Anime of the Month (April '06) - My-HiME

[JShaggy]

In a very close margin of votes, Bandai Entertainment's My-HiME has been chosen as this month's Anime of the Month. Here's a brief synopsis of Volume 1, which is available right now.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/releases.php?id=6033

(Courtesy of Anime News Network)
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 super-natural 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 and Mai and the other HiME will have to risk something precious to protect the ones they love.
Also, beginning this month, as a means of getting feedback from those participating in the monthly Anime of the Month discussions, there will be a public opinion poll attached to this thread. After you finished watching the first volume, take the time to rate this month's Anime of the Month.

You may now discuss the series, keeping in mind that all discussion beyond Volume 1 should be kept in spoiler tags.

I'll give my thoughts on the series a little later. Right now, I'm kinda busy.

[Daizaburo Estes]

I've yet to see this show, but, reading into it, I can safely say I wouldn't appreciate the incorrect title of "My-Hime," which apparently totally loses the double meaning from the original "Mai-Hime." Sounds like a foolish choice on Bandai's part...

(What an awful post to start...! Really sorry about this. :/)

[Go-chin]

The DVD release of this show is awful is so many ways.

The shirt is tiny, the DVD box is flimsy, the DVD itself has hardly any extras, the dub is not...good.

The only saving grace is an acceptable subtitle track.

As for the show itself...it rocks. I love it. The My Hime/Otome series are some of my favorite shows.

The genre is "bishoujo action drama", which is a perfect classification for the show.
Cute girls, funny scenes, great action...it's all good.
And the special DVD only episodes are good too.

[Classic Speedy]

The DVD release of this show is awful is so many ways.

The shirt is tiny, the DVD box is flimsy, the DVD itself has hardly any extras, the dub is not...good. I've heard worse dubs, and atleast the video quality is very nice, but you're right on all other accounts. I've heard the disc doesn't have time stamps either.

So far I like the show, but I must admit it's a little slow out of the gate. I've heard it picks up with episode 5, though. Atleast that's what the users on Anime on DVD told me...

[TnAdct1]

So far I like the show, but I must admit it's a little slow out of the gate. I've heard it picks up with episode 5, though. Atleast that's what the users on Anime on DVD told me... Personally, the show began to pick up for me around episode 4 (of course, that's probably because the basic storyline at the moment is finally underway, not to mention the comedy that is a panty-raiding Orphan).

Anyways, I was curious about this show after hearing about its popularity on other boards. Thus, I picked up the first DVD w/o box a couple weeks ago. After viewing the first DVD, I'm interested in watching more of this show.

[AstroNerdBoy]

The only saving grace is an acceptable subtitle track.


Which wasn't acceptable to me, but I digress...:p

[GWOtaku]

posted by Go-Chin:

As for the show itself...it rocks. I love it. The My Hime/Otome series are some of my favorite shows.

The genre is "bishoujo action drama", which is a perfect classification for the show.
Cute girls, funny scenes, great action...it's all good.
Another good point is that no character in this show is wasted. In fact, its almost creepy how much that is true. They also manage to work in some solid drama, because Mai actually has serious issues to deal with and, refreshingly, is not a ditz. In general she's about as close to a real person as a lead character in this type of show can get.

While its there, this show also doesn't hit you over the head with fanservice as if its a sledgehammer. There are a handful of straight up absurd episodes--the plot of one episode is a cake baking contest, and that's the show. I kid you not. Clearly we're expected to laugh at the antics. This is hit or miss, either you'll think its funny or you'll roll your eyes and want to move on. Fortunately they don't indulge in too many episodes of that kind. And surprisingly, the show develops a heavily dramatic edge that ends up completely outweighting the silliness. I can't say the ending sustains the quality of the rest, but at least it does manage some closure.

Unfortunately, what drags down the series is the development of a very serious plot (a good thing) that at times takes huge leaps and forces the viewer to take certain things for granted, rather then explain them. There's one particular exammple that is such an extreme case of sloppy & terrible writing that in my view it can't be forgiven. This shortcoming combined with a handful of weak episodes keeps this from being a very good show. However it is above average for reasons stated above, and there are a lot of people that can get past the questionable writing and be content with the characters (be it looks or personality), the action, and the suspense of worrying over what's going to become of the cast--trust me, you will worry. This series does a crazy good job of drawing you in and making you care. Ultimately there's a lot here that I don't like, but it also has its fair share of good. Not a must-see, but its one of the better series to take a chance on right now.

I will also warn people now to not support Otome's inevitable release, which is so unbelievably bad that I can't believe it came from the same people that put Hime together. This original work, however, deserves some support.

Overall rating: 6.5/10. Not great, but not bad either, and it does things right that I wish other series did more often. In general, if more girls-with-special-powers shows followed Hime's example, we'd be better off.

[True Noir]

I agree with the title issue. Since the character's name is "Mai", I believe that "Mai HIME" would be more appropriate.

Moving on.....

I think the beginning of the series started out a bit rocky. It didn't catch my appeal at first but as the episode premiered increased, the story began to get more interesting.

I haven't heard the dub yet and from the looks of it, it seems as though maybe I shouldn't care to be too curious...that bad, eh?

[Go-chin]

I haven't heard the dub yet and from the looks of it, it seems as though maybe I shouldn't care to be too curious...that bad, eh?
It's not ...bad.
Some of the characters are okay.
Shizuru SUCKS.
Natsuki is good.

The rest are "okay".

still, you're better off watching the Japanese version. Everyone in it rocks!

BTW, this is coming from a serious dub freak. I'm all for dubs. Just not this one.
>_>

[Conan-san]

Best part of the first volume? When Mikoto steals the curry bread and runs about like a lunitic due to it.

Now that was funny.

[Andrew T. Hingson]

Such a dissapointing dub... That is all.

[JShaggy]

I want to go ahead and give my thoughts on this series before closing out this edition of Anime of the Month.

The English dub of the series was decent for the most part as the voices fit the roles of the characters well, although they did take Shizuru's voice out of context with that formal Southern accent they gave her (Is that how a Kyoto-ben accent is supposed to sound?). The extras seemed limited in this release, although they did give us some omake in between each episode, which I find unusual in a DVD release. Then again, I haven't watched that many Bandai dubs on DVD. The only minuses about the release is the shotty packaging of the Collector's Edition and the T-Shirt that came with it. The box itself isn't even sturdy at all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the series and look forward to following it in the months to come.

As I close, I'm glad to see that a lot of you enjoyed the series as much as I did. Look forward to the next edition of Anime of the Month coming up.