Maria†Holic Episode 1

Well due to several shows ending that I was watching and some of the subbing being off or under the crunchyroll's..DELIGHTFUL pay or wait a weekness...my anime schedule has been light. I looked at the New Winter Anime line up ...and to be honest not much interested me at all. :(

Tenchi is not impressed...

But first impressions and little blurbs are not always truthful so I decided to give three a chance:

Chrome Shelled Regios

Akikan

Maria†Holic

Chrome Shelled Regios and Maria†Holic have interesting sounding plots at least. Akikan just looks cute. XD So I will check these three out and see if I want to blog them or not. And since I have read other blogs about Maria†Holic I will start with that series. (Gotta love Simplicity

So on to the review and summary shall we?

I am glad they are keeping the fan service tasteful.

Click to read about the first episode

The first scene is of Maria implying they must turn the lights on since it is her first time. Next we see a young girl being transported in a taxi. THEN we hear a man talking about how the Ame no Kisaki academy for girls teaches girls how to love and honor their hearts. Kanako, the main character, steps out of the taxi and states to her mother in heaven (in the form of a letter) how she is here to find her true love. Kanako gets a little bit nervous when she arrives as she feels lost and no one is around. Suddenly a maid appears named Matsurika and promptly calls her pig girl. Apparently this is code for being really tall. Kanako goes insane with her inner thoughts about how she has been tall all her life and has been tortured for it. She has really bad and scary memories of this. In the midst of her freak out a lovely girl approaches named Maria. Kanako is instantly all rose petals and day dreaming over Maria. Maria explains that they are currently on her parent’s land and not really the school. The two make small talk and Kanako explains that she is able to transfer here because both her parents went here. Maria is like um this is an all girl’s school so how did that happen? Kanako explains her father was her mother’s teacher and she is HOPING to find romance here like them. Maria takes that mean Kanako wants to date one of the teachers and informs her all the teachers are really old. Maria asks Kanako if she has a boyfriend and Kanako freaks out. She explains she can’t because she breaks out in hives when she is near men. Maria smirks (evilly) and kisses Kanako on the cheek. Kanako freaks the hell out in her head and is convincing herself that just because this is a simple kiss it could mean more! Maria promises to show Kanako around later after her archery practice and tells Kanako where her dorm room is. Kanako then meets the dorm room mother…someone who goes by the name “god” and wears cat ears (or really has cat ears that move) and her crazy dog. She sorta threatens Kanako a bit but shows her to her room. There Kanako meets her roommate Ryouken. Kanako nearly dies as Ryouken is gorgeous and she starts having fantasies about her after they shake hands. Ryouken offers to show Kanako around but Kanako has to decline as Maria has already offered to do so.

Handshakes are like sex apparently...

Kanako ends up at the archery club place and another member allows her to go inside. In Kanako’s head she is thinking about all the lovely girls she has met and how she will be happy with her partner whom she thinks will be Maria. She hears Matsurika and someone yelling and she goes to investigate. It is Maria….putting on a corset and about to put on fake boobies. Yep Maria is a dude. But Maria ignores Kanako freaking out and calmly gets dressed and shows her around campus. During the walk Kanako finally snaps and throws an entire tree near Maria and demands to know why he tricked her. Maria states he will not explain his reasons but he is not a cross dresser or a homosexual. When Kanako tries to call out Maris for being a freak Maria reminds Kanako that SHE is a lesbian so she can’t judge him. Kanako explains that she has been traumatized by men before and she is meant to have a yuri relationship! Kanako says she will turn Maria in…so Maria rips the dress Matsurika is wearing and screams. Then he explains he will tell the guards or whoever that Kanako is a crazy lesbian that tried to hurt Matsurika. Kanako is like NO ONE WILL BELIEVE YOU but Maria explains his connections and how the real world works. Kanako goes back to her dorm room defeated and all hived out. Kanako tries to cheer herself up by thinking school starts tomorrow and she can find a new love. Until she arrives back at her dorm room and now Maria is her roommate. Maria states he cannot trust her to keep a secret so now HE will watch her every single second and isn’t that super?! Maria puts on a happy face while Kanako wants to die inside.

Such a happy ending! :O

I really didn’t know what to expect from this show before I sat down to watch it. But several people I follow blogged about it and I decided to give it a chance. That and nothing else I am watching was blogged yet. And of course….if I love yaoi so much I should give yuri a chance right?

ALL HAIL YURI...apparently.

But of course this is not really yuri right? Since Maria is is actually a dude. Or a trap as it is commonly called. I am sure some crazy fan boys out there were slightly disappointed (if they did not read the summary first that is). Perhaps it can still be considered a yuri show since Kanako is fantasying (dude, is that spelled right? Word keeps changing it on me….) about other girls too. But Maria will probably get in the way of any other relationship because he is so lovely.

MMMM can't wait for the haircut scene.

The first thing I noticed about this show was…my eyes hurt. I thought it was the monitor (using a different one for this computer since the other one died :( ) but then I realized it was the crazy background. Some people have stated it looks cool and so much like a painting. I want to know what those people are smoking. It just looks crappy. And it also reminds me of another show I have seen before. It might be an American cartoon, but I remember a show where the background is crap but the people look just fine. I can’t put my finger on the show…but that is what I thought. That and some of the art stills remembered me of Utena, old school baby.

Yeah, not so lovely.


TAKE ON MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

But even if the art is kind of crappy, I think the inner moments are pretty funny. Kanako is a total basket case. Maybe a little too much of a basket case. I think that Kyoko from Skip Beat is over the top but her over the topness seems more real. Kanako was bringing up being a giraffe and all these other issues in her life. So maybe her freak outs aren’t funny…but her fantasies. She is worse than a rabid fan boy x_X I am sure she will see some panties later on and will develop lots of nose bleeds. Because you know how she doesn’t wear bras. :P Bras look better on the floor anyway.

It's man bear pig right?


But i heart giraffes.

For some reason before I watched the show I thought that Maria was the “lesbian” and Kanako was the trap. She looked trap like anyway. More mannish or PIGISH apparently. In any event had Maria kept her secret a little longer I would have looking for someone else being a dude. I guess that’s why it is called a trap XD

Or maybe I am just use to dudes looking like Kanako.

I feel mixed about the trap scenario being discovered so soon. I think it would have been funnier if Kanako really had thought she had fallen in love with a gorgeous girl and had the truth be revealed after the fact. But if the truth was revealed so Maria can torture Kanako throughout the series I am okay with that too. Although I was expecting a little bit of explanation too. Perhaps his reason for not revealing his reasons is because it would garnish sympathy from Kanako and we can’t be having that so soon.

Although Kanako did not take the situation very seriously at first....

I thought the show went pretty fast and a LOT was said. I rolled my eyes a few times but also had a few laughs. I am still not all up on this hentai/yuri overness thrown in my face…but maybe the cynical nature of Maria will grow on me. That and it will be nice not see so many know it all guys hogging the screen. We can just have some no it all girls.

But I heart the chibis!

And one last thought. X_X What kind of schools exist in Japan? I did not have a crush on ANY of my teachers in high school. None were even CLOSE to being “dateable”. But over in Japan apparently this happens all the time or it is a fantasy….I guess they can get away with that kind of relationship over there with their age of consent being at 13. Still…what a weird reason to attend a school: Because my parents met and fell in love here.

Don't ask don't tell!