Maria†Holic episode 7

Picking up right where the previous episode left off, Kanako’s classmates suspect her of having stolen Honoka’s underwear. Since theft is punishable by expulsion from Ame No Kisaki, Kanako is a pinch and her incoherent mutterings only make her seem even more guilty.

Luckily none other than God shows up to save the day! That is, Ryouchou in classic detective garments, who quickly reveals the real culprit is Yonakuni-san. Kanako retrieves the underwear from the dog, but to Honoka and everyone’s shock, she then runs off with it herself.

Having lunch at the cafeteria with Momoi, Kiri and Yuzuru, Kanako’s fantasy runs amok into wild yuri dreams when she sees how well Momoi and Kiri get along, coming back to reality she also notices that Yuzuru seems uncharacteristically depressed.

During their practice at the archery club, Mariya noticed Yuzuru’s form was off so she questions Kanako about it when she returns to the dorm later that evening. Kanako reveals that Yuzuru didn’t seem her usual self during lunch either and wonders what could be wrong.

The next day in class, Yuzuru invites Momoi to come watch her during archery practice but much to Yuzuru’s displeasure, Momoi declines, saying she needs to run an errand with Kiri.

Visibly depressed, Yuzuru does even worse at archery practice. When Yuzuru questions Mariya on how Mariya copes with Kanako having other friends and spending time with them, Mariya retorts that friendship is like archery, it’s never perfect at the start but needs practice to improve.
Momoi unexpectedly turns up to watch Yuzuru after all, but as she brought Kiri along, Yuzuru is even more distressed and runs of crying because she misses shot after shot.

Pondering why her heart seems too small to cope with Momoi’s friendship with Kiri, Yuzuru skips class the next day, bedridden with a headache. Worried Yuzuru fell ill just this particular day, on her own birthday, her classmates decide to pay her a visit.

Yuzuru awakens to find they have all gathered in her room to celebrate her birthday, complete with a cake, sweets and presents. Momoi reveals that she and Kiri had been spending so much time together in order to prepare for Yuzuru’s birthday, including buying her a new archery glove as present. Yuzuru is delighted, seeing how much Kiri cares for her too, she now opens her heart to Kiri as well, realizing she’s not losing a friend, but gaining one.

Even Mariya and Matsurika show up to celebrate along, but the party has one saddened guest, Kanako, for she hasn’t gotten Yuzuru anything for her birthday. True to her character, Mariya suggests Kanako entertains them all, putting Kanako in a pinch. What will Kanako do?

I was curious how they would resolve the underwear theft, especially after they had explicitly stressed theft is a reason for expulsion from the school. They resolved it in a delightful manner, topping it off with a hilarious conclusion by having Kanako run off with the underwear after all.

Nice that Yuzuru got her moment in the spotlight, they also used this episode that focused on her to explore more of Momoi and Kiri as well.
Liked what they showed us of Mariya too, Mariya is really an interesting mix of seemingly caring about people after all, but with that sadistic edge ever present, one might wonder if it’s Mariya’s true nature speaking then or if it’s a facade to hide and protect the gentler, more caring side.
Kanako was really pushed into the corner and branded a pervert all throughout this episode, especially by Mariya and Matsurika, though not without reason. She’s so deliciously perverted.

There was a definite cuteness competition between Yuzuru and Kiri, they were both quite adorable when blushing beet red as we saw them do in this episode!