Junketsu no Maria – 09

Maria Defiant!

Well, we’ve know since the stage was set. We’ve know since the actor’s reviewed their lines. We’ve known a moment like this would come. Welcome back to the Hundred Years War…..

Cum Grano Salis

…with a grain of salt…

I hope this isn’t foreshadowing

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” Or is it, and are we? That looks to be a central theme the show has found worthy of exploration. I want to make this a short post, as I think that the episode stands very firmly on it’s own, with just a few points of comment needed.

First, the title of the program. Officially, the sponsored subs call it Maria the Virgin Witch. This places a great deal of centrality on the character’s non-sexual status. While that is true, I feel the Japanese word Junketsu or purity is much more telling. While that does have the connotation of a pre-sexual person, I have felt it always stood for something much larger, more direct. That is simply, the purity of her thoughts and actions; how she expresses her will without doubt or fear. This, to me, has become important as one of the central thoughts of the show come to sharp focus. I thought it telling last episode, as Maria went to a restless sleep, a moment we re-join her with here, that she was clothed. In other instances we’ve been given a rather fanservicy moment of her sleeping nude. And while this may satisfy and ecchi credit, it’s more telling in that this is a character that doesn’t feel vulnerable. Last episode her mind was quite shaken, as was her resolve. So in this case, sleeping clothed acted as a sort of armor.

The second bit was her encounter in the village and the details that would play out in her eventual trial. This is a village she lived near, and that had become, at least to one family, dependent on. But several members bore witness against her. And….they are technically true. She did indeed summon “demons” there. Now while that would seal her fate in the instance of a mob, the church has other things in mind. To the point, they aren’t a mob. They have centuries of tradition and authority behind them. The trial is obviously rigged, but the motions have to be carried out. Even Bernard asks why she cannot be immediately burned, but Gilbert sets him, and us, straight on that account.

And third, the details that Bernard brings to bear. Essentially his entire pre-ephiphanic rant was a course of church name and ideology dropping, many of them contradictory. As I covered in a previous post, Bernard and Gilbert are real historic figures from the 12th century. In this case it’s odd to hear him speak of Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, both 13th and 14th Century church thinkers. That can be the nature of historic pieces. He does go to an older, more heretical (to his current church) Pelagius, a old style thinker that Maria would have probably been much more at home with. But at the end, even with the assertion of Esse est Deus he has a litany of time-debated thought that Maria counters honestly and succinctly. And it is totally lost on Bernard as to why Maria would have allowed Martha to throw that rock…Quodlibet my arse, Confessor.

…cause I feeeeeeeeeeeeel……

Well a few more details to suss out in these final thoughts. I thought it was a great turn of writing and plotting that made Garfa a complex character rather than just a thug and rapist. I think we all knew he was hesitant to do something so horrible, but the opening scene played out like he was going to. I think he might have had Maria not lost her magic in that instance. Also, look how much weight Ezekiel is carrying in the form of guilt. I’ve said these two have a lot in common. It does make me think that the eventual rescue will play out with them fighting for her. Also, Le Comte mentions exile for Maria when (not if) she is found guilty….

Oh, I would be a massive jerk if I didn’t mention Viv’s fight against Micheal. She is fighting for the sake of friendship, and so much more besides. Her own sense of worth is a great part of that as well. I love how the sum total of her rejoinder was, “Suck it Angel”. Now whether or not she survives the conflict intact is best left to spoilery previews right? ::groan::

Oh, with that attitude you’re the perfect emo-teen. Good work, well-followed-old-Roman-poet-fart….

About skylion

All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion