Maria†Holic episode 6

It is the day of the yearly physical examinations at Ame No Kiseki and Kanako is up early, unable to sleep any longer from sheer excitement at being one of the students assigned to help during the examinations. Annoyed, Mariya proceeds to bully her.
Kanako is quick to note that Mariya is also up earlier than usual, but Mariya brushes her off and departs. When other students later note that Mariya seems nowhere to be found, Kanako suspects she has left to escape from the physical examination.

Gathering at the nurse’s office with the other students tasked to help, Kanako can not bear it any longer when the girls start to remove their clothing, she has such a violent explosive bloodnose that it renders her unconscious.
Bedridden in the nurse’s office, Kanako’s ordeal is far from over as she continuously wavers between happiness and torture at hearing all the girls undress to take their health examinations.

When Sachi and Yuzuru later visit her bedside, Kanako overhears the first year students now taking the examination and her heart just about stops when she hears Mariya’s name being called.

Afraid Mariya’s secret is about to be exposed, Kanako leaps from her bed, shoves the curtains aside calling out to Mariya. Her shock and disbelief couldn’t be greater when she sees an undressed Mariya with a normal girl’s body. The sight of Mariya’s all to real bosom quickly proves fatal and Kanako collapses.

Kanako awakens later to find all her friends, including Mariya, at her bedside, worried about her wellbeing. After Sachi, Yuzuru and Kiri take their leave, Kanako starts to question Mariya, unable to comprehend what happened. Mariya’s reactions are puzzling yet Kanako fails to notice the slightly different voice and the mole being on the other side of her head.

All is soon revealed when Matsurika arrives, shortly followed by none other than the real Mariya. The girl whom Kanako had seen undressed and took part in the health examination is actually Shizu, Mariya’s twin sister.

Mariya and Shizu explain that they are competing against each other to see who can pretend to be the other the longest without being exposed, with Mariya posing as a female at Ame No Kiseki girl’s school and Shizu posing as male at an boy’s school. The winner will be rewarded by their grandmother with the head position over both schools.

Shizu claims she has won since Kanako knows Mariya’s secret but Mariya retorts it is actually the opposite. Since Kanako discovered Mariya is a boy before she officially became a student at Ame No Kiseki it doesn’t apply according to the rules, however thanks to their earlier explanation Kanako now knows Shizu’s secret. Mariya says she’ll overlook the incident if Shizu apologizes and kisses her shoes, which causes Shizu to run off crying.

As Kanako ponders about everything she just learned, her impression of Mariya softens when Mariya says she doesn’t really care about winning the competition that much, she just wanted Shizu to attend the boy’s school to get over her fear of men.

After all is said and done, it seems that Kanako’s classmate Honoka’s underwear is missing and Kanako is soon suspected of being the culprit. What will befall Kanako next?

Quite the revelation this episode! We meet Mariya’s twin sister Shizu and learn she’s doing the same as Mariya, only she’s posing as male at an all boy’s school. Though one will ponder how she could ever pull it off with that hairdo and bosom, but I guess we’ll have to leave that one to suspension of disbelief.
The mix of similarities and differences between Mariya and Shizu was interesting, they have the same sadistic, mean character streaks yet it is also clear that while similar, their personalities aren’t the same either.

Mariya and Kanako’s relationship seems to steadily evolve, regardless of Mariya tormenting Kanako quite often, she is discovering more and more about Mariya, uncovering her secrets and softer side. This could indicate a Mariya and Kanako pairing is what the series may be heading to. Especially with Kanako veering straight and rushing out when she though Mariya would be exposed suggests she’s starting to care more deeply about Mariya..

Had tons of laughs thanks to Kanako’s ecchiness and incessant explosive bloodnoses. An excellent episode and I’m curious what the following ones will bring. Though I gather if there’s going to be any pairing by the end of the series, it may all evolve rapidly from now on so I’m not sure how much attention the other girls will be getting.

Now let me go stuff some more cotton up my nose to stop the blood gushing out from seeing Shizu’s luscious bosom.