Volume 5 of My Otome brings us to the beginning of the fall into dread. Where up until now the series has been primarily a schoolgirl fantasy with a backdrop of bigger issues in the political sphere, Volume 5 shatters our and the characters’ innocent point of view with cruelty.
Windbloom is invaded, Garderobe is taken over by Nagi “for protection”, and the girls of the school find their loyalties tested. As the plot catches up to us, there’s less and less room for the kind of happy-go-lucky scenes that filled the first half of the anime. This volume is about loss and war.
However, because a Mai series is not really a Mai series without service, the extras jump in to fill the gap. In “Erstin’s Last Smile,” we get some heavy duty bath service starring Arika, Nina and of course, Erstin and her breasts. It’s a win for Nina x Erstin ‘shippers, of which I am sure there are many. Certainly, the Erstin goes lesbian scenario of the Mai Otome Miss Maria was Watching: Garderobe Secret Diary, Vol. 1 Drama CD implies that that is where Ers-chan’s feelings lie. The other extra presents us with a rather unlikely, and somewhat disturbing, Yuri pairing in Mikoto the cat and Aswald’s Midori.
Volume 5 is not happy, but it is crucial, if we are to have an actual story to care about. Another good volume of My Otome.
Ratings:
Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 5
Overall – 7
And my thanks once again to Ted the Awesome for being a hero and sponsoring today’s review!
I don’t want to sound too critical, but I just have to wonder: how/why did Mai Otome volume 5 get the same overall rating as volume 2 of the Kannazuki no Miko manga? Mai Otome isn’t high art, but the animated series (especially volume 5) is far superior, plot and characterization-wise, over KnM. I didn’t care for that bath fan service extra either (I’m never watching it again), but I’ll take a harmless fluff fan service scene tagged on as an extra that I don’t have to watch over mysogynistic, gratuitous rape scenes that are used to push the “plot” in Kannazuki. Sorry to rant, but the two ratings just bothered me.
An overall rating covers my general level of entertainment I received as a result of reading and watching this. 7 means it wasn’t high art, but generally entertaining, for any number of reasons.
As much as I find the fandom of Kannazuki maddening and specific details of the manga irritating, overall, it was mostly entertaining. In contrast while i find that some aspects of Mai Otome are better than others, the general level of servicey goodness leaves me feeling mostly entertained. Arika using her breasts to wash someone in the bath is not, IMHO, worthy of higher praise than a 7. :-)
lol I get it. Thanks for explaining. :) I really like the series so I’m biased (even though the fashion in MO is pretty terrible compared to MH…I weep on the inside whenever I see Natsuki’s “headmistress” outfit), but I do want the head of whomever created the heavy fan service extras (the bath one and Nao’s weird lingerie exploitation thing-a-ma-jig). MH and MO are two of my favorite series to watch with my friends precisely because we like making mocking/snarky commentary while watching movies, and the Mai universe provides a treasure trove of opportunities (plus we love Natsuki :) She needs her own series already! ).