In Volume 1 of My Hime, strange things are afoot at Fuka Academy. Monsters are appearing, girls with magical powers are fighting…and all of it seems to surround one boy, a transfer student by the name of Yuuichro Tate.

Tate is trying to redeem himself after a series of unavoidable choices caused tragedy to both him and the girl who admired him most. Instead of redemption, Tate finds himself in the middle of a storm, in which exceptional girls with exceptional powers want him to provide them with the means to fight.

Unlike the My HiME anime, this story is not about Mai, or Natsuki, or Mikoto. And unlike the anime, the service here has a nasty edge. Welcome to Champion Red and it’s special brand of woman-hating seinen manga. Despite the fact that you can expect to see woman depantsed, and deshirted with steady frequency, and the occasional rape thrown in for good measure, there are still some things to like about My Hime. The story is similar enough to the anime, that you can at least follow it,and there’s no Duke Nagi putting women in chains and beating them, for one thing. But that’s not what I was referring to. What I was referring to, of course, is…the Yuri service.

Shizuru remains a decidely Yuri character, with fangirls falling over themselves to be close to her. She also remains eyes only for Natsuki, so if that’s a key feature of the My/Mai franchise for you, then rest assured. The implied frottage between Mikoto and Mai is of questionable value to me, but I think that for this manga’s audience it’s spot on for appeal.

And despite the fact that this manga series is not about any of the many interesting characters in My HiME, instead focusing on the least interesting character in the known universe, it’s really quite all right for a trashy fantasy about trashy fantasy. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 2
Service – 7

Overall – 6

Speaking of fangirls, I am a huge fangirl for today’s sponsor, Okazu superhero Ana M! She is the absolute bomb! And btw, please notice the spiffy new “Hero Roll” on the right sidebar. Become an Okazu superhero by sponsoring a review and you too can be enshrined there for our permanent admiration.