Studio: Shaft
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Ratings (of 5)
Story: ♥♥♥
Animation: ♥♥♥½
Characters: ♥♥♥♥
OVERALL: ♥♥♥½
Thoughts:
From Minari Endou, creator of Hatenkou Yuugi (also known as TOKYOPOP's Dazzle), comes Maria Holic. The premise is a high school age girl who transfers to the school where her then-teacher father met her then-student mother, hoping to meet her fated person..even though it's an all-girls school. See, this girl-- Kanako –is pretty much allergic to men. She breaks out in hives if she gets too near 'em. So Kanako, being the practical sort, has decided to seek a female significant other.
She thinks things are going great when the first person she meets, the beautiful and polite Mariya, is kind to her and even kisses her on the cheek...but then she accidentally walks in on Mariya changing and finds out that she is actually a he. Oops. Now Mariya is forcing Kanako to keep his secret.
I love me a good trap, I do I do. There being a ton of yuri potential in the series is an added bonus for all involved. One of the things I like about Minari Endou's works is that while Hatenkou Yuugi was classified as shoujo officially, it's really got a broad appeal-- the romance is light (if there at all) and there's plenty of action and comedy infused with the drama. Maria Holic runs in the slightly more shounen/seinen-skewing Monthly Comic Alive (which also features Zero no Tsukaima and Kanokon), but it's full of bait for fans of either gender.
The animation is decent, the characters are fun (especially Mariya's maid Matsurika, who likes to hurl deadpan insults at people), and the OP/ED are okay. If you're not squicked by gender-bending, you'll probably enjoy what appears to be a fairly light, goofy comedy.
