I avoided watching Mai-Otome 17 for a few days… couldn’t work up the nerve, I suppose. I finally got around to it last night, though. Honestly, I don’t think my general opinion of the show has changed much. However, the fact that it’s now embracing its trainwreck nature is clearly a positive. That is, it looks like the show is finished beating around the bush. It’s all terribly silly, but I got a lot of perverse enjoyment out of it nonetheless.
A few thoughts…
I dug the twist regarding a certain character’s betrayal, but I’m curious as to why the scriptwriter showed his hand so early in the episode. It would have been a far more shocking development had he not started hinting at it from the first few minutes. The “gotcha” moment in the sewer was a nice touch, though.
I thought the death scenes in Mai-HiME were over the top, but geez. A montage? A freakin’ montage? The only thing missing was the gospel choir and a stirring eulogy from Major Wong.
Also, I don’t quite understand why Nina gets so angry at the end of the episode. I can understand her being a bit unhappy with how things have played out, but, spoiled little brat or not, that’s no license to go on a killing spree.
Finally, it’s nice to see Natsuki’s as useless as ever. Some things never change.
Do you want to know why Nina got so angry?
Because EVERY SINGLE ONE of her WORST FEARS came true.
Nina was always a fairly fragile girl, underneath the Coral Numbar ONE surface, remember how she blew up back in the Birthday episode?
Also, I called who the traitor was back in episode 16. I was rather pissed that I was right.
Aww, c’mon it wasn’t so bad. To me this ep. was the most MAI-HIME-sqe of the bunch. The knots of the plot are so twisted now that I’m really in NEED of understanding what the bloody h*ll is going on in this otome-universe, because I still fail to understand who-wants-what (shinso?the organ?schwartz?aswald?where’s Mai?what’s inside Nagi’ bratty head?Nanomachines?Who’s the real queen?ahhh…). Maybe I’m a blockhead but…
I still enjoy it nevertheless, the subtle irony that pervades this show is unbeatable, imho, and I expect a nice “reset button” somewhere near the end, when the doramatic part gets too heavy to bear (i.e. every char dies more or less horribly in puffy green style…).
I like that Shiho keeps trying to get the maki-maki to work. Cause you know, if a bunch of tentacles came out and er, restrained the enemies, she’d be a hero. Oh nooooes, CHILD molestation!
I just can’t stop laughing at all the ridiculous Gundam posing…complete with freeze frame and extraneous tassels/protrusions. Care to add a couple *light wings* while you’re at it?