DVD Review: Maria Watches Over Us Season One

"Maria Watches Over Us" is quite an impressive series. Season one is filled with plenty of juicy romance stories of girls dating girls. This review covers discs 3 and 4 of the series.

While we've all seen the "schoolgirls all caught up love triangles" story before, "Maria Watches Over Us" featured plenty of engaging surprises. Right from the get-go, a student makes one heck of a proposal at the Yamayuri council. She wants to hold a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt, in which the person who finds a card wins a date with one of the grande soeurs.

Yumi Fukuzawa has worried about what to give her "big sister," Sachiko Ogasawara, for Valentine's Day. However, Yumi hasn't talked to Sachiko for a long time now. Yumi's crossing her fingers that she can find the card and give Sachiko a great Valentine's Day present.

In the meantime, Rei Hasekura of the Foetida family has been worrying about her petite soeur, Yoshino Shimazu. After all, someone else found Yoshino's card. Hopefully Yoshino doesn't get too worried about Rei's date with someone else.

Meanwhile, Sei Sato of the Gigantea family stayed out of the spotlight until episodes 10 and 11, when a mystery person named Sei Suga wrote a romance book. There's rumors floating around that Sei Suga is just a pen name for Sei Sato. Even though the rumor is false, the story reveals Sei Sato's dark past, when she was in love with Kubo Shiori.

Overall, the last set of episodes really wrapped up "Maria Watches Over Us" nicely. Although most of the best episodes are covered at the beginning and the end of the series, the stories are fantasic. Probably the best storyline featured Sei Sato's past romance with Kuro Shiori, a girl who works at a church. Perhaps it was a romance that could never come true, but Sei Sato's voice actor goes through a complete sea change from cheerful to completely depressed. And Sei is surprisingly genuine in her emotions.

Too bad Sachiko and Yumi's romance never went through as many intense emotions as Sei Sato's romance. Then again, people would find it hard not to love Yumi, for doing everything she can for her big sister. They'll probably also love watching Sachiko wear jeans instead of fancy dresses for a change.

With such a colorful cast of female characters who love (ahem) female characters, no one can go wrong with "Maria Watches Over Us" season one. Although the price of the box rose to $44, it's still one hell of a bargain, for all the emotion conveyed in this series.

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