アニ・ノート

I ignored Maria Sama ga Miteiru for years, in an apparently mistaken belief that it was a dykefest. But about a year ago, truth began to emerge, and just in time for the R1 release by TRSI (praise the Dark Lord). You can even get it on Netflix now, which is good, because the first volume contains shameful 3 episodes (Gurren-Lagann, also a sub-only release, offers 5).

Marimite is one of those series which seem created to underscore the importance of the correct frame of mind (see also, Jason Miao Teaches the World to enjoy Muteki Kanban Musume). For three quarters of the first episode, I kept thinking: “Why am I watching this shit?”. The art and animation being unusually bad for J.C.Staff did not help any.

Only during the meeting scene I cracked the code: it’s the lulz. “So, as you can see, me and — Yumi-chan, was it? — are quite well acquainted!”. The comedy often comes through to save anime, like the way it recovered the floundering and mediocore Kamichu circa ep.13 (by DVD count). Once I focused on the comedy of the petty intrigue, things started looking up in Marimite.

Another personal thing is that I am familiar with mentorship, and it is often comic too: my last two mentees quit the company while under advisement. I suppose others can relate to something else, like ginko nuts.

From an apersonal standpoint, the show is mostly unremarkable. For example, Yumi’s eyes look like a rejected prototype for Chiyo-chan’s eyes. Suguru being a dickhead is a cringe-inducing, flat and moldy plot move. On the other hand, most of the characters are believable and acceptable. So, it’s not as bad as I expected, good enough to watch more.

UPDATE: TheBigN and DiGiKerot are picking my bones on IRC for reflexive panning the 3-per-disc layout. The show was never sold as singles, only as a set. Therefore, only the price of the whole box matters (minus the small effort required to reload more discs).

UPDATE A 30s LATER: Now Omo too?! I don’t know if this is a case of great minds thinking alike or what.

The cameo in Lucky Star obviously helped Marimite to grab the eye time. But the funny part is, what Lucky Star represents is essentially absent from Marimite’s action; it forms the unseen background. Konata becomes a fan of the concept commonly associated with the show, but not the show itself!

Moreover, everyone else is on the same wavelength with her. They know at once what is being signified. Thus a curious inversion of occurs: the action forms a background for things fans actually watch (well, Japanese girls do; I do not mean what old dirty weaboos watch).

In interests of compare and contrast, I think the tea in ep.1 was quite representative of both aestetic of action in Marimite, have a look:

I saw a few contrast triptychs recently (do they have a name?), the best of them was probably this:

What I watched: Spice and Wolf
What I expected: Horo’s boobs
What I got: Alan Greenspan

My only gripe with that is, I would have used Milton Friedman (perhaps the creator wanted to send a message of the government regulation, as seen in the anime). Unfortunately, no link. What I do have a link for, is not quite there, because it cheats with text. Still:

What I watched: Manabi Straight
What I expected: Chubbiest Lolis Ever
What I got: Kaiser, Oberstein, et.al.

Marimite is not very easy to do this way (but try it, I’ll link), but here’s a rough pass:

QUICK UPDATE: Mike found spelling errors, but no picture.

UPDATE: J.P. wrote that triptychs are tagged with “what_i_watched_what_i_expected_what_i_got” at Danbooru. There’s no specific name.

It’s not entirely smooth sailing, but what bloggers said was true: it’s about girls being friends (and enemies, but it’s not very intense).

My biggest gripe is the weird art, which sometimes abates, sometimes comes in full force. Those eyes, they’re just bad.

I deal with the issue by ignoring the visuals and seeing stick figures in my mind’s eye. Dialog drives the show. Marimite is not heavy on meaningful body language and subtle facial expressions. Surprising, really.

UPDATE: The 4th season looks like a significant improvement, despite keeping the side-pointing eyelashes:

In fact, DEEN offers really kickass reimaginings of the original design:

Not sure how true to the anime these are, and what season this is supposed to be. But they are gorgeous.

QUICKIE: Owen asked on IRC: “did you draw those yourself in Linux’s equivalent of MS Paint”? This is so cold. But as a matter of fact, yes, it’s my first digital drawing…