April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

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, teleute12 has the first 8 episodes on her LJ, if anyone's interested in sampling it.

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... )

--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 m00nface (see below). Memento is more useful if you just want to check out a recap of something you've just seen; 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 )

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 )

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.

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.

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.

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.