Mai-Hime – Shizuru and Natsuki revisited
When I updated WordPress, I also installed the stats plugin. After a couple weeks it’s interesting to see that my most-read posts are about Mai-Hime, specifically Shizuru and Natsuki. I guess it’s not surprising, since Mai-Hime was in and of itself a highly popular show, and Shizuru and Natsuki garner much attention from the fanbase. That said, I am glad that others find this as fascinating a couple as I did.
When I finished Mai-Hime I was most unhappy with the happy-go-lucky, no-consequences ending portrayed. It was just too pat, because a whole lot of shit happened between Shizuru and Natsuki that doesn’t just go away because you killed each other out of love then came back to defeat the bad guy.
But I left it at that, because well after all is said and done it’s just a Sunrise TV series.
Then the other day, I came across a fanfic. This was a ShizNat fanfic, but it dared to go where no other fanfic writer had gone, and that was to write the aftermath of the Carnival for Shizuru and Natsuki. Shizuru’s guilt and fear and tenuous sanity. Natsuki’s courage and trauma and confusion. And how these two could ever, ever hope to bridge the gap in trust and friendship left by Shizuru’s horrendous betrayal and hideous crime of murder.
This fic is called Windows of the Soul and it is on FanFiction.Net. Read it, please. It is an amazingly good story. It’s still incomplete, but the author updates quickly in and volume, such that in 4 months we have over 310,000 words describing in detail, from Natsuki and Shizuru’s POV, what it could have been like to hold on to your most important person.
After Mai-Hime ended, I wanted, more than anything else, a realistic portrayal of Shizuru and Natsuki. So I am amazed and extremely happy to discover that sometimes we do get what we wish for ;)
3 Responses to “Mai-Hime – Shizuru and Natsuki revisited”
i love mai hime particularly the shiznat tandem. it was very fascinating that an anime could express a different dimension of love and friendship
By rhez15 on Dec 19, 2008
Windows of a Soul was VERY good, I agree. I read it about a year ago and it sticks with me to this day.
By alex on May 8, 2009
I read ‘Windows of a Soul’ and it was really well written though it was a bit OoC especially the parts where the author used a lot of westernized depictions of what Japanese culture is like. It looks like the author didn’t really do his research but regardless, the story itself is a good, entertaining read.
As for the ending of Mai Hime, I was content I suppose. The show itself is an action/comedy spoof of another existing show so there were a lot of things that were expected such as the way the show ended.
This is perhaps one of the reasons why the director claimed to dislike the whole Mai Hime turnout and went with his original plan which was the Otome setting.
Oh well, either way, it produced such a lovely pairing such as ShizNat. =)
By egio on Sep 24, 2009