Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
motkamo
Do you like Pokemon? Do you like Naruto? Do you like Lain? Lucky Star? Haruhi Suzumiya? Bakugan? Do you like magical girls? Do you like slice of life school arcs? Do you like yuri? Do you like manic pixie dreams?
Basically, this whole anime is a mess. An aesthetic, romantically confused, convoluted and contradictory mess. It feels a little like the creators thought about every cool plot that has ever existed, wondered how to improvise, and then gave up and just said, "yes, let's do all of that." Watch at your own risk, as long as you answered yes to any of the questions above.
Read at the sourceundamoth
Regrets come in many forms. One may anticipate something that would never come, some anguish on things that have been done, some still wallow over opportunities lost, and if you are like me, finished Mai-Hime.
Mai-Hime is one of the best magical shows ever made but I am someone who wholeheartedly cannot recommend it for a simple enough reason: IT HAS ONE OF THE SHITTIEST ENDINGS FOR AN ANIME EVER.
I do not wish to spoil it to anyone but it felt like eating on a table, when promised a full-course meal of a lifetime and there you are consuming wonderful meals that kept surprising you with every succession but then the dessert comes in the form of a gelatin filled with the kitchen's leftovers from the lavatory drain.
To keep it short, this show was a SUNRISE production which I respected…
Read at the sourcedelesley
Some flaws, but well worth watching for adults.
Based on the other reviews, I didn't initially have high expectations for the show, but Mai Hime turned out to be surprisingly good. I started watching it mainly because the soundtrack is by Yuki Kajiura, and the music is absolutely amazing. The main theme, "Mezame", is one of the best in any anime.
The good:
Characters and relationships are always the most important part of any story, and that's where Mai Hime shines most strongly. The main character Mai really carries the show. She's torn between the love and responsibility she feels to her brother, her reluctance to use her powers, her confusion over budding romantic feelings towards boys, and her friendships and rivalries with the other girls. The other characters are great too; they…
Read at the sourceJustykanna
My-Hime is a series that I was somewhat reluctant to watch. It mostly felt like it was just your classic "fight monsters, win" deal, but it certainly does evolve past that. Unlike most of my other reviews, I'll be including some very minor spoilers (not enough that I believe they should be tagged with a Spoiler Warning) - nothing specific and won't give anything away if you decide to later watch it.
Story: My-Hime is split off into two arcs. We start out with Mai Tokiha and her brother Takumi, who transfer to Fuuka Academy. While on the boat to get there, a mysterious girl named Mikoto suddenly appears, wielding a large broadsword. When they're attacked, Mikoto fights off Natsuki Kuga. However, Mai seems to show that she has some strange abilities, and suddenly, we're curious what they ar…
Read at the sourcemuhamesri
This series really caught me by surprise! It was so good! The first thing that caught my eye about MaiHime were the quirky characters. especially, mikoto, best girl imo.
I really enjoyed the interaction between all the characters. In terms of sound, it was alright. The OP was an absolute banger.
Animation was on point, i was truly amazed. The first half of the series its mostly getting to know the many characters we have in this story. The second half is when it gets slightly serious. Not gonna lie, this really knows how to play with your emotions and i thought that was great.
Although, there were some parts that i felt could have been explained better, but hey, no complaints, i really did enjoy mai-hime. Gonna watch the spinoff next! I hope you guys enjoy this one as much as i did!
Read at the sourceBalsamina
Mai-Hime -- an old entry by Sunrise at this point.
The graphics are at this point, as of 2021 reviewing date, dated. Yet, rating it by the year it came out wouldn't be fair. For its time, it was on the higher end of average, courtesy of Sunrise studio's higher budget relative to other studios.
Art: 6
That said, also relevant to Sunrise's budget is the hiring of an excellent composer for the OST -- one of my personal favorites as far as composers. Tracks like Mezame are masterpieces and are still worth listening to til this day. However, some points do need to be taken off -- there is a distinct underuse of said composer's talent and some of the tracks are poorly matched to the emotions of the scenes they are used in. An example of the times when the track in the background is overly dra…
Read at the sourceVoidHex
Finally got around to finishing this. The plot was pretty interesting, however they made an ending that pretty much said "let's throw everything we've built up for plot purposes out the window". Show started pretty great, went pretty meh halfway. It's one of those shows that suffers from a really bad insufferable MC, MC was annoying and contributed nothing to the whole show, she was just there for the sake of being the MC, whining and crying here and there. The OSTs done by Yuki Kajiura were pretty good and it's definitely one of the things/saving grace that made the show somewhat bearable along with its great quality animation considering how old it is. It had some pretty interesting characters like Akane, Miyu, Mashiro and Midori.
Read at the sourceSanaeK10
One major problem I have with many of these classic anime (like with this, Utena, Simoun, Kannazuki no Miko etc etc) is that they have far too many filler episodes and can easily be trimmed down to half the length easily. The thing is, older anime can't do slice of life that good, which is what most of the filler tends to be.
Plotwise it does go to interesting places I give it that. But it's clear they didn't have it in them to really go all the way for a depressing ending. I really don't care much about the characters to be perfectly honest. I did like Midori and Suzushiro for their antics but any time the plot calls for something serious I just can't take anyone seriously anymore. With the exception of Miyu and Alyssa. They did their relationship right. Cheesy yes, but it still hits th…
Read at the sourcecaptjoe213
Hi! Here we are at another Robert's Too Late Reviews! This time we're only, oh nearly 15 years behind, as we're going to be discussing the dubbed version of Mai Hime for your enjoyment. The quick and dirty of it is I really enjoyed this anime, and while it is not without some notable issues, it still was an enjoyable ride for me. Now, let's break it down and see if the RTLR wall gets any more covered than it already is. Take it from the top, boys!
Story: 7
I'm going to start with some complaints. This story has one major factor for me that really jumped out pretty quickly: why do the Hime exist? What's the point of their coming together, fighting, doing anything at all? This anime mirrors the Fate series in a few ways, this one being a prime example. In Fate, we have the battle for the Gr…
Read at the sourceAndreikun
I started this anime with high hopes judging by other reviews here and on other sites, ended up needing a mental floss in the end with a good anime.
This will contain spoilers as in my opinion, one can't show the flaws of the series without going into spoiler territory. Contains one spoiler for Madoka also and Yuuki Yuna.
What I liked about the show: The soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura and the voice acting.
What I didn't like about the show: Everything else.
The art is 1990s style, guess it worked in 2004, this can be overlooked today on old shows however.
What I didn't like is the plot and characters. The show starts on a mystery note, then evolves into a comedy with mystery accents, then transforms into something dark involving character death and ends in a comedy like nothing happe…
Read at the sourceChinomi-san
The first images I saw from this anime made it look tamer than it actually was; there were girls hugging and smiling, even looking happy while summoning what were their “childs”: some machine creatures that came to their aid whenever they were in trouble. From the very first episode, though, there are some foreboding events that clearly indicate to the viewer that this isn’t some happy-go-lucky magical girl anime. The machine “childs” lend to that effect. Unlike the cute and whimsical creatures that magical girls from other anime have, here are these large and intimidating animals made of metal that resemble birds and other things. Rockets and cannons are cool, aren’t they?
The few times that Mai and her friends had some respite between fighting “orphans” (the name of the evil and destruc…
Read at the sourceRohling
So, i watched this one because friends told me it was a good one. Maybe tastes are different but i really hated it.
The story was non-excictent, just some girls fighting and at the end there is still everybody alive.
Sound and art where ok.
Chars, there are no chars. Non of them where improving over the whole show, they just stay dumb as they where at the start.
Overall: There where just so many flaws i don't know where to start. If the chars would actually get some development i could give this one a better rating, but they're not only dumb, they're immune to learn.
Try fit comedy/school life/abit ecci/SoL and drama together, MAYBE could work, but not here.It get's so pathetic i almost ragequitted it.
That's all before i'm spoiling more story (asif).
Read at the sourceHatul
Mai-Hime is an edgy magical girl show that contains fan-service, yuri overtones, violence and plot twists... No, Madoka is not the first to do that and actually, neither is Mai-Hime (I refer you to a 90s OVA known as "Shamanic Princess").
This is a spoiler free review.
*Story*
The story revolves around a certain academy that collects girls who have special abilities to summon these monster thingies and fight alongside them using magic. They collect these girls in order to fight off weird looking creatures known as "orphans" and for some other questionable reasons..
This set up does give the series quite a bit to work with. What are these "orphans" after? Why is the academy collecting these girls? How come they can summon creatures? And these ingredients are used fairly well, but it doe…
Read at the sourcebearvarine
Great story, but surprisingly tragic ending
This is a story about a girl Mai Tokiha and her brother Takumi who transfer into a new school. Mai quickly becomes involved in a strange disaster, and discovers she has been marked along with a few other girls at the school to be HiMEs -- controllers of giant Mecha weapons. The story unfolds with a mix of friendships and love interests being explored while dealing with repeated appearances of demon-like creatures that have to be fought off. The drama intensifies, and characters who were once allies turn against the main group of HiMEs, causing a lot of pain and anguish. Later in the series the story takes an even darker turn. As the HiMEs try to understand the true nature of the dark forces they are up against, the HiMEs must put their friendshi…
Read at the sourcenoth
I just watch the Mai Hime series and i have to say the ending was bad. The rest of it was good but like some of the series the first season is really good then the second season just gets to dark.
I liked the story a lot again just not the ending.
The sound was great. Had really good V.A. and sound effects.
The characters were really great. Most of them it was easy to fall in love with or hate them right off the bat (the art teacher).
I enjoyed it a lot but the second season really was way dark for my taste.
I hope you give this one a try cause you just might like it too.
Read at the sourceAsfaria
Mai-Hime takes the magical girl genre (mixed with some sentai aspects) and does a 180 for a dramatic, psychological ride. While the show starts off with an even mix of comedy and drama, it drops the comedy and focuses almost solely on the drama around halfway through the series. Many people compare this show to Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, and for good reason. Madoka Magica does a similar twist on the magical girl genre, except it does things in the opposite way. Mai-Hime focuses more on external conflicts relating to the person who is closest to the character (and everyone else caught up in the process) while Madoka Magica focuses on internal conflicts relating to the wish that each girl made. On top of that, both have the famous Yuki Kajiura working to create some of the greatest soundtra…
Read at the sourceHunterY63
This is an absolute underdog in anime. This anime aired in 2004 but still has some of the best animation I’ve seen to date.
The story revolves around a female protagonist Mai Tokiha. She and her brother have been granted scholarships to Fuka Academy. Her brother Takumi has a fatal heart disease that has made their life thus far a struggle. Upon arriving at the school Mai is thrown into a viscous battle between two mysterious girls, Natsuki Kuga and Mikoto Minagi. In this battle Mai discovers that she possesses great power similar to these strange girls. She is told she is a Hime, an Ancient Warrior who possesses great power to do what ever she wishes with. With one rule, you cannot fight other Hime.
The story is just jaw dropping. With some high up beat moments to some ball your eyes ou…
Read at the sourceXynatox
I decided to watch Mai-HiME after having found several fan fictions of said anime, and I was intrigued. The anime starts off rather average normal High-School-Fantasy style with the main character talking about how normal they are and then immediately moving into some event that gives them powers. Pretty basic start, it's been tried and tested, and nothing to important.
As the anime went on however, it follows the generic storyline with a few major events, a definitive start, middle, and end, and a standard ending. Nothing really stood out to me. I was guessing what would happen and getting it right every time, no mystery or surprise, just basic stuff.
Now, this is an anime that is quite a few years old, being created in 2004, but that doesn't excuse the plain mediocrity that was this an…
Read at the sourceDreamsugata
Mai HiME was my fav anime of all time in 2005. the story is great and the art is even greater, not to mention the songs and sounds thanks to kajiura yuki who has made Mai HiME outstanding for real!
One thing I hated about the series! the fact that Mai fall in love with Yuichi! Kanzaki was far better I think lol! .. but thanks god they didnt include any kiss scene for those two xD
btw I started to like yuri more after watching Mai HiME (Ganbatte Shizuru-chan) *droolz*
Read at the sourcebaskervwatson
The scenic art just wasn't enough to save this anime from its 2 dimensional characters, cliched events, and forced humor. Far to many anime stereotypes all shoved in together makes for boring watching as you know what everyone's reaction is going to be. If you're into obvious character development and pairing offs, and don't really want to think about plot or witty banter, then you would probably enjoy this. But this is possibly because I'm personally not in the tweens demographic, so take this review with a pinch of salt.
Read at the source
