Without Maria and Matsurika this series will become another post 1st season Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
On to the review:
In the tradition of the earlier Shaft comedies (Pani Poni Dash, Negima, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) this is an episodic comedy. As with most episodic comedies there isn't exactly a real story. In short this is all about the gags even though some of them are too overexplained and simply fail.
Kanako with Maria and Matsurika is comedy gold. Kanako with other characters who's names escape me usually equates to fail. The problem here is that Maria+Holic uses the KMM combo sparingly. I can't blame the anime since using this combo too much will probably wear out in the long run.
Cosmetics-wise: Maria+Holic shines both in animation quality and music. It doesn't take long for the Shaft brand to rear its head. It's Shaft. Nuff' said.
Even though it had its dry spells Maria+Holic has kept me entertained throughout the 12 episodes so I would recommend this.
