Mai-Otome Episode 5

Japanese Title: 学園と制服とあたし♪ (Gakuen to Seifuku to Atashi)
English Translation: School, Uniform and Me♪

Gosh... This is turning into a Marimite clone with all that Oneesama addressing going on. After all, each Pearl Otome gets assigned two slav... I mean, petite soeurs to assist them in their daily chores. On the other hand, Marimite doesn’t get as crazy as this! What happened this week? Well.... Nothing much again when it comes to the plot but we have some major character exploration and development. So for this review, I’ll be doing something a little different. I’m gonna go over several of the main characters again, and later on highlight a few extra stuffs. By the way, I shall call the school “Gaulderobe” from now on coz that seems to be the correct spelling as written on the letter Arika received.


~Characters~

Arika

It’s funny how Arika addresses herself in the Japanese way i.e. Family name first followed by given name, whereas the others especially Natsuki calls her like everyone calls um... Everyone else. To me, I find Arika really interesting in this episode. Why? Coz this is the first time we get to witness her real angsty side. She’s got to be the most dynamic character for this episode when it comes to emotions. Previously, we only see the happy and crazy Arika who couldn’t care less about what happens to her or around her. However in this episode, we’re treated to a very rare sight of Arika getting seriously discouraged about her presence in the school. She even began to doubt whether she should continue pursuing her dreams, a character which is the complete opposite of her overly confident self. But, thanks to Nina’s “reverse psychology”, Arika was able slap herself out of her depression and back into hyper mode once again. I used to find her annoying but that aspect of her is slowly chipping away. I hope the writers will pad her personality more as the series progresses coz it honestly gets boring when we have a stereotypical genki character for a lead. Believe me.... We have too many of those already.

Nina

She’s another character which deeply intrigued me. Nina has a rather interesting way of expressing her consideration for others. Yes, we all know she does care for Arika, just not in the usual thoughtful way. Her personality didn’t expand very much in this episode but we get to see a side of her which was never revealed before, and that is her esteem for her peers. Although Nina is the No. 1 Coral Otome, she actually respects those whose ranks are below hers, something which I find very uncommon among your typical hot shots in any series. From the way she reacted to Arika’s dilemma, you could tell her rivalry with the latter had a positive effect on her and she isn’t about to let it go so easily. It’s either that or she hates to see people getting away with dirty tricks. It’s great how she went out of her way to seek help from Nao to rectify the situation, and then later warning Miya to never repeat the same mistake or she’ll personally involve herself in the matter. Hmm.... If the problem really does occur again, we should expect some heated showdown between her and Tomoe when the beans get spilled.

Mashiro

I really don’t get her role this week... Really. Um.... Right, so basically all the key things she did were 1) Rejoiced at Arika’s predicament; 2) Got scolded by her maid; 3) Rejoiced at Arika’s predicament again by laughing her head off after running a good distance from her castle; 4) Got pwned by Irina’s deduction about how “the cat did it”. Her contribution to the plot this time round seems pretty much nil, apart from providing pointless comedy which increased her brat factor by 1. Hopefully she’ll be playing a more significant part later on. Not a lot of development actually so I’ll just stop here.

Sergay

Aww... Sergay’s such a sweet guy ^^. He has a really kind expression when he was observing Nina from outside the class. Not to mention that he does seem to have a soft spot for Arika as well, amusing at the sight of the latter struggling in class. My respect for him has climbed one notch. His support of Arika is very commendable, but perhaps he has an ulterior motive of doing so, perceiving that he purposely advised Nagi against sponsoring her tuition. His letter to Arika has somewhat strengthened speculations that Rena may be Arika’s mother, a view which so many of us are leaning towards and possibly hoping for. I sure can’t wait to see how Rena fits into the lives of Arika and Sergay. Ah yes, if Nina ever finds out that her beloved otousama is secretly funding her rival, she may just explode. =p

Shiho

I’m sure everyone has noticed this by now. Here we have Mai-Otome’s version of the Student Council with Akane being the composed president, Chie the flirty vice president, and Shiho the hot-headed executive director. Shiho sure did one heck of a job at dampening Arika’s spirit. She was mean to poor Arika, saying how the latter was an eyesore who has no right to belong in Gaulderobe. She went too far there, but I still enjoy the comedy she provides the show with. Reprimanding students for breaking the rules? Hmm.... Then how would she explain that maki maki voodoo doll =p? Oh, I can just imagine Haruka barging into their meeting and correcting Shiho on the “right” way to intimidate a student. XD

Nao

This girl is definitely hot. Hot enough to have her own little gang of goons, who all strangely has the same dress code as her ^^;. Nao must certainly be some major player (No, that’s not a pun) in the underworld of thugs, coz it takes a LOT of respect for a young lady to lead tough guys like those. Then again, it may just be her menacing bad@$$ claws =p. Glad to see that Sunrise hasn’t abandoned her Element from HiME. As always, she’s a very intelligent and resourceful person, since she and Nina were the only ones who succeeded in pinpointing the culprit behind the sale of Arika’s uniform. And because of Nao’s help, Nina was able to get to the point where she’s one step away from unveiling the ringleader of the whole scheme.

Aoi

Yeah baby!! Who’s Da Boss XD! Even though Mashiro’s the new ruler of Windbloom, she definitely ain’t the one who calls the shots around the castle. Fumi might not be present any more to tend to Mashiro’s every need but fortunately for her, Aoi is very much capable of doing an equally good job. Finally, there’s someone who’s strict enough to put a self-righteous queen in her place. Well amusing to see the way Aoi scolded Mashiro and told her to finish her homework. =p

Tomoe

Heh... Just as everyone had suspected, Tomoe turned out to be one sleazy back-stabbing rat. The whole act unquestionably deserves an Oscar, and her conspiracy skills could very well rival those of Nagi’s. She’s obviously threatening Arika to stay out of her way and she’s intelligent enough to use another person (In this case, the victim is Miya) to divert the attention away from herself. It seems likely that she sees Arika as a danger to her status at Gaulderobe and now she’s trying to get rid of her. I agree with Mentar that there is a possibility she doesn’t want Arika to get expelled. If that’s the case, then she may be trying to destroy Arika in the most ruthless way imaginable, and to her I think Arika’s expulsion doesn’t provide enough satisfaction. First traitor branded...


~Scenes of Interest~

The Otome Fan Shop

Never knew anything Otome would be such a famous issue in all of Windbloom. I would say Backstage is quite a dodgy-looking shop selling merchandize like those. Ahaha... Looks like the peeps see the Otomes as heroines or defenders of justice or something. Hmm.... Perhaps “celebrities” is a more fitting word.

Something’s up between these Two....

PS. Ignore the lunatic in the corner.
Oo~h... I knew Sunrise isn’t letting go of Chie and Aoi’s relationship. From the way Aoi looked at Chie and how the latter winked at the maid, it seems the two are possibly old friends who knew each other way back. YES!! Another pair to root for aside from Shiz&Nat. We’re certainly looking forward to more of their scenarios together in the near future.

Everyone looks “Ha? O.O”

Irina sure came up with one of the most outrageous deductions conceivable =p. Well, they did get Arika off the hook but that’s not the case. The highlight of this escapade is of course the responses of those who were present to listen to the crazy theory. Mashiro and Natsuki undoubtedly had the BEST reactions out of all the others! It’s amusing to see how Natsuki failed to appear professional during those few seconds while Mashiro had that “WTH?!” look after listening to Irina’s assumptions. Absolutely hilarious XD!! Same goes for Chie and Shiho when Mashiro ranted her dissatisfaction but their’s were no where near as good as the former two’s. MUST have more SD scenes like these! ^O^


Overall, not a fantastic episode, but it’s still good in its own way. I can see the need to delve into the characters’ personalities more and this episode did just that. As for the next one.... What the? Orz? ORZ? LOL!! Nina admits defeat to Erstin’s superior CPR skills! XD


~Entry by Dav~