Fanservice classification: LIGHT

Contains the following content:

Mai Hime was one of the first anime I ever watched fansubbed as it was releaed week-to-week so it has a special place in my heart. I remember it well, starting out as a fun series with moe characters and a good sense of humour only to rapidly descend into a tense and dramatic fight for survival as the girls end up in a kind of battle royal.

So, much like the subsequent Mai Otome, most of the fanservice can be found in the early frivolities before things get serious.

The lead character, Mai is quite the hottie and her rack has a well-earned reputation!

She ends up roommates with a strange young girl, Mikoto who ends up clinging to her like a little sister.

The first fanservice highlight comes with the infamous under.wear theft episode.

It starts out simple enough, with some tasty shots of the students at the pool.

Sexiest of them all is the cool but stylish Natsuki.

When they hit the change rooms they start to realise one-by-one that their underwear is missing. – Natsuki included.

After carefully crossing the school grounds trying to maintain composure, Natsuki happens across Mai, Mikoto and the show’s main male character, Tate. A tense situation is diffused when a divine wind raises her skirt for all to see, exposing her lower region to everyone but the audience (we’ll use our imagination!)

Mai sharing a bath with Mikoto and Shiho.

When the class goes to the beach, the elegant Shizuru’s popularity is pretty obvious by her doting fangirls.

The other thing that’s obvious is Natsuki’s damn fine body, especially when she’s interrupted taking off her motorbike outfit.

Later, her Mai and Mikoto go on a bit of a side story together in their swimsuits.

In one of the last peaceful moments of the series, the main characters hit up Karaoke in cosplay. The most notable one is Mai who rocks a sexy policewoman outfit. Dat ass!

Mai in the shower..

That’s pretty much the end of the fanservice within the show itself, however it’s only just the beginning when you look at the special bonuses that came with each DVD release.

Mai gets a flashback to her in elementary school trying on her first bra and then a lovely shot of her all grown up as the sexy highschooler she is today.

We also get to see what Natsuki and Shizuru get up to when no one is watching. Shizuru has a thing for dressing her up in sexy lingerie and I don’t blame her at all.

Two of the other side characters get an erotic gravure-style shot.

Mikoto is the younger one of the bunch so they restrain the fanservice to panty shots, but I’ll take what I can get!

Plenty more fun to be seen with the characters bathing, in swimsuits and in bra and panties.

Some of my favourite shots deserve nice stitches. The art quality on these bonuses was great!

Naked Natsuki and bathing Shiho.

A special bonus features all the cast at the beach in an array of alluring swimwear.

Interestingly, the anime must have had a change in direction early in production as the original PVs advertised it with a different art style and with more of a focus on fanservice. Some snippets feature a panty-shot of Mai, and the girls in wet, see-through clothes while cleaning the pool. I kind of like this style!