Maria Holic Alive Review

Sorry this one is so late. Since it is so late this will be the last review of anime from the Spring 2011 season. Perhaps this show is the forgotten show of Spring 2011, being over shadowed by Denpa Onna. Was it even forgotten by Shaft too? Jump the break to find out.

What is it: A show about a girl who transfers to an all-girls school in the hopes of finding her true love. Once transferring she meets a beautiful girl who actually turns out to be a boy in disguised. Based on the manga by Minari Endo, 12 episodes were produced by Shaft for this second season.

Main Plot: Maria Holic Alive is the second season to the acclaimed series Maria Holic. Alive continues the plot of Kanako Miyamae and her crazy antics as she makes a complete fool of herself. This second season introduces more characters and gives some more back story to the characters.

Why it's special: Maria Holic first aired all the way back in 2009 so to see a sequel to such a show is something of a treat. The first show was interesting because it really put traps (guys who dress and look like girls) into mainstream. Plus the humor was good and kept it fresh. Many fans have been asking for a sequel because the way it ended was no ending by any means.

Plus One:
The new characters: In this second season we get introduced to a host of new characters such as Kanako's younger sister, Shizu in her male form, and Rindou. While the cast of Maria Holic is already quite large, adding these characters make the show more interesting because they actually have an impact. While Shizu was introduced in the first season, it was only briefly. 

The trolling: Shaft really put fans with a loop by not revealing the true opening for Alive until the 5th episode. Despite people wanting to see the true op, I found the other to be quite enjoyable. 

Yu Kobayashi: Probably one of my favorite voice actors does not disappoint in her role as Mariya. Mariya has to be one of the best characters to show off Yu's talent because she is able to go from a rough and gruff voice into a really girly voice the next moment. 

Minus One:
The humor: For being a comedy anime, this show had very few laughs and most of the time trying too hard to be funny. The first season worked just right because it did not try too hard and played with the source material with grace. 

Truly Shaft-ed: It can be easily seen that this show was not high on Shaft's priority. With two great shows, Madoka and Denpa Onna, Maria Holic Alive did not put much time or effort into this show. 

One for all:
Being a fan of not only the first season, I also read the manga, seeing this season was a very big disappointment. While it should be no surprise that Shaft was going to shaft a show sooner or later, it is disappointing that it had to be this show. Despite having every means to be a good show, it failed to live up to expectations. I would mainly blame the humor for this show's downfall because it simply was not funny for the most part. I suppose this shows just how wonky Shaft can be with their series.