January 26th, 2006
What’s the point of a cliffhanger like that midway through the story which would leave the rest of the show pretty much pointless? Silly writers.
Again it’s a case of so much setup with little payoff; they’re making things almost totally clear that Arika is the real Princess, but I’m a little confused about how that places her relationship to Rena; Rena was just her bodyguard, and Mashiro/Nina was her real daughter, so who are Arika’s real parents? Or have we not met the King and/or Queen? I don’t know, I admittedly only had half an eye on this episode so it might be really obvious or something.
Also, Tomoe? Please die. Seriously. I actually find her whole plotline quite dull; it serves to put Arika in dangerous situations which we know she’ll get out of relatively unscathed and I just don’t feel that Tomoe has any reason to be doing it; surely she should be trying to off Nina or one of the higher ranking Corals if she’s that worried about her position? Bah.
I’ve already had a rant about Arika/Sergei, so my feelings on that plotline are pretty clear. So, what exactly am I watching the show for? Well, even if I don’t like two plotlines, there’s about five million others in Otome that I DO like, so it kind of balances out…
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January 9th, 2006
AKANE-CHAN!!!!! KAZU-KUN!!!!! AKANE-CHAN!!!!! KAZU-KUN!!!! Etc.
This time round, Akane and Kazu get a happy ending, as she denounces the Otome life for sex. She does at least get to kick some Slave butt for a while, but Nagi seems to be behind it; meanwhile, Arika keeps falling in love with Sergei, blech. Also, it seems that Mai went a bit mad when she couldn’t choose both Tate (if it WAS Tate) and being an Otome, so she got lost in a forest of fairies or something.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Sergei as a character, but it’s still damn creepy given the age gap. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if the silhouette of Mai’s lover wasn’t Sergei in some ways; he and Tate have quite similar character designs overall. I’m sure all will be revealed, especially as the next episode looks rather dramatic what with a very Classical war breaking out; I’m certainly looking forward to it.
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January 5th, 2006
Everyone pretends to be everybody else, Mashiro gets bitch-slapped round the head with her abysmal management policies (she’s only 14! Admittedly, so is Takumi, but would you really expect her to be any good at governing a country? And who was doing it before her coronation?), and once more, Hijinks Ensue, with the spectre of Mai hanging over everything.
What was up with that desert shot at the end of the episode? Was it supposed to be some kind of Significant Place that we’ve already seen but I’ve forgotten about? Who knows. At least they didn’t bring up the Disturbing FatherCon Love again this episode. And what would Akira say about Mashiro going after Takumi? (or Nagi the S&M King, incidentally?).
I still wish things would move a little faster; while, somewhat surprisingly, Otome is probably my second favourite series of October, I keep wanting MORE from each episode; what’s there is good and well-written, but it never quite seems like enough (especially in these last two episodes given all the Aswald stuff we’d just had!). We’re about to hit the halfway mark, and I’m sure things will take off, but we’ve not yet had that Akane
moment, frankly.
(I hope it ISN’T an actual Akane moment when it comes, however - the next episode preview suggests it might be, but the poor girl never gets a break, and I don’t trust the previews in the My-Franchise any more…)
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January 5th, 2006
It’s everyone’ s birthday, and Hijinks Ensue, what with Mashiro slipping away from a scheduled royal welcome to Arika and Nina chasing after a pendant-thieving child. All this, and the Disturbing FatherCon Love Fairy pays a visit to the story!
Man, why does Arika have to fancy Sergei as well? It’s creepy enough with Nina, but considering Sergei might well be Arika’s real father it’s just a bit odd. Silly fetishes. But AKIRA! And TAKUMI! Man, they really are plonking everyone from HiME in this series. Now they all need to start dying, stat.
Anyone know how the ratings are for Otome? It really doesn’t work without watching HiME first, does it? I mean, you’d just be kind-of “huh? Why do these people do this?” without it, wouldn’t you? I don’t know, I’m completely failing at coherency at the moment.
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December 30th, 2005
Arika is saved in the nick of time by Sergei, and the two of them end up shacked up for the night while the others search for them; cue inappropriate hijinks! Anyway, they end up in another confrontation with Aswald which ends in a face-off between Shizuru and Midori (whom Shouko knew in childhood) that only ends when Midori’s nanomachine gemstone shatters. Meanwhile, Nina angsts about her whole fathercon problem, Tomoe schemes, Nagi is as inscrutable as ever, and John Smith turns up representing the Shibaritsu (am I supposed to know who they are?).
Once more, wheels upon wheels; and boy, after SEED Destiny the animation director really is pulling out all the stops on this one! It’s not Noein, but it’s regular direction done very well, which can only be a good thing.
It’s nice to see that, even if Otome has some faults compared to HiME, namely the lower average age of the cast and its occasional tendency to fanboy pandering, there’s several things it’s getting right; the Otomes are powerful in their own right without resorting to Child/Slave posturing, compared to the HiMEs whose weapons were almost always complete cack in a fight, and Sergei is a much stronger male lead than Tate was, no matter how much I liked him. I’m not sure if I like where the Sergei plot is heading in some respects - the whole fathercon thing is a bit boring and annoying, frankly, and I suspect he’ll turn out to be Arika’s real father in the long run anyway - but it’s not exactly awful the way it’s going either.
When will Erstin do something other than be moe, incidentally? Anyone taking bets? She spends most of her time being ill or cutesy - I want her to start kicking ass and taking names, dammit!
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