Hm, Mai-HiMe is one of my favorite anime of all time; is Mai-Otome THAT terrible? Of course...
I liked Mai-HiME too, but...
The MH/MO character designer is actually my favorite anime character designer. A couple of years before he did Mai HiME, he worked on the Future GPX Cyber Formula OAVs, and an awesome mecha series called GEAR Fighter Dendoh, alongside the director who would go on to do Gundam SEED.
Mai HiME really showed off his strengths, as well, but for Mai Otome they seem to have dialed up the "hey, you can draw boobs? Good. Draw more boobs!" knob up to full. The fact that he's gotten stuck in that creepy fetish hell for the last five years or so is a source of great depression to me.
They got him working on the new Votoms OAVs now though, so it's all good.