There is a new opening song starting from this episode. I think this new song is a lot better than the first opening song. Unforunately the ending song is left unchanged. There are lots of spoilers in the new opening, but it definately gives me high hopes for the rest of the series. The first part of the episode wasn’t too interesting since it was pretty much just about Tomoe being mischievous. There seems to be more to Erstin because of her odd behaviour in this episode. Anything that is somehow related to nanomachines seems to concern her. Currently I only have theories pertaining to her situation, but for a definitive answer I will have to wait and see. This episode is a turning point for the series. An army of Slaves fly across the sky at the end of the episode signifying the beginning of the real plot of the series.

Sergay came close to becoming a pedophile. Luckily, he came to his senses in time to stop himself. Sergay had no choice but to be an ass to her so she could continue to work toward her dream. I thought the scene where Arica went to visit Mashiro was nice. Thanks to their similar predicament their relationship improves. The first round of the Graduation Commemoration Tournament is just about to begin. It’ll be interesting to see who gets promoted to Pearl unless the tournament gets interrupted part way through. There are still 11 episodes to go, but I do hope they start moving on with the main plot soon.

There’s quite of bit of unrest in the academy right now due to the tension between two nations. I’m sure most of us have assumed all along that Arica is the real heir to the throne from all the clues they’ve been giving us thus far. In this episode we get confirmation that Arica is indeed royalty. Exactly when Arica will find out, that remains up in the air. This episode was really all over the place. There seems to be lots of different things going on at the same time. Arica gets captured via the lamest trap ever while being mistaken for Shiho. The episode wasn’t as good as most of the other ones, but we do get new information and new questions from multiple sources. Big things will most likely happen within the next two episodes. It does look like there will be quite a bit of development in the next episode based on the preview.

We finally get an episode pretty much dedicated to Akane. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. It may partly be due to my own personal bias towards Akane. There’s no question she’s a lot better than she was in “Mai-HiME”. The improvements on her characters in this series is quite drastic. Besides Akane’s story, we get some new information as well. There’s a legend written in one of the books about an incident involving an otome that happened only a few years back. Based on the silhouettes, the legend was most likely about Mai and Tate. It looks likes Arica is in love. I found it pretty funny to see her eventually come to that conclusion. It’ll definately cause a lot of tension between her and Nina. We’re half-way through the series now, so hopefully the second half is just as good or better.

So Takumi’s identity is revealed in this episode. We also learn his true reason for visiting. It looks like we may see Mai within the next few episodes. I do hope they eventually show a bit of the past between Natsuki and Mai. It’ll probably just make Mai’s relationship with Natsuki that much more meaningful. We’re almost half-way into the series and we haven’t really even started the main plot of the series. We got an incident here and there up until now, but nothing to really connect it all yet. Just like many other series, “My-Otome” will be taking a one week break.

We learn that Nina, Arica, and Mashiro’s birthdays are on September 7th. Of course, it’s not surprising that Arica and Mashiro share the same birthday. For most of the episode we’re led to believe Nina’s birthday was set on the same day as well because of Arica’s birthday. Things all worked out in the end after Nina is told the real reason why her birthday is on Septermber 7th. In this episode we meet 2 more characters from “Mai-HiME”. Takumi meets Mashiro on the streets after she runs away from her omiai. Who he is and how big of a role he may play in this series has yet to answered. The other familiar face is Akira. With Akira now in the series, every hime from the original series has made an appearance. Although one could argue Alicia doesn’t really count since she’s just Miyu’s pet bird in this series.

The masked-woman we saw from a previous episode reveals her identity. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising by this point that it’s Midori, another character from “Mai-HiME”. It’s interesting to see them make her one of the “enemies” this time. Her slave is Gakutenou, which may mean we’ll get to see other “childs” in the series. We don’t know the answers to a lot of things yet so they may turn out to be “not so evil”. There’s also a photo where you get to Reito, who is most likely one of Midori’s comrads. It looks like there will be yet another familiar face showing up in next week’s episode.

The series is much better off than it was when it first started. I find myself looking forward to the next episode a little more each week. This series may not feel as “dramatic” as “Mai-HiME” up to this point, but in terms of entertainment value I think this series is faring better. Arica and her classmates go on a “field trip” where we see some turn of events. I thought the Shizuru and Natsuki scene was the best, but my bias towards Natsuki is probably a factor in that decision. The mood pretty much turns on its head late in the episode and we see Arica encounter one of the masked figures.

Through Arica and her friends entering the chamber underneath the acamedy we learn about the Otome’s from 50 years ago. As it turns out, Miu is Arica’s aquaintance. She doesn’t seem to be “evil” like she was in the majority of “Mai-HiME”. With the incident in the previous episode, it has caused quite a commotion among the leaders of the other countries. The masked-figures are about to make a move as well. We end the episode with more questions than we started it with. I like the direction the series is headed in, it keeps the excitement level up high.

Just like the first series, it looks like there is more to Nagi than meets the eye. Just what he has planned is anyone’s guess at this point in the series. We briefly get to see two familiar faces in this episode as well. First, we see a girl wearing a cloak who appears to be Miu. We also see a silhouette of Mikoto (as in Mikoto from “Mai-HiME” and not the cat from this series). Due to a life-threatening situation Arica is now bound to Mashiro. They find a mysterious organ in the depths of the castle. It seems like Natsuki knows what it is. I look forward to getting the answers to all these mysteries.