Mai-HiME: Still great after all these years…
March 31st, 2010
10/10 Baka-Raptors agree… best couple ever
Since the recent Mai-HiME Blu-Rays were released to the world, I’ve been rewatching this classic (am I allowed to call it that yet?) series from 2004. Not to be confused with it’s vastly and increasingly inferior ’sequels’, the original Mai-HiME still ranks as one of my favorite animes ever. Coupled with the DVD extras following each and every episode and a new director’s cut final episode, this was a pure joy to watch.
Although not as cute as almost everyone else in the show, you still gotta love Mai!
Produced by Sunrise (makers of Gundam) and set in modern day Japan, Mai-HiME centers upon the story of Tokiha Mai, a young high school student, who along with her sickly younger brother Takumi receive a scholarship to enter the prestigious Fuka Academy. While on their way to the school, Mai encounters two girls – Mikoto and Natsuki – who with their sword fighting and ‘load silver-cartridge’ using powers try hard to kill each other. It is then that Mai discovers that she has super powers of her own. Even from the first episode, the story starts off with a bang, and doesn’t let up until the finale.
Blending multiple genres including MAGIKAL GIRL, high school hijinks, drama, comedy, action, robots, student council goodness, and emo face distortions, Mai-HiME was one anime that did it all, and indeed paved the way for future genre-bending shows like Code Geass as well. The sheer number of intricate plot twists and conspiracies in the show made it one of the funnest shows around to follow. In fact it was the amazing blogging world interest in this show that was one of the biggest factors that really got me into blogging in the first place. I’ll never forget how closely everyone followed this show week by week. The weekly predictions were really fun to follow made the show even more enjoyable. This show was also notable for having an extremely accomplished cast and if nothing else it’s two main characters set us up for Strawberry Panic! which is always a blessing.
Ohhhhh Takumi, making fun of you was such a fun weekly sport
Mai-HiME has been remembered for many things – Takumi’s godawful clothing selections, the super ‘bright’ colour palette, the over-the-top characters, Shiznat, and one of the best mindfuck plot twists of all time. Still, because so much depended on the plot twists and plot revelations I wasn’t so sure that I’d still enjoy this show on a re-watch. Not only that, but the HiME sequels (even with their vastly inferior storylines) had much prettier pictures and I wasn’t so sure I could go back to the original.
In the end I was not disappointed, but was in fact very happy to be once again reacquainted with this series. Perhaps one of the biggest ’surprises’ for me, was realizing how little the entire Shiznat thing fared for most of the show. Perhaps it’s because of Mai-Otome which really pimped that to the max. There was something really great about seeing just how creepy that relationship was and seeing how absolutely and completely deranged Shizuru was. Not to mention a Maki-Maki-less Shiho who was much more of a real character that you could feel bad for was good. I also remember hating Takumi a lot more when I originally saw this show, but now that I know what ends up happening, I actually kind of cheered for the guy (ignoring his unfortunate clothing choices).
One of the more refreshing elements of this show was that even though it features mostly female leads, and does feature every single anime stereotype character in existence (boobs girl, glasses/quiet girl, tsundere girl, super student council president girl, etc), none of it was that over the top, but rather just served as a way to differentiate characters neatly and succintly. Seeing a show in the pre-Moeblob era is something I miss dearly as Mai-HiME reminded me with every episode I watched. As well, even though we had a lot of female leads and there was a good amount of fan service, the fact that the main character wasn’t that good looking (massive boobs aside) is also somewhat of a relief in a strange way. Tate Yuuichi, who seemed pretty useless the first time around, was also a character I really liked on this second viewing as well. In general, I just really liked how ‘realistic’ all of the characters were. From their personalities, to their motivations (even Shiho’s onii-chan complex had meaning), to their reactions to the evolving plotline and to how they dealt with their problems was just really, really well done.
As for the massive mid-show plot twist:
Natsuki agrees… this show is #1!
Overall Mai-HiME was and is one of the most memorable shows I’ve ever seen. From beginning to end I was very entertained, and even though I knew how it was to play out, it still managed to surprise me in many ways and keep me on the edge of my seat. For that I have to say well done!
Two last things. When I originally saw the show, I was not so happy with the ending:
The other of course was:
Okay I lied… one final thing. While going through some old blog posts, I realized that both Kabitzin and Zyl posted on my first post about Mai-Otome 4 1/2 years ago… coincidence? I think not. Guess one cannot fight destiny after all.
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