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Old 2009-07-07, 19:00   Link #15
mitsuganae
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
A little news from okazu: Right Stuf/Nozomi (@ AnimeToday on Twitter) has announced that the fourth season of Maria Watches Over Us is slated for a 2010 release. I assume this means region 1.

While I'm here, I suppose I'll voice my thoughts on the fourth season (though I'm probably just howling into the wilderness at this point).

I enjoyed the ride, but I didn't find it entirely convincing. I know the powers that be decided that they had to get to the Valentine's date in 13 episodes. Of course, this also means sacrificing the sense of ensemble of the previous seasons. Mostly gone are the little arcs that focus on a particular character or rose family, alas. Most of the fourth season (from episode six onwards) is Touko's story, basically. It's not a bad story, mind you, but that means all the other characters (except Yumi, obviously) become secondary. To me, this isn't such a good thing for something as driven by an ensemble of characters as Marimite. The previous seasons have Yumi and Sachiko as first amongst equals, i.e., two parts of a whole, central but not dominant. The fourth season abandons this balance, much to its harm, IMHO. Touko and Yumi become dominant instead of merely central, and the other characters' moments in the spotlight are all too brief. Of course, the sense of a balanced ensemble might've been retained had the season consisted of, say, 24 episodes rather than just 13. That way more time could've been devoted to other characters and other arcs (this is especially painful to one who is aware that much of the source material had to be sacrificed this time around).

Forgetting the issue of ensemble, I'm still not sure if Touko's story is told as compellingly as it could've been. Perhaps it comes across as more convincing in the novels, but as presented in the fourth season, it comes across as rather, uhm, meh, to put it bluntly (actually, that's the only way I could put it). On the other hand, although Touko is by nature a drama queen, the season handles her (mostly) with admirable restraint -- she could've easily become a caricature. I'm just glad they didn't shamelessly milk the drama, or the season could've easily sunk into bathos. Still, it would've been interesting if we saw Touko's lighthearted side more often -- the side (glimpses of which are in the second season) that is worldly-wise (but not world-weary), witty-snarky, yet doesn't take itself too seriously.

To me, the most moving scene of the entire season is Touko's breakdown and Noriko's subsequent entrance -- now *that* is drama done just right (any more or any less and it would not have worked IMHO). Also high on my list is the Red Rose's Sigh -- a wonderful reflection on many aspects of what is commonly called "love" (it isn't what *I* would call love, but that's another matter entirely).

Overall, I still think the third season is my personal favorite of the four, simply because it lets us see the characters in the happiest of lights and enjoy them to the fullest. Is it coincidental that the third season also seems to be the most straightforwardly adapted from the novels? For drama done just right, certain points of the first (Sachiko's whirlwind courtship of Yumi, Forest of Thorns) and second (the Shimako/Noriko and Rainy Blue arcs) seasons seem to ring more true than Touko's story in the fourth season. If there is another (most likely last) season of Marimite, I hope that the sense of ensemble would return, along with the structure of having small arcs devoted to certain characters. I know the Yumi/Touko story is not over (and there is the inevitable Touko/Yumi/Sachiko triangle of sorts to deal with), but now that their protracted courtship is finally done, I hope we can delight in the other characters and their stories once more.

Last edited by mitsuganae; 2009-07-08 at 09:25.
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