Mai Otome is the second iteration of the Mai franchise following the success of Mai Hime in 2004. Much like Mai Hime, it follows a group of school girls from the innocent and happy days at the start of the school year through to a dark and serious finale as they are caught up in a grand supernatural plot with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
Mai Otome brings back the beloved characters from the original but also introduces a new, younger main cast – this time centering on their first year of junior high.
- Arika Yumemiya: ditzy and energetic red-haired girl who’s come to the elegant city in search of her missing mother.
- Nina Wang: High-achieving, refined maiden of the school who initially puts on airs and is hard to get along with but opens up further into the series. She has a unique hair style with twin braids but also has her hair up either sides.
- Erstin Ho: She’s a quiet and sweet blonde girl who ends up being Nina’s and Arika’s roommate. Notable for being bustier than her other classmates!
- Mashiro Blan de Windbloom: Technically a returning character from Mai Hime, but she’s pretty much completely different. Mashiro is now a spunky and duty-averse 14-year-old-princess!
The inspired character designs and voice acting make them really cute, memorable characters. This aired around when I was first getting into anime so Arika was an early waifu crush of mine.
There’s something really charming about the junior high age group in anime stories that’s ripe for crafting moe characters – maidens on the precipice of maturing. Mai otome plays on this well, with girls that are pure and innocent yet also becoming precocious. The maid-style adorable uniforms feed into this maiden theme as well.
Let’s see what they get up to…
Nina is first introduced as a prim and proper young lady only to have her image disgraced when Arika trips and sends a creamy drink hurtling her way. She falls back with cream on her face that looks rather lewd indeed, and then finds that she’s revealing her panties to the man she loves (but not to the audience,sadly)
Arika’s sex appeal is only subtly hinted at when she awakens from being knocked unconscious naked underneath the bedsheets. There’s something really sensual about girls being naked yet concealed – it triggers the power of imagination!
We don’t get a better look at her until she’s tested in battle and gets her magical clothes destroyed, revealing her petite and sexy figure!
The DVD bonuses reveal that her clothes didn’t end up holding out, ultimately crumbling to nothing in front of a live TV audience. Luckily Nina was there to protect the virtues of this young maiden!
Earlier in the show we get a couple of nice fanservice scenes, including this bathing sequence that introduces a lot of the supporting cast. In this refined school the first-years are assigned an older girl as a kind of mentor, and duties may include washing their backs (and rumour has it some couples may take it further and enter Yuri territory).
Back to the younger girls now and we get a glimpse of them in the change rooms. Arika unexpectedly has cute babydoll style underwear. In her usual way she causes mischief when she erotically touches Nina causing her to let out an embarrassing moan.
But the fanservice highlight of the show comes with the pool episode. It starts off strong showing the young ladies in sexy school swimsuit designs! Despite their age there’s some nice ass to be spotted in this class!
The undeveloped Masahiro meanwhile is fitted out in the classic Japanese school swimsuit as a nod to the lolicons out there.
Things get a little more interesting when the girls in the pool start feeling like they’re being touched inappropriately. It’s not their imagination, as it turns out there’s some kind of ethereal tentacle creatures making the unwanted contact. But the fun is ruined when Nina almost drowns!
After regaining consciousness she finds herself naked underneath sheets, much like Arika earlier in the season.
The girls seek to get to the bottom of the tentacle issue and return to the pool, only to be accosted by a much more sinister foe. Poor Erstin finds herself in lewd entanglement with the creatures tentacles.
Later in the season the old guard of returning characters from Mai Hime can be found relaxing by the pool. It’s only a brief moment but Natsuki lying there with her bikini undone makes it a moment to remember! Shizuru seems to agree, unable to resist the urge to teasingly slip her hands into Natsuki’s pants (it’s all but canon that these two are a lesbian couple).
At the same time, Masahiro’s sukumizu makes a triumphant return!
Meanwhile Arika and Erstin are lost somewhere on the island. While it’s a shame they’re not in bloomers, their sorts uniform’s shorts are still kinda hot.
After being rescued from falling
As the real plot starts to pick up and the drama unfolds, the fanservice starts to dry out. Fortunately, we get one last offering as Arika makes a pit-stop to bathe in an onsen with the former heroines of Mai Hime. it was nice seeing Mai and Natsuki hanging together again!
But that didn’t stop the DVD releases on giving fans some more opportunities to admire the girls of Mai Otome. In this bonus, Nao (another former Mai Hime character) buys all the girls fancy lingerie and they have a bit of a private dress up party. The designs are a little whacky, but they’re still a good way to see these maidens in a different light!
Nao herself steals the spotlight with her mature, sexy look – including garters and fishnet style stockings. She’s got a damn fine body to show off as well!
But, despite being younger, Erstin provides some healthy competition with the corset styled top really drawing attention to her superb cleavage. Her shy look gives her extra points as well!
When Nina walks into the room she is disgraced by such lewd activities. This backfires when the others decide she should join in and forcibly encourage her to dress up as well!
Then there’s the bathing bonus which starts out as a relaxing moment as the three roomates share a bath together, until Arika ups the ante by bringing her soapland game. She straddles Esrstin and massages her clean with her own body in a very inappropriate display.
As usual, Nina disapproves but winds up being roped in. Details from this point are foggy from this point but it certainly looks like the girls have plenty of naked, soapy fun.
That’s all for the Mai Otome TV series. Revisiting it even after all these years reminded me that, despite being otaku-oriented trashy anime it has a lot of heart and memorable characters so it’s well worth the watch. The light fanservice is appreciated but is far from the only reason to watch!
