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I was trudging through top shōjo recommendations, and after a fistful of stinkers, I came across this. The decision to watch it was made quickly and without thinking, so I had no idea who the creators were and I'm not one to pay attention to credits at first. The initial impression I got was this unsettling feeling, and I was worried that something deeply wrong was going to happen. I even joked about how it reminded me of Evangelion before I found out Hideaki Anno was in fact involved, haha. I brushed that off as just his style of storytelling and things seemed to develop ... normally.

To get that out of the way, I really enjoyed the creativity in visually putting the episodes together. The animated comic panels, the shifts in artstyle, the clashing of real-life and cartoon and transitions between scenes were very interesting, and some artistic choices were downright hilarious. I'd say that it felt at times like a high budget comic reading (as funny as that sounds, I think that's very creative). The only thing I could say that really bugged me were the endless recaps and repetitive soundtrack, but I think the team did well with what they had. With that said, I'll skip to the main subject I want to elaborate on.

The characters, although banal at first glance, as you'd expect with "cheap" romance (no offense to cheap romances though, they got their charm too) are treated like real people who act on real impulses. The main character, Miyazawa, lives in a happy home with her parents, two sisters and a puppy. She may not be rich, but she is not poor either. She's not spoiled, but she doesn't know how good she has it. She's aware of her assets and she uses her abilities to get ahead in life, no matter the cost. The only downside to this lifestyle is that she puts on a prissy facade to do so. Which isn't, actually, that bad of a thing. The only thing she's hiding is that she's just like everyone else.

Her love interest, on the other hand, has been a posterchild of goodwill and selflessness. Not for his own sake, but to prove that he's worthy of being alive. His mask existed to support his survival after being told he's worthless since he was a small child and he grew to believe that at the core, he is a true monster undeserving of happiness. To him happiness was something to feel guilty about. Truth be told, he doesn't know who he is at all, and believes that his bad qualities must be the real personality shining through. I came to think that his selflessness isn't a mask at all, as his intelligence, athleticism and kindness really do come naturally. You can see that clearly when his and Miyazawa's grades drop at starkly different levels after they've begun dating. He's a confused, lonely boy, and he's absolutely portrayed as such. He came to believe that he's wearing a mask because of how much he truly hates himself.

Their shared idea of a "true self" is in actuality two different goals. The girl's goal was to loosen up not only part time, but full time, and fully let go of over-achieving. The boy's goal was letting his false perception of self to surface. Miyazawa thinks that being vulnerable and open on her part is just the same as on his part, and that their love will always be pure and fix whatever ails them. Their naivety slowly becomes their downfall. Both, who strongly opposed their teacher when confronted about their falling grades, believe that ideals they do not fully understand will lead them to happiness.

It's such an on point depiction of how teenage romances are usually portrayed - the children's problems are always resolved by a beautiful speech about love and devotion, when in real life nobody lives the same exact experience and needs an individual, thorough response to their issues. After all, they're children, and they do not comprehend things on a larger scale, not yet. Even their parents enable that naivety, having led much different lives prior to settling down. Miyazawa's family believes that since she has been doing well so far, she will not fumble. Arima's parents are convinced that adopting a child and never speaking to him about his trauma will work itself out, just because they don't beat him or berate him and provide him with a home. None of the parents mean for bad things to happen, they just share that idealised point of view of love prevailing in the end. You watch Arima become more and more possessive and Miyazawa thinking that it's sweet and flattering, and before that blows up in their faces, the season is over and you're left thinking... maybe their way of handling things might not be the right one?

After I realised that, the uneasiness made sense.

First of all I wanted to state that I know this anime from when I was a child growing up in Poland. Back then none of the kids knew what an anime was unless it was something of the sort of Sailor Moon or DragonballZ. I had basically grown up thinking it was a Polish production or European at most, complete with Polish dubbing and a Polish intro so realising it's actually an anime based on Waldemar Bonsels's stories about Maya the Bee has been quite a journey.

I decided to rewatch the full series afraid it'd be too boring and childish for me to ... continue but I was happily proven wrong. Although a tad outdated it's a wonderful, funny series about the diverse lives of various insects and critters existing alongside them.

The character designs of all the bugs are adorable and lovable, the animation - a little janky - but more expressive and you can definitely see the hand-drawn-ness of it in the way the characters move. Their endearing designs are a great lighthearted way to introduce a child to the world of insects without giving them trauma :P
Also I absolutely adore the backgrounds of the series. They seem to be done in watercolor or gouache, and they look beautiful and professionally done. As a watercolor fanatic I have saved a bunch of stills from the series as inspiration fodder.
Maya the Bee also has pretty decent music composed for the series, with my favourites being the cicadas' and crickets' musical numbers and the intro. In the Polish dub the intro was sung by Zbigniew Wodecki who had done a wonderful job, the intro being so catchy in Poland almost every then-kid-now-adult knows at least the main part of the song.
The characters can be a little bit basic but each of the main characters has their own distinctive way of being without coming off as bland. None of them are too perfect to be true and all have their strengths and weaknesses well balanced out. The main theme of the series is about how different they all are and how it's crucial not to judge each other harshly, as every creature's journey through life is different and deserves respect.

Anyway, I had a blast coming back to the series and was delighted to see that even as an adult it succeeded in educating me about the world of insects and inspiring me with the beautiful painted landscapes. It's a charming series with great rewatch value.