Mai Otome Zwei, to come with a Blackadder-quote, is like a broken pencil: utterly pointless. Basically, in an attempt to milk out the Mai Hime-franchise even more, the creators ran an on-line poll, where visitors were allowed to vote for their favourite characters. These characters would then be featured in a four-episode long OVA.

It baffles me to think that out of all possible characters, the three main ones ended up winning this poll, because yes, Arika, Nina and Mashiro somehow got most of the airtime and glory in this series, yet again, despite being the most annoying and aggravating characters in the original series already. Still, Mai Otome Zwei has one major advantage above the original series: it’s fun to watch.

Most of the airtime is filled with pure and useless fluff, focusing on these three characters and a number of lucky others who managed to score high in the poll, but at least it’s fun fluff. It’s quite refreshing, compared to the original series, which portrayed predictable and dull struggles between angsty teenagers. I actually laughed more in the four episodes of this OVA, than the entire 26 episodes of the series.

Still, the fact does remain that Mai Otome Zwei is full of weaknesses, especially when it starts getting serious and focuses on its storyline, which seemed to have surpassed the original series in terms of dullness; and let’s not forget the obligatory and suggestive bath-scene.

A story as cheesy as Mai Otome just mustn’t take itself seriously. It’ll only end up falling flat on its face, and the best way is just to include lots of comedy. The final episode of the series made a good start and Mai Otome Zwei continues this trend decently, but the fact remains that Mai Otome is, was and will always be a trainwreck. And then to think that Sunrise is planning to milk out this concept even more with yet another fully fledged continuation. Will the pain ever stop?

Horror-fans will love this one. Pet Shop of Horrors is about the owner of a pet shop in Chinatown, New York, whose name is Count D and sells all kinds of ordinary, exotic and even mythical animals to his clients. It’s basically a case-based series: the four episodes all focus on a different client of his, where their pets have a massive impact on their lives.

And it’s these cases that really make this anime shine. They’re all surprisingly deep and thought-provoking. As each case starts to unfold, you’ll be thinking something along the lines of “why the heck did Count D sell such a dangerous animal?”. Then the climax comes with a twist, and everything suddenly makes sense. Not only that, but each of these cases makes you look at death from a very different perspective than usual.

While the cases are deep, I wish I could say the same of Count D; he’s pretty much the weakness of this OVA. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an interesting character, and he’s got definite potential, but he just isn’t fleshed out or developed properly at all. We never know how the guy gets his pets, we never know why he’s selling pets when the danger of being arrested is so high. In fact, I’m surprised that nobody found the fact that he forbids all his customers to show their pets to others strange. In episode four, he also does something that basically isn’t explained anywhere. We also never find out why all his pets look like humans.

Still, if you’re looking for case-studies or horror, this is a nice recommendation. Pet Shop of Horrors uses the traditional Japanese style of creating a creepy atmosphere through storytelling, and it does so pretty well. The soundtrack, while not amazing, is sufficient in helping to achieve this effect. Just be aware that the fourth episode isn’t the best of the cases, so it might disappoint a bit. It was by no means bad, though.

This episode is clearly one of those building-up episodes. There wasn’t really a sign of mystery, but instead it focused on the political roots of the story, in order to save Satoko. Basically, Keiichi gets the support from the village council, the Sonozaki-family and eventually the city council. Pretty straightforward, but things are about to get interesting: the Watanagashi is only one or two days away, Satoko is about to be saved and she’s also about to reach the point beyond recovery.

I liked some of the details in this episode, by the way. Most of all, it seems that there isn’t a grudge against the Houjous after all; it seems that everyone thinks that someone might have a grudge left, which is what keeps these rumours alive. We also finally see Mion and Shion’s parents do something, other than just sit next to their grandmother. Oh, and it seems that there actually were a few worlds in which Keiichi didn’t transfer. It would be interesting to see them.

Apart from that, there’s not much to say about this episode. I do, however, keep wondering why nobody finds it strange that Rika sometimes switches to a voice of a middle-aged woman…