Marie & Gali episode 9 review; Rainy days, rainbows, and the spectrum of light.

 

        This episode begins on a rainy day with Marika wondering how long it will continue to rain, Gali tries to read some of a scientific manga to Marika but she says she wants a shojo manga. As soon as Marika mentions the word shojo, the rain stops, the sun returns, and Newton shows up bringing some of his apples for Madame Curie. As Marika, Newton, Gali, and Madame Curie are sharing some drinks outside, Marika asks Newton about the term spectrum.

 

       Newton goes on to explain to Marika that light is not made up of a single color but many combined colors, and if you shine light through glass or other object that acts like a prism you can break down light into its other colors, Newton uses the example of a rainbow to explain this principle to Marika. Gali tells Newton to stop bragging about his old glories and Newton shoots back at Gali asking him why he’s still bragging about his heliocentric theory.

 

       Soon, their argument ends up in an insult contest taking place in a boxing ring with both sides taking shots at each other with Newton landing a hard blow on Gali when he mentioned that Gali caved to pressure and recanted his heliocentric theory. Just as then fight is getting hot and heavy, Madame Curie shows up and forces a piece of apple pie on both Gali and Newton bringing their fight to a close. As Marika is commenting on how much she loves apple pie Newton is upset over the loss of his beloved apples. Well, at the end of the episode we get today’s science lesson; Newton is the one who discovered that light is made up of several colors, and a rainbow is made up of seven colors. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this was another strange and interesting episode with Marika learning about the spectrum of light. Not much else to say other than I wonder how long it’s going to take Marika to learn to love science, after all, Madame Curie told her this world was created to help children to learn to love science?

 

Marie & Gali episode 8 review; onsens, cucumbers, and observation.

         This episode begins with Marika and Madame Curie enjoying the warm relaxing waters of her onsen (hot spring), she tells Marika that the waters contain Radium, a radioactive isotope that she and her late husband discovered. Madame Curie than gives Marika a little lesson about radiation and radioactivity, and she explains to Marika the three basic types of radiation, alpha, beta, and gamma.

         While Marika and Madame Curie are enjoying the onsen, Gali is up in his observatory making important observations like checking out Marika & Madame Curie, and trying to use Flemming to scam Archimedes out of his unpaid oden tab. While Marika & Madame Curie are sitting spa-side, Marika gets the feeling that they’re being watched, Madame Curie sees a glint coming from Gali’s observation area and she sends Pet alone with a cucumber power attack to punish him for peeping. The attack strikes Gali and destroys his telescope in the process, Madame Curie eventually tells Gali that she’s didn’t know he was using his telescope to cheat at chess, and when Archimedes finds out he doubles Gali’s tab.

         Gali goes in to a depressed mode over his newly increased food tab until Marika and Madame Curie invite him to join them in the onsen. While they’re in the spa Marika asks Gali what she has to do to return home, and he tells her that she needs to grow to like science. All poor Marika can do is sigh, saying that she might be here forever, but Madame Curie tells her that this town was created to help children like science. She asks Marika what interests her? Marika says that Gali interests her because she can’s understand why a old man like him can be so famous. Madame Curie says that’s easy, all Marika needs to do is to start observing him, so today’s lesson is that science is the observation of things.

 

       Well, Marie & Gali has has always been a pretty strange little series taking place in a weird European-like town that is inhabited by quirky versions of famous historical scientists and inventors. This series takes on a surreal and dreamlike quality when you consider that Marika hangs out with a living plush doll, and other than the people Marika directly interacts with are all drawn as some version of a cardboard cutout. But, when Marika finally asked Gali how she can get home we get some answers about her situation and the whole series. Gali tells Marika that the way she can get home is to grow to like science, and Madame Curie also says that this city is created for children who don’t like science to learn to like science. So, I’m assuming that the city and all the characters were created out of Marika’s mind because maybe our girl is failing or at least not doing well in her school’s science classes. Maybe this series should have been named “the city of lost scientifically challenged loligoth girls” , but either way, I’ll take Marika in her loligoth swimsuit over her Lolita look any-day.

 

Marie & Gali episode 7 review; Leonardo da Vinci’s creative destruction.

       This episode begins with Madame Curie having trouble with her sliding balcony door, Gali offers to fix it, but instead she calls Leonardo da Vinci for the repair. After a little while, Gali and da Vinci start arguing, Madame Curie tell Marika that Gali is jealous of da Vinci’s genius. Then da Vinci spots Marika and calls her cute, he asks her if she would like to model for a painting? Yes, of course, if Pet can be in the scene.

        After he finishes the painting, da Vinci gets bored and begins to tear up the place so he can build some of his inventions. Gali starts yelling at him, but all da Vinci says is that he’ll fix the place later. He finishes building a tank and chases Gali around the place, and soon they all blast through the building’s walls. As they’re falling to the ground da Vinci uses a remote control to call his helicopter to save them, but that soon falls apart. da Vinci hands everyone a parachute, da Vinci & Marika’s parachutes function properly but Gali’s parachute opens letting nothing out but a banner.

          da Vinci and Marika float back to Madame Curie’s balcony while Gali falls to Earth making an impact crater. When Madame Curie sees Marika and da Vinci she tells them that it looks like they had fun, and she tells da Vinci to just to fix everything up. As da Vinci runs around fixing the place up we see Gali crawling out of his crater. Later, da Vinci reveals two paintings, the first one is of Marika that looks beautiful, and then the second one is of Gali and it looks like a shooting target. Well, that’s all for this episode.

     Well, this was another strange and wonderful episode of Marie & Gali, this time Marika gets to meet Leonardo da Vinci, and he portrayed as a kindly old man who has a hidden streak of mad genius in him. During the course of this episode Marika and us the viewers are treated to some of da Vinci’s most famous drawings and inventions, including his helicopter, bat hang glider, tank, and the Vitruvian Man drawing (see below for some of da Vinci’s original works for comparison).

       Another interesting thing about Marie & Gali is that most people who run into Marika find her very cute or at least attractive. I think that a major reason for this is that the town of Gali Hubble has almost no, or at least very few (as far as I’ve seen in the anime), cute or attractive girls/women under the age of about 30, so Marika’s a prime target. Overall, I found this episode to be laugh out loud funny, and I look forward to each new episode.

Thumbnails of some of da Vinci’s original work.