Maria†Holic Alive 09 – 10

Maria Holic: Because where else would you find bug fetishes, cursed stockings and creepy shadows all in the same place?

Hello all~, I’m sad to report this, but episode 9 was not another Matsurika Holic (sigh). In fact, Mariya and Matsurika barely showed up in these episodes. However, we see a new character (a male one too, holy crap. That makes what, 4 now?) and the show focuses on Ryuken and Kanae a lot more… Needless to say, hilarity ensues.

Continuing from the last episode, Kanako has lost the right to speak. Instead of her imagining her friends half naked like how Maria Holic usually starts, we instead see some short kid in front of the school gates who’s apparently there to talk to the girl he loves. While Ryuken is talking with her friend about trivial things, we see the shouta from the beginning arguing with Kanae about… beetles or something. He calls Kanae an old man beast with a loli complex (it’s funny because it’s true) and then Ryuken, who apparently knows him, asks why he’s there.

Sadly, Mariya doesn’t show up much this episode

His name turns out to be Touta and he’s… er… Ryuken’s future husband O_O.  While he casually addresses Ryuken without honorifics, Kanako can barely contain her rage (as commentated by God, Rindou and Yonakuni). However, as she is not allowed to speak in this episode, Kanako cannot voice her complaints and is dragged away by the others to give the couple some alone time. As the two walk together, it’s obvious that Touta has some kind of bug fetish, but he tries to hide it for some reason. The two get talking about Ryuken switching universities to follow her dream and Touta turns out to be a massive sexist claiming that women shouldn’t have dreams. Again, O_O.

Ryuken then says that the whole being engaged thing was just a joke made by her drunken grandfather and that Touta was the only one who took it seriously. He then starts to cry saying that his feelings are serious, causing me great confusion as to whether I like his character or not.

Meanwhile, Kanako is busy being a yandere stalker in the nearby bushes. Before she can go in for the kill, she’s stopped by Shiki and Maki, who think that her mask is because she’s caught a cold. Kanako almost has a nosebleed after hearing that Maki’s skirt ripped, but because the mask covers her nose, Kanako runs off.

She catches up to Ryuuken and pulls out… a beetle. Touta takes this as a challenge and through some sort of off screen battle (involving bug catching), Kanako ends up losing. Touta then suddenly starts acting grown up, gives Kanako a beetle saying that he misjudged her, gives Ryuken a charm for good luck on her exams and leaves. He also runs into Kanae and gives him a beetle as well… Um yeah ,a  really sudden character change there.

Most. Epic. Battle. Ever.

After Kanako gets her speaking privileges back, Matsurika gives Kanako a rosary. At first Kanako is excited that Matsurika actually gave her a present, but after hearing that it belonged to her father (… who was apparently a priest? Wait. I thought priests weren’t allowed to marry…) Kanako freaks out. To make matters worse, the rosary is cursed. Of course, Kanako is all “NOOO DO NOT WANT” but she keeps it anyways.

Don’t let the sparkles fool you. The thing is evil (…maybe)

Time passes and Kanako is now convinced that some loli is watching her at night so she can’t sleep. Being sadistic concerned for Kanako, Mariya and Matsurika decide to call Father Kanae over. His solution to Kanako’s problem?  Instead of counting sheep, he suggests counting the number of arms one can cut off from an octopus. Of course, the downfall of this is that an octopus only has 8 legs, so he then tries hypnotism. Through a trick question, he tries to find out Kanako’s hidden desire… which is apparently sleeping together with him. She faints and to thank Kanae for helping, Mariya gives him the cursed rosary…. And then he starts seeing a loli everywhere as well. Not that he minds.

Eventually, Kanako realises that she misses being strangled at night and asks Matsurika if she has any other cursed items. Then there’s a series of gags involving Kanako dreaming about her friends and then waking up standing on her bed in an awkward position.

Back to Kanae, the curse of the rosary is obviously getting to him because he makes a bunch of really terrible puns (oh and there are noticable bags under his eyes). Kanako meets him while walking outside and asks for the rosary back. As the two argue about who gets the rosary, the Dorm Mistress shows up and says that it belonged to her in her childhood and that the girl it’s cursed with is her friend (why am I not surprised). So in the end, the Dorm Mistress keeps the rosary.

Fun fact: there’s probably a parody here that I had no idea about

Next scene, the girls are dressed in yukata for some sort of school event. Kanako gets depressed after no one but Mariya bothers to pin their hair up (even though Yuzulu and Sachi always have their hair up) and they all watch fireworks together…. There’s not much of a point to this besides seeing them in yukata really.

Fine. Have your yukata fanservice.

End Thoughts:

Have I ever told you how much I love the opening? God I love the opening (actually, the first opening has grown on me too lately). According to the actual Maria Holic site, the CD came out the 25 of May, so I’ll have to go buy it at some point… Anyways, this could just be from lack of sleep, but I found these two episodes of Maria Holic HILARIOUS and could not stop laughing. I don’t even know why I found cutting off the legs of an octopus so amusing BUT IT WAS. I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but Maria Holic is actually much funnier when Kanako doesn’t talk. Call me crazy, but I found Kanako’s yandere stalking funny because it wasn’t being ruined by a 3 minute monologue involving her delusions.

In any case, another new character showed up this time and like I stated before, I don’t know if I like him or not. I have never read the manga, so I don’t know what Touta’s character is actually supposed to be like but to me, one minute he was being a cocky brat and the next he was actually pretty mature. It was very confusing, though I must say that the whole thing was actually pretty cute (despite the 7 or so year age difference). So judging from the opening, there’s one more male character to be introduced (the one next to Shizu by the tree). He’s wearing the same uniform as Shizu, so maybe we’ll see more of her school…? (I hope so!)

I just realised that 10 episodes have already passed. Only 2 left to go! Where has all the time gone??? I’m going to miss this a lot when it ends since SHAFT isn’t doing much during this summer… Sigh. It’s nice to watch something with quality animation for a change (I’m looking at you, Sket Dance).

Preview:

Some kind of Momotaro parody going on here involving various people named Taro being born from various things. Remember back when the previews for Maria Holic actually showed what was happening next episode? Neither do I.

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.