Maria-sama: 4th Season

Hi, my name is Jin Stevens and I’m a middle aged guy who loves Maria-sama ga Miteru. Actually, I’m a huge fan and have been looking forward to this fourth season for quite some time.

Maria-sama or Marimite isn’t the type of stuff that generally attracts a male audience. It’s technically a yuri anime, which means that it’s about love between two women, but the relationships between the characters are implied rather than explicit (however, see the pictures below). This means that if you’re checking out this series for some how girl-on-girl action, you’re going to be pretty disappointment. There’s zero smut in this series unless you consider holding hands highly sexual.

However, what does draw you in is the richness of the relationships, the real growth experienced by each young lady and how seemingly ordinary events can seem extraordinary in the right light.  I’m not really giving this series much credit with my description, but there’s a reason why this series has so many fans. In fact, it’s currently the most popular anime DVD on pre-order in Japan.

Two things struck me about the 4th season that was different than the previous seasons.  The first is how much this year’s version is banking on the yuri aspects of the series. Marimite has never really shown the characters framed in typical yuri-like poses. The ending piece of the first episode was eye opening. It’s the kind of thing you see in fan art not as images in an official episode.

The second thing that is quite different is that Yumi, the main character, seems different. Maybe it’s emotional growth or the fact that Yumi is now a second year, but I’m just not used to the confident and more secure version of her character. Make no mistake, she still hems and haws around some characters, especially her oneesama, Sachiko. However, this is a Yumi who is far more surer of herself. The Yumi of season one wouldn’t be doing stuff like what you see below:

So far,the first two episodes of the series hasn’t disappointed. I’m eager to see the third where we begin to see Yumi and Yoshino begin their search for their respective soeurs.

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