life line by line

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!?

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Now that Natsuki’s bong has been found, she and Shizuru start to make preparations as other druggies fractions begin to make their move towards it. The source of half their troubles, Arika, has been punished by making her learn the finer arts of Janitor-Ken while cleaning Fumi’s memorial site. The other girls drop by to see a hot and sweaty Arika in all her underaged glory, also offering useless help and good food.

Arika is later at the library trying to figure out how to break the contract, as Mashiro’s nightly S&M sessions are starting to take a toll on Arika’s body. In comes Shizuru, swooning girls left and right, as she pimps her game to Arika easily finding the truth about what happened the day before. In the background Tomoe looks on longingly wishing she was Arika instead…

In the evening, Arika runs into her longtime childhood friend slash potential love interest Miyu (along with her emergency food rations, Alyssa). The two catch up on old times until Mashiro rudely interrupts the two; she’s here because she can’t sleep without her Arika hug pillow. Actually, the two are still stuck to the contract without any ideas what to do next. Arika and Mashiro run into some luck, however, as Miyu apparently makes an excellent jewel thief, taking out the GEMs neither of the two could do themselves. Unfortunately the contract is still in effect and left with little choice, Arika must now turn to a life of crime to be free.

The next evening she gets the rest of the Arika-gumi to help her sneak into Fumi’s memorial site, which also doubles as the school’s database library, graveyard, and emergency brothel. The group, after overcoming many obstacles the cheap security system, make their way into Nagi’s personal porn library the school’s database system only to be denied access since no one is a l33t h0×0r. Luckily they do find the room with grave markings of past Otomes, which is also Miss Maria’s hiding place when she loses confidence in her sex appeal. Miss Maria gives the youngin’s an history lesson involving her ex-lover Monica and some cock-and-bull question about fighting friends. Arika gives the secret third choice answer correctly, but then Miss Maria notices Arika’s GEM is gone so…

…the Arika-gumi are punished by cleaning up Fumi’s memorial site of the mess Mai did that one time she got hammered when she used to be an student there. And if life can’t get any more fun for Arika, her chain-and-ball lover Master decides to drop by to yell at her again!

Oh yea, evil bad guys are revealed and Midori is apparently the ring leader of the group. Rip off Char mask included. Go fig.

Good episode that setup a lot of potential plot. I just needed more Miyu and Midori to make the episode even better. Speaking of Midori, I’m sourly hoping when her group engages the Otomes, Midori will have a kick arse “evil villian speech” ready to say! Even if Midori is evil, she just wouldn’t be Midori without some over-the-top monologue speech!

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Mashiro dreams of moutains of ice cream and whipped cream until a nightmare that she might be a man a fake princess suddenly plagues her. She soon wakes up from the nightmare, finding out using Mikoto as a hugging pillow was a bad idea. Quickly going back to sleep thereafter, Mashiro dreams of throwing pies at the newly appointed court jester, Arika.

The following day, Arika heads off for some actual work, doing construction, while everyone else enjoys their time off. A bitch slap by Mashiro to Arika, another love letter by Black Valley, and Nagi almost getting to second base with Mashiro eventually lead the female dynamic duo to hidden ruins underneath the castle. Arika and Mashiro stumble upon the world’s biggest bong, but before they get a chance to smoke up, the two cause all glass-like material around the area to break. Mikoto then pulls an Wizard of Oz on the two girls saying they need more harmony and members if they ever plan to start their all-girl idol group want to use the bong freely.

Pondering who they can get to join their idol group, Arika and Mashiro are interrupted when a Bugrom from El Hazard decides to drop by. Finally realizing the big arse pendant around her neck isn’t just cool bing-bing, Arika calls forth the power of the blue sapphire GEM to go magical girl… Strike Freedom Meister Arika arrives!

After a quick battle that included some S&M and Magical Lyrical Nanoha A’s plagiarism, Mashiro and Arika eventually find a way back to the castle much to no one’s joy. The two by now have become lovers good friends after their forced Master-Otome contract; evening share a kiss at the end!

HGMS Strike Freedom: Version Arika was very cool. I thought we needed more chibi-Mashiro and Mikoto though. Also, apparently working under Mashiro will make an individual gain a few pounds through the years, as exemplifed by Sakomizu and Mikoto

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Writer’s block over her latest yuri fanfic, Arika decides to get some new ideas by experimenting on Nina. Confused over liking being touched that way by Arika piled with her lack of getting some father lovin’, Nina takes her anger out on Arika during training the following day. Unforunately this only earn the two ’special lessons’ by Yukariko. Things gets even more worse for Nina once everyone finds out she might be bi, and with her sexuality getting tested, she’s forced to team up with Arika in being Nao’s underlings.

Luckily Nao is a kind mistress so not much happens between the two, until during the annual Miss Garderobe Academy swimsuit event when tentacle monsters drop in for some fun. In the first unknown battle against the monsters, the girls easily lose as team leader Nina hits cloud nine while in front of an audience. Erstin, on the other hand, has the best day ever in her life. Arika, meanwhile, unfortunately learns diving belly first isn’t the smartest idea. And Mashiro becomes the number one lolicon in the nation. In the background the true cause of the problem, mastermind Shiho, laughs as another plan succeeds.

Losing face and her virginity, Nina wants payback bad. She enlist the help of her slaves as they eventually find the cause of the tentacle monsters. After making Natsuki recall painful memories of a similar past life event, the principal allows the girls to take care of the problem. Unfortunately someone has thought ahead and puts a wrench in Nina’s plan, instead making the monsters problem even bigger! Typical hentai tentacle monster scene later, half the girls are stuck in ecstasy while the rest tries to save them. Nao comes in the nick of time to take care of the monster like only Nao could, enjoying every minute of the ordeal.

After everything is said and done, all is well again at Garderobe. Shiho, who was behind the scheme, learns another valuable lesson. Nao gets some kicks and giggles plus another servant. Arika learns how to swim while also getting new material for her fanfics. Nina gets comedically screwed over again. And best of all, Erstin finally gets the loving action that Nina has been denying her since day one

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Arika’s dream of being a mahou shoujo with great powers are shattered as Erstin forces her up to the harsh reality of being an Otome with great powers, who can’t have sex with men. Not being able to ride the meat pole aside, Arika quickly learns her elementary school level of education isn’t going to cut it at Garderobe Academy and debates whether to hit on the smart girls so she can graduate. Before Arika has a chance to get her game on, Shiho bum rushes her away for some sisterly love with the Trias.

The Trias thoroughly work over Arika. Between a lot of tongue lashing and screaming Arika finds out the uniform fetish thief not only sold off her uniform but damaged it too! The other girls think Arika sold her uniform just because she couldn’t make enough as a cabaret girl but Arika denies she’d ever stoop so low. Meanwhile, Sergey and Nagi are discussing Arika’s excellent services while debating whether or not they want to sponsor her for the Miss Otome 2006 Beauty Contest. Sergey goes on to shows the Otome fanboy in him as he tells Nagi about Backstage, a gay bar slash Otome otaku wet dream come true. The two start to wonder how much they could sell Arika and Nina’s underwear…

After the tongue lashing by the Trias, Arika gets into deeper trouble as Natsuki and Maria find out about her sold uniform. Arika is punished by having to watch and dissect all 100+ episodes of Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny much to her charging. A pick-me-up letter by her stalker and encouraging disses from Nina eventually knock some sense into Arika as she starts to search for the uniform fetish thief.

Promising Erstin, Irina, and the Trias to share her collection of Mai-HiME XXX DVDs the group gets down and dirty looking for clues. Nina starts her own investigation after kicking down Nao’s favorite sleeping spot and begging for help. Arika’s team doesn’t find much besides Akane’s boy toy but Nina and Nao hit pay dirt after hitting some bars while dressed up like gay sailors.

A last second hint from Mikoto gives Arika’s team an idea of what could have happened just as the Queen of the country stops by to make fun of Arika. Everyone gathers to hear Irina’s far-fetch theory that Mikoto manhandled the uniform and much to the shock of 99% of the people in the room, Natsuki takes it as an logical possibility. Mashiro with her tail between her legs runs away in defeat while the other girls plan to throw a late night orgy to celebrate Arika’s stay. Nina declines the invite instead finishing business by telling the true culprit Miya to lay off Arika as she’s Nina’s bitch. Miya does a perfect re-enactment of Mashiro only to be caught by her mistress Tomoe. Tomoe lays down the law on her slave punishing Miya by not letting her join the nighty orgy with the girls.

Once again the power of friendship solves all!

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