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Well, since we had the majority of the Otome discussion through the HiME season two thread, I think this deserves it's own thread now.

Once more, beware of spoilers. If you want to watch the show legitimately and with some surprise, I suggest getting out now.


As most of you might've already known (otherwise you wouldn't be looking here), Otome ended roughly 1 week ago in a 1 hour special. Doremi got ahead of themselves by releasing the 2nd half a few days after the first, but I think SS will release it as one collection.

So, your thoughts?


I had plenty to go with. First off, as expected, there was absolutely no time for explanation. I knew ever since the Harmonium was quickly introduced and hardly spoken of, it would be an issue left to the manga, which I will probably never read now.

With that, I can safely say that the whole Valkyrie system and how the body of Rena Sayers (sp?) was also left to assumption. I mean, it's not like any of this was confusing, but really, any explanation longer than 30 secs would've been fine.

Ok, scientific concepts aside, I was mostly disappointed by the horrendous lack of closure to literally all of the characters. Why did Akira and Takumi even show up? What is the basis of Chie and Aoi's relationship? Who drove Mai into the Black Valley in the first place? Does Midori ever recover from her disease? Even characters and couples that got attention got no closure afterwards, such as Akane and Kazu. Nothing left for the viewers, just more speculation.

And here is the one thing that pissed me off more than anything: Nagi was responsible for the deaths of thousands, usurping several countries or forcing them into submission by sheer omnipotent violence, and threatening the political and spiritual stability of the world. So, what do they do to him? They freaking put him in a jail doing minor labor with Nao as the warden? That's really pathetic.

In a realistic sense, Nagi would've been executed, no question. He was a bloodthirsty dictator with absolutely no remorse for his actions and they put him away like a petty criminal. I hope people don't actually learn anything from this example, especially since Erstin is the only one who died. And thank the heavens she stayed dead. She represented the idosyncratic nature of idealistic values, by promoting peace in the dissolution of power. Die little girl, because you don't know a damn thing.


Ok, maybe I'm a little too bitter, but yeah, this show was pretty much a void in my time. If HiME was not at all involved, I would've never even considered the first fansub, but since we had some good discussions, I felt it might've been time worth spent afterall. Somehow, though, this show was doomed from the beginning.

But at least the great cycle is complete......
Mashiro is back in her wheelchair and is acting like she has a brain again. I told you blaugh whee

Yeah, eggy, too many pointless introductions and no closures for characters that somewhat mattered. Midori, Nao, Haruka, etc. got nothing afterwards, although Midori's lack of closure is the one I was most upset about. Btw, anyone see that plot twist of her becoming "good" from a mile away? Sheesh, that's what happens when you use a protagonist from the first series and put them in a seemingly antagonistic role.

Yeah, Tomoe really didn't matter to me. Everything she said was like a joke, so it was fun to watch her. I'm not going to try to find any meaning in her actions or her feelings.

Eggy, I really want to know, do you agree about Nagi's situation? I mean, is that the worst they can do to a mass murderer, moreover one who doesn't seem to care about what he did? Maybe if they animated people being crushed by Nina's death tornado, or him gunning down a crowd to take over Windbloom, people would begin to question why his punishment was beyond lenient.

I must say a rather disappointing ending to the series, and definitely way too many loose ends that just never got addressed sad

The development of Mashiro as a character was promising, but the rest fell sadly flat.

I luuuurrrrvvvv Shizuru, but I gotta say, her as a psycho in the first series was far better written than the fluffy role in Mai-Otome.

Ernstine deserved more screentime and could have been used far better.

WHERE WAS THE ANGST?!

The only character that was remotely interesting was Mashiro, and that part of the storyline looked like it had been stolen from Rose of Versailles (based on the Queen and the French Revolution).

Overall this season had a good soundtrack and animation, but just lacked the story line. With so many of these powerful otome around, how come they spent so little time actually fighting?

It had the feeling of a 40 ep series that had been crammed into 26 eps leaving scenes that didn't really link in all that well with the story line.

I think I would have been better off just sticking with the first series.

I reckon i'd give this series about 5/10 - to watch only if you run out of good anime.

I suppose it just adds to the nonsensicalness of the show. No one was killed for their actions except Onyx and Erstin. Aoi's whole sacrifice was debunked because she lived. I mean the ending reminded me of a children's show, happy ending with the bad guys in jail or back to their old comedic selves. Tomoe was forgiven but since nagi was the evil leader he has to bang rocks in prison so we can laugh at him.
I don't think they would show him being executed and maybe it doesn't seem like hard time because he was out side. But doesn't mean that it wasn't. Both onyx and Erstin bloody their hands and they died for it, Nagi didn't so he gets life
Tomoe seemed to get a slap on the wrist but Nagi WAS doing time, just because he's being Nagi and can fool around doesn't mean his sentence was light.

No, Taters did and Nina whisked him off to a cabin in the woods so they could start over and live happily ever after like nothing ever happened.
Akane was about to do the nasty but she arrested and drafted to fight Nagi