The Mai Otome Season Rating and Final Discussion Thread

[Mouse_j]

Touché

Still think it is an interesting comparison though

[Xerion12]

It vote it "very good" because there was great action,exiting storyline,animation was cool to @_@ Overall I dont think it even competes with Mai-Hime though.. <.<; As a matter of fact I never did see the endign of Mai otome because my friend made me watch mai-Hime and i totally forgot about Otome.. lol

[Solace]

It's been a while since Otome ended, but I have to say I'm still impacted by it. I have a picture of Nina, Erstin, and Arika on my desktop atm, I still watch episodes now and then, and I listen to the soundtracks quite a bit still.

Compared to Hime, Otome wasn't very good. But lets face it, if you like Hime, Otome will never measure up. Compared to other anime however, and it fares much better. Otome isn't the greatest show ever, I dare suggest that Hime isn't either. But both are highly enjoyable to watch, which for me is the strongest good mark any anime should strive for. Otome stumbles at times in the plot, sometimes going too fast, sometimes going at a snails pace. It certainly suffers from having too many characters and not enough spreading out of screentime. It also suffers from a cliched plot, young kid comes from nowhere and ends up on top of the world, best friend becomes archrival, touching death that you saw coming because it has to move the plot forward, exiled queen regains her people and kingdom back, blah blah. Hime on the other hand was pretty origional. When it become cliched, it was using the cliches in ways that made things...well, better.

Otome suffered from two things. One, it was made after Hime. Two, it wasn't Hime part two. If you replaced the cast with someone else and took out the references to hime, the anime would remain largely intact. So while it benefitted from recognition, it suffered from people expecting things because of what they saw in Hime.

So in the end I gave Otome an 8. With better pacing, better use of characters like we saw in Hime, and toning down on the plot devices, the show could have been better. But it was still very enjoyable to watch, and will remain next to Hime proudly in my collection of favorite anime. Hopefully, we'll see more in the future from the Hime universe, there are so many great stories that could be told.

[felix]

Originally Posted by ankoku

Otome suffered from two things. One, it was made after Hime. Two, it wasn't Hime part two. If you replaced the cast with someone else and took out the references to hime, the anime would remain largely intact. So while it benefitted from recognition, it suffered from people expecting things because of what they saw in Hime.

3. It couldn't split from Hime... because it looked too much like hime...
4. It had too many obvious HiME references... *thinks of Mashiro in the wheelchair *... I know it sounds like a good idea... but somehow it's not...

The reason why it wasn't Hime part 2 wasn't because it had a different story but because the story had such a different feel to it that it ended up somewhat taboo to actually link the too series... just how many people have complained that Otome was BAD by referencing HiME *adds ankoku to the list *

[Hunter Nin.]

I gave the show seven out of ten; good but not great. It really had some pacing issues and too many loose ends.

Spoiler for comedy:

"It's Rad... I'm a cyborg now." Or something like that. Almost fell out my chair laughing, I couldn't stop thinking "DON'T EVER CALL ME MEG!"

[Yuki-san]

for me it's a 10 even though this is not the best anime for me...

It has a great story nice animation and effects
The voices were great
The theme and moral was clear
has a nice climax
and the different behaviors.. NICE!!

[Suzuka]

There's no such thing as a perfect anime... and I think Mai-Otome has a lot more rewatchability than Mai-HiME

And Yuki-san is right, the voice actors were amazing! If only the Mai-HiME Dub could have even kept them SIMILAR... Chie and MIKOTO make me shudder...

That said, is there going to be any more Otome or Hime or something similar after teh OVA?

~Loves, Suzuka

[Question]

I loved Otome.

Its not very common an anime series can hook me to the point where i will desperately keep watching the next episode. Otome did that for me, and so did Hime.

The plot is a lot more straight forward than Hime's, but thats not a huge dis-advantage...theres enough parts in it that keep you guessing and trying to figure out the next piece. However i felt that they didnt elaborate enough. For example the whole R.E.M thing, why cardair suddenly decided to raid the asward for it, why the asward resorted to violence instead of negotiation with garderobe, and a lot of back story wasnt elaborated on.

Spoiler:

I still dont get the part where the valkryie system was ALSO responsible for creating a crap load of slaves. Isnt it supposed to be a copy of the fumi system garderobe uses, powering the valkryies?

I didnt like the way Windebloom was taken over so easily. The military like, did NOTHING.

The part where youko runs out and says that everything has been sealed away until the principal certifies it...what i dont get is why natsuki doesnt do it. Infact later on in the series they had to do some funky thing with a laptop and cable connection.

Asward wasnt shown enough IMHO. The only one who got any decent fight scence time was Midori, the next one would be Rad.

Spoiler:

I found it really strange they would run away to avoid damaging garderobe when they could easily destroy the attacking slaves without any problems(and infact, later on in the series, they do it). I also dont get how smith managed to force the asward to hand over the body, seeing as how the asward are incredibly powerful, and back then schwartz only had those weak slaves. Those 2 scences felt like blatant plot devices to me.

Shiho and the maki maki thing was just WTF. Seriously. I still dont know wtf to think.

I dont get the scence where tomoe hands miya a white envelope and she tears it up on the ship(or how tomoe could get miya to do things for her). Hopefully the OVA will elaborate more on that.

I liked the intrigue of the hime plot more, but i liked the characters and setting of the otome series more. Also the hime plot more or less kills any idea of a sequel, while theres ample room for otome sequels.

[Silvx]

Well I just finished this series, I initially watched Mai-HiME two or three months ago and was blown away by it, tears, laughs everything. After it ended I watched half of Otome episode 1, and forgot about it for about a month. I decided to watch Mai HiMe over again to see the stuff I missed, and the hints such as what Nagi tells Mai when she accepts Kagutsuchi, or when Nagi tells Natsuki "Now now it isn't time for that yet" when she is going to fight Nao.

Back to Otome, this time after watching I decided to download all of Otome and watch it through. I must say Seeing Shizuru fight so early in and the other stuff hooked me onto the anime, and it kept escalating. Fan-service moments, some good comic relief. When it moves into the darker-second half I was very pleased with the new opening theme, the words of the song, the plotline all fit great I love that song. Although I feel they rushed it, they could of expanded the anime to 30episodes or simply transitioned the switch to the darker part sooner.

I felt kind of rushed, all this stuff happening in the course of about 5, 6 episodes. Atleast in HiMe the plot starts in ep. 16 / 17 almost right off the bat. The ending of Otome made me tear up, but then again i'm a clinger and a sucker for anime's I hate when they end I always look for more and more and become well, addicted to the anime for awhile after it ends xD.

Character Development: 6.5/10 - It was ok, There was good development for certain characters but with having HiMe characters AND a nice luscious new cast I can see how they didn't fill in everyone really good.

Storyline / advancement 7/10 - I think Otome had a good storyline, the ending was definatly a good one, although leaving me sad as I said.

Music 8/10 - I enjoyed the music in Otome, There were quite a few parts when it suited it perfectly. although the ending theme I wasn't too fond of, especially in the second half of the anime.

Overall 8.75/10 - On the upper list of my favorite anime's, I enjoyed watching it and hope sunrise makes another 'Mai' series

Spoiler for Mai Otome ending thoughts:

I was dissapointed Mai didn't show up until episode 23, She could of played a bigger role in Otome. They even humour this fact in the subtitles on previews for next episodes "Awww It's already the ending? but I just got here". Natsuki also had a similar one where she finally got to equip her robe and in the same episode Nagi disables all of the robes lol.

When Arika finished Nina off in the final episode I teared up, and when she dove to save her. then it transitions to the ending theme and showing everyone continuing their lives, I thought both of them died Alas, they are alive but Still, it seems they are very distant from eachother now. Arika is bust doing her duties as Mashiro's otome and Nina is taking care of Sergay, a better ending than HiME but still a sad one. Atleast i'm thankful this anime wasn't a brain killer like EVA

Edit: I have now seen Zwei 1-3 I'm pleased with it's animation and story. although i'm kinda sad not much nina. =Edit again lmao Guess OVa 4 hasn't airred yet xD