This OVA certainly had me "falling in love with the show all over again" - and then some more. This second installment built on the first two seasons and first OVA by showing how far the Yumi x Sachiko soeur relationship has come; only the barest hints of Yumi angst and Sachiko coldness were evident.
Although Sei is still my favourite character (well, the sky is blue after all!), I was pretty much surprised at how I have gradually come to find Sachiko an interesting and likeable character. I have to confess that I disliked her somewhat for most of the first and second seasons, mainly because of the agony that she caused Yumi. But one of the strengths of this series is how it got me to better understand each character, showed me how they grew and thus changed my views about them.
I tend to stubbornly stick to my first impression of any character. Any series that manages to change an impression from ‘bad’ to ‘magnificent’ (using Erica’s word in her review at Okazu) tends to indicate that the character development is definitely more than two-dimensional. Other than MariMite, my other big personal conversion was the Full Metal Panic! series. While I loved the action in the first season, Sousuke and Chidori felt like Keitaro and Naru… with guns when GONZO and KyoAni were co-producing it but things perked up considerably for me in Fumoffu! and The Second Raid (after GONZO had been ejected) and breaking way beyond the "Sousuke does something military otaku dumb, Chidori dishes out the harisan punishment" routine, especially when Tessa was thrown into the mix.
How far Sachiko and Yumi have come was perfectly encapsulated in Sachiko’s frank admission to Yumi - the latter was nothing like Youko but handles the former so well. Certainly this bears out the original troika’s view that Yumi would be good for Sachiko. It was really lovely how Sachiko turned to Yumi for support when the Hanedara council appeared at the Lilian gate and after the Alice incident. On the flip side, Yuuki hits the nail on the head when he observes that Yumi has become stronger, looks like she’s passed Sei’s assigned homework with flying colours. IMHO this kind of self-strengthening > GAR. The younger Fukuzawa twin was also hilarously spot on when he stopped Yumi from describing her ideal boyfriend as she rattled off an excruciatingly detailed description of Sachiko’s personality.
As always, Erica’s translation and notes on the source novels have been immensely helpful in enhancing my enjoyment of the anime. Many thanks, Erica! I didn’t have the same reading of Yuuki’s mild siscon though, as his criteria seem quite male-typical-generic: he only needed to add ‘Understanding’ to complete the Male Standard Answers to that particular Women’s Awkward Question (Examples of other standard answers - Q: ‘Does this make my butt look big?’ A: ‘Of course not!’ / Q: ‘What are you thinking about?’ A: ‘Nuthin’.) I got a stronger impression of how Yuuki just wanted Yumi to more big-sisterly towards him as indicated by his objection to her self-description as his ’sort of older sister’ and Sachiko pushing her towards him with the instruction to play her elder sister role - which she did magnificently too.
I also liked the formal meeting between the Hanadera Council (Kobayashi is cool!) and the Yamayurikai when both Rei and Shimako were slightly rattled whereas, in contrast, Yoshino was very definitely in control while Noriko just outed herself as a huge NERD. LOL
Looking forward, Kanako’s made two non-voiced appearances and she does her stalker thing towards the end so I can’t wait for the next installment when she finally emerges as a full member of the cast.
