Although it has some of the characters from Mai-Hime (Another anime series), this isn’t a sequel! Rather, it’s a different story that is happening in an alternate-universe of Mai-Hime.
Hehe… You must think that I watched Mai-Hime before I started this series right? Wrong, I saw this anime on Omni-san’s animeblog (used to be Omni’s, Divine has now taken over ownership), at first I thought that this must be those “yuri” type anime, but I decided to give it a try anyway, it wasn’t bad at all… I found it to be quite interesting :)
A short summary from www.animenewsnetwork.com
Arika Yumemiya has traveled far in search of her goal: the prestigious Gualderobe Academy. This is the school where young girls are trained to become Otomes, protectors of royal leaders throughout the lands. Here, Arika makes plenty of friends, but some enemies know something about her past that she does not. Nevertheless, her spirit and determination will keep pushing her forward.
Visuals: Well, I can say that my eyes liked what they saw, they (the characters) were drawn with a degree of cuteness but still remain looking realistic, nothing looked out-of-place. The character designs were unique, meaning no-one looking like a clone of each other, the design of the ‘robes’ of the Otome was also nicely done. Backdrop and background were also pleasing to the eyes.
Music was good; they used the right music for the right scenes. The opening/ending song was great (Hehe… I am going to add them to my anime music collection)
Storyline was quite something! I like how they built up the character’s story, giving their past using bit and pieces of flashbacks. The action part was just enough to make me continue to be in my seat, the comedy factor of this anime was also a part of the reason I continued to watch this anime. However, it is not all comedy, the author(s) also included enough seriousness to kept the story balanced.
(Warning: Spoilers! Highlight to View)
I think the author did a great job to keep us the viewers from guessing who the real princess to the Windebloom kingdom is… First it was thought Arika was the real princess, who would have thought the real princess was Nina!
I was quite sure Arika was the princess, but then the “azure jewel of the sky” reacted to her, giving her a ‘robe’ without being an Otome (I think the girls needed to inject nano-machines into their system to use the ‘robe’) was this a flaw in the story? I am not sure about that, but I think that proved Arika to be the daughter of the Azure Otome (I remember her first name was Rena)
It was interesting to see Nina and Arika falling in love with a more *ahem* matured man (Sergey). It was strange for Nina, because Sergey was actually her adoptive father, oh well they say love is blind *shrugs*
The system of Master and Otome was interesting, and was quite weird in a sense… When an Otome takes damage, the damage will actually go to their Master too… So meaning there is two lives at stake during battle. I personally felt this was to make them remember their actions has very big consequences, each move should be taken carefully… When an Otome dies or get destroyed, the Master goes along with them, definitely a weird system…
Let’s talk about the ‘bad’ guys shall we, the main villain at the end is Nagi (Nina’s Master) who is a kid bend on destroying the world, just because he feels the world without war is just wrong… I must say he is one talented kid, being able to come up with such evil plans when he is so young, he speaks of it like a ‘game’… But then again, the other kingdom also have young rulers too (Seems to be the trend in the anime) like the emperor of Zipang, and Windebloom’s Queen Mashiro . Anyways, Nagi uses a dying Sergey to make Nina fight…
The final battle was very flashy, Nina transforming to the Ultimate form (Looks like a black angel to me) Arika with her mother’s ‘robe’ (Wow… ‘robe’ have different levels) Arika finally pierce Nina with her sword and ended the battle…
I think there was quite some fan service here, I mean the part where they (Nina and Arika) are re-entering earth, it is shown their ‘robe’ burned off, it don’t quite make sense to me… But hey, it’s free eye candy… ^_^
In the end, Nagi got captured and everyone got a happy ending… Mashiro finally getting her sun-flower thing on top of her castle, Arika being her Otome and not forgetting Nina, we can see she is by the side of Sergey who has lost his memory…
It is just me or it seems Nina grew up so quickly? She looks so matured after her last transformation… Haha… Now Sergey and Nina seems to be a matching couple :)
Time to catch up on the OVAs next. :)