Okay, here’s the problem. You’re a teenager, a girl, with some serious powers, a magical beast companion and, you learn, a destiny. But, the person telling you what your destiny is, is the smarmiest roach of a guy you’ve ever met. And the destiny he’s telling you that you have is to fight a malevolent force – but only after you’ve defeated all the people you think of as your friends first.

You see the problem, right?

The answer is, “Nagi. You’re a tick and none of us trust you. It might be true what you say, and the person who reigns supreme after we fight will have the power of all twelve HiME…but we *already* have that power as 12 HiME. So instead of fighting one another, we’re gonna kick *your* ass, and then take on the evil whatmacallit.”

Of course, that would end the plot now and we wouldn’t get two and a half more volumes of pure, unadulterated angst in which to wallow. So that’s no good.

So here we are at My HiME, Volume 5. Our menu for today includes beating Mai to death with the angst stick and for dessert, making Mikoto cry. But it’s all IMPORTANT, so that’s okay. Without all this angst, our characters would have no impetus to make bad decisions and do the thing Nagi said they would do.

The DVD extras on this volume include a servicey Midori looking at her own choices in life, a Yuri-service Mashiro/Fumi vignette, Akira’s feelings about Takumi and Takumi talking to Mai.

More importantly, this volume includes the much-screencapped scene where Shizuru gives away her feelings for Natsuki briefly, as she plays with a sleeping Natsuki’s hair. Aside from the implied emotions, it’s a very pretty scene.

Also, while not Yuri, the gender-bendy Akira and Takumi have a genuinely sweet scene, which IMHO is probably the best scene of the volume.

Some attempt is made to give Tate a personality, but it’s wasted effort, really.

So, allowing for the obvious flaw in reasoning (and who would expect a bunch of 16 and 17-year olds to reason things through, anyway?) and the incessant beating of Mai and by extension Mikoto, which is the main driver of the plot, Volume 5 is quite good.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Character – 6
Story – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 7
Angst – 9 and still rising

Overall – 7