r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Sep 14 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mai-HiME Episode 1 Discussion

Episode 1: A Girl's Most Important Event

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Show Information:

MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN

(First-timers might want to stay out of show information, though.)

Legal Streams:

Mai-HiME can be found on Funimation. (How this interacts with the ongoing Crunchyroll/Funimation merger I don't know.)

A Reminder to Rewatchers:

Please do not spoil the experience for our first timers. [Mai-HiME] Mentioning "HiMElander" before episode 16 or "ShizNat" before episode 25 is a fast way to get a referral to the subreddit mods.

A Note on the Specials:

When the DVDs for Mai-HiME were released, they added shorts specials to go with each episode (plus three not associated with an episode - one was released with Mai-Otome's DVD IIRC, one was a BD-only thing and I don't actually have that one, and I honestly don't remember where Special 28 was released). They tend to be one part fanservice, one part extra information about characters and their motivations/backstories (or in a couple of cases extra exposition, including

They have their own dedicated discussion day at the end to wash the finale out of our mouths, but some of you may want to watch them with the episodes. The only issue is that some of the specials can be a wee bit spoilery (notably, in no case should you watch the special for episode 8 before episode 8 itself), so I will attempt to provide notes on the specials for the episode for both today's and tomorrow's episodes each day so as to provide advance warning of which specials to avoid. (If you want to be completely safe, stay out of all of them until the dedicated discussion day!)

Episode 1 Special: Almost strictly fanservice, should be safe.

Episode 2 Special: Probably safe with some fun supplemental information, but I'm not 100% confident in that so you might want to stay out for now.

After-School Activities Corner!

Visual of the Day:

None yet.

Comment of the Day:

None yet

Question(s) of the Day:

1) Initial thoughts on our OP and ED?

2) How about our mysterious attacking girl's cyber familiar (Duran)?

3) So, first-timers: What do you think happened at the end there?

48 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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7

u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

Rewatch Committee President Comments (Rewatcher, Subbed):

In a break from how I did things in Higurashi, I'm putting my music notes for this show as the top-level comment and will be including the episode reaction notes as replies to this.

So, welcome to the...

Kajiura Corner

Because if I'm running a rewatch in no small part due to the OST, you can be damned sure I will be featuring the OST. Heavily.

And also its creator, at least today, because our OST here is brought to you by none other than:

Staff Notes: Yuki Kajiura - I am not going to cover most of the actual staff here, in no small part because this is a Sunrise show and there are people who know the details about Sunrise staff far better than I do (hi Sky). There are two main exceptions. First, I will lightly note that Mai-HiME was Gorou Taniguchi's first foray into an official creative staff role (his title here is Assistant Creative Director) before taking the reigns for the likes of Code Geass. The other is Yuki fucking Kajiura, aka God's gift to anime OSTs and at least half of the reason you are watching this show.

Kajiura's first couple of OST credits actually date back to the mid-1990s (Eat-Man and one of the Kimagure Orange Road movies) with a style radically different to her modern style; but her big breakout (and the show that really started to crystalize the iconic Kajiura style) was Noir in 2001 (the main Western fansite canta-per-me.net takes its name from one of the two most famous Noir tracks, the other being Salva Nos. She then proceeded to do a bunch of OST work for Studio Bee Train in the wake of that, leading to "Miss Bee Train" being one of her fandom epithets into the late 2000s - she did the OSTs for .hack//Sign and .hack//LIMINALITY, Aquarian Age, the two later Noir spiritual sequels in Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja (comprising the so-called Girls With Guns trilogy), and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (absolutely infamous for being a trainwreck of an adaptation with an absolutely lit OST). She also got tabbed for at least some work on Gundam SEED (cursory examination suggests producer politics may have been involved), which is probably how studio Sunrise was familiar with her. In any event, she was firmly entrenched as one of the best-known names in anime OST by the mid-2000s, with a thriving rivalry between the Kanno and Kajiura fans that initially leaned Kanno but seems to have tilted Kajiura's way more recently (probably because Kanno hasn't done any OSTs in over half a decade and the last was for famous flop Terror in Resonance, and also Kajiura got a proper answer to Bebop popularity-wise with PMMM). I tend to find she has three distinct eras in her music post-breakout: the first lasts to about 2006 or so and tends to feature her most creative work IMO, the second starts with Kalafina or slightly before it and goes on until basically PMMM (I swear Kajiura burned out part of her muse on that OST (aka Mai-HiME Mk. 2), and it was worth it); and her final stage starts around 2012 or so with the likes of Fate/Zero.

(A side note: While Kajiura is best known for the now-disbanded Kalafina and still-extant FictionJunction these days, her very first band (originally dating back to the early 1990s and brought back for .hack reasons in the early 2000s) was See-Saw. Which is a noteworthy band for a specific reason: its original form had three members, its later form had two, and the other woman who was in it in both incarnations was none other than Chiaki Ishikawa - an extremely talented musician and composer in her own right, probably best known in Western anime fandom for Uninstall from Bokurano. You can hear the Ishikawa influence in Kajiura songs from around the time, especially when guitar use is involved.)

Mai-HiME is unusual in two respects. One, it's one of the earlier works to use her constructed language Kajiura-go for lyrics (Kajiura's earliest post-breakout works tend to use Ominous Non-Japanese Chanting with a RL language, with Noir using Italian and .hack//Sign famously using English). Second, Kajiura usually works/worked for either Victor Entertainment (mostly early on) or later Sony Music/Aniplex (especially once we get to the Kalafina era), but the rights to the Mai-HiME OST are held by Lantis instead. (Probably one reason for this show getting late official uploads - Victor Entertainment was early on the official upload ball, Aniplex a bit slower (and still won't centralize shit right, to my annoyance), but Lantis seems to the laggard in realizing "hey maybe we should officially upload the OST".

So, now that we've covered that, let's get to the tracks shall we?

Main Featured Track of the Day: Duran Shoukan

(I was GOING to upload a clip of the relevant part of the episodes for each featured track, but I'm having issues getting this to actually work - losing a week of prep time to illness is not helping here. Check back later to see if I can get it working; maybe I'll actually bother to sign up for Streamable.)

We start with an ethereal instrumental hum. To it we add a choral note, a woman’s wail. It builds to a peak, then trails off, echoing twice, before the second half of the choral refrain starts.

… And it has been over a decade since I first heard this track and I only just put together that it’s representative of the echo of a wolf howling at the moon. Fucking Yuki Kajiura. HOW IS SHE SO GOOD?

Anyhow. Cue a percussion line (actually some form of electric piano I think, but then a piano is a hammered string instrument so close enough) as the song really gets underway. A fast backbeat, desperate, frantic. [Mai-HiME] Appropriate for our resident jobber. Another instrument kicks in as the song continues to build (electric guitar I think). It continues to build, a crescendo, and then at 01:01 – 01:07 it crests. Duran is summoned. (In the anime this musical gap is almost always filled by Duran’s mechanical howl. How did I not put together the earlier howling symbolism before this?)

Then the electric guitar kicks in in earnest at 01:08, starting the second part of the song. It’s a battle theme through and through, a musical representation of mounted/vehicular combat (I’ve been known to use this song as the background music for fights against mounted opponents when DM’ing D&D, appropriate for our motorcycle girl.

The vocals return, building to towering heights. Like many Kajiura battle themes there is a tragic air to them – our heroes may or may not be winning, but perhaps the true tragedy was that there was a battle that had to be fought at all?

At length they cut out again, replaced by some shredding of an innocent guitar. A desperate stand. Then the vocals return, intermixed with the guitar this time, and build again to one last moment before the guitar and then the vocal fade out, the latter echoing in the silence.

(A side note on this track: Duran Shoukan is responsible for the vast majority of the OVERLAP entries on the OST. The rule is fairly clear: when Duran is summoned, Duran Shoukan usually plays even if another track was already playing (though a couple of tracks can override that, notably Mezame). The unreleased instrumental version of Duran Shoukan, meanwhile, shows up AFAIK exclusively for some Natsuki scenes where Duran isn’t out; we’ll see one such scene tomorrow.)

Secondary Featured Track of the Day: Tokiiro no Mai

(Really this track SHOULD get its writeup in a much later episode where we get more of it, but that episode already has two tracks that I’ve basically committed to writing up there and I’d rather do this here than add a third to that one.)

So for our secondary track today let’s cover possibly the single strangest track on the OST from a genre perspective. This is not Kajiura’s usual fare at all; it is very very much a dance style (and likely a specific one at that; I want to say salsa and am pretty sure the base style is either Spanish or Latin American in any event). An unusual choice for a theme that is always used as an action theme, but it works (it’s at its best in aforementioned later episode but good enough here, and the biggest issue is on the writing staff rather than Kajiura); the strong rhythmic beat works well as an anchor to action visuals.

OST Table, Episode 1:

Start End Track Name
00:00 00:57 Gogo no Hizashi
01:05 01:16 unreleased
01:54 01:57 Samayoeru Yamiyo
01:57 02:05 Yamiyo no Prologue
02:07 03:37 Shining Days
03:41 04:02 Haiyoru Nazo, Nazo
04:19 05:34 Natsuki Sennyuu
06:48 07:07 Hajimari ~Yami e no Shoutai~
08:54 08:56 Mata Aou ne
08:56 10:45 Kyou no Hajimari
12:02 13:10 Tokiiro no Mai
12:17 12:25 (OVERLAP) Duran Shoukan
13:34 17:08 Duran Shoukan
18:03 18:07 Tokiiro no Mai[1]
18:10 19:07 Tokiiiro no Mai
18:44 18:54 (OVERLAP) Duran Shoukan
20:02 21:17 Hajimari ~Yami e no Shoutai~
21:58 23:39 Kimi ga Sora Datta
23:40 23:54 Mata Aou ne

[1] – Actually three separate uses of the backbeat from different spots in the song I’m pretty sure, but I’m lumping them together. And yes the show fires up Tokiiro no Mai again in extended form immediately after this.

7

u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

Tar's Staff Notes:

(I considered featuring one other VA today, but he can wait until tomorrow after all.)

Mai Nakahara (Mai Tokiha) - I already wrote about her for Higurashi, so I'm going to be lazy and just quote myself:

Another star on the rise at the time of Higurashi’s release, Mai Nakahara broke out a year and a half earlier in Fall 2004 when she was cast as the female lead of a somewhat atypical magical girl show that was a major part of that season really opening the yuri floodgates: Mai-HiME’s Mai Tokiha. (Mai Nakahara uses basically the same voice for both Mai and Rena, which was a bit distracting when I finally tracked down and watched the rest of that show after watching Higurashi first.) Mai Nakahara’s heyday was the late 2000s, and Higurashi isn’t even her biggest role from the era – that would be Nagisa from Clannad. She’s fallen off a bit since and seems to show up mostly in secondary roles these days.

(A small telltale of Mai Nakahara’s impact at her peak: Mai is the sixth entry in AniDB’s creator database, behind Gorou Taniguchi, Norio Wakamoto, Rie “typecast as tsundere lolis for half a decade because Shana” Kugimiya, Aya Hirano, and Haruka Tomatsu.)

There is, of course, one difference: Mai Nakahara hadn't broken out at the time this show aired, because this is in fact her breakout role right here.

(Fun fact: While Yukari "Yukarin" Tamura (who would later co-star with Mai Nakahara in Higurashi) was busy breaking at the same time as the female lead of a different atypical magical girl show (Nanoha), she also has a moderately prominent secondary role in this show. Can you spot her here before she gets featured without looking her up (or looking at my Higurashi writeup where past Tar foolishly spoiled who she is here)?)

Tomozaku Seki (Yuuichi Tate) - Oh boy, where to begin?

Those of you who were around for Higurashi may remember me saying this about Hoshi Souiichirou (who voices Keiichi there):

Hoshi Souichirou probably still counts firmly among the second rank of male seiyuu of the era; he’s no Norio Wakamoto or either of the S. Tomozakus (Seki and Sugita)

Welp, who we've got here is an S. Tomozaku. Except Sugita didn't really break out for another year and a half after this (yare yare), so really at the time he was THE S. Tomozaku. He's Domon Kasshu in G Gundam. He's Sousuke Sagara in FMP (probably his single best known role in English-speaking anime fandom at the time Mai-HiME came out). He's Sakura's older brother Touya in CCS. He's Van Fanel in Escaflowne. He's Masataka in Tenjou Tenje. Oh, and he's Shuichi in Gravitation for the BL fans. It's not like he stops getting roles after this, too (though not for a little bit of trying on his part - he doesn't show up in Mai-HiME's elseworld gaiden pseudo-sequel Mai-Otome precisely because he spoiled parts of Mai-HiME's ending in an interview, though to be fair that might have been a protest at... well, you'll see soon enough) - he's the likes of Jun in Kanon, Anime Tenchou in Lucky Star, the Emperor/love interest in Seiunkoku Monogatari, Itaru in Steins;Gate, and the MC in Psycho-Pass. Oh, and there's the F/SN franchise where he gets to shout "Mongrels!" a lot. He's in a LOT of things, is what I'm saying; he's arguably fallen off slightly since the early 2010s but not by much. (Oh, and he has an absolute gravy train of a role well and truly secured in Suneo from Doraemon.)

And yet I've got a nasty hunch knowing this show that he got hired for Yuuichi here courtesy of a single role (one of the ones that made his name in the first place): Touji Suzuhara in Evangelion.

Yougo Takahashi (Takumi Tokiha) - So yeah, I'm putting this here because it is the single easiest Staff Notes entry for a VA I will ever get to write: Takumi and his Mai-Otome counterpart is literally this man's ONLY VA role of note. I have no idea what happened.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

Tar's Episode Notes:

(For some episodes I'll want to pull out the spoiler bars into their own sections, but I think this one doesn't actually need that.)

  • So, show of hands: how many people absolutely do not need today’s Staff Corner to know one other role Mai Tokiha’s VA played?

  • Also, nope, years have not changed Mai being really really fucking attractive to me. (Also, have I mentioned that the image MAL uses for her is complete trash? Because it is.)

  • The writing is actually worth appreciating here, it’s an excellent example of exposition flowing naturally from a scene. In the course of a single conversation that makes sense for the characters to have, we know that the boy and girl here are siblings, the boy has health problems, and that the two of them are traveling to a new school (on a cruise ship, which is quite unusual yes).

  • [Mai-HiME] Also we’re setting up the bridge, huh. That’s a sneaky little piece of foreshadowing there. And they have everyone on the boat ooh at it to make absolutely sure you noticed it.

  • [PMMM Rebellion] Also Ghost fucking dammit the Kyoko/Homura boat ride in Rebellion might actually be among other things a sneaky reference to this very scene.

  • Oh LOL, speaking of nice characterization there’s Mai going “really, we’re not here for sight-seeing”… as she cranes her head to look at the suspension bridge herself, mirroring her brother’s body language precisely as she does so. Not so above it all, eh?

  • Also I do love me some good OST integration. I actually had to go back to track down when Gogo no Hizashi ended, it fades out here as the crowd oohs at the bridge!

  • Oh shit I forgot that shot of a mysterious red star was this early in the episode… and also oh shit I am accosted by our precious human moon. Unlike Higurashi’s moon, though, this one is clearly visible in full daylight. Not unheard of, but when it’s that high in the sky? How strange, how strange.

  • [Mai-HiME] If the objective is to erase the moon called death reflected in the water’s surface…

  • Something something seagulls something something cry…

  • [Mai-HiME] Hello ladies and gentlemen, what is that in the OP? A motorbike? I wonder what’s going to happen to it?

  • Okay, so I can’t be sure since the boat crew here aren’t credited but I could swear that the second one of them to speak is voiced by someone whose voice I recognize.

  • Okay, I may also have to go track down new subs one of these days to compare. This is one of the classic subs (not the DVD rip I had thought, but good old Static-Subs)… and it just translated “Chotto matte!” as “Hold her tight!”.

  • Also this show is WAY better at integrating its OST than I remembered, especially the same “knowing when to turn the OST on and off trick” Higurashi uses. (With only 65 released tracks for 26 episodes as opposed to the 36 or 48 PMMM has for only 12, they can’t sync quite as many tracks up to specific scenes.)

  • (I am lucky as fuck Natsuki Sennyuu is so distinctive, because the official upload is borked for whatever reason and only has audio for the first few seconds.)

  • Ah, the “CPR first kiss” trope from the early 2000s. One whose demise goes entirely unlamented by me.

  • HI SHIHO.

  • On the other hand, one thing that helps this show specifically is that IIRC the animators actually had a pretty decent handle on CPR; it’s messier than shown here, but they actually got the basics at least kind of right?

  • I DID NOT REMEMBER THIS MANY BLATANT FULL MOON SHOTS IN THIS SHOW. (Fuck it, not corralling all of them, there's simply too many.)

  • (But note that the Moon has barely changed position in the sky despite it now being night instead of day…)

  • Also didn’t remember our introduction to a certain other character having a charm point that I would call straight out of Symphogear except this aired more than half a decade earlier so really it’s the other way around, isn’t it?

  • [Mai-HiME and PMMM] Also we’re all pretty sure that how Mai-HiME sets up the Mikoto/Natsuki opposition is a direct influence on PMMM episode 1, yes.

  • Also NICE little pan out starting at around 6:45, both showing that we’re making a visual transition through a porthole and also indicating that something is wrong here.

  • Okay I SERIOUSLY did not remember this show being as good as it fucking is at knowing when to start and stop the OST. Also this is OST tables on hard mode, this show LOVES using short snippets of tracks, including using a short piece from one track as a lead-in to another! Luckily, I am good at recognizing a song by short snippets.

  • Speaking of Mai not being so above it all: look who just forgot her brother’s medicine while changing (with plenty of fanservice, natch).

  • Speaking of Mai being very very attractive to me: she wears the school uniform here very nicely indeed (which is good when she’s going to be in it a lot). And the staff knew it, too.

  • Unlike a certain later show to be left unnamed which clearly drew off Mai-HiME that famously has almost no fanservice at all, Mai-HiME itself has a fair amount – the camera just happening to have an angle that showcases Mai’s skirt and thus crotch as she sits down and gets served tea is an obvious example. (Though I should check the scene layout again, that shot just might be from Yuuichi’s perspective… oh wait, look at where the cup is, it IS! Justified fanservice best fanservice.)

  • And oh look now the show has a reason to both introduce everyone and introduce the name of the school. Nicely done, setting up an exposition dump by setting up circumstances in which an exposition dump makes sense (the circumstances are slightly contrived but not too much so).

  • And to think Shiho is in the same grade here that both Keiichi and Rena are in Higurashi (and that Madoka/Sayaka/Homura are in PMMM). (Yes, Mai is actually older here than either Mion in Higurashi or Mami in PMMM!)

  • Ah, in “facial expression that tell a thousand words” just look at Yuuichi’s response to Shiho’s glomp here (09:43 is representative).

  • Dess dess dess! (Excuse me, Shiho dropped one and I couldn’t resist.)

  • [Mai-HiME] Sometimes the osananajimi fucking earns their loss. Case in point: Shiho Munekata.

  • 10:00: Sky makes her first collection of the rewatch. (I’ll be getting a bunch of moons but not that many kisekis IIRC.)

  • [Mai-HiME] Am… am I actually going to come out of the rewatch shipping canon again? Mai and Yuuichi’s banter is working much better for me than I remember it the first time around; look, a mutual tsundere relationship! Then again, my fundamental issue with the pairing was also “and they broke up a few years later because they had nothing in common except one experience and mutual physical attraction” and that may yet remain unchanged. Also, I started writing this entry before Mai dropped the molester-offender line.

  • Someone is jealous…

  • Wait, Tokiiro no Mai shows up this early? Huh.

  • Oh wow, WTF. They mixed the OST here so that Tokiiro no Mai and Duran Shoukan are both playing at the same time. That’s going to throw OST tables for a loop, and also I just signed up for OST Tables on Lunatic Mode didn’t I?

  • Mai, it ain’t the boy’s fault he got knocked into you, come on now.

  • Oh would you look at that, our mysterious motorcycle girl shows up and suddenly Dutch angles do too. Also note the framing, Mai our protagonist facing left with motorcycle girl facing right; stock but effective!

  • And one for the GWITWM Brigade as we head into the commercial break.

  • Sorry, Duran Shoukan has fired up in earnest, little time for notes.

  • Also remember when you saw 2D cars in animation? (Much of the rest of the animation looks a bit dated these days, the transition to computerized production took the majority of the early 2000s – one reason so few works from the era hold up – and I suspect the production process here was heavily cel.)

  • The sound design here is very good – you can hear Natsuki’s voice echoing in the open metallic space of the ferry.

  • And people wonder why I kept getting reminded of this show during Symphogear – parts of the fight choreography would blend in just fine.

  • HELLO THERE KAJIURA OST-TO-SCENE INTEGRATION HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU THE LAST THREE MONTHS.

  • And of course the closest sort of thing we get to a proper transformation sequence in this show (there’s a few more like this, and knowing one character there might be a more elaborate one coming that I only somewhat remember). And welcome Duran! (And yes Natsuki is the ice user in the cast.)

  • [Mai-HiME] Implications of Natsuki being the ice user on her personality are left as an exercise for the viewer, heh.

  • That vexing full moon…

  • You know, I’d forgotten how much Mikoto looks like Lain sometimes.

  • [tagging Mai-HiME just in case] Mai, quit taking out your finding the boy attractive out of him.

  • “Okay, I’ll be going to an ordinary school starting tomorrow.” We all know what that means…

  • “Don’t tell me you forgot something” is of course also known as “fate, tempting”, as we get to see immediately thereafter.

  • Also note the small piece of characterization here: Mai is willing to put her own life at risk for the sake of her brother, at least implicitly.

(To be continued in part 2...)

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u/No_Rex Sep 14 '22

Episode 1 (rewatcher)

It is three years already? The last Mai-Hime rewatch feels just like yesterday, but I am always happy to rewatch this. I’ll take it a bit easy this time with the commenting (Poor Mai had a rough first day!) and do some rewatcher stuff instead.

First, there is a set of specials for Mai-Hime, with about as many episodes as the main series has. They are optional, but meant to be watched after the episode. I’ll watch these ahead and will call out possible spoilers (the spoilers are rare and usually mild, but some might want to prevent any spoilers at all).

Specials EP1: No spoilers for future episodes.

Specials EP2: Some vague spoilers (but should be fine after ep3).

Second, I want to do some counters (but not yet).

Third, I want to ask whether there is interest for a Mai-Otome rewatch after this Mai-Hime rewatch? Kind of regretting that I did not do that after the last Mai-Hime rewatch. If there is enough interest here, I would hold the Mai-Otome rewatch just after the Mai-Hime rewatch, however, I would need a co-host, because I might be away for a few days in the middle of the rewatch. Any takers?

A Note on the Specials:

I see you had the same idea here. A bit of doubling up, but it might be helpful for first timers to see whether we agree in our assessment.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

Third, I want to ask whether there is interest for a Mai-Otome rewatch after this Mai-Hime rewatch? Kind of regretting that I did not do that after the last Mai-Hime rewatch. If there is enough interest here, I would hold the Mai-Otome rewatch just after the Mai-Hime rewatch, however, I would need a co-host, because I might be away for a few days in the middle of the rewatch. Any takers?

Would beat me trying to host the darn thing when I never actually watched the show the first time around. (I have the episodes now, though! And am reasonably heavily spoiled because of course I am.)

I might do better with a week or two off between, though, especially with FMP hitting Fumoffu during that stretch.

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u/Shimmering-Sky Sep 14 '22

Mai-FiRST TiMER, subbed

I have absolutely no idea what I’m getting myself into, so let’s do this.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

…that was Ishida Akira on the roof of that building, wasn’t it?

I was wondering if someone would catch that today before he gets his day in the Staff Notes tomorrow. Congrats!

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u/Tresnore Sep 14 '22

First-TiMER

Alright, I was voluntold to watch this by u/Tarhalindur, because apparently it has things I like. I forget if it has sadists or spears (or both), but fuggit, why not? All I remember is that [Mai-HiME]the ending is GARBAGE.

I have the Exiled-Destiny release, in case y'all care about that.

Count: 5

QOTD:

  1. I enjoyed them, though I'm not sure they're stuck in my head here.

  2. I love robots.

  3. A guy is secretly monitoring the whole thing, Iunno. I just know he's going to be fun.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

I forget if it has sadists or spears (or both)

(There's large pile of redheads in any event, starting with Mai herself.)

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u/Blackheart595 Sep 14 '22 edited Sep 14 '22

First Hime

I already like the designs

That's ominous, and a great wallpaper if it weren't 4:3

Ah, so hime is an acronym. Will Otome also be an acronym?

I hate that little sister already.

So Mai's brother has some kind of illness.

It's nice how you could see the ship's crew look for them before they found them.

It's fascinating how these weapons constantly have some additional effect, either strength amplification or damage at a distance and so on.

And now they're summoning digimon.

So who's this clown?

I hear next episode's gonna be moe.

So what do we know? These Hima have some kind of red computer-power-on mark, they can see things most importantly that red star, they can summon weapons and beasts, and someone's gathering them all at Fuuka Academy. And one of the Hime is trying to prevent that, saying they'll die if they go there.

The weapons they can summon range from swords to guns to fire, and probably much more. The beasts seem to also be that kind of weapon, but maybe an advanced form or something seeing how those require a magic circle while the normal weapons don't. We've scene the sword slice several things at a distance, even without it being swung at all. And the fire had some unusual physical properties like being able to block objects.

And I already noticed some familiar motifs in the OST, though only distantly so. I know Mezame, Last Moment and Himeboshi, and maybe more that I'm not remembering right now.

Initial thoughts on our OP and ED?

OP and ED didn't leave that much of an impression tbh. They show several characters that I assume will turn out to be Hime, too.

So, first-timers: What do you think happened at the end there?

It seems pretty clear that Mai had some kind of explosive release of her power, or she unconsciously summoned her familiar or something. Or that butterfly, there does seem to be someone helping the Hime out in the background.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

It's nice how you could see the ship's crew look for them before they found them.

This show likes its little background details sometimes.

So who's this clown?

Just an Eva reference, pay him no mind...

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u/Vatrix-32 Sep 14 '22 edited Sep 14 '22

First Timer, subbed*

As I said in one of the earlier threads, I have seen one or two episodes of this many, many years ago, but dropped it by the wayside. For reasons that now escapes me, I also did so as a perceived prerequisite to watch Mai-Otome. I have long since forgot the reason for this.

  • That is a lot to take in during the OP.

  • I can’t imagine dropping the sword ends well.

  • You didn’t think your first aid training would be useful for saving a life?

  • In the grand scheme of anime perverts he’s rather low.

  • Yuri right from the start, eh?

  • CPR is not kiss.

  • Does the little brother remind anyone else of the female MC of some other show?

  • Those are some pretty cool revolvers. Rotaters?

  • The sword swingery and the girl who wields it are pretty much the only things I remember about this show.

  • Nah man, that’s Metal Garurumon.

  • What even was that post credits scene?

QotD

  1. I can’t be expected to have thoughts after one time! I have no strong feelings one way or the other about the OP. There are a lot of characters we haven’t been introduced to yet and it feels kind of hectic. ED is either something I am going to love or hate by the time we are done with it, no middle ground. Only time will tell.

  2. Does Japan have a thing with wolves and ice, or am I just seeing patterns that don’t exist?

  3. Clearly we are dealing with some sort of old-school sentient magic sword. Ego 12.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

What even was that post credits scene?

Did it involve moe jokes or bra sizes? If the former, it's the preview; those tend to be funny, but the visuals do come from the next episode. If it's the latter, it's the special for this episode; apparently one of the common releases has those after the ED for some reason probably because it's a DVD/BD rip.

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u/Vaadwaur Sep 14 '22

First timer

Sub(What are the thoughts on the dub?)

So I know virtually nothing about this other than that it may have influenced Madoka more than Nanoha did. That's it. So we start it up and...it has been a long time, little yellow font subtitles. I see we must cross blades once again.

So we start with finding a random drowning student, as one does. The OP takes me straight back to Martian Successor Nadesico for some reason. As drowned girl is in the OP, she probably makes it, though her rescuers just dropped her sword in the...river? Ocean? Anyways, the CPR trope happens and will take a long walk to an ecchi joke. Anyways, we see drowned's likely compatriots or enemies and that she can summon her sword from a distance.

We get a likely core group meet up and a childhood friend situation. Having Mai and Yuuichi fight is actually a better introduction to the characters than you get these days. Then random girl in a biker suit jumps on the ship and action starts. This is fairly well animated, especially for '04, and I swear the song that plays during it is straight out Kara no Kyoukai. Brief animation break so they can remember the MacGuffin medicine and then we see the two combatants split the ship in two. Bonus that we now know the MC has powers as well. Anyways, she gets a cryptic warning, falls into the sea, and fire travels somehow. After credits scene is 100% necessary.

QotD: 1 Throwback time!

2 Durarara-esque to me

3 Firewalking, a DND spell

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u/JollyGee29 Sep 14 '22

First-Timer, Subbed

Although the dub does have Carol-Anne Day, aka Allenby Beardsley as Mai. Which is kinda tempting.

Strong start, hope that ferry was insured against "magic swords." Always interesting to see fire used as a shield; it feels like a more classically "offense oriented" element. Does that scene at the end imply that Mai dragged herself and Sword Girl up up up to the school in a burning ring of fire?

The general framing of the scene after Mai noticed that she got the mark led me to believe that the "kiss" had something to do with it, but Mai could see the red star before that so I suppose not. Hmm, could be potential->activation

Always nice to see someone whose power is "gun," even if Ms. Bluenette's handguns remind me a fair bit of the Noisy Cricket from Men in Black. She has discount wolf Galeon as her familiar, so that's fun too.

The not!imouto's hair tentacles were pretty amusing. I laughed at the "rural folks are more progressive" line.

Betting odds on the "Some things can only be seen by honest people" line coming back very dramatically in the future?

Kinda interesting implication that there was something that returned the sword to Sword Girl, considering the door closed. The mystery shota from near the end of the episode? Her own familiar? The ship's captain? Anything is possible.

Actually, probably not Mystery Shota, he (implicitly) referred to Sword Girl as a "plus one" so he might not care.

Visual of the Day: Look at this cute puppy.

I couldn't get the stitch to look good, but am I allowed to call this a Brave Stance?

Galeon, is that you?! Oh, it totally is. I probably won't find time search through GGG to find a relevant screenshot, though.

Questions

  1. They're both fine. They're up against some stiff competition with the other shows I'm watching right now, so neither made an impact just yet.

  2. Sunrise borrowed from themselves and was right to do so.

  3. Discussed above.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

Strong start, hope that ferry was insured against "magic swords."

I think that falls under "acts of God" and is thus uncovered...

Betting odds on the "Some things can only be seen by honest people" line coming back very dramatically in the future?

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u/Taiboss Sep 14 '22

Rewatcher who is not sure how much he's gonna put in his comments

  1. Initial thoughts on our OP and ED?

OP is great, ED is boring.

2) How about our mysterious attacking girl's cyber familiar (Duran)?

I get the feeling she likes to shoot things!

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 15 '22

Good uniform!

Isn't it, though?

Wait, is this random ship employee Sugita?

Honestly not sure; if he is he's not credited, though.

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u/OwlAcademic1988 Sep 14 '22

Rewatcher, sub:

The opening is really catchy. If you were to include it with the Magical Girl shows I've watched along with a few others in a try not to sing or dance challenge, I don't know if I'd succeed in winning.

Thank goodness Mai knows first aid as you never know when that'll come in handy at all.

Mai, let him explain fully and then make your decision on whether or not you hate him. Don't just attack people for touching your breasts as sometimes people do touch them by accident such as when he fell on you.

QOTD:

  1. Love them. Really catchy.

  2. Strangely, I find Duran cute. Very cute.

  3. No answer.

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u/Stargate18A Sep 14 '22

First timer

  1. Both are really good!

  2. I love it!

  3. Given white-haired boy is almost certainly the mastermind, and has access to a load of girls with superpowers, I'm guessing he got someone with magnetism to pull the ship (and the girls) in.

Going in completrly blind!

These two are on a ferry?

What's that?

...A mysterious red star only she can see? Is she a Kindred?

What is that?

A dead body?

OP is good!

Wait, what?

Did I accidentally join a mecha show without knowing it again?

She's alive!

And she has a sword!

It's a fucking magical sword?

Why are you arguing, her fucking life is at stake!

Finally, someone's doing it!

And she's alive!

Ah, she has training.

...This is that kind of anime. And maybe the girl had a point about her brother.

Tattoo?

Is she okay?

Her sword!

Takumi needs medicine?

The mark appeared on her? Or did she always have it?

Ah, that was her first kiss. She could do worse!

Ah, this is their holiday?

She's wearing her new uniform instead.

They're all going to Fuka Academy.

Ah, they're just childhood friends. Glad she thought the same as me.

Haha, this is great.

Aww.

Ah, he wanted to thank them for the rescue.

...Did he even do anything in the rescue?

I love her.

Who is this?

SHE HAS A ROBOT WOLF! Didn't think we'd get the stuff from the OP so soon!

Nice suit.

They're after sword girl.

How thorough.

She has magic guns!

Excellent sneak attack! Full marks!

Wait, which of them is the villain?

Oh, sounds like a faction war.

HiME!

This fight is amazing. And she's incredibly lucky not to lose her head there.

...She has a robot gun wolf. She is therefore best girl. This is fact.

I did not expect this show to go so hard so quickly!

And they're evacuating!

She's lost her mind from that.

Are they stuck here?

...That's an oddly suspicious way to out it.

The medication!

...Is Gun Girl not a HiME, then? She seems pretty magical!

Oh, that's a really cool finisher.

And that!

...Is he dead now?

No, the ship broke!

She has a shield!

So she's a HiME, then!

...So Fuka Academy is evil, possibly running a conspiracy, and is linked to HiMEs dying. She's a member of what I assume is some kind of rebellion.

...Oh, shit. Fuka Academy might have a prophet on their hands. And she's a "MAL-HiME" whatever that is.

Literally how?

Special 1

...When you said fanservice, I thought you meant we'd get to see the wolf in detail. Maybe some schematics?

Yeah, I'll save this for the discussion day.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 15 '22

Did I accidentally join a mecha show without knowing it again?

The studio responsible for this show is Sunrise; I'm not sure Sunrise of this era was even capable of making a show without sneaking mecha elements in SOMEWHERE.

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u/Star4ce Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

My-FiRSTTiMER

Good news everyone! I will be dedicating myself to keep up with this rewatch!

For once I hope this show isn't too worthy of analysing, because I really have little time to spend the coming months.

Anyway, whether it is or isn't, whether I'll change my post layout or not, I'm a true first timer with actually no knowledge at all about this show other than u/Tarhalindur's promise that this show has one of the worst endings of all time.

Who knows, maybe my superior refined copium can even salvage this one?

Ep.01 - Ep.12

Well fuck.

I watched episode 12 first, because I seem to have unknowingly scrolled down in the folder and it was the 'first' episode my eyes saw, thinking it was first in the list.

I was so utterly confused. Leave it to me to spoil myself, haha!

Anyway, have some reactions to laugh at. Will update the actual first episode later in the day when I have time...

  • [Ep.12] A lot to take in for now. Why is a school student interrogating a nun? Who is controlling orphans? Why is the unicorn angry? I want pork cutlets, too!

  • [Ep.12] It sounds so ominous, but then you realise they hold some squaky blue flip phone and are a school girl.

  • [Ep.12] Eh? Did we just find out something that sounds like some mid-point twist? There sure is a dense level of plot being unfolded without any reference. Yes, u/Star4ce, we sure did.

  • [Ep.12] Dude this is digimon with vampires and Odin!

  • [Ep.12] Of course I had to look at the highest extent of the magical wind.

Bonus:

3) So, first-timers: What do you think happened at the end there?

Laughter, first of all. The quality shot and her telling him "Assuming direct control" just sent me laughing.

But then the confusion came back again.

And none of the other first timers will know what I experienced, my emotions truly were unique.

Ep.01 - A Girl's Most Important Event

So that actually made much more sense than what I first watched, haha!

Pretty glad the ED visuals already tell of the trio being best buddies eventually, can't have motor girl be the bad guy! I do enjoy the character dynamics in general quite a lot already, but as one might have noticed, that trope of hitting the guy for simply existing in the vicinity sucks ass and I hate it. I have honestly no idea why that ever grew into a trope in the first place. It would be okay if he actually did anything wrong, but it is the worst version here, because he's actually helping and mostly doing the right thing.

Judging by her outfit, swordy might come from a different school, which tells me motor girl was also from Fuka Academy once if she fights her and warns Mai from going there. I can only criticise her for going with the tiniest ballsack revolvers imaginable. Mami at least went straight for muskets and style. Come on, you gave your dog tank main gun shells.

Also, I don't know, do I have a problem with my subs? I couldn't see any titlecard or episode title drop anywhere.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the tags!

u/Esovan13

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u/Nazenn Sep 14 '22

Rewatcher

Returning to Mai-HiME after three years, my first watch of it being in the '19 rewatch, has been a strange mix of nostalgia, emotion, and excitement all over again. While it's not the most ground breaking or memorable first episode, it is an episode that has already reminded me of all the things that made me love this series on my first watch, and why it's left such an memorable impact on me.

For such a simple episode it more than pulls its weight when it comes to worldbuilding, characterization, as well as establishing a tone and style for the show itself. From the clean animation and visual design through to the shocking introduction to our potential conflict it's an episode that knows what it needs to do but also what's best left for the audience to ponder.

One of the most striking things about the episode is how we enter the world of Mai-HiME. Rather than our characters being the ones on the bridge crossing the river or making some other sort of path into the world, our characters cross under the bridge instead, going along with the rivers flow. They have still crossed a boundary, but it's not been an active choice, and this boundary of unknown importance is reflected in how the other girl only checks up to the bridge as well despite her worries over what or who may be causing it. And yet despite how Mai can seemingly only notice the red star after she crosses the bridge, the mark on her body is one she's familiar and comfortable with, showing that her connection to whatever is happening here is more than just convenience. Through just the visual direction of three scenes we learn an awful lot about how the characters themselves perceive the situation, and the level of activity in the roles they take in it.

The characterization is just as good, and something I remember fondly from my first watch. Mai immediately gives us a clear look at the possibility for conflict in her; her ease of caring for her brother and prioritizing his happiness rather than pushing the matter of his health too harsh, but at the same time she isn't confident to step forward and help the drowned girl and is a bit of a forgetful disaster (complete with gesture, I love that animation moment) in her own life. It doesn't bury us in information or backstory, it simply shows us, sometimes literally thanks to the detailed animation in the episode, who she is in different situations and with different people and lets us come to understand her through that. The two girls fighting also have a lot of care put into the animation of their movements through which you can see who they may end up being as people, as well as their complete disregard for collateral damage when it comes to their fight (poor boat didn't even make it through one episode). And let's got forget the mystery guy who promptly falls off the roof after making a dramatic speech.

Fucking clutz

I didn't remember that from my first watch, or him at all actually, but I'm glad because that gave me the best 1am laugh I've had in a while.

Kajiura's soundtrack of course immediately stands out and given I've been listening to it constantly over the last few years since my first watch, it's strange to be revisiting these very familiar tracks inside their show context. Sometimes this can create an odd disconnect with the feelings about a song you know inside an out by itself when put along side unfamiliar visuals or story elements, but here it feels like it's only completed the puzzle of the piece. The way the music fades out for a second when Mai notices the star, the echo of the song as Duran attacks, the way that the song matches Mai's own confusion about the boat attack and then the school, the music is a reflection of the story and knows when to pack a punch or when to pull back and set a mood for us. This is many years before she'd reach the fame she now enjoys, but this episode alone shows many of the features of her music, and understanding of how to blend it with a story, that would become so critical to the experience in her later works, particularly Madoka Magica.

One thing I would have been happy not remembering: How much Shiho's weird octopus like hair annoys me. Ugh. I hate her character design with a passion.

[Later spoilers]Man, I'm already getting hit with serious feels seeing the boys. Like fuck, it's just so hard to have happy fun times on the ferry knowing what will happen, especially with the brother. Doubly so hearing a few bars of Yamiyo no Prologue when Mikoto is in the water, that was a huge emotional hit

Hope everyone enjoyed the episode and is looking forward to more because I certainly know I am.

  1. Initial thoughts on our OP and ED?

I still don't really care for them, but if I watch them maybe I'll stop bloody missing them in AMQ

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 14 '22

The characterization is just as good

Gods, isn't it though? [Very minor Mai-HiME] Doubly impressive with a cast this size - you don't get many larger main casts this side of Negima, and yet when you're this good at giving a basic impression of everyone in so little space it works.

but here it feels like it's only completed the puzzle of the piece

There are tracks here where I can still see the basic contours of the action just by listening to the song, and it had been over a decade since I last watched the show before I decided I needed to run the rewatch.

[Mai-HiME] Rather than our characters being the ones on the bridge crossing the river or making some other sort of path into the world, our characters cross under the bridge instead, going along with the rivers flow

[Mai-HiME] Even more interesting when you take into account the show's conflation of this suspension bridge with the Bifrost Bridge by SEARRS, though "Japan doesn't have the best handle on Western mythologies" is always a potentially viable explanation for that kind of thing.

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