cokesque

Synopsis

Welcome to the Lilian School for girls, a sprawling campus of cherry and gingko trees encompassing grades from kindergarten through college. In order to maintain a pure and clean environment, the high school has established a formal senpai/kouhai system where each upperclassman gives her rosary to a younger girl, who becomes the “little sister,” receiving protection and guidance from the elder girl.

Fukuzawa Yumi is a first-year student who has yet to become a little sister to anyone, though she has dreamed of being asked by Ogasawara Sachiko, the second-year girl who makes Yumi’s heart go doki-doki but who doesn’t even know Yumi exists—or so Yumi thinks until the moment when Sachiko-sama suddenly offers Yumi her rosary.

Impressions

Not long ago I was sitting in my lofty pleasure dome contemplating shoujo anime and thinking “If only there were more yuri for the flower-loving Francophiles.” That’s what I was thinking. I mean, we haven’t had anything like that since before the turn of the century.

Enter Marimite, brimming with lillies and roses and cherries and gingkoes, oblique Latin and French titles, intensely cool student council members, and wide and glassy-eyed girl-girl love. But wait, this isn’t your daddy’s Utena, there’s more! As if there wasn’t enough symbolism available in the whole rose department, Marimite appropriates iconography straight from the top, the Catholic church, with full-on rosary attacks and Holy Mother Virgin Mary watching your every move. That’s right, it’s an anime about Japanese Catholic-school lesbians in sailor uniforms! What could be better? Count me in, baby.

Well, hold on there, sailor.

Actually, Marimite is a pretty light on the shoujo-ai aspect. There is a lot of general shoujo-style idol-worship and the occassional inappropriate touching by Rosa Gigantea, but nothing to get your panties in a bunch about—not that there are any panties to be found. The action is not so much girl-on-girl as girl-adjacent-to-girl.

But once you set aside any preconceptions and realize it is a tale of schoolgirls gowing up and growing together, it becomes apparent that Marimite is actually a lovely anime.

To summarize:

• Yuri lovers will be sorely disappointed; the lesbian count is quite low and the skirts are quite long.
• Action fans and those who hate slow-paced platonic shoujo will run away screaming.
• Folks who enjoy languid and often melodramatic portrayals of schoolgirls and their classmates will eat it up.

Random Thoughts

Marimite is based on 12 novels by Konno Oyuki, and the Yumi/Sachiko pairing has been a favorite doujinshi subject for ages, even before the manga and anime were created.

Little sisters are known by the French title “Petite Soeur.” The student council (ie, yamayurikai, the Mountain Lilly Council) has a further hierarchy of relationships. The three senior girls are the white, red, and yellow roses: Rosa Gigantea, Rosa Chinensis, Rosa Foetida). Each of them takes a little sister, usually a second-year girl, who is known as her En Bouton (the “budding” rose). Each En Bouton in turn takes a first-year girl as her Petite Soeur. So you end up with three girls for each color, for example, Rosa Gigantea, Rosa Gigantea En Bouton, and Rosa Gigantea En Bouton Petite Soeur. Whee!

- 2005-12-08 01:00 -