Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 26 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2005 – 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
This is the alternate universe follow up series to “My Hime”, and to be totally honest I have almost forgotten the plot to that show. It’s been more than a couple years since I’ve seen it. That’s how much of an impression the show left on me. But hey let’s face it, a lot of anime shows are pretty disposable anyway. However as I’ve said a few times before, Sunrise hardly ever makes a bad show (“King of Thorn” is the horrible, horrible exception here).
The creators have been very clever here. Rather than just repeating the plot of “My Hime” in an different setting, they’ve deliberately changed the roles of the characters and introduced a bunch more and have pretty much ignore the main characters from the old series, until the climax. The show does take quite a while to get to the real meat of the plot. It’s not until the tenth episode that this happens. I’ve noticed this a lot in many anime shows made in the last decade. It’s like they’re using a series dramatic structure template; the first “X” number of episodes introduce the characters, build up relationships and back stories between them etc. It’s mostly all sweetness and light. Until we get to the next batch of “Y” number episodes which the big reveal and horribleness that affects the characters so deeply happens. Naturally this was hinted at in the first section of the series, but never followed up. The last section is the conclusion. This all makes for a rather duller series overall regardless of the content. Often time is completely wasted in terms developing plot and characters as well.
As a result, “My Otome” is a bit rubbish at the beginning. We’re introduced to the naive, bumbling but lovable country girl Arika. Completely oblivious to the social structure of the Windbloom Kingdom and attempts to enrol in the very excusive Garderobe Academy to become an Otome. Naturally the headmistress she has a special talent (and a special gem linking her to the house of Windbloom) and she gets in, she makes friends with people who are her enemies with her cute, good natured, strong social justice type personality. Plus she gets bullied etc etc. It’s all pretty much bog standard and a little dull until we get to the half way mark. The greatest strength of this show is Arika’s relationships with princess Mashiro, Nina Wang and Sergay Wang (bit of a “Daddy Long Legs” vibe going on between him and Arika), as well as the action sequences. The back end of the show certainly makes up for a lot of the lameness of the first third.
However the back end of the show is not without its problems. The main one being the rather confused political situation. It’s very hard to determine which faction is tied or against other factions or the motives behind what is going on. Most confused is the relationship between Schwarz and Aswad, which I initially thought were one in the same until the middle of the series. In amongst this confusion is an absolute ton of characters. There are links between them all, but it’s quite had to keep track at times. Rather than the “happy school girl” first third, I think they should have devoted that time to establishing and strengthening the ties between characters and developing them more. Then again, this a common complaint I make against a lot of modern anime. There’s also quite a bit of fetishism in the first third of the show, but it’s all a bit curious as to the way it’s handled. It’s almost as if they had a checklist and where ticking off the various fetishes (mostly all presented in a subtle way) and then these fetishes didn’t get mentioned again. There was a weird mention of sexual infantilism (if that’s what you’d call it) between two characters which got a good run in the latter half of the show. I also found the whole concept of Otomes odd. It’s like they’re an order of magical battle nuns sans religion.
Summing up, this is a fun show despite its many flaws and fan pandering. The second half made up for the lacklustre first half. 6.5 out of 10.
"My Otome Zwei"
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 4 Episodes x 28 minutes
Production Date: 2006 – 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
This is a direct follow on from “My Otome” (zwei meaning two in German and a pun on the kanji in the Japanese title of the show which looks like a “Z”). I think the OVA series starts off really well with a fantastic action sequence (involving Arika and a team of Otomes taking out a meteor about to plummet onto the surface of the planet) and then crashes soon after. Again the main problem I had here was the really confused plot in terms of the political machinations. It didn’t make a lick of sense to me. I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Things soon go from bad to worse with a bus jacking side trip which is in no way connected to anything else in the show.
Then we get a sequence with the main cast in a hot springs bath house with nudity and nipples they couldn’t show on TV. And what was with the disappearance of the valley. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. So much lazy writing in this show. The characters are don’t develop any further than what they were at the end of episode 26 of the TV series. In fact some revert. It all adds up to a very disappointing show which all four OVAs barley seem to link to each other in terms of plot. Really didn’t like this one much at all. Totally not impressed. 5 out of 10 for some action sequences and designs only.
"My Otome 0~S.ifr~"
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 3 Episodes x 28 minutes
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
Making more money out of the franchise, here’s the three part OVA prequel. Unlike the rushed and jumbled up atmosphere of its predecessors, this OVA isn’t crammed full of too many characters and too many ideas. However it does suffer that same confused feeling in terms of the way the plot is presented to the audience. It was only when I went online to do a bit of research that I realised that the lead character, Sifr Fran, was Nina Wang’s mother. That was not at all clearly articulated in the OVA (though I may have missed it and was My Otome’d out by that stage). I will say this OVA series was much, much less cluttered than the previous two series. Miyu, Arika’s mum and the Schwarz organisation make welcome returns to the show.
Oddly Bandai haven’t dubbed this part of the franchise. Unsure why, but guessing from some of the reviews of “My Otome” and it’s successors, people were iffy on it and it didn’t sell. I don’t think this show is as fun overall as the original TV series, however is structured a whole lot better and has practically none of that fetishistic fanservice. However I’ve forgotten what happened in the show already, and it’s only been a day or so since I’ve watched it. I’m going to give it 6 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 25 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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