[Mai Otome] Episode 21 Discussion/Poll

[Matrim]

But I have to wonder about the circumstances surrounding Mimi's untimely demise...I mean seriously, 3 deaths around these two girls just to give them the necessary will to fight? No points in my book for that...

Aoi is so not dead (I bet Chie was visiting her in the hospital in this episode) but you are basically right. It was a plot device after a plot device just in order for Sunrise to boast with their "incredible" character development. And I still find Mahiro very annoying, just a bit less so than few episodes ago. Not a good enough reson to waste these episodes on her development but what do I know, I am just a simple troll.

Anyway, this episode wasn't too bad. Not that this is a difficult thing to achieve after the previous one but still. Some more comments:

Why the hell the fight between Mikoto and Nina was barely shown?
Everyone seems to come to the secret village of Aswad these days, it's about time Midori and co to realise that it's not that hidden anymore.
So someone kept the picture that showed the capsule in the room where Nina was found and Nagi happened to see it just now? Yeah, right, that sounds very plausible indeed...
Shiho is such a waste of time.
Nao, Natsuki and Haruka as usual are on the verge of doing something but never get around to actually doing it. Talk about deja-vu.
This Jabal creature (the same from before or a new one?) appears again just when the characters were in doubt about what to do. Seems that I was right to name it a plot device creature.
How the hell Mashiro pushed Rad and got to Arika in order to allow her to materialise? That was so unbelievable that I laughed out loud.

Anyway, I have been saying for quite a long time that the ending will be rushed and the little plot development in this episode seems to confirm my prediction.

[chrno]

Originally Posted by IchiKyo

For those who see Enseisong last picture

Spoiler:

A Better Mai

You know I have to sort of laugh at this pic. Moreso because it's so odd. Not only that, it's weird that this shot popped up about a couple of weeks after a certain Japanese fansite did a joke strip based on 'Mai' and 'Aoi'.

For those that were wondering what happened to 'Aoi' when she fell off the cliff. According to his joke strip 'Mai' happens to show up and rescues 'Aoi' in her mouth while holding a pair of chopsticks. Meanwhile 'Aoi' comments that she's not "gyoza".

Now we have this shot of 'Mai' holding a cooking utensil. And that 'Aoi' might be alive but not because of the above reasons. As I said this strip was done 2 weeks beforehand. What did the artist know? Was it an odd coincidence?

As for 'Mai', as the saying goes "saving the best for last".

Personally, I have to honestly say that 'Mai-Otome' is the most awkward of the series as far as story goes. I think 'Sunrise' really rushed this one. But I'm sure they'll pull something spectacular out of their butts soon. I think this instalment is best viewed back to back. Having to wait for the episodes each week, with them having nothing to show on various episodes is making me have that dreadful feeling "why am I watching this again?" It shows that 'MH' is the stronger of both series.

[friendshipz]

as for speculation, aoi was recused by the solider(cant be chie) than bring back to windbloom , than chie heard the news of aoi being captured,( cant remember which esp but the scene was where chie followed tomoe-tachi and overheard something from the solider when she was hiding behind the tree)
btw it cant be mai who recuse aoi ...if not the person that chie visit cant be aoi...
mai definately is related to mikoto, just like i had said before , they are bring plots from MH to MO at a different angle, just like from this esp , midori and mashiro join forces, and from MH, mashiro entrust the keys to midori. they are two different plots but both are linked in common to each other indirect ways.

so its plausible that mai materialize just to cook some food for mikoto while mikoto is still slping.. mai dunno the ancient version of making up fire by stone and rocks so the most high tech things is to use her own fire..

funny part..natsuki said: "lets go back to gardorode" and this is wat nao said: are u going to hich -hiking again..." Lolz..

[Preston]

Originally Posted by chrno

As for 'Mai', as the saying goes "saving the best for last".

*Raises eyebrows* That would be a matter of opinion.. Natsuki was always my favourite..

[IchiKyo]

Originally Posted by DwArD

Those cat figures most probably represent Mikoto's clone or something. Thats the best I can come up with. And the cat Mikoto and the human Mikoto...they're either related or they're the same person. I'm sure another of the cat figure will just break if the cat Mikoto were to die or something.

My Theory is, Those Cat Figure was surely her lives...
I'm thinking about this because if Nina slash her Dark Mikoto of The Harmonium Out, One of 7 of Figures cut... Maybe her(The Mikoto who awake up) and Mikoto(The cat) are 2 last life and 7+2= 9 lifes...
A Cat has 9 lives? Mikoto has 9 Lives

[twh]

Hmm...

Natsuki: Still useless.

Arika: Still stupid.

Mashiro: Forced character development with yet another minor character death that had very little relavence to the plot as a whole. LAME!

Chie: Watching over a mostly dead Aoi. LAME!

Mimi: Dead... so now what?

The Maki Maki Squad: ...I'm gonna have nightmares about that...

Shizuru: Whipped.

Mikoto: Most likely hungry...somewhere.

Midori: Hungry for blood, though somewhat foolishly leaving her home to a stupid main character and powerless queen... I mean, Rado could take on and possibly defeat a Pillar, why not just send him alone?

Rado: Ok... let me get this straight... he let a stick figure of a fourteen year old toss him off balance when he could have won against a Pillar of Shinsou? What's wrong here?!

Sergei: Leading the Evil Grrl Squad!

Nagi: Still an evil little snot.

Nina: Still an emo little snot.

Mai: IT'S ABOUT FRICKING TIME!! Now start burning stuff and make the pain of enduring all the wank in this series go away, please!

Sunrise writers: You suck. Why not try to write one whole cohesive story instead of wasting all this time with filler.

End Result:
Below Average, but only because I'm partly delirious from the fact we're going to see the title character return next week.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by twh

Rado: Ok... let me get this straight... he let a stick figure of a fourteen year old toss him off balance when he could have won against a Pillar of Shinsou? What's wrong here?!

Watch it again, Midori signal to him to let Mashiro and Arika get away with it.

[Matrim]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Watch it again, Midori signal to him to let Mashiro and Arika get away with it.

That's not the point, the point is that Mashiro pushed this very strong cyborg with ease and got past him before the signal from Midori.

[Mirtual]

Originally Posted by Matrim

That's not the point, the point is that Mashiro pushed this very strong cyborg with ease and got past him before the signal from Midori.

Be fair. Mashiro was plot driven.
I mean come on.
Imagine the scene in a "realistic" way:
Mashiro jumps to hit him in order to activate Arikas robe because she finally starts feeling like a queen (in terms of being responsible for her people). Rodo, completely unimpressed, gives her straight punch in the abdomen out of pure reflexes. Mashiro is knocked out, all the people down there die...

You get the idea, right?

[Matrim]

Imagine the scene in a "realistic" way:
Mashiro jumps to hit him in order to activate Arikas robe because she finally starts feeling like a queen (in terms of being responsible for her people). Rodo, completely unimpressed, gives her straight punch in the abdomen out of pure reflexes. Mashiro is knocked out, all the people down there die...

That would have been an awesome scene. I am perfectly serious.

Of course Mashiro's action were plot driven. That doesn't make the scene any less pathetic, though.

[chrno]

Ok, I watched it. Thanks to a fast DL. Though I watched it RAW didn't do it without help. Thank you to those who are studying Japanese and blogging it raw. Sunrise you're really trying hard with this one. It's almost like I'm waiting for them to drop the script. I still love the series but I gave up trying to understand the tidbits. The only thing that is pretty straightforeward is the whole "quest for power" deal. As for who the princess is...well, it's so hard to tell because even if you managed to figure it out you still have one extra person. Someone found 'Mashiro' and handed her over. Nobody questioned it. Someone found 'Arika' only difference is that she's got the 'Sapphire of the Azure Sky', the only possible proof I could think of that would identify the true heir. Then we have 'Nina'. If she's the princess then someone switched something. Could be 'Rena's daugther. That's my thoughts. Don't know if anyone else thought this. But it always seems that the last place you look is under your nose. But we'll see.

As for 'Shiho', hoo boy. And 'Shizuru'? Hoo boy. And Tomoe, she just graduated from evil to pure evil. I never trusted 'Cartylea' in the mix. And the whole allegiance thing between 'Mashiro' and Midori' moved me.

Hopefully, next week's episode won't be a teaser.

[Ronin Aquila]

If Mai ONLY shows up as a shilouette and ONLY at the END of the Next Episode:

1) Fukuda's Wife has been at the script-typewriter again.

2) The Director REALLY needs to be strangled with Barb-Wire.

[Tempest35]

Originally Posted by chrno

Ok, I watched it. Thanks to a fast DL. Though I watched it RAW didn't do it without help. Thank you to those who are studying Japanese and blogging it raw. Sunrise you're really trying hard with this one. It's almost like I'm waiting for them to drop the script. I still love the series but I gave up trying to understand the tidbits. The only thing that is pretty straightforeward is the whole "quest for power" deal. As for who the princess is...well, it's so hard to tell because even if you managed to figure it out you still have one extra person. Someone found 'Mashiro' and handed her over. Nobody questioned it. Someone found 'Arika' only difference is that she's got the 'Sapphire of the Azure Sky', the only possible proof I could think of that would identify the true heir. Then we have 'Nina'. If she's the princess then someone switched something. Could be 'Rena's daugther. That's my thoughts. Don't know if anyone else thought this. But it always seems that the last place you look is under your nose. But we'll see.

Okay, quick one sentence re-cap of what the old dying oba-san told Sergay...Rena put the Princess into the capsule along with the Azure Sky Sapphire.
Now as for her own child, could she have also been put into a similar capsule as well? If we were to find that there were two capsules, then as it stands, Arika would be the Princess and Nina would be Rena's daugther. The possibility of a switch-up is still strong since what happened in the 3-5 years right after the Windbloom invasion's not clear. But after this ep, Nina's looking more and more like Rena's real daughter than anyone else.

Now, how does Mikoto and Mai figure into this...was Mai leaving Garderobe pre-ordained? Her leaving didn't seem like fate but that's 'destiny' for ya. Sleeping Mikoto needed a guardian while she protected the Harmonium and who better than a top-ranked potential Pillar? I'm thinking that MIYU would be much better for the job unless MIYU found Mai and 'recruited' her for the job while she went on an extended vacation.

[Winchester]

Originally Posted by Ronin Aquila

If Mai ONLY shows up as a shilouette and ONLY at the END of the Next Episode:

1) Fukuda's Wife has been at the script-typewriter again.

2) The Director REALLY needs to be strangled with Barb-Wire.

Notice the red eyes in the screenshot? She is one seriously unhappy lady in that pic... I get the feeling she's just walked in on an unwelcome intruder in her kitchen or something. (Mikoto? Or someone more sinister?)

Episode comments in general: I have no Japanese skills to speak of - I recognize common exclamations, but that's about it. Still, this episode looked neat - too bad the opening teaser remained just that, a teaser.

Hope Tomoe gets an attack of the sparklies in the next episode - I'd feel very cheated if they actually manage to abduct Mashiro... Trying that, on top of directing *four* attempts on Arika (that I remember, anyway), is hopefully enough to piss Ariuka off to the point where she permanently deals with the little bitch. Depends on Chie turning coat again, though...

SP

[ArchDragon]

Originally Posted by Winchester

Hope Tomoe gets an attack of the sparklies in the next episode - I'd feel very cheated if they actually manage to abduct Mashiro... Trying that, on top of directing *four* attempts on Arika (that I remember, anyway), is hopefully enough to piss Ariuka off to the point where she permanently deals with the little bitch. Depends on Chie turning coat again, though...

SP

Barring yet another lame miracle, there's no way the Valkyrie squad can fail.

It's 5 against 1.
So even if Arika is stronger than any of them, they can always send one out to search and knock out Mashiro (and Arika with her) while the rest kept Arika busy.

And if the reviews are correct, there's a "loyalty" function built-in into the Valkyrie GEMs, so Chie can't just betray Sergay right off the bat.
Plus Aoi is in Artai's hands, so Chie has absolutely NO choice atm. but to follow orders.

But, it's Sunrise, so anything can happen.
I gave up trying to make sense of the events in MO already.
I'll just patiently wait and see if I can enjoy the series nevertheless.

[wombatlord]

Originally Posted by ArchDragon

Barring yet another lame miracle, there's no way the Valkyrie squad can fail.

It's 5 against 1.
So even if Arika is stronger than any of them, they can always send one out to search and knock out Mashiro (and Arika with her) while the rest kept Arika busy.

The thing about Otomes is that they don't seem to have any training in group tactics, given they are normally solo operators.

But what i think is going to be the decisive factor is that Miyu is going to show up (we see her facing Mikoto-cat in the next ep. preview).

[Bloody]

Question...

Spoiler:

whos this Girl?? Aoi?? 0_0

[ArchDragon]

Originally Posted by Bloody

Question...

Spoiler:

whos this Girl?? Aoi?? 0_0

That's the most common assumption right now.

To be honest, noone knows for sure.

------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by wombatlord

The thing about Otomes is that they don't seem to have any training in group tactics, given they are normally solo operators.

But what i think is going to be the decisive factor is that Miyu is going to show up (we see her facing Mikoto-cat in the next ep. preview).

That's why Sergay went with them, instead of just giving them instructions from afar.
He's supposed to give them strategic guidance.

And Miyu would have to be ridiculously powerful to keep FIVE Valkyries at bay.

[monster]

Just saw the raw, I was just randomly thinking on no basis whatsoever that Mikoto the cat could be Mai in disguise. Miyu shows up, the cat blocks her way and suddenly turns into Mai. Later on she goes to the kitchen to make food for herself. Mikoto is always hungry.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Ronin Aquila

If Mai ONLY shows up as a shilouette and ONLY at the END of the Next Episode:

1) Fukuda's Wife has been at the script-typewriter again.

Uh... No. If she was, then Mai would have came back in Ep 3 and became a boring character who steals the main character spot from Arika in Ep 15.

Which is why I don't understand why people want her back so much... Do they really want another GSD?