Ess Eee Batsu. Or as its more often known sex. O Maidens is about 5 highschool girls as they go through the part of puberty where sex begins to take root in their schema of romance. They are maidens in their savage season so to speak. What ties our protagonists together isnt their age or social status they arent all in the same class or even the same year and range from popular to loners to plain uncool but that they are all part of the Literature club. What I love about this use of setting is that it makes the characters a lot more literate they all have a poetic way of thinking about love which stems from the literature they read from within the club. Its not a major element in the story but its effects are definitely noticeable which makes it a lot more relevant than a lot of other anime that just use the club to bring the characters together but the club itself has no greater bearing on the story. The show starts off as a comedy as awkwardness regarding sex is very easily turned to comedy but it does this without going overboard. The thoughts of the main perspective character Kazusa remain relatable throughout as does her character arc. Most other comedies would either blow out of proportion of the sexrelated jokes or as all the lead characters are girls mask their teenage sexual desires as love as a lot of other anime/manga do when telling Shoujo romance. https://66.media.tumblr.com/cb28844529500dd735bb6e0af88bb8dd/tumblrpxgxkbA1Gj1y5poaro2540.gifv However this isnt to say that the other characters arc go into those territories the head of the Literature club Sonezaki Rika has her romantic arc set in a much more pure setting. She initially is uninterested and disgusted by the growing sexual relations and interests in her fellow classmates and wants no part in their world of romance but prefers to relate to an idealised version of sex in the literature she presumably forces upon the literature club to read seeing it as poetic while in real life it is vulgar she wants a poetic romance that she believes cant be achieved with anyone at her school but with a magical person who will appear out of nowhere and create the perfect romance with her. Very Shoujomanga like. Her character arc is probably the most introspective of the bunch as while she tries to have a pure romance for herself she learns that not everyone has that or even wants that. Rika views all the other relationships in the school to be those driven by sex and when she does begin a relationship herself she pushes to keep it secret out of fear that shed be viewed the same as how she views others. Rika sees the people in her class delving into their animalistic instincts and therefore animals themselves even calling literal pigs in the first five minutes of episode 1. Enter Jj. A gyaru and the epitome of what Rika views as the impure romance. However Jj takes an interest in her and initiates conversations whenever she gets the chance and while they have a lot of differences they find a lot of common ground as well which allows for Rika to view Jj and by extension others as other complex human beings which results in her taking a very different stance than she initially would have on a turn of events at the end of episode 10. https://puu.sh/EuTJv/3dcf00b6bc.gif The show also goes for the more absurdist romantic and sexual situations anime may be more prone to give mainly through Hongos story as well as Niinas. However the prior is played more to the comedy of the show where the other weaves with the shows tragic side. While this is the case while the five storylines cross a broad amount of colour it still fits into the same palette. The same rules are in place in all of the five stories meaning they all fit wonderfully together and dont feel disjointed from one another although some of the stories do feel unlikely not impossible just unlikely. Niina seems to be peoples biggest issue with the series from what I can tell because she makes some selfish choices. However looking at her character I personally think it makes sense for her to do what she does from her perspective especially with her backstory and goals she stated in episode 1. What I think should also be on peoples mind is shes experiencing emotions shes never felt before when she makes these...unsavoury decisions. Once again with this show it operates in a very realistic setting even if the structure of their individual stories arent but thats the point to see how real life would change these more tropey and polarising romances. Niina may be selfish but what teenager isnt? What I honestly feel may be one of the shows strongest points is how it handles Momoko. Minor spoilers for this bit as while it isnt the culmination of her arc the revelation is the turning point of it and some people may want to experience along with the show even if it is a bit obvious: https://66.media.tumblr.com/e37db04aff454ecd79e40f6ffb129111/tumblrpy5khdA96D1sxkjwwo1540.gifv What I feel should be stated is how this show ends it goes for a thematic conclusion. What I mean by this is that all the inworld plotlines dont get answered in the world of the show but symbolically to the audience at the end. This can turn people off as there is no hard conclusions to some of the storylines however I see this as standard for Mari Okada. With Anohana spoilers for that obviously but that anime is like 8yearsold now for example we only see the story for the period Menma is there. We dont see what happens to the characters after Menma departs excluding in that recap movie because we dont need to. What happened to the characters will affect them for the rest of their lives but we dont see every ripple it will have. O Maidens is the same not every plotline can logically be resolved in the timeframe the series takes place in so it doesnt try to jam it in especially where some issues definitely need the maturity of being an adult to properly be resolved. Thats why it goes for a cathartic ending with a message in the meaning of their final actions a oldschool moral to the story so to speak. And thats exactly Mari Okadas ballgame. I will say however this transition doesnt happen seamlessly. The end of concluding storylines within the world of the anime happens at episode 8. I was thinking after episode 8 How will they possibly end the other storylines? and technically they dont at least not in the same way which I can see annoying people. I started to think it would be an animeonly ending that might be a bit underwhelming as they usually are before the wait of new content for a second season. But then I looked it up and I found Mari Okada is the author of the manga is also the scriptwriter for the anime meaning she would be the only person who would know how to make an animeonly ending for the show. I also then found out when the anime was finishing the manga was also ending so both versions of the story end in the exact same way. The reason for the change on instory narrative to an outofstory narrative not real terms sue me was not because of anime scheduling and lack of manga content. It was completely planned. And with that lens I feel I can appreciate what was done a lot more knowing it wasnt a copout but it was done hopefully with the knowledge that the stories being weaved could not feasibly be resolved in the term of less than a school year. As a Maidens savage season can last her whole life.