Spring at Lillian brings change. The beloved older classmen leave, moving out of the soft embrace of their Alma Mater to join the real world. New underclassmen arrive, changing everything.

In Maria-sama ga Miteru, Volume 9: Cherry Blossom, Nijou Noriko, the unlikely mutt among the purebreds walks into Lillian Academy and fills the hole in Shimako’s heart caused by Sei’s graduation. Shimako, who once thought she’d leave the Yamayurikai when Sei graduated, is now Rosa Gigantea, but the distance between her and the others has – if anything – increased.

Yumi’s noticed this and when she consults with the others, learns two surprising things – Shimako’s got secrets that she’s hiding and one of them is a first-year student who can make her smile. Yumi also meets and has to cope with the manipulative, selfish and supremely entitled new student Matsudaira Touko, who turns out to have a prior relationship with Sachiko.

“Cherry Blossom” follows the tale from Noriko’s perspective, as she enters this retro school and is confronted with Maria-sama herself beneath the cherry tree. The tale of how Noriko and Shimako meet, become close and how their friendship forces Shimako to “out” herself as the daughter of a Buddhist Temple, is awkward and sweet.

The same story is told once more in “BGN” (Background Noise) from Yumi’s perspective. Once again we’re made to squirm as Sachiko and Rei overplay their roles and as Touko is an immature jerk at Yumi. But I’ve read the rest of the novels, and it touches me less harshly than it did knowing that, however mortifying all this was, everything and everyone turned out okay. Better than okay. And I think if you asked Shimako a year later what she thought of all this, she’d tell you that it was probably the right thing to do, considering.

This Volume 9 of the Maria-sama ga Miteru manga originally ran in The Margaret magazine, and was not-at-all-coincidentally timed with the release of the live-action movie. It appears that the manga, having served its promotional purpose, is once again on hold. Which is both good (not sitting through “Rainy Blue”…again….) and bad (not getting past “Rainy Blue”…again….) Also, I’d have liked them to at least get through “Drops of the Rosary,” but that’s the romantic in me talking.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Wow, it’s been a year and a half since the last volume of manga. I’m glad they brought it back, especially as this story focuses on Shimako and Noriko, who are such a great souer couple.

Calling The Margaret (ザ マーガレット)”shoujo” is not correct, I know. I’m just too lazy to come up with another title for this series of “I’m reading magazines for teen and tween girls that have Yuri stories.” Technically, The Margaret is actually josei, as it’s marketed to older teen girls, but since Sean and I are the only ones who care, I won’t belabor the point.(Wait,. yes I will – here’s a fool-proof method to know if a magazine is shoujo or not – does it come with awesome giveaways of bags and jewelry and stationary and stuff? If  you said, “Yes!” – it’s shoujo. If the answer is, “uh, no, all there is is an insert of a mini comic,” it’s josei. Got it? good.)

The real point of today’s review is not to talk about The Margaret, but the newly re-started serialization of the Maria-sama Ga Miteru manga which had ceased publication after Volume 8. The original serialization ended with the graduation of Youko, Sei and Eriko.

The story picks up in what will become Volume 9, in the new term. Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako are all second-years. Sachiko, Rei and Shimako are now the Rosas…and there’s something up with Shimako. She’s been “strange” recently, they all notice. And they have to assume that it is at least in part because of the first-year she’s been hanging around with, Nijou Noriko.

The first thing, Sachiko and Rei decide, is that Shimako needs to cough up her one last secret, because it’s bothering her. And so they concoct an annoying plan to “out” Shimako as the daughter of a Buddhist Priest.

The plan they create is still ham-handed after all this time. But I’m reminded of something as I read it. A “year” later in story time, Shimako will be sitting with Yumi and Yoshino, cheerfully telling her friends the very, very last piece of her incredibly complicated family situation. She’ll be smiling and laughing – and enjoying the carpish gaping of the other two as she spills the beans. So heavy-handed, yes, and obnoxious, yes, but now looking back, I think Rei and Sachiko may have been *right.*

The manga shifts from Noriko’s point of view right to Yumi’s and we get to relive the whole irritating thing over again, this time knowing full well that Yumi, at least, thought they were sandblasting a cracker.

Also in The Margaret magazine is “Bushido Sixteen,” a girls’ kendo sports drama, which has all the requisite sweat and tears and guts and rivalries and good stuff. And there’s way less non-con than there was the last time I picked up an issue. So, while not as Yuri-fied as Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi – which has gotten very Yuri indeed, there in Nakayoshi – The Margaret has some lovely platonic romance and rivalry between girls. All good.

Overall – 9

I think that’s it for girls’s manga and Yuri. For now. Here’s hoping that there’s more on the horizon. For one thing, the girl’s magazines have the best furoku!

If you’re a serious (read: obsessed) fan of Maria-sama ga Miteru, you know what the biggest question torturing fans right now is – will the series end with Sachiko’s graduation…or with Yumi’s? I think it’s safe to say that there’s not a single rabid fan on this planet who would rather the series ended sooner than later. (Perhaps one or two, but clearly they aren’t *true* fans. ^_^)

Sachiko’s graduation is so traumatic and problematic, that there have been about a dozen novels between “New Year” and March – and still the third-years haven’t graduated. Time is slowing down, lots of short stories are being written. The newest novel, Margaret ni Ribon, even goes so far as to tell stories from the past of the former Rosas; Eriko, Youko and Sei. Anything to keep Sachiko from graduating!

And so, what better time is there to take a look at the latest – and I believe, last – of the manga volumes, Maria-sama ga Miteru: Itsushika Toshimo (マリア様がみてる), in which Eriko, Sei and Youko graduate and retire from the field at Lillian High School.

In the first story, “Will,” Youko ambushes a confused Yumi to ask her to please take of her uncute, hysterical, little sister that she loves very much. Yumi wonders if Rosa Gigantea has asked Shimako for a last favor, but as always, their relationship is not the same as other soeurs. Shimako takes advantage of the moment to thank Yumi for being willing to put up with Sei’s abuse, and Yumi, in turn begs Shimako to not leave the school – because suddenly, she’s overcome with fear that Shimako might. Yoshino relates her final meeting with Eriko as if it were Musashi’s epic duel at Ganryu Island. ^_^

Yumi’s moving farewell with Sei is handled beautifully, although I thought that the slow-motion imagery of the anime, and the internal dialogue of the novel, both lent themselves to making the scene richer than here in the manga. Nonetheless, it’s still a lovely scene, ruined beautifully by Sei’s joke on Yumi. Also, in the manga, Yumi kisses Sei firmly in the middle of the cheek – not just at the very corner of the mouth, as she does in the novel. This echoed the kiss Sei gave Shizuka, and I think it’s done very consciously to be the closest possible kiss to a kiss on the lips without actually being one. I’m sorry that was lost.

The following chapter covers the three Rosa’s’ memories of their meeting one another, and looking back at their past dealings before they became friends: Youko’s impact on Eriko’s drive for excellence, Sei and Eriko’s fight in kindergarten, Sei trying to freeze out Youko, only to find her standing right there when the cold wind finishes blowing.

Last, the graduation itself, with Sachiko’s unexpected breakdown, its unintended consequences, and Rei’s superb save. A fabulous scene, which I have to admit, I like best on the Drama CD of the same name.

Yuri here is slight: Sei x Yumi ‘shippers might be satisfied with the kiss scene. Otherwise, it’s mostly a long, overdue look into the women who were the stars of the school for the series to date – the graduating Rosas. Frankly, I can’t get enough of them. Obviously, neither can Konno-sensei – after all, she keeps bringing them back again and again into the series. She said flat out that Sei’s her favorite character. Well, duh. That’s ’cause the sky is blue. ^_^

The one downside is that the manga appears to have come to an end. Never a comfortable fit in the sex-riddled Margaret and The Margaret magazines, the end of this volume very much reads like the *end.* Imagine if the series *had* ended here. We’d have no Noriko x Shimako, no Yumi x Touko, no Sei x Kei, not Tsutako x Shouko…good heavens, three of those four are in my personal “favorite couples” list. Horrible to contemplate.

Speaking as a rabid fan – Konno-sensei, please let the series end when *Yumi* graduates! Even if you’re sick to death of the series, we don’t care…keep writing! ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Oh, and total fanboy Sean tells me that next month marks the 10th anniversary of Maria-sama ga Miteru. Happy 10th, Yumi.

I am usually quite happy to call Maria-sama ga Miteru a “Yuri” series, knowing full well that there is only one character who can really be called lesbian. But there’s just no way to call this particular volume “Yuri” without being an outright liar. LOL

Maria-sama ga Miteru, Volume 7 tells the incredibly straight story of Torii Eriko, Rosa Foetida’s mysterious dates with multiple men. Is it Enjou Kousai, as Yoshino suggests? Or is it love, as Mizuno Youko, Rosa Chinensis insists? Yumi isn’t sure and the thought weighs heavily on her.

Despite it’s unremittingly straight plot (joke, joke) this is an absolutely hysterical volume. Eriko’s flaky personality really works to highlight the slightly off-beat, just barely off-color humor here. And the manga, which typically changes the script here and there from the novels, does a superlative job of inflating the mystery, so that it becomes much more like Eriko is doing something questionable, if not downright immoral or illegal. If you haven’t seen the anime or read my notes on the relevant bits of the seventh novel, this volume, of all of the manga so far, holds up best as a stand-alone story.

I have not really cared for the manga art very much since the beginning and this volume is not changing my opinion for the better. I prefer the character designs from the anime and novels much more than these. I swear Eriko was youthening as the volume went on…. Also absent from this volume was fun incidental art. There was one picture of Eriko with a teddy bear, I seem to recall, and the rest of the blank spaces had the title of the series. I was sort of bummed – those little incidental pieces have been one of my favorite things about the manga. But, as the story is so amusing – and I adored the manga version of Minako’s fiction “The Yellow Rose” (in which, oddly, they didn’t do the name pun thing that Minako used…) – I can overlook that.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – not much
Service – ditto

Overall – 8

Did I ever mention that the manga has been moved to The Margaret magazine? It’s back on a just about monthly schedule, so collected manga volumes *ought* to come out on a more regular basis going forward. I hope. I imagine the closer deadlines had some impact on the lack of incidental art, as well.