- Before coming to the Fuka Academy, all Mai Tokiha wanted was to live an ordinary high school life, but that’s the last thing she’s going to get. It turns out that Mai is a HiME, one of twelve girls with supernatural powers that are gathered at this school to fight the Orphans, demons that dwell around the school. A secret organization has other plans for the HiME than just demon-busting an
Product Description
Studio: Infinity Resources Inc Release Date: 10/07/2008Amazon.com
Hime means “princess” in Japanese, but in the broadcast series My-Hime (2004), it’s also an acronym for Highly-advanced Materializing Equipment–or certain girls who possess supernatural abilities. Mai Tokiha and her brother Takumi discover their new school, Fuka Academy, has become the focus of the battle against the Orphans: malevolent monsters who can only be defeated by the HiME. Each HiME has a “Child,” a sort of half-mecha creature that fights with her against the bizarre Orphans. Mai discovers she’s a powerful HiME, just in time to enter the no-holds- barred struggle against the agents of the sinister, all-powerful Searrs Found… More >>
My Hime: Anime Legends Complete Collection
Girls with miracle power forced to fight their destiny; this reminds me of Rozen Maiden(original+traumend), a far more creative show in several aspects. Being original doesn’t always mean attracting more people, though.
It starts out ok and gets boring at the middle. It is easy-going amime, and relies on so many cliches you can find everywhere in amime world, especially in charactor settings; a cool hunk, a calm beauty, and a cute little girl in important posts in high school(surprise?), brother/sister complex stereotypes, a girl
almost fell into the wrong guy, etc..and I am PERSONALLY sick of finding a mysterious charactor watching every event from the rooftop.
But my patience finally paid off when I watched final 10 episodes. It gets more serious and enjoyable. There are good twists in both storyline and character developments.
Artwork here is not so special.
Someone mentioned that mechas are differnt from ordinary robot amimes, but don’t expect something unique as Tachikoma(Ghost in the shell s.a.c). They are mixture of Japanese monsters and “Ranger Series” type of mecha, and one of monsters’ heads is designed after Evangelion (not TV series, and seemingly not avarable in U.S. At least not in the box set) I would say, almost shamelessly. The creator probably tried to show some respect to Eva…I hope.
I found human characters were more interesting, despite of all the cliche.
Kuga is stylish, and Mai, the main charactor is somewhat realistic both in appearance and personality so I feel like she is much sexier than “out-of-nowhere” amime boobs.
She was one of the reasons I kept watching.
Music is nice (not to mention garbage songs), but failed to create its own world. It can go anywhere other than My-HiME. Some out of place, working better towards the end.
I also have a minor complaint about how to show emotions in each character. For instance, there is a moment one of the characters tells something shocking to Mai. You probably want to see Mai’s face right at the moment the words were spoken, but instead, amime waits for the person to finish the line, then shows change in Mai’s face, timing too late.
In some ways, this amime is similar to Shana; Monster hunting accompanied by another moster, not much deep thougts behind, (at least in its first half), not so great at emotional expressions, music out of place (Shana has better music,though) and you need to wait quite a while to get hooked.
If you like amime in genaral, however, you would probably like it, just like I did. A safer choice than Shana. I found love triangle was more interesting in Shana though.
And if you really want to enjoy the show,
you should probably forget about everything I said.
This is not going to be a waste for a amime fan.
Just in case, if you are looking for something little more thoughtful, I recommend Rozen Maiden, or watch both to compare. Rating: 4 / 5
my order came complete and as scheduled plus it did not have even a scratch on the cover. Rating: 5 / 5
Every three centuries the powers that be draw twelve ‘battle maidens’ to the cursed land of Fuka where they fight each other using monstrous ‘Children’ to determine which is strongest. The strongest maiden, or Hime, will gain the power to control the Hime-Star which will otherwise devastate the Planet Earth. The weaker eleven will each lose that which is most precious to them, that is the person who is dearest to them.
If Mai-Hime is about anything it’s about the choices you make and facing up to the consequences of them.
The time for the ritual combat has come around again and Mai Tokiha will be facing some unforeseen consequences to her decision to accept a scholarship for herself and younger brother Takumi at Fuka Academy just in time for the Hime Ritual.
If ever a series was served well by being presented in a box set, it’s Mai-Hime. Initially slow-starting and a little unfocused, the plot is actually trying to make it through the necessary exposition to render all the 8 major Hime in sufficient detail that their brutal and uncompromising deconstruction is lent sufficient impact. Every weakness and emotional flaw is exposed as the contest continues, tenuous friendships and alliances are tested to the limit and each of their motivations and character are laid bare in stark clarity. Assessing the series based on the first four episodes simply doesn’t provide you enough overview to judge it completely.
That said, Mai-Hime has some odd quirks that an informed buyer should be aware of. The shows plot initially suggests shojou anime, but the design of the characters and outfits and the amount of combat lands it squarely into Shounen territory. Fan service has been liberally sprinkled throughout the show, and especially during the midtro sections that introduce the next episode. Fine if you like that sort of thing, but a bit disturbing if you don’t like your eyecandy underage.
Some of the characters are emotionally retarded in the finest sense of Highschool Anime and Manga, which may make more mature viewers roll their eyes. One can have too much adolescent awkwardness. They are otherwise sufficiently rounded characters that this necessary plot device stands out more than usual. The final ‘frowny’ point is the ending, where the writers seem to have flinched away from an unhappy conclusion to the tale at the last minute. Regrettable. Rating: 4 / 5
My-HiME fits the description of ‘beautiful trainwreck’ better than any other anime I’ve watched. It starts out as a high school slice-of-life series, with a lot of ecchi humour, even the ‘monster of the week’ battles providing far more in the way of amusement (a panty/bra stealing creature, for example) than danger. Then, in the last twelve episodes or so, the drama side gets going, which results in it turning into a less gruesome version of Battle Royale, with robots added on top. The two differing sections of the story do end up blending well together – the first part providing time for viewers to become attached to the characters – but it was certainly strange to see a light-hearted anime take such a dark turn…
If nothing else, you have to praise the visual and audio aspects of the series. It has lovely art and very good animation, the character designs (the faces, short skirts, big breasts and super model female cast) and bright colours unsurprisingly reminding me of Code Geass. The soundtrack is mostly stellar, too, with the music Goddess known as Yuki Kajiura pulling out one of her overall weaker (compared to her best work) but by no means poor collections of music. Even the English voice acting impressed me, Mai’s voice fitting her fiery yet loveable and cute personality like a glove… However, where My-HiME falls short, and what makes me class it as a trainwreck, is its story.
Put simply, the story is about a group of twelve girls and their loved ones. Each of the twelve girls (referred to as ‘HiME’) has a different power, some being elemental and others being the ability to use weapons, and each can summon a mecha/monster (referred to as a ‘Child’ if it obeys a human and an ‘Orphan’ if it doesn’t) to fight with them. Mai, the female lead, moves to the prestigious Fuka Academy (which accommodates elementary-high school ages, and has dormitories for both genders), along with her younger brother at the start, and there she meets and interacts with the other girls with powers and her new classmates.
Sadly, there isn’t much actual plot covered in the 26 episodes. The first half focuses heavily on characterization, fan service and comical goings on. The second half focuses on characterization and battles, each battle resulting in a new death. In between all of this, not a lot beyond the basic premise of the story gets a look in. This resulted in very little of the plot making sense, and the final episode was a failure (partly) because of this.
Why were the ‘Child’ and ‘Orphan’ creatures in existence? How could they be summoned by certain people? What was the character reminiscent of Kaoru from Evangelion (Naji)? Why did the HiME ritual occur every 300 years?
None of the above questions, or numerous others I have, receive answers within the series. When the final episode rolled around and the world was saved from destruction in predictable fashion, I was left with a blank expression on my face, reflecting on the many questions without answers and with disappointment in the place of the answers I desired.
Apart from its production values, what saved My-HiME, for me at least, was the quality of its characterization. Over the course of the series, you learn all about Mai. Her relationship with her brother is explored and plays a major role, and as a result of an involving love quadruple I came to care about her as a person, as well as her likeable main love interest. And, though the other cast members didn’t get anywhere near as much time because of the amount of them – the number reminding me of Negima’s never-ending character list to begin with – enough of the personalities and back-stories of those that mattered got covered for me to become emotionally involved with many of them. The characters laughed and cried, and I was able to feel their emotions; never feeling disconnected.
But, switching back to the story, the final episode almost ruined the good that came before. If you’re the sort of person that cringes when you see deus ex machina twists, your face won’t be a pretty sight after finishing the anime because it’s practically non-stop deus ex machina in the last episode. Without wanting to spoil too much, what happened at the end of My-HiME is equivalent to every emotional, heart-wrenching moment of a story being made worthless, destroying any attachment one has to the many moving scenes included. Even though I enjoyed what came before immensely, I felt like time slowed down at the end – it was a sad way to end such an absorbing title.
To sum it up, Sunrise know how to please anime fans; men/otaku in particular. They keep the skirts high, the chests large, the comedy amusing and are masters at pulling away at the heart strings of viewers with dramatic action, or just plain old fashioned drama. They know how to make up for what would normally by anime ruining flaws. If not for the poor excuse of a story and even worse attempt at an ending, if only for enjoyment alone, I’d be rating it higher, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, I’ll give it a solid 8/10, thinking of it as something of a guilty pleasure. Rating: 4 / 5
This Anime is a half and half. You start out getting to know the characters and funny outcomes they endure until the story reaches it’s zenith and begins to show who’s on who side for the second half of the series. The Story is well rounded and has a lot to offer, but it’s not all about slapstick humor, there is really a touching side to it too. Rating: 5 / 5