Mai Otome 0~S.ifr~ (OVA) 01
舞-乙HiME ０～S.ifr～ Episode 01

SPOILER Summary:

Sifr Fran has been kidnapped and is being held by a group of men from an organization known as Schwartz on a high-speed train. Their compartment is entered by a drunk man and an apologizing maid. Not thinking anything of it, they politely tell the man he has the wrong compartment. He takes a swig of his flask, then breathes out fire. The maid rushes in and starts kicking butt, especially with a cyborg, as the man escapes with Sifr. On the roof of the train, she isn’t happy about being over the man’s shoulder, but shuts up when an Otome arrives. The man tosses her down to the Otome before leaping off the train himself. meanwhile, the maid having seen this makes her own leap from the train as it continues over a long bridge, and she too is caught by an Otome and escapes.

Sifr dreams of her mother then awakens in a luxury resort suite where the man and maid who rescued her are. The man, introducing himself as Bruce Wallace, and the maid, Rena (Lena?) Yumemiya, have a letter for Sifr, which states her Uncle in the kingdom of Windbloom, is ill. Thus at his request, Bruce when to get Sifr. She thanks them for rescuing her, but Bruce directs her to thank Sister Shion from the Earu Church and her Otome, Meister Raquel. Sifr is excited to meet a real Otome, to say nothing of having been rescued by one, and so goes on and on about it.

Meanwhile, Rena sees a care pull up and goes down to meet it in the garage. It is the other Otome who rescued Sifr, Meister Elliot Chandler. Rena thanks then escorts Elliot up to Sifr’s room and tells her that by means of further thanks, she’ll do anything she can for Elliot. Elliot asks if she’s sure and when Rena confirms it, Elliot immediately attempts to have a yuri session with Rena. Rena fends off Elliot’s advances while Sifr and Raquel hide behind the couch that Rena suddenly finds herself falling back on. Sifr excitedly asks if Otome are into “that,” but Raquel states that only “Elli-chin” is. Bruce and Sister Shion are soon behind the couch and Sister Shion finds herself teased about the events happening on the couch. Rena manages to get Elliot under control AND punch Raquel for not helping her.

Everyone leaves and Bruce tells Sifr not to leave in light of the kidnapping attempt. She agrees, but does decide to eventually step out onto the balcony. In a room below hers, a young girl cries to her mother about her runaway cat, Nina. Sifr decides that maybe it would be OK to help the girl out and so works her way to the next balcony where the cat is. The cat comes to her and jumps on her, causing Sifr to lose her grip and fall. Meanwhile, Rena has entered the room and finding Sifr not there, goes out to the balcony just in time to witness Sifr’s fall. She races down the wall and catches the girl before diving into the pool with her and the cat. The animal is safe but Rena isn’t happy that Sifr didn’t follow her instructions and they are observed by one of the people beside the pool.

Back in the room, Rena punishes Sifr by giving her a hard scrubbing in the tub. She does apologize and remarks on how Rena must be an Otome considering what she’d done, and thus be classmates of Elliot and Raquel. Rena says she’s not an Otome, though she did attend the academy. However, she got scared before graduation and thus left the program. When asked why, Rena attempts to leave, but is grabbed by Sifr and thus ends up falling into the giant tub. Thus soaked, Rena takes a proper bath with Sifr where Sifr reveals she had wanted to be an Otome but failed the entrance exam. Rena talks about how her mother was opposed to her being an Otome since Otome are powerful and use incredible violence. Rena enjoyed school but at the end, she didn’t have the courage to use that power, thusly she is not an Otome.

Elsewhere, a Schwarz member reports to “Smith-sama” that they’ve found their target.

At the Garderobe Academy, Otome training is underway under the watchful gaze of Miss Maria. Inside, Headmistress Una Shamrock talks with Elliot, who reports that in addition to Schwarz, Aswad cyborgs are there as well. Hearing this, Una orders Elliot to kill Sifr if she’s captured by Schwarz. Elliot is shocked to hear this, but is reminded that this is their mission under Shinso-sama (the respectful title of the first Otome known as Pure White Diamond, Grand Meister Fumi Himeno). After getting assurances that Elliot will complete her mission, Una makes a call and orders the execution of order “C5.”

That night, Sifr comes down to the hotel restaurant in an expensive dress and is met by Bruce, who calls her a princess. They are observed by Rena, Raquel, and Sister Shion, and are soon joined by Elliot. The four are about to find a place to eat when a giant creature with a giant mouth (a SLAVE?) is at the window apparently trying to get in. Some insectoid SLAVES enter, so Sister Shion activates Raquel’s Robes and Elliot, as a Column, activates her own Robes and Rena flees with Sifr. They hide on a balcony and the SLAVE leaves, allowing them a moment to talk. However, they are soon discovered again and attacked, which destroys the balcony. Bruce joins them and the three flee, only to be met by Schwarz and Aswad forces from the train.

The frightened Sifr is amazed to hear Bruce say a phrase and tell Rena he needs her powers, so she has to choose. She calls him “Master” (in English) and he activates her GEM, revealing her to be an Otome (Lofty Crimson Jade as the translation goes). The leader of the Schwarz group, Kiddo-sama, recognizes her as “Rena Sayers” and orders his forces to attack. They find their weapons are being destroyed. Rena apologizes to her opponents but the Aswad attack. One of the Aswad, “Dai-sama,” summons his named SLAVE Gakutenou, which she easily defeats along with him. As such, all of the SLAVE’s return to the place of summoning in fear. As such, the Schwarz forces retreat.

However, a single SLAVE remained behind and captures Sifr. On it is one John Smith, the founder of Schwarz along with a mysterious, mostly covered, humanoid. John recognizes Bruce as Bruce Windbloom, the king. The SLAVE brings Sifr closer to a pod on it as John says he wants to see the power of a “Weaver.” The pod opens and a female humanoid (android?) named M-9 emerges (dressed similar to an Otome), causing Bruce pain, and is given orders to destroy Rena. The two have a colossal battle at a draw, forcing Rena to maximize her power levels. She fiercly attacks M-9, appearing to be two Otome instead of one and appears to defeat her opponent in a large explosion.

This is all witnessed by Sister Shion and Raquel as well as Elliot. However, Rena’s Robes end up taking serious damage as her GEM cannot handle all of the power Rena is using. M-9 emerges from the water and attacks, so Raquel jumps in to assist Rena. Elliot remembers her instructions to kill Sifr if she were captured, and so attempts to carry out that order. However, Rena moves to defend Sifr (and thus John Smith, his companion, and the SLAVE) from the attack. Elliot is stunned by the maneuver, allowing M-9 to score several mini-rocket hits on her. John Smith uses Rena’s shock at this to shoot her in the head.

Rena falls but the bullet doesn’t penetrate and falls to the ground. M-9 launches a melee attack on Rena, stabbing her in the shoulder, which also causes Bruce damage. As Sifr is taken away by John Smith, Raquel rescues Elliot and is ordered by Rena to protect Bruce-sama as she extracts herself from Rena. Rena summons a giant, bladed weapon which M-9 recognizes as a “higher order matter attack.” Realizing she can’t escape, M-9 counterattacks instead. The two attacks meet and Rena’s GEM cracks and goes offline as the explosion sends both combatants flying. As Raquel flies off carrying the injured Elliot, Bruce, and Sister Shion, Sifr screams for Rena from the back of the SLAVE.

Thoughts:

Why was I thinking this would be a prequel TV series and not just a 3-episode OVA? Hmmm.

Well, onto the episode. Wow! The episode was well written and very intense while still taking a little time for humor. Now, there’s a lot we don’t know, but as a beginning, this rocked on all sorts of levels. I was surprised to see Rena using different Robes than those used by Akira (her daughter) in Mai-Otome, and those Rena used in the flashbacks seen there. I guess she’ll be getting those Robes now.

Based on the ED, more characters are to be introduced it appears, to say nothing of the return of Miyu, which should be interesting.