cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
This is an excellent show. I'm not quite ready to throw in my lot with [livejournal.com profile] herongale and call it the best anime ever, but it's definitely top-notch.

So much love for Riku. So. Much. Love. If anything horrible happens to him during the course of this show, I will call heron all sorts of nasty names. speaking of trauma buttons, [livejournal.com profile] octopedingenue, why didn't you warn me about the dog in Her Majesty's Dog, oh god

I blame my weakness for innocent younger brother characters on Mai-HiME; I'm pretty sure I didn't have that before I got hit with the sweetness that is the Tokiha sibs. I don't even have an innocent younger brother. I have an innocent younger sister...and when I say innocent, I mean, innocent like she writes fanfiction in which Edward Elric is tentacle-raped by a carnivorous animated tree. That kind of innocent.

In conclusion, watch Mai-HiME. And Blood+.

Mai Otome 8

Dec. 1st, 2005 07:30 pm
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
Holy fuck. I was not expecting that.

Cut for spoilers. )

I kinda really seriously find out what the deal is with the hair, though.

Oh Mai Otome, will you never cease to mess with my mind? ♥ The plot may be coherent, but you will not be able to appreciate how utterly bizarre some of the characters and relationships are until you've seen Mai-HiME.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
Mai-HiME: Breaking Fandom's Brain Since--::checks watch::--2004!

Mai-HiME: Kind of Like Porn, But With Better Dialogue and No Actual Sex

Mai-HiME: Like Revolutionary Girl Utena, But Without Any Sex

Mai-HiME: Or Incest

Mai-HiME: Or Cacti, Swords, Elevators, Or Any Other Prominent Phallic Symbols

Mai-HiME: Also, No One Ever Turns Into a Car

by the way, [livejournal.com profile] teleute12 has the first 8 episodes on her LJ, if anyone's interested in sampling it.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (mai)
Notes for 13. Big fucking spoilers all over the place. )


Notes on Reito; spoilers beyond 13. )

~edit~

Although there were already giant series spoilers in the post, there are even bigger ones in the comments, now. You heard it here first.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
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:

Read more... )

Mai-HiME 12

Aug. 9th, 2005 10:26 pm
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (mai)
As always, spoilers. )

~edit~

Comments now contain spoilers for the entire show. Beware.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
--This post will be updated as new material comes to my attention.
--I do not currently have any information on Mai-Otome or the Mai-HiME manga, nor do I have any behind-the-scenes or Japanese-language material. Anime News Network's entry on Mai-HiME has the standard write-up: cast of characters, lists of seiyuu, writers, directors, animators, etc, song titles, and a mildly spoilery blurb describing the show.

If you want detailed recaps, screencaps, and plot discussion (the "what" of Mai-HiME), I recommend Memento (see below). For extensive character analysis and discussion of Mai-HiME's philosophy, themes, and specific take on things like gender roles and character archetypes (the "why" of Mai-HiME), I recommend [livejournal.com profile] m00nface (see below). Memento is more useful if you just want to check out a recap of something you've just seen; [livejournal.com profile] m00nface's work is most useful and satisfying if you've seen the entire show. My own entries tend to be general episode commentary, but, where noted, are followed by meaty discussion in the comments. Every link is followed by a description of the contents and an appropriate spoiler warning.

Now and for the foreseeable future, this guide will only pertain to the anime; I have no interest in the manga adaptation.


m00nface )


ceru_see )


Memento )

Mai-HiME 11

Aug. 7th, 2005 12:04 am
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (mai)
Spoilery commentary that implicitly extends beyond this episode. )

~EDIT~

This post now contains giant spoilers for all of Mai-HiME in the comments. Reading the comments on this post without having watched all 26 episodes will probably ruin the show for you. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T DO IT. This means you, [livejournal.com profile] mikkeneko.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
This was written about a week ago, back before the new laptop. I keep meaning to post it. As always, spoilery for the episodes in question, with broad and hopefully unspoilery commentary on the show or characters as a whole.

Ep. 8 )



Ep. 9 )


Ep. 10 QES )
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (mai)
Episode 3: One of the things I find most interesting about Mai is that she's simultaneously very maternal (witness her mothering of Takumi, and the way she instantly adopts the care and feeding of Mikoto) and very much a feisty teenage girl. In episode 5, it's clear that she's under a great deal of pressure to take care of Takumi. She works hard and passes up opportunities to socialize with people she longs to have as friends, and it's hard from her (Tate's recognition of this is one of his redeeming features, as on the whole, he's a spineless dweeb). Yet for all that she's struggling to live up to the role she's created for herself, she seeks out Mikoto to look after her, after meeting her only once in bizarre and confusing circumstances. This is while Mai is still actively avoiding the violent weirdness around her, I might add.

>_> Further commentary on Mai's character development terminated, lest it stray into massive spoiler territory.


Episode 4: Pantsu thievery! It should have been so bad, but it was so good.

It's worth noting that while the ecchi humor in the previous episodes was all throwaway material, Natsuki's embarrassing incident in this one is actually followed up on, and serves the plot (and directly affects her relationship with Mai and Mikoto). I wonder if it just took them a couple of tries to hit their stride on it? A guy falling on a girl's boobs could and does happen in any ecchi romantic comedy, ad nauseum. But the scene immediately following the skirt-blowing incident--Mai and Natsuki in the bathroom--feels considerably less hackneyed to me.


Episode 5: My god, practically the only thing that isn't foreshadowed in this show is the first scene in the first episode, and that's just because it comes before everything else. I'm so impressed by how carefully each scene is planned, how subtly exposited. You never have to guess why someone is doing something, or going somewhere; there's always some minor comment or quick establishing shot to explain things. They must have had a giant chart with a line for each character and a timeline, so they could keep track of where everybody was at any given moment. You just don't find this much attention to detail very often. And it's not like they club you over the head with it, either; I'm only noticing it now because I already know what happens, and I can see how well the progression of events holds together.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (mai)
--I'd forgotten how action-packed this show is. And yes, yes, they knew exactly where they were going from the beginning. Now that I know the plot, I can see that. It's so busy. It doesn't feel rushed, but everything that isn't funny is either character development or laying out the plot. And half the funny is related to character development or plot, anyway.

--There is like, no good stopping place. I only stopped at two because I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open.

--I like Takumi a lot more the second time around. Not that there was ever much to dislike (besides his bizarrely deep voice), except that he's a very mild kid. The voice no longer grates, and...fuck, Mai loves her brother with all her heart. And Takumi loves his sister. So I have to love Takumi. In fact, I love everybody. Except Shiho. NO POWER ON THIS EARTH CAN MAKE ME LOVE SHIHO.

--I forgot what I was going to say.

--There is more voice talent in this show than, like, any six American dubs you can name except for Johnny Yong Bosch, and I will hear nothing against him, because he's my English VA boyfriend, so there.

Mai Hime 26

Apr. 2nd, 2005 10:09 pm
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
I don't care whether or not this ever gets licensed. If it doesn't show up in R1, I will by-god shell out for R2s. Of course, then I'll have to buy an R2 compatible DVD player...

My one regret was that there was not more karaoke. Booyah.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
Oh god, do I really have to wait a week to find out how this ends?

On a side note, I'm glad someone linked to some mythological background on Kiyohime and Katsuguchi. It definitely paid off for this episode.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
O___o This show is killing me. I can't believe it's not licensed yet. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a license announcement came the day after the last episode debuted or something, as with Genshiken.

This show spends about its first half making you care about the cast, and the second half putting them through such hell that you wish you didn't. ::darkly:: Except for Shiho. No one can make me feel bad for Shiho.
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
A) J.C. Penney is drapery Mecca. Bless them, and bless the Sears sales clerk who sent us there.

B) Bleach 21: blah. Bleach 22: hee! Conclusion: I like everything about Bleach except for the fights. This is a shounen show. Not good.

C) Mai Hime 23: so many lives to destroy, so few episodes left to do it in.

D) Fantastic Children 15: Howdy, more story. Bet you thought everything was wrapped up in episode 13! 14 is a recap, and can be skipped with impunity, but 15 kicks it up a notch. I wish FC would refrain from its occasional forays into melodrama, but really, that's a small flaw in an absolute gem of a show.

(Still, remember when I said the art was good? I didn't really mean the art. I just meant the pictures Helga draws, they're lovely. FC does have some memorable imagery, though, for example: in a grand, pale room of pillars and mist, a fair-haired child, clad in black is menaced by a towering dark shadow. The child leaps and strikes the shadow with a blade; the dark thing hardens into a grey column of stone, falls cleanly into two pieces, crumbles into dust. The room of pillars and mist disappears. What does it mean? You don't get to find out until, oh, episode 10 or 11, because I'm not telling. But it's cool. Watch the damn show, already. It'd be worth it just to hear the score, which, incidentally, is what I keep telling myself during the fight scenes in Bleach.)
cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
That's the first time I've gotten a really good look at St. Vrus.

It's a gigantic chess piece. And they're standing on a black-and-white tile floor.

Subtle.


So, WTF is up with the preview? That looks like either last episode material or some kind of alternate universe, a la Evangelion ep 26. Ohhhhh, if Shiho dies of pneumonia, I won't be sorry. I laughed so hard when she fell down the stairs. She's a soap opera in her own mind.

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