Story & Characters: Maria Watches Over Us 3rd is a five-episode OVA, which splits time with our crew in five different settings. The locations vary from each other and it already gives this series somewhat of a different feel as the previous seasons. Basically, our characters go on a variety of different trips, which allow them to bond with each other. The setup is there, right in front of us. The first episode sees Sachiko invite Yumi to her summer home that her family owns, where a few of the former's acquaintances don't quite approve of Yumi, even as a friend. The second is likely the weakest of the bunch where the academy has a school festival and Yumi wants to find out why Sachiko can't get along with the male population. The third has a first year student, Kanako, obsessing over Yumi, going so far as to stalk her around whenever they're both on campus. The fourth has us watching the academy taking part in an athletic festival with students trying to figure out which event they want to participate in. The final episode sees the second year students taking a school trip to Italy. During the course of this OVA, we see our characters get closer to each other and develop further.
The obvious couple we're watching are Yumi and Sachiko, who get some of the best interactions we've seen since the very beginning of the three seasons. They get closer to each other, and even express some worry when they are apart for longer than a brief time. You love that they're 'finally' finding their feelings for each other because those were pretty subtle in previous seasons, outside of the end of last season. Sachiko is the one that really evolves as a person here because she expresses so many different personalities. She stands up for Yumi, always expresses worry for her and just acts as a thoughtful person in general, something we saw very little of in the previous two seasons. The first episode really highlights all of this and ends off really well after Yumi's trip in the finale. Yumi feels like a more evolved character because she's way more self-aware and doesn't really try and push too many boundaries. She's a really caring person and meshes well with her classmates, further pushing her strong personality that already existed in previous seasons. Yoshino also gets ample screen time she becomes more and more like that best friend of Yumi's, that we all wish we had in high school.
Some more minor characters pop in here and there, and some add more to the series than others. Rei gets some screen time, but she kind of feels tossed in here. Similarly, while she gets more screen time than the others, Shimako's somewhat bland, though is still thoughtful of others. I didn't feel like either added much. Kanako is decently interesting in the one episode that she's in and I actually liked what she added here, as it further showed how her interactions with Yumi and later on, Sachiko, show how the couple are there for each other and don't waver much.
The storyline of the five episodes themselves don't really feel like a continuation of each other, due to the nature of the series. It can make the series feel somewhat disconnected from episode to episode. Results may vary from person to person, but for me, this is probably the weakest part of the season, even though the main goal is likely to develop it's characters anyway. This season's storytelling is miles better than that of the previous seasons. (Story: 9/10, Characters: 7/10)
Art: This is definitely a step up from previous series. Everything just looks crisper. You still get some weird occurrences of longer limbs than what looks natural on taller characters like Sachiko, but the rest looks up to par. (8/10)
Sound: The OST remains mostly the same as previous season with a mix of classical sounding music and the odd more modern tune. I wasn't the biggest fan of either the OP or ED though. The voice cast was mostly fine, though Mamiko Noto's (Shimako) voice was starting to grind on me as the series went on. It just didn't sound like a natural tone at all. (7/10)
Overall Enjoyment: After two average seasons, I felt like Maria Watches Over Us 3rd really took a step forward with this OVA season. Character interactions are so much more moving, Sachiko's made into a much better character and we can see the character development throughout with decent storylines. If previous seasons appealed to you, then this is likely a must-watch for you. If you were on the fence like I was, then give the first episode a try and keep going if that's enough to hook you in. Worked for me! (8/10)
