The real reason people watch My-whatever.
My-Otome: 1-12
It's been pretty much as I expected: a My-HiME spin-off where lots of old characters play new roles, with some nice nods (ShizuruxNatsuki, Mai's brother, Akira's gender...) towards HiME. There's been a lot of silliness, a lot of close-but-not-close-enough lesbian activity, a tentacle raep monster, a character (Nina) who pretty much orgasms when touched, the usual Sunrise character drama and little to no solid plot details. At this stage, besides knowing the obvious, I have no clue what's going on, and I can't say I really give a toss when I have so many funbags in front of me.
I wasn't sold at first because of Arika's (the new-new, non-HiME lead) child-like actions and general stupidity. Where as it was easy to like and connect with Mai in HiME due to her involving love triangle and fairly realistic close relationship with her younger brother, Arika has simply ran around making noise and gotten herself involved in various lulz worthy activities. And she's more loli than fully-developed school girl, which means I can't masturbate with fury over her... and that's a major negative in my mind. BUT I was able to get into it once I saw more of mentally-strong Nina and Mai's main love interest from HiME (he plays the role of an older, more mature embassy worker). So far, there's been some decent secondary character development and poor main character development, though I am hopeful that'll change later on.
Even though HiME was always silly, Otome does take everything a bit too far. Supernatural warriors all wearing maid costumes, having to be virgins to keep their powers (leading to much girlxgirl and otaku love!) and there being anime-esque stores in existence to honour them, complete with all manner of Otome goodies; ranging from figures to costumes, is a bit too much. Since I'm a 'srs biz' guy, I preferred how HiME had more of a normal school setting with lots of craziness involved rather than lots of perverted craziness occurring on another planet... but, as luck would have it, I went into Otome just expecting a 7/10 at best My-HiME cash-in, and I've enjoyed it a lot as a result.
In short, it's another colourful, fan-service laden Sunrise title, and I'm sure lots of drama will follow the fun later on (together with a lot of deus ex machina ********). Up to yet, it's been a 7.5-8/10 title, though I'm sure I'll have to knock a point or two off once more than vague details start being thrown around and the cliched 'lost princess' story takes center stage...
The sort of people who truly appreciate S-CRY-ed.
S-CRY-ed: 1-12
As a much younger, even dumber anime fan, I downloaded and watched these episodes. I dropped it after laughing at a death scene where a character got shot(?), saved his friend as if he wasn't injured, had a conversation on his friends back and then randomly died in 'tragic' fashion. At that stage, I wasn't looking for unintentional comedy and quickly escaped.
After re-watching most of the episodes I had watched previously, I feel I was a tad harsh to have judged it so early, taking it so seriously, but it's very fair to say that S-CRY-ed is a dumb anime aimed at dumb people. All the series has going for it is simplistic, 'IF YOU KEEP FIGHTING, YOU CAN WIN; EVEN AGAINST A GUNDAM!!!111' battles, a tried & tested rivalry between a simpleton with no money and a posh, upper-class type and basic metaphors that remind me very much of Wild Arms 5.
Whenever there's a problem that needs to be overcome, there's a line or two about an imaginary wall that needs to be climbed/destroyed.
When a character randomly gets stronger after previously being owned, both parties involved comment on an imaginary switch being turned on.
And, of course, there's been a 'deep' comment or two about how blue the sky is and how close it appears. (I'm almost surprised a bird flying in the sky hasn't yet been used as a symbol for freedom!)
...But, in all honesty, S-CRY-ed IS a lot of fun; providing you're fine with your brain not being worked and a black guy with a pink afro having the special ability of writing his own scripts and making them into reality. There's a lot of variation between each persons' abilities (I was being serious about the Gundam!) and lots of punching; meaning it's good for passing time if you're a guy/look more like a guy than a girl. If it's a choice between being sat in front of an anime that wants to be deep, not making any sense and throwing in references here and there (Ergo Proxy) and S-CRY-ed, I'll take a a 6/10 aimed at the simple any day of the week.
