Jason offers his thoughts on sequels (and expectations thereof), taking special aim at Mai-Otome (and failure thereof). For the most part, I agree with his analysis, and since I can’t pass up an opportunity to pick apart the show…

The first thing about Mai-Otome that hooked me was the complexity of the story. Mai-HiME, all things considered, was pretty simple: a bunch of girls fighting to the finish for the sake of the ones they love. It made for some gripping character drama, what with all the torn allegiances, death and destruction, and dirty, manipulative tricks. Mai-Otome, on the other hand, added more “big picture” elements: politics, social distinction, history - all part of a fantastical world where nanomachines give people superpowers, giant sandworms lie in wait for unsuspecting princesses wandering the desert alone, and guys with names like Sergey Wong get all the girls.

I thought this was all peachy keen at first. A complex story? A spectacular setting? More girls?

Sign me up!

Unfortunately, this very complexity has become Mai-Otome’s downfall. Mai-HiME worked because, to the very end, it remained focused on the characters: their strengths, their weaknesses, their relationships, their lives… their deaths. Mai-Otome, however, wants it both ways. The show longs to replicate Mai-HiME’s character drama (see: Erstin, death of), yet that drama is constantly overshadowed by the complex world those very characters inhabit. After countless episodes of Arika and gang acting like schoolgirls, should we really care about Artai and its tiff with everyone else? Garderobe’s scandalous history? Aswald’s sob story? Hell, I can’t even remember the names of all the various factions, much less their motivations.

I do, however, care about the characters… characters who have been relegated to the status of mere roman numerals in Yoshino Hiroyuki’s animated game of RISK (Now With More Maids!).

So, with only a few episodes remaining, what’s to become of our abused and underused cast? Well, they’ll band together to save the day, no doubt… but how? At the moment, they’re about as helpless as Ataru lost on the grounds of Lillian School for Girls. For now, only one person seems to hold any sway and power over the future of the world… Nagi.

Nagi?

How fucked up is that?