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Plot Synopsis

Tokiha Mai is just an ordinary high school student struggling to balance the trials of school with the tribulations of love. She is a recent transfer to Fuka Academy, a prestigious school where students have a significant deal of autonomy; apart from classes, taught by various lecturers, the students have a great deal of freedom, doing what they will under the aegis of the Student Council. However, strage occurrances recently have shown that things are not as they seem at Fuka. Why have creatures -- "Orphans" -- started appearing around the school, and what are HiMEs? What exactly is the secret of Fuka Academy? Credits: shinsengumi

Story & Characters

The story of Mai-Hime starts off with a show of two siblings. The older sibling is a teenage girl named Tokiha Mai, who is heading to a boarding school named Fuuka Gauken (Fuuka Academy) with her younger brother, Tokiha Takumi. On the ferry ride, the siblings meet two students who already go to Fuuka, a teenage boy named Tate Yuuichi and a girl named Shiho. As soon as they start getting used to the idea of leaving home, however, a strange girl is pulled aboard. Mai uses CPR to save her. The girl is young and carries a huge sword that tops her height. Later in the ferry ride, Mai is attacked by a girl who demands to know about the sword-wielding child. Because of the two, the boat is cut in half and all Mai drowns with the sought-after little girl and her sword...and wake up in the garden of their school, the huge sword plunged in the ground beside them. In Mai's lap is the girl, whose name is Mikoto. Once in Fuuka Gauken, she is faced with Natsuki, the girl who attacked them, and is told that she is a HiME - "HIghly-advanced Materializing Equiptment," or "Dancing Princess" in Kanji. Throughout her relatively happy stay in the Academy, she meets and learns of many other HiMEs that attend Fuuka. Their jobs are to destroy the Oufans (Orphans) that destroy humanity with their power, their Child. The catch? They must put the lives of the ones they treasure in their hearts the most. All the HiMEs - Mai, Natsuki, Nao, Midori, Mikoto, Sister - all learn to accept each other and the jobs they have been given, and promise with each other to become a team and fight for justice against the Oufans. Their bond is cruelly broken, however, when they by the mysterious boy Nagi tells them about the true purpose of HiMEs and the red star that only they can see.
They must defeat the star...but after they have defeated each other.

Rating

9 (very good)

Art

The art in Mai-HiME is practical and pleasant. It is in bright and sunny colors, and the style is somewhat shoujo, but you won't see impossibly huge, sparkling eyes anywhere. The art style is efficient in creating characters that can match both the comedy half and the dramatic arc, which is impressive. The hair styles were different and unique for each character, which I found very good, because there were many, many characters. Clothing style is also defined. The slant and look of eyes are different for many characters as well. Overall I would say that the art is almost excellent. One fault would be that there is not much shading of the characters, which gives it a too 2D look. I was happy that the ending clips were done with effort, as most anime producers become lazy with the ending. All in all, the art was consistant with quality and effort throughout the whole show.

I am sorry for not including screenshots - I started out with four with descriptions, then Minitokyo said they were too big, so I scaled them down 73 times and then it said it was too small, so I scaled them up and down 54 more times, but during the span of 170 (too big) and 169 (too small) I lost my will to attempt to upload the screencaps.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

Mai-HiME seems to have great music, for both the opening, ending, and insert music. Many are done by Kuyabashi Minami, who is excellent at singing and composes some of her songs as well. I found the action scene insert song, Chiisana Hoshi Ga Oriru Toki especially impressive, because the lyrics and the song were more than succesful at getting my heart beating for the climax of the action. Both upbeat and catchy, the song was perfect for every scene it was in. The opening was also well done, as well as the ending. I was surprised, however, when the opening did not change for the last half, as the first and last halves were nothing alike in mood and theme. Voice acting was done well with good emotion. The seiyuu were good at crying sounds, which was important to the show.

Rating

9 (very good)

Presentation

Mai-HiME definitely seems to have a bit of everything in its small capacity. The first half is filled with humor and light romance, while the last half flourishes with drama and angst. I found that the transition could have been better, however, as the whole thing changed its theme in one episode. Another fault was that Mai-HiME had too many characters for 26 episodes. Other than the three main characters, Mai, Mikoto, and Natsuki, almost no other characters were introduced or explained properly except for the part that they were needed for (eg. love interest, bad guy). I found this unfortunate because with a few more episodes, the anime could have been much more developed and smooth in plot transition. Mai-HiME needed all those characters, so it would have been good to release an OVA. I liked Mai-HiME a lot, however, for the story carried unique and creative traits as well as commonly seen ones. The plot idea was great, art was consistent in quality, and the music was effective. Some points of the story were not explained, however, which I found disappointing. The drama and tragedy was overwhelming at times, but I found all the emotion very admirable. Mai-HiME is a definitely enjoyable anime, and I recommend it to everyone.

PS. If you like Mai-HiME, I am pretty sure that you will dislike Mai-Otome.

Rating

8 (good)

Final Verdict

8.50 (very good)

Reviewed by Rosegirl18, 2y 15wk ago