hontou ni sou omou?

"She’s definitely getting a pretty girl right now," was my favourite line from Mai Otome Zwei Ep 1. Gal’s knowing comment about Shizuru’s wandering ways and Natsuki’s annoyed response was pure winnage. While Shizuru Fujino’s psychotic obsession with Natsuki Kuga, in Mai HiME, was a focus of much OMGSOHAWT fanboyism, I enjoyed the tantilising crumbs of the Shizuru Viola x Natsuki Kruger relationship in Mai Otome so much more. The latter relationship is a lot more settled; they’re clearly very comfortable with each other. It is also tenderly playful, with a fair bit of humour from how Shizuru unsettles Natsuki by flirting with a starstruck Arika.

Shizuru’s playgirl nature also featured in Mai HiME as seen by her retinue of heart-eyed fangirls and how even Mai isn’t spared from her clutches in the Mai HiME drama CD Vol.1 (moyism’s summary). However, this is mostly eclipsed by her desire for Natsuki Kuga. Because their relationship isn’t quite as problematic in the Otome universe, the playgirl element is used to much better comic effect; Shizuru uses it to tease Natsuki as well as to tease ShizNats fans who lap it all up as circumstantial evidence of their pairing.

"Haruka-oneesama, because you are the mission leader, please behave appropriately!" Another great line, this time from Sara Gallagher. What tickled me about the two of them is that Sara is one of those juniors whom the senior Haruka Armitage is unable to handle and even, sometimes, seems afraid of. Because Japanese society is highly hierachical along lines of seniority, I find it fascinating when we are presented with instances of juniors who dominate their seniors. This is done through the force of their personalities but is also helped by harnessing social expectations of proper and responsible behaviour by seniors. Another example that comes to mind is Minako Tsukiyama and Mami Yamaguchi of the Lilian Newspaper Club in MariMite where it is the junior Mami who terrorizes the senior Minako to keep her deadlines and organize her work properly.

I also found this episode to be a promising setup in the way that it removed the most powerful characters (Miyu, Shizuru, Mikoto) from the board. The remaining characters also deprived of the sources of their power - Arika first loses her Zwei form and then her Master, Mashiro; Mai loses her contact with Mikoto; Natsuki and the remaining Pillars lose their access to Fumi yet again. Will be interesting to see if SUNRISE can resolve this without resorting to another big dose of deus ex machina. Oh, cool sunglasses but I demand MORE Nao-oneesama!