Pre-OVA Maria-sama ga Miteru: People watching

September approaches, so it's as good a time as any other to get through some older series, and what better way to face the prospect of school with a series about school? Granted, there is little in common between Lillian and wherever I'm off to, but they are both almost self-sustaining environments, more or less closed off to the rest of the world, and fed by a never-ending supply of new students and relationships.

If the OVA is about the unfolding of process, then its predecessors are about the unfolding of people. I realize now that the OVA's seemingly goal-oriented structure [1] is a partial result of a normalizing of relationships, as well as the cast coming into their own as administrators. Prior, such tasks were left to their seniors, out of view.

While not dealing with weighty or even relevant issues, the unfolding stories and character interactions are compelling to watch, particularly the story of Shimako. She comes across as having a lot of baggage, and just how much isn't revealed until halfway into Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru~. It's also then that parallels and and the perceptiveness of past observations come to light, and despite the claim that only Sei knew Shimako's story among her peers, one has to wonder at just how much the other Roses knew.

Mis-communication runs rife in many of the drawn out conflicts in the series. As per her hair style, it allows Touko to turn the screws on Yumi and to a lesser extent, Noriko. Most misunderstandings are actually pretty straightforward situations, with the exception of Shimako's, stretching into the second season the way it did.

Back to people watching. Witness some conflict, develop some insight into a character or two, push the reset button after the resolution, next please! I don't mean to imply that either season was devoid of commitment, not at all. The focus on the characters is clear, the interactions flow well, and an excuse (like WAR) isn't necessary to have interactions in the first place.

Maria-sama ga Miteru's setting is like a casual (but not too casual) sidewalk: comfortable, moderated spontaneity, mostly non-threatening. A fine place for observing the ordinary aspects of life.

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[1] At least for the first three episodes. Many thanks to Otenba / Lililicious for their progress thus far.

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KOTOKO - Kirei na Senritsu single (B-Side)

Initially, my KnS and rush notes were going into the same entry, as would be expected, but it was as if the two songs couldn't be more different. Plus, I like rush much more.

I really enjoy listening to rush. We've seen KOTOKO rock out pretty hard before, with Hane and Uzu-Maki coming to mind as having some stand-out rock songs, but it seemed back then that whenever KOTOKO rocked out, it was almost a given that it was by order of the forces of darkness.

Not so with rush, and maybe the song title is a point in irony, because the music is contemporary easy listening. Were it not for KOTOKO's brand appeal (and the not-so-significant fact that it happens to appear beside the title track), I'd have never actively come across something like this, but I like it all the same.

There is motion, but it's laid back. There is dynamic contrast, with KOTOKO being almost drowned out by the backgrounds in the verse passages (that old mixer/balance problem?), but there is no drama. Like KnS, rush is uplifting, but does it from the ground up, not being all flighty. It is rustic with its sparse, strummed guitar accompaniment in the verse, and modern with strings in the chorus and elsewhere.

The first few times through the Winamp loop, I was enamoured by the outro. It was assertive, it had attitude. My only wish is that KOTOKO rock out more at the end. In the chorus she has wavering lines which she delivers with plodding detachedness, like a march. She should have cranked up that level of detachedness, giving her last lines a truly head-tossing (or biting) edge.

Instead of witnessing a marshaling of the hosts of despair, I see sun-kissed fields rolling by from the car windshield, or the train window. I could be walking the concrete jungle, or sitting in some terminal waiting for my flight. rush combines jet-setting anticipation with lazy summer days.

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KOTOKO - Kirei na Senritsu single (title track)

Kirei na Senritsu, second ED to the MariMite OVA, is one of those uplifting, tender tracks that's too quick to be a ballad. In the opening bars, with only piano and strings, it's quite possible that it could have been a slow paced love song, and the lyrics (partial translation) do lead you on if only you could understand them, but the instrumental break gives no doubt that you are on familiar I've Sound territory. Incidentally, KOTOKO is not the composer for either of the two songs, although she might have had some input in the creative process.

Epic-ness is striven for with strong bass and an upper-range line in xylophone, but fails to transcend the ordinary. What would have been nice is if chimes were used to carry the line. It's hard not to feel empowered at the sound of chimes ringing out, especially with this kind of song. Using chimes over something sparkly like a xylophone is also in keeping with the setting of the series. A harpsichord or clavichord, recognizable as sounding like a piano with plucked strings, makes an appearance, so why not chimes?

KOTOKO's voice sounds a bit strained (but not on YouTube, where the high-frequencies tend to be rounded off), and in the parts where there is little accompaniment it is particularly noticeable. This stands in contrast to the B-side, wherein she returns to her usual tone. I don't think it's a question of register but more of trying (too hard) to inject emotion. The effort is noted, although it sounds out of place.

To me, the song speaks of bittersweet wistfulness more than raw emotion. The drum claps in the verse passage are like echoes in time; the melody is free-flowing in line and rhythm, lost in thought. It's too bad that it's all cut short with the unconventional decision to only have one main verse.

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MariMite's Dream

I'm watching the third season of Maria-sama ga Miteru, consisting of 5 OVA-length episodes, without having watched the first two seasons. I thought I ought to reduce any semblance of credibility before anyone takes me seriously.

As of this entry, I've finished the first three episodes. After a long gap, I watched the latter two consecutively. It may have had something to do with an inkling I had, but it was KOTOKO's second ED for the series, Kirei na Senritsu, that sealed it. A higher quality Stage6 version of the sequence may be found by Googling the the song title.

All episodes are self-contained with persistent characters, but with no continuity in the story, releasing the viewer from the duty of having to rewatch previous episodes in order to regain context. As I understand it, each episode corresponds to one novel, which is convenient.

This OVA offers something for the classicist and the control freak. Not much separates either of the two, and I have been known to exhibit signs of both extremes depending on the situation and how much sleep I've gotten in the past week. I thought that perhaps there was some element of romanticism as well, but the setting and the characters don't have romanticism so much as they romanticize the school and school themes, specifically private school.

I'm more jaded now, but as a kid, this is what I'd have liked at least my high school years to have been. In this self-contained environment, there are rules and procedures. Even outside the school, that same formality dominates the thinking and actions of the characters. The world, not just the school, is thus neat and ordered, and all actions are initiated by a plan. Watching the second and third episodes back to back, I was acutely aware of the feeling that I was watching the unfolding of process, and even though most stories are about progression in a general sense, a story based around meetings and the organization of events drives home a point otherwise taken for granted.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking, this is a classicist's dream, going beyond, say, the proper organization of events and human interaction. That's just how business proceeds on a good day. More than professionalism, there is also a sense of reservation. Discretion does play a role in being formal, but one does not need to be subtle in order to have discipline and good time management skills.

Dialog is not gratuitous; few characters speak for the sake of speaking. Just as muted is the art, eschewing bold colours. Some scenes feel like memories: visible but too ethereal to be tangible.

Against the Real World, this setting comes up short like all self-contained environments have a tendency to do. The activities the characters organize and take part in, the kinds of social circles they partake in, the necessary mannerisms, all have little correlation to what I've seen. Everything that I identify with aligns with the ideals in my head. To me then, MariMite is a beautiful dream, an acceptable substitute for those nights where there won't be any sleep.

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