Mai Otome
In celebration of WP 2.0.2, I’m going to do something I haven’t done in months! Blogging anime! A new anime season just started, and quite a few just ended their run. One popular anime finishing up is the sequel to Mai Hime, Mai Otome!
As a sequel, Otome shares many similiar themes and characters, but it’s easy to see the story takes place in an alternative universe, a la Tenchi Muyo. Many of my peers try to find similiarities within characters, but I believe that’s a moot point ~ Otome should be seen as a separate entity from Hime. Does it live up to the Mai franchise though? Although Hime had a disappointing beginning and ending, the dramatic turn of events leading up to the final episodes were enough to boil my blood and for me to recommend the show to friends. However, Otome, with its incredibly angsty teenage girls, lackluster plot twists, and little believability, made the show much worse than its predecessor.
Do you like angsty teenage girls swooning over 25 year old man? Do you like them going kaka and deciding friendship isn’t worth keeping in order to have a piece of meat? These aren’t 30 year old women desperate for a relationship in a la Sex & City, these are 14 year old girls who haven’t even experienced love - yet they’re willing to kill each other ~ FOR SEX! I don’t even think Arika and Nina even masturbated yet! The problem isn’t with emo girls, but the fact that the anime focused so much on them, and laying the core of the story to the side. The director figured the audience would enjoy watching the girls going through the ups and downs of a relationship, than to develop the reasons behind the coming wars and the tools that force the nations’ hands.
I remember when I first watched Michael Douglas in The Game. The plot twist at the end was so incredible, that it literally made me feel tingly all over! But, when you over do the plost twists, and make it into a commonplace event, it starts to lose value. Another analogy - when you curse with every other word, you start to lose ideas on how to express yourself when you get really angry, that’s when you start to hit people because how else can you express that you’re angrier than norm! In Otome, every few episodes, we get a plot twist, and something unexpected happens. Not only is the surprise element fading away, but the story slowly becomes incomprehensible. Yup, I get the basic plot behind Otome, but that’s about it.
Finally - what is up with the ending?! &(#@&$(@#%&!&% And Tomoe? Why the hell is she still in school after doing what she did?! It does not make sense! IT DOESN’T! NONE OF IT! IT’S LIKE WATCHING WOOKIES MAKING OUT WITH EWOKS on THE DEATHSTAR!
Ahh, whatever… there are some cool fighting sequences, and the music is still pretty kickass — unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this as much as others. I’m done rambling ~ now, to tack on some pictures.