Maria the Virgin Witch vol. 2
Yeah, I’m not as impressed this time around. Most of the sex-themed humor has lost its appeal with a couple deeply misguided attempts to mine rape (implied and attempted) for humor early on. The narrative is also bogged down in countless circular arguments regarding whether or not what Maria is doing is good that come off as repetitive as they fail to shed new light on the situation after a while. As for the new status quo imposed by Michael at the end of the first volume — that Maria will lose her powers as a witch if she gives up her virginity — it’s not really explored or tested in any way. She’s still prohibited from using great powers in the sight of humans, but that restriction is consistently trampled upon for comedic effect throughout the volume. The introduction of other witches who make their living off of the war is an interesting idea. However, it’s not given much development beyond its introduction.
What strikes me as a better way to exploit this setup would be to have allowed Maria to use her powers to the fullest extent, while also placing her in an actual relationship. We know she has the hots for Joseph, but there’s no real sense of temptation there. That Maria remains disinclined (or even frightened) of any sexual activity here effectively renders Michael’s declaration a non-issue. Given that this was meant to be one of the core conflicts of the series, it’s mystifying as to why mangaka Masayuki Ishikawa fails to really dig into it here. There was a recent anime adaptation of this series and I have to admit that I’m actually more interested in checking it out after reading this volume. If only to see whether or not the anime’s creators were able to do better justice to this setup. Anyway, I’m mainly buying this to show support for Ishikawa in the (still pretty vain) hope of getting “Moyasimon” license-rescued. In spite of its issues, “Maria” isn’t actively awful enough to get me to stop reading. With only two volumes to go I might as well see things through.