Back to Xeeron's Profile Xeeron's Profile

A spin-off of the Tenchi Muyo OVAs. Framed as Mihoshi telling the gang a story about her past work as Galactic Police Detective, but filling (almost) all roles in the story with the usual Tenchi characters. The notable exception is her partner Kiyone, who makes her first appearance here.

The story itself is rather straight forward and centers on apprehending a thief who stole 'ultra energy material'. With the roles of chaser and chased being played by the main Tenchi Muyo characters, the usual character dynamics from there carry over, e.g. Ayeka and Ryouko competing for Tenchi's romantic attention. New character Kiyone plays the unfortunate role ... of strait-laced detective who has to suffer from the ineptitude of her partner Mihoshi.

The plot is nothing to write home about, but there are occasional switches of the narrative back to the main cast on Earth complaining about their depiction in the story, which adds extra amusement. Mainly important for people who intent to watch more of the Tenchi Muyo universe, since it introduces both Kiyone and the Pretty Sammy persona, which feature heavy in later works.

Girls & Panzer: Daikon War!

In the OVA for the third installment of Girls und Panzer das Finale, the Anglerfish crew joins a western. Apparently, there is a large section of the Ooarai school ship that features the landscape of a classical western, complete with rural farms, Native Americans, and plenty of mountains. Why did we never see that area on any of the previous wide shots of the ship you ask? Good question.

While trying to hand out student council material to the local cowboy cosplayers, the Anglerfish crew is roped into the chase of a local "sheriff" who hunts down a thief. Uniquely for Girls ... und Panzer, there are no tanks to be seen in this episode; all the girls ride horses instead.

This OVA falls off compared to the great installment for Part 2, which gave us an in-depth look at the French school BC freedom. No such luck here, we only learn a tiny bit about the agriculture department of Ooarai (the ones doing the western cosplay). However, there is a new "western" song, which is one of the better Girls und Panzer songs overall.

The two OVAs follow the 1983 Crusher Joe movie. While technically stand-alone, there is little setup of the universe or characters in the OVAs, so having watched the movie prior is recommended.

In both one-hour long episodes, the Crusher team (Crushers being this universe’s elite mercenaries) is called in to solve a problem for a planetary government. The plot is very heavy on space action, with even less character moments than the movie. The storylines are rather standard for serialized SciFi and would be at home in a Star Wars spin-off. Don’t expect thought-provoking questions, just enjoyable space action.

As a plus, the animation quality at least ... matches the already good movie animation and is accompanied by orchestral music befitting a SciFi.

The third installment of the ple-ple-pleiades mini-series to accomplany Overlord. This time, due to observing Pandora's actor in the form of Ains "overacting", an overacting-craze spreads among the floor guardians and other minions of Ains. Ains himself is not too pleased and, unsuccessfully, tries to stop the overacting.

Sound and animation are similar to the previous installments, but the story is lacking. The overacting is silly, but not very funny. Whereas the first and second season of ple-ple-pleiades poked fun at the Overlord storyline, this one stays one-dimensional.

If you want to absolutely see everything Overlord related, pick it up, otherwise this one can be safely skipped.

Three years have passed since Keiichi met Belldandy. He is still going to university, still a member of the motor club and still living with Belldandy’s sisters. When a fairy releases a mysterious man from Belldandy’s past from his moon-prison, trouble is incoming.

Unfortunately for this movie, the trouble is heading straight for its plot. The movie attempts a weird merger of rebellion against god, an 80’s hacker film, and a love triangle. Boy, does that not work out for me. The motivation of bad guy Celestin is never made clear, even though he spends a good bit of time talking about it. He wants to ... end suffering by removing free will? Or does he want to enable everyone to have free will by removing the oversight of the gods? Or does he want to make everyone have the same level of happiness? The whole climax of the movie rests on his ability to explain his motives to Belldandy. She (obviously) sides with Keiichi, but it would have been nice if the viewers could see a case for the other side at least.

We also do see very little of our main characters together. Belldandy spends most of the time in an amnesia-induced state. And when she is half-way back to her old self, Keiichi is either knocked out or mind-controlled. Due to the more serious tone of the movie, Urd and Skuld have to lay off their comedic routines, too. Oh, and what is up with Skuld not wanting to Keiichi to see Belldandy naked? You’d hope that they got past hand-holding after spending 3 years living together.

The animation, on the other hand, is top. While the “heaven is a futuristic computer office” idea did not fit well, it at least looked good. And the ending is on the positive side of trippy.

Overall, however, the good animation does not save the film from its plot. Someone who rebels against the gods’ order needs to be better at explaining his case to be interesting. I would have much rather seen a story that focuses on earth and leaves the heaven mysterious. The movie is not terrible, but a clear step down from the OVA.

One year after the political intrigue and descent into war of Mai-Otome, the world is trying to heal its wounds. Otome from different countries work together to deflect an asteroid in danger of hitting the planet, and political leaders engage in the aptly named SOLT talks (a reference to the SALT talks between the US and the USSR). Over four episodes we revisit the main players of Mai-Otome and get to see how they fared after the big final battle.

Overall, Mai-Otome Zwei has a very slow, reflective mood. While there is an enemy to be defeated, and a world to be saved, even the protagonists ... do not seem to be overly worried by the asteroid-induced crisis. And, given the history of happy endings in the Mai-world, neither should be the viewer. This is not to say that there is not a superbly animated showdown, but the emphasis of the OVA is on checking in with all main characters from the original series, not on the rather featureless antagonists. As an epilogue to Mai-Otome, the anime worked well for me.


Note: Mai-Otome Zwei is a follow-up OVA to Mai-Otome. Watching Mai-Otome first is crucial to understanding the story and watching Mai-Hime is at least helpful.

Humanity lives on a broken desert planet. Past warfare, conducted with vastly powerful weapons, has rendered most of it a lifeless desert. Advanced technology is still around, but no longer being produced. Science is regressing, rather than advancing. The power is in the hands of a mostly aristocratic elite, who rules over their countries with the help of “Otome”, users of one of the most powerful technologies remaining. The ability to create Otome rests with Garderobe, which also guards and restricts access to this old technology. This school is the lynchpin of international relations and at the center of a mutual defense treaty. In it, ... young girls are brainwashed into devote servants of the aristocrats who sponsor their transformation into mighty Otome.

The story kicks off when main protagonist Arika successfully, if unexpectedly, gains entrance into Garderobe. Soon, several groups, who are unhappy with the status quo, will make their move and shake up the political landscape. Arika, and her fellow aspiring Otome candidates need to find their way as the world descends into war.

The world building of Mai-Otome is top-notch. If you can accept the concept of Otome (who are basically technological versions of magical girls), the world makes a lot of sense. There is scheming, conflicts of interest, and more than one betrayal. On top of this, the story delivers. There is a satisfying finale, no loose ends and a well done mystery (who is the real queen??) to top it off.

So, where does the anime go wrong? In the directing. Unfortunately, the mood of the episodes does not match the tone set by the world building. The characters live in a veritable dystopia, are brainwashed and their lives are bound to their masters. This calls for a dark anime that explores how the characters deal with their flawed lives. Instead, the directing is much too upbeat. Even during the climax, slapstick jokes are present in most episodes. So much of the world’s impact is blunted when the people in it treat it as a joke. Not that Mai-Otome is a comedy. It tries to be dark at times, it just does not try hard enough to make it work.

It needs to be mentioned that all characters are lifted wholesale from Mai-Hime, design, name, character and all. Even some character-specific “jokes” are repeated. On the whole, this did not distract me too much, but it is rather unusual. The main characters of Mai-Hime are relegated to side-roles. This is unfortunate. While Arika is ok as a main character, she lacks the depth of Mai in Mai-Hime. Having a main character that is not as unqualified upbeat would have helped.

Overall, Mai-Otome is an anime that could have been great, but is let down by not matching its dark world with equally dark characters.