[Mai Otome] Episode 16 Discussion/Poll

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by Kigo

We've never seen Mashiro get hurt physically and see Arika feel it? Only Arika get hurt phsyically and Mashiro feels it.

So what? Are you arguing it works only one way? What are you basing it on?

I said Rena COULD'VE been an example but she already lost her powers. Her king was killed yet she was still alive at the time, she hid the baby. The king was already dead then (probably). Their contract was already nullified but it's the closest case to a Otome being alive and their contractor.

Except it wasn't. She was no longer an otome so to even bring that up is pointless really.

It would seem that only when an otome goes into battle mode is when the feeling of pain is transfered from otome to master. Cause you see Arika gets hurt all the time normally and it has no effect on mashiro at all. Just a theory, which is probably true :P

Sorry it's false. Exactly after the contract, has Arika actually been like...bashed to pieces or anything of that matter? Same with Mashiro, neither had actually entered into full fledge combat. Otherwise the writers skip it by not showing Arika in combat for those times until actually needed for us.

If you wish to keep arguing go watch episode 4 and see what Natsuki tells Arika to be aware of when she becomes an Otome. If you have a problem with that take it to the writers.

If Mashiro gets hurt, Arika gets hurt, if Arika gets hurt, Mashiro gets hurt. Simple as that....why do kids like to make things so complicated for them these days?

These things can be so easily explained by actually watching the show....

Also, to whoever mentioned Irina doesn't have spiked. Look at scene 5:00-5:10 where it shows Irina and Erstin side BY side. You can see Erstin's hair is spiked downward abit. And Irina has that spike thing going down as well...cept hers is higher. I tried getting a screen cap from the episode but for some reason whenever I tried to save it...it becomes a a black screen

Except her hair doesn't go OVER her shoulder like the shadow is doing. People are really just overanalyzing it like they did with Erstin. It could be Irinia but the shadow is basically ambigious to have anything based on it.

[Forever]

Just the new OP made ep16 totally rocked already! Finally I forsee excitement for the future!

I too suspect irina is the one who got the letter. Just a hunch.

Damn why must they always ends as a cliffhanger?

[Fishbait]

New poster here !! Injecting a fresh breath of voice and tone into the forums...well not really.

Before watching the SUB, the only spoiler I caught for this episode was that Nao was to be made a Pillar. Other than that, I knew nothing and I'm glad I didn't !!

1. The new OP, Woahhh. Love the materalising followed by the HUGE army of Slaves...singly the most awesome scene I've seen in a long time

2. Tomoe is HAWT in her dark robe

3. About the Coral receiving the black letter. If you watch carefully, you will see her hand SHAKING while holding the letter. Now personally, I dont see Tomoe shaking if she ever got the letter, so it's extremely likely someone else. Very possible it's Eristin. Though I dont really got a good reason it's her.

4. From the Preview, we see Midori and gang walking up the steps. Then we see ShizNat. Their surroundings look the same, so it looks like two of the Pillars are gonna be too busy to fight the slave army?

5. Someone mentioned all those Slaves would require an entire population worth of controllers...that's probably not true These are probably some new type or something...

6. I wonder what Mikoto the Cat was reacting to in the last frame of the Episode.

7. Tomoe looked sad when she was in the room looking at Eristin !?

EDIT: anyone have a good Screencap of the scene where Arika flies up to meet Nina in the Opening? We see quite a few Meisters on the ground in that scene, including their teacher-former-MH-Nun

[monster]

This episode definitely brought back my interest in the series. Nice OP, too bad the ED is still the same, and I can't wait until Mai shows up.

Originally Posted by bluegarden

and the last pic.... Doesn't it reminds you of: naruto and sasuke, or kira and shinn

If they are heading into an Arika vs Nina scenario, I hope it'll be better handled than Kira vs Shinn or Naruto vs Sasuke.

[Qbi Sannin]

Originally Posted by SoldierOfDarkness

Sorry it's false. Exactly after the contract, has Arika actually been like...bashed to pieces or anything of that matter?

That episode where Arika pretended to be Mashiro and Mashiro pretended to be Nina. Arika got a PRETTY good beating from Nina REPEATEDLY, remember? I think the writers could squeeze in some FUNNY moments where Mashiro would be reacting while talking to Takumi EVERYTIME Arika gets "reminded" BY Nina. IF it was a -both sides getting hurt if one gets hurt- kinda thing.

And like I said...it could be either the robe frills or someone's hair. The reason I have doubts it could be the robe is because the robe frills are curved. If it was the shadow of the robe...the shadow would be less POINTY. It cant be a bow because there are no bows on the upper portion of the robe. The bow/ribbons are down on the waist side...Unless! Hmm..now that I stare at it... the shadow could be of someone's waist. It might be the person's lower portion instead of the upper portion I had ORINGINALLY assumed. That would explain the deformed...image.

[Rev05]

It's kind of odd how Erstin knows the song. I'd say she learned it from Arika, but they definitely say that each of them know the song, implying that they knew it before meeting each other. I think the otome that received the letter was Ers-chan and not Tomoe. Tomoe would be the obvious choice, but too obvious if you know what I mean.
My other whacky theory...If you look at the lyrics, first verse is sung by Arika, but I think originally was sung by the queen, and second verse sung by Nina, and originally the Otome. The third verse is where it gets kind of weird. It talks about how the singer doesn't want to be born to become a star etc. I think Mashiro is some weird star creation or something. Arika is the princess. Nina is Rena's daughter, and Mashiro something to do with the star.

Edit: How this ties in with the Harmonium, the protector, the organ player, and the singer, I have no clue.

[Mich666]

Originally Posted by Qbi Sannin

During the scene where black envelopes were being handed out...the one where one is being received BY a red sleved coral. The shadow of the person shows that the person has hair that is...spiked out and downward or something. When I compared the corals' hairs...I came to the conclusion that the recipient could either be:

A: Irina
B: Erstin

I am 98% doubting that it is Tomoe because of the shape of her hair. ANYONE else wager a guess on who the spiked end hair coral could be?

Here is the best pic I could capture of that scene:



I think that the letter influences that person instantly... So anyone who acts normally in this ep is out of the game... (So that's why I don't think it's Erstin... It could be Tomoe though but my favourite is Lilie) They sent the letter in order to change top of Mashiro castle..
It is obvious that the shadow isn't from hair...

Also did Nao know what will happen (slaves invasion) ahead of time? She did use this sentence before (ep4 I think?) when she was talking to Nina about Arika while sneaking out from campus...

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by Rev05

I think Mashiro is some weird star creation or something. Arika is the princess. Nina is Rena's daughter, and Mashiro something to do with the star.

If one of the 3 needed for the Harmonium is a star/artificial creation, it MUST be Arika.

Miyu seeing Arika with golden hair is good enough of an indication.

Originally Posted by Mich666

Also did Nao know what will happen (slaves invasion) ahead of time? She did use this sentence before (ep4 I think?) when she was talking to Nina about Arika while sneaking out from campus...

Huh? I really dont see how this has ANY connection with the slave invasion....she was mentioning how Arika might get kicked out of Garderobe soon.

[Rev05]

Except for the fact that the old woman stated that Rena put "souten no seiyu" around the princess when she got her away from the attack...

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by Rev05

Except for the fact that the old woman stated that Rena put "souten no seiyu" around the princess when she got her away from the attack...

Except that we do not know if that is the truth or not.

Good point though, but it makes absolutely no sense for an artificial creation to be either Nina nor Mashiro, since only Arika has shown such signs.

[Ranko]

Originally Posted by Pazu

Robes

Spoiler:

I think that blonde one is Erstin

[Takemi_Ikazuchi]

No, that's based on another Sunrise character

Vega the 2nd a.k.a Sarah Gallager, to be precise.

[Souten no Seigyoku]

Kiggo

We've never seen Mashiro get hurt physically and see Arika feel it? Only Arika get hurt phsyically and Mashiro feels it.

We've only seen Arika get hit. If Mashiro gets hit, Arika will feel it. Its not a one way deal.

Im sure there's a legal way around the "master dies the otome dies" thing. Such as the master dying of natural cuases. Otherwise no one would want to serve an old master.

It would seem that only when an otome goes into battle mode is when the feeling of pain is transfered from otome to master. Cause you see Arika gets hurt all the time normally and it has no effect on mashiro at all. Just a theory, which is probably true

I was wondering about that too. She spars in school all the time. She's gotta get hit sometime. Unless shes improved so much that she hasnt gotten hit. I figure it's because its the Pillars that give her permission to use her robe. But then wouldnt the Pillars feel the pain? Hmm...

[NeonZ]

Ok, I've checked the Otome with a black letter again...

Spoiler:

(Old picture)


That part with the little red circle has to be the hair. Looking at my second shot, the shoulder is clearly lower than that.

EDIT: Hum... looking at it again... Ok, that might be just the leg, not the arm, in that case, that's really the bow...



Now, in this second shot, I compared the skin color of the unknown hand with the known girls. It matches Tomoe's and Erstin's skin. Is there any other coral with a similar skin color?

Considering that the hair doesn't match Tomoe's(EDIT: If that's the arm), because of the spikes, that Otome has to be Erstin, unless I've forgotten another Otome with similar skin...

EDIT: Of course, if that's the leg, then Tomoe might still be that Otome...

[Mich666]

Originally Posted by NeonZ

Is there any other coral with a similar skin color?

There are plenty of girls with the same skin color.... You can check it here
Also I don't think it's hair shadow since it is situated way too down... Look where the end of skirt is... And based upon how down the sun is and how long shadows are I don't think so...

Spoiler:

Here you can see the length of shadows...

and here you can see where the weist of hers is which means it has to be just ribbon


the same waist ribbon as you can see here ~_^

[NeonZ]

There are plenty of girls with the same skin color.... You can check it here

The quality of the images is too different, it's hard to compare. Either way, I was talking only about featured characters, not random background girls. I doubt they'll introduce yet another coral at this point of the series.

Using that page as a reference, there seems to be 6 background girls with that skin tone, but no real character, besides Erstin and Tomoe, has it.

You have a good point about the length of the leg shadows...

EDIT: Ok, you're most likely correct. In that case, the Otome must be Tomoe, Erstin or a random background girl(based only on skin color)... The most likely possibility is Tomoe... though I think there's still a small chance that Erstin is the Otome:

-Erstin has received too much attention during these last few episodes, but isn't in the new opening.

-If every black letter only carries those one-time crystals, then it can't be Tomoe, because we know she'll live for a while, but it might be Erstin...
Of course, if the opposite is true, and there are letters without crystals, then Tomoe is the one who received the letter, because we know she'll join them.

-Tomoe betraying Garderobe and attacking Arika yet again wouldn't be much of a change, or plot twist...

[Matrim]

If it wasn't for the final cliffhanger, I would have voted just one star for this episode. Did we need yet another Tomoe failed plot? We got that she is not too fond of Arika like a dozen episodes ago, after all. She needs to either be caught or actually achieve something rather than just waste times. I really wonder how the hell Chie guessed out of the blue that Tomoe was the one who bossed around Miya and yet no one bothered to suspect her after the acid incident in this episode? Speaking of that, of course, Tomoe had to pose with that "mad evil character (tm)" smile instead of throwing the acid or whatever it was before Erstin could intervene. I believe that's rule 35 of the guidebook of how to write boring villains... And is it only me or Arika, Erstin and Nina behave more like a bunch of ten-year old rather than fifteen year old?
Smith somehow managed to build a huge weapon instead of a new castle, talk about bad security. But at least he is donig something rather than boring the viewers to death, al lcredit to him.
As for the opening - seemed to me like a bad rip-off of the Gundam openings which I have never liked. And the music wasn't great either.

[Rev05]

Originally Posted by Eclipze

If one of the 3 needed for the Harmonium is a star/artificial creation, it MUST be Arika.

Miyu seeing Arika with golden hair is good enough of an indication.

Just re-watching some episodes and I'd say it's close to a forgone conclusion that Arika is the princess. In fact, Miyu is probably a good indicator. In episode 8 that you're talking about I think the golden hair just signifies someone that Miyu is supposed to protect. Hardly anything from mai otome is similar to mai hime. The clue in this episode is when Mashiro is talking down to Arika and Miyu says that she won't tolerate Mashiro treating her this way. I'm betting Miyu is like a royal guard type or something and has been looking out for Arika all this time. Combine that with what the old lady says and that in my opinion, Arika looks nothing like Rena and in fact I'd say Nina and Rena look more alike. So if, like I think, Arika is the princess and Nina is Rena's daughter, this still leaves Mashiro the odd girl out.

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by Rev05

Just re-watching some episodes and I'd say it's close to a forgone conclusion that Arika is the princess. In fact, Miyu is probably a good indicator. In episode 8 that you're talking about I think the golden hair just signifies someone that Miyu is supposed to protect.

A better conclusion is that, Arika, who is(assumingly) the princess, has the powers of the blue star as well, and that the golden hair is the indication of the blue-star relation.

Originally Posted by Rev05

Hardly anything from mai otome is similar to mai hime.

Story-line wise(ie. direct sequel possibilities), yes.

But other than that, need I say more? Reused character designs, reused first-names(Natsuki, Shizuru, Midori etc). And THATS not similar?

How about the Meister suits designs being based on the MH child counterparts?

Originally Posted by Rev05

I'm betting Miyu is like a royal guard type or something and has been looking out for Arika all this time.

Right....and Miyu had the (almost) exact same type of relationship with Alyssa. Plus, Alyssa was an artificial Hime.

Need I mention that Miyu in MO is somewhat of an android/cyborg as well?

Originally Posted by Rev05

Arika looks nothing like Rena and in fact I'd say Nina and Rena look more alike.

What? I guess your viewing perspective must differ alot from the general MO fans...

Arika looks ALOT MORE similar in looks(duh) to Rena than Nina, period. Hell, even some members mentioned that she was being animated more and more like Rena in recent episodes.

Seriously, are you looking clearly? Nina's eyes, facial expression are all completely different from Rena's, whereas Arika's eyes, facial expression fits much better.

[USCPharmacist]

Originally Posted by Matrim

If it wasn't for the final cliffhanger, I would have voted just one star for this episode. Did we need yet another Tomoe failed plot? We got that she is not too fond of Arika like a dozen episodes ago, after all. She needs to either be caught or actually achieve something rather than just waste times. I really wonder how the hell Chie guessed out of the blue that Tomoe was the one who bossed around Miya and yet no one bothered to suspect her after the acid incident in this episode? Speaking of that, of course, Tomoe had to pose with that "mad evil character (tm)" smile instead of throwing the acid or whatever it was before Erstin could intervene. I believe that's rule 35 of the guidebook of how to write boring villains... And is it only me or Arika, Erstin and Nina behave more like a bunch of ten-year old rather than fifteen year old?
Smith somehow managed to build a huge weapon instead of a new castle, talk about bad security. But at least he is donig something rather than boring the viewers to death, al lcredit to him.
As for the opening - seemed to me like a bad rip-off of the Gundam openings which I have never liked. And the music wasn't great either.

Ay, boring villain ftw man, how can you have a superhero show with out laughing villain, it's just against all laws of anime hehehe

I think Tomoe has lost it, she doesn't even care about plotting anymore, she is like, fuck it, I hate this bitch Arika and I am just gonna positively kill her. She probably think there is no way for her to get shizuru, and after the match she just found out how insignificant she was. I mean after the match, nobody talk to her or console her, everyone rush to Arika and Nina. Its show that dispite her pretense, Tomoe was not like by anyone. It's ironic that she is the one promoting yuriness, yet she has no friend (well Miya might've been her only friend but Tomoe treated her like garbage).

The scene where Erns was lying in bed looking at Tomoe, then Tomoe looked away sadly indicate that Tomoe thought it's all over for her, it's only a matter of time before the school act. That's why she was piss sitting in the back watch the butou, because none of this stuff matter to her. I think Chie knew who did it and was very sad. I think once the ceremony is over she'll take action against Tomoe. I think she the reason she hid it from the school was because she didn't want to bother the principal during such busy time, that would ruin the graduation. Although she never forseen the slaves attacking the school either. I meant it's like expecting someone to attack the pentagon.