Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Jezueldj
"If you rat me out, I'll fucking rape you"
- Mariya Shidou
Pretty funny at the start but as the show runs on we find that the main character is what drags it down (Season 2 cements this).
The show fronts itself as focused on Maria, the posh school queen who's actually a boy but only really remembers that near the beginning. As the show moves on he might as well be one of the girls near the end.
As for the main character, her exploits as the 40 year old pervert in a high school girl's body is only funny almost never of time. It's made worse so by the fact that she plays the straight man in every scene, tiringly so. Lowkey half of the good part of the show is watching her be the butt of the joke like she deserves.
The anime definitely plays many jokes on absurdity which is where it shine…
Read at the sourceRabbitsWithGuns0
While this anime may not appeal to everyone, fans of humor and parodies will likely find enjoyment in it.
I ended up finding out about Maria Holic thanks to clips I saw on Twitter, which didn't really tell me anything about what this show was really about, but in hindsight it didn't really matter since I ended up finding it a pretty amusing and entertaining parody of the ecchi and shōjo-ai animes, elevating its presentation with ingenious and well-constructed jokes that took advantage of its outrageous and unapologetic plot that often got a laugh out of me.
Part of why Maria Holic is so unique is because of its previously mentioned plot: A girl who suffers from androphobia and literally gets hives if she gets touched by a man enters an all-girls high school in search of her true love, a…
Read at the sourceShitenyanyo
I'll make it short.
This anime and the main character are what stereotypical men imagine that lesbians are.
The main character "Kanako" acts like a pervert middle aged man and bleed tf out of her nose when she's around women in any situation because she's sexually aroused, also she's kind of dominated and controlled by a boy that dresses like a girl.
That's the plot, so maybe if you like ecchi and humor about being a creep around people you'll love this, but personally I found it boring and very repetitive, from episode 1 to 12 there are no notable changes to the plot, humor and story so it was kind of hard to digest.
Read at the sourceclabsauce
People really like to shit on this show but it is actually one of my favorite SHAFT animes. This probably just has to do with my personal sense of humor, but I find huge cartoonish nosebleeds, sadism, and comical degeneracy to be hilarious. This really is just weird SHAFT humor at its peak IMO; the grotesque excess of the bizarre parody that this show is is really the entire point. I can understand why someone would find it offputting but again the kind of over-the-top, absurd humor that this show employs is right up my alley. It is also decked out with many classic VAs from other SHAFT shows which are all just music to my ears. Of course I would never place this even near the true SHAFT crown jewels such as HidSketch and SZS, but I think this anime gets too much of a bad rap because I qui…
Read at the sourcespookynya
it is an anime.
maria+holic truly has to be one of the animes released in 2009. the voice acting is fine. The anime has storytelling and the show was animated. The side characters were along with kanako and maria was a guy. The jokes were sentences. This anime really is one of the animes of all time, if not the last two decades. A lot of the time it was just kinda boring or "what is going on??" but it did have some entertaining moments throughout it. It's a fine watch it just feels like it gets less interesting as it goes on.
Read at the sourceNolifeking13
DON'T WATCH THIS CRAP.
I usually enjoy watching series only for comic reliefs and for laughs but this I didn't have a single shred of enjoyment.
I forced myself into completing the series since I usually complete a whole series whenever I start one but this anime is one of my worst experience.
All the characters annoying, no story not that it matters in this type of series but each and every time I watch an episode I just wanna hang myself.
This review is from my worst experience and I don't want others to experience the same so don't watch this anime.
Read at the sourceRadeon
Attracted by one of the main character of Maria Holic to watch the series, the infamous Mariya Shidou, only to know that he was actually a crossdressing guy was a heartbreaking moment for me.
After the first few episodes of Maria Holic, a comedy/parody/drama anime, I got rather bored. At least 50% of the humor presented in the anime wasn't really that funny, sure it did make me smile or grin for a few times in some of the scenes but there were only handful of scenes that actually made me laugh.
I was planning to drop the series entirely after first few episodes, but then what made me continue to watch was the number of episodes it had; 12.
So in the end, I then completed the whole series in one sitting. Took me about 4-5 hours to complete the entire series. In those hours, just a coup…
Read at the sourcexMichi
Okay the thing is... I just don't get it. I don't get why they came up with such a crappy story as this. It's not very realistic, and it really tries to make you laugh. Which in my case...totally failed.
Well the story is about a girl who's a lesbian that transfers to the school both her parents went to( even though it's a girls school, but I believe they said that her father was a teacher there or something). She transferred to that all-girls-school in the hope to find the love of her live, like her parents did. There is this beautiful girl( Mariya), in Kanako(the main character) her eyes, who turns out to be actually a guy. He saw through the fact that she actually likes girls and kind of blackmailed her. She couldn't tell anyone about it, or else he would expose the fact that she is a…
Read at the sourceMoon_Light
“Yay! A gender bender, sort of” That was my original reaction after reading Maria+Holic’s summary. Twelve long episodes later the only words that could sum up what I felt was, “HUGE Disappointment”.
The story follows Kanako and leads us through her first day at, Ame no Kisaki Academy. Like every first anything she’s nervous yet excited at being in an unknown place with unknown people. To really understand this anime you have to know a little about our very own heroine.
Kanako is searching for what we all want, the perfect girl. Well, most of us, but true nonetheless. Being allergic to boys since she was young- mainly due to them being “dirty,” and perverts which resulted in her breaking out in hives with any physical contact with them. Enrolling in the all girl academy her parents met at…
Read at the sourceInushinde
I went into Maria Holic with mixed expectations. Everyone that I had talked about it with beforehand either told me it was a wonderful comedy that skewered a genre in need of some massive skewering, or it was too sick and dark to be labeled as such.
At first, I was in the latter camp. I found the humor to be lacking, with the abuse hurled towards Kanako almost being too much to bear. I couldn't describe it to a friend without making it sound like I stumbled upon the next School Days. Yet around the end, at about episode 8, I started to see exactly what the series was getting at. At that point, the humor inherent in Kanako's position made sense, and I started to look forward to each subsequent episode. But this wouldn't be much of a review if I didn't go into the how and why, so strap in.…
Read at the sourceace52387
There are few things in the world more subject to taste than comedy, which makes grasping for the objective in an evaluation of maria holic a difficult task. Take this review with more salt than usual.
I tend to prefer the simple punchlines in the likes of Hyakko or 4 panel mangas. Mariaholic has none of that, but has a nice balance of recurring gags, non sequiturs, references and self deprecating humor. Kanako is a closet lesbian genuinely allergic to guys. She thinks her life has taken a dramatic turn for the better when she steps foot in her new, all girls catholic school. The first girl she encounters strikes her fancy (though you will soon learn that just about any girl will do the same), but to her dismay, Kanako discovers this girl is actually a transvestite related to the founder…
Read at the sourceMelonLord1
First off, for the sake of not getting bashed by other fans of this series,I would like to say that this is my first review i have ever written for THIS site...oh, people are still reading this? OK THEN!
Take one love struck teenager of the same sex as the rest of the charecters who suffers chronic nosebleeds at the site of a female body, throw in a cross-dressing boy who looks as beautiful if not more beautiful than the rest of the FEMALE cast with a sadistic yet thoughtful personality, add a smart ,sarcastic, and monotone maid who does whatever the cross-dresser ask of her, kick-it-up-a-notch---(sorry Emeril)---with a love encassed priest who thinks all of Mozart's works are severe disieses, mix in a few great supporting cast members, and finally place a cat eared girl who looks younger…
Read at the sourceSamFury
Orientation at Ame No Kisaki
We stand at the silver oak lined gates of Ame no Kisaki, a Catholic all-girls boarding school, where pretty girls mature into beautiful ladies from the nurturing of Mother Mary’s principles. Ame no Kisaki is a dream of any man, a garden flourishing with budding womanhood. It’s also to dream of any woman, who happens to be a lesbian. Enter Kanako, our token perverted lesbian. She has come to Ame no Kisaki, for one thing, to find her fated lover.
On her first day touring the grounds she meets Mariya Shidou, young, cute and blonde. Kanako instantly falls in love, befriending her immediately. They seem to be a perfect match… at least in Kanako’s eyes. But just as fate giveth, it taketh as well. Kanako stumbles into Mariya and to her despair find out she is a boy.…
Read at the sourceConnorCrook
Ahh, Maria†Holic. Being a natural lover of anything SHAFT churns out of their brilliant studio, I decided to start watching it. If you've seen Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, you'll instantly feel familiar with the eccentric art of Maria†Holic.
Story - 7
Another thing you'll become familiar with if you've watched Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the story. Not because of how similar they are. No, they couldn't be any more different. You'll become familiar with the nonsensical, silly, parody-esque story immediately.
Now, also like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, this anime doesn't take even its own story seriously. If you're looking for a story-driven, deep anime, this is not it. However, if you're looking for a light-hearted, funny story with little relevance but great amusement, this is the one for you…
Read at the sourceSkadi
Maria Holic is a series which starts out with unexpectedly great promise and expectations only to fall on its face and drown itself in a pool of its own blood (literally).
I can’t say that the initial premise of this show intrigued me at all. Cross-dressing sadists... again? Honestly I just don’t understand the fascination Japan has with boys dressing up and pretending to be girls, and being creepily good at it too. Yet when this show was airing, it had some unexpectantly good word of mouth and early reviews so I thought I would give it a chance. Our protagonist is Kanako, a transfer student to an all-girls Catholic school that her mother went to and met her father. That should’ve have been a warning sign right off the bat but I was distracted by beautiful character designs and lovely art…
Read at the sourcekuroneko420
This is not your usual anime where it starts with some typical 16 year old male high school student.
You have a totally awesome sadistic crossdresser and a lesbian! Plus other fun characters (Dorm leader).
This just leaves me with asking for more.
Read at the sourcemistah-manila
Maria+Holic is... well its interesting. I love the idea of a yuri complex anime with a girl in an all girls school. Truly the humor in here is very satisfying until you see Kanako's fiftieth nosebleed. Humor in here is also very crude, but satisfying with that extra "WTF?" humor. Plus the violence in here is pretty amusing (more in a sadistic kind of way, but hey a joke isn't funny unless someone is hurt).
BUT This anime has some major issues to work out! After the third episode, each episode is two stories, and both are pretty boring. Second, the supposed "romance" as described in the genre, is non-existent, its more of a just a perverted woman's dreams. And last, its way too short. There you go!
Overall 7/10, not really a ground breaking series. If it wasn't for the for the eccentric p…
Read at the sourceKaminaKai
*A great entertaining product by SHAFT backed with hilarious out-of-the-blue jokes.*
"I-I don't even understand the letter C in Catholic!" - Miyamae Kanako
If I was asked to describe Maria + Holic in one word, I believe “wordy” will suit this show perfectly. The amount of monologues in the show is tremendous! Plus the “rail gunning” of words shooting back and forth between the characters simply makes the anime difficult to follow without pauses in between (assuming you need to read the subtitles). And the occasional weird reference to various things also contributes to the complexity of the show for an average viewer. These issues may turn some potential viewers away, but if you can get accustom to these minor issues, Maria + Holic is actually a rather unique experience.
The anime itsel…
Read at the sourceUnregistered00
Perverted Lesbian + Evil Cross Dresser = Fun
Without Maria and Matsurika this series will become another post 1st season Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
On to the review:
In the tradition of the earlier Shaft comedies (Pani Poni Dash, Negima, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) this is an episodic comedy. As with most episodic comedies there isn't exactly a real story. In short this is all about the gags even though some of them are too overexplained and simply fail.
Kanako with Maria and Matsurika is comedy gold. Kanako with other characters who's names escape me usually equates to fail. The problem here is that Maria+Holic uses the KMM combo sparingly. I can't blame the anime since using this combo too much will probably wear out in the long run.
Cosmetics-wise: Maria+Holic shines both in animati…
Read at the sourceGuitarHero
Keep in mind this is a review, not a summary! If you want a summary go to wikipedia.
Story: The story in this show is actually somewhat unique. Dealing mainly with a rather funny (closet) lesbian lead character, Kanako, who has problems with guys (she actually contracts hives if she comes in contact with them) and another lead character, Mariya, who is actually a male cross dresser but looks rather feminine. The actual plot jumps around from episode to episode but has so far remained genuinely entertaining and by episode 6, the larger plot of the show all together is revealed to you.
Art: The animation in the show is superb, I have only found one scene in the first 6 episodes that the animation (a characters face) looked just a tiny bit awkward. Maria†Holic has a great opening and the ac…
Read at the source