The first half feels like filler. Then episode 13 hits and the show remembers it's about real people paying real prices for power they never asked for. By the end, every transformation sequence becomes a countdown to loss, and the finale doesn't just break the characters, it breaks the rules of what a mahou shoujo is allowed to do. This is what happens when a magical girl show decides its girls actually matter enough to suffer consequences.

Mai Tokiha and her sickly younger brother, Takumi, are headed to the prestigious Fuuka Academy on a scholarship. During the ferry ride, they pull a girl out of the water, and soon an attacker calls up a mechanical monster. The girl, Mikoto Minagi, drives it back with a supernatural sword. Mai later discovers that she is a HiME too, able to summon a mechanical creature called a Child. Alongside other girls with the same power, she must protect the school and the city from monsters known as Orphans. The threat is one they barely understand, and she must fight it while keeping the people closest to her safe. The show mixes action, comedy, drama, romance and magical girl fantasy with mecha elements.