mai otome 22
Categories: anime, episodic review, mai hime/otome, spoilers
Tagged: mai hime/otome
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Two “deaths.” One Mwu La Fraga-class revival. Rie Tanaka at her best. And did I mention Mai in the hotsprings?
Mr. Wong gets sent to Aswald to retrieve Mashiro and Arika, and he demands that they hand over Mashiro and reminds Aswald that they have nothing to gain by sheltering them. Sunrise also took the opportunity to change his eye color to black to let us know that he’s evil now. Thanks, Sunrise! I didn’t know what I would do without ya!
And as I said before, Aoi’s death is the worst type of Sunrise gimmick, and, shocker! She’s not dead. Remember, no one actually died in Hime; Sunrise brought everyone back, and I don’t think they’ll really kill anyone off in Otome. Meanwhile, Mwu La Fraga pays Aoi a visit and leaves her some flowers.
The next four minutes involve an awkward Anty/Wong scene. Honestly, every scene between the two going over their feelings for each other can only be described as awkward. Though if Arika were a 14 year old male cowboy, I’m sure this episode could have won an Academy Award.
Wong manages to escape and sics Tomoe’s valkyries on Arika. The valkyrie suit changes from jet plane mode to humanoid mode by spinning. I’ve never seen that before.
And certainly not on any mass produced mobile suit manufacted by Orb.
Tomoe’s then proceeds to smackdown Arika in the second best part of the episode. Rie Tanaka manages to go from Mariel to Suigintou to Lacus seemlessly depending on the mental stability of Tomoe. Rie Tanaka is just fabulous, and I’m glad to see that she got the lead for Seto no Hanayome (a new harem anime based on a manga about mermaids who are also mobsters… yep… I’m serious… mermaid mobster harem… no this isn’t April Fools).
Chie meanwhile takes the most logical course of action: obey her suit and kidnap Mashiro while Arika is busy with Tomoe. Whoa. Logical plot move by Sunrise… and, yes, I just checked my window to see if there’s any pigs flying outside and/or if hell (Milpitas) has frozen over.
Meanwhile, back in Gaulderobe, Nina is asked to activate the organ thingie and ascend. I’m so lost trying to follow Nagi’s master plan, if he has one… he has this great power and idea but doesn’t know how to properly use it. Just like Sunrise and the Mai Hime franchise.
With Mashiro’s capture, it looks like it is over for Arika. Tomoe just relishes inflicting pain on Arika on a misguided assumption of Shizuru’s affections. Shizuru likes all young, nubile girls, not just the ant heads.
(With Rie Tanaka’s range, I can’t help but think if she voiced Shinn with her Suigintou voice, it would have been a lot better series. She could have done Lacus in her Lacus voice, Meer in her Mariel voice, Cagali with her Koyomi voice, Shinn with her Suigintou voice, and Athrun in her Chii voice. Just replace “Chii” with “Kira” and there ya go. An one woman performance of Destiny that would be vastly superior to the original.)
Meanwhile, Midori and her Aswald gang are ravaging Cardair. An army of otome can’t stop them… of course, this is the same Aswald gang that ran away from Shizuru, Nina, and Arika like twelve episodes ago.
This leads to the second otome (finally) “death” of the series as Fia gets impaled by Gakutenou. Why didn’t Midori use this trick in Hime?
Back to Arika/Tomoe, Arika is no match. She’s like Cagali (in Akatsuki) facing off against Shinn’s Destiny over the skies of Orb. If only Kira would come down and save her in Strike Freedom and with Lacus in Infinite Justice.
Right before Shinn can take out Cagali, Kira descends.
And the name is Miyu.
Like GUNDAM, Sunrise enjoys changing what MIYU stands for. “Intelligential.” Yep. Engrish at its best. In any case, as long as it’s not CRAP, SHIT, or PLOTCONTRIVANCE, I guess it’s fine by me.
Miyu owns Tomoe, and then she takes out Wong. Sunrise is big on impaling. They don’t like to slash, decapitate, or explode at Sunrise. They are just more comfortable with impalement. Impaling is their thing. Sunrise’s impaling fetish aside, knowing Sunrise, I know that some plot fabrication will instantly warp Nina there so she can see daddy getting impaled (though Wong doesn’t seem dead).
And… I am right. The organ magically teleports Nina to see daddy get stabbed, and she goes Miaka on us. Nina and Miyu collide… and like the aftermath of Mai Otome 17, Arika wakes up elsewhere and is served a steaming bowl of ramen by Mai. Thanks, only 21 episodes too late.
OMFGWTFBBQ.
This is the type of Mai Otome that I like. Just absolute chaos and nonsense, and while it won’t win any awards for best writing, it’s entertainment. Chaos. CHECK. Crazy lesbians. CHECK. “Deaths.” CHECK. Otome on otome fights. CHECK. Mai in a dripping wet towel. CHECK.
Mai Otome succeeds best when it’s just all out craziness. When they try to introduce plot, melodrama, or angst, the series falls flat on its face. No, I don’t want to see Mashiro and Arika grieve. No, I don’t want to see any more of this Wong/Nina/Arika love triangle, which is a walking apocolypse at its worst and decidedly awkward at its best. No, I don’t want to see Shizuru declawed, Natsuki being pretty much useless, and Mai appearing about ten episodes too late. I want to see crazy lesbians, emo facial contortions, fanservice, and everything else that made Mai Hime great to watch. (I didn’t exactly watch Mai Hime for its classical romance elements or socioeconomic essays.)
I get the same WTFness from the upcoming hot springs episode that I did from the Meer episode. Just before Orb and Zaft square off, they tossed in an episode about Meer’s past. Zaft was going to fire the bendy-laser cannon at Orb, and they took an whole episode to give us Meer fanservice. And looks like they’re going to do the same thing with Mai. (It worked with Meer, it’s going to work on Mai. If you don’t think that I have next Thursday circled now on my wall calender, you’re nuts.)
DO YOUR BEST deshou, k?
12 Responses to “mai otome 22”
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OMG don’t get me started on My-HiME’s take on socioeconomic relations
(it’s like false conciousness, the tv show!)
Give Anty, err…Arika credit she fought out numbered 4 (5 if you count the Spy Chie) against 1. Tomoe attacked out of the sun and her lackeys failed to deliver the killing blow in at least one concrete oppurtunity. A spirited defense I’d say considering that Tomoe had everyting a fighter ace would kill to have.
As awkward and on some level disturbing as the Sergei and Arika discoures was just be greateful the lines weren’t Lucas bad. I also take offense at going Miaka, Nina went Kaede. Maika had some redeeming qualities Nina has next to none.
As for Aswald pwning Cardiar, I am less shocked since I have long studied the Eastern Front. Like the Soviets Aswald has had their Stalingrad and will now proceed to have their Kursk (hopefully Sunrise will deliver a Kursk-esque battle). We all know what the Soviets did to Berlin, right?
Personally I feel that Sunrise can only do better and judging by your reaction, the only direction left is up. Assuming you get to see what you want of course. C’mon onsen and battle. Go MIYU sunrise alteration is irrelevant to ass-kicking power!
Oh and sunrise here’s a little Patton patented motivation for you:
-I don’t want to get any messages saying, “I am holding my position.” We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!
-George S. Patton Jr.
Don’t fail us again, scriptwriters…
Oh also, I will say with regards to the next episode preview, both of these shows have been masterful with their previews. At first, I saw everyone in the onsen and was also like “God, we have like four eps left. There’s no time for an onsen ep. We need four more episodes like this last one if we’re to get even close to finishing this story up in time.” But then I remembered how back at the beginning of the season (granted, this was also when everything in this show was going really well), when I saw the preview for for episode 9 with Shizuru rubbing oil into topless, bethonged Natsuki and an episode title like “the beach minus the bathing suits…”, I groaned because we just had that (albeit really awesome) pool tentacle monster episode two episodes ago so there was no reason for yet another ridiculous fanservice ep. And then the ep starts and it’s like NOPE.
> And certainly not on any mass produced mobile suit manufacted by Orb.
Beside the Murasame comparison, the Valkyries also had their Gouf moment. Was slightly surprised that Arika didn’t manage to manifest funnels to break away from the chains.
“Was slightly surprised that Arika didn’t manage to manifest funnels to break away from the chains.”
You gotta remember that Arika is just using Destiny. Mai is the one with Strike Freedom.
“Though if Arika were a 14 year old male cowboy, I’m sure this episode could have won an Academy Award.”
So true.
This Sergey/Arika stuff is so disturbing to me.
At least some action, but I’m not jumping onto the joyous bandwagon of fanboys yet.I did with Mai-Hime, I became almost a ‘maihimetard”.
I HATE when they put up this BOOM event to change settlement. I really really despise it. Hits on my nerves. Makes me mad. .
Will the almighty onsen save the day on My-Otome? We’ll see…
You gotta remember that Arika is just using Destiny. Mai is the one with Strike Freedom.
Wait, then which one is Shizuru?
Let’s see. Shizuru was vicious and scary in the original series, but got taken out by a suicide bombing attack by main character’s friend.
In the new series, she is back and still powerful, but somehow doesn’t seem as scary as before.
So, Shizuru is, like, Neo-Genesis… -_-
Excellent analysis. Shizuru = Genesis. Done and done.
Mikoto would be Infinite Justice.
OMG….Mai…!!! but…so late :(
funny that you mention hell freezing over, because it snowed on Mission Peak yesterday ;)
All I can say is…
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY MAI~~~
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