PinkuBentoBox

It took a little while, but the 5th and final installment of the third season of Maria-sama ga Miteru is subbed. With it finished I decided to finally sit down and watch 4 and 5, as I’d decided to hold off on the fourth episode until the whole season was done. So, how was the OAV experiment overall? I think it’s been reasonably successful.

This entry will undoubtedly have spoilers, though I’ll try not to be too specific. Also, if you’re just expecting a summary of what happens, don’t bother - you can find that on a myriad of other anime blogs instead.

Ever since this parting shot from the last Marimite ~Haru~ DVD special, Marimite fans had been expecting the announcement of another season. After all, there’s a metric assload of material left that they could adapt should they desire to do so. So, when they announced that third season there were not that many people who were surprised. However, there was some disappointment about when it was revealed that the format was to be a short OVA series rather than a third TV season.

On the other hand, we probably should have expected this outcome. After all, Marimite is a reasonably niche title despite its reasonable fanbase online. It’s quite rare for this sort of show to get more than two TV seasons - in fact, I can only think of a handful of shows which have managed to get a third TV season green-lit (last week’s announcement of Aria the Origination was a big surprise, for example). Shifting to OVAs frees the animation studios from having to be beholden to TV networks and I imagine probably makes them more direct cash. However I don’t think I was alone in my worry that the result would end up being a short OVA primarily designed to simply cash in on the show’s popularity, like so many other OVAs.

However it’s actually turned out to be the opposite. I’ve found myself appreciating the OVA format that they’ve chosen more than the usual TV style. Marimite actually lends itself to this release style, when you stop and think about it. The TV seasons both generally have an overreaching theme, but can be cleanly divided up into story arcs. For example, ~haru~ could be divided into four parts - the graduation arc, with the Roses from the first season graduating and leaving the school and passing on the baton to the boutons, the Noriko arc, with Shimako and Noriko hooking up, the ‘trouble’ arc, with Yoshino giving her Rosary back to Rei, and the final arc involving Sachiko apparently dumping Yumi for Touko. I’ve never read the Marimite novels - what I wouldn’t give to be able to read Japanese - but I assume that this very arc-centric nature is a result of them adapting different novels. There seems to be enough material in each novel for 2-4 TV episodes.

In a TV episode, you really only have about 15-18 minutes per episode to actually do new things. Given that there is a week’s gap between installments you really can’t jump straight back into the action, so the opening few minutes are usually taken to re-establish the scene and so on. Additionally the script writer has to make sure that each episode ends at a reasonable spot. However the OVA format has effectively freed the team from having to carefully divide up each of their story arcs - instead they can do an entire TV arc’s worth of plot in the space of a single OVA, since they have decided to make each one about 50 minutes long.

The end result, in my opinion, works extremely well. You know that when you fire up one of the OVA episodes you’re going to get a complete story, from beginning to end, in one sitting. There may be overarching plot developments - eg the introduction of Kanako and the building rivalry between her and Touko for Yumi’s affections - but each OVA episode can be watched and thoroughly enjoyed completely in isolation. Marimite’s original novel format seems to have been uniquely suited for this sort of production, and in the end it is much stronger when done in this way.

Which is not to say that the OVAs are not without their flaws. I suspect that some people will have been a little disappointed that while a good amount of the characters who graduated are brought back (including Shizuka, who I absolutely did not expect to ever see in the show again) we never really got to see much of the original Roses. I know that Nagi will be upset at the lack of Youko. I also wouldn’t be surprised to find that some people were taken back by the fact that this show has boys in it (Ick :P) though Kashiwagi is undeniably awesome, and it was nice to see Yuki getting some development as I suspect that expansion of his character was deliberately passed over in the TV seasons.

One other thing that the OVAs have done quite well is cementing my original judgement on Touko. Touko is awesome and I am declaring my allegiance right now. In my mind there isn’t even a contest between her and Kanako. Kanako is just a creepy obsessive stalker who is very tall. Touko may try to hide it, but she actually seems to genuinely care for and desire to look out for Yumi. This also brings up an interesting side discussion. Nagi referred to her as being tsundere, and I had a think about that and I don’t really agree that it’s a fair description of her personality.

Anyway, overall I enjoyed the OVAs quite a lot, and I’m greatly anticipating the upcoming continuation. I hope they keep making these OVAs for years. Also, someone needs to tell Geneon that they’re not fooling anyone. Announce the license already.