Thoughts On: My-HIME DVD Vol 1

So, this weekend I finally got around to watching this DVD, which I’d picked up around the time it came out but never got around to watching. I also roped my friend into watching it with me by the clever strategy of putting it in the DVD player while he was in the room.

• I seem to recall that My-HIME was censored for the TV release and then de-censored for the DVD release. Either this isn’t the case, the US release is the TV release, or my memory is bad, because the amount and type of fanservice seems to be about what I remember from the fansubs.
• The fight at the end of episode one is incredibly awesome, and it reminds me of why I like this show in the first place.
• The middle of episode two, on the other hand, reminds me of why I almost didn’t watch this show, with the introduction in swift succession of such classic, deep characters as Nun Fetish, Maid Fetish, and Crippled Loli Fetish.
• And then there’s another awesome fight scene, which brings up another thought: Nagi is pure awesome, and at least thus far makes every scene he’s in better. He’s pure evil, playful, and just a fun character. I usually refer to him as Evil Kaworu (you know, from Eva) because of the character design, and fun fact: he has the same voice actor as the actual Kaworu. And Xellos from Slayers, it appears. Which I can totally see.
• And of course, the real evil that he does on this DVD is hard to spot at this point, but those who have seen the series should know what I’m talking about. Surprising to me is that it seems to imply Natsuki knows and doesn’t spill it, which is cold. (Please avoid spoilers in the comments, since my friend will probably read them and he hasn’t seen the rest of the series yet.)
• I had almost forgotten how utterly annoying Shiho was, since Otome-Shiho, at least in the eight or so episodes I watched in fansub, didn’t make me want to kill things whenever she was onscreen.
• I wanted to stand up and cheer when Natsuki shoots Nagi in episode 4. Every RPG player who’s ever had to deal with an obnoxious quest-giver mentor-type that the GM (or the game, for CRPGs) wouldn’t let you kill or even show up him/her has wanted to do that for a long time.
• A lot of times, My-HIME feels like two separate shows: ones a fairly mediocre school comedy with a handful of laughs, and the other is a totally awesome show about magical girls fighting while Yuki Kajiura music plays in the background. I kind of wish I could just get one of those series.
• Fortunately, I know there’s a lot more of the latter and a lot less of the former coming in the second half of the series. Which makes it more easy to get through.
• My favorite thing about this series, though, is still watching a tiny girl wield a massively over-sized Stormbringer in a way that is vaguely plausible if you don’t think too hard.