blog好き

Feb 16 2006

Categories: anime, episodic review, mai hime/otome, spoilers
Tagged: mai hime/otome

6 Comments »

“Jyuunana-sai desu!”

(From the title of the episode, I thought Yukariko was going to die next.)

Members of Aswald are hunting random monsters in the desert to compete the Book of Darkness for Hayate-chan. While doing so, they accidentially (*cough* plot wtf *cough*) save Mashiro-ojouama from being consumed by one such monster. They take her back to the Black Valley… where she is reunited with (*cough* plot wtf *cough*) Arika and Mikoto. Sorry for the coughing… I’m not feeling well.

Nagi has pretty much taken over Gaulderobe, and he’s made a few changes: Shizuru is in the wrong kind of bondage.

All of the non-Artai students are “gone.” See, this is what happens when they cut funding for public education. Vote NO on prop 135.

And they are testing out Eva Unit 00 in the lab downstairs.

Nina seems to be nicely corrupted by Nagi at this point, and she looks hawt in that black outfit. Look at Nagi staring at her ass here.

Mashiro and Mikoto are . No wait…

Arika seems to also be cooperating nicely with Aswald. Didn’t they want to kill her, oh, two episodes ago? In any case, Arika has been completely traumatized by the whole incident, and she’s in her Shinku, “I will not participate in the Alice Game” mode. Mashiro sheds some light on her predicament (*cough* recap to eat up time; classic Sunrise cheapening out on animation technique *cough*).

It’s been so long since an ant joke! It’s always good to see ant-head in Mai Otome. It’s just like seeing melonpan in Shakugan no Shana. Just a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Of course, Sunrise continues their wonderful job of building sympathy for characters (*cough* Shinn *cough*) by showing how Aswald treats them little kiddies.

It’s been even longer since Natsuki has been forced into an embarrassing pose to hitchhike a ride. And, like before, it doesn’t turn out just right. Though if Shizuru popped out of the truck, it would have been 10x more awesome. Maybe even 17x more awesome. And Nao is still in her French mime outfit. Deserves mentioning.

The more things change, the more things stay the same… Tomoe still pines for Shizuru, Chie is still carefree, and Shiho still turns turns turns.

Finally, after all that prep work, the real meat of the episode begins with Midori-sensei and Reito peeling back the tapestry that started 14 years ago. They are the remainders of the Aswald tribe, which was stricken with the cognito virus. As such, they were forced to undergo nanomachine treatment. Due to the experiments with nanomachines, Midori and such don’t grow– they are trapped as 17 forever…

… just like Inoue Kikuko (“Oi! Oi!”)!

Reito also reveals that he was once a male model with that hawt body of his.

They also know that Smith has been trying to refine the otome crystal (such that it will be invincible to male protein), and they suspect that now with Gaulderobe in his hands, he’s very close to doing so. Of course, the next scene, Nagi is asking Nina if she could get him an “volunteer,” so I’m guessing, “Yep, he’s done it.” Great suspense there, Sunrise. (BTW, John Smith is a perfect personification of how America the nation is typically portrayed in Japanese media. Either America is some huge, self-absorbed empire, like American Empire of GitS lore or a huge, baseball-playing empire, like in H2.) Midori asks Mashiro and Arika for their help in stopping Smith, but Arika is still in her “will not participate in the Alice Game” mindset and runs away ballin’. Toss in a cliffhanger (*cough* plot contrivance *cough*) designed to get Arika to go Otome again, and, well, DO YOUR BEST deshou, k?

Every week, I have no clue what direction this show is taking. Mai Hime was enjoyable for its non-stop action and its lesbian-fantasy-inducing antics. The earlier episodes of Hime and Otome were carried by these two principles, but it seems like Otome is going yet another path. I mean, by now in Hime, close to half the Himes and their love interests were vaporized (including Takumi), and the only Otome vaporized thus far is Erstin. In Hime, the Hime-Games were starting their crescendo, and yet, we’re getting nothing but dialogue the past two episodes. Then considering the fact that Natsuki/Shizuru never got a chance to fight in 17, and the Nina/Arika collision (not really a fight…) was severely truncated, it’s been a long time since the last decent fight.

They also tossed out all those fun, uncomfortable lesbian-sexually tension moments from Hime in favor of angst and more angst the last few episodes. I want my Shizuru looking at Natsuki and licking her lips while doing so. Is that too much to ask? By 20 in Hime, Natsuki was waking up in Shizuru’s bed… by 21 we were all going, “OMFG!” Has anything remotely “OMFG” happened in Otome compared to Hime? No.

It almost seems like they’re setting up Otome for 50 episodes, only they forgot that they only have the timeslot for 26. BTW, Mai Otome 21 has the title, “よみがえる伝説”, or “A Legend Resurrected.” I bet there’s bouncy bouncy, and I don’t mean Erstin, if you get my drift. Why introduce the franchise character that everyone is dying to see so late? Then I realize that they introduced Strike Freedom at the 80% mark of GSD… and if they bring back Mai at episode 21, that’s the 80% mark for Mai Otome.

Fearful symmetry, indeed.