In Disk 3 of Maria Watches Over Us Season 4, we turn our eyes towards Touko and, for the very first time, take a good, long look at her.

Until this moment, Yumi (and hopefully we,) have had our opinion shifting so rapidly that we’re really hard put to know just *who* Touko is. And, despite her best intentions, Yumi finds that she doesn’t really understand her at all.

Like Sei, Touko has a secret. Like Sei, Touko has learned to hide it in a way that distracts people from even realizing that there is a secret that is being hidden. And on Christmas, like Sei, Touko does something that changes lives. Interesting, when you think about it that way, huh? ;-)

As I read the novels, what really moved me was Noriko’s reactions to Touko. Her innate understanding of her unlikely friend brings tears to my eyes even now. I swear Noriko cries more on Touko’s behalf than for any other reason.

Disk 3 would be impossible to watch without knowing that Disk 4 was there. But it is. Phew.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 10
Story – 10
Yuri – 2
Loser Marimite Fan – somewhere between a million and a billion

Overall – 9

There are so many kinds of love touched upon in this series. And, like Sailor Moon, it holds a special place in my heart, because I love so many things about it.

Oh, and, by the way – can you *believe* that I am reviewing the English-language version of this series? How freaking cool is that? I’m going to send chocolates to RightStuf next Valentine’s Day, see if I don’t. :-)

You know you think a story is good when you know perfectly well that everything will work out, and you *still* get tense watching it all crumble.

On Disk 2 of Maria Watches Over Us, Season 4, we’re in a carefully suspended moment before several things start to crumble.

And with some deft writing by Konno Oyuki-sensei, not only are we allowed to enjoy that precariously suspended moment, we’re given an opportunity to laugh until our stomachs hurt – even knowing that soon our stomachs will hurt for an entirely different reason.

I am, of course, talking about the Kendo shiai, and the introduction of Arima Nana. After the Souer Audition tea party, Yoshino has to fess up to her rash promise made to Eriko. And now the chips are down and she doesn’t have a soeur to introduce to her! So, Yoshino does what anyone might in that situation- she lies bravely and tries to make a run for it. :-)

But after the laughter, we’re set up for tears. The series turns – rather reluctantly, it feels like – to the issue of Touko and Yumi. Because there is *so* much between them and because so much of it cannot be expressed by either of them, those of you who hate Touko will see only what is on the surface and will continue to hate her. There’s nothing I can say to make you look beyond that. So – hate away, my friends, because it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Here’s to clenching our fists and watching over them, until the logjam breaks. And break it will. But for now…we have to watch it all crumble before it can be built up again.

More Sei, Youko and Eriko. More, more!

In Maria-sama ga Miteru, Season 4, it’s time for the Lillian school festival and once again, the Student Council, known as the Yamayurikai, is putting on a performance. This year, because of the unusual resemblance Fukuazawa Yumi has to her younger brother Yuuki, the play that is chosen is the Torikaebaya Monogatari, a play that deals the with two siblings who switch gender roles in the Heian court.

But Yumi is only half worried about the play, because it comes to her attention that Touko has had some trouble with the Drama Club. In typical Yumi fashion, she resolves the issues by being irresistibly sincere. And to top it all off, Yumi and Sachiko finally learn the truth of Kanako’s issues with her father. The story is both much, much more horrible and much, much less horrible than we could have imagined.

Yumi and Sachiko don’t celebrate their one-year anniversary, for perfectly good reasons, but I still think Sachiko ought to do *something* nice for Yumi.

And Sei and Youko make an appearance that reminded us of just how wonderful they are. I’m glad to have been able to read the novels to enjoy all of their future appearances. I also admit to having been fascinated with the way Youko’s blouse was drawn. There was a lot more attention to detail in the way that buttoned shirt lay against her than probably was warranted. :-)

At the end of the disk, Yumi, having been commanded by Sachiko to find a soeur and Yoshino, pressured by a rash promise made to Eriko, set out to hold an “audition” for the open positions. This is, possibly, the novel most chock-a-block filled with zOMG amazing plot points, that the anime couldn’t hope to do more than scrape the surface, but damn that surface is awfully busy. :-)

The one striking this about this 4th season to me was that there was no way you could start with the first disk of this season, and start to watch. Quite often with anime series that continue for a few seasons, the first episode summarizes what has gone before, at least enough for a relative newbie to sit down and watch it. Not so for this. If you had no idea who these people were or why they were doing the things they were doing, it would be a slightly befuddling story. And, of course, the real in-jokes would be lost. There would be no way to appreciate just *how* much Sachiko had changed when she proposes the double gender switch for the play if you did not know what kind of person she had been. As a staunch obsessive fan, it kind of felt good. This anime is not for the off-the-street, “who is this? what’s going on?” person. It’s for *us.* :-)

The DVD includes the “Maria-sama ni ha Naisho” and liner notes as extras. The physical extra for those pre-orderers among us is a fetching writing pad.

Art – 8 for Youko’s button-down shirt
Characters – 10
Story – 10
Yuri – 1
Loser Marimite Fan – slightly less than a million

Overall – 9

In this life that I have created that focuses so much around anime and manga, this series, Maria-sama ga Miteru, along with Sailor Moon, has profoundly affected my life. I really just want to say thank you to Nozomi/RightStuf for allowing me the pleasure of seeing this series in English.