Maria†Holic Alive - Episode 5

Following the literal trials and tribulations of last week's episode, Kanako now possesses one of Ame-no-Kisaki's school records, taking her rightful place as the only student ever to fail all of her mid-term exams without exception.

Despite this horrendous record, Kanako still seems to think of herself as smarter than the average bear - or, at least, smarter than her older sister who attends some little backwater place known as the California Institute of Technology.  Still, with make-up exams on the way and a slew of notes to help with these exams provided by her various teachers, it seems that everything should end well enough for Kanako.  Or rather, that would be the case if she didn't get so distracted by ogling the girls of the school's archery club.

Kanako's daydreaming eventually leads to her falling into the worst kind of trouble - the attentions of "God", who locks her away in an alternate dimension for what is the equivalent of a year to Kanako but a week to everyone else.  That said, much has changed in Kanako's time away, from the appearance of a "bling" desk for our protagonist through to many characters sporting hairstyles so ridiculous that you can keep cats in them.  Throw in some more barmy card games and nosebleed inducing moments, and you've got yourself another episode of Maria†Holic Alive!

From a slow start to the episode, this week's instalment managed to pick up the pace and the giggles quite nicely as it went along - it was perhaps more reliant on randomness than usual even by this show's standards (those hairstyles, for starters) but it mostly worked without ever entering the realms of side-splitting hilarity.  In other words, this episode of Maria†Holic Alive was "funny enough" without being an outright classic.