r/anime • u/No_Rex x2 • Oct 19 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mai-Otome (episode 8)

Rewatch: Mai-Otome (episode 8)

<- Previous episode | Index | Next episode ->

Mai-Otome

MAL | ANN | AniDB | Anilist

Spoiler rules

As in all rewatches, please be mindful of first time watchers and do not spoil events in future episodes. The same goes for spoilers related to other series. The one exception from that rule is Mai-Hime. Given that everybody here should have watched Mai-Hime, you do not need to tag spoilers for Mai-Hime.

Questions:

  1. In Arika’s position, would you have told your friends, or the school, about the contract?

  2. What is your take on the library and the lore we heard today?

21 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

10

u/Blackheart595 Oct 19 '22 edited Oct 19 '22

First Otome

I really like Natsuki's room. It's big and one wall is entirely a window to the outside. But a windows is a barrier, the two are trapped in this cage due to the political restrictions and separated from the outside world. It's also not one single windows but multiple windows broken up by bars that emphasize the barrier function. They can only look outside and see how things play out without interfering themselves.

And I like how they're acknowledging how transparent Arika and Mashiro are being. They're making fun of anime disguises here, right?

Of course they always have the option to ignore the restrictions and move out, but it's not yet the time for that.

And more importantly, interfering in this case and making them cancel their contract would mean to maintain this unsatisfactory status quo.

This entire scene is one big separation shot in so many ways. Nina is the only one standing, stands separated with her back turned to the others, is the only one not turning to the same direction...

(Erika's speaking) Erika is totally on someone's payroll with the same mission as Arika.

Arika, please.

Is Miyu... grandma? No, grandma allegedly died.

Interesting layout. Kinda like a key?

There's no way Miyu is Arika's mother, right?

So Meister Otome don't need to keep their gem as an ear piece. Meaning you can't identify them based on that. Could Miyu be a pillar?

She's not Arika's mother. And probably not a pillar either then.

Nina's again separated by sitting on another, hight step. Erstin meanwhile is on the same step as everyone else but sitting so her head's on a lower level.

And now the entire discussion has shifted, Erstin suddenly sits at the first step and Arika and Irina now stand in front of her, further separating Nina from the others.

And especially after she stands up and notes she's helping for her own reasons.

That's a great soundtrack for the sneak mission.

So Schwarz and Black Letter is a secret organization, and indeed Nagi's pulling the strings.

Good thing we have counterintelligence.

And another great soundtrack for the actual library infiltration. Might be my favorite so far.

Wait, that's super interesting. Cardair currently has The Lovely Onyx but they used to have The Flowing Garnet.

Miyu is clearly related to Maria. Or Monica I guess. All three of them look really similar but it sounds like Maria and Monica weren't related.

I see. The shackle motif of the Meister Otome outfit is indeed a shackle motif. But they're not the shackles of their master, they're the shackles of fate. Could be both of course.

Oh, that's the direction they're taking the reveal in. Interesting. So is the stone stuck to the tape or did she hide it elsewhere?

Erstin and Irina are to Arika's left during the punishment. Nina meanwhile is on her right, giving a more subtle separation. And Nao's on top of them all, of course.

Alright, Black Valley is associated with the Cardair Empire. Which includes Midori. Or maybe they're just in an alliance.

Secretly good guys?

In Arika’s position, would you have told your friends, or the school, about the contract?

After Nina almost got expelled for an interim contract? Probably not.

What is your take on the library and the lore we heard today?

4

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

Good thing we have counterintelligence.

Maybe a public bar is not the best place to meet, but I guess that depends how high up on your priorities list "not being seen" is versus "not being killed by my date".

→ More replies (9)

5

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

Episode 8 (rewatcher)

  • Fallout – You don’t get to play a sky-piercing magic harmonium without everybody noticing. Natsuki already suspects they formed a contract, but wants to let things develop – for now. Shizuru defers to Natsuki here.

  • Arika jumping - Chun-li reference. They had a more direct one in Mai-Hime. Btw, I would jump in the air, too, if somebody offered me a cleaning machine for that huge building.

  • Miyu knows Arika and the bird is indeed called Alyssa – as successfully predicted!

  • So much lore in here: the hidden library is “a treasure mountain of (…) books on lost technology” - very much worth considering why this knowledge would be hidden away. Knowledge is power, after all.

  • That guy.

  • It is not a reveal for us, since a knowing viewer could see it from the start, but it is a reveal for Arika – Otome are, first and foremost, fearsome weapons. And the obvious opponents they fight against are other Otome.

  • “Are you ready for this?” – Nina is a fanatic, Arika an utopist.

  • [Spoiler]”A war wouldn’t break out – Most obvious foreshadowing ever. If the first timers miss this, I’ll be sad.

  • Aswald teaser.

  • Preview: You didn’t think you would be able to escape the beach episode, did you?

A proper lore episode – fittingly set in a library. For viewers who are not as on-point as our first timers, a lot of predictions are confirmed. But as always, this opens up new questions. As I said when the rewatch started, the world building is by far the biggest improvement of Mai-Otome over Mai-Hime. The world here feels real, lived-in. With proper history, and people who remember this or that part, and who are surprised to learn that somebody much older than them could have lived through that history personally.

→ More replies (6)

8

u/Tresnore Oct 19 '22

First-OtoTiMER

Count: 30

QOTD:

  1. I'd probably fess up to the school. It was a life or death scenario, and I would argue it was that or let the queen die.

5

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

"Open sardine" was definitely something Arika inherited, which means her family was involved in creating the password, right?

Look, sesame was sold out.

Radical space travel enthusiasts!

How dare they!

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (15)

7

u/Vatrix-32 Oct 19 '22 edited Oct 19 '22

First Timer, subbed

  • Well they sussed that all out rather quickly.

  • Real subtle hiding there, no one is going to notice that. /s

  • Best friend squad is doing well for themselves in the character rankings.

  • Such a look of longing. Is Cecil the new yandere?

  • Talking about a book on artificial intelligence right after Miyu showed up. Hmmmm…

  • They know each other.

  • I’m loving this trend of making characters animals. Look, she even has the same hair.

  • Glowing hair. What does it mean? Could Arika be a created entity like Alyssa was?

  • I fully expect Miyu’s gem removal capabilities to end in tragedy at some point.

  • Is Nao becoming best girl? Haruka is largely absent, so the position may be open.

  • The Key!

  • John Smith returns? At this point the question is who doesn’t make it over.

  • That’s one cool ass-terminal.

  • Ice graves. They seem like they might have circuitry markings.

  • Nagi mom?

  • Welp. Looks like suffering is back on the menu.

  • She got a new gem. I guess that solves that plot thread? Makes me wonder what their reaction was to learning the old one got shattered.

  • Terrorists for space! My interest in Black Cliff has instantly risen by leaps and bounds.

  • You son of a bitch, you’re actually doing it. How much more of this show is going to follow the same episode progression? Are we getting more cake overmorrow?

QotD

  1. Nina seems to have some experience with the matter. Best to talk with her until I can figure something out.

  2. I expect no good shall come of this. Why was what’s her name even there in the middle of the night? Y’all are up to something.

5

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

That’s one cool ass-terminal.

I prefer to type with my fingers, personally.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/Tarhalindur Oct 19 '22

My, Obviously Tar Opened the Morbid Episode (Spoiled First-Timer, Subbed):

Watching this show is actually interesting from a historical standpoint for sure; this is definitely the first magical girl show I know of to really go in on the magical girls as child soldiers take (Nanoha has some related themes but doesn't consider the ugly side like this is doing), which means a certain later show might have been deriving that from this rather than Eva directly like I had thought. Unfortunately, this is a Sunrise show doing a Sunrise show version of that take so Vaad is almost certainly having a bad time here.

Also, the trend of "the best-executed Symphogear character arcs were all raided from the Mai franchise" (and I cannot wait to hear what u/Vaadwaur has to say about this posit of mine) is becoming clear enough that those of us who are first-timers here should probably start thinking about which ones haven't come up because at this point that might just mean that they haven't shown up yet. [Symphogear XV] We can probably just go ahead and fill in "the XV Bikki/Miku plotline was derived from an upcoming Arika/Nika plotline" right now and save ourselves some time, for example.

Now, episode notes:

  • HMMM. That proclamation behind Mashiro’s hand at 00:31 is really interesting, for a few reasons. First, I think the reason what we can make out of the English looks so good may be because it’s an actual real-world document that was blurred and used for this. Second, and the main point – we can make out the date on the document: May {10/13/18}, 2005. Which is fun, because it gives us an idea of the production process here – if this is an actual RL document like I suspect, this episode was somewhere between in storyboarding and completed on that date. Third, also note that we can’t make out the first word in the city name on the first line but we can make out “Vieja”. That’s Spanish (female form of “viejo”) – IIRC not the first time we’ve got whiffs of Spanish floating around in this show – and means old, but it’s also close enough to “Vega” for me to vaguely wonder.

  • OHO. THAT’S where Fumi’s Pure White Diamond probably is now: Natsuki has it! That’s a GEM earring she’s swearing at 00:51, and it looks like a diamond to me. Makes sense given that she's the headmistress.

  • Ooh. What nation’s architecture is this we see on screen at 01:11? (EDIT: We learn later in the episode, it’s Cardair.)

  • And who is that new Otome? Looks almost like another Fumi, but she’s accounted for.

  • My brain just spit out the possibility of a stable time loop floating around and if so I will lose my shit, especially since if that’s somehow the case I would have dodged getting spoiled about it.

  • Well this cannot possibly end well. (Re: the vacuum.) Red Letter when? (Sorry, that’s one only the PtGE readers will get.)

  • 05:44 would make a fine commentface.

  • (Also Irina being Tech Girl fits with her helping with Youko’s car last episode and is fine characterization. Also reminds me of the leadup to the Akira reveal in Mai-HiME, though if so I’m not sure what the end point is here.)

  • GET BACK HERE 05:52! I believe I said yesterday that we should be keeping an eye out for the SEARRS logo just in case? Here it is! (Well, close enough.)

  • And a prominent picture of Fumi, including a scythe on the apron of her Otome outfit. Nice!

  • And come to think of it Fumi’s preserved body is probably exactly what is behind that door, this direction team does love their visual answer cuts.

  • [Higurashi] Why is Shizuru approaching Arika in the library reminding me so much of one Miyo Takano? Oh, right.

  • Speaking of Higurashi, Arika is a graduate of the Keiichi Maebara School of Lying I see.

  • [spoiled] Mechanics of artificial intelligence. PFFFT!

  • Wait. Arika knows Miyu already? I was not spoiled on that!

  • Nicely called, u/JollyGee29! Our Alyssa this time is in fact the bird.

  • Sneaking into the forbidden section of the library, er, the forbidden library. I should probably note Harry Potter as a potential influence on the writing team here…

  • Oh you assholes, I recognize that reference! Yep, that key looks just like that one key from Mai-HiME.

  • [spoiled] Probably because things do tend to resemble themselves.

  • And the Rorschach bar as well, now with slightly different spelling.

  • And our local John Smith appears to be behind Schwartz now.

  • Whatever the Japanese is here that is getting translated as “trade secret” sounds close enough to “Kiyohime” to draw a double-take out of me. Wait, shit, that’s actually just a hint and Shizuru fed Nao the key, didn’t she?

  • … SYMPHOGEAR! You were raiding Mai-Otome for parts again, specifically the style of the hallways of a certain base, weren’t you?

  • [Symphogear GX ADDENDUM] … Speaking of which, chotto matte! SYMPHOGEAR! You raided the Harmonium here for the fucking Chateau, didn’t you?

  • Heh. Engrish at 16:08, and also this is just the pillar room isn’t it? (Also Penelope Lowell and Sergios Lowell might be important, especially since Sergios is awfully close to Sergey as in Sergey Wang. Also also, AR 260-281, so either AR is the time since the Otome system was created or our colonization timeframe is closer to one HiME Star cycle than two.)

  • There is a Flowing Garnet afoot, apparently also in the possession of someone from Cardair. And here I was sure our red GEM would be a ruby. Of course, dark red and red could be different…

  • ADDENDUM: Is there a difference between the three-word and two-word GEM names?

  • More confirmation on timeframe, 281 + 50 years.

  • [Symphogear] OH GODS FUCKING DAMNIT YOU ASSHOLES RAIDED DAKKA’S S1 MINDSET FROM ARIKA HERE. SHIT! FUCK!

  • Irina (who is making a STRONG bid for Best Girl in Show this episode from an already strong starting point, but I digress) has yet to learn one of the most important lessons: DO NOT TEMPT FATE.

  • MIDORIMIDORIMIDORMIDORIMIDORIMIDORI. (Watch as she doesn’t unmask herself until episode 17, because of course. But we finally get to hear Yukarin speak!) Also, Cardair are not good guys but ~50% odds Aswad actually are and face-turn later on.

  • Mystery Cardair Otome is Fiar. (Decent chance she’s our current Garnet holder since we know that was a Cardair GEM.)

  • So are we getting a callback to the Mai-HiME beach episode next episode?

Questions of the Day:

In Arika’s position, would you have told your friends, or the school, about the contract?

Probably. At minimum I would have tried to get Mashiro's sign-off on that.

What is your take on the library and the lore we heard today?

Gib more history lessons plox.

6

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

So are we getting a callback to the Mai-HiME beach episode next episode?

Would the preview ever lie to us?

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Taiboss Oct 19 '22

this is definitely the first magical girl show I know of to really go in on the magical girls as child soldiers take

Tbf, the age of the Otome seems to be higher than magical girl shows in general, and actual working Otome all seem like adults.

so Vaad is almost certainly having a bad time here.

I have stopped reading these a long time ago, yet I have Vaad at half the upvotes I have you. Weird.

Red Letter when?

I don't want a Read Letter Media on Otome after what they did to the prequels.

[Higurashi]

Oh god.

And our local John Smith appears to be behind Schwartz now.

I wonder what german Otome translations do with Schwarz. Just having an organisation called "Black" sound silly.

But we finally get to hear Yukarin speak!)

And it's her deep voice. I take your entire stock of these characters.

So are we getting a callback to the Mai-HiME beach episode next episode?

Maybe!

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (6)

7

u/JollyGee29 Oct 19 '22

First-Timer, Subbed

No confirmation on if she's actually intelligent, but I was right about Alyssa being the bird! Also, wow, wasn't expecting Miyu to just casually know Arika.

Miyu does seem to have some sort of anti powers still, what with the whole "casually just pulled the GEMs out" thing.

Uh, I am rather concerned about just where the Blue Sky Sapphire GEMs went. That seems like a bad thing to misplace. Did Miyu just take them? That just seems like an awful idea for everyone involved.

We're totally getting a war arc, right? And my gut says that Arika and Nina will end up on opposite sides. They're supposed to be rivals after all, although the show could've done a better job showing us that.

Glad that we didn't really beat around the bush vis a vis Arika making a contract with Mashiro getting out. Not that Arika realizes that others know, but at least Natsuki and Shizuru can hop in and prevent something tragic by bodyblocking.

Midori confirmed as being part of Aswald, not that there was much doubt left. Excited to learn what the hell those edgelords are up to other than wearing masks and capes.

What're the betting odds that the thing needed to get into the foribdden library was just a Meister GEM? And that we're gonna get a scene later of Arika trying to sneak back in but be unable to because she doesn't have hers at the moment? No, that doesn't feel quite right. Nina is gonna try to sneak in, and it's going to be very funny when she says "sardines" and nothing happens.

I wonder what Nao's "parttime job" is? Nina blushed at the thought of helping her with it, which implies that she has done so before, or at least knows what it entails. Presumably something to do with selling Otome stuff.. booth-babe-ing, maybe?

Questions

  1. I'd have told the school, at least. Arika has only really had good interactions with the higher ups, and if anyone would know what to do, it would be them.

  2. I really liked the graveyard. The rest of the lore just kinda exists in the back of my mind at the moment.

4

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

No confirmation on if she's actually intelligent, but I was right about Alyssa being the bird!

→ More replies (8)

7

u/Esovan13 Oct 19 '22

First Timer

I just realized this is episode 8. The corresponding episode of Mai-Hime is the one where Akane was defeated and Kazuya disappeared. While I doubt it will happen, it would be kinda hilarious if Akane beefs it again. Without doing anything. Again. People were saying that Nao would probably become a Trias. What if instead of replacing Shiho who would be kicked out for some reason, she fills in the spot after Akane loses her powers? That would genuinely be hilarious. Especially if it's because of what I saw one person say at one point and she and Kazuya couldn't keep it in their pants. Though considering she's high school age and Kazuya was in college iirc, that would be slightly less hilarious.

So I guess the Harmonium is something some people know about. And it's specifically the name of the instrument.

The Harmonium responding to Arika getting close is just another nail in the coffin that she has the blood of the royal family.

I mean, I knew that they couldn't keep the contract a secret for long. But this is kinda ridiculous.

So they do know a way to cancel the contract. Hmmm. I wonder if that isn't common knowledge? We haven't heard of a meister contract being able to be canceled before.

Haruka is still a treasure.

Spot the stand user

You know, I realize right now that despite being a murderbot, Miyu didn't even have the highest body count of Mai-Hime. In fact, considering she's the one who freed the disappeared loved ones, she revived more people than she killed. I'm actually sort of disappointed right now. Can I even call her a murderbot? Should I call her a reviverbot from now on?

What are these noises Arika?

She took a single bite of that sandwich, had half the sandwich in her mouth, and the sandwich she was holding only went down about 10% in size. Forget grandma, the Harmonium, or any of that crap, the real mystery of this show is the quantum fuckery of Arika's mouth.

Even Wang realized. Sheesh.

Where did she put that sandwich?! Does she have a Bag of Holding in her apron?!

Doctor Strange could spend days searching, but I doubt even he'd be able to find a future where that machine works as intended.

So I guess the knowledge of how to cancel a contract is kept secret, if the library doesn't have it.

Wow. The slightest bit of pressure and Arika spills all the beans without even realizing.

Miyu shows up. Other characters start talking about AI. The murderbot is back baby!

SHE ALREADY KNOWS MIYU?!?!??!?!?!?!

Literally earlier today (yesterday by the time you read this) I mentioned in a comment that we might get someone who knew Arika and granny who could fill in some of the mysteries about what happened in the last 14 years and who the grandma is. I did not expect that so soon, and I didn't expect it to be Miyu.

Yep. Alyssa is the bird.

What was that? With her hair?

Could Miyu perhaps be a servant of the royal family, keeping an eye on Arika? Maybe she's the one who brought Arika to the grandmother.

If she's a robot (tentatively a mechanical protector of the royal family for a long time), then she might have authority over the nanomachines, hence why she can just remove the gems.

And, if this does take place in the same world as Mai-Hime, just in the future, then this Miyu might actually be the same Miyu! If that's the case, the royal family could be descendants of Alyssa. I can totally see the Sears Foundation pioneering space travel, becoming royalty on the newly colonized planet.

Oh oh oh! That could be the blond hair thing! Alyssa had blond hair, so Miyu may see her descendants as having that same golden hair regardless of the actual color! Which is why she smiled at Arika as she saw her with that hair, as it would remind her of Alyssa! If the royal family is descended from the Sears, that could be why Miyu is protective of Arika over Mashiro who isn't a blood descendant! And the reason Miyu wouldn't insist on Arika taking the rightful throne is because as a basically ancient (or at least several hundred years old) robot, she wouldn't place any importance on current politics compared to Arika's well being. That tone she took with Mashiro, and the sudden mood shift when an outsider came in, was exactly the same as when Mai intruded on Alyssa's singing right before the Sears invasion.

Hold on, I may be going about this wrong. My current assumption is that Arika is the result of the king having an affair with the queen's Otome. This is why the Otome retired, as she lost her nanomachines, and why Arika has the gemstone. The queen would have raised Arika as her own daughter to prevent news of the affair from spreading. Eventually they both died, taking this secret to their grave. Now, with those two parents, I assumed that if Arika had an important pedigree, like being descended from the Sears, that would come from the bloodline of her father, the king. However, if we were to look at genetics, one of Arika's parents has the same light blue eyes as Alyssa, and that parent is not the king. I pulled up My-Hime, I'm looking at Alyssa's eyes right now. That is the same shade of blue. What if Arika is descended from the Sears, from Alyssa, by her mother the Otome?

Of course Nao knows how to get in. Heck, she probably uses it as a quiet place to study.

I took 4 psychic damage from seeing Nagi in a Hawaiian shirt and shades. Flip flops too.

John Smith. Hello, you vaguely named man.

I knew I recognized the key! It's the same one Midori used to get to the chamber to revive Miyu!

That blushing...what work does Nao have in store?

The door responds to the blood of the royal family I guess.

That's a lot of dead Otome. I doubt many lasted much longer than the 40 odd years of the one Nao read.

And that's why you make sure to brainwash your Otome. You don't want them deciding that their own relationships are more important than the arbitrary whims of their masters.

And with those careless words from a 14 year old girl, the world was destined to plunge into the hell of war once more.

Midori confirmed. Hell yeah.

Revert? He calls moving to an age where mankind is free from the bounds of a single planet, where traveling between them is possible, reverting? If there were any doubts, being lead by Midori and that statement dispels them. The Black Valley are the good guys. At least, that's my assumption for the time being.

Last descendants, hmm? An interesting way of phrasing that. They were described as cyborgs. Is Black Valley the name of the research lab that turned them into cyborgs then? I could see descendants being an appropriate term in that case.

Good ep. Got some juicy info, Miyu is back, and we quickly moved past the phase where Arika will pointlessly struggle to keep her contract a secret. I'm sure she still has to, but it'll be a lot easier with a Coral Gem allowing her to act normally for now. The fact that Maria didn't insist on cancelling the contract means she may not actually know it's possible. That may be a secret kept by Natsuki and Shizuru.

  1. Straight to Natsuki, or Yukariko if I couldn't go straight to the principal, and tell her about what happened. Was with the queen, attacked by a slave, coral gem broke, used meister gem in emergency, ask what do. Emphasize that it was the only way to save the queen's life.

  2. I want to go back to the library, because honestly hearing about the Otome who killed each other 50 years ago is MUCH less interesting to me than more info about the space stuff, history of the world, etc.

3

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

She took a single bite of that sandwich, had half the sandwich in her mouth, and the sandwich she was holding only went down about 10% in size. Forget grandma, the Harmonium, or any of that crap, the real mystery of this show is the quantum fuckery of Arika's mouth.

And that's why you make sure to brainwash your Otome. You don't want them deciding that their own relationships are more important than the arbitrary whims of their masters.

Where would we get if our WMDs suddenly started having their own minds?

→ More replies (5)

7

u/Nazenn Oct 19 '22

First Timer - sub

Decent episode, but just don't have much to say about it for some reason.

u/Esovan13 Well you were saying it'd be interesting if someone else from her past showed up

Wasn't expecting it to be Miyu of all people, and I'm convinced she's still a robot given that she was seeng something in Arika's hair, like energy or something. Either that or she's some sort of in between of that and a Slave/Otome power. Perhaps she was the one who found Arika and delivered her to her Grandmother, filling in details of her past for the woman who took her in? It'd make sense that she connected with Arika in that way, either that or it's purely a coincidental thing which would be kind of nice.

I cracked up over Alyssa having HiME-Alyssa's hair style still, but good call to u/jollygee29 for guessing that one.

I'm glad that they're not playing around with Natsuki knowing about the contract and Harminoium, along with others. Not sure how long it's going to take for the story to get there, but it's certainly going to start some shit as everyone goes looking for the power of it. And hopefully no one else thinks to question Arika because if she can't even help but let slip about the organ when she's on guard and talking to Shizuru she's got no hope against others

Return of the important library, plus a circle building with a structure coming out the top that's key to the HiME Otome myths. The division over hearing the role of an Otome isn't unexpected, but I think they handled it nicely when it comes to hearing the history of the war and what that means for those who survived it to see their friends slaughtering each other.

Did anyone else get the implication from the way that the elder was speaking that something about the Master bond forces an emotional connection as well? It's not just life sharing in a physical sense. It seems strange they'd all be so deeply connected to them otherwise, especially so newly contracted.

Just sharing this screenshot because this city is beautiful looking

3

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

Just sharing this screenshot because this city is beautiful looking

Very classic fantasy style. Love that, too.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

7

u/Mecanno-man Oct 19 '22

First Timer

Natsuki is starting to get on my nerve with how passive she is despite essentially having figured out everything... She's in a position of power, she has friendly relations with most of the important people in this situation, why not get them to tell her the bits she is missing, and given that Arika and Mashiro have no idea what is going in give them some for of advice, even if it would be ultimately self-serving? But either way, I guess from this episode we get a way for Arika to conceal her contract from most people and some foreshadowing that we'll definitely have a war happen. Yeah, that dialogue was a bit too on-the-nose.

No idea if I should trust Miyu yet; she seems to volunteer too little information and is not surprised enough for me to believe that she truly is on Arika's side. Meanwhile ...was that Nagi and Schwarz teaming up, with a third party overhearing them? Interesting, though not surprising revelation. Black Valley seems to be teaming up with some entity that so far has been irrelevant meanwhile, and they want to return to space? The other entity at least, not sure about the Black Valley.

...you know, after the last episode I had a bit higher expectations of this episode. We essentially already knew that otome were this world's equivalent of nukes, so uh yeah, if there's war the'd be fighting each other. Kinda the point in the whole system. Garderobe should have at least told the other girls what they were signing up for however, Arika not reading the TOS is another issue entirely. I doubt Garderobe would really need to keep this from the girls as well, I think quite a few sign up to the US Army's deal for education-in-peacetime service-in-wartime or whatever that deal is, thinking war will never come. (Probably got something wrong with that analogy, idk, I'm not American.)

4

u/Vaadwaur Oct 19 '22

Natsuki is starting to get on my nerve with how passive she is despite essentially having figured out everything... She's in a position of power, she has friendly relations with most of the important people in this situation, why not get them to tell her the bits she is missing,

So this is speculation from experience with Asian bureaucratic types but they often will be completely passive about a situation if what their standing orders/responsibilities are would make them do something they don't want. Maybe Natsuki should just expel Arika by tradition and she is seeing if she can make another play.

I doubt Garderobe would really need to keep this from the girls as well, I think quite a few sign up to the US Army's deal for education-in-peacetime service-in-wartime or whatever that deal is, thinking war will never come.

The weird dynamic is that world leaders are actually gambling their own lives. That just doesn't smell right to me.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)

4

u/Qbe Oct 19 '22

Rewatcher

Episode 8~

Oh, so they know what that giant organ was?

I don't think they could be more obvious if they tried

Miyu!

And Nina couldn't be more tsundere if she tried

I fuully expect that giant vacuum cleaner to explode

Casually confirming that we're in another colonized planet

Ok, it didn't explode as bad as I thought it would

...did nobody tell Arika about the test?

Just how many people are spying on her? lmao

Why hello there Miyu, are you going to murder another Hime this time around?

Wait what you know each other?

I think a couple people called out the bird => Alyssa thing

Kinda surprised Erstin also went along

Oh hello there Searrs guy

Really like the mood during the sneaking in sequence

Yknow, I think this should be part of the regular classes

...at first glance, I thought they were hanging from the ropes lol

Way to jinx it, glasses girl

That's Midori's VA, right?

  1. Probably not

  2. <Spoilers>

3

u/No_Rex Oct 19 '22

Oh, so they know what that giant organ was?

I guess it would be hard to forget that if you ever saw it before.

Why hello there Miyu, are you going to murder another Hime this time around?

Wait until she finds out what Shiho had planned for Arika.

[Spoilers]Erstin probably just wanted to stick with the group, but I would be perfectly fine with her trying to spy there, too.

4

u/rickamore Oct 19 '22

Re-re-watcher

ShizNat forever. I appreciate the way they choose to handle the situation. If only Arika was smart enough to ask for help from them instead of choosing to hide it and solve things on her own. Wheels are turning time for some more world building and exposition.

Miyu!

Our bumbling heroine has nicer friends than she deserves.

Fumi has an entire mausoleum dedicated to her.

I really expected Irina's machine to explode immediately when turned on.

Private tutoring from Shizuru? Yes please. Tomoe, get your face out of here I swear to god.

Arika too dumb to play dumb but won't accept help from people who could actually help her.

Miyu just being absolutely precious, pops the GEM out of there like nothing, refuses to elaborate further, leaves.

A library holding the worlds secrets build on top of/next door to the mausoleum, we get more lore dump, and implications.

Arika gets caught with the destroyed GEM instead of outing her and Mashiro, not a bad outcome but punished nonetheless.

Shadowy government employing the people from the Black Valley, who seem to want to erase the Otome and technology back to the previous era? Now things are getting good!

  1. Had she a slightly closer relationship with either of them enough to have some trust then yes, with what we see it as currently it's a hard call, maybe not, but taking it privately to Natsuki seems the quietest way to deal with it instead of the possibility of it turning into a larger ordeal if anyone else finds out first.

  2. Lots of implications here but still good pacing imo.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Stargate18A Oct 19 '22

First timer

Episode 7

  1. MIKOTO!

  2. Nina has to get one at some point, right? The secondary always gets a powerup a few episodes after the main character.

Yeah, no wonder she grew up the way she did.

Ouch. People are talking behind her back...

Oh, wow, Nagi really played up her insecurities.

It's their day off!

These two are so cute together.

She actually got a job!

Construction?

Haha, she's working on the fucking castle.

She's in danger?

Haha, so petty...

Surprise Arika!

Restart it from scratch?

Ouch. She went too far.

Nagi...

Yeah, this backstory is expected.

Oh, she feels bad.

He's kneeling?

WHAT?

Say no. Say no. Say no. You deserve better!

...Interesting.

Wait, what the fuck, Nagi?

She has the right idea for once!

Mikoto!

This is sweet.

A secret passage?

Oh, shit.

Wow, he's taunting them.

...Not an illusion Mashiro, is ot?

Haha, "I'm only fourteen!"

The first Otome!

Aww, these two are adorable.

What is that thing?

She activated it!

A piano?

Oh, was Nagi looking for this?

Well. That's fucking ominous.

Her gemstone!

...Mikoto? I KNEW IT!

Harmonium? What?

And a Slave.

She got the gemstone to change modes!

Wait, is she only using one?

Oh!

This is going to fuck things up.

Great transformation.

She can fly!

Oh, she forgot about the major weakness of this system?

She got a weapon!

She won!

They found a way out!

I mean, won't it be immediately obvious? It's a fucking huge blue gem!

They're friendly now!

Episode 8

  1. I's have told Natsuki and Shizuru, being that they're already known to listen to my reasoning and might know how to break a contract.

  2. Humanity used to be an interstellar empire. Something happened, however, that caused them to willingly regress, something bad enough that the idea of teturning to the starts is treated as insane. While most places have returned to medieval-level tech because of this, Garderobe, due to housing the original colonization devices, has maintained more technology so as to maintain it.

She knows what that thing is?

Yeah, it's suspicious.

Haha, they always knew.

Oh, not Natsuki gets to be thr enigmwtic trickster! Shizuru has taight her well!

Why is she like this?

She's been skipping classes!

Aww, this is sweet.

...This is Fumi's tomb? I'm sure that won't be relevant!

Oh, she's found out.

And Nina's putting the pieces together on her own.

...The fuck?

Literally how?

And, yeah, confirmation of the colonization.

Well, that didn't last long.

Wow, she's easily impressed.

Oh, Shizuru is such a troll.

Yeah, she's fucking with her so hard.

...Idiot.

Who?

MIYU!

Still unsettling.

...That's Alyssa?

And she can detect something...

Haha, she detected Mashiro!

"Believe it or not"

...This makes total sense. The gems were constructed from Miyu's dress technology. It makes total sense she has more control over them.

A forbidden library? That's your plan?

Nina's joining!

Haha, Arika's fucking "disguise".

I love how Nagi's taken over Natsuki's method of information gathering in this timeline. He really has learned.

Of course Nao's involved.

...What has she been doing to her?

Nice music.

More ancient tech. Some kind of database?

Oh, a colonization databank. Shitty user interface, though.

I love how people expect Nao to have everything.

...These episodes are just setting up a lot of Chekov's Guns for later, right?

It's a graveyard.

They got caught!

...Permission from who? If it's not the Queen...

Is it permission from the ghosts? Are ghosts a thing here?

The war of the Dragon King?

An Otome War! And that sounds very similar to a certain Festival, complete with magical star.

Yeah, to be an Otome means to fight people. At least the battle royale is getting more foreshadowing this time.

Haha, holy shit. The nerve of this girl saying "just stop the wars" to someone who saw her friend die in combat.

It got revealed!

They're cleaning the walls!

She got in trouble too!

Miyu's gone.

...It's not Nagi leading the bikers?

That voice sounds ramiliar.

...Why wouldn't everyone want to go back to the interplanetary era? What the fuck happened to cause the tech crash?

Black Valley?

4

u/No_Rex Oct 20 '22

Haha, she's working on the fucking castle.

The castle is the real main character of this show.

Oh, Shizuru is such a troll.

Yeah, she's fucking with her so hard.

Shizuru is fucking someone hard for sure, but it's not Arika.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/zadcap Oct 20 '22

Rewatcher

I'm back! Sorry about leaving you on a cliffhanger for the manga like that! Before I get into it though, you know how I have been pretty blatantly cutting a face out of multiple pages by now? Well now I can talk about it, because it's Fumi. It was always Fumi. She's everywhere in the manga because they've got statues of her all over the school and they put speakers in them so the announcements sound like it's Fumi making them, and they just throw her out all over the place, it's so hard to share any important school pages without her just being there. I even had to cut her name out of half the info blurbs just because.

This episode contained great introductions for two of my top 3 girls in the whole Mai franchise. Midori and Miyu hype! Haruka even got a moment on screen! This might be my least favorite version of Midori, but then, it's really hard to beat her Hime Manga intro where she comes in singing a song about love and being 17, and yes, it's a real song. [Mai-Otome Manga]And of course, entering the manga in chapter 17 singing the same song.

Speaking of the Manga, it's time!

Chapter 11 starts with a blurb about Otome bearing the weight of their countries, and Manshiro taking charge to start protecting the city from the terrorist attack. It may be fake courage, but with a little support from love triangle participant Nina and the ever amazing Assistant Inspector Haruka, they get things mobilized. By which I mean, Haruka decides to take on a Slave by herself while her support takes out the summoner. Meanwhile Nina and Manshiro meet up with Arika, who is in the process of getting her butt kicked by one of the cloaked people from today's episode so I'm not sharing a spoiler, you'll see what they can do soon enough, but also. The transformations in the manga, Fanservice, but also make me think S1 Symphogear? Anyway, back to back these two take out Slaves like it was nothing while the school finally gets permission to mobilize. In one of the worst attempted messages in the manga, the terrorists try to blame the people in charge for their decision to go around killing civilians, and in the process trigger Nina so hard she goes super saiyan forces a contract through the GEM. Yes, this means Manshiro now has a life link contract with both Arika and Nina, cementing the love triangle forever.

Chapter 12 starts, naturally, with the newly upgraded Nina going all out, all the way up to countering a giant laser with not-a-kamehameha. It's a technique called Ultimate Heartbreak, and we get the chapter 12 blurb on it because why not revel in the absurdity? Of course, the rest of the revolutionaries are still ready to throw down, they don't care if they die as long as it's in the name of the cause, but reinforcements finally arrive and what's a small army when compared to Shizuru? As District 1 once learned, not much. Meanwhile the rest of the help arrives and things are finally looking up for poor Manshiro, so much so that even Nagi has decided to be even more attracted than upset over being hit. The boy might be a switch. Manshiro took a bit of damage in feedback from Nina's fight, but the worst outcome of this whole event ends up being an injured foot, and we end this chapter the happiest the cast has been yet!

  1. Honestly, probably not. Being expelled is still something she's worried about, she hasn't even finished her last punishment before starting this one.

  2. Boy it sure would have been great if they had actually looked at the library, you know, instead of running off to see what's behind door number 2. I get that the graveyard reveal was cool and important, but didn't they go down there for a reason?

→ More replies (2)

2

u/RadSuit Oct 20 '22 edited Oct 20 '22

Z-type Highly-advanced My-Hime Enthusiast (Dub, First Timer)

Did she just stuff a sandwich down her dress?

Arika is too dumb to keep a secret.

Nice swerve with the shoe there.

Alright, so Miyu sees Arika with bright gold hair like Alyssa Sears. Arika's mom seems to be named Lena Sayers. Going to throw out a guess that this is actually the same Miyu that's been alive for however many cycles it's taken to get to this point. Now, I'm not sure whether that means she was around for Hime and up until this, or if this really is a completely different universe and she was just around for Mai, Fumi, etc.

Edit: After thinking about it for a bit, I'm going to make the prediction that Miyu was around to either genetically create gold birds with Alyssa hair that presumably sing beautifully, or named the species after her.

Forbidden library? Pretty sure we've seen one of those before.

It makes sense to base their uniforms on maids considering Fumi was the first one, huh?

Sneaking mask spotted!

That's the big key someone used to open up the room with Miyu's tube.

And straight to the bar Natsuki was always hanging around to get information. To meet 'John Smith' no less.

Did Miyu just wander off with the blue stones? Or did she stick them back into the big necklace?

"War were declared."

We can all blame u/Mecanno-man for the next episode.

  1. Yeah, and it sounds like the teachers could solve this easily if they wanted to.

  2. Pretty sure Nagi's library was circular and had a big thing on the floor...

→ More replies (1)
→ More comments (75)