Summary:
Arika’s scream is heard by a nearby Sergay, who comes in time to stop the thugs. When they go after him instead, he pulls out his gun and scares them off. Unfortunately for them, Nao and her striped group are waiting around the corner. After tying them up, Nao sees Sergay comforting a crying Arika. As Arika cleans herself up, Sergay remembers the letter Nagi wrote to him telling him that they need to find the true princess and that it’s ok if Sergay seduces her. Back at school, Miya is packing frantically because she knows that she’s done for. But the Trias, which Nao is now a part of, come knocking on the door. Tomoe, who is thinking about Shizuru and the Sapphire of the Azure Sky, sees Miya being led away by the Trias and calls her worthless trash.
Sergay takes Arika to the top of the building with a view of the city. Looking at the blue star above, Sergay recites some poetry said to be left by the first sailor who reached the star. Thinking about that guiding blue star, Arika is reminded of her sapphire and in turn is reminded of obtaining her love and her dream. On the subject of love, Sergay starts to say something, but Arika stops him. Sergay puts his hand on her cheek and she gets ready to kiss him as he leans down. In the darkness, we can only see their bodies pressed together.
The next morning, Arika energetically wakes up Erstin and Nina. Just as Nina is asking about the night before, Chie shows up in their room looking for Arika. Apparently Miya confessed to what she did during the uniform and the field trip exam incidents. If the girls decide to press charges, then Miya will be referred to a disciplinary committee. Arika doesn’t feel that it’s necessary, but Shiho interjects that if Arika ever wants to realize her dream of becoming an Otome, she needs to get rid of her rivals. To everyone’s surprise, Arika explodes on that comment, but Miss Maria and Natsuki arrive to tell them that Miya is going to withdraw from the school.
Coming from that meeting, the girls are walking together when Arika runs into a pillar. Even she notices that Arika is out of it, Nina leaves to go see her father. After she’s gone, Erstin tries to raise the topic of the night before, but Arika avoids it and makes her escape. She eventually encounters Aoi, who asks her to go see Mashiro. Mashiro eventually tells her what happened, and Arika figures out that Mashiro must like Takumi. When Mashiro talks about not understanding feelings between men and women, Arika starts to cry because she’s reminded of Sergay.
On the previous night, Sergay had come close, but pulled away before he kissed Arika. He rejected her because she was still on her way to becoming an Otome, and he told her that playtime was over. Before they parted, Sergay mentioned that everything about Rena obtaining love and her dream was a mistake and blames Rena for what happened to the King and Queen. In response, Arika slapped him and said that she hated him. After hearing Arika’s story, Mashiro also starts to cry. Meanwhile, Sergay has his subordinate turn away Nina at the door by saying that there was urgent business. He recalls Nagi’s letter and how Nagi had said that the true princess is necessary for their dreams to come true.
Mashiro and Arika eventually calm down, and regain their resolve – Arika in becoming a Meister Otome and Mashiro in becoming a queen who makes everyone happy. The graduation battle ceremony soon arrives, and the chosen one there is guaranteed to be promoted to a Pearl. Mashiro intrudes on the event and yells at Arika not to lose.

I breathed a large sigh of relief when Sergay turned Arika down. I really didn’t want the story to go in that direction. Fortunately, to make sure that she doesn’t try again, Sergay had to make Arika hate him, so he said those negative things about Rena and shot down Arika’s own dreams. Makes me wonder if there wasn’t just a bit of spite in his voice (about Rena). He’s showing lots of signs of conflicted emotions; ultimately, I bet Nagi will be evil, but Sergay won’t be able to follow him.
Also of interest from that rooftop scene is the blue star, which I suspect may have a role now, much like the HiME star in the first series. It’s even more intriguing when you consider that the Sapphire of Azure Sky could be connected to the blue star. The other big developments include Miya withdrawing from school and Arika & Mashiro becoming buddies. Concerning the former, I doubt that this will be the last we see of Miya. I personally hope she shows up again and gets revenge on Tomoe. And as for the latter, the two’s relationship seems to be getting set up so that Arika really can become Mashiro’s Otome and they can continue with the contract they made before.
The preview doesn’t reveal much, which probably means that big things will happen next week. At the very least, I think next episode will be all about the current competition to choose someone to become a Pearl.

44 Comments

  1. Sergey was being a man and I also like to say that we need more Nao!

    Omni did you manage to screen what the letter said? I deleted the file before I was able to read what it said XD

    Anza
  2. but does he even have feelings for Arika? i mean he didnt want to kiss her because you know hes a man and thats way too much advantage i guess but i still wonder if he cares about her that way …?

    MeistarNina
  3. Damn that Tomoe’s a devious bitch! Having someone else arrange the rape so it can’t be traced back to her. I lover her seiyuu, but the character is like pure evil. she should be the main villain in otome!!! Compared to her all those rebel groups look noble.

    mangamaxx
  4. The letter said:
    “At last, we get an opportunity to put the plan into action.
    So I want you to find the matter (?), the true princess is (?)
    In order to find her, you can do anything.
    Well, you may use your technique to seduce her.”

    The best I can do from what it shows. Nagi’s lines later in the episode basically say the same thing.

  5. Should be:

    “At last, we get an opportunity to put the plan into action.
    So, I want you to find the matter, the true princess as soon as possible.
    We need her for the _____
    In order to find her, you can do anything.
    Well, you may use your technique to seduce her.”

    That blank is hard to decipher though…

    Demukydis
  6. True, I haven’t seen the raw yet so I don’t know the size of it. Perhaps there’s another word for the Harmonium or their’s a counter-evil to it with a shorter name.

    Oh and with Arika fighting, if she gets hurt Mashiro would get hurt to right? That’s gonna turn some eyes.

    soldierofdarkness
  7. I thought the episode was pretty good. I wonder if the new OP for the show starts next week or something, or if it’s going to be a special OP for one of the episodes. Too bad they don’t show much about what happens next week, other than Nina, Ers-chan, and Arika sitting around talking.

    DC
  8. Phew~what an episode! Hmm….I’m beginning to wonder whether Sergey will really do what Nagi told him. I’m so going to hate him if he’s really going to seduce the real princess.

    dward
  9. phew…
    luckily or unluckily, nothing happened between arika and sergey…
    i foresee that something bad is going to happen to nina’s dad crush… just hope that she won’t be too sad/depressed about it…
    Well congrats to the 2 girls who got back their resolve to move towards their dream. ^_______^
    Seems like a great episode, can’t wait for the subs to come out…

    shadowWizz
  10. There is a posibility that Arika already has the abilities of a Meister Otome, the only real big diference is that they can summon their robes at their own wim and have special robes wich Arika already has.

    If you remember from Ep 1, Arika summoned a partialy contructed robe thanks to her saphire neclace and took control of a plain with it as well. It was hinted that this is Arikas power/ability. I assume even at this early stage nanobots were inside of Arika’s body (more then likely inherited from her mother during pregnancy) but just not in suficient quatities to build and hold a completely constructed robe. If this is all considered I think Arika can perform Meister Otome abilities withought having to enter into a contract she just hasn’t realised it yet.

    As for the graduation battle to decide who is to be the next pearl… I think Arika has a good shot at it. If you take Ninas and Arikas last battle (wich to me was a big farce since they were stupid to think Arika an untrained girl in anything Otome related could even stand up to Nina an Otome at the top of her class) you can’t deny that Arika did amazingly well with no Otome knowlege at all against a fully trained Otome. Now that shes had some training and understands the robes abilities I don’t think theres anyone that she can’t best in battle.

    Neko
  11. I like what Neko said. Does seem to make sense. As an addition to that, remember also the episode when Arika was being infused with the nanomachines ? Yoko pointed out that Arika doesn’t seem to suffer any ill effect as most students do when first infused with the nano machines. that seem to go along Neko’s thinking that Arika might already have some of those nanomachines in her.

    Sanjiyan Unkara
  12. I feel Sergey does have true feelings for Arika, he is pondering over it after they send Nina away… He has inner turmoil about the whole thing… he keeps telling himself she the same age as Nina to convince himeself its not alright to be feeling this way for her….heh since when has the heart listened?

    Voodoomage
  13. I’ve been really thinking about the overwelming prominence towards the blue star that continues to appear in the sky, and how much screen shots their showing in the anime. One would have to assume that it will play a big plot role later on same in in the 1st seasons star did… but don’t you think its out of place ? In the 1st series the star represented a godly reward for winning and being the last 1 standing… Mai-Otome has a complete lack of this godly / spiritual battle theme like the 1st series, but instead seems to revolve around a technological one.

    What we know so far about this universe is that they came from earth but through some huge disaster or war have lost the technology including that of space travel. It seems every faction is running to claim unforgoten / black technology in the hopes of gaining dominance (wich seems to fuel wars). Now that the organ has been found some nations are not to comfortable, implying that it will unbalance the powers of their world.

    What if this star will be something like “Last Exile” ? not an actual star but an artificial asteroid or space ship from the original teraforming team that brought them to this planet. The organ could more then likely be a control / communications (After all that beam of light from it was pointed out into space when Arika activated it) centre for it and safeguards had been put in place to ensure its safety. Kind of a legacy, a treasure trove of technology for those that could claim it and would more then likely dominate all others with it. To me this theme maches more closely to the animes then what the 1st seasons star did.

    Neko
  14. Oh another thing.. why is Arika’s sky robe pink / red with blue saphires ? in the painting we saw a few eps back it was clearly all blue wich seems to mach the robes name so much more then its current colors.

    Neko
  15. Hmm, so you couldn’t make more sense out of the blue star thing as well. The dialog and the Doremi translation leave it open, my best guess is that the Blue Sapphire gem will be key in enabling some kind of yourney or activation of technology with that star. If you think back to the hiking exam, I always wondered whether we misinterpreted what the whip-swinging gal was telling Arika. I though it was something like I will greet you from the stars once we made it there. So I wonder whether all of Earl is just an unfortunate incident—the early seddlers being forced to land and not being able to take off again or something. But then I’ve never been good at predicting these erratic anime endings. Mai Hime’s ending still freaks me out for its utter lack of logic.

  16. Now that sergey’s learnt that he may have to seduce the princess – rejecting Arika the way that he did is probably now seen as a mistake from his point of view since she MAY be the real princess.

    Oh, and who do you think that blonde haired girl is who was trying to wake up the old woman? Anyone important?

    Though despite the old lady’s comments about who the real princess is, I still doubt it’s Arika for the following reasons:
    1. Arika is ridiculously strong and athletic, something that I can’t imagine a princess being. This suggests her being Rena’s daughter.
    2. Arika kind of looks like Rena (despite hair color). Eyes are same color and hair fringe to the left of their head both curl int he same way.
    3. I doubt Mashiro is Rena’s daughter – much too unfit, appearance isn’t similar.
    4. Is Nina Rena’s daughter?.. hair color is closer than arika’s but eyes are a different color.
    5. Sergey regards the old ladies words as a joke.

    fabs
  17. When Sergey rejected Arika, the old woman had already told him that the person with the Blue Sapphire gem would be the princess, so he knew what he was doing.

    The girl at the deathbed of the old woman (is that really a girl) is the brat that stole Nina’s necklace some episodes back. It is homeless and lives at the banks of the river like the old dying woman did. Not sure there is more to it.

  18. Sergey at this point knows Arika is the princess… and its very aparent that hes had these assumptions for a long time now. Sergey did not laugh at the old ladies story cause he did not believe her, his laugh was more of a “No way! you got to be kidding… not Arika… please not her”. Sergey is torn between his heart (true feelings to Arika) and his duty to Nagi (An all around ass / evil kid hes always been) and is trying to convince himself that she can’t be the princess because he doesn’t want to twist her around to make her their pupet.

    During the kiss confrontation Sergey is trying to come up with any excuse to convince himself to stop their romantic relationship because he knows that even if he enters into it with true feelings and intentions Nagi will probably find some way to use that against her in the future. Sergey even goes as far to compare Arika to his own daughter. Sergey basicaly found the best way to break her heart and make her hate him to protect her… The fact that he told her it was just a game to see how much it would take to break her dream, and that the Otome from the story was just a weak girl will ensure Arika will not be so easy to fall in love next time pushing her forwards to her dream and away from Nagi and his twisted plans.

    All in all Sergey is a real nice guy ^^ whats left to be seen is what he holds more deer to him in the future… his heart or his aligence cause we all know Nagi wont let it end like this.

    Neko
  19. there is a scene where you left that that gives a major hint of a natsuki and shizuru relationship…………when miss maria goes to get natsuki from the bed…….there is somthing sort like green thing…….thats the same color that is shown in shizuru necklace when tomoe is talking about her……is natsuki shizuru master or the other way around

    redeyes

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