Maria†Holic: Alive 11

Crossing the gates of Ame No Kiseki girls school on this hot summer day, a young girl heads through the school grounds. Encountering the dorm leader, the girl introduces herself as Miyamae Miki, Kanako’s younger sister.

Lamenting the pile of books she’s forced to cram for mandatory summer classes, Kanako longs for a summer spent free of such studious matters. If only for that day, her wish comes true when the dorm leader appears with Miki in tow, much to Kanako’s shock.

Surprised to see her sister, Kanako’s smothering reaction is quickly fended of by Miki, the young girl apparently well versed in how to deal with her oddball sister. Having brought Kanako’s middle school graduation album along, Miki hands it to Mariya who wastes no time in reading its embarrassing contents, much to Kanako’s shame.

Snatching the book away, Kanako escapes and sits dejectedly through her classes, clutching the book in fear her friends would see the contents. Luckily, Yuzuru, Sachi and Kiri understand her plight, they would not prefer many others to know of their embarrassing childhood dreams.

Taking some time to catch up with Miki, Kanako is surprised to hear Miki had met Mariya many years ago when she travelled to Ame No Kiseki after their mother had passed away. Mariya’s elegant manner and her splendid form of Japanese archery had made quite an impact on Miki who doesn’t hesitate to visit the kyudo club once again. The archery club members are quite taken in with Kanako’s younger sister, especially Yamaki, Satsuki and Tsumugi.

When the girls idle talk drifts to Miki’s infatuation with Mariya, Kanako looses her cool and drags her younger sister away. Frantically running through the school gardens, Kanako panics and begs Miki to give up on Mariya, for Mariya is not the elegant lady she seems but a sadistic boy.

Realizing Mariya and Matsurika overheard her spilling the beans to Miki, Kanako panics even more and any chances at covering up are soon for naught. Admitting she is indeed a boy, Mariya talks things through with Miki, cleverly fending off the girl’s enamoured advances.

As to Kanako’s fate at having brought such peril on Mariya, even if it was to keep her beloved little sister from him, we shall see…

Thoughts on this episode~

Yet another new character appears but unlike the mere distracting cameos of Rindo and Touta, Miki’s appearance has a lot more impact, not only for her past encounter with Mariya or her peculiar relationship with her older sister Kanako but because she confesses her love to Mariya and what this means for Kanako and Mariya’s relationship dynamic.

While the idea of revealing Mariya’s secret has sometimes played in Kanako’s mind when trying to enact revenge for some ordeal Mariya had put her through, Kanako always came to her senses and remained loyal to her friend.

Yet this time round when her younger sister Miki’s well-being was concerned, Kanako’s panicked reaction to blurt out Mariya’s secret in order to keep Miki away and the following realization of what she has done was interesting to see.

Hope the story uses that to develop more on how Kanako and Mariya interact and to reveal what their true feelings about each other are. But will the story go that far this season?