Subculture Anime Blog

That’s it? My final impression is included…

Summary:

Kanako excitedly prepares for the upcoming pool classes at school, avoiding any chance for her to miss them. She eventually has an outburst of blood loss upon seeing everyone in their swimsuits at the pool, and is saved by the new teacher named Enjo. Afterwards, all of the surrounding girls request to have mouth to mouth with Kanako to further help her. Unfortunately for Kanako, this was all part of a dream. Priest Kanae eventually visits Kanako at the dorm, with a melon as a gift. Kanako panics, but as Kanae constantly reacts to her responses by grasping onto her, she has more than a simple breakout this time. This causes her to miss the next pool class as well. Kanako next sights kikurage in her baggage, but Honoka and the others deny that it was their doing this time. As Kanako researches this later, she is again caused to miss a pool class. Kanako worries about constantly missing the classes, so she seeks the Dorm leader’s help. The Dorm Leader had recently come across one of her old swimsuits though, and when Kanako sights this, she goes missing during yet another class. By the time Kanako’s last chance comes, the entire class is unable to go to the pool because of the rain.

A swimming competition is announced next, but though she is able to make it, Matsurika reprograms Kanako with her special radio yet again. This denies her from being happy despite being surrounded by several girls in their school swimsuits. When the competition starts, Kanako aims for the source of her problem in hopes of curing herself. Though she suspects this is Maria, she ends up pulling down Shizu’s swimsuit during the event. Shizu meets Kanako in the infirmary after her huge amount of blood loss, but is surprised to see the rosary by her side…

Preview: I probably should have renamed this section to something other than preview.

Impression:

Well, that was…..an ending. I guess? This episode felt a lot like a SZS or Pani Poni Dash episode in terms of sheer chaos, and the whole swimsuit thing was moderately funny, but I’d at least like some kind of closure before they announce the obvious season two. In the end, there wasn’t much at all to talk about in this episode. What’s new, right? The cameo appearances were something though, and the SZS parody is always welcome. I guess fans of school swimsuits or Shizu’s breasts will be satisfied?. Ah, let’s just get on to the final impression.

Impression:

I’m going to be completely honest here. Maria Holic was a disappointment. Not that the show was terrible by any means, but I was hoping for so much more from a Shaft production. What I was expecting from this series was a whacky show based around a lesbian and a trap; What I got was an almost cliched school life comedy, that just happened to have a raging lesbian and trap (who didn’t even have that much screen time overall) in it. Even after 12 episodes, we got absolutely nowhere in this show. Sure, it could be argued that several of Shaft’s other shows follow a similar pattern, but Holic wasn’t exactly set up to be a purely episodic series. I could have lived with this, if it wasn’t for the fact that each episode wasn’t even that funny. I think I chuckled once per episode on average, which is an all time low for any Shaft comedy I’ve watched. And when each episode could be summarized in a couple of sentences, as these “jokes” dragged on for 20 minutes a week, it wasn’t exactly easy to feel enthused.

Sure, I liked the majority of the characters as much as everyone else, but most would be forgettable after such a mediocre presentation of their potential. It’s even hard to recall most of them now. I remember Mariya being a trap, God, Kanako’s discovering Shizu’s boobs, and maybe the crazy priest. Oh..and there was the student council president….. What was her name again?

…Okay, that’s being a bit harsh, but Maria Holic really could have been a lot better. I’m expecting a second season at this point, but it’s too early to say what I would think about that (or even when it would show up). For now, I’m hoping for a better ride during Natsu no Arashi in the Spring!