Really, I think the author did a poor job pulling off what she was trying to do. If I were to rate this manga on execution of her goal, this manga would probably get a 1. None of the character personalities are realistic, and that's fine, but please mangaka, don't make an expectation for it. If you're going to give us characters as ridiculous as monkey boy and Maria, don't try to make the plot so serious. It's like a dark parody gone extremely wrong.
The plot is mediocre at best. Really, the main character is what makes it anything of interest, but the way the manga-ka manipulates the events around her makes even Maria irritating after awhile, despite the fact that she is, by all accounts, a bland character. Unlike previous reviewers, I didn't find her perceptiveness to be a turn-off. It was realistic considering the (pretty ridiculous) background story, and frankly, I'd prefer an omniscient narrator that refuses to tell me things than an idiotic shoujo girl who walks around picking up hot guys by some godly intervention. That being said, the manga shifts viewpoints, yet another reason to be annoyed by this manga. I understood the effect she was trying to create, but the jumbling together of everything just made it more annoying.
Ugh.
I just don't know what to say. It wasn't great. But it also wasn't horrible considering the ridiculous plot. The bullying theme worked horribly with this manga. At first, the theme seems to work well as some sort of warped justice-heroine thing with a dark (and occasionally comedic) twist to it, but by the time the subplots sink in, you're left feeling overwhelmed, if not irritated.
The pacing is okay I suppose though, for the majority of the manga. Personally, what would have saved this manga for me is if she didn't write THIRTEEN volumes of it. Considering the absolutely horrific job she did with character development (clunky, without much reason, and entirely event driven with occasion side comments from Maria's perspective), she should have ended it while she was ahead.
Preferably skipping the subplot catastrophes and love triangle mess. I thought the development of Maria was going to be thoughtful and entertaining, yet somehow enticing, but I was shown extremely wrong. I believe I received this impression within the first volume or so. The male leads are so poorly characterized that it made the manga-ka's lack of ability to do so obvious.
I may be a little more critical than is wise for a shoujo manga of this caliber, but I don't believe I've written anything out of line. I read an astounding amount of shoujo, yet there was nothing about this manga that wanted me to like it despite the astronomical amount of cliches, "hidden" backgrounds (read: DRAMA), and ridiculous event progressions.
Actually, if I were to be so cruel, I would probably say that this manga has a penchant for pissing anyone with an ounce of awareness of what they're reading (i.e. seeing BEYOND the art and supposedly original main character) off.
I'll give it a 4. It could have done better, but with the first volume like it was, I didn't expect it to become so. I'm just disappointed it lasted as long as it did.
Note: I read the original, untranslated version for about half of the manga.
(-4)
(+328)
