mai otome zwei 2
Categories: anime, episodic review, mai hime/otome
Tagged: mai-otome
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This sucks. This really, really sucks.
Sometimes, it’s really easy to write for this blog. For example, during the epic Mai Otome run, the posts wrote themselves. With so many different angles: Tomoe’s crazy lesbian stalker act; Mashiro’s stupidity; Sunrise being Sunrise; the general train wreck nature; and, of course, the Anty-Mr Wong-Nina love triangle, there was always to write about. Unfortunately, Zwei is turning out to be a different beast. I had trouble writing about it… it’s gone from train wreck bad to just bad. There’s not a lot redeeming about it, and I feel cheated out of 24 minutes out of my life already, so I’m not exactly thrilled about tossing up a post about it. So, naturally, it’s time to skewer.
Having no sense of continuity from last time, we’re dropped into a bus hostage situation. The three month lay over didn’t help things either. At least we’re introduced to yet more random otomes. Oharuhi-sama dammit, now I have to go back and rewatch episode 1 because I don’t remember it at all.
(24 minutes elapses)
Okay, last we left off the Black Valley was being torn apart by mysterious alien, and it pwned Mai, Arika, Natsuki, and Shizuru. Now we’re tossed into a bad terrorist plot featuring Haruka. This makes sense of course. No it doesn’t. I’m so lost.
I feel emo facial distortion deprived. Between Zwei and Code Geass, I still haven’t seen a pantheon-class emo facial distortion yet. It’s like watching going to a NASCAR event live and not seeing a mullet.
Mai Otome had its share of “What are the fucking odds that would happen?” moments, and I’m glad that Zwei keeps up the traditional. What are the fucking odds that the bus that gets hijacked has Arika on board? Apparently better than the odds that Britney Spears would shave her head.
(Note that there’s three hijackers.)
I guess they couldn’t afford the other seiyuu if Sara has to play any significant role. It’s like being a Houston Rockets fan and seeing Jake Tsakalidis starting at center. Definitely not good times.
Gotta love how there’s a major hostage situation, and the only people involved seem to be the overmatched otome chief of police, the wild, manchild general otome, and the borrowed otome from another country. And they’re all sipping tea. Where’s the urgency, girls?!?
By far the worst, most excruciating part of the episode. Who the hell is this guy, and why should we care? Absolutely pointless. Reminds me of the current major of San Francisco who bagged a 19 year old girl as well as banged his married secretary. Funny how Clinton almost got impeached for less, yet all of SF is cheering Gavin as some sort of hero.
Haruka develops an eye twitch seven minutes after I develop mine. Good times… good times… anyway, when he mentions that he has a girlfriend, I guessed that it had to be either Tomoe or Nagi in drag, just because either would have caused the biggest train wreck possible.
Yep… welcome back Crazy Lesbian Stalker! But I was hoping for Nagi in drag.
What was the whole point of the four minutes wasted on this stupid election? We squeezed in an extra three lines for Tomoe, who should never, ever be animated without her baby toys to begin with? Man, they really are out of ideas. Anyway, we’re nine minutes into this episode, and nothing has really progressed with either the “storyline” from the first episode or even the hostage situation.
Woowoo! The “plot” is moving along. So what are the fucking odds that the terrorists would pick out Arika to use an example? Probably a lot better than the odds that SCO will wins its Linux case against IBM.
After seeing the eyes light up for the terrorists after Arika discloses that she cannot materialize due to Mashiro’s absence, I’m wondering why their eyes light up. “Hehehe, have you ever de-otomed a girl before?” Only anime would have any sort of plot lines that revolved around scoring with underaged girls. I really can’t see this happening on any Western TV show outside of Dateline: The Catch a Predator.
Wait, so the president of the country decides to be taken hostage instead of the hostages? What kind of anti-terrorist program do they run here?
So the big plan is just to charge the bus? Why charge the bus now that the president is in there? Gah. At least if they charged the bus prior, she could have at least activated Haruka’s otome powers.
This banana peel is just so random. Plus, if you’re a marksman, if you suddenly got blinded, is it a good idea to randomly shoot your weapon into a potentially crowded area? (I say “no,” but that’s just me.)
The otome have turned into the X-Men. Each one has a power more freakish and more oddball than the next. This is what happens when you have like 50 otomes and take away Hime‘s child system.
Awesome. It’s Suigintou!
“Thank you for your precious time.” OMFG. I want my 24 minutes back from watching this episode!
(BTW, I liked how Batman Sara managed to dodge the stone ray sneak attack even though Shizuru wasn’t able to. And did the surrogate system know that something was up, so it deactivated her powers just to save her? Or is it yet another fun Sunrise “We have no clue what we’re animating” moment?)
“SHINKUUUUUU!!!!!”
Gotta love how they had so much trouble with this monster, yet they can get it to stand still as they execute their ultra-slow special attack that is completely ripped off from the Magnus Sisters.
Ride ’em… cowboy?
Wow, Haruka is the only one who managed to even scrape Suigintou. It’s startling. Then again, she did lead the final attack on the Harmonium. She’s the real star of Mai Otome Zwei. *shudders*
I guess Nagi’s seiyuu needed work. I’m disappointed that they didn’t stick him in a jail with more burly men who’d make Nagi their bitch. That would have been the right thing to do.
Nice… ass?
Just when I thought that the episode couldn’t make even less sense, they bring back Nina! Where’s Mr Wong? What happened to her pregnant look? Why is she here? Gah… I hate waiting 3 months to find out… then again, at this rate, episode 3 may be about something completely different.
Zwei is turning out horrible. There’s just not enough unintentional comedy or fanservice to keep it going, and that just means we’re just left with a convoluted non-plot, a parade of characters who only appear for a few minutes before disappearing, and no semblance of a plan. I’m just bummed out and disappointed… I expect something more from Zwei, and it’s just not delivering.
31 Responses to “mai otome zwei 2”
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omni wouldn’t be caught dead reading this post…
Oh please.
It isn’t NEARLY as bad as you’re making it out to be. I hate saying stuff like this, but are you sure you’re actually looking at Sunrise shows objectively anymore, or are you basing your entire opinion on two failed shows?
Sounds pretty damn bad.
Poor Jason, why are you watching this when you could be watching the first half of Kanon 22?
>> I hate saying stuff like this, but are you sure you’re actually looking at Sunrise shows objectively anymore
You’re looking for objectivity from an internet blog? I don’t know how to respond to that. I’m not writing for the New York Times here. More like the New York Post.
LOL. I liked the OVA because I liked seeing Haruka, Chie, and Tomoe. And, I like posts where Jason trashes a show, because it’s pretty hilarious.
I’m not sure if you already knew this, but Tomoe’s boyfriend was actually the art teacher who impregnanted Sister Yukariko in HiME. I certainly didn’t miss him in Otome, but I think Sunrise showed him in this episode so they could have crossover every character from the previous show.
> You’re looking for objectivity from an internet blog? I don’t know how to respond to that. I’m not writing for the New York Times here. More like the New York Post.
Well, we certainly don’t expect you to write like for the NYTimes, but we do expect you to write like for the FoxNews — pretentious objectivity with an obvious bias and a hidden agenda. :)
bakaneko says:
“…pretentious objectivity with an obvious bias and a hidden agenda.”
Hey, Jason, you’re just like Dan Rather! ^_^
But seriously, after reading this post, I’m certain that this needs to get the Negima!? treatment from Shaft. Nobody does “convoluted non-plot, a parade of characters who only appear for a few minutes before disappearing, and no semblance of a plan” better than they do. All this needs is some Mesousa and Mazinger cameos in the background, some Rei Tachibana/Kaede-level faservice, and Nina saying “Maho?” every other sentence, and we’ve got a winner. Or at least it’ll be more watchable. They can call it Mai Otome ZWEI!!!!11ONE
I was dissapointed too. I think the real problem here is the limited budget and a overworked studio. How can you make anything good in 4 episodes? Especially for Sunrise, who’s penchant is stretching things out over at least 2 seasons.
I’m not going to hate on this series, and I’ll still watch it just to see where it goes. While Sergei X Nina X Arika was rather disturbing, it was a welcome relife from the “Neutered and Family Safe” anime we’ve been getting alot of lately. Thats one of the things I liked most about anime..it was so risque compared to western tv, it still is..but the gap is closing…and not in a good way.
>>Who the hell is this guy, and why should we care?
He was actually the manipulative painting teacher from Mai HiME. And now you know. (actually had to check who he was myself)
It was definitely….. interesting… to watch. Why they did manage to introduce some good plotline, they also introduced far more useless wasted time.
Oh, and trust Arika to tell the bad guys she cant do anything to them *sigh*…
And lastly, something to notice…. The Big Bad was using a Tyranid Carnifex from Warhammer 40K….
http://oz.games-workshop.com/s.....orignav=10
(got to admit… it looks close.)
I saw the mayor at the Chinese New Years Parade today. The crowd was cheering loudly. I guess the higher up you go, the less forgiving people are. Besides, Clinton had to deal with the whole U.S. SF…seems a bit different from the rest of the U.S. XD
It’s interesting that the presidential hopeful uses the same slogan as Shinzo Abe in his recent book, “Towards a beautiful country”. Sunrise pandered to nationalist sentiment in Code Geass, and now they’re mocking its champion?
Meh… There was a lot of nonsense thrown in for about 5 minutes of plot/action, but for me the nonsense was enjoyable. And it reaffirmed my belief that Haruka is the best character in Mai-Otome. :3
Gonna have to agree this was one of the worst things I’ve seen in a while.
Right off the bat you can really tell with
1. What the hell does this have anything to do with how the first ova ended?
2. What the fuck is up with those stupid, stupid helmets?
It just got worse and worse as they used fanservice as a stand in for writing and story, introducing old characters more or less every two minutes for no real reason other than to go “LOL LOOK WHO IT IS.”
NASCAR without a mullet. Classic. Sounds like someone’s been hitting Jim Rome.
“It isn’t NEARLY as bad as you’re making it out to be. ”
There’s no plot, no point, no fan-service and every action scene can be seen as ‘stalling until somebody pulls out an ultimate attack’.
It’s god-awful. The Mai-Otome manga made more sense than this train wreck. At least one had Dark Mai.
and we are all better for having known Dark Mai.
Well, now don’t you feel stupid that you didn’t vote for “Shizuru and Natsuki’s Summer Vacation”? ;)
Seriously, I turned off my brain to watch this, only to enjoy three things:
1) Tomoe’s legs, elegant look, and the ‘sane to psycho in 5 seconds’ thing.
2) Mamiko Noto as Yukino Chrysant.
3) Natsuki, Nao, and Nina appreciation.
Beyond that, the rest of it’s fluff, especially since the whole ‘missing Black Valley’ thing’s completely ignored in this OVA. I’m wondering what happened to Mashiro, how Windbloom’s coping with the fact its monarch is missing, and what everyone’s doing now that there’s something out there eating Otome. Or, at least a bit more exposition from Nagi beyond ‘oh, it showed up’.
Well, that and a Chie is fine too. Especially since HER minions are attractive, unlike Nao’s…
Due to a friend’s suggestion, I am in the process of acquiring Mai-Hime (or is this My-Hime?) and Mai-Otome. Should I be afraid of what I see? Would the death of the friend be justified?
Okay what is with you and this whole Sunrise Train Wreck thing you’ve got going on Jay. It’s not even reasonable its just you going on about assuming all Sunrise series will fall apart as an excuse to bash any episode that comes along. It doesn’t even make sense as Sunrise isn’t even known for trainwrecking their, in fact quite the opposite. I’d really like to know what your basing this off of Jason.
To understand the idea of the “$unrise Train Wreck” is to be an anime fan for over a decade, understand that the garbage over in Japan is just as bad as the garbage in the USA (meaning that it’s bad everywhere that has a thriving media industry), and realize that there are companies out there who could do it oh so better than $unrise if they only had its budget.
I will hate $unrise forever for what they did to the few characters I liked. Which is why most of my money goes to adult anime companies.
Okay that doesn’t answer anything as I have seen most of Sunrises catalogue and only one trainwreck among mass success like Escaflowne, Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, City Hunter, PlanetES, Patlabor, Outlaw Star, Code Geass, Dirty Pair, Brave Saga, Votoms… I could go on and on, but it would be pointless. Anyway the poster above me doesn’t even really have an argument and I just proved him wrong about train wrecks. I’ve also been a fan for well well over a decade since I was 6 or so.
Who are these characters they ruined though, I might be able to see why you would be angry at them if they really did do something to your favourites in something.
To Kaioshin_Sama:
“Over a good decade since I was 6…” Are you 16? I’m 32.
And the $unrise Train Wreck didn’t start until the creation of Gundam Seed. With Mai-Hime, Eureka 7, Seed Destiny, Mai-ZHime, and Code Geass; it was all downhill in terms of plot and character development. “Moe” is more important to $unrise since anything like Victory and Turn-A Gundam were considered “failed franchises.”
Oh, and the characters: Akane and Kazuya of Mai-ZHime. Shinn Asuka of Seed Destiny (whose voice actor had been spat on by anti-Shinn anti-fanbase). And how does one not understand that maybe the scene in Code Geass where Nina rubs herself on the table would translate to “$unrise does not know what the hell they’re doing”?
My apologies for not being descriptive enough. Meanwhile; take this info and learn as you grow.
well, sunrise is lacking of creativity. they LOV to use previous projects as reference(eg: MSG wif GS and MS Double Zeta Gundam with Zhime Zwei). So, perhaps they should start doing an ALL new anime, not some base on animes. LOL
This episode was great in that it was an amazing discourse on the course of modern American politics.
Not watched this yet.. in fact it is probably on my NAT drive which is down at the moment, but that guy is the pervy art teacher from HiME.
Okay Sunrise didn’t even fucking make Eureka 7, it was made by Studio BONES and it didn’t train wreck at all, it just slowed substantially during the character development arc of the second season. You don’t even know what the hell you are talking about Tylenol.
And Code Geasss is a brand new franchise with no base in anything. I’m not even sure exactly what is wrong with everybody’s logic centre’s here but I think I am done trying. I’ve never seen people who need to Doublethink so hard to come up with reasons to bash a very good company which has made a couple mistakes. Even to go so far as to mention an anime they didn’t even make, that was also very good other than one arc. And how the hell is this series in any way based on ZZ Gundam.
And are people just casually forgetting the series that came in between this and Seed. Keroro Gunsou, Zegapain,Flag, Gintama, Steamboy and PlanetES. If people want to keep arguing like I don’t know attributing show like Glass No Kantai, or Zaisen Jotaro to Sunrise than go ahead, but I’m done listening to anybody who doesn’t know what they are talking about. And to those who wonder I am 22.
To Kaioshin_Sama:
Try this on for size: $unrise can, and needs to, do better than that.
Do you know that every time companies like $unrise introduces something nobody needs to know; like, Nina rubbing herself on a table; it becomes the joke? And the joke becomes more popular than what the creators, directors, and producers wanted to say?
Sure, ZZ Gundam was bad. But Seed Destiny had hit a new low because of the “protagonist-shift,” the “clip-shows,” the “after-the-fact” interviews, the controversy (Insult the screenwriter, get the character you’re voicing nerfed.), and the poor children/teens/otaku who get brainwashed by every and not realized that tragedy is the best hook exploited by too many.
I know that $unrise had a collection of shows made. I know their history. I just don’t trust them anymore. And I do the best I can to let those guys up there know that they’re being scrutinized at every turn.
I’ll add that the only way $unrise can save itself is to tell an actual, gripping story about revenge and its consequences; having an attractive young man that’s not voiced by a woman star in it. (And no, not Gun X Sword.)
I dare $unrise to do it. I also dare them to re-do My-Otome for the non-Japanese audience by having Takumi and Akira star in it instead of Arika and Nina. And then there’s the total re-do of Garbage Seed Destiny where Shinn and the “new” characters are focused instead of Kira and his ilk.
SHIT SUX. Doubly so because the manga turned out to made of hilarity and awesome. MANshiro really did end up lookin’ kinda fucking win. But meanwhile, not content to totally fuck up Mai HiME, then turn out the even worse Otome (both with salt in the wound due to actually having potential), but now they have to come back and just keep on flogging that horse because hey, it might not be dead yet you know? Maybe he’s feeling better?
I’LL BITE YOUR LEGS OFF SUNRISE!
The saddening truth of the matter is that Mai-ZHime (despite being a gigantic lesbian fest) did have potential. “Marimite + Ichigosha + Power Rangers” here.
If they only kept the number of characters stable. If MANshiro was used instead of Mashiro. If Takumi and Akira were featured more. If Kazuya hadn’t been snatched away from Akane by the “$unrise Nazies.”
I am glad of some things though: Mai didn’t play the “Kira Yamato” card. Haruka PWNED; Exclamation Point! Tomoe being the hot sex-orz antagonist as opposed to hot sex-orz paperweight (Lax Clyne of GS) or hot sex-orz idol cow (Meer Campbell of GSD).