Archive for the Maria-sama ga Miteru Category


Maria Watches Over Us Anime: Season 3, Volume 3 (English)

June 18th, 2009

There I was, surveying my domain, which is to say I was staring at my pile of things to review, and I saw the Season 3 boxset of Maria Watches Over Us. It came into my mind to review “Ciao, Sorella”…and, I smiled. Because this particular OAV makes me smile. Every time. Smiled when I watched it raw, right after it was on Japanese TV, and again when I bought the Japanese collector’s edition (complete with marble-pattered photo album) and again when I saw it subbed and yes, again when I watched it – twice – from my shiny happy boxset from Right Stuf/Nozomi.

This is the last of the third season, the last OAV for the series to date. To write the novel, this was the first time Konno Oyuki had ever gone a overseas trip for reference – and it shows. This book reads like a tour of Italy in the company of Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako. Which is exactly what it is. Many fans were disappointed with the OAV, as nothing happened. Since Lillian is the Talking Heads “Heaven” and nothing ever happens, this seemed spot on for me.

Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako are off on their second-year class trip and, as befits a private school for rich girls, they don’t go to Okinawa, they go to Italy. On tour they see exactly the same things anyone sees while on a group tour of Italy. Relax, when you watch this. Have some gelato because one does while on tour of Italy, and smile at the goofy pictures of the girls pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa because, as Tsutako says, just because something is typical doesn’t mean it can’t be good.

There is a little drama in this story – Yoshino’s dark secret, Shimako’s angelic tears, but there is *way* more comedy than drama. Most of the drama is turned into comedy.

Here’s my three favorite scenes:

Yumi, Yoshino, Tsutako and Mami on a gondola ride, listening to the gondolier talking in broken English, which none of them are really fluent in, about the Bridge of Sighs. He tells them about the legend of kissing the one you love as they pass under. They look at each other like – what on earth are we supposed to do with that information? In the book, Yumi actually thinks that out loud and they talk about coming back when they have someone. Yumi thinks it might be fun to return with Sachiko.

Shimako, in tears at the sublime “Last Judgement,” standing there with Yumi, when Yoshino walks up and says, “Don’t you think Jesus is a little fat?” Awesome Yoshino moment.

And in Florence, a budgie that says, “Firenze senbei,” which was not what I adored about this scene, but that the OTHER thing the parakeet says was, “Stop it already, Satou-san.” ^_^ The win scene of the book.

There is little Yuri in this series, as there has ever been. This series is about relationships that are labeled “sister” for a good reason. There is love, of course, and I’d even go so far to say that some of that has been romantic, but forever platonic, or nearer to it. Sachiko’s admission of having missed Yumi may not make much of an impression on you, but it warms the cockles of my heart, as my late grandmother used to say.

One more thing before I forget….

Shizuka! Squee!

Even a Shizuka drive-by is wonderful (there was one late in the novel series, in which we saw her in passing at a train station. And of course there’s the wonderful story “The Little Match Girl” in Variety Gift.) How much more wonderful to have some full-blown Shizuka time. Always a pleasure to see our old friends.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 2 (there was actually a little service in this one. Did you blink and miss it?)

Overall – 8

Now the Third Season is behind us, and we have nothing to do but await the Fourth and start collecting Special CDs and Drama CDs again! And pray to the Pizza Hut gods that they are willing to finance a final series of OVAs.





Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 2

June 12th, 2009

Tsutako is in the house! Yes, in the second Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Satou Rina is the guest of honor and conversations about soeur and sweets abound. Satou Rina has the most amusing habit of calling Ueda Kana “Yumi-san,” which she just canNOT shake.

They discuss the usual things – the kind of junk food they are eating, who Satou Rina would have as a friend, souer, wife, etc. (Is there any surprise to find that she wants to be Yumi’s friend and have Shouko as souer? No, no there isn’t.)

But the great big super important reason you will get the CD is not the guest of honor, as cool as she is.

The reason you will get this CD is the drama.

The nearly one-hour long drama.

The nearly one-hour long drama voiced by Nazuka Kaori (Yun in Simoun, Subaru in .Hack/Sign) “Kareruki ni Mebuki,” (“From Withered Tree to Bud”) that tells the end, if you will, of the Tsutako x Shouko story from the perspective of her older sister, Kasumi.

The story that not only puts all the pieces in place for the Shouko x Tsutako story, but also makes plain what was up to that point obvious, yet implicit – Kasumi’s obsession, what in Japanese is called kataomoi, with the former Rosa Foetida, Torii Eriko.

Oh my *God* is this a good drama. Tears, laughter, it has everything. It has *everything*. It was so good I needed a smoke afterward.

The fact that so many of these side stories are being told in the CD dramas indicates to me that they are not intending on animating them, but I hope to be proven wrong. Tsutako, Shouko and Kasumi definitely deserve an OVA of their own!

Ratings:

Overall – 9.5

These Special CDs have been so amazing, I’m a little scared to get the next one, in case it fails to be as magnificent as the previous ones. But that won’t stop me for a second, really. ^_^





Yuri Anime: Maria Watches Over Us, Season 3, Volume 2

May 17th, 2009

I’m taking a risk here in calling Volume 2 of Maria Watches Over Us a “Yuri” anime, I know. Bear with me. (No pun intended.)

Once upon a time, I was at an event. We had a number of imaginary beasts at the event – there was a dragon carried by a half dozen people, and a hobby horse and a rag man. (Not to be confused with the comic hero The Ragman.) Rag men are ambiguous human figures, covered in rags, and, although historically they are some neighbor, the ancient tradition of guising means that once the costume is on, you have no idea who it is. Nor did I, as the costume was passed around to any number of people.

Then I looked across the field and I noticed that the ragman was my wife. I recognized her knees. From a distance. Despite the fact that she, like almost everyone there was wearing jeans, it was an immediate recognition.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I think that Episode 3, “A Cool, Refreshing Breeze” is the *most romantic* episode in the whole of the Maria Watches Over Us series. Because Sachiko did not lie when she said that she would recognize Yumi, even if she were wrapped up in bandages like a mummy.

It also happens to be a very, very funny episode – and extremely well-adapted from the novel. The looks on the girls’ faces as they enter the bizarro boy’s world of Hanadera, the reaction of the guys to the appearance of beautiful rich girls…and the shock as Yumi falls prey to a misguided and misbegotten plan.

Meanwhile, in Episode 4, I am moved not once, but twice, to tears by Yoshino, (who RULES this book, btw) and smile like a loon at Sachiko’s gakuran-wearing self.

Things that happen during the sports festival will be prime movers of later events, but for now, we are in ignorant bliss and able to just enjoy the story as it goes by – another important moment in Yumi’s time with Sachiko.

For my money, these two are probably the best episodes of the series. The funniest, the most touching, the cutest, the most meaningful. The first glimpse of Yumi’s ability to manage Sachiko, the very very first inkling of the Yamayurikai to come.

Rainy Blue happened just so we could see these two episodes. And thank the gods of anime that we did.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4

Marimite Fan Service – 10000

Overall – 9

Did I mention ***squeee!!!*** Sachiko in a gakuran?





Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 1

May 1st, 2009

Such voyeuristic joy, such pure pleasure, such girly, giggly, sweets and flower-filled minutes pass as we once again enter the second-floor meeting room of the Bara no Yakata and spend time with the women who bring the Rosa Chinensis family to life as they discuss important things like who gets the chocolate, the strawberry or the pumpkin flavored sweet.

No seriously, that’s the kind of thing we listen to when Itou Miki (Sachiko,) Kugamiya Rie (Touko) and Ueda Kana (Yumi) get together to chat about everything an nothing for the Maria-sama ga Miteru Special CD, Volume 1.

They discuss the 4th season, and Touko’s character development. They discuss the novels (Kana is clearly the group authority on this, having clearly read them all) and about the New Year’s Eve event.

The drama portion of the CD is “Chocolate Portrait,” the story of how Shouko and Tsutako met. The entire story was dramatized – if anything was cut, I was completely unaware of it, it was so small and inconsequential. To say that this story is wonderful is really an understatement. IF there was any couple in the whole of Lillian that I could ever call a “couple” in the romantic sense, it would have to be Tsutako and Shouko. They fit together beautifully. Shouko is sweet, polite and a little bent, while Tsutako is just about the most social, functional and fun sociopath I’ve ever read. ^_^ Together they make a pair so awesome that they can’t be beat.

The last track on the CD is “Oshiete, Oneesama,” in which the same series of questions are asked of each guest – which character would you want for a sister, a daughter, a friend, (if you were male, of course) a bride, a soeur. Everyone wants Yumi for a friend, and Shimako for a daughter. ^_^ And mostly, although not all the time, whichever guest it is wants their character’s soeur for a soeur. Kugamiya Rie did not deviate too much from the norm.

Up until this CD, the DJCDs have been anywhere from 25-35 minutes. This “Special” CD is about an hour long – the “Chocolate Portrait” drama is a good 30 minutes plus, so it’s good entertainment value for your money.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

When I listened to the Winter Special DJCD, I said it was the best I’d listened to so far, Well, this one was better. ^_^





Maria Watches Over Us Anime: Season 3, Volume 1

April 2nd, 2009

The day my Season 3 Box Set of Maria Watches Over Us arrived I, like many of you, immediately opened box the looking for the third of the three phone straps. Once the Yellow Rose was safely attached to my phone, I was able to turn my attention to the DVDs themselves.

Volume 1 consists of “Vacation of the Lambs” and “Operation OK (Temp) For Short.”

Let me set the scene for you. “Rainy Blue” is over. Yumi has learned the truth of Sachiko’s distance from her, that she was in denial and grieving over her dying grandmother. Yumi has ceased her wide-eyed adoration of her Onee-sama as something perfect and “over there” and is starting to see her as a human being.

In this third season, Yumi’s begun to relate to Sachiko as an equal. The two of them are slowly rebuilding their relationship which had been strained to near-breaking. Yumi is beginning to assert herself, Sachiko is beginning to take herself less seriously, and to rely on Yumi more. It’s slow going for both of them.

In “Vacation” Sachiko invites Yumi to her summer house. It’s not the smoothest vacation ever. Yumi’s still bruised from “Rainy Blue,” and isn’t really sure of herself. She’s never really thought Sachiko’s life through – about the politics involved with her status, or the people around her. Sachiko has never really had a companion, she’s used to being the sole child in the company of adults. She’s also still a little idealistic about the nature of the soeur relationship and forgets, from time to time, that it comes with no magic powers of comprehension.

However. Yumi and Sachiko awkwardly get past all this and at the end of “Vacation” are indubitably closer that ever before. This story is the last one that will ever feature a low-self-esteem Yumi. This story is *the* turning point in the entire series. This story is the beginning of Yumi becoming Rosa Chinensis. “Vacation” is a beautiful story, with some lovely romantic moments.

“Operation OK” is the first time we really see the Yumi and Sachiko we’ve always wanted to see. Yumi is made responsible for the plan to acquaint Sachiko with their decidely male counterparts of Hanadera Academy. I found this particular story gut-bustingly funny, for any number of reasons. When Yumi caves and tells Sachiko what is planned, it is not weakness, as it appears to be, but Yumi’s unerring ability to manage Sachiko, that has finally borne fruit.

The scene where the Yamayurikai finally meets the Hanadera Student Council never fails to make me laugh out loud. The look on the Rosa’s faces as they gaze up…and up…at the Yakushiji twins, the memory of Noriko’s “ham” notation for Takada (left out of the anime, but it still makes me laugh when Takada flexes) and the Yumi/Yuuki comedy duo and Yoshino’s zinger.

This volume is quite possibly the most “important” in the series. If you are (and I am) watching this series to see how the characters mature and develop, then you really should take a second and just lovingly watch this volume. Take time to enjoy the details, the higher-quality art and the wonderfulness that is Fukuzawa Yumi.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Now, while I applaud Right Stuf in their efforts to fill my house with even more crap, this box set sadly fell very short of the good crap I got from the Collector’s edition from Japan for these two episodes. I wonder if it will ever *be* possible to throw $90 away just to get pressed leaf bookmarks, White Rose Family themed faux-leather book covers, Yumi’s hair ribbons, embossed paper coasters and limited edition postcards. I dream of that day.