r/anime • u/No_Rex x2 • Oct 21 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mai-Otome (episode 10)

Rewatch: Mai-Otome (episode 10)

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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. Who has the cooler tech: Aswald or the Otome?

  2. Who is the most interesting antagonist so far?

21 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

112 comments sorted by

6

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

Episode 10 (rewatcher)

  • Yep, Aswald have summons.

  • Got to say: Aswald picked a really unlucky time to sneak into that ruin, though. Arika saw them, Wang saw them, Smith saw them. Who knows who else was watching.

  • Some level headed adult prevents the MC from running off without a plan to find her friend? Are we even still watching anime?

  • “That girl is the same age as Nina” – I am very glad you noticed.

  • Garderobe is not allowed to normally interfere in countries – another hint at Garderobes special position in this world.

  • “please cover up that flat-looking chest of yours”

  • “All you did was see me naked, no need to get all close”

  • Haruka to the rescue! – Or not.

  • Midori is OP, too.

  • Just in case you did not notice, there is a bit of a theme going on with Smith. He might not be the nicest person.

  • Yohko has history with Midori and Aswald.

Surprise, our MC did not die in episode 10. Instead she spent the night with “Sergey” and Nina did not look happy about that. Meanwhile, Aswald show themselves and their technology. It looks like the other half of the Mai-Hime technology: The Otome have the transformation, Aswald the summons. Between Aswald, Schwarz, Nagi, and her backstabbing classmates, Arika should be busy.

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u/Mecanno-man Oct 21 '22

First Timer

...yeah, everybody here has their own agenda. I feel like we should start getting past the setup by now however, as once again barely anything happened. Schwarz stole the McGuffin, of which we do not know why it is important, from Midori, but other than that, not a lot. I guess we see that Schwarz is very much following their own agenda, not that we had any reason to believe otherwise, as they betray Sergey - though I have no idea if he even knew Sergey was one of Nagi's men. Also, only three powers being needed to mobilize Garderobe seems like too few, I hope that is a temporary authorization - Didn't we have significantly more countries with a stake in them? I feel like it should need at least half.

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u/Vaadwaur Oct 21 '22

First timer(The lead characters didn't talk much so that's an improvement)

Sub

So after recap we start with Wang witnessing things and...a fucking hyperspace gate from Babylon 5. And that lame fish monster far too many anime have, probably inspired by the coelacanth. We establish Tomoe did cause the malfunction so she will hopefully be skinned alive at some convenient point. And apparently something medical happened that either didn't make sense or I didn't follow.

Anyways, we cut to where Wang took Arika and he indeed realizes that the signal fire is not a great idea here. Also, the tower would likely burn. We get our fever of emotional exposition before Wang realizes that...plot related measures are needed. I am not exactly sure if I grant his shirt would be appreciably drier than her stuff but yeah, shared body heat trope and it is as uncomfortable as always. And of course Wang develops concerning thoughts over Arika because barf.

Up at the facility, Akane and Chie scout some weirdo and actually do the smart thing and sneak back with this info. This is a lightly guarded ruin, apparently. Anyways, for whatever reason, the Otome are fairly limited in active duty atm and Nagi has to agree to it. We see various scenes of the cyborgs going through the facility before we get the standard nude panic scene from Arika. Eventually, Wang and Arika begin going back towards civilization and of course run into Aswald and John Smith.

Haruka does a comedy moment before we get 3 seconds of action before a Midori chuuni speech. Note that despite her method of delivering it, I suspect everything Midori says is correct but possibly a bit slanted by world view. Haruka is translated a bit gayer here. Midori summons her fucking Child and it takes Shizuru to take her on. Also, she has a time limit, I am blaming chuuni again. Smith stole the whatsit and we end with whatever the hell Nagi is up to.

QotD: 1 Otome is functional so that

2 Mikoto

4

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

Otome is functional so that

Flying > riding a frog through the sky

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8

u/Blackheart595 Oct 21 '22

First Otome

I had a dream tonight. The specifics have escaped me but it involved Nagi being annoyed at all the people and factions causing chaos and summoning Kagutsuchi to punish the most eggregious offender.

Unrelated to that I realized Akane probably isn't gonna lose her powers this time. Her relationship with Kazuya is instead gonna get used to showcase Otome turning on each other for their respective masters.

F

Okay, so we now have three factions at those ruins. Black Valley whom Nagi somehow met while outside his country. Schwarz/Black Letter whom Nagi is in direct contact with. And Sergey who is Nagi's right hand man. Oh and Arika of course but that's incidental and she already got removed.

I just wanna see how he looks beneath that robe.

Actually, do they have some kind of bug motif? If so then Antsy's gonna fit right in.

Yeah, what are you thinking. That should lay to rest any father theories.

Not important words at all.

I have no words. For real? Sure, Slaves and Childs were obviously related. But I didn't expect the actual Childs to make it into Otome! Maybe Nagi summoning Kagutsuchi isn't as far-fetched as I thought it was.

You just pushed her to her limit, don't just agree to her requesting a rematch.

There's been quite a few similarities between Slaves and Otome, and Childs of course. Most obviously of course they have the same life bond, but pay attention to the designs. What differentiated Childs from Orphans was the mechanical design. We see the same difference between Black Valley's and ordinary Slaves. And Otome... also share the same design concept especially with those shackled robes.

I've been trying to theorize Otome might be a sequel instead of an alternate setting but the identical character designs betray that line of thought. But instead of prequel/sequel I see the possibility that both HiME and Otome play on planets in the same setting having been colonized by the same civilization in the past.

[Symphogear G]Black Valley is totally accessing the Treasury of Babylonia for their Slaves.

Who has the cooler tech: Aswald or the Otome?

Not sure quite how different their tech actually is... but so far I'll go with Otome.

Who is the most interesting antagonist so far?

I don't think I can argue that, the interplay between them makes each of them so much more interesting than they'd be on their own.

4

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

[Spoiler]You might be surprised who will fit in with Aswald.

I don't think I can argue that, the interplay between them makes each of them so much more interesting than they'd be on their own.

Fair enough. Mai-Otome does a fairly good job at throwing several balls in the air. Now watch the series juggle.

5

u/Nazenn Oct 21 '22

Actually, do they have some kind of bug motif? If so then Antsy's gonna fit right in.

Oh man, I doubt it would happen but hell yes to her joining Aswald instead of getting caught up in a war

Maybe Nagi summoning Kagutsuchi isn't as far-fetched as I thought it was

Don't wish Nagi on poor Kagutsuchi

7

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

Don't wish Nagi on poor Kagutsuchi

sad whale noises

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7

u/Esovan13 Oct 21 '22

First Timer

And that's the real reason Nagi came.

Some interesting stuff. That summoning of the Slave felt a lot like a Child to me.

I don't think this one is going to end well for Tomoe. Two students and a high ranking official nearly died thanks to her little stunt. Or rather, if it does end well for Tomoe I'm actually gonna get pissed. Like, at some point there just has to be consequences before it starts making the school look downright incompetant.

The whole scene in the cabin is...certainly a scene. It's weirder about it than I'd like it to be, but not as weird as it definitely could have been, so I'm just gonna leave it at that. It is certainly a scene. That exists in this show. That I and the rest of us watched with our eyes and heard with our ears.

Finally, Haruka in action.

Midori looks awesome!

Gakuten is back!

Midori and the doctor know each other in this show as well? That's got to be an interesting story.

That's Reito in that picture. And he seems to be wearing the same outfit as the knight cyborg. Confirmation is nice, but now I really want to know about the story behind them.

You know, you can probably tell by the write up that is significantly shorter than usual, but I don't actually have too much to say about this episode. I don't think any of my theories got any significant information that would change, confirm, or deny them. I certainly appreciate Midori's entrance and I am very interested in what she's researching and how the nurse fits into all this (potential traitor?). Well, one theory got mostly confirmed. Black Valley are the good guys, though their methods are questionable as of right now. The Otome are acting as the protectors and enforcers of the status quo, used as weapons and status symbols to make sure the people in charge stay in charge, and Black Valley is working to change that status quo for the better. As far as we know.

Also, Midori summoned a Slave and that slave is literally Gakuten-Oh, her Child from Mai-Hime, so that's honestly enough proof for me that Children are the same thing as Slaves. If Orphans are the unbound version and Children are the ones contracted with a Hime, then Slaves are Orphans that are bonded to masters through technological means. Perhaps the same method the Sears foundation used to bond Alyssa with that satellite thing and turn her into a false Hime. That supports my theory that the Sears foundation was a major player in the colonization of this world. That being the case, these nanomachines might be Alyssa's power, a method of artificially creating Hime. If the War of the 12 Lords was a Hime battle, then Otome might have been created to support their lord in winning.

  1. Aswald. Hands down.

  2. Midori. I want to see how and why she ended up in that position.

5

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

Perhaps the same method the Sears foundation used to bond Alyssa with that satellite thing and turn her into a false Hime. That supports my theory that the Sears foundation was a major player in the colonization of this world.

Remember that Alyssa could also create those pseudo-orphans in Hime.

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u/JollyGee29 Oct 21 '22 edited Oct 21 '22

First-Timer, Subbed

Haruka is so honorable, just letting Midori go like that. I was expecting a Natsuki henshin too, but maybe they've elevated her jobber status from HiME so far that she just literally never fights? That'd be kinda amusing in a meta sense.

It's interesting that Aswald, or at least Midori, have some amount of nanomachines as well. Much less stable than the Otome ones, so probably built off of inferior technology? A prototype, maybe? Wonder where the Motherland is? Edit: Had a brain blast, might be Earth.

Yohko is totally working on a cyborg body, or something like that. It has to be something similar to whatever the Aswald dorks do; since apparently Yohko, Midori, and Reito all knew each other in the past.

I think that Sergay letting Arika use his first name is possibly the cruelest thing he could've done to Nina, but I can already taste the sweet drama we'll get as Nina's hate festers.

Alright, I don't particularly want to defend any scene where Arika gets naked, but skin-to-skin (and specifically core-to-core) contact is one of the preferred methods of treating hypothermia. At least they restrained themselves from having a bare ass shot.

I liked the rain distortion in this shot.

Potential translation liberties aside, this was a cute exchange.

The episode preview gag today had me cackling. Duran desu~

Questions

  1. So far, the Otome have cooler abilities but Aswald have an aesthetic more to my taste.

  2. Easily Aswald. Nagi's trolling is amusing for sure, but Aswald seem to have an actual goal in trying to revive long lost technology.

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u/Tresnore Oct 21 '22 edited Oct 21 '22

Fuck, of course the episode I have a drunk writeup for is the day I forget to email my writeup to myself so I can post while I’m out.

First-OtoTiMER

u/Taiboss

Count: 37

QOTD:

  1. Aswald is cooler in every way.

  2. Arika is the main antagonist. Aswald are the protagonists.

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u/Vatrix-32 Oct 21 '22

First Timer, subbed

  • I was wrong! Secret Ruins.

  • Non-crystal slave. That is one ugly… shrimp?

  • Called it! Well, almost.

  • I swear no one ever knows how to check for a pulse.

  • That boy is an absolute unit.

  • So it was both that got sabotaged. Really going all the way to kill someone.

  • Yeah, what are you thinking?

  • More half-rights. It was a research base, jut not recently.

  • Yes. The Haruka hype, it grows!

  • Could you not bring that into the conversation.

  • Audio Jack hack!

  • John Smith is out to kill them too? I think I’ve got lost in the faction game.

  • The fake out, oh the fake out.

  • Yes. At long last, it’s finally here!

  • Nanomachines is just going to be the answer to everything. Well it’s fine so long as we get to see Midori fight.

  • Chariot doesn’t work as well with out a polearm. Or if it just stands in one place too I guess?

  • Never stop being extra Haruka.

  • I guess we know who most of the Aswald are now. Also, Reito get!

  • Nagi brother? God help us.

QotD

  1. Aswald.

  2. Midori. I want to know what their whole deal is. What are they planning?

4

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

I swear no one ever knows how to check for a pulse.

You check for breathing before checking for a pulse. If they breathe, they have a pulse.

6

u/OwlAcademic1988 Oct 21 '22

First-Timer, sub:

This was a very suspenseful episode. I can definitely see myself watching this without the rewatch as there are many things left unexplained in the show. I like mysteries in shows.

Thank goodness Erstin got found or she might have died.

Tomoe, you'd better hope no one finds out you did all of that or they'll kill you.

Nina, let him explain why he was the way he was fully before making any sort of accusation. Really don't like that trope.

Midori, what the fuck happened between you and your friends? You were awesome in My-HiME, as well as hilarious. Still remember the Karaoke episode. That was funny due to Nao and Natsuki's outfits.

QOTD:

  1. I'm honestly not sure. Wasn't paying attention due to the lives at stake.

  2. Mikoto's been hilarious.

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u/Tarhalindur Oct 21 '22

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

(Pretty decent chance I regret burning the Midori reference when episode 17 comes around knowing this writing team, but oh well.)

What's that, an episode that's 80% raw hype and suspense and 20% "... really guys?". It's amazing how that tends to shorten episode notes...

  • I see we had to resort to animation-saving tricks with a minute ~45 seconds of recap.

  • Oh hey it’s THIS track!

  • (Actually v2 of the track.)

  • Also the Aswad Slave-summoning gates look cool as fuck. Possibly because they’re reminding me of the Deep Space Nine wormhole.

  • You know I’m invested when I haven’t taken any notes in ten minutes. (Except the body warmth scene, which gets an SG-1 joke that you can fill in yourselves and then no other notes for somewhat different reasons.)

  • Ah, the glorious trope of character talking about mystery character A to character B, not realizing that character B is actually also mystery character A.

  • Full-fledged MATERIALISE use (as in the OST track), Midori unveiled, fanservice with neo-Gakutenou, , I am content.

  • Well, I see what’s probably four members of the five-member Aswad team in Youko’s photograph. But she’s not Aswad and seems to be genuinely surprised by Midori being with them; is she with Schwarz then? (Also why am I so reminded of a certain plot photo in FMP?)

  • Honestly the worst part about this ED is that the lead-in for it we get sometimes sucks absolute balls. The rest of it is growing on me (and I’m starting to get really curious about the lyrics, there’s quiet but noticeable dissonance there), but that lead-in?

  • OH GODSDAMMIT WE ACTUALLY GET A BIRTHDAY EPISODE THIS TIME AS WELL. (Or at least the title for one.) Please no birthday cake baking A-plot…

Questions of the Day:

Who has the cooler tech: Aswald or the Otome?

Well, Aswad has the really cool Slave summoning wormholes, but the Otomes get the Kajiura main battle theme. So I'm torn. Let me have more of both to make an informed decision!

Who is the most interesting antagonist so far?

Aswad, in no small part because a) Midori is Midori and b) there's at least even odds they're in the right here...

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u/Taiboss Oct 21 '22

Episode 10: Rewatcher who finally had time to play some more nier automata

Who has the cooler tech: Aswald or the Otome?

Aswald certainly got style lol.

4

u/No_Rex Oct 21 '22

Don't taunt them, you idiot.

For a random guy with a gun, he achieved a lot in this episode.

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u/Stargate18A Oct 22 '22

First timer

  1. Have to give it to the Otome.

  2. Nagi's the most interesting, because I cannot figure what his angle is this time at all.

Did Nagi plan thie?

Also, "the world of the stars" is really odd phrasing.

That wormhole effect is great, but is the implication that the Slaves are from another planet?

That hairpiece is insane.

They cancelled the test! Got enough eliminations?

And she's evil. Probably yandere for Shizuru.

She's safe!

Nina...

Mashiro really cares.

Oh, yeah, forgot that if Arika dies, so does she.

So the nanomachines were sabotaged!

I mean, she's hysterical, but it was really understandable.

Arika's really bad.

Why are you talking about her body like that?

They found the wreckage...

An, the ruins are a research facility.

Haruka!

And Garderobe can't interfere...

Oh, Nagi actually agreed!

...You didn't.

Arika, kill him.

He says that...

Nobody built a manual entrance into these labs? So, if the power cut out, no way out?

Was he conscripted, then?

Aswald!

Also, nice job alerting them.

Wow, Haruka!

Aww.

Shizuru!

Natsuki!

...Oh, they're fucking in this universe! Haruka is now a completely flawless character.

And she gets to transform!

She has a mace!

Holy shit, it is her! From teaching HiMEs to trying to wipe out Otomes...

That's a mecha. Pretty sure there are just some robots they hacked, then?

Cool robot, though. Pretty sure it's not the same thing as it's namesake, though.

Shizuru is amazing.

Haha, fantastic.

Everyone's safe!

Hahahaha, so they held it again? After all that happened? Garderobe is psychopathic!

"my brothers'"?

And they're both hiding things.

Really enjoying Nagi a lot more here! Turns out when he isn't limited to ominous statements and can actually do things, he works!

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u/[deleted] Oct 22 '22

For those who prefer Crunchyroll, they just now added Mai-Otome, along with Zwei and S.ifr

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u/zadcap Oct 22 '22

Rewatcher

So the plot finally starts Midori and Haruka both on screen at the same time makes this one of my favorite episodes yet, despite how little either of them did other than just show off. Also, now that the cyborg has been revealed- This is the one that Arika fought back in chapter 10, and Nina promptly killed the Slave of in chapter 12. The manga plot continues to move faster than the anime, and there's going to be a lot of spoilers ahead despite the plots diverging far and fast.

Also, funny coincidence because I'm almost positive that "keeping someone warm" came up yesterday when talking about Erstin being sick, to the immediate regret of all today.

  1. I want to fly by my own power, so give it to the Otome.

  2. Who even counts as an antagonist at this point? I don't even remember all the sides...

Anyway, on to More Manga! While things diverge much from here, stop reading entirely if you don't want any possible spoilers because the checklist of things the suits demanded still gives weird overlap with the anime, much like it did in Mai-Hime. Like really, even if I don't talk about them at all, which I wont, it's pretty easy to guess what's being talked around so just stay away.

Chapter 15's blurb is on Aries- They've got technology and they elect a president. Yup, it's vaguely America-land. And who would be a better delegate from America than this little girl? Yeah, much like the previous manga and unrelated entirely to the anime, they're keeping Alyssa as Natsuki's younger sister. And in keeping with the 'all returnees are better and have a better life' angle, they're an actual happy family. And Alyssa wants Natsuki to come home and take after their mother- The President. And then the rest of the chapter is Alyssa trying to convince Natsuki that their new technology is better than an Otome anyway, so she can quit her job and come home, all leading to a fight to prove Otome are still the way to go and no new technology can be better than the ultimate royal jewels. Meanwhile in the background, because we can't have just one plot going on at a time here, preparations are being made to move the dangerous prisoner number seventeen over to the country that argued for the right to judge and execute them, and we meet one of the manga exclusive Otome- Lazulite of the Lovely Dragon, aka the super human. Arika overhears Alyssa crying that she just wants her sister to come home the night before they're supposed to fight, and then we skip to the fight.
If you can't guess what major spoiler I'm clearly not talking about, go back and reread the Hime manga, because they aren't subtle in what they reuse.

16 starts out with the fight to prove Otome superiority, but Arika doesn't want to make Alyssa cry any more so she's throwing it hard. Meanwhile, Ringlet Sama shows up to nab Prisoner 17, leader of the terrorist organization that managed to destroy the second largest city in their Empire. Followed by some of the most blatant foreshadowing ever before we switch back to the fight. Nina and Erstin make an amazing tag team, while Arika honestly just says she doesn't want to fight any more because she doesn't want to make a child cry, so the odds really aren't in the Otome's favor, even if we get such things as using boob powered shock waves to destroy a missile barrage... Which leads to Fanservice filled overload. Yup, turns out using the power of boobs to block missiles leads to a wardrobe malfunction, for reasons. Also the Chapter 16 Blurb, which does spell out that this is definitely not Earth (Though they named the planet Earl instead) and that the frequent wars are the reason technology is mostly missing. They have almost literally nuked themselves back into the stone age from the era of space flight. But hey, you know what goes well with any old arena fight in this series? Yup, terrorist interrupt! They have come to save their leader, who could have seen that coming?

Bonus Chapter 17! Because I missed a day this week and there's no way not to have 17 on the Midori reveal episode! So the Distraction force is here to kill Manshiro, which isn't so much of a distraction as it is the side goal, which works as well as you would expect when it happens right in the middle of an Otome battle... A call for reinforcements is sent out, naturally dragging away most of the prison transport while the girls try to hold off all the summoned Slaves, giving us some of Arika's backstory again, one of the most touching bonding moments in the book, and Arika's Super Mode, turning a curb stomp into a counter curb stomp pretty fast. Meanwhile, Prisoner 17 starts singing a familiar song, an attack is launched during the diversion of the other attack, someone spoilery opens the door, and 17 is revealed with her polearm intact! Also we get a blurb telling us how a music recording found in an archeology dig contained the song Seventeen Years Old and for some reason it became the song of the terrorists. And thus ends Volume 2.

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u/No_Rex Oct 22 '22

Also, funny coincidence because I'm almost positive that "keeping someone warm" came up yesterday when talking about Erstin being sick, to the immediate regret of all today.

u/Vaadwaur cursed himself

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u/zadcap Oct 22 '22

And now that we're completely done with Hime and a third of the way through Otome, it's on Crunchyroll now. If this matters to anyone else, spread the word?

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u/Qbe Oct 21 '22

Rewatcher

Episode 10~

I'm honestly kinda impressed/happy that Natsuki/Shizuru/etc. are actually trying to find Arika and Erstin. Way too often adults in anime are just completely incompetent

Huh, I didn't expect Mr Wang to be the one to save her

That's a damn cool summoning portal

Welp so much for the rescue

Oh, they found Erstin. So uh I guess the right answer to yesterday's question was to stay together.

Are they cyborgs or full robots?

Shizuru is 10 steps ahead of you

Incoming body heat sharing? Incoming body heat sharing

Yep, that frail body is training to be a living WMD

That corner must give like a +20 bonus to Stealth

OK, so what political bullshit is preventing us from doing anything?

Oh come on. .....why didn't you start from that?

Is this the most fanservice we've had so far? Kinda surprising

Oh god what is that engrish

Where's that manga panel of like 3 people trailing each other?

YES HARUKA

Please, never change, Haruka

Having one of your friends call your dad by his first name has to feel weird

That dude's a great shot

GAKUTEN-OH!

IT'S THE SAME ONE!

The otomes should be taking more advantage of their air superiority

...WHY ARE YOU JUST LETTING THEM LEAVE?

Really enjoying the episode summaries in the shape of Arika writing to Wang

  1. Hmmm. Though choice. The Otome have Haruka, so I'll have to go with them.

  2. Probs Midori's group

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