Maria sama 4th, episode 6

February 9, 2009 by Jin
Filed under Anime, Recent

Episode 6 of the 4th season of Maria-sama ga Miteru was in a word, awesome. There was just so much win in this episode that I’m breaking my rule of doing one episode recaps. Generally, since I want to focus my site equally among a different topics, I avoid doing one episode recaps and just talk about trends I see in an anime series. Sometimes a lot doesn’t happen in an episode (see my thoughts on episode 5), but so much happened in episode 6 that it feels like three or four episodes crammed into one.

Let’s talk about the surprises first. First, you find out that Yumi can dress like a modern girl her age. We finally get to see her in something other than her school uniform, jeans or a long dress. Yes, I know that Japanese girls wear jeans and long dresses, but up til now, Yumi’s fashion taste looked distinctly, well old-fashioned. I did a double take when I saw the jeans mini-skirt and thigh-high black leggings she was wearing. Was I really watching an episode of Marimite? That looked like something you’d see from an episode of Komodo no Jikan rather than a yuri-light anime featuring chaste school girls.

Jeans mini-skirt, black thigh highs. My image of Yumi is shattered lol.

Second, we see a glimpse of the strong friendship between Rei and Sachiko. Viewers have always assumed they were friends, but we’ve rarely seen Rei x Sachiko moments on the show, since the anime tended to focus on other relationships first. In this episode, Rei goes to visit Sachiko at her home to talk about her uneasiness of Yoshino’s new potential soeur relationship with Nana Arima, and of her upcoming graduation. Viewers haven’t seen this type of interaction between these two characters since the Yellow Rose Revolution arc back in season one.

Sachiko comforts Rei as a friend. Rei x Sachiko moments have been rare up to now.

That's an awfully romantic looking scene, or at least I thought so.

Finally, the biggest surprise of the show is a visit by Touko, of all people, to Yumi’s house. During winter break, Touko runs away from her family for a day and ends up at Yumi’s house. Up until now, you never got a sense that there was much interest on the part of either girls to become soeurs, but this episode pretty much lays that issue to rest. Touko is definitely Yumi’s potential soeur candidate. And apparently Touko reciprocates Yumi’s feelings.

Honestly, I don’t know what to think about the Yumi x Touko pairing. I wish I had access to a translation for this part of the light novels, because the sudden interest by Yumi seems rather rushed to me. Why would Yumi suddenly develop feelings for a girl who made a bold play for her onesama back in season 2? If you have to get picky, you can say that the closeness between Sachiko and Touko was more a misunderstanding on Yumi’s part. But I’m pretty convinced that if Sachiko had dropped Yumi as a soeur, Touko would’ve been happy to take up the slack. Also, up to now, Touko hasn’t been exactly the most sympathetic character on the show, so it’s hard for me to automatically assume that there’s a softer side of her and she’s worthy of a second chance.

Guess who's coming to dinner.

Geez Yumi! get a girl in your room and there's just no stopping you.

Yumi's fantasy sequence for Touko. Yumi's thoughts of Touko are purely wholesome right?

Note Yumi’s reactions to two questions posed by Yumi’s mother.

Kashiwagi as a future husband:

Oh come on Yumi, why the long face? Most girls would be thrilled at having a handsome rich man as a husband.

Touko as a future soeur.

Uh, Yumi, that's a reaction most girls your age reserve for boys.

Yumi’s mom, of course, states the obvious.

Yeah, mom, interesting reaction no?

Lastly, we’re reminded of the fact that Noriko is not the shrinking violet that she appears to be in many of the episodes. When Yoshino cooks up a scheme to invite Kanako and Touko to the Yamiyurikai Christmas party in order for Yoshino to have pretense to invite Nana, Noriko refuses to play along. In fact, she sternly refuses to invite Touko on behalf of Yumi.

Noriko shows a surprising amount of backbone. We haven't seen this much tension between Yamiyurikai members in a while.

All is made well at the end when Shimako volunteers to invite Kanako and Touko, telling Yumi that she feels that inviting Touko would be a good thing. Yoshino fesses up to Noriko telling her that she was to blame for Yumi’s invitation suggestion.

So when did Kanako and Touko get to be such good friends? They attended Rei's kendo match together and now the Christmas party?

It seems that the next episode will focus on the Yamiyurikai Christmas party and the developing relationship between Touko and Yumi. I still think that Kanako would have made a better soeur candidate (at least, Kanako is likeable), but we’ll see how this develops. Episode 7 should be good.