Maria-sama Ga Miteru 4th season episode 4

The long awaited day of the petite sœur audition has come and many of Lillian’s first year students have gathered at the Rose mansion. Yoshino starts off by introducing herself, inviting all the other girts to do the same after which they can all mingle to become better acquainted. She is already rather restless though, noticing most of the girls there seem to be focused on Yumi.

As all the girls introduce themselves, one girl stands out, namely Shouko Naito, the girl who had declared it was not so much becoming the petite sœur of Yumi or Yoshino that interested her, but rather to become part of the Yamayuri council.
When they start to mingle and spark up conversations, it doesn’t go smoothly for Yoshino, a stark contrast to Yumi who constantly has several girls talking to her, openly confessing how much they admire her.

Escaping from the crowd, Yumi sees Shouko standing in front of the Rose mansion’s stained glass window.

Shouko tells Yumi that when she was in middle school she had seen a photo of the Yamayuri council members, with all the roses and their en bouton petite sœurs posing in front of that stained glass window.
They looked so dazzling to her that from then on she wanted to become a part of the Yamayuri council and one day be included in such a photograph.

When Yumi asks if her desire to be in the Yamayuri is the reason she doesn’t mind who of Yumi or Yoshino becomes her grande sœur, Shouko apologizes for having said something so foolish. With her usual positive radiance, Yumi says that Shouko mustn’t necessarily be a part of the Yamayuri council to become happy, as there’s plenty of dazzling and happy people all around her in school. Realizing what Yumi means, Shouko is grateful, even though she knows that she’s been rejected from becoming her petite sœur.

The following days a few of the first year girls that were retained from the audience come by the Rose Mansion to introduce themselves to Sachiko and Rei, but none satisfy as suitable petite sœurs. With the kendo meeting approaching fast, Yoshino is desperate.

The day of the kendo meeting, not only does Eriko attend, she even brought along Sei and Youko. Meeting up with Sachiko and Yumi, they take seats in the viewing balustrades near the kendo court, Eriko starts to try and guess which girl among the crowd of spectators may be petite sœur, Sei and Youko even joining in. Though she suspects that Yoshino was just being boastful, one girl wearing a pink sweater does catch her eye.

Knowing Eriko is there, Yoshino tries to focus on the kendo match and cheers on her onee-sama Rei, captain of their team, to victory in her single bout, alas it doesn’t prevent their school from losing the overall match. As soon as the match is over, Yoshino tries to make a quick escape but is caught by Eriko.
Even though Eriko suggests that Yoshino may drop the her charade and confess that she doesn’t have a petite sœur yet, Yoshino doesn’t give up and blurts out that she’s meeting with her the girl who’ll be her petite sœur soon, for she has gone to the ladies room.
Hurrying to the ladies room, hoping desperately she can get out of this conundrum, Yoshino bumps into a girl, her rosary falling to the ground. The girl picks up the rosary, noting how beautiful it is, and Yoshino quickly asks her to play along when Eriko appears.

Eriko is intrigued since the girl Yoshino presents as the one she will make her petite sœur is that same cute girl in the pink sweater that Eriko had noticed earlier on. Introducing herself as Arima Nana, the girl plays along and says it’s due to her circumstances that’s hasn’t received Yoshino’s rosary yet to become her petite sœur.
Smiling, Eriko leaves the two other girls but not before saying that Nana should fix her school uniform properly. Puzzled at Eriko’s comment, Yoshino is shocked to see Nana revealing the uniform under her sweater is that from the middle school division, for she’s not yet in Lillian’s high school division. Yoshino slumps down in despair, realizing Eriko had seen through their act.
Before taking her leave, Nana asks if Yoshino, being Rei Hasekura’s petite sœur, will one day pass on that rosary to her own petite sœur.

Talking about the petite sœur debacle with Yoshino the next day while in school, Yumi notices how their classmate Mami seems to be getting along well with her own petite sœur Hidemi. Decided, Yoshino reveals that if she hasn’t found a petite sœur when she reaches the third year, she will make Arima Nana her petite sœur then when she joins Lillian.
After school, Yumi and Sachiko talk about how she wasn’t able to find a petite sœur at the audition, but what truly matters is that she only makes someone her petite sœur the day she meets a girl she gets along with well and cares so much about as she and Sachiko do about each other. For that bond of kinship is what being sœurs is all about.

It was surprising to see how popular Yumi seems to be, as at the start of the series her lively, bubbling personality, more common background and demeanor were nearly seen as inferior, the traits of someone not fit to have Sachiko as her onee-sama. But it is in fact her lively personality, innocence and enthusiastic smile that have made her so popular.
Though I also suspect they might be stressing Yumi’s popularity for the petite sœur plot as well as to prepare the viewers for Yumi becoming a Rose, perhaps even the leading Yamayuri council member.

Most of this episode focused on Yoshino and her antics, I quite enjoyed seeing her interaction with Eriko, even though they’re a sœur generation apart, Eriko seems to know Yoshino quite well.
Too bad Shouko didn’t feature as much as I thought she would from the preview. Loved the part with Nana though, there was nice chemistry between her and Yoshino and it seems they’ll go down that path, leaving Yoshino to skip a year and have Nana become her petite sœur once she enters Lillian high school.

Quite funny to see Yoshino and Rei have pizza at the start of the episode and later on see a moped with Pizza Hut on it drive by. Code Pizza Hut anyone?

Another nice episode, looking forward to the next one where we’ll see Yumi and Sachiko make a pleasure trip to an amusement park.