Forum - View topicREVIEW: My-Otome DVDs 6-7
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LordPrometheus
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I still haven't seen the final volume of Otome(it's in my Netflix queue with a "very long wait"), but I think the ending will have to be multiple levels of awesome to push it beyond My-Hime as an overall series. Too much of Otome was devoted to yuri fanservice, and served no purpose in the story whatsoever. That time would have been better spent developing the characters better. Too much time is wasted dorking around playing "Guess the Lesbian", and not enough time giving us a reason to care about the main cast.
Arika is mostly annoying as a protagonist, although she does have her moments. Mai was a vastly more sympathetic heroine, and Hime's cast of characters was much more likeable. On the whole, even though Hime's ending wasn't as hard-hitting as it could/should have been, it is still the vastly superior series. I hope the next franchise installment will make improvements. Otome is a decent show, but it falls short of greatness in general and its predecessor in particular. I most likely won't be buying this series. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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Okay, so the ending of My-HiME was a little bit of let-down... but calling the one in My-Otome "better" is straining the definition of the word. What was better about it? The spoiler[random naked girl hug as they fall from orbit?] or perhaps it was spoiler[the unbelievably contrived amnesia to allow Nina to wind up with her foster father.] I hated My-Otome. It was just a fan-service laden attempt to capitalize on the success of My-HiME. Oh sure, there were some good points to it, but over all it was just bad. Sorry, I don't mean to get ranty here, I just really, really didn't like this series. |
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Fuko_Kirisawa
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I couldn't agree more vashfanatic. The ending of Mai Hime was a little too fairy tale like but over all, the story had a lot more emotion and was 100 times less predictable than My Otome. My Otome was pure fan service and the ending, instead of being "overly happy" was overly ridiculous if not plain stupid. Besides, while the final fight in Mai Hime was, at least in my opinion, close to breathtaking; the My Otome was... well, we can't even say that was a fight: spoiler[The Harmonium was supposedly the most powerful thing in all universe and everything was solved with a little chit chat from Arika to Nina and a stab from her oversized knife. Clap, clap.]
And in therms of main characters... there is no comparison, Arika is one of the most annoying main characters I know, and the constant babbling about love, friendship and dreams, adds more points on the annoying-o-meter. The three main characters in the original series were more charismatic and likeable and I hated seeing them transformed into meaningless characters in My-Otome, if they didn't want to give them a decent roll in the plot they shouldn't have put them in the second series. (Mai is a clumsy numbskull, Natsuki is a useless principal and Mikoto is just useless, except for the fact she spoiler[beat the cr*p out of Arika.)] Now they've announced a sequel for Mai-Hime... I want to see how they'll butcher that... I just hope the new main character for that isn't half as annoying as Arika. >_> |
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maaya
Posts: 976 |
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couldn't agree more. Otome was a real strain to watch. I regret that I wasted so much time on it, I just kept watching because Mai Hime really improved in the second half, so I was hoping for the same.
But the story in Otome never really gets anything going, they end every episode with a cliffhanger only to finish it off in the first minutes of the next ep and instead focus on fanservice. The final fight was also really boring and just ... so chlichee. oO But what can you expect from series that puts a pointless hot spring fansercive episode two episodes before the final while a war is going on, and the characters just don't seem to care. Oh yea, the characters were really weak. Arika, as the others said already, is annoying as hell and Nina is ... sick? ... her father complex is actually quite creepy. Mashiro was just turned into a stupid brat. And all the characters from Hime like Natsuki or Mai never get any decent part. In fact, imho Otome took everything that made Hime a good series and threw it away (even the childs O.O ). Keeping tentacle rape and overall superficiality. But when I think about it, the TV series was still better than the OVAs that followed .... they clearly show what Otome is all about. Fanservice and a bit of action her and there. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18175 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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From my view, saying the end of My-HiME was "a little bit of a let-down" is a gross understatement. Although I loved the series up until that point, the cheap ending almost ruined it all for me. If you don't buy that I could actually like the ending of My-Otome, then just take my statement as evidence of how much I hated the ending for My-HiME. |
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kadian1364
 Posts: 60 Location: Indiana |
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I was surprised to read about how the reviewer liked the Mai Otome ending so much. I was just beginning to question whether I had vastly misremembered how much I hated it, but reading the replies here reminds me that I did not.
No one is denying Mai Hime's ending was bad. It was really insulting spoiler[how they magicked everyone back to life and everyone was Happy Happy! at the conclusion even though they were all trying to murder each other recently.] But it was just bad for one episode; half of the episode really. While not insultingly offensive, Mai Otome was just retardedly dumb for about 2-3 episodes, and unfortunately, those were the last ones. For all the reasons everyone stated before and spoiler[introducing about dozen completely unknown characters at the very end] made for a very messy, cheesy, and anticlimactic end to what should have been a proper finish. It does seem like everyone's just piling on the Otome hate, but I, and assuredly others, don't despise Otome. It WAS entertaining, with some compelling drama and fun moments sprinkled throughout. But justifiable comparisons to Mai Hime have to be made (recycling most of the cast and whatnot), and in regards to story crafting and cast-wide character development, Otome could never step out of Hime's shadow. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18175 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I'm not disputing any of that, with the possible exception of Mashiro. (Although I hated her at first in Otome, she developed far more over the course of the series in that one than she ever did in the original.) Please note that I did generally give My-HiME at worst equal, and generally slightly higher, ratings when I was reviewing it. |
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maaya
Posts: 976 |
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I dunno, she is developed a lot more, but that's also because she starts of a lot more immature ^^ I prefer Hime-Mashiro that doesn't develop much, but also doesn't annoy the hell out of me over half of the series 
Personally I didn't think the Mai Hime ending was that bad, which is also because from the beginning spoiler[I never expected any of these characters to stay dead ... that would just have been too much. ] If Sunrise had dared to do that, I would have really been surprised (not necessarily in a negative way), but they ended up doing just what I expected, so maybe therefore I wasn't really disappointed. All the drama and fights before were really well done, way better than Otome. Also, Otome's end is almost as happy-happy as Hime's and there aren't any real victims as far as I remember (apart from one, who unfortunately was one of the better characters of the series, i.e. not annoying). Or maybe I just forgot about it ... [EDIT: Spoiler tags for My-Hime ending added. spoiler[Sometimes, it's just as much of a spoiler to say that people don't die as saying that people do die.]~Zalis] |
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