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Old 2011-01-12, 12:31   Link #188
oompa loompa
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: 28° 37', North ; 77° 13', East
Age: 33
wow.. and here I was trying to look for a place to give my thoughts on the series. I guess Asuki didn't have the system of having an 'Overall impressions' thread at the time (?)

First, let me say this; I've been watching anime for a while. I still remember when I got into it, and every other show was just so omgwtfbbq awesome, as most of them were top 50 ANN. Then there came a time where I used to be seriously obsessed with anime, and then my interest in it waned quite a bit, in favor of video games ( naturally, books and movies never lost their place..well.. maybe for a little bit). So here I was, with quite selective taste in shows, deciding to pick up Mai Hime, one of the most generic looking shows I'd ever seen. It didn't bother me as much as it would have normally, as I had just came back from Japan, and after having a long and interesting discussion with a Japanese friend on how the 'magical girl' genre came up, I kinda wanted to just soak in all the stereotypical stuff that was bound to be there.

And, I guess it was pretty damn stereotypical in many ways. Still, I got some laughs out of the first few episodes, and there was barely enough intrigue to keep me going. By the end of it (and mind you, it did pick up quite a bit in the second arc of the series ), I thought 'meh.. not too shabby, quite run of the mill though'. Though really, after letting it simmer a bit, the show really was quite good by the end of it. I loved how the relationships started breaking apart, maintaining a slightly odd 'doki doki' atmosphere. Got quite epic too. I liked the characters, least of all the lead though. So, I'd originally thought this show was a 7/10. But I'm going to give it 8/10, just because theres something nostalgic and old school about it, and has a little more edge and less fan service than a lot of stuff thats out there today. A solid starter show, certainly not up there with the likes of say, FMA, but not bad, and worth the watch, because it is quite famous, and it really is quite a good showcase of 'magical girl'.

My biggest complaint? The most interesting HiMes ( oh, you guys know EXACTLY who I'm talking about ), were not revealed till much later. Really, out of the 3 leads, only Natsuki was kinda cool. Otherwise, the less.. goody two shoes.. HiMes really stole the show, emphasizing just how fragile relationships can be.


Oh and another thing. I think being slightly familiar with Japanese mythology will make a huge impact to this show. Once you know the meanings and stories behind the names, it becomes so much more interesting, because it kinda becomes the authors take on the stories and the characters in them. I definetly enjoyed that aspect. At any rate, its worth researching once the show is finished, as I'm not sure how you'd get to know not having watched the show without researching each and every HiMe. Also the story makes x10 more sense as well then.


Finally.. what did HiMe stand for? Highly advanced materalizing equipment? or something along those lines. Absolutely retarded. They should've just left it as plain HiMes (even if it was only in the OP!)
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