Mai-HiME Episode 15: A High School Girl ☆ Soars To the Heavens

Discussion thread for Mai HiME Episode 15: A High School Girl ☆ Soars To the Heavens

With better action (that isn't a drawn out yawn-fest) than the Man of Steel film, it's Mai-HiME Episode XV: A High School Girl ☆ Soars To the Heavens. The episode starts with a flashback to the SEARRS Foundation and baby Alyssa Searrs. The representatives of SEARRS mention that she has HIghly-Advanced Materializing Equipment like the real HiME. This is where we see that Alyssa is an artificial being. One in a line up of 143 creations. This makes me feel sorry for Alyssa, even if she's a villain during this story arc. It's sad to think this little girl is part of an organization that plays G-O-D. Worse is seeing that she's Valkyrie No. 143. The rest of their attempts must of ended horribly at the expense of life itself. The scene is subtle, but already we hate the SEARRS Foundation; setting the mood perfectly for the upcoming showdown. We also see Miyu in another flashback, handing a tiny snowman to Alyssa. From the very beginning, Miyu went beyond her programming and just fell head over heels for Alyssa. The thought of their closeness is a bit creepy if you see it as a couple thing, but it really adds a lot to Miyu's character. The humanized android/cyborg is something not very well done in fiction away from T-800 in Terminator 2, KOS-MOS from the Xenosaga trilogy and of course, Miyu Greer from Mai-HiME.


As Miyu and Alyssa prepare for their Golden Age, Nagi arrives and threatens the both of them. Alyssa brings up a very good point by questioning who's the real villains here. SEARRS or First District. Implying that First District is the more sinister of the two. It's ironic how correct Alyssa would be once we head into the Carnival arc. In the previous episode, Mashiro assembled as many HiME as she could to save Fuka Academy from the SEARRS takeover. Mashiro tells the girls that SEARRS is looking to prevent the HiME from obtaining power of the HiME. She even reveals that Alyssa is an artificial HiME created for that purpose. The bridge that was destroyed in the previous episode was caused by Alyssa and satellite that harnessed her power. Because of this, it became her CHILD known as ARTEMIS. Natsuki asks Mashiro if Akane was a HiME and gets the obvious answer. Because SEARRS defeated one HiME, it's crucial that they rest avoid similar fates. Nao Yuuki being the non-conformist that she is, refuses to take part in this war against SEARRS. Natsuki reminds her that she'll have nowhere to run or hide on her own. Didn't take much convincing there, huh Nao? =P Akira Okuzaki spies on the entire gathering until she is discovered by Nagi. He tells her that unless she helps out, Takumi could be in danger. OHHHHH, BUT WHY SHOULD AKIRA CARE ABOUT HIM! HE MEANS NOTHING TO HER! LOL! You are so cute, Akira-kun~ Why aren't there more girls like you out there?

The stage is now set. In a fantastic shot, Yukino is lifted to the surface on a moving platform. She uses her powers to camouflage the exterior of the Academy, so none of the Fuka students witness the attack on SEARRS. What follows is one of the most awesome action sequences in the entire series. All of the HiME battle the SEARRS Foundation soldiers, tanks, and battleships with tremendous ease. It's very fun and exciting to see the HiME kick some ass. Even Nao joins the fray and in retrospect, it's refreshing to see her fighting on the side of good. She even starts taking the threat of Alyssa seriously, which adds A LOT to Nao's character. This is an action scene done right with the HiME kicking so much ass, while remembering to protect the Academy and it's students at all costs. So the stakes are there, the pressure is on for the HiME to plow everything in there way to reach Alyssa and Miyu. Awesome explosions, Natsuki's martial arts on the soldiers, Mikoto slicing tanks apart like butter, Midori and Gakutenou destroying warships, great cinematography for Mai and Kagutsuchi, man, everything is just an adrenaline rush. Best of all, you have "Chiisana Hoshi ga Oriru Toki" playing in the background. This song (performed by the always great Kuribayashi Minami) is the thematic equivalent of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" in Rocky III. Whenever it comes up on Mai-HiME soundtracks, I immediately think of the SEARRS battle and the HiME Rangers joining forces. In fact, the spirit of this fight is seen in The Avengers movie. Everything putting differences aside to fight a greater evil. What worked for Avengers, worked many years before with Mai-HiME and damn I LOVE it. This is how you create drama with action sequences, not plowing through buildings with a complete disregard for human life...MAN OF STEEL. *cough* Also, you got to admire Tate who spotted Mai flying on Kagutsuchi earlier. He is so concerned with her that he actually went back to the Academy, only to be told by Natsuki to stay out of it. Tate deserves a lot of credit for offering to help in any way he can. It's the thought that counts.

After the HiME Rangers take down the SEARRS army, it's down to Miyu and Alyssa. Again, I love how Nao is taking the situation seriously-AAAHHHH! I LOVE THIS EPISODE! IT'S SO WELL WRITTEN! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WITH ACTION! All of the HiME surround the two and Mai pleads for them to stop. Alyssa refuses, stating that the HiME believe in nothing and that they  lack any kind of resolve. Alyssa drops a bombshell by telling the HiME that the satellite is already overhead. No matter where they or the students run, everyone will die. Alyssa summons the power of Artemis and prepares to nuke all of Fuka. She gives the HiME one last chance to surrender, but none of them do, so Artemis fires it's massive beam directly at the Earth. Mai and Kagutsuchi take action by heading towards the energy beam, sacrificing herself to save everyone. Everyone believes she's dead for a while, until a miracle takes place as Mai and Kagutsuchi literally resurrect from death. The look on everybody's faces says it all! Even Miyu and Alyssa are shocked as Hell! More powerful (and pissed off) than ever, Kagutsuchi jet packs it's way into space with Mai, destroying ARTEMIS forever. This sequence is amazing as we've never seen these characters in space. It's cool to know with Kagutsuchi's power, Mai can breathe and survive in the vacuum of space.

Knowing they've lost, SEARRS orders one last ditch effort to eliminated the HiME and Miyu/Alyssa with a missile strike. They all survive the explosion, but where did Miyu and Alyssa go? And is Mai dead THIS time? The HiME fear the worst as Mai and Kagutsuchi are nowhere to be found. We get beautiful snowfall to symbolism the next scene as Miyu carries Alyssa to safety. As she fetches some water for Alyssa to drink, Joseph Greer appears and kills Alyssa in cold blood. He says it was a direct order from SEARRS to leave no trace of their involvement behind. He sinks to a whole new low by adding that artificial Valkyries (HiME) aren't meant to exist. That was all Miyu could stand as she brutally murders Joseph without hesitatation. We get a beautiful string of sequences where Alyssa slowly dies and gets taken away by Miyu. You could feel her pain despite being an android. This is the best use of "It's Only the Fairy Tale" in the entire series.

Five star episode all the way. This and episode 25 (we'll get to that later!) are immediately five star classics. The drama was great, the battles were intense, the humanity could be felt, everything was fantastic. This perfectly wrapped up the Orphan arc with such a loud band. This episode gets an easy perfect score for so many things. Most of all, being the last time we see the HiME Rangers as a team. The darkness is coming that will shift the direction of the series. But for now, the heroines won the war. Hoorah, fatherfudger. Hoorah.


+ Amazing action sequences
+ Fantastic build up
+ Stakes were high
+ A cooperative babyface Nao Yuuki
+ Miyu and Alyssa in general. Villains or characters painted with villain colors are ultimately tragic.

Ah episode 15, a great episode climax from "Act I" :3 When I first saw episode 15, I said to myself that it was going to be the last episode for me to watch for the night, but I ended up finishing the entire show that night, because especially episode 15 had kept me incredibly interested in the show. I regret nothing :'D

Nymphetamine wrote:Ah episode 15, a great episode climax from "Act I" :3 When I first saw episode 15, I said to myself that it was going to be the last episode for me to watch for the night, but I ended up finishing the entire show that night, because especially episode 15 had kept me incredibly interested in the show. I regret nothing :'D

:'D You're a huge fan of the Carnival arc and all the events that are about to unfold (Shizuru involvement!!!!) so regrets are not acceptable here.