[Triple_R]

There's a certain sadness in discovering a fantastic and heartwarming piece of anime art like this, long after it has finished airing.

I can't help but wonder that the experience might have been even richer for me if I could have taken part in discussions on this subforum as this series was airing live. Unfortunately, it was at a time in my life when I was still a 90% shonen anime guy, and would still be months away from starting to discover great slice of life-esque character dramas like this one.

Then there came the recommendations for Clannad, True Tears, ef, etc..., and for whatever reason, this series here had completely fallen through the cracks for me.

Then, a little over a month ago, Last Sinner recommended this anime series to me, and I started watching it, slowly at first. Before I get to this final season, I have much to say on the first three seasons, but to save space each will be placed in spoiler space.

Spoiler for Maria-sama Season 1:

I was effectively hooked from the very first episode of the very first season. While I can see how some might consider it boring, I found it's portrayal of a younger 1st year student in the midst of older, established "stars of the school" to be quite convincing and very emotionally gripping. There was a true subtle intensity to the first episode of the first season that did a great job of laying the necessary groundwork for what was to come.

Yumi's fear and trepidation was palpable, and you could cut it with a knife. At the same time, though, she never came across to me as a total shrinking violet, probably since the anime did such a superb job in conveying an atmosphere of pressure, and unease. Sachiko had a distinguished air of grace and style, yet also mystery and intrigue to her. It was easy to see how Yumi might have felt a bit intimidated by her, and certainly by the Roses, at first.

So from this slow-burning intense beginning, it's almost as if I, as the viewer, grew more comfortable and engaged with this world of Lillian's School just as Yumi herself does. The curtain is slowly and carefully pulled back. Characters that once seemed intimidating become increasingly humanized, and the generally good hearts and intentions lying within them become more apparent with each passing episode.

I'm usually not a fan of how anime treats "celebrity students" (for lack of a better term), as I find it's usually over the top. But Maria-sama made this old anime trope work marvelously from the very beginning. And that was all about the first impressions, and gradually fleshing out, that each member of the main cast received. I could tell that these older girls on the student council weren't respected just due to their position; they were respected because they truly did carry themselves well, take their roles and responsibilities seriously, and convey a real confidence and sophistication in how they carried out those roles.

And what Yumi brought into that Student Council was a charming, youthful innocence that seemed to lighten and enliven the atmosphere a great deal. It was clear how amused the rest of the Student Council was by her, and it was easy to see why. Much of the fun of that, of course, was in the playful interactions between Sei Satou and Yumi, which in turn brought forth amusing jealousy on Sachiko's part.

The 1st season truly was extremely heartwarming, and did a wonderful job of introducing us to almost all of the key characters of the first season. One additional thing that stands out in my mind here is how Rei and Yoshino's relationship was handled in the first season. While that really did play at my heartstrings, it never felt emotionally manipulative. It had a certain authenticity to it that really shined through. And such authenticity would continue to be a reliable element of the Maria-sama series.

Spoiler for Maria-sama Season 2:

The 2nd season seamlessly picked up from where the 1st season left off. In fact, as sequels go, it was remarkably consistent with what was in the 1st season. So much so that there's not much I can write here that I didn't already write about Season 2.

I will say, though, that I think that Season 2 did as splendid a job as possible of transitioning from the graduation of the Yoko, Eriko, and Sei group to the newcomers of Touko and Noriko. Yoko, Eriko, and Sei all received fantastic sendoffs, and Eriko and Sei both had nice showcase episodes.

Eriko's crush on the older teacher was amusing in how it played out, and it made for one of the more memorable episodes of the full series. But probably nothing in this series is more memorable than the Sei and Shiori relationship which was portrayed with such powerful poignancy. For a yuri-lover like me, Sei consistently brought that element to the show, and truly was this show's spice while she was a regular cast member.

I liked the new class of students, as I felt that Noriko did wonders for Shimako's character (who honestly struck me as somewhat underdeveloped prior to Noriko's arrival), and while Touko didn't replace Sei, she did bring a nice, new added dimension to the show.

My initial impression of Touko is something I'm going to focus mostly on later, though, since it has a lot to do with my Season 4 thoughts. Now, unto the OVAs!

Spoiler for Maria-sama Season 3 OVAs:

In some ways, the flower imagery surrounding this show is quite fitting, as its gradual development really is like watching flowers slowly blossom.

The fictional world of Maria-sama gradually grows richer and fuller, and nowhere is this more true than in the 3rd season OVAs.

While I found a certain comfort in the cloistered atmosphere of the first two seasons - I liked how Lillian's School truly felt like a sanctuary safely cut off from the rest of the world - I also found it very rewarding to see important character dynamics both in and away from school truly take off like an airplane in this season.

The first OVA was particularly strong in this regard, with a lovely story of Yumi and her inner strength and charming, generous personality overcoming the status-based bullying of some of Sachiko's "friends". The middle class girl/rich girl dynamic between Yumi and Sachiko had been well-developed up until this point, and now you could see the anime truly reap the harvest of what it had sowed there. Int he first OVA, Yumi was almost like a Cinderella defeating mean sisters to win over her Prince(ss) Charming.

The second OVA also greatly expanded the world of this show by actually introducing a touch of much-welcomed testosterone into it! As nice as I found the 1st OVA to be, I must say that the second OVA was my favorite of them all. The way it played with the growing trust and honesty and interdependency in Yumi/Sachiko's relationship was marvelous, and the way it played with Sachiko's fear of men (and conquering of that fear) was simply splendid. And the humor in this 2nd OVA was just marvelous! This is especially true when the Student Council from the guy's schools make their interactions to the girls. I'm glad that this show made them mostly "manly men", and not just a bunch of bishies, since the latter would have seemed a bit cliche and trite for a show like this one.

But the greatest strength of the second OVA, for me, was actually how it handled what is now in my opinion the single best sibling relationship in all of anime - And that's the relationship between Yumi and her brother. In an anime world where brocon and siscon dominates to an excessive degree, and/or where sisters beat up on their older brothers for cheap slapstick violence, words can not describe how refreshing I found the Yumi/Yuuki sibling bond to be. It captured what a normal, healthy sibling relationship between a brother and a sister is really, truly like, imo. You could tell that they both care for and love each other, but there's also that natural embarrassment that siblings tend to feel when together in a crowd (put so humorously by Yumi's "he's pretty much my bother". )

The rest of the OVAs were good, but admittedly they don't stand out as well in my memory as the first two did.

Now, with all of this wrote, it's finally time for my take on Season 4

For me, the final season was like the anime paying off in flying colors over all of the groundwork done throughout the first three seasons. It's kind of like when the lengthy preparations for Christmas are finally over, and now it's time to wake up on Christmas Day morning to just relax, have fun, and let your spirits soar high.

In this vein, I found the very different OP quite fitting. It's just chock-full of youthful exuberance and whimsical magic. I think it shows just how far Yumi has come - You can tell that of the three peers (her, Shimako, and Yoshino) she has become something of a leader and inspirational figure. You can tell that Yumi has truly come into her own, and has claimed the Student Council as her own while still showing proper respect to Rosa Chinensis, Rosa Foetida, and Rosa Gigantea. The Student Council no longer feels like something that Yumi is simply a part of - It now feels like it's as much her baby as it is anybody elses.

So Season 4 starts off fresh, dynamic, and upbeat, like a cool glass of lemonade on a bright, breezy, warm, sunny morning.

But a very carefully and slowly-developed arc of drama soon takes hold, and that is reflected by the powerfully symbolic ED that so wondrously captures Touko's role in this final season.

I think it's fair to say that the final season is largely about all of the drama and uncertainty surrounding Yumi and Touko. While other characters certainly maintain important roles, and established characterization and character dynamics are certainly respected, the Gigantea and Foetida families truly do slip into the background some, even while some of the people in them maintain a strong individual presence. I think that Yoshino, for example, works very well as a kind of straw that stirs the drink and adds some zest and flavor to the plot. And Noriko is to Touko what Yoshino is to Yumi.

But at the end of the day, this final season really is Yumi and Touko's.


Perhaps my greatest difficulty with this final season was adjusting my perception of Touko.

Now, from reading some of the other posts on this subforum, I know that many people disliked Touko at first. I honestly really liked her at first. Not so much for the person she was, but rather for the impact that her character had, especially at a meta-level.

Touko, in my eyes, was a brilliantly designed anti-thesis to Yumi. At a visual level, Touko is much like Yumi - Similar stature, build, frame, weight. They're about the same height. Both even have twin-tails, Touko's just happens to be drill-styled.

But for all their physical similarities, the two girls had such diametrically opposed personalities, at least in Seasons 2 and 3. Whereas Yumi began almost like a frightened animal caught amongst hunters in the first episode of Season 1, Touko's first appearance in Season 2 showed her to be breathtakingly bold, happily playing the villain to help out Shimako and Noriko. While Yumi began as very cautious and reserved, Touko began as very expressive and outgoing.

On the flip-side, though, Yumi seemed like a very loving and caring and considerate girl of humility. Touko seemed like a bit of a playful trickster, with ambitious aims and a certain self-centered nature that was quite different from Yumi. Touko honestly amused me a lot in her first few appearances - I even jokingly called her "Bizarro Yumi" (a lot of comic book fans will instantly get what I meant by that. ).

For me, Touko was set up as the perfect rival for Yumi. And not only in a direct sense, but also in competing for Sachiko's affections. It made for an absolutely awesome yuri love triangle at first.

So, how does this relate to Season 4? Well... to go from all of that to how Touko is portrayed in Season 4 took some real getting used to.

Bizarro Yumi has gone from being Yumi's rival to being someone that is in an on-again/off-again tight bond with Yumi herself. I'm glad that the anime took a lot of time to develop that because otherwise this transitioning in Touko's character never would have worked for me.

And yet, by the time that the final episode of Season 4 had ended, I had become a true believer in Yumi/Touko's loving "sisterly" relationship. And Touko herself had come amazingly far from where she had began. A character that I once perceived as being defined by fervent pride, particularly in her boasting of her relation to the rich and respected Sachiko, now seemed like a humble girl that just wanted to feel needed and respected in that world of the rich that wasn't truly her world of birth.

From an amusing Loki-like ojousama that I received many laughs from but never took that seriously aside from the brilliant contrast she provided to Yumi, to a fully realized character in her own right that seemed so warm and with a surprisingly delicate heart. It's good that Touko loves drama and acting, because that too made her startling character development easier for me to buy into and accept.


And so Season 4 brought a softly enchanting culmination to the drama between Yumi and Touko. I don't think that Season 4 could have possibly ended any better than it did. That date episode, which began as a nicely dramatic follow-up to the cliffhanger of the episode before, did everything that it needed to do.

While I do feel some sadness over the thought of how this anime now certainly appears to be done - Over three years have passed since this final season aired, so this is almost certainly it for the Maria-sama anime - I also feel like it ended with the same grace and splendor and effectiveness with which it began. And it ended by going full circle.


The 4th Season also was like a good book that I could not put down, hence me marathoning it all in just one day this past Thursday. I think that speaks well of the quality of this show.

Maria-sama has vaulted straight into my 10 favorite anime shows of all-time, finishing just a nose behind Clannad: After Story and ahead of such luminaries as Steins;Gate and True Tears.

Speaking of noses, that's honestly something I liked about this show - The fact these characters actually had noses! In complete seriousness, character designs did a lot for this show. The lack of "anime-style colored hair" didn't hurt this show one bit given how distinctive the facial structure and designs were for each major character.

It's sad to see the character design philosophy of Maria-sama is not one that the anime world has taken after, because I think it would be better if it did.


Anyway, this sums up this review of Maria-sama Season 4. I hope the few people reading this found it to be a decent read, albeit a very long and rambling one.


95/100 for Maria-Sama Season 4, and 9/10 for the series as a whole.