How and when did you first discover Mai HiME/Otome?

AtlantisLux wrote:my despicable works

LIES AND FALSE PROPAGANDA!

((Sith Lords and teasing the ladies are my specialty)) ;p

Let's see, where do I start with this. Whenever I was in my first semester of college all I really did besides studying and hanging out with my roommates was watching anime. So, I was looking at a couple amv's and saw a clip of Shizuru and Natsuki fighting. So I was really interested in knowing what this show was about so I looked it up.

After watching the few episodes, my roommates and I couldn't stop watching it for some of it's comedy. We finally finished the show and automatically started watching it again. Ever since then, I have watched the show about 100 times and every time someone mentions the show I have to watch it again.

So, while I was at Otakon last year, I saw that they were selling the Bandai collection and I bought it, because I loved Mai Hime a lot. I still watch the online episodes some times too.

I also feel accomplished now because I have got a few other of my friends into this show and they can't stop watching it either.

I actually discovered Mai Otome first until one day it came to my attention there was a prequel; Mai HiME. For ages I looked around for the series and couldn't find it. When I finally did watch it, my thoughts were, and I kid you not, "I wish I had someone to talk about Mai HiME with. This is awesome!" It has been awhile, but I finally stumbled upon this forum. If I remember correctly, it has been about a year since I first got into the series.

Personally, I've never watched a sequel before its prequel. This was accidental. xD Arika got on my nerves back then, but I really enjoyed Mashiro's character and how she became better over time. The Otome concept was interesting to me, though I personally think the HiME series is better.

In any case, I was looking around for another magical girl series to watch and found something equally awesome; Mai Otome. A few years later, I found Mai HiME on YouTube and watched the entire series there. I had a bunch of interesting plans to write fanfiction of the Mai series, but never got around to it. Plus, instead of fanfiction I am now devoting my time to original works.

Mai HiME and Mai Otome are both likable series and there are different things I like about each. Unfortunately, I sort of forgot everything about Mai Otome. >.>;

I discovered the HiME/Otome fandom through an artist who drew ShizNat, NatMai and NatNao. She's quite popular, and goes by Jango-Jo. I first encountered her with my obsession over Burst Angel (Her JoMeg pieces are amazing, by the way) the first anime I watched with any real Shoujo Ai subtext. While browsing her gallery, the pictures of Natsuki, Shizuru, Mai and numerous others caught my eye, so I decided to check it out.

It didn't take long for me to get hooked. Both series are amazing. :3

I didn't discover Mai Hime. Mai Hime discovered me. -dons sunglasses-

SpiralDasher wrote:I didn't discover Mai Hime. Mai Hime discovered me. -dons sunglasses-

XD Haha! I like that. Thanks for sharing your stories everyone!

for my part i never searched for something that can hold up with sailor moon. actually it's the fault of a friend that i'm into mai-hime. it was... let me think about it... at the beginning of 2010 when i slept over at her house and she figured to watch some new anime she bought called mai-hime. after she told me a little about it, since she watched a few episodes i thought: 'oh no... this sounds like a poor copy of sailor moon...', but she managed it to convince me to start watching it with her. well, and then i became kind of addicted of the show, cause at some point it was long after 2 in the night (we started watching about 7 or 8 in the evening, if i remember correctly), ara (my friend) was damn sleepy and i begged: 'come on just one more episode, it's so interesting!' and i said that after EVERY episode XD until she decided enough is enough and we went to bed. the rest of the episodes we watched another day. some months after that, i bought all mai-hime dvds at once on a anime/manga-convention.
i found mai-otome very shortly after i watched mai-hime that night. but i wanted to finish watching hime before i start watching otome. i watched otome on the net and later another friend got it for me from the net. but if they ever put it on dvd i'll buy it even if i have a kind of illegal version right now

i have to say that i like mai hime most of all 'all-female super heroine team' shows. i think you can mostly blame a certain blue-haired ice princess and her red-eyed parttime psycho killer friend/lover XD but aside of that i like all the characters. some more, some less. aside of fumi... really if i had a gun and just one bullet left and before me were creepy fumi and a killer shizuru, who's going to rip me apart any second... anyway the plot of the anime is interesting too and left me thinking about stuff.

long talking short:
you can blame my friend ara that i'm into mai hime/otome/whatever of this series XD

I really enjoyed your story, she-ga-roo! I love the Mai-Series (isn't that obvious? lol), but I'm more attached to Sailor Moon. It's hard to top one of the most influential anime/manga series in history. The Mai-Series to me is the next best thing when it comes to a group of super heroines; the sad part is knowing Sunrise didn't push the franchise further. They can do so with mecha anime (dime a dozen), but not a series about girls with powers and great stories? No wonder anime lost it's flavor lately.

sure sailor moon is very good and i watched it as a child everytime i could so the sailor senshi are more like my childhood heroines. but from the character part i like the mai-series more. maybe cause i'm a little older right now or something. i think it's because mai-hime is more serious stuff which you can think about. gah, i can't really explain, sorry

i actually found out about Mai-HiME completely randomly. i was at my friends house and she asked me if i liked anime, and at that stage i was just meh on anime in general. i had seen the ones every had seen when they were growing up, like Pokémon and DBZ and some Sailor Moon, but that's about it. she put on Mai-HiME and i was captivated. i quickly borrowed the DVDs and watched them at home. and it was over all too quickly. but then i went to a con with my friends, and we found Mai Otome. i had no money so i didn't buy them (but i sure as hell wanted to!) and my friend bought them instead. we watched some of it, then i quickly downloaded it and started researching to see what else was out there. i found this forum not long after that and it opened my eyes to the excellence that was the Mai fandom! and now here i am

Sergay Tate wrote:...but then i went to a con with my friends, and we found Mai Otome. i had no money so i didn't buy them (but i sure as hell wanted to!) and my friend bought them instead...

there's mai-otome on dvd?! oO i didn't found it anywhere...

I'd been into anime for awile (Zoids (awesome), Code Lyoko (which is also awesome), Naruto, etc.), and then I discovered yuri. (I thought: "Oh my gosh! There's actually stories like this? I know that everybody in the real world (except for me) is straight, so I just assumed that everybody in tv shows and anime was straight too! This is an amazing discovery!")
After watching Strawberry Panic (my first yuri series) and Kannazuki no Miko (a total classic for me!), I got into AMV's.

While watching a yuri-mix amv (and searching for new yuri anime to watch), I saw the clip of Natsuki (in her white camisole) staring forlornly out a window, mumbling "Shizuru..." and then Shizuru (in her sexily ripped, purple yukata) carrying her naginata and walking along a dirt path.
My initial thought was: "Hmm...this looks like a cool show... it looks like that blue-haired girl is some sort of damsel-in-distress type character, and that brown-haired girl is her lover who is also a warrior, and the blue-haired girl is waiting on the brown-haired girl to come back from battle..."

Little did I know that the "damsel-in-distress" character I felt sorry for was actually the badass that would later become my favorite anime character ever.

I started watching My-Hime for a possible interest in Shiznat, fell in love with all the loveable characters and the original plot, and fell even more deeply in love with Shizuru, Natsuki, and Shiznat. =]

I watched My-Otome later, but to me, it couldn't compare to the epicosity that is My-Hime. =P

MissSoccerNinja wrote:(I thought: "Oh my gosh! There's actually stories like this? I know that everybody in the real world (except for me) is straight, so I just assumed that everybody in tv shows and anime was straight too! This is an amazing discovery!")

This is exactly what happened to me, actually. XD Except, my discovery of yuri was with Kannazuki no Miko.

she-ga-roo wrote:

Sergay Tate wrote:...but then i went to a con with my friends, and we found Mai Otome. i had no money so i didn't buy them (but i sure as hell wanted to!) and my friend bought them instead...

there's mai-otome on dvd?! oO i didn't found it anywhere...

yes ma'am there are indeed! i own HiME, Otome, and Zwei on DVD. jsut gotta get S.Ifr now. they're all on DVD :)

she-ga-roo wrote:

Sergay Tate wrote:...but then i went to a con with my friends, and we found Mai Otome. i had no money so i didn't buy them (but i sure as hell wanted to!) and my friend bought them instead...

there's mai-otome on dvd?! oO i didn't found it anywhere...

Yup. I'm sure you could find them on the internet easy. XD

ookamidesu wrote:

she-ga-roo wrote:

Sergay Tate wrote:...but then i went to a con with my friends, and we found Mai Otome. i had no money so i didn't buy them (but i sure as hell wanted to!) and my friend bought them instead...

there's mai-otome on dvd?! oO i didn't found it anywhere...

Yup. I'm sure you could find them on the internet easy. XD

check eBay, they almost always have copies on there somewhere :)
or you could download a DVD rip from torrents xD

:) Or check Amazon.

Oh CHECK ME. >:3 Send me the right amount of cash and I can get Mai-Otome for you. Just make sure Germany can play region 1 DVDs. :)

Luu Sky Sapphire wrote::) Or check Amazon.

Oh CHECK ME. >:3 Send me the right amount of cash and I can get Mai-Otome for you. Just make sure Germany can play region 1 DVDs. :)

oh don't worry about that one ^^
i made sure, that my dvd player can play all regions, since i have a japanese movie.
well actually i have otome, too. but nothing official like the mai hime dvd's.

but thanx for all teh information anyway, i'll see what i can find ^^

Luu Sky Sapphire wrote:I really enjoyed your story, she-ga-roo! I love the Mai-Series (isn't that obvious? lol), but I'm more attached to Sailor Moon. It's hard to top one of the most influential anime/manga series in history. The Mai-Series to me is the next best thing when it comes to a group of super heroines; the sad part is knowing Sunrise didn't push the franchise further. They can do so with mecha anime (dime a dozen), but not a series about girls with powers and great stories? No wonder anime lost it's flavor lately.

Disagree on what you said including anime losing it's flavor lately. Despite what people say anime has been well and really driving in more sales through pandering money-grubbing demographics. Were all going to have that same kind of cliched typed,branded, slightly stereotypical BS mess (Hate stereotypes to death). We do need great stories, we do need something fresh or refreshing but ain't gonna takes itself by overnight or day. Anime creators are taking risks and making money doing what's best for them and everybody. Anime will never die as long interests are standing in line and money flows like a river stream.

As for the Mai-franchise, do try to delude yourself Luu on thinking Mai-franchise ended in a sour note. I do believe Hisayuki-san is still in control of new HiME but don't know for Director and others. For Obara-san is doing VN novel anime project as of now and Horizon anime of certain. Checking his website of recent characters drawings and Mai-website of recent updates. The interest is strong and whenever the saga begins we'll be speculation like it's no tomorrow.





Comparisons part, Mai-franchise stands out on it's own, comparing anime like that to Sailor Moon is Oranges and Grapes.

You pretty much admit that it's all about the money. You probably also thought it was okay for Ewoks to blink as long as the blu-ray set sold like hot cakes. :) Tsk tsk, shame on you.

Whatever comes after Mai-HiME EXA is more than welcome, but I'll believe it when I see it. It's healthy to be a little pessimistic in our fandom, because when the magic moment comes, you feel extremely rewarded.

Luu Sky Sapphire wrote:You pretty much admit that it's all about the money. You probably also thought it was okay for Ewoks to blink as long as the blu-ray set sold like hot cakes. :) Tsk tsk, shame on you.

Whatever comes after Mai-HiME EXA is more than welcome, but I'll believe it when I see it. It's healthy to be a little pessimistic in our fandom, because when the magic moment comes, you feel extremely rewarded.

Patience is a virtue and real confidence builder

I suppose it all started with a few Mai-Hime and Mai-Otome amvs on AMV.org and youtube. After watching quite a few of them I decided to try and find episodes of both shows on youtube and started watching them. This was all back in 2004-2006. It took me a while to find them all, but after a few websites featuring episodes as well as a few fanarts and fanfics, I became hooked.

SpiralDasher wrote:

MissSoccerNinja wrote:(I thought: "Oh my gosh! There's actually stories like this? I know that everybody in the real world (except for me) is straight, so I just assumed that everybody in tv shows and anime was straight too! This is an amazing discovery!")

This is exactly what happened to me, actually. XD Except, my discovery of yuri was with Kannazuki no Miko.

Cool! XD *gives you a high five...and a membership into the...um...the Yuri Club of Awesomeness! ...(Which I just invented a second ago!)...* X]

Ah, KnM...I think it might be the best full-yuri anime series yet. =] ("Full-yuri" meaning that the main characters are in a yuri relationship. I'd classify My-Hime as "straight with yuri themes and characters" (since Mai is caught in a love triangle between 2 guys (if you don't count Mikoto...which I actually do........but I guess that that would just be the "yuri themes.")))

MissSoccerNinja wrote:Ah, KnM...I think it might be the best full-yuri anime series yet. =] ("Full-yuri" meaning that the main characters are in a yuri relationship. I'd classify My-Hime as "straight with yuri themes and characters" (since Mai is caught in a love triangle between 2 guys (if you don't count Mikoto...which I actually do........but I guess that that would just be the "yuri themes.")))

Agreed! I think Mai-Otome leans towards the classification of full-yuri anime series better than Mai-HiME does. Save for it's central heterosexual love triangle between Arika, Nina and Sergay. And to a lesser extent; Akane Soir and Emperor Kazuya.