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Maria Holic
Anime Review
Comedy is a hard beast to master. Undeniably, surprise is one of the central pillars of the art form. Timing, yes, but to elicit true responses from your audience, they must (at least initially) not expect what is going to happen. This can be done a number of ways, but the one we want to discuss today is shock value.
Absurdity meets offensiveness as Maria Holic is, essentially, the story of a lesbian with a physical allergy to men, and the cross dressing sadist who emotionally terrorizes her. It's immediately plain to see that this is not your typical comedy, and the absurdity of it all keeps the viewer more of a spectator than a participator.
To restate and expound, the plot centers around a lesbian high school girl (Kanako Miyamae) who literally possesses an allergy to men (hives and everything.) By both desire and situation, she has transferred to a prestigious all girls school, in search of both sanctuary and love.
She begins the show by giving grandiose speeches, brimming with hope and innocent fantasy, until she meets the beautiful Maria. Grandchild of the chairwoman, Maria is polite, charming, and incredibly helpful. Upon hearing of Kanako's allergy, Maria snaps, and then tenderly kisses her, only to have the young lady break out into hives. Yes, the chair's grandchild is a man, who has spent years concealing his identity, yet couldn't resist the urge to tease and torture this stranger.
 Confused and entirely unsure of what to do, Kanako attempts to resume her regularly scheduled life, only to have Maria forcibly involve him/herself, in order to keep his secret safe. While the barebone themes of a cross-dresser and his/her secret carrying victim actually crops up a lot in romantic (or at least young female) works, Maria Holic is pretty much just a comedy.
You might even call it a farce. Soft colors and long looks set up a conventionally pretty appearance, only to be contrasted by sharp, fast hyper violence, or a cartoonish depiction of events. For that matter, the entire cast of characters seem to read off a list of tropes, just to ensure there are more objects for the pinball of a plot to bounce off of. The effect, if you allow it, can be quite endearing.
But I mentioned something of offensiveness? On the surface of their interaction, Kanako is a young, sweet woman who happens to be a lesbian, and Maria is a man who regularly berates her as a pervert and anomaly, making her feel terrible. Taking into account her incredibly vulnerability during her coming of age, these acts could easily be seen as offensive, were they not so flagrantly and intentionally hypocritical. Backing up two feet will tell you that the font of abusiveness comes from a man who has spent decades masquerading as a female, and is quick to anger at anyone insinuating he enjoys it at all.
 Thus, the duality of his sweet, beautiful side, and his sadistic, cruel side defines the comedy. On a superficial level, he keeps Kanako under his thumb in order to preserve his identity, but there is a fun dynamic there. Were Kanako male, she would be the common, nose bleed laden boy from every anime, yet here she's an adorably awkward lesbian. Despite her normal sexual curiosities, long term cross-dresser Maria enjoys an emotionally abusive (and hypocritical) relationship.
The animation is fantastic, the direction is strong. If you're familiar with other Shaft products like Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, this is another (though distinctly lucid) chapter in their lineage of high production value works.
The first two episodes can be seen streaming at TheAnimeNetwork, with the remainder of the series available to the service's subscribers. Though, as a fair warning I should state that the show's first episode is by fair its least interesting. Slow pacing, high narrative, if you read this entire review through and just want to see what its about, we suggest episode 2.
Reviewed by John Martone , April 2011
Below: Scenes from Maria Holic.
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