Mai-Otome 0930
Before I write anything else, I have to mention that Maruto! Diary Room is where I’ve been getting the majority of my Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome fanart. Definitely check out the site as it’s a must bookmark for any anime fan!
Anyway, Sergay and Rouschach are in luv-luv suki-suki mode trading love letters and secrets no one should know about. Meanwhile for the underaged Otomes, exams are around the corner and it’s rather obvious Arika is ill prepared. After the majority of exams are over, only one is left: make 10,000 friends in one day survival/endurance test. For some reason most of the girls are scared but good old drugged up Arika is ready to give it a go!
Everyone arrives at the beach for the obligatory beach swimsuit fanservice scenes only to be disappointed they’ll be roughing it in nature. So while the younger girls setup base for CounterStrike, the higher uppers settle down at the local five star hotel with some extra baggage in the form of Mashiro, Sergay, and Nagi. Some flirting goes on with Nagi first hitting on Mashiro, Sergay, and finally John Smith but nothing much comes from his pimping. The following day the younger girls set off on a 100km hike as their survival test when in reality, Natsuki is simply too cheap to pay for the transportation. Also didn’t help that Natsuki spent the money on new bikinis for all the older Otomes instead; not like the students will ever know.
Speaking of the students, the system of pairing each of them off has done its job well as the only competent group seems to be Nina and Tomoe. Irina is the next Ryoga/Zoro in-training while Erstin’s heavy baggage eventually lags her and Arika behind. Things don’t get much better for the students as poor choice in food source, inability to cook, idol worshipping, sabotage, and forced yuri-ness slowly take its toll on them. Erstin takes the worst of the punishment having to get naked after a fever sets in with Arika the only hope of being rescued! Too bad for Arika, just when she thinks she found help, it turns out to be one of Midori’s Sentai of Evil ™ members… a crossdressing one at that! Arika not complimenting him on his horrible awesome fashion sense unfortunately ends up being her downfall, literally, as she falls off the cliff hitting the sea soonafter thereby ending the rest of Mai-Otome ending the episode.
The returning Mai-HiME female cast in swimsuits, need I say more? Actually yes I do, as this was a rather good episode that only makes me want more as pieces of drama and plot are slowly being revealed. Will Nagi turn to the Dark Side Schwarz after his one night of passion with John Smith? Will the Haruka versus Midori showdown be as hot as I hope? Will we ever see more Arika X Erstin, Erstin X Nina, Tomoe X Nina, Tomoe X Shizuru, or Shizuru X Natsuki? Will the girls ever be in swimsuits again? Where did Nagi and Sergay get their kick arse Hawaiian shirts? Most importantly however, will we ever physically get to see where exactly Shizuru gave Natsuki some tender loving!?