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~

Mai-Otome Episode 4

Japanese Title: 炎の転入生!! (Honoo no Tennyuusei!!)
English Translation: Blazing Transfer Student!!

Review
Aww... They didn’t show any more of Shizuru and Rado’s fight T___T. Less action packed this week but still enjoyable in its own way. In this episode, several more mysteries have arisen and we get the joy of waiting for them to be revealed later on =p. Nagi seems fairly dodgy in the way he comments on Garderobe as well as Windbloom’s situation and Sergay looks bothered about Arika. Guess they do have valid intentions to hang around for a while, since they know something about the peeps from Black Valley. Apart from that, Natsuki and co. have their hands full dealing with the likes of Schwarz and Black Valley members, especially the Aswald knights. Sunrise is keeping us in suspense as usual by partially sprouting various new info about the antagonists. It’s interesting to see how the story will expand later on to include all these circumstances. At the moment, the plot has slowed down a little to emphasize on the characters’ development (Particularly Arika and Nina’s), but that’s okay coz it seems necessary to explore their personalities further this early in the series. And now on to a few of the other scenes...


Scene 1 – Super Woman No. 2 has arrived

Haruka (Armitage) has finally gotten what she always wanted.... RAW POWER!! And an insane amount of it =p. It’s amazing to see how she single-handedly threw the huge airship far off into the horizon without any effort. She could thrash Superman any day if she wanted to ^^;;;. I find this scenario a really great re-intro for the good ol’ ex-Executive Director. From the looks of it, her whacky moe (燃え) personality hasn’t changed at all. Love how she stresses along the lines of “To be an Otome is to have strength, skill, and GUTS!!!!” to Arika. LOL!! She still even has that hilarious habit of messing up her words here! I’m sure she meant “promising future prospects” (有望 - Yuubou) but she ended up saying “promising future poverty” (窮乏 - Kyuubou) instead XD. Luckily Yukino was there to correct her (With a loudspeaker ^^). That scene was the best! Wonder if she’d still call Shizuru “Bubuzuke Onna”....


Scene 2 – It’s time for physical examination!

Here we have Haruka trying to beat Shizuru in her field of expertise XD. Honestly, she has to learn that she’ll never surpass Shizuru when it comes to handling girls ;p. There has to be more to an Otome than chest and butt sizes alone. *Ehem!!* Anyway... I like how the writers decided to keep Haruka’s “give-it-all-you-got” attitude in the sequel. Haruka wouldn’t be Haruka after all without her super-determined resolutions. Speaking of which, they kept her heated rivalry with Shizuru in Mai-Otome as well, which is brilliant. I find their interaction by far, the funniest among all of the characters in both series. It never ceases to amuse me how Haruka keeps on ranting to Shizuru’s face that one day she’ll settle the score with her and yet the latter just acts as oblivious as ever ^^. As for Yukino (Crisanto), even though she wasn’t one of my favorites, I’m glad she returned too. I just looooove her voice (Noto Mamiko sounds so naturally sweet ~^^~!). It seems she has somewhat continued her role here from Mai-HiME. At first, I found it slightly odd that Haruka is now following and serving Yukino since she’s the president of the Ealis country but come to think of it, it’s even harder to imagine Yukino being an Otome ^^;;;. After all, Yukino did become the Executive Director of the Student Council in HiME so I guess she’s expected to be a leader in the sequel. It’s nice to see her as an authoritative figure instead of always being the quiet and shy tag-along type.


Scene 3 – It’s time to talk about “the birds and the bees” Garderobe style =p

Wha? U~so! Can this be true o.O? They’re turning Mai-Otome into a yuri galore show! Not that I’m complaining though, especially when it comes to Shiz and Nat. I’m probably just fantasizing too much for my own good but why is Natsuki looking at her left when she’s talking about “that”. And you know who’s standing at Natsuki’s left side, right? Woot, tee hee hee.... Arika’s expression when they were telling her about the details was absolutely priceless XD! Well, this revelation certainly brought up a lot of speculations. In the few earlier episodes, it was hinted that Rena may be Arika’s mother in those flashback scenes. And for all I know, Arika stated someone told her before that her mother was an Otome. It kinda puts two and two together in some way. There is high possibility that Arika is Rena’s child, with Arika’s father probably being a figure of nobility. But it’s hard to say and I can’t confirm it. To top it off, I can already see Akane’s status getting flushed down the toilet....
PS. It’s so weird to hear Natsuki using the pronoun “kimi”.... ^^;


Scene 4 – Need tissue to wipe the blood from your nose? XD

Yes, the infamous bath scene. Nothing but nudity. Thank goodness it was implicit... To be honest, I don’t have much to comment here coz my mind simply went blank during those few minutes =p. Ho~... The juniors have to look after their oneesamas. Wait a sec... Look after? LOOK AFTER? LOL!! Isn’t it supposed to be the other way round? Seems Shiho is still jealous of other girls’ chest size =p. And Chie is being damn cheeky by stripping Erstin like that. Okay, that’s enough... XD


Scene 5 – Annnnnnnngst.....

ちび ニナ すごく かわいいいいいいいい!!!! ~^^~

Gosh, little Nina is soooooooo adorable!! Her voice when she was young reminds me very much of Tsukamoto Tenma (School Rumble)! But all is not well for teenage Nina.... She’s getting more depressed and angsty by the episode. Hmm... Probably due to her responsibility to Sergay again. Her relationship with Arika has gotten worse too as soon as she branded the latter a rival without further thought. She even goes as far as wanting to fight her all over again. From the way things look, her bitterness towards Arika seems to stem from two things – Sergay’s concern for the Souten no Seigyoku as well as Arika being a threat to her position at Garderobe. I kinda feel worried for her that one day she may crumble under all the emotional burden. Hopefully, Arika will remove that resentment from her one way or another soon. Nina does need the support of her friends very much instead of shouldering everything on her own. It’s a good thing that Erstin sincerely sees the positive side of her while the other girls either couldn’t care less or prefer to bring her down. As for Tomoe... Heh, who knows what she’s thinking. Her attitude’s been pretty suspicious so far. She looks humble and understanding but her face always wore a shocked expression different from the others whenever she witnesses something incredible. I can see a Mai-Otome version of Suigintou in the works. Side note, Nao is up to her typical habit of sneaking out of dorms again. Guess that part of her is impossible to change. And what is that talk about Arika getting “destroyed” soon? That worries me..... ^^;;;


Overall, quite a satisfactory episode. Nothing exciting happened but to me, that’s just what the series needs once in a while. Next one looks interesting. Aha! Maybe Mai will be returning soon and I’m sure a lot of us agree that she used to be Natsuki’s rival long ago. Wonder if her name would be Mai Foieru (Katakana!)... Oh ya, does anyone else find the Hoshigumi Trio painfully annoying (The Sakura Taisen folks may file a lawsuit for this =p)? Lilie is all right but Yayoi and Miya are too friggin’ gossipy. Someone should set their uniforms on fire, then we could have some blazing students for real (Hence the episode’s title =p).


~Entry by Dav~