Maria-sama ga Miteru: The Most Eagerly Anticipated Yuri Anime/Manga of 2004
That You've Never Heard of
Maria-sama ga Miteru (
Virgin Mary Watches Over Us) based on the novels by Konno Oyuki, has Japanese lesbians hopping with excitement and anticipation.
Marimite, as it is called in Japan, is actually a series of 12 novels written about girls who attend Lillian Girls' Academy, a Catholic school at, roughly, the beginning of the 20th century. Similar in its flowery, talcum-scented feel to Yoshiya Nobuko's
TwoVirgins in the Attic,
Marimite is a fairly straightforward story about love between girls. In other words, almost ten years after
Sailor Moon brought us Uranus and Neptune and five years after Anthy and Utena, the new yuri poster children for the 21st century will be Sachiko and Yumi, from
Marimite. How do I know this? Because for decades, Sachiko and Yumi have been an insanely popular doujinshi pairing in Japan...and that was before the anime and manga were even created.
Here's a *very* basic overview of the plot:
Lillian Academy's Student Council is call the Mountain Lily Council. (Note the ubiquitous lily imagery...) They all live in a house called the Lily Mansion. The Council is composed of three girls, each of whom takes a flower title: Rosa Gigantea (white); Rosa Chinensis (red); Rosa Foetida (yellow).
Each Rosa can take a junior, referred to as "Rosa XXX En Bouton." Each En Bouton is allowed to pick a junior, referred to as "Rosa XXX En Bouton Petite Soeur." The usual pattern is a senior student as Rosa, a second-year student as En Bouton and a first-year student as Petite Soeur." You can see this easily on the character chart on the
Mariamite anime site. The procedure for asking someone to be your junior is to very formally address them with, "Please accept my rosary." Not surprisingly, this leads to a very romantic/adoration-filled relationship between each girl on the Council.
The Rosa Foetida is
Torii Eriiko, her En Bouton is
Hasekura Rei. Rei is ultra-cool and unflappable and she finds Yumi (the heroine) adorable. Her Petite Soeur is
Shimatsu Yoshino, a very sweet and shy-type girl.
The Rosa Gigantea is
Satou Sei - another uber-cool character, with a
great personality. The En Bouton for Gigantea is a first-year, a very perceptive and forthright (despite her delicate appearance) girl named
Toudo Shimako. There is no Petite Soeur in this hierarchy, because Shimako is a first-year student.
The Rosa Chinensis is
Mizuno Youko - she seems like a really solid person, with a teeny bit of a mischievous nature. Her En Bouton is
Ogasawara Sachiko, a moody and mysterious girl. Sachiko does not like many things - including men, ginkgoes and sakura. She is reticent about herself, and in many ways distant, but determined in her desire to have Yumi as her Petite Soeur.
The heroine of the story,
Fukuzawa Yumi, is a cute first-year student at Lillian Academy. She has always admired Sachiko but, when Sachiko asks her to become her little sister, Yumi declines. When pressed for a reason, she herself isn't sure, but she knows that something is not right. As the story progresses, she realizes that her feelings for Sachiko are deeper than admiration but...
The plot of this story has no major conflicts - it's a warm, fuzzy look at a developing relationship, a complex and romantic courting ritual and a hothouse environment designed to create intense, romantic relationships between girls. Just *exactly* what yuri fans need. :-)
The
official Marimite website has some lovely art - and its minimialism gives you an idea of the feel of the story. :-) The
official anime site, as mentioned above, has a nice character chart and will, eventually, have some other features. And, lastly, here's an
anime trailer that gives you a really wonderful idea of what we're in for!
All in all, I'm thinking this is going to be 10 out of 10 for pure shoujo-ai. For more news, manga synopses, and lots of enthusiasm join the
Yuricon Mailing List and share the excitement!
Tags: Yuri Anime, Yuri Manga, Maria-sama ga Miteru,Marimite
Yuri Anime: ROD The TV
By far and away, the standout anime on Japanese TV this season has got to be
ROD The TV.
ROD (this time it stands for
Read or Dream) is the television anime sequel to
Read or Die, the three-episode OVA. Amazingly, ROD the TV is a melding of the OVA and original ROD manga storylines, something that seems unlikely considering how unrelated they were, but is executed in the most astonishingly competent way.
ROD the TV begins four years after the OVA. Yomiko Readman, aka
The Paper, has been missing for the past four years. Sumiregawa Nenene, the author that Yomiko so admired in the original ROD manga, has fallen into a slump, at least in part because of Yomiko's absence. Where in the original manga Nenene was a hyperactive, over-acheiving and slightly callous young author, the 20-year old Nenene is far more mature, and more than a little melancholy.
The series begins as Nenene visits Hong Kong to be present for the opening of a movie based on one of her novels. Because there is some concern for her safety, she is assigned three rather scattered young women as her "bodyguards." In an action-filled and very well-crafted episode, these three sisters turn out to be paper users, just like the missing Yomiko. The first episode looks and sounds like a James Bond movie (a feeling accentuated by the three sisters being named after three popular feamle HK action movie actresses.)
In the end, the three sisters, quiet, butchy Maggie, flighty Michelle and cynical Anita return to Japan with Nenene to be her bodyguards. At which point the truly most amazing transformation occurs - the entire anime shifts gears.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on. From high-powered, intense action in the first episode, the second appears to be written by a completely different group altogether. Then, bizarrely, so does the third...and the fourth episodes...at which point I realized just what was going on. The episodes switch back and forth between
shounen and
shoujo style writing. In the
shounen episodes, we follow the efforts of the three sisters, as they battle vampires, adventurers and opportunists to retrieve rare books for the mysterious company "Dokusensha." In the
shoujo episodes, we follow the sisters and their relationship with Nenene,and Japan in general. Each of these episodes reads like a different kind of book - one a romance, one a suspense novel, etc...
Somewhere about episode eight I realized that this series is, by far and away, the most finely crafted anime I'd ever seen, in terms of writing. As we learn that Dokusensha isn't what it seems, we are reintroduced to some old friends, Joker and Wendy, who make not be our friends this time, and introduced to new ones like Junior, a mysterious young boy who shares the phasing ability Nancy, aka Miss Deep, had in the OVA. And all through this, every episode is filled with the spirit of Yomiko who affects this series so strongly by her absence, that one is literally on the edge of one's seat every time. Even the use of music is breathtaking in this series.
So, where's the yuri, you ask? Everywhere. Nenene claims she is not "in love" with Yomiko, but her behavior belies the fact. It's obvious to anyone who has ever had an absent lover that she is, in fact, very in love with Yomiko. But that's not all - the three sisters have very ambiguous sexuality, but their sensuality is obvious. Nenene picks on butchy Maggie constantly in ways that one could consider yuri fan service.
But the real realtionship in the series is left for Anita, the youngest of the sisters. In the beginning, Anita seems asif she'll be no more than another annoying young girl character, but its not long before the viewer comes to realize that she is, in fact, the star of the series...ROD is, quite literally, all about her. Anita is enrolled in a local school and almost immediately she and Shiishi Hisami
become friends. Their realtionship is very real and very sweet and fills at least one entire episode with smiles and nods for us yuri fans.
But here's the kicker...the series is only half over.
So far, the first 13 episodes of ROD the TV have been *amazing*. So catch up, with the rest of us and sit down with your popcorn to find out just what this brilliant team of writers will do for the second half!
Ratingss:
Animation - uneven
Music - 9
Character - 10
Story - 10
Yuri - 7
Overall - 12 ;-)
Watch the best new series this season. Then join the
Yuricon Mailing List and rant and rave about it with us. :-)
Tags: Anime, Yuri Anime, ROD The TV
