Džunkecu no Maria

Maria the Virgin Witch has a rather interesting animation style, and the soundtrack is not bad either. However, what stands out (at least initially) most is the story's originality. It is not only interesting, but it portrays some relatively interesting things. It does a pretty good job showing the various evils of that time and the contemporary Church. It also goes into quite a bit of reflection on the meaning of some of the Church's dogmas, and it also, for example, questions the theology of God not intervening in people's lives. Unfortunately, as the episodes go on, some illogical storylines and conclusions rather diminish the philosophical value of this show. Instead of pondering existential themes, I found myself wondering how some things and situations were possible according to how the anime's creators portrayed them. The character of Maria herself is quite good, and she won me over with her desire to do as she sees fit, to live her life on her terms and rebel against accepted divine laws. It is just a real shame that she was the only one who appealed to me, although she is ably assisted by a pretty hilarious succubus and a funny incubus. However, most of the other characters did not appeal to me, and I literally hated some of them, although something tells me that this is probably what the anime's creators intended. This show falls into the realm of ecchi, although its execution is also quite original. It is more about dirty jokes, allusions to Maria's virginity, and last but not least, hints and glimpses of a real sex life. Sure there is no hentai happening on screen, even though sometimes all you need to do is a hint. The beginning was pretty great, and I was even thinking about giving it a full rating. However, around the second third of the season, it started to get a bit scary, to the point where my overall rating, due to things not making much sense anymore, only dropped to a better three stars. Also, although the ending was not terrible (or rather, I was expecting much worse), it did not change my mind. 6/10. (25/01/2015)