HiME

HiMEs are young girls "chosen" by the HiME Star who are granted the ability to materialize solid objects from Photons, and the term HiME is used threefold to refer to the ability, the user and the technology itself. The term HiME is an acronym for Highly-Advanced Materializing Equipment, which could mean that HiME were not what they were originally called but are simply a more modern term that was adopted by all parties in the last HiME Festival.

The Sears Foundation uses the term Valkyries when referring to them, but given the religion principals that the group uses as a front and the pre-christian origin of the name more likely 'Valkyrie' is a codename as opposed to an actual term to refer to the HiMEs as.

About
HiMEs are girls of various ages, ethnicities and personalities who somehow obtain supernatural abilities with the advent of the HiME star. First District is apparently responsible for having the HiMEs converge at Fuma Academy whether as students, staff or just in the general area it seems. Though the HiMEs are innitially told that they converge to fight off the "Orphans" it appears that First District, or at least Nagi who exact affiliation and alignment with any allegiance other than himself and the Obsidian Lord is never clarified, releases them to have the HiMEs get a better grasp of their powers.

Though the HiMEs may varry in age more often than not a large group of them appear to be of a close age-range most of the time: Mikoto Minagi, Nao Yuuki, Akira Okuzaki and Shiho Munakata are in middle, although their distinct years are never specified. Mai Tokiha, Natsuki Kruger, Akane Higurashi and Yukino Kikukawa are all first years while the only other HiME student in High School Shizuka is a third year. Finally Fumi and Yukariko Sanada are grown women who look to be in their late twenties or early thirties and have active jobs at Fuma Academy. On the other hand Midori Sugiura claims to only be seventeen but would need to be in at least her twenties to be attending a university, while her current job as a high school teacher and being an old friend to the school nurse Yohko Sagisawa, who looks to be slightly older or of a similar age to that of Fumi and Sister Yukariko, all but guarantees a much older age than what she lets on.

The places of origin for Mikoto Minagi and Kira Okuzaki are implied to have had long history of producing HiME as Mikoto's grandfather and Akira's father both knew of the battle, and many ninjas were dispatched near the end and were shown either keeping Takumi Tokiha under custody or in protection. First District also utilized various aesthetics that imply at least a connection to ninja villages and clans.

It is, however, possible that these are not separate villages but the same one, but this seems unlikely as Akira and Mikoto were unaware of each other. Also making this an unlikely scenario is that Mikoto specifically states that it took a while for her to reach Fuka Academy while First District is close enough for Mashiro to take a day trip to their headquarters and for Shizuru to be able to find the location in a relatively short period of time.

The only exception to this is the artificial HiME Alyssa Sears whose abilities are artificial and though is a true HiME breaks much of the conventions as a result of her unique circumstances. It is unknown if her artificial powers are also the result of her hair's unique effects of glowing when her powers are active or if this is a separate experiment done on her.

History
Though the exact history and origins of the HiMEs are left to be speculated by the end of both My-Hime and My-Otome, various glimpses and facts can be gleamed from passing comments and information. HiME and Orphans are shown to be kept secret and covered up by First District, but the exact reasons why this is the case is never stated, it could be as a way to better control the outcome of the HiME Carnival in their favor or an order of the Obsidian Lord or for some other reason entirely, but as the HiMEs and information regarding them are scarce it seems that they have done a thorough job regardless.

However there seems to be groups whom are aware of the HiMEs with the villages of origin for Mikoto Minagi and Akira Okuzaki being fully aware of the HiMEs and their destiny and in the former's case was the location where the Obsidian Prince's host would be born. Both of these seem to be inhabitted by ninjas and it is heavily implied that both places have had a long history of having some of the HiMEs of previous festivals originate from their villages while First Distract also seems to be a part of, or operates out of, another Ninja Village.

What is known is that the HiMEs were originally 12 girls who fought in a battle, but whether they were fighting each other another force entirely or some combination of these (some HiME fighting for one side while others fought for the other for example) is unknown, and it can only be assumed that these original 12 even had HiME abilities in the first place. What is known is that the HiME Carnival, also translated as Hime Festival, is a "reenactment" of this first battle.

Fuka Academy, or rather the location where Fuka is, or at least the general area, is likely where the battle took place as it is where the HiME were gathered up, is implied where the last battle took place, possesses various secrets that relate specifically to the HiME and a local shrine showed a pictograph that Midori believed depicted the HiME.

Given how the battle played out it over the course of My-HiME and that it was supposed to be a re-enactment it is likely that the original battle started off as a battle against the orphans, or some other alien threat and than the HiMEs turned on and killed each other until only one remained, this one becoming the wife of the Obsidian Lord.

Said re-enactment occurs every 300 years, and that in the second-last HiME Festival Mashiro Kazahana was a HiME who was defeated in battle and held the Child Kagutsuchi. An Off hand comment by the Obsidian Lord also implies that previous HiMEs with Kagutsuchi have been rather troublesome as well implying that their were more who had Kagutsuchi and that they have been rebellious and troublesome to the carnival's smooth progression.

In episode 6 Midori is shown to be trying to investigate the history of the HiME and her research leads her to a closed off shrine with a cave drawing depicting what seems to be HiME doing battle against orphans implying that the first battle was against the Orphans or the Obsidian Lord.

Final HiME Festival
The events of which My-Hime take place cover the final HiME Festival.

Some how or another First District identified all of those destined, it is likely that this was a multi-year endeaver as Shizuru is a third year and is implied to have spent her high school years at Fuka, however Mai Tokiha only transferred later on via the First District's influence, implying that they did not immediately discover who would be the participants and needed to gather them up as it became needed.

One of the combatants, Akira Okuzaki hid her gender and posed as a male to better blend in and utilized ninja gear to better fight Orphans in secret.

Overview of Abilities and Powers
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Known HiME
This tables are in need of images

HiME Markings
The quickest and easiest way to identify whether or not someone is a HiME is by finding a mark located somewhere on the HiME's body, a Birthmark-like body mark that resembles a representation of the HiME Star. It is apparent that as First District could arrange for Mai to be moved to attend Fuka before her mark appeared that it is not the sole way to do so, but it seems to be the only reliable and/or quickest method for most as the Sears Foundation opted to try and find women with this mark by having Orphans under their control attack and strip people in the night and launch a faux body search on only women.

One possibility is that other methods take more time and resources (i.e. a DNA test) to get results than simply finding a mark on skin, and that while a method for finding them beforehand is necessary once the mark appears it is far easier to identify a HiME through it. However such methods only appear to be known by First District as the Sears Foundation was unable to find any of the HiME until after the battles had begun, only knowing of Natsumi through a contact in the First District.

Why and how the mark appear are unknown but likely simply appears when the powers have manifested at least to the point that they can perceive the HiME star. The exact nature of this mark is unknown and could very well exist merely as a form of identification.

It is worth noting that many of the marks appear in locations that could denote femininity, with Akira, Mai and Lena Sayers all having the mark above their left Breast and Natsuki Kruger's is on her lower back above her posterior as examples, however these are also locations which are associated by their zodiac signs. The Marks of

Marks
needs images of the marks on the HiME

Possible Relation to the Otome System
In My-Otome, which serves as a spiritual successor to My-Hime there is much debate about whether or not the Otome are in someway connected or descended from the HiME powers. In the Second episode of My-Otome 0.Sifr Lena Sayers is shown with a similar mark to that of the HiME and showcases similar abilities that are more aligned with the HiME. A book in the possession of Shiro also shows that the mark and term did indeed exist and line up but are not concrete evidence that they refer to the same concept and that they are in the same continuity but as My-Otome is set in the distant future it certainly leaves the possibilities open. However My-Otome's two follow up OVAs Zwei and 0.Sifr leave evidence that could go either way, with Zwei seemingly indicating that the two are separate continuities while 0.Sifr implying the opposite.

Zwei showcases Childs to be completely seperate from their My-Hime Counterparts, with there being many diverse Childs who threaten to end the world as opposed to being an extention of the HiMEs, and one such Child from My-Hime, Kagutsuchi, is shown to be a separate entity with hostile intentions as well. At the end of Zwei Kagutsuchi is depowered into a more adorable kitten-like form and become the companion of Ribbon who is shown to bear a striking resemblence to Erstin Ho. Mikoto the Cat Goddess is shown to have some sort of connection to these hostile alien Childs and the fact that their origins are of a similar note to the Otome could imply that while called "Childs" they are not in fact that same "Childs" as in My-Hime and that the name was simply recycled, or alternatively that they are the result of research into "Childs" and are as such artificial Childs similar to how Alyssa is an artificial HiME. Note that it was never stated that Artemis-1 is an artificial Child and that Alyssa's powers and status are only ever identified as artificial leaving no indication that after obtaining her powers through artificial means she did not simply acquire a Child by virtue of becoming a HiME.

Furthermore while Gakuten-Ou is identified as a Slave in My Otome, this could simply be a mis-identification or a possible clone of the original Gakuten-Ou from My-Hime, and as the term did not show up until the OVAs the original implication of what a "Child" is and their relation to the HiME powers could've been lost to time. It is also worth noting that the Kagutsuchi of My-Otome was operating independently of the rest of the Childs and spent the entire span of the OVAs story facing off against Mai which could imply that it was separate from the other "Childs" and that its appearance was coincidence, that it was under the control of the force attempting to destroy the world, or that it arrived with it but was operating independent from it and sought out Mai or Mikoto do to them resembling a previous HiME, and being the Crystal Princess respectively.

As it is depowered as opposed to killed at the end of the OVAs many questions in regards to it remain unanswered and it is also possible that the series means to keep the possibility of Otome being a far distant sequel or a separate continuity ambiguous for more freedom in the case of future OVAs or animated properties.

Nevertheless 0.Sifr's does canonize the HiME as being the building blocks of the Otome regardless of them being the same HiME as the ones of My-Hime or something else entirely. Lena Sayer's powers however cannot be denied as being far above that of other Otome, overloading most of the gems that she has forged a contract with and having unpredictable results in her own contract highlight these abnormalities, but her being able to materialize independently is something entirely unexplainable in the confines of the Otome world, but certainly plausible with the use of Eclipse1 Artemis as both the Otome Star and her child.

It is also noteworthy that in the My-Hime vs My-Otome Shorts which were included in the My-Otome DVDs, Arika is shown to also have limited HiME powers with a rod as her implied Element and a Child of her own, although this as canon is questionable as it was an Omake, as opposed to canon material. As both Lena and Arika are implied to be descendant of Alyssa Sears, who herself is an artificial HiME it is possible that they have this genetic potential buried within them and them becoming Otome awakened it.

As any continuation to either series has either been cancelled or was not planned at all no definitive answer can be drawn and it could well be possible that the conflicting evidence is a result of different visions of the series on the individual creative teams for the OVAs, or a change in direction between the release of Zwei and 0.Sifr.

The My-Hime and My-Otome manga are both separate continuities but are confirmed to be canonically related and the My-Otome manga is indeed set in the distant future of the My-Hime manga which could imply that this was the original intention for the anime as well.

Regardless similarities to the Otome system is apparent and given the research into the HiME, regardless of being the same or different the canon research done in the history of the world of My-Otome leads to the possibility of the Otome being derived from the HiME themselves at least in the continuity of My-Otome.