Touko Ryogi

ANN Link: Maria Watches Over Us (TV) - Anime News Network

Well, I'll begin my first recommendation with a show that a number of people have mixed feelings for. Maria Watches Over Us (Maria-sama ga Miteru) is a show with very beautiful artwork and a slow moving pace, but that's alright, in this show, we prefer walking slowly, so to speak.

It has a cast of nearly all females (it does take place in an all girls school as the summary states), most of which come from upper class families and have a pedigree to them. The main focus of the first season is the building of the relationship between Yumi, our main heroine, and her new elder sister Sachiko. The show runs with a number of lesbian undertones, and at least a couple of the characters are openly gay in it, but the show doesn't run in a lewd or ecchi direction at all. Everything's done very tastefully and paced out, you won't find any panty shots or over the top yelling or plots in this series. At best you may see a girls bare shoulders, haha.

It's definitely worth a look for girls and guys of all persuasions, I've seen plenty of straight guys being closet fans of this series, so it's doing something right. There's two 13 episode full seasons and a 5 episode OVA (which counts as Season 3) out now, season four has already been announced to be in the planning/production stages. Maria Watches Over us has been licensed by Right Stuf Entertainment with the entire first season available in a single set of sub-only DVDs tomorrow (Maria Watches Over Us Season 1 DVD Collection (S) (TV)) so give it a shot, great deal for a great series.

A warning though: Avoid this series if you watch anime mostly for fanservice and action, none of those things around here!

LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

Additional review on this series... Maria Watches Over Us Season 1 Collection | Mania.com

Official Website (with trailers) Maria Watches Over Us (Maria-sama ga Miteru)

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