English Translation: First Ex・pe・rien・ce
Review
What the heck?! DAMMIT!! They left us at such a cliffhanger! ><
Geez... Sunrise sure is good at forcing people to stick to their shows. They frequently cut the story off at some dramatic scene and expect you to follow that up in the subsequent episode. That and also the next one seems rather erm.... Full of fan service *Cough* *Cough*. More on that later.
But anyway, now on to the review for the third episode! Note that as usual, I won’t be providing any episode summary here coz the other better bloggers have done that already, nor am I gonna post any screenshots that follow the plot coz they have those covered as well. However, I will be commenting on various scenes, scenes which I find interesting, of course ;). They’re not necessarily in chronological order, by the way.
Right, lets go!
Scene 1 - Lets see how dim-witted Mashiro-hime is
Heh... Not only is Mashiro bratty, she’s dimmer than a dead light bulb as well. Okay, maybe she isn’t dumb, but she sure is naïve. I bet all Mashiro fans are screaming at Sunrise for this =p. I still like her new personality though. Pretty used to it by now ^^. Dang, Nagi hasn’t lost a single touch of his manipulative nature. The way he duped Mashiro into consenting the Butou (Mai Battle) between Arika and Nina was a stroke of brilliant conspiracy. Somehow, reverse psychology always works for him. We have yet to know whether he’s doing this out of his own will, or that he’s following the orders of some higher up peeps like in Mai-HiME. With the way things are going, I would say he’s doing it for his own amusement and possibly his own goals. And I kinda feel relieved that Nina doesn’t directly belong to him as an Otome. She’s more like someone who’s serving him as a citizen of the Altair kingdom and as an Otome, she is expected to serve nobility even if he isn’t her master.
Scene 2 - It’s never good to have wrinkles at this age...
Well, I’m not gonna comment too much about these scenes since nothing much happened here (I think, tee hee hee ;p). It’s just that I find it cute how Shizuru looks out for Natsuki, not only in official affairs but personal ones as well. It’s good to have your very own supporter who actually cares for your face (Yes, as in cosmetically ^^). For a second, I never imagined Shizuru would mention something like that (The wrinkles on Natsuki’s brows) coz there are more important matters at hand to worry about. Guess she wants the younger girl to stay beautiful for um... You know... Her own interest. *Ehem!!* XD
Scene 3 - Nina taking it out on her dad... Not
Things are becoming seriously heavy for Nina but fortunately for her, Sergay has been really supportive. I would agree he does show that he cares deeply for her during this kind of situation, but he still expects a lot from her. And because Nina loves him very much, I kinda anticipated that she would do anything to avoid disappointing Sergay, a scenario which I will be commenting on later. Oh, notice how annoyed her chibi self looked when she saw Rena’s photo in Sergay’s album? I’m starting to wonder whether she really does have a daddy complex or not. Hmm.... Maybe that few seconds wasn’t enough as proof. =p
Scene 4 - Fine ladies-in-training, training in bribery that is....
And what do we have here... Looks like corruption to me. Tsk tsk.... Youko accepting a bribe from Irina and Erstin. Shame =p. By the way, check out moyism’s caps for these few screenshots. They’re the best!! XD
Scene 5 - Familiar faces
Looky looky. Some old figures are back! Yes! We should be expecting Haruka and Yukino to return in the next episode! Apart from that, there is that rather mysterious girl who’s wearing a mask and a cape. My speculation is she’s either Mai or Midori, probably Midori based on her hair but I could be wrong. Ah, well... We’ll have to be patient if we wanna find out her identity. Sunrise at work with the suspense as usual. And Kazuya has returned as well. I hope nothing happens to him early on in the series. To be honest, I was rather glad that Kazuya wasn’t in Mai-Otome but now that he’s included, it couldn’t be helped. I just don’t want Akane to go loony again now that she’s a highly respected individual. It would be such a waste to see her current status go down the drain.
Scene 6 - Butou of Desperation
Whoa... Here, we have another person who doesn’t know the meaning of mercy. Nina is seriously brutal during the Butou. She looked as though she really was going to kill Arika from the way she thrashed the livin’ daylights out of the latter. Arika even ended up bleeding from her head towards the end ^^;;;. You usually don’t smash your opponent into walls and floor just to win a fight set up as a performance (Especially if you’re teenage girls. But then again, this is the Mai-Otome world. Anything is possible). This is what it means to go to the extreme to please someone. During the battle, you could tell that pride is everything to Nina, and she’s desperately betting not only her status at Garderobe on it but her life as well. Arika on the other hand, started on amusing grounds. I actually felt really sorry for her that time. Yeah, she doesn’t know how to operate the staff =p. Although that was her first Butou, she did pretty well for a rookie. Many might think she’s naïve when it comes to new things for her, but it seems she has a solid grasp on battle instincts and strategies. She even managed to minimize the impact of Nina’s deadly attack (Obviously, Nina’s been watching too much DBZ =p) due to her quick thinking. And her iron will is definitely worthy of praise. Ah yes... It’s interesting to note that we get to see Mashiro’s soft side during this battle. She may seem like an obnoxious spoiled brat most of the time but you could see that she was very worried, then relieved to see Arika emerging all right after the last blow. She may well end up as being Arika’s master soon.
Scene 7 - Nobody steals the limelight better than Shizuru does
Can you say H-O-T? ~^^~
Even if it was only for a few seconds, the heated Shizuru versus Rado duel was friggin’ awesome!! Undoubtedly the highlight battle of the episode! And this is the first time we get to see Shizuru’s Robe transformation sequence, surely a stylish eye candy for fans ^^. And I looooooove the way she coolly told Rado that she’ll punish him real bad for not being polite in front of a lady (Shindou Naomi ROCKS!!!! >O<). Heck, she owns the screen any time! ^O^
By the way, if you would like to see the entire animated sequence of her Robe transformation, click here.
Likewise, wanna check out her action scenes, go over here.
Extra Footage - Apparently, Natsuki doesn’t like Shizuru’s magical hands to wander all over somebody else *Nudge* *Nudge* *Wink* *Wink*
How could I ever leave out this scene?
Ooh.... Looks like someone’s jea~lous. ;p
WOOT!! Shizuru hasn’t lost her professional touch, if you know what I mean XD. Such a stark contrast from her Mai-HiME self. In the preceding series, she was a very composed and controlled young lady. Even though she harbors such daring desires for Natsuki, she only displayed them when no one could see her, especially the latter. In Mai-Otome, Shizuru just shamelessly does whatever she wants, and it’s even better when she could tease Natsuki outright in the open by making sure that the headmistress is able to see the Meister at “work” =p. Thus, I assume there’s little chance that Shizuru would become psycho later on should there ever be a cause to due to her feelings for Natsuki. The reason why she lost control last time was that she was trying too hard to keep those feelings a secret until Haruka and Yukino spilled the beans, consequently causing Natsuki to lose her trust in her which led to Shizuru’s downfall. Low possibility of that happening here coz she already made it very obvious in the way she flirts with Arika to make Natsuki jealous ^^. After all, she’s just about the only person who can effortlessly cause Natsuki’s confident self to crumble in a split second. Yeah, yeah... Killing two birds with one stone again. Flirting with two chicks is more like it, with the older chick seeing green. ;p
Now on the next episode, we’ll be getting loads of fan services, mainly in the form of the Otomes sharing a public bath, which means... More nudity =p. Haha. Not explicit ones though but probably enough to cause nose bleeds among some individuals. Haruka and Yukino make their comeback, with Arika unfortunately getting her *Bleep!!* “massaged” by the former (Won’t Haruka learn that she’ll never beat Shizuru at this kind of stuff? XP). Ehehe... I swear this is one of the very few series out there where the characters can sexually harass each other on purpose without bad intentions. Goodness =p... Ooh yeah, I find it hilarious how Natsuki relates her horrible underwearless dilemma from Mai-HiME Episode 4 in the commentary for the upcoming fourth episode of Mai-Otome. LOL!! Speaking of which, Shizuru is one damn horny pervert XD!! Probably the only female one. I’m amazed at how she can easily come up with any conceivable reason as an excuse to get her hands on Natsuki. ;p
PS. And why do so many men have mustaches here?
~Entry by Dav~
