Maria-sama ga Miteru

I, like many people, judge an anime buy opening sequence. In this one, I found the opening animation drab and boring but the music was nice. That's probably the reason I was inclined to stick around for the next few episodes. The story was interesting. It was able to hold my interest without high intensity action scenes or whinny tween main characters. I did find in certain episodes that were a little slower, there seemed to be sort of "forced conflict". Though there was no pressing matter to attend to, it was as if the characters were searching for something that was problematic. For example, at one point when Sachiko and Yumi are with each other, Sachiko walks off screen for a moment and Yumi seem to panic for no apparent reason. (She didn't go anywhere! Calm down!) The art, while not the style I was used to, was well done. It's easy to get used to the slightly modified style and eventually you'll grow to like it. Each character has her own distinct personality and back story. Overall, Maria-sama ga Miteru is a very soothing anime and serves as a breath of fresh air in the clutter of overdone story-lines and character designs.

I was a bit unsure about to watch this or not, since it is a shoujo, but I found out that it's okay for guys to watch too. It's not typical shoujo either. Story A lot of girls in a religious school, and their relationships. This could have resulted in something mediocre, but I think that it was excellently executed in Maria-sama. Many episodes were single standing, telling about the past or the present of the girl, and when there were follow-up episodes, I just had to watch on. Great story, almost bordering to slice of life, but it's a bit too dramatic to be considered that. I also liked the Yamayurikai (kind of student council), which was quite unique. Art This is maybe the shows weakest point (at least in my eyes), not that it affected me too much. There's mostly boring colours, and the animation don't seem too detailed. Character designs were good though Sound Background music consisted mostly of classical, a bit too classical for me, but it worked well. It fit well into the general mood of this anime. Neither opening or ending themes were that good either. But the voice actors were great. Character This is a very character-driven anime, so thankfully the characters were good, and the relationships were interesting. I liked all of them, but there could have been a bit more focus on Sachiko and Yumi, which were my favourites. But the support characters were good as well, so the result turned out great. The relationship between Sachiko and Yumi is the most important, and they are also the most interesting (and funny) Enjoyment Yeah, well, I loved this series. Something abut it all made me love it. I got pulled into the story and the relationships, and enjoyed every episode. Since it's aimed for girls, there wasn't any fanservice or moe-characters, which I found refreshing. Overall A truly great anime. Felt very refreshing, with great story and characters. A recommended watch (unless you're only into action). 9 / 10

This is the first anime i watched on dvd, im not much of a fan, watched 1 episode in animax and i thought i have to watch the whole anime. The story line some thought is not as real as it should be but for people i know and im also included, this happens naturally. As Yumi the main character didnt expect to be close to the person she admires, but with unexpected twists and turns and a whole lot of blackmailing, ended up being the little sister of Sachiko the most admired person in Lilian High School. Having a relationship with someone that you usually looked from far away is too much for Yumi but she tried her best and ended up having fun with it. This anime is worth watching especially the other seasons and you will see that life is as simple and as complicated like this anime

"Aqui é um lugar para donzelas". Esta frase resume bem o ambiente do anime. A dinâmica entre as personagens é consistente e elas são bem carismáticas. Essa primeira temporada foca em nos apresentar as personalidades de cada uma e seus dilemas, sendo bem envolvente suas preocupações e especificidades. Quando comecei este anime não estava com grandes expectativas, mas me surpreendi. Não se assustem com o estúdio responsável pela produção (estúdio Deen) porque com certeza, essa temporada de Marimite, até agora, é o melhor trabalho deles -ainda não assisti as outras. English version: "Here is a place for maidens." This sentence sums up the anime environment well. The dynamic between the characters is consistent and they are very charismatic. This first season focuses on introducing us to each one's personalities and their dilemmas, with their concerns and specificities being very involved. When I started this anime I didn't have great expectations, but I was surprised. Don't be scared by the studio responsible for the production (Deen studio) because for sure, this season of Marimite, so far, is their best work - I haven't seen the others yet.

I'm really not sure what to say about this. I saw the first few episodes and made the decision that I wasn't going to spend anymore time on it because I was bored by them, but then I really wanted to see what happened after that so I watched a few more and figured that I would give it until episode four. Somewhere along the line however, I was so entranced by the show that I had to see the rest. Story: In an all girls catholic university girls pick "sisters" from the class(es) below them and this symbolic relationship is the focal point of the show. In addition the three girls chosen to be the student council are given titles named after roses(the red, white, and yellow roses in this case) and traditionally being the sister of one of these girls is a great honor, and comes with certain privileges. Our main character yumi is the sister in the red rose family since her sister is the sister of the current red rose. The story as a slice of life just follows her and her sisters and the others around during their days. Art: There wasn't a lot of color, and it just wasn't a style that I would call myself a huge fan of. Although it did its job and didn't look like crap so I wont bitch about it. Characters: Mainly this follows yumi and her sister sachiko and the rest of the roses and their sisters, but the thing here is that none of them really have any distinctive traits or things like that for me to talk about here. That seeming lack of depth from the characters might have been a problem, but then again it takes place at a catholic school, it makes perfect sense for everybody to be sullen, withdrawn, and dull. Enjoyment: I kinda already outlined my enjoyment of this in my intro, but I should take a moment to draw attention to something that I found to be rather interesting. The sister system at this school seems to go way beyond the type of relationship that siblings typically have, and it enters the yuri(girls' love/ lesbian) zone. Now I find it hilarious that such relationships would be allowed and embraced at a catholic(emphasis on the catholic) institution, given the catholic churches stance towards relationships such as these, im surprised that that the nuns didn't start trying to cleanse the girls with fire and holy water Overall: It was good and like I said, I was amused by all the yuri in a catholic school. Aside from that however it wasn't the best ive ever seen, but it wasn't bad enough that I am forced to sit here and just grill it with jokes like I have don't to other series in the past. I guess my advice is just to watch for yourself and see what you think.

This is a review for all 4 seasons. It really feels like it’s missing a fifth season. Overall, the anime is profoundly soul-soothing. All the heroines are different, vivid, and each has her own problems, but at their core they are all very good people. Everything they do is driven by love. Yes, platonic love, but no less real because of that. On the younger sisters’ side, this love is built on admiration for their elders and a striving toward an ideal; on the older sisters’ side, it comes from having once been in the same position themselves and from a deep understanding of their younger sisters. All of this is further shaped by Japanese politeness and restraint. As a result, you get wonderful and very different pairs. But these relationships are not static—they are constantly developing, because each heroine strives to become better through experience, reflection, and an effort to resolve problems and contradictions. There is nothing abstract about this; that effort is always practical and motivated by love. Overall, I highly recommend it, 10/10. The first season is the darkest, but after that everything becomes better and brighter.

This is going to be a quick one, a little pit-stop as I finish the first season. I'll shy away from story details for now, because there's still so much to go. That said, 13 episodes in, this is definitely shaping up to be a gentle but incredibly satisfying series. Part of it is the smaller details. There's a stiltedness to the dialogue and the general tone of conversations, which sounds like a criticism but in reality is the opposite; the stuffiness makes the show feel tonally akin to the writing of authors like Jane Austen, who I love. Absolutely, a queer-as-hell Austen-esque story is hitting the right beats for me. It's story has definitely been on the simpler side; it hasn't pulled too much in the way of big twists, and while I think it would be entirely unfair to say that the show lacks tension, the stakes definitely feel small-scale. That isn't a bad thing, per se, it definitely works for the story, but it'll be interesting to see whether the rest of the show ramps this up at all. The main downside is the animation; my feelings on mid-2000s animation are well-recorded at this point, and here it isn't helped by the fact that in the present day, with more advancement in digital animation, Studio Deen are hardly known for their high production values, so a show this much older has no chance of being anything more than practical and generally mediocre. That said, the characters keep the show well and truly moving. With series composition by Reiko Yoshida (writer of my favourite movie of all time, and plenty of other work I really enjoyed), the characters feel authentic, likeable and complex. Yes, there's that stuffiness to most of the characters, but they're always clearly more than polite and poised. They've all got clear flaws, all got things they're clearly missing from their lives, and also all just a little bit weird in their own ways. It keeps a perfect balance between the high status they hold in the school and the reality that they're people with plenty of growing to do. Overall, a great start to a series I wasn't entirely convinced by going in. Let's see if it can keep the momentum going into the rest of the show...

It's good, but it's too slow. The lovers are treated like best friends, even though one of them is already engaged. 💀 Initially, I thought it looked so much like my dear brother. During the first episode, I became confused because it seemed like I had already seen it before. It's almost identical. Hopefully, the rest of the story will develop differently. The characters are quite basic. I mean, there's the sweet girl, the cold one, the tomboy – and that's it. I'm looking forward to the next season to see what more can happen, but I'm only watching because it's a classic in sapphic anime.

This review covers all four seasons. In this catholic school GL romance, girls in the higher years each 'adopt' a girl from a lower year as their soeur, their sister. The greatest prestige comes from being made the little sister of a member of the student council, since that's seen as a fast-track to membership in the council and grants access to the mansion on school grounds that acts as the student council room. There are a lot of strong personalities on the council when Yumi starts as a first year, and she soon gets caught up in a whirlwind of conflicting agendas and jealousy when Sachiko, one of the student council members, offers to be her big sister on the day they meet. This show came from the tail end of the Class S era of GL, when it often wasn't made explicit whether the feelings the girls have for each other are sisterly affection or romantic love. It sways back and forth on that line, leaning more in one direction or the other for the various trios of sisters the show focuses on. Yes, I said trios, and that's the main source of conflict in this series. Given that there are three years in Japanese high school, that makes a chain of three sisters in most cases. As a first year, Yumi is thrown in the deep end of this situation, and has to figure out the dynamics at play between Sachiko and herself, between Sachiko and her big sister, and between all the other council members. Combine this with the fact that council members are variously referred to by their first or last name by different people, their titles (based on types of roses), or the French names for those roses, and you have a recipe for confusion until you get a handle for who all these girls are and who is whose sister. That last point is what made me bounce off the show after a couple of episodes the first time I tried it, but I recently started it again and I'm glad I persisted. The first season can be quite messy with how many characters it throws at the viewer, but it finds its feet more as it progresses. The show's four seasons cover Yumi's first two years at high school. The first three of those split their time between all the girls on the student council, but with a particular emphasis on Yumi growing closer to Sachiko as her little sister. The final season shows Yumi starting to mature as a second year, as she begins to look for a little sister of her own. Interestingly, the more Yumi matures the more the show locks us out of her internal monologue, making her a closed book and shifting the emphasis to the girl who is the prime candidate to be her little sister. Perhaps the idea here is that the maturity of the big sisters (who are still high schoolers themselves) is something of an illusion that can only be maintained when viewed from the outside. It's an enjoyable show once you get past that first hurdle of remembering who everyone is, and only gets better as it goes along. Those looking for explicitly stated romance or a sense of how these girls' lives will progress after high school may be a little frustrated though, since the focus here is on Yumi first learning what it means to be a little sister, and then slowly maturing into a big sister herself, even if there are many times when it seems that there's something else between her and Sachiko. Season 1: 7/10 Season 2: 7/10 Season 3: 8/10 Season 4: 8/10

Not sure what's with me watching older titles lately, but hey, finding quality in old content is something every anime fan loves to do! Story & Characters: Maria Watches Over Us is based around Lillian Girls' Academy, a very catholic school. Since I have no knowledge of how these are typically run in Canada, I'm kind of going based on what the anime portrays and explains to us to be true. However, one such thing they seem to have here is having an older student proclaim a younger one to be their "soeur", which roughly translates to sister. This means that the older one would be somewhat of a mentor to that student. This creates a bit of a forced storyline in that we need to have a certain number of students that need to interact with others and on paper, I actually like this. It creates more meaningful relationships between students and that in itself creates storylines. Our main character is Yumi, a brand new student at this academy. By chance, she stumbled upon a student council member, Sachiko, who is being told that she needs to name a "petit soeur" (ie: little sister) based on the academy's traditions. On a bit of a whim, Sachiko picks Yumi. Unsurprisingly, Yumi isn't sure what to think by this offer and it creates some drama in the early going. The thirteen episode runtime examines not only the unexpected relationship ties that Yumi and Sachiko need to undergo, but also examines how our other students go about their day to day lives that attempts to create drama. The story felt very up and down for me. The first two episodes were likely intended to create drama, but I found myself a bit overwhelmed by the terminology - specifically, the titles. The older students, or soeurs, are mostly given titles and keeping track of who is who can often get confusing. Then you have to weave that into the story and it can feel like a bit much. By the end of it, I was mostly okay with it, but these things can scare off new audiences, especially those who were willing to try to watch all existing seasons. However, outside of that, the short storylines that were created from episode to episode did have some winners. The three storylines that centered around Suguru, Shiori and Mifuyu were solid, though I found the in between bits felt like it was dragging a little bit. The last two episodes wrap up the show quite nicely as well, as it's the only time we get to see students outside of the academy. Yumi reminds me a bit of Kumiko from Sound! Euphonium, in that she's very observant and not necessarily afraid to speak to mind. She's an okay protagonist, but what makes her stand out is how Sachiko lifts her, who is a much more interesting character. Sachiko comes from a bit of a higher upbringing and her life is very clearly different from Yumi's. A bit of a personality did start to bloom further as you went along in the series, and that's a good thing! I found myself liking the stories to a bunch of the side characters, but I had a hard time liking the other members of the student council. I feel like it might in part be because of the setting, but many of the other girls just kind of meshed together in my mind. This kind of links to the difficult task of remembering everyone's titles. The story between Yumi and Sachiko was nice and some of the side characters get really moments. But the inconsistent pacing does prevent this story from really flourishing. (Story: 7/10, Characters 6/10) Art: Considering this is almost two decades old, I didn't mind the art style at all. They didn't depend on many still shots and the animation looked pretty smooth. Many of the more peaceful moments are well shown, though the show makes a point to never get too lovey-dovey. (6/10) Sound: The OST consists of most olden tunes with an instrumental OP and ED and matches the show decently well. It's not my preference, for sure, but it was fine, based on the setting. The VA work was solid in its own right, though I felt like Miki Itou (Sachiko) wasn't very expressive when she could have been. (7/10) Overall Enjoyment: I was on the fence whether to give this a 6 or 7, but I felt like there were enough strengths that I think a 7 is worth it. I really enjoyed some of the story arcs, while I found myself bored with others. I haven't decided whether or not to watch the sequels, but it'll definitely stay at the back of my mind! (7/10)