Mai Hime 25

Kabitzin on May 15, 2005 · in Mai Hime

Most of the students evacuate, and it looks like the only ones left are Mai, Natsuki, and Shizuru. While Mai is all angsty from the loss of Tate, Natsuki gets to experience the Mikoto treatment of delicious ramen and hot baths without privacy. On the bad guy side, however, Mikoto gets served some pretty awesome looking ramen made by Fumi, but it seems to be missing that special Mai touch. Nagi is also complaining, as it seems that they’ve still been unable to find Miyu, and there have been several irregularities caused by Alyssa. In the background, we see that the HiME star has landed, and it looks like a giant pollen thing that will cause massive allergies around the world.

Once Mai and Natsuki have had a little heart-to-heart, it’s time to confront their respective loved-ones-turned-enemies. Natsuki doubts she’ll win, and tells Mai it’s all up to her. Yamada, the informant from the bar, does show up to hand Natsuki a free brand new bike for being such a good customer, and the action begins. Armed with a shiny new bike, Natsuki proceeds to drive into the student council room and interrupt Shizuru’s tea time. Natsuki calls Duran, and this time he’s absolutely huge, leading Shizuru to believe that Natsuki truly hates her. In a rage, Shizuru queues up yet another Natsuki bondage shot (right after a giant bell conveniently falls on Natsuki). In a surprise twist, Natsuki tells Shizuru that she’s come to accept her own feelings, and that she loves Shizuru for the kindness shown when she was just an angry, lonely new student. However, Natsuki knows that her love of Shizuru is not quite the same love as what Shizuru has, and so after a surprise liplock, she orders Duran to load silver cartridges and fire at point blank range. This takes out both Duran and Kiyohime, which in turn kills both Shizuru and Natsuki, but Shizuru is content to be defeated in Natsuki’s arms. Now pretty much only people with names starting with the letter M are left.

While this is going on, Mai makes her way to the school, but runs into Miyu. We get a quick flashback to when Midori booted up Miyu and decided against a memory wipe. Now, Miyu demands to know the way to the jumbotron so she can catch the NBA finals in style. She tells Mai that they’re all just pawns, and with that, she makes her way to a waiting Mikoto. The two battle it out with Mikoto using her usual style and Miyu switching to “Scarlet Mode” complete with a Gatling gun arm. Mai meanwhile encounters Nagi who shows her the pillars that rise when a HiME is defeated. When all the pillars rise, Kokuyouguu will reveal its true form. Usually, the winner is absorbed into the crystal and becomes the core of the land of Fuka, in order to become the gate to guide the HiME star. To see how the process works, Reito shows the crystalized body of Mashiro (back in chibi-mode). This time, however, Reito wants to take the winner as his wife and create a new world. Mai is totally not down with that, and so refuses, and Reito gets pissed that all Kagutsuchi users hate on him. Mai summons her strong feelings for Tate, and so is still able to summon Kagutsuchi, just as Mikoto appears with her new CHILD that she built from plastic parts.

Just before the episode ends, we learn that Miyu managed to escape Mikoto’s onslaught and make her way down to the pillars. Negi tries to stop her with an endless stream of ORPHANS, but then Mikoto somehow hears Alyssa’s voice and unlocks her true power. By switching to her Platinum Mode, she’s able to don a mythril outfit and bust out her powerful secret weapon dematerializer sword. As she plunges the sword into the center of the pillar area, waves of rainbow energy pulsate out, and the episode finishes.

This was a pretty interesting episode that raised several intriguing questions. Quite frankly, I don’t know what’s Mikoto’s complaining about, since if you look at them side by side, I’m pretty sure I’d rather have Fumi’s ramen. Although the anime doesn’t come out and say it, the manga provides the answer for why Mai’s simplistic ramen tastes better. Also, during the juxtaposition of Mashiro and Mai, I couldn’t help but notice that she looked an awful lot like chibi-Maya (from Tenjou Tenge). And finally, what exactly happens to all of Miyu’s discarded arms? Does she recycle them? Reuse them? How weird would it be to find all these arms and giant weapons littering the campus? These questions better be answered in the final episode!