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マリアの城 1 by Rinko Ueda, 上田 倫子
1.0

I'm sorry, but this was so trash. How do you expect me to root for the male character, Sei? This girl comes crying and snot-nosed that her uncle tried to molest her and asks for refuge, and what does he do? He forces his hands inside her kimono and gropes her. WHAT TYPE OF MESS!?! Not to mention he always talks down to her, and he gets a kick off that servant-master dynamic. Sei is just cold and unfeeling.

At the last minute, Sei does a half-baked apology where he never really admits what he did was wrong.
He's just like ' you can still be nice to me after that? Ugh, can't even own up to his evil.
You’re supposed to swoon over shoujo leads and not want to push them down the staircase.

The female lead Mari had an interesting motivation in the beginning. She planned to manipulate the doctors until she could clear her father’s reputation, but that storyline got thrown to the side when she fell for Sei. So, I'm like priorities, sis. ಠ_ಠ There’s a last-minute DRY love scene (in vol 2) between the two that left me yelling, “How in the world do y’all love each other!?!

None of the characters get developed at all. They are all flat.

Overall, not worth reading. I only finished this because it was such a quick read. I wanted to like the story because I enjoyed the mangaka's other shoujos Stepping on Roses and Tail of the Moon but nah. On the bright side, the artwork is wonderful. The men and women look very beautiful with pretty eyes and nice suits.