Review of Maria Watches Over Us

"Maria-sama ga Miteru" is a sweet and enjoyable shoujo. For a shoujo it's surprisingly undramatic, but this means it lacks melodrama too, so no deathbed love stories or over the top villainous girls. As yuri sorts of shoujos go, it's more realistic and less silly than "Strawberry Panic" but not quite the "these are real girls" experience of Aoi Hana. There's a good deal of silliness here, but it's presented in a natural enough way. It helps that the central character Yumi is likeable enough, and doesn't come off entirely as a Mary Jane sort, a Little Miss Perfect without any personality. I think it's ultimatelya nice balance. It's amusing and funny but you don't find yourself rolling your eyes at unbelievable characters and goofy melodrama. There are deep friendships and light romance but it's not sappy. A lot of the relationships are presented in a clever way, such as Yumi and Sachiko, such that you think you understand a character but in later episodes, fascinating new layers are added that build on tiny hints of their character from earlier episodes.

The only annoyance for me is that many episodes seem to focus on a specific character and story, to the neglect of everything else, with Yumi hardly showing up in some episodes.

This is definitely a "quiet" anime, even by shoujo standards. There is not a lot of screaming and high drama, but this is actually refreshing because the story is so laid back and void of melodrama that makes you not take it seriously.

I didn't find the art in this series to be anything special (it did get better in the second season). The music in the first season was also a disappointment, the arrangements of "Ave Maria" (basically obligatory, given the title) might sound great to Japanese ears but as someone familiar with western arrangements of it, I have been underwhelmed.

If you like well-written shoujo, especially the sort with intense friendships that border on yuri, this is definitely worth checking.