Mai Otome Zwei ep.01

December 4, 2006 | 33 Comments

I wasn't actually planning to do this since I'm strapped for time but I figure I may as well make the Mai Otome review section complete. Anyway, Mai Otome Zwei is basically a 4 episode series continuation of the popular Mai Otome series. Because of this, the majority of the characters from Mai Otome make a return to this OVA-based series. Having said that, I am not about to hold my breath and hope that some unsolved mysteries from the original series will be resolved in this one. This episode itself is okay, I suppose. If you like the full-on action of the last 2 Mai Otome episode, you'd probably like this one as well. It's good to know that Sunrise finally decide to move with time and presents this show in 16:9 (Widescreen) format. This gives the story a slightly more fluid and dynamic feel during the fight scenes since the animators now have more rooms to move the characters around.

A meteor is hurtling towards the planet while inside a command room, Chie finds out from her subordinates that the attack team will soon intercept the meteor. Inside another room, Annan leader and Yukino are talking about how unusual it is that all countries work together to fight a common enemy. Yukino thinks they ought to thank Natsuki for lending Garderobe technology to them but Natsuki tells her that they should thank the Karakawa observatory for detecting the asteroid. If the asteroid crashes, there is likelihood that it'll destroy all countries including Aeries. Cut to different shots of various characters in different places watching the event unfold. In outer space, the Otomes ignite their meteor breaker and aim it at the asteroid. Unfortunately the impact of these breakers are not enough to destroy the asteroid. To make things worse, the asteroid is now falling at an increasing speed and heading towards Windbloom.

Arika decides to go after the asteroid and asks Mashiro to activate their Zwei power. Upon activation, Arika manages to fly faster than a speeding bullet!! Natsuki explains that it's Arika's special ability (it's usually known as 'Deus-ex') and they are in the middle of investigating its power. Meanwhile Arika manages to catch up with the asteroid so she begins to activate her Sword of Akatsuki. Once the sword appears, she goes head on against the asteroid and manages to destroy it into crappy-looking 3D blocks. Everyone is worried upon seeing the explosion, except Miyu, who looks proud as the asteroid pieces head towards the planet. Her smile, however, turns into frown when she spots a shiny object falling together with the asteroid fragments. At the same time, Arika is in the midst of informing the others that the asteroid is destroyed when a black figure looms over her. Due to shock, Arika falls from the sky.

Arika wakes up inside her room and thinks that the whole thing was just a dream. Yeah, Most people would think the same way if they see Miss Maria looking like her old self again. Miss Maria assures Arika that she did save the world. However, because Arika doesn't have enough credit to her lesson, she is still under Miss Maria's tutelage. To punish the sleepyhead, she orders Arika to run 50 laps and then transcribe chapter 12 to 15 of a book called "Otome's Heart" (A trashy novel?). After foolishly running into Mashiro's meeting room by mistake, Arika goes out to do her "Do my best, desho?" run. While she does this, Arika recites an imaginary letter to Jezebel...I mean, Nina, since the later never gives out her address. Apparently it's been a year since the incident where Jez, err...Nina almost destroyed the country. According to Arika, Mashiro is now working very hard and to prove this, the OVA shows Mashiro being hounded by yes-men.

Outside the castle, a bunch of workers are staging protest and demand that they'd be allowed to see the Queen. Somewhere in the dessert, Irina and an Aswad cyborg, Gal, are investigating the crater that was created by the asteroid. While underneath the tent, Natsuki and Shizuru are talking about recent political decision that Mashiro has made. Since Youko request them to investigate one more site, Shizuru agrees to look at it while Natsuki, Irina, and Gal decide to go back to Windbloom. Inside Windbloom, Mashiro is tired after her endless meeting. As a result, she becomes pissy when Arinko tells her that she just talked to the workers outside the gate. Arinko thinks Mashiro should talk to them but Mashiro refuses. In the end, the two end up having a fight with one another. Meanwhile, Shizuru has arrived at the other asteroid site and realises that the area looks very different from the one they visited before.

All of a sudden, something falls from the sky. That something turns out to be a petrified Miyu who manages to tell Shizuru to run away. Before Shizuru manages to do so, something which looks like Rina's silhouette appears behind her. That something then unleashes a slave to attack Shizuru. Back inside Windbloom, Arika spreads the wise words of her grandma to the research team. Apparently the old hag said that just because you're taller it doesn't mean that you become more mature. There's just one problem with this, Mashiro still looks as short as she was in the TV series. Anyway, Arika is pissed off because Mashiro has gone off on her own to an unspecified place. That place turns out to be the Black Valley, which has now been turned into national park called Nekogami Mountain. Mashiro is in the middle of complaining to Mai because she worked hard to pass the act and yet Arika dismisses it so easily by talking to the workers.

Mashiro then turns serious and talks about the disarmament of the slave lords, you know, those guys who look like Jawa from Star Wars. Mai informs her that since Garderobe has their hands full, not all of them have been disarmed. Mashiro laments about this because someone as young as the noodle worker at Mai's restaurant actually has a slave connected to her. Back inside Garderobe lab, Natsuki asks Irina if Shizuru has contacted her or any of the research team members. Since Irina hasn't got any info, she tries to contact Shizuru but can't get connected because Shizuru is now a stone. Meanwhile, a shadow which looks like Shizuru can be seen inside the area formerly known as Black Valley. Mikoto senses this shadow's presence but when she listens to the shadow's heartbeat, she falls asleep all of a sudden. The shadow uses this chance to attack the Black Valley by sending a slave.

Inside Garderobe, Irina and the others detect a high level power that does not belong to a robe or a slave. However, the relay camera from Black Valley suggests otherwise. Back inside Black Valley, Mai manages to get permission from sleepy Mikoto so she orders the Slave Masters to take Nekogami to a safe place even though they also want to join in the fight. Everyone is excited upon seeing Meister Mai and one boy immediately dubs her 'Tragic Meister' much to Mai's dismay. She wonders how long she's going to be called that way. I'm actually more interested to know who was it that she was conflicted over. Arika and Natsuki then arrive at the place but Mashiro is not happy that Arika is late. The two start fighting again before Natsuki tells them to cut it out. Mashiro activates Arika's gem, causing the girl to display her bouncy breast effect. Not wanting to be outdone, Natsuki joins in the fun just to prove that she's useless as always.

Unfortunately even with the combination of Arika and Mai's power, they can't defeat the slave. To make things worse, the mysterious shadow has now made its way to Garderobe using Miyu's shape as a guise. Irina and the research team immediately notice that the intruder managed to steal the Pure white diamond and is now heading towards Shinsou's room. In order to combat this being, they decide to send grandma, I mean Miss Maria, who for some reason turns young when she materialise. Has this always been an exception for her? While Miss Maria inspect the area, the shadow walks calmly behind her. Hmmm, she kind of look like Kos-Mos. Sunrise, Monolith Soft and Namco reps are on line 1 now. The shadow quickly changes its shape to both Shizuru and Miyu. Miss Maria realises who that shadow is supposed to be but before she can mention names, the Fumi system has been destroyed.

This means that Miss Maria returns to being an old hag while the power supply for the Headmaster is going down, threatening to make Natsuki useless as usual. Because of this, Youko switch the support system to 'Surrogate'. Natsuki who feels the effect of the switch decides to contact the school and finds out about the intruder. Mashiro suddenly has to make another difficult decision when Arinko tells her that there are people who needs Natsuki's help. Mashiro, however, orders Natsuki to return to Garderobe since they are going to be in trouble if what happened with Nagi the last time around is repeated once more. After Natsuki left, Arika and Mashiro fight again because their ideology differs from each other. Arika then loses her Zwei power, giving the slave a chance to grab her leg and slams her against a mountain. Meanwhile Natsuki arrives at the Garderobe but the Surrogate system cease to function. Oh Noes! Useless again!

All of a sudden there is an explosion in front of Garderobe, giving the shadow a chance to escape. Back in the valley, Arinko and Mai work together to eliminate the slave. By sending Ariko's power through Mai's fire ring, the two manage to kill the slave somehow. Before they can celebrate, the clouds suddenly cover the Black Valley. Natsuki then contacts them to let the two know that an unknown being has destroyed Shinsou. She also informs them that the being took the pure white diamond. All of a sudden both Mai and Arinko are attacked by something while white sparks illuminates the valley around them before they disappear underground. The entire valley then moves on its own while somewhere in the distance, a winged creature with a scythe observes the situation. Meanwhile, Nagi, Nao, and Nina, all of whom are in different places, notice the change in the sky. Meanwhile, Arinko is in panic because she realises that Mashiro has disappeared along with the Valley.

Impression:

I personally don't think the OVA was that good. With the exception of some humour courtesy the Garderobe team, the rest of the story feels pretty dry and appears like a run-of-the-mill slave exercise. Having said that, I'm still holding out hope that the OVA will somehow gives some background information on the world of Mai Otome. I'm still waiting for a proper flashback for Mai's past, for example. I'm also interested to know more about the winged person with the scythe. I basically find her to be far more menacing than the slave, which is pretty unoriginal in design. I am just hoping that she's not some new character specifically created to be a threat in this OVA. I prefer it if she turns out to be someone who is important to the entire Otome series. Preferably Shinsou-sama herself or maybe Lena. Bonus point if the writers manage to connect the world of Mai Hime with the world of Mai Otome as suggested in the TV series.

The biggest downer for me is the fact that Nina is back and look as pouty as ever. I wonder if she is still trying to find a way to spike her daddy's wine so she can boink him silly. That is assuming she hasn't done the deed yet. I do like the new Mashiro though and I think between her and Arika, Mashiro really is the one who has matured greatly after their last outing together. Animation-wise, the 3D part was quite bad. When the astroid exploded, you can practically see the pieces looking like 3D blocks instead of asteroid chunks. The music is also notwithstanding, which is surprising considering Yuki Kajiura is usually a good composer. Overall, I think this OVA is only for die-hard Mai Otome fans. One of these days, I hope Sunrise will consider doing a brand new Mai franchise minus the characters from Hime or Otome and the silliness. A complete re-boot of the franchise so to speak.

Preview:

That robot looks like the Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet. Well, we'll find out in a few months, I suppose.

© memento 2003