For the longest time, I’ve resisted buying Taiwanese R3 parallel imports in the glorious democratic people’s island paradise republic of Singapore. But with GENEON USA giving up the ghost, I’ve given up hope of an R1 release of Maria-sama ga Miteru. And my resistance has cracked after two longstanding concerns were addressed. And so, I asked my good bro Stripey to procure the first season and Haru DVD sets, which he has for a total of SGD 150 (approx USD 100).

First longstanding concern. I’ve always been suspicious of ‘parallel imports’ since it’s hard to tell, especially just based on the packaging, what’s legit and what’s not (even with Censorship Board sticker!). But it’s been pointed out to me that there are certainly legit Taiwanese licensees who release quality goodies [addendum: these MariMite R3s were licensed by Muse]. But I wouldn’t describe them as cheap either. While, like most of my fellow Singaporeans, I ai pee ai chee ai tua lap nee (or perhaps in some cases ai pee ai chee ai Dee efF Cee), the price is still good value for money. I’m pretty relieved that the striped-tailed tanuki reports that all episodes look good on his huge TV, coming in at about 1 GB per episode and includes extras like Maria-sama ni wa naisho.

The other major concern stemmed from my lousy Chinese. It’s hard for me to follow Simplified Chinese subs, much less the Traditional Chinese subs used by Taiwanese R3s. But having watched this series with English subs and read Erica‘s heroic translations of the source novels, I expect it should be much more manageable. It could even be an opportunity to improve my Chinese reading when I get back and get the DVDs back from Stripey who, by then, might even have been converted to Marimitism.

While my priority will still be on R1 boxsets, LEs as well as UK releases, I’ll be depending on R3 releases of series that will probably never see the light of day in the US or UK (e.g. Nanoha, SHUFFLE!). Resistance is futile!

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Much funnier this time as it wasn’t based on language problems or puns and more on physical comedy or the particular quirks of each character.

Shimako as Dororo or Kurumi Momose.

Sei’s snoring.

Yoshino going overboard for her magic show.

Making fun of the use of freeze frame.

Yumi suffers the consequences of fluffing her lines in the milk hall scene.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Episode 11: Rainy Blue. Liked the continuation of the flower metaphor – this time, using the hydragenea’s ability to change the colour of its flowers in response to the degree of the acidity of the soil as an image to represent Yumi’s fear of Sachiko choosing Touko over her. Again, Sei conveniently appears to salvage the pieces of Yumi’s totally rotten episode… very nice to see how completely Yumi trusts Sei – perhaps it’s that little remaining distance and autonomy that distinguishes friendship and love (more on this idea when I eventually comment on Morinaga Miruku’s “Even If We’re Not Friends” in Yuri Shimai Vol.1).

Episode 12: The Blue Umbrella. More symbolism. Things are looking up for Yumi – after sadness comes reflection and growth. Upon rewatching, it was just very nice to see how much Yumi had grown, seems that the senior and now departed Roses could identify that potential in her and see the strength of Yumi’s character that could support Sachiko. Also how much her perspective has matured – seeing beyond just Sachiko’s every little movement and change – a critical change that is required to break her “I’m Not Worthy of Sachiko-sama” mental model which is also an impediment to their relationship from developing further. Also I was mightily chuffed with any airtime at all for Sei. Yumi, with her Ordinary Girl With A Big Heart Power, unwittingly touches the heart of landlady Yumiko, unravelling that long underlying gordion knot with important plot consequences in the next episode…

Episode 13: Holding a Parasol. If Yumi looks after Sachiko and Sei looks after Yumi (meaning Sei should be sticking around even though she’s not in Lilian High School anymore ^_^), then who does Sachiko look after?

Shimako and Rei start to act with greater authority and assertiveness. It will be really fun to see if Yumi can be a Rose or will she fashion her own style?

The elders appear and the truth is revealed. Sachiko was not going to dump Yumi in favour of Touko (duh) and now Yumi, Knight of the Mountain Lily, must mount a quest to save her Princess from the Jaws of Despair and Depression. Sachiko was really close to her grandmother and her illness and death was a great blow.

Yumi meets Sachiko and they finally communicate – something that they’ve failed to do over the past two episodes. This really underscores the point that communication is fundamental to any relationship, be it friendship or love.

This is very much a case of Sachiko depending on Yumi to get her out of trouble again (cf. from the start of the whole series) and luckily for her, Yumi has suffered but has overcome and has grown so that she can dole out her Touching Hearts power, made even more powerful by her Ordinary Girl (albeit not that Ordinary as she has a really Big Heart) status. Sachiko is really lucky to save someone who loves her as unconditionally as that and it’s good to see that Yumi is feeling less unworthy and it’s becoming less Distant Admiration or Heroine Worship and more of genuine rapport and empathy.

Can’t wait for the next season. Incidentally I’ve started reading the first three volumes of the manga and it’s certainly helped my enjoyment of the series as it fills in on a lot of little details that make the characters so much more human. Hope to post on those in the near future.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.