▲ 17 r/MariaNoDanzaii
Why is Kowase blushing at Okaya? Is he bisexual?
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 13 days ago
▲ 33 r/MariaNoDanzaii
The bullies all have really good designs
It's really commendable how Kazuki and Kamejima were able to make character designs where you can tell what their personalities are at a glance, but still make them feel down-to-earth and realistic.
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 1 month ago
▲ 108 r/MariaNoDanzaii
How would you feel about Maria slowly losing her moral standards and going full-on villain protagonist?
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 1 month ago
▲ 49 r/MariaNoDanzaii
If he had lived, Kiritaka would have had some serious PTSD
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 2 months ago
▲ 12 r/MariaNoDanzaii
Kiritaka and Kinugawa are foils to each other
Kinugawa and Kiritaka are pretty interesting foils to each other, particularly in regards to how they portray different forms of masculinity. With Kinugawa embodying toxic masculinity, and Kiritaka embodying positive masculinity.
Kinugawa has many traits that society typically considers masculine. He's tall, muscular, rude, short-tempered, and aggressive. His default response to anything he doesn't like is overwhelming violence.
While he does care about his friends, even they aren't completely spared from his wrath, as he's not above threatening them when they irritate him.
Despite being himself a victim of physical bullying himself at the hands of Daimon, Kinugawa chooses to hurt others the same way he was. Perpetuating the cycle of abuse rather than trying to break it, all to assert himself as the strongest.
Kinugawa doesn't perfectly fit the archetype of toxic masculinity, as he's incredibly expressive with his emotions as opposed to bottling them up. Openly crying when he realizes his friends have been killed.
However, rather than grieve for them in a healthy way, he descends further into rage, trying to hunt down and kill their murderer himself, which is incredibly unrealistic to expect a teenager to do. All he accomplishes in the end is foolishly getting himself killed.
I want to mention that I think Kinugawa had the right to feel sadness over his friends deaths, even if they were bad people. Where he goes wrong is refusing to hold them accountable for Kiritaka's death, blaming Kiri instead.
When caught and forced into a hunt by Maria, Kinugawa arrogantly assumes he'll be able to turn the tables on her. Because of course, he's the strong one, isn't he? He wouldn't even consider running away, to him that would practically be an admission of weakness.
So he foolishly charges into trap after trap until all of his strength is drained. And when he finally no longer has that strength to rely on does he show his true colors.
He begs Maria for his life, even offering to serve her, completely betraying the vow he made to avenge Kowase and Shikimi. All of his supposed principles go out the window when it's his life on the line.
While Kinugawa was more than happy to hurt anyone he thought weaker than him. He was terrified when finally faced with someone who can really hurt him.
This is the very reason he aligned himself with Okaya. He knew, having seen it firsthand, that Okaya had the cunning, cruelty, and resources to make Kinugawa's life hell if he wanted, so he figured it was better to be in the Devil's right hand than in his path. Ironic, considering Okaya is smaller and less outwardly intimidating than Kinugawa.
In the end, Kinugawa was strong in body, but weak in spirit. He couldn't confront what he was truly afraid of, and used anger to hide it. Hurting others, and eventually himself.
Kiritaka is almost the complete opposite of Kinugawa. He has many traits that aren't considered typically masculine. He's short, not particularly muscular, polite, and pacifistic-not throwing so much as a punch towards his bullies.
He's not afraid to show affection to his mom, at an age where many boys find it embarrassing to be openly affectionate to their mothers.
Kiritaka is also incredibly compassionate towards others, reaching out and befriending Yuda after he transferred to Saint Spring, and likely felt awkward as the new kid.
Even after being put through horrific torment for months, he still shows compassion, both to his mother and his best friend. He doesn't let the terrible experiences he's been through stop him from treating people with decency. He lifts others up rather than tear them down.
Despite not being very strong physically, Kiritaka shows remarkable courage. He intervenes when the bullies are tormenting Yuda, despite them outnumbering him, and likely knowing Okaya won't take kindly to it. He's even willing to endure months of brutal bullying to keep his friend out of danger.
He even agrees to a sadistic game of tag with Kinugawa, despite being afraid and knowing he'll probably lose, just for a chance at getting back the console his dad gave him. Even refusing to surrender when offered.
This is the key difference between them. While Kinugawa was too afraid to challenge the person he was most afraid of and preyed on the weak, Kiritaka was willing to oppose people with more power than him to protect others.
When forced to either jump or let Okaya spread the deepfake video of Mari, despite being understandably terrified, he chooses to jump to protect his mother from being exploited. Was it a wise thing to do? No. But it was undeniably courageous.
Even though he was clearly afraid, Kiritaka still had the courage to face his fears to protect the people he loves. And despite the terrible things he faced, never stopped being the good-hearted, compassionate person that he was. He was weak in body (relatively), but strong in spirit. It's just a shame that spirit cost him his life.
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 2 months ago
▲ 22 r/MariaNoDanzaii
I find it strange that Kowase is the only bully (besides Okaya) with a personal victim that gets focus
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 2 months ago
▲ 12 r/MariaNoDanzaii
Do you think these two would be friends?
I just think the idea of this manga being in the same universe as Homestar Runner is funny.
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 2 months ago
▲ 9 r/MariaNoDanzaii
How would this story change if it was set in the mid 2000s?
I had a dream last night where I was watching a video of a guy talking about his favorite horror manga from the 2000's. One of the ones he mentioned (alongside Death Note) was Maria no Danzai. I remember seeing a panel of Kiritaka playing what looked like Silent Hill 3 on the PS2.
It got me thinking, what parts of this story would change if it was set in the 2000s? (Let's say 2003-2006)
Obviously the deepfake video would have to be replaced, since technology wasn't that advanced yet.
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 2 months ago
▲ 33 r/MariaNoDanzaii
This page is really cool
I love how Kinugawa still has the angry popping veins on his cheek, lol.
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 3 months ago
▲ 29 r/MariaNoDanzaii
Theory on why Shikimi loved Okaya
For a while now, it's bothered me exactly why Shikimi is so in love with Okaya. Considering how distrustful she is of other people, it baffles me how she could be so smitten with such an obvious psychopath.
Granted, you could claim she only liked him for his looks and wealth, but I disagree. When she looks at her text history with Okaya, and realizes how one-sided their text conversations are, she's genuinely crushed, and too scared to ask him for the truth. You gotta admit, that's a lot more than you'd expect from a typical gold-digger.
So I've actually come up with a theory that I think would explain why she likes him so much.
While browsing the Maria no Danzai wiki, I found a tweet made by Kazuki. In which he states that Shikimi sees herself as the protagonist of a Shojo manga.
https://x.com/kazuki_com_/status/1720379713108181005
Now, it's totally possible that Kazuki was simply joking around. But if we were to take this tweet at face-value, things start to fall into place.
One the most common traits among shojo heroines is their ability to inspire and redeem others. Specifically healing the troubled male lead through her love. I believe this is how Shikimi views her relationship with Okaya.
Shikimi thinks she's the only one who truly "gets" Okaya. She doesn't necessarily want to redeem or change him, but she thinks she's the only one who sees the "kind" man he is behind his cool, aloof exterior.
I also theorize that Okaya, manipulative creep that he is, would lean into that intentionally.
Okaya would make Shikimi think that she knows a side of him no one else does. A vulnerable side. If you want a comparison, think of how the Joker manipulated Harley Quinn into loving him by portraying himself as the victim. Telling her fake stories about how his father abused him and whatnot.
I wouldn't go as far as saying Okaya made himself look like a poor, innocent victim like Joker did. But he pretends to let his guard down around Shikimi. Tells her things that (as far as she knows) he's told no one else. Most of them either being exaggerated, or straight-up lies. He makes her feel special.
I think this would make Okaya look like even more of a despicable bastard (even if Shikimi isn't innocent herself).
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 3 months ago
▲ 24 r/MariaNoDanzaii
What the hell does he eat with those teeth?
I know he's a terrible person, but you got to admit that's pretty hardcore.
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 3 months ago
▲ 29 r/MariaNoDanzaii
How long would it take Batman to catch Maria?
Let's say that he starts investigating her after Shikimi's disappearance. How long would it take Bruce to find Maria?
Follow up question, what would he do after discovering her motive?
u/Nepo-Narcoleptic — 3 months ago