2007-09-09, 16:28 | Link #122 |
勇者
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Tesla Leicht Institute
Age: 34
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Hime by a mile, I loved Hime with it's plot twist. I also loved when they were taking back the school from Searrs, and I loved so many of it's character. Now Otome was just bad, the plot was really dull and boring (only thing that was somewhat interesting was who as the real heir to the Windbloom). Character were annoying as hell and the ending was just pure crap.
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2007-09-21, 11:27 | Link #124 |
つかれた!
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 38
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For me there is no contest: Mai-HiME wins hands down.
While Mai-HiME would still probably not rank in my top 10 list, Otome would unfortunately be sitting somewhere around that other abomination of a 'sequel' Kyoshiro to towa no sora (the Kannazuki no Miko and Steel angel Kurumi alternate-universe spinoff). Why, you may ask, does Otome rank so abysmally? 1. The new generation characters are one-dimensional, stereotypical and lack the sort of charisma needed to carry the story. Arika fails miserably as a lead, which makes it very difficult to care about her issues which makes trudging through the series very difficult indeed. Add to that her character is the most annoying lead I have come across since Kuu (again see Kyoshiro). Her only redeeming feature: her head turning into an ant's when called Arinko-chan. 2. Fanservice, fanservice, fanservice. Now I'm not one of those people who thinks that any flash of flesh is gratuitous, but there is a limit to my tolerance, particularly when there is absolutely no reason for it. If you have a good scene where it makes sense to have a character in a compromising position, and it helps move along the story or develop characters then I'm all for it. But the majority of fanservice found in Otome seems purely designed to cater to the tastes of pre-pubescent boys. We will not even speak about the farce that was the first 10minutes of the 3rd OVA. 3. Plot holes galore. I concede that Mai-HiME had it's fair share of plot holes, but there were far less, and were of far less significance compared to the ones found in Mai-Otome. At least I understood what was going on in HiME, were Otome frequently left things unexplained or just stopped a thread in the middle of it's telling. 4. Mangling previously established characters from HiME. They turned Tate into a paedophile for crying out loud. I am pretty open minded, and I can assure you now that the 10 year age difference doesn't bother me, it's more the fact that he is a 30ish year old man, and both Nina and Arika are (at the most 15). Add to that fact he is the foster father of one and a sponsor to the other, which puts him in a huge position of trust for both girls. You can spout 'they are in love' and 'it's an anime so the same rules don't apply' all you want at me but it will not change the fact that it makes me cringe. And what the hell happened to Natsuki? The bad-arse is no more. The only redeeming character to be upgraded in Otome was Nao - at least she was interesting. I really cannot emphasise how disappointed I was with Otome, and I'm sure that I'll get more than a few people who disagree, probably vocally, about what I've said - although considering the results I may be pleasantly surprised. |
2007-09-21, 14:18 | Link #125 | ||||||
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: In a world all my own
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I actually thought it was kind of clever twist, that the "rebel" from HiME was now part of the "establishment" in Otome. Quote:
In the end, I actually found that whole Nina/Sergey/Arika "triangle" from Otome much more intersting that the corespoding Mia/Tate/Shiho one in HiME. Quote:
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2007-09-21, 19:39 | Link #126 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Well I disagree with this. Mai's quest was dealing with her (already difficult) normal life while dealing with all the "hime" buisness and her powers. Personally I saw it as much more intresting than when arika was trying to find out who her momther was. Plus I find it weird that she didn't seem the least bit curious who her father might be.
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2007-09-21, 23:11 | Link #127 | |||
つかれた!
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 38
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Firstly, thank you for responding to my post in a mature fashion, it is a breath of fresh air.
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- What is the Harmonium and why does it bring about the end of the world? - Why is only Midori able to summon her Child? - Why does a giant Fumi start going crazy and blowing crap up? - Why does the star randomly change from red to blue with no explanation? As you can see my questions are more to do with the motives and reasons behind some oddities I found with the series. I don't know whether I was just half-asleep at the time, but it seemed that they didn't explain things particularly well in the anime. And I'm a big stickler for wanting to know 'why' characters are doing something, I'm not happy just to blindly accept without having an adequate motive to support it. Quote:
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That was off-topic, but needed a bit of clarification. Legalities aside, 30 year old + 15 year old = unsavoury in my book. And I beg to differ, as Sergey himself admits that he is attracted to Arika regardless of who her mother is. From the horses mouth, or so to speak. I think we may just have to agree to disagree, but it was nice to have a bit of a friendly debate about it eh? |
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2007-09-22, 00:26 | Link #128 | ||||||||
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: In a world all my own
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Spoiler for Princess:
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EDIT: Yes, in fact here is a picure of Lumen's "child" Quote:
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In any case the fact remains that even when Arika came on to him (after he rescued her from that gang), he walked away. That I think is the key point. He was certainly attracted to her, wheter it was from his feelings for her mother, for Arika herself, or something of both, but in the end he did not follow through. I believe being attracted to a young girl is not pedophilia unless you follow through, especially a phycially mature girl (really young girls may be a different matter). I'm sure most adult men with normal sex drives would find a teen age girl like Arika physically attractive but that does not mean they are going to try and hook up with her. Quote:
Last edited by mdauben; 2007-09-28 at 12:59. |
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2007-09-22, 15:26 | Link #129 |
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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I would say that I like both equally, because both had elments that one another did not have. In Mai-Hime is was heavy on the drama, but I will have to say that in Mai-Otome I like the characters more. And for some reason the drama had more of a impact on me then Mai-Hime. Probaly because I like the characters more in Mai-Otome, also I like Arika more than Mai, because Mai was just normal to me, but Arika was more outspoken and hyper than Mai, which give her more character then Mai. But Mai-Hime drama was better in terms of, things will happean that will suprise and shock you, so it is the best of two worlds I guess.
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2007-09-22, 23:56 | Link #130 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 38
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The main gripe I had with the characters is that Arika was an excessively genki, naive do-gooder, which to me has been done to death. Plus every time her seiyuu uttered a line I wanted to scratch my ears off. Every line ended with an extended whine. I much preferred Mai, because to me she was more real - none of this "I will save the world" nonsense. I also disliked how they made Natsuki so.....redundant. I didn't mind that they made her part of the establishment, but she seemed to have quite a bit of screen time but get absolutely nothing achieved. She was best in Otome when partnered with Nao. Mai-Hime FTW. |
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2007-09-23, 01:42 | Link #131 | |
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Join Date: Nov 2006
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2007-09-23, 19:40 | Link #135 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
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That is the reason why I said that Mai-Hime drama was better, because it was better in terms of, things will happean that will suprise and shock you in the stories. And I have to say that I like Mai-Hime music better than Mai-Otome, because the only music I like from Mai-Otome was, when Aoi fell off that cliff and they was playing some background music that fit very well with the part.
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2007-09-23, 22:56 | Link #136 |
school days=wtf?
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I liked Hime but I wished that the ending was better...and Tate was not as centric.... but maybe that last part was just something I imagined. I liked Otome better because the reincarnation of Tate was so much more hate able.. >.> Seriously... Okay...so, not... Ah, because I liked Arika and Mashiro and of course the distinguished coupley feeling Nat/Shiz gave, I voted Otome. Plus, Haruka was great! I loved how she was portrayed in Otome =]
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2008-07-08, 22:52 | Link #137 |
legend drop out
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Adelaide, Australia
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I viewed the trailer for my-otome, a decided to watch it. But instead of picking up otome, i picked up Hime, and ever since then otome had no chance. Hime has just a great source of struggle, character development and it was the first thing i have watched that had made me cry. (And that’s rear for me to cry).
After watching Hime i tried to watch otome, and even though i enjoyed seeing all my favourite characters appear again, it just didn’t feel right. |
2008-07-09, 00:17 | Link #138 |
The GAP Man
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Forgive me if I interrupted anything but I really enjoy the Mai series and I just want to post something here. I first watched Mai Hime last year (the dub version), Mai Otome (a few months ago) and Mai Otome Zwei (a few days ago) but among all of these I seem to like Mai Hime in terms of story, drama and characters but for some reason or another I cannot seem to forget Mai Otome since it has been more prominent in my mind. I like Mai Hime because the unpredictability of the story, how it leaves on the edge of your seat wanting more and how it always seems to leave you in suspense but Mai Otome is something I would have most likely enjoyed even more if the story wasn't so convolouted. There were just so many things that Mai Otome could have done even better for example the anime and manga could do without all the fanservice and they could have at least made some newer characters rather than just rehash the old ones at reasonable numbers so that they don't jam pack a ton of characters in the story. Also, Mai Otome could have been a little longer (I would say about 51 episodes) in terms of show length and it could've used more main characters besides Arika herself. I enjoy both series but ultimately if I were to make a choice, I would choose Mai Hime because there are so many things that it did right that Mai Otome could have done better or without (like Sergay Wong to be honest whose voice seiyuu was little annoying at times yet his english seems a little tolerable). The same could be said about the Mai Hime and Mai Otome manga that stories are often rushed in the latter and that to be honest there was way too much fanservice that this fan can handle!
OOT: You may or may not flame me for saying this but Shizuru voice sound great in both the dub and the Japanese version of both animes. |
2008-07-09, 00:47 | Link #139 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
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2008-07-09, 15:19 | Link #140 | |
赤い狐
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Colorful Colorado
Age: 47
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I haven't seen Otome yet. I want to, but I'm armed with quite a few grains of salt based on the feedback from here and other places, so I'm not expecting it to be nearly as moving as HiME. Of course, when I read the title as "My Princess", I REALLY didn't expect Mai-HiME to be much of anything either, and it sure as hell surprised me, so ya never know... Oh, and after Generator Gawl, I can't stand to listen to English dubs anymore, so I can't say much about Shizuru's Southern Belle accent... Ciao! |
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