Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria)

Kazuki Hoshino values his everyday life above all else. He spends the days carefree with his friends at school, until the uneventful bliss suddenly comes to a halt with the transfer of the aloof beauty Aya Otonashi into his class and her cold, dramatic statement to him immediately upon arrival:

"I'm here to break you. This is the 13,118th time I've transferred. After so many occasions, I have to say that this is all starting to grate on me, which is why this time I'm spicing things up with a proper declaration of war."

And with those puzzling words, the ordinary days that Kazuki loved so dearly become a cycle of turmoil and fear—Aya's sudden appearance signals the unraveling of unseen mysteries surrounding Kazuki's seemingly normal friends, including the discovery of mysterious devices known as "boxes."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria was published in English as The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria by Yen Press under the Yen On imprint from October 31, 2017 to November 5, 2019. It was also published in Polish by Waneko from February 5, 2016 to February 7, 2017.

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Characters

Otonashi, Maria

Main

Hoshino, Kazuki

Main

Oomine, Daiya

Main

Mogi, Kasumi

Main

Kirino, Kokone

Main

Usui, Haruaki

Main

Yanagi, Yuuri

Supporting

Otonashi, Aya

Supporting

Shindou, Iroha

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 22, 2023

TAMNI-GT

Recommended

As many know, naivety and stupidity walk very close to each other and therefore are easily confused by certain similarities. The main problem of the human being is to contaminate the other with sin while thinking he is doing good. Ignorance is not exactly a bliss, but an easier way to cling to illusions, like the anesthetic to get rid of pain, but that doesn't fool your body that truly feels everything.

That said, we arrived at Zero Maria...... It is not known for sure if "the world changes the human being" or if "the man changes the world", but this phrase seems to resonate very ...

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May 24, 2019

Tyykko

Mixed Feelings

As, of now, one of the top 5 light novel series on MAL, and as someone whose only read a few light novels, I thought it would be fair to take a dip into this series to get me more into the medium. With countless reviews praising it as genius, and some spouting it as a masterpiece, I thought I would also be rating this a 10 in the end along with the many others. However, as you can see by my score, HakoMaria is by all means not what its all cut out to be.

When I finished this series, because of the ... little light novel exposure I had, I thought it would be best not to treat it as just a light novel and compare to light novels, but as a book series. With this perspective in mind, let me tell why I don't think this is a super great book series.

I think one of the main problems with this story are two things: complexity and characters. To begin, if we strip away all the fluff from the conflicts, if we actually look at the stories without all the dressing, we get some pretty overused clichés and concepts. Now, I am not saying these clichés and concepts are a bad thing, I am just saying there is nothing original about it. The author tries to add these complex tidbits as a way to, in a sense, "distract" the reader from what is going on, but for a person like myself, I already new what was going to happen next. Not only that, he extrapolates those idea and draws them out as long as possible. It gets to the point were the worst arc takes up an entire two novels! I forced myself to get through. In other words, the author tries to add complexity to predictable story plots which in some cases, makes reading such a drag.

And then there is volume 7, something, in comparison to the rest, is actually pretty good. So does having a good ending mean all the rest is good as well? That is up to debate, but I will allow you to make the choice for yourself.

Another problem with this story is the characters, in particular, those stereotypes. You got your pretty stereotypical protagonist, that bossy girl, that pretty girl, that smart girl, that smart evil guy, the cool guy, that quite girl, and then might as well throw in a villain that really doesn't have a reason for doing anything except add to the plot. If this work was a masterpiece, I need more realistic characters please. Now, I am not saying I don't like the characters, I particularly enjoyed Oomine the most, but I just need better character development and something that can really relate me to them, not just some protagonist whose like "oh, I want to maintain my normal life" and that is it. And then, suddenly, he starts doing some mad #### to protect this philosophy. Even though the character's thoughts and psyche are explored, that does not entail realism or relatability.

Overall, do I hate this series? No. I enjoyed reading it, and I enjoyed the entire concept, and I thought it was cool. I don't want to hate upon the series, I do think its good, the ending was great, but in my opinion, this series by no means deserves masterpiece status.

Anyway, I'll leave the rest up to you. Take a dip.

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Dec 31, 2018

nuclearstudent

Not Recommended

First I will let the writing speak for itself, in this spoiler-free passage below:

"“I was convinced that I had grasped your behavioral patterns completely by now. But I couldn’t predict your statement just now at all. Can you imagine how amusing this is for someone accustomed to eternal boredom?” she says, looking delighted."

There's more. For instance, in the opening scenes of this supposedly dark and gritty series, the main heroine reveals her reality-defying power by telling the main character about the color of a girl's panties. It's a cold open, a rolling intro, and a crash into a panty flash.

God and Buddha help me, ...

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Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria
The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
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