Anime Review No. 98 (Maria Holic)

Maria Holic (Winter 2009) and Maria Holic Alive (Spring 2011)

Studio-Shaft

Directors-Akiyuki Shinbou (with Yukihiro Miyamoto and Tomokazu Tokoro)

Writers: Masahiro Yokotani and Miku Ooshima

Well, here we are, something that I am sure most people would not expect me to cover. I was not entirely sure that I would get around to covering this show, but circumstances brought it back to my attention and so here it is. This is Maria Holic.

Maria Holic the anime is based off a manga series written by Minari Endo between 2006 and 2014. It is about Kanako Miyamae, a new transfer student to a private all-girls school. She is secretly a closeted lesbian hoping to find her first true love and a bit of a misandrist, well more in that respect due to her condition where she breaks out in hives when men touch her. She gains a new roommate in Mariya Shidou a nice and gentle ojou-sama but turns out to be a male sadist who is forced to crossdress due to the wishes of his dead grandmother who was also a former headmistress of the school. Thus Kanako is blackmailed into keeping Mariya’s secret. In the process she ends up in a series of unfortunate but comical misadventures at school.

What I like about Maria Holic is how twisted the whole thing is. The whole breadth of creative decisions for this story are made in the opposite way that they would normally trend. Be it Kanako who is basically a girl with a male pervert mindset, Mariya the sadist disguised as the nice and kind ojou-sama and her maid Matsurika who turns out to be a deadpan snarker. The rest of the supporting cast are like that and all fit a basic stereotype (tomboy, megane babe, genki girl, etc) and then taking them to a rather unexpected places.

This is quite fitting as Maria Holic is a rather black comedy at its core. The humor is prevalently dark and its funny mainly due to that. Granted there are some laugh out loud hard moments, but most of the time the comedy is met with a nice dry chuckle from yours truly..There is the semblance of a story/plot but Maria Holic relies a lot on gags and sketch comedy segments. What story is there is an interesting parody. This is very related to my previous review, OtoBoku. Whereas that was a gentle soothing parody, Maria Holic is a bitterly tinged parody and a satire of not only yuri but school slice of life and otokonoko sub-genres as well. Of course, at times it openly embraces the conventions it is joking about. The second season is more of the same, except it seems to double down on everything from the first season and it is even more strange and ridiculous.

Maria Holic S2 clip

The animation production certainly helps this out in spades. If you can’t tell from the first episode alone, this is a pure Studio Shaft/Shinbou directed show. All his trademarks are here and in spades, and it is oddly fitting for such a surreal and dark satire show. This includes the various off-point references, use of text in scene, head tilt, art shift (this show has 3 main art styles). The 2 non-consecutive seasons came out during what I consider the peak of Studio Shaft/Shinbou productions (same era as the Zetsubou Sensei, Hidamari and Arakawa series). There are the seeds of other Shaft productions lashed in the people involved in the production of this series: Yukihiro Miyamoto, future co-director for Madoka and ED for Season 1 done by the future production designer for Madoka and the OP was done by the guy who helmed the Bakemonogatari series. The main thing to take away is that it suits the story and characters, supplementing it as opposed to recent Studio Shaft productions where those same tricks are employed only the story and characters aren’t as engaging-cough cough Monogatari, Sasami-san, Meh-kaku cough cough, but moving on.
S1 OP S2 OP2
S1 ED             S2 ED

Now, onto the english dub, which is a treat especially for those of us waiting for it. The series had its 2 seasons released by Sentai Filmworks (S1 in 2010, S2 in 2012) but sub-only bare-bones releases. But then in late 2013, they announced that they were doing dub re-releases of some of the shows they had done sub-only treatment earlier. I was a bit concerned but then the dub cast came out and I did a sigh of relief. I bought both seasons with the dub in early 2014 and it was worth it. Thankfully Christopher Ayres helms the dub and as usual he doesn’t disappoint. He assembles a great cast with some of his regulars sure but he topped it out with 2 great if not perfect casting choices: Jessica Calvello and Monica Rial. I feel that Jessica Calvello’s career doing more dubs again has its origin point with this dub. She is in true comedic form asa Kanako and I have to say this is her funniest performance since Excel Saga and I can’t imagine anyone else in that role now. Of course she is complemented by Monica Rial who plays Mariya and its the surprise in the dub, always fantastic. The rest of the cast is very spot-on if littered with Ayres’ regulars (Carli Mosier, Brittney Karbowski, Meg McDonald, Shannon Emerick, etc). Another honorable mention has to go to George Manley who does the narration (old ADV fans might know him as the narrator for the ADV redub of Gatchaman a decade prior). The dub script, written by Clint Bickham (who plays a minor role in S2), is nicely done adding in some stuff to punch the already comedic material. Overall a great dub that is highly recommended by yours truly.

Overall, Maria Holic is an interesting high concept comedy show that excels in being fun and entertaining. Granted the flavor of comedy might not suit everyone’s taste but that’s ok. I like it quite a lot and its certainly up there on my list of funniest anime I have ever seen.

So that closes out March 2015 aka Guilty Pleasures Month 2.0. Will I do another series of review like this? Hmm maybe next year, but it will be under a different title for sure. April 2015 marks the release of my 99th and 100th reviews. I am keeping the subject of those 2 reviews a secret but in due time you will all find out. Review No. 99 due out on April 12th.

Til next time dear readers…..

Anime Review No. 97 (OtoBoku)

OtoBoku: The Maidens are Falling for Me! (2006 TV Series)

Studio-feel.

Director-Munenori Nawa

Writer: Katsumi Hasegawa, Masaharu Amiya, Masashi Suzuki and Tomoyoshi Nagai

Some guilty pleasures are so due to just trashy and full of fanservice. Agent Aika from last time is like that. Yet others are so due to being far out and weird/surreal they are and that you are surprised that anyone would like this, much less give it the time of day. The other 2 entries this month are like that. Let’s talk about OtoBoku.

It is an original story by Caramel Box, based on an eroge visual novel that came out in 2005. The anime adaptation came out about a year after that as OtoBoku came out at a time when visual novel adaptations were king (the Key VN adaptations). The story is a simple setup. Mizuho is a young man who gets roped into going to an all girls school by his grandfather’s last will. Lucky for him he is so androgynous that a simple makeover by confidant/childhood friend Mariya and bears a resemblance to his late mother. With only his teacher knows and headmaster knowing who he really is, he strives to do the best he can at the new situation he has gotten into. He meets various other girls at the school, be it the redhead tsundere Kaichou and her Vice Prez megane babe Kimie-san, the mysterious dark haired beauty Shion and 2 kouhai, the genki Yukari and the cutie Kana among others.

Yesh thats a boy (FFWL i guess xD)

Essentially OtoBoku is a rather gentle, soothing and laidback slice of life school story but with a gender bender twist. Yes this is a sub genre of anime called Otokonoko which is basically pretty pretty boys ending up in situations where they must dress up as girls for some reason or other. Yeah a very high concept idea I know. Of course Mizuho takes it in stride and use the opportunity to become a better person and improve the lives of the other students as best as he can. There are also elements of yuri anime as well here, like the senpai-kouhai pairing and emphasis on female on female relationships as per Strawberry Panic. At times certain elements of the show downright copy Strawberry Panic, not surprising considering this came out right after Strawberry Panic-Elder election is pretty much a ripoff of the Etolie plot line from Strawberry Panic except not as drawn out.

It-its not because I like you or anything gosh -blush-

In fact OtoBoku starts out a bit like Strawberry Panic in that it does little story arcs for the first half with Mizuho coming into his own given his weird situation and real light and fluff. Whether it’s dealing with the rivalry between Takako and Mariya, winning over the student body by becoming Elder or helping Ichiko, a ghost girl, come to terms with her untimely death. Then episode 6 brings in a more coherent storyline that extends to the end, giving the show more a dramatic and serious edge. Granted its more situational stories but there is more cohesion between the episodes. An interesting love triangle develops between Mizuho, Takako (Kaichou-san) and Mariya, though it is mostly due to misunderstanding and lack of proper communication. Yet, the Takako route is the prominent one in the anime series which reveals the the VN origin of this show but I find it works very well. Takako, next to Mizuho, is my favorite character of the show. That comes to mainly how well she is written, though she does start off as a tsundere and rigid authority figure but as the show goes on she softens up to and develop feelings for Mizuho. I feel that the series has a predictable yet satisfactory conclusion. There is an episode 13 that is just a silly chibifest rendition of Cinderella that is really hilarious and full of laughs.

We are soooo blitzed right now xD

Animation is mostly solid if a little unimpressive. Like Strawberry Panic, it has a look not too different from the source material it is based on and goes its intended job without derping or excelling at it. It does have an unique chibi design which I termed ‘fugly chibi’ which whenever it shifts from the more straightforward character design art to this I burst out laughing but given that this was intended for the more LOL moments that is to be expected. The music feels like leftovers from Ouran and the voice acting (in japanese, no dub) is rather solid if predictable in terms of casting and performance, except for one. Mizuho is voiced by renowned seiyuu Yui Horie who isn’t quite adept at sounding more like a boy then as a very girly girl at times. As I mentioned, this is was released by Media Blasters around the same time as Strawberry Panic when they just churn bare-bones releases without a dub. Its so bad in fact that the edition I have contain discs with no artwork on the discs themselves.

Now there is Futari no Elder, a 3 episode OVA made in 2012 with a different director and studio, based on a spinoff manga of the original story. It is a somewhat more somber and serious story granted and has a slightly similar initial incident to OtoBoku but feels enough like a natural sequel and separate story and not a mere copy/paste job of the original series. It is also a nice, short and self-contained story which proves to be a bit more emotionally resonant with me at least then the TV series. It also looks a bit better than the 2006 series, naturally. It gets a recommendation from yours truly though good luck finding it as this hasn’t gotten an official release and I doubt it will but hey a guy can dream.

OtoBoku ED aka Totally Pants xD

So yeah Otoboku is a guilty pleasure that fortunately has enough charm and amusement to it to be somewhat enjoyable, even given the weird and off-putting premise. Next time, won’t be such the case.

Til next time dear readers

Anime Review No. 95 (Strawberry Panic)

“Lesbians!, Lesbians! ~”

Strawberry Panic (2006 TV Series)

Studio: Madhouse

Director: Masayuki Sakoi

Writers: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, Hideo Takayashiki and Tatsuhiko Urahata

Well February 2015 closes out with a personal favorite of mine, a seminal classic in a sub-genre that if you haven’t paying attention, I really love. The show in question is Strawberry Panic, also slight spoilers.

Strawberry Panic is the story of a new transfer student Nagisa Aoi as she comes to Astraea Hill, the site for 3 interconnected all-girls vaguely Christian schools: Le Rim, Spica and Miator. On her first day, she meets her interesting roommate Tamao Suzumi and the mysterious Etoile-sama, Shizuma who holds some deep and dark secrets. Together, Nagisa does the typical adventures at school-making friends and hanging out with them, and also lesbian relationships.

That is the very much the landmark of a yuri series, a focus on lesbian relationships or relationships between women with lesbian subtext. In Strawberry Panic, at least in the TV series, its the former where there are 2 main plots that are all about relationship dynamics. Shizuma and Aoi is the main (A) plot with Hikari and Amane being secondary (B) plot. Plot A is mainly internal conflict fueled by indecision and inner turmoil on the parts of Shizuma and Aoi. Plot B has more external conflict preventing Amane and Hikari getting together, with Kaname and Momomi (2 senpais who very obviously lesbians) serving as rough antagonists though they act more like cartoon villains in much of what they do in the course of the show. Plot A I find is the more compelling, especially when Shizuma’s backstory is revealed and we understand her a bit more and why she acts the way she does. Granted it does get a bit overdramatic and leans into melodrama/soap opera at times but it is still one of the strong elements in the show.

Goodness, Yaya you are way too good for Plot B's story

Plot B is the weak link of the show, mostly because I can’t really care about Hikari and Amane. Hikari is such a wallflower and Amane is an oblivious bifauxnen. The only interesting aspects of this plot is Yaya you do manage to feel something for because to see how much stuff she goes through in the series and a shame she doesn’t really get anyway by series’ end. Oh well, that’s what fanfiction is for. There is a rather valedictorian feel to the final episodes and the show ends on a satisfactory if a bit telegraphed conclusion.

Granted there are other characters, like Chikaru (student council president of the Le Rim school) and her band of classmates (megane Remon, genki Kizuna and the quiet cutie Kagome with her teddy bear Percival) who provide a lot of the levity to the more sombering drama of the main story. There are side adventure episodes, based on rather cliche situations, peppered throughout the series which do come across as filler at points, but are still enjoyable. Well these episodic plots are a just a bit fresher when the show came out in 2006.

Now, Strawberry Panic is one of the more definitive entries in the genre. In fact it is the show that got me interested in the yuri genre, and thus held in high regard by many yuri fans as their first exposure to the genre. It solidifies a lot of the tropes for the genre presently: The senpai-kouhai pairing and the complex relationship dynamics. There is the main theme like the notion of lesbian love: Forbidden, unconditional, unrequited and lost forever, tied to Shizuma’s past for instance. There is also the fleeting nature of youth and innocence and the regret and sadness that follows that, all of this couched in a cute and soothing slice of life atmosphere and environment, adding in tropes and notions from slice of life and high school stories. It is a tad romanticized, that hey that’s the nature of fiction.

Lesbian cuties hanging out.....and such xD

Strawberry Panic is a nice jack of all trades show. What I mean by that is that it is really good at balancing light-hearted comedy, soothing slice of life and serious drama but doesn’t quite excel at any of them, though it certainly tries. Focus episodes on side/supporting characters like the previously mentioned Chikaru and the Le Rim girls are a highlight for me (episodes 6 and 8 especially).

Chikaru you are best girl ^_^

Now the visual presentation is well-done, but not exactly the best work by Madhouse. It has a real somber and subdued look, with a light and pastel color palette. It derps and dips a bit, but thats nearly expected for a show that’s nearly a decade old. The orchestral music is warm and neo-classical in a chamber music style with woodwinds, strings, light brass and piano music abound. It does remind me a bit of the contemporarous Ouran’s equally flowery and melodramatic OST. The OP and ED songs are pleasant enough.

OP1 OP2 ED1 ED2

Now, this show was released sub only a few times by Media Blasters (singles in 2008, with complete set releases in 2009 and 2012)  just following the economic crash in the States. In fact, it was one of the first series that got this and set a precedence for sub-only releases that we in the States get in recent years. Fact is that dubbing became too costly for every anime acquired and just releasing with subtitles and a bare-bones release is cheaper and you got a better shot at getting your money back. The japanese language track is good and worth a listen, though a lot of the acting is archetypal and typical of how those tracks are done. One of the reason why I don’t usually talk about Japanese language tracks is because as an English speaking fan, I can’t really judge fairly the performance standards of japanese voice acting.

Cute yuri kiss scene ^_^

Overall Strawberry Panic is very good. It is a great exploration of blossoming romance between young women and an examination of an anime genre that recently has gotten some resurgence which I find very pleasing. Granted, its a bloated towards the middle as the story and plots drag in the middle third and does indulge in the melodrama a bit too much, but still worth a look at. And well, the moral of yuri is that indeed, girls can love girls.

Now for Something Completely Related xD

Next month’s reviews will be in a post tomorrow- ‘Til next time dear readers.