mai otome 17
Categories: anime, episodic review, mai hime/otome, spoilers
Tagged: mai hime/otome
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Mai Otome just took a left turn into a boiling vat of hot lava.
Gaulderobe’s invasion starts, and things do not go well for the home team. Natsuki releases the power of the five pillars (which looks too much like twelve pillars from Mai Hime). Natsuki shows off her robe and fights with Shizuru against Midori and her child… for a total of like 10 seconds before the control center for the nanomachines is totaled by Smith and his nakkid woman beam (I’m serious). With their support center in ruins, all of Gaulderobe’s otome are disabled… which means a quick loss for Natsuki and Shizuru. Watching Shizuru get captured is as startling as seeing what her seiyuu looks like.
Meanwhile, Arika and Ers are trying to escape with Mashiro, but they are discovered and chased. With help from Sergey, the group manages to almost escape the city; however, they run into Smith at the outskirts of town. Without their robes, Arika and Ers are no match for Smith, who wants the princess of Windbloom and demands that they fork over Mashiro. Luckily, the jewels are not affected, and Arika is able to summon her robe through Mashiro.
(Remember all those fun, random plot twists in GSD? Didn’t those unexpected twists make that such a fabulous anime series? Remember how it went from a series about Athrun and Shinn vs. the Junkies to Shinn and Luna making out? Guess what? Those ridiculous plot twists are back in Mai Otome! Get ready for one… I can feel it…)
Arika is just about to pwn Smith when Ers summons her Aswald-type monster and stops Arika. Yes, that’s right– Ers is evil! She’s Smith’s love child (I’m joking). Now we’re at a stalement… Arika knows that killing Ers’ child will kill Ers, and Ers doesn’t want to hurt Mashiro or Arika.
(Like GSD, a basic plot hole like “If Ers was working for Smith, how come she didn’t tell him that Arika’s the real princess of Windbloom?” and “How the heck did they build a nakkid woman laser in the middle of town?” is left unfilled and extremely gaping.)
To break the stalemate, Sergey decides to pull a Emiya and take a blow from Ers’ monster for Arika. Unfortunately, this act forces Rin to use up one of her jewels, and the cut on his shirt exposes Arika’s handcrafted stitching that she gave her “benefactor” in the previous episode. During this whole encounter between Arika, Ers, and Smith, Nina is watching on the sidelines getting egged on by Nagi. She’s been resisting… until she sees Arika’s hanky stained with male protein and goes emo.
Nina accepts being Nagi’s otome, receives his black crystal, and attacks Arika in her stylish green outfit. Only Nina fails and ends up killing Ers’ monster, thus tossing Arika into her Shinn-style tantrum. Ers is gone, and Arika and Nina get ready to square off Kira vs. Athrun style. To be continued.
Honestly, I couldn’t be giddier. Even though I make fun of GSD all the time, it was still entertainment. Train wreck entertainment, but entertainment nonetheless. Mai Otome, not surprisingly, is taking the same direction. I wonder what other plot contrivances they can manufacture in the final few episodes? Natsuki and Shizuru getting married? Mai returning and pining for Tate? Arika scoring 81 points on 28 of 46 shooting? Miyu giving Mashiro a voodoo doll with a piece of red string on it? Nao dressing up as something besides a French mime? Anything is possible. Unlike Shuffle, where we kinda knew what was going to happen after Kaede goes Shinn, we don’t know what’s going to happen next on Otome. Suddenly, Mai Otome Destiny is now the “must watch” anime series over FSN, Shana, and every other showing airing right now because we have no frickin’ clue what’s going to happen next… and we can’t wait to see what does happen.
DO YOUR BEST, deshou? K?
23 Responses to “mai otome 17”
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That picture of Shindoh Naomi really ruined my perception of Shizuru.
do u watch raws and understand jap or something. cause i dunno how u watch faster than me…
Now we just need a battle scene in the next episode that can have its audio track replaced with the Kira/Athrun battle from Gundam SEED and the transformation will be complete. :D Gods, but this is getting fun.
Indeed… very funny…
I really like the summary… and the GSD plotline really suits it.
…However I’m really iffy about Shakugan no Shana… That and the twin incest just had me going… =)
There’s actually answers for some of your questions:
1. Why didn’t Erstin tell Smith that Arika’s the real princess of Windbloom?
Answer: Erstin didn’t know. Sergei is the one who found out Arika is the real princess by visiting the old lady a few episodes back. Given he didn’t take Erstin with him, she had no way of knowing.
Furthermore, it’s pretty obvious that Erstin is a reluctant servant of Schwartz, only because her family has pushed her into it. If other events hadn’t intervened, Arika would likely have talked her down.
2. How did they build a nekkid woman laser in the middle of town?
Answer: The whole thing was hidden behind the big screens we saw vanish in 16 before it fired. We’ve seen before that Schwartz had infiltrators in the team building the repairs. We also saw someone in the castle staff get a black letter and help to smuggle stuff in in the middle of the night and then the guy helped fire it.
Since Mashiro is a lousy ruler who doesn’t bother checking up on things, she never noticed.
I have to say, it seems that people take all Otome posts seriously. Obviously, jason’s “plotholes” are just a little joke.
@gundamfans: A true seiyuu fan won’t give a shit about her looks. It’s all in the voice ;).
Kurogane: Tanaka Rie’s voice is one of the best I’ve ever heard, so I’d have to agree there. But appearances don’t hurt, and she has that as well. ;)
I know, but there shouldn’t be such a bias on seiyuu looks. Voice actresses should be respected for their voices, not their looks.
It’s why I brought up Tanaka Rie – her voice is one I could listen to for hours. Kikuko Inoue’s another. The ones who have good voices AND good looks tend to have the most rabid fanbases, from what I’ve seen… but the voice is key when it comes to their professions, which is where the weight should be.
Still, when it comes to fanboyism, they do consider looks too. :)
Then count myself not a fanboy then, I never take looks in consideration for my seiyuu worshipping.
I learned very early from Megumi Hashibara, who was at that time an anime fan herself, that you should just forget what a seiyuu looks like.
i dun get it. how come arika and nina can still use robe?
I think Arika’s and Nina’s robe are controlled by their Jewels, while Natsuki and Shizuru’s robe’s are controlled by the Pillars. That is why Arika and Nina can still change while everyone else are screwed.
On why Nina and Arika can still use their robes:
The Fumi/control system only affected those without masters (i.e. the Pillars and emergency transformed students). Meister Otomes with Masters are not affected, as proven by Nina-Nagi and Mashiro-Arika. So, for example, Yukino and Haruka are still able for fighting whatever may happen next.
… and yes, the GSD plotlines were too similar for my taste. If Nagi goes “KKKKKIIIIRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA” in a future episode, I swear I’ll probably break out laughing ^^;;
oh.. that sucks i thought the 5 pillars were suppose to be the strongest.. they still havent showed natsuki’s weapon >_>
Looks like the Five Pillars are the strongest… as long as The System(TM) doesn’t get a Blue Screen of Death(TM) or EMP’ed.
I personally think Naomi Shindou looks nice, and not every seiyuu can be born in the late 70’s and the 80’s.
Backup support center FTW!
I think this column needs a follow-up where you do an in-depth analysis of seiyuu voice-hotness to hotness-hotness, also making sure to differentiate between the level of anime-voice-hotness and actual-voice-hotness for each person.
Whoopsies, that pun on “column” was unintentional.
Moyism said >… and yes, the GSD plotlines were too similar for my taste. If Nagi goes “KKKKKIIIIRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA†in a future episode, I swear I’ll probably break out laughing ^^;;
That’s why I’m looking forward to a battle next ep, which I hope will match the action of a SEED battle enough that I could replace the music and voice track with the equivalent episode from Gundam SEED or SEED Destiny. :D “KIIIIIIIIRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”
Kurogane: I merely said most fanboyism tends to focus around looks -and- voice; myself, the voice is the most important part, as Megumi Hayashibara (who is approaching her 40’s now) has also a heck of a lot of versatility. :D Still, if the voice could make you sit back and close your eyes… I think that’s worthy of a fanclub.
Still, if the SEED parallels hold out, think we’ll see a Lacus figure anytime soon? ;)
Same scriptwriter for GSD and Otome… really shows. Though this might be the chance for Nina to die and Arika to lose an arm… as per the original SEED ending.
That would rock… and generate so much publicity for the show that people would buy dvds.
Every tactical bone in my body made me wish they took out the Birthday Suit laser, at that height you’d be within mere meters of that blind spot. I may not have a creative bone in my body, but if the script writer is going to use the same old story again…
I guess the Five Pillars going to war will have to wait, still that creepy kid is one I’d push right into a convoy especailly with M1A2s leading the way.
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice,—is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”
-John Stuart Mill