Re: 14 yrs old. Not to my knowledge. I don't think the commenter could accept self-sacrificing, maternal love from an older sister for a younger brother--they could only understand it as a guilt-ridden obsession (not that incestuous obsession is so rare in anime; but this show is pretty good at depicting Mai's maternal love for Takumi and Mikoto as maternal, and not sexual, despite throwing out a couple of sis-con jokes early on).
Mmm. Yes, Natsuki doesn't spontaneously fall in love with Shizuru--she examines her feelings and realizes that she loves Shizuru. You have a good point about acknowledging love as well as having it; I'll keep that in mind from now on.
I wonder if, in that bleak moment before things really blew up, when Mai was pitying herself for having "nothing," if she could have summoned Katsuguchi.
(Alas, there isn't really a fandom. Mai-HiME slipped under the radar of most of the female fandom--my only guess as to why is that there aren't many male characters, and some girls might be turned off by the slapstick boobs in the first episode--and was seen mostly by the male-dominated anime bloggers who watch and comment on shows of the moment, but don't write fanfiction or dwell on older work. There's a couple of nearly inactive LJ communities I'm in, but that's about it. I would really love for Mai-HiME--henceforth known as MH because I'm tired of typing that out--to get shown on Adult Swim, yes, even as a dub, because it might actually develop an English fandom that way. Probably won't happen, though.)
A cipher is a mystery or a zero. I was using it in the zero sense--that the obsessive talk about MIPs among the bloggers was a worthless oversimplification of the love=HiME power equation. Particularly since the MIP discussions operated on some assumed, absolute rules that I'm not sure the show supported--that a HiME could only have one MIP, that a HiME couldn't switch MIPs (thus the assumption that Takumi couldn't have ever been Mai's precious person because she still summoned Katsuguchi after he died, which is nonsensical to me), etc.
Mmm, good argument on dysfunction. I'm very antsy about assuming or interpreting social commentary, since my knowledge of Japanese society is superficial and secondhand at best. But this feels sound to me.
I found Mashiro quite dull, and didn't pay attention to her, which might be why I'm still not sure what her deal is. It's much easier to follow her conversations with Nagi now, though, because I have a framework for them.
Re: whoa, essay
Mmm. Yes, Natsuki doesn't spontaneously fall in love with Shizuru--she examines her feelings and realizes that she loves Shizuru. You have a good point about acknowledging love as well as having it; I'll keep that in mind from now on.
I wonder if, in that bleak moment before things really blew up, when Mai was pitying herself for having "nothing," if she could have summoned Katsuguchi.
(Alas, there isn't really a fandom. Mai-HiME slipped under the radar of most of the female fandom--my only guess as to why is that there aren't many male characters, and some girls might be turned off by the slapstick boobs in the first episode--and was seen mostly by the male-dominated anime bloggers who watch and comment on shows of the moment, but don't write fanfiction or dwell on older work. There's a couple of nearly inactive LJ communities I'm in, but that's about it. I would really love for Mai-HiME--henceforth known as MH because I'm tired of typing that out--to get shown on Adult Swim, yes, even as a dub, because it might actually develop an English fandom that way. Probably won't happen, though.)
A cipher is a mystery or a zero. I was using it in the zero sense--that the obsessive talk about MIPs among the bloggers was a worthless oversimplification of the love=HiME power equation. Particularly since the MIP discussions operated on some assumed, absolute rules that I'm not sure the show supported--that a HiME could only have one MIP, that a HiME couldn't switch MIPs (thus the assumption that Takumi couldn't have ever been Mai's precious person because she still summoned Katsuguchi after he died, which is nonsensical to me), etc.
Mmm, good argument on dysfunction. I'm very antsy about assuming or interpreting social commentary, since my knowledge of Japanese society is superficial and secondhand at best. But this feels sound to me.
I found Mashiro quite dull, and didn't pay attention to her, which might be why I'm still not sure what her deal is. It's much easier to follow her conversations with Nagi now, though, because I have a framework for them.