimi Akane, by Jove what has Kazu the new Empereor done to the poor girl? Witch doctor Shiho and maki maki that actually works! Chie serves a warrant, and Nao's strike team along with obese royal guardsman storm the gate, Huzzah peasant rebellion. It almost makes up for the umpteen eps of anty angst and father daughter lurvin, almost...
Mashiro should have knifed Nagi, right between the third and fourth ribs, eh...I guess its good to be queen.
Sunrise I demand a Miss Maria in robe OVA. No wonder why everyone was so afraid so very afraid...
Still fire those script writers for God's sake, or at least a huge pay cut for every dismal ep.
So it has absolutely nothing to do with Hime except for the star changing colors? Glad I stopped watching this series after ep 9.
These last two episodes were unbelievably good considering the other poor episodes in the series. Miyu activates the Hime star?! I thought they were settlers that left Earth and came to a different world. Oh well, they can't tie up all the lose ends after they wasted so many episodes on Arika's and Nina's problems.
I'm currently still thinking of stuff to say, but for now, I'll just settle with this.
(To me) Arika looks better in her pink Robe than the true Azure Sky Robe. Maybe it's the hairband, I don't know, but IMHO Rena looks better in it than her daughter =P.
Hmmm, on second thought, maybe not.
Btw Mentar, did Arika's hair glow when she impaled Nina? That's what I see in that particular shot.
After watching this...I feel like singing "Girls in Trouble"...LMAO
"Chuu...chuu...chuu...Dekaranger...chuu...chuu...chuu...Dekaranger"
PS: ...NO MIROKU...*cries*
These episodes absolutely beat us over the head that SOMETHING like the events of HiME did happen in the past for this "universe"
Saying that they aren't connected is just stupid, the question is...how exactly ARE they connected?
I think this is something the OVAs might explore.
So it has absolutely nothing to do with Hime except for the star changing colors? Glad I stopped watching this series after ep 9.
Good to know you don't have a clue!
I can't believe the maki-maki actually came into play. They worked so hard justifying Shiho and her phallic toy were even in the series, and this was the best they could come up with T__T.
i actually like the way they put Mai HiME in this series, not too much. but i still have 1 curious thoght. is that the whole black village can move like a battleship? because it just appears out of nowhere and it have some source of ocean in it.
i also like that fact that the monsters (the one that attack Nina, Arika and Estin in the past) in this series are actually orphans.
one last thing, if Nina had done the....."job" with sergey that night, then how can she still materialize? i thoght otome lost their power after that. so Hime is actually better because they can do all the hangky bangky :D
I think I noticed a Virtual On homage... among other things..
http://www.vo-marz.com/images/vrdatabase/tangram_pic01.jpg
Re: Akane/Kazu Nina/Sergei loss of Otome powers....
The screenwriters themselves may have forgotten it long since, but way back in Ep. 2 the explanation given for the no-sex-with-guys rule was that it would trigger an immune reaction against the nanomachines. It was even a plausible explanation, at least compared to the general level of hand-waving.
The thing is, the development of immunity isn't something that kicks in right away. If you go with the original explanation, then an Otome who has sex is risking the gradual loss of nanomachines over a period of weeks/months/years. So it is perfectly consistent with the episode timelines for Nina to have successfully seduced Sergei in Ep 24, still have her Otome powers in Eps 25+26, and have lost them by the time of the epilog scene where she is off in some random rural castle with the amnesiac Sergei. Same for Akane. She could have been making a tour of the Love Hotel circuit with Kazu for several weeks now and still have enough nanomachines left to be worth recruiting into the final showdown. Although in this case the flashbacks imply otherwise.
Re: Schwartz...
Was there ever really a separate Schwartz organization, or was it just a shell game by Nagi? Towards the end, Nagi seems to be able to call on the entire contingent of Schwartz-following Suicide Slavers just be pressing a button. We had assumed that John Smith represented Schwartz in an alliance with Nagi. But maybe Nagi basically _was_ Schwartz, and Smith just worked for him.
Re: Death by falling...
If Nina and Arika can survive a reentry fall from orbital height after losing all visible Robe protection, then I suppose it's pointless quibbling about Tamoe surviving a fall from rooftop level, or even Aoi surviving her fall off a cliff. Heck, even Mashiro fell from a 3 story rooftop in Ep. 1 without blinking an eye. I guess the gravity must be lower, or something.
Other issues:
What the heck was that object that Miyu pulled up out of a lake in Ep 24? It never made an appearance in 25/26.
Why is Akira looking so pissed in the scene at the very end when Mashiro was introducing her new castle? Just because Takumi has his sister Mai back?
That's exactly it; Akira is being jealous that Takumi, who has been somewhat obsessed with his missing sister, now has the sister back.
As for Schwartz, it pre-existed Nagi by a long shot, but I think they had tied their wagon pretty heavily to his star by the climax.
Also, I assume someone probably actually flew up and caught Nina and Arika.
Kraad...I'm sorry...I call look look at Nina's sword that way...I cannot officially call it Miroku if a certain "Cat Girl" isn't wielding it...
Kraad...I'm sorry...I call look look at Nina's sword that way...I cannot officially call it Miroku if a certain "Cat Girl" isn't wielding it...
Err...thats stupid.
Finally! The stupid pigtails and ugly robe for Arika are gone! It's almost frustrating that they can make really nice looking robes, yet they decide to use the ugliest ones possible for their main characters >.<
Also, is there a reason why miss Maria suddenly turned young? Or is it just another fanservice/random unexplainable event thing of Mai otome?
Although I haven't seen these last 2 episodes yet, all-in-all, I think i liked Mai hime better. Although I still think mai hime's ending was terrible, at least in mai hime, characters were dying off. Here, only Erstin and John Smith did, which is absurd.
About the surviving-without-robe thing.... Tomoe, Arika, and Nina had their robes shattered, but their robes (or rather their nanomachines) were still activated. That's why they were able to survive. When Arika's robe and nanomachines were deactivated, Chie had to catch her to make sure she doesn't get hurt.
"Also, is there a reason why miss Maria suddenly turned young? Or is it just another fanservice/random unexplainable event thing of Mai otome?"
Presumably, she turns young (and hawt) when her nanomachines are activated. She turned back to her usual self afterwards. Yu Yu Hakusho's Genkai also turns young when she activates her full power. Maybe they got the idea from there.
I personally wanted the Mai Otome series to be longer then the Mai Hime series. But that is what Sunshine Inc. wanted. Seems by all the posts that it is some what like GSD(Gundam Seed Destiny) ending.
wait woops sorry i made a mistake i ment Sunrise Inc. not Sunshine Inc. sorry about that.
Good ending indeed...glad there was no reset. All the otome were great..but Ms. Maria stood out xD..but yea we do need a bit more explaining maybe the OVAs tat are gonna be made are gonna be to explain and tie together loose ends..really liked the ending but couldnt help but feel sorry for Nina but I guess thats her punishment for all of those she caused suffering to
"Nina pretends she still has friends."
Garten, I think you posted this since you usually do the previews, but oh that made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Hilarious.
Oh, and if you really enjoy the theme of "loss of friendship during times of war," you should play Suikoden II. It perfectly integrates this theme into its epic storyline. Great stuff.
Thx, deadpill. Glad to know that it actually made someone laugh. :)
Suikoden II, eh? Okay, I'll look into it. Come to think of it, I haven't play any game lately.
see, i told youi there was somthing wierd about the flying devil thing in the start of the song thing...im smart!..
Overall the 2 episodes are very nice indeed. Action-packed and a nice epilogue.
Only a couple of complains here:
1) Rushing - Most of the fight scenes are okay. But I would prefer to see a longer struggling fight between Nina and Arika (in their final form), at the same time Arika desperately trying to convince Nina.
Also theres not enough screentime for the pillars to show off their skills and Miyu's fight scene with the orphans. (the director probably had a hard time editing the scenes)
2) Okay this almost had me throw up....Whats with Arika's pink+blue robe in the gold-flower-carrying scene? Ew! The colors just doesn't match. or is it a bad sense in fashion?
Anyway, ignoring these complaints, dont think just watch, and you'll have a good finishing show to enjoy.
On to the OVAs, I wonder how it will be like? One of the ways the screenwriters can come up with is by following the SEED Destiny Plus style. Maa......if its gonna be that then they'd better explain all those unanswered questions and tied up any loose ends or connection. 2 extra eps/ovas is enough to do that, so they better do a good one.
If it's a sequel then what would the story be like then? I would like to see Miyu playing the main role after Arika. A little story i came up with......
Orphans start attacking again after being sealed by Searrs a long time ago. Otomes are overpowered. Miyu decided to gather the 12 veteren characters in Zhime and revealed how they were the reincarnation(???) of the Hime sentais of Fuuka Gakuen. She guides them to unleash their dormant child powers in order to defeat the more powerful and intelligent orphans. Of course Arika is involved as a descendant of Alissa Searrs and she have to save the otome world once again. It would be nice to put a touching scene with Miyu fighting and finally sacrificing herself. (ala Terminator 2) T_T
How's that? Sounds like an adaptation of the Fake HiME Movie Trailer? In a 4-episode OVA? Yeah right.....There are so many other ways to tell a story. Until then we can just wait. i won't demand high expections from the OVA for now.
Hmm, I think I've come to realize that regular Meister Otome are just plain cooler than the Columns are. I think the cheesy joke at the end, where the Columns are acting like actual columns kind of did it in for me. Plus, the superfriends-ish costumes and the cheesy poses.
Call me crazy, but I think Shiho's uniform looks the best. It's so appropriate for her! I liked Akane's ensemble too, but I'm very disappointed that she didn't pull out her super tonfas.
Oh, and Chie and Aoi's brief little scene was my favorite moment in the whole finale. IMHO, they kick ShizNat's ass. Although I'mt still not very sure whether Chie and Aoi, as well as Haruka and Yukino are platonic or romantinc pairings. Nevertheless, whether Chie and Aoi are lovers or the best of friends, I adore them.
about akane's robe was that kitty bands shes wearing??
Yep.
She had a tiger motif robe so it's fitting she had the cat ears.
There's going to be an OVA? When is the release date for these (if one has been annouced)?
Makes one wonder what Sunrise has planned in the future...
HiMEs in Space???
...I can see them combining elements...Meister Robe and Child...and like any Trilogy, it will probably suck, but you never know. In addition, I'd like to see the "Mai" Series go 3 seasons just to complete the set. Then, just do OVAs or something afterwards.
The costumes design were horrible! Akira's before-final-form(the form before she went SSJ and look similar to her mother, but 2x as ugly) costume. The costume designer should be shot. Pitiful.........
WOW!!!! Those last episodes were GARBAGE!!!! I was expecting some epic battle like in Mai Hime, instead I got 2 episodes of crap. They hyped up the Blue gem that Akira had, and she really never used the power. I was expecting her to go into some berserk mode. The only thing worth seeing was Miss Maria and that was like a total of 10 seconds. Also, Nina and Sergey shacking up? Come on people, I'm a sucker for love drama, but she's like 12-13 years old and this man has to be in his late 20s or early 30s. I also agree the costumes for the otomes were god awful. A lot of stuff never gets explained. That all being said, Miyu is the truth!!!!
WOW!!!! Those last episodes were GARBAGE!!!! I was expecting some epic battle like in Mai Hime, instead I got 2 episodes of crap. Also, Nina and Sergey shacking up? Come on people, I'm a sucker for love drama, but she's like 12-13 years old and this man has to be in his late 20s or early 30s.
Way to watch the series. Nina is 15, and Sergei is probably around 25 or so.
And considering that Nina is a mass murderer several times over by the end of the series, the morality of her and Sergei hooking up is more than a little moot by that point.
Alright, so a 10 years difference is okay?
So a 10 years difference in a 15-25 relationship is god horrible, while reality has things going at 30-40s are perfectly fine?
Either way, thats your own opinion in the issue, and it involves a bunch of cultural and religious background that we're not exactly interested in. There are so many other scenes worth watching/commenting on.
This whole Sergay/Nina has gone from shocking to dead smack annoying simply because of the number of REPETITIVE comments its been receiving. Oh no its bad, oh yes its fine. GET OVER IT. If you cannot stand it, then MOVE ON, why are you still talking about it?
WOW to Ms Maria for showing those girls how to wear the robe. Personally, I think Rena looks much better in the blue robe, Arika seems to be lacking something... maybe she's just not as mature as her mother? But Rena definitely brought it out better.
Some people have a 20 year difference in their ages.
I think I liked Mai Hime better. Everything seemed to flow better in that series.
I got caught up in that never-ending discussion too, missed out something very important i wanted to say.
In 25, the moment Nao said "HI" to the guards at garderobe, the oh so familiar Mai Hime music kicks in. If I remember correctly, its a very interesting remix of "Gakutenou Kenzan!". The one that played when Midori first revealed herself as a Hime against that rock thing. The good times with Hime.
Enjoyed the ending though I know it wasn't what everyone wanted. I thought the connection to HiME was really good, and here's my two cents on what happened :D
Well they're talking about how there was destruction from the activation of the Harmonium in the war of the Dragon Kings? Who's to say that it wasn't the world of HiME that was destroyed then? Maybe everything else was the same as it was in HiME but the Harmonium buried it all? Hence why Miyu still managed to get to Fuuka Gakuen.
The bit about the star and the moon was a bit odd but yknow, I guess since Searrs original plan to control the HiME failed, they decided to work their own way with the Otome. Searrs did something good (as it was Alyssa's wish) and I think that was a nice touch.
And yeah, as someone posted on one of the forums, I think it was AnimeSuki, Akane's robe really does reflect her desperate wish to lose her otome powers XD
Looking forward to the OVA and as its said it will be about new characters, I'm hoping that it's done very well.
So who thinks that there will be a third chapter of the Mai saga? Well Mai HiME was apparently the "third". So there has to be one more :P
why does akira looks pissed of?
is it because mai's there?
in the doremi fansub, ninas flashback indicates that sergay DID NOT have sex with her, so all of the otome that have robes are indeed, "untainted" :) I was happy over all with the series, it didnt meet my hopes after Mai HiME, but that was a darn good series. i second the question about the weird hybrid blue/pink costume arika had in the flower castle scene, blue on bottom and pink on top? wtf? Akanes neko otome outfit, awesome, i beleive she wins the most cleavage showing in a robe award, wish they had shown its special attack. Shihos robe, FTW, so in character, Ms Maria super FTW . i loved when she told natsuki that "no matter what you do, you lack grace" and so smoothly takes out those slaves. I suppose the legions of Schwarz guys who summonded slaves and died should also count as dead people, since erstin was the same.
Hi there!
Thaks for the reviews.
But wasn't that ending just a bit too open-ened? At least Arika's still with Mashiro (instead of creepy pedophile Sergey). "Yuri Fan-Girl Engine COUNTDOWN: III, II, I, 0 MATERIALISE!"
Okay, I'm done. Love the series.
::HUGS::
Arca Jeth
Warning: Wild Speculation ahead
After the events in Mai Hime, SEARS constructed a new artificial Hime star- the guiding star, to power the new generation of artificial Himes: the Otomes. They also seem to have incorporated the moon into the guiding star's broadcasting system.
Mikoto's story is a bit iffy. But in Mai Hime, they stated that there was an extra Hime, a fake. I always thought it was Alyssa. But it might have turned out to be Mikoto, seeing as to how she was the only Hime who was unable to summon a child, or dematerialize her element. Along this line of reasoning, Mikoto the fake hime would then have been the ideal subject for advanced experiments for designing the new generation of fake himes.
With the completion of the New Otome Guiding star, it became apparent that the technology might be good for more than just a handful of superpowered girls. SEARS then started using to forge mass produced weaker versions of the Otome-Contract system, and Slaves and valkers were born.
But all that was not enough for SEARS. Upon recovering the remains of the obsidian lord, they put him at the centre of a reality altering superweapon: the Harmonium. Furthermore, they included DNA encryption control, so that only a certain person (and his subsequent descendants) could control the Harmonium. Finally, to fully interface with the Harmonium, nanomachinery was needed, so the user had to be an Otome, or had to have an Otome contracted to him/her.
Alternatively, Miroku (Mikoto's sword) might have actually survived the fall of the Obsidian Lord (We didn't actually see it dissappear, and it does not de-materialize normally to start off with). And the sword was then incorporated into the Harmonium. In this case, Miroku serves as the "remains" of the Obsidian Lord that power the Harmonium. (At least, thats my explanation as to how the Harmonium can materialize Miroku).
Unfortunately, prolonged use of the Harmonium led to the semi-revival of the Obsidian lord, and his rage corrupted the original harmonium user. Not only that, the Otome bound to the harmonium user was corrupted, and her Gem became the Ultimate Black Diamond. (Which maybe why it seems to be the only Gem that responds to rage and despair). Schwarz is initially pleased with this development and uses the Ultimate Black Diamond to forge lesser balck diamonds-Valkers. But eventually, the Harmonium goes completely out of control.
The resulting cataclysm wiped out half the world, (and buried the original Fuuka Gakuen), and destroyed SEARS themselves. One remnant of SEARS devote their resources into finding a way to stop the Harmonium and the Ultimate Black Diamond. They find themselves working together with a SEARS outcast- Alyssa. They create the anti-materializer and remake Artemis into the Golden Sword. Alyssa gives these to Miyu, along with her final wishes- Destroy the Ultimate Black Diamond and the Valkers.
Another SEARS remnant however runs off, taking with them slave and Valker tech. They goes off to found a religious cult- Schwarz.
With the world in chaos, the stage is set for various strong and dictatorial leaders to seize control. They focus on forging new countries, and setting themselves (and their children) as kings and queens over them. One such king, was the Harmonium user him/herself. The world reverts to an age of Monarchy. The war of the 12 kings ensues...
Its not really an all out war to start off with: in the face of a greater enemy (the Ultimate Black Diamond and the Harmonium) the other Monarchs cooperate, but are ultimately no match for the Harmonium.
At this point, my speculation gets wilder and wilder. The original Harmonium user had children- princes and princesses, and some of these children did not completely agree with their father/mother's actions. In the end, a princess betrays her parent, and turns the city over to the neighbouring kingdom of Windbloom. The harmonium princess might have then married into the windbloom family, granting subsequent Windbloom generations the capacity to act as the Harmonium Player(this is beginning to sound a bit like Romeo and Juliet).
So the Windbloom family delivers the deathblow to the Black Diamond, and seizes the city holding the Harmonium. But the ultimate Black Diamond itself is lost in the chaos. Windbloom is also unable to use the Harmonium themselves as they don't have Otomes. And as soon as their old enemy disappears, the new monarchs turn on each other.
Finally, an idealistic Windbloom ruler, together with Fumi, rediscovers the lost Otome technology, and uses it to force the war to a halt. The school of Otome is founded, and Otome technology is limited and distributed among the various rulers.
And the stage is set for Mai Otome.
(N.B. If someone decides to use this for a Fan Fiction, then give me some credit XD)
Interesting post, Jenesis! However, I do not think Mikoto is a fake HiME. There is a HiME for each of the 12 astrological signs, and Alyssa shares the Aries sign with Midori. Also, Alyssia's birthday is April 1st implying that she's a joke HiME. And, I think somewhere in the series, it explicitly states that Alyssa was the fake HiME.
This was actually one of the problems I had with the Mai-HiME manga. Haruka was a HiME in the manga, but technically she shouldn't have been, since she shared the same astrological sign as Natsuki. I would have liked it better if Haruka was HiME, and Natsuki played some other role, but I don't think the manga was as meticulous as the anime was. Ah, one of the great things about the anime Mai-HiME was that the series almost played an homage to Sailor Moon concerning how much research and planning was done for the mythological background of each character.
I might as well state my final 2 cents on Mai-Otome. I thought the series was a smidge less better than Mai-HiME was. The first 15 episodes had a weird Uchuu no Stellvia/Maria-sama ga Miteru/Card Captor Sakura kind of feeling, but it worked well. I felt that the Corals (and the Queen) were all very well-developed. Mashiro, Erstin, Arika, and Nina are all annoying as individual characters, but when they interact with one another, their personalities shined. The gradual friendships of these characters was probably one of its greatest strengths.
The only disappointment I had with character development was probably the utilization of previous characters. Besides Aoi, Chie, and Nao (possibly Shiho), everyone else was kind of dull. Shizuru was one of my favorite characters in Mai-HiME, but I don't really give a damn about her anymore, because her storylines were pretty bland. Not to mention, the writers overpowered her. I was completely frustrated with the fact that Shizuru had to outshine Haruka during the Midori fight in episode 10. I mean, it's completely true to the rivalry between the two, but it was still irritating. Shizuru already had many times to show off her powers, so why not let Haruka be in the spotlight for once? The same applies to Natsuki, who was utterly useless in Otome. I swear, there hasn't been a time where she was completely successful in doing whatever. Still, it was a good idea to use the Mai-HiME characters.
The 2nd half of the series gets a little more tricky. There were some brilliantly entertaining episodes like 17, 18, 22, 23, 25, 26. However, I can't help thinking that the war should have started on episode 23. Also, Mai needed to return on episode 14, and should have enhanced the series as an important secondary character a la "RoD TV." I didn't really mind Arika's angst (though I think she's secretly angsty all of the time), and it was rather appropriate with her character. I wish she went bat-shit crazy more times onto Nina (who kind of deserved it), but her furious face in episode 17 was good enough. Anyway, I had some issues concerning pacing during the 2nd half, but I enjoyed it.
Overall, I would give the series an 8.5/10. Not as good as HiME (which I would give a 9.5/10), but still highly entertaining and charming. Both series seem rather bombastic with not much intelligence to ground them, but whereas this really applies to Otome, HiME had tons of subtlties, clues, and hints to make it stand out as a smart and absorbing show.
Wow! I can't believe the writers bothered to save the Sergay-Nina relationship...
But it does engages the interesting question of mental morality (or mens rea in latin) - if the person who commits a wrongful act had no 'evil mind', that he did not know what he was doing, is it wrong? If Sergay has no recollection of his previous role as a father, and Nina continues the deception, who is now the victim or who is the wrongdoer?
All in all, it seems the writers managed to creatively give viewers who were cheering for that relationship an escape clause...
Mikoto did summon her child in HiME, although until the end of the series you only ever saw a part of it (the spines on it's back). I don't know that the sword was really a true element either.
hmmmm all i have to say about the ending is that it was a better ending then i was excepting...............plus miss maria looks so cool young and kicking ass.....hmmm dont really have much comments on nina and sergey...guess i'm happy for the father and daughter,they can be a big happy FAMILY!! now...sorta of i guess.........
You know, Nina STILL doesn't think it's wrong.
She's kinda dumb, ultimately. Like Darth Vader.
I really liked the show, personally. It was kinda cool to see Mashiro gradually be less of a brat and become pretty admirable. Arika also underwent a lot of meaningful growth, and the hug in Episode 25 was really touching. Kid worked so hard aspiring to be like her mother and she had to be the one to "free" her too(the new hairdo looked really good on her too, those pigtails were dumb).
Miss Maria is the ultimate badass.
I think the show closed up all the important threads. I am still curious about things regading the Otome universe and the links to Hime, but I'm perfectly happy wtih those all being left open.
@Shiroi Hane. Mikoto never summoned a child, but she was GIVEN a child by the Obsidian Lord. You can tell it was OL's gift to her, rather than normally summoned as:
1) She only got it after joining OL
2) When she broke the OL's control, the child shut down.
3) When Kagasutchi fired the finishing attack, the OL powered the child back up to block it.
So what now...guys???
...wait for the next 6 months or so for the next series???
(...if Sunrise let's go that far anyway...)
PS: The Tokusatsu Fandom thanks you...
*...chuu...chuu...chuu...Dekaranger...chuu...chuu...chuu...Dekaranger...chuu...chuu...chuu...Dekaranger..girls...in...trouble...Dekaranger...*
Nice Preview!
The last Otome´s episode were really great.
I find the series very enjoyable, in the final balance. Im waiting eagerly for the OVAS.
And Im happy with Nina and Sergey. I thinks that they makes a nice couple.
Yeay for Neko-Akane chan!
And double yeay for the touching Chie-Aoi moment. Was adorable!
Finally... poor Erstin!!! T_T
And now... I want another Mai series! :D
I think all of the predictions of how Otome came about could be very accurate. I figure the whole HiME cycle was not disturbed even though the original HiMES didn't materialize and have their childs. But i did notice that their weapons were very similar to the ones they had in Mai-HiME. plus i noticed that Mai's earing in episode 23 had kagatsuchi's face on it...I prefered Mai-HiME to Mai-Otome....But i do think there were some things they could have done differently.
I think i wnat the HiMES back...It would be interesting if there were a couple more new HiMES but overall...The HiMES kicked more ass than the Otomes.
@Jenesis
Not really. Mikoto always summoned Miroku throughout the series via the tombstone attack (which was his spikes BTW), but we never got a chance to see his true form except the episode when Miroku destroyed Gakutenou. But your theory is pretty interesting. Here's something to back it up. Towards the Golden Millenium - SEARRS (TGMS - first initial of each letter) ----> Trans Global Materializing System (TGMS). See the connection?
Also, in episode 14 or 15 of HiME (can't remember which), it was shown in a flashback that Alyssa was labelled as Valkyrie number something, indicating that she was a man made HiME. Jospeh Glear also said in the same episode that Man-made HiME shouldn't exist in this world before he killed her. Also, Alyssa cannot summon any elements, and has to rely on Miyu to protect her, so I think that she is the fake HiME. And don't forget that when Nagi (or Reito I'm not sure) told Mai that there was an additional HiME that year, Mai immediately said "Alyssa-chan..."
One more thing I can't explain is why MIYU became "Merciful" instead of "Multiple". Also, Alyssa's name was spelt "ALISSA" in Otome. I'm not sure if its a typo (like the fire stirring ruby thing) but if it was deliberate how do you explain the difference?
I hope the OVAs clarify the connections. I'm sure that they're connected but not sure HOW.
@Tsukiyo.
That was sharp, noticing the similiar abbreviations.
As for the differences in spelling, let us not forget that English is not Sunrise's first language. That are some rumours on whether Rena Sayers is in fact Rena Sears. And there is the minor detail that High Advanced Materilizing Equipment should be abbreviated to HAME and not HiME. But I digress.
Here's the thing about what Joseph Glear said and valkerie numbers. SEARS was trying to make a fake Hime, but what if, an ACTUAL Hime was coincidentally born into the experiment? So while everyone (including Mai) thinks Alyssa is man-made, she may actually be the real thing? It would most certainly explain why SEARS could not repeat the feat.
As for her inability to summon a physical element, Alyssa demonstrated a "lesser" summoning power, which no other HiME had. Specifically, she was able to animate orphans. In other words, her "Element", are the orphans. (Incidentally, not all elements are actual "weapons". Shiho had a flute, Yukariko had a mirror, Mai herself had bracelets. So it may not be too far a stretch to say that Alyssa had orphans)
The main problem with the Mikoto as a fake Hime theory would be: who made her and why? The most obvious candidate would be the Obsidian Lord himself. Mikoto was very closely tied to OL even from birth, complete with a mind control amulet.
We also cannot be sure that Miroku is *actually* Mikoto's element. Sure it obeys her, and listens to her summoning, But Miroku cannot dematerialize at all, and on its own has MORE power than MOST childs. All this is very suggestive that Miroku is in fact a (very powerful) gift from the OL, just like Mikoto's "child". (It might be worth noting that when Miroku activates, it shows many eyes, which is the symbol for the OL.) In which case,both Mikoto's element and child are actually gifts from OL.
Why would the OL want to add a fake Hime? Perhaps he foresaw that this carnival would go rather differently (since "girls had become much stronger after the war" and all that), and wanted a fail-proof back up HiME that would be absolutely loyal and obedient.
N.B. I am not actually certain that Mikoto was the fake HiME, it was just a speculative attempt at trying to explain why she was the only HiME that was immortalized and carried over to Mai Otome.
@Jenesis:
It's supposed to be HiME. The i is the only lowercase in the acronym, because they took it from HIghly.
Highly
Advanced
Materializing
Equipment
They just skipped over the A~
On a side note, the scene when the Pearls flew in to assist with the attack on Ninazilla reminded me of Char's Counter Attack.
@Mir
I do know where they get HiME from. (As you can see from my post, I have HiME with a small 'i'). My point is that using 2 letters from the 1st word, and skipping the 2nd word entirely is not entirely good english(especially when the second word is a 'core' word like 'advanced', rather than a 'filler' word like 'of', 'and', 'the').
Its a bit from Calvin and Hobbes, where Calvin starts a club against girls (or against Suzie specifically) and calls it ''G'et 'R'id 'O'f 'S'limy girl'S', and abbreviated it to GROSS. And you know its a bad abbreviation, but that is part of what makes it funny.
The abbreviation on HiME is perfectly fine.
Note the actual expansion is
Highly-Advanced Materializing Equipment.
To facilitate the use of "Hi", there's a dash between highly and advanced, so that the 'A' isn't used. Sunrise english may not be the best, but it certainly does not suck that much.
I was actually hoping to see Nao and Sala's materializing sequence, but lazy Sunrise decided to just replay ShizNat's... too bad =(
Well ending anyway xD! 25 + 26 FTW
@Jenesis
Well, HiME sounds better than HAME right? XD If you read the manga, there were 2 other variations, PRINCESS (Perfect Realization of INdependant acCESS) and QUEEN (QUaint Elemental ENchantress). I guiess they took HiME just to make it tie to the royalty faction.
I'm not sure why Mikoto was the only HiME brought over, perhaps it was because she didn't lose her child? All the other HiMEs DID lose their childs (well Kagatsuchi disappeared in the end, but we didnt see Miroku go up in flames or something) except Mikoto, so maybe she still has the seal left? (the seal disappears when a child dies, so if the child did not die, maybe the seal would remain there?)
Anyway, I think the theory is interesting and there could be a big possibility that that was what happened, but unless Sunrise releases OVAs to explain the connections, I guess it will have to remain as it is - a theory.
Good job btw XD
Dear Mentar and Garten,
Thank you for a most enjoyable series of reviews. I must say that I found your comments in general insightful, despite the fact that for Mai Otome there were quite a number of times I disagreed (with them). The image commentary was frequently hilarious, and well worth hovering the mouse cursor for a few seconds more.
I really like Mai Otome. I looked forward to viewing each episode. I pretty much doubt that I'll consider it the best anime of the year, but it will probably range up there in the top ten. Having said that, there was a great deal left to be desired, whether in the plot or even in the ending. Sigh ...
Still, now that it's ended, I do like to air one gripe: the Nina-Sergey plotline. Not, you understand, about the plotline itself, just the reaction it seemed to engender among the contributors to the comments. Remember, it's an anime. They're not genetically related. Nina's fifteen (but apparently emotionally mature, just not experienced). Sergey probably found himself outpaced by developments, which probably resulted in his apparent decisional paralysis (and not just for this plotline). I didn't like any of the characters in the beginning. Arika was enthusiastically annoying; Nina was really uptight; Sergey was a cipher. But they grew on me, and I wish the best to Sergey and Nina.
I liked Haruka and Nao from the original series, and was thrilled on their development in this one. Shizuru was also a favourite, though she didn't seem to do as much is this version. Loved Tomoe. And god bless Shiho.
To conclude, thank you for your reviews, for making 25 evenings, at times, interesting. I'd also like to thank the miscellaneous contributors, especially those that made me shake my head in disbelief (it restored my faith in humanity).
Arigato.
Sayonara
Peter Chan
Somehow, I felt happy for Nina and Sergey. (T_T)
Mai-HiME = Shiho lost to Mai
Mai-Otome = Arika lost to Nina ?
Finished Download all episodes plus OST.
This gonna stick a while....
Those final two episodes really rock!!!
For some reasons, I find the fact the many scenes of slave killing without any thoughts or regards oddly disturbing. I mean, we weren't shown it, but for every slave killed, a person green-sparks and disappears, right? ....Understanding that this is wartime and all, but when you think of the underlying message that this anime is showing to kids (it is perfectly acceptable to eliminate your enemy without a single hesitation. In fact, it seems they are even enjoying themselves (see Haruka and Shizuru).
Call me weird and overly sensitive, but it just disturbs me a little.
Haa??
Well, Someone is viewing it on the other angle,
It's good that someone can see that.
Rubric, let's put it this way,
Do you have 2nd thought about protecting your
precious one?
Would you hesitate if an enemy is trying to harm
you or your precious one?
Sore wa genjitsu da!
@Tokiha
I think the point Rubric was trying to make was that killing Slaves is portrayed as a fun pastime with no real consequences - as opposed to Otome's fighting each other, which is treated as a tragedy. Two peoples' lives are at stake in both cases, but that's completely glossed over in the Slave fights. It's like they're perfectly fine with killing people, as long as they can't see them. Sure, they may be misguided people, but they're certainly no more evil than Tomoe, whom Arika can barely bring herself to fight. Why the vastly different treatment?
Eh, that's par for the course for this series - focusing only on the consequences they want to highlight. (sigh) But I won't rant about the shortcomings - no point.
what happened to the famous "mentar rating?"
the ending in otome was better than hime but hime had the best drama. unfortunately the future series will have to compare to the greatness of mai hime.
Er... wheelock789, I didn't get your point.
Alright, I'll try to simplify.
Arika knocks Tomoe out of the sky, killing her (if not for plot armor), then apologizes. Arika never apologized after defeating a slave and killing the person on the other end of the crystal. Why not? Just because she didn't know the other person from before? Both of them were "bad" (evil, misguided, take your pick). So why the special treatment?
I get that most of the Otome know each other from Garderobe, so they'd be hesitant to fight each other, but they tear the slaves to shreds - something they don't do to the human soldiers around Garderobe. I'm just trying to point out that Natsuki blowing the head off a slave isn't any different from her blowing the head off a soldier, but that fact is completely ignored. The show steers clear of showing any "hero" directly causing a human causalty at the end (leaving aside from the first Shizuru-slave fight, the Arika-slave fight by the Harmonium, and Midori - who's a much darker figure). There are still plenty of off-screen human casualties, though.
I'm not saying they shouldn't fight - but why pull your punches against some opponents but not others? Doesn't seem fair. Or logical, for that matter - you're holding back against the strongest opponents (other Otome) and going all-out against the weakest.
Also, if it's fine to kill off the foot soldiers (slaves), why not kill off the general (Nagi), too? Why does he get off easier than his followers? Perhaps I'm overly vengeful, or maybe I just want consistency. (shrug) I'm not quite sure myself.
That's what I was trying to point out - the inconsistencies in how enemies were treated based solely on whether they had a visible face or not.
Yeah, that last post was from me - just mistyped the numbers. Anyway . . .
Oh, and Miss Maria rocks - old or young.
Eh, I wonder if Mentar will review these episodes some day...
Its not that I dislike the previews by Garten, but I really like the in depth review by mentar later on.
@wheelock798
Just to correct...yes Arika Knocks Tomoe-chan out of the sky but she doesn't die. Towards the end of episode 25 it shows her being alive and well.
Yeah, I know Tomoe lives - hence the plot armor reference (though I do have to wonder where she ends up after all the dust settles - she wouldn't be happy in the new Wind Bloom or Garderobe, and I don't think we see her at all in 26). I simply meant that she ought to have died after falling from that height (and Sergay ought to have died immediately from that head shot given the exit wound and Nina and Arika ought to have burned up on re-entry - oh, I'll just stop). In any case, Arika couldn't have foreseen her survival at that time. Either way, she's apologizing for hurting/killing Tomoe but not the Slaves, so my point still holds.
I feel so bad for nina at the end of ep.26. I don't know why. She jsut looks so sad. I feel so bad for her.
Wheelock789 was right on with what I was saying in my earlier comment. Recall the emotional attachment I am sure most of you had when Erstin disappeared. Even if you were to argue that killing is justified in time of war, the jokes and the flashy animations made light of the reality of war. Even at the very end, when we see Nagi in a slave camp of sort, the playfulness of the animation may, somewhat pervertly, make those viewers, most of them kids, think that slavery is more or less an acceptable thing.
At any rate, I realize this is just an animation and one shouldn't take oneself too seriously watching it. But it's just a thought.
Dakara nando mo ita.....
Sore wa genjitsu yo.
These last two episodes were great! :)
Around episode 20, I had already realized that the backstory was not going to be fully developed and that lots of loose ends would remain, and having accepted that fact, it did not bother me at all while watching the finale.
In fact, once you realize that Mai Otome was not meant to be the deep anime that many had open, but simply an engaging action series that should not be taken too seriously, it becomes very enjoyable. In the end, Mai Otome was not as good or as involving as Mai-Hime, but I'm still happy to have watched it.
I think I'm going to watch the finale again... ;)
It's an Anime... the fact that the ending didn't make most people happy should have been obvious just from that fact alone....
the series suffered from severe pacing issues.... it could easily have been 2 or 3 times as long to fully work out all the details... the amount of unexplained things is somewhat annoying...
however... it's better than anything the Americans have come up with in recent history... which is why I watch Anime to being with...
The costumes were all kind of ugly... personally, I liked the cyborgs, but the robes looked bulky and awkward, they could have been sleeker.
Kudos for the Sailor moon meme with the astrology,
As for the Nina-Sergey thing: 1. from the way it was played, its possible nothing actually happened, and 2. 15 year olds with older guys (10-20-30-40 years older) is a big issue/problem/occurrence in Japan. Do some research... just because Americans almost universally think it's sick doesn't mean that isn't what is happening in Japan.
The number of characters who continue to survive their "deaths" bothers me... Aoi leaping to her death was one of the most incredible, and striking moments in the series... until they brought her back, which destroyed the point of something do horrible happening... so yeah, people should have died and stayed dead... especially since after their "revival" almost all of them go on to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the series... so their survival wasn't even necessary. (Aoi provided the missing verse of the song? it wasn't even really shown if she did...)
I find it interesting that for all the discussion and commentary here, nobody latched onto what I find to be the most important theme of the entire series... With great power comes great responsibility (ever heard of Spiderman?)
also, the concept of thinking for yourself, and making your own decisions about right and wrong, not just being a servant, and doing as you're told.
Isn't that the point, even more than the horrors of war and the importance of friendship themes>? What is an Otome? Are they good or bad?
Otome is power, the choice between good and evil lies within you.
alright arika and mashiro!!!! yay this episode was awesome hahaha but i'm still annoyed that i didn't watched maihime first cuz didn't know it was the first one damn!! anywayz miss maria was looking graceful mostly it was funny when they saw her like a young person and even akane when she got taken away by maya!!!! anywayz really happy it worked out fine for everyone!!!hahaha watching mai-hime next!
Mai-Otome is really great! Although in my personal point of view, Mai-HiME really touched my heart best. I am super addicted to Mai-HiME related stuff. (sadly I can't afford to buy stuff in the actual world but only download via net for example: OSTs and episodes)
I wanted to suggest to Sunset... I mean Sunrise, that they should explain more about the connections of HiME and Otome through the shows they're going to produce in the near future.
It's better to provide more of meaningful plots than inserting some fan service and meaningless events.
I also want more ShizNats and I was hoping that they would make a prequel of Mai-Otome during the times when Shizuru and the others were still students.
And they better have more explanations of how the series that they don't consider a direct sequel is somehow related to HiME...
I know, I know... I am far behind in giving comments.
It's 2008 already but I just finished Mai-Otome this year.
Looking forward to Mai-Otome 0 S.ifr's 2nd episode.
And I was hoping that they'd animate Mai-HiME Destiny... ^_^
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