Daydream Sanctuary Features

Saturday, October 22, 2011

[ Manga Discovery ] Wondrous Maria-kun


Fushigi no Maria-kun
by Shiina Dai

[ Demographic: SHOUJO ]
It's about an ordinary high school girl.. who is childhood friends with a vampire!
(3 chapters read as of the date this blog entry was posted)

POTENTIAL: B- (PRETTY GOOD!) FAVORITISM: 3.5 Hearts (LOVE)

Motivation: (What Made Me Check It Out)
I was hoping that the "Maria" would have Virgin Mary references despite the vampire theme.
Curses: (What Seems to be Bad About It)
Pretty cliche and predictable.
Wah, the heroine's so dense. And she looks more foreign than the foreign character. And how the hell did the "foreign girl" became their shipper all of a sudden?! =_= The cliche of that girl being an exorcist after Maria would've been more acceptable for me. How she turned out after leaving her boss (the previous antagonist) was just too random.
Praises: (What Seems to be Good About It)
Everyone knows who the vampires are, and they considered as "endangered species"?! That's a pretty unusual for a shoujo manga in a non-fantasy setting.
And yay to vampire shoujo manga with.... a vampire hero that isn't into angst too much ^^
Bias: (What's Keeping Me Hooked to It)
Maria's freakin' adorable. His blushing face screams "please cuddle me" xD AND I WILL GLADLY DO SO xD
Fangirl: (What I Love in It)
Maria's mom... my new goddess!!! I love how she insults her own son (directly and indirectly), haha. But of course you love your foolish boy, ma'am~
I also like Maria, the light haired classmate of his, also the class president girl xD
Nostalgia: (What It Reminds Me of)
Cerberus (strong girl + weak boy that will become strong combo). I think there are other shoujo and shounen manga like that, but I couldn't recall them at the moment =_=
Overall:
The characters are fun and sweet. The main couple's not bad but...
I can see that the couple's having like a role reversal in the present time, but if I see Toko in danger for MORE chapters... I'll snap! T_T It's nice to see a weak person become strong later, but for a strong person to become weak all of a sudden for the sake of making the previously weak person shine is just... T_T (I'll only accept that if the previously strong person just got sick but...) And please... the "drink my blood" obsession of the human girl... it's getting on my nerves....
Anyway, those are my complains on the main characters. The couple's actually an interesting combination (they're opposites, like "night" and "day", in terms of personality, abilities, race, etc. ...but they get along and no usual love/hate or master/slave stuff).
As for the supporting characters just pop out of nowhere, or do crazy stuff for the hero to have a chance to do something cool. Please give them more roles... or decent ones.
Overall, I don't think it's fantastic, but it has been a very nice, refreshing, and enjoyable vampire romance~ ^^