Mai Otome Zwei ep.02

March 4, 2007 | 13 Comments

Let's get the good things out of the way. I really like the soundtrack which seems to be middle-eastern inspired. The track that plays while the Otome Delta team are about to attack the bus is a good example of this. The same thing can be said about the ED theme. As far as technical aspect goes, the animation and character design are pretty good and look consistent. But Sunrise rarely do a bad job in animation and character design, unless they're really strapped for money. What Sunrise never seems to have in spades is decent script writer. This OVA, just like the one that preceeded it, is pretty sparse in plot and has a slow pacing. The action itself is decent but it doesn't really get exciting until the last 5 minutes of the episode. It's quite clear now that the writers will just cram everything in the last 2 OVAs.

The episode begins with President Yukino asking one of her generals what are the demand of terrorists who have highjacked a bus. Apparently they want the peace troops to get out of Artai and for Aeris to release Nagi Dai Artai from the prison. As for the situation itself, it involves a bus that runs between the eastern border and the capital. There are apparently 10 hostages in total. Of course the terrorist would detonate the bus unless their demand are met. One of Yukino's adviser informs her that with an election coming, one wrong moves can affect the votes that Yukino receives. At the moment Otome Delta are in charge of the hostage situation. Lead by Chie, these Otome are ready to strike as soon as Yukino gives them the permission. One of the generals, however, is worried that Haruka might have gone rogue on them and true enough, she manages to run away from her guards.

Meanwhile, Chie asks Otome Delta Force to do nothing for now since they don't want to agitate the highjackers. As planned by Yukino, they try to keep things quiet and calm. Unfortunately for them, Haruka arrives to change all of this. He grabs a microphone and asks the terrorist to fight her. Meanwhile, Sara Gallagher is informed by Irina that Arika is also already on the scene. In fact, she's one of the hostages, sleeping and muttering about Mashiro taking away her sweets. Meanwhile, Haruka is still on her tough stance when Sara drives in with a motorbike to knock her out with a large hammer. She then hands Haruka to Chie and tells her that she has something to talk about. This something turns out to be disappearance of Mount Nekogami, Mashiro, and Mai. As it turns out, Haruka actually knows Mai as the girl who runs the ramen shop. In fact, she suggested she opens a head office in Aries.

Arika herself has disappeared after leaving a note saying that she'll go to find Mashiro. Sara informs Chie that she thinks Arika is now on a bus leaving Artai. Meanwhile, Yukino finds out from her general that the lead terrorist was once a soldier in Artai. Yukino feels that they can't fail this mission since they're still gathering information regarding the situation in Windbloom and the strategic Otome limitation talk is coming soon. Unknown to everyone, someone with a strange mark on his face is seen observing the hostage situation from a far. At the same time, Haruka and the other Otome are talking about a way to set the hostage when another election candidate, Wattari Ishigermin, comes on a van, wanting to talk to the terrorists. Before he can go on with this speech, however, Haruka has stopped the van. Haruka is basically pissed off because Wattari bashed Yukino and her on TV.

Wattari claims that he's concerned that barbarian like her is on the government. Unfortunately for him, the citizens disagree with him. However, he tells Haruka that he can withstand the profane comments everyone made to him because....he has a girlfriend now. This is why he thinks he can rule the country with love. He then introduces his sweet honey, which turns out to be a rather violent Tomoe. I guess she's not a lesbian anymore now. Well, that was quick. Anyway, the citizens immediately recognise her as the woman who become the Valkyrie troops. Tomoe, however, would have none of that. She claims that now that she's sent Wattari down, she's the one who's going to be the President. She then asks the citizen to give their vote and to give into dictatorship! Meanwhile, the pissed off terrorists are not happy that Aeris are having fights on their own. They threaten to execute a passenger unless the group shuts up.

That passenger turns out to be Arika who stupidly wave at both Chie and Haruka. Before Haruka can respond, however, Chie already clocks her out. Unfortunately Tomoe also recognises Arika and asks the highjacker to see her face. The highjacker immediately realises that she's none other than 'Meteor Breaker' Arika. Haruka immediately yells at Arika to beat the highjacker up but Arika doesn't understand why and besides, she can't use her Otome power since Mashiro has disappeared. Arika is surprised when the highjacker points their gun after knowing this fact. Meanwhile, Tomoe has drive off, telling Arika that she deserves this and that she'll be watching this from TV. Much to everyone's surprise, Yukino comes and offers to negotiate with the terrorists. She even offers herself in exchange of the hostage. *sigh* Two completely wrong moves at once. After the hostages are released, Yukino asks them to release Arika as well but they refuse.

The reason is because they've heard that Arika is the biggest nemesis who got in Nagi's way. In response Yukino claims that Aeris would not give in to terrorism and the highjacker would make an enemy out of Windbloom as well. When the terrorists threaten Yukino, it's Arika's turn to tell them the wisdom of his grandma, who apparently told her that men who hit women are the worst. This for some unknown reason soften the terrorists so they just tell the two to sit down. Once the two settle down, Arika apologises for what happens but she really want to find Mashiro on her own. Yukino understands this because if Haruka disappears, she'd also be on the lookout for her....if she's not the President. Arika then asks Yukino if she ever had a fight with Haruka and Yukino confirms this. Having said that, they also have a rule whereby if they'd yell at each other if the other make a mistake. And then they would agree to find a path that is agreeable to both of them.

Meanwhile, Haruka, Sara, and Chie agree to attack. Sara initialises the surrogate system so she can transform into Batgirl...I mean, Otome. Upon sensing this, however, the mask person flies from one of the rooftop. The Otomes then proceed to launch simultaneous attack on the bus from all sides. The terrorists are not happy to see this and about to detonate the bus but Arika orders Mikoto to claw the guy with the remote. During the confusion, Sara, who wears invisibility cloak, manages to diffuse the bomb. Just as things look like they are under control, the ground shifts and from underneath the bus, a large-size Child appears. From inside the Child, something that resembles a cyborg appears from inside. Because the bus falls onto the tail part of the Child, Yukino almost plummets into the ground. Although Haruka manages to catch her hand, due to her sheer power, the bus can't hold her weight and Yukino.

Haruka decides to release her grip on the bus and as the two of them plummets into the ground, Yukino activates Haruka's Otome power. Haruka and Yukino manage to land safely on the ground and after letting Yukino go, Haruka decides to face the monster. Much to her surprise, however, the monster manage to re-generate part of its body after Haruka destroys it. At the same time, Sara is about to help out Haruka when all of a sudden she notices an Angel-like shadow behind her. When she looks up, she realises that there is an entity who looks quite similar to Fumi. The entity shoots a laser beam which immediately transform a tree into a rock. And to make things worse, the Surrogate system dies down on Sara. Thankfully in the nick of time, Haruka manages to catch Sara's fall. Regardless, everyone is shocked to know that the person in question is none other that Fumi Himeno. At the same time, Fumi and Otome Delta manages to overcome the Child.

Unfortunately, the Fumi entity has set its target on the ring that Yukino possesses. Before she manages to snatch it, however, Haruka already rides on its back, trying to strangle its neck. The entity throws Haruka off and shoots her laser beam at Haruka. Not wanting to be outdone, Haruka manages one last attack on the entity, decapitating its head in the process. However, because Haruka was hit by the laser she now turns into a rock as well. Upon realising that it is now headless, the entity decides to fly away. Later on, Natsuki and Arika visits Nagi, telling him that his escape plan fails but Nagi actually doesn't mind since he'd just get captured again. This, however, made Nagi realises that something happened to the valley. He thinks 'he' or rather, 'she' came to Garderobe. Meanwhile inside a bar, Nao is talking to Yamada when she suddenly receives a visitor. Nao, however, is not surprised and in fact has been anticipating Nina to come.

Impression:

Once again the OVA disappoints me. I heard from someone that it's actually good but as far as OVA goes, this one has bad pacing and not enough development. Maybe I just expect too much after I watch OVAs like Rozen Maiden Ouverture. I appreciate the comedy part of the episode such as Tomoe's appearance and her subsequent mad rantings. However, the entire highjacking story wasn't that exciting and I suspected right from the start that they would have no chance against the Otome. The problem with this is that the highjack story, which took the majority screentime, doesn't have much relation to the main conflict, which is the Fumi monster. If anything this main conflict was only featured at the last minute. It also doesn't help that the story lacks character development. Arika still resort to her "My grandma always said..." and Haruka is still behaving like a lose canon. It feels as if they never grow beyond their one note personality.

© memento 2003