My-HiME/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

== [[Mai-HiME (Anime)|MaiMy-HiME]] ==

** Why is it when Natsuki is caught sneaking around Searrs's base and Father Grear orders Miyu to get rid of her (Natsuki is helplessly sprawled across the ground in an unconscious state during this entire exchange, by the way), Miyu blatantly refuses the order under the pretense of "It's pointless to eliminate a Valkyrie when her powers aren't active"? Gee, that conveniently-timed attack of morality would have helped in Akane's case.

**** The [[Hi ME]]HiME Star causes... ''what?'' Where are you getting this from? We're shown Midori looking at a newspaper clipping about Mt. Fuji having increased volcanic activity. Problem is, we're looking at one case here and there's never any established ''connection'' between the [[Hi ME]]HiME Star and this event. It never goes beyond the random coincidence phase. Midori comes off as a mindless crackpot ''reaching'' for a reason to trust Nagi when there's no reason she should be compelled to believe anything he says after all the bull he's already pulled (regularly lying about what "Most Important Thing" meant to keep them motivated; hiding Akane from the other girls; etc). Where are the ''concrete'' establishing shots of Nagi or Reito, say, pointing toward the sky at the [[Hi ME]]HiME Star and causing an actual earthquake or volcanic eruption on cue? When is there a single instance of one of the girls declining Nagi's orders and forcing him to brew up some decent-sized natural disaster to demonstrate his point? Artemis is AT LEAST physically shown to be a viable weapon. On the contrary, the [[Hi ME]]HiME star is such a non-issue that barely more than a dozen schoolgirls and their mentors notice it even exists. The very urgency of the plot in the Festival arc is NEVER properly validated, and the girls go head over heels believing all of Nagi's threats at face value for no discernible reason. They kill themselves like lemmings to create artificial drama and allegedly prevent something that the evidence states never would have happened in the first place. That makes it an [[Idiot Plot]].

***** Here's the basic problem with the above troper's argument: The reason behind Yukariko manipulating and lying the other girls is to advance Ishigami's plan. The problem is, Ishigami's aspirations for world power come out nowhere and occur only because that point of the story required someone to play the villain, no matter how forced of a villain they may be. Where the hell was this supposed criminal mastermind when Searrs were trying to infiltrate the school and he could VERY easily sell out the other [[Hi ME]]HiME to his own benefit? Arguing over anything that resulted from the [[Genre Shift]], regardless of how well you may think those events are written, is a moot point. It's a plot built on a foundation of nonsense.

## If Shizuru had just called Haruka and stayed in touch to offer advice concerning running the school in the crisis, she would not have reacted as strongly (or at least, might not have been there in person and gotten killed). Haruka also didn't help matters by unnecessarily accusing Natsuki along with Shizuru. Then again, even if this and the situation with Nao above had been averted, the [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch|destruction of the First District]] most likely would not have been (But I in general find Shizuru's [[Psycho Lesbian]] side to be a case of [[Not Himself|Not Herself]], given the lack of buildup for it in the anime).

***** ''Exceeept'' Shizuru's characterization in the second half of the show still makes no sense. If the viewer is supposed to accept Shizuru was always a psychological timebomb waiting to pull a 180 and go on a rape and killing spree at the first ''perceived'' threat to Natsuki's life, where was she when Alyssa was pointing an interplanetary gun at Natsuki's head and explicitly stating "I will shoot you if you don't listen to me"? Once again, you have a character randomly spinning off into a psychotic caricature of themself for no reason other than forcing the plot in a tragic direction.

**** First off, the [[Hi ME]]HiME know for a fact Nagi is lying to them and manipulating them, yet continue to take his threats as fact without hesitation. The moment Natsuki reveals Nagi has been lying about what "Most Important Thing" meant for well over half of the story, everyone is consciously aware he's full of it and nothing he says should be trusted. Later on in the series, we find out the [[Hi ME]]HiME Star actually gains its powers from sorrowful emotions generated from the [[Hi ME]]HiME losing their most important person, and is not the omnipotent death weapon Nagi (not surprisingly) lies about in episode 17. With no Festival, Obsidian Lord would have had little to no actual power, and the girls were only screwing themselves over and helping him when THEY HAD NO REASON TO LISTEN TO NAGI in the first place. Yes, they ARE complete idiots for following the path laid out for them. Then there's Nagi and OL themselves, with plans that desperately depend on manipulation a small child would be able to see through, and it only works because OL is lucky enough the writers forced the entire [[Hi ME]]HiME Team to suddenly start acting like complete fools the moment the Carnival Arc hits. Ishigami's Evil Genius status comes into question the moment you consider HIS entire plan revolved on the concept that each time a [[Hi ME]]HiME is defeated, her powers are absorbed by the winning [[Hi ME]]HiME in some direct Quickening-like process. Yeah, he had no problems buying Nagi's bull, either. And it only gets worse when he never considers for a second that this is a proven lie when it's obviously debunked by Akira's defeat. There's being blinded by your ambition, and then there's being absolutely oblivious to the basic events happening around you. This isn't even considering his Evil Genius persona comes out of nowhere for the Carnival Arc, since it's never brought up once in the Searrs Arc. Never does he even remotely try to interact with Searrs and, say, try to pull their strings to sell out the other [[Hi ME]]HiME in exchange for immunity for himself and Yukariko (and don't tell me a coherently written Evil Genius wouldn't do something like that). Lastly, there's Mashiro. She knows the absolute truth about the Carnival through first-hand knowledge, and her very reason for being there was to mess things up all along. She reserves magical Nagi-jamming powers for herself (see: her second conversation with Midori), she trains a bodyguard [[Hi ME]]HiME and instructs her NOT to take part in the Carnival, and flashbacks show you she rejected OL at the end of the last Carnival just like Mai rejected him in this one. She could have stepped in at any second, informed the [[Hi ME]]HiME what was really going on, and stopped the entire process from the first episode of the series. There's no serious way a fully-informed viewer can say she's NOT there to screw things up from the start, yet the show plays her as a sympathetic character who regrettably allows the Carnival to happen for some mindboggling reason. So, yes, the Carnival Arc was a desired plot direction that only worked because virtually the entire collective cast suddenly started acting like total idiots. That's the very definition of an [[Idiot Plot]]

***** Again not exactly what Nagi was saying may have had a ring of truth to it, he just didn't tell them the full story. Besides that you're forgetting one major point, the girls don't immediately decide to fight each other. They were essentially manipulated into doing so by outside forces. Yukariko; a trusted figure to all of the girls who was basically a very innocent young woman who gets flustered easily and who was in love with Ishigami. Ishigami wanted to use her power for his own gain but in order to do so he'd have to get rid of the other [[Hi ME]]HiME, and so he used her love for him to manipulate her into pretending that Nao; who was antagonistic towards other girls and one who could basically be described as untrustworthy and not at all reliable, had injured her. Of course the other girls took Yukariko's word for it but still tried to talk to Nao to get an understanding of what going on, however Nao thought that they were out to get her, which was not helped by Nagi who staged an attack on Nao and injured her even though no one saw him which then led to both Natsuki and Nao blaming the attack on Natsuki because she uses projectiles. This in turn made Nao desire for revenge on Natsuki and thus instigated a fight with her. That then led to Nao instigating a fight with Shizuru by proxy due to her being in love with Natsuki. Shizuru was in contact with Reito, who she was closer to than Haruka, and had no reason to doubt. Reito used both Shizuru's trust him him and her love for Natsuki to get Shizuru to fight Nao, and also destroy the First District. This also led to problems with Haruka who already had in in for Shizuru and was looking for a fight. Then after Natsuki was injured and then put in a state of BSOD due to her finding out that her mother was trying to sell her for money, this then lead to Natsuki temporarily losing her powers, with Nao still after her. Shizuru then saved Natsuki and was nursing her which lead to Shizuru skipping school. With Reito and Shizuru missing this put Haruka in charge who could not handle the situation despite wanting the job, this lead to her wanting to find out where Shizuru was and Yukino being in love with Haruka and wanting to help her found Shizuru for her. However, their timing was bad, and Haruka's subsequent anger even though justified couldn't have been at a worse time this lead to Shizuru fighting and beating Yukino. With Mikoto it was already established that she was searching for her brother, who was basically raised to love only him (granted he did kill anyone who she loved more than him- except for Mai). This in turn put Mikoto against the interests of the team due to Reito wanting to make them all fight. Shiho did not know Nagi was a liar and wasn't even aware of the fact she was [[Hi ME]]HiME, she also couldn't take no for an answer nor could she accept the fact that Tate didn't love her like she wanted him to. This in turn lead to Shiho deciding to take up Nagi's suggestion and [[Murder the Hypotenuse]] without knowing that if she killed Mai's Child then Tate would have most likely died as well. Midori basically kept of the fight having no one for Nagi to manipulate getting her to fight. Basically Nagi only manipulated one of the [[Hi ME]]HiME to fight and it was one who wasn't around to know that he was a habitual liar, he manipulated Ishigami who like Shiho had no reason to doubt Nagi, and he was working for Reito. So, basically the above argument Nagi did not in fact directly manipulate them into fighting.

* Mashiro, who obviously knows that the HiME are capable of defeating the [[Big Bad]] as a group, {{spoiler|deliberately allows the killings to occur and even attacks Midori for trying to prevent them. For the final battle, Mashiro literally resets the entire cast to their physical/mental status as of episode 16 (episode 7, in Akane's case) to accomplish her goals, effectively illustrating how pointless the ''[[Highlander (Franchise)|Highlander]]'' storyline was.}}

*** This comment introduces some good questions as to the [[You Fail Physics Forever|"physics"]] of the series, but does that really make for an "[[Idiot Plot]]"? Also, which [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] is this referring to? Natsuki's bigger Duran? When does Mashiro "allow" her to lose that. I thought Natsuki willingly goes to stop Shizuru in a [[Taking You Withwith Me|double-KO]]. The whole thing with Natsuki's bigger Duran was kind of a "huh?" moment in and of itself. Aside from that, the reset doesn't bring them back to before the festival as the root comment indicated, it just brings them back to how they were before defeat. And it doesn't reset "mental status", as several of the HiME and the VIPs had much different opinions after their death (reference Tate's line to Reito about "that" Tate being dead).

*** How is that fair? Yeah, the script has Mashiro talking to Fumi like she's regretful, but why doesn't she ACT like it? Why doesn't she TRY to stop the festival? Why does she talk down to Midori and punish her for being the lone voice of reason and looking for a way to stop the festival? Why Mashiro HAVE to allow the pillars to be raised before enacting her plan? If she had simply came clean from the very start of the series, why would she even have to worry about having to restore anyone's powers in the first place? If she had taken an active role in telling the [[Hi ME]]HiME NOT to fight each other and told Akane "oh, by the way, look out for the oddly-acting android spies I already know about," all of the tragedy would have been averted. Her choice of (in)action makes no sense whatsoever, and there's no reason for the Festival to even happen.

* In the second to final episode, Natsuki reveals that a CHILD grows stronger when a [[Hi ME]]HiME is more committed to her important person, so where the hell did ''at least'' Akane's and Akira's character development go? Both very blatantly became more deeply involved with their important person over time.

***** That was most definitely ''not'' his plan. It completely contradicts how he rigs the festival so Mai never has to run the risk of being defeated and [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Mikoto does all the work bodyguarding her. It wouldn't make any sense if he wanted the [[Hi ME]]HiME Star for himself all along and wasn't intentionally trying to preserve Mai to be his wife.

** In [[Mai Hi MEMy-HiME]] EXA (a manga that basically places the Festival story arc in its own separate universe), {{spoiler|there's a flashback that explicitly explains the Miroku sword is Obsidian Lord's temporary physical container until he chooses his human host. Mikoto carries it around everywhere because she's charged with protecting it / Obsidian Lord with her own life. If Mikoto is defeated in combat, the terms of her unique contract mean she basically serves as her own most important person and is the one who gets greensparkled no matter who she actually cares about. This explains why Obsidian Lord isn't too worried about Mai and Mikoto becoming each other's most important person and apparently running the risk of mutually destroying each other in the final battle.}} And that's just one of the many, MANY things EXA handles better than the anime.

* Why are the manga and anime so different from each other? I can't even seem to find a good trope to describe it ([[Alternate Continuity]] seems good, but something about it seems... wrong. And yes, I know [[Mai-HiME (Anime)|MaiMy-HiME]] is on that page) because of both the extent of the differences and the fact that they debuted around the same time.

**** Mai-hime was created by way of the Mai-hime Project which created both the anime, and manga. Since both Anime, and Manga came out about the same time, they where completely different. That's all their is too it.

** Because Alyssa is an artificial [[Hi ME]]HiME. She was bonded from birth to her "father", the Searrs president.

{{quote| '''Alyssa''': If my father loves me, I can do anything. That's why Miyu... my irreplaceable companion... '''I can't label you as my "most precious"''' or any other phrase. You are my other half. }}

* The Obsidian Prince, the leaders of the First District, and others talk about how the HIME battles will help make Japan into a "powerful and prosperous nation". So, Japan is a weak and poor nation? Umm, don't these people read the papers?

* Yukino's powers are excellent for recon and subterfuge, but the weakest in combat. When she received threats against her most-important-person unless she attack Mai. It would have been much easier, more pleasant, and effective to keep an eye of Haruka using her powers, and ask Mai or others for help in case of any attack. And she repeats the mistake when confronting Shizuru, bringing out her Child and fighting when she knows what the consequence of losing will be, instead of cloaking and running, or just plain running.

* The end of the Sears arc seems laughable.

** First, Alyssa asks them to surrender, or she will kill their friends. Ok. But they don't agree within the next five seconds, so Alyssa prepares to shoot Artemis at ALL their friends, which would eliminate any leverage she could use on them, and probably remove all the of the Childs that Sears wanted so badly.

**** In most [[I Have Your Wife]] scenarios the bad guy indeed has more benefit from compliance than from actually killing the hostage. The threat comes from the fact that attacking the bad guy is difficult and/or won't save the hostage, and that the bad guy has a lot less to lose by killing the hostage than the husband. There are several problems with this scenario:

***** A) The students weren't used as a human shield, or hidden in a place where only Alyssa could save them from, and Alyssa was in front of them. Killing her was possible and would have saved the students instantly.

***** B) They couldn't have known about Mai being able to hit Artemis, but they did know the Hime's had the firepower to hit Alyssa in the 15 seconds or so it took Alyssa to shoot Artemis. The Hime's didn't want to kill her, but at this point they could (should?) have in order to save their friends. Not 100% guaranteed that it would work, but when Alyssa was preparing to shoot anyway...

***** C) Alyssa was very eager to kill the students. None of the Hime's had said they'd refuse. They were in shock, reasonable enough, but Alyssa prepared to shoot before they'd even had a chance to think it over.

***** D) Among the students and teachers were about half of the 'most precious persons' of the Hime's, and although it never happens in that order, everyone seems to think that killing that person prevents the Hime from summoning their child, ever again. I'm a bit vague on Sears' exact plan, but losing a large number of the Childs was probably not a part of it. (They could've waited a bit if that's what they wanted.)

** The Sears might not have known where to find the base. But otherwise, yes, it was poor performance. You got to wonder what the carrier was even for, as not a single plane or helicopter is seen at any moment. The ground troops were even worse though. It already looked unrealistic that the first 3 soldiers Natsuki knocked out didn't try to retaliate, but she and Mikoto just waded into a group of at least a hundred, and none are shown shooting, even though neither Mikoto nor Natsuki are protected against gunfire, nor are they THAT fast. Say what you want about the Imperial Stormtroopers, but at least they TRIED to shoot their enemies. And it ends with all the soldiers knocked out next to their guns, and the HiMEs leaving them like that. At least the A team still had guns aimed at the enemies heads, to prevent them from just picking up their weapons and trying again.

* Is it true that the reason Yuuichi doesn't appear in [[Mai -Otome]] or any future supplemental works was because [[Tomokazu Seki]] got into trouble with Sunrise? I heard about this before but I forgot the sources.

[[Category:Useful Notes/Anime and Manga/Headscratchers]]