Of St. Mary and Vanishing Men

First off - Torny's back. I don't have to flog him now. I have to say though that I'm a mite disappointed, I was looking forward to giving him a good lashing.

Second - The first episode of Maria-sama ga Miteru. This episode is entitled 'The Troubling Soeur Declaration' and it introduces Yumi, a first year student at Lilian School For Girls. In this school is a sort of 'sister' system, where the upper-classmen of the student council take lower-classmen under their wing, so to speak, and groom them to become the new student council.

Thanks to a bunch of situations, Sachiko, an upper-classman declares Yumi her sister, but Yumi declines because of the behavior of the other council members who's tempers are already heated because Sachiko is refusing to play the lead in the school's rendition of Cinderella because the prince will be played by a boy from a near-by boy's academy.

A challenge is issued, if Sachiko can make Yumi her Souer, then Sachiko doesn't have to play Cinderella; if Yumi declines then she does. But if Yumi accepts, then Yumi has to take Sachiko's place as the lead in the play.

The episode ends with Sachiko telling Yumi she will 'definitely become her Souer'

This show, so far, really surprised me. I was thinking it would be some cute, perhaps slow and dry, show about friendships, but so far it's a whole lot of drama! If this involved males instead of females some of it's characters might even be considered slightly unbalanced or even stalkerish.

The music is wonderfully soothing, all instrumental and fit the scenes nicely. The colors are soft and there is a lot of flowing/falling things such as leaves and blossoms that give it an otherworldly feel, which fits great with the whole religious private school theme.

The voice acting is also good, and the drawing is fantastic. My only complaint so far is that all the females have the same similar look, and although they are all unique, at first it is hard to tell some apart.

On to the next episode! More in a bit!

Crossover - An anime that attempts to satisfy both shoujo and shounen audiences. Like Escaflowne, which combined battles, magic, death and mayham with a fantastic plot, good character development and romance.

Current Anime: Maria-sama ga Miteru Current Episode: 2