hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

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.

Related posts:

1. Mai HiME 17
2. Mai HiME 15
3. Mai-HiME: Nao's Tangled Web