A LITTLE FUN IN THE SUN
Sesho | Pasadena, TX USA | 09/04/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The first two episodes on this dvd are pretty light-hearted on the surface but they also reveal some new details about Fuka Academy and the Hime that have been gathered there to fight Orphans...if that IS the real reason....Anyway, Episode 9 centers on that favorite of otaku everywhere, the beach episode, where everyone gets to drool as their favorite character strips down to their bikini which is a staple as familiar as the standard hot springs episode in most anime. But there's no rest for the non-wicked either as Mai, Natsuki, and Mikoto infiltrate an abandoned research facility to get some more info on the Hime instead of taking a break in the sun. Then the girls have to go through a grueling cooking contest to make up for exams that they missed due to laziness, lack of caring, or the fact that they were battling bloodthirsty monsters in the middle of the night, Which brings us to the last two episodes, which focus on a bizarre series of assaults on female students at Fuka. Rumor is that a vampire is lurking, preying on the innocent. It's up to Mai and the other girls to find the identity of the attacker, which may reveal even more Hime than those previously accounted for.
My-Hime is a great show and reminds me a bit of Full Metal Panic in the sense that it blends a lot of comedy with slambang action sequences and bits of drama and human relationships. While Sunrise is known mostly for Gundam, it can produce awesome mixed element shows like My-Hime and Cowboy Bebop. Yes, there are beautiful girls here and handsome guys but really its all about the interactions between the characters and the dark forces that are moving in the background to whome these relationships are insignificant and the girls are merely pawns. The character designs are graceful and the animation quality is first-rate. Truly awesome anime."
Mai-Hime 3
R. L. Autrey | Portland, OR United States | 08/21/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This volume (3) and the two previous are good fun: well-illustrated, fast-paced, funny but not silly. My one problem is that I cannot, on any of the three discs watched so far (including one replacement from the manufacturer), cannot make the volume play Japanese spoken language and English subtitles, a scheme which I prefer for anime and which I can make work on any of the other seven multi-disk series, plus numerous individual DVDs that I own."