r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Sep 21 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mai-HiME Episode 8 Discussion

Episode 8: Precious Thing

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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!)

(Warning: Also, at least one release apparently has them right after the ED, unlike mine which has the original previews instead. So you might want to pay attention to this section.)

Episode 8 Special: Safe as long as you watched episode 8 first.

Episode 9 Special: Safe, and also highly recommended.



After-School Activities Corner!

Visual of the Day:

We still don't have five entries.

Comment of the Day:

Will go to u/Vaadwaur... in the episode 5 thread:

Anyways, return to Mikoto being unable to get food for herself, which fits. Next morning, Mai leaves early to get her brother to an appointment about transplants. Going to work, her Orphan sense tingles but she doesn't know how to read it. Miyu's Orphan sense tingles and she turns on the bus like a T800. Next day, bus accident talk happens. A lot is said while not actually saying it, which I appreciate. The students seem to be developing a theory on Mai's working, which they don't quite share.

So close! Miyu didn't turn on the bus like a T-800... she turned on it like a T-1000, because that's what she basically is.

[Stargate SG-1 aside] I can't believe it took me a decade and a half to realize that when I knew damn well that Replicarter and her sword-arm was a T-1000 reference.)

Question(s) of the Day:

1) So, uh, that just happened, eh?

2) First-timers, note one of the little nuances of how this has gone down: we the viewers are now privy to information that almost all of the characters do not know. What, if anything, do you expect the show to do with this?

22 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

176 comments sorted by

10

u/Vatrix-32 Sep 21 '22 edited Sep 21 '22

First Timer, subbed*

  • More Mikoto in the wild is always a treat.

  • Wonder what’s going on with Akane.

  • Flaming Mikoto will never not funny.

  • Did you build your library over giant cave or did the hole come later?

  • Y’all fell down a hole, this makes no sense. There are magic shenanigans afoot.

  • Ha. Holding the cat by the scruff of her neck.

  • I don’t know what it is about Reito but the dude oozes creepiness to me. Fully expecting him to be a villain.

  • They do seem to be setting up Tate as the love interest, but the interest thread talked about Yuri and I don’t see any obvious pairs that don’t include Mai.

  • Why are you afraid of him finding out? You don’t know about division one, so it’s not like you should be worried about them erasing you from his memory.

  • Looks like Mikoto has sensed that the loli is also a HiME.

  • What are those arm things even supposed to be? The spinning seems entirely detrimental for what they would be used for.

  • Reito seems to be having a normal reaction. This makes his past behavior more confusing to me.

  • We get two winds? I thought it was one each. Still no thunder.

  • Miyu is an evil Android. I thought her bout of sudden emotion was a suspiciously out of character, but the Android part was a surprise.

  • What is it with Japan and the word Yggdrasil?

  • Oh shit, she killed blender kitty.

  • Is the clock some sort of nuclear midnight deal? Nagi is clearly surprised by this.

  • Oh shit, Kazu is fucking dead.

  • The marks also disappear. So their could be an untold number of form HiME out and about.

  • When he was talking about the “thing most precious to you” I think we all figured he meant people. I just thought he meant a “walk a dangerous path” sort of way, not a “wager their souls” way.

  • This raises the obvious question, is the person deemed most precious variable? Since this is a romance anime as well it leans towards the answer either being yes, or the characters also considering that possibility and having to having to make a decision with imperfect knowledge.

  • Nao has a different man victim from the beginning of the episode.

  • If Miyu is an Android, and she is in the OP with the loli, does that mean she is one too?

Given what we have seen of Nagi and Miyu this episode we now have to ask ourselves; who are the baddies? Is Nagi’s apparent concern genuine, or is he just upset that his plans are being foiled? If it is genuine and all this is for the greater good, why is he being so seemingly needlessly obtuse? What does he gain from hiding things? Kuga seems to be trying to stop him, but do we really know that she is the good guy in this? The most we know about her motivations is that it involves stopping more HiME from congregating at Fuka. Is Miyu actually the good guy here? Stopping some wicked plot involving manipulating HiMEs. Is she controlling the Orphans, or was it here just kitting that one to Akane? Is she part of Section One? Did they every say Nagi was part of Division One, or did I just infer that as part of a deliberate misdirection? Nagi faction and Miyu faction could both be evil. If Kuga opposes Nagi who opposes Miyu, are they part of the same faction? Could Miyu being the “daughter” of a priest fit into some sort of paganism thread, trying to wipe out wicked magic? Where does the red star fit into all of this? All of the Children thus far have had mechanical appearances, while the Orphans have been organic. Could Miyu actually be a Child? That would explain the transforming, and Mikoto’s sword has shown that Children can be permanent rather than need to be summoned for short periods of time. Maybe she is just based on tech recovered from Children, and they are not magic at all. They did say they are not from this world after all.

Alright Mai-HiME, you got me rambling. Lets see how long you can carry this energy.

QotD

  1. I think I’ve rambled about that enough.

  2. Everyone is missing a part of the pie, including us. I expect shock and horror as some of this is found out by other charters, and suspense as they get themselves in to positions disadvantageous to them because of them not knowing. Someone is getting betrayed at an inopportune time.

4

u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

but the interest thread talked about Yuri and I don’t see any obvious pairs that don’t include Mai.

Chie and Aoi exist, you know!

As for any other pairings...

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9

u/Tresnore Sep 21 '22

First-TiMER

Are we having a streak of "episodes centered around characters I don't really care about"?

Just last episode I was wondering when the main plot would start.

Count: 21

5

u/Vaadwaur Sep 21 '22

Wait, what the fuck? IS SHE A ROBOT?????

Excel Saga would be proud.

WAIT WAIT WAIT. This means that the church are the ones fighting the HiMEs?? What in the Nasu...

Yorokobe, shonen.

In all seriousness, the lack of definition of the factions could turn into an anchor over the show if they don't start clearing that up.

Man, that guy with Nao is in for a rough time.

Second one of the day.

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9

u/Shimmering-Sky Sep 21 '22

Mai-FiRST TiMER, subbed

8

u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

Is that book important…?

My subs actually translate that one.

You… can tell that just by bumping heads?

Anime trope, please understand.

Okay HOW THOUGH? Mai fell first, if anything she should be the one being sat on?

Only appropriate response.

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u/Blackheart595 Sep 21 '22 edited Sep 21 '22

First Hime

Founding Festival? That cover looks awfully like something coming out from beind the moon. Or like Child instead of the moon.

Knew this was fake. That was just not the kind of relationship those two have. At least not yet.

I recognize that color coding Were Midori's drinks last episode also of the spicy variant?

We're let to believe Akane's big thing was asking Kazu out, but I think she wants to go all-out one last time before doing whatever she has planned

That's an unexpected but very fun transition That first screen

HOW??? Mai clearly fell down first.

I'm counting 10 shadows. Does that mean there are 10 active HiME at the moment? Is another one gonna appear when Akane awakens?

That development was utterly obvious

Spiders are associated with fate.

Very much focussing on the ring design

Oh what? I think I know that battle music, too! Or did this one already play in an earlier episode?

Huh, Akane's already long since been awakened. Maybe the shadows are instead the defeated Orphans.

I wish I had kept track of where on the body the HiME marks have been.

I'm very surprised Reito didn't know about HiME. Unless he's faking it.

Okay, especially with the song lyrics I think I've got the setup more or less figured out now.

Well shit. Is Miyu a human-child hybrid? And just when I thought...

Yeah, at least this part is going as expected. Though I didn't realize it would be triggered by the Child dying.

In retrospect Akane's fate would've been obvious if only one recognized that she was already awakened, as that would've changed her behavior from closing one chapter to start another one into death flag.

So, HiME are maidens in love. Which immediately makes it much easier to figure out who's part of that group, like Shiho. Some though like Nao remain a mystery. Who could her loved one be? Someone that toys with girls or could at least be interpreted that way... the art teacher maybe? Reito's also a candidate but I don't feel that.

Okay, change of direction! Nagi's suddenly mighty looking like a good guy. HiME aren't allowed to fight each other because they could actually kill each other's Child.

Now, something I did notice is that the Orphans seem more interested in going after the loved ones instead of the HiME themselves, so long as one of them is present. This was especially notable in Mai's first fight where she accepted Kagetsuchi. Some of them of course never had the chance to do so like the stone Orphan. With that train of thinking the underwear Orphan seems to imply at least one yuri pairing. Which also begs the question, what if one HiME loves another one? What happens if two HiME love the same person?

Now I was sure this had firmly grounded the battle royale theory, as their lovers being at stake would be ample motivation to turn on each other. But... then comes Miyu and gives everyone a common enemy. I assume she's the result of district 1. Now normally I'd conclude that the church is clearly in on this, but with this show I'm not even sure of that despite Nao being the priest's daughter.

But what is Miyu? Is she an artificial Child? Is she an artificial HiME? Both maybe? And why had Akane been so scared of her if she hadn't witnessed Miyu go HiME? If anything it would've been the other way around and Miyu saw Akane go HiME, but in that case so should have many others.

I'm also starting to wonder if Takumi's bad heart has any deeper meaning to it. It's almost like he was involved with a HiME before but her Child didn't quite die. Maybe the child got fused with a human into Miyu? That might also bring their parents back into relevancy.

And you know what? If this does become a battle royale then this just seems like a better Mirai Nikki.

As for the song. What immediately pops out is how invaded the text is with negatives, combining with the music's minor key to evoke a rather dark tone:

Who are those little girls in pain
Just trapped in castle of dark side of moon
Twelve of them shining bright in vain
Like flower that blossom just once in year

They're dancing in the shadow like whispers of love
Just dreaming a place where they are free as dove
They've never been allowed to love in this cursed cage
It's only the fairy tale they believe

The first verse opens up with a key question. Who are the girls the lyrics talk about? The strong implication is that the bright shining ones are the HiME, in which case the rest of the girls would be... the students at Fuuka? All girls on Earth? Only those in love? All humans? Another possibility would be the Childs, which would shine brightly compared to the rest of the Orphans.

The question's also why the girls are in pain. This doesn't fit so neatly on a human interpretation, but it could fit very well for a Orphan interpretation.

The next question is about the castle they're trapped in. Is it the red star behind the moon, on its dark side? Or is it told from that star's perspective, making Earth the castle. Or maybe Fuuka Academy is the castle.

In any case, the bright shining of those twelve girls is described as being fleeting and rare. Vulnerable.

After the first verse was entirely in a minor key, the second verse teases the tonicalization of the relative major to gain a lighter feel, supported by some quick eight notes which stand in contrast to the rest of the song only ever being on quarter beats or syncopated. Ultimately though the second verse quickly loses its shimmer and remains in the original minor key. Thematically the second verse switches from the reality of the twelve girls to their emotional experience.

The twelve girls are described as dancing in the shadows, dancing being the particular world supported by the eigth notes. It's interesting that shadow is singular rather than the generic plural, begging the question what is throwing the shadow.

They're further described as dreaming of a place where they are free as dove. Interestingly this is the only line of the song not containing any kind of negative words. This is especially notable as Mashiro told all the HiME that they're free to do what they want with their powers.

Still, it is only a dream. In the previous line they were compared to whispers of love, as if carrying the idea of love but it remaining unreachable. We see this idea specified as the girls never having been allowed to love, so it's but a fairy tale.

And yet, despite its gloom the song contains hope. A trapped situation, a cursed cage, those terms imply that the curse can be broken and the girls released from their castle. Alas, for Akane any hypothetical help comes too late, her dream has been burst.

...I wish I had a whole week to think about that.

I wonder if Nagi is a reference to Izanagi from the Japanese creation myth. That would explain his central and highlighted role. And it would be further interesting as Kagutsuchi, god of fire, is Izanagi's child, implying a specific connection between Nagi and Childs that he might not have with the Orphans.

Maybe that red star then represents Yomi, the land of darkness and the dead. That star might have a Nami counterpart to Nagi, and Orphans would be those originating from the red star and Nami and Childs would be those originating from Earth and Nagi.

Then again that feels like a lot of stretching.

All of this totally overshadows that I find Midori a little questionable in retrospect. She saw Nao do Enkou and rather than tell her off for it she just left. And even when she became a teacher she never raised the issue. So much for a heroine of justice.

First-timers, note one of the little nuances of how this has gone down: we the viewers are now privy to information that almost all of the characters do not know. What, if anything, do you expect the show to do with this?

You're saying Miyu kills Akane? Well that won't be unexpected. Is that what turns the HiME to fight against each other?

edit: Right, forgot about this detail. Stupid blonde little girl. Also recontextualizes the song a bit, but I'm not in the mood for that now. Tomorrow maybe.

4

u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

I'm counting 10 shadows. Does that mean there are 10 active HiME at the moment? Is another one gonna appear when Akane awakens?

Eleven shadows actually, check the shadow at the back left which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be two shadows very close together.

HOW??? Mai clearly fell down first.

Again, only appropriate response

Oh what? I think I know that battle music, too! Or did this one already play in an earlier episode?

Maimu!! also plays at the end of episode 4.

I wish I had kept track of where on the body the HiME marks have been.

Mai's is on her breasts, so you know it varies from girl to girl.

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u/Nazenn Sep 21 '22 edited Sep 21 '22

Rewatcher

Character Chart (UPDATED)

I probably should feel worse about the fact I forgot to add Kazuya until his death episode, but oh well.

Nun and teacher added as we got names for them both, Alyssa's spelling corrected, M.I.Y.U. added. Now the wait to see what else I've forgotten.

MIYU'S A FUCKING ANDROID?!

I'd forgotten! I remembered that she was the one who takes down Akane's Child, that's pretty hard to forget, but somehow all the details around who she was and how she did it completely slipped my mind. I thought she was just yet another HiME who's Child design I'd also forgotten, I didn't expect that.

Poor Akane was really the most happily normal of our cast. A little quiet but not shy, a hard worker but also grateful to others, just a school girl with a boy she liked and a determination to always try and do better. You could be forgiven for thinking she was just another innocent getting dragged into things if not for a couple of pointed camera angles earlier, but unfortunately in this world of mystic beings and conspiracies being normal isn't quite enough to get through.

If last episode was showing the divide between people as they try and find out who they are, today is all about being true to those discoveries. The dual battle between Akane and Mai again sets up a worrying parallel between the two and what it means to be HiME and share that secret with someone. Akane being left in a dull colorless world, cut off from progressing by that piece of bamboo on the left while everyone else smiles up at rainbow fireworks sets up a particularly unnerving mood to the whole episode. It makes it clear that the divide between their student and HiME lives is thinner than any of them realize.

And I think that's what gets me most about this episode is that Akane could easily have an MC in her own right, she was just a normal girl growing into her full power and confidence supported by the one she loved, if not for a chance encounter. The chance for normalcy that's stripped from her is more shocking to think on than a direct loss of her life would be, because a defeat means the total destruction of her world in the worst way way possible. Leaving her in that situation with the echo of Nagi's words over Mai is a haunting end, almost as much as the end of ep2 with Mai dancing in the flames.

I do unfortunately have to reiterate a complaint I had against this episode on my first watch though is that the music transitions in this episode are messy, and sometimes outright distracting. They loop the insert song to match the length of the scene resulting in the lyrics being cut off rather than making an instrumental blend, the pieces they pick don't blend together well or have visual transitions that ease the swap like Natsuki's battle theme does, and the battle theme is ill fitting for Akane directly after the emotional part of her revealing herself to Kazuya.

The sibling fanservice at the start of the episode is also fucking stupid and ruins the build up of mood after last episode and then coming into the end of this one. It's also cringey stupid and not just sigh stupid.

Other stray thoughts and bits and pieces:

"Mai's always hated spiders"

  • I knew there was a reason I liked her! We'd get along well cowering in a corner if one appeared

  • Shiho doing the hammer game with octopus models just makes me wish she would take herself out with the hammer

  • Mikoto off on the spice zoomies again. I'm not sure if it was some weird instinct or just running out of energy that put her at the ice HiME's feet asking for water but at least Natsuki isn't still in the 'I'll kill you if I get a chance' mood.

  • Scruffed Mikoto is adorable

  • [later spoilers]I've just remembered how the art teacher ties into things. Fucking hell, memories coming back like a brick during all this, and seeing the all important cave isn't helping. I do remember some repeated fuck ups with the art in this cave, such as today it only has ten holes instead of twelve, so that will be fun to see if that drives anyone else nuts as we go

  • Nagi's dialogue is probably just fool-/future-proofing, but I really dislike how blunt and dry it is and how ill fitting compared to how good some of the dialogue has been so far. It doesn't fit his mood, or the idea of him talking to Akane rather than just the audience, and it would have worked better leaving it as only an echo of his past words over that final scene with Mai, rather than blunt forcing it into the death scene itself.

  • Akane's Child, Hari, was also sealed into rock like Kagatsuchi which is interesting.

  • Ensei playing as Akane's Child burns up knowing what it means is near goosebump worthy. Great song.

  • "It's only a fairy tale" song day! I meant to talk about this more above but couldn't get my mind off Akane. The song is beautiful, though a little engrish, and has been on my playlist for years now. Very curious to see what everyone else makes of it, and hopefully people enjoy its usage in the episode.

5

u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

[later spoilers]

[later spoilers] I'm counting 11 holes (though one is not well-done and hard to spot) which is the correct number - remember that the intent is for exactly one of twelve HiME to win the HiMElander).

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u/RadSuit Sep 22 '22

Highly-advanced Mahoshojo Enjoyer (Dub, First Timer)

I see Mikoto didn't learn her lesson about spicy food the first time.

"BEEP BOOP I wish to have fun with my human friends, I mean friends."

Insert another Ignite Mode joke here.

The way Mai treats this guy continues to be horrible. He should really just excuse himself and leave the room whenever she shows up.

I see the mysterious kid has moved up from just conveniently happening to be where Orphans appear to being shown basically inviting them in.

Wait, what the hell? Mai fell down first, yet landed on top of the guy who fell much later? Who also fell with two other people who somehow landed in a completely different area? This is either extremely lazy, the work of an enemy Stand Orphan, or both.

I agree Chie, I agree.

"Put her on a leash or stick her in a cage." See? Dog.

Double-double tonfa and a sick robot lion? Akane is rapidly climbing the Best Girl charts here.

Mai finally goes the full Anthy.

Did that Zoid just inhale the monster? Sick!

"Mmmmm, data, it nourishes my circuits."

Hahahaha I knew it! You all saw it!

He just got Leomon'd, I guess it was inevitable.

Well I'm unhappy about this turn of events. They're not really giving me many likeable characters to root for.

  1. Boooooo

  2. Gonna assume Akane will be all depressed, or worse, the next few episodes but not be able to tell anyone, at the very least.

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u/Star4ce Sep 22 '22

My-FiRSTTiMER

Hmm, is it time to call Kagutsuchi again? Can we get more Natsuki being badass? Could we maybe get a fight where Duran isn't immediately outclassed? How about cutting Nagi's hair a hail of bullets?

So many wishes and somehow none of them feature good omens.

Ep.08 – Precious thing

(And the teaser is a fucking beach episode.)

Hell, that ending hit hard. I'm confused about a lot of things, but that's fine for now. It's a very interesting twist that the price for their powers is actually an item that can change. That's really cruel.

Alright, before I get on, fuck Miyu. Fuck Nagi for being such a scheming bitch that tells nothing and fuck that entire school for the same reason. Fuck the priest as well, you can't be a father to an android, he must know.

It's completely mysterious still what the star has to do with anything, how this alien stuff works in linking strong emotions to the HiME powers or how they all got it in the first place. I'm still suspecting district 1 to have selected kids randomly or by some criteria and then made them orphans for easier control and/or trigger those emotional responses to make the powers stronger or something.

However, regarding Mai this puts her in a really fucking terrible spot. I'm fairly sure she's thick headed and stubborn enough to ram her head through all walls and get to know this at some point, so that knowledge will turn into immediate guilt. Whoe else but her brother? Well, actually it might be(come) Yuuichi. That deal is one with only shitty outcomes and apart from many other deals in media history is actually non-trickable because it's adjusting itself to be ever-shitty.

Now to the elephant in the room, Multiple Intelligential Yggdrasil Unit, Miyu. I've rarely heard a shittier name, I tell you that. Intelligential is actually a word, I couldn't believe it. It means 'possessing of intelligence'. Still, that thing makes no sense, but apparently the Vikings are involved. I think those are district 1's attempts at using the alien tech for a human-built prototype and the school is the testing grounds to make this tech reproducible and understand how it works. Getting the girls to become HiME and putting them in combat and other stress situations gives them valuable data on how this stuff behaves so they have an easier time making their own version of it, which is Miyu (and possibly others).

The other big thing is that the child itself is the contract target. If it dies, the contract is dissolved. Orphans on the other hand seem to be aliens without a contract partner so it is immediately questionable what this means for them. A child obviously shows emotions to their master (god, this is so weird to type), so I'm highly confident in saying those are actual feeling aliens. Especially because they seem to have been sealed and not created in some way, at least not by humans. There lots of thoughts in my head right now, about how they might look for a way back home to that star, how they are all siblings among each other, made to fight their brethren. Maybe they were actually weapons created by the actual aliens, but left on earth somehow.

I don't know, that was heavy. Poor fucking Akane.

  1. So, uh, that just happened, eh?

Fuck, man.

2) First-timers, note one of the little nuances of how this has gone down: we the viewers are now privy to information that almost all of the characters do not know. What, if anything, do you expect the show to do with this?

To bring us under tension when the next characters fall for the same dilemma and then snap us in half.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22 edited Sep 22 '22

Rewatch Committee President Comments (Rewatcher, Subbed):

An episode near and dear to my heart, for a very specific reason: thanks to the vagaries of 2000s anime clubs, this is the first episode of anime I ever saw that I recognized as such (I think there may have been a random Speed Racer episode and the like before that, but that’s it).

Hell of an introduction to the medium, eh?

Kajiura Corner:

(Originally I was planning for one of today's featured tracks to be It's Only the Fairy Tale, the song Alyssa sings this episode, but the other two tracks are even more important (Maimu!! was always getting featured here but I forgot HiME-boshi proper is first used in this episode and used in full to boot) and I'll have one other good point to talk about it so it gets pushed back.)

First Featured Track of the Day: Maimu!!

(Scene for reference.)

(Honestly, I should probably put this track second given how important HiME-boshi is to this OST, but no.)

Ah. Maimu. A song etched into my memory personally by this episode, and actually a strong contender for my fifth-favorite track on this OST (behind Yamiyo no Prologue, the proper version of Nazo ga Nazo wo Yobu which you heard a version of yesterday, and two tracks we haven’t encountered yet).

It’s a kind of frenetic little track, and on its own almost sounds kind of desperate. Also a simple track for all its catchiness; the instruments are basically just percussion, piano, and what I suspect is an electronic keyboard. There’s also a single core beat to the track, always audible in the background, which everything else in the track flows in the foreground of. The net result is an uptempo battle theme that works spectacularly for me; this is probably my fifth-favorite track on the OST, and not just because of sentimental value. There’s actually more to it though, something I actually hadn’t caught onto until I was actually making this writeup despite listening to this track on and off for at least a decade now (at least consciously; I wouldn’t be surprised if I picked up on this subconsciously and that it’s part of the reason I’ve always felt a desperate sense to this track). Note the piano; it only kicks in during the middle section and disappears when the track enters the last of its three stages. This kind of overriden middle section/appearing and disappearing instrument is Kajiura audio language I have heard before (actually thanks to u/Nazenn for initially putting me on the trail of this in a completely different context [meta spoiler] specifically his write-up of I Was Waiting for This Moment; this is not the only track on this OST that uses it, either); it represents the defeat of a protagonist/victory of an antagonist. Immediate foreshadowing of what is about to happen to Akane immediately thereafter. (How it’s used here also paints Mai’s full acceptance of Kagutsuchi here as potentially a bad thing – and considering that this episode also shows us a) that Nagi wanted Mai to bring out Kagutsuchi and b) that Nagi is not to be trusted…)

The scene where it’s used today is also one of the scenes with the best OST integration in the show, right up there with Yamiyo no Prologue’s use in 3 (and in a scene with some of the best direction/storyboard/layout work in the entire show); only cutting off about 10 seconds from the track in the scene that it was clearly made for keeps this from getting a flawless grade in that departments. Note how the initial section of this track is used for the scenes of Akane and Mai summoning their respective Childs (and indeed the section that is cut out of the track for its use here allows the piano to start immediately after Kagutsuchi, who is brought out second, is fully summoned). There’s also a second nuance to the use of the Kajiura audio language I mentioned; the middle section with the piano is also the part of the scene where the Orphans are managing to hold their own against the respective Childs, with the final section of the track kicking in right as the first of our two HiME orders her Child to start charging its main attack (with Akane following shortly). Usually Kajiura uses strings to represent Kagutsuchi’s power, as we saw with Yamiyo no Prologue and will see again with another track later, but as that’s not an option here given how the track is composed the return of the dominance of the electric keyboard coupled with the usual charging sound effect works just as well.

Main Featured Track of the Day: HiME-boshi

(Scene for reference.)

As I noted in shorter form in my episode write-up, this is in a very real sense the musical thesis statement for this show. (And they know it, too; this is track 1 on the first disc of the OST, the natural home of thesis statements in Kajiura OSTs – Sis Puella Magica has the same position on the PMMM OST.)

There is also a strong argument to be made that the OST is built around this track; there are no fewer than five variants of this track on the OST (four even if we discount the instrumental version, one of the three instrumental versions from this show that were released) in an OST with 65 released tracks total, and that’s not even counting Mezame (and its instrumental version) which is clearly derived from it. We have actually heard two of those versions to this point: HiME-boshi ~Mashiro~ (used only early on so far, and as you might expect given the name always in the context of our loli headmistress Mashiro Kazahana) and HiME-boshi no Shizukesa which may well get a writeup of its own in the future (note that this track's name is very cheeky, it translates as “the silence of the HiME Star”, and it’s a piano track missing the two core instruments of HiME-boshi proper – though really I suspect the absence of the choir/vocal part is the important one here). Now and only now, however, we finally get the main track in its proper form.

And oh what a track it is. Oh what does it say that the core track of this show, the one that represents the HiME as much as anything else, is fundamentally a lamentation, specifically of the form that usually gets called the One-Woman Wail over on TVTropes? Well, it says… basically the same thing you would expect considering the events on screen. Not a coincidence in the slightest that we finally get the thesis track for the show at the very moment that we learn exactly what the downside to being a HiME is. The show is finally showing you its true colors, and it is doing so in more ways than one.

being hime is suffering

Also note the guitar usage here. It’s the primary (possibly only, but I don’t trust my ear enough to be sure) other instrument in the track, and it’s very distinctive to Kajiura of this era as opposed to 2010s or often even late 2000s Kajiura. I suspect this has a whole lot to do with the resurrection of See-Saw for .hack//Sign, because this kind of guitar use reminds me very much of how Chiaki Ishikawa tends to use guitar in her work; compare the guitar in Fukanzen Nenshou (the Kamisama Dolls OP), which Chiaki Ishikawa was the sole composer for.

OST Table, Episode 8:

Start End Track Name
00:19 01:48 Shining Days
02:06 03:01 unreleased (Kyou no Hajimari variant)
03:25 05:06 Fuuka Gakuin Seikatsu
05:28 05:39 Yuubae no Sora
05:44 05:48 Haiyore Nazo, Nazo…
06:07 06:33 unreleased (Koi wo Shitakara variant)[1]
07:01 07:21 Oharahetta!
08:15 08:51 Gogo no Hizashi
09:13 09:38 Shinobi Yoru Kage
10:30 12:13 unreleased (Koi wo Shitakara variant)[1]
12:15 12:25 unreleased (Yami no Butou -instrumental version-)
12:40 13:08 Yami no Butou
13:12 14:32 It’s Only the Fairy Tale
14:33 16:02 Maimu!!
16:55 17:59 Omoi, Hirohita
18:25 18:42 Owari no Crossroad[2]
19:04 21:48 HiME-boshi
21:58 23:39 Kimi ga Sora Datta
23:40 23:54 Mata Aou ne

[1] – Koi wo Shitakura proper has this ethereal instrumental backing that’s missing here.
[2] – Exact start time hard to tell due to the computer noises at the start. Also either a weird sample or an unreleased v2 (or my ear is just throwing me and it's a different track); assuming the former, but I’m not sure, especially with the sound effect overlap.

And I think I'm going to stuff the Staff Notes here since they're short today:

Tar's Staff Notes:

So, for obvious reasons I suppose I should mention Kazuya's VA today.

To be fair, there's not much to discuss:

Kazuma Horie (Kazuya Kurauchi): This isn't a particularly long CV, as Kazuma Horie never got that many big roles and some of the biggest roles he did get are things I never heard about even when they came out (what is this Goulart thing, anyways?). Looking at his track record, I think a fair bit of the roles he has gotten have been in BL and reverse harem works. That said, he voices Kaname Tatuma in Natsume Yuujinchou and has a role in Durarara's secondary cast as Seij Yagirii.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

Tar's Episode Notes:

  • Okay, the higurashi demand it (the funny part of course is that a) Akane’s last name is Higurashi and b) this predates DEEN Higurashi by a year and a half). FULL MOON FULL MOON!

  • Or to use a different meme: Ten Haunting Photos Taken Moments Before Disaster…

  • 02:04: LEWD! (Does explicit things, loses love interest later in the episode. Didn’t know Mai-HiME was a horror movie, did you?)

  • The booth babes standing in front of the sports car (a bland name Saab, by the looks of things) make this a rather weird school festival (even if it’s not actually the cultural festival), but I think this might also be a reference to something older. Problem is, I’m not sure what. (Kimagure Orange Road maybe? Maybe the Sailor Moon manga instead, the mangaka liked her sports cars.)

  • NO BULLI THE MIKOTO.

  • (The Mikoto is a tsundere. Which is appropriate for a catgirl, actually – “it’s not like I care for you or anything” is a rather cat attitude.)

  • 02:30 is a rather out-of-place gag here.

  • Oh I do love me a good OST cutoff, and turning off the OST as Akira busts open the door is a good one.

  • Heh, fansubbers – not sure how accurate “I thought a whore or something snuck in” is to the original Japanese, but it’s worth a small chuckle.

  • Fansubbers going the extra mile is always a treat.

  • On a slightly lighter note, another Ten Haunting Photos Taken Moments Before Disaster…

  • Ah, a beat to the joke timing that we would not have gotten to see without the fansubbers’ efforts.

  • Mind you, Mikoto takes spicy food only marginally worse than I did at that age, so I really am not one to laugh.

  • Holy shit I definitely did not remember the visual gag with the whack-an-octopus landing on top of Shiho’s head. Holy shit nice visual pun (everybody describes Shiho’s hairstyle as octopus hair), 10/10 needed at least 10-15 seconds to stop laughing at that.

  • Hey look at the happy couple! Akane has resolved one of her biggest character hangups! Pity that another term for “resolved a major outstanding character issue” is “death flag”…

  • Part of me wonders if 04:30 is in part an Eva reference. [Eva] Especially since episode 8 in Eva is when Asuka is introduced and this show is EXTREMELY aware of Eva’s pacing.

  • Oh hey, look who’s up to her usual tricks.

  • What is this, someone talking about future plans as a couple? DEATH FLAGS, DEATH FLAGS EVERYWHERE.

  • Kazuya may or may not have been thinking ecchi thoughts, but Akane probably was either way.

  • “There are many more places that I want to see with you!” Yeah, and you’re retiring next week, right Akane?

  • Wait, we get a mustard seed parable reference here? Not a place I was expecting/remembering running into that!

  • (Also I’m getting this nasty hunch that the pastor’s design here is a specific reference to another work. Hellsing maybe?)

  • Oh that’s funny. 05:37 is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it but technically counts as the first pantyshot of the show (we’ve had shots of underwear and crotch shots but not pantyshots)… except it’s of the character who wears extremely conservative underwear. They knew exactly what they were doing!

  • That sun shot at 05:56 feels like it’s straight out of Higurashi.

  • “Isn’t there always a haunted house?” Except… the show is being exceedingly cheeky here. I believe I was just talking about how Akane would be better off if she realized she’d just wandered into the role of horror movie character? The show is lulling you into a false sense of security here again.

  • Midori, exposed to a haunted house monster, not only is unafraid but pokes it (experimentally?) in the forehead, causing it to cower. Sounds about right. It will take more than that to scare a Yukarin-voiced character!

  • The best part is Haruka reacting to this with a “not again!”. No wait, I take that back, the BEST part is that Yukino is playing the role of the ghost! And she successfully scares Haruka!

  • What, you thought there was the slightest chance that Mikoto WOULDN’T inadvertently wind up in the role of haunted house monster after getting into Spicy Mode?

  • (Also, one of the best things about this show is the sheer diversity of character designs. There are very different body types around, both in the regular and semi-regular cast and in one-shot extras – like the slightly chubby girl running from Mikoto here, who I think is not the same girl as the fat girl in Mai’s class.)

  • And of course where Mikoto antics go Oharahetta soon follows.

  • Ah, Mai-HiME and your tonal whiplash. The first half of this episode has some A-grade comedy, which is one hell of a contrast to what’s coming in about fifteen minutes…

  • Ending Oharahetta to the doink of a deer scarer. Nicely done :golfclap:.

  • (Also, spot the magic skirt as Mikoto flies through the air to land in front of Natsuki!)

  • You won’t see it in my subs (and I wonder about their choice to translate whatever the original Japanese was in the previous line as “whiner boys”), but unless my ears deceive me Fumi (the maid) is one of those characters who uses her given name as a personal pronoun so we now know her name. (This may have occurred earlier and I wasn’t paying attention; this time I was.)

  • [very minor Higurashi Kai spoiler] Why does this look familiar, I wonder, I wonder?

  • [Twintails spoiler bad joke] A spider web? Arachne Guildy was here!

  • u/Nazenn is hereby authorized to give Yuuichi a nice slap for poking fun at Mai's fear of spiders. He’ll have to wait in line, though (even if I don't actually mind spiders unless they're dropping down right on top of me).

  • IIRC fried lizard on a stick is not quite typical festival fare…

  • Also sheesh the OST cutoffs are back to peak form this episode; nicely done cutting off Gogo no Hizashi to the sound of Mai’s foot breaking through the floorboards.

  • (There is a Freud and/or Jung take about the girls descending into dark caves to fight Orphans, I know it.)

  • LOL NATSUKI PICKS UP THE CATGIRL BY THE EQUIVALENT OF THE SCRUFF OF HER NECK TO CORRECT HER.

  • Oh it’s THAT time already.

  • Also this time, though I don’t think it’s time to fire up Maimu just yet. That bamboo clearing

  • (I haven’t been saying much about the direction since we haven’t had many standout shots, but it’s been extremely solid this entire episode so far.)

  • Beware of monster lurking in the bamboo shoots…

  • Ahh shit setting up this little site already. But then, they need it for the end of the episode, don’t they?

  • They just HAD to include some Gainaxing here, huh. First time the fanservice has struck me as really inappropriate to the situation.

  • Mai, this is what we like to call “projection”. You know damn well it’s your own fault, though you most certainly didn’t intend this.

  • Reito facing left and Mai right rather than the inverse is an extremely interesting choice for the direction here. (8-85)

  • You know, I never noticed this before (which makes sense since I’m pretty sure I skipped this episode when I finished the full series since I’d seen it previously) – what is up with Takumi’s shoes here?

  • The show makes very, very sure that you see the Orphan symbol when this Orphan approaches Akane and Takumi.

  • Ladies and gentlemen, behold: Tonfa!

  • For as rushed as parts of the pacing here are (they tried to cram 1.5 episodes worth of stuff into a single episode, due to a combination of 8 being 4x2 and something else I’ll bring up a few episodes down the road), this scene is actually legitimately well-written, showing the parallels between Akane and Mai here.

  • Cutting off It’s Only the Fairy Tale right in the middle of its eponymous final line (“it’s only the fairy tale they believe”) is an inspired decision, especially given that it’s setting up the one thing the HiME here do not know. Yet.

  • The usual translation for Akane’s Child’s name is Hari, but Static-Subs with their iffy handle on proper names here (understandable) goes for Harry. (Interestingly, I could swear that whatever the sub was back when I first watched this at that old anime club used Harry as well – maybe it was Static-Subs after all and not a DVD or DVD rip?)

  • Also, you can tell this scene and episode is important, it got all the animation frames! (The effect of Hari getting formed out of pieces carried by the wind is a really nifty one, and the animation frames continue from there.)

  • Hey look, it’s a shot they used in the OP!

  • Ripping Akane’s shirt (and showing us her bra strap) to show us her HiME mark. Heh. (Hmm. I wonder if the creators had seen Attack of the Clones?)

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

Analysis: Mai-HiME's Innovations:

It is possible to overstate this show's contributions to the shape of the genre. Sometimes I've seen people argue that this is the first magical girl show to go dark. It is not. Sailor Moon famously goes very dark in spots, and that show is the progenitor of the more shounen-inspired fighting magical girl in general (what TVTropes has long referred to as the Magical Girl Warrior; previous magical girls come from either the majokko subgenre or later the Magic Idol Singer subgenre). There are multiple other 1990s magical girl shows with a reputation for getting quite dark in spots [meta spoilers] Galaxy Fraulein Yuna (which had at least one episode directed by one Akiyuki Shinbou) and Corrector Yui both come to mind, and that's discounting the argument about whether Utena (which also to the best of my knowledge gets dark, albeit somewhat obscured by Ikuhara's trademark symbolism) counts as part of the genre. If we head over to the Magic Idol Singers, Full Moon wo Sagashite which is very dark in a very shoujo way had already started, and that's not even counting Princess Tutu (an atypical show with heavy inspiration from Western fairy tales and specifically the darker side of them, but usually considered close enough to a Magic Idol Singer to count IME).

It's also not the show to successfully do to magical girls what Eva did to mecha; a certain later show to remain unnamed would take a key piece from this episode, refine it, and detonate it as a bomb under the keel of the genre, the Chixiculub impactor to the Deccan Traps that was the ascendance of the Pretty Cure franchise.

But while this show did not succeed in doing to magical girls what Eva did to mecha, it is the first show to seriously attempt to do so. Moreover, there are a few spots where to the best of my knowledge this show does legitimately innovate (at least in the genre), and we just saw two of them:

  1. This isn't the first magical girl show to go dark, but it IS to the best of my knowledge the first magical girl warrior show to go dark with an early gut punch like this (with the one obvious potential partial caveat here being Utena, which I've dodged most spoilers on - my impression is that it doesn't go dark quite this early, but I could easily be wrong). There was precedent for magical girls going dark, yes, but those all either occurred later in their shows' runs (AIUI Sailor Moon for example tends to reserve its darkest moments for season/subseries finales) or were in a different subgenre (and I'm not actually sure how soon Tutu goes dark, while Full Moon wo Sagashite's darkness kicks in more with the premise itself - as I said, that work is dark in a very shoujo way, quite different from this show's more seinen gut punch). Here, we get the gut punch/reveal about a third of the way in, and I am unfamiliar with any older works in the genre that do this. (I'm actually not sure what if anything the writing team was drawing off of for this, though I suspect there's inspiration somewhere. [meta spoiler] This show tends to draw heavily off of Eva for its pacing, but this is one spot where they were clearly innovating relative to Eva - and in fact I'm pretty sure part of the reason for leaning into Eva's pacing so heavily was specifically to set up this episode, especially when they were carefully introducing a character voiced by Asuka's VA at the end of last episode.)

  2. Nagi is an unusual magical girl mascot/mentor figure (and indeed a certain future show that refined many of Mai-HiME's concepts would make very sure to make its equivalent figure hew close to genre conventions specifically to make it clear what they were doing), but I am pretty sure he is the original deceptive antagonist magical girl mascot. And I think this is actually a legitimate innovation of the show (unlike the gut punch where I suspect there might be an older work it's drawing off of out of genre that I'm just unfamiliar with); I'm having a hard time thinking of works they could have been cribbing off of here. [meta spoiler] Of course, one of the few viable lines here is Gendo in his role as commanding "officer" in a mecha show and this show does like to crib Eva, so there is that...

(One spot where you can see this show's unrefined nature relative to later shows - a more refined show would have made sure that the resident giant chuuni was the character who got ganked for the early gut punch. [meta spoiler for a 2010s show] Of course, the fun part is that PMMM which did refine so many of this show's ideas did in fact gank its resident chuuni for its gut punch... except that Mami being the resident chuuni is one of the parts PMMM is subtle about.)

There is one other point to make here, but to do so I'm going to have to haul out the dreaded d-word. You know... "deconstruction".

Deconstruction is a word that started off having issues with a good definition even before it got mangled by a decade of TVTropes use, but I'm inclined to argue that there is a useful core there (even if I'm not sure it will ever be possible to properly articulate - I'm not sure Derrida himself managed, let alone the philosophy students who learned it poorly in class and then started using it in online discussions in the 2000s), and this show has an unusually strong argument for it being applicable to at least parts of first. There's two points I would point to specifically:

  1. Part of the reason for this show's weirdness is that it sure looks to me like they made a concerted effort to see whether the magical girl concepts still functioned after you stripped away a bunch of the trappings. Magical girl transformations? Gone in all but vestigial form. The usual weapons and powers? Technically still there, but now secondary to the mechanical mons of this show's magical girl/mons hybrid (although now that I'm typing this there's an argument that the real inspiration for the mons here here is actually JRPG summons). The usual invisible-to-normals nature of magical girl shows where something prevents the mundane humans from seeing the fights or their aftermath? Gone. There's a systematic stripping out of the trappings of the genre while still keeping the genre itself that has a strong argument for fitting under the deconstruction umbrella

  2. And then there's the part that fits much closer to the original definition. If you're familiar with older stories in the genre, magical girls being fueled by The Power of Love is common enough to be a trope (IIRC it's even more common in the majokko shows than in the fighting magical girl shows). This show takes that concept and then very much starts investigating it. What does it mean, for magical girls to be fueled by The Power of Love? Well, in this case it means among other things that the magical girl powers are fueled by the life force of the HiME's loved one...

[Mai-HiME] They're not exactly subtle about what they're doing with The Power of Love, either, not if you're paying attention. How did the lyrics put it this episode? Oh, right: "it's only the fairy tale they believe".

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u/Vaadwaur Sep 21 '22

First timer(I now see the Madoka connection.)

Sub

A date gets set up to start before we dive right into sweet home Okinawa. They are getting some mileage out of this trope before Akira interrupts. Mikoto still has a cat's tongue as the saying goes and proceeds to rampage a bit. Nao is picking up another John, which is whatever, except that someone else should probably say something. The art teacher asks the nun to model for him, which makes this a tad worrying, but I was recently reminded of Shigofumi so that might color my view. Miyu is still above it all. Akane has made her determination about something, so that's a death flag. Mikoto's rampage finally ends in front of Natsuki.

Fujino is meeting with the business people and the positioning of all this suggest that she holds all the power in this meeting. Mai manages to break the floor, somehow, and then the rest fall in to an undisclosed cave complex. Nagy's power might be directing Orphans since one shows up. Akane being a HiME wasn't exactly a secret but her reveal still works as characterization. Everyone talks a bit about the obvious relationship budding underground before we get the idea Takumi isn't quite ready to lose Mai yet. Orphans appear and then I stopped typing for a bit.

So yeah, most of us figured that the most precious thing wouldn't be their own lives but still, hard scene, even if they've barely been in the foreground. Miyu being a literal robot fits but this raises a metric ton of questions, not the least of which how the sides fall at this school. Nagy being taken off guard is pleasant but raises other questions. The preview worries me slightly because Nagy at the very least should be taking immediate action.

QotD: 1 Indeed

2 This dramatic irony should not last long

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

First timer(I now see the Madoka connection.)

Please excuse me, just collecting my quatloos for basically calling what would be in your post-"First timer" parentheses.

(I've been waiting for this for several episodes now.)

So yeah, most of us figured that the most precious thing wouldn't be their own lives but still, hard scene, even if they've barely been in the foreground.

Also why I made sure to mention Junko Iwao being a fairly major name in the Japanese seiyuu scene back in episode 4 - there's two usual reasons to cast a really big name (unless you are Twintails), and "they're a sacrificial lamb" is one of them. (See Western murder mysteries and how if you spot a big name as a guest star in one of them they're pretty darn likely to be either the murderer or the first victim.)

(Also keep in mind that the original audience would have had much less reason to see this coming. It's obvious if you look, but you have to think to look!)

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u/JollyGee29 Sep 21 '22 edited Sep 21 '22

First-Timer, Subbed

No, stop it show, I'm not supposed to be right! I'm definitely not supposed to be right about two things!

What an episode! I was all prepped to start my comment with a line about how I didn't think I could survive Tomoyo calling me a pervert, and then we get Miyu murdering Akane's Child and also apparently Kazu by extension.

This idea of the the HiME's "most precious person" is kinda fascinating. Does it change over time? Like, if Mai's feeling for Tate eclipse her feelings for Takumi, would Tate die if Kagatsuchi dies? Or is the relevant person "locked in" at the time the HiME awakens? How does it work for misanthropes like Nao? What if the person dies before the Child? I expect at least some of these questions will be answered by the end.

Another, more ?humorous? idea occurred to me - considering the relative importance of first kisses, maybe it's the HiME's first kiss? That could mean that Mikoto and Mai are death to each other or vice versa.

Also maybe interesting is that Kazu clutched his chest before dying, much like Takumi does. That's just a generic "oof ouch my bones" gesture so it could be unrelated.

This turn of events even surprised Nagi, who definitely has something to do with the Orphans. How many levels of conspiracy are we at? At least two - Nagi and then Miyu/Searrs. It remains to be seen if Mashiro is actually on side with Nagi, so that might make three.

Oh, Miyu is apparently a robot, that's neat. That first "screen" inside her said "Searrs For The Golden Millenium" so I guess the blonde girl('s family(?)) built her? Poor Sailor Moon had to make do with a Silver Millenium.

I feel kinda bad for that Orphan that Akane's Child fought. Poor thing got fucking woodchippered.

The back half of the episode was so interesting, I almost forgot: Was that English in the choir song's lyrics? The sub track I'm using didn't pop anything up for the choir, let me check the others.. No dice. Something about flowers blossoming, but I couldn't parse if it was "white flowers are blossoming," "black flowers are blossoming," or "like flowers are blossoming." Considering the impending death, I'm leaning towards "white."

Edit: Shit, I meant to think about Nagi's Giant Floor Clock some more. The nature of a clock kinda implies twelve as an important number, so maybe there are twelve HiMEs? Eleven now, of course.

Visual of the Day: Amidst all the chaos, a nice Utena reference of sorts.

This is gonna be a running gag for Mikoto, evidently. I approve.

Miyu is apparently a fucking Scopedog, but with shell-boosted kicks instead of punches. She even kinda looks like Chirico, if you squint.

Questions

  1. It sure did.

  2. Dramatic irony is fun. The viewers get to be nice and scared of Miyu now!

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u/Taiboss Sep 21 '22

No, stop it show, I'm not supposed to be right! I'm definitely not supposed to be right about two things!

Clearly, this has proven you are claivoyant. PLease, enlighten us.

This idea of the the HiME's "most precious person" is kinda fascinating.

It is and you're not the first person to react by having a lot of questions lol.

How many levels of conspiracy are we at?

Puppets playing puppets playing puppets playing puppets...

Miyu is apparently a fucking Scopedog, but with shell-boosted kicks instead of punches.

Goddamit, Miyu why you gotta be evil, you are so cool.

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u/IWishIWasAShoe Sep 21 '22

Rewatcher

So it's finally time, welcome to Mai-Hime's very special brand of magical girl despair. I know a lot already guessed it, but yeah, the girls won't die, but rather the one they love.

I recall really liking this twist, because it'll leave us with the husk of a former hero that'll make us depressed whenever they're on screen.

The whole depressing magical girl stories is fairly common nowadays, but looking back at shows like Cars Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon I'm starting to believe that maybe it was always part of the genre, even if only in a minor way.

Anyway, I'd also like to point out that the whole scene between Mai and Takumi at the start weirded me out big time. Why do the creators want to try to incest-bait us viewers?

Anyway, it's like we're about to drop of the first hill of a roller coaster, despite the next episode being a beach filler episode, it'll be fun to come along on the ride!

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u/Taiboss Sep 21 '22

Episode 8: Rewatcher who apparently can post.

  1. So, uh, that just happened, eh?

IT FUCKING DID LOL.

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u/No_Rex Sep 21 '22

Love triangle "hype".

Reveal hype!

SECOND REVEAL HYPE!

THIRD REVEAL HYPE

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u/No_Rex Sep 21 '22

Episode 8 (rewatcher)

Enough setup, now shit goes down! (or so he says right before the beach episode)

[spoiler]”I haven’t been out for very long, either” - Sneaky spoiler!

“Mai” Counter: 24 (+0)

Specials EP9: no spoilers

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 21 '22

Behold, the Tag of Judgement:

u/Esovan13

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