Summary:
Word of Arika and Mashiro’s exploits last week have already spread to Natsuki, but she decides not to annul their contract. Arika is cleaning Fumi’s mausoleum when her friends arrive with lunch. Irina also brings a giant cleaning machine, but it breaks down pretty quickly. Arika, who is doing poorly in her studies, later gets some personal attention and help from Shizuru, much to the envy of her peers. That night, as she is walking back to her room, Arika is faced with a shadowy figure. She recognizes it to be her old friend Miyu, complete with her pet bird, Alyssa. After filling Miyu in on what’s been going on, Arika starts to tell her about the special GEM, but Mashiro interrupts them. Arika and Mashiro want to find a way to remove the GEMs and annul the contract. Miyu is easily able to pop both of them out, solving the first problem, but tells the two that the contract is still in place. She advises them to go look in the prohibited books library under Fumi’s mausoleum.
So Arika recruits her friends, and even Nao shows up to help. Nao has one key, but not the password required to get in. Luckily for them, Arika somehow opens the door by saying “Open Sardine.” Inside, they find a large room with a holographic databank that appears at their feet. Erstin spots another hallway, and the girls follow it to a room of pillars inscribed with the names of Otomes. They are discovered by Miss Maria, who apologizes first to a grave for an Otome named Monica Julen. Miss Maria explains that Monica to fight her close friend in a war because she was bound by contract to her king. When she then asks the prospective Otomes whether they could do the same, Nina responds with a yes, but Arika is against it. Arika feels that the war shouldn’t have been caused and declares that she would not let the war occur when she becomes a full fledged Otome. Miss Maria smiles, but then notices Arika’s ear, and is shocked to find that Arika doesn’t have a GEM anymore. Fortunately for Arika, she’s given a new one (and the entire group is given cleaning duty). Meanwhile, the masked Black Valley group is asked by the Cardair Kingdom’s Emperor Algos to do something in the Republic of Airies (domain of Yukino and Haruka). We learn that one of the masked figures, who looks and talks like Midori, is the leader of this Aswad special force.

This is yet another episode of setting things up, possibly for conflict way into the future. The main development of this episode revolves around the Otome Monica having to fight a friend in a war – basically friendship vs. contract. Nina seems more than willing to do the same, should it be required for her, but Arika is understandably opposed. It seems that there’s a lot of political intrigue this series, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a grand war started where each country called in its Otomes to fight another country’s. In fact, since they introduced this concept, I’m now expecting something like that to happen, whether it is between Arika and Nina or two of the other Otomes.
The stand-out characters for this episode are Miyu and Midori. Their roles have been a bit reversed though, as Miyu is now good (debatable whether she’s still an android or not) and helps Arika solve part of her problem, and Midori is part of the Black Valley (who seem to be the bad guys for now). The only reason I still suspect Miyu might be an android is because she sees Arika’s hair as glowing golden; who knows what that may mean (aside from the fact that Arika is special).
I’m not really sure what to expect from this series anymore. At first glance, the preview apparently shows yet another swimsuit/comedy episode. That could be a very good thing if it turns out like episode six did. But it almost feels too soon, since ep. six wasn’t so long ago. And plus, there’s the looming threat to Yukino and Haruka that Midori’s squad poses, though those events may not occur just yet. For all of this building up and plot development that they’re doing, I really expect some big things to happen later in the series.

29 Comments

  1. Not a very good episode, it does offer a good glimpse into what the storyline plotline will mostly revolve around (War, which makes me think Arika and Nina could end up fighting each other >:D). And besides introducing Miyu (who is really cool now) not much is really done in this episode, not any comic moments nor any real relevations to the plot…

    Anza
  2. It depends on what you like about these series in general (action, plot, etc). They’re spending a large amount of time setting things up. And now that I’ve finished Thanksgiving dinner, I can get get to writing this up…

  3. I am expecting really big things from this series with all this build up. Though it is a little dissapointing (sorta) to see another swimsuit episode I still have faith that something big is going to happen in the next few episodes.

    I was quite suprised to see that Miyu new Arika and also to see some more old characters pop up again. (Searrs guys and Natsuki’s informant).

    Still topless Natsuki in a thong being oiled up by Shizuru is more than enough to keep me happy for next weeks epsiode. Im a hopless Shiz x Nat fanboy. 🙂

    Fuhrer
  4. I’m kinda confused with this episode. So, did Miyu take take the blue gemstone? It was so cool when Arika used it. Did Miyu just took it off and then gave the stone back to Arika? She didn’t take it right?

    I thought Arika is going to show her new power in front of people, but now she’s back with the normal stone again.. =[

    edward
  5. Just a thought, but I was reading a blog on episode six and saw the screencaps. The part where Nina was drowning she flashedback to a girl over the water. I was watching episode one over and saw that Rena was wearing the same get up as the girl from Nina’s flashback. If you look at Rena and Major Wang together you will see that Wang’s eyes matches Ninas, but Rina’s hair colour is closer to Nina’s shade of black.

    Is it safe to asume then, that Nina is possibly the true daughter of Major Wang, and Rena?
    We do know that Major Wang was very smitten of Rena due to the many flashbacks.
    And if they did have a child together then that would also explain why she didn’t have powers ie the nano machines before she died in the first episode which by the way if you watch again you will notice she is not wearing an gem earing. Also, one of the masked Black Valley group members comments ” So this is all the elegant blue jewl of heaven can do after losing the power of an Otome?” Keeping in mind that if an Otome consumates a relationship with a man, she will permanently lose her power.

    The question remains now, why is the Azure jewel with Arika and not with Nina then if my claim is true. To that I am uncertain, possibly both Nina and Arika were in that floating baby basket?

    Joya
  6. form this ep we learn:

    – Tomoe is a Shizuru stalker
    – Miyu is Android
    – Theres going to be a war soon
    – Midori finally has her Sentai team
    – Arika’ s grandma is one strange lady
    (pure speculation: Midori is Arika’s “grandam”)

    Last thing, What kind of Password is “open sardine.”

    Xellos-_^
  7. After seeing Arika’s glowing hair, I would link her to the Singer (as seen in eps 7), since it reminds me of Alyssa back in HiME. And as for the story, I’m guessing that the big twist (as in HiME) will be about the real purpose of the school Garderobe and Otomes.

    And after watching HiME’s anime and manga, I’m willing to BET that Mai Otome IS connected with Mai HiME. One of the biggest (so-called)flaws of HiME was its ending. It was soooo out of place with all the events that had happened. At the same time, anyone who had read the HiME manga should know what happens when only a HiME is left. So my guess is, RESET! But some of the casts (Black Valley ppl) were aware of the reset, thus, trying to destroy the fake (or new) world. Think Yumeria!

    Besides, who the HELL calls a prestigious academy Garderobe (Ok, the spellings might be different and there might be more than 1 meaning)? In case you haven’t know: Garderobe = Toilets in Castles. Just like in Scrapped Princess (dustbin). Since Otome is being created by the same crew who created the mind-twisting, plot-rich Mai HiME, an alternate universe as a sequel is just too suspicious. Plus, why would they call the academy “Garderobe”, when they’re capable of introducing names like Kagutsuchi, Artemis, Yatagarasu, Kiyohime, etc?

    In a nutshell, based on what I’ve seen in Mai HiME, there WILL be a twist midway of Mai Otome, and that twist WILL reveal that Mai Otome IS related to Mai HiME, and everything that viewers once thought were good (Garderobe, Otomes) will change, and likewise for what might seem evil (Black Valley ppl) now.

    min chew

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