Forum - View topicThe excellence of Mai-HiMe.
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kagutsuchi!
Posts: 8 |
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MODERATOR NOTE: This is the official series thread for this series.
Can we discuss the excellence of mai-hiMe? maybe for a little bit? what made it very good was the good animation, great voices, and the not-as-cliched-and-predictable-as-it-could-have-been plot, and the more in depth than usual although a bit stereotypical characters. what made it excellent was mai. wow, what a performance, by voice actor and by animation. that part where spoiler[tate runs to her on the bridge and she's like. "why'd you come back" and she falls off and whispers "kagutsuchi!" while she cries] oh man, that's like instant bawling right there. anyway, i felt like mai-hime wasn't getting any burn, and it's one of my top 5 animes (cowboy bebop + samurai champloo -yes, i'm lumping them into 1 sloteven though cb is better, mai hime, fma, flcl, and eva). |
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omnistry
 Posts: 1021 |
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I'm up to episode 8; and I've really been enjoying it. The characters are great, and the fight sequences are fantastic. It's funny when it's supposed to be; and sad when it's the right moment. As of now it's 9/10 for me.
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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9/10. It follows that generic formula given to 26 episode series
(happy fun time/monster of the week/school life etc. followed by introduction of the main enemy followed by angst and a dark brooding plot). If I had stopped halfway I would have given it 6/10, but then it gets crazy and you just can't stop. Episode 20 was my favorite. spoiler[The expression on Mai's face after Mikoto kills Takumi was awesome.] |
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Pleroma
 Posts: 443 Location: Eromanga island |
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Are you serious? That ending cheapened the whole bloody thing, I have never seen a worse ending to any anime EVER (and that includes famously mediocre finales like Eva or Hellsing). HiME would have been an 8/10 for me but the ending makes it a 5/10 at best. Its like someone painted a beautiful painting and then made their last stroke into a big red X all across it. Otome is better. |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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I agree about the ending to an extent. The only thing I liked about this show was the characters and the fights. I can't remember any of the music, the story was eh and I guess you can include liking the animation in with the fights. I found a lot of the series to be overly dramatic just for effect and then the ending..heh. I guess it made me feel good and all, but I could've done with less spoiler[death and drama in the series and also less of a perfect ending afterwards. Less extreme on both would've satisfied me better.]
Overall I'd have to say a 7/10 at best. |
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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Otome was worse. No matter how bad the ending of Mai-HiME was, HiME's plot was much more solid and reasonable compared to Otome. A huge example is Mai vs Arika. Mai actually had legitimate reasons to be in turmoil between being a HiME, loving Tate, and caring for her brother. However, from joining the academy to become an Otome to the very last internal conflict Arika has, it's all based on nothing but whim. None of the internal conflicts Arika had going was clearly explained; it was chaotic and spontaneous. Not to mention Arika having a crush on Sergey out of the blue was one of the most pathetic examples of Otome trying to make a relation with HiME. As for the endings, I say both were horrible, though I guess it'd completely depend on the person to say whether HiME or Otome was worse. Too subjective to compare. |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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I don't think HiME could really have had a different ending. spoiler[It was either that (happy but cheesy) or "everybody dies Mai is depressed the end."] As someone said on a Mai HiME thread some time ago, the overall tone of the show just wouldn't fit with an EVA-type ending. I guess they overdid it a bit, but in the end spoiler[the people killed in the HiME carnival have to be brought back to life somehow, or else something just wouldn't be right.]
I thought the music was great. Not Kajiura Yuki's best work, but in the end, its still Kajiura Yuki, and that almost guarentees a memorable soundtrack in my view. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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My disappointment with the ending wasn't so much what they did, but who they handled it. It was kind of random and felt like they couldn't figure out how to end it, so they pulled it out of their ass.
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kagutsuchi!
Posts: 8 |
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I definitely agree that the ending was handled horribly; it was cheesy, bubblegum, cliched, unoriginal, anything and everything taht wasn't mai-hime. and the fight scenes could have been more extensive, but it was the characters that made the show and the characters went above the call of duty, that is what i will remember. and the ending song was awesome
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Sir_Brass
 Posts: 476 Location: Prescott, AZ |
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Honestly, the ending didn't bother me. HiME was a fun series to watch that had some depth to it, and characters you could get attached to. The ending felt appropriate in that we didn't get a twisted sad ending, because with this series it deserved a happy ending, and that's what we got. Sure it could have been better, but then again, IMO, it didn't need to be better. It felt fine as-is, IMO.
For something deeper and more profound, I'd expect a better ending, but Mai HiME wasn't one of those series....no matter how much I enjoyed it (and I enjoyed it very much). |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6903 Location: Kazune City |
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Well, I thought that Otome was just as good if not better, but I don't think a comparison between the two is the topic here. As I mentioned on the thread for the review of the 1st DVD, Mai is one of my all-time favorite anime characters--she's loyal, resolute, and accepting of her destiny, but still has that imperfect/vulnerable side to balance her out; she's not endlessly genki and heroic. (She's not too bad-looking, either
 ) The animation and the music also drew me in when the ED (one of my favorites) starts playing as Mai is dancing in the flames at the end of episode 2. When I finally got around to watching the series, I enjoyed MH for the large and varied cast of characters, the inventiveness of the Childs, and the emotional twists and turns, especially from episode 17 onwards. As for the ending, spoiler[I believe I've said in past Mai-Hime threads that a depressing, Evangelion-style ending just wasn't appropriate for MH, which was intended to be a lite fare shounen action series from the start. If 4 or 5 people had died, that would have been feasible, but once people started gettting killed off in droves, I knew that something would happen to revive them--that's just how these series work. Even though the reset/revive cheapens things a bit, the death scenes are still excellent when treated individually, particularly Natsuki/Shizuru and Takumi--my favorite "KAGUTSUCHI!!!1" moment is in episode 20 when Mai confronts Mikoto after seeing Takumi die.] So, it's not the best series of all time, but it is in my Top 20 Anime, and I will continue to buy the DVDs to support MH and see how the dub cast handles it.
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kagutsuchi!
Posts: 8 |
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are you serious............? um....wow, i'm not really sure what to say except that i thought otome was a waste of ink and time on the part of the creators and electricity and LIFE on the part of me. the only and i mean solomente only good part was when mai reappeared. in fact, after wasting my time with the first 6 episodes, i jumped and only watched from ep22 when mai comes back just to catch a few glimpses. this is not a put-down on u, it's a put-down on the show. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6903 Location: Kazune City |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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Then you don't really have the right to say that it's worse. I can see why you didn't like it if that's all you saw. You completely skipped many of the best episodes in the show. |
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Exaar
 Posts: 279 Location: Delaware |
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Mai-Hime is currently my favorite anime series, followed by Mai Otome (largely because of their relationship)
 I admit that my favorite anime series changes fairly often, but Mai-HiME will always be in my top 10, I think. A lot of that is just because it has everything I want in an anime: Fanservice, awesome action, great characters, great music, and an interesting (if not entirely original) premise. What really makes the show one of my favorites, though, is the pacing. I have never seen another show that keeps you on the edge of your seat as much as the last 9 or 10 episodes of Mai-HiME. EVERY character, pretty much, has SOME kind of secret, and they pace the revelations of those secrets so well that if you're emotionally invested in the characters (which I was), it's like you're being shocked and astounded pretty much non-stop. Yes, the ending was not what I had hoped, but you know what they say: It's about the journey, not the destination. 
As for Mai Otome: I agree that the story itself is weaker than HiME's. But the world is SO much more interesting. The whole world that they build through Mai Otome is fantastic and intriguing: it's the kind of thing I would like to see a "Mai Otome Sourcebook" published about that explains all the technology and history. I also think in order to take advantage of that world, the series should have been longer. Or they should make another one. I know they're making an OVA, which I'm excited about. |
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