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My-HiME - Volume 3

It’s disappointing to find that rather than continue with the darker and more serious tones of the last episode of volume two of My-HiME, volume three quickly returns to madcap comedy of earlier episodes.

The summer sun is here, and no anime high school comedy would be complete without a trip to the beach at summer. Mai is struggling to sort out her feelings between Kanzaki, who knows of her powers, and Tate, who knows nothing. In order to get her mind of things Mai helps Natsuki investigate an abandoned “District 1” facility off the shore which leads to some interesting revelations about Natsuki. Let them eat cake in episode ten as a cook off is held for the students who skipped class, Mai included. Things get off to a bad start, and take a worse turn when an Orphan interrupts the proceedings but that’s not as the group who created Miyu send out their own creature in order to reveal which students are HiME. In episode eleven a vampire is on the loose, at what first Mai and co. believe is another Orphan turns out to be another monster attempting to find which students are HiME and Mai is warned to stay away, however when Natsuki is captured Mai and Mikoto rush to the rescue and a confrontation with Miyu!

Finally an enemy other then the random Orphans has appeared, although little is known about them and their goals, the fact they have appeared at the series’ mid-point suggests they will have a bigger role to play as the series develops. Other than this the viewer is still in the dark about a lot of things, and even though it’s forgivable given the quality of the show, I just can’t help feel we should know more than we already do at this point.

The fight scenes between the HiME, Orphans and Miyu, in the last episode on the disc, are turned up a number of notches leading to some of the best fight scenes in the series thus far. The comedy and jokes still work well with laughs abound, although a few of the more overused ones begin to grate on the nerves. There’s also great character development for a few of the secondary/support cast, as more HiME and their reasons for using or not using their powers enter the fray.

My-HiME still manages to stand head and shoulders above the extremely crowded genre of high school comedy/action; it may not have the laughs of Azumanga or action of S-cry-ed but manages to meet both somewhere down the middle. If the remaining volumes live up to the standards and expectations raised in the first three, then this a series buy.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English, French, Dutch subtitles; English, French, Japanese Audio; Mini episodes 9 to 12 - Production sketches 3/6 - Creditless op/ed - Trailers

Release information: Publisher: Beez Length: 100 min Classification: 12 Released: 15-01-2007

Notes: Some more mini-episodes that add a bit more depth to some of the charcters but other than those not much on the DVD. *Note* The third episode on this disc about halfway through started jerking and was almost unwatchable from then on. Still jerked in three other DVD players wither this was a problem with this disc or the discs in general I'm not sure.

My-HiME Recommended

My-HiME Reviews

My-HiME - Volume 3

R2 DVD Notes