First Impressions / Mai-Otome

Short Summary:
During the chaos ensuing from Rado’s attack, Arika finds herself lifting a ship to prevent it from falling on the people below. Her nanomachines start to crumble away under pressure, but she’s saved when Meister Haruka arrives to help. After the incident is over, Natsuki tells Arika that she’ll be allowed to enter the school and Nina will be allowed to stay, much to Mashiro’s chagrin. Arika gets outfitted with a uniform and is told two important things. First, an Otome is not allowed to come in contact with the opposite sex. Yohko explains that the nanomachines respond poorly to the Y chromosome. And second, an Otome and her master are connected in life through their GEMs. If the Otome gets hurt, the master does too. If the master dies, so does the Otome. Later, Arika is introduced to the class and shown to her room. She tries to make friends with Nina and Erstin Ho, but Nina is quite cold with her. Over dinner, Arika frets to Erstin and Irina Woods about school fees because she has no family to help out with them. The girls in the dining hall are surprised with her situation, but Tomoe Marguerite arrives in time to stop the questioning. They notice that Mikoto (the cat) is eating Arika’s meal, so Arika starts yelling at her and Mikoto runs away, getting Arika’s apron dirty in the process. Arika takes her clothes to the laundry room, but since the machines are all being used, she puts her apron in a basket above them. Meanwhile, under the moon, Nina remembers the time she looked at her father’s picture book again. Sergay saw her looking at Rena’s picture and told her that she is the person of his dreams. As Nina thinks about her father, Juliet Nao approaches her from behind, and we learn that the two of them are from the same place. Back in her room, Arika feels her GEM and remembers everything that’s happened the past few days. As she falls asleep, someone takes her stained clothes from the laundry room.

This episode is decent, but not as good as last week. I had hoped for the conclusion of Shizuru’s fight and Arika/Haruka saving the people to go longer than the two minutes at the beginning of the episode that it got. Instead, the episode focuses a lot more on introductions to characters and set-up, including the two vital pieces of information mentioned in the summary above. The Otome-not-allowed-to-come-in-contact-with-males already has several ramifications from Rena to Akane. The second part about the master and the Otome being connected is probably going to end up being similar to the most important person bit from the original series.
Anyway, it’s good to see Haruka and Yukino again. Haruka is feisty as usual, but a lot more butch, while Yukino looks like her normal self. As cool as Haruka’s entrance is, it still doesn’t quite beat Shizuru from episode one. We also get introduced to a lot of Arika’s Otome classmates. Like Mentar said, there’s a ton of characters now, and we still haven’t seen the return of everyone from the original series (and you can be sure most of them will show up at some point).
Speaking of which, time for a fanboy moment, courtesy of the preview: OMG!. That probably doesn’t mean anything quite just yet, but it hints at Mai coming back at some point (which I guess a lot of us had already taken as granted). At any rate, next week looks like more fun for Arika getting used to her new school.

27 Comments

  1. I’m really suspecting Chie is a transvestite. She’s the only one that looks/acts enough to be the tough guy in the cast.

    And OMG indeed. So I guess we’ll have a moment Mai-Otome, similar to that of ROD TV (episode 13), when she finally debuts.

    bakaboobie
    Reply

  5. That definitely looks like Mai on that poster. Is this in the actual episode though, or did someone photoshop that, cause thats just plain spoiler for a series to do that, even though we knew she was coming sometime later in the series. Was kinda hoping for a twist on her part, but I guess she is a good guy again, 😐

    Zimmer
    Reply

  6. What is this poster you are talking about?

    I can’t wait until mai returns, i hope she’s strong, and i really hope it doesn’t end like ROD TV, cause that just left a sour taste in my mouth.

    X19A
    Reply

  8. not a bad episode. Haruka making her usual awesome flashy entrance had me going “YEA!” like a little fanboy! Also neko Mikoto pigging out had me laughing 😉

    Based on that one shot poster of Mai, we all at least know she used to be a Pearl like Akane if anything else. Who knows how “old” that poster is though.

    moyism
    Reply

  9. >I’m really suspecting Chie is a transvestite. She’s the only one that looks/acts enough to be the tough >guy in the cast.

    She’s just a sleazy, female, Casanova ;D

    >how Otome are restricted from the opposite sex because it screws up their nanomachines (something to >do with the Y-chromosomes and PSA and a bunch of techno-jargon). Wonder what that means for Akane >and Kazu…

    If that’s true, then Arika CAN’T be Rena’s daughter. She must be a non-Otome’s daughter…which means?? (Sunrise leading us on again?)

    Ah, all girl’s schools…seems like further efforts by Sunrise to position Garderobe as another Lillian Academy. Gokigenyo…

    bernium
    Reply

  10. bakaboobie: Chie is most definitely female. The bath scene and especially the jealous glances of Shiho are telling enough ^_^

    bernium:
    > If that’s true, then Arika CAN’T be Rena’s daughter. She must be a non-Otome’s
    > daughter…which means she really is the princess?? (Sunrise leading us on again?)

    Just the other way round, this episode has been most supportive to the theory that Arika is NOT the princess. The evidence is piling up that Arika is Rena’s biological daughter. However, this could have NOT been possible with her staying the Royal Otome (see ep2) while the princess was already alive and cared for. That’s what we saw however.

    On the other hand, we know from ep1 that Rena has LOST her powers! Bearing a child would have caused this, so this is another detail which fits.

    Therefore, I’m getting more and more convinced that Rena didn’t save the princess in ep1, she saved her OWN child, Arika.

    Mentar
    Reply

  11. good episode. i’m getting the feeling that the poster of mai is old, meaning she is now around natsuki’s age. perhaps she used to be a great pearl but now she is…??? something not so good? that masked girl is kind of confusing me. i really thought it was mai, but her hair kind of looked like it might not be. but still think it is…90%. and i agree with what mentar said about rena losing her otome powers because of her daughter. makes sense.

    skybluelinen
    Reply

  12. > thats just plain spoiler for a series to do that, even though we knew she was coming sometime later in the series. Was kinda hoping for a twist on her part, but I guess she is a good guy again, 😐

    It gives you time to speculate. 🙂 And why does that poster make her be a good guy? The poster can only tell you that she was a powerful Otome, nothing about what she is going to be during her appearences in the show. 😛

    And the show is definitely set up good enough for a lot of twists to happen, but who really expects those to end with a sad note – doubt sunrise learned their lesson. They will end this one with another super happy-out of place-episode that many peolpe, except me, will like.

    Anyways, what I want is not Mai, but the witch-looking-in-the-OP MIYU… >_

    kacper
    Reply

  15. yeah thats what freakin confuses me! i saw arika in that episode and i knew she was going to be the main character for the second season ( i read it on some site).. but in the first episode of season2 Nina says”wind Bloom has the most remaining Earthen thechnology”. so is this in the future or is it in a different world or a different time zone?

    so many questions! too little answers

    ps one big conclusion i came up to is( this is freakin stupid) Arika is an alien, and she was visiting earth looking for her mother..( doesnt make sense i agree)

    JT
    Reply

  17. I think she’s the princess, arguing about it won’t turn my head.

    I’m personally betting that the place is 300 years in the future on some other planet. I mean, look at the little buggers (kurochs, if I remember correctly) in the first episode. They don’t exist here, at least they don’t now. And the 300 years in the future because in Mai-HiME (don’t now remember the episode or the one who said it), was said that the next opportunity comes after 300 years.

    Fodica
    Reply

  19. I just love to make my points clear 🙂

    Well, I found one of the places where the 300 years was mentioned:

    Episode 15 @ 22:04
    http://s14.invisionfree.com/Talk_About_Anime/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=472574

    and the two animal -reasons why it’s not located on earth:

    http://s14.invisionfree.com/Talk_About_Anime/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=472648
    http://s14.invisionfree.com/Talk_About_Anime/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=472655

    Does any place on earth have those animals? Oh, yea, it’s anime, everything’s possible.

    Fodica
    Reply

  20. I just love to explain my reasonings and scouring through my archives 🙂

    Mai-HiME Episode 15 @ 22:04, The 300 years:
    http://67.15.5.220/4812/165/upload/p472574.jpg

    And the animals why I think it’s not earth:
    Mai-Otome Episode 1 @ 2:04, Kurochs:
    http://67.15.5.220/4812/165/upload/p472648.jpg
    Mai-Otome Episode 4 @ 7:43, Dinosaurs?:
    http://67.15.5.220/4812/165/upload/p472655.jpg

    Oh yeah, everything is possible in an anime, but these pictures should explain why I think like I think.

    Fodica
    Reply

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