Junketsu no Maria

One of the things I hate most is when media decides to give a happy ending to complete tragedies. Honestly I find it disappointing and almost treacherous to the good writing that led to it.

Maria is a pacifist witch, who lives in medieval times, when countless wars are done in the name of the (green) god. Using her magic and her succubus servant, she keeps interrupting skirmishes, battles, campaigns, and pretty much pisses off EVERYONE, including angels who want to see souls heading to Valhalla. In the end Archangel Michael beats her and puts a curse on her, so that when she loses her virginity ... she will also lose her magic. That may have a miscalculation on his part though, since despite Maria dressing as a complete slut, she is having real trouble with the guys (you figure that one out).

The plot gets further complicated with betrayals, assassination attempts, the conflicted moral issues of both Maria and the guy she likes, who has to serve a corrupt war-thirsty feud lord, and is friends with a mercenary. Sooner or later, because of Maria's unexplained passion for pacifism, everyone ends up getting hurt or traumatized. That may sound hardcore and all, but there are two big problems: 1)Everytime we're about to see some enjoyable looting, butchery and mayhem, Maria ends up interrupting it with her plot powers, pissing off the viewer as well, and making her completely unlikeable despite the show trying to present her as a tragic heroine. Honestly if I had so much power the last thing I would do is be a pacifist. 2)I won't spoil it, but the series just had to have a happy ending. That is already an insult to the many hardships the characters went through, but considering Maria, after being terribly tortured and betrayed doesn't have a single psychological trauma left, it's simply retarded. It reminds me of the crap I had to through after the first 12 minutes of Kotoura-san. Come on story writers! You can't have them being that much tortured and then pulling off a "and they lived happily ever after"! It does not compute!

Honestly a big disappointment, also not really a fan of Maria's character design, including both the clothes choice and her face.

Brief synopsis
Set during the 100 years war, this show follows a young witch called Maria, who is determined to put a stop to the fighting and bring peace to the land. The catch? Should she lose her virginity, she will also lose her magical powers.

Story
No prior knowledge of the 100 years war is needed to watch this show. Maybe this is for the best, as I suspect that this show is not at all historically accurate, given the attire of the witches and their familiars. I know that this is nit-picky, but no woman during that time period would dress in what amounts to little ... more than a bathing suit. That, combined with the complete and utter lack of response of the male characters to said attire was immersion-breaking. Also immersion-breaking was the show’s iffy theology. It is not in keeping with Christian doctrine to argue that God is incapable of love and that He acts as a detached, passive onlooker to our world. So to use these arguments to set St. Michael and, therefore, God up as the main antagonists was an unusual choice. But if you’re able to overlook this and view this show with a more secular mind-set then perhaps you’d find more enjoyment in it than I did. Nevertheless, this show does allude to some interesting themes, e.g., gender politics, “purity” as a woman’s worth, and the nature of good and evil. Regrettably, these were not explored in much depth. Also unfortunate was that this show’s bawdy sense of humour often deflected attention away from these themes.

Art/music
This show’s art was pleasing enough and its music was passable – if a tad unmemorable!

Characters
Personally, I felt that the characters were one-dimensional. Each character seemed to have one sole defining trait, e.g., Galfa desires glory and power, Joseph likes Maria, Maria doesn’t like conflict. These traits were a tad bland and, as a result, none of the characters especially stood out to me. That the characters lack depth may explain the show’s inability to explore its juicer themes in much depth. How could these characters explore, for example, the nature of good and evil when their chief concerns were simply capturing the affections of another character or climbing the slippery pole of success?

Overall enjoyment
Maria the Virgin Witch is probably best enjoyed as mindless fun. Begin to dwell more deeply on it and it is easy to find historical and theological inaccuracies that can detract from one’s enjoyment. This is a shame, as I believe this show begins to touch upon some interesting themes, themes that may go unnoticed if passively consuming the show.

Junketsu no Maria is a very confusing anime to rate. There were things that I greatly enjoyed watching and other that definitely needed improvement.
Theme is a huge issue in this particular anime as it addresses the fear of the witches in the dark ages. As most of you know, women with knowledge that exceeded those of men where named 'witches'. People that didn't agree with the church and went against it were called heretics and punished by the church.
That's a very dark part of history and I feel it's not being brought to full light. And that could be fine only the anime is not ... sure when it wants to be more light-hearted and when it wants to be darker.
The same goes for the ending. I felt it was rushed and too Disney like.

Another problem is the characters. Due to the anime being only 12 episodes you don't get a real feel of who the characters are and what their motivation is. Heck, the main heroine's ideals are barely explained. Maria hates wars.... OK...But why? It's never fully explained why or where that comes from especially since it's a huge thing in the series.

These two are my biggest problems with the series. However, I did enjoy the anime. I liked the characters and that's why I wanted to know more about them. Maria was very likeable and I loved her general attitude. She fought for what she believed in and refused to change for other people. That's very difficult to do even in our day and age.

I also loved the relationships between characters as they do have complicated relationships. Especially with Maria. By the end of the series their own will is being put to the test and they know that depending on their decision a lot will be at stake.

The art and sound are great. I loved the opening and have listened to the song in repeat many times.

It's a generally alright anime. Watch the first episode to get a feel for it and see if it's your cup of tea.

Junketsu no Maria tries to be too many things at once and ends up having a weak story as a result. By the end, very little has changed from the beginning. I did not get any real sense of character progression and the ending seemed forcefully happy like there was difficulty wrapping up so many disparate parts. The character designs and animation were of good quality, so some enjoyment can be found there. All-in-all, a fairly average show. Not bad, but could have been much better if it took the time to focus on one of the many themes it gave cursory service to.