Title: MariaAuthor: Naoko Takeuchi
First Published: October 6, 1990
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 199
Genre: Drama, Romance, Shojo
Format: Web
Source: Web
Rating:
Synopsis:
Maria is a girl attending a Christian private school. Her mother is sick and in the hospital, her family poor. They live off the money of a man whose identity is unknown to Maria. He is called “Daddy Long-Legs” and he supports Maria and her mother with only one fee: Maria becoming his bride. Just who is this mysterious man? Is it the doctor? Someone she does not know? A boy from school…?
Get the Book: AmazonReview
Maria is a shojo manag inspired by the epistolary novel Daddy-Long Legs by Jean Webster, which follows the story of a girl who attends a prestigious college paid for by a mysterious benefactor. I wish I had known this before reading the manga, as it provides some much needed context to the story. The manga adapts the basic outline of the novel with some elements changed to suit the shojo manga medium.
The attempt at blending the original story with that of a standard shojo romance ended up making for a weak story overall. The specific romance tropes utilized didn’t work well and it made an otherwise simple plot needlessly convoluted. The story is a bit melodramatic especially toward the end of the manga. What was not lost were the more dated aspects of the romance, which would’ve been questionable even in 1990 when the manga was published. Some of my criticisms may be because the translation that I read was not very polished.
Takeuchi’s art is at the very least extremely beautiful and was the main reason that I kept reading. It has a dreamy tone that suits the type of story well. On it’s own however the story is just okay, but the manga may still appeal to fans of Takeuchi’s work.
Quote
“I guess… I would be alright… If I became his bride.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Naoko Takeuchi
Naoko Takeuchi (born March 15, 1967) is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for her manga series Codename: Sailor V (1991–1997) and Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (1991–1997).
She earned the 2nd Nakayoshi Comic Prize for Newcomers in 1985 for Yume ja Nai no Ne and the 1986 New Artist award for Love Call. Her next manga Sailor Moon, went on to become one of the most popular and successful manga around the world, with over 35 million copies sold worldwide.[citation needed] In 1993, she earned the Kodansha Manga Award for the series. Overseas, Sailor Moon’s anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting Japanese animation’s popularity in the Western world.
Takeuchi married fellow mangag artist Yoshihiro Togashi, whose most well-known works include YuYu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter.
Discover more from Radical Dreamer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
