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Summary:
Mashiro dreams of when she was young and ordered people around however she liked. But then she remembers meeting Nagi, and him calling her an imposter princess. Back in the present, Arika is working part-time at the construction site for the castle when Mashiro herself comes to inspect it. She finds one part that she wants rebuilt, and announces it just as Arika walks by. Arika, angry because so much work has already been put into it, questions if Mashiro is really the queen. With tears in her eyes, Mashiro slaps Arika and runs off. Nagi and Sergay were watching nearby, and Sergay explains that fourteen years ago the castle was attacked, the king and queen slain, and that an Otome saved the baby princess. Mashiro was later found and declared to be the princess, but the rumors about her remain till today. After hearing this, Arika goes into the castle to find Mashiro and sees a painting of a woman wearing a blue earring. Meanwhile, Nagi corners Mashiro and asks for her hand in marriage. He almost kisses her, but Arika interrupts just in time. With Mikoto defending Mashiro, Nagi decides to give up for the day. Mashiro collapses, and Arika offers her a hand up. Mashiro takes it just as Mikoto jumps on the pair, and all three go stumbling into a secret door behind the throne. They end up in an old, crumbling section of the castle, and the two eventually walk into a room with a large sphere in the front. When Arika approaches it, the ground lights up, and the doors part to reveal an organ inside. Mashiro plays a random note, which causes the organ to light up and the resulting soundwave shatters all the glass in the area, including Arika’s Coral earring and Mashiro’s ring. It also sends a light shining above the castle, which catches the eye of a familiar figure walking in the desert. The two are even more amazed when a dark figure with a red outline appears before them and tells them that it is insufficient, and then leaves a cryptic message about obtaining the Harmonium’s power.
Afterwards, a Slave appears behind the group, summoned by the construction worker who was following them. Arika’s pendant deflects an attack, and then two blue gems appear out of it. Arika remembers the blue earring so saw on the painting earlier, and so she puts one of them in her earring and the other in Mashiro’s ring. The two set up a contract and Arika powers up into a “ROBE BLUE SKY SAPPHIRE.” In a custom robe now, Arika is able to toss the monster into the wall, but then takes a hit to the back. Mashiro experiences it too, causing Arika to remember what Natsuki told her about the master sharing the Otome’s pain. Arika summons her element, a double bladed weapon. Seeing that it’s probably not big enough to defeat the Slave, Arika powers it up into a giant version. She then charges straight through the Slave, destroying it. Once it’s all over, Arika and Mashiro return to the populated parts of the castle, and the two promise to keep it all a secret.
Great episode for Mashiro backstory and Arika showing her stuff. Mashiro acts pretty bratty for the first half, but she and Arika have started to bond by the end of the second episode. And since they now share a set of gems, I’m guessing that Mashiro is the only one who can activate Arika’s special robe. As for the identity of the princess, at this point, I’m willing to believe that Mashiro is not the princess, but rather Arika (or even Nina). If Mashiro was just found by a rich man and thought to be the princess, then she’s probably not. Arika has the mother-factor working for her, and Nina has that flashback from last episode in her favor.
The episode turned out to be a lot more standalone than I thought it would have been, though there’s plenty of plot development. But the battle scene alone makes this episode enjoyable for me. I guess I’m a sucker for those good-guy-wins-and-looks-cool scenes. Especially when her gem keeps announcing her moves (like “BOLT IN THE BLUE”) ahead of time, complete with a countdown counter. 🙂
The buzz now is all about this image of a mysterious Otome from the next episode preview (image courtesy of a 2chan poster). Speculation has it that maybe it’s Mashiro’s real mother or Miyu or an entirely new character. Her clothes remind me of Ziggy from Xenosaga though…
w00t first post. can’t wait for this to be translated.
The picture on the wall looks like an older version of Arika. I guess the have to play the tune of the ED theme song on the organ to reveal the secret.
Question. Do all otome like Mai-Star class needs her master’s permission to activate the robe? Like Chizuru, who is her gem master again?
Among the screenshots:
The witch looks like Miyu. The figure looks like an older Mikoto.
Decent episode overall. Its quite obvious that the figure is Mikoto and that other character is Miyu.
Also to answer Avex’s question it seems Miesters can release there own Robes, we see this when Shizuru fights that robot guy.
Looking forward to next episode to see who the long gray haired woman is.
I’t just a faint hunch, but I think the gray haired woman in the preview might actually be Miyu.
Anyways, this one was a good episode and I found myself watching Arika’s robe activation several times.
Not quite true…
In the room where Mashiro was looking at the paintings of the King and Queen, she was singing a song…
You guessed it. Mashiro ALSO knows the song Nina, Sergay and Arika knows, linked to the Blue Otome.
Mashiro isn’t a stranger to the castle, at least.
hmm……my first posting comment
my story guessing
Arika and Mashiro swicth birth when in baby!! Arika real princess and Mashiro is the otome child…
just a guess…..:P
Mashiro isn’t a stranger to the castle, because she was raised in it since she was a baby. So it doesn’t implie that she is the true princess. I think we don’t have enough elements to know who is the true princess. The only thing i’m sure is that Arika is the daughter of Rena, the otome whe see near the king.
Now my question is That will be the reaction of Shizuru, Natsuki and the other students when they will see Arika new robe……
I forgot, it’s impossible that the new otome who will appear in episode 8 si Mashiro’s real mother, otherwise she should have no longer her otome power….
Its kind of foolish for Arika and Mashiro to even attemp to hide the fact that they are now linked together with the blue saphires. The fact that Arika now has a master, who of course is Mishiro will raise some fuss witht he others but the situation they were in had no other means of retaliation so I’m sure it will just be accepted. Arika is of course a student, she will HAVE to call on her robe just to participate in some of the calsses and its not like she will be able to summon up her old robes anymore since the robe is directly linked with her old red earing wich shatered. Even if by chance somone else could summon up her old red robe they would need to kiss her earing… I’m sure their gona notice its blue. In short their is just no way Arika can keep up the secret even if she wanted to.
I am however really looking forward to everyones reactions when they realise shes inherited the saphire robe ^^
I noticed some small, but very interesting detail:
Remeber when Rado entered the throneroom and searched for something and was interrupted by Shizuru?
Could it be that he was looking for the entrance and the organs that Arika, Mashiro and Mikoto accidentally stumbled upon?
Arika’s weapon looks almost identical to the Obisdian Lord’s final form in the first season. Nifty.
yeah fodica i think Rado was looking for that entarance.. there has to be some great power as mentioned up for grabs .. what i dont get is how can they keep it with no security? i mean eventhough the place is abandoned.. there has to be some sort of security system to protect that “great Power”..its was just too easy to stumble upon
just a heads up on the secret entrance. The room Rado was looking in, and where he battled Shizuru, was the coronation room and is a *different* room than the one Arika and Mashiro was in. I don’t know if that means Rado was looking in the wrong room or there’s more than one secret entrance, but just wanted to bring that to light.
i just thought of something… when the shadow like ( mikoto looking person ) shows up and says its not enough .. they need the singers melody, organ’s player and the protector’s charm to gain the Harmonium’s power … and if u noticed only 2 circles on the sphere lit ..therfore the third person is nina who is the singer.. arika is the protector and mashiro is the organ player… ( the three main characters)
After watching this episode I went back to Mai-Hime episode 26 and I found Arika in the background as Mai, Natsuki, and Mikoto walks away from the conservatory. This is the strangest “second season” I have seen but I love the overlapping characters. Thanks for the summary. =)
Mashiro seems to be the real princess,
But we can think it’s Arika for a bit,
If you see in the first episode,
It was the Otome who was supposed to protect the royal family,
Gave the neckless to the baby Arika,
Soo we can see that it was her the mother of Arika,
She had lost her power if Arika is her daughter anyway..
And on the painting, Akira’s mother is the Otome who protected the King.
Perhaps, Mashiro and Arika are both 14 years old,
And both was under the castle side when they was baby,
Soo both can know the song pretty much,
Since the Queen was Arika’s mother master,
If Arika’s mother had a child it was in the castle too with Mashiro.
And dont forget is a Otome have a child she loose her power,
Soo Arika’s mother might have not be able to protect the royla family in a way,
And she saved Arika while the battle and got killed right after.
And Chizuru seems to be her own master, since shes always with Natsuki too.
yeh, Shizuro doesn’t seem to have a Master. We certainly haven’t been introduced to one, so this could explain why she can materialize without being kissed. Also, this could mean that the other Meisters/ mai-stars need to have their ear rings kissed before materializing. As for Arika having blue ear rings – I don’t see why she can’t get a new pair of red ones to wear at the school.. The excuse that her red ear ring shattered due to the organs sound is a fair excuse, fair enough for the school to replace her ear ring without complaint. She can just keep her blue ones hidden until she needs to use them.
Oh, and I haven’t watched all of Mai-Hime, I only found out about it after the first 4 or 5 episodes of Mai-Otome. I’ve seen 8 Mai-Hime episodes and 7 Mai-Otome episodes, and so far, I can confortably say that I am enjoying Mai-Otome allot more than Mai-Hime. I’m sure i’m the only one here who hasn’t really watched Mai-Hime.
i think Arika will keep her earing cause in the op her earing is that earing
really good episode. i think mai-otome is my favorite anime out at the moment. nothing else is as good!