Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th

Let's get the bad out first. The art isn't stellar, and the only episode that has stunning character animations is 12 where all of Touko's emotions are beautifully evoked. There is a muted cello-ish classical soundtrack, but it's more whimsical and repetitive.

If you're expecting major plot developments, there aren't any, this is yet another "slice of life" Yamayurikai. This season focuses on the development of Yumi as a mature and complex character, and not the goofy foil to her aloof big sister Sachiko. The usual suspcets are back, with more emphasis on the maturation of the younger sisters Yumi, Noriko and Yoshino.

Similar plot elements of ... dates, subtle yuri elements, friendship, family, and whatnot are back. If you haven't watched the other three seasons, you'll be lost in the various characters and their backstories.

This show, though, essentially is about the interplay between Touko and Yumi set along the course of the school year through different pespectives. It's slow, deliberate, well-paced and doesn't misstep too much.

With that said, the show almost indulges itself in its sexual ambiguity. It constantly teases and hints at relationships, only to pull back and make the characters just friends--which is somewhat unreasonable given the feelings it seems to portray they have for one another, something that makes it seem shallow. Or, another theory, is that the characters are good at smugly downplaying what happens behind closed doors, but that's hardly plausible in this sugary world.

It also abandons several plot arcs abruptly and just writes characters out from the final few episodes, which makes you wonder why they didn't streamline it from the beginning, making it feel a bit sloppy. Also everyone being sweet and kind, and only evil for a good reason is a bit cliched and you wonder if there are no bad people in the world of Maria Sama and all can be fixed with some tea and cookies.

I've watched alot of anime in the past, and seriously... alot. I got done watching Strawberry panic, I liked it to and I found "Maria-sama ga Miteru" And I tried it out hoping that I may get lucky.. and I really did. Though seasons 1-3 were better, this one didn't disappoint. The Story could use some touch ups. Because at points during that it started telling you everything that was coming(which isn't exciting) The sound was good but sometimes it got bland or really tried to drive drama that wasn't even there or was barely there.(Which got annoying or hyped you up ... for nothing) But the art I thought really captured something that most don't. It tried to bring out the character and not be really too detailed on body and anatomy. Which in both cases defined the characters and make you understand them more. So in my opinion it pushed away some of the perverted aspects that come out of usual shows like this. And tried to really bring out the emotion. Overall I give this a 9. I loved it, I hope everyone else does too. I cried too ^.^;

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

4 seasons, 13 episodes of 20 minutes each aproximately (s1, s2, s4) and 5 episodes of 50 each in s3, making a total of almos 18 hours of my life watching this anime ... And this is what I get?

I have to be honest, I really enjoyed the first 2 seasons, I got really hooked up to the series for some reason and I wanted to see the beautiful end that made me feel "It was all worth" but no. What I saw was 13 episodes based on just 1 character, putting aside all the history of previous seasons, putting aside all of ... the main characters, putting aside everything just for 1 character ... And ending that did not close anything and mean less Than Nothing

Those 13 episodes felt just like the begining of the story but no, that's all folks. They could have done that in just 6 episodes and close the story like this series deserved it. I'm very dissapointed and sad. Please do not watch this last season nor the 3rd one, in my opinion this series should have ended in the 2nd season, when it was still good.