Mea Culpa on Mai HiME

26Jan/089

Mea Culpa on Mai HiME

Although my good brother Stripey includes Mai HiME as one of top ten animes with botched endings, for a long time, his view was a much more considered and tempered one than mine. And he liked the series so much that he asked me to take advantage of RightStuf's Twelve Days of Christmas sale and purchase the Mai HiME DVD bundle for him at USD 69.99 (works out to about SGD 18.50 a DVD, including S&H - what a bargain!).

I have to confess to being one of those who were bitterly disappointed by Mai HiME's ending. But, at Stripey's request ('Please check if the DVDs work, quality ok etc etc.') I rewatched the series and have been converted to Mai HiME fanboyism. Just as that cunning eviiiiiil tanuki had foreseen! >_<

Previously I felt that the series ending ruined the whole series because it cheapened everything that had happened prior to the final episode. My memory was refreshed by a second viewing (with the added benefit of lowered expectations and knowing how it ended); this was further reinforced by marathoning and reference to some really excellent episode-based posts by the Garten and Mentar tag-team, Kabitzin and Erica Friedman's DVD reviews. All these episode/DVD-based posts, which were at the cutting edge at the time of broadcast, still read beautifully after the interwebs loooong time (opposite of geological time) of more than two years. EPISODE SUMMARIES BANZAI!!!

I had wanted the characters who had died to stay dead; this wasn't possible given how the series clearly aimed at ending the HiME Festival once and for all - they needed all the defeated HiME to attack the HiME Star while Mai dealt with the Obsidian Prince.

I was appalled at Shizuru's cheap, flippant 'apology' to Nao (Who cares about Shiho! I still hate her); Shizuru Fujino is still one of my favourite characters of this series but the faux apology reminds me of the ugly truth that she's actually a very awful person - she really doesn't care what anyone who is not Natsuki thinks of her. Which makes her cool in a sick, twisted Evil Psychotic Lesbian (TM - Erica Friedman) sort of way.

I didn't support, nay I actively squirmed at, Mai and Tate's relationship the first time round which made it hard to enjoy the series given how uneasy I was with the main pairing; I had let Tate's angst turn me against him, having forgotten about his killer statement to Mai someday in the rain: 'But you're trying your best already.' Which was the foundation of their relationship, showing how he was the *only* person in the series who really understood Mai.

Mea culpa. I was much too harsh and whiny the first time round. I've now managed to remove the stick out of my arse and just sit down to enjoy a very entertaining and rewatchable series that had no pretensions to being anything other than entertaining. With the zeal of a convert, I also ended up being seduced by RightStuf's brilliant value for money offer and bought the Mai HiME DVD bundle for myself too. I was going to do an orz and shake my Zaku fist at a certain stripe-tailed raccoon dog and RightStuf but, on reflection, I'll thank them both.

Just a few other minor points about things that amused me. LOL 4:3! I'm so spoilt by the prevalence of 16:9 that it was pretty surprising to see Mai HiME in the ole format.

LOL Siscon! I had forgotten how very oneechan Mai was and how much Akira (and others) teased him about being babied by Mai. And Mai was also so... young. In comparison to Mai Otome. And bouncy. *wipes drool* Definitely my favourite Mai Nakahara role.

LOL Favourite Scenes. Stripey's picks include Ep 8: Precious Thing when Kazu-kun gets Kazu-kunized and Ensei comes on. I actually laughed at that because it is an iron rule of this franchise that Akane Has Rotten Luck. My own personal favourites included Kagutsuchi's first appearance in Ep 3: Dance of Flames/Star's Oath with the drums of Yamiyo no Prologue thundering in the BGM. I cheered for Team Rocket Kagutsuchi in Concorde Mode's ASAT mission against Artemis. And I still found myself trying my darnest not to tear up, even though I knew what to expect already, when (another one of my favourite characters) Miyu cried in despair to the unanswering heavens for her ojousama. Both of the latter in Ep 15: A High School Girl Soars To The Heavens.

LOL Nanoha! It's so liberating to know that Totali also has the same reaction as me when I hear a character voiced by the redoubtable Yukari Tamura. In my first viewing, I was also unnecessarily and unjustifiably harsh on Midori Sugiura due to my 'Champion of Justice = Idiot' prejudice. But Yukari Tamura really brought out Midori's zest, enthusiasm and reckless sense of fun as well as her caring, thoughtful and 'make difficult choices' side really well. She performed marvellously as an adult Nanoha in StrikerS and I look forward to more of her non-loli roles.

Overall, I'm happy to have revised my views on this series as well as being happy with a good buy.

Filed under: loot, mai hime Leave a comment

Comments (9) Trackbacks (2) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Ivy
January 26th, 2008 - 13:31

I’m so going to comment, Mai-Hime is one of my favorite shows ever considering Mai Nakahara in a major role and all. I loved how the show started slow with fluff (not entirely fluffly, they did include that lovely rain episode in its 1-7 run) As the show neared its supposed climax episode 13 which I thought at the time was the ending since it was announced that it would be only 13 episodes. I thought the show was as good as it could get and I jokingly thought to myself the show can’t topple its current self unless these characters get on each others throats ala Battle Royal. Surprisingly enough it actually happened in the next episodes and sunrise have really weaved a string of very cruel events that led to episode 25 and I didn’t think any of them were exaggerated. Of course I’d rather not talk about episode 26, I know it would’ve been one depressing show but bringing all the characters back really really cheapened the string of events. Regarding Shizuru’s apology lol I always laughed at it, not because of how awful she is but because whatever character she formed along the show completely fell apart at that exact scene. That apology was silly, dumb and very animated. A far cry from the sly, manipulative, crazy lesbian we’ve come to love and I don’t think its easy to forgive such a thing lol. The whole Hime flying in the sky together in episode 26 was very, as I like to call it, disneyfied. Oh well at least the show was great through out its 25 episode run. Oh and of course the acting was fantastic. Most notably Mai Nakahara as Mai was just her best role and her performance in episode 20 still sends chills down my spine, talk about spine tingling, that facial contortion was epic! One last thing, more HIME less OTOME please

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Erica
January 26th, 2008 - 15:46

Zyl -

I’m pretty much with you. Mai HiME was the series that taught me the key to maximum anime enjoyment was to have low expectations. When I watched the anime on DVD, I was fortified against the reset end and was free to enjoy those things that are enjoyable.

And while I still feel that the end was lame (not enraging, but still a really a pathetic cop-out) I was able to kick back more and wallow in Mai’s wallowing. Schdenfreude ho~o!

Cheers,

Erica
Hungry for Yuri? Have some Okazu!
http://okazu.blogspot.com

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DKellis
January 26th, 2008 - 17:52

Oddly enough my problem with the ending wasn’t that it was a reset “everybody lives” ending, but more about how they went about doing it: I expected something more, well, epic, rather than the HiMEs all flying towards the red star thingie with the strains of an insert song in the background.

I liked the reset ending in vague terms, but I felt they could have done it better. A less serious indictment than most, possibly.

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Mike
January 26th, 2008 - 18:19

The ending is yet another example of why I think emotional resolution is more important than plot resolution. If you look back on the show earlier you see that the elements for the ending were well in place from a good while back. But it was emotionally unsatisfying because, as many have said, it cheapened the horrific grief and trauma that all the characters–especially Mai–had experienced. I noted in my own review that at the very least, everyone who was “resurrected” or who underwent that should be a little older and wiser now. The return to fan service and jokey comedy at the end was definitely the wrong thing to do.

On the whole though, Mai-HiME is a “good melodrama” with great tension, emotional setpieces, and for me at the time, quite personally affecting.

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super rats
January 26th, 2008 - 20:37

Yay! I have no idea why, but I like reading when people change their minds (for the better) on one of my favorite shows.

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jpmeyer
January 26th, 2008 - 22:31

My comment got eated by my browser, but I had a good convo a couple years ago on the ending and how the “problem” with it is that the viewer’s understanding of whether or not it is “good” depends on what genre you have thought about the show as being part of.

http://www.minaidehazukashii.com/?p=135#comment-492

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Zyl
January 27th, 2008 - 01:14

Ivy, the first time round I was caught completely off guard by the transition from Fluff (panty stealing orphan!?) to OH SHI~ (Akane green sparkle) as well as from Orphan battle to Battle Royale. And yay, Mai Nakahara!! I wonder if her Ep 20 performance was a factor in casting her for Rena ‘USODA!’ Ryuguu?

Erica, moderating from enraged! to mweh is a great way to put it. If SUNRISE were as good with their endings as with their emotional set pieces (great term, Mike and thanks for the link to your review!), then they would truly be MUTEKI.

DKellis, then again, as jpmeyer’s May 2006 post points out, the characters seem conscious about the perceived genre they’re in and parody themselves… the whole OTT ending seems to suggest this too.

super rats, I am definitely a fan of John Maynard Keynes though no facts were changed, just my expectations.

jpmeyer, thanks for the link. There’s genre but there’s also the author. Or in this case, the studio. Being a SUNRISE show, I just saw Takumi as MARKED FOR DEATH the more his relationship developed with Akira because, well, it’s a SUNRISE thing to do, perceived generic magical girl show or not.

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TheBigN
January 28th, 2008 - 14:33

Mai-HiME has been called the “Best Worst Show Ever” by some, but I found it enjoyable, and it’s one of my favorite series. What made the show for me was how emotionally involving it became for me. It made me realize how much I cared about characters when seeing the blender that they were thrown into near the end. The days of silly fun were long gone when that happened, but like DKellis, I didn’t think the ending was that bad, but I should have thought that things could have been done better. It should have been much more epic given what led to it. But it’s all about the journey rather than the end, and I so enjoyed the journey. :3

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Stripey
January 29th, 2008 - 17:11

This has to be my proudest moment as a Mai HiME fan XD USD 70 is a steal since the R3s (9 discs) are going for almost S$300 over here.

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