My feelings for Mars are a bit difficult to describe, but I’ll try anyway (why else did I write this much).
For the first five volumes or so, I was absolutely stunned by it and then unsurprised because it was made by the same author of another work I was deeply engrossed with, which was Eternal Sabbath. However, one focus of their genres’ aspect differed greatly, considering Mars was more centered on a shoujo perspective while Eternal Sabbath was seinen. Despite this (because the audience is VERY different), I felt it was an amazing and captivating read and was astounded by the amount of depth the characters had and remembered this was what impressed me so much about her other work. Sometime during or after volume five, however, I could feel the focus of the story shifting and becoming more psychological; it already had the psychological tag beforehand, I’m sure, but it became more of the prime focus for a few volumes, which was something I was not too ecstatic about. Don’t get me wrong because I love the psychological genre, and the author best exemplifies this in Eternal Sabbath (which I know I’ve mentioned three times now), but I felt that this should have ended before a certain character was introduced and more heavily involved. The story kept going, but I felt like it was rather unnecessary, even though it did build up and create more character growth and development than ever before and giving a greater insight to the main characters, which certainly made the buildup seem worth it for the most part. However, maybe it’s because I knew where this was headed that I was a bit irked by this new direction the manga was taking (did I already mention that there was someone I really did not like? Who knows).
As others have pointed out, there is a certain flaw that wraps up the problems of the characters rather too nicely and simply, when this manga was all about struggling and enduring and confronting issues straightforwardly; it seemed like such an easy way even though it was most certainly NOT without its own setbacks, or at least, initially.
Mars was definitely worth the x amount of hours I spent binge reading it in one sitting, but not the entire x hours, as I could have also been spent on more productive means (such as sleeping, eating). My issue lies with length of volumes, which I consider some to be “extra,” especially concerning the ending.
Again, I liked the character growth, but I felt like one character in particular, was rather annoying, although he did serve a useful purpose in revealing the inner layers of the main characters even more so than before, which really peaked my interest and kept me interested enough to see how it would ultimately end.
Now, the ending wasn’t anything really terrible that I would berate badly enough to make me try to forget I ever read the series at all, but when I remember how Eternal Sabbath ended (yes I am bringing this up again, and for the last time), I felt like it could have been executed better, or been given one more volume to finish (even though I complained about the number of excess volumes before).
Overall, I enjoyed it for the most part, because despite certain flaws (again, also mentioned below), it also combined elements of surprise and suspense that kept me coming back for me enough to continue reading all night/morning instead of just simply spoiling the ending for myself by skimming through.
If the question being asked is if I would read it again... Yes, I would, but I would not give this series an outstanding ovation because of certain plot points that irked me to such a degree (which you can find below, contained in the hidden section (ahem, spoilers!), which I hope you won’t read because the story is much more interesting than even I give it credit for).