Shelf Life

Cobra Commander

Back in 2008, Bamboo reviewed the full box of Maria-sama ga Miteru season one, and then I took over the column and reviewed season four in two parts. Bamboo gave this season a Shelf Worthy, and I disagree, as I think Maria-sama is only Shelf Worthy for very specific fans. It may or may not put your anime club members to sleep at a meeting, or, on the other end of the spectrum, they might get really into it. It's certainly not the sort of thing I'd recommend lightly.

In case you're late to the (literal) tea party, this is an elegant escapist show about a Catholic girl's school where the naïve and innocent Yumi winds up with a mentor-like “soeur” named Sachiko. The incredibly complicated soeur system (soeur is French for “sister”) is an in-plot excuse for working lesbian-like relationships between girls into the plot. That said, I counted, and there are only three frames of actual kissing in this box set.

Do not take my term “elegant escapism” lightly. Maria-sama practically spawned its own sub-genre of slightly-yuri elegant girls school series like Strawberry Panic!, Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling for Me!, and parodies like Maria Holic. That said, I know the truth about all-girls school since I've both read and watched Girl's High (which is zero percent elegance, and one-hundred percent used tampons and drains clogged with plucked pubic hair). Maria-sama presents the ultimate Platonic ideal of Catholic girl's school in the minds of a particularly skewed Japanese set. As such, I have to disagree with Bamboo's assertion that Maria-sama is “slice of life,” and I'd like to conjecture that it is, in fact, high fantasy.

In retrospect, season four was handled a lot better than season one. One episode doesn't lead into the next with as much dramatic weight as in later seasons. Particularly, the first episode has a lot of trouble handling time jumps and explaining the relevant backstory material to the viewer. In my view, it takes some real patience to get through it.

The series makes a lot more sense now that I've seen Brother, Dear Brother (Oniisama E…), which throws Japanese sororities into a Maria-sama context. If you like one of these shows, it's well worth checking out the other(s). It happens that you can watch Dear Brother on Viki nowadays.

The included extra short films are not as funny as subsequent shorts, as if the hilarity leading up to the mahjong party builds to a crescendo. Right Stuf includes some on-disc cultural “liner” notes, several of which were new material for me (this is surprising based on my history of reading translators' notes). There is also the option of watching the series with or without honorifics in the subtitles (as there are a lot of them).

I think Maria-sama fits into an anime canon of important and influential works, and a lot of fans will want to include it in their collections, especially, it goes without saying, yuri fans. My shelves, however, are relatively small, and I can't see re-watching this. It's not a re-buy either, unless you're just looking to save on space by getting this lite box.[TOP]

I know Himawari! is a little old, but I rented season one so I could then rent season two. (Look for it in the coming weeks.)

Based on the cover art, I was worried that Himawari! might be a sort of ninja harem show, but, thankfully, I was wrong. It's more like Ninja Nonsense, but (sadly) with no Onsokumaru (whom I loved) and fewer panty shots. I'm starting to suspect that in Japan there's a long tradition of silly ninja shows that we just don't have in the U.S., like the extremely long running Nintama Rantaro. I'm sure Himawari! is part of this long running silly-ninja tradition.

Himawari! is set in a ninja village. Himawari Hinata was raised outside the ninja community by an adoptive grandmother, but she has an encyclopedic knowledge of (quasi-)fictional ninja films/television and dreams to be a great ninja. The series begins as she enters Shinobi Gakuen (“ninja school”). Meanwhile, Hayato Madenokoji takes a job teaching at Shinobi Gakuen to pay off a friend's debts (Kaiji, anyone?). Himawari develops a very innocent crush on Hayato, but far from a teacher-student romance, Himawari winds up saving Hayato's life several times per episode since he isn't accustomed to life in an actual ninja village.

At first Himawari's wide-eyed, energetic, innocent protagonist antics reminded me of Naruto (from Naruto), but after a few episodes, her character won me over. I found the supporting cast full of types who weren't exactly fleshed out characters. Hyper-violent and tan Himeji reminded me of Su from Love Hina. Shikimi the medicinal herb expert reminded me of Shiemi Moriyama from Blue Exorcist (mixed with a tougher character), and animal-expert Yusura reminded me of Shippo from InuYasha (in the character design, if nothing else).

In fact, I was taken aback by how much I liked this show. I wouldn't re-watch Himawari!, but I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was. For example, the ninja girls at the school are forbidden to have boyfriends, yet Yusura is dating a kappa and all her friends know it. The kappa's levelheadedness shows up Hayato's hotheaded personality to humorous effect in a couple of episodes. I laughed that the kappa's love of pickles and cucumbers could be a significant plot point.

I also laughed out loud at several of the silly ninja school gags (laughing out loud being my thermometer for comedies). In once scene, the floor of the classroom drops away, revealing sharpened bamboo spikes below. The ninja girls in class, prepared for this kind of trap, quickly escape up into the rafters. Newcomer Hayato, unaware of ninja norms, would've fallen to his death, but for Himawari saving him. I thought this was particularly funny character-driven humor. A lot of subsequent scenes take place in the classroom rafters, as the set-ups continue to grow organically from the ninja characteristics these students possess.

This is a fun show with a nice spirit of adventure. If it didn't star all girls and prominently feature a student-teacher crush, I could totally see this being on after school on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. Unfortunately it's not dubbed at all, and the aforementioned mitigating circumstances easily prevent it from broadcast in the US. I think Himawari! is relatively kid-friendly, if the kids know about ninjas, even though there are a lot of culturally Japanese things that younger viewers in the West probably wouldn't get.

Maiden Japan is kind of an oddball distributer in terms of catalog choices. They certainly don't include dubs or extras, which is too bad, as I think some ninja cultural notes would've been helpful here. [TOP]