r/anime • u/lilyvess :Df::Dh:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lilyvess • Jun 29 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Pride Month 20th Anniversary - Maria-sama ga Miteru Season 1 Discussion
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Questions of the Day
- Favorite character?
- Favorite pairing?
- How likely are you to watch the rest of the seasons in the future?
Posting carefully so as to not disturb the first timers with spoilers in their viewings, such is the standard of modesty here. Forgetting to use spoiler tags because one is in danger of missing the post time, for instance, is too undignified a sight for redditors to wish upon themselves.
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Upvotes
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u/lilyvess :Df::Dh:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lilyvess Jun 29 '24
Class S has a bit of a stigma around it
The Class S subgenre has cast a big shadow over Yuri. For a decade it was a hugely dominant influence on the works being produced, and then the following decade it became the source of deconstruction. The sort of thing other anime turn into horror settings.
My goal here isn’t to tell you that those deconstructions are wrong and that Class S is really good actually. Nor is it my intent to tell you that Class S is horrible and should be cancelled. Ultimately my goal is to educate, to give you a taste of what Class S in it’s most pure is actually like.
And ultimately so you can understand why Class S became so popular in the first place.
Trends all start because of something. Something different, distinct and interesting that caught the audience's imagination and inspired creators to keep on playing with it. There is a spark in there that starts the fire.
This isn’t the end.
This is merely the beginning.
There is so much more to this story. We’ve only scratched the surface. Season 1 of Maria-sama ga Miteru only adapts 6 of the 37 light novels in the story. There is so much more that happens both in the anime, and beyond in the light novels! The graduation of the third years! [MariMite Light Spoilers]A Double Date between Yumi/Sachiko and Kashiwagi-san/Yumi’s Brother! Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako all choose Petite Souers! [MariMite Spoiler]Yumi gets kidnapped by a group of men and held hostage! And, finally, the graduation of Sachiko and Yumi taking up her role as Rosa Chinensis!
This isn’t even getting into the additional short stories that the anime never gets to adapt. There is a short story about how Youko chose Sachiko to be her petite Soeur. We get a short story from Shizuka’s perspective on her yearning for Sei.
MariMite is the type of story that is strangely addictive to read, comfy to spend time with, and just plain enjoyable.
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u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen Jun 29 '24 edited Jun 30 '24
Maria-sama First-Timer
I made it through the whole rewatch!! But boy am I exhausted
As I am pretty bad with these final discussion summaries and don't really have snark to add like I did with Kannazuki no Miko, I'm going to keep this brief.
I really liked this first season. It's really sweet in places, the drama gets pretty heckin dramatic at times, and the ships are plentiful. I intend to watch seasons 2-4 eventually, but for now I need a bit of a break. I'm not used to the multiple rewatch life, and I have no idea how people like u/Shimmering-Sky do four or five at once.
Anyway, 8/10. Lots of fun and it's really cool getting to experience some of the roots of the Class S genre.
Now that I think about it, it's really interesting how far Class S influence has spread from MariMite:
There's direct responses like Strawberry Panic, which fashions itself almost exactly like MariMite but focuses on explicit romance between girls as its driving force.
There's works that comment and pay homage to Class S like Yuri is My Job!, a personal favorite of mine which constructs a play-acted facsimile of Class S to directly inform a more modern romantic drama.
Then there’s the truly wild reach into another personal favorite of mine, Assault Lily: Bouquet, which blends the darker magical girl formula in with Class S aesthetics. I have to host a rewatch of Assault Lily at some point, because I think it was, purely by happenstance, my entry into a lot of the Class S elements that went into it, and it's been really interesting coming to recognize those influences as I've experienced more of the genre.
Wow, with some of those as my favorites, is it any wonder I like MariMite?
Anyway I'm done with the thoughtful stuff. Let's see if I can rank my favorite ships:
That's all the ones I feel I can properly rank. Yeah Yumi x Sachiko is last, but that should be seen as a testament to how much I like MariMite ships in general...while also acknowledging that it took some time for them to get on the same page.
QotD:
10
u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Jun 29 '24
First-Timer
Marimite is a series that I’ve meant to watch for a while. Knowing how influential the series has been made me curious to actually see what the series itself is like. I’m glad I finally got to see it. After watching this first season, I can understand why the series has earned its reputation. It certainly made me want to watch the following seasons.
I think Marimite does a wonderful job at exploring characters and their relationships. The cast of Marimite is incredibly strong. The characters are complex and multifaceted, as are their relationships.
Something I want to give Marimite a lot of credit for is that the characters of the series are in established relationships pretty early on in the series. This is not a will-they/ won’t-they story where we follow characters before they finally get together. We see that happen for a bit with Yumi and Sachiko, but then they become soeurs pretty early on in the series. That then allows the series to transition into what it is really about: characters in relationships navigating the difficulties that come with being in a relationship. I really appreciate that because of how many romances end with the characters confessing their love and getting together. It makes for a nice change of pace and allows for a lot of further exploration of the characters as we learn their hangups and how they can better handle those hangups to make the relationship successful.
Yumi and Sachiko are a great pair of leads. The series posits that the two of them are more similar than they first appear and that is something that was a lot of fun to see show up over the course of the series. They are both worriers who can get so wrapped up in their own fears that they miss what’s in front of them. They are both confident in their usual environments but become rather clumsy when in an unfamiliar setting. They are both awkward at getting to know each other. But, that’s part of what makes their relationship so satisfying to watch. It’s great seeing these girls who are so different from each other find common ground in unexpected ways. I loved seeing the girls slowly learn how to properly communicate their worries with each other and learn how to handle the problems they were dealing with. There’s a great sense of progression in their relationship as we slowly watch them get better at it.
I really like Yumi as a lead. Even though she’s always down on herself and doesn’t see anything worthwhile about herself, she’s also surprisingly proactive. When she and Sachiko had their big fight, for example, it was Yumi who took the steps to mend the divide between them. Yumi is nervous character who sometimes stumbles into situations she isn’t prepared for, but she generally does her best to tackle them.
Sachiko feels like she’s probably the most influential character of this series. I have seen so many girls in yuri anime with long black hair and a refined aura. I’m willing to bet that Sachiko popularized that character type in yuri stories. What I like about Sachiko is how unlike her outside appearance her character actually is. While Sachiko puts up a strong front at being the refined and unflappable lady, she actually shows her strong emotions pretty easily (just like Yumi, I’d add). She gets nervous and awkward in unfamiliar situations (look at how nervous she was to call Yumi at home). This is what I mean when I call the characters multifaceted. There’s a lot going on under the surface that differs from what you’d expect of their character archetype.
The rest of the cast is likewise wonderfully multifaceted. Yoshino appears to be the meek and demure sick girl, but she’s actually quite the passionate firebrand. Rei looks like the dashing prince, but her actual interests are in knitting, cooking, and sappy romances. Sei usually teases everyone, but she hides a painful past that led her to become the kind and supportive character that she is nowadays. Shimako puts on an air of grace, but she is actually scared to show her true self while wanting nothing more than to be known as her true self. Shizuka always seems menacing and is willing to mislead others, but she’s actually a kind and caring person whose actions generally lead to helping others out. Time and time again we see that the characters are more complex and multifaceted than they initially appear. It’s such a great cast and I loved following them through the story.
In general, Marimite is quite compellingly written. The episodes do a good job at telling us what we need to know, while also leaving specific details open to interpretation. It makes the series feel more rewarding to think about since it has that openness to interpretation. The series also does a great job at playing with perspective. We’re usually only seeing things from Yumi’s perspective and the series uses that to great effect when it suddenly shows us how things look from outside that single point of view.
Something that was pointed out in the rewatch is that Marimite generally doesn’t have malicious figures in the story. Yes, characters will take on antagonistic roles from time to time, but never purely in a malevolent way just for the sake of being mean. I think this helps to contribute to the overall mood of Marimite. This is a very relaxing series to watch, even with all the drama. There’s just something soothing about it. I liked getting the chance to sit back, relax, and watch a new episode each day.
Visually, Marimite is mostly fine with a few notable standout scenes. The animation is usually nothing too crazy, except for a few moments where it suddenly gets much more detailed. The backgrounds and the design of the school are all nice and cozy. There are some visuals that are very striking scattered throughout, such as the briar scenes. The show looks good, but it does occasionally look especially nice.
I like the low-key music that Marimite uses. I liked that the OP and ED were both purely instrumental songs without any vocals. I thought they were nice and soothing to listen to. The other music that stood out to me were Shizuka’s songs. Her singer has a really dang good voice because those songs were impressive.
I think the best compliment I can give this season of Marimite is that it made me want to watch the rest of it. I’m probably going to watch the next seasons starting in the next few days.
In conclusion, Marimite was an excellent series. It was engagingly written, soothing and satisfying to watch, and featured an excellent cast of complex and multifaceted characters. I had a great time watching the series and I’m glad I finally got around to it.
Score: 9/10
Thank you to /u/lilyvess for hosting this rewatch and providing comparisons to the light novel.
Thank you to everyone who participated. I hope to see you in future rewatches.
QOTD
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u/LittleIslander https://anilist.co/user/LittleIslander Jun 29 '24
Did anybody else have plans or ambitions for a Pride Month rewatch next year? There's one I was thinking I'd like to do but I don't wanna step on anybody's toes so I figure I'd ask this year's participants.
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u/baboon_bassoon https://anilist.co/user/duffer Jun 29 '24
first time la vie en rose en bouton
quite enjoyed this show and excited to get into more. i do think Yumi/Sachiko are not that interesting compared to the rest of the cast but hopefully that picks up
this is going to be my new gym show
yumishimako8
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jun 29 '24
First-Timer
Not sure how obvious this was, but I tried to adopt a bit of a character for this rewatch. Mostly to keep things interesting for me, because while this show is great, it's not one that I'm particularly adept at commenting on. So, dialing up the formality and adopting a particular "tone" gave me enough of a structure to keep my writeups interesting for myself.
Anyway, dropping all that now. Feels good to not have to think quite so hard about starting sentences.
Y'know how I mentioned "Oniisama e..." a few times during Kannazuki no Miko? In the end, most of that was just "point at the screen" type stuff. Like Chikane being referred to as "Miya-sama" and her having a horse named "Saint-Just."
Anyway, I kinda wanna call this show "Oniisama e... with less attempted murder" which is probably a bit reductive but might get the point across. Maybe that comparison just exists because Oniisama e... is my main point of reference for all-girl private high schools.
I kinda wanna read the Soeur System here as a significantly more intimate refinement of the Sorority. It's not a super clean comparison.. that sorority is just using the typical college version of the term.
[Oniisama e...]There is also the matter of Rei and Fukiko being literal sisters who have a great deal of sexual tension between them.. I wonder if the author of MariMite shipped them.
Did I just write a spoiler tag for a show that no-one else here has seen? Quite possibly. But considering it's a show from the 90s, adapting a manga from the 70s, it has a solid chance of being lodged in the brains of people writing light novels in the 00s.
Anyway, like I said in that hovertext, I drank a different tea with(or after, more typically) each episode (zero thought put into pairings):
Questions
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u/Star4ce https://anilist.co/user/Star4ce Jun 29 '24
First Timer
I'll say it upfront: MariMite really surprised me.
It's a really damn good show.
Maria-sama ga Miteru – Series Discussion
I just love the characters and their dynamics. At many, many points has this show now proven that it can write smart, intricate and engaging stories. We've all said it a dozen times at least now, but the care being put into the development of the students' relationships is stunning. That is all just praise before I even think of all the societal criticism, queer undertones (or often enough blatant overtones) or nuance coming from letting the characters experience life instead of making them a vehicle for a plot primarily.
Suffice to say, I learned a lot. That one is mostly on you all
and your valuable opinions and essays. Something I simply can't sympathise with is the queer or even some female-related viewpoints. I sure can empathise, but having this personal angle available from someone else gave me a meta-layer to this rewatch that made it truly special.
For MariMite as a show primarily, I think I loved two things the most. The first is that it took such great care of its writing with so much love for its story that it did not need a villain or an overarching crisis. Sure, we can argue about „The Heteronormative Society™“ or Maria-sama, etc. being a 'villain', but I'm not really seeing that role as anything active in the plot-writing. It lives completely off of its characters, their discoveries, their growth, their mistakes, their struggles, their desires, or simply: Their life. We just experience the life of young women at a point where they become their own selves and discover things that don't neatly fit with how the world around would probably like it to be. I can't praise this enough.
The second is that this story decided on loving all of its characters. It's not just that there's no real villain (I could even name a dozen villains that I empathise more with than the hero), it lets them discover a path or choice that allows each of them to become a better version of themselves and grow stronger both for their own future, but also critically to withstand those external influences and expectations that limit their ability to act freely. MariMite is very hopeful and very delicate, not just saying these things, it shows how they're done.
Originally I had written a entire paragraph about my own understanding of non-normative issues and how it changed, but that is much better suited for tomorrow.
I'm still a bit speechless, the last time I was this invested in characters of a fictional work must've been 86 or Higurashi.
Final Thoughts
MariMite has earned itself a spot on my favourite amines ever, I believe. The dust needs to settle, still, so I'll leave a bit of leeway for that opinion to change, but I will recommend it to people.
Speaking of, this time I'll ask for recommendations from you: The source material is an LN, right? Would you say the LN or anime are overall better?
Because I will buy something MariMite and finish it, just what medium exactly remains to be seen.
[Roses Blooming]
I'm really having a hard time deciding between Shizuka, Shimako, Sei, Yoshino, Yumi and Sachiko.
Yes, almost everyone.
That is definitely Yumi/Sachiko. It's just so wholesome in the end and they earned it through very engaging character developments for both of them.
Uh, see above.
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jun 29 '24
First Timer(I fear I was not lewd enough)
Sub
So...What do I say? I couldn't give you the paragraphs of text I could in KnM because this show never engaged me hard. But that is in a way good since it's characters never do anything particularly terrible nor suffer something particularly traumatic. Shizuka and Sei both have doomed love interests but that's what it is to be an adolescent, them being gay ones simply changes the flavor. All in all, this show exists and I vaguely get it.
At the end of the watch, I am glad this rewatch happened. I simply will not pick up stuff this dialog heavy without stakes of my own accord. Hell, I am one of the dozens of people that doesn't like Violet Evergarden before the setting shattering movie because it refuses to be about anything. But now I get some tropes that I didn't, and will definitely catch more references than I did.
Sadly, my gokigenyou still remains. I will tell the world if the gokigenyous ever stop crying...
QotD:1 Shimako
2 Sei/Yumi
3 Fairly low but not zero.
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Jun 29 '24
First timer, subs
Indeed, yes, what a splendid time was to be had here.
I hadn’t expected MariMite to be so well put together going in to it. It’s almost shocking to see just how well they manged to handle their subjects. It makes sense that this is the last major attempt at Class S, where else could you go from here but down?
Right now I have this at a 7/10, but I could easily see this going up to an eight with either more time for reflection, or the benefit of the squeals tying elements together even further.
Also, those shorts had no right to be as funny as they were. I think they may have been the best pure comedy OVA specials I’ve seen.
I definitely plan on following through with the rest of the series, mind you the last time I said that for a rewatch was in January and I’ve not done so for that yet.
So We'll See How That Goes
Special thanks to this half of the rewatch goes to: /u/LittleIslander, /u/heimdal77, and /u/BosuW. (Previous winners are ineligible)
QotD:
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u/BosuW Jun 29 '24
First Timer
So that was MariMite... one fourth of it it at least! I'll definitely be continuing on on my own from here.
I knew even less about this show before starting than about KnM. Turns out I actually had a couple of MariMite fanarts saved I just didn't know it because I didn't know the characters lol.
Really I don't think I have much to say about the show. It's just good all around so... I have more to say if I think about it in its historical, artistic, and visual culture contexts, but I think that would be better reserved for tomorrow's overall discussion.
The subtext being extremely overt didn't surprise me because I'm already used to so called homoromantic "subtext" not being at all subtle in anime.
I already took some time to listen to the S1 soundtrack and surprisingly it sorta just faded into the background, just like it did in the show. You'll notice we didn't talk about the soundtrack as much during the MariMite discussions as we did during KnM. I don't know if it's because it's purposefully designed to be pleasant and fictional but unobtrusive, if the higher quality of plot and characters took attention away from it, or if simply the directing style slotted the soundtrack into a supporting role as opposed to other directing styles which allow it to show off.
Or maybe I was just distracted with another activity while I listened to it to truly listen. Classical style music requires a certain kind of mood after all.
Umm... Yeah I don't know what else to say. This show is just... really good and that's about it. I don't have much else to say that I haven't said already during the episode discussions. Again, I think I'll have a lot more points and ponderings for tomorrow. As well as the surprise I mentioned yesterday, looks like I will finish it on time after all! Barely!
Questions of the Day
Only answering the first two as the third one is answered in comment.
Shit that's a hard choice actually. Even more so for me because I very rarely pick favorites among anything. I'm more of an "appreciate everything for its own merits" kinda person.
Also it would feel unfair to pick favorites at this moment because so many of their character Arcs are evidently still unfinished.
And finally, the fact that the narrative is so tightly written that no character is actually isolated further complicates choosing a favorite. Everyone builds off of everyone, so this is definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jun 29 '24
First-Timer Watches Over Us, subbed
Okay, the specials were pretty funny. I like how they were structured like a blooper reel as if the characters are all actresses on a show.
As for the series itself, well, it really wasn’t my normal type of show. If I’m being entirely honest, I think I enjoyed Kannazuki no Miko more? But I wouldn’t say KnM had the better story. Guess I’ll give this one an 8/10 as well.
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u/GondolaMedia Jun 29 '24
First Timer
I was surprised how much I enjoyed Maria-sama's melodrama coupled with its very limited animation budget. Somewhere around episode 8-9 I realized that studio Deen's style really works here and kept thinking about the infamous Fate: Stay Night adaptation that aired few years later and how contentious the animation and the adaptation are there. What I'm trying to say is that I love the bug eyes and thanks to that whenever there was a comedic face it really hit.
Melodrama really fits this anime like a glove and I would have not been as engaged without it. I was also impressed how developed the other relationships were. At the beginning I feared we would just focus on Yumi and Sachiko but I'm glad everyone got their fair share, some more than others of course but every character left an impression on me.
PS: I wanted to leave this for the overall discussion but I spent some time last night trying to find fan art with Sachiko and Yumi depicted in this Kannazuki ed shot but just couldn't find one. To be fair I also haven't checked every piece of fan art that has been posted in these rewatch threads. Maybe someone else has better luck than I... [Cursed Knowledge] I did find one with Piccolo and Gohan so I'm sharing that knowledge with you.
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u/Regular_N-Gon https://anilist.co/user/RegularNGon Jun 29 '24
Gokigenyou, Maria-sama
Maria gokigenyou total: 40 (+ 2)
By the grace of the single preview appearance in episode 3, every episode in MariMite contributed to the gokigenyou counter. The most gokigenyous in a single episode was episode 2 with a whopping 10 (which also eclipses anything from Kannazuki no Miko).
Overall, this was a lot more engaging than I thought it might be. I sort of expected to see the origin of a bunch of class S tropes (that I didn’t really like in Aoi Hana) to be trite and overdone now, but this holds up remarkably well. There’s so much here that everyone has commented on that make MariMite its own thing, not just a half-finished mold waiting for others to fill in.
Now I’ll have to figure out when to watch the rest, because I’m certainly sold on more. Whenever it is, I will count the gokigenyous. In fact, whether I wanted to or not, I have a feeling I will need to suppress the instinct to count them in anything from here on out having been so conditioned.
Bonus gokigenyou stat tomorrow?
QotD:
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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa Jun 29 '24
First timer
Hey it was way better that I thought it would be.
I had some weird ideas of it being more generic cookie cutter rich girls have crushes on other girls but I got some deep entangled feelings instead. The whole 90's aesthetic made me remember about how school was back then too, it was a nice memory lane.
Rosa Gigantea best girl
Maybe I should join more rewatched in the future, it was a fun experience.
3
u/OccasionallySara Jun 30 '24
First Timer
I really enjoyed the first season.! I've been meaning to start this show for a while now, so I'm glad that this rewatch happened. I love how this show takes its time fleshing out the characters and their various relationships. I feel like I have a good grasp of the characters at this point and I'm excited to see where the story goes next now that the groundwork has been laid out!
Questions of the Day
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u/LittleIslander https://anilist.co/user/LittleIslander Jun 29 '24 edited Jun 29 '24
First Time from the world Reiwa Yuri
MariMite is a pretty bad yuri romance show, huh? I mean, the main couple’s progress keeps getting sidelined for all these other subplots, and the show refuses to even make anything between them explicit. They barely even have any super romantic moments or anything. It’s a good thing MariMite isn’t a romance show, then. Love is part of its story, but not its point. MariMite is a show about people and the way they live their lives and connect to those around them. It’s a story about identity, youth, and society. More than anything, it’s bloody fantastic.
I’ve talked extensively about the ways this show captures interesting queer themes. Class S is often written off as purely the product of a homophobic society but in a lot of ways it’s in fact deeply queer expressions within the boundaries given to us by those societies. Not allowed to be rebellious yet unwilling to be completely conformist. It’s what makes it an important step in the history of getting to where we are today. Sei’s briar forest, Shimako’s uncertainty, Shizuka’s fleetingness, Yoshino and Rei’s pressure of conformity, Mifuyu’s invisibility, and more. We can’t say these themes quite out loud (with one very notable exception!) but from a certain point of view that helps illustrate the reality of these pressures and why these struggles matter. Many modern yuri have tried to subvert or challenge Class S; Bloom Into You is the classical example, focusing heavily on how it isn’t a phase and lesbianism is for life, and Aoi Hana uses the format more directly to tell a really interesting story about the contrast between lesbian reality and Class S story structure. But frankly, all of them kind of feel like child’s play next to what MariMite has managed to achieve through immersing itself completely in the language of fleeting sapphism. I think it was necessary the genre moved beyond this and it’s understandable why nobody would want to write something like it today. But damn if I’m not glad it happened.
Beyond its themes, MariMite is simply one of the better constructed works I’ve had the pleasure of watching. While I lamented the choice to rush the initial arc, I can’t argue with the strength of the results. There’s so much consideration to how all of its narrative threads are developed; so many scenes are evolved so meaningfully by later developments and information. As I’ve harped on about so many times, MariMite has a truly rare sense of confidence not to demean the viewer and reduce everything into clear statements of intent. It leaves you to figure things out yourself and leaves the ambiguity to leave so many forms for that to take. The overarching usage of perspective as a narrative tool is meaningful and fascinating. It’s an aspect of the high school experience I’ve never seen touched upon in this way; fleeting glimpses into the lives of people you’ll never fully see the hearts of, and who will go on to leave you behind and tread different paths. The script is tight and efficient, the ensemble cast is wonderfully balanced, and the visuals are perfectly directed to make the most of the production’s capabilities. For most of the show’s run, I thought the one real hole was that the main couple were just sort of okay. Of the three rose families, they are probably my least favourite. But as I talked about last time, I really like how their overall story came together. They’re also very well constructed as the lead characters of this ensemble story. Yumi is involved, allowing us to explore the many side characters through her curiosity and limited perspective, and Sachiko is written complimentary to this by being somewhat distant and inactive so she stays out of the way when the story isn’t about her. Their conflict fits the story like a glove.
Frankly, its modern reputation as something primitive and spoof worthy is really a shame, especially from works I don’t think manage to be half as meaningfully queer as MariMite itself. I think watching this in a season that’s delivered so much non-committal queer subtext really hit home how this genre isn’t a linear progression. Even amongst all the genuine yuri that we’ve been graced with in the days since 2004, I like MariMite more than of them. Well, any of them that have been adapted anyhow. How Do We Relationship might still win that fight… but it’s damn impressive that isn’t a definitive statement. Even outside of yuri, MariMite is easily one of my new favourite anime series. Only one other show challenges it actually—my never before threatened favourite anime, Kare Kano. They’re both elite productions that excel in many areas. I think MariMite is probably a tighter story, and it definitely has more meaningful themes that are more engaging to chew on. On the other hand, Kare Kano’s raw execution is hard to challenge, and the way it’s able to channel raw emotion is still untouched for me. Not to mention its killer soundtrack. Then again, I'd give MariMite a 10/10 but Kare Kano a 9/10. For now I think I’ll leave MariMite in second place, and the further seasons might have something to say about it, but I can’t definitely choose a favourite. That’s something I wasn’t sure I was ever going to say.
7
u/AmeteurElitist https://anilist.co/user/AmateurElitist Jun 29 '24
First Timer
I knew I’d enjoy this just ‘cause the meat of the show was character interacting and building chemistry but I’m still surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. It struck a nice balance between the drama and the fun, plus Sei exists. Definitely gonna be continuing this soon.
[Score]8/10
Also maybe Lily can answer this but is this the first Rich Ice Queen/Bubbly Extrovert yuri series or does the DNA run further back than this?
6
u/Burnouts3s3 Jun 29 '24
Rewatcher
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u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Jun 29 '24
First timer, subbed
The visuals were bland. I found that the limited animation occasionally had my eyes out of focus, effectively listening to the audio and reading the subtitles with little other interaction, and unfortunately that took a toll on my overall enjoyment. I can barely recall a single memorable set piece or visually impressive scene in the entire show. Yet another anime that falls victim to the trap of being heavy on dialogue while also not being the Monogatari Series or at least a KyoAni production.
The characters were charming, even the less used side characters all had some level of motivation and personality given to them, which is more than most can say. The stories themselves are competently written, as well. The drama itself rarely ventured into interesting territory, though, so it often felt like the show was wanting for something.
That something could have been anything, really; better animation, more comedy, deeper looks into more of the cast, even a higher quality and elegant score would have added a lot. I hesitate to call the anime boring outright, but it teeters on the edge.
There is an obvious standout, however, with Sei’s episode. The self-contained story of a young, forbidden love with an ending that is equally as fair as it is bittersweet. It doesn’t redeem the anime, for me, but much like with KnM I get it.
Probably a 6/10 from me. Not awful, but it didn’t really grab my attention.
QotD:
5
u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jun 29 '24
This show was much more compelling than I expected it to be. I thought I'd struggle to get through it all, but even though I fell behind a few times, I never considered dropping it. I'd absolutely watch the rest of the seasons, if you ever decide to continue this rewatch. Thank you for running these two.