Anime: Junketsu no Maria

graphics: excellent and unique, beautiful background and everything and details on different clothing’s for the most minor character was relay nice, they give lots of effort 8/10
sound: good nice opening and okay theme 7/10
story : the daily life in the middle ages of a witch with pacifist view and lots of power used to inevitably stop people killing each other in war but not to continue to fight. 7/10 its unique and finished
entertainment: kinda drawn and lack of passion, but at least show middle age in a more raw manned (I recommend game of thrones instead) 6/10
characters : I loved Lolotte awesome lady. Guillaume was a character I liked this anime he was the voice of reason too bad everyone else was an idiot. The main character is good example for a waist to given power. 5/10
Enjoyment: This humor was not for me, I found no joke entertaining. The concept of the world was great, it reminded me of game of thrones not as good but close. People who love the dark ages will like this anime for the world. The lady in black was so dumb I actually had fun seeing her tortured and struggle but that is a unique thing for me and alike people, you know an anime goes stray when you laugh on the main character getting raped (almost) and stoned, or burned to the stake, feeling she real deserves it……well….for me regardless it was fun 7/10
Value : Lesson of the story moral conviction and rules and guideline for the wise and mandatory for the idiots. (The lack of colorful hair balances out the positivity of the succubus) it really offers little fun on characters. And power without control is weakness. Go for the result not for the method.
~ All hail Black (magic the gathering reference) 7/10

Review
What is comedy? Today I find it hard to answer such simple question. It is supposed to make you smile, laugh, remove stress from your life. The industry, however, has basically turned everything that is comedy into sex-jokes. Something that was once a refreshing set of comical phrases and smart symbolism became the norm of the industry world-wide. USA turned comedy into jokes about how men can get laid, especially when drunk, and Japan turned comedy into how cute girls can blush and show their pantsu to the shy protagonist.

Here comes Junketsu no Maria, translated as Maria the Virgin Witch. By its title you already have a sensation that this will be a comedy about a virgin girl, one named Maria and perhaps tackling a deal of religious stuff in the amidst. Well... unfortunately, it is exactly that, another comedy with its deal of sex jokes. Fortunately, however, it is also a decently made comedy of such style, taking us back to some of absurdly lame and bizarre ecchi comedies of the late 90's such as Photon and Maze.

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1. The setting
   Maria is a good witch. She wishes for the warfare that has struggled between France and Britain to end and will intervene in battles with her magic so the armies flee and death is avoided near where she lives. She is a young girl, dreaming of a world of peace where she can aid villages with her medicines and perhaps make the place better than it is.
   
   This world she lives, however, is the darkest period known in human history. The Church hunts witches for heresy, France and Britain are on their Hundred Years War, Europe was constantly suffering with plagues, warfare was finding new ways to kill but medicine was yet to be useful, and so on.
   
   Such a dark world with comedy? Really?
   Yes, really. In fact, Junketsu no Maria turns this dark world into something far lighter. It never even tries to be dark, bloody, or mature. When it uses themes such as warfare, religion, and mysticism, it always do so in a straight way or by even throwing some jokes in the middle.
   
   It's a funny comedy with light drama
   Although the sex-jokes about virginity can be lame, the overall execution of them is nice and there is never an exaggeration of its uses. The show mixes well its funny parts with the drama around Maria's desire to end war while war can never truly be ended. Her innocence can be annoying at some points, but the context where it fits makes the show far more tolerable than school comedies around. There is a curse she receives which will take her magical powers once she loses her virginity, and from there her familiars and friends will joke or question about how she can get laid or if she truly wants it. It is far from being a comedy-drama in the likes of Gin no Saji, but it can make you laugh from time to time and even pay attention to the plot.
   
   And interesting twists in the medieval setting
   Tales set in the Dark Ages can be interesting, yes, but if every myth and religious tale were true, then it would be outstandingly interesting, right? There are many works around the world that tackles history as if the angels, gods, witches, and everything else truly existed and were moving the strings behind the Church, kingdoms, knights, and the multitude of orders of such time. Junketsu no Maria goes the same path, making God and every other myth to be part of the world, moving behind the scenes to punish Maria for being a witch and at the same time allowing savage wars to rage and never helping people from the plague. As everything else in the show, this is tackled lightly and with a good deal of fantasy to it, but it works as a interesting flavor to the setting and to the tale.
   
   And it's gorgeous
   Even if the jokes or drama don't get you, Junketsu no Maria will probably shine with its production values. The sharp animation work with a oldschool vibe to it surely is the brightest point in it, but the green pastures, forests, and medieval villages also have their alure. When you join that with a solid work on sound direction the result is a top-quality piece of art.
   

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Comments
The premise is fun, the execution is good, but the jokes are old. With these in mind, Junketsu no Maria is more about how you can get in the mood before watching it. If you are expecting exactly that: a comedy about a virgin young witch dealing with religious customs, then you are in for a fun tale and a decent refresher in the comedy genre when you pair it with the tons of high-school inspired tales around. If you thought this was about tales of the Dark Age, well my friend, you better go away and return later, or else you will be severely disappointed.

I've been forced to do this review to raise the middle after seeing the note that has this series.

The truth is that it is very entertaining, the characters are really nothing really difficult to find but are well taken, the action is of good quality, the animation as you would expect from a anime this is very good, fun is assured that in some cases the attack against religion is all a plus, luckily not find characters whose only aim is to show attributes. The story is quiet and without surprises demasidaos but not much less bad, really enjoy this series long.

Don’t you hate it when you begin watching a movie that seems to be one thing but ends up being a whole other? Well guess what, this is what happened with this anime which seems to be epic fantasy when in reality it’s a sex comedy. Now I know what you will say, it’s right there on the title, isn’t it? Why would you not expect a sex comedy out of something called Maria The Virgin Witch? I don’t know, I was expecting lots of gore out of a show called Slayers and I never got that either.

Besides epic fantasy and sex comedy, this anime is also the animated dumbed down version of the story of Joan of Arc. There is a war between England and France that never seems to end, and a young woman makes it her life’s goal to return peace to the land. The fans of this show will insist on how this is what makes it mature. And I have to agree that when it comes to the cruelty of war, the depiction of warfare is portrayed quite well, with soldiers being afraid of incoming arrows, priests constantly using the names of saints to keep the morale up, looting of corpses, and raping of women. And it would be a masterpiece if the whole anime was about such stuff … but sadly it isn’t. The aforementioned scenes have a total screen time of ten minutes in the whole series, with the rest of it being sex jokes, and lazily presented social critique; because this is a modern anime aimed at virgin manchildren.

The worst thing about Maria the Virgin Witch is its homonymous protagonist; she exists to ruin all the good stuff. Not only she jumps in and constantly stops all the realistic battles with retarded deus ex machina magic, she also spends her free time talking about sex. And the worst part is, she never has any! Because she is a virgin, get it? Hahaha… But wait, even that is supposed to be part of the “mature” themes of the series. Maria is representing the naive ideals of humanism, where people can coexist in peace and harmony. She thinks that by breaking up the fights long enough, people will eventually give up on trying to kill each other. Her virginity represents her purity of thought and sex represents the harsh reality which will destroy her purity if she ever gives up. Ok, I understand that. So if she wants to remain pure, why is she STILL TALKING ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME? And no, she doesn’t make it seem to be an evil act either. She has the hots for a guy and she doesn’t think she will give up on her goal if he deflowers her.

And this is where the whole premise gets lame, since the show goes for a LITERAL divine intervention, by having one archangel putting a curse on her, forcing her to lose her powers if she ever loses her virginity. So much for subtlety in symbolisms. But wait, it gets even lamer. Since she can simply not have sex until her crazy goal is achieved, he also adds that he is going to take her powers if she interferes in a battle again. Something which she does a dozen times thereafter but still gets to avoid the punishment because the angels weren’t looking at her at that moment. Yeah, ok, thousands of people running away scared from summoned dragons with her sitting nearby, and none of the angels suspects anything. And don’t ever ask why the hell didn’t the archangel simply take her powers right away and be done with it. It’s because the show would end in ten minutes if he did.

It’s not like the set up of the story is bad; it’s the execution that makes it ridiculous. What could have been a show about medieval warfare and the cruelty of war, gets ruined by magic nonsense, and even the magic nonsense get further ruined by a completely retarded curse, based on sex, that never happens or even matters in the longrun. The whole show goes in circles by having her constantly stopping battles (and thus resetting any actual progress) and doing sex gags, up until the last episodes where everything goes to hell and you FINALLY expect her to realize that the world is not going to bend over to her childish tantrums. We get to a point where she gets captured, tortured, and sent to burn on the stake as a witch, while the city she wants to protect is besieged and people are murdered by the hundreds. And how is all this mess resolved? By using magic to escape and stop the war like she always does, and then giving up on her dreams because the archangel shows how many people are pissed with her meddling. Something he could have done since episode one, but hey, remember than we need to somehow fill a dozen episodes with sex jokes.

Aside from her, all the other characters are interesting and fun to follow. Ok, maybe that shota familiar that misses a penis is too much, but other than that they are all far more down to earth. We have peasants, and priests, and soldiers, and angels, all with goals of their own. Hell, there are even more witches like Maria, and unlike her, they are not being retarded. They use their magic to make a living, instead of ruining everybody else’s living. The show could have had anyone else as a protagonist and it would be infinitely better. But nope, we need sex jokes or it won’t sell.

Oh, and since I mentioned witches, this is another thing the series never bothered to explore. They somehow exist, they stick out by the way they cosplay, they have magic powers, and pop out at times to do stuff. No explanation if they are a different race, if they have a secret magic school, or if they have their own society. They are just there. Just like Maria’s motivation to stop the war. Do you know why she wants to do that? Because she was bullied and hated by everyone as a kid, and then her bullies died by a plague. What the hell, even the lamest sex joke in this show had more thought put into it than the protaginist’s motivation. And I can’t believe she gets away with it at the end, while the priest that wanted order and control turns into a freaking pillar of salt. Even the pay off is bullshit.

This anime is awful. The themes are interesting, the depiction of medieval warfare is great, and everything else is garbage. It can be very enjoyable, only if you are a pervert who loves bottom of the barrel sex jokes involving bestiality and invisible penises, and then tries to make it seem like it’s mature because there are two minutes worth of total screentime where the whole thing is a rip off from a Jean D’Arc movie.