Genres: drama, romance Themes: shoujo-ai, yuri Number of episodes: 13 Vintage: 2004-01-07 to 2004-03-31
Plot Summary: Yumi is a first year student at the Lillian School For Girls, an exclusive all girl’s catholic school. The school has a tradition that older girls take a younger girl as their little sister or “soeur” in order to instruct and look out for them. Though Yumi admires Sachiko, a reserved second year student who is a member of the student council, she has no hopes of being chosen as her soeur. When an innocent encounter leads Sachiko to impulsively ask Yumi to be her soeur, Yumi is suddenly brought into the inner circle of the Roses, who are the members of the student council. With Sachiko at her side, Yumi begins to unravel and understand the relationships between the Roses and their soeurs and figure out her own feelings for Sachiko.
Genres: slice of life Themes: shoujo-ai, yuri Number of episodes: 13 Vintage: 2004-07-04 to 2004-09-26
Plot Summary: It is now Spring, and a new term is about to start at the Lillian Academy. The relationships between the Roses continues to unfold, in this beautifully expressive tale.
Maria Watches Over Us 4th Season / Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Season
Genres: drama Themes: shoujo-ai Number of episodes: 13 Vintage: 2009-01-03
Plot Summary: Life goes on for the ladies in the Yamayurikai. On the one-year anniversary of Sachiko and Yumi becoming sœurs, Yumi receives a difficult task from Sachiko: to finally acknowledge someone as her younger sister.
Other in genre do they mean “Best Student Council” or “My-Hime”? Unless you tip into serious MA or Herem series do I see any other contempoaries. I am pretty sure I am forgeting one.
This looks like a serious version of “Best Student Council”. If I remember that number one problem was that it was too slapstick at times.
The subtitle on this were not bad to read, except when there was a song in the backround and what I guess is the antagonist was saying something important to the plot. I was able to read it without having to rewind. Consindering the number of subs on (5?) I am getting my practice in.
Yeah, the music in the background definitely confused me for a second. It was even worse when two characters were talking. The subtitles were a bit on the small side, but still readable. At least the sign text wasn’t directly over the dialogue, unlike Indian Summer.
The show itself was interesting, but I would have to watch a few more episodes before I make a decision on it.
Am the only person that thinks it’s a bit weird reading some French words in the subtitles? lol Also listening to the VA’s, I kept thinking “And I though my French was bad…” lol
Nice series, seen all 4 seasons. To compare with Mai-Hime, or Best Student Council is just wrong and would give the wrong impression of what the show is like. This show is dialogue and yuri subtext. Heavy on both parts. The art and animation is good but nothing stunning, the subdued music is well placed for the mood of the show.
While this wont be for alot of people who post here, it is well done and is a nice change of pace from most shows.
People should give it a chance though, the story is good enough that people had wanted more that the 3rd season came out as a 5 ep oav 2.5 years after the 2nd season, then the 4th season was back on TV a little over a year after that (which just ended this past march), and as far as i remember it is a very very rare thing for a series after it had a tv run and going to oavs, to actually get more episodes on tv.
Sorry, I was reading the critics reveiws. One critic was talking about other shows in Genre. Yes, I don’t think its fair, the three shows are unrelated as you can get. The first Episdoe did make me think of “Best Student Council” first episode.
I did think it was odd that I was read a French word and then give a definition of the French word. If you listen to the dialog, the character were saying the French words. I wonder how someone that French would handle the French dialog.
This Anime is gem. It is a shame that people won’t watch/buy due to it being a sub.
The french that they use is basically just titles. Basically just the standing of the sisters to each other, (big sister, little sister), and the title of their flower group. I think it was used to give it a more european, and elegant feel for the school to differentiate it from the secular japanese school system. It only takes like an episode or 2 to get used to, and i find it alot more palletable then the spanish being used in Bleach for example.
The first episode was quite good I thought. I can see why people might draw an initial comparison to Best Student Council due to episode 1’s Council oriented storyline, but as said they are very different. Maria Watches Over Us is what we expect of RightStuf’s licensing choices… strong focus on slice of life elements in a quiet, not too flashy manner. Just good storytelling and a unique method of drama… quiet, understated drama.
While this isn’t a show that is typical of Anime Network viewers tastes in the past, I think diversifying the show selections in this manner is great for Anime Network in trying to get a wider variety of viewers.
Though certainly an acquired taste with its method of drama and the themes present in the drama and it’s not a rah-rah type show, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of this series.
The first episode looks interesting enough to keep watching, I went into it cold without reading anything about it. I got the impression it would be a serious drama with heavy lesbian undertones easily enough. It didn’t particularly remind me of anything I’ve already seen though (and that includes most of Best Student Council).
There are a lot of shows available that deal with girls relationships or girls school settings, so some are bound to compare it based on those elements.
From the looks of things if this was to be dubbed it demands an ADV “Le Chevalier D’Eon” quality dub to be done right, to just translate it directly with no tweaking might not be doing it justice, particularly given it appears it may have some religious aspects to the story.
Well, the second episode was interesting enough, we learn a little more about what’s going on. I’m curious now if the series’ climax will be the main character accepting the rosary, or if that’s just the first part of what we’ll see.
I’ve just finished the fifth episode. I can’t say i’m absolutely hooked on this show yet, but it is starting to grow on me.
The first episode kind of bored me…what do i care if Yumi rejected Lady Sachiko’s rosary…is this action that a big deal at this school that everyone is shocked by this? Can’t she just pick someone else?
But as each council member’s backgrounds are revealed as this show goes on, I’m beginning to see it’s appeal. I’m not sure if i can hang in there for several seasons of all this drama, but it i do think i’ll watch whatever episodes are available on demand.
All in all, I’m actually enjoying this one a lot.
I love the artwork for this, though it is difficult for me from time to time to follow both the subs and the overall scenery, but it really stands out to me.
Wow!
I’ve always heard about the animation quality differential between OVA/Movies and TV, but never really noticed much of a difference between the two. But man, this third season OVA cleaned up quite nicely in comparison to the first/second season TV.
It’s almost like watching a brand new anime instead of a continuation!
I was really impressed with the last few episodes of Season 2. They story line really pulled me in and I really felt for Yumi.
spoiler
It was almost painful to watch as Sachiko seemed to be pulling away from her. I’ve been in a similar situation and I know how much it hurts, especially when that little voice of doubt enters your mind. Even after their relationship was rectified, I couldn’t help but still feeling a little mad at Sachiko for hurting Yumi the way she did, in spite of the circumstances. I could totally understand where she was coming from, but that didn’t change the fact that I felt she handled the situation very poorly.
I ended up staying up late the other night and watching the final episodes in a mini-marathon. It was a surprisingly enjoyable ending to season 2. I’m looking forward to watching the OVAs soon!
No one’s commented much on the season 3 OVA’s. The final OVA covers the school trip to Italy. As I noted in the Aria thread, it was amusing to see Yumi and the other girls tour among other places, Venice, and go under the same bridge copied on Aqua in Neo-Venezia. The same bridge coincidentally appeared in the episode of Aria (23) I watched a little while later.
Is that the end of this series? They seem to leave some things open, such as who Yumi will ultimately choose as a little sister. I’m assuming it’s the last OVA given the movie-esque ending and the lack of a preview.
Yeah, that 5th episode is the end of the OVA/Season 3. There’s still a season 4 to go, but we’ll have to wait and see if TAN made a deal for that or not.
-edit-
Though looking over at RightStuf, looks like they haven’t released Season 4 to DVD yet, so it might be awhile before we get a chance to see it, if we do at all.
