Story
My-Otome's story takes place in the distant future on the planet Earl, colonized by immigrants fromCharacters
*Arika Yumemiya Arika is first introduced in the first episode where she travels through the desert to Windbloom to find out more information about her mother, whom she was told was an Otome. After seeing the power of the 3rd Column, Shizuru, she decides to follow her mother and become an Otome. She is sometimes nicknamed Anty (Arinko-chan in Japanese) because her name, Arika, could be "蟻か" in Japanese, which means ant. The way her head turns into an ant's head is a way to show how she feels when someone calls her this nickname (which must have followed her all her life). She is cheerful and optimistic, but lacks the sophistication and "common sense" to deal with the royalty (due to her being a country bumpkin). She quickly gets acquainted with the other Corals and Pearls in Garderobe and becomes good friends with most of them, mainly Nina Wáng and Erstin Ho, her roommates. *Nina Wáng Nina Wáng the top student in the Coral class and also one of Arika's roommates. She hails from Artai, a poorer kingdom than Windbloom with no Otome of its own. She and Nao are intended to fill this void and serve their country after graduating. Her father is Sergay Wáng, Nagi's right-hand man who is also part of the military. Arika found out that Nina was very sensitive to being tickled, which she enjoys exploiting. Nina is serious, determined and hard working because she wants to win the love of her adoptive father Sergay. Nina holds mixed feelings towards Arika. She is jealous of Arika's connections with Sergay and often annoyed with her cluelessness, but she shows friendship towards her on occasion. Nina's friend, Erstin Ho, was also her roommate who was in love with her. *Mashiro Blan de Windbloom In ''My-Otome'', Mashiro Blan de Windbloom is the princess (and later Queen) of Windbloom. Her personality is completely opposite to her ''My-HiME'' incarnation. Rather than the polite, selfless and reserved attitude of the former, Mashiro Blan de Windbloom is boisterous, selfish, and arrogant. There are doubts on whether she is the true ruler - doubts which prove correct when the true ruler of Windbloom is discovered by Sergay Wáng. Mikoto the cat is her pet. She has a love-hate relationship with Nagi, leaning more towards the 'hate' end of the spectrum. It was never made clear in ''My-HiME'' what her true age was but in ''My-Otome'' it is explicitly said that she is 14 years old and later turns 15. She first met Nina and Arika when she was evading her palace guards by attempting to jump to the next building's roof. When she fell the two rushed to her aid. Believing the guards to be kidnappers, they then helped her escape. Arika, who was raised in the country, was completely clueless as to Mashiro's arrogant attitude toward her, even when she showed them that she was the princess in which Nina apologized for their ignorance. As time passed, Mashiro pushed the people around her harder and harder. She would repeatedly shirk her responsibilities as queen in order to visit Garderobe and laugh at Arika's clumsy attempts at Otome training. When the date of her birthday drew near, she increased the taxes to raise more money for the rebuilding of her castle and her own birthday celebration. As Sergay Wáng noted, the city was suffering from increasing unemployment. Small glimpses of her past revealed that when Mashiro was young, she was completely spoiled as a child, being given virtually anything she wanted on demand. When she overheard some of the rumors that she was not the true princess, Mashiro's behavior worsened due to her highly increased feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. During an emergency, she formed a contract with Arika to save their lives. Unfortunately for the two, the search for ways to break the contract yielded no answers. While Mashiro and Arika were initially very opposed to their contract, its life-binding conditions actually created a break in the tension between them, and they slowly began to bond. *Miyu A mysterious traveler who watches over Arika. Her uniform is similar to her Searrs "Mithril Dress" from ''My-HiME'' except it has long pants instead of shorts. Overtime, she would stay with Mai Tokiha and the Crystal Princess, Mikoto, in the Black Valley.Related works
The ''My-Otome'' manga follows an alternate storyline; in it, Mashiro Blanc de Windbloom is actually a male imposter attending classes at Garderobe as a replacement for the real Mashiro after she was "killed" but later it is revealed that he is Mashiro's twin brother and the true heir. The manga was serialized in ''Shōnen Champion''. A spin-off manga titled , set 100 years into the past of the ''My-Otome'' anime, was serialized in MediaWorks' '' Dengeki G's Magazine'' between February 2007 and July 30, 2007, containing five chapters. The manga is accompanied by a novel based on the same premise and characters but with a different title, , which is being published by Tokuma Shoten under their ''Tokuma Dual Bunko'' label. This novel and manga are part of the ''My-HiME Big Bang Project'', a plan to release a large amount of products related to ''My-HiME'' and ''My-Otome'' in Japan in the year 2007. As of now, only six products within this project have been revealed so far. There is also a spin-off manga called , which takes place immediately after the events of ''My-Otome''. In addition, there's also aTheme songs
Opening themes *"Dream☆Wing" by Minami Kuribayashi (Ep. 1–15) *"Crystal Energy" by Minami Kuribayashi (Ep. 16–25) * by Yuki Kajiura (Ep. 26) Ending themes * by Mika Kikuchi and Ami Koshimizu (Ep. 1–26) Insert songs * by Minami Kuribayashi (Ep. 24) * (4th Stanza) by Ami Koshimizu (Ep. 22)Reception
Erica Friedman extensively reviewed the series on her blog, Okazu. She called it a "total gyroscope of a story," noting various lesbian characters, and asked what writer had the girls "trek cross-country in the woods wearing bloomers and boots," saying that is absurd. In reviews of other episodes, Friedman praised the story for "fast and furious" action and noted that there are some yuri moments. She says that later episodes offer a "mixed bag" of such moments, saying that the series remains a "silly, action comedy-drama with loads of service frosting."References
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