Mai-Otome

In the Kingdom of Windbloom, Arika Yumemiya enrolls at Garderobe Academy to become an Otome—a virgin girl who is able to use a HiME (Highly-advanced Materializing Equipment) that bestows destructive abilities. Arika also wishes to find her mother who was a Meister Otome, an Otome of the highest rank responsible for being the personal bodyguard and super weapon of the specific nation they are assigned to.

While attending the academy, Arika makes friends with Nina Wáng, a distinguished Otome student, and Mashiro Blan de Windbloom, the current princess of the kingdom. With them by her side, Arika quickly adjusts to the academy's environment as she spends her days eagerly training, navigating social relationships, and developing her skills as an Otome.

However, Arika soon realizes that the process of becoming an Otome is fraught with dangers and unsavory political dealings. Bombarded with numerous personal dilemmas, Arika must make many sacrifices if she truly wishes to achieve her goals.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Mai-Otome was released on DVD in North America by Bandai Entertainment from July 17, 2007, to July 15, 2008. Funimation published a remastered Blu-ray and DVD collection of the series on January 9, 2018.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Mai-Otome
Alternative setting:	Mai-HiME
Sequel:	Mai-Otome Zwei
Side story:	Mai-Otome Specials, Mai-Otome Special: Otome no Inori
Prequel:	Mai-Otome 0: S.ifr

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Yumemiya, Arika

Main

Kikuchi, Mika
Japanese

Wáng, Nina

Main

Koshimizu, Ami
Japanese

Blan de Windbloom, Mashiro

Main

Yukana
Japanese

Minagi, Mikoto

Supporting

Kruger, Natsuki

Supporting

Chiba, Saeko
Japanese

Viola, Shizuru

Supporting

Shindo, Naomi
Japanese

Sayers, Lena

Supporting

Sakurai, Tomo
Japanese

Tokiha, Mai

Supporting

Nakahara, Mai
Japanese

Armitage, Haruka

Supporting

Yuzuki, Ryouka
Japanese

Nao Zhang, Juliet

Supporting

Nanri, Yuuka
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Obara, Masakazu

Director, Storyboard

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

Oota, Masahiko

Episode Director

Takuno, Seiki

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "Dream Wing" by Minami Kuribayashi (eps 1-15)
	2: "Crystal Energy" by Minami Kuribayashi (eps 16-25)

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Ending Theme

1: "Otome wa DO MY BEST deshou?" by Mika Kikuchi and Ami Koshimizu

Reviews

Jan 27, 2024

Yooko_T

Recommended

Perfect character development.
It's so hard to find another anime that has similar features as Otome. Two youthful and sour heroines coming-of-age story that doesn't need a boy to save them, robots, henshin scenes, battles, master-and-"maid". I am a woman and I enjoyed this very much. I love watching stories like this where the heroine develops. The romance fuels her growth, but it's not the end of the story. She gradually goes through a variety of adventures to discover what she wants to do and what she wants to get out of it. The only ones I can think of in the same genre are probably ...

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Oct 1, 2018

Veertjah

Recommended

Things I want to clarify:
-Mai-HIME ends with them wanting to change the world, so if I'm not mistaken, this universe is what they changed it into.
-Most, but not all of the characters from the season before are in here. And no, Akira is not Mai, she's a look a like of Mikoto.
-Episode 17 only exsists in English DUB so prepare for hell.

I found the story of this season a lot stronger then Hime's story. Instead of killing of all the characters you just met, you actually see them evolve. Not just physically but also mentally. Everything is also explained instead of just calling it ...

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Dec 25, 2009

Uriel1988

Not Recommended

My-Otome is nothing less than a total disaster as far as I'm concerned. This semi-sequel to 'Mai-Hime' is one of those shows that tries to combine many different genres such as comedy, action and drama into one; but it is a colossal failure in every way imaginable.

The basic story is, like many aspects of the show, incredibly derivative. It's the tale of a young girl named Arika Yumemiya who wants to enter a highly prestigious school called Garderobe where girls are trained to become an Otome, unbelievably powerful warriors who serve as vanguards of a country's militia. It is through a series of bafflingly ... outrageous coincidences that our young heroine manages to enroll at the normally way out-of-her-league academy and from then on, the story kicks off.

Doesn't sound very original, does it? Well the rest of the plot is every bit as standard: Arika manages to make friends at Hogs- *cough*, I mean 'Garderobe' after a somewhat rough start, she is quickly confronted with all kinds of shady characters, ancient conspiracies are unveiled, hidden lineages are discovered, friends become enemies, enemies become friends and there may also be a love-triangle or two to complicate things along the way. Textbook definition of 'cookie-cutter'.

A complete lack of originality can be compensated for by an outstanding execution; but Mai-Otome falls flat in that area. Main offender is the atrocious plotting. Plot-points and characters are introduced only to get put on hold until several episodes later if not dropped entirely, characters 'die' only to turn up (relatively) unscathed later, things happen for no logical reason other than that they're supposed to happen for the plot to move in the direction the creators envisioned (a character even remarks in one of the later episodes that the way some previous events transpired doesn't make any sense) and well-meaning side characters hold back crucial information that may be of great help to the clueless protagonists only to have said protagonists befall some grave misfortune that could have been prevented if they had been better informed.

And this doesn't just happen once or twice. The series is LOADED with moments like this. Pretty much any scene scene that isn't filled with incredibly cheesy fanservice humor (a particular plot-device essentially serves as a setup for countless scenes of ecchi-humor involving girl-on-girl 'action') or third-rate soap-opera level angst about love and/or the duties and burdens of an Otome from some of the protagonists is how I just described.

It's clear by now that the story didn't keep me watching this; so maybe the action-sequences were able to offer some redeeming value? Sadly they weren't. The fight-scenes are incredibly unimaginative and poorly animated, most of them ending with an Otome obliterating an opponent with her strongest attack. And all of that is assuming that fight scenes do occur on-screen. I say this because the series is filled to the brim with moments where two characters are set up to fight, only to switch to other events just as the fight starts. All of this makes for a viewing-experience that is frustrating at worst and unfulfilling at most, even for the biggest of action-junkies.

Production-values are nothing to write home about. The art and animation are unremarkable at best though I will give the series credit for the catchy opening-tune as well as the fact that the many characters are all easy to distinguish from one another (even if a lot of them are recycled from Mai-Hime). Oh, and some of the attacks have effects that look pretty cool.

Between the awful story and largely unremarkable production-values there's really no reason I to check out this series. Even those who were fond of its predecessor, Mai-Hime (which I found to be entertaining though highly flawed), will find little to love. The new characters are nothing special, the action is less frequent and less impressive despite being much bigger in scope and the returning characters (even though they're actually 'alternate reality' versions) don't develop or contribute to the plot in any meaningful way. There's even one particular character whose personality and abilities are a complete 180 from the way she was in Mai-Hime and several who seem to be thrown in just so fans can point them out.

I could go on and on about the abysmal plotting (like how the main character is defeated by a powerful foe only to get launched to another dimension where she just so happens to meet a powerful figure mentioned earlier in the story who can help her get stronger), the paper-thin and highly archetypical characters (you KNOW there's a problem when the most interesting characters are ones that mostly got their characterization from the previous series), the constant skipping out on action-sequences and the complete lack of any creative ambition whatsoever; but I think I have already made my point very clear so I'll just wrap it up.

Whether you're a fan of Mai-Hime or are just looking for a fun-packed action-adventure series, Mai-Otome is totally derivative, awfully written, largely unfulfilling and completely frustrating series that reeks of being conceived for no other purpose other than to make a quick buck. It's not worth your time. Skip it.

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There are 2 volumes in this Mai-Otome Ayane's Saga. One is Ayane's Descend and the next volume after is Ayane's Flight. Here is the sneak preview of the Ayane's Descend Prologue. TPatrioticOtaku - Jan 25, 2022	2 replies	by jelabarre59 »» Feb 5, 7:33 PM
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Yumemiya, Arika

Wáng, Nina

Blan de Windbloom, Mashiro

Minagi, Mikoto

Kruger, Natsuki

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Sayers, Lena

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Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Staff

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Ending Theme

Reviews

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