Maria-sama ga Miteru Season 4, Episodes 1 and 2

This season rocks just for Maria-sama ga Miteru season 4! ^.^ I am a shameless Marimite fan girl, and so far, the first two episodes have not disappointed me. The first two episodes cover the 18th novel, in which the Yamayurikai put on yet another play for the Lillian School Festival, with the cooperation of the Hanadera Boys' Academy student council. Exactly one year after the events that began season 1 (and novel 1) of Maria-sama ga Miteru, Yumi is wondering what special thing she should do to celebrate the anniversary of the day that she and Sachiko became soeurs, Touko is blowing off practice for the drama club play she was supposed to be in (Little Women, in which she had the leading role as Amy), and Kanako deals with her idiot reason for hating men (daddy issues- what would she do if she had a crappy dad and a crappy mom, I wonder...hate everyone?).

In the first episode, Yumi convinces Touko to return to the drama club (because we know that despite her brash outward abrasiveness, Touko really can't say no to Yumi :) ), and the Yamayurikai otherwise just works on their play, business as usual (aside from Sachiko spontaneously deciding to switch the girls to male roles and the boys to female roles lol).

In the second episode, fans are treated to the greatest cameo appearance ever (one guess as to who that is), Sachiko brilliantly manipulates Kanako into meeting her father and resolving the issues between them- along with Kanako's former sempai Yuuko, Yumi and Sachiko arrive slightly late to Touko's play (but at least before Touko's first line :), but Touko still notices), the Yamayurikai performs their historical gender-bendy play, and, in front of the statue of Maria-sama, exactly one year after she made Yumi into her petite soeur, Sachiko asks Yumi to *dun dun dun* choose her own petite soeur. (After Sachiko makes another one of those spontaneous, lovely speeches that she's so good at. :) ) And finally, the drama of the final scene of that episode is all but wiped from the viewer's mind by the now widely screen-capped, yuri-riffic ending theme.

There were so many things that I (as a faithful fan) loved about these episodes, especially...

Sachiko using her oneesama charm to make Yumi (very happily) agree to switch to a male role in the play.



And Yuuki in drag. lol Speaking of which...


Alice-kun! XD I loved his reaction to the unexpected blessing that was bestowed upon him. :) And of course more of Sachiko (the mastermind behind the gender flip-flopping) being uber-cool...


The greatest cameo ever...


(And a thousand fan girls screamed:) Sei!!! XD Seiseiseiseiseiseisei!!!!!!! It was cool to see Youko again too, of course. ^^ The previews also promised an Eriko appearance in episode 3. :) At first I thought that the brunette girl climbing over the wall was Eriko (with a different hairstyle), knowing her.


Sei and faux-Eriko (Yuuko, Kanako's former sempai). I really did think she might be Eriko before she turned around. >_>;; And courtesy of faux-Eriko, we get one of (in my opinion) the sweetest scenes in Marimite to date. I don't want to screencap it (because that would constitute major spoilers for Kanako's storyline), but it was a lovely scene. :) Speaking of lovely, courtesy of Touko's role in Little Women, she finally lets her hair out of their usual curly pigtails, and looks surprisingly prettier and more mature. :)


Lastly, the gender-bendy play...


*chortle* And...





The climactic anniversary scene between Yumi and Sachiko. ^^

Overall Rating: 4.5 (Feel free to subtract from the rating if you have a precipitously lower appreciation for shoujo, slice-of-life, yuri, character-driven stories, or historical dramas.)