this show is very hard to mock!

[cerusee]

I swear, the producers are just daring people to take them at face value. Sometimes, when I'm watching Mai-HiME, I sort of imagine this conversation going on:

Sunrise: SO WE WERE THINKING.

Audience: Yes?

Sunrise: About making the most entertaining show in the world.

Audience: Uh-huh.

Sunrise: It's going to have everything. Catgirls. Boobs. Natsuki's round...perfect...ass. A cast list that reads like the "Who's Who of Seiyuu." Oh, and intelligentdirectionsolidwritingexpressivecharacterdesignscolorfuldetailedartandfluidhighqualityanimation.

Audience: ...okay.

Sunrise: And a ninja.

Audience: A ninja?

Sunrise: Ninjas are cool. Plus, a nun. Robots. Lolitas. Cosplay. Conspiracy. A fire-breathing dragon. A girl with a high-pitched voice and a pink octopus on her head who runs around squealing, "Oniichan!" A cranky red-haired hero-type voiced by Seki Tomokazu.

Audience: Uh-huh.

Sunrise: And some lesbians. Yeah, lesbians.
Sunrise: Okay, then we're going to take gender roles, character archetypes, and genre conventions, twist them into a pretzel, and feed it to a giant caterpillar.

Audience: Yeah, yeah...
Audience: ...
Audience: Wait, what?

Sunrise: It's a genre show. In the sense that we're going to break genre.

Audience: Break which genre?

Sunrise: All of them.

Audience: ...

Sunrise: Yeah, that's right...school drama, sex comedy, romance, slapstick humor, mystery, adventure, action...did we mention that it's funny? And there's loads of boobs.

Audience: ...wait, what's that sticking out underneath?

Sunrise: Oh, that? That's just the show's theme.

Audience: ...but...it's--

Sunrise: It's love.

Audience: ...

Sunrise: Love from its many sources, love in its many forms. Understand this: love is good; love is hard. Love is power. Love is your weakness; love is the shield of your heart.

Audience: ...
Audience: ;_;

Promo art: Psst. Boobies.

Audience: Stop that!

Comments

[m00nface.livejournal.com]

XD It's at this point that I'm thinking through every single anime stereotype ever made, and discovering that absolutely everything is in this show... except malletspace. But when the only cliche missing is malletspace, that's still pretty damn cliche-cluttered, and each one turned inside out. How did they flout that many conventions in only twenty-six episodes?

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

absolutely everything is in this show... except malletspace.

And giant mecha. Although depending on how you want to view the Ride of the Valkyries at the end, there, you could argue that there are mecha.

How did they flout that many conventions in only twenty-six episodes?

They were very efficient about it.