- INTRO -
First glance at a show like My HiME, it seems like the everyday Love Hina ripoff with some sort of side-line story. There's the highly attractive main character Tokiha Mai, being harrassed by some guy that's doing things that he doesn't mean to be, etc. However, this show has a unique element to it...
The thing that makes My HiME so original, and so fantastic is it's stunning ability to smoothely switch the overall mood of the episode. It starts from "calm" to "good" to "great" to "AWESOME!" to "not as good" to "bad" to "very bad" to "OMGWTFBBQH4X!!!" in as little as one single episode, and it doesn't leave you lost whereas other anime's have so many other things going on you can't really keep track with the storyline.
The entire design is flawless. The characters look as real as anime can get, their body forms near-perfect (though you might think of this as a perverse statement, look at other shows like One-Piece.) I've yet to see an anime as graphically dazzling as My-HiME. Every little piece of art was portrayed so perfectly you could just feel everything that it was trying to tell you about what's going on.
When it comes to storyline and plot, My-HiME has a lot of other shows beat. In the beginning, it draws the viewer close by giving them a laugh, it starts out as a comedy. Then it smoothely trails itself into more of an action show, and then it has rather serious drama (I've actually had to hold back a tear or two watching some of these).
A word to the wise before looking into this show, is always: Never judge a book by it's cover. My-HiME looks like a childish, girly, maybe sometimes perverse show, but the viewer will never be able to capture the real meaning of the show until they start watching it. It's cute, it's funny, it's full of everything a great anime needs.
- STORYLINE -
The story behind My-HiME takes place at the Fuuka Gakuen private school. A total of 12 unique HiME (Highly-Advanced Materializing Equipment) have been gathered at the school to help protect the students from giant monsters called Orphans. Little does everyone know that the HiME are being researched by secret organizations plotting towards harvesting their special powers for the wrong reasons.
15 year-old Tokiha Mai is a hard-working older sister only wanted to have a normal school life. Instead she finds herself fighting alongside her all-powerful guardian Kagutsuchi to defend the school, and her loved ones from these many threats as the story unfolds until the final outcome.
My-HiME introduces a world where risk is everything, and everyone must either put what's most important to them on the line in order to achieve victory, or lose the most precious thing to them in defeat.
- COMMENTS -
Simply put, I loved this anime. Every episode had me begging for more and more as the story slowly revealed it's increasingly more dramatic plot. I highly recommend this anime to any anime fan that's willing to give up the time and patience to witness something truly awesome.
It had it's good moments and bad moments, it's ups and downs, but the show is definately one of the best I've ever seen before.
In conclusion, My-HiME was a masterpiece from the very start. I enjoyed it all too much, and I hope that others will be able to feel the same way I did about it. This show is guaranteed to keep the viewer hooked from beginning to end, with very little to no absolutely boring scenes. It's definately worth a look-see.
