I just happened to run across this among my subscription. Since one of the most popular stories on FanCruft was “Most Romatic Anime” last year, I thought I’d point it out. Enjoy!.

Wow. Has it been so long since My HiME first arrived on the scene? I just picked up Vol. 6 today, and, lo and behold, Vol. 7 appears as one of the top pre-orders at AnimeNation! (I am not implying a cause and effect relationship, no matter how cool that would be for me).

I had been worried that HiME wasn’t getting the attention it deserved, but it seems people have finally caught onto this show. Yay!

Gatekeepers is a weird anime. The opening is psychedelic – it’s a train wreck. Speaking of trains, that’s what we see first. The stereotypical “airhead” gets off at the wrong stop. Then, we find out that our “Gatekeeper candidates” are looking for more of their own to recruit. No sooner do they arrive at their destination, then the MIB “invaders” try to destroy a salt field. The MIBs have generally terrible plans which are more mischievous than evil. They turn into a freaking CENTIPEDE, then get blown apart.

The next episode has the athletic character seen in the opening. She says she doesn’t want to to join the gatekeeper because she thinks it’s silly. I can’t help but agree. The commander points out that the invaders act weird. Really weird. Thank you, captain obvious.

Going by the opening, the next episode is one of three more introducing new characters. I’ve seen this format before, and I don’t particularly care for it. I remember reading on Wikipedia about how Checkov would cut off the beginning and end of his works – maybe this anime could benefit from something like that. This episode has Shun in drag. It eventually goes from silly to actually having a bit of tension. Then the resolution is absurd.