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Dated 11 August 2008: My-Otome 0~S.ifr makes sense, sounds wrong, tastes great

Lena Sayers
Arika's mom.

To my surprise, My-Otome 0~S.ifr has a coherent plot. I was expecting it to be pure eye candy like My-Otome Zwei, featuring Arika's mom thrashing random deadbeats. Instead, the first two episodes make an honest effort at reconciling the HiME and Otome series—bridging the gap by explaining what happened in the hundreds of years between the two shows.

Sifr and Nina
Nina's mom.

I don't really miss any of the regular HiME/Otome cast yet, so I'm going to take that as a sign that the My-HiME franchise may be able to live on Gundam-style, adding new installments every so often—at least for a little while. Then again, to some extent this is probably because I feel as if I already know the 0~S.ifr characters; My-Otome already revealed what happens to them. I already like Arika's mom better than Arika, but I can't say the same for Nina's mom.

Kira Yamato hits on Arika's mom
This foreplay is pretty weird, even for My-Otome.

However, I do sorely miss Kajiura Yuki's music in My-Otome 0~S.ifr. This is not to say that the new music is bad, but it does sound more conventional. It's as if the Sifr OVA has a different soul than the previous incarnations. The change hasn't critically hurt the show, but I really hope future My-HiME projects will have Kajiura Yuki compositions supporting them.

Dated 25 December 2010: Cure Grandma is actually Lena Sayers [SPOILERS]

Hanasaki Kaoruko
Hanasaki Kaoruko, Tsubomi's grandmother.

If you've been following Heartcatch Precure! you'll know "Cure Grandma," Tsubomi's old nana, was a Cure back in the day known as Cure Flower. After her final battle with Dune (not the version with Sting), she's mostly been slumming around town and taking care of plants in her greenhouse.

Cure Flower
We were totally cheated out of a transformation sequence.

Surprising no one, I'm sure, they finally found an excuse to drag Cure Flower out of retirement and she promptly goes all Miss Maria on us to whale on some deadbeats that Cure Blossom, Cure Marine, Cure Sunshine, and Cure Moonlight weren't able to handle on their own because there were only four of them. (Maybe they were suffering from too much Christmas Cake.)

Lena Sayers
Arika's mom kinda doesn't fight fair.

Cure Grandma's rheumatism prevents her from breaking out her flashiest attacks, but she does pull a page from the Book of MILF Beat Downs by copying and pasting some Lena Sayers attacks before returning to her gardening.

Flower Carnival
Zetsubou no Flower Carnival

Really, though, Cure Flower's appearance raises more questions than it answers. Does this make her a viable All Stars DX candidate? (We saw her riding the pine along with Cure Sunshine and Cure Moonlight in DX2.) What happened to her partner? (Cures don't work alone.) And why does her mascot transform into a ninja? That seems really unfair. Unfortunately, there will probably be some handwaving, and aside from a token reappearance before the end of the season, I suspect that will be the last we see of this old gunfighter.