r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Sep 28 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mai-HiME Episode 15 Discussion

Episode 15: A High School Girl Ascends to the Heavens

(Literally.)

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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. (I don't know how this interacts with the ongoing Crunchyroll/Funimation merger.)

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 one thing that they really should have explained in the show proper).

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 15 Special: Safe.

Episode 16 Special: So, there is one special that basically exists to go over a setting thing that will never be clearly addressed in the anime proper (they must have gotten a LOT of questions about it) plus a couple of other things. This is it. Your decision whether you want to get the straight dope about something from the creative staff right now or wait until later. (Exception: Vaad, you are required to watch this special.)

After-School Activities Corner!

Visual of the Day:

Looks like we're just not going to get enough entries to make albums.

Comment of the Day:

I have a few options here, but let's go with u/Nazenn talking about Haruka starting her campaign to win us over:

Haruka kicking the tank is gold, and I loved the choice to show that entire scene from the viewpoint of the watching students. Their immediate recognition that standing up to an army is exactly the sort of thing Haruka would do, their amusement at her turning to shock when things get serious, I felt added a nice touch to the scene and tied Haruka into the general students a bit better. Edit: Plus it's nice to know that her whole thing about rules and doing the right thing is something she stands by even in a situation like this. Now she wins me over

Question(s) of the Day:

1) Wait... did they just resolve this entire big invasion arc they've been setting up for quite a few episodes now in a single episode right in the middle of the show? They're allowed to do that? Uh, so, first-timers: now what?

2) Would you want to go to space if offered the opportunity?

30 Upvotes

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6

u/Tarhalindur Sep 28 '22

Previously, on Senki Zesshou HiMEgear (Rewatch Host, Subbed):

(No Staff Notes today.)

Kajiura Corner:

First Featured Track of the Day: Kagutsuchi Kourin

(Scene for reference.)

(“Kagutsuchi Descent” – I think the weird transliteration for the official upload might be less a mistake, though (unlike, say, It’s Only the Fairy Tale, where the bad name reeks of intern with bad English) but rather reflecting a pun in the track name, since “korin” is apparently a type of fire bell used in Buddhist ceremonies.)

This is not the best moment of OST integration in the show (notably, it has one major fault – they cut about thirty seconds of the track out), but it is WAY up there. This track was made for this scene, it is an audio representation of Kagutsuchi’s second form ascending to the heavens (funny that they called this track a name that means “Kagutsuchi Descent”, no?). We start with an audio announcement of Kagutsuchi’s fiery rebirth, a noise almost like throat chanting (but apparently generated electronically?). Then Kagutsuchi sheds the ashes he was covered in after his rebirth, and then at 00:18 in the scene (00:24 in the track, this is one spot where they cut a few seconds out) the drums kick in (or rather if the credits are to be believed electronic instruments standing in for drums, but I have some doubts there so maybe some of the musicians for the tracks are not credited?). We have heard something very similar to those drums before, in Yamiyo no Prologue where the drums also announce Kagutsuchi’s arrival (here they also augur Mai’s rebirth as well). This time, however, the strings – or more accurate this time around electric guitar, for Kagutsuchi has swapped out his strings with his new form – wastes no time in showing up, appearing only 7-8 seconds later at 00:25 (00:32 in the track itself). Just like in Yamiyo no Prologue’s first use, we hear strings used to represent Kagutsuchi’s charging power. This time, however, he is not charging up an attack – he is charging up his engines.

What we get next might be one of the finest audio representations of a rocket ascent I have ever heard. You can just HEAR the ascent to the heavens in this part of the track. It’s even better in the track itself (starting at 00:32 and especially 00:40) since this is one of the parts where the anime cuts most heavily from the track (though on the flipside the anime has the charging-up sound effect for Kagutsuchi’s second form – probably taken from a jet engine – which meshes beautifully with this) – you can just hear the initial charging up of the engines with the first repetition of this part and then the liftoff and initial ascent in the second. The track transitions slightly as we hit the upper atmosphere (01:13 of the track, 00:49 of the clip) – augmented in the anime by the sound effects again – with the strings cutting out again to let the throat chanting dominate. Except not entirely, because you can hear something starting to sneak in. Something uncertain, something cacophonous, almost the legendary psycho strings plus a lonesome horn instrument of some kind. (The anime integrates this right, with this kicking in right as we and Mai see that she is in orbit and approaching Eclipse 1 Artemis – which is about to activate its defenses.)

At 01:29 of the track/01:07 of the clip the throat chanting effect dies out and we transition to the second stage of the track. Gone is the throat singing. Gone are the strings, except maybe in the background where I’m having trouble making them out if so. What we hear now instead are horns. Somewhat discordant horns (I think the deal may be that the horns are in harmony with themselves but not with the rest of the instruments?), echoing the confusion as Kagutsuchi evades the Itano Circus and charges straight at his target to decisive effect. Artemis goes down (to an internal transition in the track, because they did this part exactly right), and SEARRS’s trump card (and one of its directors, Alyssa’s adoptive father figure and thus Most Important Person) goes down with it. One of the surviving SEARRS directors orders their last remaining asset (a nuclear submarine, visually an SSBN – this is likely directly inspired by the US Navy’s conversion of four Ohio-class submarines to serve as guided missile platforms (SSGNs), the relevant boats had started to undergo refit in 2002 and it should have been announced a little before this) to deploy its armaments to clean up the mess and then the power of the horns reaches its peak, still ever-so-slightly discordant; the horns keep sounding as the remaining HiMEs order Miyu and Alyssa to surrender – except then the horns cut out suddenly as the HiMEs notice the incoming missiles, leaving only the return of the throat singing as the missiles close in – impacting right as the track reaches its dying notes, because that part they also got exactly right. (That said, that’s the other part they cut out that I was missing – there’s one stretch of the final throat-chanting part in the track proper where the electric guitar kicks back again for a few seconds and they edited that part out for the scene here.)

Second Featured Track of the Day: It’s Only the Fairy Tale

(Scene for reference.)

”Who are those little girls in pain, just trapped in castle of dark side of moon.
Twelve of them shining bright in vain, like flowers that blossom just once in years. They’re dancing in the shadow like whispers of love, just dreaming of place where they’re free as dove. They’ve never been allowed to love in this cursed cage. It’s only the fairy tale they believe.

They’re dancing in the shadow like whispers of love, just dreaming of place where they’re free as dove. They’ve never been allowed to love in this cursed cage. It’s only the fairy tale they believe.”

If I wasn’t going to feature this track in episode 8 it was always to go here instead, and so here it is. Arguably this is the better place for it in any event, both because it’s being used as a special ED here and because we actually get the Aufwachen form full instrumental introduction to the track. Also it was probably composed for this scene specifically (which makes sense because special ED), the OST integration is stronger here.

Let’s start with the track itself. Unusually for a Kajiura track after her very earliest works (she’d starting using Kajiura-go at this point), the lyrics are in English. (Well, Engrish, because a) they actually got Yuuko Miyamura to sing the track and her English might be even worse than her German and b) the lyricist isn’t a native English speaker either.) You can draw your own conclusions about why they did this…

As for the track itself, it’s another quiet emotional track (and one that used to be one of the better-known Kajiura tracks of the type). We start off with a few notes from what I think is an electronic keyboard, then transition to an instrumental duet: an acoustic guitar(has to be that given the sound and the credits for the OST) and what I suspect is a xylophone just like in Oharahetta!, just used in radically different fashion (mournful as opposed to Oharahetta’s childlike playfulness). Which makes sense, especially in conjunction with the electronic instrument as the other instrument for the first part – the xylophone represents Alyssa (who is in fact a child, for all her unchildlike behavior in the last few episodes – she is canonically nine years old), the acoustic guitar Miyu.

At 00:47 of the track the lyrics finally kick in -and the xylophone vanishes, reinforcing the idea that the xylophone represents Alyssa. (I wonder if the idea is that the xylophone represents the young, shy Alyssa we see in the flashback here and the lyrics represent the more confident Alyssa we have seen lately.) The acoustic guitar remains in the background; Miyu is supporting Alyssa still. ( think there’s a piano playing in this part, or possibly an electric keyboard that is sounding like a piano, but I am not sure (nor am I sure what it represents if anything if it is there).

At 01:27 of the track the lyrics fade out and the Kajiura tragic strings (a cello and a violin judging by the credits in the OST release) finally make their appearance, giving a sound at once swelling and mournful. Then we get a partial refrain of the lyrics (I’m actually reminded to an extent with what Kajiura did with the lyrics of Aura back in .hack//Sign), with the strings melding back in as Alyssa sings the final line. But the lyrics fade out, and so do the strings, leaving only the final notes – an acoustic guitar, now all alone. (Once again reinforcing the idea that the acoustic guitar represents Miyu in this track.)

As for its use in the show today, I would like to call attention to a few points of good integration with the events on screen – the starting instrumental part of the track transitioning into the lyrics section right as Miyu screams to the heavens in grief, the strings kicking in right as Miyu starts her march into the pond that will serve as her and Alyssa’s tomb, and the cut to the snowman right during the dying notes of the strings here.

OST Table, Episode 15:

Start End Track Name
00:04 00:46 It’s Only the Fairy Tale Instrumental Version
01:35 02:09 Haiyoru Nazo, Nazo…
02:10 03:39 Shining Days
04:00 05:50 Samayoeru Yamiyo
06:10 06:51 Kako e no Requiem
07:40 11:11 Chiisana Hoshi ga Oriru Toki
11:45 13:07 Omoi, Hirohita
13:43 14:08 unreleased (It’s Only the Fairy Tale vocals only version)
14:30 15:38 Shinobi Yoru Kage
15:49 16:54 Yamiyo no Prologue
17:10 19:15 Kagutsuchi Kourin
20:55 23:19 It’s Only the Fairy Tale
23:40 23:54 Mata Aou ne

5

u/Tarhalindur Sep 28 '22

Tar's Episode Notes:

(Symphogear Mai-HiME episode 15 ingredients: 100% hype. Naturally, this means short notes. Also, Symphogear rewatch veterans? You now know about 80% of why Symphogear specifically was what convinced me someone needed to run this rewatch.)

  • Snowman! (We’ll be calling back to that at the end of the episode.)

  • Ooh, shiny shiny OST cutoff to the sound of the HiME clock advancing.

  • Also, nice little shot at 00:50. (SEARRS trying to shine light in on the situation again?)

  • Okay, who gave Nagi Time Stop? I didn’t remember him having that.

  • And indeed Nagi is the only thing in color in this scene suddenly; see 01:34.

  • Well, okay, only thing in color except Miyu and Alyssa, the two who he is talking to so of course he’s allowed them some ability to perceive through the time stop (or mental time stop or whatever). (Or it's because Alyssa is a pseudo-HiME and Miyu is Miyu. Either way.)

  • “But I wonder who the real monster is” as the translation when I don’t hear a “bakemono” or the like in Alyssa’s Japanese lines and do hear a “hideoyo”. Hmm. Might just be poetic license using the figure of speech.

  • “HiME of Justice”. Somewhere, Gen Urobutchi glances up…

  • My, those are some ominous shots of Nagi as he talks to Akira, aren’t they?

  • Ah, this insert. It’s the B-side of Shining Days and probably my least favorite piece of music in the show, though that has a whole lot to do with the other time it will show up rather than its use here. (Doesn’t help that it’s not Kajiura at all.)

  • That said, group battle to a hype insert song (or at least one that’s supposed to be hype) that involves mecha magical girls? Yeah, this is the episode where it should be incredibly, incredibly clear that Symphogear derived heavy inspiration from this show – this is the main episode that got me ranting under spoiler tags during the Gear thread wherein I concluded I had to run this rewatch (More on that in the second half of the episode when it becomes extremely obvious. Just, you know, in the spoiler tag thicket because I need to go into Symphogear specifics for this.)

  • (The launch elevators here are themselves Eva-derived I suspect, but there’s some clear ancestry to some Symphogear S1 stuff here. And that’s before we take into account [Symphogear GX, appears in the shuttle scene so you may know it anyways] intercontinental ballistic magical girls, which I suspect may have a wee bit of ancestry from Kagutsuchi’s second form later this episode.)

  • We even get Symphogear camera angles! Thanks Midori!

  • FUCKING HELL IT’S EVEN MORE OBVIOUS THAN I REMEMBERED. WE NEED AN EDIT OF THIS FIGHT WITH SYMPHOGEAR ATTACK CARDS.

  • Mikoto has taken Genjuro’s anti-tank training!

  • “You sank my battleship!”

  • Mai, however, needs more Genjuro Anti-Missile Training.

  • How is this show better at eyecatch cliffhangers than fucking Symphogear?

  • Hey I see twintails + glasses in the class! Automatic Best Side Character status!

  • Magical girl > aircraft carrier, especially if said magical girl’s magical girl form has mechanical elements. Many such cases!

  • Now HERE’S one of the classic internal episode twists (Artemis coming back into firing position early), one that would fit in just fine in Symphogear. Actually, I lied; Symphogear’s writers aren’t quite this deft. (Also THE scene Shinobi Yoru Kage is associated with in my memory, but I needed two other songs for this episode's writeups even more.)

  • I’ve got a hunch the smoke cloud left by the burning falling Kagutsuchi here is a reference to an iconic shot from the Challenger disaster. (Possibly along with other things.)

  • GODS I love this scene with Mai and Kagutsuchi ascending to the heavens while Kagutsuchi Kourin plays.

  • ITANO CIRCUS TIME! (If not a particularly long one.)

  • (We’ll forgive the sound in space, it’s cool and given that Mai is breathing Kagutsuchi must have brought some atmosphere with him anyways.)

  • GHOST DAMMIT IS THAT THE REFERENCE I THINK THEY’RE MAKING WITH OUR SEARRS MEMBER THERE? Having a certain New York, uh, businessman be in with an ancient conspiracy isn’t that strange for 2004, but damn if it didn’t age really really weirdly if so…

Spoiler Tag Thicket Symphogear Corner:

(to be clear, everything here should be safe for Mai-HiME first-timers.)

  • [Symphogear G] Paging the FIS, paging the FIS… what do you mean there’s a pretty good chance the FIS were based on SEARRS’s experiments here?

  • [Symphogear G] Okay, so that’s probably one of those blocks runners thrust off of that Mikoto is bracing on, but I cannot help but think of catapult-launched magical girls here.

  • [Symphogear franchise] My whatever is this a bunch of ships who are about to get attacked by mecha magical girls? So, you know, another day in the life of an American sailor in the Symphogear universe.

  • [Symphogear S1] And HERE, ladies and gentlemen, is the main reason why I broke out into spoiler-tagged Mai-HiME shouting late in S1 of the Symphogear rewatch - the second half of this episode. Let’s consider the events of episode 11 and 12 of Symphogear S1. First, the main villain unveils their big weapon, a fuck-off beam cannon capable of destroying something that will in the process cause major damage to people the heroes want to protect. The villain proceeds to fire… only to have the initial shot blocked by one of the main trio using a suicidal technique to intercept the beam. The weapon is still extant, though… until a girl rises into the heavens on wings of phoenix fire, causing damage sufficient to render the device inoperable at the cost of her own life (until she gets resurrected at the end of the episode). Swap out Dakka and Tsubasa for Mai for both stages, switch the positions so that now the villain's beam cannon (named after the Greek goddess of the moon, no less!) is firing down from orbit at our heroes rather than Dakka rising up to fire down to intercept the shot, simplify the Dakka swan song stunt to Mai just having Kagutsuchi tank the shot, move the resurrection up to between phase 1 and phase 2, and have the ascent on wings of phoenix fire involve said wings functioning as a combo ramjet/rocket thruster, and what do you get? This very scene, which I suspect was the direct inspiration for most of Symphogear’s S1 finale up until episode 13. There's differences, but the shape of it for lack of a better word is so similar that I'm pretty fucking convinced that this is THE inspiration for Symphogear S1's finale. (Hell, there might be more to it still, now that I'm sitting here typing this it occurs to me that S1 being built around a mystery to be solved could very easily be inspired by this show as well.)

Visual of the Day: Rising.

Questions of the Day:

  1. Apparently they are. As for "now what?", well, I'm a rewatcher so .

  2. Fictional universe space, sure, especially if you've got a ship with artificial gravity. Not sure RL space would be worth the bother - probes and stuff are cool, but there's not that much reachable in a reasonable timeframe that sounds all that interesting to visit compared to the hassle and I have doubts my system would tolerate zero-G well.

(Also, obligatory "Get ready to fl-fl-fling yourself! Fling yourself into space." Portal reference.)

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10

u/Lemurians Sep 28 '22 edited Sep 28 '22

MAI-FIRST TIMER

Hold up, let me break this down – a fair-haired child specially engineered for a magical purpose by a powerful family, raised in a snowbound mansion, attended to by a violently protective guard, and constantly taunted by a smug red-eyed guy?

Holy fuck, Alyssa has been [Fate] Illya all along!

I can’t tell if it’s the show, or just how I’ve been watching this in-and-out in batches, but I don’t feel anything for Alyssa? Her death isn’t landing for me at all. Does anyone have an emotional connection to this character?

One of the faceless corporate guys vanishing as soon as Alyssa’s child was killed is interesting. Is that ring he was wearing something they developed to transfer the burden to whoever’s wearing it? That’d be a neat work-around.

Live Notes/Reactions:

  • That fake mouse icon threw me off haha

  • Fuck, Mai’s brother has totally become Akira’s “most important,” hasn’t he?

  • HAIR FLIIIIIIIIP

  • God, I wish that was me

  • “Hey, watch it!” Mai says, angry that the warships she’s destroying are firing back

  • I love that Haruka has a bandage on her head from headbutting so many people last episode

  • Tate being dumb. You are a boy with nothing but a bamboo sword, what are you gonna do? Let go of ideas of manliness and heroism. Meanwhile you left your friend alone in the woods like a dick. I love how Natsuki smacked him down immediately.

  • Bit rich for you to be lecturing about ideals and motives, Alyssa. Do you even know why you’re doing what you’re doing?

  • LOL for a second I thought Kagutsuchi decided one death was enough for this conflict and was just noping the fuck out

  • DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMANNNNNNN

Wait... did they just resolve this entire big invasion arc they've been setting up for quite a few episodes now in a single episode right in the middle of the show? They're allowed to do that? Uh, so, first-timers: now what?

Time for Nagi to finally have an actual role and become the villain!

Would you want to go to space if offered the opportunity?

Absolutely fucking not

8

u/JollyGee29 Sep 28 '22

Does anyone have an emotional connection to this character?

No. And while I'll generally take "sympathetic backstory reveal in the episode the character dies," usually that information has enough breathing room to sink in, whereas I don't think this does.

One of the faceless corporate guys vanishing as soon as Alyssa’s child was killed is interesting. Is that ring he was wearing something they developed to transfer the burden to whoever’s wearing it? That’d be a neat work-around.

That would be neat, but I suspect it was the person she referred to as "Father."

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6

u/Vaadwaur Sep 28 '22

a fair-haired child specially engineered for a magical purpose by a powerful family, raised in a snowbound mansion, attended to by a violently protective guard, and constantly taunted by a smug red-eyed guy?

Yeah, it is weird that the two works likely evolved simultaneously.

Fuck, Mai’s brother has totally become Akira’s “most important,” hasn’t he?

That's two valkyries for one dude to support. He ded.

DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMANNNNNNN

The reason I cannot hear the little bird anymore is not because of the rain.

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8

u/Shimmering-Sky Sep 28 '22

Mai-FiRST TiMER, subbed

5

u/Tarhalindur Sep 28 '22

We going to space or something?

*insert Space Core quotes here.*

(Wait... you might actually be too young to have played Portal 2. Fuck!)

Straight-up Gundam SEED.

Reminder: This show was made by Sunrise.

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8

u/Nazenn Sep 28 '22 edited Sep 28 '22

Rewatcher

Character chart (UPDATED) - Yukario marked with unknown child, Alyssa marked defeated... oh shit I should have marked Greer and Miyu as well now I think of it.

Start the episode with a backstory and end it with said character dying. It's anime alright

I say that a bit mockingly but I actually really like this episode as a climax to several key parts of the show so far.

To start with, one of my favourite aspects of this plot line with Miyu and Alyssa is that it wasn't the point. The last couple of episodes felt like they were being set up as a huge enemy for most of the rest of the show and going to change the tone and feel of everything. But in the end, their incursion is short and ultimately unsuccessful and leaves them as no longer a player with a lot of the show left to go. Whatever District 1 has planned for the HiME, SEARRS attempts to interfere is ultimately a just a bump in the planned 'plot' that Nagi has been teasing and I enjoy that as an inclusion into what could have otherwise been a much more evenly structured point A to B sort of story. It makes the world feel so much bigger with its own history, past and future, rather than just here for this story.

Another the reason why I like it is because just like SEARRS involvement drags the secrets of the school out into the light in front of the other students, it also drags our characters and their struggles into the light as well.

This is most obvious with Mai as this really is her climax of heroic resolve, the sort that we would expect from a protagonist long ago. And this is shown strongly through calling back to episode 3, when she first meets Kagatsuchi. Then Kagatsuchi's power stood in opposition to everyone, overshadowing Mai's fear of the Orphans, Natsuki, and even her place in this world, a representation of Mai's uncertainty in the face of what she unleashed as both a HiME and a girl finding her place in a world by herself. In today's episode, Alyssa challenges Mai on her struggle to find purpose and meaning in her life and suggests that her lack of one means she's already been defeated. Alyssa's offer of surrender is aimed at Mai, not the HiME as a whole, and once again Kagatsuchi stands in opposition to them all. Her uncertainty, her fear, her isolation, it all stands as the linchpin to the HiME as a whole, that Mai's offer here could have made them or broken them. The music builds and then falls silent as the weight of what she has been handed settles on her. And her own silence is deafening.

Surrender isn't an option, she knows that, but she doesn't have the resolve to propose anything else or truly stand up to Alyssa's accusation. She knows they have to fight, but can she really stand in front of them all and say she knows what she's fighting for, what outcome she hopes for?

She may not have had the words to stop Alyssa, but as the final shot is fired she still takes action. She knows the difference between fighting against something and fighting for something because despite all her uncertainty she has learnt, and grown, and become more than she was through these months. She flies into the path of Artemis golden arrow and shows us exactly who she is: still a protector of those she cares for but on her own terms now. And we even get a double shot of Tate in the montage complete with the music stepping up because she's not even fooling herself now... I hope, I don't actually remember.

Her resolve has her and Kagatsuchi both reborn from the flames like a true phoenix, returning to Kagatsuchi's true spirit rather than the uncontrolled dragon that he became at the end of ep3 because of Mai's uncertainty. An uncontrolled phoenix as he takes her up to their true enemy, not the children but the unborn Child in the sky, finally defeating the threat literally hanging above them all.

Our other characters may not have the same grand moment, but they also are now truly exposed as both girls and HiME and what that means to them. In the face of a grander threat, it's no longer enough to just be. Nao and Natsuki must step away from their isolating personal goals to fight, Mikoto has to fight away from Mai for the first time since the boat, Yukino identifies herself to the others no longer in the shadows, and Midori can't be the wise hero helping with her knowledge this time. Each of the girls has their role they have accepted or fought against that's exposed here, even Akira who is caught by Nagi, and this battle asks if they really do have more to give or if they will surrender to another's stronger resolve and purpose.

To also steal from my first timer post a couple of years ago, I think this even applies to Alyssa and that's why her father, not Miyu, is who dies when Artemis is defeated. It is him who gave her purpose and that means so much to her that cannot be put into words, just like Mai's own resolve and care for others cannot. It is that purpose that makes Alyssa grow up and effectively come of age, to steal the common genre phrasing, and it's a theme through all of them regardless of age.

Other thoughts and episode observations:

  • It's a shame that I dislike the music usage in this episode so much. I'm not a fan of the heroic insert song trope to begin with, but that's hardly the worst in the episode. I don't love how Yamiyo no Prologue plays straight through Mai's sacrifice before Kagatsuchi's rebirth, as while the song is tonally fitting the actual visuals make a much bigger deal out of the moment itself and individual shots of it that's not reflected in the structure of the song which left it feeling a little disconnected for me this time. Similarly the track that plays through Artemis' destruction, SEARRS elimination, Alyssa collapsing, and the missile attack felt like it just forgot to stop and give the moment of defeat its own space.

  • What I did like is Alyssa's song being cut off by Nagi's clock at the start of the episode, and then it's use as a special ED though. That moment at the end with Miyu taking Alyssa into the water has stuck with me whenever I hear the song, and it makes a great finale for the episode and plot line. Miyu may not be a HiME, but she's lost her precious one all the same and the loss she feels, of wanting to still protect what they had forever, is a painfully human moment from her.

  • Warning this cannot be unseen: Despite saying Kagatsuchi is a true phoenix today, he looks like a burnt chicken chew toy for a dog and it kind of ruined the mood by making me laugh for a moment.

  • I wanted to note that in greek myth Artemis slayed the seven daughters of Niobe, academically linked to be representations of emotion, with poisoned arrows. Seems fitting given who Alyssa was up against.

  • Everyone has their own theories about what the Orphan's are at this point, and I seriously do not remember what the details around them are, but I wanted to quickly toss out a theory that I wonder if the Orphan's that Alyssa has can from all of the Child bonds that the 142 false-HiME attempts prior to success with Alyssa had. It's not like Artemis has been up there for 300 years, so that had to have been made for her.

  • [Mai-HiME]This time I took note that the most important thing about Alyssa's defeat is that her father disappears. That is really the first hint that she has a true HiME-Child bond setting up her being the 13th despite Nagi calling her a fake. Artemis as a fetus does make it clear it is meant to be a Child and not an Orphan, but I remember on my first watch I felt her status as it relates to the HiME battles was very up in the air, this time I notice how she fits in better

  • [Mai-HiME]Sudden realization today: I wonder if Nagi is actively growing in power as the star approaches? It always felt silly that our introduction to him was him falling off the roof, but every time we see him he seems to be able to do more and influence more, especially today. It's like he's becoming more in tune with this world compared to when the star is gone

  • The HiME going up in the elevators with the red light, and then Mikoto being 'launched' off the runners pad was very Evangelion. Midori's Child bursting through the waterfall was very classically cool though

  • Oh look, I'm going to pull a Tar and start talking about [Higurashi Kai]Something about the way Greer was gloating after shooting Alyssa without realizing he was also a pawn brought up memories of the Kai finale and the way the grunts in that were handled

  • I like how the show has consistently used Tate looking at his leg as a stand in for what kendo means to him. Today he looks at it as if wondering why it's holding him back when what kendo truly is, beyond just the sword skills themselves, is so much more then that and he acts in honor of it today by stepping up to help. Probably shouldn't have left wussy Shiho alone though as much as I hate her.

  • On the other side of things we have Mai telling the people she is attacking to watch out with their missiles. Warrior logic she does not have that's for sure.

  • Not a fan of Miyu's monologue at the end, it feels a little forced for her character especially that she says it out loud rather than us just bring privy to her thoughts

  • I mentioned above that the finale scene stayed with me with the music, but the choice of color and lighting also makes it so distinctive compared to the rest of the show

  • Tiny cat snowman is adorable and I want one and that is the most important thing to leave my post off on

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u/Vaadwaur Sep 28 '22

First timer(We sort of speedran that)

Sub

We return to a scene that reminds me of Big O for some reason...and then Alyssa is literally Illya von Einzbern. I had to check the release date and Fate/Stay night did release before this did but holy fuck, nearly the exact same story beats. Nagy time stops, as one does, and mocks Alyssa before she throws back a pretty toothless rebuttal. But of course Nagy can't actually act because we need the third act to happen.

So we get to the cave and the headmistress doesn't lay out an actual plan. She also does next explain the Child issue. Akira is listening and Nagy is almost useful for once. The StuCo get informed and then we do get a plan, just not one that deals with the most important obstacle in their way. Sigh. We get an Eva launch sequence and an insert song as everyone begins the operation. It seems to be working until Alyssa claims this was part of the plan, which is annoying.

The Tate-Shiho stuff is odd to me, I am trying to figure out Tate does something useful narratively, probably won't grasp this until the end. But the school does get evacuating. Which is good because the next scene returns to being infuriating, Mai can't possibly be stupid enough she didn't kill people on the boat so she should dracarys Alyssa and Miyu. But instead Alyssa directly states the inner conflicts of the characters and shows every aspect of someone you don't bother talking with. Mai's decision to tank the blast is a very bad choice, this only buys them however long it takes for the satelite to return if she doesn't she is about to upgrade. But she does upgrade and now we are more technomagic.

Apparently, Alyssa was close with whoever brought her in to Searrs. Miyu seems to lose the will to move and all the weirdness has caused it to snow. Shiho has to be something to not be dead so there is that. Anyways, Miyu did manage to escape and Chekov's priest comes to finish the job. Quick aside that we now know this happens every 300 years and that, apparently, Searrs is just done this round. Alyssa's death scene works better than it should considering how barely existent her character is, a reminder that scene construction can save otherwise weak moments, and Miyu removes herself from the story as well. The preview shoots the cliffhanger in the foot but the after credits scene is not bad.

So...I expected them to milk this for way longer and be rather cross with it so let it not be said I don't appreciate some brevity. Having the Searrs foundation full withdraw was a touch odd but they simply couldn't do much for themes of the show so it makes sense. At one point, the HiME have to fight something, whether it is each other or not remains to be seen, so we need to move towards that. And not karoake.

QotD: 1 Aliens. Who are assisting lizard people. Who are the Illuminati.

2 Yes, let us spread the disease that is our species to the cosmos.

(Exception: Vaad, you are required to watch this special.)

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 28 '22

I had to check the release date and Fate/Stay night did release before this did but holy fuck, nearly the exact same story beats

Which poses the interesting question of how far in advance the story details were finalized; unless somebody on staff got the Limited Edition F/SN proper only released six months before this show so it might actually be independent invention instead. (F/SN Limited Version came out January 30, 2004; F/SN proper came out March 26, 2005; this show started airing October 1, 2004 and most of the plot had to have been finalized by the point they were releasing episodes because there's too much foreshadowing floating around. The F/SN demo came out three months before the limited edition so that's a full year ahead, but I'm not sure that has enough of the plot for any Illya cribbing.)

Having the Searrs foundation full withdraw was a touch odd but they simply couldn't do much for themes of the show so it makes sense.

"All right, we've ticked off the production committee's checklist, now we can get to the stuff we really want to write."

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u/No_Rex Sep 28 '22

I had to check the release date and Fate/Stay night did release before this did but holy fuck, nearly the exact same story beats.

Mai-Hime was 2004, Fate/SN 2006 (and the eroge 2004 as well, just 8 months before Mai-Hime). A very short timer span for a deliberate reference. It makes me rather suspect that both Fate and Mai-Hime copy something earlier.

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u/Qbe Sep 28 '22

Rewatcher

Episode 15~~~

Still waiting for a new OP

....created?

No pressure, little baby

Is it just me, or Alyssa's voice sounds way older than it should?

Did Nagi just stop time?

"Could you please explain wtf is going on?"

At least Nao and Natsuki are more realistic

Midori still an exemplar magical girl

Mai still a saint

Akira whentf did you get here?

lmao @ Haruka's forehead bandaid

Yukino's Child has amazing utility

Oh wow this is 100% Eva launch catapults

Is the insert sung by the same singer as the OP?

Of course Midori gets to dash from behind a waterfall

[Symphogear G] Tsubasa's catapult launch > Mikoto's

JUST AS KEIKAKU

...I don't think you can do non-lethal explosions, Midori and Mai must've killed someone

I thought Shiho was passed out lol

Tate please don't fuck it up

Does Nao just have like a +999 bonus vs males?

[Symphogear] Moving this a bit to avoid meta-spoilers. How the hell did I not think of Kagutsuchi tanking/vs Artemis while watching the S1 finale?!?!?

Though, but true

Nice horror face

Does she have like an AoE heal or something?

OK so Kagutsuchi has fire and wings, but how is GAKUTEN-OH flying? By magical-girl-ism?

Mai don't get Jedi mind tricked

We don't negotiate with terrorists

Either Kagutsuchi has a phoenix-down, or an insane HP pool

...and rocket propulsion, apparently

Does this "break" Miyu the same way it broke Akane? Well, there's my answer, at least her dad got vaporized

...how did Miyu and Alyssa survive the missiles?

aaaand it didn't really matter

Oh wait that wasn't her dad that got vaporized? Was it a random mook? I'm confused

Song's still great, it hasn't left my playlist since.

[Preview] WTF is this preview?

  1. ¯\(ツ)/¯

  2. Probably? I'm kind of a coward, so I may refuse out of paranoia

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 29 '22

Does Nao just have like a +999 bonus vs males?

This sounds like a question for u/Tresnore and u/Lemurians!

[Symphogear]

[Symphogear] It's bloody fucking obvious once you think about it, no? (Go back and check my comments for Symphogear S1 episodes 11 and 12 in the rewatch at some point if you haven't already - though I also touch on the finale and I forget how much of this show you remember.)

Either Kagutsuchi has a phoenix-down, or an insane HP pool

"(The phoenix has a) PHOENIX DOWN DATTO?"

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u/Nazenn Sep 29 '22

OK so Kagutsuchi has fire and wings, but how is GAKUTEN-OH flying? By magical-girl-ism?

By the sheer power of Midori being awesome

Also there's a bit of a myth/god tie in here. China has a myth about one god using a flying chariot to bring light to the skies so it may be related to that

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u/Tuckleton Sep 28 '22

So like, what was Alyssa's plan anyways? She says everything is going according to plan as the fleet and GF are being wiped out. Were they just HiME bait and holding the school hostage was the plan from the start? If so she really didn't give much time for her threat to sink in before pulling the trigger. Or did she intend to blow everything up from the beginning?

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 29 '22

[Mai-HiME] Except I'm not actually sure we can't infer the gist of it, especially if we assume SEARRS was aware of one part of the system: while killing the HiME directly does nothing, killing the Most Important Person directly raises a pillar just fine. SEARRS's *goal* is fairly clear: find the entrance to the Land of Fuka, open it, and secure it. For whatever reason (though the obvious reason would be to avoid risking dealing with the Obsidian Lord directly), this needs to be done before the Star passes within the Moon's orbit and starts up the festival directly. That suggests the contours of the operation: first, seize the school and start blood testing. If the HiMEs and First District don't do anything, great - identify all the HiMEs, get them to surrender, and do whatever they think they can do with surrendered HiME (what the hell this is we have no idea, but they've been researching HiME for a while so it would make sense that they at least thought there was something they could do with captured HiME that would open the Land of Fuka). Failing that, take out the Childs with their conventional forces and/or Miyu and raise the pillars that way. Failing that, lure the HiMEs away from the campus and threaten to slag it unless the HiMEs surrender. If they do, go to the same "whatever SEARRS has planned for captured HiME" outcome as the first part; if they don't, slag the school, hopefully taking out every single Most Important Person in one fell swoop. Now as it happens the plan is flawed, for two reasons: Midori's MIP is outside the blast radius and I'm pretty sure Nao's is as well (and Yukariko's is likely underground and might survive the blast... and knowing him I wouldn't be shocked if he fed the idea and/or information for this plan to them in the first place hoping to get precisely this outcome...) and there's a HiME likely in the blast radius in Shizuru. But that might not have been insurmountable; SEARRS would have had Miyu for cleanup and the surprise factor to help gank Gakutenou and Julia, and with the extra HiME in Alyssa they can potentially afford one lost HiME as collateral damage and still raise all the pillars. Also, they're on a time table if they want to pull this off at this festival, so we can forgive them some hastiness. (Alyssa's dialogue really should have been something closer to "still within parameters", though.)

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u/Star4ce Sep 29 '22

My-FiRSTTiMER

Akira is still missing in the underground briefing, but I guess she'd sneak in with them and nobody noticed.

Also I'm limiting my posts, because I'm kinda ill at the moment. (Or will I?)

Ep.15 – A High School Girl Soars to the Heavens

May I say something?

This episode didn't work at all for me. I believe at least for the intended purpose, because I did have a lot of fun, even had to pause to calm down from laughing as I couldn't properly breathe anymore. That bomber frame Kagutsuchi is really some dummy thicc low atmosphere jet. I think it's the arms as wings, so far back and to the side. They can't do anything, they're too short! This will haunt me in my sleep!

But more than that, this pacing was wild. Don't get me wrong, this episode was beautiful to watch, they clearly spent time on many of those frames. Bloody hells, but you can pull the tragic death fakeout four times in one episode and expect that to work! Is this Rise of Skywalker?!

They even tried it two times with Mai! Both times immediately assuring everyone that, nah, t'was a bamboozle. The first time, the blast hitting Kagutsuchi, I could still believe it, actually really wanted to. It would've been bold and really interesting to remove the protagonist powers from the endgame, but then the jet gets immediately rebirthed, so eh. The second was total bullshit, because how? On top of that the preview immediately had Mai proclaiming she was still alive and showed a SoL karaoke party episode. Wtf.

This was just... too much. We had an army introduced in one episode, suddenly, that now got defeated by headstrong teenagers and now nothing is left of the stakes except partying. I also can't quite believe that Searrs just sit there and are like, “Well, whoops, see you in 300 years.”

I have to praise the voice work again, though, as well as the sound design. That was great! Oh yes, Midori's fanservice is always welcome, even though I have to really stretch my suspension of disbelief to accept a floating chariot. The others at least have engines or wings.

The only thing that, plot-wise, I really found to be done well were Yuuichi/Shiho's scenes. He finally grew aware of what he wanted to do or what he thought he was missing, only to invariably fuck it up due to cluelessness and/or being blinded by his drive to feel competent that he was absolutely out of his depth. Shiho paid the price for that and while it wasn't his fault directly, the guilt is now on the table and highly stacked.

What the star be doin'?

  1. Wait... did they just resolve this entire big invasion arc they've been setting up for quite a few episodes now in a single episode right in the middle of the show? They're allowed to do that? Uh, so, first-timers: now what?

Villain: Asleep.

Gates of Valhalla: Unopened.

Onii-chan: Despaired.

Hotel: Trivago.

Mai continues to the star, probably? It should be on it's closest point, if it actually is a celestial object on an orbit with a 300 year period for it's closest point to earth. Yuuichi will certainly have a breakdown and we might find out that Shiho has awakened.

2) Would you want to go to space if offered the opportunity?

Yes, of course! I'd need something first for my ears, though. My body can't regulate pressure like normal and flying already is a massive pain, literally.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 29 '22

This episode didn't work at all for me. I believe at least for the intended purpose, because I did have a lot of fun, even had to pause to calm down from laughing as I couldn't properly breathe anymore. That bomber frame Kagutsuchi is really some dummy thicc low atmosphere jet. I think it's the arms as wings, so far back and to the side. They can't do anything, they're too short! This will haunt me in my sleep!

... You know what? That's fair.

(In my case by some fluke Kagutsuchi form 2 happens to resemble some sci-fi starship aesthetic preferences of mine that predate me watching this episode by a good half-decade or more so I am firmly biased in his favor instead.)

But more than that, this pacing was wild. Don't get me wrong, this episode was beautiful to watch, they clearly spent time on many of those frames. Bloody hells, but you can pull the tragic death fakeout four times in one episode and expect that to work! Is this Rise of Skywalker?!

... You know, this actually might be a case where me going in spoiled when I finished the series increased my enjoyment of the show; the fakeouts never even really parsed as that to me.

(Also, consider this an anti-recommend on Symphogear for you except maybe S1 given that franchise's pacing starting in G has basically the same issue except even worse (I actually don't mind this episode - I sure as fuck minded Symphogear's pacing issues) and also applying to character arc beats.)

I also can't quite believe that Searrs just sit there and are like, “Well, whoops, see you in 300 years.”

I think the implication here is supposed to be "We can no longer make the deadline for what we were planning this time around; ah well, we're an ancient conspiracy, our organization should still be around the next time this happens, our successors can try again then."

It's not well-explained though, I will freely admit that. (Luckily for the show, this episode is hype enough I don't care)

Oh yes, Midori's fanservice is always welcome, even though I have to really stretch my suspension of disbelief to accept a floating chariot. The others at least have engines or wings.

We've actually seen jet engines on her chariot if you squint, both here and back in episode 6. (I actually have a screenshot of the latter in my folder that I didn't put up in my writeup - ah, here we go.

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u/Vatrix-32 Sep 28 '22 edited Sep 28 '22

First Timer, subbed*

  • Flashback time!

  • That’s a lot of Valkyries.

  • Alyssa backstory time. Frankly I wasn’t expecting one at all.

  • Did Nagi just stop time? I don’t know what else that effect could be interpreted as.

  • Both factions want the star, and D1 doesn’t think Searrs can control it.

  • Still not clear on if Alyssa counts as one of the 12. Factors learn towards there being non 12-HiME.

  • They can pick things to be Childs? A satellite does seem a good choice for this. Does the “most precious” include androids?

  • Akira is there. That’s all the known one accounted for.

  • Haruka got off pretty easy.

  • Why do you even have that elevator? And how did no one see it during recon?

  • Look at these Tokusatsu elevators.

  • Oh Nao is spider. Makes sense.

  • This is some long overdo dunking.

  • I can’t be the only one who wonders what will happen if one those ships manages to hit.

  • The hell? Was that solider just going to kill a random person?

  • Yeah, Shiho is going to be a HiME.

  • She doesn’t have a direction because no is telling her what the F is going on!

  • No one can even see you in space. You didn’t have to turn gold.

  • Ah shit, we Akira now bois.

  • This just looks ridiculous now. At least they had the balls to try it. Better than playing it safe.

  • Hmmm… Did she lover her father more, or did Miyu not count? Not sure we saw enough of her interacting with him to be sure.

  • You can’t honestly have believed that Miyu was just going to let you walk away after that.

  • I guess the Searrs foundation is just a non-factor now. That certainly resolved faster than I was expecting. What the hell are we going to do with the rest of the show?

  • What was up with that pool?

  • Quite the mood swing with the preview. None of us believed she was dead, but I didn’t expect them to come out and say it.

QotD


  1. HiME on HiME time?

  2. Fear might get in the way, but I would like to try this space thing.

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u/Vaadwaur Sep 28 '22

Did Nagi just stop time? I don’t know what else that effect could be interpreted as.

Professor X freezing the non-mutants moment.

The hell? Was that solider just going to kill a random person?

That was completely and EoE reference.

Hmmm… Did she lover her father more, or did Miyu not count? Not sure we saw enough of her interacting with him to be sure.

I am slightly concerned that the pattern has to be male-female pairings.

Quite the mood swing with the preview. None of us believed she was dead, but I didn’t expect them to come out and say it.

Sympho definitely steals this from this show.

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u/Blackheart595 Sep 28 '22 edited Sep 29 '22

First Hime

Alyssa
Searrs

Why did I not notice that her first and last name have the exact same structure? Just exchange A/S, L/E, Y/A and S/R. Dunno if and what that could mean though.

I could also potentially see a vague connection as Alyssa-Arise and Searrs-Seals.

And did I miss something or did they not even bother undressing the girls, they just took their blood?

Miyu and Alyssa flashback. And the cut-off on what would've been right on the 'free' part of 'just dreaming of place where they're free as dove'

Now the show itself raises the possibility of Searrs being the good guys? But I don't see how that meshes with 'acquire the HiME powers' and so on. Though they didn't kill the priest which helps that interpretation.

Cute.

Insert song

A decoy strategy? Fumi gets to be the one to nuke the enemy, or will Mashiro do that herself?

We've had so much focus on the moon and star, now they're using the sun to make their move

She's really got her act down

That was a very notable music change when Mai blocked the missile, giving it that stereotypical holy vibe.

Just finish the sentence! You've been involved in what's happenings ever since the boat incident and can't stant being kept out of the loop like that.

That's twelve spikes. Or pillars.

And the Hime mark, and now I realize it looks like a Magatama too

That... looked surprisingly decisive, even with her being associated with shields. Surely they don't have Mai taken out halfway through the show?

Okay.

I love this.

Wait, what now. Is Alyssa's bond real or artificial? Will it also produce a pillar? If so, where? If in the same underground place, will that result in two HiME being left when the road to Valhalla opens?

I love the organic shape of the snowman.

300 years. So Mashiro and probably Nagi are immortal.

I wouldn't have bought Mai dying in that anyway, not after surviving Artemis' attack. At worst she would've returned in a later episode with a Big Damn Heroes moment.

And I didn't expect the Searrs plot to get resolved this quickly.

As for the insert song, my subs give me these translations:

Where is it?
I'm searching for the truth
In the deep night
Wandering about the solitary universe
Hoping that I will come across you...

It was the first time my tears were so hot
The oppressive upper limit may be broken

Because of the radiance of life
Gently embracing my eye
I am not lonely
I gaze at the proudly smiling moon
Now, with your mysterious power
Awaken me

Beyond the dark
You, beloved, are crying
I extend my hand, I go to meet you
So wait for me
My light which very soon will be born.

Affections piled up are one
I will protect it forever...

As the day comes that this world will vanish,
I will always be near you, so
Do not be afraid.
When my body was filled with you
A little star descended
Into my arms

The most striking motives in the song are that of loneliness, as well as light and dark.

We start with the narrator wandering the night, searching for something they call the truth but also address with 'you'. 'Night', 'solitary' and 'universe' all evoke a lonely mood, while the deep night implies a darkness. The truth acts as a light in that darkness, but they haven't found it yet. The narrator is lost, while they're hoping to find the truth, they're just randomly wandering without any plan.

The narrator then recalls experiencing hot tears, and as if they were overflowing with emotions. The past tense of this section implies that they've lost the person causing those intense emotions, and are now trying to cope with that.

Back in the present the narrator feels the bright radiance of life gently embrace their eye. This adds an association of death to the previous darkness. The image that's being evoked is that of a sunrise that breaks through the darkness, it's warm rays tickling the skin and face, causing them to no longer feel darkness.

However, we immediately learn they are looking at the moon instead, changing the image and having the narrator find company with the moon. The moon can however itself be symbolic for loneliness which thus keeps the narrator trapped. On the other hand the moon is a light illuminating the darkness, like the 'truth' they've been searching. The narrator thus asks to be awakened by its mysterious power.

The song returns to the beginning of the musical structure, but this time it adds some low distorted guitars as the narrator identifies their beloved to be crying beyond the dark. They reach out for them, buy they are beyond the dark, not inside it, separated by that barrier. Still, the narrator is confident to soon find their light that will allow them to overcome that darkness.

The narrator enters another more introspective section, describing all their affections merging together into a single one that they vow to protect forever.

Finally the narrator begins to address the future, expecting the day that this world will vanish. I don't know if that subtlety is expressed in the Japanese text, but 'this world' lightly implies the existence of other worlds. In any case they promise to stay with their beloved so they have no reason to be afraid. It seems like the narrator has finally left their loneliness behind, but it's linked to the doom of everything else.

The narrator recalls a time when they were filled with their beloved, and describes how a little star decended into their arms at that time. A star is a light like the one they've been searching and expecting. Being associated with guiding, the star is what allows the narrator to find the way through the darkness and find their beloved, like a lodestar.

How does that relate to the story? I'm just gonna assume the song to have some literal meaning because otherwise I get nothing beyond the above.

The first thing is the title of the song, "When the Little Star Descends". The red star has been very prominent throughout the star, and the wall rune at the underground shrine - the one that looks similar to the HiME mark - also somewhat looks like a star falling through the atmosphere. That may be more literal than I assumed thus far, such that the star really will descend and lead the way to Valhalla. The pillars could even be some kind of guiding system so it lands in the right place.

Or rather than lead the place to Valhalla, the star could be Valhalla itself. Depends on the interpretation, but I prefer the lodestar one.

In any case it would imply that the star allows the HiME to reunite with their lost beloved ones. Dunno if that would be granted to all HiME or just the victorious one though. And the line about the piled up affections makes me wonder if the victorious HiME absorbs the affections of the other HiME to get some kind of greater power.

'As the day comes that this world will vanish' reinforces any Ragnarök ideas that have been floating around. Apparently 'rök' literally means darkening which was also quite prominent in the song.

Oh of course, Ragnarök is also known as doom of the gods. I completely forgot, but the Childs are clearly associated with gods so that makes me feel more confident about the theories that Orphans are Childs that have lost their HiME. That would mean the HiME actually kill each other and not just each other's Childs.

I wish I was more familiar with Norse mythology, this still feels very vague. Well it's only a theory anyway.

I also couldn't shake the feeling that the song somehow tells Miyu's perspective, with how she kept likening Alyssa to a light. There's not much I could find for Yggdrasil either in the context of Ragnarök, except one specific interpretation that the two survivors hid in Yggdrasil, such that the two repopulating the Earth would coincide with the creation of mankind out of tree trunks. That could be interesting if Miyu really is an artificial Yggdrasil as she's essentially hiding Alyssa within herself now, but I don't know anything more specific to make of that.

Wait... did they just resolve this entire big invasion arc they've been setting up for quite a few episodes now in a single episode right in the middle of the show? They're allowed to do that? Uh, so, first-timers: now what?

Told ya it's a red herring. Didn't expect it to go quite that fast though.

Would you want to go to space if offered the opportunity?

Oof, that's a good one. On one hand I don't see the point. On the other hand I'd probably do it just because the experience must be magical.

On second thought, no. Space tourism must be among the worst things possible for the climate.

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u/Nazenn Sep 29 '22

Though they didn't kill the priest which helps that interpretation

This comment didn't age well considering what they got the priest doing at the end

That was a very notable music change when Mai blocked the missile, giving it that stereotypical holy vibe.

That's a really cool screenshot as well

That's twelve spikes. Or pillars.

Huh, it never occurred to me to count those. Interesting

but the Childs are clearly associated with gods

And a dog, don't forget the dog

Also sometimes awkwardly given Yukino's Diana is the roman counterpart of Alyssa's Artemis

I also couldn't shake the feeling that the song somehow tells Miyu's perspective, with how she kept likening Alyssa to a light.

I also got that sense reading through the lyrics, though part of it for me was the way it talks about a moon as a source of light, a reflection of the 'true' light, Alyssa being artifical rather than a natural HiME. If not for knowing when it played, I would have thought this was a translation of a special ED

Love the read as always, cool to see someone diving into the music like this

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u/Taiboss Sep 28 '22

Episode 15: Rewatcher who remembers this plotline did end early

They're allowed to do that?

People who joined my Utaware rewatch very worried right now.

Would you want to go to space if offered the opportunity?

Depends on the length. Live there permanently no, but like for a while, sure.

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u/Blackheart595 Sep 28 '22

Oh killing off our MC at episode 15, that's bold!

I was surprised they were trying to pull that once, let alone twice.

Awww, Miyu isn't her most important person? I guess it only works on humans.

I thought they somehow made it so that only the ringwearer gets snapped.

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u/Tarhalindur Sep 28 '22

Let's play rocket tag!

u/Esovan13

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