So you say this maido waitress looks like Yumi-sama? Where's the cafe?
The idea of religion, Japan, culture, and varying admixtures thereof has probably been beaten to death — certainly we’ve done quite a bit of it recently (it’s all Kannagi‘s fault, really). It’s probably even been worn out on the subject of Marimite, but I thought I would wander around in the quagmire for a bit and wonder about the unique culture propagated by Lillian Gakuen.
Marimite takes place in Japan. That’s stating the obvious, but I have a reason: the theoretical setting of the show is nothing like Japan. It’s a traditional Catholic girl’s school, traditional setting of frisky porn and Frank Zappa songs. Japan is not known for the high number of Catholics in its population. So the characters are going to a school the average Japanese person has no direct experience with — in a way, it’s ‘exotic,” a kind of school with a different origin and different goals — the fan-repeated line “Walking slowly is preferred here” helps to indicate that.
But like all depictions of the “exotic,” it really just has lush trappings draped over the same old thing. Lillian Gakuen, save for one thing we’ll be getting to shortly, is exactly like every Japanese high school I’ve ever seen in an anime — okay, it’s girls only, but that’s not so odd as all that, given Hanadera is one hill over, and the schools mix things up for events all the time. Most of the events the school puts on are pretty standard, including sports and cultural festivals. I’m having a little trouble coming up with anything, in school, that makes it particularly Catholic — the repeated shots of the statue of Mary feel like the rote motions of ritual — Marimite must have Mary, just as performances of Macbeth must have the actor who plays Macbeth turn over his chair upon seeing the ghost of Banquo — it’s not necessary to the plot, but it’s traditional (ever since a Victorian actor did it to great acclaim, I believe); the audience expects it. Maybe I’m just an asshole — always a possibility — but I don’t see much of a reason for the Mary references save to situate us, to let us know we’re watching our friendly-neighborhood clit tease.
Now to the one differentiating detail: you guessed it, the soeur system. This system seems so arbitrary and strange that, if I back away from the show and look at the big picture, it feels like something a crazy sociologist / principal put into place, just to see what kind of shit it would stir up in the closed system (yes, I know the system exists in the real world, in certain iterations — I know most about the big sister / little sister pairings in sororities, nauseatingly referred to, by those involved, as “bigs” and “littles” rather than “onee-sama” and “imouto” — bleh). It creates a great deal of almost-genetic bonds for these people. The photographer siblings are the best example — that of “soeurs” who so closely match it’s hard to accept they’re not related. Of course, the main characters deviate from this constantly. Rei and Yoshino, the closest as they are related and spent all their childhoods together, are generally the most independent. Was Rei even in this latest episode? Sachiko and her older sister are similar, yes, but Yumi is nothing like either of them — and despite some of the nods Sachiko makes to Yumi still being young and untrained, there’s no chance in hell Yumi is ever going to be as affect-free as Sachiko, barring a huge emotional trauma.
Let me see here… Sei and Shimako are both “weird,” that’s true, but Sei is because of her desperate (in all the senses of the word) love of life and people, while Shimako is weird because of her fear of her situation and the society encompassing her — she’s the one example of it finally mattering that the school is Catholic, and while I liked the storyline wherein they get her to admit she’s a miko (basically), so she quits sulking about it, in the big picture it wasn’t that important.
Here’s my point (or the one that concerns the “family trees”): our main characters are all pretty troubled people, for the most part, and they’re taking the opportunity the sister thing provides to find someone to help “fix” them — to a degree. This is out of character for the system in general, though if we were to be kind about it, we could claim that’s one of the intended effects of the system. But it helps us look at the school for what it is: a strangely closed-off system, like a biosphere for young ladies, not sheltering them from the outside world so much as forcing them to evolve quickly. I guess the better simile is a hothouse nursery, rather than a biosphere.
What does this have to do with all the religious stuff I talked about earlier? I think the trappings of Catholicism serve more to further distance the school, for the students and the audience, allowing it to be a kind of far-away land while never being so strange as to make the audience spend time trying to work out what the society is like. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the nearby town named, and while it may be in the books, I would believe not (unless I’m proven wrong by one of you), given that the town is everywhere and nowhere — like Scott McCloud’s cartooned face, representing everyone by its simultaneous strangeness and familiarity.
Let me state the obvious again, because much of the time that’s what this sort of essay boils down to: Lillian Gakuen is a pressure-cooker for its students, getting them to just the right stage of doneness very quickly. It creates genetic strings in place of general support structures, partially to shore up the rickety, and partially to further bolster the powerful and confident.
If everyone blogged Marimite like this I would have seen it ages ago. Just saying.
I endeavor to provide satisfaction. :)
According to the TV Tropes page for the show: “Even the author admits that the series should best be seen as a fantasy story. None of the girls even use a mobile phone, even though it’s obviously set in the present.” There’s enough suspension of disbelief for this to work well I guess. Or at least not paying attention to that when there’s delicious subtext going on.
As to the “fixing” of the girls, I thought that actually was the main point of the souer system, with the older sisters teaching the younger ones how to become ready to be independent and proper ladies after they get out of the school. Yet, as I think you’ve mention it, in the relationship, or from the ones that we’ve seen in the series (when you get far enough), both siblings each get “fixing” experiences from the other. :P
NOOOOOO BARTHES NOOOOOOOO
I think the soeur system is in place to help train the girls, yes — but I do think that’s not quite the same as fixing them. It’s simply to help show them how to behave properly, hence Sachiko’s fixation on straightening Yumi’s scarf (delicious yuri subtext aside, that is). The school is almost like a Shakespearean green space (oh how I wish I had thought of this last night), wherein all the troubles are outside, and the setting and characters can work to get the person ready to fix them. Think the forest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
There’s something rather refreshing about a post that isn’t all “OMG YURI SUBTEXT FAPFAPFAP” or similar internet squeeing about two girls in close proximity, really. Almost iyashikei-esque.
Come to think of it, maybe you guys should watch Junjou Romantica and blog about it, too!
Well, despite my crippling backlog — I just now watched the eighth episode of Tytania — I seem to always be looking for new stuff, especially current stuff, so I can feel all cool and up-to-date. Should I be watching Junjou Romantica?
Only if you feel up to the task of sifting through the chaff of what is basically yaoi, with lots of graphically depicted (albeit generously censored for DVD sales) man-on-man buttsex.
But hey, ’tis all for the purpose of symmetry, yuri/yaoi and all that.
Well, I’ll pass on that. I am blissfully gender-specific in my homosexual media choices. :)
I can only wonder what would have happened had I known enough about JR to recommend it to you while discreetly obscuring the more important facts.
Ever read Revelations? That, but with longer hair. Also, fewer dread beasts.
I was wondering what you meant by your first comment. I do agree that it’s good to look at it from an angle other than “ZOMG SUBTEXT”. Though I also think that it’s necessary at least to acknowledge that the it could be interpreted to exist, i.e. “lesbian clit tease”. :P
I think the pressure cooking imagery is great, because the exact opposite happens. Things actually slow down rather than speed up, although it is hard to perceive that kind of speed difference in anime due to pacing constraints.
What I mean by that is this is a place where people prefer to walk slowly. The student mill around after school with their yamayurikai and sister x sister system. They take walks. Water roses in the green house garden. Rituals are time-consuming. Marimite is not a frantic plot-point-connect-the-dot shoujo story, even if sometimes that’s what it feels like. That goes to the suspension of belief for the audience to see that it really is kind of an alternative universe where time flows differently.
Lastly, as an aside…during Shimako/Noriko Buddhism arc…didn’t they say something to the extent that they do get religious training at the school? Just to round out the whole “not really Catholic” thread.
Well, I suppose the imagery could still work because a pressure cooker accomplishes in a short amount of time what usually takes longer — we could apply that either to the maddeningly short nature of the Marimite seasons or the short, sweet high school life usually referred to in anime (and, uh, our parents).
You are right that it doesn’t follow the typical pattern, even when some of the individual stories do.
I’m sure they did. It just seems so extraneous to the actual plot of the show that it’s hard to keep it in mind when watching. :p
I think that otherworldy aspect of Marimite is what made me watch so many episodes of really quite boring stories. It feels more like the 90s then the 2000s but that still wouldn’t explain what you brought up.
Slight aside: I should probably go and check this but from what I remember Sachiko’s character in the first couple of episodes was incredibly different to the rest of the series’ and that’s something that always annoyed me. She turned from this character frustrated and restricted by the actions and traditions of her family to this cold methodical personality. It’s occaisonally touched upon (the sleepover episodes) but for the most part the problems with her and Yumi’s seuor relationship are in Yumi’s head. I admit I haven’t finished the second season yet but for me the Yumi-Sachiko storylines are far inferior to the others, which is a shame considering they’re the main characters.
I cried when I looked at the picture for this post. HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY IMAGE OF MY DEAR TOUKO-CHAN?!
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