gillian58 - 2015-06-20 19:37:16

lue64 - 2015-04-12 16:50:34

(This Review Was Originally Written For JapanCinema.net)

What could go wrong with a show involving Catholics, witches, and Frenchmen, all blended together with the spice of romantic comedy and the wrath of God? Well, I would think quite a lot, actually. However, you won’t find any of those potential problems here. The winter anime season has always been a sort of birthing chamber for a variety of risky new titles, and the trend continues in 2015 with Maria the Virgin Witch. Detailing the exploits of a group of characters during a pivotal time period during Hundred Years War, the series grapples with religious ethics, the nature of humanity, and the question of how many strips of fabric are needed to turn a sex aid into a wearable garment.

The titular virgin witch, Maria, is a free-spirited sorceress who spends her time making medicines, defending the village she lives nearby, and doing all she can to stop the seemingly perpetual battles that continuously rage on throughout France. Her meddling in these situations has led to the Catholic Church branding her as a heretic, but it isn’t just the institutions of the divine on Earth who have taken notice. Initiated by Maria attempting to resolve a minor fracas, The Archangel Michael descended from the Heavens, and forbids Maria from interfering any further, casting a spell that would break her connection with the supernatural in the event of her losing her virginity.

Watching most 12 or 13 episode series is like taking a glass-bottom boat viewing of another world. While everything clearly visible, we are always separated by the glass, unable to truly involve ourselves with the events at hand. It is said that every creative endeavor begins with some starry-eyed developer bursting with new ideas, and most short anime seem like that person refused to budge a single inch on the content in order to accommodate for the lack of space. While having nothing occur in a series is usually the mark of a bad show(unless it’s a slice of life), jamming too many concepts into too tight of an area is also detrimental to an anime’s quality. The only time I’ve ever seen idea-packing work is in Baccano!, but that benefited from a unique narrative structure, while most linear series would end up exploding if they attempted to follow in that show’s footsteps. Maria the Virgin Witch understands this; it refuses to give up too many of its ideas but remains tightly focused upon a core group of highly interesting individuals while building up to a tear-jerking, pulse-pounding resolution. So while I was still engaged with the plot, the anime eases off enough at certain moments in order for me to sit back and digest enough of the deeper ethical and philosophical questions brought up by the series for them to have an actual impact.

Going back to an earlier analogy, Maria the Virgin Witch is more like a scuba-diving trip than a glass-bottom boat viewing. While it would have been perfectly convenient for the show to take the route that a lot of other “deep” or “philosophical” series have gone and mistake symbolism and ambiguity as automatic indicators of complexity, the anime manages to skirt this pitfall. The events that occur within the series are neither deliberately blurred nor dripping with forced, caked-on symbolism. What happens happens, and it’s what comes out of these points, not what actually occurs within these scenes that matters. It feels as if the show isn’t trying to involve itself with the metaphysical at all, leaving the audience to choose their own level of involvement. Every viewer will take something different away from the series, no matter what intellectual level they wish to function on.

The illustrious Production I.G. took responsibility of animating this work, with Gorō Taniguchi of Code Geass fame in the directors chair, and it appears as if neither of the two held anything back while producing the show. Besides several jarring uses of 3-D, the animation is clean and very smooth, blending well with the unique art style present. Aesthetically, the designers showed admirable restraint in regards to the setting, avoiding the typical “high-tech magic” style that many series seem to have gone for recently. Beyond the clothing of Maria and her counterparts that dabble in the supernatural, effort has been put into historically accurate weapons, clothing, and backgrounds. Even Maria’s magical abilities reflect this, being more in the classical style of floating cauldrons and puffs of multicolored smoke rather than the laser light show that seems to be quite endemic to the fantasy genre in Japan. Soundtrack-wise, the series is nothing too special. Besides a great opening and ending, most of the music fades into the background more than augmenting the scene. While it is never irritatingly bad or incongruous, I would be hard pressed to even remember a specific track.

Maria the Virgin Witch is one of those pleasant surprises that come along now and then, a show that recognizes its limits but doesn't feel restricted by them. It’s both delightfully funny and unexpectedly deep, all packaged together into a succinct but nonetheless impactful 12 episodes. By far and away the best series to air this season, Maria the Virgin Witch deserves a spot alongside Steins;Gate and Baccano! as a modern show worthy of being regarded amongst the classics.

POSITIVES

Beautifully crafted characters and story.

NEGATIVES

Forgettable soundtrack.

murray.boyer - 2015-03-31 00:12:53

*HARSH SPOILERS*
this turned out to be such a waste of time. great idea for a show but in the end it was all about one girl getting a god damned boyfriend. woopdee doo.

deshawn21 - 2015-03-29 21:23:32

Comenzaré diciendo que me gustó Junketsu no María, pero durante toda la serie no pude evitar tener ese sentimiento de ¿y qué más?

Tenemos una ambientación histórica muy buena, algunas reflexiones para nosotros mismos como personas, y un poco de ecchi (muy muy poco la verdad) en un anime que fue algo mejor de lo que esperaba inicialmente, pero que desperdició al mismo tiempo una idea que pudo dar más.

La inquisición, quema de brujas, cuestionamientos teológicos, guerras, edad media; un cóctel que no fue usado de la manera que yo esperaba, esto debido a que Maria como personaje pecaba de infantil, lo cual le quitaba a estos hechos toda la poca seriedad que tuvieron; tal vez la visión de los creadores de el anime no era ser tan profundo u oscuros, sino crear algo que se alejará un poco de lo típico en lo que al género ecchi se refiere, y en mi opinión creo que lo lograron, con buenos resultados a mí parecer.

Sé que la crítica podría sonar negativa, pero no es así, Junketsu no Maria es un anime bastante entretenido y fácil de seguir, no es la octava maravilla del mundo, pero hey! nunca intento serla tampoco.

Recomiendo Junketsu no Maria? Si te atraen los temas religiosos y la magia, deberías darle una oportunidad.

okeefe.adonis - 2015-03-29 15:27:55

Maria the Virgin Witch was a stressful show to watch, but it was well put together. Stressful meaning that you seem to be constantly getting a dosage of complete ignorance, stupidity, and discrimination by humans. It's just a constant flow of people screwing over each other for their own gain. Anti-religious tones are also spread throughout and just when you see a glimmer of hope for the stupidity of the church in this show it turns into dust. If you're into the whole religion controlling thing and people in general being horrible, then this show is a must watch. For everyone else, I'd say its a good pick but brace yourself to be irritated, mad, or even just flipping off your TV or monitor from afar.