Mai Otome 0 ~S.ifr~ Episode 1 Discussion / Poll

[Amaiko]

I just went back and checked some things in Otome, and Sunrise is (surprise, surprise) not staying consistent with the dates between S.ifr and Otome. In episode 22 of Otome, Nagi gives Nina's birth year as "325" which, if S.ifr is taking place in 305 (given Elena Fran's apparently very recent death) then 20 years would have passed between the events of S.ifr and Mashiro, Arika and Nina's births. No way is that possible, not to mention that using those dates, the Dragon War would have occurred about 60 years before Otome, not 50.

And wow, going by the picture of Sifr and Bruce holding Nina that Nagi's looking at in episode 22, Sunrise retconned Sifr's hair *and* eye color (the queen's hair is dark brown) and Bruce really lost his looks.

[solarknight123]

Originally Posted by Amaiko

I just went back and checked some things in Otome, and Sunrise is (surprise, surprise) not staying consistent with the dates between S.ifr and Otome. In episode 22 of Otome, Nagi gives Nina's birth year as "325" which, if S.ifr is taking place in 305 (given Elena Fran's apparently very recent death) then 20 years would have passed between the events of S.ifr and Mashiro, Arika and Nina's births. No way is that possible, not to mention that using those dates, the Dragon War would have occurred about 60 years before Otome, not 50.

And wow, going by the picture of Sifr and Bruce holding Nina that Nagi's looking at in episode 22, Sunrise retconned Sifr's hair *and* eye color (the queen's hair is dark brown) and Bruce really lost his looks.

should have known that sunrise wouldn't give a hoot about continuity

[Sikon]

No way is that possible

Why? It would make Lena 36 at the beginning of Otome.

No way is that possible, not to mention that using those dates, the Dragon War would have occurred about 60 years before Otome, not 50.

Miss Maria was probably just giving an estimate.

But wait... If Nina was born in 325, this means we have dates for Otome (339-340) and Zwei (341)!

[Amaiko]

Originally Posted by Sikon

Why? It would make Lena 36 at the beginning of Otome.

First off, according to the official S.ifr website, "Kiddo"/Otome's John Smith is supposed to be 19 during S.ifr. If you add together a twenty year gap between S.ifr and the flashback scene of the attack on the castle at Otome's very beginning, plus the 15 years that pass after that, John Smith would have been close to sixty during Otome. There is no possible way you could convince me that Otome's John Smith is supposed to look anything like he's in his mid-fifties. Forties, maybe. 54? Not even close.

Second, as I mentioned before, anime in general and Otome in particular is all about youth--everyone in Otome who's not Miss Maria is well under 30, Natsuki's head of Garderobe at 19, etc and to have Rena giving birth at age 36/Sifr giving birth at age 34 is pretty much unthinkable, especially since that would put Rena into her fifties if she had lived during Otome. Like I said, Sifr's mother had her at 19, for comparision.

Third, while we obviously have no idea when Bruce and Sifr marry, a 20 year gap would mean they waited an awfully long time to have their first child and in a situation where not having an heir to throne would be disasterous, it makes no sense for them to wait so long, as royalty generally likes to reproduce at the first possible instant to avoid that happening.

Miss Maria was probably just giving an estimate.

You don't generally say something happened "50 years ago" when it was actually sixty, not to mention that Monica's fate and the Dragon King War seems to be a bit of thing with her. I can't see Miss Maria being that imprecise, can you?

[bluestripe]

If Lena is 36 at the beginning of Otome, then she was 22 when she had Arika. It works just fine.

[Sikon]

Originally Posted by bluestripe

If Lena is 36 at the beginning of Otome, then she was 22 when she had Arika. It works just fine.

By "the beginning of Otome", I mean the first scene, at which time Arika and Nina are still infants.

[Mich666]

I don't think Sunrise is taking whole Sif.r seriously, they just wanted to make some cool fights, uber-cool Rena, introduce their future characters in Destiny and give handful of ecchi to fans. Then, they made up some would-be story to connect everything together. Some speculations about dates and years are therefore pointless...

[Jeffry2009]

I expect that Mai Otome SIFL will be have a bad @ cliffhanger ending ever like Star Wars Episode III, Revenge Of the Sith because we will witness the death of the otomes in the later episodes like Elliot chandler, Raquel Mayo and the others. I mean Where rena is running away from the castle bringing Baby arika and surrounded by the Swarhz Ends the Prequel OVA Arc & Mai Otome Series Starts in that scene here.

[Jimmy C]

Originally Posted by Amaiko

In episode 22 of Otome, Nagi gives Nina's birth year as "325" which, if S.ifr is taking place in 305 then 20 years would have passed between the events of S.ifr and Mashiro, Arika and Nina's births.

I decided to recheck this also. It's ep21 not ep22. AR.325 is not Nina's birth year. It's the when she was discovered and taken in by Sergay. She was about 5 to 7 at the time, so take that into account in your calculations. It's the pre-title sequence part of the ep.
But even taking that into account, 13 to 15 years is still a long wait for a royal heir. Maybe it took a few years to get Sifr to marry Bruce.
I'm not too surprised at Lena being in her late 20's or early 30's before having a child, though. It just means she had a long career as an Otome. And you know she couldn't have one before retiring.

Rewatching that scene, I discovered something which might have escaped the attention of those who didn't pay enough attention to the japanese speech itself.
Listen to the Mikoto-avatar guarding the Harmonium, you'll hear a Japanese word that resurfaced in s.ifr. Back then, Doremi translated it as "player" and SS as "conductor". Now, Doremi has translated it as "Weaver". It sounds like "jimugiten". Now you know why Schwarz wants Sifr and Garderobe would rather kill her than hand her over.

[Sikon]

Wait, so Nina qualifies as a player/conductor/weaver not because she's a member of the Windbloom royal family, but because she's Sifr's daughter?

I sense a fan theory Jossed.

[Jimmy C]

It certainly seems that way now, doesn't it?
But it seems the Windbloom royal bloodline still has something to do with it also, given Bruce's reaction to M-9 as well.

[Yorassuko]

heh, that's pretty interesting. I wonder if Sif.r will go into that more ..or just leave it as another unanswered question.

As for the continuity, don't you guys think Sunrise would have planned it all out so that we can find some reasonable link? They wouldn't really be that incompetent.

[Atlantis_Lux]

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

It certainly seems that way now, doesn't it?
But it seems the Windbloom royal bloodline still has something to do with it also, given Bruce's reaction to M-9 as well.

And Sifr could be part of the royal family of Windbloom as well. We don't know yet who was her father (neither her mother...), maybe he was related somehow with the ruler of Windbloom and, as someone said before, maybe this "uncle" and Bruce are the same person. That would make Sifr part of the royal family as well. If she was your regular teenager I don't think they would have sent the most powerful Otome around and a Pillar to pick her up.

[Ippikiookami]

I don't think Sifr and Bruce are related, or if they are then it is distantly. In ep 7, Mashiro is standing in the castle looking at portraits of Bruce and Sifr and murmurs, "Father....Mother." I know royalty tries to keep the bloodline "pure" but I doubt the two of them would have married and had a child if they were closely related.

[SoldierOfDarkness]

They could be distant cousins separated many times apart.

If I recall correctly in Lord of the Rings Aragorn and Arwen were cousins many times removed.

[Atlantis_Lux]

Yeah. And it's not that uncommon even on reality. It was normal for Egyptians pharaohs to marry their own sisters or daughters, and many members of the British and Spanish royal families are distantly related. This, and considering how Japanese view incest, makes the fact that Bruce and Sifr are related very likely. But, well, we'll see in the next OAV ^_^

[Sinestra]

Finally got around to watching it not bad i must say. seeing Akira and Nina's mom in their young years is pretty cool, it seems Nina and Akira were destined to meet and play a role in each others lives. Rena is just as powerful as i had been reading even to the point where shes called a monster. When she took off the maid outfit and i saw the Windbloom uniform underneath i could help to think how much her and Akira look a like. Oh yea i cant remember since its been forever but who was Mashiro's parents? I dont think we ever got anymore history on her considering that she brought up to believe that Sifr and Bruce were her parents. Hopefully we will get some answers to all that.

Im a little sad already though because we know how everyone will end up. I mean in one night Nina and Akira lose their parents and before that many Otome die in battle,

So a good start event though the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy music made me WTF

[Sikon]

Arika, not Akira. Akira is a completely different person.

[krko]

Is it just me, or is that... Arika?

[Sikon]

Doesn't look like her at all to me. And in any case, there's only so many character designs you can use before running into accidental resemblance and confusion. (Just compare Mayo and Shion to Shiho and Chie...)