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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 9 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:3010#1552] |
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Before I cover this review, I have to admit I'm somewhat amused about the timing of watching this series considering its themes would be a touchy subject for more religious viewers in spite of the fact I completed it over Christmas weekend of all times. Getting that ironic moment out of the way, let us get to the focus of this review on Maria the Virgin Witch, a fantasy comedy-drama focused on witch Maria defying the forces of heaven to halt ongoing battles waging in the Hundred Years' War escalating between England and France. First impressions of the series can be a bit misleading. At first sight, this can seem like yet another perverse anime comedy with the sexual humor that comes at play about Maria's virginity, the lack of genitalia from one of the familiars, and the scanty attire that she and her familiars don. However if you are able to watch through the first few episodes of the series, you will come to realize that this series has some deeper storytelling it unveils that involves some coming-of-age tribulations with Maria coming to learn more about the ways of the world and other themes such as religious hypocrisy, human morality, and existentialism coming to light. Let us first explore the coming-of-age developments that come from our lead character, Maria. She is portrayed as a powerful witch with an idealist bent who intervenes in the battles that take place between England and France through use of her magic, and she is mistrusting of God and the church's influence on human society. While her moralistic beliefs are admirable, she is naive to the real world consequences that her actions can cause as two of the battles that she halts lead to other areas of suffering to take place for the French populace during the series and she finds herself having to confront the flaws of her beliefs in later episodes of the series. Also sex jokes aside, Maria also finds herself conflicted over whether or not she wishes to give into her own personal happiness as she is romantically interested in a young man named Joseph, yet can lose her magic if she consummates the relationship due to heavenly punishment cast onto her from her frequent intervention in human battles. Besides Maria's developments, the influence of religion and personal beliefs have a hand in affecting the developments of several other notable characters throughout the series. Like in real-life during medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church has a large influence on the beliefs of the common populace in the world of Maria the Virgin Witch and this power is abused by those in influential positions to exert control and dominance over others. In addition, those among the forces of heaven adopt a strict belief in non-intervention over the affairs of humans as part of the natural order of existence in spite of humanity's regular suffering and oppose Maria's intervention in human wars due to violating the order they have adopted. Characters like Joseph and Ezekiel find themselves coming to realize the flaws of both these belief systems as they try to comprehend them and come to their own conclusions over what they desire to believe in, despite the flaws being a regular part of living within their world. Outside of its themes and story development, another thing that prominently sticks out with Maria the Virgin Witch is its surprising accuracy in depicting medieval era France. Outside of the use of magic and the attire of the witches, the series is very accurate in depicting the politics, style of dress, weapons, armor, buildings, and ways of life that were commonplace for the people of the era. Things such as the beginnings of gunpowder-fueled cannons, witch hunts, the aftermath of the plague, and the caste system were faithfully portrayed for the era in which Maria is set in. In spite of seeming like another perverted anime comedy, Maria the Virgin Witch actually offers up some engaging plot developments and themes focused around Maria confronting the flaws of her beliefs, characters confronting the flaws of their world, and a surprisingly accurate depiction of life in medieval-era France. This is a definite recommendation if you are a fan of medieval fantasy anime titles, with a smidge of perverted comedy tossed into the mix. Last updated Sunday, December 25 2016. Created Sunday, December 25 2016. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:3010#628] | ||||||
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(Three episodes watched): Please not another 'Joan of Arc in sword & sorcery' anime I prayed to myself as Maria got underway. Thankfully, while Joan got a mention, this show was not about her (she has already been burnt at the stake). Instead, this show is about a good witch named Maria. This show gave me conflicting impressions: on one level, it seemed fairly sophisticated and historically accurate (except for the witch part). The battle was fairly exciting, and neat touches like the practice of trying to capture important knights alive in order to extort ransoms for them was fun. On the other hand, in some ways this almost felt like a children's anime. Joan is anti-war, but for a fictional character that's as easy as being anti-evil. It had sort of a Studio Ghibli feel of a character who takes a admirable stance, but we don't know why, she just does, and obviously we should support her. After one episode I couldn't say where this story is going or whether I would enjoy it. After episode two, I still had mixed feelings about this show. I wished I had a better idea what the main premise is and where the plot would go. Maria employs her succubus familiar in an attempt to sabotage an army by debilitating its commander, and gets into a fight with an Archangel who doesn't like her dabbling in things like wars, but I can't help feeling that this show needs a more sophisticated and interesting plot than it has. The main problem is that there doesn't seem to be much substance to the story. I think having a clear and easy to understand plot is not something that happens naturally and anybody can do it, no, on the contrary, keeping the story both clear and complex enough to be interesting is highly difficult and takes serious talent. The only longterm plotline I detect is that Maria must remain a virgin or lose her magical powers, which feels like a pretty cheap and suspicious stunt to me. There are fairly racy sexual bits, but they seem to have been tacked on as pure fanservice. I don't really care whether she remains a witch or not, since we haven't really gotten to know her and the wonderful good deeds she does seem simplistic and uninteresting to me. This story didn't seem to be going anywhere particularly interesting, none of the characters struck me as being very noteworthy, and I got few if any laughs out of it, so I finally quit watching. Last updated Tuesday, March 31 2015. Created Friday, January 16 2015. | ||||||||
