With the latest episodes this little show has progressed from "inexplicably tolerable" to "fucking awesome", so I desire to start a thread about it. The shit hit the fan? More like a jet engine.
What do you think?
Also: Shizuru wins.
I don't like the new arc.
Mai-HiME needs karaoke shows, cooking contests and panty jokes.
It does not need angst.
I agree with >>2 and >>3
I rather miss the happy fun times of the first half. Sure angst can be good iff (not a typo) it's done well, but IMO, it doesn't really suit the characters of Mai HiME, especially considering the impression you got of them in the first half.
That said though, I don't think I've ever seen such a good portrayal of pure anger than Mai's face after that happened.
I don't mind the angst, but Tate suddenly being the most important person to Mai is plain dumb. He did what, give her a pep talk and coffee and it's suddenly true love? Almost all of the relationships suffer from this, too. I want their moms to die, dammit.
Well I love the angst, not to mention the fact that it is now more EXCITING, has better and more ACTION, and the storyline moves at a faster pace. The only thing it lost was the humour, and it was never very funny. So, it's improved all round.
Also we have the deaths of the annoying characters to look forward to.
My sentiments basically echo >>1 's.
Shizuru does ROCK. Even when she's insane.
I have nothing against angst in a show, and some of my all-time favourite ones are chock-full of it, but you can't take a silly moe anime and stuff it with angst and hope it'll be interesting. It rings false, and there's no real emotional connection between the viewer and the story. It just feels crass and manipulative.
Quite a number of shows have suffered from this, though not so much recently (I like to refer to this as "1997 syndrome" because such a great percentage of shows back then were like this).
You can call it the "Eva syndrome", too. Angst as a requited selling point in an anime.
Maybe the problem with Mai Hime is that it started as your average action ecchi comedy, and we were plenty who didn't guess that it would eventually take that kind of drastic turn.
Even if i like angst and tragedy as much as your next fan, I still hope for an interesting ending that would not require the death of most of the cast. ^^
And Shizuru owns everybody else. :p
No, that's not the point. Eva was all about the angst right from episode 1, and it was very integral to the story, and thus worked as a whole. The thing that annoys me is when people make a cutesy series and start out fluffy and happy, and then suddenly tack on a lot of angst in lieu of a real storyline or proper characterizations.
True.
But their tactic of going all cute and fluffy at the beginning, then angsty at the end, is emotionally more efficient than going angsty all the way.
And there was episode 8. Akane. Can't say we haven't been told.
Bah, we will see how it finish. ^^
Trigun was like that. It started off as a screwball comedy anime, almost as random as FLCL or Excel Saga, then it gets darker and darker and people start dying. By the end it's ZOMG CHEAP ANGST by the barrelful.
>>10
I think it's more of a "appeal to as many people as possible"-efficient, not "wow, developing-emotional attachment"-efficient.
I was one of the people that just barely watched it too, at the beginning , I just didn't see the appeal. Now to finish watching it and seeing how many typical anime events happen.
>But their tactic of going all cute and fluffy at the beginning, then angsty at the end, is emotionally more efficient than going angsty all the way.
No, that's not it. You can do this - Narutaru and Alien 9 do, to great effect - but that's not what's happening here. You have to make people care about characters from the start for this to work, and being cute and fluffy doesn't accomplish that - it just makes you turn your brain off and enjoy the fluff. And when it turns to angst it will be entirely unsatisfying because you really don't have any emotional attachment to it.
And yes, >>11, Trigun is an excellent example.
I fast-forwarded thru Mai Hime ep 22-23: I don't care anymore for any of the characters now, except maybe the guy, Tate - he's the only one who seems to have kept his own character. Currently it feels like watching a completely different, badly scripted anime. Bleah. Give me back the original humor and the original characters.
>>13
Yes, you are right about how emotional (dis)attachment append in fluffy series. My bad for using stupid words. ^^
To some extent, it's the case of Mai Hime too but we have some special relationships that have been constructed for 15+ episodes (like Haruka/Yukino, Shizuru/Natsuki, Mai/Mikoto...) and imho it's when they come crashing down that those last episodes are at their best.
I said "crashing down"... but I wonder who are Mai and Natsuki's MIP...
Looks like you guys should like episode 24.
Now that I've seen the ending, I can't say whether it was one of the worst cop-outs In recent memory or sheer brilliance.
I liked ep26 because the humor is back and the characters are again in-character. Problem is, the show is over. ^^;
WORST ENDING EVER!
Christ... it was like watching someone pour syrup over a mound of sugar. >_<
Christ... what a horseass ending.
Seen ep 26, too.
Reaction : Mwahahahahaha hahaha ahah ahahaha hahhhh !! (it was me laughing, if you couldn't tell ^^)
A lol of cosmic proportions. I feel sorry for the fans of this series.
Now you're all making me want to watch the final episode. Maybe I'll just skip straight to that one.