Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Maria the Virgin Witch
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kgw
 Posts: 1057 Location: Spain, EU |
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Ok. Let me rephrase that: from my (religious) point of view, -as many other people's- Angels have no gender. So I can't care less if their VA is female, male or Miku Hatsune. About the sex jokes, in Gargantia... well, there was the infamous "drag chase". I don't think you can say it had "adult sex humor" when it had, among other things, young girls dancing in quite suggestive clothes... |
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Xavi_
 Posts: 61 Location: Spain |
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woo-waa-wee-waaaah....
I think just a few people are getting the full picture. Now, here comes my opinion on this matter *cracks fingers*. I want to discuss two main points: the sexy scenes, and the gay joke. First, to those looking "beyond" the sexualized scenes into the plot depth horizon, you might want to jump down your high horses. At the end of the day this series is yet-another ecchi+. If you push it, you can argue that the sexualized scenes are treated with extra care so that they come out as mild and infantile... but it's fanservice haaands down. Please do not get me wrong, I am enjoying this anime a lot! It has a very promising background, energetic & fleshed out characters, and a very cool art direction. I am really looking forward to additional episodes. Second, I completely agree with Valhern's (above) and Gina Szanboti's (below) POV... which doesn't seem to be all that popular in this thread. Basically, some people are reading too much in between the "rape" and "gay" lines. An incubus' job is to seduce female hosts... yet he encounters a pedo male. This is obviously off-putting and everyone's reactions are nothing but funny. At no point did the word "rape" cross my mind, nor I belittled the host for being gay. Yes he is gay, so what? The lowly captain who Artemisa seduced was straight, so what? The succubus/incubus are there to seduce and mind control humans, let it be by active (Artemis) or by passive (Priapus). If Priapus would have been truly endangered, I am sure that Maria would have intervened immediately. Anyways, I know this is a very dodgy and subjective topic so I won't dive any deeper; I just came here to say "calm down". It's a theater, all fun and games and noone gets hurt. After this lengthy rant, let me praise once more this anime. It brings freshness to the table I didn't see in a very long while (it kinda reminds me to Slayers), and it tackles a very mature setting without any hesitation or fear. I can't wait to watch new episodes. edit: added a reference to Gina Szanboti's comment below mine Last edited by Xavi_ on Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Did a bunch of posts vanish from this thread?
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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I think you may be making connections to real life that just don't apply to this scenario. For one thing, Maria was never in any danger of being raped, and that was not Artemis's intention - she tossed her in only for the view. If anything, it's an indecent exposure joke. Second, Priapos, who I guess you could technically call a sex worker, bears no relationship to real life people, in that sex is literally his raison d'etre. He was created expressly for the job and is eager to do it and do it well. Unlike real sex workers, he faces no dire consequences for refusing. To me the joke here was mainly that the job he was expecting wasn't the job at hand (so to speak). It's more akin to someone hired on as a ranch hand expecting to spend idyllic days tending sheep and being told to castrate lambs on their first day. Also he was not traumatized by his experience (and may have enjoyed it - which would make sense since he's an incubus - depending on whether you interpret that shot of him and the "client" after the roof is destroyed as afterglow or being knocked unconscious) and complains that he's still not getting to do his job the next day. I'm not saying I don't see how anyone could be offended or upset by this, I'm just offering a different way to look at this particular case so maybe you don't have to feel uncomfortable with it. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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If it looks like a rape joke and is getting laughs like a rape joke, it's a rape joke. Specifically a gay panic tinged rape joke, as Priupus clearly stated that he'd be happy to work with a woman and was only put off by the idea that he'd have to work with a man. But in as much as there are levels of offensiveness to these things, it wasn't the worst or most offensive gay panic or rape tinged joke in anime, and as others have pointed out, it's just one of many jokes that occasionally and unfortunately pop up in its genre and medium (someone upthread mentioned that awful scene where the MC gets chased by drag queens in Gargantua, for example).
This show is dealing with sex as a theme, and that's a sensitive topic. I'd be more surprised if everyone found every episode inoffensive than the opposite. Only 2 eps have aired, and considering how this show is dealing with war and even religion, other sensitive topics that can be easily be mishandled in anime, I'm willing to give Maria a lot of room for mistakes and even be offensive... Well, in terms of religion, so far I see it not denigrating the common faithful for their faith, which is key to staying "inoffensive" in that regard. What it actually has to say about religion will probably be deeply offensive to some people. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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This has been quite a refreshing show. The comedy is fresh and the characters imo are likeable so far. And with Production I.G., the animation quality is good with a decent soundtrack as well. From what I've heard somewhere, there's about 25+ chapters composed of three volumes? I'd expect some more anime original material to be added then.
Could be a dark horse of this season. |
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Hobbiton Guard
Posts: 62 |
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I completely agree. And with Goro Taniguchi in charge of the series, I have a feeling that it will hold up. He seems to love this sort of European setting (Code Geass being his baby), so I'm very excited to see where it goes. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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Really uncomfortable gay rape jokes aside, this show continues to pleasantly surprise me. Reading the premise made me think it would be essentially a genderflipped fantasy anime version of 40 Days and 40 Nights, but so far this has been really engaging and thought-provoking. Given that the premise hasn't even been fully introduced in the show yet I'm still rather cautiously optimistic, but more than willing to keep watching.
I'm especially enjoying Hisako Kanemoto's performance as Maria. Looking at the character design I kept expecting to hear Marina Inoue's voice out of her throughout the first episode, but by the second one her actual voice grew on me. The character sounds noticeably more mature than the characters Kanemoto normally plays, but still has that barely concealed innocence to fit the whole virginal theme.
Edit: Having done so, I can report that the only personal pronoun that was used in relation to Michael in all of episode 2 was "aitsu", which is gender-neutral. Last edited by vonPeterhof on Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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nightjuan
 Posts: 1473 |
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I am probably one of the biggest fans of the director on this forum, but I'd have to say the Planetes anime would be a far more relevant point of comparison. In the case of that show, the original manga provided a solid foundation and already required an admirable level of space-related research on the author's part. However, the anime adaptation also added some more scientific accuracy to its depiction of space, beyond what was present in the manga, and made other alterations to the story along the way. The bonus features on the Bandai discs for Planetes were quite helpful in this respect. Something similar seems to be happening with Maria the Virgin Witch. Masayuki Ishikawa is well known for making Moyashimon rather educational and scientifically accurate, so it's not a surprise that he must have researched the history of the middle ages in order to create the Maria manga. Yet, in addition to that, the anime adaptation is also introducing other period-accurate details not necessarily present in the manga, like the various specifics of the battle sequence from the first episode. Curiously enough, the next episode previews and end cards for Maria are also being done in the style of Planetes, which clearly supports this comparison. That being the case...so far the anime is closely following the major events of the manga and I trust that the thematic core of the story will remain the same, one way or another, but extra characters have already been introduced and next week will apparently involve a couple of new arrivals. There seems to be an attempt to humanize or at least individualize the people who live outside of Maria's circle of acquaintances in the anime, while in the manga a lot of the soldiers, villagers and Church officials were essentially nameless (Joseph and Ann were a notable exception). There are still some generic extras in the show, of course, but it should be interesting to see how some of the newly named players will interact in this context. That said, it's probably worth pointing out that all the controversial sex jokes so far were taken directly from the manga. I had been slightly dreading the inclusion of the infamous scene with Priapos and his "first customer" but, in retrospect, it's a fair testament to the strength of both the material and its adaptation that most people seem to be able to look beyond this debacle, despite acknowledging the uncomfortable and potentially offensive implications of said situation. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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my own take on episode 3 is identical to Gabrielle's. I, too, was pleasantly surprised by the more nuanced handling of the Chuch (which is far more commonly used as an instrument for absolutism) and I fully agree that the level of hypocrisy present is part of what makes this so interesting. And I don't think that I will soon get enough of how Maria's familiars mess with Ezekiel.
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Doodleboy
Posts: 296 |
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Well if I were a betting man I'd place money on Benard being evil.
Considering the dead worker-bee in the honey being harvested by the church. Symbolllissssmmmm... So I think the church's agenda to bring Maria into the fold maybe more about the church's power and wealth then about actually doing good. |
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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I think there is a little detail that slipped up in the review. When Joseph and Maria meet with this guy we've seen in the battles whose name I already forgot, he says "Hunger will kill me sooner than war" or something like that and Maria side-eyes him. I believe this would be rather relevant further in the series, because, what about the people who don't support her and are not the Church?
War's been a very important matter since ancient history, not only because the Kings and Queens farted money, won over territories and acumulated power without lifting a finger, but also because, sometimes, it was the only way to survive and not die of starvation. How do you explain to soldiers that you're stopping their only source of incoming for peace? I mean, would they even care? I think they'd rather have pizza than peace, would they even be alive if there was peace after all? Even more, considering that in some cultures, war was taken as something as natural as a three growing up. At least, in this historical setting that is a very realistic approach and I really hope they develop it further. Overall, the episode was good, not great as the first two but entertaining nonetheless. |
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msgundam2
 Posts: 271 Location: Indiana USA |
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It would be nice if Hulu would upload at the same time as CR. I have to BT because I can't wait. I do rewatch the show on hulu so everyone get their ad revenue also I real like the show.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I'll be curious to see how this is handled in the series, but in real history, during the mid-1440s mercenaries formerly employed by the French were either integrated into the Royal Army (if they were willing) or hunted down and killed off (if they weren't). For several years before then it wasn't unusual for mercs to turn to banditry when they didn't have enough work (as seen in ep 2), and this series seems to be set in the latter time frame. |
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Valhern
Posts: 916 |
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That's part of what I was talking about. I believe Maria will have to find some sort of balance between just "stopping" the fights, because that could only lead to mercenaries having to do other not so good stuff to earn money, if she also wants to stop the bandits then you have people not being able to eat because fighting is what they live for. I hope they do adress this so Maria can reflect more on her own ideals and how to make them actually work in reality. |
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