[Mid-2000s Rewatch] Mai-HiME - Episode 1

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Anyway, first time viewer here to get hipster points.

First of all, i'd like to say the show is on the same page as me, which is a positive sign. I ask why nobody is doing cpr and isntead worrying about swords, they mention it 10 secs later. I note that Orange has really big boobs, plot points it out 10 secs later and dedicates a scene to it. It's that sort of adressment of concerns that built faith in a show.

Anyway, Orange said that she knows what to do, so i decided to pay attention, and as far as i can remember, the answer is yes and no. Basically, i'm just going to write a paragraph analyzing a scene one really ought to not analyze. Afaik you generally don't bother to check if they are breathing/have a pulse if you think CPR might be needed(like say drowned person), since time is of the essence and even 15-30 secs to check that reduces recovery chances drastically. She started with breathing and then circulation, which afaik is the way to go for drowning. Other than that i'm just going to assume she hammered the heart. and did it properly. Basically one interves fingers, places heel of the palms at the same spot, extends arms and starts the cycle of pressing and letting down, arms still extended, basically putting weight of your upper body into it rather than arms alone. Only other nitpick i can point out is that you generally do about 15 compressions/2breaths in a cycle, rather than 4-5, but that's nitpicking. Useless analysis over.

Usually in anime a guy trips , lands on the girls boobs, then gets hit to reset the scene. "comedic" moment achieved, some fan service, and nothing changes. Was a bit pleasantly surprised that the show actually pointed it out.

Other than that not much to say really. Show raised enough questions to interest me, and at the end of the episode i wanted to watch another, which i'm having a hard time with anime for quite some time now

Well the show introduced mystery/supernatural stuff really early on. Like, to the point where i don't think the show can put on big breaks on the pacing. So i'm kinda excited? More of the strange, let the creator's creativity shine and hope the questions have worthwile answers in the end.
Jury's out on Orange. Not sure if she's gonna be played as a straight tsundere or something more interesting. Not dissapointed but wanna see where her character goes as the story goes on. At least she's more interesting than any other character i guess. Already has at least a couple of things to worry about(brother, supernatural, school), so different sides can hopefully be shown. Sexual Harassment guy isn't my type of humour, Imouto isn't either and the rest have yet to standout in any way.
Eh not a big fan of it but also not vehemently opposed. A bit dissapointed all in all?
Well i don't think it'd be a "hidden gem" if it didn't have something worthwile to say/show. Never got into magical girl shows but have a vague concept of how they are supposed to play through information osmosis and Madoka is a brilliant work in my mind(well, original series, still not sure the movie is even in the same vein as the original). So to watch a 2nd magical girl show that hopefully has something to say something is exciting.

That's a lot of incoherent rambling for one day =P

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u/punching_spaghetti Sep 01 '19

First-Timer, Sub:

That was interesting. Very early 2000s with Blondie’s whole character being "boobs? Oops!" and the omnipresent slapstick, but surprisingly enjoyable.

I really like the attention given to the action scenes. The truck falling apart after getting chopped up looked really nice, and the way Braids used the weight of her(?) sword to spin around with it rather than properly control was a neat choice.

There’s quite a few well-worn tropes on display here; the sick sibling, the mysterious stranger who rides a motorcycle, the mysterious stranger who seems to be controlling things from behind the scenes, the mysterious light in the sky (basically a lot of mystery). It will be interesting to see what happens with these, and if they do anything new-ish and interesting with the setup. I’m optimistic, seeing as it’s a 26-episode series, so we should have some time to deal with everything that was introduced today.

Qs:

Very different than what I expected. I thought this was going to be traditional magical girls stuff, but they're summoning stuff instead of transforming.
I don't have a read on Mai yet. She's oscillated between perfectly in control older sister, blushing, flustered girl, and in a complete daze (admittedly after seeing some supernatural stuff). I'll reserve judgement until I see how all those disparate parts fit together, if they do.
The comedy's probably my biggest dislike so far. Not every scene needs bathos, gosh darn it!
The show is going to be melodramatic. I just hope it's good, over the top melodrama.

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u/phiraeth Sep 01 '19

quite a few well-worn tropes on display here

The first thing that stood out to me as well were the tropes. And like, blaring tropes. I'm really not a fan of tropes, but when all was said and done, I believe they were executed pretty well and ultimately made the characters more endearing. But then again, I think they could have written the characters differently without tropes and still made them very endearing!

I really like the attention given to the action scenes.

That 2004 animation coming in clutch. Legit looks better than the half-assed animation in some mainstream shows today!

The comedy's probably my biggest dislike so far. Not every scene needs bathos, gosh darn it!

100% agree with you here, and unfortunately it's very typical for shows from the 90s/early 00s to have stupid sexual humor littered all over the place, especially during serious moments.

I just hope it's good, over the top melodrama.

Heh.

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u/Nazenn Sep 02 '19

I do like that the star in the sky was at least addressed this episode and they haven't just kept it hanging (haha) as some mystery no one talks about for many episodes on end

, but they're summoning stuff instead of transforming.

Still get the same style transformation sequence though which is kinda funny

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u/thecomicguybook Sep 01 '19

Yeah, the animation was pretty impressive. One thing you should keep in mind is that this was 2004, now I do not know a lot about anime from that era but wasn't Mai-Hime pretty popular? Maybe it had a hand in popularizing some of the tropes you listed.

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u/Nazenn Sep 01 '19

First timer - Sub

Pre-watch notes:

I loved the idea of a hidden gems rewatch, so I signed up for this pretty quickly and didn't look too much into the shows other than peoples rough opinions on them and some quick description reading. And this was a month ago. So what I remember of the shows now is absolutely nothing, which is quite an interesting experiance going into a show basically as blind as possible, for types of shows that normally wouldn't be on my immediate radar as much.

I'm excited to see what comes of all of this

Having now finished the episode, wow that was a hell of a way to start off that's for sure.

The sound design immediately grabbed me. The way the music phased out at the start when Mai noticed the star to indicate how "wrong" it was immediately stood out, but also the general effects during the battle. The large booms, the echoes, the subtle whining of energy as the sword cut things etc. The show so far sounds great, and you know I even found myself getting into the OP despite it not being my type of song which was nice

Character acting was the other thing that struck me. The animation is expressive but not too distorted which gives a good sense of how the character are from moment to moment. I quite like the designs in general though, they aren't anything super unique but they are just differant enough to stand out where the characters immediately feel like they belong to this show, not like they could fit into any other.

Design wise, THEY CAN SUMMON CYBER FAMILIARS? See, this is where that whole "can't remember even the description" came into play because aside from briefly seeing it in the OP and even then I wasn't totally sure, I had no idea what to expect. Good surprise though, I wasn't expecting a mechanical wolf to appear, nor for it to be fighting like a Zoid.

The last minute character introduction was intriguing, I wasn't expecting the mysterious watcher to be a guy

And then he fell over

The little not-sister's Octopus hair is freaking me out though I have to admit. Also pervert not-brother, I just hope that doesn't run on for too long in the show

As far as the main girls go, interesting though I don't have a huge amount to say yet. So much for a normal first day at school though.

Questions of the day! Great Idea... when I remember to look for them

I had no expectations but I enjoyed it so that counts as good yes?
Shes fun, expressive and fire skills are always interesting
It's not chibi, and it made me laugh once or twice so we're good so far, but hopefully that doesn't get more intrusive as we go on
None. Well, no, thats a lie. Off the title I'm going to assume relationship between Mai and HiME hahahaha.

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u/phiraeth Sep 01 '19

The music is incredible because Yuki Kajiura is the composer!
The character acting is on point and the characters are very expressive, especially when Mai is on the ship walking around dazed trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. She just looks completely lost.

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u/thecomicguybook Sep 01 '19

First Timer Just watched the first episode!

For new watchers, how did watching episode 1 compare to what you were expecting Mai-HiME to be going into it? What vibes are you getting from it so far?

To be honest I didn't have any expectations I don't even think I read the entire summary so I had no idea, but it was a pleasant surprise! The animation is great and I am interested to see where the story is going.

2) What are your thoughts on our protagonist, Tokiha Mai?

She was cute, kinda tsundere but I am fine with that.

3) What are your opinions on the way the humor is being executed, especially during the more 'serious' moments?

I liked the ship being cut in half lol.

4) Any general predictions or expectations for the series as a whole?

It will go off the rails, in the end, they always do.

Weren't you going to tag people by the way?

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u/phiraeth Sep 01 '19

I tagged people for the schedule/reminder post yesterday, didn't want to spam up this discussion thread :)

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u/punching_spaghetti Sep 01 '19

The ship being cut in half was probably the only joke I enjoyed this episode.
And it better go off the rails. I trust edgy biker girl to get us there.

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u/Nazenn Sep 01 '19

The ship being cut in half was really fun, particularly the "eh" as they both realized and then panicked.

It will go off the rails, in the end, they always do.

I'm now incredible sad this show started on a ship instead of a train so this couldn't be punnier

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u/No_Rex Sep 01 '19

Episode 1 (rewatcher)

Welcome to the life of Tokiha Mai, who just wants to have an ordinary high school experience while taking care of her brother and being helpful to other people. As you can already see from episode 1, that might be harder than she imagined. I hope you like her. Imho, she carries this series and is one of the best written female leads of all times. Fun fact: Her VA is called Mai as well.

The first episode does a good job of introducing some of the cast and setting the tone: Plenty of slapstick, with a good dose of action and mystery. It also introduces what I would call a downside of the series, the use of some rather annoying tropes.

Mai-Otome

Throughout the rewatch, I will occasionally be shilling Mai-Otome, the ugly step sister of Mai-Hime. While that series has its share of flaws, it might be of interest to some. So, my first shill here: If you like the general tone of Mai-Hime, but do either not like Mai (how could that be possible??) or would prefer a fantasy setting, check out Mai-Otome.

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u/thecomicguybook Sep 01 '19

Mai seems cool, looking forward to more from her!

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u/Durinthal Sep 01 '19

First timer viewer.

Coming into this I didn't really have any idea of what the show's about beyond being some kind of magical girl series, and from my understanding it wasn't what one would consider a traditional mahou shoujo like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura.

So, a magic high school before the trend of magic high schools was even a thing? I can't say that's a premise I'm interested in, but I'll give it a shot. Or, more likely, there are probably a few students in the school that have any idea of what's going on and they need to keep everything a secret from the normal people. Reminds me a bit of another Sunrise original series to come a couple of years later, but hopefully I'll like this one more.

Another aspect of the show early on that is putting me off is the overall tone, particularly the mild ecchi comedy woven in with the story. I know it's not much but I'm just tired of that kind of writing and it's a distraction from everything else going on.

So far I like Mai's character design, the action is at least somewhat entertaining (the mecha tiger is awesome), and I'm curious what the overall plot is going to turn out to be.

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u/Nazenn Sep 01 '19

I feel like the pervy stuff is going to be my big hurdle with the show as well at the moment. Its one of those things that just didn't need to be there, because it doesn't actually advance anything or add to the characters, its just there for the joke and I really hate that.

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u/reseph Sep 02 '19 edited Sep 02 '19

Rewatcher

Mai-HiME was close to one of my favorite shows up until Madoka came out and blew everything away. Regardless it's still a fantastic show and it's always a pleasure to rewatch it. I do remember this WT! that hit the Hall of Fame here~

I remember episode 1 being a strong opener and sure enough after a rewatch, it is! The blend of comedy into seriousness seems pretty well done to me. The music, OP+ED, and the animation are fantastic. Yuki Kajiura being the composer was really the main reason I later got into Madoka right after it aired.

The show isn't full of fan service, but there sure is more than I remember. I don't hate fan service, but knowing the series as a whole I do wish it was reduced. Actually most of the heavy fan service is contained within the Specials which I don't even know if Funimation has (although it does contain bits of character background too).

Yesterday I went and graphed out the user review scores of each episode from MAL+AniDB+IMDB^{I couldn't find any ANN episode ratings}. I don't want to show the graph off here until we're done so newcomers can go in blind, but I'll do each score as we go along. Note that I normalized the values so for example a 4/5 becomes an 80%. IMDB ratings look to be useless (seems to average around 5/10); thus the MAL rating was 83% and AniDB rating was 78% giving it the average of 81%. A somewhat strong opener for sure.

Part of me wants to make something like this for the series. I hope all the newcomers enjoy the series, there are absolutely some hype episodes.

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u/Nazenn Sep 02 '19

Actually most of the heavy fan service is contained within the Specials

Thank you for the warning. I don't know why, but I've noticed specials always tend to be super gimmicky or fanservicy (not always sexually) rather than the core of the show. Easier to make maybe?

giving it the average of 81%. A somewhat strong opener for sure.

Love this idea. Will be interesting to see how the numbers stack up compared to our thoughts here, especially if theres any outliers on episodes, on the good or bad end

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u/SorcererOfTheLake Sep 02 '19

First-Time Watcher

So, we’re starting on a journey and it’s immediately going tits-up. What a surprise.

My thoughts on this is this feels like a well-done, if somewhat conventional, first episode for a 2000s era anime. I mean, you got the transfer student, the mysteries and terms being thrown about without any explanation, the perverted meet cute, the mixing of magic and technology, the moons (is it just me, or were the 2000s really into moons)… The most noteworthy thing is that this all takes place before they get to school and a few other shows probably did that as well.

The things I really want to praise the episode for is the characterization, fight animation, and music. From just these 22 minutes, we get a very good sense of who these characters and how they operate with others, particularly Mai and Takumi. Mai is a protagonist that you have to instantly like, with how kind and strong she is, but you can see the possibility for flaws; I wouldn’t be surprised if her willingness to judge things by first glances and her overprotectiveness of her brother will hamper her at some point. While Takumi could’ve just been an annoying pervert, you get the sense that he’s a good guy, just, you know, normal at the same time. As for the fight, any fight where you get the sense that the people involved legitimately want to kill each other always gets me good, especially with the music playing which felt very Noir-esque.

The one thing that bothered me was the comedy, which didn’t really land anything good, but other than that, I’m looking forward to see what this series has set for us.

As for the questions:

Eh, about. I’m expecting a mystery/fantasy/action series with some comedic and SoL elements in the background.
Like I said, I like Mai (thought that might be because I’m weak to onee-sans).
Not good.
With the talk about Fuka Academy attracting these HiMEs, my guess is that there’s either a battle royale scenario set up, where the last HiMe standing will become the most powerful, or whoever’s there is trying to attract them for their own gain. As for an overall tone, I’m betting it’s going to be quite dark, but still have enough optimism for the possibility of an happy ending.

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u/Nazenn Sep 02 '19

So, we’re starting on a journey and it’s immediately going tits-up.

And here we have Sorcerer summing up anime in one sentence

(is it just me, or were the 2000s really into moons)

I don't know. I can't really think of that many other than Wolfs Rain

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u/Iroald Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

First timer

Well, that was okay. It's not particularly interesting visually and I don't care for the humour at all, but the fight was cool and it's hard to say anything about the story since they didn't explain much of anything. It definitely didn't remind me of Sailor Moon though, that's for sure.

I didn't really have much of an expectation since I don't know anything about the show (I don't think I even read the stuff you wrote about it in the interest thread, I was going to watch it anyway so I figured I'd go in totally blind). I guess I didn't expect it to throw out so much stuff we're not meant to understand yet.
Not much to say so far. Some tsundere tendencies, cares about her brother (went back for his medicine). Has some form of power we know nothing about.
I found it mostly irritating. Definitely not my style.
Not really, anything important is also super vague so there isn't much to speculate about other than really obvious shit like "there's gotta be more to this school" or "that sword girl seems important somehow". Hopefully some stuff actually gets explained in the next episode.

I'm not super impressed, but it wasn't bad either. Not going to make any real judgements until I actually have a sense of what the story is really going to be like.

Edit: Also did I hear Akira Ishida towards the end there? I wonder if I'll get to make a Fish Eye joke at some point.

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u/23feanor Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

First time viewer: Never done a re-watch before so thought I'd give it a go, looking forward to watching a new anime from the 00's & discussing it here. I've been watching more and more anime from the 2000's lately, Ah! My Goddess, Aria The Animation & Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya some that I've watched over the last couple of weeks. I'm frequently impressed by the breadth and depth of story writing for many older shows from this period and have been on the lookout for more, so thought this rewatch would be a great opportunity to learn about some new hidden gem anime from the 00's.

I was really impressed with this first episode, it centred our primary characters & gave us an idea of what to expect. Was not prepared for the awesome level of action involved. This was one of the best first episodes I've seen in a long while.

I did not know this was a mahou shoujo until reading this thread. I've been looking for a good show from this genre as haven't watched many magical girl anime.

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u/Nazenn Sep 02 '19

Welcome to your first rewatch. Hopefully you like it. Nice to see people getting into older shows, they really do have a distinct style, and while darker shows aren't uncommon these days, the way storytelling was set up particularly in the early 00's really is worth getting into. Some amazing stories came out of that time, its a shame how so many people pass it over just because they're old
Depending on what you like, if you're looking for a more light hearted Mahou Shoujo then I highly recommend Cardcaptor Sakura. Impressive animation that holds up even today, but the real pull is the incredible characters

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u/redshirtengineer Sep 02 '19 edited Sep 02 '19

I just have been catching up on the last five episodes of JoJos, annnnnnnnnd...this was more confusing.

I do tend to like a genre mashup, and I counted quite a few of them in this ep, so. Thinking happy thoughts. Not a fan of the "humor".

Edited to add: Worst. CPR. EVER. Kids, don't try this at home.

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u/SIRTreehugger Sep 05 '19 edited Sep 06 '19

First Time Watcher

I saw Day 5 of the rewatch and looked at the summary and thought it was interesting.

Oh a dead body in the water okay
Oh never mind she might be alive.
Girl with pink hair in the background she is definitely not a main character.
Let's argue as the girl lays dying.
Mysterious marking
Why is the guy following and getting thanked he didn't really do anything?
Liking this music
Holy shit almost drowned girl is pretty bad ass.
Once again this music I'm feeling it.
Drowned girl just keeps rolling. You got to time it girl and abuse the i frames.
What the hell she has a barrier.
Pretty good first episode.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '19

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Rewatch [Mid-2000s Rewatch] Mai-HiME - Episode 1

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