Current mood:	contemplative
Current music:	"Kimi ga Sora datta" - Misato Aki, My-HiME ED

My-HiME spoilers (up to ep. 18)
I'm all caught up to the fansubbed episodes now and there have been some surprising and painful developments. I admit I only became interested in this series when I learnt that Seki-sama had a role in it. So I watched the preview, liked the music and animation, and thought it'd be another fanservice-y, action-comedy, with lots of super-powered girls in school uniforms with impossibly short skirts. And from the first few episodes, it seemed I was right.

The reason I kept up with the series? Seki-sama of course. My assumption that his character, student body Vice-President, (and subject of many schoolgirl fantasies,) Kanzaki Reito, would be a minor character have been struck down. Reito-san appears more and more often in My-HiME but belying his model image, he seems less interested in Mai, and more interested in controlling her. The look he gave Tate when he interrupted Reito and Mai, was very unlike the usually calm and smooth VP.

One of the great things about My-HiME is character development. Seemingly minor one-dimensional characters become very important as the story progresses, like the continuously overlooked student council aide, Yukino, and the hesitant Sister Yukariko.

Another of the series' strengths is the story itself. I'm sure I'm not the only one speculating on what's been revealed so far about the HiMEs and their purpose. And I'm equally sure we're wondering even more about what hasn't been revealed.

Midori speculates in one of the earlier episodes that there are 12 HiMEs, but the preview suggests there are actually 13. So who are the 13?

1) Tokiha Mai
2) Kuga Natsuki
3) Minagi Mikoto
4) Sugiura Midori
5) Higurashi Akane
6) Yuki Nao
7) Sanada Yukariko
8) Okuzaki Akira
9) Yukino (forgot her family name)
10) Munakata Shiho?
11) Fujino Shizuru?
12) Himeno Fumi?
13) Chie or Aoi? the school doctor? or does the 13 include the "fake-HiME", Alyssa?

Is Mikoto really a HiME? She has the HiME birthmark, and definitely has super-human abilities, but unlike the others she carries around her weapon, instead of summoning it. I wonder if that'll be explained later... And what's her brother's role in all this? Is Reito-san really her brother? Mikoto thought he was, though he denied it.

Shiho is most likely the ghostly HiME that wants to hurt Mai that's appeared recently. But Shiho, Mai, and Mikoto have bathed together. Why didn't they notice the HiME birthmark on her? I just don't see who else it could be though.

Shizuru seems to know a lot more about what's going on at school than she ever alludes to. Her relationship with Natsuki is interesting too and the conversations she has with various other characters, including Natsuki and Nagi, probably mean a lot more later on.

Fumi and the Fuka Academy Director, Mashiro, have the same seiyuu. I wonder if there's significance in that?

Why does Nagi seem particularly interested in Mai? Is there something special about her that's known to the First Generation? If so, Reito-san's interest in her is even more suspect. And it would partly explain the apparent superior strength of Mai's Child, Kagatsuchi. I wonder if the abilities of a HiME's child are proportional to the depth of feeling between a HiME and the person dearest to her.

And that's another thing to speculate on... each HiME's dearest person. And with Nagi's announcement that the HiME's must fight each other, and Natsuki's discovery that the death of either HiME or Child spells doom for that HiME's dearest person, it's become sort of a perverse game of Survivor. Now we're all forced to wonder who will live and who will die.

Nagi revealed that the reason for the "Festival" as he calls it, is for the last remaining HiME to gain great power in order to prevent a catalysm involving the HiME star - that great red thing in the sky that can only be seen by HiMEs. It's getting closer and according to him, can only be stopped by the last HiME. From Nagi's hints about gaining strength, and Kagatsuchi's seeming increase of abilities after defeating Alyssa's Child, I can only guess that a victorious Child somehow absorbs the powers of the dying one, thus exponentially increasing its own.

Eh... I could ramble on like this forever, but I really shouldn't. I'm impressed if you've made it this far since even I'm sick of reading this. ^_^;;