Mai Otome... is a title with a weird name. Even weirder than its predecessor, which is quite a feat. I'm given the choice to call it either Mai Otome, My Otome, My Z-Hime, Mai Z-Hime, 舞乙HiME, and probably a half dozen more things.

...so I just wrote the one that came to my mind first. And that's what it will be.
I'm sure all those other names are acceptable. If not, then, what do I care.

But as I was going to say, Mai Otome is actually a title I've been wanting to blog about since the first episode. Like a number of people, I've been anticipating it even before the fact that it existed became official, and have even gone to the manga (which was released a month or two beforehand) to but catch a glimpse of the story.

Yeah....yeah, that was a mistake.

But anyhoo, I've never been able to blog about it until now due to the fact that I've never had much time (geez, it's like every post I make has something to do with me not having enough time. I'm such a whiner).
Now, however, I'm regretting my dismissing this show up until episode 3 because I think this post will be mostly about this show's flaws so far. I'm sorry... orz

After watching the first episode of this show, I noted on the AniSu boards that I thought that this show probably wasn't going to be as good as Mai Hime, but vowed that that was going to be the last time I compared the two. Now, unfortunately, I think I have to go back on that.

Quit being the same show, damnit!
I think I'm much different from a lot of people when I say that. In the first episode, a number of people welcomed the return of the older charcters -- even the minor ones (such as the return of Chubbsy McGardener). But to be honest, that sort of thing made me cringe just a bit. I was, however, very happy with the show's differences, such as how different Mashiro is (after knowing her in roles like Mashiro and Fumi (Mai Hime), and Honoka (Pretty Cure), I wouldn't have guessed Yukana had so much range), and how the ambiguously gay duo of Aoi and Chie were separated into different kingdoms. I also liked how most of the first episode focused mostly on the "new" characters Arika and Nina. And I of course didn't even mind the Akane action we got and most likely will be getting for a while in future episodes, since in Mai Hime, she was stuck in a room for the majority of the show. Plus, I just really like Junko Iwao.

However, now with episode 3 upon us, the similarites are really starting to pile up. We already knew that Shizuru and Natsuki are of course still a "pair", but also, Yukino still appears to be Haruka's shadow (I was hoping they'd be separated as well..) and there's even a new Kazuya for Akane to go ga-ga over. This may just be me, but I think it would have been a lot more interesting if Akane in fact DIDN'T like Kazu-kun this time around, or at least had some sort of "hmph!"-ish tsundere going on. ANYTHING that would have not given me a "huh, haven't I seen this before..?" feeling. I don't necesarilly mind all of these old characters returning perse, but I'd really like for this show to pay more attention to how it's NOT Mai Hime.

Also, there's another thing I'd like to gripe about. It's a little different, however, and to be honest I'm a little ashamed to say it since this is REALLY comparing to two shows, but I'mma gonna do it anyway.

Mai > Arika
There's something about Arika that rubs me the wrong way. Mai at the very least seemed a little more appealing as the reluctant hero that had her own problems to deal with besides fighting monsters. Akira however, with her "I'll never give up!"'s and her "I have to save everyone!"'s and her "I'm going to be a ----" rather makes her a little generic... and more like something out of Pokemon.
(..The entire show seems a bit more shounen now that I think about it...)
Of course I still like Arika, though, and think it's still too soon to judge her so harshly, but I really hope that her character will be fleshed out a little more soon, and maybe give us a little more backstory on her... and NOT the kind where the show is force-feeding us the fact that she's most likely a princess.

So let's hope that her grandmother was actually a robot or something... that used to beat her.

In conclusion, I've noticed that this entry was hardly very informative about the episode itself, was it? Oh well, I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Forgive me for berating the show so much. I of course still enjoy it, and I know I'll still most likely watch it to the end, fucked up batshit crazy last episode or not.

The next Mai Otome episode review I do will be a happy one. Promise.

Labels: Mai Otome

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