Holy crap, a fellow Maple Town enthusiast! I thought you people were all entirely confined to the very rare, very small Maple Town fansites. Seriously, there appears to exist extremely few people who gives a toss about that series. I once actually started a Maple Town thread on this site and it got no replies.
And yeah, i agree, it is indeed a well written show, especially considering it's very young main demographic. I especially like the episodes where the drama really contrasts against the "sugar bowl"-setting to of the show, like in that one episode where a some cat woman thought her husband was cheating on her (of course, they never say outright that this is what she suspects, but the subtext is pretty blatant to an adult viewer).
I've never gotten to see the sequel series (because i cant find it in any language i understand). But so you're saying is has an aura of... loli-yuri? Well, if that is a touch that was intentionally inserted by the makers of the show, i should probably be glad that i never got to see it. However, merely judging from the examples you stated, i think it might be possible that you are just reading to much in to those things. The Japanese seem to have a tendency to have sparkling things floating around images of characters when other characters is thinking about them, without it always being meant to imply some kind of romantic attraction. And i don't think it's unusual for little girl cartoon characters to wear bikinis. At least not in Japanese animation... But then again, the reason why it's not unusual in Japanese animation might be because... it's Japanese, and the Japanese seem to have a thing for... err...
Ahem, anyway, once again, it's nice to see a fellow Maple Town fan.:sweat: