I didn't see too much of Fumie's commentary, but what I did made me think that she saw Mao as more her rival than her teammate. Some television commentator asked her if the score difference between Yuna and Mao was warranted, and she just said 'Sooo desu neeee' = 'Yeeesss it waaassss', and didn't really give a technical explanation except to mention something about Yuna's speed. It was also unfortunate that she said this with a slight chortle.
She obviously was not prepared to be a commentator. I don't think skaters who still are or are wishing that they still could be competing on the amateur circuit should be expected to take on the role of a commentator.
Shizu's commentary is pretty good, I think. I sometimes feel that her commentary is a bit too tame. She is actually quite politically conservative in terms of what she will say about the judging system in itself.
Junko Yaginuma's commentary is my favorite because she remains very complementary of all the skaters by giving a technical explanation but she will sometimes make comments about the judging. For example, she made a comment during the Olympics that the tech caller seemed to be very lenient, and during Worlds, she said that the tech caller was very strict.
On the whole though, Japanese commentators are very informative about the technical aspects of skating, and stay away from commenting on the 'artistic' aspects of skating, such as, e.g., costumes. I've never heard any commentator voicing their personal preference for a certain dress.
I do not know if Fumie sees Mao as a rival. Fumie's looking at the third spot anyway.
But to suggest returning to the starting line of skating once again when the skater has just won the World Championships with two nearly clean satisfactory performances sounded kind of off.
Fumie has a history of making a bit off comments that ordinary ppl cannot really get. She said after the Torino Oly that the magical spell would not be broken until the next Oly; and she said that as a 25-yrs-old. I get the idea and admire her determination, but she does not need to sound like a princess in a fairytale.
Then now she says that she wants to be "a star of ppl around thirties" and wants to inspire them through her skating. The idea is great, but it comes across a bit off to refer to yourself as a star in a culture where modesty is considered to be among the most important values.
Another one, to comment that the audience should learn more about rules may not necessarily be rude or arrogant as some audience seem to have thought, but it's again kind of off, because she was invited to the program as an expert to educate the audience, right? Then don't shift the responsibility to the audience. In that culture, you're sort of expected to apologize for insufficient explanations when the other person does not understand well.
She certainly has a character. Although I almost always support her skating and greatly respect and defend her dedication to the sport, I agree that she may not be prepared enough to do the commentary work. Being tactful is greatly important when you commentate.
I do not think any of these comments have any negative intentions or based on arrogance or rudeness, but she's just being naive, off, and not a very mature or effective commentator. She seems to state her honest, unique opinions and her opinions on skating would deserve great respect because she would know and live the sport. But the kind of language that she uses is not as articulate, clear, or comprehensible as Johnny Weir's, for example, or as widely acceptable by general society as Shizuka's (Shizuka could make a good office worker in a Japanese company). She uses unique language and interesting, yet vague expressions that are not really socially skillful. So I would hope that she quits all commentary and just focuses on skating. Athletes can be a bit extreme, but commentators have to be moderate and acceptable to a wide audience in general households.
ETA: Yoshie Onda as well, perhaps her intention was not bad in saying that Mao's expression was childlike etc, but to aruge that Mao would have lost if both had skated perfectly (which was not even correct, as they miscalculated the scores) was a kind of bizarre way to congratulate a skater who just won GPF 2008 with two 2As. I do not think that it was out of jealosy, but she is not prepared as a commentator. Most notably, the TV program was structured in that way. There was a rumor that Mao lost her interest in skating for a while to hear those media coverage.