Maria†Holic Alive – 11

Yeah, Mariya is a guy. I thought we established this already.

This probably could have been posted sooner, but I just spent the last few days cramming for exams. Yeah, I realise that cramming isn’t good, but meh I’m not used to studying. Anyways, this episode was kind of shocking, but I don’t want to spoil it (even though this entire post kind of already does that already) so let’s get to the review.

So the episode begins yet again with a new character standing in front of the Ame no Kisaki gates. She introduces herself to the Dorm Mistress and HOLY CRAP she’s Kanako’s younger sister. When she visits Kanako in her room, we discover that Kanako is somewhat of a siscon and that Miki (her sister) could care less about Kanako’s yuri fantasies.

Miki returns the cross that Kanako’s friends sent her a couple of episodes back and pulls out Kanako’s old graduation essays. This shuts Kanako up immediately and Mariya (who seems to know Miki for some reason) begins reading them aloud to spite her. While reading them we find out that HOLY CRAP Kanako used to like men and her dream was to become a princess. Embarrassed that her secret is out, Kanako grabs the essays and runs to class.

There, Kanae notices that Kanako is depressed and that shes holding her essays. Connecting the dots (but at the same time missing completely) Kanae is lead to believe that Kanako is depressed because she thinks her childhood dreams will never come true. He thinks of how to cheer her up, but at the same time realises that his own childhood dream of becoming a groom is impossible because he is a priest and he becomes depressed as well.

Later, Kanako runs into Miki and they have a conversation about how Miki met Mariya. It turns out that they met after their mother’s funeral. Miki had run away from home to the school to ask about her mother and she met Irene (Mariya’s grandmother) who told Mariya to look after her. They then join the archery practice so Miki can see what archery is like. Kanako has a moment of what appears to be jealousy while Miki is surrounded by Kanako’s friends but she doesn’t intervene until Miki starts going on about how much she admires Mariya.

Though I can’t help but wonder if they could have been more creative with the camera angles here…

Kanako drags her to a deserted area and then tells Miki that Mariya shouldn’t be admired because he’s actually a guy. Of course, as she says this, Mariya is well within earshot and has heard the whole thing. Mariya tries to pass the whole thing off as a joke but Kanako then freaks out asking for Mariya to forgive her and makes the situation worse. Once Miki realises that it’s not a joke (after Kanako breaks out into hives when Mariya touches her), she asks to speak with him alone.

Once alone, Miki confesses to Mariya and then declares that she will become a student at Ame no Kisaki to date him. He tries to brush off the confession, but Miki seems pretty serious. Mariya tells Miki that she’s probably just confused that her idol is actually male and the conversation ends there. After Mariya has left, Kanako jumps out from the bushes to comfort Miki, but instead of being depressed, but Miki merely admires Mariya more for avoiding dumping her. Hooray for irrational logic! Miki eventually leaves saying that the next time she comes back, it will be as a student at Ame no Kisaki.

Kanako approved!

Kanako has some of the greatest facial expressions ever

Final Thoughts:

This episode was different to say the least. I mean, there was an actual romance (kind of) going on here and it was almost as if this show had a plot! It was kind of a nice change to have an episode based on a more serious issue rather than the usual episodes based on comedy alone. I’m not sure if I support Mariya and Miki though. Romance in Maria Holic just seems… weird. There was just something missing in this episode and I’m not quite sure what it was.

However, even with something missing, this episode was excellent at the same time. Seeing Kanako fawn over her little sister was kind of adorable and it was nice to see Kanako interact with a female without hitting on her every other minute. Miki’s character seems to be the most normal after seeing all of the other Maria Holic characters out there, which is a bit odd considering Kanako is her sister (and I assume they grew up together).  Though she seems to know how to control Kanako (lol the essays!) and she does have a thing for Mariya (even before she found out he was male) so I guess they’re related after all. Now all that’s left to see of Kanako’s siblings is her older sister, but I highly doubt that they will fit her in before the series ends though.

Preview:

….Finally, it’s the last episode next. There’s nothing more to say really.

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.