Minari Endoh

Originally posted here at Yaoi Radius.

A love crazy lesbian in an all girls’ Catholic school! A rich crossdressing sadistic boy as her room mate! The bag possessed by demons who follows the lesbian schoolgirl around! A school full of oddball young women in the pursuit of an education! Even though not all of its core concepts are original, there’s something about the whole of its parts that makes Maria†Holic such a quirky read. In its first volume, Maria†Holic set the stage for all the main characters and the conflicts that would drive the series’ plot. Now that it’s hit the second volume, it’s time to expand on the hints of things seen in its premiere chapters and answer a very important question: so what’s the deal with Mariya anyway? Why is he dressing like a girl? Why can’t Kanako manage to get a girlfriend in an all girls’ school – no, that’s pretty self-evident.

I’ve seen several comments on the Maria†Holic series that questions whether it is a yuri or not, but for the purposes of Yaoi Radius I will label it as one. It is certainly a very yuri-filled series when you have a girl like Kanako at the center, and I think a lot of people are grateful for her being the main protag and not Mariya. I love tsunderes as much as the next otaku, but Mariya is the bratty and demonic kind of tsundere I hate, full stop. Mariya’s constant abuse of Kanako, as well as his usage of ‘lesbian’ as a blatant insult against the girl grates on my nerves and is not endearing in the least. Mariya might have some more redeeming qualities further in the series, maybe a little transformation of character that makes him less of a brat, but right now I can’t imagine him ever becoming the sort you could easily warm to, unless tyrannical tsunderes are your kink of choice, in which case you will love Mariya.

Nevertheless, all the girl loving girl action in this series will certainly sate the yuri fans in the readership. Kanako is our guide to the zany everyday life of Ame no Kisaki – and more specifically, its lady students. I would certainly not label Kanako a pervert – she is simply an average modern day lesbian teenager, hormones all out of whack, looking for true love at a young age, having fantasies about the women she idolizes like a typical teenager would. Some readers might find Kanako’s antics a little off-putting, but I personally do not. She’s acting like any typical girl her age would, the only difference being Kanako is a lesbian and most manga seem hesitant to portray their LGBT characters as being sexually investigative without turning them into blushing virgins or raging perverts, and this characterization is a welcome sight in a series like Maria†Holic.

Another welcome sight in Maria†Holic is the character development of the supporting cast, aka girls that aren’t Mariya or Kanako or even Mariya’s maid cohort Matsurika (who is on the cover, meaning the MAIN CHARACTER has to wait until book three or four to actually be on the cover of her own series). The eleventh chapter of the series is a welcome look into the relationship between the more quiet Yuzuru and the genki girl Sachi. I suspect since I absolutely loathe the idea of Kanako/Mariya that Yuzuru/Sachi will be my personal OTP of the series. Gosh, how can you not love a pretty girl in archery uniform? I truly hope the whole cast get their own chapters that explore their characters and histories – as entertaining as Kanako is, I don’t think she can carry the series alone around characters with less depth.

Overall, this book is a solid addition to the ongoing Maria†Holic series, a mixture of drama and humor and all the crazy things that make it what it is. I would wish for less bashing of Kanako’s sexuality and perhaps a better reason to like Mariya, but I can see promise of greater things on the horizon. Just not, you know, Kanako getting a girlfriend. Maybe if she was less of an off-kilter klutz, you know? Maybe one day she’ll run into Himeko from Kannazuki no Miko, I think the two of them could really hit it off. Compared to the stuff going on in Ame no Kisaki, crazier things have happened!… (meer)

Not a bad little manga. The art's a tad messy and it's kind of hard to tell what's going on, but I like it because it's so random and yet predictable too. Lots of fun little clichés that I'm a sucker for in manga.

Rahzel can be a really irritating character, but she's also kinda lovable. Alzeid is classically cool and cold, so they make the perfect pair. I'm really liking the plot stuff with Alzeid's old friends and little Vincent.

It's not top notch and it's certainly not art -- but it's still very enjoyable.… (meer)