Mai-Otome 0: S.ifr

"A marvelous OVA to wrap up the Mai-Otome era."

The following review, while is spoiler free as far as Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~ is concerned, may contain spoilers for other Mai metaseries. Proceed at your own discretion!

Reviewing OVA can be tricky at times due to their highly condensed materials. Thus it only make sense that there will be slightly different evaluating criteria for them compared to the common anime.

Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~ is the prequel to the popular Mai-Otome series produced by Sunrise. This OVA elaborates (in great depth) about the origin of many things which results in Mai-Otome including the origins of the Blue Sky Sapphire GEM, Schwartz, Aswad, ... the Garderobe Academy, and the hidden connection between Mai HiME and Mai-Otome. Therefore it should be no brainer that one should watch Mai-Otome before watching 0~S.ifr~.

Story:
The one department where this OVA really shines. Thanks to the mysteries left behind by its predecessor, 0~S.ifr~ had much to cover (and fans were expecting nothing less). While the 3 episodes combine to roughly 80 minutes in length, the amount of materials it covered was extremely impressive. Each event in the story was well executed and planned in advance (not some random event out of the blue). Of course, in order to fully understand the topics in the OVA, one is required to have backgrounds from Mai-Otome AND Mai HiME.

Art:
The animation quality is still the area which needs improvement on. As a product of 2008, the animation level is definitely not the best that Sunrise could have produced. There were not much differences (if any) between the animation quality from Mai HiME (2004) to 0.~S.ifr~.

Sound:
All three endings were sang by Minami Kuribayashi (Erstin Ho in Mai-Otome). Minami also sang a large portion of Mai HiME and Mai-Otome's theme songs, so any Mai series fan should have been accustom to her voice by now.

One interesting point viewer might notice when watching 0~S.ifr~ is style to the music sound entirely different from the previous Mai metaseries. That is because 0~s.ifr~'s music was not written by the popular musican Kajiura Yuki, instead the music this time is provided by the less well knownKuniaki Haishima.

Character voice (CV) should also be a point of interest in 0~S.ifr~ because of the great casts of talented seiyu.

1. Ami Koshimizu, CV of Sifr Blan, mother of Nina Wang. Ami Koshimizu has voice acted in numerous popular series, including Kallen in Code Geass, Horo in Spice and Wolf, Nina in Mai-Otome, etc.

2. Endo Aya, voicing as Lena Sayer, mother of Arika Yumemiya. Endo Aya has a very sweet voice voice acting as Sheryl Nome in Macross Frontier, Matsu in Sekirei, Kinue Crossroad in Gundam 00, Miyuki Takara in Lucky Star, etc.

3. Ryoutarou Okiayu, voicing for Bruce Wallace (the fan voted "best" male protagonist in all Mai metaseries), father of Nina Wang. Ryoutarou Okiayu has been around for quite a long time, his more notable roles include Kuchiki Byakuya in Bleach, Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist, Treize Khushrenada in Gundam Wing, Andrew Waltfeld in Gundam SEED/Destiny, etc.

4. Souichirou Hoshi voicing as Shiro (Yumemiya?), the unconfirmed father of Arika Yumemiya. Souichirou Hoshi is famous for many roles, they include Kira Yamato in Gundam SEED/Destiny, Kazuma in Scryed, Gino in Code Geass R2, Brera in Macross Frontier (this role I could have never guessed), etc.

Simply put, Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~ is full of brilliant seiyu!

Character:
Many "mysterious" characters in Mai-Otome have their puzzling backgrounds cleared up in 0~S.fir~ mainly Lena and Sifr, the two main female lead in the story. Unlike its two TV predecessors which have a surprisingly large cast of characters (thus lead to a difficult time for certain unique characterization to become apparent), 0~S.ifr~ has "all the time in the world" as it focuses on Lena and Sifr. For a 3 episodes OVA, director Hisayuki Hirokazu has done a great job developing the "stars" of the story and how their families are linked to the Mai HiME universe.

Enjoyment + Final Impression:
Lena is by far the most likable female lead in all the Mai series and what happened to her after 0~S.ifr~ and how her body was treated in Mai-Otome just made it very sad to watch this OVA. Nonetheless, this is an OVA that should be watch by anyone who enjoy Magic, Fantasy, Drama, and some Nudity :P

Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~ is a prequel OVA of the Mai-Otome series. It is not connected to the main series plot-wise, but rather tells a story about Lena Sayers (Arikia Yumemiya's mother) as she saves Sifr, a young girl, from destructive forces.

Despite being only 3 episodes only, Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~ has a satisfying story with a beginning that gradually develops as the plot thickens and ends with a conclusive note. The story is balanced with both deep and comedic moments, and is filled with action-packed scenes.

Like the other Mai-Otome series, the art is the same. There is little CG effects. Despite this, everything is still sharp and ... clear. The movements of characters (especially in battles) are quite smooth. CG effects are used in battle scenes, and are quite effective. From the glowing beam from a gigantic rifle to Lena Sayers' duplication attack, the added effects bring up the level of excitement.

Background music could have been better. There were scenes that had pure silence in the background. The background music for other scenes didn't really add any extra effects. I found the music for battle scenes to be dull. The ED song, however, went great with the credits and pictures.

Character development was pretty impressive, considering this was a three-episode OVA. Both Lena Sayers and Sifr Fran were quite different at the end when compared to what they were like in the beginning. Both learned and adapted throughout the story. The minor characters were a bit boring, but their roles helped with the story.

Overall, Mai-Otome 0~S.ifr~ was a great OVA that greatly complemented the main series. I recommend watching this before the main series, since Lena Sayers... yeah.