Ranked #910

Maria†Holic

*A great entertaining product by SHAFT backed with hilarious out-of-the-blue jokes.*

"I-I don't even understand the letter C in Catholic!" - Miyamae Kanako

If I was asked to describe Maria + Holic in one word, I believe “wordy” will suit this show perfectly. The amount of monologues in the show is tremendous! Plus the “rail gunning” of words shooting back and forth between the characters simply makes the anime difficult to follow without pauses in between (assuming you need to read the subtitles). And the occasional weird reference to various things also contributes to the complexity of the show for an average viewer. These issues may turn some potential viewers away, but if you can get accustom to these minor issues, Maria + Holic is actually a rather unique experience.

The anime itself should be praised for following the manga closely. The entire series covers pretty much the first three volumes of the manga (out of a total of four serialized volumes so far). While certain episodes may seem like fillers, especially if they are not designed to advance the story in any way, these filler-like episodes actually are indeed part of the manga. It should be no surprise that these episodes still manage to be highly entertaining albeit a bit random in most cases.

As a SHAFT product, those who are familiar with the studio should know what to expect. But if you don’t have a clue, here is a general description. Maria + Holic have high quality animation with good looking characters. Background scenes tend to be overly simplistic to contrast with the detailed characters. What this mean is that while the character usually look professionally drawn, the background often seem like the work of an elementary kid. This may be strange for some viewers, but surprisingly the result is quite pleasant to watch.

The OP will most certainly take some time to get used to. It is so … unique. On the other hand, the ED makes use of voice changers and the effect turns out quite enjoyable. Frankly, the BGM in Maria + Holic are nothing unique like the OP or ED making them less memorable after the show is done. However, to counterbalance the “average” BGM, we have a few astonishingly stupendous seiyu that can make us forget the pain of the lack of good BGM. Out of the few bright stars in the anime, Yuu Kobayashi is particularly outstanding. In part due to her singing the OP, also her ability to change between two highly different male and female voices make her one of the biggest asset to the show.

We normally see the male protagonist having perverted thoughts on various female characters in an anime. Maria + Holic is no different except that the protagonist is a girl. And her lust for other girls is stronger than 99.9% of her male counterparts. Here is another good lesson to learn. Never judge anybody by physical appearance alone. Kanako may look like a regular big chest girl in your eyes, but deep down inside she is quite a frightful lady … in a perverted way. It should come as no surprise that she also an openly declared lesbian with a tendency to execute a nosebleed faster than you can say the word nosebleed. The cause of her nosebleed is often due to her encounter with an ecchi scene. In fact, she spurts so much blood that it became a regular routine for the viewers to see her in the school infirmary.

Next we have a very cute looking babe plus an equally sexy voice. She has a good body proportion, excellent grade at school, and is loved by all her classmates. But she is a guy. Yup, you read that correctly. This hot babe is a guy proven and tested, through some grabbing, by our perverted female lead. Maria + Holic is full of interesting characters that will surely put a big happy smile on your face. It is unfortunate that the story has an open ending (since the manga is no where near done either), so fans will just have to be patient for the time being until someday a continuation to the series is announced. read more

Transvestites are funny. So are bullies. Apparently.

Maria†Holic is a black comedy series that supposedly parodies the traditions of yuri anime and manga. On a surface level, it manages to accomplish this, but when examining the anime, there is very little it has to do with the actual genre. What this anime turns out to be is a puerile and offensive lesson in sadism.

The story follows Kanako who enrols in a Catholic girls' school at the behest of her "mother in heaven". Why does she apply? Why, to find her perfect match of course! What's the catch then? Kanako is a girl who likes--nay, loves--girls. A lot. So much that she becomes a blood-soaked mess from rampant nosebleeds whenever she thinks of one sexually or romantically. So, what gets in the way of her raging lesbianism? Of course, a cross-dressing boy named Mariya.

This anime manages to create a setting where a lot of actual comedy could be derived, however, it manages in the long run to be anything but funny. At the core of the story is a tale of intense bullying coated with "dark humour". If you stripped bare all the disguises of this anime's comedy, what you are left with is this: a lonely, awkward girl transfers to a school where she is repeatedly picked on physically and psychologically by a boy. She can't tell a soul since he uses his affluent position in the school as leverage over her. Meanwhile, he threatens her with rape and expulsion on a daily basis. Right. Funny stuff.

What saves it from just being utterly depressing and tasteless is Kanako's quick recovery from her miseries (though you can chalk this up to plot convenience and not characterisation), but it still is pretty unfortunate that the series relies on such sadistic elements as its main source of humour. Aside from the perverted "flesbianism" and pseudo-yuri, of course. Its comic styling deeply resembles that of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (makes sense, since they have the same producers), however, while the former anime dealt with dark topics like suicide and warped teacher/student relationships, it actually manages to be rather funny as it criticised, satirised and used other elements of comedy to be humorous. With Maria†Holic, you're going to just be wondering how far can carrot rape and nosebleeds carry the anime.

Maria†Holic though deserves its praises for its technical aspects. The anime is one of the most unique-looking out there. The character designs are very appealing, and the backgrounds are often filled with artistic scenes. It is a very colourful anime. Not to mention, there are tons of visual parodies. The artwork often parodies Revolutionary Girl Utena. The largest parody is shoujo manga, in particular Maria-sama ga Miteru (hence the title being Maria†Holic) with lots of flowery scenes. The OP theme has the best animation seen in the entire series, actually. In fact, the OP is actually funnier and more original than anything else in this anime (even though it is highly reminiscent of another cynical, dry, but actually hilarious comedy series). So is the ED sequence, which looks like an 8-bit video game. It actually adds to the comic value of the series.

The sound makes up tremendously for the rest of the anime. It opens with a rough, punk OP theme song with utterly hilarious lyrics and closes with a totally cute, fun poppy ED theme. In fact, the ED song subtly adds to the humour; it is a cover of YMO's 1983 hit 'Kimi Ni, Mune Kyun'. The song along with its video was a parody of all the gooey pop that was being released in Japan; Maria†Holic utilises it as a means to indicate that (much in the way the original song parodies pop) it is a parody of shoujo, yuri, gender-bending and school anime. It is possibly the cleverest thing the anime did, actually. With the ton of talking in the anime, you hear less background music and more dialogues. Maria†Holic luckily has a pretty good cast working for it; Mariya has a great voice, and Kobayashi Yuu vacillates between wonderfully wicked to sugary sweet in a second. Sanada Asami as well works as a great lead, giving Kanako a lot of life, whether it is she's swooning, lamenting, drooling over girls, or singing weird made-up songs.

Maria†Holic depends on its main characters to really carry the anime, since the supporting cast is so rigid and bland save one or two of them. In fact, if most of the supporting characters just disappeared, the anime would not suffer one bit. Actually, it might, since they only really exist for Kanako to lust over and for no other purpose.

Mariya actually is a fascinating character despite being an awful human being. Uncouth, vile, scheming, unscrupulous--he is the epitome of an anti-hero, and his charisma actually lends itself to the anime making it bearable to watch (his actions though, make the anime just frustrating to behold).

Kanako is sort of a hit or miss protagonist. The only thing that can be considered remotely original about her is the fact that she is an emotionally-stunted, not-so-secretly perverted closeted bisexual/lesbian. As opposed to her being the typical emotionally-stunted, not-so-secretly perverted average brown-haired boy. Most of the time I kept thinking, "Okay. We get it. She likes girls. She really, really, really likes girls. Really. And her blood has a hard time staying inside her nose." Sympathising with her is a wasted effort, since she is just the butt of so many torturous jokes that it stops becoming a point to feel sorry for her situation any more. Other than her intense desires for the same sex, she has no real personality.

Enjoying this anime is another hit or miss. Most of the anime is spent watching cruel and unusual punishment. Why? Mariya has no reason to do anything of the sort to Kanako. Wickedness seems to be the best answer next to boredom. And Kanako does have the typical 'Please abuse me' attitude. Wouldn't it have been funnier and a little more clever to see someone who had backbone stand up to or ignore an awful person rather than be victimised? Or is my concept of what makes something funny shot to bits...?

So by stringing together unfunny or pointless gags that don't have a punchline, the predictability of the jokes, the repetitiveness, the inane dialogue incapable of amusement (I clearly understand the concept of random, mundane or silly conversation being a source of off-beat comedy, but the crunchline is, none of these are tremendously funny in this anime), Maria†Holic just manages to be offensive and juvenile rather than witty and darkly funny.

Of course, if sadism and fake yuri amuses you, then this anime would be comic gold for you. For those who actually find it to be both uninspired and tacky that terrorising someone is the main plot for a comedy, then you will not be enjoying Maria†Holic any time soon.

Watching it feels like being trapped in a room while watching a leaky faucet drip... and drip... and drip. read more