Reliving the trainwreck SUNRISE experience – Mai HiME R1s

Marathoning my freshly acquired Mai HiME DVDs over 2 weekends spawned several thoughts.

1) The Mai HiME franchise desperately needs a prequel. Animedom need to see Mashiro in that miko outfit and her imouto love that won the HiME star for the Obsidian Prince.

2) Was the Naze nani segment originally in the TV broadcasts? Why it is that I don't remember any of it?

3) Tokiha Mai has to be Nakahara Mai's best performance evar. Every one of her "Kagutsuchi!!" is unique. In the same 4 syllabus, she can convey resolve, desperation, rage, terror and more.

4) The character-centric add-ons after each ep is excellent. Not only are the stills gorgeously rendered, they managed to also flesh out a good deal of the characters with their monologues.

5) The 2nd FULL sitting of Mai HiME (although I have rewatched many of the scene countless times, this is only the 2nd time I've seen the series whole again) made me appreciate the series a lot more. The character development flowed progressively and the themes interact intimately with great coherence. Mai HiME got a 10 on myanimelist. I want to give it an 11 now.

6) I'm starting to see how jpmeyer see ep 20 of Mai HiME as the crown jewel of SUNRISE's works. Ep 22 of Code Geass hold that title currently but probably not for long...

7) The Mai HiME soundtrack remains my favourite work of Kajiura sensei, far ahead of Noir and .Hack (though both are VERY good too.) Ensei has to be Kajiura sensei's finest composition.
Nina (of Mai Otome) actually cameo-ed in ep 24 of Mai HiME (in Mai's utopia).

9) I should have bought another 2 sets to make some converts for anime fandom.

10) Did I mention we need a Mashiro-centric MH prequel?

ShizNats Mai HiME Specials 4, 23, 25

MH Special #4 is from Shizuru Fujino's POV, relating that she was captivated by Natsuki Kuga's defiant yet lonely stare (love at first sight!); that she gradually got Natsuki to open up to her; that she has many things (being a HiME and lusting after her, one supposes) that she has yet to confess to her but is merely content to quietly watch out for her. And Shizuru's fangirl club is always funny. I wonder why there isn't a similar setup in Mai Otome with Tomoe as Chairwoman?

Mai HiME Special 13

Other than symmetrical docking, another possible event in the Anime Fanservice Olympics might be breasts diving (girl on girl only please!) as demonstrated in the ED of Mai HiME and yet again (see above) by potential medallist team of Mai Tokiha and Mikoto Minagi. Nominations for other contestants? :3

Mai HiME: On Devotion

Spoilerific! Ok, huge spoiler. Miyu Glea is a robot built by the Illuminati-like Searrs Foundation and has got the unique ability to neutralise the materialising power of the HiMEs. Miyu is really M.I.Y.U. - Multiple Intelligential Yggdrasil Unit - thus adding the other big WTF Japlish acronym in this series. The other term being, of course, HiME for Highly-advanced Materialising Equipment which I very much doubt was used in the previous festival 300 years ago.

Miyu also fits my definition as a Rei clone. She's got blue hair, red eyes and her behaviour is somewhat stiff (allowing for Alyssa exceptions). Stripey feels that my criteria are too exclusive (especially on the red eyes) and might result in a sample population that is too small for any meaningful trend analysis so we will be assembling our own sample sets for comparison. However, we are both moving at such a glacial pace that it's almost like we are doing a PhD on the subject. (笑)

In Ep 15, the HiMEs take back the school, causing Alyssa and Searrs' plans to go tits-up. It also gives us Alyssa and Miyu's backstory. The latter seems truly devoted to the former, displaying a warmth and tenderness that belies her normally cold, robotic manner. It can be quite easily argued that Miyu is simply following her programming but sometimes I wonder if Miyu's obviously strong feelings can be dismissed as the result of her code and electrons spin-states (for quantum) or electron present / not-present (for binary logic gates), then can human feelings be similarly dismissed to be a mere bio-electrical and chemical reaction in the brain and the dictates of the DNA code? Similarly, can Miyu's AI be considered as fully sentient? Does she have the capacity for free will (if you accept that there's such a thing)? How will this apply to other anime robots e.g. Mahoro, Cyberdoll May et al which we never seem to consider because they are the goodies?

Another HUGE spoiler here. Though Kabitzin has quite rightly observed that it's not that surprising since "uber HiME fighting machines shouldn't be destroyed because of immersion in freezing water!" She is booted up just in time by Midori and gives rise to endless Mummy jokes. Excellent music to accompany Miyu's boot-up and re-emergence. Yuki Kajiura does another magnificient job. The popular Ensei and Mezame conveyed the sense of loss and mysterious power awakening respectively very well but my favourite is Yamiyou no Prologue that accompanied Kagutsuchi's first emergence in Ep 3 and Mai's desperate suicidal blocking move in Ep 15.

As it turns out, Miyu is really the key and the only hope that the HiMEs have of breaking the endless cycle of the HiME festival. Her super-duper anti-materialiser power releases the life force of the MIPs and restores the powers of the HiMEs so they can give the Obsidian Lord and his HiME star a piece of their minds.

So Alyssa is brought back to life as well, Miyu should be happy. I wonder if Alyssa's MIP (the previous Chairman of Searrs) also came back? If he did, would he still be Chairman or the new guy stays in place or there's infighting in Searrs as a result? And do Alyssa and Miyu still work for Searrs? With the new Chairman and John Smith having sold the latter down the river to the Black Prince, the relationship might well have been severed.

Anyhow, in addition to my long awaited mail order Rei clone, I am also placing an order for a mail order Miyu.

Mai-HiME: Nao's Tangled Web

Nao Yuuki (voiced by Yuuka Nanri, vocalist for Chariot of Dawn) is one of my three favourite characters (besides Shizuru and Miyu) from the very entertaining Mai HiME so this post is a bit of a character shrine. Short note on the ending first. Kabitzin of Sea Slugs! anime blog has reported, in his typically succinct and witty style, on Ep 1-24. Fencedude has many screencaps and summaries for Ep 25-26. On the ending, I agree with a lot of what Fencedude has said so logically and eloquently. A few minor quibbles here and there but it was a good and satisfying ending.

On the surface, Nao looks like a cute, sweet young girl and she actively cultivates this image among the gullible (usually guys), helped by her beauty and her intelligence. But she's a survivor - mentally tough, resourceful and cunning. I do agree with Kabitzin that she gets a rather raw deal in the series - she gets framed, injured, picked on and nearly killed in cold blood at her nadir.

Nao is a victim of her own efforts to secure herself against the outside world. She trusts no one else, resulting in everyone else having little trust in her. She's easily framed as the prime suspect when things go wrong. Her pride, anger and bitterness then further compound the problem by ruling out any effort at rapproachment. She fights hard and employs strategems but her powers are simply too weak against HiMEs like Shizuru (who is also in my top three). Lesson: Everyone needs friends.

Interesting character also because of her backstory. Around primary school, her whole world was turned upside down when her family home was burgled and only her mother survived albeit severely incapacitated. She was packed off to an orphanage and probably only could continue schooling because the HiME scholarship. As a result, she has an extremely cynical view of the world and coupled with her intelligence, she makes the most accurate, cutting and politically incorrect remarks about the heroine, Mai - about her non-altruistic motivations in taking care of Takumi and the very real threat of Kagutsuchi if it came to a HiME battle royale. But the truth always hurts most.

In the end, I was really glad that she got a happy ending. Good to see that she was still up to her scams and had the wit to persuade Alyssa and Miyu to help her. With her mother returned sans injuries, she definitely has one less thing to worry about. She might also be starting to become friends with Natsuki whose empathy and mercy saved her life in Ep 24. Not sure if Shizuru will see her as competition! Haha! - Zyl

Mai HiME 26

That doesn’t mean that the ideal ending was for the MH world to crash and burn (no, I don’t belong to the camp that believed Saikano’s ending to be indescribably beautiful.). In fact I support the return of the HiMEs and their precious ones. However, I also believe that a REAL death would certainly make the finale a lot more memorable. For example having Mai (or even Mikoto) die, in order to forge a path for the rest of surviving cast (plus their resurrected other halves) to live better lives (ala X-TV). We can still have ‘Shining days’ and all the goofiness SUNRISE was to inject in its finale but reinforced by a tragic undercurrent of Mai’s sacrifice, giving us a poignant bittersweet end. (Think Mahoro’s dichotomy of her expiring life versus her happy maid life. The sweeter her current life, the sadder it truly is.) Well, I guess it's a matter of personal preference and yeah I’m actually biased since tragedies resonate stronger with me.

Despite its shortcomings, the finale was still somewhat satisfactory (if not a little forced) and a fitting end to the series (even though it may not be the best IMO). There were also some loose story threads which I have overlooked since the strength of MH lies in its characters and the story had sufficiently built itself up as an effective platform for intricate/poignant character liaisons throughout the series. Thus, I'm not going to complain about the inconsistencies of the HiME matsuri or Mai's unexplained resurrection in ep 15.

Truly, Mai HiME had been a tremendous ride and in spite of its weakened conclusion, I’m looking forward to owning the R1s and seeing more of SUNRISE’s works. Yes, thanks to MH, SUNRISE has toppled BONES to become my current favourite animation studio. Now I can’t wait for Mai HiME to be licensed.

Mai HiME 24

*Spoilers*