Yumi-sama
Fukuzawa Yumi from Maria-sama ga Miteru. Surprisingly, Maria-sama ga Miteru (a.k.a. Marimite) is one of my favorite animes that I’ve seen in the past couple of years. It’s a little bit over-dramatic at times. Usually the characters are elegant and cordial. The whole cast of girls minus Yumi seem completely unapproachable when we first meet them. They’re head of the student council, they’ve got stuffy french-y titles, seemingly high-and-mighty attitudes, and are looked upon as goddesses by the student body. In their school’s little circle of intrigue, they are the celebrities, but as each episode passes we get to learn a little more about each of the girls and by the end they seem like fairly decent, likable characters. There’s not much of a story or an antagonist to drive conflict, but that’s fine. It’s splice-of-life at it’s finest — soothing and relaxing (with moments of melodrama) — and Yumi is the chief narrator.
If you’re interested the series is done. It’s four seasons long — and I haven’t heard of a fifth season — and started in an age when 4:3 standard def was still the norm for television shows. The DVD sets come in only one flavor: subtitled, which is fine by me since I’ve come to enjoy the Japanese cast’s voice acting. The artwork’s a bit hit or miss. There’s a lot of emphasis placed on drawing eyes. Some of the characters you can tell just by looking at the eyes. Some of the eyes, some of the time, can be pretty freaky looking too, but they’re painted like windows so that you can peer into the depths of their souls.
In the story, Yumi is a student at an all girls school called Lillian Academy. They have a tradition where a junior takes a freshman under her wing to teach her proper values. Yumi ends up the imouto (younger sister) to Sachiko after some hesitation. Some fans seem to dislike Yumi but I don’t. She’s a bit dense at times. She seems to have skills, but they seem to only surround winning the approval of her “older sister,” Sachiko. She’s often needy and clingy, lost in thought, and sometimes passive aggressive or jealous. There’s nothing special about her. She won’t save the world, but she’s there for Sachiko when she needs her. Over the four seasons, she seems to learn and overcome her shortcomings in her own goofy ways to become an older sister herself.
